My work is about creating Flow in Life and Business.

In order to get your business to flow it helps to decide where we are in the overall economic business cycle. People’s viewpoints often vary but as a Leader or Business Entrepreneur it is key for you to decide as it shapes your decision making process. Naturally it becomes so much easier to grow a business when the economy is growing and you are much more likely to have business success if you go with the flow.

So where do you feel we are in the current macro business cycle?

My personal opinion is that we are right at the beginning of the next big economic cycle (point 1) and we have been here for quite sometime awaiting the stimulation and momentum to get us going. If you agree with me (and you don’t have to) we are in line for a substantial growth period which is likely to last in cycles for 20 years or more.

The next step to consider is whether your sector is growing, stable or declining. Different businesses grow at different periods in an economic cycle. It is easier to go with the Flow rather than against it. It doesn’t mean you cannot grow a successful company which bucks the trend only that your chances of success is greater when you do operate in a growing sector.

Thirdly take a look at your company and break it down into its component parts. The analogy I use is what I call ‘The Field of Play’.

When you look at the positions every business needs to have a presence in to be successful which ones are performing to their optimum?

Getting your business to Flow is about not only shaping your team but it is also about shaping your players both in the structure in how they perform and communicate with other players but also how they feel. When this happens business becomes easy and doesn’t feel like hard work.

A team which is skillful as a whole and feels fantastic will take your business to another level.

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No matter what the size of the company you work for, the majority of companies resemble a Football Team.

Each department or individual is vital to the success of the whole and so the performance of each department is of paramount importance. This is where small companies experience difficulties. Frequently a business owner is very busy running around in many departments and is not able to spend as much time as they need in the position they are best at. What this means is that a company cannot move ahead as quickly as its energy is scattered too thinly around the pitch with only a few people running around the football field in multiple positions.

In your business which positions do you cover? What position do you enjoy the most? Where are there gaps?

The Big Picture in business, quite simply, is to score more goals than you let in. If you consistently score more goals than you let in as a company you will always be successful.

With awareness it will become clear that each individual and department needs structure in order to allow it to perform to its optimum. Each department also operates differently and so communication between departments and an understanding of its strengths and weaknesses will help greatly. Take Sales and Finance for example. Both are vital departments and yet both need completly different types of people working in these areas. Often even in larger companies with these departments in place it is the Communication between the positions in the ‘Field of Play’ which are lacking. Once you have the awareness of your structure of your business and how everything connects you then have an opportunity to move it into Flow.

So how is your company performing? Is your company in Flow? What areas are strong and weak? Where is the ball at the moment? How well do your players communicate?

I have created a short 5-minute Business Performance Test to help you find out. The test will give you a score in each of the areas of the ‘Field of Play’ allowing you to clearly see where you need to apply your attention to keep scoring goals.

Read more and take the Business Performance Test Now to see how you score.

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Happiness is something that has been searched for, for hundreds if not thousands of years and through my work I have found that simply bringing 9 Elements into your day you can create happiness from the inside out.

Once you begin to feel happier you then start to notice if you start feeling a certain way, maybe a little anxious, depressed, stressed or are frightened that all of these feelings relate to missing one or more of the 9 Elements. Then just by re-introducing or adjusting the time you spend on these Elements you find that automatically you begin to feel happier again. I have a prescription in the back of my book that lists certain symptoms and the Elements need to balance these problems.

It is not possible to feel happy 24/7 as life is a journey of many twists and turns but with the knowledge of these 9 Elements you will have a Map For Life. When you get a little lost you just find out where you are and then use the Map to get back in the Flow again.

So where are you? Well to start, you could take the 9 Element Test. This will help to give you an indication of how much balance and momentum you have at the moment. Then with this awareness the 9 Days to Feel Fantastic book will give you a deeper understanding of how to move forward in a more balanced and enjoyable way. You will be guided over 9 days and introduced to one of these Elements each day building up to doing all 9 on Day 9.

Statistics from my online 9 Elements Test (6,000 people) confirm that 87% of people who do just the first 5 Elements feel good or fantastic, and 100% of the people who do all 9 feel good or fantastic.

There is also an online 9 Day Challenge that helps you to introduce them easily into your life. Built into the program is One to One guidance where you have the ability to interact with me personally, each day I will keep you motivated and moving forwards, towards feeling fantastic.

Happiness I have found is a choice. We can all choose how we feel and if we feel good, life is good.

I hope you enjoy 9 Days to Feel Fantastic and then share your new found knowledge with everyone you know, helping to make the world a happier place.

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Your Business Idea Comes 4th.

1. You. The most important piece in the business jigsaw is You. It is essential for you to be ready for a challenge, focused and passionate about what you are doing. Are you are aware of Why you want to become a Business Entrepreneur? If you know why, this becomes your purpose. All of these attributes will give you the energy you need to begin your business and will help you when you experience times when it is tough. Are you ready for the journey and challenge which lies ahead?
2. Sector. What sector are you in and is your new business in a growing market? Even an average idea can succeed in a rapidly growing marketplace and a great idea can stumble in a sector which is in decline. Choosing a sector that is growing will make it easier for you to create a success of your new business. It is possible to carve out a niche in a flat or declining sector, but Why? The main reason a Business Entrepreneur usually goes into business is because they want to improve the life they are currently living. If this is your main driver why make it hard on yourself? Make business easy and it will be easy. A rapidly moving upward trending sector will give you greater chance for success.
3. Scoring Goals. How quickly can your idea create revenue? No business has ever failed if they get more revenue coming in than going out. Like a Football Team you need to know how to score goals to stay in the game. Cashflow is paramount in business. Even if you have startup investment dependent on your burn rate (the rate at which you have negative cashflow), you need to create revenue to ease the pressure and the stress a new Business Entrpreneur often experiences. Typically any new business will go through a barrier in the first 18 months of trading. See creating and running a business much like running a marathon, if you go off sprinting you will run out of energy. Just focus on gradually creating the momentum to drive it towards creating more money coming in than going out. If you ever need investment into your business having this focus is a sure fire way to get an investors attention. Personally I have found that seeking someone to help you with skill, knowledge and wisdom in business, far outweighs just financial input from an investor who doesn’t resonate with your business.
4. Your Idea. Finally your idea comes 4th. It is important to have a great idea but not essential and it is a lot easier to frame your idea around the above 3 keys first, before deciding to go for it.

Once your business is up and running you will find that there are different rules, different systems and different tactics that will help you to move further up the table and potentially into a different league altogether. If you want to learn these skills you can in The Enlightened Business Academy.

Have You got what it takes to move your business forwards each day? Which sector is in a growth phase? Can you score more goals than you let in? If you can answer Yes to these 3 then there is nothing stopping you from living your dreams.

If you are stuck or have any questions just ask. Business is Simple its often just people who make things complicated.

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The Enlightened Business Academy and Incubator will provide training, mentoring, financial, strategic and negotiation support within a structured program. The objective is to grow individuals and companies and empower them to be the best they can be.

Having never had a mentor but lucky enough to have mentored many people I have seen how much of a difference a mentor can make. Complimenting this with Live Business Training the EBA looks to create an inspirational environment, which focuses on doing something you love.

‘If you, do what you love and love what you do, your performance improves’

Some of these companies will have the opportunity to enter my Enlightened Business Incubator, this is where over a specific time period they will be grown with an additional focus on creating value. Many small and medium sized companies (SME’s) become lifestyle companies purely supporting the Owner/Entrepreneur. Through a mix of lack of awareness and time, most Entrepreneurs do not give consideration to the little steps needed to maximize the value of a company so it can be positioned for this worth to be realized. The optimum state of a company is where you are able to receive good remuneration for your work and also have the opportunity to capitalize on this value when the time is right. Being cultivated in the right direction is the main benefit of being part of the Enlightened Business Incubator.

Each week Entrepreneurs will be taught a different aspect of business in a systematized way. Solutions will be found to the problems they encounter, each business will be de-risked as much as possible to increase stability and each Entrepreneur will be encouraged to have fun and enjoy a work-life balance.

‘Your performance is not based on the amount of hours you work it is based on the effectiveness of those hours.’

My view is that now the banks have become more stabilized, the growth and continued recovery of the economy will be in the creation and progression of new companies. When enthusiasm and excitement is abundant, success is a natural result. Once this raft of new companies and entrepreneurs become established they will lead the way for others.

My intention is to help and support these new companies to prosper, increasing the chances of success and be part of the recovery initiative to help the world economy move out of recession………and best of all, I see there is absolutely nothing stopping me achieve this.

To book a space on The Enlightened Business Academy Program or find out more click here: The Enlightened Business Academy.

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What was just a dream became a reality. This is something I have consciously done all of my life and I would like you to know how you can live your dreams and do the things in life you have always wanted to do. Why? Quite simply it feels so good when you see the spark in someone’s eyes when they have found their purpose and are doing something that they love to do.

Dreams don’t need to be large; in fact quite often it is living the small dreams that make our lives feel amazing. Perhaps we have been conditioned to always see dream as having to be big and then struggle to see how we are going to achieve them. This often causes us to give up and don’t end up giving any more thought to living them.

I was so fascinated as to why as we grow older we don’t tend to live our dreams as much, I went along to spend some time with Neurologist Robin Pauc to find out why, I wanted to know which parts of our brain is stimulated when we live our dreams.

What I discovered is that the main reason we don’t live our dreams is that we don’t give them very much thought.

So how can you take the first steps towards living your dreams ? The inspiration for your dreams comes from stillness; so for them to form, we need to contemplate a little, give them time to come to the surface. The right side of the brain is where inspired thoughts come from and the left side of the brain is where the plan of action is created.

Like learning to surf. In the beginning you start out small and ride the little waves first. As you do this you are automatically putting yourself in the right Environment where the waves (dreams) come. After you have ridden the litte waves you find the bigger ones come just by living a life in Flow. The more thought and excitement you give your dreams the more they tend to happen.

So I have now spoken on the stage with Wayne Dyer, Louise Hay and the most amazing group of Hay House Authors, what next?……………I have a view ideas coming into fruition but more importantly, What do you dream of doing?

If you would like to plant the seeds to living your dreams my book 9 Days to Feel Fantastic and the 9 Day Challenge are the perfect starting place.

‘The reason we have dreams is so they can be lived’

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When we are children we tend to be present in everything we do, seizing the moment, acting impulsively and simply living one moment to the next. As we become conditioned over time, through experiences and by people we come into contact with it is easy to steer off track a little.

Maybe working too hard and missing your children’s bedtime story, forgetting to say to someone close to you that you love them because your mind is somewhere else or even over reacting to someone’s words to you instead of a calm centered response. Life can certainly create moments where things can be challenging can’t they but equally all of the above can be soothed by thinking less and not more.

Thinking less and not more gives you the opportunity to reconnect to the special moments in life. Your child’s smile when they call your name, the sparkle in your partners eye when they connect with yours and the calm observation that occurs when you listen to someone else’s words.

Our minds are fantastic tools, which we have been given but ones, which we are regularly living too much in negating our Body and our Spirit. Bringing balance to your Mind, Body and Spirit creates flow. It creates awareness, happiness, contentment and fulfillment.

The simplest way to approach thinking less and not more is to bring more body and spirit activities into your life. Perhaps instead of waking up and instantly moving into a ‘do’ mode, take 5 minutes just to relax and focus on your breath. In a day we breathe over 22,600 times yet our breath, which is essential to life, goes unnoticed. Taking just 5 minutes in 24 hours to STOP will change you life if you experience Mind Chatter or Over Momentum. When we slow down we actually become more effective when we decide to speed up again as we become rested, more focused and recharged.

Our breath is our connection to our Spirit, to connect with our body exercise I have found as the most affective way. Aerobic exercise where your mind is focused on the exercise your are doing gets you to think less and not more with the more you bring both personal space and exercise into your life the closer you move to flow.

Through my experiences working with people in crisis I found that there are 9 Elements, which bring happiness and flow to life. With less thinking and less analysis these 9 Elements can be brought into a persons every day creating awareness and fulfillment to life in every moment.

When we think less and not more we move closer to a life which Flows.

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How can the 9 Elements benefit my life?

The 9 Elements are 9 simple things that form the basis of my teachings called The Way. When these Elements are brought into your life you will very quickly start feeling fantastic. They create both balance and momentum, which brings an internal harmony that grows happiness from the inside out. I now have an extensive survey of over 4500 people which support my findings. The 9 Element Test is a 5 minute free online questionaire which you can take here. Take the 9 Element Test.

What will I notice when I bring these 9 Elements into my life?

You will realise how simple The Way teachings are and how easy they are to fit into your life. Instead of searching for something external to make you feel happy, The Way connects you with your true essence, your internal happiness, helping you to discover the natural abilities for creating happiness that you already have. It is like you have a happiness seed waiting inside of you, with attention and self care it to grows from the inside out. Your true potential for happiness is astounding but is often missed, when we focus on external fixes that are mostly short lived and and not fulfilling. Most people find that many of the Elements are things that they already know are good for them, but often a low mood distracts them from feeling like doing them. The Way helps you to understand the connection between how you are feeling and what simple steps you can do to help you to feel better, this improved feeling then spurs you on to practice more.

The Way is non-judgmental and once practised will naturally help you to become aware of what you can do to self manage how you feel. Once you notice that your energy or mood might not be as great as it could be you start to instinctively know which of the elements are missing and your balance and vitality is restored.

How did the 9 Elements come about?

The Way and the 9 Elements came about from my work as a Business Troubleshooter helping rescue companies in crisis. I found in 100% of my cases that when a company was in crisis my clients were as well. Over time realizing this correlation I began to intuitively feel whether my clients needed more balance or momentum and I found that I easily knew what they needed to do to feel happier. I then noticed that my clients began to feel happier, and as they began to feel happier their businesses began to improve. The Special Moments for me increasingly came from seeing the sparkle return to my client’s eyes rather than the turnaround of their company.

I realised that I had found the key to Happiness but didnt really know how I had done it. These people were feeling happy even before I had saved their companies. I was bursting to share what I had found with other people especially when I saw people suffering, but I needed to work out exactly what I had been doing.  I decided to map what actions I was asking my clients to take for their various states of distress and what these these states these actions were creating in the body. I discovered that there were 9 things that I was consistantly getting them to do, and  when they brought them into their lives consistantly got them feeling fantastic.

Why are your teachings simple?

When a message is simple and truthful you feel it within, it resonates with your core. I think the main lessons in life are less about head based knowledge and more about sharing simple wisdom that is already known in the heart. So in essence the reason my teachings are simple is, because they just are, I have not tried to complicate them by making them into something they are not. The key really isn’t whether they are understood by the mind, it is whether knowing is created in the body. Less about thought, more about action. Everything I teach is based on direct experience and so if it works for me and my clients I know that it is highly likely to work for you as well.

What is your Intention with your work?

Purely to share the experiences and knowledge I have gained so far and touch as many peoples lives as possible.

How can I learn more?

I regularly post on my website and several social media channels Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest and You Tube.

Where do I start?

The best place to learn more about my findings is to start with my book, 9 Days to Feel Fantastic (Available here on Amazon) as this gives you a step by step guide over 9 days, of how to create happiness from the inside out. It has many tools which will help you to identify where you are now and there is also a prescription that helps you to get to find out which elemnents will help you with specific problems straight away.

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……… As time moves on you might have some set backs and take some knocks, this can make it feel harder to succeed and your enthusiasm can wane a little. You can start to put barriers in your way that you didn’t even think of before because you start to focus on the negatives more often.  In general everyday life isn’t as exciting as it was when you embarked on your dream. Your vision and enthusiasm begins to close down and you tend to just focus on achieving your targets and getting by.

Why?

In essence business is simple, but there is a tendency to think it is complicated.

“If you think something is hard it is hard and if you think something is easy it is easy” – John Whiteman

The reason I feel that people find business difficult is they focus purely on the destination and not the journey. They view simply the Revenue and not the Flow. When you create a goal driven company with targets there is a tendency to move from one target to another constantly pushing and striving. After the push for month end with the start of the following month there is often a lull in sales so a company moves from high to low accordingly.

The Enlightened Business is different; it looks at the bigger picture, it remains open to new directions and trends. Yes, it is important to set targets but it is more important to follow trends. When you follow a trend, sales volatility reduces and you begin to see a clearer picture.

To begin to understand whether you and your company are in Flow every Entrepreneur and Business Person needs to understand where we are in the Business Cycle.

“If you know where you are it is easier to know where you are going” – John Whiteman

So where are we at the moment in this business cycle?

Different sectors operate in different ways. Overall the economy could be in one place and your sector in another. To see where we are you need to begin to see this business cycle also in different time frames. For instance Business might be seasonal for you and you are on a high (point 3) and yet your sector might be at (point 1) but the economy at (point 5). To operate an Enlightened Business successfully moving with the Flow rather than pushing against it allows you to be in the right position so you don’t have to push.

Why is positioning so important? It stops you from being boxed in, it allows you to change direction and step up a gear when needed. Positioning is about putting yourself in the right Environment where business comes to you. It allows you to take advantage of the market trends for your business and you don’t miss the opportunities because you are ready to grow when you need to. It is intelligent thinking not just short-term profit lead. Its not chasing the moment as it takes you by surprise, you are creating the moments. You are geared up to be flexible and because you are looking always at the bigger picture, you are and not just in one direction.

There is a large difference between pushing and positioning. When you push you create resistance and when you position you put yourself into the Environment so that you are out there rather than waiting only for the opportunities to come to you. You have set your self up so that you will have a flow of opportunities that you have created. They will feel like they are flowing in with little effort because you have put yourself out there.

So where is the Economy in the Business Cycle at the moment?

Where is your sector?

Where is your Business?

Where is your Mind?

Are you pushing too hard, Are you gearing down when you need to gear up, Are you on a High or a Low? Dependent on where you are will give you the awareness of what action to take to enhance your life and your business.

“There is no point waiting at the bus stop if the buses aren’t running. It is far better to arrive when they are” – John Whiteman

For many Entrepreneurs your mind might be pushing to make things happen against the Flow. It is possible to go against the Flow but it is harder to do. Positioning is key to a sustainable business where you enjoy your journey and not simply lurch from destination to destination always wanting to be somewhere you are not.

Positioning creates medium-term growth, pushing creates hard fought short-term gains. A business begins to flow once you constantly position yourself and your company in the right environment, this way gains will start to flow from many directions and your will grow from many directions.

To learn more about the practical action you can take to position your business in the environment where you can create Flow you can follow my posts on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Pinterest or take part in one of my business talks and programs.

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What strikes me first is in the effortless flow that is created upon my arrival. Eye contact and speaking to me and not at me, creates a difference to how I feel straight away. I do not need to search for where I need to go next as I am ushered there in a welcoming and friendly way.

The handover to the check-in desk effortlesly took place. They know that I am a returning guest and that my children are booked into the kids club in the afternoon. We are given lots of attention and welcomed back like old friends.

I am asked if I can be helped in any other way before being escorted to my room and asked if I would like a personal tour of the resort to refresh my memory. In our bedroom is a handmade banner featuring our children’s favourite cartoon characters to welcome them back from the girls at the kids club.

This might not be the sector of business that you are in but this level of service and attention can be applied in your business. It will create a stickyness which will bring you greater brand awareness, return customers and happier staff.

At lunch the choice on the menu does not over or underwhelm me, it is just right. The food perfectly cooked and the dressing on the side allows me to make my meal just the way I like it, which is sometimes not the way a chef intends me to like it. The food is placed on my plate like a painting of exquisitness that makes me pause for a moment to savour how it looks.

We are all blessed with choice. This choice allows us to be an individual. In our individuality I can be me. Yesterday’s business was all about conditioned service. The Mcdonalds model where one size fits all. Enlightened Service creates special moments that make you feel unique.

So back to the end of my lunch. I am asked how I like my coffee, not just a cappucino, latte or macchiato but exactly how do I prefer it to be.

This is Enlightened Service in action.

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