Today’s success tip comes from Michelle Bowden.

At 28, with a baby and a huge mortgage, Michelle opened her training business, with AMP as her first client. She is an accredited NLP practitioner and master trainer in presentation and influencing skills. She works with CEOs and their teams to help prepare them for presentations at company meetings, conferences and sales pitches.

What are your top tips for influencing others in a positive and empowering way?

Rapport, rapport, rapport! Before you can influence others you must build rapport with them. My advice is to:

* Understand the person’s personality filters - the way they experience, respond to and manage their environment.

* Make a plan - what do you want to achieve?

* Use pacing and leading - pacing involves being like your audience in your dress, body language, eye contact, vocal variety, style, language, interests and attitudes. Some people call this matching or mirroring. Leading is taking the audience where you want them to go. Your audience won’t follow you or give you permission to lead them unless they feel an affiliation with you. You really can’t ask for anything until you have first built rapport.

* Show them what’s in it for them to change - we know this as the WIIFM or ‘what’s in it for me’.

* Cialdini’s influence patterns help you identify the other strategies to use - for more information I recommend you read Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini.

For more great tips and advice stay tuned for next week’s success tip.

Until then,

Allan Poole

Today’s success tip comes from Amy Lyden.

Amy is the Managing Director of Bow Wow Meow, which today is a leading producer of fun and functional pet tags. Its products are distributed through more than 1,500 pet shops sold throughout the world via the internet.

What advice would you give to an aspiring entrepreneur who wants to get started in a business of their own?

First things first, put together a great support team of other people in business that you meet with regularly and help each other out. Surround yourself with people whom you admire or can learn from. Create your own personal cheerleading squad - people who only want the best for you and who are prepared to help you shine and be the best you can be.

Next, consider what you are going to do. Try to think of things that makes people’s lives easier. Life is getting more and more complicated, how can you make it easier? Also, as a consumer, what are some of the products and services that you want that others might too? This is how I got the idea for my business.

Then, start researching. One of the key areas that I find people need to do extra research in is understanding the financials. This is absolutely essential. Often, new business owners underestimate or don’t understand cash flow. I highly recommend a course called ‘Beyond Survival’. It’s a two-day course put on by the Westpac bank. It is a highly practical, hands-on course designed to help business owners understand a profit and loss statement, balance sheet and the key ratios that determine the health of a business. Numbers do not lie, and if one doesn’t understand what they mean it can be a serious disadvantage.

Many people block themselves in this area by saying, ‘Numbers aren’t my thing’ or ‘I was never good at maths’. This is very damaging talk. It is critical to understand the financial aspects of your business - this is one area that should not be abdicated to the bookkeeper or accountant.

The bottom line is that no one knows your business better than you, even a CPA. I’m not suggesting that you micro-manage the financials, but you should at least understand the financial statements and cash flow of your business.

Until next time,

Allan Poole

Today’s success tip comes from Ari Galper.

Thousands of salespeople around the world have adopted Ari’s Unlock The Game program and are generating significantly better results. Ari has also created Unlock The Internet Game which uses live chat to help online businesses.

What tips do you have for salespeople to help eliminate the pressures and pain of selling?

Rejection can only happen if you’re focused on your own agenda - rejection happens when you go for the ‘yes’ instead of the truth. If you focus on your prospect’s issues and problems and whether your solution might be a fit for them, rejection is no longer a possibility. After all, how can rejection result from a conversation that has no hidden agendas?

Take a few minutes to debrief yourself after each call or selling encounter - don’t just make your calls and forget about them; every call can be an important learning experience. As soon as you can, reflect on and evaluate your call - did it go well? How do you determine ‘well’? Do you remember feeling a moment of awkwardness after saying something? Perhaps that was because you slipped back into some subtle form of pushing or exerting pressure? Did you sense any withdrawal or pulling back? Debriefing is a useful way to keep track of how your new Unlock The Game habits are developing.

Don’t think sales script, think conversation and dialogue - I talk every day with people who say that their scripts make them feel uncomfortable and robotic. While scripts may give you a feeling of control, this is an illusion. Conversation and dialogue can be scary because it means you have to give up some form of control. But remember, you’re dealing with another human being. How does trying to control them build trust? I promise you that selling can be a positive and productive experience if you are open to shifting to a new mind-set.

Until next time,

Allan Poole

Today’s success tip comes from Chris Gray.

Financially retired at the age of 31, today Chris is a multi-millionaire, and capital growth property investor. He is also a self-confessed lifestyle junkie.

What do you look for when you’re ’shopping for property’?

Ultimately, I am looking for suburbs that will have high long-term capital growth. That means there has to be a lot of employment in the area from lots of different types of industries, plenty of leisure and recreation for the people that live there and good transport links. However there are other things I look for such as:

* Aspect - I always look at light and heat. I check that the main living areas are facing North. No matter how great the property is, if it is not well lit I am turned-off immediately.

* Rent consideration - Receiving rent for your property is very important because it is the rent that will pay the mortgage. As a general rule, the more capital growth you want for wealth appreciation, the less rent you’ll get. It’s a fine line to find the right balance. I’d rather 10% growth and between four and 5% rent, than 10% rent and four to 5% growth.

* Median price - I recommend buying property around the median price so you’ll always have a tenant, there will be lots of comparisons if you want to get the bank to refinance it and there will be lots of interest if you do want to sell.

* Not pristine - I don’t want to buy property that is perfect because the seller will charge a premium if everything’s already done. I look for places that are livable to rent out straight away but may need some work, such as new carpet or a new kitchen. If you have an eye for improvements you can create additional equity, which is the difference between what you pay and what you can make it worth.

* Equal-size bedrooms - If you’re letting out a two-bedroom apartment to two single people you need two equal size double bedrooms.

* Built-in wardrobes - People don’t want to cart around a wardrobe. I check for built-ins or space to potentially add one to the room.

* Toilets, bathroom and en-suite - An additional toilet is always useful, toilets that are separate from bathrooms are good, so is having one bathroom and an en-suite off the main bedroom.

* Lock-up garage - People who can afford $400-plus rent don’t want to park their car in the street. Some people won’t look at your property if it doesn’t have a garage.

Today’s success tip comes from Pip McKay.

Pip became a trainer of NLP, running programs through her company Evolve Now! Mind Institute. From her years of experience coaching and training Pip pioneered a new technique called Matrix Therapies that has gained widespread popularity.

What have you found to be the best methods or strategies for keeping motivated and focused?

* I believe that doing what you love is the key to staying motivated. When you love something you don’t have to motivate yourself because you simply want to do it. If you have found your purpose and don’t feel motivated, then there is some kind of block that needs to be cleared. I don’t even like the idea of having to ‘get motivated’, it seems like too much hard work. I’d rather do what I love or clear a block to what I want.

* Having said that, in every business there are certain tasks that although boring, are important. In these situations I always break the task down into smaller sections so I can get a sense of closure for each. This also allows me to complete more interesting tasks in between. Or I will give myself a short timeframe to complete it in so that I am racing the clock and getting it out of the way more quickly. Inertia is always greatest at the beginning of a task, so starting with small, easy steps helps overcome that initial inertia and the rest of the task takes on a momentum of its own.

* Sometimes a lack of motivation is simply exhaustion. To remain motivated I think it is important to balance your lifestyle, take breaks, eat well and have holidays. People often use the term, ‘mind over matter’ to bully themselves into becoming a workaholic. When we work in cooperation with our body and emotions we create balance and wellbeing and in these circumstances motivation is natural.

Until next time.

Allan Poole

Welcome to my blog. Today I would like to share with you some tips that I learned from Jamie McIntyre at the 21st Century Academy Lifestyle Conference.

* “Lifestyle has more to do with Planning than it does with money.”
I am sure that you have heard it said before that those who fail to plan plan to fail. This is true in every area of our lives!
In regards to the life that we choose, we must realise that we need to plan ahead. For instance, plan that weekend away with the family. Plan a date-night each week with the one you love. Plan to have a family picnic on the weekend. Plan to spend time with the kids. Plan time to relax!

There are so many things we can do in life that involve little or no money. So remember to not stress if money is tight. Make the most of what you have and plan activities that do not need a lot of money!
If we fail to plan then each week will fly by and before we know it another month is ending … then another year!
So remember that planning is important in every area of our lives!

* “The sign of Intelligence is the ability to entertain a new idea.”
It is easy sometimes to go through life with my own preconceived ideas and not being willing to listen to others, but I am learning, as the years go by, that if I can listen to other people’s opinions and learn from them, then I continue to grow as a person and begin to see outside the box of my own life. I am enjoying expanding my thoughts and learning to look for other ways to do things.

* “The most powerful way to learn is to teach.”
I have found personally that once I learn a new concept or idea that if I am able to share this with others and teach them, then I myself learn the concept more deeply also.

Here is a photo of Greg and I with Jamie at the conference.

Until next time.

To your success and fulfilment in life!

Leanne Annett