Episode Full Transcript

Length: 01:03:51
Host: Patrick Francey
Guest: Paul Ross

• [0:04] Patrick Francey: Hi there, and welcome to the Everyday Millionaire podcast. My name is Patrick Francey, and I am your host. Thank you for listening. I have conversations with seemingly ordinary individuals who have achieved extraordinary results in life and business. My intention is to inspire and help you learn and grow as guests share how they overcame challenges and celebrated wins. And now, let’s get on with the show and have a conversation with today’s guest.

• [0:42] Patrick: If more effort solved sales performance, most teams would already be winning. But they’re not, because buying decisions aren’t logical. They’re psychological. My guest today, Paul Ross, is a sales and psychology strategist and subconscious influence expert. Most sales teams work harder every quarter for smaller gains. They refine scripts, add technology, and push activities, but buying decisions happen in the subconscious.

  For more than 30 years, Paul Ross has studied the psychology of influence, where resistance is immediate and rejection is constant. His early work inspired a character portrayal in Magnolia. As leaders adapted his methods to sales, the biggest breakthroughs weren’t better product knowledge. They were better psychological positioning.

  Paul translated these principles into a repeatable framework for sales teams and wrote a book called The Subconscious Sales Advantage.

  Instead of pushing harder, teams learn how to lower buyer resistance, shift conversations from logic battles to emotional alignment, and create internal buying states rather than external pressure.

  At any level, we are all salespeople. This is meaningful not just for selling a product or service, but for selling ourselves day to day with family, friends, and peers. Let’s get started.

• [3:03] Patrick: Paul Ross, welcome to the Everyday Millionaire podcast. Thanks for joining me.

• [3:07] Paul Ross: Thank you, Patrick. It’s an honor to go down the rabbit hole of subconscious influence and how you can use it to increase sales by 30% or more in 90 days. And before we dive in, a favor for the audience. Patrick produces wonderful content. If you could leave a five-star review on your favorite platform, please do. I’ll do it as soon as we’re off the air.

• [3:26] Patrick: I appreciate the ask. Thanks, Paul. I usually open with an intro based on the bio your team provides, but bios rarely do justice. So I always ask: if someone meets you for the first time and says, “Paul, what do you do?” what’s your answer? And second, is there a better way we should introduce ourselves when someone asks what we do? Is there psychology behind that?

• [4:03] Paul: Two questions. First: I’m Paul Ross. I’m trained in clinical hypnosis. I’m a former pickup artist, believe it or not. And I help already successful sales teams, salespeople, and businesses overcome the ceiling they’ve hit because old techniques don’t work like they used to. They push harder and barely move the needle. They want exponential leaps, increasing sales by 30% or more in 90 days.

• [5:00] Patrick: Some listeners will wonder, is this NLP? Is it manipulation?

• [5:06] Paul: Let’s draw a distinction. When most people say manipulation, they mean: one, lying about facts. Two, omitting facts. Three, pushing on pain points like shame, guilt, fear of loss.

  I’m not talking about that. For me, manipulation means engineering consciousness. It means moving with skill to create a state of consciousness that includes possibilities your prospect never saw before. A scalpel can save a life or commit a crime. Influence expands and engineers states like focus, belief, trust, and getting past limiting beliefs.

• [6:20] Patrick: That makes sense. And we all sell, whether we admit it or not. So back to introductions. Any cool way to answer “What do you do?”

• [6:40] Paul: You take what you do that benefits the other person and what you’re passionate and expert about, and package it so people get it in about 15 seconds. No confusion. Later, there’s a time to be artfully confusing, but not at the start. Early on, you must be crystal clear.

• [7:20] Patrick: Take me back. What started this journey?

• [9:02] Paul: Thirty-five, forty years ago, I was terribly shy around women. I communicated with facts, data, figures and got nowhere. So I took a deep dive into hypnosis and neuro-linguistic programming, which is how language structures consciousness, shapes decisions, and drives behavior. I began to have success, and I taught other guys.

  About 20 years ago, I started getting emails from students who said, “Thank you, I met my wife and started a business using your stuff. And I tripled my sales applying what you teach.” I interviewed them, mapped it over for about a year, then started training sales teams across industries. I wrote Subtle Words That Sell in 2019: how to get prospects to convince themselves to buy.

• [10:55] Patrick: NLP has been around a long time. My wife Steffany is trained as an NLP master trainer. Is NLP a tool or a way of thinking?

• [11:52] Paul: It’s a way of modeling human excellence, extracting the structure, and training people to take it on. There’s a learning curve. I can teach someone to be a powerful hypnotic influencer in 90 days. Sales is not just getting ideas into the subconscious. It’s expanding their mind to include possibilities and engineering states like trust in you, trust in themselves, and focus.

  People’s attention span is tiny now. Focus is the currency of any influence. You don’t have five minutes anymore. You have maybe 90 seconds to build trust.

• [14:26] Patrick: Consciousness is a big word. What do you mean by it?

• [14:34] Paul: Let’s talk about focus. I can’t tell all the ways you might pause and feel a growing focus as you learn something powerful.

  I slowed my tempo and lowered my voice. I was vague. When you’re vague, the subconscious fills in meaning, and it feels like you’re speaking directly to them. Later you get specific.

• [16:05] Patrick: Give a practical example.

• [16:27] Paul: I teach six words that imply relationship and create trust: we, our, together, explore, share.

  Example: “Before we begin our exploration together today, may I request that you share the questions that naturally arise when a great decision is being made?”

  “We” implies same side of the table. “Exploration” is hypnotic because explorations imply a leader and followers.

• [18:39] Patrick: Some speakers say “you guys” constantly. It feels separating. Is this the idea, speaking to one person even in a crowd?

• [19:19] Paul: Exactly. “You guys” implies separation. I start with “we.” One person or 500, start with “we.” You’re building trust immediately.

• [21:15] Patrick: This applies beyond sales, right? Parents, families, peers?

• [21:20] Paul: Yes. Language structures consciousness and decision making across all contexts. It applies everywhere.

• [23:11] Patrick: Big corporations might see this as out there.

• [23:18] Paul: That’s why I don’t work with large corporations. They’re rigid. Long sales cycles. I work with teams of 25 to 50 who are open to unconventional approaches.

• [27:37] Patrick: Confused mind says no. How do you handle objections?

• [28:59] Paul: Sometimes artful confusion is powerful. People are pattern-making machines. Break the pattern, and they become suggestible.

  Example objection: “I need more time to think it over.”

  Response: “I understand. Have you ever taken a long time to decide and it still turned out to be a terrible choice? Maybe it’s not about time, but clarity. So what do we need to get on the table, heart to heart, human to human? You won’t hurt my feelings. Just speak what’s on your heart.”

  Now the objection dissolves and trust increases.

• [31:47] Patrick: How long does your training take?

• [31:52] Paul: About 90 days. First concepts, then structure for embedded suggestions, then a process where prospects convince themselves to buy, then erasing objections. About three hours a week with tracking and homework.

• [33:10] Patrick: With AI and nonstop content, how do you compete for attention?

• [33:25] Paul: I teach hypnotic language to create focus states. I can’t directly command focus. But I can say: “I don’t know all the places you might stop and feel a growing focus…”

  “Growing” implies it builds as we continue. Focus is the currency. Without it, old techniques are bankrupt.

• [35:45] Patrick: This would help real estate investors raising capital and needing trust fast.

• [37:00] Paul: Yes, with a different pacing. Investors do due diligence. Tie conscious facts with subconscious trust.

  Example: “As we continue to share this process together, it’s important you do your due diligence. Please share any questions that naturally arise when a great decision is being made. I’ll make data, numbers, facts readily available. Is that fair?”

  Numbers must still work. This doesn’t override reality. It reduces doubt and helps clarity.

• [41:50] Patrick: Hypnosis throws people off. Is hypnosis central here?

• [42:00] Paul: Let’s define hypnosis. It’s not snapping fingers and making people obey. It’s communication that builds rapport with the subconscious, creating trust and focus. It’s about suggestibility, not sleep.

  Suggestibility is not gullibility. It’s how quickly the subconscious can take in an idea and make it vivid.

  You can’t not be hypnotic in communication that evokes feelings. We experience hypnotic states all the time. “Did you ever just find yourself falling in love?”

  I teach the phrase “find yourself.” It implies a state where you’re not paying attention in the normal way.

• [46:28] Patrick: A lot of people don’t know what they want. Opening that door is a gift.

• [46:35] Paul: Exactly. You can’t make someone do something against their will, but you can expand the range of what they want and what they think is possible.

• [48:08] Patrick: Where did your entrepreneurial spirit come from?

• [48:13] Paul: My parents weren’t entrepreneurs, but it runs in parts of my family. We all had work ethic, influenced by immigrant grandparents and my father’s WWII experience. When I think of my challenges, I think of my father on the front lines and it puts things in perspective.

• [51:30] Patrick: With the world changing fast and jobs threatened by AI, these skills matter.

• [51:45] Paul: I think it’s true. Things change rapidly, but fundamentals of human communication remain. Humans will always dream and daydream. Consciousness works the way it works.

• [52:20] Patrick: What’s one question I should be asking you that I’m not?

• [52:42] Paul: Here’s the question and answer: Yes. I love helping clients get big gains without pushing. But my secret ulterior motive is to make everyone fall in love with language. I’m madly in love with language. Fall in love with language, its power to move people, shatter limiting beliefs, and make good decisions.

• [54:40] Patrick: Language discloses where someone is at. It impacts others and ourselves. It’s worth taking responsibility for your words.

• [56:10] Patrick: Rapid fire. Android or Apple?

• [56:31] Paul: Apple. MacBook Air.

• [56:40] Patrick: Magnolia. Tom Cruise played a character based on me, Frank T.J. Mackey. The character was based on a persona I created. Never met Tom. Never saw a penny, but I got a date with my intellectual property attorney.

• [57:23] Patrick: Favorite band or song?

• [57:29] Paul: Queen, “We Are the Champions.” Also superhero soundtracks.

• [57:45] Patrick: Favorite swear word?

• [57:48] Paul: “Butt plug.” (Explains his joke meaning.)

• [58:10] Patrick: Most impactful book?

• [58:15] Paul: Beyond the Brain by Stanislav Grof. It changed my view from hardcore atheist materialism. And Frogs into Princes by Bandler and Grinder launched me into NLP.

• [59:14] Patrick: If there is a God, what do you want to hear at the gates?

• [59:28] Paul: “You screwed up a lot, but you did the best you could, and you left the world better. Get in, but you’re on probation.”

• [59:47] Patrick: What are you grateful for?

• [1:00:00] Paul: My parents. I keep them alive in my heart. I try to live their generosity and warmth.

• [1:00:40] Patrick: I’m grateful for guests, my parents, my wife, our life, my daughter and grandchildren. Paul, thanks for your time.

• [1:01:05] Paul: Your audience gives me something valuable: their focus. I have a free offer: the Instant Trust Quick Start training (about 7 minutes) and the Subconscious Selling Conversion Vault. Go to: www.sellwithsuggestion.com/everydaymillionaire. Thank you for the opportunity to share what I love: language.

• [1:03:11] Patrick: Thanks for listening. If you found value, rate, review, and share. Email comments and questions to CEO@reinCanada.com. Until next time, Patrick out.