This month we’ve decided to give away our best-selling product. In fact, so’s you don’t even have to bother reading on if you don’t want to, here it is!
Et voila! £200’s worth of learning material to do with as you will. Show the vid, spot the gaffes, discuss better ways – simple! We’ll even send you our “gaffe guide” of mistakes and corrections if you drop us a line.
All we ask is – please pass this forward and share the love!
So now, if you’re thinking “OK, what’s the catch?” (as would have I not so long ago) we refer you to a number of inspiring sources that very much underpin our philosophy.
1 Give and Take by Adam Grant - are you a “giver, taker, matcher or faker”? – whatever path you choose, he says, will have a deep impact on your long-term success (however you measure it)…and guess who comes out on top!? In our video, Mike, the “Coach” is clearly a taker “I need to do this to get my bonus”…..”just be me!”…Perhaps ask yourself how much you feel like helping him once he’s done!
2 The “Goldcorp” story where in 2000, Rob McEwen turned mining strategy on its head by giving away all his company’s I.P. in order to find new gold reserves – take 5 minutes to read this to see what happened!
3 We love the whole TOMS story and, like many others were inspired by Blake Mycoskie’s drive to change things. As trainers and consultants we struggled to achieve the 1:1 model, but now, with “products” we can, and do give away as much as we please..and it feels great!
4 What we’re really talking about here is the power of reciprocity. This week we signed a co-operative deal with these guys. Honestly, they were so open and generous (and of course, they have a great product) that we were falling over ourselves to find ways to pay them back…posting them on this blog is a small step in that direction!
You probably know Roberto Cialdini, but he has some “science-based” views on the matter.
If this hasn’t nudged you to think about what you can give away today, we give up! But if we were making a “HowNOT2: Build lasting business” video, our script notes would say something like:
· Keep your ideas secret
· Even better, lie about your ideas to throw others off the scent
· Take what you can from others
· Only befriend those who can definitely help
· Act like a giver but only concede your cheap stuff
· Only ever give if you’re likely to receive more
· Oh, and if you’re a coach – dispense advice, however bonkers, until the coachee gives up the will to live!
“Enjoy”
2 Responses
Mistrust can get in the way
Thank you Spencer.
I find myself wondering whether we in the training world can find this abundance mentality challenging because we allow ourselves to get all wound up in in IP and copyright protection? Probably because there are quite a few disreputable types who pass off others 'content as their own, sadly. As a result we may find giving away content not exactly an obvious thing to do.
Interesting points Mike
I know what you mean Mike – I used to head up the portfolio team for a large training co. and we were constantly debating what could and could not be used / referenced, and rightly so in some ways. Plagiarism is a crime in some sectors and, as I'm sure you've also come across, some folks not only rip off other people's stuff, they do it wrong! Mehrabian is a classic!
That is one of the joys of making your own stuff, there's no one out there telling us what we can do with it and we've found that ~"give to get" (an old cricket term) is a pretty good policy