When you want something, try helping someone.

This is Molly. She loves the beach and chasing balls. No surprise there. But Molly isn't my dog. I was helping out a friend over Easter as they went away for the holidays. So I drove 4 hours to the beach to visit family and let her play.


To be honest, Molly is hard work! Wakes me up at 5:30am and follows me around everywhere, which is kinda cute until you want to do a workout and she stands on your chest when doing sit-ups.

So why did I help out?

Because I believe if you want people to help you, help them first.

It doesn't even have to be the same person. I feel that if you put out good vibes of helping others, the energy gets around and people start wanting to help you. Maybe they see it or maybe they feel it, I really don't know. I just know it works.

I often talk about this in my consulting with new entrepreneurs. They want funding, staff, customers and advice. They have little money and time, but I encourage them to go help others first and in time, they will receive the help you need too.

Recently I had a young entrepreneur reach out to me with a cold email asking to interview me. Like you, I get lots of these and mostly ignore them as they are machine-driven and lack sincerity. But this one stood out so I took a risk and emailed him back.

Shan asked me to fill in 10x questions for his interview and I spend Easter Sunday helping him out. You can see the results of the interview here.

What was rewarding was his level of gratitude for me simply spending 30min helping him out. Here is what he wrote...

"I am in fasting so definitely telling you the truth. Last night, I was to quite everything... And then I transcribed and put together this post...... My God, it opened my eyes!

I understood not only my mindset thing which is really a breakthrough moment for me but literally the brand thing you taught made me RETHINK about everything !!!

I really feel like it is a blessing to have you on my show! I don't have enough words to thank you.

You're SO SPECIAL to me. YOU ARE THE BEST."

Wow.

I am sure he faced a lot of rejection and I am really happy that he got so much out of it. I actually feel like I don't deserve so much praise for doing so little. We all face imposter syndrome at times. He seems like a great guy and so I will help him a bit more too.

What do I get out of it? Some ego boost, sure. But I also ask others for advice as I am currently fundraising for my fast-growing new business and have been getting loads of feedback from my trusted network. So quid pro quo.

Finally, my advice to you all is if you want something in your life. Look for where you can add value to someone else's life first. Give a LinkedIn review, like their blog, send a nice message, buy their book, share their podcast. Perhaps someone will do the same for you.

You will be surprised how much of a boomerang giving is.

Enjoy your holidays,

Andrew


P.S. Molly is my ex-wife's dog but it's too hard to explain at the start of a blog :)

Andrew Ford

Marketing expert Andrew Ford, the founder of Social Star, has discovered the secret of ‘Powerful Branding’. With a fire for unleashing people’s inner brand and developing business models to generate profit from an individual’s passions, Andrew leverages ground-breaking digital and social media marketing techniques to create digital strategies for clients to attract maximum opportunities. Having established a strong name for himself in the field, Andrew blends traditional business techniques with now-necessary tools for entrepreneurs to achieve scale, quality, and influence in their niche. Andrew’s comprehensive business background and qualifications consist of a Bachelor of Business (Marketing) (RMIT 2003), a Graduate Certificate in Management (MBA Executive Program, University of Sydney 2005), and a Masters of Entrepreneurship and Innovation (Swinburne University 2011). Continually on the cutting edge of his own education, Andrew has tested his marketing theories in forums such as the BCG Business Strategy Competition, which he won in 2005 against all Victorian MBA schools, and the Venture Cup Business Plan Competition (Swinburne University 2003), which he won in the Masters category. With experience working at Hewlett-Packard, Sensis (Telstra) and IBM, Andrew also has mentored dozens of junior staffs to help them achieve their professional goals. Meeting and influencing high-profile public figures helped Andrew to realise just how many professionals require more understanding and control of their public brands or appearance, and need help with the skills to use the many amazing free tools at their disposal to generate success. At Social Star, Andrew consults with clients to uncover their personal brand – both where it is today and where it can be tomorrow – and refine and define how that should be displayed in social media in order to attract their perfect target audience. Andrew mentors his clients to rapidly grow their business’ audiences, resulting in larger potential client bases and higher revenue. Applying formulas that integrate over twenty years of Andrew’s business experience and fifteen years of formal business education, Social Star specialises in building clarity and velocity for clients’ brands using the ‘Understand, Build and Leverage’ methodology. ‘Having a Personal Business enables people to have an authentic, congruent connection with their valued clients and partners, using their brand as the bridge,’ says Andrew. ‘I’m highly driven to work with the new breed of entrepreneurs and small business owners – people who have a passion for making the world a better place. Traditional business models are stepping aside as people follow their innermost dreams and my role is to see them operate within their values while creating wealth. Some people think you have to sacrifice what you love to be successful in your business, yet it is actually the opposite. Follow your passion and success will come.’ Lecturing at Swinburne University from 2009 to 2011 on brand dynamics and digital marketing, presenting at numerous conferences, and consulting to hundreds of clients, Andrew has seen his philosophy work that if you follow your unique path, based on your skills, experience, values and goals, you will automatically attract the opportunities you desire and achieve the success you deserve. Living his mantra, Andrew has created a successful business and attracts high-profile clients including musicians, athletes, authors, models, entrepreneurs, professionals and small business owners, helping them find their ‘why’ in their business and fulfilment in their lives. Business for Andrew is more than work, it’s personal. Running a personal business means that he is able to fulfil all of his values rather than separating his life from work. It supports his two boys while providing social opportunities, educational development, fitness opportunities, spiritual fulfilment and many valuable friendships. Social Star has now become the vehicle for Andrew to crystallise his mission in the world, to help people love what they do, supporting his ‘why’, that if more people loved what they did, the world would be a better place.

 
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