Most humans go through 4 levels of learning. 

Ever analyze a baby walking or figured out the process of riding a bike?  The process of learning how to walk or ride a bike is the same.

Step One – Unconscious Incompetence

Simply stated, you don’t even know what you don’t know.  I find it funny when people say I’m no good at this or no good at that…well how do you know?  Last time I checked, most of us are born into the world with the same skill set…breathing, eating, crying, peeing and pooping.  Everything else is learned.

Step Two – Conscious Incompetence

This is the step where you realize how crappy you are at doing something and how difficult it is to do.  This is where a good majority of skill attainment or goal achievement is abandoned because of poor self-esteem, lack of willpower, tenacity or courage to forge ahead.

Step Three – Conscious Competence

In this step, you powered through step 2 and realize you can do the skill that you’ve set out to learn.  Having said this, you are still doing it the hard way…perhaps relying on sheer willpower to get you through.  In the case of riding a bike, you see this phase just before the training wheels come off.  The balance isn’t quite there yet so you force the body awkwardly in the opposite direction to try and maintain the bike upright on 2 wheels.  Or in the case of learning how to golf, your head is filled with so many swing thoughts the end result is an un-natural looking and ineffective swing.

Step Four – Unconscious Competence

This is the stage where what was previously difficult becomes automatic.  You attain this stage with repetitive practice.  Any skill can be mastered and become automatic with enough practice.  Ask Wayne Gretzky, Michael Jordan or Tiger Woods how many shots or swings they’ve taken over their careers and they’ll tell you hundreds of thousands of times.  Ask them how many times they’ve done the same in their mind and herein lies the secret…they’ve rehearsed their routines in their mind just as many times if not more than they did physically.

Listen to any champion’s after speech.  Most of them will say that they’ve envisioned this moment all my life or I practised that shot over and over again in my head as a kid.

Walt Disney once said – “All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.”

The key to becoming good at anything is taking ACTION.  It’s also important to understand that the sub-conscious mind is a POWERFUL engine that once tapped into can make skills easy to master or goals easier to attain just like riding a bike becomes easy and automatic.

Everyone of us has the ability to get to step four quickly for any skill or desired outcome.  Conscious physical effort gets you there and mental visualization will help you get over the top. 

To learn more about visualization techniques check out these articles:

Visualization Techniques and Sports Performance

How To Use Imagery and Self-Hypnosis for Sports

Remember, these techniques can be used for any skill or outcome you wish to have.

The Key to Increasing your Sales…the Hidden Power of the Mind.

“Float like a butterfly…sting like a bee”

For me that phrase always conjures up an image of Muhammad Ali just like the one you see here.

For you golfers out there how many times do you hit the ball into the water? QUIKTIPZ of the day…STOP THINKING ABOUT THE WATER!

Or if I asked you…can you describe how big the the new Airbus A380?  What would you say? It’s 72.7m long, 24.1m high with a wing span of 79.8m…but does this actually paint a picture of the enormity of this aircraft?  In a word….NO.  But if I told you the A380 is 7 stories tall, can park 70 cars on each wing, and it’s length is almost as long as a football field…would that give you a clearer picture?  I think so.

Engaging the consumer’s mind is something that we often overlook whenever we undertake some sort of advertising…regardless of medium – radio, t.v., direct mail, new print, internet…you name it.

If you want to increase your awareness, response rates, overall advertising effectiveness….ENGAGE you prospects mind and inject with emotion.  If you want to read more about this…check out Michael Fortin’s article that I posted below.

Enjoy the post…as I imagine what it’s going to be like when I head down to the Mayan Riviera next month…white soft sand, warm gentle blue ocean water, sun drenched warmth embracing my soul….sound good doesn’t it?

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There’s a great myth out there lurking that prevents the masses from using the video method to generate sales.  When in fact creating an effective sales video is easy.

Turn on the TV late night and you’ll discover a whole new world of marketing…Infomercials.  The proliferation of infomercials can only mean one thing….THEY WORK!

They can be 15 second spots to full 30 minute productions and if you study enough of them you will begin to notice a formula.  Actually a couple of formulas.

Since most people out there are afraid of making videos…adopt this video strategy TODAY and gain a competitive advantage.

Formula # 1

A-I-D-A – which is an acronym for ATTENTION – INTEREST – DESIRE – ACTION

Check out any fitness based infomercial like P90X for example.  P90X grabs your attention and interest in several ways:

• Want to get ripped in 90days? – who wouldn’t
• Before and after shots of ordinary people….key that…ordinary people just like you and me.
• Video interview testimonials of the very same people – making it very real and attainable.

All of the above done correctly stimulates action…it gets the viewer emotionally involved…subconsciously the viewer is placing themselves in those ripped bodies…this subconscious emotional tie is what gets people to buy.

The other hidden formula is the sales formula that many successful people use.

Generate rapport…couple of ways P90X does this:

features Tony Horton a leading expert in the fitness field.

features ordinary people..helping the viewer find common ground i.e. yeah…my body looks like that…after 90-days my body can look like that?

Uncovering needs – finding commonality with the viewer…struggling to get to the gym, plateauing, not seeing any results from existing fitness regimen etc

Meeting the needs – features people sceptical about p90x and gave it a try

Getting the sale – minimize risk of buying…i.e. if you’re not satisfied with P90X return it for a full refund in 30 days.

Now that you know the formulas.  What do you need to get started?

A Computer…of course,

Presentation software…like PowerPoint or a free one using Open Office,

A converter program that can convert your slides to jpeg format,

Windows Movie Maker which is Free on most newer Windows based computers,

A microphone to record audio.

That’s it you now have the formulas and ingredients to create amazing videos that

will sell.

If you want to check out an example…click on the following link to see a video on perpetual income streams.

Will Smith has always been one of my favorite actors.  I stumbled across this clip and found it inspirational and motivational.  Dare to dream and take action!  Enjoy.

Blueprint to Success

Back in my days of banking one of the first things I asked for when someone came to me for a business loan was their plan. Or some sort of plan of action if it was an existing client asking for more money. No plan usually meant no money. I read a quote somewhere “failure to plan is planning to fail” and as a banker I saw varying degrees of this day in and day out.  For me, my success has always come from working a plan and making slight adjustments along the way. I would start off with the end goal in mind and work backwards to determine the series of mini-steps that would lead me to my goal. This same process has worked for me every time it did not matter what I was doing from meeting corporate objectives forced upon me to personal goals such as completing a 1/2 marathon.

What is a good plan or Goal? One that is S-M-A-R-T.

S - Specific - you should have a definite end result i.e. I want to weigh 180 pounds by x date and I will accomplish that by doing x activities and will achieve x milestones by such n such a date,

M – Measurable – your plan should have specific things that can be measured to determine progress. If results are not materializing as they should then adjustments must be made,

A- Achievable - your plan must make sense and be achievable…it’s ok to make some stretch goals but equally important is to be realistic. So many good plans come to an end because of unrealistic expectations.

R- Realistic - is that goal or timeline of yours a pipe dream?  Give your head a shake.  And come back to reality.  The millions if not billions of dollars spent on anything from get-rich quick to lose half of your weight in 30 days cater to the entitlement mentality that many suffer from these days.  There are the occasional miracles, grand-slams, hail marys that happen but success is in the percentages.  Work the sure thing every time and success is all but guaranteed. 

T- Timely - Until we can manage time, we can manage nothing else. – Peter F. Drucker The difference between success and failure is time.  Take note of unsuccessful people more often than not their excuse is “I don’t have time”.  Ask them to do a time diary and you will see exactly what their source of failure is.  The plain and simple truth is that there are 60 seconds in a minute, 60 minutes in an hour, 24 hours in a day and 365 days in a year we are all given these parameters.  So try to manage your time in a fashion that will give you the most productive output.  Find the thing that will ultimately give you the sense of urgency to complete your plan on time.  Do this step and you will manage your time a bit more wisely.