Imagine within minutes of meeting a stranger he tells you, “You can trust me.” Now imagine that within minutes of meeting a second stranger thought crosses your mind, “Hey, I can trust this guy.” Which stranger will you trust more? I thought so.

The point is, while most of us struggle to communicate our messages to others, there are those among us who take a different approach. They not only understand our tendency to make unconscious assumptions, they have taken it one step further. They have perfected art of leading us to make assumptions they need us to make in order to get us to do what they want us to do.

The less you rely on direct communication and instead strive to induce specific assumptions in others, more powerful your communication will be.

So how does one develop this ability? By studying masters of art.

Watch a magic or comedy act and see if you can spot when you’re being led to make specific assumptions and what is being done to get you to do so.

Buy a book of jokes and tear them apart. Break them down and discover source of their magic.

You can also learn a lot by studying riddles. Consider following:

What rock group has four members, all of whom are dead and one of which was murdered?

Already know answer? Imagine how much harder it would have been had you not been looking specifically for misleading language. Better yet, try it on someone else and watch their unconscious assumptions trip them up.

Don’t know answer? Rest assured it is right in front of you. (Write me if you’re still stumped.)

And finally, if you’ve ever been victim of a con, think back and reconstruct what happened to discover where you went wrong in your assumptions about situation.

Each of these suggestions will help you not only increase your awareness of how often we make unconscious assumptions, but also how reliably others can get us to do so.

When you learn their tricks, your communication will take on a power that few can resist. Not only will you be more likely to get what you want from others, you will have them believing it was their idea all along.

4. Plan at least 1 handout for a presentation you'll be giving at conference. You should give your audience at least 1 handout they can take notes on during your presentation. That handout must have your name, contact info, vision/mission at bottom of every page. If back side of your handout will be blank, consider a simple design for your vision/mission that will be memorable for people. You don’t want too much copy on back side of a handout, just something memorable that fits your topic.

5. Print on back of your business cards attraction questions, a quick 3-question survey, or something that makes your practice memorable. How many business cards that you collect at a conference do you throw away when you get home? That won’t happen to yours if you make back of your business card memorable.

While you're at it, get your business cards up to date and in sufficient quantity. Never, ever give out a business card that has numbers crossed out or an address change. There’s just no excuse for unprofessional looking business cards so plan ahead to have yours re-printed, front and back.

6. Request table space to set up your books, audiocassettes, brochures, business cards and anything else that will promote you. There are good and not-good ways to set up materials at a conference. Learn what those are and organize your promotion plan before you get to conference so that you’re ready when you arrive.

7. Volunteer to staff a section of conference. Helping to staff an area of conference will help conference run better and provide you an excellent opportunity to meet many people. Exchange business cards and send these individuals a web card as follow-up.