Prosperity From The Inside Out

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What this book offers you
Prosperity. What does this word mean to you?
To me, it means an abundant flow of wealth in a wide variety of
forms. Money, certainly, but also happiness, joy, love, affection, fun,
respect, admiration, and other fruits of social interaction. Add vibrant
health, peace of mind, and the confidence that comes from knowing
you can achieve anything you want, and you have a complete package I
call true prosperity.
This book contains the Keys I ve found to unlock the bountiful
harvest that lies within the grasp of everyone when they know how to
open the floodgates of Divine Power using simple little principles.
It is my sincere desire that when you finish reading this, you will
KNOW everything you want is easily within your grasp, and that you
also have a clear idea in your mind of exactly HOW you will obtain the
prosperity you want to see in your life.
In order to accomplish this goal, I will present you with a buffet of
information and tools to use in creating your own personal prosperity.
You are free to pick and choose what appeals to you and leave the rest.
In the end, there are no right or wrong answers only answers which
either serve you well, or don t.
The information I share with you here comes from many sources.
Much of it came from reading what other experts had to say about the
matter, and some came from my own intuition. All of it has been
tested in real life, and verified to be practical, useful, and effective.
Although I will reveal some of the theory behind the tools, you ll get
solid, workable, action steps to put into practice right away.
I ve organized this material into 5 powerful sections. Section 1
covers the foundation for all true prosperity your belief system. It s
a very true statement that no one will even try to accomplish
something if they believe it to be impossible, and as such, our beliefs
often stand in our way to great achievements. In order to realize your
inner potential, you must mold your belief system to support your
goals.
Section 2 builds upon the foundation of your belief system, and
gives you a set of practical, real-world principles guaranteed to create
circumstances which make personal prosperity a natural way of life.
Using the tools you find in this section, you will receive a rich harvest
of what I call the social fruits love, respect, admiration, and more.
Your relationships will become more harmonious, your health will
improve, and you will be more confident in anything you set out to do
once you start living these principles.
Section 3 continues this outward progression with highly valuable
training in the art and science of powerfully effective communication,
otherwise known as persuasion. This comes directly from the
introductory chapters of my popular Keys To Power Persuasion course.
Here is where you discover the secrets behind all human behavior, and
how to get what you want from others without confrontation.
Section 4 is where you will find even more practical, step-by-step
action plans to create financial prosperity in your life. Whether you
just want to increase your income by a few hundred dollars a month, or
if you want to become the next Fortune 100 corporation, the plans you
find here will set you on your way. I ve included plans that can be
implemented in a single day, as well as plans earning millions of
dollars for those using them.
And section 5 contains a detailed list of resources that will help
you take your newfound knowledge as far as you want to go with it.
Obviously, a single book cannot supply you with EVERYTHING you
need, and the resources I give you here will take care of the minor
details I just didn t have room to fit into this book.
Many of the ideas and plans you ll find in this book will save you
both time and money, and a significant amount of each.
Conservatively speaking, if I had such a book early in my life, I would
be at least a dozen years ahead of where I am now and many millions
of dollars richer. If I can help you get even 1% of that for yourself, my
time writing this book would have been well worth it.
About the Author
Alan Tutt started out in life as an A student,
but soon fell into failure due to an overabundance
of limiting beliefs. After years of struggle and
hardship, Alan came upon a message of faith, and
pursued a line of scientific research until it paid off
in a long series of personal successes.
Now with over 25 years of experience, Alan spends his time
coaching individuals and businesses to help them find the underlying
beliefs responsible for hardships and limitations, and helping them
change those beliefs to manifest greater success and empowerment.
Alan continues to refine his techniques to get better and better
results, and records his findings in an ever-growing collection of
products. He also maintains the PowerKeys Publishing website at
www.PowerKeysPub.com where he works to fulfill his mission to
provide exceptional personal development for exceptional people.
(ther )oo*s by Alan Tutt
Choose To Believe: A Practical Guide to Living Your Dreams
Treasure Map to Online Riches
Keys To Power Step by Step course
Keys To Power Prosperity
Keys To Power Persuasion
Audio !rogra's
Choose To Believe Audio Workshop
EmBRACES Belief Entrainment System
Keys To Power: The Power of Intention
Awaken Your Power (guided meditation)
Sharpen Your Focus (guided meditation)
Various BWE (BrainWave Entrainment) programs
All of the above (and MUCH more) may be found on the
PowerKeys Publishing website, at www.PowerKeysPub.com.
Table of Contents
Section 1: Prosperity From the Inside Out.......................1
What are you worth?........................................................................2
Physical Value.............................................................................2
Mental Value...............................................................................3
Spiritual Value............................................................................4
Heritage Value.............................................................................5
What s Your Bottom Line?..........................................................6
Steps To Powerful Self-Confidence..................................................7
How Self-Confidence Works........................................................7
The Power of Partnerships..........................................................9
Building Self-Confidence Through Experience.........................10
Building Self-Confidence Through Suggestion..........................12
Mountain-Moving Faith..................................................................15
Definition of Faith.....................................................................15
Examples of Faith in Action......................................................16
How to Use the Power of Faith..................................................19
The Mechanics of Faith.............................................................20
Developing Faith in Prosperity.................................................21
What s Holding You Back?............................................................23
Beliefs Set Context For Everything Else....................................24
Tool for Belief Discovery: The Belief Scale...............................25
207 Prosperity Beliefs....................................................................30
How To Get Maximum Results From The Law of Attraction........39
Basic Foundational Concepts...................................................40
Why Beliefs Are Most Important In The Law of Attraction.......41
Bringing It All Together.............................................................41
Putting This Into Practice.........................................................43
Section 2: Personal Prosperity Keys................................45
How To Be Happy Every Day........................................................46
Put Things Into Perspective.......................................................46
Count Your Blessings.................................................................47
Take Time For Yourself.............................................................48
Do Something Worthwhile........................................................49
Choose To Believe In Yourself...................................................50
Make A Firm Decision To Be Happy.........................................51
Power Keys For Eliminating Stress From Your Life......................53
Dealing With Discomfort..........................................................53
Dealing With Stressful Beliefs...................................................54
Transforming Anger Into Joy.........................................................56
Setting Power Goals.......................................................................58
The Most Important Key To Prosperity.........................................62
The True Importance Of Gift Giving.............................................64
Why Christmas HAD to be Commercialized ................................66
The Magic Mirror of Abundance...................................................68
Section 3: Power Persuasion.............................................70
Introduction To Power Persuasion..................................................71
Why Learn Persuasion?............................................................71
Benefits of Using Power Persuasion..........................................72
Who Should Learn Power Persuasion?.....................................72
Typical Persuaders....................................................................73
Defending Yourself....................................................................75
Psychology of Persuasion...............................................................76
The Grand Scale of Persuasion.................................................76
The Automatic Nature of the Mind &
The Pink Elephant Principle.....................................................77
Associative Linking...................................................................78
Language As Experience...........................................................78
The 5 Phases of Power Persuasion............................................80
Motivating Desires....................................................................89
Personality Types.......................................................................91
Three Levels of Persuasion.......................................................92
The Pygmalion Effect................................................................94
Judgmental Heuristics...............................................................96
Why People Do What They Do......................................................99
Source of Motivating Desires....................................................99
Hidden Operation of the Human Mind...................................100
Common Factors of all Motivating Desires.............................101
How These Motivating Desires Affect Persuasion...................102
Motivating Desires Common To Most Humans.......................103
Discover Your Prospect s Secret Buttons......................................113
Pleasure / Pain.........................................................................114
Emotional / Logical.................................................................117
Details / Big Picture................................................................119
Self-Centered / Other-Centered...............................................120
Leader / Follower....................................................................122
Moving / Static.........................................................................124
Persuasion Training......................................................................126
Mind Set Quickly Become A Power Persuader.....................126
Appearance Making A Great 1st Impression........................133
Eye Contact Training...............................................................139
Voice Training.........................................................................140
Gesture Training......................................................................146
Body Language Training.........................................................149
Charisma The Key To Instant Persuasion............................156
Section 4: Money-Making Prosperity Keys..................163
How to Turn Debt Into Wealth.....................................................164
Step 1: Stop purchasing on credit...........................................164
Step 2: Make a monthly budget...............................................164
Step 3: Start with small debts..................................................164
Step 4: Move to larger debts....................................................165
Step 5: Repeat and continue....................................................165
Step 6: Invest in assets.............................................................166
Thriving in any economy..............................................................167
How do you present a better offer as an employee?................168
Attracting better employees.....................................................168
Attracting more customers.......................................................169
Discover Your Personal Path to Prosperity...................................172
Quick Personality Assessment.................................................172
Personal Interests....................................................................173
Organizing a Business.............................................................176
Helpful Hints...........................................................................176
A Never-Fail Business Opportunity..............................................186
I learned this from personal experience. ...............................186
Where did we go wrong in that venture?.................................187
How ANYONE Can Make BIG BUCKS On The Internet...........188
Step 1: Define your business type...........................................188
Step 2: Define your business format........................................189
Step 3: Define your product delivery format...........................189
Step 4: Define your marketing strategy...................................190
Step 5: Choose your niche.......................................................191
Step 6: Package your information for sale..............................192
Step 7: Install the website infrastructure.................................193
Step 8: Create a sales page to describe your products............194
Step 9: Launching your website..............................................196
Conclusion...............................................................................196
Promoting Other People s Products As An Affiliate....................197
What Is An Affiliate?...............................................................197
Why Are Affiliates Paid?.........................................................198
How Affiliates Earn Money.....................................................200
Making Money As A Commissioned Sales Rep.......................200
Making Money As An Advertising Broker...............................202
Choosing Your Pathway..........................................................203
Creating Viral Ebooks..................................................................204
What Viral Ebooks Can Do For You.......................................204
What to put in a viral ebook....................................................205
Tips On Organizing Your Content...........................................210
Producing A Winning Ebook...................................................211
Final Steps...............................................................................212
Distributing Viral Ebooks........................................................213
Karmic Marketing.........................................................................214
Knowing Your Market..............................................................214
Your Marketing Character.......................................................215
Marketing Storylines................................................................216
Mass Control Formula............................................................217
Using GOOD scarcity.............................................................218
Section 5: Resources For More Information.................219
Resources For More Information..................................................220
Section 1:
Prosperity From
the Inside ut
In this section, you will discover:
1. An easy way to increase your own self-worth.
2. Specific steps to build your self-confidence.
3. The importance of your belief system and why it s the first
thing you want to address before taking any other steps
4. How to find limiting beliefs that stand in your way
5. The 207 beliefs you need for unlimited prosperity.
6. How to change your beliefs to empower yourself and ease the
way for abundant prosperity to effortlessly flow into your life.
What are you !orth"
!hysi$al +alue
Let me start out saying that the most important thing about
attracting abundant prosperity is that you will only attract as much as
you feel that you are worth.
Right now, say I am worth a million dollars! How do you feel?
If you re like most people, your feelings are mixed between This
feels good and This doesn t feel like me . The good feeling is
coming from the part of you that wants to be worth a million dollars,
and the other feeling is coming from the part of you that defines your
true value. When you can say I am worth a million dollars! and feel
Of course I am, that s a fact. , then you will see a greater degree of
prosperity enter your life.
Actually, you re worth much more than a million dollars.
Consider this for a moment. How many stories have you heard about
in the news where someone was involved in an accident and received
an insurance settlement? And in those news stories, how large were
the settlements? Take for instance, the case of a man who lost his
hand in an industrial accident. He received something like $250,000
as compensation for the loss of his hand. Would you give up one of
your hands for $250,000? How about both of them for $500,000?
Count whatever amount would convince you to give them up as part of
your value.
Or consider the account of a woman who lost her sight due to
exposure to poisonous gas. Her insurance settlement was for a cool 1
million dollars. Would you trade your eyes for her million dollars?
How much would you sell your eyes for? Count that towards your true
value as well.
We could go on and on with this, accounting for the various body
parts that are worth a whole lot to you. Somewhere along the line, I m
sure you will accept the statement that you are worth much more than
a measly million dollars! So why don t most people feel that they are
worth a million dollars? Could it be that they don t focus on the value
What are you worth? Page 3
of the things they do have, and focus instead on those things they don t
have?
Maybe it has something to do with the ability to quickly convert
your value to cash. It s not exactly common practice to sell body
parts. And it s not easy to get them back if you decide later you d
rather keep them.
,ental +alue
But here s something else to consider. It s the feeling of wealth
that will attract wealth to you. It is your general attitude of what you
are worth that will shape the experiences you have that will either
attract or repel prosperity. Whether you believe in Mind Power or
not, realize that any time you re face to face with another person, your
internal assessment of yourself will come across in your words, your
expressions, the tone of your voice, and your body language.
You are constantly communicating to everyone around you just
how much you value yourself. And every time you enter into any kind
of negotiation with another person, be it a job interview, a
performance review for a possible pay increase, asking someone out on
a date, or making a sales presentation, you are subconsciously
influencing the outcome of that negotiation.
Imagine the situation where 2 people are negotiating the sale of a
piece of property. One person is confident, sure of himself, and has no
fear of the situation. The other person has almost no confidence, is
afraid of being taken advantage of, and would like to escape as quickly
as possible. Who is going to get the best deal?
So you understand that even on the physical level, your feelings of
what you are worth will influence every situation in which you find
yourself. Just by having a strong sense of your own self-worth, you
will attract a fair degree of prosperity into your life. And this is
because your strong self-worth will be communicated to every person
in every situation you are involved in. They will see that you are
worth a great deal, and they will subconsciously defer to you in
whatever way is appropriate for the situation.
Any time you apply for a job, or ask for a pay increase, your
increased self-worth will cause the person in charge to give you more
of what you want. Any time you ask someone out for a date, they will
Claim your free gifts at www.PowerKeysPub.com/prosperity/gifts.
Page 4 Prosperity From the Inside Out
see that you are an important person and be eager to spend time with
you. Any time you are selling something, the prospect will see your
confidence and trust you are treating them honestly and fairly, and will
be much more likely to buy what you are selling. Life will be easier,
and your prosperity will grow.
And all of this comes as a result of seeing the value of what you
have now.
#piritual +alue
Let s go through another exercise. Most of us take for granted
many of the conveniences that are part of our daily lives. First of all, if
you re reading this, there s a good chance that you have a computer
and Internet access. That alone puts you into the upper brackets in
terms of wealth. There is still a large percentage of the world s
population that do not have computers nor Internet access.
Do you have indoor plumbing? How about electricity? And let s
not forget things like television, radio, and the ability to shop in
grocery stores! Did you have to make your own clothes, or did you
purchase them? You certainly don t have to sleep in caves, nor do you
sleep on the ground. I m sure you have a bed as well as other furniture
that makes life much more enjoyable.
What I m trying to say here is that there are a lot of good things in
your life that you are taking for granted. Yes, most of the people you
know also have these things, but this doesn t mean everyone in the
world has them. The feeling of gratitude is another thing which helps
to attract prosperity into your life. Be grateful for the things you have,
and you will get more of them.
There is a quote from the Christian Bible that has been slightly
altered from its original meaning. The quote goes something like: To
those who have, more will be given. But to those who don t have, even
that which they do have will be taken away. The original meaning
was more like To those who have the feeling of wealth, more will be
given. But to those who don t have the feeling of wealth, even that
wealth they do have will be taken away.
What this means is that there is a spiritual principle which will
attract prosperity to those who feel they are prosperous. I tend to
simplify this into the phrase, Choose to believe you are wealthy, and
What are you worth? Page 5
wealth will choose to believe in you. Focus on what is good in your
life, and more good will appear. Focus on what is wrong in your life,
and more will go wrong. Allow yourself to enjoy the things that are
good, and there will be more to enjoy.
-eritage +alue
You have far more value within you than what you are and what
you have. There is also the history which produced you. You are the
latest and greatest in a long line of great individuals. What comes to
mind when you think of Aristotle, Socrates, Alexander the Great,
Napoleon, George Washington, Michelangelo, Isaac Newton, Johannes
Keppler, Albert Einstein, Warren Buffet, Donald Trump, and Anthony
Robbins?
No doubt you thought about the great things they achieved the
advances they made in art, science, leadership, and business. The
image you have in your mind about each of these great individuals
reflects the triumphs they made. You may even think they were
special people, with God-given talents and abilities which gave them
what they needed to break away from the status quo, and enter a
completely new realm of existence. You probably think you are
different from them, and that you don t have the same gifts they did.
And you are completely right!
But consider this. While you may not have the same talents and
gifts these people had, who is to say that your talents and gifts aren t
better than their talents and gifts were??
That s right. Think about it. History doesn t usually record the
massive failures of people such as the ones I listed above. Nor does
history usually record the years of pain and suffering they endured
before they were able to reach their great accomplishments. Maybe
you ll be able to reach greater heights than they did, and with less
effort. You won t know for sure until you get there.
You have so many more resources at your disposal than they did.
You don t have to work by candlelight. Getting up in the middle of the
night to use the bathroom takes a lot less time now with indoor
plumbing. Information, knowledge, and wisdom are a lot easier to
obtain now than ever before. Society isn t as judgmental as it used to
be, so introducing a new idea is a lot less dangerous! In short, you are
able to focus on the things you want to accomplish without having as
many things to worry about as those other great individuals did.
.hat/s 0our )otto' &ine1
I ve asked you to consider a number of things here. I ve really
only scratched the surface of this topic, but I think you understand that
you have a great deal of value just in your basic existence. Yes, I
know that everyone has body parts they wouldn t want to part with,
and every human living today has the same basic ancestral
relationships with historical figures. Does that change the fact that you
are worth much more than a million dollars? You are worth what you
are worth, no matter what everyone else is also worth. Just the fact
that you are a human being is, by itself, enough to justify whatever
value you want to place upon yourself.
And since you now understand that your internal assessment of
your personal value reflects in every negotiation you enter into, you
have a good reason to want to place a high value upon yourself.
The best thing you can do right now is to simply decide that you
are worth a million dollars, or would $100 million be more
appropriate? What about a $1 billion? Whatever value you claim for
yourself will begin to attract a corresponding level of prosperity into
your life.
Still having trouble believing you re worth this much? That s
okay. By the time you finish this book, you ll be amazed at how easy
it will be to say I am worth a million dollars!
Steps To Po!erful
Self#Confidence
A man of infinite potential will accomplish nothing
if he lacks the self-confidence to even try.
Self-confidence is perhaps the most powerful prosperity-attracting
force available! There are numerous reasons for this. As the quote
above suggests, your level of self-confidence will determine whether
you go after the things you want or not. Your self-confidence will
determine how you come across to anyone you come in contact with,
and this will determine what they will or will not do for you. But
there is more. Self-confidence will also determine the amount of luck
you experience in life.
Most people believe that there is a certain amount of luck which
plays a part in every endeavor. They see 2 people doing the exact same
thing in the exact same circumstances, and yet they get 2 completely
different results. For example, 2 brothers open up the same kind of
business, such as dry-cleaning shops, in the same neighborhood of
town. Since they are brothers, they had similar experiences while
growing up, with similar schooling, parenting, and friendships. They
are obviously in the same kind of business; and by operating in the
same neighborhood; they have the same clientle. But in this situation,
one brother is earning more than twice as much as the other.
During an investigation into the reason for this discrepancy, it was
found that the only real difference between the two brothers was that
one had more self-confidence than the other. With a program to
develop his self-confidence, the failing brother was able to bring his
prosperity level up as high as his (previously) more successful sibling.
-ow #elf2Confiden$e .or*s
From here, I could simply give you a set of exercises to develop
your self-confidence to amazing levels, but I want to give you more
than that. You see, the more you understand a topic, the more you are
capable of in that area. On another level, understanding in general
leads to greater and greater prosperity along all lines. The more you
understand, the greater your potential prosperity. (This is another of
the great secrets of rich people. Learn it well.)
First, let s review what self-confidence can do for you. I m sure
you already know much of this, but I want to make sure you know it
all.
As we already discussed in the first chapter, your internal
evaluation of your own value affects how other people treat you. This,
in turn, affects whether you get the jobs, pay raises, dates, or sales you
would like. Much of your internal evaluation of your own value is
based on how confident you are in doing and getting the things you
want. I think you already know this, and can find many examples
within your memory to back it up.
You already know that if you were to go to someone important and
ask for something, you will be more likely to influence the outcome of
that meeting if you are confident of doing so.
And you may even know that you must have a certain level of
confidence before you even make the effort.
But what you may not know is that your level of confidence in
getting what you want will influence whether you even think about
asking for it.
I ve seen so many people who have wonderful talents, like
cooking, or operating computers, or explaining concepts to others, and
these talents could be used to earn considerable incomes, but when
someone asks them why they don t go into that kind of business, they
answer Oh, I could never do that, I m not good enough.
In many cases, they believe they must handle all aspects of the
endeavor, and don t understand they can find other people to handle
the parts of the task they may not be able to do as well. (Here s
another great secret of rich people: You can always find and hire other
people whose talents are needed in the chosen venture.)
For instance, I ve always known I have an exceptional ability to
learn new things, and I have been told over and over again that I have a
wonderful ability to explain complex concepts in an easy to understand
fashion. When I first decided to bring the Keys To Power system to
the Internet, I needed someone to build the website for me. I also
needed someone to put some marketing in place so there would be an
Steps To Powerful Self-Confidence Page 9
audience for what I was offering. And again, I needed someone to
create systems so I could focus on the writing instead of all the
technical aspects of the venture. Since then, I ve learned much and
have taken over those functions, but there wasn t any need for me to do
so. I could have simply hired others to do the parts of the business I
couldn t do myself.
What about you? Are you holding back from starting a business
simply because you can t do everything yourself? Are you afraid to
hire other people because you don t know if the business will succeed
or not? Here s another secret of the rich: Information is more
valuable than practically anything else. If you don t know if the
business will succeed or fail, get someone to do market research for
you to find out. There are many people skilled in this area who would
be happy to help you for a small fee.
The !ower of !artnerships
Something else I want to bring up here: You don t have to hire
people to help you. You could simply offer them a partnership in the
venture. Let them know that the business will only succeed when you
have a good team of people who can handle all aspects of the business.
Find as many people as you need to cover all the functions of the
business. And if you don t know all the functions that will be needed,
find someone who does know, and give them a partnership in the
business.
In all honesty, you don t have to know anything about a business
to build it. I could go out and build a successful dentistry business
although I know nothing about it. All I need to do is find someone
who does know about the business end of the field, and have them
direct me along the process. My job is to ask questions such as What
functions does the business need? , How do we provide those
functions without spending a lot of money upfront? , What
employees will the business need? , What marketing messages
should we focus on to attract lots of well-to-do clients? , and so forth.
By the time I hire (or engage as a partner) all the people needed for the
business, I ll have a successful dentistry business. My job is to bring
all of the other people together to make it happen. Granted, it may
take some time, and I won t get 100% of the profits, but whatever I do
get will be a lot more than I would have gotten on my own.
I think you re starting to get some ideas for things you could do,
right? You re starting to see how you can take the things you like to
do, and find other people to help you build a business around them.
You re starting to see how you can earn far more for your efforts than
you re currently getting paid. And you re starting to grow more and
more confident in your ability to be prosperous. Yes, I know there s
still a lot of work to be done, and you re probably not yet ready to
jump up and move into action. But you will be. Very soon, you will
be.
)uilding #elf2Confiden$e Through
34perien$e
There are 2 ways to build self-confidence, and the best way is
through experience. When you have experienced success, it s much
easier to be confident that you ll experience it again. Long ago, I
learned that everything in life is gained from selling in one form or
another. To get a job, you have to sell the employer on the idea that
you re the right person for the job. To get a date, you have to sell
someone on the idea of spending time with you. To get married, you
have to persuade your partner to commit to being with you for the rest
of their life. To get your kids to behave properly, you have to persuade
them that it s in their best interest to do so. And to have a successful
business, you have to sell product and/or service to your customers.
So I set about the task of learning to sell. I read books. I listened
to tapes. I got jobs as a salesperson. But every time I went home after
making a sales call, it was with empty pockets. I tried selling Rainbow
Vacuums. I tried selling Omni Windows. I tried selling discount
coupons for local restaurants. I even tried selling appointments for a
real salesperson. Nada. Not one sale. I had absolutely no
confidence in myself at that time. I gave up on learning to sell.
Instead, I decided to pursue my interest in photography. I had an
eye for it. It seemed I had a natural inclination for composing
images, and with my natural ability to learn, I picked up the technical
aspects fairly quickly. I had much more confidence in my ability to
get what I wanted from a mechanical piece of equipment. The camera
didn t have it s own opinions or preferences. It had no choice but to
do what I told it to do.
Eventually, I ended up at Olan Mills, a nationally known chain of
photography studios. I went in for a position as a photographer when I
learned photographers were expected to sell photo packages as well.
This was at a time when many studios were a 1-person operation.
Immediately, I explained that I was no good in sales and I really didn t
want to have that responsibility. I was told that Olan Mills no longer
engaged in the hard sell approach and there wasn t anything
complicated about their sales process. Just show the portraits and
explain the packages. That was easy enough, so I decided to give it a
try. (Do you see where my confidence was going up a notch?)
The first few presentations were very rough. But I sold packages,
and experienced success. My confidence grew. Not long afterwards, I
got a chance to sell my own photography (which took about 3 weeks to
get back to the studio), and since I knew the portraits were good, I had
even more confidence in what I was offering to the customer. As you
can expect, sales increased.
This process kept expanding and growing to the point where I had
so much confidence in my ability to sell photography that I became the
number 1 salesperson for Olan Mills in my territory. I soon broke
away from Olan Mills to start my own business, Enchanted Heirlooms.
Over the next few years, my confidence again grew and grew to the
point where I knew I was worth much more than I had ever been worth
before. And that s when I started looking at other ways I could expand
my personal prosperity.
The lesson I want to share with you in this is that when I had
developed my confidence in my photography, I was able to transfer
that confidence to my ability to sell. And the confidence I built in
selling was able to transfer over to over areas too.
So if you want to develop your confidence in some area, find
something you can do well, and build on that! It doesn t really matter
what you work on, since confidence will transfer from one area to
another. You could work on your ability to speed-read, or your skills
in a fun craft hobby, or even your imagination in coming up with off-
the-wall stories. Of course, it would be more practical to develop your
skills in an area you could put to practical use, but the principle is to
simply develop your skills in some area so that you can feel confident
in something. Once you re confident in one area, it will be much
easier to build your confidence in another area which may be more
important to you.
)uilding #elf2Confiden$e Through
#uggestion
This method of building self-confidence isn t quite as effective,
but is much easier, and sometimes can even bring quicker results. In
simplest terms, you can build your self-confidence by simply saying to
yourself I can do this. over and over again. You may remember an
old story called The Little Engine That Could . If so, you know what
I m talking about.
It may sound like I m downgrading this method of building
confidence, but I really don t want to give that impression. It s a very
good way of building confidence. I use it myself. In fact, I was just
using it this morning before I started writing this chapter.
Just to let you in on the details, I have found that, in general, I can
write a 1000-word article in about an hour, and a 2000-word chapter in
about 2 hours. I really don t know if this is good, bad, or average for a
professional writer, but it really doesn t matter. I know that if I were
able to sit down and write for 5 hours a day, I should be able to write
25,000 words in a week, which is the equivalent of a small book. Of
course, there is more to the writing process than just getting the words
written. There are things such as deciding what to write about, how to
organize and structure the information, and finding a good way to
introduce each section.
I usually have the hardest time in the introductions. Getting
started on a chapter is the hardest part of the process for me. I m
really good at organizing my thoughts on paper, getting down the main
ideas I want to share and sorting them in a logical order. And once I
have the first few paragraphs written, I m usually on a roll, with
fingers flying on the keyboard, and typing the words which flow
effortlessly from my mind.
However, this morning, I was stuck. I had written the first chapter
yesterday, and had noted down what I wanted to cover in this chapter.
But the words just weren t coming easily for me. At that point, I
realized I needed to use my own principles to get myself over the
barrier. So I sat down and visualized myself writing at a blistering
pace, an artist in the throes of creation, writing a book which will help
millions of people. I told myself over and over again I can do this.
This is something I m good at. Within minutes, I felt much more
confident that I would be able to write something good.
Afterwards, I also did a couple of other things I know to help. I
know I think better when I m dressed. Other people may feel better
doing their work in a house robe and slippers, but that just doesn t
work for me. My mind tends to work better when I can feel the clothes
on my body. So I put on my jeans, a dress shirt, and my tennis shoes.
I also fixed a sandwich and a glass of Pepsi. And I stepped outside to
get some fresh oxygen into my bloodstream. After all this, my mind
was in high gear, and I was ready to write.
Here s another secret of rich people: Know what helps you
perform at your best, and work with it. There have been times when I
needed to take a week off from work to get myself back on track.
There have been other times I needed to push myself to work harder to
start feeling better. It s not always the same thing. As a result, I can t
give you specific recommendations other than keep notes on what
works for you in various situations. The more you understand, the
more prosperous you may become.
As I write this, I can see where my self-suggestion of confidence
was able to improve my writing ability. I feel that this is one of the
best pieces I ve written in a long time. And although it is much longer
than I originally wanted it to be, I feel it will help a great deal of
people. My intuition is telling me that by sharing my own personal
experiences, you may be able to relate to them easier than if I only
stated the facts and gave you the exercises (which was my original
plan).
By now, I m sure you understand how powerful self-suggestion
can be. And we ve only scratched the surface! I will be covering this
topic further in later chapters since there is really a ton of material to
go over.
Before we go on to the next chapter, however, I want to give you a
little more here. Developing self-confidence through suggestion is
more than just telling yourself I can do this. It is also telling yourself
I am good at what I do. and There s no reason why I can t be just
as good as anyone else in this area. And in truth, there really isn t
any reason you can t be just as good as anyone else in any area. After
all, you have the same brain structure as any other human. You may
have gotten used to doing things differently, but you have the physical
and mental capacity to do anything that any other average human can
do.
For instance, take language as an example. Learning a new
language is something that anyone can do. If you were able to learn
one language, you can learn another. Just think of all the people in the
world who know 2, 3, or even a dozen different languages and you ll
realize that learning a new language isn t so difficult. It may take
some time and a lot of practice, but you can do it if you want to.
Or selling as another example. I told you my story about learning
how to sell. Believe me, if I was able to learn how to do it, anyone
can. I won t go into all the details about how I was taught Don t talk
to strangers and how this created an immense fear of approaching
anyone I didn t already know. And I won t go into the details about
how I reasoned out that the only way to make friends is to start talking
to people I didn t already know. But I will say that the phrase which
got me over the fear was this: Strangers are just friends waiting to be
introduced.
In today s society, I don t think there is anyone who will literally
bite your head off if you walk up to them and start talking. Most
people are shy themselves, and would love to have someone express an
interest in talking to them. And since prosperity will only come as a
result of your interactions with other people, the surest pathway to
greater prosperity is to start meeting new people. So here s your
assignment. Introduce yourself to at least 1 new person each day for
the next week. You don t have to start a full relationship with them,
just chat with them for a few minutes. Go ahead, it won t kill you.
$ountain#$o%ing Faith
I m sure you recognize the reference in the title of this chapter. If
not, it comes from the Christian Bible, where Christ says Truly, I say
to you, whoever says to this mountain, Be taken up and cast into the
sea, and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says is
going to happen, it shall be granted him. The quote goes on to say,
Therefore I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe
that you have received them, and they shall be granted you.
This is a powerful message. And it was one of the 2 core
messages in Christ s ministry. Faith and Love were the two main
things He talked about the whole time He was teaching, with
occasional diversions to other topics.
Faith works no matter what religion you belong to. In fact, it
works even if you don t belong to any particular religion at all. If you
look carefully at the instruction Christ gave, He doesn t specify that
you must believe in Him or in the Christian concept of God, but that
you only have to believe you will get the results you want.
Definition of Faith
In talking with many different people, I ve heard it said over and
over again, I had faith that my prayers would be answered, but I never
got the results I wanted. In talking to them further, I always found
that while on one hand they were able to say, I believe God can do
this for me and I believe I deserve to have this , on the other hand
they also were thinking, This can t work out because of _______.
For example, a very dear friend of mine was praying for the
healing of a physical condition. She had faith that God could heal any
condition, yet she also had faith that the condition was incurable and
that nothing would help.
Another friend of mine was working for greater prosperity and had
faith that prosperity could be obtained through the use of affirmations.
Day and night he repeated affirmations of prosperity, yet continually
he affirmed that he was always poor and that he was at the mercy
of others.
I think you can see why these people did not receive the results
they wanted. Their faith was divided, working against itself, and thus
they stayed right where they were.
Although the instruction given to us by Christ says we should not
doubt in our hearts that we will get what we ask for, even a small
amount of faith will do something good for us.
34a'ples of Faith in A$tion
Let me give you a couple of examples of how faith has worked in
my life. When I was in school, I believed I was more intelligent than
most people. My grades reflected this belief, since I usually got A s in
my classes, with only the occasional B.
At one time, during 8th grade, my school was given a statewide
mathematics test to see how we were doing in comparison to the rest
of the state. There were many questions on the test I had no idea how
to answer since they dealt with things we had not yet covered in our
math classes. But I had faith that I could score well on any test I was
given, so I did the only thing I could. I guessed on the questions I
didn t know how to solve. I m not sure how our school did in
comparison with other schools, but I do know that I achieved the
highest score in the whole school.
And when I took the college entrance exams, I scored in the 99th
percentile, which meant I scored better than 99% of all students
applying for college at that time. By then, I didn t have to guess at
much of what was on the test, as my faith in my intelligence had time
to bring me to that point naturally.
My faith in my intelligence also led me to apply for a scholarship
to DeVry Institute of Technology. I wanted to get into the computer
design field, and the option for a $14,000 full-tuition scholarship was
the only way I could have gone. As part of the qualification process, I
had to write a paper on what I felt was the most significant
development in the field of computer science. My faith led me to
choose the development of the solid-state transistor as my topic, and
between that and my college entrance scores, I got the scholarship I
wanted.
However, I also had faith in my inexperience with worldly
matters, so soon after I left home for college, I developed financial
Mountain-Moving Faith Page 17
problems. I believed the only way to earn money was to work at a job,
and I believed the job required more commitment than school did. As
a result, I ended up missing a lot of classes to work the 40 hours I was
scheduled. The combination of this and several other factors resulted
in my having to drop out of DeVry due to financial problems even
though I had the full-tuition scholarship.
By the time this happened, I had a strong faith that I had trouble
in financial matters.
That faith in financial troubles eventually manifested as a life on
the streets, being homeless with no job, no home, no car, and in a city
where I knew no-one. I had fallen as far as anyone could fall.
In the depths of my despair, I still had faith that there was a
purpose to my life, so the thought of committing suicide never entered
my mind. I pressed on, knowing that somewhere along the line, I
would find the information I needed to put my life back on track.
One morning, after I had walked the streets all night, I walked into
a mall to get warm, and decided to spend some time in the bookstore.
I had always loved books and felt that they were the best source of
information about anything. That morning, I discovered the writings
of Joseph Murphy, who instantly became my favorite author!
As I stood there reading the words on the page instructing me to
feel now as I would feel once my prayer had been answered, and to
simply decide to believe it would happen, I felt an incredible sensation
rise up out of me. I felt my whole body relax, and bursting forth was
this unbelievable feeling of joy and satisfaction that I would be given
enough money to rent a place and get myself back on my feet again.
That was about 10:30 in the morning. Later the same day, about
4:30 in the afternoon, I received the results of my prayer when I
found $70 on the sidewalk! With that, I was able to rent a cheap room
for a week (very cheap, and very run down) and get a little food to
keep me going. The very next day, I went back to the bookstore and
bought 3 of the Joseph Murphy books which were there.
Over the next several months, I had learned much about the power
of faith and how to apply it in my life. There were many times I would
experience success in a thing, but whenever I tried it a second time, I
would experience failure. Obviously, (at least to me at the time) there
was more to the process than the information I had at hand. But I
knew (had a strong faith) that I was close, since I had seen results!
I didn t experience consistent results until years later, after I had
studied practically everything I could get my hands on, and
experimented with all forms of processes and techniques. Eventually,
my research became the Keys To Power Mastery System (which can
be found at www.PowerKeysPub.com/catalog/keys-to-power), which
encompasses prayer, meditation, hypnosis, affirmations, visualization,
psychic abilities, and a lot more.
My successes, which resulted from the application of faith, include
even such things as controlling the weather. Most of the time it would
be a simple matter of stopping the rain, but there was one summer in
particular when I was with someone who had a small garden and
didn t want to water it every day. At one point, she commented that it
would be nice if it would rain a little each day. A few minutes of
thoughtful action did the trick. Every day for the next 3 months, a
small amount of rain would fall from the skies.
Another example more in line with the subject of this book comes
from a time when I held a job as a temporary laborer at a die-cutting
shop (a place that does finishing work for printers). As a day-laborer, I
had absolutely no control over the amount of work coming into the
shop, yet I was able to consistently specify how many hours I would
work each week, within about a half-hour of what I specified to myself
at the beginning of that week.
I ll never forget the time when I mentioned to one of the press
operators I had decided that I would get 48 hours that week (8 hours of
overtime). His reaction was We don t even have enough work to keep
us busy for 40 hours. There s no way we ll get 8 hours of overtime!
I smiled and simply said But we have no idea what other jobs are
coming into the shop. We can only see what s here now. There will
be more jobs coming in the next few days.
The other press operator on our shift (we only had 2 presses going
on second shift) thought the idea was intriguing and was open to the
possibility. Within a couple of days, a large job came into the shop.
What was special about this job was that it required foil stamping and
needed to be out the same week. End result: the first press operator
got only 40 hours, and the second operator and I got 48 hours.
The very next week, the second press operator and I were talking
about this and he suggested we go for maximum overtime. I thought it
would be an interesting experiment and decided I would specify that I
would get maximum overtime. By this time, my faith in the process
was strong, so I knew something special would happen.
Maximum overtime in this case meant 60 to 70 hour weeks for
months on end! That special rush job was done so well that we ended
up getting far more work from it than we bargained for! My
paychecks were fat to say the least! And I was smiling much of the
time for the first time in years. Pay close attention to the lessons here
and you can easily do the same.
-ow to 5se the !ower of Faith
Notice here that I was not running a business. Nor was I a
salesperson in this company. I was only a day-laborer brought in to
fill a position. I also wasn t asking God to make things happen for me.
I simply decided that I would get what I wanted, and I felt assured
(had faith) that I would get it. I also didn t spend any time during the
week thinking about whether I would get what I wanted or not. I
didn t question the process. Once I set it in motion, I let it go, and
only checked it at the end to see how close it came to what I specified.
I can t tell you how many times I ve read that in order to get
results from prayer (or any other Mind Power technique such as
affirmations, decrees, visualization, or so forth) you have to have faith
in what you re doing. My response was probably the same response
everyone else has, How do I increase my faith?!
In actual fact, there is no way to increase faith. Faith is not
something that can be increased or decreased. There is no amount of
faith. It simply exists as it is.
A person who lacks faith in prosperity does not actually lack
faith. His faith is simply misplaced, since you will find that he does
have faith in poverty.
A person who lacks faith in harmonious relationships does have
faith in inharmonious relationships.
A person who lacks faith in health and well-being will be found
to have faith in disease and sickness.
A person who lacks faith in their own ability to succeed does
have faith in their ability to fail.
You see, everyone has faith. It s only a matter of where it s
placed.
The ,e$hani$s of Faith
Here s one way to describe how faith works. No one knows for
sure how it happens, and this analogy helps to visualize the process.
Imagine that you are connected to God (or whatever Source of Life
Energy you choose) by a spiritual pipe. Through this pipe flows the
great energy of Life. This energy could be called anything, but for
sake of simplicity I choose to call it Power. You may choose to call it
Manna, Prana, Chi, Ki, soholixphz, or whatever you want. Be my
guest. I like simple words I can easily understand.
Imagine that this Power is conditioned by the thoughts, feelings,
and beliefs within you as it goes out into the world. The nature of this
conditioning will determine what events and experiences are created in
your life.
If you have faith in prosperity, then this Power will pick it up and
work to create prosperity in your life. If you have faith in success,
then this Power will do what it can to help you succeed. If you have
faith that your co-workers are always grouchy, then this Power will
influence them to be that way.
Also be aware that everyone else has the same Power flowing
through them, and they may be directing it to do something different.
For example, if you decide to direct Power to help you win the
lottery, and you come to a firm decision that you will win a particular
lottery on a particular date, be aware that someone else may also direct
Power towards helping them win the same lottery. The one who wins
will be the one who has more faith in winning and less faith in losing.
Also be aware that there are many things which influence the
outcome of a single event. Going back to the lottery example, you may
have faith that you can direct Power effectively, but how is your faith
in your financial condition in general? And what about your beliefs
(unconscious faith) about rich people? Does your concept of yourself
fit with your concept of rich people? Your faith about whether you fit
into the category of rich person will also influence whether your faith
in winning the lottery will work or not.
There are many factors which go into the equation and determine
the final results. Think of it as a scale, with a bucket on each side.
Some beliefs add to the positive side; such as I can win this lottery ,
I generally win games of chance , Money comes easily to me , and
I only work because I want to , and will add to the weight of the
bucket on that side of the scale. Negative beliefs such as Life is
hard , Rich people are scum , The odds are against me , and I
have terrible luck will all add weight to the other side of the scale.
Whether you actually win or not will depend on the balance of your
scale and the balance of the scales of everyone else playing the same
game.
We ll come back to this later in the last 2 chapters of this section,
where we dig deeper into your belief system and how to change it.
Developing Faith in !rosperity
Using faith to attract prosperity can be the most powerful thing
you can do, and is certainly the first step to take. If you really want to
be prosperous, it is vital that you discover all of your inner beliefs
which may be blocking your prosperity, and change them so they
support your goals.
Beliefs such as I hate my job, but I need it to survive will
undoubtedly be an obstacle to attracting greater prosperity. It may be
true that you dislike the job you now have, but it is not true that you
need it to survive. You may need to have a source of income, and your
current job may be the easiest source to identify at the moment,
however, just as there were more jobs coming into that die-cutting shop
I couldn t see, there are other opportunities for you as well.
Begin to consider that there are more opportunities around you
than just the ones you know. Begin to wonder what other things may
be more prosperous for you. Begin to reflect upon the possibility that
Life could be easy, and that it may be possible for you to have
everything you want right here and right now, without waiting!
And as you sit there thinking about all of these possibilities, reflect
upon what you thought you knew about the world and consider what
might happen if you choose to think and believe differently.
How would you feel if you knew there was a million dollars
waiting for you down at the bank, and all you had to do was walk in
and sign for it? What would you do once you claimed it?
And after you had your fun, what would you do to make the world
a better place for everyone? Once you can answer this question, you
have your life s purpose that thing you are meant to do on this
Earth, that thing which will be the source of your greatest prosperity.
What&s 'olding (ou )ack"
Most of us are blocked from living our dreams by invisible
obstacles we never know are there. We live out our lives never really
knowing the great accomplishments we could have achieved, the riches
(or relationships) we could have had, or the thrill of experiencing
complete freedom from all limitation.
In this chapter, I m going to show you how to identify your hidden
obstacles, and what you can do to remove them and live a life of
freedom and joy.
When it comes to identifying the reasons why we don t live our
dreams, we all have our favorite excuses. Do any of these sound
familiar?
I m too young.
I m too old.
I m not attractive enough.
I m not smart enough.
I m not good enough.
I don t have enough money.
The economy isn t good right now.
There s too much competition.
I don t get lucky breaks like other people do.
He / She would never be interested in me.
My condition is hereditary, it runs in the family.
If God wanted me to be successful, it wouldn t be so hard.
Whatever reason you have for not reaching out and going after
your dreams, I m sure you believe it s real and not just an excuse. You
most likely believe there s nothing you can do to change the facts of
the situation and no amount of thinking will remove the obstacles
you face.
After all, if you believed you could overcome the obstacles, they
wouldn t be obstacles, would they? They d just be conditions you
have to deal with as you turn your dreams into reality.
)eliefs #et Conte4t For 3verything 3lse
One of the most insidious ways our beliefs hold us back is that they
prevent us from seeing the world around us as it really is. We see what
we expect to see, with very few exceptions. Let s take a look at a
couple of examples, and you ll see what I mean.
Example #1: Getting a great job
In this example, imagine that you are out of work and need to find
a job. For some of my readers, they won t have to imagine because
they re actually in this situation. But if this isn t your situation, just
imagine for a moment you need to get a job, okay?
What s the first thing you do? Some people reach for the
classified section of the local newspaper, others may sit down to write
a resum, and others may head straight for the unemployment office to
sign up for benefits . Whatever you choose to do, what made you
choose that instead of something else?
Answer: you believe your chosen action to be the best course of
action to take, at least the best you know for you in your situation.
Okay, so let s come at this from a different direction. What type
of job do you look for? Most likely, you ll go after jobs you feel
you re qualified for, or at least you ll approach companies you believe
may be likely to hire you.
If you ve only worked in fast food restaurants, you probably won t
even consider applying for an administrative assistant position,
although you may consider applying for factory work. If your recent
work experience was in construction, you ll probably look at other
construction companies for possible employment, and completely
ignore ads for sales managerial positions. And if you re used to
working in sales, you may consider starting your own business and not
even consider things like factory work or administrative jobs.
In short, when we need a job, we tend to apply for only those jobs
we believe fit our skills, experience, and abilities. In doing so, we
completely ignore possibilities that could open up a whole new way of
living.
What s Holding You Back? Page 25
Example #2: Learning new skills
Okay, so let s say that instead of just looking for a new job, we re
considering the possibility of developing ourselves so we can get a
BETTER job. In this case, our past experience isn t really an issue
since we ll be learning new skills and pursuing new directions, or is it?
If you stop to think about it, who are the people who set out to
learn new skills? Those who already believe they can, right? I
remember when my dad died and my mom had some choices to make.
My dad had enough insurance to pay off all the debts and leave
enough money for my mom to live on for a while. Even so, she was
worried about how she was going to live the next 15 years (until she
could collect my dad s retirement) since she didn t expect the money
to last that long.
I suggested she take some time to get over the loss of her husband,
and then invest some of the money to go back to school and update her
skills. Her immediate reaction was, Oh no, I could never do that. I m
too old. So she spent the next 15 years working little jobs that didn t
pay much money.
As you can see in this example, our beliefs determine whether we
even try to improve our situation, or live with it as it is. I m sure you
can see how this same phenomenon influences the decisions we make
in all areas of life, including our relationships with other people, how
we manage our health, and even how we deal with unexpected events.
If you d like to learn more about the power our beliefs have in our
lives, I have a free report and audio program you can get at
http://www.PowerKeysPub.com/WhyBeliefsMatter/.
Tool for )elief Dis$overy6 The )elief #$ale
In my recent book, Choose To Believe: A Practical Guide to
Living Your Dreams, I give a complete system for discovering and
changing what we believe in order to eliminate the obstacles to
success. In this report, I want to give you a tool from the Choose To
Believe system you can start using today.
One of the most surprising things people learn in my Choose To
Believe workshops is that they have many beliefs they didn t know
about. When we get into the session on discovering what you really
believe, almost everyone finds they have beliefs that are quite different
than what they expected to find.
The thing that helps them see this for themselves is a tool I call the
Belief Scale . It s a simple process that helps you actually measure
the strength of any belief you want to examine.
What s really great about being able to measure the strength of a
belief is that you can get INSTANT feedback to know if the processes
you use to change your beliefs are working or not. This way, you ll
know how well visualization works, and if affirmations really do
anything. And not only that, but you can also find out what works
BEST, giving you the greatest results while still being fun to do.
A Belief Scale may look like anything you feel comfortable with.
It can look like a thermometer, a balance scale, a bathroom scale, or a
postal scale. It may even look like a volume knob on your stereo, or
you may perceive it as different colors or brightnesses of light. It can
look like anything you can imagine. Personally, mine looks like a
thermometer, and is located in my torso.
Here s how to locate your Belief Scale. Ask yourself if you believe
something you know to be an absolute fact, something like, Do I
believe that 2+2=4? , or Do I believe that we are now living on planet
Earth? (You DO believe these things, right?)
If you re like most people, whenever you ask yourself a question,
your mind will always produce an answer, even if there are no words
associated with the answer. When most people ask themselves
questions such as these, the internal response is something like, Well,
of course I believe this. It s an absolute fact!
That of course feeling indicates the top point of your Belief
Scale. For me, I feel it as an energy centered in the top portion of my
chest.
Now, ask yourself a question about something you absolutely DO
NOT believe, such as, Do I believe I am a squirrel? or Do I believe
my name is thingamabob ? These types of questions will show you
where your Belief Scale registers a 0% belief. Again, for me, it s an
energy centered in my lower torso, in my gut.
Go back and forth a few times, asking yourself questions about
100% beliefs and 0% beliefs and very quickly, you ll know where your
Belief Scale is, and how to identify how strongly you believe things.
Now, to find out how much you believe something, like Do I
believe I am too old to start a new career? you know that all you have
to do is ask yourself the question and pay attention to your Belief
Scale.
How to Use Your Belief Scale
Any time you want to measure the strength of one or more beliefs,
it s important to calibrate your Belief Scale. This is nothing more than
asking yourself a series of questions that identify the top and bottom of
the scale, like we did earlier in this report. Just ask yourself questions
you know are absolutely true or absolutely false.
Other possible calibration questions
Here are a few questions you may use to help calibrate your Belief
Scale: (Don t think too hard about these. They are meant to be taken
lightly.)
1. Do I believe that 2+2=4?
2. Do I believe that I am on planet Earth?
3. Do I believe that I am on planet Mars?
4. Do I believe that I am a squirrel?
5. Do I believe that I am a human being?
6. Do I believe that the sun will rise again tomorrow morning?
7. Do I believe that 1+1=50?
8. Do I believe that the sky is blue?
9. Do I believe that I am alive?
10. Do I believe that the universe was created yesterday?
Questions to Reveal Inner Beliefs
Since the Belief Scale works in response to asking yourself a
question, you need to have a list of questions to ask yourself in order to
discover what you really believe. As you ask yourself each question
below, notice where on your Belief Scale it registers. Give it a number
if you d like to identify how strongly you believe the statement.
Personally, I rate each belief in terms of percentages, from 0% to
100%. A 0% belief is one I absolutely do not believe at all, and a
100% belief is one I consider to be an immutable fact. Both ends of
the scale represent very strong beliefs, either for or against a particular
statement. A 50% belief is one that could go either way, it could be
true or not. These beliefs are relatively weak.
You re free to use any system you want to measure the strength of
your beliefs. You can use a scale from -10 to +10, where 0 represents
a middle, yes-or-no, belief, and the 2 ends represent either yes or no
answers. It s your choice, so use whatever system feels good to you.
Here are a few questions taken from my book, Choose To Believe.
(Many more may be found inside the book and workshop recordings.)
1. Do you believe that you earn enough money?
2. Do you believe that money is hard to come by?
3. Do you believe that you have to work to earn money?
4. Do you believe that one good idea can make you rich?
5. Do you believe that only dishonest people get rich?
6. Do you believe that you are worth at least $1 million?
7. Do you believe that you will receive $1 million this year?
8. Do you believe that you fit in with others?
9. Do you believe that it takes work to keep a relationship?
10. Do you believe that it s easy to find a compatible partner?
11. Do you believe that there are many who are looking for
someone like you?
12. Do you believe that you are a lovable person?
13. Do you believe that a relationship can be a source of
continuous celebration?
14. Do you believe that getting sick is normal?
15. Do you believe that the body heals itself naturally?
16. Do you believe that your cells are constantly renewed?
17. Do you believe that the body breaks down with age?
18. Do you believe that your DNA controls your health?
19. Do you believe that you are a good person?
20. Do you believe that people generally accept you?
21. Do you believe that you deserve to be happy?
22. Do you believe that you have a good life?
23. Do you believe that you are gifted in some way?
24. Do you believe that you have a purpose in life?
25. Do you believe that the world is on the brink of destruction?
26. Do you believe that the world is becoming more enlightened?
27. Do you believe that people like to help others?
28. Do you believe that people are interested only in themselves?
29. Do you believe that only the strong survive?
30. Do you believe that there is a God?
31. Do you believe that God is a judge?
32. Do you believe that God is a teacher?
33. Do you believe that God is a playmate?
34. Do you believe that God is a protector?
35. Do you believe that there is only one God?
36. Do you believe that we are all part of One Great Being?
37. Do you believe that life is a series of lessons to be learned?
38. Do you believe that life is a playground where all we have to do
is have fun?
39. Do you believe that life is a jungle where only the strong
survive?
40. Do you believe that we are spiritual beings having a human
experience?
41. Do you believe that the universe follows strict physical laws
which cannot be changed or broken?
*+, Prosperity )eliefs
By this point, you understand that the key secrets to attracting
unlimited prosperity lie within your belief systems. Whatever you
believe about yourself affects practically everything in your life.
Obviously, there is more to attracting prosperity than just working
with your belief systems, but please understand that your belief
systems are the most important aspect of attracting anything into your
life.
That s why it is absolutely critical that you do everything you can
to shape your beliefs into whatever pattern you wish to create in your
life, and do so BEFORE taking physical action.
In the next chapter, you will discover a powerful way you can alter
your belief systems to create greater prosperity in your life. As you
use this innovative process to reshape your belief system, you want to
make the following beliefs strong and powerful.
1. There is more to the Universe than anyone can comprehend.
2. My reality is a direct reflection of what I believe it to be.
3. I am in control of my beliefs, and I can choose to believe
whatever I want.
4. There are no limits.
5. The past does not determine the future.
6. Time is an illusion, and anything may happen at any time.
7. The focal point of Power is here and now.
8. I have the Power to determine my future.
9. The world gives me what I expect. I expect only the best.
10. The world gives me the best of everything. All I have to do is
be willing to receive it.
11. There is a great abundance of the things I want they come
into my life without effort or thought.
12. Everything I want is already on it s way to me now.
13. The feelings of love and confidence within me act as a magnet
for prosperity and all things good.
14. The more I am grateful for the things in my life, the more I
will have to be grateful for.
207 Prosperity Beliefs Page 31
15. The more I love the things I see, the more I will see the things I
love.
16. There is unlimited potential for growth.
17. If I can imagine myself doing something, I am halfway there.
18. Life is a playground where all we have to do is have fun.
19. There is a God who is very active in our Universe.
20. God is very good to me and helps me regularly.
21. We are all part of One Great Being, and what helps one person,
helps everyone.
22. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.
23. He who controls the mind is more powerful than he who only
controls the body.
24. Miracles are real, and happen more often than anyone realizes.
25. I was born to be a co-creator with God. Not only is it okay for
me to create whatever I want, this is my purpose in life.
26. The only failure is the failure to try.
27. As long as I continue to try, everything that did not work out as
expected is only a learning experience.
28. Money is merely a symbol of wealth, not wealth itself.
29. Money is nothing more than a number in a computer. There is
an infinite supply.
30. No one controls the world s money supply. Money is
constantly in circulation and may come to me at any time.
31. Wealth is a measure of a person s worth to society. The more I
help others, the richer I get.
32. Ideas and information are worth much more than labor or
possessions.
33. Having abundant prosperity is normal.
34. Prosperity is the natural result of following my inner desires
and impulses.
35. Wealth is created by solving problems and entertaining people.
36. The more people I serve, the more money I make.
37. The best way to make money is to find a large group of people
with a definite need, and provide something which meets that
need profitably.
38. All it takes to get rich is one good idea.
39. Good people get rich as easily as dishonest ones.
40. Quality and excellence are rewarded.
41. Cooperation is the key to success.
42. Anyone can go after the quick buck. It s much better to go
after long term success.
43. The best opportunities are the ones others are afraid to go after.
44. The world is becoming more enlightened.
45. People are generally reasonable.
46. People like to help others.
47. People cooperate when they feel that the benefits to them are
worth the effort.
48. People want things they know other people want.
49. When something is in demand, the demand for it goes up.
50. People are easier to lead when they feel important.
51. No matter how I feel, I project an image of confidence and
authority.
52. Others respond to the image I project to them, not to my inner
feelings.
53. The more confident I appear, the more I am able to persuade
others.
54. Be relaxed around others. They sense the relaxation and relax
themselves.
55. I am at peace with all people.
56. People generally accept me.
57. I completely forgive the human failings of others and myself.
58. Knowledge, wisdom, and understanding are powerful
prosperity generators.
59. I learn from those who know more than I so that I may
duplicate their results.
60. Anticipating future needs gives me the ability to prepare for
rich rewards.
61. Being prepared is more than just a credo; it is a means to
winning!
62. Any time wasted on indecision or anxious doubt costs me
dearly.
63. A mediocre result is 1000 times better than a perfect idea.
64. One all-out effort will do more than a hundred half efforts.
65. If I want something, I put everything I have into getting it
quickly.
66. I am very focused on attaining my goals.
67. The things that frighten me are not as bad as I imagine.
68. I act with confidence and Power.
69. Answers come to me quickly and easily.
70. The wisdom of God leads me along paths of truth and
prosperity.
71. I love all of mankind.
72. Everyone has the potential to teach me something.
73. I can learn from every situation I encounter.
74. My mind perceives everything around me that may be used as
an opportunity for greater prosperity.
75. I have a good mind.
76. My memory is good and improves day by day.
77. I think clearly and make sound judgments.
78. I keep my mind and body free from all poisons.
79. I abhor all forms of substance abuse and do not tolerate it.
80. I refuse to spend any time dwelling on negative thoughts.
81. I maintain my self-control and do not overindulge my
appetites.
82. I have more ability than I realize.
83. I am a strong and capable person.
84. I want to make my mark upon the world.
85. I want to leave the world a better place than what I found.
86. I d rather do one thing that can help a thousand people than to
only help one person at a time.
87. I focus my time and energy on creating prosperity and
enjoying life.
88. I refuse to take on other people s projects unless there is some
value in it for me.
89. I do not allow others to pressure me into doing something I d
rather not do.
90. I refuse to feel guilty because someone wants something that I
do not want to give them.
91. I have no problem saying no to anyone when it s the right
answer.
92. God made me as I am for a reason.
93. I am a good person.
94. I deserve to be happy.
95. I have a good life.
96. I have a purpose in life.
97. I am gifted in some way.
98. I am destined for greatness.
99. I make good choices.
100. I think clearly and make sound judgments.
101. I rarely make mistakes.
102. I can learn and understand anything.
103. I am learning how to be more and more prosperous.
104. I learn from those who know more so I may duplicate their
results.
105. Understanding and wisdom are the foundations upon which I
build my world.
106. When I have all the information I need to make a decision, I
make that decision quickly and stand behind it to the end.
107. I have fewer problems than most people.
108. My life is normally filled with abundant joy, happiness, and
success.
109. My prosperity is a garden that I tend to regularly.
110. I eliminate risks by preparing myself as well as I can.
111. There is no such thing as luck. Luck is simply the result of
conditions that may be controlled.
112. I am the only one in control over my destiny. I am at no-one s
mercy.
113. I am the center of the universe. Everything revolves around
me.
114. Money comes easily to me.
115. I earn plenty of money no matter what I do.
116. I am worth at least $1 million.
117. I will receive $1 million within a year.
118. Money is good.
119. I love money.
120. I enjoy having money.
121. I feel good whether I have money or not, since I know that any
shortage will be quickly replenished.
122. I enjoy seeing my money grow.
123. Earning money feels good to me.
124. I am getting richer every day.
125. I am worthy of all good things.
126. Abundance is my right.
127. I can get anything I want.
128. Everything I want is already on it s way to me now.
129. It s ALL Good. Life is Wonderful!
130. Ideas & information are worth much more than labor or
possessions.
131. God is helping me, now and always.
132. I tend to get the best of everything.
133. I like other people. I do what I can to make them happy
without sacrificing my own happiness.
134. I seek to understand the world and the people in it.
135. The more I understand, the more prosperous I become.
136. Understanding and wisdom are the foundations upon which I
build my world.
137. I enjoy learning and improving myself.
138. There is always a way to learn more.
139. I agree with Abraham Lincoln who said If I only had 6 hours
to chop down a tree, I would spend 4 hours sharpening the
axe.
140. I constantly strive for excellence.
141. I enjoy trying new things.
142. I stretch my abilities by putting myself into situations where I
need to perform at a higher level.
143. I have an infinite potential for learning.
144. I can learn and understand anything.
145. I do my best to give the world what it needs most.
146. The more I benefit the world, the more prosperous I become.
147. I fulfill a vital function in the world.
148. I have been put on this Earth for a purpose.
149. I am destined for greatness.
150. A man on a mission will not be stopped.
151. I commit myself to my goals 100%.
152. If the cause is worthy, I will never quit. I am not a quitter.
153. If I leave myself no way out, I will work harder.
154. No one can do everything alone.
155. Everything I want in life, I must get with the help of other
people.
156. When I understand people, I am able to get more of what I
want.
157. To get others to work harder, inspire them to a higher purpose.
158. I show my team how valuable their work is.
159. I am valuable.
160. I am worthy of having everything I want.
161. Abundance is my right.
162. Money is good. I love having money.
163. I enjoy seeing my money grow.
164. Earning money feels good to me.
165. I am getting richer every day.
166. I have more ability than I realize.
167. I am a strong and capable person.
168. I am the center of the universe.
169. The universe is here to serve me.
170. Prosperity is normal and natural in my life.
171. I have wonderful talents that create great prosperity.
172. If I don t have what I need, I can get it from someone else.
173. If I don t know something, I can find the information from
somewhere or someone.
174. I gladly spend money to learn how to accomplish my goals.
175. If I can t do a thing, I can hire someone who can do it.
176. I can hire other people to do the work that needs to be done.
177. I can build a successful business even though I know nothing
about it, since I can hire others who do know.
178. As a leader, I earn more money.
179. I can do bigger things with a team.
180. With enough help, I can accomplish anything.
181. I would rather utilize 1% of the efforts of 1000 people than to
use 100% of my own efforts.
182. People want to be led. They feel more secure when following a
good leader.
183. I am a good leader.
184. I lead others because that is what must be done in order to
accomplish my goals.
185. I do not allow others to pressure me into doing something I d
rather not do.
186. I prefer to operate with systems in place so that everything is
organized and I can be more productive.
187. When unexpected things happen, I ask myself questions like
How can I make this work to my advantage?
188. I enjoy the challenge of creating new things.
189. If I want something, I do whatever it takes to make it happen.
190. I can get more done when I work with a proven system.
191. I prefer to operate with systems in place so that everything is
organized and I can be productive.
192. The best businesses are those that take care of themselves.
193. The best way to make money is to find a large group of people
with a definite need and provide that need profitably.
194. The best people to sell a new product to are customers who
have already purchased similar products.
195. I make sure to have enough money on hand to pay all my
expenses ahead of time.
196. Selling my time or labor is very limiting. I only have so much
time to sell.
197. I work to create income sources, which continue to pay me
well even without my personal involvement.
198. There is no limit to the number of income sources I may have.
199. I create my income sources quickly so I may be more
prosperous.
200. I limit my expenses while I create my income sources so that I
may build my prosperity stronger.
201. I make sure to have enough money on hand to pay all my
expenses ahead of time.
202. The first 15% of a process is the most important.
203. Make a good start, and the rest of the process will be easier.
204. Luxuries are fine when there is enough income to support
them.
205. Quality always ends up being cheaper.
206. I can save money by buying something that costs twice as
much but lasts three times longer.
207. Buying only the cheap stuff is false economy.
You may have to spend some time to think about the implications
of what some of these beliefs really mean. There is a lot of
information here, too much to fully explain in this book. I encourage
you to expand your education with other books and courses.
Now that you know what beliefs will make it easy to attract, create,
and maintain a constant flow of abundant prosperity in your life, now
let s look at how you can program them into your mind and activate
your internal prosperity generator.
'o! To -et $a.imum /esults
From The 0a! of Attraction
The phrase, Law of Attraction refers to a phenomenon which
science has yet to confirm, yet many practitioners know intimately. In
general, the phrase refers to a general category of processes which are
used for the purpose of creating changes in our physical world with the
assistance of an unseen Power, or force.
In ancient times (and even in modern times), this Power may have
been called God, and the process used to activate the Law of
Attraction would have been prayer. Modern processes, are based on an
understanding that God does not behave as a person, with whims and
petty favoritism, but behaves as a force of nature, just like electricity or
gravity.
In this report, I m about to reveal something that almost no-one
ever talks about. In fact, it s something that almost no-one even
KNOWS about. When you fully understand what I m about to share
with you in this report, your work with the Law of Attraction will
become 300% 500% more effective.
To ensure that you fully understand the impact of what I have to
share with you today, I need to cover some background material. You
see, I don t know how much you ve learned up to this point, and it s
always good to review the basics from time to time. So please bear
with me as we go through this. You may find the way I phrase certain
things gives you new insight into concepts and ideas you already knew.
I tend to hear that a lot when I speak.
I once heard Zig Ziglar talk about how a famous football coach
started each and every season the exact same way. He d get in front of
his players, hold up a football, and say, Gentlemen, THIS is a
football. This famous coach was responsible for one of the longest
running winning streaks in the history of the game. However, let s
start our review of the basics a little further along than that.
)asi$ Foundational Con$epts
The basic concept behind the Law of Attraction is that the physical
world around us is nothing more than a shadow compared to the
unseen world which controls the physical plane. This unseen plane of
existence is the source of all true Power, and is what we tap into
whenever we focus our attention on creating any change in the physical
world. Basic concept #1.
Basic concept #2 is that we direct this Power with our
consciousness, which I will refer to as our mind . I say it this way to
get around the debate about the role our emotions play in this process.
Suffice it to say that our emotions must respond to our conscious
choice, and thus our conscious choice is the originating cause of
everything we do, mentally or emotionally.
Now, any time a power , or force , is used to create any kind of
change, there is a basic principle that says the more intense that force,
the more effectively the change will be made. Trying to push a car
with only 10 horsepower of force won t budge it, but apply 10,000
horsepower of force and the car will move rather quickly!
Related to this, the more FOCUSED the force is, the more
intensely it operates in the specific situation. For example, a bullet
sitting on a pile of dynamite will move rather quickly when the
dynamite explodes, but a much smaller amount of gunpowder will
shoot the bullet even more quickly because the force is focused in a
specific direction. As another example, a sharp knife cuts more easily
than a dull one because the force is applied across a smaller area.
With these basic concepts, we can easily see that in order to get the
most from the Law of Attraction, we must be able to not only apply a
greater force, but also apply it with the best focus we can muster.
The next basic concept I need to address here is that out of the
various mental factors related to our ability to tap into Universal Power
(thoughts, emotions, beliefs), it is our beliefs which have the greatest
impact on the results we get. I know some people may disagree with
this point, and since it is critical to what I have to share with you
today, let s review some of the evidence supporting this statement.
How To Get Maximum Results From The Law of Attraction Page 41
.hy )eliefs Are ,ost 7'portant 7n
The &aw of Attra$tion
I cover this in great detail in my book, Choose To Believe: A
Practical Guide to Living Your Dreams, but for the sake of
completeness, I want to hit the highlights here.
Almost everyone these days refers to experiments in the field of
quantum physics. One of the main reasons WHY is because those
scientists are about as hard-nosed against the Law of Attraction as
anyone on Earth! The fact they ve concluded that our expectations
influence the outcome of any given event goes a long way towards
proving that our beliefs have a direct connection to physical reality.
Notice the word, expectation . That s another way of saying belief .
And then there are all the experiments performed by Dr. Rhine at
Duke University. Although his experiments failed to convince the
world at large that psychic abilities exist, the results WERE
statistically significant. Dr. Rhine noted in his logs that the belief a
subject had in the reality of psychic abilities was the most telling
factor indicating the eventual outcome of an individual s work,
whether it was basic ESP or psychokinesis (mind over matter).
The final bit of evidence I ll cover here is what s known as the
placebo effect in medical research. This has been defined as a
healing response to a belief in the patient s mind. In short, when a
patient believes they are getting an effective treatment for a condition,
the placebo effect kicks in and triggers a healing, regardless of the
actual effectiveness of the treatment itself! There are some arguments
to the effect that our entire traditional medical system is based on the
placebo effect in one way or another.
If you d like more information on the scientific evidence
supporting the power of belief, I have a free report and audio program
you may download from my website, at:
http://www.PowerKeysPub.com/WhyBeliefsMatter/
)ringing 7t All Together
Since beliefs are the most telling factor regarding the results we ll
get with the Law of Attraction, and to believe something is to accept it
as true, then it is imperative that we accept the outcome of our work as
a reality before we finish whatever Law of Attraction process we use.
I m sure you already know this and are doing it, at least to some
degree.
Let s not pass this off as obvious, and take a closer look, because
there s something hidden in the midst of all this which most people
miss completely.
First of all, let s consider WHY beliefs have such a great impact on
the Law of Attraction. What happens when you are unsure of
something, like stepping onto a rock? You tend to do it cautiously,
slowly, and ready to move a different way at a moment s notice.
Right? In effect, you are spreading your efforts (your physical force)
across a larger area (potential direction) to minimize the impact of a
mistake, or loose footing.
Now consider how you step forward when you KNOW the ground
will be solid under your feet. You have a firm belief, a conviction, that
your efforts will be productive and produce the result you seek
moving forward. Your physical force of movement is more tightly
focused (only 1 potential direction), and produces a greater intensity
towards accomplishing the intended goal.
Okay, now consider how this may be applied to using the Law of
Attraction.
If you are unsure about what you are doing, your mind will waver
hither and yon, never really committing to a single direction. On the
other hand, if you are absolutely sure of yourself, full of confidence
about what you are doing, your mental force will be more focused and
therefore produce a better result, no?
So it follows that in order to maximize the effectiveness of the Law
of Attraction, you should start by eliciting within yourself a strong
feeling of confidence about what you are about to do.
Take a moment now, and just sit back and consider the impact of
this realization, and let it sink down into your inner consciousness.
Let your mind find new connections between this new insight and
everything you currently know.
How To Get Maximum Results From The Law of Attraction Page 43
!utting This 7nto !ra$ti$e
It wouldn t serve much purpose to know WHAT to do without also
knowing HOW to do it. Here are a few tips I ve learned that make it
super easy to be more confident within mere moments.
Most of the common suggestions for confidence are okay. Practice
until you are comfortable using whatever Law of Attraction process
you ve selected. Visualize yourself as being successful in this venture
getting the results you want. Dress up in good quality clothing.
Take care of your physical body get enough sleep, exercise, and good
food. You know, that sort of thing.
However, if you really want to maximize your results, you ll want
to bring out the power-tools.
If I were like most online marketers, this is where I d direct you to
sign up for one of my memberships, or even purchase my book,
Choose To Believe. However, I m not like that, and I ll give you some
solid information right here, right now.
One of the easiest and quickest ways to elicit within yourself a
strong feeling of confidence is to focus on something for which you
already have abundant confidence. For example, if you are absolutely
positive that 2+2=4, you could use that as a trigger to bring up a
feeling of confidence. Yes, I know it sounds ridiculous, but hey, it
works.
In fact, if you use a series of affirmative statements about things
you already believe are true, this activates a principle NLP (Neuro-
Linguistic Programming) enthusiasts call pacing and leading .
By pacing your current beliefs, you elicit within yourself a strong
feeling of trust (confidence / belief) that may be used to lead your
mind to accept other (new) statements as facts. In other words, your
belief in one set of statements is transferred to a new statement, and
your mind automatically begins to believe it more!
Here s an example of how this is used:
1. I know that 2+2=4.
2. I know that I am living on planet Earth.
3. I know that there is a Power which can perform miracles.
4. I know that this Power cannot fail, it is always successful.
5. I know that I am focusing on this Power now.
6. I know that I am growing more and more confident.
7. I know that the Miracle Power creates the change I desire to
see.
8. I know that this Power fulfills my wish in a perfectly Divine
way.
9. I know that I will soon see the changes I have chosen to effect.
By using the words, I know that ...... we are focusing our
attention on the strongest degree of belief that can possibly exist. If we
were to say, I believe that ..... the effect would not be as strong.
You are welcome to use any pacing statements you want in this
format to elicit a strong feeling of confidence. It really doesn t matter
if your pacing statements relate to the end goal or not, however, I tend
to believe the end result will be better if they do tie in with your
desired results.
In actual practice, you will usually repeat a series of pacing and
leading statements a number of times rather than just once. There s no
hard and fast rule, but the guiding principle is that you continue until
you feel absolutely confident in the final statement, which is the thing
you want to have happen.
When this final statement feels just as true as the others, your work
is done. In fact, this process may constitute the entirety of your Law
of Attraction routine. Of course, if you enjoy the other processes you
work with, there s no reason for you not to do them, so go ahead and
enjoy yourself.
Section *:
Personal
Prosperity 1eys
1. How you can be happy every single day, no matter what may
be happening in the world around you.
2. How to eliminate stress and anger.
3. How to set goals you ll actually enjoy achieving.
4. The most important key to prosperity.
5. The true importance of gift giving.
6. Why Christmas HAD to be commercialized.
7. The Magic Mirror of Abundance.
'o! To )e 'appy 2%ery 3ay
Most people feel that they can only be happy when things are
going well in their lives. For these folks, they need a reason to be
happy, something to make them happy. I m here to show you how you
can be happy any day you choose, whether you have a reason for it
or not.
However, before I dive right in, I want to say that I m one of these
people who doesn t do anything without a reason. As you ll see in
this chapter, when you choose to be happy, good things happen, and
this is perhaps the BEST reason to create happiness in your daily life.
!ut Things 7nto !erspe$tive
Okay, you may not be living a life of joyous abandonment, but
really, how bad is it? Are you about to be put to death? Are you being
mutilated and tortured with physical disfigurement? Are there
billboards on every street corner with your photo and the words,
Hideous Evil-doer ?
Probably not. (Have you cracked a smile yet?)
Unless your life will definitely come to an end today, there is
always hope that tomorrow will be better. And when there s hope,
there s a reason to be happy. When things are at their worst, they
HAVE to get better, right? So cheer up, and before you know it, life
will get better and better.
Now, just to make sure I cover as many possibilities as I can, I
want to say that there s also a reason to be happy even if your life
WILL end today. At least the pain and suffering will be over,
wouldn t you agree? You can be happy simply because you ve come
to the end of your journey and it s time to rest. And if you believe in
re-incarnation, you ll have another opportunity to live a happier life
next time around.
The main point I m trying to make here is that when you put your
life into perspective, it s not as bad as you may think it is. In fact, this
phrase brightened up the darkest days of my life, and may help you
too. It s not as bad as I think it is.
How To Be Happy Every Day Page 47
Count 0our )lessings
Most of us take for granted many of the conveniences we enjoy in
our daily lives. First of all, if you re reading this, there s a good
chance you have access to a computer and the Internet. That alone
puts you into the upper brackets in terms of wealth. There are whole
COUNTRIES of people who do not have computers nor Internet
access.
Do you have indoor plumbing? How about electricity? And let s
not forget things like television, radio, and the ability to shop in
grocery stores! Did you have to make your own clothes, or did you
purchase them? You certainly don t have to sleep in caves, nor do you
sleep on the ground. I m sure you have a bed as well as other furniture
that makes life much more enjoyable.
What I m trying to say here is that there is much in your life you
are taking for granted. Yes, most of the people you know also have
these things, but this doesn t mean that everyone in the world has
them.
The feeling of gratitude creates happiness into your life. Imagine
if you had nothing, how happy you d feel to be given a small thing like
a pair of shoes or a bed. Be grateful for the things you have now. As
strange as it may seem, the feeling of gratitude has a tendency to
attract more good things into your life.
There is a quote from the Christian Bible that has been slightly
altered from its original meaning. The quote goes something like: To
those who have, more will be given. But to those who don t have, even
that which they do have will be taken away. The original meaning
was To those who have the feeling of something, more will be given.
But to those who don t have the feeling of a thing, even that which
they do have will be taken away.
What this means is that there is a spiritual principle which will
attract prosperity to those who feel they are prosperous, or happy
events to happy people. I tend to simplify this into the phrase,
Whatever you focus on, you magnify in your life. Focus on what is
good, and more good will appear. Focus on what is wrong, and more
will go wrong. Allow yourself to enjoy the things that are good, and
there will be more good things to enjoy.
Ta*e Ti'e For 0ourself
Too many of us these days spend far too much time working and
not enough time playing. It s important to take some time for yourself
and just have a bit of fun. It doesn t have to be a whole month, or even
a week. Sometimes just a few minutes is all you need to recover a
sense of balance and poise so you can continue with what needs to be
done.
Try this experiment. Right now. Yes, I mean RIGHT NOW.
Sit back, close your eyes, and relax as much as you can. Take a
deep breath and release it slowly. Don t hold it, just let it go gently
and easily. Do the same with 6 more deep breaths. Don t rush it,
don t push, don t think, and don t try to do anything. Just relax as
much as you can for these 7 breaths.
Most people feel a sense of happiness and joy emerging from deep
within themselves. Even if you didn t feel it this time, I guarantee if
you do it a few times, you ll start to notice a feeling of joy and
happiness welling up within you, proving a point that many authors
have expressed your natural state of being is joy, and when you relax
and simply BE who you are, happiness comes naturally.
Of course, if you haven t taken ANY time for yourself in years,
you may need to do a little more to restore your inner balance. On the
other hand, if your situation is different, and you ve spent too much
time in one physical location (behind a desk, for example), you may
need to engage in some physical activity to restore your inner balance.
If you re struggling to meet your current (or past) responsibilities,
it may seem like you can t afford to take the time you need to just play.
I definitely know how you feel, because I ve worked myself into just
such a corner at various times in my life.
The secret in these situations is to take small amounts of time here
and there. Don t worry about taking a week s vacation. Just take 15
minutes at a time, or an hour if you can, and do something fun. Grab a
basketball and shoot hoops. Put on some music and dance. Go for a
walk. Do anything you enjoy doing that also gets you moving.
Do #o'ething .orthwhile
Although it s important to relax and allow your natural (and
joyous) state of being spring forth, it s equally important to spend time
doing something worthwhile that you can be proud of.
Actually, our physical bodies NEED a certain level of activity in
order to remain healthy. One of the major reasons why people lose the
ability to do many things as they get older is simply because they stop
doing as much as they did when they were younger. Our bodies adapt
to whatever level of activity is required of them, and when there s not
enough activity, our bodies adapt in a negative way. As the old saying
goes, use it or lose it.
Additionally, our MINDS need a certain level of engagement as
well, and for much the same reason. Believe it or not, smart people
don t necessarily have better brains, they just use them more often.
As an example, I spent a number of years doing very little brain-
work, spending most my time meditating and doing a minimal amount
of physical labor to earn a meager living. After 5 years of this, I had
difficulty thinking of things to say in social conversation, and was
generally regarded as weak-minded . Once I saw what was
happening and reversed my pattern, taking time to exercise my mind
as often as I could, I regained my previous mental capacity (I used to
be a A student) and was again considered to be intellectually gifted.
The more we do, either physically or mentally, the more we are
capable of doing, and the easier it is to do whatever we set out to do.
I m sure you ll agree that it s much easier to be happy when Life s
problems are more easily dispatched.
However, this isn t the main point I want to make here. To be
happy, truly happy, it s important to have a sense of pride about your
work.
This isn t to say that you have to be the CEO of a Fortune 500
company. You can be proud of what you do no matter what your job
may be. If your job is flipping burgers at the local fast-food restaurant,
you could be proud of the fact that you help thousands save valuable
time fueling their bodies so they can focus on more important matters.
If your job is picking up trash, you could be proud of the fact that
you serve to keep your city clean, and without you, the city would
eventually turn into a garbage dump.
If your job is working on an assembly line in a factory, you could
be proud of the fact that you are an integral part of the team that
produces whatever product your line manufactures. Obviously, the
product serves some valuable purpose, or else no-one would buy it.
Look at your job in terms of the value your product conveys to the
people who do buy it.
No matter what type of job you have, you can find something
about it for which you can be proud. And if not, take it as a sign that
it s time to find a new job. Or to create one for yourself.
One of the great things about feeling good about your job is that it
gives you more energy to do better work. And when you do your job
better, it tends to lead to other good things, like promotions, pay raises,
and a chance to enjoy yourself more. This is truly a case where
happiness leads to more happiness.
Choose To )elieve 7n 0ourself
The next major step towards being happy every day is to choose to
believe in yourself. Most of the time, we re unhappy because we
believe our experience of life is not good, and that we are incapable of
improving it.
Think about it. If you believed your current situation was great,
you d be happy, wouldn t you? And even if your current situation
isn t good, if you believed you could easily improve it, happiness
wouldn t be too far away.
If this isn t self-evident, then consider what it means to be
depressed. Being depressed means that you believe your life situation
to be bad with no hope for anything better. Anyone who says
differently has something to sell you. A new drug, perhaps?
Here again, I can offer an example from my own life. Many years
ago, when it seemed the world was against me and there was no way I
could make things better, I felt so depressed, I literally contemplated
suicide. Luckily, there was at least a shadow of a belief that things
could get better, so I never actually followed through with it. I found
my inner motivation again when I started working with the power of
belief.
At first, I couldn t imagine that everything would just magically
turn out for the best, so I started with a small belief, a tiny step in a
better direction. It s one I mentioned earlier in this report. It s not as
bad as I think it is.
As I repeated this thought to myself over and over again, I started
to think about how things could actually be better than I thought they
were. Maybe I didn t see things for what they truly were. Maybe I has
mis-interpreted what people meant by the things they said and did.
Maybe there was an opportunity I wasn t seeing because I didn t
believe it was there. Maybe.......
My belief in myself started to grow within a matter of moments.
And I felt new energy welling up inside me, and a new sense of hope.
The next step was to build on this and take it to a higher level,
affirming that I could solve whatever problems were facing me, and
that I would indeed come out okay. As surely as the previous
affirmation got me out of despair, this line of thinking gave me the
motivation to move forward.
I ve come a long way since then, and these days I tend to use
different techniques to shift my beliefs. I also tend to focus on
maintaining a sense of immense joy rather than just getting out of a
dark hole.
,a*e A Fir' De$ision To )e -appy
When it comes right down to it, as Abraham Lincoln once said, a
man is about as happy as he makes up his mind to be.
Most of the time, shifting yourself into happiness is as easy as
making the decision to do so. Other times, you only need to make
small adjustments to release the bonds holding your happiness inside.
What makes you feel good? We ve already talked about taking
care of your physical and mental needs, such as getting plenty of rest,
exercise, and having pride in your work. There are many other things
which can help too.
Things like opening a window to get fresh air, or getting outside to
take a walk. Getting plenty of oxygen into your system helps in so
many ways.
Music is a great way to shift the energy in your environment, and
playing happy music is a great way to create happiness within yourself.
Dressing up in good clothes is something that works for many people,
as does being well groomed. For many folks, when they look good,
they feel good.
Basically, anything that makes you feel good can increase your
happiness. I have one final story to tell you about the magic of
happiness.
Back when I lived in Kansas City, I had a small job cleaning
apartment buildings. Little stuff, like vacuuming floors, washing
windows, and sweeping doorsteps. My boss was a very negative
person, and for quite a while, there wasn t a day that went by without
him finding something about me or my work to criticize.
Well, one day, I made a firm decision that, no matter what, I was
going to be happy that day. If this guy said anything to disrupt my
happiness, I would just leave and find another job if I had to. This was
during a time when I was testing the power of setting firm intentions.
The result of setting this intention to be happy was that my boss
said almost nothing to me all day. I got to work, he showed me what
he wanted done, and left me to do it. When lunchtime came around,
we got something to eat, ate it in virtual silence, and went back to
work. It was one of the quietest days I had on that job.
The next day, I wanted to see if the experiment would work a 2nd
time. Again, I set a firm intention to be happy all day long, and if
anything happened to threaten my happiness, I would walk away. And
once again, my boss didn t say anything critical or unkind.
After hundreds of such experiments, I can tell you that when you
set a firm intention to be happy, the world around you tends to change
to support your decision. Sometimes, you are presented with
something you have to do in order to create the thing you want, such as
reading a new book, or going a different route to work, or whatever
else it may be. In these cases, it s best to just go with the flow, and let
the Universe guide you.
Po!er 1eys For 2liminating
Stress From (our 0ife
Stress comes from only 2 sources. Either being uncomfortable in
your present surroundings, or believing you are inadequate in some
way.
I know there are many who will disagree with me, but the bottom
line is that any other explanation for the cause of stress will boil down
to one of these two reasons.
Knowing this gives us several options to eliminate stress from our
lives. I m sure you ve heard that not all stress is bad, and that we need
a certain amount of stress just to stay alive, and other things along
these lines. The stress I m talking about in this chapter is the excess
stress we don t need, which causes all sorts of problems for us.
Many of us are not aware of how much stress we carry around
with us. There are so few people who have eliminated all excess stress
from their lives that, for all practical purposes, we can say they don t
exist. If you feel you are one of these rare people, then
congratulations! But even so, examine what I m about to cover and
see if maybe you can eliminate a little more stress, and reach a
healthier state of being.
Dealing .ith Dis$o'fort
Let s take a look at the first major cause of stress being
uncomfortable in your surroundings. This could be physical dis-
comfort, or emotional discomfort. Physical discomfort refers to being
too hot, too cold, sitting on too hard a surface, and so forth.
I ve found that, in many cases, the discomfort stems from resisting
the situation, and not accepting it. I ve never liked being too cold, but
when I ve consciously accepted it, and stopped resisting the cold, then
I became much more comfortable with it. The same is true in
situations which are too hot for my preferences, as well as practically
every other physical discomfort I ve tested. Resistance leads to pain,
and acceptance eliminates much of the discomfort.
Stress resulting from physical discomfort can be eliminated by
either accepting the situation, or by changing it. The famous Serenity
Prayer stems from this idea. If you can change something you don t
like, then change it. If you cannot change it, then accept it.
Emotional discomfort can be alleviated much the same way.
Emotional discomfort comes as a result of someone acting or reacting
to you in a manner you don t want to accept. Criticism, blame, hatred,
jealousy, guilt, and other harmful words are usually not welcome,
appreciated, nor accepted.
If someone says that we are inferior, or that we are wrong in some
fundamental way, we tend to take it as a judgment of ourselves. Most
of the time, however, it is more of a judgment of the person who says
such things.
If you were to interpret every negative word against you as a
statement against the person speaking, then you will eliminate a great
deal of emotional discomfort and the stress which comes from it.
With everything said to you, you have a choice whether the
statement has any merit or not. If there is merit, and there is an
opportunity to improve yourself in a way you wish to improve, then by
all means use the information to make a positive change. However, if
there is no merit to what is said, then release it as the words of a
misguided individual.
So, stress from discomfort can be mostly eliminated by simply not
resisting the uncomfortable situation, and accepting it for what it is. If
you watch animals such as cats or dogs, you ll see that they really
don t care what kind of surface they lie upon. They can sleep
practically anywhere. This is because they do not resist the surface.
As Bruce Lee once said, Be like water, my friend. Water molds
itself to any environment in which it finds itself. This is one of the
primary secrets to eliminating stress.
Dealing .ith #tressful )eliefs
The other major cause of stress is thinking that you re inadequate
in some way. If this is indeed the case, then you may be in trouble.
But rarely is this the true case. Rather, it is much more likely that you
are more than adequate, and you just don t realize it.
Power Keys For Eliminating Stress From Your Life Page 55
Inadequacy comes in a variety of forms. There s physical
inadequacy, where we cannot do a required thing, like lifting a heavy
weight, or fitting into a particular space. Although things like this may
be changed gradually over time, it does us no good if we have to fit
through a tiny window in order to escape a fire. The best we can do in
these situations is to use our brain power to imagine another solution
to the current problem, such as finding another way out of the burning
building. On the other hand, many people have surprised themselves
with great feats of strength or skill when a difficult situation demanded
it. You may be more capable than you dare imagine.
A related form of inadequacy is a low level of skill in a particular
area. For instance, we may type at a slow pace, or we may do poorly
in games such as bowling, charades, or chess. In these situations, it is
helpful to realize that many times our beliefs will influence our skills,
and when we believe we are good at something, we perform much
better than when we believe our skills are limited.
As an example of this, I remember playing a game of bowling, and
that particular night, I had forgotten my glasses, and was therefore
unable to see the pins clearly. As an experiment, I decided to imagine
I was a great bowler, and that my body knew exactly how to perform at
a high level. My final score surprised even me. Whereas I normally
scored around 130, that night I scored 192! Choosing to believe I was
a great bowler produced a fantastic score as a result.
Another form of inadequacy is where we do not measure up to
another person s judgment. Our hair may be too long or too short for
their tastes, or we may be thinner or fatter than they believe is right, or
perhaps we do not choose to wear a scent they find pleasing. The best
way to deal with this source of stress is to realize that you ll never be
able to please everyone, and as long as you are happy with the way you
are, that s all that really matters. Of course, if you find a particular
criticism coming up often from people you care about, then it may be
worth looking into the possibility of changing this aspect of yourself.
Transforming Anger Into 4oy
Any emotion feeds on it s expression. The more you express an
emotion, the easier it becomes to express it more often. If you have a
problem with anger, this means you ve expressed it often enough to
make it too easy to express without really thinking about it. If you
want to eliminate anger from your life, you have to stop feeding it (stop
expressing it), and start expressing the opposite emotions of love,
acceptance, and joy instead.
I know this sounds like a tall order, but I can tell you from my own
experience, not only is it possible, but it can happen much quicker than
you may imagine.
A lot of people get into problems when they try to bottle up an
emotion inside, because it festers and grows to the point where it
blows up explosively. In this chapter, I will show you a way to avoid
this, so that you may release the anger completely, allowing it to drain
away from you, and never come up again.
The proper way is to not bottle it up, but rather to refuse to
acknowledge it s presence. When people bottle up an emotion, they
continue to focus upon the emotion they are resisting. In my Keys To
Power Mastery System, students learn that any time you focus upon an
emotion (or anything for that matter), you increase the amount of
Power working to create the same emotion in the future.
For instance, when you focus upon anger, your inner mind directs
Universal Power to create situations in your life which will make you
angry. If you focus upon joy, this Power creates joyful experiences for
you instead.
What you will do from now on is take time out to visualize the
anger that had been a part of you, and see it now draining out of your
body, out of your mind, out of your soul. The anger will leave you
completely, making you feel lighter and more energized. If you still
feel any lingering anger after doing this, do it again, as often as
necessary until you feel completely free of it.
With the anger drained out of your soul, you will start to feel the
natural joy which comes from your inner Spirit. You will begin to see
the world around you as a place where you can experience as much joy
as you care to claim. The emotions of love, acceptance, and joy will
Transforming Anger Into Joy Page 57
well up within you, filling you with so much happiness, there won t be
any room for anything else. And as this joy fills you to overflowing,
you will begin to find yourself naturally expressing joy at all times,
even those times that used to invoke anger. And the more you do this,
the more this joy will conquer anger, and your life will transform into
a radiant expression of the Divine.
You may assist the process by contemplating things you find
joyful, such as a child s laughter, the taste of your favorite food, or a
lover s embrace. Notice the feeling of joy within you, and imagine
how much more intense this feeling could become. Can the joy within
you grow brighter, lighter, hotter, bigger, until it fills the entire
Universe? What would it feel like if it did?
Many years ago, I used to be someone who could be aptly
described as an angry person. I used to fly into fits of rage often,
with the slightest provocation. By using this process, I was able to
change my habitual response so dramatically within a mere month that
many people could not believe the transformation. Of course, I
worked on it daily, for an hour or more each day.
At some point, as you work with your belief system with the
techniques in this book, you will find yourself acknowledging that you
are the only creator in your life. You alone hold the Power to create
the experiences you find on your pathway of life. When you fully
understand this fact, then you will also find the evidence that shows
where your past beliefs created the situations that made you angry in
the past. You will also understand that as you continue to focus upon
love and joy, that those emotions will create better experiences in your
life that you will enjoy.
I hope this gives you the encouragement you need to devote
enough time to eliminating the anger from your life. As they say, a
journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, and that a castle
gets built one brick at a time. Take each step as they come up, and you
will transform your life as much as you want.
Setting Po!er -oals
Every so often, every successful person sits down to evaluate the
direction his/her life is taking and decide where they want their life to
go next.
We all know how important it is to have goals. We hear from
every expert on self-improvement and success that those with clearly
defined goals achieve at least 7 times more than those without goals.
If you re like me, you ve followed along with one of these success
speakers to outline a series of goals that will motivate you to work hard
and become greater than you ve ever been in your life.
But have those goals truly motivated you? Did you reach the
pinnacle of success? Did you make that million dollars, get that fancy
sports car, or marry the fashion model of your dreams? Or if you were
more realistic, did you get that raise, improve your current relationship,
or attain a measure of self-confidence?
There s certainly nothing wrong with setting goals. In fact I agree
with the motivational speakers in that goals are imperative if you are
truly committed to creating the kind of life you want.
But that s the real secret. What kind of life do YOU want?
We ve been programmed since birth that everyone wants money,
good health, and the ultimate relationship. Guys are programmed to
want the fancy sports cars and the beautiful women. Women are
programmed to want a happy household and a successful career at the
same time.
What I d like to do now is to give you some questions to ask
yourself to find out what you really want out of life so you can set your
own goals, not someone else s.
The first set of questions to ask yourself are: What in your life
irritates you? What makes you feel less than satisfied? What would
you like to get rid of if you could?
Although most of us have been programmed to believe that certain
things will make us happy, few of us have been programmed to believe
that other things will make us unhappy. If you know what makes you
unhappy, you have a good idea of what will really make you happy.
Now, ask yourself these questions: How would you like to spend
your free time? If you were given a full month to do anything you d
Setting Power Goals Page 59
like to do, where would you go? If you were told that you would die in
six months, what would you do with the time you had left to live?
That last question especially gets to the heart of the matter. Most
people would very quickly dismiss all of the programming society has
fed them if they thought they were going to die in six months.
Now, using that concept for just another moment, is there anything
you d like to accomplish to leave your mark on the world before you
go?
This question starts to activate a part of your brain that normally
stays quiet, thinking that there will always be time enough to do the
important things in life. We all like to think so, but no-one really
knows for sure.
Is there something that you could do to make this world a better
place? Are there people that you could help in some way? Is there
something you could do that would be remembered a hundred years
from now?
Don t worry if the answer to that last question is no . Not
everyone is destined for greatness, and maybe you just aren t cut out to
be a legend. There s no shame in just being a cog in the machine.
But if you think that there may be something you could do that
would impact the world greatly, don t let modesty stand in your way
either!
Somewhere in this line of questioning, most people tend to find
their life s purpose. That thing that they were meant to do while on
this Earth. Their mission in life. The one goal beyond all other goals
that will drive them onward through thick and thin, through rain and
snow and sleet, over mountains and oceans, until they overcome their
greatest fears and succeed where all others have failed.
Rarely does anyone ask themselves these questions and come up
with a goal of making a million dollars or marrying the newest
supermodel.
But maybe you ve found a goal to become the most successful
salesperson in your company, a record that will stand for years before
anyone else equals your achievements.
Maybe you ve found a goal to teach kids to read.
Maybe you ve found a goal to become a stellar example of how to
demonstrate love in everyday situations.
Maybe you ve found a goal to write a book that will teach the
world an important lesson that no-one seems to have learned except
you.
And maybe you ve found a goal to help someone else achieve the
success that you know they are capable of.
Whatever central goal you ve found for yourself, here are some
questions that will help you define what to do next.
Although you may need to research this question, what steps do
you need to follow to reach your primary goal?
No-one really knows all the steps required to reach a particular
goal, especially if it s one that no-one has reached before, but try to
gather whatever information is readily available. Don t spend all your
time looking for information, though. You have work to do, so get to it
as soon as you have a good idea of where to get started.
Now that you know where you eventually want to end up in life,
you may want to take some time to evaluate how the other projects in
your life fit into the overall scheme of things.
Here s an example. I recently reviewed my own goals, mostly
because I ve found myself going in too many directions at once. One
of my project, working with the website for my church, stood out as
being inconsistent with my primary goal, which is to refine the Keys
To Power system and make it available to as many people as possible.
I also noticed that what I thought was a goal of mine (to build a net
worth of $1 million within the next year), wasn t so important to me.
Actually, I d be quite content with only $100,000.
And the importance of my photography business also found itself
going out the window. It s fun, and I won t avoid it completely, but I
really want to spend my time promoting the Keys To Power system to
the world.
You may also find that some of your minor goals don t fit anymore
with your primary goal.
But just as no man is an island, no goal is truly sufficient unto
itself. Your primary goal needs partners to flourish.
What besides this primary goal do you need to be happy? Bring
back that list of things that currently make you unhappy. What can
you do to change them? Is there a way you can change them and make
progress towards your primary goal at the same time?
Setting Power Goals Page 61
Also bring back that list of things you d like to spend your time
doing. What can you fit into your schedule as you work towards your
primary goal? Schools have periodic recess periods for a reason. No-
one can work well without short breaks to have fun. Make sure to
allow yourself to have some fun along the way!
There s a lot more that can be said about setting goals and
balancing them with playtime. But I ve said enough for one article.
Go ahead, take a break and have some fun.
Then get to work, you have something important to accomplish!
The $ost Important
1ey To Prosperity
There is a single key to prosperity, that will give you everything
you ever wanted in life. This one key to prosperity will give you
riches beyond your imagination, love without end, and perfect health
well past the average age of mankind.
This key is not a secret, as just about every motivational speaker
and business coach has presented the concept over and over again to a
deaf audience. In fact, you yourself have probably been given this key
many times in your life.
But have you listened? Have you taken the information to heart
and made it an ongoing part of your life? Have you improved your
skill to the point where excellence is an apt description?
For that is the key secret to which all great people owe their
greatness. To be excellent in something, whatever it is, is to be the one
everyone wants to work with.
Artists are a dime a dozen, but a great artist can command a
premium for his/her artwork. A single work of great art can be sold
for millions, whereas a work of average art is lucky to fetch $100.
In my field of photography, this is definitely the case. An average
photographer can earn about $500 from an average wedding. A great
photographer doing the same job can earn over $10,000, doing almost
no additional work.
Musicians are the same in this regard. An average musician is
lucky to be able to earn a living from live performances. Great
musicians can earn $100,000 a night performing to sell-out crowds.
In business, the same key applies. An average accountant will
earn $40,000 per year whereas a great accountant can earn over
$400,000.
An average website may earn only $1,000 per month, but a great
website can earn over $10,000 per month.
An average car sells for about $25,000, but a great car sells for
over $250,000.
The lesson here is that the better you are at what you do, the more
you can sell it for. But this key works in other areas besides financial.
The Most Important Key To Prosperity Page 63
Someone with average skills in obtaining peace of mind will find
peace eluding them often. With excellent skills, peace of mind
would be a much more common experience.
A person with average relationship skills will get a certain
amount of happiness in a relationship. Someone with excellent
relationship skills will have a relationship to sing about.
An average cook may not get any complaints about the food, but
an excellent cook will attract crowds of hungry people.
Becoming excellent in what you do will reward you far beyond
money, but will also reward you with love, happiness, peace of mind,
and anything else you can imagine.
How to become excellent? That is the inevitable question that
comes up next. That too is no secret, but is something that very few
people want to acknowledge. Practice. Practice. Practice.
But before you can practice, you have to know what excellence is.
You have to know what you are practicing to obtain. To know the goal
is the first step in reaching it.
For this, you usually want to seek out those who are considered
excellent in the area that you wish to develop your own excellence.
A writer will want to consult with excellent writers.
A musician will want to rehearse with excellent musicians.
A teacher will want to learn from excellent teachers.
A salesperson will want to learn from excellent salespeople.
Someone wanting a cleaner house will want to learn from someone
who is an excellent housekeeper.
Someone wanting more peace of mind will want to learn from
someone who has an abundance of it.
Someone wanting a better relationship will want to learn from
others who have great relationships.
And once you find an example to learn from, try to do what they
do. In the process, you will learn what leads to excellence and
eventually you will learn how to be excellent yourself, even in
situations where your examples were never studied.
Becoming excellent takes time. It takes work. But the rewards are
so out of proportion to the effort involved that you d think you found
the gold mine.
The True Importance
f -ift -i%ing
Although many people balk at the commercialization that has
taken place around Christmas, it is important for us to realize the
prosperous results of gift giving.
As much as anyone, I wish that the true meaning of Christmas was
advertised as much as the Incredible Savings - This Week Only
deals of the season. But even though shopkeepers depend on
Christmas gift-giving to generate a profit for the whole year, it is up to
us to maintain our focus upon what is truly important.
Before I start, however, I want to mention that the benefits of gift-
giving are not limited to only those who follow the Christian faith, nor
are they limited to the Christmas season. In our society, we are much
more familiar with the tradition of gift-giving as it applies to the
holiday season, but a quick review of other cultures will find other
examples.
One of the primary benefits of gift giving is the good feeling you
get when you do something good for someone special. There s a
magical moment when you watch the recipient of the gift unwrap the
package and discover the treasure that you ve wisely chosen for them.
When their eyes widen as they realize what you have done to
demonstrate their importance in your life, your spirit responds with a
warm glow that builds from the inside out, and you have confirmation
that you have created a little more prosperity in the world.
Some people find that they don t experience this warm glow from
their inner spirit. In fact, some people experience a feeling of loss or
impoverishment. Those people will find that their mental focus is on
the cost of the gift and not on the blessings that it has created for the
other person. The attitude in which a gift is given is actually much
more important than the gift itself.
It s the thought that counts.
When a gift is given with the proper attitude, there is a scientific
cause and effect type of response from the Universe. Just as a rubber
ball thrown against a brick wall will bounce back, a gift given with the
The True Importance Of Gift Giving Page 65
proper attitude will cause the Universe to give the giver something of
value.
I really like how Wayne Dyer explains this. In one of his
presentations, he explains that the Universe is like an echo. Whenever
we ask What can I get? , the Universe asks us the same question.
And whenever we ask What can I do or give? , we experience the
Universe asking us this same question.
We can also see this as a mirror. Imagine that you re standing in
front of a large (Universally-sized) mirror. What you see is a
reflection of who you are. If you give the mirror your best, you will
find the mirror reflecting the same attitude back to you, giving you it s
best. But if you try to hold back from the mirror, you will find the
mirror holding back from you.
And so, we find that in giving good gifts to those in our lives, we
allow the Universe to give us good gifts also, and this naturally
increases our experience of prosperity in our lives.
And while it may be difficult to believe at first, understanding this
magical fact will open you to the realization that it s the truly generous
people in this world that experience the greatest prosperity.
Be generous in your spirit, and become prosperous in your life.
Why Christmas 'A3 to be
Commerciali5ed
Every year I hear people say over and over again I don t
understand why Christmas had to get so commercialized. Behind this
statement is usually an implied suggestion that it s the evil
capitalists that are to blame and that people should focus on other
things during the Christmas season.
But is this true? Should we focus on other things around
Christmas-time, or is there some value in the commercialization of
Christmas?
If you remember the story about when Christ was incarnated in
Bethlehem, you ll also remember that gifts were presented to the
Christ child soon after His birth. What was the purpose of those gifts?
The gifts given to Christ were a way to signify just how important
those wise men considered Christ to be. They felt that this newborn
baby would be the greatest of all, and they wanted to express their
admiration of His mission on Earth through the giving of gifts.
Isn t that what we do when we give gifts to those around us?
Aren t we also expressing just how important these people are to us by
the gifts that we give?
Christmas is also one of the few times of the year when we
specifically focus on the message that Christ gave the world, and the
work that He did while He was here.
All through His ministry on Earth, Christ continually gave of
Himself to those who needed Him. He gave the gifts of sight, sanity,
health, life, and wisdom. He also received gifts of food, shelter, and
clothing.
In our exchange of gifts, we honor the life that Christ lived.
The messages that Christ spoke of during His ministry centered
around 2 main principles - faith and love.
We are encouraged to love everyone as we love ourselves, and we
are instructed that if we have faith that our prayers will be answered
then they will be answered according to our faith.
Faith is sometimes seen as a tricky thing. Either you have it or you
don t. Many times, we wonder if there is any way to increase the
Why Christmas HAD to be Commercialized Page 67
amount of faith that we have so that our prayers will be more effective
in our lives.
Most people tend to pray for one of three things - health, financial
abundance, or good relationships. The message of Christ was that we
could have anything we wanted if we had enough faith.
In the act of giving gifts, we are generally acting out of love, with
the faith that there will be enough financial abundance to fulfill our
needs even after the giving of the gifts.
By giving gifts, we open ourselves to the wondrous free flow of
Spiritual energy into our souls, which then blesses us in many ways.
Yes, we can improve our health and our prosperity by giving gifts.
With so many reasons to be giving gifts, it s really no wonder why
Christmas-time became the best reason in the world for gift giving.
May you be blessed by the giving of gifts this year.
The $agic $irror of Abundance
Have you ever heard the saying Life is a mirror"? It s a saying
that I often repeat in conversations when someone is wondering why
things happened as they did.
It seems that everyone I meet is trying to take something from
me, like they don t care about anyone but themselves. one may say
after meeting with a prospective client.
I just love how everywhere I go, people just seem to go out of
their way to do something nice for me. And most of them don t even
KNOW me! another might say after coming back from a trip.
In both cases, the people around them are mirroring back to them
their own attitudes and behaviors. For one, the attitude of trying to get
something for nothing is mirrored, yet for the other, their giving
attitude is mirrored in their experiences.
I used to be a timid and shy person. As a result, everywhere I
went, very few people would approach me or respond when I
approached them. When I started becoming more outgoing and more
expressive with others, I found that people were more willing to
engage me in conversation.
One way that a lot of people put this phenomenon to work for them
to get more out of life is through a practice called tithing.
Tithing is a practice that comes from several references in the
Christian Bible about giving back to God a tenth of what was gained
through various channels. Today, most people who tithe give to the
source of their inspiration, the channel through which God has given
most directly to them.
Modern practitioners of this ancient teaching claim that it is the
single most important activity responsible for their increased
abundance of wealth and happiness. The more they give to others, the
more others give back to them.
The fact that wealthy people all over the world donate many
millions to good causes is a testament to the value these people give to
tithing.
But donating money is only one way to activate the principle
behind tithing. You can give of your time, your talents, your wisdom,
your insights, your friendship, your love, your encouragement, or
The Magic Mirror of Abundance Page 69
anything else that can benefit other people. Whenever you give freely
and with a sincere desire to do good, the Universe finds a way to
return back to you multiplied many times over.
While I don t tithe in the traditional manner (giving 10% of my
income to my church), I do find other ways to benefit others and
activate the principle behind tithing. I ve found these alternate
approaches just as effective.
One way I tithe is by donating my time and skills to my church,
where I serve as a sound technician, photographer, and website
administrator. As such, I save them from having to spend more than
$3,000 per year on professional services.
Another way is through the valuable free reports I offer on the
PowerKeys Publishing website. With these free reports, someone may
start to use my Choose To Believe system to improve their life, even
before they make a purchase. This too is to activate and use the
principle of tithing in order to increase my own prosperity.
With all this talk about tithing, and the principle behind it, we have
not yet addressed what makes tithing work. What is the principle that
makes this activity produce so much abundance?
The principle that makes tithing work so effectively is one which
has several names. Some call it the Law of Attraction. Others call it
the Law of Cause & Effect. Some call it Karma. Whatever you call it,
it s a law of the Universe just as much as the Law of Gravity or the
Law of Magnetism. Once activate, there s nothing that can stop it.
If there s one thing I can do to help you get more out of life, it s to
encourage you to activate the Universal Laws and start focusing on
what you can give to others. The more you do to benefit others, the
more you get. It s really that simple.
Section 6:
Po!er Persuasion
1. Why almost everything you want in life comes from selling
ideas to other people.
2. How to defend against others persuading you against your will.
3. The core psychological principles upon which all power
persuasion is based.
4. The 3 levels of persuasion, and which one to use for maximum
effectiveness
5. The 5 key phases of communication and persuasion, and what
to do in each phase.
6. How to hypnotize anyone using nothing more than simple
conversation.
7. Why people do the things they do. When you understand this,
you can take the driver s seat in any relationship.
8. How to find a person s secret buttons and push them to get
what you want.
9. 6 personality scales upon which you can measure any person
and thereby lead the relationship.
10. How to get the respect and attention you deserve.
11. How to project charisma and authority.
12. The gestures and body language which will instantly
communicate confidence, authority, and attraction.
13. The Key To Instant Persuasion, and how to develop it.
Introduction To Power Persuasion Page 71
Introduction To Po!er Persuasion
.hy &earn !ersuasion1
Most people assume persuasion is only for salespeople, and if
you re not involved with selling, then you don t need persuasion skills.
However, as you begin to take note of some of the various situations in
which persuasion already happens in your life, you may realize you are
already trying to persuade the people around you to do one thing or
another.
Consider these common persuasion situations:
Are you a parent trying to persuade your kids to become
responsible adults?
Do you want more fulfilling relationships with your spouse or
loved ones?
Do you require the cooperation of other people who may have
other priorities?
Do you want to get more respect from the people around you?
Are you a counselor, teacher, or life coach trying to help others
succeed in life?
Do you ever need to negotiate the price of an item being
bought or sold?
Do you need to protect yourself from unscrupulous
manipulators who are using persuasion against you?
These and many other situations call for the skillful application of
persuasion skills. When you learn the powerful skills I ll share with
you in this book, you will find that you are able to get what you want
and need from other people. You can persuade people to respect you,
to see your point of view about a given topic, to help you when you
need it, and to do what needs to be done.
)enefits of 5sing !ower !ersuasion
When you ve developed the skills of power persuasion, you will
find that you get more of what you want from the people in your life.
You get more respect, people place more value on your ideas, any
disagreements are quickly dispersed, and everyone has more fun.
Resistance, which usually arises when two people are at odds with
each other, fades away. This is because you are able to find the
motivations which cause the other person to want to do things your
way instead. With less resistance, you are able to get quicker results
because agreement is reached sooner. By making the experience more
fun for everyone involved, results tend to be of a higher quality, since
no-one is grudgingly accepting the inevitable, but is eagerly
anticipating a positive result.
Knowing how to get what you want from other people results in a
higher standard of living, because you know how to get more from the
work you do. You ll be able to persuade those you work with to be
more cooperative and productive, which will lead to promotions,
awards, and raises. Others will know you can get the job done when
no-one else can, and this leads to respect, recognition, and authority.
If you choose, you could even take the skills you learn here and
apply them to one of the highest-paying careers in the world
copywriting. Businesses have a strong need for effective marketing
materials. Many businesses will spend $10,000 to $50,000 for a great
sales letter, which may take you only a week to create. The skills of
persuasion are very valuable indeed.
While this may not be your goal, you can choose to do anything
you want with the skills you learn in this course. The only limits are
those you set on yourself.
.ho #hould &earn !ower !ersuasion1
To be completely honest, everyone. Persuasion is so pervasive that
you can pretty much equate it with communication. Any time you
communicate with another person (or even to yourself), you have a
need to persuade.
Do you want to change a habit of yours? You need to persuade
yourself to make the required changes. Do you need to teach
something to someone? You need to persuade them to see the
information in a way that makes sense to them and is easy to
remember. Do you want to communicate your experiences to someone
else? Power persuasion allows you to give them a full, rich experience
that will have meaning and impact.
To communicate effectively, you need to persuade your listener to
accept your information and to interpret it in the way you intend.
While this may not normally be described as selling , you are in fact
selling your listener (referred to as the prospect in most persuasion
literature) on the idea that what you say has validity. Only when they
have bought that concept will you have effectively communicated
your message.
Because even the most rudimentary forms of communication can
be described in terms of selling, you will notice that I often use terms
such as prospect , product , offer , and others usually used in the
selling field. This was done simply because the majority of readers
will be involved with selling at some level, and it just makes sense to
accommodate as many people as possible.
Although I often use a number of selling terms, this material can
be used for any persuasion situation, whether you are motivating a
child to follow the rules of the house, giving a friend the inspiration
they need to pursue a goal, or seducing a potential lover. Just keep in
mind that the person you re trying to persuade is referred to as your
prospect , and the thing you are persuading this person to do is
referred to as your product , or your offer . You have sold your
product to your prospect when the person you re persuading agrees to
do the thing you want them to do.
Typi$al !ersuaders
Business People
Anyone involved with the operation of a business has a strong need
to persuade. Business itself is about getting other people to reach
agreement on one issue or another. Not only do you have salespeople
and the marketing department, which are involved with persuading
the public to purchase products and services, but you also have
employee managers who need to persuade employees to do their job
correctly, and work well together. There s also those involved in
human resources, who are responsible for persuading job applicants
to honestly provide relevant information, and to accept the terms of
employment.
Teachers / Counselors / Coaches
As we mentioned earlier, anyone needing to impart information
needs to persuade the student that the information as valuable, valid,
and easy to understand. Many times this boils down to persuading the
student on your expertise in the subject area, and your qualifications to
teach. Other times it is simply a matter of communicating your
information in a way that is both entertaining and instructive.
Counselors and life coaches require powerful persuasion skills, as
you may need to persuade your clients to change who they are on a
fundamental level in order to change their approach to life. And
because you earn more money when you can help more people, you
need to persuade your clients to refer people they know to you when
appropriate.
Community Leaders
Ministers, government officials, public speakers, and leaders of
charitable organizations are in the business of persuading their
followers to think, believe, and act in a unified manner which benefits
the whole community. Even laws are ineffective if the public is not
persuaded to obey them. The threat of prison time is only one method
of persuasion, and one that should be used only as a last resort.
Private Individuals
Even if you don t fit into any of the other classes of persuaders,
you will still occasionally need to gain the cooperation of other people.
You may want to persuade your friends to accept your choice of
entertainment for the evening. You may need to persuade an attractive
stranger to go out on a date with you. You may need to persuade your
spouse to compromise on an issue which has been a source of unrest in
the household. You may need to persuade your kids to accept their
responsibilities and grow up to be productive members of society.
And you ll definitely need to know how to protect yourself from others
persuading you against your will.
Defending 0ourself
Regardless of the type of persuader you are, you will always need
to know how to defend yourself against other people using persuasion
against you. The first line of defense is to know what to expect. The
techniques of power persuasion are subtle and not easily identified.
Only by studying this subject in depth will you discover the many
techniques being used against you, and counteract their effects.
The general principles for defending yourself are to first identify
the technique being used, and then to mentally erase it from existence.
Another alternative would be to actively turn the tables on the other
person and persuade them to your viewpoint.
For instance, let s say that you walk into an electronics store and
the salesperson is trying to sell you something you had no intention of
purchasing. If you notice the salesperson is using lots of metaphors to
describe emotional states, you can identify that as the Hocus-Pocus
technique and reverse the spell being cast. Or if you notice the
salesperson is imitating your body language, gestures, and posture, you
can identify that as the Mirror Mirror technique and consciously
mis-match the salesperson to break the connection being formed.
(Specific techniques are described in my advanced course, Keys To
Power Persuasion, available at www.PowerKeysPub.com.)
It s almost like chess. Someone may be trying to maneuver you
into a corner, but if you know the game, you can out-maneuver the
persuader, and put them into a corner instead. You can t do that if you
don t know how to play the game.
A simple guideline to follow is to continually remind yourself of
your desired outcome, stay fully alert, don t allow yourself to feel any
sort of bond or connection with the other person, and ask them to
clarify every point so there is no misunderstanding. This will diffuse
most power persuasion techniques.
Psychology of Persuasion
The Grand #$ale of !ersuasion
What makes a person say yes instead of no? If all it took was to
simply ask someone to say yes, then the whole persuasion issue would
be non-existent, would it not?
Some people think persuasion is a means of demonstrating the
logical reasons why the prospect should take action on the proposed
suggestions. When trying to persuade someone, these people will pile
reason after reason onto the scale, and attempt to show proof of their
statements in order to tip the scales in their favor.
Other people feel that persuasion is an emotional process, and
believe the prospect will say yes when enough enthusiasm and energy
has been put onto the yes side of scale. These people will gesture very
dramatically, pound their fists against the desk, talk very excitedly,
and practically bounce up and down as they speak.
Who s right? Which weighs more logic or emotion?
When I took my first sales job, I was told people buy on emotion
and justify with logic . Just about every salesperson hears this line at
some point or another in their career. At the time, I couldn t believe
that anyone would buy anything on emotion. I was a very logical
person and always took the time to weigh the pros and cons of the
products I considered purchasing before making a decision.
I knew that other people were the same way, at least considering
the price of an item and how it compares to the prices of other similar
items as they decide to purchase one as opposed to another. And
certainly, no-one would buy an expensive item like a car or a house
based on feelings .
So why did so many salespeople believe otherwise? Was it
possible they knew something I didn t? I had to admit that at least
some people seemed to make some decisions based on emotion. After
all, why would they make the choices they did even after learning
about the facts which clearly proved it was better to go a different
direction? What balance directed them to make a conscious choice to
choose something (or someone) that wasn t good for them?
Psychology of Persuasion Page 77
After spending considerable time pondering the question, I
realized that our emotions always had a thumb on the scale, to point in
the direction we wanted to go. Why would we care what part of
town we wanted to live in unless there was a feeling behind it? Why
would we want a car with more power unless we had an emotional
attachment to power itself? Why would we want the most efficient
heating system unless there was an emotional reason attached?
Back to our original question, what makes a person say yes instead
of no? A person will say yes when the anticipation of a pleasurable
result is heavier on the yes side of the scale than on the no side. The
reward may be a warm house with a low fuel bill, or it may be the
feeling of self-respect for doing a tough job well. It could also be the
good feeling of out-persuading the master persuader, in which case
you re better off not bragging about your persuasion skills.
The Auto'ati$ 8ature of the ,ind
The !in* 3lephant !rin$iple
One of the core principles of power persuasion is that the human
mind has an automatic nature. When certain things come up, the
human mind will respond in an automatic and predictable way. This
pattern can be used to persuade another person to think, feel, and act
as we wish them.
Here is the classic proof of that statement. Whatever happens, do
not, I repeat DO NOT think of pink elephants. Don t think of pink
elephants wearing lacy tutus and holding polka-dotted umbrellas while
balancing on a big beach ball. Don t think of pink elephants licking
giant lollipops while riding tiny tricycles. Just don t think of pink
elephants at all.
Be honest now. While reading through that paragraph, you had a
devil of a time trying to chase those darned images of pink elephants
out of your mind, didn t you?
It s okay. It wasn t your fault. It s just that your mind, as
everyone else s, has to have some way to interpret the words being
read (or heard) in order to understand what s being communicated.
The only way you can interpret the words is to call up an associated
memory of what those words stand for. Your mind was FORCED to
think of pink elephants just to understand what those words meant.
Asso$iative &in*ing
Your mind probably also brought up other thoughts related to the
concept of pink elephants. Although it s been years since I ve heard
any reference to the phenomenon, it used to be said that pink elephants
were something seen when people got really, REALLY drunk.
The above example is such a classic one, it s even been the subject
of childhood jokes. Many kids have played this game with their
classmates, and it s possible that this association also came up in your
mind as you were just thinking about pink elephants.
Or maybe you had associated thoughts regarding elephants in
general. Images of jungles or circuses may have danced in your head.
In short, one thought automatically brings up with it other related
thoughts. That s the way the mind works. Association. One thought
leading to another thought, as a cascading series of waves rippling on
the pond of consciousness.
Or like when you surf the Internet, clicking on one link which
takes you to a website, where you find another link taking you to a
different website, where again you find a link that takes you
somewhere else entirely. It may seem random, but there is a definite
reason for each and every transition.
&anguage As 34perien$e
When you imagine what is being said in order to interpret it,
something else happens too. Your mind experiences the imagined
situation and reacts to it as if it were real.
The subconscious mind cannot tell the difference between
a real event and one that is vividly imagined.
Hypnotists prove this daily. Take anyone afraid of snakes and ask
them to imagine a snake and guess what happens? Right. That person
instantly reacts as if they are in fact seeing a real, live snake. Their
heart starts beating faster, their blood pressure rises, they start to
perspire, and their breathing becomes quick and shallow.
What happens when you start to think about being with the person
you love? Don t you start to get a warm glow inside of you that seems
to come from out of no-where? Doesn t the thought of spending time
with your romantic interest cause a reaction within your body that has
nothing to do with anything actually happening around you?
And if I ask you to think about what it s going to be like when you
have mastered the art and science of persuasion and you re finally
getting everything you ve always wanted from the people around you,
don t you start to feel more powerful, as if you can handle anything?
Granted, these feelings are subtle, and can be easily overlooked.
That s why they re extremely powerful, because they do get
overlooked. If the reactions were obvious, then people would take
measures to protect themselves. But since the reactions are subtle,
they act as tiny little steps in the direction your conversation is taking
them.
Here s another example of the true power of imagined situations.
This is also a much-quoted experiment which has been repeated often
with similar results. Read it carefully, however, as I have a surprise for
you.
A group of high-school kids were divided into 3 groups. All 3
groups were tested at the beginning and end of the experiment to see
how they performed a relatively simple task shooting free throws on
a basketball court.
One group never practiced during the month this experiment took
place. At the end of the experiment, lo and behold, their shooting
accuracy stayed the same. Can you believe it?
The next group had 1 hour of practice every school day during the
month, and afterwards, this groups shooting accuracy increased an
average of 25%. Not bad at all, I d say.
The third group did something completely different. They also
practiced for an hour each day, but never touched a basketball during
the whole experiment. Rather, they practiced in their minds,
imagining themselves dribbling the ball, feeling the weight of the ball
in their hands, shooting it towards the basket, and imagining the ball
going into the basket every single time. These kids felt great as they
saw themselves as Hall of Fame candidates.
This group s accuracy increased an average of 23%!
Obviously, their bodies reacted to the imagined situation almost
exactly as if they had actually been practicing. And I m willing to bet
that as you were reading about the experiment, you also imagined
yourself shooting baskets, didn t you? Proof once again that you can
get someone to experience something merely by talking about it.
What s amazing about this principle is that what you say doesn t
have to be about the person you re speaking to at all. You could
simply talk about someone else going through an experience, and the
person you re with will imagine having the experience you re talking
about. Automatically. Just to be able to interpret the words you re
saying so they can understand what is being said. Keep this in mind
and your persuasion skills will increase dramatically.
The 9 !hases of !ower !ersuasion
While getting your prospect to imagine and experience good things
and getting those experiences linked to your proposal will increase
your persuasiveness, there is a whole process that will subliminally
hypnotize your prospect to accept your suggestions as their own.
In researching the art and science of persuasion, I discovered that
there are 5 distinct phases of the persuasion process. Distinct may or
may not be the best word, as the 5 phases generally overlap and work
together. This may be why I never found a single book, course, or
program that discussed all 5 phases of the persuasion process.
The 5 phases of power persuasion are: (drum roll, please )
1. Creating Rapport & Trust
2. Shifting Your Prospect s State
3. Setting Context
4. Distraction & Misdirection
5. Covert Delivery of Subliminal Persuasive Messages
Creating Rapport & Trust
Once you have your prospect s attention, you must create a feeling
of rapport between yourself and your prospect before you attempt any
real persuasion. In simple terms, this means you have to get your
prospect to like you and to trust you.
Rapport is the connecting link which allows communication to
flow smoothly and easily between 2 people. When 2 people are in
rapport , they open up and become more expressive. They respond to
each other quicker and at a much deeper level. It s almost as if they
communicate on a spiritual level, a level beyond words, where every
nuance of expression carries with it untold depths of meaning. They
open up their subconscious minds to do more of the communicating,
making subliminal persuasion so much easier.
Whenever you persuade another person, the level of rapport
between the two of you will determine how easily you ll be able to
persuade them. With zero rapport, persuasion will be nearly
impossible. With great rapport, persuasion becomes an effortless
process. In fact, with perfect rapport, persuasion becomes almost
unnecessary. Simply suggest what you d like your prospect to do, and
they ll do it.
Rapport is a natural experience when two people like and trust
each other. Sometimes this happens spontaneously during the course
of a 1
st
meeting, but generally it takes more time. As persuasion
experts, we have to create rapport quickly, sometimes within moments.
True power persuaders know how to create rapport in an instant.
Unfortunately, there s too much material to fit into one book, so if
you re interested in these advanced techniques, see my Keys To Power
Persuasion course. The material I give you here will produce the same
results, although more slowly.
Rapport happens when your prospect both likes and trusts you.
Both components have to exist before rapport takes place. It doesn t
matter how much your prospect likes you, if they don t trust you, you
won t be persuading them to do anything. Same thing if they trust you
but don t like you. But when your prospect likes AND trusts you, then
the door is open to persuade them to your way of thinking.
Intimidation is another matter, however. While it s possible to
intimidate anyone to do as you want them to do, that s not persuasion.
To get someone to like you, all you have to do is to be like that
person and give them positive experiences. The guiding principle here
is that people tend to like other people who are similar to themselves,
and with whom they share experiences, especially intense ones.
Think about your own friends. They are your friends mostly
because of shared interests or some other commonality that ties you
together, such as shared experiences. Perhaps you ve been working
together for the same company for years, and over that time have
grown to appreciate the personality behind the face. Maybe you live in
the same neighborhood and have cooperated on various community
projects, and in the process have discovered a strong inner character
that you can respect. Or could it be that your friends are people who
enjoy doing the same kinds of things that you also enjoy doing?
It s the similarities and shared experiences that bond people
together in friendships.
Of course, you can t go to the extreme with this. If you try to
become someone s clone, they would recognize that you re doing
something unnatural, and the unnaturalness of it will ruin the effect
and you ll be out in the cold. It s got to seem natural and spontaneous.
Power persuaders use a couple of techniques to subtly mimic
selected characteristics of a person in order to create rapport. One
technique is called Mirroring & Matching , and the other is called
Pacing . Mirroring & Matching is a physical process of subtly
mimicking body language, whereas Pacing is verbally referring to
things your prospect already believes or can observe.
Trust can be crafted just as easily. There s a saying in sales circles
that goes like this:
They don t care how much you know,
until they know how much you care.
Until you communicate to your prospect that you care about their
needs, everything you say is suspect, and you ll have a hard time
persuading them to do anything. They will be constantly looking for
the hidden catch. But once they know you re on their side and looking
out for their interests, you re no longer an adversary, but a trusted
friend and partner.
The same situation comes up in other areas too, not just in sales.
In relationships, for example, if the person you re asking out on a date
feels you are only after your own interests, they simply won t want to
go out with you. But if they understand you want to share a positive
experience both of you will enjoy, then your chances of getting that
date go up dramatically.
When you re trying to get your kids to obey the rules, you ll have
better luck when they know the rules are in place to help them in some
way, rather than just to make life easier for you.
And when you re giving instructions to employees, those
instructions will be followed more closely when your employees know
you re working to make their jobs easier, more enjoyable, and more
rewarding.
Of course, trust involves more than just communicating that you re
looking out for your prospect s interests. You may have a perfectly
valid reason for wanting to help your prospect, but if they question
your character or your ability to deliver what you re promising, you re
still swimming upstream.
Let s say you re a teacher with a class full of 12
th
graders. Even if
they know you re working to help them earn more money after they
graduate, if they don t believe the material you re teaching them can
actually do the job, the feeling of rapport will be missing.
Or maybe you re a counselor who doesn t take payment until your
client has met their objectives. Rapport will not be established until
that client feels you can actually help them reach those objectives.
Shifting Your Prospect s State
After you ve established rapport between yourself and your
prospect, the next step is to shift your prospect into a more suggestible
state. This sets the foundation for what is called conversational
hypnosis, a key component of power persuasion. The more
suggestible your prospect, the easier it will be to persuade them to your
way of thinking. It s as though they are deep in hypnosis, obeying
your every command, subtly delivered through simple conversation.
Shifting your prospect s state does not involve holding a shiny
object in front of their eyes and telling them that they are getting
sleepy and drowsy, with eyelids getting heavier and heavier, ready to
drift off into a pleasant state of hypnosis.
WAKE UP! (I know you were starting to drift off there a little.
The automatic nature of the human mind, remember?)
What we generally do, however, is talk about things that will cause
the automatic nature of the mind to drop down into a more suggestible
state. Talking about being relaxed is one way of doing it. Here s one
example of how this could be done.
Isn t it great when you can just relax your whole
body, releasing every ounce of tension that collected
during the day, to the point where you feel a sense of
warmth growing inside of you? I know that when I
relax, my whole perspective on life changes for the
better and I begin to see the wonderful things right in
front of me, things that will suddenly have a great
significance in life. This is great, isn t it?
The goal here is to lead your prospect to focus on something not in
conscious awareness. By directing your prospect to focus on
something not in conscious awareness, your prospect MUST shift into
a subconscious awareness to follow along in the conversation. And
when anyone is focusing on a subconscious awareness, they are more
suggestible and can be persuaded more easily. Persuasion experts call
this state downtime .
One of the techniques we use to shift our prospect s state is to ask
them to remember past events. Memories are not in conscious
awareness, so recalling a memory takes us into a subconscious,
suggestible state. Asking your prospect to imagine a hypothetical
situation, or a possible outcome to a situation does much the same
thing. They have to think about something that is not within their
conscious awareness, so they have to shift into downtime.
Can you tell me what would happen if you were to
walk up to someone as if you had more confidence and
pretended to be an authority? Is it possible that they
would simply accept you as being the authority you
claimed to be and respond by trusting your
judgment?
One of the reasons hypnotherapists start out by getting their clients
to focus on their breathing is because it is something which isn t in the
client s conscious awareness. They also induce hypnotic trance by
talking about relaxation and suggesting that the client will begin to
notice different things which normally happen as they relax.
Classic hypnotic techniques are used extensively in power
persuasion. In this situation, it s generally called conversational
hypnosis, because it happens in what appears to be everyday
conversation.
Setting Context
What does the word conduct mean? It could mean several
different things, depending on the context in which it was used, right?
The word conduct could mean the behavior of a person, or it
could refer to what a particular person does in front of an orchestra, or
it could mean the process of transferring electricity through a wire.
Take a look at the word desire . It really only has one meaning,
doesn t it? But that one meaning could have several different
connotations, depending on the context of the conversation.
In one conversation, the word desire could be used as a
counterpoint to the word need , and be used to mean a simple thing
that doesn t have much importance.
In another conversation, the word desire could be used in such a
fashion as to mean something that is sought after with enthusiasm, and
be placed into a good light.
In a third context, the word desire could be taken to mean
something evil to be avoided.
So if we want to persuade someone that they will desire what we
have to offer, we want to make sure that the context of the conversation
is such that desire is a good thing. Otherwise, the word desire
could cause your prospect to clam up.
Or if we plan to talk about discipline , we want to make sure that
our prospect sees discipline as something good and an activity to be
lauded and engaged in.
Context can be set by many different things, such as the situation
in which the conversation takes place, the topic of our conversation,
how we present our information, the way we word our sentences, and
even the gestures we use while we re speaking.
When we persuade someone, we set an appropriate context so our
prospect s mind is a fertile field in which our suggestions grow roots
and multiply.
Distraction & Misdirection
Power persuasion (and conversational hypnosis in general) is a lot
like stage magic. In order to make it work, you have to redirect your
audience s attention to a place where nothing is happening while you
are making the changes that appear to be magic.
Look at it this way, you ve set the stage (developed rapport),
prepared your audience (shifted them into downtime), and set up the
scene (set context) for the magic trick. Now to disguise what you re
doing so the trick isn t seen, you have to direct your audience
(distraction / misdirection) to look at something other than what your
hands are doing (the subliminal persuasive message).
This is where power persuaders rise head and shoulders above all
others. It is in mastering this skill that you will find yourself
persuading others in ways that others simply don t understand. Once
you have this skill down, people will see you as some sort of miracle
worker, or in possession of a degree of luck that could only come from
the gods.
What most people don t understand is that everyone uses the
techniques of distraction and misdirection all of the time. It s built
into language at the very core. Yes, you ve already been performing
conversational hypnosis and you didn t even realize it!
When we speak to another person, we try to give that person a
report of an experience, or information which has to be experienced to
be understood. Even if we try to describe a physical object, our
language strives to give the listener an experience of that object.
But words are not experiences, nor do they contain experiences in
themselves. Words by themselves have absolutely no meaning
whatsoever. Have you ever tried to understand what someone said
who spoke a language you did not understand? The very fact you did
not understand the words used should be proof enough that words
themselves do not convey meaning. Only the interpretation of those
words yields meaning.
It is simply impossible for anyone to give a full and complete
description of anything using language. So we generalize and leave
out details. In order for anyone to understand what we re saying, they
have to try to interpret what you re saying in a way that makes sense,
so they have to mentally go looking for the bits of information that you
left out to make a complete picture. And while they re looking for the
missing information, they re not paying as much attention to what you
continue to say, giving you a perfect opportunity to communicate
directly to their subconscious mind. Voila! Conversational hypnosis.
Missing information is only one technique of distraction &
misdirection. Disguising the context of the words we use is another.
Power persuaders are very fond of telling stories and using quotes.
When a person is listening to a story about someone else, they do not
consciously associate the content of the story with themselves. But
due to the Pink Elephant Principle, and the requirement to experience
words in order to understand them, your prospect will imagine
themselves as being the subject of the story just to understand what
you are telling them.
I have a friend who wanted to start a business. But it
seemed that no matter what he tried, he could not get a
bank to finance his venture. Over the course of several
years, he applied for the money he desperately needed
for his business from bank after bank, getting rejected
each and every time. It was heartbreaking.
But one day, my friend found PowerKeys Publishing
and all his troubles evaporated like the morning dew
on a hot summer day. They told him Stop wasting
your time looking for financing! You can make tons of
money just by promoting this excellent course through
our affiliate program. They showed my friend how to
set up his affiliate business and promote it to a global
market, and do it all using the money already at his
disposal.
You ll notice in this example that no-one is telling the listener what
to do, but if you were to say something like this to your prospect, they
will interpret the quote Stop wasting your time looking for financing!
You can make tons of money just by promoting this excellent course
through our affiliate program. as if it were directed at them, and start
thinking about how they could do the same.
Covert Delivery of Subliminal Persuasive Messages
The final phase of persuasion is the actual delivery of your
subliminal messages. It doesn t matter how well you ve packaged a
gift, if you don t deliver it, it doesn t do anyone any good.
Most courses on conversational hypnosis tend to focus almost
exclusively on this phase of the persuasion process. They talk a lot
about embedded commands, presuppositions, complex equivalents,
and the use of anchors without showing you how to effectively set up
your prospect to receive them.
Already, with what I ve shown you in this book, you know more
about setting up your prospect to receive your intended message than I
did after studying those courses.
Delivering messages covertly usually involves something I call
underlying assumptions . In classic sales training, it s called the
assumptive close and involves things like asking which of 2 payment
options the customer wants to use, rather than asking whether the
customer wants to make the purchase at all.
Would you like to pay for this all at once, or would
you prefer to use our payment plan option?
What will you do when your fellow employees no
longer want to work with you, and I m faced with the
decision to keep you or let you go?
When you think about how you respond with anger
when people do things you don t like, can you now see
how you can choose to respond differently?
I don t know how much you re going to enjoy being
with me tonight, but won t it be great to look back on
tonight as the night our lives changed forever.
,otivating Desires
Everyone wants something. When you know what your prospect
wants, you can use that information to present your offer in a way your
prospect will eagerly respond to.
Inexperienced persuaders usually start out thinking that everyone
wants the same things they do, however not everyone wants to live in a
mansion with servants waiting on them hand and foot. Some people
like their privacy and would prefer to live in a more intimate setting.
The same mistake is often made in advertising. A company may
advertise the health benefits of its products, yet later find out that their
customers really wanted something that was easy to get and had a hip
image. (Do you know which fast food restaurant made this mistake?)
A writer may think that readers want a complex storyline with
interesting characters, when the readers really want a story that they
can relate to, and that helps them imagine their own lives being just a
little bit better.
A man may try to give a woman everything she indicates a desire
for in an effort to win her affection, yet she really wants someone who
is confident enough in himself to not need her approval and isn t afraid
to occasionally offend her with his masculinity.
So how do you avoid falling into this pattern and confidently
approach every prospect knowing something that will grab their
attention and have them lusting for your offer?
There have been numerous studies performed over the years to
determine what motivates people to do the things they do. Abraham
Maslow produced what may be the most quoted list of human needs
ever discovered. There have been several other studies performed that
gave slightly different perspectives on the common wants and needs of
the human race.
Within the pages of this course, you will find the results of my
own research and experience, which closely matches those of other
persuasion experts.
One thing every persuasion expert agrees on is that most people
are motivated by the basic needs of survival, such as food, shelter,
safety, and sex. These are programmed into our genes from
prehistoric times, and are extensions to the most basic of all motivating
factors, the pleasure/pain principle. All living things will tend to move
away from pain and move towards pleasure. As humans, we simply
rationalize this amoeba-like behavior, although we rarely deviate
from it. Self-preservation and the preservation of the species are two
things that form the foundation upon which the rest of our society is
built.
Other basic needs are those which affect our position within our
community. Especially in today s world, our success or failure is
based on how we interact with others. Employees depend on the
acceptance of their boss to continue to earn a paycheck, and self-
employed people depend on the acceptance of the marketplace to
continue to earn a living. In our personal life, we either get to enjoy
the company of others or not depending on how we interact with them.
Things like recognition, acceptance, approval, and understanding
will have a profound impact on anyone you wish to persuade. Within
these needs, you will find other needs such as the need for honesty,
integrity, familiarity, authority, and consistency.
Only rarely will you address these motivating factors directly when
persuading another person. Although you may be offering something
that will help your prospect earn more money, and thus be in a better
position to acquire more of the basic necessities of life, such as food,
shelter, and protection; you will find it more effective to talk about the
other gains to be experienced, such as more freedom, more prestige,
and so on. Your prospect will automatically link the higher value of
freedom to include the lower values of food, shelter, and so on. As
you re already learning, subtle suggestions are more effective than the
heavy-handed approach.
Rather than: Give me what I want and I ll have sex with you.
Try instead: I d really appreciate it if you would _______.
Rather than: Either do your job right or you ll be fired.
Try instead: Do a good job here and your position in this
company will be assured.
Rather than: You re not getting dinner until you do as I say.
Try instead: We ll have dinner as soon as you finish your
chores.
Rather than: If you follow my suggestions, you ll earn the
respect of others.
Try instead: You know; Mr. X (a well-respected person) does
this all the time.
By knowing the core needs and desires common to all humanity,
you will have a solid starting point in persuading anyone you wish.
Simply reframe your suggestions in a way which tells your prospect
how their needs will be satisfied, and you will increase your
effectiveness tremendously.
!ersonality Types
As much as we d like everyone to respond the same way to our
persuasion efforts, there are other factors to consider beyond the basic
core desires. Each person has a unique personality which defines how
that person responds to various circumstances. As a power persuader,
you will modify your approach accordingly when you are working
your magic.
Some people are motivated more to build for the future, while
others are motivated more towards preserving the past. Some people
are motivated more towards breaking away from the status-quo ,
while others are motivated more towards conforming to group norms.
Some people are looking for what s possible, yet others are reacting
only to what s required.
In the Keys To Power Persuasion system, we work with 6 key
personality dimensions, and teach you how each type is persuaded.
These 6 divisions are:
1. Pleasure / Pain
2. Emotional / Logical
3. Details / Big Picture
4. Self-Centered / Other-Centered
5. Leader / Follower
6. Moving / Static
As an example, let s take the first key dimension, pleasure / pain.
We already know that everyone has a general tendency to move away
from pain and move towards pleasure. We prefer not to upset the
people close to us because that would be painful. We pay attention to
a charismatic leader because he makes us feel good about ourselves.
But some people are motivated more to avoid pain than they are
motivated to seek pleasure. And others are motivated more to seek
pleasure than they are to avoid pain.
We all know someone who could be very successful if they would
start a certain type of business, but they procrastinate because they
expect that starting a business will be a painful experience. These
people are very quick to comply with the rules set forth before them
because they want to avoid the pain of criticism or confrontation.
Yet we also know others who are very willing to face failure after
failure in the pursuit of success. To these people, the possible reward
of a big payoff is enough to motivate them to go through a lot of pain
to get it. These people will spend years working out in the gym so
they can look good at the beach.
When you know what your prospect responds to most, you can
persuade them in a way that will match up with their natural
tendencies. If you know your prospect is motivated more towards
avoiding pain, you can talk about the pain of not complying with your
request. And if you know your prospect is motivated more towards
gaining pleasure, you can talk about how your offer will reward them
with a great deal of pleasure down the road.
We ll cover the various personality types in more detail later.
Three &evels of !ersuasion
I think you ll agree that most people are not 2-dimensional beings.
They are a little more complex than that. In fact, beneath the outer
surface level, people have several inner levels working together to form
the complex interactions which define personality and behavior.
For our purposes, we only need to consider three levels:
A. Outer level behavior and environment
B. Inner level capabilities, values, and preferences
C. Core level self-identity, world-view, and the meaning
of life
A person may have millions of concepts about themselves, their
world, and the various interactions between them. A change in a
relatively minor concept, such as the proper time to eat meals, will
result in very few changes in the way that person behaves. Yet a
change in a relatively major concept, such as whether they are a winner
or a loser, will have much more profound changes within that persons
life.
In metaphysical circles, it is taught that whatever you connect to
the phrase I am ___ will determine a large part of what you
experience in life. One reason for this is because your inner
(subconscious) mind will strive to maintain your self-image. Your
beliefs about yourself are used to make choices and ultimately
determine your destiny through the sequence of choices made over the
course of your life. This is why we started this book talking about
beliefs and how to change yours to support your goals.
In fact, there is whole self-help industry around the concept of the
self-image. Maxwell Maltz s classic Psycho-Cybernetics was one of
the first to educate the world about the sheer power of the self-image.
Within that classic book, we learn that we will tend to act and make
choices based on how we perceive ourselves to be.
The same is true about the prospect you re attempting to persuade.
Their self-image will affect the choices they make, such as whether to
go out with you or not, or to accept your guidance as being right for
them or brushing it aside as irrelevant. Smart persuaders know that
you want to help your prospect see themselves in a way which supports
what you are asking from them.
I know you re really going to love making this choice
because I ve seen you make so many similar choices in
the past.
Oh, I know that deep down inside, you re just the
kind of person who has to say yes to an offer like this.
You know this fits perfectly with who you are.
Since you ve told me you love a good challenge,
you re really going to enjoy taking on this project.
The !yg'alion 3ffe$t
For about five years of my life, I worked as a school-portrait
photographer. Almost every school-day, I dragged myself out of bed
(way too early for my tastes), drove to a new school, assembled a full
photography studio (sometimes in a space the size of a closet), and
proceeded to create portraits for a few hundred students before I
disassembled the studio equipment and packed up to go home. I
created about 40,000 portraits my first year. And all for $10 per hour.
The wonderful challenge involved with all this was the fact that I
had less than a minute to work with each student to try and get a
natural smile that mom or dad would be proud of. Within the space
of that minute, I had to enter the package information into the
computerized camera, direct the student into the standard yearbook
pose, and try to say or do something that would inspire a genuine smile
from that child.
After a while, I learned some tricks that made the whole process
run a lot smoother, and I started getting really good results, even from
the kids who did everything they could to be difficult.
The first thing I discovered was that I got more smiles when I took
a couple of minutes to talk to each class before we started taking
pictures. In that little talk, I explained what we were doing, what I
expected from them, and made sure to tell them, this is going to be a
lot of fun. Of course, I acted the part and practically bounced up and
down as I explained all this.
When the kids came into the experience expecting to have fun,
they found themselves responding to the process with more enthusiasm
and all it took to get the natural smile was to say something like
Okay, show me that award-winning smile of yours!
The next thing I found was that if a student sat down and told me
point-blank I m not going to smile , I d respond with a simple sure,
no problem and proceed exactly like normal. By the time I had
directed the student to turn the right way, position their arms,
shoulders, and face so they were in the right pose, they were so used to
following directions that when I asked for the smile, I had it on film
before they realized what had happened! Many times, I d see a
surprised look followed by the words, you TRICKED me!! Yeah
kid, that s my job.
You may have read about some experiments that were conducted
with school children entering a new class. Before the year started, the
teacher was informed that out of the group of 25 students, 5 in
particular were outstandingly intelligent and would lead the rest of the
class by leaps and bounds. In truth, however, the 5 students were
picked at random and were no different intellectually than anyone else
in the group.
But as the year went on, the 5 students brought to the teacher s
attention far surpassed everyone else in the group. In fact, it was
almost embarrassing how far ahead those 5 students were by the end of
the school year.
This experiment has been performed over and over again to the
point where the phenomenon has it s own name the Pygmalion
Effect.
The basic principle of the Pygmalion Effect is that expectation
alters experience and behavior. If you expect you re going to have fun,
you ll have a lot more fun than if you expect to be bored. If you
expect to do well in a particular subject, then you ll do a lot better than
if you expected to fail. Also, if you expect to fail, you won t put in
enough effort to succeed.
In the case of the outstanding school children, the expectation of
the teacher rubbed off onto the children themselves. When presenting
a new subject, the teachers in these experiments tended to use phrases
such as for an outstanding student like you, this will be a breeze.
And when one of the singled-out students gave a wrong answer, the
teachers had a tendency to treat it with more respect than a wrong
answer given by one of the average students.
What this teaches us as power persuaders is that when we expect
to get what we want from others, we will be far more likely to succeed
than if we expect to fail. Also, by expecting our prospect to go along
with our persuasion process, they will get the subliminal message of
what s expected of them, and they will be more likely to go along with
it for that reason as well.
In sales, this is usually referred to as the assumptive close .
Rather than ask your prospect if they want to buy, ask them which
options they want with their purchase. Rather than ask if they want to
go out with you, ask them where they would like to go. Rather than
ask if they will follow your suggestions, ask them to report back on the
results afterwards.
Anyone who s read this far is bound to become a
great persuader.
This isn t nearly as difficult as a lot of other things
you ve mastered.
I m confident you will go far with this skill.
This is going to be very rewarding and a lot of fun!
:udg'ental -euristi$s
It s common knowledge today that our daily lives are filled with
many more details than we ever had to deal with before. It seems the
speed of life is just getting faster and faster, and we re doing all we can
just to keep up!
Would you be surprised to learn that life has always been like this?
Even just the simple act of walking from one place to another
involves so many tiny decisions, the fastest computers on Earth just a
few years ago COULD NOT HANDLE the task! Not only do we plan
out a pathway to get from one place to another, but we re also
coordinating the simultaneous interactions of dozens of muscles
through most of our bodies to move our feet from step to step, at the
same time we re correcting our balance several times per second just
to stay upright! Suffice it to say that once we learned how to
coordinate everything required to walk, we delegated the immense task
of walking to our subconscious mind.
Not everyone remembers learning to walk, so let s take another
example learning to drive a car. You probably remember how
confusing it was to keep track of all of the details required for that
task, don t you? When to press the accelerator and when to press the
brake pedal. How far to press either one depending on the situation.
Watching out for other cars that may be traveling into your pathway.
Watching the gauges to make sure you re not going faster than the
speed limit (and what did the last speed limit sign say, anyways?).
Over the course of time, you gradually gained proficiency in the skill
and didn t have to think about all of that anymore. Now, when you
want to drive somewhere, you focus more on the radio than you do on
the process of driving.
What happens is that we discover shortcuts allowing us to focus on
only the key factors important in any given situation. In driving, you
discover you don t have to watch the gauges, just glance at them once
in a while. You don t have to plan out every step when walking, just
take each one as they come, and place your foot somewhere closer to
where you re going, but not too far from your body.
This happens in many other areas of life too. In our effort to cope
with too much information, we try to find shortcuts everywhere we
can. We discover over time that we don t need all of the information
on a topic in order to make a reasonably correct decision. We follow
generally accepted rules of thumb , which in psychology are called
judgmental heuristics .
For instance, pretend you re shopping for an item you don t know
much about. Let s say you re in a store and looking at 2 different
models. They appear to be pretty much the same, with the same set of
features, the same capabilities, and so on. The only thing you notice
that s different between them is the price. One cost 20% more than
the other.
Which one is better?
Most people will say the one that s more expensive is probably the
better one, simply because we re used to seeing better things priced
higher than inferior ones. We ve seen this relationship so many times
that it has become a rule of thumb , and so we use it to make a
decision when we have little else to go on.
We also tend to use the same rule in the other direction. Upon
learning the price of an item, we automatically assume we know its
quality. We ll pass over a table of $1 books simply because nothing
good would be priced that low , but gladly spend $50 for another book
because it has to be good at that price .
The pattern breaks down when it crosses the boundaries of our
experience. Few people are willing to spend $200 for a book, yet the
same information packaged as a home study course may be sold for
$300 or more. We re used to seeing home study courses priced much
higher than books, and so our sense of value for them is similarly
higher.
Power persuaders know many of the shortcuts people use and will
take advantage of them where appropriate.
The general rule is this:
Any decision that takes too much time or effort
to examine in depth is likely to
encourage a judgmental heuristic.
Why People 3o What They 3o
Now that you have a basic understanding of the whole persuasion
process, let s take a look at the core principles which motivate
everyone to some degree or another. As soon as you understand how
everyone you meet can be persuaded using these simple concepts,
you ll have a serious advantage in all your persuasion activities.
In addition, knowing where your own motivating desires are
coming from, and how another persuader could use them against you
can help you spot unscrupulous uses of persuasion where they might
exist. The key thing to keep in mind here is that whenever someone
suggests that what they are offering will meet one of these needs is:
Does it really meet this need, or is there something else which could
meet this need better?
Before we delve into the individual factors, however, let s take a
quick look at WHY these core desires work as well as they do. To
really understand a method or technique, you have to consider where it
gets its profound power. Then, you have the knowledge and wisdom to
apply that technique in new situations and even come up with new
techniques of your very own.
#our$e of ,otivating Desires
These core motivating desires spring from the common ancestry
we all share as human beings. If you know nothing else about a
person, you know that they are human. They may be male or female.
Young or old. Thin or fat. Anything you know about the person
you re about to persuade can give you insight into something that will
motivate him or her to your way of thinking. The more you know
about your prospect, the easier it will be to persuade them.
So, let s say you know nothing more about a person other than
they are human. What does that give us to work with?
First of all, this person is alive and probably wants to stay that way.
A ludicrous thought, maybe, but one which leads us to several other
insights. What does a human being need to survive?
Food, water, protection from severe weather, and these are just the
beginning.
-idden (peration of the -u'an ,ind
Now, before we go further into this, how can this information help
us persuade someone? Unless the information can be put to use, what
good is it?
Good question, so let s get a grip on how the human mind works,
how these basic needs are programmed into it, and what happens when
they are brought up in any communication.
At an extremely basic level, the human mind works on a principle
of association and memory. It tries to associate every new experience
or each new piece of information to something else already in the
memory banks. The new information is associated with previously
known information based on shared qualities and assumed
associations.
Whenever a new experience is encountered, it is interpreted and
judged based upon previous experiences, with earlier experiences
carrying more weight than later ones. This is why psychologists look
to a persons childhood to uncover the root causes of life difficulties.
It s like taking a walk in the park. If the first turn you make is a
left turn, then a right turn only moves you closer to the direction you
started going in the first place. And if you take several left turns in a
row, you are going so far left that it would be very difficult to get on
the right side of the park. Each experience we have in life moves our
internal compass in a direction based on the interpretation we give to
that experience.
When a child is born, their mind is a blank slate, with nothing
written thereon, and ready for new experiences. One of the first
experiences is the birth process itself. It s painful, and an extreme
disruption from the nice, comfortable environment of the womb.
Bright lights, cold air, and a smack on the bottom. How unfriendly
this new world is! At this point, the mind has recorded the nice
comfortable environment of the womb, and the harsh environment
outside. The concepts of comfort and discomfort have just been
learned.
Soon after, the baby s body starts to get hungry. Nourishment is
no longer being assimilated from the umbilical cord and the physical
machinery of life requires fuel. Hunger does not feel good, and this
experience is recorded into the empty mind. Hopefully, mom is
Why People Do What They Do Page 101
nearby to offer the child something to satisfy the hunger, and the
easing of hunger feels good. Now, the young human s mind has
associated food with comfort.
At this moment in a person s life, they have already associated
food with the pleasant memory of the womb (both feel good), and
although this memory will be buried deep beneath layers and layers of
many other memories, it will continue to create pleasant feelings
whenever the thought of food arises, at least for most people.
Similar associations are created through the experiences of falling,
getting physically hurt, being held, hearing people yelling or
screaming, seeing some very friendly or unfriendly expressions on
faces, and a host of others. These memories and their associations
form the basis upon which we interpret our world. The majority of
humans on this planet have experienced very similar things, and so
have the same basic driving forces within them.
Higher-level motivating desires are created when an experience is
routinely associated with a lower-level motivating desire. For instance,
if a parent always offers a piece of candy after disciplining their child,
that child will link discipline to the experience of eating candy, and
may start to look forward to it. Or if someone always gets rewarded
for bringing home good grades, then they will have a positive
association with getting a good grade, which will become a reward in
it s own right.
Co''on Fa$tors of all ,otivating Desires
The over-riding similarity all these motivating desires have is this:
a contrast between pleasure and pain, between comfort and discomfort.
When a child grows up to the point where their body is ready for
reproduction, new experiences are recorded into the mind. The
uncomfortable, tense feeling of being sexually aroused, and the
intensely pleasurable feeling of sexual release. Much like food to a
baby, these feelings are associated with all other comfort/discomfort
memories and carry as much weight as the rest of them, maybe more
since the feelings are generally much more intense.
-ow These ,otivating Desires Affe$t
!ersuasion
Now, the final piece of the puzzle is in understanding what
happens when these topics come up in conversation and how this
affects the persuasion process.
Remember the Pink Elephant Principle that we talked about in the
Psychology of Persuasion chapter? In order to interpret the words
communicated, the mind must call up an associated memory of what
those words stand for, and in doing so will re-experience those
memories as if they are happening in the present moment.
So when you talk about food, your prospect will have to recall a
memory involving food, and will re-live an experience of food in the
present moment. The experience of food will become a part of the
combined experience of the present conversation, resulting in an
association being made between food and whatever else you re talking
about. Whatever you re talking about has just become more
comfortable , and you ve taken another step towards your desired
outcome.
Have you ever found yourself enjoying the process of
reading an excellent book to the point where it seems
your mind is just feeding on the information you re
getting, as if the words themselves become food for
your intellect and you feel your mind getting full on the
meal?
Don t try to take it all in at once. I mean, you can t
eat a whole cow in a single meal. But if you take it
one bite at a time, you can digest any amount of
information.
I really enjoy being here with you tonight. It s a very
sweet feeling that warms my insides like drinking a
mug of hot cocoa.
Can you help me with this project. I may have bitten
off more than I can chew with this, and your input
would definitely spice things up.
It s really great when you can allow yourself to relax
and just drink in all of the intoxicating information
helping you become a power persuader.
As you can see from the examples, the food concept doesn t have
to actually involve eating. But the mind of your prospect will
experience your words as if they are actually eating while listening to
you talk, and this will add pleasant associations to your suggestions.
,otivating Desires Co''on To ,ost
-u'ans
Physical Motivating Desires
We ve already covered some of the most basic of all motivating
desires, those related to survival. Within our genes are the codes that
make our bodies feel good when we re doing things to maintain our
personal survival and the survival of the species. Sex feels good
because it is what propagates the human race across generations.
Food
We ve already talked about how food becomes a motivating desire
and how to use it when persuading someone. Phrases such as chew
on this when asking someone to think about something, or using the
word digest to refer to the processing of information work very well.
Along a similar line, you can also describe another experience, such as
completing a work-related task or a feeling of being closely bonded to
a person, using a simile such as:
When the job is done you can rest easily, like you do
after eating a thick, juicy steak with the perfect blend
of spices cooked over a wood fire.
You re going to find so many great choices in this
catalog; you ll feel just like a kid in a candy store.
Sex
I think that everyone s heard the phrase sex sells . Not only do
you see it used to advertise products for men, but you also see it being
used to advertise products for women as well. Both sexes are just as
motivated by this core physical driving force as the other.
While men tend to be more open about their desire for sex, women
are just as interested. They ve just been programmed by society to
protect themselves and not be as open about it. I think that this will
fade as time passes, but for now, society is still teaching women to be
more reserved in their expression of sexual interest.
Here in the United States, we also tend to be more reserved about
sex than our cousins in other countries. We have more taboos about
the discussion of sex, and we place more restrictions on what is
considered proper and socially acceptable . In recent years, there
was a lot of fuss about sexual harassment and that really put a damper
on even hinting about sex in a workplace environment.
So how can we use the concept of sex in our persuasion efforts?
We can t use it in quite the same way as we do with food.
When the job is done you can rest easily, like you do
after having the best sex of your life.
Have you ever found yourself becoming really
fascinated by a subject, being drawn into it as if you
were approaching a climax and ready to explode?
If you tried one of these at work you just might get yourself into
trouble. But something like this may be appropriate if you are trying
to seduce someone and that person is already warmed up to you. How
far you can go with it really depends on the situation and whether your
prospect is open to it.
There is a way to bring up the concept of sex without really
mentioning it directly. You can talk about things that could be taken
as sexual or non-sexual, yet string them together in a way that suggests
a sexual connotation. This is known as the art of sexual innuendo.
I really like playing tennis. You re out there in the
hot sun and it feels really good to have the sun
caressing your skin. Your heart beats faster as you
work the ball back and forth across the court. Your
muscles tighten and release with the repetitive motions,
straining to keep the game going and not lose it too
soon. You re drenched in sweat, but it feels good,
makes you feel intensely alive. And as much as you d
like it to last all afternoon, it s soon over and you find
yourself totally relaxed, yet looking forward to the next
time.
This job can be rather routine much of the time, yet
somehow the routine nature of it becomes a reason to
be here because as you repeat the same motions over
and over again, it s like you re in this harmony with
the universe, and each little motion carries with it a
deep, hidden meaning that transcends all rational
thought, and when this happens, you feel a sense of
passion about what you re doing, a passion that makes
you feel good about what you re doing in a way that
drives you to do more of it, because doing it makes you
feel good all over. And when you re away from the job,
you long to get back to it as quickly as you can just so
you can re-experience that passion. With me, this is
how I feel.
Confidence is a feeling that starts deep within you,
within your heart. As you start to uncover the secret
areas of yourself, and present them to someone who
cares for you, you find that as this person responds in
a good way to what you are sharing with this person,
you feel a warm, tingling sensation that gets warmer
and brighter the more you share of yourself. And this
knowledge that you are capable of making another
person feel good makes you feel good about yourself
and confident about sharing more of yourself whenever
possible.
Sexual references don t have to be crass or primitive to be
effective. As with much of persuasion, the light touch is really more
effective anyways.
Safety
What happens when you feel intimidated? You either feel like
running away or you feel like standing up for yourself and doing battle,
right? The old fight or flight phenomenon.
Just as with food and sex, you can use this primary motivating
desire in your persuasion activities by simply using concepts and
words that mean safety, security, protection, solidity, trust,
harmlessness, immunity, freedom, helpfulness, relaxation, comfort,
dependability, reliability, predictability and so forth. By doing so, you
will inject a feeling of safety into your conversation and your prospect
will feel safe thinking about your offer or proposal.
I think you ll really enjoy coming to our group
meetings. Every Wednesday, as dependably as the sun
rises, we come together to relax and share insightful
thoughts and ideas that help secure the business
success of all members.
Once you lock in these concepts and techniques,
you ll glide smoothly through life, completely immune
from distress and disorder, and forever free to reliably
secure the things you want from others.
Some people think that success is hard to come by,
but when you apply the scientific principles we re
prescribing here today, success is such a sure thing,
that you can predict exactly how much you ll get, as
well as when you get it.
I know how important it is to feel safe in a new
situation. You really want to know that the people you
get involved with are going to be dependable and are
on your side no matter what. That you can trust
someone, and that they can be so reliable that you can
almost predict what they will do most of the time,
that s a feeling that really makes you feel comfortable
about getting involved.
Emotional / Social Motivating Desires
Few people like being alone, and the only way we really know if
we are accepted into the community is when those around us reflect
certain things, like approval, acceptance, respect, and so forth. This
leads to the following emotional motivating desires. Can you create
some examples for these? Remember, you don t have to refer to your
prospect, but can be speaking about someone else entirely.
Acceptance / Approval / Appreciation
In Dale Carnegie s famous book How to Win Friends and
Influence People , he stresses the supreme importance of the 3 A s
Acceptance, Approval, and Appreciation. I ve found in my own
experience that when someone feels that you accept them, they will be
far more likely to accept you and your suggestions.
Belonging
One of the major reasons that gangs and cults are able to recruit
members is because they present themselves as surrogate families
where everyone belongs and everyone looks out for each other. If
this driving need is powerful enough to pull someone into a situation
where violence, crime, and a total disregard for human life is rampant,
doesn t it make sense that it could also help in a more civilized
environment?
Recognition / Status
It s one thing to belong to a group. It s something altogether
different to hold a position of authority and leadership within that
group. When someone feels that they are valuable to the community
they belong to, they feel good about themselves. And if what you are
offering to them will increase their status, then your offer becomes that
much more comfortable and more likely to get a yes response.
Recognition and status have 3 different forms: character, skills,
and possessions.
Character is usually defined as having the qualities of honesty,
integrity, trustworthiness, honor, reliability, dependability, and so
forth. The same things we talked about regarding physical safety apply
here regarding emotional safety.
To effectively use this motivating desire, you will either cast your
offer in the light of being of high character, or you will subtly suggest
to your prospect that they will be seen as having a high character by
accepting your offer.
Recognition of skills is also a powerful motivating desire. As we
grow up, we acquire a large number of skills required to survive.
Walking is a skill that was difficult to master, as was learning to speak.
Yet these common skills are not what your prospect wants to be
recognized for. Your prospect wants to feel as if they have
accomplished something that few others have been able to do. We all
have a certain level of pride associated with mastering special skills.
In the world of business, for example, the people who are paid the
most are usually the ones who have mastered a skill that few others are
capable of performing. In schools, teachers who are able to educate
their students in a fun and powerful way are highly sought after. And
in personal situations, those who are able to make others feel good
about themselves (a skill in itself) are considered the best friends to
have.
Possessions are almost universally recognized as being status
symbols. The more you have, the greater your apparent importance
within the community. In many cases, this is true, since the only way
you can accumulate stuff is to exchange value you ve created for items
that others have to offer. Thus, in order to get stuff, we need to create
and exchange value for it, and those with the most stuff are usually
those who have created the most value.
Creating value to exchange for stuff doesn t have to be a difficult
process. As you re learning in this course, making another person feel
good about themselves is one form of creating value. Learning how to
accomplish an important task and then teaching others is another easy
way to create value. Knowing how to present a product or service
when selling it can create value, simply because you are able to
inspire from your prospect a greater regard for the product.
Most humans are motivated to acquire possessions in order to
secure their position within their communities. If you can present your
offer in a way that suggests that your prospect will get more stuff as a
result of agreeing to your offer, you will add weight to the yes side of
the scale.
Self-Worth / Self-Importance
The last emotional motivating desires that we will discuss here are
the emotions of self-worth and self-importance. As humans, we also
like to feel good about ourselves, outside of our relationships with
other people. This is the prime motivating desire that is used when
engaging in fund-raising for charity, or asking someone to give up
something they value without getting anything in exchange, such as
giving up an afternoon for community service projects.
Emotional Stimulation
Everyone loves to be stimulated. When we become excited, or
scared, our hearts start beating faster, the adrenaline starts to pump
through our veins, and we feel more alive than we ever do staying in
the nice, safe, comfortable corners of the world. It is this motivating
desire that causes people to do dangerous stunts, such as bungee
jumping or cliff climbing, or enter a forbidden situation and risk
getting caught.
Mental Motivating Desires
One of the reasons that humans have become the dominant species
on this planet is due to our ability to think beyond the present
situation. We can consciously remember past events, and we can
project ourselves into the future to see the eventual outcome to a set of
actions. We can consider the possible outcomes to various alternatives
and choose the options that are most likely to create the desired
outcome.
Mental Stimulation
Part of what has contributed to our domination of planet Earth is
the genetic need for mental stimulation. As the pace of our lives
grows, this need grows as well. We are constantly bombarded with
information from every direction. And yet we search for more; on the
Internet, on TV, on the radio, in the paper, in magazines, through cell
phones, anywhere and everywhere.
Everywhere you go, you see people talking on cell phones. Most
of them are not doing business, but simply talking to friends and
family in an effort to stay stimulated. I often find myself surfing the
Internet, not really looking for anything in particular, just looking
around to see what s out there. Many people have a habit of watching
television for hours on end without any real concern for the shows that
are playing. It s said that the average person watches over 20 hours
of TV a week!
The world of advertising, which is right in the middle of the
persuasion field, has learned that for an ad to be effective, it must be
stimulating. Dan Kennedy, one of the geniuses of advertising and
marketing, has a simple message Don t be boring!!
We can use this knowledge in our own persuasion efforts, whether
we are creating marketing materials, teaching a class of students,
counseling a patient, or seducing a lover. If we want to be noticed and
gain the attention of our prospect, we must create interest and
excitement. We have to project a concept, an image, and a message
that is stimulating to our prospect in order to win our prospect s full
attention. Once captured, we should communicate our full message in
the same context in order to keep our prospect interested in everything
we say.
Understanding
Mental stimulation by itself is not wholly responsible for
humanity s success as a species. We also have a driving need to
understand the world around us, and the people we come in contact
with. Only by understanding what s going on do we have a chance of
controlling it to our advantage.
When you are persuading someone, you want to make sure that
your prospect has a feeling of understanding your proposition, or at
least that part of it that involves them.
Fear is uncomfortable, and anything that is unknown has the
potential to also be uncomfortable. This is why we desire to know and
to understand, to eliminate the possibility of uncomfortable things
sneaking up and surprising us.
Our need for understanding leads to several things, such as a need
for order and structure, as an example. When we can easily identify a
structure and a pattern, we feel that we understand the whole.
Compare this to a random mish-mash of happenstance that could
disguise a potentially hazardous trap.
Our need for understanding also leads to a curiosity about new
things. Rather than allow a new thing to have a chance to hurt us,
we d rather learn about it and understand it in an effort to protect
ourselves from it s hidden dangers. Not knowing is uncomfortable,
and we try to make ourselves more comfortable by investigating the
new thing.
Our need for understanding extends to the people around us.
Whenever someone acts unpredictably, in a way that we did not
expect, we sense the potential for getting hurt. Maybe it s physical
danger, but most of the time it s simply the danger of being taken
advantage of, losing some of our stuff (and thus our status in the
community), or being mislead into a situation we didn t want to be in.
It s much easier to understand someone when they act
consistently, doing the same things in the same situations time after
time. Other characteristics that help your prospect feel that they
understand you are honesty, integrity, credibility, and authority. If
your prospect gets these messages (from you or from others), then you
will have a much easier time persuading this prospect to your way of
thinking. We ll cover how to present these in more detail later on.
Because some of these characteristics can only be truly known
after a period of time, the feeling of familiarity is also a motivating
desire. If you are unfamiliar to your prospect, they feel a lack of
understanding. After all, the information they get from you this one
time could easily be false information. Your prospect has been lied to
before, and doesn t want to be lied to again. They want to know that
they can trust you, and that usually only comes through time.
As a power persuader, however, you will be able to instill these
feelings within minutes simply by talking about them. As you talk
about the concepts of familiarity, reliability, trustworthiness, and so
on, your prospect will be recalling related memories and re-
experiencing those feelings. And as your prospect experiences the
feelings of trust and understanding while in your presence, these
feelings become associated with you, and you will have eliminated the
normal barriers to gaining your prospect s full trust.
Efficiency
Despite the fact that we have a driving need for mental stimulation,
there is simply too much information to keep track of all of the time.
We would have never become the dominant species without a
mechanism to filter out the majority of information so we could focus
on the important things.
Do you remember learning how to drive a car? Remember how it
seemed that there was too much information to keep track of?
Watching the gauges to make sure everything was working and that
you weren t driving too fast. Watching the other cars on the road to
make sure that they didn t pull in front of you and being ready to react
in case they did. Coordinating the pedals on the floor and the steering
wheel in time with each other to maneuver the car the way you needed
to go. At first it seemed so very overwhelming!
But as you gradually gained proficiency, you discovered that you
didn t have to watch the gauges, that you could judge the speed of the
car by feel . You didn t have to watch the other cars, just watch the
space in front of your car. Your found shortcuts that gave you enough
information to make reasonable choices.
A similar thing happens in other areas of life. After having many
experiences of seeing better quality items priced higher than lesser
items, we learn that price generally equals value. So if we re short on
time, we look at the price to determine which of two items is better.
When we focus on only a portion of the information, we are using
what are known as rules of thumb or judgmental heuristics . We ll
also cover many of these later in the course.
3isco%er (our Prospect&s
Secret )uttons
While you can feel confident persuading anyone using the core
motivating desires we just covered, you will go even further when you
take into consideration the personality type of your prospect.
Although we are all human, we are also individuals with different
value systems and different ways of responding to the world around us.
Just as any point can be located using a system of coordinates
along 3 physical dimensions, any prospect you encounter may be
described using a system of classification along the following 6
psychological dimensions of motivation.
1. Pleasure / Pain
2. Emotional / Logical
3. Details / Big Picture
4. Self-Centered / Other-Centered
5. Leader / Follower
6. Moving / Static
Each one of these 6 key personality dimensions represents a scale
upon which you will measure your prospects to find the best way of
persuading them. As you begin to evaluate each person you meet, you
will notice where each person falls on these 6 scales, and as you do,
you will realize just how easily you can customize your message to
every person you talk to, and increase your persuasiveness
exponentially! Clearly, you won t need to address all 6 dimensions
with every prospect you want to persuade. In most cases, you will
only need to place a prospect on 2 or 3 of these dimensions, depending
on the offer you are presenting.
In order to get this firmly into your head so you can quickly
evaluate each person you meet, you will want to take a day to work
with each dimension at a time. For example, on Monday, evaluate
everyone you meet in terms of the pleasure / pain dimension. On
Tuesday, evaluate everyone you meet in terms of the emotional /
logical dimension. Follow along, spending one day evaluating each
person you meet that day in terms of only one of the six dimensions.
This will establish the bedrock foundation for your persuasion training.
In fact, the information gained by this practice alone can literally
multiply your persuasiveness in almost every situation.
!leasure ; !ain
We are all motivated by the twin factors of pleasure and pain. We
enjoy pleasurable things and do what we can to get more of them into
our lives. We dislike painful things and do what we can to eliminate
them from our experience. However, some people are motivated more
by pleasure than they are by pain, and others are motivated more by
pain than they are by pleasure.
Just to make sure I m communicating clearly, let s go over a
couple of examples of what I m talking about. This will also give you
additional information with which to use in gauging where a prospect
should be placed on this dimension.
Listen carefully to a story about Karen, a friend of mine. Karen
seems to have a very positive outlook on life. When she was in high
school, she was involved in all of the social activities: going to parties,
hanging out with her friends, and doing what she had to in order to
pass. It was an incredibly fun time for her.
After a couple of years working at dead end jobs, and getting into a
relationship that wasn t exactly the best thing for her, Karen made a
decision that she wanted more. She felt that she deserved better and
that if she was to get what she wanted, she was going to have to do
whatever it took.
So, she broke up with her boyfriend, moved into a run down
apartment, and took on another job to make ends meet. Karen then
checked out the local community college to see about taking some
classes to help her get a better job. With the help of a counselor, Karen
mapped out a plan of action that would give her a bachelor degree in 3
years. The whole process required that she take on a 3
rd
part time job
to pay for her tuition, but that was just part of the price of success.
After Karen graduated (with honors, no less), she was able to
easily get a great job with a solid company. Her salary was $40,000
per year, and the benefits included 3 weeks of paid vacation every
year, full medical benefits, a company car, and her workplace even has
an in-house fitness center.
Discover Your Prospect s Secret Buttons Page 115
But even with all this, Karen still wants more. The last I heard,
she was working overtime and taking additional training as part of her
attack on a higher position in the company.
Now, let s compare Karen s story with another friend of mine,
David. David also has a positive outlook on life. He enjoyed his high
school years as much as Karen did, and had a social life that was just
as full.
After high school, David pursued a college education, and with the
help of several student loans was able to earn his associate degree.
While David did have a part-time job during that time, he only worked
a few hours per week, counting on his student loans to pay his way
through school.
With his associate degree, David was able to get a fairly good job
with a reputable company. His starting salary was around $25,000 a
year, with average benefits including 2 weeks of paid vacation each
year.
The last time I talked to David, he told me Life is pretty good. I
enjoy the job I have and it pays the bills. It s probably going to take
me several years to pay off the student loans, but I ll be okay until
then. And after that, I ll be able to buy a better house and actually do
some fun things with my vacation.
Where on the pleasure/pain motivation scale would you place
Karen and David?
Pain-Avoider Pleasure-Seeker
How To Classify Your Prospect
We don t need to assign numbers to this scale, just think of a
relative position on the scale. Karen is relatively far on the pleasure
motivated side of the scale, whereas David is relatively centered on
the pain motivated side of the scale.
Both wanted to only do what they had to in order to get by, at least
in high school. This indicates that they prefer to avoid uncomfortable
situations. They also both enjoyed taking part in social situations and
thus sought out pleasurable activities. From this information, both
Karen and David would be neutral, and we would place them in the
middle of the scale, equally motivated by both pleasure and pain.
But where we find the differences are where they are willing to
confront painful situations in order to get what they wanted. Karen
was willing to break up a relationship, take on additional part time
jobs, and work very hard to earn high marks in school in order to get a
good job. The relative pain of these things did not detour her
decisions and meant less to her than the pleasure of a rewarding job.
David, on the other hand, was not willing to work very hard at
earning his college degree. He only took an easy part time job, one
that had no chance of actually paying for his education. Instead, he
relied on student loans to make life easier (and less painful) while he
was earning his diploma. His grades were only average, not enough to
qualify him for a higher paying position in his company. And once he
got his job, he didn t want to push himself to get a better job,
preferring to wait until the student loans were paid off before really
enjoying life. In short, David was willing to settle for less pleasure in
order to avoid pain.
The reason we don t place David too far on the pain motivated side
of the scale is because he doesn t talk too much about what s wrong
with things and he wasn t too afraid to engage in social activities. We
all know that sometimes it can be awkward to meet new people, yet
David felt that the pain of meeting new people was worth the
pleasure of being sociable. That s why David is only partially on the
pain motivated side of the scale.
Here s an easy way to determine on which side of the scale your
prospect sits. Wherever you are, whatever you re talking about, just do
this one thing and your prospect will tell you exactly what you need to
know.
Ask how they feel about something.
If they start telling you all the great things about it, then you have a
pleasure-seeker on your hands. If they start telling you about what s
wrong, you have a pain-avoider.
Sometimes, you don t even have to ask them anything. You can
tell just by the tone of their conversation. A pleasure-seeker will tell
you what they are working towards, the goals they have, and the
dreams they hope to live. A pain-avoider will tell you about all of the
little problems they have, and although they come up for everyone,
they are somehow more troublesome for this person.
How To Use This To Persuade
Whenever you know that you have a pleasure-seeker, spend the
majority of your time talking about the benefits, the pleasure, of
accepting your offer. Talk about what they will get out of the deal, and
how much better off their life will be once they take you up on your
offer.
When you have a pain-avoider, you will need to spend more of
your time talking about the problems your offer will solve. Talk about
painful situations that will be avoided by saying yes to your proposal,
and watch them scramble to not lose out .
Obviously, you will need to include both sides in your persuasive
argument, because we all respond to both sides. Just make sure to
spend more time talking about the side that your prospect is affected
by the most.
Here s something to consider. What if I could teach
you how to become more popular, win more friends,
and get more of the things you want out of life? If I
could show you something that will do this for you,
would you be interested?
Here s something to consider. What if I could teach
you how to eliminate rejection, suffer fewer times
alone, and stop your boss from passing you over for
promotion? If I could show you something that will do
this for you, would you be interested?
3'otional ; &ogi$al
Although we now know that everyone is persuaded through their
emotions, we also recognize that some people prefer the emotional
reasons to be presented in logical terms. Some of us like to hear the
reasons why going along with a proposal is a good idea, that the facts
support our emotional desires for such things as power, efficiency,
value, beauty, or quality.
Of course, not everyone is like this, and others would rather just go
along with what feels good at the time. They want to buy the brand
that has meaning for them. They want to spend time with people
who make them laugh and have fun. They want to believe in destiny
and fate, that events and choices are sometimes beyond their control.
One of the quickest and easiest ways to classify your prospect and
determine whether they are more emotionally driven or more logically
driven is to simply ask them what is important to them about any given
subject. If they talk about emotional values, then they are more
emotionally driven. If they talk about facts, specifications, or other
things that can be more or less measured, then they are more logically
driven.
What about __________ is important to you?
Emotional Logical
Obviously, if your prospect is more emotionally driven, then you
will spend more time talking about how your offer will make them feel
and less time talking about the supporting facts. And if your prospect
is more logically driven, you will spend more time talking about how
the facts of your offer are important and need to be considered in
making a decision.
The styling of this car will command respect from
everyone you meet. Just imagine how your clients will
respond to you when they see you drive up to meet
them in this car.
Studies have shown that people who drive this car
begin to earn higher incomes as a result of the
increased respect gained from their clients.
To help motivate yourself on your weight-loss plan,
imagine how much more energy and fun you ll have
when you re at your ideal weight and think of all the
things you ll be able to do that you haven t been able
to do before.
As you lose the weight, keep a chart of your progress
to help motivate yourself. Every pound you lose will
demonstrate to your inner mind that you CAN be a
different person, one who can accomplish goals, and
this will help you when you go on to your other life
goals.
Details ; )ig !i$ture
Have you ever heard the phrase he gets so caught up in the
details he can t see the forest for the trees ? Some people really enjoy
working with the details of a subject. Of course, there are others who
have worked with the details so long that they are somehow unable to
see the overall pattern in which those details exist. These people will
confuse activity with accomplishment and spend hours on tasks that
move them no closer to their goals. On the other hand, these people
are also the ones who can find a loophole in the tax code and save big
time!
On the other end of the scale, you ll find people who speak only in
generalities, talking about grand ideas with no clue how those ideas
will actually get implemented. These people want to understand the
overall structure of an idea without the clutter of the minor details.
After all, what difference do the details make unless the overall plan
has a sound foundation?
Both viewpoints are important, yet we all know that some people
are focused more on one side of the scale than the other, and others are
focused the other way around.
Here again, the easiest way to classify your prospect is to ask them
a question. Somewhere in your conversation, wherever it fits in
naturally, ask your prospect to describe something to you. It s better if
you ask about a process or an activity, but it also works when you ask
about a physical thing like a car or a house.
How would you describe that?
As your prospect gives the description, notice how much detail is
given, and whether the relationships between concepts are described or
not. The more details given, the more detail oriented is your prospect.
The less detail and the more overall relationships given, the more your
prospect is the big picture type.
Details Big Picture
Once again, the use of this information is pretty much obvious. If
you re talking to a detail oriented prospect, feed them as much detail
as you can. If your prospect is on the big picture side of the scale, talk
more about the overall concepts of your offer and don t clutter it up too
much with the details. Match your prospect as much as possible in the
amount of detail in your conversation, and you will develop a strong
sense of rapport which will help you to control the rest of the
persuasion process.
#elf2Centered ; (ther2Centered
We are all self-centered. No doubt about it, everything we do is
focused purely on what it will do for us. Will it bring us pleasure, or
will it cause us pain? Even when we give to charity, it s because it
makes us feel good to do so. We ve done our part to ease the suffering
of the world. We are good people who make a difference.
But on the other hand, we are all concerned about other people.
None of us wants to be alone forever, so we have a distinct interest in
being involved with other people. And it s so very easy to imagine
ourselves in their place. If we were in that situation, we would want
someone to help us out, so we help them out because it s the right
thing to do.
Here again, we have a scale where some people are more focused
on themselves, and some people are more focused on others. Scientists
call this having either an internal or external focus. When a person has
an external focus, they are more concerned about others than they are
about themselves, and when a person cares more for themselves than
for others, they have an internal focus. Personally, I call those with an
internal focus loners and those with an external focus joiners .
As you listen to your prospect speak, you will usually pick up
some clues as to which side of this scale they fall on. If your prospect
talks about what other people are interested in, or how other people
will be affected by something, then you know that you have a joiner.
Otherwise, if your prospect talks more about themselves than anyone
else, then you can be confident that your prospect is pretty much a
loner.
As with the 3 personality dimensions above, it is possible to ask
your prospect a question in order to establish which side of the scale
they lean. Just in case you can t determine it otherwise.
You can ask your prospect to tell you about what they consider to
be a good time , such as the ideal vacation or the best way to spend
a free weekend. If your prospect tells you that a good time is when
they can get away and read a book, you can be fairly sure that they are
a loner. But if your prospect tells you that they love to go to parties
and hang out in Times Square, that s a good sign that they are a joiner.
Loner (Internal Focus) Joiner (External Focus)
When persuading a loner, make sure to address how your proposal
affects them directly. Don t spend much time talking about how it will
affect other people, except to say how those other people will respond
to your prospect afterwards. An extreme loner will actually choose to
be different from the crowd even if it puts them at a disadvantage,
which can also be useful in persuading them. Just say the crowd
doesn t see the benefits of your offer, or that your offer isn t for
everyone , and notice how quickly they say yes .
When persuading a joiner, you will want to spend more time
talking about how other people will respond to the decision, or at least
how the decision will affect their relationship with others. Joiners
definitely want to be regarded as being good people, and want to do
things that others will benefit from.
&eader ; Follower
Some people are born to lead, others are born to follow.
Statistically however, less than 5% of the world s population are what
we would consider a born leader . So, for all practical purposes, you
can simply assume that everyone you meet is a follower and leave it at
that.
But for a power persuader, this isn t good enough. We want to
guarantee success, not just play the numbers.
And there s that large portion of the population that falls
somewhere near the middle of the scale, neither a leader not a true
follower, and you ll want to apply the right balance of persuasion
techniques in order to match each prospect for the maximum effect.
Natural leaders will take charge of a situation, and won t sit back
wondering what everyone else is going to do. They will evaluate the
situation, take stock of the available resources (including themselves
and other people), and start delegating tasks and responsibilities to
those around them to get the job done. A born leader feels that no-
one else is adequately equipped to make wise choices.
Natural followers, on the other hand, will wait for someone else to
take the lead, not wanting to stick their neck out and risk getting
knocked down. They are very happy to have someone else tell them
what to do, mostly because they don t trust their own intellect and feel
that they would be likely to make a mistake if they had to decide what
to do.
One of the simplest questions you can ask a prospect to find out
which side of the scale they are on is to ask them what they do for a
living. A leader will naturally hold a position of leadership, and a
follower will hold a supporting position. However, this doesn t always
hold true, as a natural leader may be just starting out in a new career,
or a follower was incorrectly promoted into a position of leadership.
A more accurate measurement can be found by asking your prospect
how they know if something is good. That something can be
anything, such as a movie, a restaurant, or their performance on a job.
Leaders will tell you that they know something is good based on
their own experience. Followers will tell you that they know
something is good when someone else tells them it s good, such as
when they read a good review, or that someone they know tells them
that they had a good experience with it.
Leader Follower
Followers are more likely to go along with a plan when they think
that the rest of the crowd is going along with it. These people respond
well to things like testimonials and reports from other people. If you
can present your offer in a way that your prospect is likely to be left
behind if they don t accept, or if you can play the authority role in the
conversation, then you ll have a much better chance of a successful
outcome.
Leaders, however, won t just follow along, and it doesn t matter to
them how many others have done as you are suggesting they do now.
You will have to persuade them that this is a good idea for them
irregardless of what others think. You will also have to use what I call
the Blonde s Secret Weapon , which is to get the prospect to think
that accepting your offer is their idea, not yours. I ll talk more about
this later in the course.
,oving ; #tati$
I m sure you know someone who seems to be moving constantly,
who finds it almost impossible to stay in one place for any length of
time. They move from one activity to another, getting bored with each
one in the space of a nanosecond. They change jobs, move from town
to town and from relationship to relationship. And when you spend
any amount of time talking to them, they are constantly changing the
subject.
You probably also know someone who is stable as a rock. They
still live in the same house they did ages ago. Still work at the same
company, attend the same church, and go to the same restaurant for
dinner on the same night of the week just as they always have. You
can almost set your watch by their schedule.
In a persuasion situation, either one of these two extremes can be
difficult to work with. The person who is constantly moving can
sometimes be difficult to pin down to a decision, and the one who
never changes will be reluctant to agree to your offer unless it fits into
their already established routine. Luckily, most people will be a more
average balance between the two sides.
Once you ve talked to your prospect for any length of time, you ll
probably get a good idea of where they fit on this scale. If your
prospect changes the subject three times a minute, and won t let you
finish a sentence before interrupting, that s a good sign that they are a
motion junkie. However, if your prospect wants to talk about the same
thing forever, and doesn t respond when you try to change the subject,
your prospect is caught in a molasses swamp.
Unfortunately, there s no question you can ask your prospect to
help you determine which side of the scale to place them on. Consider
the whole conversation as the answer to the unasked question.
Moving Static
In the process of persuasion, the object is to get your prospect to
move off of their current position and move over to your way of
thinking. But once they ve moved there, you want them to stay there.
And here s where I get to reveal a little secret. Once you
determine where on these scales your prospect seems to fit, you can
adjust their position by using the automatic nature of the mind and the
fact that language creates experiences within your prospect s mind via
the Pink Elephant Principle.
If your prospect is moving all over the place and seems hard to pin
down, you can slow your prospect down so you have a good chance to
settle them into agreement, by talking about things that are steady,
slow, or unchanging.
And if your prospect needs a nudge to get moving, use the nature
of language to inject a little action in the conversation so your prospect
feels more like moving towards agreement by talking about things that
move, change, and evolve.
The whole point of these scales is to find out where you need to
start with your prospect. The rest of this course will teach you how to
move them however you need to in order to gain agreement.
Persuasion Training
The art of conversational hypnosis depends on several subtle skills
to create certain effects which magnify your persuasiveness beyond the
ordinary. This chapter will cover these. Even if you ve studied
everything there is to find on persuasion, reviewing this material will
still be a good idea, as you will find the way I present it will give you
added insights into the subject.
,ind #et < %ui$*ly )e$o'e A !ower
!ersuader
Your mind set determines everything. Whatever you hold in mind
while you perform any task, such as persuading, will determine your
performance and the nature of the outcome.
Outcomes & Planning
Far too many people get into a situation without having a clear idea
of what they want to get out of it. They try to depend on their ability
to respond to the variables of the situation and hope to find a quick
solution based on what they discover after they get there. You may
have an excellent ability to do this, but you will find that you can
accomplish far more if you take some time beforehand and plan out
what you want to get and how you intend to get it.
NLP literature talks a lot about outcomes. Actually, I did too, even
before I studied it. It seems that people will either focus on outcomes,
processes, or states of being.
Some people care only about how they feel about being where they
are and doing what they are doing. These people are focused on their
state of being. They are the easiest to persuade, and consequently the
ones that have the hardest time persuading others. If this describes
you most of the time, just remember that when you expect to enter into
a persuasion situation, switch yourself into an outcome mode.
Other people are focused more on what they are doing than
anything else. These people believe that if you re doing the right
thing, whatever comes out of it is the best thing possible. The problem
Persuasion Training Page 127
with this approach is that everyone gets into a habit of using the same
processes over and over again even when other processes are equally
acceptable and would achieve a more desired result. You really need
to choose your processes (techniques as we generally call them) based
on what you re trying to accomplish and the needs of the situation.
And the third class of people are focused on the final outcome,
the bottom line as it s generally called in business, and will choose
whatever process or state of being that s required to obtain the desired
result. When you re in this mode, it s kind of like being an artist
choosing among the various tools of your art to bring your creation to
life.
One objection that some people have to this approach is that it s
sometimes difficult to know in advance what the situation will be
when you enter into the persuasion process. What does the other
person want? What are they willing to do to get it? What are their
limits? What mood will they be in? What mood will I be in? What
techniques will they respond to? What approach will work with them?
There s a reason why countries at war with each other will go to
great lengths to gather intelligence data about their opponents.
Businesses also employ corporate spies to gather information on their
competitors. Information can be the most powerful tool anyone can
possess. The more you know going into any situation, the easier it is
to do and say the right things at the right time.
Here s an example of one thing you can do to gather information.
It s an example I found in a book on negotiating, and it involves the
purchase of a piece of property. We can use the same process in most
other persuasion situations, and I ve even known some people who
have used a similar technique in dating situations.
Imagine you re in the market to purchase some property. Maybe
it s a home, maybe a warehouse. Whatever it is, you would like to
know the lowest price the seller may consider without throwing you
out the door. You don t want to just go into negotiations and place an
offer for half of the asking price and risk losing all hope of making
future offers.
So you hire someone to go in and do it for you. You instruct your
spy to never mention your name and act as though they are acting in
their own interests. This way, if the seller throws your spy out the
door and breaks off negotiations, your reputation with this seller is still
crystal clear, and you can send someone else with a better offer and
gather more information. When one of your spies reports that the
owner was uneasy about an offer, but seemed to be willing to consider
it, you ve just gathered an important piece of intelligence and can be
confident walking in with that offer as a starting bid.
Some businesses will hire a person to investigate the internal
workings of a competitor. These spies are instructed to get a job with
the competing organization and work for them as an employee. They
are to gather as much information as they can on the internal policies,
vendors used, contracts held, and so on and pass this information over.
If you ve ever wondered how a business can possible afford to offer
what they do at the price they do, this is how you find out.
Sometimes you can gather information on your prospect much
easier without having to employ spies. Let s say you re a counselor
hired to help a client change specific behaviors. You can ask your
client if they have ever successfully changed other behaviors in the
past. If they have, then you ask them to describe what worked in the
past. Now it s an easy matter of using the same methods to effect the
current changes desired.
In marketing, you discover what your target market wants by
testing and conducting surveys. In the same way that spies are
employed to discover the wants and needs of a competitor, test ads can
be employed to discover what the market will respond to.
One of the best ways to interrogate your market is to run a series
of ads, each one focused on one end of each of the 6 scales of
personality we covered in the last segment of this course. Run one ad
that focuses on the pleasure that can be obtained by making a
purchase. Run a separate ad that focuses on the pain that can be
avoided by making a purchase. Compare the two approaches, and you
will know what balance to use in future ads. Then you run test ads for
the remaining personal dimensions and when you ve covered them all,
you ll have a detailed personality assessment of your target audience.
Then it s just a matter of testing concepts, wording, and the order that
the elements are presented.
So the bottom line is that before you enter into a full-scale
persuasion situation, you want to gather as much information as
possible, decide what you want to get out of it, and map out a plan for
getting it. Obviously, minor persuasion situations won t require as
much pre-planning as more involved situations, so your planning could
be as simple as doing a quick evaluation of your prospect, deciding
what you want, and choosing which techniques you ll use to get it.
Win / Win
I ve seen many people walk into persuasion situations with the
attitude of being determined to get what they intend to get whatever it
takes, and walk out with nothing. I ve also seen others walk into
similar situations with the attitude of cooperation and win/win and
walk out with more than their fair share.
This comes back to something we discussed in the Psychology of
Persuasion chapter. It s a lot easier to persuade someone when they
feel you care about them and their wants and needs. They trust you
more, and are more willing to consider your needs and wants.
The first step using the win/win approach is to have good
intentions. If you re selling a product, make sure the product is a good
one. Same thing if you re selling a service. Make sure that what you
are offering to your prospect is worth what you are asking for in
return. Even in personal situations where you re asking someone out
on a date. Make sure that you are able to provide a good experience,
making the date worth that person s time and the energy they invested
into it.
When you have something good to offer, it s much easier to
persuade someone to accept your offer. This is such a basic concept,
yet a large percentage of the world seems to forget this most basic
foundation. When you have something good to offer, people will tend
to tell others about it, and you won t have to persuade them to accept
your offer. They will want to persuade you to allow them to have it.
In business, this manifests as word of mouth advertising. Satisfied
customers tell their friends about what your company offers, and soon
you have people coming to you to buy your product or service without
having to advertise. If you offer something which allows for repeat
purchases, your satisfied customers will keep coming back to you over
and over again, elevating your profit margins higher and higher.
Between the repeat customers and the word of mouth advertising, your
business is assured of success simply because you have a good product
or service.
In relationships, the same thing occurs. If your partner is satisfied,
they will tell others about how great a person you are, and you will
have other potential partners trying to snag you away. And your
current partner will keep coming back again and again to re-
experience the pleasure of your company. Sometimes all it takes is
creating good feelings through the conversational hypnosis techniques
you re learning here.
Offering A Desirable Product
This applies whether you re actually selling a product or not. If
you are offering something your prospect wants, you will be more
likely to persuade them to accept it than if you are offering something
they don t want. Once again, this should be obvious, but a lot of
people fail to take this into consideration when looking to persuade.
It s not easy to catch a fish when you re using the wrong bait.
One mistake many would-be business owners make is to create a
product and then go looking for a market to sell that product to. There
have been thousands of inventions created that no one other than the
inventor wanted. Similarly, there have been many thousands of books
written that were of no interest to anyone but the authors. Far easier is
it to find out what the market wants, and then create it and provide it
for a profit.
In fact, the easiest way to make money today is to spend time on
online forums and discussion groups and find out what information
people are consistently asking for. Then go research that topic, learn
everything you can about it, and write a short book explaining what
you ve learned. By doing this, the book is guaranteed to sell and you
will make money. You don t have to be an expert on the topic. All
you need to do is spend your time to collect the information and
package it in a form convenient to those who want it.
Or, if you re able to create software products, you can use the
same process to find out what type of application to create, what
features are required in order to be competitive, and what additional
features to add to solve the problems of your market. I ve seen such an
incredibly large need for quality website software that I m spending
time to learn PHP and MySQL in order to enter this market. It s
amazing how much some people are making from simple programs
which do very little.
The bottom line is that if you see a need for any type of product or
service, and you can provide it, or at least learn what you need to in
order to provide it, then you are guaranteed a successful outcome.
Getting back to my point, this same mistake happens in every
situation you can think of. Employers try to give their employees what
they think the employees want only to find out that the employees
actually wanted something completely different. Lovers try to give
their mate their own concept of what is good in a relationship, yet their
mate may actually want something else entirely.
Power Persuasion Is Gardening, Not Hunting
Ineffective persuaders look upon persuasion as a process of
tracking down the prospect and attacking them with various offers and
techniques until they concede and surrender. Power persuaders
consider the process to be more like planting seeds of thoughts that
will sprout feelings, which are nurtured to grow and produce
agreement.
The basic difference is that when a prospect has been conquered,
they will look for a way out and defect from the agreement at the
earliest possible opportunity, just like a prisoner. However, when a
prospect is led to arrive at their own reasons to agree, they become a
loyal ally that will go out of their way to defend the agreement.
You ve already learned how to plant seeds of thought using the
automatic nature of the mind and the Pink Elephant Principle. Simply
find out what motivates your prospect, refer to these things in relation
to what you are offering, and watch your prospect realize they have
their own reasons to accept your offer. No hard sell , no pushiness,
no attacking. Nine times out of ten, your prospect will end up
thanking you for giving them the opportunity to take advantage of your
offer.
One Step At A Time Gets You Round The World
Persuasion doesn t usually happen in an instant. Most of the time
it is a gradual process that starts with the prospect becoming aware
that you exist, developing a sense of rapport between you and your
prospect, planting the seeds of thought that create the desire for what
you are offering, and then securing the final agreement.
While it would be great if we could just walk up to a prospect,
deliver a single line with an embedded command in it, and then have
the prospect jumping at us to accept our offer, that rarely happens,
unless you are making a VERY good offer and it s something your
prospect has already been actively looking for. But in that case, it isn t
persuasion.
Amateur persuaders have a tendency to want immediate
agreement. If they don t see a conclusion to the process soon enough,
they start to back away from what they wanted in order to reach the
finish line sooner. Professionals understand that the timing of
agreement is not always important, and sometimes it s more important
to wait for the desired outcome.
For instance, when I met my wife, Linda, I knew right away that I
wanted to spend the rest of my life with her. She wasn t so sure, as her
previous marriage fell apart after ten years and she lost faith in the
concept of a life-long commitment. I was completely undeterred, and
accepted that I would have to wait in order to get what I wanted. At
the time, I knew only a fraction of what is contained in this course, but
at least I knew that much.
After a period of six years, our relationship grew, but she still had
the lingering doubts about marriage, and to some degree, about me. At
that time, someone from her past came back into her life, and for a
while she seriously considered leaving me for him. To make a long
story shorter, she realized what it was that she felt was missing from
our relationship (a certain style of communication), and I started doing
whatever I could to adjust myself to become the good product she
wanted. In the process, I discovered conversational hypnosis and how
it could be used to create emotions within the listener.
I worked with it the best I could (the information I found was very
disorganized and hard to understand), and discovered that it worked
well. As I continued to learn and practice the techniques, I found that
the results I got improved as well. Over a period of a couple of
months, I was able to plant enough seeds into her mind so that she
began to feel more like staying with me rather than pursuing the other
guy. Several months later, she was not only willing to marry me, but
looking forward to it. Now she tells everyone it was the best decision
of her life.
The way I look at it, what difference does a few months (or even a
few years) make when you re talking about something which will
affect the next fifty years? The result of persuading your prospect
should be taken into consideration when deciding how much time
you re willing to invest in the process. Give it all the time it s worth.
A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, followed by
more single steps, until you reach the final destination.
Appearan$e < ,a*ing A Great
1
st
7'pression
As human beings, we have a tendency to pre-judge other people
based on how they appear to us. It may be that they remind us of
someone else, and we automatically associate them with the other
person and assume that they will be very much similar in other ways.
Or perhaps we believe the stereotypes that often enter into gossipy
chit-chat and use them to judge someone who seems to fit into the
general category.
Or it could be that we are responding to things we like or dislike.
When we meet an attractive stranger, we automatically assume that
they have other good qualities such as honesty, integrity, and
character. (Don t laugh too hard; studies have proven that
attractiveness does influence our opinions of these and other
personality traits.) Or maybe we see someone wearing lots of jewelry
and assume that they must be financially well off and have connections
to a higher class of society.
Whatever the reason, it s a fact that the way we appear to others
will affect how easily we can persuade them. So let s take a look at
some of the ways we can improve our appearance and amplify our
persuasiveness.
Face & Hair
One of the first things anyone sees is our face. People want to
know if you are someone they can feel good about meeting or
spending time with. Our upbringing has trained us that those who
approach with a smile and an expression of happiness will be a
pleasure to experience, and those who lack these things would be
better off avoided. For this reason, make sure to wear a smile any time
you want to persuade someone.
Beyond the smile, there are a couple of other things we can do to
improve the attractiveness of our face. Most people respond better to
those who don t wear glasses, so if you do, you may want to consider
wearing contact lenses instead. The exception to this rule is when
you re in a situation where glasses are to be expected, such as when
you need to project an image of intelligence. True or not, most people
believe that those with glasses are more intelligent.
For men, make sure that any facial hair is neatly trimmed,
although the general rule here is that you ll be more persuasive
without it, but there are exceptions. Most studies have also shown that
men with short hair tend to be more persuasive as well. This might
have something to do with the fact that most men with short hair are
the conservative, trustworthy, and reliable types, and a lot of criminal
(or criminally unpredictable) types wear longer hair.
For women, you ll want to make sure that any makeup you wear
appears more or less natural and only enhances your face, rather than
hides it. If it looks like you re wearing a mask, take it off. I
understand that you almost have to be an artist to apply it well, and I
sincerely sympathize with you on this. Take comfort in this thought:
professional models have to sometimes spend hours (yes, plural) to
have their makeup applied by a highly-trained artist.
Women also will want to make sure their hair is neatly styled and
doesn t hide their face, as a hidden face tends to be associated with
having something to hide in other ways too.
Body
We all know that overweight people are less attractive in the eyes
of most people. You don t have to kill yourself to be ultra-thin, but
keeping in shape should be a priority even if only for the increased
energy, vitality, and enjoyment you get from having an efficiently
running machine. When you have more energy, you re able to project
your enthusiasm more effectively and thus persuade others quicker and
easier.
Clothes
The clothes you wear comprise about 90% of what others see.
While not everyone keeps up with the latest styles, we all have a
subconscious awareness of what is considered out of date. If you take
the time to consult with a fashion expert, you ll find that there are
certain timeless styles that never go out of date and help you to save
considerable money by not having to replace your whole wardrobe
every time the seasons change.
Beyond this, the more you fit in with your prospect, the better. I
remember doing some door to door sales, and although I was told to
always wear a suit, I found that I got more sales when I wore jeans and
a t-shirt, at least in certain neighborhoods. In other neighborhoods the
suit worked better.
Jewelry
In their attempt to impress prospects and others, amateur
persuaders tend to overdo the jewelry thing. Big flashy rings and
necklaces that overpower the eyes only work in certain situations, and
only when it s expected because everyone else in the same situation is
doing the same thing, like with the top name rappers in the music
industry, or a pimp out on the streets. For all of us normal folks,
however, it s best to stay away from the gaudy jewelry.
Possessions
What you own has it s own effect on your persuasiveness. If you
drive up to meet a prospect in a high-priced luxury car, your prospect
will assume that you are well off financially, and may also assume that
you are good at what you do. This is one of the judgmental heuristics
we talked about a little in the Psychology of Persuasion section and
will cover in greater depth later on in the course.
The image of success is well known to contribute to future
success. It s for this reason that some people will go into debt in order
to establish the expected trappings of success. But beware, because
the word trappings also suggests something that happens to anyone
who goes too far into debt they become trapped by the debt itself,
unable to escape.
For maximum success, consider everything that you own that
might become visible to a prospect and ask yourself Would someone
successful in what I m doing have one like this? Ask this question
when you think about your car, your briefcase or purse, the tools of
your trade, your cell phone, the knick-knacks on the shelves of your
office, the books you refer to in the course of your work, the toys you
can t leave at home, everything a prospect could possibly see.
Just remember, successful people don t always have the most
expensive, only the best.
Scent
Advertisers would have you believe that the way you smell has far
more impact on the way others treat you than it does. That message
serves their purposes well since they want to sell you as many products
as they can. Yet, for all of the programming that they force upon the
public, your scent does have some influence on your persuasiveness.
The basic rule is the same as with everything else: if your scent is
pleasurable you get points, and if your scent is uncomfortable to be
around you lose points. But be warned, some of the so-called
deodorants being sold are far more offensive than the smell of a
freshly washed body. You are safer to just be clean and wear a light
cologne or perfume. Any scent can be offensive if it is too strong.
Posture
What is one of the clearest differences between someone who is
confident and the same person when depressed? When they are
confident, their back is straight and they hold their head up high, yet
when they are depressed they are slumped over with their face pointed
down.
Clearly, you will have a far easier time persuading someone if they
think that you are confident in what you are doing than if they think
that you are depressed. Depressed people are depressing to be around,
and the central idea behind power persuasion is to make your prospect
feel good about you and what you are offering to them.
So stand tall, raise your chin, and show the world that you are
proud to be who you are.
Environment
Your ability to persuade your prospect will be greatly affected by
the choice of location and the environmental factors of that location.
For best results, the location should fit with the context and nature of
what you are asking your prospect to do. For example, if you re
persuading someone to trust your expertise, then it will be easier if the
environment contains several indicators of that expertise, such as
diplomas, awards, photos of you with other recognized experts, and so
on.
What you want to avoid is an environment that contradicts what
you are suggesting to your prospect. For instance, I just ran across a
website that claimed that the information being sold would be available
for 1 day only, but had a link to recruit affiliates to sell it for
commissions. Big contradiction there. The same website claimed that
the information being offered was black ops type stuff and the seller
was breaking an agreement by even offering it. And then when price
was mentioned, there was a regular price crossed out and a reduced
price offered. How often are government secrets offered at a reduced
price? Another red flag. This guy can t possibly persuade me that
he s above board and trustworthy.
We will be covering several aspects of creating the right
environment for various persuasion effects later in the course. For
now, realize that the environment in which you re persuading someone
must be compatible with the rest of the image you wish to create.
Seating Position
If you and your prospect are sitting, where you sit also has an
influence on the whole persuasion process. For example, let s say that
you are meeting someone at a restaurant to talk over some details of a
proposal you are presenting. When possible, arrange to have them
sitting on the side of the table such that they are pretty much facing a
wall if possible. This way you will have their full attention, as they
will not be so distracted by the other activity in the room.
If you are sitting in a conference room, take the seat at the end of
the table, which is usually considered the leader s chair. The usual
association with this position will be linked to you and thus you
become more of a leader in their eyes.
And if you are meeting in your own space, try to sit in a chair that
will make you a little higher than your prospect. For some reason,
people are more easily influenced when they have to look up at you,
either physically or figuratively.
Also, whether or not there is a desk or table between you and your
prospect has an influence on how the meeting will go. If you are
filling the role of the expert or leader, then you want to have the desk
between you and your prospect. If you are filling the role of a
salesperson or confidant, then you want to sit on the same side as your
prospect. Teams sit together, adversaries sit apart.
Appearance Of Persuasive Media
Much persuasion takes place through marketing media, such as in
print, on TV, on the radio, or on websites. Even face-to-face
persuasion usually has some type of supporting material to back it up.
In either case, the appearance of your media is just as important as
your own appearance in persuading your prospect.
The general rule here is that, once again, your media should echo
the overall message that you are communicating to your prospect. If
you are selling an expensive item, your media should look expensive,
from the layout design, to the copywriting, to the choice of materials
used. If you re selling an inexpensive option, your materials should
look like you ve saved money on their creation.
The same applies even when you are not selling a product or
service, but an idea. If you are telling your prospect that there have
been numerous scientific studies that show the benefits of doing one
thing as opposed to another, you ll persuade easier if you can show a
supporting document that has very scientific looking charts and tables,
and also presents a clear suggestion that matches what you are saying.
3ye Conta$t Training
Every culture is slightly different in regards to how long eye
contact should last; yet everyone is influence by the connection made
when our eyes meet. The general guidelines here are relatively simple.
If your eye contact is too short and you re looking at your prospect and
then looking away too soon, you appear to be shifty-eyed and the
impression is that you have something to hide and are not to be trusted.
On the other hand, if you stare at your prospect and burn a hole
through their skull with your gaze, you will appear to be a predator
ready to attack, and this would make your prospect uncomfortable and
looking for a way out.
The best way to determine the proper amount of eye contact is to
watch your prospect. Some people are uncomfortable with anything
over 3 seconds, while others are uncomfortable with anything less than
3 seconds. Practice in front of a mirror and grow more comfortable
with longer periods of eye contact. Try to hold your own gaze for
more than a minute with complete ease. This way, you will be able to
match any prospect.
How often you make eye contact is important too. If you only
make eye contact at the beginning of the encounter and once or twice
again after that, your prospect will feel that you are not interested in
them and this would lose points for you. On the other end of the scale,
if you make eye contact almost continuously, breaking away for only a
couple of seconds between, your prospect may feel that they are
under the microscope and being judged. A middle ground found by
watching your prospect is the best approach on this as well. In general,
make eye contact about two-thirds of the total time you re with your
prospect, and all should be well.
There is more to the use of eye contact than just the length of time
and frequency you make contact. How your eyes are focused has an
impact as well. Some authors have advocated that you focus your eyes
as if you were looking at a distant point behind your prospect s head.
This gives a somewhat ethereal quality to your gaze, and could be
effective if you are trying to persuade your prospect that you are
receiving messages from the spirit world. It also gives you the
appearance of being aloof and impersonal, which can be good for
certain situations, but bad for others.
For most persuasion situations, it s much better to focus your eyes
upon the eyes of your prospect. This will create a sense of connection
between you and your prospect, and will establish a feeling of trust and
intimacy that cannot be built any other way, especially if you are
smiling and have a warm, deep voice making them feel so incredibly
relaxed.
+oi$e Training
In conversational hypnosis, your voice is your primary tool. It is
possible to have no other connection to a prospect, and yet by speaking
to them you can completely hypnotize them to the point where they
will do anything you ask.
It is well known that the most hypnotic voice is one that is deep,
rich, and resonant. There are several things you can do in order to
deepen and improve your voice quality. In fact, there are whole books
just on this one subject, but I will give you the most important
information right here in this course. As you work with the exercises I
give you here, you will find that your voice becomes deeper, more
resonant, and incredibly persuasive each time you work on it.
Posture / Alignment Stretches
In order to have an authoritative voice, you need to deliver your
words with power and vitality. To do this, your lungs and diaphragm
need to be in alignment and free to move as they were designed. By
holding yourself upright with good posture, your body is able to
project your voice with both power and vitality.
If you ve been in the habit of slouching, you will find that your
energy increases dramatically after practicing good posture for a
period of only a week. It may feel like more work at first, but soon
you find yourself realizing that you are able to get more done with less
energy than you ever did before.
A formal exercise for developing good posture is to stand next to a
wall and try to get as much of your body to touch the wall as possible,
from the heels of your feet to the back of your head. Even try to get
your lower back to touch, or at least get as close as you can. Hold the
position for as long as you can, up to a few minutes. The more you
repeat this exercise, the better your posture will be even when you re
not thinking about it.
One exercise I do from time to time is to simply raise my hands
above my head and stretch my body as if I m reaching for the ceiling.
This not only aligns the body, but it also flexes the muscles and
improves circulation, which gives you more energy.
Some people find that periodic visits to a chiropractor does
wonders for their overall health in addition to general posture and so
on. Keeping your spine in alignment is very important in all areas of
health, which is why most parents tell their kids to sit up straight .
Now that you know that your ability to persuade other people depends
on it, you just might find that it really was good advice.
Conditioning For A Deep, Resonate Voice
The science of acoustics tells us that the tone of an instrument is
dependent upon four things; the length, thickness, and tautness of the
vibrating apparatus, and the size of the resonating chamber. That s
why a tuba produces a lower tone than a flute, or the thin strings on a
guitar produce the higher pitches. In terms of vocal tone, the vibrating
apparatus is the vocal cords and the resonating chamber is the mouth
cavity.
There s not a lot that you can do about the length or thickness of
your vocal cords. Just as your height is determined by factors outside
of your control, so are the length and thickness of your vocal cords.
The tautness of the vocal cords is somewhat in our control. Within
your throat are muscles that will tighten or loosen the vocal cords.
Professional singers learn to control this to a greater degree in order to
extend the range of notes they can sing, from lower notes to higher
notes. The lower the tone you wish to produce, the more relaxed your
vocal cords need to be.
Developing a greater degree of relaxation in your vocal cords can
be accomplished through practice and an overall habit of relaxing in
general. Spend a few minutes each day speaking in low, deep pitches
to gain the control and skill that will magnify your persuasiveness.
Working with a tape recorder can be an excellent measure of your
progress, as you can instantly compare the depth of your voice tone to
previous attempts.
Voice tone is also controlled by the size of the resonating chamber,
which in this case is your mouth cavity. One thing to keep in mind is
to let the tongue be as relaxed as possible and more towards the front
of your mouth, just behind your teeth. Also, allow yourself to open
your mouth wider as you speak. Too many people try to speak through
a closed mouth, and that doesn t work too well.
And while we re near the subject, you will find that your
persuasiveness increases as you practice clean diction and pronounce
your words with clarity and precision. Your words will carry more
impact when they are clearly spoken.
Marking Out Embedded Commands
Almost everyone has heard of subliminal messages. Words or
images that are barely perceptible, lying outside of conscious
awareness, but still picked up by the subconscious mind. It s well
known that the subconscious mind is able to perceive and act upon
messages the conscious mind is not aware of.
In conversational hypnosis, we use this phenomenon to deliver
subliminal message to our prospect without their conscious awareness.
When done right, your prospect has no idea that you are suggesting
anything, yet they are like puppets on a string, with you at the controls.
The details of how this is done are fully covered later on in the
course, but the core mechanism is a slight alteration in the way the
embedded commands are delivered. If you change the tone, volume,
or direction of your voice slightly when speaking an embedded
command, the subconscious mind of your prospect will notice the
difference and process those words separately from the rest of the
sentence, while your prospect s conscious mind is completely
oblivious. The effect is even more pronounced when you insert a
slight pause both before and after the embedded command, but this is
not necessary.
The main thing to remember forever is that the difference must be
slight, almost imperceptible, and unnoticeable to the conscious mind.
This requires some practice to perfect, yet is very easily done. Try it
out now on the following sentences. Drop your voice tone slightly on
the words in bold and notice the effect.
You shouldn t feel compelled to practice this, just
remember it.
I d really like to think that you respect and admire
me.
I don t know how much you re going to enjoy this,
but it could be a lot.
Fred seems to work on this all the time and he loves
it.
It s weird how some people will just fall in love.
With me, it s not like that.
Have you ever wondered what makes a person feel
totally committed to a subject, to the point where they
become a master at it?
I m usually a fairly good judge of character, and I feel
that you will tell me the truth about what s going on
here.
As you practice with the above examples and come up with
examples of your own that fit with your personal objectives, you may
find yourself feeling like a conversational hypnotist already.
When marking out embedded commands, remember that voice
tone is only one method. You can also adjust the volume of your
speech, making the embedded commands either louder or softer than
the rest of the sentence. When protecting yourself from others using
these techniques against you, you have to pay very close attention to
notice if embedded commands are being used or not. Close listening
is the only way to know for sure.
Advanced students of conversational hypnosis will also work with
changing the direction of their voice, moving their head to project the
words either towards or away from the prospect. And special power
persuaders even know of another way to alter their voice for added
impact.
Ventriloquism Techniques
Ventriloquists are masters of manipulating their voice. Not only
do they attempt to make their voice sound like someone else (the
dummy s character voice, for instance), but they also throw their
voice so that it sounds like it s coming from somewhere else entirely,
such as from a distance. Early ventriloquists used this technique to
persuade whole groups of people that spirits or other divine entities
were communicating with the living, and that the voices were coming
out of nowhere.
Part of this effect comes from allowing the words to be less clearly
formed and somewhat lower in volume. If you think about how
someone sounds when speaking from across the room, you ll clearly
understand why this is so. The illusion of distance is also created
when you place greater tension on your voice. This tension makes
your voice sound flat , which also happens to sound as it travels
across a distance.
Again, practicing with a tape recorder is an excellent means of
developing this skill. Experiment by speaking into the recorder while
tensing up your throat muscles in different ways and you ll discover
which ones produce the best results. If this interests you, I encourage
you to take a proper course in ventriloquism to gain maximum
proficiency.
As power persuaders, we can use this effect of distance as
another means of marking out embedded commands. Not only does it
create a subtle difference to mark out the words we want our
prospect s subconscious mind to process separate from the rest of the
sentence, it also creates a slight feeling of disorientation within the
prospect, which helps to strengthen the hypnotic effect and thus makes
all of our persuasion even more effective. This is an advanced
technique mostly due to the amount of skill required to successfully
use the technique on a subliminal level, without the prospect becoming
aware of it consciously.
Another aspect of ventriloquism that we will borrow is the concept
of sound replacement. When you re trying to speak without moving
your lips, there are certain sounds that cannot be used, and a good
ventriloquist will replace those sounds with other sounds that are
similar. For example, the letter b cannot be spoken without moving
your mouth, yet the similar sounding d can usually be used in it s
place, especially in a fast-paced routine.
In normal conversation, many people will slip and say one word
when they really meant to say a different word. Psychologists call this
a Freudian Slip . An example of this is when a man is at a wedding,
entranced by the beautiful women in their sparkling dresses, and
instead of saying best man he slips and says breast man . Most
people don t even notice, as they tend to hear what they expect to hear
and not what is actually said.
This technique is especially useful when you need to keep the
conscious conversation on a subject completely different from what
you want to slip into your prospect s subconscious mind. For instance,
if you wanted to seduce a co-worker, you may want to make sure to
keep the conscious conversation PC (politically correct), yet plant
subtle seeds moving your co-worker to feel more amorous towards
you. To do this, you would talk about normal work-related topics; yet
replace portions of words with similar-sounding simple words that are
great embed, uh, great to embed into the conversation. (Notice how
the slip was used to insert the suggested phrase great in bed ?)
One of the most important aspects of using the ventriloquism
techniques (as well as most other conversational hypnosis techniques)
is to maintain absolute composure when delivering the altered words.
If you look like you re doing something out of the ordinary, your
prospect will start paying more attention to figure out what it is.
However, if you look like everything is proceeding along normal
patterns, your prospect has no reason to believe otherwise, and your
subliminal messages will get through into your prospect s
subconscious mind.
The best way to find word replacements is to use a rhyming
dictionary. Look up the sound of the word you want to suggest, and
then go shopping for a suitable word to use as a cover.
Gesture Training
Many people move their hands when they speak to add impact to
what they say. This makes the communication process more dynamic
and interesting. In power persuasion, we also use gestures to draw our
prospect into what we say, and to add special emphasis to selected
portions of the message.
Unlike most people, however, we carefully orchestrate our gestures
to create maximum impact and introduce subliminal meaning. In
many ways, this can be compared to the choreographed motions of an
actor on stage, who strives to communicate what the character feels in
addition to what the character actually says.
As part of your training, you should go to your local library and
check out some video recordings of famous speeches. Also record
some of the infomercials which run on late-night TV. As you watch
these, pay attention to how the speakers gesture and move about.
Notice how you respond emotionally to the presentations. If you re
like most people, you ll find that you respond more to those speakers
who use larger gestures as they speak. This study of gestures can be
extended to your time watching movies as well. You can study how
each actor uses specific gestures to communicate different emotions
and underlying messages.
Grand, sweeping gestures have a tendency to create emotional
involvement in your audience, even if your audience is only a single
person. Dynamic speakers who use lots of gestures are able to carry
their audience along on a roller coaster of experience. When you want
to excite your prospect and get them involved in what you are saying,
act like a kid excited about Christmas morning.
There s a general rule in speech-making, and it says that the
further away the audience, the larger your gestures have to be in order
to be noticed. This makes sense as you (and your gestures) appear
smaller to the viewer when you are further away. When you are
speaking to one person only a couple of feet away, your gestures will
necessarily be smaller and less dramatic than when you are on stage
and the closest member of the 20,000 person audience is over 30 feet
away. When your audience is further away, the right amount of
gesturing will feel like you re overdoing it, although it may appear to
your audience as minimal involvement.
Obviously, not all gestures are intended for a large audience. In
fact, some gestures should be very subtle, almost unnoticeable.
For maximum impact, every gesture should echo the message
being communicated by your words. If you speak about something
that has a slow, easy, rhythm, then your gestures should be slow, easy,
and rhythmic. If you re talking about something that suddenly shows
up, use gestures which seem to come from out of nowhere. Again,
practicing in front of a mirror or a video camera will help a lot. See if
you can communicate a message without words. When you can do
that, you ve mastered the art of gesturing.
In conversational hypnosis, there are some special gestures we use
in order to deliver subliminal messages. These gestures are only
loosely connected to what we say and are intended for the prospect s
subconscious mind only. Developing your skill in using these gestures
will amplify your persuasiveness beyond anything you can now
imagine.
For instance, there are times when we want to talk about a
person in general terms, yet link that fictional person with ourselves.
Courses on seduction will use this one a lot. The trick here is to subtly
point to yourself when you mention the fictional person. This is
usually done by bringing your hand to your chest, curling your fingers
inward towards your chest, tapping yourself with your hand, or even
touching your watch or other jewelry. Sometimes you can accomplish
the same thing by just moving your hand(s) back and forth without
pointing your fingers anywhere. The motion itself becomes the
pointing. Try it and you ll see what I mean.
In this example, as you read the words in front of a mirror, practice
subtly pointing to yourself as you say the underlined words.
(Underlined words in any example indicate that you should point to
yourself subtly.)
Have you ever met someone who instantly becomes
someone special? You know how you go through life
meeting so many people who are so easy to forget, but
then you run across one very special person who
makes you feel incredible, and these feelings are so
wonderful that you just have to do whatever it takes to
keep this person near you. It s almost like fate.
To amplify the effect, you can gesture away from you (and towards
the competition) when you say the words so many people . This
will send the subliminal message to your prospect that they will forget
about everyone else except you.
Although this example is usually used in seduction courses, it can
also be used in any persuasion situation where you want your prospect
to focus exclusively on you and forget about the competition.
Another example of subliminal gesturing is to create links between
gestures and concepts, such as desirable or undesirable. For instance,
as you talk to your prospect about something they would readily accept
as desirable, you can use a gesture of your right hand, such as an open
palm face up. Then later, when you talk about something your
prospect would readily accept as undesirable, you can use a similar
gesture with your other hand.
When you do this enough times, your prospect s subconscious
mind will remember that gestures from one hand mean desirable and
gestures from the other hand mean undesirable. Now, when you talk
about your competition use the gesture from the hand meaning
undesirable and your prospect will begin to lose any desire to go in
their direction. Use the gesture which means desirable when talking
about what you want your prospect to do, and watch your prospect
grow more agreeable to saying yes.
Persuasion experts call this setting anchors . It is very similar to
the famous experiments by the Russian scientist, Ivan Petrovich
Pavlov, in which he conditioned dogs to associate the ringing of a bell
with food. Researchers have discovered that the conditioning process
works quicker when there is a high level of emotion at the time the
anchor is set. In fact, if there is a strong enough emotion, an anchor
can be set with only a single experience.
That s why lovers who experience something special when a
certain song is playing will feel a resurgence of emotion any time that
song comes up, even though they may have heard the same song
hundreds of times without any emotional associations. It s also why a
child frightened by a snake at an early age will still be afraid of snakes
30 years later.
)ody &anguage Training
Knowing how to read body language almost gives you the ability
to read another person s mind. Whereas verbal communication is
completely within our conscious control, the messages we
communicate through body language are usually subconsciously
controlled and many times reveal what a person may wish to hide. For
this reason, when you read the body language of your prospect, you
will know if they are being honest or not, whether they are
comfortable with you and with your offer, and how much they are
attracted to you or to what you are proposing.
The science of body language is called Kinesics . I will only be
able to give you the basic information here in this book, however, there
is a wonderful resource on the full range of kinesics called How To
Use Body Language by Drs. Sharon and Glenn Livingston. It is
from this ebook that I found most of my information on body language
and I recommend it highly. You can get a copy of this $37 ebook
from: www.SuperBodyLanguage.com/GetStarted.html.
Power persuaders know how to read the body language of their
prospect, and they also know how to control their own body language
to deliver a complete, consistent message. No matter how nervous you
may be in a situation, you can still communicate confidence and
authority through your words and your body language. When you do
this, your prospect responds to what they see and hear.
Confidence and Authority
Let s cover this area of kinesics first, since it is the easiest place to
start. In order to communicate confidence and authority through body
language, the place to start is your posture. Sitting or standing up
straight, with your spine erect and your chin up communicates
confidence more so than practically anything else. For an added
effect, push your chest out forward (or just move your shoulders back)
and you will appear to be ready for anything. A slight smile also
indicates that you have no fear of the situation, and is therefore a good
signal to use. A great visual image to think of is the classic
Superman pose, with feet slightly apart and hands at the hips.
A couple of other kinesics signals for confidence and authority are
a steady gaze into the eyes of your prospect, and a hand position called
steepling . Steepling is a way some people hold their hands with the
fingertips of one hand meeting the fingertips of the other hand, with
the palms separated. The fingers are usually pointed up, and the
whole thing resembles a church steeple, thus the name. Try it now and
you will see what I m talking about.
There are a variety of variations on the steepling gesture. Not all
fingertips have to be used. Sometimes only the index fingers (pointer
fingers) are used, with the rest of the fingers intertwined with the
fingers of the other hand. The more fingers involved in the steepling ,
the more confidence and authority is communicated.
One bit of information I learned from the Livingston book
mentioned above is that when you walk into a room, the fewer
movements you make, the more powerful you appear to those already
in the room. As long as you re standing tall and projecting an attitude
of confidence, this works wonders. If you think about it, those in
authority rarely walk into a room to actually do anything, they usually
come in to verify that everything is being done as they asked.
Insecurity
For a moment, let s take a look at the opposite of confidence so
you know what to avoid and what to look for in your prospect. When
your prospect shows signs of insecurity, this is an excellent time to
reinforce those aspects of your offer which give reassurance. If you
fail to reassure your prospect when they feel insecure, you risk not
getting agreement. Also, if you allow yourself to show signs of
insecurity, you weaken your persuasiveness.
Insecurity is usually communicated as nervousness, which
manifests as fidgeting, rustling papers, fingering jewelry, wringing
hands, biting a lip, holding the body rigid, holding the breath, backing
away, or looking towards the door. Crossing arms or legs could also
be a sign of insecurity, but this is something a lot of people are in the
habit of doing, so it s best to notice whether your prospect crosses their
arms or legs even when relaxed. If they do, then it s not a sign of
nervousness, just a habit.
Other kinesics signals of insecurity include standing or sitting in
such as way as to include a barrier between you and them, especially if
this is not the most convenient option. The barrier could be a table, a
counter, a chair, a cart, or pretty much anything else. Women are more
likely to sit across the table than men, even with people with whom
they feel completely comfortable, so this is only a partial signal.
Rapid blinking of the eyes could mean many things, but they all
center around the fact that the blinker is uncomfortable in some way.
This could mean they are nervous, but it could also be that they are
extremely attracted to you, or that they are lying.
Dishonesty
It s always good to know what the truth is in any situation, and if
you re not sure if your prospect is being honest or not, you can look to
their body language for verification. As we just mentioned, fast
blinking eyes could be one indication, but it could also mean other
things too, like dust just blew into their eyes, or the air is too dry.
As with most kinesics signals, a single indication is not enough to
prove anything. You have to take everything in context, and if you see
several signals all pointing to the same meaning, THEN you can be
fairly sure of your conclusion.
For instance, the biting lip signal can mean nervousness or fear,
but it can also mean that your prospect is holding something back, not
telling you the whole story. Only by matching up several signals will
you know for sure.
One indication of lying you will find in many body language
books is the act of placing a finger to the nose. While it may have
been true that this meant someone was lying, I ve never seen anyone
use this gesture, and the information could very well be outdated.
Also possibly outdated is the signal of covering the mouth when telling
an untruth. Again, my experience has not verified this information.
Signals I have been able to verify as indications of dishonesty are
shortness of breath, dry mouth, shakiness of hands or other parts of the
body, lack of eye contact, exaggerated movements or yawning (trying
to hide nervousness), visible heartbeat (usually in the neck), rubbing
the face, or running hands through the hair. These signals will usually
be accompanied by signals of nervousness as well.
Attraction
While running hands through the hair could be a signal of lying, it
can also be a signal that your prospect is attracted to you. When one
person is attracted to another, they usually engage in what is known as
preening , or making adjustments to one s appearance. A woman will
usually preen herself by playing with her hair, checking her makeup in
a mirror, or rearranging her clothing. A man will usually comb or pat
his hair, fiddle with a tie, or straighten his clothing, such as pulling up
his socks.
As mentioned earlier, rapid eye blinking could be an indication
that your prospect is attracted to you, depending on the other signals
being displayed. The same is true about a prolonged gaze, which
could be a signal of attraction or a signal for anger and a prelude to an
attack. But then other signals will be different, and most people can
tell the difference. I trust you won t be confused by this one.
Attraction is also demonstrated if your prospect turns to face you
more directly, especially if they smile and display what is known as an
open posture . An open posture is when neither arms nor legs are
crossed. An open posture usually means the person is open to making
a connection with you in some way. Leaning in towards the other
person is also a signal of attraction, and an indication that a connection
is sought.
If the attraction becomes sexual, then both men and women will
usually display other signals, such as a slight parting of the legs,
thrusting the hips forward, touching each other more often, swaying
the hips when they walk, and moving closer to each other. All of these
signals are subtle in nature and rarely overt.
If you want to persuade someone to become more attracted to you,
then you can use these signals yourself to communicate your desires to
your prospect. You can measure your success by how much your
prospect echoes the same signals back to you.
One kinesics signal of attraction that cannot be manipulated is an
enlarging of the pupils. When we see someone or something we are
attracted to, our pupils dilate and become larger. Although the size of
our pupils is more dependent upon the amount of light in the
environment (our pupils dilate to allow more light into the eyes), it
also varies with our emotional state.
Trance
Another internal state demonstrated by an enlarging of the pupils
is the trance state. In conversational hypnosis, your goal is to lead
your prospect into a trance state sometimes called downtime . When
your prospect is in downtime, they are more suggestible and easier to
persuade. And by waiting for the signals that your prospect is in
trance, you can ensure your suggestions will be more readily accepted
and acted upon.
A trance state will generally manifest as a very relaxed state of
being. You can recognize when your prospect is relaxed when their
breathing becomes slower, steadier, and deeper. Your prospect s
muscles will also become slack, especially in the face when they reach
a state of trance. Their eyes may or may not close, although if they do,
you can be pretty sure they are in a light trance state at least. This is
the best time to deliver your hypnotic suggestions.
Mental Activity
When your prospect is considering your offer, or at least thinking
through what you ve told them, they will display other signals that will
tell you what s going on inside. What you see in your prospect s body
language will tell you what you need to do in order to persuade them
effectively.
For instance, when you re talking to your prospect, if their head is
pointed straight up, you can be fairly sure they aren t paying attention
to you. Whenever someone is paying attention to what another person
is saying, they will usually tilt their head to one side or the other. If
you see your prospect s head not tilted, ask a question or in some way
get them involved in the conversation. Otherwise, you ll be wasting
your time.
If you see your prospect put something into their mouth, such as a
pen, pencil, the earpiece of their glasses, or so on, this is a signal that
says Tell me more . You can think of it as needing more food for
thought . Keep giving them more information about what you are
suggesting and they will readily accept the information.
On the other hand, if your prospect takes off their glasses and
starts to clean them, or otherwise starts to fiddle with something, this
is a signal that they have taken in all the information they can for the
moment and they need some time to digest it. This is the appropriate
time to lighten up the conversation with some kind of filler topic, or
perhaps to allow for a moment of silence. When your prospect is
ready for more information, they will ask for it.
Someone deep in thought will sometimes go into the classic
Thinker s Pose , with the hand coming up to stroke the chin or hold it
with the fingers. However, if the chin goes into the palm, that s a sign
that they are bored.
Another deep in thought pose is leaning back with arms folded
across the chest. This closed position is sometimes associated with
closing off from the environment, which also happens when engaged
in deep thought. You ll have to watch for other signals to know if it
means that they are disconnecting from the conversation instead.
Disconnection
The closed posture, with arms or legs crossed, will usually mean
your prospect is mentally moving away from you and canceling the
connection between you. Depending on other evident signals, it may
mean they are simply deep in thought, as discussed above. If you see
other signs that your prospect is disconnecting from you, this is the
time to work on re-establishing rapport and recreating the connection
before it s too late.
If your prospect starts to look away, such as towards the door or
out the window, this could mean they are looking for a way out of the
conversation. If they lean away from you, this adds to the message.
And if they throw something down that they had been holding (or their
glasses if they wear them), that s a sure sign they want to break away
from the conversation.
Setting something down is another matter, as it could simply mean
they want to devote more of their attention on what you are saying.
However, it could also be a more subtle way of backing away from the
conversation. If they simultaneously turn away from you in some way,
you can take it as an indication you need to rebuild rapport and
strengthen the connection between you. Go back to a topic of
conversation which created the connection in the first place if you can.
Perhaps you can re-approach the current topic from a different
direction.
If your prospect s hand goes to their collar, they most likely feel
under pressure, or hot under the collar . This could be good or bad
depending on your objectives in the situation. In any case, it means
they are uncomfortable with something you said. That is, unless
they re wearing a new shirt which doesn t fit very well. But if that s
the case, the hand will go to the collar even in pleasant conversation.
A hand to the back of the neck is usually an indication of a pain
in the neck , which could be you, especially if you are persisting in a
topic your prospect has indicated is unpleasant. If this happens, you
probably haven t set a strong enough foundation, and need to go back
and work on it. The foundation is the feeling of rapport between you
and your prospect, and also includes the motivating factors associated
with your offer.
However, the pain in the neck could also be the problem your
offer will solve for your prospect, and it could be that they are just
thinking about that problem at the moment. You should ask a question
to determine which meaning to give the gesture.
If you see your prospect clench their jaw, know that they are
experiencing some degree of anger. Again, this could be anger at the
problem your offer will solve for your prospect, or it could be a
response to how you ve approached an issue. Experience and a few
questions will tell you what is causing the anger.
Miscellaneous
Just to make sure we ve covered as much as possible, here are a
few other kinesics signals and what they mean.
One eyebrow raised can usually be interpreted as disbelief. Two
eyebrows up are a reaction to surprise. Surprise can also be the cause
of the forehead wrinkling upwards. If the forehead wrinkles down, it s
a sign of disappointment.
Most of us know that a shoulder shrug means I don t know , but
few of us fully realize that it also means I don t care .
In men, a hand to the chest is a signal for honesty, yet in women
the same gesture is a sign of shock.
And lastly, a sigh is usually a sign that your prospect has mentally
given up in some way.
In general, watch your prospect to find out what is normal and
natural for them. If they deviate from their normal behavior, then take
it as a sign that something has changed within their mind as well. The
information I ve given you here is considered normal for most people,
although it may be slightly different for some people. Never take a
single gesture to mean anything without the collaborating evidence of
similar gestures.
Use your newfound knowledge wisely as you peer behind your
prospect s mask.
Charis'a < The "ey To 7nstant !ersuasion
If you had no other means of persuasion, charisma would be
enough. Charismatic people tend to get their way no matter what
they re doing. They can talk their way out of a traffic ticket, they can
talk their way into any job they want, they can talk their way into the
bed of any partner they set their sights upon, and they can motivate a
crowd of people with their words and the sheer power of their
personality. Highly charismatic people can even start their own cults
and have followers who will do anything they ask. Yes, charismatic
people have it made.
As a power persuader, you re about to learn that charisma is a skill
anyone can learn and develop, like riding a bicycle or playing a guitar.
Charisma has nothing to do with attractiveness. We ve all seen
some very attractive people who had little or no charisma. Nor does it
have anything to do with physical size, since there have been just as
many charismatic short people as there has been charismatic tall
people. Charisma has nothing to do with any physical characteristic at
all.
Charisma is an attitude, a behavior pattern, and a mental focus.
You can be as charismatic as you choose to be. All you have to do is
master a few key skills and choose to project the right attitude, and
you ll have it made too, even without starting a cult.
The Motivating Force of Charisma
The core essence of charisma is emotional energy. The emotional
energy you display in the presence of others will grab them and carry
them along anywhere you want to take them. The reason why
charismatic people are able to persuade others so easily is because the
emotional energy does most of the work. When you ve become a
human dynamo, persuasion is almost effortless.
The first response most people have to this is Oh no, I m already
using all the energy I can! How can I possibly use any more?
I m going to tell you a secret here, and you won t believe it the
first time you hear it. In fact, you may even think I must be crazy to
suggest any such thing. But the fact remains that anyone who has true
charisma has already learned the truth of this secret. Actually, it s not
really a secret at all, since so many people proudly proclaim the truth
in seminars, on tapes, and in books. But no-one is listening because
no-one really believes it could be that simple.
Emotional energy, if done right, not only has the power to sweep
other people away with its force, but it also has the power to sweep us
away with it as well.
If you allow yourself to consider this notion, you ll realize there
have been times you ve been so excited about an idea, or a project, or
some other thing that you completely lost track of time, forgotten to eat
a meal, and for some reason or another, you actually felt better than
you usually do.
Earlier, I told you the story about my time as a school portrait
photographer. I mentioned that when I acted enthusiastic, like I was
having a great time, the kids had a better time as well and getting good
smiles was a lot easier. What I didn t mention at the time was that
after I started acting enthusiastic, it didn t take long before I began to
actually feel enthusiastic for real. It may have been an act to begin
with, but within an hour, I really did feel like I was having a great
time, and the rest of my day went by like a day at the carnival. And
every day on that job, I had one great day after another.
I m sure you ve heard the phrase fake it til you make it .
There s a similar phrase which says act enthusiastic and soon you ll
feel enthusiastic . Psychologists discovered a long time ago that there
is a direct link between how we feel and how we act. That s where the
science of body language, or kinesics, came from.
The direct link works the other way too, and all truly successful
people eventually discover this one way or another. Sometimes you
just have to push through the rough areas of town to get to Easy
Street.
Are you ready to follow me to the promised land of unlimited
energy and matchless charisma? Have I persuaded you to give this
idea a try? I ll tell you what, try it out for a couple of weeks, and if
you don t find yourself having more fun than you ve ever thought
possible, you can give it up. Fair enough?
The 3 Pillars Of Charisma
Together, the three pillars of charisma combine to form an
unstoppable combination. Any one of these factors will increase your
persuasiveness, but only when all three exist together at the same time
will you be truly unstoppable. With the self-sustaining energy of
charisma at your command, the world will be at your feet.
Excitement is the first major pillar of charisma. Everyone loves to
be excited. The rush of adrenaline flooding our bloodstreams when
our emotions are stimulated is simply too powerful for most people to
resist. When we are emotionally stimulated, we feel more alive than at
any other time in our daily existence. It s a natural high which makes
us feel good in a way few other things can.
Excitement is like a drug, and when you re the dealer, you can
practically name your price and your addicts will do whatever it
takes to get their next fix . Just make sure there isn t a competing
dealer around the corner sho can persuade them away from you and
they ll do anything you want them to do.
Confidence is the second major pillar of charisma. When you
display confidence in what you do, other people will use your level of
confidence as a guide to determine whether to trust you or not. The
more confident you are in yourself, the more your prospect will have
confidence in you as well.
As you now remember a time when you had to trust someone
regarding something new to you, and you think about your own
process of deciding whether to trust this person or not, you begin to
realize that you yourself do the same thing. If the other person seemed
confident in themselves, you used their level of confidence as a
measure of how much to trust them. Now you have a clear picture of
how your prospects will respond to your own display of confidence.
Sincerity is the third major pillar of charisma. We all trusted
someones confidence only to find out later that we made a bad choice.
We want to have added insurance we are making a good choice, and
for that we look for other factors besides just confidence. We want to
know the confidence is real and sincere.
But how do you know if someone is sincere in what they say?
For that, we pay attention to verify that everything they tell us
logically fits together, and that all of the signals they send us are
congruent with the core message. For instance, if the words say yes,
but the body says no, there is a loss of sincerity. Or if the website
proclaims a product will be available one day only, yet there is a page
to recruit affiliates to sell that product, bye-bye sincerity.
That s why it is so vitally important to have all aspects of your
message congruent with each other when you want to persuade
someone. When your body language supports the words you speak,
and the tone of your voice echoes the emotions contained within your
message, and your gestures look like the concepts you talk about, your
prospect sees and hears all of it, and uses the whole combination to
measure your sincerity. The easiest way to project sincerity is to
simply be sincere. Don t try to pull the wool over someones eyes.
Use your persuasiveness to help your prospect discover what s good
about your offer. Don t use it to manipulate anyone.
Be Unique
Another aspect of charisma is to be unique. If you re doing the
same thing in the same way as everyone else, what reason does anyone
have to notice you more so than the others?
Charismatic people stand out in people s minds because they are
unique. When you are unique, they remember who you are the next
time you come around. And when they remember who you are, you re
half way to persuading them to go further along your pathway.
One of the core motivating desires we covered earlier was the
desire to connect with what, or who, is familiar. When we know the
person we re with, we feel safer and more agreeable to whatever
happens. This is the primary reason that power persuaders want to be
unique and stand out in their prospect s mind. That way, we become
familiar to our prospect, and the feeling of safety and comfort are
already established before you even get started. It makes your job as a
power persuader easier.
Being unique has another advantage as well. You get noticed even
from a distance. News reporters are constantly searching for people
who are truly unique. It makes for good journalism and it sells media
such as newspapers, magazines, and website traffic. By being unique
in your field, you give reporters a gift they can use to build their
business and they, in turn, help you out by providing you with free
publicity.
Even when your uniqueness is a purely personal style that wouldn t
make the papers, the gossips of the world love to talk about these
things, and you ll find your reputation proceeds you wherever you go.
Just make sure your uniqueness is something positive that will
make your potential prospects want to seek you out.
Focus On Positives
How much fun do you have being around someone who focuses on
the things wrong with the world? How much time do you feel like
spending with someone who can only see the negative aspects of
things? You may already understand that charismatic people focus on
the positives of life. This isn t to say they never acknowledge when
things go wrong, they just don t waste any time wallowing in self-pity
because of it. They see where things could be better (the positive
focus) and they instigate a process to improve the situation.
As strange as it may seem, even the charismatic leaders of the
infamous death cults had positive focuses. They were focused on
making a better life for themselves and their followers. Why stick
around in a world of depravity when you can kill yourself and move on
to a better world? They didn t just give up, they attempted to improve
the situation! Personally, I d rather work to improve the situation right
here, thank you.
Charismatic people are positive in another way too. We are
absolutely positive about the facts and information we possess and
share with our prospects. We don t say it might be . , but rather we
say our best information indicates that . . Both phrases indicate an
uncertainty in the information, but the second version is definite about
the uncertainty.
Focusing on the positives of a situation is just as easy as focusing
on the negatives. It s just a matter of redirecting the same energy.
And the more you focus on the positives and are definite in your
speech, the more you find your prospects follow you along your path.
Focus On Your Prospect
Some charismatic people focus only on themselves, preferring to
simply allow their followers to sit at their feet and worship them from
afar. Yet the most charismatic among us will lift up our followers and
allow them to share a corner of the heavens with us. When we do this,
our followers become so much more devoted and they will do anything
we ask, to the point of taking their own lives if we asked it.
Of course, we don t ask any such thing.
If you ve ever been to a rock concert, you ll know the power a
charismatic person has when they turn their attention to one of their
followers. The lead singer may be worshiped by his fans, who are
completely thrilled to be in his presence. Yet, as soon as he looks at
one of them and winks, it s all over she s down for the count,
overwhelmed that he would notice her in the huge crowd.
The same thing happens on a smaller level when an important
business man asks a young lady out for a date. Or when a mail clerk is
recognized by the boss and given an opportunity to prove himself in a
position of authority. When a more important person recognizes and
focuses upon a less important person (important in terms of position
and responsibility), a bond forms instantly and endures virtually
forever.
There are two key things we can do to show our prospects we are
focusing on them. The first of these is to remember and use often their
name. Whenever we use our prospect s name, they know beyond any
doubt that we are, in fact, focusing on them.
You don t have to use their name in every sentence, just make sure
you don t go too long from one use of their name to the next. In
writing, using your prospect s name 3, 4, or even 5 times per page
would not be excessive. In speaking, you can easily use your
prospect s name every 5 or 10 minutes.
Besides using your prospect s name often, asking questions is an
excellent way to involve your prospect, and to direct the focus of the
conversation onto them. And since you re the one asking the
questions, you retain control over the conversation, so if you decide to
redirect the conversation to the offer you want your prospect to
consider, you can easily ask a question that does just that.
Asking questions serves several other purposes as well, such as
discovering the secret buttons within your prospect that will motivate
them to accept your offer. You can also lead your prospect to consider
new possibilities, you can ask the same question several different ways
to reveal underlying information your prospect may want to hide, and
you can use questions to deliver subliminal messages.
Section 7:
$oney#$aking
Prosperity 1eys
1. A step by step plan to eliminate all your debts and turn them
into wealth.
2. How to thrive in any economy, whether you work for yourself
or someone else.
3. A quick personality assessment to determine your best pathway
to prosperity
4. How to succeed in a business you know nothing about.
5. How to make money doing nothing.
6. The most valuable commodity you can have.
7. When to get out of a good business.
8. The power of leverage to multiple your money.
9. How to make more money by offering lower-priced goods.
10. How to maximize the value you create in your business.
11. How to guarantee success before you even begin.
12. When you should invest more to build your business.
13. How to instantly raise your prices without resistance.
14. How ANYONE can make BIG BUCKS on the Internet
15. How you can make money selling other people s products.
16. How to produce a viral ebook that will make sales for you.
17. The core essence of Frank Kern s $2000 marketing course.
18. A simple formula that determines the profitability of your
business.
'o! to Turn 3ebt Into Wealth
Here is a formula for quickly getting out of debt I ve seen from a
couple of different sources. It takes a little discipline to follow all the
way to the end, but it s well worthwhile. Just imagine not having to
pay out all that interest every month! How much more could you
afford to do if you didn t have so many monthly payments?
#tep 16 #top pur$hasing on $redit
This is perhaps the most influential part of the process. If you
can t afford to live on what you earn, you re spending too much! And
the only thing you accomplish is to dig yourself into a hole that just
gets deeper and deeper. If you want to get out of the hole, the first step
is to stop digging.
#tep 26 ,a*e a 'onthly budget
Make sure your budget allows for your living expenses such as
food, utilities, gas for your car, and between 5% and 10% of your
monthly earnings for entertainment. Anything left over after these
should be applied towards debt payoff.
What you want to do is arrange to have at least $150 per month
that you can apply towards eliminating your debt beyond the minimum
monthly payments. You may have to make some sacrifices to make it
happen, but the freedom at the end of this will be phenomenal! Of
course, the other way to make this happen is to start earning more
money. Either way, find some extra money to pay off your debts with.
#tep =6 #tart with s'all debts
Start making minimum monthly payments to all credit accounts
except one. On this one account, make the largest payment you can.
Do this each month until this one account is paid off.
Here s an example. Let s say you have 2 credit cards with
balances, a car payment, and a house payment. Start paying off one of
the 2 credit cards first. By eliminating a smaller debt, you ll soon have
more money each month to apply toward the next larger debt.
How to Turn Debt Into Wealth Page 165
To understand this further, let s look at some numbers.
Credit Card #1: $100 / month minimum
Credit Card #2: $250 / month minimum
Car Payment: $250 / month minimum
House Payment: $800 / month minimum
Total Minimums: $1400 / month minimum
Extra Payoff $$: $150 / month
From this, you can see that we re going to be making $1550 per
month payments until everything is paid off. The first credit card will
get $250 a month payments until it is paid off.
#tep >6 ,ove to larger debts
Now that you have one debt paid off, add everything you were
paying on the smaller debt to the next larger debt payment.
For example, if you just paid off the first of 2 credit cards, you will
now make minimum payments on both the house and the car, with the
rest of your monthly debt payments (equal to the amount you have
already been paying) being applied towards the second credit card. In
this example, the second credit card will receive the original
$250/month payment plus the $250/month that we were paying on the
first card, for a total of $500/month until it is paid off.
We re still paying the full $1550 per month, and still making
minimum payments on the larger debts, with the balance applied
towards the smallest remaining debt.
#tep 96 Repeat and $ontinue
Once the second debt is paid off, just move on to the next larger
debt and pay that one off. In the above example, the car debt will start
to receive $750/month until it is paid off, after which the house debt
will get $1550 a month until it s paid off.
Most people can eliminate all of their debts in 5 to 7 years using
this plan, and that includes their house! Imagine owning your house
free and clear in 7 years or less!
#tep ?6 7nvest in assets
Now that you have $1550 a month extra income you weren t using
for living expenses, redirect this cash flow into investments which will
grow and pay you a passive income. Do this first before you start
spending it on luxuries and whatnot. A couple of years of this and you
will have a huge investment portfolio giving you a solid income you
won t have to work for! How much fun will you have receiving an
income while you get to go play?
Thri%ing in any economy
Whether you have your own business or work as an employee for
someone else, the same rule applies when seeking to succeed and
thrive. It s the primary essence of a free market society, and the
foundation for everything that happens in the economy.
The only problem comes up when people forget about this rule,
and start to behave as if there are no rules regarding money.
What is the rule I m speaking of? Simply this: In any exchange of
value, both sides must win.
When you work for someone else, your employer must win in that
they get quality work for a reasonable wage. The employee must win
in that they get a reasonable wage for the work they do. When
employers pay their employees poorly, or force them to work in
unpleasant conditions, those employees have no loyalty and will
change jobs at the first opportunity. And on the other side, when an
employee performs their job poorly, the employer will gladly give the
job to someone more eager to work.
When you own a business, your customers must win in that they
get good value for their money. And you must also win in that you
earn a fair profit for the products and services you offer.
As a business owner, I find that I have to continually evaluate the
marketplace and adapt as things change. Ten years ago, it was
relatively easy to sell $97 ebooks because they were new and different.
As more and more people came out with lower-priced ebooks on a
wide variety of topics, it became necessary to adjust prices to a level
our customers were used to seeing. These days, you have to offer a
LOT of value before you can sell an ebook for $97.
This isn t a result of any so-called recession, but is a function of
basic supply and demand economics. We saw the same thing
happen with VCRs when they came out priced at $1000 and can now
be purchased for $20. We ll see the same thing happen with HDMI
cables for the entertainment systems, especially since these are little
more than USB cables, which are a dime a dozen.
Times change, but the basic principles of success do not. To be
more successful, you need to present a better offer. It s that simple.
-ow do you present a better offer as an
e'ployee1
As an employee, you bring your talents, your skills, and your
knowledge into the deal. The more you have of these, the more you
are worth to your employer. Reading the latest research in your
profession is one way to increase your knowledge and value. Taking
classes can help with both knowledge and skill training.
Don t sit back and wait for your employer to pay for your training.
Did they pay for your education before you got the job? No. That is
your investment in yourself, and your responsibility. If your employer
wants to make an investment in you, that s great, but if you wait for it
to happen, they may hire someone else who took the initiative and did
it themselves.
Talent is something that comes from inherent aptitude, training,
and practice. The more you work at improving what you do, the better
you get at it. While there won t always be time to go the extra mile in
serving your employers, doing so when possible will help you develop
your inherent talents. Doing tasks outside of your job description can
be an excellent way to further increase your value to your employer.
Loyalty is also something of value you can offer your employer.
Being such a rare thing in these days, it is that much more valuable to
those employers who recognize it.
Attra$ting better e'ployees
When you re the employer, it s up to you to create an environment
in which good employees want to work. This goes beyond the basics,
such as salaries, benefits, and a clean working space. It s also about
respect, loyalty, helping them grow as individuals as well as
employees, and rewarding them when they go beyond the expected
routine.
Different people will respond to different incentives. As a
manager of human resources, it s important to recognize what
motivates your people and to find a way to offer them what they want
most when they give you what you want. Setting up programs where
you reward employees for good ideas that can either save your
Thriving in any economy Page 169
company money or make more money is one excellent way to ensure
your employees are motivated to help the business succeed.
Rewards can be extra money in a paycheck, extra days off, a more
prestigious title, an office with a window, or on-site facilities for
working off some nervous energy. Sometimes, a minor investment in
a reward program will motivate your employees unlike any amount of
psychological pressure will ever do. Only after you have a valid
reward program should you even consider the idea of punitive
treatment for poor performance.
Attra$ting 'ore $usto'ers
Succeeding in business is a matter of 3 things, as taught in basic
business courses.
1. Get more customers
2. Get your customers to spend more money
3. Get your customers to spend money more often
Getting more customers is usually the hardest of the 3, since it is
generally agreed that it costs 5 times as much to get a new customer as
it does to get a sale from a previous customer. However, difficult or
not, it s imperative to bring in new customers from time to time if your
business is to succeed.
The thing to remember is that your customers have choices. Lots
of choices. They can choose to do business with you or your
competitors, They can also choose (in most cases) to not do business
with anyone in your field and spend their money elsewhere. Part of
your job as a business person is to educate the public about why they
should want to spend their money in your market.
As an example, let s say you own a movie theater. Your customers
are those who enjoy watching movies, correct? They can choose to go
to your theater, one of your competitor s theaters, or they may choose
to rent a movie and watch it at home, and these days they can even
choose to watch movies online. Not only that, but they can also
choose to entertain themselves with other activities that don t even
involve movies.
In this case, you need to help people see that watching movies is a
great way to entertain themselves, no matter where they choose to
watch them. After that, then you need to help people see the
advantages of watching movies at a theater (any theater) over watching
the same movie at home or on the computer. And finally, you need to
educate your customers about the advantages your theater has over
other theaters in your market.
Many times, this is all done subtly, within the context of general
advertising. However, publishing a special report could be another
way to go with this, especially if you can present yourself as an expert
worth listening to.
Okay, now that we ve covered the basics of attracting new
customers, we need to address how we are to create a better offer than
our competitors. Obviously, cutting prices is one way to do this, but it
isn t always the best way.
Adding something extra to the package is oftentimes much more
effective, especially if you can offer something that has a high
perceived value without costing you a lot of money.
Do you remember when banks would offer free gifts for opening
an account. It used to be a joke that they would give out toasters for
every new account opened. However, this can be an excellent strategy
if done right.
The trick is to offer something that your customers see as
valuable. Giving a t-shirt for making an appointment may not be as
effective as giving a pocket calendar with the date and time already
marked. Giving a toaster for opening an account may not be as good
as a book on investments. Actually, books can be great additions to a
package, especially since many publishers give significant discounts
for bulk purchases. Just make sure the book you select is one your
customers would select and buy on their own. (And yes, I offer
quantity discounts on my book, Choose To Believe.)
Let s go back to the theater example. You probably wouldn t offer
a book for customers buying a set of 10 tickets, unless that book has
something to do with the movie industry. At one time, some theaters
would distinguish themselves by offering air conditioned facilities,
which was generally not standard at the time. These day, movie-goers
expect these things, so you have to offer something else. Maybe
Thriving in any economy Page 171
autographed photos of a popular movie star? How about a display of a
famous movie prop featured in your theater? These don t have to cost
much, but can enhance your customer s experience, and thus the value
you offer them.
I hope this little chapter has given you some ideas about what you
can do to survive and thrive no matter what the economy may be
doing. It s all about the value you offer to those involved in your
financial well-being. The more value you offer, the more you can
reasonable expect to get in return.
Of course, as you learned earlier, the more persuasive you are, the
more you can communicate the value you already have.
3isco%er (our Personal
Path to Prosperity
There are a million ways to make a million dollars.
Pick one that works for you.
After looking at all the various ways people make large sums of
money, I coined the phrase above, but it was only after meeting a man
who was getting rich doing janitorial work that I truly believed it.
Over the years, I ve studied just about every way there is to
making big money. Real estate investing, mail order, inventing, craft
shows, sales, self-publishing, photography, gambling, marketing, and
public performances were among the top of the heap. I ve seen people
getting rich from doing nothing more than playing games (sports,
cards, quiz shows) or having sex (porn industry). I ve even read where
some people get paid to take vacations! Hows that for a way to make
money?
Truly, you can make money doing practically anything. Even
feeding the homeless and operating a charitable organization can be a
way to create massive prosperity for yourself. If there s a need or want
in the world, there s a way to get paid to fulfill that need or want.
So in discovering your personal path to prosperity, realize that
there are no limits whatsoever to your choices!
%ui$* !ersonality Assess'ent
Before we jump into choosing a vehicle for generating prosperity,
let s take a quick look at what you bring to the table. Not everyone is
cut out to be an entrepreneur, nor is everyone suited to the lifestyle of
the investor. Some people really are better suited to being an
employee than a business owner.
Here are 5 personality scales you want to use to evaluate yourself.
1. Risk vs. Security How comfortable are you in taking risks?
Do you live life on the edge, never knowing exactly what s
Discover Your Personal Path to Prosperity Page 173
going to happen next, or do you prefer to know ahead of time
what s coming up ahead?
2. People-person vs. Loner Do you prefer to be around other
people, or would you feel better if everyone would just leave
you alone? You can be prosperous in either of these categories,
so don t worry about one being better than the other.
3. Leader vs. Follower Are you comfortable letting other
people take the lead, or do you feel that you can do a better job
of leading than they can? Do you often strike out on your own
to do your own thing, or would we find you joining a pre-
existing group? Again, you can be prosperous in either of
these categories.
4. Delegation vs. Hands-on Is your motto If you want
something done right, you have to do it yourself , or would you
rather let other people do the work while you supervise?
5. Physical vs. Mental Do you feel better when you re moving
around, or do you think your true value lies within?
Whenever you evaluate your career choices, keep these factors in
mind. They will lead you to a career where you will be happiest. You
may also want to consider the 6 personality scales we covered earlier
to give you a deeper understanding of yourself.
!ersonal 7nterests
Now that you have a better handle on your personality traits, let s
move on to how your interests can be used to create greater prosperity.
For most of my life, I didn t know what kind of career I should
pursue or if I would be better off on my own. Along the way, I found
some questions which really helped nail down the important issues.
I m sure you ve heard the question, What would you do if you
already had all the money you d ever need? I ran across it many
times, but every time I saw it, my mind responded that I would quit
my job, buy a bunch of things, and go on an extended vacation. I had
an interest in photography, so part of my vision was that I would take
lots of pictures while vacationing. I couldn t see anything in my
vision which I could turn into a profitable income.
Another common statement that helps find your pathway to riches
is, Find a need and fill it. This means you are to look around you
and use what you see in the world to decide what people are ready to
pay money for. If people are already spending money, why not put
yourself into that financial stream?
Eventually, I decided that since photography was something other
people were able to make money with, and it was something I had an
interest in, that I would use it as a means to create an income. I ve
already told much of the story about how I was able to create a
prosperous business in photography, so I m not going to repeat it here.
Suffice it to say that although I was making money, I still wasn t as
happy as I thought I should be.
The next question I ran into gave me substantial pause.
What does the world need most?
The logic here is that you make more money when you fill a bigger
need. Doctors fill a very big need, so we pay them a lot of money.
The corner hotdog vendor fills a smaller need, so we pay him a
smaller sum of money. A teacher fills a big need for a small group of
students, so she makes a certain amount of money. A sports hero fills
a smaller need for a much larger group of fans. His income reflects the
size of the combined need he fills. This is neither good nor bad just
the way the world works.
When I asked myself what did the world need most, I had to
consider it carefully. From my perspective, I saw a huge need for
people to have faith and a desire for excellence. Too many people in
the world are looking for a handout when they have everything they
require to get anything they want.
But what I see as the world s greatest need is not necessarily what
the world really needs the most, just what I saw. Here s a secret.
You ll see a need that you have unique talents to fill. If you didn t
have what it takes, you wouldn t see the need. If you see the need, you
have what it takes.
And the last question that really makes it all take off, How can
you earn a passive income in your chosen field of interest? A
passive income is money that comes to you whether you do anything
for it or not. Investors earn a passive income from their investments,
since they don t have to do anything after the money is invested.
Business owners earn a passive income if they have other people
running the business. Authors and musicians earn a passive income
from royalties and licensing rights. Internet businesses earn passive
income in many cases.
When I built my first website, I knew nothing about the business.
I spent a lot of time and money learning and experimenting with
different ideas to find out what worked and what didn t. Once I had it
working, I was able to leave the site alone, and it continues to earn
money for me although I do next to nothing with it. Each website I ve
built since then has been a lot easier. An hour or so to set up the
website itself, a few days to write the sales pages, and a few more days
to produce the associated marketing materials. From there, it s just a
matter of posting articles and ads to get my message in front of new
people, and anyone can do this I don t have to be involved.
The longer I m in the business, the more ways I find to make
money without being personally involved.
Consider this. How involved is Ray Crock in the operations of
your local McDonald s? Ray Crock is the man who organized the
famous fast-food operation, and he got rich off the labor of millions.
Does the name Andrew Carnegie mean anything to you? I hope so,
since he was the richest man in the world at one time, and the founder
of a huge steel empire. Here s something I bet you didn t know.
Carnegie knew nothing about steel or the business required to
manufacture it!
And if a poor immigrant in an unfamiliar land could become a
billionaire with a business he had no knowledge about, so can you!
However, not everyone has the personality to start and run their
own business. Some people simply prefer to go in, do a job, and earn a
paycheck. There s nothing wrong with this. If this describes you,
then your personal pathway to prosperity will be to become the best at
whatever you do, and let different businesses bid against each other,
and pay you the highest income possible.
Even as an employee, you can still set up little money-making
gems to bring in extra cash on a regular basis. While there s no need
to set up a full business to do so, you ll use many of the same ideas.
(rgani@ing a )usiness
There are so many ways to make money; it s really exciting to
look at all the possibilities.
Sometimes, all you need to do is to organize the work of other
people, just like Andrew Carnegie did. Let s say I want to create a
business, and the biggest need I see in the world around me is for a
first-rate dental service. But I know nothing about dentistry. I m not a
dentist, and have no real interest in going to school to become one.
That doesn t matter, since I can always find people who can do the
things I can t. (That s one of the key secrets of rich people. Teams of
people are more profitable than any 1-man operation.)
My next possible objection could be that I don t know anything
about running a business. No problem. I can find someone to do this
too. In fact, I can find all the people I need to plan, build, and operate
whatever business I care to organize. And if I don t know what kinds
of people I need, I just find someone who does know!
The same thing is true about the money needed to put this
operation into action. Someone has the money to invest, and they will
give away a percentage of the profits with the smart individual who
can organize the venture.
I hope you re not wondering why these people wouldn t just
organize the needed dentistry office without you, or are you? Get this
one thing in your head right now most people don t have a clue
about how to create true prosperity in their lives. And most people are
so risk-adverse, they are afraid to take action even when they know it
is based on a great idea. The greatest rewards come to the person who
can see the possibilities others can t.
-elpful -ints
There is an incredible amount of information you could learn
about how to make money, and the more you educate yourself, the
more you ll find that those who made the most money had certain
philosophies which led them along their chosen pathways. I d like to
share with you some of the key points that will help you create the
greatest prosperity.
Foundations first
Never try to jump in a make a quick buck. Plan for the future, and
build the foundation upon which you will build your empire. Learn
the skills you ll need to influence people and to perform the tasks you
assign to yourself. The stronger your foundation, the greater your
potential prosperity.
Be prepared for opportunity
Related to the first hint. Don t let opportunity take you by
surprise. Scout out the possibilities in advance, and prepare yourself
for when they arrive.
Start with a market, then provide for that market
This goes back to the Find a need and fill it concept. The worst
thing you can do is to create a product and then go looking for a
market to sell it to. Make sure there are people who want what you
have before you go through all the efforts to create it.
Prepare for the long haul
Almost no-one succeeds the first time out. Babies fall many times
before they learn how to walk. Learning to talk or ride a bike follows
the same story. So does learning how to create portraits, persuading
others, or starting a business. You may have to try it several times
before you get it right.
The only failure is the failure to try
Whenever we are learning something new, we re going to make
mistakes. Those mistakes may be simple ones that are easy to fix, or
they may be major ones that take longer to overcome. But as long as
you learn something from each mistake and move forward with the
new knowledge, the mistake can never be called a failure.
Obstacles are only a signal to redirect your efforts
Too many people run into obstacles and quit. Just because I
couldn t make money taking scenic pictures didn t mean I couldn t
make money as a photographer. I just had to redirect my efforts to
another aspect of photography which was more suited to my talents.
And just because I couldn t sell Rainbow vacuum cleaners didn t
mean I couldn t sell. I just had to redirect my efforts and sell
something I had a greater passion for.
Information is the most valuable commodity
An investor who looks at a page of possible stock choices without
any information on the companies listed will not likely be prosperous.
A wise investor will find out what he can about the businesses before
investing in them. Same with a marketer wanting to sell a product to
the world. Find out what the market wants first. In any situation,
there s information that will give you the advantage. Get that
information ahead of time!
Work past your mistakes quickly
No matter how much information we have, there s still the
possibility that the decision we make could turn out to be wrong.
Once we have whatever information is available, we need to make
decisions quickly so we can find out what the results will be. Once we
know the results, we are free to make a new decision with greater
insight into the situation.
Position does not equal intelligence
Some of the information we gather comes from experts in the field.
Remember this: experts in the field of weather forecasting are
responsible for the forecasts made for your local weather. How
accurate are they? Never assume that the information from an expert
is the absolute truth. It s only the best information they have. They
could easily be wrong.
Excellence is the seed of success
Who would you rather have paint your house any kid off the
street, or a professional who knows how to make your house look
good? Which surgeon would you rather have operate on your
grandmother a general surgeon, or one who specializes in the type
of operation she needs? Would you rather listen to a group of
musicians who have practiced hours and hours until they have
perfected their music, or a group who threw together a set list just to
get the job? You can earn more money when you re the best around,
and the better you are, the more prosperous you can be.
Quality costs less
There s a very good reason why rich people buy BMW s, Rolls
Royce s, or Mercedes . They operate well and last a long time.
Always look for quality, and you will save money in the end. Just
remember that the best is not always the most expensive. Sometimes
the lower cost option has a higher quality. The same holds true when
you re an employer hiring an employee. Even though the job applicant
with the best skills may cost you more in terms of salary, they will
earn you more in terms of customer satisfaction. Go with quality and
you ll be more prosperous too.
Look at the long-term payoff
Closely related to the last couple of points. Although you may
save a little money by doing something cheaply now, take a look at
what may happen over time. This is also important when choosing
activities. It may be fun to spend all your free time with friends, but
would you be better off in the long-term if you spent some of that time
preparing yourself for greater opportunities?
You are responsible for your own future
Even if you re employed by someone else, your future is in your
hands alone. The company you work for is only your environment, it s
not going to look out for your best interests, only it s own. Also, no
matter how your parents raised you, once you are an adult, the
responsibility for what you become is in your hands, not theirs.
Opportunities often look like problems
If everyone was able to identify opportunities, there wouldn t be
many left, would there? Sometimes what looks to be a big problem is
actually a great opportunity. Look for it, and profit from it.
Persistence pays off
When Walt Disney wanted to open his first amusement park, over
300 banks refused to extend the credit needed to get it opened. Walt
knew the idea was good, and persisted until he found the bank willing
to back him up. If you know your idea is good, keep going until you
make it happen.
Popularity waters down opportunities
Real estate used to be a fabulous investment. That is, until
everyone and their brother started investing in it. Now you re lucky to
find the big deals. Lakes that are easily found rarely have the best
fishing. For really great fishing, you have to find the lakes no-one
knows about. Promoting a killer product online is great unless a
thousand other websites are promoting the same product. Be unique,
and be very prosperous.
Sometimes you only need to be unique in a key aspect of your
business. For instance, there are a ton of places where you can have
the oil in your car changed. But when you want to get in and get out
quickly, look for a Jiffy Lube, home of the 10-minute oil change. You
can also get your car insured by a lot of different insurance companies,
but if you want an agent whos friendly, you go to State Farm because
like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.
The power of leverage
No matter how capable you are, there s only so much you can do.
If you want to accomplish more, you have to enlist the cooperation of
other people. And when your team is working together, you can
accomplish far more than working separately. This is the wisdom
taught to us by Henry Ford and the creation of the assembly line.
Systems are an important part of leverage. Without a system, you
have to figure out what to do next each step of the way. But with a
system you don t have to think, you just do it. Systems help you to be
more efficient. Systems also help keep everything organized.
When I work in the darkroom, sometimes I have to make multiple
prints on one sheet of paper. With a system, I know that the first print
is on the left side of the paper, and the second print is on the right.
Without a system, I could easily forget which side of the paper I used
for the first print and end up using the same side of the paper for both
prints, which would require that I start over again.
Financial leverage is usually called OPM (Other People s Money).
When you purchase a piece of real estate, you rarely pay the full cost
of the property. Most of the time you borrow a large percentage of the
purchase price. With this form of leverage, you take possession of an
asset without paying the full amount.
Here s a quick example to show just how important this concept is.
Let s say that you have $100,000 to invest. You see an opportunity in
the stock market. Your informational sources say that a particular
stock is about to double in value. At $50 per share, you could afford to
buy 2,000 shares of that stock. And when it doubles, you will have
earned a $100,000 profit. But instead of limiting yourself, you decide
to use the power of leverage and you borrow $1,000,000 to purchase
another 20,000 shares. After the stock doubles, you have $2.2 million.
And after you pay back the $1,000,000 loan with interest, you end up
with more than $1 million in profit! Ten times what you would have
made using only your own money.
The other important form of leverage is OPT, or Other People s
Time. Instead of working on a project yourself 40 hours a week, why
not hire 10 other people and get 10 times as much done? Even when
you have to teach everyone what to do, you still end up getting more
done in a shorter period of time. John Paul Getty used to say I d
rather have 1% of the effort of 1000 men than to have 100% of my
own efforts.
Continue your prosperity education by studying this concept of
leverage fully.
Mass markets
Just as leverage helps you do more with less effort, selling to a
mass-market helps you earn more from your efforts. Here s the best
way I know to explain why this works. Pretend that you are a painter.
You spend weeks working on a masterpiece. Now, in order to be justly
compensated for your time, you need to collect at least $2000 for it.
Since it is a one-of-a-kind, you could get that much if you re good and
reasonable well known.
But let s say that you re smart enough to go after a mass-market.
You take your masterpiece and have a lithograph created from it and
make 100,000 copies. You only need to make a profit of 2 cents from
each copy to get your $2000, which is easily done. In fact, if you can
make a nickel profit from each copy, you just made a huge profit!
It s always easier to sell 1000 copies of something at a low price
than to sell 1 copy at 1000 times the price. And when you can expect
to sell a large number of copies, you can afford to create the best
product you can.
Passive income
How many jobs can you hold if each job takes 10 hours a week?
And if each job pays you $200 a week, how much can you earn? Now
imagine that you can set up a source of income that doesn t take any
time to maintain. How many of those can you handle in a week? And
how much could you earn from that?
When I work as a photographer, I charge $100 per hour for my
time. Even if I could keep busy 40 hours a week, that s only $4,000 a
week income. With my online business, I make an average amount
from each website I own. For the sake of an example, let s say that I
only make $300 a month from each website. Since there s no limit to
the number of websites that I can operate, if I set up 100 websites, I
would then make $30,000 per month, which is about twice as much as
I could make as a photographer. And if I set up 200 websites, my
income doubles with no increase in the amount of effort required to
maintain it. (In actual fact, I make more than that from each website I
operate.)
Multi-level marketing principles
In any multi-level marketing business, you learn that the key to
earning a ton of money is recruiting others into the business. This is
because of a combination of factors we ve already covered leverage,
mass-market, and passive income. While it is true that you can earn
money by selling a product, you make much more money from the
smaller commissions you earn from everyone in your downline .
The principle to keep in mind here is that you can get rich if you
can collect a small amount from each member of a large group.
Remember when I said that I met a man who was getting rich doing
janitorial work? This is the principle he was using. He contracted the
jobs and hired other people to actually do the work. Since he didn t
have to do any of the work himself, there was no limit to the number
of contracts he could take. And since he made a profit off of every
worker, he made more money than you could imagine!
Profit margins make or break your product
A profit margin is the difference between what a product sells for
and all of the expenses involved in selling it. At this point in time,
computers are sold for very low profit margins. It costs almost as
much to make and sell them as what the customers actually pay for
them. E-books found online have really great profit margins. The
only costs are the time to write them and the costs of ads in ezines and
PPC search engines. Since there is no cost in production (a digital
copy costs nothing to produce) or delivery, most of the price of an e-
book goes right into the profit margin!
Whenever you are dealing with a product with a high profit
margin, you can afford to make a lot of mistakes and still come out
ahead. If your profit margin is next to nothing, be very careful or
you ll go broke.
Redefining values
Many times, the value of an item is directly related to how it is
perceived. This was demonstrated one time by showing the audience
an old violin. The strings were broken, the instrument was scratched
and dented. It really looked bad. The general impression was that this
particular instrument could only be worth $50 or less. That is until
someone read the inscription inside and found out it was a
Stradivarius. Now it was worth thousands!
Another example comes from real estate. An apartment building
with 10 units may be worth around $500,000. But if the building is
converted to condos (mostly just a reclassification on paper), it could
then be worth almost twice that much. This is why many real estate
investors will buy an apartment building and convert it to
condominiums. They can double their money with very little work.
When hypnotists want to advertise their services, they rarely
advertise a sales presentation. If they did, no-one would show up. But
they reclassify what they are doing and call it an introductory seminar.
Now a bunch of people show up, and are sometimes willing to pay to
get in! Same thing, just a different perception, and creates a lot more
prosperity for the hypnotist.
How can you redefine yourself or the thing you are offering the
world? What would people be more willing to pay for?
Prosperity comes from within
I ve saved this one for last because it is the most important. No
matter what happens, your prosperity can never be taken away from
you. I ve hit bad times, and in fact at one point in my life I was
homeless with nothing of value in this world. I had no home, no car,
no job, no money, no credit, no friends, no family (near enough to
matter, that is), no possessions, and no skills I could sell. I used to get
angry every time I read a rags-to-riches story because the author would
claim he started with nothing, only $5000 in the bank. Yeah, right!
How I wished to have that $5000 in my bank account!
Even though I had absolutely nothing at that time, I had what
mattered most. The desire to achieve something and the drive and
willingness to do what it took to get there.
I ve read a few times in different places that Henry Ford was asked
what he would do if he suddenly lost everything. His answer was that
he would find some other basic need of humanity, and he would
provide a solution for that need as cheaply and as economically as he
could and he would again be a multi-millionaire within 5 years.
I have to agree with his logic. Now that I ve learned the key
secrets to true prosperity, I know beyond any shadow of a doubt that if
I had to, I could rebuild everything I have now in a fraction of the time
it took me the first time.
And now I have past on my accumulated wisdom to you. You can
achieve lofty heights of prosperity with what you ve learned in this
book. You now have the tools to change your mindset to attract
prosperity in all forms. And you now have a direction to follow to
gain even more wisdom.
Go get em, tiger!
A 8e%er#Fail )usiness pportunity
Everywhere you look online, someone is touting a new, fully
tested, impossible-to-fail method of making more money than you ve
ever dreamed possible.
And if you re the type to fall for the flash and sizzle of the
marketing claims, you ve tried enough of them to know that it ain t
always what it s cracked up to be.
Actually, I get a chuckle out of many of the get-rich-quick schemes
that flood my email inbox on a daily basis. Even though some of these
proposals do seem to have some validity, I know enough about the true
secrets of prosperity to know when a proposal is a genuine business
opportunity, and when it s just a baited lure on the end of a fishing
line.
7 learned this fro' personal e4perien$eA
When I was still in high-school, my dad helped me get into a
business that sounded great. In only a matter of months, we would be
earning well over $5000 per month, and after a year, we d be earning
over $20,000 per month.
The company we talked to gave us newspaper clippings and
industry reports to show the demand for what we would be producing.
They gave us pages of numbers showing us just how easy our product
would multiply and grow in value. They gave us so much information
that we just KNEW that we could succeed in the business of
earthworm farming.
Right now, I m imagining that most people who read this will be
rolling on the floor with laughter. I understand completely. Even now,
thinking about that time, I can t believe we were so foolish to think
that we could make that much money with worms.
My dad and I spent over a year building special boxes in which to
keep the earthworms. We watered the soil every day and sprinkled
corn meal and alfalfa over it before we broke up the soil to give those
little guys room to move around.
But after a year, we built a contraption to separate the worms from
the dirt, and hand delivered our first year s crop of worms to the
A Never-Fail Business Opportunity Page 187
company we bought the starter package from. I don t remember how
much we got from that transaction, but I can say with absolute
certainty that it was less than $1000.
.here did we go wrong in that venture1
First of all, we never investigated further to see if the information
given to us was valid. The company which sold us that starter package
could have been telling us lie after lie just to get our money. Those
pages of numbers could have been completely made up for all we
really knew. And the newspaper clippings? I now know there are
companies which offer printing on newspaper stock for a small fee.
Another mistake we made was not checking with other earthworm
farmers about their experience. If we had talked to others who had
pursued the earthworm farming opportunity, we would have learned
that the money wasn t going to be rolling in as we thought.
In short, our main mistake was not having enough information to
make an informed decision. Had we spent a few days (or even a few
hours) checking into the claims made, we would have known it was a
waste of time and we d be better off in another business.
Before you jump into another business opportunity, make sure you
have enough information to know you re not biting a flashy lure.
'o! A8(82 Can $ake
)I- )9C1S n The Internet
Over the past few weeks, I ve been working to record everything
I ve learned during the 6+ years I ve run my online business so others
may prosper by doing something similar. In the process, I ve clarified
some things for myself and realized that ANYONE can make money
regardless if they are an expert in a subject or not.
So this blog post will focus on how someone could start an online
business and start earning money as a non-expert. What s really
surprising is that setting this up can be relatively quick and easy, and
depending on the subject matter, can even be highly profitable.
#tep 16 Define your business type
The first step in any business is to define the type of business you
want to run. To simplify this, I will assume that you want to run an
information-based business on the Internet. There are many reasons to
choose such a business, such as time-freedom, low start-up costs, and
sheer profitability.
As an example of how profitable this business can be, I just picked
up a collection of 50 products for just $17 that I can resell to others. I
got that price because I was already on the right mailing list and
responded as soon as I got the announcement. As another example, I
have a membership to a resale rights club. For just $29 a month, this
site offers many new products you can resell to others. Because there
are so many choices available in all categories, you can easily find
products to sell.
In case you don t already know, the resale rights concept is a great
way to run a business online because you simply purchase the license
to sell a product to others. As the examples above show, it s possible
to purchase many different resale rights licenses for very little money.
Of course, as usual, you get what you pay for. The products found
in these massive packages are usually well-worn products which have
been sold a lot, or never sold well. High-quality resale rights products
are available, but you usually have to pay more for them.
How ANYONE Can Make BIG BUCKS On The Internet Page 189
#tep 26 Define your business for'at
There are many different formats for running an information
business online. Some people use the mini-site format (a single page
website that sells one or more products), whereas others use a
shopping cart format to offer many choices to each customer. I ve
used both of these formats, and both are good for different situations.
My recommendation to anyone just starting out is to go with the mini-
site format. The reason for this is because it s a lot easier to set up,
maintain, and helps your customers understand what you have to offer.
The main reason I do not recommend starting with a shopping cart
format, is because there is a lot more investment required, and can
backfire if you re not very careful. By offering too many choices to
your customers, you risk confusing them and losing sales.
With a mini-site, it s possible to sell a single product or multiple
products. If you offer multiple products, each product choice must be
a variation of a single product type. For instance, you can offer a base
product, a package including your base product and a few supporting
products, or a larger package with even more supporting products
around your base product. Do not try offering completely different
products from a mini-site, as this can easily confuse your customers
and lose sales.
#tep =6 Define your produ$t delivery for'at
Once you ve decided on the format for your business, the next step
is to decide how you will deliver your information to your customers
after they pay for it. Do you want to offer physical products that must
be shipped, or do you want to deliver your information digitally as a
download? Digital information is much cheaper to deliver, and is the
best choice for someone just starting out. While you will get more
refund requests when delivering information products digitally, your
profitability will still be higher than if you were to deliver physical
products. I ve done both, so I know this from experience.
Digital products may be delivered to your customer in several
ways. You could manually send an email to each customer with a
copy of the product they purchased, but this takes a lot of work and
isn t good for a variety of reasons. You could set up an account with a
site like Payloadz.com to deliver your digital products, and this works
well if you use PayPal to process your customers payments.
You could also set up a basic download page for each product you
sell, and this can work too, but leaves much to be desired. For
example, someone could post the URL for your download page, and
then anyone could download your product without paying for it. If you
want to protect your digital products from online thieves, you will need
to use some type of website software to manage things.
There are many types of website software you could use to protect
your information products. Rather than discuss all the various types
and their advantages and disadvantages, I m going to simply
recommend you use software designed to run a membership site. This
is what I do, and has always worked for both me and my customers.
Many people have the mistaken idea that running a membership
site means you HAVE to add new content every month, every week, or
even every day. This may be true if you charge a recurring fee, such
as $20 per month, but there are no such requirements if you sell one-
time fee memberships. In fact, a one-time fee membership is exactly
the same as a direct product sale. The only difference is how the
product is delivered.
The whole Internet landscape changes dramatically from month to
month, and so I m not going to make any specific recommendations
for a particular piece of software here in this book. I ve used
aMemberPro with excellent results, and there are many other good
options available.
#tep >6 Define your 'ar*eting strategy
A website will never sell anything unless people know it exists.
Advertising is often a company s largest expense, often accounting for
40% or more of the gross revenue. Many times, when you place an ad,
you have no guarantee it will generate any sales for you at all. On the
Internet, you have better choices when it comes to advertising your
website.
One of the best choices for advertising your business is to recruit
others to do the promotion for you. In some cases, this is like hiring a
commissioned sales rep. In other cases, it s like you re a manufacturer
supplying a retail outlet with products they can sell. And sometimes,
it s like a grassroots movement that takes on a life of it s own.
Using special software, your website can track every referral your
online partners (called affiliates) send to your website. Using this
same software, you can choose how you want to reward those who
send you paying customers. Most website owners choose to pay their
affiliates a percentage of all sales resulting from their referrals. Others
choose to pay their affiliates a certain amount for the referrals
themselves, and still others choose to reward their affiliates with
special privileges, such as free products.
If you don t consider yourself a expert in your field, I will say that
affiliate marketing is the best choice you have. Experts can write
articles, ebooks, and so forth to promote their sites for very little
money, but non-experts shouldn t try this, as it will just reveal how
little they know.
Other choices for the non-expert include trading links with other
website owners, paying for ads in ezines (electronic magazines or
newsletters), and paying for classified ads in search engines --a.k.a.
pay per click (PPC) advertising. Of these secondary choices PPC is
probably your best one, but has to be thoroughly tested or else you
could lose a lot of money with it. Personally, I d stay away from
buying ezine ads, since any publisher with a good mailing list will be
advertising for themselves, either their own products, products they
have resale rights to, or products for which they are an affiliate. Link
trading can be good, but can also be a huge waste of time.
#tep 96 Choose your ni$he
It may come as a surprise that I list this step here rather than first.
The reason for this is because the format you choose for your business
and how you want to promote your business are actually more
important than the topic of information you sell. Once you have a
business structure you are comfortable with, you can use the same
structure for any information subject you want to work with.
The main thing you need to focus on when choosing a topic of
information to sell is that the information you provide MUST solve a
problem for your market. The bigger the problem your information
solves, the more money you can make. However, you don t have to
solve the problem of world peace or cure cancer to make money. I
remember reading about a guy who made a TON of money by
showing people how to keep squirrels from getting into a birdfeeder.
Others make good money by showing people how to do certain types
of crafts. And still others do well by showing parents how to keep
their kids entertained.
Part of choosing your niche involves figuring out what problems
people want solved. The other part is finding good information that
can solve those problems. Both of these parts involve surfing the
Internet and keeping an open mind about what you find. Take notes as
you read the questions people post to forums, blog comments, and
elsewhere. Notice which posts are the most popular, indicating a
strong interest in the topic. Pay attention to the experts people trust
most, and whether those experts have released any information you
can publish on your website or sell to your customers. Sometimes you
can ask an expert for an interview with the understanding that you will
have the right to sell the interview as a product.
#tep ?6 !a$*age your infor'ation for sale
After you choose a specific niche to work with and collect
questions and information answering those questions, the next step is
to package that information in a format for sale.
If you ve collected a series of articles (which may be done easily
by going to the various article directories online), the best way to
package these is to put them into a PDF file as an ebook. Most word
processing programs can help you do this, including the free software
available from www.OpenOffice.org. This is the software I use for
most of my books and ebooks, including this one.
My recommendation for someone just starting out is to collect
several ebooks, MP3s, and other pre-packaged content. It s a lot easier
to sell a whole package of information than it is to sell a single
product, especially when everything in the package is focused on a
single topic. This is especially true when you re selling products
created by other people.
If you follow my recommendation to deliver your products as a
membership site, you ll want to divide everything you ve collected on
this topic and offer some of it for free and the rest of it as part of the
paid membership.
The reason for this is because you ll get a lot more people join
your site when you offer free stuff than if you offer ONLY the paid
stuff. There are 2 reasons why this is important. The first is because
you want more people in your affiliate program, who will then go out
and promote your site for you, even if they only signed up for the free
stuff. Who knows, they could send you a bunch of people who will
gladly pay for the better stuff.
The other reason is because once someone joins your site, even as
a free member, you have an opportunity to send them emails to
encourage them to buy your paid package, or other offers you want to
make from time to time.
The main thing to keep in mind is to limit the amount of free stuff
you offer. If you offer too much, few people will see a need to upgrade
to your paid package. Just make sure the stuff you offer for free is
good, because people will judge the quality of your paid product to be
equal to the quality of your free sample.
#tep B6 7nstall the website infrastru$ture
Now that you have collected a variety of products to offer in at
least 2 membership levels - free and paid, it s time to put everything
together onto a website so you can start making money. This step can
be the most difficult, especially if you are not technically inclined.
There s a lot of information available on how to do much of this,
so I won t go into too much detail. Actually, if I were to go into a lot
of detail, this would be a book of it s own. So, consider this a guide,
not a set of instructions.
1. Register a domain name, descriptive of your topic
2. Install your chosen software
3. Upload your products to your web hosting account
4. Configure your software to protect your products
That s pretty much it for this step. Only 2 more steps to go.
#tep C6 Create a sales page to des$ribe your
produ$ts
This can also be a difficult step, although if you follow some basic
guidelines, it doesn t have to be too difficult. Basically, all you re
doing is telling people what you have to offer in a way that makes them
want to have it for themselves. Keep in mind the information I shared
with you about persuasion, and you ll do fine.
Before I start describing what to write on your sales page, let s
address the other stuff - graphics, layout, fonts, and all that. All this
can help enhance your sales page, but they will not produce sales on
their own. You can sell your product without any of them, with basic
text & no formatting, no graphics, and an amateur layout. I know,
because that s exactly how I started my first website.
However, the reverse isn t true. You cannot sell without words, no
matter how professional the graphics or layout may be. Here again,
there are plenty of places where you can get a decent template for a
website for very little money. Just search for web templates .
Okay, so here are the basics you need on your sales page.
First, every good sales page has a headline. A big, bold line of text
at the top that tells your visitor why they should read the page and not
click on to another website. The ONLY goal of a headline is to get the
visitor to keep reading. If you can sum up the essence of your offer as
well, even better.
Next, you need your first sentence to keep the reader s attention so
they continue to read. Again, it doesn t really matter what this
sentence says, but it should involve some drama, excitement, or
otherwise set the tone for what will follow.
From here, you need to get your reader thinking about the problem
your product will solve, either directly or indirectly. You do this by
talking about the problem itself (directly) or about the benefits of
solving the problem (indirectly). It s best to talk about one side for a
bit, then talk about the other side. Address both sides as you write
your sales page.
For the most part, write your sales page the same way you would
talk to a friend who may need what you have to offer. Use the words
I and you , not we and the reader . Be personal and personable.
Show that you care about the reader. Show whatever proof you can
that the products you have will solve the problem your reader has.
(Yes, assume the reader has the problem. Why else would they be
there?)
When you feel you have adequately described what you have to
offer, sum it up in a list of bullet points. Summarize with a clear,
direct claim that your product will solve the reader s problem. Make
sure you have clearly established the value of your product. Then
mention your price. Follow this will a statement of guarantee, offering
to remove all risk from your customer by letting them know you will
refund their money if they are in any way unhappy with their
purchase.
When you are offering a collection of items for free, then your
sales page will be divided into 2 sections, and may even be 2
completely separate pages. The first sections describes what is
available for free. Once you ve sold your customer on taking the free
option, then you start describing how much more you have for just a
few dollars more.
This is where most sales letters start talking about added bonuses.
If you re following my recommendations, then save the description of
a couple of items from your package for this point. What happens is
that when you have established the value of the first part of the
package, then mentioned the price, then the added extras make the
whole deal seem that much sweeter.
Finish your sales page with a call to action , which means tell
them to click the order link, complete their payment, and download
your product. Be specific and direct. Don t be wishy-washy about
this or you ll lose sales.
Many professional copywriters suggest adding a PS with a
summary of the offer, with benefits, values, and the final price.
Sometimes, a visitor will scroll down the page to look at the price
before deciding to read the page itself. I know I do this to see if the
product is within my budget to even consider. You can use your PS
area to entice a scroller to go back to the top and read the page.
There is certainly a LOT more information about how to write a
good sales page, and this is merely a brief overview. However, this
should give you a good starting point.
#tep D6 &aun$hing your website
The last step in this process is the one that puts everything in
motion. As mentioned above, no one will ever come to your website
until they know about it. And even with an affiliate system in place to
encourage customers to promote your site for you, you still have to do
the initial promotion.
The thing to do is to go back to the blogs and forums you visited
while looking for information on your topic, and let people know about
your new website. Depending on the specific forum/blog, you may not
be able to post the announcement directly. In this case, what you do is
look for questions that can be answered by the products you ve
collected on your website. Whenever you find such questions, answer
it the best you can using the information in your product package, and
casually mention that the information comes from your collection.
Another option is to tell people about the free content available on
your site. Most blogs/forums that discourage promotion will usually
allow you to tell people about free stuff. That s another great reason to
offer a collection of free stuff as well as your for pay collection.
It s also possible to produce a sampler ebook (like I described
above using articles) and release that as a promotional tool. Such
ebooks are usually called viral ebooks , since they can be passed
around like a virus. The important thing to keep in mind here is that
you must include enough information in this ebook to get people to
come to your website to see what else you have to offer. Some people
will include their whole sales letter in such an ebook, whereas others
will include just enough to make the reader curious. There are
advantages to either choice.
Con$lusion
Learning how to make money online can, at first, seem like a
daunting challenge. However, I can tell you from my own experience
that when you follow the basic formula described above, you can
create new websites very quickly and start making good money with
relatively little effort. How little? Once you know what you re doing,
you can build a brand new website, stock it with quality products, and
get the first sale within a few days.
Promoting ther People&s
Products As An Affiliate
On the Internet, there are many different ways to make money.
However, when you boil it down to the basics, there are only 2 ways.
1. Create a product and sell it.
2. Help someone else sell their product.
That s it. Money is made when a product is sold to a customer.
So you either sell the product directly, or you help someone else sell
their product. Everything else you find is a derivative of either of these
2 profit producers.
Now, a product may be a physical thing, a digital download, a
service, or an experience. It could also be an idea, viewpoint, or
feeling. Anything a person may be interested in paying money to
obtain, or to promote to others. A community-service message to stop
whale hunting is an example of a product that is more an idea than a
thing. And while there isn t much money to be made in promoting
this product , there is money to be made in helping folks promote it.
Advertising is used for more than just commercial ventures.
Okay, so now we have the foundation set, let s see how we can
make money by helping someone else sell their product as an affiliate.
.hat 7s An Affiliate1
The term, affiliate , may be interpreted to mean several things.
At it s most basic level, the word affiliate simply means someone
who has a business relationship with another. For the purpose of this
chapter, we ll use the word affiliate to mean someone who earns
money by promoting one or more products they did not help to create.
This definition of affiliate leads to the following 4 types of
affiliates:
1. Retail stores selling products created by others
2. Commissioned sales reps
3. Advertising brokers
4. Media ad sources
In the above list, the first is the least common definition of an
affiliate, although it is a very common business model. There are
many online businesses that set up a storefront to sell products created
by others, yet these businesses are not normally thought of as
affiliates. Amazon.com is one example of this model. We will not
address this type of affiliate here, however, since it is far more
complicated than our other choices.
We also won t discuss the last type of affiliate media ad
sources. This is because, in actual fact, media sources which sell
advertising are selling their own product the advertising itself. This
business model is also complicated and beyond the scope of this book.
Most affiliates become so by signing up for one or more affiliate
programs offered by various merchants. These merchants may offer
to pay their affiliates a set amount for every visitor sent to the
merchant s website (Pay per click), a set amount for every person who
fills out a form on the merchant s site (Pay per lead), a set amount for
every sale placed by those the affiliate refers (Pay per sale), or a
percentage of the sales placed (also Pay per sale). There are other
compensation plans too, but these are the primary ones.
.hy Are Affiliates !aid1
To truly understand affiliate marketing, perhaps it s best if we start
by answering the question, Why would a merchant pay an affiliate to
promote their product(s)? Why not sell their own products and keep
all the money?
A merchant may not be very good at promoting their own
products, and need the services provided by affiliates. There are many
such merchants doing business online, and would not succeed if it
weren t for talented affiliates helping them describe their products in
such a way that people see the value of owning them.
Alternatively, a merchant may be excellent at promoting their own
products, yet still invite affiliates to join them in their promotional
efforts. The reason for this is simply because there are SO MANY
possible promotional opportunities, the merchant cannot pursue all of
Promoting Other People s Products As An Affiliate Page 199
them, and relies upon affiliates to reach a larger audience than they can
do on their own.
In either case, affiliates serve as an extension of the merchant s
marketing department. In the first case, affiliates may be the
merchant s ONLY source of marketing, whereas in the second case,
affiliates merely augment the merchant s marketing activities. When
you view your role as an affiliate in this light, it becomes much easier
to understand the types of activities necessary to be successful when
promoting other people s products.
In short, it s advantageous to think of yourself as the merchant s
marketing department, or at least an extension to it. However, there is
another way to think of your role as an affiliate, and that is to think of
yourself as a source of advertising for the merchant. In this case, you
may serve not only merchants, but other affiliates as well.
Most merchants spend money to place ads in various media, such
as newspapers, radio, TV, search engines, website directories, blogs,
forums, and so forth. If you become a media source, and attract a
large audience, then you can sell advertising to help merchants and
other affiliates sell products. The thing to realize about becoming a
media source, is that this is a business unto itself, and requires much
more than simply promoting products. While it is possible to make
money as an affiliate by becoming a media source and attracting a
large audience, you really have to want to be a media-based business to
be successful with this model. Otherwise, if your heart just isn t in it,
it s too much work.
Before leaving the topic of media, let me say that American
business has relied upon media advertising for many decades.
Newspapers, radio, and TV would not be the large industries they are
if it were not for the effectiveness of ads placed in media. However,
studies have shown that this form of advertising has lost much of it s
effectiveness in recent years, as the volume of advertising increases
every year. Most people have learned to tune it out and do not
respond as they once did. This isn t to say that traditional advertising
doesn t work it just needs to be better and repeated more often to
get the previous level of response.
-ow Affiliates 3arn ,oney
Each type of affiliate operates using a different strategy. Retail
stores operate with the strategy of making the purchase process
enjoyable for customers. Large selection, quick delivery, generous
refund policies, regular specials, and an easy-to-use website are the
foundations for this type of affiliate. Media sources focus on posting
quality content, easily found, on a frequent basis to attract large
audiences, to whom are shown ads in and around the content.
Commissioned sales reps generally focus on collecting leads and
following up with those leads to complete a typical sales process.
These affiliates may use quality content to attract leads initially, but do
not focus on this once they begin the sales process. Commissioned
sales reps may also represent a variety of merchants, and thus a variety
of products, but do not show the prospect anything other than what the
prospect may be interested in at the time. We ll cover this in a bit
more detail later.
The advertising broker type of affiliate is perhaps the least
involved with the sales process, and merely places ads in media
sources on behalf of the merchant(s) they represent. This type of
affiliate may use advertising creatives (ad copy, graphics, banners,
viral ebooks, etc.) provided by the merchant, or they may create their
own (or hire others to create) before placing the ads. In most cases,
this type of affiliate pays for the advertising out of their own pocket as
an investment leading to the payoff, which is the commission earned
on sales generated from the advertising they place.
,a*ing ,oney As A Co''issioned #ales
Rep
One of the best guides for making money as a commissioned sales
rep is Rosalind Gardner s Super Affiliate Handbook. Her
guidebook explains everything from setting up websites to review and
promote affiliate products, to the backend stuff like keeping accurate
records and choosing profitable programs to join. What I can offer
here is a mere shadow in comparison.
The primary focus of a commissioned sales rep is in attracting
people who may be interested in the products he/she represents, and
then giving them enough information to make a purchase decision.
Whereas some people see the role of a salesperson to be a manipulator
attempting to get people to buy stuff they don t need, successful
salespeople do not see themselves this way. They see themselves as
consultants who help people make choices leading to happy endings.
If a product is not right for a prospect, a successful sales person will
say so and lead them in a different direction, even if that means losing
the sale. The reason for this is because it builds their reputation, and
when folks talk, their reputation will attract more and more people
who can be served with the products the rep handles.
Online, this often takes the form of writing product reviews and
posting them to a resource site. Rosalind Gardner started in the area
of online dating, and created several websites devoted to helping
people compare the various online dating sites to help them decide
which one was best suited to them. Quality reviews point out the
negative aspects of a product as well as the positive one. Customers
appreciate this, and will trust the advice given in a review more when
negative aspects are brought out in the open. At the end of each
review, a summary should be given, as well as a personal ranking of
the individual product as it compares to others in the marketplace.
And finally, a link to the merchant s website, which includes your
affiliate code so the merchant can track your referral and award you a
commission if it results in a sale. The benefit to having a resource site
is that you can offer your prospects a complete picture of the products
you represent, and a sale can happen quickly.
Sometimes, a commissioned sales rep will create a mini-site
offering a free guide to the topic they represent, such as online dating,
personal development, spirituality, or romance novels. This mini-site
offers a free guide in exchange for the visitor subscribing to the
affiliate s mailing list. Once a person is subscribed, an autoresponder
will send them a series of emails providing information on each of the
various products the affiliate represents, giving similar information as
the reviews mentioned above. The benefit to this approach is that you
can stay in touch with your prospects and send them new information
any time you add a product to your database.
A third option is to create viral ebooks which carry a marketing
message to sell one or more products. The advantage of this approach
is that an ebook can go places a website cannot. We ll talk more about
viral ebooks in a later chapter.
While there are other structures in which a commissioned sales rep
may operate, these are the 3 preferred formats. They take little work
to set up and yet are quite effective.
,a*ing ,oney As An Advertising )ro*er
There are advantages and disadvantages of working as an
advertising broker. One of the advantages is that you don t have to
create a website. No domains to register. No scripts to install,
configure, and update frequently. And no mailing list to maintain. In
short, you don t have to do much except place ads for other people.
But that s the disadvantage. Generally, you have to spend money to
make money. And if you quit working, your income stops too. This is
a good situation for the right type of person, but it s not for everyone.
If you work with a merchant who is good at creating marketing
materials, you can simply use what they offer and your job is easy.
However, if you re working with a merchant who isn t as good
creating marketing materials (and you should get a higher commission
to do so), then you have to either create the materials yourself or hire
talented people to do it for you. Either way, you have to start off with
quality marketing materials, otherwise any ad costs will be wasted.
Sometimes, a good advertising broker will arrange for the ad
results to be tracked and analyzed. This will shed light on which ads
are working and which ones are not, helping to increase profitability
for all concerned. Without tracking, you never really know how
effective any given ad may be. To be fair, tracking is something that
all affiliates (and merchants) should do, and isn t just for advertising
brokers. However, it may be more critical for an advertising broker
than it is for any other type of affiliate.
People who are good with numbers usually make the best
advertising brokers. Sometimes, you may want to negotiate price
breaks for volume ad purchases, so a bit of selling skill certainly
doesn t hurt. In some respects, being an advertising broker is like
being a banker. You spend some money on one side (much like a
banker pays interest on savings accounts, CDs, and other investments)
and earn money on the other side (for the banker, it s interest paid on
loans). The best advertising brokers keep meticulous records of how
much every ad cost and how much profit it produced.
Because advertising brokers have little involvement in the fields
they represent, they have an easier time representing many different
merchants in a variety of fields. As such, a slowdown in one industry
has little effect on the advertising broker s income, as they can easily
take on new clients in booming markets.
Choosing 0our !athway
None of these affiliate types are better than the others, except
how they fit with your own personal personality. When deciding
which type of affiliate you want to become, consider the structure and
format for that type and imagine how you will feel doing that kind of
work. You ll always be more successful doing the type of work you
enjoy doing than working at a job you dislike.
Creating :iral 2books
Creating a viral ebook does not need to be a complex or difficult
project. In fact, if you already have written material, it can be a very
quick and easy task to do.
Let s start out defining what a viral ebook is and what needs to be
included. A viral ebook is usually a PDF file containing enough
valuable content that people want to pass it on to others. Most of the
time, it also contains a marketing message to inspire people to come to
your website and take some action, such as signing up for your mailing
list, or buying one or more of your products. This marketing message
isn t as important when your only goal is to get your message out
there, but when you want to accomplish more, then this marketing
message becomes more important.
In short, a viral ebook is a package that includes both content and
marketing, and is presented in a way that people want to pass it on to
others.
.hat +iral 3boo*s Can Do For 0ou
Viral ebooks accomplish several things for you. First, they
introduce you and your product(s) to a larger audience. Many times,
your name and your message will reach far across the Internet in
places you never could have found on your own. When you consider
the cost of advertising, this is an incredible result, sometimes worth
millions.
The second thing viral ebooks do for you is they help to establish
your credibility and expertise. When people have a chance to try out
some of your material, and get a feel for your style and the quality of
your ideas, they are much more likely to trust you and respect your
suggestions. Of course, this depends on the quality of your
information and the way you present it. If people can t understand
you, or if your ideas don t work, then viral ebooks will just make it
easier for people to find this out. Luckily, if this were the case, the
viral ebook wouldn t be passed around as much, and the damage
would be limited to just a few who actually read it. In effect, there is a
tremendous upside, and not much downside to this.
Creating Viral Ebooks Page 205
Another thing viral ebooks do for you is that they can be a great
way to promote partners without cluttering up your website. You ve
most likely seen websites with banners all over the place, making it
very hard to find what you re looking for. Other websites have so
many articles that you can spend all day reading without ever
discovering what the website sells. (Guess what this does to the sales
on that site?)
In my own experience, having too much content on a website can
completely kill sales on that site. After several rounds of tests, I
eventually concluded that a sales site cannot have any content which
does not persuade a potential customer to make a purchase. Content
sites are great for attracting lots of visitors, at which point you can sell
advertising. Otherwise, it s not a good idea to put a lot of content on a
website where you want to sell products (or services). The only
exception to this rule is a site offering product reviews, which
eventually lead the visitor to make a purchase elsewhere, such as
through an affiliate program where you earn a commission on sales
resulting from your referrals.
In fact, viral ebooks can help you make money without ever having
a website of your own. You just need to know where to upload them
and get the process started.
.hat to put in a viral eboo*
Okay, so now we know some of what viral ebooks can do for you.
Let s take a look at what needs to be included.
Obviously, you need to include enough valuable content so people
will pass it on to others. How much content do you need? Not much,
actually. 10-15 pages can be enough if the information is well
presented and demonstrates an idea which can be put to immediate
use. One of the basic principles here is that a successful viral ebook
has enough valuable content that people would be willing to pay
money to get it.
How much is too much content?
This depends a great deal on what you intend to accomplish with
your viral ebook. If all you care about is getting your message out
there or establishing your reputation as an expert, then include
everything as long as the reader will not be confused by the sheer
quantity of material or the way it s presented.
Finding the dividing line between enough content and too much
content can be as much an art as it is a science. If your intention is to
have readers of your viral ebook come back to your website and either
join your mailing list or buy your products, then the reader must finish
the ebook with the feeling that you have more to offer them. In short,
you give them enough to whet their appetite, but not enough to satiate
their hunger. There are 2 main ways to do this.
One way is aptly described as, tell them WHAT to do, but not
HOW to do it . With this approach, you may tell your readers that
they need to make sure there are enough of the right kinds of nutrients
in the soil before they can grow amazing rose gardens. However, the
book never tells HOW to get the right mix, which is reserved for those
who purchase your paid product.
The other major formula is to give them both the WHAT and the
HOW for one small task, but direct them to your paid products for
solutions to the other pieces of the puzzle. With this approach, you
may explain how to take beautiful pictures of a bride in her wedding
gown, but direct the reader to your paid product to learn how to build a
full wedding photography business.
There s a 3rd approach too, used by many successful information
marketers. You can give away an overview of everything, and sell the
details. This is the approach I tend to use most often, not only in my
viral ebooks, but also in my low-cost products, such as this one.
If you ve noticed, I ve given you information on developing self-
confidence, finding limiting beliefs, changing them, being happy as
often as you d like, eliminating stress and anger, persuading others,
eliminating debt, and even creating income sources. It s a lot of
information, but in reality it s just an overview for the advanced stuff
found in my higher-end products.
Any way you do it, you present some good information, and you
hold something back for those who buy your better stuff. If you do it
right, you can serve many segments of your market, from those who
cannot afford to buy anything, all the way up to those who will spend
$1,000 for just one good idea.
How do you determine what content to include?
A number of Internet Marketers teach that you want to give away
your BEST material, and there are some logical reasons for doing this.
First, your perception of what your best stuff is and what your
audience sees as your best stuff doesn t always match. For a long
time, I considered the idea of Master Beliefs to be my best stuff,
since I understood the power they represent. However, many of my
readers couldn t fathom how to make use of this concept, and while
they understood it had power, they were more interested in the
practical processes for changing beliefs.
Along a similar line, if you give away your high-level content,
most of your readers won t be ready to use it, and will be more
interested in your beginner s guides. In this, it s kind of like a young
boy who watches a master martial artist doing extremely complex
kicks and flips. He s not ready to learn those moves, but he becomes
motivated to start learning the basics. You may know people who
were motivated to learn yoga the same way, by seeing a master doing
complex postures.
Another reason for giving away your best material is because your
readers will see it and think, WOW! If they re giving this stuff away
for free, the stuff they sell must be FANTASTIC! For a long time, I
wondered how I could give away my best stuff and still impress those
who purchased my paid products. Eban Pagan finally explained the
concept to me when he pointed out that the paid content should go into
more depth on all of your material, and what will impress your
customers will be the depth in which you cover the ideas, not just the
ideas themselves.
Okay, now that you have an idea of what content to include, what
else goes into a viral ebook? Remember the basic formula content
+ marketing. You want to include a marketing message that will get
readers back to your website. This can be an offer for a special bonus,
a description of what you sell on your site, or it could be an overview
of what they will find on your site, such as articles, blog postings, or
resources. Including a resource section in your viral ebook (for
websites and products related to the topic of the ebook) can be a great
way to promote multiple things in a single ebook. You have to make
sure that each resource is described persuasively so people want to go
check them out.
Some authors include full sales letters in viral ebooks. This can be
good when the sales letter is written in a non-pushy style, like the rest
of your content, or like a news story. This is how I like to write my
sales letters anyways, and this style can be quite effective. The more
your sales piece is seen as content, the more of a response you ll get
when using it in a viral ebook. Of course, magazines and newspapers
continue to sell ad space, so even blatant advertising in a viral ebook
can produce some results.
Many authors will include an About the Author page in their
viral ebooks. This accomplishes a few things. First, it makes sure that
everyone reading the ebook sees your name, photo, and a list of
credentials. This builds your reputation in the public eye. Second, this
page can serve as a resource for more information. Readers know that
if they like the viral ebook, they ll probably like the author s other
material, and will use this page to find more. Even without a sales
piece, the author page can lead people to buy more of your stuff if they
like the content in the ebook. A third thing you can do with this page
is to give some of your background story, and build a relationship with
your readers. Many people want to know personal details about their
favorite authors, and while this may not help sell your products
directly, it can help to attract loyal readers.
So far, we have covered what content to put in a viral ebook, the
marketing message, and the author page. One more thing needs to be
included. Some motivation for the reader to pass it on to others. Good
content by itself will encourage some readers to pass on your ebook,
but there needs to be greater incentives to get more people passing it
around.
LOTS of people are motivated by money, and if passing out your
ebook can earn money for your readers, many of them will jump on
the opportunity. There are 2 basic ways to help your readers earn
money from distributing your ebook.
The first way is to put a price on the ebook and let those who buy
it become resellers. This way, a reader of the book knows that they
can sell the ebook for the same price they paid for it and not only make
back the money they spent for it, but can make a lot more. The
disadvantage to this method is that unless you re already known in the
marketplace, many people won t buy your ebook because they don t
know who you are. Obviously, this can be overcome to some degree
by a good sales letter, but isn t the best way to release your first viral
ebook. (Note, this is a mistake I made with the original version of
Keys To Power Prosperity . I should have released a free ebook first,
then followed up with a paid resale rights ebook.)
The 2
nd
way to allow your readers to earn money by distributing
your viral ebook is to have an affiliate program where you pay
commissions to people who refer sales to you. (If you don t know
what this is, there s plenty of information online to explain it to you.)
When you have a 2-tier affiliate program, you can attract even more
people who will help you distribute your ebook, even if they don t
understand the value of what you have to offer. The reason why
having an affiliate program motivates people to distribute your viral
ebook is because your ebook can be branded with your affiliates
codes, and sales can be tracked back to which version of the ebook
(and which affiliate distributed it) so you can pay a commission (a
portion of the sale) to the responsible affiliate.
Obviously, there are some technical details related to setting up an
affiliate program and branding a viral ebook for your affiliates. This is
beyond the scope of this book, and there s plenty of information online
on how to do it.
Money isn t the only reason people will pass out your viral ebook.
Some will do it simply because they like you, or like your message.
To encourage more of these people to pass along your viral ebook,
you ll want to mention it. At the end of your content, just tell the
reader that you depend on people passing around the ebook and they
can do their part to improve the world by giving the ebook away to at
least 3 other people. By asking folks to pass it on, you ll get a wider
distribution than if you just leave it up to their own inclinations.
Some people like the chain letter concept, where your ebook
tells people that their wish will be granted if they pass it on to 10
others. Personally, I don t like this concept, but I felt I should mention
it for completeness.
Tips (n (rgani@ing 0our Content
A viral ebook can be put together in as little as a day if you already
have appropriate content to use. This content could come from one or
more of your paid products (such as a book), or it could come from a
collection of articles you ve written. In fact, it can come from articles
written by other people as long as you have their permission to publish
them. (Hint: most articles listed on article directory sites include
permission to publish in a wide variety of formats. You just have to
include the authors resource box at the end of the article, which
gives them credit for the article and helps them promote themselves to
a wider audience. You ll find many of my articles in various article
directory site for exactly this reason.)
Because several of my current viral ebook projects are meant to
help promote my various partners, I will choose to use articles they ve
written which match the overall theme of the viral ebook. (Viral
ebooks are best when they have a theme. You really don t want to
package a bunch of random content and call it an ebook.) I ll also
include one or two of my own articles to get some of the exposure as
well.
If you re creating new content for a viral ebook, approach it like
any other writing project. Start with a single declaration of what you
want the ebook to communicate. What is the central message that will
motivate a potential reader to download and read the ebook. What
core message will readers want to share with others? This declaration
will be the seed to be grown into a full-fledged ebook.
Once you have a central message, create a short outline of what
topics will be covered. Start with the top level of your outline, and
define 3-5 main sections of your ebook. By approaching the outline
process this way, your ebook will be highly organized and your
readers will understand exactly what you are communicating. Once
you have the top level of your outline, break each of the main sections
into 3-5 smaller sections, and continue until you have enough detail to
fill 10-50 pages.
This is how I create all of my products. There s nothing like
having a well-organized product with valuable content to win respect
and admiration in the marketplace.
!rodu$ing A .inning 3boo*
From here, just start writing. Take one point from your outline and
write what you know about it. It doesn t have to be perfect. Just get it
down. You ll edit later. The main thing is to get your information
down. Presentation style will be developed during editing. Here s
another lesson I learned the hard way. I spent nearly a year writing
Choose To Believe, trying my best to get the presentation style as
perfect as I could as I was writing it. Didn t matter. Once I recruited
editing help, we found there were a LOT of improvements which could
be made on each and every page and practically every paragraph. I
don t think about editing any more when writing a first draft.
Write about each of your outline points, and save the introduction
for last. In your introduction, you want to be able to tell the reader
what they can expect in the rest of the ebook. You won t really know
what that is until you ve written the rest of the ebook, so you need to
save this for last. However, I will admit that sometimes writing an
introduction can help define HOW you want the rest of the book to
come together. Just keep in mind that you ll probably re-write this
when the rest of the book has been finished.
Once you have all your points written, put it aside for at least a
day. Get some distance from it, so when you come back to it, you can
see it with fresh eyes. When you come back to it, read through and
make notes about things like missing details, topics out of order, and
other block-level things. When you re done reading, go back and
correct the problems you noticed. Now, read through it again and see
if it works better this time. If it seems good, put it aside for another
day.
When you come back to it this time, read through and notice the
style changes you want to make. Can you make improvements to the
way ideas are presented? Can you remove any chance the reader could
misunderstand the message you re communicating? Don t worry about
whether your writing is entertaining or not. Just make sure the
message is clear. You can go back through another time later for finer-
level style changes.
At some point, you re going to feel you have perfected your ebook.
Now, let someone else read it and give you feedback on how it works
for them. Get a professional editor if you can, one who won t try to
change your style, but will focus on clarity and meaning. You really
want to put your best foot forward and make a great first impression.
At this point, hire a graphic artist to create a cover graphic for your
ebook. Cover graphics will motivate many more people to download
your ebook, so it s highly productive to spend $50 or even $100 to get
a quality graphic created for your ebook.
While you re getting feedback from others, this is also a good time
to create your author page and the marketing message that will go into
the ebook. We ll cover how to write a compelling marketing message
later, but for now, knowing what to do is good enough.
One final point on the production stage. Keep in mind your target
audience and the message you want the ebook to deliver. You ll get a
much better response when your ebook matches the market it is
meant to serve. If you re dealing with people who are trying to save
money everywhere they can, you ll probably get a better response if
the ebook looks like you saved money in creating it.
Final #teps
With content written and edited, an attractive and informative
author page, and a compelling marketing message, it s time to compile
it all into a PDF ebook. For this, you can use a variety of tools, but my
favorite is OpenOffice software, which is a free alternative to
Microsoft s office suite. The OpenOffice word processor has some
wonderful features that make compiling an ebook very easy, including
built-in PDF export.
The main thing to keep in mind is that you want the final ebook to
look professional. Most ebooks use a standard letter sized paper
format, although some use a more traditional book-sized layout.
Personally, I started off using letter sized layouts, but now use book
sized layouts. It makes it look more like a book, and if I decide to
create an actual book, all I have to do is upload it to Lulu.com (or
other Print On Demand printer) and order printed copies.
Going into the details of how to do a professional layout is just too
much detail for this book. I plan to cover this in more detail in my
upcoming Spiritual Business Kit, described in the Resource section.
For now, there are plenty of good examples on any bookshelf, and
there are scores of books on how to do book layouts. It s also beyond
the scope of this book to go into the technical details of setting up an
affiliate program and making your viral ebook brandable to motivate
others to distribute it for you. There are good sources of information
on this, particularly from www.ViralPDF.com, which is where I get
my software to create brandable viral ebooks.
Distributing +iral 3boo*s
By their very nature, viral ebooks encourage distribution by others.
Once you get it in the hands of interested readers, they will take care
of the rest as long as you ve done a good job creating it.
You can post a viral ebook to forums that allow such uploads. You
can email it to your friends and family. You can send it to your
affiliates and partners. There are free downloads sites where you
can submit your viral ebook. You could create a peer-to-peer torrent
to appeal to those using such networks to share files. You can create a
page on your website offering the ebook to anyone wanting to
download it. You can use it as a subscriber gift to encourage people to
sign up for your mailing list. You can offer it as a bonus for your other
products. You can let others offer it as a bonus to their products. You
can submit it for use in a wide variety of free giveaway events. There
are a HUGE number of possibilities for getting your viral ebook out
there and to your readers.
1armic $arketing
There are many, many marketing experts teaching many different
types of marketing. In recent years, I ve seen some high-level people
selling $2,000+ courses describing their preferred form of marketing.
I ve even purchased a few of these high-level marketing courses, and
have learned a great deal from them.
I ve learned from Dan Kennedy, Glenn Livingston, Mike Filsaime,
Paul Hartunian, Fred Gleeck, Terry Dean, Yanik Silver, Willie
Crawford, Jimmy D. Brown, Jeff Walker, and Frank Kern, as well as
many, many others. All of them have good things to teach.
In my own business, I ve blended all of them together into a
system I call Karmic Marketing . When I review what I learned from
the Internet Marketing Gurus, I find that Frank Kern most closely
resembles what I do in my own business.
Here are some of the core principles Frank Kern teaches in his
$2000 Mass Control marketing course.
First, he fully believes you should give away good value to attract
interested prospects and produce sales. He recommends you create 4
content pieces to use in your marketing. One to spark interest and
desire to know more, one to bond with your prospects, one to prove
your product works (or at least the principles behind your product),
and a sample of your product to demonstrate the quality of what you re
offering. Of course, each of these pieces is designed to promote your
product, and inspire your prospects to buy from you, but since you re
giving good content, this is okay.
"nowing 0our ,ar*et
In relating to your market, you need to fully understand the fears
and desires which motivate your average prospect. The more you
understand your market, the easier it will be to provide them with what
they want, and the more profitable your business will be. Sounds
logical, right? You d be amazed how many people charge into a
market with a product THEY think is good without ever considering if
anyone else even wants it. Although Frank doesn t talk about doing
surveys in his Mass Control material, he mentions them from time to
Karmic Marketing Page 215
time, and it s clear that using them is important. Luckily, the material
I have from Glenn Livingston provides extensive information on using
surveys to gather market intelligence.
Once you understand your prospects fears and desires, you can
note down the parts of your own life that relate to them. There s a
saying that people will buy from those they know, like, and trust.
People tend to like others who are like themselves. When you can
show your market that you are like them, or at least you used to be,
then it s easier to win them over and get them to trust you.
0our ,ar*eting Chara$ter
According to Kern, you want to define 5 main things for your
marketing character . These are, your backstory, your beliefs and
values, your magic powers , your fables and stories, and finally, your
secret language .
Your backstory is simply that part of your past which shows you
are (or were) like your prospects. Show how many mistakes you
made, how bad your life was before finding the secrets you want to
share with them, your own fears and desires and what you did to try to
work through them. For me, my backstory includes the fact that I was
a good student in school, but still failed in life. I couldn t hold a job,
couldn t maintain a relationship, tried reading every self-help book I
could find, and had absolutely no control over anything in my life.
Your beliefs and values, at least in this context, must relate to what
your prospects want in their lives. As an example, my values include
things like, perfection is possible , principles are more valuable than
recipes , quality for a low price , and everyone can have what they
want in life .
Magic Powers relates to the things you (or your product) can do
that your prospects want to be able to do. In marketing, this is usually
something like making a million dollars in 30 seconds with no work.
With LOA materials, it s usually about controlling the uncontrollable,
getting results where no physical process will work. In our field,
magic powers really is about having magic powers. However, for
some in our field, magic powers is about finding peace in a hostile
world, or living in joy no matter what may be happening in the world
around you.
Here s the most interesting part about this. YOU don t have to
have the magic powers. As long as you can demonstrate that
SOMEONE, SOMEWHERE has done amazing things with the
principles, system, or technique you re selling, you can reference
THEIR success in your marketing.
And this gets into the proof element mentioned above. The more
examples you can show where people have had success using your
product (or the key elements of your product, such as affirmations,
visualization, etc.) the more of a response you ll get to your marketing.
Fables and stories are just the stories you can tell that demonstrate
the effectiveness of your product. If you re selling an ebook on using
affirmations, then you want to have a set of stories on hand which
demonstrate how you used affirmations to create change in your life,
or stories about other people doing the same thing. If your product is
based on a new technique, then you want to use stories about how this
new technique has been responsible for significant and dramatic
results, either in your own life or in the lives of others.
And finally, secret language refers to the terms and phrases that
bond you with your audience as a unique community. For example,
online marketers use a secret language which includes words and
phrases such as PPC, CPM, Google Slap, co-reg leads, broadcast,
autoresponder, landing page, and so forth. Our field uses a secret
language when we talk about affirmations, visualization, creating a
thought-form, centering, grounding, and in my business I have things
like belief scale , belief archeology , pacing and leading
affirmations , and so on. When you use your secret language in your
marketing, you give you prospect the feeling of being a part of
something important, something special.
,ar*eting #torylines
Jeff Walker talks a lot about using storylines in marketing, but I
never quite understood what he meant. It seemed like he was
suggesting we write the equivalent of a movie script to entertain our
prospects as we move them through the sales process. Frank does a
MUCH better job of explaining how stories are used in marketing. It s
not that we re trying to entertain our prospects, but more that the story
is the backdrop behind the marketing messages we send out.
Karmic Marketing Page 217
Here s an example, using the storyline most often talked about -
the reluctant hero.
1. You discover something (affirmations, meditation, using
pyramids, a magic formula, whatever)
2. You try it and find it works
3. You tell a few people you know, they try it and it works for
them
4. News gets out and now everyone wants to know what you
discovered
5. Although you d rather be doing something else, you will go
ahead and do the work to record your discovery so others can
learn about it.
6. Because you want to be doing something else, this product
won t be around forever, and people need to buy it quickly
while they can.
Frank talks about 2 other storylines, us versus them and
hometown boy (or girl) makes good.
,ass Control For'ula
The next thing I ll talk about here is what Frank calls his Mass
Control Formula . It s something that was in the Product Launch
Formula materials, but is defined in more detail in Franks course.
Here s the formula:
Magic Bullet + Proof + LSESC = $$$$$
Magic Bullet - this means that your product must be perceived as
the answer to your prospects prayers. It must be as close as possible
to pushing a button and getting everything they ever wanted.
Proof - Jeff Walker harps on this when he says, no proof, no
launch . If you can t prove your product works, then who in their right
mind would buy it? The more proof you can show, the more people
will buy your product.
LSESC (Low Self-Esteem Success Chance) - I ve watched
myself using the logic Frank describes here. If I could get even 10%
of the results they got, I d be happy. For most people, this comes
from having low self-esteem, where they believe it isn t possible for
them to get the same level of results. Essentially, the examples and
case histories you share with your prospects must be significant and
dramatic. If you can only show that buying your $10 product will
produce a $10 result, no-one will buy it.
5sing G((D s$ar$ity
And finally, here are a few ideas about using scarcity in a product
launch. (Scarcity means having a limited number available to sell.)
Only 400 copies of this will ever be produced because the
agreement I signed with ______________ limits me to this
number.
Only 1 copy will be sold in any one city to limit the
competition you ll have with other customers.
I made enough for our list, but now I found out that
_____________, who has 200,000 people on his/her list will
be promoting this, so I don t think there will be enough. Better
get yours quick!
If I sell this for any less, _____________________ will be
very upset with me. (similar to the my accountant is out of
town this week kind of sale)
Section ;:
/esources
For $ore
Information
Although the information contained in this book is perhaps some
of the most powerful stuff you ll ever run across, there is far more
information that can help than what I could include here.
For this reason, I want to offer you some suggestions based on my
own extensive research. This way, you can still benefit from my
experience as you continue to develop your personal prosperity.
/esources For $ore Information
Treasure Map to Online Riches A 157-page report giving
you specific guidelines to follow in order to set up and run a profitable
business online. You ll learn how to pick a profitable niche you ll
enjoy working in, how to set up a website, how to build a large mailing
list, how to create products, how to write persuasive copy, and even
many details behind several $2000 marketing courses, such as Jeff
Walker s Product Launch Formula and Frank Kerns Mass
Control . A veritable steal at only $39. Oh, and you also get resale
rights to the report itself, allowing you to sell it and keep the money.
Choose To Believe: A Practical Guide to Living Your Dreams
Covers, in depth, the science behind the Power of Belief and how to
use it to make real and lasting changes in the world around you. Here,
you ll learn about the Belief Archeology process and how it can help
you find the specific limiting beliefs behind any specific problem.
You ll also learn over a dozen different ways to change what you
believe so you can more effectively manifest your desired goals. An
absolute must buy resource for any serious student of personal
development. Only $17.95.
Choose To Believe Package A package including the main
book above with 2 complete sets of workshop recordings. Within
these recordings, you will experience a shift in your inner reality that
will be reflected in the world around you. By the time you re done
with these sessions, you ll be able to respond to any situation with
poise and confidence. $49.
EmBRACES Belief Entrainment System What do you get
when you combine brainwave entrainment technology with the Law of
Attraction? The most powerful tool ever devised for manifesting a life
of unlimited success and happiness! Sit back and relax while these
specially encoded audio recordings reprogram your belief system to
lead you to abundant prosperity in all aspects of life. Bypass all the
reading, learning, and mental effort usually involved with changing
your belief system and manifesting your goals. Absolutely no work
required. Hit the play button, and watch miracles happen in your life.
Full System is priced at $897, with smaller sets available.
Resources For More Information Page 221
Keys To Power Persuasion If you like the Personal Prosperity
section in this book, you ll LOVE the Keys To Power Persuasion
course. In fact, the Personal Prosperity section was taken right out of
the Keys To Power Persuasion course where it serves as a mere
introduction to the real meat of the course.
KTP Persuasion describes over 50 highly specialized language
tools that make all communication effortless and highly effective, and
gives real-world examples of every one of them in action. This
information has been suppressed for many years, and only available in
$500+ courses. Now available for just $97.
Keys To Power Mastery System A much more direct, hands-
on approach to tapping into the Universal Power of Belief. Definitely
not for the squeamish or faint-of-heart. Currently includes this book,
the Keys To Power Step by Step course, and 3 audio programs.
The central course defines a 24-week development program which
starts with simple abilities like perception, creativity, memory, and
meditation. From here, you are guided through the processes required
to purify your mind, body, and spirit to channel an incredible amount
of Universal Power. Next, you are given specific instructions for safely
tapping into this Power, directing it towards what you want, and
releasing unused Power back into the Universe. Final lessons include
exotic abilities such as telekinesis (mind over matter), teleportation,
object creation, and time distortion. Currently $67, but planned for a
massive update with a proposed price point of $197.
Prosperity Coaching If you re the type of person who prefers
to work 1-on-1 with another human being, Alan offers coaching
services where the two of you can work together on your project. See
the website below for more details.
Other Resources Alan is a prolific author and continues to
develop new products all the time. Make sure to visit the website
below to see what new materials have been added to the list.
Get any of the above directly from Alan Tutt and PowerKeys
Publishing at www.PowerKeysPub.com.

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