"Influence and Intention"
by Robert Middleton

Do you sometimes hear yourself saying this?

"Why does that other InfoGuru get so many appointments and get her prospects to pay her more? Why does she make more money and have a more successful business? Why does she have more energy and seem more fulfilled?"

But if you brush this off as just luck, experience, timing or connections, etc, then you're not not looking deeply enough.

Last week I talked about the fact that you'll have little chance to influence if you get upset when you get rejected. If you can't get past that, you'll never influence.

The next lesson on influence is just as important:

To influence you must have intention. But few very people actually know what intention is. It's extraordinarily powerful and it's a tool you can learn, master, and apply to your whole career.

But first, you need to know what lack of intention looks like.

You're trying to make something happen. You're trying to influence someone or trying to accomplish something you haven't done before. You'd like to get a result.

You put some time in, some work, but the results just don't come. Ultimately you quit in frustration or you just let it go gradually with some excuse such as, "It wasn't the right time."

Bull Crap.

You didn't get results because you did not apply real intention to getting those results.

• Big Intention = Impressive Results
• Low Intention = Average Results
• No intention = No Results

We all think we have intention. But we don't. We are unfocused, weak willed, unclear, and are willing to settle for the reasons why we didn't get the results instead of getting the actual results.

This is called being reasonable. It's not very fulfilling.

Intention is completely unreasonable.

I sometimes have this conversation with clients who are struggling to get something done. They say they want to get a new client in a certain period of time. I ask them if they are willing to "bet their car" they'll get a new client.

It's hard for them to understand. Sure, they'll work hard and try the best they can, but, heck, how can you promise results? No, they will not bet their car.

Real intention is the willingness to bet your car because you absolutely know you can be counted on to produce a result, no matter what the conditions are.

Now I'm not talking about insanity here. "OK, I have the unreasonable intention to fly to the moon tomorrow." No, that's just nuts. And you know it. It's just a smokescreen.

Unreasonable intentions are not impossible. They are simply commitments made beyond our comfort zone. Instead, we keep setting reasonable goals within our comfort zone. Not a lot of intention needed there.

OK, so how do you create an intention?

1. Get crystal clear about something that you want in your business. Also know the reason why you want it. If it's to make a certain amount of money every month, you need to have a reason. No reason or desired reward, no intention.
2. Get very clear about the cost of not achieving that goal. Look the fear and the pain and the loss right in the face. If you don't get this goal, there are consequences. Know what they are.
3. Now imagine it actually happening. You can visualize it or write it down or do a mind map or talk to a friend about it. Or anything else that makes it real. If it's not absolutely real to you, if you can't see it happening, it's not a real intention.
4. Create a plan. This can start with a quick sketch or some ideas written down. Perhaps you need some help with this - some coaching or consulting. You need to come up with a real, doable plan here. No hoping. Intentions are real, not imaginary.
5. Commit. This is where you make your bet, take your risk. This is when you forsake any alternative to success. You are "all in" and ready to move. Your intention is like a white-hot laser beam and you are ready to do whatever it takes.
6. Take action - any action in your plan that's going in the direction you want to go. No excuses, no reasons, no hesitation. You are now riding on the extraordinary energy of intention. You are unstoppable.

Know why most intentions just end up as good ideas that didn't work out for you? You did a little bit of number 1 and tried a little bit of number 6. You got an idea, took some steps and then gave it up as a bad job. Too hard, too difficult, too time consuming.

A perfect formula for a mediocre life - and business.

On the other hand, is there something you really, really want? Then follow the above six steps and expect miracles.

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Written by Robert Middleton of Action Plan Marketing. Please visit Robert's web site at www.actionplan.com for additional marketing articles and resources on marketing for professional service businesses.
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It seems that "benefits" are not enough to sell your product or service. "They" tell us you must give away "freebies." Instant gratification and all that.

Now rather than get on a roll about what I think about instant gratification - and the babies who demand it - let's just assume that freebies are a necessary evil. Let's think about how to use them ethically.

I've written about jacking up the supposed worth of freebies before, so I won't be redundant here. Now, let's talk about whether your freebies are really free.

First we have something called "shareware." I don't know where this name originated. It seems to mean something that you get to use a portion of until you pay for the full version. Or, they share it with you for a limited amount of time - unless you pay for it. This is NOT free!

Then we have those freebies that I call, "hooks." You are offered something for nothing. But when you start to download or access it - you suddenly find the condition. For instance, you must subscribe to an ezine before you can actually have the freebie. You are paying a price, whether it's money or not. THIS is not free!

In fact, it isn't even honest.

Many ezines give away eBooks in exchange for new subscriptions. Subscribe to the ezine and receive the eBook. Straightforward and honest. The condition for receiving the eBook is right up front.

But when someone offers the "freebie" first, without mention of any condition - THEN demands the subscription before delivering - that's manipulative and dishonest. It's also insulting the intelligence of the visitor.

Please examine your "freebies" - and how they are "given" away. The very basis of professionalism is honesty, ethics and integrity. Don't play cute and think you're fooling your visitors. The word on underhanded methods will spread like wildfire.