Simon Says – “Dump the Old Quotes”

Last week at the National Speakers Association convention in San Diego, keynote speaker Simon T. Bailey suggested that you DELETE the “Quotes folder” on your computer and just start over.

Yes, instead of relying on Peter Drucker, Gandhi or Mark Twain for those short, insightful, attention grabbing quotes, Simon suggested that you instead talk to people, listen a lot and read more. We’d add one more strategy – “just Google them.”

Most search engines these days (Yahoo, Google, Ask) allow you to use quotation marks around phrases in order to zero in on better search results. This is a basic research skill that we too often forget. This same skill however, can be put to use to find untold riches – and no one else will find them.

Yes, what if there was a way to find fresh new ideas from fresh new, deep thinking people? What if we could guarantee you that no other speaker would be using these same quotes? What if you could get a guarantee that these new quotes would be relevant to your topic and offer new insight for your audience?

First you need to read “Use Quotation Marks to Find Unique Quotes” from our HiddenBusinessTreasures.com blog. Just click on the title and read it. No complaining! It’s how blogs work. This article is a good step-by-step explanation of exactly how to find fresh quotes (and we’re not writing it over again).

Good, thank you. Now that you’ve read the article, we’ll admit that we “did not make that perfectly clear.”

Yes, we know from the questions we’ve gotten that we need to clarify one more step. When you first get to the web site that holds your quote, it will NOT look like this:

“The more dependent we become on technology, the less time we spend deepening our connections to others and to ourselves.”
Mark Sincevich
Photographer, Author, Speaker

No, the gems of wisdom you are seeking will be buried deep inside the text – just waiting to be released by you. The above quote comes from Mark Sincevich’s 900 word newsletter article called “Living More Each Day” (May, 2005).

If you’re going to get fresh, new quotes do you think you’re just going to be able to drive by and simply grab them? No! Anyone can do that. Your new discovery is going to look something like this:

It’s up to you to extract this thought from it’s article and turn it into a quote that you can use for your materials.

As we said in our other article (you read it, right?!) Mr. Sincevich is very much alive. You can write to him, talk to him, even go visit him.

And, if you are on your toes you will notice that the raw quote above does not exactly match the formatted final product quote. So, we wrote to him. If we wanted to use his compelling thought, altered or not, we needed his permission to do so.

Yes, even if you don’t change a single word, it’s only fair to make sure the author knows that you are using his thoughts. Why? Well, today the Internet makes the theft of intellectual property possible on a grand scale. Please don’t add to the problem.

More importantly, the quote itself is only a tiny part the benefit of this kind of research. It’s the potential relationship that’s even more valuable. You have now made Mark Sincevich’s wise words into a finished product suitable for “Bartlett’s Quotations.” He may well be honored by your recognition. He may want his own customers to read your blog, newsletter, book or manual that features his thought. Not a bad thing at all.

Beyond all of that, Mark continues to write, think and add to the worldwide discussion of just why we are all here on this spinning planet and what the heck we should be doing about it.

Indeed, the deepest value of this kind of Internet search is likely to be the new, fresh and exciting relationship you’ve begun to build.

We couldn’t agree with Simon Bailey more. Go ahead and hit the DELETE button on your computer’s quote folder. Stop using the tired quotes that everyone else is using. Do it now. Start over from scratch. You’ll be amazed at what (and who) you find.