"Those who apply themselves too closely to little things often become incapable of great things." Francois de La Rochefoucauld

Friday, August 31, 2007

Confident?...or Bluff?...How to Decipher

Most everyone likes to be confident. Confidence is how effective a person feels within a specific area or situation. Confidence is refreshing, it aids in your performance; its a liberating sense of potential. How can you decipher someone with real confidence from someone who's putting a front?

David J. Lieberman, Ph.D., explains several interesting ways of finding out someone's confidence level. He uses examples of athletes, performers, and speakers; that when performing go beyond themselves, or forget themselves. Someone with confidence isn't thinking about themselves, or is not self-conscious.
Lieberman says, " A nervous person has an ego consuming his thoughts because of fear, worry, and anxiety...and he can't help but focus on himself."

Several giveaway's to lack of confidence are:
-swallowing
-shaking
-high pitch voice
-blinking

The natural stages of development for a person in any arena follow this pattern:
-unconscious incompetence - unaware of incorrect performance
-conscious incompetence - aware of lack of ability/skills
-conscious competence - knows what to do/person needs awareness to be effective.
-unconscious competence - performs correctly without attention/awareness.

From these stages you can see that a high level of confidence would be in the unconscious competence arena. Think about driving for instance. If you can remember the stages you went through in learning to drive; you can clearly see how the 4 stages played out for you...leading up to current level of unconscious competence.

Whether you have the level of confidence you wish to have or don't is irrevelant. The thing is to realize that you will go through all stages to realize ultimate confidence. Its natural to do so; and it is worth going through the first 3 stages in order to get to the 4th.

Angel Armendariz

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Can I Subordinate My Moods to My Commitments?

A friend of mine recently told me he wanted to start reading more. He always says he hates to read. I told him about the fact that I used to hate reading too. To me reading was a chore; or like force feeding bad vegetables because its good for me. I find it common among many people I meet or know; the agony at the mere thought of reading.

It seems to me that part of the reason has to do with an outdated and inefficient educational system. In school most all situations are presented in the "just do it, for your own good." We are in part forced to accept this quasi-explanation, and usually give in because of lack of sufficient power to revolt.

No useful or effective communication comes from the "just do it" camp. Ineffective communication leads to distrust and doubt in the validity of the exercise. It's commonplace to see people, who after being brought up in an environment that limited openness and used the doctrine of "just do it" or " just because," rebel; at least temporarily enough to explore the yearnings of curiousity and novelty.

Start where the audience is - should be the strategy of effective and sound guidance or communication. If my intent is to build trust and understanding with a group of people my best bet is to go to them. What I mean by that is learn about their situation, their way of seeing things, etc. If I start there and explore our similarities I build a bound and the channel to effective communication.

Furthermore, if my intent is to show them the benefits of anything in particular (say for instance reading) then I would find out what's important to them and why. From there I can show them specifically 'what's in it for them' how they will benefit now in their momentary wants, and how it will also bring them closer with their future goals.

If you do this for yourself, you can see how to leverage positive behavior and use them to manifest your most pressing desires and goals. There is no life-affirming desire or goal that is out of reach of principles. Principles, that you can apply at this moment to get what you want. Reading, isn't a chore...it's arming your battallion for battle...whatever that battle may be.

-Angel Armendariz

Monday, August 27, 2007

Paradoxical Progress & Failing Forward

All individual desires, goals, and dreams use the currency of problems. Problems are the answer, in a paradoxical kind of way. The entrepreneur will usually find an unmet need, and provide the service or product. The unmet need is a problem, and by assimilating this problem into the mind and using creativity you produce a result or answer. In this instance a person (entrepreneur) actively seeks problems (unmet needs) and the result of fixing this problem is a new business, service, or profitable idea.

Once a problem is experienced, the usual subconscious response is fear, worry, or doubt. The reason we experience this emotion is because we don't have the adequate information, knowledge, or experience, to confidently solve the problem. If you've ever been in sales think about the first time you had the responsibility of closing a deal. You probably were nervous, fearful, or doubted your abilities. How you handled this experience, whether you succeeded initially or not, either sparked growth and development opportunities; or caused you to quit and dislike selling.

But, what the problem does is bring you face-to-face with your limit, the edge of your personal ability. If you solve the problem you grow beyond your past limits, if you don't solve it you get information to better deal with the issue next time. The key to open your potential resides in you. You can embrace problems as calls to action and grow rapidly, or better yet the self-motivated individual artificially creates problems. The artificial problem is nothing other than the distance between your current limits and/or abilities, and your wants/desires.

When you, for example, have the desire to become a millionaire; that creates an artificial problem. If the desire is intense enough you will do practically anything to achieve it. This intensity to overcome the artificial problem to arrive at you goal is motivation, and by acquiring loads of information via books, seminars, experience, etc., you grow your current limit to bridge the gap between your current state towards the goal you have in mind. The speed at which you will reach this new personal pinnacle is directly proportional to the amount of experience, information, and knowledge you are able to assimilate.

So to speed up the results you would voraciously seek an abundance of information/experience per unit of time. If one salesman makes 100 phone calls to prospective clients daily; and another salesman makes 300 phone calls to prospective clients and reads one sales book a week, who do you think has a better chance of succeeding faster. Obviously innate abilities have an effect, but so what...everyone can improve anything.

If I have a raspy unruly voice, I can educate myself on how to change it, or hire a professional to help me (again a problem creates an opportunity). If I'm lazy I can learn how to motivate myself. If I'm fat, I can learn how to be lean. If I'm not articulate I can learn to be so...and on...and on. Everyone, including yourself, has reached his/her current level of development by choice.

As if by nature's thrust problems arise at times unexpectedly, this implores you to summon your faculties to find a solution, and if one isn't immediately available it forces you to adopt novelty and gather information to devise strategy and remedy the problem. Thus, our creator's way of gently kicking our behind to keep us growing and to manifest the glory of treasures that are within.


The key is to establish enough references to see, feel, hear, and realize that we can re-interpret or as some psychologists would say re-frame, these seemingly painful experiences, and associate pleasure to them. To associate pleasure to problems that present themselves, and pro-actively create artificial problems (goals), that will induce a willful evolutionary process and empower us. I'm not saying to be masochistic, just simply learn to establish detachment and interpret them in a manner where you can zoom out and "see," and experience the possibilities and hidden treasures that problems present.

Angel Armendariz

Sunday, August 26, 2007

4th Grade Art Class - Business Lessons

I remember a creative art exercise my fourth grade art teacher showed my class. It was nothing less than magic when I was exposed to this technique. I was always into creating great works of art...at least compared with my classmates...so I wanted to learn how to become even better. It was a simple exercise that allowed any average artist become an excellent sketcher.

Usually if you see a picture or an image and you want to replicate it, without being able to trace it, a less endowed artist would probably produce a horrendous rip-off. Now the process was simple, first choose a picture you want to replicate, secondly draw a rectangle around the image, third divide the rectangle into a grid of smaller rectangles. Then you would create the exact same dimension grid on your paper; if the image was divided into 20 small rectangles then your sheet of paper would have 20 small rectangles.

The next step introduced the real magic. To create an exceptionally wonderful copy of the original image all you had to do was focus on each little rectangle, and just focus on each shape and line in that little square. Every so often you would glance at the whole image just to see the progress towards the finished product.

But, gradually all you had to do was zoom in on each individual square, not thinking to much about, or worrying about the finished product...you realized that if you just focused on the small shapes and lines of each block you would eventually have an immaculate finished product, that if you followed the basic formula you would reach the desired outcome. Obviously every student, even the non artistic, was creating wonderful sketches of pictures and images. This was all well and good back then in elementary school, but what does this have to do with anything...its cool to copy a picture in art class, but who cares. Well many years later I realized what wonderful analogy this art method really provoked.

Goals, dreams, visions, and the future in general can be equated to the whole image as used in the art exercise just mentioned. After all, these are images, pictures; just the same as in the creative picture replication exercise. The mind's capacity to visualize is an unbelievable resource; i would suggest that it is largely misused, underdeveloped in most of us. Even in individuals with a high level of visual awareness still a largely unexplored arena.

From the realm of engineering it is common knowledge that a visual transmission conveys 1000 times more information than an audio transmission (video has a higher carrier frequency).

So keep this cool little art exercise in mind and use it as an analogy for your compelling future. Break up the picture into pieces, don't worry about the whole thing; just work on the little pieces focus on what you can influence. You'll eventually have your masterpiece complete.

Angel Armendariz

Thursday, August 23, 2007

93% of What You Say; You Don't...

Those of you who have read my e-book "How To Become a Sales God" know that I emphasize a lot of nonverbal communication strategies. A lot of this information comes from several sources. First, Richard Bandler, and John Grinder; the creators of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP). Other resources are Daniel Goleman, from Harvard (emotional/social intelligence) and Alfred Korzybski(General Semantics). The unifying thread among these individuals is their analysis of non-verbal communication. It turns out MIT re-discovered what's been discovered.

Research has pointed out that roughly 7% of what you say is transmitted to another via the content (actual words). That leaves about 93% in limbo. It turns out that the 93% comes from body movements, facial expressions, eye movements, tone of voice, pitch, and pace. The founders of NLP provided the most comprehensive outline of how what we think is expressed by our non-verbal "cues." They did so by meticulously observing 3 of the most powerful therapists of the 20th century, Virginia Satir, Fritz Perls, & Milton Erickson (Gregory Bateson, also provided context for NLP).

The popularization of NLP also had an ambassador in Anthony Robbins. Robbins through his books & training became a powerful leader in the Human Potential Movement.

What's most interesting about this is the fact that much of this research is ignored. However, some institutions, such as the U.S. Military, have used the expertise of NLP trainers to enhance soldier performance.

I was reading a executive level business magazine yesterday, and found myself learning about the re-discovery of the power of non-verbal communication. Forty years after Bandler & Grinder innovated NLP, MIT, Human Dynamics Group, found evidence, analyzing customer service reps; that successful reps talk little & listen much; and logic, context, words mean little, what matters is pitch and tone. Wow, MIT on the cutting edge. Why, do we extend our learning curves so much?

Just in case you didn't believe me about the power of non-verbal communication...now I can reference MIT, lol; at least that adds more credibility.

-Angel Armendariz

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

The Visionary Returns

I was asked by a reader to elaborate on the Vision theme. Let me start by referring to the value of a vision. According to Jack Welch, legendary GE CEO, in his words, when asked what he most looks for when promoting someone, "You clearly want someone who can articulate a vision. They have to have enormous energy and the incredible ability to energize others."

To articulate a powerful vision start with yourself. In a sense you have to play with your mind until you see what clicks. I referred in my previous blog post to coming up with emotional "why's" that would give you a vision. Maybe I should give you some of my "why's." One of my why's is that I desire to help people realize the divinity, value, and uniqueness they harbor. Another of my why's is that I would love to help kids realize their potential, and improve educational systems to nurture a more powerful mind & body.

I have many why's, however, from these 2 why's you start to see how I create my vision. A vision as to what I must do. A vision as to what I must become. A vision as to what I must improve on personally; including abilities, capacities, and so on. The vision created allows me to create scenario's that I wish to become reality, say 5-10 years from now.

I then give the vision life by animating it with the actions I'll be taking, the people I will be around, and the service I'll be providing. This is incredibly compelling to me, because it is fused with my personal why's.

Now the thing is that my "why's" probably mean nothing to you...at least maybe not at an emotional level. Everyone has sufficient why's in their lives, that give them the resource to galvanize the internal fire of passion.

For example, Suze Orman, the financial lady on T.V. is an incredibly passionate person. This isn't merely a good acting job though; she is truly passionate about helping people w/ their finances. She relates a story from her childhood in an interview from Carmine Gallo's book, 10 Simple Secrets of The World's Greatest Communicators, of having the stigma and scars of growing up poor and watching her father fail at business.

In one particular incident her father ran into a burning building to retrieve a cash register w/ less than $100; he almost lost his life.
These emotional why's gave Suzy a vision of what she had to do...the emotion that feels when she tries to help people avoid the pain she went through as a child.

So the emotional why's can be from your life's experinces or simply a compelling imagined future that makes your heart race, and makes you feel limitless and passionate. It begins with learning more about yourself. Instead of simply following the old trodden paths for the sake of following something.

-Angel Armendariz

Monday, August 20, 2007

Vision - The Secret Formula - For Sales/Communication

John Chamber, CEO Cisco Systems, is a renowned tech leader. He's been described as a "visionary," and his keynote speeches are annotated epics of mass hysteria. Alright I'm exaggerating a little, however, Mr. Chamber's is commonly described with adjectives such as "electrifying" and "passionate." I saw a video of him posted online, from Sept. 2006. I definitely saw a charismatic leader with a clear vision.

Vision is, according to many wise individuals, the power behind passion and results. Arnold Schwarzenneger said, "If you show people what's coming and how to get there, it changes everything." Vision is also what Arnold used to propel him to bodybuilding glory; he used to visualize becoming Mr. Universe as early as age 15, and by age 20 realized his vision become manifest.

I think we can start to see a clear pattern here. But wait...vision can't be everything...sure it sounds inspiring, but so what? Well, let me give you another good example. USAA is a privately held insurance company w/ its main headquarters in San Antonio, TX. They are ranked #1 or close to #1 in almost every meaningful business category; from customer service, to employee turnover.

Having worked their many years back, I got some insight into this highly acclaimed organization. USAA is, pardon the word, "cult-like," in the sense that it galvanizes and makes people feel as though they are part of a larger whole. The first 2 weeks of a new-hires orientation are spent in "corporate culture." They drill into the minds of every employee a vision that is so powerful, that their turnover ration is ridiculously low. They are a perfect example of what a properly used vision belief can do.

The science behind success is not to be forgotten; i.e., product development, self-discipline, etc. Vision, however, being somewhat intangible should be the underlying foundation of everything that intends on achieving great heights. A compelling vision is formed by having numerous "why's." This means having emotional ties to the vision...all the reasons why it has to be such and such way. Leverage the power of vision in your own self for your goals, leverage it to inspire the groups you belong to, and use it to lead organizational change if you're a leader.

Thursday, August 16, 2007

Countrywide's Chairman & Cutting Your Losses.

I was chatting with a friend of mine earlier about business. We were having a laugh over the fact that most people will listen, or agree with whomever seems most confident about what they say. It's very interesting that we do this. The real question is why?

I guess it might be the fact that we want to be sure about things...like investments, decisions, whether something is cool or not, etc. And, because we really don't like to research to much, or spend time looking for valid information through the endless virtual heaps of knowledge. So instead we listen to the most confident voice around, whether that be a friend, boss, media, or whatever.

Which brings up something else. Cutting your losses. Cutting your losses, means pulling out of or quitting something that once brought you benefit, but no longer is doing so. For example, today it was reported (cnnmoney.com) that Angelo Mozillo, chairman of Countrywide Financial (largest mortgage company in U.S.) sold off over half of his stock the company he owns. He cut his losses. Cashed in on the value of his stock...it had lost over 50% over the past year.

Cutting losses isn't just something in the financial sector. Here's a more common example most of us can relate to. Relationships. Most of us have been, or know of couples that stay together long after all the pleasure or benefit has ended. Why? When do you know when to cut your losses(stop the bleeding,so to speak)? I think few can respond matter-of-factly.

The problem begins when we start using hope as a strategy...instead of information, intelligence, and strategy. My suggestion would be to start thinking about cutting your losses and abandoning the current route as soon as hope is becoming more and more the primary tool for your decision making. This requires uber-descipline, a high self value, and a willingness to move forward and begin designing the new patterns of your life...financially or socially....

-Angel Armendariz

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Handling Rejection - Who Care's?

Have you ever seen an ugly guy with a really attractive girl? Or vise versa? How about an average person with average intelligence who is really successful? Happens quite frequently right? Why is that? Is it luck? Divine intervention? One thing I would certainly bet on as being a characteristic in these kinds of people is the ability to be de-sensitized or un-fazed by rejection.

In my new ebook I talk a lot about how to develop beliefs that empower you, and eliminate the ones that anchor and hold you back. The biggest reason I insist on developing self chosen empowering beliefs is because, that is how you will be able to handle the rejection that is part of the growth & development process. At an early stage in my life i developed the belief that every "No" brought me closer to a "Yes."

A common scene in most all business environments involves a new sales rep. A brand new hire pounding away at the phone after his happy little 3-day training. The new hire is excited about all the commission to be made, all the things they'll be able to buy, and all the promises made by the company. Fast forward a month later and 1000 "No's" later and you'll see a less enthusiastic and more doubtful employee.

What changed? The new-hire had not consciously developed deep belief in their ability and product. When this doesn't happen then the mind has no choice but to accept the events that happen in my life (the results) as the ultimate judgment as to his/her ability or capacity. Obviously after getting all that rejection all the evidence points to incompetence and failure.

This scenario serves as an important example as to why beliefs are so important to actively choose & nurture. Also, it shows the need to be able to handle rejection. A good friend and extremely successful colleague of mine Yauvan Kumar, handles objection by mentally thinking "who cares?" Basically saying it doesn't matter, or pay no mind to it. Something that simple keeps him supremely confident and able to pick up the phone and call a client with absolute confidence in who he as and what he does.

Another little mantra is the SWSWSW. This stands for "some will, some won't, so what?" Again, simple yet brilliant. Some people do this unconsciously, they're oblivious to feeling less competent when slapped in the face with a no. This type of thinking is what keeps average or ugly guys courting the pretty ladies. Or the semi-educated person persisting to get his way in the face of rejection and endless "no's."

It's been said over and over; perseverance is worth more than talent. However, bring both to the table and your odds of winning multiply dramatically. Next time you get a no, or are thinking that you'll get a no; just say "who cares?"

- Angel Armendariz

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

7 Answers To a Highly Effective Question

"What is the one activity that you know if you did superbly well and consistently would have significant positive results in your personal, professional, or work life?"

7 Common Answers:
- Improving communication with people
- Better preparation
- Better planning and organizing
- Taking better care of self
- Seizing new opportunities
- Personal development
- Empowerment

That is a question Stephen R. Covey, author of 7 Habits of Highly Effective People asks at his seminars. What a powerful question. The usual responses are fascinating; how many of you would answer in a similar manner?

If you think about the most valuable resource you can have; it would almost certainly be "improved communication with people" (sales ability). Want improved relationships? How about more friends? I know, we all want more money. Some parents might want a resource to help with their kids. There are also some of us who are depressed. Some of us lack motivation. A group of us just doesn't believe in ourselves....Do any of these sound like you?

If so, then you must agree that improved communication would be the one ability you would like to do superbly well and consistently, to have a significant positive impact in your life. With all the power promised by communication...you would think that we would all be flocking to resources via books, training, coaching, etc.
Do you?

It amazes me that with all the value in communication we are so atrophied in that arena. A colleague of mine once commented, "Angel serenades his clients over the phone with his voice..." I took this as a complement, however; I couldn't say the same thing for him. Truth be told, I have worked on my voice...and I still do. If how well I live my life has to do with how I communicate with people then I'll definitely work the probabilities in my favor and work on all channels of communication consistently.

Now here's something few people ever think about. You communicate with yourself all day long. You talk to yourself, you convince yourself, you insult, provoke, congratulate, sell,... You are both the buyer and the seller. You try to sell yourself on working out, or the new diet, or taking care of important things. How good are you at selling yourself? Unfortunately, I've met few individuals who are aware, much less competent, at being able to make themselves do the things that they "know" they should do. Why is that? Again, because we have not consistently worked on our communication and selling skills. We don't know how to sell ourselves on anything...thus we are sold anything being peddled in our environment.
As you can see...I'm passionate about communication and its effect on every aspect of our lives.

-Angel Armendariz

Monday, August 13, 2007

A Stroke of Altruism 2.0

Boston Globe columnist, and Author, Penelope Trunk posted a great blog yesterday on her Brazen Careerist Blog site(see sidebar). It had to do with altruism (giving) and its role in modern education

Penelope sites several sources that acknowledge the value of altruism. Giving rise to the question. What role should altruism play in modern education; education 2.0? From her blog; the most obvious value for an altruistic person is that they experience a more pleasurable life. I concur with the argument.

The biggest obstacle I see for people in embracing this, is letting go of the scarcity belief, and allowing themselves multiple streams of happiness. As always, we get tripped up by the either/or and scarcity themes that run rampant among our casual thoughts. For those hedonists...think of it like this...by giving someone pleasure - your pleasure increases; and the likely-hood of pleasure coming back again from the person you gave to!


This is my comment on her post:

"Education 2.0…nice headline. Altruism is definitely something that engenders happiness all around. There really is no objection to this. Nietzsche and Any Rand might have slight objections; of course they valued Self-Development and power more than moral altruism.

In the case of education it would truly work wonders for our society. From my experience, altruism is rare in its most authentic form. I was lucky enough to be brought up with a high value on altruism.

The truth of it is that when you help or make someone experience any level of pleasure, then you immediately feel a greater pleasure within. That is, if you allow yourself to. Many of my fellow classmates in school, and coworkers in several jobs viewed giving as pleasure-less. It’s as if they knew no other way of experiencing pleasure or happiness other than money or getting something for themselves.

We can honestly experience the whole palate of happiness through different channels of experience. The more we embrace an eclectic approach to our growth and happiness the more it can be shared with everyone else. Education 2.0 would thrive with touch of altruism."

p.s. Altruism is a powerful tool to use in communication. Sales, Marketing, and Business can thrive under the guise of altruism.

- Angel Armendariz

Friday, August 10, 2007

The Puppets - Who's Pulling The Strings

Analogies help us better understand things. I recently started thinking about puppets. The string puppets that dance around when you move the strings with your hand. I remember playing with those puppets when I was a young lad...good kid. The puppet now serves as a good icon for our lives.

Think of yourself as a puppet. You are both the puppet and the master of the puppet - the string puller. Your mind can be thought of as the master (string puller), and your body actions & movement as the dance of the puppet. In theory our minds guide our actions and behaviors in the ways we choose. Thus, you dance to your own beat - you pull your own strings. The problem arises when we choose not to be the puppet master. When instead of pulling our own strings we delegate the string pulling to others; or worse inanimate things.

A common puppet set goes like this: a person delegates one string to the economy, the other string to the news, the other string to the day of the week, the other string to a significant other. Alas, no more responsibility, now in this example we are no longer our own masters...we have given away all our powers to act and be as we choose.

Now, we are pulled every which way by the new appointed puppet master. We become clowns...a spectacle...a side-show dancing dramatically to the ambiguous movements of these inanimate string pullers. Ultimately, however, we can choose to wake up and take back our strings, and assume control of our puppets. When this happens you have control, you take responsibility, you dance as you choose. The only actions and behaviors are based on your own string pulling, not somebody else's.

In this way it would not be uncommon for someone to choose to be blissful, energetic, passionate, competent, loving, excited, and optimistic....because all these states of being are as easy simply making a choice...even in the face of spectacles, crises, panics, or what have you.

Angel Armendariz
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Thursday, August 9, 2007

Wall Street Market Chaos and What That Means to Home Owners

Wall Street Market Chaos and What That Means to Home Owners

The end of the housing boom has given way to the long predicted housing bust.
The Wall Street spectacle is playing right before our eyes through television and all major media outlets. We're hearing things about the credit crises in the secondary market sectors, which also effects most other U.S. industries.

The Wall Street Journal reported today that Paul Kasriel of Northern Trust stated,
"Housing's going to stay in a recession and it's starting to spread to other parts of the economy, especially the consumer sector."

How does this effect consumers across the U.S.? More urgently, how can we minimize the effects of the housing crises?

The answer seems to be to provide information and resources to help homeowners understand what is going on and what they can do.
The information seems to be ambiguously scattered, and difficult to come by. Green Castle Group LLC, a consulting & Sales Training agency in San Antonio, TX;
has recently released a free guide for Homeowners. The guide is provided as a service to the community in hopes of alleviating the pressure felt by homeowners
during these uncertain times.

The two owners of Green Castle Group LLC, Angel and Eric Armendariz worked in the mortgage industry in Boston, MA; before moving to San Antonio to start-up a Consulting agency to improve sales performance for Corporations and Organizations.

The e-book is a resource for all homeowners, that includes,
pertinent information for protecting homeowners in this critical time of need. The e-book is available free of charge at their website http://greencastlegroup.com/.

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Wednesday, August 8, 2007

Rigid or Flexible Capitalist -What the Coming Economic Downturn Requires of You

"Markets crashing, Armageddon, it's never been this bad!" These are some of the resounding headlines around Newswires. When Gabriel's trumpet is the sound of the Wall Street bell...who do we call on for help? My choice is our good ol' American pal Ralph Waldo Emerson. I can here the sarcastic "oh boy" already...but hold on a second; let me explain. You see there are a couple of things that we can take from our long deceased friend.

First thing is Self-Reliance(self sufficient/effective). Now, of course we are a vastly interconnected society, and economic downturns can effect us in several ways. However, I chant the principle of Self-Reliance because this is what gives us the ability individually to become more capable. Evolutionary Theory has taught us that the more adaptable the organism, the better it will survive any changes. The more specialized (one-dimensional) an organism is the more vulnerable it becomes. Thus, any change to its environment can potentially cause its annihilation.

I use this as an analogy for our own selves. The more we can embrace Self-Reliance, the more we increase our adaptability. Take for instance the Wall Street Banker that specializes in Mortgage Backed Securities. That is a pretty specific specialty - the equivalent to a turtle in the animal kingdom. The equivalence I refer to is the fact that both the turtle and the banker can only function in a very limited sphere/environment. If that environment becomes threatened, than their existence becomes compromised.

Now, lets take another example. A professional Sales Person. A highly skilled sales person can work selling everything from fruit baskets - to selling the masses in voting for him/her as the next president. Sure, I'm extending the utility of a sales person, however, selling a fruit basket effectively requires one to adapt to your clients. To sell a nation on your competence as a politician requires adaptability to opinions, polls, and peoples concerns. The equivalent to a virus or bacteria in the biological world - not in the bad sense; in the sense of adaptability. So Emerson's long forgotten Self-Reliance essay would be a good wake me up for the common capitalist. Take a lesson from nature and be the tree that bends with the hurricane and remains standing. Not the rigid oak that cracks and breaks.

- Angel Armendariz
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Tuesday, August 7, 2007

Communication Universe - Are there Absolute Laws?

"Desire is possibility seeking expression, or function seeking performance."
- Wallace D. Wattles

In quantum physics scientists are in a race to find the "absolute" laws of existence. The presupposition is that "absolute" laws actually exist. We generally assume that there have to be absolute laws or ultimate truth. But, why do we think that? Maybe its a desire for a sense of certainty of some permanence to our lives. Nonetheless

I now ask the same question of Communication. In the broad category of Communication lets include all interpersonal forms of communication. Sales, marketing, casual persuasion, pick up strategies, essays, and public speaking. Would we be able to assume that these communication modes abide by "absolute" or "universal" laws? We would of course use something more fundamental to communication to describe this underlying template we suspect. Principles, are generally the equivalent to the quantum physicists "absolute" laws.

Acting is Sales?

Lets look at some principles. We'll first venture into Acting. Acting is all about communication...
James R. Alburger, acting and voice-over coach, gives this as the recipe for Selling the audience:

-Interrupt
-Engage
-educate
-offer

James, gives his students those for "principles" for capturing listeners attention. Hmmm...If i didn't know any better I'd say that those principles look eerily familiar to a sales pitch process. Or even a marketing pitch. Lets look at a famous sales pitch process. This is Neil Rackhams's Spin Selling formula:

-Situation
-Problem
-Implications
-Needs-Payoff

Courtship Ritual

Interesting...Could this apply online? Maria Veloso, a web copyrighting master, says yes. In Mitch Meyerson's book, Success Secrets of The Online Marketing Superstars, Maria Veloso describes a sales script meticulously made to move in the same linear format as the two examples above. She obviously gets the fact that the process is not about a "quickie"...she describes it quite intimately however, courtship like -"Seducing your Web visitor is like a dance, wherein you lead and they follow. You make a move, they respond accordingly, you take another step and they follow your lead in a seamless relay that ultimately leads to the sale." How's that for using the courtship analogy...

-Angel Armendariz

Monday, August 6, 2007

What Advice Would Einstein Give Bear Stearns?

In study and increasing intelligence the acceleration/adaptation template is somewhat famous, in regards to the beneficiaries of using this powerful force. Henri Poincare, famous mathematician and scientist; used the ac/ad template to erupt his creativity, producing some of the most important scientific works of his time. Einstein used to say that after wrestling with a difficult problem through arduous study and research; the aha moments would come during the casual bouts of everyday things. He once inquired to a friend from Princeton asking,"Why is it that I get my best ideas in the morning while shaving? The answer of course falls into the natural working of the creative mechanism; that works in the ac/ad format. Its almost an iconic symbol of sorts...the image of the scientist laboring arduously to solve a problem...researching, testing, questioning, etc.(acceleration). Followed by bouts of rest, sleep, recreation, etc.(adaptation)....leading to the solution, epiphany, or realization of the missing piece of the puzzle.
Economic cycles of the ac/ad kind are commonplace. The systems in place to regulate or deregulate businesses across the U.S. work with the intent of the common good. The Federal reserve board for example establishes key interest rate payouts as well as governmental watch over economic stability to ensure the "growth" (acceleration) of the U.S. economy and at times "deceleration" (adaptation) to maintain a state of productivity. Keenly aware of the dangers of rapid growth, government adjusts economic inputs to ensure a cyclic stability. Unabashed growth leads to dire consequences as is the current case in the housing market, with over appreciated property values across the majority of U.S. metropolitan areas. Ignited by profit insatiability, and lack of understanding of the underlying templates at work; investors over exploit market niche's and start to fantasize of a never ending parade of exponential growth and lead themselves to their own graves and taking with them other interconnected markets. Case in point, Bear Stearns, New Century, American Home, and many more yet to come. Its an interesting blind spot in most individuals as well as businesses and groups; that when "good" times are prevalent, such as the case with exponential growth we start to believe that we have somehow fooled the laws of existence. Continuous growth is definitely possible, and happens all the time; however, this occurs when the understanding of cycles and the ac/ad template is headed. Speculators and traders in numerous markets profit enormously on a continual basis, no matter what the market condition, because they are aware of "bull" markets (ac) and "bear" markets (ad), and adjust their bets accordingly.

"The monetary history of the last four hundred years has been replete with financial crises. The pattern (template) was that investor optimism increased as economies expanded, the rate of growth of credit increased and economic growth accelerated..." Manias, Panics, and Crashes, by Charles P. Kindleberger and Robert Aliber.

A classic example of a business suicide by neglect of the ac/ad template is Enron. The thirst for continual profit, that was unsustainable through their methods; caused fictitious selling up the value of Enron stock that really had limited value...metaphorically speaking they were "overtraining"...way beyond overtraining and eventually they dug their own grave, and down with them came billions of dollars in investor funds.

- Angel Armendariz, excerpt - Untitled

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Friday, August 3, 2007

How Selective Are You?

The more you know, the more specific distinctions you can make about a particular subject. Obviously, continually educating yourself is as necessary as daily exercise. However, do not let yourself get hazed into a confusing onslaught of information overload. It is rare to see this; it's more often the case to see lack of information than abundance of it. It still remains true though that even unconsciously we are bombarded with millions of bits of info. daily, that can obscure the clarity of our underlying principles. A funny thing came to my mind not to long ago. Someone told me that I was very selective with what I listened to, who I spent time with, and even what I exposed my sight to. It was interesting to note someone making that observation. Than I thought to myself..."Why would you not be selective?"...."Why would you allow any random object or force invade your mind?"...a quick analogy followed..."It's like being a prostitute of sorts....isn't it?...except without getting paid"...I laughed and smiled about it. But if you honestly think about it that way, it sort of is. I mean, most of us are selective with who we choose to be intimate with, or our mates, because it is assumed under cultural rules that we will be with them "till death do you part." Well, interestingly enough every bit of information that enters your perception (hearing, seeing, feeling, tasting, smelling, etc.) becomes recorded forever as well, throughout your mind and body. So then, wouldn't you agree that it would make sense to be selective about which channels of influence you allow to buy real estate in your mind? Of course it would. Passionate, non-conforming individuals should be aware of this, and be selective. Give yourself a creed. Tell yourself what standards of selectivity you will stand by. This will help you at all times make wise decisions that will have a cumulative effect on your Success and who you become.

- Excerpt from - Sales Gods II, New Pathways to Development, coming soon
www.godsofsales.com
"We are all in Sales. Period." - Tom Peters