To “persuade” means:  to convince, to satisfy the mind, subdue the opposition of the mind, lead to the opinion or conclusion presented, make one think or believe, successfully achieve the acceptance or practice of, create agreement.

It comes from the Latin persuadere - to bring over by talking.

Persuasion is something many people want to accomplish.  It’s something they wish they were really good at.

The problem is that what most people think is “persuasion”, doesn’t work.  And what they try to do to “persuade” someone who doesn’t want to be persuaded, doesn’t work.

The act of “persuasion” renders you powerless.  And that is exactly how you feel when you’re trying to “persuade” –  powerless. 

Ultimately, “persuasion” betrays a lack of power and little understanding about how to achieve desired outcomes with ease.

What does that look like? It looks like this:

• Mia:      “I would like to talk to you about a promotion.”

Mia’s boss:      “I don’t think you’re ready.” He was on to other things.  That was it then.  It was over in less than 15 seconds.  Conversation was finished.  Clear message:  Don’t bring it up again until I say you’re ready. You’ll only succeed in annoying me.

• Damon was trying to change the culture of his very large organization.  The problem was, it was irritating everyone he talked to.  It got so bad, Damon got demoted.  It affected his financial compensation and his future prospects big time.

• Bishal was trying to implement an initiative that his organization badly needed.  He first proposed it to his organization 3 years ago. He received no support, only pushback.  Most were vehemently opposed. They haven’t been listening to Bishal’s plan for the past 3 years.

• The leader of the other team was stubbornly refusing to cooperate with Caroline, even going so far as refusing to meet with her and barely answering her emails.  Without his cooperation, Caroline’s engineering team couldn’t move forward and wouldn’t have input into the development of a critical new product.  If her team failed, it would be her fault.

• Lucy’s daughter, Lily, was outstanding in many ways, but refused to clean her room, preferring to live in a constant state of crazy mess.   Lily blithely ignored Lucy’s pleas, simply moving on to other things without a care in the world.

• Sapna’s husband’s cholesterol numbers were way too high, but he refused to change what he ate, saying he felt fine and he enjoyed what he was eating too much to give it up.   Despite being filled with extensive research to back her up, Sapna’s endless lectures on nutrition went nowhere. Sapna was in despair, especially after her best friend’s husband died of a sudden heart attack and Sapna was now terrified she would be the next widow.

• Amir took over as the new CEO.  He wanted to lead the organization through a transformational change and Wall Street told him he didn’t have years or even months to make it happen.  It had to materialize fast.  It had to happen good.  Amir knew people needed to be on board with it to make it happen.  They needed to put their hearts and souls into it, as much as their intellects and their energies.  Traditional approaches to organizational change were irrelevant.  Disruptive “shake-everything-up” approaches to change weren’t welcome.  When Amir announced his “transformational change” he faced a sea of unconvinced blank looks.  The transformation was going nowhere.  The organization was stuck in a “sit back and wait and see” inertia.

This is what “persuasion” looks like. It’s hard. It’s frustrating. It robs you of power. And it leads to unwanted outcomes.

Today, I’m excited to announce there is an alternative. That alternative is not to learn how to “persuade” more effectively, it’s something that goes in a completely different direction.

I’m very proud to announce the release of a new course:  Beyond Persuasion™:  the new route to achieving extraordinary outcomes.

It’s the culmination of work I’ve done for over 30 years.  I have delivered this course to special audiences with spectacular results, and I am proud to make it available to the public.

Why is it called Beyond Persuasion?  Because, as the word itself implies, it exceeds the very limiting, unworkable tactics of what humans think is “persuasion”.  It creates a brand new frontier of human awareness and effectiveness. It’s about strategy, not tactics.  It’s about operating in that realm of human experience that creates magic.

It’s new.

And it works.

Why do we say you’ll achieve extraordinary outcomes?  Because that’s what we’re being told by graduates of this program.  These are their words.

The people signing up for this offering are a unique brand.  They are the “do’ers” of the world.  They pursue big goals.  They embrace big challenges.  They are looking for real answers that will help them in the real world.  These are not the “spectators” of life around them.  They are the “make things happen” individuals.  Many of them are in leadership positions. So, I can only say, it works for them. 

So, this is not a “for everyone” program.  It’s for them.  And for you, if you are so moved.

For example, you read about Bishal above, the one unsuccessfully trying to inspire organizational change for 3 years.  Using what he learned in Beyond Persuasion, Bishal changed his approach:

In a 30-minute meeting held within 48 hours of his change in approach, ALL were on board, including key stakeholders, about 40-50 people.  They ALL signed up.  Bishal was laughing when he told us about it, because one person even claimed it was his own idea and started running with it.

“I’d been trying to get my organization to change for 3 years.  Using what I learned from you, it happened in less than 48 hours.  And everyone is totally on board.”

NO progress for 3 years was transformed into an extraordinary outcome in 48 hours.  Bishal called it, “Spectacular.”

And the others I wrote about above?  Extraordinary results, each of them. Lucy’s daughter’s room was not only clean, it was decorated magnificently enough to be in Architectural Digest fancy magazine.

 The knowledge they gained from this program didn’t just help them in those situations.  It fulfilled 2 more vital functions:

1. They learned WHY what they had been doing wasn’t working (they had no idea)

2. They have mastered a STRATEGIC way to approach that will help them with every other situation they encounter in the future.  Is there a difference between strategy and tactics?  Yes.  A big one.  Beyond Persuasion is about strategy, not tactics.  It’s a new frontier of human awareness and effectiveness.

As one graduate said, “I learned there’s nothing impossible.”

That’s a nice way to live life.  It’s the pinnacle of being causative.

Beyond Persuasion works with our other programs and takes them to a new level.  I recommend taking them all if you want a full suite of skills.

We are delivering Beyond Persuasion both virtually and in-person.  The in-person sessions are currently only delivered at our Emeryville, CA office.  For both virtual and in-person we are scheduling group sessions only, no individual enrollment at this time.

That’s all I’m going to say about it.  If you’re ready to go Beyond “persuasion”, if you’re tired of all the frustrating “persuasion” tactics that don’t work, if you don’t like feeling powerless when you need to “persuade” someone, if you are ready to make a big difference in this world, if you are a force for good and you need more power, if you’re tired of things taking a long time and you want to see faster results, if you want extraordinary results, beyond the ordinary, then this might be a good choice for you.

I love delivering this program, my Trainers do too. Just imagine if you could completely give up trying to persuade anyone and achieve the extraordinary outcomes you want because of that choice?

Be the cause!