Unlock Your Inner voice and Learn to listen to your Intuition Once Again

The pressures imposed by society and its expectations, regarding anything you can’t touch, feel or see, has forced us to repress our intuition and to stop listening to our inner voice. I hear you asking the question “What inner voice are you talking about”. Well that inner voice that just asked the previous question is the first stage towards knowing and understanding that you do indeed have an inner voice or subtle inner knowing. I like to refer to intuition, as the things you know before you think. 

Your intuition or your inner voice, is a really powerful tool, which you have locked away and lost touch with over the years. I want to help you to re-awaken your inner voice or intuition today. Once you learn how to turn the volume up on your intuition and you can once again trust your inner knowing, you will have uncovered a really powerful tool in your success toolkit.

Meditation

The practice of meditation helps you clear away the day to day distractions and if you will just listen and allow, it will also permit you to begin turning up the volume on your intuition. Your intuition is that magical inner voice, which will speak to you and just seems to know the right answer, before you even think. When you can learn to trust your intuition, it will regularly deliver subtle impulses, which will guide you toward the success you desire and keep you on the path towards living your true purpose.

How Does it Work?

There are numerous forms of informal meditation, which will allow you to empty your mind of stressful thoughts, which do not serve you and allow you to hear and listen to your inner self.  The key to meditation is to take time to relax breath, listen and reflect.

How do I do it

The easiest way I have found to get into a relaxed and meditative state is to lie flat on a very comfortable surface, with my legs uncrossed and my arms resting comfortably next to my sides.  I listen to relaxing meditation music, commercially available everywhere. It is really helpful to listen to the music through a good quality pair of head phones or earphones, as this allows you to block out all external noise and focus all your attention on the meditative process. As you lie in a relaxed and peaceful place, concentrate, relax and focus all your attention on only the air flowing through your nostrils as you breathe in and out.

Try not to think about anything other than the air flowing in and out of your nostrils. Completely clear your mind. If any thought comes into your mind, acknowledge it and immediately place your attention back onto the air flowing through your nostrils. It will take a number of sessions, of practice and focus, before you will manage to meditate, relax and stop allowing your mind to wander.

Feel the cool air all the way around both nostrils as it enters through your nose, breathing steadily and rhythmically as you inhale.  Hold the breath for a few seconds and then exhale, concentrating on and feeling the warm air all the way around both nostrils, as the warm air leaves through your nose.

Try not to allow any random thoughts to enter your mind. If any thoughts do enter your mind, acknowledge them and then go straight back to the practice of concentrating on your breathing and all the sensations that go with feeling your breath in your nostrils. Repeat this for several minutes, initially seven minutes will be adequate to achieve good results.

When you become more experienced, meditating for 30 minutes or more will become very therapeutic, relaxing and an excellent way to listen to your inner self.  There are numerous techniques that can help you develop your skills and help you to get the most out of your meditation time.  Advanced meditation is very personal and as such I would recommend that, when you want to ascend to a higher level of meditation, you do some research into the type and style of meditation that best suites you.

Reflect and Ask Questions

During your meditation, try to reflect, ask questions and allow the intuitive impressions to come to you.  Pay special attention to images, words, physical sensations or emotions that you experience.  Record all your insights and impressions, try to understand what they reveal to you and then take action and invite success into your experience

The practice of meditation, like any new skill will take about 45 days to become an entrenched habit and form part of who you are.  Begin today and meditate every day. It is a really powerful process, which will serve you going forward. You already have the answers that you seek, so allow yourself to listen.

Author: Andrew Horton Inspirational Speakers

http://www.andrewhorton.co.za

Are you Happy with the Way you are Spending Your Life?

When you reach the end of your fleeting physical experience one day, will you wish you had spent more time chasing after money or will you wish that you had invested your most valuable resource, namely your time, into creating meaningful relationships? The reality is that we are so driven to meet society’s expectations to accumulate as many resources as possible and to become as powerful or famous as we can, that we miss out on what really matters, namely family and real friends.

Are you going to continue to allow yourself to waste your life doing something, which when all is said and done, will have very little value for you.  Or are you going to make changes in your life now and go after the things that really matter, the things that will make you happy and fulfilled? When you choose happiness and fulfilment over money, you get to live a very full and meaningful life and amazingly money also seems to almost effortlessly flow towards you. Change your motives; go after what really matters to you and you will get to enjoy the most amazing, complete and abundant life.

Cultivate Relationships with the People Who Matter

Relationships with family and friends must be actively cultivated, like the flowers in a beautiful garden. Developing and sustaining great relationships requires time, effort and imagination. The better, more real and consistent the effort, the easier it is to ensure that the relationship will flourish and grow. The greatest value in life comes from caring for and sharing your life with people that matter.

Give the Gift of your On-going Development to Everyone Around you

Invest time to continually grow who you are. As you become more, you are able to add more value to everyone you touch. When you are on the path of creating the relationships that are going to make your life mean something and support your state of happiness. It is wise to give them the gift of your consistent dedication to personal development and on-going growth.

Grow into Someone of Value

This is the greatest gift you can offer to anyone, because as you become more, as you expand and grow; you become a more valuable friend or relative. You bring more to the relationship. I believe in the adage of “I will take the best possible care of me and you take the best possible care of you, so that we are both better people who can take better care of each other”.

Stop allowing yourself to hide behind the false walls that you have created around yourself. The walls that make you believe that you must pursue money before you can discover happiness. Anything you pursue will always elude you. The walls that you think will keep the unhappiness your current circumstances are causing you are the very same walls, which are keeping you trapped in mediocrity. Until you break down these artificial walls, which you have created as a barrier to anything breaking into your self-imposed comfort zone. An artificial barrier will always hold you away from your potential, block out the joy you deserve and most certainly keep the money you desire from flowing to you. You will continue to live an unfulfilled and empty life.

Break the bonds right now and allow yourself to begin to soar toward your joy and unlimited potential. All that is required is a small shift in the way you view things and the way you do things and you will almost immediately begin to see the most remarkable things manifest in your life. You have so much to gain and nothing to lose but frustration and dissatisfaction. Pull the trigger and let your true authentic self-free, allow yourself to become the person you see in your dreams.

Author: Inspirational Speakers Andrew Horton

http://www.andrewhorton.co.za

Is Rejection Real or Not?

One of our greatest fears and the reason most people do not ask the questions they need to ask in order to succeed, is our irrational fear of rejection. We are so terrified by the prospect of someone not accepting our request, that in most cases the most important questions go unasked. This leaves us trapped in lives, which may be less than satisfying. Yet the prospect of asking someone, who we know could mentor us and support our growth, is so daunting, that we never ask the question.

For me not asking the question is the worst kind of rejection possible, you are in effect rejecting yourself and telling yourself that you are not worthy. This belief that you are unworthy and that the person you have identified as a possible mentor for you, would not be willing to support you, is due to your consistent negative self-talk and doubt. You start every day with a pocket full of possible choices. You can choose to hold positive beliefs and think positive thoughts or you can waste your day thinking and believing negative thoughts

.

The best analogy I know, to describe this irrational behaviour, where we have the choice to choose positive thoughts, which will uplift and support us, over negative thoughts, which limit and restrict our potential. Is the story of the person who is given a million dollars and sent to a shopping centre to buy fittings and furniture for an apartment.

On arriving at the first store, they look around and see the most hideous lamps for sale. After asking the price they are told they are $ 100 000 each. They hate them, but still buy two and ask for them to be delivered. On walking into the next store they see a painting, they hate, which matches the lamps they have just bought, so they enquire about the price. The sales person tells them that it costs $ 200 000. Hating the painting more than the lamps, they ask them to wrap and deliver it.

That sounds like a really ridiculous story doesn’t it. Well choosing to run your life by choosing only negative thoughts and holding negative beliefs about yourself is as ridiculous. If you would never buy two lamps and a painting you hate and ask for them to be delivered to your home, then why do you allow yourself to think negative, damaging thoughts, which restrict and limit your potential? Asking for these to be delivered every day as the foundation for creating your future?

The type of thoughts you choose to think is always a choice. Are you going to make better choices from this moment on and no longer allow your mind to walk down the path of negativity? You get to choose, stop inviting negative thoughts, which you do not want, to be delivered throughout your day. Start to make wiser choices and invite only positive thoughts to be delivered throughout your day. Positive thoughts uplift and empower you, whilst negative thoughts restrict and limit you.

Getting back to the concept of rejection, I do not believe that there is such a thing as rejection. Before you ask a question, you do not have what you want. If the person declines your request you still do not have what you wanted, nothing has changed. If however you ask a question and the person accepts your request. Then things change, now you have what you wanted; now things are different. There is therefore no such thing as rejection, which is one of our greatest fears; there is only acceptance and support.

Action Idea: Explore your world and find all those questions, which have gone unasked. Make a list of all these questions and armed with the knowledge that there is no such thing as rejection, only acceptance and support. Begin to approach all the people on your list and ask them the questions you know will accelerate you success. What have you got to lose?

Author: Andrew Horton Inspirational Speakers

http://www.andrewhorton.co.za

Building Meaningful Networks – Means You Won’t Need to Succeed Alone

We all have gifts and amazing natural strengths in certain areas of our lives, yet no matter how well we may perform in these areas. There are still parts of our lives where we need support and are not very adept or strong. These areas where we have weaknesses cause us to reach a chasm in our lives or businesses, where we are unable to proceed without the support of someone else. Identifying people with whom we can form mutually beneficial relations, who can assist us and whom we can support or help get what they want in return. Will accelerate our daily progress and help us achieve our goals.

Identifying and connecting with the right people, with whom you can form meaningful connection, is one of the main reasons for building a successful, mutually supportive network. Trying to build a successful business, without building a supportive network, using face to face networking events or the various Social Media platforms as tools to support your efforts, is like carrying a heavy suitcase without wheels at the airport. You very quickly feel tired and overwhelmed.

Creating an effective networking platform of mutually supportive people, who really connect and can depend on each other for support, is like walking at the airport along one of those travelators, with a perfectly balanced suitcase on wheels. You have momentum and quickly reach your destination. The same is true when you engage in effective networking and you form meaningful, mutual beneficial connection with the right people. You support each other and accelerate each other’s success.

The support you get from an effective, carefully chosen support network will make succeeding in both your personal and business lives feel effortless. It will feel like you have a travelator under your feet, speeding you along the path of success. Mutually beneficial connection with the right people is the catalyst, which will accelerate your ability to achieve all your goals and dreams.

Meaningful Relationships

The Dunbar 150 theory states that we can only realistically have 150 meaningful relationships at any one time. The average Facebook user has around 130 friends. So this theory seems to hold true even with social media. This means that even though you may have built huge networks of connections via your social media platforms, you will only ever be able to communicate with these individuals on a daily basis; you will never be able to form any type of meaningful connection with them.

Oprah Winfrey, Donald Trump and Richard Branson have revealed in their biographies that their incredible success was supported and accelerated by about one to two dozen people. Your life is no different; the energy you are wasting on attempting to build meaningful connection with thousands of people via your various social media platforms is wasted. You would be far better off using your social media presence to support your networking efforts, where you can form meaningful connection with a smaller group of targeted individuals.

There are some opportunities that will come from communicating with a broader base of individuals via social media. You get to consistently communicate with a huge spectrum of different individuals. This opens up possibility and people, who you did not even think were potential connections, may contact you to connect. This has happened to me on a few occasions over the past few years.

In October last year I was contacted by someone from Dallas Texas to come over to the US and speak. I had never thought of going to Dallas, it was not even on my radar. The gentleman in question had been following my daily quotes for about eight months. He enjoyed my work and having seen the consistent quality of work I could produce, he wanted to see me speak in Dallas. I have enjoyed a couple of these windfalls over the past few years. I must however state that these have all been great experiences, but have contributed very little to the overall growth in my business. The consistent growth in my business has come from identifying targeted individuals within carefully chosen organisations and then building connection with them.

The very nature of social media offers us the opportunity to have thousands of connections. These connections open doors, which may have never opened, had we not had these connections. I must however state that if you are basing your entire marketing and networking strategy on building connection with thousands of strangers and then hoping they are going to contact you. You are going to struggle to get your business to grow.

Communicating with thousands of strangers via your social media platforms and then waiting for them to contact you, is like waiting to win the lottery before you become successful. Yes people do win the lottery, but the odds are really stacked against you. Use a strategy of consistently communicating to a wide base of people via your social media platforms to create awareness of who you are, build the perception of a huge presence in the market, create the perception in the market that you are an expert and in the rare case, to get people to contact you and do business with you.

There are many ways to expand the number of superficial connections you have. To get the maximum benefit from this part of your networking and marketing strategy, you can use some really powerful CRM software to assist you. By using customer relationship software it is possible to effectively connect with significantly more people. Your CRM software when managed properly will help you to keep track of your extensive network and to more effectively communicate with them. They by no means are a substitute for real face to face contact and relationship building. There are great tools available like Gist.com, rapportive.com and plaxo.com that make managing your social networks easier and more streamlined.

Treat everyone you meet like a VIP.

It is clear from everything stated above, that building a successful business is about developing meaningful connection with a targeted group of individuals. All other strategies are supplemental to this and in effect only support your efforts to connect with the right people. When you meet the right people, either via social media platforms or face to face networking events, ensure that you have their express permission before you add them to any mailing list or newsletter. You will very quickly alienate people if you follow this reckless strategy.

You build meaningful relationships by making people feel special

It is crucial that you take a real interest in everyone you meet and that you strive to treat them as VIP’s. Always try to go the extra mile by glancing at their bio on LinkedIn, Facebook or twitter, before going to any meeting with them. It is always great to have something to comment to people about when you meet them. Things like, it is great to meet a fellow engineer etc. will stand you in good stead to start a conversation and eventually develop meaningful connection with them. Even better would be to have an understanding of their interests or hobbies. People love to speak about their interests and will readily connect with you, if you have researched them and know a little about their background.

There is one word people love to hear more than any other, their name. Use people first names as often as realistically possible in any communication with them. This applies whether you are speaking to them in person or if you are communicating with them via email or on any of the social media sites. By using the sweetest sounding word in their vocabulary will build great rapport with everyone you interact with. Please make sure that you pronounce and spell people’s names correctly.

Connection is Crucial

Get out of the idea that you must always be in broadcast mode. This applies at face to face networking events and on your social media platforms. No one likes to interact with people that only push content or information one way. Respond to as many people within your social media network as possible. I try to comment on at least 3 targeted people’s blogs every day communicate with 5 targeted people on Facebook every day and join one or two targeted twitter conversations a day.

Strive to be someone, who always adds value to everyone around you, who helps and connects with people daily. Someone with whom people can connect to with confidence, form mutually beneficial relationships with, which will serve both parties, leaving everyone better off after making the connection. Successful networking either face to face or via social media is all about looking for ways to connect with and support other people. Always try to contribute as much as possible to the people in your network and they will return the favour.

These contributions must never be made with a hidden agenda. You must be completely transparent when supporting people in your network; people will know when you are not being authentic. As you build your social equity you will attract the right type of people into your network. The law of reciprocity will most certainly be activated and you will form great long term sustainable relationships with people that matter

http://www.andrewhorton.co.za

Social Media Has Not Changed Business Fundamentals

Using social media as a powerful networking and marketing tool does not mean that basic business practices don’t count any more. Quite the contrary, any business that wants to carry out effective networking or marketing strategies on any of the new social media platforms, must follow some basic principles first. The first and most basic step is to first get to know who you target market is. This will give you the information you need; so that you can discover where to start searching on the various social media platforms to find your prospects.

Social media has not changed the way we think, or make buying decisions; it has just given us an incredible medium for researching, communicating and connecting with potential clients. We still need to identify which businesses we want to do business with, i.e. prospects that require our products or services and then we need to identify the individuals within those organisations, to connect and build mutually beneficial relationships with.

The business basics have not changed and if you want to enjoy great success with your social media networking and marketing strategy, it is crucial that the basics are in place first. Know who your target market is, what businesses within that market are the most likely to purchase your products and services and then drill down into those businesses and discover the decision makers within each business. Once you know who these people are, you must use the tools I have described below to research and connect with these people.

As soon as you are connected with the right people on your social media platforms, it is easy to begin forming mutually beneficial relationships with them, by consistently posting valuable information, which is useful to them, commenting on their posts or blogs, sending them birthday cards, targeted information about their hobbies etc. Your computer guru can help you to pull all the information you need regarding birthdays, hobbies, sporting interests, family etc. to help you to get as much background info on your prospective clients as possible.

The more you can consistently connect with your prospects and add value in a non-business sense, the sooner they will get to know, like and trust you. As you know all buying decisions are made using the emotions, so once you have established real connection with anyone, they will buy from you.

Action Idea: Set aside an hour each day for the next week. Take your prospect list and research each one of them in turn using Google, LinkedIn, Facebook and twitter and see how much personal information you can discover on each of them. You will astound yourself how much background information you can discover using this methodology.

I was bidding for a 12 month road show with a labour broker and was up against some really stiff competition. My offering was equal to any of the other bidders and as such I had to pull out all the stops to win this one. I researched the individuals that would be making the final decision about who would run the road show, using Google, Facebook and LinkedIn and discovered that the CEO was a keen motor cyclist. I discovered this by looking at his pictures on his Facebook page. There was a picture of him standing next to his motor cycle in Cape Town, after completing a trip from Johannesburg to Cape Town.

I immediately connected with the C.E.O via Facebook and LinkedIn. I commented on the Photos of the ride to Cape Town and sent him some information on similar rides, which were coming up. We started to communicate regarding motor cycles and very quickly connected. I discovered that he did not own his own motorcycle, but that he hired one every time he did a motor cycle tour. I researched various options on motor cycle hire and sent him a few competitive quotes on hiring motor cycles. He was delighted as he was planning another tour and my efforts had saved him a significant amount of money.

I am a keen motorcyclist myself and breaking with my usual tradition, of wearing a suite to any meeting, I went on my motor cycle, dressed in my motorcycle gear. I walked into the meeting, where we spent an hour discussing motor cycles, never mentioned the contract. I walked out of the meeting with the contract. I still do regular business with this company.

Social media can be a really powerful research tool and a wonderful medium to communicate with people, who you want to connect with. It gives a means of discovering a whole lot of non-business related things to assist in building meaningful connection with people. Get anyone to know like and trust you and doing business becomes simple, profitable and sustainable.

Some of the tools, which will help you to research and discover how to connect with the right people on the various social media platforms, are listed below:

1.    The most obvious place to start is always Google. It is astounding how much information is available via his search platform.

2.    The searches on Facebook are also really powerful. Facebook is always my second port of call when doing any research.

3.    Twellow.com is a great tool to find twitter users by means of some carefully selected key words in their bio, category or location. This will allow you to find people that are aligned with the vision of your business.

4.    LinkedIn is also a great resource. As a free user you can carry out a number of useful searches that will help you to find and connect with the right people. You can upgrade you Linked in account, which will give you access to a number of very useful tools that will help you find the right people to network and connect with.

5.    Identifying and joining LinkedIn groups is also a great way to identify and connect with the right people.

6.    Use search.twitter.com to search for conversations that are relevant to your goals. You can then join these conversations. Contribute real value to the conversation and you will appear real and honest. You will become someone that they will want connect with.

Make sure that you have all your social media profiles printed on the back of your business cards. This makes it far easier for people you meet to continue the conversation with you after the event. Ensure that you have an up to date photograph on your business card so that people can easily identify you on the various social media sites.

All these strategies will help you to connect with the right people, regularly communicate with them and ultimately get them to know like and trust you.. This connection will be the catalyst for you to turn your networking and marketing efforts into sustained online networking and meaningful connection.

Social Media Helps Communication and Connection

I am sure that you are like me and that you meet really important people, who can help and support you. The challenge we all face is finding and making the time to actually turn these relationships into mutually beneficial long term connections. We get so wrapped up in our busy lives that we never find time to do what we know is really important. If we want to finally become super achievers, we need to invest time to build connections with all the people that matter. People with whom we can form mutually beneficial relationships with, who will support our vision and help us achieve our goals.

After meeting someone either at a networking event or via any other forum, it is crucial to maintain the momentum and to build connection with them as soon as possible. Social media offers you a really great opportunity to maintain and develop these relationships. As soon as you return to your office after any networking event, immediately send connection requests to all the people that you want to stay in contact with. Have system in place that reminds you when they accept your request and immediately send them a thank you for connecting. Continue communicating with these people and discover ways that you can help them with a hobby or challenge they are facing. Keep sending out useful information over your social media platforms, comment on their post, blogs etc. and allow the relationship to percolate and develop. This connection can be the catalyst for you to turn in person networking into sustained online networking and meaningful connection.

I have devised a simple weekly strategy where I plan to do the following each week:

1) Meet in person for a drink or lunch with three important contacts. This is planned and scheduled each Friday afternoon.

2) Connect with 15 important contacts via the internet. This can be a comment on their blog, a targeted email or via their social media platform.

3) I send a gift to one important person. This is not a gift because I feel obliged, it is a carefully thought out gift with meaning. The recipient is always really pleased with the unexpected gift and they will feel more connected with you after receiving it.

Social media has not changed how we think, but it has most certainly changed how we can connect and communicate. The sooner you start using social media in your business, the sooner you will get to share in the abundant fruit that hangs from the social media tree of success.

http://www.andrewhorton.co.za

Has Technology Changed The Fundamentals of Networking?

Effective networking has been one of the cornerstones of building great businesses, since the dawn of time. Before the explosion of social Media it was a pretty simple process and was conducted face to face, at events designed to build relationships and meaningful connections.

All the new social media options available today have completely changed the game, and presented us with a myriad of new ways of opening doors. This new form of media presents us with a number of innovative options for identifying and finding the right people to connect with, allowing us to become far more effective with our networking and marketing activities. All these changes are affecting not only the way we connect, but also the pace and scope of the connections we are able to make in a very short space of time.

These changes have seen a massive paradigm shift in how we function, communicate and do business, both online and offline. It has now become more important than ever to be highly versed in the art of effective networking. Building quality relationships and making real meaningful connections is still important. But the new high tech methods of networking have now made it far easier to find the right people to connect with and the process of making contact with them is far more streamlined.

No matter how technologically advanced we get; it will always be human beings that will make the final decisions. The principles of networking will always apply. The more people you really connect with and the more people you can offer mutually beneficial opportunities to, the better and more effective will be your network. Technology is not changing this it is just changing how we get to make these connections.

The internet and social media have changed the networking and marketing playing field forever. You can now be sitting in your bedroom at 3 am in the morning communicating with someone anywhere in the world. Technology has turned us into a completely 24 hour society, where different time zones are virtually irrelevant. If you are willing and able to put in the effort, you can connect with anyone, anywhere at any time.

The trick to use this amazing new technology effectively is to carefully select the right people to connect with on the three main social media networks, namely LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. Over time keep adding real meaningful value to your network by posting useful information, which will serve your social networking community, without directly trying to sell anything or promote your product or services. As you keep posting relevant, valuable and useful information on your social media networks, you will gradually be viewed as a subject or industry expert.

I post inspirational and educational articles and quotations every day on all my social networks. It has taken me about 18 months of consistently posting relevant material, which is viewed as valuable by my network, for me to be viewed as an expert in the field of human behaviour and expanded awareness. This status has resulted in a number of the people in my network contacting me to facilitate Key Note addresses or workshops at their respective businesses. You can do the same for your business if you post relevant material daily, which will be of real value and have relevance and meaning to your social network.

Never try to promote yourself directly on any social media site. As soon as anyone in your network feels that you are directly promoting your products or services via any social media channel, they will immediately stop following your work and will leave your network. The trick is to invest time into posting great material every day, which is of value to everyone in your network and then to wait for them to contact you. I know this seems counter intuitive.

The reality is that your social media network is no different to any networking meeting that you attend. When you attend any networking event, you work to build connection with the right people, so that you can build mutually beneficial relationships with them. This helps you ensure that over time they get to know like and trust you. Building trust and connection is a process it is not an event. It takes time and effort to develop a mutually beneficial relationship with anyone. This relationship you are attempting to build, results in both parties benefitting, you provide solutions to satisfy their needs and they purchase your products or services.

If you attend any networking meeting where you stand on your sales platform, trying to tell everyone how wonderful your products or services are. Everyone at the meeting will give you a wide berth and avoid you all together. The same is true for your social media strategy. Never try to sell anything on your social media platforms. Invest time to build connection with the right people and over time you will have created one of the most powerful networking and marketing systems possible.

Building your network and consistently posting valuable material takes time and effort. It can be a very challenging thing to do, as it can take quite a while before the people in your network learn to know, like and trust you enough to want to do business with you. The trick is to be consistent and post great material at minimum twice a week. You cannot just occasionally dip your toes into the social media pond and expect to get results. Consistency and relevance are the two bookends of a great social media strategy.

Once anyone that is interested in doing business with you, makes contact, take the conversation off the social media forum and continue the interaction via email, texting, telephone or face to face meetings. Once someone in your network has shown an interest in your services, they have been following your work for a while and over time have grown to view you as an expert. They already know like and trust you, so all that is left for you to do, is to convince them that you are indeed capable of delivering on your promises.

The quantity of unsolicited emails, messages and advertising messages we are exposed to every day, has made people detest spam. Anyone that uses this as a means to try to communicate their marketing message will very quickly alienate prospects. Never ever send out a bulk non personal email that has no soul or meaning to the recipient. This spray and pray strategy does far more harm than good. People are so overwhelmed with emails and information, that when they receive unsolicited messages they actually get turned off by the sender of these messages. The only way to use email marketing effectively is to use a carefully targeted and focused strategy, which includes targeted marketing, one on one scaling and personal, meaningful messages.

We live in such a now world, with instant popcorn, microwaves and instant everything that we expect networking to be instant too. Nothing could be further from the truth. Building relationships and connecting with people takes time. Your social media strategy is no different. The only way to succeed with your social media strategy is to accept that building connection with the right people will take time and effort. You need to be patient and measure your progress weekly to see what impact your strategy is having. Your computer guru, can very easily send you weekly reports on the activity on all your social media sites.

The trick to ensure that you connect with the right people is to follow basic business principals. First identify who you ideal client is by identifying specific demographic, psychographic and emotive characteristics, which your perfect client should possess. Once you have identified who your ideal client is.  The next step is to search via Google, Facebook, and LinkedIn to identify exactly which business you want to connect with. Once you have identified the businesses you want to do business with, next search for the individuals within those organisations. These are the people you want to build connection with.

Many people have missed the point of an effective social media strategy and they have attempted to connect with thousands of people on their social media platforms. Very often these people are not interested in your product or service and will find no value in your postings. A superficial connection with thousands of people is of little or no value. To become really successful and turn yourself into a super achiever requires searching for the right people to connect with. Identifying the ones that you feel will contribute to your future success. Then developing a focused strategy to communicate with and build long term connections with these people.

Next begin to write articles that will be of service to your social media network. Each week view the reports from your computer guru and see what type of articles or posts get the best response. Over time keep polishing your posts until you consistently get good responses and positive feedback from your network. The more often you measure your performance and massage your message, the better the final result of your social media campaign will be.

The art of connecting, referring, helping people and sharing information about products and services has not changed. Networking remains a mutually beneficial process where people share ideas, leads, information, resources and support each other. None of these universal truths has changed. The main thing technology has changed is the pace of discovering the right people to connect with and number of contacts we can make in a very short space of time has grown exponentially. Social media has not changed the fundamental business principals, people still buy from people they know, like and trust.

Author: Andrew Horton Inspirational Speakers

http://www.andrewhorton.co.za

How Are you Doing So Far in 2012?

As the first month of 2012 draws to a close, how are you doing with turning this into your best year ever? If the results you have managed to achieve to date are less than satisfactory, there is only one barrier that is standing in your way and stopping you from accomplishing every wildly ambitious dream or goal you have for 2012. Let me give you a hint. It is the most useful piece of equipment you own, which unfortunately does not come with an operator’s manual and it is situated above your neck, between your ears.

It is your own mind, which is preventing you from succeeding. Therefore the place to start, to ensure that the next 11 months turns out better than the first month, is to get your head straight. It is time to stop filling your head with negative thoughts and doubts and to develop a “Super Achievers Positive Attitude” This is a mind-set, where you have the mental fortitude and discipline to take the daily actions, push yourself through and overcome the inevitable challenges and difficulties that will cross your path on your success journey.

Discovering and living according to your higher purpose is the ultimate goal for any super achiever, but as getting to this place is a process. It requires discipline and willpower to keep taking those actions, growing and becoming, until you reach a place where you are completely aligned with your purpose. It may require some gruelling or even painful work to move you down the path to uncover, define and refine your purpose and then create your vision for the future. It is your “Super Achievers Positive Attitude” that will ultimately empower you to keep going, even when things seem really tough or challenging.

This never die attitude and positive mind-set is what you need to develop, so that you have what it takes to push through the inevitable challenges, which will cross your path. I am a great believer in guiding your efforts and supporting your attitude and beliefs, with positive affirmations, creative visualisations, meditation, vision boards etc. All of these tools offer great support to your efforts, but nothing can ever substitute for commitment, daily discipline and willpower, to ensure that you remain focused and driven to take the daily goal specific actions you need to succeed. Developing your “Super Achievers Positive Attitude” is one of the most crucial steps on your journey toward living according to your highest purpose.

Once you have travelled the path of discovery and you are aligned with your Purpose. You are living in a place where you do what you love and you love what you do. You no longer need discipline to carry out the tasks you need to do every day, because they inspire you. The challenge you need to overcome, to reach this place, is to ensure that you have the drive and willpower to keep going until you reach this point in your life.

We all love to hear about the easy way to discover success and look around our environments, where we see what we perceive as overnight successes. People that have burst onto the scene, who appeared to have come from nowhere and are now enjoying the success we desire and we want to believe the same is possible for us.

The instant world we inhabit, where we have micro wave ovens, instant popcorn and the illusion that these people have enjoyed overnight success, reinforces this illusion. The reality of all of these apparent overnight successes, where they are living their purpose, is that they have invested many hours into doing the things they did not enjoy doing, worked long hours and did the uncomfortable, until they became the kind of people they needed to be to attract the success they desired.

Your “Super Achievers Positive Attitude” is the drive you need to discover, which will help you to take those daily actions, even when other things seem more appealing, read those books, when entertainment seems like a better option or to work long hours, when giving up feels like an easier choice. There is magic all around you and my experience shows that when you have the discipline to do what may seem uncomfortable at times. Incredible things, way beyond what even you thought possible, will begin to manifest in your life.

The secret to start this magic flowing is to stop coasting through life and to begin creating. You cannot create anything sitting slouched in front of your TV every night or visiting happy hour on the way home from work every day. You can only start the magic flowing if you get off your butt, do the work and put yourself in the path of success.

Author: Andrew Horton Inspirational Speakers

http://www.andrewhorton.co.za

Vision is an Expression of Your Purpose

Our goals are no more than an organised expression of our dreams. So to convert your dreams into your future reality, you must constantly keep defining and refining them and organising them into achievable goals. This process will ensure that you keep polishing your dreams so that you can create a clear system to create future you desire. The way you convert your dreams into your goals must feel realistic, achievable and something that will inspire you to take action daily. The secret to turn your dreams into reality is to create a set of goals that are completely aligned with your vision of the future.

Ensure that the goals you set are indeed what you really want and that when you achieve them, they will deliver on your concept of what success really means to you. You will know when your goals are aligned with your highest purpose, when you can’t wait to get up in the morning to carry out your goal activities. This is a fantastic place to be where you are living your dreams and love what you do. If you still find yourself procrastinating or avoiding doing the goal activities you need to do each day, you have still not discovered or refined and defined your higher purpose enough.

One of the most limiting factors in your life is living a life that is clouded by the illusion, where you do not recognise your true power and magnificence. You limit your true potential because you live according to a belief that you “have to do something”, that “you should do something” or “you need to do something” rather than discovering that something that you “love to do”. You are on this planet to realise all those magnificent dreams and live a fulfilling life, where you live according to your higher purpose and are directed by your vision and mission. You can only achieve this when you are authentic and honest with yourself, allowing yourself to do what you love and love what you do.

It can really be a scary place when you realise for the first time that you are 100 % in control of your life and the outcomes you get to enjoy. It is far easier to be guided by the outside world where you can apportion blame to everything around you for your lack of progress. Rather than accepting that if you are guided from within, you are 100 % responsible for how your life turns out. The wonderful truth of being human is that we have freedom of choice. It is up to us to decide, whether we unlock our higher purpose and then to use this power to create the life of our dreams.

We all live our lives led by a set of evolving priorities and values and every decision we make is guided by whatever is highest on our value list or what has the most meaning or importance at that time. Whatever is highest on your priority list and the thing that gets most of your focus and energy is where you place the highest value. So until you unlock your true purpose and align your priorities to deliver on this purpose, you will continue to place a higher value on doing all the day to day activities you need to do to survive and you will remain trapped in an unsatisfactory life.

The key to unveiling and unlocking the apparent mystery, which is your highest purpose, is to look at all the clues your life is offering you every day and see what your life shows is truly most important to you and you love doing. Your life demonstrates your purpose daily, the things you love doing, the heroes that inspire you, the thoughts you think, the way you spend your leisure time and the way you fill your space, are all clues about your purpose. Pay closer attention to everything around you and you will quickly discover your purpose.

Determine what is truly important to you and what you love doing and you have unlocked your purpose. Keep refining and defining this until you have a clear picture of exactly what your purpose is. You will know when this happens, you wake up every day, excited about your day and you love taking action to realise all your goals. Understanding and living according to your highest purpose is a process, never an event. So do not expect a huge fanfare when you are aligned with your purpose, it is just a place of grace, a deep knowing and contentment where you do what you love and love what you do.

Author: Andrew Horton Inspirational Speakers

http://www.andrewhorton.co.za

Building Dream Teams Today

If the leadership within any organisation wants to leverage the most from everyone within their operation, they must realise that the individuals within each of their teams, is the most valuable assets their company has. The greatest value can only be realised from each team member, if there is sufficient investment made, into converting all the existing and new individuals into passionate, productive contributors, who add real value to the team’s business synergy.

This may sound harsh, but if any existing or new team member, receives all the support possible, yet refuses to change and become a valuable contributor to the team, then it is imperative that the you as the leadership has the foresight to assess this as soon as possible and then you must have the courage and fortitude to replace these individuals with new members that are more suitable to the team dynamic. These are really tough choices to make, but are sometimes the only option available if you want to develop and attract the right calibre of people that will meet your team’s needs, performance criterion and team dynamic. One rotten apple in a barrel of perfectly fresh apples will soon cause the entire barrel to start to rot.

As you build, support and invest into creating a team of passionate, productive and driven people with a common objective and vision, you have the makings of a “DREAM TEAM” Each member of the “DREAM TEAM” does not only become a powerful contributor to the overall success of the team, but also gets to really enjoy what they do, thereby gaining richer and deeper career satisfaction along the way.

To leverage the maximum from every individual in each of your teams, it is imperative that each leader is qualified to lead that team. This means that each team leader must be a perfect example of the productivity, passion, drive and results they expect from each individual team member. Who you are speaks volumes, strive to always be the example you would want to follow. Each leader must also have an intricate knowledge of each team member’s strengths, weaknesses, skills and knowledge. This will equip the leader to utilise each team member as effectively as possible and to offer the correct support to help team members develop the correct skills and knowledge.

Action Idea: Invest time to carry out an audit on each team member and carefully assess their strengths and weaknesses. The results that you will enjoy from your teams, is limited by the weakest link in each team, so understand the strengths and weaknesses of each team member. Invest sufficient resources into developing everyone in your teams, so that you can ensure that every one is operating at the required standard necessary to succeed.

The information you gather about the strengths and weaknesses of each individual in your team, must be used wisely to ensure that you always present tasks to each individual’s area of strength. This way you will always get the most from each team member and ensure that each team member is delivering at their full potential.

During the audit, also try to assess if there are any leadership, knowledge or other skills that may need to be improved in your team members, as any lack of skill or knowledge in these areas will dramatically reduce the performance of your team. Ensure that these issues are urgently addressed and corrective action taken immediately to remedy any shortcomings. You cannot ever have a “DREAM TEAM” without people with adequate skill, knowledge and without each team member acting as a great example to every other member.

If you want to be a great leader, who leads a group of inspired and driven members of a “DREAM TEAM”, then have a clear vision that is clearly communicated and understood by all team members, create a safe and supportive environment in your organisation, where you focus on the few leadership basics I have highlighted above and strive to lead your team by example. This will allow your team to become a magnet for top talent and incredible teamwork. The team’s processes will become organic, routine and effortless, allowing the team to work as a synergistic unit to realize all their objectives.

As you grow as an authentic leader, who acknowledges your responsibility toward encouraging real enthusiasm within your team and you strive to help each team member develop a real, sense of pride and self-motivation, where you consistently inspire all your team members with your perfect example, you have created a “DREAM TEAM”.

Author: Andrew Horton Inspirational Speakers

http://www.andrewhorton.co.za

Clarify Your Vision and Have the Courage to Re-invent Yourself

Although there appear to be 365 days in a year, in reality there are only as many days, as you actually make use of. Have the courage to put perceived failures behind you, build on the successes of the previous day and light the flame of possibility, at the dawn of each new day. Decide what type of days help you to be the most efficient and effective, days that leave you feeling the most satisfied and content. Now that you have a crystal clear picture of what works, aspire to create as many days exactly like that as possible

.

You are the creator of your own experience, the greater the clarity you have in your mind about exactly what you want, the greater the possibility for you to create exactly that in your life.

Action Idea: At the end of each day spend a few minutes going back over your day, examine all the things that worked and explore all the experiences that hampered your progress or were less than ideal. Reward yourself for all the experiences that worked and added value to your day, by allowing yourself to feel satisfied and content. Now actively build them into the following day, by visualising the next day running flawlessly, filled with all these positive outcomes. Learn as much as you can from any negative experiences and actively file that knowledge away, for use should you encounter a similar challenge in the future.

Now that you have a clear picture of how you want each day to unfold and you are actively working to create better and better days, as each month and year unfolds. Begin to process of re-inventing yourself and start creating the future you desire, day by day.

Start this process by answering the few questions listed below and see if you are living the life you really want. This is the first step to identify what you really want and desire.

·         If you won twenty million dollars today, would you change anything or everything in your life?

·         What would you change?

·         If you would immediately change almost everything in your life, if you won all that money, why are you not doing anything about making those changes in your life right now?

·         Why are you allowing yourself to live an unfulfilled life of dissatisfaction?

If these questions have highlighted the fact that you are living a life which is less than ideal, you are not alone.  In my experience, only a very small percentage of people actually get to live the life of their dreams. The rest, allow themselves to remain trapped in unhappy, empty lives, stuck on the hamster wheel of discontentment.

I speak from experience, since I lived the first 35 years of my life trapped in a cycle of unfulfilling careers and relationships. Although I always managed to generate great income, I never really created any meaningful level of sustainable wealth, even though, I’ve owned and operated several very successful yet diverse businesses over the years, in many different sectors, from conferencing/tourism to engineering and manufacturing.

None of these careers offered me any real satisfaction; I was involved in all of them for the wrong reasons. It was only when I finally decided to begin following my dream to become a professional speaker, who writes, researches and travels the planet, teaching and helping other people how to realise their full potential, that I began to feel fulfilled and content.

Rediscover the natural curiosity you exhibited as a child and become an ACTIVE LEARNER. This opens up a world of possibilities for you, prepares you to fully exploit opportunities and continually expands your body of knowledge. Top this off with longer and a better quality of life where you create you future experience day by day and you have the makings of a great and meaningful future.

I want to offer you a few of the tools and techniques I’ve learnt over the years, which helped me to make the shift, necessary to begin making the positive changes I needed to create a life where I am now financially independent and completely fulfilled. These tools and techniques are based on common sense and when consistently applied in your life, will allow you to gradually make the shift toward creating a satisfying life, which excites and invigorates you.

Action Idea: Allow your mind the time it needs to reveal the treasure box of ideas, inspirations and insights that lie hidden in your subconscious, by thoroughly examining your unique concept of success, until the vast panorama of possible options becomes clear to you. Reach deep inside yourself and uncover the resources, wisdom and conviction that will allow you to step outside your comfort zone. For it is here that you will begin to explore new territory and discover all the options that are currently hidden from you. 

The first answers that come to you are little more than ingrained regurgitations of your trained patterns of thought. Learn the art of staying with any question until you have explored it thoroughly and allowed your brain the freedom to reveal as many alternatives as possible. This allows you time to search through those billions of thoughts that are ricocheting through your brain until the right one comes into view.

After completing this process and finally uncovering exactly what you want, you have completed the first step on your success journey. This crystal clear picture, which is an accurate representation of exactly how you want your future to unfold, equips you with an incredible foundation for creating exactly what you have visualised.

Once you have a meaningful vision, a direction to focus your attention on, you now begin to see everything that comes your way as opportunities to grow and expand. The same event that you previously, viewed as being in your way is now on your way to the success that you desire and could now even be an opportunity filled with potential to help you to grow. Reach deep inside yourself and uncover the resources, wisdom and conviction that will allow you to step outside your comfort zone. For it is here that you will begin to explore new territory and discover many opportunities that are currently hidden from you.

 

Alter Things for the better By Design

This clarity of vision gives you a clear direction to keep following as you travel down the path of excellence.  Next we then build an action plan that will allow you to begin moving toward that outcome. Finally you must commit to apply daily disciplined action, that will ensure you carry out the necessary daily actions required to succeed and then success becomes inevitable. How simple does this process sound. If it is that simple, why do so many people allow themselves to remain trapped in lives of mediocrity which they hate so much? The answer to this question has eluded me for more than 20 years.

Achieving anything you want in your life is one choice and one meaningful decision away. Choose to introduce the simple process described above into your life today and make a decision to carry out the daily disciplined activity necessary to succeed. This will allow you to engage in the miracle process of transforming your life into one of joy, happiness, success and fulfillment.

Never lose sight of the value of patience; it is a really powerful tool in your arsenal of success. It keeps you inspired and persistent, brings greater wisdom and perspective to any challenges and allows you to stay focused and to see difficult, yet worthwhile, projects to completion.

Author: Andrew Horton Inspirational Speakers

http://www.andrewhorton.co.za