I had an amazing day yesterday at a Masterminds with the top paid speakers in the world and I just want to share that with you. They taught a lot of stuff, we started at noon and didn’t wrap until almost 9 pm. I got pages and pages of notes from that so I just want to share a couple of really good things from that for you guys.
One thing that we do as entrepreneurs is that we create content. We make blog posts, videos, pictures, anything that you create. We put all of this content out into the world so that we can let more people know about what is that we do.
One of the guys that I trained with was James Malachak and he’s doing a lot of really cool stuff. Some of the content he delivered yesterday was amazing. One of the things that he said that I really like was the “Boomerang Effect!” Whenever we put out content as entrepreneurs we own our own content. We’re going to make sure that the world knows that we got this and that going on. He said “I want you think about everything you put out there like a boomerang.” Now imagine a boomerang. When you throw it, what happens? It comes back. Everything that you put out there, think of it as a boomerang. If I’m putting it out there, how can I get it to spin around and do what it needs to do but then come right back to me. Can I work in things that I do. Can I work in a website, a phone number, or a call to action. Sometimes you can’t do this things, you had to seed them, if you will, got to plant the idea. Like “you can do this if you wanted to.” I’m not going to explicitly say “go to my website and do this.” What I might say is “I have a website where people can learn about this,” things like that.
One thing that he shared in specific to the boomerang that I liked was, when you go to do any sort of live talk or on a podcast or on a videocast or even on a tv show. When you’re on a live event, if you can what you want to do is that you want to write the questions that you want the host to ask you.
So think about this for a minute. You want to write he questions that you want the host to ask you. Think about how powerful that is. If I get to choose the questions that they ask me, I can design something that allows me to position myself in such a way that lets me grow. Now obviously, we can’t always design the questions. But imagine, keeping in mind this boomerang effect, if I get to design the questions that are going to be asked then I already know what the answers are going to be and I can really think about before the interview happens what I’m going to throw out there that’s going to spin around like a boomerang and come back to me. How can I put it out there to come back to me.
And again, we talk about this stuff and it’s not to say that every single thing you do needs to 100 percent come back to you in some way. But if you’re going to spend the time, the effort to do something, you might as well put out as much as possible for it to come back. So think about that.
Again, there’s sometimes we just want to give. We are just going to give because that’s what feels good or is what is right for what we’re doing. When we’re giving it doesn’t necessarily need to come back. There’s a lot of cases like that. Like when we were down in Mexico, Cole gave us a lot of his personal story. That’s something that he doesn’t always give to everyone but it’s something that he gave to us because it just felt right. He wasn’t asking for or even want anything back, he just wanted to share that. So sometimes giving can be fine, but when it comes to out entrepreneurial endeavors, it’s a boomerang. Throw it out there so that it can come back.
So those two things: prepare your questions and Boomerang Effect. The last thing that I was to talk about is the idea of “Wordsmithing.” Wordsmithing is the idea that we choose the words that we put out to the world. What’s really cool about wordsmithing is that since we choose the words, we choose the impact that they have. I want you to really think about that. The words we choose impact everyone around us. So if we know what that, that simple fact, that the words we choose impact everyone around us, why would we not choose our words as carefully as possible to get the maximum impact in whatever it is that we do? Whether it’s to convince someone to buy or sell your house, or to buy your product, or your service, or to convince the girl you’re on a date with to go on the next date with you, or convincing your parents to buy you that present that they probably shouldn’t buy you but really want anyways. Whatever it is, the words we chose have a lot of impact.
So I want to share with you guy some words that Cole shared with us and some other words to replace of those to make that will make it more powerful and allow our words to have a bigger impact.
As entrepreneurs we’re always selling something, so a couple words here: Price, Fee, and Cost. All of these words have a negative connotation. “Pay the price,” “the cost,” “the fee.” When was the last time that you were like “Yeah! I’m paying fees!” It doesn’t make any sense. So when you’re talking about your product, it’s never the Price, the fee, or the cost: it’s the investment. It’s a small change, but that’s huge. Doesn’t matter what you’re saying, they’re investing in something. Replace price, fee, cost with investment.
Next, work, build, or create. No one wants to work, building is hard, and creating takes effort. Instead, we can attract. Obviously that requires effort to, building a business takes effort but what if I can attract the people who are doing things. It’s a tiny word shift but it makes it sound so different.
Next one, Change. No one likes change. Change is hard. But what is instead of change I could improve or grow. Improve is better but grow is great to. To do those things, you have to change, but no one wants to change. Change is bad.
Next, payments. If you’re going to offer your product or service for a number of payments, that’s like price cost or fee. No one like payments. Instead I could offer installments. It’s a little change that means the same thing but that little tweak can impact the way that someone perceives something and take more action with us.
Last two: Work Books. How many times do you go to workshops that have workbooks. It’s the same things, no one wants to read. Books! You know I read a stat recently that something like 75 percent of people never read another book after they leave high school and college? That’s mindblowing! So if you’re trying to sell a workbook, you’re selling work and a book which are two things people don’t like. Instead of workbooks, talk about action guides. Everyone likes taking action. Action is how we get results. A guide will lead us to the success. Think that. Workbook, no. Action Guide, better.
The last one is instead of training someone. When you think about training you think about a lot of work, it’s hard. We have trainers that come in and do things. It’s generally a bad thing. What about instead of training, we’re offering sessions. Now that one’s not the most powerful but it’s a little switch that impact what you’re doing.
So that’s just a handful of words that can help. This is very powerful stuff.
