🌕🌑
Oh! This is a piece by @paradisiacpicture. One of my favorites. So cool.
Thank you @bittyblueeyes
A bit of magical art for your freaky Friday experience. Hint… if it’s not moving here, come see it here:
And hey, while you’re on the site, why not poke around a bit. We might have something to offer you or your group. We’re real wizards, exploring what that means by offering others ways to change their lives and the world around them!
The Power of Supporting a Hero
One of the things I’ve noticed about many wizards of legend is that they are not the heroes of their stories. They choose not to take center stage but instead find that their real power comes by supporting and guiding someone else–someone who is the hero, or apparent protagonist of the story. Merlyn supports King Arther, Gandalf supports Frodo, etc. Sometimes remaining as that “man behind the curtain,” unseen by the rest of the players, can be the most powerful place to be.
So: Who is your hero? What are the changes you can guide them to lead and achieve? How will you do that? In other lessons from The Wizard’s Way, I’ve talked about how all things are connected in a kind of magical web, where tweaking the web at one point might have repercussions in many others. Working through a “hero” like this is one of those areas where the small tweaks at other parts of a network can be most clearly seen. News that is upsetting to the hero early in the day might affect his or her actions later in the day. Compliments delivered to them or their loved ones just a short time before they are to take another action or make a decision might have an entirely different effect. There are so many different ways this can work.
Take a few minutes and consider what are the things that affect the hero you’ve chosen to support. What ones of those things might you most easily and surely manipulate? Can you do that and still maintain your own integrity? These are questions a true wizard must ask herself, again and again!
Radical Responsibility = Presenter Power
(Excerpt from The Wizard’s Way to Powerful Presentations)
Taking full responsibility is one of the most important wizard principles. Wizards don’t just sit around and wait for others to create the change they feel is needed in the world. They take responsibility for making things happen, and this mind-set helps them build the power to actually create change. An attitude that you are responsible for everything that comes into your awareness can be especially useful when you’re making presentations.
No Bad Audiences
I’ve spent most of my life working with performers who work in front of live audiences (as opposed to working in front of a camera, not as opposed to working before dead audiences). Occasionally, one of them will come offstage after a performance and complain about “that awful audience.”
I feel sorry for those performers, because in blaming the audience, they’ve given away their own power to create a great experience. As the person presenting at the front of the room, you are the one who is responsible for the experience of everyone in the room. If they aren’t responding in the way you expect them to, don’t blame them. Instead, try to meet them where they are and help them have the experience they think they’ve come for. That may or may not be the experience you had planned to give, but once you’ve really connected with that audience, there’s a much stronger chance that you’ll be able move them in the direction you want them to go.
No Bad Situations
Just as there are no bad audiences, there are no truly “bad” situations. There are, however, many different kinds of situations you might find yourself in as a speaker. You will often be presented with situations you did not expect. The audience might be larger or smaller than expected. Technical support might be vastly different than you hoped for. You might find yourself outdoors when you expected to be inside. None of these are inherently bad situations unless you choose to see them that way. If you blame the situation for your own failure, you have given away your power to create a positive experience for all involved.
One way you can avoid problematic situations is to be prepared for a wide variety of situations. Some speakers travel with their PowerPoint presentations on large printed pads as a backup. If the projector dies or fails to show up, they can still use all of their graphics. Others design their talks so they won’t rely on slides or other visual aids. Some speakers who work smaller local markets pack a sound system in the trunk of their car in case the sound system provided at their speaking venue is insufficient.
My friend Jeff McBride defines mastery as a performer as “When everything that can possibly go wrong has gone wrong, and you’ve figured out how to deal with it.”
So, go and learn to be a master presenter! Prepare yourself to deal with any situation you might encounter, and when challenging situations do occur, make sure you learn from them!
Want a quick lesson on presenting better? You can have me come work with you and your group in person, or just read the rest of my book. Get it here:
Have you given yourself a cause?
This, I think, is also the key to building a meaningful, effective life, no matter who you are. Wizards, entrepreneurs, true statesmen–all of these pursuits involve attempting something for the good of something larger than oneself.
Many of us look for “what we’re meant to do,” and spend our whole lives waiting for that thing to appear. Others simply choose a thing that inflames their passions and dive in. They take action and get results. If the results excite them, then continue on. If not, they find another thing they are passionate about. In the meantime, they create meaningful and effective lives, while those “seekers” looking for deeper meaning, or looking for their “calling,” sit on the sidelines and hope.
Wizards don’t deny hope – we are amongst the most hopeful positive thinkers on the planet. But we never expect hope alone to take us where we want to go, to create the change that needs to be made. It is action. taken boldly and decisively that creates real transformation!
Wizards learn through having experiences others do not. But what if you are timid about seeking out new experiences? Here’s a solution.
Wells Fargo’s folksy demeanor didn’t extend past the ads. The first innovation they brought to the table was a change of terms: “At any bank, you’d call it a branch … but Wells Fargo banks are not called branches. They call all their physical buildings stores. Because they sell.” Kristen’s bank had been the sort of place where the bankers knew most of their clients by name; they were a part of the community. But under Wells Fargo’s rein, clients were now customers, and all that mattered was signing them up for more “solutions,” like a Wells Fargo debit card, or a credit card, or online banking.
The next change they instituted was roughly doubling the number of daily meetings between managers and bankers. Bankers were pressured to have new sales to report every couple of hours, which was made harder by the fact that a lot of their sales time was spent reporting on sales. “I would have a customer at my desk and [be] having a transaction with them … or helping them with a problem that was sensitive … it didn’t matter, those numbers took precedence. So my manager would race in at 2:55 [and say], ‘Kristen what are your numbers?’ My customer could be in tears … it didn’t matter.”
Bad sales were punished by forced attendance at 7 a.m. conference calls – which, due to bank security measures, required the banker to show up at 5 or 6. Another way Wells Fargo punished their employees was with “sales nights,” aka “several hours of cold-calling random people after the close of business.”
“Those were the nights when where we would open five checking accounts for friends and family just to go home early.”
Wait, what?
I Worked For Wells Fargo: They Made Us Do Some Shady Sh!t
There was a time I loved being a Wells Fargo customer. Now I can’t wait to get these credit cards paid off and be done with them. More and more shady practices surface every day!
The hollow mask illusion is a feat of optical witchcraft that tricks your brain into thinking that the inside of a rotating mask is exactly like the outside – a face with protruding features. Here, give it a try. We’ll wait.
That was awesome, right? It looks like a regular face, and then it turns out it was only the inside of the ma– wait, you’re saying it didn’t fool you for a second? Well … we don’t want to alarm you, but…
Collaborators from the Hannover Medical School in Germany and the UK’s UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience found that there is a very specific subgroup of people who are totally immune to the cerebral fuckery of the hollow mask illusion: schizophrenics.
6 Tiny Things That Indicate You’ve Got Huge Medical Problems
I’ve loved this illusion since I first saw it–especially animated versions like this one. Here’s a good explanation of why it works, and kind of an astonishing fact about why, if it doesn’t work for you, you should perhaps consult with a psychiatrist!
Put an end to the PATHETIC PITCH!
I wrote The Wizard’s Way to Powerful Presentations for that purpose. Here’s a tip from the book:
There are several “rules of three” for the power presenter, but this is one of the more effective, at least in my experience. By letting your audience know what’s coming, you can color their expectations and set up expectations that you will then meet. You can also use this phase to build suspense and keep an audience’s full attention. That middle, “tell ‘em” is the meat of your presentation–the facts and stories that reinforce those facts. The ending helps make sure they’ve made sense of it all in their minds. It wraps things up in a nice tidy package, preferably with a strong call to action.
We’ve all seen courtroom dramas on TV, and one of the reasons they make such good drama is that the experience of court is set up this way: Attorneys are asked for their “opening arguments,” – that’s the “tell ‘em what you’re going to tell ‘em” portion of the trial Then they present all their evidence and witnesses – the “then tell ‘em” part. And, finally, they are asked for “closing arguments,” in which they explain what it all meant to the jury, and ask for the verdict they are after. If the attorney has been fully effective in all three parts of their case, they stand a good chance of winning. If not…
It will do most presenters, especially those pitching for investment or sales, a world of good to incorporate this “rule of three” into all their presentations!
Radical responsibility as a Path to Power
You’ve probably heard the phrase that “With great power comes great responsibility.” True wizard understand that the reverse is true, as well: Accept great responsibility and you will gain power! Conversely: Blame others, and you give away your power. Which will it be for you?
This is an idea that appears in many different philosophies, and it’s a powerful way of thinking for those of us who would create change. Why? Because it means that it may be possible to instigate change in one particular area by changing something in a completely different area.
A prime example of this is the Hermeticist’s dictum “As Above, So Below.” This can be interpreted in different ways, but one common one is that to change the world, simply change yourself. Because you are a part of the larger world, that world will change when you do.
I remember reading something by Buckminster Fuller many years ago, that every object created alters the entire universe. His reasoning, if I create a new cube, that cube has an inside and an outside. I can choose to see it as a discreet object, or as a universe with a hole at its center which is defined by that object.
Yet another is to think of our reality as a net where everything is connected to everything else… and if you pluck a strand of the net in one place, it will be reflected somewhere else, possibly in an area that seems to be unrelated. This is the “Butterfly Effect” first spoken of by Conrad Lorenz, where the flapping of a butterfly’s wings in one part of the globe might trigger a cyclone in another. The trick there, of course, is to know where and when your action might resonate.
So: I’m curious… do you have examples of this phenomenon within your experience? I’d love to hear about them!
Sounds reasonable, doesn’t it? And yet, so many of us find it difficult to always state what we feel. We’re afraid to offend, afraid of the judgments of others, afraid… of what? Anything that matters?
Like so many of the principles I teach in The Wizard’s Way books, this is one I find to be a constant struggle myself. A friend was recently directing me for one of the new Wizard Minute videos, and she noted my posture was less than commanding. “You’re sending the message that you want to be liked, that you know a lot, but are afraid to take command with that posture,” she told me. Wow…there’s something I couldn’t see for myself, but the moment she said it, it rung true. I know I DO have the power to take charge, to command, to lead… and yet I often let it go in deference to those around me. I tend to surround myself with fairly forcible, strong personalities–people with ideas as strongly held as my own–so it might be understandable that I sometimes just “go along.” It’s NOT the path to real wizardry, though.
THAT path means taking Fritz Perls’ advice, and letting the world know who you are, what you think and how you feel. If you don’t have the courage to let the world know what you want from it, how can you ever expect to get that?
A bit of a mystery… but then we often discover mysterious aspects of reality when we learn to view any situation from many different perspectives.
Learning to see things from different angles is just one of the way wizards get the “secret knowledge” that allows them to do what others view as impossible!
I went to another pitch event in San Francisco this week. Startups were given 90 seconds to pitch their companies. Out of a dozen or so pitches, only 2 were even really intelligible! These are company founders and CEOs who want to raise as much as $6 million dollars, giving pitches they hope will do that, but which wouldn’t even have earned a passing grade back when I was teaching public speaking at universities!
It’s true that many of us are terrified of making any kind of presentation in public. I understand that. But I also know how easy it is to get past that initial fear with just a bit of guided practice in front of groups. If you have the intelligence to be running a tech startup, you have more than it takes to learn to give great presentations. My book (see above) can help–but you really need to give yourself the experience of giving talks in order to get good at this.
If you have a pitch coming up that you really care about–maybe pitching your startup, maybe introducing a new product, or speaking to a gathering of employees you need to inspire–get in touch. There are many, many ways I can help no matter what your situation or budget.
You’ve put in all that time, money and effort to get your company to where it is. Don’t risk blowing it all just because you don’t know how to give a great, persuasive pitch with confidence!
One of my favorite ideas for taking full responsibility is the phrase, “Who am I being, what am I doing, that allows this to be so?” The idea is that if you change who and how you are being, you can change the thing that’s bothering you in the world, by taking on responsibility for that thing.
But how do we change “who we are?” Here’s at least one possible solution. Actors learn to change “who they are” over and over again. They learn to shift in and out of various characters almost instantaneously. This can be a very useful skill for any would-be wizard, as it allows you to “try on” different versions of yourself and find out what that feels like. If you like the change, you can “keep it,”–which is to say, you can practice staying in that character all the time.
Try it out. Go out on the town and play a character. Stay in that character steadily, whether anyone else is watching or not. At the end of it, drop back into your own character and then write the experience up for yourself. Were you surprised at how others responded to your new character? Was the character more or less comfortable than you normally are in various situations. Some people actually find their characters have abilities they do not have in their normal lives!
I once read that all politics is the result of fear. Fear that others will not behave in the way we would wish them to. Fear that there will not be enough to meet our needs, or that others, more powerful that ourselves, will take away the things we want and need. Fear that we are not “alright” and will be cast out. There are so many kinds of fear lurking just beneath the surface of our conscious minds, and that fear distorts our vision of what is real.
What’s more, fear of consequences prevents most of us from taking action, most of the time. I truly believe that it is the willingness to act in spite of fear that sets the true leader, the true wizard, apart from the pack. When we learn to act in spite of our fears, we rapidly learn that many of those fears are unfounded. The more we make ourselves do the things we want to do, but fear, the more we realize there was no need to fear them in the first place. The result? We take more effective action. We go ahead and make the very changes in our lives we had feared!
So I hope you’re taking my advice and doing those things that might have scared you in the past, learning how good it feels to stretch your boundaries, to expand your comfort zone. These are the secrets to achieving true wizard power!
This quote from J.K. Rowling seems pretty close to the premise that encouraged me to write The Wizard’s Way in the first place. Each of us already carries all the magic within ourselves that we need if we want to create change in the world! But to use that magic, you must get the secret knowledge that real wizards use to do the impossible.
Wizards of the past–the Gandhis, Einsteins, and da Vincis of the world–all knew or somehow stumbled into that knowledge. Since much of it is only available to us through experience, a book can’t really teach you to become a wizard. It can, however, point you to the path that will get you the experiences, the secret knowledge, the real wisdom you need to become a true wizard. I hope you’ll join me on that Wizard’s Way!
You can buy the book now by clicking here.
I’m working on a new look for the Wizard’s Minute, and this is the first attempt. A theme you might have heard from me before, but it bears repeating. Enjoy! Drop me a note with your thoughts on the new look!
I’ll be working with Jeff in just a couple of weeks in Las Vegas to help a small group of very serious magicians do something most of them have only dreamed of so far: To build a successful business as independent performers.As solo-preneurs, the goal is to build a vehicle that will take each of them where they want to go in life. A vehicle that will carry not only them, but their friends and families, to the lives they have always dreamed of. Since we all have different ideas of the “ideal life,” there are as many different kinds of businesses to be built as there are aspiring performers.The first step along the path, then, is to get very clear about the life you want to have. If your destination is to have a life like David Copperfield, you’ll build one kind of business. If you want to be the next Mac King, your creation will look different. So… the first assignment Jeff and I will be giving our students is to define their goals, not just in terms of their work as performers–but in their lives. Until we know where they want to go, it’s hard to know what kind of vehicle they’re going to need in order to get them there.Perhaps you would like to take the assignment for yourself. Set aside some quite time, grab a pad and pencil, and start dreaming. Imagine the life you would most love to be living. Who are the people in that life? Where is it taking place? What work are you doing? What kind of play? How much stuff and money are involved? There are so many questions to answer… but get yourself started as soon as possible. And, when you’re dreaming about that life, don’t let yourself get bogged down by what you think is “possible.”We’re all wizards here, and for us, “impossible” is just another challenge!PS: I understand we still have a couple of spots left for that workshop. If you think you might like to join us, you can learn more (and register!) here: http://www.magicalwisdom.com/events#516. Maybe I’ll see you in Las Vegas between October 14-16.
John Lennon was a very socially aware artist, with a true wizard’s attitude. Keep your mind open, think and feel what you think and feel, not what you’re told. Create.
And… we ARE responsible. It’s the only attitude to take unless you want to be a blind follower. And yet… we all duck a lot of our responsibilities. It’s hard to be completely responsible. Maybe impossible to be completely responsible. The world is just too big, too complicated.
So you must do your best. You must choose your battles. Still… you must not forget that even for those things you can’t actively spend your time and effort to change, you are responsible. The one thing you CAN be completely responsible for is yourself. Fortunately, the best way of changing the world around you is to change yourself.
How are you doing with that? At the end of his life, praised for his many great accomplishments, Mahatma Gandhi is reported to have stated, “But I’ve only been working on myself. Trying to be a better me every day.” It seems to have worked well for Gandhi. Ask yourself, are you doing as well? If not, how can you change that?
Day by day, bit by bit. That’s the Wizard’s Way!
Feynman was a true wizard, using science–and his mind as his primarily tools. Well…all wizards use their minds, but not necessarily science. Not in the way Feynman did. A fascinating character, and well worth studying if you would become a wizard.
That’s not my interest in him today, though. I’m not sure of the overall context in which he wrote the above, but I do know it is true that he, like many of the physicists who created the atomic bomb, was horrified when it was actually used.Horrified that he and the rest of the team at Los
Any great technology, almost any great story, can be used to create almost any sort of change. We hope true wizards will be wise and compassionate, that they will use their powerful abilities for the good of all–but some will not. Some will use them to convince us to go to war, or to deny others the opportunities they have gained for themselves. As one spreading the word on ways to become a true wizard, this concerns me.
So, how do you tell the “good” wizard from the “bad” one? Here’s my own basic rule of thumb. If you are using your wizard powers to help expand the capabilities of others, and improve the lives of others, you’re probably on the way to becoming a “good” wizard. If, on the other hand, you’re using those powers solely to increase your own power–well that, as they say, is the way to the dark side!
With that said, I will leave you, and wish you a day filled with love and light–and perhaps even enlightenment!
fractal thinking
By now you know I love my “Freaky Friday” posts. Be careful with this one… stare to long, and you might miss the whole weekend.
Does it remind anyone else out there of an Alex Grey piece?
A wizard lesson here? Perhaps it is that we all need to hold onto our idea of reality a bit more loosely. Learning to view things from different perspectives means more than examining things from other physical perspectives, or even other people’s points of view. Sometimes it can help to try and view them from a whole different reality!
PS: If this isn’t moving on your screen, go check the orginal here:
Are you willing to be an “unashamed misfit?” Most true wizards were, and are. Mohandas Gandhi was. Albert Einstein was. Richard Feynman was. Steve Jobs certainly was. Not bad company, I’d say.
What is it that makes so many great world changers “unashamed misfits?”I think it is because they have the courage–or perhaps they just can’t help themselves–to think their own thoughts, even when those thoughts don’t quite fit into the culture they were born into. These are individuals are intent on seeing the world as it is, but with the energy and courage to take on the responsibility of changing that world. They have the spirit and the mental capacity to follow the motto of the true wizard, and really “Question everything.”
What do we mean by that phrase-”Question everything? At least one of it’s implications would be that we must question all of our assumptions. And yet, there must certainly be some assumptions, some conventions that are beyond questioning. If we don’t share some basic assumptions, how could we live as a society? How could we even communicate? There are many “assumptions” that are such a part of our world experience, that seem so obvious, that we’re not even aware that they are assumptions. We simply take them for granted.
For example, we believe in gravity. If we’re sitting and we stand up, we expect the floor to stay beneath our feet. When we open our mouths to speak, we expect to hear our own, familiar voices come out. If I place a coin into my hand and close the hand tightly around that coin, you would expect the same coin to be there when I open the hand. If something other than what we assume will happen in any of these instances, our world is shaken for a moment. We have an experience of magic–of experiencing “the impossible.” And yet there are situations where all of those basic things I just described don’t lead to the expected results. You can book a “Zero-G” flight and experience “no gravity.” You can inhale helium and the speak in a voice that sounds nothing like your own. And any competent performing magician can make a coin either disappear or turn into something else, “right before your eyes.”
Those willing to truly “question everything,” to question every possible assumption, including the most basic–those are the ones most likely to really change the world. Those, at least in my book, are the true wizards. I hope you’ll choose to be one of us!
Deming was largely responsible for the quality movement in Japanese business which allowed their companies (Sony, Toyota, Panasonic) to leap forward and domiinate the world economy back in the 1980s and 90s. His thoughts on management are a great example of the kind of renegade thinking that true wizards often employ. Now they’re everywhere, not least of all inspiring the tech crowd here in Silicon Valley. Things we now take for granted as the effective way to do business–continuous improvement systems, just in time delivery, and so much more.
So many times we can read something like this quote about the importance of knowing what to do, and think, “Duh. Of course.” Yet all too often we fail to give enough thought to what actually needs to be done, and whether or not we really know how to do it. The result is almost always a huge waste of time and money.
What’s more, really knowing what to do isn’t always obvious. That’s why true wizards (and magicians) often appear to be doing something that we thought was impossible. They have the secret knowledge of “what to do” that makes those things completely possible!
When your dance moves are 🔥🔥🔥.
To all my magician friends who work sometimes with animals. Remember to treat them well–or else!
I woke up this morning with a body that just wanted to move. Toes wanted to wiggle, hips to sway, torso to flex, hand to wave… I’m feeling smart this morning!
On this day, the day after Labor Day, I’m feeling positive. As leader of the new Wizard Venture enterprise, I KNOW we have knowledge to share that can change businesses and other organizations, and this “think with the body” is just one.
I use physical exercises to help presenters overcome their fears and develop their powers to command attention and to persuade. Sylvia uses lots of physical movement and sensory experience in her almost miraculous emotional intelligence training. Jeff McBride gets audiences physically involved as he teaches them what it means to think like a magician. I could go on, but to develop the discipline of physical and mental practice that allows us to do what others think is impossible.
There’s good news for you here, too. Because your mind lives in your body almost as much as it does your brain, you can use your body to shift your state. If you’re feeling a little sad, a little sluggish, you can change it. When you’re feeling stuck in a rut, it’s very difficult to think your way out. But by taking just a few minutes to shift your physical state, the mental state will change, too. Here’s how.
What do you like to do with your body? Play sports? Even a brisk 5 minutes of walking, or, better, dancing, can create the shift. I do a fairly strenuous hike with two friends twice a week, and I can tell you, it’s a couple of hours of the most creative time I spend. Do you play music where you work, when you’re working? Just dancing in your chair can make a difference. Here’s the thing, though… you need to drop whatever is on you rmind, whatever thoughts you were thinking, and challenge yourself to become completely involved in the physical activity.
Let’s say I’ve decided to do 20 squats before moving forward with my day. It’s not enough just to do the squats and continue thinking about the problems I have to face today. For this to work fully, I need to put my full attention into doing the squats. How am I holding my upper body? How are the various muscles in each foot, each ankle, knee and thy working? Can I feel each one at work? Is there extra tension or soreness anywhere? If I tense up all the muscles in my upper body, how does that affect the nature of the squat? I must put my full attention on those thiings, those parts of my body. Two minutes later, I’m feeling energized and more wide awake. My state has shifted and I’m in high gear. It only takes two minutes.
I’m so grateful that my mind is woven into my body, and not just trapped inside my skull! I hope you’ll find the joy and power in this as you move into your world-changing week, too!
Sometimes the time you take off winds up being the most productive. Try and take some time today to forget about all your projects for awhile, and just enjoy whatever is happening around you. People, scenery, food… it doesn’t really matter. Give your conscious mind, your urge to achieve, your forced creativity–a rest! You’ll be amazed at how much wider awake you are tomorrow, how much more focused and productive, all because you actually took this time away!
Imagine you could have a small band of wizards at your beck and call. What would you do? Let your imagination run free!
When I was a graduate student, I got to create just such a group. We were termed “The Instructional Performance Company,” made up of a dozen or so acting students and myself as creative director. Any professor at the University could call me up and order a performance in their classroom. The performance might be the staging of a fight or other incident. We might be called upon to perform a scene from a play, or to improvise to poetry… or something entirely different. Everyone had great fun with the process, and professors who made use of our services were universally delighted with the results.
Well, now, as part of the Wizard Venture, we’re recreating that group, but on a grander scale. Led by the four wizards above, the group is made up of professional variety performers, all with some acting experience, writers, producers, designers and more. Our goal: To create and deliver positive transformative experiences for organizations of all types and sizes. Any venue can work, depending on the change you’re seeking. We have staged mini-plays at large corporate meetings, special events for private and corporate parties, at trade shows, product launch events, woodland retreats…and more.
So dream big–imagine what you would do with such a group working on your behalf. This kind of wizardry is real, and available to you right now. We love to be challenged–so dream big! What impossible goals do you have for your organization?
A perfect demonstration of how your reality can shift when viewing the same thing from different angles. One of my favorite illusions… click and enjoy the video!
Learn more about the power of shifting your point of view? Read the book! http://ift.tt/2cxQfc8
Marco Tempest is inspiring audiences at conferences around the globe with his ideas on how to Invent the Impossible. This is an interesting compilation sharing the talk as it has already appeared in multiple venues. I hope it may provide you some food for thought to get you through your day. And if you’re not in the mood to have your thinking challenged, just enjoy it as the wondrous entertainment it is.
If you want to help me spread Marco’s work to your audiences, just drop me a line at any time to tobias@wizardventure.com.
I recently spent 10 days in Las Vegas, most of the time helping to teach at one of the Master Class sessions at Jeff McBride’s Magic & Mystery School. The photo above is of Eugene Burger teaching some card magic to a group at the school.
My own big take away from this particular class was the quote above. Buehner was a speaker and historian of the Church of the Latter Day Saints (aka Mormons), and he was, I thinking, using it when speaking about how to give a great speech. Certainly my audience (that would be you, dear reader) includes many who would find it interesting in the context of giving a speech, making a presentation, or performing a show.
I think it’s more than that, though. I think it applies to every aspect of running a business. You might not remember what you bought on a given day shopping at one of Nordstrom’s stores–but you’ll never forget the way their legendary customer service made you feel.
As I begin the process of launching my Wizard Venture business, I’m thinking every day of how every interaction with that business might make our clients feel. We’re at the very beginning, still discovering what the business really is–but for our clients, I think we are in the business of providing much the same thing that the McBride Magic & Mystery School provides it’s magician clients: Experiences that will transform their lives and businesses, led by supremely competent teachers and facilitators in a space that is safe, but which encourages them to stretch out of their customary comfort zones.
How do I want them to feel? Exhilarated, excited and delighted as they find themselves pushing through what they believed to be their limitations, each one able to do and achieve things they had previously thought to be impossible.
I hope you might take a few minutes to explore our site here at wizardventure.com to find some of the ways we are currently offering to do just that, and will let me know your thoughts on those offerings or suggestions for others that might be even more effective.
