Howdy …

Today I’m going to reveal what may be my greatest professional frustration …

This is a more or less unusual post for me … more like one of my “Riggio’s Rants” (if you’re not getting these you can sign up to receive them using the form at the top of the page here: Blognostra). Today I’m going to break every marketing rule there is to demonstrate how they are designed to appeal to the lowest common denominator amongst us all.

It’s frackin’ shocking when people come to me what they “expect” from our work together. It doesn’t really matter if they come to me personally for Private Work … or they come to a Program … or they are a member of one of my Private Access membership programs like UA Carbon … or maybe they attend some special event I’m running.

What people expect from the work they do with me is … something they don’t have!!!

How the heck can I possibly offer what a person doesn’t have to them??? What am I G-d???

I mean come on folks, how long will you fall for this basic B— S— from the marketing community out there … starting with Madison Avenue and the political pundits and pollsters???

Here’s the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth …

No one can give you what you don’t already have …
only you can take it if you want it and it’s available.

Okay let’s step back together a moment …

For about five or seven years now I’ve been trying to figure out how to make what I do more accessible to folks (like you), because my advisors keep telling me, “Joseph you have a great message … BUT you need to make it more accessible … people need this message, and you need to increase readership!”

Now frankly what that has translated into from my point of view (very limited POV indeed) is …

• A) DDTM (Dumb Down The Message) … make it available in 140 characters or less and don’t use any polysyllabic words because the intelligence and attention span of the “average” Internet user/reader won’t tolerate it
• B) MIT (Make It Trivial) … insure that you don’t suggest anything that folks don’t already know and/or are comfortable with today, any challenge to the existing beliefs of your readers and potential customers/clients will be punished
• C) PROLR (Post Regularly Or Lose Readership) … it’s all a numbers game, quantity over quality at all costs, get the sheep in the corral and keep them there, then eventually they’ll buy your message and your “stuff” … e.g.: “Know, Trust & Like” equals income … to do this you have to give them what they want and expect, and consistency ranks up there at the top of the list, so for G-d’s sake get something in front of them as often as possible before they forget and abandon you for the next reality T.V. episode!!!
• D) UIMT (Use Internet Marketing Techniques) … e.g.: explain the entire premise/offer in the headline of 17 words or less, because 99% of your readers won’t get any further than that, use bullet points frequently because readers are PowerPoint trained and like to capture all their fundamental learning in bullet point formats, make sure you hype the message to make it exciting … because information isn’t valuable unless it’s exciting, ideally put your message in the format of a video game where the reader can get points for just being on your site … and of course use acronyms for everything, like KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid)

Now, to be sure, not every guru I speak with or get advice from has said this “exactly” like that … but you can be assured some aspect of that list above is in the conversation … and FWIW I’ve discovered they’re right … if you want “readership.”

BUT I’M MAD AS HELL AND I WON’T TAKE IT ANYMORE!!!

So, here’s the next instruction for you …

If you want to be more entertained than educated, if you care more about what I can do for you than you can do for yourself, if having your cherished beliefs intact means more to you than having the life you desire, if you are unwilling or unable to take the truth … than STOP READING NOW, delete yourself from the RSS feed of this blog, unsubscribe from Riggio’s Rants and move on with your life “AS IS” … ’cause I’m not pandering to the lowest common denominator any more … even if it means I have to start flipping burgers to pay the rent.

———— LONG PAUSE ————

So, you decided to ignore my advice and continue reading anyway … well congratulations, I guess …

Here’s the thing … for years I’ve been what my teacher, mentor and friend Roye Fraser anointed me long ago, “a one-trick pony” … really I have only one trick (if you haven’t already caught my “trick” than either go back through the archives or keep reading at your own risk).

I don’t really want to give anyone anything or offer anything to anyone I work with … except a remarkable clarity of their own.

My “trick” is about first revealing you to you and then from that position helping you get what that means about everything else.

You see “it’s all in there … put your nose up against the glass” and you’ll see for yourself what’s to be seen. When you shift the fundamental operating position you perceive the world from, you shift everything. I call this position your “ontological bias” (see I’m breaking all the rules … I used both a polysyllabic word and one that’s likely to be unfamiliar to a large percentage of my audience … and I told you to stop reading, delete the RSS feed and unsubscribe so if you don’t like F–K Off!)

Now this isn’t a “training” blog where I’m about to tell you HOW TO CHANGE your ontological bias. What I will do though is tell you WHY TO CHANGE your ontological bias, and why that’s so damn important to you.

Let’s keep it simple …

It’s remarkably unlikely your ontological bias is your own … you’re most likely to be living from an ontological bias that’s been foisted on you,  installed in you and sustained from the time you were born …

The most important thing you can possibly realize is that it isn’t yours!!!

This part of the situation isn’t your fault. Really. This occurred before you even had a mind of your own. While you were busy growing a brain, the world was busy installing a mind into it for you … and that still not an excuse to keep it or use it.

What you need isn’t simply a “New Mind” but a BIGGER MIND … one that reaches beyond anything you’re likely to have been taught … and breaks the boundaries of what you were taught you should be reaching for as well!

The way your mind was installed into you wasn’t just purely a function of WHAT YOU LEARNED, but it was more a function of HOW YOU LEARNED.

The learning you received seemed content driven, i.e.: facts and figures … information … stuff to learn about.

BUT … THE REAL LEARNING YOU WERE EXPOSED TO WASN’T CONTENT DRIVEN, IT WAS CONTEXTUAL … I.E.: HOW TO LEARN, WHY TO LEARN … AND WHAT’S WORTH LEARNING!

This “real learning” is what shaped and installed the mind you were forced to live with for years. Based on that “real learning” and the mind that emerged from it … the one foisted upon you … all the levers and buttons about how to move you about were and remain know … and they’re being pulled and pushed every single day of your life … until you do something different about it.

The only real choice about what to do is eject the mind that foisted upon you, installed in you and is being sustained by … everything you “know” to be true about how the world works around you.

This includes what you think is important, what you think is worthwhile striving for, how you think you should behave and respond in regard to others … essentially your entire place in and relationship with the Universe … i.e.: your entire life.

The hard truth …

You can never be truly free … if what you think freedom means is pure autonomy … i.e.: doing what you want, when you want, as you want … regardless of what others are doing around and about you.

You live in relation to others … intimately, intricately, inextricably and irrevocably … despite any protest or desire to do otherwise.

You must by default learn to interact with others successfully … whist never compromising yourself … if you want to be free to live the life you have within you, i.e.: YOUR OWN.

I call this premise simply …

“Having the experience of YOUR life.”

To do this you have to give up.

You have to give up your willingness to go with the flow … irrespective of your personal INTENT.

You have to give up what you’ve learned is “true” … e.g.: “Science has the answers … and those it doesn’t it soon will.”

You have to give up going along … WHILE YOU APPEAR TO BE GIVING IN (most of the time).

This last one may be the biggest “trick” of all because most people hate appearing “weak” or “giving in” … a well trained bias from the early days of your education. Most people actually do give in when they are under duress or coerced to do so, literally or figuratively (my favorite example … assuming the “criminal position” at the airport under the supposed duress of the TSA and their damnable scanners … next time you fly in the U.S., watch … you’ll see 99% of the folks who are asked “assume the position” … under suspicion and guilty until proven innocent … coming to our streets soon I fear).

THE NEXT STEP …

It’s always about the next step.

I only have one step … always … THE NEXT STEP.

It’s critical to remember this point …

YOU CAN ONLY TAKE THE NEXT STEP … NOT THE ONE AFTER THAT!

There you go, my only and most important “take away” point in this whole damn post.

What’s behind it are a few critical things …

1) To take the next step you have to begin by knowing where you already are now

2) To know where you are now you first have to know yourself

3) Once you know yourself you can know something about where you’re headed

4) Once you decide where you’re headed you have to be completely willing to let go of BOTH …

A) HOW YOUR GOING TO GET THERE … and

B) GETTING THERE AT ALL!

This list can be summarized in two statements …

It’s all UNCERTAIN … the only thing you can count on is just how uncertain everything really is …

The most valuable thing youcan get is NOTHING … but first you have to seek it in order to achieve it.

That’s also all I want to be doing these days … NOTHING.
I don’t want to help you grow your business.

I don’t want to help you get rich, or richer.

I don’t want to help you make your relationships better.

I don’t want to make you feel better … or worst.

What I want … and all I have to offer really … is NOTHING

(Best understood after a reading of my book, “The State of Perfection”)

When you get “NOTHING” … you can do two profound things with it …

A) Deal with uncertainty … no matter what.

B) Access your deep intuitions about who you are and how to live your life.

If those two things above aren’t enough for you, then you wasted your time reading this.

If those two things above are enough to make you happy you’ve read this … and you aren’t working with me already, you’re a fool … and I don’t tolerate fools well, so I recommend again you follow the first instruction I’ve offered above, because there’s only more of this to come from me in the future.

If you think those two things are more than enough, and your working with me now … then truly I both congratulate and commend you … because I’m going much further and much faster into this rabbit hole from now on-words … WELCOME!

Carpe Diem!!!

Joseph

Princeton, NJ

P.S. : WANNA WORK WITH ME … come to the Performance Design Workshop in NJ on 6/7 September … I’ve revamped all my fees for this year so the timing couldn’t be better for you!!!

Here’s the info:
PERFORMANCE DESIGN IN NJ 8/9 SEPTEMBER 2012

P.P.S. : If you haven’t yet joined my e-list Riggio’s Rants … and you found any value at all in this post … you need to subscribe to stay current with What’s Next, do it here: Blognostra