Genius+Power+Magic

Everyday common sense transactions will continue to get you more of what you already have

People place a great deal of value in common sense. The problem with common sense is that it is common. It is based in the social economics and social ethics we all must learn to transact with others in order to survive. Those who don't learn common sense don't transact well and don't earn a standard living.

For those interested in above standard livings you must think beyond the common:

Everyday common sense transactions will continue to get you more of what you already have.
Everyday common sense does not provide marginal value to your customers.
Everyday common sense does not differentiate you enough to pull a better return.

It is likely that you stopped finding better ways to transact once you found a groove that worked for you.

For example, a childhood grocery store tantrum is simply a transaction that is so threatening to the parent that the child continues the behavior because it works.

I know adults who still throw tantrums to get what they want. This may be you, or you may have found that seduction works or sheer determination works. 

The point is that it is useful to notice you only have a few moves to make - and they may not be the most effective or the most appropriate to different targets.

Is that tantrum or seduction appropriate to your biological age? To your customer?

If not, what is?

John Patterson

© 2009 Influence Ecology
We assert that a fundamental instinct you embody as an adult is to live a healthy, happy and prosperous life and that you are a biological, linguistic, transactional being. Therefore the degree to which you are able to recognize and be responsible for the FACT that you are a biological, linguistic, transactional being determines the measure of your health, happiness and prosperity. We teach you how to exploit that FACT.

Raise the value of your money (help)

The following is in response to: The Internet is free? Big difference between money and cash

Comment: How does someone uncollapse money (help) and cash (currency)? If I have already provided help free of charge (either willingly or unwillingly) with little or nothing in return, what are ways to raise the value of my money? How does one get out of the rut of providing it free of charge?

NOTE: these are marketplace vs altruistic distinctions and this context is important to this post, however an altruistic imbalance may leave you grateful, fulfilled...and broke.

People have a deep subconscious need to reciprocate for anything that is done TO or FOR them. This need is a powerful and observable characteristic of human behavior. How human beings have evolved is to create societies to support one another for the overall survival of mankind.

Because of this fact, it is easy to understand that attaining health, happiness and prosperity requires an ability to effectively transact with people. You do and must transact with others and the level of success you will be able to achieve in life is directly proportionate to how effectively you transact.

We define transaction as: A series of exchanges that occur at specific intervals in a cycle intended to produce a satisfactory return for all parties involved.

You will end the 'rut of providing help free of charge' when you define your satisfactory return and never accept an exchange that leaves you dissatisfied.

Knowing this is one thing, embodying it is another.

John Patterson

© 2009 Influence Ecology
We assert that a fundamental instinct you embody as an adult is to live a healthy, happy and prosperous life and that you are a biological, linguistic, transactional being. Therefore the degree to which you are able to recognize and be responsible for the FACT that you are a biological, linguistic, transactional being determines the measure of your health, happiness and prosperity. We teach you how to exploit that FACT.

Why do you live here?

"Why do you live here?" the soothing alien voice says to Captain Benjamin Sisco, porting him to a moment in time where his wife died in a fiery blaze caused by a battle he could have prevented.

Sisco argues "I don't live here, this is the past! I live Now, here, in the present."

The aliens imprisoned Sisco saying that humanity posed a threat to the laws of physics...that human temporality was a violation of universal order.  The aliens argued that while humans portray that they live a linear experience (past/present/future) they are lying since they obviously live here; continually porting him back to his wifes fiery death.

The aliens point out that his future choices are being guided by an event that is no longer happening...and that this does not hold any logic given the future hasn't happened yet.

Although he continues to argue that these are just 'memories', the Captain realizes that the aliens are correct. He doesn't live HERE, he lives in the regret of his wifes death...or the memory of her being alive. He lives trying to make up for - or return to something that is no longer happening.

His admission of the truth releases him from the alien prison and his own.

Star Trek's Deep Space Nine; 1993

Where do you live? Where does the majority of the marketplace live?

There are inventions and innovations that are not about where we have been, but where we are going. They revolutionize the course of history and the direction of the marketplace. 

Given that the majority of the marketplace lives here (the past), future-guided innovation is in short supply and highly rewarded.

John Patterson

Your best resource

As an entrepreneur or business professional, what is the best use of you, as a resource to your own life in the marketplace?

Your company or organization will be better served by your doing what you do best; putting you in the position of exploiting your real talents while earning the highest income you can for that role.

This is often not the case because of narratives that argue for independence, unworthiness or guilt.  The labor current would also have you believe that you must 'toil' for your value; that it should be hard to be worthwhile. You may not be thinking of yourself as a resource and therefore doing work or tasks that actually cost you the opportunity of making money doing what you do well.

What kind of role for you is like 'getting out of bed'; it is the water you swim in, the air you breathe.  For me, it is about "linguistic explorations of distinctions and physiologies that produce uncommon marketplace results for myself and my companies while developing others to do the same - all the while building ecosystems of collaborative mutual benefit".

Ok, a mouthful, I know, but that is for me like breathing - and it took some time to get this really clear for me.  Why? Because it is the air I breathe.

What kind of marketplace offer can you create that is like breathing, but is of enormous help to others?

John Patterson

Are all viewpoints are valid?

You have the view of 'save money' and they have the view of 'live for today'. Who is right?

Both viewpoints are absolutely valid.

As a biological, linguistic, transactional being in a marketplace, I have found that for my own health, happiness and prosperity, it is more effective if I can see the validity of another persons view. 

People who can not see the validity of another persons point of view will be unhappy; always fighting against the desire to have everyone see things just as they do. They will be unhealthy; stressed by constant obstacles and unable to get the help the need. The will not be prosperous; they are not able to transact in a way that is meaningful to another person.

If I am going to be effective in my transactions (read prosperity), I'd better have mastery in seeing other viewpoints as valid.  It is in fact my only access to making a proposition that satisfies another persons needs.

My transaction is the solution to their problem. If I don't understand the validity of their problem, I will continue to offer help that is no help at all.

John Patterson

Are you interested or interesting?

Fortune Magazines article The Decade of Steve, about CEO Steve Jobs of Apple, states that "in the past 10 years alone he has radically and lucratively reordered three markets - music, movies and mobile telephones - and his impact on his original industry, computing, has only grown".

The article states that "A key Jobs business tool is his mastery of the message. He rehearses over and over every line he and others utter in public about Apple".

This is not only about powerful brand messaging, but a powerful comprehension of the biology of the listener.

In early writings I have asserted that you are a "biological, linguistic, transactional being in a marketplace".  As a transactional being (you transact with dozens of people all day to survive), your effectiveness determines the measure of your health, happiness and prosperity.

Do you perform your transactions? Not likely.

Many years ago I began the practice of rehearsing my message until I was certain it would have the impact (on others) that I wanted.  I then spent sixteen years training others in the ability to invent and perform the kind of message that helped them be exceptionally more effective.

Fundamental to inventing and presenting a powerful transaction or message is to ask the question: "who am I talking to?"

Starter Tip: You and I rarely talk to people. Almost 100% of the people I trained thought that effective speaking was about getting what was in their own head said out loud. Doing this is in actuality, having a talk with yourself and it bores the crap out of others.

Are you interested or interesting?  People want to know if you understand them and if your message isn't about them and for them, stop talking.  I have been in the practice of having those with whom I future stop me from time to time and say "you're not talking to me"; the best training I can imagine.

There is nothing as awful as being stuck with someone who likes to hear themselves talk. Your personal brand message and your transaction may need to get interested, not just interesting.

John Patterson

How do I know if I should risk?

I have worked with hundreds of people who commonly are dealing with risking present circumstances for some hope-for-better circumstances. Especially in todays economic chaos, survival (freeze, fight or flight) has taken hold of our rationale.

Somewhere we learned that we should write down all the pros and cons of two choices, weigh them, then decide.  Some even teach to choose after consideration; but albeit choose then choose your choice; a Zen-like practice akin to 'love the one your with'.  Still, some wonder if there isn't some better way.

I assert the difficulty is simply due to a vague unarticulated future.

If your choices are based, not in strategic intent, but in how you feel, what you crave or some desire then you may not make strategic choices that produce a healthy, happy and prosperous life. Why?  Because you aren't making choices to produce a long term effect. You are likely making choices as a response to biological threat or desire.

So in the face of a difficult choice, perhaps the better question is to ask is "what kind of health, happiness and prosperity do I want twenty years from now?"  The 'live for now' era's slogans got turned into masterful advertising that robbed you of your future while you were away at the store.

Be certain, your actions - or inactions are laying a path towards somewhere.  Do you want a straight pathway or a meandering one?  

Wrestle your future back into your hands.

John Patterson

how much money is enough and why?

This is Part 10 of an exploration of 'uncommon help'.

Many people requested I continue training in uncommon offers of help.  Thank you for your interest and feedback - they make a big difference for me.

A common offer seems like it should be obvious to see, but they are everywhere. 

What does a common offer of help look like?

• The market is saturated with that kind of help
• The labor required to produce a result is high
• The offer is not relevant to what is happening right now in the market place
• If you 'win' you actually lose

If the market is saturated with that kind of help, there is nothing uncommon about our offer.  Are you one of hundreds, thousands offering the same kind of help?  This is economics  101. If the supply is high...

The work or labor to produce a common offer is generally high.  Why?  Because an uncommon offer of help is typically a knowledge and information offer - not a labor offer.  If you wish to earn more money, educate yourself in a way that allows you to offer what other people are not. You can not labor yourself into more money - there is only so much you and so much time.

Money is help.  Currency (bills/coins) is one kind of money, but there are many kinds of money.  People need help, you help them. The more you help them, the more they give you help in exchange. In most situations, this is currency.  If you want to provide help, it must be highly relevant to what people want help with.  If it is not relevant, it is common.

If you 'win' you lose.  If your ambition is to make $__ K a year and the help you offer will not generate that kind of money in return, then you lose, even if you win.  If I work really hard to get a $5K bonus on an $80K salary and my ambition is $125K, I lose, even if I win the $5K. 

What you might begin to find is that you don't know how much money is enough to live a good life and why? 

Read this http://www.theajinetwork.com/howMuchMoneyIsEnoughTalk.php to find the answer.

John Pattesron

do you decline enough?

This is Part 9 of an exploration of 'uncommon help'.

Do you decline people's requests and offers?

One way to train yourself in uncommon offers of help is to practice declining.  This is also easier said than done as most people do not decline offers but rather leave them open ended or don't respond at all.

Offers should have expiration dates and in the absence of a response, and it is useful to simply state "thank you for declining the offer".  Nothing gets more attention than a note that you have lost the opportunity to participate.  Mature business professionals have no issue with this and respect the understanding.

Your 20% coupon has an expiration date and so should all your offers.  As others learn that your offers expire it will alter the way people relate to it; "Oh, I should pay attention here, this may expire right away".  An uncommon offer.

One bit of caution, make sure that when you decline offers you graciously thank them for extending the opportunity as you may wish to be offered again (if you wish to be offered again).

The final note about declining is that it keeps things clean. If you amass all the parties, social gatherings, invitations and offers you don't respond to...you may have alot of open-ended business cluttering your sense of obligation and choice.

Accept, decline or counter-offer. 

John Patterson

Offer: if you seek further training in 'uncommon offers' please respond by Sunday August 9th at 9pm.

learn new rules or be a dinosaur

This is Part 6 of an exploration of 'uncommon help'.

When you make an offer, it registers in the mind of someone as an opportunity, a threat or it does not register as either.  As stated in previous blogs, the most powerful offer is a threat (threat of the loss of a hoped-for-future: you won't get the girl unless you use this deodorant).

The worse possible result is that your offer produces indifference.  Most 'common' offers produce indifference and with the increase in globalization, autonomy and free access to information - having your offer produce something other than indifference (opportunity or threat) is a triumph itself.

In todays market if you aren't doing everything you can to act 'uncommonly', your offers will produce indifference.  If you are not 'learning new rules' and continue to 'think and act the same', you will quickly find that others in the market are willing to learn the new rules and render you obsolete.

Some uncommon actions:

 - authenticity: with so much bullshit and hype, telling the truth is far more uncommon

 - integrity: you are reliable for doing what you said when you said

 - accountability: you make unsolicited promises to those around you and keep them

 - walk your talk: act vs talk about - if you hear "I'm a no BS kind of guy", prepare to be lied to

 - ownership: acting as the entire company regardless of where you sit in it

 - knowledge: mastery in one specific area

 - leadership: making declarations about the future and acting on them, enticing others to join you

 - network: not high numbers of 'friends' or 'followers', but a specialized network of specific help

 - responsibility: acting as the source of all that happens

 - not tolerating people of high-cost: the integrity to disengage when you don't intend to future with that person

 - dignity: you keep your word to yourself

Learning to operate in a sea of people seeking new ways to grab your attention is going to continue to drive your position in the market down. Better educate yourself or get comfortable with a lot less.

Hows that for a threat?

Tomorrow: Dignity

John Patterson