A month in the life of a Wealth Coach…

The last month included Christmas and New Year. Routinely these are times for family and celebration, times accompanied by their own joys and stresses. In the Collins household there were plenty of both!

Christmas was a pleasure. Once I’d got used to the fact that my partner had invited everyone for Christmas dinner… well maybe not absolutely everyone but we did cook dinner for 12 which is the most I’ve ever had to cope with! Actually it did go pretty well, even if I say so myself. Food was on the table only 20 minutes later than predicted and the worst thing to happen was splitting a bag of frozen peas and throwing them all over the cooker with 5 minutes to go! (We’re still finding stray peas in the most surprising of places!).

My greatest professional activity over this time was project managing a property refurbishment. We bought a house before Christmas. It badly needed a rewire so we figured it was better to do the job properly before we moved in. There was also the possibility of significantly upgrading a bathroom and kitchen so we got together a team…

Dave the builder is great and masterminded most things really efficiently. He’s a real “can do” builder and so refreshing to work with. Bill the plumber was also a real asset to the team, turning his hand to wallpaper stripping in the quieter moments between plumbing jobs. The only slight problem with our choice of plumber was that he lived in Ystrad Mynach and drove a Ford Focus. Now don’t get me wrong. There’s normally nothing wrong with those choices, but given that South Wales, along with the rest of the country has experienced the heaviest snowfall for 20 years, there were times I wished we’d picked a plumber who lived in Roath and drove a 4 x 4! Still to his credit, Bill has been there when we needed him and his ability to “lend a hand” has been a great asset.

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Seven Essential Financial Terms: Cashflow by Judith Morgan

I have been invited to teach some Australian business mothers the Seven Essential Financial Terms I think are important they know.   Here is my first in an occasional series where I will share those with you over coming weeks.

I’ve put Cashflow at the top of my list of Seven Essential Financial Terms because failing to “manage” your cashflow can kill off your business very quickly indeed.   And lack of good cashflow can kill off your enthusiasm for it even faster!

Firstly what does the term Cashflow mean?   It means how much money goes into and out of your business every month.

How do you manage Cashflow?   You track it on a spreadsheet.   First off you predict how much you expect to come into your bank account and when alongside what expenses you plan to pay and when.

It’s often easier to plan what expenses you have to pay because you know when you have to pay rent, telephone, salaries and other regular expenses, usually every month or perhaps each quarter.

But do you know how much money will come in and when?   This means predicting your income from sales and when you will get paid for each sale.

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What Does A Money Gym Coach Do When She Is Off Duty?

More specifically, what did this Money Gym coach do when she was off duty over December and the beginning of January?

The first thing she did was to contribute quite creditably to the micro-economy of Venice.  Still, her Money Gym hat travelled with her to Venice and fought to get back onto her head when she learned that Venice has cancelled the New Year’s Eve fireworks, and the Carnival celebrations!  The Powers That Be in Venice have, apparently, decided that in these tight times cutting back on the things that draw tourists to Venice is an astute move.  Hmm!

After that, she said a fond farewell to The Luddite Foundation, invested in an MP3 (finally) and began listening to the backlog of CDs she had, including some from T Hark Eker.  On one, T Harv was interviewing another delightfully forthright ‘multi, multi, multi, multi, multi, multi, multi-millionaire’.  This gentleman observed, in the most unashamedly sexist way, that you should treat money the way you – a woman – should treat a man, flattering and stroking its ego etc.  Equally, he noted, you should treat money the way you treat a woman, cosseting, caressing etc. etc.  But how many of us do?  (And are the Venetian Powers That Be treating tourists’ money in a loving, encouraging fashion??)

Together with her new exciting technology, she then spent a fair few days enjoying the delights of Taginistan.  Now, in case you hadn’t heard of Taginistan yet, this is not because it is some strangely tranquil ex-Soviet republic.  Rather, it is a mythical kingdom that is blossoming from my own modest culinary endeavours.  You see, a few weeks ago, I discovered the delights of the tagine.  What could be better than bunging a number of reasonably well chosen ingredients into a pan (or tagine) and creating something that has an extraordinary subtlety of flavour.

So excited was I that tagines are all that the denizens of the Kaszina ménage have lived on since.  This is why the house is being rechristened Taginistan.  Possibly, I have become slightly carried away with my vision for this little known republic.  But then it is a uniquely charming place.  Unlike other “-istans”, Taginistan has, and seeks, no nuclear missiles.  The preferred weapon for conflict is a small, finely wrought version of the Gatling gun that fires… coriander seeds…

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When Two Tribes Go To War… Which Online Tribe Are You?

The words of the iconic Frankie Goes To Hollywood song “Two Tribes” just about sum up the storm that’s brewing in the “make money online” world, with one tribe being the Internet Marketers and the other being the professional bloggers….

But before I tell you that story…first a bit of background…

Last weekend I went to Mark Anastasi’s ListBuilding Masterclass which, I have to tell you, was rammed to the rafters and a “who’s who” of internet marketing.  This was amazing in itself because this was a free three days, and usually when you give tickets away for free, you usually get less than 50% of the registrants turn up, while on Day 2, you only get 70% of those who were there on Day 1, with Day 3 being only 50-70% of those on Day 2.

In fact I think there might have been MORE people there on Day 3 than Day 1, as it was a Sunday!  The crowd was definitely a high proportion of self employed and business people with the employed forming perhaps a third?

Contrast  this hungry, up for it crowd at the Thistle Hotel with a much quieter little gig over the other side of town, which had been billed as a Wealth Creation seminar and was, unfortunately the gig I was booked to speak at!

The numbers  expected are usually 50- 100, only 30 odd showed up and when they found out that I was speaking on internet marketing, half left, having already booked themselves onto the stock trading workshop they wanted.

Great!  So I delivered my best material to a crowd of …….about 17.  I think they liked it!

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Why Tweeting Your Blog Is Not Enough For Big Traffic by Graham Jones

If you use a URL shortening script, such as Yourls, you can see “live” the people clicking on anything you add to Twitter. The statistical information reveals that within a second of posting your Tweet you get almost all of the click throughs from what you post on Twitter. A minute or so later, almost all of the clicks have dried up. You can measure the life of a Tweet in seconds; it doesn’t last very long at all.

Getting people to follow your blog takes effort

So why all the fuss about Twitter? A Tweet is clearly a single blast of a blunderbuss – you get loads of impact all over the place, but the effect doesn’t last long. Yet you can find all sorts of advice from so-called “gurus” telling you that Twitter gets you tons of traffic. If you want to get more readers to your blog, you need to Tweet, they say.

And these experts are right – and wrong…! True enough, you can get increased traffic from Tweeting your blog. But it’s not smooth traffic; you’ll get the occasional peak in traffic. Now that’s not to be sniffed at, of course, but it’s not going to achieve all you want for your blog.

Here’s the problem: along comes another piece of technology (Twitter) which appears to solve the problem of getting more traffic to a blog. Whoopee everyone shouts and before you know it there is ebook after ebook explaining how you can get shedloads of traffic to your blog if you use Twitter. The result is millions of people go “Hurray, here’s the answer” and off they trot to learn everything they can about Twitter and see those traffic numbers rise. Not.

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A Note From Marion

As we haven’t quite hit February yet, I think it’s not too late to start by wishing all readers a peaceful and prosperous new year.  Prosperity is of course about much more than mere money.  It means good fortune, abundance and riches and while we hear so many tragic news stories each day, I wish for all of us the good sense this year to notice and appreciate what we already have in our lives.

As the old year breathed its last, I had already decided that 2010 would be a well-fed, wide-girthed purring pussycat, yet it seems I’ve manifested a rather skinny spitting feline to transform into that vision of furry loveliness I had.  Good job I’ve a sense of humour, a strong will and a brilliant idea or two for 2010.

A few years ago, I learnt – does it always have to be the hard way, God? – to live within my means and therefore I get through the run-up to Christmas without loading up my credit cards with extravagant shopping lists.  The new year started then for me without a financial hangover, nor even an alcoholic one now I think of it

Instead, I sat down and reviewed and wrote out all my accomplishments from last year.  I listed over 30 without too much trouble and I strongly recommend this exercise as a starting point when planning what you want to do next, not only to give yourself due acknowledgement for your successes but also to get you thinking creatively about how very much you could achieve in the next few months. Second step was to list everything I wanted to leave behind – bad habits, limiting beliefs and people, followed by some ’stream of consciousness’ writing (ie without judging or editing my thoughts) about what I wanted in the future, leading finally to a list of 10 goals for 2010.

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Make More Money | Just Because You Could (Doesn’t Mean You Should)

As you might know, I’ve become obsessed with the concept of success, what makes some people successful and others not, why do some strive for success and succeed while others fail?  My new Money Gym book is going to be all about that and I think I’ve come close to identifying some key factors that make you more likely to succeed.

I’ve also been interviewing loads of the successful people I know, to get their take on it, to see if they have identified a key quality or action that has made the people they mix with more successful than ordinary folk.

The other thing I’ve always been fascinated by, is the ability to make good decisions, particularly with regards to business:  which business, where, who with, what next?

I have been known to buy the odd self help and business book (the odd 500 or so plus books, more like!) and I definitely remember buying one in my early 20’s called “How To Make Good Decisions” which is probably still around somewhere here!  I used to find it hard to make any decision, let alone a good one, and it’s still a struggle sometimes.

So when I hear that a particular guru of mine has had a life changing moment, has made a momentous decision in their lives or has an opinion about success, I’m always very keen to read about it or see them explain it.

Frank Kern is one such guru – don’t know what it is about Frank but he speaks directly to the heart of many people I know (and it’s not just the girls with that blonde surfer dude thing he’s got going on – my business partner Steve Watson rates him too!)

I find him inspirational because he come across as fearless, he doesn’t have to watch what he says, and he really does seem to live the life he wants to.  Authentic and funny, Frank strikes me as honest, and trustworthy.  No mean feat, online.

The other day I had an interesting experience with his InfoMillionaire organisation.  I had previously subscribed to InfoMillionaire and for a few months enjoyed the excellent posted newsletter they produced.  Then they obviously decided to discontinue the posted version and to take all the material (and believe me it was great quality and there was a lot of it) online.

I’m the biggest fan of membership sites as you know, but as a customer….this didn’t suit me as I just wanted Frank and Trey to tell me what to do, prefereably in a format I could read in bed on a Sunday morning.  I just didn’t want to spend MORE time online.

So I emailed their support, telling them I wanted to cancel my subscription and why, and that I was still a big fan and would, no doubt buy something from them in the future.

I got a great email back saying it would be actioned immediately and a refund issued!  Wow, I hadn’t asked for a refund, in fact I had been quite happy with, and would have settled for, just cancelling.

The good vibes I got off this little exchange made me take action and dig out the free DVD I had sent off for recently, featuring Frank Kern at Rich Schefren’s Strategic Profits Conference a couple of years ago, and someone banging on about media buying (you can see where my interest lay!)

I put it in my laptop and settled down to watch a bit of it in bed, and by 1.15am I was still there……

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Business Success | Doing It Right & Doing It Wrong

When I started my first ever business at the age of 8 years old, I accidentally did something totally wrong and something totally right.

It was my idea to rent out, or even sell, the many many paperback story books I had already accumulated from older relatives, second hand shops and jumble sales.

I started well, planning out how to keep track of who had borrowed which book (modelled on the already successful methods employed by my local library – why re-invent the wheel?) and I’d gathered all the necessary equipment, including a John Bull’s Printing Kit to date stamp the books, albeit a touch on the slow side, due to having to manually change the numbers each day!

We even had premises, the under the stairs cupboard was requisitioned, in spite of my fear of the feather duster, but this was not my main concern because I had already decided I wasn’t going to man the shop, my trusty assistant Heather was!

O yes! One of my more clever moves was that I recruited my 6-year old sister, Heather (now an international opera singer and still dining out on the story!) on a payment-by-results basis and the plan was that I was going to go out around the local playgrounds marketing my new book-lending business, while Heather waited patiently under the stairs, reading the merchandise in order to better demonstrate the pleasure to be gained from any loan or purchase.

One of my LEAST clever moves was not doing any market research, particularly NOT finding out whether there was a ravening hungry horde of kids looking for my solution to their problem or challenge….

Because there wasn’t.

I was the only asthmatic, fairy tale crazy, reading-mad child locally – the rest were very busy having fun outdoors and they wanted to read LESS not more!

O dear.  Duh!

I sorry to say that this was only the first of many, many businesses that I started on a whim, on the back of a good idea, that I got going BEFORE I tested the market or found out if there was a demand.

At the Money Gym, we firmly believe that setting up a part time business (NOT a part time job, note!) can be one of the easiest, quickest first steps you can take in increasing your income.

But we want you to do it right, so that you can answer the most important five questions any business owner must know off by heart.

Do you remember those questions from yesterday’s video?

Well the good news is that today’s video will reveal a secret weapon in the armoury of any aspiring business owner or consultant….

Would you like to find out what that secret weapon is?

Well either hit this link and put your name and email in (even if you have done it before, it will take you to the right page)

http://www.themoneygym.com/silverelite

OR

Visit the Money Gym video page if you have bookmarked it before!

And don’t forget to tell us what you think of Money Gym “Video 5 – Footsteps In the Fog” by commenting at the bottom of the page.

Warm regards

Nicola, Judith, Steve & The Money Gym Team

p.s. Every comment could be a link back to your website, remember, and that’s a GOOD THING!

Watch the videos, comment and get your link by putting your name and email in here http://www.themoneygym.com/silverelite

How Can The “Fight Club” Movie Get YOU Moving?

I was going to write and tell you a little story about Video 4 in the Money Gym wealth creation series – because it’s up and ready for you to view.

(It’s called “Signposts In The Fog” and it gets even more specific about how YOU can start to change your financial future in 2010 using Money Gym techniques)

BUT WOW!

One of our subscribers, Matt, joined in the comments at the bottom, under the videos, specifically he joined in a conversation between me and Ray, who is also watching the videos and who is a self-confessed sufferer from procrastination.

I suggested that Ray might just be worried about making the wrong choices and the fear of that was holding him back from getting started.

I asked him, if you had a gun to your head, Ray, right now, if I was standing over you and making you choose, which Lane of the Wealth Highway would you pick to work on first?

(I cover the Four Lanes of The Wealth Highway in today’s Video 4, if you are not familiar with the concept…)

Matt then added his thoughts and put up a link to the most AMAZINGLY powerful video clip from the film “Fight Club” which I had never seen before and which just virtually BLEW ME AWAY!

You just have to go watch it right now!

http://www.TheMoneyGym.com/silverelite – to get immediate access to the page.

(or if you have bookmarked the video page, just go there right now, watch “Signposts In The Fog” and then read the comments and watch the video….like I say, WOW!)

And I want you to think about this…..

If someone was standing over you right now, saying, do something to improve things in your life right now or ……..

What would you do?

What would be the first thing, the best, most effective action, you could take to make things better for yourself, right now?

We all know deep inside, don’t we?

But we don’t do it because it’s easier to carry on as we are!  Old habits, bad habits, die hard.

Because nobody’s standing over us, giving us a stark choice.  Nobody’s doing like the guy in the Fight Club clip.

Just think about it.

http://www.TheMoneyGym.com/silverelite

Go watch the videos.   It’s Sunday – a great day to take some time for you.

Then make that choice.

To your success!

Nicola, Judith, Steve & The Money Gym Team

Your Compass In The Fog Of Overwhelm

Nicola here from The Money Gym,writing to you on 1st January 2010 with my third very important message….

Think about this for a second………..

In the olden days, humans were able to find their way around the globe, in any kind of weather, even if the fog was so bad they were unable to see a few feet in front of themselves….

How did they do that?

http://www.TheMoneyGym.com/silverelite

They were able to find their way forward because they had some deceptively simple tools…

Tools that were simple to use but were so sophisticated that they delivered exceptional results every time…results you could depend on…

Those tools were….

The Stars and a Compass.

Yep, that’s pretty much all they used to sail ships across the vast oceans, to go somewhere so far away it literally took months, if not years to get there and then to come safely home again.

Would it surprise you to discover that there are some deceptively simple tools you can use too, to navigate your way through all the financial confusion you might be experiencing right now?

Well, no!  I’m not going to tell you about those tools, I’m going to show you….how to create and use them yourself.

http://www.TheMoneyGym.com/silverelite
Warm regards

Nicola, Judith & The Money Gym Team

P.S.      Watch our brand new video to discover some of the simple but effective tools we use to navigate our way around our financial world!

http://www.TheMoneyGym.com/silverelite

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