What's on YOUR bucket list? (apart from wine...)

Friend: What the hell is a bucket list?

Me: It's a life plan dedicated to fun, rather than tasks.

That's what a friend asked me today when I posted that I'm helping a friend host a Bucketlist Party and did they want to join me. It's next Wednesday, I said, and I'm getting a few friends together and create our own list of things we want to do before you die. Sounds a bit scary, but it's actually a lot of fun and can be quite powerful thinking about what's really important to you rather than what's most urgent.

Check out what a Bucketlist is here

My mate, Ben Coyle 'AKA the Cafe Guy', is facilitating the workshop as he is a fresh graduate of the Bucketlist School. Yes there is such a thing...My other mate, Trav Bell 'AKA The Bucketlist Guy, created a whole personal business around helping people tick off their dreams a few years ago.

Funny story, I met him when I was working at IBM. It was a few years before I started Social Star and he doesn't know it (and I would never admit it to him!) but he was part of the inspiration for leaving my corporate job to start my own business.

My main reason for leaving the corporate world was to spend more quality time with my young kids. But he was part of the motivation, proving to me that you can start a business based on your own personal brand, be successful, manage your own time and have way more fun!

Now I spend my time, helping other Corporate Escapees to free their time by starting their own businesses. I know, that for many people, starting their own business is top of their Bucketlist so very aligned with my values.

If you missed my back story, you can catch up by clicking on the photo below.

But enough about me, back to the Bucketlist story. I was chatting with Ben about his new focus on coaching people to action their bucketlist and I was keen to do one other their 3 hour workshops to get some perspective for 2019.

He suggested we run one together and here we are!

The format of the workshop is as follows...

"A Bucket List Board Party is a 3 hour group workshop where you'll learn, design & create your very own Bucket List Board.

Unlike a regular Vision Board, you'll incorporate the M.Y.B.U.C.K.E.T.L.I.S.T. Blueprint(R) & take the Law of Attraction to an entirely new level. You'll leave with an inspirational, in-your-face reminder of your 'WHY'.

This is your chance to get creative, get visual and actively start designing your life. Gather your like-minded friends and book a Bucket List Board Party."

If you are thinking about your 2019 plans and want to have a fun few hours planning out some must do goals, join Ben and myself next Wednesday in Melbourne.

---------- Here is the link to join -----------

Hope to see you there!

Cheers Andrew

PS Yes there will be wine! (...and beer, snacks etc...)

What's going to help your business stand out online in 2019

When I speak at conferences the most often asked question I get is "how do I stand out in social media". Not an easy one to answer in the ever changing world of Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram. Social media moves fast, remember Vine, Pinterest or Google plus? You invest in one platform and suddenly it's not useful anymore and you have to completely change tact. Even blogging on LinkedIn isn't what it use to be for reach, now we need videos!

The challenge for professionals running their own businesses, solo-preneurs and corporate escapees is that your core product is your brand. People buy you. So your marketing plan is based on your thoughts and ideas so you can capture referrals and more genuine leads from wanting a skilled professional in your space. So with social media changing so fast, how can you effectively get that message to market?

My answer is that it's all about the message, not the mediumthat counts, and I believe that in 2019 the clarity of your message will be your key differentiator next year do to one key factor...digital fatigue.

A major trend this year was the amount of people getting off social media. The biggest social media platform in the world is Facebook which is loosing young users at a staggering rate as mentioned in this Recode article earlier this year.

The number of U.S. Facebook users in the 12- to 17-year-old demographic declined by 9.9 percent in 2017, eMarketer found, or about 1.4 million total users. That’s almost three times the decline expected. 

Facebook just isn't that cool anymore. But the trend isn't just Facebook. Community organisations and entrepreneurs alike are sprouting Digital Detox groups and events to bring awareness to the issues caused by too much social media. Here is one from Beyond Blue if you need a hand. 

If people are reducing their social media consumption, how do we reach them? Well the truth is, people still have problems and needs. They want to buy things and have services provided. They just don't want to be sold to. Customers want to choose themselves. So instead of listening to all the noise on social media, they will ask friends and get advice from their small and trusted communities and most of that advice will be online.

If you take these three trends together: speed of change in social media; reduction in time spent on social and customers tuning out of marketing messages, there will be a return to good old fashioned referrals. The difference is that referrals are now online.

Therefore, the answer to how to stand out in 2019 is to have a super niche and clear message and provide that to only your tight nit community so you are the go-to person for that service in your area. Your marketing then transforms from pushing your marketing message to thousands of people to find a few clients, to providing helpful advice to hundreds of fans to have a few clients find you. e-ttraction my friend, digital attraction.

For my clients I advise them to start with how many clients do they really need. It's normally a relatively small number. Then work back to how many fans we need and how do we communicate with them authentically. Create useful content that genuinely helps them on their journey and share it on all mediums - LinkedIn (articles, posts and video!), Facebook (personal sites & pages with a little boost) and shared to all other social sites. Create once, share many times.

I produced a simple yet extremely effective worksheet for my coaching clients that helps them to calculate the number of clients required at each stage of the buying journey and also what content to produce - you can get a copy here for free. 

For all the small businesses out there I hope this helps your marketing planning for 2019 and happy to have a chat and give you my other tips for next year, just send me a message and I will reply with next steps.

All the best,

Andrew

P.S. For anyone in Melbourne, the Brand event on Wednesday 14th November, is now sold out, but you can register for the waiting list here. Or come along to my Pitch Workshop Wednesday 28th November to get razor clarify for your message.

e-ttraction media : How to get interviews - My interview on Talkers Business Radio

I was recently interviewed by JoAnna Ferrari on TalkersFM Radio to chat about Social Star and why I am so excited about the cool work our team is doing.

It’s been a big week of e-traction for us. I love that we are seeing the results of what we preach!

You can listen to the interview on SoundCloud or read the entire transcript below.

A big thank you to host Joanna Ferrari for the invite - it was great to speak with you about what we're doing to help our clients build their online presence.

In this segment, Andrew Ford, CEO of Social Star comes on the show to promote his business and the incredible work he has done with his clients. He describes his company as an inbound marketing agency meaning that he uses the key people in an organization or business to share content such as blogs, or videos or podcasts in order to attract their key audience.

New Job - Business Development Consultant Advanced Healthcare

Advance Healthcare has a 20 year history of providing high quality physiotherapy and multi-disciplinary services. We have clinics at Boronia, Bundoora, Dandenong, Hoppers Crossing, St Albans and Geelong.

We are currently seeking an experienced, innovative and effective Business Development Manager to support our Managing Director in refining and implementing our Marketing & Sales strategy.

The role is multifaceted and suit an experienced and motivated all rounder. The goal is to use your marketing and design skills to generate leads for the business from medium size manufacturing businesses and Doctors. Then meet face to face with prospective clients to secure their referrals to the business ongoing.

The successful applicant will have several years experience managing a marketing program which generates real results in lead generation, plus experience with face to face client communications.

Ideally, this role would suit an experienced parent who wants do some part time work with flexible hours or someone looking to add an additional income stream to their own business.

The role will not have a set location and the applicant will require:

• A car with drivers licence

• Full home office including access to Adobe Creative Cloud

• Laptop

• Mobile phone

Skills required include:

• Advanced strategic capabilities

• Advanced face to face selling skills with evidence of effectiveness

• Ideally experience in digital marketing with evidence of effectiveness

• Basic capabilities with Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator and Acrobat

• Outstanding communication, negotiation and problem solving skills

• Ability to work independently and proactively

Attributes include:

• Integrity and honesty

• 100% accountability - this is most important

• Seeking a long term role within a high performance and values based organisation

-------------------------------------------------------

The role is paid as a contractor with variable hours commencing around 15 hours per week with potential to increase to full time over 6 months to the right applicant. Pay scale will be based on the Health Services Award suitably scaled up to a contractor rate.

If you are interested please apply through the SEEK process with a cover letter and CV. Applications will be short listed based on the quality of these documents. Find out more about our group and our Managing Director at www.advancehealthcare.com.au, www.jonford.com.au or www.linkedin.com/in/jonfordbackpain/

Client Attraction - Push vs Pull Strategy: What's Right for Your Business?

Is push marketing or pull marketing right for your business? It's a big question for business owners as they strive to cut through the noise in social media and have impact with their target clients. I'm a fan of pull marketing as it most fits my style and personality, but there are others getting quality results with push marketing. So, how do you decide what's best for your business?

To answer this question I thought I would run a live event in Melbourne on October 2nd and invite my good friend Jordan D'Urbano, 'Mr Game of Sales' and expert cold calling genius to join me in a friendly (not so friendly...) debate on Push vs Pull marketing.

Join the debate

Being 'the e-ttractionist' I have positioned my business around the laws of attraction philosophy, so this should be interesting!!

My position is that for start ups and small business owners, your marketing campaign needs to match your personality. I believe that if you align your values, personality, lifestage and resources to your business, you will be in flow. Being congruent with your business means you will align to your target market more closely and be able to understand their needs to a higher degree and thus provide them a better service. Plus, you will exude passion for your cause and that's what cuts through the noise of social media way more than advertising!

Once you are in flow, you need to build a digital net to capture referrals and leads. This is a vital step in your marketing process and one that should reflect your core beliefs and personality.

The last part of the process is to activate your brand by connecting to your prospective clients with on brand content and through proactively sharing your message. Speaking, blogging, running events and reaching out via LinkedIn are all effective strategies.

This style of marketing suits those opposed to push sales, but is it the best for all businesses and personalities? In some markets and situations a more proactive effort is required to get to your audience, so where do Google and Facebook ads, cold calling and direct response marketing fit into this process?

I would love to hear your thoughts so join the discussion here and save the date for our marketing showdown October 2nd! Let the games begin...

What's the difference between a business coach & consultant?

Today I want to announce that I am coming out of the closet...I'm really a business coach! (I know it's not what some would expect from that statement, especially after last week's pink shirt video, anyhow:). 

So, what's the difference between a consultant and a coach, and does it really matter?

After running my consultancy firm Social Star for the last five years based on the premise that we are consultants in personal branding and digital marketing, I realised that the core competency and natural skill I have is as a coach. Not really a big announcement I know, but to be honest, I was uncomfortable owning that label as I am not formally trained as a coach so my 'inner voice' held me back from stepping fully into that role. I was happy being a consultant but I realised that it perhaps wasn't the best thing for my clients.

The catalyst for the change was actually one of my clients. Darren Bourke is the business coaches' coach. He is also very successful and one of the best blokes I know. After spending a year working with him on his brand I realised that he is a coach, but one who offers strong advice, not just passive questions. He reminded me of how I like to operate and begged the question, was I more like him than I thought? (more about Darren here.)

My understanding of the difference between a coach and consultant, from a client's perspective, is that as a coach you don't have to be the most successful at the task, but you need to be able to ask the right questions to help the client better understand the correct decision to make. A consultant, on the other hand, is an expert at the task and can advise you on what to do. This is where I was confused as I have built a big personal brand and have a lot of experience in digital marketing so I like to give specific advice on what they should do.

"A business coach works with you to develop the skills you already have. They work to bring out the “best” of you." 

What I found over the years however, was that I ended up taking over their branding work as I had the knowledge and resources to do so. The client relinquished control and after our engagement were not empowered to run their brand. Coaching them with my experience on what to do, teaching them and providing them with the understanding and lessons is a better model for their long term business health. So is that consulting now or coaching?

"A business consultant is more of an expert you turn to for help with your business. They teach you skills you don’t know, analyze your business and create an action plan for you to implement." 

I know it's just a label, but how you position yourself in your industry matters when you do your own marketing, so I am throwing it out there for debate! I am opening the conversation to my knowledgeable community to see what the best description is for what I do and also if you think it makes a difference.

Go!

Andrew

PS Quotes taken from a a great article in the HuffPost.

Three steps to a successful Corporate Escape

Last night I was chatting with a new potential coaching client about their plans to leave their corporate job and start their own business based on their unique intellectual property. It was like most discussions I have with Corporate Escapees in that the only real barrier to them doing what they are most passionate about are their own beliefs and a formal process to build the business assets. This made me think about what is really required to become a successful Corporate Escapee.

Here are some thoughts on the three essential steps you need to be a successful Corporate Escapee (and one you don't):

Customers:

It sounds pretty obvious but I see many people leave their jobs without having at least one customer. When I suddenly left my last corporate job after an argument with my old boss I was confident about starting my business because I had already been operational and sold my core product many times. A business without a sale is a hobby, so ensure you have at least one sale before jumping ship. You will then know there is demand for your business and you just have to repeat the process.

Support:

Trying to do everything yourself is tough. It can be done, but it's much easier with some support around you. As I tell my clients...

Entrepreneurship is a game of the mind 

So to stay in top mental shape many people get coaches. Support groups are also useful as well as an accountability group of similar stage Corporate Escapees. It can mean the difference between giving up and progressing, so ensure you have the support resources set up before you need them.

Courage:

This is the big one! Courage is a byproduct of a good plan. If you can see the end result and work towards it daily, then you are more likely to maintain your self belief. There will always be days of doubts and setbacks, but taking small actions regularly will give you confidence in your plan. At the end of the day, though, it takes a certain amount of courage to dive in. Invest in help to build your plan, tell people you are going to do it, and commit.

The thing I recommend you don't do is rush into doing expensive marketing. Many early stage business owners I meet will do a Facebook or marketing course and think that will bring them customers. The first thing you need to build your business is your personal brand. You will get your first customers from those who already trust you and will give you a go - not strangers on the internet. That comes later when you have a robust brand, business and products. Save your money! Invest in you.

If you would like to get together with some like-minded Corporate Escapees, Social Star is running an event with four entrepreneurs who have made the jump.

Join Outcome Life and Social Star on August 8th for a storytelling night of sorts where you will get to hear from and speak with business owners from a variety of backgrounds about how they followed their passions and never looked back. From a dating expert to a communications goddess and more, these stories will get you motivated about turning your passion project into major profits. 

The event will open and close with wine, finger foods, and networking with other entrepreneurial-minded people from around the city. RSVP is required, but is only $10. Head over to MeetUp now to secure your spot: https://bit.ly/2J5P2U4

e-ttraction Leadership : Building a Tribe from your Team (Tesla Vs Ford)

Last week Tesla hit a significant milestone in their business which prompted an unusual reaction from one of the world's largest car maker. The reaction was surprising and lead to some important leadership branding lessons for us all to consider.

If you missed the news last week, Tesla announced the first 7,000 cars rolled off the production line of the new model 3; their version of a family electric car. Elon Musk was pretty proud of the team and tweeted to his 22.2 million followers about achieving the milestone. Great leadership, recognising the team for their efforts.

Not everyone was as pumped as Elon however. The CEO of Ford Motor Company Europe decided to chime in with his own thoughts, trying to belittling Tesla with his larger production capacity, saying they make more cars. Whoopdeedoo.

The impressions I had about this response was that it was a petty remark and one that doesn't boost the confidence of his team or his leadership. If you were on his team what would he say to you about your success?

That someone in the team does it better? I am sure his intentions were to help the team morale, but snide remarks doesn't boost morale. Focus on the positives.

Secondly, while Ford does produce many more cars than Tesla, the market capitalisation of the business has fallen under the Tesla brand. Meaning Tesla, with their much lower revenue and production, is actually worth more than Ford.

Thirdly, Elon could have replied and mentioned said market cap or many other benefits that Tesla has over Ford currently. But that's not great leadership either. So what were his next tweets about? Responding to Steven with a counter tweet, reminding him that he only has 3k Twitter followers compared to your millions? Nope.

Elon tweeted about working on building an underwater submarine from rocket ship parts to get the Thai soccer team kids out of the cave in Thailand. Now that's leadership.

In this situation what would you do as a leader?

The reason I follow Elon, as so many do, and regard his brand of leadership as more authentic is that his actions speaks louder than words. That's the reason I follow Elon and not others. Authentic action.

What do you think?

Andrew

Last call for e-ttraction brand coaching!

The new financial year is only a week away! Exciting for those accountants looking forward to the EOFY parties, but for most of us we take stock of where we are at with our careers and businesses.

If you have always wanted to have your own business as a side hustle or to one day take full time, now is the time to act.

I have released another five e-ttraction coaching spaces 1:1 with me to either start or scale a passion business from $0 to $100k. 

The process is 12 weeks following the Social Star University system with weekly meetings with me. 

Pre-pay this financial year to get a bonus four weeks additional coaching free!

To apply click here.

Cheers Andrew

Employee e-ttraction: is it most effective marketing for large corporations?

I remember the start of internet marketing (back in Myspace days...) and the promised efficiency and transparency of that channel compared to traditional media like TV and print. It started out like all good frontiers with the early movers taking all the advantages. But with the maturing of the market and Google and Facebook monopolising digital advertising spend and restricting organic reach to a trickle, what's next?

On my recently holiday I was pondering this questions and trying to come up with a genius idea on how corporates can stand out online and grab users attention without just shouting louder than the rest. Of course, it wasn't all altruistic, I would like my company Social Star to create a unicorn solution for it and Google buy us for a billion in a few years so my boys and I can go on tour with AC/DC. But that's another story...

Anyhow all this thinking lead me to a potential solution I wanted to explore and get some feedback on: employee e-ttraction pitch.

For those who follow my blog, you would have heard me bang on about this thing called e-ttraction for awhile now. It's my theory that if you are authentic in your intentions and create a strong digital platform around your mission, that opportunities will come to you instead of you chasing them. I coach a lot of entrepreneurs in this area and when done well, it works a treat. The question is, can we apply the same theories to corporate workers?

Having worked in several Fortune 500 companies and the largest telco in Australia, I have experienced my fair share of marketing campaigns. I know what works and what doesn't. Plus having a strong interest in influencer marketing since my days doing social campaigns at Sensis and at Tribe.co so I think I have a good awareness of what employees, corporates CXO's and consumers want. So here is the pitch for your feedback...

Problem: In today's noisy internet space only the few cut through and get attention for their marketing messages. Consumers are just switching off listening to anything that is advertising and not related to them specifically.

On the flip side, we all like to buy products. We all want credible information about things but only when we want them, not when someone wants to push an ad in our face. We want to have the control.

But who do you go to when you want good info? Research says we trust other consumers far more than marketing messages.

Solution: The people with the best knowledge about any product are those that make and use it regularly. So you have two options, pay a bunch of influencer clients to market your product for you or get your employees to do the same.

Client influencers are the new PR channel. They have the reach and numbers so it's a quick win for your brand if you get it right. The down side is, you can't control the message or the medium so if they mess up you can be in trouble and they can promote your competitor product next week and you can't do much about it. Also you stop paying them and they stop working. Finally, if people know that it's all promoted post they can be less influential than real organic posts. For some brands using famous influencers can really work (e.g. Swisse vitamins), but for many businesses it can be expensive, not very effective or measurable marketing.

I would argue that Staff influencers is a far more efficient, especially for business or tech products. Firstly, you already pay staff so the marginal increase in incentives to be an influencer is minor. They are far more knowledgeable about the products than customers. (Imagine an engineer from Apple giving you free advice on your phone, rather than that 12 year old from youtube.) Thirdly, they are generally more engaged to help the company they work for, especially if they see a career progression for the longer term. And finally, you are developing an asset of remarkable and regular content, rather than disconnected posts from unrelated individuals.

Of course there are many barriers to staff wanting to create and share content through their personal social media. Companies want to control the messages, staff don't want to annoy their friends and sometimes the message will be off brand. But with a structured program this form of marketing could be extremely powerful. A simple maths exercise can show you how well it works:

Let's say you have 10,000 employees

Take the top 10% go getters who want to be e-ttractive 1,000

Build them 5,000 followers each 

Total reach = 5,000,000 

(that's a TV ad size market for the budget of a Christmas party)

Why Us: To run such a program, I would argue that you need an external provider. The marketing team are too constricted by branding and management to create compelling consumer content. (I know I was! #maxmainframe) The staff need an independent brand coach to guide them through the e-ttraction process to ensure it meets their personal goals as well as the company ones. Finally, it needs to be someone full time focus to drive the initiative because it is an effort campaign rather than a money one. 

What's next?: I looking for three large scale businesses to conduct a six month proof of concept. We would work for a reduced cost on the program and measure the financial ROI with an independent accounting firm we have partnered with to prove financial advantage over other forms of marketing. If this tweaks your interest and you would like to know more email the team for an discussion at support@socialstar.com.au.

So there you have it, my new idea for companies to stand out online with employee e-ttraction. Will it be the next best thing? We shall see! 

I would value your input and feedback so smart people let me know your thoughts!

Regards Andrew

The e-ttraction of writing a book

An interesting thing happens when you write a book, you get all sorts of e-ttraction.

On my recent holiday to Cebu, Philippines I met a great guy, Orly Darnayla, who is running a startup incubator, Entrepreneur Beach Club. I liked his style and left him a book at my hotel, he left me a t-shirt. He was impressed that I was an author and wanted to do some more work with me. As a side benefit once the receptionist knew I was an author they looked at me with new found respect and wanted a signed copy of my book! I didn't quite get a free breakfast however they were very nice to me from then on.

When I got back to Melbourne's freezing weather I realised I missed the beaches, weather and people of Cebu. It's a beautiful place but a pretty poor country so I thought how can come back for some sun and also help the locals?

This idea lead to some discussions with my team and Orly and yesterday I inked a deal with him to bring my Launch in 12 Weeks training program to the Philippines! 

We will invite 20 early stage startups or corporate escapees from Australia or expats from Manilla to Cebu for an intensive e-ttraction program to kick-start their businesses. We are just finishing our Melbourne training program and why not do the next one at the beach!

The best part is that for every paying participant, we will give a free spot to a local entrepreneur to lift their communities out of poverty. Buy 1 Give 1 style.

All of this because I wrote a book and then started a conversation with a guy at a bar!!

e-ttraction at its finest :) 

Stay tuned for more details and if you feel like an e-ttraction boost to your business, send me a message and I can give you some more details.

Cheers Andrew

e-ttracting new people and opportunities into your business

Cash is king, as your accountant would say. But I would argue that people are the lifeblood of business. It's people who generate that cash. They are the staff, partners, clients and supporters who promote your business. They build the technology, operate the equipment, make the sale and keep the relationships moving forward.

But how do you e-ttract the right people for your business?

If you have been following my blogs for awhile you would have heard me talk about valuesand the importance of forming your business around what is really most important to you. Meeting the right people is a reflection of your values. Just like your target market will be similar to yourself, your best business contacts will have similar values to you.

If you know your values and have clarified and accepted exactly what you want, and separated what everyone else wants from you. The next step is to set some intentions about who you want to meet. It's similar to the laws of attraction principles that have been around since Napoleon Hill's time, however we don't just think and grow rich, we think and take action to grow rich!

I had an example of this on my latest boliday (working holiday) when I was at the beautiful and extravagant Shangri-la hotel in Cebu, Philippines. I wasn't staying there but went there as they have a cool bar over looking the ocean so I went for a few drinks to check it out.

Knowing my values pretty well, I know that business is pretty close to the top for me. Everyday I want to do something in my business. I had already sat on the beach, been to the gym, seen where Magellan was killed by the Cebu king (true story!), read a book but I wasn't quite done.

Being the first one in the bar, I noticed a guy working furiously on his laptop overlooking the ocean drinking a beer. He seemed like a local and I thought he was a photographer for a wedding or the resort by the gear he had. Being me, I said G'day and started a chat which lead to the normal 'so what do you do?' conversation. It turns out he is a local entrepreneur trying to create a movement of new business creation to help his local people. He works from various beach resorts and has formed a group around this - the Entrepreneurs beach club Philippines - how awesome is that!

Why is this story relevant for you? Let's unpack this for a moment. Firstly, knowing and accepting my values I like to work on my holidays. Most people would say you shouldn't work, you should relax, but I can't relax unless I feel like I am doing something productive. I love it so why fight it?

Secondly, I set an intention of doing more work overseas and particularly in the Philippines as I love travel and the people there are awesome. I already hire people there, but I wanted something more.

Thirdly, I am open to opportunities. This is the big one. Many people will know they want something, set and intention and when it appears in front of them - they don't grab it. I believe you can feel the opportunity if you are open to it. It's possible to sense that that is an opportunity. Trust your instincts, they are often smarter than your five senses. Start the conversation, be open to meeting new people.

Fourth, explore the opportunity. After talking to my new mate Orly Darnayla for awhile I realised that this is a great contact to help me bring my 'Launch in 12 Week' course to Cebu, I can teach in his program or at the least, we could hang out on my next trip!

In conclusion, my advice to e-ttract new people and business opportunities in your life. Be clear on your values and live them. Set intentions of what you want. Take advantage of the opportunities that life presents and explore the potential new relationship as you never know where it can lead you.

Andrew

P.S. If you would like to explore your e-ttraction in my new 1:1 coaching program message me and we can see how my 12 step process could assist your business grow.

How I doubled my income in two years with e-ttraction, now you can too...

If you are anything like me, at times in your career you felt like you were just punching the clock. Wasting time until the end of the day when you can go home and chill out for awhile dreaming of your next holiday.

I remember my partner at the time always needed a holiday to look forward to just to get through the week. Hawaii, Fiji, Thailand we did them all to escape...

At that time I was working in a big IT company and pushing more gigantic computers into big corporate companies and hating the feeling of just being a cog in a big machine that didn't really matter.

Sure the perks were great but I felt there was more to life than just getting by and adding another investment property to the portfolio. I wanted to give back and have the feeling of helping people with real problems. 

That's when I discovered the three secrets of e-ttraction.

At the time I was working for Sensis (part of Telstra) and playing around with digital marketing as it was the new thing in my industry. It was fun and more exciting than traditional B2B marketing we were doing at the time. It felt like freedom, having control of talking to end users and helping them with their marketing problems. I loved it and it showed in our results. 

The first secret is love what you do.

But then a strange thing happened, people started seeking me out for my expertise in digital. I got invited to speak to groups, teach at Universities, celebrities sought my advice and I also got a lot of job offers.

What I realised is that I was in demand because my skills were considered unique. But how did they know who I was and what I was up to? How did they find me?

What I discovered is that they had a problem I could solve. Digital marketing was hot at the time and everyone was searching for good people. I had a big network and they were recommending me to others as I was doing great work because I loved it. Then they would check me out online to see if they liked me and looked credible on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. Suddenly I was e-ttractive because they could find me. 

The second secret is to be findable. 

If you know anything about economics supply and demand, with only one of me and many job opportunities, my price went up. The greater the demand and restriction on supply equal the level of the price rise. The first job move increased my income by 50% and a year later I moved again and it went up another 50%. I thought they were crazy!

I was the same guy as before. I hadn't changed. Many others had the same level of skills. But because I was well positioned in my industry, I was more valuable than before. Just like a bottle of water that you can buy for 50 cents in Coles, but costs $2 in a vending machine and $5 in a bar. It's the same water, just different supply and demand conditions.

The truth is, your income isn't set by your job, it's the perception of what you can do and you can control your perception with your online brand. Of course, you have to demonstrate your value as people can only judge the value they can see. So show them your value don't just tell them. If you are a great writer, show them your blog. A great communicator, have a video of you presenting. 

The third secret is demonstratable value. 

Once you have all three elements in place you start to create e-ttraction. 

“e-ttraction is the process of creating attraction by aligning your sub-conscious wants with conscious digital branding and marketing actions to create the opportunities you most desire.” 

Today, I am excited to announce the first in our e-ttraction line of solutions for business people wanting to live a more fulfilling life - e-ttraction career coaching.

I will personally coach 10x new clients in our one on one BETA coaching program to help you find a more fulfilling job using our online learning process and private 1:1 coaching sessions. 

To be honest, I never thought of myself as a career coach but I helped two clients recently e-ttract their dream jobs and I love it! 

If you are not loving your career and feel like you are worth more than you are getting let's have a chat and see if this process is right for you. 

Click here for your free 20min brand review. 

Kind Regards

Andrew Ford

The e-ttractionist

PS I only have the capacity for 10 new clients so be quick!

Free Your Time With e-ttraction

Had 'Mondayitis', 'Humpday' or said 'ThankGodIt'sFriday' then read on...

Working for someone else has it's benefits, stable pay, regular holidays and you can leave the stress at the office. But...you don't have one thing that matters most. Control of your time.

Are you able to...

- Leave the office when you feel like it?

- Work with people who lift you up and inspire you?

- Do the type of work that fulfils you and makes you jump out of bed each day?

If the answer is no, perhaps it's time to consider a change.

Change is scary, but let's face the facts. The days of secure and long-term employment are behind us.

Over 50% of the workforce in the USA is contingent, (contracted not employed), and the trend is escalating in Australia. You are only one restructure away from being retrenched or 'downsized'. Artificial Intelligence, robotics and outsoucing job overseas is increasing dramatically.

So what's the alternative?

Be Your Own Boss 

What does freedom look like? It looks like being your own boss. You can still be employed but the difference is you are in control of your career, not your company.

What does freedom look like?

...freedom to see your kids when you want too

...freedom to work with people who share your values

...freedom to do the work you enjoy the most

In reality, we are all independent consultants selling our services for a price; it doesn't really matter if it's for one company (job) or many (business owner). The result is the same, you get paid for the level of value you add to the businesses you serve. However, one big difference is the control of your time.

Building your personal brand is the best investment you can make in your career.

How do you answer the question - "What do you do?" 

If you answer with your job title, how will you progress? How will someone see your full value?

Understanding your core value proposition and developing quality online branding assets around your value is the path to Being Your Own Boss, controlling your career and having freedom of time. 

But how?

After working with hundreds of corporate workers seeking more from their career, we developed a unique 12 step system to create your time freedom.

We call this system...e-ttraction = digital attraction.

The first step in the process is to understand what your compelling value proposition is and how to articulate it clearly. Your personal pitch.

On Monday, May 28th 6:30pm in Melbourne, I will be running a Pitch workshop to help you start the e-ttraction journey. Click here to see the details.

My mission is to empower everyone to follow their passion and work in a career they love. Each week I will be sharing parts of this method and examples of how it can benefit you so follow the journey with me to get ownership of your time.

Andrew Ford

The e-ttractionist

Online & Phone Sales Person x2

Social Star is looking to hire a motivated sales person to work part-time or full time in our growing team. Working from home or in our office, the role is quite flexible to fit your lifestyle as long as you can produce remarkable results. 

Our culture is based on Resourcefulness, Resilience and Performance. 

We are a group of entrepreneurs who come together around the belief that you can build a business around your lifestyle and values. We help clients achieve this through building a deep understanding of their brand, creating digital assets and assisting them with sales and marketing.

Your role would be to work with our high profile clients on their sales and marketing. You would represent them online via LinkedIn and other social media as required to generate interest in them as leaders. Understanding their perfect clients you are searching for the right people to help with their solutions and giving them free assets to educate them on the client's methodology. Once a prospect is interested, you would have an online conversation or phone call to book the prospect into a face to face with the client. This could be a meeting or a paid workshop.

Your key skills would be:

• LinkedIn and other social media

• Ability to research and qualify prospects to match a client persona  

• Having conversations with people online and offline

• Knowledge of Hubspot is highly desired

• Ability to work independently and be resourceful to meet a goal

• Passion to help authentic entrepreneurs build their brands and businesses

To apply for this role I would expect you have already completed research on myself and Social Star. If you have read my book ‘Creating a Powerful Brand’ and listened to the #BYOB podcast it would greatly assist with your application as I will ask you to do this after you apply.

Simply send a message to me on LinkedIn answering the following question - Why should I hire you (100 words or less).

We will review your LinkedIn profile, social media and assess how you sell yourself to us as proof of your ability to be influential in your sales process.

Best of luck!

Andrew

Before you Leave that Job Behind...

So it’s 2018, and it seems that everyone is starting their own business, which is awesome! As a corporate escapee myself, I can say I don’t regret going out on my own at all. However, there are a few things that I wish I had known before I told my boss where to go and stormed out determined to do my own thing.

It’s much easier to have a foundation in order to avoid the challenges I went through. Through my time coaching other corporate escapees on how to become profitable with their solo venture I’ve learned a lot about how to get this foundation built. Here are my five top things to know before deciding to make that bold move.

1.Understand what you’re in for

As easy as we all hoped entrepreneurship to be, it’s anything but. If it was, every Andrew, Lynn and Vanessa would be a business owner. The first thing to do is to ensure you completely understand what you are getting into and have the funds to do it. It’s always better to stay in your full-paying job whilst building a business than to leave completely and start from scratch. This way, you still have the finances for a rainy day and don’t jump in faster than you could handle. A lot of attempted-escapees go back to the corporate world after not having the funds and never really escape! Stay strong, get educated and know what you’re in for.

2. Make the connections/network before leaving corporate 

Your network is always going to be more important than your resume. Attend networking events, hang out with like-minded people and surround yourself with those who want to be in the same place as you. Do all of this before making any sort of moves. Who knows, your connections could one day become your business partners! Referrals are the biggest way to gain more clients because the trust is built from the get-go. Use your connections as your foundations and you’ll be on your way.

3. Have a great team behind you

Changing the world is nearly impossible on your own. We like to think we can do it all (at least I like to think so), but really, we can’t. It takes skills, resources and time, which if you can’t find in yourself; you can find in others. This is where your network can also come in handy. However, you don’t want to hire/work with just about anybody. Don’t allow anyone who doesn’t believe in your dream anywhere near it, you want people who can show you reality but are on the same wavelength. If this happens, your passion business may just become another “job” and that again may lead to failure. So keep motivated using your team to build it from ground up!

4. Learn from your failures

As Michael Jordan once said “... I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.” This quote should be the mantra of every entrepreneur. Running a business means failing repeatedly until you learn how to succeed. This is also where the corporate world experience comes from, it teaches people what to do and what not to do. Have a boss who you absolutely love and admire as a leader? Great, find the best traits from that boss and incorporate it into your team. Have a boss who just delegates tasks and you can’t stand? Well, don’t take those traits on board in your own team. Learn what works and what doesn’t. Fail and succeed. Wash, rinse and repeat. Again and again and again.

5. Create a very thorough plan

This isn’t some ordinary plan. Your business will be your baby, your world, your life (okay maybe that was an exaggeration, but that’s how I feel!). You need to incorporate every aspect of your current life plan into this. Want more time spent with the family after leaving corporate? Make sure that’s part of the plan. Want to put every ounce of your being into it? Awesome! But not everyone does. Is education important to you? Make sure that’s part of your plan. This needs to be a holistic plan, it needs to contain every bit of information that will help you succeed and be a success.

The truth is, starting a business is tough. A friend of mine recently said that having your own business is the best personal development program there is as it makes you face your deepest fears and overcome so many challenges. I agree and that’s the point. If it was so easy to do, it wouldn't be worthwhile. Plus, when you are successful, the money and time experience is out of this world!

I’m on a mission to help support corporate escapees on the journey and developing a full service tool kit to help you build your own business and I’m for your feedback!

What do you most need to help you be successful? Click here to answer a 5 minute survey so we can help people like you. As a reward, I will give you a 45min business plan review (valued at $250) for free.

Life’s too short to do what you’re told. Take control of your time and build your own business before it’s too late!

Build Your Own Business Part 1 - 'Focus on one thing'

This is the first of 12 blogs on how to Build Your Own Business. Too busy to read? I have a solution, listen to my matching podcast on the same topic click here - #BYOB podcast.

After working with hundreds of Corporate Escapees who want to leave their day jobs and build their own businesses, two things separate those who succeed and those who give up: focus & persistence.

But how do you choose what to focus on when you have soooo many great ideas!? I get it. I'm a super creative entrepreneur too. I have new ideas every time I shower or go for a run (or a few beers...). But without a focus on a single idea, none of them will develop into a sustainable business because you will not persist.

For those new to my work, the definition of a 'business' is that you are selling something and delivering it for cash. If you are not making money, sorry buddy, it's a hobby.

Focus

The way we help clients focus on one idea in their business is to align this idea (product, target market, campaign) with their highest core values. Then you will naturally focus as it's what you really want to do.

When we talk about values we are not discussing right and wrong, like The Ten Commandments style. It's how we prioritise our limited resources of time, money and energy. (Thanks for Dr John Demartini for the inspiration for my values work.)

The seven areas we review (in no particular order) are:

1. Business, 2. Money, 3. Family, 4. Friends, 5. Health, 6. Education, 7. Spirituality

Of course, all of these values are important, but only the top 3 will drive our behaviour and choices. If your business isn't a top value it will be tough to develop a work rate sufficient to build a strong business as your other values will get in the way.

For example; let's say Family, Friends and Health are your top values and Business number 4. It's time to do those proactive sales calls or write your blog for the week. But you have to pick up the kids from school, then you are invited by a friend for a drink and you wanted to squeeze in a run too.

What do you do? Do you put your kids in after-school care, say no to your friend and do your run, or do you get your work done? When it's your own business you can choose how you spend your time as you are your own boss, but that is a double edge sword as you lack accountability.

If your highest value was Business you would choose to do the work, perhaps not all the time, but enough to make your business thrive. If you prioritise other areas of your life most of the time, you will not have sufficient time to run a sustainable business.

Once you know your highest values, ask yourself how this particular idea supports all of your values. Try to come up with 20 ways this particular business model, product, target market or campaign support your health, family, friends etc. Once you start matching your core values to your work, it's far easier to say yes to work and no to distractions.

Persistence

It takes 10-12 hours a day 5 days a week to run a strong business generating an income to match a corporate job.

That level of effort requires persistence. Persistence comes from matching your 'Why' to your business. When you truly believe that your business will meet your long-term goals and values, you will have the inspiration to continue in the face of setbacks and challenges.

If you know that your business serves others, believe that it can make money to support you and confidence that you can do it, you will persist.

Unfortunately, many people lack the strategy of how to build their own business, the process to build a successful marketing and sales campaign to get clients and motivation to do the work required to scale a business that is sustainable. Thus, they give up and chase another business model, create a new product or choose a different target market. But the underlying issue is they really haven't spent the time to figure out their 'Why' and understand their values to choose what to focus on and the reason to be persistent.

Most of the time the problem isn't in the business. All businesses have problems. The goal is to find the problems you enjoy solving. That takes internal work to discover your 'Why' and your values.
 

Solution

After going through it many times and coaching many clients through the same process, my advice on how to resolve this issue is to do a Values workshop. We do them at Social Star or you can find a good Demartini Facilitator to help you through the process.

By getting clear on these two areas you will significantly increase your chances of success in your business, because the only real way to fail in your business is to give up.

My advice on how to resolve this issue, after going through it myself many times and coaching many clients through the same process, is to do a Values workshop. We do them at Social Star or find a good Demartini Facilitator to help you through the process.

By getting clear on these two areas will significantly increase your chances of success in your business, because the only real way to fail in your business is to give up.

Check out this video here for more details - Demartini talks Values

Talk to Andrew regarding a Values workshop - Chat to Andrew