Philosophy, Felines & Becoming A Footballer’s Wife

On Friday 13th I wrote my usual brilliant “Note From Nicola” (*grin*) and then had a big problem with my new laptop, which Steve tried to fix, and in the process, my NfromN was deleted completely.  Now anyone who blogs, comments on blogs, writes anything at all, will know how heart-breaking that is.  As I was off to speak for “Recession Free Seminars” and “Build Your Wealth” at the weekend, I had to leave it (just WALK AWAY from the computer) and try again today.

Being of a philosophical but obviously non-woo-woo nature, I’m reflecting today that it was meant to happen.

Because if it hadn’t, I wouldn’t have been able to tell you about the biggest thing to happen to personal development blogging, yet.  A new site has launched and if I told you that a new best-selling author has been born, I wouldn’t be exaggerating.  If you loved “Wife In The North” and the rather risque “Belle De Jour” blogs, then you will love this…..Ta da!

Danny The Guru Cat is a jaded, cynical, slightly scary cat, whose owner Graham Wendes (aka Softboy) has empowered Danny to share his thoughts on life, love, the universe and everthing.  Danny has a half-sister called Winnie who is dispensing the softer element of the blog, in her “Ask Winnie” section, but don’t be surprised if it’s Danny who answers the questions!

Now, I’m the least soppy person about pets you can imagine, having taken back to the shop our Cockatiel called Elvis because it was too damn noisy, it’s a miracle our five goldfish are still alive, so blogs by animals leave me cold usually….

But because I’ve been experiencing the power, wit, vulnerablity, tough love and wisdom of Danny The Guru Cat via our private Money Gym Google Group for a while now, I’ve been looking forward to his writing debut and it doesnt’ disappoint.

Check it out for yourself and subscribe to the RSS feed by email if you like it.  We have to keep Danny blogging!

Friday 13th was also Red Nose Day, which necessitated Phoebe creating a striking red outfit to wear to school in honour.  Now she says she’s too shy to go on the stage but if this isn’t a star profile outfit I don’t know what is!

We boo’ed and donated our way through the evening and the highlight for me was David Beckham’s face as he tried not to laugh at the dressing down the England team got from actor James Corden, Smithy from Gavin & Stacey.  Watch it here >>>

What a good looking lot those England boys scrub up to be eh?  I can almost see the appeal of being a footballer’s wife now, LOL.

So, two speaking gigs in one day, this last weekend, now that’s what I call time management.  I experienced one of those rare moments of pure happiness on the train, whooshing through the sunset listening to Nu Yorican Soul and twittering from my new Blackberry.

Then I arrived at one of the hotels the organisers had mentioned, only to find it was not only not a 4* or 5*, but it was about a 1* rating.  My heart sank and I nearly got back in the taxi again.  I was hoping to hook up with a load of the speakers and delegates but there was NO WAY they would be staying here.  Serves me right for not doing more research!  No bar, no restaurant……..However when I got into the room (with a KEY!!) I found it was relentlessly 80’s decor but spotlessly clean, warm and very comfortable so I went for it.  No internet connection working so I was forced to wander out onto Esher High Street where I found a good selection of restaurants including a Carluccio’s (Judith, make a note for when you get stuck in Esher!).  Very posh and couple-y though….

So I thought I would pop into the rather nice looking gastro pub next door for a drink first as it was still early, and then Alan, who was marketing the gig, rang me back and told me that they were staying at the Hilton up the road (of course they were!) but they were going to the promoter’s house, for a curry with some of the speakers, and would I like to come.  O yes!  Into a taxi to Weybridge, through a security gate, round a very, very nice private estate and up to the front door of a house that was just jaw-droppingly beautiful.  Saved!  A very nice evening with some great company, accompanied by a VERY good curry from the No #1 all-natural-ingredients curry house in the UK apparently.  Loads of property investors from Cyprus there too!

I woke up at 6.30 to a sunshine filled bedroom and breakfast in a sunny dining room helped a lot too!  A totally empty Sandown Park Racecourse was an interesting venue and the balcony overlooked the sunny and beautiful “Owners Enclosure” which reminded me of our outing to Brighton Races last year (my first time).

While I was wondering if I could get the energy levels up sufficiently for the second, I found it easier than I thought!  However, I was a bit thrown to find, while sitting on Esher train station, that @Paul_Elliott who comperes at Build Your Wealth, was twittering that he was listening to Topher Morrisson…..and I suddenly realised that this might mean I was on stage next!

Do you know Topher?  I haven’t heard him speak before but all our Money Gym gang rave about him and he’s an NLP expert and supposed to be a very charismatic speaker (so the last thing I wanted to do was go on right after him!)

However I duly arrived at the venue, was slightly thrown to find Warren Borjse hanging out behind the registration desk (isn’t he supposed to be in Australia?!!) and the lovely Gary Vurnum hanging out at the back of the hall (just for fun apparently!!) and yes, Topher on stage, doing his charismatic thing!  I see why everyone raves about him now, he’s great!

Eeek.

Then I spotted some Money Gym gang in the throng, Karen from TimeBomb T-Shirts & Online Rock School and Matthew Green who has been to some of our Cashflow Games.

Always nice to know that you have some supporters in the audience, so I took some deep breaths, reminded myself to just be authentic and me, and go for it.  And I did a good job, better on the second gig than the first I think.  Karen supported me wonderfully, she’s a star/creator profile for sure.

Nice to connect with Gary, Daniel Priestly (and able to hook him up with some potential business), Paul Elliott, Warren again but from a speaking/selling point of view, both gigs were only moderately successful, even though I got a good reaction, as the audience are really unbelievably un-clued up about the internet……….although half put their hands up to being self employed or having a business, out of 200 odd, only about 4-5 put their hand up to having a website, or knowing what a blog was, so I’ve got to re-think what I’m presenting to that kind of audience.  Membership sites are great but they are just too advanced, in my opinion, for the “starter” wealth creation crowd. Only two people who had heard of Twitter for heaven’s sake and both of those were our Money Gym two.

We need to advance our plans for the Money Gym “Money Box” product and fast!

But first it’s our big day on Saturday……….the Property Extravaganza.  Only about 40 – 50 tickest left now ….. and every time I click “send and receive” another 5-10 or so have gone.

This is going to be one of the biggest days in this year’s property calender….anyone who came to the Brett McFall weekend knows the atmosphere we get when 200-odd Money Gym maniacs get in the room together.  For a whole day, the recession and credit crunch will be forgotten, as folks connnect, re-connect, find out how they are making money in spite of the doom and gloom, and generally have a great time.

You really can’t afford to miss it – and you will be helping us help the Big Issue, help the homeless help themselves.

http://www.TheMoneyGym.com/events/property

C’mon, you know you want to.

If not, have fun, we always do.

Nicola

Dawn, Daniel, Trades Descriptions & Direct Talking

A very early start on Saturday, to fly to Manchester to spend the day with an early client of The Money Gym, reviewing his business and investments and planning the next year for him. He’s asked me to meet up once a quarter as he finds a coaching relationship very motivating! Now this man does not need motivating, let me tell you, but I’ve decided he’s an entrepreneurial personality type so he thinks while he talks. And he values having someone objective to talk to! We definately came out of that day with a focused “to do” list for each of his “Lanes of the Wealth Highway”.

A lovely meal with my client and then I waved him off and had an early night at the rather nice Radisson SAS hotel, which was full of well behaved football supporters rather than hunky tough soldiers. Trades descriptions act, anyone?

Then to the Tower Thistle to speak for WIN Investing’s “Build Your Wealth” event. Very strange day, as while the response was very positive, nobody took me up on my offer, whereas with much smaller crowds in London, they’ve been beating my door down. Lots of sidling up and trying to get my private contact details as well, which was very odd.

A lovely lunch with Daniel Priestly of Triumphant Events, who I’ve heard a lot about but never met before. He caught the end of my talk and was intrigued, and I loved his presentation on Wealth Dynamics profiling, which of course we are big fans of at The Money Gym. Judith and I are Creator/Star/Mechanics (no!) and Steve is a Lord/Accumulator/Mechanic. Any Deal Makers or Supporters out there?

Then off to Manchester Airport which I always find most entertaining, where I got chatted up by a barrister en route for somewhere else. It took me a while to realise it was happening, as I’m a very friendly and outgoing type generally, but by the third compliment in thirty minutes (vivacious, lovely eyes, nice coat, warm personality etc etc) I was starting to twig. Ooo-er, what to do? Being a wimp, I couldn’t say “no” outright when he asked for my number but I figured if I took his, then at least I would be able to screen the calls. The man has a live-in lover for heavens sake, where do guys like that get off? He probably reads this ezine by now, my profile not being exactly low key, online, so, if you do, you were very nice but I’m not interested in breaking up homes OR playing second fiddle. Don’t you watch “Mistresses” – it ALWAYS ends in tears.

Talking of possibly ending in tears, check out my article on business and taking responsibility for your money, as nobody cares as much about your cash as you do. It’s a theme that Judith and I are very keen to make sure you are aware of, as the news gets grimmer and grimmer on the TV. It’s not just about jobs being in the firing line, but businesses too. And that may have a knock on effect on your earnings, your savings and your investments. Not to doom-monger but to encourage you to be aware, be pro-active and make plans for a different world than it was last year!

Back to work and it’s all been about the Property Extravaganza Day this week, with bookings pouring in. We are nearly half sold out so if you are thinking of coming along, book your place at http://www.themoneygym.com/events/property – it’s only £25, all going to the Big Issue after we pay the VAT, and eight great speakers. Loads of lovely networking and re-charging your wealth creation batteries.

This week, Judith and I interviewed the very lively Anthony North, who is the Head Fundraiser for The Big Issue, and an entertaining and moving hour it was too! I broadcast the interview on BlogTalkRadio, I’m going to podcast via the blog here on iTunes. You can listen to Anthony’s story here

I did a quick look on YouTube to see if the Big Issue had much up there already – perhaps their own channel, as they do Big Issue tours and events. Not a sausage on YouTube except some piss-taking videos of Big Issue vendors doing their best to bring a bit of Christmas cheer to their selling activities.

So I’m given myself the rather tedious job of breaking the interview down into six x ten minute segments, and getting it up on YouTube as video too. If Anthony gives me the go-ahead, I’ll create The Big Issue their own channel, so they can add our videos and those of some of the bands who have been on their tour.

While there I found an interesting video of Big Issue founder John Bird, talking about Ethical Business at the British Library and you can view that here >>>

And then I did a search on Google for John Bird and found this interesting article where John says the only solution to the homeless problem is to ……lock up the homeless!

I’m amazed at how this whole Big Issue thing is touching me actually, must be a “there but for the grace of god, go I” element creeping in. There have been many times in my life when I needed to move and have been housed by family and friends and I couldn’t help thinking yesterday, when listening to Anthony’s passion for his job, what would I have done without anyone to help and support me?

Off to London Friday ready for the next Membership Club Magic “Bonus” Workshop. All the people who signed up in September at Brett’s event are coming and the new people who signed up via the free online webinar presentation or via the Build Your Wealth events. Old friends, some not seen since 2003, and lots of new ones – marvellous.

Now, we are starting to think about taking on an intern for 6 months to a year. This would be someone, probably a college leaver or gap year person, who wants to learn how to become an internet marketer, run an online business, organise and host real world events, and discover how to develop information and software products. There would be no pay, for the internship, but all expenses covered, and the chance of a job with us, or someone we know at the end of it. I don’t think you would need to live near Sussex, as we could work remotely most of the time but the South East would probably save you some travelling.

Skills would include a thorough knowledge and use of the online world, for example, use of Bebo, MySpace or Facebook a must, and if they can use spreadsheets and type fast with good English, that would be a great advantage. Self starter, goes without saying, and outgoing with an eye for detail. Must be willing to learn HTML, blogging, shopping carts, autoresponders etc.

More to follow, as we thrash out the details, so watch your email. This is how Steve found out I was looking for someone to run the hotel, so you never know…

As he always says, he rues the day he opened that email, but he’s still here so… LOL

Ready Fire Aim! Memberships, Marketing & Multimillions

It’s been a busy old week, what with the first draft of the Property Extravangza info page going live at http://www.themoneygym.com/events/property and the first flurry of bookings coming in.

We have decided that this event is in aid of The Big Issue, who help the homeless to help themselves, we have a great set of speakers, including Rick Otton as the keynote speaker, and Martin Roberts off the tele, property expert and star of Homes Under The Hammer. Judith has written a stonking bit of copy, quite inspired, and we are just waiting for photos of speakers, video testimonials of other events and suchlike. Then the page will really sing! http://www.martinroberts.co.uk/

I’ve just been watching Rick on national tv in Australia, walking folks through his whole “rent to own” system – they are really getting it there and the UK will follow behind. Only today on page 4 of “Property Today” which comes with my Worthing Advertiser, there is a big article about a new Rent To Own scheme launched in Littlehampton, on the back of the Government’s own “Rent To Buy Later” scheme.

On the same page, funnily enough, there is a property advertised with a “zacuzzi” in the bathroom….some little estate agent getting it totally wrong! Bless ‘um.

I started work with Debbie Winterbourne this week, winner of the “Gold For Christmas” competition – where she gets to work with me going through the Gold programme, then gets to hang out with us for life! We are doing one call a month where I cover the material module by module in the first half hour, via video webinar, then Debbie gets to ask general questions about what she’s just heard, then she goes off and does her homework, and comes back for a second call, where we explore her personal circumstances, and particular challenges around that module.

I had forgotten quite how bossy I was when coaching…..”directive coaching” it’s called. Phew! Must remember to ask more questions and issue less instructions. Debbie took it all in good part and she’s an action taker so right up my street. We need to do some work behind the scenes on both her websites as I can make an immediate difference there!

You can find out more about Debbie and her particular passion for deciphering the power of dreams here and if you need a nice but affordable workshop space in London, she owns Quantum House which you can find here

(some time later………..)

Lord I got totally distracted by Google Calender there – saw one embedded in Pat Lovell’s blog (Pat’s from GotAccess.com among other things and I met him on the cruise) and thought Wow! that would be great to keep my speaking gigs updated for the GP (general public LOL) and ended up embedding it to my blog, Ecademy account and all. You can view my peramulations around the world speaking here >>

Off to London this weekend for “Build Your Wealth” again, and I’m in Manchester for “Build Your Wealth” events – you can book here for just £7 for both days

Did you know, it’s over £70 on the train and takes 4 and a half hours, and it’s one hour on the plane and costs just under £100. Madness. Early start though! Which of the lovely boutique hotels to stay in, eh? Recommendations on an email…..

While in Manchester, I’m seeing an old Money Gym client for the day, to work with him to review his progress and plan for the next five years. Lovely man, really looking forward to it! I also joined a webinar this week with a software company who are thinking of taking me on as non-exec Marketing Consultant – I think I can bring a lot to the table as they come from the corporate world and while aware of internet marketing, are not yet quite aware of the power and speed of it, if you can just get your first ideal customer clearly in mind and communicate straight at them. This is going to be fun.

I hosted what turned out to be a very popular webinar to nearly 100 registered-in-advance “ideal customers” of the Money Gym the other night, quite on the spur of the moment, on membership sites. It suddenly occurred to me that it might be fun to test the whole idea of video broadcasting a powerpoint presentation, making an offer at the end, much like I do on stage. Yes, I know! It’s nothing new, used to do it lots years ago, but you forget things don’t you? I’m going to do more of it, and we did a “Google Analytics/Statistics Tracking” webinar with the Membership Club Magic bods this week as a bonus call. Great fun.

Busy but great fun.

Talking of the Membership Club Magic webinar, from Saturday the recording will be available to watch online again here - those videos take ages to edit, chop up and upload and nobody can get online while you upload them. Howls of rage echo from around the house when you try, as you hog all the supposed 8 meg bandwidth. Runescape gone! Pokerstars gone! Second Life gone! Skype gone! MSN gone! British Telecom…..8 Meg, my derrier.

Steve and I are on ANOTHER diet, this one being a healthy eating one, lots of delicious salads (and beans/pulses, no, don’t ask!), no wine or beer during the week and he even went for a run this week. It’s inspired by a book he’s reading called “Fat Bloke Slims (How I Lost 3 Stone” by Bruce Heron, who you may remember as D.C. Terry Perkins from The Bill. Actually I saw another diet (that’s me) but Steve’s made his mind up to lose weight now too. He does make the best salads and I’ve made some of my best lentil and garlic soup which we are having whenever Steve doesn’t want to cook.

And Judith proudly announced this week that she’s learned to play poker. She went into a game with her accountant and solicitor with 80p and came out with £1.22. Judith, have you not heard of a “fixed buy in tournament”? Even we don’t play cash games!! This sparked a debate about whether it would be appropriate to host a “Money Gym Texas Hold’em Tournament” after one of the Cashflow 101 games?

Hmmm, perhaps not!

And finally……….I’ve just finished Michael Masterson’s brilliant book “Ready Fire Aim” about how to take a company into the multi-millions and beyond. I enjoyed it so much I’m going right back to the beginning and I’m reading it again. Shot straight into my Top 10 Business Books of All Time!!

Kilts, Coaching Your Coach & Kicking 2009 Into Touch

So we missed the great “recession busting” OrangeBeetle party at the castle in Scotland, but we don’t have to miss out on Alan’s stirring speech for business owners in 2009 which was captured for YouTube of course.

I hope I can persuade him to make sure the next one doesn’t clash with the Internet Marketers Cruise next year, as I love a bit of tartan and scottish country dancing (well, I did go to school in Scotland for a while…).

It’s weird how things work out isn’t it?

While I was on the cruise I decided to put it “out there” that I wanted to speak more on stage, particularly at big multi-speaker events, selling Money Gym products and raising the awareness of The Money Gym.  When it was my turn on the mic, I thought I would use the opportunity to ask the event organisers in the room, what info they would want me to send them, to get a chance at a gig.  That resulted in two offers, while on the cruise, Jennie Armato’s event in April in London, and Robert Puddy’s event with Paulie Sabol and Donna Fox in September.

But the very act of saying it out loud, in public, resulted in ole TUT stirring himself and I got back to an email from someone who I knew of, but didn’t know very well, offering me a trial speaking gig.

Last week I spoke for Darren Winters at his “Build Your Wealth” event in London, and he’s asked me back for London on 14th / 15th February and Manchester on 21st / 22nd February.  Why not come along

And then I got an email from Brett, asking if I’m coming to his Next Level event on the Gold Coast of Australia, also in April.  He also thinks he could fill a room of people interested in membership sites…..and Oh, and by the way, did I want to speak at his “Make Money While You Sleep”event in Sydney too?  How EXCITING is that??

So I’m on a Money Gym Silver & Gold Webinar and we are talking about goal setting and planning for success, and about how the biggest obstacles to achieving your goals are sometimes what Mark Forster calls your “anti-goals”.

For example, I really want to speak more and travel the world doing that, but I’ve realised while thinking about the possibly Australia trip, that one of my “anti-goals” around that are “but I don’t want to be away from home too much”.

I’m imagining that Steve would mind, and the kids would even notice I was gone!  I got coached myself fairly robustly by Judith and the clients and realised that I was probably hallucinating it all, so I spoke to both and they all said “go” it’s a brilliant opportunity!”  You can listen again here >

Duh!  Of course it is.  And of course I will.

While i was actually ON that call, I got a message from Mr OrangeBeetle himself, and Alan’s asked me to speak at an event he’s organising in March.

And THEN, when I finished the webinar and put the phone down to Alan, I get another call and it’s Darren again, booking me for the two other gigs he’s running in February.

Very, very odd.  But great!

All of this makes me realise that I really do have to go back on a diet again, with all these speaking gigs coming up.  The weight’s been creeping back on over the last two years or so – I’m not as big as I was when we all went to New York for T.Herv Ecker’s Millionaire Mind Intensive, but it’s going that way.  Unfortunately I just love good food and wine, the social aspect that comes with all that, and Steve’s good food is better than most.

But I must find a way to resist his spatch-cock’d chicken, his potato dauphinoise and particularly his molton chocolate pudding.  God help me!

The cruise wasnt’t great for that either – the food was so good and the constant partying…oh my goodness.

But you can’t have everything can you?  And I’m getting to the age when, according to popular folklore, you have to choose between your face and your bum, look after one and the other goes haywire apparently.  Thin bum, you get wrinkles.  No wrinkles, you get a fat bum.

Whatever you are dreaming of for 2009, have a good think about the possible anti-goals or reasons why you might NOT want to achieve them.  Get them out in the open, throw some light on them and ask yourself “are they real or just hallucinations?”

If your goals include a website that makes money, why not register for my free Webinar this Wednesday – Membership Club Magic ?  Book your place here >>>

Have fun
We always do!
Nicola

Caribbean Cruising, Beating The Credit Crunch, Communicating To Crowds

“How was the internet marketers cruise then?” you must be shouting!

Suffice to say I had the best time.  It was brilliant for work and such good fun.  I won’t go into it much here but I’ve been posting pics on Flickr and you can view them on the blog here – look out for the one of us covered in napkins at Miami International Airport because our flight was delayed by about 8 hours, and we were FROZEN.  Virgin Atlantic brought out some blankets just after we did this but still too little, too late.  Another highlight was my eating an entire sausage with peanut butter because I thought it was some weird american mustard.

Overall it was a great trip.  I met some amazing people, gave Robert G Allen a signed copy of my book (cheek of the girl!), made lots of new friends and potential strategic partners and had a ball.  I’ll be posting more about it on the blog as I remember stuff.

The Caribbean lived up to it’s hype and some!  We went to St Maartens, St Kitts and Tortola and Judith says they are not even the nicest islands.  I loved the way the weather changed all the time (see pics link above) even in one day, but was always warm and mostly sunny and hot.  If you are thinking of investing with Harlequin I would go for it  not just for the investment but just to get your 30 days free stay out there.

And if you go to St Kitts, and need a taxi or five, call my new mate Raphael, who drove buses in Hackney for 20 years, before retiring home to set up his taxi firm called “Empress Coaches”.  He personally owns two air-conditioned taxis but can call on his mates and does a great rate on tours.  Raphael can accommodate any number of visitors and boy! does he know his history.  He is a very funny, nice man, who will look after you brilliantly.

Call Raphael on his mobile 1-869-663-0324 (office: 1-869-466-7043) or email him on empresscoaches[at]hotmail.com

And if you want to join us next year visit http://www.themoneygym.com/holidays and choose Nicola Cairncross from the drop down menu to get Money Gym bonuses and be in our gang.

Back home and back to work – I’m going to cover my plans for 2009 in the “Success!” section of this ezine so I’ll just talk about what I’ve been up to the last few weeks here, shall I?

The “Gold For Christmas” competition and the all day Wealth-A-Thon was a fun event and won this year by Debbie Winterbourne.  I might do one every year….I’m starting work with Debbie via private ustream tv shows in the first week of February.  The runners up will be allowed to look over her shoulder, so to speak and all of it will be recorded.  Debbie has kindly given me permission to invite some of our other clients to watch too – she MUST be a star profile in Wealth Dynamics terms.

I’m hosting our “Let’s Talk Money” day next Saturday

http://www.themoneygym.com/events

We are only doing three of these in 2009 so if you miss this one, you will have to wait till 13th June!  We change the format every time, and I add the stuff that I think will move you forward in your wealth creation journey the most, so even if you have been to one before, it’s well worth coming again.

And then on Sunday I’m speaking for the first time for Darren Winters at his “Build Your Wealth” event.  You can attend the two day event for just £7 and you can book here at

http://www.tinyurl.com/buildyourwealth

Other events to watch out for are our property extravaganza in late March, with Rick Otton (We Buy Houses International) as our key note speaker.  Rick is the person who taught David Lee (who taught us) how to buy houses for £1 and he’ll be sharing his secrets with us then.

http://www.themoneygym.com/events

This is something I’m going to be very much focused on in 2009 and it’s entirely possible in the UK.

Hmmm, that’s pretty much it, so I’m off to upload more photos!

See ya!

Nicola