Jason Hanson - Agent of Influence: How to Use Spy Skills to Persuade Anyone, Sell Anything, and Build a Successful Business

Contents

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All statements of fact, opinion, or analysis expressed are those of the author and do not reflect the official positions or views of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) or any other U.S. Government agency. Nothing in the contents should be construed as asserting or implying U.S. Government authentication of information or CIA endorsement of the authors views. This material has been reviewed by the CIA to prevent the disclosure of classified information. This does not constitute an official release of CIA information.

AGENT OF INFLUENCE . Copyright 2019 by Jason Hanson. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

FIRST EDITION

Cover design by Ploy Siripant

Cover photographs creaPicTures/Shutterstock (gold texture); 19srb81/Shutterstock (CIA seal)

Art by Gerald Bernard/shutterstock

Digital Edition JUNE 2019 ISBN: 978-0-06-289277-5

Version 04242019

Print ISBN: 978-0-06-289274-4

To all entrepreneurs and salesmen. The unsung heroes

who help make America the greatest country on earth.

And, to the incredibly brave men and women of the CIA

who are the best salespeople on earth.

Opportunities will present themselves. Recognize them, act on them.

Robert Ludlum, The Bourne Supremacy

I am always grateful to the men and women from the CIA who share their stories with me, and I assured everyone I would protect their privacy. As you might imagine, privacy is of the utmost importance to those working in the intelligence field. For this reason, all the names and identifying details have been changed, and the stories have been edited for clarity and to ensure they would be understandable to people who do not work in the intelligence field. In some instances, dates and/or geographical regions have been changed. Again, this was critical to do to ensure the privacy of everyone who joined me in this book.

Contents

From the very first day an intelligence officer begins his training, he is primed on how to become the best salesperson in the world. Spies arent selling an ordinary product, however. The product theyre selling is treason. If an intelligence officer doesnt close a deal, he might end up getting killed or spending the rest of his life inside a foreign prison.

Treason, which is generally defined as betraying ones country, is a pretty tough item to sell, particularly because the punishment for it is unforgiving. In the United States, when Ethel and Julius Rosenberg were convicted of conspiring to share U.S. atomic secrets with the Soviet Union in the 1950s, they were executed in the electric chair. Punishments for treason throughout the world have also included being hanged, beheaded, burned at the stake, or, more commonly today, life imprisonment. Committing treason is a massive risk that comes with huge consequences, but intelligence officers are specifically trained to get people to take that riskand to let them think it was their idea to do so. Intelligence officers are trained to:

• Be sufficiently confident to get a person to fulfill any request, no matter how odd or crazy it might be, within an incredibly short amount of time.
• Become viewed as a confidantsomeone everyone wants to confide in, who is trusted with peoples secrets, concerns, and even their darkest fears.
• Mirror the behavior of others subtly, to create an appearance of having common interests with targets.
• Exude empathy and genuinely care for their targets. Empathy is a big key to success.
• Analyze large amounts of information to get clues about what can help or hurt a mission.
• Practice discipline at the highest level. Intelligence officers are methodical, dedicated, and committed, and they work hard to remain in top physical condition.
• Be flexible and collaborative. Things go wrong all the time, but that cannot allow a mission to fall apart.

What Im about to teach you in this book can change the way you sell your product to othersbe it a brand, a business, or an idea. If theres one trait that differentiates spies from average people, its our ability to confidently act, react, and adapt. Until now, my books have been focused on various tactics that can keep you and your family safe; and while I will always be committed to sharing information about personal safety and survival, Ive realized that my professional training has supplied me with additional benefits that can be put to great use in the business world or to improve everyday life.

Let me assure you: This isnt another run-of-the-mill self-help book about boosting confidence and becoming more successful as a result. There have been a million books written about that, and Im not going to add another to the hefty pile. In this book Im going to teach you about the ultra-secret weapon every intelligence officer carries in their arsenal: the operative mind-set. When you are trained as an intelligence officer, you are learning much more than how to defend yourself or shoot a gun at a bad guy. Being a good intelligence officer who is prepared to defend the citizens of the United States against enemies who wish the nation harm isnt just about physical survival, its also about something much more subtle and complex. The operative mind-set includes that elusive and appealing combination of traitslikability, empathy, confidence, and intelligencethat enable a person to effortlessly succeed at anything. Another way to look at the operative mind-set? Its ultimately really good salesmanship.

When I began my training as an intelligence officer, I never imagined that a few years down the road the skills I would acquire in the CIA would put me in the ideal position to thrive as an entrepreneur. But in 2010, after seven years of working for the agency, I was ready to move on. I wanted to build something from scratch and work on my own terms, and I envisioned a company where I would share safety and survival tactics with everyone from stay-at-home moms and college students to high-net-worth individuals and celebrities. At the time, even my own father thought I was crazy. He couldnt believe I would leave such a steady job, especially after all the crazy hoops I had jumped through to get accepted into the CIA in the first place. It was a big change, and I was taking a major risk, especially considering only 20 percent of new businesses survive past their first year of operation. Ill admit it, I was scared.