Business Success: One, Two! One Two!

I’m planning a major new report thise week – the working title is “Back To Front Marketing (Killer Wealth Creation Strategies For The 21st Century Business)” but it’s only a working title.  I have a better – shorter – one in mind.

As all good ideas do, it came to me in the shower, and luckily my memory cells are sufficient that it lasted past the hairdryer and breakfast and all the way into my new work space, the dining table, which is conveniently close to the sofa, my new convalescent day bed.  Handy for naps.
 
The article grew out of my thinking about several events coming together, as is the way, synchronistically (is that a word? if not it should be!) First of all, a rather intriguing new magazine arrived yesterday from The Entrepreneur Channel and it caught my eye because it’s got an article by Duncan Ballentyne from Dragon’s Den (cor) although the man on the front cover is Andrew Reynolds, whom I have only met briefly but know to be a VERY SERIOUS business person.  
 
I first came across Andrew when he pretty much singlehandedly put 1200 bums on seats for the World Internet Summit UK (the year after I spoke for them sadly!). 

He’s a quiet man, but knows how to enjoy his wealth  – he recently had a lot of fun at his 50th birthday party, including having Elton John playing for the guests live! 

Then I met him briefly at the secret filming for Alan Forrest Smith’s product for Entrepreneur TV, and we discussed the possibility of my working with them, but nothing has come of it (yet).

His dad and grand-dad were aspiring business men, but as Andrew recounts in this magazine, they were always working to a flawed business model so never made any money.  He talks very eloquently about the look of “despair and rage” that he regularly saw on his father’s face, and this still drives him today.  Andrew grew up in very poor circumstances indeed – one pair of trousers and shoes at a time, always cold in winter- and so he worked very hard in corporate life, albeit miserably, until he came across an business opportunity that resonated with him, offered by someone who he already knew of, liked and trusted, so he jumped in with both feet.
 
Two interesting points there.  No matter how entrepreneurial you are, and how hard you work, if you have a flawed business model, you are never going to make money, let alone become rich, via the business lane of the Wealth Highway. It’s one of the two main Lanes most multi-millionaires use to become seriously wealthy but it’s a minefield if you don’t know what you are doing. 
 
How can you know if a business model is flawed?  Well, you won’t unless you have learned by bitter experience or you have a mentor.  Some business people discover a successful model by trial and error but many, many more give up before they find one.
 
This is my own experience.  I must have started about 40 business since I was eight years old, but it was only after meeting my wealth mentors that I realised that there is a blueprint for business success, especially business success that leaves you free to enjoy your life, but that hardly anyone – unless they have been successful themselves – can tell you what that blueprint is.
 
The real hidden danger in business, the sargasso sea of this lane, is actually ….

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Wealth Coach Diaries: Nicola’s Week

Confusion, Killer Apps & Coughs

Gonna be a short one this week, I’ve been sitting up for about 6 hours now and I’m feeling very odd.  I’m still getting over my op last Sunday and when the pills wear off…….eeeeuuuuuuwwwwwww.

Confusion is the order of the day this week – could be the drugs, as Steve says my emails are also very odd – but it has felt like a week when several so-called certainties have not felt very certain.

Blogging from your bed – short sharp burst are easy to do and kill the boredom I found, so there is a number of goodies on the blog this week….My Top 10 Tips on Blogging From Your Bed here >>>>>

To brand or not to brand – your business as distinct from yourself.  See the You ARE The Brand posting for my latest thoughts on that.

Video or audio on your website, it’s a bit like wealth creation, it’s essential you get your head around it, and it can be simple, but initially it’s not easy, as you have to go on a bit of a learning curve.  See how I do it here >>>>>

Recommended reading this week is “Love Is The Killer App” by Tim Sanders, very nice and a good follow on from Joe Vitale’s “The Key”  and the well known clearing / healing method from Hawaii called ho’oponopono which took me happily into the operating theatre in spite of my nerves!

I’ll do a proper blog posting about Tim Sanders later this week as he talks about the virtues of reading in a very fascinating way and one that entirely resonates with me.

My one major tip for this week is – get private medical insurance!  For about £100 a month you can do your whole family, especially if you don’t smoke.

While being ill when self employed is much more bearable, as you can rearrange your schedule to suit, we found to my horror that …
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You ARE The Brand!

God!  Business is confusing sometimes.  Perhaps it’s the drugs* but it’s been one of those weeks when everyone and everything seems to contradict each other. 

Skimming the video clips from Rich Schefren’s conference in Disneyworld, I was struck by Gary Vaynerchuck’s assertion that “you are the brand” which is on message for Rich’s coaching programmes and reports, and all part of becoming a “maven in your marketplace” but pretty much the opposite of what we are taught, when building a business. 

We have all known for a while, post “E-Myth Revisited” that, if you want to build a business that you can sell, you can’t be the business or it lessens the value of that business.  Nobody will want to buy a business that depends on you being there for it to work.  But is the business depending on you, different from you being the brand?

Gary goes on to say that by positioning yourself alongside higher placed experts – like I’m doing here in a way, with Rich and Gary – you are building their brand not yours.  You need to start building yourself as the expert – and this is something I’ve been hearing from Alan Forrest Smith recently too.  We’ve been working with Alan quite a bit on our marketing and it drives him mad when I’m too generous in crediting my mentors.

Well, I hear what Gary says – and he certainly has done that with his video wine blog - but Rich certainly positioned himself alongside some internet marketing greats initially, and he credits Jay Abrahams all the time.

Confused?  You will be.

Hmmm, going back to the selling of the business aspect here….. Read more..

Video & Audio – A Simple Guide

If you want to add video and audio to your blog / website (and you should!)  there are a number of inexpensive turnkey solutions to this, the best of which is Armand Morin’s Generator suite of products including InstantAudioGenerator and InstantVideoGenerator.

However, my mentor in all of this is Mike Stewart who you can find at www.FromTheDeskofMikeStewart.com – he owns his own recording studio in Nashville and speaks at every internet marketing event as he’s passionate about this. He has some very inexpensive tutorials on DVD or to download, and walks you through all the equipment you need (and never more than you need!)

TECHIE STUFF:  I use either a handheld digital FlipVideo (great quality and perfect for testimonials) or a simple inexpensive camcorder on a tripod, and a really decent mic which makes a huge difference (either a hand-held mic or a lavalier mic which clips to my collar and plugs into the camcorder) or a desk based studio quality mic, which connects to my computer via an Edirol soundbox.

I have a lightsnake which connects a mic to the puter without a soundbox, but have never managed to make that work – same with my firewire which connects the camcorder to the puter. So I soldier on with USB connections and they work fine.I use Mike’s simple bit of software which captures the sound and video together into a short .AVI video which I can then edit. To edit, you can use Windows Movie Maker (Start menu > Accessories > WMM) or now I use Sony Vegas Movie Maker – allows you to layer the “5 essential elements of great TV” which is moving pictures, still pictures, sound/music, effects, text. I then turn the edited .AVI file into either an MPEG or WMV file for uploading to YouTube / Google Video, or a FLASH movie for streaming from our own site.To create the latter, I use Mike Stewart and Jim Edwards FLV Producer software (very inexpensive) then their FLV Player Creator, which uploads the video and the code for the “little TV” you see.

All of these bits of software cost between $40 and $90 and they all simplify the process and streamline it.

OUTCOMES: To give you an idea, I can film a short movie and have it online in about 15 minutes. Just yesterday, someone booked on one or our workshops and quoted the podcast as how she heard about us.

If you upload a big video file to Google, such as a .AVI or .WMV file, you can then download it as an MPEG4 which you can then easily video podcast for folks to look at on their new iPhone – we use Hipcast.com which also podcasts audio and video via iTunes, but I do know how to do it from your Wordpress blog too now.

See some examples at www.MoneyGym.tv or on our TV channel at YouTube – www.YouTube.com/wealthcoach

MGC: Money Gym Wealth Surgery 20080227

Join Money Gym coach and ex-Money Gym client Philly Richards as she hosts one or the regular Money Gym wealth creation “wealth surgery” webinars, covering topics from blogging, to probate, to managing your cashflow, via fire walking with Anthony Robbins!

Philly does a marvellous job of juggling callers on the line, encouraging silent listeners on the webcast to join in – all with me skyping her in the background and it was her first call for ages so well done Philly!

Find out more about Philly here >>>>

The “AMM” internet marketing home study course Guy refers to can be found here >>>

Listen to the webinar here:

Blogging From Your Bed: Top 10 Tips

When blogging from your bed, as I am this week, after my op, I am discovering there are a number of things you can do to make yourself more comfortable.

1.  Rest your laptop on a small tray – avoids overheating laptop and burnt knees

2.  Download Skype – v. useful for communicating with rest of household when cups of tea required

3.  Gather the essentials around you;  bottle of water, house phone, tv remote, mobile phone, calculator, book, painkillers.

4.  Arrange your pillows (and those stolen from others) in a V-shape, which gives support while enabling you to doze.

5.  Move location about 4pm, after having a shower (ignore hospital advice about keeping dressings dry, better to feel clean) and putting on most unattractive but comfy leggings & t-shirt.

6.  When downstairs on sofa, make sure a side table is handy, for drinks, book, calculator, tv remote (see above for rest) or spillages will result

7.  Fluffy blankets work well as do lots of cushions

8.  Daytime TV;  avoid Jeremy Kyle as it’s depressing, but any property programme or re-runs of Rick Stein & Jamie At Home have great soporific effect!

9.  Children can be useful for fetching things, but be firm about endless Simpsons watching when you arrive in new downstairs location

10.  Enjoy the break wholeheartedly as it’s guilt free lounging about.  Every day you will feel better and better!

BONUS TIPS:

11.  Yanik Silver’s “Underground Secret Service” t-shirts are excellent lounging wear, comfortable but funky too!

12.  This is a great time to work through all those DVD’s and audio you have bought / downloaded but not listened to

Money Tips From GMTV

As a wealth coach, even while recovering from an op, I can’t help my ears pricking up when a money making or money saving tip is heard…..I was awake at the crack of dawn today and Martin Lewis from Money Saving Extra was on www.GM.tv this morning and talking about the fact that not many people move their ISA money around to take advantage of great new offer rates.  Say you have some money in one ISA, from last year, or even a few years ago, where the % interest rate paid has been reduced over time, did you know that you can go to a new ISA provider and, if they request the transfer, you will enjoy the new rate offered?  You must NOT take the money out yourself to move, but in the endless race to win new business, you can enjoy higher rates as a new transferred customer.

Only So Much Grazia You Can Read!

You know things are bad on the boredom front when you start looking forward to the One Show.  It’s a bit like South Today but a teeny bit livelier.  A teeny bit.

I’m two days into recovery from the removal of my gall bladder operation (see the whole procedure here on YouTube - I didn’t dare watch before but fascinating now, watched it three times so far) and when the drugs have kicked in the boredom also kicks in. 

When it hurts I’m happy to sleep, when it doesn’t I’m swapping from blogging, to poker, to reading to watching day time tv including endless re-runs of Homes Under The Hammer (I’m quite enjoying the latter when not shouting at the TV “Don’t sell, WHY are you selling?!!”

Then you think “I can’t stay in bed any longer, I’m getting up” and like an old lady stapled in half, you totter to the bathroom and by the time you get there you remember what you just went through and why you were in bed in the first place.

Steve is being an absolute angel (well, he says it’s not actually making much difference me being in bed!) and even the kids are behaving themselves ……largely.

It was the drain that is causing the pain apparently – must have been attached to my lung by the feel of it.  Still, I’m able to haul myself upright on my own today, shame as it was quite fun being winched about by the gang!

Tomorrow I’m going to work the “machines behind the scenes” on the Money Gym Gold wealth surgery webinar, then spend the day learning how to podcast etc, using our new Wordpress blog as taught by my audio and video mentor Mike Stewart.

Property Market Holding Firm

The National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA) welcomes move by the Bank Of England to reduce interest rates by a quarter percentage point to 5.25%.

Peter Bolton King, Chief Executive of NAEA says “Doom and gloom mongers have been working hard recently to spread their word about the problems in the market.  The truth is though that the situation is not nearly as dire as some would have us believe.  Our agents on the ground are reporting steady local markets in a large number of areas.  While we may not be enjoying quite the heady price rises of recent years, the market is still holding it’s own for the time being”

Wealth Coach Diaries

After my operation on Sunday, I’m going to be taking it easy for a while and my thoughts have been turning to holidays.  I have discovered a great new wheeze which I’ll be telling you about next week but for now I’m thinking of taking a trip to Devon soon, to stay at Thornworthy House, the ex-home of Mary Wesley who wrote Camomile Lawn. 

My previously uber-ultra-urban friends Philippa & John Waddell have upped sticks and moved to the most AMAZING part of Devon, near Dartmoor.  Philippa is a partner – with make up artist to the stars Jane Bradley – in a ground breaking production company, PrettyCool Productions, which has produced the most gorgeous “how to” DVD called Lips To Lashes, showing you how to make up like the supermodels.

Check that out at http://www.prettycoolproductions.com/

Jane has been working with Leona Lewis most recently and an excerpt from the blog (yes, you just guess whose idea that was?!!) reads thusly:

“Jane’s time has been taken up primarily with the awesome Leona Lewis – if you haven’t already bought her CD ‘Spirit’ or downloaded it then you’re truly missing out; it’s fantastic. Incidentally, Leona has broken the Guinness Book of Records for the biggest selling debut album of all time; we couldn’t be more thrilled for her. Her video for ‘Bleeding Love’ has had over fourteen and a half million views on YouTube in just two months – that’s an awful lot of people checking her out (and Jane’s incredible make-up too!)

Leona’s team have been up to all sorts of things including switching on the Oxford Street Lights with Westlife, appearing on Diva’s along with the likes of Celine Dion, Girls Aloud and Alicia Keys, shooting for Hello! Magazine, Harpers Bazaar and You magazine, jetting off to Stockholm in Sweden for another jaw dropping showcase, and also performing at Children In Need along with just about every top celebrity in the country! Yes, we’re all a bit jealous too.

Jane tells us she experiments with Leona’s make up all the time whilst making sure each look compliments each outfit she’s wearing; she recommends you do this too. When Leona has a daytime slot she’ll wear more casual clothes so the make-up is kept more simple, but for evening when she’s wearing a dramatic gown Jane will opt for a more dramatic look. Having said that be careful not to overdo it; for instance if you were wearing a glittery sequined dress it’d be too over the top to match it with glitter on your eyes. This would work with a simple Little Black Dress though – let either your dress or your face do the talking and the other do the shouting!”

So now I know not to wear my glittery eyeshadow with my jeans in Devon!!

John is an acclaimed commercial music producer, and composer of theme music for shows like RobotWars.  He is turning one of the barns into a music studio down there and is looking forwards to working away from the hustle and bustle of London not to mention the lower overheads!

Their new house also included a turn-key business in the form of a beautiful holiday cottage, which Philippa has lost no time in using her recently acquired internet marketing knowledge in promoting.  She’s using a mixture of methods and has bookings in hand already. 

Here’s a link to the cottage and if you book, tell her you saw it in my ezine! 
http://www.holiday-rentals.co.uk/p86609/photos

Have fun!

We always are and……………..

By the way……………

I love you! I love you! I love you!

Nicola

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