Experiential delves into the use of influence

Over 25 years ago I developed and produced an experiential exposition that took on a life of its own. It resulted in bringing to life a loyal community of hundreds of devote volunteer supporters, celebrated notables and award winning writers from across North America. It has become the largest convention of its type in the east and is respected worldwide. It has been enjoyed for two plus decades. Another community I am growing is a special interest group whose mission is to make a difference in this world and build a huge capacity for exceeding ones own limiting self through involvement within the group. This group has grown from 40 to 700 members in the two years since I have taken over driving its strategic direction.

Using a practical knowledge of experiential marketing and strategic events these juggernauts are just a piece of what results can be generated using experiential persuasion. You can create similar results using some simple techniques in persuasion whether it is in community building or building brand for your product, service or company.

Understand that “persuasion” gets you from point A to point B. It is built around “buy in”. Everything you do in life involves a form of persuasion and influence whether it is a teen wanting an iPod, someone seeking a better deal buying a car, a job seeker at an interview, or where a couple will ultimately enjoy their next vacation. If you want to be heard, if you want your vote to be counted, if you want to close more sales, and if you want your product, service or organization to be perpetual and sustained by others you will need to be like many of this nation’s most powerful people who in their capacity are the top master communicators and persuaders in the world.

EXPERIENTIAL TIP #1

The hierarchy of empowering human capital; Level 1 to Level 10:

Level 1 – Short Term Results

A — Control others
B — Use Coercion
C — Achieve Compliance
D — Gain Cooperation
E — Secure Commitment

Level 10 – Long Term Results

As you move from “A” (less effective) to “E” (loyalty and huge experiential results), you will find the techniques and strategies used to achieve (A-E) respectively will result in definable results where outcomes require much of your attention to achieve (A) versus a situation where a team will get the job done without much involvement from you (E).

STRATEGIC TIP #2

Be consistent, congruent, believe in and be passionate in what you share with others to get them on board. People can see through facades and falsehoods. There are connectors and mavens for everyone and every issue, you just need to make your story compelling and inspiring (making lots of money is also inspiring for some). Where your strategic marketing begins success follows.

People will follow leaders who can truly lead and those they believe in. When you are incongruent, people second guess you. When you are completely passionate about something you display complete confidence, and you crank up the motivation threshold for others to experience you and what your mission is.

PERSUASION AND SCIENCE TIP #3

Persuasion if done effectively is sub conscious – below someone’s radar. It is not right in your face, it flows like melting butter and anchors beliefs and memories into one’s un-waking state where millions of bits of information are flying through the mind and being processed for immediate action (typically 8,000 bits of information is the max we can deal with from the millions entering our mind every minute).

To prevent you from going insane your mind filters out what it believes useless and puts it where it can be easily retrieved. Since your brain believes this information important, persuasion creates bookmarks in Wernicke’s area of your brain. This is involved in and comprehension. While the Broca’s area effects speech and language output. “According to this model, when you hear a word spoken, this auditory signal is processed first in your brain’s primary auditory cortex, which then sends it on to the neighbouring Wernicke’s area. This area associates the structure of this signal with the representation of a word stored in your memory, thus enabling you to retrieve the meaning of the particular word.” — McGill, The Brain Top To Bottom. Imagine how powerful it would be for you to be able to train or influence the Wernicke’s area of your audience’s mind in how it interprets and processes language and information, while influencing the Broca’s area to process the chosen output desired. Our mind looks for answers when asked a question. If you ask yourself a question your brain will find an answer. You can embed empowering questions into a person’s mind subconsciously. For example even if I say “Don’t think of the color blue, whatever you do don’t think of the color blue!” What color do you think of?

The other area in your brain where information is used for processing information is the reticular activating system. The mind has the quantitative capacity to process 5 plus or minus 1 or 2 pieces of information at a time. This is why zip codes and phone numbers are kept to this particular number of digits. This is a generic rule of thumb where only a small percent of humans do not fit into this profile; however, the majority does.

In persuasion make sure you recognize information needs to fit into this quantitative capacity for people to recall and act on information you are sharing with them. “KISS” Strategy – ‘Keep It Simple & Stupid’. Make it memorable, relevant and emotionally powerful.

To enhance the results of persuasion even further you would access and seed impressions in the limbic system where information becomes transparent to logic. “The limbic system is involved in emotion, motivation, and emotional association with memory. The limbic system influences the formation of memory by integrating emotional states with stored memories of physical sensations.” “The limbic system is embryologically an older part of the brain. It developed to manage ‘fight’ or ‘flight’ chemicals and is an evolutionary necessity for reptiles as well as homosapiens. “– Wikipedia.

By influencing the limbic system you bypass logic and enter the subconscious through a person’s emotional gateway. You don’t consciously think about your physiology when emotions are in play, your affected mind kicks into automatic based on experiences you’ve already embedded, and the limbic system does the rest. For example, can you control your facial expression when you are surprised? or can you control when your body gets goose bumps when you are afraid? Actions follow the physiological response the limbic system creates. Your body subconsciously tunes into the warning signs or those emotions that arise triggering your “gut” instincts. Your brain then immediately forms options for the action to take.. fight or flight, etc. In our case you have already anchored a thought connected to emotion in someone’s subconscious; therefore, their thoughts are predictable ones and the options that will arise in that person’s mind and what action they may choose to take are already anticipated. This is the power of creating experiences through multiple modalities.

Recall effectively occurs more quickly when information is readily accessible in the mind. Being associated with powerful emotions activates your limbic system and allows the firing off of synapses that command your reticular activating system (RAS) to call up select memories. This is the area where you have created short cuts to allow you to make quick decisions and take rapid action, e.g. ever drive down a road to the grocery to pick up milk and not even recall what streets you just drove down or turned on? It is your RAS creating a shortcut for you, so you don’t have process an overwhelming amount of information.

If your persuasion is subconscious it opens a dialog with Wernicke’s (input and processing) and Broca’s (production of language and output) areas; and the limbic system of the brain. This creates stickiness and powerful results including the reticular activating system. An area where your audience’s guard is down and where they are more open to suggestion and information.

Bottomline — Take advantage of all modalities subconsciously and consciously to create total recall and action using experiential persuasion. Persuasion becomes more powerful when it is done subconsciously. There are different parts of the brain involved in this dialog and the conversation becomes automatic if you learn how to activate these areas of the brain and implement the right process. All communications between two or more people is based on a process. Think of how important it would be to tap into and share a subconscious dialog with your audience’s subconscious mind.

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1.                Room rental rate
2.                Availability on a long term basis
3.                Flexibility and willingness of facility management to work with us
4.                Space to accommodate group size
5.                Space to accommodate short term growth
6.                Accessibility to public transportation (subway)
7.                Accessible parking for cars
8.                Cleanliness, odor free, rodent and insect free, and mildew free facility
9.                Area of facility seemingly safe for people and cars – actual and feel
10.              Amenities in facility (non fixed chairs, tables, internet, screens, projection, PA, lectern, air conditioning, etc.)
11.              Decent acoustics and lighting
12.              Hours venue available
13.              Restroom capacity and cleanliness
14.              Proximity to cafes, fast food, restaurants, etc. if you have all day events with long breaks
15.              Security at venue
16.              Extras — who cleans up, what is cost? What are you allowed to bring in and do at facility?
17.              Other simultaneous events — will they interfere with yours? Are rooms sound proof?
18.              Is facility ADA approved and equipped
19.              Is electricity and outlets, and water available to you with or without charge?

Please note although this list is not exhaustive and there other items not included. Although these may not be a make or break a deal it is the totality of combining the items on matrix and weighing all the pros and cons that will provide you the best location for the purposes you seek.

In addition to those voicing their two cents you can put out a call to action to your list. We sent two call to actions out and there were no viable sites suggested with concrete information nor photos (everyone has ideas and suggestions and fewer have the facts or will get them to you). Having no or few inappropriate sites offered the selection of a site is then by default left to you in its entirety (or whomever did all the work and research to locating the best possible venue under the criteria above).

The adage in working in a volunteer environment where everyone loves giving you their two cents yet doesn’t offer you the whole dollar is “put up or shut up” – in a gentle way of course.

There will be those not happy with what venue (whether — location, building, costs, windows, neighborhood, yadda, yadda, etc.) you select for your event. It is unusual if you have a large number of attendees where not a single one will not complain about location, space, distance, price, etc).

Be very aware you cannot please everyone and to give into one person or your emotion to make choice without a pragmatic and systematic checklist for site selection to work off of can be a detriment to the success, both short term or long term, of the event you are producing.

Bottomline, the facility must work with the group and be flexible as you are flexible with the facility, you need it to be available tomorrow (if it is repeat) – or even available when it is supposed to be, and you need it to be positively memorable.

What should you pay for a venue? The going rate is based on what you derive from at least five location quotes. I usually price ten or more.

I Recently priced out about 36 locations before narrowing the prospects to a smaller list to match them against one another on the above matrix. Knowing what our minimum attendance will be and what you can charge for attendance helps you select a site based on what they charge. Once you get down to the top three in consideration then you need to:

1) meet personally and interview management; and
2) inspect the site. A credible and dependable facility will offer you at least an initial agreement acknowledging or agreeing to either short or long term rental. If they do not and it is on a handshake – DON’T! This happened while working with the selection of the Snapple Theater in NYC. The General Manager put off providing us lease agreement stating she would get to it – never did. They summarily cancelled our rental with a single email notice the Monday afternoon before Wednesday (two days) of the meeting without justifiable cause. No calls, no follow-up email, etc. zip zilch nadda — just one single solitary email that could have been sent to wrong address or lost in cyber space. At this point (two days before the event) over 600+ members were already notified of the meeting date, time, and location being at the Snapple Theater. You can see the huge challenge presented.

I have been producing events since 1973 and over the years my acuity to what attendees (really really want and expect) and working with venues has been honed a wee bit. Some areas and concerns may not seem important or perhaps really important but don’t be misguided. As live events go we have something called Murphy’s Law and we have an incredible effect called a “ripple effect”. Any little decision or action can translate into enormous consequences (positive or negative).

Understanding this dynamic and having tons of experience with groups, psychographics and demographics, producing events for 20 – 24,000, the reality of what does or doesn’t happen at events, and what will happen with the facility is predictable more so by those with more experience.

You don’t want to commit event suicide by not taking into account what the attendees will experience and feel at the event – would you want your attendees to get a ride in a smoking sputtering jalopy or would you rather have them take a ride in a brand new smooth posh leather lined Lexus? Although cutting corners is beneficial, if it is not necessary you don’t want to undermine environment and ambience. The look and feel (and even smell) of a facility does have a subconscious effect on the attendee which has impact on word of mouth (more about WOM in future articles).

The key is to get as much experience under your belt as possible and not act in a manner based on what your personal needs or wants are but based either on group surveys, experience or better – registration questionnaires.

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If only you could read minds

Are you a business owner, executive, or employee dealing with customers? If you ever lost a customer over something that could have been avoided you’ll understand why experience can be a painful learning curve for anyone who thinks they are right merely based on an assumption (I find it interesting the  word “assume” is so similar to the combining of two words: “ass” and “me”).

There is some big things one needs to realize in any business regarding customer relations.. never ever ever speak or take action sooner than you have the facts and have weighed the potential consequences of your actions. Say something  prematurely even when the customer is wrong and you risk an unnecessary confrontation that may escalate into public warfare especially if the customer has sociopathic tendencies; speak or take detrimental action against or counter to your customer prematurely when the customer is right you have a bigger more tangible problem.

Now think of co-workers.. every said something you regretted saying to a coworker or employee? This can come back and bite you in the but or even worse the legal binder. What is deal with so many people rushing to judge, rushing even faster to say something before they decompress and remove themselves from a emotionally charged moment before “sticking their foot in mouth”.

There is no sin nor tax for taking a few hours or even days to respond to a potentially harmful or contested situation. Take the time, collect the necessary information, and then deliberate the consequences of any actions or inactions you decide to take even before you take them. I’ve been guilty of speaking too soon and it was a powerful learning curve for me in creating a unequalled company with very loyal customers.

As far as a business to business relationship here is an example of what may happen if you abuse your customer relationship and don’t offer your customer at least fair treatment one would expect from a relationship that has been in place for several years. I will use a real example from my own experience as a business to business customer so you may better understand the thinking that goes on within a customer in my same situation.

I represent access to and lines of communication with over 14,000 potential new clients for the vendor. Our vendor courted us, then was approved to partner with us where we would promote the vendor/partner to our constituency, and had enjoyed a six relationship with us with seamless results. 

Then comes a day a first time customer, of a customer of the vendor, emails a complaint about us. Suffice to say the complaint was based on the customer’s attempt to wrongfully secure free product through a campaign of libel and slander using their known friends to bear false witness to the complaint (the minutia is unimportant in this example.. just know we were wronged and our name libeled).

Making a long story short the vendor summarily took the side of their customer’s customer without regard for the facts and actual setting while also fabricating their own mis-truths in an attempt to justify their own decision. Why did they do this? It was about who screamed the loudest and creates the most nuisance wins the day. Our philosophy is give a man enough rope and if they are headed in the wrong direction they will hang themselves. 

What does this summarily mean? The vendor wanted us to give the customer product worth about $60 USD to just make the matter go away. My belief about bullys and terrorists is to not reward bad and illegal behavior because it breeds more of the same. Nevertheless the matter was resolved by another third party associated with us just to champion a dumb situation that the vendor should have taken care of when it first arose. 

Now, what do you think a loyal business partner or customer with our 14,000 members would do in this situation?

You guessed correctly, this vendor will never see a single piece of business from me again.  I happily refer my members, customers and contacts to the vendor’s competitors. All because of the vendor’s inability to cure their “foot and mouth” disease. The representive was the Director for the company. I never took this issue to our contact’s superior because service could not be worse elsewhere. Why get caught up in trying to hang onto something you don’t want to deal with again in the future, or be treated in this fashion; “its just business”. This insight is what I share from the customer perspective and was left unsaid.

There are some things that are forgivable for friends and even colleagues, but in the business world always know if you don’t take care of your best customers, and treat them with respect, they will take all their business to your competitor.

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Unbelievable and true — you can be charged a 55.48% interest rate in just six months from a 9.77% rate by just paying your bills on time? In my case it was paying more than I owed each month! Here it is .. Chase baits people in to use lines of credit or balance transfers at a low rate and once you’re in .. wham!!! the interest rates taking a flying leap into the ionosphere!

Banks, as businesses, deserve to make their money. When they jack the interest rates shortly after you incur a running balance and keep increasing it as you pay down what you owe it forces you to fall victim to an insane game for making money (although diabolical, ingenious and unethical). You are no longer dealing with fair trade practices, a good corporate citizen, nor dealing with a business that is making just a last ditch business decision when what you have going on is unfair, unjust, predatory, and unnecessary.

Here is an actual example of how they raise interest rates, using my account as a case history and accounting of what actually happened:

June 2009 — $9.77% (Effective APR) — $53 min payment due
July — 10.47% — $52 min due
September — 15.42% — $24 min due
October — 17.52% — $10 min due
November 2009 — 55.48% - $5.62 min due

I was paying off more than the amount due each month on the Chase credit card. As the balance got lower the bank raised my interest rates (on a monthly basis!). This ultimately required me to pay more interest instead of principal as I got closer to a zero balance. As you can see from my minimums I was making as much over payments as quick as possible to get the hell out of Dodge before I got stuck in a payment trap set by the increasing interest rates.. which hit home at 55.48% just as I hit the final pay offs I was making in the account.

It is unconscionable how these practices are not brought under the scrutiny of those who protect tax paying consumers from such predatory and unethically deliberate methods of the banks making money when they are already receiving billions of tax payer dollars to help them out.

For me the account was just paid off and will be closed very soon after having seen that interest rate hit 55.48%. My issue is no longer because I learned my lesson. However, I cannot imagine what is and will happen to struggling families and individuals who do not have the credit worthiness or opportunities to get out of the vicious trap set by banks like Chase who bring in credit card customers at low interest rates where the family knows they could afford to pay it off and really need the money to pay the bills.

Then one day wham bam thank you sucker!

When you hear or see bad things happen to others it is important to think about whether it can happen to you or loved ones as well and empower yourself to be an more informed and protected consumer. Before you get suckered into a credit card, balance transfer or line of credit issue where you may run a balance, even if you will be able to pay off the predicted minimum, expect there to are bad guys like Chase out there who will prey on consumers without the knowledge just shared with you above and will lock you in by just kicking up the interest rate each time you get closer to paying off a balance so you can’t afford to get out of the rat race.

Attached is a copy of parts of my actual Chase statements so you know I am not making this stuff up! Do boogie men exist? Yes, they reside behind ivory towers and huge wooden desks on Wall Street.

Shame on you Chase! I wonder what you did with the stimulus money you received from our tax dollars that you have to resort to such predatory lending and unethical practices on innocent people? By the way Chase is not the only guilty party to these incredible and despicable acts so are Capital One, Bank of America, and HSBC.

If you have a business, work with customers who are your life blood.. this could be a great lesson, and even better think about the banks out there that are working within the framework of remaining ethical in their practices and not taking the load road.. wouldn’t this be a great marketing and pr opportunity to talk up how they don’t and will never treat their customers?

Sometimes your customers will pay more if you show them you are on their side, give them value, and operate an a level of integrity that makes the customer feel  they are looked after and come first, not a sucker to be taken for a ride and racked over the coals for every penny they have.

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Courage

Today is not defined by yesterday, but defined by what you are willing to defy from what is already in your past.

The moments spent second guessing, pondering if you should or should not, or the lost time and outcomes resulting from procrastination losses you another year, perhaps five years or even ten years of your life. Where are you today? Are you where you set your sails to achieve last year or years ago?

Those who challenge and bring on life face to face, those who defy the odds, invest sweat equity, live life consistently with their passion know failure is just a milepost along the path to success, while taking action each and every day live beyond the darkness of the past and the baggage many carry into their present.  The fact is living outside what is true to yourself and what completes you brings little reward in fulfilling your most fundamental needs and your soul.

1. An area people get stuck include issues involving money. What doesn’t work is ignoring it, and worse is to let money control you instead of you controling money. You can be fully connected with, acknowledge it , get back on the horse and keep riding.

Here are lyrics that sing true in many who see life only in the short term: “.. feel that sweet soft melody.  At first the words may not be clear, and as the dark clouds part she whispers in your ear. A rich man that might be poor, money is all that he has. Without love there’s nothing you can do..” [Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes].

Have you ever wondered why you do things (or don’t).. its not for the love of money it is for the love of what this means to you because money is just a means to an end. A truism is money cannot buy love; and do what you love and you’ll love what you do.

2. Another excuse people use is “not enough time”. Interesting how when something bigger than life or what is of immense value pops up, or your job depends on a deadline to get something done you find the time. You’d be amazed how many people perform better and with greater results when they have a deadline or are challenged to do allot in a short amount of time when to the contrary they do so little and produce small results when no deadline or threat is pending.

3. And a third excuse people use that effects them from reaching their fullest potential is not enough resources. There is a word called “synergy”. What this means is one can only do so much whereas the many can do so much more when working together. If you don’t have it, know it, etc. Then get others on board and ask. There are no excuse for not asking for help or suggestions when you alone cannot come up with the solution.

What this all means is your destiny is in your own hands. If something doesn’t get done or goes wrong it is easy to blame others. Perhaps you want to inspect your practices, procedures, and beliefs first before stepping any further into excuseville.

Excuses are just stories. Stop the stories in the areas of finding reasons why you can’t and you defy limiting beliefs and empower your destiny and outcomes while learning what you can. Experience life on your own terms. If you allow yesterday rule your life and you will reside there the rest of your life.

If what you have isn’t working or even worse, sabotaging your life, its a wake up call and time to get the show on the road with some new references.

Try something new today! .. and experience each and every day for the rest of your life. When you discover something that works use it and build upon it with even more powerful references and beliefs.

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Contol Freak

If you live on this planet Earth I know you had the profound experience of dealing with lunatics or those who are control freaks. With years of experience surviving having gone through and pummeled through the gauntlet of anger, need to control, childishness, and other behaviors, which I don’t have eloquent words for, I share in this blog how to deal with this type of behavior while first understanding what may cause this toxic life  syndrome and diarrhea of the attitude.

Here is Wiki’s definition of a “lunatic”:

“The word lunatic is borrowed from the Latin “lunacus”, in turns stemming from “luna” (moon), which denotes the traditional link made in folklore between madness and the phases of the moon. This probably refers to the symptoms of cyclic mood disorders such as bipolar disorder or cyclothymia, the symptoms of which may also go through phases. As yet there no evidence whatsoever for any causal link between phases of the moon and the progression of mood disorder symptoms. Correlation has been observed in distant parts.

Mental institutions used to be called “lunatic asylums” or colloquially, “loony bins”.”

I often have the usually unfortunate dubious honor of being subjected to those who have “issues” who I guess for lack of endearing terms are lunatics, rageaholics, controlaholics, and creeps.

Here is Wiki’s definition of a “Control Freak”:

“In psychology–related slang, control freak is a derogatory term for a person who attempts to dictate how everything around them is done. It can also refer to someone with a limited number of things that they want done a specific way; professor of clinical psychology Les Parrott wrote that “Control Freaks are people who care more than you do about something and won’t stop at being pushy to get their way.”^[1]

In some cases, the control freak sees their constant intervention as beneficial or even necessary; this can be caused by feelings of superiority, believing that others are incapable of handling matters properly, or the fear that things will go wrong if they don’t attend to every detail. In other cases, they may simply enjoy the feeling of power it gives them so much that they automatically try to gain control of everything around them.”

You would think these experiences are terrible and they are an alien drip to be avoided. Because there is a lesson to be learned in everything you do and those you encounter, no matter how big the diapers they are wearing, there is no random chance occurrences if you subscribe to the principles of the Celestine Prophecy, and Laws of Attraction. For more about a group gatherings practicing these philosophies visit www.powermastery.com.

In business like it or not everyone is your boss! If you are an employee.. my condolences if you wind up in a mismatch with those you report to.  So, how do you escape this convoluted ethereal maze of mental imprisonment and emotional punishment? You can fire your clients, quit your job, or lose your friends.. there is certainly no lack of energy vampires — you know those people who just suck the life from you.

As amusing as some of what I jot down here may seem if you use the concepts and principles of what I am sharing you will discover they can be applied to increasing your business, career and personal results. This is especially helpful in experiential marketing.

Well lets suppose you need the job or these are top clients you depend on or those you have to work with. Then how do you avoid cruising for a brusin’? The Bee Gees have a song titled “Staying Alive”. No matter how tight those pants were when they were singing that song there is something of import in those words of wisdom.

Let me cite some experiences as examples of dealing with those who have crossed over to the other side (when I say that I mean crossed over the proverbial line in the sand) and how I handled it. First and foremost I am not perfect and there are those who get to a point where I feel would be better off dropped off on the moon for a lifetime of R and R. So this is not the Ghandi methodology of letting people do a Mexican hat dance on you or rain dribble and swine flu on your parade it is approaching a really bad situation and dealing with “what is” because you can’t change other people, you can only change your own mental and emotional state.

1. Ever have some unload their frustrations on you? I mean really unload like the wrath of the gods for hell? Short of locking them up and forcing them to sit through a debate on health care between the democrats and republicans lets begin by understanding where that persons references were or are being formed. References are what drive our behaviors. These are supported by beliefs and backed by principles. Find someone who has a soap box issue that you encroached upon and prepare for “War of the Worlds” if you engage them.

Sometimes it is best to just listen and let them blow off all their steam. Don’t even respond, don’t interrupt. Listen, smile and thank them for sharing and just keep it zipped (your mouth that is). You can respond to this when the nuclear meltdown has subsided and Homer Simpson can safely re-enter and work with the nuclear reactor. Sometimes it is best to not engage the spoiler on their terms. Dictate your terms and you define your own victory and sanity.. so “dance into the light”. If you are curious how you too can dance into the light we have a mastermind circle with details at Powermastery.

You may be insulted, you may be accused of all sorts of erroneous things that are just crazy and unheard of, you may even be verbally lambasted .. Arnold Schwarzenegger got nailed with an egg on his shoulder by a heckler while he was campaigning. What do you think he did? He didn’t bench press the guy nor give him an Austrian Iron Man weggie, he merely responded .. “got bacon?”.  How do you think this panned out for Arnold vs the heckler.. your judgment I am sure still sound enough to figure this out.

2. There will be a time someone will make draconian statements using such terms as “everyone”, “no one”, “all”, etc. These are global statements and seldom ever true. Once someone begins making statements with these terms you know the credibility they have is from their stuffed animals sitting in the corner of a very dark room where they find those who will listen to them.

If you have someone make a global statement you can ask them in a polite way you’re curious who everyone is who told you that, or ask them to share a few examples so you can better understand. If you challenge them in a confrontational manner you both loose.

Bottomline is you most likely rather not have to deal with these people and their excess baggage. Yes, you read that correctly. Often those who attempt to control the situation or environment by making statements only a lunatic or person who chooses to be ignorant would make have a high sense of discomfort which ultimately means pain when confronted with change. Change in their own environment or situation, and often it is just perceived.

This is a new world, a new economy and a new way of doing business. If you do not adapt to change and get a bit uncomfortable, because with any change, even positive, to take place there will be a degree of discomfort, anxiety and even pain before we discover an new level of success called breakthrough. Remember one important statement I made earlier.. you cannot change others only yourself, your attitude, and your emotional state. Those who keep raging will keep falling further behind and never achieve the quality of life they can have in their lifetimes. The really unfortunate outcome of this is they will drag others into their muck along the way.

The sense and sensibility here is to hold to your wits and not be dragged into the mud pit. Take the high road and if you don’t have something nice to say, don’t say it.. you’ll save yourself several Tibetan reincarnations of stress and battle with the shank.

Often a great action is to conduct a pattern interrupt to break them from their tirade or rant so at least you can deal in a sensible manner with the insanely crazy comments that just keeping getting more spectacular. Often I wonder if I should suggest they can make a great living writing fiction. Great way to diffuse a train of thought and highly effective in creating experiential marketing results where creating positive change or conversion is desired.

Shaking Hands With the Pope

There is Paraedo’s 80/20 rule and if you stay head above all else in the 20% then you will be in good company in the 80% that believes in compassion, understanding, and understands the value of treating others as they would like to be treated. The question is do you want to be part of the 80% who can live a peaceful holistic spiritual life with a zen like character or be the rage in the machine that beats up on those closest to them when the moments right? When we better understand others we know where the fire is and so we can get the hell out of Dodge.. not to abandon the innocent, but triage those you can’t and they don’t want your help — just to stay the course.. their way.

In a future blog I will share some information about pattern interrupts and how to use them effectively in experiential marketing. Want to learn more about your human potential and connect with a life force of people who believe in living with a positive attitude and possibility instead of impossibility and improbability they you need to visit our force for good at www.powermastery.com. This is not an information site it is a site with an event calendar bringing together those of like minds while also providing support materials, inspiration, motivation, etc in our monthly newsletter.

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Team Experience

Lets take baseball as an experiential example. There is a mighty big field to cover out there. Similar to the number of prospects and opportunities that may exist all around your business. With nine players on the field you are better able to cover all your bases and more territory allowing deeper penetration and a broader reach to get to the ball — or opportunity, when it comes out.

Even though the team plays as a single unit — one; each team member has their own position and responsibility. Each player has their base to cover, responsibility to pitch strikes, or even as a bat boy keep the batters box clear of clutter and provide the batter on deck their bat so the batter doesn’t waste time looking for it. There is even a ground’s crew to protect the playing field in rain, maintain the field between innings, before and after the game. Basically, there are many people involved on the team and each has their own role which is integral to the overall success of the entire team just as it is for business.

What is the key to team experience? Communication. If the team don’t know what their roles are, what the mission is, the division of authority or responsibility there will be duplicity of work, people bumping into and tripping over one another, territorial issues flaring up, work not getting done, and more.

We produce live immersive experiences for our clients and/or their guests through a number of retreats, conferences, events, expos, etc. Each one requires a number of team players to make it happen.. from production staff, experiential crew, presenters, kitchen staff, security, registration, and more. No one person can accomplish all this. To make these events seamless and be the success they are everyone, even the guests, know what their roles are and what is expected of them. This is communicated in writing as well as orally in person or via teleconference.

What would happen without any knowing what they are supposed to do?

If your business has several team members working together and your business is not achieving results your company has set out to accomplish one of the areas successful companies look into is how well each unit is performing, what is their contribution to the team, and how each individual is performing to contribute to their team and the company.

A simple solution is ensuring each team member and each team are fully aware of the mission they are their together to accomplish.. it is a amazing how well experiential, social proof, ownership and accountability work.

Create a clear and easy to understand mission statement, make sure each team player understands your vision, you get buy in from your team, and you share in the victory and wins. Team spirit can take you over the top.

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Chinese Culture

I just returned from a whirlwind tour of mainland China from Bejing, Guilin, Xian, Yanshou, Hangshou to Shanghai. I saw what China wants you to see as their successful industrial revolution marches on at breakneck speed; and I also peered into the heart of the dragon and visited where the core of its citizens reside.

Is your business service or product just a flash in the pan or is it serving both your bottomline and the greater good — customers, staff, and brand? With the hunger for dominion and a thirst for godlike powers the rush to build an unconquerable empire with a single focus seems to narrow and extreme yet focus and clarity have always been the underpinning for personal and corporate success. Here is where we miss the point as those who understand the synergy of many collaborate and deliver exponential results for the singularity of the whole.

In possession of what now appears a spoiled western lifestyle I entered the makeshift hamlets of real life for 80% of the true populus of China to discover what humbles any who enter while tugging at their sense and sensibility. For a nation steeped in deeply ingrained culture, painted in majestic beauty, woven with unmatched artistic masterpieces, and grounded on a 6,000 year old history you would not expect the smog, lack of sanitary control and modern housing, and censorship controls in place.

Terra Cotta Warrior Vanguard

If you were handed a Sim City video game to build your own empire would you build it in a way that would avoid these issues? It is a difficult answer since in all fairness to the Chinese government when you deal with controlling the growth of a nation with 1,330,044,544 residents (2008 — that is 1/5 of the entire world’s population — 20.8%!) it is a bit difficult to get the 800 pound gorilla under control if you want to spring board into the future. Yet there are corners cut where the rich get richer, and the foundation of what built this super power was its people — many of those living in what we consider poverty or even subsistant conditions.

Now that we have a reference point for massive change in a short time, lets see what we can do with your business. Most of what below also falls under part of your marketing strategy. The sections below are just a few suggestions and not exhaustive. There are plenty more and as you read what is below new ideas will come to you. This will kick start your strategic and business thinking cap.

Vision
Get clear on where you are headed and map the course

Strategic Growth

Rural street street

1. Know your outcome before it happens. Don’t be a victim of molding your company in knee jerk reaction to how it must conform to how fear shapes it. Use a deliberate path based on feedback from the market, test your hypothesis, and apply it often.. don’t stay a course that keeps your company stuck on a path back to a never changing dilapidated old home.

2. Plan to utilize and involve your staff, vendors and customers. Reward them well for their efforts if they achieve milestones for you or help you hit your targets. 3. Prepare to shift on the fly as new roads need to be built or discovered as more or difference commerce heads your way. If you are seeing declines, don’t worry just keep at it and never show them your sweat
3. People are more comfortable doing business with winners not whiners or losers. So keep the best foot forward and make sure your people reflect that and are not hidden behind a false facade or wall of smoke from your prospects. Your staff, even support, can be your biggest advocates.

Tactical Action
1. Make sure your company engages your prospects regularly whether weekly, monthly or quarterly.
2. Make your business transparent in a way to allow it to be the guiding light for being a leader. No one likes a company they understand little of and know even less about from what they can observe. This only works only if the whole of all the components are a positive reflection of what you define in your brand, service and product in cleanliness, dependability, happy staff, and team support working on immediate transformation and change where needed.

Keeping Up The Momentum
1. Once your numbers begin humming along don’t overlook infrastructure and improving customer satisfaction and retention since you spend less and make more from returning customers than with new potential prospects.

Offerings

2. Share the wealth and joy. Do you have a profit sharing or bonus incentive built around how well your company does against last year’s numbers? In this economy staff and partners happily work harder when they can see your wins translated to them in financial terms.
3. Broadcast the good news and recognize outstanding achievements and work. People need to know how they are doing and where they stand. Let them know and it gives them a foundation to build off of.

Action
1. Nothing ever gets accomplished unless you apply some energy to move it along. Think about it.. objects in motion remain in motion although those that are immobile remain stuck until a force puts it into motion and inertia takes over. Once you get the ball rolling keep it rolling. Much easier keeping your marketing, tactics, etc. steaming along than to restart it from a dead stop like a locomotive. What this means is plan ahead but take action now on what you have planned in advance for what you can do now.

Going Mobile

2. Mobilize others including vendors, affiliates, support, etc to fire up the engines getting publicity, word of mouth, good will, and sales on a steady course to you.
3. Plan for tomorrow, but work and play for today! Live in the moment.. it doesn’t mean take unpredictable or unplanned action but to take what you have planned and tested (or know may work with a degree of some certainty) and apply it immediately in a deliberate timed and strategic manner. Know and anticipate the outcome before it occurs so you roll right into the next phase of your campaign or initiative.

Review, Assess and Reapply
1. If all works do more.. increase your marketing dollars in those areas, increase your activity in a particular event, spend more in relevant ad buys. If the strategy you applied does not work or has lack luster results alter it slightly and test it. Did you know when a ad is not creating the results you seek the solution is not in replacing a well crafted ad or re-writing the content it may be just the caption! As you inch towards the goal line the wins come easily.. as the wins become bigger you will note most of it is due to a well prepared, rewarded, and happy workforce and a conducive environment for productivity and enhancing loyalty.

Taking steps to manage, deploy and evolve your business in a holistic fashion is a complex path. What is above may not be so black and white, although the significance of the doctrine of the intent and focus is universal. Want to build an empire? Even a small kingdom with your business? Take everything into account and don’t take what effects your bottomline for granted by way of ignoring employee/vendor/customer satisfaction and subjecting it to immediate material gain. The end is not always a quick cash fix if you plan for the long term bigger results. Going broke is not suggested although deliberate and thought out productive debt is sometimes not a bad thing.

Hutong alley in Guilin, China

By the way these days lines of credit and loans are hard to come by.. whatever happened to all that government bail out money? I guess if you are not making billions of dollars and have to pay your employees millions of dollars on salaries and bonuses you are on your own. It doesn’t have to be that way. Even with Uncle Sam turning its back on small business you can connect with a peer group that include other business owners or executives in a similar space and leverage your collective buying and negotiating power.

Chinese People

The most successful business people don’t go it alone they hook up with others who will help them get to where they are headed. This is a dog eat dog world and when you run in a pack the hunt and your survival is more successful. You would think the Chinese who are the 80% would stand up together.. although those tanks and rifles are a daunting challenge to stand up for your rights.. aren’t you thankful you are not a local resident of China’s struggling and forgotten 80%?

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