Category Archives: Uncategorized

August 13, 2012
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Story tell like an expert in five easy steps

By | business start ups, Established business, New business, Selling, Uncategorized | 3 Comments

Why it's vital to become a good storyteller

Storytelling is an age-old tradition that we have been brought up on since being children. It has been the centre of many celebratory and social events for centuries. Whilst a truly great storyteller is blessed with a unique gift, it is possible for anyone to gain these skills and become competent.

[box]“Everyone loves to hear a good story, but the story is only as good as the storyteller.” TWEET THIS[/box]

Being a good storyteller is a vital part of what we do as entrepreneurs. Why? Well, when we do it well we get people’s attention and we gain their trust. And, when we have this, we make more sales – simple! We all love stories and we can all relate to people through them. So whether you are writing, video blogging or speaking you need to know how to communicate through stories because it’s a better way to engage with your customers and pull them in.

Here are 5 tips for storytelling:

1.   Include dialogue. It’s the key to successful story telling as it far more engaging than just telling someone what to do.
2.   Act it out and become the person you are telling the story about. Take on their persona, their tone of voice or accent. Put some performance into it. You become more believable. Put yourself in the moment. It’s so powerful.
3.   Use your words and paint the scene so you can understand who it is that it’s being told about.
4.   Passion – when you’re passionate about something you have something to say and will be more engaging and therefore believable
5.   Practice – you know what they say – practice makes perfect so start by writing daily – 1000 words and even better still – video blogging!

In the comments below, let me know your top tips for telling stories. Let me know what action you'll take as a result of watching and reading this post too. I'd love to hear.

Thank you, as always for watching, reading and contributing here. If you found this useful, please share it with your friends!

With love and gratitude – as always,

 

 

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August 5, 2012
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What everyone ought to know about pain

By | business start ups, Established business, Lifestyle, New business, Uncategorized | 7 Comments

The real truth about pain

The truth about painMost people know the saying ‘no pain, no gain’ and right now I feel like some sadomasochist when I write and tell people that I like pain! My reasoning is because I know that it is actually my friend and ally. It tells me when I’m injured, it makes me hungry (for success) and it forces me to take action. Pain is not pleasant, it can keep you up at night and make you angry but believe me when I say that in the end going through pain is beneficial for you.

Often when you try something new, you’re not very good at it. If you’re a high achiever, this means experiencing the pain of discomfort and sometimes failure. What you’re essentially doing is stepping outside of your comfort zone. But, rest assured, everything that happens to you, as a result of doing this, serves you in some way. Pain can be both feedback that something is amiss and it can also signal great growth.  Sure it hurts and it’s not welcome, but it’s unavoidable for the successful entrepreneur.

If you ask a champion in any field of endeavour about pain, you will find that rather than avoid it, they embrace it and accept it as part of the game they must play to win. Champions realize that pain equals growth and the benefits far outweigh the discomfort. Look at what these three champions said:

  • Arnold Schwarzenegger: “I realized that pain could become pleasure. I was benefiting from pain. I was breaking through the pain barrier and shocking the muscles. I looked at this pain as a positive thing, because I grew.”
  • Cyclist Lance Armstrong: “Pain is temporary. It may last a minute, or an hour, or a day, or a year, but eventually it will subside and something else will take its place. If I quit however, it lasts forever.”
  • Muhammad Ali: “I hated every minute of the training. But I said to myself, bear the pain now and live the rest of your life as a champion.”

Achievement expert Brian Tracy says, “90% to 95% of people will withdraw to the comfort zone when what they try doesn't work. Only that small percentage, 5% or 10 % will continually raise the bar on themselves; they will continually push themselves out into the zone of discomfort, and these are always the highest performers in every field.”

Studies at the University of Chicago by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, author of, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, back this up too.  The findings concluded that the highest achievers are those who consistently push themselves out of their comfort zones. Instead of withdrawing to their comfort zones when they don't get immediate positive results, they force themselves to stay at this awkward, uncomfortable and painful (but higher and better) level of performance until the pain finally subsides and they become comfortable at the new higher level.

So, what I’d like you to do is to take a moment and think about the sum total of everything you’re currently doing to improve your business. Think of every detail you can – the sales, the marketing, the admin, the technology, the operations, the management, the HR and recruitment, the level of effort, the sweat, the time that you put in – everything.

Now grab a pen and draw a small circle in the centre of a sheet of paper. Imagine that all the work you’re doing is contained in that small circle. Inside your circle, write the words, “where I am now – my comfort zone.” Next, take your pen and draw another circle outside the first one, and write, “the pain and I suck zone.” Finally, draw another circle outside of this and write the words, “where the magic happens and the kick ass zone.” This outer larger circle represents personal growth, increased performance and positive change.

If you’re not seeing the changes you want – a frustration that so many of us experience at some time in our life – it means you’re staying completely inside your comfort zone most of the time. In order to make a positive change in your life, you have to expand your boundaries by moving outside of this circle.

So, go do it! And, when you've done it, remember, this is too: expanding your comfort zones is a life habit. Each time you grow and step outside of it the pain subsides, the benefits are realized, and the pain is forgotten. You’ll have reached a higher level of achievement that will eventually become your new comfort zone! When this happens it’s time to press on again.

Tom Hopkins, a sales trainer and one of the world’s top motivational speakers, taught me this lesson recently when I read his book, ‘How to master the art of selling', “The pain of every change is forgotten when the benefits of that change are realized.”

[box]““The pain of every change is forgotten when the benefits of that change are realized.” TWEET THIS[/box]

In the comments below, tell me how you deal with the pain that results from expanding your comfort zone and what methods or techniques you use to combat it. Let me know what action you'll take as a result of watching and reading this post too. I'd love to hear.

Thank you, as always for watching, reading and contributing here. If you found this useful, please share it with your friends!

With love and gratitude – as always,

 

 

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July 22, 2012
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What everyone ought to know about being an entrepreneur

By | business start ups, New business, Uncategorized | 5 Comments

Do you have what it takes to be a real entrepreneur?

Are you a real entrepreneur or just a wannabe

Ok, so now you've quit the job, started your own business, are master of your own destiny and a real entrepreneur. Or are you? Are you a real entrepreneur or a wannabe i.e. an opportunity seeker? Would you know how to tell the difference? Well, I'm going to help you out here and give you the heads up by explaining the traits of both types. I’ll start with the wannabe or opportunity seeker.

A wannabe is someone with a business opportunity mindset who is merely ‘acting’ like a business owner. They're not actually applying business principles to what they are doing and, because of this they are doomed to fail.

A real entrepreneur achieves success because they take responsibility for their success or lack of it, and they work on changing their attitude. Learning is key to this and self-development and growth will ensue. It’s an exciting time! Whilst other people can help by teaching the real entrepreneur and furthering their growth they can’t instill in them the necessary drive needed in order to make use of the knowledge. The real entrepreneur has to be hungry for it all, and be consumed by an obsessive burning desire inside.

Real entrepreneurial success has to come from the fire you have inside you. It cannot be extinguished by anything. You see starting your own business is not like working a job. It’s competitive and requires a multitude of skills. For example:

  • It takes 10x more time, energy and effort than working for someone else.
  • It demands from your spirit a relentless persistence.
  • It demands from your intelligence an unwavering application.
  • It demands from your emotions courage, patience and growth.

A business opportunity seeker gets involved with a business and hopes they will be successful.  They fantasize about what it would be like to have all this money. They spend more time in fantasy land then in actual reality learning how others who make tons of money actually do it.

Anyone who’s making a lot of money is not sitting around hoping or fantasizing about what their future might be like. They are implementing as a real entrepreneur.

A real entrepreneur is marketing their business and much of the time learning new skills and developing new talents to do this.  They are increasing value and studying under successful people.  They are practising, persisting, failing, modifying and growing ALL the time.

The real entrepreneur looks at a challenge and thinks out-of-the-box. They think laterally and figure out a way. They see competitors as a good thing for they highlight the differences between both providers! They seek the real information that they need in order to move them closer to their goals. And they stop at nothing to get there.

Nothing can deter them.  No event or failure can extinguish their fire. No negative person can persuade them any differently of their sheer power to create the reality they want for themselves. They are like something possessed and cannot be stopped. The real entrepreneur mines the gold from the ground where the business opportunity seeker stands on.

So I ask you, which one are you, or which one do you want to be?

The road to success lies in front of all of us and your success will be a direct result of how serious you are about growing a real business. It will be the result of how much energy you put into learning and developing new skills, talents, and abilities that will make you money. Your success will be the result of how dedicated you are to growth in all areas of your life – business and personal.

So the choice is yours.

In the comments below, tell me what you think about your being an entrepreneur and others that you've met including the wannabes. Let me know what action you'll take as a result of watching this video and reading this post too. I'd love to hear.

Thank you, as always for reading and contributing here. If you found this useful, please share it with your friends!

With love and gratitude,

 

 

 

 

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July 16, 2012
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Meeting the notorious Laura Roeder of LKR fame

By | business start ups, Lifestyle, New business, Uncategorized | 11 Comments

An informal ‘interview' with Laura Roeder

Meeting Laura Roeder LKR, The Dash, Creating FameLast Saturday, I met Laura Roeder, the well-known American social media entrepreneur who has built a formidable online business. I’m a big fan of Laura, and in my opinion she’s doing a lot of things right. She is a social media, marketing expert who teaches small business owners how to get to grips with social media in their business, and become known as the leading expert in their field. She is the creator of Creating Fame and Your Backstage Pass to Twitter, and has over 500,000 subscribers. Her business turns over millions each year, which considering she’s less than thirty years old, and there's a recession on, in my opinion isn’t bad going! I have to say, it was a memorable encounter if only just to see how well grounded and down-to-earth she is.

The event started at 2:00pm at Waterstones bookstore in Piccadilly, London. London was abuzz, despite the rain; the Olympic visitors were in town. High up on the 5th floor, though, about 30 attendees had made the effort to join her and were networking. I made my way through them to a seated area where I could see Laura sitting, chatting and drinking coffee (or was it tea?). She was deep in conversation with several other enthused entrepreneurs. For some strange reason I approached introducing myself and shaking hands, instead of my usual continental cheek-to-cheek kissing! How very British!!!

If you've not come across Laura Roeder before I'll fill you in. Laura earned a degree in advertising at The University of Texas. Whilst she continued to teach herself about the web and online communications she graduated at 20 years old and moved to Chicago to start her professional career.

When she was 22 years old, she left her first and last job as a designer at an ad agency to start her own business as a website designer to small, local businesses. With her first major hurdle being scale, in 2009, she ‘fired' all her web design clients and switched over to the business model that she has today. So, this business really started from behind a video camera, where she taught potential clients how to get comfortable online. How cool!

Getting back to the day itself, in person, Laura is quietly confident, refreshingly honest and as you can see from the photo above, smiles a lot! I didn’t go to the event to interview Laura, but I was keen to meet her and have a chat. Based on that I wanted to share with you my experience, plus some of the questions I asked, and the answers she gave.

Is it easier to do business in the US as oppose to the UK?

Having spent some time in the UK, I was curious to know whether she thought that it was easier to do business in the US as oppose to the UK. At first she said she thought there were no differences, but having spent some time in the country, she was now beginning to wonder. For me, I was interested to hear how business owners in North America were far more used to having mentors and coaches. This was insightful. Having been a business owner for 15 years I hadn't really come across personal business mentoring. In Britain I believed this to be far more unusual than for our friends across the pond. Of course I'd experienced business owners who had attended training courses to develop their skills, but more often than not, I'd only experienced those who hadn't – let alone any who'd engaged with a mentor!

Any advice for a ‘newbie' starting out?

I was curious to know what advice she'd give to any ‘newbie’ starting out or whether, if she could turn the clock back, she'd have done anything differently. She said she’d been asked that question quite a few times, and that in all honesty she said that there was nothing she’d do differently. No regrets – I liked her style!

Growing a business, outsourcing and delegation

We also spoke about her team and delegation. She stressed how important it was not to do everything yourself and how vital delegation was. We shared the same opinion i.e. to do it as fast as the money permitted! If you didn’t, it would only hamper your business and set you back. You only have 24 hours in a day, so the only way to grow your business is by adding more hours, and the only way to do that is by adding more people that have their own 24 hours to add to your 24 hours! Simples!

[box]“The only way to grow your business is by adding more hours” TWEET THIS[/box]

Obviously when you’re starting out, unless you have considerable savings or investment you’ll have to do things yourself, but as soon as you can – outsource or delegate. Laura practices what she preaches and employs a small team – less than ten. Aside from being talented, they are tight-knit, family focused and share her values. Trusting them allows her to travel, which having shared her recent visit to Italy with us, she clearly enjoys!

Networking and events

Being a people person and someone who loves networking, one of the things I found interesting about Laura and her company, LKR, was the host meet-ups for small businesses. I wanted to know why Laura had decided to start doing them. That then lead us onto our experiences of networking. You see, when you serve small businesses, they are desperate to find other small business owners to network with. They need support in addition to finding business. Many of us, who were by now chatting, had our own far from ideal business-networking stories to share. Typically we'd been met with pushy business owners forcing their cards upon us in the hope we'd do business! As a group that valued developing value and genuine relationships, we were striving for something more. So we came up with the idea of hosting regular meet-ups for our own group and other like-minded entrepreneurs. More on this later…

Partnership or going it alone?

Having formed a business with another I was interested to know if she’d recommend going it alone or in a partnership. Being a current student at B-School, I had to ask her about forming this venture and her relationship with my teacher, Marie Forleo.

Laura talked about the relationship and business opportunity candidly and positively. She described it much like a marriage, which having been in business with a business partner I could totally relate to!

She spoke how she hired Marie originally as her mentor and how the idea for B-School was born. Whilst she expressed great gratitude for everything that had happened with B-School, including her adoration for Marie, she said at that time, it was right to move on, to listen to her heart/gut and to concentrate on LKR.

It’s exciting times again for Laura as she changes her entire business and relaunches on 17 July 2012. So, mark your calendar because she's making a huge announcement, and in true Laura style she's having a big fat party to announce it!!! The party is online so everyone can join in. She's promised awesome prizes every 15 minutes. You can ask-her-anything e.g. behind the scenes Q&A and much, much more, and it's all being broadcast LIVE from Blighty (the UK)!

Here are the details for Laura's event:

Tuesday, July 17th
9 AM Pacific
12 PM Eastern
5 PM UK

She”ll be broadcasting live for three hours, so hop on whenever you can but remember you'll have to be there live to win one of her delicious prizes! And here's a hint: if you've ever wished for a private consulting session with her to get feedback on your biz, do not miss this opportunity!

On 17 July 2012 at 9AM Pacific be sure to visit the live link

And, watch out for more information on our networking event!

In the comments below, tell me how you've got on with business networking groups, what experiences you've had of business partnerships and of doing business in the US  and UK.  Let me know what action you'll be taking as a result of reading this post too. I'd love to hear.

Thank you, as always for reading and contributing here. Thank you to my friend Camila Prada, who makes the most amazing pottery, for taking the brilliant photo of us too! If you found this useful, please share it with your friends!

With love and gratitude,

 

 

 

 

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