Be Different or be dead

December 21, 2018

How power words can be used to communicate better than anyone else

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How power words can be used to communicate better than anyone else.

Word are persuasive. They can cajole, convince, and compel people to act.

They are the backbone of successful marketing. Selecting the right words that resonate with your audience can be an arcane art — but it doesn’t have to be.

By choosing power words that impact your customers’ emotions, you can lift your copy to dizzy new heights. Here’s how.

Recommended reading: If you can’t reason with people attack their heart.

The psychology behind words

As humans, we are unconsciously predisposed to act on words that convey emotions: fear, uncertainty, pleasure, desire, and so on. The words you use tap into unconscious emotions, which in turn compel your audience to act.

For instance, if you ask your friend to call you, you could expect a call tomorrow, the day after, or in a week’s time. But ask your friend to call you now, and you can expect a call instantly.

These words are known as power words, words that elicit a strong emotional response. This could be a positive one, such as happiness or excitement. But it could equally be a negative response, such as fear or anger.

Emotional states can be leveraged to compel people to act, with each emotion driving your own desired outcome.

Take your blog, for example. Your headline is the most crucial element in urging readers to click through and read.

And when readers see dozens of headlines everyday as they trawl the web, power words make yours stand out. “7 Tips For Writing Better Blog Posts” is fine. But “7 Secret Tips For Writing Inspiring Blog Posts” has that little extra pizzazz that makes it shine.

Different power words will evoke different emotional states that will compel the audience not just to click on your blog post, but to dig deeper into what the blog says.

But it’s not just clicks and views that you can get with power words. Ecommerce stores too can benefit from power word-laden product description that drive sales and boost profits.

Consider chocolate stores for example. Confectionery especially lends itself to sensual, powerful words such as “gooey” or “gourmet”, which evokes the senses and makes the customer’s mouth water.

So using power words in your product descriptions don’t just help you sell products — they even help you sell your business itself, giving it deeper intrinsic value.

Exclusivity is everything

I don’t need to tell you that temptation is a powerful thing. Power words that tease with the promise of value or reward are irresistible to your audience.

Some examples include:

Banned
Secret
Elite
What They Don’t Want You to Know
Controversial
Behind the Scenes
Insider
Forbidden
Confidential

Each of the above evokes feelings of intrigue and desire in the reader.

“Controversial” in particular is used regularly by gossip magazines to compel the reader to read on. It promises scandal and shock, urging people to buy their publications for more of the same.

Look at the example from Vogue below:

Source: Vogue

The use of “controversy” and “reveal” tantalize the reader, offering a glimpse into something no-one else has seen. Of course, this isn’t the case, but by using these power words, Vogue urges the reader to click through and read each piece.

Takeaway tip: your makeup tutorial isn’t just a makeup tutorial. It’s an “elite makeup tutorial from industry insiders”. Add value to your content by giving it exclusivity and tempting your audience into reading on.

The art of anticipation

Inspiring words can be that one thing that drives someone to do something to better themselves or lend a helping hand.

There will always be difficulties in life, but those problems are not what controls us as individuals or the world. These words can make your readers feel the same way.

Some examples of words that inspire and encourage include:

Hope
Passionate
Sensational
Courage
Bravery
Caring
Sacrifice (in the proper context)
Triumph

These words speak to our desire to better ourselves, to lift ourselves out of our current situation and into something better. By articulating these words, you stir these same emotions in your reader.

Takeaway tip: rather than selecting “useful writing quotes”, provide “inspiring writing quotes that will galvanize your writing today”.

The power of “free”

Nothing compels action more than the offer of something for nothing. Whether it’s a free product or a discount code, we can’t get enough of freebies.

Everyone could use a little more money, and even those rare few who don’t feel that way still take their finances seriously.

Giving people easy ways to earn or save money is a great way to build a readership. And it’s perfect for sales too. Adding a freebie or discount to a purchase will drive sales and engagement with ease.

Add these words to your website, online store, or blog:

Free
Savings
Jackpot
Rewards
Dollars
Sell
Sale
Discount
Fortune
Double
Triple
Gift
Increase
Gains
More

Takeaway tip: the words above are perfect for building email lists or boosting clicks. Offer a free downloadable ebook (in return for signing up) or the promise of increasing their sales (when they read your guide) to enhance your blog.

Fear is a powerful thing

Making people afraid will get their attention. We see this in the news all the time, as stories get conflated to apocalyptic proportions on a daily basis.

Sometimes, like with severe weather, this sort of fear-mongering is necessary to get people to listen and possibly save their own lives. Other times, it’s used to trick us into buying unnecessary amounts antibacterial soap.

Still, if you’re going to do it, here are some scary words.

Abuse
Prison
Debt
Terrorist
Risky
Assault
Crime
Victim
Toxic
Infectious
Nightmare
Lawsuit

Takeaway tip: while fear power words have their place, use them sparingly. Excessive usage will ultimately repel your readers rather than compel.

Your blog’s audience are people, and while people in any given demographic can have similarities, they are individuals. Words used in one way will have a different effect on different audiences.

Pay attention to which words and phrases get the most engagement and reaction from your readers, and use them accordingly.

— Victoria Greene is a freelance writer and brand consultant. She writes over at VictoriaEcommerce. Here, she likes to share tips for wannabe thought leaders looking to make an impact online.

• Posted 12.21.18 at 03:14 am by Roy Osing
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December 17, 2018

3 easy communication strategies to move your career ahead

3 easy communication strategies to move your career ahead.

If you can’t effectively communicate, your career will face some difficult uphill challenges.

Try these 3 communications tactics to advance your career; they worked for me.

1. Establish YOU as the #1 fan of the organization’s strategy

One way to separate yourself from the inside crowd is to be seen as one who is ahead of the change curve and to establish yourself as the zealot and avid advocate and supporter for your organization’s strategy.

Use your communications skills to make that evident.

Organize events to discuss the direction of the organization and what it specifically means to everyone. Talk about what it means to sales, marketing and customer service. Be as granular as you can to help paint a picture of what the strategy means to the various functions in the organization.

Don’t intellectualize the discussion.

People will tune you out unless they feel you believe what you are saying. If you are passionate in your communication, they will believe!

Use rich visuals in your presentations. Most people have to work hard to interpret words and numbers, but they get it right away when they see colourful and clever graphics.

Tell stories that bring the elements of your strategy to life.

Stories have the power to visually communicate what the strategy looks like when it is successfully being executed.

2. Build your personal brand

Active communication is vital in building one’s personal brand.

One dimension of my personal brand was customer service; I eventually became known as “The Service Guy.”

I spent excessive time with frontline people, conducted employee service workshops – which I dubbed my Bear Pit Sessions — exploring new ideas to implement and take customer service to a new level.

I was frequently asked to speak at employee rallies and meetings to explain the new service journey we were on.

The media were extremely interested in our organization’s service strategy as well; I did many interviews and personal air time rose.

Other organizations would also invite me to speak at conferences and to their employee groups.

The company’s service image and my service brand grew harmoniously.

3. Demonstrate your leadership abilities

It’s one thing to get employees to understand what the organization is trying to do strategically; it’s quite another for them to be emotionally involved in helping to implement it.

Passion is an amazing thing. When people are intellectually convinced that change is required and are emotionally all in to make it happen, transformation occurs.

I chose every opportunity to engage with employees on what the company had to do differently if we were to survive a dramatic shift in our business from a tightly regulated business to one that had to thrive in a highly competitive market.

I had weekly meetings scheduled on my calendar to ensure employee conversations were a priority.

I painted a picture of what winning would look like in the trenches battling it out with the enemy. We discussed the opportunities this new world would present to everyone and the excitement and satisfaction we would all receive by beating a common foe.

My focus was not only on the company’s plan; but also on the “gory” details of how to execute it.

Good communications skills are a requisite for a successful career, but they are not acquired overnight; they require constant practice to refine them.

Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead book series

• Posted 12.17.18 at 04:05 am by Roy Osing
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December 10, 2018

Pick one single thing to make your day really awesome

Source: Unsplash

Pick one single thing to make your day really awesome!

“Have a great day” is an expression we here every day. It’s an expression of genuine hope that someone will more than fulfill themselves in the hours ahead of them.

It’s an aspirational declaration in the sense that the purveyor of the thought throws the statement at someone, spraying it out with the intent of conveying their good wishes.

There are, however, two missing elements to this laudable intention.

▪️First, with all the chaos and dynamics in today’s world, wishing someone “a great day” doesn’t go far enough.

We need to cheer them on to having “an awesome day”; an unmatched day that blows away their imagination.

If you can’t reach the awesome state, chances are you will fall short of satisfying your expectations.

▪️Second, there should be advice available to help people achieve awesomeness; a template of sorts people can follow to at least have a fighting chance of experiencing a daily high.

In my life and career, I’ve wrestled many days to try and grind out a favourable outcome; I hope one or more of my personal learnings work for you.

Get up early
The day has time limitations so you have to get moving. Awesomeness demands you extract the maximum value of the day; you can’t do that if you’re supine.

Getting up early means you can nap in the afternoon without feeling guilty. If you can’t nap because of what you do and where you are, at least take a moment and breathe.

Follow your instincts
Leave your plan for the day behind, or at least don’t have your agenda for the day consume all of your day.

Let your day flow. Focus on doing stuff without an agenda because it allows you to discover things; experiencing stuff that is completely new.

Full disclosure: I have difficulty with this and have not mastered my own words.

Write
To give your day closure, write about it — about anything you witnessed that strikes you; an event that is memorable or interesting.

You are an expert on something — your own views and thoughts — so express them. To yourself if necessary, or share them with others.

It’s amazing how people respond to the honest thoughts which are always unique in some compelling way.

I have recently started following the blog of Gabe Anderson, a musician who expresses himself daily. His posts wreak with simplicity and honesty; check him out.

Do something different
Force yourself outside your comfort zone; amazing days aren’t achieved by staying to the script you’ve always followed.

We are all creatures of habit, but habits are boring and are definitely not a source of awesomeness.

Change your routine; do lunch at a different time and with someone you don’t know much about. Make a call — NO! don’t use social media — to someone on your contact list you find potentially interesting.

Cast off the cloak of compliance and do something outrageous. It’s good for your soul and it will serve as a self injected adrenalin rush.

Stay connected
Check in with a friend or family member; all it takes is 15 minutes — you can afford this slice of time, right?

We all need grounding during each day; personal engagement gives us the confidence to march on into the potential abyss that awaits.

We need people who have our back so send a text to “your person” — yup a text to a special person in your life is ok; a personal call is not necessary.

It doesn’t have to be a complicated contact; reach out with emotion and tell them you are thinking of them and ask them how they’re doing.

Solve a problem
Being able to solve a problem and see the result is an incredible day booster; it’s genesis is our education system and what has been drilled into our heads for years — achievers solve problems.

Make sure your day has a problem to solve. It could be a personal dilemma — you annoyed one of your favourite people — or an issue at work — the sales guys aren’t following the marketing strategy.

It really doesn’t matter what the nature of the problem is, what’s important is that today you deliver a solution to something that matters to you.

At the end of the day awesomeness is achieved when we can reflect back on what we’ve delivered to make life easier for something or someone; problem solving makes us feel useful.

Sweat
A body in action is exhilarating; endorphins are released and a high is produced.

Find a way to work your body during your waking hours; force it to do what it was made to do. We were not put here to be sedentary; unfortunately we are the recipients of technologies that allow us to escape arduous activity.

Find a moment or two during your day to push your body to perspire.

Perspiration begets awesomeness.

Feed your mind
Pick an issue of the day that causes you to stir emotionally.

Dive deep to understand the various points of view surrounding it as intimately as you can. One awesome day must be a leading indicator of others to come; your intellect has a major role to play to ensure a continuum plays out.

Exercise your left brain capabilities to augment a strong feeling component of your persona. When your passion is coupled with strong reasoning on your topic of choice, awesomeness happens.

There may not be a formula for achieving total awesomeness for your day, but there are some practical and proven actions you can take to realize portions of it.

Have a go.

Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead book series

• Posted 12.10.18 at 04:37 am by Roy Osing
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November 30, 2018

7 healthy habits of successful people you need to adopt

7 healthy habits of successful people you need to adopt.

If there’s one thing that all successful people have in common, it’s good habits.

Rather than leaving things to chance, most of them know that triumph comes from self-reliance and being able to tackle problems that come their way, and they always make room for self-growth.

If you want to lead an impressive life full of achievements, it’s crucial to take a look at how these powerful people hone their skills and what they do every day to stay at the very top of the social ladder.

Eager to tap into your potential and discover the secrets of prosperity? Then adopt these seven habits.

1. Become an early riser

You’ll simply get more done. If your mornings are productive you’ll immediately feel like you’re using your day well, and you’ll get the added benefit of finishing things when everything is quiet and there are no distractions.

This also means that you should go to bed early because getting enough sleep is very important if you want to be awake and energetic during the day. To make it easier, try to establish a pattern that you’ll stick to even on weekends—while it might be tempting to sleep in on Saturday, it can actually mess up your routine and make you feel constantly tired.

2. Use fitness to grow confident

Successful people put their wellbeing first, and one of the most important parts of a healthy lifestyle is exercise. If you work out regularly you’ll become fit and have a ton more energy, and you can tone your body and make it look really good.

All of these things are an immense boost to confidence, so pick an activity you can enjoy and try to stay consistent. Swimming, running, doing sports, or doing short home workouts are all great ways to exercise, and you can also go to the gym and see about hiring a personal trainer if you need more help.

3. Eat for health

If you want to feel good in your own body you’ll need to have a decent meal plan.

Start by cutting down on sugar and junk food because this will reduce the levels of inflammation in your body, and then introduce more veggies, fruit, and lean meats into your diet.

You should also consider stocking up on some useful supplements like CoQ10, vitamin E, and glutathione because all of these have antioxidant properties that can benefit your cardiovascular health and keep you safe from infections and diseases.

Eating well means you’re ready to invest in yourself, and there’s nothing more important than taking care of your own needs.

4. Have a planner

It can be in form of an app on your phone, or it can be a small notebook. Pick whatever you prefer, and make sure to really use it every day.

A planner will help you manage your time well and remind you of any important meetings and events, and writing things down will mean you get to have all your thoughts in order.

Bullet journal is also an option, so pick whatever suits your lifestyle better.

5. Cancel distractions

The best way to maximize productivity is to minimize distractions. If you know you have to get something done, get down to it and stop checking your Instagram every few minutes.

Forget about social media, forget about poking at your phone, and just stop finding things to pull your focus away from the task at hand.

6. Make no excuses

We all have dreams and we all have ideas. The difference between those who are successful and those who aren’t, is whether they know how to make those ideas into reality.

Stop finding excuses about why something can’t be done and start finding solutions—adopting a go-getter mindset makes a world of difference because it forces you to become crafty, to fight for things that you’re passionate about. Sitting around and despairing over dreams that are out of your reach never got anyone anywhere.

However, getting up and becoming active, getting stubborn and pursuing your interests—that’s the key to making it in the world.

7. Surround yourself by positive people

Negativity has a big impact on us whether we like it or not, and being surrounded by petty, jealous people who do nothing but whine can seriously degrade your confidence.

Instead of staying close to people who seem to complain for a living, find a crowd of positive, successful people. Find those who are eager and who don’t mind hard work, and soak up their good energy.
They’ll inspire you to act in a similar manner, and the world will be a much brighter place once you get out from under that rainy cloud of cynicism.

All of these habits are really useful, but bear in mind that you don’t have to adopt them all at the same time. Take small steps and work towards a goal, and success will soon come.

— Luke Douglas is a fitness and health blogger at Ripped.me and a great fan of the gym and a healthy diet. He follows the trends in fitness, gym and healthy life and loves to share his knowledge through useful and informative articles.

• Posted 11.30.18 at 04:42 am by Roy Osing
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