Last night, while watching The Rookie, we heard the TPM two-
thirds of the way through the story. The main character has a
chance to pursue his dream of playing baseball again. He’s trou-
bled. He doesn’t know what to do. Does he leave his family and his
job and go on the road playing ball again? He goes to his father,
whom he has a strained relationship with, to get advice. That’s
when you hear the TPM.
The character’s father says, “It’s fine to do what you want to
do, but sooner or later you have to do what you were meant
to do.”
There it is. It’s the turning point in the movie. It’s the line that
makes the character angry at first. And it’s the line that stayed with
Nerissa and me long after the movie had ended. We even talked
about it over breakfast this morning.
Every Hypnotic Selling Story has a TPM.
Take the movie Good Will Hunting, another one of my all-time
favorite films. The TPM in it occurs when the troubled youth hears
his counselor repeatedly tell him, “It’s not your fault—It’s not your
fault—It’s not your fault.”
Without a TPM, a story lacks heart. Your story might have char-
acter, conflict, and even humor. But without the TPM, it lacks a
core that will make it unforgettable.
Let’s say you are creating a story about how someone used your
product or service and made a difference in their lives. Any story
will do. You might even tell about your own experience with your
product or service.
But add a TPM and your story will plant itself in your reader’s
or listener’s mind and virtually never disappear.
Take this very chapter. It, too, is a story. I told you about watch-
ing the movie,The Rookie. I told you about watching Good Will
Hunting, too. And I told you I believe all truly Hypnotic Selling
Stories have a TPM in them.
Well, what’s the TPM in what I’ve said here? Think about it for a
second.
I think it is when I said, “Your story might have character, con-
flict, and even humor. But without the TPM, it lacks a core that willHYPNOTIC WRITING