Chapter 7 of 30 · 4'57"
Jordan doesn't just hand his new brokers a pitch — he turns selling into a hunt. 'We're talking about whales here,' he tells them, meaning rich clients, then shows how to hook a stranger and close him.
❝ Monologue · 5 lines Jordan Welcomes the New Brokers
Pitch Blue Chips, Then Dump Penny Stocks
❝ Monologue · 6 lines Naming the client's doubt
He voices the client's harshest doubt, then turns distrust into a lesson.
Cold Calling a Total Stranger
At Stratton Oakmont, Jordan Belfort rallies a room of young, broke recruits. He compares their sales script to a harpoon, calls rich investors 'whales,' and lays out the con: pitch safe blue chips first, then unload penny stocks. To prove it works, he walks them through a cold call to a stranger.
It looks like a motivational speech, but it's really a manual for fraud. Jordan admits the pitch fails for one reason: 'The only real objection that they have is that they don't trust you guys.' His fix isn't honesty — it's charm. A broker agrees with the stranger, introduces himself, and keeps him talking until 'the only problem you're gonna have is that you didn't buy more.' The room laughs with Jordan at the mark on the phone, never noticing that the salesman being trained is the joke's real target.
A1–C2 is the CEFR scale. Cards above the level you pick fade, and playback will not auto-pause on them.
“The only real objection that they have is that they don't trust you guys.”
It names the real obstacle in any sale: not price or product, but trust.
Neutral
“I'm gonna teach each and every one of you to be Captain fucking Ahab.”
It turns a sales meeting into a whaling voyage, swagger and comedy in one line.
Informal
“You cold-called me. You're a total stranger.”
Two short sentences lay out the whole problem of selling to someone who owes you nothing.
Informal
“Once we've suckered them in, we unload the dog shit.”
The entire con in one breath: lure them in, then dump the garbage.
Informal
Listen to me. We're a new company with a new name. A company that our clients can believe in. A company that our clients can trust. A firm whose roots are so deeply embedded into Wall Street that our very founders sailed over on the Mayflower and chiseled the name Stratton Oakmont right into Plymouth fucking Rock!
They don't know, right? They gotta think about it, they gotta talk to their fucking wives, or the fucking Tooth Fairy. Point is, it doesn't matter what the fuck they say. The only real objection that they have is that they don't trust you guys. And why should they trust you? I mean, look at you. You're a bunch of fucking sleazy salesmen, right?
Up next · 08hatchet jobThe scene: Forbes Profiles Jordan BelfortIn Moby Dick, Ahab hunts a giant whale. Jordan says the rich clients are 'whales,' so the brokers should chase them, using the script as their harpoon.
Blue chips like Disney or IBM sound safe, so they get the client to trust the broker. Once the client is hooked, the brokers switch to penny stocks, where the real money is made.
He claims that a client's excuses about money or their spouse are noise. The real problem, he says, is that they don't trust the salesman — and the script is built to fix that.
The broker never argues. He agrees that they're strangers, introduces himself, then frames a small first trade as a test of trust: 'the only problem you're gonna have is that you didn't buy more.'
