4 Magic Words To Get UnStuck
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Have you ever gotten stuck? And hoped like hell to get unstuck?
Danny G. dreamed of starting his own bakery, but he had no money for ingredients, equipment or a storefront. Though he worked hard and hustled, he could never save up enough money. He felt stuck and hopeless, wondering how he could ever achieve his dream without any capital.
One day, while out walking his golden retriever on the city streets, instead of asking the same old question, “How I could ever save up enough?” he decided in futility to change up the question. He wondered to himself, “How could I do it without any money?”
No sooner had he asked the question, Danny saw an Edible Arrangements truck pull up in front of the local businesses. The man got out of his truck to deliver a beautiful “bouquet” of fruit.
“That’s it!” he exclaimed to his dog and everyone near. “I don’t need a store, big equipment, or truckloads of ingredients to start. I can bake and deliver fresh goods to local businesses this week!”
Danny used the 4 word question format I’ll describe for you today.
Better Questions Get You Unstuck
It’s the same question format I used myself when the Chinese gemstone dealer asked me how to market her gemstones in the USA. Though I’d had no previous experience in marketing gemstones – anywhere! Yet we found success.
It’s the same question I asked myself over and over again to gain success in each of my several careers as a “fixer”.
A fixer of homes. Of office equipment. Of photographs. Of sales and marketing.
Here it is. If you use it, it will shift your mindset over to positive and let your subconscious mind get to work on finding you the answers you need.
See, our mind hates unanswered questions. If we can’t find the answer, like Danny, “How can I save enough money?” it can get stuck in a loop of asking a question for which we can find no answer.
When we get stuck in those loops, we have to change our question to one which has an answer. Though we may not like the answer, it WILL show us a way.
I’ve never seen it fail.
The Magic 4 Word Question is this:
“How can I (do the thing) without (the problem or obstacle)?
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“How can I, in spite of, or without.”
For example:
How can I start a business without any money?
- I could start smaller than I want.
- I could ask to borrow materials or money.
- I could trade or barter.
- I could piggyback onto another’s business.
Success Leaves Clues
Many, many businesses and ultra-successful businesses got their start with very little or no money.
Money is seldom the problem people imagine it to be. It’s more of an excuse not to start.
Consider…
WhatsApp – Jan Koum and Brian Acton founded the messaging app WhatsApp in 2009 with $250 in seed funding. It grew rapidly to over 1 billion users before being acquired by Facebook for $19 billion in 2014.
Craigslist – Craig Newmark started Craigslist in 1995 as an email distribution list focused on San Francisco events. He originally funded it himself at nearly no cost. Craigslist eventually grew into one of the most popular classified ad platforms globally.
Dollar Shave Club – Michael Dubin launched Dollar Shave Club in 2011, which sells razors and personal grooming products on a subscription model. He started it with $1,000 of his own money. Unilever acquired Dollar Shave Club for $1 billion in 2016.
Lynda.com – Lynda Weinman started teaching web design online in the 1990s by posting lessons for free. In 1995 she started Lynda.com with her husband with just $200 for a domain name and web hosting. She grew it into a leading online education company that was bought by LinkedIn for $1.5 billion.
Imgur – Alan Schaaf built the first version of popular image hosting and sharing site Imgur in 2009 for free in his dorm room. The costs were less than $7 to register the domain name. Imgur grew to one of the largest sites on the web with billions of image views per month.
Today, I thought I’d address, help tackle, the biggest reason folks get stuck, MONEY.
But this same magic 4 word question shift can help you get unstuck from nearly every obstacle I can think of.
How Obstacles Fade Away
In my first 25 years out on the road fixing everything imaginable as a field service technician for copiers, cars, photo printers, and house mechanicals, I had to ask this same, magic 4 word question several times each day. And it never failed.
How can I (fix this) without (the parts, the skill, the resources I need).
When I was starting out as a photographer I asked,
“How can I get better photographs without spending years to learn the craft?”
That’s when I found Photoshop. And then that same question showed me how to master the editing software faster. Then write a popular (and profitable) self-published book, “Photoshop Tip Cards” to teach that method!
As a parent it helped me raise children, and teach them how to get THEMSELVES unstuck by asking that one, simple question.
As a copywriter and sales professional it works time and again.
What’s got you stuck?
Try the magic 4 word question on your problem and see if you don’t get some answers.
Remember though, you may not like the answers. “But I don’t want to _____.”
Your resistance will then be your demise. We most often get stuck by the things we choose not to do.
What are you willing to do? Willing to try?
Or do you find comfort in your familiar complaints and stuckness?
Here’s hoping for your speedy, upcoming Un-Stuckness!
– Robert Schwarztrauber
P.S. If you’re stuck on getting sales, or getting more sales, you may find greater success by asking the questions found in The Copywriter’s Persuasion Toolkit. The toolkit’s questions digs deep into your prospect’s habits and unconscious behaviors. These special questions uncover and reveal to you the best prospects and their secret emotional hotbuttons and buying triggers. Let these questions, templates and simple graphics reveal the words and phrases that get your buyer to buy – buy more – and more often.
