CMI Blog

Creating an authentic connection with others can be tricky. Understanding the other person's experience, not the image we think their life is, is what it's all about. How do they actually feel?
Chris Bashinelli explains why connecting with others' experiences is vital.

One of the best ways to deepen our connection with one another is to do our best to understand the other person's experience, not the image of what we think their life is about.

When we look at someone and say, Oh, I wish I could travel like this person, or I wish I could be in a relationship like this person, I wish I could live in this type of house in this type of city and have this type of job.

It can be a very objectifying experience. We're actually removing ourselves from the other person because we're comparing ourselves only to the image of what we think their life is about. Not to the actuality of their experience.

When we can interact with others and do our best to understand their experience, not the image of what we think their experience is, then we can actually build connections. How does this person actually feel when they're travelling? What is this person's experience in their relationship with their family? In that house? In that type of job? Then we're not comparing ourselves to that person's image. We're not trying to understand their image, which is objectifying and creates separation between us and them.

What we're doing is we're creating a direct connection to their experience, and that person feels seen. That person feels heard. And we can actually build humanity, authentic connection with one another.

"Hello, and welcome to the Pandemmys!"

That's how host Jimmy Kimmel kicked off The Primetime Emmy Awards on Sunday September 20, 2020 in Los Angeles. Covid19 has drastically changed how award shows air, but as they say in show business, the show must go on!

So The Rocky Mountain Emmy Awards, a division of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, went virtual too.

From ABC's American Housewife, Daniel DiMaggio announced Clint Pulver's nomination for Clint Pulver: You're Not a Problem...and he won!

Join us in congratulating EMMY WINNER Clint Pulver!

Read instead of watch:

Here's some of the principles that we typically talk about regarding on-camera excellence and building your on-camera persona. I feel like there's a version of us that we have to think about when we're on screen, and how that version comes across.

You know, one of the things we've all heard is “You’ve got to love the lens”! You’ve got to look right into the lens of the camera, and it’s just so unnatural. It's counterintuitive because we want to watch people and so you find you watch their little pictures on screen and see what they're doing and what their body language looks like. That's what we've been told in all our training classes for so long.

“You’ve got to watch people” but it's not accurate. If you want them to feel like you care about them, like they really matters to you, you have to ignore their picture completely. Just pour yourself into that camera lens and let them watch your picture.

Read an excerpt from Heather Younger's blog below and follow the link for the full post.

"The other day, I hosted a LinkedIn Live to discuss the racial divide and how we can all show up as better humans in these turbulent times – particularly in the face of people who are demanding less talk and more action. 

As an African-American woman, I believe we MUST continue to have these discussions, because they need to remain top of mind. We have to remember that this is not just another news cycle. This is a reality for so many."

Read Heather's full blog post here for her top takeaways on how to navigate the racial divide at work.

The teams, companies and organizations who are thriving right now are all doing these three things:

1. They discover new opportunities, particularly trusting their front lines.
2. They change quickly, drastically streamlining their processes of development and implementation.
3. They act decisively, with extreme determination, allowing autonomy in stepping beyond what they’ve done in the past.

Here is what YOUR GROUP needs to be doing right now:

1. Discover opportunity through frontline innovation: Your teams, sales people, service providers, frontline associates see what is happening in real time. They see the daily needs of your customers and clients. So… why not trust them? Why not encourage their input, their connections with the full needs of the customer, not just what they’ve always done? Why not grant them the authority and autonomy to serve beyond what they’ve done before? Instead of a formulaic drone response, why not dig deeper, expand your offering, care for the full needs of your customers?

Solution: Arm team members with the “What IF?” Mindset. What IF… your teams expand from “service providers” to “problem solvers?” What if instead of doing what you do, your teams do whatever needs to be done? What if you used a given product or service in a new way? What if you could solve the entire problem, not just the one you've always solved, how would you do it?

2. Change quickly. This requires first a mindset change, which leads to a change in actions. Regard people who are uncomfortable with change as being uncomfortable with success, but humanize the change by talking openly about their fears regarding change, balanced by the great results which come from it.

Solution: Arm team members with the mindset to “create change" or "lead change" instead of just managing or embracing it. The questions What IF and What NOW??? work amazingly here. Create a sense of openness and urgency to change.

3. Act decisively. Decide and act. Determine your next course of action, your "change," allow some due diligence, but cut through your bureaucratic crap, lose the fear-based thinking and get on with it. Yeah, you need to be a bit less cautious. Not stupid, but bold.

Solution: Imbue your teams with the “Succeed Anyway” mindset. We’ve never done it? Succeed anyway. We don’t have enough money? Succeed anyway. It’s an untested solution? Succeed anyway. This is what is working right now. From Walmart and Amazon to Orkin to credit unions to your local churches and schools, those who are successfully navigating a post-pandemic world have the mindset to 1. Discover opportunities; 2. Change quickly; and 3. Act decisively.

Read instead of watch:

I'm out here in the Arizona wilderness and I'm struck by something that might sound kind of unusual; the power of consistency. I believe it's the most powerful human force on the planet.

Here's what I mean: water and wind blowing consistently over rock has done more to change the earth than all the earth moving and blasting equipment ever.

Investing a little bit of money each month has done more to create wealth than all the Vegas lottery winnings in the world.

What is it that you do on a consistent basis that improves your life and consider what you do on a consistent basis that might not improve your life? I want to share with you what I believe is the absolute most important consistent habit - your thoughts.

What is it you think about on a regular basis? I believe you get what you think about most often.

I want you to take intentional control of your thoughts and do it on a consistent basis.

Read instead of watch:

If I was to ask a room of 1000 people who in this room sees themselves as open minded, I'm pretty sure that somewhere like 900 hands would shoot to the sky.

Why is that important?

Because that fact teaches us a great deal. What it teaches us is that almost everybody likes to see themselves as open minded. The fact that we can now use that evidence in our conversations to get people to consider our ideas is really quite profound.

Why is it profound?

Because when you take that and you add it to the fact that the person who's asking the questions is the one who's in control of the conversations, and you insert that fact in the form of a question, what you can do is get people to consider your point of view with an increased chance of them considering it properly. We take the fact that people like to see themselves as open minded as a question. The question would be: how open minded are you?

See if I was to ask somebody how open minded they would be to something the likelihood of them then becoming accepting of that ask is significantly higher.

How open minded are you at looking at an alternative supply to that?

How open minded are you to saving money?

How open minded would you be to understanding another way that you could approach that?

I mean, how open minded would you be to utilizing the words how open minded are you more often to get people to really consider your point of view and perhaps then take action on the answer that follows?

How do you help your sales team feel more confident, deliver powerful customer experiences, and navigate uncertain times? With an innovative shift in mindset and proven processes for creating customer connectivity, trust, and loyalty.

That’s where sales keynote speaker and retention expert Clint Pulver comes in. In this timely and important message, Clint helps sales professionals unlock the power of “mentoring customers” rather than “closing them” in a sales conversation.

Read more about Clint's virtual experiences here!

Read an excerpt from Ty's newest keynote topic Fear, Failure, Focus: The Ninja Warrior Mindset:

Let's think about fear for just a minute. I think fundamentally, there are three main things that we fear. First we fear loss. We fear giving up something. We fear change. This is why we resist change so much and why we’re worried about what we're going to lose. Our mind plays this game that's a “what if” and if your mind starts to play, it automatically puts a negative thought in there. Our job is to switch that “what if” to a positive and so you have to focus on what you are going to gain and not what you are going to lose.

The second thing that we fear is the process, we fear the unknown and we resist something that's new because it's hard. We don't feel competent and or confident in that new idea, new system, new skill that we have to develop. But psychology teaches us that there's a cycle. It's called the competence confidence loop. What happens is, as you start something new, when you start to build competence, that automatically increases your confidence, which automatically increases your competence. And it just keeps going on and on. 

The third thing that we fear is the result. We worry that it's not going to work out or that we are going to fail. Or maybe we're going to go down this road and it's not going to be what we hoped for. 

So here's a couple ideas on how you can manage your fear:

• First idea is to write it down. If you write it down, if you vocalize it, if you give voice to what it is that you fear, there's something cathartic about that process. 
• Number two is to approach fear with curiosity. Ask questions, try and dissect it, try and understand it. Because when you can understand the fear where it's coming from and what it's telling you, then you can logically deal with it without the emotion. 
• Number three, sometimes you just have to act. Sometimes you just have to have a couple of seconds of insane courage to move forward. What I found is that every successful entrepreneur, every successful Ninja, they value courage.

Keep watching for a full keynote description coming soon!

Vinh Giang has completely redesigned and reimagined what a Virtual experience can be. Whether you are looking for - An Inspirational Virtual Keynote Experience - or- A Virtual Masterclass Experience Teaching World - Class Communication Skills - Vinh has you covered. NOW at a discounted rate! Watch a clip from a recent virtual session and contact us for pricing.

“I loved every minute of it and was 100% engaged the entire time, which is NOT something I can say of usual trainings or webinars. He is one of the best speakers I've ever listened to."

- SHI Virtual Presentation Attendee

Learn about Vinh's virtual sessions and watch more clips from his talks!