Mark Magnacca - So What?: How to Communicate What Really Matters to Your Audience

This book shows you how to make an instant connection based on trust and respect with each person you meet, faster and easier than you ever thought possible.

Brian Tracy, Author of The Power of Charm

Sometimes the simplest ideas are the most powerful. I wish I had read So What? earlier in my sales career.

Ed Cosgrove, EMC New Hire Program Manager

Everything you want exists just beyond your comfort zone. The So What Mindset will help you get there and make this new way of thinking a part of your daily experience.

Robert Kiltz M.D., Founder and Director,
CNY Fertility Center

Whether talking with one person or addressing 1000, everyone can benefit from learning how to more effectively deliver our messages. So What? offers a simple, profound process that leads to quickly developing rapport and connecting with ones listenersevery time!

Barbara A. Culver, CFP, ChFC, CLU, AEP,
Resonate, Inc., Purposeful Planning

Mark Magnaccas message is important for everyone, but especially for those of us in the financial services industry. In todays environment, knowing how to communicate effectively with clients is essential for their benefit and for ours. For example, ask yourself whether youve adequately explained to your clients the concept of risk...then go out and buy this book.

Geoff Davey, President, FinaMetrica

In todays ever-competitive world, it is not enough to offer a superior service. You need superior communications skills so your message gets out. Mark Magnacca helps you be heard with the advice in his effective new book So What?

Richard Ferri, CEO Portfolios Solutions, LLC

So What? delivers! Its about time we have a book that shows us step-by-step how to act on the wisdom that Its all about the customer (or audience or prospect), not us. In clear, concrete, and compelling language, Mark Magnacca guides us in crafting the message that authentically links our offerings to the audiences real needs and leads them to say Tell me more. Read this book, cut through the complexity of client courtship, gain more of your ideal customers, and enjoy your work. Thats the So What Benefit!

Ed Jacobson, Ph.D., Author of Appreciative Moments:
Stories and Practices for Living and Working Appreciatively

How to Communicate What Really Matters to Your Audience

Mark Magnacca

2009 by Pearson Education, Inc.
Publishing as FT Press
Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458

FT Press offers excellent discounts on this book when ordered in quantity for bulk purchases or special sales. For more information, please contact U.S. Corporate and Government Sales, 1-800-382-3419, .

Company and product names mentioned herein are the trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, in any form or by any means, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Printed in the United States of America

First Printing May 2009

ISBN-10: 0-13-715826-2
ISBN-13: 978-0-13-715826-3

Pearson Education LTD.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Magnacca, Mark, 1969
So what : how to communicate what really
matters to your audience / Mark Magnacca.
-- 1st ed.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-0-13-715826-3 (hardback : alk. paper) 1. Business communication. 2. Interpersonal communication. I. Title.
HF5718.M34 2009
808.51--dc22

2008054619

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This book is dedicated to my wife
and soulmate Kristen.
As my trusted advisor, she has helped
me to understand what really matters.
I am grateful for her unwavering
support, incredible intuition, and
help in understanding the power of
changing the question from Whats in
it for me? to Whats in it for them?

In memory of Jeff Goldberg, who
helped change my trajectory by caring
enough to ask So what?

In memory of Richard B. Ross, whose
life exemplified whats possible when
you have a So What Mindset.

Mark Magnacca has invested the past 15 years on a search for what sets great communicators apart.

So What? is the result of five years of work simplifying this powerful idea to book form. Each idea has been tested in his own life and business, as well as with a wide range of clients. Marks unique ability to bring these ideas to life will enable you to easily understand them and apply them in your own life.

As founder and president of Insight Development Group, Inc., his seminar and training programs have been featured in The New York Times, USA Today, and on CNNs MoneyLine. Mark has helped thousands of entrepreneurs, salespeople, and executives adopt a So What Mindset that makes them indispensable in any economic cycle.

Mark lives on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, with his wife Kristen and two children. A graduate of Babson College, Mark is the author of The Product Is You and is a participant in the Strategic Coach Masters Program.

You are holding in your hands a book that offers you a new way of thinking, which will make you indispensable in any economic environment. It is also a book where the concepts and principles have already been proven and tested.

Mark called me some ten years ago after reading my book, Inspire Any Audience, and said, I want you to be my coach. I love, as he does, coaching those who want to win, who want to experience more, and who want to expand their value. Year after year, Ive seen him study the subject of presenting and become one of the best presentation coaches I know.

Mark has a unique ability to coach and present in a way that makes the application of tools and techniques intuitive. In fact, of all the people Ive coached over the last 25 yearsmore than 1,000 people, who include presidents of Wal-Mart, Sams Club, Samsung, Ford, EDS, and Shellthere has been no one quite like Mark. One of the great joys of being a coach is seeing your players win. This has been part of the joy for me: watching Mark grow and leverage his expertise to help so many others.