Conversions for Coaches

11/07/2024

💔 Having Asperger's, I would get knocked about quite a bit at school. 🤷 I wouldn't understand people, and they wouldn't understand me. 😱 When I said things, a lot of the time, they'd freak out, and I wouldn't know why. 😟 I got really obsessed with trying to read people's faces. I wanted to see if they were spooked by what I'd said or just bored out of their minds. 🎟️ So I went to every event I could to practice my small talk. 🕓 I'd stay up till 4 in the morning at the Cannes film festival, just so I could keep talking to people. 😊 If they stuck around and opened up, it was good. 🚶 If they got bored and walked away, then it was a slow route to death in many ways. 💀 Lonely people die early. I used to get so comfortable with it that people thought I was an extrovert. 📈 And practicing small talk obsessively for so many years ended up meaning that I could get people on camera to open up. 💬 We like to see people living out their purpose, doing what they were meant to be doing, rather than struggling. ✨ You see them, and they've got so much talent and so much skill. 🚧 You see them hitting brick walls, and you think, "Life's unfair." 🙇 Often that comes to introverts rather than extroverts. It's not in their nature to shout and scream and pressure people to buy. 📯 They will never blow their own trumpet. 💵 It's such a validating feeling when people say, "Yep, here's the money, I want to work with you." 💪 As a business owner who struggled in the past, nothing fills your soul up like hearing that you are valued. 💼 My clients tend to be top-level experts. You only become a top-level expert by being fascinated by your subjects to the point where money is not the point. 🕶️ People can be really good at what they do, but that doesn't mean that others will see that. 📝 When somebody gets feedback that says, "You have looked after us and made our life better," it means a lot to them. ⚖️ It carries a lot of weight in their world to know that they've had an impact. 💭 Often we think we've done that, we see that we've done that, but until we hear it, we don't necessarily believe it ourselves. 🎉 I love watching people be validated. 🏡 I grew u

24/06/2024

🍗 "No one looks for 'Chicken McNuggets' at Harrods." 📝 Let me break this down for you. 💬 Lee Tunney-Ware followed up with this after saying I had a top tier service. (That was the gist of it.) 🤷 Yet I've lived as a bum for many years, or a deadbeat, whatever you want to call it. 📖 Half the time the stories I tell are about those kinds of things because I've lived it. 🤔 Strangely enough, I'm never quite as entertained by success. 😂 Or at least my skill for telling stories and getting laughs is never as strong on that subject. 🗣️ He did take us aside and said, "Look, the way you talk sometimes is a little bit like George Orwell's 'Down and Out in Paris and London.'" 🛍️ "Try to put what you're saying in a language that reaches the Harrods market instead." (Again, the gist rather than anything close to the precise words.) 📚 This chimes with what I was reading in Jeffrey Shaw's Lingo. 👀 Truth is, perception is 9/10ths of the law. Ciara Heneghan - Story Weaver thanks for hosting me.

14/06/2024

✈️ Flying to network? 🌍 I was always doing that. I'm still doing that. 🌴 I was in Cyprus last month. Cannes only 3 weeks ago. 🇲🇹 It's how I ended up on Gozo island, Malta. 🏡 I like home base and it's more of a wrench to drag me out of this place than it was in England, you know. No disrespect. 🌟 There's always been a bit of an adventurous thing about it, do you know what I mean? Go abroad, see what happens. 🌐 Meet some interesting people. You never know where the dial moves. 💷 And if I hadn't spent £80 quid to reach Ireland, and not had a mate put us up in Malahide, as luck would have it, having kind enough to drive us all the way there at a time when I was having to phone the phone company and say, don't cut me off, for God's sake, on the very morning and I was dealing with it on the entire journey, then the poor guy had to listen to it..... 💬 Me and the interviewer wouldn't be talking right now, or collaborating on a book for that matter. 🔄 I don't do it as much because now I have a network. Whereas before I didn't as much. 🌍 But I still go away every now and then because I'm looking for the one or two people who might make life interesting. I mean who knows right? Thanks to Heneghan - Story Weaver for hosting the podcast.

10/06/2024

🚫 This is the worst thing you can do. 🎥 From a video testimonials point of view: 😬 A lot of people do this btw. They think right, "We'll save some money. We'll save some time. We'll get some automated app that they can sit in front of and give the testimonial." 🤖 "Yeah. It can even ask them questions." And I'm not saying there isn't a time and a place for that, but it's for the kind of work where you are doing loads of it, but it's not the high value stuff, if that makes any sense. 🏖️ So let's say that a holiday company is churning out countless customers and sending them off to hotels or whatnot. You could probably get an automated testimonial from people who are doing like, little holidays, you know, cheap and cheerful stuff. They're not your highest value customers. 🤝 But when it comes to getting more of your cream and dream clients, somebody has to be there to interview your clients. You can't automate it off. 🎥 You're asking your customer to work for you. They're going to be in front of a camera feeling all nervous, unsupported, stressed out. ❌ You can't ask them quality questions. You can't ask them follow up questions because a lot of people don't even answer the question the first time. You have to reframe. 🔍 As I said, you can't follow up on what they've said because there might be more to find out. You can't get to the crust of why what you've done means so much to their world. 🎣 That means that you don't get the kind of feedback that wins the big fish over. You don't get dream clients with autofilmed feedback. 📊 All you're doing is operating at volume, not quality, making more noise. 🔇 And it's not noise that wins the top folk that you want to work with. How many stressed people did you see giving testimonials this 2024? PS - Lester Caraan thank you again for hosting me.

01/06/2024

🌍 Problem solvers are finding each other across continents. 💬 Well you're reading this right? 👥 I have worked with) brings people together for summits, and he feels like if he brings people together, the world's problems are going to be more likely to be solved. 🌴 I live on Gozo Island. 33,000 people and 67 km². 🏝️ It's the tiny island in comparison to Malta island. Malta itself is not a big country. ✈️ I came here during the pandemic because things were getting hairy in England. 💻 I'm still here but I can still do my work. 🌐 The really interesting thing is that my network and quality of it has grown massively more than when I was running around getting buses. 🤝 What's refreshing is the ability to find people who can help us move the needle forward and solve our problems and build alliances that can build the kind of businesses that make us happy. 🤖 Okay, AI is coming along. 🧠 There's people that we can tap into to make the most of that. 🌏 And before they were living on an island very far away from my own.

31/05/2024

⚠️ Here's what 99% miss about BNI. 🤪 That includes most of the members). It's a fab way to learn things about a new place. (And I knew things long before being a member). Case in point: Iwill go to a meeting most times I leave Malta. (And I did the same when flying from the UK). There I learned things tourists wouldn't notice. Plus as time went on, these 'random' links began to impact my life. When I fled England for Malta, Richard Falzon gave crucial with the papers. (Written in English, and beyond any muggle's grasp). Last year I went to visit a film contact in Limassol. I said to him "Let's check out a local BNI". (Note not to join, he never would, and is away alot). I just wanted to touch base and make links with the local business community. These people rolled out the red carpet for us. We weren't signing up, but we were treated as VIPs. (And it turns out some of them could be useful to him later) But when I caught up with member Dimitris Dimitriou a year later... He managed to get me into a biz tech event with some key players. Could I have done that myself? Zero chance. Though moving to Malta and getting into fancy events are top outcomes... You could never predict them from a balance sheet. We need the random factor once in a while. How do you throw some chance into your business world?

23/11/2022

😱 The earthquake happened 2 minutes after I got home.

😮 I felt the whole flat shake.

😲 Saw the table wobble.

🌬 Thought that heavy wind was behind it.

Turns out the quake was 4.5 on the Richter Scale.

🇲🇹 The epicenter was 10 min from my home in [ ](https://www.linkedin.com/feed/hashtag/?keywords=malta&highlightedUpdateUrns=urn%3Ali%3Aactivity%3A7001114612024684544).

Mild, rare and could happen any place.

The sea was angry that day too.

I'm no less entertained watching it than I was the day I came here.

Endless waves smashing against the wall.

Just like people's efforts when they haven't got their video reviews sorted out.

Their efforts often hit a brick wall too.

Have you ever felt an earthquake, even a mild one?

20/09/2022

Vancouver's Eric Lee is not the first person I know whose elders arrived from Vietnam via China.

(Think I managed to phrase that in the right order!)

The reason this background is worth bringing up is because of how it shaped his mother's journey as a business owner, and how that in turn shaped his own epic coaching quest.

This man is relentless. Full spotify link in the comments; or bio link if you're seeing this on insta.

13/09/2022

Sorting the wheat from the naff...

29/08/2022

Ever watch shows with names like "Mythbusters"?

Okay they were a bit naff. But here's a myth that has long needed busting.

Thanks Bayo Igoh for making it easier to share this know how,

29/08/2022

Ever watch shows with names like "Mythbusters"?

😱🤣😱🤣😱🤣😱🤣😱🤣😱🤣

Okay they were a bit naff. But here's a myth that has long needed busting.

Thanks Bayo Igoh for making it easier to share this know how,

03/12/2021

Does everything happen for a reason? Or do we find reasons for why everything happens?

Here is Lee Tunney-Ware's answer, from the first of our ice breaker podcasts. Thanks to those who pointed out the lack of sound when I put it up this morning; what a clanger on my part.

Having done a few of these now ahead of today's launch, I'm feeling good about the dent this is going to make.

Not since Succession appeared have weekly episodes been so hotly anticipated. We'll see.

03/12/2021

Does everything happen for a reason? Or do we find reasons for why everything happens?

Here is coach Lee Tunney-Ware's answer, from the first of our "Ice Breaker" podcasts.

Having done a few of these now ahead of today's launch, I'm feeling good about the dent this is going to make. Not since Succession began will a new episode be so hotly anticipated. We'll see.

Link to the whole thing coming soon on youtube.

16/09/2021

Ever heard of an Emu?

Or that they put their heads in the sand?

In fact they have never done this.

Human's do though. This tends to happen when they should ask for feedback from their clients.

(Don't call it a btw...)

But instead they either forget or bottle it.

It's a shame given how easy has made it.

So let me say it again...

No matter who films it, good video feedback makes more prospects sign up.

How many prospects can you afford to waste?

13/09/2021

Anyone heard of John Lydon, aka Johnny Rotten?
I'm reading his book right now.
Most of my top reads are autobiographies.
I like how they are less like paintings and more like mosaics.
With each little moment a tile in the big picture.
So I've been trying to make these posts more of an "adventures of".
For there's always the profile if people actually want to know what I do.
What's your favourite ?

11/09/2021

Anyone heard of John Lydon, aka Johnny Rotten?

I'm reading his book right now.

Most of my top reads are autobiographies.

I like how they are less like paintings and more like mosaics.

With each little moment a tile in the big picture.

So I've been trying to make these posts more of an "adventures of".

For there's always the profile if people actually want to know what I do.

What's your favourite ?

08/09/2021

31/05/2021

Don't expect me to inspire you.

I am a sharp tongued northern F*** at the best of times.

Some people inspire as it's in their blood.

Others do it for the clicks and comments.

Too many fake happy vibes throttle my air as much as too many bad tempered ones.

So if I wouldn't read it, I won't post it.

Better to say it like we mean it.

17/05/2021

IT WAS F*CK*NG WAR!

By noon last week I'd had enough.

The building works next door felt like they were drilling right into my head.

I couldn't think let alone work.

I grabbed my speakers and blasted out Def Leppard's Hysteria in the drill's general direction.

After 2 minutes a voice yells back, "Can you turn that up please?".

It had escaped us that there are some die hard fans on these islands, who think highly of much that is and .

Next time I'm bringing out . Let's see how they like that.

13/05/2021

Ah sh*te!

I've embarrased myself!

The whole cafe could hear us during our zoom calls.

A couple of people even told the owners as much.

And I got a polite request to tone it down.

Someone later pointed out it happens alot with those on the spectrum.

But still I don't want to be scaring of this cafe's custom.

Less so in these times. Less so given how well they take care of us.

Even on a good day for business my face remains red.

Right now I'm hunting for some masking tape, so I can stick it on the laptop and write the words "Talk quiet at the bar".

Have you embarrassed yourself in the last week?

04/05/2021

Did anyone feel fed up with that " ending?

Did it feel just a little anticlimactic?

Well spare a thought for the prospect who followed your posts, fancied the idea of working with you, checked out your website and....

Saw nothing but you talking about how great you are, and not the tiniest bit of video feedback from your client in sight.

Now that's anticlimactic. Shame, as we wanted to see your clients' happy endings, and maybe even work with you after!

Look if you can't afford my then check out the video feedback from our DIY training clients.

And if you can't afford £99 for that right now, then take a look at Sendspark, and do it the uber low/no budget way.

And if you can't even manage that, then there's nothing we can do for you!

(So glad I never started watching that series 😆)

20/04/2021

Do you worry about your image?

Many business owners obsess over looking like they've got huge pockets.

They also worry that if they don't have a camera crew for their client testimonial videos, people are going to think that either they're:

1) Broke.
2) Lazy.
3) Unable to deal with their large scale problems.
4) Or all of the above.

These fears stop many people filming their own clients. Yes high end video can make viewers stop scrolling, and also see you as 'big'. This helps if you're looking to work with big national or global firms.

But if you're not looking right now to supply such businesses yet, then be warned, as video that is "too fancy", can give people the idea that A, you're out of their price league, and B, you're trying to deceive them.

The huge use of zoom during covid, and before then rise of DIY video makers on social media, has made the world alot less fussed about how things were filmed. People care more now about the message, than the tech.

As long as you film people in a way that they can be clearly seen and heard, and not looking like a dark, fuzzy alien broadcast, then your clients' words will be what people care about. Sure it won't look like a Guinness advert, but the feedback might be music to your prospect's ears.

15/04/2021

"Question!"

As Destiny's Child would say.

Would you say more coaches fall into the top half, or the bottom?

14/04/2021

Ever heard that one about finding your why?

Years ago someone wanted to stop people dying of post rave car crashes.

So he made a dance record to bring them down after their drug highs.

Robert Miles died way too soon.

But his record "Children" is the most poignant tune record I know.

He made it for neither money or fame.

It still reached #1 in 12 countries, selling 5 million copies.

To this day it has over 200 million plays on Youtube (half of those are likely my own)

Maybe this is what it happens when someone has a strong why.

What do you think?