I like the way Abraham Lincoln said it best, “Am I not destroying my enemies when I make friends of them?”

Now, I don’t know how many of you have actual enemies, arch nemeses, rivals, foes or adversaries. These descriptions seem pretty extreme, but sometimes in business, rivalries happen.  They key is not to let them define us or impede us because unlike movie villains, most people are really just looking for friendlies.

Everywhere people go, they are looking for a friendly face. They are looking for someone to acknowledge them. It doesn’t matter who you are, where you’re going, or what you’re doing, people look for this acknowledgement.

In our world, people are all the time sending out the signal looking for friendlies. All the time they are searching for people who are going to be nice to them.

And the world ignores them.

Know this going in: as persuaders, you’re going to get ignored. You’re going to “put yourself out there” and people will flat out disregard you, as if you don’t even exist. People will ignore your signals of ‘hello’ and that’s okay. They don’t know any better. Forgive them. You know better and you’ll know how to influence them in a heart beat the second you lay eyes on them.

How is it that what people really want is to be acknowledged and yet, they end up not paying attention to other people? Well, we’re conditioned. We’ve set up our boundaries. Protected ourselves from rejection by rejecting first.  Sheltered ourselves from disappointment by avoiding engagement. And sometimes, for those of us who live in larger cities, we’ve attempted to eliminate some of the impact from energy siphons and “crazies” and have instead opted to look at our shoes or appear otherwise occupied instead of giving a little nod or smile.

And despite all of this, despite the fact that you WILL be rejected, let us commit to stop ignoring people and to cutting back on our own rudeness.

This rudeness, while not confined to the US, is not as prevalent if you go to other countries. Other cultures are quite different in terms of their unconscious hellos and a general openness to greeting people.

Several years ago I visited a Latin American country where I was woefully ignorant of their particular way of greeting. And I say woefully, because I had not only misinterpreted, but I had judged in the process.

After getting off the airplane, I noticed the greeting first in the airport. A man tipped his head back and pushed his lips out. Instead of immediately realizing that this was in fact a greeting, I took it that the man was trying to hit on me. Here, if you purse your lips at someone, it’s an indication of, ‘Yeah, hey, I’d like to kiss you.’

And so I was off put and became increasingly disturbed as the day went on because wherever I’d go, I’d encounter this same treatment. Had I all of the sudden become a very desirable commodity in the gay community? No. Was I giving off a vibe that this was a part of my personality? Again, no. I was not. And yet, here I was confronted over and over again with men suggesting, in my mind, that they wanted to kiss.

Huh? Well, as quick as I like to believe I am. . . Eventually, I noticed a fellow member of the group I was with doing the same thing, and this man was most definitely not interested in other men. Once I saw this, like a lightning bolt, as if the blindfold of my limited cultural frame had been taken off, I began noticing EVERYONE doing this.

Of course, once I realized this, I immediately began to mirror the behavior and all of the sudden, my discomfort became acceptance in this culture that was new to me.

Practice your “unconscious hello” everywhere you go and be sure and tell us all your successes with using it on the blog below.

Kenrick

Dear Persuaders,

This might be kind of a personal question, or perhaps uncomfortable, but it’s something that will advance your persuasion skills immeasurably.   Are you interesting?  In other words, is what you’re saying and how you’re saying it, engaging and appealing to your prospects and clients?  I’m not just talking about the presentation of your product or service, but the before and after talk when you’re simply conversing.

Do you have the ability to talk about any subject off the top of your head?  And I mean most any subject, because the people you’re talking with are going to bring things up and it behooves you to keep up and have the ability to talk about them too.

If you answered no,  you can’t converse on most any subject, here’s a good creativity exercise for you that will help you to gain power with this ability.

Pick a word, a noun, a person, place, thing, or idea, and then come up with other things that it reminds you of.  This is free association.   For example, the word ‘elephant’.  When you hear the word ‘elephant’, what other words do you think of?  Some that I thought of are: tusks, herds, Africa, large game animals, hunting, knowing when and where you’ll die or issues of death, survival, slow and deliberate, memory. ..  you get the point.   I could have gone on for an hour or more because every one of those words would remind me of other things.

By the way, do you know that elephants know where they’re going to die and when?  There are places called elephant graveyards.  When an elephant gets ready to die, (provided that they aren’t hunted down) they go off to the elephant graveyard for their particular herd.

I’ve also heard that elephants have very sensitive souls.  I saw this on an Animal Planet show.  When I heard that, I couldn’t figure out if the souls of their feet are sensitive or if their spiritual souls are sensitive, because both were present in the story.

See?  There are two interesting (I think) tidbits about elephants.  You wouldn’t believe how much is stored up there in your other than conscious which you can really enhance too.

If you were to do this exercise at least once per day, you’ll find after a few weeks that you start getting far more creative and far more capable of talking on any subject that happens to come up.  It will actually help to make you become more interesting.

Another way to determine if you’re interesting is to record yourself and listen to what you’ve said.  Would you bore you?   Do you have really strange inflections or breathing patterns?  Do you breathe noisily into the phone?  Do you have other linguistic afflictions?  Do you go off on tangents and forget to turn back to where you were heading?

If you have trouble figuring this out yourself, ask a close friend to rate your communication.

If they’re game and actually go through with it, giving you feedback, don’t get mad when they come up with something.

Work on these things and mainly, keep alert.  If you see your prospect’s eyes glazing over or losing their train of thought, or if they begin to fidget check in with them, and check in with yourself.

Kenrick

Dear Persuader,

One of my coaching members, Dr. Charles W. Martin, sent this to me.  His message is so applicable that I asked his permission to give this to you.

The Stupid Tax

copyright 2009 Charles W. Martin

www.AffluentPracticeSystems.com

804-320-6800

When he spoke the room grew quiet. What he said next gave the entire assemblage one of the biggest ah-ha's of the entire conference. First, he related how he had tried to go it alone and how much he had spent. It was nearly fifty thousand a month promoting his business. His tone foreshadowed his next words.

"I had been paying the stupid tax month in and month out because I thought I could go it alone. Yet when I finally did get the advice and consulting I needed, my promotion spend dropped to twenty-five thousand a month with better results."

John's admission created more than a little buzz in the room as each member of the crowd reflected on his own life and the stupid tax he had paid on more than one occasion.

For the throng, it was one of those unexpected learning moments - a treasure that made the entire day worthwhile all by itself.

How many forms of the stupid tax have you seen others pay? Have you paid yourself?

First, the definition of stupid tax: the money, time, energy or effort you paid or lost needlessly.

The stupid tax is an error that costs you that didn't have to.

Patients pay this toll repeatedly - waiting until the problems are so bad that the time, energy and expense to repair them mount to thousands or tens of thousands of dollars.

The tax is paid when one keeps doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.

The tax is levied against one when one fails to act when one knows one should.

The tax is extracted from one's bank account when one tries to go it alone when one is not an expert in a field when one needs an expert.

This "unnecessary fee" is paid when one fails to implement what works.

The tax comes due when one tries to go cheap when one shouldn't.

The tax gets paid when patience is required and impatience reigns.

The tax is paid when one doesn't nurture one's leads and doesn't continue to communicate with both leads and existing patients.

The stupid tax is life's way of teaching us lessons - hopefully only once instead of several times over.

Do you know someone who is paying one now? Can you help them?

All the best!

Kenrick

“We shall never have more time. We have, and always had, all the time there is. No object is served in waiting until next week or even until tomorrow. Keep going... Concentrate on something useful.” --Arnold Bennett

Hi Persuader,

Okay, so sometimes I just don’t feel like writing. And sometimes I just don’t feel like working. And on occasion, I’ll admit it, I just don’t feel like going to the gym. And I can always think up so many other things to do, like organize my receipts, or walk the dog, or catch up on my TiVo viewing. . .

And sometimes I even procrastinate on one thing by doing another thing which I was previously procrastinating on. For example, sometimes I don’t want to write so much that I’ll choose the gym as an alternative.

For the most part, though, I’m lucky. I love what I do and I have overcome my minor bouts with procrastination by working with my other-than-conscious mind and working with my intention to set my daily, weekly, monthly and yearly courses, setting watermarks along the way to make sure I am succeeding in my goals.

Procrastination is avoidance. But sometimes there is value in procrastination, sometimes avoiding one thing can push you into another.

In the business world, time is of the essence, so time management and getting things done is king. Having a way to manage any serious procrastination problem is vital. Procrastination is a habit and habits can be broken and rerouted. When you break an old habit, however, it’s important to have a new one in its place, a system for dealing with the ruts that we’ve gotten into over time. (Many times you’ll see a smoker nibbling on carrot sticks as a temporary alternative to get them over the hump where their hand/mouth habit is concerned.)

Understand that your intention is what is setting you on the path to avoidance. And by switching this intention and having a solid resolve for what you want to do and how you’re going to do it, you are setting your other-than-conscious on a mission. This works only if you train your other-than conscious mind properly.

Try this: have a conversation with your other than conscious. Ask it for its help in turning a new leaf on getting things done. Set small goals at first, goals that you are certain you can keep, because you are training your other-than-conscious to work on your behalf. So if you say, ‘I’m going to take out the garbage’, take out the garbage. That’s totally doable. And if you say, ‘Okay, tomorrow I’m going to make two phone calls which I will follow up on with letters’, make those two phone calls and write those two letters.

Visualize yourself keeping your appointments with yourself, following up on your intentions, and getting things done. By creating this synergy with your intention, other-than-conscious, imagination and your deep desire to accomplish what you need to accomplish, you have the ability to push past any procrastination problems you might encounter.

Here's to victory over procrastination!

Kenrick Cleveland

Hi,

I've recently gotten e-mails from people asking if I were still alive and if so, what's happened to me.

Thus, this e-mail and blog post.

First off, yes I'm still alive.

And I'm doing better than ever -- as you'll soon begin to see.

Before I explain, first I simply want to say -- I'm sorry. I should have been staying in touch. There simply isn't a very good reason for my lack of contact. I'm grateful you're a part of my group and I intend to change my ways effective immediately.

Having said that... let me fill you in a little more.

This year, I turned 50. And it's been an incredible year. In a few short months it feels as if I have lived an entire additional lifetime. It's been extremely challenging and it's been very rewarding. My personal life has been down and up. Thankfully, mostly up.

But one thing has continued to go down (which is a positive thing) -- my weight. I weigh less now by more than 20 pounds than I did 13 years ago. And that's really saying something!

I'm by no means there yet, but step by step I'll get there. And I think it's enough that you'll begin to be able to tell as well.

And to that end I'm excited to let you know a few things.

I promise to begin communicating with you much more than I have been. I have so many strategies and ideas that will help you with your persuasion and personal development skills and I can't wait to begin giving them to you.

How you might ask?

Videos.

It's going to be exciting to be able to talk with you in this new format that to date, I haven't used much. I can't wait to get started and even more, I can't wait to hear your thoughts.

In the meantime, you may be wondering what I've been doing to accomplish losing more weight than many people have. LOL

I have to admit to starting my weight loss program using less than healthy strategies. But it got me going. Finally, I realized that the whole reason I was wanting to lose weight was to be healthy and have a good quality of life. So I switched to eating the most healthy, vibrant food I possibly could.

What I eat today is approximately 85% raw food.

I'm passionate about this and will be sharing more with you as I can from time to time. It is changing my life and looks.

Today, more and more people are looking to improve their health. So I'll share my struggles, difficulties and successes with you which hopefully will motivate you.

Expect great things to come.

Kenrick

P.S. My friend Trever is going to be doing an interview with me about how I've accomplished the shedding of these unwanted pounds in the immediate future and I'll let you know where you can hear it. In the mean time, he has created an amazing program that is nearing ready to start on how to eat for better health. It's amazing and I'll be participating. Check it out here: http://www.maxpersuasion.com/recommends/natural

Hi,

Recently I began looking for quotes that show the power of belief.

What I found surprised me.

While I prefer to focus on the positive, these show just how powerful beliefs can be. (I'll be posting more of these on Twitter so be sure you are following me there. And of course, I'll follow you back. Just click here to add me.)

Here's a few of what I found.

"Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible." (Lord Kelvin, president, Royal Society, 1895)

"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers." (Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943)

"There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in their home." (Ken Olsen, president, chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corp., 1977)

"The telephone has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us." (Western Union internal memo, 1876)

"Airplanes are interesting toys but of no military value." (Marshal Ferdinand Foch, French commander of Allied forces during the closing months of World War I, 1918)

From a persuasion standpoint, you can clearly see the problem you'd have if you needed persuade any of these people. Their beliefs would clearly need to be addressed. But it goes beyond merely addressing them. This effects their entire world view. And if others had bought into their positions, where would we be today?

But the bigger lesson here is the realization that beliefs (including values) really do run our lives. They shape what we see and what we don't see. They enable us to be rich and successful or poor and limited.

The great thing is that WE HAVE CHOICE.

Examine what you believe about why you are where you are today. Examine why you do or do not have the money you want. And examine why you are creating the life of your dreams or are manifesting the excuses as to why you don't have it. It's your choice - choose well.

Now, tell me your thoughts. I'd love to hear from you. And while you're at it, share this post on Twitter, if you would.

Kenrick

Sure enough. Tony Robbins said that to a woman crying her eyes out when
we worked with her on stage.

And guess what happened.

She stopped crying.

In fact, she just stopped.

Finally she stammered, "What do you mean?"

And Tony told her she was crying so hard it looked like someone peed on her
face.

She was silent and than began to laugh.

Tony was able to move her to a place where he could work on her problem.

A lot of the people you meet as a persuader are stuck in their own minds.

And we as persuaders need to be able to ask them - "Who Peed On Their Face".

However, I suspect if you aren't on stage like Tony AND you don't have
Tony's leverage,
that might not be the wisest strategy.

Instead, let me show you how I persuade today using Kenrick's Persuasion
Interrupts.

Go here to view the short video:

http://www.maxpersuasion.com/persuasion_interrupts

In a famous Greek legend, the Gordian knot was the name given to an
intricate knot used by Gordius to secure his oxcart.

Gordius, who was a poor peasant, arrived with his wife in a public square of
Phrygia in an oxcart.

An oracle had informed the populace that their future king would come riding
in a wagon.

Seeing Gordius, the people made him king.

In gratitude, Gordius dedicated his oxcart to Zeus, tying it up with a
peculiar knot.

An oracle foretold that he who untied the knot would rule all of Asia.

Many people tried to undo the knot but all to no avail. The penalty for
failing to untie the knot was death.

In 333 B.C. Alexander the Great had invaded Asia Minor and arrived in the
central mountains at the town of Gordium;

He was 23 years old. Alexander was undefeated, but without a decisive
victory either.

He was in need of an omen to prove to his troops and his enemies that the
outcome of his mission - to conquer the known world - was possible.

In Gordium, by the Temple of the Zeus Basilica, was the ox cart, which had
been put there by the King of Phrygia over 100 years before.

The staves of the cart were tied together in a complex knot with the ends
tucked away inside.

Having arrived at Gordium it was inconceivable that the young, impetuous
Alexander would not attempt to tackle the legendary "Gordian Knot".

Alexander climbed the hill and approached the cart as a crowd of curious
Macedonians and Phrygians gathered around.

They watched intently as Alexander struggled with the knot and became
frustrated.

Alexander, stepping back, called out, "What does it matter how I loose it?"
With that, he drew his sword, and in one powerful stroke severed the knot.
Alexander the Great went on to conquer most of Asia before his death.

This story isn't about Alexander the Great.

It's about YOU.

It's about cutting through all of the nonsense and making more sales.

It's about connecting with your customers in a new way.

You've never experienced the power of my all new program.

Here's the sword that's working today. Click here to watch the video

Hey, it's Kenrick with a video today.

It's about my latest breakthrough technique.

It's straight out of my persuasion lab and
it's about what you need to do to pump up your sales.

If you're not meeting your sales goals,

If you're tired of listening to people whining about the economy,

I want you to check out this video about what's working TODAY.

Not SHOULD BE working.

Not will work a YEAR FROM NOW.

But this is what is WORKING RIGHT NOW.

So check out this video.

http://www.maxpersuasion.com/persuasion_interrupts/

Hey everyone, it's Kenrick about the mind and the economy.

Your subconscious is actually very smart and very gullible at the same time.

It's smart enough to run your body around the clock without you telling it
what to do.

Imagine if we had to stay up all the time so we would remember to breathe.

So our subconscious minds run our systems so we can focus on our lives.

But at the same token, your subconscious mind accepts what it is told to do
without much discrimination.

Tell yourself things aren't going to work out and they probably won't.

You've programed your mind for failure.

Tell yourself things are going to work out fine, and they probably will.

Now imagine a huge collective subconscious.

It's not just you programming your own mind, everyone else gets to join in.

But there's one problem.

Everyone is dumping garbage and negativity in your brain.

Turn on the news.

It's all bad.

The economy is bad.

The economy is going to stay bad.

Christmas sales are going to be bad.

And your subconscious mind accepts it and makes it come true.

And your clients can't afford to buy ANYTHING because the economy is so bad.

Unless you do something radically different.

I'll tell you more tomorrow.