My New Blog details

I've moved my blog over to my website.

You can access it here:

www.dickiearmour.me.uk

Public Speaking - How to Prepare Properly

One of the secrets to being a competent public speaker is proper preparation. Like most things in life, if you do all the groudwork and put the time and effort in you'll be rewarded. But so many people who step up to the front of the room die on their feet because they didn't do the proper preparation.

Talk to Yourself!
I do a lot of driving and I love it. I use it for my thinking time. I'm alone in my car with no interruptions - I can choose to answer my mobile phone or not - and it's the time when I do most of my quality thinking and come up with some of best ideas.

So one of the things I started doing when I was thinking about an up coming presentation I had to do, was speaking it out loud whilst I was driving. I'm sure I got loads of strange looks from other drivers! It was great to just blurt it out and I did so imagining that I was actually stood in front of the audience at the event. But I quickly realised that I couldn't remember the content by the time I got back to my office!

Record Yourself
So I thought I could record my random talks in the car and discovered a brilliant app which comes on the iPhone - Voice Recorder.

I switch the Record feature on and I just begin talking as if I'm stood in front of the live audience. As long as I know my subject matter, I can waffle on for about ten to fifteen minutes. This gives me a great base for my talk.

Transcript
I then transcript the audio into a Word document next time I'm in my office. I do this myself but there are people you can find via the Internet who will do this for you and for a very reasonable fee.

Once I've got it in a document I can then tweak the text and add bits until I'm happy.

Final Recording
I then narrate the whole talk back onto the Voice Recorder app on my iPhone.

I then have my talk in audio format and I can play it in my car.

Keep Listening
I then play it whilst I'm driving and I listen to it over and over again until it finally goes in.

Final Rehearsal
I then do one final practice with the printed text in case I need to refer to it. I stand in my office and do my talk always as if I was there on the day in front of the live audience.

On the day
I always like to talk to people before the talk to get to know them and I like referring to some of them during my talk if I can. I like to try make my talk relevant to the company I'm presenting for and the people in the audience. So I like to find out as much about the location, company and the people as I can in advance.

I find this method really works. I never like having notes to read from and I never take them with me on the day. I think learning my talk this way gives me enough freedom and flexibility to add bits on the day as I see fit.

What methods do you use? Please let me know if you try my method and please let me know how you get on.

You Must Be Open to Opportunities

I love life and I love helping people. It's what drives me. I've always been a curious person. Yes, I know, I'm curious! But I don't mean in that way! I mean I'm curious, I'm interested in things and always open to new opportunities.

I'm a big believer that life offers us all sorts of new opportunities each and every day. But it breaks my heart when I hear people say things like,
"Those sorts of things never happen to me."
"Such is life."
"This is my lot in life."
"I'm never lucky like you are!"
"It's easy for you, people like you."
"I don't dream big dreams, I just end up disappointed all the time"

And so on and so on. You've no doubt heard similar sorts of things from some of the people you know and perhaps yourself too from time to time!

There are way too many people in life who accept mediocrity. What I mean by that is those people who do the 9 to 5 routine, don't enjoy their jobs, but don't bother looking to change. They come home from work and slump in front the TV and let the evening viewing wash over them, only to get up the next day and repeat the same process. The hard work of making a living has consumed them and zapped any passion they once had, leaving them to just exist. Any sign of a dream or goal has long since vanished.

The Corridor of Life
But I truly believe that anyone can achieve anything they want but they have to be open to it, to truly believe they can do it and to be on the look out for the opportunities which will help them.

I use the analogy of The Corridor of Life. We all walk along the corridor of life but for many people, in fact the majority or people, the doors along their corridor are all closed so they just trudge along the hallway never expecting anything exciting or interesting to happen.

I'm the exact opposite. Yes, I too walk along the same hallway, but I don't trudge. I walk confidently along it and from time to time I'll pass a door. Now often my doors are closed too, but I'm curious. I wonder what's behind a closed door and so I walk up to it and see if it's unlocked. If it is I'll turn the handle and peek in. You never know where the chance you need might come from.

Often a door will be locked and that's fine; I just leave those. If it was meant to be opened by me, it would be unlocked.

There's a well known saying in Scotland; “If it’s fir ye, it’ll no pass ye by.” It's basically means don't worry about things, because if whatever you're worrying about is meant to be then it will work out.  If not, then it’s not meant to be, so move on. My grandfather, Arthur Lee, always told me not to waste time worrying about the things in life which you can't control! I love that.

Many times the doors I approach will be wide open with really bright lights shining out onto the corridor. I'm always excited to enter these doors!

Now I'm only using this as a metaphor, but the corridor of life is similar to what happens in life. We have opportunities presented to us on a daily, weekly and monthly basis but most of the time we don't see them!

I gave a talk at a business event in Bristol about 3 weeks ago. It was about how to set goals properly. 2 of the people who attended the event spoke to me afterwards. They both said they loved my enthusiasm and they wish they could have me cheering them on each day. As I drove back to my office, their comments got me thinking. I thought it would be great if I could help motivate people everyday but I didn't want it to mean I would actually have to be there with them or on the end of a telephone.

I realised their comments were another one of the corridor of life's doors of opportunity opening for me.

Monday Motivation
So I gave it some thought and within a week I had set up my new product - www.mondaymotivation.co.uk I am recording a brand new, motivational audio message every week which is posted on my website on a Monday morning. It can be listened to online or it can be downloaded and listened to anytime. It's free for the first month and in less than a week of going live I've already had 8 people sign up!

Now I've no idea where this will take me but it feels right. It feels great and I'm truly excited about it. I'm helping people get and stay motivated which is what drives me. I love helping people and that's what Monday Motivation will do.

So start thinking about what you'd like to achieve in your life and start believing that you really can achieve whatever you want. You too are walking down your own corridor of life, so start to get curious and look for those doors along your corridor. And start opening them and seeing where they might lead you. You'll be amazed!

Please do add your comments about the different opportunities you've grabbed and let us all know what happened.

Beware! A New Domain Name Renewal Scam

Please Read This Carefully

A friend received an email notification with the title of Registration Expiration.

See the image below of the exact notification.

You'll see if refers to a domain name (I've hidden the ID to protect the owner) with a Registration date and price of $75.00 for 1 year! Just ridiculous. The average price for a domain name for 1 year is about £10.00.

They have then been clever in the wording of the notice. Now most people wouldn't read it properly - it looks like a bill and a lot of people would just click through to make the payment.

When you actually read it, it states a company called SE Services provides submission services and search engine ranking organisation for domain owners. So it's NOT actually for the renewal of your domain name. It's a payment for submission and search engine ranking services.

But of course, it's obvious these people or person won't do anything for you except take your money and bank it!

I did a bit of digging and found this other blog post from last month from a Money Scams Exposed blog - http://moneyscamsexposed.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/se-services-expiring-domain-name-scam.html 

It seems it's a new scam based on an old variation. I wrote about the Domain Renewal Group of America last year, and how they post renewal letters to domain name owners hoping they'll fill out the form and send it back with credit card details ora cheque.

See Beware of this Domain Name Renewal SCAM!

So please be very careful and please tell all your family, friends and work colleagues about this new scam.

If you've had an email like this one or anything similar please share your story in the comments below.

How Does Facebook Measure up Versus Ad Agencies [Infographic]

This great Inforgraphic was taken from Campaign magazine and I love the stats included on it.

It demonstrates how quickly Facebook has grown in valuation and profit for a company so young.

Click the graphic below for full image.

Infographic from Campaign Magazine
18th May 2012

Gravatar - Your Globally Recognisable Avatar

I've met every single one of these 25!

Have you ever posted a comment on someone's blog post and wondered why you're listed as a "Guest" or "Anonymous"? But then have you noticed that lots of the other people who have commented have their photo next to their comments?

That's because they are using a brilliant piece of online software called Gravatar. www.gravatar.com allows you to register for free and upload a photo or multiple photos of youself. This is then used when you add your comments to a blog or forum post. Gravatar gives you your Globally Recognisable Avatar linked to your email address.

Any time you use that email address with any of the growing number of Gravatar supported blogs, forums, websites and services your profile and avatar come along for the ride. It's not just your photo either, if anyone clicks through to Gravatar they can check out your profile with all the relevant information and website links.

If you're like most people and me, you use the same photo on all the social networking websites. Your photo has become a big part of your online brand identity and so I love the fact that Gravatar makes it so simple for my photo to come with me when I'm adding comments around the World Wide Web.

You can see my Dickie Armour Gravatar profile here.

It's really easy to register and set up your Gravatar account. Just go to Gravatar.com and follow the steps.

Don't Let the Dream Stealers Steal Your Dreams

Mario Andretti - F1 World Champion 1978

What would you like to do with your life? What's your goal? What's your dream? I hope you're like me and you have lots of dreams. Life is truly wonderful and will give you everything you've ever wanted.

Of course you have to know what it is that you want. You have to let yourself go and allow yourself to dream and make sure you dream big dreams!

Below I share with you some of my favourite stories of people who dared to dream big dreams.

But you have to watch out for the dream stealers! You know who those people are in your life. The ones who, when you tell them about your latest business idea or you tell them about your goals and dreams, laugh at you and begin to cast doubts over your ability. They come up with loads of reasons why you shouldn't even try.

My Dad!

My dad was the best Dad ever! He never once stole any of my dreams. In fact, he was always the first to encourage me and tell me to go for it. He was amazing and such a positive role model for me.

John Armour was born in the Gorbals, Glasgow, the roughest part of the UK in 1932. He was raised in a council house on Govan Hill Street and at the age of 15 he left Glasgow and headed down to live in London. Dad knew he could be someone and felt if he stayed in the Gorbals he would end up in trouble. On arriving in London Dad even had elocution lessons to try to reduce his broad Glaswegian accent! He carved out a successful career in Sales and Publishing and when he sadly passed away in 2000 he was the Managing Director of Marshall Cavendish in Soho, London. "Not bad for a boy from the Gorbals!" was one of his well known sayings. :-)

One of my friends runs various, successful Internet businesses and his father was very old fashioned and had been a successful lawyer in London. He could never understand why his son hadn't followed a "sensible profession" such as law or medicine. He'd say to my mate, "Why are you wasting your time with that InterWeb thingy. Why don't you go and get a proper job." I'm pleased to say my mate didn't listen to his father!

I do appreciate that our friends and family just want the best for us, but sometimes, if you know you have dream stealers around you, my advice would be to shoot for your dreams without letting them know at the beginning. Keep it to yourself. You can bring them with you once you're on your way.

If you have a dream or a goal don't let anyone stop you or try to put you off.

Monty Roberts

Monty Roberts - The Horse Whisperer tells the very best story of how to ignore the dream stealers. Whenever people attend his ranch in San Diego, Monty tells the same story.

"I want to tell you a story about a young man who was the son of a travelling horse trainer who would go from stable to stable, farm to farm and ranch to ranch, training horses. As a result, the boy’s high school career was continually interrupted. When he was a senior, he was asked to write a paper about what he wanted to be and do when he grew up."

"That night he wrote a seven page paper describing his goal of one day owning a horse ranch. He wrote about his dream in great detail and he even drew a picture of a 200nacre ranch, showing the location of all the buildings, the stables and the track. Then he drew a detailed floor plan for a massive mansion that would sit on the 200 acre ranch."

"He put a huge effort into the project and the next day he handed it in to his teacher. A few days later he got his paper back. On the front page was a large red F with a note that said, `See me after class'."

"The boy went to see the teacher after class and asked, `Why did you give my paper an F?'"

"The teacher said, 'This is an unrealistic dream for a young boy like you. You don't have any money. Your family just travel around. They have very little money. Owning a ranch requires a lot of money. You'll need to buy some land. You'll have to buy all the horses and later you’ll have to pay large stud fees. There’s no way you could ever do it!' The teacher added, 'I'll give you another chance. If you rewrite your paper with a more realistic goal, I'll reconsider your mark.'"

"The boy went home and thought about it long and hard. He asked his father what he should do. His father said, 'Look, son, you have to make up your own mind on this. However, I think it is a very important decision for you.' "Finally, after sitting with it for a week, the boy turned in the same paper, making no changes at all."

"He stated, 'You can keep the F and I’ll keep my dream.'"

Monty then turned to the assembled group and said, "I tell you this story because you're sitting in my 4,000 square foot mansion on my 200 acre ranch. And I still have that school paper with the F grade framed over the fireplace."

Don't let anyone steal your dreams!

Darren Hardy

I was lucky enough to see and meet Darren Hardy earlier this year in Telford, UK when he came over as the keynote speaker at a Utility Warehouse conference. You can read more about how I met Darren Hardy here.

The Power of Goal Setting

I've been a big fan of Darren's for a while and he gave a great talk in Telford. He mentioned Dream Stealers and he uses a great metaphor for ignoring them.

Darren compares your goal, or dream or challenge to that of climbing a mountain. It can seem an almost impossible task when you're stood at the bottom looking up at your huge mountain. And it's during those early days when you embark on your journey to reach the top of your mountain, when you're most vulnerable to the dream stealers.

When they enivitably tell you not to bother; it's way too hard; you'll never make it etc Darren says you just turn to them and tell them "It's my mountain and I'm climbing it!"

I love that! "It's my mountain and I'm climbing it!" With massive conviction like this, you'll get to the the top, no problem!

Mario Andretti

I was watching the new F1 channel 408 on SKY TV at the weekend and caught a brilliant documentary featuring Mario Andretti.

Mario seems like such a great guy and his story is inspiring. Talk about having a huge goal!! At an early age Mario and his brother Aldo lived in Lucca, a Yugolavia invaded part of Italy and used to watch the famous Mille Miglia road race near where they lived. It was a long race with sports cars racing over 1,000 miles through the Italian countryside. This was Mario's first taste of motor racing and in 1954 when he was 14 years old, he was taken to see the Italian Grand Prix in Monza. At that young, impressionable age, Mario declared that one day he would be a Formula One driver!

To put that into perspective, he was from a poor family and in 1955 he and his family emigrated to America to seek a better life. And yet Mario truly believed he could and would become an F1 driver! For the boys this meant seeking ways to become involved in motor racing, which around their new home town of Nazareth, Pennsylvania, mainly took the form of old, beaten up cars competing on dangerous dirt track ovals. Mario and Aldo were 18 years old when they began racing, at the wheel of a self-prepared Hudson Hornet they shared in stock car events!

Mario continued to do well in the short oval races and soon progressed on to the giant speedways, eventually winning the Indianapolis 500!

But Mario never lost his passion for F1 and in 1965 he was lucky enough to meet Colin Chapman, the boss of Lotus and Colin, having seen Mario race, offered him a seat in his F1 car when Mario was ready! Mario did so in 1968 and 10 years later in 1978 he won the F1 World Championship!

Mario Andretti's story is incredible and if you're in the UK I highly recommend tuning into SKY TV channel 408 where they play reruns of his story every week.

What's Your Dream?

So what's your dream? What are your goals? Start dreaming big dreams and get them clear in your head. Write them down in detail. Writing your goals down is the best way to get them clear in your mind so you can really visualise them. And make sure you absolutley believe you can and will achieve them with absolute conviction.

Then go climb your mountain and don't let the dream stealers steal your dreams!

Related Posts
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4 Steps to Help You Develop Persistence
7 Brilliant Business & Personal Development Audio Books
The Power of Goal Setting
The Power of Positive Thinking
Fantastic Tony Robbins video - Creating Massive Action!

The Power of Goal Setting

If you want to achive anything in life, you have to know what you want and believe with absolute conviction that you will achieve it.

Whatever the human mind can conceive and believe it can achieve. - Napoleon Hill

I've always been a very postive and focused person and I tend to get what I want out of life. I still have lots of huge goals which I'm pursuing and after this weekend I'm even more certain that I'll achieve them.

Darren Hardy
I'm a huge fan of Darren Hardy,  the visionary force behind SUCCESS magazine as its Publisher and Editorial Director. Darren is also an accomplished entrepreneur, author, keynote speaker, private equity investor, corporate advisor and peak performance mentor.

I was first introduced to Darren Hardy by my good friend, Stuart Edmonstone when he gave me a copy of The Compound Effect. I listen to it at least once a month in my car via my iPhone and I love it. I've recently subscribed to the Success Magazine app for iPad and it is absolutely superb!

So when Stuart found out the Keynote speaker at the annual Utility Warehouse conference was Darren Hardy, Stuart got me a ticket! The event was this Saturday.

Last week I tweeted Darren and he tweeted back so I was hopeful he might remember me.

Utility Warehouse
The event was for distributors of Utility Warehouse to celebrate the year's successes and it's the event where the senior management team announce lots of exciting changes. I was really impressed. The conference was incredible. Very impressive with some great speakers and lots of people went up on stage to collect awards for the success they had achieved in the business.

A lot of people turn their noses up at Network Marketing but I have to say Utility Warehouse is one business that bucks the trend. More on that in a future blog post - watch this space!

So as I'm not a distributor with Utility Warehouse, I was in the minority at the event but I had a goal. My mission was to meet Darren Hardy. Now at first glance that felt pretty achievable. I was in Telford at the International Conference Centre and so was Darren. How hard could it be?

I didn't realise there would be nearly three thousand people attending! So you can imagine at the end of his talk, he'd do a book signing or a "meet and greet" and there would be up to three thousand people queuing up to meet him! This wasn't my goal.

My Mission to Meet Darren
My goal was to meet Darren in a quieter environment where we could chat for a little bit. So I had to focus on this plan. There was a motivational book, CD and DVD seller there called "Barry the Book" who owns and runs Knowledge is King. He had a huge stand with every kind of book and CD audio going. I spoke to Barry and he said last year they had a book signing all arranged but this year he wasn't sure what Darren Hardy's plans were. He thought Darren might just speak and then leave!

I was devastated. Short of running up on stage like some lunatic, I began to think the others were right; "Dickie, there's no way you'll get to meet him with all these people here."

Andrew Lindsay - CEO of Utility Warehouse
But I'm never one to accept defeat easily and I kept my vision in my head and later on during one of the coffee breaks, Stuart pointed out Andrew Lindsay, the CEO of Utility Warehouse. So me being me, (I'm never shy or slow in coming forward) I approached Andrew; introduced myself and asked him if he knew if Darren was in the building. He said he didn't think he was and he didn't know if he would be doing any book signings.

So I didn't discover anything else, but I did get to meet the CEO and shake his hand which I realised later was quite a big thing. Andrew Lindsay is an Olympic Gold medal winning oarsman! And one of the great things about Utility Warehouse is they recognise success and as people reach the different levels in the business, they get invited up on stage at their conference to meet the CEO and Chairman. So I'd already got to meet the CEO and shake his hand and I wasn't even in the business!

Back to my goal. Lunchtime came and still no sign of Darren but I'd heard there was a Chairman's Lunch for all the high flying achievers so I left Stuart and Kathy and went to investigate. If Darren was in there then I thought, he's got to come out at some point.

I'm a big believer the law of the Universe, it brings you what you need, when you need it. Ask and you will recieve. But you have to know what you want and believe with absolute conviction that you will achieve it.

The Law of the Universe
The reason I mention the Law of the Universe is that the International Conference Centre in Telford is massive! I knew the lunch was happening upstairs on the first floor but where? I had no idea. But where we'd stood to eat our lunch was a set of stairs so I headed up there to begin my search. At the top of the stairs, less than 20 yards away was the double doors to the room where the Chairman's Lunch was taking place! I'm not kidding! Of all the stairs in the whole place I walked up those! I was beginning to get excited. It was a sign.

A lovely lady who was outside the lunch room confirmed that Darren was having lunch in there. Oh My God!! Brilliant I had found him!

I'm Not a Stalker!
Please don't get me wrong here. I know it sounds like I am a stalker, but let me put this into perspective for you. I'm a huge fan of postive, motivational, success coaches like Tony Robbins, Jim Rohn, Zig Ziglar, Jack Canfield, Bob Proctor, Napoleon Hill, Dale Carnegie, Brian Tracy, Darren Hardy, and so on. Yet, they all have one thing in common; they are American and they live in the USA and most of their events and speaking gigs are in the USA.

So to get a chance to meet them in person is a huge motivation for me and something I love to try to do. After all, they feel like friends. I've listened to them over and over again in my car, I've read their books and they have all really helped mould me into the guy I am today. So to get to meet them and thank them in person would be an amazing thing to do.

The Chairman's Lunch
So I'm upstairs outside the lunch room and I was amazed that it so quiet up there. Literally I had just walked up a flight of stairs leaving behind a mass of three thousand people and yet this corridoor was empty.

I have to wait no more than 10 minutes and as I glance up from my iPad, who should I see walking down the corridor towards me? The man himself!

So I approached and said hello and he was just so relaxed and happy to chat. Stuart magically appeared at exactly the right moment to snap this photo of me with Darren!! Thanks Stu!

A dream come true. I dared to dream. I had a goal which I truly believed with conviction that I would meet Darren and get to chat with him. I didn't listen to the people who doubted it.

As Darren said during his talk - "It's My Mountain! And I'm climbing it and getting to the top!"

I took action when every one else was stood round having lunch. I climbed my mountain! And Darren was even kind enough to sign his book for me!

Thanks Darren - 2012 is my year for Going BIG! ;-)

The Moral of The Story
You must have goals and you must believe with absolute conviction that you'll achieve them.
What are your goals? Think about them now and choose maybe the top two. The two which if you could achieve them would bring you the most pleasure and satisfaction and make you feel like life was just fantastic!
Think of those two goals - do you believe you will achieve them? Do feel a rod of iron of absolute conviction in your stomach that will achieve them?
If not you need to think about your reasons "WHY" you want to achieve your goals.
See my blog post - Forget Will Power - You Need WHY Power

Climb Your Mountain
So choose your two top goals, write them down and make sure you know the reasons WHY you want to achieve them and then ensure you have the rod of iron conviction and belief that you will achieve them and take action and get climbing your mountain!

Please do comment below and share your story.

My Business book 31 Mistakes featured on today's news!

I've recently started a PR campaign to promote my business book - 31 Mistakes Every Online Business Makes. I'm using Peter Hughes from Peter Hughes Media Relations.

The following couple of clips were played on Monday 13th February on a local Bristol radio station, Jack FM.



For more details on my book please go to - www.31Mistakes.co.uk where you can find out more. The book is available in paperback or on Amazon Kindle.

Who Knew Amazon Reviews Could be So Useful?!

I got a brilliant tip from Paul Elliott, an Internet Marketing Ninja! He led an expert session at a 4Networking Make It Happen Monday event earlier this month.

He shared with the group how powerful Amazon Reviews can be and not in the way you might think! He explained the power of them in helping you find out where demand is for your products and/or services.

I'm a huge advocate that every business owner should be creating products based around their business. You should write books, create DVDs, host workshops, and hold seminars all based around your area of expertise.

Paul shared a huge nugget of gold with us. If you are wondering what to write about or which particular area of your expertise to focus on, then check out the reviews on Amazon.

Let me explain. Search on Amazon for books which have been written about your industry or chosen subject and scroll down to the reviews. You're looking for the detailed reviews; not the ones which just say "This is a great book, buy it!" What you want are the reviews which give detailed feedback.

For example: Nick Dougan's review of Inbound Marketing goes into some detail. Nick is a Top 1,000 reviewer on Amazon so you can take it his reviews are always pretty good and spot on. Have a read through and you'll see him highlight some areas which he found interesting:

1. Using social media along with search engine optimisation and customer conversions
2. Explaining the different social media platforms
3. Converting customers
4. Using landing pages on your website
5. Sing up forms so you can get customer contact details
6. Autoresponders & email marketing
7. Focusing on strategy
8. Negative about quality of paper used in printing book - so think about this with yours

So from just 1 review of a book about Internet Marketing I've found 7 points worth focusing on and a great tip to avoid - make sure your book is published professional using quality paper.
And I love Nick Dougan's final comment: "If there is a better book covering this subject matter in such an integrated way, please use "comment" to tell me about it."

That tells me if I was an Internet Marketing person and I wrote a book based around these points, then it would be worthwhile, because if Nick Dougan is interested in a similar book to Inbound Marketing, then I'm sure there will be plenty of others too.

So if you're considering writing a book; holding a seminar or webinar, or launching a new product or service, before you do get yourself onto Amazon and check out some of the relevant reviews of products in similar markets to yours. You'll find out what others like and dislike and this useful feedback might just be really useful to you.

See also - Have You Productised Your Business Yet?

Have You Productised Your Business yet?

I'm constantly looking to stretch myself and learn more from life. I think this is one of the ways we grow; become better people; become more successful. I'd hate to stagnate. I'm never going to be someone who accepts life as it is. I believe there are people who go through life accepting the cards they have been dealt; accepting mediocrity. This is a crying shame.

I'm the opposite - I strive to further myself and to grow and become the best I can be. Thanks to this way of thinking I chose to attend one of Peter Thomson's brilliant seminars in London in September 2010. It was a product creation seminar.

Every Business Should Have Products
Peter spent the day explaining how important it is for every business to have products which it can sell and what he means by products is physical products such as books, CD Audios and DVDs with content based around your business and your area of expertise.

My Book
My book "31 Mistakes Every Online Business Makes" is a great example of a product which I created to share my knowledge and help other people. I've already had it turned into a Kindle version so people with a Kindle and people with an iPhone or iPad can download it via the Amazon Kindle website. And thanks to Phil Clarkson, a Bristol based business trainer, I'm now creating an audiobook version of it.
Phil saw my book and congratulated me but explained he would never buy it. At first I was a tad upset, but Phil immediately explained that he doesn't like to read books, but he loves to listen to books in his car! So one product very quickly turned into three products!

Leverage
Brad Sugars, the CEO and Founder of ActionCoach shared with me at one of his seminars the secret of "Leverage". Brad explained the beauty of leverage was only doing the work once and getting paid over and over and over again! Brad's written over 14 books on business and he gets paid each and every time somone buys one of his books. Compare this to any consultantcy or training based business where you get paid for your time. Sure, the money can still be good, but we only have 24 hours a day and most people only work a maximum of 10 hours so you only really have 10 hours to bill out your services. So you have to keep on keeping on!

Every time you get paid, you have to do the work all over again. If you run seminars you have to keep doing the same seminar over and over again. However, instead, you could record a video of your seminar and then sell it on DVD. Now wouldn't that be cool? Think how many times people have said to you, "I'd have loved to come to that but I can't make that date." If you had a DVD of your seminar you could sell them a copy to watch at their leisure! 

What Products can you Create?
So think about your business - what products can you create? When I ask people this question I usually get the standard repsonses of "I can't write" or "I don't have anything worth sharing" or "I don't want to share my secrets; my competitors will copy me" etc.

Lucky for you Peter Thomson says you can; you do and you should share! Each and every one of us is unique with a wealth of experience, advice and guidance we can share with our target market. If you're a business coach, your experience of life and business and coaching is completely different to any other business coach out there.

So get your thinking cap on and start creating products for your business. No matter what your business is, you can create a product or products which will provide useful advice to your target audience.

• If you're a car valeter, you could sell DVDs showing people how to polish a car properly.
• If you're a personal fitness trainer, record your exercise sessions and create a DVD.
• If you're an estate agent, start using video to market your client's houses.
• If you have a blog and been writing it for a while now, use your blog posts and turn them into a book!

What products have you created for your business? Please share them by adding a comment below.

Why You Should @Reply on Twitter

Did you know that if I start a Tweet with the @ symbol when I reply to somebody, for example:

@jamieforster Yes let's do that; good plan mate.

only people who follow both Jamie Forster and I will see the tweet in their Twitter stream.

A lot of people worry about being "too noisy" on Twitter and so don't want to reply to people or carry on a conversation with people on Twitter for fear of filling other followers' streams with the tweets.

By knowing this, more people will engage with each other in conversations on Twitter without having to worry about drowning the streams of their other followers.

You can watch the video below on this by Gary Vaynerchuk - "The @ system, do you understand it?" where Gary explains that most people he speaks to had no idea about this aspect of the @ reply feature.


You'll see that Gary is very passionate about this!!

So start to use the @ reply and don't worry about drowning your followers with your conversations. Actually, it's quite important that you do @ reply to people - one of the criteria I and many others use when choosing to follow people on Twitter is whether they have conversations. The @ reply in your timeline shows me that you engage with others and I like that.

If your Twitter feed is just full of broadcast message then I won't follow you back.

The screenshot below shows you what I mean:

However, if your Twitter feed has @ reply messages as well as content then I am way more likely to follow you back. 

The screenshot below of @thebrandbuilder shows you a good mix:

So don't worry about replying to your Twitter connections with the @ reply. In fact, I suggest you should do it more often. Not only does it show to potential followers that you'll engage in conversation with them; it will make your Twitter connections deeper and more enriched.

4 Steps to Help You Develop Persistence

As many of you know, I'm a huge fan of "Think and Grow Rich" by Napoleon Hill.

If you would like a copy of his book you can enter my FREE prize draw here -

This was me finishing the Windsor Triathlon!

www.thinkandgrowrichoffer.co.uk

The following is an excerpt from the book which I hope you'll find useful.

How to Develop Persistence

There are four simple steps which lead to the habit of persistence. They call for no great amount of intelligence, no particular amount of education and but little time or effort.

1. A definite purpose backed by a burning desire for its fulfillment
2. A definite plan, expressed in continuous action
3. A mind closed tightly against all negative and discouraging influences, including negative suggestions of relatives, friends and acquaintances
4. A friendly alliance with one or more persons who will encourage one to follow through with both plan and purpose

These four steps are essential for success in all walks of life. The entire purpose of the thirteen principles (from Think and Grow Rich) is to enable one to take these four steps as a matter of habit.

There is a magnificent reward for all who learn to take these four steps. It is the privilege of writing one's own ticket, and making life yield whatever price is asked.

I speak to hundreds of business owners in the UK and most of them don't have a definite of purpose, or a goal of where they are heading. Without knowing this how can you back it with a burning desire?

I have had huge success from applying many of the 13 principles in Napoleon Hill's book and the 4 steps laid out above are one of the key "secrets" to success.

I urge you to get your hands on a copy of "Think and Grow Rich" and begin applying Hill's 13 principles as soon as you can. I'm giving away a FREE copy of a beautiful, hard back version of the book, every fortnight until the end of next year, 2012! Go to www.thinkandgrowrichoffer.co.uk to enter your chance of grabbing your FREE copy.

My New Business Book!

I justed wanted to share with you this video blog which is a quick plug for my new book - 31 Mistakes Every Online Business Makes.


You can register your interest today by going to www.31mistakes.co.uk

Twitter Spam & How to Avoid It

There has been a recent wave of Spam on Twitter.

The main way the spammers use Twitter is by hacking into accounts and sending Direct Messages (DMs) to people with links to dodgy websites. The website will ask you to enter your Twitter username and password.

PLEASE NOTE: Twitter will NEVER ask you to download something or sign-in to a non-Twitter website.

You receive the DM and because it's from someone you know you can be tricked into clicking the link and because the website seems like a Twitter log in page you think nothing of it and enter your details.
The recent one doing the rounds was like the one in the example below.

I've hidden the id of the sender to protect them. The tweet reads: "I saw a bad blog about you. Have you seen this?" Followed by the link.

I use Hootsuite to manage many of my social media accounts such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, which is what I recommend to every one. You don't need to download any software - you just go to www.hootsuite.com.

In the image above you'll see there is a + symbol to the right of the URL in the tweet. If you click on this it expands into a box like the one in the image so you can check the URL and see where it's actually going. In this example you can see the WARNING sign and so you would never click the link.

So DO NOT click any links in DMs unless you were expecting a message with a link from the person and if you use Hootsuite you can check the URL first by clicking the + symbol first.

What to do if you are hacked
On speaking to some of the people I know locally who have had their Twitter accounts hacked I realised that many of them didn't know what to do about the hacking and how to secure their Twitter account.

I also realised that many didn't fully understand why these spammers or hackers do this. So I'm just going to explain and hopefully this will help a lot of people.

If your Twitter account is compromised go to the Twitter support site here: https://support.twitter.com/articles/31796

The hackers and spammers do this to get your password. Once they get your password they can then log in and send more DM spam to other unsuspecting people on Twitter and capture more passwords.

They want your password because way too many people use the same password for other website such as PayPal. If the hackers can get into your PayPal account they can spend your money!

So be warned. If your Twitter account has been compromised make sure you change your password on all the websites where you use the same password. And STOP using the same password for everything.

If you want a brilliant new system for creating and remembering passwords go to the Oxford Internet Institute website here: https://passwordcard.oii.ox.ac.uk/ This is a fantastic system!

The Circle of Life - How Family Support Helps Breed Success

I was watching the Japanese Grand Prix this weekend and saw a few shots on television which got me thinking.

Jenson Button's dad was there. Sebastian Vettel's dad was there. Mark Webber's dad was there. Felippe Massa's dad was there.

They were all there supporting their son's in the race. There was something special about it, it felt good to see the dad's all intently focused on the TV screens in the pit garages as they cheered their sons on. I'll never forget the passion John Button showed at Brazil when his son Jenson won the World Champioship.

This photo was taken in Japan as Jenson's dad and Sebastian Vettel's dad watched their sons on the podium.

My Dad's Support
It reminded me of my school days when I played football for my school and a local league club team. My dad came to every home game we played. It was magic to have him stood there on the sidelines cheering me on. I was a goalkeeper and his cheers when I made a great save filled me full of pride and  his encouraging words as I picked the ball out of the back of my net after the opposition had scored were a huge help to me.

There is no doubt when dad was at a game I stepped up my efforts and played much better in those matches. He was great with the other players too and I often got comments from some of the others such as "I wish I had a dad who was cool like your's." And "My dad never comes to our games, you're so lucky."

Affect our Parents Have
And it got me thinking about our businesses and the affect our parents have had on our success. Now don't get me wrong - I'm not giving you an excuse to blame your parents on any lack of current success!

My dad was always there for me and never stole any of my dreams; quite the opposite; he encouraged me to reach for the moon. In fact, when I went to him back in 1988 with the idea to join me in an MLM business, NSA, selling water filters, he came to a meeting and joined there and then. We built a great little business when his doctor and accountant joined the network. It was so cool to be working with my dad on a part time business.

I lost my dad to cancer in 2000 and I really miss his support, advice and guidance. But I'm lucky; I've got a great step-father who is also always there for me and his constant support and advice has been priceless. Thanks Al!!

Amazing Support of my Step-Father
My day to day business activities are varied and now I'm a non-executive director of Nominet my work load has increased dramatically and it's been invaluable to have my step-father to talk to and get advice and opinions.

To have had great advice and support during those moments when a key decision in my life has been needed, have made a huge difference in my life. We've all been there when we reach those crossroads and we have to decide what the right next step is. When we get head hunted or when we've been made redundant - what next? What do we do? These are my options but which one is the right one? To have our parents there for those key moments is priceless.

My Wonderful Mum
My Mum is always there for me. We speak every other day on the phone and she is the best listener in the world. I ring her and tell her everything and she just listens and then offers her support and opinion. She's amazing. I love you Mum! xx

Cancer Research UK
When dad died I decided to raise money for Imperial Cancer Research, now Cancer Research UK, in his memory. To date I've raised just over £20,000 for CRUK and I'm so, so proud. I took up triathlon in 2001 and have done 8 triathlons all for charity to raise money in dad's memory. My website www.formydad.co.uk has more information if you're interested.

I'll never forget doing the Crystal Palace triathlon and my mum and step-father came along to cheer me on. Having swum and biked I then had to run 6.5 miles and the final part was a couple of laps inside the awesome Crystal Palace athletic track. As I entered the stadium I was struggling; my legs hurt and my breathing was really laboured. Then I saw my step-father going nuts, shouting and cheering me on and I nearly broke down in tears there and then. It was amazing and although I was on my last legs his encouragement got me round those last laps of the track. A really special day.

My father-in-law has made a huge difference to my life too. As a successful businessman his advice has been so valuable and he too supports and encourages me. He came along to my very first triathlon in Stratford-upon-Avon and he printed two huge banners with my name on with an image of a runner!

This photo of it is in a bar when my wife, father-in-law and friends enjoyed lunch whilst I was racing round the countryside on my bike!

So our parents are so important in our early lives and I am blessed to have a gorgeous mum and wonderful step-father and to have had the best dad in the world. They made me the guy I am today, their encouragement and support was life changing and I thank you Mum and Al and Dad from the bottom of my heart. Our parent-in-laws can also make a huge difference too. I love you all so much xxx

However, other guys I know weren't so lucky and aren't so lucky even now. Many of the guys I've met didn't have a decent relationship with their dads and it's proved critical. I know two such men from my city days who's dad's were never there for them. Too busy working or away on business and one dad who was just so old fashioned that they had never hugged or embraced. How sad is that?

Now I know I'm more tactile than most but the bond with a father and son is special and those hugs are so important. And their help and support is vital in our up bringing.

The circle of life

Its made me realise that we need to be there for our children and we need our parents to be there for us too. It's like the circle of life. I need the support, encouragement and advice of my parents and my daughter needs the same.

I'll never miss another of my daughter's swimming galas or any future sporting occasion. Recently I've taken her karting in Bristol and she really enjoys it. Who knows - one day maybe I'll be flying round the world to support her as she races in F1!! Now wouldn't that be cool?!

I work from home a lot of the time and I am so thankful for that. This gives me the flexibility to be able to go along to her school to support her, like my dad used to support me. Recently she was playing her guitar in a school concert. I moved heaven and earth to be there and her face lit up when she saw me and my wife walk in. That meant everything to me and more importantly, it meant everything to our daughter.

Be there for your children
So think about your business and your life and if you have children then think about the positive affect you can have on their lives. Life is so fragile - here today, gone tomorrow. Don't let work rule your life. If your son or daughter has sports day or a football match or hockey game, then drop everything and make sure you're there on the sidelines cheering them on.

When you come home from a busy day at the office and your son or daughter comes running up to tell you all about their day at school, make sure you take the time to listen to them. And I mean really listen to them. Give them your undivided attention and show them how much you truly care.

And as they go out into the world to make their fortune remember how important your love, encouragement, support and advice is in helping their success.

Start making a difference today. When your children come home tonight, tell them how proud you and how much you love them. Hug them. And make sure you're at their next big school occasion.

Call them today

If your children are older and working, stop what you're doing and call them and tell them how proud you are. It will make their day. Make the time to meet up with them and spend time with them. It's so easy in today's busy world not to make time for family, but it's the bed rock of the circle of life.

And don't forget your parents - even if they haven't always been there for you - just pick up the phone and call them too. Call them and tell them you love them and thank them for all their support and tell them how proud you are to have them as your mum and dad. And then book a date to go and see them and make it one to remember.

If you haven't got children and you've lost your parents - then call me and I'll tell you how proud I am of you!  My mobile is 07976 614043 of you can email at dickie at dickiearmour.me.uk

Don't let life take over and smother you - take time out to tell your loved ones you truly care and that you are so proud of them. Take time to be there at those major events in their life to support them. Support your children emotionally and thank your parents for everything they've done for you.

You can't imagine the difference it will make to them.

I'm So Sorry I Don't Always Notice Your Retweets!

I just wanted to post a quick blog post to say thank you to you if you have been retweeting some of my tweets on Twitter. I'm so sorry I don't always notice your RTs.

I've realised over the last few months that many of you have been sending out RTs of my content and yet they don't appear in my @ mentions feed in Twitter, Hootsuite, Tweetdeck or any other 3rd party Twitter app.

It will be the same for you too. If you're on Twitter and you're sending out tweets with interesting content you can bet that people will have retweeted your tweets and you won't have noticed either.

This is because there are 2 kinds of retweets on Twitter.

1. The straight forward retweet where you just click the RT button
2. The retweet with a comment

If you just do a straight forward RT they will not appear in the mentions feed of the person you retweeted.

So for all of you who have been RTing my content but I haven't thanked - then I'm truly sorry. Please forgive me - truly; I didn't notice. It's not that I'm NOT listening. Far from it. It's just one of the many quirks of the Twitter platform.

So if you want to make sure the person you are RTing notices the fact that you've retweeted his or her content, make sure you don't use the Twitter website. Instead use a 3rd party app such as Hootsuite or Tweetdeck.

When I'm RTing I usually like to add a comment at the end of the RT so people actually know I've taken the time to either read the article which they tweeted about or make a relevant comment. I think it's a nice thing to do.

If you just use the Twitter website then when you click the retweet link you have no option to add a message. The tweet is just retweeted without any comment from you.

The other reason I like to use the newer method of RTing via Hootsuite is because sometimes people's original tweets are too long, so I have to precis the tweet before I can RT.

So always make sure you don't go over about 104 characters with your tweets. You can read more about the reasons why in a previous post - Twitter Retweet Advice

So again, I'm so sorry I don't always notice your RTs, but thank you so much for sharing my tweets and I look forward to staying connected with you online and off line too.

I'm Going to Miss Y'All, Trey

Trey Pennington

I won't forget Sunday 4th September, EVER. 
6:15pm UK time. I lost a friend and mentor - Trey Pennington.

We are all new to social media but social media isn't new. As Nick Tadd put it at What's Next - Cardiff in May - social media has been around since the cavemen days. We've always used different media to be social. But today's tools such as Twitter, Facebook, Google + etc have changed social media into an instant, on-demand, always on world.

I like the Social Media Train journey analogy which I first heard at Like Minds in October 2009. I wrote a couple of blog posts about it back in Dec 2009 and Jan 2010.
Social Media - Why You Need to be On Board

The Social Media Train Journey - What to do Once You're On Board

My "birth date" on Twitter is 23rd Jan 2009 so I'm fairly new, like most of us. And thanks to Like Minds I met Trey in October 2009, quite early on. Only 2 years ago, but such is the power of Twitter and Facebook and the telephone and email - during those 2 years Trey and I became good friends. He was my mentor in many ways on social media. I always had huge respect for him. He was just the nicest guy you could ever wish to meet. He was someone who made you feel special, he gave first without ever questioning what he would or could get in return.

Thanks to Trey's busy UK speaking schedule we were able to meet up and hang out quite a few times. One of my fondest memories of Trey was he always had his video camera with mini-boom mike at the ready!

Spot his video camera on the shelf behind him in this photo of us in Bristol, UK in June 2010.

And I loved the fact he was so keen to interview as many people as possible. He was great at that; at giving exposure to others first.

At that first Like Minds conference in Exeter I remember meeting Trey and Olivier and we hit it off right away.

Dickie, Trey and Vanessa - Like Minds 2010

Please do read Olivier's amazing blog "Heartbroken" to give you an idea of how close they both were. One of the founders of Like Minds, Scott Gould aslo wrote a lovely blog - Trey Pennington - Like Minds Loses a Piece of it's Heart. Two very moving blog posts!

I remember Trey came out with a phrase "Dollars and cents - pounds and pence" and liked it so much he asked someone to tweet it. My tweet appeared on the TwitterFall behind Trey; he turned round to look and laughed.

I also played a very small role in chauffeuring Trey to a couple of events. The first was to a social media monitoring conference in London.

Trey's comment in reply to me.

The other was in May this year when I picked him up from London Gatwick and drove him to Cardiff for the What's Next event. Unbeknown to me, Trey was filming in the airport as he came through Passport Control and wrote a blog post featuring it. What’s the ROI of social media? How about exploring the VALUE of social media?
In just a short time we met up face to face on 9 seperate occasions and with all the tweets and Facebook posts and blog comments we had between us, were able to build a strong bond. I looked up to Trey and used him as a mentor. He set some brilliant examples of how to use social media. He always talked about the three fold need of humans:

• Everyone wants to be heard
• Everyone wants to be understood
• Everyone wants to know his or her life matters

Trey was the perfect example of making sure he helped as many people achieve this and I can't thank him enough for everything he did for me.
I was so devasated to have been out on Sauturday night when Trey posted a couple of posts on my Facebook wall. I didn't know it then, but less than 24 hours later Trey would be gone and I missed my final chance to speak to him and I am gutted. :-(

Trey was a real modern day "George Bailey" who's life affected so many others in such an amazing way and positive way. If Trey had never been born, the world would have been a very different place. The Social Media landscape would have been completely different. Trey contributed so much to so many and sadly, because of that, perhaps never took enough time to spend on himself. To make sure he was heard, understood and recognised.

And I so, so wish Trey's "Clarence" had come down to save him in time. To have been able to show him that his life, really was a wonderful life.

I Don't Have the Time to Use Social Media!

It still amazes me how many businesses aren't using social media. Last week I was on an online forum where a lady was saying social media is just a waste of time. I gave a talk recently and I asked 4 questions:

1.      How many of you are on LinkedIn? Everyone raised their hands.

2.      How many of you are on Twitter? Half the hands dropped

3.      How many of you have a Facebook business page? Only 5 people kept their hands up.

4.      How many of you have a YouTube channel? Only 2 people kept up their hands and one of them was me!

                                                                       

Most of the audience had smartphones; iPhones and Androids etc and yet they weren't really using social media and one of the biggest reason people give me is they don't have the time. And the answer to question 1 is a bit misleading. The fact that everyone put their hands up doesn't tell the full story. We might all be on LinkedIn but in most cases all we have is a profile. To find out how you should be using LinkedIn see my blog post - How to use LinkedIn Effectively for Your Business

It takes too long - where do you find the time?

I get this question quite a lot. I try to answer it honestly. To begin with it can take a few hours out of your day whilst you learn how to use each platform but once you are familiar with Twitter, Facebook, Google+ etc then you can dip in and out throughout the day when you have a spare 5 or 10 minutes.  And don't even begin to pretend you're too busy and never have 5 minutes spare!

Think about your average day
It's the same for all of us - we only have 24 hours each day! And in fact, many of our daily routines are the same. Travelling to work, waiting for the kettle to boil, going to the loo, waiting for a train or bus, and waiting for a meeting.
There are always 5 or 10 minute gaps in our day which we can use to dip into social media.

•   How do you get to work? Train, tube or bus?

Then you've got time whilst you're travelling. I know London Underground only has reception on limited parts of the network but if you're travelling by train you normally get 2 or 3 minutes on the platform when waiting for your next train. I see people on the bus everyday who just sit staring out the window. This is a perfect time to dip into Twitter and Facebook to see what conversations are going on.

•   Making a cup of tea or coffee

The kettle takes about 3 minutes to boil. Perfect time for a quick look at Twitter.

•   Going to the loo!

The perfect sit down time to catch up with your social media activities!

•   Whilst printing multiple documents

On my printer it can take 4 to 5 minutes to print out hand out sheets. This is a perfect time for me to dip into Google Reader and find a few good blog posts which I can schedule to send on Twitter.

•   Whilst on hold to a call centre

This can take hours sometimes & people say they don't have time! I was on hold this morning to ADT, our alarm company to book a routine inspection. I was on hold for 6 minutes. I had the handset on loudspeaker and used that time to catch up on LinkedIn, accept connections and join in a conversation in one of my groups.

•   Waiting for the start of a conference or training session

We've all been in the situation where we're at a conference, sat waiting for it to begin. This is a great time to get out your smartphone, iPad or laptop and quickly check Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+ and Twitter.
When I'm at a conference or training day I like to take photos of the presenters/speakers and post them to Twitter. 

•   During a conference

Nowadays it's become acceptable that members of the audience will be tweeting during the conference. This can be seen by some as being rude. People on mobile devices tweeting are not concentrating on the speaker! Whilst I get that; I prefer to flip it on it's head and think of all the free publicty the speakers and the conferences are getting nowadays, with many people tweeting about it. (Assuming that it's good publicity! It works both ways of course!)

•   Waiting for an appointment

The great thing with smartphones is we always have them with us and they are so quick and easy to use. Sitting in a reception area waiting to go into an appointment is a good time to check in.

•   Sat in your car between meetings

I often arrive early for some of my meetings. I love using this time on social media. I just sit in my car and catch up.

•   On the commute home

Great time to wish people on Twitter a nice evening and see how their days have gone. It doesn't take long to jump into Facebook and add some comments and Likes to your contacts' pages.

•   Watching TV in the evening

This is the time when I go through Google Reader and choose the articles and blog posts which I'm going to post on Twitter and Facebook and Google +.

I use Hootsuite and I schedule a lot of my content and I like to do this in front of the TV. My wife often likes to watch stuff I'm not into so I can still sit with her, but instead of wasting time while a TV show I'm not interested in washes over me; I sit and schedule some of my daily content for the coming week.

You CAN Find the Time

You have to change your thinking on social media - it's just another tool in your marketing tool box so you must spend some time on your strategy and creating your content. But people I speak to don't think spending time on social media is real work! It absolutely is real work and the sooner you reset your thinking on this and realise it is work and time spent on social media is a good investment of your time, the better.

Only then will you start to take it seriously and begin to find the time in your day when you can dip into social media.

Please share how you find the time.
How do you use social media? What are the times in your day when you dip into Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and LinkedIn?