Episode summary: Dave Lakhani grew up in a cult from age 6 to 16. At that point, he began his odyssey to understand why his mother chose to raise her children in that situation. This question has led to many breakthroughs in how people make decisions, how they're persuaded, why they do the things they do -- all of which has been applicable to not only the growth of his business, Bold Approach but to his clients’ businesses as well. Dave is one of the nation's most recognizable experts on applied persuasion, human influence, and business growth strategies for entrepreneurial companies.  

Dave’s view on making it involves leaving the world a better place for his daughter and "giving something back to my community.”  In this episode, he shares his remarkable story and the many lessons he’s learned along the way. 

“The path is always in front of you, even if it's not clear, the key is to keep moving forward.” –Dave Lakhani

Guest Bio: Dave Lakhani is one of the nation's most recognizable experts on applied persuasion, human influence, sales and marketing and cults. He is an award winning author and speaker who has spoken to more than 3 million people in 126 countries around the world over the past decade. Dave is also an Entrepreneur whose companies have made the Inc. 500 list regularly. He is the founder of Boldapproach.com a business consulting firm and Co-Founder of GrowthFoundryDigital.com a growth focused digital marketing agency.

Dave's background in persuasion is unique, he was raised in a cult from the time he was six until sixteen years of age when he escaped and began studying persuasion, that study continues today. He teaches businesses how to leverage psychological and biological responses to increase sales, change behavior and develop deeper relationships.

Resources or websites mentioned in this episode:

1. Mirasee 
2. Boldapproach.com 
3. Dave Lakhani’s books

Credits:

• Guest – Dave Lakhani
• Associate producer – Danny Bermant
• Producer – Cynthia Lamb
• Executive producer – Danny Iny
• Assembled by – Geoff Govertsen
• Audio Post Supervisor: Evan Miles, Christopher Martin
• Audio Post Production by Post Office Sound
• Music soundscape: Chad Michael Snavely

     If you don't want to miss future episodes of Making It, please subscribe to Apple podcasts or Spotify or wherever you're listening right now. And if you liked the show, please leave us a starred review. It's the best way to help us get these ideas to more people.

     If you have a question for Making It, put the show title in the subject line and send it to [email protected].

Music and SFX credits:

1. Track Title: Sweet Loving Waltz

Artist Name(s): Sounds Like Sander

Writer Name: S.L.J. Kalmeijer

Publisher Name: A SOUNDSTRIPE PRODUCTION

2. Track Title: The Sunniest Kids

Artist Name(s): Rhythm Scott

Writer Name: Scott Roush

Publisher Name: A SOUNDSTRIPE PRODUCTION

3. Track Title: Only The Brave

Artist Name(s): Joshua Spacht

Writer Name: Joshua Spacht

Publisher Name: BOSS SOUNDSTRIPE PRODUCTIONS

• Episode transcript: Growing up in a Cult Led to Expertise (Dave Lakhani)

[00:00:06] Dave Lakhani: I'm Dave Lakhani and you're listening to Making It. I run a business called Bold Approach and Bold Approach is a business consulting and business acceleration strategy firm that helps entrepreneurs grow their businesses successfully and quickly. 

     Growing up in a cult from the time I was six until I was 16 gave me a sense of impermanence. I didn't know what was going to become of me or anything else. And so what it really did was shape my tolerance for change, for risk and for the unknown, which has given me a great opportunity to be able to think through business in ways that other people don't. When I left the cult, I also started saying yes to everything because I wanted to have a broad life experience. And so I would say yes to everything and I would continue down the path as far as I could go and then at some point I realized that I could say yes, but I could also say no. So if something wasn't serving me, I was able to determine that very quickly and then move back off the path onto something different that was either more interesting, more profitable or more useful.
 

     I was involved in, prophesied in the way that from the time I was very young, six or seven years old, I would walk around and talk to people and invite them to church. I was a young boy, long black hair, full black hair, I should say not long but full black hair, big brown eyes and I would walk up to women and I would say to them, you look like a beautiful person, the kind of woman I'd love to have as a sister, somebody who would be a great mother. I can see that you really are caring and compassionate. There's only one problem: you're going to hell jezebel with your whorish makeup and your bobbed hair and your pants that are supposed to be worn by men in the 70s. That would result either in a sharp slap across the face and then grabbing you by the ear and dragging you to your mother, which was okay because mom was the closer. Or the other option was people would get so confused, they couldn't understand what was happening and why somebody would say something like that. And the question would be, where is your mother? 

     I've become an expert in applied persuasion as a result of a simple question, how did my mom get inspired or get convinced or persuaded to join a cult and raise myself and my two younger brothers in that kind of a situation? And that 35-year study has led to many, many breakthroughs and how people make decisions, how they're persuaded, why they do the things they do that have been very applicable to not only the growth of my business but many of my clients' businesses as well. Initially, my interest was in understanding how my mom made a decision. And so that led me to sales because I thought who is really good at persuading people? Well, salespeople are good at persuading people. Who else is good at persuading people. Well, psychologists seem to be pretty good at persuading people who else are really good at persuading people. Well, creatures seem to be pretty good to me at persuading people. And so it took me a while to really figure out that I needed to tell the story in a way that compelled people and pull them in and made them the hero of the story. Not the villain. People have to have a real reason to believe in your product, in your service, in you, and what's going to happen for them if they buy your product or service. And so that real reason to believe is the key to success in all selling and all marketing and all persuasi...