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Les Brown – You have greatness within you

Editor @ Global Man September 17, 2018 No Comments

 

*This interview is transcribed from the Global Woman Show with Mirela Sula

Today I feel very fortunate to have met an amazing person called Les Brown. I hardly need to introduce him because almost everybody knows about him and the way that he has touched the hearts of millions of people around the world. I am so happy that I can now share my interview with him that I know is going to inspire all the women who support the ‘Global Woman’ platform.

Les Brown, thank you so much for being with me today and giving your time to ‘Global Woman Magazine’. You know women love your work so please tell us more about what you do.
I am very glad to hear that you appreciate my work and I am very happy meeting you. But there’s something important that you said to me. I asked you about something that I want to get done and you said, “Anything is possible” and you said it with such conviction. That’s exactly the mindset that people must have, because, according to psychologists over 87 % of people’s negative ‘self-talk’ goes undetected by the conscious mind. But you have deliberately programmed yourself to believe, as an optimist, that anything is possible. And when you said that I believed it because you didn’t just ‘say it’ but you spoke with great conviction. This is what I say to Speakers when I train them. That having conviction is more important than the actual words you speak. So – I guess what I need to say is, ‘Thank you for blessing me with your presence’.
Your own story is incredible – and probably there are a lot of people who are feeling a bit down and trying to find excuses or complaining about politics or the situation of the world or, of course, they come from a poor family background or from a dysfunctional family. There are lots of reasons to complain about things – but you never seem to complain.
I do talk about things that have happened to me, but I don’t allow them to stop me. My new book is called; ‘You have got to be Angry’ and it’s about saying to yourself, “Here’s something I want, and I am going to get it in spite of the fact that it’s an unfair world – and also it’s not right that women doing the same work as men in the USA get paid less than the men get paid”. We all know that such inequality is simply not right. I was once working in a job that claimed that if you are the number one salesperson you become the Sales Manager and you will then get a bonus and I did it for six months in a row but they passed me by and then I was required to train other people that they would put over me. Clearly that was not right or fair. The only reason they did it was because they had the ‘complexion of connection’ and ‘I had the complexion of rejection.’ However, I decided I was going to ‘make it’ in spite of everything. Helen Keller said ‘when one door closes another door opens’ but most of us spend time trying to open a closed door rather than creating a door ourselves that we can then walk through unchallenged. In other words, we need to be able to live our own dreams and there are many women who have always had to fight against all the odds to make it through. There’s a gentleman by the name of Fred Astaire and back during the time he was in Hollywood they said he was the greatest dancer in the world – but the young lady that he danced with – she had to dance with him step for step but backwards and in heels! So, what I’m saying is that women have always had to be persistent to make it against all the challenges they have had to face. My mother adopted seven children and I was one of the seven. She made it against all the odds and although she didn’t have a great education she definitely had a PhD in ‘Mother’s wit’ and she always found a way forward even when there didn’t seem to be a way! Women have always had to do that and that is why I am excited to be a part of this interview and to be in the presence of women like you.

Thank you. So basically, you are saying that there is a lot of injustice out there in the world, but our duty and responsibility is not to complain about the unfairness women face but to prove that we can make anything possible if we face up to the challenges.
Yes. You have to do it ‘in spite of…’ Communities and countries are created by people and they can be changed by people and the secret is to maintain commitment through all the frustrations and disappointments we are going to encounter. We must all attempt to change the way that we function and also attempt to change the way women are treated – and in attempting to change the way we treat each other we need to understand this is a human problem. Human beings created it and human beings can therefore resolve it!
Well, as human beings we usually tend to see the problem not the solution. But not all the people have this ability to turn their perception in a direction that can guide them to the solution. Is there a secret to making this happen?
You know Einstein said “I don’t think I am so smart. I just have more patience than most people.” Most people want change to happen directly but it’s not that kind of world. You have got to be willing to be patient and it takes persistence and it takes going through some frustrations and disappointments and setbacks and things happening to you that you cannot anticipate. Some setbacks and problems just keep coming back again and again and I believe that sometimes angels are dispatched – and I believe that those angels support us by saying, “You know what? She’s really determined and she’s not gonna stop or ever give up.” That’s tenacity!
They did this study once and found that with a certain mathematical angle a spool of thread – after it’s released – hits against a two-ton steel beam. After so many hits – ‘pip pip pip’ – eventually it will begin to vibrate and then eventually the beam will move. Well, that’s what you are doing. That’s what we are doing in tapping into the consciousness of people and helping to create a different kind of world and changing how women should be seen not as just ‘receptacles for men’s orgasms’ but as thinking, feeling human beings who have something to give and something important to contribute to life. And it takes time to reverse that conditioning. I saw in the newspaper yesterday an article about a beautiful young lady that was raped and killed by her uncle. What kind of society have we created and what kind of mindset can give someone the permission to be that inhumane to another human being? It’s going to take time to reverse that sort of thinking and that type of behavior.
It feels that the shift is happening in the world and that more and more women are waking up. It feels like we have been sleeping for a long time. Now it’s time to wake up, to come to a higher level of consciousness, to connect with ‘higher self’ inside us and to see things like you just said. But sometimes we can’t anticipate things and we don’t have control over things. We can take responsibility for certain things we do in the world – but how can we coordinate and co-create with men? Not by feeling that we are against them or that we are separate but by working together. As we all know – we have left the world in men’s hands for a long time and it looks very messed up. So how can we get to the level when men see us as partners?
Think about where the world would be now if those who are in control had been inclusive in their thinking rather than exclusive. In other words, if women were allowed to participate and if people were allowed to participate even though they’d had an accident, even though they had slanted eyes, even though they came to the table with different sexual orientation, even though they might be in a wheelchair. Where would we be if all the thinking that’s available on the planet came together to collaborate and to work together with a mindset that said; ‘We can solve this. We can create a different kind of world’. Where would we be now? It’s like the way it was in the USA for coloured people in the USA. I am 73 now, but when I was a kid I would get on the bus with my mother and people would be seated in the back and there were seats up front where white people sat and even though there were some free seats there, mama said, ‘’keep walking Leslie’’ and I had to go past a yellow line to sit down. I said, “Why we can’t sit up there?” and she just said, “You can’t”. But the only reason we couldn’t sit there were because we were black. So that culture effectively said, ‘you are less worthy’. That culture and those laws in Society were designed to make people like me feel inferior.
I was invited to speak at the beginning of my career in Florida and unbeknownst to me they thought I was a different Les Brown. So, when I knocked on the door at the back of the theatre a guy said, ‘’May I help you?” I said, ‘’Yes, I am Les Brown’. He said, ‘’You are Les Brown’s driver?’’. I said, “No – I am Les Brown”. He said, “You are not Les Brown the bandleader!” I said, “No I am not”. You know he looked at me and then he was trying to spit on my shoes. I was so glad that he didn’t spit in my face because if he had I wouldn’t be here now. I would have grabbed him. He said, ‘follow me’ and people were already seated in the theatre and they had these album covers of Les Brown the bandleader. And this guy went at the microphone and says, “Ladies and gentlemen – Les Brown!” He then looked at me with contempt and walked off without shaking my hand and greeting me. So, I walked up to the microphone and I’m thinking, ‘How am I gonna deal with this?’ Everyone in that room were shocked because they only knew black people as football or basketball players but not as a Speaker. I am the only black face in the room and then I looked up and there was a sign that says, ‘You have the power to seize the hour’ and then I looked at the audience and I said to myself, ‘Right, I need to take control of this room. So, I said ‘I want you to think about why we are here. We have the power to seize the hour, to recognise your children and to give commitment to these young people because they are being moulded into who they will be in the future. I said, ‘Let’s give them a tremendous round of applause’. I knew they were gonna clap for their children. I needed to be strategic, so I said, ‘And all the parents would you please stand up? There are many people that loved you and believed in you and prayed for you – right up until this moment where we are now. Let’s seize this opportunity to recognise them with love and respect. Give them a tremendous round of applause!’

So you created this crazy energy in the room?
I just increased the energy by taking over the room and filling it with love and appreciation. After that they looked at me as if to say ‘Okay. What are you going to do? We will listen to you now.”

All this power and this energy. Where does it come from? What is the source?
The source is in all of us, who we are behind our eyes. We are all the same and so what I do is call for that source which I call ‘greatness’. I believe that when you are pursuing greatness you don’t know what your limits are – so you act like you don’t have any limits. And then I looked at the audience and I said, ‘You all have greatness in you. I don’t know who you are, I don’t know anything about you but I you all have greatness in you and we all speak from that place – the universal language of acknowledging each other and seeing the value in each other and loving each other.
That began to dispel the rejection, the hostility, the racism in the room and they began not to focus on my colour but focused on me as a human, because at the end of the day and – Jane Elliot said this – it’s not a black race and a brown race or a yellow race and a red race – it is just one race and it’s called the human race. It is brought together by love and God is love. Women are the greatest embodiment of love for me and I am here because of two women. One gave me life and the other gave me love. God took me out of my biological mother’s womb and placed me in the heart of my adopted mother and I think that there is a shift that is taking place and women are the pioneers of that shift. Women will help move us into a different future that Mother Teresa spoke about when she said, ‘’Lord I know you know how much we could bear, and I could bear”.

I am sure a lot of women will resonate with you and so much admire you for the fact that you speak so highly about your mother and the way that you put her on a pedestal. Can you share with us something that you never shared before about your mother?
Interesting that you said that. I had a moment with myself last night praying for my son and I asked myself is there something I have not done? As a kid I had a congestion of the lungs and another friend named Gramps he had the same condition. We were ten years old and we would sit in the back yard with two chairs side by side. One day I came to the backyard and Gramps had died. I remember that night when Doctor Johnson came over as doctors used to make house calls at that time and said, ‘Mamie give Leslie these drops every two hours’ and she had to be up all night to do that. Then she had to go to work on Miami Beach to cook for families with hand-me-down clothes and I remember distinctly my mother hands trembling as she was getting the drops out and putting them into my mouth and she‘d wrapped me in some leaves called ‘Palmer Christian’ leaves and was saying, ‘God don’t take my son, take my life, let me die, but don’t take my baby”. She didn’t give birth to me, she didn’t carry me for nine months and she is asking God to take her life and allow me to live. So, when I was praying for my son the other day I said, ‘God I had not asked you to do this. What mama can love me more than I love my son Calvin. I beg you take my life but give my son more time. I am 73 and I am an old man now and I am okay with going now so take my life instead.” I told this story on the Internet and a lady texted back. ‘God don’t listen to this fool. The God I serve could do it all – he could save you and your son. We don’t serve a limited God”.
What I learned from, my mother is that we must push forward in spite of everything. She believed everything is possible and that’s the kind of mindset that we must have to leap and grow our wings on the way to understanding. If you are not willing to take risks, you can’t grow. And if you can’t grow you can’t become your best, and if you can’t become your best you cannot be happy and if you can’t be happy then what else is there but to walk by faith and not by sight alone.

So you sometimes have to say ‘yes’ but you don’t always need to know how you are going to get there?
The key is to make a commitment. That’s what it will take for us to create a culture in our cities, in our countries, in the world and in the work place for women to be seen as equals. We just need ‘the will to do it’. What will it take for us to reduce the sexual abuse, the physical abuse, the domestic abuse and violence to women and children – those who are powerless and voiceless. Just the will to do it! What will it take for us to stand up to the universal bullies – the most powerful bullies on the planet? Everything that exists is because somebody had the will to do it.

You seem to be enjoying your life a lot now?
Yes. Because we don’t know how much time we have. Someone asked me, ‘What do you want your legacy to be?’ and I said, “I aspire to inspire until I expire” and I always tell my children that when they say ‘Your dad is dead’ don’t allow them to embalm me for three days! Come down to the funeral home and bring a microphone just in case!’ I’m here to teach people to live fully and not die empty. We have to develop the courage and the willingness to follow our life purpose in spite of the fact that we might live in an environment where women are treated inferior or in an environment of racism that does not recognise humanity. You must decide ‘I’m gonna do this no matter what’.

You mention a lot in your speeches that lot of people probably hope to have an easy life because it is difficult to lead a hard life, but you have turned this around and said that when life is hard work then your life is going to be easier. I really love that idea. Can you tell us more?
If you do what is easy your life will be hard. But if you do what is hard, your life will be easier, and we must be willing to do hard. Let’s talk about struggle. I am reminded of a little boy going through an area in the forest when he saw a caterpillar trying to come out of a cocoon. So he watched and he observed and after a while a butterfly came out of the cocoon and hit the ground of the forest fluttering its swings and then flying off. And a few weeks later he came through the same area and saw another butterfly struggling to get out of the cocoon and naively he decided that he wanted to help it to come out faster. He took a safety-pin out of his pants and he made a little incision and the butterfly fell out of the cocoon, hit the ground and fluttered his wings and died because it was the struggle itself that gave it life. The struggle itself – when the dream is big enough – means the odds don’t matter. In life you will always be faced with a series of god-ordained opportunities brilliantly disguised as problems and challenges. Challenges will introduce you to a part of yourself that you might not know right now. We must embrace the challenges because we grow through the challenges of life.

Thank you for this area of our discussion because this is very important especially for women who have realised that if they want to connect with their power and to stand in that power they also need to become more entrepreneurial. Financial freedom is where get most of the power because a lot of women are abused because they are dependent on the finance of other people. A lot of women are starting their own journey as entrepreneurs and starting their own business, but they are facing a lot of challenges. A brilliant idea is not always easy to achieve and so they give up. What is your advice and your wisdom to share with women entrepreneurs to motivate and inspire them to keep going and to be successful?
Three things. My mother was an entrepreneur when she could no longer work at Miami Beach for these wealthy families because they fired her. So, my mother had to become an entrepreneur and she didn’t have multi-level marketing during that time it was like a lottery. She sold moonshine and she sold homebrew. I never talked about it on stage because I don’t have the emotional bandwidth to do it without crying because at one time she went to prison. So, one of the things that I am training Speakers is never tell a story that you are not emotionally capable of handling yourself because this is no place for therapy. What I learned from my mother is she always said, ‘Every tub must stand on its own bottom’. My mother become an entrepreneur and she made a commitment to my birth mother that we will that we will never go to bed hungry – and we never did. We always had a roof over our head and we always had clothes on our back.
Women have always been the catalyst to say, “I am going to provide for this child or these children.” I remember talking to a man who should have been paying ‘Child Support’ and he said, “Oh they’re gonna let the mother take care of him instead.” I said, “But she didn’t get a child through immaculate conception – so you played a part in this child’s life too – so you should participate.” But a lot of guys who I call ‘sperm donors’ just walk away and leave the woman to struggle and make life difficult for her. That’s why the ‘Global Woman Magazine’ is so important in teaching women. Now is easier than before because of technology. These are women who are becoming entrepreneurs and becoming healthy through the comfort of their home with a computer. There are more women now that have a level of independence and more women who have a strong sense of identity. When your life has a sense of identity it gives your life a sense of purpose and a sense of direction and so they are now women who don’t just see themselves as wives or as mothers but as a global entrepreneur. They are living a life of contribution, not just standing in the shadows but can live and be fulfilled and make a difference to the planet. Women now have more access in certain areas of the world than ever before and that’s a good thing.

Gil Petersil: Strategic Partnerships Can Work Wonders

Editor @ Global Man September 12, 2018 No Comments

By Fatima Gorezi

There is a belief that you are the ‘average’ of the five people you spend the most time with. Indeed, your immediate circle determines your lifestyle, your income, and even your health. So, it is vitally important to choose these people consciously and wisely. The most efficient way to do that is through proper networking and strategic partnerships. We talked about it with Gil Petersil, a leading networking mastery coach, serial entrepreneur, innovator and public speaker.

Can you tell us more about your early life and your first steps in business?
I spent my childhood in Israel growing up in a traditional Jewish family. Later we moved to Canada and it’s there that I made my first money at the age of 14. My father would often go to Israel on business. One day he asked me what to bring from there for my birthday. I requested a box of audio cassettes with national Jewish songs. Right before Hanukkah (which happens before Christmas), I sold all these cassettes almost instantly.

The reason was that I was selling them at the shopping mall, where I could meet more interested people. Moreover, I did that on Saturday, when my competitors didn’t work over the weekend enjoying themselves. Of course, such a success was a true inspiration for me and I decided to venture into entrepreneurship. During my early years as an entrepreneur, I made attempts to engage in the restaurant business, bakeries and even mobile apps. Some of these efforts were more successful than others. But it was then when I realised: you never achieve anything on your own. No matter what move you make, you always need the right people to help and support you. So, I started paying a lot of attention to business networking and I saw how it helped me reach my goals faster and easier. Afterward, I decided to focus on networking and turn it into my primary field of expertise. Now I teach it at business schools and business events.

What motivated you to get involved in being inspirational for change?
Actually, it all started with my mentor and, I now daresay, my business partner Tony Robbins, the #1 life and business strategist in the world. At first, he was my virtual mentor and a role model as to how I should be developing my life.

Now my company “Meet Partners” which is based in Moscow are exclusive representatives of Tony Robbins in Russia and his number one partner in the world. We annually bring over 2000 Russians to Tony’s events in different countries. After one of the first Tony’s seminars that we went to, our Company’s focus moved from doing events where people can connect through networking to events where people can connect through education. Later on, when I developed a personal connection with Tony, he told me: “Stop running businesses. You are a Speaker and this is what you should be focusing on.”

I took Tony’s advice because management is really not my strength. I now hire great managers to handle all the operating procedures. Instead, I give speeches at global events where I teach people how to achieve any goals in business and life through the art of networking and the power of resourcefulness. When someone tells me how inspired they were by my speech and especially what great results they have obtained, it makes me a happy man.

What major challenges and problems have you faced? How did you handle them?
I would say that the major challenge for any entrepreneur is self-doubt. I lost motivation many times and I disconnected from the world of big goals. About seven years ago I went completely broke. I lost all my money, but the most terrible thing was that I lost faith in myself. I’m so grateful to my wife Katya who never stopped believing in me even when I stopped believing in myself. She is the one who always helps me overcome insecurity.

Therefore, my advice to the folks who are facing a similar challenge: don’t try to handle it on your own. Find someone who you can lean on in your troubled times. And stay away from those who tell you that your failure was inevitable because life is unfair, or any business is dangerous. I’m sorry to say that some people are happy to see you fail. It’s not because they are evil, it’s just that they want to feel better about themselves at your expense. So, the clear message is stand strong and associate with the right crowd.

What keeps you up at night when you think about Strategic Partnerships and moving from integration to optimisation to transformation?
My whole life is about serving people and Strategic Partnerships are one great way to do it. When you find a partner, you both can add more value to your clients and make them happier. There is one common misconception about partnering up with another business. Some entrepreneurs think that they need to find a Company which is working in the same niche and join forces with it. In fact, a partnership is when you find a business which is different from yours, but you have the same target audience. For instance, one coffee company partnered up with a car dealer. Now the car showroom has a cozy sitting area with free coffee. The coffee company gets support from a strong brand, the car dealer enjoys great coffee and the clients receive an excellent service that motivates them to come back and recommend the car dealer to their friends and colleagues. Everyone is happy.

Such cases always inspire me because I see how beneficial they are for all parties. And from my own experience, I see how Strategic Partnerships can really work wonders. For example, five years ago I could not imagine that I would become a strategic partner for Tony Robbins. Now he is coming to Moscow and is giving his first Russian seminar on September 1st, 2018. It’s a big amazing event, not only for Tony and me, but also for thousands of Russian people, and this is exactly what counts.

How is it in business, working together with your life partner, and how do you balance personal and business life?
Having the same person as both my business partner and soulmate is truly an exception, a great fortune. I always say that it’s not a good idea to mix personal and business life. Even when you start your business based on friendship, you run the risk of losing both, business and friendship. However, I don’t want to discourage anyone from starting a business together with your loved ones. After all, there are no rules without exceptions and our family business with my wife Katya is a living proof.

As for finding the right balance between business and family, we have a few life-hacks for that. The first one is planning. You write down all your goals, both short-term and long-term. That way you allocate time for everything that is important to you: visiting relatives, attending a global business event, having a romantic dinner with your wife, etc. By the way, Katya and I have a tradition: every month we go to a new Michelin-starred restaurant. And that is our method number two: traditions and rituals. Observing a daily, monthly, or a yearly tradition is very helpful. No matter how swamped we are, we always make time for each other and of course our little daughter Elly. And finally, I highly recommend talking to your partner about everything. Communication is the key to a healthy relationship. Don’t store up your resentments and grievances, talk about them, talk about your feelings. When your relationship is built on complete trust and you can openly discuss any problem, you succeed both in business and marriage.

What is your definition of women’s empowerment?
Of course, I believe in equal opportunities for men and women – but I also believe in a natural difference in genders. Thus, to me, ‘women empowerment’ means enabling women to achieve their goals using their unique female energy. I think that by nature women are more loving, compassionate and empathic. I would love to see more women bringing that to all spheres of life, including politics and economics. It will definitely make the world a better place.

My wife is from Russia and all Russians celebrate a big holiday on March 8th called the ‘International Women’s Day’. Historically, it was a feminist holiday designed to raise awareness about women’s rights. But gradually the 8th of March became a day of men’s declarations of love to women. I never miss the opportunity to congratulate all my female followers on social networks. I always say how grateful I am to all women in my life for their encouragement and support, for making us, men, better versions of ourselves. Both men and women have their strengths and weaknesses. So, what we really need to focus on is complementing and empowering each other. Therefore, my slogan with regard to this issue is: don’t compete, complete!

What are some key characteristics of an empowered person?
First of all, it’s taking responsibility for your own life. An empowered person will never blame the circumstances, the government or other people for any problem that he or she may be facing. As Bill Murray put it in the iconic movie “Groundhog Day”, “We make choices and we live with them.” So, an empowered person learns to make choices and deal with their consequences.

Secondly, it’s constant growth and development. No matter how successful you become, there is always room for more. And this is where life-long education comes in. Empowered people are curious and motivated to improve their skills. Therefore, they never stop learning: from books, business events, from others, and so on. It’s important to know what skills you lack to achieve a new goal and how to obtain them. But being aware of your skill gaps should not let you down. An empowered person is also self-confident and knows how to deal with fears and limiting beliefs that prevent them from growing.

Finally, an empowered person is a great communicator. The ability to maintain an open dialogue at all levels is essential. Through good communication skills, an empowered person inspires and empowers others changing their lives for the better. Of course, these are not all characteristics of an empowered person. Among other traits I can name such things as being proactive, innovative, making quick decisions, and the list goes on.

What advice would you give to those who want to give up due to a lack of empowered feeling, thinking and action? (e.g. What is an important first step)
As a strong believer in networking and the power of human relationships, I would advise seeking support from others. Reach out to those who respect you and the things you do. Look for them among your family, friends or colleagues. First, there is a chance they have been in a similar situation. In this case, they will be happy to share their story and let you know how they managed to overcome such crisis. What’s even more important is that these people will not let you give up because they appreciate what you do. They don’t want you to quit. Therefore, they will encourage and motivate you not because they want to cheer you up but because you make their lives better. So, if you feel a lack of empowered feelings, let other people empower and support you.

What do you want to achieve from this life and what is the future holding for you both on a personal level and in your business?
I’m very grateful for the blessed life that I have. Sometimes I even get to thinking: can I really want more? But as I said before, life is about constant growth and development. I want to continue changing people’s lives for the better because this is what fills me up with joy and purpose.

As for the future, it is whatever we make it. I am sure that there will be more amazing people coming into our lives, more opportunities and certainly more challenges. Of course, no one can guarantee that the future will be flawless and cloudless. But as the famous entrepreneur, Sara Blakely, said, “The secret to success is failure”. So, I am not afraid to make mistakes or to fail. As long as I have the two most important women by my side, my wife and my daughter, I am sure that we can achieve anything.

Anders Eklund– In the noble business creating successful leaders

Editor @ Global Man September 1, 2018 No Comments

By Fati Gorezi

Anders Eklund is the co-founder and Managing Director of “Geneswiss Consultancy”, an international Coaching and Consulting firm headquartered in Zurich Switzerland. They develop, improve and empower organisations by using their own S.P.E.A.K.™ methodology (Systems, Purpose, Excellence, Analysis, Knowledge).

What started as a burning interest to anything engineered, made Anders a successful leader, whose purpose today is to improve the world through excellent leaders. As team leader, Anders was recognied as very trustworthy and target-oriented with the ability to co-operate smoothly with people from different cultures. His great leadership qualities include strong team building and change management skills. Tools, which he has used to build up his wide and global network for optimising and delivering results.

Can you tell us more about your entrepreneurial journey?
My entrepreneurial journey started in my childhood. In the village where I grew up, my late father was a shop owner and it was the only grocery store in the area. I can vaguely remember when I was with him in the shop, how he was jotting down prices on paper and counting the final sum together for the client. By the time he passed away the store was closed. I was then seven years old – a lively first-grader. As the youngest, still living at home, I had to step up the game and help my mother with everything around the house. The following years taught me responsibility and gratitude. Early on, I was the ‘man in the house’. If I wanted something, I had to work for it. Today I can appreciate this; it drove me into many entrepreneurial endeavours very naturally and sculpted me into an action-taker.
In my teenage years, I had a very clear vision about one day becoming a schooled, mechanical engineer. By that time, I had already taken apart and assembled probably every machine and engine in the house. Even our old ‘Telefunken’ television and other apparatus were often spread out on the floor for “improvements”. It was simply my “thing” – a talent of mine. A decade later I finally had my university diploma of ‘Mechanical Engineering’ in my pocket, which yielded me a 25 year-long successful and rewarding global career in the corporate world.
One could say that two years ago my circle had become full. I had returned to my entrepreneurial early roots and was finally ready to start my own Company – ‘Geneswiss Consultancy’. I love Coaching people around the world to become successful leaders. It is very rewarding.

Did you always aspire to reach a leadership role in your career?
Early in my career, becoming a leader was not my target. My focus was on becoming a very good Design Engineer, to learn all the tricks and to be an ‘improver’. In early 1993 my career took a swift turn, when I was promoted to the position of ‘Design Manager’ for one of the most important projects, at that time, in a Finnish Company called ‘Wärtsilä’ – world leader in the Energy and Shipping sector. Looking back, I think I landed this, my first leader position, because of my impeccable engineering skills combined with good people skills, my integrity my willingness to learn more. In addition, I was also striving for good results and wanting to help others succeed.

What are the biggest challenges that you have faced in life?
We all face challenges in life. It is a part of living, “growing”, if you will. If I had to pick one big challenge, it would be the one when we moved from Finland to Switzerland in 2008. Our daughters were 8 and 12 years old. Coming from a Finnish school system and with no or very little English language knowledge, it really was a tough move for our girls. As I was working and often travelling, my wife spent long nights and all weekends helping them with English, homework and to simply adapt to the school requirements. We almost gave up and were seriously considering returning back to Finland after one year. Those were tough times for the whole family. But fortunately, we managed to push through and we are all very happy that we stayed on course. This episode in our lives gave me an indelible understanding of the challenges which expats meet. What their families go through, how everyone is affected, how challenging it is to create balance between work-related travelling and home-time. Without life-balance one can’t reach his/her highest potential. There simply has to be balance. We all are in the ‘people-business’.

What defines a great leader?
To describe a great leader, I want to quote Chris Hadfield, a Canadian astronaut who was the first Canadian to walk in space: “Ultimately, leadership is not about glorious crowning acts. It’s about keeping your team focused on a goal and motivated to do their best to achieve it, especially when the stakes are high, and the consequences really matter. It is about laying the groundwork for others’ success, and then standing back and letting them shine.”
In other words, great leadership is about serving others before oneself. This, one must whole- heartedly understand and live by. You see, it is like this: Great leaders act with others in mind. Great leaders give. Great leaders “live on” and leave a legacy. In my “Leadership 2 Success” Coaching programme, I focus on three core-elements which cover all the above traits and qualities: Purpose, Life-Values and Communication. Successful leadership always starts from within.

What is keeping people from living their best life?
This is one of the most important questions one can ask. There are so many on this Earth who are not living their fullest lives. I think that people are not listening to their inner voices and what their hearts are telling them – their true purpose in life. So many are stuck with what they somehow “landed on” mostly due to circumstances or pressure from the “outside world”. Whether it derives from parents, siblings, peers or friends. Even when people feel and know that a change is a must in their lives, in order to feel happier, in order to be fulfilled and enjoy life, they don’t make changes.

Why is this?
I am a trained Coach and I utilise the latest knowledge of neuro-science for helping in leadership, management and organisational transformation. Meeting with teams and people, I see from close up how difficult it is to change and how a great deal of effort needs to take place in order for it to happen. Normally, only when it is an evident “must”, a “forced” change takes place. Why wait so long? 95% of our time is guided by our earlier habits and behaviours and our learned attitudes. This means that change doesn’t come naturally to most people. We prefer to stay in our comfort zones. We ourselves are our worst limitations. That’s why it is so difficult for us humans to seek, find and embrace our best lives.

Why are you in business?
I am really glad that you asked this. As I see it, great leadership is a dying form of art. What do I mean? Today’s business environment doesn’t properly recognise the imminent fact that leadership skills must be learned, trained and most of all, practiced with dedication and with one’s fullest heart. Being a great leader is a ‘calling’, not a job. Great leaders inspire us all to be better humans and propel us to reach our highest potential. As the best versions of ourselves this world will be a better place to live for everyone.I am passionate about my programme, “Leadership 2 Success”. Not only business-wise but also personally. Through my own hard work and gained experience, I know that great leadership inevitably leads to success stories. That is why I love to share my experience and teach this important art to as many as I can around the world. I say to my students “Leadership is simple, but it is hard work”. Good leadership always starts from the man, or the woman, in the mirror. This is why I am in the noble business of creating great leaders.

What inspires you most?
I am very inspired by the fact that I can start and establish positive improvements in people’s lives. To see when the “light bulb” goes on and someone really gets, when I am explaining, what great leadership truly entails. Great leaders in business, and in life in general, inspire us to find our strengths and missions and help us to go through challenges. Witnessing this happen is great and it inspires me the most. During my long career, I have also had the great privilege to work with different kinds of people from all parts of the world. Together we have created many success stories, and leading such driven and multi-cultural teams consisting of the smartest people I know is awesome! What can I say!? Achieving outstanding results is my passion!

What are the secrets behind your success?
Can we even call them secrets? I am very privileged and lucky, too, to be where I am today. There are many people I have to thank for my success. First of all, my Mother. I can truly thank her for the words she always used to say to me: “If you lie, you will always fail. If you tell the truth, whatever the situation, you will succeed beyond belief”. Those words of hers have truly guided me throughout the years.
Another person who has greatly influenced me on my path to success is my wife Marja. Today she also is an entrepreneur (@ marjaK). She is a remarkable woman and she has always supported and believed in me – ever since I started my career as a young engineer. Even when I did not fully believe in myself, she always did. Without her unwavering help and insight, I would not be the leader I am today.
I also need to mention Berit. She is a Norwegian Leadership Coach. I will never forget that two-hour coaching session with her; it truly turned ‘my lights onto full beam’. Berit made me fully understand the importance and the amazing power of “Life-Work-Balance”. How it can create great leadership, and how the lack of it can ruin everything – everything! Looking back, it is a perfect example of the power of Coaching and how crucial it is to be coached by the right person at the right time.
People behind the concepts of “Behavioral Theories” claim that people can become leaders through the process of teaching, learning and observation. According to them leadership is a set of skills that can be learned by training, perception, practice and experience over time. Learning Leadership skills is a life-long project. I have never believed in the saying that “Leaders are born.” All leaders are made! Hence, it is crucial to surround yourself with the right kind of supportive people. People who genuinely and wholeheartedly want to help you grow and become a better person – a better leader.
However, that is not enough. One must also want to become a better person by their own will. There are way too many people in managerial positions who unfortunately will never reach a leadership level. Why is this? It is because they don’t like (even want!) to listen to other people’s advice and recommendations. Their ego just doesn’t allow it. They spend their days living in their own “bubble”: and it prevents them from exploring and reaching their truest and highest potential as leaders. Also as human beings, to be honest.
I have always worked hard to learn from my mistakes and I have always kept an eye on how good leaders behave and how they do things in order to make their teams successful beyond expectations. Such leaders are wonderful role models and offer valuable “coaching” sessions in real-life-situations – for free!
How can more women become successful and start their own businesses? Can you share some advice?
To me it seems that, one of the biggest challenges many women struggle with is to believe in their own strengths, skills and capacities. I am convinced that this has much to do with the past. We don’t need to go far back in time when it was men who went to work, and women were expected to run the homes. When in truth, running a home is an extremely great entrepreneurial achievement and a lot of hard work.
I think that women are really great leaders and very creative thinkers – fantastic problem solvers! We men are “one target at a time” people, but women are able to juggle many things at the same time, staying focused, handling a crisis and still staying calm until the desired results are achieved. As an entrepreneur and business leader these capacities are priceless.
If I am to share my advice, it would be that all women who want to start their own businesses should simply trust their instincts, their skill sets and “just do it”. At the same time, we men must support all the women out there! It is rewarding to help someone overcome their fears in order to become a business owner. The secret is: “togetherness”.

What do you love most about Speaking and Coaching?
It very inspiring to contribute to others to help them grow and achieve their goals in becoming better leaders and happy human beings. It makes me feel good. My purpose is to create great Leaders so that we can all strive and thrive. It is that simple.

Do you have projects that you are currently working on?
Yes, I have. Through my “Leadership 2 Success” Coaching program I meet and work with people from different occupations and circumstances. It doesn’t matter whether we are talking about a CEO, a VP or a start-up business owner or a “private” person, they all need a Coach. Mind you, even a Coach needs a Coach!
Currently I work with two senior leaders who want to make changes in their lives; not only in business, but also on a personal level. My Coaching is always holistic and tailor-made; be it 1 on -1- Coaching or team Coaching. Creating a sustainable and purposeful change always starts from the personal level. To be a successful Coach one must be “all-in”, to give his/her fullest heart and attention to the client. How else can one understand the other person, his/her situation and what is hindering him/her from achieving the desired changes? This is my niche; this is how I differentiate myself from big Coaching firms and their programs. And this approach of mine has gained me many wonderful testimonials; the very best feed-back and reward one can ask for. I am truly working in the right business! I love my work as I’m sure you can see!

Contact info:
[email protected]
leadership2success.com

Photo credits to “MarjaK.me / Marja Katajisto-Eklund’’

Andy Harrington -You have the Power to Achieve Success

Editor @ Global Man August 23, 2018 No Comments

By Fati Gorezi

Andy Harrington is ‘The Sunday Times’ best-selling Author of “Passion into Profit – How to make big money from who you are and what you know”. At age 29 Andy Harrington was working in a call-centre for an insurance company making just £1500 per month. Frustrated with his dead-end job he borrowed £10,000 from the bank and started a business that has now pulled in more than £50,000,000 ($78,000,000) in revenue. Having sold his company Andy has gone on to Coach Hollywood movie stars and some of the world’s best speakers through his Public Speakers University and Professional Speakers Academy. Andy is also the founder of “The Professional Speakers Academy” that helps business people position, perform and pitch their way to profit. He has shared the stage with Sir Richard Branson, Anthony Robbins, Sir Alan Sugar, Brian Tracy, Paul McKenna and Bob Proctor of ‘The Secret’ to name but a few.

Could you please tell us a bit about you and how you started making money?
I left school with no real qualifications to speak of and at age 15 I was working in a supermarket stacking shelves. My first pay packet was £42.21 for a week’s work…! At age 21 I joined an insurance company and sold car and house insurance on the phone and did this for seven years (this is where I had my first taste of being a speaker/trainer. Then at age 29 I started my first business in I.T recruitment. Within the first five years we generated revenue of £21,000,000. Then at age 34 I was inspired by Tony Robbins and started on the journey of becoming a professional speaker.

What were the main challenges you faced early on your entrepreneurial journey? And do you still encounter them to this day?
The early days are always exciting in any venture and you need to make decisions fast and work super hard to get sales on the board and build a customer base. The biggest issue early on is not hiring someone to take away the tasks that slow you down and prevent you from doing the higher revenue generating tasks. Today this is not a problem as I have a great team of people around me, so I can do the work I love.

If you could go back in a time machine to the time when you were just getting started, what would you do differently? And what advice would you have given to yourself if you could only relay one piece of advice to your former self?
To not chase the money but instead to do the work you love with people you love spending time with.

Do you think that entrepreneurialism is something that is in your blood? Or is it something that can be learned?

Most entrepreneurs who did not have entrepreneurial parents are non-conformists, they are people who want to go against the grain. Many times, they are also out to prove themselves. People with entrepreneurial parents will have grown up with it “in their blood” as it were and have probably always just known they would create a business or join the family business.

Can you tell us more about ‘The Professional Speakers Academy’? What is the mission?

The ‘Professional Speakers Academy’ is an incubator for entrepreneurial people to learn how to design, develop and deliver their core message that defines what they do and who they do it for. We teach and mentor forward-thinking business leaders how to serve and sell their clients by creating a signature talk. This talk is delivered one-to-many on stage or screen in such a way they are positioned as a specialist authority in their industry to win massive numbers of clients, so they are in demand and can raise their prices.

What is the one accomplishment that you are most proud of?
‘The Professional Speakers Academy’ is one of my greatest achievements and legacies. Although I am also very proud of my event ‘The Power to Achieve’ weekend www.powertoachieve.co.uk as this gives people clarity on their old coping mechanisms and empowers them to embrace their past and be grateful for it so they can live in the here and now where they have the power to create the life they deserve.

How do you see the role of women in business and as speakers on the big stage now and in the future?
Men are primarily driven by testosterone, the hormone that makes you want to win. The problem is sometimes this means men will seek to win at all costs and take stupid risks. Women are driven by oxytocin which is the hormone of togetherness which helps bring harmony, cooperation and community. The testosterone and oxytocin drives are needed for the creation of human beings and so they are also needed for the creation of organisations. This means women’s voices are needed in the board rooms and on the stages of the world. If it’s all men, there will be growth, but it will NOT be sustained growth and so any boom will inevitably be a followed by a big bust.

In your opinion what are three things that women and men need to know about finances?
Keep your spending under control. Invest in systems and people. Money moves to people with a mission.

You have written a book called ”Passion into Profit – How to make big money from who you are and what you know.” What are your top secrets for public speaking and presenting skills that you would care to share with ‘Global Man’ readers?
Craft a story that shows your audience why you are doing what you do and why you care. This builds trust and credibility as it demonstrates the journey of how you got to where you are now. Clients need you because they have a problem they need to solve. They need a recipe to follow, a strategy to implement so you must build a framework for your talk that clearly lays out how you can move the client from pain to gain.

Who has motivated and inspired you towards success?

I was originally inspired by Tony Robbins. I attended his event and decided I wanted to be up there on that stage one day – perhaps even alongside him. Tony’s events were different to anything I had experienced, they were exciting and engaging. I wondered if I could do something similar albeit on a smaller scale. I noticed the only FREE preview type events available in the UK were for investing. I decided to put on my own FREE preview events to teach the personal development work I had learned from Tony and from studying NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming). I wasn’t very good in the beginning. I didn’t have a structure for the event and I didn’t know how to put an offer together and I didn’t know how to sell from the stage either. Perhaps more importantly I felt inauthentic as if I was ‘borrowing’ a lot of Tony’s content and regurgitating what I had learned in my NLP courses.

Over the years I developed my own content and my own ideas on personal development. I also learned how to structure my talks correctly and this led to a big increase in the number of people attending my events. Today I am the founder of ‘The Professional Speakers Academy’ an incubator for entrepreneurial people to learn how to design, develop and deliver a presentation that gets them noticed and wins them new clientele and I am proud to say we train and support some of Europe’s very best speakers. Four times a year my ‘Power to Achieve’ event continues to inspire tens of thousands of people to break free from their shackles and create the lives they deserve.

What is the biggest mistake you see people make when it comes to their finances?
Everyone has a number on their head of how much money they believe they are worth. This acts as an internal compass guiding them to opportunities to move towards and ones to move away from. To make more money there has to be a reason for it. In my seminars I ask “Raise your hand if you know you will make £100,000 in the next 3 months? Normally I will get less than 5% of the audience raising their hand. Next, I say, OK what if you believed that unless you make £100,000 in the next 3 months you are going to die! Now, who knows if they could make £100,000 in the next 3 months?” Now everyone in the room is raising their hand. So, what happened? Did these people suddenly become more intelligent? Did they get more resources? No – just ONE thing was different. They had a very strong motive. The most important part of the word motivation is motive. Your motive is your reason ‘why’. In all my years of working with people to help them improve their lives I have found THE most potent force is your WHY. Many people have a weak ‘why’ which leads to short termism and a general malaise of just settling and a lack of ambition and drive. It is our drive that causes us to get creative and to serve others in the pursuit of our own mission.

Can you tell us more about your marketing strategies and what is the formula for your international success?
The life blood of any business is sales and the lifeblood of sales is marketing and the lifeblood or marketing is new leads. To get new leads you have to go where attention is. Attention was traditionally on newspapers, radio and television. The problem with this media is it’s very expensive and very untargeted so only the big players can play. But today attention is on the screen of a mobile device and primarily on social media. Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube and Twitter are the new places where attention is. To succeed you must develop content that is either educational, entertaining or emotional and ideally all three. These 3 E’s equal the fourth E which is ‘Engaging’. Once you start getting views, likes, comments and shares its time to move to phase two. Phase two is designing content that has a ‘call to action’ built in too (otherwise known as an advert) but the key here is to not make it look like an advert and to still have content that is engaging before asking them to click a button to go to your website where you can capture the lead and evolve the relationship to become a paying client.

What is your experience of working with women? And what is your opinion about their talents and skills?
Women are incredible. They bring a drive that is consistent and constant (men tend to work in bursts) They are also generally more empathetic and help stay true to the values of the organization. Women are needed in the workplace more than ever. Not women behaving like men – but graceful women who focus on building their communities and not focused on beating their competition.

What is special about your lifestyle?
I get to enjoy a lot of time with my family. I have a great team that I can delegate a lot of the operational side of the business to. This affords me the opportunity to stay creative rather than being bogged down with the day-to-day activities. I get to turn up to my events knowing everything is taken care of and I can just focus on my audience and making sure they have an experience they will never forget.

What ’motto’ in life do you live by?
My favourite quote is “Why try hard all your life to fit in, when you were born to stand out” I like people who go against the grain, who challenge convention and push the boundaries of possibility.

What is your dream or ultimate goal, either private or professional?
My goal is to leave the world better than when I entered it. That I took part, that I played the game. That I created something that outlives me. My hope is that my ‘Professional Speakers Academy’ will continue to be the first choice for entrepreneurial out-of-the-box thinking people to design, develop and deliver a message that helps them with their mission to serve and make their difference to the world too.

What are your plans for the future?
To be fortunate enough to still be madly in love with my family, and to do the work I love for as long as I live.

For a FREE copy of Andy’s Sunday Times bestselling audiobook:
www.passionintoprofit.co.uk/audio

RJ Harper- Leadership and Living Your Best Life

Editor @ Global Man August 7, 2018 No Comments

RJ Harper- Leadership and Living Your Best Life

By Fati Gorezi

Robert Harper Jr, is a NYC- based award-winning filmmaker and producer from Germany. He is an alumni of Brown University, Digital Film Academy and Harvard Business School where he studied film, finance and international economics. He has also worked on Wall Street at Goldman Sachs in their prestigious investment banking division as an Associate and later developed and managed international banking conferences while with Euromoney, LLC in both NYC and Hong Kong. In 2007 he produced the film “Typecast,” an “Official Selection” at that year’s Cannes Film Festival. He is a passionate environmentalist and has appeared regularly on American television with MSNBC, NBC, VH1, MTV, TeIeMundo and Dateline NBC. I had the pleasure of speaking to him and asked him to tell us more about what drives him, the challenges he has faced, his future plans and more!

Tell us about your childhood, your parents, and what shaped you into who you are today
I was reared in Nuremberg, Germany, the Bavarian town famous for the Nazi tribunals of 1946. I have, since then, always had a keen sense of right and wrong. During my youth, I spent some quite idyllic summers romping around with friends and family in the Black Forest, France, Switzerland and other parts of eastern Europe. My nomadic family moved a lot but I still call places like California, Italy, Texas, Kentucky, Georgia, Oklahoma and Germany home. I also lived in Costa Smeralda, Italy for a time as well and after visiting more than thirty countries, I don’t think there is a more paradisical place on the planet than the scattered islands of the Mediterranean. The summer of my junior year in high school, I was a student at Columbia University Graduate School of Business in their LEAD Program. Living in NYC that summer changed my life and I have cherished living in the NYC area ever since. It’s great for children to experience the planet in their youth and those many live-abroad experiences still govern much of how I see the world today.

How would you describe your career as a filmmaker and producer?
I took the career road less travelled and wouldn’t change it for anything. My career has been a winding road, a path that no other professional has been down before. I’m proud of that fact on many levels. I’m very curious by nature and firmly believe our existence as humans is a life-long learning process. I worked on Wall Street as an Investment Banking Associate at Goldman Sachs for a time doing $300M municipal bond deals in cities across America. However, filmmaking was my real passion, so when I barely survived the World Trade Center bombing in 2001, I went back to film school in NYC at Digital Film Academy to brush up on my skills in editing and directing. I’m an alumni of Brown and Harvard University and Brown, in particular, has one of the best Semiotics departments on the planet. I’ve been spending time recently filming underwater as well. I just edited some great shark footage from the ‘National Association of Black Divers’ (NABS). A few years ago, a film I produced and directed won the “Audience Award” and “Best Musical Score” award as part of the NYC Film Race where more than 200 experienced film professionals compete to make a film in just 24 hours. That film contest is a gargantuan production and planning undertaking and I had thirty crew members working for me. It was great to win those filmmaker awards in NYC and many doors opened for me in the film business after that because I think I’m still such a Goldman Sachs-type workaholic.
Sometimes filmmakers make sense of things in their own lives through their work. Do you feel you do that?

On some levels, modern life in America doesn’t make a lot of sense but having a great sense of humour about it all often keeps me smiling. Passionate, filmmakers strive to tell unique stories, so our lives do show up in the work. I produced an award-winning comedy that screened at the Cannes Film Festival a few years ago and it centered around two Italian-Americans trying to make it big in Hollywood. The film was a combination of fiction and non-fiction but some of my own comical adventures in the entertainment industry was certainly thrown into the plot. I have a very funny (and random) story about me and Robert DeNiro drinking solo for an hour at the Supper Club that, looking back, became a life-changing interaction for me. DeNiro is the nicest Hollywood icon ever but during our conversation he made me realise that, in many ways, anyone is acccessible to me in the movie business. Eventually, I went on to work with acclaimed music video director, Hype Williams, NAS, MethodMan and Diddy on “Belly” and many other independent films as well. Senator Cory Booker also hired me to do a lot of very successful Democratic political Ad work in New Jersey and now there are several politicians in office who I’m proud to say, “I helped win their elections.”

Photo: Jon Stulich / Location: (Novado Gallery) / Stylist: Thorne Nugent / Designer: StevenLand.com
/ Hair: Felicia Verna – EllureZion

What has been the biggest challenge you faced and how did you tackle that challenge?
In 2011, a group of environmentalist friends and I sued multi-national, PPG Industries in federal court for dumping over one million tons of toxic chromium 6 waste in a largely Black community in America. Chromium 6, if you don’t know, causes lung cancer and the toxic waste had been there for more than thirty years. Critics said we were crazy and would never win in court because that multi-national firm makes about $14 billion dollars a year and Jersey state courts are very corrupt. I, however, kinda knew we could win because I understood the power of the media and social media and I felt like we were on the right side of justice as well. And Obama was in the White House. I made some shocking environmental Youtube films about chromium that got the national press interested and five years later, one of America’s top polluters, settled that federal case in record time to the tune of $600M. That chromium 6 case was really the Erin Brocovich story on steroids.

How important is having the right motivation to be successful?
Passionate motivation is critical for success! Cutting corners never really works out too well. You just have to always want to outdo the competition. Be smarter, be more curious, be more strategic and most importantly, do your homework better than everyone else. I’m confident I learned that formula in high school and from my parents because I graduated third in my class. Adult life really begins in high school and many adults wake up to that fact too late in life. I have worked alongside some of America’s top billionaires including Alex Rovt, David Tepper, Michael Bloomberg and Bill Rudin. I’ve learned those industry titans are principally motiviated by the work they are passionate about. Bloomberg will go down in history as one of the best mayors of NYC and he was earning a $1 a year from that job. His passion was fixing the fixable things in New York City while in office and you can only do a job like that for so long with the right motivation.

Who have been your greatest influences in life and why?
God, Sade and time! British/Nigerian singer Sade had been my wife in way too many dreams of mine (lol). My parents and grandparents have also certainly influenced me most intimately but my personal heroes are an eclectic group of global icons of history like: Shaka Zulu, Huey Newton, Queen Amanirenas, diver Carl Brashear, Thomas Sankara, Piye (Nubian King of Kush), Hannibal (the Godfather of Strategy), Steven Biko and boxer, Muhammed Ali. They were all pretty unapologetic and proven leaders with a vision. They were true BOSSES!! And that’s a rare commodity today. And as for film influences, my favorite films are “Cinema Paradisio” and “The Red Balloon.” My former girlfriends have accused me of being a mushy, film romantic sometimes. I’m also a big fan of the legacy of films by Jean-Luc Goddard, Helmut Lang and Akira Kurosawa. I’ve come to realise that my tastes in film tend to be a curious mix of film genres. I gotta say that director, NYU professor and Hollywood activist: Spike Lee also impacted a large part of my early inspiration.

The world is being shaken up with some momentous changes coming. How do you see the future, the role of women, and is it bright?
I’m a realist. Thanks to the internet, world communities are waking up and organising revolutions and I think some of this global turmoil presents an incredible opportunity for visionary female leadership to emerge and there is now, more than ever, room for broader diversity in our global, state and local institutions. Women wield incredible power on this planet. Some of that power is still untapped though and I’m not completely sure why. I’m excited to see more women working together and prospering. I am very inspired by the incredible life story of Global Man founder, Mirela Sula. She is such a big personality and business trailblazer for women around the world. It’s so refreshing to see leaders like her that fully understand that diversity matters. I look at women like Meghan Markle, the new Queen of America, and have high hopes that women’s growing influence will continue to shape a better, more peaceful and sustainable planet. I really like that t-shirt that says “The Future is Female” because global power surely can’t be “all-male” forever if we as a species intend to stick around.


Photo:Jose Pagan (Hunks4Hope.com)/ Location (NYC)/ Stylist:Lila Green

Can you tell us a little about your out-of-work life and your personal interests?
I’m a proud PADI-certified scuba diver and a board member of the ‘National Association of Black Scuba Divers’ (NABS.org). I hope that global marine conservation is part of my legacy but equally as important, I hope more Americans learn to swim and/or teach their children to swim. Statistics show that about “65% of Americans can’t swim the length of an Olympic pool.” My fantasy is to make basic swimming a requisite for high school graduation – starting with Americans. “Nine people die each day from drowning in this country and six of those nine people are minorities.” These alarming statistics have to change! It’s July, summertime, so let’s teach our youth to swim. Save a life! Promoting scuba diving all over social media to my 60K followers and beyond is my way of nudging people softly to “be cool” and learn to swim because you can’t get to certified scuba diver status without knowing how to swim.

What is your experience of working with women? And what is your opinion about their talents and skills?
I have some incredible and talented sisters whom I love very deeply. Throughout my career I have worked closely with women and I have high hopes that the brilliant global women leading the charge for equality in the workplace will continue to prevail. As an African-American male, I understand the role that discrimination plays in the workforce against women. Businesses need to be held more accountable in our court systems for the on-going global wage discrimination that is a sad fact of life for too many women. However, women need to continue to band together and support each other on all levels of the corporate, political and financial landscape in order to make meaningful and lasting changes. A tremendous opportunity was potentially lost for all women when Trump won the presidency but the tide is turning on many fronts for women internationally and the #MeToo Movement has driven a necessary stake in ground that frankly says, “Enough is enough!”

Can you tell us more about “MEN AGAINST DOMESTIC VIOLENCE”?
I was selected by activist, Lila Green to be Mr. October 2018 for the annual ‘Hunks4Hope’ calendar (www.Hunks4Hope.com). The calendar’s mission is to raise awareness and critical funds for persons (both women and men) affected by domestic violence. I’m honoured to be among such a committed group of sexy male model “Hunks” who stand as advocates and spokesmodels against domestic violence. The calendar has been a great way for many of us men to finally talk openly about our personal views when it comes to domestic violence. My journey with this very successful annual calendar has been educational and very inspiring. There are so many complicated layers to the constant struggle of trying to address these kinds of traumatic relationships that I have found myself being called in the middle of the night numerous times this year because someone heard about the calendar and had a friend that needed to be rescued. I certainly don’t have all the answers yet but its been been great working with a network of organisations that support our mission. Abusers themselves often require an intervention themselves. Too many men grow up watching loved ones get abused and think that is tolerable behaviour. At the end of the day, domestic violence is really an issue of trauma…and it affects both sexes. I have learned a lot in the last year and actively engaging men in this controversial conversation is frankly critical. Men do have views on domestic violence and it’s important to explore those experiences as well. For far too long, men have been seen as the potential enemy when it comes domestic violence but ‘Hunks4Hope’ is actively challenging that notion in a big and very refreshing way. The “Hunks” have supported all of the annual galas celebrating domestic violence survivors and when we show up, all the ladies in the room invariably want their calendars personally signed. I gladly sign but I always give a kiss too. The 2018 calendar I’m in has been ‘Hunks4Hope’s’ best-selling year and I’m happy to have been given the opportunity to represent the growing community of males standing up against domestic violence and sexual harrassment in any form.

THE TOP BUSINESS AND PR TRENDS FOR 2018

Editor @ Global Man July 9, 2018 No Comments

THE TOP BUSINESS AND PR TRENDS FOR 2018

By Kicki Pallin

What do you need to know as a business owner, to continue expanding in 2018? What pitfalls should you avoid, and which kind of knowledge is essential when growing your business?

We have asked four business owners in Sweden, Germany, Denmark and Poland about the future in business and PR. By knowing this you will be more prepared to meet the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead, when this year moves into its second half.

As an introduction to their predictions, we’ll give you some facts about these four business specialists, who are more than happy to share some of their entrepreneurial wisdom.

The Swedish entrepreneur Robert Dragovic from Gothenburg says that, to do business and build values is the best thing he knows. He is not specialised in one single business, instead he walks in where he sees possibilities. He is the founder and owner of KappaBar, a chain of eSport restaurants.

Oliver Meier is an entrepreneur in Frankfurt, Germany, who after 20 years in sales and training and coaching some of the top sales people in the world, created a new business method. It shows how to get new customers, grow existing clients – and keep them forever.

Victor Fasahati is a business owner from Copenhagen, Denmark, who has bought and sold products, clothes or anything that could turn into some kind of profit, since he was 11 years old. As he couldn’t find any good accountants or advisors, he turned himself into one, and now runs Dansk Selskab.

Dr Mateusz Grzesiak is a Polish entrepreneur and lecturer from Warsaw. He graduated from Law and Psychology, and holds a Doctoral Degree in Economics in the specialisation of Management Science. He is the author of 14 books and has been providing training internationally for the same amount of years.

Robert Dragovic (Founder and Owner of Kappa Bar in Sweden)

The Power of Online Influencers and Company Ambassadors

Traditional media is going to become less and less relevant. In a world where people distrust institutions and phenomenons such as fake news, this will also become more relevant to the world of traditional marketing. Customer segmentation is also becoming of greater value. It is not enough to separate your customers into a couple of groups, instead we need to create micro groups. This will give us the ability to reach out to the customers that actually care. Marketing through influencers will become a lot more common. In a recent inquiry we could see that 88 % of the people participating trusted online influencers recommendations as much as they trust recommendations from close friends.

Social media is the reason to all of this change. Ordinary people have simply taken over the job from the advertising companies. It’s the feed that decides if you should be shared or killed. Companies today needs to stop using only traditional media and start creating entirely new content. This content needs to be worthy of noting, reading and spreading. You simply have to be so good that people turn into personal ambassadors for you. Companies also need to start understanding their customers better and then apply this to their marketing. As there might be hundreds of different reasons to why each specific client wants to buy from you in particular.

Oliver Meier (Founder and Owner of Get More Academy in Germany)
Be Authentic and Join Forces to Succeed

In 2018 it is no longer just a matter of your product or service and the customer service you provide. Customers want an experience and a “wow“-feeling when buying from you. It is all about emotion, not only specs and hard facts. Another big trend is co-working. But this is not just sharing an office. It’s more about a lifestyle and collaboration. The elbow mentality is finally gone, join forces to succeed, especially if you have a small or medium sized company. PR trend 2018 is live streaming video content. Research shows that 80% of audiences would rather watch live video from a brand than read a blog.

The CEO 2018 should see oneself as a Chief Experience Officer. No matter, if you are selling B2B or B2C. Good product/service + excellent customer service + best possible customer experience = Success in 2018. Live streaming is growing as it’s easier to watch a video than reading an article. If the video is live. Everybody also knows that it might be planned, but not edited until perfect. So the truth of the story is much closer. Another thing is that our mobile data volumes increased over the last years. You no longer have to read a text because of limited data, you can watch a video, wherever and whenever.

Victor Fasahati (Partner of Dansk Selskab in Denmark)

Adapt and Change with New Technology and Engagement

AI and machine learning is definitely some of many business trends, that are going to have a radical impact on many businesses. Why wouldn’t a business implement AI and machine learning, if it could eliminate manual mistakes, save time and capital and memorise every action it engages with? Also, the company will get better the next time it faces a challenge, and thereby replacing the manual processes. Our jobs are going from “manual” work into “human” work. Small and medium sized businesses have a big chance getting ahead because they can adapt and change fast, while big corporations have a hard time adapting, because procedures and lack of hunger and innovation.

PR has far too long only been about press releases and media coverage, but it’s changing in 2018. It’s now about engaging, connecting and relating to people. Social media, events animation, blogging and vlogging, it’s about being much more visual and consumer engagement. People should not be connected through a PR agency and have the information handed to them in a newsletter – where is the engaging in that? The third party does not have to be a journalist anymore, it could be the carpenter, the pilot, the hairdresser or your grandmother, since we are all “citizen journalists” today on social media. More empathy, pathos and storytelling through people – and not actors – will create the engagement.

Dr Mateusz Grzesiak (CEO of Starway in Warsaw, Poland)

Outsource and Build Relationships –  Work Smarter Instead of Harder

This year looks very promising for small and medium businesses. It will offer them many modern solutions to minimize business expenses and maximize effectiveness of their employees work. Companies are suggested to outsource when needed, which means that some of the work will be distributed to other businesses. Although social media has already been exploited by many businesses in order to boost their marketing and sales, this year’s trends offer new ways of utilizing them to build stronger customer loyalty to a brand or product. On the rise this year will also be work from home, it’s an opportunity that minimizes office space while giving employees ability to cut their commute time and have work-life balance.

The main reason is that the global market as well as customers are emerging into new, more accessible and easy ways, of obtaining products. Clients have all the means necessary to evaluate a given product, company or brand before they even touch or see it at the retail store. Customer base their decisions on the opinions of others placed on social media, therefore a business should put a lot of attention on creating a strong relationship and loyalty bond with them through the use of new communication channels. The trends this year are followed by the doctrine that you should work smarter instead of harder. Listen to your client’s needs and focus on creating an emotion like experience that will be associated with your brand.

Adam Strong-Women are better communicators, negotiators and analysers

Editor @ Global Man April 26, 2018 No Comments

By Reem Soliman

Adam Strong is without a doubt, the man to be talking right now in the world of business development. As an ultra-high personal productivity authority, a former elite athlete, author and entrepreneur, he has evidently mastered the art of productivity and high performance. I got the pleasure of speaking to him and asked him to tell us more about what drives him, the challenges he has faced, his future plans and more! Read on for my interview with Adam.

You seem to have merged your love of athletics and health with high achievement in business; What advice would you give to those trying to find their passion?

Firstly, you need to have clarity and purpose. When I was younger, one of the main reasons I was so successful in my athletics career is I wanted to win and be the best. Do something that you enjoy and makes you happy. In order to gain clarity, ask yourself these questions:

“What is the goal?”

“What is it you want to achieve?”

“What is your purpose?”

Secondly, you must condition your mindset on a regular basis with positive affirmations. My advice is to read personal development books for at least thirty minutes a day, attend regular business conferences and reverse engineer the process the goals you want to achieve.

Thirdly, in order to get a head start against your competition, learn about the mistakes of people that are more successful than you, so that you won’t repeat any yourself, it will save you time and money years from now.

Fourthly, is to do your research! Create a business idea based on solving people’s problems. Richard Branson launched Virgin Atlantic because he was frustrated about the poor service that customers were receiving when flying abroad, or American businessman Vernon Hill, that launched Metro Bank to disrupt the banking industry in the UK by offering extended opening hours, great service and a pet friendly environment.

What new idea do you have? What industry could you disrupt? What problems can you solve for society? Once you have your idea execute it quickly through speed of implementation.

Lastly, you should never chase money. Create a higher purpose and you will reap the rewards in the future to come.

You’ve been named a ‘serial entrepreneur’ as you run 5 businesses, how do you keep the balance in your life while maintaining such high productivity?

You are a great advocate for supporting women; Can you tell us more about why you choose to do this, and the importance of this in today’s world?

I think that women in business are often better than men. Women have great attributes and bring a lot of different skills to the business world. One of the advantages that most women have over most men is their use of empathy and optimism, crucial in business.  Empathy in business can help you grow trust in relationships with partners, clients and customers. You can use feedback to improve and make things better. I’m a big supporter of gender equality. One of the first countries to recognise the need for gender equality was Norway. They brought in the gender equality act in 1978, giving men and women equal opportunities. In 2013 they also introduced a new act stating that both sexes shall be represented on company boards by 40%. Also, Iceland introduced a law recently that states men cannot be paid any more than women.

There is still a long way to go before we see a fair balance of gender equality. However, did you know that twenty of the top Fortune 500 companies have a fifty percent balance of men and women on their board of executives? With women like the amazing Marissa Mayer (CEO of Yahoo), Arianna Huffington (Co-Founder of the online newspaper ‘The Huffington Post’) and Indra Nooyi (CEO and chair of Pepsi Co), they are transforming companies and achieving phenomenal results.

Women are also better communicators, negotiators and analysers. They often get into the nitty gritty details of any matter, analyse it and come up with ideas promptly. This is instrumental, as this often brings more profits for the company by making more sensible deals and profitable decisions. Unlike most men, they also allow employees to share their point of view before making any decisions. Improved communication with employees increases business relationships, retention and loyalty factors.

If support of women in business is good enough for these successful and most profitable companies, then it’s good enough for any organisation.

What gives you a sense of purpose to live the life that you do?

Being a previous elite athlete has given me a great platform to transform me into results driven individual. I get really excited when I use the same skills I learnt as an athlete to deliver the same results for business owners and entrepreneurs.

I love to solve problems and come up with new and innovative ideas that help business owners become unstuck. I also love to empower people and help people achieve success, whatever I feel and look like to them. We all desire and deserve happiness in our lives and I believe becoming an entrepreneur is one way you can achieve your vision and ambitions.

Showing gratitude on a daily basis is important to me, as I wouldn’t be as successful if it wasn’t for the opportunities and knowledge given to me by my coaches, clients, friends, family and mentors. On an annual basis I participate in  challenging sports events and raise money for my preferred charity, such as the Alexander Devine Children’s Hospice or The Debretts Young Achiever Programme, a great cause that teaches gifted teens from poorer backgrounds business and life skills.

I owe it to myself and to the people that have touched my life to keep going, keep evolving and more importantly to keep learning.

You’ve been named a ‘serial entrepreneur’ as you run four businesses. How do you keep the balance in your life while maintaining such high productivity?

One of the main advantages that I have is the ability to focus, which is a skill that has taken me years to master through regular training and discipline. I developed this skill from a very young age when I became an elite athlete and now use this skill, years on in business. I focus most of my time inspiring people around the world and consulting with companies that want instant results. Through relationships and social media I continue to help people with their energy management. And finally, on a daily basis, I use my time in the morning studying business trends and creating innovative business ideas (I call this strategic thinking) that I want to build for the future.

In order to eliminate distractions and procrastination, I block activities into 30-minute segments and co-ordinate my calendar with my assistant.  I estimate how long each activity takes and then allocate my activities into segments. These may include meetings, networking, writing articles, sales calls, reading, time for family and hobbies. The night before my day, I take my notebook and write down the ‘Top 5’ things that I need to do on the left-hand side of the page and the less important tasks on the right. This allows me to deal with the most important activities first. The reason I do this the night before is it allows me to have a day that is more organised and less chaotic. I feel more excited and less stressed and I’m able to eliminate procrastination throughout the day. I can get a large amount of work done in one day compared to the average entrepreneur who can only achieve the same amount of work in a week. However, if you follow my advice, you too can achieve a work/life balance as well as high productivity.

When I first started my journey as an entrepreneur, I made the mistake of wearing too many hats, whether it be sales, marketing, web design, finance, you name it I did it. I simply didn’t see the point of getting help, I just kept on using money as an excuse not to take action. If you want to achieve some balance in your life you have to understand the importance of valuing your time and being paid your worth. I can’t emphasise enough the importance of building a strong team, to be able to focus on your strengths and delegate your weaknesses. Even if you have just started in business, you should always be thinking of how you’re going to recruit your first employee, intern or consultant. You will save valuable time and money by learning this skill early on.

 

What advice would you give to women looking to pursue a career similar to yours?

Be prepared – there will be ups and downs. When you’re down, just step away, refocus and try the next day, and when you’re up, keep the momentum going. Becoming an entrepreneur is not an easy thing and is not for everyone! If anyone tells you its easy, it’s a lie. There are three things you need to follow for the same path to success.

Firstly, you have to develop your ability to be mentally tough and this enables you to be able to adapt in hard times.  

Secondly, to be consistent in everything you do enabling you to work smart and not hard.

Thirdly, the most important thing, which is having a coach or mentor who can help guide you and give you some much needed hand holding, which is crucial, especially at the beginning.  

When I first started out in my athletics career, I needed to know the key ingredients. I needed to make a recipe for success. Coaching to me is as important as oxygen. Developing a coaching culture will enable you and your team to grow together. No matter how ambitious you may be, everyone needs a coach or mentor in his or her life.

What has been the most challenging aspect you have faced in your career, and how have you worked through it?

When I started my first business, I became a fitness coach and loved helping people achieve their health goals, seeing a transformation from beginning to end. However, as the years passed, I fell out of love for my passion and needed to find something new. I started by coaching other health coaches on how to grow their business. In a short period of time they were getting more clients and making more money than they ever had done before. One of my toughest periods was transitioning from a fitness coach into a business results coach, as I still couldn’t decide if this was the right route to achieve the success I wanted.  This is when I made a decision to invest in a coach, someone who was more successful than me and be able to advise me. He gave me exactly what I needed, which was a winning formula on how to build my consultancy empire.

Who has been your role model and has supported you on your journey?

JT Foxx (“The world’s number one wealth coach”) – is a great role model. He has gone through a lot of hardships and seems to understand how a lot of people in business feel. Also, Jason Gilbert (a former eight figure CEO and philanthropist, who is – my current coach. If it wasn’t for him, I wouldn’t be as successful as I am now.”
What plans do you have for the future?

I’m very excited this year as I begin to grow and scale my consultancy practice; we will be recruiting new coaches and consultants to help more people take their business to the next level. Also, we will be setting up business and health retreats, that will help business owners accelerate their results through the knowledge and experiences from other successful CEO’s and coaches. I want to create further business opportunities in a learning environment through high-level networking and partnerships.  I’m also going to be advising and investing in more growing companies, so they can see higher returns by working with shareholders and investors that want to eventually exit their companies. And finally, IAdam haveopes to execute some plans to launch a new business venture with myhis partner in the energy, health and organic food industry.

 

Ben Chai- The Success Magnet

Editor @ Global Man April 25, 2018 No Comments

Ben Chai

Sometimes enthusiastic extrovert but mostly thoughtful introvert

By Trevor Clarke

Ben Chai is a man of many parts, who has lived a full and varied life through an eclectic mix of activities, from IT to property, to acting, writing books, as a speaker sharing the stage with the biggest names, and more. Ben has achieved great success in many fields and has made his wealth through smart property investing and deserved good fortune in the beginning. He was featured recently in a BBC TV documentary about landlords living in one of their tenant’s properties, on a low budget. Yet, as you will read here, Ben’s early life was a less happy one because of bullying, something he has overcome to grow from a person of low self-esteem to be the outgoing and confident person he is today.

What was your childhood and upbringing like and how has that has influenced who and what you are today?

I grew up in London and was bullied a lot. Later, we moved to Singapore, but the bullying continued due to my being very tiny and very different from the rest of the children. At the time, I decided that the concept of race was very divisive and elected to be a citizen of this planet. Being bullied you learn a lot about people, about survival and develop a sense of when something is not quite right.

You also develop very low self-esteem, which results in a vicious cycle – the lower your self-esteem, the more you distance yourselves from others, the less you develop social skills and become a target for more bullying. Being bullied also taught me much about “isms” sexism, fatism, classism, ageism, and all varieties of exclusivism. My parents had their own challenges to deal with, which made it difficult to get much support in this area. Life was pretty dark in those days.

When I graduated, my parents did not feel I would amount to much due to my shyness and lack of confidence. At the time I had just scraped a degree, and my dad tried to get me a job in government through one of his contacts, where he thought I would be safe. I found the whole thing very disheartening and demeaning and said I would find my own way in the world. Today I realise that nobody was really taught about being good parents and he was only doing the best he could.

For the first few years I did not earn much. During that time, I cycled ten miles to work and slept on a friend’s floor with several other people. My diet consisted of porridge for lunch and corn flakes for dinner. For treats, I had a pot noodle and would suffer from pot noodle rage if someone had eaten one from my supplies.

Due to the bullying, I became mostly a recluse, or would only spend time with retired folk. The retired folk used to teach me to play games, shared their life stories with me, and educated me on how to avoid problems they faced when they were younger. Their life stories would later help me become successful in any venture.

As a young boy, playing games was a way to escape. I learned that if I helped the retired folk complete their chores faster, they would have more time to teach and play games with me.

At an unconscious level, winning at these games taught me how to be successful in life and business. For example, the Game of Diplomacy taught me that the only way to consistently win was to tell the truth without offending others. The game of chess taught me to think five, ten, twenty moves ahead of everyone else. Scrabble taught me how to maximise any situation no matter how bad.

You are a man of many parts and roles, and mystery. Your LinkedIn profile states: Actor; Author; Speaker; Business and IT strategist; Content creation specialist; Property specialist. Tell us more about these.

My very first acting role was as a baby in a James bond film. Since then I’ve been in media in most places I’ve lived either for technology, cyber security, gaming, dance, theatre or other television and films. My great aunt and uncle were members of an acting union and used to get me parts with famous people such as Madonna and John Cleese. We didn’t have selfies and the internet in those days, otherwise my celebrity album would be bursting!

After university, I managed to get a lowly paid position as an administrator in an IT company. My manager told me it would take two years to learn his position. Due to my early gaming days, I created a strategy to learn everything he knew within a month. The game of Diplomacy taught me not to demonstrate this accomplishment for another two months just in case he felt threatened. I soon took over purchasing and was able to get great deals due to collaborations with other IT companies. This joint purchasing put me in front of many CEOs of small to medium IT companies.

In the eighties, the phrase “knowledge is power” was rampant. The technical department would not tell me how to repair simple computer problems, such as the type of cable, because they felt their jobs were protected if people didn’t have their knowledge. The engineers blocking behaviour incensed me so much that I said to myself, one day I will share your entire knowledge with the world. I spent my evenings learning every single software the company was selling. After a while customers would call me for technical help.

One day the company trainer fell sick and I volunteered to train the course. They were surprised about my software knowledge but declined my offer and said they would get a freelancer. Unfortunately for them no freelancer was available and the customer had flown their executives in to learn the software and were threatening to sue the company. Opportunity met preparation and I got to give my first course. Afterwards, the customer requested that I be the only person to teach their entire organisation. This began my speaking career and since then I have spoken to audiences of up to 14,000 for Microsoft and large churches.

My degree is in mathematics and computer science. As a young boy, I was the only one in my class to beat the computer at chess. At the time, I had a much better understanding of computers than anyone else. A new manager was impressed with my ability to learn and train the software, and trained me in sales. Because my knowledge of computers was superior to the competitors and I was spending until 5:00am learning software and hardware, we were able to quickly grow the business. Another IT company headhunted me to run their entire sales and technical team. Being the CEO’s right-hand person taught me much about running a business. Later the CEO would ask me to run further businesses with him.

From there, I moved to a senior executive position at Kodak, in charge of the marketing and training of new IT products in EMEA. This position involved the creation of marketing strategies, educating and speaking to all Kodak sites, distributors and outlets on how to use and market the products. The role also involved authoring all their product and training manuals. Which is where I began a new skill in authoring. Later this content creation combined with my film, TV and radio experience would later blossom into a skill which would make me a seven-figure income as a content creation specialist.

As a systems and business speaker and educator for Microsoft and Learning Tree International, I’ve had the good fortune to rub shoulders with, teach, coach and mentor many diverse companies, from small single entrepreneur companies to global multi-nationals in banking, pharmaceutics and many more.

What drew you to such an eclectic mix of activities? Were they all part of your intention? In my twenties, I decided to be retired by my mid-thirties. To be retired you need ongoing income. At the time, I thought about what businesses would provide residual income or what is known today as passive income. These businesses included Rental properties, royalties from film and music, licenced intellectual property, network marketing, a great pension, royalties from books, royalties from games and merchandising. To make my plan fool-proof, I created several related businesses which would provide passive income.
Property was fantastic as there weren’t many property investors in those days. My parts in films with people like Madonna and John Cleese used to pay repeat cheques on every broadcast. My time at Kodak, taught me how to write books and create training manuals for technical educational companies. These training manuals were written about the most popular software of the day and provided me with a large amount of passive income whenever the training manuals were used.


How and why did you get into becoming a property landlord?

In the late eighties, there were hardly any property investors to learn from. My initial thought process, was if property prices always go up then all I needed was to buy four or five properties and create a strategy to hold all the properties as they appreciated in value.

Once they had appreciated, I would sell one to pay off all the others and so be financially free, by having incoming producing properties which fitted in my residual income model. At the time, I never thought to make income from rental. The rental would just pay for the mortgages. It is probably why I still have the lowest rentals in many of my investment areas.
When I graduated, I asked for a loan from my parents to buy an investment property. I was categorically told that property investment was a stupid idea as my parents had always lost money whenever they moved. I never got that loan. I was still too young and naïve to realise that my parents (and the rest of the world), didn’t really understand property.
In the late eighties, a couple in their mid-thirties knocked on my door and asked for a cup of tea. I thought they were the Mormons coming to convert me, but it turned out that they were the grandchildren of a dear old lady from next door. Apparently, their grandmother had passed away. She used to tell them many stories about how I used to mow her lawn, have cups of tea and do the odd handyman job when she needed someone. The grandchildren said that they would like to bless me for looking after their grandmother and asked if I would like the house at a price substantially below the estate’s valuation.
My reply was “no” because my parents told me investment property was not a good thing. They said it was my decision, but they would give me a week to think it over. At the time there was no concept of buy-to-let mortgages, so I could not get a mortgage on the property, however my brother agreed to take the mortgage and we had a signed agreement that the property belonged to me.
When my parents found out I’d bought the house next door, they were very angry with me as I had no knowledge what to do next. For a while, I just used the house as an extended house. I was so naïve at the time that I thought, if I bought several houses in a row I could convert them into a hotel.

You were featured recently on a BBC documentary, The Week the Landlords Moved In. What can you tell us about the experience overall and including the off-camera moments?

There are some things that I’m not allowed to talk about, but it was a fantastic experience.
My coaches advised me and many others not to do the show. There were many discussions in the property forums that said the show is designed to make landlords look bad. My attitude was that there is no such thing as bad publicity. If I was doing something wrong as a landlord I’d rather find out, plus I hoped it would put me in touch with some producers, as I’d like to resurrect my film and acting career from my early days.
According to the camera crew, I was one of the more authentic landlords they’d met but a conflict was required to make the episode watchable. There are many unpublished parts. One unpublished part was my reaction to the £47.00 they gave me to live on for the week. My response was to thank them for their generosity, I could live on less if they wanted. It turns out I was able to live on £14.47, so I was asked what I would do with the rest of the money.
My response was to invest the money. Either create a nest egg and invest the larger sum, or invest in a sponge and bucket and create more wealth by washing cars.

Who is the real person inside of Ben Chai?

Firstly, there is no real me. All of me is real and false at the same time. We grow, and we evolve. Who we are today is not necessarily who we are tomorrow. I am literally the person you see. Sometimes an enthusiastic extrovert but mostly a thoughtful introvert. As one person commented “Ben when I first met you, you were so quiet. I didn’t think much of you…but when you got on that stage you had so much energy and education, you blew every other speaker out of the water. How is this possible?!”

You have written a book called Social Magnetism. What are your top secrets for social success that you would care to share with Global Man readers?

No….but okay you twisted my arm. My top tips are:
-Don’t be boring – look at their eyes. The eyes glaze over when you are boring someone, or they begin to look away from you. You don’t need to explain everything because they aren’t listening anyway. Their heads are nodding but inside they are far away from the conversation.
-Add value and don’t be a douche bag. Being a douche bag worked when you were a kid but the older you get the more others want authenticity.
-Learn to walk from people who don’t care about you.
-Give so much value but don’t give to a level where people abuse your time or feel guilty because you won’t let them give back to you.
-Learn to receive.
-Understand that you are a wonderful person and learn to properly love that wonderful person. If you love yourself in a healthy manner you would treat everyone else in the same way.

Michael Mathews: Investing for success and investing in life

Editor @ Global Man April 16, 2018 No Comments

                     Michael Mathews:

   Investing for success and investing in life

 

Michael Mathews is the co-founder of “The Mathews Entrepreneur Group” (TMEG). He is dedicated and committed to providing Personal Financial Literacy education programs and one-on-one financial literacy guidance using books, workshops, online programs and one-on-one personal results coaching. Michael also provides his clients with entertaining and exciting books for pleasure reading. His wealth building portfolio also includes property investing and land banking.   

By Gulia Lucci

 How do you remember your life as a young boy, growing up in Chicago?

I grew up on the Southside of Chicago during the 1960’s and 70’s. Being in the baby boomer generation, I experienced my friends being drafted into the Vietnam War, the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy (when I was 8 years old), the 1965 assassination of Malcolm X (When I was 10 years old) and the 1968 assassination of Martin L. King Jr. (When I was 13 years old). Chicago was a racially-filled melting pot within the inner city. Segregation and racial tension ran rampant. I was the youngest of three children, having my older brother and sister as buffers while navigating the streets to and from home. My father and mother both worked, and I came from a loving working-class family, living in a working class neighbourhood, where our entire community was the village that raised me.

You have a passion for financial literacy education. Was it difficult to get into this industry?

The initial difficulty first came from me not knowing how money worked in terms of wealth building strategies. I did not come from generational wealth. I had to learn how money worked. How to save it, how to invest it, how to grow and maintain multiple streams of passive income. I made the decision to read financial books, listen to financial tapes, attend financial seminars, and associate with successful people whom I could learn financial literacy and wealth building principles from.

Fast forward to my marriage to Robbie, we believed that financially speaking, the best Improvement starts with Self-Improvement. We decided to be co-founders of the “Blessed to Invest Investment Club” along with several family members and friends. This is where we learned how to invest in the stock market using dollar cost averaging during both the ‘Bull’ and ‘Bear’ markets.

We took advantage of our employee sponsored investment options to begin our wealth building process. Next, we invested in income producing real estate, land banking in Palmdale-Lancaster California, commercial real estate development and mobile home investments along with a group of like-minded investors to further maximise our financial growth.

The ‘Mathews Entrepreneur Group (TMEG)’ was founded in 2007 by you and your wife. What can you tell us about your Company? What is the mission?

The Mathews Entrepreneur Group (TMEG) was initially founded as a self-publishing company. TMEG has evolved into a brand that’s committed to empowering people to both “hone” and “own” their personal and small business finances.

TMEG’s mission is to raise the awareness level of consciousness about the need for personal financial literacy education on a global scale. We can all agree that debt is a global problem. Bad money habits are destroying the dreams and futures of individuals and families across the globe. It doesn’t matter what country you live in or currency you use – US Dollar, South African Rand, Euro, or the British Pound, debt is the same in any language. We expanded our reach by speaking publicly in the United States and internationally about ‘Financial Literacy Education’ because “It’s not a priority in our educational systems. It’s important that the issue be addressed by all of us and at all levels of society.”

We are committed to giving our clients a comprehensive, easy to use, set of tools providing them with the knowledge, skills and support system needed to take control of their personal finances. In addition to speaking we provide one on one coaching, workshops, seminars, books and online programs.

What made you decide to start your own company?

Early in life we experienced financial struggles long before we knew one another. We did not know or understand how to build wealth.  We were taught, or at least told, that we should get a good education, get a good job and work the 40-40-40 plan, work for 40 hours per week, for 40 years of our lives, only to retire and live off of 40 percent of our income. That was not the American dream that we had in mind.

We decided to start TMEG because we learned how to make our money work for us on the passive income stream side of the spectrum. We saw first-hand the benefits of helping others improve their lives which inspired us to take up the mantle of financial education.

While my wife was on a business trip in London, I wrote our first book; “Financially speaking: The Best Improvement Starts with Self Improvement-Create Your Own Economic Stimulus Plan” in 2007, and the revised edition in 2016. Financially Speaking along with our 7 LIVE W.E.A.L.T.H.Y. principles became the cornerstone that formed our company’s financial education wings.

What is the one accomplishment that you are most proud of?

Unexpectedly, in July of 2017, I was nominated, and later received, the John H. Johnson “Business Man of the Year” award presented at the “We Dream in Colour” humanitarian celebration by Mr. Quinton de Alexander in Chicago.  In October of 2017, still unexpected, my wife was nominated and received a special “Inspirational Global Woman Award” in London.

What motivates you to succeed?

As a former basketball player, I was trained and motivated how to succeed in basketball and in the game of life off of the basketball court. I was taught to understand that with winning, you must also lose some games along the way. With every loss of a basketball game, it’s just like failing to achieve your business goals. In the game of basketball, like in the game of life, losing a few comes with winning the big deals, as long as you don’t keep on making the same business mistakes.

I am highly motivated more than ever because early in my adult life, before I met my wife, I enrolled in the so-called ‘University of Hard Knocks’. I spent my money on my life-style. I went broke, I drained my bank accounts, I maxed out all of my credit cards, I filed for bankruptcy, my car was repossessed, and I moved back in with my parents. I felt frustrated and I felt ashamed.

My financial situation did not change until I took control of how I was thinking about money, feeling about money and acting with money. I was able to move out of my parents’ home as I started to become the responsible man that I was meant to be. I graduated with my PhD from the University of Hard Knocks around the age of 40 because I took my personal financial literacy education seriously.

Both my wife and I are motivated and passionate about giving back to society. While working at the ‘Chicago Transit Authority’, I began giving back to the historically black colleges and universities to help encourage our young leaders not to make the same mistakes that I made. One of our investments ‘Even Stevens-fast casual sandwich shops’ mission is ‘Eat-To-Give’. For every sandwich that is purchased, one sandwich of equally nutritional value is donated back to the community. With 20 sandwich shops operational in the United States, together with our investors, we have donated 2.5 million sandwiches back to local charities who feed the many hungry men, women, children and babies in need of a hand up and not a hand out.

My wife grew up on the West Side of Chicago. She was a single teenage parent living on welfare, raising four children. She was a high school drop-out but she went back to school and received a certificate in ‘Computer Technology’.  She also attended night school and received her bachelor’s and Master’s degree. During her corporate career, Robbie donated financially to the ‘United Way’ on a regular basis as well as volunteering her time. She retired as a Vice-President and Technology Manager of that firm. Our story is that any excuse is a reason to fail, and If we can do it so can you.

What are three ways to obtain money for real estate investing?

  1. Personal Funds: You can use your retirement account by rolling over your traditional IRA or 401K, etc., to a self-directed IRA. Then purchase real estate through your self-directed IRA. You have all the risk and all the reward.
  2. Joint Ventures: Enter into joint ventures with other investors. Depending on how the deal is structured, you might not need to put up any money, if so the initial seed capital should be equally divided between all joint venture partners, thus offsetting your investment amount. Make sure your joint venture partners are people that you trust. You share the risk and you share reward.
  3. Lenders: Traditional or Hard money lenders (usually the loan will be backed by the real estate deal). If your credit is good enough use institutional loans. You can invest alone or also have a joint venture opportunity.

How is it in business working together with your life partner, and how do you balance personal and business life?

What matters most to me is that our business and personal relationships are balanced to our satisfaction. When my wife and I travel in the United States or Internationally Speaking, we take a few days off after business and become tourists. We understand that our life together is more about living in the moment because tomorrow is not promised. We are blessed to actually live some of our wildest-bucket list dreams.

Like when we were in the beautiful country of South Africa, on the top of Table Mountain in Cape Town. We also cuddled with some big baby lion cubs. In Dubai, on the 124th floor at the top of the Burj Kahalifa. Being on the French Riviera in Cannes France or eating dinner in Paris at the Eiffel Tower was another beautiful experience. Add Disneyland, Mickey Mouse, and having good meals with our global friends in California and London are memorable occasions.

I’m proud of the dream team that we make and the work that we do. I’m grateful to the universe that I was able to find my soulmate. Being able to love, work with, speak on the same stage with, travel the world on business and pleasure with, create products and services with, be of service to others with my best friend-my loving Wife-Robbie Mathews is priceless. We share the same goals, dreams and vision. Yes, sometimes we agree to disagree, however, I’ve learned that being in the same vortex with my wife, with our energy frequencies tuned in on the same dial tone, the airways of mutual respect and understanding are always on the same channel.

If you could give one piece of advice to all the women out there who want to start their own business, what would that be?

Begin with your idea, step out on faith and fulfill the vision that the universe has planted within your mind, body, soul, spirit and everyday thoughts. Then become a fearless-tigress, confident woman. Wear your crown! Don’t allow anyone, woman or man to get in your head with “you can’t” and allow them to steal your dream.

But do your due diligence, define your business model, develop your business plan, consult your mastermind group of professionals, develop your product or service, identify your target market and marketing plan, and know your numbers. Seek business coaching from a trusted source to guide you along the way.

 In your opinion what are three things that women need to know about finances?

  1. Get out and stay out of debt, unless it’s considered good debt that is making you money in the form of positive cash flow or positive interest payments instead of bad debt that is costing you money.
  2. Achieve, monitor and maintain good personal and business credit, by paying your bills on time and at least pay the required minimum. No need to pay late fees or have your interest rates increase. Keep your personal credit score at 770 or higher. This will stabilise your borrowing power with creditors.
  3. Have an emergency savings account of about 6 to 9 months of your total living expenses. Have a regular savings account that you can have available investment capital ready for investment opportunities. If you’re working, utilise your employer sponsored retirement plans, especially if your company gives you matching contributions at any percentage. Don’t leave free money on the table. Before investing, complete your due diligence. If you are still unsure, seek coaching from someone that you trust, or from someone who is highly recommended.

How do you see the role of women in business and as speakers on the big stages now and in the future?

Because of the historically male dominated glass ceiling way of doing things, the Global Woman is fighting a harder fight than her male counterparts in business, as well as big stage speaking opportunities. As a result, today and in the future, women will not be denied (I did not say it will be easy) their opportunity to shine as business leaders and speakers on the big stages in our global community. I know there are men who oppose my words, and I know there are men who agree with me! Men need not FEAR the rise of the global woman business leader and big stage speaker.

Just as women do when men are speaking, men should also sit down, pay attention, and take notes when the global woman is speaking in the board room or from the stage. Men might learn a thing or two, because women have a thing or two to say!

I’ve met some incredible global woman business leaders who are already speaking on the big stages of the world. Robbie Mathews, Randi Zuckerberg, Bethany Frankel, Christie Brinkley, Lisa Nichols, Dr. Kara Scott Dentley, Francie Baldwin, Joanna Mukoki, Mirela Sula, and other Global Woman Business Leaders.  As Les Brown’s say’s “that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.”

I wrote the following poem in dedication to my wife Robbie, Mirela Sula and the Global Woman Business Leaders around the world.

THE GLOBAL WOMAN BUSINESS LEADER ROCKS

She is a global woman leader with a new paradigm for changing the world

She helps the business woman, young ladies, and aspiring little girls

She is an empowering global woman leader, operating outside of the box

She is business savvy, and extremely smart like a fox

She is a global woman leader with foresight, because hindsight won’t do

She moves her agenda forward and her vision is true

She is a quick witted global woman leader with blood vessels of steel

She makes hard decision sometimes wearing high heels

She leads with her left, she leads with her right

She’s doubted in the board room, backing down from no fight

She’s in the 15th round and still stand strong

She has the right leadership skills so she can’t go wrong

She knowns the secret that makes her a global woman leader

She fully understands that the world really needs her

She has patience and understanding but will leave you in the dust

She is a symbol of integrity, and worthy of the worlds trust

She doesn’t sit around waiting for opportunity to knock, because

She is an empowering global woman leader, who definitely ROCKS!

YOUR NEW SECOND HOME IN GREEN COAST LUXURY RESORT

Editor @ Global Man February 7, 2018 No Comments

 

YOUR NEW SECOND HOME IN
GREEN COAST LUXURY RESORT

GREEN COAST LUXURY RESORT,
A HIDDEN GETAWAY GEM IN
THE MAGICAL IONIAN COAST IN ALBANIA

Green Coast – a brand new luxury resort in Balkans – is strategically built in Palasa, one of the best locations in Albanian Riviera, between the cities of Vlora and Himara. The village of Palasa is known for its rare natural beauty, as it displays a unique combination of mountain and sea, a place where you can experience all flavors of the four seasons. Palasa Beach, adorned by a glorious ribbon of white sand and rock lapped by turquoise waters and endless underwater beauties, is the first reason to plan your gateway to this magnificent oasis in Albanian Riviera.

Palasa is a historical name that dates back to the ancient Pelasgians. Julius Caesar landed his army on Palasa beach from Brindisi on his battle against Pompey, who was located in Orikum. At that time, Palasa was a trade center making use of its harbor until the pirates made it their target, this then brought about its economic destruction.    

The Greek soldiers used the light of the white rocks of the stream, which they called “the White Routes’ to guide themselves in the sea, known as “Delta”.

The gastronomy, vegetation, farming complete the puzzle of this area exquisiteness.

Albania has been identified and increasingly evaluated as an up and coming world-class destination for foreign tourists. Prestigious international media such as Lonely Planet, the Huffington Post, Telegraph, RaiTre, etc., are listing Albania among the places to be visited. A warm climate and 300 sunny days annually offer the opportunity to enjoy the sea tourism, mountain tourism, cultural and historic tourism, the agriculture and the gastronomy.

Being near Italy, Montenegro, Greece, and Croatia, having rich natural resources and a welcoming nature and being also a low-cost destination, Albania is becoming the favorite Mediterranean destination.

AND FOR THOSE LOOKING TO INVEST IN REAL
ESTATE, GREEN COAST LUXURY RESORT IS BY
DEFINITION A SPOT NOT TO BE MISSED.

Green Coast Luxury Resort extends on more than 20 hectares of land, offering a selection of properties that combines the elegance of architecture with the precious values of nature, history and culture. A variety of luxurious, stylish and spacious villas with garden and apartments overlooking the sea, a 5-stars luxury hotel, integrated service, entertainment facilities, and a promenade along the seashore will exceed the residents and visitors expectations. The Green Coast Hotel is projected to welcome visitors throughout the year, so guests will enjoy the nature of this wonderful place and services during all seasons.

The first properties and Waterfront promenade services will be available this summer, with the first phase due to open in the second half of 2018.

In addition to the beauty of the nature, Green Coast provides proximity to other touristic locations rich in historical and cultural values. Here we mention Vlora and Saranda that are about 1 hour away, or Himara that can be reached within 30 minutes’ drive.

The location at the resort also provides great opportunities for sport lovers to indulge in various sports activities, such as sailing, diving, canoeing, parachuting or exploring the sublime and almost untapped underwater world. The professional guides will be hired to organize tourist trips around the villages, taste the exquisite local foods, enjoy the scenery, and visit archeological places and other historical sites. Green Coast Luxury Resort will offer for its inhabitants or hotel guests in the winter, the possibility of doing winter sports with special dedicated areas.

IT’S TIME TO INVEST IN YOUR
HOLIDAY HOME IN GREEN COAST
LUXURY RESORT

Green Coast is the project under development that will bring a new standard in the Albanian tourism with dedicated and specialized services. For those looking to make an investment in the growing vacation and property market in Albania, Green Coast Luxury Resort offers investment opportunities services to its current and future clients, local and international ones: Property Management and Investment with partnership.

Property Management – All the residents of Green Coast Resort can be part of this program, which will be supported by an exceptional and dedicated team, committed to providing clients and visitors with a great accommodation experience and well maintained houses. The Property Management program has a high-rate investment return starting at a minimum of 3% in the first few years up to 10% per year after 2020.

Investment with partnership/co-ownership – The “co-ownership investment” is a form of purchase borrowed from the best European examples where 2 or more co-owners invest in a property at Green Coast with different quotas over the property price. The rights and obligations of the co-owners stem and are upheld based on the investment quota. Each investor/owner acquires the title of ownership over the unit in proportion to his or her investment quota.

Albania is becoming the ideal place of investments in real estate because of the welcoming environment, low taxes, cheap living standards, and pleasant weather. The Albanian legislation does not represent any obstacles to the purchase of a property if the person is not an Albanian citizen.

The rights on property and common areas are provided in the Civil Code of the Republic of Albania. As well as this, the insurance over the ownership title is regulated according to the notary system.

For more information, visit www.greencoast.al , or contact the Sales Office on [email protected]/ : +355 69 80 55 251