In recent months I've noticed a tremendous amount of growth in many of my students who have been applying persuasion techniques not just to business and sales, but to every facet of their lives.

On a one-on-one call with one of my students recently, an adviser who is becoming more and more successful in his business and in his financial life, he recently shared how these skills have not only affected his "bottom line" but have meant so much to him in many other ways. These techniques have helped him to stop smoking and have had positive impacts on him in his personal life in many ways.

I have experienced this in my own life as well. After shedding 140 pounds of unwanted fat, and still going strong, I've seen the figurative layers of the onion being peeled away in a tangible way. As we peel and change and get to the core of what is important in life, we find even more enhancements and improvements we can make.

By peeling away these layers I uncovered something else I needed to remedy--a hernia. Now I'm able to help myself even further towards the goal of excellent health.

Using the onion as a metaphor for our lives helps us begin to understand the power of our unconscious drives and the motivations in our lives. My focus on persuasion has come to a fine point in recent months. I have laser pointed my intent toward persuading the affluent. With the results my clients/students have been getting I completely understand that the big picture is of utmost importance. We are our own first persuasion project, when you think about it. As we learn to influence ourselves, we are on the path to being able to persuade others powerfully.

I can absolutely guaranty you that there's never been a great persuader on the face of the planet who doesn't have a degree of mastery over his own life. Before I lost the weight, I had a very conflicted relationship with the thinking, the practice, and the actual doing. Eventually, something shifted into place. I got it and realized on another level that as an onion, the first step is to start with the top layer, and to keep peeling through visualization, through emotional freedom techniques (tapping), through intention, through coaching, through determination, through the universe system-it all came together as if I were a magician and finally figured out the alchemical recipe for my own self mastery.

Persuasion is a process. I, by no means, have mastered this body of knowledge. It would be egotistical and arrogant to believe that. It would also make me feel quite sad. Frankly, I love to strive for the goal of the highest I can achieve, but the real vibrancy in life comes from constantly evolving and growing.