A Tribute to Steve Jobs

Love him or hate him Steve Jobs built some of the most admired, well known and most successful organisations in the world. From Apple to Pixar, Steve developed businesses that have touched the lives of billions of people world wide. From Toy Story to the Ipod his dedication to developing innovative yet 'sexy' products was endless. This week however his journey came to an end as I am sure we are all aware.

For me Steve and his organisations have been a great inspiration and a lesson in the success of congruence. The 'sexy' nature of the products that these organisations delivered have lead to a passionate following of customers. To the degree that many of these customers fall in love with the products. Regardless of price these products have stood out in a very full market place and have commanded loyalty and a dedicated following. More on this next time...

Apart from his corporate life which some may see as ruthless and hard nosed, Steve had a tough fight with Liver disease and then Pancreatic cancer, which eventually led to his dimise. Along this journey he connected with the deep wisdom that lies inside all of us. At many of my workshops, and also with my clients I often ask them to write there message to the world. What would you tell the world if you knew you were going to die tomorrow? What wisdom, life lessons would you impart to the rest of us before you left this life? Well Steve got his opportunity when he presented his version of Message to the World at Stanford University. If you have not seen this very different key note speech it is worth watching.


So here is Steve's Message to the World.

I hope you enjoy, until next time live like it is your last day because one day it will be!

Cheer Marcus

What do you believe in?

I came across this amazing video the other day on ted.com and during my week off I thought I would leave this one with you. Belief, connection, vulnerability as a key to success in work and life. A truly inspirational and insightful video which everyone should see.

I hope you enjoy....

Cheer Marcus

The Many Faces of Fear

I have just finished another Sunday running my Double Your Clients in 90 Days one day introduction workshop for health care professionals and yet again I saw the insidious, destructive and interfering power of fear. I am amazed at just how sneaky and cleaver fear can be, hiding in the most unlikely recesses of our thoughts and feelings. I have seen how fear can stop us in our tracks when moving forward could be the most exciting experience of our lives.

I remember when I was younger, I know a distant memory, although in my mind it was yesterday, it is today and maybe even tomorrow, anyway when I was younger 10 or 12 my father took my brother and I to Disneyland. At Disneyland there is a ride called Space Mountain which, is an inside roller coaster. I can remember walking down the ramp to get on the coaster and hearing all the screams coming from those already enjoying the ride. These screams highlighted an already building fear, to the point that half way through the cue I decided to run away. A little embarrassing considering my brother who is five years younger than me excitedly continued on. I waited out the front for my Dad and Brother to complete their journey into the unknown only to see the exhilaration and joy on their faces when they eventually appeared. My brother shouting lets do that again. It took me at least five of these excited greetings and lots of convincing from both my Dad and my brother before I decided to break through my fear and go on the ride.

I can still feel the fear and apprehension of walking into the area where you got onto the ride, seeing the coaster move off into the distance with the familiar sound of click clack as the coaster climbed the track to its final pinnacle where it dropped into the nothingness of darkness and surely death.

So with the fear still very present and my stomach wanting to release all of its contents, I got onto the coaster. By this stage I was trembling, nearly crying with the overwhelming fear that maybe my life would end in a sea of mangled roller coaster mess as we catapulted off the rails and into the ground below.

As the coaster jerked off into the distance, with me on it gripped by the fear, surrounded by excited patrons including my brother and Dad who by this stage are laughing at me, in the most loving way possible but seeing the silliness of my fear. (Isn't funny how everyone else can see the funny side but when your in the middle of it...IT'S NOT FUNNY!) When we got to the top of the coaster everything turned black and we disappeared into the dark recess of Space Mountain. Now I have to say the first few corners felt like I was going to die but then I began to let go and enjoy the ride. The feeling of impending death disappeared with every up, down, exciting and thrilling turn. Once it was over I wondered what the fear was all about, as I too now joined in on the harmony of my brother and I going “can we do it again…come on Dad, again, again”.

And so the fear of that scary inside roller coaster was gone for good, I had broken through.

Now most fear is not as obvious as that one, but never the less will stop you meeting the exciting and most joyful thing in life…YOU! Fear more often hides as excuses; reasons for not doing the things that deep inside we know we need to do. It will stop us meeting our destiny, of diverting the inevitable and us living the fullest life that we can. Life is a wild adventure and once we get over the fear of meeting this adventure we realise just how amazingly exciting and thrilling it really is.

So where is your fear hiding and how does it show up in your life? Remember that sometimes your thoughts and feelings will deceive you. In that I mean that the fear will show up in excuses that appear real and reasonable and understandable but its fear non-the-less. So how much longer are you going to let fear stop you meeting your most adventurous life? How much longer are you going to let it stop you from living the biggest version of whom you really are?

At some moment we realise that time is running out and that eventually the roller coaster is no longer going to be there. When you see an opportunity to get on the roller coaster take it with both hands, jump on board and push through the fear so that you can experience the overwhelming joy of it all.

Its funny but if we run towards the fear, fear tends to disappear. So what ever you fear run towards it as fast as you can and watch it eventually disappear.

Have a great week and remember, when your roller coaster opportunity appears jump on it quickly before the fear overwhelms you. Know that your thoughts and feelings are going to tell you not to. In this case you have to dig deep and connect with that knowing inside that tells you that this could be the most amazing adventure, a life changing experience, that may have you meet your wildest dreams, desires and goals for your life. Oh and go with your first thought or feeling which is usually the one that says yes lets do it. Fear generally comes after that thought and you guessed it the more your think about it the less likely you are to do it. Fear builds over time, it does not get less!

Cheers Marcus

Uncovering the truth about your USP!

There has been a lot of talk about discovering your Unique Selling Point (USP) and to be quite frank, I am sick of hearing about it. Most of the time it is spoken of by marketing experts and is externalised with a view to impressing your market. It is important but not for the reasons that they often profess. Even though most business owners understand and know of the value of having a USP, or at least have heard that they should, most still have not got it right.

We live in an increasingly competitive market place, with tighter margins and often more demanding clients. It is your USP that will help you to stand out in a busy and competitive market place. Where most business owners go wrong is that they look outside of themselves, analyzing and researching their competitors, trying to find a gap and in turn design their USP.

At Intrinsic Success we take a very different view of discovering you USP. In our experience your USP is more about the essence of you and your business than it is about marketing or competition. Your USP should really be your unique stand and place, and less about how you sell. If you really want to stand out and make a difference in the world then discovering the truth of your USP is essential.

So what is it that makes you unique? In a world of six billion people and millions of businesses what on earth could make you unique. Here is where the trick lies, for if you are trying to find your uniqueness in what you do then you are going to come up with the same thing as everyone else. It is interesting to note that so many businesses claim to be unique and then go on to do and say the same thing everyone else does. So what could make you unique? This is where the essence and energy of you and your business comes in. What is it that makes you, YOU? What is the uniqueness that makes you the special person that you are? What would your friends and family say about you that makes you, YOU? It is the same for your business, what is it about your business that makes it your business? What would your existing clients say about your business? What would your team, your friends and family say about the uniqueness of your business?

If you can nail these questions then you are most of the way to finding your USP. It is a little tricky I must admit and can seem like a never-ending pilgrimage to the end of the earth however, once you have it your business is guaranteed to take off. Now, you will know when you have it by the reaction of the external world, your clients, your team, your family and friends. One of the KPI's is when the clients come flocking then you know that you have it. When we get really clear about what we are then our potential clients can get clear about what we are and make a definite decision as to whether or not to engage us. It is when we are covered in fluff and same old same old that potential clients get confused and unsure about what we are and what we have to offer. Clients want businesses that are clear, definite and sure-footed. Our USP will give them most of this information.

Then you want to understand what it is that you stand for and make that stand. In our case we are interested in business owners who are ready to make a difference to their business and their lives. Those business owners who are truly ready to do what ever it takes to grow and expand and make a significant difference in their world and the world at large.

Once you have discovered the thing that makes you unique, are clear about what you stand for, you can then take your place in the market. So where is your place, or where do you want it to be? Go find the most comfortable and receptive place in the market and tell them what your USP is all about. Begin to attract your perfect client based on your USP. Let go of trying to find clients that do not fit into your view of yourself and the world. I guarantee you will be happier, less stressed and more successful. Oh and if you have some that don't fit I dare you to think about changing that...

So go out into the world and discover your true intrinsic USP, then go tell everyone…NOW!

Have a great week and may your intrinsic uniqueness shine for greater success.

Cheers Marcus

Finding the truth at an airport!

I am sitting at Hobart airport, here's the photo to prove it, waiting for my flight back to Melbourne after a great morning coaching. Nice suite and tie Marcus!

If I had a dollar for every hour that I have spent in airports I would be writing this blog from some exotic ski resort. Well maybe not writing this blog but skiing and sharing all the tales from the snow.

Apart from being with my family theres an image of what I would be doing!

But alas I am in another airport just waiting, oh well it give’s you time to think if nothing else.

So a blog... what to write about this week? Well I have just spent the morning discussing the truth. The truth about our own individual lives and how we are very good at clouding the truth and in turn having us convince ourselves of what is real and what is not. This then leads us into what we think we want and often has us diving into things that are not really what we do want. We unfortunately often don’t find this out until years later only to create the same decision time and time again.

You see reality is not all it is cracked up to be! Our reality is shaped from our left-brain point of view as this is what we have all be trained to trust, how so you ask. Thanks for asking! As some of you may know we have two hemispheres of our brain the right and the left, anyone know what they do? That’s right the left is all about analytical, strategy, systematic and linier function. In learns in words, process and structure. It lives in the past and the future and is concerned with keeping us safe. The right brain on the other hand is all about abstract, feelings and takes in its data through the senses of our being. It lives in the eternal moment of now. The issue with reality is that in our left-brain dominant world, which we have all been trained to trust more than anything else, we create a feedback loop system that creates false reality.

How it does this is that the further we move from an event in our lives the less truthful it becomes. Take a memory from your early childhood; remember what happened and the feelings that it gave you. Now I bet if you asked a sibling or a parent their memory of this shared experience they would tell you a different story. Now what is real and who is right? The answer is no one and everyone as all these realities are only past perceived realities.  The further we move from the event the more it becomes a perceived reality rather than a true reality of what actually happened. Now if we come back to today all these past-perceived realities are projected into the immediate future creating a future perceived reality, which then creates a now perceived reality. None of which are necessarily the truth. Confused yet?

It’s ok because half of the confusion comes from thinking of reality from the left-brain which can’t actually understand reality on it’s own. In steps the right brain that only lives in the moment of now. You see reality only lives in the moment of now. From a left-brain point of view the past might have us believe that we are not worthy, not good enough and what we should or should not do. This reality then leads us into doing things that are not truly aligned with our truth. Now we believe that we are doing our truth based on the left-brain view of the world and past-perceived reality creating future perceived reality creating a now perceived reality none of which is the truth. When we take the same image and overlay the right brain we find that all the drama associated with an event or situation is allowed to disperse. The right brain helps us to step out of the perceived reality space and actually connect with the truth. Once we have this truth we can use the left-brain to create actions that move us forward into the new reality, the truth.

So that’s all well and good but how do you know the truth. Well that my friend is a journey of delving into the depth of who you are. The first step is to become conscious of the truth and how your past and future are creating your now. The secret to this is to look at the dramas in your life. It is the perceived reality that often creates drama. To then look at the truth of this reality, this drama and decide which is true and which is not. Once you know this authentic truth it is time to become congruent and to take this congruence out into the world a bit like taking your new puppy for its first walk. It’s a little scary, a little unsure, a little unstable and a lot of faith that this is the right thing to do.

Accessing the right brain will help you to connect with what is really going on. Some may call it intuition others a knowing and for some it is gut feel. In a lot of cases it helps to get someone external to help you to connect with the truth for once you connect it is easier to keep the connection. If you can connect to your knowing, check in and try and identify your drama. What is the perceived reality that you have created for yourself? Is it your ultimate truth?

So go out into the world and find your truth, see where you are deceiving yourself with a perceived reality and make the truth, your truth, real!

Thanks for reading until next week, Nanoo Nanoo, for all those eighties kids. For those who don’t know what this is check out channel 11 and the old re-runs of Mork and Mindy.

P.S: if you want some help to find your truth drop me a line marcus@intrinsicsuccess.com

P.P.S: if you want to know more about the brain check out this video from the TED website it is well worth it! http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/jill_bolte_taylor_s_powerful_stroke_of_insight.html

Your Story is Worth it!

I spent the weekend at the National Speakers Association of Australia convention and had some very eye opening moments. There was so much good stuff I heard, so much I learnt and a whole lot of amazing speakers that not only inspired but also gave me lots of great ideas to spice up my performances. I also got to hear from and speak to some very successful authors who shared some great wisdom. Now I could write a whole swag load of blog’s from the convention, which I might just well do, however today or tonight as the case maybe I have to pick just one.

So what topic shall I pick, so much good fodder, so many memorable moments, mmmm! So I just choose to go with whatever inspires the heart and in this case it came up with the title ‘Your story is worth it’

It is amazing at how many people love to hear my story and how reluctant I often am to share it. But it is our stories that help people to feel closer to us and inspires them to connect to us. This connection is the most important thing that we can focus on, as it is connection that more than often has people buying our product or service. It does not mater if we run our own business or work for someone else, connection is the most important thing you can foster. We all prefer to deal with people we like or have things in common with. The more intimate we feel with someone the better we think we know them. It helps us to feel the authenticity of that person and this authenticity allows us to connect deeply.

The more we connect the more we want to do business with that person and as that connection grows, the more we are likely we are to refer them to others. Now it is one thing to get business from the people we know it is another to get them to refer us to the people that they know. This is how we build a successful business or career, by getting others to refer us. We would all rather do business with someone that has been referred to us. So connection is imperative if we are to be successful and receive referrals.

So what is your story? Do you feel comfortable sharing it? A lot of the people I speak to, including myself, are hesitant to share their story. Maybe it was all the times we were told as kids not to big note, brag or stand out. Maybe it’s just part of the Australian collective conscious which commands that you don’t stick your head up too high as tall poppies get cut down. But then again maybe it’s not about this at all but rather just finding the courage to share honestly and openly your amazing story.

We all have one, a story that is heart felt, touching and real. As humans we all have experiences that are happy, sad, distressing, uplifting, depressing, devastating, painful and joyful. All these emotions have value to each other as sharing helps us to feel normal and builds a kinship with others. These stories also have great lessons and teachings weaved throughout them. These lessons have value for others and are likely to positively touch and intern change another’s life. We may not see its effect or the results of that wisdom but it’s there and its important.

Finding the courage to share your story is often half the battle. Moving past the ‘who would care about my story’, ‘its just not that interesting’ and ‘I’m scared what people will think’ may just help another more than you will ever know. Maybe it’s time to stop all this rot and start to share more of yourselves, through your story.

So your challenge, if you choose to accept it, is to write out your unique story. To then share it with one person that may not know it.

‘Share more of who you really are through the experiences that you have really had’.

Remember your story is worth it. Own it, believe in it, share it with passion!

If you feel moved to share it with me I would love to receive them.

Thanks for reading until next week, share your story with passion!

The $1,000,000 dollar challenge! One great love, an enlightening dinner party, and two clarity defining breakfast meetings.

So I’m sitting here in a café somewhere in Melbourne contemplating the week that was and the weekend that still is. I know it’s Monday morning and I’m running behind with my blog and my Monday morning inspiration to my clients and its all for a good reason.

So I’m letting go of the anxiety that is building inside me that I have to meet expectations. Expectations of others, of what I think needs to happen and of the expectations that I have set up for myself. All playing into the great wounding, the great baggage game that we all carry from our childhood, past lives into our future hopes and dreams. In fact it is often the future that activates the past wounding and creates urgency, pain and unfulfilled dreams in the now.

Over the last twenty-four hours I have had an enlightening journey with my partner Stephanie, and enlightening dinner party with friends and finally this morning two enlightening business meetings with friends. Through all this I discover that I have allowed the dark to cover me yet again! It is funny how sometimes the dark comes disguised as the light only to appear as the dark right when you are in the middle of it. Now let me clarify the ‘dark’ as it is not some kind of spooky Hollywood Nightmare on Elm Street blockbuster but rather those things that we let get in the way of our success.

Maybe all this is not making any sense but right now I am just going with what is coming. The dark comes to show you everything that you are not! I have seen many hundreds of clients over my time as a kinesiologist, counsellor and coach and when I ask clients what they want they inevitably start by telling me all the things that they don’t want. In a funny way this is the purpose of the dark, to show you what you don’t want or in this case what you are not. In this way the dark actually appears to help you to see the light that you are. The dark is just energy like everything in the universe. All of which is aimed at growing the light of having us move into the biggest most beautiful and radiant version of ourselves.

Which brings me to today’s blog, how to turn a fake million dollar note into a real million dollars. It’s a challenge that was set for me last night by my beautiful friends Duncan and Fiona. I set Duncan a challenge for his blog a few weeks ago, which was to complete the title ‘greed is good’. Being a spiritual warrior it was potentially a challenge as sometimes we see greed as bad and certainly the popular media would have us believe so. Anyway Duncan did an amazing job, you can check it out at http://www.kidneycoach.com , so now to my challenge to blog about how to turn a fake million dollar note into a real million dollars! Well not actually just a blog but rather a real life challenged based on the guy who swapped a paperclip for a house.

Do I know how I am going to do it, no way, so where to from here? This is where I step into my power and become radiant and manifest the reality that this is possible. Money, like everything in the universe, is just energy and certainly not real. Money is just paper, or plastic and in most cases is just thin air travelling from one account to another never really seeing the light of day. So what is the reality of money? If money is not real and our society is just built on make believe, so to speak, then why not manifest a real million dollars out of a fake million dollars. The funny thing is that this fake million dollar note cost $7.00 to buy so someone is actually making money from that fake million dollar note. One of the reasons this challenge has come about is that part of my father wounding revolves around money and my limiting belief about not being good enough to have it, keep it and love it. So if money is not real then my wounding starts to disintegrate. This challenge was also manifested because of the gentleman who swapped a red paperclip for a house in 16 trades. He went onto ebay asking someone to swap a paperclip for something and a person swapped a pen. He then swapped the pen for something else and it got bigger and bigger until one day he had a house. If you have not heard of this guy, Kyle MacDonald, check it out at http://oneredpaperclip.blogspot.com/ as he now has a web site, a book, he’s a speaker and the list goes on all because of one crazy idea. He broke through the mindset that his goal was crazy, not real or achievable.

So how to swap a fake million dollar note for a real million dollars, this is my challenge and I take it with both hands and move forward towards that reality. So anyone want to swap a fake million-dollar note, in pristine condition for something else? I have set up a blog site dedicated to this journey at http://themilliondollarnote.blogspot.com/ so you can follow me and I’ll also set up a web site so when it is up I’ll send you the link and lets see what happens.

At the end of the day the dinner conversation revolved around mindset and it’s power to influence how we succeed or don’t succeed in life. My recent mindset has lead me to fall back into the darkness, in an effort to help everyone else learn from the experience I am sure, so that I can now wake up again and move back into the light. So where is your mindset and how is it hindering or helping you to manifest what you want, deserve and need? Where is your baggage or the darkness hindering you manifesting the brightest future for yourself and your family?

This challenge is similar to the premise of manifesting a car space. I’m famous for manifesting rock star car spaces. I do it EVERY time without fail so why should a million dollars be any different? The short answer is IT’S NOT so here we go, want to come for the ride and see what happens?

Thanks for reading, have a great week and don’t forget to be radiant in everything you do….you might just manifest a million dollars!

Regards Marcus

P.S Thanks Stephanie, Duncan, Fiona, Karen and Chris for your wise words, deep questioning and loving challenge. 

Overcoming the Sole Trader Blues!

Now every once and a while most solo entrepreneurs or sole traders, you know people like us with a staff of one, ourselves, or a small team, goes through the ‘Sole Trader Blues’.  Those times where you feel unmotivated procrastinate and feel less than inspired. Where you sit at your desk looking endlessly into the computer hoping something exciting will jump out at you and fire up that passion you had yesterday. Well believe it or not I had the sole trader blues last Thursday.

There I was sitting at my desk looking into the abyss feeling flat and low trying to find something to inspire me back into action. I know I had a lot of things to do as the day before I was flat out, but do you think I could think of any of them in this moment! Even though I had my action plan list, my sales funnel and my priority matrix I just sat there. In that moment of the blues I could not think of anything inspiring to do. As I scanned my list nothing seemed any fun, actually quite the opposite, everything seemed a chore. ‘Ring up some sales leads’ I thought but no I can’t call anyone when I feel like this and they will probably say no anyway…. ‘Write some more of the coaching program manual’ I mussed, oh God I cant be bothered…. So I just sat there! Maybe I’ll look at Facebook or Linkedin maybe that will inspire me…to no avail. Maybe if I play a computer game that might get me out of this rut….no that just made me feel guilty that I had lots to do and here I was procrastinating. So what to do?

In speaking to a few small business owners last week a number of them talked about being in this rut, maybe it was the full moon, or just a strange coincidence or maybe it was there so that I could write about it in my blog and pass on some handy tips to get you out of the Sole Trader Blues. 

Now the blues can be triggered by many things, a few negative sales calls, the moon cycle, your cycle, a brief moment where you loose hope or loose sight of the bigger picture of your vision or just because. So what did I do?

When I find myself in times of trouble Mother Mary comes to me... opps that's a beatles number no help here or is it? Now seriously when I find myself in this situation and I have the means to be conscious enough to realize the rut that I’m in, here are my top tips to beat the blues, and yes playing some beatles on my guitar is one of them:

1.   Get moving – when you feel flat, down or like you are in the blues the first thing to do is to get moving. Get up from your desk change the scenery and go for a walk, even if it is only down to the back of the garden. Pick up a musical instrument and play it outside. Go for a walk along a river or the beach or somewhere that makes you feel good. One of the causes of the blues can be the lack of movement. If you have been moving forward in your business and suddenly there is a hiccup, lick a few negative sales calls, then you can be placed in a space of non movement or procrastination. The best way to get moving again is to get moving, anywhere.

2.     Take an action – Once you have had a walk or moved from your desk the next step is to take an action. Any action no matter how small and preferably small, will have you moving once again. Get up and do the filling, clean your desk, go to Officeworks and buy that stationary you need or write a blog.

3.     Review hope – Often the place that we go to when we have the blues is that place of no hope, even if it is not conscious, a lack of hope will have us stop and loose sight of what we are trying to achieve. So write a list of all the positive things that are, will, or you want to have happen in your business. More often than not there are some great opportunities opening up and reminding yourself of them is a sure fire way of finding some inspiration to get moving.

4.     Call someone – Now call someone, make a business call that you need to make and talk to another human being. Sometimes as a sole trader, of just you or a few, you can get lost in your own mind. The best way out of this trap is to call someone. It is best to call someone who is going to give you a positive response, so not a sales call as yet, but rather someone you are doing business with who is a supporter of your work.

5.     Go do something - Now at worst if none of the above works go do something you love to do, kayaking on the river, playing tennis, reading a good book, gardening, riding a bike, going to the gym or visiting a friend. It does not matter what you do as long as the doing is something you love to do. This will often kick in the inspiration gene and have us get back on track.

6.     

      Positive affirmations – As you begin to move it is important that you tend to your mind and the thoughts you are having. Regardless of whether or not they started this whole blues thing you mind is a powerful tool, use it wisely. Begin to repeat positive affirmations over and over like a broken record. Some of my favorite affirmations are:

“I think positively only”

“I am totally self confidant”

“I am passionate, inspired and in action”

“I have an abundance of new customers/clients”

“I am totally self worthy”

7.     

      Communicate – At the end of the day the best thing you can do is communicate with someone you trust, love or look up to and ask for help. There is nothing like a comforting word or a strong kick up the backside to get you moving. Because the blues is just that, a lack of movement. This lack of movement could be due to any number of feelings from, its too hard, to I can’t be bothered and any number of negative untrue thoughts.

In my case it was the support of my love one, Stephanie, and a good dose of kick myself up the backside to get out into the world and get on with the job that got me moving again but not after spending most of Thursday morning mopping about. So get into action, get moving and know that what you are doing is important, real and of great value to all of those you touch. Oh and if you get stuck CALL ME!

These ‘Sole Trader Blues’ usually only last for a few hours or a day, however in some cases they can go on for days. If they happen to go on longer than a few hours or at most a day or two then call someone, me, a friend, a colleague, someone that can help inspire you out of the blues. If you feel that your blues are more than just blues and maybe depression please seek the advise of a qualified health care practitioner. The sooner you get onto it the sooner you will be back on top.

Managing for Intrinsic Success - A core human experience!

Being the manager is an essential part of ‘being’ in business regardless of whether you have employees, manage a team or as a sole trader. Managing others is what we all do on a daily basis. Be it getting the kids to school on time, directing a contractor to develop your next marketing brochure, managing suppliers to have your product delivered in a timely manner or managing ourselves to get into action. Managing others is part of our day-to-day life. So how can we be more effective at the managing process?

The most important attribute in being a more successful human lies in how we connect and engage with the world. In the managing process how we connect and engage with others has a great influence on how others will respond towards us and in turn how well they perform for us. Intrinsic success is not possible without the help and assistance of others, every part of our lives depends on it. So how you deal with the management process is going to have a lot to do with the ultimate success you have. Here are a few tips that I use with my clients to help them manage others.

A solid theory!

One of the first things I teach clients is Motion Theory. Motion Theory states that everything in the universe is constantly in motion, the planets, time, weather, our age pretty much everything. At a quantum molecular level even things that appear to be solid like rocks, walls, floors etc, are constantly in motion. In respect to people and in particular those that work for us, Motion Theory is prevalent in that people are either doing one of three things. They are either moving towards our business and engaging ‘advocates’, moving away from our business and disengaging ‘detractors’ or hovering somewhere in the middle ‘fence sitters’ and some what appearing to be undecided as to the way they will move. Now if these people are moving towards our business and engaging then we are more likely to get the most out of them. If they are moving away from our business and disengaging then we are not going to get the most out of the relationship. If they are in the middle or fence sitters then once again we are not going to get the best out of them. As employees the same is true, employees are either moving towards the business, away from the business or sitting on the fence. In reality it is only possible to be moving towards or away from as even fence sitters are moving in one direction or the other.

So if you have employees can you identify which way they are moving? If you have other people you work with, suppliers, contractors or yourself can you identify which way they are moving? In respect to yourself it maybe that there are particular parts of your business that you either move away from or towards. For example I find a lot of small business owners moving away from the finance area of their business.

When employees begin to move away from a business they begin to become disenchanted, discouraged and disappointed. The further they move away from the business the more disgruntled and disappointed they become and in some cases become destructive sharing negative thoughts, feeling and emotions. This they need to share with others to feel that they are not the only ones and will often try to recruit the fence sitters. In respect of the business owner who moves away from the finance aspect of their business we find that eventually money becomes a major issue in the business. So what is it that leads us to engage or disengage and how can we manage the engagement process and have others and ourselves move towards every aspect of our business?

Core Drivers

As humans we are intrinsically motivated to move towards things that make us feel better and away from those things that make us feel worse. In essence there are five core drivers that underpin the things that we want to feel and engage with; we want to feel safe, worthy, inspired, self fulfilled and loved. We are motivated towards moving in the direction of things that increase engagement with these core drivers and disengage with those things that have us feel less of the five core drivers. So how does your business fulfill one or more of these core drivers for you and your employees’ contractors or suppliers? Once you have connected with this you can begin the process of enhancing those core drivers. In this process you can assist your employees to connect with the business and connect with how it enhances core drivers for them.

As an example I was coaching a call center manager who had 15 line staff who manned the inbound calls of a large call centre for a major telecommunications organization. As you can imagine a majority of his staff where either fence sitters or detractors, moving away from the business. One of the tools I taught him was the ‘Leap Frog’ technique in which we help the detractors to connect a core driver being meet in the future with what they are doing now. As you can imagine most of the call centre staff are on their way to somewhere else. Most of them are working in the call centre to fund another passion, dream or desire. Therefore we needed to connect those employees with a future, passion, dream or desire to the current reality and show them how the ‘Leap Frog’ effect works. We identified how the current reality was giving them skills, money and experiences that would one day help them and assist them to actualize there passion, dreams and desires. We connected and leap frogged their journey to reaching their end goal. Now in a call center environment every possible statistic is scrutinized. Our experience and coaching lead to a near immediate 25% increase in engagement, which in turn helped this team to be one of the most successful in the whole, call centre.

What we had done is turned a group of individuals from being detractors, because they could not see core drivers being meet, to advocates in a very short period of time. Once they could see how their current reality was actually helping them to have their core driver’s meet, they began to become more engaged in what they where doing and therefore performance improved.

So how does what you are currently doing have your core drivers meet? How does it do this for your employees, contractors or suppliers? What will it take for you to move towards all those things in your business that you currently disengage from?

In our next blog on ‘Managing for Intrinsic Success’ we will provide more tips and practical solutions to the management process. If you need any help in the management process you know where I am!

One Sick Child - Leads to a clear plan for success?

Happy New Year to all of you and I hope you had a great Christmas break, if you got a break that is?

I want to start the year off with a more personal blog and to set a tone of letting you into my life and also into my business life. I want to lead more by example rather than just through knowledge and a façade that we all put on sometimes. I want to be a little more ‘naked’ with my blog. So I hope the following mutterings help.

There were two reasons that I became a business coach, the first is because it is the one thing that allows me to express all of my skills, from business to counseling through to healing. The second was because of lifestyle and a desire to be there for my family…

So here is a story of our New Years holiday that thankfully has a happy ending…

We had a fairly quiet Christmas break together with the traditional family get togethers; lots of wonderful food, great company and many laughs. Once the Christmas craziness was over, and the dishes had all been done and the house once again back to a more ‘normal’ mess as apposed to a ‘crazy’ Christmas mess we decided to get away for the New Year. Having a house up at Mt Buller and a number of friends choosing to spend their New Years eve celebrations at one of the highest points in Victoria we decided to get away.

So on the Thursday we decided to pack up the car and the kid, just Lucy as the other two were with their dad, and off we went.  Now those of you that don’t know me that well I have three children, two beautiful step children Claudia 10 and Brendan 7 and one of our own little Lucy 2. So with Lucy in the car we headed off with a scheduled stop at Lake Eildon to visit some friends who have a houseboat there. I was hoping to water ski for the first time in over ten years, unfortunately the water was too rough much to my disappointment. Anyway after a nice day on the water jet skiing and general splashing about, Lucy loves the water, we headed on up to Buller.

On the way up the mountain Lucy began to become sick and half way up the mountain she threw up. Now this is not the best of stories to start the year but it is what happened and the moral of the story makes all this worth while. By the time we got to the top of the mountain Lucy was quiet unwell. Now our history of going to Mt Buller over the last year has not been a good one. I think we have had at least one sick child on nearly ever trip, so you can imagine our delight at the prospects of another sick one.

After two days of no sleep, Lucy being very unwell and a less than enjoyable New Years Eve for all concerned we decided to head back home early on the Saturday. When we go home Lucy had some concerning symptoms that seemed to be getting worse not better. The poor little thing lay on the couch not talking looking so sad and sultry with a high fever and not wanting to drink or eat. Lucy is normally such an animated kid and loves to talk and play and talk and play… So once again we head off to the Royal Children’s Hospital. I say once again as we had Lucy at the hospital a couple of times during September for an unrelated illness. Now I am not good with my children being sick, which, is quiet different from my normal way of being around sick people. I have spent most of my life helping sick and injured people; be it with a physical or mental illness, get better. Especially in acute situations where I am the person you want around. However when it comes to my little girl I am a bit of a mess. I just hate seeing her suffering and my heart just cried that day. Anyway we sat in the hospital for five hours while they did tests, rehydrated and observed her. After some water a cool lemonade icepole, and don’t icepoles just cure anything, she thankfully seemed to pick up and we were allowed to go home. It was a little worrying for the next 24 hours but I am pleased to say that she has now made a full recovery and back to her normal happy, laughing, dancing and talkative self.

I believe that there are lessons in all of life’s challenges and I think this one highlighted a few. When things are going well we can sometimes forget the ‘specialness’ of life and of the lives of those around us. In some respect it is why I decided to start my own business, so that I could be nearer those that I love most. To be there to see all the little changes, the new words, the new expressions, but mostly to be present when I am truly needed. Now I know we often make the excuse of starting our own businesses to get out of the 9 to 5 rut, working for the ‘boss’ but at the end of the day isn’t it about being closer to the ones we love? Isn’t it about having the freedom to choose when and where we operate our business?

At the end of last year I was stressed, over working and driving myself too hard. I find that it is easy to get caught up in my business, giving it far to much emphasis and energy. I also understand that this is sometimes a difficult balancing act especially for a male as we have the primal hunter-gatherer gene driving us to provide for our families. Now this is not to undervalue the feminine contribution it is just a primal programming that males have, it’s not real in our modern world but unfortunately still affects some of us.

At the end of the day life is all about balance. The business aspect of that balance is driven by the ability to build something, to be the master of our own destiny but most importantly giving us the time and freedom to be with the people we love most. Now January is a great time to get organized and to plan the year ahead. To take stock of the past year, learn from the mistakes, to celebrate the wins and to take the learning’s of all that has been. To then set clear intentions for a wonderful, connected and successful year ahead.

So what I want us all to do is to list all the most important things in your life and to schedule them into your business plans and business calendar. To not forget the real reason you decided to get into your own business, whether that was because of wanting to be closer to your children, animals or friends. To be able to spend more time with your significant other. To be able to spend more time on yourself or just because you had a burning desire to prove your tenth grade teacher that he was wrong! So apart from the business essentials, marketing, networking, finance, sales, product development and admin, place some emphasis on all those other much more important things in your life. Make the most out of them through the ability to organize your business around your life. Remember that if you don’t design your business then your business will design you. It is the same with your life, if you don’t design your life then life will design you.

So take charge of what you truly want to have happen this year. Make a plan to make time for the most important things in your life, in my case my family. And build a solid business plan to have the most successful year of your life, in all areas and in all ways! Oh and if your business is not allowing you the opportunity to have more time, more money and a greater quality of life then maybe you need a business coach…..if I can help you or anyone else you know give me a call marcus@intrinsicsuccess.com.

Here’s to a great year…. CHEERS!

Engagement Part 1: What has WELLBEING got to do with business?

It would seem like everything according to the Gallup organization, who have been tracking wellbeing from around the world since the mid 20^th century. In fact they track the wellbeing of the US on a daily basis. So what’s all the fuss about and how can it help us in business and career?

Wellbeing is not just about being happy but rather having a full life: according to Gallup ‘wellbeing is a combination of our love for what we do each day, the quality of our relationships, the security of our finances, the vibrancy of our physical health, and the pride we take in what we have contributed to our communities’. According to dictionary.com wellbeing is: a good condition of existence; a state characterized by health, happiness and prosperity.

So how is your health, happiness and prosperity?

Gallup found that the number one contributing factor to overall wellbeing is career wellbeing. Whether you are an employee or you own your own business the amount of enjoyment we get from our work has an enormous effect on the wellbeing of all other areas of our life. In fact people with high career wellbeing are twice as likely to be thriving in their lives overall. Not only does high career wellbeing help us to have ‘thriving lives’ it may also help us to live longer. The Gallup study also shows that high career wellbeing reduces blood pressure and the potential of head disease and also reduces anxiety and the likely hood of depression.

Now this is all well and good but how is this going to help us in business? Besides the obvious health and overall life enjoyment benefits it may also be good for our businesses health. There is a direct correlation between wellbeing and engagement. If you have employees you, as the business owner, can have an impact not only on their health but also the way that they engage with the business. I have a saying and that is ‘the more engaged we are with anything the more likely we are to be successful at that thing’. We tend to put more effort in into that thing and want to spend time and energy on that thing. We have a desire to become better at that thing and therefore are more conscientious. The more engaged we are with our career the more successful we are likely to be. This is why the most successful business people seem also to be the most passionate and engaged in what they are doing. In turn the more that you are engaged with your work the greater your wellbeing will be.

It is also true that those with careers where they get to use their strengths and do what they love are six times more likely to be engaged in their jobs and three times more likely to have a great quality of life. Therefore what you do, and the love you have for what you do, will help you to be more successful and could help you to live longer. Gallup conducted an ‘old age study’ and found that those who enjoyed what they did so much and did not retire until they where eighty lived until at least 95 years of age.

So loving what you do has a great impact on your health and overall wellbeing. It also has a direct correlation to your level of engagement with what you do. Therefore the more we can help ourselves and employees to engage with our business the more successful we are likely to be.

Maybe we need to have some focus on our wellbeing? Our life might just depend on it!

In part two, next week, I will discuss how we can assist the engagement process both providing practical steps to increase the wellbeing of ourselves and our organisation.

If you would like to increase the success of you or your organisation call me to discuss engagement and wellbeing in business.

Fatigue and the Busi-ness of Life?

I came to the end of another busy week feeling tired, exhausted and fatigued. Pushing myself from one meeting to another in a flurry of action, and as I came to a stop on Saturday morning I realized the pattern. Caught in a pattern that I have been running for many years now, flat out making it happen or fatigued to a stop. A wave of sadness came over me as I realized that my true self is the stillness that resides inside me. That peaceful self that meditates the wisdom of my life, and yet still I run.

It got me thinking of the sub-scripts that the subconscious brain runs that I often talk about with my clients. Those damn beliefs, patterns and fears that we choose to agree with over our lifetime. Now manifesting as a negative interference pattern. And I tell my clients that once you have a consciousness about a thing you can then decide to change that thing….right? Well as we all know it is not as easy as it seems and sometimes that comes down to the level or depth of consciousness we have about that thing. In my case I had some consciousness about it but not enough to completely shift my external experience of that thing, until today!

We had my nieces seventh birthday at a gymnastic centre followed by lunch at my brothers. It was a wonderful day, I got to run and play with my little girl Lucy and see our other two children, Claudia and Brendan, play with her. The love and care they have for her and each other whilst in a group of children is wonderful. Anyway when we got to my brothers the rest of the family had assembled including my Dad. Now I love my Dad but for most of my life he has been the one that I am trying to free myself from and today he gave me an insight. Now when I mean free myself please don’t get me wrong my Dad is a wonderful man, generous, caring and has supported me and my brother far and beyond most fathers. However like most boys and certainly first sons, I have the father wounding that I am trying to heal. So today was another chance but did I take it?

At one stage throughout the day, Dad I had a chance to chat alone for a few moments and in true form he asked me how business was going and again, true to form, I picked all the most positive points to tell him. The opportunities, the excitement of new clients and the underlining message of how well I was doing. At that moment I looked at him and noticed how far away he was from me. It was as if he had not heard anything that I had said. Oh there was the obligatory nod of the head and rhetorical murmurings of agreement and understanding but at the end of the day he was not there. Here I was sharing exciting news that things were going well and he had chosen to disappear. Now the disappearing is not the important part of this story, hell we all have those moments when we disappear from a conversation. No, it was the need I felt to once again prove that I was worthy and valuable….

Here was the driving force behind my need to run flat out and why it is not possible to keep up the pace. In truth this keeping up of the pace is me not living the truth of who I am but rather in the shadow of approval and acceptance of what my father might think is good. Sure like most I can keep up the pace with the best of them however I have had chronic fatigue so energy or the lack there of is my specialty. It is my calling, the reading of energy and sensing the state of myself and others, so now what to do with it…?

At the end of the day it is not the speed at which one moves that is the issue but rather what is going on inside that counts. It is possible to drive a car at 100 kilometers and hour however if you don’t change gear relative to the speed of the car then you are likely to blow up an engine. To complicate matters the alignment of ones own truth must match the energy so that the external performance matches the internal truth. In other words not only do we have to change gear so as not to blow the engine up but we must also have our gears aligned or we will destroy the gearbox. Now at 100 kilometers an hour that could be life threatening. In my case when my gearbox goes I get fatigued and literally have to stop.

There is a great understanding that comes from deep observation. Observation of your own internal scripts that continually run through your mind and observation of the scripts of those around you. To then bring awareness to how those scripts inter play with each other and the effect that these then have.

My Dad’s script is one of having to be perfect, which plays beautifully into mine, which is one of trying to seek acceptance by having the perfect business, life or what ever. Perfection to me is then played out through what I perceive as positive success, the bigger the positive success the better. This continual expectation is not possible to live up to. It is never possible to live up to others expectations. The only thing you can do is live up to your own, that is to meet your own inner expectation that in this life you will live as your true self as much as you can. That is the only expectation we have of ourselves at a deep level and it’s not really an expectation but rather a mantra, a desire to fulfill ourselves. Those that surrender fully to this internal expectation reap the rewards of a full, content and happy life. Those that don’t have to make do with whatever is left.

It is time to live my internal truth and to slow down, become clear, focused and move forward with grace and ease, regardless of the speed of the vehicle. Now I am going to take some of my own medicine and powerfully choose to make a difference. To live the peace that I am, calm and relaxed regardless of the speed of the outside world. I will allow myself to not have the need to impress, or be good, or be anything except that inner peace.

So how do your sub scripts interfere with your success and affect the living of your truth and, what do you choose now…………….?

So be brave and courageously share a little more of yourself this week. In a work or corporate environment it can be the scariest thing to do….but the most important. As one of my clients discovered last week, when you begin to let go and share your truth others are given permission to share theirs. Out of the darkest places the most amazing light often appears. So go and shine this week and let me know what happens and who else crawls from under the veil of a subconscious sub-script self.

If we were all free to perform from this place the world would certainly be better place…

Regards Marcus

Remember: Perform from your core, your truth and you will unleash your true potential...

Doing what you LOVE!

I used to work for a company, actually I was a partner in the company, called Love Your Business which was started by an amazing guy called Peter Cook (check them out www.loveyourbusiness.com.au). His blogs are well worth reading and put mine to shame, love what you do Pete.

Now what I really leant from my time with Peter was that if you do what you love you have more energy. Having had Chronic Fatigue I know all about energy, what gives me more and what takes it away. When you have energy, and not just the physical type, you come alive. This aliveness leads to the expression of passion, enthusiasm, inspiration and a sense of excitement. These emotions are contagious and infectious and lead others to feel more energised.

Now the result of having more energy or being more energised is that you have more success...how you ask? Well people love to be around people who are inspiring, passionate and enthusiastic...don't we???? Well I know I do! These people seem to be magnetic, attracting all sorts of good fortune to themselves. So what does it take to be this type of leader...Loving what you do!

So how can you do more of the things you love? We all know that the accounts need to be paid, the reports need to be written, the trash needs to be taken out and the office needs to be cleaned. Now unless these are the things you love to do...STOP! The sooner you move into the things that you are passionate about, which are often the things you are good at, the sooner you will have more energy, become magnetic and attract all manor of good fortune to yourself. I see too many business owners who are tired, disillusioned and trapped in the thoughts of how do I get out of this mess. When we start our own businesses there is usually only us so we end up doing everything, marketing, accounts, sales, reception, PA, product development etc... But at some point if our business is to grow we need to make changes. These changes need to happen slowly and gently so begin with one small step. Where can you delegate something you don't love to do to someone who does. The bookkeeping is the first and obvious area that comes up. Bookkeeper don't cost much but you doing the books does. So begin to delegate to external providers first then eventually when the cash flow is right bring them back in-house.

I think the moral to this story is the faster you can do the things you love the faster you will have intrinsic success.