Maurilio Amorim

Month: January 2011

Is Your Body Language Betraying You?

A lot of our communication is non verbal. Body language, mood, appearance all contribute to the way we communicate. Whether we are interviewing for a job, negotiating a contract, or counseling a friend, our body language can speak louder than our words. Over the years, I have become conscientious of my body language specially during intense, meaningful exchanges. Most people are intentional about their appearance, but I find that a lot of people are not aware of their body language. Here’s a few things to consider:

Make eye contact. I know that sounds obvious. But I talk with people who cannot make consistent eye contact during an important conversation. That comes across to most people as a sign of untruth, such as a hidden agenda or worse, a lie. If you can’t look me in the eye, chances are I’m not going to believe you.

Uncross your arms and legs. When you keep your arms and sometimes both arms and legs crossed your body language says, “no.” Your mouth might be agreeing verbally but your body language says “I’m not open to this idea or where this conversation is going.”

Lean towards your subject. When I want to emphasize a point or re-engage the other person deeper in the conversation, I lean towards them and make sure I make eye contact before I speak. At this point my body language says “this is very important, please listen.”

Smile. There’s nothing better than a smile to make someone feel at home. Smiling during a difficult conversation can break the tension. Smiles are particularly helpful when you disagree with someone. Saying “no” with a smile on your face lets the other person know that while you are not willing to accept their proposition, you’re not offended or upset. It keeps the dialog going.

How do you use body language to communicate?

January 6, 2011
The 4 Relationships You Need to Succeed

Success doesn’t happen in a vacuum. It happens in the context of relationships. I don’t believe there are any self-made people. Along the way, successful people intersected with those whom saw glimpses of potential and helped them to discover, nurture and deploy the skills that eventually got them where they are. I know that’s how it happened with me. While the definition of “success” varies wildly, I consider myself successful: I have a strong faith, a great family, a viable business, and friends the world over. But I didn’t get here on my own for sure. There’s no way I could name on this post those who have made a difference in my life. But they fit 4 different relationship roles that have helped me succeed.

The coach. These are the teachers, coaches, trainers who believe in my abilities when I didn’t even believe myself. I remembered I teacher in college giving me a paper back without a grade. She looked me in the eyes and said “you’re so much better than this. Rewrite it.” I never had to rewrite another paper from then on, including 2 years of graduate school.

The mentor. Some things only experience can teach you, and mentors can help us not to learn the hard way. These relationships are difficult sometimes to establish but vital to personal growth. My first year in ministry I watched my boss, the Senior Pastor, take a verbal beating from an older church member because we did not arrive at the hospital before his wife went into surgery. The man was out of line and as I got ready to say something, Ron waved me away. Within seconds, the gentleman broke down, cried and apologized. I learned so much about human nature that day.

The sage. I desperately need wisdom. The Bible has so much to say about the importance of wisdom in our lives. Sometimes the words of the sage are not what I want to hear but they are life-saving. Once I was enthralled by a “big” business opportunity and was ready to pull the trigger. A sage told me to walk away. I didn’t want to. I was going to make a ton of money. Reluctantly I did. Later, I found out, had I gone ahead I would have lost everything. And I mean, everything.

The friend. Friends love you just because; they believe the best about you and do life with you even when you’re separated by distance. I have been blessed to work, run, exercise, and play with people I truly love. I don’t think I could live without friends.

Did I forget another type?

January 5, 2011
The Future of Advertising

First the news, then the music industry, now advertising: the digital revolution is bringing down Madison Avenue like no other force has in the history of the Ad Agency. Some estimate that over 160,000 people have lost their jobs in the advertising industry in the past 2 years. I don’t think that’s the recession’s fault. Not completely anyway. The slow down in the economy just accelerated the demise of the old advertising agency model, but the new ad world looks vastly different than the bloated budgets of the 30-second spot and national media buys. Here’s what I see happening:

National spots will fade into individually customized pitch. Interestingly, I sent out a tweet this past weekend that showed my displeasure with the Audi/Jaguar/Porsche dealership in Nashville:

A few hours later, I heard from a dealership. It wasn’t from the Audi/Jaguar/Porsche but from the local Cadillac twitter account, Crestgroup:

I’m quite impressed with Crest’s ability to monitor “car noise” in the Nashville social media stream and to reach out to me with a very custom and effective message.

The advertising agency of the future will become a technology agency. Technology is no longer something we use. It’s now a part of who we are. Have you been in a mall lately? Have you seen the hoards of young and old walking and typing on their mobile devices? My iPhone was stolen and for the few hours I didn’t have it, my life was upside down. I wrote about it here. Communication and technology are so closely woven that the Ad Agency of the future cannot afford to develop marketing strategies without developing technology alongside it.

Product, messaging and advertising will be a collaborative process. Instead of the current silo approach where a team develops the product, another positions it and someone else promotes it without much interactivity–if any at all, a successful product launch will be a multi-discipline effort. A team of creatives, developers, brand managers, social media specialists, will work together from the inception of the project and input from marketing will help product development from day one. Instead of clients showing up with a product ready to go to market and saying, “here it is; now sell it,” the agency of the future will not only help sell, but often design and deploy new ideas. They will be at the table from ideation to launch.

How has advertising changed in your experience?

January 3, 2011
Our Choices, Not Resolutions Matter the Most

Most people start well. Most people don’t finish so well. Resolutions fail more than they succeed. So as we look forward to all the promises and opportunities a new year brings us, we find ourselves out of the gate filled with hope that perhaps this is the year that changes everything. We hope for the break that will come our way, the call back from the right someone, the miraculous intervention from God. These are, after all, the key events in our future that could literally make our year. In my experience, however, it’s not the big break that will make the most difference at the end of the year, but the cumulative effect of everyday choices.

As we start this race toward the end of 2011 our decisions more than our resolutions will carry the day and eventually the year. So choose wisely.

Choose God.

Choose your family.

Choose health.

Choose to give of yourself.

Choose to say no to immediate gratification so you can say yes to a better future.

Choose to grow.

Choose to live well.

Choose to believe you’re worth it.

Choose your friends.

Choose joy.

Choose to love.

What’s the first choice you have to make today that will move you closer to where you want to go?

January 2, 2011