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There they are, your amazing ideal clients and they love your stuff.

They’re engaged, sharing and really digging your message.

And then someone posts on your page, I think what you’re saying is wrong and then they bring someone else across for the attack.

Or maybe it’s an email.

Or a private message.

You’re not sure whats bought this on as you’re just out there sharing your message to the world and looking to find like-minded people to connect with.

What’s with the haters?

People don’t have to agree but seriously….

Welcome to the world of The Anti-Niche Monster.

Many people get scared of the thought of online haters, arguers, people that come and tell them that they are wrong and disrupt the love on their page and posts.

What if I told you the Anti-Niche Monster is a good thing?

It shows that you are standing up for something and that you are getting noticed.

Having the contrast is actually positive.

Beige and bland disappears online.

How do you battle this hateful angry monster though?

The first impulse can be to block and delete the comments. I’ve been there and done and that and sometimes its necessary to go to those measures.

But…..

What if you could harness that evil bitch and use the words for good? (Or for engagement on your page or ads at least.)

Take what they are saying and flip it to show your expertise?

After all you know your stuff.

When you have niched well and you have a band of loyal followers what generally happens is that you may not even need to be the first responder.

People who love your work and you have connected with and built a relationship with are very quick to defend online. You are an extension of them and an attack on you is like they are personally being attacked too.

This also gives you a good indication of who isn’t a good fit for your work. You may find people you thought aligned with your message are backing the hater.

That’s good.

You get a clear indication of who not to work with in the future.

If it gets out of line and degenerates, screen shot that puppy and then block and delete.

It’s good to have a record of conversation

First stance in my mind it to educate and give the hater the opportunity to learn something and if they aren’t up for being educated then let them be the contrast that cements your fans love for you.

Deal with them from a place of thoughtful action (if your first impulse is to bang out a hasty reply on the keyboard you’re being reactive and very little good comes from that)

Take the time to consider your response and then type.

An anti-niche is a good thing.

I recently figured out that in finding my space and the direction for my work, I have become someones anti-niche.

I’m really pleased.

Not because I want to go into battle with them or don’t respect what they do. What it means is I have found MY voice and MY message, and while in contrast to theirs, it’s being heard.

My niche is finding me and the message is being heard loud and clear.

Love your anti-niche monster and you’ll find over time, they aren’t scary at all.

You’ve stepped up and you own the conversation.

And your niche will love you more.

Is there a space for magic and a space for belief in the unknown when we live in a world full of technology and science and the need for proof?

 

As a child I believed in the traditional catholic god, ruled by fear and shame until after family loss I denounced that god in a fit of childhood rage and pain.

 

I turned into a practical, must see it with my own eyes person.

 

If I couldn’t “see it” (like God) it was not to be an accepted part of my life.

 

A very simplistic view, one that was going to have trouble holding up as I grew into an adult.

 

Life threw lots of different experiences my way, some that couldn’t be proved with my own eyes and some that needed a belief in magic.

 

I was challenged.

 

I hated the hippie free spirits but I never felt I was the intellectual equal of the science types.

 

I began a journey that I didn’t even realise I was on.

 

Where was the space for magic in a practical driven world?

 

It wasn’t in the drug scene dancing all night in clubs on a chemical high.

 

While I did learn a lot about myself through that experience, I got no answers for this question.

 

I worked in photo labs and technology, I went and became a reiki master.

 

I studied coaching and learnt about the brain and saw how science and the woo woo actually worked side by side.

I see three different spaces for spirituality in business and general living that I have traveled through in my life.

 

One: None at all

 

Two: The lets manifest stuff and do no work to make it happen.

 

Three: A mix of practical dare I say science based spirituality but also the attitude of go out and make it happen

 

Where do you sit in that?

 

After years of rejecting the spiritual in my life I have come to a nice space in the middle.

 

You can focus and visualise but the key thing is to still take action.

 

I love science and I love having a science based reason behind why certain things, like manifestation actually occur.

.

I first watched The Secret when I first got onto personal development. This idea of wishing for what you wanted sounded cool, like if you just hoped enough it would happen.

 

What the movie missed, in my experience was the need to take action.

 

It also missed how taking action (the science part) actually helped you create the life you wanted.

 

When I then learned about the RAS and the missed message of The Secret became clear.

 

The umm RAS Trudi? Sounds like a flavour of an icy pole.

 

We have filters in our minds that delete, distort and generalize what we see so we can make sense of it all. That’s why three people can see the same event but see it completely differently, as it depends on how our brains are wired.

 

(Our brain gets so much information thrown at it every second that if we tried to process it all we would fry our brains.)

 

We actually only process 7 +-2 chunks of information per second, that is only 134 bits per chunk out of two million so as this shows it isn’t much.

 

If we let our brain know what we want to have, be or do in our lives it will be looking for those things out of the two million bits so we are more likely to bring it into our lives

 

What we focus on expands is a distinction I teach all my clients.

 

It also showed me that my previous behaviours of do the work, wasn’t misplaced after all. (I was quite often told I had to slow down I worked too hard and its only now after years of feeling guilty for working, that I am getting back into the swing of things again)

 

When you focus on what you want and take action, you get results.

 

Now this may read like it is purely science.

 

I also explored mediation, visualisation, finding peace with the idea of a higher being and what energy really meant to my life.

 

How our emotion, which is attached to the cells in our body actually influences results.

 

So much cool science based woo woo!

 

WOO!

 

Being open to the love and compassion that spiritual people shared but also staying in a space where I was practical enough to ask for what I wanted in life and to take action to create it has made all the difference in my results.

 

Do the meditation, embrace the energy, the shadow, your guides and use them to focus your mind to propel you towards what you want.

 

Practically Spiritual works for me: love, focus and action!

 

What works for you?

Theres nothing more disappointing than not getting what you expected. Not enough or even too much can leave you feeling let down.

 

When it comes to making content manageable and digestible, size really does matter.

The problem is when people start out creating content it is a common practice to want to give the clients all of the things all at once.

 

It’s overwhelming, even though it is done with the best of intentions.

 

Chunking is something that not only happens in content creation but is also a tool in coaching people in mindset.

 

Get the problem in the correct sized chunk and it makes it easier for people to deal with it, understand it or step out of it. (It depends on how big or small the chunk itself is)

 

So who do we get the chunks right?

 

That is a great question.

 

Imagine you are going to your favourite restaurant.

 

You order your meal, it’s exactly what you have wanted to experience.

 

The flavours are balanced, the fork puts the perfect bite size piece, one piece at a time into your mouth and you can chew it easily.

 

It’s the perfect size and you enjoy it.

 

It gives you just what you need and your body digests it comfortably.

 

There’s no feeling of having to recognise too many flavours or over eat to clear your plate. (How many of us grew up being told to clear out plates, as there were starving kids in Africa that would love our food. Get some “must get value or I’m a bad person” guilt much?)

 

Also if the plate isn’t over filled with too many different things, you can truly appreciate what’s in front of you.

 

Just like in the restaurant, people like to be able to have bite-sized pieces of information to digest.

 

It gives them the information in a way that they can appreciate and absorb.

 

There’s no overflowing plate when content is done correctly.

 

The client gets the lesson they need.

 

They don’t end up with a tummy ache and they complete the course feeling satisfied.

 

A great indicator that you have a good chunk size is it has one key ingredient (or outcome) for the client to learn at that point.

 

Like any meal, there’s also a flow.

 

Entrée: a small starter to whet the appetite

 

Main Meal: The crux of the dining experience, this is what they have really come for.

 

The dessert: That final sweet part of the over all visit to the restaurant.

 

Or in content creation and marketing speak.

 

The freebie (entrée)

 

The online course (main meal)

 

The outcome (dessert)

 

Like a quality three course meal, there’s not too much on the plate and they can get the main flavour with the accompanying hints included.

 

When serving up the dish that is your content, make sure it tastes good.

 

Every single bite.

You’ve been on webinars and the presenter has been so dull you’ve struggled to stay awake. The content held so much promise but “yawn” really the delivery is so boring.
You’ve been to live events where you can just tell the presenter LOVES the sound of their own voice. They get all hyped on stage talking at you, but they don’t seem interested in hearing your voice or connecting.

You’re ready to level up and start getting an idea, message, your legacy pout into the world and you want to do it right.

You want your students to be engaged, learning and telling their friends about your work: IN A POSITIVE WAY!
Your content is too valuable to not get it right the first time. 

Don’t be THAT GUY! The guy that puts people to sleep and teaches them content that they forget in a day.

Dr Tomasz and his finance Mare were four weeks out of running their first retreat in Bali. The retreat was being run for students preparing for their Gamsat exam, this being the exam to get them into medical school.

Both Dr Tomasz and Mare had experienced games before and knew that this was something that they wanted for their own students.

The initial calls saw us delve into the outcomes they were after for the students. There were many including things like:

• Being able to perform under pressure in their entrance interviews,
• Understand interviews from the interviewers perspective while staying ethical demonstrating an understanding of the guiding principles of medicine.
• Personality profiling, their own and others
• As well as team building, leadership and conflict resolution

 

There was a lot in there so we knew immediately that two games would be needed. We then moved onto the next step of the process. This was the Games Design Questionnaire. This is where we where able to dig even deeper into the outcomes required for the game.

The questionnaire allows us to not only understand the outcomes but to also get a snap shot into how this fits in with the rest of the training. How are they being taught the outcomes of the game, prior to the game running? What will be happening to support the learning immediately after the game has run?

We also start to explore theming ideas and any other points of consideration before the creation of potential game mechanics occurs.

Dr Tomasz and Mare supplied in-depth information and very clear outcomes, which allowed us to move into the the theming and mechanics as the next phase of custom creation for our clients.

The first game was about interviews and understanding guiding principles.

Client notes:

Making sure they understand and can apply the guiding principles of being a doctor:
1. First, do no harm “ sometimes it’s better to stand by and do nothing than to try something that will be harmful
2. Confidentiality “ not disclosing private information unless the patient/friend/colleague says they’re going to hurt themselves or someone else.
3. Autonomy “ people have the right to make their own decisions no matter how ridiculous your think they might be.
4. Beneficence “ acting in the patients best interests, they come first.

After some discussion between Ben and myself we agreed that instead of getting the students to follow the principles that we would stretch them to totally go the opposite way and completely disregard them.

For this to work we would need an environment that was fun, loud and not close to the real life every day environment of doctoring. It also needed to be in a space where the guiding principles wouldn’t/couldn’t be adhered to.

The theme of the old west and the charismatic, sneaky, snake oil salesman experience was born. The students would need to sell a product that had no real benefit to the client, thus throwing principles out the window and in the process they would also experience questions around ethics and make buying decisions based around said principles.

The mechanics required needed to keep all students engaged while one pitched so we created an environment where if you weren’t pitching your wares, you were being pitched too. The students pitched, asked questions, and stayed a part of the whole experience.

Dr Tomasz and Mare said YES and Miracle Medicine was the outcome.

Bingo. One game down: second game to go.

The second game was to teach the personality principles. It wasn’t about just understanding them but also about applying them in stressful situations so we knew we needed to make a game that perturbated and stretched the clients.

Client notes:

1. Students will know how to identify their own personality profile.
2. Students will understand what their strengths and weaknesses are.
3. Students will be able to identify areas to work on through the rest of the course (EG: reserved person will understand that they need to speak up about their experiences instead of fading into the background OR lively will understand that they need to learn to be quiet when they are being spoken to etc).

A game that involves building and teamwork generally does the trick so the next step was a theme. Artificial Intelligence and programing these robots to best suit the work was the idea after a brief discussion.

These robots were needed to cover a shortage of doctors in a future time of famine, war and disease.

Looking at the mechanics of the game followed. Robots are programmed so the programming mechanic was decided and then the robot build was found. We always test builds for ease or difficulty of build and to test how the students outcomes may be affected.

The robot was going to be a challenge, but that was the part of the games outcome, for pushed students to be able recognise their own personalities. Doctors need to be able to communicate and cope under pressure.

Dr Tomasz and Mare said YES and Intelligent Insights was born.

Then the documentation began.

Our games have between 30-60 pages of supporting documents. These documents cover, Rules and Objectives, Debriefs, Facilitator Flow (Pre-teach and scripts) Game Tracks and AV Flow plus general logistics. Game dependent they also include cut out sheets, stickers and handouts.

A game takes on average three days to build after the theming and outcomes have been decided on. We based our games on real life data (Miracle Medicine used traditional Chinese healing medicines in the game, some proven to have results some not so much) and the characters used to teach the games tie in with historical figures.

Due the themed nature of our immersive games, we use characters or Faculty as we call them to run the experience. So for Miracle Medicine Dr Tom became Dr Bruce Wells and for Intelligent Insights Mare became Professor Ivana Asimov.

The games were very well received by the students, the day flowed and the outcomes where met. Dr Tom even got to try out his hand at an old west accent. Apparently that needs work for the next time the games run.

And the beauty of these games that they can be run again, even with the same students.

Gamified events, memorable and educational due to the intensity and fun nature of the games.

Are you a creative facilitator ready to level up to games at your event? Contact me today for a complimentary content review and gamification analysis.