If you are lucky enough to have a Tracker Mortgage then do no more. Consider yourself fortunate that you’re “getting your own back” on the banks who were quick to sign people up for these mortgages a number of years ago.

If you have a more traditional Repayment Mortgage, and if your cash flow permits, consider increasing the monthly repayment amount. The banks won’t like you doing this but provided you haven’t formally fixed the interest rate or the repayment amount there’s nothing they can do to stop you. The effect of increasing your repayment will be to reduce the capital sum borrowed quicker, lowering the amount of interest you have to pay back and ultimately shortening the period of the mortgage.

Got a Lump-Sum Recently?

Did you receive a Lump Sum payment recently – perhaps from a golden handshake, redundancy or pension lump sum on retirement? Rather than invest the sum in a low interest bearing Deposit Account consider lowering all your debts and borrowings first. Ensure the car loan, credit cards, mortgage and personal overdraft are paid off first. The reason? The cost of borrowing funds is always higher than the interest the banks will “reward” you with for your savings.

Flexible Friend

Ensure your monthly Credit Card bill is paid off by the due date. Interest is applied to outstanding Credit Card balances which remain outstanding usually at rates upwards of 16-20%. It would be cheaper to use a personal overdraft (usually available at an interest rate of 12.5%) making sure you clear your monthly Credit Card bill.

Do not use your Credit Card to draw out cash from the ATM Cash Dispenser except in extreme emergencies. Most cash dispensed from ATMs using a Credit Card is subject to a separate charge. Once again, try to use your Laser Card or withdraw the cash directly at a bank branch – it’s cheaper.

Join the Diesel Revolution

When you think of a diesel engine, do you still visualise the rattling noisy smoke inducing engines of the 1980’s and 1990’s? Think again. Diesel engines have gone through a revolution in the past five years or so and are much quieter and more efficient than ever before. Top marques like Opel (Ecoflex); Ford (Eco Mode); Volkswagen (Bluemotion) and Toyota (Leanburn) have now developed diesel engines for cars up to their large family saloon category with many of these models qualifying for the Band A Car Tax rate – currently €160 per annum.

Oh, and yes, diesel is not only cheaper to buy at the pumps – it goes much further than petrol and does less harm to the environment.

The Cheque is in the Post

Tucked away quietly in some obscure sections of the Finance Acts over the past few years, the Government has introduced a 50 cent stamp duty on every cheque you write. In addition, your bank will then charge you a further transaction fee for every cheque you write. Overall then, writing each cheque could cost you an additional 75 cent. Consider paying your bills online instead.

Travel Insurance

Going on holidays? Travelling outside the country? Don’t be fooled by the Travel Insurance offered by your travel agent, booking website or airline. Not only will this kind of cover tend to be more expensive, usually the period of insurance is ring-fenced to the time you are actually away. Consider instead a Multi-Trip Travel Insurance policy offered by the VHI (€49 per individual or €95 for a family for a whole year); Allianz (€100 to €110 per family per year); AA Insurances (€100 to €110 per family per year).

Gifts and Inheritances

Thinking of making some large gifts to your family and relations or planning your will? Don’t forget to make clever use of the tax free thresholds – basically the bands free from tax where Gift/Inheritance Tax (Capital Acquisitions Tax) does not apply.

Currently, you can gift or leave €250,000 to each one of your children (including adopted children, step children and certain foster children); €33,208 to each grandchild, brother, sister, niece and nephew and €16,604 to each “stranger in blood” before they will have a penny to pay in tax.

Utilise Your Utilities – Consider the “Big Switch”

There is an ongoing price-war being waged amongst all your utility providers. For most of 2009 and 2010 Bord Gais and Airtricity were quoting prices to provide you with electricity that were on average 17% lower than the ESB; Vodafone O2 Meteor and 3 Mobile are engaged in a constant battle for our mobile phone affections and have you considered looking at charges for your waste removal or satellite TV service? A number of waste and recycling companies have revolutionised thinking about waste removal with the consumer benefitting. Look at those bills and shop around!

A Trip to the Supermarket?

Be on the look out for special offers on sale at your local supermarket. To stimulate sales, many companies are now offering 3 for the price of 2 deals, or offering a larger product for a slightly higher price – Kelloggs cereals are often sold in 750g and 500g boxes with the 750g boxes not costing 50% more than the 500g box for instance.

If you get confused as to which products represent better value, (and let’s face it, it’s easy get very confused in a supermarket especially with kids in tow!), have a look instead at the shelf label – supermarket products are usually expressed on the shelf label in price per kg’s, grams or litres. If you’re genuinely looking for the cheapest deal compare these prices rather than the recommended retail price.

Lookout also for products showing the latest expiry dates especially when it comes to perishable foods.

Talk to your Creditors

“Cash is king” and never did an expression mean so much as it does in the current economic climate. Many businesses are hungry for cash and you would be surprised how much someone you might owe money to might discount what you owe them simply to get your cash and put it to use in their business. I recently “settled” a debt of over €5,500 owing by a client to a plant hire operator who did some work for them for €2,500.

Employ Your Kids

Do you have children over 16? If you do, why not consider employing them in your business. You can pay each child up to €8,250 tax free by using up their own individual Single Persons’ Tax Credit. This might be useful for parents who run their own business and have children at college who help out during the summer months and at Christmas. It’s cheaper than giving them pocket money out of your own pocket (which comes from your own after tax income).

Exercise – It’s Free, Good for You and All the Rage…

Do you really need to take the car on those short journeys? Why not join the many people out exercising nowadays by walking or cycling to work, to the shop, the gym, your friends’ house. It’s free, you’re also doing your bit for the environment, releasing those positive endorphins to keep you ticking over and getting fitter all at the same time.

The Taxman Cometh and the Taxman Taketh Away

Make sure you claim all those Tax Credits you’re entitled to annually. Millions of Euro in Tax Credits go unclaimed each year. Here’s a checklist of the most common –

Maintenance Payments paid to a Former Spouse (if separated)

Employment Expenses (Teachers, Nurses etc)

Deeds of Covenant in favour of persons aged over 65 or incapacitated individuals

Home Carer Credit (Spouse remains at home to mind children, elderly or incapacitated persons)

PAYE Tax Credit

Dependent Relative Tax Credit

Permanent Health/Salary Protection Insurance Premiums

Qualifying Third Level College Fees (Excludes registration and exam fees)

Incapacitated Child Credit

Service Charges (Wheely Bin/Refuse Collection) – Abolished from 01/01/12

Rent Tax Credit (if renting accommodation)

Year of Marriage Review

Donations to Approved Sports Bodies and Charities (Donations over €250 pa)

Health Expenses (Unreimbursed by Health Insurers), including non-routine dental costs,

doctors bills, prescriptions, physiotherapy, MRI scans, orthodontic work etc)

You can claim the Tax Credits each year by submitting a Return of Income form (Form 11 – Self-Employed; Form 12S – Employed Persons and Pensioners) to your local Tax Office. Forms are downloadable from www.revenue.ie

Over 55? Thinking of Retiring?

Property and business values are lower now than they have been for over 5 years. If you are aged over 55 and are thinking of disposing of your business, farm or shares in the family business no Capital Gains Tax will arise if the consideration is less than €750,000. To qualify for the relief you must have held the assets being disposed of for at least 10 years.

It is likely that the Government will reduce this €750,000 threshold over the coming years so now might not be a bad time to consider looking at this.

Grim Reaper

What would happen if you were to die today?

Have you a Will made? Do your dependents know what to do in the event of your untimely and sudden death?

Consider carrying out a review of your financial and legal papers – list where you have kept your policy documents, bank accounts, shares, title deeds to property etc. It never ceases to amaze me the number of people who die whose dependents don’t know where to even start looking for some of these papers – this can prove very costly in additional legal fees, not to mind the delays in getting access to pensions, life policies, bank accounts etc after someone dies.

Get a Second Bank

Are you up to the limit of your sanctioned overdraft or working capital facility? Do you think your business may be left high and dry for working capital if your bank looks at reducing your overdraft limits any further? Consider opening another (non-overdraft) bank account at a different bank. If you reach your overdraft limit with your main bank and you are afraid they will gobble up whatever cash you are lodging why not consider lodging it to the second bank and using it whatever way you need to.

Insure Your Kids…

If you have active kids, particularly those playing a range of sports you might be surprised how difficult it is to make a claim for medical expenses in the event one of them gets seriously injured, loses teeth or requires surgery. The constitution of most sporting clubs prevents members taking an action against them in the event of an injury. One way to combat this is to look at taking out 24 hour pupil cover operated by most primary and secondary schools. For a nominal charge (usually around €8/10 per annum) you can insure your children against the cost of most accidents, including those taking place at home and on the playing field.

Change Your Driving Habits

Have you ever considered how you drive your car? Sudden acceleration, sudden braking, driving in excess of the speed limits are both dangerous – and they cost you money. When driving you should always adopt the motto “easy does it”. Gentle acceleration and braking, staying within the speed limit, making sure your car is serviced when recommended by the manufacturer, correct tyre pressure in your tyres etc – these will all contribute to saving you money.

You should always aim to drive in the highest gear possible at all times. Finally, have you looked in your boot or at your roof-rack? Do you really need to carry around “dead weight” on your car especially on longer journeys?

Shop around for petrol, diesel, tyres, servicing etc. Your loyalty may be costing you money.

Stocks and Shares

Can’t decide between putting your savings into “safe but boring” deposit accounts or investing in a basket of stocks and shares instead? History has shown that since World War 2 stocks and shares have consistently outperformed deposit accounts. While obviously stock markets are subject to much more volatility, risk and market fluctuations than deposit accounts, over a longer time period their returns have proven to be greater. Define the time period of your investment, consider your attitude to risk, get as much advice as you can and invest wisely.

Consider joining an Investment Club and in particular familiarise yourself with the TICN website operated by Owen O’Malley.

Store Credit Schemes

Tempted to buy that new sofa, television or computer advertised before Christmas? If so, don’t buy it using one of the retailers in-house finance schemes. The interest rate you’ll wind up repaying for your purchase will be significant – more even than most standard credit card rates. If you really need to purchase, consider getting an increase in your permitted overdraft limit instead. Keep a very close eye on the APR% rate being quoted before making your purchase.

And finally…

Call it a little bonus if you will. A great source of consumer advice, especially when it comes to people’s money and entitlements, grants, social welfare, tax, medical cards etc is the Government run website – www.citizensinformation.ie. There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t refer to some piece of information in it. It’s easy to navigate, easy to read and directs you to where you can download application forms needed or other relevant websites. Priceless.

Adrian McKenna

Partner

Moore Stephens Patrick McNamara,

Pamdohlen House, Dooradoyle Road,

Limerick

Tel – Office (061) 229666; Fax (061) 302144; Mobile (087) 8463969

E-Mail – amckenna@msmcnamara.ie

Did you know that 95% of people who live to 65 are not

financially independent? Earl Nightingale said this 50 years ago, and despite massive advances in technology and medicine, financial freedom continues to elude the vast majority of us today.

It doesn’t have to be this way.

In order for you to understand why most people struggle  with wealth you need to examine the underlying reasons for this. Simply speaking, most people struggle because:

1. They never make Financial Freedom an absolute ‘must’. For sure, they hope and dream that one day they will be financially free, but hope is a poor strategy.
2. They continue to think like poor people as opposed to rich people. In Connemara it’s said that ‘aithníonn ciaróg ciaróg eile’. Loosely translated this means that ‘birds of a feather flock together’ or ‘like attracts like’. Since time immemorial rich people have thought one way and poor people another.
3. They fail to save money on a consistent basis. It sounds old fashioned but you simply cannot achieve Financial Freedom without saving.
4. They are unaware of what Einstein knew – that ‘compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world’.
5. They have not mastered how to generate sufficient streams of income to populate their Financial Freedom Account.
6. They do not have access to those people who have already achieved Financial Freedom and who can teach them the mindset, the strategies and the skills to do so.

On Thursday April 19th Pádraic Ó Máille and Owen O Malley will give a once off intensive and practical workshop on how to kickstart your journey to Financial Freedom. Join them by calling Sarah on 091 865340 or emailing her at info@omaille.ie

The workshop will take place in the Maldron Hotel, Oranmore, Co. Galway from 2pm-6pm and costs just €30.

You can expect to learn how to:

• Create a step-by-step plan to identify your current Financial reality, your projected future state and the consistent steps you need to take to realise it

• Reset your financial thermostat to attract the income and lifestyle you intend to create.

• Invest money in the stock market and generate rates of compound interest that will propel you towards Financial Freedom more quickly than you ever dreamed possible. These techniques are known by less than 3% of the population and are consistently used by Pádraic and Owen to generate profits for themselves and their clients.

• Turn your computer into an ATM. Seriously, did you know that thanks to the advent of the world wide web you now have a profitable marketplace of some 3 billion people to promote your unique offering to. Right now, I am writing this email from an apartment overlooking the ocean in Lagos in Portugal. Owen simultaneously is helping people from 24 different countries profitably trade the markets from Fanad in North Donegal.

• Network with other successful people who have turned their dreams into reality. Although only 5% of people are financially free at 65 there are people in every town and village in Ireland who have mastered the art of Financial Freedom. Meet some of these people at the event and see for yourself the living testimony of what is possible.

Conclusion:

The great Galway hurler and Coillte employee Noel Lane asks a great question in relation to financial freedom. ‘When is the best time to plant a tree?’ he asks. Many people are duped into replying ‘October or March or on a wet day’. Noels response is ’20 Years ago’. He quickly follows this up with ‘When is the next best day to plant a tree?’.

The answer is ‘TODAY’.

Ring Sara now to reserve your place on this once of a kind workshop. As Tony Robbins once said ‘it’s in your moments of decision that your destiny is shaped’. Make a great decision now by calling Sara at 091 865340 or email her at info@omaille.ie

Your Financial Freedom Forever Friends,

Pádraic Ó Máille and Owen O Malley

‘A bad days fishing nearly always beats a great days working’.

I never once went fishing with retailer par excellence, and current Chairperson of Galway City Business Association, Anthony Ryan without him beginning the day with the above toast. And I couldn’t agree more. Fishing has manifold benefits including:

• It provides you with space to think and plan and create and resolve.
• It gets you in sync with the rhythm of nature that calms you down and rejuvenates your senses.
• It gets you actively back in touch with water which is mostly what you’re made of and is from where you first emerged.
• It appeals to the limbic part of your brain that still triggers a primordial stirring deep within us at the prospect of hunting, and if you’re wise,
• It provides a massively rich metaphor for learning about business and life.

Specifically, what it can teach you about business and life is:

1. Have crystal clear expectations:

People confess to a plethora of diverse expectations preceding the act of fishing. Some are sanguine and expect nothing on the grounds that anything extra is a bonus. Others will expect to return safely – refreshed, reinvigorated and reenergised. More again will expect to catch fish. If your expectation is the latter, and catching fish is your objective, good luck to you but you need to study and assimilate the following.

2. Beware beginners luck.

Many years ago, on a beautifully sunny and calm Sunday in June – conditions that any novice fisher person will tell you are only ideal for courting and getting a tan, but certainly not fishing – I espied a man waving frantically from his boat. Upon reaching him he politely asked me in a strong German accent if I could ‘identify ziss’. He proceeded to hold up a specimen brown trout of some 16 lbs weight. Struggling with reality, I explained to him that in 25 years of fishing I’d never caught anything like that and did he mind if I asked him what bait he caught it on. He  hauled out an ancient child’s fishing rod which was affixed to a battered mackerel spinner that was (nicked good – did you get it) and matter of factly said, ‘ziss’. That poor man continues to fish Lough Corrib in vain every year since. Despite investing a veritable fortune in the best of equipment and studying every conceivable fishing tactic, legitimate and otherwise, from decent to dubious sources, catching fish has eluded him spectacularly.

In a quixotic quirk of fate the same frequently happens in business, particularly in start ups. Business start ups are frequently characterised by a flurry of enthusiasm and progress rapidly and  formidably. This is typically followed by a plateauing of progress, if not regression. I often find a great way to revive a flagging business is to get them to revert to the things they did in the very early days of their business inception.

3. Actually go fishing – J.F.D.I.

There’s infinitely more ‘talking’ done about going fishing than actual fishing itself. The same is typically true in business and all its components of selling, marketing and recruiting.People talk a great talk without ever inciting themselves to walk the talk. One of the great affirmations I learned was from Paul Keyes, who was then Manager of  Dawn Dairies in Galway. At the end of one lengthy team meeting I was attempting to summarise events when I was politely interrupted by Paul who synopsised with aplomb by saying ‘Lads, it’s like this now. Everything we’ve agreed here today can be summarised in four letters – J.F.D.I.’

4. Measure what’s work’s  and what doesn’t.

I enjoyed two short spectacular periods of fishing success in my life punctuated by massive intervening periods of Zero success. One was when I was a kid, the other in my mid twenties. A cursory analysis of both situations reveals a telling success factor for both business and life. On the two occasions when I did regularly win competitions I was in the company of a master – one, my late Uncle Stiofáin, and the other, the legendary Brian Forde.

5. Get around masters.

My favourite business quotation derives from the direct hitting American writer Jim Rohn who once said ‘you are the average of the five people you are surrounded the most of the time’. In every walk of life, superior performance is predicated upon access to people of superior performance. Business, or fishing, are no exceptions. Your choice.

6. Become hypersensitive about safety.

I can recall vividly a typical day off Inchagoill on Lough Corrib in late August 1975. The day had started fresh and sunny but rapidly deteriorated into a vicious squall. My Uncle Stiofáin pulled in to the island to confer with another three fishermen who’d also been caught by the sudden inclemency. As one of the men had taken alarmingly ill, and given that this was years prior to the advent of mobile phones, it was decided that my uncle and I would attempt the hazardous three mile crossing to Oughterard to summon help. To his credit he took the time to check in with my emotional state prior to setting off. He asked me if I had any questions or queries regarding the crossing and how clear was I on how he expected me to perform on the journey. With only the precociousness of a teenager who’d have been much happier chasing girls in Salthill I rose to the drama. ‘What happens if we end up in the water and get drowned?’. After some reflection he said ‘Padraiceen, it’s like this now. No one ever drowned falling in to water. You’ll only ever drown staying there’. Checking my life jacket and the other safety equipment on board he elaborated on a number of courses of action in the event of certain circumstances unfolding.

Jim Collins, in his recent book ‘Great by Choice’ says ‘The winners in our research always assumed that conditions can – and often do – unexpectedly change, violently and fast. They were hypersensitive to changing conditions, continually asking ‘what if?’. By preparing ahead of time, building reserves, maintaining irrationally large amounts of safety and honing their discipline in good times and bad, they handled disruption from a position of strength and flexibility’.

7. Understand that fishing, just like selling, is a numbers game.

I remember the first time I went fishing with Brian Forde. I had just thrown my volcano kettle into the stern cabin when Brian asked me what it was for. ‘That’s to make a grand cup of tea for our breaks and our lunch’ I replied. ‘In  that case you won’t be needing it ’cause we’re going fishing’ he responded amiably yet assertively. I learned a big lesson that day. The best fisher people spend more time on the water.

The same applies to selling. Frank Bettger, the iconic American baseball player was forced to take up selling life insurance after breaking his finger. He was an unmitigated disaster at selling. One day, in desperation he decided to pack it all in and would have too but for the advice of an old selling pro. This man advised Bettger that ‘the business of selling boiled down to one thing ……..seeing the people. Show me any person of ordinary ability, who will enthusiastically tell their story, to four or five people a day, and I’ll show you someone who can’t go wrong’. Bettger would go on to become one of the all-time selling legends and ascribed his success to that one sentence.

8. Go where the fish are.

From as far back as I can remember I got the importance, and ergo the sanctity, of protecting ones preferred fishing location and lure. I can recall one day my uncle landing a glorious 7lb trout dapping a daddy longlegs and a grasshopper in a spot we affectionately called ‘Quinn’s Hole’. At that time a lovely retired English gentleman called Mr. Carberry would sojourn for two weeks each year in a caravan in Birchall. As we approached Birchall my uncle suggested to me, that me being of tender years, Mr. Carberry might prevail upon me to reveal the location of the caught trout. Furthermore, he counselled that I was not  to tell an overt lie. Sure enough, upon our return, Mr. Carberry offered to take me for a spin in his Daimler car. Having plied me with the finest of chocolate and biscuits courtesy of her Majesties Government, he asked me the burning question. ‘Where exactly did you catch the trout?’ I’d been well coached. In my finest Connemara brogue that was so affected that many’s the Connemara man wouldn’t have understood me, I replied, ‘Poll Cúin’, which literally translated means ‘Quinn’s Hole’. The travesty was that Mr. Carberry lost much of the accuracy of the pronunciation in the period between interrogating me and enquiring of the local barmen where this place was.

Woody Allen once played the role of a bank robber in a film and he was asked why he robbed banks. After much reflection he replied ‘Cause that’s where the money is’. The same holds true for fishing and business. Go where the most fish and customers converge.

9. Create irresistible bait.

No two fisher people will ever agree as to the ultimate bait. One thing they are all in accord with however is that it has to ‘present well’.

The same holds true of your first contact point with your customer. Whether that’s your shop window, your foyer, your website, your response on the telephone, your sales letter, your advertisement or your sales people you need to get objective feedback on how seductive your offering is.

10. How do you land a fish once you hook it.

Hooking a fish is but a third of the battle. You need to play it and then successfully net it. Both require specific knowledge, skills and attitude.

So also in selling. Paul Faller, proprietor of Faller’s of Galway, likens closing a sale to fishing. ‘If you fail to show immediate interest in a customer you immediately let them off the hook. By the same token, if you are overly pushy you risk breaking the line and losing the customer forever. The trick is to get the fish on the windward side of the boat so it’ll fall easily in to the net. The same is true in closing. If  the customer senses you’re selling they’ll back off. But, if you can get them wanting to buy, it leads to the two nicest sounds in the world’.  I asked him what they might be and he replied ‘the sound of a reel singing and a cash register humming’.

11. You need a modicum of skill.

My Mother recently went ‘faoin scian’ for the removal of some kidney stones. Being understandably apprehensive about the procedure she sought my reassurance. Upon learning her surgeon was the redoubtable Mr. Denis Quill I instantly put her at ease by regaling her with the following insight. ‘You’ve no worries Ma. I witnessed him at first hand, from the bow of his beloved ‘Lady Mary’ on a lumpy force five westerly wind cast a line of three flies, tie another fly of ‘killer repute’ and guide the boat adroitly over a moving fish – simultaneously. What’s more, when I wiped his eye and got stuck in a lovely two pounder, he netted the fish for me while continuing to fish his line. The kidney stones will be a piece of cake in comparison’. I conveniently neglected to appraise her that scarcely had my trout coloured the floorboards before he’d whipped out his Swiss Army knife and proceeded to fillet the trout in a handful of decisive cuts. Later, on the beautiful island of Insequin, we feasted contentedly on that trout, cooked above an open fire of drift wood and washed down with a stirred and shaken Sancerre.

You don’t need to be a rocket scientist but a modicum of skill is necessary to excel in business also. What areas do you and your team need to up skill in? You could then contact me at Smácht and we’ll happily create a training plan with you! That’s called AFTB – Asking For The Business – and you should do it more often.

12. Have an answer for the price objection.

Speaking of the said Denis Quill, I was shooting the breeze with him one evening in the Corrib Club as he attempted to fix some gadget on his boat. A local mechanic, who had been struggling with the servicing of a troublesome engine (aren’t they all) approached us and said ‘Denis, you and I both do the same thing. We identify parts that aren’t working; take ‘em out; and replace them with new parts. The only difference is that you get paid loads more than me’. After the ubiquitous mature reflection Denis replied, ‘I do it with the engine running’.

‘Quad Erat Demonstrandum’, as Joxer Daly said in a pronounced Dublin accent in ‘Juno and the  Paycock’, know your competitive advantage, your unique selling points and clear reasons why you justify the top price you charge.

Conclusion.

I once asked a group in Nenagh to identify the best time manager in the town. Unanimously they agreed on a participant called Sean Mc Cullough. When I asked them why he impressed them so much, they told me that ‘when he’s fishing he’s fishing; when he’s drinking he’s drinking; and when he’s working he’s working’. No management guru in the world could emulate that for erudition.

Get fishing.

Tight lines.

Pádraic

PS on Thursday next, from 2 to 6, Owen O Malley and I will present ‘Financial Freedom Forever’. Owen is just about the best stocks and Shares Teacher in the world and is worth a fortune to his clients around the world. Watch him as he trades live and will show you a scientific way of creating financial freedom faster than you dreamed possible. Contact Sarah on 091 865340 or email info@omaille.ie

‘Today she met me at the door, said I would have to choose, if I picked up that fishing rod today, she’d be packing all her things and she’d be gone by noon….well I’m gonna miss her when I get home tonight’ – Brad Paisly

If fishing is interfering with your business, give up your business. (Quote by – Alfred W. Miller)

Give a man a fish and he has food for a day; teach him how to fish and you can get rid of him for the entire weekend. (Quote by – Zenna Schaffer)

In the Summer of 2009, brothers Dave and Mike, together with their business partner Fabian, CHOOSE – readers of this blog know that you are always free to CHOOSE – to quit their jobs and do work they were passionate about.

Their first task was to sit down on the steps of Union Square and write down what they wanted to achieve. They called it a ‘Manifesto’ – ‘The Holstee Manifesto’ to be precise. What an infinitely richer word than that impersonal phrase beloved of academics who have achieved little in business call a ‘Business Plan’.

Consider the meaning of the word ‘manifesto’. It derives from the Middle English word ‘manifestus’ meaning ‘visible’ and the Latin word ‘manus’ meaning ‘hand’. ‘Manifest’ therefore is the verb for turning thoughts into things.

What will you manifest today, this week, this year – this lifetime?

A great place to begin would be to create your very own ‘Manifesto’.

Begin by asking ‘Why do we exist?’. If the answer is simply ‘to pay the bills’ you’re in the prostitution business.

Follow that with ‘What’s important to us as a business?’. Think that through from your own perspective, your customers, your employees and your other stakeholders.

Push yourself by asking the great Jim Collins question ‘What can we be the best in the world at?’

Finally declare your minimum standards and live by them.

When Dave and Mike and Fabian sat down on the steps of Union Square a few short years ago to declare their ‘manifesto’ they did so with a positive mindset. Even they however, must have been staggered by the response. 60 million people have now been inspired by the sentiments of this piece of writing.

Isn’t it about time for you to be connecting with 60 million people

All you need is Smácht.

Pádraic

On Thursday April 19th I’m thrilled to say I’m being joined by one of the worlds greatest exponents on making money on the stock Market. Owen O Malley who helps in excess of 25000 people around the world understand the stock exchange will present with me a half day seminar in the Maldron Hotel in Oranmore from 2 to 6pm. It’s called ‘Financial Freedom Forever’ and it will do 3 things.

1. I’ll share with you everything I can about the Harv Eker ‘Millionaire Mind Intensive’ being held in London on April 13,14 and 15. This alone is worth a fortune.
2. Owen will actually trade live at the event and show you how to prepare a financial strategy that could have you financially free in as little as 10 years. This information is only known by 1% of the Irish population.
3. Together we’ll show you how to use your computer as an ATM. Right now, I’m writing this from Lagos in the stunning Algarve. I’m overlooking the Atlantic, listening to the gulls gull and smelling the sweet aroma of Jasmine. What I’m saying dear friends is that there’s a population of 3.2 billion people waiting to be wowed by you online. And you can do that anywhere in the world you’ve access to broadband. Owen is currently helping thousands of people make money on the stock market – not from Frankfurt or New York or Chicago – but from Fanad, where he’s already run 5 miles on the beautiful golden beaches of North Donegal.

It’s only €30. If you’re up to becoming ‘Financially Free Forever’ it might just be the best investment you could make in your future.

Ring Sarah on 091 865340 or email to p@omaille.ie to be one of 50 to share this information.

In deference to my Mother, who scours every screed I write, and to those of you reading my blog for the first time, let me hasten to clarify the precise meaning of the word SHAG. A SHAG is an acronym for a Smácht Hairy Audacious Goal – and everyone of you should have at least one of them before breakfast each morning.

Almost exactly a century ago two men shared a SHAG of gargantuan proportions. Both possessed a mission to become the first humans to travel to the South Pole. For one, it would be a journey to victory and a triumphant and safe return home. For the other, it would be a humiliating defeat of some 34 days culminating after in the subsequent death of all five members of the final expedition team.

Both men were of similar age and experience – 39 and 43. Both began the 1400 mile round trip at the same time. Both faced the same horrendous conditions of sub 40 degree Celsius temperatures compounded by a vicious wind-chill factor perpetuated by storm-force winds. Both had no recourse to any modern appliances of communications such as mobile phones, GPS’, radios or satellite links.

The implications were starkly apparent -  perform or perish. The epic stories of Roald Amundsen a Norwegian, and Robert Falcon Scott, an Englishman, and their contrasting fortunes are massively instructive to all of us who seek to conquer new business vista’s in what is frequently an inhospitable and unforgiving business climate. What were the characteristics that distinguished the careers of these two pioneering leaders.

1. PREPARATION:

Malcolm Gladwell posited in his wonderful book ‘The Tipping Point’ that it takes 10,000 hours – an average of 1000 hours a year – to master any discipline. Coincidentally, Amundsen began his preparation for his expedition to the South Pole in 1899, a full 12 years prior to his departure. Although coming from a strong maritime tradition he was aware that the Spaniards ran the best master’s sailing certificate in the world. He resolved to go to Spain – a journey of some 2000 miles – to complete the two month course. Back in 1899 there was no Scandinavian Airlines or Ryan Air or Aer Arann. So how did he get there?

He cycled.

And when he got there he learned how to navigate and he learned how to assess land formations and he experimented with eating raw dolphin meat. All this learning would prove invaluable many years later.

Not to put too fine a point on it dear readers, find the best training in the world, and pay any price to get to it.

2.  SURROUND YOURSELF WITH PEOPLE WHO’VE WALKED THE WALK:

Amundsen’s next phase of preparation was to apprentice himself with others who were adept at surviving and thriving in extenuating polar conditions. Who better to learn from than Eskimos who had generations of cumulative knowledge in precisely these conditions. Amundsen was a keen and receptive student.

He learned the perils of sweating for both man and beast in this climate. He observed that Eskimos rarely hurried as excessive perspiration can rapidly turn to ice in sub zero temperatures. He learned how to ski in an economical fashion that enabled him to sustain his energy over protracted time periods. Crucially, he reckoned that he would need to have top class cross country skiers on his team.

3.  MAKE DECISIONS ON SOUND EMPIRICAL INFORMATION.

Amundsen’s painstaking research enabled him to make better decisions than Scott. In the first instance, he selected dogs to transport the considerable weight of supplies. Scott choose horses and within days discovered that, unlike dogs, horses perspire on their hide and this constantly freezes. In fact Amundsen had planned on feeding weak dogs to the stronger dogs to eat if conditions had merited it. Horses do not eat meat. Scott also had wagered on using motorised vehicles for transport. Their engines cracked within days of departure meaning that almost from the get go Scott’s team were manhandling enormous weight across undulating terrain. Amundsen, influenced strongly by his experience with the Eskimos choose loose clothing to allow sweat to evaporate.

Amundsen also recruited the world’s finest cross country skier to accompany them on their journey.

Finally, due to his superior understanding of terrain, Amundsen had a 60 mile advantage over his opponent at the start.

4.  BUILD IN CONTINGENCIES TO PREEMT SETBACKS:

There was a massive disparity between how both men made provision for the trip. Amundsen placed black pennants, to contrast against the snow, on his supply depots and left clear markers every quarter of a mile to flag their return trip. Scott failed utterly to learn from Hansel and Grettle leaving only one flag on his primary depot.

Amundsen stored 3 tons of supplies for his team of 5. By contrast Scott had but 1 ton for a team of 17.

Even in terms of vital equipment Amundsen was vastly better prepared. Scott cursed his luck when a thermometer crucial to determining altitude broke. Amundsen critically, had in his possession 4 spares.

5.  MAKE HASTE SLOWLY:

On December 12th 2011, Amundsen noted in his log book ‘Going and surface as good as ever. Weather splendid – calm with sunshine’. What’s significant about this is that Amundsen was only 45 miles from his ultimate destination – the South Pole. At this stage he was unaware if Scott had beaten him or not.

What would you have done in similar circumstances? The temptation would be to go all out and go for it. Not Amundsen. He travelled 17 miles that day. As Jim Collins noted in his excellent book ‘Great by Choice’ ‘Amundsen adhered to a regimen of consistent progress, never going too far in good weather, careful to stay far away from the red line of exhaustion that could leave his team exposed, yet pressing ahead in nasty weather to stay on pace’.

It’s interesting that Scott faced 6 days of gale-force weather and travelled on none. Amundsen, au contraire, was confronted by 15 days of such elements but succeeded in travelling on 8 of those. On one such inclement day, traversing a dangerous mountain pass he noted in his diary ‘It has been an unpleasant day – storm, drift and frostbite, but we have advanced 13 miles closer to our goal’.

On December 15th Amundsen unfurled the Norwegian flag on the South Pole having averaged 15.5 miles per day. What’s equally impressive is that he reached his base camp on January 25th 1912 in great shape and spirits – precisely the day he’d written in his plan.

In summarising the philosophy of Amundsen Jim Collins notes ‘You don’t wait until you’re in an unexpected storm to discover that you need more strength and endurance . You don’t wait until you’re shipwrecked to determine if you can eat raw dolphin. You don’t wait until you’re on the Antarctic Journey to become a superb skier and dog handler. You prepare with intensity, all the time, so that when conditions turn against you, you can draw from a deep reservoir of strength. And equally, you prepare so that when conditions turn in your favour, you can strike hard’.

There’s so much we can learn about business from the contrasting ways Amundsen and Scott prepared for their SHAG.

What great choices will you make this week?

You could begin by reading, and re-reading Jim Collins outstanding book, ‘Great by Choice’. It will be the prescribed reading on all Smácht seminars for April.

Make great choices.

Pádraic

“Life is a succession of lessons which must be lived to be understood.” (Helen Keller)

The title and substance of this blog comes from the wonderful book of the same name by Cherie Carter-Scott. Each year I share it on my seminars and people always request it after. Post it up on your wall or desktop for continual reminding.

Rule One – You will receive a body. Whether you love it or hate it, it’s yours for life, so accept it. What counts is what’s inside.

Rule Two – You will be presented with lessons. Life is a constant learning experience, which every day provides opportunities for you to learn more. These lessons specific to you, and learning them ‘is the key to discovering and fulfilling the meaning and relevance of your own life’.

Rule Three – There are no mistakes, only lessons. Your development towards wisdom is a process of experimentation, trial and error, so it’s inevitable things will not always go to plan or turn out how you’d want. Compassion is the remedy for harsh judgement – of ourselves and others. Forgiveness is not only divine – it’s also ‘the act of erasing an emotional debt’. Behaving ethically, with integrity, and with humour – especially the ability to laugh at yourself and your own mishaps – are central to the perspective that ‘mistakes’ are simply lessons we must learn.

Rule Four – The lesson is repeated until learned. Lessons repeat until learned. What manifest as problems and challenges, irritations and frustrations are more lessons – they will repeat until you see them as such and learn from them. Your own awareness and your ability to change are requisites of executing this rule. Also fundamental is the acceptance that you are not a victim of fate or circumstance – ‘causality’ must be acknowledged; that is to say: things happen to you because of how you are and what you do. To blame anyone or anything else for your misfortunes is an escape and a denial; you yourself are responsible for you, and what happens to you. Patience is required – change doesn’t happen overnight, so give change time to happen.

Rule Five – Learning does not end. While you are alive there are always lessons to be learned. Surrender to the ‘rhythm of life’, don’t struggle against it. Commit to the process of constant learning and change – be humble enough to always acknowledge your own weaknesses, and be flexible enough to adapt from what you may be accustomed to, because rigidity will deny you the freedom of new possibilities.

Rule Six – “There” is no better than “here”. The other side of the hill may be greener than your own, but being there is not the key to endless happiness. Be grateful for and enjoy what you have, and where you are on your journey. Appreciate the abundance of what’s good in your life, rather than measure and amass things that do not actually lead to happiness. Living in the present helps you attain peace.

Rule Seven – Others are only mirrors of you. You love or hate something about another person according to what love or hate about yourself. Be tolerant; accept others as they are, and strive for clarity of self-awareness; strive to truly understand and have an objective perception of your own self, your thoughts and feelings. Negative experiences are opportunities to heal the wounds that you carry. Support others, and by doing so you support yourself. Where you are unable to support others it is a sign that you are not adequately attending to your own needs.

Rule Eight – What you make of your life is up to you. You have all the tools and resources you need. What you do with them is up to you. Take responsibility for yourself. Learn to let go when you cannot change things. Don’t get angry about things – bitter memories clutter your mind. Courage resides in all of us – use it when you need to do what’s right for you. We all possess a strong natural power and adventurous spirit, which you should draw on to embrace what lies ahead.

Rule Nine – Your answers lie inside of you. Trust your instincts and your innermost feelings, whether you hear them as a little voice or a flash of inspiration. Listen to feelings as well as sounds. Look, listen, and trust. Draw on your natural inspiration.

Rule Ten – You will forget all this at birth. We are all born with all of these capabilities – our early experiences lead us into a physical world, away from our spiritual selves, so that we become doubtful, cynical and lacking belief and confidence. The ten Rules are not commandments, they are universal truths that apply to us all. When you lose your way, call upon them. Have faith in the strength of your spirit. Aspire to be wise – wisdom the ultimate path of your life, and it knows no limits other than those you impose on yourself.

I’ve always loved the analogy of life being a game as opposed to a battle.

If that be the case it behoves us to do three things.

1. Get into the game.

2. Learn the rules.

3. Play all out.

Go for it this week.

Pádraic.

PS We begin a Smácht Programme in Dublin on March 29th for the first time.

If you, or anyone you know, are interested I’d be happy to talk you through

the programme. I can be contacted at 087 2647817 or p@omaille.ie

“You see things; you say, ‘Why?’ But I dream things that never were; and I say ‘Why not?” ― George Bernard Shaw, Back to Methuselah’

The first thing that strikes you about Paul Kenny is speed.

Everything about him moves at a pace.

As we communicate via Skype, between Galway and Dubai, he’s all over the computer screen. He is constantly moving – so much so that his image frequently freezes on the monitor as it’s incapable of matching his velocity of movement.

And even though his image freezes temporarily, his voice continues on unabated. His pace is rapid, explosive and every sentence is content rich. After an hour I’ve exhausted a notebook, a pen and the battery in my iPad. Interestingly, my own energy levels are stratospheric. His enthusiasm is infectious.

When I mention this to him he reminds me that what I hear now is the  contained version of Paul Kenny. ‘When I arrived first in the Middle East I spoke so fast no one understood me so I learned to slow down, to be more measured, to be more deliberate.’

Speed mirrors almost every other aspect of his life.

‘I always move very fast and if people hold me up it frustrates me’.

As a 22 year old student in his native Galway he seemed to be pursuing a traditional career trajectory. He was midway through a  Masters Programme in Management Information Systems in NUIG. He was taming golf courses throughout Ireland. And he was working in the family business – the iconic Kenny’s of Galway, who incidentally were the second bookstore ever to go online.

Following a family holiday in Dubai,  where he and his Dad Gerry met another Galwegian Ger Lawless, Paul received a call from Jumeirah offering him a position as a marketing executive paying him half the salary he was being paid in the family business at home.

Ronnie O Gorman, Chairman and Founder of the Galway Advertiser, describes this as ‘The Entrepreneurs Call’. ‘Every entrepreneur can point to a call, however small, that beckoned them to the world of commerce, and that is what distinguishes them as entrepreneurs, they respond to the call’.

Paul was no exception and his decision was typically swift, emphatic and decisive. He bid farewell to Gerry and Anne Kenny promising them faithfully that one day that he’d complete his thesis for his Masters.

‘I was determined to spend time learning about marketing and the culture of the Middle East. In addition to that I was extremely  ambitious and extremely hungry.’

Within three months he was promoted to assistant manager for on line marketing and his reputation began to flourish. Eighteen months later he was head hunted by the Emirates Group. Ironically, on the day before he commenced working for the Emirates Group he was approached by two Venture Capitalists Oliver Jung and Klaus Hommels, offering him three times the salary he was being offered and equity in a business. Paul declined the offer politely telling them ‘now is not the perfect time but I will keep in touch’.

With the Emirates Group Paul quickly unearthed two critical components of his entrepreneurial DNA. Firstly, he could generate revenue and do that prolifically. ‘Within the first month I began to make them a lot of money’. In the subsequent five months he would create revenue to the value of 500 million US Dollars. Secondly, his penchant for speed began to impact his management style. ‘I realised very quickly that I didn’t like to have a boss. The mentality of slowness in senior management disturbed me because of my need to move fast’.

On month six he resigned, made contact with Oliver Jung who it transpired was an original investor in Facebook, and four weeks later he launched Cobone.

In the eighteen months since Cobone has been conceived and launched it is now one of the largest Internet business in the Middle East and North Africa and according to Paul ‘I expect it to be the largest by the end of the year’. He reels off a myriad of milestones already achieved – ‘We’ve the second largest electronics site, one of the largest travel sites, the largest Mums and kids site, the largest products site and the second largest fashion site’.

And lest you be under the illusion that Paul’s ambition has been satiated and that Cobone has plateaued, continue to watch this space. ‘I just can’t wait for the next year and a half to see what happens’.

Other commentators already have, and no doubt will continue to chronicle the legendary and meteoric rise of Cobone. The purpose of this article however is to distill the essence of what motivates and drives and creates a Paul Kenny. How could someone arriving in a distant land knowing only one person and not speaking a word of the language succeed in becoming CEO of the fastest growing company at the tender age of 25?

Robert Louis Stevenson once said that ‘a man may be young in years yet old in hours if he’s plied his time diligently’. Paul may not yet have completed his Master’s in MIT but his knowledge of what it takes to conceive and develop a massive operation in jig time is instructive beyond the norm. The following is a précis of his management philosophy.

1. Ask lots of questions.

‘I have great regard for the Jes (Alma Mater) because they enable students to bloom naturally rather than being controlled. They were unrestricted – no uniforms, no rigid rules. They encouraged you to ask questions. I spent  my Transition Year pretty much playing golf. I asked myself what does it take to become a great golfer and within one year I was playing off a 5 handicap and was the second youngest player ever to win Golfer of the Year in Galway Golf Club. That year taught me a lot about life and ultimately about business. I learned that the only thing ever stopping you is you. I also learned to welcome the rain, and as you know Padraic, it rains a lot in the west of Ireland. The rain meant my closest competitors would probably opt to stay indoors thereby allowing me a precious opportunity to have an  edge on them’.

‘A lot of people are afraid to ask and as a result forego enormous opportunities. The worst case scenario is that someone will say no. I mentor a lot of people and I constantly ask them the questions ‘why’ and ‘why not’. Why be happy earning 20 grand when you can earn 20 million’?

Gerry Kenny knows a thing or two about his sons penchant for asking questions. ‘Whether it was working in Kenny’s or playing golf he was always inquisitive – constantly asking questions. Take for example that infamous meeting with Ger Lawless in Dubai. I’d been to school with Ger and as we hadn’t met in years we had a lot to catch up on. And yet when we did meet, Paul led the entire conversation asking Ger question after question about Dubai and the Middle East’.

2. Build your own personal brand.

‘Work is 50% execution and 50% branding. I worked intensively at building the Paul Kenny brand. One of the idiosyncrasies of coming from a business as well known as Kenny’s is that you inadvertently become known as ‘one of the Kenny’s’. And while I am so proud of what they have achieved as a business and a family I didn’t build that business. I want to be known and remembered as Paul Kenny and what I built. I want Cobone to be recognised as the benchmark for Internet commerce in the Middle East’.

To this end he uses every conceivable means to promote and evangelise his work. He may well be leading an Internet revolution but his attention to detail borders on the anal. I noticed a tweet last week informing his thousands of virtual friends that an article on him would be appearing in next weeks Galway Advertiser – (no pressure guys). As Tom Peters said so many years ago ‘excellence can be measured in inches or millimetres’.

3. Hire the best.

‘I always hire people better than me. I genuinely have 120 people who are all more proficient than me in most areas. I’m extremely humble about this. During an interview, once I’ve established the competence of the person l spend most of the time assessing whether I can relate with that person. I even test them out for a sense of humour – if you can’t take a joke I wouldn’t hire you’.

In addition, Paul flies in the face of traditional management thinking which espoused maintaining a distance from your team. ‘What I’ve discovered is that I’ve 120 children. They cry, they moan, they phone you at all hours of the day and night. But they’ve become my personal friends and, as a team, we take on daily two massive competitors, and I can say without any hint of arrogance that we are the best at what we do and dominate the marketplace’.

4. As a leader you need to lead with enthusiasm and passion.

‘Enthusiasm is infectious. Enthusiasm breeds enthusiasm and I structure my business to unleash as much of it as possible. I believe that the number one reason an investor will invest in you is passion and I hire accordingly. I hire people as passionate and as hungry and as agile as I am. I ensure I give a lot of face time to people. Only last week, I spent the entire week taking calls from customers. They didn’t know I was the CEO but I learned so much about our business from them. If you don’t understand what’s motivating your customer you’re dead in the water because the customer still is king’.

As he continues to bop about the iPad screen I couldn’t help but be reminded of one Maureen Kenny (Paul’s Grandmother). For well over half a century she did little else but spend face time with customers listening to what motivated and interested them. Different time. Different technology. Different continent. Same old business philosophy.

5. Sticking to a business plan is a recipe for disaster.

‘The second your business plan touches a customer it will change. That first customer contact point should change your business irrevocably. We’re on version 13 of our current business planning process’.

Sounds like Lincoln would have concurred when he said ‘plans are nothing. Planning is everything’. (I’m not so sure about Paul’s former academics in NUI Galway however!)

‘Not alone must your business plan change but you’ve got to tailor your approach for various Market segments. We excel at this and it  has been key to our success’.

6. Get uncomfortable.

There was widespread consternation when Pádraig Ó Céidigh declared in one of these articles that we ‘should live life more on the edge’. Like it or like it not, Paul Kenny argues more of the same. ‘If  you’re comfortable in your job leave it – you’ll never learn. Stress increases speed, achievement and success. I Iive, breath and luxuriate in this business. So also does my new wife Yuki’.

THE FUTURE NEVER HAS BEEN BRIGHTER FOR IRELAND.

‘Why is it that Google, Microsoft and Paypal have all headquartered their European base in Ireland? It’s no coincidence. It has never been better value than now to start a business in Ireland. Allied to that you have the best educated talent base in the world. I have 30 uber business colleagues my age who’d return to Ireland in the morning if the media choose to up sell Ireland. Ireland needs to rid itself of the obsession of selling to a population of 4 million. There are 7.2 billion people on the planet with over half actively on line. The opportunity has never been greater’.

Enterprise Ireland are to be lauded on their inspired decision to appoint Paul as business Ambassador for Ireland in the Middle East. He may not be long out of short pants but as he’d say himself without a scintilla of arrogance -  ‘getting the right people on the bus is the first prerequisite of going from good to great’.

Somewhere amidst the corridors of the Commerce Department in NUI Galway, Professor Willie Golden, Dean of the Faculty awaits forlornly the somewhat overdue arrival of Paul Kenny’s completed thesis. It may, or may not, ever arrive. What has arrived however is a force that neither Willie nor Gerry Kenny, Ireland’s finest book binder, could ever contain within the pages of a book.

‘People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don’t believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and if they can’t find them, make them.’

― George Bernard Shaw, Mrs. Warren’s Profession

Pádraic Ó Máille is the creator of ‘Smácht’, Ireland’s premier business development programme. To learn how discipline is the only sustainable way to transform your business join him on a free Webinar on March 20th, 22nd or 26th. To enrol, email p@omaille.ie or contact Pádraic on 00353 87 2647817

The above copy clearly failed to connect with the customer in any meaningful way. So also does the vast majority of the 200 million websites on the net that are clamouring for attention.

What if there was a way that could convert

10%, 25% – even 50% more, of your website customers? What would it mean to your business and your financial freedom?

20 years ago I discovered one of those priceless books that enabled me teach my clients to massively improve their direct marketing results. It was called ‘Up the Loyalty Ladder’ by Murray Raphel and it was the most street wise book on marketing I ever read.

Only last week I happened to stumble across it’s modern equivalent. It’s written by Maria Velosa and it can transform your business and your fortunes.

Maria points out that most people drive people to their website without ever ensuring they have web copy – the words and text of your website – that sell.

She goes on to say that ‘words are the true currency of the web. The single most important ingredient in a commercial website is web copy. Words make the sale and no amount of cool graphics, interactive bells and whistles, cutting edge design, or sophisticated e-commerce infrastructure could ever compare to the selling ability of compelling web copy. Nothing happens until someone writes the words that get people to click, sign up, read, register, order, subscribe, or buy whatever you’re selling.’

In order to start creating web copy that sells consider the following simple five part blueprint.

Question #1. Identify what problem your prospect is experiencing. I learned from Murray Raphel many years ago that people only ever buy two things – solutions to problems and good feelings. He went on to add that the former is by far and away the most powerful.

Question #2. What has been preventing your prospect solving their problem? Getting your prospect clear on what has been causing the problem is fundamental to them solving it and is used widely in psychotherapy as a strategy to moving people forward.

Question #3. What will be happening when the problem is solved? By getting your prospect imagining and picturing their ideal scenario you are greatly enabling them to buy in to your product or service. Psychologists refer to this as cognitive dissonance – the gap between where you are and where you would like to be. The clearer your prospect is on both these polarities – the more likely they are to purchase. Your task clearly is to build this gap in your copywriting.

Question #4. What’s different about your offering? Often referred to as your USP, this is setting out what differentiates you from other competitors.

Question #5. What do you want your prospect to do now? This is where you tell your prospect to sign up, phone, register, opt in or buy the product.

Imagine if this process worked in a personal selling context! Well it does. Consider how I used it with a girl called Caitriona who asked me at a networking meeting what once used to be a show stopper of a question for me ‘what do you do for a living Pádraic?’

Pádraic: I run a personal development programme called Smácht.

Caitriona: What’s that all about?

Pádraic: Let me ask you a question Caitriona. Are there any three things in your business or life now that you’ve been unable to accomplish up to now?

Caitriona: Sure. Off the the top of my head I’m not as financially free as I’d like to be. Secondly, I’m working all the hours God made and thirdly, I’m totally unfit.

Pádraic: Why do you think you’ve been unable to accomplish them?

Caitriona: Well for starters I’ve probably never really focused on achieving them. Secondly, I don’t always follow through when the going gets tough. And most of all I probably lack the discipline to do what it takes to get them over the line.

Pádraic: What if you had the discipline to focus on just those three things and make them happen. What would it mean for you?

Caitriona: Well for starters I could sleep at night without worrying about money. Secondly, I could get to do all  those things I’ve been meaning to do for years like going to Australia for a month, taking time to spend with my folks and just simply having space for myself. Finally  I might get to running a 10k which would make me feel and look better.

Pádraic: What if I told you I have a unique approach that can have you achieving all three – not in the next century, but in as little as 60 to 90 days. What if I showed you some of the most successful business people in the world who are using this exact system. Would you be interested in participating in a free Webinar that will show you how.

Caitriona: Sounds cool. How do I register?

Register for my free Webinar ‘Use Your Mind for a Change – 10 Strategies to Earn More, Live More and Achieve More’ by sending an email to info@omaille.ie or ringing 00353 91 865340.

The bottom line is your content is your currency.

Over the month of March I will be sharing with you many other great strategies that can enable you generate loads more business and live the life of your dreams.

All you need is Smácht.

Pádraic

PS Maria does share a bit of old fashioned advice that is invaluable. She suggests you get some sales copy that really impresses you and you write it out (or type ) two or three times. By a process of osmosis you will begin to assume the style, idiom, format, and success of the original writer. It’s Smácht in action.

Finally the full title of Maria’s book is

‘Web Copy That Sells.’

Register for my free Webinar ‘Use Your Mind for a Change – 10 Strategies to Earn More, Live More and Achieve More’ by sending an email to info@omaille.ie or ringing 00353 91 865340.

I don’t do superstition on Black Fridays.

One magpie or two on the road – yes, but not Friday 13ths.

On January 13th last therefore, it didn’t cost me a thought when I
casually visited a GP for an innocuous medical for a life policy. I
was even bold enough to suggest to him to get on with the blood
pressure check up because I hated the sensation of it.

When he told me that he’d taken 3 separate readings and that my BP
was dangerously high at 180 over 95 I rapidly revised my take on
being superstitious on Friday 13ths.

Luckily, Dr. Dílis Clare is a Smáchtee in Galway, and I rang her in a
blind panic. We often talk about the value of asking great questions
and Dílis did exactly that. Having listened to my readings she asked
me directly that great question.

What are you most worried about Pádraic?

‘I’m petrified I’ll get a stroke over the weekend and snuff it’.

She reassured me that this was highly unlikely as my BP would have
to be significantly higher but she did counsel me that action
needed to be taken.

This was a red alert for me and I would have taken any action under
the sun. Dílis prescribed a wonderful cardiovascular tonic that’s
made in Ireland by Daithi O Connor called ReviveQ10 and I’ve taken
it every morning since.

I’ve had my BP monitored since, and whether it’s the ReviveQ10,
the Placebo effect, White Coat syndrome or the dietary
changes I’ve made, my BP was 125 over 80 on Friday last in
Dílis’ clinic.

Doctor # 1 therefore for a healthy and vibrant life is to get
yourself a great General Practitioner who is responsive,
assertive, caring and holistic.

Dílis herself provided me with the other 5 Doctors instrumental
to living healthily to 100. (This will be submitted as a YouTube
interview with Dílis next week when I get the hang of the
technology but the issue is so important I decided to get this to
you now)

Dílis explained that as far back as the 13th Century, Medics in
Salerno in Italy had identified 3 Doctors vital to good health.
They were:

Doctor Diet.

Doctor Quiet.

Doctor Laughter.

Dílis made one adjustment to accommodate our sedentary
way of living currently – your grandparents walked an
average of 12 miles per day- she added

Doctor Movement.

And if that wasn’t enough, only yesterday she added
a wonderful newaddition to the Smácht lexicon.

It also merits recognition as a Doctor in it’s own right.

It’s called Dr. Smáchtattitude. Get it? The spellcheck on the
computer obviously hasn’t! But tomorrow morning, get out
of the bed with Smàchtattitude. Tonight, go to bed with
Smáchtattitude. And all day today live your day with
Smáchtattitude.

In conclusion, the six Doctors absolutely essential to
live to 100 are:

Doctor Dílis (Check her out on healthandherbs.ie)

Doctor Diet

Doctor Quiet

Doctor Laughter

Doctor Movement

Doctor Smáchtattitude.

Over the next while Dr. Dílis will be sharing wonderful
insights into how, with a smidgen of Smácht, we can
joyfully live to 100.

All you need is Smácht.

Pádraic

PS on March 20th, 22nd and 26th I will be presenting a
free Webinar entitled ‘Smáchtattitude’ which will share
10 ways to live life 100 %.
For details contact p@omaille.ie or call 0035391 865340

‘There is very little difference between people. That difference is
attitude. The big difference is whether it’s positive or negative’.
Og Mandinho.

Attitude is the number one prerequisite for success in any aspect
of your life.In order to create and sustain a positive mental attitude
apply the following strategies liberally and continually.

1.Become a “Conscious Choice Maker”.

‘Choice, not chance, determines destiny’. Montaigne.

When you think about it you always have a choice. In fact, from the
second you wake up in the morning you are involved in one series
of choices after another.
You may choose to:

Get up or press the snooze button.
Dress up or dress down.
Eat porridge or eat four rashers or both.
Be in great form or be in a snot and so on.

The strategy is to become aware or conscious of the choices you are
making because, like it or not, ACTING or NOT ACTING is always a
choice.

2.Get Energised

‘Buy a tracksuit’. Pat Coakley

Think about it. There is a muscle in your chest cavity that is working for
you every second, of every minute, of every hour, of every day.
It is called you r heart and it has an enormous impact on your state of
mind. By exercising consistently for 30 minutes a day I can guarantee,
that within as little as 6 weeks, you will:

Feel Better
Look Better
Think Better
Cope Better
Perform Better
Get on with Others Better

Once again however it reverts to Strategy 1. It’s your choice. And I heard
Padraig O’Ceidigh once say that “the things that are easy to do are also
easy not to do”.

3.Get Around a Tough Crowd.

‘You are the average of the five or six people that you are surrounded
by most of the time’. Jim Rohn

David McClelland of Harvard, author of “The Achieving Society”, observed
that “the major difference between success and failure in life is your choice
of a reference group”. And although he’d never been to Harvard, my late
uncle Stiofáin would often, remark that “aithnionn ciarog ciarog eile”.
(Loosely translated, Birds of a Feather Flock Together)

The choice therefore is to audit the energy impact of those you are
surrounded by. You may wish to choose between those who:

See Problems V See Solutions
Put Down V Uplift
Discourage V Encourage
Talk V Do
Lose V Win
Patronise V Give Feedback
Bring out your worst V Bring out your best
Toxic V Inspiring

4. Get a GPS for your life.

‘There’s no point going faster if you’re going in the wrong direction’.
Caroline Boles

Several years ago a boat load of us departed the docks in Galway
Bay en route to Inis Mor, the largest of the Aran Islands. It was a
beautiful clear day to begin with, the panoramic coastline of the
Burren to Port, and Connemara to Starboard, guided our journey
majestically. That was until we were suddenly enveloped in a thick,
mucous fog with visibility down to twenty metres.

I can’t begin to tell you how scary it is to have your positional
reference points taken from you. It leaves you disorientated,
frightened and lost.

Fortunately I had a small handheld GPS (Global Positional System)
which, when switched on, was able to tell me exactly where I was,
where Kilronan Pier was; and what route I needed to take, even in
mist.

We need equally a GPS for our journey through life which will
give you information on:
a) Where are you going to?
b) Where are you now?

5. Get Organised.

‘If you fail to plan you plan to fail.’ Pat McDonagh said this long
before Roy Keane ever did and has practised it throughout his
business career with astonishing results.

Getting Organised gives you a sense of control. Energy comes from
purpose. In order to get organised:

a) Use one system to record details regarding your time
b) Begin with the end in mind with:
· Your Day
· Your Week
· Your Month
· Your Year
· Your Life
· Your Projects
· Your Meeting
c) Clear Clutter Continuously
d) Have the Smácht to follow through on what you commit to.
e) Start and Finish jobs.

6. Mind Your Language.

‘He won’t be with us long at all’. Caring Nurse to Devastated family.

Word can kill and words can cure. I can tell your state of mind in
minutes by the words you use. By the same token, I can influence
your state of mind within seconds by the words I use. Consider the
following responses to the simple question “How are you?”

· Not too bad
· Knackered
· Stressed out
· Hanging in there
· O.K.
Compare them to:
· Mighty
· Fit as a fiddle
· Great
· Never better
· 100 %

Begin to choose consciously your words. Replace mediocre words
with intensified words. Experiment by transforming:

Good to Great
Happy to Ecstatic
Interesting to Captivating
Motivated to Driven to
No Problem to Happy to
Strong to Invincible

Say to yourself quietly “I hope 2012 will be a great year”. Now compare
the feeling when you say to yourself “I expect 2012 to be a great year”.
Was there a difference in emotional intensity?

Has anyone ever told you you’ve lost weight; put on weight; look pale;
look great etc. Bet they’ve influenced your attitude.

Back in 1909, a French pharmacist called Emile Coue, experimented with
giving patients a “placebo” to cure their ailment. The results were
astounding. You too are a placebo to your customers, your team,
your family and YOURSELF.

“Simply by changing your habitual vocabulary – the words you
consistently use to describe the emotions of your life – you can
instantaneously change how you think, how you eel and how
you live”.
Tony Robbins.

7. Learn a Process for Dealing with Worry and Solving Problems.

‘Do the thing you fear and the death of fear is certain’.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

To paraphrase General Patton “worry kills more people than death ever
does”. I presume he meant death kills us but once whereas worry can
kill us over and over again.

In his wonderful book “How to Stop Worrying and Start Living” Dale
Carregie espoused the great value in getting your worries written
(or typed) down. In his opinion, most worry was caused by confusion,
lack of clarity, incomplete facts and a failure to face up squarely to
your worries. The following is a series of questions you will find
invaluable in creating peace of mind in your life.

a) What am I worried about? (write it down)
b) What are the facts – what are the odds of it happening?
c) What is the worst that can happen?
d) Can I handle it?
e) What can I do about it?
f) What will I do about it?

And staying with a military perspective, my father-in-law, Pat Carroll,
often quotes Lincolns advice to a young General who was surrounded
on all sides by the enemy. His council to the General was “Do what you
can, with what you have, where you are”. I think you can apply this
philosophy to any extenuating circumstances in your life.

8. Learn from Weight Watchers

‘What get’s measured get’s done’ JJ Demmings.

I am really impressed by the business Weight Watchers. They solve a
massive (no pun intended) need; they are extremely profitable; and the
process works. What’s special about their process? They make you
accountable and answerable to measuring you own success (or lack of it)
consistently i.e. they weigh you every week whether you’ve been binging
or not.
It’s not pretty, but it works. If you are to manage and thrive through the
storm begin to measure (weigh) the key metrics in your business. Many
successful performers will choose a specific time each week to do this.
During this weekly meeting you may consider reviewing the past week in
terms of:
· Sales (income)
· Outgoings/ Expenditure
· Cash balances in bank
· Leads Generated
· Cash Flow

9. RYS X 1 % – Raise Your Standards by 1 % – Kaizan.

‘If you were to improve your performance daily by 1 % you wouldn’t
know yourself in a year’.
John Boyle. Founder of Boyle Sports.

One of the most exhilarating experiences I had was attending a 4 day Tony
Robbins seminar in London some years ago. It was four days of almost 14
hours a day of high-energy, high-content stuff. I took folder loads of notes.

Sometime after my return, a client of mine put me on the spot and asked me
to summarise the seminar in one sentence. After some reflection, it occurred
to me that Robbins main message was “Raise Your Standards”.

If you were to identify those standards that impact your life most forcibly, and if
you were to begin to raise them by 1% on a constant basis – you would be
beyond recognition in just three months.

Ray O’Connor, founder and creator of the word famous Connemarathon, is
a great example of the law of RYS 1%. Ray runs several marathons a year
now in incredibly fast times and has completed a race of 100 miles.

Yet I remember Ray chain smoking through my seminars. He told me that
when he made the choice to begin running, he could not complete a 400
metre circuit of Dangan without pausing for a breather. But metre by metre,
over a period of time, he extended his stamina, speed and endurance.

You too, could choose to live the law of RYS 1%. You could:

1. Become more aware daily of the choices you are making.
2. Take the first steps on a fitness journey of a thousand miles.
3. Spend more time in the company of the right people and eliminate the
doomers and gloomers.
4. Clarify where you are; where you are going; and how best to get there.
5. Organise yourself better.
6. Transform your internal and external vocabulary by adding just one
empowering word a day.
7. Become an outstanding problem solver.
8. Learn from Weight Watchers.
9. Do Kaizan – the Japanese word for Continuous Improvement.

10. All you need is Smácht.

“Any old Gubán can get home on a calm day. It take bottle and
brains and a bundle of Smácht to find your way home in a storm”.
Stiofain O Maille.

Smácht is the Irish work for ‘discipline’ or ‘control’ or ‘shape’. And Smácht
is the principle key success factor for underpinning any achievement.

With Smácht, you can virtually move mountains. Without it, your goals,
dreams and aspirations lack potency, precision and passion.

Jim Rohn put it best when he said ‘We must all suffer one of two things:
the pain of discipline or the pain of regret. Discipline weights ounces.
Regret weights tons’.

In conclusion, we cannot legislate for the wind and the sea no more
than we can for the economy or the recession. What we can legislate
for is how we react and respond to the circumstances and situation that
life confronts us with – we can choose our attitude. In the words of Viktor
Frankl “Everything can be taken from a man or women but one thing; the
last of the human freedoms – to choose ones attitude in any given set
of circumstances, to choose one’s own way”.

PS. Free Bonus.

11. Understanding the Power of Questions to Instantly Change Your State.

‘Questions are the answers. In order to change the quality of your
life, change the quality of your answers’.
Tony Robbins

For a start try these:
1. How can I Live more fully today?
2. How can I Love more passionately and openly today?
3. What can I Learn that will enrich me and all those around me today?
4. How can I Lead more courageously today?
5. What will be my Legacy be? Will you choose to be remembered as an example or a warning?

Sources:

“How to Stop Worrying and Start Living” Dale Carnegie
“Awaken the Giant Within” Tony Robbins
“Unlimited Power” Tony Robbins
“The Seven Spiritual Laws if Success” Deepak Chopra
“Eat That Frog” Brian Tracy
“Fell The Fear and Do It Anyway” Susan Jeffers
“The Power of Positive Thinking” Norman Vincent Peale
“First Things First” Steven Covey
“Mans Search For Meaning” Viktor Frankl

About the Author.

Padraic O Máille is a professional speaker, trainer and facilitator and is
the creator of Smácht, a training and consulting business based in
Galway, Ireland.

Padraic has one single focus – to inspire you to realise more of your
potential. In this respect, he has helped and learned, from many of
Ireland’s most successful business people, executives and sports
people.

His keynote speeches, talks and seminars are customised and tailored
for each audience. They are described as “inspiring, entertaining,
uplifting and motivational”.

Some of his talks and seminars include:

Managing Through a Storm – 9 Proactive Strategies to Creating a
Winning Attitude – Irrespective of the Recession, the Economy or
the Weather.

Marketing Through a Storm – 24 Powerful Strategies to Get and Retain
Customers Faster and Easier that you Ever Thought Possible.

Selling Through a Storm – 9 Great Ways to Sell More, Faster and
Easier in Tough Markets.

“Your Husband is a Crap Runner” – 30 Ways to Motivate Yourself
and Others in Challenging Times.

‘The Smácht Change Programme’ is a 12 month intensive peer
coaching programme run throughout Ireland that is transforming
the way people are achieving results.

Call today for full information on booking Padraic to speak at your
next conference or meeting. Visit www.omaille.ie, email p@omaille.ie,
phone 00353 91 865340, or write to O Máille Group, Lady Gregory
House, 49 Dominick Street, Galway Ireland.

“I learned more in one half day than a 3 year Degree Programme”
Brid Fox M.D. Cater Care