On Limits To Your Opportunities and Writing Books

During June 2022 my home city of Saint John, New Brunswick has been host to the Canadian Hockey League championship, the Memorial Cup tournament. I have followed the results and attended one game in person between the Shawinigan Cataractes from the Quebec League, and the Edmonton Oil Kings from the Western League. It was a close game with Shawinigan winning 4-3. I enjoyed watching the game in person but it wasn’t terribly exciting with the teams focused on very close checking, extremely effective defense, and skillfully limiting exciting goal scoring opportunities for the opponent.

At its best hockey is fast, fluid and can bring fans to the edge of their seats. I appreciate defensive skills and in championships like this one, the teams are extremely disciplined in limiting exciting offensive plays. While mistakes do happen on the ice, and sometimes offensive skills simply overpower, typically in high-level championship games offence is minimized and opportunities limited.

I am a hockey fan.  In 2019 I decided to visit all the teams and rinks in the Quebec League and watch a game. This was primarily an excuse for an extended road trip because I enjoy driving and visiting new towns and cities. This road trip saw me visit 18 towns in Quebec and the Maritimes over 49 days covering 9,790 kilometers during peak winter conditions.  If the thought of replicating this trip appeals to you may enjoy the book which is available here amazon.com/author/jimkokocki

Limits On Your Opportunities

As I watched the Memorial Cup game and observed how defense in hockey limits the more entertaining goal scoring, I thought about limitations we place on ourselves. Here’s my example. In 2018 I had decided to write a book on public speaking, as it’s a subject matter in which I have a great deal of experience as a speaker and coach. To write the book I prepared an outline, opened Microsoft Word, wrote everything I knew about public speaking, edited and re-wrote, then hired a professional editor (which I recommend for any writer), then hired someone to properly format the material with page numbers, page titles a table of content and more.  I published it as a paperback on Amazon Kindle, because I tend to read paperbacks and hard covers. I would later publish the product as an e-book.   

The paperback version sold quite well but I hated how it looked.  It was my content and my ideas, but the sum of my knowledge and ideas displayed as about 45 printed pages.  I was unhappy with the look of my first product.

I should point out that I’m not a perfectionist. I wrote about perfectionism here https://gycz.blogspot.com/2022/06/perfectionism-is-kind-of-disease.html

Minimum Viable Product

Producing this first effort was an important step to opening more opportunity. I suppose it was a minimum viable product, and did have some acceptance. Regardless of that acceptance, I produced a revised version of the book by adding some more stories about my speaking experiences, adding some photos, and some other lessons. The revised version displayed as over 100 pages (which I recommend to aspiring authors) and looked much better to me. I am proud of that product.

Writing a Second Book – 9,790 Kilometer Road Trip

My second book about my hockey road trip was easy to write because I simply documented the planning and execution of visiting 18 towns and cities, and travelling 9,790 kilometers in January, February and March. The difficult part of this product was minimizing travel, grouping scheduled games for travel efficiency, and navigating around snow storms. With this book it was easy to produce more than 100 pages of content.

Writing a Third Book – Overcoming a Limiting Thought  

My third book came about because I was asked by a group to present on the topic of running effective meetings and injecting some fun and variety into meetings. Injecting some fun has become important as more and more meetings take place online these days and people are experiencing ‘Zoom fatigue’ sitting in their same seat while attending meeting after meeting.

I was happy to present on the topic, and after the presentation and the Q&A I thought that maybe I should write a book on this topic. Now previously I had a limiting perception of what a ‘book’ looks like. My perception was that a book is usually over 100 pages, is available as a paperback, maybe a hardcover, and maybe as an e-book. However, I have read material from other authors who challenged my limiting perception.

Many people these days consume books on e-readers. When an author publishes a book for consumption on e-readers the publisher wants zero formatting.  The formatting takes place real time as the content is presented to a laptop, or an iPad, or a phone or other device.  The formatting varies based on the device displaying the content.

While I didn’t believe I had enough content on running effective meetings to produce my traditional version of a 100-page ‘book,’ I had enough material to be invited to speak on the topic, and enough material to write something. So, I prepared and published an e-book.  It’s approximately 40 pages in Microsoft Word, but I don’t know how it might display on your e-reader or laptop. It too is available at this link amazon.com/author/jimkokocki

I had a limiting perception of what constituted a book, but was able to overcome this limiting perception.

Perceptions That Limit You

My point in writing this is to highlight that I had placed a limitation on myself. It’s interesting how these perceptions take hold in us. This one could have prevented me from sharing my content about running effective meetings.  My perception of what a book looks like limited my thinking.  I have read other material on how categories and labels we apply, while helpful in most cases, can limit us in decision making. There is some fascinating material on how quick categorization and perceptions limit our creativity and opportunities. Here is an interesting academic paper on the topic titled Decision Making Under Uncertain Categorization

 

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00991/full

Takeaway

Perceptions, beliefs and categorizations are helpful. They’re shortcuts. Here’s a good article on their helpfulness titled Categorization = Decision Making + Generalization  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3739997/

While these shortcuts are helpful, and unavoidable, they can limit us. If you have comments or experiences where you have overcome such limiting thoughts, perceptions and categorizations, I would love for you to share them with me.  It will be good food for thought and discussion.

 

 

 

 

The Gift of Someone Else’s Enthusiasm

Today I had a conversation with a new member of our Rising Tide Toastmasters club.  She joined last week and is eager to start participating, receiving feedback, and developing her skills.  The first speech a member delivers is always an Ice Breaker, a four-to-six minute speech to introduce herself to the group.

New Customers and New Toastmasters Members

The new member clarified our modest expectations. Although Toastmasters isn’t a pass/fail organization, she wanted to discuss the expectations, the general approach to her first speech, and also asked for some more advanced tips. I offered a couple including to always focus on what she as a presenter desires the audience to do differently, think about differently, or what action she wishes them to take. She will deliver her first speech at our weekly meeting Tuesday 7:15-8:30 a.m.

After our chat I thought that it’s an absolute gift to be exposed to someone else’s enthusiasm. When we offer a product or service that we play a part in enabling, and someone is excited to participate or buy, that is very energizing. It will be fantastic to see her first forays into public speaking, and watch and support her development.

Sales -  Recognizing Enthusiasm And Asking For The sale

An element to this is recognizing someone’s enthusiasm and then supporting and nurturing it, whether we’re developing their talents or offering a product or service. I remember many years ago moving to a small town.  When I was getting the television service connected (yes television - this was many years ago), I chatted with the installer about the move.  I mentioned I liked the town, but I had a few disappointments including being out of range of the college radio station I liked to listen to back in Saint John.  This was before such services were available on the internet. 

When I indicated I missed that station the installer said his company had a service that made this available.  I responded with a simple, delighted "really?!?!”

“Yeah, we just grab the signal, run it through some amplification and then rebroadcast it on one of the channels." I didn’t really care how it worked, but he felt a need to explain this.

I was pumped to know that I might be able to receive that radio signal. I was ready to buy. But there was only silence between us.  An overly long pause.

Finally, I offered "how much does that cost?"

"Something less than $10 but I’m not sure of the exact amount."

I could afford $10 a month. I was ready to buy, but again there was silence.

After another extended pause I said "can I get that?"

And he said "sure, no problem."

Years later I still recall this interaction as an example of asking, or not asking, for the sale.  Perhaps the technician didn’t recognize he had made the sale and only needed to close. As a customer I was enthusiastic, and ready to pay for this additional service, and the installer just needed to ask. I’m sure he wasn’t trained in sales, but I continue to wish he had recognized my enthusiasm, and asked, but instead I had to ask to purchase.

Recognizing Enthusiasm

I’m pleased that our new Toastmasters member is so enthusiastic.  It’s a gift for me to witness such enthusiasm. I’m sure it’s a gift for you when you’re greeted with spontaneous enthusiasm. To be successful at sales, marketing, and working with people in general, we need to show enthusiasm for our products and services, and recognize, acknowledge and nurture it in others.

Comfort Zones – A Sales and Decision Making Model

How do people make decisions?  A helpful way to consider how people progress through decision making is with decision making models.  A long time ago I learned about a model that works for marketing, sales and public relations.  I know the model as AKIDA, although it’s usually simplified as AIDA.

What is the AIDA model and the AKIDA model?

The AIDA model is comprised of

-         Awareness

-         Interest

-         Desire

-         Action

Here’s how it works. If a prospective customer isn’t aware you exist, he doesn’t buy your product obviously. If the prospect is aware you exist, he may develop interest in your product. A change in his needs and life circumstances may drive desire to purchase your product. And finally, a further life change, or a sales promotion you offer, may drive action to purchase your product.  Moving through these stages may take minutes, but it may take years.

The AKIDA model inserts knowledge after awareness.   This makes sense to me because without some knowledge of product features, benefits, and success stories it makes progression difficult. I suppose knowledge may be implicit with awareness, but I find it helpful to see it clearly called out.  It becomes obvious that part of our roles in sales, marketing, public relations and leadership is to drive awareness and knowledge that develops interest, desire and action.

An Example of AIDA (AKIDA)

Here's an example.  I’ve been an avid cyclist for years, and have a couple of nice bikes.  I’m generally aware of e-bikes, which are not terribly new, but are becoming much more popular these days.  I have awareness, but little knowledge about price, benefits, and I haven’t had discussion or thoughts about how they might fit my lifestyle or my transportation needs. I have awareness.  I have little to no knowledge.  I have no interest, desire or action to purchase. But it may be the case that an e-bike would be a great option for me now. So vendors need to be effective at driving messages to prospects like me to see us progress along the purchase decision.  

How To Expand Your Comfort Zone

I share this because I’m interested in how people make progress in expanding their comfort zones, which is in itself a decision. I’m interested in how you make such progress. Do you have awareness of what holds you back from making progress on goals and aspirations?  Do you have knowledge on options and alternatives that will set you on a path to making progress?  If you have awareness and knowledge how strong is your interest and desire to take action.

I spend a lot of time developing speakers both professionally and in Toastmasters. Toastmasters is a low-cost high value option to develop improved overall communication skills, public speaking skills, soft skills and leadership skills.  I’ve seen people join Toastmasters who say that they’ve known about Toastmasters for years but a life change drove them to take action.  Often there’s an urgent need to address a skills gap. Sometimes it’s a retirement speech, or a speech at a wedding, or a desire to play a role in their community.

The AKIDA model helps in planning how to reach prospects and offering solutions to their needs.

Tips For Making Achievable New Year’s Resolutions

Do you set New Year’s Resolutions? I don’t although throughout the year I will adjust goals or set new goals if I desire.

I’ve never found value in setting new goals simply because the calendar year was about to change.  It seems to me such an approach could naturally lead to failure because such a goal setting exercise is driven by an external driver, that is the start of a new calendar year, rather than an internal driver, such as the burning desire to learn a new skill or complete a long delayed project or task. 

That said, many people do set New Year’s resolutions and if that works for someone then I think that’s great. While it doesn’t work for me personally, any process that is helpful in enabling an individual to make progress and feel good about them self is fine with me.  So with that in mind I share this link to seven tips from Toastmasters International on successfully keeping resolutions.  And I will add an 8^th tip to this list.

 

https://mediacenter.toastmasters.org/2021-12-28-Toastmasters-Offers-7-Tips-for-Making-New-Years-Resolutions-Stick

 

 Tell People About Your Goals

My additional tip, an 8^th tip,  is to tell some people about your goals. You can share with one person, or many people.  In my experience such sharing is helpful for several reasons;

1. Adds a Level of Commitment. When I have told someone what I was working to accomplish, I felt more committed to making progress.  If you’re reluctant to share a goal, then perhaps you are not committed and willing to put in the necessary work.  But such reluctance could also be a result of not being sure of the amount of work and the next steps, of precisely what will be involved. However to have a goal doesn’t mean that you need to have everything figured out. This leads me to the next two reasons.

2. Clarifies Goals. We know that goals really should be quite specific, and clarifying questions from someone or an audience may enable better specificity.  For example some years ago I had a goal to write a book and during a presentation an audience member simply asked when I wanted to be published.  I hadn’t yet committed myself to a timeline and the question made me think and answer with a reasonable and attainable target date which I did ultimately reach.

3. Enables Supporters. When you share what you wish to accomplish, you might find people to help.  Someone may directly engage, or connect you with somebody with similar ambitions.  When I spoke about writing a book an audience member mentioned that she knew of someone who edits as a part time job, and that connection has been very valuable to me.  

An ideal way to tell people about your goals is to speak about the goals as a member at a Toastmasters club, preferably in the form of a speech.  A simple speech structure of what goals, why these goals, and next steps and/or progress should provide five to six minutes of solid material.  Such a speech could be from a personal perspective or an organizational perspective. A Toastmasters club is filled with attentive, supportive listeners who become eager to receive and offer suggestions and feedback as part of the experiential learning environment.

 

It’s the time of year when many people set goals.  Whether you’re driven by the change of calendar,  a desire to acquire new skills, or complete some tasks I wish you success in achieving your goals.

 

A Recent Podcast Appearance

A recent podcast appearance speaking about communication skills and approaches, as well as Toastmasters  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYaHngJE6ak&t=1138s

Public Speaking, Content, Structure and Toastmasters

An October 2021 interview on public speaking, content, structure and Toastmasters 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYaHngJE6ak&t=670s