All of us have a metaphorical bucket representing how we feel from moment to moment. But how do we keep that bucket full and keep ourselves brimming with positive energy that not only improves our own lives but the lives of others around us?

Are you using what you’ve learned in your NLP training to shine a light on what is right in life instead of what is wrong?  How do people “feel” when they are around you? What impression do you create? What impression do you leave?

Richard Bandler stresses that NLP is nothing more than an attitude that has left in it’s trail some great techniques that have been developed as a result. This attitude of curiosity stems from the desire to understand people, how they ‘work’ (perfectly) and how to improve lives.

If our lives as practitioners of NLP is to improve those around us, than it’s worth modeling people like Tom Rath.

You can do this from reading his book “How Full is Your Bucket.” I could write a long review but it doesn’t need it. It’s an easy to read book, to the point, and if you practice the principles your interactions with others (including your customers) will improve. He’s also the author of Strengths Finder 2.0 and several other books. Here a video to give you a taste of his book.

Each Friday I conduct two sales training classes, a basic “fast track” class followed by a more advanced “sales mastery” class on behalf of The Performance Group, a sales development company in Des Moines, IA.

What I’ve learned most, recently, is that salespeople have become really skilled at getting in their own way. Or perhaps letting their “thoughts” get in their way.

Luckily, Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) has taught us some specific ways to use our brain.  That doesn’t mean we always “use” what we know.

Most people do not use their brains deliberately – if you stop and think about it. Instead your responses are automatic. If you have a sales presentation that ended up bad, do you walk away and find yourself re-living the experience? Five hours later and you are still in the same state, re-living it over and over. Beating yourself up over it, mentally. “If only I would have…” “I should have said this…” “I didn’t ask the right questions…” “This damn economy!” Whatever.

I invite students to listen to the voice inside their head. Notice the tonality, the volume (how loud are you talking to yourself!?), the pitch and rhythm. And then notice how you feel when you speak to yourself this way.

I had a salesperson say to me last week, “It’s hard to figure out what I did or what to do differently after I’ve done a bad presentation.” I responded, “No kidding. How could you expect to with all that you have going on inside you head afterwards. There is not room for resourcefulness when you are drowning everything else out.” Literally.

Once you understand, deliberately, how you are thinking, you can begin to do it differently.

It takes a conscious, deliberate effort to think of someone that has said something to you that was particularly pleasing. Then to take those sub-modalities and talk to yourself in that way, with the same critical ‘content.’ Noticing how differently you are able to respond to the same critical words is your test. If you aren’t getting the change of state you desire, change more sub-modalities until you get the results you are after. Perhaps you hear the critical voice in the voice of someone that makes you feel great when they talk to you. Why not?

But is this only for dealing with your “self-talk” after you have a sales call go bad?

No.

It’s for before you have a sales call go good.

So before you sell, “use your brain for a change.” (In the words of RB).

Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) is most certainly an attitude and methodology for successful living. Living in a time where most of where you turn people are discussing the negative (the economy, the administration, terrorism, etc), it’s refreshing to get some useful advice for taking on any challenges ahead in the new year. Here, Richard Bandler, shares his advice going forward into 2010.

There really isn’t just one governing body with a universal list of established competencies that one has to demonstrate in order to “earn certification” in NLP. There are several certifying organizations and they all have their own criteria for “NLP” certification.

This means there are many different levels of “NLP Practitioners” out there claiming different levels of expertise and competency on the subject.

Of course anyone can read a few books on NLP and then call themselves “practitioners” and even a “NLP trainer.” Why not?  Here is the shocker: Some of these people may actually be better NLP Trainers than those who have gone through many weeks, even months of NLP training with a certifying organization.

How could that be so? Because the real test of NLP is application in the real world. Using it to better your life and those around you and getting results.

In my case, I studied with Steve Andreas and his training team at NLP Comprehensive 15 years ago, and to this day there is much of what I learned during that training that has impacted my life and career.

I have since studied with NLP Co-Founder Richard Bandler and John LaValle and feel strongly they have the best set of standards for measuring a person’s competence in NLP and I’m confident they wouldn’t recommend someone who didn’t have skills. I also learned a great deal from Rex Steven Sikes, a master trainer and now performing mentalist. They provided the more advanced foundation for my NLP learning experience. Their certifying organization and one I recommend is the Society of NLP.

The rest came in applying NLP in the real world. In my case, in business and life.

But none of that training would matter if I didn’t use it. I’ve witnessed (too) many people who have studied NLP, attended all the training’s and yet still don’t advance in their skills or application of NLP to business and life.

As a business practitioner of NLP and Trainer, I’ve been training managers and salespeople each year how to improve using NLP methodology. From this comes a new attitude, new approach, and new techniques they apply to growing their business. This application of NLP has also kept if fresh for me. It’s helped me grow as a trainer and expand my knowledge base of NLP.

I believe there are MANY different levels of NLP Trainers out there (despite how much training or how many years of courses they’ve attended).  I’ve met some trainers (and watched NLP trainers on video) who claim they are “experts” on NLP but they bore the socks off of you in 5 minutes because they don’t know how to manage their own state.

I’ve met others who are passionate about what they are teaching, and have demonstrable knowledge of NLP in the words they use, and the state they are in when you are with them.

My recommendation is to train with a trainer who makes you feel good. A trainer who appears motivated and can motivate you. A good indication of their ability to be effective training you, is to take a look at how they’ve advanced their life (personally and professionally) using NLP – if they can do it, you can learn (model) it from them.

NLP was originally co-founded by Richard Bandler and John Grinder. While many years ago their partnership split and went different ways, they both still continue to train others in NLP. I’ve trained with Richard Bandler and highly recommend him and his partner John LaValle. His style is much different than Grinder’s as you will hear, see and feel in these videos responses.

NLP Co-Founder John Grinder answers the question, “What is NLP?”

NLP Co-Founder Richard Bandler answers the question, “What is NLP?”

What can we learn from the book “Using Your Brain For a Change” by Richard Bandler that we can apply to selling?

About everything.

If you’ve read the book (or studied NLP), it’s no surprise that our emotions come from pictures we make in our minds, what we say to ourselves, and feelings in our bodies.

It is very important when a person makes a picture in their head if they see themselves in the picture or if they see what they would see through their own eyes if they were there. You can detect your prospects pattern by listening to their language and picking up on their nonverbal gestures as well.

If a person sees what they would see through their own eyes if they were there they will have the same emotional response as if they were there.

When a person sees themselves in the picture they will only experience the emotions that they would experience watching someone going through the experience.

The first state is called “association” and the second is called “disassociation.”

You want your customer to associate to the benefits of your product/service and to dissociate from the drawbacks.

To increase or decrease the degree of emotional involvement discover which submodality changes affect this. The critical submodalities are focus, brightness, distance, and size.

If a prospect is in an undesirable state use a pattern interrupt (more posts on this later) to break their state and then direct them to the state you want them to be in. To get them to change their state, get them to change their physiology. This means you may have to be creative. Thank goodness for NLP.

In future posts I’ll  discuss how to adjust, change, or amplify your customer’s submodalities naturally in conversation.

Richard Bandler discusses what professions can find NLP helpful.

Source: If you are in the UK -- then visit http://www.nlplifetraining.com who publishes these videos on youtube.

This is worth watching…modeling. Richard Bandler works his NLP magic, and luckily this can be learned once you apply it yourself.  - Joe

Part 1:

and here is Part 2:

Do you like card tricks? Are you good at figuring out card tricks? This NLP Blog is intended primarily for those wanting to expand their NLP skills and particularly in the areas of business management and sales. The most important foundational skill I will refer back to is paying attention (developing sensory acuity).  Why? Because it’s usually the one people take for granted.

Richard Bandler and John Grinder, when they were first modeling people like Virginia Satir, Fritz Perls, and Milton Erickson, were exceptional at looking for the non-obvious. They were able to track patterns, detect what worked and what didn’t work. They were able to decipher often times the most obvious things that other “observers” and “listeners” missed. They were truly “modelers.”

Watch this video -- follow along every second and see if you can figure out this card trick. It’s one of the best Card Tricks I’ve seen and VERY HARD to figure out. Whether you are a fan of card tricks or not, you’ll love this.

How did you do? The phenomenon of change blindless is very interesting. It’s proof we don’t (and can’t) pay attention to everythng -- but we can learn to pay attention to more. That’s the point.

Richard Bandler, co-founder of NLP, gives his 2 minute explanation of what NLP is.

Source: If you are in the UK -- then visit http://www.nlplifetraining.com who publishes these videos on youtube.

Realizing there are a lot of “general” NLP Blogs on the Internet, I decided to start one specifically centered around applying NLP to business.

Joe Soto

I’ve been studying NLP since 1992.

When I learned of NLP I immediately went to the bookstore to find any books on the subject. I found two that looked strange but claimed to be about NLP. One was Frogs into Princes: Neuro Linguistic Programming by Richard Bandler and John Grinder and the other was Using Your Brain–For a Change: Neuro-Linguistic Programming by Richard Bandler. Both were edited by Steve Andreas as the material was taken from live workshops on NLP.

My sister happened to be visiting me during the time I purchased the books and I immediately walked her through one of the excercises in Using Your Brain For a Change. The excercise was the Swish Pattern. She told me she had a habit of over 30 years of biting her nails and she’s always wanted nice nails.

So I told her that I was going to help her overcome that habit. I had her close her eyes and I read the steps in the Swish Pattern to her. I didn’t know what to look for, I was clueless to calibration. I simply asked her how she felt afterwords and she said, “Great.”

With no formal training, and only steps outlined in an excercise in the book, I was able to help her achieve her desired outcome. It’s been 17 years since then and everything I see her she shows me her nails.

This was enough to convince me there was more to NLP than I had originally thought and it became the trigger point for my now 17 years of studying and applying NLP.

I’ve since studied under the direction of people like Richard Bandler, John LaValle and Steve Andreas, just to name a few. I earned my NLP Practitioner through NLP Comprehensive and my NLP Master Practitioner, NLP Trainer, and DHE (Design Human Engineering) certification throught the Society of NLP. 

My applications of NLP have been primarily in business and more specifically in management and sales.

It’s my hope to share these applications and insights I’ve learned over the years and to learn from the readers in return.

Enjoy,

Joe