Chaos to Creation Confessions

Michael and his cousin Sam support entrepreneurial consultants, helping them to build more profitable, scalable and strategic consulting businesses: "We're focused every day on helping consultants to become more successful."

Michael and Sam built their family business to satisfy their desires to live and work from anywhere, and enjoy traveling. So they created a business online, listened to the market, took onboard feedback, implemented and tested, and provided entrepreneurial consultants with what they desired.

SHOW NOTES

Michael and his cousin Sam support entrepreneurial consultants, helping them to build more profitable, scalable and strategic consulting businesses: "We're focused every day on helping consultants to become more successful."

Michael: Give before you try and get, lead with a relationship, and long-term mindset. Deliver value without the expectation of receiving something in return.

Michael and Sam built their family business to satisfy their desires to live and work from anywhere, and enjoy traveling. So they created a business online, listened to the market, took onboard feedback, implemented and tested, and provided entrepreneurial consultants with what they desired.

Michael: Our success was not necessarily a fairy tale. I've had to hustle. I've had to work very hard. I've gotten up early and stayed up late, had very long days working on the business.

Michael: I don't like to call them failures, I just call them learning experiences. We are constantly testing new things, we're trying new things, it doesn't mean that everything works. In many cases, things don't work. And what's interesting about building businesses and especially from marketing perspective, is you can try things.

Michael: Marketing and building a business takes patience, it takes time.

Michael: I think there's nothing more valuable than talking to somebody or engaging with somebody who's already been where you want to get to, because they can tell you what they've experienced. It doesn't mean that it's going to extrapolate and be 100% identical to what you're going to experience. But you can really get some some great feedback from that.

Michael: I've recognized my intuition tends to be quite accurate.

Michael: I always view things in a positive light, I will think about what could potentially go wrong. And as long as I'm okay with with that, then we'll typically move forward and see how it does.

Michael: Entrepreneurship and building businesses is not a warm blanket all the time. You can have the most expensive cashmere blanket, you know, as you build your business up, but many times you're naked in the cold.

Michael: We're a family business. We look at our clients like family, our values are very much about family, travel and being international citizens

Michael: we take risks every single day. I truly believe that every single person has just immense, you know, extraordinary potential inside of themselves. And typically, the reason that they're not seeing the results they want isn't because of a lack of knowledge or network or skills necessarily. It's their mindset, it's their own selves, right that are holding them back. And if you just start to move towards what you want to achieve you will learn something.

Dr. Dawson church, an award winning science writer with three best selling books through credit.   

We're going to probably talk only about one of them today. But there are three of the books that he's written are the genie in your genes, which was a book that demonstrated how emotions drive gene expression, versus bliss brain, which is most recent, which demonstrates that peak mental states rapidly remodel the brain for happiness.   

And what we're going to talk about mostly today is mind to matter how the brain creates much of what we think of as objective reality. Now, Dawson's got the best laugh I've ever heard. So hopefully, we can get some laughs for him today. Those are welcome to character creation confessions.

I’d like to introduce you to the Queen of Clarity – Ann Latham.

Ann has worked with clients in over 40 industries and ranging from for-profit organizations, such as Boeing, Medtronic, and Hitachi, to nonprofit organizations as diverse as Public Television and Smith College.

Why does she work with such a wide range of clients?

because they all need greater clarity to get better results faster and with more confidence and commitment.

I’ve known Ann for about 4 years and we’ve worked on a couple of projects, but it was only about a year ago that I learnt that Ann can ride a unicycle

while carrying a canoe…

Welcome Ann, and thanks for sharing your confessions today…

First of all, what’s with the unicycle and canoe????

Show Notes:

With my business partner, Jeremy, we had come up with an idea to solve a problem for small business...

Find out about their ambitious idea - Agglomerate - to help small businesses group together to create a publicly listed company.

From an investor's standpoint, you've got half the world's economy locked up in small businesses like us

There's this weird situation where you've got half the world's economy that's off limits to the trillions of dollars in the finance markets.

Plenty of people create things - books, courses or businesses - Callum & Jeremy actually created a business class, an asset class.

The thing with creative ideas is they're always brilliant when you first have them, and then you have to test them against the market.

And you smack your head against the wall until something breaks. And hopefully, it's not my head.

The more you do it, and the more failures you have, the more you realise that the failures aren't fatal.

When it didn't work out we had to go back to our bigger why to keep us motivated.

For the first Agglomeration the market cap went from 14 million to 300 million euros in 100 days... and then we kind of came unglued...

Hair raising rollercoaster of bringing a group of companies together, listing on the European NASDAQ, the market cap going from 14 million to 300 million euros in 100 days, being shafted by a financier in New York whobought shares and then dumped them on the stock market

As far as we know, this bloke have never previously broken the law.

You discover that trying to prosecute white collar crime over international borders is nearly impossible.

the biggest mistake we made was, and this was down to a lack of experience was everyone advised us that what we should do is get ourselves off the board and put some old grey hairs on the board and restore investor confidence.

it was an incredibly painful, hideously expensive lesson to go through

Most sane people will think: Okay, maybe that wasn't the right thing to do. Maybe it was a bad idea. You guys didn't do that. What happened? What did you do next?

It solved a problem. We realised that if we didn't do it, it probably wasn't going to get done.

The advantage of so much stuff going wrong so quickly was that we got 10 years worth of lessons compressed into a very short, excruciatingly painful period.

Callum would have preferred to learn those lessons without "getting kicked in the nuts"

So we listed in Frankfurt, coming up two years ago, so sort of November 2018. And we have now added, as of last week, I think we're up to 17 companies in the in the group, we've got a combined revenue of 100 million dollars, $10 million of EBIT, we issued our dividends after the first year. So there was 110 companies listed in Europe last year, and by various different metrics were in the top three fastest growth for revenue and profit, and one of only five to issue a dividend.

The problem is, when you're doing something that hasn't been done before, there isn't really anyone that can can advise you.

The opposite of that is waiting for everything to be perfect before you do it. And the reality is, it's never going to be perfect. So better to get out, learn the lessons, iterate and move on.

Entrepreneurs record three, three or four minute answer to the question, what's the biggest challenge that you're overcoming your journey and what did you learn from it?

The Bigger Why: I've been an entrepreneur for 25 years, and I keep bouncing around different industries and kind of looking for what would be the perfect thing. And I realised, that's not the way to do it. For me, it's to find, who I want to be working with.

David Kadavy is a best-selling author whose books help artists be  productive. He was design advisor for behavioural scientist Dan Ariely’s  productivity app, where David’s mind management principles were applied  to features now used by millions – in Google Calendar.  His latest book: book Mind Management, Not Time Management, helps  creators be productive when creativity matters.

Show Notes:

Eight Days a Week: each day is an event - which is actually kind of a refreshing idea... that today counts.

Creative work is random, you kind of don't know when you're going to have a great idea or a great insight, you can't force it.

I was not a writer, I did not consider myself a writer, I did not enjoy writing. When I was a kid, I was a designer.

I might have these 15 minute bursts, where suddenly, I would write an entire chapter...

On writing his first book: Sometimes it was easy. Most the time it was hard.

David set out to understand the subtle differences for when he was creative so he could make the connection between the actions he was taking and the output that he was making.

I started to dig into the neuroscience of creativity. What does it mean to have a creative insight? What are the conditions that are ideal for that?

This time management paradigm that we've all been working on for the last 120 years or so, does not work at all, for creative work from a certain point - it becomes detrimental to creative work and creative thinking.

I'm an advocate of having a repeatable project: like a podcast because if it's a repetitive process, then you can start to fine tune your approach to it. And you can start to create constraints.

Create constraints where you can be creative within them.

You start to get systems going, where you can use your creative energy a lot more efficiently.

Break projects down into tasks that are small enough that I tend to not procrastinate on them. Then space them out, to take advantage of incubation.

How to be productive when being creative matters? Not through time management!

We're a time worship culture and this is my proposal to humanity - let's switch to more of a mind management world

Ask yourself: what's the better time to do this based upon your energy levels, what's the better time to do this based upon the stage we're at in the process?

Use your passive genius: take advantage of incubation

SHOW NOTES

Simon Bowkett, my favourite Australian!

Find out why Simon developed his own online training platform and how that's turned into a saleable asset

Go to where the learner is, don't force them to come to your platform

Find out how 15 years ago Simon bootstrapped his online learning business, before developing his own learning platform

You need to motivate people to take the training, especially if they're not paying for it themselves

Software developers speak a different language to business owners... so what can you do?

Create something simple to solve the customer's pain

Learn why Simon had been "writing his book for 6 years" until he met Debs and then he got his 60,000 word book written in 6 months - how? By breaking it down into small manageable chunks.

Hear how by setting outcome goals Simon wrote his 60,000 word book in just 6 months

Hear how having constraints helps Simon write his book, and create hundreds of videos for his popular motor industry sales course

I made sure everyone knew I had a book coming out, because then I had to bloody do it.

Am I really good enough? Can I actually write a book? Who the hell do I think I am? I read all those Anthony Robbins books and all those other books. I remember thinking, can I really do this?

Discover the four fundamentals for selling (from Simon's book: Words That Sell Cars)

How Simon created IP that he can reuse in other industries

Delivered over 13,000 sessions of his online training program in the 2 months of lockdown

How Simon built a plane from scratch, and then let his 18 year old son fly it!

SHOW NOTES

How Sari manages working on more than one book at once: It's a combination of creativity and structure

My discipline has always been to really structure things and on the creative side to really keep on developing.

I go in and out on structure - first I diverge speak to clients, investigate ideas. Before I converge.

It all starts with a question I need to answer for them.

It always goes observation, interpretation, conceptualization, and then I started process.

I look for patterns, and then interpret them

Conceptualization: there are many roads to Rome, what model or concept could I create?

If all goes well then I go to productize, and create a training course, or book, or whatever they need

In that divergent stage, what I've noticed is I really need time to myself. I can't take any feedback then I need to shut myself away.

Being an entrepreneur makes it really difficult to lock yourself away, because as an entrepreneur, you're always thinking not only about your next paycheck, but usually about the next year's paycheck. So you're always doing acquisition and execution at the same time.

Working in blocks is also a very expensive way to write a book because each time it takes me about a day and a half to get back into that voice again. And by that time I have half a day to write in a weekend. So that's the dilemma.

With external constraints I think the trick is not to fight them. If they're really non-negotiable, they're nonnegotiable.

As an entrepreneur, you have to be somewhat narcissistic in the sense that you think that anything is possible.

My constraint is time - the balance between time and money. So if I don't spend time, I don't make money. If I don't spend time, I don't write my book, which could get me more money, you know, that's, that's, that's the dialogue I have.

Learn how Sari, the precocious kid was giving riding lessons at 6, and started her business when she was 22.

What helped me was that I didn't know it was impossible...

I actually don't really look back. I look more in the here and now, forward. When I tell people my story of entrepreneurship, I am really proud. I'm really proud of and that I've been able to help clients improve the quality of their work and their life along the way

I fell in love at 56...

One of the tricks to being creative is to have a plan, A, B and C, so always have many things on the go.

How do you decide what's the right project, right now? I go where my heart lies, where my passion is. I start with a puzzle.

You should also let go of ideas that don't have that energy

Learn about the concept of Slow Down to Speed Up®

There are so many priorities on the list that nothing's really a priority. It's just a huge to do list of demands.

So slowing down to speed up is about taking a thoughtful, deliberate, measured, considered approach to the work that we do and the ways in which we live our lives.

It's not as straightforward as slow down, then speed up... you've got to figure some things out first

Once you've done that slowing down work, you are then poised to go fast

I am way more effective when I'm in dialogue with other people. All of a sudden I feel engaged and creative and the thoughts start flowing. When I'm just sitting in front of my laptop or pad, it's a blank page phenomenon.

It's fantastic to work with others, think out loud, answer questions, ask questions and get other perspectives

There are a million ways I've been able to repurpose material from my book

Slow Down to Speed Up® also means not doing everything yourself, but finding the right people to collaborate with. Stick to your own forte!

How to use your book as the hub for many assets such as toolkits, PDFs, articles, slide decks, keynotes, workshops

Make multiple Minimum Valuable Assets (tm)

Don't get caught up in making something big or extravagant or complicated or convoluted when really you need to go back to "what does the reader or the viewer or the user need and want to know?" and then make that

Be honest with yourself, don't keep stuff because you're afraid to let go... make sure you're doing the things that only you can do and delegate the rest

Block out time in your day to work on the right things

I'm a psychologist by training and I think one of the things that makes life very difficult is an excess of rigidity.

An essential part of getting the right things done includes taking care of yourself.

SHOW NOTES:
When Covid hit I went out to my audience and started serving them...

I get into my female energy power...

My last creation was a masterclass to serve my audience

How Jane took advantage of the accidental creation process to serve people who knew, liked and trusted her...

Go out to your market and test. Ask them: "Do you want a book on this?"

Be prepared to take advantage of the chaos to create new products

I love testing and I love doing experiments. It's part of who I am. I've always got one on the go. It's fun. It's a game, it's an experiment.

Look for the signals...

How naming things is hard, but you can iterate it - not all hamsters should be called fluffy

How Jane used a Kickstarter campaign to test her idea for a book... would people put money down?

How Jane manages her energy and sets constraints and boundaries so she can create

Daily create opportunities for accidental creation

In the last 10 years I have been tested to my core... I said to myself, get up, build, build, build... I had to hang on to those small steps and tiny wins on the way to quantum leaps

Have data-driven conversations because that's where the power is

The excitement, coupled with fear of launching new products - "It's like Christmas morning! It's a gift."

Do curiosity driven testing, so you can have data-driven conversations to explain the world.

Know why you do what you do so you can be courageous

Silence is power

How, "Your comment is very revealing." shuts up the worst haters

My natural default is that there are some many people better at some things than me, so I outsource to experts!

Show Notes:

Why you need some "how" and not just a lot of "why" in your book...

I've got techniques for what I'm supposed to do about it, but I still forget and I still end up stuck in my own brain, in my own chaos, unable to see from an external point of view.

When you're so close to the stuff you're good at you forget "beginner's mind"...

I started with the problem...

Find out what's the biggest problem authors face... and it's not writing the book

Why you shouldn't sell books and what you should do instead...

Why you need to Make Your Book Pay

Authors are focusing on the wrong thing if they're trying to sell their books...

Over the last 20 years working with expert businesses Joe has noticed the patterns...

I've been immersed in books and business for the last 20 years...

At Rethink Press it's a point of pride that nearly all of our authors become Amazon bestsellers. But it's not to sell books, it's to sell the author.

Authors need to sell a bigger idea, not books

Mainstream publishers are making a mistake when it comes to serving their authors

Don't become an accidental employee of the mainstream publishers

Don't get into editing before you've done a great job on creating...

Use the constraint of a writing outline to keep you on track

Discover Joe's SOLD model that all expert business owners need to understand

Use your book transactionally

Don't sell books. Give them a way to facilitate the SOLD process in your business.

Don't assume - people want to know specifically what to do, what to say, and they want permission to know it's OK to do it.

Why expert business owners should give their books away...

Find out about the Value Stack, which flips the business funnel on its head, and let's your clients ascend the mountain of value you provide

When do you know to throw away your creation and start again?

Don't succumb to false constraints

Does it really solve the problem?

Bounce your ideas off another brain, but be careful who you choose!

Estelle Read takes readers on a journey from workaholism to being able to shine...

She says: "Like a lot of coaches, I became an NLP practitioner, master practitioner, trainer of NLP, hypnotherapist, EFT-er, blah, blah, blah. But it wasn't helping me get clients from A to B..."

Estelle works with the top 5% of income earners... they're already wildly successful... so why do they need coaching? Why do you need coaching?

She wrote her book, Inner Brilliance, Outer Shine to help you cheat your way to outer shine and reach destination joy.

Find out how limiting beliefs and too much chaos stopped Estelle from finishing her book for 10 years! Then in just 7 months she got it completed! 

She says: "There's a time to learn and there's a time to gather information and then there's a time to just get out there and test it"

Estelle Read is a Human Potential Coach and works in the professional services industry with a variety of clients ranging from PLCs through to small local companies; the common denominator being that they are all looking to grow performance in some way. She describes her style as being: supportive and challenging (good cop / bad cop), tenacious (she loves to see her clients get results), practical, passionate and fun.