The Kevin Miller Podcast

Even if they are listening, are they really hearing? Meetings. PowerPoint presentations. On stage talks, whether you are a pastor, presenter, or teacher. Selling. Anytime you are speaking and want people to really listen and be engaged. Chances are, you’re doing it wrong. Or, you could do it better. Jared Cooney Horvath is a cognitive neuroscientist with a master's degree from Harvard University and his doctorate from the University of Melbourne. His muse however, is the workplace. It’s selling and communicating and he walks us through what is normally done and why it’s so ineffective. He brilliantly lays out what the brain does when we talk while showing text, and we can only follow one, not both. He tells us why images add so much, but how many? Truly folks, this will resonate with you right off the bat and give you tremendous tips on what to do and what not to do in your next presentation of any type. It’s why he’s been featured in The New York Times, PBS, BBC, The Economist, New Scientist and ABC’s Catalyst. I shared this Jared’s book with a doctor and she responded that she stayed up late and totally reworked the presentation she was doing at a conference the next day. I’m prepping for a keynote speaking engagement overseas and following along with Jared’s counsel to structure the entire talk. The book is "Stop Talking, Start Influencing: 12 Messages from Brain Science to Make Your Message Stick" and it’s our focus of this episode. Find it on Amazon or wherever you buy books! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We generally approach conversations like we approach walking, you just do it. You don’t think much about it. While we aren’t judged too much on our walking, unless you’re a runway model, we are definitely judged, or maybe I should say responded to according to...how we do conversations. That reality is dramatically maximized when we have an agenda...when we are trying to influence someone to do something. Whether that doing is go on a date with us, getting kids to do homework or chores, or the big one...sell our product, service, or idea. Most everyone listening is at some point trying to sell someone, especially in our work, businesses, and careers. We are directly selling a product or service or idea and we are always along with it, selling ourselves. You may be trying to sell someone on giving you a raise or a promotion. So again, how do you go about it? Do you have any strategy at all? We talked with Phil Jones in episode 723 and some of what we covered was from his book, “Exactly What To Say”. With this topic in mind, I asked the Ziglar audience this question, “If I was really interested in your product or service and you had the chance to pitch me on it, right now, do you have any strategy for what you would say and how you would say it?” Ziglar’s roots are in sales, so I had Tom Ziglar join me in this show where we’ll work to cover this topic and help you understand a strategy you want for yourself. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Boom. You wake in the morning and often the first, conscious thought is a worry, concern or anxiety. It sounds negative, but it may just be how our minds work, to first deal with any threat. But it’s not an optimal way to start the day and if we hold on to the worry it will likely taint the whole day. Neil Pasricha’s tactic is to take that thought captive in the first seconds of his day, and “let it go”. He writes it down in his journal to get it out of his head. Then he also writes down something he is grateful for and what he will focus on. He calls it his Two Minute Morning and actually sells a journal by that name that is a bestseller. Neil was my guest in show 727 where the topic was, quit living your fragile life. I encourage you to visit Neil.blog and subscribe to his podcast, 3 books with Neil Pasricha. And you can get his just released new book, “You Are Awesome” at neil.blog or wherever you buy books. This is our habits episode and it was the mental spoke where he shared his waking routine that kick-starts his day. Hear more about it and his habits in the other spokes on the Ziglar Wheel of Life, in this show. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You daily, if not hourly, speak a series of words that take away your personal power. That steal your opportunity for power and control of your life. You may think it’s benign, but it absolutely is not. I brought on a special guest to discuss the issue. In this episode I have a dramatic mind hack for you. I’m actually not a fan of the whole “hack” terminology, as I don’t believe they exist...everything is a process. But this is one is hard not to give the “hack” label to, as it’s a very significant mind and life bender. The premise is, in many ways we’ve become a culture of victims. We justify and blame at an alarming rate. If right away you think, “Hey, that’s not me!” I did too, as I am not prone to place blame on others and I take full responsibility for myself. But wait, what about the circumstances? Even there, I thought…”I don’t make excuses!” Then I started listening to what I say and how often I make statements starting with, "I have to _____", "I've got to _____", "I need to _____". It’s just human nature, no different than when we see someone and say, “How are you doing?!” We aren’t actually asking how they are doing, it’s just a cliche’ way to say hi in America. Likewise, we habitually say things like, “Well ok, I’ve got to go to work now!” And, “Hey, I’ve gotta go pick up my kids.” Or, “Oh my gosh, I need to clean the house.” These are all, in truth, victim statements. They place blame on an object or circumstance or task and it takes us away from personal responsibility and the reality that pretty much 100% of all we do are things we want and choose to do. So I asked the question to the Ziglar audience, “Do you think it would be possible for you to replace all of these statements: "I have to _____", "I've got to _____", "I need to _____" - With: "I want to _____" ???? The very first response said, “Yes!” and the second said, “ If you want to lie to yourself”. The discussion went on from there. I brought on a special guest Dan Miller. My Dad. The reason why, I divulge right up front. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We live in a time of more conveniences, automation, safety, knowledge, and creature comforts than ever. In all reality most of us have a buffet of resources that should make our lives today easier than ever. Yet we seem to be sicker and sadder than ever. As a matter of fact, in regards to personal growth, health, and wellness it’s difficult to find any stat where we are improving. This is astounding. In this episode, renowned author, speaker and podcaster Neil Pasricha believes a root issue is our lack of resilience. The official definition of resilience is the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness. But instead of pushing for anything great and invariably failing here and there, and learning and getting tougher on the journey to success (being resilient), more and more we are just striving to play it safe. Get it right the first time. Neil showcases the tragedy of this and schools us on having a “failure budget”. It’s a very needed and freeing message that Neil delivers in a beautiful paradigm. Neil Pasricha thinks, writes, and speaks about intentional living and is the New York Times bestselling author of five books, including his latest, You Are Awesome. His book, The Book of Awesome and The Happiness Equation, have together spent over 200 weeks on bestseller lists and have sold over 1,000,000 copies. He hosts the Apple 'Best of 2018' award-winning podcast 3 Books which features live conversations with guests such as Malcolm Gladwell, Judy Blume, David Sedaris, and Chris Anderson of TED. I encourage you to visit Neil.blog and subscribe to his podcast, 3 books with Neil Pasricha. And you can get his just released new book, “You Are Awesome” at neil.blog or wherever you buy books. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As we continue to breach the hard questions, this one is a doozy that massively affects our relationships. In this episode we hear a six minute message from Zig Ziglar where he shares a story and from it poses the question, “Why don’t we treat everyone like they are a VIP in our lives?” He cites the impact our perspective of another holds in our relationships. From his message I asked The Ziglar Show audience this question, “How much responsibility do you feel you should take for the relationships in your life, from spouse to parent to coworkers and beyond.” And boom...the responses came in. Right away the majority were either 100% or 50%. But differentiations were made between relationships, especially regarding work or parenting and positions of authority. I’ll preface the show by saying this is not a black and white issue. But knowing what our belief is will greatly influence the health of your relationships. It is a foundational topic we would all be best served to make a decision upon. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What do you do to keep your mental edge sharp? This is the answer from Phil M Jones, our guest in show 723, “In my permanent quest for better, I follow every major activity I do with what I call the four Rs, my process is pretty structured; Reflect, review, refine and reschedule. First, I reflect. Then I review, ‘What did I like best?’ Then I refine, ‘Next time, what would I do different?’ Last I reschedule, ‘When will I utilize what I learned’?” That is a structure worth adopting. I also appreciated a primary ingredient for his mental wellness was great music appropriate to the mood he wanted to foster, as this is key on my personal list. He bookends his days with no devices which is something we discussed in my True Life Show podcast, episode six. Regarding financial, Phil says he knows what a day of his time is worth, even down to a wholesale cost any activity must equate to. And this is interesting, in his career spoke right now his most challenging issue is he's already outperformed any expectation he had for himself. That's surely not the norm. Those and more interesting and inspiring habits from Phil M Jones, in this episode. Look for Phil’s books at Amazon or where you get your books, "Exactly What to Say", "Exactly How to Sell" and "Exactly Where to Start" just type in Phil Jones Exactly and there you’ll have it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

That show title is a volatile question that will ultimately shape your life trajectory. All of us have made good and bad decisions that have resulted in making our circumstances better or worse. Hopefully we take responsibility for these decisions we know we made. Then there are the circumstances in our lives we did not choose and can not control. They happened to us; a hard childhood, abuse, car wrecks, toxic people, job loss, handicap, and much more. They were not our fault and we are not to blame. But how do we let those issues affect the rest of our lives? That...is a decision we all get to make. So for this episode I posted this question to the Ziglar audience, “Do you honestly believe that your current circumstances are a result of your personal choices?” What followed was 54 of possibly the most lengthy comments we’ve ever had, and some healthy debate. You may receive more freedom and empowerment from this show and topic than anything else we’ve ever covered. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“The worst time to think about the thing you are going to say is in the moment you are saying it,” says Phil M Jones, my guest in this show. Though we all know it is incredibly common to not think at all when we speak, we just blurt out whatever we think. Success comes from intentionality and training. As Zig Ziglar says, we are all in sales. Selling is influence and when it is done from love it is truly caring and connecting and serving someone. A speaker on stage with the most profound message ever will utterly fail the audience if they are not proficient in how to keep a crowd’s attention and adeptly get a point across. Likewise in any conversation you can utterly fail if you do not know some basic strategies of communication. But the great news is you can almost always succeed...if you are aware and prepared. This show will do this. Phil is the author of “Exactly What To Say” and we also get into the message from his new book, “Exactly When To Start.” He’s actually the author of five international best-selling books and has done over 2,000 presentations in over 50 countries across five continents. He’s an incredibly quote worthy individual, some quips I noted down included, “Change your words, change your world,” and “If you do now know why you are doing it, then why are you doing it?” We talked a good bit on that one. And from a literal sales tactic, the chapter on this lead in is incredible, “I’m not sure if it’s for you, but…” As you will hear in the show, I literally edited a promotion of mine after getting this from Phil. Look for Phil’s books at Amazon or where you get your books, "Exactly What to Say", "Exactly How to Sell" and "Exactly Where to Start" just type in Phil Jones Exactly and there you’ll have it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Do you have a product or service? Are you good at selling it? Between those two things is marketing. Getting interested parties in front of you. Key in on “interested”. Most of today’s marketing casts a very broad blanket out into the digital world and hopes to find the right people. Zig Ziglar referred to that as pursuing “suspects”. He was fond of “prospecting”, where you pursue people you know are interested in what you have to offer, based on three measurements or as Tom Ziglar says, “qualified” people. In this show we listen to a four minute message from Zig on prospecting, then I asked this question, “What type of marketing works best for your business?” (and what is your business?) Tons of responses. Tom Ziglar and I talked through a bunch of them to bring you a great crash course in what you can be doing to appropriately prospect and have more or the RIGHT people to sell to. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices