I’m just back from a covert mission at La Fourchette Patisserie in Hove, where we enjoyed some very fine tarts (mine was Blackberry and very “tart” as you would hope) where we picked up the VERY SAME MICROPHONE as used by Joy Division singer Ian Curtis before his untimely demise, and then New Order after said demise, as well as many other Manchester bands of the late 70′s / early ’80s. I can’t say any more…..yet……. but it’s a Nueman and vintage and Heather’s going to be using it to record her first solo album (see below).
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TBSF 009 | Business Diary | Blackberry Tarts & Ripples Turning To Tsunamis [ 9:47 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | DownloadThis week has been an absolute whirlwind of activity, opportunity, wheeling dealing and for the first time in a long time, I really feel like I’m on the verge of breaking through to something very big indeed!
This is an exciting kind of feeling, a feeling of momentum building, wheels turning, results starting to come thick and fast, and it happens when you have done “enough” plodding along, taking action step after action step, throwing pebble after pebble into the pond, creating ripples but not knowing where they will come back, just trusting they will.
I found myself thinking about a full time VA again today because I’m just not getting everything done, but I’m not yet at the point where I’m willing to make the cash investment (UK based VA) or time/training investment (Philippines based VA).
The first job I need to outsource is very dull indeed, it’s transcoding the videos from GoToWebinar or my iPhone or Kodak Z8, so I can import them to either Sony Vegas or Camtasia, edit and produce them. Sometimes I need to do actually edit them and sometimes they just need top ‘n’ tailing with the “sweeps”, the jingles that go at the beginning and end. Then they need uploading to Amazon S3 which sometimes takes a few attempts and lots of time.
The challenge is, that I’ve got ADD and the minute some long boring job is underway, I want to be getting on with something else, and not only is my computer on a bit of a go-slow when transcoding/producing is happening, but then I totally forget what I was doing and where I was up to, in each job.
As well as my own business, which always needs marketing although I’m attracting coaching clients at the rate of knots, I am now working on 3 x “All Done For You” clients; the Worthing & Adur Chamber Of Commerce, Heather Cairncross’ album launch and now a contract car hire specialist in Worthing, the deal being sealed with a handshake at the Worthing & Adur Chamber Hub event in Shoreham yesterday.
Perhaps I’ll look at getting a full or part-time apprentice when I move back to Shoreham, as I’ll be working out of the dining room and there is definitely room for a second desk there. You still need to pay them and train them, and it’s a bit more than paying someone overseas, but that will be easier in person, rather than making videos to send, at least in the beginning. And you can keep an eye on them, so you know they are working the hours you are paying for.
I managed (with some serious booting up the bum from my mate Minesh Bhindi, the Gold & Silver investing supremo) to get my new webinar scheduled, catchily entitled “17 Things Every Entrepreneur & Small Business Owner MUST Know To Profit In Tough Times” and you might be able to catch a new broadcast of that here >>> so I’m pleased about that.
One more piece of MY automated marketing funnel in place, along with the 6 x Free Videos on “The 3 Secrets Of Business Success” which, every day, gain 3-4 new viewers.
Talking of which marketing funnel, I took delivery of the first run of my printed “How To Market Any Business Online” report yesterday. I’ve been experimenting with offering either a PDF report or a printed version on the website and while most are going for the PDF, some are ordering the printed version. I’m also going to be using a printed version when I go out networking.
I’ll hold 3-4 of them in my arms, cover side out, and then when someone asks for my business card, depending on how interested they seem, I’ll just give them a report AND a card. Instant expert status, bit like giving a book away, but not as extravagant! Having said that, it only cost £5 for a book, if you buy in bulk, whereas the reports cost about £2.50 but don’t they look nice!
This is a “printed booklet” version (stapled) as apposed to a “spiral bound, cardboard back, plastic cover” version which would be about £5 each. I did think about going for that version but I’m really pleased with the way Mark and the team at Pep4Print in Worthing, have made these look and Kelly even dropped them off on her way to work, as they knew I wanted them for the networking event.
I got a very interesting Joint Venture offer yesterday as I was trying to talk my favourite lease car guy into letting me have the use of one of his cars, for a year, in return for my doing all his marketing. (Learned that one in Jay Abraham’s “Getting Everything You Can Out Of All You’ve Got”). I saw the entrepreneurial spark light up his eyes when he realised he was talking to a kindred spirit and he said “give me half an hour and I’ll come back to you” but when he did, it was to offer a fully fledged business joint venture in an area he wants to break into, and where there is real big money to be made.
I went away and Steve and I did some research on numbers of searches done, visitor numbers expected, value of visitors, etc. and I’m going to go for it, so that’s very exciting. I’ve got the domain names, I’ll get the blog up, get some traffic moving and leads generated (and converted by him into cash) and then we can sit down and put the business together using our friendly local accountant and solicitor – both members of the Chamber, naturally. If he doesn’t do his bit, we won’t create the business and I’ll just take all the leads to the nearest competitor.
As well as the domain names for the JV, I also bought some more domain names this week, to make my life easier. I keep having to refer to a few of my blog posts and go and hunt them down to get the links, so I took a “leaf” out of Pat “Smart Passive Income” Flynn’s podcast and bought Top20BestBusinessBooks.com and Top10EntrepreneursTraps.com and redirected them to the right blog posts. I also set up some redirect pages on my personal blog for things I recommend regularly, so that I can just send people to http://nicolacairncross.com/bug for Andy’s “Bug Free Mind” books for example.
This is an example of “zapping a toleration” and those are things that sap your energy and distract you from what you are supposed to be doing, every time they crop up.
One of the first things I learned as a trainee coach in Coach U, was about tolerations and they are a great place to start whenever you are feeling overwhelmed and unhappy. Make a list of everything you are tolerating, and you will find that either you will start to zap your own tolerations, or magic will happen, and someone else will zap them for you! I remember one of mine, when sharing a house with my family, was working in an office that had peeling wallpaper and nasty paintwork, and my brother-in-law decided to decorate one weekend when I was away!
Talking of sisters, Heather has been blogging like a star, with lots of lovely pictures, all about her trip to Cork, Ireland and then to battle through the riots to sing at the late night Prom, performing at both the rather wonderful Steve Reich’s “Music For 18 Musicians”. She’s also shared another “Postcard From My Past”, this time meeting Dizzy Gillespie and doesn’t she look young then! She’s recorded the 2nd episode of her podcast too, so it’s all rocking along – I’m cracking the whip but she’s having a bit of a time balancing my need for marketing materials and her need to get the songs/charts ready as she’s recording on Wednesday / Thursday this week coming. She’s never blogged so much in her life but as I said to her “blogging once a week will feel like a picnic after this”.
It’s only bloomin’ working though, she’s doubled, if not tripled, her traffic, friends of her Facebook page are up, as are her mailing list subscribers and Twitter followers. She’s even attracted Cork Opera House (2,400 followers) and BBCProms (7,900 followers) as retweets, thanks to the blog post she wrote about performing at both. As for me, I just haven’t had time to write up the marketing plan yet, much less blog about it as we have been so busy actually doing it!
My other sister Sarah is off to work at a raw food / spiritual / juicing / holistic retreat in Portugal soon – one of her dreams coming true VERY QUICKLY indeed once she decided what she definitely wanted and then just focused on it. She found the opportunity via a great website where you can find working holidays all over the world from 1-2 weeks to several months. I’ll try and get the URL for you….she’s at Gay Pride Brighton right now and the sun’s shining so I doubt she’ll answer a text LOL. Actually, we all quite fancy the Gay Pride Dog Show tomorrow….that’s got to be good for a) some well looked after pooches and b) a larf.
This is all very lucky, Sarah going away, as I’m going back to my beloved Shoreham! Hurrah!
p.s. All this has been written with the sounds of Abba floating through the flat – Heather’s going to an Abba Sunday Lunch tomorrow and I had forgotten quite how much I dislike Abba till just a moment ago. i might have to play the new Eric Morillo feat Shawnee “Stronger” as an antidote – it rocks!
