visualtalking

Applying for Entry

2010-09-10T14:55:00.000-07:00

I have spent some time lately working with friends who are applying for jobs. It is amazing that they think what has been written down on the resume paints a clear picture of what they did and that I should see exactly what they intended. I bet you have experienced that as well. The reality is - it is hard to see exactly what they intended. Yet, they continue to think you do. It is because we think words carry such precise meaning. But in many cases words do not carry precise meaning---as Gregory Bateson the anthropologist said---naming a thing does not make the thing the thing.

Take a Deep Breadth

2010-08-27T10:44:00.000-07:00

Every now and then I need to take a very, very deep breadth to recenter and calm my mind to allow me to get outside of my current task orientated day and see the world as "new". I often talk about the great power to visualize the future, and how this can lead to great strides forward for an individual and a company. Seeing makes it happen, and most times that is good thing. Yesterday, I needed to step back, take a breadth, and see everything from a new perspective--that really helped to get me to see if the path I was so involved with was the exact right one for this time.

Sometimes, just take a deep breadth and see the world new.

Boundary Expansion and Growth

2010-08-25T04:21:00.000-07:00

After I made my Better Closing presentation to 70 companies a few weeks back, all have made progress with their Leave Behind and our growing their companies successfully. Some have asked me about personal growth and how that happens as well. For over twenty years, I tell a simple story about Boundary Expansion, describing an island and rock throwing.

Picture yourself on an island and you are comfortable on that island and you look out and you see, but you stay on the comfortable island and only explore the island. Well, to grow, you have to explore beyond the island. So, I say throw some rocks as for as you can, and then jump out on them and go further out, explore past the island. If you like what you see, keep the stepping stone rocks there and come back. On another day, from that farthest rock, throw out rocks even farther, and go to them. You expand your boundaries even farther. The magical thing is that the island will expand and grow to the farthest rock you like-so your comfort zone will grow. If you do not like the direction you currently throw the rocks, then throw them in another direction and explore that way. Keep throwing rocks everyday and you will expand that much. Eventually, you make a full continent or you will connect with a full continent.

What are the rocks? They may be your visions of the future, they may be hobbies, they may be new actions you do, a new job, a new meeting-just throw. Each throw will expand your island and you comfort zone.

So, go throw some rocks.

creating your identity

2010-08-24T14:52:00.000-07:00

This past weekend I saw a live comedy theatre production where the characters created fake identities, and as the play went on, they had to create more and more, and pretty soon they were in pretty deep water flowing without a paddle. In the end, love prevailed and all was well. Our lives are very much like that-keep creating your future and it may get crazy, but it all works out in the end. Keep dreaming about that future. Visualize that future and make it happen. It all starts by seeing the world the way you want it to be, and taking your first steps to that, whether it be a picture dream board, telling someone or just doing it. You create your future.

Chinese Dancing Beautiful

2010-08-22T04:28:00.000-07:00

Last night I saw Shen Yu, beautiful Chinese dancing. The best part was the flowing colors of the dancers costumes and then the flowing banners they whisked around. The background was always a beautiful country side picture that had similar colors in the flowers and other natural items. The human mind can picture and create such beauty. Wonderful.

Cooking with Videos

2010-08-20T14:18:00.000-07:00

The past six months I started cooking meals from scratch with fresh ingredients. It really is so much easier and faster than I thought possible. Why you may ask. I use online videos that show the cook making what I want--and I can see several different cooks in different videos and really get a good understanding of what to do-and each video is only a few minutes long, and I can watch them over and over again if I miss something (and I always do). And I can watch them anytime I want, on demand, for free.

It really builds my confidence to see them do it. Seeing is believing, and I now believe, no wait, I know I can do it. Try it.

Startup Companies & The Before/After

2010-08-19T15:06:00.000-07:00

This week I met again with several start up companies and it always seems to go the same--I get the presentation of the business plan and the executive summary and all the details except- except the reality of how their customers lives are really going to be changed for the better. All the details of how you are going to do something are important, very important, but the why you do it in the first place is the most important. If you can show the "why" and show what it looks like "after" you will be done, you have just begun the dialogue of how you will impact for the better. I need a picture in my mind of what it looks like before you do something, and then what does that picture look like after-I call it the "before/after". Another way to say this is, I need to see a day in the life of a user using your service or product. It is simple, yet in our analytical mind to create the business plan we can over look the simple.

tao te ching

2010-08-18T04:35:00.000-07:00

I went to a seminar last night on the tao te ching and received the calming wisdom. Given our world of structure and rules, I know it will take some time for the wisdom to sink in to my way of living. I will think about this thought for a long time- "true mastery can be gained by letting things go their own way". I think I understand that the tao, that god, that the unlimited, knows what it is doing so trust in that flow and go that way. Follow the unlimited and you wil be unlimited. Makes sense to me. Just ask and script to the unlimited what you want, and it will come, but probably not in the time or form I expect, so I really have to be in the flow.

Seeing the Future

2010-08-17T03:57:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I spent some time planning what the future of the business would look like. I visually created what the company would look like, what our products and services were, and how the customers would use our service and dramatically benefit. I have done this many times before over the last 30 years, and every time the visualized future comes true (but not necessarily in my expected time frame). It is like creating a dream board for the business-cut out pictures of what we will look like.

I do this in my personal life, and I get the same result-the future happens the way you see it. Some call this scripting. Try it. I will talk another day about it. In the meantime, picture your perfect future.

Using Imagery To Close Deals

2010-08-16T04:11:00.000-07:00

I recently presented to 70 companies the Leave Behind visual presentation method from the Better Closing approach. Since then, I have been working with over 20 of the companies on how they can visually summarize their value message and deliver it quickly and clearly to customers. Many have already been successful with customers in just a couple of weeks. It no longer amazes me how quickly people can understand the value of visuals and then rapidly build their visual story, and show and tell it. Listeners (and customers) respond to a clear visual message combined with words (or without words). Seeing leads to Understanding.

Simlarly, with visualtalking, I see that it only takes a few hours to learn how to get pretty good making a visual sentence. And each day after that, the speed of making and sending a visual sentence gets much faster, and even passes text messaging. And I see retailers who in a day get the hang of sending images of their products to their customers, and their customers see and buy.

Digital technologies are making imagery so easy to work with, it is just like typing in words. And the internet is getting so easy to send images, we are so close to using images like we do words in sentences. It is just a matter of time before we use images as we use words.

Writing and Langauage

2010-08-15T03:51:00.000-07:00

Wow!! It has been a long time since I blogged. I have received over 7000 emails since I last blogged. I definitely need to change that ratio of blogs to emails. Once my day gets going, the momentum just takes me forward, so here I am early on a Sunday morning.

I bought The Story of Writing by Hudson at the MET in NY a few years back and just now dove into it. Great book. Fascinating how some of the great LOST lanaguages (Egyptian hieroglyphs, Linear B, Mayan, and cuneiform) of the world were deciphered. Strange how an entire civilization can exist and keep exisiting and lose it's langauge and writing. Maybe the writing just shifts to the best available form for the then most commmon use. Many first ancient writings found are about keeping track of commerce-accounting of livestock and food. Today we have new technologies, and I am focusing on digital based like the internet and cell phones texting, that allow quick contact with reader. Messages can be short as abbreviated words meant to convey a tranient thought. As we use these new digital technologies, we speak less and communicate in writing more, to many more people. So, will our spoken language evolve along with our written language? In the past it appears they have been linked closely. But, using the internet, and with growing capability to store and send visual information, our writing may evolve and seperate from our spoken language. Are Twitter and youtube forms of the new writing?

Imagery will be used more in written digital communication.

Positive Talking is in the Air

2009-04-17T14:02:00.000-07:00

All week, I have had this question just constantly tugging at me. I could be walking to get coffee at work, or just washing the dishes after dinner, or laying there in bed ready to sleep, and the question just jumps in and dominates my thoughts. As individuals, are we becoming more positive when we talk? As I scan the web, or I join in the dialogue on social sites, or I just read stories on line, I see so many positive interest stories, they out number the traditional news reporting of isolated murders, natural disasters, and other bad news. I tend to have a smile on my face when I log off the computer After watching the evening news or reading the headline of the paper, I rarely smile.

Even though the economic news looks bad this last year, I still feel positive after being on the web. OK, you get your occasional idiots on line. But, they do not last long, and they get their appropriate shame and then they are drowned out by the surrounding positive talk and smiles of others. I think individuals and society tend toward the positive--sometimes they get drowned out by filters, well meaning people who edit and report the unique, which is normally bad stuff--because it is not unique to be positive. So, I think online talk tends to be positive, and that is good.

First Visual Talking Experience

2009-04-07T08:45:00.000-07:00

After posting the first blog last night, I kept thinking about my first dramatic life changing visual talking experience. My note to my first girlfriend with a heart and my picture with the words "kiss me" does not count. I was only six years old (and Lisa, if you are reading this, it was a great kiss!).

I mean my first professional wow!! breakthrough moment with visual talking. About twenty years ago I was leading a group of very talented people to build a new product. We carefully took all the "requirements" from the customer, wrote them done, discussed them and agreed that here is the "word specification" we would build. No pictures, just words. We thought we all "saw" the same things in our minds. Well, you could guess, we built a monster that the customer did not recognize, so we needed to start over from scratch. But, this time, we would clearly "see" the product before we built it. Just how to do that was the real question. Well, we brought in cartoonists to help everyone draw their view. We shared views and through a very collaborative process we all "red-lined" the imagery to final design. It really worked. The customer loved it. I still have that final sketch. This was the beginning of a an exciting journey - how to easily talk with pictures.

Talking with Pictures

2009-04-06T12:44:00.000-07:00

I have been talking with pictures for a long time. Whenever I want to fully express my thoughts or ideas, I combine images, crude hand drawings, and scribbled words in somewhat of a sentence format and then show my "listeners". They understand. They respond back in a simliar fashion. And I respond back to them. We fully understood each other. It really works. We have a great conversation! I get my thoughts across in as much detail as I like, and I see the same from my "listeners". It is just that simple.

I wish everyone could talk with pictures. We would understand each other more ...we would be more creative..we would be more productive..we would be happier...We would be better.

Have fun talking with pictures.

Mark - the creator