Reflections on Success

Wake Up to a New Way of Life

2011-03-03T09:04:00.000Z

It's been a full twelve months since my last post on this site. Much has happened in that time and it's a new and exciting period in my life. If you have enjoyed reading posts on Reflections then I invite you to check out Wake Up Be Inspired where much of my attention has been this last year.

We look forward to seeing you there.

With much gratitude and appreciation for your support.

Simon ;-)

Build relationships to grow your business

2010-02-22T06:52:00.002Z

I'm always delighted to introduce business people to others who may be able to help them do something different.

Often, as small business owners, we get so wrapped up in our own "stuff" that we miss the glaring opportunities right in front of us. These opportunities are more than just a simple sale for our product or service but can be strategic alliances or partnerships where the sum of the whole is far greater than the constituent parts.

An example of this followed a recent discussion I had with a theoretical competitor where I can offer a service that she wanted to bring to her clients. By teaming up she is able to promote my product and fill a room for us both to make money.

Had we not created this strategic partnership I would not have run the event, as I wouldn't have made the time to promote it, and she would not have had the opportunity to add my product to her portfolio. In fact she may have had to invest time and money in developing her own product and then build awareness and credibility for it.

In this case two "competitors" are able to promote a new product (for her) to a new market (for me) and everyone wins. She gets to expand her portfolio, I get to expand my client base, and the clients get a new service which adds value to them.

It's easy to get defensive and secretive about our clients, our developing products or services, and how well we are doing in business. It's even easier in fact to sit down with people offering similar products and services and explore the greater opportunity that exists through strategic partnerships.

Moreover, my experience shows by working with someone else, the likelihood is that we are able to deliver a service more quickly to the market place because the partners hold each other accountable and keep their promises to each other!

Look to your "competition" and see what you can find as the greater opportunity...

How not to sell

2009-06-13T13:56:00.002+01:00

I was cold called last week by a company who left a message saying "we want to talk to you about business coaching". My assumption was that this was a potential customer.

When I called back it was very apparent that I was speaking to someone in a call centre because of the level of noisy conversations in the background, not to mention the music from the radio!

Being curious, as I often am because of the opportunity to "research", I decided to let Heather do her stuff. She proceeded to ask me how business was doing and went on to ask how I got my business. I told her that I wasn't in fact looking for business coaching work right now as I was focusing on Speaking with Power, as well as BNI and my other business interests.

Undeterred she went on to tell me about her fantastic service that offered a website with guaranteed traffic and unlimited update capability. This got my interest knowing that one of the ways to help your site improve its search engine ranking is regular content updates.

I listened intently for about 35 minutes, asking all the right questions and getting lots of promises. Heather told me it would cost £399 plus 12 monthly payments of £60 before very crudely jumping straight in with "how would you like to pay - debit or credit card?"

I responded by reminding her that I had not yet decided to proceed and would she send me the information to confirm what she had told me. Flustered, she then wanted me to go to a website to look at the information. However, as I was in the car this was not going to work so we arranged to talk again the following day at 2pm.

Sophie called the next day, 20 minutes late. By this time I had researched the company and the numerous websites that had discussions and complaints about the service being offered. Oh, how I love the internet for easy access information!

Sophie told me that Heather was off sick today so she was calling on her behalf. She did not know how much I knew so asked if I had any questions.

I repeated that I wanted to see exactly what I was signing up for before making a commitment and after a rather protracted conversation I was able to establish that terms and conditions were in fact on their website. I printed them off and she went straight with how was I going to pay. Rather annoyingly for her, I suggested she call me back once I'd had a chance to read through the document.

I did indeed read the conditions and highlighted at least 20 points that raised questions for me. Needless to say Sophie became even more frustrated but tried to answer my queries anyway. The fact that she had to keep putting me on hold to ask her manager told me she really didn't know what she was selling and no real idea how the service was supposed to help me.

We finally got through all my questions and I admitted that I saw little point in continuing our discussion because "I didn't feel that she was providing the type of service I need". Sophie responded with obvious irritation and told me she thought she had answered all my questions and could not see why I didn't want buy.

After an exchange of views I suggested we go back to my first point:

"Heather had told me that I could have unlimited updates and these would be done by personal account manager and there was no charge for this. You [Sophie] have confirmed this is true, but the second paragraph states that updates are done free of charge for the first 30 days. This implies that you will not in fact update as Heather had told me. I want a service that if I needed to, could update every single day, by telephone, knowing it would be done. You can't or are unwilling to do this, so the service is not what I need."

Sophie then proceeded to tell me that I would never need such a service and it was ridiculous!

I thanked her and told Sophie that she clearly did not understand MY business and how I might want to develop it in the future via my website(s).

Still not listening she told me that their service would do exactly what I wanted and if I did want to update everyday, I could do it myself using their software.

Bored by now, I repeated myself yet again and finished the call, astounded that this company could be so inept.

If you're providing a product or service then it is important to recognise that a) some people won't need or want what you are offering, and b) if people give you feedback on the product or service that suggests you are not meeting their needs or wants, at least have the decency to listen to what they have to say and respect their opinion.

The customer is always right, even when they might be misguided. They want what they want or need what they need, and in any event they are the customer. If you think you can help them realise that what they think they need is not in fact what they actually need, and your product or service can truly help them, then give them the respect they deserve and educate them with care.

Back up or risk losing all

2009-05-12T16:51:00.002+01:00

Sometime ago a colleague in BNI gave the audience a useful fact in a 60 second presentation that he gave that really struck a chord with me.

He said research showed that 90% of small businesses that suffered a massive loss of data due to an IT system failure, go out of business within two years. A frightening thought that had me urgently schedule an appointment to further understand the risks and more importantly, implement a process that mitigated against the risks.

The irony is that the simplest and very cheap solutions are available and I was delighted to get something in place for less than the cost of a night out with the family.

This last weekend I was merrily working away when my laptop crashed. It turned out that the hard drive was completely dead and the data on it was lost. Imagine how I would have felt, not to mention the potential impact on business, had I lost 20+ years of research, training material, manuals, seminar audio programmes, video presentations, coaching notes, family pictures, music etc etc.

Thankfully I listened to my BNI colleague that day and apart from the few days of inconvenience without a laptop, we were up and running very quickly. In fact, I got to spend a little more time on the phone, much of which in the sunshine and peace and quiet of my garden. There's always an upside!

Increase sales - Help other people

2009-03-05T11:46:00.002Z

If you want to increase your sales then the first step is to stop selling.

Most sales people are so focused on getting the sale, meeting their targets, keeping the boss happy, achieving their key performance indicators (KPIs), getting the cash or simply "screwing" the prospect, they forget why they are really there. They are there to solve someone's problem; save them money or time, achieve their dreams, provide comfort or security, deliver exceptional service and so on.

So, the easiest way to do the deal is to remain clear on what it is people are looking for and help them get what they want or need. Stop selling and look for the ways to help. Sometimes of course, the prospect doesn't even know what their problem is so helping them gain clarity on that is essential.

Excellence in presentation skills will increase sales

2009-02-24T13:11:00.002Z

Listening to an educational programme today I was impressed by the excellent presentation skills of the teacher and his ability to engage the audience. He drew them into his story that had them making a purchase without a second thought.

This wasn't manipulative techniques or a crude sales pitch. It was simply a strategic process of building rapport with the audience and creating the space for them to make an informed buying decision that met all their needs.

The presenter used his great ability in telling a story to hold the state of the audience in a way that had them relate to it [the story] as if they were playing the starring role.

Why was it so enthralling?

1. He built rapport - The teacher engaged the audience from the start. He used his skills to have the audience listen attentively and with anticipation.

2. He managed their state - If you want the audience to get excited, you need to be excited yourself. If you want the audience to be inquisitive you must stir their imagination so that they are curious and eager to know more.

3. He told a story - By using a story, a tale that the audience could relate to, he drew them in. They were able to see themselves within the story and began to make internal connections that resulted in the natural next step of needing to buy.

People buy from those they know, like and trust.

When you create the space for this trust, from a position of the buyer, rather than a seller, the relationship becomes such that people actively seek out the purchasing opportunity knowing that you will be helping them "solve their problem" or "providing the solution". Buying becomes easy for them.

Speaking with power to create sales

2009-02-23T10:20:00.003Z

Everyone of us has to speak in public to "sell" something. It may be how you earn your living such as a business development role or sales representative, or that you have an idea, a suggestion or proposal that you want someone to "buy in to". It could be that you simply want your spouse, partner, child or friend to agree to something you would like them to do, but in any event you are selling a concept, an idea - you are looking for agreement.

Make Money Through Networking - Pt 2

2009-02-17T09:11:00.005Z

To make money through networking we've already said you have to get in the game. The next part becomes easier as you practice.

You can't learn to swim by reading a book about swimming, you have to get in the water. So practice is the key.

4. Listen carefully - Once you have started asking questions, it's equally important to listen to the answers. This might seem obvious but you would be surprised how many people have perfected the art of asking questions but have no clue about listening and therefore miss all the important information they might find useful later.

5. Look for ways to help - The worst thing you can do is to try selling to someone at a networking event, and this is the biggest mistake the novice makes. They start talking with someone who shows interest in them and they get so excited they think they have to do a deal there and then.

Instead, ask how you might help the person you have just met. Who do they want to meet or need to talk to? Ask what sorts of clients they are looking for right now and if you have the opportunity to introduce them, go for it.

People will always remember those who have helped them first. If you find you are in a position to help someone in business, with no other agenda, it will come back to you time and time again.

The most successful networkers who are making money through networking are those who ask questions, listen carefully and provide help to the people they meet, whenever they can.

Making money through networking - Pt 1

2009-02-13T10:05:00.006Z

There are two sides to every argument and the debate about networking, and its benefits, is no different.

It is said that your net worth is directly proportionate to the size of your network, or it's not what you know, it's who you know that is important.

Some people avoid networking because they feel it involves speaking in public and this terrifies them. Others see it as being time consuming and unproductive.

Networking though, is proven to help you make money and there is no doubt that it works, if you are prepared to work at it. There are some simple steps you can take that will help you make money through networking:

1. Just get in the game - dive in and attend something, anything, and get a feel for how it works. The biggest factor that stops people creating success in anything is fear, and fear is just False Expectations Appearing Real. It's your imagination telling you that something bad is going to happen and you can not possibly know that your imagined expectation is true.

2. Smile and introduce yourself - Just say hi. Shake hands and if you're not sure what to say start by asking if they attend many networking events. Sharing your experiences of networking, or your fears, is a great way to break the ice.

3. Ask questions - By asking questions you show the other person that you are genuinely interested in them. People want others to care so ask questions such as how they got into business, what sorts of clients do they work with, how do they help their customers, how many staff do they have, where are they located, and so on.

The key to successful networking and therefore making money in the process is simply to feel the fear and get in the game. Everyone starts at the beginning and the best way to get going is to take the first step.

Great Public Speaking

2009-02-09T10:27:00.002Z

Speaking in public can be the most traumatic experience for some people. It is said that many fear having to stand up in front of others to talk, more than they do death itself.

I haven't yet met someone who would prefer to die than present their ideas to someone else, either in a group situation or one-on-one however.

The biggest challenge people face is in fact the "story" they tell themselves about the possible outcome of their speech or presentation. It's the self-talk that causes the problems.

One of the easiest techniques you can adopt in these circumstances, to be great speaking in public, is to prepare yourself before you start. I'm not talking about preparing the material, although that is important of course, or rehearsing the delivery. No, what I'm saying is that it is essential to mentally prepare and get into the "state" of being able to deliver the material just how you would like it to be done in the best possible way.

All one needs to do is take a couple of minutes to breathe deeply, remember a time when you felt really confident, happy, excited and on top of your game - and get back into that experience as much as you can.

Breathe in the positive feelings of that memory, see what you saw back then, hear the sounds around you, notice the feelings within yourself and play back the things you said to yourself.

As you get back into the experience, breathe deeply and hold each breath as you make the colours and shapes of the memory sharper and more vivid, turn up the volume and the clarity of the sounds around you and expand the positive feelings inside.

Hold onto these sensations as you visualise your impending audience listening attentively, spellbound by what you have to say, inspired by your message and ready to take action as you conclude. Enjoy your imagination predicting a successful outcome to your talk and allow yourself to be excited by the possibilities unfolding now.

The first time you do this, spend some time on it and really enjoy the process. With a little practice over time, you will be able to recreate the experience in an instant and be great public speaking every time.

Enjoy!

Instant sales

2009-02-07T16:00:00.004Z

I was honoured to be invited to judge a Young Enterprise trade fair today in Belfast. Young people from local schools set up real businesses and then trade through the academic year. As well as attempting to make money as a business, the purpose of the initiative is to learn what it is like to run a business and experience all the challenges that go with it.

Of course one of the biggest challenges is to get sales and I was impressed by the enthusiasm and efforts the young people made to encourage the public to get involved in what they were selling. Some had dressed up in constume to attract attention, others were meeting and greeting people at the entrance to the shopping centre with a big smile and a catchy welcome. Others waited for the public to pass by their stands, attractively decorated with their products and sales message.

Many of the youngsters had the natural touch for engaging you in conversation and very obvious pride in their product. They had belief and knowledge that is often missing in the everyday business world. How often do we come across people selling their wares who appear to be just going through the motions and have no passion for what they do? This was not the case here.

The key to selling anything is to make a great first impression and demonstrate passion and knowledge around your subject. People need a reason to buy and these young entrepreneurs were providing that reason. My wife walked away with several purchases from some of the stands, with a very real intention to use the products which met her needs and solved a problem. This is essential in any sales conversaton.

The consumer only buys for two reasons: a) to solve a problem, or b) to provide a means of achieving a dream. The majority of the stands in the trade fair did exactly what they needed to do to create instant sales. They created a great first impression, delivered their message with passion, listened to their customers and provided a solution to their problem at a price that reflected value for money.

By delivering on all these fronts, they did not need to sell, they simply provided the customer with a compelling reason to buy. That's the only way to sell - do it from a buyer's perspective.

If you need to increase your sales by selling from a buyer's perspective - check out our next event.

Somewhere over the rainbow

2009-01-26T17:04:00.002Z

I always take the view that every cloud has a silver lining and that problems are just obstacles that need to be overcome. In fact without the obstacles how would we ever have the opportunity to learn and grow?

Some people say that taking this positive attitude all the time is not being realistic. I say we create our own reality and that if we focus on the worst case scenario, that's what we'll get. The teachers of "The Secret" - Jack Canfield, Bob Proctor, John Assaraf etc., all speak of this and if you are familiar with their stories, amongst many others, you will know this to be true.

By all means prepare for anticipated challenges, (it would be foolish not to), but don't get hung up on them and let them take over your existence.

Decide what you want, get clear on your outcome, and think through the potential barriers that may get in your way. Having done this you can create the action plans that ensure you move closer to achieving what you aim for. As you progress you may find unexpected obstacles come up anyway and by taking the view that you can get past or over them, you are more likely to come up with the solution(s).

I've had a few conversations recently with friends about the power of possibility and for me, whilst sometimes things can be a struggle and challenging, I always come back to the fact that anything really is possible if we believe it to be so.

Just yesterday I was listening to a success based audio programme (tip- listen to these often and notice how your attitude changes over time), and we were reminded that successful people focus on success and unsuccessful people focus on the things they don't have. It makes a lot of sense really. If we focus on what we want, the success we are looking for, whether it be health, wealth, great relationships, business success, finance or simply happiness, we will see the opportunities to create momentum towards that success. If, however, we focus on what we don't want, debt, stress, illness, bankruptcy, divorce etc, we are just reinforcing all those things in our lives and missing the clues on how to move forward.

So, I don't apologise for taking a positive, possibility oriented approach to life. If having a positive attitude, despite all our day-to-day challenges is being unrealistic, I'm not sorry. In fact, I highly recommend it!

There's a lot going on...

2009-01-22T05:22:00.005Z

We talked about it before Christmas. Everybody said it would happen. I fully expected it, and yet even I was astounded by the sheer force of it all...

What am I talking about? Well, its simply the enormous range and quantity of development material, trainings, programmes, teleconferences, success groups and seminars available to us right now.

Everyone and his dog is promoting something to "beat the recession" or "fight off the credit crunch" or "make your millions while everyone else is losing their shirt"...my inbox is full!

The simple fact is it was always going to be the case that people would need to, and indeed are now, marketing their wares more aggressively than ever before to make an impact and get noticed.

What is it about kids?

2008-12-21T11:33:00.003Z

I find it interesting how the roles between parents and children get reversed in time.

We went out last night to have dinner with friends. Everything was all arranged, with our daughter's friend coming over so that they could have a pizza delivered, a bottle of wine, and a girly night in with music and pampering. We would be happy knowing that they were ok and we could enjoy our night out.

As it was, we were pestered by text messages and voice mails wanting to find out what time we would be back, when were we leaving for home etc. When we didn't respond quickly enough because our mobile signals were intermittent we were chastised for not being available.

I certainly got a sense of deja vu, but backwards!

The Power of a Mastermind Group

2008-11-13T15:21:00.003Z

Napoleon Hill, in his book "Think and Grow Rich", discussed how important it is to create a support group known as a Mastermind Group, to hold you accountable for moving forward towards the achievement of your goals. As well as having your mastermind group keep you on track, perhaps more importantly, you are there to support your colleagues in fulfilling their own dreams and desires.

The group follows a structured agenda that ensures everyone gets and gives value to the collective whole; sharing insights, resources, challenges and successes. The whole process provides the members with an opportunity to brainstorm ideas and learn from each other.

I've been involved in several groups now and continue to get such tremendous inspiration from my fellow mastermind group members. Whether every thing in the garden is rosy or at those times when things are not going so well, every time we speak I am always inspired and motivated to move on after we've had our regular call or meeting.

I am also priviliged and honoured to be involved in Jack Canfield's "Platinum Inner Circle" mastermind group which is a collection of people from across the world with such a wide and diverse set of experiences that you cannot help but feel totally in awe of what is possible when the group gets together.

It is said that great minds think alike. The power of the mastermind group is that members are like minded in respect of their commitment to each other to create great things, yet their sometimes very very different experiences and knowledge brings so much added value to the table of the others.

As well as being involved as a member of my own mastermind groups, it is also a delight to be facilitating groups through our Step Up to Success coaching and mastermind programme. We see massive shifts in the results members experience as they enjoy the support and interaction of their respective groups, many being part of a mastermind group for the first time.

Napoleon Hill was spot on when he introduced the concept of mastermind groups in his book and it is certainly my intention to be part of a group for the foreseeable future. I wouldn't want to be without the support I get and I appreciate my friends in my groups so much for their unwavering commitment to me and the rest of the team. It also brings me so much personal joy and satisfaction to know that in some small way I can be part of something that literally can help to transform people's lives.

If you don't have your own mastermind group then you can form one yourself by simply inviting some like minded friends or business colleagues to get together. Alternatively, if you want to know more about our Step Up to Success coaching and mastermind programme then call us on +44 (0)28 9048 8673 or make an enquiry at www.simonsmithcoaching.com and we'll be happy to chat and find out more about how we can support you to achieve your own goals, dreams and desires.

Will you do whatever it takes?

2008-11-11T12:06:00.002Z

I was at a Dennis Lecorriere concert the weekend before last and for those of you who are too young to remember he was one of the lead singers with the band Dr. Hook who were one of the most successful worldwide acts in the 1970’s and early 80’s.

Whilst I have to admit I was not entirely inspired by the idea of going to the concert in the first place (it was a treat for my wife), I was very soon turned around once he began to perform. I say perform because he did just that. He built rapport with the audience by talking to them in a conversational style, sung a couple of tunes, talked some more, sung some more, and so on. It was as if we had known each other personally for years and he was simply engaging in discussion in a bar or someone’s living room.

It occurred to me that this genuinely pleasant individual was truly doing what he loved. He had been on tour for months and still has several gigs to deliver before, one assumes, returning home to the U.S. for Christmas. His son introduced him on stage and he had nothing more than a couple of guitars on stands, a table with two bottles of water and a few drapes on the stage. There was none of the cutting edge extravagance you might expect with a Robbie Williams or a Madonna or a Kylie Minogue stage show. Just one man, his music and a little conversation.

At one point, he got the audience involved in singing along with a chorus. First the men, then the women. Many did indeed play the game, and many did not. Lecorriere then made quite a profound statement that struck a chord with me, if you’ll pardon the pun. He said:
“There are those that will join in and they are fine. Then there are those who don’t join in because they just don’t want to, and that’s fine also. They have made a choice that they are comfortable with. The ones I worry about are those who want to join in but don’t!”

This reminded me of the saying “the way we do one thing is the way we do everything”. In other words, if you were one of those who really did want to join in but didn’t, where else in life do you hold back from doing what you truly want to do? What would not getting involved ultimately cost in terms of fulfilment, enjoyment, joy, satisfaction, growth, peace, success…?

Dennis Lecorriere is clearly doing what he loves when he is on stage and he seems to have a genuine desire to provide exceptional value to his audience. He wants to serve them and allow them the freedom to be themselves, as he does. He builds exceptional rapport with his audience without any apparent expectation of a return. He wants to give rather than take. He is a powerful salesman who builds a relationship with his audience and has them buying into the process without any suspicion or mistrust. He provides entertainment and in my case education. I suspect that had there been customer satisfaction forms at the door he would have achieved a resounding positive score. It was effortless because he wanted to add value and ensure that his fee paying public left feeling great about the experience and would come back for more some other time.

So, a couple of questions that you might like to consider, if you choose to, are:

“What would make adding value to the customer experience effortless?”

“How do I/we show up in the supplier/customer relationship?”

“Am I/we joining in or simply holding back from being truly fulfilled?”

Playing the blame game

2008-11-10T15:45:00.007Z

Its been an interesting week... I used to say this to my coach almost every time we spoke and it always made us smile because we knew that there was so much more to it than "interesting".

The ups and downs of business can be a worry for many and certainly many people I have spoken to in recent days are bullish on the face of it and at the very least cautious. Some are downright worried.

The US election has been entertaining regardless of which side of the fence you sit. The razzamatazz that surrounds this most important of events at some level seems to have undermined the more significant issues.

People are playing the blame game, not only at a personal level, but at a corporate and even national level. They are looking to Barack Obama to wave some sort of magic wand and correct the US economic problems and this in turn will solve the global crisis we are apparently having, or going to have, depending on who you listen to.

I'm not sure that one man has that much influence and even if he does, is it right that we look to him and hold him responsible for success or failure in the future?

What does it say about our society that we hold one person ultimately reponsible? Perhaps it's easier to look to the leader of the most powerful nation on earth to solve the current challenges than it is to take personal responsibility and do whatever it takes to move forward ourselves?

Whatever our own current challenges are, financial, business success, a boss we don't like or can't get on with, a spouse or partner relationship problem, children and their exams, the weather and dark nights closing in, etc. etc. it occurs to me that I would prefer to hold myself accountable than rely on someone or something else to wave a magic wand.

At least, by holding myself accountable and responsible for my own results, I can look myself squarely in the mirror and say "you are doing your best".

Selling from a Buyer's Perspective

2008-10-27T13:44:00.002Z

If you enter sales techniques into internet search engines you will create 8 million results, give or take a few.

On the first page you will see AIDA - get their attention, create interest and then desire and complete the process with a call to action.

Following this you will see such attractive titles as “successful sales presentations”, “using presentation technology”, “handling objections”, “negotiating a sale”, “dealing with sales nerves” and so on and so on.

What so much sales advice fails to consider is that the buyer is the one in control. The buyer is the one making the decisions. The buyer is the one who has stuff on his or her mind.

There is no such thing as selling, only buying!

People buy for just two reasons:

· To solve a problem they have, or

· To achieve a dream they desire

So when you are next considering putting together that super whizz presentation, or creating all those objection handling scenarios, or buying the flash suit and the designer shoes to wow your audience at the next sales meeting, consider this: what’s going on for them, the buyer? What do they need? How can you help them? Don’t sell, let them buy.

Selling from a Buyer’s Perspective is sales training with a difference. You will get into the mind of the buyer and talk to them from their perspective. It’s not about techniques and sales models and processes, it’s about understanding and empathy and communication. It’s not about ABC (always be closing), it’s about asking and listening. It’s not about AIDA, it’s about helping people make the buying decision that is right for them.

Will you increase sales by attending this training? Absolutely.
Will you be more confident when you are negotiating the deal? Certainly.
Will you find out what is really going on for the buyer? Definitely.

This training is designed and delivered by people who are purchasing professionals and experts in understanding how people communicate.

It is designed for people who want to increase sales and know there is a better way than trying to manipulate people through techniques that only work for the short term.

For further information or to book on the next open training visit www.simonsmithcoaching.com and take your sales process to a whole new level.

What would you do with more time?

2008-10-12T17:05:00.003+01:00

What would you do with more time?

We all dream of having more time. Some of us struggle with too many things to do. We're overwhelmed and working more hours than ever.

I keep hearing from people that their biggest frustration is time management, and being a lot less productive than they know they should be. It's not surprising - we've all got more to do, less time to do it in, and more distractions than ever. I know some of this rings true for you.

So I want to tell you about the upcoming Time Experts Telesummit which has been brought to my attention by my very dear friend and performance coach, Kris Carey. The event brings together 10 world-class experts on time management and productivity. They will teach you ways to work with less stress, eliminate distractions that steal your time, and double your productivity.

You can listen to all the teleseminars for free if you sign up by 14th October (which is when the Telesummit starts).

As you well know, I am very careful about who I recommend. This group of 10 bestselling authors and thought leaders is truly impressive. Their techniques and methods have been successfully practiced by thousands of people.

One of the experts, Dr. Neil Fiore, wrote the bestselling book on procrastination on Amazon. Another expert, Mike Song, is possibly the best known expert on email efficiency in the US. There is even a Zen master sharing his wisdom about time.

Just a few hours of learning from these experts will have a huge impact on your productivity - for the rest of your life. It only takes learning one key productivity technique or practice (and a few hours of listening) for you to have a major breakthrough on your biggest time management challenge.

The event is designed so that you can listen to each of the teleseminars on the phone or via the web. I've signed up for this event, and am looking forward to soaking up the knowledge of these experts.

I trust you will join me. Sign up here for the Time Experts Telesummit - Registration is free before 14th October.

Dance in the rain

2008-10-11T13:22:00.004+01:00

It's been a tough week out there. The financial markets and banking problems have been the centre of attention in all the media, and despite my own best efforts in not watching the news on TV, listening to it on the radio or reading the press, I have not been able to avoid it entirely.

A friend emailed me yesterday and described how they had been discussing with their grandmother how it's difficult to move forward in business right now, more using her as a sounding board than anything else, and her response had been really thought provoking: "Life is not about how to survive in the storm, it's about learning how to dance in the rain".

This comment reminded me how much we can learn from those around us who are at the two ends of the lifespan; children and the elderly. Children are so allowing of what happens in the world. They see only possibility and have a ferocious curiousity for discovering new things. The elderly have seen it and done it and know that there is so much more to enjoying life than the trappings we all seem to strive for in this day and age. They know that life is in fact much easier now than it has ever been and they often look back at "the good old days" with fond affection, even though times may have been tougher.

We take so much for granted in this modern world of gadgets and technology. We have luxuries, holidays, cars and homes that earlier generations could have only dreamed of, yet we believe we can't afford everything we want. When you watch a child splashing in the puddles on a rainy afternoon, do they have any idea that we are supposed to be having a tough time and can't afford all those things we say we need? No, they are simply enjoying the moment, learning how to dance in the rain.

I think my friend's grandmother got it right. If we stop trying to survive the storm and just take time to dance in the rain, we may in fact find that life isn't so bad really. We don't have to buy into the idea that times are tough. They just are what they are. We can choose to be miserable and blame the economy, the government and the banks, or we can choose to dance and play in the puddles. I know what I'm going to do!

I'm not participating!

2008-10-07T15:07:00.003+01:00

Dr. Ivan Misner, founder of BNI and member of Jack Canfield's "Transformational Leadership Council" encouraged his members last week in his newsletter to state "I'm not participating in a recession!" Quite right too!

We all have a choice about how we feel and I encourage people I work with to observe their own language and change it when they find themselves using negative language or having thoughts that are focused on what may go wrong. Some will criticise this approach and say that one needs to be realistic. So I ask you "what is realistic?"

If realism is allowing oneself to be negatively affected by circumstances outside of them, or by comments someone else makes, then give me the alternative every time.

In their book "The Amazing Power of Deliberate Intent" Esther and Jerry Hicks, or more accurately, the "collective consciousness" called Abraham, asks "why would you want to accept or "face a reality" that is not pleasing when you can create a reality that IS pleasing?"

My view is simply this: if you know that you do have a choice about how you feel, then wouldn't it serve you better to choose a feeling of empowerment and positive energy rather than allow yourself to be drawn into a place of negativity? So, by keeping an eye on the language we use, we can create the positive energy we would prefer, just by changing what we say and the thoughts we think.

So no, I am not participating in a recession and I invite you to make the same choice!

Collaborate for Growth

2008-08-20T14:08:00.004+01:00

Much is made of the power of networking and building your network. It is said that you are the sum of the five people you spend most time with.

If this is true, and I believe it is, then it makes sense to surround yourself with like minded people who add value to your life and you in turn add value to theirs.

If you think about it, have you ever found yourself being drained of energy by being in the company of someone who is constantly whining and moaning about how unfair life is, or how everything bad that is apparently happening to them is the fault of someone else?

When you are in this position, what do you do about it? Do you get drawn in and affirm what they are saying? Do you ask them to stop whinging because you don't want to be part of it? Do you walk away and remove yourself from the conversation or do you simply just put up with it and tell yourself that's just the way they are?

Being in business can be a lonely environment, particularly in the early days. Finding people who reflect how you think, who have similar values, who offer complementary services or products to yours, can be a great antedote to the dis-ease of getting involved in the "life's a downer" club. Furthermore, they can motivate and inspire you, support your projects and ideas, become an advocate of your work to others, or indeed form a partnership in which "two heads are better than one", creating a product or service far more powerful than each individual might have created on their own.

So next time you meet someone for the first time consider how you might be aligned and then ask yourself "is there an opportunity to form an alliance that is mutually supportive and potentially profitable, not only in terms of money but also in respect of motivation, inspiration and creation?".

When you do this you will often find that those you might have considered competitors previously, may in fact be your biggest allies.

When great minds come together the possibilities are endless!

Visualise your Success, be clear about it!

2008-08-13T16:47:00.002+01:00

All of the great teachers talk about visualising your success using a variety of different methods, tools and techniques.

Some talk about simply setting goals, on the basis that if you don’t know where you want to go, how can you possibly expect to get there?

We hear about SMART goals, that they are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and timebound. Others will invite you to feel how you would when the goal is achieved - sense the emotions; the buzz, excitement, confidence, laughter, celebration and so on. You might imagine the sounds around you, the people and the environment you are in.

We are told that what we resist persists, so focus on what you want, not what you don’t want, as what you focus on you create. It is said you can’t think about what you don’t want to think about, without thinking about it. So you shouldn’t think about not being in debt, you should think about being financially free. You should think about having a wonderful time seeing your relatives after you have landed, not the turbulent air and the storm outside the plane while you’re in the air.

Some teachers invite you to create vision boards or goals books, computer wallpaper backgrounds of your dream home or holiday destination, powerpoint slides and iPod photo albums. Others will have you visualising what you want, in meditation or just quiet reflection. Some will ask you to release on your attachment to a goal or a dream once you have decided it, others will have you list them and read them every day.

Many teachers will have you do a combination of all these things and a variety of others as well.

I’ve used all of these and many others at one time or another and what I am certain about is that you must be absolutely clear on what it is you do want. Where there is doubt or lack of clarity, there is lack of focus. Where there is lack of focus there is a lack of action. Where there is lack of action, there are “unexpected outcomes”.

We cannot predict exactly how our results pan out, but we can predict exactly what actions we will take in the anticipation of certain results. It is far easier to plan the action when we are clear about what we see as being the result. To have that clarity we must visualise our success and be clear about what it is that we want.

I was reminded of the need for clarity earlier this week when creating my goals for the following day. I visualised booking after booking coming through electronically for an event we are promoting just now (see below). We had just implemented the next stage of the marketing plan and I saw in my mind’s eye all these bookings popping up on the screen.

Imagine how great I felt first thing the next morning when I just watched the screen fill up with new booking after new booking. I knew that we had created a great plan, we had implemented it as we had expected and I had visualised the next day’s goals being achieved. What a feeling!

Unfortunately, I had missed a key ingredient in the process – visualising exactly what those bookings looked like. I hadn’t considered who the delegates might be, or where they had come from, how we could give them great value, what they needed from the seminar and so on.

So what was the actual result? ....my web design people TESTING a development we had asked for. Booking after booking saying test, test, test!!

My SUCCESS TIP this week therefore is just this:

VISUALISE YOUR SUCCESS, and BE CLEAR about what you want, otherwise don’t be surprised when you get an unexpected outcome!

If you want to know more about how leadership coaching and training can help you improve your results in business contact us here.

Prosper in an economic downturn

2008-08-13T16:32:00.002+01:00

There is so much talk about the economy right now, even to the extent that a friend of mine sang “Happy Birthday” to the “Credit Crunch” at a meeting last week!

It is said that everybody is unhappy about the current economic situation.

Well, not everybody…

We’ve teamed up with Martin Laschkolnig who helps people to double their income and double their time off at the same time.

And - he says that anyone can do it within the next two years! Now, how about that?

Martin is the European representative of Jack Canfield who you might know as the co-author of "Chicken Soup for the Soul" and who was featured in the mega success movie and book "The Secret". He also authored the bestselling book "The Success Principles" and Martin is teaching exactly these principles.

Check it out at: http://www.adayforsuccess.com/

Martin is coming to join me in Northern Ireland on 27th September and we will bring you the core of these principles. We’ve packed it up in a way that is engaging and experiential. You will learn right on the spot how you can apply these principles to your life right from the next day on - to create the success and balance that you really want.

And, if you were to increase your income and your time off by only 20 to 30 %, wouldn't that be worth it?

Go to http://www.adayforsuccess.com/ and see what Jack Canfield says about Martin.

Wishing you success!

Simon.

P.S. We are still offering an early bird rate until 15th August, so don't wait any longer and check it out at: http://www.adayforsuccess.com/

What do you stand for?

2008-07-29T08:55:00.003+01:00

I received an email this morning from my coach in Sydney and it literally stopped me in my tracks. It contained a story which I decided to share with you a little further below.

We talk about taking 100% responsibility for our lives. We say that the way we feel, the results we get, the responses we get from others around us, is all a choice. We discuss getting out of the blame game and creating the life we want and the goals we desire.

The story simply had me consider “what do I choose to stand for?” regardless of what I have achieved yet, or may want to achieve in the future, despite the successes I have created or the feedback I have used when outcomes have been “unexpected”.

Many people in business try and sell what they have to sell without consideration for what people actually need or want. Some businesses “go for the close” before asking their customers “what do you need?” or “how can I help you?” Occasionally businesses will force their product or service on someone and they may even buy, once.

Many businesses are so focused on their “competition” they forget to see how they can add value to their own customers. They are constantly looking for the opportunity to “beat the competition” rather than look to improve what they do for benefit of being better than they themselves are right now. Perhaps the only competition we have in business is ourselves?

But what do these businesses stand for? What do you stand for in your business, your life?

This story may help…Would you have made the same choice?

Two Choices

At a fundraising dinner for a school that serves children with learning disabilities, the father of one of the students delivered a speech that would never be forgotten by all who attended.

After extolling the school and its dedicated staff, he offered a question:'When not interfered with by outside influences, everything nature does is done with perfection.Yet my son, Shay, cannot learn things as other children do. He cannot understand things as other children do.Where is the natural order of things in my son?'

The audience was stilled by the query.

The father continued. 'I believe that when a child like Shay, who was mentally and physically disabled comes into the world, an opportunity to realize true human nature presents itself, and it comes in the way other people treat that child.'Then he told the following story:

Shay and I had walked past a park where some boys Shay knew were playing baseball. Shay asked, 'Do you think they'll let me play?'

I knew that most of the boys would not want someone like Shay on their team, but as a father I also understood that if my son were allowed to play, it would give him a much-needed sense of belonging and some confidence to be accepted by others in spite of his handicaps.

I approached one of the boys on the field and asked (not expecting much) if Shay could play. The boy looked around for guidance and said, 'We're losing by six runs and the game is in the eighth inning. I guess he can be on our team and we'll try to put him in to bat in the ninth inning.'

Shay struggled over to the team's bench and, with a broad smile, put on a team shirt. I watched with a small tear in my eye and warmth in my heart. The boys saw my joy at my son being accepted.

In the bottom of the eighth inning, Shay's team scored a few runs but was still behind by three.

In the top of the ninth inning, Shay put on a glove and played in the right field. Even though no hits came his way, he was obviously ecstatic just to be in the game and on the field, grinning from ear to ear as I waved to him from the stands.

In the bottom of the ninth inning, Shay's team scored again.

Now, with two outs and the bases loaded, the potential winning run was on base and Shay was scheduled to be next at bat.

At this juncture, do they let Shay bat and give away their chance to win the game?Surprisingly, Shay was given the bat. Everyone knew that a hit was all but impossible because Shay didn't even know how to hold the bat properly, much less connect with the ball.

However, as Shay stepped up to the plate, the pitcher, recognizing that the other team was putting winning aside for this moment in Shay's life, moved in a few steps to lob the ball in softly so Shay could at least make contact.

The first pitch came and Shay swung clumsily and missed. The pitcher again took a few steps forward to toss the ball softly towards Shay. As the pitch came in, Shay swung at the ball and hit a slow ground ball right back to the pitcher.

The game would now be over.

The pitcher picked up the soft grounder and could have easily thrown the ball to the first baseman.

Shay would have been out and that would have been the end of the game.

Instead, the pitcher threw the ball right over the first baseman's head, out of reach of all team mates. Everyone from the stands and both teams started yelling, 'Shay, run to first!Run to first!'

Never in his life had Shay ever run that far, but he made it to first base. He scampered down the baseline, wide-eyed and startled.

Everyone yelled, 'Run to second, run to second!'

Catching his breath, Shay awkwardly ran towards second, gleaming and struggling to make it to the base. By the time Shay rounded towards second base, the right fielder had the ball, the smallest guy on their team, who now had his first chance to be the hero for his team.He could have thrown the ball to the second-baseman for the tag, but he understood the pitcher's intentions so he, too, intentionally threw the ball high and far over the third-baseman's head.

Shay ran toward third base deliriously as the runners ahead of him circled the bases toward home. All were screaming, 'Shay, Shay, Shay, all the Way Shay'

Shay reached third base because the opposing shortstop ran to help him by turning him in the direction of third base, and shouted, 'Run to third!‘Shay, run to third!'

As Shay rounded third, the boys from both teams, and the spectators, were on their feet screaming, 'Shay, run home! Run home!'

Shay ran to home, stepped on the plate, and was cheered as the hero who hit the grand slam and won the game for his team.

'That day', said the father softly with tears now rolling down his face, 'the boys from both teams helped bring a piece of true love and humanity into this world'.

Shay didn't make it to another summer. He died that winter, having never forgotten being the hero and making me so happy, coming home and seeing his Mother tearfully embrace her little hero of the day!

And the foot note that came with this story:

We all send thousands of jokes through the e-mail without a second thought, but when it comes to sending messages about life choices, people hesitate. The crude, vulgar, and often obscene pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion about decency is too often suppressed in our schools and workplaces.

If you're thinking about forwarding this message, chances are that you're probably sorting out the people in your address book who aren't the 'appropriate' ones to receive this type of message Well, the person who sent you this believes that we all can make a difference.We all have thousands of opportunities every single day to help realize the 'natural order of things.'

So many seemingly trivial interactions between two people present us with a choice:Do we pass along a little spark of love and humanity or do we pass up those opportunities and leave the world a little bit colder in the process?

A wise man once said every society is judged by how it treats it's least fortunate amongst them.

You now have two choices: 1. Delete 2. Forward

May your day, be a Shay Day.

I receive many stories and video clips every day, many if which will invite the reader to forward it to other people. For me, my choice is to ignore that invitation as I, like you no doubt, don’t want to add to people’s inbox just for the sake of it.

Today however, I made a choice. This choice is based simply on the question I asked at the top of this article “what do I choose to stand for?”

Imagine a business world where people made choices like the baseball team in the story. Imagine a business world where everyone truly wanted to support each other to be successful rather than just “cut each other’s throats” for the sake of the quick sale. Imagine a business world that believed in “win/win” in the true spirit of the principle so well described by Stephen Covey in his book. Imagine your business if everyone you encountered tried to help you be successful and you in turn tried to help them.

Would you prefer to go to work each day knowing that everyone you meet wants to help and support you to win, or do you prefer the cut throat competitive world of mistrust and deviousness that results in win/lose or lose/win?

So ultimately, you really do have a choice and my success tip this week is simply this:

Ask yourself, “What do I choose to stand for?”

I trust you do indeed have a “Shay day” ;o)

If you want to know more about how leadership coaching and training can help you improve your results in business we will be happy to discuss this with you. Contact us here.

See what you want, get what you see

2008-07-22T15:43:00.002+01:00

It’s been a big week!...or more precisely ten days. I was at a leadership training event the weekend before last during which we studied some of the world’s most influential leaders, past and present; Martin Luther King Jr, Nelson Mandela and Mother Theresa. I was inspired by the vision of these people, a clear unrelenting energy towards what they wanted. They could see a different world; a world of equality and understanding; a world of peace and forgiveness; a world where people need not be poor or mistreated; a world where one person could really make a difference if they stayed true to their purpose.

Great leaders have a vision. Great leaders know what they want. Great leaders do whatever it takes to make their dreams a reality. They inspire people around them. They motivate and excite. They stand up for what they believe to be right. They take action and they engage people to do the same. King, Mandela and Mother Theresa did all of these things and they achieved so much.

We learnt to think big, as great leaders think. We learnt to get out of our own way, as great leaders do. We learnt that the only thing stopping us be, do, have or create the success we wanted was our own limited thinking, beliefs and boundaries we had created. We learnt that we had so much more to offer, if we chose to step up and be real.

Whilst reflecting on the learnings, and there were so many more than just these few, I was reminded of an “education slot” a friend of mine had delivered at a recent meeting I attended in which he had identified his 11 top tips for success in business.

Many of his tips relate to being a great leader in business and whilst we all may not wish to be so public in our demonstration of leadership as those world leaders we studied in Dublin, it is my belief that great businesses are run by great leaders.

So this week’s Success Tips, courtesy of Jeremy Cruiks (and my interpretation of his meaning), are:

Have clear objectives and a business plan – Get clear about where you want to be and plan how and what needs to happen to get you there

Employ the right staff – Create the right support team and resources around you and they will help you achieve what you want

Make it easy for the staff to do the right thing – Create systems, processes and provide training and development opportunities for everyone so that they feel valued, respected and have influence in the success

Do even the small things well – Attention to detail is vital, even the little things

Keep your promises – Be honest and act with integrity. The way you do one thing is the way you do everything.

Use experts when you need to – Empower others and relinquish control when appropriate. Outsource to those who are expert in their respective fields. 1+1 = 11; the team is greater than any individual.

Create a positive company culture – Get clear about why you exist, your purpose, vision, mission, and create standards that everyone lives up to.

Know your figures – Keep your finger on the financial pulse.

Turnover is ego, profit is king – Keep your keenest eye on the margins and profitability. Manage costs carefully and invest wisely in those things that can provide a measurable return on that investment, e.g. training and marketing.

Diversify – too specialised, too exposed – Be open to the possibilities and don’t get too emotionally attached to one product or service.

Remember cash flow – Keep on top of credit control and manage your accounts well.

So, successful businesses are created by great leaders. Great leaders are those that inspire others through their absolute determination so that they see what they want and get what they see!

Jeremy Cruiks is an Independent Financial Advisor and partner of Pensions, Mortgages and More. According to Jeremy and his team: “Independent financial advice means having an advisor acting for YOUR interests and one who can access products from the whole of the available market. Experience is also invaluable when dealing with mortgage lenders, insurance companies and investment companies. As IFAs we must give you the most suitable advice given your own set of circumstances”

If you want to know more about how leadership coaching and training can help you improve your results in business we will be happy to discuss this with you. Contact us here.

Getting yourself out of a rut

2008-07-22T15:40:00.002+01:00

I was asked a question through one of our recent AskSimonSmith.com free teleseminars “How do you get yourself out of a rut?”

Not an easy question to answer because of course it really does depend on the context of “the rut”. However, I came across the question again recently and it reminded me of a story told to me some years ago about a guy who had got himself so badly in debt that life literally didn’t seem worth living. It seems topical right now, given all the negative news we are exposed to almost every day, that the world is going into recession, fuel prices are higher than they have ever been, food costs are soaring, the credit crunch is biting, and life is becoming harder and harder.

This guy had a good job, a nice house, company car, regular holidays, spent time in the pub with his friends, had a supportive family around him, and yet still managed to spend more than he earned. His family wanted more material things around them and he wanted to be able to provide for them. His friends invited him to social events and he didn’t want to miss out. Credit card companies and banks offered him more and more money to provide him with what were essentially luxuries, and he took them up on their offers and continued to spend. Life was great so to speak.

Unfortunately, it became increasingly obvious that he was in fact living beyond his means and before long the payments were becoming a burden and there was no longer any spare money for the things that the family had become used to. He began to worry about how he could keep providing for himself and his family in the same way he had previously. The more he worried, the worse it got.

Eventually it got to the stage where he had no choice but to own up to the situation he found himself in, and talk to his family. He had been so wrapped up in the problem that he found himself considering suicide so that the insurance would settle everything and his family would get what they needed, or wanted at least. However, he realised that he simply had to own up to the reality of the situation and talk it through with those who were most important to him. The relief he felt was enormous and unsurprisingly, in hindsight anyway, his family remained absolutely supportive and helped him see that there were indeed options available to him.

Through talking to his family, he was able to see that there were alternatives and life could continue, albeit things would have to change. His attitude began to shift and he became more positive and resourceful. He calculated the reality of his financial situation and wrote letters to the credit card companies and the banks. He was honest with himself about what was possible and then was honest with his creditors. Some of them resisted at first but when they realised that they had a genuine offer on the table they relented and allowed him to make payments according to his plan. His family continued to support him because they realised they could help. The light at the end of the tunnel was dim, but it was definitely there.

It took time, it took patience, but in the end he got out of his rut and he and his family looked forward to a much more fulfilling and exciting life together. They had got through “the worst” and were moving on “for better” as they had vowed together some years before.

This guy’s “rut” was created because he had bottled everything up and had not been honest with himself or his family. He had, as they say, buried his head in the sand, in the hope that things would go away. In fact, his solution was closer to him than he had realised, and just by being honest and having a conversation he was able to see that options were actually available to him. Life became easier and a future of possibilities was discovered.

So this week’s Success Tips are:

Be honest with yourself and with others – by being honest opportunities become clearer and the “burden” is relieved.

Communicate with people around you – if it is simply too much of a stretch to talk to those close to you at first, talk to a friend, coach or mastermind buddy.

Get out of the problem – ask yourself “what is the problem not?”

And a bonus tip not drawn from the story told to me; remove negative media from your life. The current economic climate may not seem all that rosy but the media do nothing to help the situation. We have a choice about how we feel. Don’t allow others to influence the positive choices you can make for yourself. In simple terms, only allow positive influences and people in your life. Turn the TV and the radio off when the “news” comes on. Read positive material. Choose positive friends.

Some people will say that by removing all the negativity from our lives, we are simply hiding from reality. I maintain that the truth is just an interpretation of events or circumstances. My truth is that life can be as positive as we want to make it, we really do have a choice how we feel!

If you want to know more about how coaching and masterminding can help you improve your results in business and in life in general we will be happy to discuss this with you. Contact us here

A Day for Success - Are you ready to unlock the power within YOU?

2008-07-09T14:26:00.006+01:00

A message from my very good friend Martin Laschkolnig:

Hello,

I know that you have been thinking about how to get better results…we all do. So the question “did you ever think about how to improve things" would be an insult to your intelligence and your life experience, so I won’t ask.

But let me ask you one thing:

Do you think that it’s possible to double your income and your time off within two years or less?

Sounds too good to be true? Sounds impossible? Sounds like: “well perhaps, but not in my situation”?

What would life be like if it were true? What if we could show you a way to do just that – no matter what industry you are in or what your business or situation is like?

Well, I’m not babbling – I learned from the best and I am honoured to be his exclusive European partner: Jack Canfield – America’s Success Coach, as featured in The Secret, author of The Success Principles and co-author with Mark Victor Hansen of the book phenomenon Chicken Soup for the Soul with more than 120 million copies in print across the world.

I did not only learn from Jack, I also applied what I learnt and did exactly that last year…doubled my profit and my time off!

Check out on the next page what you could learn and join Simon and I on 26th September in Belfast – and you can do the same (well, only if you want to…)

To your Success – with my best wishes

Martin Laschkolnig

On 27th September you will discover how to:

- Identify what you really want

- Motivate yourself to not only get started but complete what you start, so you actually get the rewards you want

- Identify what is most important to you and live a life of passion

- Create success habits and integrate them into your life forever

- Stay focused on your “core genius” and use that to raise your game

- See what you want and get what you see

- Identify your unique purpose in life

- Handle setbacks and “failure” to your advantage and make you all the more powerful

Get practical strategies and techniques to:

- Stop settling for second best, saying “no” so that you can say “yes” to success

- Identify when you perform at your peak and how to manage your time for high performance results

- Eliminate limiting beliefs and decisions and silence your inner critic

- Build your confidence and stay resourceful in any situation

- Reduce stress, frustration and other negative emotions within minutes

Plus so much more…

Book now and join us on this special day and begin the life you always wanted to live!

Your investment:

Regular: Booked and paid for after 15th August £197.00

Early bird: Book and pay for before 15th August £147.00(save £50!)

Super Saver Offer:

Bring a partner or buddy: just £97.00 (save £100!)

Book now and save £50 off the normal price. Book a partner or friend at the same time and save a further £100!

Lunch and refreshments included.

Do your planning and development now and stay ahead of the competition

2008-06-04T06:00:00.002+01:00

It always interests me when I hear people in business say that it isn't possible to do anything during the summer because everyone is away on holiday. It seems that because we take a week or two for a break some time during July and August that the entire country comes to a stop!

Is this true? Well of course not. In fact, my experience is that typically most business owners I know work through the vast array of bank holidays we have to endure as they can get so much more completed on these days. Furthermore, they are at their office enjoying the peace and quiet in the belief that everyone else has taken the day off.

If we applied similar thinking during the entire summer what would our business look like? Just because our staff, customers and suppliers take a summer break does not mean that everything stops entirely for two months. In fact, this is exactly the time when we could, and should, complete our planning and development so that we hit the ground running in the autumn and get a head start on the competition.

This is the perfect time, it seems to me, to review the business and it's strategies, assess goals, certainly plan and possibly deliver training, look for the new opportunities and get everything in place for the busy period between September and Christmas.

The alternative is to sit back and wait and then do all these things in the autumn by which time you are so busy that you don't have time to review and plan. The result is then, in all likelihood, that it gets put off until after the new year and suddenly six months have passed and you are wondering why you are left behind from your competitors. Why would you do that?

So, take my tip - have your break in the summer, certainly, and then use the other six weeks to review where the business is right now, plan your strategies, develop new marketing methods, identify training needs (and if possible deliver what is required), and then start September with everything in place already. If you do this you will almost certainly be ahead of your competition and will be much better placed to optimise the opportunity when others are still trying to catch up.

Like any review process, it is wise to enrol support from those who will help you look at the business without your "rose tinted glasses". With this in mind now is the perfect time to talk to a business coach and explore how they can help you "get all your ducks in a row" over the next few months.

If you would like to speak to us about the support available to you right now that will help you put your plans in place and stay ahead of the competition, give us a call on +44 (0)28 9048 8673 or visit www.simonsmithcoaching.com and we'll arrange to have a conversation with no obligation to you.

Don't fall into the "we can't do anything in the summer" trap. Call us now and take the opportunity to see how you can make the most of your business when others around you are asleep.

Wishing you success!

Focus on your core skills - let others do what they are good at

2008-05-26T09:51:00.003+01:00

It can be hard when you start a business to get everything done. Not only is there the work that you started the business to do, your passion if you like, but there are also all the other things that need doing that keep a business efficient.

These are often the tasks that drain your energy and take you away from your core skills. Prospecting, accounts, banking, tax issues, marketing, sales, networking, insurance issues, payroll, staff issues, training and so on. Sometimes it can seem that there is not enough time to do what you went in to business to do, and yet all these things have to be done.

Advisors will tell you "outsource" and it seems logical. However this can be scary. After all it means investment in paying someone else to do the things that you could do yourself and save money. At the beginning it is even more of a dilemma.

How do you balance expense against your own productivity?

I struggled with this for a long time. I am perfectly capable of keeping reasonable accounts. I know what I want in terms of how my office is organised. I can theoretically turn my hand to writing script for website. I can put a sales letter together and no one can network for me so I have to do that myself.

Then I realised that I was spending 12-18 hours a week on my accounts. I was being diverted from getting new clients by posting articles on various websites around the world. I was creating spreadsheets to track coaching and training hours. I was developing new ways to market my business. I was doing everything I could do move my business forward, I told myself, but I wasn't getting enough time and I wasn't getting enough clients!

So when the light bulb came on with the accounts fiasco, I woke up and smelt the coffee. I got myself a book keeper. Suddenly I had "created" another two days to my week. She did what she did best which freed my time up to do what I did best. Then I engaged a marketing coach and she supported me with what she does best. After that I took on a new accountant and a financial advisor, a new bank, a success coach and got involved in a mastermind group. It wasn't long before I had a great support team around me and I was then able to do what I do best, coach, train and speak at events. The business literally went from zero active clients to the best ever month in 4 weeks and each subsequent month continued to grow.

I'm not saying it wasn't scary. The idea of investing more money after having already put everything into the business was terrifying frankly, but it did mean that I had created my very best chance for success because I had stacked the odds in my favour.

The best move of all though was taking on admin support. With two part time assistants I could now delegate all those essential yet time consuming tasks around the office. Keeping the database up to date, creating spreadsheets, prospect call lists, filing etc etc etc. This was the crunch. This enabled me to go from 1 "focus" day a week and 6 "buffer" days to 3-4 focus days and 1 or 2 buffer days AND get at least 1 totally free day and even 2!!

I then began to find that the more I delegated the more I got done...obvious really, but when your business is your baby you don't want to give it to a baby sitter!

It's a stretch to move into "outsourcing" but it is, without a doubt, one of the quickest and most satisfying decisions you can make. You get to focus on your skills, those things that you went into business for, and you allow others to do what they do best in support of you. Tu
You can employ people later but in the first instance just get your support team on your bus and watch the results improve.

A word of caution though...make sure you use the extra time you create to drive your business forward. Don't fall into the trap of outsourcing and then divorcing yourself from your primary responsibility of making your business work. That's an avenue that, if followed, will certainly lead to misery.

So my tips for success right now are:

1. Create a powerful and effective support team
2. Outsource anything that is not your core skill or passion
3. Delegate, delegate, delegate

And of course, hire a success coach! ;o)

To your success!

If you want to know more about how success coaching can help you transform your business visit is at www.simonsmithcoaching.com and submit an enquiry, or call us for an informal chat on +44 (0)28 9048 8673.

Your success is our business!

Use your Peak Performance time to optimise results

2008-05-09T05:22:00.002+01:00

Have you ever tried to finish, or even start, a project, proposal, important letter, or perhaps a presentation, and found yourself staring at a blank piece of paper or computer screen? That feeling of trying to push water uphill or swim against the tide...

It is at these times I am reminded how useful it is to a) identify, and b) use, those times of the day when we perform at our best - our Peak Performance hours. After all, who says that we must get the most out of ourselves between the standard "9 to 5"?

For me, I know that if I want to be creative or "think outside the box", the best times are 6 am to 12 noon and then again between 10 pm and 2 am after everyone at home has gone to bed. That's assuming that I've had the discipline to have had enough sleep and enough "breaks" as well.

At other times of the day I know that I need to have meetings or coaching sessions with other people so that someone else is providing some of the input and stimulating my "creativity". Identifying and then applying this knowledge helps me to ensure that when planning my time I am doing my utmost to get the most from myself and my day.

Is it always easy? Of course not. Things go a little awry at times when people need something from me that doesn't "fit" with my idea of the ideally laid out day, and these are the times when I usually find that something on my day planner "slips" off the page and ends up in another day. The facts remain the same nevertheless; if I keep to the system knowing that it works, I always get so much more from my time and myself.

Sometimes, we need reminding though and that's where the true power of a mastermind group, accountability partner or coach shows up. My support team are great at "stretching" me to get the most out of me, and they so often are able to say the right thing that stimulates me to deliver on my own expectations of myself.

The results then speak for themselves...

So, my success tips for anyone who wants to optimise their results in business and their life are:

1. Identify your own Peak Performance times

2. Plan your day as far as you can to get the most out of yourself and your time using this knowledge

3. Create your own support team including a coach, accountability partner and/or a mastermind group

Enjoy!

If you want to know more about how coaching and masterminding can help you improve your results give us a call or visit www.simonsmithcoaching.com

Does just "Belief and Commitment" create Success?

2008-05-05T10:41:00.003+01:00

It's a Bank Holiday today, marked significantly by the wonderful absence of traffic as I was driving over to see a client this morning.

As I drove through Belfast I came across the marathon runners wending their way around the city. At first just a few, the "elite", super fit leaders, and then the numbers increased as the masses came through. I was reminded of the self belief and commitment that all these people would have made just to be able to make it to the starting line today. The hours and weeks of lonely training in all weathers. The pounding out the miles when many of us would have still been tucked up in our beds. The heartache and pain with the blisters and occasional injury. All for the opportunity to be able to say "I did it, I was there".

I have always admired these people, particularly those that are so fit they can complete the race in just over 2 hours. Wow, what a feat of endurance! It takes massive courage to take on the challenge. Many run for the benefit of others, a worthy cause that they have some personal affinity towards. Others just do it to prove to themselves that they can. Wheelchair participants, less able runners, people with limited or no sight, and so on. All of these have one thing in common - they absolutely believe they can do it, and do whatever it takes to make sure they do.

Business is no different. Success is created when we have an unwavering belief in what we are trying to do. When we make the commitment to our customers and our staff. When we do whatever it takes to fulfil the needs of our clients and serve them to the best of our ability. When we play full out to deliver great service. It is these things that ensure success.

I wonder though how often we compromise on our commitments in favour of the "easy" option. When is it that we lose sight of what we created our business for? Is it at these times that we find ourselves in difficulty? Should we just simply remind ourselves of what we stand for and why we started out in the first place?

I often ask clients why they are in business as opposed to what do they want. Attempting to create a distinction between material goals and what those material goals will give them emotionally, we are more easily able to uncover the feelings that enable movement towards action.

As with the marathon runner, having self belief and commitment without the action, the preparation, the practice, the pounding of the miles out on the road, will not deliver the results you are looking for.

When I completed the London marathon some years ago I absolutely had the belief but I did not do the hard work, for a variety of reasons, and the end result? Yes I completed it, slowly. But I came in the bottom 5%. Is this the result you want? Do you want to be in the elite or come in much much later?

So, have a go certainly. Believe in yourself, definitely. Commit, without doubt. But make sure you know why you are doing what you are doing and stay focused on doing whatever it takes to keep your business ahead of the pack. With this level of commitment to action you surely will succeed!

To your success!

Making the most of your FREE time

2008-05-03T16:38:00.004+01:00

Many people say to me they never have enough time off.

As I sit here outside a shopping centre, waiting for my family to finish doing their thing, I find myself questioning how we define "time off" in the first place!

Last weekend I was enjoying the supportive environment of being with my mastermind group in San Francisco and we were discussing just this topic. Jack Canfield, our group leader, suggests that a FREE day is one where you are doing that which gives you energy and enables you to re-create, as in recreation, from midnight to midnight. It means not opening email, taking work related calls, doing your paperwork, accounts or other more "mundane" activities. It means taking care of yourself, nurturing your body and your mind, relaxing, sleeping, perhaps going to your favourite restaurant, beach, walking spot, getting a massage and so on.

For me, it means all these things and more. It doesn't mean shopping though. My daughter chastised me when I said I would wait in the car. For her, shopping is a real time off activity, and she felt I should want to traipse around the shops with her and enjoy it! No, for me I would rather sit in the car, listen to some relaxing music and just chill out for a couple of hours.

So, in fact my family are actually doing me a favour acting as "Dad's taxi" to take them to the shopping centre. I get to spend some time with myself and relax!

On that basis, despite not necessarily doing those nurturing things that I would perhaps prefer to do, I get to help my family enjoy their free day and I can also make the choice to make my day just as relaxing. By having respect for their preference, and having respect for my own choice, we all get to "win".

My tip then is simply this: make the choice that serves you even when it may seem that there is no choice. I could have chosen to be annoyed that I was having to spend my free time driving my family to the shopping centre, and being dragged in and out of shops I didn't want to be in, OR I could make my own choice and spend some time looking after me at the same time....

Enjoy your weekend!

Your Net Worth is directly related to your Network

2008-04-08T14:13:00.002+01:00

It is said that your net worth is directly related to your network. The more people you know, the more successful you are. My experience is that this is absolutely true.

I remember my time in the corporate world and I actively avoided networking opportunities, unless it related to something I was particularly interested in such as cricket, football or other sports events. The whole idea of networking and meeting strange people in strange surroundings simply terrified me. Eventually I guess I got used to it but I always had the misconception that networking meant making small talk with people you probably had no real interest in at all.

Being in business for yourself though brings home the stark reality that networking is not only necessary, it is vital to your success. After all, how can you expect to promote your business and create success if you are not prepared to get out there and talk to people about it and how you can benefit prospective clients?

Actually networking is far more than simply trying to push your product or service onto everyone you meet. In fact, it is quite the opposite. It’s really about accessing your contacts’ contacts. It’s about positioning yourself and meeting people who can introduce you to others who you may be of service to you, or you to them. Beyond that, my experience is that the very best networkers are those that simply aim to introduce people to each other like you would if you were hosting a party, just to provide people with the opportunity to create a discussion, perhaps with a view that they may help each other.

Everyone I know who has a successful business has had to step up to the mark and get networking. You simply do not exist in business without marketing yourself and talking to other people.

Once I got to understand that my job was not to push my services but simply to facilitate people meeting people, I found that people started introducing me to people I wanted to meet. Starting from a position of serving others, my networking results improved.

There are many networking organisations and opportunities. My marketing coach advised “just get in the game” and this is what I found myself doing, networking anywhere and everywhere I could. It wasn’t long before I was able to simply approach people I didn’t know and say “hi” without worrying that they wouldn’t want to talk to me. In fact, they were often in the same position as me, wondering how to approach people and start a conversation so they were delighted to have someone come and up to them and start the process off.

So my Success Tips for effective networking are these:

Get in the game – Just do it. Network wherever you can.
Be of service – Act like a host not a guest waiting for someone else to introduce you.
Prepare – Work on your “elevator pitch” so that you confidently talk about your business concisely. Get clear about your Unique Selling Points and why people can refer you with confidence.
Be an active listener – Listen to the other person first and look for the opportunities to connect them with people they want to meet.
Set targets – Go to an event with a view to speaking to a certain amount of people. You cannot predict the result of making 3 new good contacts but you can create the result of talking to 10 new people.
Follow up – Always follow up. When you meet someone, call them and arrange a coffee some other time to continue the discussion further. You are highly unlikely to do business at the event so aim to call afterwards and arrange to meet.

If you want to know more about how to create success in business through networking then we’ll be happy to discuss that with you. You can contact us here

If you enjoyed this article feel free to share it with your friends and colleagues. If you would like to read previous Reflections and Success Tips click here and check out our blog.

Step Up to Success: It's Your Choice!

2008-04-03T13:28:00.001+01:00

Simon Smith will be the keynote speaker at the next B4B networking event on 6th May 2008 at the Malone Lodge Hotel, Belfast...

It is said that successful people are those that do the things that unsuccessful people are unwilling to do.

In corporate life in particular, experience shows us that many people are in jobs they don’t want to be in, they don’t enjoy or they are simply unfulfilled. They’re bored, frustrated, tired, feel undervalued, not paid enough, work too hard, don’t have enough time etc etc.

So sack the boss!

Why would anyone live a life they were unhappy with?

Wake up and smell the coffee. This is no dress rehearsal. Get out and do something where you feel valued. Find a boss you do want to work for – someone who will treat you the way you want to be treated. Find someone who will value your contribution and thank you for being there.
If not, be your own boss. Create your own success. Stand by your own results!
It really is that simple. You really do have a choice.

If you want success, get out of the blame game and make a choice that serves you and those around you.

You only have one shot at life, so make the most of it. Take step towards taking 100% responsibility for your life today and see what difference it makes to your life tomorrow.

Step Up to Success: It really is your choice!

For further information and to book for this event visit www.B4B-ni.org

Selling Yourself on Paper - Making Words Work

2008-03-04T20:16:00.001Z

If you’re anything like me you would much rather have a face to face conversation to talk about your products or services than attempt to write about it. Putting pen to paper to make that all important “first impression” can be daunting to say the least.

For the perfectionists out there it can also be very time consuming, as we write and rewrite, before “sleeping on it”, procrastinating some more about publishing or sending the material, and eventually changing our mind completely and not bothering at all!

So, last week I was inspired by a presentation from a friend of mine who attempted to demystify the art of copywriting – making words work. In fact, before I got into business, I thought a copywriter was someone who applied to get your work “copyrighted” on your behalf!

Alan Morrow, from Quote Unquote, provided the audience with his very own “Success Tips” to “the art of creating meaning through words”. For my part I was perhaps more inspired, or educated, than Alan had intended because I realised that much of what he was saying could be applied to many other areas of our lives, not just writing sales copy.

So with very grateful thanks, Alan’s success tips on “the art of creating meaning through words” are:

Learn to listen [to the customer, the audience]

Plan. Plan. Plan. - Create a structure for your document, then write

Know who you are writing to - Visualize your audience then write as if you are speaking to them

Get to the point - People are short of time, and you're not the only one vying for it, so get to the point, and make sure it's crystal-clear.

Repetition is your friend - Tell them what you're going to tell them, tell them, then tell them what you told them

Find an appropriate tone of voice - Know your audience, be formal or informal, engage your readers – use ‘you’, ‘we’

Keep it simple:

“From exploiting customer in-store wait time to migrating offline consumers to online channels, we can provide an innovative turnkey solution that delivers both customer insight and business results.”

which means

"We'll make sure your customers buy in your store or online. Every time. And you'll make more money."

Use short sentences

“Already Jones Construction have been involved with the project from the earliest conceptual design stages ensuring the design team have taken on board energy effective measures within the design seeking to create a leading sustainability addressing many issues.” (38 words, no punctuation).

which means

“Our design team has included energy saving measures within the building.”

Benefits, not features - Sell the heat, not the blanket. Explain what your service or product will do for the audience.

Use “which means that” to link features and benefits, e.g.

“Our Culture & Arts Strategy sets a programme for strong, sustainable development, which means that we will be able to engage artists, cultural workers and local communities with renewed vigour...”

Review your copy - Re-read, edit and simplify. Ask someone else to proof it

If you want to know more about how Alan Morrow can help you with your words contact him through www.QuoteUnQuote.biz

Step Up to Success event for the REC

2008-02-01T14:56:00.001Z

The REC is a trade body supporting the recruitment industry.

Speaking at a regional event in Belfast last week, delegates got to hear how they can "Step Up to Success" and make 2008 their best year ever. (And why is it photographers like to have a "corny" photograph? No prizes for working out what he was trying to achieve ;o))

For more information about REC in Northern Ireland go to http://www.rec.uk.com/.

Zenrec.net sponsored the event and demonstrated an innovative solution to supporting recruitment companies. Visit http://www.zenrec.net/ for more info.

If you need a speaker at your trade or networking event call our office at 028 9048 8673.

Book of the Month - Talking with Giants

2008-02-01T14:54:00.001Z

As an Internationally acclaimed Speaker, Author and Success Expert, Scott has led the field in training others, presenting as a top professional speaker and executing the very success strategies he teaches. That’s the public face of Scott direct from his web profile...

Scott Schilling is one of the most genuine and generous people I have ever had the privilege to meet. His book has been created from a desire to be of service to others and when he talks about the project you can literally see this desire welling up in him.

The book itself provides incredible insights and inspiration through Scott’s interviews with “Giants” in their respective fields including Jack Canfield, Mark Victor-Hansen, Cynthia Kersey, Orrin Hudson, T. Harv Eker, John Dealey and Freddie Rick, to name just a few.

This is a must read for anyone serious about creating success in their life and making a difference in the world.

Buy it here now

What's work/life balance really all about?

2008-02-01T14:51:00.001Z

Richard Branson said that there is no play or work, just living. So, if we are passionate about what we do, and we get excited about it every day, is there really a need to worry about work/life balance?

People regularly tell me they want to create more balance in their lives. They say they work too hard and don’t get enough time off. They don’t spend enough time with their family, don’t have days off, never take a holiday, get up early, go to bed late. It seems to be a constant battle to keep going.

I realised, after doing some “self-development” work with my coach and one of my mastermind groups, that whilst I love what I do, and am absolutely passionate about it, I might have been falling into a “trap” of pushing too hard in one area of life at the possible expense of another. For me, balance is not about work/life, but about the key areas of your whole life. This includes relationships with family and friends, fun and adventure, personal development, business, finance, toys and luxuries, contribution or service, health and fitness. The game of life is about having balance in all these areas so that no one area is suffering at the expense of success in another.

So, I asked myself “how can I create more balance as a whole” and then created goals, planned strategies and took action to make it happen. However, I also realised that planning balance and taking action was great and moved me forward, it was also very easy to allow myself to slip back into my old ways, the ways of my corporate career when everything in life then was about working hard, getting noticed, delivering results, being promoted, earning more money and bonuses, getting the new company car and so on.

It is so easy to work harder when things seem challenging and finding yourself spinning round in circles, beating yourself up when things don’t go the way you planned and then getting back on the roundabout of work, work, work, or rather, effort, effort, effort, losing sight of keeping balance in the other areas. This is the time when it is so important to keep our eye on the ball and allow ourselves to just take some time out to recharge, refocus and connect back with our energy.

I recall when I worked for a company many years ago, driving fork-lift trucks, moving their products around the site. We worked our machine solidly for 10 hours straight every day. The boss would say that the most important job of the day was to plug the fork-lift into it’s charger at the end of the shift, before we left. If this wasn’t done and we returned the following morning we would find no machine available and therefore no work, no money. The fork-lift, like us, needed to literally recharge it’s batteries to be able to function properly, or even at all, the next day.

So my success tips this week are:

Review what you do and make sure that you are living your life in terms of living rather than work/life as if they are separate entities. They’re not.
Look at where your balance is, or isn’t, and create some goals in those areas that you would like to improve.
When things get tough, remind yourself that more “work” doesn’t necessarily mean better results.
Take time to recharge your batteries and nurture your mind and body so that you can perform at your best every day.

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Jack Canfield's Key to Living the Law of Attraction

2008-01-21T19:12:00.001Z

Practical tips beyond the teachings of The Secret, January 17, 2008
By
Mr. Peter S. Smith "Simon Smith www.simonsmit... (Belfast) - See all my reviews

Jack Canfield is the master of The Law of Attraction. He has applied it in his own life and teaches it to the world. Now with his new book he takes The Success Principles he has taught across the world and brings practical insight and tools into understanding of the Law of Attraction. Easy to read, easily understood and easily applied, I have no doubt that applying what Jack teaches will transform lives. Buy it, gift it, share it and talk about it, so that those people important to you don't miss out!

Thank you Jack for being such an inspiration and providing this book to us.

www.amazon.com

Action and Speed Creates Results

2008-01-21T18:46:00.001Z

I was in Newport Beach last week meeting with my mastermind group and I was reminded how much of an impact having a great support and accountability process can help you achieve so much, so quickly.

Having reviewed our goals in the preceding couple of weeks, we arrived with great anticipation of more insight, learning and inspiration from Jack Canfield, our host, teacher and facilitator. By having us focusing on our goals for the coming twelve months Jack has quickly established a mechanism for measuring our success. We have stated our intentions and it is up to us to hold each other accountable to ensure we deliver on them.

One thing was made abundantly clear – action creates results, and if we hold the intention that anything is possible, then we will indeed take all the necessary action to reach our objectives. My view on this is that whilst I may not know “the how” at the moment in relation to some goals, getting clear on “the what” or even “the why”, will help me find small stepping stones towards what I want. Each stepping stone is then that much closer to the mountain.

Of course, just taking action does not immediately presuppose that we get the result we want. However, if we take onboard the feedback from our actions, we can correct our course and stay on target when things go a different way to that which is expected.

Taking action with speed sets successful entrepreneurs apart from those that dawdle, and therefore stay in mediocrity. In fact, the old perfectionist in me would have stopped myself taking any action at all in the past, based on the idea that it needs to be “perfect” before being started. In recent years I have come to realise that there is in fact no such thing as “perfectionism” - this is simply a convenient phrase to hide behind which allows us to sabotage our own efforts.

Small business owners and entrepreneurs have the edge in this regard. They can take action with speed, because they, unlike many larger organisations, can decide quickly and then move forward. The trick, of course, is to start small, test, measure and learn, and then continue if the strategy works.

So, my success tips this week are simply these:

1. Create focus on your goals and have them written down
2. Take action everyday towards your goals - small stepping stones to climb big mountains
3. Have a support process in place, be it a mastermind group, accountability buddy or a coach
4. Listen and learn from the feedback and correct your course when the unexpected shows up

How do I get motivated?

2008-01-06T14:04:00.001Z

I was prompted to respond to a question submitted in a forum I subscribe to about getting back into a state of motivation following the holiday. The person submitting the comment / question was looking for other experiences as they were finding it difficult to get back into “work mode” and get motivated to take action.

My experience is often similar after holidays and Christmas. This year is seemed to be even more difficult than usual.

To move through it I find that taking a couple of days to just "allow" myself to be in this zone of "no specific action", yet thinking / reflecting about the next few months (not even meditating, just allowing my thoughts to go wherever they take me during the course of the day), begins to move me closer to being in action.

After those couple of days I take one day to just update some goals, clear out old paperwork, throw away old to-do lists that probably won't get handled anyway. Just this act of creating some plans and tidying up leads me to a place where I am motivated to plan the next 2 days, by time not tasks, and I plan everything, even getting up, breaks and going to bed.

So, for example, the plan this holiday actually looked like this:

6 - Up
6.30 - Write sales letter
7.45 - Shower & breakfast
9 - Travel (listen to Jack Canfield CD)
10 - Car service (read Catherine Ponder book while waiting)
12 - Travel home (listen to HWnW interview CD)
1 - Client preparation for tomorrow (sandwich lunch)
3 - Write letters to clear up financial incompletes
3.30 - Call GW, ML, CD
4 - Gym
5 - Shower & break
6 - Email, sync iPOD for podcasts, back up laptop
7 - Mastermind (2) call
8 - Plan for tomorrow
8.30 - Client preparation
9 - Client preparation
10 - End of day review
10.30 - Bed

By planning like this, instead of by a to-do list, I am focused on the time, not the task, thereby less likely to use my own very efficient "avoidance tactics" and revert to "vegging out" in front of another great movie, and much more likely to be in action all day. The important thing for me is that even if some of the tasks don't get completed, I am being focused again on working activities and because it is time oriented I can not move a task somewhere else because there is no time allowed for that. I have effectively backed myself into a corner to stay on track.

One more day like this and I hit the sack exhausted but fully back into normality so to speak, so I can then allow myself to be less intense about the planning knowing I'm back to where I need / want to be.

Sign up for our free Success Tips at www.simonsmithcoaching.com and get further “Reflections” delivered to your inbox.

Check out our monthly free teleseminar at www.AskSimonSmith.com. This month’s expert guest is Melanie Donelly answering your questions as a Recruitment Professional on how you can improve the results in your recruitment business.

Happy Holidays

2007-12-24T09:16:00.001Z

This time of year is a time of reflection. It’s a good time to review what’s been happening in our lives over the last twelve months and to notice with gratitude all the things we have and normally take for granted.

It’s been so great to hear from friends and relatives, business associates, business networks, coaches, mastermind groups and other support networks, via email, ecards, instant messaging, newsletters, ezines, social networking sites and so on, over the last few days and weeks. The world is so small now with the modern technology available to us, and it moves so fast…

The holiday is nearly upon us. The children are so excited, and many of the adults too! Whatever and however you celebrate this time of year, it seems you can not fail to be swept up in the excitement of it all, and yet, there are so many people who dread this festive season. People who have no home, people who have no food, people who have lost loved ones this year, people who have loved ones working away from home, people who are sick and people who are simply afraid.

I am reminded of practising the “attitude of gratitude” (see previous article on my blog) and in particular being grateful for having the ability to create happiness for those who are important to us, just by being in touch with them. We should also be aware and thankful I feel, to all those people who spend their time during this festive season, volunteering or working, providing help where they can to those in need at this time.

So, as we embark on another holiday season and into yet another “best year yet” as we might be hoping for, take a moment to be thankful for what you do have, and be grateful to those who give so selflessly at this time to others.

I want to thank you all for the part you have played in my life this year, whether it be as a friend or family member, a client or supplier, a coach or mentor, a teacher or student, a business competitor or associate, an enquirer or subscriber, a role model or masterminder. It has been another year of learning, of fun, discovery and expanded boundaries. I’ve had the pleasure of meeting lots of wonderful and truly inspiring people from all over the world again, as well as catching up with old friends from time to time. Combined with having such a supportive family, what else could one ask for…thank you.

I wish you, and all those important in your life, a very Happy Holiday and a Peaceful and Prosperous New Year.

With warmth and appreciation,

Simon.

The power of a Driving Question

2007-12-06T07:59:00.001Z

At a recent training event we were asked “what’s your driving question?” This took a significant amount of soul searching and once I got it I realised it wasn’t driving at all and needed changing if I wanted to achieve everything I’ve set out to do. Changing it is a relatively simple process and it can be fully integrated at an unconscious level using NLP.

It all started after I had got even more clarity on my vision and mission and understanding my true purpose.

My purpose is “to be inspired and be inspiring”.

So, my vision is to “contribute massively to the eradication of poverty and child abuse across the planet through education and business activities” and I make no apology for the fact that this is similar to one of my teachers who inspired me in the first place with his own vision “to eradicate poverty through education and entrepreneurial means”.

My mission is to achieve this vision “by teaching, coaching and mentoring people wherever I can, using a variety of educational resources and processes including finding and developing new and innovative accelerated learning tools through research”.

So what about the driving question?

Well, it used to be a number of different questions along the lines of “how did I create that”, “what am I missing” and “why can’t get I beyond this” but ultimately it was simply “what am I doing wrong?” This, of course, did not drive me at all, it simply had me look for the feedback so that I could correct it.

Now, it is absolutely right that we should look for the feedback in all situations and then use that information to improve what we do, in the spirit of “constant and never ending improvement”, however this question as a driving question was not serving me. In fact, it had the opposite effect because I was creating situations to go in a different way than I had planned so that I could gather the feedback.

When I considered my purpose, vision and mission, I realised that a more useful driving question would be:

“How can I create even more love, contribution, inspiration and wealth in my life right now?”
So how does this work on a practical level?

Well, every morning and occasionally throughout the day, I will ask myself this question. At first I hadn’t noticed any immediate difference in the way I behaved until this morning when the light bulb came on…and it’s so simple.

It’s a wet and windy, typical winter’s morning. Still dark and the alarm went off. Kim got up and I turned over thinking I’ll just have another 10 minutes, which normally would have resulted in another 45-60 minutes. Today however, I asked myself “how can I create even more love, contribution, inspiration and wealth in my life right now?” and I answered it with “well, you could get out of bed to begin with”. Duh!!

You see, it doesn’t need to be complicated, it simply needs to work. In this case, the answer was obvious. I can not possibly be serving my purpose or working towards my vision if I’m still in bed. So, get yourself motivated, shift butt and get up!

Needless to say, I was straight up and writing an article, which I trust will inspire at least someone to find their own new driving question. Do let me know if that’s you…

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Check out our monthly free teleseminar at www.AskSimonSmith.com. This month’s expert guest is Terri Khonsari, speaker and author of the book “Raising a Superstar – Simple Strategies to Bring Out the BRILLIANCE in your child”.

RBS Children's Charity Awards 2007 - Ask, Believe, Receive

2007-11-20T09:42:00.002Z

The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), in partnership with the Daily Mail, is giving away £1m to children’s charities this Christmas in their RBS Children’s Charity Awards. Daily Mail readers and RBS employees are being asked to nominate their favourite children’s charity. This will be in the form of a few sentences (less than 50 words) describing why their chosen charity should be awarded a £10,000 Children’s Charity Award.

The Children’s Charity Awards are being launched on Tuesday 20th November in the Daily Mail. If it is the same as last year, you will be asked to collect coupons from the Daily Mail on 5 different days and send them off with a short sentence or two about why Make-A-Wish deserves support. The coupons were often tiny and hidden away so you may have to hunt around!

So we invite you to buy the Daily Mail on Tuesday and start collecting the coupons and then apply on behalf of Make-A-Wish and see if we can persuade RBS to give some of that money to Make-A-Wish? And if you know anyone who works at the Royal Bank of Scotland Group (and that includes NatWest, Coutts & Co, Direct Line, Green Flag, Churchill Insurance and many other brands), perhaps you would be kind enough to persuade them to write in support of us as well?

90 charities will be selected to receive £10,000 each. A further 10 charities, those 10 with the highest number of nominations, will be shortlisted and featured in the Daily Mail when readers will be offered the chance to telephone vote for the charity that they think most deserves to receive a one-off donation of £100,000

The Power of the Law of Attraction

2007-11-09T11:47:00.001Z

There has been so much discussion and a heightened sense of awareness about the law of attraction since the film and book The Secret was created and subsequently put into the hands of millions of people through Rhonda Byrne and her supporters.

I first encountered the principles behind the law of attraction when the film was introduced to me at a training event in 2006. Since then, and following much more research, conversation, practice and self-discovery, I have found that when we set our intentions with the true belief that we create everything we experience in life, the principles really do work. Now these principles are not some “woo woo, out of this world codswallop”, but real and meaningful ways to attract into our lives what we aim for.

The power of setting your intention and attracting into your life what you intend exists, whether or not you believe it. However, when you are clear exactly what you do want to create, and I mean really clear, you will manifest great things if you choose to. On the other hand, if you ignore the principles of “we are and get what we create through our intention”, you may experience life differently to that which you say you would choose at a conscious level.

So what does this really mean?

What we focus on, we create. If we focus on what we want, we create it. If we focus on what we don’t want, the same is true, we create it - in other words we create what we don’t want. Confused? Yes, so was I to begin with, and coming from a cynical view in the early days, I almost refused to believe this could be true. This would mean that I would need to be taking total and unconditional responsibility for everything I said or thought and that I would be unable to blame others for anything, because I have created it, exactly as I said I wanted it!

So, my experience is this; when I have stated or thought an intention, truly believing that it is truth, I get or experienced what I intended. When I created a vision board with a TV camera pointing at a photo from a seminar I had previously delivered, a few days later a media Company called to ask if they could film my next seminar. When I put picture of a black-tie dinner on my board, I imagined I would be invited to be the after dinner speaker. Within weeks I was invited to speak as the after dinner speaker at a student union conference. When I was stuck with a headline that I was attracted to which read “My resolution - somewhere out there are kids that need our help”, I pasted it on to my career board, for no apparent reason and subsequently have been working with young people in a variety of different ways, realising this was what I truly wanted, amongst other things. Most recently, I had an idea for a corporate sponsor to support coaching young people who don’t have the resources to purchase self development programmes. Within two days I received a phone call which may result in just such a programme becoming a reality.

Conversely, when I have been focussed on the lack of money, we have received bills we weren’t expecting. When I have been focussed on being overweight, I put weight on. When I have focussed on being tired, I have had no energy.

Last week, I met a friend at a breakfast event and we discussed how she and her husband could not seem to get clear on where they were going over the next few years. It seemed to me that they might be stuck in trying to work out how they were going to get to where they wanted to be rather than being clear on what they really wanted and being open to the possibility that the how would show up once they had that clarity, (when I coach people around discovering their passions and their visions for the future we start with the intention that getting clear on “the what” is the first step). Later that day, I saw this friend again at a different event and she had subsequently had a conversation with her husband and they had become clear that this was exactly what the problem was and they could now move forward focussing on what they want, knowing that “the how” will show up just as it is supposed to.

I’ve had many conversations with people on how we “use” the law of attraction and the power of setting our intentions. I suggest that we can’t “use” it, we simply believe it and then monitor our thoughts and our intentions very closely and we will become more aligned with the universe and the energy that will conspire to support us in creating what we want.

My experience has been simple when I reflect back on it. The more I notice that the law of attraction is how the universe operates, the more I am able to get clearer on what I want and the more I am able to create what I want. When I set a vague intention I get a vague result. When I have some doubt, the doubt becomes the reality. When I am clear on the what, the how will show up!

Sign up for our regular newsletter at www.simonsmithcoaching.com and get further “Reflections” delivered to your inbox.

Check out our monthly free teleseminar at www.AskSimonSmith.com. This month’s expert guest is Terri Khonsari, speaker and author of the book “Raising a Superstar – Simple Strategies to Bring Out the BRILLIANCE in your child”.

Making Time for Me!

2007-11-02T12:10:00.001Z

Many people I come across tell me how they have no time for themselves. They are so busy managing life and all it’s challenges; keeping up with business priorities, making money, seeing clients, networking for new business, typing proposals, responding to emails, writing emails, making phone calls, doing the bookwork, shopping with their partner, taking the children to out of school activities, spending time with relatives that they don’t really want to be with, paying bills, fulfilling on administrative responsibilities, cleaning, ironing, washing dishes and so on and so forth.

It seems that there is never enough time in the day to do all these things and make time for ourselves. Perhaps we don’t take enough exercise or have enough “chill out” time. We want to go to the movies or ten pin bowling, take a dance class or have a meal out with a loved one, drive out into the country, go to the beach, have a weekend away or watch a football match. None of this appears possible because “priorities” get in the way.

Well, here’s the thing, we all have exactly the same time as everyone else. That’s 24 hours each and every day, that’s it, period! So how is it that some people seem to have all the time in the world and others never have enough time and don’t even get enough sleep?

The answer really is very simple. It’s how we use the time we do have that matters.

For many people, if they were to just audit their time, each and every minute of the day, for one week, they would probably be amazed at how much time they “waste” on things that they would admit, if they were honest, were unimportant and meaningless.

There is a whole industry based on time management. There are software programmes, paper planners, diaries, training courses and workshops, organisers and even coaches to help you de-clutter your life. Ultimately though, it boils down to us being able to say yes, or no, according to whether the request, appointment, meeting, conversation, email or task, fits within in our wants, desires and outcomes we say we are aiming to create. If not, we would be better served saying no.

The problem, I hear you screaming at the top of your voice, is that sometimes we “have to” do things we would rather not. We “have to” go that meeting, clean the house, answer the phone, complete that project, answer that letter, see the doctor or the dentist, take the children out, answer that customer complaint and do our accounts. Well that in itself is not true. Yes, there may be consequences to not completing on things and if we had managed ourselves more effectively in the first place, we would not be in the position of trying to squeeze too many things into our day, week or month.

So what specifically needs to happen for us to make the time we want?

First, get clear on what you do want. If you have no clarity on what you want, how can you expect to make the right choices in terms of managing your time, aligned with what you want? So create some goals, uncover your passions and write down what you want. Then, every time you are faced with a choice or decision about scheduling your time, choose in favour of your goals or passions. If it doesn’t fit, say no!

Second, schedule everything! This includes your “free time” activities. If you want to spend more time in the gym, schedule it. If you want to take your partner out for dinner, schedule it. If you have important tasks to complete, schedule them first, preferably first thing in the morning, before you open email, or even your browser.

Third, notice when you are more productive. For some, this is first thing in the morning so do the “tougher” or more productive things before you lose what energy does exist. Many people find they are easily distracted in the afternoon, so schedule tasks or meetings that won’t take too much effort or are more enjoyable. Some people find they are more creative in the evenings, so schedule thinking time, or artistic pastimes, writing, dance classes and so on at this time of day. Find out what works best for you and schedule your time accordingly.

Finally, treat all scheduled activities with the same integrity. In other words, if you have taken the time to prioritise time for you in the gym, meditating, seeing a movie or simply chilling out, treat that appointment with yourself as you would your most important customer or your boss. Don’t be tempted to let time for you slide just because an external influence is demanding of you.

Stay in integrity and respect your own time as much as you would for others.

Sign up for our regular newsletter at www.simonsmithcoaching.com and get further “Reflections” delivered to your inbox.

Check out our monthly free teleseminar at www.AskSimonSmith.com. This month’s expert guest is Shane Mackle who will answer your single most important questions on how coaching can have a significant and measurable impact on your business.

Building Great Relationships - Be of Service

2007-10-23T08:42:00.001+01:00

I find it interesting, when I reflect back on some of the things that I have done in my life, that where I have created the “best” results are the same times that I have come from a place of “being of service”. Conversely, where I have not got the result that I said I wanted, was generally where I had an ulterior motive or so called “hidden agenda” that of course, was not hidden at all!

It therefore occurs to me that, in all areas of life, if we start with a genuine desire to be of service to others we will fulfil our grander purpose and live a truly happy and contented life. This is true whether we are in business, working in the corporate world, spending our time looking after “domestic matters”, using our time for charitable purposes, in church or our community or simply within our relationships.

I think back to when I spent my time trying to grow the business I was responsible for in the corporate world. All of the great results we achieved were delivered when we were focussed on improving customer service, therefore being of service to the “end user”, or creating the next team incentive scheme or competition, therefore being of service to the staff, or facilitating a great management meeting, therefore being of service to the managers, or developing the next big promotional activity, therefore being of service to the Company or the suppliers, and so on and so forth.

Yet, when there is a “hidden agenda”, we become manipulative and deceitful. We have a plan and we don’t want to show it. These are the times when things inevitably go wrong, when things show up for what they truly are and when people end up mistrusting us. Once lack of trust has been created, it is difficult, if indeed ever possible, to rebuild and repair that trust.

Stephen Covey said “seek first to understand, then be understood”, and Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen coined the phrase “ask, ask, ask”, which I interpret in this context as meaning, “seek first to be of service, then ask honestly for what you want”.

If we explore this in the context of relationships, my experience has always been that when I have asked first “what do you need from me” or “what do you want”, with a genuine desire of wanting to know the answer, and then do what I can to provide what is needed, I have felt fulfilled and more often that not, have received what I want or need at the same time. This is also true in sales or purchasing negotiations. If I have come from a place of “how can I help you”, the prospect has been more likely to buy into what I am selling and the supplier provided the support for the initiative I have proposed.

When we are marketing our business, it is said that we should “get in the customers shoes” and see how they would feel, what they want. We should understand our target market, know how they think, when they will buy and fulfil their wants and needs. If we did not approach marketing in this way, we would not be providing what the customer wants and therefore would not be making any sales. We would not be saying “what do you need” and we would not be asking for the close in the sale. We would therefore not make any profit.

Sales and marketing strategies are no different to relationship strategies. In fact, of course, they are just relationship strategies anyway, hence the term “Customer Relationship Marketing” or CRM. So, if we want to be sure to build great relationships in anything that we do, we would be wise to start from a place of “how can I be of service”, in this relationship. Once we have asked the question of ourselves, we would be equally wise to simply ask the question of our partner, child, parent, friend, business acquaintance or team colleague. If we don’t ask, we will assume, and as a very good friend once told me, if we assume we make and ASS of U and ME!

So, my invitation is simply this; in any relationship you have currently or have in the future, start from a position of “how can I be of service” and then ask it!

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Check out our monthly free teleseminar at www.AskSimonSmith.com. This month’s expert guest is Shane Mackle who will answer your single most important questions on how coaching can have a significant and measurable IMPACT on your business.

Passion Creates Success

2007-10-21T18:38:00.001+01:00

It’s Sunday afternoon and the finale of the Grand Prix season is running as I write. Lewis Hamilton is fighting to overtake enough people to win the world championship, Filipe Massa is winning the race but will give up his place for Raikkonen to win, if asked to do so by his pit team.

Passion is what has got Lewis Hamilton to this position. He has dedicated his life since he was 11 years old to be the F1 World Champion. He followed his dream and his passion to be on top of the F1 world. We don’t know what else will unfold during the race but it really is so exciting to see these guys follow their passions to achieve their dreams.

And why am I writing on my blog? Well, the ITV coverage means that we put up with pointless adverts throughout the coverage of the race. Some of you will say, get out of complaining and talk to somebody who can do something about it. I did, and I have. I have written to ITV and I have submitted a posting on their blog. In the meantime I thought I would use the time usefully rather than watch adverts that do nothing for me and do not persuade me to rush out and buy the latest Honda, car insurance or indeed spend some time thinking about mind health! Not sure where that came from in the scheme of F1 advertising!

Anyway, the race is now over. Kimi has won and well deserved. He is the new world champion!

I look forward to seeing the next F1 season and I trust that ITV will review their coverage and let us, the viewer, enjoy the passion rather than the sponsors!

Effortless Life

2007-10-17T00:22:00.001+01:00

It was a great day yesterday! Life was effortless…

Having long ago decided that getting in the game was far more fun than simply letting life slip me by, I decided it would be a day for stretching. I therefore set out to do many more things than I would normally plan for one day, with the anticipation that creating some action, even if it might need some correction through feedback later, was better than no action at all.

I had committed to myself to publish an article somewhere new, and did. I was being interviewed for a radio show at the BBC and trusted myself to deliver a powerful piece of work, and did. I stretched by asking something of someone new to help me deliver on one of my goals, and did. I found myself in a coaching situation that I had not anticipated and committed to provide value beyond expectations, and did. I planned to catch up on outstanding emails, and did. I planned to build my network by inviting lots of new people into it, and did. I arranged to meet someone new with no preconceived ideas of an outcome, and did, and I decided on spending some time in “critical thinking” (see previous posting), and did!

And after all that and much more, I found myself thinking about my mother, as I so often do on the way home in the car. She spent her life inspiring me to be who I really am and encouraging me to step up. The irony, in some ways, that I was delivering our Step Up to Success programme this evening, did not escape me.

So, when I’m feeling great and remembering my mother, I do what comes naturally to me and sing at the top of my voice, in the privacy of my car I might add, to Il Divo. (My devoted, adoring and so supportive partner says I can’t sing, so this is the only opportunity I get!).

The words may appear a little maudlin when seen on paper so allow me to indulge myself as I share them with you, because when sung at full power with the volume so loud the car is vibrating, the energy is amazing and the feelings of “unstoppability” (in myself) and “connection” (with Stevie, my Mum) can not be explained in words alone - I guess you had to be there…

Mama sung by Il Divo from the album Il Divo

Mama, thank you for who I am
Thank for all the things I’m not
Forgive me for the words unsaid
For the times I forgot

Mama remember all my life
You showed me love, you sacrificed
Think of those young and early days
How I’ve changed along the way [along the way]

And I know you believed
And I know you had dreams
And I’m sorry it took all this time to see
That I am where I am because of your truth
And I miss you, yeah I miss you

Mama forgive the times you cried
Forgive me for not making right
All of the storms I may have caused
And I’ve been wrong. Dry your eyes [dry your eyes]

‘Cause I know you believed
And I know you had dreams
And I’m sorry it took all this time to see
That I am where I am because of your truth
And I miss you, yeah I miss you

Mama I hope this makes you smile
I hope you’re happy with my life
At peace with every choice I made
How I’ve changed along the way [along the way]

‘Cause I know you believed in all of my dreams
And I owe it all to you, Mama.

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Check out our monthly free teleseminar at www.AskSimonSmith.com. This month’s expert guest is Nicki Bury who will answer your single most important questions on how to market your small business.

Playing the Game

2007-10-16T10:03:00.001+01:00

I was at a seminar last night in Dublin and the trainer presented us with what he described as three of the most important keys to success in business:

Critical Thinking
Culture
My Idea + My Experience = Disaster

Whilst much of the material was not new, he did get me thinking about critical thinking time and he suggested two questions which occurred to me could be very powerful to consider.

The first was based on the idea of shifting our thinking from “How do I win this game?” to “How am I going to play this second half?”

So, if I consider that life is a game, not of chance but of skill, then it seems to me that we are far more likely to enjoy the process if we do indeed adopt a position of “How am I going to play this second half?” rather than “How do I win?”.

As Art Linkletter asked in a CD programme I listened to on the way home; “How do you make God laugh? – tell him your plans!”

The second question which got me thinking was:

“What if I was given the opportunity to have one last thought – what would it be?”

It seems to me that if we were playing the game of life for the fun of it and just enjoying the process rather than the constant striving to have more, get more, earn more, buy more, we might enjoy and appreciate the people around us more. We might be more inclined to help others around us. We might be more thankful for the gifts that we have. We might be more generous in our opinions of others. We might be less interested in our image or our clothes and more interested in being ourselves. We might be willing to make more mistakes and learn from them.

We might be more willing to play full out!

So I concluded that if were given the opportunity to have one last thought I would probably like it to be:

“Wow! That was so much fun!”

Sign up for our regular newsletter at www.simonsmithcoaching.com and get further “Reflections” delivered to your inbox.

Check out our monthly free teleseminar at www.AskSimonSmith.com. This month’s expert guest is Nicki Bury who will answer your single most important questions on how to market your small business.

Cheering up with Passion

2007-10-04T19:03:00.001+01:00

The all new Passion Test has already hit #1 on the Amazon bestsellers list.

I loved this when I saw it...check it out if you want cheering up!!!

http://www.thepassiontest.com/multimedia/167.swf

What is Inspiration?

2007-10-02T08:18:00.001+01:00

I’ve just got off a call to my coach and we’ve been discussing inspiration. The light bulb came on for me when I looked at the meaning of the word and found that one definition is “the drawing of air into the lungs; inhalation” which implies that inspiration comes from the inside. If this is true then my job as a coach and trainer is to “be inspired” from the inside with the intention of “being inspirational” on the outside.

When I think about the people who have provided inspiration for me, too numerous to list, I very quickly conclude the reason they inspired me is because they were first inspired themselves. They have an internal energy and motivation that comes from a desire to learn, grow, improve and develop, soaking up new information and insights and sharing these with those around them.

If then, my purpose is to inspire others; I must first “Be Inspired”. If I choose this path of service to support people in living a fulfilled and happy life, create success in their career or business, relationships, health and leisure, personal growth and contribution, my responsibility to them is to be inspired myself.

So, when I am “looking for inspiration” which is a phrase I find myself using often when I am writing or preparing for a coaching or training session, I might first look inside, perhaps through meditation or simple quiet reflection, and search for where I am inspired. It is no surprise therefore that when I look back, some of my most interesting insights have come whilst meditating or being around people who are themselves inspired in some way.

This then serves to reinforce the point that we should indeed surround ourselves with people who have a positive impact on us, who inspire us in some way.

So, my invitation is simply this: Consider who you surround yourself with in your day to day life. Are they inspired? Do they provide you with inspiration? If not, what steps might you take to provide that inspiration in your life?

Be Inspired!

Times of Change - Raising a Superstar

2007-09-24T18:22:00.001+01:00

I’ve recently been inspired by the book “Raising a Superstar” by Terri Khonsari whom I met in the summer not knowing that she was about to publish her book.

Terri gives some solid, practical advice on how to raise a superstar child, having faced many challenges in her own life during the process of raising her very own superstar, Nilou.

Reading the book led me to ask myself questions about how we’ve raised our own children, especially my daughter, who at 15 years old is going through the usual tremendous amount of physical and emotional change. The boys are now all grown up, left home and got their own children, partners, careers and adult lives. Charlotte on the other hand, is still on her journey to adulthood.

I question where we went right and where we could have done better. Did we give too much and rob her of her independence or did we give too little and make her too independent? Could we have been more active in her education, teaching her about money, giving to other people, health, spirituality and so on? How will she fare in the big wide world once she has decided to leave the coup and fly?

For my part, one thing I know for sure is that we always do the best we can with the skills, knowledge and experience that we have at any given time. It continues to be our responsibility however, to build and develop our skills and knowledge and use that to support our children as they grow and continue their own development. That’s why I recommend this book wholeheartedly to help you support your children to be who they really are and raise your very own superstar!

To get the book now click on the link below:
www.simonsmithcoaching.com/recommendedreading/index.asp

Feeling the fear and doing it anyway

2007-09-22T13:22:00.001+01:00

How many times do we avoid doing something because we have decided that we will fail before we have even tried? How many times do we create a predetermined result before we can possibly know what that result will be? How many times have we missed out because we chose not face our fear?

In the early years of my career I worked with children who had learning disabilities combined with what we called “severe behaviour problems”. That is to say, they had learned to respond to the world through “unacceptable social behaviour”. Some were violent, to themselves or others; some would tantrum, scream, shout, spit, vomit and so on. In all cases the behaviour would show up because they had been unable to communicate what they wanted effectively enough to get the result they desired.

We often created situations for these children that would help develop their experiences of the world. For example, we would take them on adventure trips where they would abseil, climb rocks, canoe, go potholing and the like.

On one of these trips we had been taken by our instructors to a beautiful little village in the Lake District of NW England, where the locals and visiting adventurers alike would jump off the bridge into the river some 60 or 70 feet below. The children in our charge ate their picnic lunch on the river bank below watching the continuous activity of a steady stream of people jumping off the bridge with a wild scream, plunging into the water and disappearing for several seconds before emerging with laughter and shouts of delight at their achievement.

Inspired by the excitement I decided I wanted to have a go at this and overcome my “fear” of heights once and for all and experience the amazing fun these people were apparently having. No sooner than I had said it, one of the instructors took me up to the bridge, jumped off and then waited for me to follow.

I stood on the wall of that bridge for over 45 minutes playing it over in mind, anticipating all the things that would go wrong; landing badly, hurting my feet as I hit the water, crashing against an unseen rock, not coming back up out of the water. I also began to anticipate the embarrassment of not doing it, not going through with my commitment, being laughed at and ridiculed. I told myself, 1-2-3 jump. No, in a minute. 1-2-3 jump. No, I can’t do it. 1-2-3 and now, jump! No, I’m scared. And so it went on until finally the instructors, all of whom were desperately encouraging me said “look, we’ve got to go now so jump or get down”. I got down.

It took me another 20 years to face that fear, when I finally did jump. The opportunity replayed in a different way with a skydive. Jumping out of a perfectly good aircraft at 13,000 feet seemed like a great way to finally overcome this fear that I had told myself I had had all my life. The difference with this, as the instructor had said during the training “when you’re sat on the edge of the plane, with your feet hanging out the door and the noise of the wind is unbearable, you can still say NO….however it so often sounds like GO!”

By putting myself in a situation where I would be pushed to succeed and face that fear, was what it took. And the experience itself? Wow! One of the most exhilarating activities of my life! The rush, the freedom, the excitement, the buzz. It was truly amazing.

I had missed out on an amazing experience twenty years earlier because I had failed to “face the fear and do it anyway”. Since then I promised myself to “just do it now”. Is this easy all the time? No. Do I succeed all the time? Not at all. And yet, when I do, when I believe in myself, the results always exceed my expectations.

My invitation to you is this: consider when you are pre-determining the result of an experience before you have allowed yourself to LIVE the experience, and when you let go of your thoughts you might be pleasantly surprised. So just go for it anyway!

Ask Simon Smith teleseminar website launched

2007-09-13T10:59:00.002+01:00

Simon Smith Coaching launched its new resource AskSimonSmith.com website today.

Ask Simon Smith provides people with an exciting new series of teleseminars answering the most important questions submitted by you.

The free teleseminar series begins by asking the question:

“As a small business owner, what is the single most important question you have about marketing your business?”

We are delighted to welcome our expert guest Nicki Bury, Managing Director - Haybury Marketing, to this conference. Nicki will be answering your own single most important questions on how to make the most from marketing.

Nicki will offer specific and very practical solutions drawing from her expert skills and vast experience including:

Marketing strategy planning
Marketing campaign planning, implementation and measurement
Project planning
Business development
Business systems
CRM strategy planning, implementation and control
Financial budget planning
Negotiation and sales experience
Website marketing
Telemarketing and market research experience
Counselling skills

To register for this free teleseminar and submit your single most important question, go to www.AskSimonSmith.com

We look forward to ‘seeing’ you on the call.

Related links:
www.haybury.com
www.simonsmithcoaching.com

The innocence of youth

2007-09-11T06:28:00.001+01:00

We had a new addition to the family this week. Another grandchild by my stepson which he and his wife have named Tallulah Melanie. Tallulah after her cousin and Melanie after her late "Auntie Mel" who tragically died 8 years ago at only 36 years of age.

I was reminded, when I looked into the tiny face of Tallulah as I was holding her in my arms for the first time, of the innocence and pure potentiality of youth. The miracle of a new life gives us the opportunity to help create, shape, influence and inspire a whole new generation if we pay attention to how we help bring this little bundle of pure unconsciousness into the world. It is through the experiences we help create for our children that we begin to influence who they are, what they become as people and how they choose to live their life.

How careful we need to be, in our choice of words and actions, to prevent a new life from growing up with "stuff" that later in life they may discover they want or need to let go of. As parents, grand parents, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, godparents, teachers, employers and so on, we have a duty to encourage those we influence in some way to be all they can be and all they really are. Yet, we forget our obligations and we tell those around us, particularly children, "you can't do that, you shouldn't do this, you must do this, that isn't right, this is wrong..."

Consider the alternative. What would the world be like if we brought all our children up to believe that anything is possible? That they can be, do, have or create anything they choose. What would the world be like if we encouraged our children to give instead of take, love instead of hate, accept instead of judge?

For my part, I want to find a way to influence or inspire Tallulah to discover herself, be all she can be and have a massive impact on the world knowing that she is unique and has unique gifts, and just by being who she is, anything is possible.

With that in mind, I was inspired myself today by a mailing we received from a cause we support, that offers "great gifts" and to start the process of Tallulah's potential impact on the world, she has now provided school meals for three children in Senegal for the entire first year of her life. All that impact for an investment of a fraction of the cost of just one weeks shopping in our home...now that's "food for thought"!

If everyone cared...

2007-09-02T12:03:00.001+01:00

I was at Jack Canfield's BTS training last month in Scottsdale, Arizona and this music video was shown (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-QfLJbEN3k). Whatever your views about the specific content and the people involved, I was reminded that whoever we are, wherever we're from and whatever our background, anybody can literally change the world if we choose to.

Making a stand can take courage. Some people may attempt to discredit us or what we have to say and ultimately, in some cases, physically or mentally abuse us, incarcerate us or worse!

When something is really important to us, we can choose to take a stand for what we believe, or we can choose to hide our true feelings. Would we prefer to be a wallflower or remembered for what we believed in? A question I ask myself often.

At the end of the day, we take nothing out of this world, regardless of the material things we have accumulated in life. So, wouldn't it be great if we could leave a legacy and be remembered for having stood for something we were passionate about?

Check out the video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-QfLJbEN3k. It really is inspiring!

What is Success?

2007-09-02T10:43:00.001+01:00

First published in my newsletter - August 2007 (visit www.simonsmithcoaching.com to sign up)

Interesting, I find, that almost without exception, when I initially ask people what they define as success they respond with a list of material things.

I recall when I first listed my goals several years ago I wrote about the big car, new house, holidays, x amount of money, travel to exotic locations etc etc. These are all important to me in some way but as I move along my own Inspired Journey of discovery, I now have an awareness that success, true success that is, is far more powerful than having £2,000,000 in the bank.

True success for me is about being totally and unconditionally in the moment, living life now, living my life on purpose and taking real pleasure from each and every moment. Just being me, just as I am; knowing that I am good enough.

I used to beat myself up, comparing myself to others and always coming off second best. I used to think I wasn’t good enough to achieve my dreams, didn’t deserve the next promotion, didn’t meet the expectations of those closest to me or my boss or my peers. I used to think that everyone else sat in judgement of me. I used to think that others would always be more successful.

So, I dreamed of the car, the house, the holidays, the travel but never really believing it could or would become reality. I dreamed of being my own boss one day. I dreamed of being exceptional on the cricket pitch. I dreamed of having a huge network of friends across the world. I dreamed of having millions, winning the lottery.

And then, after so much discovery, heartache, joy, love, passion and learning I came to realise that if I could just be present, in the here and now; if I could just enjoy the moment because it is, and I am; if I could just be me, right here, right now, then I didn’t need to dream anymore. Sure, I still have goals and desires, but now I just enjoy the moment, the journey, the discovery, whenever I can. And then I know… I am truly successful. I have already achieved!

Busy as a Bee - Focus on Action Creates Results

2007-09-02T10:41:00.002+01:00

From my newsletter (visit www.simonsmithcoaching.com to sign up) - June 2007

Summer is well and truly here and the activity of nature is all around us.

Over the last few days, with this glorious weather, I have been enjoying my first cup of tea of the day in the garden, watching nature at work. We have a dozen or so bees that are there every morning, busy busy busy, collecting nectar from our flowers and one plant in particular.

These wonderful creatures have an attitude of focussing on results, that if we were to replicate each and every day, it seems to me we could not fail in our efforts to succeed.

The bee is never distracted from its mission, regardless of what is going on around it. It finds an appropriate source of nectar and applies itself to the task, collecting its prize, filling itself up until the time it can not collect any more. After returning to base, depositing its fortunes in the safety and security of the community safe, it returns to apply its labour once more to the task in hand. It is absolutely focussed on results and does so taking full responsibility for its actions.

The bee does not blame its surroundings, its colleagues, its family, it simply stays focussed on its goal, and achieves, time and time again. Granted, when it is threatened, it reacts to protect itself and when left to its own work, it just stays on track and delivers results.

As I watched the bees do their work, focussing on the results they want, I realised that we are so often distracted by events or people that keep us from what we truly want. Most of the time, we don’t even realise we are allowing ourselves to be diverted, and then we create reasons for why we haven’t achieved that which we set out to create.

We are bombarded with 2,000,000 bits of information per second and we use our internal filters of attitudes, values, beliefs, memories, decisions, language and meta programs (the way we think and operate), to filter all those bits of information, to create our internal map of the world. The challenge is that we can only consciously focus on 7 things (+ or – 2) at any one time.

It is no surprise therefore that the most successful people in life are absolutely focussed on those things that are most important to them. Studies of people like Mahatma Ghandi, Mother Theresa, Richard Branson, Donald Trump, Dr Stephen Covey, John Gray, Denis Waitley, Mark Victor Hansen, Jack Canfield, Anthony Robbins, and so on and so on, show the common factor with all of them is just this; they are all clear and then focus on, what is most important to them. They know their top five “passions” and take focussed action towards them.

It is obvious to me therefore, that like the bees, once we take complete responsibility for the results in our life, get clarity on what is most important to us, and then take action, completely focussed on what we want to achieve (as opposed to what we don’t want), then we can only lead a successful, happy and fulfilled life…

How did we ever communicate?

2007-09-02T10:40:00.001+01:00

From my newsletter (visit www.simonsmithcoaching.com to sign up) - May 2007

It’s been a week of challenge with regard to modern communication technology this week, highlighted by a radio show we listened to which provided much hilarity on the subject…

We now have cordless telephones at home and spend half our lives, it seems, looking for them because they are no longer anchored to the wall! And when we find them – the battery is dead anyway!! Caused much frustration in my house this week when, having called my coach late, due to confusion in our original communication as to who was calling who, had to switch to my mobile within a few minutes because someone (!) had left the phone off the charger and it died as soon as I wanted to use it.

Then there is the mobile itself. Once upon a time, we bought a mobile phone to make telephone calls and speak to people on the move. Now, we keep our diary/organiser in it, receive and send email and text messages (using predictive text if you’re up to it), set alarms, keep task lists, take notes from meetings, capture key moments in photographs, listen to music, watch videos, surf the internet…oh, and make telephone calls occasionally! Not to mention the fact that we have buttons to choose to ignore the call anyway and switch it to our pre-recorded answer service. So why do we take it with us in the first place?

As for answer machines…I’ve yet to meet anyone who a) likes recording their own personal message and b) wants to talk to the machine when the person you actually want to talk to presses “ignore” call!! Those who have had the “pleasure” of listening to my answer service will know how much I enjoy recording a message for them and what’s more, those who have had the equal “pleasure” of listening to me leaving a message know how painful it can be. When the message retrieval system starts with “the next message is 4 minutes and 37 seconds long”, you know I’ve been on and gone into rambling mode!

When I switched to Blackberry (whoever thought of that name…perhaps raspberry would be more appropriate?), life changed. The lap-top bag disappeared, the Filofax was redundant and forever more I would have total access to everything I needed in one pocket sized box. It is true, that life is now simpler and I can keep myself more organised without duplicating work – weekly planner, diary, contacts (remember when you used to have to type in every contact into the new phone?), and so on. However, it is a sobering reflection…how did we ever manage without these tools?

Modern technology is here to stay and we either keep up or get left behind, but I still think the most effective communication is through seeing the whites of their eyes, creating a connection, building rapport, creating trust and shaking the friendly hand of the other person.

A final thought I picked up somewhere along the way – only 7% of communication is about the words we use. That means 93% is about everything else, tone, body language and so on. We should be careful when we use words alone as the interpretation can be totally different to the intended message, and it is our responsibility as the sender of the message to ensure it is received as we intended!

The Passion Test - The Secret to a Fulfilled and Happy Life

2007-09-02T10:37:00.001+01:00

From my newsletter (visit www.simonsmithcoaching.com to sign up) - April 2007

Who do you admire? Who are your role models in life? Why do you think “celeb” magazines are always top of the reader polls?

We live in a society where so many people want to be someone else, where celebrity status can be acquired by simply being in a position of having something, good or bad, to say about somebody else, where being chased by the paparazzi is cool. We live in a world where reality TV is considered “real”, where “B” list celebrities living in a jungle, deprived of some food and washing materials is tough, where learning to dance on ice, ballroom dance, cook or sing is categorised as entertaining. We see wannabe pop stars abused by celebrities in an effort to “make it”.

I’m not saying this isn’t entertaining. After all, tens of millions of viewers can’t all be wrong, can they? I’m not saying that there isn’t a lot to be learnt from some of the content. Indeed, I learnt a lot from my daughter when during the last series of “I’m a celebrity, get me out of here”, when she was praying for one contestant to be booted out and I sarcastically contended that “he speaks highly of you” (or would if he knew her), and that she might be better served not judging people by the way they are portrayed on TV. Her response was to cut me down with “it’s alright for you, you just love everybody”. Not sure that is entirely true but the point was well made and left me considering whether that was true and what were the implications etc etc! (Isn’t it great how much we learn from our children?)

We were lucky enough to secure tickets to see a “real celebrity” in action last week. Dolly Parton, live in concert. Now this is someone I admire. This is someone who has “made it” by following her dreams and her passions, despite a fair amount of hard knocks on the way. She really is awesome in concert and her stories touch the heart. She doesn’t simply sing, she entertains in the true sense of the word, grabbing you by your emotions and leaving you with a sense of hope that the world is full of really good people.

They say a picture paints a thousand words. My view is that a song paints a thousand pictures.

I’ve rediscovered music recently. In my efforts to develop and grow, listening to hundreds of personal development CDs in the car I’d lost sight of the joy of music. Music has always been important to me since our childhood days being brought up on Neil Diamond, Tammy Wynette, John Denver, Abba, Top of the Pops with the silvery grey glitzy pictures that were considered the latest in special effects in the 70s. I’d forgotten just how music helps people to unwind, be with themselves, take stock, reflect, just enjoying the moment. Music is one way for me to move from contraction back to expansion.

Part of living a passionate life is recognising when you’re in “expansion” and “contraction”. This, from the book “Sad to Glad” by Janet and Chris Attwood, is just one of the tools we can use to ensure we stay on track living a life aligned with our passions. The first part of course, is to strip away the layers and get clear on our passions, what gets us up in the mornings, what drives us to achieve. Most of all, it is recognising that we are all unique. We all have something to offer and nobody else can be me! We, in turn, can be nobody else.

So, enjoy you being you and I will enjoy me being me. Know that you have a unique proposition for the world. You have something special to offer that nobody else can offer – YOU!

‘Til next time.

Simon

The Secret is out and the whole world is on to it!!

2007-09-02T10:35:00.001+01:00

From my free newsletter (visit www.simonsmithcoaching.com to sign up) - February 2007

Have you ever noticed those people who when asked “how are you?” reply “could be better” or “can’t complain, and nobody would listen if I did” or “been better” and they seem to have a hard time of it, most of the time?

Have you ever been curious why, when people say “bad luck comes in threes”, they’re usually right?

Have you ever wondered how some people are so upbeat and everything seems to go their way?

This is no accident. This is not coincidence. This is not “sod’s law”.

This IS “The Secret”. This is the “Law of Attraction” at work.

The story of The Secret is phenomenal. A DVD programme created by applying The Secret, that is literally changing lives, can only be purchased online and has sold over 1,500,000 copies in less than a year. The book, just recently launched, is expected to sell over 1,000,000 very soon.

I’ve seen the results in other people. I’m experiencing the results myself and let me tell you, The Secret can change your life too.

Janet and Chris Attwood, creators of The Passion Test, were instrumental in getting the people together to help Rhonda Byrne create The Secret, through their commitment to “Enlightened Alliances”. Jack Canfield, America’s Success Coach, created the Transformational Leadership Council, many members of which, including Jack himself, starred in The Secret.

Oprah interviewed some of the stars of The Secret in February. Check it out at http://whatanicewebsite.com/oprah.wmv

We create in our lives what we choose to create. We receive into our lives what we choose to receive. There are no accidents. There are no coincidences. We can be, do or have whatever we choose. It’s no accident that the title of my book is “It’s Your Choice”, because YOUR LIFE really is YOUR CHOICE.

If you choose to start NOTICING your language, you can choose to start CHANGING your language.

Take it step by step. Start by responding positively when asked “how are you?”…try BLOODY MARVELLOUS!! – it worked for me! One of my coaches now emails me with “hello Mr Bloody Marvellous” as a starting point. She knows we’re going to have a POSITIVE conversation!

Then start noticing when you are using words like “can’t”, “don’t want”, “if only”, “should”, “must” or “have to” and replace them with CAN, WANT, WILL, CHOOSE TO.

Take control of your own language and you will be well on your way to taking control of your own life.

‘Til next time.

Simon

The Attitude of Gratitude

2007-09-02T10:30:00.001+01:00

From my newsletter (visit www.simonsmithcoaching.com to sign up) - February 2007

I’ve just flown in from sunny Los Angeles this morning, having spent the last few days attending Jack Canfield’s Advanced Training for “Breakthrough to Success”, the programme based on his number one bestselling book “The Success Principles”.

I’m always honoured and privileged to get back together with old friends from these trainings as we learn and grow together and get more and more in touch with ourselves and our respective purposes. I find myself so grateful for the opportunity.

One of Jack’s exercises this week was to have us take just five minutes in silence during one of the breaks to be aware of our surroundings and notice what we take so easily for granted. We had earlier prompted the thought process by simply asking the question “what are you grateful for?” to each other. I was amazed by how much I do indeed take for granted: a simple walk out of the training room and I noted the softness of the carpet, my shoes, the greenery of plant life scattered about the lobby, inspiring artwork on the walls, coffee, hot water, running water, warmth, mirrors, escalators, electricity, music, being recognised by someone, a friendly smile, laughter, speech, hearing, sight, mobility, the sunshine, concrete, tables, chairs, umbrellas, children and their innocence, play, caring parents, dogs, my wristwatch and the ability to sit in peace and enjoy the moment.

It was no wonder then, that later in the training, a silent auction had been suggested - one of the guest trainers was a famous musician and had autographed a waste paper bin following an impromptu jamming session using it as a drum (you had to be there I guess…!). However, it was further suggested that we should just “get in the game” and hold an auction and see what happened. Proceeds from the auction were being given to Suzannah Crowder’s Chicken Soup Kitchens (feed the homeless) project (check out Suzannah and her fantastic work at www.myspace.com/suzannahcrowder).

The auction started at $30 I think and wasn’t long before it was up to $100, $200, $300, $850, $950, $1000!! And then the most amazing thing…the winner said put it back and everyone went again. Started at $750, $850, $950 and $1000…put it back! Again - $750, $1000…put it back! Again - $750, $1000…put it back! Again - $750, $1000…put it back! By this time people were crying, laughing, and hugging each other. The auctioneer brought the “winners” up on the stage and the numbers just grew and grew. The emotion and energy in the room was simply so powerful, you could feel the love and joy, the passion and the sheer abundance mentality. It sent shivers up my spine. It was such a privilege to be there.

I lost count of how many people got involved. It may have been sixteen, it may have been seventeen and when it was all done, everyone else just threw what money they had in the bin. Someone said later they would match whatever had been raised – WOW! In a space of 20 minutes, what had started as a great idea to raise a few dollars for Suzannah’s Chicken Soup, turned into $34,000+!!!

We have so much to be grateful for and we take so much for granted. It is moments like this that allow us to truly appreciate what we have, that we all have so much to give, and I don’t mean just money. What I really learnt this past few days is that if we live our lives from a place of joy, passion, integrity, love and abundance, miracles can really occur. Furthermore, when we truly take responsibility, we can change the world!

Take a few moments in silence with me today to just appreciate those things around us that are so easily taken for granted and then perhaps also look at those people in our lives that we may also not appreciate fully. Take some time to have an “Attitude of Gratitude”.

‘Til next time.

Simon