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Kenrick Cleveland..'s Articles in Business

  • What's Luck Got To Do With It?
    "Luck? I don't know anything about luck. I've never banked on it, and I'm afraid of people who do. Luck to me is something else: Hard work -- and realizing what is opportunity and what isn't." --Lucille Ball
  • What's Going On?
    "You must take personal responsibility. You cannot change the circumstances, the seasons, or the wind, but you can change yourself. That is something you have charge of." - Jim Rohn
  • What The Martians Must Think
    Indulge me for a moment while I veer off into the world of fantasy for a moment. The world of make believe, our crazy political world from a martian's perspective.
  • What Happens When You Refuse to Persuade
    "No oppression is so heavy or lasting as that which is inflicted by the perversion and exorbitance of legal authority." --Joseph Addison
  • Visual Represetational Systems: See The Light
    In a previous article, I discussed the basics of the VAK (visual, auditory and kinesthetic) representational system and it's value in gaining rapport with an affluent clientle. In this article, I'm going to go more in depth with visual language.
  • Very Superstitious: 'there Are No Accidents'
    'Very superstitious, writing's on the wall Very superstitious, ladders bout' to fall Thirteen month old baby, broke the lookin' glass Seven years of bad luck, the good things in your past
  • Using the Law of Resonance
    Not long ago I heard a story that had something to do with one of the natural laws of the universe -- the Law of Resonance. This is similar but not exactly like the Law of Attraction which says that what you put out there is what you're going to attract into your life. Like attracts like.
  • Using The Forbidden To Persuade
    'Forbid us something, and that thing we desire.' - Geoffrey Chaucer
  • Understanding VAK
    When we're persuading the affluent, (which is after all, where the money is) it's useful to be as much like them as possible.
  • Two Sides of the Same Coin
    "You will make more friends in a week by getting yourself interested in other people than you can in a year by trying to get other people interested in you." --Arnold Bennett
  • Too Much To Choose From
    This has happened to me. Maybe it's because I don't normally do the grocery shopping. I've gone into the supermarket or drug store for a tube of toothpaste and found myself confronted with three or four dozen varieties of toothpaste. Why? It's a fairly simple substance. We use it every day, hopefully twice. So why are there so many to choose from? We've got cream paste, gel, gel with sparkles, whitening toothpaste, some with baking soda, others for sensitive gums. There's toothpastes for kids, natural toothpastes, and all come in various flavors. Once we figure out what brand and flavor we want, then we have to figure out what size we need. Travel? Economy? Family sized?
  • The Territory of Self Persuasion
    "Don't ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive." Howard Thurman
  • The Synergy Of Affluence
    As a recent addition to my coaching club, I've added one-on-one calls. Together, my students and I have delved into all kinds of stuff from persuasion and affluence attraction to more spiritually oriented matters to, you name it. It's open, personal access in which my members come to me with things that maybe they're stuck on or things they just want to get better at.
  • The Structuring Of Reality
    "I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy." -Tom Waits
  • The Relativity Of Luxury
    "The saddest thing I can imagine is to get used to luxury." --Charlie Chaplin
  • The Power of Focus in Persuasion
    If you're anything like me, your life is full of distractions. From every direction we are bombarded with one thing or another. Just in the course of this paragraph, I've had one 'new e-mail' alert, some instant messages from my assistant, in the other room I can hear my kids arguing over the remote, my dog wants to go for a walk, I'm a little thirsty, the phone will ring any second. . . One simple paragraph can be exhausting in light of all the other things that are vying for attention.
  • The Persuasion of Isolation
    Last year I saw a documentary about the cult leader Jim Jones called "Jonestown: The Life And Death of People's Temple". It is the history of the murder/"suicide" of 913 members of the People's Temple in Guyana through photos, clips, recordings and interviews of surviving members.
  • The Path to Activating Your Affluence
    My belief is that we create our own destiny. The lives we have are the lives we have made for ourselves--good or bad.
  • The Most Important Tool
    "The most important persuasion tool you have in your entire arsenal is integrity." --Zig Ziglar
  • The Intent Behind Persuasion: I'm a Believer
    There's a term we like to use in our culture which seems to be relatively new and quite pop psychology (if you ask me): baggage. It seems to describe and cover the gamut from dashed hopes, to tragedies, to past relationships that went awry, to frustrating experiences or setbacks in our businesses.
  • The Frame of Revivification
    To revivify is to restore the old, a renewal of life, the act of recalling something that was once in use to an active status.
  • The Final Four: Linguistic Pitfalls Part Two
    It seems a few of you are paying attention. That thrills me. In part one of this article I talked about the eight pitfalls we have in language though I only cited four of them--but, if, try, might. The comments at the end of my blog entry on the above topic proves that open loops work.
  • The Continuums of Persuasion: Keys to Your Prospect's Particulars
    Recently I heard a pretty funny joke: 'I have the idea that one person's dream is another person's nightmare. For example, it's my dream to sleep with Cindy Crawford. I'll bet you anything that would be her nightmare.'
  • The Brain and Persuasion
    "The existence of forgetting has never been proved: We only know that some things don't come to mind when we want them." ~ Friedrich Nietzsche
  • Tangible Symbols of Affluence
    Amulets (or objects that protect a person from trouble) and talismans (objects intended to bring good luck or protection) have been around since the dawn of man. Seriously, the first man probably saw a shell or a rock, picked it up, and thought, 'Hey, this is a great rock (or shell). I'll bet it's a special rock (or shell) and will bring me good luck and protect me from evil."
  • Superstition As Persuasion
    Here's a common superstition. . . We say "God bless you" when a person sneezes. Why? Well, this particular superstition started in the Middle Ages when it was thought that the devil could enter a person in unguarded moments, such as when they were in the midst of a sneeze. If someone said the magic words "God bless you" during or after the sneeze, the demonic possession could be avoided.
  • Stop Selling On Autopilot
    I've been updating my computer system (again!) lately and have been making periodic trips out to the local super computer chain store in my area for this or that. A fair amount of the time, I'm able to find what I need, get in and out, without much hoopla. But when I'm looking for a more expensive piece of equipment, I have experienced a little of what I'm calling the Attack of the Sales Zombies.
  • Stifling Their Inner Critics
    One of the main goals we have as persuaders and sales professionals is to suspend the critical judgment of our affluent prospects and clients. To accomplish this, we need to shut down their inner critics by getting them out of their lives and showing them something bigger and better (what life will look like once we're a part of it.)
  • Spare Parts: Segmenting Personality For Sales Persuasion
    Parts. We are all made up of parts. A part of me wants a bagel with cream cheese, but another part of me really wants to continue to become healthier. Part of me wants to go take a nap, but this other part wants to finish the project I started. We divide ourselves into parts as a way to talk about our experiences.
  • softening language
    There's something I'm curious about. . .
  • So Much Persuasion: Ways To Learn
    I had a student ask me recently, "Kenrick, how do you keep track of all of these persuasion strategies? Every time we have a conference call or seminar, you pull out another technique adding to the dozens and dozens of techniques we've already learned. I can't even remember to use the 'unconscious hello'."
  • Small Changes/big Changes
    'Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.' --Albert Einstein
  • Slipping Into Our Prospect's Skin
    You've heard the saying; you can't know someone until you've walked a mile in their shoes. This is a technique on how to gain rapport by jumping into another person, figuratively walking a mile in their shoes. Harper Lee wrote in To Kill a Mockingbird, "You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view...until you climb into his skin and walk around in it."
  • Silver Linings And Watchtowers Of Imagination
    "Be miserable. Or motivate yourself. Whatever has to be done, it's always your choice." --Wayne Dyer
  • Short Circuiting Buyer's Remorse
    Every single human being on the planet today wants to believe that they have done something of value for themselves when they've made a purchase, and that they've used their ability to choose well and make a good decision. And as a result of this they want to know they're not going to feel bad about the choices they've made.
  • Short Circuiting Buyer's Remorse
    It's human nature to want to believe that we have done something of value when we make a purchase. We like to feel we've used proper sense and keen determination in choosing things that are going to be good for us and of the greatest use. And we most certainly want to know we'll feel good about the choices we've made in the long run.
  • Setting Your Frame From The Start
    Everything has a beginning. A starting point. And when we have clarity and intention when we start something, it sets the way for what we can expect. When you sit down to start a presentation or begin to talk with a new client or prospect, how do you start?
  • Selling Through Future Pacing
    Here's a bit of an advanced technique. It's called future pacing and it works to remind your prospect or client of all the reasons they made the decision to buy your product or service. It transfers all of these reasons to a future point in time and triggers your prospect to remember them when an anchor is fired off.
  • Self Persuasion: Begin By Beginning
    I've said it before, and I'll say it many times: Persuasion is first and foremost the study of human nature. And despite the things that are understandable about human nature, we are still very intricate and complex creatures. If all things were equal, there would still be some people who excel and others who get stuck.
  • self persuasion through organization
    If you're anything like me, you're a very busy person. Not only am I busy with regular things--teaching, family, health maintenance--I'm also in the midst of a moving, requiring an added list of what needs to be done. It's hard to believe how much has to be done in a day and because this is on my mind, I'm inspired to write more on the topic of organization as I believe it has helped keep me on even footing in a time of change.
  • Self Motivation With Your Other-Than-Conscious Mind
    "It is as if evolution has built a safety device in our nervous system that allows us to experience full happiness only when we are living at 100% - when we are fully using the physical and mental equipment we have been given." ~Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
  • Self Improvements For The New Year
    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.
  • Self Calibration And Gut Instinct
    Intuition is defined as "the immediate apprehension of an object by the mind without the intervention of any reasoning process" [Oxford English Dictionary].
  • Scapegoating And Persuasion
    Seems like for a while there nearly every car in the U.S. had a "United We Stand" bumper sticker. These stickers imply that our standing united was our only salvation. When we don't stand united, what happens? Of course, we fall divided.
  • Reveling in Unselfconscious Affluence
    We didn't all grow up affluent. I know for a fact that several of my students, in fact, are literally rags to riches stories. Through single-minded perseverance, intention, education, hard work, and maybe a little luck, they have created financial universes for themselves that are quite enviable and outstanding.
  • Repetition In Threes: Soothing Persuasion
    "Rhythm is something you either have or don't have, and when you have it, you have it all over." -Elvis Presley
  • Relentlessly Yes!
    "All that man achieves, and all that he fails to achieve is a direct result of his own thoughts." -James Allen
  • Reframing With Authority: Whoever Has the Best Frame, Wins
    Here's a scenario that's probably never happened to you (or anybody). You're driving down the freeway and maybe you're going a tad too fast, and you look up and see the old blue and red lights flashing in your rear view mirror. Bummer. So you pull over and wait. The officer walks up to your window and says, "Hi there. I'm so sorry to inconvenience you. I think you might have been going a little to fast and I'm wondering if you wouldn't mind showing me your license, registration and proof of insurance? Again, I'm so sorry to bother you."
  • Reframing Framing
    An employee of mine, my transcriptionist, was living in New Orleans until August 28, 2005. On that day, she and her boyfriend and their cats drove north to Tennessee to ride out the storm in a pet friendly hotel.
  • Rapid Rapport With Storytelling
    Here's the scenario: you are face to face with a new prospect and they've heard a little bit about you or your reputation and the kind of person you are to work with, but maybe they still have a few questions, a few defenses up. It's your job to overcome these before they can trust you with their business.
  • Practical Persuasion: Ways We Learn
    One of my newer students asked me on a recent call, "Kenrick, how are you able to keep track of all of the different language patterns and persuasion techniques that you know and use? I mean, each time we're on one of these coaching calls, it seems like you're not only using new techniques, but combining two or three or more techniques at once. Sometimes I can't even remember the first step. How can I remember to remember?'
  • Persuasive Words: Framing Islamophobia
    Phobias and isms... they come in all shapes and sizes. There's racism, sexism, classism, sizeism, anti-Semitism, anti-intellectualism... All of these represent a belief of superiority of one race, gender, class, size, or religion over another or a hatred of one against another.
  • Persuasive Storytelling
    'Facts and figures are forgotten. Stories are retold.' -Jeffrey Gitomer
  • Persuasive Oration: Watching What You Say
    Language, like persuasion, is an art. It's an art that can be mangled, yes. (Just look at poor Miss Teen North Carolina for a classic language malfunction.) And as with any art, (unless you're a prodigy as Mozart was with music, as H.P. Lovecraft was with poetry, as Pablo Picasso was with painting), most likely you will have to practice to be good at the art of language, and subsequently the art of persuasion.
  • Persuasive Blaming: Use With Caution
    In previous articles I've written about using superstition and people's beliefs as a means to persuade. The term 'everything happens for a reason' is one of these concepts; 'there are no accidents' is another. If you've read these articles, you're already familiar with the power that they can hold in persuasion.
  • Persuasion Without Thought
    I recently saw a humorous bumper sticker that read, "Don't believe everything you think." I liked it because it made me ponder thought and how at times, I find thinking to be somewhat overrated.
  • Persuasion Through Competition
    Lately I've been really dedicated to working out and recently I noticed something interesting at the gym. My gym is most definitely not a meat market. A very large percentage of the patrons are there because they care about their health and not for dating purposes or to see and be seen.
  • Persuasion Metaphors From Around The World
    While the concept of 'energy' may seem new-agey, I personally find it integral to the understanding of self, which is the first step in understanding persuasion.
  • Persuasion And The Media
    "The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself." -Friedrich Nietzsche
  • Persuading With The Thirty Six Chinese Stratagem
    "So it is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you will win a hundred times in a hundred battles. If you only know yourself, but not your opponent, you win one and lose the next. If you do not know yourself or your enemy, you will always lose." -Ancient Chinese Proverb
  • Persuading with The Competitive Edge
    The gym I attend is by no means a meat market. There are few mirrors, and the clientle appears to be there to maintain and/or work on their health, not to see and be seen. And I noticed something amazing at the gym that I want to share with you.
  • Persuading With The Awareness Pattern
    "The moment one gives close attention to anything, even a blade of grass, it becomes a mysterious, awesome, indescribably magnificent world in itself." -Henry Miller
  • Persuading Through Embedded Suggestions
    "Persuasion is often more effectual than force." -Aesop
  • persuading personally
    In business, we have rules of decorum, obviously, but I am of the opinion that some rules were meant to be bent. Not broken entirely, but molded and bent to suit your persuasive needs.
  • Persuading from The Zone
    We've all heard of athletes who say they were really in 'the zone'. The zone is that perfect point where whatever we're doing is accomplished with ease and elegance whether it be playing an instrument, driving down the perfect road at the perfect speed on the perfect motorcycle, or selling to one prospect after another.
  • Persuading Elegantly
    "Human subtlety will never devise an invention more beautiful, more simple, or more direct than does Nature, because in her inventions, nothing is lacking and nothing is superfluous." --Leonardo da Vinci
  • Peeve Number One: The Victim Mentality
    "Thou shalt not be a victim. Thou shalt not be a perpetrator. Above all, thou shalt not be a bystander." --Holocaust Museum, Washington, DC
  • Paper Seeds: An Exercise in Sprouting and Manifesting
    I lived on my grandpa's farm as a kid and he taught me some very important life lessons including the Biblical verse: As you sow, so shall you reap.
  • Overcoming The Collective Negativity
    "Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity." --Seneca, Roman philosopher, mid-1st century AD
  • Organizing For Persuasion
    "Three Rules of Work: Out of clutter find simplicity; From discord find harmony; In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity." -Albert Einstein
  • Open Your Ears
    "It is the province of knowledge to speak, and it is the privilege of wisdom to listen." -- Oliver Wendell Holmes
  • On the Contrary: How To Deal With a Polarity Responder
    All of us have known a polarity responder at one time or another. A polarity responder, regardless of the situation, will respond in opposition to anything you say. 'It's a beautiful day.'
  • On Gratitude
    "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
  • On Being Receptive To Our Prospect's Energy
    From time-to-time I like to bring up some concepts that might be considered a little woo woo. I ask your indulgence with this and suggest that if it works, even woo woo has value.
  • Old Fashioned Sales: Features and Benefits
    If you've ever cooked noodles you know that you can determine if they are done by throwing the noodle against the wall to see if it sticks. If it does, then it's done. When I think of 'features and benefits', I think of someone throwing a whole pot of noodles against the wall to see what sticks.
  • Obstacles Into Opportunities
    "It still holds true that man is most uniquely human when he turns obstacles into opportunities." --Eric Hoffer
  • Negating Words: But
    I really like you, but. . .
  • Need: Persuading Prospects Based On Their Deep Values
    "Nothing has more strength than dire necessity." ~ Euripides
  • Misery Loves to Spend
    The John F. Kennedy School for Government at Harvard University recently released a study that found that even momentary sadness causes people to increase spending.
  • Master Your Fears
    "Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear-not absence of fear."--Mark Twain
  • Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire
    Under the heading of 'human nature' comes lying. Humans lie. Period. Big lies, small lies, lies to spare feelings, lies to spare trouble.
  • Let's Get Emotional
    Forget about appealing to your prospects and clients with logic. Sales is all about appealing to emotions and logic comes a (way) distant second. To illustrate my point, I'm going to tell you a story about some college students who figured this out and put it to the test.
  • Jumping Off the Bandwagon
    Yeah, I know, things are getting expensive. Grocery prices are soaring because gas prices are soaring because there's a war going on because a fear of scarcity has been instilled in us because . . . well, it's complicated, right? Regardless of the reasons, I get back to the point that things are expensive.
  • Is it true? Does Everything Happen for a Reason?
    Last week I got a call from an acquaintance of mine. He said, 'Remember that conversation we had about Africa a few weeks ago? Well, I just checked my e-mail and you won't believe it. I won an international lottery originating in Africa. You know, I'm just convinced everything happens for a reason, don't you think?'
  • Is it true? Does Everything Happen for a Reason?
    I got a call from an acquaintance a while back. He said, 'Do you remember the conversation we had about Africa? Well, I checked my e-mail and found, unbelievably, that I won an international lottery which originated in Africa. I'm just convinced that everything happens for a reason, aren't you?'
  • Inoculating Yourself Against Rejection
    We all had them as children -- those painful shots that prevented all sorts of nasty diseases. Now that we're grown ups, we know why we needed them, but when we were little kids, it didn't make any difference because the only thing we understood was that they hurt and left us sort.
  • I Presuppose So
    At the core of presupposition is the idea that we can assume a mental position or thought which our prospects or clients must take for granted in order for everything else that we say to make sense without us actually having to name the core concept.
  • I Am An Onion: Layers of Complexity in Persuasion and Life
    I love a good metaphor. An especially powerful metaphor for me lately has been that of an onion. The Cleveland Method deals with a deep understanding of our core drives and unconscious motivations. When we focus inward, only then can we genuinely understand others.
  • How To Not Become Rich
    1. Wait for approval or permission from society.
  • How To Maintain Good Boundaries In Rapport
    "It is the business of thought to define things, to find the boundaries; thought, indeed, is a ceaseless process of definition. It is the business of art to give things shape." -Vance Palmer
  • How To Adjust Your Lens
    I've written about framing basics in previous articles. Framing is a vast subject and couldn't possibly be summed up in just a few articles, but it's a foundation.
  • Hocus Pocus: Reframing Sugar
    I recently came across a banner ad on the internet that read: "Skip artificals. Go natural. Sugar: sweet by nature. Only 15 calories per teaspoon."
  • Hammers and Nails: Framing Challenges
    "When you are inspired by some great purpose, some extraordinary project, all your thoughts break their bonds: Your mind transcends limitations, your consciousness expands in every direction, and you find yourself in a new, great, and wonderful world. Dormant forces, faculties and talents become alive, and your discover yourself to be a greater person by far than you ever dreamed yourself to be." -Patanjali (author and yogi)
  • Group Rapport: Shovel It Up and Filter It Out
    When I was first starting out in the business of persuasion, I had some difficulty with anxiety surrounding live events and seminars. Prior to a seminar for about a week, I'd become unbearable to be around. The wife and kids avoided me, even the dog steered clear. I didn't like it, but thought it was just the cost of doing business. And as if that weren't bad enough, after the event, I'd have an equally difficult "crash" or let down, not because the event wasn't successful, but because a huge amount of energy was expended and released and left me feeling as if I needed some recovery time.
  • Gratitude and Persuasion
    "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
  • Good Habits Out of Bad
    Habits, by definition, are habitual things we do. Whether it be a habit of needing that after dinner cigarette or biting your fingernails during a stressful period, we all are creatures of habit no matter how spontaneous we like to think we are.
  • going above and beyond for an affluent clientle
    I recently read a story about the Ritz Carlton Hotel that got me to thinking about how to really cater to and take care of a wealthy client, thereby keeping them interested and connected to you and your product or service.
  • Genie In A Bottle: Your Universe In Pictures
    We've all had the experience of wanting something that has eluded us. Maybe it's wealth, possessions, maybe it's a relationship, maybe it's optimum health or other physical attributes which for some reason or another we have not been able to conjure up.
  • Gaslighting: Stirring Up Doubt
    Here's a great example of a powerful strategy called gaslighting and how to use it in your persuasive situations with the affluent...
  • Future Hope
    "If you want to build a ship, don't herd people together to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea." -- Antoine de Saint-Exupery

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