"It is necessary, then, to cultivate the habit of being grateful for every good thing that comes to you, and to give thanks continuously. And because all things have contributed to your advancement, you should include all things in your gratitude." -Wallace D. Wattles,The Science of Getting Rich or Financial Success Through Creative Thought

Hi Persuader,

"Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, confusion into clarity.... It turns problems into gifts, failures into success, the unexpected into perfect timing, and mistakes into important events. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow." -Melodie Beattie

Why is gratitude important? When we are grateful for what we have, we draw more things to us to be grateful for.

I mention gratitude at the end of each of my Persuasion Factor calls and my Elite Coaching Club because gratitude should be our constant companion not just a Thanksgiving Day foot note or brief prayer on Sunday. It should permeate all of our interactions.

Experiencing gratitude does not have to be limited to when someone gives you a gift or does you a favor. True gratitude is about looking deeply at our lives and understanding how truly lucky we are to be alive at this moment in time.

I think on this every night and every day. I have a huge list of things to be grateful for, as do all of us: family, friends, colleagues, students, employees, health, financial success, future successes and advancements. I am grateful when it rains (and here in the Pacific Northwest it rains a lot) because I know that's part of why the area is so lush and fruitful. I am grateful when the sun comes out (because, as I mentioned above, here in the Pacific Northwest it rains A LOT).

I'm grateful for simple things and complicated things. And throughout my day, I stop to consider other people's situations, whether they be more challenging or easier than mine, and I am grateful for the struggles I've had to endure, and grateful for the things I accomplish with ease, both, because these are the things that have made me what I am and brought me to this point in life.

Gratitude can be powerful especially if something about our life is not quite right. For instance, if your health is not as good as it could be, instead of cursing our bodies for what they are not, try being grateful for what you can do.

There's an old Irish proverb that says, 'Count your joys instead of your woes; count your friends instead of your foes.' I love this. It's all in where we place our focus. It's all in what we choose to highlight and what we choose to minimize.

When you begin to take notice of all that is good in your life, this gratitude will turn your life around.

Until Next Time,

Kenrick E. Cleveland

Hi Persuader,

Here's a beautiful entre into the powerful world of working with your sub/un/other than conscious mind. It's a physical manifestation as well as a metaphor. It speaks to your ability and willingness to nurture this connection which for the most part, those of us in the West, tend to treat as less than important.

It's simple and beautiful: get yourself a very small plant that can grow to a relatively good sized. When you get that plant home, I want you to talk to that plant as if it is your unconscious mind. Tell it that you need it to grow strong and healthy. Tell it that you are dedicated to its growth and well being.

This plant is going to represent your persuasion abilities at the unconscious level.

Every time you water this plant, every time you nurture and feed this plant, every time you play music for this plant, every time you talk to this plant, you'll want to repeat your intention for it, reaffirm that as it grows, so too will your ability to persuade, your ability to manifest the success, love, prosperity (et cetera) that you are seeking in life. As it grows strong and powerful, so too will everything that you put your mind to.

You could do this with several plants over time, perhaps having one plant per intention.

I've done this many times throughout the years and find it to be a spectacular thing. My wife and I were given a little plant by my wife's mother when we first got married. It was a rare and exotic plant and we decided this plant and was very beautiful.

My wife planted it and we talked to it and I kind of thought it was like a family plant which would keep our family doing well together. The plant grew and grew and grew. And when we moved to a new home, we took it with us. We found when we took it with us that it was actually like three plants, one of them was easily separated, the other two wanted to stay together. So we had three plants growing and growing. It was like our family just kept on doing better and better. It was amazing.

Unfortunately, when we moved again, we were unable to take it because it was now about 7 feet tall and it was more like a tree. What I did was tell it how much I appreciated all it did and asked it to continue to do that for anyone who lives on the property now. We shared a piece of ourselves with this property the way we took care of it and the way we landscaped it, and we hope that this would continue to bring blessings and good things for everybody to come.

I believe we sold our house in 30 days as a result. And I know that my intention will hopefully continue to bless the people there. It's a beautiful thing to do and something we can all benefit from if you add things like this into your life. Even if it's nothing other than just an expression of our intention, then so be it.

I know that thoughts become things and as we think them and repeat them enough, they become solidified and extraordinarily powerful.

Until Next Time,

Kenrick E. Cleveland

"It still holds true that man is most uniquely human when he turns obstacles into opportunities."
--Eric Hoffer

Hi Persuader,

I had a teacher who was relentlessly optimistic and positive about everything. As a teenager, it sort of bugged me because. . . .well, because I was a teenager and teenagers are seldom relentlessly optimistic or positive. Everything "bad" could be turned into something "good" according to this teacher. Setbacks and obstacles were learning experiences. Crushes gone bad and broken hearts were just a preparation for really clarifying what we wanted in a mate. Struggles with certain subjects in school became self challenges that we could, by all means, triumph over.

Ugh. It really annoyed me.

Now, as an adult, and a parent of teenagers (who happen not to be pessimists or negative), I realize that she was 100%, absolutely correct.

We get into these ruts. . . we get into these ways of thinking about things around us that keep us trapped. It's the old cliché of the 'glass half full/glass half empty'.

The events in your life are not what make you who you are, but it is your response to these events that show your true character. Lately I've been really exploring the idea that our emotions and emotional responses to external stimuli, are choices. Emotions are choices. That's a revelation in some ways. It's very freeing. I'm not connected to anger if I don't want to be. I'm not responding with fear because I choose not to. I'm not choosing to be depressed about things I have no control over.

And if you notice, those last three statements are in the form of negative statements. Changing this pattern also requires that we pay careful and patient attention to the language we use. I am . . . I am choosing to be courageous. I am choosing to let this go. I am choosing to realize that I am separate from the things that happen around me.

What if just by readjusting our obstacles into opportunities, we attract more of what we want? What if it's that simple? Wouldn't it be worth it to suspend cynicism? Wouldn't it be worth it to let go of the patterns that have kept us stagnant? I should think so.

I only wish I had learned this lesson earlier. Not that I was a depressed or pessimistic kid, but we all have moments. . . This reframing of struggle into potential and exciting lessons is exactly the kind of thing that we as persuaders can learn from. Framing and reframing our lives and the lives of those around us is absolutely mandatory if we want to succeed in persuasion. Helping others to see that the glass is half full, helping others to see how our products and services will benefit them immeasurably in life, helping our loved ones, our teenagers, to realize that every day we make the choice (many times unconsciously) to be unhappy, is a real revelation. Let's make our choices consciously and use that consciousness for relentless optimism.

Until Next Time,

Kenrick E. Cleveland

"Keep away from those who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you believe that you too can become great." -- Mark Twain

Hi Persuader,

My clients and students are at the top of their respective games. I know this, because I work primarily with very high end financial advisors, real estate agents, speakers, sales professionals, and the like, and they did not get to where they are by falling into it or because of luck. They got there because they have goals, they have work ethic, they have the intelligence, they have the education, and they have ambition.

Ambition is a very interesting force. Some people have it, others clearly don't. What is the difference between the two camps? Is it an internal spark? Self confidence? Is it something you have to be born with or something you can acquire? If you think about some of our more recent presidents and the raw ambition it takes to become president, and then consider their brothers (just as an example -- Bill Clinton/Roger Clinton, Jimmy Carter/Billy Carter), then we can sort of see where this isn't much of an argument for the genetics of ambition.

The true mark of an ambitious person is being able to bounce back after a setback, not getting mired down in the 'oh, woe is me, I didn't achieve what I wanted to', that many people succumb to after not at first succeeding. Real ambition lays in the 'try, try again' part.

This pulling yourself up by the bootstraps mindset was so well illustrated by Thomas Jefferson when he said, "Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude."

So it's all a matter of -- do you want it or don't you? If you want it, and you don't have it, what are you doing or not doing that's preventing you from having it? If you want it, and you don't have it, that's enough of a start, it's a platform from which to make that jump.

Stop one: start with a simple list. I'm a HUGE fan of lists. Make a list of what your goals/ambitions. Get specific. These things don't come to fruition if they're vague and unformed in your own mind. Get down to the nitty gritty details. Flesh it all out and read over it every morning when you wake up and every night when you go to bed. This will speak to your sub/other than conscious mind and set it up to help you begin to form solid plans for how to achieve the goals you have in mind.

And if or when you cup up against some adversity, remember that the small defeats are not the end result. The end result is your goal, the small defeats are tiny speed bumps (or flat tires) along the way -- both overcome-able and temporary.

My last bit of advice -- start now. Do not pass Go!. Get to it.

Until Next Time,

Kenrick E. Cleveland

Hi Persuader,

I'm often asked to listen to speeches or presentations or interactions between my students and their prospects to give comment on what more can be brought to their individual persuasion skills. The sad fact is, I haven't figured out a way to extend my days. I've only got 24 hours, as do all of us, and I simply don't have time to help in this way.

The up side is, if you're in my Elite Coaching Club, you are either fully capable of critiquing yourself, or you're on your way to being there. My suggestion is that you record yourself doing your presentations or speeches or calls or interviews and listen to them. I guaranty you will find this valuable.

All you have to do is listen to your presentation with the following in mind: Do I have rapport? Listen to it again and ask: Am I using the presuppositions affectively? Listen to it again to determine: Am I using their criteria affectively? How about when they objected, where could I have heard that earlier on?

What follows are some frames within which to listen to your presentations.

What's the level of rapport that you're hearing taking place? Is it strong? Could it be stronger? What would you have to do to make that stronger?

What is the overall frame you've set from the minute you begin interacting with those people? With your prospect? What's the overall frame you're setting? Is it one of authority? Is it one of one down and they're one up? Are you one up and they're one down? Are you equal? How do you come across in terms of the overall frame you're setting?

What are the presuppositions that you can identify quickly that you're using throughout your presentation? Are you using them well? Are you using them a lot?

What are you using? What are you using well? What could be used better?

Where are you getting objections? Where could you have become aware of the objection much earlier on in the presentation?

So let's say you have an hour presentation, you're listening to it, and you know that at the end, there's an objection. Where could you have heard that earlier on? How could you have become aware earlier on of what happened and how could you have framed against it earlier on maybe even at the point of the criteria elicitation? How could you have heard what was going to come out and then framed against it?

Re-listen again and ask yourself: Did you get and use their criteria? And did you continue to reference it throughout the presentation?

And again listen to it and determine: How do you feel about the length of time you were there? Were you there too long? Were you not focused on your outcome well enough or were you focused on your outcome well enough? How long were you there? How much time did it take and is that justifiable time?

If you've been studying with me for any amount of time or have been involved with my work in the least, you will begin to understand the frames I'm using to listen to you and you will be able to hear yourself with my ears in that respect.

For those of you that don't know what I'm talking about, and if you're signed up for the Persuasion Factor or in my Elite Coaching Club, you will shortly know exactly what I'm talking about.

Until Next Time,

Kenrick E. Cleveland

Hi Persuader,

"Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear-not absence of fear."--Mark Twain

I looked at the definition of courage in the dictionary. And found an interesting definition. 'Courage: The quality of mind or spirit that enables a person to face difficulty, danger, pain, etc. without fear or bravery.'

I'm not sure I buy into that one. To me, courage is doing what needs to be done in spite of fear. I think bravery, for example, in particular is a way of thinking about our lives such that we are doing what we need to do even though we have fear about doing it.

People that are really genuinely brave don't have a lack of fear. They're acting in spite of it. And so I'm going to define courage as doing what needs to be done in spite of fear. That's real courage. Courage has within it an element of fear. If it didn't, why would we need courage? If it were old hat, common place, then why would we need courage?

Courage is doing what needs to be done in spite of what fear might be there.

Stop for a minute and think of a time when you should have taken some action but you didn't. And I want you to remember why you didn't act. Think about this. Why didn't you act?

I want you to think of another time when you needed to act and you did not act. Or you didn't act as fully as you should have. And I want you to remember why you didn't.

What were the similarities between these events? What was common about them? If you think about it, you're going to find that there was one common denominator, and maybe you'll find a bunch, but there's at least one, and that is there's probably some kind of fear.

So here's the question: What would have happened had you acted anyway? Go back to those two events that we just thought through. And ask yourself what would have happened had you acted anyway. Would it have worked out? What's the worst that would have happened had things not gone the way you hoped?

Let's go back to the first event that you thought of and let's just say that whatever this event was, you chose either not to act or not to act as fully as you might have.

Might you have had success? What's the absolute worst thing that would have happened had things not gone the way you hoped for? How bad could it have been? Would you have been thrown out? Would you have been cursed at? Would you have been told no?

And my next question is: Could you have lived with that? And I'll bet you money that the answer is yes. I'll bet you money that the answer is yes, you could have lived, with the worst that would have happened had things not gone the way you hoped for.

Oscar Wilde once said, "One's real life is often the life that one does not lead."
What is the real life that you're not living because of a lack of courage? Conversely, in what ways have you acted despite your fear that have changed your life for the better?

Until Next Time,

Kenrick E. Cleveland

Hi Persuader,

Despite the predictability of human nature, we're pretty complex creatures. Even if all things were equal (education, parenting, etc) where one person is achieving goal after goal, others get stuck in holding patterns.

Maybe you're in a holding pattern, feeling unable to escape your current state of complacency and you really want to change your approach to selling. The first step is: begin to change.

It's easy to be overwhelmed by how much change must take place in order to achieve your goal. But taking things one day at a time and simply beginning at the beginning, by taking that first step, you'll soon realize how much progress you're making already.

To quote David Viscott, "If you could get up the courage to begin, you have the courage to succeed." And since you're reading this article on MAXpersuasion.com, you have already begun shifting your focus from complacency to an entirely new understanding of persuasion and ultimately you're on the road to being able to persuade the affluent.

You don't have to map it out alone. Having taken your first step, the next is to get one of the basic programs, like the GSP e-course or The Persuasion Factor. Or, if you're seriously ready for a dive into the deep end of persuasion, my Elite Coaching Club is absolutely the way to go.

Some past highlights of Elite Coaching Club lessons which will be interwove in future lessons: The Importance of Rapport. How to get it, how to keep it; Criteria: The hot button of persuasion. If you've got your prospect's criteria, you've got the sale; Framing--shifting your prospect's perspective to include your product or service. And lately, we're really delving deep into framing and we're going to continue deeper yet.

More and more our lessons have really begun to focus on the work we do with the affluent clientele we're looking to persuade and as we move forward, I'm going to aim, with laser-like precision, at just this target audience. Why not focus solely on the affluent? They're the ones with money.

On the flip side of these persuasion skills, we also work on the fundamentals of human nature using ourselves as the guinea pigs. If we can't persuade ourselves, if we can't understand what makes us tick, there's absolutely no way we're going to persuade or understand others.

With that said, we explore a huge variety of techniques from mapping out our personal, business and public universes in order to learn to manifest exactly what we want to investigating our relationships with intention so as to set ourselves up for success every single time we put our minds to it. We work on clearing out our subconscious minds, eliminating distractions and the things that hold us back, at the same time learning how to communicate with our other than conscious to aid us in our learnings. And we use an unbelievably revolutionary technique to tap out emotional resistance in ourselves which I credit for being one of the top three triggers in the shedding of 140 pounds of extra weight I had been carrying for years.

The Elite Coaching Club is exactly that: Elite. It's not for the faint of heart. It's for people who actually want to get down to the real work of supercharging their lives on all fronts. Another advantage: you'll be working directly with me and my advanced student who are the tops in their fields and are growing and achieving in ways they weren't even aware were possible.

By all means, start with the GSP e-course, work your way through the Persuasion Factor, and when you're ready for more intense work, contact Kim and find out about the Elite Coaching Club.

Until Next Time,

Kenrick E. Cleveland

Hi Persuader,

Yup. It's that time of year again. Fresh starts, new beginnings, an opportunity to recreate ourselves anew. . . I love welcoming a new year with hope and optimism. I love to set out a game plan for the upcoming year. The New Year's resolution is a concept devoted to self improvement and I am relentless about self improvement.

We all do it. We make our lists. . . mental or actual, and we so fervently 'hope' that we can stick to it. We resolve to learn an instrument, work out daily, stop smoking, start spending more time with our families. We resolve to drop twenty pounds, get our finances in order, give more to charity.

In years past, I didn't really get how to do it. I would make an annual (also a daily, weekly, monthly) resolution to lose weight, but it never ended up happening. Why? Well, there were definitely blockages of the mental variety. There was also the physical addiction to sugar, (which I've heard is harder to kick than heroin-not the severity of the symptoms, but in the addictive nature. Also not helping matters is that sugar is in nearly everything.) But there was something that just didn't add up. Wanting is not the same as doing.

Well, as I've written in previous articles, I've started to discover the key to this lifelong struggle. And I'm very excited about continuing to shed pounds and improve myself on all levels.

So how can we turn this 'fervent hope' into tangible results? Well, the first thing to do is take time for reflection. The beginning of the year is a great time for this because the weather is gray, it's warm inside, we may have a little down time. Start by looking inward and write out exactly what you want in life from 2008. Frame these wants in the affirmative and present tense, as if they are already happening for you. This will begin to train your brain to understand that all things are possible. ('I am shedding unnecessary fat at a healthy rate and will continue to do so until I am at my ideal weight.')

Another important aspect is to truly understand what is draining you. Maybe you have friends or family who are sabotaging you. With weight loss as an example, maybe your brother sends you chocolates or tries to get you to go for the old comfort food. Well, your brother, while he most certainly loves you, is not really on board with your resolution and you have to set some clear boundaries.

Connecting emotion to what you're doing gives you an added depth and strengthens your resolve. By focusing on what you will have when you achieve your goal (for example, the happiness you will experience when you have that new career, or the good feelings you will experience when you start doing volunteer work), you will anchor these good feelings to the task at hand making it more probable that you will succeed.

And lastly, the power of visualization is highly underrated. Imagine yourself as the size you want to be. Visualize your bank account increasing. This is the very core of intention and self actualization.

And lastly, be grateful for what you already have, and for what will come to you as a result of your conscious effort.

Happy New Year.

Until Next Time,

Kenrick E. Cleveland

Hi Persuader,

In a previous article, I asked for your stories on overcoming blockages to abundance and affluence but I didn't give any exercises for those of you who may have not yet overcome these blockages.

One idea is to use the tapping method of EFT which I describe in 'Tap Into Freedom'. This technique yields phenomenal results for a vast array from phobias to sorrows, habits to negativity.

Another suggestion is to really polish your universes and include in them affirmative statements about your status, your relationship to affluence and your affluent clientele, about your confidence, about your public persona, about your business persona and about your personal feelings of worthiness and deservedness.

Next to EFT, I credit my universes (as well as a fair amount of intention, dedication and skinless chicken breasts on top of spinach) with having shed over 140 pounds. And let me assure you, I used all of the techniques I teach on myself.

If you find that these two exercises have a degree of success but are still plagued with some negativity, try placing a rubber band around your wrist and whenever you experience a negative, nasty, insecure thought, snap that rubber band as hard as you can handle, and replace that negativity with something positive.

In a recent post I talked about cleaning out your attic, the fundamentals of forgiveness and really letting go of the things that hold us back. An example of this for the student I mentioned in my last article, would be to forgive their father for instilling in them a huge fear of scarcity and a somewhat unhealthy relationship to affluence and abundance. Clear it out. Bring it to the dump because Goodwill doesn't want it. It's absolute garbage.

As if that's not enough to get you started. . . How about 'Trying On Someone Else's Skin'? When you are metaphorically inside your affluent prospect or client, you have absolutely no room for self-consciousness because you're not 'yourself', you're them.

Or maybe 'Surrounding Ourselves with Pink Bubbles' might be a good trigger for you.

Ultimately, if you're really concentrating on your persuasion, your rapport building, criteria elicitation, and really, truly focusing on your prospect, I dare say, you don't really have much time to experience very much self-consciousness.

Until Next Time,

Kenrick E. Cleveland

Hi Persuader,

I credit part of my new physique to the tapping techniques of EFT. I love to teach people how to tap their way to emotional freedom and if you've ever been in one of my coaching groups or at one of my seminars, you'll already be familiar with how to perform this method.

I wouldn't start out with something huge, like 180 pounds of weight loss or a cessation of smoking. Start with something less entrenched. Start with maybe a phobia of spiders or clowns, or a discomfort with crowds or parties (unless these are incredibly severe). Try to choose one that feels do-able just to start with.

Once you've identified a problem, then think of the feeling it creates and measure the strength of the emotion. Give it a rating from 0-10, 0 being no strength at all, 1 being weakest, 10 being strongest.

Once you've given it a rating you're going to tap.

Find the point on the side of your hand you would hit if you were doing a karate chop; it's the fleshy part below the pinky finger and above the wrist. Then you're going to say the set-up statement to correct reversals and you're going to do it three times.

That's what you do. You're going to tap and say a statement. This tapping along with the statement will resolve reversals.

The statement is very, very simple. And if you like, it can be radically embellished upon. But just learn it first and foremost in its simplistic form.

And it is this: "Even though I have this (name the issue, problem, phobia, negativity, deep personal flaw. . . just kidding) I deeply and completely love myself." You're going to fill in the blank with the problem you identified in step one.

Let's say that you procrastinate making the phone calls you need to make. You'd say, "Even though I procrastinate making the phone calls I need to make, I deeply and completely love myself."

So try it.

Take your left hand, extend it out in front of you, take your right hand with the three fingers--your index, your middle and your ring finger--and begin tapping on that karate chop point on your hand, tap, tap, tap, tap and say the following: "Even though I procrastinate making the calls I need to make to customers, I deeply and completely love myself." "Even though I procrastinate making the calls I need to make to customers, I deeply and completely love myself." "Even though I procrastinate making the calls I should be making to customers, I deeply and completely love myself."

Now, there's a 'choreography' so to speak, for the remainder of this exercise.

Above the eyebrow. To the side of the eye. Under the eye. Upper lip. Chin. Collarbone. Under the arm. This is the order we're going to go in, and we're going to tap each a few times while repeating the problem. 'Procrastination in making customer calls.' Tap above the eye. Tap, tap, tap. 'Procrastination in making customer calls.' Side of the eye. Tap, tap, tap. 'Procrastination in making customer calls.' Under the eye. Tap, tap, tap. 'Procrastination in making customer calls.' Upper lip. Tap, tap, tap. 'Procrastination in making customer calls.' Chin. Tap, tap, tap. 'Procrastination in making customer calls.' Collarbone. Tap, tap, tap. 'Procrastination in making customer calls.' Under the arm. Tap, tap, tap.

After one or two passes, see where you rate the problem. Has it moved? Improved? Disappeared completely?

Continue to tap until you've zeroed out the problem and guess what? You're done. People ask, does this last forever? Well, odds are, yes. But what if it doesn't? How about spending another three or four minutes to get rid of it again?

If you've been tapping a while, I would love it if you'd share your success stories. Please comment, comment, comment.

Until Next Time,

Kenrick E. Cleveland