It’s been an exciting week. My good friend and mentor Jason Harris wrote a book, The Soulful Art of Persuasion, that came out this week! Jason has taught me so much ever since I met him. If I could credit anyone for pushing me to be my own person, it’d be him. Everything Jason talks about on the art of persuasion—being a genuine person, being empathetic, being a positive and generous force to others—those are all things that everyone should live by. Those are all things that I’ve tried to live by, not necessarily with the idea of being persuasive in mind, but rather, to always try to improve who I am. But let’s be honest; a large part of my life has to do with persuasion. As a trainer, I persuade people to train with me, to listen to my instructions, and to trust or believe in me (and themselves). Similarly, as an entrepreneur, people have to be convinced to believe in me and my business ideas.
Persuading people that what I have to offer was worth their time and money wasn’t always easy. It still isn’t at times, but I’ve learned some things in the past few years and I’d like to think that I’ve come a long way from where I started. For example, building good relationships with other people has been something I’ve come to value a lot in the past few years (and I’d say Jason is a big part of that). I’ve always known people in different industries and I’ve always thought about how those people could connect and help each other out or help me out. It’s something that I often think about because everyone I know is looking to do something cool or something new, and if I can connect those people, great things can happen. Also, from time and experience, I’ve found that I care “more about relationships than transactions” at this point.
If I could have read The Soulful Art of Persuasion 10 years ago, my life would probably have been easier. Jason breaks it down into 4 principles and 11 habits, and reading them makes it seem so easy to do! You could probably learn something from just picking up this book and reading any few pages (although I recommend reading all the pages because there’s a lot of genuinely helpful stuff). Everyone benefits from being their authentic selves. Everyone benefits from living as better people…and everyone benefits from being more soulful. I’ve had to learn a lot about myself and how to become a persuasive person through trial and tons of error. (Isn’t that always true about life?) But my experiences and struggles make me unique so I don’t have any regrets about that. As the book says, anyone can learn to be persuasive if you work at it. And I’d say that these are all things that are worth working on because no matter who you are or what you do, you are worth it.
I’ll have a special gift for all of my readers who pick up a book, so be sure to reach out to me! 💪🏽
