Joey’s absolutely don’t miss it recommended reading for 2008; or why London?

Hi guys,

Many of you may now be wondering why on earth two perfectly sane Australians would want to drop everything, leave the land of sun and beaches (as wretched as the Port Melbourne beach may be!) and move to the land of the endless drizzle and the double decker bus.

Well… same goes here!! Greg gave his notice at his job as an air traffic controller yesterday: something he has been fantasising about doing for about 5 years now I think. So things are looking definite! And the nerves are starting to set in for him. Not so much for me because as you know I’ve been a gypsy for about 3 years now. Actually I said to a friend of mine we were thinking about moving to London and he said “I wondered how long it would be… you are a bit of a rolling stone”.

So the whole thing has been inspired by the new life we are creating. As I said on a previous blog post, we are sailing, we have definite rules for business projects that we are taking on. Now these are bearing fruit, and all of a sudden it seems we’re not tied to Australia any more. Well, we’re not tied to anywhere. We are free agents. I love it. We can run our businesses from a laptop in London, Lisbon, or Launceston (why we’d want to run them from Launceston I can’t imagine, but that’s by the by).

Seriously you lot, the internet has absolutely transformed the way business can be done and it disturbs me how few people are aware of the leveraging power there. If you are living under a mushroom with regards to what’s available, for the love of God- please do yourself a favour and go out now and buy yourself this incredible book by Timothy Ferriss: The Four Hour Work Week.

I kid you not, it has absolutely transformed our lives. We were on this path really since July last year, but I bought this for Greg for Christmas and wow! (Yes, it was one of those presents you buy for someone coz really you want to read it, but don’t tell Greg. I had it finished before him… oops!) What Tim outlines in this book will really press some buttons. For a recovering workaholic like me it has triggered somewhat of an existential crisis. But all of that is fabulous as its leading to us actually consciously creating life just how we want it.

And right now… just what we want is to be in London. There’s loads of opportunities over there. I can’t wait to catch up with all you London folk. Perhaps we should arrange a big get together somewhere. Hmmm… yes I’ll put my thinking cap on. Any recommendations of where? (somewhere they could fit between 4 and 400… depending on how many people read this… this will be the acid test won’t it!!)

So, Joey’s recommended, no ESSENTIAL READING of 2008 is definitely the 4 hour work week. Buy it for all your friends too. Just don’t try to get it at the Port Melbourne Readings because we bought the last 4 copies! Oh… I’m adding Tim’s blog to my blogroll too. There’s simply too much to be learnt.

Have an awesome day you guys!

Love joey x

Look out London

Crumbs! Joey and Greg are coming to London. We’ve decided to pack up our lives in Melbourne and become itinerants for a while. Starting with good ol’ London town.

Why? Oodles of reasons really… I promise I will divulge more over the next few posts. But the main reason is why not?! We’re getting lots of gentle universal nudges in the ribs to do it, so we’re listening

So all you Londoners who have been emailing and facebooking and asking when are we next in London… we’re coming over late March to play!! Hopefully catch up with you guys then.

Hmmm… mind you its 40 C here, and 8C there… I may have weather related challenges!

J x

i love my friends

Hey!

I’m in wodonga. That’s almost as far north in victoria that you can get before it turns into new south wales. Its a country town where they notice the drought. Its dry here in australia.

I’m here with Greg and our two friends who we’re starting one of our businesses with. They have a two and a half year old who is so fabulous. (She’s a taurus like me, so nearly three really)

Anyhow! I have to admit that I started writing this not knowing where it was going and it still hasn’t arrived.

But somewhere deep inside is the warm fuzzy feeling that I love these people. Maybe that’s just it. This whole week what has got me out of bed is my love for this family. Two beautiful people and their child.

Sometimes its not about business. Actually most of the time its not about business. I am so grateful for these wonderful people.

I hope you guys have equally wonderful friends, and if you don’t… Get the hell out there and make some you slackers!!

Jxx

A great idea of a friend of mine

Hi guys,

Check out this video (its not the most visually spectacular, but the message is a good one!) Worth having a look at their website and seeing how creative some entrepreneurs are ou there!

Cheers,

j xx

who is keeping joey awake?

Just a 5 minute audio from me at 11:43pm when I can’t sleep!

Listen here:

I can’t sleep

How to put your business on steroids without doing a single thing you don’t want to do.

I am sick to death of it!!

I have just got out of the car where I was listening to yet another CD designed to help me in my life as an entrepreneur.Don’t get me wrong, the information is valuable information and it has made me some money, and saved me lots of heartache in the past. But there is one fundamental flaw with the majority of “self-help” or “business-help” stuff out there.

On this CD one marketing guru was interviewing another marketing guru, and many of their tips were great. However, something struck me when one guru said “every successful person I have ever met is a great negotiator”, and the second guru huffed and puffed in agreement, that negotiation is vital for any successful entrepreneur.

Now you’ll have to excuse me, because it was only 6 months ago that I was teaching a class in London bullying my students (nicely of course!) into believing exactly that same thing… that they must master negotiation to be a business success.

I now WHOLEHEARTEDLY DISAGREE WITH MYSELF. Ladies and gentleman, I have discovered:I was wrong!! Please take note, this has only happened once before, it was when I thought I made a mistake. (haha! That joke courtesy of the one and only Greg Elliott) But the point is I disagree with Joey-6-months-ago. And with these gurus. And by saying this I am probably disagreeing with about 98% of the authors, speakers, gurus and business experts out there. But here I go… loudly and obnoxiously flouting convention!!

You see… in the last 6 months of introspection and dabbling and gentle business development, I have been trying to identify what I am really good at. What I am really passionate about. And then, anything that does not fall under that category, I find someone else to do it.

I love performance. I love selling. I love business strategy. I am great at moving a crowd and stirring up emotions. I am great at inspiring people to action. I can negotiate… I’m OK at it… but its about as exciting for me as pulling out each toenail one by one. I just don’t enjoy it.

So true to my new commitment to myself, Greg and our business, I teamed up with someone who gets off on negotiation. I mean to her, negotiation is like the Karma Sutra. She’s the Tantric Negotiator I tell ya, and she is good!! She’s good mostly because she likes it!

A small experiment in teamwork, led to a bigger commitment and experiment in team work, has led to a whole new business idea, and an awesome team. We’ve been working together for some time now, and our business is developing so fast I feel like I should call up some authority or other and give myself up because surely we must be doing something criminal for it to be this fun, easy and this successful.

And the greatest tragedy of all… with all this ease, we get to do fun stuff like travel!! Here’s me and Greg at Lakes Entrance after said TEAM breakthroughs!!

Here’s the thing. TEAM is the key. I really do disagree with so much of what is said out there. If you hate sales, you don’t have to get good at sales… just find someone who loves your vision, and loves sales. If you hate technology, you don’t have to master it… just find someone who gets off on it and who loves your vision.

Mind you… perhaps I can only say this because I now have at least an intellectual understanding of all elements of business, and so I can afford to delegate to or partner with people who have different strengths than mine. What do you think? Perhaps it is necessary for us to comprehend something before we can say “that’s not my gig”. Probably.

Anyway… my thought for the day… if you don’t like it, you’ll never be good at it, so find someone who loves your big picture, and loves the things you hate, and partner with them. Or actually better still… discover what you’re good at and contribute to someone else’s dream first, and carve out your skills and your niche… then you will become hugely attractive and your visions will fly. But more about my “first you give, then you receive discoveries” next time.

See ya then,

jx

my life is too good!

Greg and I are in the Hunter Valley. Just tasted some yummy wines… The Tower Barbera comes highly recommended!

The point however is most people are busy working and we’re about to open a bottle of vino, and chill out befor dinner. Boy life’s tough! Today is one of those days to be grateful.

What’s more we just had an awesome couple of days on the central coast staying with friends, and we have another new business plan together and will be launching in March. I love the life of an entrepreneur.

I’ll tell you all about it when i get back. Just wanted you to know i haven’t fallen off the face of the earth.

Remind me to wax on about the joy of teams next time.

Here’s to red and roquefort!

J x

Tuning into the Universe FM in Perth!

Sincerest apologies for my absence the last couple of days. You may remember my video recently “joey’s had an idea”? Well, the last couple of days I have been in Perth meeting some of the most extraordinary people. Well, truly they are ordinary people doing extraordinary things because of extraordinary levels of inspiration and drive.

I have been humbled, and moved by this incredible bunch of people. I had the opportunity to work with Mark (who I refer to in the same earlier post), and to discover just what it means to be in flow.

Have you ever had the experience of having an idea, but it’s more like you are tuning into a broadcast across the universe, and the more you investigate the idea, the more you realise that other people are picking up on the same broadcast? That has been the experience with my trip to Perth.

I came over to team up with Mark and create something that we both feel passionate about, that would inspire entrepreneurs around the world. Unsurprisingly, yet impressively, our excitement and conviction has attracted so much support, and the trip has been a huge success.

I promise you guys will be the first to know when the project is ready for human consumption

Meanwhile, its 11:45pm, I’m in the Qantas lounge in perth, and my li’l fingers are dragging across the keyboard. So excuse me while I catch a few Zs. Hopefully they wake my up to put me on the plane. I get to see greg in 6 hours. Hooray!

Have an awesome day!

Joey x

What is truth, and is there room for tolerance?

Hi guys,

Welcome back. Just wanted to share with you I’ve had a breakthrough. I’ve never been a runner. In fact any of you who’ve been in a class with me have probably heard me say that I hate running. That’s why I dance. However, I have to take my hat off to my personal trainer Steph: she has got me to the point where yesterday I enjoyed my first run! Oh my god!! Apparently it has something to do with getting to a fitness level where you can breathe through your nose… in and out, in and out… Now I am starting to understand those weirdos who used to tell me it was meditative! Haha!!!

Anyhow, I tell you about my running because it was while I was running yesterday down at Port Melbourne beach that I came up with today’s blog. Yesterday in Melbourne was a funny day, one moment sunny, then next thunder storms veritably chucking it down.

I grabbed my run between torrential downpours, and as I trotted along the stormclouds gathered and formed quite a spectacular sight over the bay.

I was listening to a recent podcast of Skepticality: the official podcast of Skeptics magazine. You can check them out by clicking here, but be warned… if you are a believer of mind over matter in any of it’s guises (spiritual, religious, NLP or otherwise) you will have your buttons pressed. Now, don’t get me wrong… I have experienced too much anecdotal evidence in my own life with these things to give them up just yet, but I am thoroughly enjoying broadening my horizons into the “Critical Thinking” arena.

So what is Critical Thinking? Basically it is the disciplined process of actively conceptualizing, analyzing, and applying information as a guide to action. In other words, not just accepting it is so because I say so, but thinking it through for yourself, testing hypotheses etc.

As a concept, it tends to upset some of my colleagues because they see it as an attack on what they teach in the realm of personal development. Granted, most critical thinkers would scoff at hypnosis, the Law of Attraction, religion and other such things; calling them whacked out and woowoo, with no foundation in reality. You see what gets them out of bed in the morning is the quest for truth as proven by science.

And most “believers” would scoff at critical thinkers as being obsessed with science, boring, emotionally retarded and missing out on the magic of life. Because what gets them out of bed in the morning is the quest for truth as defined by their own personal experience.

Funny how one tiny distinction or definition of truth can make all the difference in the world!

But the interesting thing is listening to this particular interview I came across a Critical Thinker that doesn’t need to rip people apart to have his point of view. Stephen L Gibson has recently written a book called A Secret of the Universe. Now… I haven’t read the book (I’ve just ordered it on amazon today… you can too by clicking below)… but I am very much looking forward to it. Desipte this, I was thoroughly impressed with his attitude to the opinions of others.

I learnt so much about tolerance, as he has no need to preach to others about his opinions. But also about tolerance of self. He is very clear that his worldview is just his current worldview, and it may change down the line.

It’s very reassuring for those of us who need to have it all figured out yesterday before making a move on anything!

If you’re interested in listengin to the podcast, i highly recommend it. It’s here on Skepticality. But it comes with a button pressing warning for most of my readers! Consider youself warned!

So today I’m celebrating diversity, and knowing that my worldview today, will be different to tomorrow. And I’m really reflecting on what is the truth for me? Truth as proven by science, or personal experience? This question is bound to get me out of bed tomorrow!

How 5 young men got me out of bed!

This blog is dedicatd to discussing what makes people get out of bed… especially what makes entrepreneurs and business people get up and take risks. In this video blog today you’ll hear about how 5 young men got me out of bed at 6am (far too early for me under any other circumstance!), and pull out the credit card.

Enjoy!

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