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johannesviii · 4 years

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So I guess I’m hyperfixating on Death Stranding at the moment

And since I’ve finally finished the story after playing it for like 100 hours over the course of seven months or so I guess I have Opinions(tm) about things I didn’t like in the game

They’re eating at my brain so I’m gonna put them all in a single post to get them out of my system once and for all so I can enjoy the rest in peace

Spoilers, obviously

Hi welcome back to ‘Johannes is obsessing over yet another video game with horror elements in it’! I guess!!

Our latest entry in that category was Until Dawn but since UD can be played in like 6/7 hours and I spent 100 hours of my life on DS, as you can guess we’re talking about a full-blown hyperfixation, the kind that physically hurts because I can’t focus on anything else even after having finished the storyline

But it was super gradual. Again, seven months. I barely made any progress from December to May because I was only doing side-deliveries at the beginning of Chapter 3 instead of... you know... advancing the plot. It became an honest-to-god special interest about two months ago, then 6 days ago while playing chapter 10 it reached hyperfixation levels and now I am in PAIN

I hate my brain

Anyhow

At first I wanted to list the good and the bad hings in it but there’s too many good things to list them all in full, excruciatingly long details, so

Very Quick And Very Incomplete List Of Good Things That I Love

It’s a post-apo game based on travel, logistics, and good will, and it straight up goes AGAINST the whole ‘survival of the fittest’ trope that SO MANY post-apo things try to push!! YES

I insist but it’s built on helping each other and keeping everyone alive, seriously that is my shit right there!

The online community is wholesome?? People leave stuff everywhere, you never see anyone but people put little helpful signs and send you likes, and in my game we almost managed to repair all the roads together

There’s so many new & strange allergies and disabilities and phobias in this post-apo world and? nobody is trying to ““fix”“ anyone?? Like Heartman with his padded floor and his little box that brings him back to life constantly. He’s just... living like that. Nobody’s going “hey maybe you should get another heart operation buddy”

The hero and his phobia of being touched. I. Loved. That. The quiet scenes when he was just talking with Fragile, sitting next to her. In any other context this would just be two people sitting next to each other and talking but it always feels so soft and intimate everytime he allows another human being to just. be next to him. I love it. I love them

Everyone crying constantly because of chiral allergy!!

I loved all the important characters bar one (Bridget/Amelie)!

Why is this walking simulator so enjoyable why am I enjoying the fact that holding L2 + R2 while walking feels like holding your backpack and that you have to relax at times just like you’d have to if you were actually holding a backpack

Seriously. Why

The atmosphere was so great, the music was fantastic and the visuals were on point. A E S T H E T I C

The ghosts!! The giant Beached Things!!! Chiral crystals look! like! creepy hands reaching for the SKY!!

THE RAIN DESTROYS THINGS AND KILLS PEOPLE BY ACCELERATING TIME THIS IS SO COOL SHUT UP

Everytime the game got surreal it was electrifying

THE SURREAL WAR SCENES ON CLIFF’S BEACH

Everyone is using emojis

There’s guys addicted to delivering packages in that game and they’re trying to steal our stuff and we’re like “haha they’re dumb” but we’re basically addicted to delivering packages as the player. So yeah that was pretty fun

Terrorists thinking humanity isn’t going extinct fast enough and wanting to just rip the bandaid and speed things up. Simple but effective concept

People ask for SUPER VITAL ITEMS right next to completely trivial stuff and I’m LIVING for it. “Please fetch my toy dinosaur”. I feel you dude

The most isolated characters are like "LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT THIS THING I LIKE" in your emails because they haven't had contact with other humans in years, it's super relatable

There’s a farm where people use the fact that Timefall rain accelerates time to grow food super quickly in one (1) Timefall and harvest everything just before it starts to die and I LOVE that detail of worldbuilding so much

YOU’RE FIGHTING BEACHED THINGS WITH YOUR OWN BODILY FLUIDS IT’S SO STUPID BUT ALSO SO COOL?? I love yeet-ing my own blood at eldritch entities

THE T W I S T S

All the fanservice (bar one detail that I’m gonna complain about later) is on dudes. This game reeeeeeally likes to show dudes naked or somewhat naked. Mostly the main character but this mocap also L O V E S Mads Mikkelsen and there’s a shit ton of homoerotic shots in there

I love Sam the antisocial papa wolf delivery man and if someone touches him or his baby again, I will cry

LOU. LOU LOU LOU PRECIOUS BABY I’D DIE FOR YOU. Wait I did

I love Fragile and how brave she is and how she keeps helping people even if most of them wrongly think she’s a terrorist and yes I will eat this cryptobiote thank you

I love soft science boi Heartman who keeps dying again and again and is a bit too much interested in bodily fluids

I love garbage man Higgs and how complex, funny and still somewhat tragic this memelord actually turned out to be in the end

Seriously I want to stop fixating on this character but you can’t give me YET ANOTHER character who wants to die but at the hands of someone else, that is unfair to do that right after my fixation on the new Doctor Who Master

So yeah Higgs is yet another character who makes me want to grab him by the lapels and shake him and yell WHY! ARE! YOU! LIKE! THIS! STOP! BEING! LIKE! THIS!!

Cliff broke all three of my feelings beautifully and in excruciatingly well-acted scenes that transcended the sometimes lackluster dialogue

John made me cry during That Scene

Mama your background was tragic and terrifying and you didn’t deserve any of this shit and I love you

Deadman was more funny than anything, really, but I still liked him even if he had no sense of personal space whatsoever and it clashed horribly with Sam’s phobias

The ending had some sad parts but was mostly positive, thank goodness

Now I’m gonna explain things I dislike and this looks long but it’s actually only 5 main things so I bolded them to avoid confusion

Things I really disliked (and could have been handled wayyyy better)

We all know it but Kojima isn’t a master of subtlety and some parts of the dialogue kept repeating the same informations again and again AND AGAIN and I was like “ok ok I get it”

The dialogue can be so bad at times seriously

Kojima is a bad writer there I said it

It was particularly annoying with Amelie/Bridget and the fact she’s a horrible person trying (and failing) to justify her actions wasn’t helping

Bridges protocols are incredibly intrusive. All of them. I know it’s framed as bad and Sam hates being spied on all the time and in the end he destroys the device that does that, but I wish someone else would openly criticise it in-game

I guess Deadman sort of did but still

Also I know the whole BB technology was Bridget’s idea, and since she’s the actual villain it’s framed as a twisted, evil thing during the ending, but I wish that had been framed like that much earlier ; a lot of Bridges employees just... seem to accept the idea that their employer is using premature babies and their dead mothers as useful, if disturbing, devices. They seem to justify it by “uh we stole that technology from terrorists” to try to cope with the idea but... yeah.

I mean, one of the points being made very early on is that Sam sees his BB as his child who must be protected at all costs instead of a detection device, but I really wish he wasn’t the only one to object to that thing

Again, the game DOES frame "using babies and their dead mothers as tools” as evil and twisted, I just wish it was given a lot more weight and way sooner

Now let’s talk about the Token Straight(tm) in this game

In any other kind of context it would be a joke! But Death Stranding literally has a Token Straight Guy!

I mean, there IS a few hetero couples among the Preppers. Not a lot, mind you. Like, there’s the Montaineer and his wife for instance. But they’re just there and it’s not what their side plot is about

No I’m talking about this piece of shit right there

This f█cking Junk Dealer guy complains the girl he loves is dead because of Bridges and emotionally blackmails us by sending us old holograms of her before her supposed death (somewhat disturbing holograms too because she looks... pretty young in them), then he sends us on what’s essentially a suicide mission in a BT infested zone, THEN when we give him proof she’s still alive and living in another bunker nearby, he won’t go there himself to check??

But SHE’s like “ok, bring me to him, then!”

He doesn’t deserve you, girl

I’ve already seen several people pointing out that carrying a woman as cargo on your back is... debatable at best and sexist at worst, but that part didn’t really bother me to be honest? She asked to be carried to him and it’s her choice. She was talking to us the entire way too, so that made things a lot less awkward. Also Sam has this phobia of being touched by other people so I bet carrying another human being on his back isn’t fun for him. It was also super stressful to do, to be honest.

And then there’s this EXTREMELY AWKWARD scene when they’re reunited and decide to get married, and thankfully Sam finds it just as awkward as we do because he’s standing super far away from the bunker in a “can’t they talk about this later - I’m right there” way. And I’m under the impression it was intended as cringy, in a “yeppp young people in love are Like That” sort of way, so I can accept that, to be honest. If you don’t take that scene seriously, it’s pretty fun in, again, a cringy sort of way

BUT

Then you receive more emails later and this piece of shit guy complains about her and he’s like “ugh WOMEN” or “marriage is the worst” and they end up divorced in record time and she goes back to her bunker

Which isn’t my problem with this subplot either, I promise I’m gonna explain myself eventually but this context is important. It’s okay to have characters who are pieces of shit like this guy who reeks of incel cologne. It’s alright. Not every character has to be a role-model. It’s good to have characters you can hate.

BUT THEN they get back together later to try to patch things up and you learn he was part of a gang who murdered her parents even though he protected her against the rest of the gang and that’s what I hated about that storyline. I guess if you squint it can be read as “this woman is making REALLY BAD life choices” but I read it as “he saved her so she owes him something, he can’t be entirely bad” and y i k e s this left such a bad taste in my mouth, good lord.

But yeah miss Chiral Artist you’re making really bad life choices please get away from this dude as soon as you can, thank you

Also don’t do this ‘sending Likes’ pose ever again, it was hilarious but also you made me use the word “cringy” several times in this paragraph even though I absolutely hate cringe culture, look what you made me do

Now I have to talk about a scene that was intentionally disturbing as hell but ONE (1) detail in it was disturbing for the wrong reasons

To be honest, I really don’t like the Metal Gear Solid games and one of the reasons is the rampant sexism in them so I... was kind of bracing myself for Death Stranding and expecting it to have at least SOME really bad fanservice with a woman at one point or another but to my surprise?? There was none? All the fanservice is on dudes??? Hello? I really liked that (well at some point Fragile takes a shower in our room but we see literally nothing except her shoulder and then Sam looks away)?? What a refreshing change

THAT BEING SAID

And if you played the game you know exactly what I’m about to talk about

Yep this is the part where Johannes complains about how the bomb flashback was shot

Ok so I guess I should also give some context in case someone is reading this but hasn’t played the game, but the deal with this scene is that our friend Fragile was betrayed by her colleague Higgs who used to be a porter but became a terrorist after meeting the “main“ villain of the game. First he secretly put a thermonuclear bomb in one of her deliveries so she’d nuke an entire city without even knowing it, and everyone after that thought she was a terrorist. And then he tried to do that shit A SECOND TIME, but she noticed and decided to toss the second nuke into a bottomless lake of tar. But he caught her just before she reached the lake and he decided to give her a sadistic choice, which was “teleport away and the bomb stays there and nukes the city, or carry it to the lake but only in your underwear under this rain that speeds up time and it will do enormous damage to your health and your body”

And of course being the hero she is, she decides to take the second option

And it’s an incredibly disturbing scene and it’s genuinely hard to watch

But it’s also the ONLY time a woman is in her underwear in this entire game and there’s A COUPLE of shots that were male-gaze-y at the beginning before she started to run and the really horrific part started.

So in a way I guess it could have been worse? way worse, even

But it still tarnishes an otherwise disturbing (and harrowing at times ; seriously I know I’m oversensitive but it was physically painful to watch) scene with unnecessary shots

We know Fragile had a young body before this happened, this isn’t the point of this scene, guys

Whoever decided to keep these shots (probably Kojima let’s face it), that is bad and you should feel bad

Idk how to do a visual transition for that next one because I do not want to screen that memo

So here’s a screenshot with a nice landscape instead

tw: acephobia

Now I have to talk about something I like the GENERAL IDEA of, but not how the IN-GAME MATERIAL ABOUT IT was written

Because I have to talk about that “asexual world” memo

First I have to say that I absolutely love the fact that a mainstream game openly says in-game “this future is full of asexual people" and?? it’s just that, it’s a part of this world. That’s just how things are. It’s normalised. I love it. For crying out loud this memo has the word demisexual in it. I can’t think of any other mainstream game that had this word in it so far.

It should have stopped there and let me enjoy that in peace but it didn’t

THE MEMO ITSELF WAS CLEARLY WRITTEN BY SOMEONE WHO DOESN’T KNOW HOW TO HANDLE THESE CONCEPTS and there’s some really bad stuff there. I’d say it’s accidental acephobia but it’s still there. I’m not the best person to talk about this because I’m bi, but it still rubbed me the wrong way

The words this memo uses near the beginning are “"sexless lifestyle” among young people” and yikes, my dude. “Lifestyle”, uh? Really?

And then it goes on about how these new labels were already more and more common “among young people before the Death Stranding” and it also rubs me the wrong way, in a “wow young people and their weird labels lol” sort of queerphobic way?

However I’ve seen a post pointing out that the line “One theory posits that the Stranding accelerated the proliferation of these sexualities” was maybe a way of saying ‘yo asexuals are causing the end of the world’ but... I don’t see it, tbh? In the context of the game, society is extremely divided and a lot of people live in complete isolation and social norms have heavily shifted and it’s kind of normal that there’s queer people visible everywhere now, aces included obviously, because nobody’s bothering to hide it anymore. It’s a post-apocalyptic world! People are just being themselves! A lot of characters also seem to be bi/pan! They’re just vibing ok

At least that’s how I read that part, I can understand if someone had a problem with that bit but I didn’t

BUT! THAT’S NOT ALL because the memo concludes (I’m paraphrasing) “the birth rate has dropped, which might be a problem, but harassment and assault have also dropped, which is good, so idk it’s 50/50″ and. like. I get the intention. But it’s clumsy as hell and very bad. Please don’t confuse abuse of power and attraction. They don’t go hand in hand. Don’t do that. Please. And you know that aces can have kids if they want to, right. Come on. It’s 2020 my dude. This shit is harmful

Also. Like. It’s the end of the world in this game. People don’t want kids. It... has nothing to do with aces. Reality itself is crashing down. People are reluctant to have kids because reality.exe might f█cking crash down at any given moment!

Or a Beached Thing could VoidOut their city!

Or someone might send them a nuke, not naming names!!

Anyway!!!

It’s really badly written and whoever wrote it should educate themselves and maybe get an ace to re-read their stuff next time??

Again I’m not the right person to talk about acephobia and I bet an actual ace would have plenty more to say about this

Thankfully it’s a memo written in-game by a random Bridges councellor and NOT by any important character that we actually know

"I must preempt myself by admitting that I do not have any empirical data" yeah so, f█ck off maybe

So I’m just gonna call that guy “another piece of shit character” but it still doesn’t excuse the fact that the memo was written by someone who thought it was a good idea to put it in the game

Just let me enjoy my super queer post-apo world in peace and don’t write shit like that in your game thank you and goodbye

Minor stuff I also disliked but it wasn’t as awful

I get that Sam is upset at the end because Lou is dying but the way he said goodbye to Fragile broke my heart. It was abrupt and you KNOW he’s upset and wants to have nothing to do with Bridges anymore and that’s very understandable but it isn’t her fault

Seriously I want them to be friends again

I’m gonna pretend they’re friends again after Lou is saved and that Sam is a freelance porter again and sometimes their paths cross and they just talk together in the middle of nowhere and share cryptobiotes

The pacing is weird, there’s this deluge of plot in the beginning and the end but not much in the middle?

The BT boss fights could have been these epic Shadow of the Colossus showdowns but no, they were relatively standard boss fights. Wasted opportunity

The running on the Beach scene sdfghjhgfdsdfghjhgf that was... dumb

A lot of preppers are interesting in one way or another but some are just boring. Also I wish the design of their bunkers was more varied

Amelie/Bridget’s motivations are all over the place, both creating Bridges AND the Demens is... a lot? I know she both WANTS and DOESN’T want the actual, final end of the world to happen but that is a lot to take in and it’s all very confusing

Who the hell cares about ‘rebuilding America’ I just want to build a network where people can help each other

The ‘likes’ are fun but don’t make much sense

In conclusion

Death Stranding Good

Some stuff Bad

Some stuff Very Bad (but it’s just one memo out of 100+ memos, thank god)

I’m still hyperfixating

Send help

#death stranding #long post #eye contact tw #acephobia tw #from a minor unamed character but still it's there

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leadingwithoutlimits · 3 years

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LEARNING TO SWITCH OFF 'THAT' VOICE IN OUR HEAD

Managing our time effectively is a challenge that many of us wrestle with on a daily basis. There are many strategies to doing this which I cover in other articles including creating effective boundaries, learning to say no and a wide range of techniques to save time and ensure you don’t duplicate effort. Once you master these techniques you would assume that you have cracked the issue of managing your time well, yet many people find the time they have free is dominated by that voice in their head.

The voice comes in a variety of guises.

There is the voice that constantly nags about things you have done or said which you realise with hindsight, it would have been better if you had hadn’t. Why didn’t you bite your tongue and remain silent? Why did you behave in that way when you knew there would be negative consequences? “Why did you……?”

Then there is the voice which harangues you because you failed to say what you really think or you wish you told someone you loved them or were sorry while you had the chance. It tells you that should have stood up to your partner, parents or workplace bully. “Why didn’t you …..?”

There is the voice that endlessly reminds you about all the jobs which need to be done, discusses all the options, gets you planning marketing strategies or rehearsing the interview you are going to attend in a few days time. “And then there’s …. And don’t forget ….”

There is the voice that constantly tells you that you are never good enough, that you have failed yet again and that it is no surprise because you have so little worth. “You are stupid…. worthless….. fat…… “

My personal experience and work with countless clients have demonstrated that the size and significance of the perceived issue appear to have little or no significance in relation to the volume and persistence of the voice in our heads. The voice is often at its quietest when we are busy. It only begins to be a real problem for the majority of people in their personal time and for many of those is at its loudest in the dark lonely hours when they are desperately trying to sleep.

Do we simply have to put up with this voice? Are we destined to be victims to the broken down record which goes around and around in our head?

The answer is No! As in all things we have a choice. If you choose to deal with the problem, there are many things you can do. You will need to experiment as different things work for different people in different circumstances.

If the voice persists or if you find your personal time or sleep is being affected you may find that working with an experienced coach can be really helpful

What is that voice? Many say that the voice in our head is our unconscious mind. It can be useful to think of it in this way, as there is usually an underlying reason which explains why we are hearing the voice and for what it is trying to say. Deal with that and the voice is easy to manage. Create a dialogue with your unconscious mind, it may feel strange but it can work really well.

The strategies fall into several categories:

1) The Mountain Or Molehill Test

The passage of time makes a huge difference to the way we feel about things. An incident that feels like the end of the world can appear insignificant after a few hours, days or weeks. If you have something which is really getting to you, one quick way to silence the voice in your head is to consider the following questions:

In the grand scheme of things is this a mountain or a molehill situation?

Will this incident feel as significant tomorrow? In a weeks time? Six weeks? Next Year? If you were at the end of your life looking back?

At what point will you be able to look back and laugh or at least smile about this?

How long will it take before this becomes a great story to tell a mate over a drink or dinner?

If it is going to become a molehill in a while why let it be a mountain?

Why not give it molehill status now?

2) Interrupt The Flow

The brain works rather like a record or CD. Thought patterns work like the patterns ingrained into the disc. Even though vinyl records have now become a collector's pieces we still use the expression “going on like a broken record” to describe how thoughts seem to stick and constantly repeat themselves in our head. If you wanted to stop a record or CD delivering its usual pattern of sounds you simply need to interrupt the pattern on the disc by scratching them with a sharp object. We can interrupt the constant stream of negative thoughts or sounds. There are a number of ways to do this:

Interrupt the pattern by doing something different. When you can do something very different which also changes your physiology the results are far more powerful. The results are even more profound when it is something that makes you laugh. Next time you are feeling low, when the voice is at its most insistent get-up and try a variety of silly walks around the house. Clients report that having physically done this a few times not only does it work really well but that just the thought of doing it becomes enough to break the pattern as it makes them smile.

Exercise can be really helpful. The change of activity and release of endorphins which exercise releases can help put things in perspective. Asking your unconscious mind to find a solution or to undertake the mountain/molehill strategy before starting to run or cycle can be incredibly helpful too.

Watch or listen to something which makes you laugh, go and cook or make something, work in the garden. Changing your physical state will change your mental state too.

3) Tell The Voice To Shut The _____ Up!

For some simply telling the voice that it is not being helpful, telling it to SHUT UP! is enough. If that isn't working visualise a large switch or dial and imagine turning it off and locking it into place can help. It is in the making the decision to take control of things that actually makes the difference for them.

One of my clients referred to her voice as 'The parrot'. I asked her how people quieten caged pet parrots, put a cloth over the cage was her response. She then smiled and said if that doesn't work I can shoot the bl---y parrot! This became her favourite method. She described how she visualised a cartoon where she shot the imaginary parrot with a blunderbuss initially but if the parrot regrouped in true cartoon fashion she then used a cannon. It made her laugh and the voice was quietened!

4) Learn The Lesson

When the voice is nagging you for things you have or haven’t done one strategy is to ask yourself what the underlying lesson behind the voice might be?

Ask yourself: what learning could I take from this situation that would be helpful in the future? Think about what situation has given rise to that nagging voice. Recreate that situation in your mind where you create a different behaviour, one which you know would lead to success. What would that look and sound like? How would it make you feel? What could you learn from this? Thank the voice for giving you the opportunity to learn and let your unconscious mind know you have taken the learning forward so it can now stop.

5) Compartmentalizing

Learning to compartmentalise can help you manage the voice in your head. Visualise putting the issue/s bothering you into a briefcase or a box. This is particularly helpful if you find it hard to switch off from work and the boundaries between work and personal time have become blurred. Create a compartment for work thinking - one which you will pick up again as you start to work the next day.

If you are travelling to and from work you can use the journey to create a separation between 'work' time and personal time. Create a point in the journey where you always make the changeover. Some find they need a neutral space between work and home. Use a section of your journey like the air chamber in a submarine which acts as the buffer between the sea and the inside cabin can help.

For those who are working from home, it is important to create some demarcation - some of my clients have found that creating a specific routine that becomes the marker between personal time and professional time helps. Music can be really helpful - playing a piece of music that represents the shift can help. What is important is that you create something meaningful for you.

6) Change Your Perception

Perception is everything. You filter everything which happens in your life and interpret it according to your values, belief system and prior experiences. Understanding that your personal perception is not a guarantee that you are always right, can be very helpful. How you interpret another person’s response makes an incredible difference to how you feel and to the voice in your head. Be open to the possibility that there are alternative rationales to the one you have initially created. It is not always about you.

7) Do Something With It

You are being kept awake, that voice in your head is constantly telling you about all the things which need doing or is bursting with ideas. It is far better to get up and capture the ideas, create a list of all the things which need to be done or write the letter saying sorry or stating your case. Once you have done everything which can be done practically at this time you are far more likely to be able to sleep. You can take any actions needed the next morning.

8) Let Go Of Regrets - It’s Too Late

A number of clients have talked about the voice which constantly reinforces the regrets that they didn’t tell loved ones, who have died, how much they loved them. Writing a letter where they could say everything they wished they had said, offered a positive way forward.

Doing so and actually verbalising how you truly feel to someone else can also be helpful. I believe that learning the lesson so that we take the time to value loved ones and friends and to thank people for the difference they make to our lives in the NOW (even though it may feel embarrassing) can have a profound effect on not only silencing the voice in our heads but in enhancing the quality of our lives.

There are any number of strategies you can use. The important thing for all of us is to realise that we don’t have to be a slave to the part of us that wants to take over and destroy the precious time we have by being nagged by a negative and persistent voice.

The quality of your life is up to you. Of course, life can throw you curve balls - I know I have been thrown many over my lifetime but what I have come to realise is that it isn't the challenge that defines you it is how you choose to deal with it.

If you would like to become the leader of your own life:

Here is a personal invitation to join me for a -'BECOME THE LEADER OF YOUR OWN LIFE' - VIP Day Intensive/s where you will learn how to let go of old limitations and step into the limitless possibilities which await.

For more details and to book go to:

https://ginagardinerassociates.co.uk/page_48.php?pgenme=leadership-for-life&nav_group=all

Further Resources:

'leadership For Life' Radio and TV Shows on W4CY live every Thursday at 6pm UK time 1pm Eastern

https://w4cy.com/shows/leadership-for-life/

Youtube Leadership For Life Playlist

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLR8ab6DHaK7nWQc2cG8WzJxnkD9_LUhqq

Books:

Thriving Not Surviving - The 5 Secret Pathways To Happiness Success And Fulfilment

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B074BPBLD3/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i1

The Happiness Challenge

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08BC1H4YS/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i3

Genuinely New -

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Genuinely-New-Discovering-Leadership-Identity/dp/B08J578F2P/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=Genuinely+New+by+Gina+Gardiner&qid=1614862410&s=digital-text&sr=1-1

Articles:

How To Create A Wealthy Life

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/ginagardinerassociates_wealth-wellbeing-abundance-activity-6782571460750802944-cbg1

Healthy Relationships With Others Require A Healthy Relationship With You

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/healthy-relationships-others-relationship-yourself-first-gardiner

#mentalhealth #wellbeing #happiness #confidence #selflove #health #dealingwithstress #dealingwithanxiety

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kentbcopeland · 4 years

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The Beginning Of A Sales Revolution: How To Become a top 1% Sales Professional, Influencer, Entrepreneur, Coach or Consultant

Jeremy Miner is an internationally recognized sales trainer who has taught thousands of people how to go from just getting average results in selling to becoming a high 6 figure and even 7 figure sales earner and be viewed as the “Trusted Authority” in their market.

Over the years, Jeremy has been asked by thousands of salespeople to train them on how to eliminate rejection, how to connect with their prospects, how to cold call, how to overcome their prospects objections/concerns, and finally how to close more sales without being a pushy, sleazy, disrespected salesperson.

Jeremy is the host of the Closers Are Losers Podcast and the Sales Revolution Facebook Group which were both created to take any salesperson, no matter their experience, from wherever they're at in selling to getting them to a high 6 Figure and even 7 Figure annual income in sales.

Jeremy has a very unique background in that he is one of only 3 sales trainers in the world who as a straight commission W2 or 1099 salesperson, earned as much as $2.5M in commissions in 3 different industries, and sustained that level consistently over an 11-year period of time. He is also the innovator of the N.E.P.Q. sales model, which stands for Neuro Emotional Persuasion Questions.

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Join The Sales Revolution: If you’re ready to do sales differently, you’re in the right place. This community is for entrepreneurs and sales pros to connect, grow, + learn the new (and highly improved) connection-based way of selling. Get ready to toss out all that you’ve been taught about sales up to this point. It’s time for a revolution.

Jeremy’s Instagram – Follow Jeremy on Instagram.

Jeremy’s Facebook – Check out Jerry on Facebook.

Jeremy’s Youtube – Check out Jerry on Youtube.

Jeremy’s N.E.P.Q. Training – How To Become a top 1% Sales Professional, Influencer, Entrepreneur, Coach or Consultant.

3 Value Bombs

Step out of your comfort zone and learn the most persuasive way to sell so you can make more money than where you are at right now.

When you begin to understand human behavior and learn the right skills, when you learn the right questions to ask at the right time in your sales conversations and calls, resistance goes away, defensiveness goes away from your prospects…objections are reduced to next to nothing and selling will become very easy for you and very profitable.

When you join this community and invest yourself, you will discover exactly how to make yourself so valuable in sales, you will never hurt for work or income ever again, regardless of what happens in the world economy.

Sponsors

Virtual Sales Training Program & Platform: Our virtual training has helped thousands of people and companies turn-around sluggish sales. The mobile-enabled, innovative, flexible training is rooted in human behavioral psychology and provides easy-to-consume, on-demand training for sustainable results.

SALES STRUCTURE PARTNERSHIP: Accelerate your growth with a customized partnership! This partnership includes onsite coaching and role playing for skill reinforcement, 1:1 work with Jeremy Miner on your specific product or vertical scripting (aligned to the new model of selling) and coaching support and alignment for your sales managers and/or sales coaches.

Show Notes

**Click the timestamp to jump directly to that point in the episode.

Today’s Audio MASTERCLASS: How To Become a top 1% Sales Professional, Influencer, Entrepreneur, Coach or Consultant – with Jeremy Miner.

0:20 Who is Jeremy Miner?

Sales Expert, creator of the Neuro Emotional Persuasion Questioning Method and one of the highest paid sales consultants in the world.

He was frustrated, scared and often even lonely as he was trying to find his way as a struggling sales person, barely making ends meet.

Then something incredible happened and he went on to become one of the highest paid sales professionals in the world, even earning as much as $2.5M per year for 11 years straight as a W2 employee in 3 different industries, and it completely changed my life.

He wants to show you how to do it too!

Discover how to take everything he has learned in sales, using techniques that work with human behavior, and use them to start selling more right now so you can make more money (for you and your family) and help more people!

2:06 Jeremy shares more about his background so he can convince you as a listener that he and his Guests have the expertise necessary to take your income in sales to the next level.

If you pay close attention to what he shares in this episode, your life will never be the same.

He got his first door-to-door sales job 20 years ago.

He started talking to prospects about all the features and benefits of his product and how much it would help them, but, he started getting a lot of objections like:

“we can't afford it”,

“we don't need it”,

“your price is too high”,

“I need to talk to my spouse”,

“let me think it over”,

“can you come back in a week, a month, even a year later?”.

His worst day he felt like a complete failure and was ready to quit.

Have you ever felt that way?

The game-changing lesson he learned from Tony Robbins!

Old school selling techniques don’t work anymore because they work against human behavior instead of with human behavior.

He went on to average more than $2 million dollars a year in commissions after hitting rock bottom, because he learned some simple skills that anyone can learn. Selling became easy and very profitable.

According to behavioral science, we are least persuasive when we tell people things.

7:37 Jeremy details 3 forms of communication or the 3 eras of selling and I'd suggest you write these down because once you understand the differences in persuasion and where you are at now in your sales ability, compared to where you could be, it will be life-changing for you.

Boiler Room Selling – Wolf of Wall Street, manipulate them, push them, posture them, assume the sale.

Consultative selling – asking logical based questions to find their needs

Dialogue – NEPQ – asking Neuro Emotional Persuasion Questions. We are the most persuasive when we allow others to persuade themselves

11:10 The most effective and persuasive way to sell. You have to learn specific skilled questions, and when and how to ask them in a step by step system or structure that will get your prospects to sell themselves rather than you trying to do it.

When we survey audiences, 84% of sales people are still in Era 1 sales, they are still pushing, pitching, assuming the sale… and it doesn't matter the industry.

When we survey audiences we find that 15% are still in Era #2 way of selling.

When we survey audiences, only 1% are in Era #3, the Dialogue category. Just 1% are using sales techniques that work with human behavior. The most persuasive way.

So here is the challenge with that, if you are still selling using Era 1 or Era 2 techniques, that work against against human behavior, that trigger sales resistance but today's information aged buyers are in Era 3, today's consumer is over in Era 3, do you now see the friction of you not being able to sell as much as you want to…and as easy as you want too?

You might have been taught to use techniques from 20, 30, 40 plus yrs ago but the consumer has completely changed even in the last 5-10 yrs.

Step out of your comfort zone and learn the most persuasive way to sell so you can make more money than where you are at right now.

Now luckily for you this can all be fixed.

14:57 How Jeremy’s sales more than doubled almost overnight and how yours can too.

He came up with some of these what are now called “Neuro Emotional Persuasion Questions” and his sales doubled, almost overnight.

But I still didn't know all the right questions to ask and when and how to ask them. I didn't have a structure.

I was still winging it but I knew I was still losing sales that I should be making.

Through trial and error I created a book of phrases and questions that skyrocketed my sales career but more importantly the salespeople I trained.

16:40 Jeremy had to make a decision, and he decided he was going to have to master this process himself. Following are his results:

Through trial and error he created a “Black book of NEPQ questions”.

Certain words would trigger sales resistance.

Results: When he started using this in the company he sold for, the first year they went from $6 million in revenue to the next year making $63 million in revenue. The next year they made over $173 million in revenue.

Do you see what having the right sales skills can do for you and your company?

So check this out if you look at this Trial and Error Chart you'll see that from 2000-2001 that year Jeremy made $155K.

By 2004, his sales and income doubled that year and he hit $327K plus.

He continued refining his skills, developing these questions, and by 2006, he made over $785k that year in straight commissions. Yes that’s $785k in straight commission, in just 1 year at his job.

Then by 2008, his persuasion abilities took a Quantum leap and he made over $1.3 million at his sales job. During the recession, when sales peoples’ incomes dropped like hotcakes at IHOP, Jeremy’s kept going up.

And he kept learning and through trial and error by 2012, his income went to $2.4 million that year in his sales career.

His results were so great that there was an organization out there that ranks salespeople by earnings and that year he was ranked #45 top salesperson in the world out of over 100 million salespeople by the direct selling association.

That was the same guy who was from Arkansas; the guy who could barely pay his rent for his wife and family only a few years back.

Do you see how the right sales skills can bless you and your family’s lives?

Now some people might say well Jeremy made multiple 7 figures a year in his industry but that's not possible in my industry.

Did you know Jeremy made multiple 7 figures in 3 separate industries?

So really what that means for you, is you can do the same thing. You can go from whatever income you are now as a salesperson and learn the right skills to become a top 1% salesperson in your industry.

And it doesn’t matter what you sell or your industry. All you need are the right skills, the understanding of how to use techniques that work with human behavior that will get your prospects to sell and persuade themselves, rather than you trying to do that.

And let me tell you something, when you learn these simple skills, selling becomes so easy that it's almost boring to sell.

21:26 Introducing the Sales Revolution.

Jeremy has exciting news to share with you. He is launching a brand-new weekly Show and Facebook Community and the best part is it’s FREE for each and everyone of you to join.

Together we are going to create a new Sales Revolution that is going to completely disrupt the entire sales industry, and more importantly, help YOU level up and start living the kind of life you want and deserve!

Jeremy’s BIG, BOLD promise…

It’s been a tough year for so many sales people.

But in spite of all of it…if you stick with Jeremy all the way to the end of this podcast today, you will know the exact action steps you can immediately begin taking to become a top salesperson for your company… top 1%…many of you earning multiple 6-figure, high 6-figures and even 7-figures each year as a sales professional.

And if you own the business, Jeremy will show you exactly how to position your company and your salespeople to become the top company in your industry…even the Category King…if that’s what you want!

No matter what’s happening in the world, or with the economy or with COVID…or anything else like it, you will always have the right skills to be the best at sales no matter what you sell.

23:05 How you will benefit from the featured Guests on Jeremy’s new show.

Jeremy and his Guests are going to teach you sales techniques that work with human behavior that can help you quickly grow your income by 100%, 200%…and even up to 500-1000% or more…starting right now…this year!

Remember it's all based around NEPQ or Neuro Emotional Persuasion Questioning…

23:26 The world has changed…consumers have changed…and it seems like it is getting harder and harder to generate the kind of sales and income you want to generate in this tumultuous world in which we find ourselves living today. The world has made a dramatic turn in recent years.

More than 30 Million people were furloughed or lost their jobs just this year

Unemployment rates went through the roof

Big Brand names companies that have been around for decades have gone out of business overnight

Racial divide, strife and tension all across the world are at an all-time high.

Political unrest is felt all over the place

Many feel the potential threat of technology and of AI (Artificial Intelligence) displacing them from their income

COVID-19 continues to impact us

And the list goes on and on. All of these factors impact your livelihood, your profession, your family and ultimately your happiness and well being.

24:38 Bottom line, The world has changed…dramatically!

Buyers are different (they are more skeptical than ever as trust is at an all-time low).

Buyers are smarter, they have access to more info, they often take longer than usual to make decisions, they are more cautious.

Companies are losing sales to low cost competitors

Sales people are struggling to meet quota. They don’t get paid as much. They don’t earn as much.

Sales people are finding it more difficult than ever to Overcome Objections

They can’t get a hold of prospects

There are long sales cycles where they can’t seem to close deals quickly enough

Dealing with non stop Rejection

There’s increased anxiety, stress & long hours

Struggling to provide for the family

Salespeople are burning out because they have to work so hard to close sales

And on top of all that, it’s been a year of COVID-19 wreaking havoc, causing trepidation about whether or not this way of life is the “new normal”

25:52 Jeremy assures you that it’s about to change for you, right here, and right now!

Each episode of our new Show you listen to or watch, will contain tangible skills and knowledge you can immediately implement right after each Show to close more sales that day, make more money for you and your family that day!

No theoretical BS training or pump you up type of hype that will just wear off in the same day. I am talking about tactical training.

What to say and more importantly ask when you are selling each day that is going to give you tangible results and make you more money as a sales professional every week, month and year moving forward!

On our Show you are going to learn tactical skills, and sales techniques, and questions that work with human behavior that will get your prospects to persuade themselves.

You can get off each podcast that day and go out and immediately use the principles and skills you learn to win more sales

7:22 Jeremy shares “proof” that the principles he teaches actually work.

Just like one of our students Chuck Rosen who just posted in our Facebook Group that he made $87k just last month, and his company we are also training is up over 200% just this quarter.

This is the same training that got one of our students Ehsan who was sitting in your same shoes just 7 months ago, and within 60 days of learning these skills, he got a commission check for over 28k just that month alone!

He said “this is one of the most emotional days of my life, I've always wanted to hit $20k in a month, today I did it. What you are teaching is changing my life, giving me so much hope, in fulfilling my financial dreams” Why is it, because he was averaging $4k a month at this job, he has gone from $50k a year to $320k a year.

Who wants to wake up each day with that same hope, who wants to change your financial life forever starting today?

Just like Anna Zheng who went from barely paying her rent making $2k a month to now making $36k on avg a month, selling the exact same product she was before!

Who wants to learn those type of sales skills?

What we are going to train you on with this Show is exactly what Shrikat Rode is doing now when he said-

“Closed out Q2 Already made $314,600 in commissions.”

That’s in his first 6 months of the year. Are you paying attention now?

Who wants these results in sales?

How would your life be different then it is now making that much money? All you need are sales skills that work with human behavior, that's it!

Look what George Jacobs said after joining this free community:

“This year after Implementing NEPQ I became the #1 rep in my company out of over 500 nationwide, I won the company’s President’s Club award, I went from making $72k last year to making over $500k this year in commissions.”

“I used to be average, now I am the BEST. I never posted a testimonial because I didn’t want my competition to get a hold of your training materials?”

Are you guys getting this?

Can you imagine feeling this way?

Who could you help, what could you do for yourself…What could you do for your family?

Look what it's doing for Ging Tang–She went from a minimum wage job, never been in sales to two months later making $13k a month.

And some of you might say well that's not that much, but to her it is, she barely speaks English and was living with relatives before she learned these skills.

How many of you, if you made an extra $13k a month, would that radically change your life right now?

Here is what our community did for Johnny Custer. He went from making $65k last year as a W-2 rep, to making $750k this year, selling the exact same thing.

Look what he just posted in our Facebook Group the other day.

“Made $117k in commissions just this last month due to NEPQ. Not much else to say except that it works if you work to master it!”

30:40 This is what it did for one of Jeremy’s corporate clients, Google Adwords, his company trains 3 of their largest divisions.

You can appreciate they have the highest standard for their training so the benchmark is pretty high to even get the slightest of increases. So even to get them 5% increase would have been a huge win for them and for Jeremy’s company.

When he implemented NEPQ , here’s what happened:

Their sales reps made more commissions (and were a lot happier)

The company made A LOT more money

The customer and brand experience improved with great salespeople

These principles completely transformed their sales performance for the long term

Jeremy got them a 244% increase in sales within the first 90 days of their reps going through the training!

Not 5%, not 10% or 20% but a 244% increase. And the crazy part is they were split testing Jeremy’s training with another sales training company at the same time. One that has been in business since 1971, the largest sales training company in the world.

They were training the other half of those divisions at the same time. Do you know what type of results those reps got from their training? They actually got worse; they were down 11% that next 30 days!

Do you see how learning the right skills, sales techniques that work with human behavior will determine your success in sales and grow your income?

So even if you are a beginner like Rob Moss who said just last month in his second month he went from $6k to $12k in commissions.

Who wants to double your commissions like Rob did within 60 days from today?

Or you are a vet like Joseph Rowberry who said

“I run an office, and within two months of exposing my reps to NEPQ my sales reps had an increase on average of 313%, which led to my office revenue more than tripling and I made over 7 figures this year, I am blown away at how fast this happened!”

Can you imagine doing that in your office? Can you imagine making that much money?

Now Jeremy could keep showing you thousands more of our students and the success they are having by learning the right sales skills and techniques that work with human behavior rather than using the old traditional selling techniques that work against human behavior, but needless to say we’re out of time today….

But the good news is, these types of results are going to be available to you by tuning in each week to the Show and by joining us in our Private FREE Facebook Group – SALES REVOLUTION!

Let’s change the sales industry together! Together we can do this! We will do it together and we will disrupt the industry and create the change that it so desperately needed!

34:00 Introducing Closers Are Losers.

So without further ado, let me introduce the name of the Show and the meaning behind it. our new Show, your new show is called:

It’s a play on words. It’s not suggesting that sales people who close sale are losers, of course we have to close sales

…Instead what this show is all about is the notion that In our time (and beyond), Closers are going to lose sales if they are still using “old-school,” out-dated sales and closing techniques.

We help Closers level up and achieve extraordinary results by learning from elite Sales Authorities who are featured Guests on the Show each week.

We also discuss the impact and proper use of technology, social media, automation, etc. in the modern sales ecosystem.

We will release new episodes of the Show every Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday at – 10am ET, 7am PT.

Be sure and Subscribe & share the show with other salespeople, coaches and biz owners and set your alerts & notifications because we will be giving away killer gifts & prizes to those who engage and participate.

We will also be hosting Implementation Podcasts on Thursdays, where we will reinforce principles learned from the weekly Guests and discuss practical ways to immediately implement and apply the principles in your specific sales niche.

We will also be featuring students who have experienced dramatic success as a result of implementing the principles learned from the Show and from our Private FREE Facebook Group – SALES REVOLUTION!

By the way, if you haven’t joined our Facebook group SALES REVOLUTION yet, be sure and do that now. It’s FREE and you can find a link for it in the show notes and description.

And if you already joined, be sure and share the link with everyone you know who wants to learn sales skills that work with human behavior so they can make more money to bless their families lives.

This is a community where the more members we have, the more people we can help learn the right skills to help find and solve problems for their prospects as well, which will bless them, their families, the companies they work for, and most importantly their customers they serve.

We will also create weekly summaries in condensed format to help those of you who have tight schedules consume and implement the content with short 10 minute or less recaps.

36:32 The quality of the Guests Jeremy will be featuring on the Show.

First of all, you should know I have already scheduled and interviewed more than 54 Guests who are the most well-known, well-respected Sales Authorities in the world who discuss all kinds of subjects within the selling industry, including sharing their insights, techniques and secrets they have never shared with anyone before!

They share stories, tips and principles you simply can’t find anywhere else online!

My team and I vet each Guest to make sure they have the right qualifications, suitable to help our subscribers break into the top 1%.

We are not just talking about best-selling authors and trainers, but we will also feature high six-figure and 7-figure sales professionals who are the best of the best throughout their respective industries, who are in the trenches just like you selling everyday!

They will be teaching you exclusive sales tips, techniques and strategies proven to work for anyone who takes time to learn and implement them.

One guest helped Sales Force create “predictable revenue” and scale to more than $1 Billion dollars in sales

One guest has consistently been a 7-figure earner as a W2 sales person.

One guest is arguably the most successful B2B sales person and the premiere authority on training elite SDRs in the world

One guest created a million followers on social media in 30 days

One guest built a million followers using LinkedIn

One guest used to work on the exteriors of her clients’ heads and then transitioned and made millions working on the inside!

38:32 Now who is This Show for? It's for anyone who wants to sell more of their products and services.

Salespeople

Entrepreneurs/Business owners

Employees

Direct Sales

Social Sellers

Coaches/Consultants

Independent contractors

B2B

D2D

Network Marketers

It's for anyone who wants to move others, persuade others.

A lot of people ask, “will this work for what I sell? I sell XYZ product that’s so unique that it has to be sold a certain way.” or “I am not a salesperson, I'm a business owner or a coach, how will this Show help me?”

The truth is, we are all in sales now.

Even if you don’t get paid a commission for a sale, you’re still trying to persuade, influence and convince others on a daily basis.

You're in the business of moving others.

Jeremy shares a few examples:

If you're an Entrepreneur trying to get your employees to buy into your vision for your company, you're in the business of influencing, persuading and trying to move others.

If you are an Employee trying to convince your boss to give you a pay raise, you’re trying to persuade others.

If you are a Teacher trying to get your class to study, you are trying to persuade and move others.

If you are an Attorney trying to convince the Judge that your client is innocent, you are trying to persuade, convince and move others.

If you are a Teacher trying to convince your students to do their homework, you are trying to persuade and move others.

If you are a Politician trying to get people to vote for you, you are trying to persuade, convince and move others.

It does not matter what you sell, the Show works for any of you.

40:19 When you join this community and invest yourself, you will discover exactly how to make yourself so valuable in sales, you will never hurt for work or income ever again, regardless of what happens in the world economy.

40:30 Jeremy’s final thoughts:

In closing, he wants to encourage you to take an active part in the Sales Revolution.

This is not his Sales Revolution…it’s YOURS! You are the Revolution, and we are here to help give you the right skills so you can close more sales, help your prospects solve problems, and ultimately make more money doing it!

Start by Subscribing to the Show and then take an active part by Liking, Commenting and Sharing.

Once you are involved you will learn about our partner program, where you can earn gifts, prizes and even cash rewards along the way as you participate.

Thank you for joining me here today and for being part of THE SALES REVOLUTION MOVEMENT!

Our ultimate goal is to help you reach the top 1% in your specific sales-related niche, and collectively we will work together to impact millions of lives all around the world.

Jeremy can't wait to introduce you to our first Guests in the next episodes!

Killer Resources

The New Model Of Selling: Learn from Jeremy Miner The Only Friction-Free, Persuasion Sales System Guaranteed To Increase Revenue.

The Beginning Of A Sales Revolution: How To Become a top 1% Sales Professional, Influencer, Entrepreneur, Coach or Consultant published first on https://7thlevelhq.blogspot.com

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7thlevelhq · 4 years