Khai McBride

Monetize Your Passion And Crush It!

"If you like Smurfs...Smurf it up!" - Gary Vee

Like Gary Vaynerchuk says in his Web 2.0 presentation...there is no reason you should be doing stuff you hate, because you can lose just as much money being happy as hell.  In this presentation, Gary inspires us all to make money doing what we love.  The internet and social media have finally leveled the playing field allowing just about anybody to create a strong market presence and monetize their passion.

I am a first hand testimony of this concept, building both of my businesses in 2009 through social media while having a really fun time doing it.  If you have 15 min, this is definitely a video worth watching.

Your Likeability Factor

What factor influences a customer to want to do business with you the most?  That they like you, believe you, have confidence in you, or trust you?  According to sales/business authorities Jeffrey Gitomer and Tim Sanders, it's being liked.  Being liked leads to the rest.  But if you are not liked, the rest doesn't matter, because the customer won't want to engage with you.  In order to become a trusted advisor, you need to be liked first.  Become a friend.

According to Tim Sanders, the 4 factors of being liked are:

1. Friendliness - the threshold of likeability
2. Relevance - how you connect with another person's wants or needs
3. Empathy (not sympathy) - can you make them feel you understand their situation
4. Realness or authenticity - lack of realness, like lying, hypocrisy, or insincerity can suck your likeability down.

Many of us in the sales profession spend time and money learning ways to create trust, confidence or belief, but how many of you work on your likeability factor?  I can attest that once I started working on my likeability factor, business became easier because it was easier to create relationships.

Check out these videos by Gitomer and Sanders.

The 10,000 Hour Rule

The age old question: Are successful people born or made?  According to Malcolm Gladwell in his book "The Outliers", he says that although you cannot discount natural talent, those that have achieved success were willing to put the time, focus and energy toward their success.  According to Gladwell, those that reached the top of their game put in a minimum of 10,000 hours practicing their craft (FYI, that equates to 40 hours per week for 5 straight years).  In a world of instant gratification and new rising media stars every minute, we tend to overlook the fact that those who have sustained success did so because they put in the necessary hours.  How much time are you spending studying and practicing your craft?

Engage Your Audience, Don't Marry Your Script

When it comes to delivering an educational presentation, probably the best tip I can give someone, is just relax up on stage. Don't think of it as a presentation, think of it as a big discussion. Don't be afraid to be casual with the audience and say unscripted things like 'Wow, those lights are bright' or 'Man, I need some water'. Pause, take a drink, walk around. We speak because we are there to teach. We need to make sure our content is good and we have the right intent. We don't need to be ultra polished.

Many industry speakers I know start with, 'Just so you know, I'm not a professional speaker, so forgive me if I have to look at my notes. My main goal is to educate you today.'

I once spoke at Mortgage Planner Summit in Vegas, and I had to follow the most charismatic speaker, who got the audience of 1,200 up on their feet and cheering. I remember thinking, 'How am I going to follow that?'

When I got up on stage, however, instead of starting my presentation right away, I just went with the moment. I looked at the audience and said, 'Wow, I can't believe I have to follow that. I would normally feel inadequate, but he really pumped me up too. I just feel like yelling 'Show me the money!' I then spent a few seconds running around the stage like Jerry Maguire yelling, 'Show me the money!' 'Who's coming with me?' 'I love mortgage people!' It relaxed me and got the audience to reengage itself with me.

Jeff Gitomer, one of my favorite speakers, teaches his students to be friendly, not professional. And that's what I believe. Don't be afraid to be casual and relaxed on stage."

Unplugging = More Time to Read

I can't believe it, but I'm reading a book a week now.  How did I find time to read a book a week?  Well a few months ago, my wife and I decided to implement a "No-electronics after 10p" policy in our household.  It seems that technology has consumed us and we always found ourselves staying up late either watching TV, playing with our Blackberrys, working on the computer, or just surfing the internet.  We noticed it was keeping us up at night because it was overstimulating our brains.  So we implemented this policy to get us to disconnect.  Instead of using electronics, I started reading more and with all that time, I was on a book per week pace before I knew it.  In the past few months, I've read some great books with my favorite one being "The Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell.  Plus, I notice I'm sleeping better now.

If you want to read more, but can't find the time to do so, perhaps you need to unplug like we did.  It's amazing how time consuming electronics can be and how much time you can recapture in your lives.

Some great books I've read lately: