Date: June 2012 - Page 2

Last night, I had the most awful dream, that a friend who has been unwell, was pushing himself to the limit and not letting himself get better, had a car crash. It felt so real. In the dream, I found him all mangled, and lifeless. After months in hospital, it was time for him to get out, but there was no-one to look after him, as he had literally no-one in his life. No-one knew what to do, and no-one felt it was their responsibility. I started to cry in my dream because I felt for him. Then, the tears streaming down my face woke me up. I was completely shakened. It felt so real. The pictures in my dream were so real. It took moments before I realised that it was just a bad dream.

It is that time of year again, whether you like it or not, that small business owners need to review how their business is going.

Is your business ontrack to achieving the goals that you set out for your business to achieve in 2012? Is your brand where it should be? Are your leads inbound or outbound? Is your sales team performing?

If the answer is "no" to any of these questions, then it's time to start figuring out what you can change today to alter your outcomes of tomorrow.

Before meeting a girlfriend for coffee today, I popped into a Bookstore to see if they had the book Sweet Revenge by Tom Bower - The Intimate Life of Simon Cowell.

A few months ago, I was walking in the park. Seagulls were flying around above me. It was a weird place for them to be as the park is situated at least 10 kilometres from the ocean.

As I looked up, I decided to capture the moment.

The seagulls flew off and I began to think...

It's time. We are ready. The curtains have been drawn. In 3 weeks, I will be living in America to follow my dream of building a global small business marketing firm.

It's summer over there and winter here in Australia, so the weather is definately a big plus. Cost of living is significantly less which means I can buy more shoes. There is a god after all ;-)

And... the business is ready. Most importantly, we have dotted all of our 'i's' and crossed all of our 't's'.

So, what's next?

Many entrepreneurs believe that if you embrace failure on your path to success, you will succeed. In fact, most successful entrepreneurs have failed many times, but the difference between them and the rest of the world is that they don't internalize failure - instead they embrace it.

Failure sometimes helps us better understand what we are trying to do and how we should go about it. It sets a clearer picture for the direction that we should head.

"I honestly think it is better to be a failure at something you love, than to be a success at something you hate." George Burns.

Is failure just part of the parcel? Do we need to fail in order to succeed? Bill Gates did. Michael Jordan did too.

Without health, you have nothing.

No matter how much money you make, it cannot save you if you have a terminal illness.

Some months ago, Iris Medical came to us and asked Marketing Eye if we could help educate the market on the importance of preventative health measures. So often business men and women get caught up in every day life and they neglect their health. They may go to the gym a couple of times a week and eat healthily but as we all know, even with these measures, the stress of working and life can add to increasing our chances of illness.

Iris Medical is unique in that it provides men and women with a complete health test. It is advisable to do these tests every single year, to stay on top of your health. By doing them, women may experience early detection of breast cancer for instance and men may find out whether or not they may have a heart attack in the near future or perhaps prostate cancer.

With Kerrianne Kennerly, the latest high profile person to get breast cancer, it's once again very topical.

So, is your engine well-oiled?

If you are tweeter, and you follow Marketing Eye or Amanda Rose for that matter, you may have seen some dialogue about us joining force to write a blog about divorce.

Rather than put our stories together all at once, we have decided to put together a blog that will change over the next few hours. I will share my wisdom (or lack of) with you and Amanda, a well-known radio host, article writer, commentator and brand marketing consultant, will add her thoughts. BTW. Amanda and I have never met or worked together, other than communicating through a shared passion for social media.

Let's see how this experiment works!

DIVORCE - it's never easy.

If you feel that your spirit is being squashed down, then push as hard as you can and stand up for what you believe in.

Key to success is being able to withstand the negativity that may cross your path, and rise to any occasion with the same enthusiasm and depth that you had the first day you came up with your new business idea.

At times, being an entrepreneur can be daunting. There are so many things to consider. Great entrepreneurs, you will find, listen to what people have to say and then make decisions based on a combination of their gut instinct, the advice given and their own knowledge and expertise.

This week, I have had to re-think what I am doing and what a great exercise that has been!

Seriously, I have learnt more this week, than I have in the entire year. I have listened to a number of key influencers in my life and taken onboard their advice and mentoring, while still staying true to myself and my own dreams.

If you spend some time to consider your options, often you will find that the solution falls on your lap - just like it has with me today.

Running a successful business is exciting and in the true spirit of being an entrepreneur, I am fulfilling my dreams every single day.

When things don't go to plan, I always remember:

Bill Gates dropped out of Harvard and his first company failed, yet he still built a global empire and was for a long time the richest man in the world due to Microsoft.

Stephen King, one of the world's best selling authors, received 30 knock-backs for his iconic thriller Carrie and ended up throwing it in the trash. Luckily for him, his wife fished it out and it went on to being one of the best novels of all time.

Michael Jordan tells a story of how he failed over and over again in his life, and that is the reason he has succeeded.

So, by not being afraid to take risks, to put yourself on the line, to accept rejection and to compromise only when it is right to do so, you will succeed.

"Onwards and upwards" is definately a direction I am taking. After further consultation with my mentor, I realised that some of things they pointed out were very correct and the Australian market is one that should not be ignored. However, if you have a dream, and you truly believe in it, you should follow it. So I am doing both! I have listened and taken on board great direction and I am going with my gut instinct and research and developing a business that will one day be global. You wait and see!!!!

Magma Capital Advisory came to Marketing Eye without a marketing bone in their body – literally, with nothing more than a logo in a world of endless marketing possibilities - and a two week deadline for a ‘brand spanking’ website (so to speak).  

We’d scored ourselves a client specialising in debt capital and risk management solutions and a two week deadline.