Most of us struggle with the uniqueness of our products or services. And the reason we struggle is because we look for something exciting to showcase in our products and services. And all we seem to come up with, is the mundane and uninteresting.

You’ve probably heard of the ‘Twelve Apostles’ in Australia

Australia has close to six million tourists every year. About 1.7 million of these visit the site of the ‘Twelve Apostles’. Now before you get all reverential here, recognise the fact that there’s nothing very holy about this place. The Twelve Apostles are just a collection of limestone stacks off the shore, as you drive down the Great Ocean road.

And it wasn’t even known as the Twelve Apostles to begin with. The site was known as ‘the Sow and Piglets’ until 1922— after which it was renamed to The Apostles for tourism purposes. This formation eventually became known as the Twelve Apostles.

What’s ironical is that there aren’t twelve limestone stacks

There are just nine. And one of those nine is eroding, so there will soon be eight. But do those 1.7 million visitors care? No, they don’t. Because to them, that venue is unique. Someone decided that in a continent full of wonders, they could isolate one attraction and draw millions of tourists to see these rocks. Yup, just rocks.

In effect, Australia took the mundane and made it extremely exciting.

The Mona Lisa at the Louvre in Paris, is no less mundane

There are over 35,000 pieces of art at the Louvre. While the Mona Lisa is certainly not mundane by itself, it’s just one of the many splendid art pieces in the Louvre. And in that respect, it’s pretty mundane. So why does everyone rush to see the Mona Lisa? You know the answer already, don’t you?

At some point, someone decided to highlight the Mona Lisa. And to play down 34,999 other works of art. That’s akin to having a product with 35,000 features and playing down all but one feature. And that’s what gets the attention.

Your product or service has the same problem

For instance if you look at a membership site—any membership site, there are a ton of reasons why you should join and continue to be a member. Let’s list a few, shall we?

1. Reliable answers to business problems

2. Timely responses, 24/7

3. Access to the owner

4. Accountability

5. Access to practical “how to” resources

6. Access to a community of like minded business people

7. Access to helpful members

8. A safe environment

9. A getting things done environment

10. Privileged access to courses and products

So what’s so interesting about that list?

There may well be some interesting aspects to that list, but equally there may be something really mundane. For example: Access to practical “how to” resources. Now surely that is very mundane. Every membership site on the planet promises the very same thing. You sign up and you get access to all of these wonderful tutorials and goodies.

That’s kinda interesting, yet boring, eh? And yet it could very easily be made the uniqueness factor by describing why these ‘how to’ resources are better than anything that you may possibly find elsewhere.

So let’s take a crack at it, shall we?

“How To” Resources at XYZ Memberships Site: If you join a membership site, you’re sure to run into hundreds of articles and tutorials. The difference between what you see in XYZ Membership site and elsewhere, is that the articles don’t just tell you ‘how’ to do something, but ‘why’ that something works.

Once you understand ‘why’ something works, you’re able to replicate that concept successfully across all your products or services—and know why it’s failing and how to fix it and make it work for to your benefit.

Let’s take another example

Let’s say you own a tea company. And there are half a dozen, probably two dozen reasons why someone should buy your tea. Well, what are you going to choose? You’re more than likely to go for something that seems dramatic. But for the purposes of this exercise, let’s just choose the mundane.

1. Tea must be pesticide and chemical-free.

2. Tea must be this year’s crop.

3. Dry leaf should look fresh and shiny.

4. Aroma must be fragrant and lively.

5. Liquor must never be cloudy.

6. Mouth feel must have the right umami.

7. Teas must be priced appropriately.

Now there are some exceptionally interesting and some terribly mundane points as well. But they”re only mundane because of a lack of explanation. If we were to choose the concept of ‘cloudiness’ of tea, for instance, we could go on an don about how the tea liquor needs to be clear. How a pure leaf will create a translucent, almost shimmering cup of tea. Why a cloudy liquor is often a sign of low quality—and hence, not so tasty teas.

You see what’s happening here?

The key factor isn’t the feature. You could take a mundane feature, give it oomph and it forces your audience to take notice. And the beauty is that you can do it with any feature. Yes, you’re more likely to be tempted to use the best possible feature, but in reality there is no ‘best’ feature.

Any feature, no matter how mundane, can be given the spotlight. What makes the feature stand out is the story behind the feature; the reason why that feature is so very important.

When choosing or creating the uniqueness factor for your products or services, you may work long and hard to find something amazing.

Well, stop the search.

Look for the mundane instead.

And elevate that ‘so-called’ boring feature to one of great prominence by describing why that feature is so very important.

And that will get you one step closer to uniqueness.

Yeah, just like that!

P.S. What is your uniqueness? And how have you made it prominent? Share you story here.

Top Selling Products Under $50

1) You already know that 80% of a sales letter depends on your headline.
So what’s the remaining 20% that causes customers to buy? Find out more

2) Do You Often Hit A Wall Called ‘Writers Block’?
Learn how the core elements of outlining can save you from the misery of writing your next article.

3) Do you know that visuals immediately improve your sales conversion?
Learn how to create drama and curiosity and help improve your web page conversion with visuals.

4) Do your websites, brochures, presentations, etc… confuse your clients?
Put some sanity into your design, even though you are not a designer?

5) Chaos Planning
Year after year you sit down and create a list of things you want to achieve. Then suddenly it’s April, and you’ve not really moved ahead as you’d expected.
Learn Why Most Planning Fails: And The Critical Importance of Chaos in Planning.

The Black Belt Presentation Series: Learn how to make your Presentation stand out from every other presenter.

When companies from the West first visited a de-regulated India, they were licking their fingers in anticipation. For India was a country of almost one billion people (well, it is over one billion now) and these companies could just see dollar signs no matter where they went. But sheer numbers doesn’t make for sales.

And many companies burned themselves trying to get off the ground, because the vast majority of people simply couldn’t or wouldn’t buy their products. They learned, after a lot of trial and error that sheer numbers don’t mean a thing.

The same applies to determining if you have a viable niche

It’s impossible to know at first if what you’re doing is going to be successful. So you look for one big factor: competition.

Huh? Competition?

Yes, competition. If you can find a ton of competition, then you know it’s extremely viable. Why? Because a whole truckload of people have been there before you and have found it viable to keep running their businesses. But just having that truckload still isn’t the best denominator, so you go even further.

You subscribe to their list. You see what they’re doing. Are they selling higher priced product and services? Or is it all discount priced? If you sniff some higher prices, then you know for sure that there is a market, and a high price market too. If that high price continues over the years, then you know for sure that it’s sustainable.

This isn’t a foolproof method

You’re looking in from the outside, so it’s hard to know for sure what profits etc, exist in the business. But at least you know it’s viable.

This is how I got into marketing

You see I was indeed fascinated with marketing, but fascination isn’t enough. The book that nudged my life in a different direction was ‘Good to Great’ by Jim Collins. And in this book, there was a concept called ‘The Hedgehog Principle’. And the principle consisted of three questions.

1) What can you be the best in the world at?

2) What drives your economic engine?

3) What are you deeply passionate about?

So I was passionate about marketing, and could easily be the best in the world at it (if I started, which I did). But the third question is the one that the companies that came to India never answered. And that is: What drives your engine? How viable is this niche?

And the answer must come from the market

The more competition that exists, the more viable the product or service. Which means that if the market is saturated with fad diets, you have more of a chance of writing a bestseller with a fad diet, than with a rigourous lifelong diet. If TV is swamped with reality shows, then you’re better off making yet another—yes, another—reality show.

And back to my story: At the time, people like Jay Abraham were selling single seats at workshops for $5000. I went to workshops that were priced at $10,000. All around me I could see clearly that people were selling product both offline, and shortly after, online too. And for pricey sums too.

And price is a good benchmark

That high price factor shows that not only does the market exist, but it’s a mature market allowing for pricier amounts as well. And there’s another thing about the high prices. It allows smaller players to co-exist.

If everyone is discounting each other in a tiny market, then you struggle to get off the ground. But if there are several layers of pricing, it’s a lot easier for you to not just get into the niche, but slowly power your way up as well, if you wish.

But what if you don’t want to follow the crowd?

Well, that’s noble, but the pioneers always get the arrows. This means you have to educate the market and that takes a lot of time and effort. And of course, money. It’s a lot better to follow the crowd (read: competition) and start off there, and then later, once you’ve got enough of a following, branch off where you will.

Big companies can burn through tens of millions of dollars, and not feel so much as a twinge.

You can lose a lot less and run into serious trouble. It’s better to start with the competition.

It sure saves having to stock up on all the anti-burn lotion.

P.S. Do you have a question or comment? Write it here and I will respond.

Top Selling Products Under $50

1) You already know that 80% of a sales letter depends on your headline.
So what’s the remaining 20% that causes customers to buy? Find out more

2) Do You Often Hit A Wall Called ‘Writers Block’?
Learn how the core elements of outlining can save you from the misery of writing your next article.

3) Do you know that visuals immediately improve your sales conversion?
Learn how to create drama and curiosity and help improve your web page conversion with visuals.

4) Do your websites, brochures, presentations, etc… confuse your clients?
Put some sanity into your design, even though you are not a designer?

5) Chaos Planning
Year after year you sit down and create a list of things you want to achieve. Then suddenly it’s April, and you’ve not really moved ahead as you’d expected.
Learn Why Most Planning Fails: And The Critical Importance of Chaos in Planning.

NEW PRODUCT! Learn How To make your Presentation stand out from every other presenter.

If you keep writing every day, you’ll have a problem. You’ll have more article ideas than you can write. Every day will sprout thirty-fifty new ideas that you can never turn into articles. But when you’re starting out, this problem is quite the opposite.

You may wake up and can’t think of a thing

Or you may be so tired that your brain refuses to co-operate.

So here’s what you do next: You find a few books

You can do this offline, or online. But allocate a fixed amount of time. And here’s how you go about it. Let’s say I want to write about PHP. I know diddly squat about PHP. So that’s the same as waking up and not being able to think of a thing to write.

So since the library is closed at this hour, I go online and look for a Dummies book

And I look at the contents page and voilà—there are a ton of topics just waiting for me. Not just topics, but subtopics. Yipeee-yahooey! Now I have my topics and my sub-topics.

But waitasec, isn’t that cheating?

Isn’t that plagiarism? Yes it is, if you copy the answers. Not if you copy the questions. The questions are simply the titles on the contents page. So let’s say the titles were the following:

Understanding PHP Data Types
Building SQL Queries
Troubleshooting a PHP Script
Setting Up Your Computer for PHP and MySQL Web Site Development
Considering the Various Uses for the PHP Scripting Language
Keeping Up with PHP and MySQL Changes
Use PHP Statements to Create Programs
Communicate with a Database through PHP MySQL Functions
Access and Adapt a Database with MySQL Queries
Knowing the MySQL WHERE Clause Format
Make MySQL Database Changes with the ALTER Query
Special Characters to Use in PHP Expression Test Patterns

Now fifteen thousand writers can take the very same topics and no two articles may be the same. Why? Because you’re going to approach the same questions from your level, your experience, your stories, your objections, your style. It simply cannot be the same.

And I found these points in fifteen seconds

You could spend hours trying to dream up the perfect topics and sub-topics, but they’re all ready and formatted for you on the Internet—if you just look. So look. Set a timer, and then go for the topics. Cut and paste the topics and then it’s time for outlining.

And by this time the expert in you can still be asleep

Because you’re still not writing yet, and are in outlining mode, you’re just having a party, by coming up with questions. So let me give it a shot with PHP (not that I know anything about it).

Building SQL Queries
What are SQL Queries?
What are the steps to building an SQL Query?
Where do SQL Queries mostly go wrong?
What are the practical applications for SQL Queries?
But surely we can do without SQL Queries…
Summary
Next step

Now if you’re a PHP programmer, I’m betting that you’ll be at least slightly interested in my questions. Some may be slightly off base, but most of them, when answered form a pretty good article.

But some answers may be too big. For example: Where do SQL Queries go wrong? So no problem. Just list the places where it can go wrong—yes, just a list. Then start up a new article called: Where SQL Queries go wrong and outline it—and phew—you have another outline!

Your topics and sub-topics don’t need to be in your head

They can be on the Internet, in the library or in the contents page of every book on your topic (hey, there’s this site called Amazon.com). If you want to write topics on starting a business, it’s there. If you want to write on WordPress, it’s there too. If you fancy gardening, kite building, even getting a divorce—it’s all there on the book stores. And not just one book, but forty or fifty books.

Which is why you need a timer

Because you can get stuck there all night trying to decide which topics and subtopics to choose. One thing is for sure, though: You can be half asleep forever, and never have a problem when coming up with topics and sub-topics.

And that’s just for starters. Once you start writing you’ll have the opposite problem. Too many ideas and not enough time to write!

P.S. How do you generate ideas for your articles? Share your ideas here.

Top Selling Products Under $50

1) You already know that 80% of a sales letter depends on your headline.
So what’s the remaining 20% that causes customers to buy? Find out more

2) Do You Often Hit A Wall Called ‘Writers Block’?
Learn how the core elements of outlining can save you from the misery of writing your next article.

3) Do you know that visuals immediately improve your sales conversion?
Learn how to create drama and curiosity and help improve your web page conversion with visuals.

4) Do your websites, brochures, presentations, etc… confuse your clients?
Put some sanity into your design, even though you are not a designer?

5) Chaos Planning
Year after year you sit down and create a list of things you want to achieve. Then suddenly it’s April, and you’ve not really moved ahead as you’d expected.
Learn Why Most Planning Fails: And The Critical Importance of Chaos in Planning.

NEW PRODUCT! Learn How To make your Presentation stand out from every other presenter.

You know those presenters who read out from slides? You know how you detest them? Well there’s a reason.

And it comes all the way from Hollywood

The Hollywood saying goes like this: If the scene shows you what the scene is supposed to show you, you’re in deep shit.

What does that mean?

If there are two lovers over a candlelit dinner and they’re saying: ”I love you” then the scene is showing you what the scene is showing you.

So in effect it’s treating you like an idiot. You already know that the candlelit, soft scene is about love. That’s already been clearly shown to you. Now if the actors repeat it, then it’s a complete waste of space. And a waste of your time.

Love can be shown in different ways

So in an episode of Frasier, Daphne and Niles are chopping vegetables and singing a song. And they chop to a rhythm. There’s love written all over the scene. Unabashed love on Niles’ face. Unknown love on Daphne’s face. But they never say I love you. They chop veggies.

The same applies to anything whether it goes from cartoons to magazine layouts to presentations

The graphic needs to accompany the text. Not be a replica of the text. If the graphics are a replica of the text, it’s boring for the reader/listener/viewer.

So when you read off the points in your slides, you’re causing the listener/viewer a ton of grief. For one, you’re breaking Hollywood’s rule–that’s never good. And secondly you’re boring me, because here’s what happens in my brain.

When I see text, I read it

When I read it, it may appear to be a silent reading but in fact my ear is processing the information before sending it to my brain.

You see this more evidently in older folk and young children. They read aloud so that their ear processes the information before sending it to their brain. The same applies to you and me–except that we don’t read aloud. But we’ve still “read aloud” and then along comes the presenter and reads it aloud again.

That’s like saying something twice. That’s like saying something twice

It irritates the reader/viewer. It irritates the reader/viewer. And in a few minutes it turns the reader/viewer off completely. And in a few minutes it turns the reader/viewer off completely.

Get the point?

P.S. Do you have a Presentation Story? Share your Story here.

Top Selling Products Under $50

1) You already know that 80% of a sales letter depends on your headline.
So what’s the remaining 20% that causes customers to buy? Find out more

2) Do You Often Hit A Wall Called ‘Writers Block’?
Learn how the core elements of outlining can save you from the misery of writing your next article.

3) Do you know that visuals immediately improve your sales conversion?
Learn how to create drama and curiosity and help improve your web page conversion with visuals.

4) Do your websites, brochures, presentations, etc… confuse your clients?
Put some sanity into your design, even though you are not a designer?

5) Chaos Planning
Year after year you sit down and create a list of things you want to achieve. Then suddenly it’s April, and you’ve not really moved ahead as you’d expected.
Learn Why Most Planning Fails: And The Critical Importance of Chaos in Planning.

NEW PRODUCT! Learn How To make your Presentation stand out from every other presenter.

Imagine you had two loans to pay back. Loan A was $100,000 at 19% interest per annum. Loan B was $200 at 1% interest. Which loan would you pay back first? Loan A or Loan B? If you chose Loan A, then almost every financial consultant on the planet would agree with you.

Except Dave Ramsey

To everyone, but Dave, the logic is clear. Loan A has a much higher rate of interest. Logically you should pay back the higher rate of interest first. But as you’d expect, Dave disagrees.

That’s because Dave understands inertia better than most other financial consultants

So what is inertia? I learned a funny definition in physics class at school. It went like this: A body in the state of rest or motion is inertia.

Hah, that made me laugh. How can you be stuck and moving, and still be in the same state? But apparently that’s how inertia works. And this is Dave’s advice to people who are struggling with debt.

First list all the debts on a piece of paper

All debts need to go down. Student loans, credit card, mortgage, blah, blah. Then you need to rearrange the loans based on the size of the loan. So the smallest loan goes right at the top and the biggest one right at the bottom.

And everything else in between (depending on the size of the loan). And then he instructs you to pay only the minimum payment on every debt–with one exception. After the minimum payments were made, every available dollar needs to be put towards the first debt on the list.

Incredible as it may sound, Dave is telling you to wipe out that tiny, itty-bitty $200 debt with the pathetic interest, instead of taking on the painful big amount/big interest debt.

Logically it makes no sense

But your brain doesn’t always work logically when it comes to inertia. While you’re lounging on the sofa, watching endless and pointless political debates on TV, your logic is telling to get off your butt. It’s telling you that the debates are endless (and did we say, pointless?).

Your logic is also telling you that you should be doing some work or exercise instead of engaging in mindless drivel. So logic doesn’t work. And the same applies to the debt. When Dave’s clients wipe out the first debt it’s not necessarily logical, but it creates a factor of momentum. First the $200 is wiped out. Then the $350. Then the $800. And so on, right up to the ‘monsta’ $100,000.

The motion is what matters

A body in a state of rest or motion is inertia. And going from rest to a state of motion is impossible if you decide to take on the biggest task first.

Logic tells you that you should fix your website right now. Logic tells you that you should write that 300 page book. But Dave would say, “Go brush your teeth first.” That simple act of doing something–anything at all–gets you off your caboose and into another state of inertia: a state of motion.

So if you need to get something done, fool yourself

-Don’t go for a 60 minute walk. Instead put on your shoes and decide to walk for just 7 minutes.

-Don’t try to write a complete article. Just write for 14 minutes. Then stop.

-Avoid trying to clean the entire bathroom. Just attack the sink.

These tiny bits help you get to the bigger bits. Because even as you go for the 7 minute walk, you know very well that you’re not going to turn around in 7 minutes.

You’ll go longer and further. But the goal always needs to be 7 minutes or 14 minutes or the $200 debt. The itty-bitty bits are important, more important in fact, than the bigger goals.

When people say they feel inertia, they mostly refer to a state of laziness

Of not wanting to do anything at all. But as my physics teacher would tell you: “There’s inertia and there’s inertia.” And to get from one stage to another, you need to make the list in descending order of importance. Then attack the list.

And as Dave would say: Start small.

Acknowledgements

Dave Ramsey’s ‘Snowball Debt’ and ‘Switch’ by Chip and Dan Heath. P.S. Yes I know. You’re headed to Google these names, aren’t you? You think you’ll find out more about this book and this method of reducing debt, aren’t you? But you already have the tools.

You have a piece of paper. You have a pencil or pen. And you have the methodology. So don’t muck around. Get to work. You need to change that state of inertia right now.

Did you find this article interesting? Write your comments here. I would love to hear from you.

Top Selling Products Under $50

1) You already know that 80% of a sales letter depends on your headline.
So what’s the remaining 20% that causes customers to buy? Find out more

2) Do You Often Hit A Wall Called ‘Writers Block’?
Learn how the core elements of outlining can save you from the misery of writing your next article.

3) Do you know that visuals immediately improve your sales conversion?
Learn how to create drama and curiosity and help improve your web page conversion with visuals.

4) Do your websites, brochures, presentations, etc… confuse your clients?
Put some sanity into your design, even though you are not a designer?

5) Chaos Planning
Year after year you sit down and create a list of things you want to achieve. Then suddenly it’s April, and you’ve not really moved ahead as you’d expected.
Learn Why Most Planning Fails: And The Critical Importance of Chaos in Planning.

NEW PRODUCT! Learn How To make your Presentation stand out from every other presenter.

Have you ever been to a primary school play?

There they are, all the kids, all keen to play their part.

And then one kid forgets his part

He stands there dumbfounded. Unable to speak. Frozen in fear. The words seemingly circulating in his brain somewhere.

I was that kid!

Except I wasn’t five years old. I was thirty-three years old and I was giving my first presentation ever on The Brain Audit. Except at that point, it wasn’t even called The Brain Audit. I was, at least in my mind, just giving a one hour seminar.

And about twenty minutes into that one hour, I froze

Nothing. I couldn’t remember a thing. There were twenty five people in the room looking right at me, and my mind was blankety-blank. And time doesn’t just slow down in these moments. It shuts down. You feel suffocated, unable to move or even twitch an eyebrow.

My wife, Renuka saved me that night

She told the audience we were going to take a 10-minute break. Imagine that. A 10-minute break in the middle of a presentation. But there I was ten minutes later, my brain all rebooted. And I gave my first presentation on The Brain Audit ever. But that was my first ever event. Sure I goofed up. But then I was fine.

Fine until Wellington, that is

I had to speak to this group of insurance agents. One hundred and fifty of them. And I was being paid the grand sum of $1500 plus airfare + expenses. And though it was at least three-four years later and forty presentations later, I did it again.

I became that five-year old on the stage again

My 45-minute speech was done in twenty. And I fled the stage. I was mortified because I forgot what I was supposed to say. And I knew in that moment, that I really should stop trying to be a speaker. Heck I might as well go and hide behind my computer and never show my face again.

Moments of doubt creep up in everyone’s mind

But this isn’t a moment. This is a crisis. You’re being mangled, pulverised and every bone in your body is telling you to eject, eject and eject.

And yet you stay on course. You feel the anguish, the shame, the utter doubt. And then when you’ve done enough of your self-pity, you wake up the next day (or several days later) and you get back to doing what you need to do.

What I needed to do was go back to Wellington

Back to that same hotel. Back to that same stage. Back to face a fear so strong that even though I wasn’t going to be speaking to the same audience; or even speaking on the same topic; or the fact that several years had elapsed. I was still petrified of—get this—the very room!

But that’s what you have to do

The only way to face the fear is to face it. You pick yourself, dust yourself off and start all over again. That’s what marks out the people who succeed vs. the people who don’t.

The people who don’t make excuses. They say: I tried this stuff. It didn’t work. Well hello there, try it again. And again. At least so that you get over the fear. If for no one else, then at least for yourself.

Because the moment of doubt doesn’t care

As you get better at what you do, you have more challenges. Some challenges you breeze through. Some make you feel five again. Fearful. Blank. Unable to go on. But you must go on, because if you do there is that so-called pot of gold waiting at the end of the rainbow.

Remember The Brain Audit presentation I was telling you about?

Well, at that point I hadn’t written The Brain Audit. But after that event, someone came up to me and asked me for notes. Of course I didn’t have any notes. But she persisted. So I wrote out the notes a few days later and sent it to her in a PDF. Those notes became the basis for The Brain Audit as it is today.

And today that one book alone has sold over $500,000 worth of copies to date.

One book. Half a million dollars!

In my wildest dreams I could not have envisioned a turnaround like that. But it could have gone the other way as well. I could have given up. Decided to go into early ‘retirement’. And that would be the end.

Doubt shakes our very core

When you’re doing a course. Learning a new skill. Doing something different or scary. And the longer you wallow in self-pity, the more stupid excuses you make, the more that doubt is going to chew you up and spit you out.

Be that five year old

Freeze in fear if you have to. Take your ’10-minute break.’

Then come back to fight.

And win!

P.S. So what was your scariest presentation moment? And how did you overcome it? Share your experience here

Top Selling Products Under $50

1) You already know that 80% of a sales letter depends on your headline.
So what’s the remaining 20% that causes customers to buy? Find out more

2) Do You Often Hit A Wall Called ‘Writers Block’?
Learn how the core elements of outlining can save you from the misery of writing your next article.

3) Do you know that visuals immediately improve your sales conversion?
Learn how to create drama and curiosity and help improve your web page conversion with visuals.

4) Do your websites, brochures, presentations, etc… confuse your clients?
Put some sanity into your design, even though you are not a designer?

5) Chaos Planning
Year after year you sit down and create a list of things you want to achieve. Then suddenly it’s April, and you’ve not really moved ahead as you’d expected.
Learn Why Most Planning Fails: And The Critical Importance of Chaos in Planning.

NEW PRODUCT! Learn How To make your Presentation stand out from every other presenter.

Imagine this. Imagine you move into a neighbourhood and a neighbour brings across a big cake.

What happens to you instantly?

There you are, with all your unpacked boxes, a to-do list so long it stretches all the way to Geneva and all that you can think of, is how to pay that person back. How you can thank that person in return.

Brian Tracy did me such a favour

Brian Tracy is a speaker/trainer and famous for sales-training worldwide. I stumbled upon his work early in the year 2002, when the first ebooks were trickling out onto the Internet. I bought an ebook and with it came some audio from Brian Tracy. And I was hooked. Imagine my surprise when I found half a dozen books in the library as well as audio cassettes (yup, cassettes). For me, a rookie in marketing and sales, those books and audio were heaven-sent. I’d listen to the tapes twenty, even fifty times over.

Can you tell I was thankful beyond words?

But how do you thank someone like that? Well actually in today’s world it’s dead easy. But this wasn’t today. This was 2002.

Anyway, since I was now officially stalking Brian’s every move, I learned he was coming to Auckland. So I did what any good stalker would do. I emailed his secretary. Back and forth we communicated. I found out stuff he liked, the type of wine he preferred etc. And of course, when Brian was coming to Auckland. Yup, down to the flight number.

And the day he landed, I was there to say hello

Weird, I know, but that’s how stalkers are. Brian was amused, but a little taken aback as well. I told him about the exchanges with his secretary and he decided I was slightly bananas, but kinda bearable. What he didn’t expect was a superb bottle of wine (I think it cost about $50) and a note thanking him for all he’d done.

That opened my door to Brian’s world

I was able to meet him for breakfast. I got to go to his event. He shared some ‘secrets’ with me that over the years saved us thousands of dollars (and made us thousands too). And I got to go backstage and see how things were done. There’s more of a story, but the point is simple.

Most people never say thank you in a meaningful way

And when you go out of your way to say thank you, you are remembered. People remember you because most people never say thanks. They may just send an email over. Or may not even bother to do that. But to really say thanks means that you stand out like crazy. I can, for instance remember a chocolate cake that showed up on my doorstep one November. I can remember the dinner at my favourite restaurant. I can remember a simple iTunes voucher I got from someone. I can remember that audio series on the ‘Talent Code’ that came in the mail. I remember, because thanks is so rare.

So is this about me getting gifts?

That’s a nice thought, so hold it, but that’s not the point at all. The point is just to say thanks to people who make a difference in your life. Renuka and I will often give the waiters and waitresses at the cafe a small bar of chocolate. When we travel, we often take little gifts for people. We will send t-shirts (after checking the size etc) or a little tree, for instance. The point is that you need to learn to say thanks often and consistently.

The problem with thanks is that you can’t wait

You have to say thanks quickly. And in a way that works. So for instance, a bar of chocolate may be appropriate for one person and not for another. A bottle of wine may be great for someone and not for another. And this can’t wait. You can procrastinate too long and forget about things. And a thank you opportunity lost is a thank you opportunity lost.

Be aware that it’s not always a gift as well

A book. A little card. A crayon drawing. A special video. There are a million ways to say thanks without spending a dime. But first you have to learn to say thanks as often as possible. And there are reasons. The first being that it makes you happy. That’s the most important reason. The second is that it makes the other person happy. And finally, the concept of ‘give and you shall receive’ comes into play.

You don’t give because you want to receive, but you get stuff back anyway. That one conversation with Brian made a difference to my life forever. And it changed my perception of things and added to my bank balance. One measly bottle of wine makes a massive difference.

So yeah, have you said thanks today in a meaningful way, yet? How did you do it? Share your stories here.

Top Selling Products Under $50

1) You already know that 80% of a sales letter depends on your headline.
So what’s the remaining 20% that causes customers to buy? Find out more

2) Do You Often Hit A Wall Called ‘Writers Block’?
Learn how the core elements of outlining can save you from the misery of writing your next article.

3) Do you know that visuals immediately improve your sales conversion?
Learn how to create drama and curiosity and help improve your web page conversion with visuals.

4) Do your websites, brochures, presentations, etc… confuse your clients?
Put some sanity into your design, even though you are not a designer?

5) Chaos Planning
Year after year you sit down and create a list of things you want to achieve. Then suddenly it’s April, and you’ve not really moved ahead as you’d expected.
Learn Why Most Planning Fails: And The Critical Importance of Chaos in Planning.

NEW PRODUCT! Learn How To make your Presentation stand out from every other presenter.

Yesterday I went to buy some walking shoes.
And I ended up spending $2000. And that’s not counting the shoes.

Now, did that opening get your attention?

Sure it did. It sucked you in. And the reason you hear that strange sucking sound is because I didn’t start off the article like most people do. Most people slide logically into an article. But you can use the power of the story. And not just the story, but the middle of the story. Because there, smack bang in the middle, lies the drama—the part that really captivates your reader.

So how do you know what to pick as you unfold your story?

The answer is actually quite mundane—even, counter intuitive. To get that drama, you don’t have to pick anything particularly exciting. You just have to make it exciting for me.

So let’s say we went back into my world of yesterday

Were the purchase of the shoes the most important point?
Or was it the purchase of a draughtsman’s table?
Perhaps it could be Italian food we had for dinner. Or just about anything.

In a story, you have at least three-four exciting points and any one of them can rise to the surface. Yes, any point is exciting. What really matters, is how you bring a factor of excitement to the story. As you explain the details, the simple fact becomes interesting.

And master story tellers know this to be true

They know that even a mundane story can be brought to life in the way you recount it. In a presentation at TED.com, speaker, Hans Rosling tells a seemingly mundane story of a washing machine. And Hans has many options when telling this story, but he chooses to talk about the ‘button-driven miracle’ of the machine. And he stays with that angle to get your attention.

And here’s how it unfolds…

“I was only four years old when I saw my mother load a washing machine for the very first time in her life. That was a great day for my mother. My mother and father had been saving money for years to be able to buy that machine.

And the first day it was going to be used, even Grandma was invited to see the machine. And Grandma was even more excited. Throughout her life she had been heating water with firewood, and she had hand washed laundry for seven children. And now she was going to watch electricity do that work.

My mother carefully opened the door, and she loaded the laundry into the machine, like this. And then, when she closed the door, Grandma said, “No, no, no, no. Let me, let me push the button.” And Grandma pushed the button, and she said, “Oh, fantastic. I want to see this. Give me a chair. Give me a chair. I want to see it.”

And she sat down in front of the machine, and she watched the entire washing program. She was mesmerised. To my grandmother, the washing machine was a miracle.”

So what’s the interesting part in this story?

It could have been that the clothes came out extremely clean. It could have been the sound and how they were captivated by the sound of the machine. It could have been the changeover from hard labour to just a button-driven miracle. Hans chose the button-driven miracle. But as you can see, he could have chosen anything as long as he used emotions to drive home the story.

You can feel the excitement, the awe, as Hans tells the story. And it’s these set of emotions that keeps the drama going and the heart pulsating.

Which brings us to this bizarre set of conclusions

1) That you can pick any story, or any subset of a story to get the drama going. And you often find this drama somewhere in the middle of your story.
2) The most important factor is one of enthusiasm. Bringing out the fear, the surprise—all of those emotions are what keeps the reader engaged.

One of the best ways to get the reader’s attention is to tell a story. But easily the best way to get that story raging ahead is to pick something—anything from the middle of the story and use it to start your article.

And as you work down your way through your story, you’ll find at least two-three spots where you can harvest great emotion or unusual drama. Now that you have that emotion/drama, it’s just a matter of putting that stuff at the top and drawing your reader in.

It’s a beginning no reader can resist.

Top Selling Products Under $50

1) NEW! You already know that 80% of a sales letter depends on your headline.
So what’s the remaining 20% that causes customers to buy? Find out more

2) Do You Often Hit A Wall Called ‘Writers Block’?
Learn how the core elements of outlining can save you from the misery of writing your next article.

3) Do you know that visuals immediately improve your sales conversion?
Learn how to create drama and curiosity and help improve your web page conversion with visuals.

4) Do your websites, brochures, presentations, etc… confuse your clients?
Put some sanity into your design, even though you are not a designer?

5) Chaos Planning
Year after year you sit down and create a list of things you want to achieve. Then suddenly it’s March, and you’ve not really moved ahead as you’d expected.
Learn Why Most Planning Fails: And The Critical Importance of Chaos in Planning.

NEW PRODUCT! Black Belt Presentations: How do you create presentations that enthrall, hold and move an audience to action?

That may seem to you, to be the silliest headline ever. Why would you need to learn how to make mistakes? You’re already a pro at making mistakes. You don’t need a how-to article to tell you how to make mistakes, right? But bear with me as we explore why mistake making is a science.

At Psychotactics, we have a cartooning course

This course is designed to teach anyone (yes, anyone) to learn to draw superb cartoons. But guess what? Most of the folks who join the course can’t really draw.

They probably haven’t drawn much since sixth grade. And if there’s one thing that’s absolutely guaranteed, is that they’re all going to make mistakes in the course.

Except they don’t want to…

Which is normal. Who’d join a course to make mistakes? So the best thing is to let someone get it right. If they get too many things wrong right at the start, disillusionment sets in. And it’s hard to keep going if you look like a goofball.

It’s also hard for those supporting you to say “Wow, that looks great!” So the first goal is to get as much right as possible. But getting things right is a tedious process, because you’re not experimenting enough. And the irony is once you start experimenting you make mistakes—tons of mistakes.

Which is why time needs to be set aside to make mistakes

So we enter a phase of speed drawing. In a fixed time of say, 30 minutes, the participants are encouraged to draw as many characters as possible. And you only get a pat on the back from me, the teacher, if you make a ton of mistakes.

This method appears to be contrary to what your teacher told you in school, but it works. Suddenly the mistake-making brain goes to work, churning out 20 or 30 cartoons in less than 30 minutes.

And suddenly you find it’s not so terrible to make mistakes after all

For one, you realise that your slow, tedious work is not a lot better than the quick, slap-dash work. And that both, the slow, tedious work, and the mistake-making exercise, have their roles to play.

It also relieves you of the need to be always right. And because everyone is making mistakes at the same time, the entire exercise turns out to be enormous fun, instead of a shameful activity.

The same principle is put into play when doing other courses

In the Headlines course, we have a period of writing headlines correctly. And then a period of writing every single headline wrong. To write the headline wrong, you have to know how to write it correctly in the first place. So the brain is forced to focus, but there’s no downside. You can’t get a mistake-making exercise wrong.

There’s just no way to get it wrong. You can make all the mistakes you want, and not have the slightest fear or embarrassment. And this removal of fear is what allows you to learn faster.

In effect, talent is just the elimination of mistakes

We see talent as something inborn. But it’s not inborn at all. Anyone can learn to write headlines or draw cartoons, or do anything to an exceptional degree—if they make enough mistakes and proceed to eliminate the mistakes.

But how can you eliminate mistakes if you don’t make them in the first place? The only way out of this trap is to have a system to make mistakes.

Airline pilots go through a mistake-making drill

Pilots aren’t just taught to fly planes correctly. In training (and the training is ongoing) they are put into situations where things go horribly wrong.

They’re then expected to work through those mistakes and work out a way to get the plane back on an even keel. Top sporting teams don’t just work on their strategy of winning.

They also closely examine situations where things can go horribly wrong and how to pull out of it. And the reason is simple. Getting things right once is a fluke. You have to get things right consistently, and often there’s no second chance. To be at this level of readiness, you have to be prepared to make mistakes while learning.

That’s the key factor: While learning

This article isn’t about you goofing up just for the sake of it. No one wants to be in a plane where the pilot is trying to get out of a tailspin. No one wants his or her favourite team to be trying out a new maneuver in the middle of the game.

Most of the major mistakes need to be made in practice, so that when it’s show time you’ve eliminated as many glitches as possible.

You need to get things wrong consistently and then iron out the mistakes

So if you’re a teacher, you need to institute a period for getting things right. And then getting them wrong. If you’re a student of a skill, you need to announce that you will try and get things right (and point out what you think you got right).

And then go through a part where you get things wrong on purpose, relieving you of the tension and need to be right and perfect all the time.

Get things wrong. Make it a science project. See how many things you can get wrong on purpose. And then fix the glitches later.

It’s the fastest way to getting things right.

Did you find this article useful? You can leave your comments here. I would love to hear from you.

Top Selling Products Under $50

1) NEW! You already know that 80% of a sales letter depends on your headline.
So what’s the remaining 20% that causes customers to buy? Find out more

2) Do You Often Hit A Wall Called ‘Writers Block’?
Learn how the core elements of outlining can save you from the misery of writing your next article.

3) Do you know that visuals immediately improve your sales conversion?
Learn how to create drama and curiosity and help improve your web page conversion with visuals.

4) Do your websites, brochures, presentations, etc… confuse your clients?
Put some sanity into your design, even though you are not a designer?

5) Chaos Planning
Year after year you sit down and create a list of things you want to achieve. Then suddenly it’s March, and you’ve not really moved ahead as you’d expected.
Learn Why Most Planning Fails: And The Critical Importance of Chaos in Planning.

NEW PRODUCT! Black Belt Presentations: How do you create presentations that enthrall, hold and move an audience to action?

Offer 1: The Brain Audit +  Special Goodies worth $158

Brain Audit: Why Customers Buy And Why They Dont

*If you’ve wondered why customers back away at the last minute, both online and offline, you’ll find the specific answers on the page below.

*If you have a website or intend to sell something off your website, you’ll avoid all of these mistakes, that if not fixed, will drive away customers.

Judge for yourself. I think you’ll be really pleased with what you  see.
The Brain Audit Special Offer

Offer 2: Join 5000bc without going on the waiting list

The Motto of 5000bc Membership: Be kind, Be helpful or Be gone

Imagine you asked a question. And you needed the answer to that question. e.g. How to create Strategic Alliances. In 5000bc, you have two options. You find detailed articles that tell you how to go about things. Or if the articles don’t exist, I write them for you (Try finding that kind of service online).

I just wanted you to know that 5000bc is now at  the point where we have to restrict entry. However from  13-16 March 2012, you can join 5000bc without having to endlessly wait in the wings. And only a limited number will be able to join. Judge for yourself.
Join  5000bc without going on  the waiting list .

Offer 3: How To Get The Black Belt Presentations Series  (Installments Special)

Black Belt Presentation Series

When you make a presentation, wouldn’t it be amazing to completely control the room–without turning anyone off? Wouldn’t you like to create a presentations that enthrall, hold and move an audience to action? Presenting Black Belt Presentation Series–A step-by-step system to presentations.

Find out more here. It has got rave reviews.
The Black Belt Presentation Series

Think of a story.
Any story.
Maybe just Cinderella, for instance.

What does it bring up right away to your mind?

1) Sequence
2) Suspense and
3) The roller coaster

Stories are like magic lamps. They have a sequence, there’s suspense and sure to be a roller coaster.

So if we examine Cinderella’s story we see:

1) There’s the sequence of the daughter who is mistreated and made to work in the kitchen.

The other daughters romp about doing what spoiled daughters do. And they fancy their chances with the prince. But things don’t go their way, and in turn, Cindy manages to get a fairy godmother. And blah, blah, blah.

And there’s a sequence of events each building into each other. But a good story must have some drama, some suspense.

2) The suspense

Suspense follows us all around the storyline. Cinderella’s mother dies and she’s doomed to sleeping near the fireplace (which is how she gets the name, Cinderella). But then the godmother appears from the blue—and suspense builds up—because now Cinderella has a chance like everyone else. Will she make it? Won’t she? She does. And then just as Cindy’s hitting it off with the Prince, the clock goes nuts and her life is miserable once more. What on earth is happening? What’s with this girl? Is she just going to be a loser? Yup, that’s all suspense.

3) Then there’s the roller coaster

Good times, then bad. Then good, then bad. Your story doesn’t have to swing wildly, but it helps to have contrast, because contrast changes the pace of the story. So just as things are really yucky, along comes the knight in shining armour. Or just as things are looking great, an avian flu threatens to kill the entire population. Cinderella’s fortunes seem to bounce up and down, which keeps the interest in the story.

Now let’s head to your story…

Every story you write tends to have sequence, because without sequence a story has no meaning. But suspense? You have to insert a certain amount of suspense. It’s always there in your story, but when you insert a ‘what the heck is happening’ factor, you instantly build suspense. And finally the roller coaster. If your story has been coasting with the fairies for a while, then it’s time to bring out the ogres—and vice versa.

And there are reasons why this storytelling is important:

1) Most writers are unable to capture the core elements of a story. Even if they do get the sequence right, they rarely build in suspense or the roller coaster. That’s because they aren’t aware of these elements, or just don’t know how to go about it. But you, you can practice and get a lot better.

2) Most articles are almost always how-to or reporter-like. This means that your articles automatically stand out when compared to millions of other articles on the Internet. And because most writers avoid this story-telling, your articles are instantly more appealing—and different.

Does it just have to be a story or can you have a case-study?

Case studies also have the same three elements, but you still have to work in the suspense and the roller coaster. The key factor is to realise that you’re already off to a brilliant start with a story because you have the advantage of sequence. And with a bit of practice, suspense and the roller coaster will become part of your case-study (or story-telling).

Kids sit at rapt attention when listening to the story of Cinderella

No matter how many times you tell the story, they’re keen as mustard to hear it again. Now you know why. And you can take the same elements and use it in your articles.

And then everyone who reads it will have that same mustardy-feeling too

The three core elements of storytelling are sequence, suspense and the roller coaster. How have you used these elements in your articles? Share your story here.

Top Selling Products Under $50

1) NEW! You already know that 80% of a sales letter depends on your headline.
So what’s the remaining 20% that causes customers to buy? Find out more

2) Do You Often Hit A Wall Called ‘Writers Block’?
Learn how the core elements of outlining can save you from the misery of writing your next article.

3) Do you know that visuals immediately improve your sales conversion?
Learn how to create drama and curiosity and help improve your web page conversion with visuals.

4) Do your websites, brochures, presentations, etc… confuse your clients?
Put some sanity into your design, even though you are not a designer?

5) Chaos Planning
Year after year you sit down and create a list of things you want to achieve. Then suddenly it’s March, and you’ve not really moved ahead as you’d expected.
Learn Why Most Planning Fails: And The Critical Importance of Chaos in Planning.

NEW PRODUCT! Black Belt Presentations: How do you create presentations that enthrall, hold and move an audience to action?