The Like Switch: An Ex-FBI Agent’s Guide to Influencing, Attracting, and Winning People Over

Every month I try and read 2-3 books with a focus on leadership, professional development, and philosophy. The problem is five or six months down the line I’d often forget what book I read and also forget the main points from the book. Writing notes in the margin worked for a while but it was quite a pain to go through all my books and look for notes. Writing notes on the back page of the book worked great but if I gave the book away I lost the notes. I finally started writing all my notes in a moleskin journal, snapping a picture or typing them on a 1-page PDF to share on DODReads.
This process morphed into the creation of professional Executive Summaries which I’m happy to share below. If you would like to join me and share your own executive summary please follow the guidance here.
This week we had the opportunity to have CEO of Military to Millionaire David Pere guest write our Back Page Notes. It is a great chance for all of us to hear another persons perspective, key take-a-ways and the notes that they take in their back page.
The-Like-Switch-Back-Page-Notes-
I was turned onto The Like Switch at a real estate investor conference I attended in October, 2019. The gentleman on stage said that he was able to boost the amount of money he received from investors simply by reading this book, and becoming more likeable.
I absolutely loved this book! It is one of the few books I have ordered the physical copy for, even before completing the audiobook version.
This book paints an excellent picture of how to get people to like you through non-verbal cues. The opening chapter talks about how the author was able to convince foreign spies, to spy on their nation, for the United States…and how he made it seem easy utilizing the friendship principle!
The Friendship Principle: Friendship = Proximity + Frequency + Duration + Intensity
Proximity = the distance between you and another person
Frequency = the number of contacts over time, and the duration, that you have with another person
Intensity = how strongly you are able to satisfy another person’s psychological and/or physical needs when interacting.
Utilizing these principles, he was able to sway this foreign spy to work for the United States. He started by simply positioning himself along the sidewalk that the spy walked on daily. That is it, nothing more than gaining familiarity by being in proximity of the spy’s daily walk. As time passed, he would get closer, and spend more time in the vicinity of the spy, and all of this helped him turn the target!
This book goes into great deal about how to use verbal/non-verbal cues to your advantage, as well as how to read non-verbal cues from others, in order to change your course of actions to achieve the desired outcome.
The “Big 3” Friend Signals
The Eyebrow flash, The head tilt, and the smile. I love the examples given in this book. They really help you comprehend exactly what the offer is describing. These examples are so helpful when explaining the difference between a real smile, and a fake one.
The Golden Rule of Friendship
If you want people to like you, make them feel good about themselves.
When I was a recruiter, I was often heard telling people that “If they like you, they’ll join” was all you needed to know in order to become a successful recruiter. The principle’s in this book would have made me a much more successful recruiter than I already was. This is a must read for anybody in sales, or looking to be a “leader of the people” and become successful in life!




David Pere joined the Marine Corps in August of 2008. Since that time, he has lived traveled to and lived in many unique places around the world, including a combat tour in Afghanistan.
David got started in real estate investing in 2015. He house-hacked a duplex with the FHA loan and lived in it for a little while until getting married to his beautiful wife, Kimberly, and receiving orders to Hawaii. While stationed in Hawaii, David bought a 10-unit apartment in Missouri and has had continued success with real estate investing!
Through these experiences, From Military to Millionaire was born, with the goal of teaching service members and veterans how to build wealth through real estate investing, entrepreneurship, and personal finance.
David can be reached via Website, LinkedIn, Facebook & Instagram