Psychology-of-Body-Language

The Center of Influence
Kevin Hogan

Feelings and Emotions were the subject of much of Influence: Boot Camp 2005. One thing we delved into great detail with was how feelings and emotions trigger various other emotions and thoughts in the mind. What most influential people miss is that they often tend to focus solely on the "Value Model" of Marketing or Selling. In other words that people buy for value. This of course, is a useful model, but in the strictest sense it breaks down. It's not even about perceived value. It's just as often about EXPERIENCE and EMOTION.

Experience is the feeling you get as you walk around Disneyworld and the real world disappears. It's a fantasy experience. It is designed to cause you to FEEL good. The "Value" of Disneyworld is utterly arguable. The emotions triggered in Disneyworld that CAUSE us to want to bring the kids back again and again. It's why people no longer visit Disneyworld for one day...but one week. It's the experience.

As you walk into the front of the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas, you are walking into a luxurious Venice hotel...or so the fantasy so strongly convinces. You enter and walk down the magnificent corridor whose ceilings evoke the wonders of Michaelangelo and da Vinci. Moving into the casino takes you into yet another world. The stunning waitresses stop foot traffic as they serve you your Diet Coke or glass of wine. Another fantasy experience ripe with emotions is wired into the neurology of the brain. You take the elevator up to your suite and find the reason the hotel is ranked one of the top 100 hotels on the planet. Your room is simply breathtaking. The experience...the injections of multiple stimuli and met desires is something that is difficult to be immune to. There is more...but you get the point. The cost of a suite ranges from $300 to $3000 per night depending on availability. It is subject to discussion what "value" the experience "is" from a strict perspective. There is no question about the feelings you feel as you enter an adult fantasy land where you seem to be the center of the universe.

Moving from the overarching fantasy type experience to the more benign, say a visit to Starbucks, still allows you to feel part of a community...the delight of chatting in a Coffee Shop whose reputation for friendliness and connection is experienced around the world. Indeed. That $6 cup (I would argue) of Coffee is not "worth" $6 in and of itself but the feelings and emotions that are triggered, retriggered and sustained in Starbucks certainly are.

Now let's move from places where you enter that create alternative reality and bring the subject to you. What feelings are you causing when you are doing your best work? Are you successfully creating or predictably wiring into emotions that you know are going to cause behavioral change?

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