Saying “Yes, And,” Building Trust, and Growing a Business

The internet is a weird, cool place. It provides information to resources, information, contacts, and potential buyers, right there at the tips of your fingers. You can get a tremendous accomplished without ever leaving home. Or showering. Or putting your pants on (not that I would know anything about that…).

Of course, the internet is not magic. Too many people use it ineffectively because they don’t understand what it is best used for.

Just because you can send marketing messages and advertisements for free (via email, blog post, tweet, status update, etc.) doesn’t mean you always should. Of course you can mix it up, but too many people just blast nothing but “BUY NOW!” messages.

So, if you are not going to use the internet to blast your prospects with sales messages, what should you use it for?

You can use it for many things:

• Building relationships with prospects
• Addressing customer issues and complaints
• Researching what the trends and challenges of your industry are
• And more

An interesting perspective on this is the idea of using the internet to first and foremost build trust.

This is the entire premise of the New York Times bestselling book, “Trust Agents” by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith. The book explains why and how you should use the internet to build trust in a way that is authentic and that helps you grow your business.

From the description:

“…once you’ve established your reputation, you can build influence, share it, and reap the benefits of it for your business. When you’ve learned a trust agent’s secrets, your words can carry more power and more weight than any PR firm or big corporate marketing department.”

This is a great book that may change the way you go about your marketing efforts and your use of social media.

I’m not going to go into deep detail here about everything the book covers. I would recommend picking up a copy, reading it, and seeing how you can apply the ideas to your own business.

What I want to talk about here is improv comedy.

Yes. Improv comedy.

You see, I was happily reading “Trust Agents” when to my pleasant surprise I came across a section titled, “How ‘Yes, and…’ Applies to Trust Agents.”

Wow! A book on using the internet to build trust and grow a business that devotes two pages to talking about improv comedy. Awesome.

(If you are new to this blog and not sure why that excites me so, it’s because the idea of applying improv comedy ideas to business and life is what my speaking business is all about. I even wrote two books about it: Improvise to Success! and Say “Yes, And!”)

From the book (emphasis mine)

Powerful stuff, eh? The one detail of saying, “Yes, And” makes a world of difference.

When you say “Yes, And,” or at the very least think in terms of “Yes, And,” you are keeping your mind open to possibilities and opportunities.

This is certainly easier said than done. Most of us have a tendency to think and say, “No,” or “yes, but” as a default response. By simply approaching everything in your life with a “Yes, And” approach, you create and find options for your life and business that you would have otherwise overlooked.

Ask yourself, “Am I a ‘Yes, And’ person or a ‘yes, but’ person?” Be honest. Don’t beat yourself up if you realize that you tend to say and think, “yes, but.” At the same time, now that you know, work on developing a “Yes, And” mindset. It can help both you and your business grow.

Now, let me leave you with a final quote from Trust Agents:

“Understanding improvisational comedy has actually made a difference in our business lives.”

Hey, if it’s good enough for a New York Times bestseller, shouldn’t it be good enough for the rest of us?

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Want to learn more about the idea of saying “Yes, And!”? Then sign up to receive your free Pre-Release copy of Avish’s new book, Say “Yes, And!” between Feb 20 and Feb 23!

www.SayYesAnd.com

About

By Avish Parashar. As the world's only Motivational Improviser, Avish uses techniques from the world of improv comedy to engage, entertain, and educate audiences on ideas around change, creativity, and motivation. Connect with Avish on Google+

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