Meet Beau the 15-year-old genius, my new co-host. I had a fantastic and intellectually invigorating time with my 15-year-old mate Beau Chaseling preparing our first podcast and show on;  Consciousness, The Brain Meditation Awakenings Enlightenment Plant medicines (pros and cons), Left and right brains Reductionist materialist models of consciousness vs spiritual models of consciousness Phases of individual and species development Potential underlying evolutionary nature of human consciousness. If you are wondering why I would discuss these things with a 15-year-old and you don't know Beau, he is a 15-year-old genius with multi-discipline intelligence (physics, history, politics etc), guitar slinger and just an all-round down to earth good guy (huge levels of emotional intelligence) with an incredible intellect and like me....an ongoing dedication to meditation as an evolutionary tool (psycho-technology).This has been long in fermentation and we are excited to share the first of an ongoing series of podcasts with anyone interested (first show dropping next week). If you are into this type of thing you should find it thought-provoking and stimulating.  Regardless of whether you are an ardent woo-woo spiritual type or a logic-driven reductionist materialist type you will enjoy our attempts at bridge-building between the two sides and our pursuit of evidence.This is the start of something new for me personally. A lot of the things I have investigated deeply for years as a lifelong meditator and experienced as a result, I have not shared with many (the experiences are far from 'normal'). I look forward to this next chapter and look forward to sharing a quality critical and deep thinker in Beau with anyone wanting to listen.

We all make mistakes and upset customers during the course of our business lives. But it’s how we deal with the problems that can set us apart.  In this show I outline a customer service strategy that will enable you, if you make a mistake and let down a client, to win them over to the point that they will love you more than if you hadn't made the mistake in the first place. It’s a pretty simple formula but one that many people don’t use because there is too much emotion caught up in the situation.  With real life examples you will learn: That you need to deal with issues promptly That just apologising isn’t enough - you need to offer things that are worth more than the original product or service That customers want their suffering to be recognised That by offering free items with a high perceived value, you can turn a negative into a real positive and win over clients for life

If you want to build a business that grows without you, you will need to get used to identifying and dealing with roadblocks. A roadblock is an inefficiency or lack of resources that shows up under load at a certain time, usually when a business is starting to do well. In most businesses I work with, the business owner themselves is the main roadblock. Because they control the day to day running of the business, when more clients come on board, they haven’t got the systems or team in place to deal with the extra workload. So they end up working all hours, carrying too many roles.  In this show I demonstrate that roadblocks are a positive thing. They highlight what needs to change in your business - all you need to do is to fix the roadblock and that will improve operational efficiencies and the ability to scale your business. You will learn: That roadblocks show up under success - you know you’re doing the right thing when you see them That moving yourself as the business owner from running to ‘conducting’ the business can remove the first roadblock Resources are not just people - they are knowledge, systems and processes as well That taking time out to build robust systems and processes is vital to a growing business That building a team with different strengths and weaknesses will help you overcome the human resources roadblock

If you want to build a business that runs smoothly without you, the key thing you’ll need to do is build a successful, high-performing team. But to do this, an understanding of human psychology is crucial.  You will need to understand now only how the individuals on your team function but also how you as the business owner behave in relationships and how that impacts your behaviour as a leader. Luckily it’s not as complicated as it sounds! We all fall into certain personality types and when you understand these, you will be able to see what strengths and weaknesses both you and your team have - and adapt accordingly.  You will learn: How you are in your relationships is also how you are in business That your predominant personality type determines what you like to do and how you interact with others That getting people with the right value structures as you is vital To build a team you must understand others, their personalities, their strengths and weaknesses and their value systems, and you must be able to reach those value systems That by understanding the dysfunctional aspects of your personality style, you can start to override them

Most businesses offer a range of products or services. But the mistake many business owners make is to market their whole range of offerings to customers, thinking that offering more will bring more clients and success.  They couldn’t be more wrong! In fact what they’re doing is positioning themselves as a generalist, not an expert. This will attract the wrong type of client who is only interested in price and not likely to be a long term client who the business owner can have a long and profitable relationship with.  In my second show with Steve, a Qigong expert, I discuss how defining a high need, high value avatar or niche with one main problem that needs solving doesn’t restrict what you do but helps you position yourself as an expert who can solve that problem. Once you’ve done that and gained their trust, you can introduce your other services.  You will learn: That by centring your marketing around one key message creates clarity that your clients will love - something that most businesses don’t offer That your message will need to address a big problem that your target market suffers from That all of your communications should show the benefits of solving this problem That focusing only on one thing in your marketing isn’t restrictive, it allows you to position yourself as an expert who people will trust That once clients trust you, they are happy to purchase your other products and services!

Building a profitable business whilst working less requires a few key strategies to be implemented. These strategies will form the heart of your marketing to position you as an expert in your chosen field and bring you the kind of client who will make you more money. The first of these is to build a scalable business model. By this we mean one in which you don’t trade time for money (there are only so many hours in a day!) on a one to one basis but where you can share your expertise more widely. The second of these is to identify a high value target market who are in need of what you offer. Figure out what their key problem is and how you can solve it. If you focus ALL of your marketing on offering to solve that problem, you will be perceived as the expert rather than a generalist. What’s more, your target market will tune into your marketing messages and come to you for help. In today’s show, we discuss these points with Steve, a Qigong expert who is looking to scale up his business. With real life examples, you will learn: That many people have problems because they haven’t followed their calling - and if you offer to help them when they reach crisis point, you can make a huge difference That you need to build a scalable business model - one where people aren’t wholly reliant on your personal service That you need to identify your high value target market - your ‘A’ clients who will make you money, and focus purely on these people That even if you have lots of product offerings, you should focus your marketing messaging on the one that helps solve a particular problem for your target market That if your marketing is too general or contains too many message, people just won’t see it

Most business owners would love to grow a successful business that runs smoothly without them. That’s a given. But to do that they need to constantly ask themselves certain questions in order to disrupt their unconscious beliefs. Because of the education system, we’re not conditioned to question things but it’s only by doing this that you can challenge the beliefs that hold you back.  By learning to constantly ask questions, you will evolve and change not only as a person but as a business owner. These questions include ‘Who else can I get to do this task? What system can look after this for me so I don't have to do it?’ and ‘Can someone do this better than me?’ You will learn: The questions you need to ask yourself in order to build yourself out of your business That by questioning yourself, you will start to free yourself from your unconscious beliefs about people That ego is made up of belief systems, and the more rigidly you adhere to your belief systems as though they're truths, the more you will struggle in relationships. That self enquiry and questioning will lead to positive change The five rules you should follow to succeed in your personal as well as business relationships

The strategies to building a successful business are fairly straightforward and any old business coach can help you with these. They involve getting your systems right, getting the right team in place and automating your marketing.  But what holds many business owners from implementing these strategies effectively is their psychological blocks. And this is where we differ from other business coaches. We help them understand the four layers of the psyche that will be affecting their decision making WITHOUT them even knowing it.  I explain these four layers in today’s show and give concrete examples of how they can affect business decisions.  You will learn: The psychological blocks that stop business owners from building a business that runs independently of them  How NOT to become a roadblock in the growth of your business That logical thinking or knowledge is the first layer That your personality type, the second layer, is vital to understanding where your strengths and weaknesses lie. That the third layer of your emotions can affect how you build your team That your belief systems, the fourth layer, can be incredibly destructive without you even being aware of them

If you’re a female entrepreneur struggling with the demands of your family, your partner and managing the staff in your business, my latest podcast is designed JUST for you.  Female entrepreneurs often have a harder time than male entrepreneurs because they’re naturally inclined to be more nurturing. This means they put other people’s needs before their own, leading to burnout and a lack of time for themselves and their passions. This can all be solved with the right recruitment methods to build a high performing team.  You will learn: The psychological drivers behind your decisions as a female business owner That if you don’t take time out, your problems will seem far bigger That sisterhood is a powerful bond that can hold you back if not dealt with correctly

Running a business is a challenge that allows you to evolve and grow. But if you don’t have the ability to deal well with challenge and find yourself constantly retreating to an emotionally safe space, your business will suffer and you won’t be fulfilled as a person.  To deal with challenge you need to deal with uncomfortable feelings that arise from your unconscious belief systems. They will question whether you’re capable of dealing with new things.  Addressing these uncomfortable emotions, understanding where they’re coming from and having a clear vision of what you really want and what matters to you will help you overcome challenge and evolve not only as a business person but in life.  You will learn: That you need to define what matters to you and what you want to do with your life in order to have a fulfilling life and successful business When you are truly honest about what you really want, your answers will challenge the parts of you that worry whether you have the capabilities to achieve those deeply meaningful goals A lot of people avoid challenge because challenge is uncomfortable, so turn to certainty, where they feel safe. When you avoid challenge and retreat to certainty, the creativity required to really achieve what you want is diminished. How to approach uncomfortable emotions head on and move forward into new ways of thinking