Sunday, July 31, 2005

A NEW BLOG ABOUT WINNING

Winning what?

Whatever you want.

I've written hundreds of articles on business, personal development, motivation, success and more that have appeared in about 75 magazines and newspapers.

So who am I to write about success? What makes me so smart?

Fortunately, I don't have to be. Most of the success and personal develoment articles I have written were based on what experts have told me. Many of the people I have interviewed are best-selling how-to authors. Others are less well known, but just as rich and savvy.

And I'm going to share their secrets with you.

The first secret is the power of Modeling.

Modeling is based on NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming), which is the study and use of the relationship between the brain and language.

NLP began it's life as a form of thearpy. It has morphed into an ever-expanding set of tools that people can use to actually reprogram their brains in minutes to create whatever kind of changes they want.

NLP creators Bandler and Grinder wanted to know what made some therapists so good at helping people while others just flat out stunk, and often made people worse than when they started therapy. These men were not therapists. If I remember correctly, one was a linguist and the other a mathmetician. (Forgive me B & G, if I got that wrong)

So they studied the best therapists they could find. Among them were Milton Erickson and Virginia Satir. Erickson was one of the best hypnotists of the 20th Century, if not the best. Satir was a counselor with an amazing success rate.

What was perhaps most amazing is that when asked, the therapists could not say why they were so good at helping people. They just did what they did and it worked. Often, they were unsure of just what it was they really did do.

Bandler and Grinder got permission to study Erickson and Satir, and a few others, in action. They observed everything they did. How they sat in a chair, how they spoke, the words they used. Then they asked them about their thought processes, the pictures in their minds, the thoughts they thought, their feelings.

After they learned what they could, Bandler and Grinder started doing the same things that these therapists did and they got the same results -- without any training in therapy.

They had effectively created a model for therapeutic success. And in so doing, they devloped a powerful technique for creating success in any field.

B & G had developed a technqiue called M0deling.

Is there something you would like to do better? Make more sales, be more successful with the opposite sex? Then find somebody who is very good at what you want to do and model them.

For example, ask that top sales pro how they do what they do -- on an internal level. What images do they have? What is the first thing that comes to mind when they walk in the prospect's office. What's the next thing they think of, and the next? Find out what their internal images, dialogue and feelings are and the sequence in which they have them.

Do they first have an image? What is it? Then do they say something to themselves? What do they say? Is that followed by a feeling? What do they say and where do they feel it?

What do they think when they get an objection? What gives them the strength to do what they do, even during slumps that every sales pro goes through? What makes them knock on that next door, make that next cold call on the telephone?
Ask to observe them in action. Most sales organizations usually have a newbie go along to observe the "heavy hitter" in action. Watch how this heavy hitter acts. How does she or he stand, sit, shake hands, smile, speak? When you adopt another person's physiology, you become like them on internal level. More about this in another blog.

And when you model their thought proccesses, you start to use your brain the way they use theirs, in a sales context. You start making more sales.

So decide what it is you would like to be better at and then find somebody to model.

You'll be glad you did.

Do you have questions about sucess or creating a better life? Chances are, I've already interviewed an expert on that subject. If not, I'll find the expert.

That's all for now, and thanks for reading. I look forward to hearing from you.

Dan Kaus

2 comments:

Dee said...

Hey Dan, I've got a home-based business and would love to get some info on pr for my business. Can you help me out?

Danek S. Kaus said...

Hi Dee,

I've been running a home-based business for several years and part of what I do is called PR, or public relations.

Watch for my next post, it will be an article on how to write press releases that can get you free publicity for your business.

Dan