My Book, His Book & VIP Bookings

Last weekend I went to London to speak for Neil Asher’s clients – over 120 people in the Millenium Sloane St who were bright, interactive and well up for learning new things.  Neil had a good solid lineup of speakers and I was delighted to find Money Gym coach Philly Fuggle there as Paul was speaking about Total Business Cart the next day.

My talk went well and we attracted two new clients to Membership Club Magic.  Two other nice surprises were two people in the audience – Geoff who I hadn’t seen since the Coachville conference in Las Vegas and a lady (Carole? So sorry, I was on a post talk adrenaline high and I don’t think you gave me a card!) who had coached me back in the very early days at one of Bob Griffith’s hot seat coaching days in London – you were trying to encourage me to raise my rates from £279.50 a month to over £300 and I was very resistant apparently.

Well I’ve so got over that and she was very pleased to hear it.  I think the difference is that I know the value of what I deliver.  And of course, I don’t need personal coaching clients as my main income is via the Money Gym, but I choose to work with a few people at a time, purely on internet related stuff, because I enjoy it.

Then I stayed up for dinner – a great Indian with a crowd of Neil’s closest clients and friends, and then up early to go to Heathrow for a rather disappointing event, where they were expecting 400 but only 90 showed for the first day,and only about 45 for the Sunday.  Added to that, a couple of unfortunatel incidents made my talk popular but not very successful in terms of attracting new clients, but I enjoyed seeing Michael Young, meeting Yvonne from the African & Caribbean Business Network and it’s always a joy to hear Andy Harrington speak – he was particularly good this time!

The big news this week is that I’ve not only started to re-write my Money Gym book, but that process started me mindmapping / planning the next one.  Then, all of a sudden, it started to pour out of me!  I just couldn’t help myself!

Read more..

Feel The Fear & Do It Anyway

I’ve been thinking a lot about fear recently, mainly because I’ve been doing quite a few fairly scary things over the last few weeks!

Specifically, I’ve been thinking about feeling the fear and doing it anyway, and how not being able to do that, holds a lot of people back from success.  But before we talk about that, let’s look at what fear actually is.

From the website “How Stuff Works”

“Fear is a chain reaction in the brain that starts with a stressful stimulus and ends with the release of chemicals that cause a racing heart, fast breathing and energized muscles, among other things, also known as the fight-or-flight response. The stimulus could be a spider, a knife at your throat, an auditorium full of people waiting for you to speak or the sudden thud of your front door against the door frame.

The brain is a profoundly complex organ. More than 100 billion nerve cells comprise an intricate network of communications that is the starting point of everything we sense, think and do. Some of these communications lead to conscious thought and action, while others produce autonomic responses. The fear response is almost entirely autonomic: We don’t consciously trigger it or even know what’s going on until it has run its course.

Because cells in the brain are constantly transferring information and triggering responses, there are dozens of areas of the brain at least peripherally involved in fear. But research has discovered that certain parts of the brain play central roles in the process…..”

Read more here >>

And Wikipedia has an interesting take on it

“Fear is an emotional response to threats and danger. It is a basic survival mechanism occurring in response to a specific stimulus, such as pain or the threat of pain. Psychologists John B. Watson, Robert Plutchik, and Paul Ekman have suggested that fear is one of a small set of basic or innate emotions. This set also includes such emotions as joy, sadness, and anger. Fear should be distinguished from the related emotional state of anxiety, which typically occurs without any external threat.

Additionally, fear is related to the specific behaviors of escape and avoidance, whereas anxiety is the result of threats which are perceived to be uncontrollable or unavoidable.[1] Worth noting is that fear always relates to future events, such as worsening of a situation, or continuation of a situation that is unacceptable.”

Read more here >>

Notice that Wikipedia says “fear always relates to future events….” and this would seem to be born out by the list of the things people fear most.

What do people fear most?

One survey says that at the top of the list is death, the fear of which is necrophobia. Second, apparently, is the fear of failure, which is called kakorrhaphiophobia. Wikipedia lists “spiders, snakes, heights, water, enclosed spaces, tunnels and bridges, social rejection, failure, and public speaking” as the most common fears.

In an innovative test of what people fear the most, Bill Tancer analyzed the most frequent online search queries that involved the phrase, “fear of…”. This follows the assumption that people tend to seek information on the issues that concern them the most. His top ten list of fears consisted of flying, heights, clowns, intimacy, death, rejection, people, snakes, success, and driving

From my work in The Money Gym, I notice that a lot of our members fear “other people’s opinions” quite a lot.  They don’t want to be perceived to be different, or to be ridiculed or rejected, if they become interested in wealth creation or even if they become wealthy. They are almost shooting themselves in teh foot because they are afraid of success.

On that topic, I was on a “experts panel” once at the World Internet Summit, when  a speaker asked the audience why they might NOT want to become internet millionaires and one brave soul said that she was worried that she might not be able to handle the emails!

Time management expert Mark Forster describes these as anti-goals and that you have to identify your anti-goals, or fears around achieving something, or you will sabotage yourself and won’t succeed.

For example, I have a goal to become an international speaker, but when I identified my anti-goals around that, I was fearful of being on the road all the time, away from my family, staying in grotty hotels, driving constantly and turning up to speak for free to only six people!

Once I had identified those anti-goals, I was able to reframe my goal to say “I am an in-demand international paid speaker, who picks her gigs carefully, only speaking to big crowds, staying in five star hotels and travelling first class”

Being fearful is not the same as worrying….I used to be a terrible worry-wort, particularly about what people would say/think if I asked for what I wanted/needed.  Then Judith pointed out that I was hallucinating, as I had no idea how people would react, and Steve pointed out that I was being narcissistic, as I was always projecting onto others how I would feel in that situation.

Speaking personally, I’m not afraid of rejection, or other people’s opinions (unless it’s the people I love), I love public speaking – one of my sisters is an Opera Singer and we don’t think we have a “stagefright” gene in the Cairncross gene pool – and I’ve failed so many times I’ve seriously got over that one, because I have always known, deep down, that one day I will succeed.

So what am I afraid of and why are my fears coming up so much while I’m on holiday?  I’m almost afraid to tell you (write them down) in case I manifest them!!

Fears that have surfaced for me in the last few weeks, while travelling, are….

Fear of driving on the right hand side, particularly on windy greek and spanish country roads.  Actually it’s more specific than that – it’s of the brakes failiing with a carful of kids.  And I hate the thought of the car not “catching” when going up a steep slope in first gear…and there are a lot of those in both Greece and Spain.  Just getting from the main road in Casares to the municipal carpark involves hairpin bends and steep slopes!

Fear of flying – particularly the landings.  I have to meditate quite hard to get over that one.  Dawn French summed it up when she said that she can’t go on holiday for only a week, it has to be at least two to make up for the stress of flying as she feels that it’s only her will power alone that keeps the plane in the air, and if she relaxes for a second, the plane will plummet out of the skies.  She wonders how all the other planes manage, when she’s at home, but supposes that every one must have a “Dawn” on board to keep them airborne.

I’m not massively keen on swimming out of my depth, and there is NO WAY I can swim over rocks or seaweed.  That’s why I love Kologria Beach in Stoupa so much, clear golden sand, goes out for miles, and while there are tiny transparent fish there, they are miles away from your feet.  I discovered yesterday at Estapona Beach, that I have a fear of sharks and if the water is cold enough, I start thinking of the possibility of being eaten while swimming so I can’t swim out deeper than anyone else on the beach.

I have a huge fear of insects, particularly spiders and daddy-long-legs (like particulary daft flying spiders) but anything with legs and wings will do.  Euuuuughhhh.  Hate mossies too, and if I hear one in a room, there is NO WAY I can sleep.  Mossie nets and plugin chemicals get me over that one.  At home, I have a long-handled spider catcher which has set me free to a large degree (really need to find a manufacturer for that one – it’s a sure fire commercial success!  Mine was made by a little man in his shed, bought on Ebay)

So how do I get over all these fears, which even when I write them down, look a bit daft by some peoples standards?

Well, I just have to.  I want the kids to have this experience and I don’t want them to grow up a scaredy-cat like I was as a child.  Also, Sarah is here, and I want her to experience things to…so actually I’m forcing myself to get over fears for others, when perhaps I wouldn’t do stuff like this if I was on my own.

So how do I do it?  I just tell myself or even shout out loud sometimes…. “feel the fear and do it anyway!!” and then get on and do it.

With most of the above, apart from the insect thing, it works and we are having loads of fun, which helps a lot, along with the sense of achievement you get after overcoming a fear or two.

In conclusion, I would say that knowing yourself well, working with your silly old fears, but overcoming some by sheer force of will, remembering that not everyone reacts/feels like you, will help you on your road to success.

So what are you afraid of?

It helps to visualise the outcome  or payoff – by hiring two cars in Spain, we saved a small fortune on taxis and we are completely mobile, no mean feat for two grownups and six children of varying ages, in another country.  The other benefit is that Sarah has got over the hump of driving on the right for the first time, and I’m more confident with it, because I had to look brave for her.

How can you find a practical solution (like a long handled spider catcher for example) or how could you ease yourself in gradually (like swimming out of your depth in a crystal clear blue sea).

Perhaps you could find someone who regularly does – confidently – what you want to do, and talk to them about how they felt the first few times.

You might be amazed to find that they were scared witless too, and that they just felt the fear and did it anyway!

So they succeeded in their goals and ambitions.

Just like you can too.

Doing The Easy Bits First & Then Living Your Life On Purpose

As I said in my “Note From Nicola” this week, Judith and I have been discussing via Skype what The Money Gym looks like for the rest of this year and next.  We love to do this “blue sky” thinking and like to do it before board meetings because Steve prefers more practically orientated chat.  We are having an interim board meeting on Monday to confirm it all in terms of strategy and then hammer out a “to do” and “who to do” list.

We also ask Money Gym students to do this, but more gently, in the form of the “Tuesday Exercise” which you can find in the Money Gym book.  This asks the reader to imagine what a normal Tuesday would look like, from the moment you wake up till the moment you go to bed;  who you are with, what you spend your time doing, which country you are living in, what you see out of the windows, and we encourage them

I started to write an article about it all, and why it’s important to design your business to suit you, your life, your strengths and skills and then I suddenly thought…….hang on, Judith will have written about this more eloquently than I ever could, especially as I’m not feeling 100% this week.  And she didn’t let me down!

Judith says : “I’m doing the easy bits first.  The easy bits are those which just flow, things I can’t wait to tell you or share with you, arising from thoughts I have been saving for just this moment.

I suggest you notice when things “just flow” for you – what are you doing, and how can you do more of it?

It’s All About “Creating a Business to Love – Your Primary Aim”

“It never fails to amaze me how disconnected people can be from what should be the central issue of their lives, which is of course… LIFE .”

“A business without life is no business at all.   But I can easily imagine a life without business.”   Michael Gerber

As you know, Michael Gerber’s “The E-Myth Revisited” subtited (scarily) “Why most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What do Do About It” is just one of my main coaching tools.

For a long time, it was my business bible, and I have been to the first all-women Leadership Intensive in California with the E-Myth Worldwide.

I want to share with you the importance of having a “Primary Aim” for your life, with which your business is aligned.

It’s About Your Life.

Your Primary Aim is about leading a life that is consistent with your innermost desires, core calues, and beliefs.   A life that “feels right” every day, that gives you a deeper sense of fulfillment and meaning with every year that passes.   A life you live intentionally rather than randomly.

In that simple statement lies the key to living a happy, fulfilled life.   A life that is meaningful to you.   A life in which your business plays a significant role, but far from the only role.   A life of joy.   And probably not the life you’re leading now.

Your Primary Aim is your innermost driving force.   It’s the source of the vitality, the commitment, the vision you need to get the most out of your life and to create a remarkable business in the process.   It is that which, more than anything else, gives you a sense of direction and purpose, motivates you to your highest levels of energy, and sustains you over the long haul.

What’s yours?

Here’s how to find it.   Ask yourself:

What would you like to be able to say about your life after it’s too late to do anything about it?

How do I wish my life to be on a day-to-day basis?

How would I like to be with other people in my life – my family, my friends, my business associates, my customers, my employees, my community?

What would I like to be doing two years from now?   Ten years from now?   Twenty years from now?   When my life comes to a close?

What specifically would I like to learn during my life – spiritually, physically, financially, technically, intellectually? About relationships?

How much money will I need to do the things I wish to do? By when will I need it?

Your Primary Aim provides you with a purpose, it provides you with energy.   Live your life with intention.   People may not remember what you say but they will definitely remember how you made them feel.

Once you have worked out what your Primary Aim is, does your business serve it, chime with it, or fight against it?

Thanks to E-Myth and Michael and Michele from http://www.successmadefun.com I know what my Primary Aim is and I share it with you here:

* I honour my own light first and I illuminate the way for others.

This is my purpose.   I am on fire!

Would you like to feel this way about your life, about your business?

Without it, how will you have a successful life or business? How would you know what first step to take? How would you measure your progress? How would you know where you were? How would you know how far you had gone? How would you know how much farther you had yet to go?

All you need to do is take your life seriously, begin living it as if it were important.   To create it intentionally and actively make your life the life you wish it to be.   Create a Business and a Life to Love.

Simple?   Yes.

Easy?   No.

I am grateful to the E-Myth Worldwide for this material.   I remember where I when I first read this powerful book, how it told my life story, how I resolved to change it that day and help as many others through spreading its message far and wide in the business community.

The E-Myth Revisited is just one of the books we recommend as essential reading in our Money Gym Silver program and is easily obtainable and affordable via www.amazon.co.uk though!

Other books we recommend around this topic are

“Synchronicity: The Inner Path Of Leadership” by Joseph Jaworski
“The 4-Hour Work Week” by Tim Ferris

37 Reasons | The Good News About Property – Part #3

Day Three in my series about my favourite 37 Reasons why you might come to our Money Gym Property Extravaganza in London on 21st March in aid of the Big Issue. The Incentives. The Bribes. And what whoppers they are!

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

In no particular order of importance – you must rate that for yourself:

1. Prizes totalling £42,500 and rising – from a holiday in one of the overseas investment properties, to portfolio places worth £10,000, to mentoring, books, Wembley tickets, coaching sessions, Belgian chocolates, audio CDs, days out, lunches, Money Gym memberships and products, a blog makeover or creation session worth £1200 – the abundance just keeps on rolling.  And because the number of raffle tickets is only one per delegate, the chances of you winning a big prize are 1 in 200. I hope you are visualising the one you want? Can you feel it?

2. Discounts – at least two of the speakers have created special discounted versions of their products and services specially for attendees, available uniquely on the day.

3. Free Money Gym Silver memberships for 90 days – a special promotion we have just launched. If you have booked your ticket and can persuade someone else to come too – via Twitter, your blog, word of mouth or email invitation and they quote your name in their booking, both of you qualify for free Silver membership of the Money Gym for 90 days.

4. Goody bags containing millions of pounds, credit cards, coins, magic pencils and that all important raffle ticket (see 1).

5. A free personalised follow-up phone consultation with me for all delegates. This is to help you to evaluate the investment opportunities we shall showcase that day, or provide you with the support you need to put either your first step on the property ladder or the next step.

Can you be bribed? Yes, me too! If the price is right…

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

I hope it’s YOUR number I pull from the champagne bucket.

Judith

PS I’m contemplating setting up a special accountability group for all those new SilverMembers we shall create that day… watch this space.

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

The Money Gym Gold Winner Is…

….being announced during my 12-hour Wealth-A-Thon TV show tomorrow Saturday 3rd January on http://www.TheMoneyGym.tv.  Later today (Friday) I will announce the schedule for the show but you can bet I will be springing a surprise on you – love surprises!  Join me from 8am to 8pm and bring your burning wealth creation questions about how to make money and create passive income streams from property, internet, business or the stockmarket.  Quick reminder: Midnight on 3rd Jan is the last chance to secure a Money Gym Gold place for 2009 at 2008 membership fees, saving you £1200, and securing you the Membership Site Bootcamp Bonus worth £1750.  Visit Money Gym Gold for more info >>>

Banks – Last Place To Put Your Money!

It’s a short one today but full of great stuff! Just three quick things….time to read 5 mins!

1.  Wealth Creation – Money Gym TV

If you haven’t checked out my live shows yet, you can view todays show and the archives at http://www.MoneyGym.tv – my last five shows have won a star rating!  Today I cover being a world class leader, and would you bother if you won the lottery?, time management, business planning, where I’ve been and who I’ve seen….very sore throat but I battled on!

2.  Thinking About 2008 & What You Want To Achieve In 2009

I’ve been mulling over a lot recently about what makes the difference between those who make it and those who don’t.  I’ve been emailing you and blogging about the secrets of success and will continue to do so.  But one thing I know, if you give up you definately 100% won’t make it.  So if you are feeling discouraged, why not try again today, because you can always give up again tomorrow!

3.  Money Gym Gold – Going…Going…

THe registrations are hotting up for Money Gym Gold before the fee increase deadline at midnight 3rd January.  We have even had an enquiry from one of my internet mentoring clients from last year, who lives overseas and who knows we video all the workshops now, so she won’t have to fly over for all of them.  If you want to get your hands on the “membership bootcamp home study course” bonus, worth £1750, and discover how to create a membership site of your very own, you better go check it out at http://www.themoneygym.com/gold as only the first 20 new Golds get that!

That’s it from me today….something for everyone.

Now I’m off to watch Steve and Phoebe bake 60 chocolate cookies for her to wrap and give her friends….yum.

Warm regards

Nicola

Wealth Creation | Part 3

Nicola’s live TV show moves to three times a week, Monday, Wednesday & Friday at 1pm GMT / 8am EST
Join her live at http://www.MoneyGym.tv. Here’s the recording of the “Wealth Creation – Part 3″ show on Friday 5 December 2008

Wealth Creation | Part 2

Nicola’s live TV show moves to three times a week, Monday, Wednesday & Friday at 1pm GMT / 8am EST
Join her live at http://www.MoneyGym.tv. Here’s the recording of the “Wealth Creation – Part 2″ show on Wednesday 3 December 2008

Wealth Creation | Part 1

Nicola’s live TV show moves to three times a week, Monday, Wednesday & Friday at 1pm GMT / 8am EST
Join her live at http://www.MoneyGym.tv. Here’s the recording of the Wealth Creation – Part 1 show on Monday 1 December 2008

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