Now think about this for a minute.

Even kids in Kindergarten are using IPads!

Fifty percent of the world’s population is under 30 years old and they know more about technology than any other generation!

Social Media is about people – like it or not, it’s a new way of building relationships.

There are 700 million members on Facebook.  Almost 1 billion!  How many of you can honesty say you can’t start the day without checking Facebook?  It used to be that I couldn’t wait to check my email but nowadays the first thing I do is check my FB page BEFORE I check emails.  Imagine that!

Take a look at this powerful video:

So after having a conversation with my business manager and watching this video, I finally put up my very first professional speaking/author page on Facebook and ask that you take a look around, see never before seen photos and videos.  Then if you like it, there’s that famous “LIKE” button.  

Hope you found this very short article to be of value to you.  It’s a reminder that if you have a business or want to start one, social media is the new “advertising.”  I predict print advertisements will disappear because social media is much more powerful and eye-catching.   It’s continually evolving and is here to stay.   Therefore, if you haven’t already done so, I suggest you create yourself a page on Facebook – actually two.  One personal and one for business.  And let me know if you want me to “Like” it!

In closing, I think you’ll get a kick out of this humorous video.  For the first time in my life, I got dunked in a tank of water in the name of charity at a local Art Walk in Fairfield, Iowa.

Let me tell you, I was SORE for a few days!!

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It goes without saying that leaving comments at other blogs is one way to get your name out there but only if it is done correctly. The right way, in my opinion and something that other bloggers probably agree with, is to leave value-added comments. That means going beyond one liners like “Great article!” or “I disagree with you.” (Photo Credit: algo)

One-liners rarely foster authentic conversation because they aren’t really adding much of anything. if you liked the article, why did you like it? If you disagreed with it, what are your opinions? When you engage in the conversation fully, you are helping the blogger create a stimulating intellectual atmosphere for all kinds of people to partake in.

Blogs are perceived to be successful not necessarily by how many subscribers they have (although that is certainly one yardstick) but how active their comment sections are. In fact, I recently got an email from someone who mentioned that she thought Adversity University was successful. Curious to know why she thought so, I emailed her asking what criteria she was using to make that call. She wrote back and said it was because of the number of comments generated here. I thought that was particularly interesting.

Think about that for a moment……suppose you came across a blog that had only a couple of comments or none at all, what would be your first impression?

Here are 4 ways leaving comments at other blogs could benefit you:

Effective Self-Marketing Tool

The more you leave authentic comments at other blogs, the more your name will be seen by those who might not have otherwise known about you. If you left a particularly engaging comment, readers and bloggers who notice it are more than likely to want to find out more about you by clicking their way to your blog/website.

Here’s a quiz: Which comment would make you more curious about the person who left it?

• Great article!

OR

• I thought your article today was very interesting because for one thing, I could identify with the fear of taking a leap of faith into the unknown. I once had to face that toward the end of my career on Wall Street. One day, I had a spiritual awakening and made the decision to quit a lucrative six-figure career to pursue my dreams of becoming a motivational speaker, author and pilot. If it wasn’t for faith in God, I might not have taken that leap. Thanks for letting me share!
  

A Way to Make Money

I wish I could say that I made money every single time I left a comment at other blogs but it actually happened to me recently. Just think of the possibilities. If you have an opportunity to make it known what you do for a living and it’s appropriate, then by all means, put it in the comment!

One day, I came across an article entitled “The Movie Director’s Guide to Effective Teaching.” When I read it, I knew immediately this was a golden opportunity to mention that I was a professional speaker because as a speaker, I’m also a teacher!

Here’s an exact replica of the comment I left that eventually made me $2500:

Since I’m a speaker, I find that one of the most effective ways of teaching is by sharing personal stories. People remember stories, not dry facts. For each point I want them to learn, I tell a story.

As an example, one of my programs is the HEAR Principle (Have a passion, Entertain the possibilities, Authenticity (or take Action) and Remember who helped you. For each point I want people to learn, I tell a story behind each principle. It helps them remember.

Do you see what I did there? While there was nothing “earthshaking” about it, not only did I mention that I was a speaker/teacher but I also added value to the conversation by specifically explaining why I thought sharing stories was an effective way of teaching. I didn’t just say, “Hey, great techniques!”

While I certainly hoped that this would lead me to a speaking engagement, I did not expect it to happen so quickly.

Two days after that comment went live, a meeting planner from a very large trade organization based in Texas contacted me. She wanted to know if I was available for a keynote presentation later this summer for a conference to be located in Ohio that she was putting together. Two emails later, we booked the engagement with a check in my hand for $2500! Had I not left that comment, I would not have had that opportunity.

Imagine attracting ready-made clients simply by leaving genuine comments. You never know.

Foster Goodwill with the Blogger

If you are a person who is in business for yourself, sooner or later you are going to want to call in favors. Perhaps someday you’ll want some assistance from well established bloggers with the plugging of your new book or maybe you’ll need help with spreading the word about your products and services.

Who do you think would be more than likely to help you out when that time came? That’s right, bloggers who you’ve already developed relationships with. If you’ve gone out of your way to leave heartfelt comments at their blogs over a period of time, they are more than likely going to want to reach out to you in gratitude.

Running around and leaving a bunch of worthless comments at a slew of other blogs across the blogosphere isn’t going to cut it. Sooner or later, well read bloggers are going to notice your spammy behavior and by the time you leave a comment at their blogs, they’ll either ignore, mark them as spam or otherwise delete them.

Create goodwill by sticking with your favorite bloggers and become one of their genuine contributors. You will reap what you sow.

Make a Difference by Sharing Your Experiences with Others

If you’re looking for a way to give back, this is a great way to do it. Subscribe to blogs that resonate with your heart and become a frequent participant. Nothing is more powerful than sharing your own life’s experiences with others. What a great way to inspire and uplift others by giving a piece of yourself! What you give away, you get back.

Food for thought: Share with us some of the experiences you had by leaving comments at other blogs. Did you make money (directly or indirectly)? Did it cause a ripple effect within that community? Did you make friends with the blogger? Did it lead to an off the wall experience or did it transform your life in unexpected ways?

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For years, I operated my speaking business as a sole proprietorship but without bringing it into existence as a legal entity.  I figured since I was a one-man operation, why spend untold thousands just to process some legal paperwork?  

There had to be a better way.

One day, I decided that I needed to send a strong message to the universe that I was serious about treating my speaking career as a business, not as a hobby.  That meant I needed to form a company. 

But how to pull a sole proprietorship into a legal entity so that my personal assets could be kept separate from the business and accomplish it without a lawyer?    

Here’s how I did it and how you can too:  

• First, select a name that is both eye-catching and appropriate.  I already knew I wanted to call my speaking business ”Obstacle Illusions.” 
• Decide what type of legal entity you want to create.  After much research, I decided that it would be much easier to form a limited liability company.  After all, I could always “upgrade” the business to a corporation once I started hiring employees and expanded in both scope and size.  See Selecting Your Business Entity Legal Structure for additional information.
• Check to see if the name of your company is legally available.
• Fill out an “articles of incorporation” form and mail it in to the Secretary of State’s Office with a check for the filing fee.
• Fill out a Tax ID form and send it in to the IRS.
• Open a business checking account at your bank.
• You’re DONE!

4 ADVANTAGES OF A LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANY 

• No complicated legal requirements such as issuing stock certificates, holding annual meetings or having a board of directors and recording the minutes of the meetings, etc.    
• Your personal assets are protected from all claims against your company in a lawsuit, should one ever happen.
• Unlike a corporation, you won’t be double-taxed.  Profits and losses flow directly from the LLC to you.  
• Gives you creditability in the eyes of potential clients.

ENSURE THE NAME YOU WANT ISN’T ALREADY TAKEN BY SOMEONE ELSE

Once I decided that a LLC was the right vehicle for me, the next step was to check and make sure that no one else had “Obstacle Illusions” in the state of Ohio.  I used two free resources to check on its availability:

• American Incorporators has a free service where they will check up to two potential names for your LLC in any state.  Go here to fill out the online form.  You will get an email from them within 2 or 3 weeks indicating whether or not the names you want are available in your state.  If you’re worried that this company will use your email address to spam you with a blizzard of advertisements, use an alternative email address that you use for such purposes (i.e. create a free Yahoo or Hotmail account) .  I personally did not experience any such behavior from them, so you can rest assured that once they send you a response, they won’t bother you after that.    
• You can also go to your Secretary of State’s website and conduct a name search.  Use Google to find its location (i.e. ”Ohio Secretary of State”).   On the main page, look for something that resembles “search for business filings” and follow instructions.  

Between these two of methods, you’ll know for sure whether your chosen business name is available in your state.   Lawyers will charge you to do the same thing that you can do for free!     

DOWNLOAD, FILL OUT AN “ARTICLES OF INCORPORATION” FORM AND MAIL TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE’S OFFICE WITH A CHECK 

Once you know for sure the name is available, the next step is to fill out an Articles of Incorporation form from your Secretary of State’s website.  Go here to find links for your state. 

The amount of the filing fee will vary from state to state but in Ohio it was only $125.  Two months later, I received a State of Ohio Certificate that basically read:

It is hereby certified that the Secretary of State has custody of the business records for Obstacle Illusions, LLC and that said business records show the filing and recording of Articles of Organization…….

If you decide to open a business checking account, your bank will check the Secretary of State’s website to verify that you are legally established within your state.  

OBTAIN A FEDERAL TAX IDENTIFICATION NUMBER FOR YOUR LLC

Download the SS-4 from the IRS website, fill it out online and then print out a copy to mail to the IRS.  In section 10 (“Reason for applying”), I checked the box for “Banking purpose….” and wrote in the space provided that I was opening a business checking account. 

Even though I had not yet received my Tax ID, I was able to open a checking account for Obstacle Illusions, LLC.  All the bank cared about was that the business was legally established within the state of Ohio. 

All they had to do was to pull up my records at the Secretary of State’s website, which you already saw here.  In addition to opening a separate checking account, I also got a business credit card, making it easier to keep track of business-related expenses.    

Bottom line?  If your business is a one-person operation with no employees (you can hire independent contractors to farm out work as long as it’s clear they are not employees), it’ll be much easier to form your business as an LLC.  You can do it yourself and save a bundle.  As you grow and expand, taking on employees, you can always convert your business from an LLC structure to that of a corporation.  By that point, you’ll be raking in so much money that you won’t care how much it costs to hire a lawyer!  

For additional information, see Eight Easy Things to Do Before You Form Your Company. 

Food for thought:  Are you going to send a message to the universe that you are serious about having your own business and take yourself to the next level?     

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In short, like snowflakes and fingerprints, you are unique.

With a show of hands, how many of you have been asked, “And so, what do you do for a living?”

That’s what I thought.  Me too. 

But have you ever given thought to what your answer might be? 

Today I want to share with you tips on how to create a memorable, even outrageous five-second self-introduction.  

The first step is to find out what makes you unique.  You can do this by bravely sending an email survey to every person in your Rolodex file and ask them to answer some basic questions about what they perceive to be your character traits, personality strengths and/or weaknesses, to name a few.   It’s a daring exercise but you’d be shocked with the responses you get.  In fact, you might even learn a thing or two about yourself!

I can see a chorus of protests from long-time Adversity University readers, “But Stephen, aren’t you contradicting yourself?  Several months ago, you wrote ”What Others Think of You is None of Your Business! “ 

Yes, I know I did, but stay with me on this……

The point of that article was not to care about what people are saying behind your back as you become more successful.  You know, those time-wasters who have nothing better to do than to bring you down or belittle your dreams.  That’s definitely none of your business.

What IS your business is knowing how you’re perceived by those you have come to know and trust over the years - people you believe have your interests at heart.  You’re in the driver’s seat by selecting who you want to involve but be careful not to let your ego pick only those who will lap you up with lavish praise.  You want to include people who will be downright honest if they know they have explicit permission to do so.  

Having made myself clear, here’s a word of warning.  You better have thick skin for this.  Some of the answers you might get will be hard to swallow, especially if you give them complete freedom to give no-holds-barred answers.   

Here’s what I wrote in the opening of my email survey:      

“It’s is often difficult to evaluate my own strengths and weakness so I am asking you to answer a few questions that will help me understand how others like you perceive me. You are given complete freedom with your answers and I ask that you be totally honest without worrying about hurting my feelings. What you say will not do irreparable damage to our relationship so please don’t do any brown-nosing here. I’m not going to include you my will just because you told me what you thought I wanted to hear!  No, just be yourself and answer them to the best of your ability.  The results of this survey will assist me with the creation of my unique 5 second introduction for those times when people ask what I do for a living.   I may also use some of your answers as keywords for my resume, blog, website, etc.  Thanks for your time!   

After that comes a handful of questions – feel free to add, modify or enhance them:     

1. What things about me seem to have made the biggest impact on you? 
2. What do you perceive to be my strengths?  Weaknesses?
3. How would you describe my character traits?  For example, do I appear happy or depressed?  Controlling?  Centered?  Hyper?  Angry?  Peaceful?  Assertive?  Docile?
4. Would you do business with me if the opportunity presented itself?  Why or why not?
5. If you were to describe what I do for a living, how would you say it?  Be creative, even outrageous!  
6. Anything else you can think of that I haven’t covered here?

As the results begin to pour in, you’ll begin to see an emergence of similar answers.  When 2 or more people who don’t know each other are saying essentially the same thing about you, you can be pretty sure it’s an accurate portrayal of who you appear to be.  Their answers will go a long way towards helping you create your 5 second self-introduction as well as provide you with keywords for whatever you use to market yourself.

If you’re an elementary schoolteacher, do you just say, ”I’m an elementary schoolteacher”??  Or do you spice things up and say instead, ”I make it a blast for kids to come to school everyday!” 

A couple other examples I’ve seen:  

• Divorce Attorney:  “I make sure husbands and wives keep their children and their assets after a marriage is declared kaput.”
• Lawn care technician: “I take away the worry when it comes to lawn care.”
• Garbage Man: “I am a pro-environmentalist and pick up after people’s messes.”
• Professional Speaker (that’s me):  “I make meetings and conventions more exciting.”
• Financial Advisor:  “I help people make the green stuff grow.”
• Telephone Repairman:  “I am a telephone doctor.”
• Beautician:  “I wak and yak all day long.”

You get the picture.  Okay, so how do you come up with one-liners like these?

While you collect survey responses, conduct a private self-analysis on your line of work.  Ask yourself what clients should expect from you, why they would be better off if they hired you, etc.  If you work for someone, substitute “clients” with “boss.”  Here’s a sampling of questions pertaining to my career as a speaker:  

• What do clients expect to get from me? (My answer:  Increased awareness that it is possible to overcome adversity and achieve the “impossible.”)
• What changes could they expect for themselves after doing business with me? (My answer:  They leave the meeting inspired to make things better for themselves.”)
• Why are they better off after selecting me to speak? (My answer:  Increased productivity, better interpersonal relationships at work, more compassion for clients.)
• What is the best compliment I’ve heard from a satisfied client? (My answer:  Made me realize if you can achieve a six-figure career, so can I!)

Throw everything you’ve learned together and whack it down to one sentence for starters, just one.  Make it outrageous or at least memorable enough to make a total stranger take a double look at you and say, “Whoa, what do you mean by that?”  

Practice it on friends, strangers, acquaintances, tweaking it along the way.  Ask yourself if you’re comfortable with saying it.  Does it feel right?  And most importantly, is it truthful?   

Food for thought:  What is your five second self-introduction?  I’d love to read yours here!

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Answer:  Surround yourself with people smarter, wealthier, more organized, more educated, more creative or even more resourceful than you.  And then learn from them!

How?

Answer:  By forming a mastermind group. 

Today’s article is a follow up to a post I previously wrote on this subject. 

Tony D. Clark wrote a very interesting and powerful article over at his Success from the Nest blog, “The Point of View May Be New to You.”  He expounds on how there might not be a whole lot of new things under the sun but that different people have different ways of expressing them, potentially reaching someone who might “get it” at the right time with the right words.  

Have you ever had an “Aha” moment where you banged the palm of your hand against your head like the actor in that V-8 TV commercial, “Wow, I could have had a V-8!”? 

Perhaps you’ve been told countless times something you needed to hear in order to go to the next level but for some reason you weren’t “getting it.”  Then one day you hear a motivational speaker, read something in a book, or overhear a conversation where someone mentions something and suddenly you have a light bulb moment.  Ever experienced that?  And then you wonder why you didn’t catch on earlier?

That’s because when the student (you) is ready, the teacher(s) will appear.

When you form a mastermind group, you are assembling a powerful team of potential teachers from different, diverse backgrounds, cultures and experiences.  When two or more people gather, your success quotient multiplies exponentially.  You are surrounding yourself with not only like-minded individuals but you are also affording yourself the chance to seize upon opportunities that you previously might have missed because someone in the group opened your eyes to the possibilities that hadn’t occurred to you before.

Borrowing from books like ”One Minute Millionaire,” “Success Principles” and many others, here’s how you can create one too…..

After choosing 3 to 4 people who are already where you want to be (income-wise, professionally, spiritually, etc.) as well as those who are heading in the same direction as you, make plans to meet on a regular basis (perhaps once a week) where you can: 

• Start the meeting by praying for spiritual guidance (summons the mighty universe to your aid).
• Share and then reinforce your dreams – everyone should have written down each other’s goals in a special masterminding notebook (reinforces the notion that everybody’s dream is important and reachable with support from the others).  
• Update the group on positive things that happened since the last meeting (keeps the energy level sky-high).  
• Speak for 10 or 15 minutes (no interruptions) while the others listen and brainstorm ideas for you (i.e. multiple streams of income, connections you need, etc.)
• Encourage others to stretch beyond any perceived limitations (helps with changing limiting belief systems).
• Hold one another accountable for previously stated goals, to-do tasks (keeps everyone motivated and on track).
• End each meeting with statements of gratitude (an attitude of gratitude expressed by two or more people is infinitely more powerful than one).

When you form the right mastermind group, things can happen very fast.  Let me give you a couple of examples of what has developed already:

1. An idea of a product that will be used in back-of-the-room sales at speaking engagements has already been professionally drawn on paper and we are now in talks with a couple of manufacturers overseas.  Who would ever have thought we’d be in talks with a foreign manufacturer so soon?!?
2. I am in negotiations with another member of the group to act as a consultant for my speaking business – someone who will help me with things like marketing, booking of speaking engagements and everything else that an assistant does.  Prior to that, I was a one man operation at Obstacle Illusions (name of my business)!  Even though I was planning on getting an assistant (eventually), I had no idea where to find someone who was in a position to take on the commissioned based  position!  A contract is being drawn up and we expect to commence within the next few weeks! 

Here’s a recent photo of my masterminding group:    

Left to right:  Monica Taylor, Stephen Hopson, Shelley Kimberly and Myron Brown.  (Photo Credit:  Monica Taylor)

Food for thought:  Are you a part of a masterminding group dedicated to your enormous success?

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Do you consider yourself a likeable person? Tim Saunders, a former Yahoo executive and popular business speaker, made “The Likeability Factor” a household phrase with his best-selling book of the same title. I haven’t read it but I heard it was a good read.

While your expertise certainly helps, that’s not why people ultimately do business with you. All the advertising in the world might get you some attention in the beginning but it’s usually a waste of money in the long run. While a lot of businesses seem to be offering similar products and services, I still stand by my article, “There’s No Such Thing as Competition.” What makes you stand out is your likeability factor.

People do business with you because they like you. How you relate to others is now more important then ever. If you exude a personality that exhibits any degree of the likeability factor, they will want to work with you not necessarily because your products and services are any more colorful, functional or superior. It’s not what you know but how much people like you.

Are you an upbeat individual with a firm handshake and a genuine smile? If so, they will want to be infected with your positive energy. Are you someone who’s articulate, a good listener and one who shows empathy for others? Then people will want to do business with you because they are buying YOU. They want a bit of that essence you exude and take a little piece of you home with them.

Look at what happened with Bill Gates. He dropped out of Harvard to start Microsoft with buddy Paul Allen. At one point, IBM asked them to create some kind of DOS program. Do you think IBM was asking them to do it because of their “expertise”? They were two young geeks at the time for goodness sake! They actually had no clue on how to do it but IBM commissioned them to create the program anyway because their likeability factor was very high. The rest is history.

Yesterday, I went into the Pollack Studios in South Euclid, Ohio to have some new pictures taken for this blog, my speaking website as well as new business cards. Wendy, the “Goddess of Networking” introduced me to him. The first thing I remember was the way Mr. Pollack shook my hand with both of his and how he looked at me squarely in the eye with a kind smile on his face. Throughout the photo shoot, he asked me questions about my speaking business and genuinely seemed interested in me, taking time to stop what he was doing to listen and respond. He made me feel like the most important person in the world. By the time we were finished, I couldn’t help but wanting to continue to do business with Mr. Pollack because his likeability factor was very high. In fact, I liked him so much that I want you to know about him. If you’re in need of new photos (whether digitial or print), please stop by his website or contact him (216-381-2001 or drop him an email at JLPPHOTOG(at)aol.com). You won’t regret it.

Could I have gone out and bought myself a digital camera and done it myself? Sure. Piece of cake. With the invention of digital cameras, the photography business has been permanently altered. Investing in a digital camera these days makes almost too easy to bypass a professional photographer’s services. But Mr. Pollack has been able to stay in business by differentiating himself through the likeability factor.

Here’s my take on what makes your likeability factor go up:

1. You are the real deal. People want to be in the presence of genuine personalities. It’s easy to spot a fake person a mile away. You’re more willing than most to show the vulnerable side of you because you have no need to provide layers of insulation, pretending that you have “it.” People respect real people, not arrogant pricks who pretend to be high and mighty like the anonymous guy on the Internet who calls himself “The Rich Jerk.”

2. Your emotional intelligence is very high. You’re great at validating other people’s feelings and emotions. You really care about others and they sense that the moment you walk into the room.

3. People have no trouble understanding you because you are a conscientious communicator. You keep them informed, even when the news is bad or when you stumble and fall. It’s been proven that doctors who fess up their errors are rarely sued for gross incompetence as opposed to those who try to cover up.

4. You have superior listening skills. There’s nothing more exciting than to be truly heard. The eyes of likeable people are riveted onto you, making you feel like the most important person in the room.

5. You are comfortable in your own skin, giving others permission to be comfortable with you.

6. You have integrity, making it super easy for people to trust you. Would you buy from someone you didn’t trust?

If you have the likeability factor, you’ll have no trouble doing brisk business. People will be drawn to you like magnet because you are perceived to be a winner. They end up becoming your human advertisers, spreading the word because your likeability factor is quite high.

How cool is that?!?

Food for thought: How is your likeability factor today?

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Alexander Kjerulf from Positive Sharing wrote a fascinating article about how two major airlines deal with their customers in times of adversity. He painted a stark contrast between the behavior of employees from Contential and Southwest in “A Tale of two airlines – why every company should have a Chief Apology Officer.”

Interestingly enough, his article nicely complemented some stuff I wrote about the wonder of Southwest Airlines:

1. Passion at Southwest Airlines
2. Entertaining the Possibilities at Southwest
3. Acting on Intuition – The Southwest Story
4. How Southwest Remembers People

Until next time, enjoy the rest of your week!

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Tonight, I have an another opportunity to touch upon this subject. I stumbled onto a very informative blog called “A Newbie’s Guide to Publishing” by JA Konrath. Even though Konrath happens to be a mystery-thriller author, his material applies to everyone who dreams of getting published. But I’m getting ahead of myself here. While I realize some of you may not necessarily want to be an author, I am sharing one of his articles because it touches upon the competition issue. We’ll get to his piece in a moment.

Many of us have cultivated a set of erroneous beliefs that we need to be stronger, faster, smarter, prettier or thinner in order to get our hands on the “prize.” Remember the opera singer in that YouTube video? Even though he was surrounded by others who were also vying for the top prize, he was truly in a class all by himself. If you missed it, you can see it here.

Society teaches us that there are only winners and losers. We’re also taught that there isn’t enough to go around. But the truth of the matter is we attract what we are thinking. If you think you will experience competition, that will be your experience. It’s the same thing with the idea of scarcity or winning/losing.

You might be thinking, “Well, Stephen, what about those people who didn’t win?” “Isn’t it a fact that only one person got the top prize, while everybody else lost?” “Isn’t that by definition competition?”

It’s all a matter of perception. The ones who didn’t get selected were not meant to get it. The universe had other plans in store for them. Perhaps they will succeed at another event, leading them to even bigger things. Maybe they will be led down a path they were supposed to be on in the first place. It could be that the timing wasn’t right. From a cosmic, spiritual point of view, everything happens for a reason and therefore, there’s no such thing as competition. Take my speaking career as an example…….

I’ve not, to my knowledge, had to “compete” for a speaking engagement because I’ve never had to answer to a bunch of decision makers sitting around a table, trying to decide who to hire because I haven’t attracted those kinds of clients.

The universe attracts the right kind of clients to me because my life’s experiences cannot be claimed by anyone else – they are my unique signature stories. There are certain corporations, colleges/universities, nonprofit organizations that are looking for what I have to offer. They find me in an easy and effortless manner. They are drawn to the unique blend of my life’s experiences along with my speaking voice (go to my website and see the clips if you haven’t been there before and you’ll see what I mean), which puts me in a class of my own. Now, while not everyone will like my style, my personality or even my voice, there’s still plenty of business to go around because there are those who believe in their heart that I am right for them.

Almost all of my speaking engagements have come through word of mouth, networking and/or through the presence of my website. I’ve not had to “fight my way for a speaking engagement” for the fear of being beaten out by another speaker. Either people want to hire me or they don’t. It’s that simple!

It is because of this way of thinking that I have absolutely no qualms about promoting other speakers, even if they talk about the same kind of topics that I speak on. In “No Such Thing As Competition,” I wrote about Wendy, a speaker/writer from the Creations Thought blog and have mentioned numerous other speakers before and since that article. And you know what? Virtually all of them have reciprocated in one way or another. Either they gave directly back to me or someone else did.

Let’s turn to Konrath’s cleverly titled article, “Pimping.” Here is an author who actually goes out of his way and “pimps” other authors’ books, giving booksellers and book buyers a reason to buy them!

Why?

Because it is smart business. Think about how you would feel if someone you originally perceived as a “competitor” was out there promoting you and/or your products/services? Wouldn’t you feel grateful enough to want to return the favor? Of course, I’m assuming you’re like the majority of human beings with sufficient emotional intelligence and not some cold, heartless uncaring person. Most people would be so grateful they’d bend over backwards to reciprocate. It can’t be helped. It’s the old “you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours” kind of thing.

The pimping concept has merit because it is applicable regardless of what you do in life. You could pimp your co-worker by heaping praises on that person in front of the boss or a big client. Or you could pimp a fellow speaker, author, blogger, business person, pilot, teacher, sibling, etc. You get the idea.

Here’s an excerpt out of Konrath’s article:

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One of the participants is a single mom who is a screenwriter with a project now being considered by an A-list actress (Nicole Kidman) for a major motion picture. Imagine that! She wrote a wonderful story about overcoming adversity on the long road to success. Reading it lifted my spirits and confirmed that we are all in on this together. Of course, she will be among 500 people listed on a future post here at Adversity University and you will have an opportunity to be uplifted by her story too.

The title of today’s article magically came to me last night while watching “Pay it Forward.” Have you seen that movie? I highly recommend it – it moved me to tears because it was so heartfelt. It made me want to run out and “pay it forward.” So I came up with an idea for today’s article.

About a month ago, “It’s OKAY to Celebrate Your Defeats!” was written in response to a major literary agent passing on my book proposal for THAT’S RIGHT, STEPHEN! A follow up article entitled “Inside the Mind of a Literary Agent” proved to be quite cathartic and hopefully inspired you because it surely put things in perspective for me.

Shortly after those two articles were written, I was faced with a decision – should I self-publish or continue the “traditional way”?

One of the most powerful techniques of overcoming what other people perceive to be impossible is to make a firm decision, regardless of what it is, and then sticking with it. That’s how I became a successful Merrill Lynch stockbroker, a deaf pilot who made aviation history, among other things.

My good friend Stephen Shapiro wrote a brief but fascinating rundown called “Sobering Statistics About the Book Industry.” Despite the overwhelming odds of getting published, I’ve decided to go the traditional way. Here’s my thinking on this: “If I can become the world’s first deaf instrument rated pilot despite the FAA regulations to the contrary, why can’t I defy the odds again?”

Engineering the impossible requires at least four things:

1. Belief in yourself

2. Finding someone (just one, only one) who also believes in you. All that needs to happen is that you will be divinely led to this person who is in a position to open doors for you (like that lady who helped me with the book proposal – even though I didn’t get literary representation with her agent in the end, she did get my foot in the door of a powerful literary agency in NYC – if she believes in me, imagine who else might!).

3. Perseverance

4. Create the mindset that your time will come, just have faith in God’s plan for you.

Once I made the decision to find myself a literary agent, I went out and got six books from the local library on how to write a better book proposal. Day by day I read, take notes and then go back to the computer to tweak things a little more. Taking action like that is a signal to the universe that I am serious about my intentions. This goes along with the H.E.A.R. Principle where “A” stands for “Take Action.” ACTION speaks louder than words.

I am sharing this with you not because I want to portray myself as a mythic figure of gothic proportions who overcomes great odds but to hold myself accountable to you, my readers, and to the rest of the universe of my intentions. In essence, I’ve personally invited you along for the trip. By having you by my side in spirit, I know I have your love and support, which makes this journey all the more worthwhile. By the way, you already have an idea of what the book will be like because it’s all in here, in this blog! In fact, I will be creating an e-book in the near future so that you can read it, for free, in an easy and accessible location.

My desire is to create a point of reference where I can bring future readers back to this post to show that I was at one time a person who had the dream of getting published. If you can learn to ignore so-called statistics or man-made rules, then you’ve got your work cut out for you. All that is required is a firm decision from the deepest part of your being and then moving forward from there. Henry Ford once said:

“If you think you can do a thing or think you can’t do a thing, you’re right.”

Food for thought: Have you made a firm decision to commit yourself to a certain course of action today?

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The notion of competition lends to the idea that there isn’t enough to go around. But it flies in the face of the universal source of abundance – the universe has unlimited resources.

In his blog, Steve Pavlina makes a very interesting point:

What happens when people put out conflicting intentions, like two people intending to get the same promotion when only one position is available?

Since you’re the only intender, this is entirely an internal conflict — within YOU. You’re holding the thought (the intention) for both people to want the same position. But you’re also thinking (intending) that only one can get it. So you’re intending competition. This whole situation is your creation. You believe in competition, so that’s what you manifest. Maybe you have some beliefs (thoughts and intentions) about who will get the promotion, in which case your expectations will manifest. But you may have a higher order belief that life is random, unfair, uncertain, etc., so in that case you may manifest a surprise because that’s what you’re intending.

Interesting point of view, isn’t it?

Not enough companies do this but have you noticed how some of them (who might be considered competitors) have found that by collaborating their resources, for example, to make a movie or drill oil in the Far East, they are accomplishing what they could not do by themselves?

The other day I mentioned that after googling “law of attraction,” I stumbled upon Wendy’s “Creation Thoughts” blog. I was so taken by her articles on this subject that I read every single one of them well into the night. Her articles then led me to her other website.

As you already know, I was so impressed that not only did I end up subscribing to her motivational newsletter but I also linked my blog to her sites. Then I wrote her a glowing email thanking her for the well written articles and explained how they touched me. In that email, I informed her that “Adversity University” readers now knew about her. She was so grateful that she ended up exchanging what we call in the blogging world “love links.” You can read some of the wonderful comments she made about me here.

The point?

To the average person, Wendy and I might be considered “competitors” because we are both writers and public speakers. That might lead some people to think that we wouldn’t want to help one another because in their minds, there aren’t enough speaking/writing opportunities out there. After all they might argue, if you googled “motivational speakers,” you’d get page after page of speakers. Too many speakers and not enough speaking/writing opportunities. Right??

Not so!

According to the law of attraction, if you intend to experience competition, that’s what you will attract. I will tell you that of all the professional speaking engagements that came my way, I’ve never had to compete with another speaker. To date, I’ve been hired on the basis of three things: 1) my speaking website, 2) my press kit (without a video) and finally 3) word of mouth. To my knowledge, it never came down between me and someone else!

We do not need to compete because we are all unique with unique skills, thoughts and energy patterns. None of us are the same. We might have like thoughts but we have different ways of expressing ourselves. We have different writing styles and talents.

A case in point: Not everyone is a deaf motivational speaker who happens to be a former Wall Street stockbroker. Nor does anyone write the way I do. No one else became the first deaf pilot in the world to be instrument rated. Finally, no one owns the rights to the “The Jordan Factor” speech because it was I who experienced that (about my fifth grade teacher who caused a ripple effect on my life years ago).

Another example: How about a man who I have the honor and privilege of being my mentor, Howard Putnam? He bills himself as a former CEO of Southwest Airlines – you can see his site here. He is in great demand as a speaker and business consultant all over the world. Do you think he’s worried about competition from other speakers? Although he has not specifically said anything to me on this subject, I would venture to say he isn’t.

Why?

Because he knows he will attract the right kind of clientele who need to hear about his leadership techniques. There are very few “former Southwest CEO’s” out there on the lecture circuit. He has his own style of presentation that is uniquely his and his alone. Whether or not he is aware of the spiritual law of giving principles, he certainly walks the talk. Not only has he reached out to me and opened some doors in the world of speaking, but he has also told others about me, just like I have told others about Wendy.

Do you see what I mean? Like Howard Putnam, Wendy and I, you are very unique and whatever it is that you have to offer, there are plenty of takers out there. Why do you think marketing experts tell us to look within ourselves and find something unique about ourselves? You have a story that’s dying to be shared with the world. Your experiences are yours alone and that makes you makes you quite special.

Go and tell! And don’t worry about competition. It doesn’t exist unless you make it so.

Food for thought: You only experience competition if you intend it. Famous motivational speaker Zig Ziglar once said “if you help just enough other people get what they want, you’ll get what you want.”

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