What a terrific opportunity we had recently to ask Anthony Robbins, America’s greatest motivational speaker and best-selling author, for insight on how to overcome the seemingly impossible odds and make it in the entertainment business.
How do you get people to commit to your company or if you’re an actor, director or writer, to commit to your work?, we asked Robbins and “Sleepless in Seattle” screenwriter Jeff Arch, who was on the same program.
Robbins said, “The secret to influencing anyone is to understand what already influences them and then to create rapport with them.” He and Arch credit this skill as being crucial to their incredible success.
Robbins uses a formula he calls BEND WIMP, comprised of a series of questions, to learn as much as he can about the decision maker.
1) What does the decision maker already Believe about my company or the film that I’m pitching?
2) How will they Evaluate this? What questions will they be asking in order to make a decision and how can I help answer them to my advantage?
3) What do they believe they Need and how can I help them meet that need?
4) What do they Desire?
5) What are their Wounds? What’s challenging for them and how can my project solve or heal it?
6) What are their Interests? Is there some way to tie what I’m proposing into something they’re interested in outside of work?
7) Who are their Mentors? Can I show an association with someone they already respect?
8) What is the decision maker Proud of? If you can apply your project to something they’re proud of, you’ll get their full attention.
Asking yourself the right questions is even more important. If you don’t know what you really want, how can you expect the other person to give it to you?
Robbins and Arch feel that rapport, focus and learning to trust the voice inside are three steps that can make a huge difference in your career and in your life.
“When you’re clear on your own aspirations you get your end result quicker,” says Arch. “Clarity helps you communicate on such a level that your passion flows effortlessly.”
“My focus changed 180 degrees,” says Jeff Arch. After working with Robbins, Arch realized that just trying to fulfill his own needs, wasn’t going to cut it.
“I spent 10 years as a writer trying to get my name in the paper. Then I changed my focus to ‘How do I make people in Finland walk out of the theater holding hands?’
“A month after the Date with Destiny seminar, I wrote ‘Sleepless in Seattle’ and sold it for a quarter of a million dollars. Since then I’ve sold or been assigned seven more screenplays.” But how did he pull that off? “In meetings I feel that the person I’m talking to is the most fascinating person in the world. It’s nothing that you can put on, you have to radiate curiosity and fascination about people and your project. If you aren’t having fun with your project, you can’t expect anyone else to.”
If you develop the absolute sense of certainty that powerful beliefs provide, then you can get yourself to accomplish virtually anything, including those things that other people are certain are impossible.
?Anthony Robbins The most important thing Arch learned was to listen to that still small voice.
“Why does that always have to be the little voice?” says Arch with a laugh. “For me it wasn’t just listening to it, but turning up the volume and making it loud enough to silence all the voices of resistance in my head.
He said he just realized this, “but at one point in ?Sleepless,’ Meg Ryan’s character can’t hear the radio because of all the other things going on in her life. She turns up the volume, having decided what’s important for her to listen to.”
For more information on Anthony Robbins seminars and tapes, call 800/898-8669 or www.tonyrobbins.com?Janet & Laura Greenwald
