Have you heard of Gottman?
Gottman, as in John Gottman.
What if I told you he was the is the co-founder and co-director of the Gottman Institute? Nope, doesn’t ring a bell? Well that’s interesting, because Gottman’s research is all about ringing bells. Or intuition, as we call it.

And Gottman is a good example of um, intuition
Most of us are foxed by intuition. How is it possible that one person is able to know something that we just can’t see? How is it that someone is able to feel, or smell, or hear, or sense something weird in the mix, when it’s appearing all rosy to us? Amazing as it may seem, it’s the data that’s the problem.

You see Gottman was able to see through the data and predict “divorce rates”
So if you got a bunch of couples in a room, and Gottman video tapes couples interacting with each other. And couples go through a lot of stuff when they’re interacting.

They smile. They touch. They laugh. They argue. They nit pick. That’s a heck of a lot of data to process. What’s interesting is that Gottman could do what hundreds of marriage therapists, counsellors, pastoral advisers and students couldn’t do—even if they watched the tapes for hours on end.

Not one of them could predict as accurately as Gottman could.

Gottman could predict which couples were headed for divorce
And he could do so with blinding accuracy. The group of therapists, counsellors etc, could only predict the divorce possibility 53.8% of the time. Gottman says he can sit at a restaurant and eavesdrop on a conversation, and accurately predict which marriage was headed to “rocksville”.

So is Gottman intuitive?
Not really. What he’s able to do is “thin slice”. Data itself is a whole load of crappy stuff. What’s important is knowing the one factor to look for every single time. That one factor reveals itself in a matter of minutes, even seconds. And then it’s easy. What seems like magic or intuition to you is merely an understanding of what to look for.

It’s a bit like driving your car
If you looked down at your car dashboard and said “Shucks, I need to fill fuel quickly” and then the car stopped a few miles later, you wouldn’t be considered a savant or really intuitive, would you? You’d be considered stupid. You saw the fuel gauge. It read “empty” and heck, there was even this bright warning light.

That warning light is what we call intuition
When you’re able to see the ‘thin slice’, you’re able to know what happens next. Like I have a super power (ok, let’s call it intuition or whatever): I can tell you when an article is going down the drain. I can tell you in a matter of seconds. I don’t even need to look at your article. I can tell you by looking at your outline. Just do five-six points in your outline and I can tell.

I can also tell if a student will become a great article writer.
I don’t care what language they speak, or their background, or their culture or even if they can write (yes, illiterate is just fine). I can tell you if they will become great communicators within a week or two of them joining the article-writing course.

So am I intuitive?
No I’m not. I’m thin-slicing. I can look at one factor, and tell in a second that things are going wrong. Or going right. Just like you can with the fuel gauge. Just like Gottman can tell with his potential divorcees.

So how do you develop this intuition?
You first stop considering intuition to be magical. It’s not magical. It’s simply an isolation of facts. Some people are able to do it with article outlines. Some are able to do it by smelling the air. Others are able to tell if things will go wrong by reading a rose (yes, they’re reading your energy from across the world). It may sound all fa-la-la to you, and you may think it’s all cuckoo stuff, but it’s not. It’s sheer isolation of facts.

And like a fuel gauge, if you’re shown what to look for, you see it everywhere.
Like for instance in The Brain Audit we show why customers buy and why they don’t. And while there are seven reasons outlined in the book, the whole book is useless without you isolating (and understanding) the concept of “Target Profile”. Get that wrong and the entire book can take you down the wrong path. Get it right, and you’re suddenly intuitive.

To develop intuition you must seek great teachers
A teacher isn’t someone who gives you a ‘cheat list’ and tells you to just do it. A teacher is someone who knows about thin slicing. Who knows what can make you fail. Or succeed. When you learn from great teachers, you too learn to identify, isolate and then apply the very same skills.

You become like Gottman.
Gottman, the cofounder and co-director of the Gottman Institute.
Gottman: The guy who can predict divorces over dinner tables.

Cool, eh?

Footnote: If you want to read more about the concept of thin-slicing, get your hands on “Blink” by Malcolm Gladwell. Yes, I know it’s not a new book, but at least you’ll understand the concept a whole lot better. I got to know about Gottman through Gladwell. And yes, if you want know more about “Target Profiles”, read The Brain Audit. Not a new book either.

———————–
Next Step: “Before I purchased the Brain Audit, I thought this is just crazy, I’ve got so much marketing material that I still haven’t implemented.“

But right from Sean’s first story and metaphor, I could see this was different. I was hooked. The Brain Audit challenged virtually every principle of marketing I’d grown up with. Like selling benefit or never starting with a negative or problem.

And it’s this refreshing, innovative approach that makes the Brain Audit a must buy for anyone who is really serious about challenging the status quo and taking their business to new heights.

Already we’ve applied the principles to one of our workshops and the response has been fantastic. The Brain Audit and our ongoing association with Sean has been one of the best business decisions we’ve every made.

Paul Mitchell, Managing Director, The Human Enterprise, Australia
Judge for yourself The Brain Audit: Why Customers Buy And Why They Don’t

———————
“I actually didn’t join 5000bc a year earlier than I did assuming it would be a lot more expensive than it is. Silly me.”

I found it was far better than I ever imagined, over the years I have been a participant of many different memberships and forums and none of them come close to what 5000bc offers.

I would recommend 5000bc to any entrepreneur or small business owner as a great source of knowledge and information from like minded people who have often already achieved what you may be struggling to do and can help save you loads of time and ultimately expense in getting to where you need to be.

Duncan MacIntyre, officechairadvice, Derbys UK
Judge for yourself http://www.psychotactics.com/5000bc
———————
New Products: Introductory Price

1) “Lazy Testimonials” Attract The Wrong Clients. Learn how to use the power of the ’six critical questions’ to get incredible testimonials–and attract clients that make every day an absolute joy.

2) Do you sometimes wonder if planning books are written just for the ‘organised’ people?
Learn Why Most Planning Fails: And The Critical Importance of Chaos in Planning

3) Does your websites, brochures, presentations, etc..confuse your clients? .
Put some sanity into your design with some really simple tweaks.

3) Yes, you needs visuals on your sales page, but how do you use visuals to immediately improve your sales conversion?
———————

Listen to yourself as you’re speaking. You’ll invariably find yourself saying the word “but” several times a day.

You’ll use the word to nullify what you just said, as in: You did a great job, but… Or you’ll use the word to defend your actions, as in: I would have done that, but…

My niece Marsha used “but” as a five year old would…

If she did something wrong, she defended her way out of it by saying the word “but”. What made it funny was the fact that she almost used the word “but” like a machine gun.

So a conversation would go like this: Marsha did you drop the coaster on the floor? “Yes, but, but, but, but, but,…” Marsha would say and instantly absolve herself of any responsibility.

It was never her fault.

She never wanted to say sorry.

She just learned to say “but” instead.

Till the day, she ran into Renuka (Miss Queen)

Renuka is called “Miss Queen” by Marsha. The Queen can do no wrong. What the Queen says, the “subjects” have to “accept”. Marsha even bows before the Queen.

Well, Miss Queen decreed that not only would Marsha have to stop saying “but”—she’d also have to pinch her own butt, every time she said the word “but”.

So there you have it, a five year old self-fixing the problem

Do five year old kids self-correct in a day? Well Marsha did. She didn’t quite stop saying “but”. Yet she knew exactly when she said it. And because of the “royal decree” she would faithfully pinch her own butt, if she slipped up.

In less than a week, the word “but” had almost disappeared. And now almost eight months later (at the point of writing this article), Marsha almost never uses the word “but”. And if she does, you know what comes next.

And it doesn’t stop there

Marsha’s become a pinching machine. Her father, mother, uncles, aunts are all on the pinch list. If they slip up and say the word “but” there’s Marsha flying across the room to pinch their butt (Grandma and Grandpa are exempt from the rule. And as you would expect the Queen has diplomatic powers too).

It’s important learning for Marsha, and just as important for the rest of us.

1) You can stop being defensive. The word “but” is mostly defensive except in rare conditions. The more we take responsibility for our actions, the less we need the word “but”. And the fewer excuses we have in our lives.

2) You can start using the word “and” because the word “but” nullifies what you just said. e.g.  “I did ten things on my to-do list, but I didn’t do the remaining five things”. Instead you could say: “I did ten things and I have five more to go. ”

So the next time you find yourself saying “but” pull out your forefinger and thumb.

Reach for your butt, and tighten into a pinch. Do that a few times and you’ll find that your butt is a good reminder to stop saying but.

And the best way to take responsibility for the rest of your life.

A life with no “buts”.

———————–

Next Step: “Before I purchased the Brain Audit, I thought this is just crazy, I’ve got so much marketing material that I still haven’t implemented.“

But right from Sean’s first story and metaphor, I could see this was different. I was hooked. The Brain Audit challenged virtually every principle of marketing I’d grown up with. Like selling benefit or never starting with a negative or problem.

And it’s this refreshing, innovative approach that makes the Brain Audit a must buy for anyone who is really serious about challenging the status quo and taking their business to new heights.

Already we’ve applied the principles to one of our workshops and the response has been fantastic. The Brain Audit and our ongoing association with Sean has been one of the best business decisions we’ve every made.

Paul Mitchell, Managing Director, The Human Enterprise, Australia

Judge for yourself The Brain Audit: Why Customers Buy And Why They Don’t

———————

“I actually didn’t join 5000bc a year earlier than I did assuming it would be a lot more expensive than it is. Silly me.”

I found it was far better than I ever imagined, over the years I have been a participant of many different memberships and forums and none of them come close to what 5000bc offers.

I would recommend 5000bc to any entrepreneur or small business owner as a great source of knowledge and information from like minded people who have often already achieved what you may be struggling to do and can help save you loads of time and ultimately expense in getting to where you need to be.

Duncan MacIntyre, officechairadvice, Derbys UK

Judge for yourself http://www.psychotactics.com/5000bc

———————

New Products: Introductory Price

1) “Lazy Testimonials” Attract The Wrong Clients. Learn how to use the power of the ’six critical questions’ to get incredible testimonials–and attract clients that make every day an absolute joy.

2) Do you sometimes wonder if planning books are written just for the ‘organised’ people?

Learn Why Most Planning Fails: And The Critical Importance of Chaos in Planning

3) Does your websites, brochures, presentations, etc..confuse your clients? .

Put some sanity into your design with some really simple tweaks.

3) Yes, you needs visuals on your sales page, but how do you use visuals to immediately improve your sales conversion?

———————

Imagine if you had a bucket of water. And every time you attempted to fill the bucket, 90% of the water would leak out instantly. Every time, all you’d retain was a measly 10%. How many times would you keep filling the bucket?

The answer is simple: just once.

The first time you noticed the leak, you’d take action
You’d either fix the bucket or you’d get another bucket, wouldn’t you?

Yet that’s not at all the way we learn.
Almost all of us waste 90% of our time, resources and learning time, because we don’t understand a simple concept called the Learning Pyramid. The Learning Pyramid was developed way back in the 1960s by the NTL Institute in Bethel, Maine. And if you look at the pyramid you’ll see something really weird.

That weird thing is that you’re wasting time. You’re wasting resources. You’re just doing everything you can to prevent learning. And here’s why.

To summarize the numbers (which sometimes get cited differently) learners retain approximately:
90% of what they learn when they teach someone else/use immediately.
75% of what they learn when they practice what they learned.
50% of what they learn when engaged in a group discussion.
30% of what they learn when they see a demonstration.
20% of what they learn from audio-visual.
10% of what they learn when they’ve learned from reading.
5% of what they learn when they’ve learned from lecture.

So why do you retain 90% when you teach someone else or when you implement it immediately?
There’s a good reason why. When you implement or teach, you instantly make mistakes. Try it for yourself. (In this article for instance, after I’d read the information, I cited the loss rate as 95% instead of 90% to begin with. I had to go back and correct myself. Then I found three more errors, which I had to fix. These were factual errors that required copy and paste, but I still made the errors).

So as soon as you run into difficulty and start to make mistakes, you have to learn how to correct the mistake. This forces your brain to concentrate.

But surely your brain is concentrating in a lecture or while reading
Sure it is, but it’s not making any mistakes. What your brain hears or sees is simply an abstract concept. And no matter how clearly the steps are outlined, there is no way you’re going to retain the information. There are two reasons why.

Reason 1: Your brain gets stuck at the first obstacle.
Reason 2: Your brain needs to make the mistake first hand.

Reason 1: Your brain gets stuck at the first obstacle.
Yes it does. And the only way to understand this concept is to pick up a book, watch a video, or listen to audio. Any book, any video, any audio. And you’ll find you’ve missed out at least two or three concepts in just the first few minutes. It’s hard to believe at first, but as you keep reading the same chapter over and over, you’ll find you’re finding more and more that you’ve missed.

This is because the brain gets stuck at the first new concept/obstacle. It stops and tries to apply the concept but struggles to do so. But you continue to read the book, watch the video or listen to the speaker. The brain got stuck at the first point, but more points keep coming. And of course, without complete information, you have ‘incomplete information’.

Incomplete information can easily be fixed by making the mistake first hand.

Reason 2: Your brain needs to make the mistake first hand
No matter how good the explanation, you will not get it right the first time. You must make the mistake. And this is because your interpretation varies from the writer/speaker. You think you’ve heard or read what you’ve heard/read. But the reality is different. You’ve only interpreted what they’ve said, and more often than not, the interpretation is not quite correct. You can only find out how much off the mark you are by trying to implement or teach the concept.

So how do you avoid losing 90% of what you’ve learned?
Well, do what I do. I learn something. I write it down in a mindmap. I talk to my wife or clients about the concept. I write an article about it. I do an audio. And so it goes. A simple concept is never just learned. It needs to be discussed, talked, written, felt etc. (I wrote this article, ten minutes after reading these statistics online).

The next time you pick up a book or watch a video, remember this .
Listening or reading something is just listening or reading.
It’s not real learning.
Real learning comes from making mistakes.
And mistakes come from implementation.
And that’s how you retain 90% of everything you learn.

Which is why most of the people you meet are always going around in circles.
They refuse to make mistakes. So they don’t learn.
They’d rather read a book instead. Or watch a video. Or listen to an audio.

Their bucket is leaking 90% of the time.
But they don’t care.
The question is: Do you?

———————–
Next Step: “Before I purchased the Brain Audit, I thought this is just crazy, I’ve got so much marketing material that I still haven’t implemented.“

But right from Sean’s first story and metaphor, I could see this was different. I was hooked. The Brain Audit challenged virtually every principle of marketing I’d grown up with. Like selling benefit or never starting with a negative or problem.

And it’s this refreshing, innovative approach that makes the Brain Audit a must buy for anyone who is really serious about challenging the status quo and taking their business to new heights.

Already we’ve applied the principles to one of our workshops and the response has been fantastic. The Brain Audit and our ongoing association with Sean has been one of the best business decisions we’ve every made.

Paul Mitchell, Managing Director, The Human Enterprise, Australia
Judge for yourself The Brain Audit: Why Customers Buy And Why They Don’t

———————
“I actually didn’t join 5000bc a year earlier than I did assuming it would be a lot more expensive than it is. Silly me.”

I found it was far better than I ever imagined, over the years I have been a participant of many different memberships and forums and none of them come close to what 5000bc offers.

I would recommend 5000bc to any entrepreneur or small business owner as a great source of knowledge and information from like minded people who have often already achieved what you may be struggling to do and can help save you loads of time and ultimately expense in getting to where you need to be.

Duncan MacIntyre, officechairadvice, Derbys UK
Judge for yourself http://www.psychotactics.com/5000bc
———————
New Products: Introductory Price

1) “Lazy Testimonials” Attract The Wrong Clients. Learn how to use the power of the ’six critical questions’ to get incredible testimonials–and attract clients that make every day an absolute joy.

2) Do you sometimes wonder if planning books are written just for the ‘organised’ people?
Learn Why Most Planning Fails: And The Critical Importance of Chaos in Planning

3) Does your websites, brochures, presentations, etc..confuse your clients? .
Put some sanity into your design with some really simple tweaks.

3) Yes, you needs visuals on your sales page, but how do you use visuals to immediately improve your sales conversion?
———————

Air traffic controllers don’t live in a state of fear. They live in a state of management. Because management lands planes. Fear doesn’t.

If there is a fear of falling behind, you will always fall behind.
If you look in the Cave, I was going to start a Brain Audit Trainer program in 2005. Last I checked, it was 2010. But that’s how things are. You have to keep going, just to stay level, and then sometimes you get ahead.

Falling behind is almost certain for so many things that we do today, because as we complete one task, technology decides to dump seventeen hundred tasks on our heads. We fix the blog, then along comes some Kindle something. We fix the Kindle, along comes the iPad. And that’s just technology, not even the content to keep that technology going.

We can fight, but we can’t win.
Where we can win is in the battle of fear. Fear will consume us and kill us long before any technology can. So the key is to treat the constant state of seeming overwhelm as a kind of ‘heart disease’. You can’t ever get rid of it, you can only ever manage it. And manage it as well as you can, without going nuts.

There’s also the other issue of what to focus on
To me, focus is “landing one plane at a time”. It’s like being a traffic controller at Heathrow. There are fifty three planes circling, but you land the plane, then the next, then the next. I’ve never ever read one book at a time. Or done one course at a time. I’m landing one plane (sometimes it’s a light plane) and then along comes an Airbus A380 with 555 people. I have to land them both, one after the other.

People expect that focus will help them.
But the brain rarely learns in a focused manner. It takes what it can, then sleeps on it. When you let the content percolate, the same stuff is better the next day. If you implement it, it gets even better. The brain must go through several steps of learning, implementing, making mistakes, and lots and have rest time so that the concepts solidify. You can learn something today, do nothing all day, and then the next day as you review it, you’ll find you’re way better at understanding the concept. This is your brain at work.

But the brain doesn’t deal with fear well
It goes into panic mode. It starts bleeping and stalling. In fact current brain knowledge tells us that we can only deal with about one or two emergencies at any given time. This emergency factor is diverted to the reptilian brain, that is largely designed to take those scary decisions. When faced with fifty three planes circling the airport, our brain goes waka, waka. Therefore the air controller brain must come in.

The air controller must take over
You can do several things at once. You just have to land one plane. Focus on that course that you’re doing, that book you’re reading, knowing fully well that once you’ve gone through a good chunk of that course/book and have gained competency, it’s like having a landed plane taxiing to the hangar. Now the landed plane isn’t in the hangar yet, but another plane can land. At any given point in time, there will be taxiing planes, landing planes and planes taking off.

It’s just life.
It needs management, not fear.
Be an air-traffic controller. It’s not an easy job, but you stop the planes from crashing all around you.

———————–
Next Step: “The Brain Audit-It’s like the first comic book in marketing!“

As an infojunkie, I buy ALL the stuff about smallbiz marketing, and here’s what makes Sean’s book stand out: while others mostly just dump info on you, Sean’s passion is that you understand and absorb the material for easier implementation.

Earlier versions of The Brain Audit had easy to understand structures and graphs, but this new one, with the new secret ingredient – cartoons – helped me absorb the knowledge faster and with more fun.

I would’ve liked to cite specific results, but I’ve been using the Brain Audit for so long I can’t keep score any more. I used it in my sales copy for selling manuals, trainings, seminars,
memberships, or to help my customers sell maps, wine, even electricity.

I’d recommend the Brain Audit to any business owner or marketer who wants to understand the mind of his customer and be able to use this structure, this checklist to write copy more confidently.”

Gabor Wolf, Marketing consultant, Budapest, Hungary
Judge for yourself The Brain Audit: Why Customers Buy And Why They Don’t

———————
New Products: Introductory Price

1) “Lazy Testimonials” Attract The Wrong Clients. Learn how to use the power of the ’six critical questions’ to get incredible testimonials–and attract clients that make every day an absolute joy.

2) Do you sometimes wonder if planning books are written just for the ‘organised’ people?
Learn Why Most Planning Fails: And The Critical Importance of Chaos in Planning

3) Does your websites, brochures, presentations, etc..confuse your clients? .
Put some sanity into your design with some really simple tweaks.

3) Yes, you needs visuals on your sales page, but how do you use visuals to immediately improve your sales conversion?

———————
“I actually didn’t join 5000bc a year earlier than I did assuming it would be a lot more expensive than it is. Silly me.”

I found it was far better than I ever imagined, over the years I have been a participant of many different memberships and forums and none of them come close to what 5000bc offers.

I would recommend 5000bc to any entrepreneur or small business owner as a great source of knowledge and information from like minded people who have often already achieved what you may be struggling to do and can help save you loads of time and ultimately expense in getting to where you need to be.

Duncan MacIntyre, officechairadvice, Derbys UK
Judge for yourself http://www.psychotactics.com/5000bc
———————

Imagine thirty thousand menacing obstacles in your path to success.

You’re dehydrated. Hungry as hell. And wobbling like a drunk on too much Guinness. Your eyes hurt, your head throbs and your will is all but broken. You’re not even sure you want to go on.

You feel like Frodo.

As in the character Frodo, in the final episode of the ‘Lord of the Rings-The Return of the King.’

Terror and dismay gleam from Frodo’s big, expressive blue eyes. In the distance, he can see his goal. But it seems to him like he’ll never get there. He turns to Sam and says in a defeated tone, “Sam, it’s the Eye,” referring to the eye of Sauron – the enemy he must destroy.

And Sam turns to Frodo in a soft, encouraging voice and says, “Let’s just get to the bottom of this hill, Mr.Frodo.”

Let’s just get to the bottom of this hill, Mr.Frodo.

I spoke at the World Internet Summit in Sydney, Australia, a few years ago. And I saw about two hundred and fifty Frodos in the audience.

Confused. Weary. Inundated with dozens of tactics and strategies about the Internet, their eyes stared into nothingness. Frozen stiff at the task of having to build an Internet business from scratch, almost all of them seemed to have a cross too heavy to bear.

And they didn’t exactly have Sam to egg them on.

I said to them, like I say to you. “Let’s just get to the bottom of this hill, Mr.Frodo.” Then we’ll do the next hill, and the next and the next, till we get to our destination.

You’re bound to be struggling. I struggled at Yoga class. I’m a first-class doofus. Five minutes after we start the class, I wonder when it’s all going to end. I look at the ‘human pretzels’ twisting and turning to the left and right of me, and I can’t ever see myself being so flexible. And I despair.

But I’ve got my own personal Sam. I simply say to myself:”Let’s just get to the bottom of this hill, Mr.Frodo”

And hurrah, yippeee yahooey, I actually made it past
Yoga session No.2.

Next Step: Are you losing tons of potential business because you don’t know how the brain works?
Read how The Brain Audit can help you…

New Product: Do you want to put some sanity into your design even though you are not a designer?
Learn how, you can immediately improve your design with some really simple tweaks.

So you’re going/have gone on a vacation, aren’t you? Well, the weekend will come up, and you’ll have some sort of break–your to-do list non-withstanding.

But you won’t take a break. No you won’t. You’ll do something silly. Like filling it up with stuff.

How about filling it with idleness instead?

Yeah, idleness. As in doing nothing. Yes, we know you’ve got a million things to do. But idleness can’t wait.

The western world in particular have forgotten what it means to be idle. To just sit under a tree and do nothing. Not read. Not scold your kids. Certainly not pick up the phone. Just sit and watch the world go by.

Idleness isn’t as crazy a concept as you think. You DO NOT have to fill your day with stuff. You don’t have to visit every monument on your vacation. It’s more beneficial to do nothing. As in N-O-T-H-I-N-G.

Can you do nothing?

Can you? Can you? Can you do nothing for even a day this weekend? How about for an hour then?

Try it. Just be lazy. Just watch butterflies. Or watch the mould growing. But be idle.

Because as an ancient Chinese saying goes: Man who sits by river all day, and doesn’t think it’s a waste of time, is a wise man.

Next Step:
Don’t miss the Psychotactics iTunes Podcast on: The Three Month Vacation: How To Take Insane Amounts Of Time Off
——————

Product Offers: Links you should visit

1) “This method works! I can testify it! The Brain Audit makes you independent from marketing consultants, upgrades, expensive marketing campaigns and so on!

I read it in a nighttime. The next day I applied some minor changes to my monthly newsletter and… guess what? I doubled the people calling me after reading the news!
And from this point, always going up! I can say this marketing system is far better than any other method I tried in a 10-years-work time.”

Dr. Stefan Vettori, Creative Feng Shui, Italy.
Judge for yourself http://www.psychotactics.com/brainaudit

2) 5000bc Community: How can you get reliable answers to your complex marketing problems? (And how on earth do you find answers to these questions at 3:25 in the morning?). Find out how at http://www.psychotactics.com/5000bc

3) “How hard can it be to structure a testimonial? Why would I pay $39 to learn how to put a customer quote on my website? “

Five minutes into the course I knew I had made the right decision. After listening to the course I developed a new system for capturing testimonials and we are in the process of redesigning our website to implement these new endorsements.

Greg DeVore, Blue Mango Learning Systems, USA
http://www.psychotactics.com/testimonialsecrets
———————–
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Article By: Sean D’Souza
Wouldn’t you love to stumble upon a sec’ret library of small business ideas? Find simple, yet electrifying ideas, on copywriting, public speaking, marketing strategies, sa’les conversion, psychological tactics and branding.
Head down to http://www.psychotactics.com today and judge for yourself.

It’s easy to blame your parents for your lack of great genes.
It’s just as easy to praise your parents for their superb genes.
But while genes may be a handed down trait, talent is not.

And to understand talent you have to first understand genes.

Genes are sequences of DNA letters that when activated by the cell makes a particular protein.
So a gene can make a bird’s beak longer or shorter; thicker or thinner. FOXP2 is a gene, for instance. FOXP2 helps humans speak and birds sing. Take out that gene or some how mutilate the gene, and you have the inability to ‘communicate’. A mutation will cause language defects in people. Without FOXP2, the brain doesn’t form the necessary links that would help us record what we learn. In humans especially, FOXP2 is important for our very complex behaviour of lips and tongue movement.

Humans and animals share the same genome. Sad but true.

It’s just the pattern and the sequence that makes us humans or animals.
For instance a giraffe doesn’t have a long neck because it has a different gene. It simply grows a long neck because the gene switch stays on longer. Our gene switch switches off once our necks are a certain height.

So unfortunate as it may seem, genes for most of us are exactly the same.
It’s just that the genes over time decide to keep the switch on for a longer or shorter period, resulting in taller humans or shorter humans etc. Of course you could quite easily say that this would then result in bigger and smaller brains.

Sure you could. But that theory while plausible falls apart for one reason alone
If it were just genes, then everyone in the same family would have the same gene structure. And then every one in that family: brothers, sisters, and relations with that specific gene would be brilliant—or dumb as the case may be.

This is rarely the case. Or rather never the case.
This is because learning is not based on genes, but rather is very dependent on the firing of neurons in your brain. When your brain fires neurons often enough it creates a bridge. This bridge is called a synapse (let’s call it the synapse bridge). But this bridge is rather flimsy with loads of spots where you can fall off the bridge. But if you keep firing the neurons, a coating forms over the ’synapse bridge’.

This coating is called myelin.
Myelin plugs all the gaps in the bridge, coating it over and over, till finally the bridge is like an underground tunnel. The chances of you falling off the bridge are non-existent. Instead of cagily making your way across the bridge, you can now run across. As myelin coats the bridge even further, you can now drive a car, then a train, then a bullet train.

The factor of “strengths” doesn’t come into play at all.
The brain doesn’t know the difference between learning algebra or learning Japanese. And while genes help build the structure to learn and communicate with each other, it is not built to learn Japanese any better than it is built to learn algebra or how to make a coffee. This concept of strengths is something that has been drilled into our heads, and we believe it simply because we can’t see a person’s talent unfolding frame by frame.

It’s not a question of nature or nurture.
Nature gives us the gene structure. Nurture gives us the environment. But our learning comes from a simple firing of neurons; then the creation of synapse (bridges) and then the coating of myelin. The more we understand these core scientific facts, the more we’ll understand the possibility that we can learn anything we choose.

An example of gene structure vs. what we make of it is easily described by the letters of the alphabet.
All the letters we know exist in the alphabet from A-Z. So if we were to take the letters and make the word ‘cow’, it would be structure that’s put together to form the word ‘c-o-w.’ If we wanted to keep that switch on longer, we could make the word ‘c-o-w-a-r-d.’ Or if we kept it longer, we could make the word ‘c-o-w-a-r-d-i-c-e.’ This is how gene structure works. Talent and learning works when you take those words and stringing them together in a way that makes sense. That’s talent.

If I were to take the same structure and put it together like this: “talent sense that way in them stringing words the of a” etc… then you’d consider me untalented in stringing words together. And of course I could take the same words and string them together like this: no a mtraet fo kitang (on a matter of taking) and you’d consider me untalented in spelling.

But spelling and stringing sentences together is not based on our gene structure. It’s based on pattern recognition. Barring mutations in genes, most of us can spell or string words together with little or no problems. This is important to understand if we are truly to understand our brains and how we get ‘talented.’

Talent is pattern recognition that can be acquired.
And of course, this can be proven. Unlike the whole concept of ‘talent’ being born, which cannot be proven or substantiated, because then we have to go back to the gene structure. And we already know you’re the smarter one or the dumber one. And if genes really played that much of a role, everyone in your family would have the same talents, based on the exact same gene structure that runs in your family. Barring any mutations, of course.

So thanks mum. Thanks dad. Thanks for the genes.
But hey, do you mind if I make my own talent?

(Information sources: National Geographic Magazine: Feb 2009 and “The Talent Code” by Daniel Coyle).

———————–

Product Offers: Links you should visit

1) “This method works! I can testify it! The Brain Audit makes you independent from marketing consultants, upgrades, expensive marketing campaigns and so on!

“I had a look at Sean’s website after a friend told me. I had no faith in it, I was simply thinking: “Here we go again, this will be the n-th marketing method where someone will ask me $$ and then more $$$”. In fact,in the previous years I tried many marketing techniques,with a great loss of money and nearly no result.

I am selling special services and I needed targeted clients without spending a lot of money. I was just wondering: How can I do that?? I bought The Brain Audit. Then I thought -if Sean succeeded in making me buy this e-book, why shouldn’t I do the same?

I read it in a nighttime. The next day I applied some minor changes to my monthly newsletter and… guess what? I doubled the people calling me after reading the news!

And from this point, always going up! This method works! I can testify it!
But the main thing for me, is it makes you independent from marketing consultants, upgrades, expensive marketing campaigns and so on!

I can say this marketing system is far better than any other method I tried in a 10-years-work time.”

Dr. Stefan Vettori, Creative Feng Shui, Italy.
Judge for yourself http://www.psychotactics.com/brainaudit

2) 5000bc Community: How can you get reliable answers to your complex marketing problems? (And how on earth do you find answers to these questions at 3:25 in the morning?). Find out how at
http://www.psychotactics.com/5000bc

3) “How hard can it be to structure a testimonial? Why would I pay $39 to learn how to put a customer quote on my website? “

Five minutes into the course I knew I had made the right decision. I quickly realized that we had a lot of “sugary” testimonials and not a lot of testimonials that would sell product.

After listening to the course I developed a new system for capturing testimonials and we are in the process of redesigning our website to implement these new endorsements.

Greg DeVore, Blue Mango Learning Systems, USA
http://www.psychotactics.com/testimonialsecrets

4) “I was worried that this would be yet another expense where I didn’t end up using what I had bought.”

“You guys are masters of making sure that we consume (what we’ve bought)! And so, I’ve learned a ton since I joined! I love The Cave. I honestly haven’t made the time to try out anything else or even look into anything other than the general discussion board! The other things I really like: Direct access and insight from Sean, networking with other like-minded small business owners, the positive and encouraging vibe.

If you ask me: Would I recommend 5000bc I’d say: Of course! Because I’ve learned a lot! One more thing I’d like to add. Thanks for being so dedicated to us. ”

Marina Brito
Fairfax, Virginia, USA
Judge for yourself http://www.psychotactics.com/5000bc

———————–
If you like this article
If you like this article, feel free to share it with your own list, post it on your site, on your blog, or add it to your autoresponder. Twitter it, Facebook it, translate it. As long as you leave it intact and do not alter it in anyway. All links must remain in the article. No textual amendments permitted. Only exception is Twitter.

©Psychotactics Ltd. All rights reserved.
Article By: Sean D’Souza
Wouldn’t you love to stumble upon a sec’ret library of small business ideas? Find simple, yet electrifying ideas, on copywriting, public speaking, marketing strategies, sa’les conversion, psychological tactics and branding.
Head down to http://www.psychotactics.com today and judge for yourself.

Imagine you just had a baby. And that baby demanded your attention. At 3am. At 6am. At 9am. What are you going to do? Are you simply going to turn back the clock? Or tend to the baby?

If you speak to parents of newborns they are never ever prepared for the onslaught of time.

It’s like their fortress of sleep and sanity has been invaded. They can’t focus; they can’t keep awake. And no matter how many times you tell them to be prepared for the sleepless nights, they can never ever be prepared. The first time they understand what it means to be in a perpetual emergency state is when they actually have the baby.

Learning a new skill is like having a baby

You can’t ever be prepared for the madness. You can’t set aside hours. You have no timetable. Unless, of course, you want to assimilate the skill over a period of five-seven years. Then you have time—and time tables.

But babies and quickly earned skills have no such luxury periods.

When you’re in the very early stages of learning a skill, three hours a day (yes, per day) is critical. There is just so much new stuff to learn, that putting your nose to that grindstone is mandatory—especially if you want a nice, pointed nose.

You can’t do fewer hours, because your brain is just struggling way too much to put in fewer hours. Incredible as it may sound, if you spent fewer hours, you’d actually be wasting your time. Your brain is going through such an enormous metamorphosis, that unless you’re literally struggling for three hours, you’re making no headway at all.

The struggle is a sign that your brain is forging new patterns.

This isn’t some rah-rah talk about how ’struggle builds character.’ No this is how your brain works. If you aren’t struggling like crazy, your brain isn’t going to remember much—if anything at all.

Of course this brings us to the factor that you’d have time to free up time.

That’s never going to happen. Walk up to any sane person on this planet and tell them that they need to dedicate three hours every day to anything. And the older they are, the more they’ll laugh at you. Three hours per day in an adult life is like asking for blood from a stone.

And yet, that’s what it takes to go from the infancy of your knowledge, to competency.

And yet, we’d rarely ever take on anything that’s even remotely close to three hours. No planning in the world, no freeing up time is ever going to get us ready to sacrifice close to 20 waking hours each week.

We can’t ever budget those three hours, or four hours or eight hours, and so we eventually make it part of our routine. We work around the baby. The baby is a good teacher of the “workaround.” You can’t ever have time. You will never have time. Having time somewhere in the future is a myth. It’s never going to happen no matter how prepared you are, because your perception of what’s needed to learn the skill, and the teacher’s perception is vastly different.

You think everything’s going to be easy-peasy

And if not easy-peasy, at least not that difficult. Yet, this depends on the teacher. The teacher may be hands-off, leaving you to your own devices. This of course leaves you rudderless, but keeps you happy and dissatisfied at the same time. You’re happy because you don’t have to feel constant pressure, but dissatisfied because you know you aren’t truly learning.

A teacher that’s hands-off, is like a parent who’s hands-off. It works, but it doesn’t work quite as well.

Learning a skill is going to take time.

You’re never going to have the time.
All you’re ever going to be able to do is work around the situation.
You’re going to have to slog for a long while. And then it will happen. Your skill will move from infancy to competency. The growth will allow you to do the same job (e.g. writing an article) in fewer hours. And then you’ll get more sleep.

But till then it’s “baby time”.
———————–

Product Offers: Links you should visit

1) “I first bought the Brain Audit in 2002. It was 32 pages long. And I thought it was the best damn book on copywriting I had read! It laid down the entire sequence of elements that any successful salesletter or presentation needs to cover to make the prospect say “yes!”

I really thought that Brain Audit could not be improved upon. But year after year, Sean has been proving me wrong. He has improved upon it. And improved upon it. And improved upon it.

Sean’s added more details to the Brain Audit. More stories and analogies. Better graphics (and fun cartoons!). He has used every teaching trick possible to make sure that you not only understand
the sequence of elements needed to make people buy from… but the sequence soaks into your thinking pattern.

Today, Brain Audit 3.2 is 157 pages long! And its the best* book on persuasion you will ever read! * Until Sean comes out with version 4.0 a year or 2 down the line. But you really can’t afford to wait a year or 2 to take advantage of the Brain Audit, can you?”

Ankesh Kothari, Adventures of a serial entrepreneur, India
Judge for yourself http://www.psychotactics.com/brainaudit

2) 5000bc Community: How can you get reliable answers to your complex marketing problems? (And how on earth do you find answers to these questions at 3:25 in the morning?). Find out how at
http://www.psychotactics.com/5000bc

3) “I started listening on my PC, and found it so compelling that I downloaded the audio files, and put them on my PDA to keep listening when I went out.”

Eric Graudins, Webangel, Australia
Find out Why the Website Trilogy Series is so compelling?
http://www.psychotactics.com/website-secrets

4) How to Create Powerful Testimonials To Sell Your Internet Marketing Product. Find out the sec’rets…
http://www.psychotactics.com/testimonialsecrets

5) “I was worried that this would be yet another expense where I didn’t end up using what I had bought.”

“You guys are masters of making sure that we consume (what we’ve bought)! And so, I’ve learned a ton since I joined! I love The Cave. I honestly haven’t made the time to try out anything else or even look into anything other than the general discussion board! The other things I really like: Direct access and insight from Sean, networking with other like-minded small business owners, the positive and encouraging vibe.

If you ask me: Would I recommend 5000bc I’d say: Of course! Because I’ve learned a lot! One more thing I’d like to add. Thanks for being so dedicated to us. ”

Marina Brito
Fairfax, Virginia, USA
Judge for yourself http://www.psychotactics.com/5000bc

———————–
If you like this article
If you like this article, feel free to share it with your own list, post it on your site, on your blog, or add it to your autoresponder. Twitter it, Facebook it, translate it. As long as you leave it intact and do not alter it in anyway. All links must remain in the article. No textual amendments permitted. Only exception is Twitter.

©2001-2009 Psychotactics Ltd. All rights reserved.
Article By: Sean D’Souza
Wouldn’t you love to stumble upon a sec’ret library of small business ideas? Find simple, yet electrifying ideas, on copywriting, public speaking, marketing strategies, sa’les conversion, psychological tactics and branding.
Head down to http://www.psychotactics.com today and judge for yourself.

Have you ever considered how some people say they learn quicker by reading than audio?
Have you ever considered Stevie’s plight?

Ah, but that’s not the question

The question is: can Stevie learn faster than you?
Well, I wish it were a pat answer, but it’s not. It depends on various factors including how active your brain is, aging etc. But the brain obviously doesn’t care.

It will choose any pattern that’s available to it.

In fact the interesting thing about babies is that they only learn through sound. In fact, they’re at the mercy of sound. You can literally cause problems with a child’s brain with crazy sounds. And then before they’re two, they can distinguish stuff you and I can’t see at all. Every child—yes every child—even a six month old baby can tell the difference between twins. Don’t believe me? Try it for yourself. Put twins in front of a six month old.

Two patterns emerge.

Pattern one: The child will show a preference for one of the twins.
Pattern two: The child will keep being able to identify the correct twin.

Do what you want. Mix the twins around. Do whatever you please.

The child will recognise the right twin, even as you struggle. But forget twins. Children recognise the difference between two puppies, raccoons, monkeys—it doesn’t matter. You may find this amazing, but there’s documented proof, there’s video on this phenomenon.

Children learn pattern recognition.

Then they learn that certain patterns are useless. We don’t need to learn how to recognise raccoons any more. And recognising twins is nice, but not crucial. Recognising his/her parent’s face is critical. And recognising the sound. So these patterns are not just highly formed, but the brain actually has a storage area especially for faces. Your brain stores it in the area called the fusiform gyrus. Some people e.g. chess players have actually hijacked this section of their brain to remember entire chess games the way you and I remember faces.

The brain doesn’t care what you and I think.

It doesn’t care.
It doesn’t care that you think that you are smarter or not.
Given the fact that your genes are not mutated, or you don’t have a certain section of your brain damaged, etc. it will process data like data. It doesn’t care if it’s sound data, or visual data or any data. It will just recognise the pattern and it will remain frustrated till it learns the pattern.

This is why we can’t draw.

We think it’s some special skill.
But kids under five don’t know they can’t draw.
They just don’t know.
So they draw.

Try this again.

Go to a three year old. Give him/her a crayon and a sheet of paper.
Then watch what happens next.
Try this with a three year old, a five year old, a four year old. The results are exactly the same. Every one of them draws. And that’s because their brain has a clear pattern recognition factor. It says: Hey buddy. That’s a nice red crayon. You can eat it, or you can draw with it. But seeing it’s not on a plate and tasted a bit yucky the last time you ate it (pattern recognition), how about we draw with it? Besides mum gets all excited when you draw (pattern recognition) and gets all bulgy eyed when you eat the crayon (pattern recognition).

This child will forget how to learn to draw by the time she/he is about five.

She will not be able to tell one twin from another by the time she/he is three.
She will definitely not be able to tell between one raccoon and another (though it can be re-learned later).

But why do we lose these skills?

We lose them because:
1) We don’t need them. They’re not critical.
2) We follow our parents’ lead (we follow what makes them happy).

This is why we grow up with preferences of reading, drawing, music etc.

A family where there’s music all day has um, musicians. And no it doesn’t matter that they don’t turn up at Carnegie Hall. They grow up with a language (pattern recognition) of music. A family that has artists, will learn to draw (everyone in my family draws, except my dad). A family that is in the circus will have kids doing stuff that would give you a heart attack as a non-circus parent.

“A certain way”.

That certain way is first defined by our need to recognise patterns and survive.
But once we get steered into reading, listening to music, writing, etc. we make that way “our certain way”. There’s less fear in “our certain way.” Less chance to make mistakes. That doesn’t mean you won’t get an opera singer from a family of artists. And it doesn’t mean that you won’t get an artist from a family of opera singers.

But it certainly means that the pattern must exist to understand it.

And once you understand it, your brain decodes it.
It doesn’t care what you think.
It just decodes. Encodes. And then if it’s important, it remembers the pattern.

And of course we call that pattern “talent”.

When we play that pattern over and over again, it becomes our talent.
We learn to decode it in a certain way. And replay it in a certain way.

And we wait for the applause.

Talented people usually do.
It spurs them on to replaying the same pattern again, and again, and again.
So that the applause never ends.
———————–

Product Offers: Links you should visit

1) “I first bought the Brain Audit in 2002. It was 32 pages long. And I thought it was the best damn book on copywriting I had read! It laid down the entire sequence of elements that any successful salesletter or presentation needs to cover to make the prospect say “yes!”

I really thought that Brain Audit could not be improved upon. But year after year, Sean has been proving me wrong. He has improved upon it. And improved upon it. And improved upon it.

Sean’s added more details to the Brain Audit. More stories and analogies. Better graphics (and fun cartoons!). He has used every teaching trick possible to make sure that you not only understand
the sequence of elements needed to make people buy from… but the sequence soaks into your thinking pattern.

Today, Brain Audit 3.2 is 157 pages long! And its the best* book on persuasion you will ever read! * Until Sean comes out with version 4.0 a year or 2 down the line. But you really can’t afford to wait a year or 2 to take advantage of the Brain Audit, can you?”

Ankesh Kothari, Adventures of a serial entrepreneur, India
Judge for yourself http://www.psychotactics.com/brainaudit

2) 5000bc Community: How can you get reliable answers to your complex marketing problems? (And how on earth do you find answers to these questions at 3:25 in the morning?). Find out how at
http://www.psychotactics.com/5000bc

3) “I started listening on my PC, and found it so compelling that I downloaded the audio files, and put them on my PDA to keep listening when I went out.”

Eric Graudins, Webangel, Australia
Find out Why the Website Trilogy Series is so compelling?
http://www.psychotactics.com/website-secrets

4) How to Create Powerful Testimonials To Sell Your Internet Marketing Product. Find out the sec’rets…
http://www.psychotactics.com/testimonialsecrets

5) “I was worried that this would be yet another expense where I didn’t end up using what I had bought.”

“You guys are masters of making sure that we consume (what we’ve bought)! And so, I’ve learned a ton since I joined! I love The Cave. I honestly haven’t made the time to try out anything else or even look into anything other than the general discussion board! The other things I really like: Direct access and insight from Sean, networking with other like-minded small business owners, the positive and encouraging vibe.

If you ask me: Would I recommend 5000bc I’d say: Of course! Because I’ve learned a lot! One more thing I’d like to add. Thanks for being so dedicated to us. ”

Marina Brito
Fairfax, Virginia, USA
Judge for yourself http://www.psychotactics.com/5000bc

———————–

If you like this article
If you like this article, feel free to share it with your own list,post it on your site, on your blog, or add it to your autoresponder. Twitter it, Facebook it, translate it. As long as you leave it intact and do not alter it in anyway. All links must remain in the article. No textual amendments permitted. Only exception is Twitter.

©2001-2009 Psychotactics Ltd. All rights reserved.
Article By: Sean D’Souza
Wouldn’t you love to stumble upon a sec’ret library of small business ideas? Find simple, yet electrifying ideas, on copywriting, public speaking, marketing strategies, sa’les conversion, psychological tactics and branding.
Head down to http://www.psychotactics.com today and judge for yourself.

Imagine if someone told you that you needed 10,000 hours to learn to drive a car.

No? What about 5000 hours then? Would that be suitable?
How about 3000 hours? Or 1000? Or 500? Ok, how about 60 hours?

A very average person with a reasonable fear of cars can learn to drive in about 60 hours.

Or can they? Because it depends on the car, doesn’t it? Is it a small car? Is it a truck? Are you learning to drive with your husband/wife (not recommended) or are you learning to drive with a patient teacher? Are you learning to drive in Auckland, New Zealand or are you learning to drive in Mumbai, India?

The complexity of learning is so complex, that we’d rather not think about it. But the question isn’t about learning. The question is: Does it really take us 10,000 hours to learn anything? No it doesn’t. It takes us 10,000 hours to become a freakin’ genius at something.

Most of us are reasonably competent at learning a software program in 30 hours.

Most of us can learn to play one song on a piano in 50 hours.
Most of us can learn how to write superb articles in about 120 hours.

But the 10,000-hour concept stops us in our tracks.

We are so obsessed with the factor of genius that we forget about competence.
Competence is easy. Competence is doable. Competence makes our lives richer and makes us more confident.

The stage of learning goes from infancy to competency…

From competency to fluency; from fluency to mastery. And you know what? Most of us are very competent at a lot of things we do every single day of our lives. And that’s because we have to do it. We weren’t born to type in forums, or to use iPhones, or to drive a car. But we do. We learn how to be competent in all of the above. Then we learn some more, and some more and then we become fluent. If we live long enough and we practice deliberately, we achieve mastery.

But the goal isn’t mastery.

It’s not even fluency.
It’s just competency.

You don’t need 10,000 hours. Or 5000 hours. Or even 1000 hours.

You need 60 hours.
Or 30 hours.
That’s it.

You can go from a complete dolt to a competent, happy camper

All in 30 hours.
Try it. It works.

And it sure beats being a dolt who’s waiting to free up 10,000 hours to be a genius!

————————-

Product Offers: Links you should visit

1) “I first bought the Brain Audit in 2002.  It was 32 pages long.  And I thought it was the best damn book on copywriting I had read!  It laid down the entire sequence of elements that any successful salesletter or presentation needs to cover to make the prospect say “yes!”

I really thought that Brain Audit could not be improved upon. But year after year, Sean has been proving me wrong.  He has improved upon it.  And improved upon it.  And improved upon it.

Sean’s added more details to the Brain Audit.  More stories and analogies.  Better graphics (and fun cartoons!).  He has used every teaching trick possible to make sure that you not only understand
the sequence of elements needed to make people buy from… but the sequence soaks into your thinking pattern.

Today, Brain Audit 3.2 is 157 pages long!  And its the best* book on persuasion you will ever read! * Until Sean comes out with version 4.0 a year or 2 down the line.  But you really can’t afford to wait a year or 2 to take advantage of the Brain Audit, can you?”

Ankesh Kothari, Adventures of a serial entrepreneur, India
Judge for yourself http://www.psychotactics.com/brainaudit

2) 5000bc Forum: How can you get reliable answers to your complex marketing problems? (And how on earth do you find answers to these  questions at 3:25 in the morning?). Find out how at
http://www.psychotactics.com/5000bc

3) “I started listening on my PC, and found it so compelling that I downloaded the audio files, and put them on my PDA to keep listening when I went out.”

Eric Graudins, Webangel, Australia
Find out Why the Website Trilogy Series is so compelling?
http://www.psychotactics.com/website-secrets

4) How to Create Powerful Testimonials To Sell Your Internet Marketing Product. Find out the secrets…
http://www.psychotactics.com/testimonialsecrets

————————-

If you like this article
If you like this article, feel free to share it with your own list, post it on your site, on your blog, or add it to your autoresponder. Twitter it, Facebook it, translate it.
As long as you leave it intact and do not alter it in anyway. All links must remain in the article. No textual amendments permitted. Only exception is Twitter.

©2001-2009 Psychotactics Ltd. All rights reserved.
Article By: Sean D’Souza
Wouldn’t you love to stumble upon a sec’ret library of small business ideas? Find simple, yet electrifying ideas, on copywriting, public speaking, marketing strategies, sa’les conversion, psychological tactics and branding. Head down to http://www.psychotactics.com today and judge for yourself.

Speeding up your articles writing: Is that really possible?
Do you want to write articles and write them faster?
Do you want to write outstanding articles and write them faster?
Do you want to avoid slogging over one darned article for three hours?

Let’s answer that question by looking at piano lessons.

If you started piano lessons two and a half weeks ago…would you want to play faster?
Or better?

Would you want the notes to sound like a bit of a melody? Or would you want to rush through it, just to be quick?

I know the answer: With the piano, you’d want to play the melody. With the article, you’d want to write faster -without losing the melody.

So you have one standard for piano lessons, but quite another for article writing, but hey, that’s not a problem.

Because lack of speed does frustrate.
But no matter how slow you are, you need to know something. It’s important know that when I was in your situation, I was taking two DAYS to write an article! I’d have given anything to write in three hours. Man, writing in three hours that would have been like taking the bullet train!

But surely there’s a way to speed up things without sacrificing on quality…

Yes there is. It’s called posting on forums. Or blogs.

Because it takes me just a few minutes to answer a post on a forum or blog. And it takes you approximately the same few minutes to answer a post. Of course, if you answer a post with a longer answer, then it may take fifteen minutes. Or thirty.

But when was the last time you answered a post on a forum or on a blog and took a chunky three hours? Never, eh? Never is the answer. Neither you, nor I have ever sat there and composed a three-hour answer.

Any answer to any post is always done and dusted in less than about 20-30 minutes, no matter how detailed. No matter how long.
And that’s because you’re emotionally charged.

Your neurons are doing the salsa the moment you hit the keys. By the time you get into the first few lines of your answer, your neurons are on their third margarita. And that’s when you really start to write with a flow. Often the thoughts come so fast, that you can barely get them onto the screen.

So try it. Try answering a post.
Jump onto a forum if you can. And see if a question tickles your fancy. Then answer the question in great detail. I do this on several blogs. And several forums. And as you’ve seen time and time again, in 5000bc.

I simply answer the questions in great detail and then I have an article. Of course, if it’s on a forum or blog, then the person posting the question may come back with more questions.

And because as I get more questions to my original answer, I can fortify my original article as well. Or in some cases, the consequent questions may lead to different angles, and hence different articles on the same topic. And you know what? It’s much easier to answer a question when you’re charged up and all excited, than to write from a cold start.

I know this because I write hundreds of articles every year.
Of course if you’re on the Article Writing Course, you know that’s no big deal. A person who’s been on the course just for a week, is writing six and seven articles a week. Even if you take a couple of months off in a year from writing, you can still turn out about 250 articles reasonably easily. But you have to ask: Where are you going to get questions for those hundreds of articles?

The answer is forums. The answer is blogs.

But what if you don’t find blogs or forums?

Well get a student
Get someone who you can work with. Charge them a fee. Let them come over week after week, and you train them.  The discipline of having to train them will fill your head with ideas and concepts that you need to write down. And of course, students have an unending number of questions. All you have to do is to remember to make notes of what you said in your answer.

So keep a piece of paper and a pen handy. As you give that student the answer, make sure you write down the points of your answer. Do this all the time and for any question you answer.

Suddenly you’ll have so many articles that you’ll be like an air traffic controller over Heathrow airport.
Dozens of articles waiting to land. Dozens of articles circling the airport. And you’ve got the questions and the answers.

And of course we come full circle. You’re not taking three hours (or a miserable two days to write an article) Instead you’re doing it in 20-30 minutes or less.

And yes, it may not be the best article in the world…yet!
But hey, you become a lot faster. As you write on a daily basis you’ll get better too.

And then you’ve got the best of both worlds: Speed and quality.

Just don’t try this on piano lessons, ok?

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Most people make a mistake with promoting a product or service. When they promote a product/service, they expect sales. And rightly so. But you’re missing out on the most important aspect of all: that people don’t buy when you want to sell. And this is why most of us go bananas in sales and marketing. We decide we want to sell a product or service, and there are no takers. Then of course we blame the recession, we blame our ol’ grand aunt Mathilda who cursed us—or whatever. And the point is that you’re missing the point.

A crappy turnout for one event can cause the next event to be a super sell out.
Hmmm…how does that work, you ask? Well, you need to look at an event as an ad. When we first started out, our events were um, not so full. And it was gut-wrenching to see just one or two people sign up, when we were expecting a lot more. But imagine our surprise when the courses started really filling up the next time, and the next time. So I’d stumbled on a big secret very early in my career: That I could do a course or sell a product or service, and it didn’t matter that no one would buy.

What mattered was that over time, they would buy…
They just bought when they were ready. And that the poorly attended course, or poorly accepted product/service was just an advertisement for sales in the future. Once I realised this I was on cloud nine. Because I could create products, services and courses and not be overly worried how many people turned up. And yes, those days of poor turnouts are long gone. Today most of our courses are overbooked (in fact we have a waiting list for some courses for 2010). And the reason I’m writing this note to you, is simply because I don’t want you to get disheartened when your product/service doesn’t sell right away.

Remember that in many cases it’s just an ad for a future full house!

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