From this morning’s walk along the coast. The wind was blowing and the rain came down, but when the sun came out it was spectacular.
Sydney in winter
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Tag Archives: Sydney
Katoomba, Blue Mountains, NSW Australia
The new wing of the Art Gallery of NSW
It’s a superb new place to see art in Sydney. Be sure to add it to your list.
The benefits of showing up online
Social Media is responsible for all of the worst things that happen in the world today – or so you would think if you pay attention to the news media.
The truth is quite the opposite in many cases.
There will always be those who hide behind their keyboards and spread hatred from the relative safety of their sofa. These are also the people who think that spamming is a clever and profitable way to spend their time.
I’m more interested in the positives of Social Media and feel there are many. Here are a couple, specifically based on a mini project I’ve been doing daily on Facebook:
Firstly, you develop confidence from learning new skills.
Writers have to work harder at brevity, keeping posts short but effective at the same time. Artists and photographers have to work out new ways to stand out from the crowd.
Lawyers also ask me how they can demonstrate to their clients how they solve problems rather than tell everyone how amazing they are (their favourite thing in the world).
Next, you can make new connections and build an important new kind of network.
Being part of old school face-to-face networking groups has its place. Being part of a fun, fast-moving and thriving Facebook Group can be just as good, if not better.
The connections and friends you make in these Groups online can carry over into real life, too.
Not everyone behind a keyboard is a weirdo. Talk to them and work it out for yourself.
And, finally, the more you show up, the better things will be overall.
I’ve been making a Monday to Friday Facebook Live called ‘Showing Up’ for my community and I’ve had some interesting feedback.
It has started conversations, created a few discussions and plenty of laughter.
It’s also helped me to reconnect with a few old contacts who tend to stalk more than participate.
But, most importantly, it’s got me to spend more time in a place where I wasn’t giving my best and that’s important for me. I’m an expert in this stuff and I always need to be at the sharp edge.
Is your main message clear?
I’m constantly looking people up online to find out what they’re all about. I might want their help, want to work with them, or just want to see who they are and what they do.
Half the time, I see what I want and don’t have to scroll too far. But the other half can be terribly frustrating.
How clear is your main message?
When people land on your profile (and you’re in business, whatever that might be) they need to be able to work out quickly and easily what you do and how to work with you.
If they have to dive deep, click through a couple of pages and do a tonne of scrolling to work out what you’re about, the chances of them moving to another page are high.
Signposts work really well.
Some sites have ‘who are you and what do you want?’ buttons right there on the front page. They can be confronting but they make it easy for the user to find what they want. This is what matters most – it’s all about the user.
Even profiles on places like LinkedIn matter when it comes to this.
Use the headline and the ‘about’ info to make it clear how you can help people and you’ll get better results.
Be specific and do it with purpose and the enquiries you get will be from the right people.
Learnings from the last couple of years
A long time has gone by since I last wrote here, and a few things in life have changed, so here we are…
We are living in Australia as permanent residents and we are striving to build a solid foundation for ourselves. My business is growing and there are now three of us in the team, and as I continue to drive this business growth I’ve had a few things in the back of my mind, helping with the steering.
I’ll share them below in no particular order. Some are attributed to a couple the people that I read and follow for guidance and inspiration, but not all:
- The more genuine your interest in other people, the more people trust you.
- The better you are at listening, the more people want to spend time with you.
- Be precise in what you say (Jordan Peterson).
- Be very careful what you wish for as it will come to you in time.
- Remember people’s names if you can and use them.
- Let others save face. Don’t drop them off the cliff unless you have no choice.
- Be somebody by doing something.
- Become an expert and work harder at this than anything else in your life.
- Our minds control everything we do.
- Our attitudes will always define our results and outcomes in life.
- Do things that are hard, often.
- Save money and build a stack before making investments.
- Think like the seasons (from Jim Rohn) – be ready for them, plant seeds and work hard to grow them.
- Stay cool and shut up.
- Struggle teaches us who we really are. Accept the struggle that is life.
- Improve what you’re not happy with. Obsess on the things you have to improve.
- The easy option = bad results.
- Honesty is the way to progress.
- Get people on payroll doing things they are great at and that you can’t do.
- Negativity will bring you down in the end. It repels all things.
- Build self confidence through small daily actions done well to then rise above your circumstances and achieve more.
- If you think you’re the smartest person in the room, you’re likely to be the opposite.
- Massive action taken towards a goal gets results.
- Patience, passivity and caution are killers for anyone entrepreneurial.
- Find your why. It will drive you through bad times and keep you focused.
- Know the way broadly and achieve in many things (Musashi).
What’s the best social media platform for your business?
Face-to-face networking never loses its appeal
For all of the talk about the importance and relevance of social media that comes out of me and many other people, there is still a huge amount to be gained from the face-to-face version. My argument would be that in today’s online world, the value of face-to-face networking at its best has actually increased.
I attended the Sydney CBD BNI networking group this morning and had a great time meeting some new people and hearing about a range of high-performing businesses of all shapes and sizes operating in the city. It’s a great example of networking done well, but my invitation to attend this group came from a face-to-face meeting and a very rambling conversation with one of the members.
I have also had two requests for my services today from two connections who have met me, one of them only once, and neither of whom were connected to me on social platforms before we started talking.
Yes, we need to have a strong presence online and build our businesses this way – this tide is rising quickly and we need to stay afloat in order to reap the benefits – but we must never overlook the strength of the traditional methods. Trust can form much more quickly from having a broader conversation and trust in any relationship is what really matters. Use your social channels to grow the relationship and develop even greater levels of trust and you will see some excellent growth in time.
When others hit the brakes, hit the accelerator
There has been much talk since we arrived in Sydney about how things slow down in December and January here. The school year ends, the Christmas and New Year holidays kick in and the weather heats up as locals stay cool and enjoy a few weeks off.
I can totally see the point of this in many ways. We all need a battery recharge now and again and family time at this time of year is always important. But I feel very strongly that this is a time like no other when you can make a difference to how your new year starts and steal a march on your competition.
Everyone on their holidays is still going to be attached to their phones. This is the way life is today, even though we all hate to admit it. Keeping up your content and pushing hard to be front of mind through this period of general downtime will give you an advantage when people get back on it towards the end of January.
And if you’ve got a new product to launch or a specific campaign in mind, the opportunity here is even better. Use your favoured social platforms to best effect and make the best start you can to the New Year.
Big changes in our world since 2009
I’ve picked 2009 because that’s when I started on Twitter. I was based in the US and was told by a good friend of mine working in print media in the UK that I should take a look at ‘this Twitter thing’ to stay in touch with news, views, etc. while I was away from home. After a lot of listening and lurking in the darkness, I finally got stuck into it and began my own small journey into the world of content and beyond.
Fast forward to today and look where we are now. Digital platforms sell everything you could ever need and they are the go-to tools for marketers of all kinds. If you’re selling anything and everything, from goods and services to a candidate for the US Presidency, where do you go? You go where the ATTENTION is, and today it’s almost all ONLINE.
If you’re in business and you’re looking for growth and want to reach out to audiences old and new, you need to be where the attention is and be speaking the language that your audience is wanting to hear. Some time spent thinking what this means for you can pay huge dividends and if you want any help along the way, this is what I do everyday, so give me a shout.
Happy Friday from a very sunny and beautiful Sydney!
Small businesses – get your message across to the right audience online
I have been developing my own ideas about personal branding and making the most of your opportunities to market yourself and your business online for a number of years now. I worked in the US in 2009 and got myself a Twitter account, then began to follow the likes of Chris Brogan, David Meerman Scott and Gary Vaynerchuk as they paved the way for many digital marketing experts to emerge into a market that had no idea what the internet was capable of and how it would change everything we do. I then began video blogging about my running training and grew a small but loyal band of followers and then used my knowledge in my other entrepreneurial activities in recruitment, careers and coaching ever since.
Fast-forward seven years to today and the internet rules when it comes to marketing. Print media is dying a slow death and the traditional marketing budgets of the big players have moved online many years ago, catching our attention at every opportunity and creeping into our favourite tv shows, our news feeds on Facebook, our Twitter timeline and so on.
The early adopters are reaping the benefits of this captive audience – once you’ve liked a page, you’ll be seeing that brand’s every move and the offer you’ve been waiting for is surely not all that far behind. But it’s the small businesses and solo entrepreneurs who may be struggling to keep up with this runaway train – time is best spent on actually shipping and selling your product or providing your expert services and any time not spent doing this simply doesn’t pay the bills.
So I’m launching IMOFO Digital this week, with the sole aim of helping small businesses and those who work for themselves or in small teams to build their personal brand online to increase awareness and sales using the platforms we all use to connect and communicate every day. The power of the internet is there for us all to see but the ability to harness that power is sometimes a tricky task for those building their businesses and that’s where I can help.
You need compelling content to tempt new customers, leading to them pay attention to your message over the long term and get results.
You need to engage with your audience and show them that you’re listening and are there to help them.
You also need to stay aware of how and where your clients and customers are spending time online to be a part of their conversation and be at the front of their mind when it’s time to buy.
There will be a lot more on this topic coming as time goes by but I’m very excited to share my knowledge with some new clients and help them develop some spectacular results. If you are interested in finding out more, please get in touch via +61 (0)477 841 630 or mountford.ian@gmail.com.
Aches and pains
I’m going through a patch where my body keeps breaking down on me and it is infuriating but part of the process of getting older. I run when I can and like to train for short races but my lower limbs are feeling the strain and it’s not as much fun to run, even in training, with constant pain.
If you’re a runner, you will understand that training with pain of some kind is inevitable as there is normally some small niggle or ache that develops or comes and goes as you continue through your session. But there are those that just won’t go away, and I have one of these at the moment.
Treatment of the issues at the heart of the problem is the only way to solve these kinds of issues. Strengthening of the muscles in and around the area of injury is also crucial and so it’s usually a longer journey to recovery and avoidance of any relapse than just a quick rub-down from a physio.
I’m just glad to have some active friends and relatives in Sydney who can hook me up with the right treatment and so I will be there as soon as I can to get back on the path to good health and some more racing. It’s the first day of spring today so I need to make the most of this southern hemisphere weather!
Focus on the good stuff
The process of making change is one that can add levels of frustration, anxiety and straight-up fear to lives that are already highly stressed and this isn’t always a good thing. Illness can follow very quickly behind if the change isn’t properly managed, whatever it’s context, so avoiding this has to be a top priority.
Our move to Sydney is still in progress as the container carrying our belongings is not yet with us and, so far, we have thankfully had few problems. But Katherine did get sick after only a couple of days in the country and this was very likely due to the scale of the change we had undertaken and the unsettled nature of what was ahead of us over the next few weeks of looking for accommodation, settling into a job and a new city, etc.
The frustration around the change I am going through at the moment is about the pace of it. Life in Australia does go a whole lot slower than it does in the UK and this can be difficult when you have little patience and are ready to start something new. A phone call or email not being returned seems to increase the overall level of tension and the ability to stay patient pays huge dividends.
I try to solve these little problems by thinking of all the things that have worked out well over the last few weeks as we have moved our lives and there are lots of them. It’s always beneficial, to me, anyhow, to keep a focus on the good stuff and the positives that are around me instead of the negatives and this does seem to do the trick. The negatives come easy and are always there without looking too hard, but make an effort to see past them and the dark clouds will start to lift a little.
Growth through change
It’s been a few weeks since I have written anything here because it’s been a time of big change. I’m now writing this from Sydney, Australia after moving here one week ago and the lead up to this change has been very hectic. House rented, belongings packed, plane tickets bought and accommodation secured does make it all sound very simple but I can assure you it isn’t!
Anyway, this time of change is also a big opportunity for growth in many ways. A new country – well, I was here 20 years ago and it has changed a lot since then – that is so far from the culture, weather and lifestyle that we had when in the UK will take some getting used to but that is part of its attraction.
I’m looking at getting back into employment so doing lots of research and adapting my mindset to being part of team again, even leading one if the opportunity presents itself. I’ve also got some time to think about doing some fresh learning in a new area and I haven’t drawn any conclusions from this yet.
Basically, every option is still open and this time of change is going to give some amazing opportunities for growth that will be fabulous as time goes by. There’s a lot to be very grateful for.
As a sidenote – current reading:
Chaos Monkeys – inside the Silicon Valley money machine, Antonio Garcia Martinez
The Inner Game of Golf – W. Timothy Gallwey
Homicide, David Simon
Race schedule for running:
Bay Run 7km this Sunday
City2Surf (CBD to Bondi Beach) on 14 August
Western Sydney half marathon on 1 October
Ian Mountford 