According to Roger Hamilton, author of Wealth Dynamics and the Chairman of the XL results foundation, there are five basic components of Wealth:¹

1. Reputation
2. Powerful network
3. Knowledge base
4. Resource base
5. Track record

Here they are re-written as questions to ask yourself on a daily basis.

1. Who can I serve today?
2. Who can I introduce myself to today?
3. What useful knowledge can I publish today?
4. How can I connect the dots between what I have now to increase my resources?
5. How can I document what I’ve achieved today?

These questions are designed to “focus you in” on the one activity you can do right now to build your wealth. Inventor of the Brain Organizer, Nicholas Mac Connell, says that success is not about all the things you’re going to do in the future. Success is about the one action you’re taking right now.

¹ Hamilton, R. (2006). Wealth Dynamics: An Entrepreneur Guide To Finding Your Flow. [Electronic version]. UK: XL Group.

Here is a testimonial I received from Damon Douglas about his first IML experience.

“I really liked the IML experience. It helped me to get a handle on my thoughts and focus better. Putting a {tag} or {?question} helped me to move on and deal with it later without having to dwell. I have a firm handle on what I want to accomplish now. I think I will continue with it. Thank you again for sharing it.”

If you want to test if IML increases your writing speed, contact David Engel and ask to join the IML wiki.

This 3d business card / logo concept for Sherman & Associates borrows mindshare from Monopoly houses.

Art Director Melissa Beck Production Designer Jed Bridges Creative Director DE

Effectively communicating with your outsourced development team can save you a lot of money.

Here are some tips for managing & hiring outsourced developers:

1. Invest time researching & defining the end product upfront
2. Write a very clear user story (or statement of work)
3. DO NOT CHANGE YOUR PLAN. Changes should be released in 1.1, 1.2, 1.3 versions
4. Video or visually diagram your instructions
5. Hire developers who are already familiar with the technologies you’re using

The video above uses the 15 to 18 Digit Salesforce ID Converter as an example. Here is the original spec for the ID conversion script.

Idea Markup Language (IML) may do just that.

IML is a new way for authors to quickly zoom into the fine details of writing and zoom out to the basic ideas that they’re trying to convey in the same document.

This idea was born on June 16, 2010. IML is currently being developed as an open-source framework on IML.engeljournal.com. If you would like to be a part of the project, please contact us.

• IML Wiki

Here’s how I break down the steps of the writing process:

1. Ideas/Hunches
2. Research
3. Outlining
4. Execution
5. Editing

Stuck writers may come up with an idea (Step 1). Research it (Step 2). Execute a sentence (Step 4). Then, critique how that sentence sounds (Step 5). They skip outlining all together (Step 3).

Who can blame them?

In my experience, sequencing ideas (or outlining) is the most difficult step. Outlines don’t fit the natural flow of writing. They’re written vertically, which causes my brain to shift gears when going from the outline to the article. I may introduce new concepts or re-arrange ideas while writing and forget to update my outline. An outline can easily become outdated and hard to manage once writing begins.

What if we could transform outlining into an intuitive process that made all the steps of writing flow together in harmony?

Advertisers can use this pay-per-performance, grassroots model to pass out samples with little to no cash upfront.

Drivers attach a sticker ad to the back of their cars. Prospects text-in to get their samples. Each sticker has a unique keycode. The unique keycode allows the advertiser to track how many customers each car refers. Drivers get paid based on how many samples their car refers.

This video was created to illustrate concepts presented in my November 2009 article, Vehicle Affiliate Advertising. Think of me as a technology professor in this video–not an advertising copywriter. That way, I won’t feel as bad about sounding so cheesy.

The Prospect Theory eMindset is a one page summary of Prospect Theory–chunked into simple facts, questions, and visualizations.

Below is a transcript of the video:

We have our questions to ask ourselves to check in with the theory, also frequently-asked questions or answered questions are found here under the completed section. We’ve got visualizations over here to help us see what the concept is. And all this is delivered in parallel.

Now, the reason why this is significant, especially for theories like Prospect Theory, presenting it in this way, is that theories are… and academic information is highly textual and difficult to understand.

When reading an an academic journal or something maybe like a textbook we find information–all these types of information are lumped together. We may find sentences explaining people’s risk preferences for high-probability chances combining these two facts in one. And then they also give an example, like in right-next sentence.

Then, they talk about a theory that Prospect Theory disagrees with–all in the same sentence. By separating it in this way, what we are able to do is we’re able to give the brain one thing to look at a time. And we are able to help the brain manufacture specific examples, which I will get into that a little bit in just a few moments. I want to first delve into what we’re seeing right here for both the actions or statements and questions.

We’re seeing short sentences. This is…umm… Certainty is best. This is one of the categories that people… people in Prospect Theory assumes that people value certainty a lot.

So, people would prefer certainty even if the reward is smaller. Here is an example of that. Here’s a $1,000 reward with a 100% chance versus a $3,000 reward with a 50% chance. You can see that the $1,000 reward with the 100% chance is heavier. It’s weighted more.

So, look at how simple the sentence is: People tend to prefer certainty even if reward is smaller. This is not necessarily a beautifully-written sentence. This is not Pulitzer prize-winning material, but it’s small enough to go directly into the brain and tell the person exactly what you are talking about. And even over here… The history of Prospect Theory, we have the founders and when they started the work, the original name, and see how it is broken up? Those three points might have all been in one sentence but since we broke it up we allowed the brain more space to understand exactly what…umm… what each concept being presented was instead of having to parse it out of a sentence. That’s a lot easier to get.

I want to look at these questions. These questions are, if you can imagine the back of a textbook, you know how there’s questions about what was– you know– at the end of the chapter of a textbook, there may be five to ten questions about the chapter to help the reader go back into the chapter to find the answer so that they learn. Well, instead of sticking it after 20 pages of a long textbook, why don’t you stick it in parallel to the information so people can get it all at the same time?

That’s what we’re doing here. In the case of Prospect Theory, this is a highly interactive kind of theory because it’s about how people feel and peoples’ intuition and instincts. So, our questions in this case are actually just checking in with the reader about how they feel. Which feels more comfortable: win a $1,000 with 100% chance versus win $3,000 with 50% chance? So, not only are we telling them that people prefer certainty even if the reward is smaller, we are giving them the opportunity to check in. Is that true with you? And most people willl say yes.

Finally, I want to talk about the examples and giving people an example, especially to understand a theory. There are some people out there that are really talented with concepts. You can give them a theory and they get it. There are some people out there that (the majority of people) need an example or else they don’t understand. And I want to throw this out there that both people need an example or else they won’t understand.

The difference between the person who is really good at understanding concepts and theories and the person that needs you to give them an example all the time, is that the person who is good at understanding these theories is manufacturing examples in their own mind until they find one that makes sense.

What we’re doing here in this eMindset is we are giving everyone a chance to see an example, and we’re doing it in parallel to the actual text. So, they don’t have to read a bunch of frustrating text, not get it, then read another line of text which is an example. They are getting it at the same time.

It’s like 3-dimensional thinking instead of 2-dimensional thinking. 2-dimensional thinking might be like driving a car. You have, at best on a freeway, most freeways have five… four to five lanes, and you can’t go into the sixth lane and you can’t float your car and hover above the traffic. If the other people in the other lanes want to go slow you have to go slow; you have to go here to get there.

But if we were in an airplane or if we were in an underwater submarine we could go up, or we could go down, we could go side to side. There’s all three dimensions that are available to our awareness. With the eMindset we are unlocking three dimensions. The known facts. Questions. And the visualizations all at the same time. There is no particular order to read this in; it’s jump around.

Winning ads stimulate more than the intellect. Consider these two headlines.

Both were written for a time management system. Both explain the system’s main benefit: save two hours a week.

The second headline, however, takes a sensory approach with the phrases ‘go home’ and ’3pm next Monday.’ These phrases will likely trigger memories of sight, sound and feeling in the reader.

What sights, sounds and feelings do you experience after each headline?

David Engel and Greg Clowminzer use the dyad process to intimately define what every marketer is after–decision.

Greg: A decision is a mental, strategic move, in order to avoid some future consequence.

David: Thank you. Tell me what a decision is not.

Greg: It’s not a spontaneous act. A spontaneous act is without thought; it’s something that just happens. That’s not a decision.

David: Got it. Thank you.

Greg: Tell me what a decision is.

David: I can also feel a decision in my body. There may be tension in certain spots. A decision is like energy that’s locked up like water in a dam. It’s gotta find a spot to exit. Wherever it exits becomes the decision.

Greg: Thank you. Tell me what a decision is not.

David: A decision is conscious, and it may be unconscious as well. Whether people know what they’re doing or not, they’re deciding things. So, I don’t know what a decision is not right now.

Greg: Thank you.

David: Tell me what a decision is.

Greg: A decision is adding meaning to something. It’s when one perceives a desirable outcome or perceives an undesirable outcome.

David: Thank you. Tell me what a decision is not.

Greg: A non-decision is an act in the moment, without any thought of the future… an act in the moment without any thought of the future is not a decision.

David: Got it. Thank you.

Greg: It’s just a choice in the moment.

David: Thank you.

Greg: Tell me what a decision is.

David: For me, a decision is a choice. It’s all somehow lumped together… I don’t know what the difference between the two of those is. I think they’re both one.

Greg: Thank you. Tell me what a decision isn’t.

David: A decision is not… well… I’m thinking about my dog right now and how she does things. I don’t think she’s really deciding anything. She’s just kind of doing stuff.

Greg: Thank you.

David: Tell me what a decision is.

Greg: When I think of decision, I think that I’m on a timeline. If I act or behave in a certain way, what will be the outcome of that event? Decision is very linear. It’s very strategic. It’s very, “If I do this, what will be the effect?”

David: Thank you. Tell me what a decision is not.

Greg: Simply being is not a decision.

David: Thank you.

Greg: Tell me what a decision is.

David: A decision is connected to something emotionally… something deeper than the thing itself. Like, I may decide to drink water. But that’s not because I want to drink water. It’s because I’m thirsty and feeling pain. To make the pain go away, I drink the water. Or, I may anticipate some future event… maybe I’ll run out of water. So, I go to the store and stock up on a couple of gallons of water so I don’t run out during that day or week or whatever. I’ve decided to buy the water only because I’m fearful of how uncomfortable it would be to run out.

Greg: Thank you. Tell me what a decision is not.

David: After saying that, I’m thinking about fear. A decision is not trust. It’s me thinking, “I have to do something because I can’t trust that it’s going to be okay. I have to make it happen.”

Greg: Thank you.

David: Tell me what a decision is.

Greg: What’s coming up is it’s like an inner vote. It’s like, “Do I vote for health reform, or not?” If it gets passed, there’s this inner decision to pass health reform, but it’s not implemented yet. It’s just a decision; it’s like a vote. So, decisions are like inner votes. How many vote for buying a new car? How many vote for not buying a new car? How many vote for calling her back? How many vote for not calling her back? It’s like this inner dilemma. Like there’s a voting system, around what I want.

David: Thank you. Tell me what a decision is not.

Greg: A decision is not action. It’s just kind of a mental reconciliation of the possible actions to take.

David: Thank you.

Greg: Tell me what a decision is.

David: I’ve got this image of a kid pulling off petals from a flower, “She loves me, she loves me not. She loves me, she loves me not. She loves me…” and {chuckles} it’s really all just a mentation. The flowers aren’t going to tell me if she really loves me. It’s like the mind trying to wrap itself around whatever event needs to happen. It’s an illusion that’s created by the mind itself. All the pieces on the chessboard are created by the mind that’s making the decision.

Greg: Thank you. Tell me what a decision is not.

David: A decision is not letting someone else decide for me. Or, maybe that is the decision sometimes – to let other people decide for me.

Greg: Thank you.

David: Tell me what a decision is.

Greg: What’s coming up is that decisions are all fear based. They’re trying to predict the least unfavorable outcome. It’s simply rallying the inner landscape and preparing it for the action to take.

David: Got it. Thank you. Tell me what a decision is not.

Greg: Love is not a decision. Love just is.

David: Thank you.

Greg: Tell me what a decision is.

David: For me, a decision is the same as buying something. It’s buying or selling something. Everything that’s coming to me right now… that has been coming to me this whole time… I’ve been thinking about making a buying decision. “What isn’t a buying decision?” Then, I go and think about another buying decision. So, I’m just realizing how married my whole world is to having people make buying decisions. That’s like everything.

Greg: Thank you. Tell me what a decision is not.

David: I’m having a hard time right now because I’m thinking that even ‘not deciding’ is a decision to not decide. So, I have no way right now to define what a decision is not.

Greg: Thank you.

David: I think that looking at life and the nature of it, there’s an infinite amount of decisions available. Right now I could wave my arms around. I just decided to lift up my hands. I could move here… or there… or there. And in computer programming, I can’t program a computer to randomly go across all these moments. But, I could hold my hands at 90 degree or at 81 degrees… there’s infinity right here in front of me. So, I don’t even know how to wrap my brain around a non-decision.

Greg: Thank you.

David: Tell me what a decision is.

Greg: A decision is the meaning I place on something. I’m 49 years old. I can decide that’s too old to date or too old to have children. I can look at my financial situation and decide that I’m too old to become a millionaire. I could make a decision on who I think I’m worthy of dating or not dating. I decided that I’m too smart to work for somebody else. That’s a decision I made. That means I’m going to be self-employed.

That decision caused a sequence of events in my life. So, I come back to what are some of the earliest decisions I’ve made that are actually impacting my life. Is that a decision that’s serving me? Or, is there another decision that could serve me better? So, decisions are “What series of events in my life have I decided mean something?”

David: Thank you. Tell me what a decision is not.

Greg: A decision is not adding meaning to something. It’s allowing things to be as they are. It’s not over-labeling or over-defining things and not putting meaning into something, rather than just allowing it to be the way it is.

David: Thank you.

Greg: Tell me what a decision is.

David: This question is activating my mind – like electricity. Wow. I’m really present to my limited landscape… I really like advertising and that’s my thing. That’s my limited perception of reality – I’ve never had kids. I’ve lived in S. California my whole life. I’m present to how that experience of reality is influencing my decisions. And not just that. My emotions are influencing my decisions. Like, I might see a pretty girl and be afraid to talk to her. Maybe I’ve got some landscape about that in my head, but there’s emotion too. It feels fearful or uncomfortable, and that influences whether I introduce myself or not.

Greg: Thank you. Tell me what a decision is not.

David: I’m thinking of turning off the brain. To be with no mind, just total peace. A blissful state. That’s for sure what a decision is not.

Greg: Thank you.

David: Tell me what a decision is.

Greg: I see that there’s a kind of a pecking order of things. There’s the natural law of the universe. And just above that, there’s instincts. That’s what animals have and humans too. It’s a really low operating system. The next place up is decision making. From there, ones goes to choice, love or just allowing things to be. These are higher states. So, decision is kind of a low level operating system.

David: Thank you. Tell me what a decision is not.

Greg: What’s coming up is that a decision is somehow not necessarily in alignment with the natural law of things. It’s very much driven by ego and the will, rather than looking at the law of nature. And the reality of what’s happening and aligning with that rather than fighting it. Decisions seem more like a fight. They feel more defensive rather than to be in alignment with the harmonious flow of the universe.

David: Thank you.

Greg: Tell me what a decision is.

David: I’m thinking about trees… maybe I’ll save this for what a decision is not. A decision is… well it’s not something that trees do. I don’t think that trees decide jack. They just stand there. I’m growing an elm tree from a seed right now. It’s been a real inspiration for me. But animals make decisions. Moving things. Bugs make decisions, I guess. Rabbits make decisions. Humans make decisions. Decisions are things are that only moving things can make.

Greg: Thank you. Tell me what a decision isn’t.

David: When I see trees, I just imagine someone with their hands up, looking up to the sky like: “I surrender.” It’s got its hands up and it’s just taking in the energy – if someone cuts it with an axe, it doesn’t resist. It just takes it; it just surrenders. If fire comes and burns it, it doesn’t do anything. It’s rooted into the earth. It’s just there.

Greg: Thank you.

Greg’s Reflections

Decision, instinct, and choice are actually three separate things. Instincts are hardwired into the physical body; animals use instincts. Decisions come from the mind. They’re more intellectually based, more linear. Choice is from the heart. A mother chooses to love her child. The trees are examples of pure spirit, which allows everything to be as it is.

Maybe advertising is moving out of decision mode, which is, “How do you manipulate people’s thoughts?” And maybe it’s moving into a place of choice, which is more heartfelt and connection based. Maybe that’s what social media is all about – connecting people’s hearts and giving them more choice through interconnectedness.

David’s Reflections

After this dyad, I realized that I was lumping decision, instinct and choice together.

NOTE: The thoughts shared here are not “the truth” rather a process of self-discovery for both David and Greg. We invite you to find a friend or associate and examine this inquiry for yourself.