In this episode of The Entrepreneur’s Solution show, we talk about how to take your concepts and communicate them in a way that gets action as well as results from the people that you are serving. As visual learners, we learn with pictures and frameworks. They are the key to inspire understanding and results.

If we don’t get it right, your marketplace will be lost in complexity and confusion, there’s no understanding and what really happens is that there is no progress. When we get it right, the mess becomes simple, your audience sees themselves in there and it gives them path to results. It’s how they take their first step.

The 3 things that you need to know:

1. Geometry is real. There’s basically squares, circles and triangles.
2. Emotions are imbedded. Your audience identifies with the fears, frustrations, aspirations, and dreams.
3. Choreography gives it life. The syntax and process to unpack it will move them.

The Framework Formula

Here are the 4 common elements that all frameworks will have:

1. Geometry: Squares, circles and triangles are pushed together. The shapes have different meanings attached but we must realize that every framework has geometry and it needs to be really thought out.
2. Content: Content needs to be meaningful. They are the points that start to bring things home and allow for that movement.
3. Emotion: Think about what emotions you are trying to bring out. Think about their fears, frustrations, aspirations, dreams and how you will instill certainty in them.
4. Choreography: It’s about the steps that you are going to use to reveal the whole thing. An emotional dance of understanding to bring simplicity to complexity.

There are 6 types of frameworks:

1. Value framework: Present levels of value so that your market can identify where they are, the challenges that exists and where they want to go. It gets them to have that desire or emotion.
2. What framework: It’s about teaching someone a set of principles. Most of the times they are in the form of matrices.
3. Process framework: With process frameworks, you are sharing the steps and what needs to be done.
4. If framework: It’s evolutionary. It talks about “If we do these things, we will evolve to this level”.
5. Urgency framework: It’s a model that creates a need to do something now. It’s to move them by giving them the consideration of inaction.
6. Genius framework: You combine several frameworks into one. It includes a multitude of things that grasps everything.

— Begin Transcript —

Hey there, Mel Abraham here, the author of the #1 best-selling book, The Entrepreneur’s Solution and the founder of Thoughtpreneur Academy where we teach you how to capture, package and monetize what you know so you can have greater freedom, greater impact and greater income.

And welcome to this episode of The Entrepreneur’s Solution show. Let me get down to nuts and bolts. How do you really take your concepts and communicate them in a way that not only do you get action out of the people that you are serving but you get results and frameworks are the key. You know that I am a framework junkie.

So, we’re going to talk about the fundamentals of frameworks in this episode as we dig in because it’s about how do you use frameworks to create understanding and results. And if you are not using framework in your training, in your teaching, your speaking, in the things that you do, you’re missing the boat, alright and I really believe that.

So, here’s the thing. I’m going to give you what I call The Framework Formula here and if you want that action guide, just download it. Go to MelAbraham.com/session094 and I will give you the download of the action guide so you can really work through the framework formula. If you are not at your computer, totally get it, if you are running around or listening to this on your iPhone or mobile, just text me. Text me MYLEGACY one-word to 38470. I will send you the download links so you can get all of the value out of this episode.

Let’s get started. Alright, here we go.

Here’s the thing. How do you create frameworks?

And frameworks, you can hear it called models here but you will see me, if you see me speak, if you see any of the episodes there’s always a framework attached to it and the reason for that is that it allows people to really start to understand complex concepts in a simple way.

Here’s how I see it. We are actually visual learners. I know that some people say, “Well, I am auditory.” This and that, and I get it. But if you think about it historically as a people, the first language that we learned whether in caveman days was pictures. We learned to speak with pictures and frameworks. Create pictures, they create systems, it creates geometry that represents things in people’s minds that they can go, “Wow, I can duplicate it.” And so, that’s really what the deal is.

Here’s the challenge. If we don’t get this right, if we are not using frameworks or we’re not building frameworks that are meaningful or that have the right factors or elements, characteristics to them, couple of things are going to happen.

You’re going to have your audience, your marketplace, the people you serve, they’re going to be lost in complexity and confusion.

I mean, as you see this and maybe, this works in the context of running electricity and all of that but it’s a mess and if I handed that to someone and said, “Here’s how we do it”, you’re going to look at it and go, “Oh my god, are you kidding me”.

And so, the key is that we want to reverse that. We want people, if our audience doesn’t see that, isn’t able to say to themselves, “I need this. I want this. I need it now and I can do this.” They’re never going to buy from you. So, the real key is that the frameworks really gets to that point of, “I can do this” because they start to understand it.

If we don’t get this right, the other thing that happens is this, is that, there’s no understanding.

I mean, we’re confused and I don’t understand it and I don’t grasp them. When someone draws a picture for me or when I do that with you or with a class or with an audience, whether it’s thousands or one-on-one, all of a sudden, it starts to come to life.

And the other thing that happens is that, if they don’t understand it, and it’s complex and confusing, then what really happens is, there’s just no progress.

We are stagnant. We are stuck in inertia and if we are really looking at things, if we are to be an influencer, if really looking at it from being a influencer, in the marketspace, that market leader, what those 3%, the top 3% do, what we need to do is,

What we are trying to do is really get them to move and create behavior change. But the only way we can create behavior change is through thought change.

In other words, we need to shift their thinking first if we expect to shift their actions. They got to think differently and the way we do that is to get inside their thinking and help them think differently. And I do that and most of the times we do that is typically a framework is involved.

Because here is the deal—when we get this right, things shift. When we get this right, all of a sudden, that mess becomes simple.

What I say is that frameworks move you from the edge of complexity to the edge of simplicity.

And when they look at it and go, “Is that all it is?”, now, you got them in a place where they are starting to say, “I can do that. I can do that.” And when it’s simple, what ultimately will start to happen is they start to look at things and they go, “Wait a second, I can see myself in there.”

What they literally do is they project themselves into the framework and say, “Here’s where I am. Here’s how I can do this. Here’s where I can go with this.” And all of a sudden, they start to see themselves in the framework itself.

And in the end, it gives them a path to results.

They start to see that there’s actually a path to getting the results that they are looking to get. And until they see a path, they’re not going to take the first step. You may have a handful of people that are willing to follow you blindly but I think that in order to do this properly and to serve the greater population, the people in your audience, your marketplace at that higher level, they need to get the feeling that there’s a path to the results that they are getting, that they want to get because

Ultimately, we are trying to take them from point A to point B. From where they are, the pains, the challenges, the frustrations, the fears that they have to the aspirations, the dreams that they want.

And it’s through this process of saying, “I can see through the fog. I can see through the clouds. I can see through the crowded space, the pathway because you’ve given me the pathway” and a framework allows you to do that.

So, if that’s why, in other words, what we’re really looking to try and do is give them a pathway to results. We’re trying to let them see themselves in it and to bring it so it’s become simple then what do you need to know?

In order to bring frameworks to life in your speaking, whether you’re speaking, whether you’re coaching, whether you’re consulting, whether you’re an advisor, whether you are a teacher. It doesn’t matter where you use them, there’s a place for them in almost everything we do.

So, what is it that you need to know?

And I can give you 3 of the principles that I think are really important in understanding frameworks in general and then, I’m going to teach you and talk about at least the fact that there’s six different kinds of frameworks that you may use in different places and where you use them. So, what are the things you need to know.

First is this, is that we need to understand that a framework is just geometry.

And I get it, some of you may not be your creators and stuff and you don’t want to talk about math but it really is taking three shapes because there’s basically squares, circles, triangles. That’s it. Taking those three shapes and pushing them together. Now, you may turn around and say, “Well, there’s ovals”. Well, ovals is just a squashed circle and a rectangle is a squashed square.

So, really three different shapes and what we are looking at is try and understand how do you put shapes together to indicate a certain emotion, a certain movement, a certain action, a certain feeling for our audience to grasp. And so, geometry is real. And we’re going to need to use geometry as part of the process.

The second principle to understand is that emotions are imbedded in the framework.

As much as it’s shapes and you could say this is just logical work, there’s actually emotions imbedded into the framework and what do I mean by that. I mean that when you get a chance, when your audience, when your marketplace, when your customers, when your client sees themselves inside the framework, they see themselves, they also identify with the fears, the frustration and the aspirations and the dreams if it’s built correctly and it’s through that emotional connection within the framework that gets them to move.

So, hopefully this will make sense as we start to move forward because we will talk about value frameworks, we will talk about process frameworks, we will talk a little bit about each of these frameworks and what they are because in a value framework, for instance, they see where they are and they see where they want to go and they have that hunger and that yearning to move themselves up into that space.

And so, when you can create that in a picture, in a graphic, in their mind that’s going to connect with their emotions too.

So hopefully, that makes sense.

Then the last, one of the last principles to consider here in this is to realize that the choreography gives it life.

In other words, I’m not just going to slap. If you watch me unpack my frameworks, I build them with you. I don’t just slap up the graphics and say, “Here is it.” Even when I’m speaking on big stages and I’m not drawing it out and it’s being built on a slide, it’s being built piece by piece and it’s got choreography to it. It’s got a syntax to it. It’s got a process to it because I want to unpack it in a way that one, moves you along the process, moves you along to understanding because remember, I want to get you to that point of saying, “I need this. I want this and I can do this.”

And if I just give you this big graphic with all this stuff on it, it becomes overwhelming. The idea is we got to bring this to simplicity, so let me take it one step at a time with you. So, those are the key principles when we’re really kind of looking at this.

First is to understand that there’s geometry involved, there’s shapes that we’re going to use and that different shapes will indicate different things. For instance: A circles, a triangle, a square. A lot of times, you look at it like, triangle, a lot of times indicates action or movement. A circle is connection or inclusion. A square maybe boundaries. It just depends on how you present it. So, there’s different things involved. That there is emotions involved in it and in the end, it’s really about the choreography. How do you unpack it in that process?

And one of the things, if you really want to start to understand just go back and look at any of the episodes including this one because I’m doing the same thing each and every time to really build it out.

So, in order to do this, here’s what I want to do is I want to introduce you to something called The Framework Formula. Now, I’m not going to go into the details of how do you build each framework. I’m going to talk about the four common elements that all frameworks will have and I’m going to give you an understanding or at least a fundamental understanding of the 6 types of frameworks you might find yourself dealing with or you might find use for in your business, in your practice, in your speaking, in your coaching, your mentoring, your advising; whatever it is and so you get that awareness and then, we can go deeper into how do you build each of those frameworks at another time.

So, in order to do this, we’re going to jump to the iPad and I’m going to draw this out for you and you’re going to see this all come to life. So, let’s just jump to that and let’s get going. So, here’s what we’re going to do.

Alright so, there’s four aspects of a framework, typically, that we need to consider as we move forward and as I said, there’s six types of frameworks that I think that you can see or you can use depending on what you’re trying to accomplish but all six of them will have some of these four, have these elements in there. At some level, they may not be all the same, they may not be equal. But you’re going to have them at some level.

The first piece is to realize as I said before, that there’s Geometry involved and when I say geometry, like I said, there’s squares, triangles and circles, and they are pushed together.

This happens to be a circle. In actuality, when you look at this, it is a circle and squares because the quadrant in the middle is basically four squares but I have kind of cut it off.

But in this case, what I’m trying to do is create a feeling of inclusiveness. In other words, all four elements that I’m going to put on this model are ones that are representative. So, I’m not necessarily saying, one is better than the other. I’m just simply saying that they exist. So, realize that when you are building a framework, there’s going to be geometry and you need to think about what that framework is.

In this case, I am creating a framework that is inclusive of four characteristics and six types. So, it gives you this choice. There may be other frameworks when you look back that you will see are rectangles in a ladder or triangles or funnels which are really triangles or a Venn diagram or a quadrant model. They all have different aspects, they have different action, they have different feelings that come about but there’s a geometry. Realize that every framework has a geometry and it needs to be really well thought out to bring that home.

The second part of this is and these are the two things that are typically obvious is that each framework has content.

What I’m writing on here is content. The content needs to be the meaningful points that start to bring things home and allow for that movement.

The other thing to consider, the third thing to consider when you are building your frameworks is to ask yourself the question, “What emotions am I trying to bring out?”

• Am I trying to get them to identify with their fears or their frustrations in an effort to move them to a different place?
• Am I trying to get them to look and see their aspirations, their dreams to draw them that way?
• Am I trying to give them a process so they have certainty in what they do in building that out?
• Am I trying to instill certainty in them?
• Am I trying to instill a more encompassing understanding so they can have some calmness?

So, what are the emotions you’re trying to bring out?

And then, the last part of this is this element of choreography and that is how do you unpack it?

Just like I’m doing here, how do you step-by-step unwrap the whole thing in a way that it’s a dance, that it takes them on this emotional dance of understanding:

• What they need to know?
• Why they need to know it?
• And what they need to do?

When you do that, you do it in such a way that it brings simplicity to complexity. Now, all of a sudden, you’re going to start to get them to take action. You’re going to see them, saying to themselves, “I can do that. I can duplicate that. Yeah, that’s easy enough.”

To look at it and say, there’s four things you need to have in a framework—geometry, content, emotion and choreography. In other words, what’s the shape, what’s the data I’m going to put in there, what’s the feelings that they are going to have and what’s the dance? (I don’t know how to create a dancing person here). What kind of dance they’re going to have? And then, this is data, stuff.

So, what are those things?

Once you identify that, then you realize that, “Okay, it’s pretty easy and straightforward to create that.”

Now, I said that there are six types of frameworks that you’re going to run into and the six types of frameworks are used for different purposes. The first framework and this is one that I use often. It’s what I call a value framework. What I call it, you will hear me call it a, ‘Value Visual’.

What I’m trying to do in this framework is to present a levels of value if you will where they can identify where they are currently, identify the challenges that exist and the roadblocks that exists between where they are currently and where they want to go. So, the framework will show them:

• Where they are,
• Where they want to go, and
• Give them a path to get there, at least, a process to get there.

Although, there is a separate process framework that we will talk about.

So, a value framework is something that starts to get them to have that desire, that emotion, that understanding as well as the belief that there is something better for them and how to get there. So, those, a lot of times, are triangles, they are squares, they are ladders, they are building on each other in many case.

The second type of framework is what I call a ‘What’ framework. This is when I want to teach someone a set of principles. We talk about it, like for instance, my 9 ideals of legacy. Here’s the 9 ideals, here’s the 9 questions that I ask before I take on any kind of business, relationship, commitment and if any of the answers to any of those 9 questions is known, then I go take it one. That’s called the 9 ideals of legacy.

You’ve seen my negotiation model. Those are the, that’s a what model. What do you need to know or what do you need to do to make it happen?

Most of the time, these frameworks are 3x2s, 3×3 matrices and things of that nature.

The third framework that you may see is what I call a Process framework, a process framework.

So, with a process framework, this is how. This is literally saying, “Here’s the process. Here’s the steps. Do this, this and this.”

And this will be in some sort of flow, some sort of elements. So, now you start to see that I can create desire with the value framework. I can create an understanding with a ‘what’ framework. And I can create certainty of the ‘how’ with the process framework.

Then there is three other types of frameworks you might see. One is what I call a If framework.

This is kind of evolutionary. If you look at The Influencer’s Evolution, it’s concentric circles to show the evolution from just kind of existing to becoming an influencer in the marketplace.

You’ve seen my hierarchy of thinking to go from information to transformation. It’s this if. If we do all of these things, we will evolve to this level. And so, that’s an If framework.

Then the last two are frameworks that we’ve started to use a bit more often. The first is what we call an Urgency Framework. And what I mean by that is that we start to create a model that creates a feeling of urgency, a need to do something now which when you couple an urgency framework with a value framework. In other words, they see where they are and where they want to go and you couple it with urgency where they say, “Gosh, if you delay this, here’s what could happen.”

Now, all of a sudden, you got a lot of heat underneath them to move them to action. Remember, we’re trying to get to behavior change and the way we get to behavior change is through thought change. So, we will create an urgency framework that starts to take into consideration the issue of not doing, basically the cost of inaction if you look at it that way.

And then, the last framework is what I call, it’s called the Genius framework.

Okay? And these are little more complicated. There’s a little more work involved with the genius framework but with the genius framework, you actually combine a number of these frameworks into one. So, all of a sudden, they see their fears and frustrations. They see their desires if they get it right. They see the what. They see the process. And so, it’s a conglomeration of 3 or 4, or 2 or 3 of these frameworks in a way that in one picture, as you unpack it, they get the whole understanding of everything including

• Why they need to do the things they need to do?
• What they need to do?
• What happens if they don’t do it?
• What happens if they do do it?
• And the process to get it done.

That’s why we call it a genius framework because it grasps everything. So, hope that this starts to get you to start thinking. If all you do with looking at frameworks is start to look at it in the context of understanding

• How could I draw a picture?
• How could I bring geometry to what I’m trying to teach to make it simple?

And to take that and say,

• What content needs to be on there?
• What emotions am I trying to create inside of them that’s going to move them to that next step?
• And how do I need to unpack it?
• How do I need to choreograph it?
• What do I need to do first to get them to come along?

Because here’s the challenge. If you start to unpack a framework and at the very beginning, they dig their heels in and the rest of the framework they are not going to hear it. So, I need to get them a buy-off on the premise at the very beginning and then, they will move with me through the process.

So, if we can agree, so for instance: At the beginning of this session, I started to talk about it. I said, we started out learning through pictures like cavemen as they were drawing pictures on the wall. We are visual learners. Even the alphabet. When we talk about the alphabet, we look at the alphabet and it’s a picture of a representation of a letter. So, there’s always a visual aspect to it. And so, when you bring that visual aspect to creating frameworks, changes are dynamic.

So, I hope this serves you. I can tell you that once I started using frameworks, both in my book, (which I got another book coming out soon, I am working on) and in my speaking, my mentoring, my coaching, my presenting, it changed the dynamics of everything I do because what it allows me to do is one with that picture in my mind to simply go and co-create the picture with the audience. It doesn’t matter in what format we’re doing it.

I’m not as concerned. When you start to learn all the principles that we talk about in Thoughtpreneur Academy and being a Thoughtpreneur, how do you catalog and capture you information and you surround it around a framework. Now, you have the ability to speak and go and I do it without, effectively without notes or anything because I’ve got the framework in my mind and we get a chance to do that.

So, I think it will serve you, I think it will help you out tremendously when you start to build these things out and it will take a little while but all of a sudden, they will come to life and they will take a life of their own. And these are the thing that a lot of people remember because they’re going to go back and go, “I’m not a hundred percent sure but they drew this” and they start to insert themselves in it, they start to extract things out of it and it starts to bring a whole level of, new level of meaning to them as you move forward.

So, that’s the framework formula. Download the action guide at MelAbraham.com/session094. Work through it. Understand it. Start utilizing it. It’s going to shift and change not only the things you do but the things that your audience does, that your marketplace does, that your client, your customers do. Bring frameworks up to the surface. There’s a lot more I can do on frameworks. We can talk about each one of these types of frameworks. Dig in exactly how they can be built because there’s a process to each and every one of them. I go into that really deeply into Thoughtpreneur Academy but here I just wanted to get you the fundamentals.

If you start thinking in the context of frameworks, and I used to not, but if you start thinking in the context of frameworks, then you’re going to have the ability to communicate more effectively, more memorably, more valuably and more distinctly out there in the future.

So again, download the action guide at MelAbraham.com/session094 or text me MYLEGACY one-word to 38470. Do me a favor. Also, if you haven’t done so hit subscribe. Just hit subscribe. It’s somewhere on this page. Hit subscribe now. Stay with me. Lot more information, lot more stuff to,

• How do you get yourself out there?
• How do you position yourself as the market leader, the influencer in your space so you are the highly paid or highly sought after expert on what you know?

And so, if you’ve got something that solves peoples’ problems, help them get to their dreams and it’s your knowledge that you want to get out into the space, this is the place to be. Make sure you subscribe and do me a favor. One more favor. Share this with a friend. I am sure you have other people that are trying to get their information out, they are trying to figure out how to do this. This is the key. These are the keys. Share this with a friend. Let’s get them       on the wagon so we can all do this training together because I think our society is starved for the things that we can do. To have a new way of thinking and you can lead that for them and I will be blessed to be on this journey with you.

So, until we get a chance to see each other in the next episode, subscribe, share with a friend, download the action guide. Let me know if you have questions, anything that I can do. Go to AskMelNow.com. Leave me your questions. Let me see if I can bring it up on an upcoming episode. Make sure that I serve you and support you in your journey. Thanks again. Until then,

May your vision be grand, your journey epic and your legacy significant.

See you soon. Cheers. Bye.

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Like this? Please share it and help a few more people bring their dreams out of the darkness and give life to them again.  Cheers, Mel

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