It’s the time of the year when the maple trees yield the sap that produces that superb gift, maple syrup.
Just the right combination of warm days and cold nights, spring’s advancing and retreating, result in maple syrup…and what is it, 30 gallons, 40 gallons that make for maybe a quart of maple syrup?
Well, the right words come forth that way, and sometimes you need that much textual “sap” to yield an appropriate message. The trick is to get warm enough days in your mind to make the sap flow.
How?
Get your right brain involved…free associate with a word, or a series of words, fill up a page or two of associations, without thinking, feel the shift and suddenly, you’ve connected perhaps the dullest word to the ripest, most startling image out there.
When you make that shift, you’ve hit a “vein”, the kind of word flow that’s always going on in the universe, just waiting for you to find a way into it.
But you have to share.
What do I mean? Well, in the old days, in college campuses, wisdom was “received”. Only when you’d read sufficient secondary works or cribbed notes from some exalted scholar did the powers that be permit you to push out some minimal, timid opinion.
But if you’re willing to make that shift to right brain associations to launch you on to that flood of words that you can then edit and shape, you’re already your own authority. You don’t need any tyrant to tell you how to describe what you want to describe to people in essays, fiction, poetry, or speeches.
Offer the same freedom to others. Be open to the vein that you’ve tapped into, share those images, and then be open in turn to the folks out there as you pass on the universe's wisdom.
Stay tuned.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Thursday, March 19, 2009
How do you START to say something?
Last time, I talked about people wanting to communicate, wanting to get something across, but not sure if what they had to offer was valuable…a sales package, an essay, a blog post, a possible conversation with someone, a letter, an email, a poem, a novel, a play…
So, if you have a gap between the urgent need or wish to communicate something and the doubt you have about whether what you have to say is worthwhile, important, or potentially of interest to a recipient, then you have a maximum amount of stress at the “point of entry”.
How do you bridge that gap?
Well, it can start with intimates that you trust, to broach something. But that approach is not the failsafe that you might think it is. Imagine how devastating it might be if someone you really care about trashes an “approach”? You are almost better trying things out on strangers.
But let’s forget the recipient for a moment, because it’s your identification with the recipient, rather than with yourself, that’s creating the gap we spoke about above.
Your need to communicate is at least as important as anyone else’s need who has already succeeded.
So, how to begin? Let’s see.
The first thing? Let it all hang out.
That’s right, just let it go, don’t worry about it being good, bad, indifferent, important, just pick your topic and write EVERYTHING YOU CAN THINK OF CONCERNING IT, WITHOUT ONE BIT OF EDITING.
Plenty of time to do that later.
Let’s repeat that.
Just pick your topic and write EVERYTHING YOU CAN THINK OF CONCERNING IT, WITHOUT ONE BIT OF EDITING.
Or, to put it another way, imagine that, instead of writing something that uses you at the source, imagine that what you’re pouring out is simply channeling something from outside you, some force that’s bigger than you. If you allow yourself to permit that “useful fiction”, you can get away from self-blame, self-consciousness, self-criticism, and just get it out there.
Not only will you get more good stuff out there in this wildly uninhibited ‘first pass”, the good news is that the editing will be much easier…why? Because you’ll find it’s must easier to delete material than it is to come up with it in the first place, so if you provide much more than you need, you’ve just made it all so much easier.
Okay, but what if what you want to express is more oral than written? Well, you still need to start somewhere, and writing it out is the best way to do start that. Once you’ve done the “draft”, as if it’s a letter, or some sort of written piece, when you are sure you have the essentials, begin to practice speaking it out loud. Know the material cold, get rid of as much of the written aids as you can, limit yourself to 3 x 5 cards, and refer to them less and less. Lock yourself in a private place and speak it again and again.
See how long it takes, just so you know and can plan sales calls and speeches accordingly.
Once you get more and more familiar with this subject matter, you’ll make the transitions and the personalizations for particular audiences on the fly as you present this material more and more often. You won’t worry about being interrupted with questions, because you’ll have “owned” the material and feel good about it as a result.
Still skeptical?
Wondering how to tap into that “vein” out there that’s bigger than you are?
Stay tuned.
So, if you have a gap between the urgent need or wish to communicate something and the doubt you have about whether what you have to say is worthwhile, important, or potentially of interest to a recipient, then you have a maximum amount of stress at the “point of entry”.
How do you bridge that gap?
Well, it can start with intimates that you trust, to broach something. But that approach is not the failsafe that you might think it is. Imagine how devastating it might be if someone you really care about trashes an “approach”? You are almost better trying things out on strangers.
But let’s forget the recipient for a moment, because it’s your identification with the recipient, rather than with yourself, that’s creating the gap we spoke about above.
Your need to communicate is at least as important as anyone else’s need who has already succeeded.
So, how to begin? Let’s see.
The first thing? Let it all hang out.
That’s right, just let it go, don’t worry about it being good, bad, indifferent, important, just pick your topic and write EVERYTHING YOU CAN THINK OF CONCERNING IT, WITHOUT ONE BIT OF EDITING.
Plenty of time to do that later.
Let’s repeat that.
Just pick your topic and write EVERYTHING YOU CAN THINK OF CONCERNING IT, WITHOUT ONE BIT OF EDITING.
Or, to put it another way, imagine that, instead of writing something that uses you at the source, imagine that what you’re pouring out is simply channeling something from outside you, some force that’s bigger than you. If you allow yourself to permit that “useful fiction”, you can get away from self-blame, self-consciousness, self-criticism, and just get it out there.
Not only will you get more good stuff out there in this wildly uninhibited ‘first pass”, the good news is that the editing will be much easier…why? Because you’ll find it’s must easier to delete material than it is to come up with it in the first place, so if you provide much more than you need, you’ve just made it all so much easier.
Okay, but what if what you want to express is more oral than written? Well, you still need to start somewhere, and writing it out is the best way to do start that. Once you’ve done the “draft”, as if it’s a letter, or some sort of written piece, when you are sure you have the essentials, begin to practice speaking it out loud. Know the material cold, get rid of as much of the written aids as you can, limit yourself to 3 x 5 cards, and refer to them less and less. Lock yourself in a private place and speak it again and again.
See how long it takes, just so you know and can plan sales calls and speeches accordingly.
Once you get more and more familiar with this subject matter, you’ll make the transitions and the personalizations for particular audiences on the fly as you present this material more and more often. You won’t worry about being interrupted with questions, because you’ll have “owned” the material and feel good about it as a result.
Still skeptical?
Wondering how to tap into that “vein” out there that’s bigger than you are?
Stay tuned.
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Got something to say?
Last time, I talked about how your listeners or your readers can have a “stake” in you.
That’s a daunting reality, as well as an exciting one.
What happens if you’re not sure what to talk about, what to say?
Well, if you’re faced with the idea of uncertainty of how to communicate, the good news is that you have lots of company. Here are some images that you can keep in mind to understand just how widespread this challenge is.
When I used to write commercials in a radio station, I noticed that some salespeople were rarely in the office, as they had established success with an established client base. They were out as long as they had to, they came back with sales, and they wasted no time in coming back and writing them up.
Other salespeople never seemed to leave. They had what the industry deemed “call reluctance”. They were afraid to “pitch” a sales package to a potential client, even one who might have bought something from them before. Obviously, this problem isn’t unique to radio…it spans the entire spectrum of businesses that rely on sales…and just as obviously, that means every business out there!
So, you may see the same conundrum we had before. Clients are listeners, and if they need to buy your product, they need to have a stake in what you’re selling. If they don’t have that stake, then you need to make them believe they do. You need to up the risk for you, as well as the opportunity.
How does this relate to speaking and writing? 100%!
How do you “have something to say”?
EVERYONE has something to say, including you salespeople with “call reluctance”; you students wondering what to say in an essay to indicate you not only know how to write, but understand the reading material you’ve been assigned; and you speakers who are trying to “connect” with your audience.
Yes, EVERYONE has something to say. The real issue is whether you believe that what you say is important.
So, up the ante, raise the stakes, take a chance, call on someone, write something for someone, speak to someone.
How?
Stay tuned.
That’s a daunting reality, as well as an exciting one.
What happens if you’re not sure what to talk about, what to say?
Well, if you’re faced with the idea of uncertainty of how to communicate, the good news is that you have lots of company. Here are some images that you can keep in mind to understand just how widespread this challenge is.
When I used to write commercials in a radio station, I noticed that some salespeople were rarely in the office, as they had established success with an established client base. They were out as long as they had to, they came back with sales, and they wasted no time in coming back and writing them up.
Other salespeople never seemed to leave. They had what the industry deemed “call reluctance”. They were afraid to “pitch” a sales package to a potential client, even one who might have bought something from them before. Obviously, this problem isn’t unique to radio…it spans the entire spectrum of businesses that rely on sales…and just as obviously, that means every business out there!
So, you may see the same conundrum we had before. Clients are listeners, and if they need to buy your product, they need to have a stake in what you’re selling. If they don’t have that stake, then you need to make them believe they do. You need to up the risk for you, as well as the opportunity.
How does this relate to speaking and writing? 100%!
How do you “have something to say”?
EVERYONE has something to say, including you salespeople with “call reluctance”; you students wondering what to say in an essay to indicate you not only know how to write, but understand the reading material you’ve been assigned; and you speakers who are trying to “connect” with your audience.
Yes, EVERYONE has something to say. The real issue is whether you believe that what you say is important.
So, up the ante, raise the stakes, take a chance, call on someone, write something for someone, speak to someone.
How?
Stay tuned.
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