# Mark Falzon > Australian entrepreneur, investor, author and mentor. 45+ years of building. Six BRW Fast 100 placements as a founder and operator. Five books. Forty-plus documentaries screened in 100+ countries. Today co-leading MAD Ventures and MAD Fund 1, and sitting privately with a small handful of founders each year. Site: https://markfalzon.com Person: Mark Falzon — Entrepreneur · Investor · Author · Mentor Based in: Australia LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markfalzon YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MarkFalzonBehindTheScenes ## What Mark does today - **Mentoring** — Private, one-on-one engagements with a small number of founders, CEOs and inspired leaders each year. The work moves between strategy (the business, the deal, the next move) and structure (mindset, partnership dynamics, the inner game). - **Ventures** — Co-leads MAD Ventures Australia and MAD Fund 1. Other ventures: Solyrais, Metis, VC Mastermind, The Growth Field, Synarchos. - **Speaking** — Keynote engagements for founder communities including the Jeff Walker Platinum+ mastermind and the Transformational Leadership Council. Signature talk: the Hero's Journey for founders. - **Books** — Five published works distilling 45+ years of operating into field notes for founders, partners, investors and stewards of capital. - **Films** — 40+ documentaries as filmmaker, storyteller and observer of the human condition. ## Pages - [Home](https://markfalzon.com/): Overview of Mark's work and the door into mentoring, speaking, ventures, books, films and writing. - [About](https://markfalzon.com/about): The long-arc biography — from a fifteen-year-old leaving school for a film camera to mentoring founders today. - [Mentoring](https://markfalzon.com/mentoring): Private mentoring for founders building things that matter. - [Speaking](https://markfalzon.com/speaking): Keynotes and deep-dive sessions for founders, executives and leadership teams. - [Ventures](https://markfalzon.com/ventures): MAD, Solyrais, Metis, VC Mastermind, The Growth Field, Synarchos. - [Books](https://markfalzon.com/books): The Venture Compass, MAD, Philanthropy as Amplifier, Co-Founders, Hero's Journey. - [Films](https://markfalzon.com/films): 40+ documentaries, screened in 100+ countries. - [Frameworks](https://markfalzon.com/frameworks): The Venture Compass, the Hero's Journey, Metis, the Developmental Model. - [The Journal](https://markfalzon.com/journal): Twenty-nine essays on strategy, mindset and meaning. - [Testimonials](https://markfalzon.com/testimonials): Written and on-camera endorsements from founders, CEOs and operators. - [Contact](https://markfalzon.com/contact): Mentoring, speaking, ventures, press, or simply hello. ## Books - **The Venture Compass** (2025) — MAD Ventures Australia. ISBN 978-0-6457675-5-1. - **MAD** (2025) — MAD Ventures Australia. ISBN 978-0-6457675-3-7. - **Philanthropy as Amplifier** (2026) — Paradigm Communications Pty Ltd. ISBN 978-0-6457675-6-8. - **Co-Founders** (2026) — Paradigm Communications Pty Ltd. ISBN 978-0-6457675-8-2. - **Hero's Journey** (2026) — Paradigm Communications Pty Ltd. ISBN 978-1-7646798-1-7. ## Journal posts (essays) - [How Do You Bounce Back From The Abyss After A Failed Product Launch?](https://markfalzon.com/journal/how-do-you-bounce-back-from-the-abyss-after-a-failed-product-launch) - [What Uber Can Teach Us About When Innovation Moves Faster Than Legislation](https://markfalzon.com/journal/what-uber-can-teach-us-about-when-innovation-moves-faster-than-legislation) - [The #1 Thing World Class High Performers Such As Oprah Winfrey, George Lucas and Steve Jobs Have In Common](https://markfalzon.com/journal/the-1-thing-world-class-high-performers-such-as-oprah-winfrey-george-lucas-and-steve-jobs-have-in-common) - [How Isaac Singer Used The Strength of Intuition To Make The Sewing Machine a Commonly Found Item In Most Households](https://markfalzon.com/journal/how-isaac-singer-used-the-strength-of-intuition-to-make-the-sewing-machine-a-commonly-found-item-in-most-households) - [How to Spot Game Changing Business Opportunities That Others Miss](https://markfalzon.com/journal/how-to-spot-game-changing-business-opportunities-that-others-miss) - [The Concept of Leverage in Business (And How to Use It While Keeping Your Risk to a Minimum)](https://markfalzon.com/journal/the-concept-of-leverage-in-business-and-how-to-use-it-while-keeping-your-risk-to-a-minimum) - [How to Stay Connected to What Truly Matters when you own a Fast-Growing Business](https://markfalzon.com/journal/how-to-stay-connected-to-what-truly-matters-when-you-own-a-fast-growing-business) - [Founder Of 4 BRW Fast 100 Companies Reveals How To Take Your Business From Where it is to the Next Big Jump](https://markfalzon.com/journal/founder-of-4-brw-fast-100-companies-reveals-how-to-take-your-business-from-where-it-is-to-the-next-big-jump) - [How To Use The Flow State To Make The Best Business Decisions Of Your Life](https://markfalzon.com/journal/how-to-use-the-flow-state-to-make-the-best-business-decisions-of-your-life) - [How to Be More Creative and Intuitive In Business](https://markfalzon.com/journal/how-to-be-more-creative-and-intuitive-in-business) - [A Guide to Dashboarding (And How It Can Help Your Business)](https://markfalzon.com/journal/a-guide-to-dashboarding-and-how-it-can-help-your-business) - [How I Took Our Company from $0 to $12 Million in Sales in 3 Years – by Doing the Opposite to Everybody Else in Our Industry](https://markfalzon.com/journal/how-i-took-our-company-from-0-to-12-million-in-sales-in-3-years-by-doing-the-opposite-to-everybody-else-in-our-industry) - [How I Used Strategic Thinking To Sell My Business For Millions](https://markfalzon.com/journal/how-i-used-strategic-thinking-to-sell-my-business-for-millions) - [I Made Millions in My Business - And I was Miserable.](https://markfalzon.com/journal/i-made-millions-in-my-business-and-i-was-miserable) - [23 ideas to grow your business faster](https://markfalzon.com/journal/23-ideas-to-grow-your-business-faster) - [Big Rocks…](https://markfalzon.com/journal/big-rocks) - [Hurry up and Wait](https://markfalzon.com/journal/hurry-up-and-wait) - [Is reputation everything?](https://markfalzon.com/journal/is-reputation-everything) - [Is your net on the right side of the boat? Small changes can make a big difference!](https://markfalzon.com/journal/is-your-net-on-the-right-side-of-the-boat-small-changes-can-make-a-big-difference) - [Letting Go of the Past …](https://markfalzon.com/journal/letting-go-of-the-past) - [Living Yes and Saying No …](https://markfalzon.com/journal/living-yes-and-saying-no) - [Mentoring vs Coaching](https://markfalzon.com/journal/mentoring-vs-coaching) - [Mr Mum – Success is not a destination](https://markfalzon.com/journal/mr-mum-success-is-not-a-destination) - [One Click](https://markfalzon.com/journal/one-click) - [Procrastination](https://markfalzon.com/journal/procrastination) - [The Slow Reveal](https://markfalzon.com/journal/the-slow-reveal) - [The Wall](https://markfalzon.com/journal/the-wall) - [What was your first business?](https://markfalzon.com/journal/what-was-your-first-business) - [You never know who you might be speaking with](https://markfalzon.com/journal/you-never-know-who-you-might-be-speaking-with) ## Resources for crawlers and AI - Sitemap: https://markfalzon.com/sitemap.xml - RSS: https://markfalzon.com/feed.xml - Full content (markdown): https://markfalzon.com/llms-full.txt --- # Full journal content ## How Do You Bounce Back From The Abyss After A Failed Product Launch? URL: https://markfalzon.com/journal/how-do-you-bounce-back-from-the-abyss-after-a-failed-product-launch Published: 2018-12-21 Author: Mark Falzon It can sometimes feel like the weight of the world is on your shoulders when you’re running a business. These are some of the emotional challenges you may face and how you can deal with them. What do you do when it all starts to go wrong? It’s a question that almost every business owner has to confront at some point. There will be plenty of challenges along the way. I’ve found that many business owners underestimate the emotional impact that these challenges can have on them. That’s dangerous because you need to stay strong mentally in order to be creative and succeed. It can be enough to make you want to wind up your business. I’ve worked with clients who’ve almost crumbled under such emotional burdens. Laura was one such client. At one point, she found herself staring into the abyss. Her business was struggling and it was taking its toll. These are the emotional issues that she faced and how she dealt with them. Laura’s Story You can plough hours into improving yourself and your business. In Laura’s case, she’d worked hard to overcome her control freak tendencies so she could improve professionally. She’d put the hours in but she didn’t see the results that she wanted. That was heartbreaking for her and she felt disappointed and deflated. Her motivation levels dipped because she felt like she’d done everything right and gotten no reward. Her business was losing tens of thousands of dollars every month. And she couldn’t help but start to doubt her own abilities. Was she just throwing good money after bad? She’d tried several different business models that didn’t work out. Laura couldn’t figure out if there was a process problem or if it was just an issue with seasonality. Whatever it was, the business was on the edge. Emotionally, she felt like she was just going around in circles. That pulled her focus even further away from the business. She was on the verge of giving it all up. If she couldn’t make the impact that she wanted to make, what was the point? The Emotional Issues The crux of the issue lay at what Laura viewed as a failed launch. She and her team poured all of their efforts into creating an amazing webinar. Unfortunately, it didn’t reach the number of people that she’d hoped it would reach. That led to her experiencing a whirlwind of different emotions. Anger and resentment rose to the top of the list fairly quickly. Laura found herself blaming other people in her team for what she perceived as the launch’s failure. But that was a short-lived thing. She soon realised that she was the creator of her own journey and that she couldn’t blame someone else for it. Ultimately, she’d made the decisions that led her down this path. She couldn’t put the burden for all of that on somebody else’s shoulders. However, that realisation only gave rise to even more conflicting emotions. Upon accepting that she is her own journey’s creator, she began developing feelings of inadequacy. Laura felt as though the failure to live up to your own potential is one of life’s greatest sins. She felt that she’d failed to reach hers, which led to her feeling like a failure. She described it as the feeling of being incomplete. Laura believes that, with her expertise, she could help hundreds of people at a time. When her webinars only attract 10 or 20 people, she struggles with feelings of inadequacy. She’s not helping as many people as she’d like to, which makes her feel incomplete. On the flipside, she feels at her most complete when she receives personal interactions from the people she helps. The gratitude that her clients give her often leads to her crying tears of joy. It’s a classic story of the pendulum of emotions that you may experience while running a business. On one hand, Laura enjoys massive highs whenever she discovers that she’s made a difference in someone’s life. On the other, she plunges into deep lows whenever her work leaves her feeling incomplete. It’s this constant oscillation that lies at the heart of her problems. At no point does Laura ever feel like she’s in a flow state. There’s a tension, often of her own making, that surrounds her business. As that tension increases, her focus narrows and her energy goes into that focus. Once the tension disappears, that focus follows suit. Ironically, it’s during the tensest moments that she feels most complete. The feelings of incompleteness often come once she resolves the tension and no longer has a solid project to work on. Laura and I worked through a process to enable her to step outside the oscillating structure that she was working from and step into her creative genius. From this new perspective, Laura was able to design a new product, package it and market it to her audience which was more aligned with her purpose, had a greater ROI and was more substantially more rewarding and profitable. Here are a few of the lessons that you may be able to take from this story. Lesson #1 – You’re the Creator of Your Own Journey At so many points in her story, Laura looks outside of herself. When the launch didn’t go as she planned, she grew angry at someone else. Her feelings of completeness, or otherwise, come from others too. She can only feel complete if she’s helping someone. When she’s not reaching the audience that she wants to reach, she feels incomplete. What Laura struggles to realise is that she is the creator of her own journey. Seeking these external validations and escapes may mean that she loses sight of that fact. Your journey is what you define it to be. In Laura’s case, her pendulum of emotions comes from defining her journey based on external influences. You have to recognise that you’re the creator of every situation you find yourself in. Once you come to that realisation, you may be able to build a more fulfilling and successful business. It’s a powerful premise to work with and taking responsibility for everything that shows up is very empowering. How can you expect to have the power to create one thing if you don’t take responsibility for creating another thing? The answer doesn’t lie outside of you. Lesson #2 – Know Who You Are This is one of those things that sounds so much easier than it really is. But if you ask 1,000 people on the street to tell you who they are, you’re not going to get an insightful response. Who you are has nothing to do with your name or what you do for a living. It’s nothing to do with your relationships, where you live, or your gender. Who you are is what you want to achieve in life. It’s the higher purpose that you create for yourself. That’s something that Laura struggled with. That’s why she defined who she is through external factors. I want you to think about elite Olympic athletes. Do they just end up on the podium holding a medal? Of course not. They work hard and they train, but so does every other athlete. What separates the exceptional from the merely excellent is that the former understand that it’s all about intention. Your intention is your belief and it’s that belief that defines who you are. If you don’t have that intention or belief, you may never feel fulfilled. That was Laura’s issue. She focused so much on wanting to transform everyone that she felt incomplete when it didn’t happen. She looked at the numbers instead of understanding her higher purpose. Whether she transformed one person or 500 doesn’t matter. As long as she shows up at her highest level, she’s in control of her journey and knows who she is. The Final Word Emotion is such a key aspect of running a business. It affects every decision you make, which means it’s almost impossible to feel fulfilled when you’re in emotional turmoil. In Laura’s case, allowing external forces to define who she is and her journey created that emotional turmoil. The pendulum of emotions that came from this almost brought her to the abyss. But she pulled herself back. You can too, with a little bit of help. I just need one hour of your time to help you to understand more about the journey that you’re on. During the 1 Hour Business Review Session, my aim will be to help you see hidden opportunities in your business. During the session we can discuss any aspect of your business in which you would like support, such as: Growth Strategies Marketing Sales and Distribution Pricing and Packaging Consolidation Acquisition Merger/Sale, Capital Raising, IPO After 35+ years working with small and large businesses, buying, selling and growing them across a range of sectors, I can work with you on any level or area. And it all starts with a no-obligation 1 Hour Business Review Session . Share this: --- ## What Uber Can Teach Us About When Innovation Moves Faster Than Legislation URL: https://markfalzon.com/journal/what-uber-can-teach-us-about-when-innovation-moves-faster-than-legislation Published: 2018-12-13 Author: Mark Falzon The Australian government pours billions of dollars into innovation. But are its own legislation holding it back? What happens when innovation moves at a faster pace than legislation? And all around the world – from France to Italy to New York – Uber have battled taxi lobbies and archaic government policies. The same is true here in Australia. In 2015 our government announced a new plan to foster innovation. Costing over $1 billion, the National Innovation and Science Agenda (NISA) aims to boost innovation in all areas of the economy. The initiative’s wider goals seem noble enough. The government wants to use the scheme to create a culture of innovation in the country. It hopes to incentivise investors to dedicate more of their capital to start-ups. Plus, it aims to develop new talent to ensure Australia has generations of innovators to come. The government also aims to hold itself up as an example for the rest of the country. Innovation within government should inspire innovation elsewhere. But is it really working? It’s possible that the government’s own legacy systems and legislation may hold it back. All of the money in the world doesn’t mean anything if you’re getting hit with roadblocks at the other end. What does this mean for the Uber’s of tomorrow? How will this slow-moving legislation prevent you from disrupting an entire industry? I’m going to look at that in more detail. The Issues in Action From The Viewpoint Of The Entrepreneur I’m currently working with a company in the real estate space. They’re introducing a technology platform that’s going to disrupt the entire industry in much the same way that Uber disrupted transport. It’s geographically agnostic, which means everyone in Australia should be able to use it. Now a landlord will love the idea of this platform, especially if they have properties in different states. Instead of getting tons of reports from different managers, they have a platform that gives them everything they need in a neat package. But like Uber, it’s facing a lot of issues borne from old legislation. Each state requires different handling of trust accounting and each has a different licensing regime. That’s all stuff that the platform creators have to manage behind the scenes. Worse yet, this is all legislation that was written years before such a platform became viable. And therein lies the problem. This legacy legislation doesn’t take into account the disruptive technologies that bring change to entire industries. Everyone agrees that this new platform is a boon for landlords. It’s more efficient and transparent. It increases visibility and has a host of benefits. But nobody’s doing anything to change the legislation that’s holding it back. The pace of the innovation’s outstripping the evolution of the legislation. The same thing happened with Uber. It provides a more convenient and better solution than taxi services. Yet it’s bogged down by legislation that’s not structured to handle an innovation at this scale. And that’s where something like NISA may fall down. It’s providing the funds that entrepreneurs need to drive innovation. But it’s doing nothing about the legacy legislation that’s preventing that innovation from reaching its full potential. The Legislative Issues That Hamstring the Policy It all comes down to risk. While the government makes bold statements about embracing risk, its own legislation prevents it from doing so. Generally speaking, the public sector is still risk-averse. And it’s understandable. Mistakes cause the downfall of careers in politics. It’s better to avoid the possibility of making a mistake than it is to take the risk. The Australian National Audit Office’s own Better Practice Guide highlights this. For all of the talk about embracing risk, this guide recommends avoiding it at every turn. This risk aversion also operates on multiple levels. An individual within the public sector may feel willing to take a risk. But will the person above them share that same viewpoint? In the end, many public servants avoid risk rather than opening a dialogue with ministers. Of course, there are also issues at higher levels. The VANguard system debacle highlights this problem perfectly. The Department of Industry, Tourism, and Resources introduced the notion of using the system. They argued it would allow for more secure transactions between businesses and government. And they achieved funding for it. However, that funding soon got withdrawn. A savings exercise identified it as too much of a risk to continue exploring. That’s the problem. Parliamentary process focuses too much on the potential for failure and not the many benefits that would come with success. What’s worse is that these processes draw attention to the potential failures. Instead of highlighting successful initiatives, they point out when things go wrong. That creates an even more risk-averse government. And that hamstrings any innovation policy that it puts forth. What Are the Solutions? This focus on risk at the legislative level presents problems. Innovation outpaces the processes that the government puts in place. But what can the government do about it? Creating better lines of communication between public servants and elected officials seems to be a good first step. There are suggestions that any sign of risk prevents those in the public sector from presenting new ideas. Perhaps we need a new structure that doesn’t punish the ideas that don’t work out. That would make more people confident enough to come forward with new ideas. Plus, it meshes with the NISA’s ambition of improving collaboration. It’s also clear that current processes need to shift their focus. Constantly looking at risk makes it almost impossible to foster innovation. After all, innovation will always come with an element of risk. You’re introducing a new idea and you can’t guarantee that it will take off. The situation with VANGuard shows how damaging this focus on risk can be. An innovative project that would increase cost-effectiveness and security got shelved. And it happened because the government thought it was too much of a public spending risk. Perhaps most importantly, the government needs to see how others perceive these actions. You can’t foster innovation when you don’t innovate yourself. Every refusal based on risk is just another indication that you’re favouring the old way of doing things. They’re leading by example, but not in the way they intended. This isn’t to say that innovators shouldn’t consider risk. It’s just that we need to look at new projects under the lens of the benefits they bring. Right now, we’re too focused on the risks that they present. Of course, all of this takes both a time and monetary commitment. You could do what Uber did instead. Just launch. Get the disruptive platform out there and show why it’s such an important innovation. This may force legislation to catch up to the innovation, rather than allowing legacy systems to hinder new ideas. The Final Word The government may not be the best example to look to if you want to innovate. Its own processes prevent it from taking the big leaps. Hopefully, that will change. The sooner the government practices what it preaches with NISA, the sooner we’ll see wide-scale innovation. The problem right now is that we have a system that funds new ideas but doesn’t support them at the back end. You can create something great with NISA funding, only to get told that you can’t do it because of legislation that’s almost irrelevant in the modern age. It’s a difficult problem that doesn’t have a simple solution. Lobbying the government to make changes will help, but it’s costly and exhausting. Perhaps the best option is to get the innovation out there and let it prove its worth. That’s what Uber did and the company’s now a multibillion dollar business. Thankfully, there’s still plenty that you can do to create an innovative culture in your business. And I want to help you do it. My name is Mark Falzon and I encourage you to give me an hour of your time for a business review. During the 1 Hour Business Review Session, my aim will be to help you see hidden opportunities in your business. During the session we can discuss any aspect of your business in which you would like support, such as: Growth Strategies Marketing Sales and Distribution Pricing and Packaging Consolidation Acquisition Merger/Sale, Capital Raising, IPO After 35+ years working with small and large businesses, buying, selling and growing them across a range of sectors, I can work with you on any level or area. And it all starts with a no-obligation 1 Hour Business Review Session . Share this: --- ## The #1 Thing World Class High Performers Such As Oprah Winfrey, George Lucas and Steve Jobs Have In Common URL: https://markfalzon.com/journal/the-1-thing-world-class-high-performers-such-as-oprah-winfrey-george-lucas-and-steve-jobs-have-in-common Published: 2018-11-07 Author: Mark Falzon Hint: It’s not goal setting, natural ability or hard work. What do you need to be a world class performer? Most will tell you that you need to set goals and work hard to reach them. Others will tell you that you need natural ability to even stand a chance. They’re all wrong. There’s a secret to success that world class performers have that you don’t. What is it? They have coaches and mentors. Don’t just take my word for it. Here’s what some very successful people have to say about the secret behind their success. George Lucas – They Help You to Spot Mistakes George Lucas is one of the world’s most famous directors. The mind behind the Star Wars franchise, he has a net worth of over $5 billion dollars. He also points towards his mentors as the key to his success. “Mentors have a way of seeing more of our faults than we would like,” he says. “It’s the only way we grow.” Lucas isn’t saying that mentors only exist to pick faults with what you’re doing. He’s saying that they understand your goals and can offer a different perspective. You can use that insight to see where you might have gone wrong and what you can do to improve things. Steve Jobs – They Can Give You a Wakeup Call It’s well-known that Steve Jobs considered Intel founder Andy Grove to be a great mentor. In fact, he’d often call him up to ask him what steps he should take to fix various business issues. One of those calls proved particularly useful. In the 1990s, Jobs wasn’t working for Apple anymore. But he’d gotten the call to go back and was trying to make a decision. “I finally called Andy Grove at about eight one Saturday morning — too early,” he said when talking about his decision. “I gave him the pros and the cons, and in the middle he stopped me and said, ‘Steve, I don’t give a **** about Apple.” It may not sound like the best advice. But Grove’s statement made Jobs realise something important. He did care about Apple. That wakeup call led him to go back to Apple in the 1990s. And we all know how that turned out as Apple is now one of the world’s most successful companies. Oprah Winfrey – Mentors Help You to See What You Have Inside Oprah Winfrey’s self-titled television show made her a behemoth in the entertainment industry. Today, she operates several businesses and her own TV station. She also points to her mentors as being a crucial part of her success. “A mentor is someone who allows you to see the hope inside yourself,” she says. There’s a simple point that she’s making here. Great mentors can see the potential that you have, even if you can’t see it yourself. They’ll do everything that they can to nurture that potential and help you to succeed. Without them, you may never recognise the hope that you have inside yourself. Michael Jordan – Coaches Push You Beyond Your Limits Michael Jordan needs no introduction. For decades his achievements made him the face of basketball. The players that come after will always face comparisons to this all-time great. He also credits his coaches as the reason behind his success. When talking about coaches he says: “A coach is someone that sees beyond your limits and guides you to greatness.” We all have moments when we think that we can’t do something. We think that we’ve reached some limit that will prevent us from succeeding. Jordan points out that good coaches can see beyond the limits you place on yourself. More importantly, they can offer the guidance that helps you to achieve even more. The Final Word For all of the natural talent and hard work that these people put in, they all had the same secret to their success. Every one of them had a mentor who helped them along the way. A great mentor helps you to see beyond your limits so that you can achieve your potential. They’ll provide insight that helps you to spot mistakes and may occasionally give you the wakeup call that you need. My name is Mark Falzon and I want to mentor you to success. And all I need is an hour of your time. During the 1 Hour Business Review Session, my aim will be to help you see hidden opportunities in your business. During the session we can discuss any aspect of your business in which you would like support, such as: Growth Strategies Marketing Sales and Distribution Pricing and Packaging Consolidation Acquisition Merger/Sale, Capital Raising, IPO After 35+ years working with small and large businesses, buying, selling and growing them across a range of sectors, I can work with you on any level or area. And it all starts with a no-obligation 1 Hour Business Review Session . Share this: --- ## How Isaac Singer Used The Strength of Intuition To Make The Sewing Machine a Commonly Found Item In Most Households URL: https://markfalzon.com/journal/how-isaac-singer-used-the-strength-of-intuition-to-make-the-sewing-machine-a-commonly-found-item-in-most-households Published: 2018-08-02 Author: Mark Falzon Unlocking the power of creativity can help you to reach the flow state. But before you can do that, you must understand the power of intuition. What does the word “innocence” mean to you? You’re probably thinking of a childlike state in which you’re unburdened by the shackles of adulthood. And you would be right. Innocence is the process of entering the state of “in no sense”. It’s how you access your intuition and creativity to make major changes in life and business. I’m going to explain that a little later on. First, let’s look at the story of a famous investor who achieved the flow state by tapping into his intuition. Isaac Singer and the Sewing Machine You may have heard the name Isaac Singer before. You may even know him as the inventor of the sewing machine. That’s actually a misconception. Singer didn’t invent the sewing machine. But he did use his intuition to access the power of creativity so he could create a commercially viable sewing machine. Singer led an interesting life before he started making his name as an inventor. In his younger years, he was part of a travelling theatre troupe named the Merritt Players. Eventually, the group disbanded and Singer became an apprentice mechanic. It was during this period that he started making his mark as an inventor. He invented a machine to make wood and metal carvings, in addition to a machine for rock drilling. But he experienced another setback. The factory that he’d built to manufacture these products went up in flames. Singer had to start again. This led to him working in a machine shop, where he repaired sewing machines for a number of years. And this resulted in him asking a question that nobody else could answer: How can I make this machine more efficient? Nobody else seemed to know, which means that Singer had to make the answer himself. In just a matter of days, Singer made an enormous number of changes to the core design of the sewing machine. You could say that he entered his flow state . In less than a week, the sewing machine went from a clunky industrial tool to a commercially viable product. That product changed the world. Suddenly, the ability to sew garments quickly was in the hands of millions of people across the world. And it’s all because Singer’s intuition helped him to make the answer to an important question. Intuition, Creativity, and the Flow State Most people who’d used a sewing machine before Singer’s revolution would have approached it from a rational point of view. The machine worked, so why change it. They weren’t thinking about finding a solution because they didn’t think that a problem existed. He tapped into his intuition to ask the question and make the answer. And once he did that, he entered a flow state that resulted in a product that made him a millionaire. But if it was that easy, we’d all do it. Tapping into your intuition means accessing your super-intelligence. It means going beyond the boundaries of what’s rational. That’s important, because rationality is a barrier that prevents you from acting intuitively. You start asking too many seemingly intelligent and adult questions about what you’re doing. And that means you never enter the flow state that Singer achieved. Your fears, doubts, and questions about your course of action hold you back. You can’t rationally access your intuition and harness the power of creativity . The two concepts are in direct opposition to each other. Your intellect is not the key to turning the flow state on. And that’s where my earlier question about the definition of innocence comes back into play. The phrase “in no sense” isn’t just a clever play on words. It’s the exact state that you must enter in order to access your intuition. It’s about approaching a question or problem without any of the confines of intellect and rationality holding you back. That’s what children do. They haven’t learned “the rules” yet, so they approach everything in the state of “in no sense”. They’ll ask the question and make the answer, just like Isaac Singer did. That probably leaves you with another question: How can I access my intuition and harness its power? I have a couple of tips that might help. Tip #1 – Use the “What If” Technique This is a little mental exercise that trains you to rely on your powers of intuition over your rational mind. Just sit back for a couple of hours and start asking yourself a bunch of “what if” questions. What if I mixed the fundamentals of Facebook and Uber? What if I take the failure of Kodak and mix it with Instagram? What if I took one aspect of my business and mixed it with an aspect of another business? Now, here’s the key to this exercise. You’re not trying to think about all of the reasons why this can’t happen. That’s your rational brain getting in the way, which stifles your creativity. You’re just asking a question and trying to make an answer. And the possibilities are endless. You can ask “what if” about all sorts of situations, people, businesses, and whatever else comes to mind. Come up with ideas and play around with them for a while. You can approach them rationally again later. But in this state of “in no sense” you’re considering every possible solution. Tip #2 – Train the Skill Accessing your intuition isn’t one of those things that you either can or can’t do. It’s a skill. And like all skills, you need to train it. This is particularly important if you’re using my “what if?” method. You may struggle to come up with anything the first couple of times that you try it. That’s okay because you’re trying to access a part of your subconscious that you don’t usually use. Just keep trying. Set aside some time every day and train the skill. Eventually, you’ll access your intuition and “in no sense” state more regularly. The Final Word Rationality is an obstacle that gets in the way of creativity and intuition. Without those core components, you can’t enter the flow state . Follow my advice to train your mind to enter a higher level of consciousness. That’s how you’ll find answers that you’d never even consider when in your rational state. There’s so much more that I can tell you. I encourage you to sign up to a business review session so that we can explore how these ideas affect your business further. During the 2-Hour Business Review Session , my aim will be to help you see hidden opportunities in your business. During the session we can discuss any aspect of your business in which you would like support, such as: Growth Strategies Marketing Sales and Distribution Pricing and Packaging Consolidation Acquisition Merger/Sale, Capital Raising, IPO After 35+ years working with small and large businesses, buying, selling and growing them across a range of sectors, I can work with you on any level or area. And it all starts with a no-obligation 2-Hour Business Review Session . Share this: --- ## How to Spot Game Changing Business Opportunities That Others Miss URL: https://markfalzon.com/journal/how-to-spot-game-changing-business-opportunities-that-others-miss Published: 2018-08-02 Author: Mark Falzon Western Union Boss William Orton Was Offered The Telephone Patent For $100,000. He Said “No” Because He Saw It As a Novelty. But Just A Few Years Later He Offered Alexander Graham Bell $25 Million. What Can We Learn From Orton’s Mis-Read? You may have a great idea or a strong business. But you need the right business opportunities to get to where you need to go. That’s the tough part. So many businesses fail because they didn’t grasp the right opportunity at the right time. Many business owners don’t even see the business opportunities that are right in front of them. I’m going to help you to get to a place where you can spot these opportunities. But first, let’s look at a story about somebody who missed his chance. Western Union and the Telephone Everybody knows the name Alexander Graham Bell. The inventor of the telephone brought about a complete change in the way that society works. The phone offered instant verbal communication in a world that still relied on postage and telegraphs. It was a revolution. Bell and his partners, Thomas Sanders and Gardiner Greene Hubbard, saw the potential. So, they set course for Western Union to offer them the full patent to their new invention. At the time Western Union operated one of the largest telegraph systems in the world. In fact, they were the innovators of the transcontinental telegraph. That made them the major player in the communications sector. Bell and his partners asked for $100,000 for the patent to their new invention. And Western Union boss William Orton said no. In his mind, the telephone was little more than a novelty that would never replace telegraphs. We all know how wrong he turned out to be. A few years later, Orton lamented on one of the great business opportunities that he let slip away. He even told colleagues that he would consider a price of $25 million as a bargain for the patent rights. As for Bell and his partners? They created Bell Telephone and made millions from their invention. The company also gave rise to a number of “Baby Bells”, such as Verizon and AT&T. You may recognise these companies as some of today’s leaders in the telephone sector. Edison and the Ticker Tape Machine Here’s an interesting postscript to that telephone story. Western Union eventually hired Thomas Edison to make some small “improvements” to Bell’s telephone. Their aim was to create a version that they could patent for themselves. Bell caught wind of this and took the issue to the courts, where he won handily. But another story involving Edison sheds even more on how easy it is to miss game changing business opportunities . During the late 1800s, Edison made a number of improvements to the traditional stock ticker machine. Eventually, his redesign would lead to a Wall Street revolution. Like the telephone, Edison’s ticker tape machine allowed for faster communication of information. And like Bell, Edison decided to sell the patent. He prepared to meet the president of Westinghouse to negotiate terms. Edison was initially going to ask for £5,000 for his machine. But his wife convinced him to hold off on setting a price himself. Instead, he should let the company make an offer. And that’s exactly what he did. He asked Westinghouse to make him an offer. They came back with a figure of £10,000. Edison almost choked when he heard that offer. Here he was, about to make double the amount that he’d have asked for. But the Westinghouse president took that cough as a sign of reluctance. Before Edison could accept the first offer, the president offered him £20,000. Of course, Edison said yes. The pair shook hands and sealed the deal. That’s when the Westinghouse president arrogantly told Edison that he would have offered £50,000. Edison turned, smiled, and said: “I would have taken £5,000.” Spotting the Game Changing Business Opportunities With the help of his wife, Edison took the opportunity to make more from his work. In the case of Bell, Western Union missed out on one of the greatest business opportunities of the century. Now, you need to know how to ensure that no business opportunities pass you by. Here are my tips. Tip #1 – Surrender Your Beliefs How things are now is not how they will always be. Just look at the Bell story for an example of that. Western Union thought the telegraph would last forever. They weren’t open to accepting the telephone as the revolutionary idea that it was, which meant that they missed out. They were essentially operating with a programmed thought pattern. You need to do the opposite. Surrender your beliefs about what works and what doesn’t so that you can see things differently. Use meditation and journaling to transcend your rational mind. In doing so, you may come up with ideas that could revolutionise an entire industry. Or, you may see the potential in other people’s ideas that everybody else has missed. Turn things upside down and turn them around. Pull them apart and put them back together again. Do what you have to in order to surrender your beliefs about what works. That’s how you open your mind to new business opportunities . Tip #2 – Embrace Randomness Opportunities are all around you. But you may not spot them because you’re not putting yourself into positions where they can find you. I always recommend embracing randomness to my clients. Get out and meet new people. Visit places that you’ve never been to before. Travel. All of these things expose you to people and cultures that you’ve never encountered before. And there’s always the possibility that one of those things could present a new opportunity to you. The Final Word Businesspeople from all over the world have looked back on the opportunities that they missed. That’s what William Orton did after missing out on Bell’s telephone. In the end, he would have paid 250 times as much as Bell asked for to get his hands on that patent. Don’t allow opportunities to pass you by. Open your mind to new possibilities and consider every idea or offer that comes your way. Put yourself in positions where opportunities find you, rather than waiting at home and hoping something will happen. That’s how you spot the opportunities that other people miss. And there’s so much more that you can learn about finding opportunities and growing your business. And it all starts with a business review. During the 2-Hour Business Review Session , my aim will be to help you see hidden opportunities in your business. During the session we can discuss any aspect of your business in which you would like support, such as: Growth Strategies Marketing Sales and Distribution Pricing and Packaging Consolidation Acquisition Merger/Sale, Capital Raising, IPO After 35+ years working with small and large businesses, buying, selling and growing them across a range of sectors, I can work with you on any level or area. And it all starts with a no-obligation 2-Hour Business Review Session . Share this: --- ## The Concept of Leverage in Business (And How to Use It While Keeping Your Risk to a Minimum) URL: https://markfalzon.com/journal/the-concept-of-leverage-in-business-and-how-to-use-it-while-keeping-your-risk-to-a-minimum Published: 2018-08-02 Author: Mark Falzon Are you a business owner who wants to use leverage to grow your business? Make sure you read this advice before taking one step further. Every business owner wants to scale for growth. To do that, they need to know how to leverage their business to attract the right investors. I’m going to get to that in a moment. First, let me share a story with you about a company that I’ve learned about and the investors that they attracted. Protecting Yourself in Business This company seemed to have a bright future ahead of them. In fact, they were preparing to scale up their growth strategy and had started to attract investors. They wanted to offer equity in return for funds. This company used a stellar growth story and lots of blue sky opportunity to pull investors towards them. And it worked as they attracted two major investors. They convinced one set of investors to invest $2 million of equity into the company. But the other investor put their money into the company using a convertible note. They also took a mortgage over a piece of the company’s real estate as a security over the note. A couple of years later, the company hadn’t achieved the growth that it had aimed for. Due to bad strategy and a lack of control, the company was on the ropes. Eventually, it failed and ended up in bankruptcy. That caused problems for the first set of investors. They lost all of their money when the company failed. The second investor shows us how to invest properly. They’d secured an asset as part of their investment, which they took control of when the company failed. That asset ensured that this investor got their money back when things went badly. The company lost the asset, which the bankruptcy trustee would have sold off to pay other creditors if it weren’t promised to the second investor. So, what does this story teach us? It shows us that simply knowing which leverage tools you have at your disposal isn’t enough. You have to know how to use them properly if you’re to grow your business. Moreover, you need to have the right strategy in place to account for potential issues. This company didn’t do that and they paid the price. They gave up too much of their business in leverage. In doing so, they lost control and their strategy wasn’t strong enough to protect them. The business failed because the company didn’t know how to use leverage . What is Leverage? The above story highlights two things: How a business failed due to not using its leverage tools properly. How you could end up losing control of your business because of how you use leverage. Now, let’s answer the question of “ what is leverage” ? Leverage is a set of tools that your business can use to help with growth. It involves giving up something as leverage for things that can help your company grow. For example, a company can leverage its limited resources to gain access to funds or assets that it uses for growth. Many business owners see that and just jump right in. But if you don’t use leverage intelligently, you’ll end up like the client in my story. For growth, you’ll usually use three leverage tools: Investment Debt People Investment Let’s tackle investment first. In my example, the company allowed an investor to come in with a convertible note. Immediately, they had to meet certain conditions and KPIs to keep that investor happy. Plus, they sacrificed an important asset as security. In the end, they couldn’t meet those conditions and the business failed. So, if you’re going to use investment as a leverage tool, you have to do it the right way. You need a structure in place and you need to attract the right type of investor. Otherwise, you dilute your control over your own company. Debt Then there’s debt. By offering equity you’re putting your business into a debt position. That’s not always a bad thing. If you have a clear growth strategy in place, you can use this debt to help the business to grow. But if the strategy isn’t in place, this leverage tool becomes a noose. Debt spirals out of control and takes with it your hold over your own business. People The final leveraging tool is the people that you bring in. As part of your growth strategy, you may bring in new people and create a new leadership team. This means you need to create solid hiring and human resources strategies. If you don’t, you bring the wrong people on board. You’re not getting the outcomes you hoped for, which means you’re not satisfying your investors. Then you have to replace those people which costs even more money. All of this eats into your growth strategy. What You Need to Do If used well, all of these techniques allow you to use your leverage to grow your business . But if you get it wrong, you end up like the company in my story. I’m going to offer two tips that every business owner should keep in mind when they’re looking to use leverage. Tip #1 – Find the Right Mentor You can seek advice to help with your growth strategy. But you have to know what you’re looking for before you start working under a mentor. Credibility is the key thing. You’re looking for as much proof as possible that this is a person who offers sound advice. Check external testimonials and research their track records. Have they achieved success elsewhere? Do they have a network that you can take advantage of? Does it feel right in your gut? These are all questions that you need to answer. And that means taking your time and doing the research. Tip #2 – Beware of Diluting Your Holdings In your rush towards growth, you may forget about your own position in your business. And that’s a dangerous thing. Forgetting about the importance of your own holdings leads to you taking on investors that could damage your business. Control slips away and you could even end up losing control of your own company. Always make decisions with your own position in mind. If a leverage tool will damage your position, avoid using it and build a stronger strategy. The Final Word Using leverage correctly can be the key to growing your business. But so many business owners make key mistakes. They don’t put the right strategies in place. Instead, they just chase the money without thinking about the future. They use leverage poorly and the business fails. I can help you to avoid this situation. And it all starts with a business review. During the 2-Hour Business Review Session , my aim will be to help you see hidden opportunities in your business. During the session we can discuss any aspect of your business in which you would like support, such as: Growth Strategies Marketing Sales and Distribution Pricing and Packaging Consolidation Acquisition Merger/Sale, Capital Raising, IPO After 35+ years working with small and large businesses, buying, selling and growing them across a range of sectors, I can work with you on any level or area. And it all starts with a no-obligation 2-Hour Business Review Session . Share this: --- ## How to Stay Connected to What Truly Matters when you own a Fast-Growing Business URL: https://markfalzon.com/journal/how-to-stay-connected-to-what-truly-matters-when-you-own-a-fast-growing-business Published: 2018-06-08 Author: Mark Falzon A fast-growing business presents all sorts of new challenges. You may feel lost under the deluge of new work. It’s this loss of connection that can break a company when it’s right on the cusp of achieving success. You may find yourself with a fast-growing business . Fast growth means higher revenue and shows that you’re doing something right. You’ve found your niche and can build a strong company based on it. But there are several problems with fast business growth . You may struggle to manage your cashflow and fail to meet your customers’ needs. Then there’s the topic of this article. Business growth can lead to you losing sight of what made your business so special in the first place. You get lost under a sea of new work, reports, and responsibilities. The focus switches to productivity. In the process, you lose sight of your clients, your people, and yourself. That can be a death sentence for any fast-growing business . You may lose yourself in the rush to expand, which means you could lose the people who got you to that point in the first place. Staying connected to what really matters can be the key to managing a fast-growing business . One of my ventures offers the perfect example of this in action. The Health Centre Rebranding I operated an advertising agency in New South Wales that had a major healthcare provider as one its key clients. One day, they called us up to help them with a new campaign. The provider had undergone a sustained period of expansion. But they’d done it in an ad-hoc way. The growth was not consistent or cohesive, which had left them sending out mixed messages to the public. The task was to create a branding campaign that offered a cohesive message. The provider wanted to realign its position within the community. For that, it needed to solidify its message. With the brief created, we start to work on the project. For the next couple of weeks, we slaved over this presentation. Constant redrafts and edits took place up until the night before the pitch. At midnight, I realised that we hadn’t achieved what the client wanted. All of the stress and anxiety had led to a pitch that didn’t cut the mustard. This left us with a couple of options. We could plough ahead with the pitch that we’d worked on while knowing it didn’t serve the provider’s needs. Or, we could throw it away and go in fresh. The day of the pitch arrived. I stood in front of our client and drew a big question mark on the whiteboard. I then proceeded to tell our client their story of how we’d worked so hard, just to come up with nothing. During this pitch, I spoke about how I believed that what the client wanted covered far more than what their brief contained. It was a risky move. Without being disrespectful, I told the provider that the brief made it impossible to achieve what they needed. I then proposed extra workshops and discussions so that we could really nail it down. The CEO of the healthcare provider thanked us for our time as we left. I assumed that we’d lost the contract. The pitch was a disaster because we hadn’t really pitched a solution at all. I’d just been honest with the client. What I didn’t realise at the time was the value of that honesty. It’s what had brought us to the dance in the first place. Honesty was one of the key factors that had allowed us to create a fast-growing business . I received a phone call from the CEO of the healthcare provider at the end of the day. He told me that we were absolutely right. The brief hadn’t covered everything that the provider wanted to achieve. Moreover, none of the other agencies that pitched had been so honest with them. They’d crafted presentations that made themselves look good. But they hadn’t considered the provider’s needs. They just wanted the contract, rather than wanting to ensure the provider got what it needed. In the end, we earned the contract through our honesty. Connecting to What Matters This contract represented a huge step that could result in fast business growth for my company. It would have been all too easy for us to just craft a great-looking pitch that didn’t provide a service to the client. But in doing so, I’d have lost my connection to what really matters to me. And that’s offering an honest service that achieves the client’s goals. None of the other pitchers that day did that. They based their pitches on poor briefs instead of considering what the provider really needed. I recognised that the brief didn’t cover enough ground. After that, it was all about having the courage and confidence to be honest about it. I stayed connected to our company’s core business values, instead of chasing the dollars that the contract would bring. In doing that, my company earned both the contract and the trust of the healthcare provider. This reinforces the point made at the beginning of the article. With a fast-growing business , it’s all too easy to lose that connection to what really matters. The constant chasing of figures and productivity reports may mean that you lose sight of the people behind them. You may find yourself only looking at the hard figures instead of the soft aspects of the business. But it’s those soft aspects that often help you to stay connected to what truly matters. Tips for Staying Connected With Your Business Thinking about my story has allowed me to break the connection issue down into three parts: Connecting with yourself Connecting with your people Connecting with your clients Each feeds into the other. If you don’t understand your connection to yourself, you may not be able to create the vision that a fast-growing business needs. You might also struggle to connect with your people if you can’t connect with yourself. They may not understand what you hope to achieve. As a result, you could lose those connections, which has a direct effect on your results. Losing your connection with your people could also create business-wide problems. These may result in you losing sight of your connection to your clients. And if that happens, the business may not be long for this world. Your clients may instead seek out those who can form those connections, which could leave your business failing. So, how do you maintain these connections when you have a fast-growing business ? Here are three tips for staying connected to what matters during fast business growth . Tip #1 – Don’t Neglect Yourself As your business grows, it can encompass everything in your life. You may no longer define yourself by your interests and whatever it is that makes you who you are. Instead, your business could end up defining you and dictating your every action. That’s sometimes a dangerous place to be in. You could lose sight of the forest for the trees. The values that you formed the business on run the risk of getting compromised. Moreover, your energy levels may tank as you have no way of escaping from the business. I have a simple method for dealing with this. Every morning, I wake up early to take a walk. It doesn’t matter what I have planned for the day. I still wake up to take that morning stroll. Moreover, I spend that time listening to things that might inspire me. I’ll usually play some music or an inspirational speech as I walk. Sometimes I just listen to the sounds of nature that surrounds me. Here’s what that stroll achieves. It gives me an hour or two each day to connect with myself. That stroll may be the only part of my day that doesn’t relate to my fast-growing business . The key is that it energises me because it allows me to connect to myself. The walk gets my body in gear while the content that I listen to broadens my mind. I’m not just thinking about the business. Instead, I’m connecting myself to what it was that allowed me to succeed in the first place. It’s about staying centred and grounded. These morning walks allow me to approach my work with the right energy. Find whatever it is that keeps you connected to yourself. This differs depending on the person. You may prefer a quiet cup of coffee in front of the TV. Or, you could spend an hour meditating before starting your day. It’s all about connecting to yourself so you can strengthen your connections to your people and your business. Tip #2 – Convey the Right Energy to Your People Connecting with yourself may be the key to entering work with the right energy. It’s that energy that often helps you stay connected to your people. If you’re anxious, stressed, and negative, your people may act in the same way. They may be able to detect the energy that you bring into the room. If it’s a negative energy, their own energies may reflect that. That could be how you lose your connection to your people. They may no longer enjoy working with you because of your negative energy. As a result, they may not enjoy their work and you could end up with a cultural problem that affects your business. A positive and refreshed energy should inspire the same in your people. Reconnecting with yourself may be the best way to get that energy. This may give you a better chance of keeping your best people in a fast-growing business . Tip #3 – Never Lose Sight of Your Clients Losing your connection to your clients may be the first visible sign that you’ve lost touch with the important stuff. Your clients might jump ship because you’re not providing them with the service they expect. That may happen because you lose your connection to yourself and your people. But you often don’t see that until your clients start to disappear. Here’s an interesting stat for anybody with a fast-growing business . Acquiring a new customer can cost up to 25 times as much as keeping an existing one. Yet many make acquiring new customers their main goal in achieving fast business growth . It’s certainly important. But you can’t lose your connections to your existing customers along the way. Howard Schultz realised this when he returned to the position of CEO of Starbucks. The previous administration had focused too much on growth. In doing so, they’d lost their connection to their customers. Schultz brought a customer-focused approach. This trickled down from the leadership to the entire organisation. As a result, Starbucks succeeded in maintaining its current customer base as it grew. Maintaining your internal connections can help to keep your business running. But never forget about the most important connection of all. Your customers expect a certain level of service to match your brand’s message. Ensure you meet those expectations throughout your growth period. The Final Word Owners of fast-growing businesses often lose sight of the most important things. It’s their customers, their teams, and themselves that usually got them to that point. Losing your connections to those things under all of your work may be a recipe for disaster. You may need guidance to ensure you maintain those connections. That’s where I can help. During a 1-Hour Business Review Session, my aim will be to help you see hidden opportunities in your business. During the session we can discuss any aspect of your business in which you would like support, such as: Growth Strategies Marketing Sales and Distribution Pricing and Packaging Consolidation Acquisition Merger/Sale, Capital Raising, IPO After 35+ years working with small and large businesses, buying, selling and growing them across a range of sectors, I can work with you on any level or area. And it all starts with a no-obligation 1 Hour Business Review Session . Share this: Tags: fast business growth , fast-growing business , tips on staying connected with your business. --- ## Founder Of 4 BRW Fast 100 Companies Reveals How To Take Your Business From Where it is to the Next Big Jump URL: https://markfalzon.com/journal/founder-of-4-brw-fast-100-companies-reveals-how-to-take-your-business-from-where-it-is-to-the-next-big-jump Published: 2018-06-04 Author: Mark Falzon If you’re not ready to take your business to the next big jump, you’ll remain stagnant. Preparation and anticipation is the key. Here’s what to look out for. What do you think holds you back from moving your business to the next big jump ? Many business owners feel shocked to discover that they are the reason why their business hasn’t grown. The decisions that they made during the start-up stages set them up for stagnation right off the bat. That’s a bad position to be in. Seeing that your business could have pushed on if not for an earlier decision can break your heart. That’s something that I almost found out the hard way. Simply Saying “No” I helped to found a catering company called Blue Rock with my business partner Pete Mumford. Originally, we worked out of our home kitchen. But a slew of orders for the Christmas period meant that we needed to move to a new location. We simply didn’t have the capacity to grow the business from home. We did all of the preparation and handled the tactical side of the upgrade. This meant ensuring a secure cash flow and a line of credit were in place, just in case. We also made agreements and signed contracts with various suppliers. All of this in preparation for the very heavy period that was to come. We also managed to find a kitchen that would suit our purposes at that point in time. But we also knew that we must always have a forward-focus. That’s how you prepare for the big jump later on. The landlord wanted to secure Blue Rock to a long-term lease that would tie us into the kitchen for several months. That’s when we said “no”. Instead, we asked our agent for a lease that we could break with a month’s notice if need be. At first, this seems like a risk mitigation strategy. If you can break the lease quickly, you can escape the monthly rent payments if the business starts struggling. But we had something much grander in mind. We thought ahead to the big jump of the future. The reason for the extra condition was that we wanted to be able to break the lease when the business grew. It made sense too, as we knew the premises couldn’t scale up to our ambition. It was just a good solution for the “here and now”. If we got tied into it, it placed a limit on our growth. Our agent got to work and secured the lease that we wanted. Sure enough, the premises served its purpose for that busy Christmas period. And from there, the business continued to grow. Soon after, Blue Rock had to break the lease so that we could secure new larger premises. Imagine if we’d agreed to tie ourselves into the original lease. We’d have ended up paying two leases just to allow our business to expand. By saying no to the first lease offer, we prepared Blue Rock for the big jump that was to come. We also learned one of the most important lessons in business – you can say “no” to the first offer if it doesn’t fit with your future vision . Current Reality to Future Vision It all comes down to weighing your current reality against your future vision . Does that reality help you to achieve the next big jump ? That’s the question that we asked when we were trying to lease premises. The kitchen we found certainly served the current purpose. But it wasn’t large enough to suit the future vision that we had in mind. Tying us into an unbreakable lease would have delayed the achievement of our future vision. At worst, it would have raised costs so much that we wouldn’t have achieved that vision. The lessons I learned during this allows me to break the big jump process down into three critical components: Marketing Serviceability Cashflow Firstly, you create a strategy to market the business. How do you attract the business in the first place? What plans do you put in place to bring the clients to you? Without that plan, you can’t take that next big jump . You’ll probably stagnate and possibly even decline. Secondly, you consider how you’re going to service the increased demand that your marketing strategy creates. That’s what really applies in my story. We knew that the demand would increase due to our marketing efforts. The premises we had wouldn’t allow us to service that increased demand later on. Thus, we put measures in place that would allow us to expand quickly when needed. Finally, there’s the cashflow issue. Many business owners plough the profits they generate from their current business into the future vision . As a result, they lose money as they grow. That’s not how you take the next big jump . The key is finding a way to bring these three elements of the growth cycle together without damaging profits. An ideal strategy allows you to grow the business without losing money. But how do you do that? I’ve come up with several tips that deal with both the hard and soft side of your business. After all, aligning both is what ensures the next big jump goes off without a hitch. Achieving Your Vision – The Hard Side The hard side of your business relates to the financial figures and the key metrics. It’s also about your location, your capacity planning, and the strategies that you put in place to grow. Here are my tips for preparing the hard side of your business for the next big jump . Tip #1 – Understand Capacity Planning This is the tip that relates most directly to my story. Many small business owners make the mistake of only considering current capacity. They often don’t plan ahead for the future. This leaves them stuck in premises that can’t scale up as they grow. They may see an increase in orders or clients. But they don’t have the capacity to take them on. Capacity planning involves figuring out where you want to take the business in the future. Do you have what you need right now to take on an increased capacity? If not, do you have a plan in place to increase your capacity when the time comes? Don’t make the mistake of only considering the downside risk. The growth risk is also a major issue. Inadequate capacity planning may lead to your businesses growth causing issues. The key is to consider both down and upside risk in your risk planning. Sure, you have to work out what you’ll do if the business doesn’t perform to your expectations. But you it may also help to have a plan in place to deal with the risk of the business growing faster than you expected. Mitigating the risk for both may be the best way to handle capacity planning . Tip #2 – Create a Cash Buffer Of course, having a plan for growth may mean little if the numbers don’t align correctly. Inconsistent cashflow could mean that you can’t fund the growth, even if you know that you need it. Ideally, you want to lock your profit into your capacity planning. This should ensure that the business doesn’t lose money as it grows. Perhaps the biggest mistake you could make is to throw everything that you have at the growth phase. Many small business owners reinvest all of their profits into making the next big jump . But in doing that, they may leave themselves in a precarious position once they make the jump. There could end up with no cash buffer to fall back on if things go the other way. Ask yourself these key questions to understand your numbers: What’s my risk profile? Do I have a stable cash flow? Does my business rely on market cycles? Is there a seasonal element to my business? The answers to these questions should determine the cash buffer that you need to have in place to help your business grow safely. For example, a seasonal business with an unstable cash flow usually takes on more risk as it grows. There are often months where you won’t generate the revenue you need. Your cash buffer should cover you for those months so you’re ready to maximise revenue during the busy season. This cash buffer may give you the breathing space that you need to execute your capacity planning strategy. Achieving Your Vision – The Soft Side The soft side of the business relates to your people and your culture. Failing to align this with the hard side often causes issues. If your people aren’t ready for the next big jump , they may not put their all into achieving it. Here’s my advice for preparing the soft side of the business. Tip #1 – Create a Cultural Development Plan Every business has a culture that they want their people to align themselves with. But that culture usually develops over time. As the business grows and you learn, you’ll often alter the culture accordingly. A strong cultural development plan should help you to do this. With the plan, you can put strategies in place that should keep your people aligned with where the business will go in the future. Talk to your people about your culture and what you want it to evolve into. Tell them how you plan to grow the business and the steps that you need everybody to take to get you there. Bring your team along with you for the ride. That extra transparency often goes a long way towards earning the trust of your team. And a trusting team is much more likely to align itself with your culture. Tip #2 – Create Personal Development Plans Your team isn’t just one homogenous mass. It’s full of individuals who have their own desires and aims. Aligning those aims with your growth plan may help you to keep your best people. Consider working with each individual to create personal development plans. These outline the current reality and future vision of the person within the business. Treat them with the same amount of care as you do your business. Figure out where the person is now and what their vision is for the future. This may help you to create a sustainable plan around that vision that highlights how your business helps them to get there. This shows the individual that they’re an important part of your larger future vision . As a result, they may understand the vision and will support you in achieving it. The Final Word The decisions that you make right now can have a serious effect on the future of your business. My story shows how a single decision allowed my business to take the next big jump . How do you do the same? Align the hard and soft sides of the business. Consider doing the following: Create a capacity plan that considers both the downside and growth risk. Have a cash buffer in place that’s relevant to that risk. Create a cultural development plan that shows your people where you intend to be in the future. Work on personal development plans for each of your people. I can help you to plan for your business’ next jump. And it all starts with a no-obligation 1 Hour Business Review Session . Share this: --- ## How To Use The Flow State To Make The Best Business Decisions Of Your Life URL: https://markfalzon.com/journal/how-to-use-the-flow-state-to-make-the-best-business-decisions-of-your-life Published: 2018-05-07 Author: Mark Falzon We all know how good it feels to get into the flow. You fire on all cylinders and accomplish more when you’re in your groove. But how can you achieve this flow state with more regularity? This article shows you how. The flow state is a special thing. When everything flows together, you feel unstoppable. Business decisions come easily and everything locks into place. You can simply achieve more when you’re in your flow state . Unfortunately, your flow isn’t a perpetual thing. But it’s when you’re in this state that you can achieve more than you thought possible. I want to tell you a story to show you just how powerful the flow state can be. Danny Way’s Miracle Jump Author Steven Kotler often writes about the idea of the flow state . In one of his books, he discusses the story of a remarkable skateboarder named Danny Way. Those who follow the sport may already know of this man’s achievements. But for those who don’t, what follows is a recounting of the flow state in action. It all started with an idea. In 2005, Way wanted to try to jump over the Great Wall of China. To achieve the feat, he would need to use something called a MegaRamp. Introduced to the skateboarding world in 2003, the MegaRamp is as its name implies. It’s a huge ramp that allows skateboarders to generate immense speeds prior to making a jump. This, in turn, means that they travel greater heights and distances with their jumps. A fly-over trip to the Great Wall led to Way settling on the idea. Moreover, he decided that he wanted to jump the Ju Yong Guan gate. For those who don’t know much about the wall, this gate is its widest point. To add to the pressure, Way knew of a BMX rider who had died in an attempt to achieve a similar feat. Everything needed to go perfectly to help Way achieve his feat. That’s when the MegaRamp architect realised he’d made some miscalculations. The ramp he’d built may not help Way to reach the height that he needed to achieve the jump. The architect made the call, telling Way: “I think you’re going to have to clear more than 75-feet to make this… Isn’t that just too gnarly?” Way’s response? “Nothing’s too gnarly!” It’s a response that resonates in skating culture to this day. In that moment, Way had made it clear that he was going to attempt the impossible. The setup created for the day of the jump took your breath away. The ramp and roll-in combined to create a 100-foot lead-up to the jump. The gap itself was an astonishing 70 feet and Way had to land on a 32-foot quarterpipe to complete the jump. Way describes skateboarding as a “game of failure”. He also describes the state of mind that he finds himself in before trying such stunts. “When I’m really pushing the edge and skating beyond my abilities, there’s a zone I get into,” he says. “Everything goes silent. Time slows down. My peripheral vision fades away. It’s the most peaceful state of mind I’ve ever known” That’s the flow state . The jump didn’t go perfectly. Way decided to try a practice run before filming the stunt for television. That run resulted in an under-jump, with Way crashing to the deck. He rag-dolled for 50 feet before coming to a stop. A fractured ankle, swollen steering foot, and torn ACL were Way’s rewards for his first attempt at the jump. Any normal human being would give up right there, but Way did things differently. 24 hours later, he stood at the top of the MegaRamp and was ready to try again. With 125 million people watching on television, he made the jump and set two world records. Then, he did it four more times just to showcase his skills. All of this with the injuries that he’d suffered the previous day. You don’t have to be a skateboarder to appreciate the remarkable nature of this achievement. Not only did Way manage to stand despite his injuries. He also accomplished a feat that put his body under four g-forces of pressure. That’s about 800 pounds of pressure as he entered the quarterpipe. The most remarkable thing is that this type of story isn’t a rare occurrence. There are an untold number of tales of people pushing beyond the bounds of human capability to achieve amazing things. It all comes down to the flow state . This particular state of mind unlocks your potential and allows you to achieve the extraordinary. What is the Flow State? Way provides a good explanation of the flow state in the above story. He describes it as a state of mind in which all external influences go down to zero. He reaches a special zone and achieves a peaceful mind-frame. In that moment, nothing but the task at hand matters to him. Psychologist Mihály Csíkszentmihályi provides a more scientific explanation of the flow state . He popularised the term in the 1990s and describes it as: “the optimal state of consciousness where we feel our best and perform our best.” All other thoughts fall away and every action flows from your previous action. Time seems to fly by and everything that you are gets absorbed into what you’re doing. He also describes ten factors that go into the creation of the flow state : Focusing solely on the activity at hand Clarity of vision in regard to your goal A loss of all self-conscious thoughts The participation in an activity that rewards you An intense concentration Not keeping track of the time as you work Feeling in total control over your situation A complete belief in the fact that your skills will help you to achieve your goal The ability to provide instant feedback to yourself on your progress Losing awareness of your physical being and needs Now, you don’t need to achieve all ten of these to get into the flow state . But let’s see how these relate to what Way achieved. Way had a clear goal and believed in his skills. He also clearly lost awareness of his physical needs. If he hadn’t, there’s no way he’d have achieved the feat with his injuries. The rest apply to Way’s mental state, which he describes in the quote above. Way had achieved the flow state as described by Csíkszentmihályi. Creating Flow – The Tips The flow state can help you to make better business decisions because you have complete focus. But how can you achieve it? Here are four tips for creating flow. Tip #1 – Do What You Love If you don’t love what you do, you never commit your mind fully to the task at hand. It seems like such an obvious statement. But there are so many people out there who wonder why they’re not achieving the level of success that they believe they’re capable of. Often, it comes down to them not being absolutely in love with what they do. Look at the example of Danny Way. This is a man who lives and breathes skateboarding. Just having the gumption to try what he tried can tell you that. His deep passion for his work allows him to focus on nothing but that work. If you’re not enjoying the task at hand, you can’t lose yourself in it. You’re thinking more about what you need to do to make the task end. That means you’re not focused on the journey that the task takes you on. If you don’t have passion, you won’t achieve a flow. Look for projects that excite you and you’ll find yourself achieving more and making better decisions. Tip #2 – Match Your Skills to the Task If your skills don’t match the task at hand, you’ll struggle to accomplish your goals. Again, it’s a simple statement. But think about how many times you’ve had to do something that you’re not suited for. You spend more time on research and thinking about how you’ll accomplish the task than you do actually completing the task. In the end, it comes down to preparation. Have you developed the skills needed to accomplish your goals? Have you prepared properly for the task before starting it? If you can answer “yes” to both of those questions, you’re more likely to achieve the flow state . This means that you complete more work, which allows you to make more informed business decisions. This point also extends to your organisation’s people. If you’re assigning tasks that don’t align with somebody’s skills, they can’t achieve a flow. This results in a slowdown that affects your business decisions. Tip #3 – Eliminate Distractions What are your phone, social media, and those conversations you’re having with other people? In the context of the task at hand, they’re distractions. Each distraction pulls your focus away from what you need to achieve. And if you’re not focused on your task, you can’t achieve a flow. Let’s go back to the example of Danny Way. A lot of preparation went into his jump. But once he’d ascended the MegaRamp, there was nothing around to take his eye off the prize. He drowned out the noise around him and was at one with the task. You need to achieve a similar environment. Turn off your phone and don’t allow distractions to cloud your thought. Keep your mind on the task at hand and you’ll achieve the flow state . Tip #4 – Give Yourself Some Time So, you’ve created a distraction-free environment and you know that you have the skills. But you’re not getting in the flow straight away. You get frustrated at this fact, which makes it impossible to achieve the state that you’re looking for. Flow isn’t always something that you can just slip into. It often takes a little time for you to get into it. You may spend half an hour typing at your computer before the flow hits. But that’s just part of your process. The minute you start overthinking and wondering why you’re not in the flow is the minute you prevent yourself from achieving the flow state . Again, it comes down to your focus. You distract yourself with your own thoughts when you worry about the time it takes to achieve a flow. Just keep working and you’ll find yourself in the flow, often without realising you’ve gotten there. The Final Word When you’re in the flow, you can achieve so much more than you thought possible. Danny Way proved that with his Great Wall of China jump. You can apply that same mindset to helping yourself achieve your business goals. To sum up, here’s what you need to do to find your flow state : Know exactly what you want to achieve Ensure you’ve prepared for the task and that you have the skills needed to accomplish it Eliminate anything that may pull your focus away from the task Be patient with yourself and don’t overthink things I can help you unlock the secrets of flow. It all starts with our 1-hour Business Review Session. During the session, my aim will be to help you see hidden opportunities in your business. We’ll discuss any aspect of your business in which you would like support, such as: Growth Strategies Marketing Sales and Distribution Pricing and Packaging Consolidation Acquisition Merger/Sale, Capital Raising, IPO After 35+ years working with small and large businesses, buying, selling and growing them across a range of sectors, I can work with you on any level or area. Do you want to find your flow? Join me for a no-obligation 1 Hour Business Review Session to start unlocking the secrets. Share this: --- ## How to Be More Creative and Intuitive In Business URL: https://markfalzon.com/journal/how-to-be-more-creative-and-intuitive-in-business Published: 2018-05-02 Author: Mark Falzon Without a creative spark, your business flounders. You can’t come up with the “next big thing” that will keep your customers interested. In the end, your competitors overtake you. Here are four science-backed tips for developing creativity. How much do you value creativity within your business ? It’s an important question. Creativity is the source of almost every success that your business may experience. Somebody has to come up with an idea, be it for a new product or an innovative sales strategy. If you don’t have those ideas people, you’ll struggle to solve problems. That’s something that many clients come to me to deal with. They need to find that spark that pushes them onto the next level. Before digging into my tips for developing creativity , I want to highlight some research that provides some context to my advice. The Research The first piece comes from the Center for Talent Innovation (CTI). Based in New York, the CTI aims to bridge cultural and diversity gaps to unlock the talent in people. The organisation believes that bridging these divides helps businesses develop creativity. It also offers research to back this up. In 2014, the CTI pooled together 40 case studies, along with 1,800 employee surveys. This combination of research pieces looked at the topics of inherent diversity and acquired diversity . Inherent diversity links to the traits that you’re born with. Your ethnicity and gender are good examples of inherent diversity. The idea is that your diversity comes as a result of the specific experiences you’ve had as part of a group. Acquired diversity involves the traits that you gain from your experiences. For example, working in a different country allows you to acquire diversity. You pick up information about other cultures, which you can then apply to your work. The CTI’s research revealed some startling statistics. Firstly, it found that a publicly-traded company that has inherent diversity is more likely to expand market share than one that doesn’t. In fact, such companies were 45% more likely to have expanded their market share in one year. That’s not all. Such companies are also 70% more likely to have expanded into new markets during the same period. The research didn’t stop there. The CTI also wants to understand how a company’s internal diversity affects its innovation. It found that having people who represent your target market has a marked effect. Companies that fit this criteria were over 150% more likely to understand their audience. As a result, they could create and innovate in-line with what their target market wants. My second example comes from a Deloitte report made in 2012. The report examined three major Australian businesses and looked at 1,550 employees in total. It also found that diversity levels played a large role in the success of such companies. In fact, the report measured an 80% business performance improvement in companies that have high diversity levels. So, what are we to conclude from all of this? Diversity matters. Inherent diversity provides your business with different perspectives. As a basic example, a woman will understand the needs of women better than a man. That’s a broad generalisation, but you understand the basic point. Acquired diversity allows you to learn from experience. For example, somebody who has worked in India understands the culture. As a result, they can facilitate measures that target the Indian market better than somebody who hasn’t worked in the country. Of course, diversity isn’t the only thing that you need to bolster your organisation’s creative output. There are several things that can help you in developing creativity and intuition. Before looking at some of those things, let’s change gears again. Here’s a case study of how one of the world’s most prominent entrepreneurs leverages his own creativity. Richard Branson – Creative Marketing Case Study Everybody reading this will know of the Virgin Group and its founder, Richard Branson. You’ll also know that he’s one of the most successful people in the world. His successes in business have allowed him to generate a personal net worth of US$5 billion (AU$6.5 billion). Diversity within his organisations plays a huge role in this. But Branson employs his creativity in other areas. In fact, he’s perhaps one of the most creative marketers in the world. Here’s just a short list of some of the stunts he’s pulled over the years: Multiple attempts to circumnavigate the globe in a hot air balloon. If he had achieved success, Branson would have been the first person to achieve the feat. As it happened, he didn’t. But he still generated a ton of publicity for these efforts. Upon opening Virgin Brides, Branson donned a wedding dress. Again, Branson applied his own adventurous mind to the benefit of one of his businesses. How do you celebrate your new airline’s first flight? In Branson’s case, you bungee jump off the side of Las Vegas’ Palms Hotel and Casino. You also crash into the building a couple of times while ripping your trousers. Virgin Galactic’s launch needed its own publicity stunt. Branson provided it again by turning up to the press conference wearing a spacesuit. When Branson opened Spaceport America, he needed a new way to get attention. His solution was to abseil down the side of his own building while drinking a glass of champagne. There’s no denying that Branson has an adventurous soul. And these publicity stunts likely indulged that nature, to a certain extent. But they did so much more than that. The sheer creativity involved in each got people talking. It’s practically impossible to ignore the businesses that Branson creates when he’s willing to go to such lengths to promote them. Moreover, this is an example of using acquired diversity to the benefit of a business. Branson’s adventures had helped him with the skills needed to try such stunts. He put that to good use to build a buzz around his work. Some may argue that such stunts promote the brand of Branson, rather than his companies. But Branson has an indelible link to the Virgin Group. You could argue that anything that promotes Branson also promotes the business. 4 Tips for Developing Creativity (According to Science) These marketing examples all showcase the same thing. They’re creative ways to get the word out about a new venture. Now, I’m not saying that you have to start jumping off the sides of buildings to expand your business. But you do want to emulate the passion and creativity that Branson demonstrates. That leads to the key question – “ How do I become more creative ?” I’ve already covered diversity within your organisation. But here are a few more tips, with the research that proves that they work. Tip #1 – Try Guided Meditation Guided meditation is a technique that I regularly employ with my clients. It’s a simple process. You meditate in accordance to the guidance that somebody else provides. The guide may ask you to think of certain things or try to get you into a different state of mind than you’re currently in. There’s a reason for this attempted alteration of mindset. We’ve become so conditioned to think in certain ways that we think it’s ridiculous to do things differently. That’s the enemy of creativity. If you can’t think differently to the status quo, you’re not going to come up with any new ideas to expand your business. Here’s how I do it. Firstly, think about whatever challenge that you’re facing in your business life. Then, choose an animal and approach the problem from that creature’s perspective. What solution would the animal come up with? It feels a little odd and silly, doesn’t it? But that’s the point. The route to creativity and greater intuition is “In No Sense”. You’re creating an environment where the established rules don’t apply. This means you can create new ideas with no restrictions. The science backs up the power of meditation in aiding creativity. A research paper published in the Frontiers in Psychology journal offers more information. It examined various forms of meditation and found that using them allowed for divergent thinking. This is the state that I want you to achieve during guided meditation. Divergent thinking takes you away from the norm, which allows you to think creatively. Tip #2 – Spend Time in Nature When’s the last time that you escaped the confines of the office and explored? Getting out into nature helps you to escape whatever stresses you’re struggling with in life. But it also has another purpose. It can get your creative juices flowing. It all comes down to your perspective. When you’re in nature, you’re not deep within the culture that your organisation has created. This allows you to see things differently. Your mind clears and you can approach problems from a fresh perspective. Researchers at the University of Kansas provide evidence of this. They took 120 people to different natural locations in Colorado, Alaska, and California. The study found that exploring natural locations leads to increased cognitive function. The best part is that it boosts creativity by up to 50%. Tip #3 – Travel More This tip ties into the acquired diversity point I made earlier. Travelling opens your mind to new experiences and cultures. You experience unknown sounds, sights, and sensations that leave a permanent impression. Most importantly, you can apply these new experiences to your work. But a week spent lying on a beach somewhere isn’t enough to get the creative juices flowing. Interaction with local people and immersion into the culture are the keys. That’s how you can figure out how other people think. A study published in the Academy of Management Journal demonstrates this in more detail. Researchers looked at the output of some of the world’s leading fashion houses over an 11-year period. They found that the travel experiences of each house’s creative directors had a direct impact on the creative output of the business. Don’t just hire people who have travelled. Boost your own acquired diversity whenever you travel. Immerse yourself into local cultures and try to understand why different people think the ways that they do. Tip #4 – Get Blue We all draw associations between colours and different mindsets. Red associates with danger, whereas green associates with envy or illness. That was the idea behind a University of British Columbia study. Researchers examined 600 people to see how colour affected the way that they think. They had each person perform tasks on a computer. Some performed tasks on a computer with a red screen, whereas the rest performed tasks on a blue screen. The study produced remarkable results. It found that those working on the blue screens created two times more creative outputs than those using the red screens. So, blue is the colour of creativity. It makes sense too. When we think of the colour blue, we think of the ocean or the sky. These are open-ended environments that we associate with tranquillity and peace. What better environment can there be for the facilitation of creative thinking? Try adding a little blue to your life. You’ll find that your creative output increases due to the associations your mind creates with the colour. The Final Word Creativity isn’t something that you’re just born with. It’s a skill that you can nurture through your own actions. Experiencing new things and changing the ways that you think can help you to get into a creative mindset. There are several ways to do this: Develop diversity within your organisation Engage in guided meditation Spend more time in nature Travel and immerse yourself in foreign cultures Leverage the colour blue to your benefit During a 1-Hour Business Review Session, I can help you to unlock the creativity that your business needs to thrive. During the session we can discuss any aspect of your business in which you would like suppo --- ## A Guide to Dashboarding (And How It Can Help Your Business) URL: https://markfalzon.com/journal/a-guide-to-dashboarding-and-how-it-can-help-your-business Published: 2018-04-17 Author: Mark Falzon Business dashboards provide the key metrics that allow you to make better decisions. Think of them as an ECG of your business. Here we examine what they are and how they can help you. Structure. It’s not the most attractive of words. But it lies at the heart of every single business. With proper structure you can figure out where you are and where you’re going. Your business structure props up the entire company. If you have a weak structure, the business fails. You have nothing to support the dozens, or even hundreds, of processes that the business needs to succeed. But a strong structure ensures you have everything in its proper place. This creates the foundation from which you can build a successful business. Dashboarding plays a key role in creating the modern business structure. But before looking at that, I want to tell you a story about my consultations with many other businesses. The Need for Business Structure My successful background in business has led to many companies bringing me in to help them succeed. There’s something that I see far more often than I expect. Many of the businesses I work with don’t have regularly scheduled meetings. They have no processes in place to track performance. In some cases, they don’t even have sales reports. Simply put, they have no idea what’s happening in the day-to-day running of the business. They only know if they’ve done well for the year when they receive their profit reports from their accountants. 12 months is a long time to wait to figure out if you need to take action in a business-critical area. Of course, there are signs that a business may not be doing as well as it could. A leader may notice that there’s not much money in the bank. If there’s no money, the product clearly isn’t selling. This puts a halt to any other plans that they may have had. But they don’t know why there’s no money. They can’t take a look at their business and figure out where things are going wrong. That’s because they have no hard structure in place. What is Business Structure? Your business’ structure is what helps you to figure out the problems that hold it back. It all comes down to fear. It’s the belief that you’re not safe that shows you how important business structure is. It’s the fear you feel when there’s no money in the bank account, but you don’t know why. This fear causes leaders to become controlling or over-demanding. In the end, the fear drives you out of business. The right structural balance provides the remedy to that fear. It’s what will help you to redevelop the trust in your team. Teams that have trust outperform teams that don’t. They communicate well, take on problems collectively, and work to the benefit of the business. Trust also helps your people to build the systems and processes that your business needs. With those in place, your business runs like a well-oiled machine. But there’s a problem with structure. It’s not the most exciting thing in the world. In fact, many of the leaders that I work with can’t stand it. They want to go freeform with their businesses and let them evolve without getting involved in the nitty gritty. Yet it’s that very nitty gritty that creates the foundations of your business. It’s how you move forward from your current reality into your vision. Resisting the creation of that structure means you’re resisting your own success. It’s the hard structure that’s often most difficult to create. Many leaders hire others to manage their side of the business that deals with productivity and profit. They deal with the soft structure, which is often much easier to influence. Dysfunction occurs when communication between these two structural sides breaks down. The business structure falls apart because there’s no bridge connecting them. Dashboarding is the key. With proper dashboarding, you can help each side of your structure understand the language of the other. In doing so, you help each understand the importance of the other. What are Soft and Hard Structures? Your overall business structure comprises two types of structure: Soft Structure Hard Structure Soft structure relates to your people. Think of it as the “being” side of the business. It covers everything from your people and the emotions that drive them, through to your values and vision. It’s about the people involved in the business and how what they do correlates with the business’ vision. This is something of an intangible concept. As a result, it’s very difficult to measure the success of your soft structure. However, it’s much easier to manipulate this structure than it is your hard structure. Your hard structure relates to the business’ output. It’s the “doing” side of the company. Your products, systems, and processes all fall into this category. These are the hard systems and tangible processes that keep the business running smoothly and ensure it produces. It’s much easier to work out the figures that relate to your hard structure. However, it’s also much more difficult to change the hard structure. Doing so usually requires a complete organisational overhaul of products or processes. As you can see, these two types of structure are often at odds with one another. Hard structure deals with the cold, hard facts behind the business. Soft structure deals with the less tangible emotions and feelings behind it. Striking a balance between the two ensures the creation of a successful business. But many of the managers I work with place too much focus on the soft structure. They’re passionate about their visions, but not about the hard processes that help them achieve those visions. As a result, they don’t implement dashboarding in their businesses. The Types of Dashboards You Need In Business Business dashboards are a fairly simple concept. They show you what’s going on underneath all of the data that your business generates. That’s a key concept. Every business generates a ton of data, especially in the modern age. Sifting through it is one of the biggest problems that your business will face. Without dashboarding, you’re often left to wonder what all of these stats and figures represent in real terms. If you can’t figure that out, you can’t create a good hard structure for your business. Let’s look at a few of the business dashboards that can help you. Marketing Dashboards Keeping track of your marketing efforts helps you to figure out how far your content reaches. This is particularly important in the digital age. Your website and social media accounts offer you access to an enormous worldwide audience. But poorly structured marketing efforts lead to none of this audience paying attention. A marketing dashboard helps you to figure out if your marketing hits the mark. Figure 1 – https://www.datapine.com/dashboard-examples-and-templates/marketing You’ll often see marketing dashboards in digital formats. They’ll track metrics such as: The amount of people who visit your website How much time people spend engaging with your material How many people look at your material and don’t engage with the business With these metrics, you can figure out what goes well and what doesn’t in relation to your marketing efforts. This helps you to adjust your structure to create marketing materials that hit the mark. Accounting Dashboards In the end, it all comes down to the financial metrics. If your business doesn’t generate revenue, it fails. You can use dashboarding to keep track of your money. Moreover, it provides a much more accurate account of your finances than quickly checking your bank account. Figure 2 – https://www.klipfolio.com/resources/dashboard-examples/executive/accounting-dashboard Accounting and financial dashboards help you to figure out all sorts of things, including: How much money you make on a daily basis Where you’re spending your money What’s happening with your invoices Which creditors you must repay This information helps you to develop a more comprehensive financial structure. Instead of relying on yearly reports from an accountant, you get up-to-date information on a daily basis. This helps you to spot operational problems that cost you money. Identifying the problem is the first step in fixing it. Sales Performance Dashboards Sales dashboards almost bridge the gap between marketing and financial dashboards. Typically, they offer an “at-a-glance” impression of how well your product or service sells. They may include some basic financial metrics, such as how much revenue the business earns. They may also include some basic marketing metrics, such as where your biggest sales opportunities come from. Figure 3 – https://www.klipfolio.com/resources/dashboard-examples/executive/sales-performance They’re a way for you to get an overall view of the different departments in your business and how they’re performing. From a sales dashboard, you can figure out: Which products and services are the best performers Whether you’re hitting your targets How today’s performance compares to yesterday’s performance This data helps you to identify your current reality and how you can make structural changes to achieve your vision. The Difference Between Lagging and Leading Indicators Dashboarding turns a lot of data into key performance metrics, or indicators. But there’s a problem. Some of these indicators relate to your soft structure while others relate to your hard structure. The names for these are “lagging” and “leading” indicators. A lagging indicator relates directly to your output. Examples include: New revenue Operating income Outgoing expenses These are very easy to measure, but quite difficult to influence. As a result, they relate to your business’ hard structure. Leading indicators relate to your input. They’re much more difficult to measure, but they’re also easier to change. They can include things like: How customers perceive your business Your brand’s influence The number of innovations you’ve made Usually, your leading indicators influence your lagging indicators. Think of lagging indicators as the end result, whereas leading indicators are the processes you used to achieve those results. When viewed like this, you can see how they combine to influence your business decisions. For example, a lagging indicator may show you that a certain aspect of the business isn’t performing to your expectations. This will lead you to closer examination of your leading indicators. In doing so, you’ll figure out ways to influence the outcomes you get from your lagging indicators. Dashboarding helps you to keep track of these indicators. As a result, it has a huge influence on how you structure your business. The Final Word You can’t build a solid structure without paying close attention to your indicators. Dashboards are the best way to keep track of them on a daily basis. You’ll identify problems quickly, which helps you to define both the soft and hard structures of the business. At Behind the Scenes, we can help you to unravel the complexities of business structure. It all starts with our 1-hour Business Review Session. During the session, my aim will be to help you see hidden opportunities in your business. We’ll discuss any aspect of your business in which you would like support, such as: Growth Strategies Marketing Sales and Distribution Pricing and Packaging Consolidation Acquisition Merger/Sale, Capital Raising, IPO After 35+ years of working with small and large businesses, buying, selling and growing them across a range of sectors, I can work with you on any level or area. And it all starts with a no-obligation 1 Hour Business Review Session . Share this: --- ## How I Took Our Company from $0 to $12 Million in Sales in 3 Years – by Doing the Opposite to Everybody Else in Our Industry URL: https://markfalzon.com/journal/how-i-took-our-company-from-0-to-12-million-in-sales-in-3-years-by-doing-the-opposite-to-everybody-else-in-our-industry Published: 2018-04-17 Author: Mark Falzon Anybody can conduct business in the same way as everybody else. It’s the businesses that create “wow” moments that achieve the most success. Here’s how to do it in your business. Do you have clients who rave about your service? Or, do you have clients that are happy enough but aren’t helping you to sell more products? Maybe you fall into the latter camp? If so, you’re not alone. Many business owners find themselves there. I sure did. I relied on established business models to deliver my services, which meant I didn’t stand out from the crowd. Take the catering business I opened with several business partners in 2011. At first, we followed the same business model as so many other catering companies. We’d take bookings, often over a year in advance, and then deliver on the booking when the time came. That’s a huge lead time that left plenty of opportunity for things to go wrong. We found that many catering companies do very little with this lead time. They agree on a service with the client and don’t contact them again until a couple of weeks before the due date. Nothing about that process enthuses the client. Nobody’s getting excited about the catering business because there’s nothing to get excited about. There are no touch points or wow moments. As a result, the client doesn’t become a raving fan who wants to talk about what we do with their friends, colleagues and team. They’re just somebody who’s ordered the service and then waits for it to arrive. We recognised this flaw in our business plan and set about fixing it. Our goal was to create wow moments that would get clients talking long before we delivered our service. What is a Wow Moment? “Wow Moments” are a pretty simple thing, but so few businesses manage to deliver them consistently. For our business, it could relate to the moment the client first tastes the food. If it exceeds their expectations, you get a wow moment. Another example is food delivery time. If that first meal arrives at the table at precisely the right time, you’ve created another wow moment. Every business has them. Apple’s iPhones generate “Wow Moments” because they do things nobody thinks you can do with a mobile phone. Other companies may rely on their customer service to generate wow moments. At its simplest, a “Wow Moment” occurs when you offer the client more than what they expected. As a result, they’re not something that occurs by chance. You have complete control over your wow moments, to the point that you can – and must – build them into your company’s structure. But I’ll get to that in just a little while. First, let’s look at the two key benefits of creating wow moments. Benefit #1 – You Get Clients Talking About You Let’s come back to our year-long lead time for the catering service. That’s an entire 12 months during which we had clients who said absolutely nothing about our business. That’s one wasted year when it comes to generating word of mouth and getting referrals. Instead, any positive buzz that came from our service started from the date that we delivered it. We wanted to get clients talking about us before that, so we built wow moments into those 12 months. These wow moments don’t have to be huge. They just need to be something that the client isn’t expecting. For example, a well-timed gift basket delivered as a thank-you to the client serves as a wow moment for us. Other businesses may use discount vouchers, thank-you emails, or hundreds of other moments. All of these little wow moments get clients talking about your business. Again, take our gift baskets as an example. When a client received one, they loved that we cared about them enough to think beyond our main service. So, what did they do? They went to their friends and told them about this lovely gift basket they’d received from their caterer. As a result, those friends heard about us months before we provided the actual catering service. That’s putting that year of lead time to good use. By the time we delivered our main service, the client was already raving about us. As a result, we’d picked up some new clients before they’d even tasted our food. Benefit #2 – You Build Trust With Each Moment With my business, the key wow moment came upon the delivery of the food. Let’s say the client asked for the first meal to be on the table at 7:30pm. If we deliver the food at that exact time, we’ve created a major wow moment. But there’s so much that could go wrong that prevents us from doing that. An issue in the kitchen could delay that first meal by a few minutes. Even something as small as the table arrangements could affect that delivery. If that happened, we’d lost our wow moment. As a result, we had less chance of that client becoming a marketing force for our business. That’s why we built wow moments throughout the entire client relationship. Every little moment, be it the gift basket or an email, reinforced the emotional connection the client had to us. Each also built trust in what we do. The client was already wowed by our service by the time we came to deliver it. As a result, little things going wrong didn’t matter so much. Our “big” wow moment may not come to pass because of the issues I’ve mentioned. But every other wow moment we created along the way meant the client still trusted us. They knew that we’d fix the problem and deliver a great service because that’s what we’d been doing for the entire year. That trust is a huge benefit of building wow moments into your client journey. Everything that deepens the relationship leads to higher sales. But it’s something that nobody else seemed to be doing. It’s All about Structure I’ve mentioned building wow moments into your company structure, so let’s elaborate on that. Your relationship with your clients is a journey. Over the course of that journey, you’ll have several “touch points”. These are times when you may be able to wow the client with what you do. The important thing is that these touch points don’t happen by chance. They’re something that you can build into the structure of the service that you provide. Let’s go back to my catering business. Our major touch point comes on the day of delivery. That’s when the client gets to taste the food and find out that it exceeds their expectations. You can consider this the moment of truth. But that’s not always enough to turn that client into a raving fan. Usually, you just have somebody who enjoyed a good meal. It’s the touch points that we built into the client journey before that big moment that turned customers into fans. Turning each of these touch points into wow moments built client trust. That got people talking, which meant we got a year’s worth of marketing where other catering companies had nothing. You can apply this philosophy to any business endeavour. It’s all about creating a great client journey. Plotting Your Client Journey Every client goes on an emotional journey when they engage your company. Yes, they want to enjoy the product that you deliver. But they also want to feel connected with you and what you do. The stronger you make that connection, the more likely it is that you’ll turn customers into raving fans. So, how do you do that? It’s all about focusing on the client journey. For my business, this involved recognising that the journey doesn’t begin when we deliver the food. It often begins before we’ve even spoken to the client. The wow moments we created for other clients often encourage others to start the client journey. But you need something that you can apply to your own business. Here are the five steps to creating a client journey. Step #1 – Create a Buyer Persona Before you can sell to anybody, you need to understand who you’re selling to. How does your typical customer behave? Do they have particular likes and dislikes for you to keep in mind? Put yourself in the shoes of somebody who’s buying from your company. What does that person look like to you? These are all important questions to ask because they let you figure out who your audience is. When you know who you’re selling to, you can create a tailored customer journey to match that buyer persona. Step #2 – Identify the Buyer’s Goals Now that you have the persona nailed down, it’s time to look at your buyer’s specific goals. It starts with a simple question: What does my buyer want to achieve from using my service. For me, the buyer’s goal was to deliver great food to their guests. They relied on me to make that happen. That’s the main goal, but many forget that buyers have other goals along the way. These include: Ensuring they find somebody with a strong reputation Getting the service at a reasonable price Finding out more information from you Your client’s journey requires you to meet all of those goals. Step #3 – Identify the Touch Points This is where you get into what I’ve spoken about throughout this article. A client’s touch points are any time that they’re in contact with you. It doesn’t matter who initiates the contact. What matters is that you turn every touch point into a wow moment. Figure out your touch points and then figure out how to exceed the client’s expectations with each one. In doing so, you structure wow moments into your service. Step #4 – Figure out the Pain Points Don’t assume that everything will go perfectly in your customer’s journey. The issues I mentioned earlier about kitchen problems and table layouts show that perfect isn’t always possible. Any potential obstacle in the client journey is a pain point. Identify where each may occur and then fix the problem. For example, you may need to train employees to meet a certain standard. Or, you may not deliver your message as well via mobile devices as you do via your desktop-optimised website. Anything that may hold up the client journey is a pain point that you must focus on. Step #5 – Revisit the Journey The previous four steps help you to create a great client journey. But you can’t assume that it’s perfect. There’s always something for you to fix. Some clients may experience problems that your journey model didn’t anticipate. A new technology may come along that changes the journey entirely. When you revisit the journey, you can adapt it to meet these new challenges. The Final Word So, how did I turn a $0 business into a $12 million one? I created wow moments where other businesses failed to create any. I focused on delivering an exceptional customer journey that started long before I delivered any food. You can do it too. Every business has touch points and potential wow moments. Figure out where yours are and you’ll enjoy higher sales. During the 1 Hour Business Review Session , my aim will be to help you see hidden opportunities in your business. During the session we can discuss any aspect of your business in which you would like support, such as: * Growth Strategies * Marketing * Sales and Distribution * Pricing and Packaging * Consolidation * Acquisition * Merger/Sale, Capital Raising, IPO After 35+ years working with small and large businesses, buying, selling and growing them across a range of sectors, I can work with you on any level or area. And it all starts with a no-obligation 1 Hour Business Review Session . Share this: --- ## How I Used Strategic Thinking To Sell My Business For Millions URL: https://markfalzon.com/journal/how-i-used-strategic-thinking-to-sell-my-business-for-millions Published: 2018-04-17 Author: Mark Falzon Do you know how to be a strategic thinker? It’s a skill that you can learn surprisingly easy. Here’s my story and 3 strategic thinking tips I’ve picked up along the way. You need to be more strategic. It sounds like a simple piece of advice. And on the surface, it makes sense. Your company needs a strategy in order to achieve success. You need to know where you want to go and how you intend to get there. But what does the word “strategic” actually mean? It’s a fluid concept that can mean different things to different people. That’s what makes it so frustrating. You can’t figure out how to be a strategic thinker if you can’t even define what strategic means to you and your industry. In this article, I aim to do a few things. Firstly, I’m going to tell you a story about how I used my strategic thinking skills to the benefit of my business. Secondly, I’m going to define strategic thinking. Finally, I’ll provide a few tips on how to be a strategic thinker that you can apply to your business. My Story Entrepreneurship is my bread and butter. It accounts for many years of my life and I have a true passion for the world of business. During my career, I’ve learned a simple truth about business. My limitations are my business’ limitations. What I mean by this is that my ability, or lack thereof, to think strategically affects the success of my business. If I can think outside the box and provide more value to clients, I succeed. If I can’t, I don’t. It’s about expanding consciousness and awareness to create a strategy that appeals to me and my clients. Moreover, my strategic thinking skills directly relate to my creative abilities. I’ve spoken at length about the catering business that I co-founded in Sydney several years ago. As a start-up business, we needed to find a way to compete. We wanted quick growth and needed to activate our leverage well. We identified that caterers often take one of two routes to success. They either provide high volumes at low quality, such as is the case with a small caterer that provides worker’s lunches. Or, they provide high quality at low volumes. We wanted to flip the script and provide high quality at high volume. Our background contributed to the strategic thinking skills that we applied to this conundrum. We weren’t like many in the catering space because we didn’t come from a food-related background. We came from a business background. This allowed us to figure out the key success driver in the catering industry. The food comes second to the venue. Anybody who holds an event has to find somewhere to hold it. And there are only a limited number of venues available. Our strategic thinking shifted from trying to sell the quality of our food to trying to sell the quality of ourselves. We applied this thinking to our tenders. Instead of telling venues that we’d provide the best food, we treated them like business partners. We showed them how working with us could help them to expand their horizons and increase their revenue. Simply put, we focused on the business of food, rather than the food itself. This made our pitches stand out. Other caterers in the same space focus on the quality of their food. They may also talk about the skills that their teams have, or the many years they’ve been in business. We treated the quality side as a given. Our company offered the same level of quality, but we pitched a relationship that went beyond what other caterers offered. We focused our pitches on how we would help the venue to raise its revenue. After all, its revenue that’s the key concern for every business. Or, as legendary sales guru Frank Bettger put it better: “The best way to get what you want is to find out what other people want and help them get it.” The sum up, we knew that venues wanted two things: Quality catering Higher revenues Other caterers focused on the first thing, but didn’t pay attention to the second. We flipped the script and showed them how they’d make money with us, as well as enjoy great catering. The end result of applying our strategic thinking skills to the catering industry? In just three years, our catering business had received several national catering awards. We’d also secured contracts with some of Sydney’s largest and most prestigious venues. In fact, we only lost out on a single tender during those three years. When it came time to sell the business, we had plenty to offer buyers. The business had a track record for quality catering. But it also has a strategy in place for winning tenders. Our approach had given us the leverage required to achieve fast success. The lessons you learn from this show you how to be a strategic thinker. What is Strategic Thinking? Think of it like a process. With strategic thinking, you assess a situation and create a plan based both on what you discover and your intended future. This makes it a valuable tool for business owners. You can apply strategic thinking skills to every business decision that you make. It’s about treating your end goal as a problem that you need to solve. In doing so, you engage your own sense of logic, as well as your creative spark, to come up with a solution. In our case, the problem related to how to quickly grow a catering business in a competitive industry. Logic told us that we need to get the venues on board, rather than try to sell ourselves solely on the quality of our food. Creativity came into it when we tried to figure out how to do that. That’s where our pitches for tenders came into play. We approached them from a creative angle that set us apart from everybody else. In doing so, we achieved success. Moreover, strategic thinking isn’t just something that you can apply to your professional life. It’s relevant to all of the decisions you make in your personal life too. Simply put, it involves devising strategies that allow you to achieve your goals. Of course, you also need to know how to be a strategic thinker. These three strategic thinking tips will help you to develop your skills. Tip #1 – Seek Out Trends It’s so difficult to see the big picture when you have a lot of work on your plate. The temptation is to just get your head down so you can get on with what you need to do. You barely come up for air, which means you miss the ways the industry changes around you. Key information whizzes by and you approach your work without much thought for where you’re going with it. You just get a job done with no real goal in mind. To understand how to be a strategic thinker, you must understand the importance of knowing your industry. Learn about the trends that affect the industry and its key drivers. Pay attention to the major issues, both within your company and those that affect the industry at large. Connect with others in the industry and learn from them. They’re often a great source of information in regard to what others aren’t doing to fulfil client needs. Finally, use this information to devise a way to make your organisation stand out. In our case, understanding industry trends meant figuring out how other catering companies pitch to clients. From there, we could use our strategic thinking skills to figure out how to separate our pitches from theirs. Industry trends also affect your vision. They help you to anticipate how your industry will move and react to different things. In doing so, you learn about how your decisions affect both yourself and others in the industry. Tip #2 – Ask Difficult Questions It’s not always easy for business owners to accept their shortcomings. They already have their strategies in place. If things aren’t working out, many people double down and hope that hard work will see them through. To become a strategic thinker, you have to ask the difficult questions. Moreover, you have to figure out answers to those questions. Ask yourself things like “what does success look like during my first year?” Expand on that too. Figure out what success looks like for you in year two, three, and beyond. After that, ask yourself about the factors that affect that success. What could have a negative impact on your business? What do you need to get right to achieve your intended successes? What do your business partners need to understand and provide to help you to move forward? Ask and answer these tough questions as early as possible. Your answers provide you with a greater understanding of your industry and what you need your business to achieve. From there, you can work out a strategy that helps you to achieve your goals. Tip #3 – Think of it Like a Jigsaw Puzzle The aim of a jigsaw puzzle is pretty simple. You have a bunch of pieces and have to figure out how to slot them together to create a cohesive whole. But that jigsaw puzzle teaches you how to be a strategic thinker. It’s all about taking in the information that you have available to you so you can figure out how to achieve your goal. In the puzzle’s case, the end goal is the completion of the puzzle. The pieces are the bits of information that you have to put together. When you add a piece to the puzzle, you affect the entire thing. Use this approach with your business. Everything you learn about your industry, yourself, and your partners are pieces of your business jigsaw puzzle. Strategic thinking is all about figuring out how to put those pieces together to achieve your end goal. As each piece slots into place, you receive more information that helps you put the rest of the puzzle together. In our case, the solution to the puzzle was the fast growth of our catering business. The pieces included the many venues, our own service, and our pitches. As we gathered more information, we put more of the pieces together until we had a strategy that solved the puzzle. The Final Word Your strategic thinking skills can spell success of failure for your business. Hopefully, we’ve helped you figure out what strategic thinking is and how to be a strategic thinker. We’ll leave you with some final words of guidance: Figure out what everybody’s already doing in your industry. This allows you to pick out gaps that you can fill. Don’t avoid the difficult questions. If you don’t have the answers yet, that means you don’t have enough information. Approach your goals like a puzzle. The information you collect helps you to solve that puzzle. It’s just a case of putting the pieces together. At Behind the Scenes, we can help you to become a strategic thinker. It all starts with out 1-hour Business Review Session. During the session, my aim will be to help you see hidden opportunities in your business. We’ll discuss any aspect of your business in which you would like support, such as: Growth Strategies Marketing Sales and Distribution Pricing and Packaging Consolidation Acquisition Merger/Sale, Capital Raising, IPO After 35+ years of working with small and large businesses, buying, selling and growing them across a range of sectors, I can work with you on any level or area. And it all starts with a no-obligation 1 Hour Business Review Session . Share this: --- ## I Made Millions in My Business - And I was Miserable. URL: https://markfalzon.com/journal/i-made-millions-in-my-business-and-i-was-miserable Published: 2018-04-17 Author: Mark Falzon How to avoid the trap of assuming financial success brings fulfilment. By the time I was in my early-20s, I’d achieved “success”. I’d followed my passion for filmmaking and evolved my work to take in advertising and marketing. My wife and I lived in a gorgeous home, had all of the latest gadgets, and plenty of money. We travelled a lot and I was even the president of my local Chamber of Commerce. I should have been so happy. But I wasn’t. In achieving my “success” I’d lost sight of my vision. I wasn’t working out of passion anymore. Instead, I dedicated myself to something that took me further away from my vision. I felt so disillusioned that I torched everything in my life. Within six months of my realisation, my marriage had ended and my “successful” business was in tatters. I was back to square one, and from that place, I realised I needed to refocus on my passions. My misery paved the way for my eventual fulfilment. But I did it the hard way. I had no idea what the Hero’s Journey was, or how to go about aligning my life to my vision. Now, I do, and I am driven to share this with other entrepreneurs. What to Do if My Story Describes Your Life Situation I imagine that many of the people reading this feel the same. They’re unfulfilled in their lives and work. You may have achieved all of the success you thought you wanted, but something’s missing. Thankfully, the years since my own deconstruction have helped me to figure out what I should have done differently. I’m now going to describe a few steps for you to take if you want to feel happier in your work, life, and relationships. Step #1 – Learn About the Creative Process Despite working in a creative field, I wasn’t really conscious about the process behind my work. As a result, I didn’t respect the many small achievements that go into creating something new. It’s not just about the idea and the end result. There’s an entire creative process that goes into your work. Author, filmmaker, and composer Robert Fritz outlined this process with his own framework. His process focuses on the psychological aspect of creating, rather than the artistic. In particular, he distinguishes between being creative and having a creative process. Being creative means you have ideas. You can free your mind to come up with these ideas, but that doesn’t mean you’ll do anything with them. The creative process is how you make those ideas a reality. According to Fritz, it’s about aligning two key data points: Your current reality Your vision Fritz also makes the argument that everything we see in the world comes from the creative process. Take the tablet computer that you may use to read this article as an example. Somebody came up with the idea and then developed it via the creative process. They figured out what components the tablet needed to exist and brought that information together to create an end product. In doing so, they turned their vision into the current reality that we have now. Start by clarifying the difference between your current situation and the outcome you want to achieve. This creates something that Fritz calls a “creative tension”. Then, figure out what you need to do to bridge the gap between the current reality and your vision. This bridge outlines the actions you must take to make your vision a current reality. Using this framework, you prompt your mind to focus on the creative tension. Your brain naturally wants to relieve this tension, so it starts coming up with solutions. It’s all about achieving equilibrium between the idea and the end product. I have an exercise that simulates this process. Follow these steps: Write down ten things about your current reality. Write down ten things about your vision. Imagine your current reality is your left hand, and your vision is your right. Stretch an exercise band between your two hands. This creates a palpable tension in the band that represents your “creative tension”. The further your hands are apart, the more difficult it is to reach your vision. The temptation is to simplify your vision to relieve the tension. In my example, you may just bring your hands together. This may lead to success, but it also leaves you feeling unfulfilled. After all, you’ve done nothing to relieve the creative tension the band creates. Instead, recognise that you need creative tension to create the best solution. Embrace it and use it to help you create. You’ll feel more satisfied with the results than if you took the easier way out. Step #2 – Start With Why Entrepreneurs always think that they have clear visions for what they want to achieve. I thought I did. I wanted to make films and build a successful production company. Upon achieving those goals I kept going. As I mentioned earlier, my work evolved to the point where I was dealing with marketing and other work that wasn’t part of my passion. I’d lost sight of why. It’s all about connecting your business vision to what you want to achieve with your life. This means finding a motivation other than financial success. Here’s the mistake I made. For a while, I disconnected from my filmmaking vision while in pursuit of the trappings of success. I made a lot of money, but I didn’t know why I was doing what I was doing anymore. Apple’s Steve Jobs is an excellent example of starting with why. He became one of the world’s most successful entrepreneurs, but that was never his why. Jobs loved elegance and simplicity, which are key qualities that all Apple products embody. His why was to make a complicated technology accessible to as many people as possible. Achieving that goal meant that he found fulfilment beyond the money and accolades heaped on him by others. I think that every entrepreneur should do the same. Your why shouldn’t be some future vision of richness and traditional success. The studies I mentioned above show that this isn’t the key to your fulfilment. Instead, make your why something that you’re truly passionate about. Whatever you do should mirror who you want to be in the world. It’s when you start straying from this purpose that you’ll start to feel as I once did. Once you know your why, you’ll unleash something that I call “supernatural aid”. It’s not as strange as it may sound. Supernatural aid is that extra bit of motivation, that extra push, which keeps entrepreneurs going through the tough times. When you have true passion for your why, you’ll feel fulfilled when you achieve it. Step #3 – Create a Dream Poster Now that you know your why, it’s time to create something powerful that will push you towards it. I’m a big fan of using dream posters for this. Think of dream posters as a visual to-do list. You collect a bunch of images that represent your vision and create a collage out of them. I enjoy using Pinterest for this. This social media site offers access to thousands of inspiring images. Pin the ones that mean the most to you to a special board and you have your dream poster. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with creating a physical poster either. Once you have your images, prioritise them. Place the pictures that resonate most closely with your vision on the poster’s prime locations. The most important image goes right in the centre, with everything else building from it. I want to share a personal story about my experience with dream posters. My wife, Michelle, and I decided to create a dream poster to help us reach our goals. For six months, we collected images in a folder that resonated with our whys. Then, one day, we decided to just go for it. The process started with us removing the images that weren’t essential to our visions. I call these the “like to haves” rather than the “must haves”. This whittled our images down to those that resonated with our vision. After that, we worked in tandem to select the images that resonated with both of us on an emotional level. It’s all about your connection to the images. If they don’t inspire an emotional reaction, they won’t help you to reach fulfilment. It took four hours for us to create our dream poster. In the process, we had a bunch of deep and interesting conversations that helped us to clarify our visions further. Over the next seven years, we kept the poster nearby. Over that time, we collectively achieved many of the goals that the dream poster represented. I had created films I was passionate about. Michelle wrote her own book. Together we went on many adventures together. Everything on our dream poster became a reality at one point or another. Use yours as a constant motivator that offers clarity of vision. Step #4 – Visualisation Using Your Dream Poster I mentioned how we used our dream poster to visualise our goals. Here are a couple of examples. My wife and I had never really discussed having a family before. At the time, we’d dated for about a year and weren’t ready for children. Yet we both collected family-related images during the six months prior to creating our dream poster. We also decided to keep these images when whittling down our selections. As a result, we both discovered that having a family was something we visualised for ourselves. It may not have been the most important goal right now. But putting it on the dream poster meant that we both recognised it was part of our collective future vision. We now have a son, meaning that vision became a current reality. An even stranger example relates to a picture of a scooter. My dream poster contains a picture of a scooter leaning against a pillar that’s part of a house’s veranda. I’d never put too much thought into that scooter. It was the house that was part of my vision. But a meeting with a client showed me just how powerful the dream poster was as a visualisation tool. She pointed to the picture and told me that my own home had a scooter resting against a veranda pillar. This wasn’t a conscious decision on my part. Yet, I still had exactly what I’d visualised on my dream poster. Here’s the point. Your dream poster is a visual representation of your vision. Using it as inspiration allows you to mould your current reality into what you visualise for yourself. Step #5 – Write a Magazine Article Writing is just as powerful a visualisation tool as a dream poster. I recommend writing a magazine article to help you to align your vision with your current reality. Here’s the trick. Imagine that you’re a journalist who’s interviewing a version of you from five years into the future. The story your journalist character creates will appear in your favourite magazine. Think of the questions the journalist might ask and how you want to be able to answer them in five years’ time. Use this information to write the magazine article. Focus on your achievements in business, your relationships, and your life. This exercise in future fantasy can help you to put a concrete focus on your vision. It outlines what you hope to achieve, meaning you can put the processes in place to get there. Read your magazine article after writing it. Like your dream poster, it tells you what you really want to achieve beyond the traditional idea of “success”. The Final Word You may not know it but these are five crucial steps on the Hero’s Journey. By following my advice, you’ll do the following: Understand the importance of creative tension in helping you to attain fulfilment Figure out the why that gives your life and work purpose Visualise the specifics of your vision Bridge the gap between your vision and your current reality During the 1 Hour Business Review Session , my aim will be to help you see hidden opportunities in your business. During the session we can discuss any aspect of your business in which you would like support, such as: * Growth Strategies * Marketing * Sales and Distribution * Pricing and Packaging * Consolidation * Acquisition * Merger/Sale, Capital Raising, IPO After 35+ years working with small and l --- ## 23 ideas to grow your business faster URL: https://markfalzon.com/journal/23-ideas-to-grow-your-business-faster Published: 2017-11-23 Author: Mark Falzon Here are 23 ideas, many of which, to varying degrees, will accelerate the growth of your business. Some of these ideas are simple and easy to implement. Others are much more complicated and expensive. These are the top results from a recent Google search on How To Grow Your Business Fast. The interesting thing about all of these ideas however, is that they all refer to the what to do or the how to do it but not the why. I don’t mean why you need to do these things but the bigger why. Why you are doing what you do. Simon Sinek suggests that the reason many of the highly successful global brands are so successful is that they have figured out their big why. Apple figured out their why and became the biggest company on the planet and attracted a massive global tribe that resonated with that why. So, what’s your why? Open another location Offer your business as a franchise or business opportunity License your product Form an alliance Diversify Target other markets Win a government contract Merge with or acquire another business Expand globally Expand to the Internet Give Stuff Away for Free, and Create a Buzz About You and Your Business! Innovate, Don’t Duplicate! Create a Company Culture to Be Proud Of! Spend more time in sales Be a niche player Launch a lead generation campaign Revamp your unique selling proposition (USP’s) Build your reputation Get connected Build an alliance Increase your price Be competitive Align Outcomes This is a great Ted video worth watching – Simon Sinek: How great leaders inspire action. Share this: --- ## Big Rocks… URL: https://markfalzon.com/journal/big-rocks Published: 2017-11-23 Author: Mark Falzon When things in your life seem almost too much to handle, when 24 hours in a day are not enough, remember the mayonnaise jar and the 2 Beers. A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him. When the class began, he wordlessly picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls. He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was. The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls. He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was. The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else. He asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with a unanimous ‘yes.’ The professor then produced two Beers from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar effectively filling the empty space between the sand. The students laughed. ‘Now,’ said the professor as the laughter subsided, ‘I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life. The golf balls are the important things … your family, your children, your health, your friends and your favorite passions … and if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full. The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house and your car. The sand is everything else … the small stuff.’ ‘If you put the sand into the jar first’, he continued, ‘there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls. The same goes for life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff you will never have room for the things that are important to you. Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness. Spend time with your children. Spend time with your parents. Visit with grandparents. Take your spouse out to dinner. Play another 18. There will always be time to clean the house and mow the lawn. Take care of the golf balls first … the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand.’ One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the Beer represented. The professor smiled and said, ‘I’m glad you asked. The Beer just shows you that no matter how full your life may seem, there’s always room for a couple of Beers with a friend.’ Anonymous Share this: --- ## Hurry up and Wait URL: https://markfalzon.com/journal/hurry-up-and-wait Published: 2017-11-23 Author: Mark Falzon Sitting by the pool late one evening in Bali, I was reflecting on my journey and the constant questioning by my children, “Dad, when are we going to be there?” My reply was always the same, “hurry up and wait”. Have you ever noticed this when you are travelling? It’s all about hurry up and wait! Quick, wake up, we have to get to the plane on time. Racing around. Final packing. In the car, racing to the airport. And then, out of the car and the hurried dash to the check-in counter and then through immigration and customs to finally arrive at the departure lounge where you sit and wait with everyone else that has just gone through this same crazy dance. Waiting, waiting, waiting. Flight is delayed. More waiting and then the gates open and everyone hurriedly climb on board the plane only to sit there while you wait for the plane to take off. Sometimes this waiting seems to take forever. Flight delayed again! Waiting for clearance to use runway 223 … Then finally the plane races down the runway and into the air you travel. Up and up. And then there it is again. The waiting. You wake up to the captain announcing that you have started your decent and that you should fasten your seatbelts. The next hurry up is about to hit. The plane lands and taxis to the arrival gate. Everyone anxiously waiting for the seatbelt light to go off and then the hurry up begins. Jump up, grab your bags from the overhead locker, stand up and wait. Finally the aisle starts to move and you hurry off the plane to get to baggage claim, customs and immigration and then you wait while you are processed. Out the other side, find a taxi and race to your hotel. Check-in and hurry to your room and then finally you can rest. The hurry up and wait game has come to an end. At least for now. It seems that life can be like this at times. It’s all about hurry up and wait. I certainly see it in business all the time. And if you understand this game it allows you to pace and position yourself so that you know when it’s time to hurry up and when it’s time to wait. This pulsating theme occurs naturally in all areas of nature. Each time your heart beats, blood races through your body and then everything stops for a moment and waits for the next pump, the next big push. I think this natural rhythm occurs in business all the time. Some entrepreneurs understand this rhythm and can judge when it is time to hurry up and when it is time to wait. Like a master surfer positioning himself for the perfect wave. He waits until he can see a set coming and then he hurries up to get himself into the perfect position to catch the wave. Then he waits for the wave to arrive and then he hurries to get on the wave so that he can enjoy the ride. Enjoy the blissful moment where all the hurrying and waiting comes together. What are you hurrying to achieve in your business at the moment? Have you got yourself in the right position? Is it time to wait for the wave or go looking for it? Or, what are you waiting for in your business at the moment? Will you be in the right position when it arrives? Hurry up and wait becomes effortless when you know the rhythm. If you know where you are going and you know what the rewards are then it is much easier to hurry and get into position and then wait for the magic to begin. Sitting here in Bali and watching my kids enjoy the moments has been magic. No more hurrying and only me waiting for them to get out of the pool and have some lunch. Share this: --- ## Is reputation everything? URL: https://markfalzon.com/journal/is-reputation-everything Published: 2017-11-23 Author: Mark Falzon Is reputation everything? I’m not sure about that. You see our reputation is something outside of us. It is a set of beliefs that other people formulate about us. For example, you could show up in the world in one way and 10 different people could have a different point of view about who you are and about your reputation depending upon a range of things, such as their background, race, social status, point of view or belief structure. You could then bend yourself in all directions to create a reputation for each. It seems to me that perhaps what is more important than reputation is character. This is something that you have control over. If you live your life according to your values, on purpose and with character, how other people see you is then up to them and at least you are in alignment with your truth. So perhaps developing your character is everything and your reputation will just follow. Share this: --- ## Is your net on the right side of the boat? Small changes can make a big difference! URL: https://markfalzon.com/journal/is-your-net-on-the-right-side-of-the-boat-small-changes-can-make-a-big-difference Published: 2017-11-23 Author: Mark Falzon For many years I have enjoyed deep sea fishing and have sometimes spent hours motoring from one spot to another trying to find fish. I have often found you can be just a few metres off a mark and catch nothing. Along comes another boat and props right next to you and they immediately start pulling in a great haul. For anyone that did Sunday school as a child you will recall that parable where the fishermen were out in their boat trying to catch fish without any luck. Try as they may, they didn’t get anything. Then along came Jesus and from the shore he was able to see the big picture and called out to the fishermen to cast their nets on the other side of the boat. Suddenly they began to haul in a great catch. Sometimes it’s easy for someone standing back a little to see what really needs to be done. Business can often be like that. You have all the right ingredients but might just have your net on the wrong side of the boat. Often it’s small changes that can have the greatest impact and, sometimes, they can be really hard to see on your own. Avoid your competition coming along and fishing in your patch by looking for those small changes that you can make to ensure you are capitalising on all your hard work. Here are a few quick changes that could make a massive difference to your catch: Targeting a different market. Sometimes you can take the same product to a slightly different market and get much better results. Changing your prices (both up and down). A small price change can make a big difference and often putting your prices up can actually generate more business. Working through a distribution channel. Sometimes you can find another business that can see real value in taking your product to their market. This can have massive results if managed well. I built a distribution channel once that generated one thousand percent more sales than my existing sales channel. Engaging your clients so they want to purchase more from you and more often. For example, building a loyalty program or building a database and staying in touch more. Then add more value to your clients each time they transact with you by providing high perceived value, low cost, add ons such as a free training manual or access to a members only web site. Be surprising. Go the extra mile and give your clients more than they expect. It can be as simple as a follow up call after a sale to see how things are going or a thank you letter with a small gift. If you’re in it for the long haul this will create massive client retention and referrals. I always say, if you meet expectations all you have is a sale but if you exceed expectations … you have a referral. Partnering with another business, that has a large client base in your target market, will enable you to gift their clients with your products. This is a great way to get your product directly into the hands of your target market. You might want to offer a reciprocal arrangement, which is a wonderful way to provide your clients with extra value by gifting them with your partner’s products. There are many ways to structure these arrangements and they can really help to grow your business very quickly. Just like in the parable, if you’re already doing all the hard work (your boat is in the water and your net is out) and you’re not getting the results you deserve, try finding someone that can call out from the shore and prompt you to cast your net on the other side. Share this: --- ## Letting Go of the Past … URL: https://markfalzon.com/journal/letting-go-of-the-past Published: 2017-11-23 Author: Mark Falzon In our human form we perceive things through our various sensors and then try and make sense of them by defining them in some way. Good – bad, right – wrong, soft – hard, round – square. These definitions (beliefs) are based on our limited perception. Based on our perceptions and definitions we then go about living out the fixation (or lie) of the underlying definition (belief) based on the original flawed perception. Once you become conscious of the delusion and realise that everything is not as it seems, everything changes. Once you see the code (to use the Matrix metaphor) you never see things the same way again. The illusion is shattered. Our ego wants to make sense of the world. That’s its job. To keep us safe so that we can survive based on the illusion that we are separate from everything. Conscious living is about seeing the truth and realising that you are the creator and that at any moment you are choosing your reality. Letting go of the past is part of the illusion, as your memory of the past is a lie based on your false perceptions and definition at the time. Share this: --- ## Living Yes and Saying No … URL: https://markfalzon.com/journal/living-yes-and-saying-no Published: 2017-11-23 Author: Mark Falzon One of the most liberating experiences is to open your life to abundance and possibility and one of the easiest ways to do this is to start saying Yes to the universe. Abundance and possibility is everywhere but for many people they don’t experience it in their lives because they don’t say Yes when it arrives … and it is always arriving. But if you start saying Yes to the universe every time abundance and possibility presents itself, what happens when that possibility takes you off course? Well that’s ok as well if you don’t have attachment to the outcome and you are more interested in the journey but you can also be selective about what comes your way by getting clear on your vision and what it is that you want to create and attract into your life. When you live your life on purpose and say Yes to the universe the need to say No becomes more and more irrelevant. Share this: --- ## Mentoring vs Coaching URL: https://markfalzon.com/journal/mentoring-vs-coaching Published: 2017-11-23 Author: Mark Falzon There has been a great deal of research done into the different roles of Coaches and Mentors and I think you can simplify much of this as follows. A coach is required when you would like to accelerate your action through someone holding you accountable around an agreed set of predetermined outcomes over a predetermined time period. A mentor is required when you would like to accelerate your knowledge by tapping into someone else’s network, experience and wisdom. Ideally, to achieve high performance, you would work with both or someone that is skilled in both areas. A coach will use a range of processes, tools and models that have been developed to cause a specific outcome. A relationship with a mentor is highly personal and based on the knowledge, network, experience and wisdom of the mentor. Share this: --- ## Mr Mum – Success is not a destination URL: https://markfalzon.com/journal/mr-mum-success-is-not-a-destination Published: 2017-11-23 Author: Mark Falzon My wife, Michelle, and I moved to our farm a few years ago. Michelle continued her corporate role, mostly working from home, while I took on the Mr Mum role so that I could spend more time with our children. It didn’t take me long to learn that looking after two small children was a full time job. At first I had this idea that I would home school as well. Hmmm … that lasted about a week. Thank goodness there was this cute little country school just 10 minutes down the road. Problem solved. Initially it was a bit overwhelming to be honest. I had come from a pretty full on corporate role managing several companies and 50 plus staff. You would think that looking after 2 small kids would be a breeze … but oh no! There was the shopping and cleaning and washing and hanging clothes out and bringing clothes in and folding and ironing and packing lunches and getting meals and washing up and school P&C meetings and girl guides and events and swimming lessons and piano and dancing lessons and playing and home work and and and … I would fall into bed at night exhausted. Suddenly I had a whole new appreciation for this role (here’s to all the mums … and Mr mums out there). It took me weeks (possibly moths) to find a bit of a routine. It all started to come together. I was able to drop 1 child at music lessons and then race around and do the whole week’s shopping in less than 30 minutes then run back and drop the other one off whilst I did the mail and banking and all those other chores. Efficiency was the name of the game if I wanted any time to myself. I was loving having time with my children. We got horses and chickens and ducks and cows. We got a dog and built a tree house and went exploring and swimming in the dam and creeks. We went fishing and bike riding and camping. It was wonderful but there was little satisfaction in the Mr mum role and I began to wonder why. It’s a thankless job. No one really says, “hey thanks dad for doing the shopping this week” or “thanks for washing my clothes for me.” And what was even more discouraging was the fact that I never actually finished anything. Take the washing for instance. I would gather all the dirty clothes up and take them out to the laundry. Wash them, hang them, bring them in, fold and put them away. Job done. But no. By the time I had done this, the washing basket was already full again. It never ended!!! There was no sense of completion. No reward at the end of that job. No thanks. Nothing. Just another full basket of dirty washing. After a while this became a bit depressing. This constant, thankless process that just never seemed to end. It felt like there was no success in what I was doing because it was never done. At this point I had a chat with my wife who had been there and done that. I said that I felt like I was failing. She asked why and I said “because I never feel like I finish anything. I just get the washing done and there is another load to do.” That’s when she reminded me that I had set my gauge for success on completion rather than on process. One of those aha moments! I found the joy that was missing. It was in the doing not in the completing. I remembered that success was not a destination. It’s more a way of life, a way of being. It’s how you show up in the world at each moment. You know the Zen saying, “before enlightenment chop wood carry water, after enlightenment, chop wood carry water.” After two years, I have shifted gears again. I’ve established my mentoring and consulting business and I am working with some fantastic corporate clients. Now I have an entirely new appreciation for the Mr mum role. I love the work that I am doing, I love spending time with my children and I really enjoy the washing and the cooking and the shopping and … When I look back over the last couple of years, much of the inspiration for my new business actually came as I was hanging the clothes on the line, as I stood under the Hills Hoist with the sun shining on my face and simply disappeared into the moment. I know how important it is to enjoy the journey, enjoy the moments. After all, that’s all we really have. “Try not to become a man of success but a man of value.” Albert Einstein Share this: --- ## One Click URL: https://markfalzon.com/journal/one-click Published: 2017-11-23 Author: Mark Falzon I just spent the last 2 weeks securing assets for a new business venture. You know, all those little things like web site domain names, Twitter and Facebook accounts and all those other incredibly important items that are so critical to the success (and ultimately, the sale value) of just about any business these days. Naming, branding and positioning a new business venture can be challenging. Just about every quality .com domain name seems to be taken, or at least has been registered by someone hoping that they might get to resell it for a profit. The domain name that we wanted for our new venture had been purchased by someone who was sitting on it and hoping for a sale. And, so began the negotiations and lengthy process of securing the asset. Upon first approach to the owner of the domain name, they advised the purchase price was $3,880.00 – not negotiable! I can see why so many people are just buying domain names and sitting on them. Not a bad return on their investment considering it probably only cost them $7 to register. Of course I wasn’t going to pay that much, so I went back with my counter offer and at the same time registered several other options. They then came back with their “final” offer at $1,800.00. Still to much, so I made my “final” offer and at the same time advised them that I had registered several other domain names that I was happy with. They then came back and accepted my “final” offer. Just a few days of negotiations and I saved several thousand dollars and managed to secure a domain name that was already registered. Then the real fun began. Transferring the domain. In this technological age of online transactions, I would have thought that this part would have been the easiest part … but oh, no! Escrow accounts had to be set up, special payment structures and faxed confirmations of credit details had to be provided. A holding domain name host had to be established and each one of these processes took time and cost a few more dollars. It was complex and time consuming but we finally got the name. Worth it in the end! But one of the interesting takeaways for me from this was how difficult the sale process was. The barrier to entry was very high. High cost, complex negotiation and a difficult and complex payment and transfer structure. There were several times I seriously considered giving up. After all, I had already registered several other names that would have done the job. At the same time I was managing this deal, I also set up my one click purchasing with Amazon so that I could buy more Kindle books. What a difference. On the one hand, a deal that has taken 3 weeks and, on the other hand, a sales process that took 2 minutes to set up and that will only take one click from now on. Which one are you? How complex is your sales process? What are your barriers to entry? I reckon if it’s not one click, then you had better start reviewing it now, cause one click is the future! Share this: --- ## Procrastination URL: https://markfalzon.com/journal/procrastination Published: 2017-11-23 Author: Mark Falzon I recently had a client ask me to help them with a perceived problem. That old chestnut, procrastination. Rather than approach the problem from, I guess, the typical premise that it could be “solved” by diary and time management, goal setting and discipline, we took a different approach. The outcome I wanted to achieve for my client was a way forward that was designed around ease and grace rather than management and discipline. We spent some time looking at what the cause of the problem might really be and put a plan in place to move forward that wasn’t focused on doing but rather on being. We will have a few reviews to see how they are tracking, but from my experience, working on the cause of a problem rather than the effect has much more power to it. At the end of the call, my client said that this was not at all what they were expecting but exactly what they needed. Share this: --- ## The Slow Reveal URL: https://markfalzon.com/journal/the-slow-reveal Published: 2017-11-23 Author: Mark Falzon I traveled to a small village near Ubud in Bali recently and found myself visiting a beautiful garden called Bali Pulina. I had taken an early morning journey into the mountains to photograph the terraced rice paddies at dawn. On the way back to my villa for breakfast my driver asked if I would like to visit a coffee plantation. It was still early and I had time so, going with the flow, I ended up at this beautiful little garden in the foothills of Bali’s largest volcanic mountain peak, Mt Agung. We parked just outside a stairway that seemed to disappear into a forest. I walked up these stairs and found myself in an amazing food garden. It seemed this jungle forest was all eatable. My driver pointed out various plants that captivated my senses. Cinnamon trees, cloves, vanilla bean vines, citronella and lemon grasses, ginger and an amazing array of other tropical delights. The tastes and smells were tantalising. Further into the lush garden I find yellow and red cocoa trees and coffee bushes. I am then introduced to the Asian Palm Civet, an animal that eats coffee berries and digests the outer flesh defecating the coffee bean. I was then told how this coffee, Kopi Luwak, was prized and fetched a premium price around the world. Wandering further through the garden I was introduced to a small traditional thatched hut where various spices from the garden had been harvested and dried. There was a wonderful little open fire on which washed and dried coffee beans had been freshly roasted. The smell was amazing. Around another corner I came to another hut in which water was being boiled and poured into sampling glasses that contained an amazing array of delicious coffee and tea blends. By now I wanted to sample everything. The smells wafting through the air were incredible. I was introduced to each of the various samples and was told that everything was free. All 8 samples including fresh roasted and ground coffee, ginger teas, vanilla coffee, chocolate coffee and fresh roasted hot chocolates. If, however, I wanted to sample the Kopi Luwak it would cost 50,000 rupiah, about USD$5.00 for a small cup, which was still remarkably inexpensive. Of course, by now, I wanted to sample everything and felt compelled to test the Kopi Luwak. I was then invited down a set of stair to a larger room that sat perched on the side of a tropical gorge. The vista that presented was breathtaking. Distant groomed mountains, covered in rice paddies layered against an early morning sky and lush gardens, were spectacular. The tasting plate arrives, beautifully presented. I sit watching the view whilst sampling a delicious and aromatic selection of wonderful home-grown tropical delights. Pure bliss. Time slips away and I am carried back as I reflect on a people and civilisation that has farmed these mountains for centuries. A beautiful and gentle people, that love to laugh and play and seem so generous in so many ways. Finally it’s time to leave and I reluctantly wander down a little path that wraps its way along the cliff face back toward the car. I round a corner and am presented with a small gift shop that contains beautifully packaged samples of all the wonderful delights I have just experienced. By now I am ready to buy. I am ready to reciprocate the generosity shown me, by purchasing a selection of spices and coffees for both myself and as gifts for my friends. Everything was so well packaged and presented. The entire morning had been a real delight. I was so happy to be buying little parcels from such beautiful people that had been so generous from the time I had arrived. On the drive back to my villa I reflected on the morning. It was such a wonderful experience and an amazing lesson on how to package and present a product and make a sale. The slow reveal was so powerful. By the time I had been presented with the product it was completely natural to want to purchase something. The journey was all part of the sale and the law of reciprocity was so compelling that I felt obliged, but not obligated, to buy. What products and or services do you have on sale? Have you managed to find a way to present them to the market in a way that takes your client on a journey? That tantalises their senses and compels them to want to buy? The slow reveal can be an incredibly powerful sales technique. I am reminded of a time in my advertising agency when we were pitching for a large account. We used the slow reveal to build suspense and create the show by placing all of the pitch materials on the walls around our boardroom and covering them with paper so that the client couldn’t see anything. We invited the client in for the presentation, spent time with coffee and cake and going through the campaign. We went into detail around the target market and the story behind the visuals. We discussed how, what we were about to present, had tested well and how we had chosen a world renowned photographer to capture and present the quality of visual that would help position the client’s product. During the presentation the client became so excited. They wanted us to reveal the visuals but we kept building the story, the layers until the client had, in their mind, already bought the campaign. We then began to slowly unveil the creatives, one by one, whilst continuing with a very compelling story. By the end of the presentation the client simply had to have what we were presenting. The slow reveal had again worked its Share this: --- ## The Wall URL: https://markfalzon.com/journal/the-wall Published: 2017-11-23 Author: Mark Falzon A friend once suggested to me that every business is hurtling toward hitting the wall. Some see it coming and manage to avoid it, whilst others have no idea what is about to happen. The significance of this statement never really hit me at the time! Big or small, there is nothing obvious to distinguish one business from another when it comes to hitting the wall. Who could have imagined that some of the largest financial institutions in the world would hit the wall the way they did during the GFC. All businesses are heading toward a wall of some kind at different speeds and will hit it, and hit it hard, if they are not prepared and looking forward. What are you doing to avoid the wall racing toward you at the moment? Do you have a plan? Can you imagine what the wall might look like? It can be as significant as a cashflow crisis from too much success and rapid growth, to something as simple as a lease that is about to expire. It could be a key person crisis, or your industry could be changing and your business threatened by technology. Compliance, licensing and regulation costs might squeeze you out, or your competition might be about to radically change the way the game is played. There is no point sticking your head in the sand. Better to look up and see what you can do to avoid the wall. Do it sooner than later and the wall just might turn into a platform for you to take your business to another level. Share this: --- ## What was your first business? URL: https://markfalzon.com/journal/what-was-your-first-business Published: 2017-11-23 Author: Mark Falzon Do you remember the first time you sold something and made money? How old were you? What did you sell? Do you remember what it felt like? Was that the start of your entrepreneurial career? I often hear these great stories from highly successful entrepreneurs about their first business endeavour. They are usually pretty simple and they often started very young. You know the stories, lemonade stalls at 7 years old. What’s your story? I would love to hear it. My story is chokos. There was a vine growing on the back fence at home covered in chokos. I was about 9 years old and I decided that I could make some money by taking a box of chokos down to the local shopping strip and setting up a stall. I got my mate from next door to help me carry the box of chokos down the road and together we set up a little stool with an old wooden create and a tin tub full of chokos with a hand written sign. I arrived at the price per choko by going to the local fruit and veg shop and seeing what they were selling them for and then made my price a bit less. I thought that they would walk out on their own at the price I put on my chokos but … Setting up my little stall right outside the fruit and veg shop wasn’t a good idea. I had only been there a few minutes and the store owner came and told me to get lost. Hmmm … I move down the street a bit and set up my stall again determined to sell my wares. I got lots of comments and looks from passing pedestrians but not a lot of sales. Then this one older man came up to me and started bartering. I had already made my prices cheaper than the fruit shop but he insisted that I sell my chokos for less. It was a great lesson in negotiating. Here’s me, all of 9 years old, negotiating with this older man about why my prices were good. Anyhow, I recall that we came to an arrangement. I said to the man, “well if you take all of them, you can have them for that price” to which he said, “fine” and he bought me out. That was it. I was done. Sold out. My daughter tops me though. She set up her first lemonade stall outside the front of our house when she was just 4 years old. Priceless! What were the lessons for you from your first commercial pursuit? I learned about negotiating, pricing, location, product, sales, competition, partnerships and sharing profits with friends. Invaluable lessons that have stayed with me throughout my life. Share this: --- ## You never know who you might be speaking with URL: https://markfalzon.com/journal/you-never-know-who-you-might-be-speaking-with Published: 2017-11-23 Author: Mark Falzon When I was about 16 I had my first real business. It was a video production studio on the Central Coast. This was back in 1979 and the total set up cost me about $40k which was a lot of money back then (you could have bought a house for that much). Not long after I set the studio up an elderly gentleman dropped in to ask me for help making a decision on what video camera he should buy (well, I say he was elderly, he was probably about 65, which doesn’t seem that old now, but you can imagine, for a 16 year old, it sure seemed that way!). I spent several hours with him over a number of days helping him make a decision. A couple of weeks later, he returns and wants some help choosing a video player. Then, a few more weeks pass and he’s back to ask how to edit his home movies. And a bit later, he wants some advice on how to use the camera … He was a lovely old fellow and I spent a fair bit of time with him. I didn’t charge him for anything, despite his offers to pay me. Anyhow, fast forward several months and an opportunity comes up to pitch for a promo video for a local business. The budget was about $30k, so it was a big deal. I pitched for the work not really expecting to get the job, as it was for a club and I was under age. Surprisingly, a few weeks go by and I get a call from the president of the club advising me I had won the job. You can imagine how excited I was. This was a big project with a real budget that would make a tremendous difference to my business. The president went on to ask me if I knew why I had won the job. Of course, back then my presumption was that I was the best person for the job, but to my surprise, this wasn’t the reason why I had won the business. Turns out the old guy I had been helping for several months was the father of the president of the club. Because I had decided to support this man get his home video studio up and running, I won my first major contract. And then, after I delivered the video, I received a call from another major company asking me to pitch on yet another job. Turns out the CEO of that business also sat on the board of the club! Then after another few months I got yet another opportunity referred to me by another board member. My business was off and running… all because I took some time and helped an old man with his video camera. I could have just as easily fobbed this guy off, or told him to go and read some brochures, instead of taking the time to help him. You never know who you’re speaking with or what the future holds. Be present, be generous, be giving and let the rest take care of itself. Share this: --- # Testimonials (selected) ## Lisa Messenger — CEO, Messenger Group > Mark is one of the most extraordinary people I have had the pleasure of both working with and being able to call a friend. I followed his career for many years when he was in the financial and property sectors and watched with great respect his innovative and wholistic approach to business. I more recently came to know him in his role as TV Producer. He is currently working alongside me on the documentary series '40 Women' as Executive Producer. His professionalism, creativity, ideas, calmness and wisdom are just a joy to work alongside. URL: https://markfalzon.com/testimonials/lisa-messenger ## Matt Church — CEO, Thought Leaders > Mark is a Thought Leader. He understands business and the human drivers that make succeeding in business a challenge. He is a 21st century renaissance man with business smarts, creative production talents and a well-honed soul. I enjoy any time I get to spend with Mark and highly recommend him to you if you want a smart, 360 degree sounding board. URL: https://markfalzon.com/testimonials/matt-church ## Jane Slack-Smith — Founder & CEO, Your Property Success Australia > Mark's unique insight has given me clarity and really allowed me to take my businesses to the next level with a future that I had not imagined. He really has expanded not just the opportunities for the business but for me personally. I can't recommend Mark enough — he will bring his incredible experience, together with his generosity of spirit to your business. URL: https://markfalzon.com/testimonials/jane-slack-smith ## Dr Tony Hayek — CEO, Blue Wealth Property > Mark had an incredible knack of finding, recruiting and developing an amazing group of people. He surrounded himself with exceptional team members that he helped to inspire and support so that they could achieve their full potential. The Group expanded rapidly and was listed in the BRW Fast 100 several years running. Mark's key strengths were his creativity, tenacity and ability to bring high quality people together in an inspiring and transforming environment. URL: https://markfalzon.com/testimonials/dr-tony-hayek ## Bruce Robertson — National Sales & Marketing Manager, CCM Group · Senior Minister, Globe Church > Mark is truly a gift to the Planet in so many ways. Mark does not just have a passion for business, but understands the Why behind the What. He is able, with passion, to bring out the best in people around him and is a constant source of inspiration and spirit for people and businesses to unlock their destiny. Mark Falzon is a wonderful person and leader, but he will never be reasonable with the world as it is. He is an agent of change. URL: https://markfalzon.com/testimonials/bruce-robertson ## Lesley O'Donnell — On vision, mirrors and honest counsel > It takes particular talents to be able to see a person's vision, help them discover their path to it, and lovingly guide them to seeing their own obstacles and stepping out of them to achieve their greatness. Mark has those talents in abundance. Although I may not always thank him when the mirror is turned to face me, I am eternally grateful for his ability to do so both honestly and lovingly. URL: https://markfalzon.com/testimonials/lesley-odonnell ## Gary Flowers — Chairman > I have had the pleasure of working with Mark Falzon for the last two years on a company board -- Mark as a non-executive director and me as Chairman. Mark's counsel, insight and advice was constantly sought by myself and the board in managing complex issues. His opinion was always highly valued. Mark is an astute businessman that understands the many complexities of running a business, gathered from many years running and growing his own businesses. He understands human dynamics and complexities extremely well and the impact they have on the day to day operations of a business. He also is very intuitive with a high level of business intelligence. He can deploy his wealth of knowledge in finance, distribution, acquisitions and mergers, deal making and capital raising to really help a business grow and transform. URL: https://markfalzon.com/testimonials/gary-flowers ## Stuart Holdsworth — Founder & CEO, Financial Simplicity > I have been working with Mark for a number of years now and in that time so many dimensions of my life and business have gone from being good to being awesome. Mark has the skills to take individuals on a journey to both better understand themselves and the world of people and business in a way that extends far beyond the realms of business schools. Mark specifically has helped me with the understanding of what sits behind what we see in people and business -- being able to identify, relate to and work with or around situations and my own internal challenges. Whilst Mark is an excellent mentor in various business disciplines, it is the way he connects these at an almost spiritual level that brings unity, focus and ultimately confidence to progressing our paths ahead. For people starting out or hitting walls in their business progression, Mark is perhaps the most valuable type of mentor you could ask for. URL: https://markfalzon.com/testimonials/stuart-holdsworth