What Magic Taught Me About Property
Written by David Lennox
I have always been fascinated by magic and the sheer skill of a great magician. What does this have to do with property and finance?
How many presentations have you been to?
I have listened to 2,000+ presentations over my 25-year career. These cover topics like business management, the property market, tax updates (from my accountant days), time management, motivation, legal updates, regulation, team building, economic updates, etc, etc. Many of you reading this will know what I am talking about and you will have attended similar presentations relating to your own industries.
These have varied in quality – some have been good and some have been awful. The reasons our judgement can be a diverse range from the quality of the speaker, venue, sound, light, presentation materials, food, and even the crowd. My own state of mind probably has the biggest impact!
Vinh Giang is in my 1% of top presentations
I saw a presentation from Vinh Giang, and here I am writing about him!! Vinh is an Adelaide born university drop-out, turned magician, turned businessman, turned entrepreneur, turned presenter. His main initial business was the creation of online workshops for magicians and he has built on that substantially – he is a world beater!
He has accomplished some amazing things and his presentation to an audience of 200+ was fantastic. He struck me as a genuine but extraordinary man who placed enormous value on his family, his background and work ethic.
“HUMILITY IS THE KEY TO CREATING A REAL AND STRONG CONNECTION WITH YOUR AUDIENCE THAT HAS THE POWER TO CREATE REAL CHANGE.”
His 
presentation was a rare mix of warmth, family, magic, his story, his ability to involve an audience AND among it all, he ties in strong lessons about life and business. None of us moved for 90 minutes!
I would encourage you to follow him, I think he is an exceptional Australian…
Lesson #1 – The Power of Perspective
After warming up the audience, Vinh showed us a few tricks, and then he broke the magician’s code by showing us how they worked (I was in heaven).
- He had a woman on stage in awe of a trick even though the entire audience could see how he did it (intentionally)
- He showed us a video of an amazing card trick – the video was to demonstrate the power of a single camera angle – the whole room had exactly the same view. None of us could work the trick out.
- Then he showed us the exact same video, but from a different camera angle – and of course, we could all see how the trick worked.
After executing these things perfectly, he tied in his message of the power of perspective and collaboration and combined these with his experience.
It is a simple message that in order for us to genuinely go ‘to the next level’ in our endeavours we need to challenge our own thinking, to be constantly pushing our minds in different directions so we can start seeing things from different angles. Otherwise, we will come up with the same answers.
One effective method to challenge perspective is to collaborate with people from different professions, walks of life, etc. People that think very differently to you and I.
Of course, these seem like simple messages, but Vinh’s demonstration was pitch perfect and powerful. The main change for me here is that I will start looking way outside my own industry for people to collaborate with.
Lesson #2 – The Power of Execution
Vinh took us through how hard it was to become a magician – technically, emotionally and then professionally. It’s great to have a great magic trick, but how do you get it to pay some bills?
If you look at the way a magician can expertly hold a deck of cards – flick them back and forth, cutting them, fanning them across the green felt of a card table. Becoming good at this takes hundreds and hundreds of hours. He took us through the highs and lows of what did and didn’t work.
Over and above, he showed us some tricks which demonstrated the difference between 80% quality and 100% quality.
The simple message for me was that whatever core strengths or messages I am trying to deliver to either my clients, suppliers or staff, I need to keep hammering and refining my craft. And, if I am going to add something else to my repertoire, I better be sure I am close to 100% – otherwise, my customers will know.
Lesson #3 – The Power of Presentation
Vinh seems to have a great reverence for his predecessors, both family, and magicians. He took us through some tricks and showed us the power of average vs exceptional presentation. It was about the words he used…his timing…how he phrased his questions to the audience.
He mentioned that there were a number of magicians in the world who were potentially the finest technical magicians in history but were unsuccessful commercially purely due to a reluctance to change their communication and presentation styles. I wish these craftsmen could spend some time with Vinh.
For me, this message is another simple one.
“If I can’t SHOW what I know properly, there is almost no point in knowing it…”
As you can tell, I became a fan of Vinh’s and I left the room with some key thoughts:
- Magic is the ULTIMATE execution and presentation art
- Why haven’t more magicians transferred their skill/messages to the speaking arena
- Vinh Giang has, and he has nailed it (CLICK HERE for his website)
- Now, I need to nail what I do…
David Lennox
About the writer: Dave founded Vision with Matt Ivers in 2000. He oversees the strategic direction of Vision Property & Finance and ensures that systems are in place to support mortgage brokers and the admin team. He has nearly 25 years experience in the mortgage broker and finance business and is a trusted credit advisor to hundreds of happy customers. Make contact with Dave at david.lennox@visionpf.com.au
