A Wealth Creation Dream Come True

This week a long time wealth creation dream of mine came true….but before I tell you about that, I’ll tell you about my mad exciting week first!

Last Tuesday it was my boy Nelson’s 12th birthday so he, Phoebe and I went to Brighton to their favourite restaurant, Yo! Sushi, where they got through frightening amounts of….you guessed it, sushi, then we all went to see “Fame – The Movie”

This was great not only because I love all that singing and dancing “luvvie” stuff, but because the graduation ceremony gave me the best quotes on success I’ve come across for a while, but how to get hold of it?

I scoured YouTube but the film is too new for it to be up there yet, so I sent out a few tweets and an email to our Money Gym Google groups. It took a couple of days but Carrie Eddins emailed the speech back for me to use in my presentation on success on the “Really Useful Internet Day”

When I thanked her, thinking she must have had it downloaded or something, she said”I walked past the cinema, and thought..if  it ’s screened when I walk past then I will watch it again.. and it was. I watched it missed a bit and then it was immediately screened again!! It was fun in the end!!”

Wow, thanks again Carrie, that’s helpfulness above and beyond the call of duty!  Our google group and the people in it, is amazing.  Just think, if that’s the Silver level group support, imagine what the Money Gym Boardroom google group will be able to do for YOUR business!
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Internet Marketing Workshop | Selling The Sausage Not The Sizzle?

Are we selling the sausage but not the sizzle of our Internet Marketing Workshop this Saturday 10th October?   When we first came up with the plan for “The Really Useful Internet Day” we wanted to avoid all the hype and over-excitement that you get at the bigger events.

http://www.themoneygym.com/internetday/booking.htm

We wanted to put on a down to earth day, that would do three things:

1. Give you some simple step by step actions that you can take, to start making a second (passive) income online

2. If you are a business owner, give you some ideas for creating extra profits, and the knowledge to put those ideas into action.

3. Give you some insights into the mindset of the most successful people who make money online, and what really made the difference for them.

So far, so good, you might think.

However, I’m wondering if we are wrong to be selling the sausage and not the sizzle. Because we all know that people don’t want the sausage but always buy the sizzle!

So…………..what is the sizzle of an internet marketing workshop?

The sizzle is the promise that by attending this workshop you will be able to leave your job, close your business and spend the rest of your days travelling the world with your laptop, checking your bank balance occasionally.

Well, to be honest, if I sent the kids to live with their dad, I could actually do that now, but I love the little blighters and will have to wait for them to go to college, before I up sticks and go live somewhere much cheaper and just commute back and forward to the UK.

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Why Internet Marketing Is A Really Big Issue By Judith Morgan

At The Money Gym, one of the issues which always brings forth the most controversy, the most heated debate, is Internet Marketing.

Why is it such a Big Issue?

I am grateful to The Money Gym for teaching me a lot about marketing and about internet marketing specifically and latterly also about social networking.   Where would we be in this day and age without understanding how to use to world wide web to our advantage?

When I think back to my early days in business the choices were direct mail, still effective by the way if you know how to do it well, or expensive advertising which can be a bit hit and miss for my money.

And both of those took a very long time to achieve results and both were also costly; you lay out your cash before you know whether or not it will bring you the clients and customers you so desperately need and want.   Not much of a model for success, that.

The web offers us the chance to get almost instant feedback from our market, whether or not they like and will pay for our latest offering.   And you can find that our for free (if you dont count your time into the equation).

That’s why I love and appreciate what I have learned.   And why I use it almost every day in my businesses and in my life, both online and off, because some of the marketing lessons apply equally well offline too.

But my bugbear, if you will, and where I take issue with the multi-millionaires who teach us how to do this, is that they sell a dream. And the dream is that you can make passive income from a hotel balcony in the sunshine with just your laptop.

And you get to spend all day counting your money.

Just this week a client asked if it were possible to make £1,000 pcm within six months……

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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!

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Money Gym Interviews | Martin Avis

As we prepare for the Money Gym “Really Useful Internet Day”, here’s another in the series of interviews with Internet succeess stories – real people making real money (and big but not ridiculous money too!) online.

I’m delighted to introduce Martin Avis, who is one of our speakers on the day, and my first choice too!  I came across Martin several times before I got to know him, but as you will hear, he’s so unassuming it’s easy to miss him AT FIRST if there are louder people around!  But sooner or later, Martin comes into your radar as a real live bone fide success online.  He’s helpful to newbies, generous with his time and I like him a lot.  His “London Lunches” are great fun and you never know who you are going to meet there.

You can see/hear the rest of Martin’s interview – where he reveals the three biggest mistakes that aspiring internet marketers make, when trying to make money online – when you book your place on The Money Gym “Really Useful Internet Day” at http://www.TheMoneyGym.com/internetday

Losing, Loving, Laughing & Life!

It’s been a week at home, this week, settling back into school routine, getting used to the grey skies, trying to decide if I want to stay here and try and buy this house, or move into Shoreham or Brighton to something brighter and newer.  Feeling restless…..but happier than recently as it’s been sunnier in Shoreham.

We’ve been gearing up for the Money Gym “Really Useful Internet Day” on 10th October and I’ve been starting to plan the marketing campaign for that which will take place over the next four weeks and will hopefully fill the room.

Because even an event with a ticket price of £25, all of which we are donating to our favourite Money Gym charity “The Big Issue” (helping the homeless help themselves), takes a full on marketing campaign to ensure it’s success.

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Exciting Things Planned For Autumn 2009 At The Money Gym

Well, it’s Autumn and the kids went back to school on Friday – they loved it!  You can only enjoy so much “hanging abaht” doing nothing apparently!

After a week or so of feeling really quite down, mainly due to the weather, I’m perking up a bit and looking forward to the speaking gigs and exciting projects I have to work on.  Steve creating me a new and very gorgeous looking blog has helped – so thanks Steve!

If you are feeling like you want a new start on your wealth creation, like the kids have a new term, then here’s an overview of and exciting Autumn at The Money Gym.

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Physio, Ponds, Pigs, Pillows & Paris

My neck is better!  Yes, after 10 days of sheer & utter hell, it’s suddenly decided to stop hurting at night and I have had the first good night’s sleep for ages.  My physio lady says it must have been a trapped nerve as they often fix themselves suddenly like that.  Still a bit stiff round the shoulder area but today’s massage and acupuncture helped a lot with that.

So it’s back to Dunelm Mills with the memory foam pillow which was the wrong thing totally and swapped for a GOLD quilted throw just to “bling up me bedroom” a bit more.  And back to the supplier with the small contoured pillow so that I can order a bigger deeper one from the supplier recommended by the physio – that will involve a trip to the post office – gawd help us.  Our local post office is very old school and full of old ladies who don’t know the meaning of “hurry” bless them.

I met old friends Rona & Adrian for dinner last week before the Let’s Talk Money workshop, and a great evening in Tas by the Globe Theatre was had by all. How can you not see old friends for six years and then it’s like not a month has passed?

Their holiday home blog/website is coming along nicely, with an availability list and the news that the Volvo World Match Play Championship is going to be just up the road from the house in Casares, at the most luxurious Finca Cortesin, in October/November 2009.

Now, if you have a holiday cottage, or holiday home abroad, watch and learn how I’m doing it and we will see how long it takes to get their first booking from a standing start last week. It’s cost just £99 so far, for a domain name and hosting for two years (better for SEO than buying one year at a time).

Key elements are a great key word URL, a wordpress blog, SEO friendly plugins, a Twitter account @CasaresSpain, keyword rich content, key word labelling on the pictures, constantly updated with links to useful sites locally…..and when I get out there and take more photos and videos…rock ‘n’ roll.

If you do have a holiday cottage or home abroad, and you are not 80-100% let, why not have a look and see what you can improve about your marketing.  Did you know that agents in Spain, Portugal and Cyprus think they are doing well if they get you a 30-40% occupancy?

Talking of overseas, I’ve just spent a happy half hour deciding which micro-preneurs to invest in at Kiva.org.  Decided it was time to do a bit of systematic tithing (titheing?) and I have written in an outgoings line on my spreadsheet to make sure I do it.  I want to work up to tithing an amount based on profits in the previous month.  Then I’ll work up to tithing an amount based on revenue.  Easy does it though.

This is in addition to Money Gym coach Marion Ryan’s FANTASTIC idea to just leave a £1 coin per day somewhere where folks will find it and know it was left on purpose (what fun!) I wanted to do something where I could stay involved.

I was randomly following a tweet, about how the recession was making graduates more entrepreneurial in the dearth of jobs, and eventually ended up on Kiva.org, which I rembered that I had written about on our blog previously.

Kiva.org say “You choose who to lend to – whether a baker in Afghanistan, a goat herder in Uganda, a farmer in Peru, a restaurateur in Cambodia, or a tailor in Iraq – and as they repay their loan, you get your money back.  It’s a powerful and sustainable way to empower someone right now to lift themselves out of poverty”.  Cool!  why not check it out – you can invest as little as $25 in someone but that might make all the difference to someone trying to start a business in difficult circumstances.

I found myself drawn to the chicken farmers which will come as no surprise to my family as I love chickens.  Might have to keep some myself some day.

You can see my first investments here >>>

and if you want to join in the fun…I’ve created a Money Gym team, so that we can all lend individually but our loans get credited to the team.  There’s no financial benefit of doing that to us, but I thought it might be fun. My first loans were made before I made the team so they won’t show till I make next month’s loans.

http://www.kiva.org/team/themoneygym

And here is a picture of one of my investments, Thor in Cambodia, who has a business raising pigs.  And very happy they look too!  My $25 was the last on in the pot, so she’s raised her loan to buy more sows to grow her …..herd?

You can read more about the history of Kiva.org here and a follow up article here

And don’t be surprised if, instead of a Christmas Present, you get a gift certificate from me to invest in someone yourself!

Interviewed Martin Avis today, asking some searching questions about how he got started in internet marketing, and what one or two things made the difference to him, taking him from someone making $200 a month online, to someone who makes a VERY nice living online.  Nice man, and he has a lovely pond too which I’m very envious of (see below)

So this weekend is a biggie at Money Gym Towers, there is a big poker game tomorrow night, and next week  it’s a whole weekend of X-Factor, where they are changing the format to have live audiences for the auditions, like they do on Britain’s Got Talent. Andy Harrington has just let me know by Facebook that he’s going to the Live Show on Thursday so I’m deeply jealous, or would be if I were not trying to fix up a dinner with Jennie Armato and her partner Paul, who are in London for Mark Anastasi’s Traffic Generation Summit.  Claim your free Money Gym tickets for that here

My next speaking gig is for Triumphant Events, at the Topher Morrison “Inner Game of Money” weekend at the beginning of July.  There are some great preview evenings coming up for that and you can book your seat at one of them here and also Daniel Priestley, who knows a thing or two about Social Media & Affiliate Marketing is doing a lovely evening on just that topic on Thursday 17th July – if you are not going to the X-Factor live show, that is!  Get your seat for that here

Daniel Priestley…………Simon Cowell…………….Daniel Priestley………….Simon Cowell………………difficult one!

LOL

And Sunday I’m going to clear out the pond and sort my rockery out.  Gardening is the new rock’n'roll remember?  I like a nice job of a weekend away from the ‘puter and I have a little gardening sidekick to help…haven’t I, Sarah?

Then I’ll be twittering from Paris next weekend where we have a private box, dress circle for “Carmen”.  The pictures Heather’s been posting on Facebook from behind the scenes look AMAZING….I just can’t wait.

Have fun, we always do!

Nicola

Property Investors Under The Hammer | £5000+ For The Big Issue!

Last week I was feeling very odd, in the lead up to our Property Extravaganza.  It was obvious by the beginning of the week that thanks to Judith’s inspired marketing emails, the guest line up and Steve’s working the “back end” so masterfully, we were going to sell out the venue, so there was no pressure there to get more bums on seats.  Judith and Steve had done all the organising and hard work, keeping me out of that aspect deliberately as detail is not my strong point!  I realised that I was experiencing the whole event as a customer and while it was most enjoyable, it was very odd.

To distract myself, I went to the ever-excellent Martin Avis’ London Lunch for internet marketers and spent a lovely hour or so on our table with Money Gym maties Susanne Jorgensen, Tricia Stone, Matt Garrett, Tim Brocklehurst and a new gentleman called Peter who had a hard time getting a word in edgeways!

Then off to the ever enjoyable Cumberland Hotel to meet Steve for drinks and dinner in the Gary Rhodes brasserie, which was nice but not all that (compared with the restaurant which is GORGEOUS!).  Lovely hotel room overlooking Park Lane and Marble Arch.

So, where do I start with a review of saturday?  It was a totally amazing day, with about 150 Money Gym clients there, both previous and current.  Judith herself, stepping into her star profile at last, and Alexis Garnaut-Miller who was a client from pre-Money Gym days even and who has just joined the Membership Club Magic programme!  From the first year or so of The Money Gym in it’s current format, it was lovely to see Sarah Mallett and Julia McDaid.  I also met people like Oliver, a property developer from Worthing, who I knew from my first ever Russ Whitney weekend which must have been 2003 or 2004….and who also turned up recently at one of our Cashflow games.

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New Year – Brilliant Thoughts

I love New Year and New Year Resolutions.  September is also good for new starts, but New Year is the best.  Not only do you have spring to look forward to, but there is a whole week between Christmas and New Year (if you are lucky enough not to work for anyone else) to get bored, think about stuff and make lists.

I subscribe to a lot of ezines and the “New Year, New Start” themes are beginning to emerge.  I thought I would share the best of them with you, this year.

First up, the ever erudite Martin Avis from Kickstart Daily.  Follow Martin on Twitter at “martinavis”

“All in all, I’m very pleased with my own progress in 2008 and although I haven’t ticked every box as I’d have hoped, I knowthat I took action and moved myself forward in many ways.

And that’s the way I’d urge you to see things: lack of successisn’t failure provided that you have moved on from where youwere. Lack of success is just a resting point on the journey. Solong as you continue to travel, and know in your heart that youare progressing, your resolutions are still in the process ofcoming true.

Failure is when you have allowed the hope of achieving your dream to die”

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