Anger – A block to your success?

By on May 16, 2013

Tulshi Sen

Tulshi Sen

We have just opened a new coffee shop, and one of our first customers was my good friend, Tulshi Sen.

Tulshi is an Indian born Canadian with a love of telling stories. He is also famed for his work on bringing the importance and practice of spiritual philosophy to .

He has made several TV appearances, is of ‘Ancient Secrets Of ’, has consulted to the Canadian government and the Asian trade commission as well as speaking on stages around the world.

Needless to say our conversations always end up discussing philosophy and business. During our conversation yesterday Tulshi made one comment that I wanted to share. He stated that:

“An  can not afford to be angry. Anger is temporary insanity caused by an obstructed desire. An  must practice to not become angry”

With anger it is easy to make bad decisions. We become impulsive and react quickly. Both logic and intuition become clouded and it becomes easy to do things we later regret.

Take a look at that definition more closely. If you are trying to do something in your business, and something prevents you, it is easy to become angry. Perhaps staff don’t show up to work (your desire for staff is blocked), maybe suppliers raise their prices (your desire to maintain profit margins or not increase your prices is blocked), maybe a customer complains (your desire to be appreciated by your customers is blocked).

With each of the scenarios if you let anger rule a temporary insanity can take over and bad decisions may well result.

The answer?

Learn to control anger. OK, easier said than done, but it is possible, and it is worth while.

is one method proven for centuries. Actually it is also a technique that is recommended by many leading business professionals. I once saw a keynote presentation by Michael Hill (owner of the multimillion dollar jewellery chain from New Zealand) who recommended as the number one strategy for achieving success in business.

By observing your situation without the distortion of anger you will be able to see the best action to take to remedy the situation.

Remember… when we become angry we tend to blame other people, or external circumstance for our problems. When we blame we ‘B Lame’. When we are lame we give our power away. Instead reclaim power by taking for the situation and you will be better ‘able to respond’.

This will not only make your chances of success greater, but allow you to enjoy your journey to success far more.

Lessons From A Prostitute

By on February 20, 2013

Lessons-From-A-Prostitute’21 and Lessons From A Prostitute’ is finally released and available on Amazon and Kindle.

The idea for this came over a year ago while I was speaking at an Internet Marketing event in Pattaya Thailand.

Pattaya is perhaps one of the largest red light district areas in the world. Prostitution is open and fills almost every street in the center of the city. Strangely is it also a major tourist destination for many families (Thai and western).

It was while observing this rather unique city through the eyes of a speaker on marketing that I began to ask the question ‘How do the girls in the worlds oldest profession survive in perhaps the worlds most competitive business environment’.

It is said if you ask the right questions you will get the right answer. In this case I found many answers. The best part was that these same principles could be applied by anyone to their business.

Unsurprising these girls did not have huge marketing budgets. So all of the ideas can be applied with little or no investment.

One of the most obvious concepts is that of . And yes, I admit, I used it for the title and the cover to the book. (but I would not be a very good businessman or marketer if I did not apply these principles myself)

Take a look for yourself and see how many of these ideas you can use in your business to improve your results.

Here is a photo of one reader (Gaz Cooper) I spotted on Facebook…

reading the book

Simple Strategy For Great Email Subject Lines

By on January 18, 2013

Getting your email opened is critical if you want to be successful with email . No secret there.

is one of Australia’s leading (and maybe entertainers?).

I will start sharing some of his short YouTube insights in an effort to give you a wider range of expertise on this blog.

Bret’s ideas are often very simple and easy to implement. His videos short and humorous. You may need to forgive him on production quality though ;-)

How To Increase Your Optins By 51%

By on January 11, 2013

I like simple solutions that get great results. That’s why this next split test result I am about to share excites me so much.

It is no secret that I mastermind a lot with . I have found his integrity and skill as an online owner hard to match.

He just sent me a screen capture of a split test he had been running on one of his optin pages. By adding one simple he was able to increase his optins by 51% literally overnight.

The problem with video though is that most of us never get it right. I pointed out that in one past test I actually reduced by adding video.

So how to do it right?

The answer is to model what has been proven to work. By using an existing template you not only save a lot of time, effort and money (my 3 favorite things to save on), but you also reduce the risk of it not working. Or worse, as in my case, having the opposite effect.

Thankfully the test Gideon was running was no co-incidence. It was actually a test for such a template. Finally, after much pushing, he is allowing me to tell you about it. You can see in the video below the example template used that gave the 51% increase in optins.

Just go to www.SplashVid.com to learn more, see other video templates, or to get your own video created and start boosting your optins today…

Are You Killing Your Baby?

By on December 21, 2012

baby-businessWould you intentionally, or even unintentionally want to kill your baby?

Of course not (if you do please stop reading my posts!)

Yet I meet people all the time who do. Not their human babies, but their babies.

Now I am not the first to call my business my baby, nor the last. But I think there is a lot we can learn from raising a real child when we come to ‘raising’ our business.

Now let me ask you… With a new born would you trust her with just anyone? Would you leave her for an extended period of time without supervision? Would you starve her? Would you allow her shi* to build up, and not clean it?

The reality is…

With a brand new business we must care and nurture it as if it were a new born. It requires constant attention, feeding and protecting. And it will often require you to mop up a lot of shi*!

Yet so many business owners will hire incompetent staff, fail to invest in their business, not give it enough time or care, walk away from it for days without supervision and/or allow the daily crap to build up until it suffocates both the business and the business owner.

As your business grows up you can afford to leave it for longer and longer periods of time – but only if you can leave it the hands of people you trust (and know how to take care of it), or have taught it how to look after itself (think systems and automation).

Growing a business, like parenting, is a rewarding experience. I hope you learn to raise something that gives you a sense of achievement and pride beyond just the cash flow.

And remember if you don’t look after your business as you would your baby don’t be surprised if it gets sick (which can stunt its growth) or even dies. Be a responsible parent.

Efficient vs Effective – Going Back In Time

By on December 17, 2012

MeetingIt is no secret – I love technology. However there is a time when technology creates efficiency that actually harms effectiveness.

My challenge is to ensure we don’t waste time and money on adopting technology that will prove less effective, and to know when to leave the technology at home and not try to use it in every situation.

A perfect example of this came when we looked at adopting procedures in our programming department. is a very effective development management practice and is worthy of many blog posts on its own.

However while researching we were faced with some great software that would manage much of the SCRUM process. However in reality a white board and post it notes are recommended by most SCRUM experts. And for good reason.

This ‘old fashioned’ approach has been shown to be far more effective in the real world than the use of even the best software. And remember this is coming from me – a fan of software and automation. The temptation was to get the ‘cool’ software.

We stuck with the whiteboard and post it notes and it was certainly the better choice.

But what about meetings and networking?

So much is written on social media and social networking. There are now more tools than you could possibly learn about if you spent a year just studying them all. But are they better?

I would say yes, and no.

Yes, I love , and it remains a critical part of our . It makes effective communication possible in so many situations.  Yet the danger lies in using it too much.

Have you considered why large companies still fly executives in private jets around the world to do business meetings? Do you think they have not heard of Skype? Or are too stupid to calculate the costs savings or ?

Of course not. They know the effectiveness and benefits to in person meetings far out weigh the cost.

As I write this now I am about to have a meeting with (a copy writer from Australia) who invested a lot of time and money to fly to northern Thailand to meet me for a few days. Why? Because he knows that the project we are working on will be far more effective by having that time together – despite the fact we regularly use Skype to communicate.

The truth is almost all the money I have made and all the deals I have done were as a result of meeting someone in person. We still use Skype and other networking tools to help on a day to day basis, but they still have yet to replace a good old face to face meeting.

Can you do business using only modern tools? Yes.

Can you do it as well without using old fashioned methods such as whiteboards and, shock horror, actually meeting people? No, I don’t think so.

Never underestimate the importance of meeting or talking to someone in person. It is still the way most money is made.

The Price Of Opportunity

By on December 13, 2012

opportunity is everywhere.

Most entrepreneurs starting out on their journey struggle to see it. They may have one or two ideas, or maybe they are searching for their ‘big’ idea. However it does not take long to start seeing opportunity on an hourly basis.

These opportunities may be small or maybe large. Some will be connected to what you are doing, others will be completely new.

What is more important is some will be beneficial, others will be a distraction. And distraction can equal delays to your main project, or even the cause of .

So how to decide which opportunities to take, and which to ignore?

Here are a few things to consider with each…

1) How much of your time or money will it require, and can you really afford that time or money?

2) What is the potential reward of that opportunity?

3) What will the cost of distraction cause your other projects? or what will the benefits be?

4) What are the motives of the person presenting the opportunity? (remember almost everyone has their own agenda)

5) Are you chasing money or ?

In summary I suggest you try to stay focused on your core project and only consider opportunities that enhance and build on that central focus. Also ensure that the cost fn your time and money would not be better used elsewhere.

As humans we are often afraid of missing out. Ironically by chasing every opportunity we often lose the ones we are already working on. Most opportunities require time and energy to make them fruitful. If you are distracted by new opportunities you may find nothing ever works.

Also be wary of chasing the golden coins. There are so many ways to make money it would be a shame to chase it without having some passion in what you are doing.

These were all lessons I had to learn the hard way. I hope you don’t have to. though I suspect most people will have already done so, or will need to discover by themselves anyway. :-D

 

Co-operation is the key

By on December 10, 2012

competitionIn society we are told we should co-operate, but all too often we are encouraged or taught to compete.

As children we are forced to compete against each other in sports and in academic achievements. Rarely are we taught to work together, or are shown the true potential that working with the can provide.

Yet interestingly working together is the key to for many companies, gurus and internet marketers.

I still hear the objection that two people with the same product and same audience cant help each other. They must compete against each other. While there are many situations that this is true, there are also many that it is not.

Information is one industry that more than any other benefits from cross promotion and supporting your competition. The music industry is another.

There are two main reasons why it is actually BETTER to help your competition:

1) Buyers of information products rarely want information from one source only. When you research for information on a specific topic you will usually buy many books or courses on that subject. This means that your customers are more likely to buy products from your competition.

Great for you if you can make commission for helping them find this information.

2) When a group of marketers support each other they build each others profile. Prospects and customers usually end up on several lists. When they receive multiple emails about the same person it increases that individuals perceived importance.

By working together each member of that group can have their authority status built which helps increase their .

If you have a list of prospects who choose not to buy your product consider helping them find a competitors product that may better suit their needs. This could make you wealthier, and if they were not going to buy your product anyway you have little to lose.

The message of this post… Stop worrying about your competition and start finding ways to work with them instead. Could be that everyone benefits.

 

Stubbornness – A two Sided Coin

By on December 4, 2012

stubbornI have been accused of being stubborn by more than one person. I prefer to think of myself more as ‘strong willed’.

For sure though there is a fine line between the two, if there is a difference at all.

In (as in life) this particular ‘quality’ can be both a blessing and a curse. Without it your chances of are slim. Too much and you are likely too sabotage your own .

When starting any business you will be given advice by many well meaning, but poorly informed, individuals. You will need to be strong (stubborn) in your decision to make the changes in your life that you know are needed.

However other times you will be lucky enough to receive more experienced advice. In this situation you may need to evaluate if this advice is more valid than your own opinion. This is when stubbornness can get in the way and prevent, or slow, your success.

For sure not every uneducated opinion is without merit, and nor is every experienced opinion correct. However your level of stubbornness will affect your ability to judge the importance of the information being given to you.

Ultimately you will need to learn to evaluate the information without emotion and look at it from a third person perceptive, and then have the strength to stick to your ideas if you believe them to be right, or the flexibility to change your ideas if the new information appears to be more correct.

In the end being strong willed will be a huge asset to you as you get through the challenges your business will throw at you. Just don’t be so stubborn as to throw away the good advice that may make your journey that much easier.

 

 

One of Life and Businesses Most Important Skills…

By on November 28, 2012

another perspectiveThere are many skills to learn throughout life and , but there is one that will serve you well no matter what you do. If you can master it…

There has been much written about psychology, mind reading and persuasion. All of these are made much easier (and often become unnecessary) if you can learn to do this one thing well.

What is it?

Quite simply putting yourself in someone else’s shoes. Before you dismiss this as ‘too easy’ let me tell you many people either underestimate the value in this skill, or think they do this when in fact they don’t.

First the value in learning this…

You are able to better predict what people will do, what they are thinking and how to appeal to their needs. It will help you be more successful in understanding, communicating and interacting with others.

It can improve your , make you a better manager and increase your ability and results as a copy writer, marketer and business man/woman.

In general it will make you more successful throughout life.

So why do most people not do this well?

Typically they put themselves in the position of the other person, but they do so with their own cultural believes, opinions and emotions.

The trick to doing this well is to let go of you personal perspective completely. To release any biased opinions, personal feelings or judgements that you may have.

Next try to put yourself in their position and try to understand their perspective based on the situation and that individuals personality, cultural beliefs, past experience, current emotional state, hopes, fears, desires, education and any other information you may have about that person.

Of course the more you know the better, but often just getting yourself out of the way is the hardest part.

Once you practice this regularly it becomes easier and easier until it is automatic. However when most people try to put themselves in the shoes of another and say ‘If I were them I would…’ what they really mean is ‘If they were me they would…’

A practice step in this process is to try and observe things from a 3rd party perspective. This will give you the practice of getting your own opinions out of the way. Once you have mastered this then try putting yourself in the position of the person you are trying to understand.

I promise you, once you truly master this skill you will find so much of life considerably easier :-)

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