Emma Sargent's Blog

Announcing the New and Improved, Ultimate “Get It Done” Mastermind and Elite Training for business owners who know that if they could just get the ONE thing done that they never get around to, their business would change forever.

“GET IT DONE” MASTERMIND 2017

For 2017, the regular Mastermind has been given a properly good facelift, and gives you an opportunity to get direct, hands-on help in taking your business to new heights, at a faster pace of progress.

It is strictly limited to no more than 10 participants, so you need to consider this opportunity NOW.

This is the most powerful and complete 12 month programme that either of us have ever offered, and it is especially appropriate for people who predominantly work alone or in a small team, who seem to be on the hamster wheel never quite achieving what they know they could if only… They are people like you who are ambitious and have so much to offer the world but never quite manage to get the important things that would change the business, completed.

“GET IT DONE” MASTERMIND 2017 offers an incredible combination of resources, training, mastermind ‘magic’, accountability and support.

During the course of the 12 months…

1 Every member gets their business dissected, examined, worked on with a focus of their choice in an extended “Hot Seat” every quarter.

2 Every member benefits from the “SUPER LABORATORY” that is created when every business is examined. Members of Masterminds have often commented that other people’s sessions are even more valuable than their own to them! The environment creates “Aha!” moments over and over again as you get to look inside other business models, marketing strategies and productivity plans and wonder “Why aren’t I doing that?!”

3 Special “How To” workshop sessions that are completely tailored to the needs of the group. This will be content that we are not sharing elsewhere, that is completely customised.

4 Every member will have free access to John’s highly successful “Webinar Sales Blueprint” training that has resulted in almost “too good to be true” results for his clients. I say ‘almost’ because of course they ARE true but they are astonishing, given that some of his clients are “gurus” who teach people how to sell on webinars and yet, using John’s method, achieve incredibly different results!

“We must have made several hundred thousand $$$ from your Webinar Blueprint” Nick Stephenson www.yourfirst10kreaders.com

5 There are FOUR MASTERMIND MEETINGS throughout the year of two days in length, led and facilitated by John Richardson and Emma Sargent*. John has run multiple 7 figure businesses from garden centres to online programmes and continues to consult in many industries as well as having several current businesses. He has led many Mastermind Groups and is relentlessly practical about “What really works” and “The pursuit of the truth” so that members make “Data Driven Decisions” not decisions based on fluff. Emma specialises in Mindset, Marketing and the pursuit of passive income, working with businesses of all shapes and sizes. Both are extremely practical and grounded and certainly won’t exaggerate and over promise.

6 There are Q and A conference calls every month to keep you accountable and on track for your quarterly goals. John and Emma will relentlessly keep you on track so that you achieve what you REALLY want to achieve over the 12 months.

7 The 12 months is based on a proprietary 7 Steps to Achievement Model, leaving no stone unturned. John and Emma will make sure that your stated goals are really the ones that you want and need to make a step change in a special one hour personal coaching session following some ‘homework’ after acceptance to the programme.

This is TWO programmes in ONE

You want Mastermind AND Input? – the “Get It Done” Mastermind delivers both.

You want to get more done than ever before? – the “Get It Done” Mastermind delivers that too.

This 12 months is designed to smooth out the bumps in the road and get you through the uncomfortable times when you feel like giving up.

The Magical Power of the “Master-Mind”

Yes, although not fond of the use of the word ‘magical’ in marketing (or any other hyped nonsense), there is indeed something rather magical that happens when like-minded people get together to share their experience and all that goes with it. It was Napoleon Hill, author of Think and Grow Rich who coined the phrase Mastermind after studying the world’s greatest inventors and business people of the time. He described the process as “a bringing together of multiple minds focused on the same creative purpose thus creating an additional mind, a master mind, drawing on and synthesizing all the participants’ knowledge as well as ‘universal intelligence’ available through the subconscious”.

There IS something strangely magical when the group is working well together. And we take the selection of people who join the group very seriously, so that it really does work that way. Meeting with like-minded people accelerates your experience of business – learn the strengths and weaknesses of other businesses all in one year!

No other Mastermind offers such a comprehensive programme.



So, you’ll want to know what the investment is.

Many Mastermind leaders charge £10,000 -£20,000 for a year’s programme. And they do that because the most important thing for them is the income level of the participants. John and Emma have a different approach. They think the most important thing to make a successful group is the attitude of the participants.

They are looking for people who really WANT to change things for themselves and are WILLING to do the WORK to get the results.

You will not be surprised to hear that the investment for the 12 months is not £20,000. Nor is it £10,000. It is only £7,800 when paid monthly and as little as £6,600 if paid upfront.

The first session starts on 26th and 27th January 2017 and is in London.



Again, here is everything that’s included:

1 Every member gets their business dissected, examined, worked on with a focus of their choice in an extended “Hot Seat” every quarter.

2 Every member benefits from the “SUPER LABORATORY” that is created when every business is examined.

3 Special “How To” workshop sessions that are completely tailored to the needs of the group.

4 Every member will have free access to John’s highly successful “Webinar Sales Blueprint” training that has resulted in almost “too good to be true” results for his clients.

5 There are FOUR MASTERMIND MEETINGS throughout the year of two days in length, led and facilitated by John Richardson and Emma Sargent.

6 There are Q and A conference calls every month to keep you accountable and on track for your quarterly goals.

7 The 12 months is based on a proprietary 7 Steps to Achievement Model, leaving no stone unturned.

BONUS: You also get access to Emma’s Information Business Blueprints – step by step guides on building an Information Business (as a main business or as a business within a business).

BONUS: You get access to Emma’s “Product Creation Formula” for life.

“The Product Creation Formula gets down to the real nitty gritty of understanding how to set out your product(s) to achieve sales with the added bonus of getting personal help, too. I honestly would have paid 3 times the price, happily.” Kathryn Colas, Menopause Expert

BONUS: And John will critique your webinar if you write one during the year, a service he sells for £2500! Here’s what one of David Siteman Garland’s clients said about John’s critique:

BONUS: A personal one hour session with John and Emma to get you ready for the programme, with goals ready to go.

Combined, these bonuses are worth nearly £5,000 on their own!

WHAT TO DO NEXT:

Decide whether or not you want to be part of this “Get It Done” Mastermind!

If you are on the fence…then get off! Seriously, you already know that only so much can be learned, applied and executed in isolation. Accountability is the key to action taking. Both John and Emma practice what they preach and have been in Mastermind Groups themselves constantly for more than 5 years. Both of them would say that it is the ONE thing that has made the biggest difference to their business lives, both in terms of connections (they are both connected to some of the biggest names in the business) and the success of their businesses.

If you are concerned about the investment…then what is it you are really concerned about? You certainly can’t doubt the value of the programme. Most people, when questioning investment are really questioning themselves, their belief in themselves to do the work, to implement what they say they are going to do, to take advice and act on it. John and Emma have your backs. They really care about the success of their clients and will not allow you to flounder. If they think that you won’t take action, you will not be accepted into the programme; it wouldn’t be right.

It takes so little to recoup the cost of the programme: how many new clients, really? One? Two? Don’t let that get in the way of your commitment.

One thing is for certain: your business can only go so far in isolation. How many times do we hear, “I know what I’ve got to do, I just need to do it.” And then the person hasn’t done it, a year later. Don’t be THAT person. And that indeed is the point of a Mastermind – that you actually do it!

This is a very small investment to ensure completion of the things that will make a step change to your business and therefore your life.

A Warning: A Mastermind costing twice or three times as much does not mean that it is better. There are a lot of smoke and mirrors operating in this space, and charging high fees is sometimes a smokescreen for a lack of experience. So, check out credentials properly before committing to anything.

HOW TO APPLY

You can email Emma at emma@extraordinarycoach.co.uk or John at tjohnrichardson@gmail.com to request a conversation about application.

Emma recently wrote an article about opportunity. This is one such opportunity that presents a turning point in your business. They come along from time to time and you can take them, feeling a slight trepidation, knowing that something will change. Or you can let them pass on by. Saying yes means that something will shift. Saying no to opportunity guarantees that you will never know what could have happened.

What will you do?

With very best wishes for a great 2017

Emma and John

Emma Sargent and John Richardson

PS. Remember it begins on 26th January in London, so apply as soon as you can.

*For those of you unfamiliar with John Richardson or Emma Sargent:



John and Emma met at a marketing conference in the US and have been firm friends ever since. They are extremely familiar with each other’s businesses having been in Masterminds together for many years. Having both run Mastermind Groups many times they thought it would be a great match to run one together. They both bring something different to the table: John is relentlessly focused on the facts, on making data driven decisions, productivity and leverage and Emma is focused on the mental game, the messaging and alignment of goals to the individual.

They have both had extremely varied careers: John is the country’s best known coffee shop consultant, having run multiple successful businesses in the hospitality niche himself. He is the author of 3 best-selling books for coffee shop owners and teaches people how to write best-selling business books. He has even advised Gordon Ramsay about business. He now works with all sorts of businesses in multiple niches. Fun fact: a film is being made about him and golfing challenge that he undertook a few years ago – a successful challenge that also resulted in a top-selling golfing book. John has successful online businesses and partners with some of the top names in the information marketing world.

Emma does not have a film about her in production although she is also the author of 3 books, one of which has been translated into 15 languages and counting! She has been coaching and mentoring for 25 years and has worked with countless businesses. She has always been in sales. She has also run several businesses, including a membership for small businesses. Recently she has launched the therapist Marisa Peer’s training school which went from scratch to a seven-figure business in the first year. She was also part of the team that launched FitSteps, the new dance fitness craze led by Iain Waite and Natalie Lowe from Strictly and is Marketing Director of a new software platform launching shortly.

This variety and constant study undertaken by both of them in the fields of marketing, business, information marketing and the psychology of success means that you have access to “what’s working now” and a short cut to the views and methods of almost any expert you care to mention.

The post “GET IT DONE” MASTERMIND 2017 appeared first on The Extraordinary Coaching Company.

When we are trying to grow our businesses, it is easy to fall into the trap that we have to come up with something completely new, different and exciting – something earth shattering that no-one else has ever thought of – to make a leap in income.

The truth is much more simple, thankfully.

Business growth essentially means bringing in more money, which then translates into profit.

There are three basic ways of doing this without having to develop anything new:

Increase your number of customers
Increase your average transaction value
Increase the number of transactions per customer

Let’s take them in turn:

1. Increase your number of customers

So how will you do this?

Start with looking at last year and analyzing what worked to get customers. Remember to work out your return on investment for spend. It is likely that there will have been some marketing activity that you did last year that didn’t pay for itself.

For example, we once exhibited at the Business Startup Show and had what looked like a successful show with a good number of new members joining us. However, the cost of the exhibition is so high and our membership a relatively low cost offering with extra costs involved to us at the initial stages of the membership, that it really didn’t pay off.

So, after you have worked out what has worked for you, do more of it and drop what hasn’t worked.

Please do not fall into the trap of spending money on any type of marketing that you cannot measure. Only big corporates with massive marketing budgets can afford to waste money with “awareness” campaigns.

Also, remember that people need more ‘touches’ than you think they need to buy something. Every single time we send out an email that is marketing something, we make a sale, even if we are simply sending out a similar thing to the same group of people.

It is very odd how it works; so be brave and do marketing ‘campaigns’ rather than one-offs.

Another effective way of building your client base is to seek out partners. Who else shares your perfect client base whose services or products complement yours? You can do joint promotions, webinars/teleseminars or speaking engagements with offers to each other’s clients. This is something we will be again focusing on this year.

And just in case you think that doesn’t apply to your business, this is a good time to remind you that we know someone who very successfully used this strategy to sell mold solutions – he ran monthly teleseminars to educate people on the health horrors of having mold in the house (he still does actually).

It’s a great example of someone creating an information business to serve his regular business, and then making money from that – he is after all making money from his expertise.

Finally, it is important to connect with your new customers as soon as you can; follow up with them by phone if you can for a “getting to know you” call.

Remember that relationships are the key to a successful business, so keep working on the relationships you have. And revisit Paula MacArthur’s interview from last month for networking tips.

2 Increase your average transaction value In other words, put your prices up.

The truth is that we are conditioned to focus on price when it really doesn’t have a very big part to play in why we buy things.

Lazy marketers give us the price of something as the first point of attention instead of focusing on the benefits of the service or product.

People rarely buy anything solely because it’s the cheapest – we are much more intelligent about our buying than that. And we only buy the cheapest when it looks like there is no difference between one and the other.

So, when you charge more, make sure that you are very clear about your point of differentiation, and are able to articulate it to your customers.

Package your offering in terms of what it will do for the customer and what they will get. Or, you could package your offerings differently (not change the packaging!) but bundle items together so that they have to pay more at the point of sale.

Amazon does this very successfully with its – “People who bought this [x] also bought this [y]…..buy them together for £z” which, by the way, is the exact same price as just buying them separately [x + y]!

The point is, people often buy the two items meaning that their transaction value has doubled.

 

3 Increase the number of transactions per customer.

Once someone has bought from you they are 10 times more likely to buy again. Yes, TEN times (according to Ryan Deiss).

What can you offer them next? Could you have a three-month minimum requirement? Is there room for some kind of continuity or membership in your business?

Just for fun – actually don’t bother, it’s a waste of your time – I’ve done it for you; I just Googled “Sock Club” (yes really).

There are pages of clubs for people who want to knit socks or buy socks; and not just in the USA.

Three years ago when I first Googled this, I could only find one British example. It was in Somerset and they were only offering a 3 month club deal.

Now look what’s happened: Please note that they have three offerings and that their top offering is £300 per year…on socks.

So yes, continuity. If wool shops can do it…….!

The post Three Ways to Increase Your Income This Year appeared first on The Extraordinary Coaching Company.

“Done For You” is the service that, if they could afford it, everyone wants. The idea that you can pay someone to entirely take away something from you and produce something that is most probably better than doing it yourself is incredibly appealing – IF you have the funds.

The truth is that there is always someone who is willing to pay for that service. In the past year, having never offered it before but always toyed with the idea, we have done 2 “Done For You” projects, which have paid nearly six figures between them. Which is obviously a good thing – but there are some considerations that you should take into account, which may not become obvious until you are right in the middle of it.

The biggest question is “Is it really worth it” for you and your business? Here are some of the factors that will contribute to that decision:

1) How much to charge

All bespoke projects are different – clearly, otherwise they wouldn’t be bespoke – and knowing what to charge can be problematic. Do you charge by the hour/day, by the total project; and if it’s by total project what are you basing the price on? Back to hours probably.

The thing to watch out for is undercharging in relation to how long it’s going to take. The figure you quote may seem huge at the time but it won’t months down the line. Intensity and speed of the project puts the price up. If you are expected to essentially work full time for a short period of time that puts other work at risk (see lost opportunity cost below) then of course the price must reflect that. If you can fit it in around your other work then you might feel differently about charging top price.

2) Scope

Very few projects are ‘tidy’ and self-contained. The first thing to get clear is deadlines and a cut off date. Some projects can spiral out of control if you are not 100% clear on what constitutes the end of the project. It’s equally important to be clear about what’s included and what’s not included. That may sound a bit strange for a “Done For You” project, but there are certain grey areas that need ironing out BEFORE you start. What YOU think is obvious, will not be obvious to your client and if the project involves large sums of money your client may expect certain things to be included that you weren’t expecting.

3) Resources

Have you got the resources to deliver a “Done For You” project? Really.

A few years ago, a colleague in this industry offered a “Done For You” launch. One of our long term members asked my advice as to whether she should buy it. I advised her that it was well worth it for £5,000. Except it wasn’t. Because of course it wasn’t done FOR her it was done WITH her. Which is quite different. She had a meeting where she was told what to do. And then had to go away and do it.

DO NOT CONFUSE THE TWO. I apologise for the shouty capitals but it got messy and she ended up in dispute.

If you are going to offer “Done For You” then do it properly. And truthfully, the cost of doing it is more like 10x that offer.

That is why I bring up the issue of resources. You simply can’t do it without a team.

And then if you need to outsource part of the project, is the client paying extra or are you paying, within the cost of the overall project? For example, if you need things transcribed, are you going to foot the bill or is the client? The transcription cost for Marisa’s project was about £800 which would have made a dent in our profits if we had had to pay.

And finally, don’t try to do it all yourself to keep costs down.

4) Lost opportunity

This is the big one.

While you are beavering away on someone else’s project, you will need to keep your own business going and continue to prospect for new business at the same time.

This, we have learned, is not something that we are particularly good at.

Our temperament is such that clients’ work takes precedent, as we want to do our best for the client. Although that is fantastic for our clients, it is not good business. And truthfully our core business has suffered a bit as a result of servicing other clients and working on other projects.

So just be aware of the upsides and downsides of offering “Done For You” before you do it!

The post Do you want ‘Done For You’ in YOUR business? appeared first on The Extraordinary Coaching Company.

Back in January we finally decided to get a cleaner. We had been looking for a cleaner for quite a while. In the spirit of not doing everything ourselves, having finally had the house decorated and after giving the teenagers a whirl, unsuccessfully, we decided that enough is enough. Time to look with purpose. Amazingly, it is incredibly difficult down our way to get personal recommendations from friends (I think one is rather possessive of a good home help) and so we were forced to look on the internet.

Checkatrade was our first and, as it turns out, our only stop.

I phoned two companies and saw one. As it happens it is run by a husband and wife team, so we had immediate affinity over that and they were both very helpful and charming.

“How much do you charge per hour?” I enquire.

“We don’t charge by the hour, we charge by the job”. Hmmm, “interesting”, I thought.

“So I’ll need to come over to give you a quote.”

So we duly make an appointment and over she comes.

Lesson 1: Do what you can to get in front of your clients.

When she was in the house, she swiftly and efficiently went around everywhere, we bonded over a few things, both being friendly types, and she left shortly afterwards to put a quote together.

However, BEFORE she left she offered me something I hadn’t asked for:  “Would you like a spring clean before we start the weekly service? That way we can start sparkly and then maintain it as we go.”

That got me. A spring clean? Where they clean inside the cupboards and everywhere that you don’t even see? – YES PLEASE!

Lesson 2: Offer the client an experience with you that will set you up to win.

Tim and I spent 4 whole days over Christmas sorting and clearing out all our stuff so that we would be ready for the spring clean.

We had the spring clean. The ladies who came were delightful and also nice to the dog. They arrived in a liveried van and polo shirts. They immediately brought in mountains of cleaning equipment and shoe protectors. We have our own set of colour-coded cloths that get cleaned after every visit so that nobody else’s dirt ever darkens our door.

We both went out and came back to find a truly sparkly house. EVERYTHING was clean. Even the toaster had been cleaned on the inside!!

It was a wonderful way to start a new year. And I felt like I was a customer for life.

And the cost? I worked out the hourly rate. £22…..which is a little on the steep side for cleaning, but guess what? I was super happy to pay it.

Lesson 3: Differentiate yourself with a superior service and people are happy to pay premium prices.

But now, 7 months later….we are not so happy. The ladies are still lovely and work hard but the result does not warrant the steep prices. It occurred to me what was happening. There is, dare I say it, too much emphasis on profit at the company. Yup. I’ve said it. There is, therefore, a tension between the staff doing a thorough job and the owners wanting them to go faster. Two of them whizz round our house in 1 ¼ hours. And that’s not enough time to be thorough. So the job isn’t really good enough, certainly not for the £68 we pay!

And I discovered that the team only get paid £7.50 per hour and don’t even have time for a lunch break. Which is not really on.

So next week we will be leaving them and looking for someone else who doesn’t rip us off.

Lesson 4: Never put profit before your customers – it leaves a nasty taste in the mouth.

The post Lessons From a Cleaning Company appeared first on The Extraordinary Coaching Company.

Recently someone we have known for a little while came to our “Try Before You Buy” Mastermind Experience. She designs and manufactures handbags that are completely gorgeous, beautifully made and not expensive enough to be honest (although obviously I am rather loath to pass on that piece of advice!).

Here’s my latest purchase from her!

Her name is Shona Easton and she has had her handbag business for 12 years. At our workshop, everyone got to have a proper Mastermind “hotseat” and it was during Shona’s “hotseat” we discovered something about her that somewhat surprised us (in a good way).

We already knew how long she’d had her business, we knew who was stocking her bags and who is buying them. We also knew that people who buy from her come back time and again because the quality is so good and the designs so lovely.

We knew that she is no novice in the handbag business.

But here’s what we discovered after asking more questions during the session. What we didn’t know was that Shona was the head accessories designer for Next and also designed for Esprit, M&S, Gap and Banana Republic amongst others.

Yes, that’s right, the head designer for Next. That’s an impressive job where you need to be properly good. And she gave it up to pursue her own ethically manufactured label (we didn’t know that she employs women in a workshop in a tiny village in India either).

Wow! Why didn’t we know those things?

“But it’s on my About Me page” she pointed out. Who reads the About Me page when they are looking for a handbag? Not me!

So when I posted the picture of my latest purchase on Facebook with the missing information about Shona and a link to her website, all number of people who already have her bags and are fans exclaimed that they didn’t know.

It’s important that your prospective clients know the important parts of your story. It is properly important that Shona shares both of those missing and very impressive pieces prominently.

Why?

Because it gives her even more credentials and rightly or wrongly those things matter to prospects.

It also demonstrates her values – and that matters even more.

The things is that because YOU know your history and your experience, it is likely that you lose sight of the importance that some facts hold in the eyes of your buyers.

Have a think about it.

What are YOU hiding?

The post What are YOU hiding? appeared first on The Extraordinary Coaching Company.

No – this is not a load of woo woo stuff on happiness. This week’s blog is based on Shawn Achor’s work on the effect that being positive has on your life. He is a Harvard Professor who has done extensive research which has some surprising and surprisingly useful findings.

I have spent quite a few hours watching all Shawn’s videos and now more hours trying to condense the research into messages that are useful to us all. There is so much to digest that, it is well worth going to the source and watching each video more than once.

He argues that the following equation is pervasive in our society; in our parenting, in our leadership, in our schools:

“If I work harder I’ll be more successful, if I’m more successful, I’ll be happier.”

And that that equation is scientifically broken and backwards and here’s why:

What happens is that every time we get success: good grades, a good job, hit our sales targets, our brains automatically take us on to the next challenge; we have new targets, we have to get a better job, we have to get better grades the next time. So as soon as we have achieved something, we look to the next thing.

And the point is that because we look to the next thing which then becomes the next measure of our success, in this equation “success=happiness” we never get to the “happiness” part of that equation. We have pushed happiness over what he calls the cognitive horizon.

We need to reverse the equation for happiness and success; it’s the wrong way round. Actually the science shows that when we are happier we are more successful.

If we know everything about your external world we can only predict 10% of your long term happiness, 90% is by how the brain processes the world.

How are you processing the world around you? Are you optimistic about the future or pessimistic? It matters – it matters for your health, happiness and how long you live.

So what about those people who argue that whether you are an optimist or pessimist is in your genes? Well, the evidence is that it certainly is in your genes. How incredible is this? If you shine a torch beside a 3 day old baby, whether it looks towards the torch or away from it is an accurate predictor of whether it will be an optimist or a pessimist naturally.

So, yes, it’s in our genes, but science has also found that you can actually change your behaviour and thoughts to such an extent that genes cease to matter. And they have not found a subject for whom it doesn’t work.

In other words, research demonstrates that you can CHOOSE happiness. The thing is that most average people don’t bother to fight their genes; they accept that they are “just like my father” or whatever and behave accordingly.

If you are positive your performance dramatically rises: intelligence, creativity, productivity and energy all rise – this is the happiness advantage.

Your brain at ‘positive’ is 31% more productive than when it is at ‘negative’, ‘neutral’ or ‘stressed’.

And that brings us to one of the key factors in the “Happiness Advantage” – stress and how you perceive it.

Stress is a good thing and also a bad thing – it’s like coffee, and alcohol. There are studies that show that coffee is good for you and studies that show that it’s bad for you. The same with alcohol. So we are left not knowing what we should do. Especially as both messages are equally valid, because what they now know – which is incredible – is that the effect that stress has on your body is down to how you perceive it.

Do you see stress as enhancing, as a challenge? Or as threatening?

In a study in a bank during the banking crisis, workers were split into two groups according to how they perceive stress – one who saw stress as a challenge and one who saw stress as a threat – their productivity levels were measured and also the level of their stress was measured. Even though both groups had exactly the same levels of stress, the group who saw stress as a challenge was 30% more productive.

Isn’t that amazing?

All growth happens when we are uncomfortable – isn’t that stress? – so let’s make sure that we are seeing stress as a positive thing which it is when we see it as a path to growth. Stress releases dopamine in the brain which turns on our learning synapses, so we need stress in our lives.

What we need to eliminate are the stressful things in our lives that have no meaning, like too many spam emails or being surrounded by mess and chaos.

The other key factors, apart from how you see stress, in the “Happiness Advantage” and your long term happiness are:

your social support network
your level of optimism defined as ‘Realistic assessment of the present and the belief that your behaviour matters in shaping your future’

These are the real predictors of your success.

What we now know is that only 25% of our job/career success is related to our intelligence and a roll of the dice has the same accuracy in predicting job success as your grades in school and university. Wow.

So what can we do to reverse the success=happiness formula?

Here are Shawn’s 5 actions to create more happiness and optimism in your life:

1)   3 gratitudes – write down three new things each day that you are grateful for

2)  Journalling – journal about one thing each day that was a positive experience in that day

3)  Exercise – exercise teaches your brain that what you do, matters

4)  Meditation – teaches us to break the pattern of overwhelm

5)  Random acts of kindness – every day send an email to someone in your social support network to say that you appreciate them for something.

You can find Shawn’s work at goodthinkinc.com and obviously his books are on Amazon.

The post The Happiness Advantage appeared first on The Extraordinary Coaching Company.

Have a look around in your office. How much ‘stuff’ have you collected over the years as you learn your business and personal development skills? How many workshops have you been to where you were essentially learning the same stuff?

Some? A lot? None?

We make no judgement. Quite frankly we could start a library with all the information marketing and internet marketing stuff that we have collected over the years. Shocking!

Or are you someone who is prepared to pay a premium to be told exactly what to do, no fluff, just the steps?

Perhaps you used to be one type and you have graduated to the other.

There are essentially two categories of client and it is useful to think about, not only what type you are, but also which type you sell to. The probability is that you sell to both, but each buys something different.

The two categories are: 1) Collectors and 2) Implementers.

Collectors like collecting information. They tend to collect more than they do. They are the people that you see at the same workshops over and over again, thrilled that they are there but never quite making the progress that they should be making given the amount of hours they are spending on their personal development. In the olden days before online training ever saw the light of day, we would call these people “workshop junkies”. If pushed I could certainly name a good few NLP “Collectors” that we used to know back in the day.

Implementers can’t be bothered with learning everything, they just want to be told exactly what to do, when, and get it done. And they are happy to pay a premium.

So what’s the relevance of this to what you may be selling?

It is vital that you understand the mindset of the “Implementers” so that you don’t treat them as if they are “Collectors” when you sell your high-end offerings.

I’ll tell you what I mean in a minute.

Let’s just rewind a bit and look at the categories of information products that you can sell.

There are essentially 4 categories that are separated by price and what is offered:

Under £30

Between £30-£500

Between £500-£2000

Between £2,000-£25,000

Let’s just go through them.

1 The “Under £30” product is specifically designed to give great information and to generate sales for a higher priced product. You generally can’t make a living from just a product like this. They tend to be books, ebooks, reports, perhaps a video or audio series.

2 Between £30 and £500

This is likely to be a product delivered in one go, and it may well have multi-media elements to it, depending on the price. It will contain downloadable videos and PDFs most probably. Many information businesses have just this level of product and make their money by having multiple products in this price range. The bedwetting product is an example of this.

3 Between £500 and £2000

These tend to be courses presented in modules where the course is released weekly. There is most probably SOME involvement from the expert – answering questions, at the very least.

4 Between £2000 – £25,000

This is your High Ticket item and involves interacting with your clients properly. So this would be a Mastermind Group, Group Coaching, Consulting, or a Live Interactive Online Programme.

Collectors will be the buyers of products 1,2 and 3, where they get a lot of ‘stuff’ which will of course help them.

Implementers will want your High Ticket items and as much tailored to them as possible. Remember they want to be told what to do and in what order, or have it done for them.

So when you are selling to the Implementer, remember that they don’t want more and more ‘stuff’ – keep it lean. More expensive does NOT equal more stuff.

The post What Type of Client Are You? appeared first on The Extraordinary Coaching Company.

I have been to a few things recently where the subject of being memorable has come to me.

Perhaps it stems from this: it was once reported back to me that someone I was at school with was trying to remind someone else about me and described me as “non-descript”. Ouch. I think that’s scarred me for life!

Believe me, that is NOT how you want to be described. Nor do you want to be remembered as, “you know, the one with too much facial surgery” or anything else deeply personal, as the feature that makes you memorable.

This is not an article about styling, although our long time member Gail Morgan has some great tips about being memorable for the impression you make, and it is certainly extremely important to stand out for looking good rather than because you look like a bag of spanners.

No, this is about being memorable for what you do. Being memorable because you dare to be bold. Being memorable because you dare to be the best of yourself. Being memorable because you dare to be different.

I went to a business dinner where the guest speaker was a business coach. He did his talk, which was good, but then he did something that will make sure we never forget him. He sang. Yes, he sang to one member of the group. It was heartfelt and extremely accomplished – he has a beautiful voice – but I can think of many people who would have cringed with embarrassment just watching. He did it because the host asked him to (he used to star in West End musicals) and he hasn’t sung in public for about 10 years. And he was delightful and humble about it.

I also went to a PR evening this month where a journalist from The Guardian was speaking. Very interesting. I personally have a love/hate with PR having had several articles in magazines that didn’t come to anything, but there is no doubt that the RIGHT publicity can get you clients. What newspapers want is human interest stories. That’s it. They want stories.

And finally, I worked with a new client this week who’s passion is films. She absolutely loves them and has an uncanny ability to quote from any film she’s seen. So how does she use this? In her leadership coaching! We were brainstorming the ways that she can use film clips to enhance the messages that she wants her clients to get. Now THAT’s memorable because it’s different.

Here’s a list of ‘Do’s and ‘Don’t’s:

Don’t – Be predictable. A business that stays the same, stays behind.

Don’t – Rely on gimmicks – yes have a memorable business card but don’t be the ‘guy in the red socks’

Do – things in life that aren’t strictly business-related and let your clients know. People love to get to know you.

Do – the odd crazy thing just for fun, like Gary singing to us.

Do – something that shows that you care (paying attention to the point below). People like people who care about humanity. Support a cause and get passionate about it.

Don’t – brag about what you are doing. Let other people spread the word. People who brag get remembered for bragging. I also don’t want to know that you spent £2K at a charity auction, or that you are not sending Christmas cards because you are donating to Shelter instead. Just do it.

Do – tell stories about your clients. We are looking for a log cabin to move our office into. The sites that have stories of how clients have used their outside spaces are by far the most memorable.

Do – evoke emotion. People remember how they feel more than anything else.

Do – surprise your clients. A handwritten card, a book, a personalised mug. People remember little things.

Do – have fun!

The post Be Memorable appeared first on The Extraordinary Coaching Company.

So yes it’s September suddenly. The holidays are over and it’s time to crack on. The holidays can be a funny old time, not quite completely relaxing and not quite achieving much either. Perhaps that’s the reality for most self-employed people. And by the way, we are not complaining! We have a lovely time and we are very grateful for that.

And then we suddenly realize that two thirds of the year has gone and we need to ask ourselves whether we are close enough to the goals that we set ourselves.

So it is time to regroup.

Here are some tips about how to do it fast (today) and make the next 4 months really count:

Re-acquaint yourself with your Vision

Even if, like us, your Vision shifts and changes all the time, please make sure you keep an eye on it.

What is it that you want to achieve by December 31st 2016?
Put together a Vision Board if you haven’t already – it’s not too late; every day is a new day on your path to what you want
Take a photo of your Vision Board and use it as your Screen Saver

Re-acquaint yourself with your Big Why

Why are you doing all of this?
What’s it in service of?
Write it up where you can see it every day

Set yourself 3 goals that you want to achieve this month

Map out the actions that you will take to reach those goals and then put them in your diary along with WHY you want to achieve them
Consider how many of those actions can be taken by others so that you are free to reach other goals. And then outsource them.
Do the same for the final 3 months of the year

Ready, get set….go!

 

 

The post How to make the last ⅓ of the year count appeared first on The Extraordinary Coaching Company.

I love it when a company does something clever with their marketing or PR by taking advantage of an event. Having worked on Marketing and advertising industry magazines in my youth I have always marvelled at those who created incredible ad copy on the back of a news item and got the advertising out in a matter of hours. It’s the kind of thing that makes you say, “Why didn’t I think of that?”

That’s why Nando’s deserves a mention. Granted, A’ Level results day wasn’t a surprise but I loved the fact that Nando’s took advantage of it to pull an excellent but simple piece of promotion aimed at JUST the students who got results. When I asked our son who he thought Nando’s target audience is he replied “Me,” so I think it’s safe to say that it was a well targeted promotion.

Nando’s announced that they would ‘celebrate’ results day by offering anyone who had got results a free ¼ chicken as long as they took in their results paper and some ID. And they announced it on Twitter where it seems ALL 17 and 18 year olds hang out (if our household is anything to go by).

The stunt got masses of PR in most of the national press too as they promised to keep all the results a secret!

In reality there was nothing ‘free’ about it at all. The student had to spend a minimum of £7 to get the ‘free’ chicken and the likelihood is that they would take in friends and family to celebrate who would then spend quite a lot on alcohol, I imagine!

Doing promotions around events gets you noticed. But what I think marked this out was the fact that it was aimed at event that specifically their target clients were going through rather than a general event like “Valentine’s Day”.

When you think about your perfect client, what ‘events’ are pertinent to them that you could target?

We’d love to hear your ideas!

The post Nando’s gets an ‘A’ in opportunity marketing appeared first on The Extraordinary Coaching Company.