Chris Pizzo asked:
In Judo, Tokui Waza means “favorite” or “best” technique. It’s the throw that fits naturally to your body type, and you have practiced it thousands of times to make it an instinctual response. Everyone at the club or local tournament knows that you’ll use it, but there’s nothing they can do to stop it…you’re just that damn good at it.
Same thing goes in business. Everyone needs to have a carefully prepared and practiced Tokui Waza. Of course, you are not going to toss your clients, customer or superior over your head (Although that would be nice sometimes) but you are going to have to knock their socks off from time to time with some sort of presentation. And regardless if you are selling the project you’ve been slaving day and night on, your company’s product or service, or your own personal qualifications, victory will only be achieved if that presentation is perfect.
Now don’t get nervous! Just like in Judo, if your Tokui Waza presentation is strong enough, it will work in almost every situation with just slight variations. Therefore, you only have to develop one “core” presentation and then you will be able to seamlessly fold any “new” aspects of each new situation into the mix.
Alright…Let’s build your “core” presentation.
Something in your life has previously motivated you. Whether it is a song, a speech, an article, a passage in a book, whatever; find it and copy it down longhand (that means write it out for you youngins) ten times on a legal pad.
The purpose of this is to steal the “rhythm”. While you may mistakenly thing that the actual “words” are, motivating you, in reality it is the sequence and chaining of the words to one another that are invoking a rhythmic association within your brain. And rhythm is easily imitated through repetition. Next…
We’ll begin with selling yourself. Your “core” presentation should reflect the idea that you are on the job interview of your life. You must sell yourself to gain whatever dream getting this job will fulfill. A yacht, $300 million dollars, a Rolls-Royce…whatever.
Start with your own personal story of hardship. Whether you had to solve a problem, battle a disease, fight an unbeatable higher power, your story should reflect the idea that you too had a “problem” that needed to be solved.
Next, isolate and agitate the hell out of the problem at hand. Blow it out of proportion, use “worst case” scenarios as daily occurrences, build on whatever potential there is for the shit to hit the fan and the apocalypse to be right around the corner
Finally, use all the tools we’ve talked about in previous issues; authority, emotional control, proof, E-factors, customization, strengths, benefits, etc., and start to build your solution.
Now if you did the rhythm exercise properly, your incorporation of the “Problem – Agitate – Solve” formula into your writing should have a similar and successful flow.
If you used a song as your motivation, there are probably repeating key facts, points, or details that mimic the chorus. If you used a speech, there is most likely a smooth mix of “highs” and “lows” that imitate someone speaking passionately about a subject. A passage from a book or a scene from a movie? Then your storytelling will emulate the emotion and paint visual “word pictures” in your listener or readers mind. All powerful, powerful stuff.
Great! Now practice your ass off!
That’s right; not only do you need to memorize your presentation, but you must practice it every chance you get to “nail” all the little crescendos, jokes, inflections, and facial expressions you envisioned as you were writing it. There is no shortcut for this. Only practice, practice, and practice some more.
Through this practice, you gain something so powerful, so dominant, so influential that nobody in his or her right mind will be able to say “no” to you once your Tokui Waza presentation has been delivered…
The unfaltering confidence and utter conviction that you are the ONLY answer to whatever problem needs solving. And that my friends, is true power.