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Welcome to Day 2 of 30 Days to Creating Irresistible Presence. Yesterday, we got kicked off with a post about Preparation AND a nifty contest with prizes!! Today, the one and only Andrea J. Lee knocks it out of the park as she connects Creating Irresistible Presence to Making MONEY. Hot stuff indeed. 
Today’s song is: Hot Hot Hot by Buster Poindexter: http://tinysong.com/jHhn
The Sweet & Sour Lessons of Creating Something Irresistible that Sells & is WORTH Selling
by Andrea J. Lee | @andreajlee
“In that shimmering space between slumbering and awake, before it knows to be anything else, lives your true self.”
It’s no coincidence that in Sarah’s introduction of the Creating Irresistible Presence series, somehow, I got introduced as Sherman Hu.
I mean, we do look a little alike, really. Have a look for yourself. <Shameless photo op!>
There are lots of things I could say about growing up first generation Asian-Canadian, but there are two that relate especially well to this idea of presence, how to find it, and why we we might care.
1. Within a homogenized world – for example, Chinese school every Saturday for 10 years with 100 other ‘me-types’ – you learn that you have to try quite a bit, in order to stand out.
2. Within a non-homogenized world – for example, the city of Vancouver before 1980, when less than 10% of the population was Asian – you still have to try to stand out (and up!) for yourself, because otherwise people have made a decision about you before you’ve even opened your mouth.
In other words, no matter where we find ourselves in this moment, because of things like what Malcolm Gladwell wrote about in Blink, if you and I don’t insist on ourselves, we won’t get seen. And if we don’t get seen, won’t it be as if we might as well not have lived?
Raging against the demons of sameness, dullness and unoriginality – I believe in the power of AND (my name IS Andrea, after all.)
This is where I could insert something about how we all have different fingerprints, and there will never be another human being like you, and all of that would be true.
But instead, because Sarah inspires practical wisdom, let me share a hands-on exercise that I hope you’ll try. It has to do with the word AND.
Stay with me here, because this leads to something cool for you to come back to (sometimes during tough times, when things feel the stuckest) for both YOU as a person and YOU as a business owner who wants to inspire your market, and make the money you want to make doing it.
In keeping with our theme, let’s take the concept of ‘sweet and sour’ first.
In the beginning there was sour. Think lemons, vinegar, green apples.
And then, there was sweet. Honey. A piece of liquorice. A perfectly ripe peach.
But what if we wave the Magic Wand of AND for a moment, and combine those things?
Sweet AND sour.
Yes.
Yes, you got it! Suddenly, a whole world of culinary delights is revealed.
What does this have to do with you, your business and your presence?
You and I are a mess of combinations. In living human form, each of us is a mix that’s never existed before. And, you’re also a blank slate waiting for new, consciously-selected combinations.*
So let’s start by working it from the basics.
Step #1: Start listing the elements of who you are, what you like and what you do when no one is looking.
For me, this looks like:
Asian, oldest child, long baths, big piles of books beside the bath, dislikes cooking but has a limitless supply of great food analogies, Gemini, writes to think
For Sarah, I could start with:
lives in Atlanta, music from the 80s, classically trained Shakespearian actress
(Go on ahead and list a few for Sarah, just to get warmed up now.)
Step #2: Next list the elements of what YOUR BUSINESS is, what people naturally buy from you, and ask you for help with.
Again, using me for example:
innovations and future trends, ideas for businesses that define their category, the fastest path to 6 and 7-figure income
And again with Sarah, I’d start with things like:
busting out of ordinary thinking, calling BS so resistances melts, lighting the fire of courage, calling forth the real you
And now, your turn. What do your 2 lists look like?
Take your time, and start with the obvious. No answer is too small or silly-seeming. You could start posting in the comments, and everyone else can help. Because I hate to break it like this, but the secret’s out. Everyone knows this is one of the tightest tribes that lives and breathes online, and I have it from reliable sources that many of you know each other really, really well. That’s extra cool because it can help to have other eyes on this list-making exercise.
Plus, if you’re new here, you can get folks to give their first impression of you, from your website or twitter profile. This safe environment is actually a fantastic place to do it.
And if you get stuck, I’m sure Sarah wouldn’t mind being used as a guinea pig some more, right Sarah? ☺
A real-life business example, freshness personified.
Take a wedding planner entrepreneur I’ve worked with before. She was doing well, puttering along in her arena but wanting to grow. Her first list looked like this:
artist, Virgo, fashion magazines, decorating her apartment, partying/going out on the town
And her second looked like this:
wedding planning, photography, finding venues
So far, so good, right?
In an ordinary world, where no one thinks outside the box, it would be normal to think, oh she should just keep trying to grow her wedding planning business. Or, if she were to try a new business, open a stylist or party planning business. Straight up, perfectly fine ideas, but the problem is…these are the within-the-lines ideas that 1000s of other people have.
And because of that, they’re sort of non-ideas. Like so many people, she’d have to fight to get heard in an sea of look-alikes! How to get out of all that homogeneity and escape mediocrity?!
If she had stuck with ordinary, she would have spent a whole lotta life trying to stand out in a crowded market and get heard by the people who want to pay her, and pay her handsomely. You know, the reason to be in business at all?
Here’s where new combinations come in. Where we get to surf the future, create value where – not a moment before – there was nothing.
Just before meeting me, this same entrepreneur experienced the power of a live training event, one like the one Sarah’s got planned later this fall, for business owners like you and I. Bam! Said entrepreneur got the fresh combination bug and combined wedding planning (sour) with business event planning (sweet) and now has the most hot-damn, cooking-amazing, unbeatably magnetic –
luxury business-event management company
that treats its clients so well they feel like brides
Sweet AND sour in ALL its glory. And rapid leap to 7-figure business.
Can you feel the essential pieces of you, and who you are, thrumming at the notion of coming together in a business formation as compelling, unique, and worthy-of-excellent-income as this?
It does take courage.
Are you glad, even though you don’t know her, that Ms. Luxury Event Planner took the leap? Took the time to examine who she was, including all the various, glorious, seemingly-disparate pieces, CELEBRATED it, and combined it in an irresistible way?
That’s what happens when an entrepreneur creates an irresistible business from the realness of who she is. Can you also see that in this example, she’s now reached the other side? She’s innovated her business through her presence, and done it in a way that can’t be copied? Well, it can, but not authentically, you see? Because then the copycats become the ones that are fighting to be heard.
Now THAT is a business worth going out and getting lots of customers for.
The essence of who we are isn’t one thing, thank God. With this knowledge, we get to craft the landscape of our businesses in the image of ourselves. The future can look very different from the past.
So much has changed in our lives, society, etc, that it’s almost silly to say it. But I say it because I want us to see that flux as the malleable moment that it is, that puts the power in OUR hands, to create what we want. If one business like the biz-event-bride business can change the playing field, what could 100 businesses? 1000?
To start creating YOUR irresistible presence, think about the elements of who you are.
And then, take those pieces and move them around, overlap them, combine them in new ways, being open to surprising even yourself.
Your task is to use the power of AND to identify YOUR sweet and your sour, and see what you can conjure, with a little help from your unmediocre friends.
Some more examples, because those always help me, maybe they will you too:
- A trained teacher who loves cell phones >> A business that helps people create strong teachable curriculum that will be delivered via mobile devices
- A really smart former online assistant with a recruitment background >> A business that helps online companies build awesome teams
- A mom of adopted twins and former lawyer >> A business that helps future adoptees navigate that crazy legal labyrinth
- A real estate agent and rabid fan of Harlequin romance novels >> A business that makes the love match between home buyer and home
Once you start to see the world through the lens of one-of-a-kind never-to-be-repeated combination, I bet you’ll be reporting in all manner of examples, so I’ll leave the rest of the list to you.
Unplug that umbilical cord…
You see, this is only the first of 30 days worth of reprogramming for you, where you get to stop thinking the way you’ve maybe been TOLD you should think. When asked what they think – this is one of things I rage against – too many people have no idea. Sadly, it’s usually something to do with the last thing they read, or the last TV show they saw. How many people do you think believe Disney’s rendition of who Pocahontas was??
Original, independent thinking is becoming a lost art. Which is why I’m so curious about how all this lands with you. What do you think?
In case of emergency.
Since I’m on a roll with self-disclosure, revealing ancient connections with my brother Sherman and all (Sherman actually will be posting later this month, I believe) let me start wrapping this up with one of my most favorite quotes.
That is, assuming you wanna know what I do when I’m in a deep, dark funk, having a streak of feeling like a sheep, at the mercy of the rules and opinions of others, helpless to make a difference, even the tiniest, no matter how hard I want to? LOL. Alright, here’s the quote I keep under glass, to break in case of emergency:
“Most people are walking around, umbilical cord in hand, looking for a new place to plug it in.” – Cavett Robert
Boy, that one sure wakes me up, even as I type it. I feel as if I were Neo in the movie The Matrix, when the vertebrae in his spine go pop, pop, pop, and he detaches from the big machine.
Is it time for you to unplug now (more fully/all the way/for the first time) too?
In summary.
Your presence, the one that you’ve committed to (at least over the next 30 days) woo, coax, polish and finally to ROAR from the hilltops about… is the sum total of you. It’s the Betty White inside, that Sarah talks about.
Breaking it down into its parts first is going to be an excellent step. Then putting it all back together in a way that makes business sense in a way your people want will be the next. Reverse those and I promise you’ll be undoing a lot of things later.
Because when you do it like this, the essence of your business becomes undeniable, something that no one can take away from you. Rather than something that you cobble together from a pile of should outside of yourself.
When I get asked, as I often do, to answer the question…
“Andrea, how do I get this thing (blog, ebook, membership site, live event, whatever) to SELL more, cuz I love what I do but I also need to make MONEY?”
My answer is, invariably…
“Have something amazing to say first.”
The secret to having something amazing to say first? Uncover your presence.
Last but not least.
“Let us not disrespect – or underestimate – the power of a single great idea, well monetized, to change the world.”
You’re going to hear so much wisdom (nuts and bolts, big picture, whimsy & pragmatics) about presence this month, with chances to work on it from every angle this way to Sunday. And once you’ve stretched these muscles around your irresistible presence — the business part, and the income parts, are going to come oh-so-much-more stably, capable of withstanding competition, throbbing with promise. With much less wasted effort.
I’m deeply grateful for this, because if the amount of info-crap in our world is any indication, we are in sore need of original thinking, innovation and the un-mediocre. Sore. Need.
So thank you. For your commitment, every day, to all that you do. And to playing full out this 30 days. And thank you, too, Sarah, you Shakespearian actress who knows a thing or two about being REAL, and leaving it ALL onstage, night after night, every night, in front of audiences who want ALL of you…and who’ll either throw garbage at you or… in an incandescent moment…leap to their feet, clapping thunderously!!
Wait a second. No wonder I’m excited about you, in the way only you can, bringing us this 30-day series about presence!
I’ll leave you all with the above list-making exercise and a few extra thoughts to put in a nice 30-day crock-pot:
Remember, learning is what happens when you (really) don’t know what to do.
What can ONLY you do?
How much good can you do with that, through your business, making a great living as you do?
And if you’re afraid of failing, well, I say you may as well fail for being you, because it would so suck to fail at pretending to be someone else!
I agree with what Seth says. We need you to lead us. We also need you to think for yourself. And then we need you to lead us where only you can, being who only you can be.
Andrea J. Lee is an entrepreneurial futurist with her finger on the pulse of the entrepreneurial spirit and how it can be harnessed to benefit everyone. Throughout her life, Andrea’s done one thing – help those she loves make money.
In case you wondered about all the food analogies, her husband is a trained chef. You can learn more about Andrea at http://www.AndreaJLee.com. (She and Sherman Hu are unrelated.)
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30 Days to Creating Irresistible Presence is sponsored by
Creating Irresistible Presence LIVE
~September 23 -25 ~ Atlanta GA ~
To learn more, please visit http://www.irresistiblepresence.com
Super-Affordable 3-pay option expires July 31
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