I made this a couple of months ago, and since then, my thinking...

I made this a couple of months ago, and since then, my thinking has changed, or grown, in any event. Now I’m thinking of all of those I’ve had contact with over the past few years, and wondering, “What do they need NOW, that their world has changed?” How can I put my skills, both old and new, to work to help those people already within my circle? What new “pain points” are they experiencing?

For myself and my magician clients, I can think of plenty. What comes to mind for you? I’ll be spending a serious hour or so, jotting a long list of those things, might help you find one or two new directions for your own success.

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Once we realize that illusion isn’t unusual…in fact it is...

Once we realize that illusion isn’t unusual…in fact it is how we make sense of our lives. Perceived reality is part sensory input (which is, at best, only a partial representation of reality), part experience, and part belief. With a bit fo hard cogination, both the 2nd and 3rd of those can be altered. At best, we carry around an illusionary model in our minds, and believe that to be reality.

So, unlike Old Sam, I find it useful to part with my current set of illusions…but only if I can soon replace them with a better set. Because without the illusions, I really have no sense of reality to hang onto, and I’m not quite ready to let that go! The trick is the building of that better set!

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Today, certain skills are more necessary than ever. Have you...

Today, certain skills are more necessary than ever. Have you learned to present effectively using tools like Zoom and Google Meetings? Does it stil terrify you if you have to make a formal presentation? These are not particularly difficult skills to acquire–but too many of us are prevented, either from fear or because we just don’t understand the importance of the skill.

So why IS the ability to present and communicate well in any medium improtant? Because communication is the super-highway that connect you and your products to your market. If the market never learns of the product, or if they learn of it in a way that is out of your control and without the necessary emotinal, logical and style associations, that product, no matter how wonderful, is unlikely to catch on.

Imagine you’ve just hired a fantastic team of designers, engineers…whatever. If you fail to communicate what you need them to do, if you fail to communicate your company’s values, culture and mission to that team, it may never gel into a real team, and you’ll wind up with the kind of corporate politice, infighting and other disorders that have killed so many otherwise promising companies.

The overall “system” that is your company, product and market depends on effective flow of information, just as your body depends on the flow of blood between all its parts. A failure to communicate well in business is like a failure in your circulatory system. Constricted vessels slow things down…and at it’s worse, a heart attack can destroy everything you’ve worked so hard to build.

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To get different results, you must think different thoughts....

To get different results, you must think different thoughts. What if you delivered the opposite of the response you usually give? Turned the tables? Figured out a sure way to turn the situation into failure? Might you find solutions you wouldn’t have found otherwise? Just becuase you dare to “think the unthinkable” doesn’t mean you have to act on those thoughts. But if you have the courage to follow through on that thinking, you might just find that it will lead you to solutions you never would have considered otherwise (and that your competition will NEVER come up with).

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Read that again. Simplify and clean up your thinking–as...

Read that again. Simplify and clean up your thinking–as you must do in order to present effectively–and you, too, can “move mountains.” It worked pretty well for Steve and his companies!

I used to be surprised when I was asked to help someone in business with a presentation about something they supposedly knew really well, but were unable to speak about with absolute clarity. Why? Because we don’t always really “know” the things we think we do. 

Once you learn to question all your assumptiongs, re-create your logic, and, ideally, find or create a story that absolutely gets your message across–only then are you ready to mount your campaign and sell your idea, your service, or your product to the world.

You can my Wizard’s Way to Powerful Presentations right now on Amazon…either on paper or Kindle. Might be a profitable way to spend your weekend!

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It’s time to re-think and re-boot your business. But how? Go...

It’s time to re-think and re-boot your business. But how? Go back to the basics. Who is your market, and what are the big, painful problems they have right now that you can help them solve. The marketplace has changed drastically in the past six months, so it’s probably high time for you to re-think how you serve it.

That’s the subject of our class starting this Wednesday evening: Creating Magic in Business, taught by David Morey and myself. You’ll get three two-hour online, interactive sessions over a three week period, all recorded so that you have access after the fact. You’ll be entertained, and, more important: You’ll come away with new ideas and inspirations to use in re-creating your own business.

https://tinyurl.com/y2yp6k2o

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I made this video a couple of years ago, when we had just...

I made this video a couple of years ago, when we had just started to offer presenter workshops. Now that we all live online, the basic message is more true than ever–but “live audience” means an audience with whom you are reacting through a screen. That’s a very different experience, but on that the successful presenter will master. There are dozens of techniques for really connecting with an audience on Zoom or in a Google Meet event. We’ve developed some unique ones in our work with performing magicians, for whom audience interaction is even more necessary than it is for most speakers. 

Get in touch now to book sessions for your team. There are few things you can do to lift their overall performance level more than learning to be better presenters!

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How will you create effective marketing for your business now...

How will you create effective marketing for your business now that we’re all living in a “new normal” reality? The truth is that our “reality” is really a sum of our perceptions, which are made up equally of sensory input, our past experiences and our belief systems. Those perceptions are only partially created by the physical reality we think we experience. Any magician knows that our perceptions are easily manipulated..and along with them the “reality” that we experience.

So, as we move forward, what will you do to shape your own perceptions–and those of your clients and customers? What sort of world will you create, as the culture and the rest of the world changes around you? Will you take on the role of magician, creating the illusions–or that of loyal audience member who just goes along with what others create? We all have some important choices to make!

These are just a few of the items David Morey and I will be exploring in our upcoming, three-part workshop: Creating Magic in Business. If you’re finding yourself struggling with where to take your business next, this might be just the thing for you!

https://tinyurl.com/y2yp6k2o

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There has always been a struggle between those who want to do...

There has always been a struggle between those who want to do what’s comfortable and those who want to press onward into the unknown. Grace Hopper was decidedly of the latter variety–and that’s at least partly why Google is naming it’s new undersea cable for her!

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Young magicians I work with often ask, “How can I become as...

Young magicians I work with often ask, “How can I become as successful as Jeff McBride or Mraco Tempest?” One of the answers lies in the quote above: Never settle for “good enough.” Always strive for continous improvement, for finding new and better goals and new and better ways of reaching those goals. Strive, through your art, to serve others better – to help them overcome their own inadequacies and limiting beliefs, to build their hopes and help them reach their dreams. 

If you have the kind of passion for your art that Jeff and Marco do, you’ll think nothing of working long hours for days on end–because you’ll never FEEL like it is “work” at all. 

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