Wednesday 5 October 2011

Ilumine Ao | Blog Talk Radio Interview


I'm very much looking forward to being interviewed by Al Diaz along with the other Miracle of Love presenters from the Gold Coast leg of the tour.

Sat, Oct 8, 2011 03:00PM








Click here to find out more:
Freedom Divine Connection BEing All That You Are/Australia 10/07 by Ilumine Ao | Blog Talk Radio

Hope you can join us


http://themiracleoflove.com/

You can find out more about the Miracle of Love World Tour and the Gold Coast event here

You can download a copy of the event flyer here


The Miracle of Love - Gold Coast Event

The Miracle of Love Tour is rolling downunder and I'm very pleased to be speaking at the Gold Coast Event with Al Diaz.

I spoke with Al in Melbourne earlier in the year and it was a very special day with much love shared throughout.

Al is one of the most "present" people I've ever met and this is what makes this day such a gift.  His energy is unstoppable.  If you think you are walking your talk about being all you can be and have a big vision .... just wait until you meet this guy.

The Gold Coast event features two other great speakers, Raeleen Byrne from Medicine for Your Spirit, who hosted one of my Sore to SOAR workshops on the Gold Coast.  Raels, as we all know and love her, is a powerful and gorgeous goddess who spreads an enormous amount of love everywhere she goes.

We will also be joined by Mukta Saraswati who I haven't had the pleasure to meet in person yet, but have heard wonderful things from Al about her and the wonderful ceremonies she loves to create.

We will all be featured on Al's radio show this coming Saturday, 8th October 2011

You can down a copy of the flyer here and find out more at the website here

Thursday 18 August 2011

Online Oppie

Well I think I've just about seen everything now - there is a company in the USA that is an online op-shop and worse I've already found something I want on the first page!

Its a basic twist on the time honoured tradition of sending your tat and junk somewhere so some else can claim your tat and junk.

Givmo have just taken the concept of an online op-shop …. online.  

So if you got something you want to ditch, you simply put a photo of it up on the Givmo website.  If someone wants it - they simply contact you - pay the postage and you ship it to them.


To be honest I've never been much of an op-shop gal - I only ever seem to find junk in there and it always seems to take forever to trawl through everything on offer.  But I do like this online concept because it has categories - I don't have to trawl the whole shop to find the one gem I'm looking for.  And it doesn't smell bad - op-shops often have an odd smell that I'm really not fond of.

It is also a great environmental idea because it reuses things rather than recycling them or having the need to produce a new one.  I am a bigger fan of not having the thing in the first place, but even I manage to amass a heap of stuff I don't really use or want.  I sometimes marvel at the way it gets in.

Many benefits with the Givmo concept includes a $1 donation to a charity of the month - with this month being the World Wildlife Fund which is doing great things in the protection of animals - so overall it gets the Mz Margz tick of approval.

So if you need to clean out that office and make some space in your business or life - then maybe this is for you.

The cynic in me of course would point out that the time it takes to get the item to the post office is more hassle than the drop to an actual op shop - but I guess it is just another way of looking at a time honoured tradition and a different take on something that works incredibly well in the real world - so why wouldn't it do well in the online world too.

You can read more here

Now for the big question - does my friend really need the fake grass that goes around the kitty litter tray to stop her cat spreading kitty litter all over the house???  It seems I can get a specially designed, fit for for purpose fake grass mat on Givmo - who'd a thought there was even such a product!  Bet I can't get that at the Daylesford Vinnies!

Friday 12 August 2011

An Innovative Way to Get in Front of Clients

I had to smile today as I enjoyed my green tea and a scan through my emails.  I love when people start taking innovative actions when times get tough.

Humans never move when they are comfortable but watch them go when times get tough.

I loved what we can learn from an innovative way hotels are getting more guests in beds.

As it gets harder to sell hotel beds as less people travel the globe due to factors such as technology advances bringing people together virtually, a greater consciousness of the ecological damage the travel industry brings to the planet and overall the financial crunch means less spending in general.

So hotels are needing to get smarter.


We can learn a lot from this industry because therapists have exactly the same problem hotels have.  At the end of each day, any beds not filled are never available to sell again on that day.  Yes they can sell tomorrow’s beds, but today’s beds are never available again.

Treatment rooms or consults are the same.  If you didn’t fill yesterday’s diary - the opportunity to get revenue from those spots has gone.  So watching the way hotels think and market is a good habit to get into.

Springwise had a link to a service that scans twitter and picks up on destinations people have mentioned in their tweets.  The hotel sends those people some local area knowledge or a discounted room offer to that twitter account. 

Some hotels are reporting a 9% uptake on their direct twitter offers.  This is huge as most direct campaigns would celebrate if they got a 2-3% response.

Why the big difference?

They are adding value, saving their customers time and solving a problem for their clients. 

In some instances they are solving a problem before the client even thought too hard about fixing it.

This is marketing genius which you can replicate on a smaller scale.

It's our equivalent of dropping a flyer on the bedside table of someone who is about to get out of bed and complain of an ache and pain or emotional deficiency.  They are delivering a solution at a time of pain. 

Humans are lazy creatures.  

In most instances if a suitable solution comes their way at a price and service level suitable to them .... they will most likely take it.

The reason this campaign by hotels is working is because this is very targeted marketing.  The hotel knows its customers well and presents only one solution to their problem - a room in a hotel in the city they are visiting in the near future. 

Its your classic WHO & WHAT situation.  They know WHO their customers are and WHAT those customer want.

These hotels are getting under the noses of people solving problems AND saving them time.

How can you do that?


If you are very clear WHO you work with - simply figure out where your people are hanging out - what their problems are on a daily basis and get yourself, your message and your offerings in front of them, at a time when they are thinking about their problem.

People with a certain problem start seeking solutions in similar places


The golden question to answer is .... where do your people hang out????


But an even better question is ..... who else has my people?  This is the question the hotel has answered - they have figured out that their customers tweet their travel plans out to their network. 

Do people tweet or facebook their problems on a daily basis - YOU BET!  If you exactly solve their particular problem, then a simple google search to see if that person has a public profile and you could drop one of your flyers in the post to them.  It can be that simple.  If you are really brave you could make the offer directly in the post they've made - but truly I find that a bit intrusive.  You must discern what's the right level of contact for you. 

People leave clues everywhere - you need to get your intuitive super power glasses on and start seeing those opportunities everywhere.

It is so much easier to sell something to someone who wants what you’ve got.  You’ve just got to get very creative about figuring out where the problem YOU solve occurs in THEIR life.

For instance, if a child is having a hissy fit on the supermarket floor and the parent looks up and sees a flyer on the notice board for a hissy fit behaviorist or a golfer walks into the club room from a round of golf and finds a person who can improve their swing by loosening up their muscles - I reckon they will be pretty interested in at least hearing about your services.

Where are your people and what are their problems?

Wednesday 10 August 2011

You can’t fly with eagles when you keep walking with turkeys

I feel like it has been a mad journey since October 2010 when I first made the shift to Infusionsoft, arguably the worlds greatest customer management system.

Then secondly I migrated my whole office from PC to Mac in December 2010 - I even have an iPad now.

Those who have followed my journey will notice I always take a quantum leap when I do things!

As usual I was overly optimistic about how hard this would be, and didn't fully factor in how long it would take. Infusionsoft was a beast of a thing to get set up, and I purchased just before they introduced all their cool new wizards. But now it's rolling I sit here daily and marvel at some of the things it does. I am really excited what it can do and I look forward to really being of much greater service to my customers going forward with all this awesome technology.


A strange thing occurred though as the technology bedded down.

As I started to get used to the new Macs (did I mention I have an iPad now) it has forced everything to a higher standard.

Same with Infusionsoft.

These companies can afford to employ some of the greatest innovative minds on the planet. So you either get into their mindsets and start to think like they do, or you have to return back to your old systems. I'm not a go back kind of gal!

There is a golden rule in the personal development industry that says, hang out with the people you want to be like, and a bit of them will automatically rub off on you ....... if you let it!

Another way of saying that is - you are the sum of the top 5 people you hang out with or even more simply - you are who you hang out with.

Or even more crudely from the Daggermouth song:

“You can’t fly with eagles when you keep walking with turkeys”


I have found this to be absolutely true, but until now, I hadn't fully realised that technology could have the same effect.

But its not just technology, it relates to everything.

When I've had clunky cars - I've been clunky myself. When the house is a mess - usually I have too much going on and no time to tidy up and the mess starts to drain me.

Your business is the same, if you aren't giving it the time, energy and effort it deserves, and implementing EVERYTHING I tell you, then you get naff results.

The only way to change a situation is to change something.

In the Attraction Program, one of the principles is to Tolerate Nothing. This involves going through and looking at every single thing that isn't working for you, from the button that is missing on your blouse, to really big things like relationships that aren't working for you.

Initially it seems a little bit negative to make a list of negatives!

But of course you become more attrACTIVE when you get more active and start changing or fixing the things on the list. So the idea is to switch the list to positives by systematically removing the negatives.

When I turn on "Big Mac" (with a 27 inch screen - bigger than my tv!) every morning, I save the TWENTY minutes it used to take for my PC to fire up. Big Mac is ready to go in under 30 SECONDS - I still marvel at that!

Imagine that: 365 days x 20 minutes = 7,300 minutes each year saved.

That's a whopping FIVE full days a year I DON'T sit watching a PC boot up. And no I didn't sit and watch it all the time, I would turn it on and go put the kettle on. That lead to multi-tasking and often I got drawn off to do other "stuff".

The difference is now, when I show up in the office - I am focused and working immediately. I find also I am thinking more clearly, planning more and getting more things done with ease, simply because my equipment is good to go when I am.

I am writing this on my iPad (did i mention i have one?) in bed, listening to the wind play through my trees and watching the sun send dabbled light into my room and enjoying the blue skies. Does that energy inspire and transmute to me - I'm reckoning it does.

I had been tolerating the waste of time and need to always be plugged into mains power for over a year as my PC died an agonising death.  That toleration was going on everyday as it crashed and burned it's way through the work load.

No wonder I was getting worn out!

I had been tolerating this for a very long time and it had been silently draining my energy.

Maybe do an audit of the things you have been tolerating and start cleaning them up as time and your budget allows.

Just about as attractive as my new iPad I reckon ........ did I mention have one :)

Monday 8 August 2011

The Price of Perfection

Perfection is a wonderful thing when harnessed properly.

For most however, it is the personal curse they carry that stops them achieving all they could.

Perfection in and of itself is fine. Whilst standing alone it does not harm. Its when it gets between your ears that the problems start arising.

Perfection is the best friend of the “little voice” - that one that keeps telling you that you aren’t good enough.

So often I witness people who want something to happen really badly, but they spend so much time and energy waiting to get something perfect before they release it. What inevitably happens is that the project either stalls or they sabotage their success by creating a diversion around the release of their project.

Once sabotaged, it will never get to see the light of day, nor will it ever get to the right people to stamp their approval of perfection on the project.

I’ve seen people make themselves physically sick so they don’t have to go on stage. I’ve seen people manifest family disasters so they don’t have to release a project. I’ve seen people just disappear off the radar because their need for perfection overcomes their ability to deliver the so called levels of perfection they have set for themselves.

This behaviour is bogus because in business its not up to you to determine what is or is not perfect.

The people who are going to BUY what you are creating are the ones who determine whether it is perfect or not.

It becomes a very simple equation. 

If your customers buy your product or service or book a treatment with you and they don’t complain or they rebook or they buy something else in the future. Then your offering was perfect because it met their needs.

In business the only way you can figure out if your product or service offering is perfect - is to release it.

So why keep persecuting yourself trying to make everything perfect, when really you aren’t the best person to sit in judgment. Wouldn’t it be better to just get that product out to your customers and if it falls short of perfect, you can always tweak it until it is.

Some of the best things I’ve ever created took two or three goes to get right. It was the testing and tweaking and feedback that came from my customers that invariably created the perfection.

Of course I’m not asking you to put anything sub-standard out into the marketplace. All I’m asking is that you at least let it have a chance to be seen by others.

So what are you waiting for - get that thing out that you’ve been waiting to get perfect - dust if off - get it to a “good enough” standard and release it.

You might be surprised how perfect the imperfection in that action really is!

Friday 5 August 2011

The power of silence to solve a problem

An old boss had this annoying theory called "do nothing". He used it a little too often for it to be effective but as I reflect back he was certainly onto something.

There are many times when action is the answer, but there is also a place for doing nothing or saying nothing.

Silence can be our friend in many ways.

As a speaker sometimes the most powerful moments are created in the space without words where you give the audience time and space to digest what you've just said.

In the movies sometimes the scariest moments or most poignant moments are when absolutely nothing is happening on screen.

The silence we create in meditative moments often gives us the clarity to take ourselves to the next level.

We rarely meditate on our business though and it can be a powerful tool when solving business problems.

My Back Deck Office
We also don't need to be on a mountaintop to meditate. Sometimes it can be as simple as making a cup of herbal tea and moving to a different spot. I have a back deck that allows me to sit quietly with my trees. When I remember to sit out there - solutions seem to arrive a lot faster.

Silence can be our friend in many situations.

A speaker uses silence to bring their thoughts together while the audience "simmer" in the soup of what has just been delivered.

My old boss when confronted with something he didn't necessarily have an answer for or an immediate solution to the problem or it was just too hard - did nothing in the hope the problem went away. Most times it did!

Our busy, overwhelmed techno world bombards us with constant information. We take in so much all the time and rarely get the chance to simmer on anything.

But doing nothing all the time is not the solution.

I know from my forensic days back in corporate that doing nothing can cause the worst nightmares, so it is important to not relegate everything to the "do nothing" pile. But even in those nasty corporate situations I often found the answer to problems no one else had been able to fix, simply because I was only focused on one thing. I was frequently relegated to the darkest corner in the office, often working solo. It meant I was surrounded in silence and could get perspective on the problem and had time to look at all the puzzle pieces. I find if have all the required information and you focus on something long enough, the answer comes clear.

So in the action vs silence conundrum it's about finding the balance.

That balance is frequently achieved when we go to silence first, gather our thoughts - then take the correct action.

Getting things right the first time is certainly a gift and going to silence and really thinking and planning out the next step means you often short circuit the problem you are about to create by going out with a firm path in mind.

Silence helps find that path.

Silence also helps if you have a problem. Going within, listening to your heart, gathering ALL the puzzle pieces (not just the ones you want to look at) and allowing the magic within the void that silences creates to do your talking, will frequently bring a solution.

Silence allows us space to gather our thoughts, gain clarity and calm our senses.

What problem do you currently have that could benefit from some silence?

Sunday 10 July 2011

I have just found and downloaded an awesome new app for my iPad.  It is called ShowMe

You can see my first attempt at a presentation here:



The app promises to learn and teach anything.  Its an open learning platform but also will be incredibly useful for me to use as an enhancement for teleclass learning and additional resources for ebooks.  You can make your lessons public or private and sharing is via a link or an embed code as I've used above.

It really is as easy as it looks.  In this first example I was simply using my finger to draw on the screen of my iPad.  I can see how it would quickly allow me to show a concept to a client or enhance a message I am trying to get across by adding audio and visuals to the way people can learn.

It is fast to upload and once I get it onto the ShowMe website, then it is easy to share.  I can chose to make the presentation public or private and sharing on social media is just one click away.

This is a fun, fast and easy way of layering the way that we share information which may in many cases be the difference between someone easily absorbing a concept or walking away confused.

Now if only I could draw :)

Saturday 2 July 2011

GET YOUR COPY OF MY NEW FREE REPORT

Getting started is the hardest part of growing a small business - the euphoria of being your own boss, doing it your own way and being able to run your own ship quickly wears off when you realise your great ideas and methods aren't manifesting the same glory in your bank account!

I created the NO GO to GET GO Fast Track Guide as a way for you to understand the types of actions you need to take in the early days.

All too often we have these great ideas and expect the Universe to pour people through our front gate and have them hammering the door down to work with us.  Unfortunately this is rarely the case for someone who has never had a small business before.

The sadder news is most give up even before they get a decent head of steam up and are left feeling like a failure.

The saddest news here is that these people often have the most amazing gifts of healing to offer the world, but their fears of being seen, judged or fear of success (not failure, we can all do that well but the thought of actually succeeding is new to many) and it stops them from achieving their dreams.

I am SO serious about people getting the right information at the start that I've filled this free report with the exact information that has kept me in the game.  When I started I didn't have a system and I wasn't appearing in the places I needed to appear.  I spent my first six months sitting at home developing brochures (which rarely bring large numbers of clients), developing logos (which is part of your brand and rarely brings clients in the early days) and I also spent a lot of time working on my website (needed but won't bring a bunch of clients hammering on your door the day it goes live).

I was gutted every time I spend months working my heart out only to find it didn't bring any results!  I just didn't know the RIGHT things to do in the early days!

Little did I know the three activities I was focusing on were the three worst things I could have done.  You can imagine how stunned I was when someone told me you could still get clients without the three things (logo, brochure and website) that I had spent most of my time, energy AND MONEY developing …. but sadly bought me NO clients.

So the NO GO to GET GO Fast Track Guide has ALL the information you need to understand before you go out into the world of small business.  What it's not is a where to put your brochures type of document - this one gives you - for free - the actual strategies that will work for you.  When you realise where you need to spend the MOST time in the early days, you will be much more productive in your early marketing attempts and when you understand which activities actually get you the clients - then you can just focus on them in the early days.

Don't be tricked by the simplicity of the material - once you are established you will understand the gold in this report - for now - just do what it says and watch your business change!

So - you've got nothing to lose - its free - its string free - no ra ra - simple concepts - in simple plain language - I urge you to read it cover to cover and then sign up for my 90 Day Challenge and then really get serious about growing that business that is currently living in your heart and soul!

Thursday 30 June 2011

What You Need In Place When A Big Online Opportunity Comes Calling

Many experts and online entrepreneurs dream of the day when someone with a big fan base or database mentions them or promotes them.

Few are ready for what might occur next.

This week a client released her first product and the night before it was released her WordPress site got hacked. When she phoned up the people at the help desk of the company who hosts her site she may have well of been speaking Swahili.

They a) couldn’t even see the problem and b) even if they could – they would have had no idea how to solve her now massive and stressful problem.

When big opportunities come our way – we must have good systems in place and be ready for the onslaught of visitors.

I have an even sadder tale to tell – I remember I had something going off one time = people were hitting my site AND purchasing AND my scummy hosting provider automatically shut my site down because my plan ran out of bandwidth. It ran out because abnormal numbers were hitting the site.

At the time I didn’t even know what bandwidth was, but I suddenly became very aware of the consequences of not having enough because people stopped buying!

When you consider that you pay for a service that allows people to hit our sites, you might expect that they might give you some time to sort the problem out before shutting you down.  Most will send an automated reminder to tell you that you are nearing your limit and if you are getting loads of visitors, that little extra you had up your sleeve is gone in 5 minutes due to high visitor numbers and BANG they shut you down!

So to make the most of the dream of hundreds of people visiting you and your website – this is the minimum you need in place to ensure you don’t get shut down or that your system doesn’t fold under pressure.

Back up – Back UP – BACK UP!

A hacked or attacked website usually means one thing – a complete reload from a clean source to ensure everything has been removed. If you don’t have a backup of your current website files (yes including that small change you made yesterday that took hours to complete) then you may need to re-write the whole site! OUCH!

I have all my files on my GoDaddy* server, on the hard drives of my TWO Macs and then use Dropbox to store all my hard drive files using cloud technology. Total overkill *yes* but it means I can access my files anywhere in the world that has the Internet if I need to reload my site.

Extreme perhaps – but you will thank me the morning your site gets hacked and now looks like a porn site and you are due on stage in 30 minutes to sell a big event and your website is the point of entry for the hundreds of people in the room.

Pay for unlimited bandwidth

I still don’t know what bandwidth is, but I don’t have to care because I’ve got the problem covered - again GoDaddy* sorted that for me. All you need to know about bandwidth is that you need a lot of it if you do get a rush on your site so it won’t fold.

My best advise is to pay the price for an unlimited service and never worry about it again!

Get reliable hosting

Use a company to host your website that is available 24/7 AND their staff are experienced.

I have the GoDaddy* unlimited bandwidth and website package. They promise to fix your problem on the first call and have 24/7 support staff who have always fixed my challenges in one phone call.  There are many other great suppliers you can use – and these days the cost is very low – it truly is a case of invest before you need it.

Who ever you use, make fine sure they are set up to handle big volume traffic – and be aware most hosting companies are set up to take the traffic like you might expect the local hardware store to generate. Ensure all your suppliers can take a worldwide online product or event release.

Its also good policy to have some of your eggs in one basket.  Most tech companies will start blaming each other when you have multiple suppliers.  There are pros and cons from having one supplier host everything - but when there are problems it is nice to know a) they see how everything is functioning together and b) they can't blame third parties and c) you won't end up the one with a massive problem and no idea how to solve it.

Capture those hot leads!

Have a way to capture visitors to your site by way of a free product or offering that collects their email address so you can stay in touch once the hoop-la dies down.

These days just offering a newsletter isn’t enough – you need something unique and appealing to your target audience and you need to be able to follow up. People don’t start to purchase until they have had at least 7 “touches” from you. If you haven’t friended them or collected their email address you can’t touch them again – the magic is in the follow up.

Stay tuned

Be around to respond quickly to queries or problems that come up – just before an event or product release is not the time to take that vacation or go sit on a mountainside to chant.

Use companies who already have big name clients and are used to high volumes.

You MUST HAVE a good customer relationship management system (CRM)

OK so you’ve got it all down to date – you have a robust website that will take whatever is thrown at it – you have a free product and the visitors are sucking it up like ice cream on a hot day and BANG! Your CRM tells you that you have reached your capacity and it has stopped letting visitors sign for your free program.

When this happens anyone who comes to your site will visit and go and you have no way to stay in touch with them in the future – in fact you won’t even know who came by!

Mail Chimp is an excellent free service that allows you to store up to 2,000 people for free. Those numbers make most people think its "enough", but when you consider at any given time there are millions of people on Facebook and there could be millions watching an ad roll past and decide to click on it, then 2,000 people simply isn’t enough.

You are going to fold pretty quickly if your system won’t allow those people to give you their email details so you can stay in touch with them in the future.

I have a system called Infusionsoft and a package that starts to tremble at 500,000 people – no that’s not a typo that’s half a million people securely stored before it even starts to get antsy.

There are many other great CRM systems out there but always be certain you can talk to someone who can answer your questions very quickly. Always check their customer service hours and rates before you sign up.  Some now charge you big bucks if you want to speak with them – they have you over a barrel if something does go wrong and this then becomes an expensive mistake on every level.

Don’t just sit idol

Be promoting the event yourself, just don’t sit back and leave it to the promoter – help the promoter promote you by promoting them! It’s a win for everyone if you do.

Ensure you are wired to stay in touch

Link up your Facebook, twitter, newsletters, blogs etc to your website (tell me you have those!) – we want to create as many opportunities for new people to interact with you as is humanly possible.

Are You Mobile Friendly?

High numbers of people now view your website via mobile phone devices or iPads - make sure they can see you and not just a jumble of rubbish that they will click out of fast.

You have 10 seconds or less to impress

Stats show you have around 10 seconds to interest and hold the attention of a new web site visitor. Ensure your site is ready to serve immediately – that your core message is communicated within the first 10 seconds - hello and welcome – is not a good opening – they need to understand immediately what’s in it for them to stay.

If you fail to captivate and capture that 10 second opportunity you can be assured it will be a lost opportunity unless you can figure out how to get them back.  Think about it, why would someone return to anything that failed to appeal the first time - this really is the time to get it right the first time.

Form meaningful relationships

Then once all these wonderful opportunities are harnessed – you need a way to go back and form meaningful relationships with your new Facebook friends, Twitter followers or newsletter subscribers - or by whatever means you have captured them. Again if you want to keep these new people in your circle of light for the next few years, you are going to have to start reminding them who you are and how you can serve them …. without scaring them away with hard sell tactics.

If you've built it - they can come!  

Great opportunities need to be taken seriously and you need to take yourself seriously.

If you want to be seen as an expert and present yourself to the world as someone worth working further with, you need to be ready, have invested in systems that not only work but will take the load.

Now is not the time to rely on free services that are patched together with band aids.  If you want people to take you seriously, you need to take your  IT seriously and learn what you need to do to be successful out in the big wide world of the internet.

All too much??

Best book a complimentary session with me if this overwhelms you but you know you need to get this right.  Not being ready for opportunites can cost you in SO many ways.  It may be the one time in your whole career where you have the world come to your doorstep. You need to be ready to offer a big slice of home made cake and a big soft comfy sofa to sit your guests on.

Most fail to offer their internet friends and visitors even the most basic of hospitality and wonder why they don't stick around for a chat.

Show em you care, form meaningful relationships and give extreme value and they will stick around for a very long time ….. and isn’t that what we are about – being of service to others for a very long time?

*GoDaddy’s CEO has taken a lot of flack from PETA over the elephant shooting incident. I don’t condone the shooting of anything, but sometimes things get so far out of whack I can at least see why it is necessary to protect villager and their food supplies. You can read his response on his blog and discern if his product is right for you. As for the racy ads – well those women have choice and they are being well paid for the sponsorship and why should the guys always get these highly paid sponsorship deals – again discern if this is right for you.

Does Remembering Passwords Drive You NUTS!!

Are you sick and tired of trying to remember passwords?

Now with security such an important issue on the internet, it is important to keep your data safe …. but how on earth do you remember all those passwords - particularly now when such a lot of suppliers are asking for mandatory and complex passwords that contain capital letters, numbers and sometimes even characters that were only ever used to represent swear words :-)

The solution I use is called PassPack

It's a free password manager.  It works equally well for business or private use.  I know there are many more options but this one is currently working well for me.

It is a relatively simple to use tool that allows you to organise your passwords in a simple, yet secure environment.

It Lets You Decide Who You Share With

What I most love is that the free version allows me to share whatever passwords I select with my virtual assistant.  So if I change a password for instance, I only have to update it in one place and next time Melissa needs to log in to set up a newsletter or update a blog post - then its really easy for her to find the password and go to work.  Its not so easy for me to remember to update all the passwords I change :-) but user error will always plague any system!

Its As Safe As I Need

You can read about the security measures Passpack use to protect your data here then decide if its right for you.  It sure beats those little notepads so securely stored in an unlocked top draw!

I am a great believer in putting the right systems in place and then believing I am safe.

Even at The Cute House I have a full back to base security system and if it goes off the burly security guards from Central Highlands Security swing by and figure out what set the alarm off.  I've never had any trouble in a town where petty theft is rife.  Is that luck or is that the crims simply move to an easier target?  I had to smile - there was a piece in the paper about a string of cars being broken into in a certain street.  At the end of the article it did mention the cars who had items removed also co-incidently were the ones that weren't locked!   I still can't believe people need to be reminded not to write the pin on their ATM card - DUH! 

But in a world where the cat won't meow unless you enter an 8 digit secure password, it sure becomes stressful trying to remember them all.

Gone are the days when you could use one password for everything - not only does that sort of lapse security leave you wide open for unwanted visitors into your electronic world, that strategy falls short when you are asked to add capital letters and numbers.  

You type it in believing you will never forget, but just try to recall it under time pressure!


It's just not safe anymore to have your dogs name, kids birthdays or maiden name.  Even a really thick crim could go to your facebook page and easily find that sort of information in a flash.  But sadly even the crims in the striped t-shirt and black eye masks are a thing of the past.  You are most likely to be hacked, packed and sacked by a spotty faced kid in a darkened room or a machine these days.  Both are REALLY smart and in the flash of an eye can read your facebook page and go party with your credit card.

In business we really need to get serious about the security of our data and one way is to use a system like PassPack.  

As always discern which system is right for you

Passpack works for me because it lets me log in automatically - safely share with others and I'm able to access it anywhere with an internet connection, plus it does heaps more cool stuff.  There are also a lot of my peers who use and recommend this system, which always gives me a sense of added safety.  I do need Oli to come around and install some of the more advanced features for me - but even at its basic level - it makes my life a lot easier. 

You can take the tour here

Full disclosure:  I get no affiliate payments or rewards from this company - at the time of writing I recommend it because its the solution I use and find helpful

Sunday 26 June 2011

A New Way To Voice Your Business

Technology can be a great friend to us in business.  This blog post was written or rather spoken into speech recognition technology and then edited.

As this technology becomes easier to use it makes posting a blog a really simple exercise.

All you need to do is simply talk what you want to say and the technology transcribes that into text for you.

I downloaded a free Dragon Dictation app to my iPad - pressed the red button and the inbuilt microphone picked up my voice and the software converted it (mostly OK) to text within seconds.

I just spoke into my iPad and then e-mailed the document to my main computer for editing - how cool is that!

You can edit in the app screen but I think its always a little easier to do it on the big screen.

What I find though with my funny Kiwi accent is that it can sometimes get the words horrifically wrong but I figure I was going to be typing it anyway and that can be fraught with error!  Plus I always find it easier to edit text that has been written for me, rather than writing it from scratch and then editing it.  After I email the text to myself, its simply just a matter of going in and editing something that is already 90% written.

I could see how technology like this could really help you if you are a two fingered typist.  It would help you do things a lot quicker and also be able to get the message out faster and in your unique voice. 

I think it's brilliant and as time goes on the technology will get better and I'll learn the words it has trouble with and adjust the way I speak.  With each step forward it will mean less time at the screen, less time at the desk and more time having fun at what we love to do, which is helping people.

You can also use the technology to do posts to Facebook.  That's really easy - press the red button - state what's on your mind - edit from the iPad and press the share button.  You would of course need to be connected to the internet to have it post, but the software runs on mobile phones as well.

I daresay there's lots of ways you can use this software and I'd have to say wow - pretty cool - pretty fun!

The only downside is that it just records in short bursts and so you have to record little bite sized chunks and send them through.  I'm sure there's a paid version somewhere that will allow me to make longer recordings, but until it totally frustrates me, I'm happy working one paragraph at a time!

Monday 20 June 2011

Are you the irritating or cool kid on the facebook block?

This cracked me up today when I received it from Tina Forsyth in Canada. She is promoting social media training and one of her people wrote this to her:
"This [video #1] really resonated with me I am in that social media car right now. I thought my GPS was programmed then disaster struck. Those storms we've all been having knocked the satellite out of orbit and my GPS has crashed. I started off following people I tried engaging with them but its like I'm that irritating kid all the other kids hide from. Tina and Lena, I really need to be one of the cool kids and master my social media online - will you both help me?"
There were long periods of advanced "uncoolness" for me when I was a child and this funny but very true observation really resonated with me.

As a quiet observer of social media I've seen a lot of "suckiness" - "trying to push into the cool gang" - "try hards" and "skites" - the latter we were never allowed to attempt as kids - over tooting your own horn was seriously frowned upon.  As I've grown up, I've come to realise a bit of shameless self promoting is definitely ok when you really have something to celebrate..... but everyday - pleeeazzee!

Social media to me seems to imitate life - the internet in general is amazing in the way it does this.

Yesterday a friend was sharing the massive cull she had in her 5,000+ facebook list stating she couldn't be meaningful with that many people. I'd confess I don't know this person well but she sure went up many notches in my eyes with that one simple post.

As I sit looking in, I see yet again how being in your truth shines through and how having the guts to cull your list when everyone seems to be racing around friending everyone in sight and liking for the sake it, is the flavour of the day.  Their shallowness shows in these activities as much as they would if you ran around a cafe shoving business cards in the face of total strangers.

I've had a few of those float through my life over the years in many different guises.

When I was playing in bands you used to get it a lot - people loved to hang with you just because you were the band.  They never got to know you or figure out who you really were, they just wanted some of whatever they thought you had, to rub off on them.

At one point there were so many people in the band corner where we used to sit between sets, that the band couldn't even get in!  Curious because they were the worst seats in the house and you couldn't actually see the band properly from that corner anyway.  The actual band members eventually had to sit in the kitchen because there was no room for us.  The band corner was still pumping though, but they hadn't noticed to actually BE with the band you would need to move to the kitchen, but they could go to work the next week and tell all their mates they were in the corner "with the band".  Such is rock and roll!

But the people who truly were "with the band", were the ones who helped us pack up two ton of equipment at midnight and load it into the van in the rain, or consoled us when we bombed - those people's names I remember years on.  In fact I can remember every line on their face, every challenge they encountered and every tear they shed, because they just weren't there in the good times, we had a two way relationship and we were there for each other for the long haul.

It may take a little longer but being yourself, building meaningful relationships and speaking your truth, not just what you think everyone wants to hear will bring much longer term results.  I'm starting to observe a lot of people culling their lists - not just facebook but all lists.

Infusionsoft my new CRM system recommends culling your list every six months.  That was a very hurty place for me considering how hard I worked to build it.  But I figure they know more than me, so I've been putting pressure on my list to see who remains standing.

Remember that old saying from the 60's - it always had an accompanying butterfly picture :-)

If you love something
Set it free ........
if it comes back its yours
if not it was never meant to be


In a three month period I have lost a few, certainly not as many as I expected which is lovely but curiously the ones who left had never actually transacted anything major with me.  My new CRM system tells me a lot about people and guess what - most of the people who flew the coup were all the ones who had floated in, picked up the free stuff and left when the pressure went on.  So very rock and roll!

The other few were people who came on early in my ramblings and my message has changed and no longer serves them because they aren't therapists.  The rest have stayed put, I guess because the message is still meaningful or I've done things in the past that allow me some slack.

I've come to the conclusion, whether its business, life or facebook - shallow relationships don't always create long term gain.  It seems to me there will always be a place for smaller groups of loyal people, and from my experience, they are the coolest kids on the block!

Monday 13 June 2011

Teleclasses Add Value on SO Many Levels

What are Teleclasses?  Quite simply - learning on the phone!

These days the technology is simple to use and generally free of charge, so starting out is very easy.  It's like anything - the more you do them, the better you get at them.  So I just encourage people to start somewhere and then figure out the finer details once they are confident in delivering their messages over the phone.

Teleclasses have been around for ages but they are still not widely used by therapists and I really want to change that, simply because teleclasses are such an easy way to get your message to many more people.

The benefits of teleclasses are wide and varied but here are Top Ten I love the best:

1.  Amazingly cheap (no room hire or travel costs)


2.  Convenience (you don’t need to leave home)


3.  100% efficient use of your time (no need to factor in traffic or public transport)


4.  Location friendly (you can do them from home or the office or the beach!)


5.  You can work with a greater audience because it is not location specific - you just need a phone or broadband.


6.  Classes are recorded so your participants can listen again until they fully grasp the concepts


7.  You can sell the recordings on your website or create CD’s and create passive revenue streams


8.  You only need a landline telephone


9.  No fuss  - you can do the class in your pyjamas if you like


10. Its fun and easy!
dog with headset doing teleclasses
Anyone can do it - well almost anyone!

If you want to know more about teleclasses you can go here 


I run regular classes so you may wish to jump on board and learn how and then start to find the benefits of running your own teleclasses for your community.  Click here for details of the next class

Saturday 11 June 2011

Reversing Your Discount Theory

Most people approach discounts as a way to fill distressed space.  But the masters of discounting take a completely reversed approach to the way they price their products and services.

I remember working in a hotel and they got a new marketing manager who promptly went down to the front desk and stopped the receptionists selling unbooked rooms on the night at a cheap price.  Her logic was - people who haven't booked in advance - they don't have a room booked - they are in pain because all they want is a room - now is the time they will pull out their credit card and pay top dollar because they don't want to phone up or walk to the next hotel to see what is on offer.

Now yes, some people will shop around, but generally if someone is in pain and they want their pain fixed there and then - they will pay whatever it takes to get a result.

I learned a lot about marketing in my other life as a hotel financial controller, because this type of logic showed up directly in the profit line of the hotel's books. 

The airlines and hotels are the masters of  discounting - watch what they do and try to mimic them with the way they sell.  They all discount well in advance - not last minute.

Discounting at the time of consumption is K-Mart territory.

Charging full price at the time of consumption is the domain of hotels and airlines.

As therapists we want to be like the latter not the former.

Its not widely known outside the industry but Hotels and Airlines start to discount a room or seat around 18 months out at events like ATO (Australian Tourism Exchange).  All the tourism brokers from around the world come in and bid on blocks of rooms.  They get the rooms at rock bottom prices but only have access to those rates for a negotiated period of time.  Anything not sold by then, well the hotels take those rooms back and up goes the price.

That's why the tourism industry can do those knock down deals that encourage you to book and buy early.

Then once the hotel knows how many rooms they have left from that discounting exercise, they will put the price up and start either trying to advertise the rooms themselves or they will try to sell them off to other buyers.

All the while the prices go up.

Then closer to the consumption date (the day the room gets used) they offer what's left out on discount sites like Wotif.

Then have you noticed how hard it is to get a deal close to the day of consumption.

If you walk up to an airline counter and want to fly NOW - the price of that ticket will be astronomical, because they know you need to fly that day and that you have few choices at that time .... so they hang out to sell that ticket at a high price.  It also messes with their admin if they have to change the loading of the plane, so guess who pays for the cost of that admin - yep you guessed right - the late booker.

This is the model therapists could consider adopting.  Fill early at discount and fill last minute at a high price.

This is why packages work so well - people buy their session up front and you can then manage any space left over spaces weeks out.

But those packages need to be discounted off what hotels call your "rack rate".  "Rack" is rarely charged to anyone, except if they are trying to book on the day of consumption.  "Rack" is rarely charged but it is always there.

Your price funnel needs to reflect that "rack rate system".

So your top end price will be really high - no one really expects to pay it, but there is always a chance someone will be desperate enough to pay it.  Then your package rates are what you DO expect people to pay.  Then you have another rate, which is the discounted rate, which only gets given out if you haven't sold the top two rates.  That would be what's called "back filling" - dates and times you always struggle to fill.

Wotif is a great example of last minute discounts - I LOVE Wotif but I also know if I want a specific hotel and room type on a specific date - then I better book up front with the hotel and pay the price.

Build on Expertise NOT on Price


The aim of any therapist should be to be building as fast as they can toward being seen as the "go to person" for their particular area.

If people perceive you are head and shoulders above your competition and you are seen by them to be "the best", they will pay more and expect to wait to see you.

It's a delicate balance in the early days between filling those empty diary spaces by opimising your cash flow AND building a high end practice.  But when you start discounting too much, people start to see you like K-Mart - cheap, hi availability and open all hours.  Won't take you long to figure out that will wear you out personally.  
The ideal is hi end, hi demand, hi attendence in the limited spaces your treatment room is open.  That way you are in optimum health and giving 120% to your clients and are not worn out trying to make a dollar seeing heaps of people each week.

In order to push prices higher further down the track, you can't be out discounting every week - and if you do, you need a reason to discount - one airline has Friday Fare Frenzy and its is totally random.  You will notice they RARELY discount their hi end business class seats in these types of offers, they are "back filling" cattle class and keeping the hi end part of their business in tact.

I'd recomend you create a "cattle class" type of treatment for the discounted spots - I say that with love of course, I'm not encouraging you to treat your people like airlines treat their customers - but do have a clear definition between a full fare treatment and a discounted treatment.  That way when your diary is full, you simply pull the discounted treatment off the menu and all those full fare high paying, high tipping, fabulous "A" type clients don't even notice anything has changed.

"C" type clients will always just find someone else - "A" type clients stay loyal and will often book the same spot each week or month and are happy to pay for the privilege of having the same regular time slot.

I want you to have a highly abundant practice full of clients who know and love you and are willing and able to pay your fees, treat you with respect and keep coming back.

Tuesday 7 June 2011

Some Different Ways to Discount

There are many different ways to discount your services without cheapening your brand.

If you want to fill some empty spaces in your diary fast, a lot of therapists are posting what I would call "cheap and dirty" offer on discount websites.

In fact it seems to be all the rage right now.  This site is a broker for the discounters www.allthedeals.com.au and will give you a list of all the different sites that allow you to advertise.

Indeed it is just another great way to pull new people into your practice.  It's most certainly a spray and pray tactic in that you spray out the message to a vast number of people, praying that it hits your ideal client.  Spray and pray tactics give you little control.

Its also a PUSH tactic meaning you have to push into a crowd to get a result.  My system much prefers PULL tactics where you build relationships that pull people toward you.

A pull tactic is much easier because eventually it surrounds you with people who know and love you and they want to love you more.

Push tactics often solve short term problems and fill gaps in your diary, but they may not sustain the business well, because you haven't qualified the people yourself.

A pull tactic means just by being you, you have drawn people to you via your opinions and by your ability to show your expertise in a particular area.  This takes longer and so a pull strategy is a long term way to get clients, but it a sure fire way to ensure you end up with a practice full of clients who love everything about you.

The difference is subtle but a pull tactic requires a bit of time to build the relationship, but once people who have experienced you a few times are ready to work with you, they require very little conversion because they have already decided that they know and love you.

These people may have been sitting as prospects on your newsletter list or have been following your blog, or they met you at a speaking engagement and became a facebook friend.  In these instances you have given them a taste of what you are all about before they phone you and they feel as if they know you.  If you build any sort of relationship with a prospect, the chances of them booking something with you, goes up the more they relate with you.

So internet advertising (that isn't targeted) is a lot like a virtual letter box drop - you are marketing to total strangers who have no idea who you are.  The pluses are that it doesn't cost a lot to get to a heap of people, but your advert may not bring huge results because the people looking at your offers, won't know you and may not be the type of people who want and need your services.  But if you only want to sell a couple of spots each week in this discounted category, then its another way for you to get the message out.

However, you need to consider if you are cheapening your brand.  

You also need to remember your current clients, paying top dollar may find these sites and wonder why you are overcharging them.  So as always discern if a service like this is right for you.

Using the discounters will potentially bring a lot of tire kickers, people who consume the cheap massage and then never return - that is a big risk in these types of offer.  But if you have your rebooking patter down, and encourage them to book again before they leave after the first treatment - then you have a potential loyal customer in your midst.  It's the strength of your re-booking patter that will determine the long term value in advertising on discount websites.

I believe you have to be careful about discounts - you can end up sounding like K-Mart if you are constantly discounting, and people just end up wanting to pay less and less for your services.

I'd consider other ways you can discount, without just slashing prices.

Maybe consider a discount club, where your current people may pay say $20 a year or month to join - up to you to decide the fee.  But the joining fee would get them access to your "last minute club" for a year.  The difference being that the available spaces in the club spots may be a bit random and they don't get to have regular times with you.  That way you are only offering discounts to certain "last minute" types who like to book last minute.  This type of strategy allows you to fill what is known as "distressed space" - someone has cancelled an appointment or you just have a gap in the diary.  The other plus is that you get back some of the discount back via the membership fee.

You could also consider a "come on short notice" deal for specific types of people - small business owners like me who have control of their own schedule or hospitality workers who have the whole day to themselves or are finishing work at weird times.  These types of people could come in your downtimes.  All you have to do is email or text them with your downtime specials and they can jump in and grab them. 

Its about getting creative with your discounts and making sure you don't end up with a bargain basement style practice.

How to build your authority on-line

The fabulous Gihan Perera gave a wonderful list in his weekly newsletter today of the things you need to have in place to build your web presence.  Gihan has shared so much valuable information over the years and I can personally say, he is spot on with everything he recommends.

This an an excerpt from Gihan's article "How to build your authority on-line"
"Don't start with social media - that's the third step in the process.

The first step is to build a high-quality Web site, which identifies your ideal site visitor and their key problems, and leads them to the solutions you offer.

But that's just for starters. Many people won't find your Web site first - they will find you on-line in other places. So build up a body of work that demonstrates your expertise and authority. In particular:
  • Publish a high-quality e-mail newsletter every week or two weeks (or every month at worst).
  • Post regularly to your blog.
  • Write high-content articles that address your market's problems, and publish them on your Web site, blog and article directories.
  • Write a special report or "white paper" discussing the key problems of your target market.
  • Create short, high-quality educational video clips and publish them to YouTube.
  • Publish a regular podcast, which is an audio newsletter.
  • Create short, high-quality educational slide shows and publish them to Slideshare.com."

This is only a brief overview. If you'd like more details about this process, you can learn more from Gihan's generous gift of a chapter of his new book "Fast, Flat and Free: How the Internet Has Changed Your Business".  You can download a chapter for free here

Tuesday 31 May 2011

Getting Good Habits Right From The Start - Further Thought on Discounting

I'd recommend you don't discount to people who you have already "trained" to pay your normal fees.

Its going backwards when you do that - however I would encourage discounting to get people through the door to experience you.

Getting more clients is easy if you are meeting and introducing people to your practice in a meaningful way.

Each time people have the opportunity to meet and relate with you - the more chance you have of them becoming a client.

Its why in the early days my system recommends 2-4-1 sessions.  For a new therapist (and sometimes the not so new therapist) it is pretty scared to ask for business in the early days so offering 2-4-1 sessions gets you in the habit of re-booking a client.

How You See Yourself Is How The World Sees You


If you think cheap - the rest of your world will think cheap too.

What goes on in your head is the biggest key to your success.  If you get your thoughts right at a very early stage of your business growth, that is what will manifest for you in the future. 

Offering 2-4-1 sessions sets in your mind that people are going to come back to see you.  This may sound too simplistic but I have found, if you set good habits into the complex pathways of your brain in the early stages of anything - you create a good habit that never needs to be adjusted.

If you don't get in the habit of having people return to your practice time and time again - you are going to have an uphill battle filling that practice.

If you start constantly discounting in the early days you set the thought in your head that people will only come if the price is cheap enough. 

In fact, price has very little to do with why people will book a treatment - but if YOU think that's the reason why they come .... of course that WILL be the reason whey they come.

Saturday 28 May 2011

The Pro's and Con's of Discounting Treatments

I'm often asked if discounting treatments is a good way to build a practice.

Like everything involved in running a small business, there are pro's and con's to everything.

Lets start with the logic of discounting.

Before you rush out and send out a discount voucher to current clients (people you have already trained to pay your full price), maybe consider what you are building first.

I encourage people to get the foundations right in their business first, then build on top of it.

So if you are considering discounting, you need to go back to your Decide Dream Believe statements and look at what you were dreaming of creating in the first place.

Are You Samey or Are you Different?

You need to ask yourself how you are going to position yourself in the marketplace.

Do I want to build a K-Mart type operation or do I want to build something more boutique like and specialised.


So many therapists think that if the price is cheap enough, then people will book a treatment with them.  However, there is much more to why people book a treatment than the price.

If you want a K-Mart type solution, you are setting yourself up to work long hours and people will expect the cheapest prices from you.  They will also expect that discounted price as they consume the purchase - so they expect to walk in at all hours, get what they need and pay a cheap price for it.  Not exactly a great recipe for success in a small service based industry.

However, with a more boutique style operation, the owners encourage a more specialised and attentive service, you need to book early and you can expect to pay for that higher level of service.  Bed and Breakfast type operations are a good example of this.  They often have fewer rooms for sale, but you pay more for them and you get more personalised attention, like the owner greeting you and a personally cooked breakfast.  In a cheaper hotel chain situation, you will be presented with a bain marie full of eggs cooked hours ago and some crispy fat soaked bacon which was also usually cooked by the least qualified cook in the kitchen, because its the easiest meal to prepare on that mass level.

So your very first step in considering discounting for your practice is to consider - are you offering a fully personalised service that offers a lot of personalised attention and deserves to be well rewarded, or are you just happy to churn people through quickly at a lower rate.

On a "personalised and different" level, you need to see less people at a higher rate, and at the "samey" end of the business you need to see more people to meet your financial targets.

I find most people have never even considered the "Dream" aspect of their practice, so you might like to go to my Easy Solutions for YOUR Success website and download the Two Hours of Complimentary Audio and a Workbook on this topic.

If you don't have the basic foundations discussed in this workbook and a clear understanding of what you are trying to create in place, you will simply be chasing your tail trying to lure people in with K-Mart style offers each week.  Once you differentiate on price, you will be constantly competing to have the lowest price in your marketplace.  That gets tiring and expensive because it requires a massive advertising budget to keep the masses aware of your constantly downward spiralling prices.

You end up with an un-abundant practice, simply because people who buy at discount generally shop around and do not stay loyal.  If you go the K-Mart route, you will be constantly trying to rope new people in to cover the ones who are buzzing off to the person around the corner undercutting you by $5.

You will have figured I prefer the hi end, hi price, hi service end of the market, simply because that is the recipe for a fully abundant practice.

But its up to you how you go about setting up your practice, but please get the plan set out first, then go and decide how you discount your services.

Thursday 10 March 2011

No Need For Remote Areas To Miss Out On Natural Health


There are so many different ways we can connect with clients these days.
Many people shun technology and I often hear “I’m just not technical”, or “computers just don’t work for me”.  These limiting beliefs are often programmed in at a deep level but they really just come from a negative past experience.  Someone just told you, “you were useless at technology” or that you would “just never get it” and that limiting belief has served to stop any exploration of technology.
I have found with a patient teacher and the right knowledge, most people can master their fear of technology and once over the hump, often take it on in a big way.  Many make up for the lost time and really enjoy the experience, simply because it opens many doors.
I was interested to read this article on Springwise, showing how western medicine are using technology to serve remote areas.  


Allowing people who would normally have to travel thousands of miles to get seen and heard, to have a consult and access to information online, will make seeking professional advice a whole lot easier.


Most certainly it isn’t ideal, and yes, having someone drop in on them personally would be wonderful, but I’d like to bet that a large percentage of “non physical” issues can be helped through this medium.
So why not consider if there are parts of your business that could be done with a webcam.  Do your clients always have to travel to your office?  Could you save them and you some time in their day?
I’m not suggesting for one moment that personal interaction and human touch should be dispersed with.  But with time being the #1 thing people want more of these days, embracing technology not only allows people access to services they could not normally reach, it also saves time, energy and money when used well.

Friday 28 January 2011

Never teach in a live environment

I was teaching a group called Meek to Geek yesterday and I was using this blog as an example to show what was possible.


Throughout the course of the day, without giving a second thought to the knock on effect, I also used this blog as a demo to prove how easy it is to post to a blog and the sorts of tools available when you write a post.

Today I received the RSS feed for that demo blog post and was reminded of the golden rule
"never use a live environment as a demonstration tool ..... unless you have a very good memory!" 
I just forgot to go back and delete the demo post.

So apologies to anyone who got a very strange looking email from me, and as always I trust it has been a lesson in what not to do, from a lesson I've learnt live.

These days we have to be so very careful because in that momentary memory loss, I will have also sent that post to Twitter and Facebook.

These days so many people are connected to you in so many ways and its important, even when you are tired and weary to be on your guard ,,,, because once something is in the public domain, you can never retrieve it.

Tuesday 11 January 2011

If You Need to Talk

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From my experience of being in a community hurting because they are going through an experience of nature out of balance, something I found was that those who weren’t involved needed to talk - but everyone is busy helping those in the firing line.  
I'm in another state and have a tool to bring people together so I'm organising a virtual cup of tea.

I’m opening up my bridgeline at 8pm Melbourne Time tonight to anyone who would like to form community and join me to talk about how they are feeling, participate in a short mediation and simply be with people of like mind and just be in the spirit of trust for those we love.  
If you would like to join me (of course its free) then the details are below:

Title: Community Call
Time: Tuesday, January 11th at 8:00pm Melbourne Time
Time: Tuesday, January 11th at 7:00pm Queensland Time
Listening method: Phone + Web Simulcast
Phone number: (858) 703-4094
PIN Code: 759358# 
Skype number: joinconference 
PIN Code: 759358#
To attend, visit: