Without experience, how will you have confidence? Without confidence, how can you expect great results?
 
Adapt the old-school flashcard technique in the safety of your mind. Use Stressful Scenario Flashcards to ‘experience solutions’ to nerve-racking situations. Rotate flashcard scenarios until you instinctively have more confidence.
 
More confidence means better performance. Better performance translates into optimum results.💡
 
🐘Your elephantine subconscious mind doesn’t differentiate the difference between imagined or real experiences.

🐜 Your ant-like conscious mind might know you only visualized a certain situation, but your elephant-sized subconscious believes it happened.
 
🤬 Example: Think of a time when some guy said something nasty to you. He only said it once but you repeatedly reimagined the experience. You even fantasize what you should have said in reply.
 
😤 It only, happened once. But you experienced it multiple times. Therefore, small setbacks seem bigger than they are. Your active subconscious believed it happened recurrently. Use this experiential phenomenon to your advantage.

Stressful Scenario Flashcards are a Tool to Build Confidence. 

Here are important insights for Stressful Scenario Flashcards:

1️⃣ ‘Experientialize’ how well you’d handle a bad situation.
2️⃣ Your “stressful situation” doesn’t have to be realistic.
3️⃣ Your imaginative solution doesn’t have to be realistic. Use all 5-senses. Imagine expertly handling a stressful situation.
4️⃣ Create dozens of stress-inducing scenarios. Write each one on a flashcard. Don’t write solutions. Use your fertile imagination to conjure real time solutions.
5️⃣ Every day, run through an imagined, stress-free solution.
6️⃣ ‘Experientialize’ multiple scenarios each day.
7️⃣ At the end of each imagined experience, lock in on the feeling of confident satisfaction.
 
Over time you’ll have more confidence and optimum results.
 
#confidence #salestools #leadershipskills #businessadvice

Twelve breakthrough choices that will lead to 💯 freedom.
 
💡We’re each susceptible to what we take in. Be the architect of your thoughts as you stay in ‘choice mode.’ Here are 12 Breakthrough Choices.

You decide…
 
1️⃣ When someone judges you, they’re telling you about them — not you.
 
2️⃣ When someone judges a situation, they’re telling you about their truth.
 
3️⃣ When someone expresses what they fear, they’re admitting what’s possible in their future.
 
4️⃣ When someone expresses what angers them, they’re triggered by what they see in themselves.
 
5️⃣ You don’t have to own a version of truth voiced by someone you admire.
 
6️⃣ You don’t have to own a perspective of reality from someone influential.
 
7️⃣ You don’t have to embrace someone else’s repetitive messages.
 
8️⃣ You don’t have to be polarized by your own narrative.
 
9️⃣ How you step back from a situation will reveal how to step into understanding.
 
🔟 How you make active listening a priority will develop next-level relationships.
 
11. How you choose to run toward, or from, fear will expose the size of that fear.
 
12. How you prioritize awareness over snap judgement will define your life.
 
Dear reader, be the architect of your mindset with each deliberate choice you make.

Which breakthrough listed above speaks to you?

Which person in your life would be open to these breakthroughs?
 
#mindset   #freedom   #ease   #lifehack

The front end of uncertain business or economic trends (particularly with crypto) is predictable in one of two ways.
 
1st way? Use a magic crystal ball. Good luck!
 
2nd way? Use a Traffic Light without Assumptions.
 
🚥Green Lights = Certainty. Futurist • Daniel Burrus identifies two certainties, Linear & Cyclical.

1️⃣ Linear: Not Going Back. “Buy a smartphone and you’re not going back to a dumb phone.”
2️⃣ Cyclical: There are Cycles. An upmarket eventually goes down. A down market goes up.
 
🚥Yellow Lights = “clear the intersection.” You can assume there’s no vehicle running a red light. Caution is key. Certainty is in question.
 
🚥Red-lights = untenable uncertainty – Stop! Run the red light? You could pay a financial or physical price. Don’t proceed!
 
Enter my daughter Alex Poscente as Cofounder of Bits a mobile crypto-investment application that turns spare change into crypto. If a startup had optics of uncertainty - an application for investing in crypto on a smartphone would be squarely in the middle of

“Say what now?”

As a dad, without a crystal ball, here’s what’s certain.

🔐 Crypto has existed for 12+ years. It hasn’t gone away. It is linear.
🔐 Crypto has proven to be volatile with highs and lows. It’s cyclical.
 
Bits has added a level of ‘Green Light’ certainty to crypto investing.

➡️ “Dollar-cost averaging” is a proven financial strategy to minimize exposure and risk inherent in market volatility.
➡️ Bits removes the risky, one-time, all-in investment.
➡️ Users spend $ while spare change is rounded up to the dollar and saved in the app. Think Acorns but for crypto.
 
Will Bits and more important to me, Alex be okay? Are there any yellow or red lights?
 
Alex and Bits have several green lights. With the launch of the Bits app, we’ll know more if the trend was this academic to predict.
 
What linear or cyclical certainty will you bring to your predictions?
 
See CoinDesk
 
#crypto #BitsCrypto #futuretrends #investing #setbacktobreakthrough

Audio branding impact isn’t just for large corporations. Entrepreneurs who seek distinction from their competition are in on the sound logo advantage. A sound logo will elevate your brand and better connect with your customers.

Audio branding is not new. If I were to quiz you on the following sound logos, chances are you’ll be able to sing them immediately.

Intel Corporation, Netflix, HBO, McDonald's.

A good logo resonates with the sense of sight and is meant to elicit an emotional response. Adding the sense of sound further elevates a customer’s experience of your product or service.

Audio branding is next-level entrepreneurship. Just ask GaryVee (Gary Vaynerchuk) about the Rise of Audio Branding as a competitive advantage. He promotes audio branding as important.

"Sonic branding is about how your brand sounds and how it gets recalled or remembered — like the little jingle at the beginning of video games or the sound when you boot up your computer. It’s about to become dramatically more important for every single brand."

Note that jingles are the predecessor to sound logos. In fact, there's anecdotal evidence that Elizabethan musicians, wandering from town to town in the 16th century, were known to be sponsored by local entrepreneurs to come up with catchy tunes. Over the centuries, music has been used to enhance a company's brand image.

The next iteration of sound branding is audio logos. With the addition of sound and the subtle difference of a moving logo, your audience (or customer) is trained to get a shot of endorphins. Think of THX prior to a movie. That bone rattling wwwwwwwoooohhhhmmmmm sets up the audience for a "This is about to go down." 

Where can you get a Champagne Sound Logo on a Beer Budget? ➡️ Max

Full disclosure, Max (25) is my son. I learned about the impact of audio branding from him. He produces audio branding and sound logos for companies of all sizes who are wanting to elevate their customer experience. If you'd like to learn more about how a sound logo would benefit your business, call Max at 214-240-9987.

In the meantime, continue to implement ways to connect your brand promise with a memorable experience.

#customerexperience #soundlogo #businessgrowth #audiobranding #aboutyou

“How did you get the Dalai Lama to endorse your book?” I Met a Monk, Who Knew a Monk, Who Knew a Monk.

The detailed answer is more about how you may find the perfect person who’ll help your cause.
 
Are you looking for a better job? The best architect?  A Whale Client? The Dalai Lama to endorse your book? Don’t stop at one connection. Put yourself in a position until there’s a metaphorical monk, who knows a monk, who knows a monk.
 
In 2019 I organized an expedition to the Himalayas. A tendon in my ankle snapped just a few days before the trailhead. It was tough to see the team and my daughter Alex leave without me.
 
“What happens now?” I wondered.
 
Ankit Sood (destination host and friend) decided we would tour through Northern India. En route to some fascinating locations, we ran into a friend of Ankit. Raj was part of the security detail for The Dalai Lama.
 
“Would you like to meet the Dalai Lama when you’re in Dharamsala?” Raj asked.
 
While his offer never came to pass, I had met a monk, named Tenni.
 
Tenni tracked down Monk #2, the secretary of His Holiness. He knew Monk #3, the US point person for The Dalai Lama.
 
Meanwhile, after I returned to the US, Ankit took my spot in meeting the Dalai Lama with a draft of The Earthquake in hand.
 
Over time Monk #3 made it clear the Dalai Lama’s quote
 
“Life has its ups and downs; however, we should never give up hope… The Earthquake will inspire many to meet the difficult challenges of life,”
 
was not an endorsement, “It’s a blurb.”  
 
Getting the blurb is that easy. Organize a trip to India. Change your plans. Meet Ankit’s friend Raj. Befriend Tenni. Find, two more monks, ship books, send 48 emails, and there you have it. A Dalai Lama blurb on the cover of your book.
 
*Team: Lindsey Max M. Patrick Capetillo Sydney Ace Kirina Mike Alex and Chris
 
#DalaiLama #Connections #KevinBacon #TheEarthquake #setbacktobreakthrough

✔️ To get The Earthquake signed for you by visiting our store link above
➡️ Or get the book faster at www.Amazon.com 

You may think you're the exception. BUT... everyone has Blind Spot Bias.

We each have a tendency to see other people being more biased than we are. In fact, in one study - over 85% of Americans reported they are less biased in their thinking.

People are motivated to see themselves in a positive light while biases are generally seen as undesirable.

Everyone has unconscious patterns and personal ‘factory defects’ if you will. There are things about each of us, we don’t know we have.

Let’s say elbow skin for example.

Roll your sleeve up and give your elbow skin a pinch. There, see that, you have no feeling in your elbow skin. A factory defect you weren’t likely aware of.

Another 'factory defect'... you have a Blind Spot.

Take this quick test. Cover your left eye. Keep your right eye on the + sign while you slowly bring your face closer to the screen. At some point the black spot will disappear then reappear. THAT is your blind spot.

When it comes to topics you’re passionate about, you also have a combination of blind spots. Blind Spot biases are enhanced by confirmation bias and repetition bias. You recognize data as aligning with your way of seeing the world, and bingo you have reinforced or confirmed your bias. Or, you hear a certain bit of information repeatedly and you are in the sights of repetition bias. 

If you hold your gaze from a fixed position, there is nothing you can do about your optical bias. It is by seeing something from a different angle or position will you then see what you couldn’t see before. The same can be said in life.

If you are posting your bias on social media or arguing your point with a significant other, know, you may have an unconscious bias, A BLIND SPOT that’s a factory defect somewhat like the unfeeling elbow skin of objectivity. 

For leaders and sales folks who are driving forward without an awareness of your blind spot biases... give us a call. The value of an outside perspective can be priceless. 

#Goals #selfawareness #biases #BusinessLeadership #setbacktobreakthrough

Aspirational vision needs a kinetic nudge from intolerable exasperation. In other words, we’re motivated by discomfort over ambition. What follows is magic.

For 22 years, tucked in the corner of our property, a dilapidated greenhouse waited to be restored.

Trivia: We live where Steve Miller grew up. The land’s musical past included Dr. George Miller’s fatherly green thumb. It once bloomed with geraniums and begonias. For 60 years, 🎶 time kept on slipping, slipping, slipping into 🎶 a rundown eyesore.

Why did it years to begin repair? A combination of exasperation and aspiration was needed.

Some will quote Walt Disney, “If you can dream it, you can do it.” What if the “dream” is overwhelming? What if there are other “To Do’s” that are less daunting? Then, as our human condition is wont to do, “Not Now” rules over months and years.

Far-away goals are realized when we combine a well-defined feeling of discomfort with compelling ambition. The discomfort was A Broken Glass Monstrosity. The aspirational objective was A Sustainability Redo (prioritizing salvaged materials).

Stages included:

• Months of cleanout. Stuff had to go somewhere
• A reclaimed shed – disassembled, moved, and rebuilt
• White Rock Tree Wizards removed a 40’ dying tree hanging over the greenhouse
• Replace the roof (a tall order given a sustainability project)
• Covered a 1,000 sqft cracked-concrete floor with 2,500 bricks sourced from the Nextdoor app
• Resurfaced a double door plus a chandelier from ReStore
• Piles of nail-filled wood from a White Rock Boat Club renovation
• Flagstone and 5” posts from local demolitions
• Timeworn, corrugated tin from farmers
• Cedar fence slats repurposed for stub walls
• Make three 26" citrus tree planter cubes and planter boxes made out of leftover salvaged wood
• Soil from compost.

It all took relentless effort.

Help from family and friends appeared when most needed. Today it’s a vegetable-producing gem plus a work in progress. It’s a reminder of frustration and ambition intersecting.

Magic happens when we combine exasperation with aspiration.

PS Glass Doctor Dallas, expect a call.

#projects #greenhouse #frustration #ambition #setbacktobreakthrough

Helicopter parents can be vilified. Snowplow parents can be criticized. Some are horrified by parents who encourage their kids to jump off the bungee platform. All three styles have their place, and all have one leadership outcome in common – Build Confidence. Meet Isabella, our youngest who’s thriving in her 21^st year, and the focus of this leadership post.

A few days ago, I asked a corporate audience, “How many were athletes?” The follow-up question was, “What percentage of results in competitive environments had to do with confidence?”

From this survey of 300 folks, “80 to 100%” was the range attributed to the value that confidence brought to any given outcome in sport. Broaden the focus to the artists or salespeople. The importance of confidence is evident.

Levels of confidence play a massively significant factor in all results.

Yes, skill is a baseline factor but without substantial confidence, results will be compromised. Let’s jump back to the three parenting (read leadership) styles.

Helicopter Parenting

Hovering over your child to ensure they have a grasp on consequences is critical in the beginning. But too much helicopter parenting will inhibit a child’s confidence acumen.

Snowplow Parenting

Paving the way for smooth life experiences can be irresistible.

• “How much do you need? - - I’ll pay for it.”
• “What did that person say to you? - - I’ll take care of it.”
• “Where are you? - - I’ll come get you.”

Again, if the child is truly in danger, then getting involved up-front is essential parenting. But physical and emotional scrapes are a part of building confidence.

Bungee Jump Parenting

This parenting style has its place too. From our perspective, we always tried to make “The Jump” our kids’ idea, not “A Shove” from our agenda. For example, they’d come to us with a desire. “I want to make a documentary about the dangers of vaping for teenagers,” said a 15-year-old Isabella. Instead of making a statement of “yes” or “no.” We would ask a question, “How are you going to do that?”

We would marvel at her pursuit of raising money through babysitting or hosting Camp Fisher in our backyard. We might share some costs but “The Jump” was hers to take while she built confidence in the process.

By the time Bella hit 21 she knew the drill. If you want something, go get it.

She applied to be one of the 14 kids selected to the Prague Film Institute. 100% from her initiative, she hustled for scholarships and did video work for local entrepreneurs while she waited to see if she was selected. She ended up being chosen and instantly had the funds to jump across the pond to a study-abroad in the most magical city in Europe. After years of building her confidence muscle, she thrived and made her mark.

While there she applied for a three-day pass to attend the Cannes Film Festival. Before coming home she attended this marquis experience in her chosen field of filmmaking.

Parents and leaders who build confidence will see their kids and employees thrive.

PS Be nice to Isabella because we’ll all be working for her one day.