Say it Better

"Like NetFlix for baby clothes"

That's how Pamela Slim describes a new rental service for parents in Germany that provides everything from clothes to layettes for a fixed price per month. See more "what's new" tips at Springwise.

You, too, can make your idea, product, service or cause more memorable by creating striking comparisons. Here's some examples to get your creative juices flowing.

• Musician Jon Hendricks is the father of vocalese, the art of setting lyrics to jazz instrumental standards and then having voices sing the instruments' parts. That's why Time Magazine dubbed him the "James Joyce of Jive."

• “The Mini Cooper of office furniture,” is the apt tag line of the tiny firm, Turnstone.

• The Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship is called the Davos of social entrepreneurship.

• 30 years ago, H. Rap Brown said, "Violence is as American as cherry pie."

• A woman in the Midwest uses WD-40 to keep squirrels from shimmying up her birdfeeder. WD-40 CEO Garry Ridge can now boast "More people use WD-40 every day than use dental floss."

• "Criticizing a political satirist for being unfair is like criticizing a nose guard for being physical," wrote political cartoonist, Garry Trudeau.

• Redwood Hospital in Northern California used this billboard variation of the popular milk slogan to ask for blood donations:  “Got blood?”

• “Mimicking spider silk properties has been the holy grail of materials science for a long time,” says Jeffrey Turner, president of Nexia Biotechnologies, a Montreal biotech company that produces spider silk on a commerical scale with goats that have been genetically engineered to secrete silk proteins in their milk. Why is this valuable?  Because the silk fibers they produce can be used for everythingfrom sutures for microsurgery and fishing lines to bullet-proof body armor as tough as Kevlar.

Spider silk is a flexible and lightweight fiber, that, by weight, is five times stronger than steel.

• Robert Kosberg, a Hollywood producer convinced a studio to make the 1993 pets -gone-wrong movie "Man's Best Friend." His pitch was “Jaws on Paws.”

How do people act around you?

Lucy asks Charlie Brown, in that classic cartoon, Peanuts, "Why do you think we were put on earth?"

Charlie answers, "To make others happy."

Lucy replies, "I don’t think I’m making anyone happy," replies Lucy. She then adds, "but nobody’s making me very happy either. Somebody’s not doing his job!"

People tend to like people who like them.

Want to feel happier? Do all that you can to bring out the best side in each person who encounters you. Try it for just one day. How can someone demonstrate her best talent or temperament around you? This is most difficult for me when I am around the people who are most familiar to me. Loved ones. Long-time colleagues. We have fallen into habits of how we treat each other.

Do not let somebody else determine your behavior.

Altering the set scripts of how we act and talk takes considerable effort. I know. I decided to dedicate just one day to bring out out others’ better side in each encounter. I flubbed up within two hours. Got cranky when someone was short with me. Made it worse, not better as I escalated the bad feelings between us.

Behavioral research shows we are more likely to spiral down faster into conflict than up into mutual good feeling and behavior. That is, we react more rapidly, intensely and for a longer time to what we do not like that to what we do. The primitive part of the brain leaps into action with the “fight or flight” instinct that once helped us survive yet now leads us to squabbling or worse.

To have a happier life, hone your most crucial life skills. Learn how to disagree without being disagreeable, recognize and use your strengths, become more adept at detecting deception, influence others, become more optimistic, make smarter choices and, last but not least, become more likeable.

Tip: Don’t let somebody else determine your behavior

Powerful new way to sell your book or DVD

Got a book idea?

As of this week, you can now self-publish and sell your print-on-demand books, CDs and DVDs on Amazon via the Amazon-owned CreateSpace. Guaranteed placement (not provided to Lulu-created books). No set-up fee. You must pay for one proof copy. Get extras like Amazon’s Search Inside! and IMDb listing eligibility for DVDs. CreateSpace beats Lulu on price and does not charge for ISBN numbers for books (required for books to be sold on Amazon and to be listed in the Books in Print catalog) and UPC numbers for CDs and DVDs. Lulu still offers more ways to print your book — such as saddle stitch binding and hardcover — and, unlike CreateSpace, enables authors to sell through Amazon’s competitors such as Barnes and Noble.

Who knows? Maybe they'll showcase your book or film or DVD to accompany your published book or...?

How Rock Star Bono Attracts Support, and You Can Too

“Does stuff have to look like an action movie these days to exist in the front half of our brain? This stuff isn't even on the news. We devote more attention to things we cannot prevent. I believe that kind of thinking offends the intellectual rigor of the people in this room,” said rock singer Bono when describing the depth of need in Africa.

By remote satellite connection, Bono was accepting an award for his activist work from TED, an annual meeting of tech wizards and other kinds of trailblazers.

Although he was not with the group in person, most attendees said his message was the highlight of their lively meeting. See Bono giving this enormously moving, well-structured message.

I was captivated by how he pulled in his audience – and I was watching it on my computer.

• Notice how he grabs their attention by moving from the specific detail –a comparison is one of the most evocative details one can use – (“action movie”) to the general conclusion (“We devote”).

“What turns me on about the digital age is: You have closed the gap between dreaming and doing,” Bono said.

“Imagination has been decoupled from the old constraints. I would like to see idealism decoupled from the old constraints. The geopolitical world has a lot to learn from the digital world.”

• He hit the emotion button. He spoke movingly of his travels in Africa, of famine and AIDS and civil wars killing millions of people, of “a continent in flames.”

Warning:
The more educated you are, the more steeped in your niche of knowledge and fervently interested in it you are, the more likely you are to start in the opposite way from how Bono began. You may begin with generalizations. They are not as memorable or as credible as specifics.

People will stop listening before you stop talking.

• Bono evoked the most successful way to inspire people to care about “his” cause – making it “our” cause, proving them with bragging rights when joining..
He made it theirs too.

First he specifically and authentically praised them.

• He evoked the “presumptive close”used by sales folks (presuming a “yes” by discussing the next step after “buying” his message. He did this by characterizing their support of his cause as the natural next step for them to once again use their highest values and talents.

Here's how.

He said, “You rewrote the rules for the rest of us … You changed the digital world. You can change the physical world.”

Notice the power of starting three sentences the same way: “You.”(He did not start with “I.”)
He made his message about them – making their lives more meaningful, not him and “his” cause.

As a credible advocate for his cause, Bono has stayed specific and on message for several years now, thus ensuring that he is congruent, quotable, and a great recruiter for his cause.

Here Bono specifically asks the audience to:
~ Build a movement of 1 million Americans-turned-activists for Africa.
~ Get 2 billion media impressions for the campaign for Africa.
~ Get all the schools and hospitals in one African nation, Ethiopia, wired by the end of 2006.

• One TED attendee, prominent venture capitalist John Doerr, said he was impressed with Bono's “capacity to harness the imagination, caring, and strengths of this community … to move from success to significance.” Note how the power of “s” alliteration strengthens Doerr's comments.

We do not have to be rock stars to make our message so palpable to others that they, too, are attracted to serving a higher cause with their best talents. For more ideas on how to motivate people to act, read Speak English Like it Tastes Good, Bring Out the Best in Others and Be an Author of Your Life Story.

Clockroaches and Other New Words

Years ago trendspotter, Faith Popcorn dubbed the desire for people to spend more time at home “cocooning.” Now we're "hiving".

John Walston and the other creators over at Buzzwhack have a fun newsletter of new phrases or words to describe trends and situations. Some are dumb, some smart and many are funny. They invite their readers to submit own contributions.

A favorite of mine is Microwaiting. That's from Christopher Paulin, who explains that it is “The time spent in front of the employee break-room microwave while your lunch heats up.”

Another is “blamestorming: A group process where participants analyze a failed project and look for scapegoats other than themselves.”

Read more.

Your Metaphor Sets the Stage for Others to See the Scene Your Way

“With emergency lights and sirens or silent speed through the dark, a metaphor travels outside of the usual lanes of logic to gain attention, anchor memory, cause hearts to beat again, and douse doubts, said Anne Miller, author of the book Metaphorically Selling.

She adds, “A metaphor (an implicit, vivid comparison) works particularly well to overcome a blind spot in someone's thinking. Using an unexpected, well-chosen idea, a metaphor “can transport someone from the place where he has dug in his heels to a whole new place, where he cannot bring his emotional baggage.”

For instance, wrote marketing coach Marcia Yudkin, “an insurance broker who couldn't get a particular client to sign the contract sensed that the client thought the idea was wise but didn't feel any urgency to act. The broker learned that the client had a passion for growing apples, visited him in his orchard and asked why he was spraying the trees that day.

The client understood now, and signed.”

Here's some more examples to inspire you to create your metaphor that makes your idea, product, cause or organization more memorable:

The Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship has been called.the Davos of social entrepreneurship.

Musician Jon Hendricks is the father of vocalese, the art of setting lyrics to jazz instrumental standards and then having voices sing the instruments' parts. That's why Time Magazine dubbed him the "James Joyce of Jive."

30 years ago, H. Rap Brown said, "Violence is as American as cherry pie."

"Criticizing a political satirist for being unfair is like criticizing a nose guard for being physical," wrote political cartoonist, Garry Trudeau.

Ready for some "unintentionally silly / mixed metaphors"?

The Processing Power of Your Mind

I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdgnieg.
The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mind. Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch
at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers
in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteers be
in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it
wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed
ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig huh?
Yaeh and I awlyas thought slpeling was ipmorantt!

Isn't it amazing how much our minds can process?

Living Well by Turning Attention to What Matters

“Art is never necessary. It is merely indispensable.”
- New York Times art critic, Michael Kimmelman

“Regarding SPAM, I'm comfortable with the size of my penis, I don't care that young girls want me, I've got more than enough insurance, and I can't help you escape from jail in Ghana, so please, go jam somebody else's in-box.”
- Mark T. Gould, New Haven, Connecticut

“Sex is about appetite. Love is about endurance.”
- Jack Valenti

“Creativity isn't the conclusions you have drawn, but how you pry them back open.”
- David Crismon, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Dilbert-Inspired Job Descriptions

A client who is a divorce lawyer had the audacity to forward the funny one-line job descriptions created by readers of Scott’s Dilbert blog.

1 .   Help people hate each other: Divorce Lawyer.
2.    Stand on a field and get yelled at for hours: Baseball Umpire.
3.    Talk in other people’s sleep: College Professor.
4.    Call people who know what they’re doing and ask them what they’re doing: Incident Manager.
5.    Show people how beautiful the Earth would be without them: Mountain Landscape Photographer/Climber.
6 .   Make people feel bad about their work: Quality Assurance Tester.
7.    Repeatedly fix what you repeatedly break: IT Director.
8.    Clean up an animal that makes more money then me in a year: Assistant Horse Trainer.
9.    Write words that no one wants to read: Technical Writer.
10. Make food that is as healthy before it goes in your body as when it comes back out: Fast Food Employee.

Make Smarter Choices Every Day

Unwittingly, we all make less than optimal decisions, based on what we hear first.  For example, we instinctively compare all options offered to the one we see or hear about first.  Thus that first option skews our thinking. 

Suppose you are shopping for a hammer and the first model the clerk shows you is $39 and the rest are less?
You are more likely to spend more on a hammer than if the first one offered was, say,  $12.  That’s because you were influenced by “anchoring, adjustment, and contamination.”

Other heuristics or “mental shortcuts” that bias our thinking are “Scope,  “Hindsight” and “Confirmation.”  Read more on how we warp our thinking in this concise summary by Elie Yudkowsky from the Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence who I met through my friend, Ben Casnocha. For extreme examples of warped reactions read Shankar Vedantam’s story on how the heat of passion deeply alters behavior no matter how smart, rational or well-trained we are. My favorite book on everyday decisionmaking is Smart Choices.