I couldn’t help myself…As we talked, I asked her if she had thought about going into business for herself which would be a perfect way to do work she loves while making money. Her reply to me was, “It’s really hard to make money at it. People aren’t willing to pay.”

Now if Mary were a client, my next question would have been, “So no one makes money doing landscaping and interior design?” Of course her response would have been, “Well some do.” And my next response, “So why not you?”

The real reason Mary won’t consider going into business has nothing to do with industry she is interested in, it’s that she isn’t willing to see that SHE could make it happen.

In reality, she could have best landscaping business in area…if she believed she could!

Can you see yourself in Mary’s example? How many business ideas have you shot down because you really don’t believe you can pull it off?

Here is how a lot of my conversations with clients go…

Client: “I would love to do such and such, but I can’t make money doing it.” Me: “Ok, well how much money can you make doing it?” Client: “I really don’t know.”

Money is excuse; your belief in yourself is problem. So what do you do? In order to create what you want, you have to move beyond what is.

1. Suspend disbelief and envision yourself doing and making money doing, work you really love. The trick here is to think about what you want, not how you are going to get it. So in Mary’s case that would be easy;

The AIDA formula is as old as dirt. It was taught when I was in school over a decade ago. And it's still being taught for good reason - it works! When you apply it to your cover letter, it has power to transform a regular cover letter into an attention-grabbing "Killer Cover Letter" that'll make your phone ring off hook.

AIDA is an acronym. It stands for Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action. It describes process marketers want to take their prospect through in order to make a sale.

In this case, prospect is hiring manager and you're selling yourself in sense that you want hiring manager to contact you for an interview. So I'm going to show you how to grab hiring manager's attention, create interest, arouse desire, and ultimately get him or her to take action (pick up phone and call you for an interview).

By way, I've tested this killer "System" so I know it works. Ready to get started?

Attention

The first thing you need to do is grab reader's attention. You must get reader's attention before he or she can become interested and desirous of your offer to come in for an interview. We're all busy and we all have several things going on in our lives. So how do you cut through clutter and grab reader's attention?

There are several ways actually. One way is to create an attention-grabbing opening sentence or headline as copywriters call it. Think of it like headlines in newspapers and magazines. You choose which articles to read by quickly glancing at headlines, don't you?

So why not put an attention-grabbing headline on your cover letter? Most cover letters don't have an attention-grabbing opening sentence so mere fact that your cover letter even has a headline separates you from pack and draws attention to your message, wouldn't you agree?

Let's say you're walking along a crowded street and you spot a friend of yours on other side of street. Let say his name is Joe. How do you get Joe's attention? You could start jumping up and down and yelling, "Hey! Over Here!" That might work. A better way would be to yell "Hey Joe! Over Here!" That'd be more likely to catch Joe's attention, wouldn't it? Because he hears his name. Personalization increases response dramatically.

Now let's take that thought and apply it to your headline. Adding personalization to your headline is a great idea. Use recipient's name right there in headline. It makes message more personal and increases chance message is read.

Let's take that one step further. Say you're looking for a job as a nurse and you know hiring manger's name is Susan. Susan is understaffed and looking for nurses. So give Susan an attention-grabbing headline to open your cover letter.

How about this, "Susan, Finally! A Nurse Who Can Do More Than Take A Temperature! But don't stop there. Make it big and bold. Remember, it's a headline. Make sure Susan notices headline. Grab Susan's attention.

How could Susan possibly not notice that headline strategically placed at top of your cover letter? And you can take that simple concept and apply it to a cover letter to any hiring manager for any job.