About Kurt W. Mortensen

Kurt Mortensen is one of America’s leading authorities on persuasion, motivation, and influence. He has devoted nearly 20 years to understanding and teaching the traits, habits, and mindset of exceptional achievers. A highly sought after consultant, trainer, seminar leader, and speaker, he excels at combining scientific research with real-world studies and timeless stories to inform, entertain, and inspire audiences. He has given presentations with Brian Tracy, Mark Victor Hansen, Tom Hopkins, and Les Brown. He is also the author of several books, including Maximum Influence (AMACOM 2004), which has been translated into 10 languages.

Mortensen earned a bachelor’s degree in Communications/Advertising from Brigham Young University in 1992 and an MBA in Marketing and Consumer Behavior from the University of Pittsburgh in 1993. Then, realizing he hadn’t learned the critical skill of per¬suasion in college, he set out to educate himself. He attended scores of negotiation and sales seminars, read thousands of studies on human behavior and social psychology, and listened to every audiotape or CD on persuasion-related topics he could find. He sat through innumerable sales presentations, consumer intercepts, and surveys. He sought out top professional persuaders to learn what makes them tick, and monitored their im¬pact on audiences as well. He also scrutinized telemarketing scripts, witnessed closes, and endured offensive old-school tactics. After a decade amassing research and assessing results, Mortensen founded the Persuasion Institute to share his findings. Since its incep¬tion, the Persuasion Institute has administered over 200,000 Persuasion IQ assessments and changed countless lives through the Persuasion IQ Mastery Course. In his latest book, PERSUASION IQ: The 10 Skills You Need to Get Exactly What You Want (AMACOM 2008), Mortensen puts the secrets of persuasion within easy reach of anyone with the desire and drive to fulfill his or her greatest potential.

“Understanding that yesterday’s persuasion training no longer applies in today’s fast-paced, educated environment is the first step to mastering persuasion,” Mortensen writes. “True persuasion is about creating customers and friends for life. It’s not about getting short-term compliance. That type of persuasiveness will generate long-term resentment, rebellion, and frustration.”

Kurt Mortensen is also the author of Magnetic Persuasion and the audio programs Power Negotiation and Millionaire IQ. He lives in Provo, Utah. Take your Persuasion IQ test at www.persuasioniq.com, and visit his other websites: www.persuasioninstitute.com, and www.kurtmortensen.com.