Business Brain Food

Being an expert in your field doesn’t mean you’re an expert in conveying your message. Listen up folks – we’re talking to a bona fide expert on the matter who might well make you an expert by the end of it!

Carolyn Crawford has worked for over a decade helping people refine their presentation/communication skills. She’s dealt with everyone from high-level CEOs to small SMEs across any industry you could think of, so is a great person to listen to on the matter.

See below for some great tips from Carolyn:

**  Confidence is infectious. If you project confidence then your audience will feel confident in you.

**  Presenting isn’t just to a group. In everyday business, you’re probably 'presenting' one-on-one every day.

**  Don’t ever say “it’s just not me”. If you’re capable of being in the workplace then you’re capable of presenting. It’s just a question of finding your natural style.

**  Always be clear on your outcome: what do you want to achieve out of any conversation? Without this you’ll get lost in the detail of broad topics.

**  Don’t contrive your style. Just because someone else has certain mannerisms doesn’t mean you should copy them.

**  Never use grammatically correct bullet points. If it’s grammatically correct as a bullet point then it shouldn’t be a bullet point - it should either be spoken or properly written.

 

In this episode of Business Brain Food you will learn:

**  How to avoid death by Powerpoint

**  Why presenting is important

**  How to use visual aids

**  How to find your own style

**  The rules of simplicity

 

Resources mentioned in this episode:

**  Ben’s free business planning template: http://www.maxmyprofit.com.au

**  Carolyn’s site with Presenting To The Max graphical guide: http://www.f2fcommunications.com.au

**  Carolyn’s Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/f2fcomms/

**  The Business Brain Food Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/businessbrainfood

**  All previous BBF episodes & show notes can be found at http://www.businessbrainfood.com.au

**  Twitter: https://twitter.com/bfewtrell

 

Call to action:

Most of your life is communicating, but how much of your education has been about communication? Most of us will need to sharpen up!

Also, if you are enjoying these Business Brain Food podcasts, then make sure to share them via social media sites or email the links to family and friends. A lot of time and effort goes into producing each of these podcasts with the goal in mind of the more people we can inspire about business the better. You can help us do just that!

Until next time, have a profitable day!

Cheers,
Ben Fewtrell
(02) 9111 5000

 

Direct download: BBF162_Presenting_to_the_max_with_Carolyn_Crawford.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 12:00pm AEDT

If you’ve got prospective customers then we guarantee this interview will help you get more conversions. Doren Aldana has done a lot in the corporate world and has two hugely successful businesses behind him. We’re going to focus on his Testimonial Engine business: a tool to help companies gather and manage online client reviews.

Every business can benefit from this, so listen up!!

See below for some great stats and some great advice from Doren:

**  73% of consumers say that positive customer reviews make them trust a business more.

**  79% of customers trust online reviews as much as a personal recommendation from a friend or family member.

**  Consumer reviews are trusted 12 times more than a company’s own marketing material.

**  7/10 customers come back to your business if they have a problem and you resolve it quickly. Make sure you have a mechanism in place to enable you to quickly nip problems in the bud.

**  Reviews work for you 24/7. Unlike referrals, you don’t have to tend to them.

**  Have a system to make it easy for people to leave reviews, i.e. allow them to do it without needing to create an account with yelp, google etc.

 

In this episode of Business Brain Food you will learn:

**  The value of good reviews

**  How to find those good reviews

**  Review-capture pages

**  The inner workings of mytestimonialengine.com

**  The importance of video and audio reviews

**  How to turn a raving fan into a company evangelist

 

Resources mentioned in this episode:

**  Ben’s free business planning template: http://www.maxmyprofit.com.au

**  Doren’s special offer for BBF listeners: http://www.mytestimonialengine.com/brainfood

**  Doren’s mortgage coaching business: http://www.mortgagemarketingcoach.com

**  The Business Brain Food Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/businessbrainfood 

**  All previous BBF episodes & show notes can be found at http://www.businessbrainfood.com.au

**  Twitter: https://twitter.com/bfewtrell

 

Call to action:

Even if you don’t take up Doren’s great offer for his testimonial system, you should now stop and think about how you handle your feedback. Are you just sitting and hoping for the best? Or are you proactively turning feedback into a money-making machine?

Also, if you are enjoying these Business Brain Food podcasts, then make sure to share them via social media sites or email the links to family and friends. A lot of time and effort goes into producing each of these podcasts with the goal in mind of the more people we can inspire about business the better. You can help us do just that!

Until next time, have a profitable day!

Cheers,
Ben Fewtrell
(02) 9111 5000

 

Direct download: BBF161_with_Doren_Aldana.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 12:00pm AEDT

We’ve gone way off-piste with this week’s episode, but we guarantee this conversation will make you think. Our guest Jeffrey Slayter is a lifelong entrepreneur, but only truly found himself when he went away to the jungles of Peru and took part in an ayahuasca ceremony.

Jeffrey’s profession is now to advise entrepreneurs on how to change their habits and open their minds. He’s spoken to over 3 million people and has shared a stage with the likes of Richard Branson, Brian Tracey, Dr John D. Martini, Tim Ferris and Tony Robbins. The chances are, Jeffrey has worked with someone you’ve looked up to.

See below for some of Jeffrey’s holistic advice:

**  When you think you’re on top of the world and doing well, you’re usually not.

**  You’re only in a race with yourself. Don’t be too concerned with the conventions of the world around you.

**  Get out of the habit of thinking you need to belong. If you’re surrounded by people who are unsuccessful and then you become successful and feel you don’t belong, this can be disempowering.

**  Go against the conventional advice, and DO take things personally. Shielding and resisting things can exacerbate problems.

**  Tim Ferris says he “does not know a billionaire that hasn’t done a psychedelic”.

**  We need to design our businesses beyond our personalities. It needs to come from the soul upwards.

**  CEOs who have psychedelic experiences often come back and completely revamp their company and revamp their lives. Jeffrey is aware of some of the very top CEOs in the world who have done this.

**  The biggest discovery Jeffrey made from his psychedelic experiences was that he didn’t always need to be somewhere else.

**  Trust the universe again because nature rewards courage. There is a direct correlation between willingness to be courageous and success.

**  The freedom of realising that most of your life has been a lie can be very empowering. The questions and the self doubts stop.

In this episode of Business Brain Food you will learn:

**  What makes an entrepreneur successful

**  The definition of success

**  How to pick your friends

**  The benefits of psychedelic experiences

**  How to use fear to your advantage

 

Resources mentioned in this episode:

**  Ben’s free business planning template: http://www.maxmyprofit.com.au

** Business Excelleration Conference VIP day – book your place now: http://maxmyprofit.com.au/events

**  Jeffrey’s book, ‘The Evolutionary Entrepreneur’ can be bought here

**  Jeffrey’s website: http://www.jeffreyslayter.com

**  Jeffrey’s project of awakening: http://www.thegrandinitiative.com

**  The Business Brain Food Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/businessbrainfood

**  All previous BBF episodes & show notes can be found at http://www.businessbrainfood.com.au

**  Twitter: https://twitter.com/bfewtrell

 

Call to action:

While you may not want to dabble with psychedelic substances yourself, the reasons why Jeffrey and many of the world’s leading CEOs do use them are indisputable. Let’s conclude matters with a quote from Jeffrey: “I’d rather be weird and pave my own path than to be normal. Normal would suck.”

Also, if you are enjoying these Business Brain Food podcasts, then make sure to share them via social media sites or email the links to family and friends. A lot of time and effort goes into producing each of these podcasts with the goal in mind of the more people we can inspire about business the better. You can help us do just that!

Until next time, have a profitable day!

Cheers,
Ben Fewtrell
(02) 9111 5000

 

Direct download: bbf160_awakening_the_entreprenuer_within_with_jeffrey_slayter.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 12:00pm AEDT

What a truly exceptional man we have on the show this week – you will never hear a more salient and inspiring business commentator. His story actually speaks for itself, but there’s a whole lot more on offer in this conversation.

Greg has set up his own business and successfully sold the franchise; he’s worked in residential lending and structured funding, and now he spends his time being the go-to man for CEOs who are looking to raise substantial investment to grow their business.

Greg is particularly revered for somehow raising $120m for an animated film, The Legends Of Oz: Dorothy’s Return. Not only was this the first time anyone in Hollywood had pulled this off, but Greg managed to do this despite telling each investor that they’d stand to lose money!

See below for some of Greg’s unbelievable insight:

**  Raising money is a good way of building teams. If you’re going to grow something you can’t do it alone.

**  If you’re going to grow, you have to be prepared to keep changing your mindset.

**  Embrace chaos. If you don’t, you won’t grow.

**  It isn’t all about the money. Most people invest for the primary reason that the investment would have a meaningful impact on their life.

**  Are you more interested in what you’re doing, or who you’re doing it with? If it’s the latter, then you’re set up to achieve the ‘impossible’ like Greg.

 

In this episode of Business Brain Food you will learn:

**  Bootstrapping V funding a business

**  Greg’s amazing story

**  How Greg was involved in the digital projection of Michael Jackson

**  What prevents businesses from scaling

**  How Greg raised an ‘impossible’ amount of money

**  The secret to good leadership

Resources mentioned in this episode:

**  Ben’s Business Advice: http://www.maxmyprofit.com.au

**  Find Greg on his website: http://www.gregcentineo.com

**  Greg’s must-read books with Amazon buy links: Howard Schultz - Pour your heart into it; Walter Isaacson - Einstein: His life and the universe; Walter Isaacson - Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography

**  The Business Brain Food Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/businessbrainfood

**  All previous BBF episodes & show notes can be found at http://www.businessbrainfood.com.au

**  Twitter: https://twitter.com/bfewtrell

 

Call to action:

It’s so difficult to pick one bit of wisdom above all the others to end with, but we’ll go with this from Greg: “You can do good things by yourself, but you’ll never accomplish anything great alone".

Also, if you are enjoying these Business Brain Food podcasts, then make sure to share them via social media sites or email the links to family and friends. A lot of time and effort goes into producing each of these podcasts with the goal in mind of the more people we can inspire about business the better. You can help us do just that!

Until next time, have a profitable day!

Cheers,
Ben Fewtrell
(02) 9111 5000

 

Direct download: BBF159_Why_investors_gave_Gren_Centineo_over_120_million.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 12:00pm AEDT

This week we get an important reminder of the value of investing in assets outside of your own business. Michael Fuller from DPN has done this himself and now makes it his business to advise others on how they can achieve their financial goals through property investment.

See below for some of Michael’s top tips:

**  If you were to get sick or go away on holiday, could your business run without you?

**  Outside investments allow you to take a step back and make changes to your existing business.

**  Get a business coach. Of course we would say that, but one of Phil’s great regrets is not having one.

**  Do you have a business exit plan? You should always have an exit plan to focus the mind.

**  Einstein insightfully predicted that the most powerful thing in the universe would be compound interest. Let those property assets give you that power!

**  Take time to sit down and make an investment plan. What can I do now? And what can I do over time?

**  If you are going to invest in property, make sure you have the time to manage it. If you are using property as a sideline investment, you don’t want to be bogged down by having to manage renovation and short-term flipping.

In this episode of Business Brain Food you will learn:

**  The benefits of income protection

**  The costs of retaining property

**  Cashflow V capital growth

**  How to take the emotion out of buying property

**  The myth of reducing your tax bill

**  The perilous pension situation

**  What debt really means

 

Resources mentioned in this episode:

**  Ben’s Business Advice: http://www.maxmyprofit.com.au

**  Michael’s company site: http://www.dpn.com.au

**  Contact Michael directly at michaelf@dpn.com.au

**  The Business Brain Food Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/businessbrainfood

**  All previous BBF episodes & show notes can be found at http://www.businessbrainfood.com.au

**  Twitter: https://twitter.com/bfewtrell

 

Call to action:

Don’t just rely on your day-to-day business and your pension to look after you. Think about investment!

Also, if you are enjoying these Business Brain Food podcasts, then make sure to share them via social media sites or email the links to family and friends. A lot of time and effort goes into producing each of these podcasts with the goal in mind of the more people we can inspire about business the better. You can help us do just that!

Until next time, have a profitable day!

Cheers,
Ben Fewtrell
(02) 9111 5000


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