One of the most profound breakthroughs a person can have is to overcome the fear or nervousness they feel about public speaking. I have coached people through a variety of fear-smashing exercises including fire walking, board-breaking and rock climbing and I can tell you that helping someone find their voice and become comfortable with public speaking creates a much more significant and long-lasting impact than just about anything else.
Most new business owners already model marketing strategies; but not very effectively. They tend to model the activities of their competitors; using similar advertisements, websites etc. While this ‘shortcut’ is probably useful to some degree, some of the very best marketing strategies I have ever employed have come from modeling…
Don’t Blame The Dogs.
Painted dogs don’t typically attack people. In fact, as you will see in the inset shot, I stood only feet away from one as I snapped its picture.
In 2011 we learned all about occupying Wall Street and other financial centers — lets make 2012 the year we occupy our lives. Occupy your body — take care of your body; feed it lots of what it needs and only a little of what it doesn’t. Use your body — it was made for …
Primates mimic. That is how we learn. Do as I say, not as I do is not an effective parenting method because children learn by observing and imitating. If they see you smoke, they are twice as likely to take up the habit. Imitation and mimicry are a natural part of primate instinct — it saves a great deal of time.
In the first section of this article I focused on understanding ‘the other mind‘ when communicating or crafting a message. Now, I will focus on a danger of ‘the other mind‘ — the way trust works.
I first remember considering the concept of ‘the other mind’ when I was a little boy trying to manage the insanity of growing up with alcoholism and good old fashion dysfunction. I remember thinking, as a kid, that I had to find different methods for communicating my thoughts or ideas to others — methods more in line with their very different ways of thinking. It was clear to me, from a very young age, that people see the world differently from one another.
In Gladwell’s What the Dog Saw, I learned a term for this idea: ‘the problem of the other mind.‘ The problem being that people often assume, without real consideration, that other people view things roughly the same way they do. This leads to all manner of challenges and, to understand it, leads to a number of interesting opportunities.
Two years ago I invested in, and took over the management of, a struggling special effects company in Northern California. Sadly, I have decided to close the studio. I will blog more about Kerner Optical; I have learned a great deal, met the most fascinating people and had a great deal of fun. The company, originally the ‘model shop’ that was Industrial Light and Magic, employed some of the most talented and dedicated people on the planet. There are some great stories to tell – and the overall experience has been a bit like living a Grisham novel – intrigue, suspense, deception, celebrity and huge sums of money.
It is around this time of year that people decide to take stock of the previous 11 months and start thinking about the year ahead. The trouble is that most people don’t get past thinking about it. Sure, come December 31 they will have a few resolutions in mind — some that might not last the night and others that won’t last through January. Inertia is the challenge here.
So could it be that, by staying on course and handling challenges in stride, you can separate yourself from the pack and become one of the very few that achieves outstanding success?
