The Pursuit of Happiness
by lifemadesimple on January 16, 2007
in Money Gym | Success
Annie says:
Someone had to write about the vision of success portrayed in this film, so I thought I’d get in first.
Certainly, “The Pursuit of Happyness” is a moving, inspirational film ….
(even if the title is mis-spelled in the usual American stylee! says Nicola – I’m not having that in one of my blog titles *grin*)
…..which deserves to be seen. It’s also a film that, according to Sunday Mail film critic Christopher Tookey, plays better to an American audience than an English one.
Why so?
Happiness At Work Is….
by Nicola Cairncross on January 16, 2007
in Money Gym | Success
Nicola says: I’ve come across another great blog while wandering about – it’s called "Happiness is 9 to 5" and it’s run by "Chief Happiness Officer" Alexander Kjerulf.
He says:
"One of the biggest threats to happiness at work is having too many fixed expenses at home. When you’re completely dependent on bringing home a pay check (or two!) every single month, you’re vulnerable. If work turns out to be unbearable you can’t simply up and leave and take three months without income.
I’ve chosen low-rent living for myself. At first it was through accident rather than planning but now I would never live any other way. Read on to see how it has made me happy at work – and in life.
Some years ago, my wonderful girlfriend Patricia and I were hunting for a new place to live in Copenhagen. We were living in her small, 1-bedroom apartment and we really longed for more space, more rooms and a bigger kitchen. Homes are getting ludicrously expensive in all European capitals including Copenhagen, so we went through a process that is common to many people hunting for a new home:
- We started looking at places within our budget that we could easily afford.
- But those places weren’t really cool so we started looking at more and more expensive places
- Untill we’d reached our threshold of pain and were only considering the most expensive places we could conceivably afford
We actually submitted bids on two different (expensive) homes and narrowly lost out in each case to other bidders. Back then we were devastated – we really had our minds set on those two places. Today we’re incredibly relieved that it never came through. We’re still living in Patricia’s apartment which costs us next to nothing and looking back I can see how much of an advantage that has been for the both of us. Obviously this applies not only to your mortgage or rent but to all fixed expenses. Rent/mortgage just happens to be the largest fixed expense most of us have.
Leaving lots of breathing room in my economy has brought me some huge advantages:
1: Freedom to leave a bad job
When a job doesn’t make me happy, I can quit without worrying about the money. I’ve done it once, Patricia twice. It’s not that we’ve quit at the fist sign of trouble – we have always tried to make it work. But when we’ve realized that a particular job wasn’t going to make us happy, we’ve had the freedom to say sayonara without first finding a new job.
T.Harv Eker’s Attitudes of Wealth
by Judith Morgan on January 14, 2007
in Money Gym | Success
by Judith:
Nicola, do you remember a very cold December 2005 in New Jersey? Well, I found the little laminated cards that T. Harv Eker gave us all and I thought it might be worth reproducing here as a reminder to you and me and Sarah, Nicola, Steve, Greg, Paul and the gang who came with us!
Great Blog On Entrepreneurship….
by Nicola Cairncross on January 14, 2007
in Money Gym | Diaries
Found a great blog by a young guy called Carlos Cabezas, an aspiring solopreneur, on his journey from making the leap from reading Rich Dad Poor Dad, to setting up a part time business while still working full time, to learning about making money on the internet….it’s real, funny, inspiring, he’s still on his journey but shares loads of great info…..Check out Carlos here >>>>>
About Pay Yourself First
by Nicola Cairncross on January 14, 2007
in Money Gym | Success
Nicola says:
There’s an interesting post about the Rich Dad theory of "Pay Yourself First" a concept which I heartily agree with but realise that it’s the first and biggest challenge for many people starting out on their wealth creation journey. If you are not familiar with it, you can read the whole post (with concept and instructions) over here >>>>> but basically it’s about taking money regularly out of your pay cheque FIRST and investing it to grow, before you do the other stuff like pay the bills and spend on holidays and recreation etc.
Now the challenge with that is, it’s rare to meet a Money Gym client, who, in the first instance, doesn’t think that they DON’T have any money to spare. That is, after all why they join The Money Gym, because they want to create more financial abundance in their life, not less! Some Money Gym clients are even unsure about whether they can afford The Money Gym (LOL).
Just yesterday a lady wrote to me to say that she had come out of a divorce with a fully paid off house worth £350,000 but no …
Trackback & Ping – a reprise
by Nicola Cairncross on January 14, 2007
in Money Gym | Diaries
Nicola says: Matt has commented on my site over at his blog saying "Wealth Coach is a site I have found especially useful in my online money making ‘journey’ (I know is corny). It is the blog of Nicola Cairncross, a successful internet marketer. As you know there are lots of useful sites out there, but on Wealth Coach I found some ideas I had not read anywhere else……" Read more here >>>
I wanted Matt to know about "trackback and ping" and thought you guys could use the link again too. It’s a great way to comment on other blogs and AUTOMATICALLY get a link to yours on theirs. With Wordpress apparently you just use the permalink of the article you want to link to, as the trackback. Not sure how to do it on Blogger unless they have trackback turned on. Sorry, the post font has gone very small for some reason…. >>>>>
Earn While You Surf? Something new this way comes….
by Nicola Cairncross on January 13, 2007
in Money Gym | Diaries
Nicola says:
I found something interesting while surfing around the blogosphere today…Matt commented on my post on SEO and then, when I was checking out his site I found this….
"I recently joined AGLOCO because of a friend recommended it to me. I am now promoting it to you because I like the idea and I want you to share in what I think will be an exciting new Internet concept. AGLOCO’s story is simple:
Do you realize how valuable you are? Advertisers, search providers and online retailers are paying billions to reach you while you surf. How much of that money are you making? NONE!
AGLOCO thinks you deserve a piece of the action. AGLOCO collects money from those companies on behalf of its members. (For example, Google currently pays AOL 10 cents for every Google search by an AOL user. And Google still has enough profit to pay $1.6 billion dollars for YouTube, an 18-month old site full of content that YouTube’s users did not get paid for!
AGLOCO will work to get its Members their share of this and more. AGLOCO is building a new form of online community that they call an Economic Network. They are not only paying Members ….
Find out more about AGLOCO here >>>>>
Read more from Matt’s excellent blog here >>>>>
Want To Sell To Big Companies?
by Nicola Cairncross on January 13, 2007
in Money Gym | Diaries
Nicola says:
I know that, for a lot of small businesses, getting a contract with a big company is the Holy Grail. I would never try and sell into a big company myself because it’s hard work, they take ages to make a decision, they take ages to pay you and then, when the person who brought you in moves on, they often drop the project.
But, if after that you still want to….CJ Hayden (of "Get Clients Now!" fame) gave some great advice on her email discussion group this week:
"Peggy asked: << I would like to get more corporate clients though. I suppose my question would be how to build relationships with them. I think I know how to approach them and have a first meeting. I also know that it is very unlikely to get an assignment from a company the first time. How would you proceed then? How would you follow up? Would you check in once and a while to see how the company is doing? How often would you? What would you then say or do? >>
CJ said: "I would add to the great suggestions made by Maya and Denise that you keep in mind you are ultimately doing business with individual people rather than anonymous companies.
In the new edition of Get Clients Now!, I included a sidebar from Jill Konrath, author of "Selling to Big Companies," where she says, "Treat the person you contact like a human being, not a prospect… Sounding like a sleazy, well-oiled seller will not get you an appointment in today’s market.
Think of your phone calls as business-to-business conversations with peers." (You can read an article from her with lots of good tips about this on her site www.sellingtobigcompanies.com. Click on Sales Library and choose the article "Stop Sounding Like a Self-Serving Salesperson.")
It’s the decision-maker in the company you need to build a personal relationship with, not the company as a whole. If you’ve been successful in getting individuals as clients, you must already know a bit about how to build relationships one-on-one.
If you keep in mind that your corporate prospects are people with goals, dreams, and problems just like the individuals you work with, you may know more about how to build relationships with them than you think. C.J.
C.J. Hayden, MCC
Author, Get Clients Now! ™ & Get Hired Now! ™
Wings Business Coaching LLC, San Francisco, CA
(415) 981-8845 or (877) 946-4722 in the U.S.
http://www.getclientsnow.com
http://www.gethirednow.com
http://www.coachpreneur.com
http://www.howtobecomeahero.com
Discounting Is Like A Drug
by Nicola Cairncross on January 12, 2007
in Money Gym | Diaries
Nicola says:
I came across this on Michel Fortin’s site – I’ve been spending a lot of time on his site and blog today, since reading about Michel & Syvlie’s experiences with breast cancer and their amazing way of dealing with it all….Read more about that here and watch Sylvie auction off her scalp in aid of her favourite charity
Michel Fortin of www.SuccessDoctor.com says on Business Marketing in the 21st Century:
"Top-of-mind awareness" is a term originally coined by Ellis Verdi, the once president of the National Retail Advertisers Council, and the owner of an advertising agency in New York. He said that what most people wrongfully seek to accomplish in their promotional efforts is to obtain short-term cashflow and not long-term results. And they usually accomplish this by offering sales, promotions, discounts and price reductions.
As he said at a recent conference, "Discounting is really like a drug. It brings in some business, and for some it may even bring in a lot of business. But the effect usually wears off and the company will soon find itself with the need to discount further in order to create more business let alone to stay in it."
Top-of-mind awareness, however, is such that with it there is no need to use price-based promotional methods. What it does is two, important things: It psychologically impacts people so that the mere mention and knowledge of one’s company, product, or service inherently creates a need for them; and it places one at the top of a specific market’s consciousness so that one is instantly chosen when people want what that person or firm has to offer.
"Power Positioning" is a term I’ve coined that stands for a perfect blend of the art of positioning and the science of direct response — the result of creating top-of-mind awareness in order to turn you, your business, or your products into powerful magnets in order to attract a better response from better leads.
The following commandments all reflect this powerful concept — and it’s one so simple and yet remarkably more effective, more affordable, and of course more effortless than any other marketing strategy."
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) – the mystery of FREE website traffic revealed
by Nicola Cairncross on January 11, 2007
in Money Gym | Diaries
by Nicola Cairncross
The one thing
The Money Gym and
Automated Marketing Machine clients
often ask me about is Search Engine Optimisation – otherwise
known as SEO. They ask:
How can I get my site submitted to Google, Yahoo, MSN
etc.
How can I get good rankings on those search engines?
How
can I get loads of free traffic without paying for adwords?
Is there software I can buy?
Are there specialists I can
pay?
The answer I have had to give them to date is that I don’t know -
I’ve never bothered with specialists or software, yet we get
between 2000-3000 unique visitors a month from organic
search results. Not paid for visitors, free visitors.
How have I done that?
