Last week I was listening to a podcast on my way to giving a seminar in Charlotte and Raleigh in North Carolina. I was reviewing my presentation, and going over my opening lines. To start, I planned to compare a financial product to Vegas. I then would explain how certain parts of finance are like Vegas and gambling .  It was going to be edgy, I thought. This presentation was going to be different.

During my drive, I was listening to an audio book that is called Fascinate Your 7 Triggers to Persuasion and Captivation. In a section of the book, the she said, “You don’t have to be great. You just have to be different”. And so I thought, “what can I do that is totally different than what they are used to?”.  Yes, I am going to have my PowerPoint. I am going to preform. I am going to communicate. But what can I do that is remarkable? I needed something that would stick in their minds and get their attention.

What Can I do To Stick In their Minds?

As I was driving, I was brainstorming what this “different” will look like. I started to sketch on my notepad how my idea was going to unfold. Its going to work like this, and I am going to do that, and I want to talk about this and am going to pause here…. I decided to go to the bank and pull out $250 in cash to be “different”.  I used this money to illustrate investments going up and down.   It was a lot to do on my drive in. Why not just stick with what I created and be happy with all my weekend work? Why make changes last minute and stress myself out?

I literally pull up in front of where I was going to be giving the presentation, open the laptop, spent twenty minutes cranking out the new slide.

Catching My Audiences Attention

Luckily, I double checked all my numbers and I got them all right, but I went in, I did the presentation the but my hands were a little e shaky handing out that money.  At one point I did hand out the wrong change and the audience was laughing and joking around but I tried to stay focused. The second day in Raleigh, North Carolina was much easier. I did the whole thing, I learned where I messed up and that I should count and organize the money ahead of time, continuous improvement (in japanese it’s called Kazen) 🙂 by the end of the second day the compliments started to flow.  It wasn’t great but it was different.

So, from a personal challenge, what can I do that is different then than everybody else in my industry?

What can you do that is different in your industry? What can you do to differ from everybody else? Is it a better quality of service? Perhaps a different type of service? Are you letting your passion out more?  Make sure you’re getting excited!

Do something different than everyone else, as soon as you see/hear “normal” that should be a trigger to stop and put some brain power into changing it!