A secret stress-relief method that beats yoga & builds business

Question: What’s more effective for stress relief?

(a) yoga

(b) writing testimonials for your vendors & partners

Answer:
(b).

Here’s why.

My fellow WIC member Tresa Eyres cohosts a weekly radio show called Love Letters Live that you should check out immediately. Imagine This American Life but with just one theme. The best theme ever: various individuals writing love letters to people who have made a difference in their lives. It’s available as a download on their website for instant gratification–or you can listen live on Sundays.

Anyway, love-letter-writing is a surprisingly handy skill for the business world. Love letters–aka testimonials–can not only provide  business results for both you and your testimonial-ee, but they can also provide physiological benefits. Whenever you engage in the act of appreciation, those flight-or-fight stress chemicals in your brain are physiologically incapable of activating. Scientists say so. In other words, writing testimonials is a great stress reducer. Even better than yoga.

But before you grab your notepad and get mellow, what about the stress of not knowing what to write? That’s where this post comes in. Here’s a quick tutorial to help you pop off a quickie. So you can write that testimonial, make someone else’s day, and get on with your stress-free but oh-so-successful life.

How to write a quick, stress-relieving testimonial:

1. Tell them you enjoyed working with them.
2. List the specific ways in which they added value to your business. Describe, in your own words, how their product or service benefited you. Provide numbers if possible. Feelings are good, too.
3. What have you been able to do because of them?
4. How has working with them helped your life, your career?

The more details and specific examples you provide, the higher the stress relief, and the more effective your testimonial will be.

Gotta go. I’m late for Vinyasa Testimonials.