http://www.articlealley.com en-us editorial@articlealley.com “That which does not kill us, makes us stronger.” Friedrich Nietzsche Last night I dreamt about shoes. Shoes have always been an issue for me because I have large feet and have found it difficult to find shoes that fit me (especially before the i... http://www.articlealley.com/article_644451_15.html 22nd September 2008 “The results you achieve will be in direct proportion to the effort you apply.” -- Denis Waitley I’ve been noticing something fascinating lately that I want to share with you. I have a group of advanced students who I’ve been working with for ... http://www.articlealley.com/article_644444_15.html 22nd September 2008 “Very narrow areas of expertise can be very productive. Develop your own profile. Develop your own niche.” --Leigh Steinberg If you stand for everyone and everything, you stand for no one and nothing. This is a common mistake that businesses make... http://www.articlealley.com/article_643760_15.html 22nd September 2008 "Our mind is capable of passing beyond the dividing line we have drawn for it. Beyond the pairs of opposites of which the world consists, other, new insights begin." - Hermann Hesse There are a lot of things that separate us from our animal friends. T... http://www.articlealley.com/article_634279_15.html 10th September 2008 Not sure if you noticed or not, but the news is bleak. ‘The news’, as in, the actual, literal news on television, is a huge bummer. Every time I turn on any of the network or cable news providers, the news is bleak. Nothing in the country or abroad... http://www.articlealley.com/article_631637_15.html 09th September 2008 When summertime rolls around, I get nostalgic for my youth -- the endless car trips down and up the coast of Oregon, hanging out at the farm with my grandfather, the carefree days that always seemed to last forever, summer camp. I haven't had a summe... http://www.articlealley.com/article_628206_15.html 08th September 2008 “Without a sense of urgency, desire loses its value.” --Jim Rohn This is a building block of persuasion and worth repeating: without a sense of urgency, desire loses its value. That’s a powerful statement and is absolutely right on. Once you... http://www.articlealley.com/article_626506_15.html 08th September 2008 “Properly practiced creativity MUST result in greater sales more economically achieved. Properly practiced creativity can lift your claims out of the swamp of sameness and make them accepted, believed, persuasive, urgent.” -- William Bernbach advert... http://www.articlealley.com/article_623319_15.html 06th September 2008 “It should be your care, therefore, and mine, to elevate the minds of our children and exalt their courage; to accelerate and animate their industry and activity; to excite in them an habitual contempt of meanness, abhorrence of injustice and inhumanity... http://www.articlealley.com/article_620729_24.html 05th September 2008 “An intense anticipation itself transforms possibility into reality; our desires being often but precursors of the things which we are capable of performing.” -- Samuel Smiles I, like many Americans, am (or have been in most contexts)an instant gr... http://www.articlealley.com/article_620709_15.html 05th September 2008 When I was younger I worked with a group of people who worked for a large corporation. There was a woman I met who really needed my help. She spoke in an excruciating monotone. It’s hard to get this across in writing, but basically it sounded like a ... http://www.articlealley.com/article_619896_24.html 04th September 2008 I started my career in sales. After having been in sales for a couple of years and I was excelling quickly so they made me a closer. I would be the guy that when the sales person was missing his or her mark, I would come in and try to still get the sale... http://www.articlealley.com/article_611575_15.html 28th August 2008 Have you ever noticed that some people seem to achieve goal after goal and others can't seem to achieve anything? Part of what holds people back in their lives and in persuasion is that they clutter their minds with static and chatter, inane or unnecessar... http://www.articlealley.com/article_611297_15.html 28th August 2008 Are we all having a group hallucination? And if we are, why are we hallucinating that there's a recession instead of something nice? Not too long ago, John McCain’s key economic adviser (now ex-key economic advisor), Phil Gramm (one of the five p... http://www.articlealley.com/article_611268_15.html 28th August 2008 “The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it. Ignorance may deride it. But in the end, there it is.” -- Winston Churchill How would your life change if everything you did and said had 100 percent integrity, was 100 percent the truth and ne... http://www.articlealley.com/article_611231_24.html 28th August 2008 “There are only two options regarding commitment. You're either in or out. There's no such thing as a life in-between.” -- Pat Riley As sales professionals, we’ve all been there. . . that perfect moment in the business life when we’ve made the ... http://www.articlealley.com/article_607756_15.html 22nd August 2008 No one, no matter how intelligent you are, starts out knowing how to crawl, walk, talk, chew, understand language, read or control our bladders. As we grow, we all learn these things (hopefully) and we all learned them in the same way: one step at a time.... http://www.articlealley.com/article_607753_15.html 22nd August 2008 As humans, there are many reasons for conflict, a big one being that we all see the world through different mental models. Mental models are helpful and hurtful and totally necessary. On the helpful side, we use these models to simplify our lives and ma... http://www.articlealley.com/article_578426_15.html 17th July 2008 "If you want to build a ship, don't herd people together to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea." -- Antoine de Saint-Exupery If you've been paying attention at all to th... http://www.articlealley.com/article_576681_24.html 15th July 2008 I've noticed something interesting recently and that is, Americans love to talk. They love to listen to other people talk too (like the television or radio). They get their books on tape. They have the radio tuned to talk shows. . . we're a people unco... http://www.articlealley.com/article_572700_15.html 09th July 2008 Detailed Criteria 'The devil is in the details.' It's an English idiom I'm sure you've experienced, or at least heard before. This implies that the small things that you weren't expecting or that seemed inconsequential, can sometimes hold up everythi... http://www.articlealley.com/article_572667_15.html 09th July 2008 "The most important persuasion tool you have in your entire arsenal is integrity." --Zig Ziglar As a teacher (and a father) it's my fervent hope to impart in my students and children the things in life that are most important which I learned the hard w... http://www.articlealley.com/article_570882_24.html 07th July 2008 "Luck? I don't know anything about luck. I've never banked on it, and I'm afraid of people who do. Luck to me is something else: Hard work -- and realizing what is opportunity and what isn't." --Lucille Ball Did you achieve what you have today as a res... http://www.articlealley.com/article_570831_24.html 07th July 2008 "Human subtlety will never devise an invention more beautiful, more simple, or more direct than does Nature, because in her inventions, nothing is lacking and nothing is superfluous." --Leonardo da Vinci When I was a younger man, just starting out in s... http://www.articlealley.com/article_562031_15.html 24th June 2008 "Don't ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive." Howard Thurman Life is about learning. Planet earth is our school. I believe these statements at the core of b... http://www.articlealley.com/article_559192_15.html 20th June 2008 Here's an interesting exercise which I'm sure you'll get real quick because you're all such intelligent folks out there. Spell the word 'folk' three times. Do it right now in your mind. Spell the word 'folk' three times as fast as you can. Now what ... http://www.articlealley.com/article_557021_15.html 17th June 2008 Forget about appealing to your prospects and clients with logic. Sales is all about appealing to emotions and logic comes a (way) distant second. To illustrate my point, I'm going to tell you a story about some college students who figured this out and p... http://www.articlealley.com/article_552271_15.html 06th June 2008 "When you are inspired by some great purpose, some extraordinary project, all your thoughts break their bonds: Your mind transcends limitations, your consciousness expands in every direction, and you find yourself in a new, great, and wonderful world. Dor... http://www.articlealley.com/article_552260_15.html 06th June 2008 "It is your work in life that is the ultimate seduction." -- Pablo Picasso Here's a fun one. Provocative persuasion. There are times when persuading on this level is the best route. I'm not suggesting in any way that you act inappropriately, especi... http://www.articlealley.com/article_550953_15.html 04th June 2008 Persuasion From Within the ZoneThe first time I heard of being in 'the zone' it was from an athlete who described a run they had taken where everything was perfect -- the speed, the temperature, their breath, their body with ease and elegance, moving down... http://www.articlealley.com/article_550685_22.html 04th June 2008 The John F. Kennedy School for Government at Harvard University recently released a study that found that even momentary sadness causes people to increase spending. We know, as persuaders, that consumers buy based on their emotions and gut instincts. ... http://www.articlealley.com/article_528126_15.html 01st May 2008 "It is necessary, then, to cultivate the habit of being grateful for every good thing that comes to you, and to give thanks continuously. And because all things have contributed to your advancement, you should include all things in your gratitude." -Walla... http://www.articlealley.com/article_528104_24.html 01st May 2008 "No oppression is so heavy or lasting as that which is inflicted by the perversion and exorbitance of legal authority." --Joseph Addison Freedom. We all love it. It's what our country was founded upon. However, I doubt the Founding Fathers ever bel... http://www.articlealley.com/article_525737_15.html 29th April 2008 "You must take personal responsibility. You cannot change the circumstances, the seasons, or the wind, but you can change yourself. That is something you have charge of." - Jim Rohn No matter what your political affiliation or who you support for next ... http://www.articlealley.com/article_522590_24.html 25th April 2008 "We shall never have more time. We have, and always had, all the time there is. No object is served in waiting until next week or even until tomorrow. Keep going... Concentrate on something useful." --Arnold Bennett Okay, so sometimes I just don't fee... http://www.articlealley.com/article_522464_15.html 25th April 2008 As children, we all had to have them -- painful shots which prevented all kinds of scary diseases. Inoculations were a necessary growing pain and as adults we understand this, but as little children, that didn't make any difference when all we cared about... http://www.articlealley.com/article_518021_15.html 16th April 2008 I AM YOUR ATTITUDE! I AM YOUR MASTER. I can make you rise or fall. I can make you a success or failure. I can work for or against you. I control your feelings and actions. I can make your heart sing with happiness. I can make you wretched, dejected, or mo... http://www.articlealley.com/article_517980_24.html 16th April 2008 "No matter that patriotism is too often the refuge of scoundrels. Dissent, rebellion, and all-around hell-raising remain the true duty of patriots." --Barbara Ehrenreich After 9/11 they sprang up everywhere, cheap, synthetic American flags (probably no... http://www.articlealley.com/article_514174_15.html 09th April 2008 I'm not naming names here, and it's possible no one has even paid this person much attention. . . out there in the world, one of my former students is attempting to teach criteria elicitation. That's it. And while I truly believe criteria elicitation is... http://www.articlealley.com/article_513277_15.html 09th April 2008 I'm so happy when a new "school year" begins. Every year around this time I begin a new cycle of classes and open the program up to new students. And every year around this time I'm thrilled to find so many people so eager to learn persuasion and eager ... http://www.articlealley.com/article_512578_15.html 07th April 2008 It's getting pricey out there, isn't it? I mean, all the way from the bottom to the top, grocery prices are up because gas prices are soaring because the gas companies need to make bigger profits as a result of war or scarcity or something. . . . really,... http://www.articlealley.com/article_512572_15.html 07th April 2008 Binds are a fascinating technique which I love to use in persuasion and which should be used sparingly, adding seasoning to your arsenal of tools. What is a bind? A bind is a language pattern and like all language patterns, there is a formula to it. ... http://www.articlealley.com/article_504116_15.html 02nd April 2008 "The existence of forgetting has never been proved: We only know that some things don't come to mind when we want them." ~ Friedrich Nietzsche It's not a fun feeling. In fact, it's downright frustrating and annoying (and sometimes can be quite embarra... http://www.articlealley.com/article_504100_15.html 02nd April 2008 There's a bumper sticker I saw recently that said, "Don't believe everything you think." Ironically, I found this oddly thought provoking. Something about it resonated with me. There's something to the idea that thinking is a little bit overrated. W... http://www.articlealley.com/article_502197_15.html 01st April 2008 "It is the province of knowledge to speak, and it is the privilege of wisdom to listen." -- Oliver Wendell Holmes Persuading powerfully has many ingredients -- being flexible, really understanding criteria and core values, and one of the m... http://www.articlealley.com/article_500251_15.html 28th March 2008 I heard an interesting story about the law of resonance that I want to share with you. The Law of Resonance is a very similar concept to the law of attraction, but has some distinct differences. The Law of Attraction, as is widely known, is the universal... http://www.articlealley.com/article_497683_15.html 27th March 2008 Here's an understatement for you: we live in a world of distractions. In every facet of life we are bombarded. As I sit here typing, for example, I'm getting 'new e-mail' alerts, my assistant is instant messaging me, my kids and dog want to play, I'm t... http://www.articlealley.com/article_495760_15.html 26th March 2008 "Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms - to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances - to choose one's own way." - Victor Frankl "Thinking outside the box". . . you hear this all the time from... http://www.articlealley.com/article_495743_15.html 26th March 2008 A huge bonus of learning persuasion is that we gain the ability to persuade ourselves. This enables us to easily accomplish whatever we attempt. When we set the stage for productivity, we increase our odds of success incredibly. There are five simple,... http://www.articlealley.com/article_491865_15.html 19th March 2008 Habits... they come in all forms. Most people think of habits as the irritating things you wish you didn't "have" to do, fingernail biting, knuckle cracking, compulsive snacking, cigarette smoking. Of course smoking is more of a psychological/physical n... http://www.articlealley.com/article_491723_15.html 19th March 2008