Now here’s someone entrepreneurial kids would love to meet: Natalie Cook. Natalie Cook is a five-times Olympian and winner of the Gold Medal during the Sydney 2000 Olympics games in beach volleyball. Currently, Natalie Cook is a successful businesswoman and owner of the sports franchise, Sandstorm.
She recently gave an awesome talk in Perth, saying the similarities between professional athletes and successful business owners were many, as both have a self-motivating desire to win. Natalie’s message was captivating, humourous, and very useful in cultivating the mindset for success in entrepreneurialkids, as well as in their adult counterparts.
The Five Ps
Natalie’s talk was built around her Five Ps: principles for your kids and in the boardroom, alike.
I will share these with you in a series, over the coming weeks, the last part of which will contain a surprise: a P I’ll be adding, myself. After reviewing Natalie’s, let’s see if who can guess what my P will be.
Here goes:
Part 1: Purpose
A person who truly reaches for success has a mindset that carries with it a very strong “Why,” or purpose. Your “Why” must be stronger than your “Why not?” If not, you likely don’t have enough purpose to muster up the will to make your goals happen when you are faced with barriers.
Your “Why” has to be specific and something close to the heart. It needn’t be complicated. A friend of mine is driven to success because she desperately wants her Mum to be happy and not have to work anymore. Another wants to buy a villa in Tuscany so that it solidifies her Italian family roots with a sense of belonging. These “Whys” are far from saying “Why not?” They are set purposes, not poor explanations.
Your “Why” will often come from one of two emotions… pain or pleasure. Usually it will be pain as it is the stronger of the two. For example, consider all those rags to riches stories of many of our success mentors (JK Rowling, Colonel Sanders, Sylvester Stallone, Walt Disney, Steve Jobs, Susan Boyle, Richard Branson). Their experiences with the emotion of “pain” lead them to having a strong “Why” and their “Why” ultimately brought them success.
Amy, Cathy, Natalie, Tracey, Kym and Trevor.
I recently carried out a “Why” exercise with my son, Jai. We’d just returned from a career path meeting for his upcoming senior class. Every pathway the school offered ended in landing a j-o-b (just-over-broke). Their end result was the same, whether the route was through university, technical school, or a straight shot into the average 40-year career hold. There was nothing for an enterprising teen to grab hold of. Worse, because the students were just about ending high school, the pressure was on to make a choice… a limited choice, one based on hastily presented ideas.
The result was confusion and “Why not?” to this and that idea. Jai seemed to be torn between going to Uni with his mates, for it sounded like fun, or leaving school with his cousin and going to make money in the mines. This inconsistency told me that Jai’s “Whys” on both of these career paths were just too vague.
So, we got to work. We discussed why these two ideas sounded interesting to him. We canvassed what it was about “Why not?” that wouldn’t likely carry him through the hardships of either choice.
Then I asked him to ponder a few questions:
How do you want to contribute to this world?
How do you want to grow as a person?
How do you want to be remembered when you pass?
It was a lot for him to think about. We’ll discuss what steps we took next in Part 2: People and Passion.
Always looking for feedback on our entrepreneurial kids articles so be sure to leave a comment. What is your “Why”?
If you are not already a subscriber, then I invite you to fill out the form on the side bar of this blog, that way you won’t miss Part 2 next week.
After my son Jai and I discussed the first of Natalie Cook’s Five P’s, Purpose , in choosing a career path (in Part 1 of this series), I asked him to make a timeline of his life. He was to focus on his surroundings, and more importantly, on the people who would be with him.
People
You see, Natalie’s second P is People. Attracting the right people in life is key to building a successful kid entrepreneur. But whether Jai chose to be an enterprising teen or not, it was his mindset for success in whatever path he chose that was most important to me.
So, I asked him where he would like to be sitting five years from now and with whom? Ten years from now? Forty? I had him picture what was around him, his associates, and what made these kids so valuable to him right now that their presence remained visible decades into the future.
Natalie Cook discussed the value of surrounding herself with the right people, while training to be an Olympic Gold medalist. Around her were coaches, mindset mentors, professionals, and peers whose encouragement always lifted her up, instead of bearing criticism that tears a person down.
Jai contemplating the people he would like to surround himself with. People with Passion that will assist him with his enterprising teen journey.
At the same time, it is important, especially for enterprising teens, to hang out with the sort of people they want to emulate. Qantum physics and studies in neuroscience have discovered that there are mirror neurons in the brain that mirror or copy the brains around them. That is, a person becomes like his/her closest friends. This is besides peer pressure! They should be encouraged to make conscious choices of mates who will add to their mindset for success.
As adults, what I love about the new business that Cathy and I have become involved in, Isagenix, is that it is all about people. Natalie Cook understands this, too, as she is a partner in the same company. In fact, it really doesn’t matter what is your business or your kids’ enterprise for one reason: When being helpful to other people, your success increases. This is because helping people gives enterprising teens and adults an energy that attracts the right people into your lives, and who, in turn, help you.
Passion
People are also attracted to those who have a passion for what they do. Passion is Natalie’s third P. Natalie said in a Sparkmag interview that passion is
“required when times are tough. If you are not passionate about what you do and you don’t love the process and the product… it makes is much easier not to feel as emotionally involved, or eventually shut up shop and walk away.”
Now, Jai rightfully wanted something he could stick with for the long term. Having him visualize himself, his surroundings, and companions way into the future really took him to a place that I could see was his passion, something apart from what others were expecting of him, a desire that would not fade with time. His spirit guided him, instead of the social conditioning of his school, friends, and family.
Want to know more? The next P is inseparable from Passion, and that’s Perseverance. See you next week (Check out the very funny video of Natalie Cook giving our kids a message!)
If you could enlist three people in the world to personally be your friend and mentor you, who would they be? Mine would be Richard Branson, Robert Kiyosaki and Michael Clouse. Make sure you leave us a comment…
This story will impress your kids… it certainly impressed ours!
…and there is a little lesson in it for them.
It will demonstrate that it is not necessarily what you learn at school that brings you success, but perhaps having a little attitude is the magic ingredient!
Mike Handcock
Last week my friend Gary and I attended an unusual business event in Freo call Entrepreneur X Factor. We really didn’t know what to expect. On arriving it was immediately apparent that there was tremendous energy in the room. People were super friendly and engaging. Successful entrepreneurs, Mike Handcock and Dave Rogers ran the show along with multi millionaire guest speakers.
Why was the event so unusual?
Dave Rogers
There were two parts to it. The first sessions were all about Quantum Business (which is definitely not your normal run of the mill business focus) and the after lunch session was an exciting competition with participants getting up in front and publicly spruiking their business idea or concept. The audience judged the event. Budding entrepreneurs, seeking big business to support them, were scored on their one minute presentations. The competition was similar to the TV show “The Lion’s Den”. Investors were in the room looking to partner with the winner and help them grow their idea. It was all very exciting and a little tense during the competition. The winner was a guy called Dr Joe.
Dr Joe
I’d love to share more about the excitement of the Entrepreneur X Factor competition and I’d love to share with you the insights about Quantum Business, but my purpose of this blog post is to share a story that will impress your kids!
So here goes…
There was this tattooed guy in the room dressed in a checked shirt and jeans. He had a goaty and shaven head, wore a black choker necklace and earrings.
He was a self proclaimed bogan who loved hotted up cars.
This odd looking character was introduced as Justin Herald. I had heard of the name before, but wasn’t able to pin point where I had heard it.
Justin was one of the guest speakers and he came to the front to share his experience and hopefully offer some valued advice to us all. Justin told us his story of how he built a multimillion dollar business from literally nothing!
There were no airs or graces about Justin. He was an everyday bloke who really didn’t care what people thought of him. He spoke his mind, he definitely had charisma and he had real attitude!
Justin Herald with his toys!
His Dad was a church minister and Justin grew up within a church community. It was in a church that his first business evolved.
During one particular church service he was spoken to by an elderly lady who pointed out to Justin that he had an attitude problem and that he should mind his manners.
Justin Herald didnt take well to people “ticking him off” especially about his attitude and especially when he was 25 years old! This telling off ignited an idea!
Justin Herald
Justin had only $1.25 in the bank and he needed some cash to put his idea into action. So he asked his brother for $50. He then bought some cheap shirts, took them down the printer shop and had them print “Attitude” slogans on them.
He enlisted the support of his brother and mates. Each of them put on one of the freshly printed shirts and they all attended the Sunday service at the church making, sure that they all stood in full view of the opinionated lady.
She was not happy when she saw the blatant prank Justin had pulled. The shirts had served their purpose very well and Justin was delighted!
After the service a number of people took an interest in the lads’ “Attitude” shirts. In fact some people inquired about buying a shirt from Justin. This was unexpected, but Justin thought it would be worth a few dollars, so he used the money he had from selling the first six shirts to his mates and organised for a bunch more to be printed with “Attitude” slogans.
Word got out and his little business began to emerge.
He decided to try selling his shirts at the Sydney Markets. He’d never done this before and had no idea how it would go. So he asked one of his mates if he’d lend a hand. His mate said “No”. So Justin asked if he’d lend a hand for one hundred bucks, and his mate said “I’d love to help!”
They arrived at the markets and were allocated a table. So he tipped his box of shirts onto the table all jumbled up. The shirts were a novelty and people were interested.
To his complete surprise he sold out in the first two hours.
Justin and I.
His excitement and business grew from there. He printed more and more shirts and was selling $10 000 worth of shirts every weekend at the markets. Next he tried retail stores. The owners moved him on because they had never heard of “Attitude” branded shirts. They also said that their customers were not asking for “Attitude” shirts.
Justin had an idea. He asked his mates to call all the retail stores in the area to ask if they had “Attitude” shirts in stock. He gave it a few weeks and then paid a visit to these same stores with a sample of his shirts. They were so pleased to see Justin and couldn’t wait to get his shirts up on display saying
“You wouldn’t believe the number of calls we’ve had with people inquiring about Attitude shirts”.
“Oh really?!”
Todd Hutchison, known as the Corporate Mechanic.
Justin Herald’s business continued to grow with the introduction of other lines of clothing. He received an invite to be interviewed on The Morning Show. So he rocked up and told his story. He claims that literally within thirty minutes after the interview the phone rang hot with retail stores placing orders for his shirts. Justin said that he never needed to advertise his product as he was regularly being interviewed by TV, business magazines and the newspaper. He always made for a great story as he didn’t look like the regular businessman. Justin has a real sense of humour and loves to rib the people around him. He admits that he has lots of attitude himself, and believes that is why his brand works. Justin is very easy to talk to and he also says that the secret to a successful business is connecting with people.
The Deal.
This chapter in Justin Herald’s story draws to an end when a very large company approached him to do a deal. He was called to a board meeting. Justin rocks up as he does in his jeans and checked shirt to confront the line of suited lawyers and business leaders in this company. Firstly the formalities, then eventually they passed over the official offer for him to look at.
Justin read the dollar number on the page in disbelief. He asked the lawyers if the comma was actually a comma or was it a dot. They said it was a comma. He then said, “Do I get a TV with that?”
They looked at one another and said “Of course!”
So he took the deal which was worth hundreds of millions of dollars. He also took the TV from their wall. They wanted to get him a new one, but he said simply that then he would have to try and rip the box and packaging apart to get it into his recycling bin, and that he didn’t want to muck around with doing that.
So from having only $1.25 in his bank at the age of 25, Justin Herald grew his business in a relatively short time to be sold for hundreds of millions of dollars!
Today Justin Herald has his fingers in different pies. He has just launched “Intimidate Industries” which is his new Sunglass brand which already is a highly sought after brand before it even hits the stores. He also owns numerous other highly successful businesses.
Justin left us with four excellent “Ahahs!”…
• You need a “switch” to give you the purpose, focus and drive required to start a business. His was the opinionated lady at church. Justin is very grateful for her.
• He quotes his favourite word “Next!” Justin explains that you will be faced with a multitude of barriers, setbacks and naysayers as you try to move ahead with your business. He just says “next” and moves on. Many people would fall back to their comfort zone and give up, but not Justin.
• Networking. He says it is the way you relate to your customers. Word of mouth brings you greater business.
• Lastly for his biggest tip…. “Give it a Crack!”
After the presentation Gary and I had the privilege of chatting to Justin Herald one on one. We found him to be a genuine nice bloke. He told us that his mates today are the same bunch of blokes he hung out with when he was twenty. He never made the grades at school and his “attitude” had him in a lot of trouble during those years. However, it was his attitude that has made him what he is today.
Let’s hope that Justin Herald’s success story inspires your kids like it did mine. Your kids don’t have to have all the “credential” that school expects for them to be successful…
Justin Herald has fast become one of the rising stars in the fields of business and personal development. At the age of 25 with only $50 to his name, Justin Herald set about changing the course of his life. Justin created Attitude Inc, a clothing brand that became an international licensing success that turned over in excess of $20 million per year.
Justin’s success was so well noted that he was named the “INTERNATIONAL ENTREPRENEUR OF THE YEAR” for 2005.
He recently was also awarded the Future Leaders Award, which recognises him as being one of the 50 most influential leaders of the next generation in Australia.
He has had his own column in numerous magazines and in papers nationally in Australia and overseas. His articles have a weekly readership of over 5.5 Million people. He also is the author of 8 international best selling books.
Justin Herald is regarded as one of Australia’s most sought after speakers with engagements book all over the country and overseas speaking in front of 150,000 people each year.
Please share your thoughts in our comment box below.
Imagine a school with a natural, holistic, student-centred learning environment that empowers and inspires their young people to be creative, innovative, green leaders?
There are many schools that aspire to a vision such as this, but very few achieve it! In fact, in all the years that I’ve been a teacher I know of only one such school that has been gaining the genuine attention of educators and parents from all around the world. This unique school is located in a forest on the island of Bali in Indonesia, and it is constructed entirely of bamboo.
Green School Bali is an innovative school that is different in just about every aspect to regular Australian schools. It is different in its construction, the way it is run, its philosophy on raising and teaching children and with its curriculum.
Cathy, myself and our kids recently had the opportunity to attend an excellent presentation in Perth on Green School Bali. The Principal, Mr Alan Wagstaff, show-cased his school and shared their philosophy on education. He spoke with passion and with tremendous pride.
Rightly so… as Green School Bali is turning many heads! The founders of the school think ‘way out of the box’ and have created a harmonious learning environment that kids excel in. They, and a growing group of others, believe that this school is the way of the future with education. Perhaps the policy makers, politicians and leaders of our outdated education system should take a serious look at Green School Bali.
In previous articles we have challenged the pedogogical practices of our current schooling system here in Australia. We have the view that it provides a good literacy education. However, the design of our system is to condition young people to be obedient, hard working and compliant. Now that doesn’t actually sound so bad does it, but what I mean is that our world needs workers to fill jobs and that is what schools do. They train kids to be loyal workers and aspire to have a life long JOB. Now, that is perfect for those who want to do that, but what happens if you want to become an Entrepreneur? Many of our schools don’t really foster true leadership, innovation or enterprise. Our schools certainly don’t provide a financial education, nor do they teach kids to develop the habits and thinking of an entrepreneur.
Disengaged Students
Alan Wagstaff was also very apologetic about his very strong views on our archaic education system currently running in Australia (and other western Societies). He pointed out many issues that should not be dismissed, and he backed his views with facts, figures and research conducted by qualified experts in education. He cited the work of well regarded intellectuals and authors such as Michael Shorts, Alfie Kohn and Steven Covey.
So what does green School have that is so uniquely special?
This quote by Michael Franti begins to paint a picture…
Check out a Green School classroom
“For anybody that’s considering sending your kid to school here, it’s different than other schools where your kid’s going to be assigned a number and a desk and you show up and you do exactly what you’re told. Here if you have an idea to do something that’s outside of the box, that idea is going to be fostered and nurtured rather than pushed down. I highly recommend coming here as a visitor, if you’re just visiting Bali; and if you’re a student, it’s a great place to be.” – Michael Franti, poet, musician, and activist.
Alan Wagstaff shared an interesting statistic about students in our regular schools. Studies show that two thirds of students over 11 years old in Australian schools are not engaged in their learning and don’t really like school! These same students feel that they are learning irrelevant things that won’t be of any use to them when they leave school. Funny he happens to point this out, as we hear this at times from our teenage children. In fact I think back to much of the mundane content that I had to master, and be tested on, as a student in High School and then again as a student at Teachers College. Content that was of no use to me in what I do today.
Alan says we need to change the structuring of timetabling. We need to go from subject based teaching to student-centred. If you look at what children do at school, their timetable will typically revolve around Literacy and Numeracy with subjects such as The Arts being of lesser importance by shoving them into the afternoon gaps on the timetable. We push the students with Literacy and Numeracy in order to uphold the education ‘brand’ and to satisfy National Testing (NAPLAN). Our curriculum is all prescribed with little room for being flexible. Whatever the subject, the emphasis is always Literacy and Numeracy. With the introduction of the new Australian Curriculum we are in for an even more inflexible schooling system.
With all the emphasis on Literacy and Numeracy, why do we have so many kids not meeting the grade?
What is it about schooling that creates life success? … the short answer is simply having kids turn up at school and be fully engaged and you’ll get there!
Therefore we need kids to be satisfied. Schools need to link students into life! Their learning needs to be realistic and of relevance to each of them individually. Everyday we should be academically up-skilling kids, but not comparing them with other kids.
Parents should ask, not how do they compare with other kids, but what is it they are learning.
Alan explained how they educate children at Green School Bali. Here is what he said.
The programs are structured around themes. These are collaboratively planned by the teacher team leaders. Teachers then run proficiency lessons within these short term themes. Students are shown the continuum of what they need to learn in the different areas of the curriculum and then the students set about working towards learning what they need to learn at their own levels. The students take the responsibility for their own learning.
Within the broader themes, students follow their own individual interests. They develop their own ideas and these ideas are fostered and expanded. They themselves identify what they need to learn and then conduct their own investigations and study groups in order to learn, understand and practice skills.
Every day the children are engaged in practical lessons that challenge the Big Four… Physical, Emotional, Intellectual and Interpersonal.
For example, if the general theme was ‘Waves’, then the Big 4 may run as follows…
Physical- Go experience the waves by surfing.
Emotional- Paint a wave or sing a wave melody
Intellectual- Study wave formations.
Interpersonal- Sit by the waves and meditate.
At Green School there are no rigid timetables. This allows themes to develop through dynamic chaos. Specialist teachers decide what will be done and teachers research the theme and subject areas. Students are then engaged in proficiency lessons.
Alan said that in order for students to learn something they must ‘hit it three times in three different ways during the week’. Thus mini themes develop within the bigger themes. Teachers teach children to self manage their way through learning. Therefore the kids are fully engaged and it leads to lifelong learning.
Opportunities are seized as they arise to provide practical real life lessons in the following areas… connect to the real world; environmental education; health and wellbeing; performance arts; enterprise education; and visual arts.
These lessons are timed (have end date), sustainable, are flexible and must be authentic. They do this by venturing beyond the school and accessing adults and resources in the ‘enterprising world’.
Green School’s aim is for kids to want to go to school and for them to be fully engaged. Thus the emphasis is on relevance to learning and valuing students, and not on testing and comparing students as we do in our current schooling system. This simply puts unnecessary pressure on them.
Green School Bali is an architectural masterpiece. A masterwork built of bamboo and mud brick. There are no classroom walls and very little impact on the environment. The school is self sustainable with power sourced from a large bank of solar panels and hydro power from the river. Students all assist with growing food in the large permaculture garden where animals are also kept for use.
Surrounding the school are bamboo homes built by local and international people who choose to live in Bali so that their children can attend the school. Under construction are numerous studios that are to be leased cheaply to entrepreneurs under the proviso that the students are involved with these businesses, allowing them to develop enterprise skills and ultimately they will learn to be entrepreneurs.
This is truly a real live example of an exemplary school. Students attending this school are achieving outstanding results in all aspects of their development, including academics. They are learning faster and going further than their peers on mainland Australia. Although the school has only been running for a short time, they have their first graduates graduating and, those choosing to do so, are being accepted into universities around the world.
Alan Waggstaff and the founders of the school have a vision to create change in how all schools educate. They know that they will be challenged if they target the top of the education hierarchy in Australia. So they are working to make change from the bottom up. They are doing this by being an exemplary school and by being noticed! They are also training teachers on mainland Australia with Green School ideologies with the purpose of these teachers making gradual change in their own schools.
If you are inspired by what this school stands for and would like to impact change in our current schooling system, then get in contact with Alan Waggstaff to organise for him and his team to train your people (parents and teachers done at very low cost). This is his email alan@greenschool.org .
There are currently places available in the school for students. The school charges $6000 year for primary aged students and $12000 year for secondary. It is a non profit school and offers places to many disadvantaged students through privately funded scholarships.
Another way to have your kids experience Green School Bali, is to send them along to the Green SuperCamp. There is one coming up mid year. Kaitlin, Jai and Flynn attended last year and came back transformed! We are working towards them attending the camp again this year along with our eleven year old daughter Amber. If you would like to know more about the Green SuperCamp give us a call or email.
Seven enterprising kids needed to be ready and set up down at the Burekup Country Club grounds by 8.30am. It required four trips with a trailer carrying tables, pram, signs, eskies, TV, banners and all the products that we planned on selling.
Amber and her succulents.
… and making a sale.
On arriving we discovered that someone else had set up in our designated spot. We milled around waiting until the problem was sorted and then once a new space was allocated we busied ourselves with setting up. A very strong easterly wind challenged us with erecting banners and keeping the table clothes on the tables. It obviously was going to be a hot day. Thankfully the Red Gum Trees overhead would keep us in shade all day.
Bargain hunters were quick to do the rounds of the stalls… well before we were ready! Trying to set things up, they would be there asking questions and making purchases (we’ll have to be better prepared for this next time round!)
All set ready for the customers!
The kids’ anticipation and the joyful growing crowd created an air of excitement. It was a real country fair without all the commercial jazz that you see at many fairs today.
Firstly visitors and locals joined in with the Australia Day BBQ breakfast. Following the brekky the crowd moved onto all the stalls and activities. There were old machinery displays, free bouncy castle and water slide, a dunk tank, fairy floss, pat the animals, thong throwing contests (flip flops for all you USA readers!), face painting, as well as people selling their wares from home made fudge, plants and toys to live pigs, chickens and crafts. Other enterprising kids were also selling their toys, bikes, clothes and things that they had made.
Amber and Flynn with their “Fish in a Bottle”
Products waiting to be sold.
Having a novelty product is the key to drawing interest… and we had the perfect product that really did create a lot of interest! Flynn and Amber’s “Fish in a Bottle” were an absolute hit! Kids came from everywhere dragging their parents to look at the fish. Once at our stall we were able to market our other items to them.
Chayse soon got the hang of it. Whenever a customer wandered past he would hold up a lolly bag and ask people if they would like to buy one. Many people would buy lollies from him simply because he had asked (how can you refuse a little five year old eh!). There was another little boy walking around selling his Mum’s home made fudge. He too wasn’t shy in coming forward asking customers if they would like to make a purchase. Talking to his Dad later in the day, he said that his son had sold more fudge walking around than they did at their stall! I guess there is a lesson in that!
Kaitlin’s EYE heART on display.
…customers admiring her work!
It wasn’t long before we had customers coming in their droves. Talking with customers, handling money and recording on a pad what was sold, all kept the kids on their toes!
Taking it in turns to man the stall allowed each of us time to catch up with friends and also spend some of the takings at the fair.
Our enterprising kids were very happy with their result! Each was able to sell their products and make a profit. Flynn’s “Howitt Honey” was very popular and sold very well. Kit and Chayse sold about half their lolly bags and due to the hot day, Jai’s Icy-poles also sold well. Jai made a profitable sale with his exercise equipment, Amber sold some succulents, Kaitlin received some commissions for her “Eye heART”… and of course the “Fish in a Bottle” sold well!
Jai manning the stall with his exercise equipment.
Flynn selling his unpasteurized honey.
Cath and I also had a terrific result! There was lots of interest in Isagenix with a number of people requesting a follow-up to learn more about how Isagenix can help them. This was the first time we had put ourselves out there with our new business and running an Isagenix stall allowed us to develop our own self efficacy, as well as build our Isagenix profile in this community. We spoke with many very interesting people and learned a lot about their lives and interests.
By the end of the day we were exhausted!
Akaisha enjoying one of Jai’s Icy-poles (mittens to stop her hands from getting cold!).
Cathy explaining the health benefits of Isagenix.
It was important to celebrate our success as this is vital in fostering self efficacy around being entrepreneurial kids. The kids counted the takings and divided it up. They then paid any debts to realize their profits. Each received a congratulations and a hug for being successful enterprising kids!
Many great lessons around getting a “Financial Education” were learnt on this day. It is our hope that our kids continue to develop their self efficacy around being entrepreneurial, as we believe this will give them greater opportunities when they become adults.
Cathy talking with an interested customer.
Kit and Chayse selling lolly bags>
Finally we would like to thank the Burekup Country Club, and in particular Sally and Jason Barnden and their team, for co-ordinating the fair.
Our next blog will be a lesson in Money Mastery as we review our year with mentor/teacher Paul Counsel. Once again we appreciate subscribers encouragements, views and comments.
Chayse selling lolly bags to a customer.
Just as an added note… the day after the fair five more “Fish in a Bottle” sold!!
Last week there was fear and excitement in the small township of Burekup! The Burekup Country Club was on FIRE!!… and the Burekup Australia Day Fair may be cancelled!
Once a year for “Australia Day” Burekup hosts a fun family fare. Everyone in town usually comes along, together with people from the surrounding areas.
Burekup Country Club Hall.
This year it has had a little more publicity than normal. The local Burekup Country Club, who are the organisers of the event, had a fire that threatened to burn down the old wooden club house and town hall.
Thankfully the fire crew were able to put it out before it caused too much damage or anyone was hurt!
The newspaper heard about the near disaster and ran a story in the local rag on the fire that almost sabotaged the Burekup Australia Day Fair! The story stimulated fear and interest, which in turn was excellent publicity for the Burekup Fair!
Marketing a product, service or brand can be very challenging, especially if you are not savvy with marketing (like me!). Having very good marketing will sell even a poor product, yet having a very good product won’t sell easily unless you have it well marketed.
Our enterprising kids have all been challenged with marketing their products and brands. Cathy and I have also been challenged with marketing when promoting events or selling our products.
Only last weekend during our Money Mastery Program, our mentor Paul Counsel, shared some excellent insights into how the human brain works and how to target marketing. Some of his suggestions are outlined a little later in this article.
But firstly I’ll share with you the lead up to the Burekup Australia Day Fair and how our family have been crazily preparing for it. We see it as a terrific opportunity to market our brand, as well as the products and services that we have for offer.
Flynn showing his honey pots.
All bottled awaiting labels!
The Howitt Family booked two stalls. One for all our enterprising kids to display and sell their products, and one for ourselves to provide people information about the awesome benefits of nutritional cleansing using the Isagenix system (our home business). Promoting our Enterprise For Kids brand and our Enterprise for Kids blog is also one of our aims!
Kit and Chayse sorting lollies.
Lolly bags all set to be sold!
Putting ourselves “out there” in our small community for the first time is a little confronting. Some people know what we’ve been up to, but for many it will be a surprise. Despite the challenge, we do see this as a chance to practice in readiness for bigger and better things to come!
So what products and services will our kids be promoting and selling?
Kit and Chayse will be running their Lolly Bag business. They have bought, sorted and bagged lollies to sell. Chayse also has a small fish tank to sell. He has bred colourful guppies which he will sell with the tank.
Amber watering her succulents ready to be sold.
Amber showing her product.
Amber has been busy all year collecting succulents (cacti like plants) from people’s gardens. She has artistically potted these up into all kinds of unusual pots such as large sea shells, kettles and ceramic plant pots.
She and Flynn also plan to sell aquarium fish that they have bred. They have salvaged and cleaned large glass wine flagons which make terrific fish bowls. They will market their brand “Fish in a Bottle”.
Fish in a Bottle.
Can you see the fish?
Amber will also sell selected items from her “New from Old” business and she is putting together a Lucky Dip!
Flynn will be selling raw unprocessed honey. His brand is “Howitt’s Honey” and he has a brand new fresh batch to sell! Flynn also bought an excellent set of golf clubs for a very good price, which he intends to sell at the fair.
Jai showing his Icey poles.
Jai will be promoting his “Hire a Teenager” service. He already has clients in Burekup who hire him to do work on their properties such as mowing and window cleaning. Jai has also prepared a batch of frozen juice ice-cups on a stick. He has come up with some creative ideas to add value to his product. Jai is also considering promoting “Rent Exercise Equipment”. This business idea is in its infancy and may not quite be ready to run.
Kaitlin's Eye heART.
Lastly Kaitlin (Akaisha is a little young to have an enterprise!) will be promoting her new brand “Eye heART”. Being the creative one in the family, she will sell her skills by painting the eye of clients from a photograph. Around the eye she will also paint three things dear to them.
This opportunity for us all to market our brands, services and products will help the Howitt Clan develop self efficacy around being entrepreneurial.
So what does our mentor, Paul Counsel, have to say about marketing?
Well he has a lot more to say than the few little suggestions I have outlined below!
Firstly, you need to show your prospective customer how he/she will go from “Pain Island” to “Pleasure Island” if they buy your product or service. That is, you need to stimulate pain and promise pleasure. The best way to do this is with a before and after picture that is in black and white contrast. For example showing a before and after photo of someone using a product for weight-loss, or a before and after picture of someone receiving treatment for hair loss.
Just need the right ship to get them there!
Paul explains that a woman’s brain differs from a man’s brain and what stimulates pain for a man is different to that for a woman. The pre cognitive driver for women is “fear of abandonment” whilst the pre-cognitive driver for men is “fear of servitude” (that is being lower on the totem pole where women won’t choose them).
95% of decisions are made pre-cognitively using the Primal Brain. As a marketer you need to stimulate it into paying attention and speak to it in its own language. Some other ways to stimulate the Primal Brain are…
Targeting the emotions of fear, pleasure and pain and then offer a solution that is real and tangible. Or offer a visual novelty such as Kaitlin’s “Eye heART”, Jai’s fancy icy-poles or Flynn and Amber’s “Fish in a Bottle”.
Now there is so much more that could be said about marketing. Paul will be running a weekend marketing course in Perth on the 23rd and 24th of February if you are interested in really delving into the world of marketing. What he teaches will certainly benefit anyone with something to market..
Luckily the Fire didn’t burn down the Club and spoil the Burekup Australia Day Fair. But boy was it an excellent way to wake up the Primal Brain by stimulating it with the pain of the fare being cancelled due to fire. This excellent marketing has created plenty of publicity for the event!
In our next blog we will likely have some photos and share our Burekup Australia Day Fair experiences. Hope to see some of you there!
We would love to hear from our readers, so please share your thoughts in the comment box below and if you like our Enterprise For Kids blog we would love for you to pass it around to your friends.
In our previous post we shared Sean Rasmussen’s teachings around developing a healthy self image. This article follows on from that discussion as we share more of his valuable teachings around being successful in business.
How would you like to know Sean Rasmussen’s Business Success Formula?
Teaching these understandings to your children will set them on the path to being successful entrepreneurs.
Sean introduced a simple formula that will get results in business. The formula is…
(Training + Tools + Team) X Time = Results.
This formula can fit all business models, whether it be Network Marketing, conventional business or an Internet Based Businesses. This fits with what we have read about Robert Kiyosaki and his Business Builder model (as opposed to small business). He describes building a business system that will grow itself. Sean’s formula formed the bases of the whole Boot Camp of which we were taught how to address each aspect through Internet Marketing.
In our recent blog about David Wood we discovered that he also uses this formula for business success and he taught us how to apply it to Network Marketing.
Training: Attend the boot camps, join a program, find a mentor and study the business system.
Tools: Use the tools provided by the business system. Use the tools that work, don’t be a tool trying to work it all out for yourself! Or as David Wood says, “Use the tools, don’t be a tool!”
Team: Build a team of experts around you who build your business. In internet marketing it may be virtual assistants, ghost writers and marketers whom you can contract very inexpensively from counties such as the Philippines or India. With Network Marketing it will be the people in your upline as well as those in your own network that form your team. You help them build their business and yours will naturally become successful as well.
Time: Give it your all! Without putting time into your business initially it simply won’t be successful. With businesses that grow and generate a passive income the amount of time you need to commit it great to begin with and the income is small, but as your business grows your work time will diminish, but your income will continue to grow!
Results: Your income generated from your business.
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Teaching Kids the Business Success Formula
Flynn extracting the honey from the honey cone.
The Business Success Formula can easily be taught to kids. Firstly help them get started with an enterprise. This way they will learn all about it. For example my son Flynn has learnt a huge amount about bee keeping, harvesting and processing honey and then marketing it.
Next teach them how they can make their business easier by utilizing the right tools. In Flynn’s case it was about borrowing the right extractor equipment and using an expert’s advice (his Grandad) which saves him time.
Then investigate ways of putting a team together to make the process less work and more profitable. Flynn utilized his friends to help bottle the honey, he had people selling his honey on consignment and he found people to take his honey to the market. He wasn’t doing all the work!
Flynn with his product
Explain to your kids about delayed gratification. That is: put the hard yards in now for a financial reward later. Once they see a result in their wallets/purses then they will fully grasp Sean’s formula for business success. Flynn has realised this. He used all his own money to buy his honey and he also paid for everything he required to bottle and market it He understood that he needed to make his business work in order to get his money back with profit. Once he experienced a result with his first batch of honey, he became much more focused and determined with his second batch, which by the way he invested twice the capital!
Three Reasons Why People Are Not Making Money Right Now!
Sean Rasmussen also pointed out three reasons why people are not making money right now. He emphasises the importance of “Action, Intention and Value”. When people use the Business Success Formula, and also attend to and are clear on these three things, they are perfectly set up to make money in their chosen enterprise.
Action
Action is obvious. Take action straight away whenever an idea or opportunity presents. As soon as an idea presents itself, build upon it. Avoid killing the idea with all the “what ifs”.
Intention
To illustrate the point about Intention, Sean had us all write onto a small card what our intent was for the three days at the boot camp, and then we put the card in our pocket to be carried around where ever we went. The idea is… we thought about and put out to the universe our intent without trying to force an answer or outcome. Amazingly, by the end of the three days the answers to our intention were answered! Intention can also be aligned with having a plan.
Value
He refers to Value as being your highest values. Sean Rasmussen explains that your highest values dictate what you focus on. So it is crucial to ensure that what you want, whether it be health, money, family or whatever, is high up on your value list, otherwise it simply won’t happen.
Our Money Mastery mentor, Paul Counsel, also enlightened us to this very important distinction. For us we struggled with putting business ahead of family as our highest value. Our kids have always been our highest value and consequently take up all our time and energy. So what we learnt was that we needed to align business with our highest value of family. Hence we have done that with this very blog and with other enterprise we are pursuing. By aligning our highest value with business, we then have better focus and desire, and our enterprise is moving forward and so are our entrepreneurial mindsets.
So there you have it… Sean Rasmussen’s Business Success Formula.
Flynn celebrating his business success!
In our next blog we will talk more about the wonderful personalities we met whilst on Bootcamp and the sorts of things they are doing to inspire others.about the tremendous opportunity for our kids (and us grown ups!) with building a membership site on the internet. The figures possible…. are mind-blowing!
Kit has decided to form a partnership with Chayse with his Lolly Bag Enterprise for Kids Business! He figured that his Dog Walking business was moving too slowly, and he saw how easily Chayse was making an excellent profit. So they joined forces and together visited the local supermarket to spend their capital on buying large bags of confectionary. This time they were very serious and bought $230 worth of lollies!
The Production Line
Once again the family pitched in around the dining table to sort and bag all the lollies. Before long Kit and Chayse, in partnership, were ready to go out to the sporting grounds and sell their product. Click here to view a video of Kit and Chayse’s production line!
This time round was a little different though! Our kids had been taught and now understood the value of gifting (An Entrepreneur’s Conscience). Taking a small portion of their profits and giving it towards a worthy cause, teaches the kids about generosity and about appreciating their own good fortune. We also believe that by giving, the universe in turn will give back in some way or form. Flynn, for example, is putting money to one side to give to our African sponsor child Cheroko. Amber has chosen to give to the Cerebral Palsy Association because she has a school friend with this disability. Kit and Chayse have chosen The Flying Doctor Service as their charity because the Flying Doctor really helped us out when Kaitlin was born in a very remote Kimberley town. (Kalumburu).
Designing the For Sale Sign with RFDS as the beneficiary....
All the soccer lads checking out their lollies.
Watching Jai in action at the soccer fields!.........
.....whilst the boys sold their wares
So armed with renewed confidence, the two boys did the rounds of the sporting grounds and sold box after box of lollies. They were magnetic – attracting people from all over the place. Just like the Mr Whippy Van!
The boys were very good at counting money and giving the correct change. They did at first need prompting to approach groups, and to say thank you. However, after a while their confidence grew and they happily spoke with customers. There were lots of questions about what they were doing and why they were selling lollies. Kit and Chayse would tell people that it was their business and that they were also giving a little money towards the Flying Doctor’s Service. People were all very happy to support their business and some even bought lollies just to have a chat with them!
On a later trip to the sporting fields I was super surprised to find that young Chayse had taken it upon himself to gather up his heavy box of lollies and head off down the lines of spectators. I had no idea that he had gone as I had been focused on watching Flynn playing his soccer game. I was suddenly alarmed to notice that the lolly box had gone from under my feet and that Chayse was no where to be seen! Looking around I could see some commotion about fifty metres away. It was Chayse with a crowd of people buying his lollies.
I was very proud of the little “fella” as he had proven that he was developing his self efficacy with being an entrepreneur. Through many weeks of shyly putting himself out there with his customers selling lollies, he had finally built the confidence to go it alone!
If he keeps this up he will be an awesome young entrepreneur when he grows up!
Cathy and I have been learning the importance of self efficacy at our Money Mastery Course from our mentor Paul Counsel. He explains that it is very difficult to just switch and be an entrepreneur. What we need to do is to build up to being one by pushing our upper limit continuously. That is done by doing things that take us out of our comfort zone. Take on new challenges and then celebrate the success, then repeat it over and over again. Eventually you become comfortable with being uncomfortable, which in turn open up new possibilities and attracts opportunities. This is exactly what has been happening with our four year old son Chayse… in fact it has been happening to all of us!
Kit also demonstrated his growing confidence only a few days ago. He said that he wanted to take his Enterprise for Kids lolly business down to the local skate park all by himself. We agreed to his request and let him go. His big brother Flynn was instructed to follow behind at a distance to make sure he was OK.
Self Efficacy!
Well Kit sold a bunch of lolly bags and on returning he announced, “A Granny gave me a big cuddle and kiss!” Not sure what he was going on about we asked him to explain. Kit said, “She was really happy to see me doing my business. She bought some lollies and then gave me a cuddle.”
Two young Entrepreneurs....
....share their rewards.....
......with the RFDS.
You can donate directly to: www.flyingdoctor.net
We believe that our enterprising children are experiencing mindset shifts to think more and more like entrepreneurs. It will be interesting to see how this changing mind set effects the way they approach their enterprise for kids ventures. It all takes a lot of practice and confidence. In later blogs we will talk more about self efficacy and how our other children are moving along with it and we we also share our own enterprising endeavours!
“Failing to plan is planning to fail!” Robert Kiyosaki
Most people have a plan on how to make their money, but they do not have a plan on what to do with their money when they make it. Kiyosaki points out that often these are the same people who will have a problem with not having enough money.
He also explains that if you have a good plan before you earn it, then your problem will be having too much money! …Now I like that problem!
Kids need an education on how to plan what to do with their money when they earn it.
Kiyosaki goes on to say,
“Poor people don’t have a plan. All they do is earn more money and spend it on bigger liabilities that take more money from their pockets and then they have to earn even more money. Therefore, despite what they earn, they are always short of money.”
The solution is to plan to spend earned money on Assets (things that appreciate over time) to make passive income. Don’t buy liabilities (things that depreciate and lose money over time) with earned income. Then use some of your passive income from the assets you own to buy the liabilities you want.
Our own kids are all busy planning their enterprises and are successfully making themselves money. They have plans to buy liabilities such as nerf guns, Ipods, computers and so forth, but no plan to buy assets. So I thought it was time to have a conversation with my kids about having a plan to buy assets.
Once “Assets” as opposed to “Liabilities” was explained to the kids they were then able to make a plan to buy assets. In the above mentioned article I gave several suggestions of Assets that kids could buy. I would like to elaborate further on why Gold and Silver is an excellent asset that our kids could buy with their earned money.
Gold Coin from Lydia
Subscribers to this blog would have seen the promotion of a Gold and Silver Seminar that we hosted here in Bunbury a few weeks back. Our presenter, Andrew Smith, a mining engineer, investor and businessman, has been intimately involved with the world of Gold and Silver mining for many years. He gave many excellent reasons why Gold and Silver is well worth considering as a long term asset investment. I’ll now explain some of those reasons.
Gold and Silver is recognised world wide as money and can be used to buy products and services just as fiat currencies can. The first gold coin was around in 600BC in Lydia, Asia. The difference being, currencies devalue whilst gold and silver hold their value.
Andrew invented the “Meat Pie Indicator” to show why this is!
Aussie Gold 2012 Coin
Let’s see if you can get your head around this explanation of how the Meat Pie Indicator works!!
Back in 1970 you could buy a meat pie for 40c and today the same pie would cost you $4.50. Andrew explains that this indicator shows the Aussie dollar devaluing 350% over a period of 42 years (ie you need 350% more cash to buy the same pie).
What is interesting, is that if you had bought the meat pie with 40c worth of silver back in 1970 when silver was less than $2 an ounce, you would have needed one fifth of an ounce. Yet if you bought the same meat pie today using silver (at $35 an ounce) you would only require about one eighth of an ounce of silver. Silver has increased in value by more than 400% during the same period!
This is a terrific example of the Dollar devaluing due to inflation, whilst Silver (& Gold) gains in value! And no it isn’t just the Aussie Dollar that has devalued! All world currencies have! What’s worse, is that hyperinflation in certain countries have caused their currency to become absolutely worthless. Take Zimbabwe for example. Interestingly though, the people of Zimbabwe are now using gold to buy and sell goods.
If you are interested in understanding more about Hyperinflation and how it could even happen to us down under, then have a look at these videos… Hyperinflation Nation Part 1
“Inflation is as violent as a mugger, as frightening as an armed robber and as deadly as a hit man” Ronald Reagan 1980
As you can see, having precious metals is a hedge against inflation and devaluing currencies. Although this in its self is a very good reason to own gold and silver, there are also many more reasons.
Reserve Banks around the world are injecting more and more money into their economies. This money is being created out of thin air! Every time this occurs it dilutes the money supply and makes it more expensive to buy goods and services. It creates inflation, which in turn reduces the buying power of the dollar. What also happens is that more money is needed to buy gold and silver!
It is estimated that there is 80,000 tons of gold in the ground (in the World) and we currently mine 2500 tons a year. At the current rate of mining there is less than 30 years of gold left in the ground. Silver is running out even faster with only 20 years of silver mining remaining. I guess you can see that with gold and silver running out and the ever growing world requiring more and more of it, then you would expect their values to increase.
Indian Bridal Jewellery
What’s more, the Indians and Chinese love buying gold and silver, and as they become wealthier, so will their thirst for these metals. There are 2.6 billion Chinese and Indians. Much of the gold is bought as jewellery during the Hindu wedding season and during the Chinese New Year celebrations. It is estimated that there is 18,000 tons of gold jewellery present in India alone today. That is a huge amount considering that 165,000 tons have been mined world wide to date!
The commercial demand for silver in manufacturing products such as mobile phones, solar panels and mirrors means that the silver used with producing such products is not stored, but used up. This demand has been increasing year by year.
Since 2001 the USD gold price has increased by 500%.
Gold from $300/ounce in 2001 to $1750 today
Silver from $4 an ounce in 2001 to $34 today
As you can see fundamentally owning gold and silver for the longer term looks to be very promising. So why not introduce your kids to buying this asset class with some of their earned money, or rather than giving them cash for birthday presents, give them silver!
Perth Mint
It is very easy to do. The Perth Mint buys and sells gold, silver and platinum. All you need to do is walk in and buy it. Gold at $1750/ounce may be out of their league, but silver at $34/ounce is manageable. They can buy coins or bullion. Bullion will be better value for money, as coins are looked upon as collectables and have an additional cost for minting which greatly inflates the cost to buy the silver.
Our kids now have new goals. There goals are broken up into three parts and they have a plan for each. A part for buying liabilities, a part for buying assets and a part for tithing!
Cathy and I and a group of our friends are very excited to be heading up to Perth to learn from another Great Master. His name is David Wood and his event will be awesome! So I guess our next blog article will be about what we learn from him!
We were going to write about Kit and Chayse’s enterprise and how they have gone with working on their goal, but have decided to share an interim and thought-provoking blog designed to make you think about how much do you really want success (in any chosen field)!
Our daughter Kaitlin saw this video on You Tube and sent us the link. We thought it was awesome. So, take the time to watch the clip (it doesn’t go for very long), then read on.
For those who want to digest the words again, I have taken what I could decipher from the You Tube and written the transcript here.
There was a young man who wanted to make a lot of money, so he went to his Guru and said,
“I want to be on the same level you’re on.” And the Guru said, “If you want to be on the same level I’m on, I will meet you tomorrow at the beach.”
So the young man got there at 4am. He wore a suit, but should have worn shorts. The old man grabs his hand, leads him to the water and says,
“How bad do you want to be successful?” The young guy said, “Really successful”.
The old man says, “Walk on out in the water. “ He goes waist deep.
This waters freezing. The young man thinks, I just want to make money and he’s making me swim.
I didn’t ask to be a life guard. I wanna make money.
“Come out a little further. “
So he’s thinking. This old man’s crazy. He makes a lot of money, but he’s crazy.
“Come out a little further.” And he did.
This man is crazy.
The old man said, “I thought you wanted to be successful”.
He said, “I do”.
“Then walk a little further”. The old man pulled him, dropped the young man’s head in the water, held his head down, and continued to hold him down, even when the young man struggled. He held him down, but just before the young guy passed out, the old man raised him up.
He told the young guy. “When you want to succeed as bad as you want to breathe, then you’ll be successful!”
After watching this video, it really made us think, How much do we want it? Do we “really” want it or just “kinda” want it? Want what, you may ask?
Well, anything really. How much do we want our fitness levels to be at their optimal levels? How much do we want to be financially free? How much do we want to have a happy and loving family life? How much do we want to enjoy our time with friends and experience unique and exciting experiences?
For us, it’s a little bit of everything. But what we realised as we’ve been completing Paul Counsel’s Money Mastery Course over the year, that splitting our attention between everything (as we have in the past), we get a medium result from everything. There’s nothing wrong with that, it makes life comfortable, and that’s OK for many people.
But for us………we’re ready to challenge ourselves. We’re ready to step up and make a difference in those areas in a big way, not an average way.
So, whilst we may not exist on 3 hours a night (although that’s debatable with our 18 month old at times!), we do put in the long hours. We do stay up until midnight (long after the kids have gone to bed), working on our internet business, studies, trading or Health and Wellbeing business.
We try to focus as much as we can on them. And why do we do it? Because we know that we are already successful in some parts of our lives. We know we have a wonderful family and supportive friends. And we know we’ve achieved that through dedication and focus. Now, we are ready to transfer that focus and skill to other aspects of our lives. We know that when we are financially free, that this will positively affect every other part of our lives.
If we want more time to focus on our kids, we can hire someone to do the mundane things in our lives, thus freeing our time. We can create awesome experiences beyond what we’ve already had. We can take time to enrich our own relationship without worrying about how we are going to pay the next bill.
Now, it may take us a little longer to achieve our goals than it will Giavanni Ruffin (the athlete in the movie). He has MAJOR, unstoppable focus and he WILL achieve, no matter what. It’s not a matter of IF, it’s a matter of WHEN for him.
But even if we used just a tenth of his energy and commitment, it has to be better than no focus at all. Where your attention is held is what will show up in your life. You need to “attend to your intention”. A clear intention with determined focus will set you on the right path to success.
This lesson on focus can be applied by anyone, whether it is teenagers studying at high school, kids with big sporting ambitions or parents developing business. Kaitlin is challenged with maintaining focus with her studies. We are glad she discovered this video, thought about its excellent message, and decided to share it with us.
So, like we said at the beginning of this post, “How Bad Do You Want It?”
If you enjoyed the first video clip, and thought that was all there was, think again………then have a look at this one…
Anthony “Tony” Robbins is an American self-help author, motivational speaker and Life Coach. He became well known throughout the world through his self-help books. Our Mentor, Paul Counsel, speaks highly of Tony Robbins and his teachings.
