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Quote of the Week

"Tell me, and I forget. Teach me, and I remember. Involve me, and I learn."

-Benjamin Franklin 🌼

This Week's "Subconscious Success" Tip

Use the 4MAT Method to help you create much more effective and engaging coaching sessions, workshops/classes, talks, social media posts, blogs, podcasts, e-mails, meeting agendas, and more!

This method was created in the 70s by an award winning teacher, Dr. Bernice McCarthy, who had a mission to create learning experiences that actually worked well with people's unique learning styles and brains! 🧠

Image cred: Michelle Bowden (also she has some great ideas on her blog on how to use this method in every day life)

How to apply this tip

While the full 4MAT method takes some time to learn, has 8 different steps, and was originally used to create comprehensive educational curriculum, you can start to use elements of it today in many different ways!

(Here's a more comprehensive guide if you want to go down a rabbit hole though)

In essence, it can be a structure for how you communicate just about anything.

In sum, whenever you think about how you want to communicate something, answer these 4 questions. The order is important:

1. Why?

• Why is this important? Why should the person you're communicating with pay attention? How does it connect to their values?

• What significance does this have to them personally? To those around them? To the world?

• Why is it helpful or useful to know?

*

2. What?

• What is the thing you want to tell them or teach them about? Here you can spend time defining terminology, teaching concepts, showing images, delivering facts, figures, etc.

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3. How?

• How does it work? What's the step by step? How do you actually implement it and start using it?

• Provide practical steps and also examples of how others have done it in the past.

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4. What if?

• What questions might they have that you can answer here? Imagine if you just delivered all this info above and they said "but what if this or that is the case?" or "what if we did it a different way instead?"..how would you answer that?

• What if you took action? How would that impact your life? What action are you going to take?

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Here's a mini example of what a blog post could be like using this method:

(*WHY*) How important are your relationships to you? How valuable would be if you could improve your relationships with more ease?

(*WHAT*) Well today, I'm going to tell you about non-violent communication (NVC). Here's what it is in a nutshell and how it helps people.

(*HOW*) Here's one way to apply NVC today. Use this structure: "When I hear ____, I feel _____, because I value or need _______. Would you be willing to _____ from now on?" Here are 5 others ways to use it with examples.

(*WHAT IF*) What if you applied NVC today? How might that impact your relationships? Some people ask "what if people respond negatively even though I'm trying to use NVC?" or "what if I screw it up?" Here's how I would answer those questions. So what NVC technique will you try next?

Why it works (short version):

The 4MAT model combines the fundamental principles and long standing theories of personal development with current scientific research on human brain function and learning.

In essence, by addressing those 4 questions in a specific order, we can go through the entire learning and processing cycle in the most efficient and effective way.

As each section of the process is considered, we are engaging and connecting different hemispheres of our brain, which allows us the opportunity to process the info through different filters and in different ways.

When one of these sectors is left out, the communication is not complete and may leave someone with questions or lack of clarity.

In addition, 4MAT allows people the opportunity to integrate their own personal values, practically apply their learnings, and reflect on them in a deeper way vs. just absorbing information.

Ready to try it?

Do you see how you might be able to use the 4MAT method to communicate just about anything?

What if you applied it to your next e-mail, writing your next social media post or blog, creating your sales pages or website, or another type of communication?

When you do, just answer these questions in order: Why? What? How? What if?, and you'll automatically have a much clearer and effective communication!

That's it! Have questions about this week's tip? Want to share something with me? Connect with me!

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Cheers to your success!

-Alina Nikishina

Transformational Coach & Mentor for Entrepreneurs

P.S. Have you tried 4MAT before or do you have your own frameworks for how you like to create content, educational materials, or to communicate?

Click here and share with me! I'm always interested in learning different ways and perspectives.