My weekend watching ethics die.

OK. Full disclaimer. This is not really an article.

THIS IS A PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT.

My lovely wife, Dr. Donna Marino, and I spent this past weekend at a seminar on money management and passive income generation. It was inexpensive and seemed like it would be worth the time invested, even if we only came out with a few new crumbs of information that we did not already know... which we did.

So what's the problem?

The 3-day seminar started off well enough, with a highly competent and charismatic speaker/trainer and solid, if somewhat low-end and a bit repackaged subject-matter. The environment was simultaneously serious and fun, and everything was strikingly well-coordinated and professionally managed.

The lectures were well-considered and enjoyable. The exercises were meaningful and designed to assist you in assimilating and retaining the information. Hell, even the ridiculous synchronized hooting, hollering, and dancing, cult-like chanting, and the endless affirmations and literally patting yourself on the back all made a weird kind of sense, in the moment.

...and that is when my pattern recognition engine kicked in. We were being processed. Handled. Our emotional state was being carefully manipulated with our perceptions of normal slowly shifting in whatever direction the speaker intended,

Simply put: We were being softened up, broken down.

The first punch landed just after dinner on Friday. At this point, around 7pm, most of us had been there for going on 10 hours, with 3 more to go.

He started by addressing the "promoter haters" in our 400 or so person audience. Telling us that "if we have a problem with his selling to us or even the WAY that he sells to us, then that was a reflection of some deep-seated insecurity of our own. Not his problem." He then proceeded to pre-scuse himself for all of the more blatant parts of his upcoming sales pitch. As though saying "I'm going to kick you in the ribs" somehow absolves one from doing so.

For the next two days, we got almost no sleep (especially with our 1-hour commute each way from home), received increasingly small bits of useful information while being required to engage in more and more emotionally and perhaps even spiritually manipulative crap, all subtlely designed to make the most vulnerable of us as susceptible as possible to the increasingly loud, angry and abrasive sales tactics as he sold his $5,000, $10,000 and even $20,000 training packages in everything from dreaming big to becoming a professional speaker.

Now, I am a grown-ass man of some considerable size and occasional temper. I do not react well to being screamed at. Nope. Don't care for it at all. But what I care for even less is watching someone prey on those least able to defend themselves.

Of the 400 or so of us in the room, there was a highly diverse mix. Virtually every socioeconomic income level was represented. Age, race, color, and level of education varied wildly from one end of the room to the other. Over half of the seats were free.

It quickly became apparent that he was not selling to Donna and I. He was hard-selling the people in the literal and proverbial 'back of the room' that "...if they did not find a way, mortgage themselves to the hilt, beg, borrow, whatever... to buy his $12,000 master course... then they were telling, no, announcing to themselves and to the rest of the world that they were not serious about their success. Not for them. Not for their children."

Worse yet, his deftly applied manipulations during the 'non-selling' portions of the show had resulted in a significant portion of the crowd becoming allies. Yipping, hooting and cheering. Pumping fists in the air as he almost violently attacked the crowd. Attacked them. They were actually celebrating this fucker as he abused them... in real-time. Incredible.

The piece de resistance came Sunday morning when he used a well-told 'personal' story (who knows if it was even his, and who cares?), combined with some very deep psycho-manipulation exercises around 'forgiveness' and 'openness' - which has exactly WHAT to do with financial management? - culminating in a giant hand-holding circle while singing that damned Mike and the Mechanics song, The Living Years. I love/hate that song and always have/will. Predictably, he got nearly 3/4 of the room (that's 300 people if you are keeping track) sobbing and singing, arms locked. Gotcha!!

Then, with much of the crowd's last ounce of resistance stripped away...

HE CAME OUT BIG! SOLD HARD! GUILTED MORE! YELLED LOUDER!!!

...and even took full advantage of his excellent wireless headset mic to walk the isles, getting up close and personal with his message of "If you really cared about your future..."

That was it. Donna and I were finally done. We left at the lunch break and never went back. But not before watching the crowd practically eat alive the guy who stood up and asked: "Are you ever going to be honest and just admit that this was ALL a sales thing?" By this point, the speaker did not even have to rise to his own defense. He calmly uttered one little pre-programmed catch-phrase and roughly 30% of the crowd loudly jeered and chided with "Thanks for sharing!" He 'owned' them.

Now, I am fortunate in a number of ways:

One, I did not go there looking for financial 'salvation' of any kind, merely some useful tidbits to add to an already successful and well-appointed toolbelt.

Two: My wife is a psychologist and I a life-long student of human nature and negotiation tactics so we were both watching the unfolding in what can only be called horrified amusement. We joined in on much of it. Had fun with it. But never fell under the 'spell.'

Three: I can truly appreciate the sheer planning, skill, and chess-like movements of all of the pieces that resulted in this completely unethical shit-fest. It was like watching a masterful chainsaw artist (those guys that create ornate totem poles and the like with nothing but a chainsaw) work on a stack of people instead. Gruesome but impressive... almost art.

SOME TAKE-AWAYS

PLEASE BEWARE!!

One can actually see how Hitler happened just by watching this little 3-day show. Values slowly changing... being molded... perspectives being warped... subconscious laid open and subject to suggestion... crowd mentality forming... and someone waiting for a chance to get you to do something that you would otherwise never do, surrounded by your new 'peer group.' The only people who really get what you are about, what you are trying to do.

Almost every single tactic employed this past weekend could have come straight out of a CIA interrogation manual... or an occult handbook. I humbly suggest this one:

If you find yourself at one of these events, stay alert! We would all love to think that we are immune to being manipulated. We aren't.

Best of luck,

Matt