Is your content all steak or all sizzle? What’s the right mix of boring to B.S.?

from Thought Leadership Leverage a blog by Peter Winick

by peterwinick on April 20, 2010

Here’s something that I don’t think  folks think about enough when figuring out how best to position their content.  What is the right mix of steak to sizzle or to be blunt how do you balance the “boring” with the “bullshit”?  A common complaint that I often hear about someone that is successfully commercializing their work is that it’s all sizzle, there isn’t any research to justify their work or that they make outlandish claims relative to the outcomes one might expect from their offerings.  And my answer is that’s correct BUT you don’t have to lower your standards and market your content in a way that is inauthentic yet you do need to have some sizzle.

Ultimately all personal or professional development requires hard work, personal responsibility and a commitment from the end user in order for it to yield results that are measurable and impactful.  Have you ever noticed that most really fat people have a library of diet books that promise that they can eat cookies or drink seaweed juice or Acai berries once a day  and the weight will magically disappear? Ever ask someone that’s actually lost a significant amount of weight what it took?  It’s usually hard work and exercise over an extended period of time.  Not quite as much sizzle as the cookie diet but the results are tangible.

There’s a ton of content out there that is all sizzle or total b.s. and it sells quite well.  It runs the gamut from getting rich in real estate to MLM schemes to selling models, negotiation, persuasion, overcoming obstacles and on and on.  So what about the content that actually works?  That can help someone master a skill, eliminate an unhealthy behavior or embrace a new mindset.  What I see in my work is that the folks that have created amazing content tend to be heavy on the steak and light on the sizzle.  It could be because their work is grounded in academic research or years of trial and error or that they just are not great marketers.

What I believe is that if your work is all  sizzle and no steak the market is smart and you won’t have long term, sustainable success (plus you might not sleep that well at night).   You can and will fool some of the people some of the time.  That being said if you are all steak and you don’t have any sizzle than you are doing yourself and your work a disservice.  When I talk to thought leaders I can tell within five minutes how truly passionate they are about the work they have created, how they have seen results that are remarkable and know that they are changing the world (in a variety of ways both large and small) by getting their content into the hands of the right audience.   Than I review their marketing material, websites, blogs, articles, books and the like and it often feels like I just drank four doses of Nyquil.  If your positioning doesn’t convey your passion you’re toast.  If your marketing collateral doesn’t speak to the tangible results that your clients have gained from your work you do not have a shot at winning in today’s hyper-competitive marketplace.

There is no secret formula to get the right balance of boring to B.S.  The mix needs to be authentic and engaging, powerful and credible.  Ultimately what I’ve seen is a polarized way of thinking.  We’ve got more than enough charlatans in the market peddling get rick quick schemes but the reason there isn’t enough credible, solid and viable content.More often than not the folks that have great content are so fearful of being perceived as quacks that they understate the power of their own work. They believe the raw data will do the hard work of telling the story of what their content actually is capable of doing.   Learn from the charlatans, you can make a difference and make money and do it in a way that is aligned with the integrity of your work.  Don’t  be humble when talking about how it has been a key factor in achieving a measurable result. Every dollar spent on nonsense is a dollar that wasn’t spent on content that has the ability to make an individual or an organizations life a better one.  If you combine the power of your passion with the respect your clients have for your work and do it with integrity you will have a far better chance of seeing your work reach and touch the people you created it for.

And you’ll discover that the poorer leaders look for someone else to blame.

This scenario all too frequently occurs when entrepreneurs or founders of startups have a vision of their company — or at least the opportunity it is set up to exploit — and intuitively know all the requisite functions necessary to turn their vision into a reality.   Then they hit “speed bumps” when they realize  they have to work through people who don’t perform those functions the way the founder intuitively imagines they should.  That is when the micromanaging begins and rather than becoming clearer, the founder instead rides his/her people harder causing lowered productivity and performance.

To resolve this it is important for the end goal and objectives to support that goal be clearly articulated.  Next the tasks to achieve those objectives and skills to accomplish those tasks need to be clearly articulated.  Then a means to learn and master those skills need to be provided.  Finally after those skills are mastered, the company has to have a structure where people have the capacity (ample time and other resources) to employ those skills to accomplish those tasks to meet those objectives that achieve those goals.

Marshall Goldsmith and Patricia Wheeler invite you to a Thought Leader Teleforum on Wednesday September 30th at 1 PM Eastern time. Please join us in a Thought Leader TeleForum for a discussion focused on “Just Listen: The Secret Weapon to Getting Through to Absolutely Everyone featuring Mark Goulston, moderated by Executive Coach Patricia Wheeler. The first make-or-break step in persuading anyone to do anything is getting them to hear you out.  Whether the person is a harried colleague, a stressed-out client, or an insecure spouse — things can only go from bad to worse if you are unable to break through emotional barricades.  During this TeleForum, Mark Goulston will explore a number of powerful yet simple, easy-to-apply techniques to reach through these barriers and have your message be heard and understood. Using the powerful techniques learned in this session, you’ll be able to turn the “impossible” and “unreachable” people in your life into allies, devoted customers and lifelong friends. Mark Goulston, M.D., is an executive coach, team building consultant trained as a clinical, psychiatrist. He has been a UCLA professor of psychiatry for more than 25 years, trained FBI and police hostage negotiators and worked with or spoken to companies, universities and organizations around the world. He is the best selling author of four books including his latest, “Just Listen”. In addition he writes the Tribune Media syndicated career advice column, “Solve Anything with Dr. Mark,” blogs for Fast Company and the Huffington Post and is a contributor to Harvard Business online. During this 60-minute conference call we will be discussing the three points below plus fielding your specific questions: - Effectively getting through to difficult people…without the fear of making the situation worse - Skills to help you easily confront current situations that you may be avoiding - How to win increased respect from others and confidence in yourself for dealing with difficult situations head on There is no charge for this TeleForum, which will be held at 10 AM Pacific/1 PM Eastern time on Wednesday September 30th.  Please click here to register.  If this link does not work in your browser, you may cut and paste the following URL: www.LeadingNews.org/signupgc.htm. To adjust for international time zones, you can visit World Time Converter. If you have further questions, please contact Lori Glover at 858 382-4687. We look forward to your participation! Patricia and Marshall

Thanks to my supportive subscribers for their support in helping my new book, “Just Listen” reach #1 in four business categories at amazon.com in its first week of publication.

Other chances to catch Mark:

September 30, 4:30-5:30 PM PDT – free guest teleclass at: “Just Listen: The secret weapon to succeeding as an entrepreneurial MD” hosted by The Entrepreneurial MD

October 7, 5:30-8:30 PM PDT – “Cracking the Communication Code” – Professional Coaches and Mentors Association, Santa Monica

Press Release: Discover the Secret to Getting Through to Absolutely Anyone

Whenever your pre-teen or teenage kid has screwed up, teaching them a lesson after the fact isn’t exactly the easiest task.

One of the best ways to avoid that is to use the “side by side” technique I’ve described in my about to be published book, “Just Listen” Discover the Secret to Getting Through to Absolutely Anyone (AMACOM, Sept. 15, 2009).

Do this while driving in the car (where you’re both looking forward instead of engaged in one of those face to face lectures that they can’t stand) or engaged in some activity or errand to “buffer” the conversation.

If it’s a pre-teen/middle schooler and they’ll still engage with you, say: “How can you tell which one of your friends is most likely to go too far and get in big trouble?”

They may smell a rat and say: “What?”

If so, continue with: “Yeah, I was just wondering which of your friends is likely to go too far this year, because if they do and you’re their friend, you might get pulled in to help them out.  It might be helpful to know which one and what they might do, so you can be ready.  I mean isn’t that what friends are for?”

You don’t start to lecture them or tell them to avoid that friend.  Doing it this way is a way of helping them develop judgment about “going too far” and that doing so has consequences.

If they tolerate that question, ask them next: “While we’re on the topic of what’s coming up, how do you tell the difference between a class you need to stay up to date on and one you can kind of get away with doing stuff at the last minute?”  This again helps sow the seeds for their developing the capacity for anticipation and for judgment.

You can use a similar approach with a wide variety of questions.

And if you’re dealing with a teenage high schooler (or even one in college) who doesn’t want any advice and says, “Just leave me alone!” (Know any who fit that description?) here is something you might try to that again leverages a future that they haven’t screwed up.

Say to them: “As you go through high school or college, your mom/dad and I can deal with you in one of two ways.  In the first way, we can leave you  alone, including waking you up, getting on your back about homework (this won’t work with an intrusive micromanaging parent), making introductions for you to people (tutors, friends who can give you a job, etc.) that can help you succeed and get ahead.  You might actually prefer learning from your successes and failures and feel you’ve done it all by yourself.  In the second way, we can put both feet in and do any and everything we can do to help you become successful and happy in life. However if we do that, you can’t talk to us disrespectfully, tell us to “shut up” or swear at us, and if we do set up opportunities for you with people outside, you have to keep us posted on what you’re doing so those people don’t think you’re a flake.”

Good luck. Your kids’ adolescence can be a bumpy ride.

****

P.S. If you like these kind of tips, I think you will like “Just Listen” and hope you’ll check it out and spread the word to your friends.

P.P.S. If you missed my FREE American Management Association webcast, “The Simple Secret to Getting Through to Difficult People” that had 1700+ attendees, you can catch it at: AMA webcast.

Spread the Word

]]> http://markgoulston.com/insights/1540.html/feed 5 http://markgoulston.com/insights/1503.html http://markgoulston.com/insights/1503.html#comments Sat, 15 Aug 2009 02:30:50 +0000 Mark http://markgoulston.com/?p=1503 “When you’re playing against Tiger there are three things going on:

1. You know he can beat you
2. He knows he can beat you
3. He knows that you know he can beat you
That’s a competitive advantage!”

- as told by a PGA professional friend of mine

What gives Tiger his competitive advantage? His superior athleticism? Sure. His work ethic? Of course. His fierce determination? Absolutely.

Perhaps his greatest unforeseen advantage may not be a matter of his having a competitive edge, but rather how everyone else seems to lose theirs.

How do you lose your competitive edge?

When bad things happen and you blame, complain, whine or make excuses what does that do for your competition who at the same moment: a) “takes the hit;” b) feels the upset (even Tiger will bang a club into the ground); c) takes a deep breath and exhales; d) lets it go and puts it quickly behind them; d) recenters; e) refocuses; f) executes.

My favorite sports story of all time is one that I offer in my upcoming book, “Just Listen” Discover the Secret to Getting Through to Absolutely Anyone (AMACOM, Sept. 16, 2009). It is in “Chapter 3: Move Yourself from ‘Oh F#@&’ to ‘OK’” and demonstrated to me the best example ever of not only keeping the wheels on after a bump, but becoming a “Turbo Porsche.”

In 1997, playing in his second Masters golf tournament, Tiger had shot 40 on the opening nine holes of the tournament. At that moment, Tiger turned to his dad Earl and said something along the lines that he didn’t know what was happening. Earl looked into his son’s eyes and reflected back just how well prepared Tiger was for anything and said to him: “You’ve been here before, just do what you need to do.”

Tiger went on to win the Masters by 12 strokes shooting 18 under par, two records that have never been equaled.

Tiger’s competitive advantage is that when he hits a wall that would cause others to fall apart, he stops, reaches inside himself and discovers what all champions find. He discovers he has “heart” and in his case it is still held up and given to him by the loving, caring hands of his dad.

This phenomenon is not restricted to the world of sports. You see it in business and politics. Isn’t that what we all saw as John McCain and Hillary both lost their competitive advantage when they hit a few walls and we saw their wheels come off?

What would happen to you if when you reached inside, you discovered the same thing that Tiger does? What would happen if when they hit a wall, you could be to your kids, your people at work, and your friends what Earl was to Tiger?

Imagine the possibilities.

Also please join me for my August 26, 9-10 AM PST, 12-1 PM EST, free American Management Association webcast, “The Simple Way to Get Through to Difficult People.” There are now 2600 people registered for it and you can help me set a record.

And check out my upcoming book, “Just Listen” Discover the Secret to Getting Through to Absolutely Anyone (AMACOM, Sept. 16, 2009) which you can pre-order at a steep discount.

Market Conditions Call For A Differentiating Approach

Sorry for the last minute announcment (I just heard of this a couple days ago). if you are a Vp Sales/marketing, sales manager, vp hr, vp training or a salesperson who can bring with you your vp sales, you will not want to miss this. I HAVE SEEN AND RECEIVED TRAINING FROM THE TEAM AT DIALEXIS AND IT IS UNLIKE ANYTHING YOU’VE EVER SEEN WITH REGARD TO GETTING THROUGH TO DECISION MAKERS FROM AN “ICE COLD” CALL.

for more information go to: soar preview

When you demonstrate poise under pressure,
you stop being a service or product,
that people will commoditize
and instead become a person
they will want esteem from.
That is the leverage of “personal authority.”

The following is excerpted from Chapter 3: Move Yourself from “Oh F#@&” to OK from my upcoming book, ““Just Listen” – Discover the Secret to Getting Through to Absolutely Anyone (which you can pre-order).

The best example of coolness under fire I’ve ever seen involved former Secretary of State Colin Powell. In 1996, Powell was the keynote speaker at a national conference for a leading residential real estate company’s top producers. By that point, he’d achieved tremendous popularity with the American public and was being considered as a presidential nominee.

I happened to be in the audience that day, and General Powell had me (and everyone else) in the palm of his hand. He urged the audience to give back to their communities. He spoke passionately of his gratitude for his family, childhood, and friends. And he exhorted us all to “do well by doing good.”

At the end of his talk, he called for questions. Still feeling the warm glow of his inspiring words, we were totally unprepared for what happened next.

“General Powell,” the first questioner said, “I understand that your wife once suffered from depression, had to take medicine, and was even in a mental hospital. Do you want to comment on that?”

You could hear all 8,000 people in the auditorium gasp at the inappropriateness—not to mention the cruelty—of the question. In the silence that followed, we all wondered how Powell would react to being blindsided. Edmund Muskie had thrown away his presidential hopes years earlier, when a reporter asked about his wife’s sanity, and he started to cry. What would Powell do under similar circumstances?

Here’s exactly what he did. He looked at the questioner. He paused for a moment. And then he simply responded: ”Excuse me—the person you love more than anyone is living in hell, and you don’t do whatever you can to get her out. Do you have a problem with that, sir?”

I was in awe. His response was brilliant. It was calm. It was perfect.

And believe me: it wasn’t the first thing General Powell wanted to do. For a split second, he probably wanted to walk down from the podium, grab the idiot who asked the question, and knock his teeth through the back of his head. Because that’s what every one of us would want to do in his place.

But he didn’t give in to anger (even though he had every right to). And he didn’t cry, like Senator Muskie. Instead, he went from “Oh F#@&” to “OK” faster than I’ve ever seen anyone do it.

As a result, he reached me even more deeply than he had with his speech. He reached everyone in the audience and touched them to their core. And I have no doubt he reached the questioner just as powerfully as a fist in the face would have—without having to lift a finger to do it.

That’s poise under pressure. And if you can achieve that same poise, it’ll get you successfully through any stressful, high-stakes encounters that life hands you.

To demonstrate YOUR personal authority, please sign up for the FREE RESOURCES above to learn “Two Questions to Gain People’s Respect and Have Them Treat You Better.” Please leave a comment on this blog post to let me know how it works out for you.

Not too long ago I spoke to Frank, the CEO of a $2 billion health products company, “How often do you use the word ‘goals’ in your management meetings?”

He answered with a revealing chuckle, “Always.”

I replied, “I take it from that chuckle that the room doesn’t exactly jump all over it with ‘when do we get started’ enthusiasm.”

“No.  I don’t think any of them have that kind of enthusiasm.  There are even several who have a ‘deer in the headlights’ look when I bring up the topic of goals,” he replied.

I explained: “Frank. You use the word ‘goals’ naturally, because as a successful CEO, your mind has a ‘forward bias’ that enables you to keep your eye on the horizon and articulate a compelling vision and then translate it into a strategy to get there. Most people in a company, who will never make it to CEO, have a ‘reverse bias’ in their thinking.  That means that their minds are more comfortable reacting to something after someone else like you has laid it out. It also means that the word ‘goals’ doesn’t compute in these non-forward bias, reactive individuals.”

“That’s very true,” Frank interjected, “in fact I can tell those people with leadership potential by their ability to look forward. And I must admit, we’re challenged right now in having any such individuals.  As you say, nearly all of them listen and then react to what I come up with.  What do I do about that?”

“First, realize that you have a serious succession challenge if you have few if any who can look forward and you will need to address that,” I answered and then continued, “but second, you will probably gather more enthusiastic participation and possibly even innovation if you frame the way you begin a meeting to match their ‘reverse bias’ minds instead of expecting them to be naturally forward thinkers. 

To do that, ask your managers at the beginning of the next meeting: ‘a) Imagine that our meeting to discuss x agenda is over and you’re returning to your desks, your emails and your other work; b) Then imagine your saying to yourself, ‘That was a very productive meeting.  I now clearly understand what our strategic imperatives are and why they’re so important.  Furthermore I have a clear idea of what my department and specifically I need to do to make that happen and I am really pumped up to do those things; c) Can you all imagine having that reaction when you leave this meeting in 90 minutes? (hopefully they will nod in agreement); d) If so, then tell me what happens during this meeting to cause that reaction to happen.’”

“Then use their responses to guide how you lead that meeting,” I concluded.

When you cause your people to imagine that positive end result and then ask them to react to it by detailing what would need to occur to make it happen, you not only tailor your directive communication to their “reverse bias” mind, you set the stage for them to participate more fully in the meeting.

And as we all know, the more you get a team to participate in defining a desired outcome and strategy, the more inclined they are to participate in its execution.

What makes “News” newsworthy is that it is unusual, out of the norm and because of that novelty, it grabs our collective attention.

I was speaking to John, a contractor working at my building, on another day of volatility in the stock market, threats to world peace, bailouts, stimulus packages, automotive company meltdowns, more news about “Octomom,” yadda, yadda, yadda who seemed rather calm (not to be confused with dull). It was a calmness I envied.

I asked him about it and he replied: “I’m not insensitive to plights of people, but 10 % unemployment means 90 % of people are employed, focusing excessively on punishing companies for giving hundreds of millions of dollars in undeserved bonuses only distracts from coming up with solutions of how to spend the trillion+ in stimulus money to get everything back on track, x hundreds of deaths (on a bad day) in car accidents in the United States still leaves 300+ million alive and safely driving in their cars or on buses, tens or possibly hundreds of thousands of people actively fighting in some war still leaves billions who are not, a single mother with eight newborns to care for still leaves the rest of the entire world taking care of a more manageable number.”

I asked him where he learned to be so grounded and maintain such perspective. He told me that growing up his family had meals together, that he would occasionally help his dad out at work and that he used to go on hikes with his grandpa who had a favorite expression that “this too shall pass” that he delivered in a wise vs. dismissive manner. And since that always seemed to happen, he came to believe it.

There is a psychological term called “object constancy” which is the ability to maintain a secure attachment to another person, to a goal and most importantly to hope in the face of disappointment, hurt AND even betrayal. It is a matter of emotional and psychological maturity. The more immature you are, the less object constancy you have and the less able you are to feel disappointed, hurt or betrayed without becoming angry, withdrawn or infuriated respectively. The more mature you are the more object constancy and the more able you are to remain grounded, steadfast and determined in the face of those emotionally upsetting feelings.

Object constancy is built upon nature and nurture, i.e. your biology (genetics and temperament) and how you were raised (and the social environment around you). Given the loss of the calm and nurturing environment that John grew up in (even “caring” parents seems all too rushed keeping their kids busy and therefore raising human doings instead of human beings) and that harried and often divorced parents are yelling at their children to get dressed, do their homework, etc., we are left to receive more of our “perspective” from the news, the internet, blogs and other media.

All such sources of information seem to be drinking from the same “adrenaline rush” kool aid and too often follow the “If it bleeds, it leads” dictate. And if that leading news is now becoming the source of perspective and having a significant influence on the nurture (and nurturers) that cause children, young adults and now even older ones to develop and keep perspective, the media needs to step back and feed people a balanced and objective view of life so they can calm down and they can get back on the road to a saner existence..

An epilog to my conversation with John. He was working at my building to clean out his fifty something wife’s office. She was a non-smoker who had recently died after a six month bout with lung cancer.

I told him how sorry I was. His eyes watered, he thanked me and said: “This too shall pass.”

To find out more about Mark’s coaching, leadership training or speaking explore the menu to the left and contact him at: mgoulston@markgoulston.com

Catch Mark’s recent interview, “Don’t Sabotage Yourself” on Total Career Success radio.

A wired world does not a flat world make 

The world is becoming increasingly wired. More and more remote regions of the world are getting online or at least gaining access to a town, local village, van or someone on a Blackberry who is. To add to that younger generations are connecting in a truer way than their parents and grandparents ever did and have the potential to do so with those connections not being mired by outdated prejudices, policies, politics and wars that have are fought fueled by egos rather than what makes sense eco.

What still prevents the world from being flat – with equality of opportunity and the possibility of fair and honest competition– is that the powerful, greedy, entitled, special interested find ways to not compete fairly. Instead they hedge their bets, gain a competitive edge and create barriers to entry through lies, linguistic gymnastics, innuendo, manipulation and even more unseemly practices.

Chief Justice Louis Brandeis said that “sunlight is the greatest disinfectant.” Until utter transparency becomes not just the law of all lands, but the values that all peoples practice in their daily behavior, the world will continue to be under the sway of the entitled, the unworthy and the nefarious.

I hope for all our sake the disinfection happens sooner than later, because if you haven’t noticed Mother Nature has been firing warning salvos to mankind that she can’t hold on forever.

Other Resources:

• The Great Manager’s Key: The Guide to Better Decisions February 24 webinar with Dan Ariely. Dan is on of the top thinkers and researchers in the area of behavioral economics and in his landmark book Predictably Irrational. In this webinar hosted by Dr. Mark Goulston, you’ll discover just how much your rational decisions are anything but that. When finally checking out use Coupon Code: goulston50 to receive $50 off the regular fee of $349.