Authenticity! It cannot be Inauthentic!

In 2010 Domino’s Pizza made a decision to come out and tell the truth about their Pizzas. They agreed that they tasted like cardboard.


In 1991 during a speech to the Institute of Directors, Gerald Ratner, the CEO of Ratner’s Jewellers said ‘People ask, “How can you sell this (earrings) for such a low price?” I say, “because it’s total crap.”’

In both instances the business world was shocked at the honesty. I would assume the shareholders had a ‘moment’ too. Wow! If some leaders could just fake authenticity they would be happy but, there IS no faking it. With Domino’s it’s a consumable but it was only a recipe issue, the quality is not in question, nobody was poisoned, nobody had their health compromised.

With Ratners it WAS purely a quality issue, the goods were not worth the money. Domino’s merely agreed with/confirmed what people had been saying. Ratner admitted something nobody knew for certain. Domino’s continues…Ratners went down the tube.

Authenticity is not an easy subject to tackle and wrestle to the ground. One needs to step outside of conventional thought on authenticity. It takes a lot of courage to discuss authenticity/inauthenticity as it lifts the lid on things we may keep hidden, knowingly or unknowingly. Taking part in this chat will certainly broaden our awareness of ourselves, as a Leader and as a person.

A superficial description of authentic is being real, genuine, the “real deal”, honest. Would you be as honest as Ratners or Domino’s? If your business made a monumental mistake, it’s all very well admitting this to your people but would you admit it to the world, your clients or SKYNEWS? How far does authenticity go before we have to make a stand and be, to all intents and purposes, Inauthentic because the outcome may determine that we cannot be authentic in that instance?

The definition I use of Authenticity is: Being and acting consistent with who you hold yourself out to be for others, and who you hold yourself out to be for yourself.

The central definition is ‘who you hold yourself out to be’. It is NOT your personality, not your thoughts, not your feelings and not social protocols…it is more a DECLARATION that you make, a stand you take on yourself, a commitment to a set of values.

Bill George, Harvard Business School Professor of Leadership and author said:
“After years of studying leaders and their traits, I believe that Leadership begins and ends with authenticity.”

The cold hard truth is that because of certain situations, with certain people, in some ways and at certain times we can all be Inauthentic. Because we avoid at all costs confronting our inauthenticity’s, we are consistently inauthentic about being inauthentic. Is it possible for a person to determine when they are being genuine?

Above all else, Authenticity is CENTRAL to leadership and to being a leader.
Are you authentic all the time? Even when NO ONE is watching?

 

Energy Vampire or Mood Hoover?

Well, I doubt if anyone would say no to a REAL Vampire if it was Kate Beckinsale in Underworld but...

You have only one life to live. You want to be happy and to make your life meaningful.

You haven't got time to waste associating with negative people (Energy Vampires and Mood Hoovers) They will drain your energy and when they find a willing or captive audience, just like a real Vampire (Huh? Real vampire?) they won't let go once they have sunk their teeth into you.

Negative people may have justifiable concerns but too often they get over involved in minor matters and imaginary transgressions.

Negative people may be envious of your ability to succeed (you know who you are!!!).
They may also be scared of your ability as you could inadvertently outshine the 'leader' (She knows who she is too!)

They may feel guilty knowing that they aren't willing to pay the price that success asks.

Negative people are usually negative because they have given dominion to their happiness to others, often many others.

It's the boss, the neighbours, the kids, the politicians, and the police.
It's money.
It's the bills.

Be polite and encouraging to negative people. Listen to their complaints or stories but only once.

Give them a copy of this post. It may help. Chances are they will hate it. If their 'problems' are serious enough, guide them to professional help.

Don't judge. Empathise with them but avoid being drawn into their web of unhappiness.

Help those you can while realising that you can't help or save everyone. You can open your heart, be compassionate and still be strong enough to walk away.

You can say no.

Everyone has 'problems' but not everyone allows those things to rule them. You can offer a temporary safe haven without it becoming a permanent home. An Energy Vampire, or Mood Hoover, will suck the life, joy and energy out of any situation and leave it as dry as a desert.

They will infect everyone...negativity is contagious.  Remember that!

You do not have to sacrifice your life to the issues of another.

But what about you?

Are you negative sometimes? When you are let down, or disappointed, or passed over for promotion or being told 'I don't think we should see each other again'. So? What are YOU going to do about that.

Take a case in point.

Remember back to the first time that you had your heart broken, the very first time! Remember how bad you felt, remember the pain and the anger. At the time you really believed that it was the end of the world. You thought that you would never love any one as you loved that person. You thought that you would never be able to love again.

And you were wrong. Two weeks later you’re back out there on the prowl. How many ‘loves’ have you had since then?

Two, three, five or more?
Now if you’d hung on to the past, if you’d only focused on the pain and sorrow, you’d still be a sad, miserable bastard with no friends and one massive forearm.

But you didn't, you let go, and put the past behind you.

And that is what you need to do in every situation.

Focus on the positive aspects not the negative.

We will all make mistakes; we will all still get a broken heart from time to time. But it’s the here and now that we must focus on, not the past, and not what may happen in the future.

Everyone gets knocked down at some point...but only the STRONG ones get up!

Thoughts of a Dragon

Firstly, a big thanks to my friend Steve Drake for jogging my memory of this fine book by a great man.


Steve is a top rate Martial Artist as you will find if you click HERE.


Bruce Lee was not only the most influential and greatest Martial Artist who ever lived but he studied Philosophy and Psychology and his writings have been published in a series of books and this one Striking Thoughts - Wisdom for Daily Living is my favourite of them all.

A post on Steve's Facebook page reminded me to flick through the pages again. I have read this book over ten times since I bought it two years ago. Each time I read something I have read before but because of my mindset I read into it differently and the meaning comes alive.

For example:

Bruce Lee on Motivation:.....


Your Mind Determines the Effect.
It is not what happens in our life that is important, it's how we react to what happens.

That quote is just one of thousands that hit home. It was written long before the well known NLP phrase, Nothing in life has any meaning except the meaning you give it.
And again:.....
Become what you think.
What you habitually think largely determines what you will ultimately become.

This is the sales mantra, Fake It until you Make It!

It is also very closely linked with the Positive Mental Atitude teachings of Napoleon Hill, Bob Proctor etc....but this is Positive Mental Attitude training from Bruce Lee.

Wisdom like this is on every page:.....
•"Remember, I am no teacher; I can merely be a signpost for a traveler who is lost"
•"The ideal teacher - not 'what' to think, but 'how' to think.
•"Defeat simply tells me that something is wrong in my doing - it is a path to success and truth"
•"Where method is, freedom is not"

Four superb lessons are these:.....
1.Take my words and do with them what you will. Your milage may vary..
2.Observe and explore my process, not my content.
3.Failure is not only to be expected, but welcomed and even celebrated.
4.If you didn't hear me the first time, reread 1, 2, & 3!!

I would recommend anyone in personal development to grab a copy of this fine book. And check out Steve Drakes website too. Click the link above or HERE.

Psychological Sleight of Mind With A Dollar

Three housemates walk into an electrical store with the intention of buying a TV.  It has to be second-hand, it has to be cheap, and they have to be able to take it away today.


They see one they all like..................

They ask the store owner how much it costs.

The store owner tells them  it costs $25 so they decide to split the cost.  Each housemate hands over $10 and the store owner takes the three $10 bills to the back of the store where the cash register is to get their change while the three housemates look at the TV admiring their purchase.

The store owner has a brainwave.  He thinks to himself 'I can make a little more profit and no one will know.  I will tell them I messed up, the TV costs $27!'

So the store owner does this.  He deposits three $10 bills into the cash register and takes out five $1 bills, two of which he puts in his pocket.

He then goes back to the three housemates and tells them he made a mistake, the TV was $27 and not $25...and hands each of them back $1.

The three housemates leave very happy with what they consider to still be a bargain, the store owner is happy for conning them out of an extra two dollars.  Everyone is happy....

...Is there a problem here?

Three housemates hand over $30 and the storeowner returns with five $1 bills. He palms two for himself, and gives each housemate $1.  This means the housemates have paid $9 each....

3 x $9 = $27 + $2 = $29

Suddenly, there is $1 missing.....

If you cannot figure out this psycho-mathematical problem then you have just had your pressure points massaged...

Persuasion Engineering Part 2 - The Details

As I said previously Persuasion Engineering (Trans: Mind Hacking) I had made a number of discoveries...and why shouldn't I have...I regarded myself as some mad scientist who used other peoples brains and minds as my laboratories.  In doing so, what were some of the things I had discovered?

The brain responds excellently to pink.  This is a scientific fact, from a real research laboratory, not one of MY laboratories.  Pink is a very tranquillising colour which produces a pattern of brain waves unlike any other.

Put that one down to the evolution of Man....

Ancient civilisations would have seen a pink sky at sunset and sunrise and given the ambient light it would have associated pink with sleep and relaxation.  If you want to keep the status quo, keep everything in harmonic balance, Pink is a colour to have around 



A Baker-Miller Pink Polo Shirt
Even in my time off I was always
dressed for action!

There is one particular shade or hue of pink called Baker-Miller pink that is the most powerful.  It is also sometimes called 'Drunk Tank pink', as violent offenders moods have been calmed merely by putting them in a room painted this colour.  I only EVER wore shirts of that colour, be they business shirts or polo shirts as you can see from this photograph that appeared on the previous blog post:

The science that underlies all of this is on going.  Research focusing on metabolic changes in neurotransmitters such as serotonin and norepinephrine, or in the hormones serving the hypothalamus, that part of the brain that oversees the emotions, seem to show Pink as nature's Prozac.  Science lesson over....and relax!

Having sorted out my wardrobe I deploy a technique I describe as working the 'Three A's of Social Influence': Attention, Approach and Affiliation.

The Three A's are such a potent cocktail that ships so much psychology into the bloodstream of the brain that the recipient loses all resistance to persuasion.  It is the compliance equivalent of Rohypnol.

It really is a persuasion algorithm...

• The basic raw material of what you say...what your audience/client/customer pays ATTENTION to.
• How you deliver your raw material is a major factor and a predictor to how your audience/client/customer will APPROACH it.
• Social engineering factors relating to how your audience/client/customer evaluates you, how they feel a connection with you, how they accept what you say in relation to all other factors and their perception of who you are and what you stand for are the basis and parameters of AFFILIATION.

When these three align then barriers come down.

Take a cartoon of a famous person.  You can recognise who it is from barely nothing, the bare minimum of detail.  As long as the key lines are in the right place you will recognise it.  It is the same with persuasion.  If you know where the brain's pressure points are then you press them...or you draw the key lines...

Here is an example of very little detail but you'll recognise the face...:


This Algorithm has advanced into what is a major factor of my HPT-Transformation program.  Human Potential Technology incorporates the SPICE^© program. 

• Simplicity,
• Perception,
• Incongruity,
• Confidence,
• Empathy. 

That really is the Area 51, stealth bomber, of Persuasion.

To be continued...

Persuasion Engineering (Trans: Mind Hacking)

It was a fine line....I will tell you what that line was in a moment.

Many years ago, in the mid 80's, I started to study NLP when NLP was very new.  In fact Bandler and Grinder only created it in 1977!  Little did I know that I would get my NLP qualification from Bandler 20 years later!

I was a salesman so NLP was something that I believed I needed in my armoury, and I was right.  Interpersonal skills led to persuasion techniques and that was that.  I was dangerous.

I was, by that time, a timeshare salesman. Many people you meet say they are great salespeople but, with no modesty required, I was the best.  I still am.  I am not being big headed, I am merely stating a fact. 

I had a voice in my head telling me over and over again: I am the best at what I do. 
Every time I looked in the mirror a voice in my head said: I can do it!

A Sunday newspaper, the News of the World, sent some journalists to the Costa del Sol in Spain, where I was working, to interview timeshare salespeople because so many holidaymakers were saying they had been tricked and cajoled into buying a dream which turned into a nightmare by fly by night, wide boy, liars...otherwise known as OPC's. 

When the journalists arrived on the Costa these fly by night, wide boy, liars were on the streets with their scratch cards telling people they had won a prize and had to go to a 2 hour presentation to get it.  Heaven help the OPC's if they strayed 'off patch' and started to stop tourists in an area deemed to belong to a rival company as that would mean 'the Clumpers' being sent out and all manner of mayhem with baseball bats and pick axe handles would ensue.  Anyone poaching on another company's patch would be in hospital that evening.  The money was big so the retribution was too.

I managed to avoid the Journalists.  They wanted to interview me about my techniques as all the sales people pointed at me as the one who was very successful.  Truth was that I was successful because I didn't sell it, I made people buy it.  Others made such a desperate sales pitch that they decided to lie and claim all manner of things to get the person to sign the deal.  They were giving the business a bad name and I wanted no part of it.  I didn't want the connection and I didn't want my picture taken.  Apart from a slightly blurry pic of me in Marbella wearing a white shell suit, leaning against a silver Lotus Esprit while on my mobile phone, which was a grey housebrick sized monstrosity (think Gordon Gekko Wall St 'money never sleeps Bud Fox' style) I escaped the press attention.  It was a test drive car anyway (more later on that).

At the presentation they would be told all of the benefits of timeshare ownership and given the chance to buy a couple of weeks in the sun by a very slick salesman.  I was that salesman.  I didn't appear very slick.  I didn't appear manipulative.  I didn't 'ooze charm from every pore and oil my way across the floor' either.  I was confident, capable, assured, knowledgeable, friendly.  I made them feel at ease and then made them feel that this was the right thing to do.  It never took long for them to start to think, 'I like this guy, he is just like me'.  In fact, I made them buy from me rather than me sell to them.

My hit rate was out of the park. I was earning so much money that at the age of 26 I had two cars (one a Porsche) a house in England and three apartments in Spain, two of which I rented out.

I had worked for 8 different timeshare operations because I came as a team.  I had 5 people who worked the streets with the scratchcards.  These were my OPC’s (Off Premises Canvassers) or "Outside People Catchers" as I liked to call them and brought the potential clients to my Qualifier who asked all the right questions to ensure that I wasn't wasting my time by talking with them.  From the initial grab on the street, in to the Marketing suite and then back to their hotel would take a little over 3 hours maximum.  At the end of it they would have signed a contract worth between £3000 and £8000 (remember-this is the mid 80's) and I would have earned £1500 minimum from the deal and I did that once or twice a day 5 days a week for three years.

I got really good at reading people.  I knew exactly what I was going to say to whoever came in and it was based on how they reacted to me, what they did inside the marketing suite, how they interacted with each other and how they spoke.

I didn't tell them what they wanted to hear.  I didn't lie and I didn't pressure them.  I told them what I wanted them to hear...but in a manner that they wanted to hear it in.  I used the same predicates, tone of voice, pace, pitch as they did and some, though not all, of their mannerisms.

After a few months I came back to the UK and continued at the Company Headquarters in London's

Leicester Square.  Holiday Ownership Exchange was based in the square directly opposite the Odeon where all the movie premieres were held.  It was a very prestigious address and very plush offices and suites.  Four months over Winter was just what was needed.

I continued to sell timeshare even though the villas and apartments were over a thousand miles away.  It became apparent that people set time aside to watch the presentation and incorporated it into a day trip to London.  Once they had received a mailshot telling them they had 'won a prize and that all they had to do was come to Leicester Square etc...etc' they were very relaxed.  It was different to Spain where one of the OPC's would grab a family covered in suntan lotion and sand on their way from the beach to their hotel who wanted nothing more than a shower who, instead, sat listening to me for two hours.  In Spain they could walk around the complex of apartments.  They could stand on the balconies, they could touch the walls, they could test how soft the beds were.  In London it really was a dream...an idea...a set of photographs in a book...but I still maintained my sales record.

Was my skill only for use in Time Share or Sales?  I didn't know?  I started to think about it after I made £6400 in one day and other sales people and Managers were asking me to teach them my 'tricks'. 

I remembered being three months behind with the rent on my apartment when I had first arrived in Spain (before I started buying) and convincing the landlord to write it off. 
I remembered opening an account at a major high street bank and getting a £25000 overdraft facility even though I had only opened the account with £20. 
I remembered taking Lotus and Ferrari sports cars for 5 day test drives instead of the usual 40 mins max.  One of them I drove back to the UK for a week and then took it back to Spain.
I remembered going to a major bank and negotiating a business account before I left for Spain that included a £10,000 bank loan.  I remember the conversation in the Managers office very clearly:
Bank Manager: 'How will you make the monthly repayments in the first six months?'
Me: 'That will be no problem.  There will be £10,000 in the account.
Bank Manager: 'But that's the money WE will put in.'
Me: 'Exactly!'
Bank Manager: 'So you are suggesting that we pay ourselves?'
Me: 'Can you think of a safer arrangement?  You are hardly likely to default yourself.'
When he laughed and said 'Well I can't fault your logic but it is unorthodox' I knew I had the money....

It suddenly occurred to me that I was walking a very thin line.  It would be so simple to step over the line and become a fraudster.  If I had been inclined that way I would have been a very dangerous person.

I met a Fraudster once who had accumulated a large amount of money by conning people.  He was so far behind me on the scale of persuasion and manipulation I could NOT believe how he had done it. Nerve most likely.  He had decided, after meeting the love of his life, to 'go straight' and started work at HOE in Leicester Square selling timeshare.  That was his idea of 'straight'.  He couldn't hack it and left after a month.  He was quite proud and open about his criminal past and it was a surprise to me that HOE had no reticence in recruiting criminals, even if they were 'Ex' ones.

A few years later I was diagnosed, after being analysed by a psychiatrist friend for fun, as some kind of unfathomable genius.  I could mind-hack someone and intercept and decode the psychological DNA of their free will.  The light switches of my brain were wired very differently and my neural meteorology was unpredictable.

But WHAT had I discovered through my training and my experiences?  I had discovered where the brain's pressure points were, where people's blind spots are....

To be continued...

Psychological Cat Burglar

Psychological Cat Burglar – An Interview with Dr David Moore.

Sales Pro For Sales Professionals

It is safe to say that if David Moore did not exist you would have to invent him.  He is the owner of The Moore Consortium group of companies which cover a variety of the ‘self-help’ streams, from NLP and Persuasion through to Firewalking and EFT.  David spent his early years as a salesman in a variety of industries including Time Share, Insurance, Double Glazing and Advertising.  In the early 1990’s he became a salesman for Cable London, a cable TV and Telephone provider and within a very short space of time went from salesman to team leader, to Field sales Manager to National Sales Trainer.  He was the most successful salesman Cable London produced.  He was the only salesman to venture into the notorious Broadwater Farm Estate in North London, the scene of rioting a few years earlier, and over a two month period there became top salesman.  He became national sales trainer when Telewest increased their share holding of Cable London and flew all over the country training staff from London to Dundee.  It was only after watching a sales consultant present a three day training seminar to Telewest Communications (Cable London’s owners) that David realised where the future really was.  He formed his own Training company, left Cable London/ Telewest and was a spectacular success.

Behind the success he admits there were difficult times.  The loss of a corporate culture was one.

“I had always worked for other people.  I had a very high salary, pension schemes, medical insurance and a car allowance.  Now all of that was gone and I was flying solo.  It is difficult but not impossible.  If it is something you feel you should do then I would suggest you do it.  It is liberating.  It’s very different.  It’s a huge responsibility.  But, it is the only way to really do what you want!”

Over the last 15 years David has incorporated a variety of elements into a program he has developed called ‘Human Potential Technology’.  These include Inner Game and Attitude, Persuasion, Firewalking, Glasswalking, NLP, Hypnosis, EFT and Sales Training.

“I don’t believe in being a ‘jack of all trades; master of none’ as some companies appear to be.  My method is to incorporate a lot of different areas of expertise that fall under the umbrella of Personal Development.  I feel that if you teach Persuasion you must have expertise in NLP.  To teach people how to walk on fire or broken glass you must have expertise in attitude and persuasion.  It all fits within the parameters of development.”

What about the Personal Development or self help movement?

“To me, self help is like self abuse.  You HAVE to do it yourself.  The books and dvd’s only show you what to do.  You must take action and do it yourself.  I do tell people to stop buying self help books because they probably haven’t read all of the ones they already have.  A new one comes along and they put down the one they are reading and order the new one from Amazon and then a few weeks later…it happens again.  It’s a paradigm shift. The answers you want are probably already in a book on your shelf that you didn’t finish.  I have read hundreds of them and I read the new ones and I can see that many of the ‘new’ ideas are just a rehash of older ideas.  I agree that as the times change and people become more aware of self help and human potential we need to teach and coach in a new way.  If we taught today in the style of a teacher from 30 years ago, the chances are we wouldn’t be listened to.”

You spent a lot of time teaching people to walk on Fire or Broken glass.  Was that fun?

“Fun is one word for it.  It was great at the time but I believe it has been done to death.  It is very rare to find anyone who hasn’t either done it or at least heard of it or heard of someone who has done it.  It doesn’t have the novelty factor any more.  The training I put people through before they walked included a lot of life skill training, persuasion and NLP techniques that they could utilise in all manner of areas of their lives.  It was never really ‘only’ about the walk.  I train a lot of people in everything from Sales training and Customer service through to Attitude and Inner Game.  I have always been interested in Persuasion.  How one person can get someone or a company to do something when other people have tried and failed?  I have studied great persuaders of history; I have researched and studied conmen and brain pirates who can get total strangers to do whatever they want them to.  There is an art to it and like everything in life; all it takes is the knowing how to do it.  If someone tells me something can’t be done, I have always believed that was because they  didn’t know how to do it!’

So salespeople have to have the ability to persuade people to buy?

“A good salesperson will persuade people to buy.  A really great salesperson with put a person in a position where they not only WANT to buy, but buying will seem natural.  They have to be put at ease.  I have been very successful in every sales environment I have worked in.  My mentor, Hal Stamford, was one of the UK heads of Coca Cola before he retired and took a consulting job at Cable London and he said once that I ‘could sell shaving foam to the Taliban.’  That’s an interesting concept!”

If I were to become a salesperson could you teach me how to put people at ease?

“Remember, my years of training salespeople stem from my history of selling.  If you knock on someone’s door at 7pm at night, with no idea of who is behind the door and they, in turn, are not expecting you then you have four or five seconds after they open it to put them at ease.  You are then expecting to be asked in, for them to listen to you and for them to buy from you.  I did that on a daily, weekly, monthly basis for two years before the company asked me to show other salespeople HOW to do it.  I was always over target and getting results.  I was earning more money in a week than the Sales Director was earning in a month.  Yeah, I can teach anyone.  I didn’t only look at sales techniques. I studied body language, language patterns, embedded commands even colors.  I was always aware that colors have an effect on people.  I always wore a pink shirt.  Pink is a very powerful color, as is purple.  Not just any pink but what is known as ‘Baker-Miller pink’ or more commonly ‘drunk tank pink’.  It denotes trust.   It’s used in calming offenders moods in prisons, it reduces the anxiety levels as well as blood pressure.  The dressing rooms of visiting football teams are sometimes painted that colour so as to render the players less competitive.  If I worked in a very affluent area then the pink shirt would be accompanied by Gucci loafers, designer suits and silk ties.  In a less affluent area that look was jettisoned for jeans/ chinos and trainers and a leather jacket.  I still had the pink shirt though.”

What about Manipulation or Persuasion in everyday life, like advertising?

“It is more like Social Influence.  It is fun to intercept and decode the psychological DNA of free will.  Once you have an understanding of how to redirect another persons thought processes then your own neural meteorology is something I call ‘Controlled unpredictability’.   You can decide what way it will go but the distance and direction will sit outside the normal constraints.  You just need to know where the brain’s pressure points are.  Where peoples blind spots are.”

 Isn’t that dangerous?

“Only if you were using the knowledge for something bad.  As it is, I have people coming to me for answers.  They are stuck, at a point in their life where they can see no future or change.  I do what needs to be done to help them.”

What is the basic process?

“There is a system that is used in all forms of Persuasion.  Conmen use it, politicians use it, members of the public use it without knowing they are using it.  It’s an algorithm.  There are three A’s to persuasion.  Attention, Approach, and Affiliation.  The basic raw material, your message, is what people pay attention to.  The manner of your delivery is going to predetermine how people will process or approach it.  Thirdly, how you are evaluated by others, your body language, language patterns, verbal and non-verbal cues are the parameters of affiliation.  In essence, the Human Potential Technology program we run offers our SPICE^© program. Simplicity, Perception, Incongruity, Confidence, Empathy.  Once you deploy a technique that encompasses those ingredients, it ships so much psychology into the brain’s bloodstream, people lose all resistance to persuasion. “

Where do you see yourself in five years time?

“The Moore Consortium will be worldwide.  The Dynamic-Life Academy will have a team of trainers around the world and certification programs.  I am looking forward to the future and working on it now.”

Past Success - What Does The FUTURE Hold?

Celebrating 15 years in Personal development with The Moore Consortium....

Checking out some old photographs in the files I came across these...





Teaching people to Board Break -
A Metaphor for Breakthrough!
(I am on the right)





Taking People on a walk UP a Waterfall



Teaching people how to Walk on Fire

Board breaking for fun!

Teaching people to Walk on Broken Glass

(On this occasion it was the England Footballer Ian Wright)

The Occasional Dalek Attack in the office corridors

I wonder what the next 15 years have in store for me???

WHAT DOES THE FUTURE HOLD FOR YOU?

BHAG it!

Sitting in the lounge of my Hotel relaxing with a nice cold glass of something I was watching

people.  I am a people watcher, and a people listener.  I study their body language and facial expressions.  Looking at all the people milling around laughing, smiling, walking with a bounce in their step, talking animatedly on their mobile phones, I wondered how happy they really were.  Was it just an act?  Had they achieved everything in life they set out to so far?

Goals are wonderful things.  They give purpose, they measure achievement, and they give us a feeling of accomplishment.

I write down my goals.  I write down my dreams.  Writing them down gives them a deadline. 

How we reference the outcome of those goals and dreams is the key issue.

Does success exist?  Does failure exist?

I have BHAG’s.  Big Hairy Audacious Goals.  When I look back at what I have set out to achieve and see the successes and failures I realise a cold hard truth.

I set out to work in as many sales environments as I could to get the most experience in what worked and what didn’t.

Within 5 years I had BHAG’d that goal.

I set out to be the best salesperson at Cable London.

Within six months I had BHAG’d that goal.  I continued to BHAG it every month for 10 months.

I set out to own a house without a mortgage, paid for in cash.

I didn’t BHAG that.  It took 18 months.  Eventually I BHAG’d it.

Some people would classify BHAG’ing my goals as success.  The goals I didn’t BHAG immediately, or the ones where I failed again and again until I got them, they would, I suppose, be classed as failures.

I was glad I succeeded and the failures just drove me on to continue or made me re-evaluate and do things differently.

I suddenly realised that those successes and failures were RESULTS!

It was a win or a learn.  Even so called failures, when they happen, have something positive inside them that you can pull out and use to help you get the WIN!

Small goals are safe.  Big goals mean taking a chance.

If you don’t TAKE a chance in life, you don’t STAND a chance in life.

If you want to make BIG changes, if you want BIG achievements….make your goals BIG HAIRY AUDACIOUS GOALS!!

WE'RE HALFWAY - HAVE YOU MOVED YET?

The amazing thing is....we are ALREADY halfway through 2013?

I am looking at the itinerary for a small speaking and training tour I am doing that has come around very quickly.  A while ago it seemed a mile off!  NOW it's next week!

That got me thinking about my goals and I thought you might be thinking about yours too.

How's that diet going you started on January 1st?

Are you making more money?

Did you get that new car?

How is that new house you wanted?

Are your relationships improved?

Well, if your like 97% of the population your answer to the above questions will be one or all of the following:  no, nothing, not yet and it hasn't happened.

But, if you are like the other 3% of the population you've made significant strides towards (or maybe even achieved) your goals for 2013, and have already set new goals for the rest of the year and next year.

If you are thinking 'What happened to my goals, my dreams, my plans?' then rest assured you are not alone.

The thing about making plans is, unless we are VERY careful, 'life has a tendency to get in the way of plans'!

You can do something RIGHT NOW to make a difference. 

The answer is: UPGRADE!

But first...

Stop!
Don't fall for it.

Don't fall for making plans without committing to them.

Think about it....where are you right now? I don't mean your location on the grid or where you are in your home or office but where are you in LIFE?

Are you happy in that location or....yeah right!

So you assume that this is the time to change your life, go for what you really want, and get the life you want.

Didn't you say that last year?

And the year before that?

Do I need to write that sentence again?

There is a definition of madness or insanity which is: doing the same thing again and again expecting a different result.

I admit we all do it..."I am going to: drink less, exercise more, eat healthier, watch less TV, spend more time with family yadda yadda yadda...."

After a while....we slip back to our default setting. We have all the best intentions but its not enough.

It seems to me that the reason we fail so epically sometimes on resolutions is that we are throwing a behaviour or desire into a mix where it cannot survive.

I knew someone who had a very large fishtank.  He went online and ordered boxes of sand and rocks from Fiji, water solution mixes from Thailand and even had three men deliver and set up all the tank, sand and rocks for him.  It became his hobby with a vengence' because he really took it seriously.  He ordered fish from all over the world because he liked their color or shape(!) He bought hundreds of fish, hermit crabs and things none of us even recognized!

He never, ever, thought about whether they were compatible with each other. He bought a lot of fish. In the end, he had hardly any, because some ate others, some just killed others, some just died through being in the wrong mix.

Resolutions/ plans/ dreams/ aspirations can be like that. We have to change a lot more than just ONE behaviour to make our life better.

If you reset or reboot your life then all you are doing is tidying up and streamlining.  It's good, and it works to some extent but it doesn't bring the big rewards that you deserve.

The only way to truly advance, to move forward and be a person who does stuff that you never did before is to go for the UPGRADE.

If you upgrade you are saying to the world, the universe and everyone in it 'That was me THEN. This is me NOW. The New, Enhanced, Future-proof version of me.'

If you attempt to run the latest version of MSWord on a previous version of Office you are in for a surprise. For one thing, the upgraded version cant be run on the old software and secondly, it won't recognise the document.

If you try to play a Blue-Ray DVD on a basic DVD player....no chance.

All of those examples will work the other way around though.
The upgraded MSWord will upgrade the older document so it can be read.
The Blue-Ray DVD will play an older DVD.
A PS2 game will play on a PS3 console.

Why? Because it is the more powerful version of the old version.

The Upgraded you can still relate and interact with whatever you choose to from your past but to move forward you need to upgrade yourself and step into the future right now.

You must upgrade everything around you, important to you, loved by you, used by you, into the new mindset and decide right now that you are no longer going to be that person who 'settled' and 'accepted' what was handed to you. You are now going to go out and get what you want, do what you want, be what you want with and for who you want.

Want to start a new business - do it.
Want to add a few zeros to your bank balance - do it.
Want to travel- do it.
Want to be happy- do it.
Want to make 2013 your best year and the start of everything- Do it!!

Don't just do one thing, do a lot. Do them well. Grab every opportunity that comes your way. If opportunity doesn't come your way, go and find it. Surprise it.

You have every single resource you need to achieve what you want inside you. You have the key. the key is the desire, the will, to change. Decide to make that change, that upgrade, and use the skills that you have that have lay dormant inside you, untapped until now.

Life does not get better by chance, luck, resolutions or hope...it gets better by CHANGE.

You still have time to make 2013 the year of CHANGE, the year of YOUR change, and I will see YOU at the top!

IS YOUR BELIEF A REALITY?

IS YOUR BELIEF A REALITY?

Beliefs are, in the majority of cases, a lie. They are not the truth. The truth has to be experienced. Unless we have experienced something, it is not real.

Sometimes, the truth is so believable; people usually just believe it instead of experiencing it.

Everyone has a belief system. These systems were formed when we were children.

Here are a few you may recognize:

· Dad goes to work and Mum stays home to look after the kids.

· If you’re good you go to heaven.

· You must eat up your greens.

· You must eat three square meals a day.

· Love is never having to say you are sorry.

· Hard work is good for you.

· You will never be tall unless you stand up straight

· You will never amount to anything unless you work hard.

It is probably a result of our ingrained beliefs about what a relationship should be, as opposed to the reality of the actuality of a relationship that has resulted in the high divorce rate.

When we separate what we BELIEVE from what we EXPERIENCE we will begin to run our lives, but not before.

The problem with a belief is that we take it to be the truth. That’s fine if you imprint a belief in your mind that you will achieve, you can do it, you will attain success….but we have thousands of other beliefs that do not serve us. Those ‘other’ beliefs are detrimental and if we take THEM to be the truth we could get stuck in them.

In other words most of us persist in thinking and doing what we learnt long ago, rather than acting out of our experience in response to whatever is happening now.

A classic story illustrates this point:

A man watches his wife cutting an inch off the end of the Lamb bone before putting it in the oven to roast. After watching her do this a few times before, her husband asks her why. She tells him that her mother always did it that way. A few weeks later the husband asks his Mother-In-Law why she cuts an inch off the end of the lamb bone. She tells him, “My mother always did it that way.” The Grandmother is very old, in her 90’s, and when the husband and wife visit her one day he asks her the same question. “Your granddaughter, and your daughter, cut an inch off the end of the lamb bone before they put the lamb in the oven. They do it because you always did. Why did you do that?”

The old lady looks at the husband and says, “Well, in those days, I had a very small oven and the leg of lamb wouldn’t fit unless I cut an inch off the end of the bone!”

Most people are cutting an inch off the end of something in their lives to fit into an oven that’s no longer too small for it.

Most people are stuck in a melodramatic soap opera of their lives with the same four or five problems they have always had. The bigger problem is that they continue with beliefs that have been carved into their minds since childhood and they are the reason they keep repeating the behaviour.

Here is a frightening example:

You trip over when you are five years old and cut your knee and your mother says, 'Don't cry; crying is bad," so you don't cry. Then you have a fall while skiing when you are 17 and you break your leg but you keep a stiff upper lip and you don't cry because crying is bad. Then when you are 24 you break up with your boyfriend or girlfriend, and you really thought that they were 'the one' and you STILL don't cry.

The more you repress your feelings the more your consciousness shuts down. You become barely alive. You act like a zombie. You function mechanically and get a reputation as 'a bit of a cold fish'.

The reality is that as you function mechanically more and more, in some cases, you become successful at it. Here's a reality check: Mechanical success is not any more satisfying than failure.

I took my psychology training years ago and therapy has always been concerned with the way people are run, or how they function, by what was rather than what is and how to free people from their past. That never sat comfortably with me. I know hundreds of people who trained just like me and never questioned it.

There are 2 reasons they didn't question it:

1. FEAR! As in: 'Don't make waves....if you question it they will flunk you.'

and

2. Cut the end of the bone off the Leg of Lamb!

What do I mean by that? Think about it.

That's right: It has ALWAYS been done that way, so there must be a good reason for it.

How does HPT (Human Potential Transformation) differ from Therapy? Therapy is concerned with curing people of an 'illness' whereas HPT offers people an experience of themselves, and the ability to design a future.

It is evident from my travels and studies, and from the Transformational Change work I have done in the last two years which, I admit, has become more extreme and direct, that Belief Systems are, by and large, a myth.

Belief Systems are created by knowledge or data without experience.

If you experience something, it is real for you.

If you communicate it to somebody, it is real for them because you are expressing your experience.

If they tell it to someone else, it's a lie. It is merely a belief without the component of experience.

A belief is a very powerful thing. You can kill or you can cure with one. I have earned my living for many years training people to believe in themselves, which is good. You CAN believe in yourself because you have the experience of yourself, you are your own reality. I can prove to you, from my beliefs, that what I think and see is true.

I ask people what they expect to get out of the training program and the list can be very diverse. Some say they want to get to know themselves, some say they want to make better decisions, have more self confidence, be more decisive, fall in love, be more open, sell more product, be a better leader or manager....

What they ALL have in common is a set of expectations!

They truly believe that their happiness is dependant on more love, money, power, sex, self confidence, etc. Each has a belief system that relates satisfaction to something they are striving for.

The REALITY is that their happiness is a function of accepting what is, and make it separate from what was and what is to come.

Belief is a structure which can contain very little information in terms of making it useful in your consciousness or well-being.

HPT works on Observation and not Belief. Observation has nothing to do with the senses, perceptions or belief systems. It only deals with direct experience...REALITY.

One of the core HPT Observations is that Life can be considered to be three foot long, and the first two feet eleven inches are about the material aspects of life (food,clothing and shelter) and what's known as 'psychological needs'. You need someone to love you and someone you can love back. You need self esteem, recognition and respect from others.

After people fill their needs they start to look what it MEANS to fill their needs. They start to realize that there is no true satisfaction in just filling your needs and they look beyond that. And THAT is the last inch. THAT is what HPT is all about.

It is the last inch, that has been cut off the bone again and again. That Inch is the life changer.

That last inch is where we discover TRANSFORMATION.

Jersey Telecom Call Charges

Boy do they charge for data in Jersey?

£5.00 for 10mb of data.

Thanks to O2 the roaming only applies to making and receiving calls and texts.  If you want to email or use social media then you need a second mortgage as 10mb goes nowhere.  Once you load it onto your phone it can be wiped out in minutes if you have a backlog of emails, twitter and facebook messages and any other social media stuff like Google+. 

Whats more you cannot call 4444 from your mobile to top up if your call time is wiped as you will not connect to O2!  You need the full O2 number which you can only find if you can surf the internet on your phone,but, as you have no data because you need to top up, you CANT get the internet so you are in a vicious circle. Should you have it stored on your phone, you are still out of luck, as it costs 50p to call it!

Thanks O2!

Technology expert at uSwitch.com Ernest Doku said,
“Holidaymakers need to add ‘check roaming charges’ to their pre-holiday to do lists. Talking to your network before you jet off will very likely spare you a nasty post-holiday bill shock, as they may be able to advise a bundle, or at the very least let you know the costs involved with using your phone abroad.”

“Not knowing which countries are in the European Union could cause havoc for mobile users this summer. A third of us know about roaming caps, but if those people don’t realise that summer sun destinations like Turkey or Croatia aren’t in the EU, they could wrongly think they are protected from roaming charges.”

“Limit the damage by keeping data roaming switched off as much as possible. And, when it comes to calls and text messages, the best way to keep costs down to a minimum is to buy a local SIM card, put it in your phone and top it up. If you want to use the internet, wait until you can get Wi-Fi at a hotel or café.”

As Jersey is part of the United Kingdom you would THINK that roaming and extra data charges ON TOP of a Bolt on would not apply.  Ha!  NO! Give O2 an opportunity to rake in a little extra cash and they will.  How do I know this?  Because O2 send you a text telling you your Data is about to run out.  They can tell you that your Data is running out and you need to buy another £5.00 worth but they cannot take a call.  you have to top up online.

If you go to Jersey DO NOT TOP UP A £5 DATA BY TEXTING BBROAM TO 21300...IT WILL BE GONE IN MINUTES AND WILL COST YOU A FORTUNE.

get your iPad or LapTop out and find the wi-fi in your hotel....it's free.

A Ship is meant to Sail the Seas

St Helier Harbour

As I sit an look out from the balcony of my hotel suite in St Helier I can see this view on the right

So many boats, from small speedboats to Sunseeker powerboats and larger, are docked here.  Many people live on board their boats and yachts over here in Jersey in the Channel Islands.

I have heard that some of the boats, like a few of the ones moored in Marbella and Puerto Banus, have had their engines removed to allow for the installation of a second or third bedroom.

The ones that still have a working engine, but sit idle in the harbour, are at the greatest risk.  A ship, boat or yacht is meant to be at sea. 

If left in dock, unused, not taken to its fullest capacity on the sea, it will deteriorate.  Not only that, but it will deteriorate at a far more rapid rate than if it was sailed every single day.  It is meant to be used, enjoyed, and out of the safety or calm of the harbour.

Do you sit in your own personal harbour?  Are you a leader that is office bound by choice?  Do you believe that your team should be out sailing around while you wait patiently for their return?  Perhaps you choose to stay in port, never venturing out into the world?


Have you considered the damage this is doing to you? 

You are a leader.  You are a salesperson.  You are....well, whatever you do for a living, you have to realise a cold hard fact.

If you do not leave the confines of the dock your skills will deteriorate faster than a boat will deteriorate if it is never taken out of the port.

The brain is a muscle, it needs to be exercised.  The same goes for your talents, your knowledge and your ability.  You need to use it, engage with people and make change on a day to day consistant basis.

Don't end up in dry dock.  POWER UP, GO OUT ON THE SEA AND USE YOUR SKILLS NOW!