Life Passion and Business

Jim Bliwas : A Life of Writing

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My guest on today’s podcast is a veteran of US news and media; he says he was a big fish in a small pond, and that was the way he liked it.

Today Jim Bliwas creates marketing and content strategies for lawyers and other professional service firms. But writing was always in his blood.

Jim wrote his first story when he was eight years old and sick at home from school. The plan was to earn extra credit from the teacher.  When he returned to class and turned in his work, the teacher was so impressed she put it in the school library.

He has been writing ever since.

Jim’s first career was as a journalist, working as a reporter for TV stations in Minneapolis and San Francisco. He was a street reporter and weekend anchor; it was a dream job.

Working in the news and media, he has met presidents and film stars and has some stories tell, and yes, he does share a few of these on the show. We also discuss the cult of celebrity and how difficult it was to live a normal life when the public think they own a piece of you.

Jim moved out of television and into printed media, becoming the assistant editor of BusinessWeek magazine where he covered the financial and futures market. This led on to a career in the Product Development division of the New York Stock Exchange at a time of significant change.

Jim almost invented online trading for the Exchange in the 1980s. A cable TV system in Columbus Ohio had a two-way interactive capability and was looking for applications to test it. Jim thought it could be used for people to trade stocks on the NYSE. His bosses turned down the plan because, “Nobody will ever shop or trade stocks using a TV screen and a keypad.”  How life has changed!

After this, Jim went on to work in a law firm and various consultancies, but the conduit for this was always his writing.

In 2001 he stepped out on his own. He saw an opportunity to create written material and content for professional organisations and could see the importance of this new media called the WORLD WIDE WEB. These companies were going to need help.

Jim has had a long career and is still writing content and social media articles every day. Not that I asked, but given that he met JFK as a child I suspect he must be my oldest guest to date.

I hope you enjoy the conversation with Jim Bliwis 

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You can connect with Jim through his website or LinkedIn:

www.psm-marketing.com

www.linkedin.com/james-bliwas/

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How connected are you to your spirituality?
Do you walk the line of duality?

Our new event Spirit-duality is live. The first 5 days are free to access and will be filled with Inspirational conversations where we will be sharing the journeys of people who are either filled with a sense of spiritual connection, or walk with an awareness of duality and want to explore more.

Check out the video on the event page at https://spirit-duality.heysummit.com/

A Perfect Day

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What is the perfect day? Have you ever considered what this looks like?

The point is, other than for big occasions, we don’t spend enough time actually creating our perfect days. Is this because we are afraid of setting up an agenda for disappointment?

Also, are perfect days only perfect when we look back on them and see them in a different light? For example our prominent memories are the ones we focus on, so when we look back we draw out those prominent points, and we constantly recreate our feelings around those points, which can distort what actually happened at the time of the event.

 

So when you reflect on a perfect day in your life, can you re-connect with the feelings of that event? Could you think back to what was a perfect day and could you recreate that day? What does it feel like now?

Sean Anchor on Happiness

I while back I watched a talk by Sean Anchor who suggests that before you go to sleep each night, that you replay the highlights (the best bits) of your day, and create a gratitude list. (Link to the talk below)

He suggests enhancing and reinforcing the best bits so that we get to experience them twice and when we look back we remember each day from a positive perspective.

What about creating perfect days going forward?

When I woke this morning, I knew the topic for this podcast was going to be the Perfect Day so I thought, perhaps I’d better focus on creating this day as a perfect day.

Last night I planned to bake bread today. So that was the first think I wanted to do. Then I did 15 minutes of Yoga and went out for a 45 minute run, followed by creating this podcast. So far this day is shaping up to be perfectly what I want it to be, but the key is not to be attached to the outcome.

For example the bread may not have come out as perfectly as it did. Would I have let that spoil my perfect day?

Give yourself some wiggle room.

If we want to keep creating the things we want and re-creating perfect days in the future, we have to give ourselves some wiggle room and accept what comes, but remained focused on the positive aspects. This is how we develop an abundance mentality.

So whatever you choose today, I hope it’s a good one for you.

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Getting Stuff Done

In the last event we talked about getting the stuff done. Implementing action plans to do the things we want to do to move forward. This is something I am passionate about, not only in my own life, but in supporting others in theirs too.

Through Life Passion & Business I offer Focus Coaching to help you get stuff done and I believe this is key in moving things forward through these difficult times.

Focus coaching identifies what you want, identify the blocks, take away those blocks and support you to make it happen and the amazing thing is this can be done in focused 20 minute sessions.

If you are interested follow the links below for more details.

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Links

Life Passion & Business Focus Coaching

Shawn Achor TedTalk

Change Your World Everyday Coaching Group
Coach / Speaker: Sally Baker

 

Keith Blakemore-Noble : UK's #1 Fear Strategist

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Keith Blakemore-Noble is the UK’s #1 Fear Strategist 

Fear is a powerful force that can drive us to change or prevent it. I have friends who don’t travel far from home due to anxiety and the fear of what might be. 

At the last event, we had a couple of speakers exploring fear. One of them is the guest on today’s podcast, Keith Blakemore-Noble.

Not long after my conversation with Keith I had an encounter whilst out running that enabled me to witness the automatic response my mind and body have to fear. You can find the full story in the short cast “ Fear Rising” 

In brief, I was running and something moved across the leaves in front of me, it was obviously a ferocious beast going to eat me because that is how my body reacted to it. I felt the fear climb the left side of my body and land in my brain. Once there, my brain identified it as a toad, and my body relaxed. Further along the path, I witnessed the same experience in one of my woodland companions.

The point is, my body went into shock and fear way before my intelligence kicked in. That is the point with fear, it is often irrational.    

Keith Blakemore-Noble – The UK’s #1 Fear Strategist

As a young lad growing up Keith was drawn to the idea of performing and writing yet painfully shy and petrified of meeting strangers, so that dream felt virtually impossible.

He discovered IT and the safety of being the tech wizard, everyone wants your services, and whilst computers are temperamental they are not socially challenging. However, after 20 years working in IT, there came a point when stepping out from behind the screen felt necessary, but for Keith that was still a big problem.

After having spent another Christmas party hiding in the toilet to avoid people, he realised his life was seriously being held back by his phobia.
By chance, Keith was invited to attend a free personal development seminar, where he watched someone from the audience be taken through a process that gave them the confidence to dance for everyone. Whereas only moments before they were too fearful to even consider it. 

This was a massive turning point in Keith’s life.

Since then Keith has conquered his fears to the extent that he has become a coach, a stage hypnotist, trainer, and occasional magician! It doesn’t get much more transformational than that! Keith has also discovered a passion for helping people release their fears, turn those fears into strengths and find their passion. 

Since 2010 he has helped over 5,000 people across the planet to transform their lives, which is why he is known as the UK’s #1 Fear Strategist.

Keith has come a long way since the IT days. He has been described as someone who brings natural humour and wit to the stage. As you will hear on the podcast he has a captivating presence, allowing us to learn from him with ease.

I hope you enjoy the conversation with Keith Blakemore- Noble

Keith’s new book The Masks We Wear is now available on Amazon at a special pre-order price of 79p until Sunday 27th when it goes up to £7.99 and Keith is including £100 of resources and goodies for anyone who pre-orders.

You can find more details on Keith’s website https://keithblakemorenoble.com/

If you would like to connect with Keith you can find him on
Facebook LinkedIn Twitter Instagram and YouTube.

That Could Be Useful

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This morning I am making the most of this beautiful, sunny September weather (a rare blessing in the north of Scotland).

It has prompted me to finally clear out the garage which is something I have been putting off for months. I find myself stepping over ‘useful’ things that have been here a long time and as I started sifting through boxes that I haven’t opened in over 17 years I unearthed lots of ‘useful’ things.

This got me thinking about how we keep things or keep doing because we think they are useful. They may have been useful once, but are they still useful now?

My garage, like my office and my kitchen drawers are full of useful things that I haven’t used for years. Some I have even forgotten I have. The challenge is I hate putting useful things in the bin to be put into the ground, I have a thing about recycling and re-using so I end up holding on to loads of ‘useful’ things, old computer’s, folders, files, even battery chargers. The problem is I want it to be used, but haven’t quite worked out where.

So yesterday I started my Maria Condo thing. but instead of asking “does this bring me joy”, I was asking “will I ever use this, will I do anything useful with it”.

My computer is the same. It is cluttered with useful documents and files that I intend to do something with, and when I cleared out my father’s house after his death, that was the same. There were loads of tools and old tins of screws etc. that he never got round to doing anything with.

But it is not just the material objects we hang on to. There are things we do in our life, that we keep doing because we have always done them, because it was useful to do things that way at a certain point, but maybe it’s not useful to do them any more.

This reminded me of something Keith Blakemore-Nobel said in our last event. “When you’re young you’re told not to talk to strangers, but when you reach the age of 16+ not talking to strangers can be very restrictive in your life.

There are probably numerous things in our history, in our psyche in the way we do things that no longer apply, that are no longer useful.

So my suggestion is to reflect on what you have in your life that is no longer useful? Maybe it is time to replace “that could be useful” with “this is no longer useful to me”

So that is where clearing out the garage led me on this beautiful day. I hope you find some beauty where you are.

 

FOOTNOTE

I will be live on the Life Passion and Business Facebook page on Wednesday to tell you about a new event that goes live in the middle of November.

The next podcast is with Fear Strategist, Keith Blakemore-Noble and we will be discussing how he overcame his fears. Keith has published 3-4 books and his newest “The Masks We Wear”

It is nothing to do with Covid – he wrote it before all this began. The book is being launched on 26th September and will be available on Amazon at the exclusive price of just 79p (Link Here) and it comes with a package of loads of additional resources, so it is well worth ordering your copy before the price goes up.

Matt Clark : The Linkedin Rainmaker

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Networking has always been a natural human desire, and while there are some exceptions, most successful people like Matt Clark the Linkedin Rainmaker are those with expansive networks and connections.

To connect is part of the human condition; however, 2020 has been the year that redefined what it means to network, particularly in business.

As a long term user of social media channels, I have watched the pattern change over the last few months. At the beginning of the lockdown, many of the channels went quiet. However, since it became clear that COVID is going nowhere, my Linkedin channel has exploded with people looking to replace their networking options using this online tool. 

Full marks for action but is it the right action when what they want is sales?

Sales for many people is a dirty word but the fact remains that everything we do in life is as the result of a sale of some sort. This week’s podcast is very relevant in a post COVID world as making sales will be key for many businesses returning to life after lockdown. So if you need to make sales and not be sleazy, this is worth a listen.  

The Linkedin Rainmaker

My guest on the show is Matt Clark, known to many as the LinkedIn Rainmaker, he discovered from an early age that he loves to sell.

As a young 18 year old from South Africa living in the UK, he landed a door to door sales job. He was knocking on doors selling gas and electricity, but he had the spark and the zest for it, and was good at meeting the targets. 

Regularly earning close to £1000 per week he knew he had found his role in life. It was big money for a young man, particularly as he came from a poor background; this job opened the opportunity for travel and discovery. 

Are you familiar with Maslow and his hierarchy of needs? Once our basic needs are met, most people look towards self-improvement. Matt was no exception, he used his resources well. 

Fast forward a few years and back in South Africa, he co-founded a telecom sales company at age 23 and grew that to more than 6M in sales in year 3. You guessed it; they did this with door to door sales. 

But here is the thing, instead of enjoying this success he ended up completely burnt out. That business could not function without him; he was the sales kingpin, and they had built this business using a physical paper system, not a computer in sight..

Kelly Clark, Wesley Longueira, Matt Clark and Arthie Moore

He stopped knocking on the physical doors and worked out how he could do it virtually. This is the story of his journey into sales automation using online systems and networking skills.  While it is about making sales, it is also about connecting with people and creating real relationships. 

It is the story of how Matt went on to co-develop a flagship programme with his business partner, Wesley Longueira. Together they form the LinkedIn Rainmaker and have helped thousands of businesses in 26 countries grow exponentially.

They are now on a mission to reach 10k businesses worldwide and build a vibrant community of Rainmakers!

I hope you enjoy the conversation with Matt Clark.

 

If you would like to connect with Matt you can find him on Linkedin.
Send him a DM message to let him know that you heard him on this podcast. 

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Creating Space For Things To Happen

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It has been an interesting a week, if you follow my podcast or heard my personal shortcast last weekend you will know that I took my son to start his new life in university housing last week and I am starting my new life as an ’empty-nester’.

I have to say there have been a range of emotions passing through me: grief, joy, sadness and many more. Of course, I want my son to go off into the world and have a fantastic time, but that doesn’t change how I feel having lost my best friend.

It is the beginning of a fascinating journey, and has given me an insight into how estranged parents feel without access to their children or worse when parents literally lose a child. I haven’t lost mine, he is just 2 hours away, but he’s no longer in my daily life, and I’m having to readjust my day life and find new ways of being, filling the gap left behind.

COVID, the gift and curse, has given us an opportunity to be together at home every day for the last 6 months. I am so privileged to have had the opportunity to spend this unique time with my teenager.

His moving on has given me the chance to look at the idea of creating space around transitions, allowing space to be, so that new stuff can come in naturally.

In relationships, it is common for people to jump into a new relationship immediately, and is known as ‘rebound’ and I’m discovering that this rebound action could be applied to anything.

Recognising this, I have used this past week for slowing down and taking stock of what I want over the next period of my life. I joke about the idea that my son was an 18-year project that no longer needs my daily attention. Not true, he is texting daily, but that will slow over time.

The future looks bright. I’ve got lots of opportunities with the podcast, events and all sorts of projects in front of me. But I need to allow space and time to adjust, find my new daily rituals and breathe into the new life that I’m building.

My question to you this week is where are you allowing space and time to listen to the quiet opportunities that are looking to be born? I had an interesting catch-up chat with one of our guests from the last summit, Simon Jordan. He was saying that as entrepreneurs, we can make things happen, but the best results come when we allow things to flow. When we allow time and space for what is waiting to be born, things occurs in a state of natural flow rather than stress and struggle.

So I put this out to you: What are you giving time for, where are you making space so that you can reconnect with passion, excitement and joy?

Tickets for the last virtual summit are still available here.

How will you answers these 5 questions and what do you think you will discover?
Click here for the FREE 5 QUESTIONS WORKBOOK

Martin Murray : Rock Rose Gin

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Over the last few weeks we decided to spring clean of the website and it is amazing what you find when you start digging into the archives.

Some of those early podcasts have great stories, that stand the test of time and of course being so early on in the life of this project they have not been seen by many people. With that in mind, I am returning this week to Martin Murray and the story of Rock Rose Gin.

Over the last 20 years the growth and interest in spirits in the UK has been enormous. First it was with the Whisky industry, then it was Vodka. I suspect the interest in Vodka came about because the younger generation didn’t like the alcohol their parents were drinking.

I remember when Hooch first went on sale. It was alcoholic lemonade, and was used in cocktails but never appreciated in it own right. Always being the poor cousin to Gin.

Part of the problem is that Gin was produced on a mass-production scale with the same flavour and taste. The shift came when the regulations were challenged and changed around the legal size of stills. Originally a still had to be 1800 litres which meant that the column for that still would be over 4 metres high and very much precluded small-scale production.

That law was challenged around 2009-2010 and it open the door of opportunity for craft distilling of Gin.

Martin Murray took the university route, went to look for work and discovered there was none in brewing and distilling, so ended up in the oil and gas industry. He remained there for many years until circumstances coincided with this change in the law that allowed him to start exploring the idea of opening a distillery, that is now home to the famous Rock Rose Gin.

This recorded interview was made March 2018 and since then Rock Rose Gin has grown and developed.

The company has won numerous awards for unique Gins, unique flavours and innovation. They are the first company to develop a completely recyclable gin pouch which can be posted, so it is now possible to buy Gin by mail, refill the your bottle and then return the pouch to them for recycling.

This is the story of Martin Murray, a man that has always been passionate about brewing and the drinks industry. It is his journey from a successful career in the oil and gas industry to rekindling his passion for brewing and distilling.

In our interview, you will hear about the choices he made and how it all began, the experiments, and ‘Holy Grass’. I hope you enjoy the conversation with Martin Murray.

 

Links from the programme:-

Rock Rose Gin is widely available in the UK and is exported to many countries.

The Distillery in Dunnet is open to the public, and you can connect with Martin through the website or his linkedin profile.

The Ted Talk mentioned can be found HERE

Change Is Relentless

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This has been a week of change for me, and indeed for everyone whether recognised or not. Change is happening all the time.

This week I am reflecting on my attitude to change, both in my relationship to the attachment / detachment aspects of parenting and in the broader life sense.

Where is it in your life that you are embracing change, and where are you resisting it and why is that?

Tom Liebelt : Music, Business and Life

Some guests I find and some approach me, Tom Liebelt is the latter and I am so delighted he reach out to me. He is a genuine guy who just wants people to hear his message. 

Tom was born in Poland during the Communist era when life was tough for those who were not members of the communist party or knew the right people. To make ends meet Tom’s Dad would smuggle alcohol banned films, VCR’s and other contraband across the border from Germany. As a young boy of 7, Tom had a vital roll to play in the smuggling operation. It was his job to distract the border guards from searching the car by screaming and crying and throwing a tantrum at the right moment.

He learned from a young age how to sell and negotiate business by getting haggled by Russian traders at the football stadium.

Life changed a lot when the family took an opportunity to move from Poland to the USA.

It was a change to escape communism, but life did not get easier. His parents took any job they could to survive, and he saw very little of them as they were always working.  

By seeing their struggle as a young man, he never wanted a job, and it motivated him to keep moving.

At 16 he bought into a record shop, his love of music lead him into the industry as an engineer, a DJ and eventually a performer. He returned to his native Poland where he became one of the top Polish hip hop artists.

Moving on, he returned to America and opened a coffee shop, running it for a year. 

Tom is one of those guys who sees an opportunity and makes it work. 

He has published around 5000 Kindle books and has built a successful SEO. He has owned a coffee shop, a retail store, a record label, created and filmed a documentary and released two albums with five hits on top ten Polish radio. 

Now living in Thailand, he has a thriving business employing a team of people creating and marketing online courses. 

All of it was bootstrapped and done with zero outside funding.

As Tom says:

“If you can’t sell, then you’re not in business. Marketing and Sales are the backbone of a company.” – Tom Libelt

I hope you enjoy the conversation with Tom Liebelt

 

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If you would like to get in touch with Tom you can find him on:

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/SBMPodcast/

Linkedin https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomlibelt/

Twitter https://twitter.com/TomLibelt 

Or at his website https://smartbrandmarketing.com

All of these links can be found at Life Passion & Business on the podcast page at the bottom of the post along with more information about The 5 Questions Worksheet

www.LifePassionAndBusiness.com