Author Archives: Matt Kinsella

Are you “Thinking about it” too much?

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pdrOver the last year I have been helping a number of different people with new business projects, relaunching existing ventures and assisting some people overcome personal issues so they can move on in other areas of their lives.

The one thing that has come up time and again is the amount of time they spend “thinking about it”. In a few cases they have spent over a year considering all the options and coming up with new potential scenarios but in reality they haven’t moved forward in any way.

Others have spent weeks or months waiting for the right time (there is never a right time) to take the next step. I can’t force people to move forward but I can encourage them and when they do eventually make the steps they always say the same thing: “I wish I’d done this earlier”. This doesn’t just apply to big decisions but to minor ones too.

One of the biggest differences I have noted between those that become successful (even if it takes a while) and those that only dream about doing something different is less thinking and more action. Even with the most complicated ventures and decisions I have been involved with I can analyze the options within a week and most of the time it’s just a few hours. If I think something is a good idea and the risks are manageable then I just do it.

Even when the risks are unknown, if I want to do something I’ll do it. If the risks are unknown now, they won’t become obvious 3 months later just by magic; you can only find out by DOING IT! If you can’t cope with the unknown then don’t do it and stop thinking about it because you are just torturing yourself and wasting your life.

My advice is if something seems like a good idea, the known risks are manageable and if that thing can improve your life/business/wealth/freedom/family then just get on with it. You can change, adapt or stop when it pans out. Life is short, this time next year you might regret not starting today.

If you want any help with moving forward with an idea or making improvements in your life or business let me know I’d love to help. Get in touch via the contact page.

How To Get More Leads and Make More Sales

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Big SaleWhen I started my first business I had one question that I put to other business people and entrepreneurs every day: How do I get more leads and potential customers?

I was offering great deals and an amazing service, I could close sales easily and my clients were happy but I needed more. I needed to reach more potential customers and I was concerned about how to get my message out there and communicate what I was offering. Since then many new entrepreneurs and business people have asked me the same question and it is the number one priority for anyone trying to grow a business whether it’s new or established.

I tried everything from mailshots, online ads, Yellow Pages (when it was widely used), cold calling and everything I could think of. All these thing brought me limited success but it was all quite expensive and time consuming for the returns I got.

A few extra tools have come along since then that many people rave about, e.g. PPC (like Adwords) and social media marketing. Like many things in marketing and sales they sound great and much easier then they actually are. My early experience with these proved just as expensive and time consuming as the old methods. I tried Adwords campaigns that gave me limited success but didn’t justify the hype or the cost. Secondly I tried social media and started with Facebook because it was the one I was most familiar with.

Many large corporations are pulling out of Facebook campaigns now because they found the same as I did: People go on Facebook to connect with friends and share photos, they don’t go on Facebook to buy stuff or be sold to. You can get as many “Likes” as possible on your page but it doesn’t translate into real sales.

So what does work to get more leads and potential clients now? In one word: Twitter. I now have nearly 18,000 followers on Twitter and I get most of my traffic from there (chances are you came here from Twitter). I was very skeptical at first and didn’t get Twitter in the beginning but what I came to realize is why Twitter is great for marketing. People go on Twitter to find information and connect with people they wouldn’t connect with via Facebook. Your Facebook friends is a collection of people you already know or are loosely connected with. Facebook even states that they only want you to send friend requests if you know the person. On Twitter anyone can follow anyone whether you know them or not.

On Twitter you can connect with people from all over the world who might be interested in your products or services but you might not reach them in any other way. Because Twitter is different many people don’t get it, it’s easy to get frustrated with a lock of results and give up.

I was fortunate enough to have some early successes just at the point I was going to give up on it and suddenly it was a light bulb moment. I found out what worked and pushed on.

If you don’t know what you are doing it can be slow progress and frustrating which is why a friend and I started discussing how we could help people generate more leads and potential clients via Twitter.

The points we knew would be beneficial and have worked for us are:

  • Get 500 – 1000 new TARGETED followers every month
  • Auto feed of regular tweets, offers, promotions etc.
  • Get past Twitter imposed 2000 follow limit
  • Optimize profile for maximum results (people don’t like to follow profiles that are too corporate or sales/marketing oriented)
  • Obtain leads and followers that can be local so they are useful for small businesses as well as large companies or online businesses
  • Auto DM to new followers that gets maximum clicks (must not look like spam or auto generated)
  • Get followers that like to re-tweet so your tweets are more likely to go viral and get you more followers
  • Have a managed solution so someone else spends the time on this and you can concentrate on making the sales and other areas of core business
  • A price that was more cost effective than PPC advertising and can give a better return on investment

So we have now launched our managed Twitter service with all the benefits as described above for £95 (or $145 USD) per month. If you run your own business or you are self employed and want more leads and sales get in touch via the form below and we will be happy to help you.

That’s Just Life, Get Used To It

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In my first proper job fifteen years ago people told me “that’s just life get used to it”. I never got used to it so now I make my own money and get up whenever I like! Oh yeah and I make more money with about 10% of the effort.

Yeah I reckon I probably put in 10% of the time and effort to work than I did then. I worked minimum 50 hours a week then, now I probably “work” about 10 – 15 hours a week on average. And I make more money, live a far superior lifestyle, travel, spend time in the sunshine, raise my kids and whatever I feel like.

All because I didn’t believe people when they told me I should get used to it, even those much older than me, friends parents, management and all those that told me “that’s just life”. I wasn’t trying to prove them wrong I just wanted to see what was possible because I wasn’t happy with being locked up in a job five days a week. It wasn’t that difficult to do, just a decision and some independent thought..

People say it’s hard to leave that comfort zone but I say “what comfort zone”? Who’s in the comfort zone now? I wouldn’t leave my comfort zone today, that’s for sure.

Humans don’t want to stand out. When everyone is telling you stick at your safe job and that’s just life; people don’t want to go against that and hang their balls out there. The first time I had a problem and temporarily had to take a job everyone loved to say “told you so”. But for 6 months I plotted my next business, left and made more money than ever. Where were the doubters then? There is no key or secret just freedom of mind and an attitude.

Life is only complicated because we make it complicated, we have freedom when we decide to be free, we are happy when we react differently to what happens to us. It’s just a life choice and not giving a crap what anyone thinks of your own life choice.

Easier Times Ahead

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For some reason I just had a feeling/premonition that I have not felt for a while; the economy and general mood is going to pick up. More prosperity is on the way. I am not in the game of blaming problems on a recession, there’s always solutions if you want to find them but there’s no doubt the climate has been tough for a few years now. But I just suddenly felt something different and I have no idea what or why but a more relaxed and easier time is coming soon.

I would never encourage someone to put plans on hold because of difficult economic times, lack of finance or a recession. Life is way too short to do that and research shows that most successful entrepreneurs started during times of recession. Even big companies know that an economic downturn is an opportunity to increase advertising and marketing cheaply and embrace the other opportunities during these times.

But I would be lying if I said the last few years have been no different to others before or it’s as easy as ever to start a new venture or succeed with an existing project because it hasn’t been easy. Even basic career progression and job opportunities are clearly limited. These are hard facts that you can’t deny. Some countries have fared better or worse but across the board young people seem to have been affected the most.

If you are willing to work round it, be innovative and prepared to put in some extra effort, you can still succeed but even I have become a little weary from the drag and mood of the last 3 years. It’s really hard to put my finger on why I felt something different today but over the last few months I have definitely felt some collective shift. Maybe people are tired of it and want to be more positive. The housing market has picked up very slightly, investors are selling off gold reserves and prices have dipped (they went up when buyers were looking for a safe haven for cash investments) so that points to investors looking for more interesting and better returns on their cash. Perhaps it’s the feeling that the winter is coming to an end in more ways than one.

Whatever the reasons are, I am definitely feeling more optimistic for the rest of this year and next. Bring it on!

Free Entrepreneur Course and Coaching

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chI want to offer my Direct Entrepreneur Course and some coaching for free to you, if you think you deserve it. I started out writing my book and business course to help people, especially those that really want it or need it, so to help those that can’t afford my course or coaching I am happy to offer them free of charge.

I was able to get started with minimal help but I know others might struggle to do the same and I genuinely want to offer guidance and support for anyone that can’t pay for it.

You don’t have to be homeless as I was, maybe finances are tight due to family commitments or you were made redundant, maybe you are young and unemployed.

I started out with nothing but found a great amount of wealth and freedom through simple techniques and strategies which I now teach to others. I also developed ways to overcome adversity, emotional difficulties and other problems life threw at me so I could achieve my goals. Becoming successful wasn’t just about business acumen,  I had to break down my own barriers and those around me to get to where I wanted to be.

Part of my coaching involves overcoming personal problems or life’s troubles and breaking down any barriers that exist around you. Sometimes we don’t even realise how much these problems are holding us back. When I coupled these techniques together with my business strategies I transformed my own life and now I help others to do the same.

My time is limited so I can only offer free coaching to a select number of people. If you think you would benefit from some free advice fill out the form below together with the specific reasons you think you deserve coaching and my business course for free. Alternatively if you are interested in paying for a coaching program contact me directly on my contact page.

Sorry this offer is now closed. However I am now offering my Direct Entrepreneur course for free to all coaching clients, click here for more info.

Don’t Play It Safe

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If you are particularly offended by bad language then don’t watch this but if you’re not bothered by some honest and upfront views then this video of Ice T speaking about what it takes to become successful sums up a lot of what I try and teach people.

My Bipolar II Disorder

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My extrovert behaviour is one of the upsides

My extrovert behaviour is one of the upsides

This is a little off track from the rest of my blog but many people think I am positive all the time and don’t have any down days when actually (like anyone else) I am not perfect and struggle with certain things too.

I am hoping this post will give hope and reassurance to some of you.

For all those that think I am always positive; I wanted to let everyone know that I suffer from Type II Bipolar disorder. Not many people know about it and I wanted to share because at least 4% of the population suffer with this, often behind closed doors

Bipolar disorder used to be called manic depression but for many like me this doesn’t describe the condition at all because both the manic episodes (high energy, outbursts, irrational and extrovert behaviour) and/or the depression stages can be at lower levels and can come on slowly followed by periods of near normality. It’s not necessarily extreme mood swings and violent or delusional behaviour which can be more associated to type I bipolar sufferers.

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