Few days ago, had me being dragged out of my house by Ejiro Energetic EJ, to Dubai Festival City, for a day out. Left to me alone, I would have been indoors as usual, working.
We decided to see the movie ‘Top Gun: Maverick’, a sequel to the original Top Gun movie which was released almost 36 years ago. Spoiler alert: It lived up to expectations as Tom Cruise is a Master at his craft.
However, as Leaders of Thought, one doesn’t just watch movies for entertainment, we look for the lessons within and think about how they apply to us in life.
There were many lessons from the movie but I will share just 2 of them with you.
- Show, don’t tell.
- Think, don’t do.
This post is about the first lesson. I will do my best not to spoil the movie for those who haven’t seen it yet.
The premise of the movie is that Navy Captain ‘Maverick’ who is played by Tom Cruise, is invited back to teach the new recruits of Naval Air Pilots, how to carry out a very dangerous and important mission.
Maverick has never been a teacher and he would rather be a Pilot than teach people how to be one.
He struggles with the teaching process as the flight plan which he designed as the strategy to successfully carry out the mission, has never been done before.
In fact, every single one of the student pilots fail to successfully complete the trials and Maverick is asked to step down and leave.
He confides in his friend who tells Maverick to find a way back and do the right thing because if those student pilots fail, they will die. They needed to see that his plan was possible.
So what does he do? He changes his teaching style. He goes from telling them how to do the plan, to showing them how it’s done. Ergo, he flies the plane himself.
Guess what?? He succeeds! This helps the student pilots believe that it is possible.
Long story short, they use the plan, albeit with a few hiccups, but they successfully carry out their mission.
If you are in the information business (whether as an Author, Speaker, Teacher, Course Creator, Coach or Digital Product Creator), it can be very difficult to tell your students that an idea, system, plan or strategy is possible, if they haven’t seen it done before.
This is why you must learn to incorporate “showing” into your marketing and teaching strategy.
How do you “show” in your marketing strategy?
- You tell your story, with proof.
- You share testimonials from your successful clients
- You share feedback from your students
How do you “show’ in your teaching strategy?
- You do walk-throughs and live tutorials
- You create (products, systems setups etc) live as they watch
- You use live volunteers from your audience and solve a problem for them right there.
Incorporate these strategies in your next class, course, coaching program, book, membership and mastermind, and you won’t struggle to make sales or get repeat customers.
Got it?
Now, I will send the second lesson on “Think, Don’t Do” to my newsletter fam exclusively. I won’t send it here. Be sure you are signed up on my newsletter so you don’t miss it.
So, which of the strategies will you be trying first?
