Your Questions are More Valuable than Your Notes

Your Questions are More Valuable than Your Notes

Recently I had the opportunity to do a presentation on a topic I know extremely well. The host is someone who helped get me started online back in 2006 and without whom I would have a very different life than I enjoy these days. It was a honor to share my expertise with her community. This reinforced my belief and understanding of why your questions are more valuable than your notes.

Instead of taking copious notes on what I was sharing, I asked the participants to write down the questions that came to mind while I was talking. Notes are many times long forgotten while our questions stimulate a part of our brains that can move us to inspired action and the success that comes with this mindset and shift in thinking.

They did not disappoint, and their questions led us to a deeper discussion of the topic, followed by additional questions, and then on to a level of understanding that is not typically achieved in this type of virtual setting. Everyone went away with plans, goals, and ideas on how to implement what I taught them, and in a way that would be both personal and achievable. It was a true mastermind experience that required a commitment of time and mind.

Are you willing to do this to change your life and perspective?

I first learned about this strategy of giving greater value to your questions than to your notes from my long time mentor Armand Morin. He shares a story of how he met his business partner at a live event. They were sitting side by side for three days and George was taking copious notes, filling a small notebook in the process. Armand had a single sheet of blank paper each morning and on it he would jot down the questions asked by members of the audience throughout each day. Neither Armand nor George discussed this until the last hour of the event on the third day.

George smugly asked Armand why he didn’t take any notes. Did he have a photographic memory, or was he secretly recording what was said during these three days, or did he just not care?

Armand confidently replied that he had little interest in what was being shared or taught during the event, other than to reinforce what he already knew or what he had a desire to learn. Instead, he told George that he found value in the questions asked by the audience participants. Those questions would enable him to create products and courses where he would answer their questions in great detail. These questions were, in fact the basis of exactly what his target audience wanted and would be willing to pay for in order to achieve their goals.

George had no comment to this reply, and within a few months these two men would become partners in what has now become a hugely successful business venture spanning two decades.

Can you now see why your questions are more valuable than your notes? How will you alter your thinking and your actions to make use of this effective strategy?

I’m author and online marketing strategist Connie Ragen Green. I work with entrepreneurs to create multiple streams of online income and would love to connect with you. Download my Online Entrepreneur’s Blueprint and get started right away.