PRODUCT
YOUR UBS – UNIQUE BRANDED SOLUTION
Inspired by a pimp!
In May 2013, when I presented my Tri-Summit Storytelling System at the Public Speakers University/Professional Speakers Academy in London, people liked my speech and my storytelling model so much that during each break I was surrounded by a huge number of people who asked me just one question: “Where can I buy your products?” This really hit me hard. I personally was not taking my own potential seriously. Absolutely everyone was selling their products. Someone jokingly told me that even a pimp had recently written a book and was designing his video products!
If I had had a (video) product, I would have made more than 200 sales that day. Lesson learnt the hard way!!!
After coming back to India, I acted really fast. I started selling three of my offerings as video products. As of now, I offer video products to almost all of my ‘live’ programs.
In your journey as the Million-Dollar Solopreneur, one of the major ingredients is A PRODUCT, a solid offering. That solid offering
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is what I call your own Unique Branded Solution (UBS). And, I am not talking about the medium here. A book, a DVD, a video solution, or a workshop is not your product; these are just mediums for your product to reach out to your audience. What I mean by
‘your product (your UBS)’ is a framework, a model, or a structure around your product so that people can “see” it, “feel” it, “get” it.
Imagine this: In a book, you may loosely talk for 400 pages about how to be an effective manager/leader, and there will be hardly any takers. Or you may create the first-of-its-kind billion-dollar speaking-and-training-enterprise by writing the best selling management book (absolutely commonsensical wisdom packaged beautifully) of the last century:
The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People (Dr. Stephen Covey)
You and I both know that the wisdom offered in this book is nothing new. If asked how to be effective, even without reading the book, a large number of people on this planet can talk about almost the same stuff as Dr. Covey does in this book. So this begs the question: what made this book the one of the bestselling Personal Management books of all time?
The answer: a model, a structure, a UBS.
Let’s see the model in some detail:
• It contains a visual: a visual model is extremely easy for people to “get”. You may think of anything from a circle, a pyramid, a square, a flower, a tree... whatever. But a visual model is immensely useful. It is a great ‘tangibility’ tool. This particular model talks about various stages. The first stage is to move from Dependence to Independence (this can be done in three ways:
‘Begin with the End in Mind’, ‘Be Proactive’, and ‘First Things First’ – these three contribute to your Private Victory). The second stage is to move from Independence to Interdependence (this also can be done in three ways: First Understand, then be Understood; Synergize, and Think Win-Win – these three contribute to your Public Victory). And finally, at each stage of
111 the game you need to keep on Sharpening the Saw (shown in the outer circle), which means, whether you are at the first or at the last stage of the model, you need to keep on learning new things.
• It contains a STEP-BY-STEP numbered model: seven habits. We understand really well in steps; steps make the whole process very ‘tangible’, very doable. Otherwise rambling through 400 pages without having a sense of a model can be very frustrating to a reader.
• For 25 years, Dr. Covey taught the same model to millions of people in various workshops around the world; now his son is expanding his billion-dollar enterprise. This is the power of packaging the same age-old wisdom in a tangible model.
Dr. Stephen Covey’s Model on The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People
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Let’s see a few more models:
Two of the most famous books of the recent times, The One Minute Manager by Ken Blanchard & Cash Flow Quadrant by Robert Kiyosaki, follow a simple visual (quadrant) model. Both these authors own multi-million dollar speaking/training/consulting businesses.
The funny bit is that every manager already knows what Ken Blanchard is talking about. Directing, Coaching, Supporting, and Delegating are the obvious functions of an effective manager. But because of a model, the book sold millions of copies.
Robert Kiyosaki went one step further: he didn’t even give the names of the steps in his quadrant; he gave just the initials. And Kiyosaki is one of the most sought-after global speakers. A model definitely helps.
113 Let’s see two more examples: Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs has lasted strong for 70 long years not so much because of the contents of his theory but because of the pyramidal structure that Maslow assigned to his theory (a visual model).
And lo and behold: Tony Robbins, the most shining example of Solopreneurship of the modern era, simply adapted the entire Maslow’s model, renamed the steps, added one new step (uncertainty), and created his visual/numbered model of Six Human Needs.
And as a Solopreneur, Tony Robbins has made the maximum money from stage in the whole world, EVER! Picasso had a saying:
“Good artists copy; great artists steal.” Seemingly, Tony took Picasso’s advice just too seriously.
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The moral of the story: the most obvious and commonplace wisdom, if packaged, modeled, and presented correctly, can make you millions.
We have seen two models so far: a visual model and a numbered model. Let’s examine one more model: The ACRONYM model.
Among the countless other books/products that follow this model, one of the most successful books of the modern times, Made to Stick by Chip Heath and Dan Heath, clearly stands out with its SUCCESs model. (see next page)
One of the most effective models is an ALLITERATION model.
Some of the best Solopreneurs/teachers around the world use this amazing model to great effect.
• Craig Valentine (in his keynotes) uses 3G’s to Greatness and 4R’s to Remarkable Results. He owns a multi-million-dollar speaking business.
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• Philip Kotler’s original 3C’s and 4P’s of Marketing.
Throughout my life, I have also used these four models (visual, acronym, alliteration, and numbered) to create my UBS’s.
Let’s see a few:
The Solopreneur Blueprint – from Passion to Profits (alliteration + visual)
This whole book has been written around this model. The model tries to show you how you can become a Million-Dollar Solopreneur by following the exact steps mentioned here.
The Jet-Set Speaker System (the background here is an airplane – a visual model). Within the same model, there are a few ACRONYM models such as The Stress Free Speaker S.Y.S.T.E.M., S.T.A.Y. and Pay Positioning, and Kick-S.T.A.R.T. Content Creator.
117 The truncated Tri-Summit Storytelling Model (Alliteration + Visual):
Each letter S in the above model stands for a specific attribute of a well-told story.
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The Engagement Matrix for engaging your audience (Visual + Alliteration):
Another Visual + Numbered model that I have used very successfully is called the Rapid Results Generator:
119 I am personally a huge fan of Acronyms. Some of the acronyms that I have used very successfully are:
• The Design O.C.E.A.N. (Observing, Connecting the dots, Experimenting, Asking questions, Networking)
• A.P.P.E.A.L. – Adorable Personal Positioning Exuded All Life
• B.O.L.D. – Beware Of Lady Dynamites
• The I.M.P.A.C.T. Work Equation (Inspiration, Mastery, People, Alarm, Contrast, Thrill)
• N.E.U.R.O. Seduction (Novelty, Emotion, U-focused, Rebellion, Objectivity)
• O.C.T.A.V.E. formula for acing GMAT Reading Comprehension (Opinion, Contrast, Tone, Avoid, Verify, Eliminate). This acronym has given me millions extra in business. When I didn’t have a video product, students overseas came to study this model in my classroom sessions.
• Kick-S.T.A.R.T. Content Creator – Salting, Teaching, Anchoring, Relating, Takeaway/Technique
• Stress-Free Speaker S.Y.S.T.E.M. – State, Yourself, Stance, Tonality, Eye-Contact, Movement
• S.T.A.Y.-and-Pay Positioning – Subject, Time, Audience, Yourself
• From S.T.U.C.K. to S.T.A.R. – from “Sore Truths Under Corporate Truths” to “She Turns A Rock-star”
Also, the “Seven Steps to a Top-One-Percent Business” is a step-by-step (numbered) model that I use very often.
Think about your solution. What models can you create around your model?
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