Flying colors

CLASSIC | PERSUASION | PSYCHOLOGY | SKILLS | TRAINING | TOOLS Flying colors People come in four predominant behavioral flavors that correspond to the colors red, yellow, green and blue. Once you're able to recognize them and understand what they mean, you'll connect and persuade more people with greater ease and speed. You'll know what to say and how to say it with everyone you meet. by Jerry Clark 10,265 words | 32 pages Right up front, you may be wondering why I use colors to distinguish the behavioral styles. It’s not about how physical colors affect people, and it doesn’t have anything to do with astrology or auras or anything like that. Here’s the real reason:

One day in 1988, I was browsing through a bookstore when a book called Personality Plus, written by Florence Littauer, caught my attention. I started looking through it. It began by explaining how we are all unique and how we’re all born with our own raw material that can be shaped by several situations and factors in our lives.

The author mentioned that there are four temperaments, and she said that if we understood them, we would be able to appreciate ourselves and other people better. I found this interesting, so I kept reading. During the first few pages, everything was going great and I was getting more and more excited. Then, all of a sudden, she mentioned four words — phlegmatic, sanguine, melancholy and choleric. I grew up in the ghetto and didn’t have a clue how to pronounce those words, much less what they meant. Even though I found the concept interesting, I let my inability to pronounce those four words stop me from pursuing the study of the behavioral styles. I just let the whole thing go.

About three years later, in 1991, I attended a seminar in Hawaii and heard this 21-year-old lady — who was making over $40,000 per month in her business — talking about how this was a people business and about the four different personality styles. My ears perked up and I waited for those complicated words I had read three years ago: phlegmatic, sanguine, melancholy, and choleric. But instead, she mentioned the colors yellow, blue, green and red. I vaguely recalled some similarities with what Florence Littauer was saying in Personality Plus. I figured, hey, if a 21-year-old girl with a terrible upbringing and not much education yet making over $40,000 per month was saying that people skills are more important than product knowledge ... well, I’d better work on my people skills!

My commitment to master people skills was made, and I decided to do some more research on this personality stuff. What I discovered really got me excited. As a matter of fact, it got me so excited I could hardly stand it. I found out that the information the young lady was sharing and the information in Personality Plus were pretty much identical. The only difference was the names they used for each of the behavioral styles. In other words...

Yellow was the same as phlegmatic. Blue was sanguine. Green was melancholy, and red was the same as choleric.

You see, the reason I got so excited was because I thought I was stuck with that “phlegmatic” stuff. I could hardly say that, but I could say “yellow.” Since that day in Hawaii back in 1991, I’ve reviewed close to one hundred books, reports, videos and tape programs on behavioral styles. Let me give you a little background based on my research.

The early astrologers developed twelve zodiac signs and put them into four elemental groupings: earth, air, water and fire. They believed that our behavior has something to do with the position of the heavens at the time of our birth.

About 400 years before Jesus Christ was born, the Greek physician and philosopher Hippocrates grouped human behavior in four categories. By the way, he’s the one that came up with the terms “phlegmatic, sanguine, melancholy and choleric” that took me over five years just to learn how to pronounce! Hippocrates believed that personality was shaped by blood, phlegm, black bowel and yellow bowel. Yeah, I know. It sounds pretty gross, doesn’t it?

Well, in 1921, Dr. Carl Jung — who many of us studied in our high school and college psychology classes — wrote a book on personality called Psychological Types. His initial motivation for his research on personality was to figure out why he and Sigmund Freud seemed to view the world so differently. His book turned out to be the most detailed and scientific work ever conducted on personality at that time. In it, he explains how people perceive, interpret and respond to the world in different ways. He also used a four-category model, calling his styles Feeler, Sensor, Thinker and Intuitor. Since then, literally dozens of professionals have used the four-behavioral model to explain personality.

Some describe it by using animals, automobiles, symbols, geometric shapes, the weather, blood types, food seasoning and much more. The many people who have made valuable contributions in the field of personality study include Michael O’Connor, David Merrill, Roger Reid, Katherine Briggs, Isabel Briggs Myers, Tony Alessandra, Jim Cathcart, Larry Wilson, Tim LaHaye, Florence Littauer, Dr. Robert Roam, William Marston, Robert Lefton, Bernice MacArthy, Laurence Crabb, Roger Hargraves, Carl Jung, Hippocrates, and the list goes on and on. My personal thanks goes out to everyone who has made a contribution to the research and writings on this topic of personality. They’ve made my work a lot easier.

Now, I must say for the record that there are behavioral models that go beyond the four basic styles. Some break down personalities into nine, sixteen, or even more categories. I don’t focus on those models for two reasons: 1) I never wanted to spend a month trying to figure out which of the sixteen personalities styles a person could be, and 2) I’ve found the four-color behavioral style model highly accurate — I would say around 90 percent accurate.

So, with all of that said and done, why have I decided to spend my time, energy and money to put this material together? I mean, why don’t I just give you a couple of recommendations and call it a day?

Two reasons. First, I’m going to break this information down so that the average layperson can understand it. I’m not coming from a scientific or technical perspective. I’m not a doctor or a psychologist. I’m just someone like you who stumbled across this stuff and got excited. Once you start to learn and use this information, I’m sure you’re going to get excited as well.

Second, even though people in all walks of life can benefit from this information, I’m directing this specifically for people in network marketing.

I personally know of no other author who has taken these behavioral styles and tailored it to meet the needs of network marketers.

If used correctly, I know for a fact that this information can help explode your business. The bottom line is: this stuff works.

Now, as a networker, why should you learn this? To explain, it’s important for you to understand the relationship between tension and cooperation in human relations.

When two or more people get together, you have two factors present. One is tension and the other is cooperation. If the tension level is high, then the cooperation level will be low. On the other hand, if the tension level is low, then the cooperation level will be high. Which do you want — a lower or higher cooperation level? Of course, you want the cooperation level to be higher.

Therefore, in developing more rewarding relationships, your mission should be to find out how you can help the other person maintain a certain degree of comfort, which is done by decreasing their tension level.

If they can stay within a reasonable range of their comfort zone, you will increase rapport, which will result in increased cooperation.

Now, there are two main reasons why this works. First, people don’t like change. They resist it. They would rather stay in their comfort zone. Second, people tend to do business with people they like, know and trust. Studies have also shown that people tend to develop rapport more quickly with those who tend to be like themselves.

In network marketing, the product we’re marketing may be tangible or intangible. It could be anything from nutrition, skin care, education, electronics, insurance, and so on. The compensation plan could be anything from a breakaway, binary, unilevel, matrix, Australian 2UP, or a hybrid of the many plans that are available. The training could be primarily focused on business presentations: one-on-ones, or three-way calls, or direct mail and so on. The focus may be on leading with the products or leading with the business. Your company could be headquartered in the United States, Canada, Japan, Sweden, Indonesia, Australia, Malaysia, or any of the 100 plus countries where network marketing currently operates.

All of those things I just mentioned are variables. They change from company to company, but the one thing you will find the same in all network marketing companies around the world... people.

This is why if you want to get good at anything when it comes to your success in network marketing, it should be people skills.

This is where an understanding of basic human nature and of the colors will benefit you greatly — and not only in your network marketing business, but in all of life. Understanding the colors will give you an understanding of the languages that create success.

Remember this, when given a choice of speaking their language or someone else’s, people will always feel more comfortable speaking their own language. You will find that if you learn to speak in the primary language of those you encounter, your connections with them will increase dramatically. And the better you become at connecting with people, the better your relationships with them will be. And your relationships, friendships and partnerships with others will determine your success in life, especially in network marketing, because long-term success in this business is built on being able to establish productive and pleasing relationships.

So, let’s turn our attention to the four basic languages that breed success — the language of the yellows, the blues, the greens and the reds. Are you ready to find out what color you are and then how to quickly identify the color of others? Fantastic!

Each of us is like a rainbow It’s so important that we understand these four basic color languages: yellow, blue, green and red. But before we even get started, I want you all to understand that each of us is like a rainbow. We all have variations of these colors within us. So don’t get angry or upset if you’re thinking, “Oh, I’m a yellow. I don’t want to be a yellow. I want to be a blue. I want to be a red.” Don’t get mad, because each color has their strengths and strengths they haven't developed yet. And each color is necessary in this business. Each color has an important role to play.

Understand that we all have some green, some blue, some yellow and some red in us. But we each have a dominant color — just like some people know how to speak different languages, but there is one predominant language they speak. It’s the same thing when we’re dealing with this concept of color styles. There’s a dominant language here. There’s a dominant color we each have.

So if you read some of these things and you’re thinking, Man, I fall in this category, but I also fall in this one, ask yourself which one you fall into most of the time, the majority of the time. Go with your intuition, your heart, your first initial gut reaction. That’s the main category that you’re usually going to fall into.

Don’t try to sit there and think about which one you fall into. Just go with the flow, with how you’re feeling.

I want you to imagine drawing a horizontal line. We’re going to label the right side DIRECT and the left side INDIRECT.

When we’re dealing with personality styles, there are certain behavioral characteristics a person has that determines exactly where they fall on the line. So let’s take a look at some indirect and direct behaviors.

I’m going to name some things and I want you to be thinking about where you fall, either in the category of indirect or direct.

People with indirect behaviors approach risk, decision and change slowly and cautiously. People with direct behaviors approach decisions and change more quickly and more spontaneously.

So, think, do I take my time? Am I more cautious when I’m approaching risk and change and decision, or do I more quickly make a decision? Think about that.

People with indirect behaviors are infrequent contributors to group conversations. Usually they’re not going to contribute until they’re asked or until it’s their turn.

People with direct behaviors are just going to tell you like it is. They’re going to jump right in. They’re going to be the first people to talk. “Hey, let me tell you something….” People with direct behaviors tend to dominate the conversations, too.

People with indirect behaviors don’t use as many gestures as people with direct behaviors. In other words, they’re not as animated. If you have more direct behaviors, you’re more animated, you tend to move around a lot and you tend express yourself with body motions and so forth.

People with indirect behaviors tend to be more patient and cooperative, whereas people with direct behaviors are less patient and more competitive.

People with indirect behaviors are less confrontational. People with direct behaviors are more confrontational. They have no problem confronting you about an issue.

People with indirect behaviors are more reserved. They don’t want to go and confront a person with a particular issue. People with indirect behaviors have a gentler handshake than people with direct behaviors. People with direct behaviors have more of a firm handshake.

Also, people with indirect behaviors tend to ask qualified statements. They say things like, “According to my sources…” or “I think so.” Whereas, the people with direct behaviors say, “This is how it is.” They just tell it like it is. They don’t make qualified statements.

That’s the first part to discovering your color and the color of others.

Well, what did you find out? Are you more direct or indirect?

Let’s quickly review the differences between indirect and direct, so that you can make sure you pick where you fall within this range — whether you are more indirect or direct.

Remember, people who are indirect approach risk, change and decisions more slowly, whereas people that are direct tend to approach risk, change and decisions more quickly. As a matter of fact, people that are more indirect move at a slower pace in general, whereas people that are more direct move faster. An indirect person’s handshake tends to be gentler, while a direct person’s handshake is firm. People who are indirect are more patient than people who are direct. Also, people who are indirect keep their opinions private, and people who are direct offer their opinions freely — even when you don’t ask them.

People who are indirect tend to follow rules. They will ask in advance before they do something. People who are more direct tend to bend the rules. They figure they’ll just go ahead and do it, and then they’ll beg for forgiveness later if necessary. People that are more indirect are what we call “introverts.” You know, more shy, more quiet and so forth. People who are direct, these are the “extroverts.” These people are more outgoing.

Another way of explaining this is that people who are more direct are what we call “type A” personalities. People that are more indirect are “type B.” Which fits you better? Are you more direct or are you more indirect?

And remember, all you want to do is just go with your first feeling. Don’t say, “Well, you know what, I’m indirect and I’m direct also.”

Of course you’re little bit of both. But which one do you tend to fall into the most?

Just by figuring out this first aspect — whether or not you’re more direct or indirect — you will automatically eliminate two other styles, because there are two colors that are direct and there are two colors that are indirect.

OPEN and SELF-CONTAINED Okay, now we have the horizontal part of the grid. Next, I want you to draw a vertical line. At the very top of that vertical axis, I want you to write the word OPEN. And at the very bottom I want you to write SELF- CONTAINED. This section of the grid deals with people’s emotions — whether they tend to share their emotions more freely or less freely, etc.

If you have more open behaviors, you share your feelings more freely. If you have more self-contained, or reserved behaviors, you keep your feelings private. You tend to keep things to yourself. You only share your feelings with people on a need-to-know basis.

If you have more open behaviors, you make most of your decisions based on feelings. You’ll hear someone say, “I just got this feeling.” That’s a person with more open behaviors. It’s a gut feeling, you know, more subjective. Whereas, if you’re more self-contained, you make decisions based on facts, on evidence, on logic.

With more open behaviors, you’re more relaxed and warm. If you have more self-contained behavior, you’re more formal and proper. So, you're either more relaxed or you’re more formal. People with open behaviors are opinion-oriented and feelings-oriented, whereas people with self- contained behaviors are fact- and task-oriented. They want to take action. They want to get to the duty at hand. Whatever it is, they want to take care of it, get down to business.

Another thing that’s important to note is that people with open behavior are more flexible about the way others use their time. So, if they’re talking about a particular issue, they will tend to veer off into another subject if the person wants to go there. A person with more self-contained behavior tends to want to stick to the task at hand.

A person with open behaviors has a more user-friendly handshake. You can feel the warmth in their handshake. People with self-contained behaviors or reserved behaviors have more formal handshakes.

People with open behaviors show more enthusiasm than the average person. People with self- contained behaviors tend to show less enthusiasm.

So, given these concepts we’ve just talked about, decide if you’re more open or more self-contained and reserved.

Once again, let’s quickly review.

People that are open are more relaxed and warm. People that are self- contained seem to be a little bit more tense and even a little bit more cold or distant at times. People that are open are more people and relationship oriented. People that are predominantly self-contained are more task-oriented.

People that are open are feelings oriented. People who are self- contained are more fact oriented.

People who are open are more spontaneous, while people who are self- contained are more structured. People who are open are flexible about their time, which means that others can interrupt them and pretty much veer off the subject at hand; people who are self-contained are more disciplined about their time. They have a hard time when others keep getting off the subject. They call that wasting their time, so to speak. And they really don’t like that.

People who are more open share their feelings more openly, whereas people who are more self-contained tend to hide their feelings.

So, based on that information, where do you see yourself? Go with the first thing that comes to you, that’s what's most important. Don’t spend too much time thinking about it, because that’s going to throw you off. Just go with the first thing you say. You know, “I think I’m more self- contained.” Fantastic! That’s it.

Okay, with the information you have now, you’ve got the horizontal axis, which talks about the direct and indirect, and you have the vertical axis that talks about the open and self-contained behaviors.

The four colors Now, once you have this, it’s very easy to determine what color you are. Look at your grid.

You have a section that is labeled OPEN and INDIRECT, which is the top left-hand corner of your grid; those are the yellows — people who are more open and more indirect.

Now, take a look at the very top of the axis labeled OPEN and then look at the very right labeled DIRECT. There is where we have the blues — at the upper right-hand corner of the box.

If you look at the very bottom, it’s labeled SELF-CONTAINED and then to the left is INDIRECT. So, self-contained and indirect is what we call our greens.

Now, at the very bottom, SELF-CONTAINED, and to the right, DIRECT, we have our reds.

I know you’ve been taking in a lot of information, and we’ve got a little bit more to go. So what I want you to do now is: Stop reading. Stand up. Relax and stretch for a little bit. Shake out your arms and legs if you want. Take a mental break for 30 seconds. Then come back and we’ll dig a little deeper.

I hope you enjoyed that mental break. I know you probably needed it. So, let’s get back to the material and I’ll give you an overview of all the colors. And, as a matter of fact, why don’t we start out with the yellows?

Yellows Man, I love dealing with yellows! They’re great. First of all, the yellows are people who are more open and more indirect. Being that way, they are some of the friendliest people on the planet.

They love establishing relation- ships and they want to develop them first. Don’t try to get into the business with them right away.

These yellow people make some of the best friends on the planet, too. They will do just about anything for you. They are so open and indirect, they don’t want to start any confrontations. They hate confrontations and will do almost anything to avoid them.

These are people who are really into nature. These are the people who want to save the whales. They want to save the rain forests. These are the people who want to go home and take off their clothes and just relax. They would prefer to walk around naked all the time if they could. If they could, they would.

If you go into their office or study, you’ll probably see lots of pictures of their family. They tend to have plants around, too. They always have plants or flowers or something nice and natural like that.

And remember, since they’re so family-oriented, they tend to have pictures of their families with them wherever they go, too — in their pockets, in their wallets, in their briefcases. They want to talk to you about their family. They’re so close to their family.

Two key words for yellows are share and help. They want to help other people. They like feeling like they’re part of a team.

They like a group environment, so being part of a team is very important to them. They want to see how they’re going to be able to build relationships in any situation.

Now, some other things about yellows: Since they tend to be less confrontational, they may let other people walk all over them. Because yellows do not like confrontation, they’ll do whatever it takes to avoid it. They’ll run away from it. Sometimes they’ll even just submit to whatever the other person’s point of view is, ignoring their own. And, wouldn’t you know, there’s one particular color that loves to walk all over people, too. We’ll talk about that color in a second. And it tends to happen that those are the people that the yellows end up marrying. It’s amazing how that works.

Yellows are warm — very warm, very open. You can start a conversation with them very easily. They like hugs; they love to hug. These are touchy- feely people. And yellows have the reputation of being some of the best lovers, because these are people that want to be very romantic. They want to have the candlelit dinners, sensual music and everything. They want to get to know you first. You can’t just jump right into it. You’ve got to develop a relationship with them a little bit first, then romance them.

Understand this about yellows: They’re very touchy-feely, so they tend to get their feelings hurt easily and often.

Now, yellows hate people that are pushy. That’s one of the things they don’t like. They don’t like pushy people, people that are obnoxious, loud and overbearing.

So, that’s the yellows. They’ve got some of the most incredible smiles on the planet, too. Ah, they smile so warmly and well.

Now let me ask you: Do they tend to be the sales type or the non-sales type?

The non-sales type! In network marketing we tend to believe that it takes the sales type to do this business. But this is not necessarily a sales business as much as it is a teaching and nurturing business. That’s one thing we all have to understand and appreciate. This is a teaching and nurturing business. And who are some of the best teachers and nurturers? The yellows.

Yellows tend to be the people who are in the teaching professions. They tend to be the people — now don’t get me wrong, every profession has every color — but a majority of the teaching professions will be found to be yellow. A majority of the counselors, social workers, people in the healing and health professions also tend to be yellow.

What type of cars do they drive? They want to drive something that is nice and comfortable. Nice sedans that are safe and comfortable — it has to be very comfortable. Remember the hippies? A lot of the hippies were yellows. Back in the 1960s, they drove around in their Volkswagens.

These are the people that really fell for the “reach out and touch someone” commercials. They said, “I haven’t called my mom in ages.” So they picked up the phone and called. They basically want to give the other person what they want, and they’re really good at it.

Speaking of shoes (was I speaking of shoes?), they live to wear moccasins. They like to wear Birkenstocks. They like to dress in more relaxed clothing.

So, it’s important to understand that network marketing is a teaching and nurturing business, and yellows tend to be teaching and nurturing. They can build some huge organizations. But they tend to be the people that do not have the confidence in themselves to think they can, because they think this is a sales business. And that seems too strong and pushy for yellows.

Blues Now, for the blues, their main motivating factor is fun. They just want to have fun. If it’s not fun, forget it. Don’t even think of dealing with them if it’s not fun.

Blues tend to be more direct and they’re more open. These are people we call expressives. They like to talk. These are people who are going to contribute to the conversation. They’re probably going to be one of the first people talking. And they’re not going to ask you for something; they’re just going to tell you what they want. They tell it like it is. “Let me tell you what happened to me today” is one of the things that blues frequently say.

So, when you’re dealing with a blue, understand that since their main motivating factor is fun, if you’re not talking about how whatever it is they’re doing is going to be fun, they’re not going to do it.

If it’s not fun, forget it. And if blues start doing it and they lose their fun with it, guess what? Yeah, they want to go somewhere else fast.

Blues are some of the most spontaneous people on the planet. They tend to be the ones that jump from one thing to another. And they tend to be some of the most disorganized people in the world. But you know what? They’re disorganized in an organized fashion.

You go into a blue’s room or office ... you see all these stacks of things all over the place. Stuff is all over the place. You go in there and you try to clean the stuff up. And they come in there and say, “What happened!?” And you say, “Oh, I just thought I’d clean some of this up for you,” and they’re yelling, “Now I don’t know where anything is!”

You see, they know that there are seven papers underneath that one stack over there; they know exactly what’s there. It’s amazing. Other people can’t understand it. They’re like, “Oh, my goodness, I can’t believe this. This person is completely disorganized. They don’t know what they’re doing.”

But don’t be fooled; they know exactly what they’re doing.

Blues are the best promoters on the planet. They’re promoters because they love to talk. They’re not afraid to talk to people. They’re not afraid to talk to strangers. They’ll be the ones to initiate the conversation.

You need the blues in your business, because they’re going to be the ones to go out there and talk, talk, talk. But when they talk, one of the sad things is that they tend to exaggerate — a lot. That’s why they’re the best promoters. Blues have this charm about them that makes them some of the most persuasive people on the planet. They are also some of the best storytellers around. They can tell stories really, really well. They’ve just got to control themselves, hold back a little bit. They get a little carried away sometimes.

They’re very animated. Blues are the people you’re going to see telling jokes a lot. They’re going to be laughing a lot. These are people who are moving around a lot.

What kind of cars do they like? Man, they like them fast. They like the sports cars. They want to get from point A to point B yesterday. They want to go, go, go. That’s the thing, you know, they’re always moving, they’re always on the go. Yes, they are people who are really into Star Trek stuff. Beam me up, Scotty, right now! I want to get there — wherever there is — right now.

Also, since they’re open, they are very much into relationships, too. So, understand that. They like dealing with relationships, so, just like the yellows, deal with relationships first; don’t get directly into the business.

Let them speak their piece, that’s all you have to do with a blue. I do this a lot with blues that call me on the phone. There’s this one blue that calls me and, I’m telling you, the first thing he says is, “Hey Jerry, what’s going on?” I say, “Hey, how’s it going?” And I put the phone down and go get something to eat and then I come back and I say, “Oh, really?” And I’ll put the phone back down and then about three hours later, he’s finally done. That’s why I’ve got four phone lines in my home. I’ve always got about three of them going with the blues. (Did I just exaggerate a little bit? Now, what color would do that?)

It’s just so important to understand that blues like fun. They are motivated by fun.

These are people that rather see the big picture than for you to get into the details with them. They don’t care too much about the nitty-gritty. They don’t care about all the specific ingredients in a product. They don’t care about all the technical stuff. That doesn’t matter to them. They want you to give them the overall picture. Then, they want you to tell them how they can have fun, how they can enjoy it and what can happen, and whose already doing it right now. So, that sums up the blues.

Greens The main thing that you need to know about the greens is that they are more indirect and more self-contained, more closed. The one thing about greens you’ve got to realize is that one of their main motivating factors — one of the things that they value the most — is that they want to make sure they’re right. So, because they want to make sure they’re right, they’re going to go through a detailed analysis to make sure they have all the facts, to make sure they’re making the proper decision.

Greens are very detail-oriented, in other words. They’re very rational, very fact-oriented. It takes them longer to make decisions simply because they’re analyzing everything. Remember, the one thing they don’t want to be is wrong. But once they make a decision, they stick with it — because once again, they don’t want to feel like they made the wrong decision.

So, the greens are going to be the people you’re going to have the hardest time getting into your business. Don’t expect them to look at the business and get started overnight. It’s not going to happen that way.

It’s very rare that they’ll do that, just like that, unless they already have had a really strong relationship with you over a long period of time.

These are people who don’t care for hugs much. Don’t go around trying to go give them a hug, because they really don’t care. They’re not touchy- feely type people.

What kind of occupations are greens normally found in? These are the accountants. These are the scientists. These are the engineers. These are the computer programmers.

Let me ask you this. If you were having brain surgery, would you rather have a green or a blue? A green, exactly. The greens are going to make sure it’s done right. They’re very specific and very detailed. “Hand me the number five forceps, please.” The blues, they’re like, “Hey, man, is it lunch? Time to get out of here. How do you feel? I hope you’ll be all right. See ya!”

What kind of cars do greens tend to like? Something very economical, and something that’s very reliable, too. They go ahead and read all the Consumer Reports studies when they’re looking at cars to make sure that they’re making a proper decision. Instead of going out and paying $125,000 for a Mercedes, they’re going to go out and buy a nice solid Volvo. Why? Because they analyze the situation and say, “$125,000 for a Mercedes… Let’s see here; gas mileage for that would be this much, but not... repairs... Nah, look at that. I can buy three Volvos for that price. They’re going to last me at least three times as long as one Mercedes. I think that the most proper decision to make is to get this Volvo instead of that Mercedes.”

Understand, greens want the facts. They like outlines of exactly what’s going to be taking place.

“When are we having our breaks? When are we having lunch? When are we having dinner?” And if you fall two minutes behind, they get upset. “I can’t believe these people are completely disorganized! They don’t know what they’re doing.” Very green.

These are the people who come into my seminar in the morning and when they don’t see exactly what we’re going to be doing, when we’re going taking our breaks, they’re thinking, Oh, my goodness, what’s going to be taking place today? I can’t believe it. I don’t know exactly when to schedule my next break in order to go to the restroom. They schedule everything and they carry daily planners, too. The greens tend to overanalyze. They're the ones who suffer paralysis by analysis.

Reds Reds are more direct and more self-contained, more closed and more reserved. As a matter of fact, I fall in this category. But I’m a hidden red. I know how to be a little bit more open. I’ve got a lot of self-contained features in me, but in my work I’ve got to appeal to all the colors. So, I’ve got to act like I’m more open. I need to have that behavioral flexibility. Remember, tension is down and cooperation is up. So, you’ve got to learn to be flexible.

Reds are what we call our “suits.” These are our power players. These are people who are really motivated by money. Almost more than anything else, they’re motivated by money and they’re motivated by a challenge. These are people who are very productive in society, because they work so hard.

Reds are the workaholics. They tend to work and work and work and work. And they will work very, very hard.

When these people first come to my seminars, they get a little upset. They’re thinking: Can’t he just focus on business? Can’t he just focus on teaching me exactly what I need to know? Reds want to get right into it. They don’t care about all this other stuff. “Don’t be playing around with me. Show me exactly what I need to do. I came here to learn what I need to do in the quickest time I can learn it so I can get out of here and be gone.”

Do not go up and try to hug these people. They’re not into hugs and they’re not into crying. They don’t understand how someone can cry in public. They can’t believe that! How can someone cry in public?

And who tends to be the people that will cry the most in public? The yellows, of course. And then the blues, because they’re more open. So what do the reds do when they see someone crying in public? They look at them and say, “Man, I can’t believe these people; these people are dysfunctional or something. They’re crying in front of people. I can’t believe that.” Reds are the controllers.

What occupations do you typically find reds doing? They are CEOs of corporations. They own their own businesses. They’re presidents of companies.

They’re the leaders. Reds want to be in control. That’s one of their main characteristics. They want to run the show.

They are very task-oriented, just like the greens. They’re more task- oriented than relationship-oriented. They don’t care if you come in and start talking about your family for five or 10 minutes. They don’t want to know about that. “What do we need to take care of? What needs to be accomplished? Here are the steps we need to take. Let’s get it done. It was suppose to been done yesterday in the first place. Why isn’t it done now?”

You see what I’m saying? Reds are productive; they want things done. They want it done yesterday, not tomorrow. And reds have big egos. E-G-O-S. Very big egos. So, what you’ve got to do is fluff ’em. This is how you deal with a red. You got to do something called “Fluff. Fluff. Slam.” You fluff a red a couple of times and then you slam them.

Here’s how this worked with a young guy who was learning about being in the seminar business with me:

Brian, let me tell you: You have the characteristics of someone who can be very successful in this business. You tend to be the one to get things done. I can tell, you're very productive and I really like the way you take care of business. Fluff. Fluff. But you know what? In regards to this event, I know you have other things to take care of, so I don’t know if you can even make it here Friday. I don’t know if you can even get someone here Friday night. I don’t think you can do it. Slam. Now, Brian’s saying to himself, “Man, I’m getting someone here Friday. What’s this guy talking about? I can’t do it? Me? I’m the only one who can do it. What is he talking about? No one else is going to do it.”

Who do you think reds tend to marry the most? Yellows! Why is that? Because yellows are about the only ones who will put up with them. It’s interesting but I’ve noticed that yellows tend to be the only ones that can put up with reds. Reds like to walk over people. They like to control people and they like people to treat them like kings. Here’s an example of what they may be thinking when they meet someone. “Hi, Loretta, my name is Jerry Clark. Hi, glad you could meet me.” See what I’m saying?

So, it’s very important that you understand these basic concepts when you’re dealing with these different colors.

If reds like to marry yellows, who do greens tend to marry? Blues! Exactly, because greens tend to have a very boring life and they need someone to liven them up. Now, let me tell you the problem here. We’ve got conflicts. Can you see the conflicts already?

See, blues like to have fun. They like recognition. They like approval. They like, you know, for people to give them praise and everything. Greens, they like to be perfect, right? They like everything to be just right. Now here’s the problem: Blues are waiting for recognition from the greens, but the greens are waiting for the blues to be perfect. The blues aren’t going to be perfect and so the greens end up getting depressed.

You will have conflicts between these different groups.

Now yellows, they like to take their time to do things. They want to really romance the situation — and I’m talking romance in all situations, even in professional relationships. Yellows like to deal with relationships first. They want to get to know you first. Whereas these reds, man, forget getting to know you. “I don’t care who you are. It doesn’t matter. I mean, you should be privileged to be in front of me.” And that’s their attitude there.

Well, there you have it. That’s an overview of the colors.

But hold on. We’re not done. There’s more to come. But first, why don’t you go ahead and take another 30 Second Mental Break where you may want to stand up and stretch before you continue with the rest of this special report.

Now, what we’re going to do is find out how to become more adaptable, how to be a little more flexible. I call this...

Becoming a chameleon Why is this important? Well, about 35 percent of the population is yellows. About 15 percent of the population is blues. About 35 percent of our population is greens, and about 15 percent of our population is reds. What does that mean?

That means that for every person you come in contact with, depending on what color you are, you’ll have between a 65 to 85 percent chance of creating more tension than cooperation.

If you follow the Golden Rule to the tee.

We’re going to be talking about a different rule, the “Rainbow Rule,” which says “Don’t do unto others exactly the way you would like to be done unto, because if you do that, you’ll have a 65 to 85 percent chance of creating more tension than cooperation.” So, what you want to do is...

Do unto others the way they would like to be done unto.

That’s the Rainbow Rule. And the way you do that is by learning how to become a chameleon. It’s called the art of adaptability.

So, let’s look at adaptability.

Yellow and Yellow When a yellow is dealing with a yellow, we have the Golden Rule. Can you see how that would work now? “Do unto others the way you would like for them to do unto you.” So, if you’re dealing with another yellow, do unto them the same way that you would like for them to do unto you and you’re okay. You’re both open, you’re both indirect, that’s fine.

You both like to go at a slower pace and that’s great. You both like to deal with relationships first. But when you’re dealing with two yellows you’ve got to make sure you don’t overdo it, or all you’ll end up doing is talking about your family. “Oh, let me show you my grandkids. Let me tell you about the ones I’m going to have 20 years from now.” You see?

Yellow and Blue When a yellow is dealing with a blue, what do they have in common? They’re both open, they both like relationships, so that’s fine. The thing is that yellows have a slower pace, though, because they’re more indirect. The blues are faster.

So, yellows, what you’ve got to do when you’re dealing with blues is go ahead and let them talk more. Understand that they’re going to come off as a little obnoxious to you. You've got to understand that’s just how they are. Another thing you got to deal with when you’re with blues is that you’ve got to let them know how whatever it is you’re doing is going to be fun. And, remember, they’re more direct. They have a faster pace, so you’ll have to speed up your pace a little bit. That way your behavior will be more compatible with theirs.

Yellow and Red Now yellows, when you’re dealing with reds, you’re dead (just kidding). Understand this, yellows — this is very, very, important — you guys are indirect and reds are direct. The first thing you’ve got to do is to speed up the pace for them, because you yellows have a much slower pace. Reds are faster.

Another thing: you yellows are more open and more self-contained, which means that reds are more task-oriented and you’re more relationship- oriented. Get straight to business when you’re dealing with reds. Stop all the little chitchat. Speed it up a little bit and get down to business — what you’re calling for, what you’re dealing with, what you want to accomplish — and do it immediately. If you’re going too slowly, reds see that as incompetent behavior. I’m serious, that’s how they look at it. They look at people as being incompetent if they go too slow.

They look at people as being incompetent if they don’t speed up and get right down to business. If you’re crying in front of them, they’ll think that’s incompetent. As a matter of fact, when you’re crying in front of a red, it doesn’t even affect them. A yellow can start crying, thinking that’s going to break the reds down a little bit, get some sympathy, but the reds can’t even relate to it. They go, what is this person doing? And they even get upset. You know, “After you’re done crying — are you done now?” That’s what the reds say, “Are you done now? Okay, let’s get back to the situation.” That’s exactly what they’re going to do. So understand that.

Remember, they like to be the kings and queens, so you’ve got to fluff their egos. But if you can, utilize the “Fluff. Fluff. Slam.” technique, because reds like challenges. It works very well with these people. Very well.

Let me give you an example:

I was sitting in a training seminar. I had been to fifteen of these seminars talking about these colors, and I already knew what the presenter was going to say to me. She came up to me and as she was talking about the different colors, she said, “Jerry, for example, is a red.”

Now, I had never done $40,000 in personal volume in a single month at that time. I’d always get up to $30,000, $36,000, I mean right up there, but I couldn’t break that $40,000 barrier. And so, she came up to me and ... I already knew this was coming. Think about it: This stuff still works even when you know what the people are doing to you. She came up to me and said, “We all know that Jerry has some skills and characteristics and he’s basically, you know, a doer in this business. But you know what? I don’t think he can ever do $40,000 in business in one month.”

That month, I did $40,150 in personal volume. That month! And I knew what she was doing to me, but it motivated me so much. Fluff. Fluff. Slam.

Yellow and Green Now, yellows, when you’re dealing with greens, understand that you both are indirect. Being that you’re both indirect, you both have a slower pace, so that’s fine. But guess what? Greens are more self-contained, more reserved. You yellows are more open. Being that greens are more reserved and more self-contained and you guys are more open, you’ve got to get right to the task at hand with them. Just like with reds, get right to business with them. But you can do it at a slower pace than you can with the reds. You can do it, but you want to get directly to business.

You want to make sure that you give them the facts. Understand, they’re going to want the facts. They don’t care too much about establishing relationships first. That’s the thing you’ve got to remember with them. Give them the facts; don’t feel bad when they want them, because they’re going to want a stack of facts. That’s all you can do with them — give them whatever they want.

Blue and Yellow Now blues, when you’re dealing with yellows, you guys are both open, but you’re more direct. You need to slow down for the yellows. You need to slow down, because otherwise you come off as too obnoxious. That’s the important thing. Slow down with the yellows. Deal with relationships like you already do, that’s fine.

And another thing you want to remember when you’re dealing with yellows is that you’ve got to let them talk a little more. Because, you see, you blues want to dominate the conversation. Let the yellows talk a little more. Ask them for their opinion, because that’s the only way they’re going to give it to you. They’re not going to just express it or jump in and just interject. Yellows are some of the best listeners on the planet. Understand that. You’re going to want to ask for their opinion and let them talk so you can learn what they want.

Blue and Red Blues, when you’re dealing with the reds, you’re both direct so you both have a fast pace. But you blues are more relationship-oriented and reds are more task-oriented. Get down to business and stick to business. These people like to be the issue, because they are the issue — right? As far as most reds are concerned, they’re the only people that exist on the planet. You know what I’m saying? The planet was built for them. They’re the people that say, “Okay, the meek may inherit the earth, but not its mineral rights.” So understand, blues, when you’re dealing with reds, get right to business and stick to business. Because, blues, you have the tendency to get off business and go somewhere else. Stick to business with them. Don’t go off on tangents.

Blue and Green Blues, when you’re dealing with greens, what you want to remember is this. Number one, they’re more indirect and you’re more direct. Slow down your pace when you’re dealing with a green. Also, realize they want the facts. You don’t like facts that much. You don’t care about that, but they want the facts. They’re going to want some details. They’re going to want documentation, because to them documentation beats conversation. Understand that. You blues are more relationship-oriented, but they’re more task-oriented. Stick to business, slow down and give them the facts.

Red and Blue Reds, when you’re dealing with blues, what you’ve got to remember is to let them talk more. They’re going to jump from subject to subject and they’re going to go somewhere else. You need to let them go there for a couple of minutes. It’s okay. Establish a relationship with them first, because they want to deal with relationships. They don’t want to get directly down to business. Let them talk, because they will talk.

Remember there are subcategories; there are sub-colors. Only about 2 1/2 percent of the population are truly red reds — where their initial color is red and their subcategory is red. And only about 2 1/2 percent of the population are actually blue blues. What does that equal? Two-and-a-half and two-and-a-half? About 5 percent. Do these people tend to be sales types or the non-sales types? About 5 percent of our population are true hard core, nothing but sales types.

Red and Green Reds, understand that when you’re dealing with greens you need to slow down your pace, because they’re not as fast as you are. You both want to deal with business. Greens want to deal with business directly, just like you, so that’s great, but they’re a little slower than you guys. Okay? It’s going to take them longer to make decisions, so understand that, too.

You’ve got to let them go through the process. Show them step-by-step how something is going to benefit them. The language you’ve got to use when you talk to the greens is step-by-step, detailed, rational analysis. You know the type of stuff — factual, logical.

Like this: “I’m telling you, going to this event, what you’re going to find out is.... First of all, you want to bring five notebooks, because it’s going to be packed with facts. There’s going to be so much knowledge and information that you'll want to analyze. You'll learn how much time you’ll need to put into this business, and how much money you can make based on the time you put into it. We’ll let you know exactly the cost ratio to actually get each new distributor started in your business. You will know exactly how much it will cost you to do that, and....” Like that. Give them all the facts, all the details.

Red and Yellow When reds are dealing with yellows, oh, my goodness. SLOW DOWN a lot. Understand people have feelings — you reds have to understand that. Yellows want to be open, so don’t exclude them, don’t lock them out, don’t build a wall with them. You’ve got to open up to them. You’ve got to let them feel like they’re a part of your team. You’ve got to help them contribute to conversations. You’ve got to ask them questions and let them talk. Don’t be so directive and so demanding, because they don’t like pushy people. And the reds tend to be very pushy with the yellows. So please understand that.

One more category and we’re done!

Green and Green When greens are dealing with greens, you’re fine. Right? You guys are both in paralysis from analysis heaven. When you guys get together, you’re really in heaven.

Green and Red Now, when you’re dealing with a red and you’re a green, what you want to understand is this: Stick to the task, like you’re already used to doing, but speed it up a little bit with the reds. Let them feel like they’re in control, too.

Green and Yellow Greens, when you’re dealing with yellows, understand that they’re more relationship-oriented. You’re more task-oriented, so you’ve got to open up a little bit and be more relationship-oriented. Get to know them. You guys both move at a slower pace, so that’s great.

Green and Blue Greens, when you’re dealing with blues, speed it up. Speed up and let them talk. Understand that they don’t care too much about the details like you do, so don’t try to give them all the facts. They don’t care about them. Speak in generalities with them. Kid around with them. You know, laugh with them. Make sure it’s fun. “Yeah, tell me another one…” Let them do that while you’re sitting there going, “Oh, my goodness....”

The main thing that you want to remember when you’re dealing with the colors and the different personality styles, is that you don’t want to go around trying to teach all your people this stuff.

You see, this is not a very duplicable thing. It’s not something that you have to know in order to start your business. This is something you’re going to learn about as you go through the business-building process. What you want to do first is to read books about these personality styles. Get the CD program The Magic of Colors. By getting CDs, books and DVDs, you will be able to learn these skills better. And if you want to teach someone else, the best thing to do is give them a CD or a book. That’s the best way to teach them these personality styles. Let the pros do it. It’s called leveraging your time.

It took me quite a bit of time — probably about two years — to really get this stuff. After you know it, even when nothing is happening, you can just look at people and start thinking, “Yellow, all right.” You’ll always have something to do. Blues, you’ll always have something fun to do.

But you don’t want to go around telling people, “Oh, you’re a red. Ah, you’re a yellow. Aha, you’re a blue.” Don’t go around classifying people. You can share it with people who’ve studied it, but don’t go around pointing at someone, saying you’re this or you’re that. Don’t go back to your distributors and say, “I know what your problem is. You need to speed up your pace.” Please, don’t go around doing that.

Let me end with a story from Tony Alessandra that will really put this into perspective.

Back in medieval times, there were four knights that got into big trouble. The king said they all had to die by the guillotine.

So, you have these four knights and guess what? They’re all different colors — the yellow knight, the red knight, the blue knight and the green knight. And they were going to line them up at the same time and do a quadruple execution. First time it ever happened. Four heads chopped off at once. Just like that.

And here’s what happened. Imagine the four guillotines. Imagine the four knights, their heads down, just like that, ready to die. And the king said, “Hit the switch.” The guillotines started to come down, and about three inches before they were about to cut off the knights’ heads, they stopped — they completely stopped. A jam up or something like that. The king thought that was a sign from the heavens above. And he said, “You know what, these knights are free. That was a sign, let them all go.”

The blue knight is the first person to get up and go, and he says, “Let’s party.”

The red knight gets up and says, “See, I told you I was innocent. By the way, King, I am suing you.”

The yellow knight gets up and goes over to the king and says, “Hi, sir, I want you to know that I didn’t take this personally. By the way, would you like to have dinner with our family tonight?”

And the green knight looks up at the guillotine and says, “Oh, I see what the problem was.”

Well, congratulations for making it through this long article (or you can call it a Special Report). I know that there’s a lot of information here, but by now you should have a good idea of what the colors are all about and how you can begin to adapt them so you can start producing more harmonious and high powered relationships.

So, observe and practice and discover more about the Rainbow Rule and how to become a chameleon, because once you do, you will find out for sure that at the end of that rainbow, there is that pot of gold you’ve been looking for. I’ll see you there!

Jerry Clark became a self-made millionaire while still in his 20s. Today, through his company, Club Rhino, Inc., he conducts personal and professional development seminars around the world.

The topics covered range from peak performance training, effective communication strategies, and increasing productivity and profitability in a home based business. Jerry is the producer of over 100 of the most empowering audio programs available in the networking industry, many of which also the authored, such as The Magic of Colors, Creating Magic, and High Achievement Network Marketing, all of these and more can be found through our affiliate link to Jerry's website here: ClubRhino.com Jerry’s training products are currently being used by dozens of direct sales and network marketing companies in over 35 countries worldwide. Jerry recognizes that change occurs at the individual level, and he’s committed to training others how to improve themselves by teaching peak performance strategies that get results.

His articles have appeared in many major publications such as Success magazine, and he was on the advisory board of Working At Home magazine. Along with being the CEO & President of Club Rhino, Inc., Jerry is the founder of the AMG Business Group and The International Academy of Rhinology™.

You can visit Jerry’s website and learn about all the resources he has available, and sign up for his “Tip of the week” at ClubRhino.com.