Awesome Harry Potter book store geeks

We all face occasions when we want to make a lasting impression.  (I’m not talking a Tiger Woods kind of lasting impression.) Whether you are applying for a job, making new friends, building your client base, or looking for a date, you need to separate yourself from the crowd.

Five Steps to Being Unforgettable:

1) Establish relationship first. Listen, be curious, be genuinely caring. Focus on the other person instead of yourself. Who is this person? This is how you establish relationship.

2) Identify the needs of this other person. How can you serve this
person? Your partner will wake up for station WIFM (What’s In it
For Me).

3) Be authentic. Don’t pretend to be interested. Don’t pretend to
care. You won’t fool a soul. And no one wants to be around a fake. Meanwhile, the more you are authentically interested and authentically care about the people you meet, the more you’ll find yourself meeting wonderful people!

4) Don’t be your job. When someone says “tell me about yourself” what do you say? Cause EVERYBODY will answer the “tell me about yourself” with what they are working on, will be working on, or were working on. Snore. Be able to share at least three concise and memorable things about yourself that have nothing to do with your business. These things may be humorous or dramatic, but they reveal something about who you are as a person.

If you have a zinger like  “I smoked pot with Jimi Hendrix,” or “I taught blackjack to a bunch of orphans in Cambodia,” do you think your questioner will forget that–or you–any time soon? BUT BE APPROPRIATE.

See how authentic you can be.

5) Finally, have a point to what you share. Pick your story with
your audience in mind, and tell your questioner what your share
says about you.

Especially on the radio. If you have only five to fifteen minutes on air, you better be on message!

For instance, sometimes during interviews share that
I was hit by a car, thrown into a coma, had a severe head injury
when I awoke, and spent my last semester of high school
homeless and sleeping on a friend’s floor. And I graduated
with honors and went to a top college.

You think you’re gonna forget that?

In the context of my message–Financial Alchemy–I use my story to illustrate that money isn’t an automatic reward for effort and good work. I could do all that and not make a living. Until I changed my relationship with money.

“GRATITUDE unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.”
~ Melody Beattie, Author

Gratitude: what a topic for a challenging period! I’ve heard the recession is over, but just try telling that to the people I see sleeping on the streets each day. It seems like most people are scared these days. What is there to be grateful for?

So much! I’m thinking that gratitude is not the same as saying “I’m happy and satisfied with how everything is.” It is the place to start. This is the best time to appreciate what’s working in our lives, so that we are better equipped to take on what is not. Ironically it’s in times of loss that we become most aware of what we actually have.

Few of you know that on November 7, twenty five years ago, I was hit by a car while riding my bicycle to school. I was 16. I was in the hospital for a week, most of that time in a coma.

(more…)

Jimi Hendrix

We all face occasions when we want to make a lasting impression. (I’m not talking a Tonya Harding kind of lasting impression.) Whether you are  applying for a job, making new friends, building your client base, or looking for a date, you need to separate yourself from the crowd. 

How to be Unforgettable:

1) Establish relationship first. Listen, be curious, be genuinely caring. Focus on the other person instead of yourself. Who is this person? This is how you establish relationship.

2) Identify the needs of this other person. How can you serve this person? Your partner will wake up for station WIFM (What’s In it For Me).

3) Be authentic. Don’t pretend to be interested. Don’t pretend to care. You won’t fool a soul. And no one wants to be around a fake. Meanwhile, the more you are authentically interested and authentically care about the people you meet, the more you’ll find yourself meeting wonderful people!

4) Don’t be your job. When someone says “tell me about yourself” what do you say? Cause EVERYBODY will answer the “tell me about yourself” with what they are working on, will be working on, or were working on. Snore. Be able to share at least three concise and  memorable things about yourself that have nothing to do with your business. These things may be humorous or dramatic, but they reveal something about who you are as a person. If you have a zinger like “I smoked pot with Jimi Hendrix,” or “I taught blackjack to a bunch of orphans in Cambodia,” do you think your questioner will forget that–or you–any time soon?

See how authentic you can be.

5) Finally, have a point to what you share. Pick your story with your audience in mind, and tell your questioner what your share says about you.

For instance, during my teleseminars I sometimes share that I was hit by a car, thrown into a coma, had a severe head injury when I awoke, and spent my last semester of high school homeless and sleeping on a friend’s floor. And I graduated with honors and went to a top college.  What this says about me is I know how to do whatever it takes to achieve a goal, even when life is really hard. It’s also why I focus on making people’s lives more effortless and pain free. I think struggle is overrated, and we don’t need to seek it out

A quick recap to help make things “just happen” for you:

Build relationship by authentically focusing on the other person and his needs.

Be a real person, not your job.

Take a look at the stories that reveal who you are and set yourself apart. (Learn how to weave them in organically, at the right moments in a conversation or presentation.)

Have a purpose to what you share.

Copyright 2008 Morgana Rae… OBVIOUSLY. Wanna reprint it for your blog or e-zine? Just send me a request. Thanks!