I’ve watched maybe a dozen presentations or seminars by marketing great Dan Kennedy. Dan will often poll the room.
“How many of you read fiction?”
People raise their hands and stare at Dan. “You’d be better off looking around the room at what other people are doing,” Dan will often say.
I took Dan’s lesson to heart.
At the copywriting conference I attended a couple weeks ago, I made a point to look around the room repeatedly, throughout each presenter’s talk. How was the audience reacting? I learned some valuable things. Plus it helped me stay focused.
Other times, when speakers were speaking, I took notes. But not of the “how to” information the speakers were sharing. Instead, I took notes of the claims they were making, the language they were using.
“I’m not looking for clients… I’m looking for success stories.”
There were some hot seats during the conference as well. Trevor “Toe Cracker” Crook picked a copywriter at random out of the audience.
This copywriter didn’t really have a clear problem to solve, but there she was in the hot seat. For the next 15 minutes, seven high-powered, highly paid success coaches went around in circles, trying to identify and then solve a problem that didn’t really exist.
During this time, much of the audience slumped to sleep. I managed to stay awake, and not just because of the three coffees I’d had in the previous two hours. I was taking notes again, of the language the hot seat sitter was herself using:
“I guess I just want confirmation. I want somebody to tell me, ‘Your work is great. You should get paid more. You should work less.'”
That could go directly into a sales letter. And besides, it helped me stay focused, awake, interested in the actual experience of sitting in a chair and listening for hours.
This is something I learned once in a book called The Inner Game of Tennis, by a guy named Tim Gallwey.
I long had prejudices against this book, because I assumed it was all about mindset. “You’re good enough, you’re smart enough, and doggone it, you deserve to win tennis matches!”
But that’s not what this book is about at all. I was so pleasantly surprised as I read it. It’s full of practical tips, like the following:
“The most effective way to deepen concentration is to focus on something subtle, not easily perceived.”
The usual tennis coaching advice, if you’ve ever tried playing the stupid sport, is to “watch the ball.”
Most people manage to stick to that behavior for a few seconds, then their eyes wander. That’s why it takes people months or even years before they can reliably hit a tennis ball over the net and into the court.
Gallwey didn’t tell his students to watch the ball. He told them to keep their eye on the spin of the seams on the tennis ball. That’s how he managed to teach people to play serviceable tennis in 30 minutes or less.
And that’s what I was trying to do at that conference also. I wasn’t paying attention. I was focusing on specific, subtle, easy-to-miss things. The reactions of the audience. Repeated words or phrases by the speaker. Sales letter fodder from the hot seat sitter, rather than overt problems.
If you’re looking for deeper concentration, or help with learning anything, maybe this tip can help you also.
And if you want more learning and performance tips, Gallwey’s book has ’em.
Like I said, I was so pleasantly surprised by this book. If you haven’t read it yet, my experience is that it’s worth a read. And it’s worth keeping an eye out for every time Gallway uses the word “rhythm.” Get your copy here: