iMindShift with Steve Chandler

How life imitates baseball

       I had enough hotel miles accumulated in my travels for Kathy and me to be staying here for free at the Beverly Hilton lounging out by the pool seeing all the Dodger blue caps worn by starlets. Or maybe not starlets but just young women who have a kind of Beverly Hills look.

     The news here in LA is twofold: one: Michael Jackson has just died. Papers said they had to force him to eat anything at all any given day. And the drugs he was taking into that frail body were pretty overwhelming. Almost life-threatening, his doctors conceded, staring down at his corpse.

    We went to his house.

     It was part of a little tour we took in a van that left from the hotel in the morning and took us through Beverly Hills and surrounding homes. I wanted to see where Joe DiMaggio and Marilyn lived, and we saw that nice house. They took us to Michael's house on the way back and it was surrounded with flowers, media trucks and happy mourners with cameras.

     Manny Ramirez is back from drug suspension this week, so the papers are covering that, and how no one in LA cares that he took a steroid or two. A human growth pill. Maybe just half a pill, who cares? He's back. Not that the Dodgers even need him, they are doing so well under Joe Torre.

     I'm out by the pool here with a baseball magazine I brought with me and there was an article about a baseball player named Bryce Harper who they say is the best player in the nation. Even though he's only 16. His statistics are awesome. He is a catcher, but when he takes the mound he can fire the ball in at 96mph. And he illustrates what I love about baseball.

     What I love about baseball is its relationship to practice. In the past half year, because of my job (which is to coach people and train corporate teams to perform more effectively) I have read three books about the myth of talent and the reality of practice. These were all very good books, and I highly recommend them, especially to people who believe in talent as a determining factor in one's success. That's a myth.

     The books were: The Outliers by Malcom Gladwell, Talent is Overrated by Geoff Colvin, and The Talent Code by Daniel Coyle. All three books reveal, through dramatic research, that people we thought possessed inherent talent had actually practiced their craft in deeper and more meaningful ways. Even the Beatles! Who had put in more band hours than any band of their time at the outset due to an amazing string of 8-hour gigs in Hamburg.

     Back to that 16 year old baseball player. How did he get so good that the majors already want him at age 16? (Good news for you: his goals include being in pinstripes ... we all know that that means ... other goals: to be in the hall of fame, and to be considered the greatest baseball player who ever lived.)

     Bryce was playing tee-ball at age three. Practicing hard. At age three. He has played between 80 and 130 baseball games a year for the past seven years...from when he was age 8 to age 16. Most kids that age play about a fifth of that. And here is the key to everything right here: his dad has been his lifelong hitting coach. Spending day and night with young Bryce, on the field and in the cage, pitching him sunflower seeds, bottle tops and dried red beans.

     That's it right there. All three books that show how practice trumps talent go give special tribute to unusual, creative, obsessive types of practice. Like firing dried red beans at your son. And challenging him to hit them. So that when he plays in a game and sees an actual baseball coming in at him it looks like a beach ball in slow motion. Which field will I choose to hit it to?

     So if you study baseball long enough, you can learn how to succeed at anything.

*     *     *     *     *

To THOSE of you in ARIZONA!!!!

 

You will NOT be comfortable being a member of this group of mine!

      Please accept this invitation again to join my ASK project and be one of only 12 individuals who sign up to play life really big for six months. In this intense period of professional transformation we will learn to ask for what we want and get it.

      Do you get that I'm asking again?

     This is one group you will not ever be totally comfortable being a member of.
            
      Because your comfort zone will be the enemy. You will learn to work outside that zone.

     We will be twelve people who meet two Thursday nights a month to learn how to ask. To learn how to ask often, ask big and ask with total confidence. As Byron Katie says, you could have anything in life you wanted if you were willing to ask 1,000 people for it.

     Why are we so unwilling to ask?

     For one, no one ever holds us accountable for how much productive asking we do. (This group will change that.) For another, we carry irrational fears of "rejection" ... we carry them over from junior high school, high school and whenever we were learning to fit in and be approved of. All those wounds that ran so deep. Do they just disappear on their own? Never. We have to consciously process them out and reprogram the bio-computer to love asking.

    Those unprocessed fears will forever keep us from the professional life we want.

     How do we eliminate those fears and learn to ask for what we want?

     Two ways: 1) by a deep study of the whole mind-body-courage process two evenings a month, so that our fresh new understanding of how to build confidence runs deep and becomes permanent. 2) Through repeated, monitored practice.

     In this group, no one will be able fly under the radar. This is not a group where anyone will get away with sitting on the fringe, making notes and not transforming. This group will be all about activity and generating ongoing bold financial success. It will be all action all the time.
              
     In the six months we are together you will ask often and ask big. You will no longer fear "rejection" because you will be getting so many interesting "no's" you'll realize they don't hurt at all. It will be information and nothing more.

     For the rest of your life afterward, you will be broken of the old fears and superstitions around hearing the word "no." You'll know the joy---through experience---of going for it.

      If you are a good professional person with a good service to offer then what you are seeking in life is already seeking you. What you are seeking is seeking you! Yet we hide out in our day, subtly arranging our communications-not to achieve maximum success-but to avoid the imagined pain of rejection. We don't see how much of that we do. During this six months we'll see it clearly and we'll see it for what it is: pure nonsensical superstition.

      Look at your calendar for the past three weeks. Look at your daily journals. How much time was spent asking for the very thing that would move you forward? How much time was spent asking for what you want? How much time was spent in conversation with the people who could help you the most?
            
    Very little. If you are typical.

     Be brave and that will end.
            
     Surveys show that the average sales person spends only 1.5 hours a day selling. These are people whose whole focus should be on asking and even they spend their days avoiding it. They are afraid of other people. What they might think.

     This group will change that. We will ask so much it will become second nature. Not only that, we will get graceful and confident doing it. It will start to become enjoyable. By the end of our six months, it will be the thing we most look forward to in our day. Anything you practice intensely takes on the element of joy. Anything. Even asking.

     From the beginning of time our great spiritual leaders have asked us to ask. It has been the message they most often delivered. Ask and you will receive.

     But did we?

             Junior high school kills all that. It replaces all the spiritual wisdom in the world with a psychotic fear.

     So we will learn to ask. That's it. That's the whole curriculum. We won't be asking small, either. We will ask for big things, too. We will learn to make unreasonable requests, just to see what happens. Just to break ourselves of the fear and stigma around asking for what we want. Asking for what you want, next to your professional skill for the service you provide, will be the most important skill you ever have.

     We begin our work together Thursday evening, August 6, from 6pm to 9pm. The fee for the full six month program is $10,000. I expect this group to fill very quickly. Many have already verbally committed based on the rumors around this project. The moment your fee is paid to guarantee your place in the group I will deliver a one-hour coaching session between me and you to prepare you for what lies ahead. I'll want to make sure, in advance, we don't have any observers in this group.

     Please email me now at stephendchandler@cs.com if you want to play. And yes, I get that this will be one of the boldest things you have ever done.

Action will define you

   "Do you want to know who you are?
     Don't ask. Act! 
     Action will delineate and define you."

- Thomas Jefferson

     For those of you living and working in Arizona, I have a new project you will be interested in.

    Please accept this invitation to join my ASK project and be one of 12 individuals who sign up to play life really big for six months. In this intense period of professional transformation we will learn to ask for what we want and get it.

     This is one group you will not ever be totally comfortable being a member of. Because your comfort zone will be the enemy. You will learn to work outside that zone.

     We will be twelve people who meet two Thursday nights a month to learn how to ask. To learn how to ask often, ask big and ask with total confidence. As Byron Katie says, you could have anything in life you wanted if you were willing to ask 1,000 people for it.

     Why are we so unwilling to ask?

     For one, no one ever holds us accountable for how much asking we do. (This group will change that.) For another, we carry irrational fears of "rejection" ... we carry them over from junior high school, high school and whenever we were learning to fit in and be approved of. All those wounds that ran so deep. Do they just disappear on their own? Never. We have to consciously process them out and reprogram the biocomputer to love asking.

     Those unprocessed fears will forever keep us from the professional life we want.

     How do we eliminate those fears and learn to ask for what we want?
Two ways: 1) By a deep study of the whole mind-body-courage process two evenings a month, so that our fresh new understanding of how to build confidence runs deep and becomes permanent. 2) Through repeated, monitored practice.

    We will pair up each week and the two of you will coach each other and act as spotters and personal ASK trainers insuring that you each get in your reps. Then you will report to the group on your partner's performance, and then a whole new list of People To Ask will be drawn up and they will be asked over the next two weeks with your new partner tracking your activity and vice versa. You will be trained by me, by the whole group and by your partner. Nowhere to hide.

    In this group, no one will be able fly under the radar. This is not a group where anyone will get away with sitting on the fringe, making notes and not transforming. This group will be all about activity and generating ongoing bold experience. It will be all action all the time. In the six months we are together you will ask often and ask big. You will no longer fear "rejection" because you will be getting so many interesting "no's" you'll realize they don't hurt at all. It will be information and nothing more.

     For the rest of your life afterward, you will be broken of the old fears and superstitions around hearing the word "no." You'll know the joy---through experience---of going for it.

     If you are a good professional person with a good service to offer then what you are seeking in life is already seeking you. What you are seeking is seeking you! Yet we hide out in our day, subtly arranging our communications---not to achieve maximum success---but rather to avoid the imagined pain of rejection. We don't see how much of that we do. During this six months we'll see it clearly and we'll see it for what it is: pure nonsensical superstition.

     Look at your calendar for the past two weeks. Look at your daily journals. How much time was spent asking for the thing that would move you forward? How much time was spent asking for what you want? How much time was spent in conversation with the people who could help you? Very little. If you are typical.

     Surveys show that the average sales person spends only 1.5 hours a day selling. These are people whose whole focus should be on asking and even they spend their days avoiding it. They are afraid of other people. What they might think.

     This group will change that. We will ask so much it will become second nature. Not only that, we will get graceful and confident doing it. It will start to become enjoyable. By the end of our six months, it will be the thing we most look forward to in our day. Anything you practice intensely takes on the element of joy. Anything. Even asking.

     From the beginning of time our great spiritual leaders have asked us to ask. It has been the message they most often deliver. Ask and you will receive.

     Junior high school kills all that. It replaces all the spiritual wisdom in the world with a psychotic fear.

     So we will learn to ask. That's it. That's the whole curriculum. We won't be asking small, either. We will ask for big things, too. We will learn to make unreasonable requests, just to see what happens. Just to break ourselves of the fear and stigma around asking for what we want. Asking for what you want,
next to your professional skill for the service you provide, will be the most important skill you ever have.

     We begin our work together Thursday evening, August 6, from 6pm to 9pm.
The fee for the full six month program is $10,000. I expect this group to fill very quickly. Many have already verbally committed based on the rumors around this project. The moment your fee is paid to guarantee your place in the group I will deliver a one-hour coaching session between me and you to prepare you for what lies ahead. I'll want to make sure, in advance, we don't have any observers in this group.

     Please email me at stephendchandler@cs.comif you want to play. And yes, I get that this will be one of the boldest things you have ever done. This will be you processing through the last fear you ever had. 
    

Two new books from me

        Here is a picture of me signing some of my old books.  But the exciting news for me is that I now have two new books.

        One you can buy right now because it's an eBook called How to Get Clients.  It isn't hard to guess what it's about. But I'll tell you anyway in case you're thinking of buying it. It's a book about how to get clients.

       This book is based on two things, The first is how I get my own clients. I reveal all the devious scams that have worked for me over the years to trick people into working with me. The second source for this book is my own clients. In the book I reveal all the systems and magic I have taught them.

     The great thing about the book is that it actually works...it has immediate useful function. How do I know? My club fearless members all got a copy of it and I've been flooded with emails about how they are putting it to use, immediately, to get clients.

     This book, therefore, counts as a stimulus package. Because it's putting America back to work again.

     What about the other book? Well that comes out in April to select markets (club fearless members) and January 2010 to the general public, it's called SHIFT YOUR MIND SHIFT THE WORLD.  This book is the sequel to Fearless, and it takes up where Fearless left off, delivering all the mind shifts we can use to achieve that joyful, creative, fearless state of pure action and ultimate efficacy.

 *     *     *     *     *

 

PEGGY NOONAN SAYS IT ALL RIGHT HERE!

      "Dynamism has been leached from our system for now, but not from the human brain or heart. Just as our political regeneration will happen locally, in counties and states that learn how to control themselves and demonstrate how to govern effectively in a time of limits, so will our economic regeneration.

       That will begin in someone's garage, somebody's kitchen, as it did in the case of Messrs. Jobs and Wozniak. The comeback will be from the ground up and will start with innovation. No one trusts big anymore. In the future everything will be local. That's where the magic will be. And no amount of pessimism will stop it once it starts.

*     *     *     *     *

CLICK ON LOGO TO JOIN OR LEARN MORE

    The members of this club are different than members of say, a book club or a country club. The "subscribers" are different than subscribers to a magazine.

     Different in what way?

     Club fearless members touch other people with their work and their message. They are also sources of transformation, using the club to inspire their own work. I've never seen so many referrals come in. People who send me an email saying, "I got my brother to sign up, my sales manager is in, I have enrolled at least six people this week." I've never seen that and can only understand it when I see that club fearless is not about me. I get things started, but the real great stuff happens with the members. With you and your own moves.

     No amount of pessimism can stop you.

     So thank you for how you enroll others.

     You remind me of a quote from Ayn Rand that I used in SHIFT YOUR MIND SHIFT THE WORLD:

     "The question isn't who is going to let me;
it's who is going to stop me?"

              ~Ayn Rand

How to get clients

     You never want prospects to decide whether to start working with you. That's always a tough decision.

     Why do I want to give someone a difficult decision to make? Why start the relationship off that way? Assuming it starts at all.

     Instead of having your prospect trying to decide whether to start, why not make it easier? Why not have them decide whether to continue?

     Isn't that an easier decision? Safer? More confident

     How is that done, though? If the prospect is new to you, how would they be continuing?

     In the early 1950s the very best door-to-door vacuum cleaner salesmen would throw dirt and dark oil down on a housewife's carpet to strike fear and horror in her heart. He would then say, "What if I had something that could make that carpet even cleaner than before I threw that down there?"

    "I think you had better."

     And he would go out to his car and bring in his prized product and demonstrate what it could do.

     And she would buy it.

     Because she was now deciding to have that machine continue to do its work.

     You can do the same thing.

     Whatever your service is, find a way to demonstrate it. Allow your prospect to already get started with you.

     For example, when I used to do sales team seminars I would be glad to give a sales team my fifteen minute version. Once they were excited by that experience---what I had demonstrated---they were happy to have me continue.

     Most people never demonstrate the value of their work. They just announce it. Or claim it, or advertise it. And then wonder about why they have very few clients. How can anyone trust a claim? Or a promise?

     When I owned an ad agency long ago our firm would often be a finalist in the running for a lucrative contract. The prospective client would have three agencies do a final live presentation to their leaders. You had anywhere from 90 minutes to 3 hours to make your pitch.

     Most agencies did a dog and pony show. They showed commercials, gave talks and did a multi-media credentials pitch.

     We never did that. We left our credentials in a folder; a hand-out they could read later.

     Instead we demonstrated what it would feel like to have us be their agency. We had the whole presentation be interactive, and we attacked the client's problems and objectives as if we were already working for them.

     Our goal was to give them the experience of working with us. So their decision would be whether to continue.

     We won more clients than our competitors by a huge margin.

     I know life coaches who try to sell themselves to prospects who call. They talk about fees, hours and results, and it's basically a sales call. These coaches don't get very many clients this way and they often end up hating their profession because of it.

     On the other hand! There are coaches who demonstrate. A prospect inquires and they ask the prospect for an hour of their time "to see if it's even a fit for us."

     Then, during that hour they coach the prospect. The prospect has an easy decision to make after that, because they can base it on experience.

     For a few years I made a fair portion of my living as a consultant to authors. For a substantial fee, I would take their rough book manuscript and help them convert it into a highly readable, exciting book.

     If someone began to inquire about my services I would often have them send me any four pages of their "book." Just for fun, let's see what I can do for you. Then I would re-write and edit those pages so that they jumped off the page (in my opinion). The client was able to then decide whether to continue working with me. Not whether to start.

     Never have anyone try to decide whether to start being a client of yours. You won't get many clients that way.

     This NEVER LET THEM START concept is just a small part of my new eBook HOW TO GET CLIENTS available next week to all club fearless members.

     Click on this logo to see what else you'll get:      

When the going gets weird

    "When the going gets weird,
          the weird turn pro."

        ~Dr. Hunter S. Thompson

                                                                        *  *  *  *

       I understand that people now believe that things are difficult in the world of business. I decided to form a group that will take a different approach to that widespread belief.

       This group will focus on the true source of our financial security: our own effort ... and our own creative work. The sole purpose and focus of this group will be client acquisition.

     We will work with each other to dramatically increase our number of clients, and the quality of clients using our services.

     After having filled two successful mastermind groups of twenty people each, and having successfully filled two coaching schools of nine coaches each, we will now combine the very best and most effective practices and processes in those groups to help each member of this new mastermind get clients.

     The Client Acquisition Mastermind group will have just ten members and will begin on January 10th in Tempe, Arizona, from 8am to 11:30 am to be continued there the second Saturday of each month thereafter for nine months.

     I am limiting the number of group members to ten because I want each member's client list to receive an abundance of time and attention in each of the nine sessions.

     This group will also contain strong levels of accountability and participation in the days that occur between each session. We will have systems for maintaining progress between the live sessions. My experience tells me that what gets measured gets done.

     Who am I looking for to join this mastermind? I want people who are willing to participate enthusiastically, embrace the work we do, and be fully committed to increasing the quality and quantity of their client base throughout our nine months together.

     I do not want, and will not accept, anyone in the group who is there just to observe others, or who expects to be given something that requires no courage or effort to receive. No expectant people who sit in judgment of things. Please do not join if you just bring expectations. Come only if you will bring a commitment (an internal agreement with us and yourself) to make something happen dramatically in your world. This will be a group of people ready to roll up our sleeves, not a group looking for a bail out.

     In my two coaching schools many of the participants have had breathtaking advances in their client acquisition (and resultant prosperity). I will employ all the elements of those schools' successes to this mastermind. Every moment we spend together will be for the sole purpose of acquiring clients. We will not digress or be distracted from this subject.

    Only ten people will be in this mastermind of client acquisition. The first ten who respond to the call in a committed way will be chosen. The fee is $9,000 to join. Email me now if you want to fully participate. 100Ways@Compuserve.com

With kindest regards,

Steve Chandler

                                                            * * * * *

     "Most people today still have to learn that they cannot get
something for nothing, but must give before receiving or must sow
before reaping. When they do not give or sow in terms of
prosperity, they make no contact with God's lavish abundance, and
so there is no channel formed through which the rich, unlimited
substance of the universe can pour forth its riches to them."

                            ~Catherine Ponder

WHAT IS THERE LIKE FORTITUDE?

The weak overcomes its
menace, the strong overcomes itself.

What is there like fortitude!
What sap went through that little thread
to make the cherry red!

   ~Marianne Moore

 

      

    

     One of the great ways of growing a practice or small business is to do less work. Of course, this is counter-intuitive, but the paradox actually works. 

     If you have at least one designated day a week where you do no business, no coaching, nothing to grow your practice, and you're just away from work and you are on vacation and you're spending a great time with people you care about or you're reading, or you are working out, or you're walking by the beach, you will be amazed at how that improves the other four days and makes them more prosperous.

     There's a reason for that!  There is a certain level of esteem that an independent person feels that gets transferred to a prospective client during an exploratory conversation.

    Because, in the end, people don't pay you what THEY think you are worth.  They pay you what YOU think you are worth. And this is reflected in the way you live, and the way you speak and the way you communicate with them. 

     So if your whole life is not strong, wholly independent and impressive; in and of itself; that will cause you great problems in the long run.  Because there are huge self-esteem issues that come into play here. Your lifestyle is vital to the success of your business.  It can be powerful, and a key to the success of your practice.

   A dear friend this week pondered taking a week off from her very busy life and going to a five day retreat wherein she would fast and pray and be silent and still.

   I sent her this poem by Hafiz in support of her desire:

Just sit there right now.

Don't do a thing.

Just rest.

For your separation from God

from Love

Is the hardest work

in this world.

********************************

"HOW TO" PROSPER IS NOT AS IMPORTANT AS WANTING TO

     The "how to" is not as important as the want to.  And the "want to" is triggered by the decision to.  People who make a decision to double their income as a coach, or consultant, or public speaker, have already done it. That's it right there.  That decision changes everything. 

     Now here's the big myth out in the world.  All the people I coach---including people in over 20 Fortune 500 companies over the years---get sidetracked by a single myth about life.  Even great coaches that I coach are thrown by it. And that myth is this: They believe that they have to know how to do something before they can do it. 

     And that's just not true. 

     That myth stops so many people! Because people think they have to learn how to do something prior to doing it! So they don't do things because they "don't know how!" They don't realize that knowing how is not necessary.

    People back off from doing so many great things because they say they don't know how to do them.  I talk to business owners who would love to build a sales team of great people and they tell me, "I've always wanted to do that, but I don't know how." So they don't do it.  People say, "I've always wanted to turn a lot of this business over to someone else, but I don't know how to do it." So they don't. "I'd love to be an independent consultant but I don't know how to start that up!"

    But not knowing how is really not what's stopping them. Remember this forever: You don't need to know how to do something in order to do it.  And that's something that most people don't realize. 

     May I repeat? For you to do something you don't need to know how to do it!  Now I know that sounds somewhat bizarre, but it's absolutely true.  When you decide, and really decide, that you are going to do something, the "how to" is easily found, many times on the fly.

     I talked to a person the other day who said, "I've got this great product and I don't know how to put the sales team together to sell it---I just don't know how to do it and it's stopped me for about the last year." 

    Well, the truth was, she simply didn't want to do it yet.  She wouldn't have had to know how to do it. That's not necessary.  Just do it. Just get started.

     I have people contact me constantly who read my books and they say, "I want to be a public speaker like you.  I think I've got a lot to say, and I think I'm really good, and I think I could make a lot of money, and the only thing missing is I don't know how to do it.  So is there any way that I can find out how to do it? How do I get into it?" 

    Well, you don't need to know how to do it if you want to do it.  When I did it, I didn't know how to do it.  I just made a decision, I'm doing this, and I began stumbling around, figuring this out and finding that out, and I did it.  Anybody who really wants to do something doesn't need to know how to do it and knowing how to do it is not what's stopping them.  It's that they have not yet decided to do it.

     Now let's give a final example of that.  Let's say that somebody told you they would pay you ten million dollars if you ran a marathon a year from now, and you're not even a runner, but all you have to do is finish a marathon.  Would you say, "Well, I don't know how to train for a marathon so I'll have to decline your offer!" 

     Well, no, you don't know exactly how to train for a marathon, but you know in the back of your mind that that it will be easy to find out how to do.  That there are so many thousands of people who know how to do it, you'll find that out.  You've decided right now, yes, I'll run a marathon, I'll take the ten million dollars even though I don't know how. 

     Now let's go a step further.  What if we say the rule is you can't use anybody else's knowledge on how to train.  You can't even find knowledge on the internet or anything, you have to do that on your own, even though you don't know how. 

     Well, you would still run the marathon in a year and collect your ten million dollars because you would figure out on your own how to train for it, through trial and error; so you don't even have to access the internet which we all have, or books which we all have, even if you couldn't access that, you could do it.

      You just decided what you decided to do.  And that's the important part here.  The HOW is never what's in the way. The WANT TO is what's in the way.  The HOW to is never what's missing, the WANT TO is what's missing.  And I don't mean that in an accusatory way.  I don't mean to say the clients I've worked with didn't have the desire.  Or the will. Or the heart. It's none of that!

     Here's really what it was.  They had not yet made the decision.  That's all it was.  It's not like there's something missing in them. Like they don't have the character, or the will power or the fire in the belly.  They're not missing any of that---they simply haven't decided yet.

     But once you decide you are going to do anything powerful, like double your income from now on.  Once you decide, that's more than 50% of the battle.  I'd say that's 90%.  That decision alone.

THE WORLD IS YOURS

Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting -
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

~from Wild Geese
by Mary Oliver

     The world is yours. Until that thing happens. You know that thing that happens that makes you just feel stuck. The gears get stuck in the adult mind.  Almost like hardening of the arteries. When a problem appears, the freeze sets in further.

     So a coach sits down and talks to me about this problem of mine and sees how stuck in low gear I am. He asks a few questions that always paint a bigger picture. He tells me some stories and parables and soon we are off to the races.

    Shakespeare said, "Action is eloquence," and if there were anyone who you'd think would lobby for words being eloquence, you'd think it would be Shakespeare.  But even to him, action meant more than words.

   And that's what my coach does, he brings me out of low gear into action. The big painted picture can do this.  It can open the mind into its creative state.

     I was in California this past week visiting my good friends Drs. Ron and Mary Hulnick at the University of Santa Monica.  They teach the world's best program in spiritual psychology at their school and one of their most powerful teachings focuses on the low gear statement, "I am upset because…"  The minute I make that statement I am out of my mind.....I am squandering my power on some neutral external circumstance (or a person) who I now imagine is upsetting me.  It's a false power. A mirage. (Only an internal concept can upset me.) The true authentic power is spirit, and spirit can be found within, as in the scriptural "the kingdom of heaven is within you…"

     I am only upset because of my internal interpretations. I'm afraid I'll lose something! ("Loss is a concept" said Byron Katie.) Whatever is happening outside of me is now subject to a full spectrum of interpretation. So my coach sits down with me and listens to my problem.  And to him, my problem is simply material to work with.  I recalled in FEARLESS how I saw Robin Williams on Inside the Actor's Studio once and he stood up and asked the audience to throw an object-any object, anything-up to the stage.  Someone threw him a towel.  He wrapped it around his head and took on an Indian accent and said some hilarious things-then he put it around his waist and acted like a man at a steam bath-the towel was just any object-a neutral, meaningless thing until he used it. Re-interpreted it. Just as we COULD do (but don't) with all the troubling comic material of our own private lives.

  My coach uses my problem the same comic way. To him, my pain is his "material."  He creates with it. He twists is around into different shapes.  By the time we are finished, we are both glad the problem is here because we have taken so much laughter from it.

     My coach (yes, he's a real person, www.theultimatecoach.net) says "This 'problem' is going to be a great seminar for you. You couldn't have invented a better seminar for you to take right now."

                           **********************

These are the days of two incomes
but more divorce, fancier houses,
but broken homes:

A message sent from the late George Carlin passed to me by Larry Harrison:

The paradox of our time in history is that we have
            
            

            

            

            

            Taller buildings but shorter tempers,
             wider freeways, but narrower viewpoints.
             We spend more, but have less,
             we buy more but  enjoy less.
             We have bigger houses and smaller families,
             more conveniences, but less time.
             We have more degrees but less sense,
             more knowledge, but less judgment,
             more experts, yet more problems,
             more medicine, but less wellness.

             We drink too much, smoke too much, spend too
             recklessly, laugh too little, drive too fast,
             get too angry, stay up too late, get up too tired,
             read too little, watch TV too much,
             and pray too seldom.
             We have multiplied our possessions,
             but reduced our values.
             We talk too much, love too seldom,
             and hate too often.

             We've learned how to make a living,
             but not a life.
             We've added years to life not life to years.
             We've been all the way to the moon and back,
             but have trouble crossing the street
             to meet a new neighbor.
             We conquered outer space but not inner space. We've
             done larger things,
             but not better things.

             We've cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul.
             We've conquered the atom, but not our prejudice.
             We write more, but learn less.
             We plan more, but accomplish less.
             We've learned to rush, but not to wait.
             We build more computers to hold more information, to
             produce more copies than ever,
             but we communicate less and less.

             These are the times of fast foods
             and slow digestion,
             big men and small character,
             steep profits and shallow relationships.
             These are the days of two incomes
             but more divorce,
             fancier houses, but broken homes.
             These are days of quick trips,
             disposable diapers, throwaway morality,
             one night stands, overweight bodies,
             and pills that do everything from cheer,
             to quiet, to kill.

             It is a time when there is much
             in the showroom window
             and nothing in the stockroom.
             A time when technology
             can bring this letter to you,
             and a time when you can choose
             either to share this insight,
             or to just hit delete.

             Remember,
             spend some time with your loved ones,
             because they are not going to be around forever.
             Remember,  say a kind word to someone
             who looks up to you in awe,
             because that little person soon will grow up
             and leave your side.
             Remember,   to give a warm hug to the one next to you,
             because that is the only treasure
             you can give with your heart
             and it doesn't cost a cent.

             Remember,
             to say, "I love you" to your partner
             and your loved ones, but most of all mean it.
             A kiss and an embrace will mend hurt
             when it comes from deep inside of you.
             Remember to hold hands and cherish
             the moment for someday that person
             will not be there again.
             Give time to love, give time to speak,
             and give time to share the precious thoughts
             in your mind.

             Life is not measured by the
             number of breaths we take,
             but by the moments that take our breath away.

                 GEORGE CARLIN

                    ****************************************************

    Email me if you are curious about the upcoming October coaching prosperity school. We now have only four places left! I will send you the CD on how to double your income as a coach. Most coaches have a problem understanding just how big a difference they make in people's lives. So they market themselves erroneously, as if they were hucksters and charlatans. Then once they get a prospect, they sell themselves as if they were popinjays. Then, living in relative poverty, they attempt to coach others in the subject attracting wealth!!! They are their own biggest problem. The greatest and most successful coach I've ever known has never marketed himself. He's never placed a sales call. The process of coaching...when it's great....is far too intimate an experience to sell or market like you would an air conditioning repair service. That just doesn't work. If you are a coach and are tired of doing all that stuff that doesn't work, just let us know, and go here and prosper:  http://www.stevechandler.com/coachingschool.html.

LIVING LIKE THE DEAD

"You do not merely want to be considered the best of the best.
You want to be considered the only ones that do what you do."
     ~Jerry Garcia

     In one of my earlier books I talked about the clever wisdom of Jerry Garcia and the Grateful Dead.   

    Most rock groups used to have their beefy security men take young people's recording devices away from them at the door. No one could record anything because they believed that if you could do that, you wouldn't buy as much from that group in the music store.

      The Grateful Dead were different. They encouraged you to record. They set up areas for you to help make the recording process easier for you. They believed in a powerful sales secret: the more you give, the more you get.

      Grateful Dead fans became all the more passionate because of this. They made their recordings and played them for people who had never heard Jerry Garcia play the guitar. They went to more and more concerts and when the Dead released a new album they turned out in droves to buy it. By giving it away, the band became a group of millionaires and one of the best known and best respected rock bands in the history of the world.

      By giving it away.

      You can do the same.

       Rather than make someone merely imagine your product or your service, let them experience it. Give them some of it! Get them hooked on it!

       When I was in the advertising business, I stumbled across this idea of giving it away quickly.  When my ad agency was trying to sell its services to a prospective client, and we were in a showdown with two other agencies, often the client would allow all three competing firms a long presentation.

       The other agencies would work up elaborate dog-and-pony shows to show off their agencies. Not us.

      We wanted to have the prospective client experience what it was like to work with us. So we made our presentations interactive, rather than just a show. I stood up and told the clients that we were not going to put on a show. I said, "We have left you documents and folders which tell you all you need to know about our work and our track record. We aren't going to duplicate it in this presentation. We want to use these two hours to work with you and show you how we might solve your advertising problems."

     I would then pass around index cards and ask every member of the prospective client team to write down a current problem, one that was really bothering them about their advertising, and to do it quickly without a lot of thought.

       I would collect all the cards and pull one out at random.  After I read it out loud my staff and I would jump up to the white board and write and draw solutions to the problem. The clients would then talk to us and even debate with us, but we got to know them. And they got to see how we worked. And a lot of the ideas we gave them were of great value to them. So even if they weren't going to hire us, we had given them something of value that we told them they were free to use. More than anything else, we gave them the experience of working with us. So they knew what to base their decision on.  Many more times than not, we won the account. We got the sale. Because we gave more up front.

       Think in terms of giving, not getting. When you are always thinking about "what else could I give them?" you will be gaining miles on your competitor.

       Vacuum cleaner salesmen in the old days used to go door to door with their product. They would go into a home and throw all kinds of horrific dirt on the floor. Then they would demonstrate the vacuum's power to clean it up. They were giving the buyer the experience ahead of time.

    Look for more and more ways to give your prospects the experience of working with you.

    When I used to sell seminars, the most success I have ever had was from first coming by the prospect's office and giving a 20-minute version of my seminar inside a sales meeting.  My prospects received value from the 20 minutes, and they were no longer buying some unknown entity. They were CONTINUING ON!

     My consulting clients are the same way. I like to consult with them for awhile (even if they don't realize I am) before they decide to hire me as a consultant.

     When I sell personal growth CDs and audio downloads to sales staffs I will often give some of them out first to allow my prospective buyers to experience them. I will tell the sales manager, "Pick some key sales people out to experience these. Ask for their feedback, and watch to see if their selling performance doesn't increase. Base your decision on the power of the work. Don't base it on anything else."

      Many times people I have worked with have told me not to do this.

      "Don't give it away when you can sell it," they say. "When you give such good stuff away, there is no incentive for them to buy."

     I don't agree. I think it's like the goose that laid golden eggs. If you give someone one of the eggs, what does it do? It makes them want the goose! They can have a golden egg or two, but they have to commit in a bigger way to get the goose.
    
     You don't have to give away the store. Just the experience of the store.

      People buy things they are already comfortable using. That's why book clubs and music clubs became so successful in the olden days. "Join Our Club and get your first 5 CDs for a dollar!" they would say. I used to wonder, how do they make money doing that? Then, after I'd joined a club or two I figured it out. By getting you comfortable with the experience of getting your products through the mail from them. They want you to already experience a new way of buying your music so you can learn to enjoy the process.

    Every other rock group in the world would stop you at the entry to the concert and pull your recorder out of your purse or out of your hands and yell at you for even thinking of stealing the group's music.

    Not the Grateful Dead. The Grateful Dead wanted to give you their music any way you wanted it. And because of that, they succeeded in building a devoted and fanatical following that other bands could only envy. Their recordings continue to sell today. The more cautious and careful groups don't sell anything anymore because they never generated any loyalty. They were never generous. They had no vision.

                                    ****************************

                                         MY LAST APPRENTICE

    I am now opening the second and final apprentice position. If you want to be my apprentice from September 2008 to September 2009, please let me know.

     You will receive weekly coaching from me for a year; so that whatever consulting practice you now have is coached to grow to maximum prosperity and potential.

     You will attend my workshops and keynotes, seminars, masterminds at your own choice and frequency. You will attend as my associate, meet my clients, and learn how the work was contracted, negotiated, sold etc. We will meet after each session you attend to give you an inside look at how it was executed, so that you can do them if you choose in the future.

     You will have access to unlimited use of all my workshop, seminar, mastermind and group coaching materials and content and you will be certified by me to use them as your own. You will receive all my seminar guidebooks, handouts and workbooks with full license to use them in the future as your own.

     If you are writing a book, you'll receive writing coaching for the duration of the apprenticeship. You'll have inside access to my publishers. You'll have all the eMail motivators I've sent for the last three years with permission to use them and bill clients for them if you so choose.

     I will teach you how to sell your services. I will teach you how to coach clients, if you want to learn my systems and strategies.

     Your fee for this year of apprenticeship is $50,000 paid up front in full. I do not want anyone who does not have the will to create the resources for that payment. I do not want anyone applying who is not sure whether they are committed to it. I don't want inner weakness, uncertainty, or self-doubt. I want someone who is ready to move mountains.

     I do not foresee ever offering this program again. Even though my first apprentice, Brian Whetten, has been an absolute joy to work with, this represents a very major commitment for me. Please do not apply unless you share my commitment.

     My email is 100ways@compuserve.com.

     Tell me why you would want to do this work.

GIVE US A FASTER HORSE

      “If I had asked my customers what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse.” – Henry Ford

     How do people create great things? By listening to others? By taking orders? Or by going into the slowed down slacker silence of a goof-off day of loafing...a glorious day wherein genius thrives and a new idea bursts from the right side of the brain to the newly-harmonized left?

     Most people don't create great things in their day. They are too busy doing too many things at once. Most of the people I coach start each day with too many things to do.

     I started coaching Renata by asking her how her life was. And she said too many things to get done and not enough time. That's a formula, I said, for a very miserable, frustrating life. She asked why and I said it was because she was trying to live in the future.

     Like a fly bouncing against the window pane trying to get into the house. Did you ever see the horror film "The Fly?" That's how most people live. Buzzing and pounding against the glass trying to get into their own future. They think it's a better place. Peace and quiet and open air. Wait for them, somewhere.

     But now? Now is a mess. Now is chaos. Now is a million things to do as Renata fumbles with her cell phone in her car not noticing the light had changed. She blew her mind out in a car! All from having too much to do. And not enough time to do it.

     But true mastery (not to mention happiness) comes from not having too much to do. It comes from only having one thing to do. Just this one thing.

                                            ***************************

     HOW TO GET REFERRALS

     How do you get anything? You plant it, you water it. You give it light. You cultivate it. You watch over it. You weed around it. You give it more water. And it grows. Inch by inch. Row by row, referrals grow.

      But not for the past six coaches I have referred clients to. Do you know why? They did none of the above. None of it. They had too much to do to do any of that nonsense. They had too much to do and too little time. They were horror film flies buzzing and bouncing against the window trying in vain to get into their own futures every day...in vain! You know why it's in vain. (Secret: the future doesn't exist.)

      People don't get referrals because they don't reward referrals. It's that simple. They don't cultivate referrals. They don't water them. They don't even turn the soil over.

      I have a lot of people ask me for coaching these days and I like to refer them to coaches I know. But the coaches I know don't know how to treat referrals, so I keep referring to different coaches hoping I'll find one, just one who knows what to do. Are you that person? Email me if you are. I'll send YOU a referral, and we'll see.

      So I sent (we are changing names of course) Melissa a referral. She thanked me
and signed the client to a coaching contract. That was the last I heard. For me to know whether it was working out, whether my referral was happy, what was happening at all… I myself had to ask. It never occurred to Melissa to keep me informed. To let me know it was going well. To keep me in the loop. Therefore, when I had another referral to make I did not make it to Melissa. Not because Melissa didn't keep me in the loop, but because Melissa would NEVER know how to teach her clients how to get referrals.

     This isn't just with coaching. I talked to a business owner last month who said he got his best leads and best business from dentists. They referred people. I asked him what he does for the dentist when the dentist refers. He said he sends a nice card. Do you keep the dentist in the loop? Do you have the client referred get back to the dentist and thank him personally? Do you call the dentist three months later to let him know how you are taking care of his referral? (This is called watering and cultivating a referral.) No. Just that one card. That's it.

     What's wrong with the card? Everybody does it, so therefore it has no heart and no sincerity. It's what busy people do who don't slow down and become present to all the possibilities in their world. If a referrer keeps learning from you how the referral went, he will refer more and more people. Every client I have taught this to has THRIVED on referrals! Every one, every time.

    So this business started going back through their list of all the dentists who had referred people. They gave them written and verbal reports on how things had gone, and you know what? They started getting a wave of new referrals. People LIKE TO KNOW THEY ARE MAKING A DIFFERENCE IN LIFE.

    If they referred someone to you, they want to know all about what happened. They LOVE knowing they made a positive difference in someone's life. Why not just send this thank you card? Because everybody else does that therefore it's meaningless. It's unconscious and robotic. It's self-focused. (It's about you. It's not about the person being served by all this. It's about you grateful for money, so it's basically sickening when you really think about it.) It's phony. It comes from a frantic mind trying always to get into its own future and never slowing down to be present to this precious moment. In business you get what you reward. But only always. How do you reward referrals? With genuine informative feedback...real news from real people being real with each other?

     So I referred another client to another coach I know. I heard nothing back. I heard, "Thank you" at the moment of the referral but nothing more. Even if the referral didn't work out, I would want to know that. Last week, even, this happened again. I referred someone to a good coach I know, and never heard back. I had to track the coach down and drag it out of him. How did that work out? Are you working with him? Why is this such a big secret? I know why. It's a busyness problem. Most people are too busy to succeed.

     That coach has no vision about how he might slow down, treat people in considerate ways, and grow his business like a beautiful garden. He is racing and pumping and pressing, trying to force himself through the glass into a better, kinder future. It's the ultimate time management mistake...having more than one thing to do.

      Just do one thing well. Just do one thing artistically, completely, lovingly and thoroughly. See what happens to your career.

       And when you're trapped in it, notice how sick a millions-of-things-to-do mind really is. Notice how ungrateful that mind is. And notice how broke that person is compared to how wealthy he could be. It's all related.

TO SPEED UP...SLOW DOWN

     Roy Evernham, the highest-rated crew chief in NASCAR (The National  Association for Stock Car Racing) was once crew chief for racing superstar Jeff  Gordon. Evernham's motto is, "To speed up, slow down."

     "I still have to prove this principle to Jeff sometimes," said Evernham. "I'll say, 'Go out and bust me a lap.' He'll drive the car hard, really work it. He'll mash the pedal on a straight-away, drive down into a corner, and mash the pedal again. Then I'll say, 'Now, take it easy and drive a smooth lap.' And by letting the car do the work, he actually improves his time."

     One slow thing at a time is a strong way to live. Being focused is a strong way to live.

    Richard Sloma explains it in his book No-Nonsense Management:

     Pardon the cliché, but General Custer could have become one of our most famous military heroes if, somehow, he could have forced the Sioux nation to attack over the hill one at a time. Supremacy of the seas was guaranteed for the British when Lord  Nelson maximized and exploited the technique of  "crossing the 'T' " so as to allow all of his ships to fire broadside at each enemy ship as it appeared next in line. Look at problems as adversaries. Summon all your forces and deal with them one at a time.

                              ********************************************

                                    BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND

    Based on the success of the recent Steve Chandler Coaching School held in Phoenix I am opening a new school that begins October 10. Like the last school, this school will admit only nine coaches. (And you can also be a consultant, public speaker or counselor to apply....) Remember that the school will not teach you how to coach. There is no "certification" because it's not an entry-level "how to." 

     This is a school for building a prosperous practice. How to get clients, how to get bigger and better clients, how to expand services for existing clients, how to increase fees without losing business, how to manage time and resources so your practice can be stress-free with plenty of time off....etc. To receive my CD "How To Double Your Income as a Coach" simply email me… and to apply to this school, email me as well (100Ways@Compuserve.com).

     We had nine coaches and consultants from England, North Carolina, California, Minnesota,  Colorado, Ohio, Washington DC and all over the globe in the first school....and they are now participating the rigorous six-month accountability portion of  the school. Although October seems far away, it is not ... and this school will fill up very quickly.... the fee is $9,000, with  $4500 due up front and the other half when you  successfully complete six months after the opening two days….you will be live in Phoenix October 10 and 11 AND back again to finish April 10 and 11 of 2009.  We will focus, in the weekly accountability program for the six months between, on doubling your income.

                                      ***************************

               "When Fate throws a knife at you there are two ways to catch it--by the handle, or by the blade."

                       ---Chinese saying

     Bad news from corporate. Good news from home. Bad news from the world of baseball. Good news from my best client. Bad news from my daughter's school. Good news from my doctor. Bad news from the evening news. No wonder we are crazy. No wonder EVERYONE isn't bipolar swinging from the opposite poles all day of bad news/good news.

      And to further complicate things, a lot of what I thought was bad news last month actually turned out to be good. Bad news that my grandfather fell and hurt himself became good news that he's in a retirement village he now loves with better safety and assisted living. Bad turns to good. And oh no! Good turns to bad! That promotion I got pushed me into a department I hate with responsibilities that scare me to death! Good turned to bad!

    So why not just suspend all judgment. Why not slow things down so that I can always catch the knife by the handle. If it's the bad news knife being thrown at me, I can handle it because I know I can convert it to something good…eventually, if I give it half a chance and a little imagination. And if it's the good news knife I can catch it with mature wisdom and realize that there's always more work involved than is immediately realized in any good new thing, and I'm ready to do that work.