We tend to learn in sequence. Chapter one, two and three. But what if we broke the sequence? Would that enhance our learning? In this rather sequential piece, you learn how I tend to break quite a few rules to get the results I want, and you'll find it works very well for you too. Tah, dah, time to jump the queue and learn in a whole different way.

Almost all of us feel like impostors from time to time. And we even have an official sounding name for it. But the impostor syndrome is an unfair burden to carry. What if we're just beginners? And what do real impostors look like anyway?

You'd think you'd need to be someone great or at least do something wonderful. Yet, you're a source of inspiration. How do you inspire? It's remarkably simple —and here's a short piece on how you need to go about it.

You've heard that it takes about 21 days to create a habit. But what if that weren't true at all? Could it be possible to create a habit overnight? Or even in the next few minutes? Let's find out.

It might seem that it's always up to us to change our habits. And that idea might be quite incorrect. Instead, what if something around us changed and our habits changed with it? Instead of us taking the blame all the time, this series is about how to look at habits differently and achieve lasting goals.

Researching an article is so frustrating because it's time-consuming. But there are ways to beat the pressure—and the pain. Believe it or not, there are ways to be productive with zero last minute research. This episode shows you how to make advance research work for you, as well as in situations where you have no research at all. Sounds too good to be true? Well, listen to the episode.

(Rerun of episode #220 Coaching Series Part 1 of 3). The toughest part of coaching isn't necessarily coaching itself. Instead, it's the niche, isn't it? How do you go looking for the right niche? And how do you know when you've found one that's rewarding as well as profitable? We go back in time with the British Cycling Team and what turned them into champions, and how their coach played a role. We also look at how Pilates went from being everything to everyone to finding a solid niche. Listen and enjoy.

It seems natural to keep an eye, even get obsessive about your competitors. However, it's a poor strategy for many reasons. In this episode we make the case for why the competition doesn't really matter as much as you think. And why focusing on them could possibly cause clients to desert you, instead.

How many books do you read in a year? Most people boast about how they read hundreds of books a year. That's what I used to do as well. Until I found that I wasn't really absorbing any information. So is speed reading a bad idea? Well, not entirely, but you need to know when to use it and why. Find out how speed works for you and more importantly, when it fails.

We're all told we should start with the end in mind, but we still get lost along the way. Why do we go off track? Could there be some barriers that show up a lot before the end? Let's find out we can stop focusing so much on the end and work on those barriers that blocks our progress.

Do you pre-sell if your audience is away on vacation? Should you pre-sell if you're unsure of a full house? These and other questions are what's on this Part 2 of the pre-sell podcast.

Which product should you pre-sell? Should it be the $20 product or the $2000 one? And why do silos matter so much? In this episode we not only learn why the $20 product might matter more, but also how you can promote a product almost endlessly without ever promoting it all.

Most of us believe that to cope with information, we have to speed up. But we've all tried that, haven't we? And it doesn't seem to work at all. This episode is about why we are so obsessed with trying to keep up. And how you can do quite the opposite and still be a lot smarter. Click here to read this episode:  Information Overload

Many coaches and trainers struggle to get precise results for their clients And it's not for want of trying, either. They work very hard, probably too hard, and yet the clients don't get the results they seek. The question is: how we go from mediocrity to excellence? Find out the guidelines to becoming a good coach.

Is there a fun way to get unstuck? From all the experiences we've had so far, getting stuck is a real pain. The more we try to get unstuck, the more we seem to dig a deeper hole. But what if there were a few fun ways to get unstuck? And what if they were quite different from what you've tried so far? Let's have a look.

Why are some sales pages so confusing? Is it because of the message or rather because there are way too many messages hitting you all at once? A sales page needs a powerful message to get the client not just interested, but to keep reading. And yet sales pages often miss that goal. But there's a way to start the sales page from getting off to a false start. And it's called “isolating the problem”. But how do we go about this isolation process? Let's find out. shall we? Click here to read: Why The Top-Half Of The Sales Page Goes Wrong (And How To Fix It)

As writers, we count words when we are creating a book or writing an article. We look at completing a fixed number of words per day—800 words. And yet, that system can be counterproductive to finishing your article. Professional writers seem to follow another method, one that ignores the output and instead focuses on the article writing process. How do they do it? And what have we been doing incorrectly? Let's find out how to fix this problem and finish our articles. Click here to read: Why Writing 800 Words Every Day Could Be Hindering Your Article Writing Progress

Luck it seems, is fickle? Or is it? How come some people are lucky (or as the case may be, unlucky) all the while. There is indeed a system and it may be off a bit, like weather forecasting, but by and large it's quite predictable. Let's dump the “hard, hard, hard work” mantra for a while and find out how to make luck stick. Read online: Can We Really Systemise Luck?  

If you reached the top of your game, would you credit it to hard work or luck? Most of us quite easily slide into crediting our success to hard work. But what if hard work isn't necessary? What if we've been slogging for no good reason at all? Let's find out more in Episode 1 (yes there are two episodes) in this series on hard work vs luck. Read online: Hard Work Vs Luck: Which One Is More Dependable?  

Naming a book or info-product is often a royal pain in the neck. And that's because most of us tend to sit down at our desk hoping for inspiration to strike. The weird bit is that inspiration is often in some other place altogether. It's right in front of your nose, but often you may not see it. Let's go on a treasure hunt and find out how to get an enticing book title in next to no time. Read online: How To Create Intensely Catchy Book Names (Without Too Much Of A Struggle)

How to avoid embarrassing time overruns when making presentations? Timing your presentations are crucial yet all the practice in the world may not help if there's an external issue. An emcee may cause confusion, the sound system might cause delays. And all of these unexpected issues eat up into your time. But some presenters keep to their time, nonetheless? What method can you use to avoid this issue of overruns? How do you design your presentation? Let's find out, shall we? Read Online: How To Avoid Time Overruns When Making A Presentation 

What is the biggest headache with transcription? Well, there are many, aren't there? Errors bug me no end, and they seem to make a lot of them. There's also the cost, the turnaround time and other issues. But what if there were a service that solved all of these problems? Better still, what if there were a service that you could just dictate into, like normal speech and find that it put the right punctuation in place? Here we go into the fantastic world of transcripts. You'll be amazed, because I sure was! Click here to read the article: Coolest Transcription Service  

You know how you're told to make lemonade when life hands you lemons? Well, what do you do with overripe bananas? You make Filos! This episode is about the times when we should have given up because the failure seemed so great. But they are also stories that show you what happens when you persist. You'll enjoy these stories about 5000bc and Psychotactics. And it's all about failure, and how things turned out on the other side. Read the transcript here: Failure Through Different Lenses.    

Many, if not most of us, have already experienced what it seems like to be a fraud in our mind. Still we can't seem to shake the impostor syndrome. But what if we understood how the psychology works? Find out the twin factors ramming into you and me, and how we can avoid feeling like we're not worthy. Click here to read: How To Overcome The Impostor Syndrome

Most of us have probably said something to the effect of "If it weren't for the deadline, I'd get nothing done". Yet, for many of us, a deadline is crushing, if not crippling. We scramble at the last minute and wish there were a better way to get things done on time. We could fool ourselves by having an earlier deadline but that doesn't seem to work either. But have you tried the "second-last-minute-deadline"? And how do you use it to get things done not just well before time but also a lot better? Read more here: How To De-Stress With The Second Last Minute Deadline

What makes some courses vastly better than others? The answer lies not in the content, or the instruction, but rather in the set up. But why is setup so crucial? Setup becomes vital because it gets rid of clients that don't follow instructions and gives you the cream of the crop. You get clients that follow through and therefore get better results. The more consistent the results, the less you have to market your course. But the question is: how do you set up a course?Let's find out. The Magic Of Set Up: Why Some Courses Are Better Than Other

Fun seems obvious as a concept. But "fun in learning" almost seems like a bit of a paradox. What is "fun" and how can you find it, let alone use it when you're teaching a skill? Let's take a bit of a deep dive into intimidation and find how fun can save the day—yes, yet again.  How To Accelerate Learning

Why do we get upset with ourselves when we forget information? Surely we should be able to remember at least 30-40% of a book. But it seems to slide through our brain like semolina in a sieve. Yet, there is a way to remember things—and there's also a big reason to forget. Find out why forgetting is just as important as retaining facts. Find out exactly how to go about it in this episode on memory. How to Accelerate Client Learning

If you were asked: What is the uniqueness of this podcast, would you be able to answer the question? The chances are that you might state one of the features, but not what makes it truly unique.   —What do you have to do to make the uniqueness come to life? —And how do you get clients to pass on that uniqueness? Find out in this case study on our own podcast. How To Use Contrast To Create Your Uniqueness In Seconds

It's not unusual for clients to say they're perfectionists. This means they take more time, spend more effort and they sound like the ideal client on your course. But as perfectionists know fully well, they're often jeopardising their own success, because all the extra work isn't dramatically improving their work. —How, then should you make them pay attention to what's important? —How can you help them gain the confidence and the skill? If you want your clients to be really skilled, here are three concrete steps to get them away from circling and into results. How to Stop "Perfectionist” Clients From Sabotaging Their Own Success

Most courses have huge dropout rates. And yet, that's not the case for some teachers and trainers. What makes some courses so dramatically different? The slightly surprising answer is that the course material itself can doom the course. If that makes no sense, follow along, because there's a method to this madness. Find out how to create a scenario where clients never want to leave.

Let's say you come up with what you believe is a great uniqueness for your product or service. How would you know if it's great or not? The answer is deceptively simple: every client needs to echo your uniqueness over and over again. But how are you supposed to hear that echo? Interestingly that echo is located in the testimonial. But not just anywhere in the testimonial, but in one really interesting area. Listen to find out and then do the same for your products and services as well. How to Validate Your Uniqueness

Big companies talk a lot about leadership. However you and I may not have that big charisma factor. What do we have to do to get things done when working with freelancers? What if we need to work with several team members? In this episode, we look at how the primary task is to get the right people in, rather than playing leader. And how that frees up a lot of your time and moves your company forward with a momentum that is quite unexpected. Why Staying Small Is Smart

Think Big. Really? Studies show us that scaling up is often disastrous for most companies. But what's the alternative? That's what we look at in this book review—well, chapter review—of Company of One by Paul Jarvis. Instead of driving ourselves crazy, we bring in sanity and upper boundaries to our business, while living a very good life. How do we do that? Let's find out.   Why Staying Small Is Probably A Smarter Move

People are often amazed at how quickly we fill our workshops and courses. It's almost like we have a separate channel to our clients. Well, as it appears, we do. And it's not quite a Facebook group. It's even cooler. Here's how we filled a big chunk of the Munich workshop. How WhatsApp Helped Fill The Munich Workshop

Quick announcement regarding the Frankfurt Meetup coming up in May.

Hype works exceedingly well, even when the client knows they're being duped a bit. But what if you can't stand hype? Does that mean you roll over and play dead? Here's how you can avoid hype completely, if you wish to do so. And if the hype is so great, that it can't be ignored, you can use the hype like mental judo to turn the tables and to achieve precise results for your clients.  How to Avoid Hype and Still Get Clients

In business the advice we get is to hang in, no matter what happens. Yet, to me that sounds like the wrong advice. You definitely need to hang in a bit when things get slightly tougher than you expected. But there's a time for quitting as well. How do you know if you should quit or soldier on? When Quitting Is the Smarter Option

We may often hear ourselves saying, we have a long to-do list. Or things that we still haven't completed. Or worse, we may talk about how we have no time. Often, it's just a matter of issues that can get resolved with a touch of philosophy. There's work to be done as well, but the philosophy needs to come first. In this second part of the series, let's find out how philosophy can come to our rescue and serve our business—even save us time! The Philosophy of Psychotactics

When we think of business, marketing tactics and strategy comes to mind, doesn't it? Philosophy does exist but it may be a bit on the back burner. Yet, for us at Psychotactics, philosophy looms large. Here are just a few nuggets that you can ponder over and see how they apply to you—and how you can use them in your life and business. The Psychotactics Marketing Philosophy

So much effort goes into the launch of a product, but what happens next? How do you handle the calm after the launch? How do you keep selling products on an ongoing basis? These are the questions we tackle in this episode as we get rid of the "post-launch" blues.   Click here to read the full transcript.

When we price a product or service we often use the ending 7 or 9. As in $27 or $29. Is there any basis for using such an ending? Yes, there is, but does it help to sell more products or services? This is the journey we go on, as we explore the crazy world of pricing. How to set prices shouldn't be voodoo and yet it is. Let's go on this trip by first removing the silly myths. Click here to read the full transcript.

How many books do you read in a year? Most people boast about how they read hundreds of books a year. That's what I used to do as well. Until I found that I wasn't really absorbing any information. So is speed reading a bad idea? Well, not entirely, but you need to know when to use it and why. Find out how speed works for you and more importantly, when it fails. Click here to read the full transcript.

Most of us have grand plans to succeed. Yet, almost the moment we start there are a million distractions in our way. Chaos lurches around in our doorway and there seems to be no way out. At Psychotactics, we had managed to get around most of the chaos but then I was in charge of mentoring my niece. As she moved from Year 6 to Year 7, it seemed like we were hit by an okinami of chaos. What did we do to find our way out? How did we manage to avoid the madness that we had no control over? Find out in this episode of The Three Month Vacation. Click here to read the full transcript.

How do you maintain a high productivity level when switching tasks? How do you get the brain and body to handle the transition? And how do you manage the transitions with a minimum amount of fuss?   Click here to read the full transcript.

When you create or find your uniqueness, do you need to test it? Incredible as it seems there's little point in doing any testing at all. In this episode you'll find out why testing is practically impossible and how instead of wasting time on research, you should follow three steps to make sure your uniqueness occupies a permanent part of your client's brain. Click here to read: Three Steps To Getting Your Uniqueness Recognised    

Objections aren't something we necessary think about when writing articles. We're so focused on the main content that we might see no need to contradict ourselves. Yet, it's this very contradiction that makes the article more robust and removes those chunky holes. Let's find out why objections are crucial in our articles. Click here to read the article online:  

One of biggest problems with any sort of prospecting is the dead silence right after clients love what you've said or done. You'd think they'd call immediately, but there's not a peep out of them. Is there some flaw in the system? And how can you overcome this obvious glitch? Click here to read online: Coaching Series 3/3: Why Clients Nod But Don't Call ________________________________________ How do you Find Prospects? Red Bull has the highest market share of any energy drink in the world, with 6.302 billion cans sold in a year. However, it almost never got started. Before the launch, part owner, Dietrich Mateschitz hired a market research firm to test Red Bull's acceptance. The result was a complete let down “People didn't believe the taste, the logo, the brand name. “I'd never before experienced such a disaster.” But Mateschitz believed the product would do well if he placed it in the right market. Which is precisely what he did His insight was to target not just students, but trendy students in universities. Instead of selling the brand to them, he'd pay them to throw a party and supplied them with free cases of Red Bull. What Mateschitz was doing, was two masterful acts all at once. He was seeking out the kind of clients he'd want, and instantly demonstrating the application. For someone starting out in coaching it might seem like an uphill task to get clients No one knows you, no one knows your brand, and no one even cares. Sounds pretty much like Red Bull doesn't it? But just like Red Bull, you've got to know how to work your way around such a dismal scenario. The first stage would be for you to decide on a specific audience. Before you get close focus on a single person, namely a profile, it's important first to find an audience. Take Mike Jara's audience for instance Mike deals with the issue of stress management. And that's a pretty broad audience. On any given day, you're likely to run into people who are wound up. Even so, it's not quite the audience you (or Mike) is looking for. Instead, Mike has chosen to talks to teachers. They have a pretty stressful day, not just in the classroom, but with the prep work and the assignments after the last kid has gone home. The stress gets in the way of sleep, causing the teachers to be even more sleep deprivation. When they get back to work, after a restless sleep, they're edgier than ever before. However, without the audience in mind, the message goes quickly off track When Mike started the exercise of getting a message across, his line went like this: Start your mornings with abundant energy. Ditch the coffee and grab yourself a hot cup of habits. Not only was the line a bit confusing, but it instantly brought up objections. Most people drink coffee, because they like the taste, but also because it's a break, and often a social gathering of sorts. They don't see coffee as the enemy. If Mike were to look for prospects with a line like that, he'd be likely to get little or no response, which would be a shame, because there's nothing wrong with Mike's offering. When looking for prospects, it's not enough to have a great product or service. Instead, you have to get started with the target audience, then move to the target profile, and that's when you avoid the noise factor and get a clearer signal. When I started out as a coach/consultant I thought I had a great line I'd say something like this: “Reactivating dormant business clients”. I was so chuffed with my line that I got a designer to design my stationery, which included a thousand business cards. Months later, I found barely little or no interest in what I had to offer. However, I also got lucky because I was introduced to a networking group. This group met on every Friday, which meant I could test out which lines worked best. Even so, I got nowhere in a hurry. What changed everything for me was a live situation As part of the group exercise, I had to visit every member of the group individually. They, in turn, had to explain their product or service to me. I'd listen patiently, while some people took as much as 10-12 minutes to explain their marketing message. I'd then reassemble the concept in my brain, and put it forward to the member. “You explain it better than me,” they'd say in astonishment. Even so, I was not convinced. I was the guy who “reactivated dormant business clients.” Plus I had all these sunk costs in the stationery. I wasn't about to go all nuclear on the existing message. It took over a dozen people to point out what I did before I was cured of my stubbornness. Eventually, I started talking to people about how hard it was to get the attention of a client in a few seconds, and almost immediately those very people would stop what they were doing. They'd look up and pay attention to what I was saying because I'd hit a chord with them. I'd narrowed down my audience, and had managed to craft a message that appealed directly to that very audience. Prospecting may seem like a frustratingly tricky task You're not sure where to get your clients and they, in turn, can't find you. However, the core of prospecting is to figure out where the gold lies in the first place. Your gold is to “find the audience, any audience”. When I started as a coach, I worked with a small business owner group, but I could have easily worked with dentists. Mike Jara is targeting teachers, but dentists are fair game too. It doesn't matter who you start with, because most problems are relatively generic. However, once we get past the first stage, it's the second hurdle that's harder. You somehow need to speak to your audience and find out the most significant barriers they face. As you dig, you'll find something that they're very keen on solving and they'll even tell give you the exact terminology for their problem, and how to articulate the solution. A target profile interview helps tremendously in this regard (and if you're in 5000bc, here's a link). Once you have clarity with your message, it's time to go back to your original audience and see how the message works. Yup, it's time to test. Will they react? Will they get in touch? There are three steps to ensure the prospect takes the next step. Let's see what those three steps happen to be. Why prospects react positively, but don't get in touch You've been there before, haven't you? A client has been excited about your proposition, but then you hear nothing from them. Why do prospects go dead on you? Let's look at three big reasons: They’re hearing the idea for the first time You don’t have a clear next step They’re not sure how to apply your idea to their world One of the biggest problems is definitely “hearing the idea for the first time”. There's a reason why people that follow up do better than others. Even when we're keen to buy into a product or service, unless there's a screaming level of urgency, we move very slowly. We fully intend to solve the problem, but we tend to have other fires to put out. Having an idea in place is wonderful, but how are you going to follow up? When I worked as a cartoonist, I'd send a monthly calendar as a follow-up. Notice the term “monthly calendar”? Most people get a calendar once a year, but I wanted my clients to remember me month after month. With Psychotactics, we send out newsletters; we do podcasts, etc. And granted it's not about coaching and more about products and courses, but let's not sidestep the issue of follow up. Even if you're offering the most powerful product or service, clients take their time to respond. Without the follow-up, your message is like a ship in the night. If clients have listened closely to your message, it means they're interested, and you've got to take the next step and get their details so that you can follow up. However, do these potential clients have the next step? Having a next step is crucial If a potential client is in your space, what can she do next? There's no prescribed answer for every situation. Sometimes the client can get in touch with you, go to your website, or join some newsletter. The better option, wherever available, is for you to get their information and get in touch with them, instead. If that potential client is stressed, not getting enough sleep, etc. she may be motivated to get to you, but other priorities might be greater. Hence it's usually better to get them to give their card, or their details, with one tiny additional step. I used to make the clients write “YES” at the back of the card so that they had a clear memory of opting in. It was less for the opt-in process and more so because they remember their decision to move ahead. Online, it's a good idea to get them to take some action It's one thing to just have a report, white paper etc. but it's easier to get distracted online. You might want them to get to a specific page in the report or a particular set of pages. Yes, the report starts at Page 1 and moves ahead, but there's no rule that doesn't allow you to nudge the prospect to Page 7, where you have something powerful in place. You've gone through the trouble of finding the prospect, have even gotten the prospect's attention, but something that creates action on their part is a powerful tool. If you're an art coach, helping them draw something quickly might help If you're into assisting clients to get work, a quick template might be the answer. If you're into meditation, an active meditation technique that's different is likely to get their attention. Many of us believe that prospects will make their decision and take the next step. It isn't as true as you'd expect. Most of us need that additional nudge. We don't need to be inundated with “this is your last chance, goodbye” newsletters or follow-ups, but a cute little bump in the right direction does wonders. However, this only applies if your client can see the application of your service. We looked at follow up, next step, and it's time to see how the application matters. Let's say you position yourself as a coach in InDesign. Is that likely to get the client to call you? In many cases, you're not going to get the call, because clients aren't necessarily familiar with the term InDesign. They don't necessarily know it's a layout program. And if they do, they don't know what they're supposed to do with it. Which is where applications come into play. Let's say you show a prospect how she can create a gorgeous e-book in InDesign; now they have one type of application. Another set of prospects might open their eyes wide when they see the ability to create stationery and brochures. It's still InDesign, but there are many applications, aren't there? When we started out with The Brain Audit, it seemed like clients would figure out how to apply the book to their own businesses. However, in time we learned they weren't always sure. Which is one of the reasons why I wrote the book, “The Brain Audit Applications”. It showed how to apply the concept of The Brain Audit to marketing messages, to strap lines, websites, etc. In short, if I were a trainer for The Brain Audit (there's no coaching system, but let's say I was a coach), I would need to at least give prospects a glimpse into the possibilities. Don't confuse this advice with a one-stop shop A one-stop shop is where you try and push everything under the nose of the client all at once. That kind of business is quite counterproductive for a small business, as it positions you as an extreme generalist and not a specialist at all. However, if you were to draw the client into your business with a single concept. e.g. Mike Jara's line is: Morning has just started and do you already feel left behind? That's a feeling, an emotion, a real day to day problem that draws in the client. Jara might have a slightly bigger program or coaching system, and he needs to reveal it much later. When the clients are sure of what he's offering, he can then put forward the applications. It might seem that sleep has just one application—to get a restful sleep—but you'd be surprised. People, and in this case, teachers may not be sleeping because of a change in a relationship, death in the family, money issues and a whole raft of issues. These issues can be directly addressed or gently brought up as tiny examples, which in turn gets and keeps the attention of the client. Which in turn brings us right back to Red Bull Red Bull isn't a coaching service, of that we're all quite sure. Even so, the principles of getting a client are relatively similar. They found their audience by hiring the popular kids to throw a party. The problem they solved was one of being cool. Red Bull was and still is considered to be a cool drink by many in that audience. Nobody believed in Red Bull at the start, and it took Dietrich Mateschitz three years to get things going. Even so, as a company they've followed up consistently using sporting and cultural events, creating spaces and parties to make sure they're in the public eye at a relatively low cost. As coaches we need to put similar principles in place to get prospects, so let's go through a quick summary: Work on getting to your target audience—yes, offline and online Meet with clients and run your message past them Watch for something in the message that gets their attention Go back to your audience and state your line and message If they are interested, do they follow up? If not, it’s because you’ve got to follow up, give them a clear next step and show them various applications. Yes, these are a lot of steps, indeed And it's one of the reasons why many coaches don't do so well. The fundamental steps are remarkably similar whether you have a product, training or a service like coaching. Just having a website or just one speaking engagement isn't going to do the trick. You've got to be diligent with the steps, and even a great coaching system takes time to get off the ground. Get started with your plan and execution right away. Next Step: Coaching Series : 1/3 – How to Start Up with a Great Niche