A Week In The Life Of A Wealth Coach: Judith

Nicola is taking a holiday from writing the Note from Nicola and you will notice that Steve is freshening up the way the ezine looks.   Nothing stands still around here at Money Gym Towers .   Our abundant coaches have agreed to been strong-armed by me into each taking a turn over the next few weeks and I get to kick the whole thing off today.   We have been well briefed by Nicola to talk about one thing we have done to move our own wealth creation forward, one thing our clients have done to do the same and a little about each of us personally.   Like a typical rebel, I am going to ride roughshod over my directions whilst trying to meet the brief all the same.

I am grateful that it has been my turn to write this particular week and it’s been a fabulous week in which to be a wealth coach, largely due to beginning every day with the adrenaline rush of a 15 minute live radio broadcast at 9 a.m.   As part of our pre-publicity for the launch of the Money Gym Boardroom on 1st November and the whopping great discount you can get if you bag your seat before 31st October, Nicola and I have worked with five clients this week – Yvonne, Rob, Karen, Suzanne and Karen (no relation).   Holidays in Champagne, honeymoons in South Africa, a body-piercing studio in Croydon, £20k from innovative new online software training and a gorgeous niche dancing business.

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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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Business Profits & Success | You Need A Website!

I believe that the ability to create an effective online presence is absolutely crucial for any business.  If you are in business and not online, then you are leaving so much money on the table it’s unreal.

Every business needs a website, and not all websites are created equal sadly.

I’ll go further, there is NO real world business that can not benefit from having a coherent online presence.

I have one for The Money Gym (this one!), for my speaking/writing activities at NicolaCairncross.com, one for my Greek Property business, and made one for my friends Rona & Adrian, who lent me their gorgeous holiday home for rent, in Casares, Spain.  In fact, have a business idea, I make a website for it.  It helps me think through the offer and test the market, via quick free traffic.

Just think about it, for a second.

If you were out and about, and met two interesting people who both had a product or service that solved a problem you had, but only one of them had a website URL on their card, which one are you more likely to check out online and then use?  The one with the website of course!

Especially if that website was simple, colourful, professional looking, let you know about the people behind the business, and outlined the product or service, along with giving you some useful information on the topic of interest AND gave you the contact details.  Or a free gift of some kind, in return for your name and email, if you are not ready to call or email them yet.

So why don’t more businesses do it?

Because they think it’s complicated and expensive – but of course it’s not.

So, today I want to talk to you about how easy it is to do just that, and which elements you need to concentrate on first.

Nicola’s Quick 15 Point Step By Step Plan To Get Your Business Online & Making Your Money

1.  Visit https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal and put in the key phrase you imagine your visitor would use to find your product or service

2.  It will show the results for the country you are in and the Global Search Results – click the column headers to sort by biggest numbers first on local or global.  Make a note of the top 10-20 relevent key phrases.

3.  Remember that these results are per month – this is the size of your potential market and customer base (even if you are usually very local, you can sell them SOMETHING surely!)

4.  Talking of local, while you are there, Add your business to Google Local www.google.com/local/add

5.  Buy a domain name which includes one of the most searched terms in your niche

6.  Get some decent, cheap hosting at someone like FunkyDomainNames.com or Hostgator.com

7.  Look for the link in your Control Panel to install a Wordpress blog on your hosting (it usually takes just one click – you will be amazed)

8.  Choose a theme you like and start adding information of interest to your ideal customer

9.  Find out how to enhance your blog website for customers and search engines alike with plugins

10.  Create a Facebook Page with the same name as your blog website and hook them up so that your Page shows on your blog/website and your site updates your Page

11.  Create a Twitter account in the same name as your blog website & Facebook page and hook them up with the TwitterTools plugin so they update each other

12.  Go create a profile and list your site at Technorati, StumbleUpon, Digg and any others you can be bothered with

13.  Create a YouTube channel in the name of your business and start “Favouriting” videos that would be of interest to your ideal customer and hook it up to your main site with a URL in the channel description.

14.  Hook up your blog/website to some sort of List Manager, we recommend Total Business Cart if you want to sell things or aWeber or GetResponse if you want to just recommend other people’s product or services

15.  Start selling stuff or recommending stuff and put yourself in REAL DANGER of making some money online!

Then just keep adding useful information to your blog website, which will update your Twitter and Facebook page, the search engines and blog directories.

As soon as you start making some money, invest a certain % of it into hiring the professionals to take your brilliant foundations you have built and take your business stratospheric.

How simple was that?

So why are you not doing it then?

If you did just those 15 Steps, you would be way ahead of MOST if not ALL of your competitors, I can guarantee you that!

HOWEVER!

If you STILL feel you need help and encouragement on getting going with making your business work online, then come along to our “Really Useful Internet Day” on Saturday 10th October 2009.

One day, just three experts, no bull, no hype, just down to earth practical stuff that you can put to work for you, making you more money from your business, or creating a second income for you, right now!

Seats are already flying out to our Silver, Silver Elite, Membership Club Magic and Gold clients, and the only way to make sure you get notified before the info page goes live at 12 noon on Friday, is to get on the VIP Priority Mailing list here

http://www.themoneygym.com/internetday

See you there!

Nicola

p.s. Tickets are only £25, it’s all going to the Big Issue and they are tax deductible if you have a business.  Don’t muck about, this is a day that could change your business life.

http://www.themoneygym.com/internetday

Over £5000 Raised For The Big Issue Foundation

We are so thrilled and proud of all our Money Gym gang – over £5000 raised for The Big Issue Foundation.  £4500 from ticket sales and donations, including one from @JennieArmato in Australia, which Judith and I matched, and the possibility of another £5000 from some of the speakers.  Here’s me and Anthony North, Head of Fundraising from the Big Issue.  The Money Gym helping The Big Issue help the homeless help themselves.  The videos will be available soon too for a small donation, so the work goes on.

It’s A Big Issue Alright & You Can Help!

It’s a Big Issue to me as a Londoner. For the last twenty years of my life, I have been aware of the homeless sleeping rough in my great city.  As I go about my business I see plenty of those less fortunate that me. And you don’t know what to do for the best, do you?

I remember once calling Centre Point and asking how I could best help.

I was told not to give people on the streets money as it would simply go straight back into alcohol or drugs. I remember being surprised by how bald a statement that was.

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

You know me by now, I tend to think the best of people. I tend to be away with the fairies, living in a pink bubble of loveliness where we are all kind to each other and we have a warm comfy bed to sleep in at night.

And yet, of course, I know life’s not like that. That’s not reality for so many.

On Tuesday evening I met John Bird, the founder of The Big Issue. He pioneered his solution with Gordon and Anita Roddick in 1991 and it was tough love all the way. He said to the homeless “you are part of the problem, you must be part of the solution”.

They offered vendors a leg up and helped them to get started in changing their own lives through their own efforts. Selling the magazine can enable them to get back on their feet.

And if they go first, after three months the Big Issue can step in with all sorts of additional support. You haven’t begun to think what problems you can create for yourself if you don’t have a fixed abode.

Some of those were explained to us on Tuesday evening, along with the startling fact that if you have already enjoyed your 40th birthday, you have passed the average life expectancy of a homeless person.

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

Along with Carolyn & Neil, Karen & Rich, we went to see the Real Lives, Real Achievements awards at a laid back venue in Camden.  The Big Issue has two of the most wonderful sponsors any little charity could hope for.

1. Cadbury, who not only showered us with free chocolate, but demonstrated how they give vendors two weeks’ work experience at their factories which often leads to full-time jobs. They have taken nearly 170 people off the streets in this experiment.

2. CNN who had helped The Big Issue craft five little films about real vendors and how the Big Issue has made all the difference.  We will be showing a couple of those at our event on Saturday.

So what would I say to those who are critical of the way in which charities work? Yes, I know it isn’t always ideal. But TBI has only 14 staff supporting 2500 vendors across the UK. Their way of working is closely aligned with our own values at the Money Gym and I really hope that Saturday will be the first of a long and fruitful relationship us MG property folks have with helping the homeless to help themselves. Our target of £4,500 (when we reach it) is going to make a real impact, a real difference.

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

And it will make another dream come true too. Peter Stanley and Greg Southey and I had a number of meetings over the last couple of years trying to find a way to marry up property profits to help the homeless, it seems a natural marriage to us.

We met the awesome Sam Woodlock who is a volunteer worker with TBI, having been a homeless addict herself some time back. She is now married with a child, and happily doing great work co-ordinating Big Issue activities in Covent Garden. For me, she was perhaps the most moving story of the evening – a walking, talking success now helping others out of the place in which she had once found herself.

Not surprisingly I did shed a tear or two. Not as many as I thought because CNN did not fall into the trap of over-sentimentalising these five stories. But they are sad, and they are happy, and it is awesome to see people make a comeback from circumstances which I know I would find impossibly difficult.

There but for the grace of God.

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

One of the films is about a lad from Bath who wants to go on the Big Issue sponsored bike ride to Paris. He has raised part of the sponsorship money he needs to take part but at the time of making the film he had neither a bike or all the money for a Passport.

Just THINK what we take for granted!

If you can get free on Saturday and come along and support our fundraiser, that would be fab.   Help yourself, help the homeless to help themselves and help us to achieve that lofty target of £4,500. Come and see the CNN films and be inspired to make a difference, if not to the homeless then to someone you can help, perhaps by becoming their landlord.

I don’t know where I would be without the sanctuary of my own home, a place where I can be safe and warm and nurtured by my peace and quiet, my garden, my pussycat, my broadband and by fulfilling relationships with family and friends and work I love.
I am so abundant and grateful and lucky.

Counting my blessings, counting my blessings, counting my blessings and hoping to pay it forward today, tomorrow, everyday and especially Saturday 21st March 2009. That day will be only the start of what we can do to help The Big Issue support the homeless in this very inspirational way.

Thanks for listening
Judith

PS  If you can’t come on Saturday, you can still donate at our page:

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

Anyone Can Do It – Property Investing That Is!

What am I most looking forward to on Saturday apart from catching up with 200 of my favourite people?   What are my anticipated highlights?

Just one woman’s view but it might be useful if you are still sitting on the fence and are a last minute purchaser, still undecided?

Anyone Can Do It, opening inspiration from my mate Peter Stanley.

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

Handing over a HUGE cheque to those worth folks at The Big Issue, about which more tomorrow.   I am just loving the idea of a marriage between The Money Gym and TBI since they are so entrepreneurial in their approach to homelessness.

The Caribbean Dream by Katharine Wooller.   Most of her clients are making their first ever investment in an overseas commercial hotel unit which can create a substantial income from only a tiny deposit.

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

A short presentation about SIPPS in which I am anticipating Roger turning us all onto them – and not a moment too soon.

The prizes!   So many gorgeous gifts to give away.

One Networking Minute – my experiment to get 60 delegates on stage telling us about themselves.   Should be chaotic but fun, I have this image of something akin to The Generation Game!

Rick Otton and his Rent2Own/Lease Options strategies.   I ran a teleclass last Friday about this (and if you missed it, please email me and I will sort you out a link to it).  My intention was to give an overview of how you can buy a house for only £1.

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

Who would be good at this?   Anyone who can be taught (by me if necessary) to “get” the maths, creatives who love to look for the deal, people for whom this might be their only route into property ownership and good negotiators.   Any one of those, not all of them.

A testimonial flooded in after the call from Heather who is coming on Saturday:

“Thankyou for the recording of Friday’s teleclass. It was of great interest to me. The thing is I can think of at least 3 properties I have looked at in the past month which would be perfect to “control” in this way – properties I know I could rent out and easily cover the mortgage payment and some each month. It means that there is the potential to help people with very little or even no equity in their property which it would not be possible to do with the traditional BMV purchase. I think the most exciting thing is that there is the potential for monthly cashflow if that’s what you need, but also if you want to use this strategy for adding to your own portfolio some deals will be suitable for that as well, but without the need to immediately find a large deposit – perfect! I’m looking forward to learning more on the 21st”

By George, she’s got it! There are so many routes to making money and/or buying property using these techniques which are all in the negotiation. Rick has promised to put up some real worked examples so we can understand even more about this and how to do it.

I really love to see the penny drop and will be looking for that on your faces on Saturday. We also run a Money Gym special interest Google Group for all those involved in Rent2Own and if you decide to take this further, we will look forward to have you join us there. We can help you to get those few important deals under your belt.

Last but absolutely not least, the triple whammy of being able to meet Martin Roberts from TV’s Homes Under The Hammer who opens the presentation for Unique and Henderson. Two sides to the same business sharing one absolutely unique benefit – your capital  investment is guaranteed and underwritten by Lloyds.

Unique offer the chance to buy ten years’ holidays for the price of one average family holiday AND they throw in the capital appreciation of the unit you have bought AND the opportunity to take your holidays in your own unit, others’ units or not at all and take the rental income instead.

Henderson offer the same thing but multiple units with a reinvestment programme for the rental income which means you end up with a lot of overseas real estate and an income pot, all compounding nicely for you with that same capital guarantee underwritten at Lloyds again.

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

I haven’t met Kerry Welch yet who was one of the brilliant minds behind this one although I have met the rest of her team and I am much looking forward to seeing their presentation again. I know that this is an innovative opportunity that many will enjoy and take comfort from that guarantee.

Finally an explosive Q & A panel game where I really hope and expect we will grill the speakers so that they finally convince us what we know in our hearts, that now is precisely the right time to be finding a way – multiple ways – to invest in property.

See you there!

Judith

PS   Whilst writing this another handful of tickets sold, total now is 162. So if you ARE intending to come, please book now and bag your seat, your one moment on the stage, and lots of wonderful new ways to make your fortune/pension in property.

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

This Weeks Good News From Judith

This week I slowed down and stopped chasing international tax exiles and busy multi-tasking property entrepreneurs, trying to badger them into finding 30 minutes in which their diary might coincide with Nicola’s and mine so we could interview them.

Do you remember that advert for Cadbury’s Caramel, where a seductive bunny tried to persuade some other (fast) animal to slow down?   Well this week I surrendered to that same caramel seduction and stopped chasing.   Go with the flow, I reminded myself.   So I just sat back and allowed some good ideas to sally forth, about which more later.

I spent all of Tuesday on logistics.   Cor Blimey, team!   Remind me next time before I do this exactly what’s involved in running a Big Gig.   The venue, the AV tech, the laptops, the presenters, the timetables, the presentations, the film cameraman, the photographer, the speakers and their entourages, their lunch requirements, making sure they have their presentations on memory sticks with back up, the volunteer team, the stationery shopping list of sticky labels and pens, the systems for registration and the dispensing of badges and goody bags and how to process 200 people in 30 minutes.

The prizes, the prizes, the prizes – that’s my favourite bit.   The abundance of the speakers and their donations, all so we can raise £4,500 for The Big Issue.   Wow, is all I can say.   In my current totalling of their combined values, I am up to well over £42,500.   And with only 200 delegates, the chances of bagging a big one are excellent, especially if you are visualising it coming your way and the speaker of your choice shaking your hand/kissing you and congratulating you on your big win.

I persuaded Nicola and Steve to let me give away 90 days free in the Silver membership of the Money Gym to anyone who had already booked a ticket and then persuaded a friend to come too.   That’s 90 days each by the way!

You should have seen me and Steve trying to understand the process for THAT one!   At the time of writing, there’s still time for you to cash in on that promo.

Then Marion and I walked through the event, decided what we wanted each volunteer to do on the day, decided who was going to take money for books on sale, who was going to be the Speaker Fairies, and who in charge of logging who won what so I could follow through and make sure each speaker delivered.   Marion and Steve are in charge on the day because I shall be on the stage for a change.   Fabulous to have such support from folks as passionate as I am about this project and all the good we can do with it.   Good for the delegates, good for The Big Issue, good for us.

At the time of writing I am still trying to work out how to use viral marketing to sell the remainder of the tickets – if you can Twitter it, or blog it, or somehow pass the message along, do please do that.   If someone mentions your name on their booking form, 90 Silver days will be winging themselves in your direction too.

The Big Issue have us appearing in their magazine dated 16th March, apparently most copies are sold on Mondays and Tuesdays – they have been so helpful it’s not true – and on Tuesday a small select bunch of us are going to scope out what they do at closer quarters at their Real Lives Real Achievements evening at the Proud Gallery in Camden.

I’ve written up most of my 37 reasons to attend and circulated them to our list:

Wriggling the Knobs (8 inspirational reasons)
10 Year’s Holidays for The Price of One (7 financial reasons)
Is that YOUR Raffle Ticket in my Champagne Bucket (5 incentive reasons)
A Hungry Mosquito in a Nudist Camp (10 opportunity reasons)
Stop the Rot, Get a SIPP (three educational reasons)

Total so far 33 reasons, just four more to go early next week.   I shall make it my business to be The Killer Reasons!

It’s been another fabulous week.   I am learning so much about how to put on a big event, marketing, planning, delivery.   Ironic that the last ten years, when I was b****ing about getting out the day job, I was an FD for an events company.   Perhaps that explains my love of the live event, I’m so looking forward to the day.   I’ve even collected The Big Cheque from the bank, now all that remains is to fill it in.   How many more tickets will I sell, how much money will I be able to write in there?

Thank you to everyone who has helped and supported and volunteered so far, especially the enormously patient Mr Steve Watson who himself has made a donation of his time worth £1200 for the prize fund.

And finally, I am cooking up something extra special for those new Silver Members which I may be able to roll out to all Silver members and perhaps even to create something ongoing for them.   Silver membership is all about self-study.   Its uber affordable access to all or most of what the Money Gym offers, without the 1-2-1 coaching.   So I am thinking of setting up a little pilot scheme to get the new ones through their first 90 days so that they derive maximum value from it and will want to continue their relationship with us.   I can’t think about this much before the 21st, but I will announce it before 1st April – another exciting creative project coming your way.   Left alone to study, how many are successful?   In all my years with the Money Gym, I can think of only one shining example.

It’s all go.   This is my last Good News piece for the ezine before the Property Extravaganza.

Have I done enough to get you there?

Money Gym Property Investors Hope to Raise £4,500 for The Big Issue!

The Money Gym team is working together to put on a Property Extravaganza on 21st March 2009 in Central London. Tickets cost £25 including VAT and all ex VAT proceeds will be presented to The Big Issue Foundation on the day. One of our speakers, the ever-abundant Peter Stanley, has been wanting to set up a connection between property profits and helping the homeless for a number of years. I am delighted that finally we have been able to bring his vision to fruition. Peter will open the day with his talk demonstrating that Anyone Can Do It. He’s even offering a prize for the best reason on the day why the reverse is true!

At the time of writing, we have sold 111 tickets which means we can write TBI a cheque for £2391, but I want to give them nearly twice that, £4,500! In order to do that, I have to sell the remaining 89 tickets, the venue only holds 200.

So, what’s it all about then? It’s about The Good News about property investing in 2009. We have inspirational speakers, ordinary people who have made lots of money buying property and still continue to do so even in these current market conditions. Those speakers including Martin Roberts of TV’s Homes Under the Hammer and Hasmita Reardon who was Bradford & Bingley’s Property Woman of the Year award 2008 who has a portfolio of 80 properties in Sittingbourne, Kent, which she rents out to tenants nobody else wants. She’s a social entrepreneur in my book. And Rick Otton, Katharine Wooller and Abdul Malik.

The investments are suitable for people who want to put their first foot on the property ladder or their next one. They are for people with no money, no time and no know-how and conversely for the more experienced investor too. It will be a cracking day out which provides excellent networking opportunities in a relatively small group of wealth creators who are upbeat and positive and on the road to taking control of their own finances. There are over £42,000 worth of prizes in a holiday, Wembley tickets, books, memberships, portfolio places, mentoring, coaching and more from the very abundant speakers and colleagues who want to help this great cause.   And Goody Bags!

Will you help us please? Will you blog and Twitter this to get the campaign to go as viral as possible? If you let us know you have linked to this post, we should be able to track back to your post. If you can link it back to the this posting on the Money Gym’s blog, even better for you as this is a high traffic site.   If you can’t be bothered with all that trackback stuff (and who can blame you), do still please pass it on and help us help the homeless to help themselves.

Why not take the day off and come and join us in London’s West End? If you can persuade a friend to book and come too, there’s a special gift for both of you – 90 days Silver Membership of the Money Gym with our compliments!

Please help us to raise our £4,500 target by using all social media methods at your disposal and let’s have some fun with this viral campaign!

Thank you so much for supporting our goal. Click here for full details and booking

Money Gym Interviews | Anthony North, The Big Issue

We hosted a lively interview with Anthony North, Head of Fundraising for The Big Issue, yesterday and you can listen again here on our Blog Talk Radio show.

Anthony, as you can hear, is a raging intra-preneur for the Big Issue and is totally passionate about his work.  Listen to the show below and then…..

You can help us reach our £4500 target by coming along to our “Property Extravaganza” to hear the GOOD NEWS about property investing in the UK, right now.

Only £25 per person, eight great speakers, and a rocking day out!

Secure your seat here >>> http://www.themoneygym.com/events/property