One of my least favorite subjects is math. Yet, the numbers are overwhelming and the urge to yell out Q.E.D. has gotten the best of me. The premise, based on the impact of social networking is: Scarcity is an illusion that is created, promoted, and maintained by people who believe it is a beneficial (notice I didn’t say “best” or “proper”) strategy to accomplish goals. What does a scarcity mindset have to do with leading effective conference calls, webinars, teleclasses, or other types of meetings at a distance? Everything!

Q.E.D. is an abbreviation of the Latin phrase “quod erat demonstrandum” and, according to Wikipedia, literally means, “that which was to have been demonstrated”. In the spirit of a little bad math humor, I digress and continue.

quod (that)
Thanks to doing “more with less”, the viral impact of the Internet, and the high cost of travel, professionals use conference calls, webinars, and teleclasses as an efficient way to conduct business. Unfortunately, being efficient does not necessarily mean effective. One way to become more effective in your distance communication and leadership skills is to eliminate scarcity thinking and behavior. This seems like it is simple and easy to do and for some, that is probably true. For the rest of us, well, just bite the bullet, take a step at a time and know that the journey gets much easier and faster the longer you stay on the path.

erat (which is)
Scarcity is real. Yet, it only exists because we support it to exist. Conference call, webinar, and teleclass leaders who come from a place of “scarcity” when leading their calls establish a completely different type of environment than when coming from “abundance” thinking.

Scarcity thinking holds three things to be true:
*There is not enough of X for everyone
*Everyone is self-serving and does only what is best for their own interest
*Survival depends on my ability to hoard scarce resources
Picture the children’s game of Musical Chairs.

Abundance thinking holds three things to be true:
*There is more than enough of X for everyone
*Everyone is self-serving and other-serving at the same time
*Survival depends on my ability to create resources through collaboration and being of service
See my example below.

Scarcity based leaders employs fear, control, and manipulation to accomplish their personal agenda. Abundance based leaders rely upon trust, collaboration, and creativity to accomplish both the personal and group agenda. Under which type of leader would you give 110% effort?

demonstrandum (demonstrated or proved)
Time to bring in my favorite subject — math! According to my LinkedIn profile, I’m directly connected to 156 people who indirectly connect me to 1, 435, 400+ professionals. The number of new professionals that I’m indirectly connected to has increased by 92,519 since June 6th, 2008 (a 6.4% increase in 2 days).

John Hagel wrote a brilliant article called Two Laws for Creating Wealth that shows the power of social networks in the creation of money for a business. DEFINITELY read this article — it is amazing! In short, and I mean really short, social networks allow you to grow relationships exponentially (versus linear growth for face-to-face relationships). That is why, in a less than 3 months, I can go from 40,000 indirect connections to 1,435,400+.

Most of the professionals in my network lead or participate in conference calls, webinars, and teleclasses. If one percent (14,354) of them decided to purchase my single audio CD product at $39.95USD, the gross revenue would be $573,442USD. Let’s say a little buzz is generated as these professionals start to amaze peers, executives, and customers with their newly found distance leadership and communication skills and another three percent (43,062) ante up $39.95. Gross revenue would be $1,720,326. If I reach only four percent of my existing (recall the 6.4% increase in indirect connections over 2 days) indirect connections, the gross revenue would be $2,293,768USD. If all 1,435,400 connections bought one audio CD, the gross revenue would be $57,344,230USD. The “pie” is much larger than most of us believe. If my math professors had used examples like this, I might have really enjoyed math!

Therefore: Q.E.D.

Perhaps Q.E.D. should stand for Quit Engaging in Denial!

Question:
What is one action step you can take on a daily basis to weed scarcity mindset from your life?

The Go-Giver by Bob Burg and John David Mann is an excellent resource to explain, in practical terms, how to transform scarcity thinking to abundance thinking.

Good luck weeding your mental garden!

Posted by Byron Van Arsdale
Author — 16 Secrets to a Great Conference Call
ConferenceCallTraining.com

Tweet This Post