Public Speaking Notes

by Kenrick Cleveland

“Rhythm is something you either have or don’t have, and when you have it, you have it all over.” -Elvis Presley

We feel the rhythmic thump of our mother’s heartbeats before we’re even born. They say we can even hear music from the womb. Once we’re born they use lullabies, rocking chairs and bouncing us up and down to calm and sooth. Rhythm lulls and soothes.

When we use the language pattern of repetition in threes, we easily lullaby our prospects with rhythm.

Additionally, symbolically the number three has extraordinary power in our society. The Trinity. Most every major religion on the planet talks about three things, God the father, God the son, God the Holy Spirit.

Another reason repetition in three works, it’s an immediate, subconscious reference to religion. If the people you are persuading are religious, this could have a dramatic impact on them.

Think of this in terms of humanist psychology as well. . . id, ego, and super ego. Conscious, subconscious and super conscious minds.

Here’s an example of repetition in threes: Today, there are a few things that I believe so intensely, that I want to emphasize so strongly, that I believe in with all my soul, that I’m going to do my best to try to take the position of a father who’s giving this information to his beloved son in such a way that he can infuse his heart with the spirit of the message such that it’s really understood through and through and there is a resulting change, such that today, by the time we’ve gone through this process together, you will experience this information in a whole new way.

Not only will you be excited about it, not only will you feel fantastic about it, not only will you have a sense of understanding that you’ve never had before, but you’ll begin to experience how it will work in your life. Now I want you to understand that for me this is a mission, it’s a mission that I live my life for every day. See, my dad taught me something important when I was young, he said, ‘Kenrick, if you love what you do for a living, you’ll never work a day in your life.’

And he also taught me that if you don’t like what you do then every day will be a struggle and a fight. So I realized early on I had to love it and it’s my mission to help people understand these principles just like I do so that they can have a change of life, they can completely accept into their heart a new way of understanding, a new way of dealing with this subject matter and that’s my goal for us today as we talk.

Let’s break this down a little. . .first there’s the religious symbolism–father, son, Holy Spirit.

Secondly, and one of the main reasons repetition in threes works, is you are repeating your message. Repetition helps install anything. It’s simply a convenient way of remembering to repeat the things that you most want to install in people.

Third, when we use a smooth cadence and emphasize the important words, this language pattern uses the rhythms that lullaby, putting our prospects in receptive modes making persuasion inevitable.

Kenrick Cleveland teaches strategies to earn the business of wealthy clients using persuasion. He runs public and private seminars and offers home study courses and coaching programs in persuasion strategies.

Tags: tips, public speaking, presentations

by Kenrick Cleveland

“The moment one gives close attention to anything, even a blade of grass, it becomes a mysterious, awesome, indescribably magnificent world in itself.” -Henry Miller

I love words. I love language patterns and word meanings and the tremendous world of linguistics. For over thirty years I’ve been studying persuasion. I have been studying the language of persuasion. Of course there are some physical components to persuasion, but ultimately, persuasion is a world of words. I’m thrilled to bring you this information.

Aldous Huxley said, “Every individual is at once the beneficiary and the victim of the linguistic tradition into which he has been born - the beneficiary inasmuch as language gives access to the accumulated records of other people’s experience, the victim in so far as it confirms him in the belief that reduced awareness is the only awareness and as it bedevils his sense of reality, so that he is all too apt to take his concepts for data, his words for actual things.”

This is an amazing description of how language can either expand our universes or reduce our awareness. And by studying persuasion, we can maximize our benefit of our linguistic traditions.

One of my favorite aspects of linguistics is the language pattern. And one of my favorite language patterns is ‘the awareness pattern’.

The three words that I use a lot in this category are aware, realize and experience. By simply saying one of these words you’re making the person start the mental process that you mention. You’re inciting them to become aware, to realize or to experience. These words are important in your persuasion arsenal because everything that follows them is presupposed to be true.

As you gain skill in being able to use these words powerfully, you might think that someone may respond to the question, ‘Are you aware of?’ by saying, ‘No.’ I assure you when done properly this doesn’t really ever happen but if it ever did, all you need to say is, ‘Not yet, huh?’

Example: “The more you begin to construct in your mind the ways you’ll be using these patterns, the more you will begin to realize the outrageously profitable techniques you are learning. Are you starting to experience the growing awareness of what being involved in my program will bringyou as I tell you about it and as you go through it?”

Is the awareness of the power of these patterns starting to sink in? Let’s go through this. I’m not asking you if these patterns have power; that would not be a presupposition and would not be helpful. I’m asking you ‘are you aware of the power?’. If you’re not aware, it presupposes you need to be. And if you are aware, you’ll state such that you are. By saying, ‘Yes, I’m aware,’ then you know the power of the patterns and you agree they’re starting to sink in and if you’re not aware, then by hearing the question asked, you begin to become aware.

If you’re feeling a little excited by this information, you’re ready to learn more about how language can expand your universe.

Kenrick Cleveland teaches strategies to earn the business of affluent clients using persuasion. He runs public and private seminars and offers home study courses and coaching programs in persuasion strategies.

Tags: tips, presentations, topics

by Rick London

It still surprises me when people ask me how to become funny? At times I don’t know how to take it. I know from my line of work that I am considered funny, but, to be honest, it doesn’t feel that much different from when I worked in sales. After all, I majored in business, not humor.

I really did not understand what went into being funny for many years. The jury is still out whether I do or not. I believe I have “paid my dues” though in learning just what is funny and what is not. And there is as much science to it as their is art.

Now I keep my ears open. I listen to not just the humor but the rhythm of how it is delivered. I watch people’s reactions to other people’s humor. I take notes. I see that short is sweet.

Shakespeare said it best, “Brevity is the soul of wit”. Even then, he had the insight to know that people’s attention spans are short. Sure, they want to hear your joke or funny story, but they also have other things on their mind. Even if they think something is funny, if it is long-winded, and takes too much of their time, they may consider you “funny”, but chances are they won’t come back for more of your humor.

Consider the cartoonist and humor writer. That would be me. I created a single panel cartoon called Londons Times Cartoons in 1997. I based it on the Shakesperian theory that humor was and is the soul of wit. No long drawn out captions. Sometimes no captions at all. The picture would tell the story. It was an experiment. It was off the wall. That year, I posted less than a hundred cartoons on my website. Though I had thought of many others, those were the ones that past the litany test of “what is funny” to me.

A decade later, I have about 8500 cartoons, all of which I wrote and were rendered by my creative team on my website. I am now considered “professionally funny”. And over ten million visitors to my web site. But how did that happen?

I don’t think there is just one road toward making something like that happen. In my case, it was mainly listening to other people whom I felt were funny, reading autobiographies of funny persons, and studying humor. I watched sitcoms. I went to funny movies. I noticed one-liners in real life were really not much different than one liners in a cartoon.

I liked what I heard and it was easy to repeat. Instant value.

Finding an audience and “being funny” at least in the marketplace is to find one’s niche or voice. Sometimes that can take time. A lot of time. In my case, I tried stand-up comedy, acting and other such venues for a number of years. The problem was that I didn’t understand the art well and was not able to perfect it to the degree to which I wanted.

So I tried writing, and I finally settled for cartooning. I had read the late great Charles Schulz’s autobiography in which he said the reason he went into cartooning is because he couldn’t do much else very well. That was the story of my life. If it is the story of yours, it is never to late to develop your sense of humor. Listen, read, learn, and have a leap of faith….and oh, and don’t be afraid to look foolish. They may just laugh at you yet.

About the Author:

To see the huge body of cartoon work created by Rick London and his team, point your browser Funny Cartoon Site, and Cartoon Archive

Tags: presentations, topics, speakers