What you want your life to be about is completely linked to who you may soon become.

Where you are on that journey right now is completely linked to who you are now.

Don’t think that you can become a person of peace until you find peace in your own mind.

Interestingly, as I write this, one of my children is asking if they really need to wash their hair when they shower tonight. I can sense this disturbing my peace, so I gave the responsibility to them, because that is an age appropriate thing for me to do.

I simply said: “I think it needs washing. If you agree, I know how much other responsibility I can currently share with you for your life. If you say no, you show me that you are not ready for a bit more freedom of choice. It’s your decision. You go and shower and I’ll see you when you are showered and I have finished this article. (The hair got washed by the way and my peace was maintained while I wrote this).

Helen wanted love in her life – someone who cared and respects her. When we delved into her life we found that she was in a relationship with a man who expected her to care for him like a mother might care for a two year old.

She said she was giving him love. So we examined this love and we found that while she did everything for him, she did have an underlying resentment and a nagging question: when will he start caring for me?

So while Helen wants love (meaning care and respect for her) in her life, longer term, we can see why she isn’t getting it right now, because she isn’t really giving it yet.

Where are you on the journey towards what you most want? Use life as your indicator.

Bear hugs
Neil

Neil Fellowes shows conscious entrepreneurs, coaches, consultants and complementary therapists how to make a difference AND a profit. Visit his website at http://www.communitysoul.co.uk

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Leave a comment below and tell me where you are on ‘your’ journey towards what you want most.

Two guiding principles I go by are:
1.    Know my purpose
2.    Remove obstacles and things that don’t work

Since childhood we’ve been told what to do by our parents, teachers and religions. At work we were told what time to arrive and what time we could leave.

Our peers influence us and so does the TV. And under the weight of all this influence, I suspect that many of us have hardly given much thought to what we really want.

Sometimes I think it’s a bit like we’ve all been hypnotised and just don’t have the brain space to think, so we do what’s being strongly suggested to us.

Our mind reacts to suggestions, and from those suggestion emotions can rise: be they love, anger, joy or hate.

People who succeed on their paths are the people who have learned to control their minds and handle the suggestibility more effectively than others. They have learned to respond only to what is good for them and ignore what is not so good.

Probably one of the biggest influence on our minds is the TV and media. Through news broadcasts we can be manipulated into feeling angry or fearful of other races, cultures and religions and ignore the fact that we’re all human beings and our spiritual priority – above all else – is probably to ensure co-operation and avoid domination.

Advertising is incredibly suggestive. When I was trying to lose weight, I found that whenever I sat down in front of the TV I wanted to eat. Then I realized that a large number of the adverts were food adverts and that after they came on I wanted food.

By knowing my purpose, it allowed me to see the manipulation of the TV. The choice then was, do I watch TV or am I mentally strong enough to self-manage my stomach?

Try following my two guiding principles:
Know my purpose
Remove obstacles and things that don’t work

Lotsa Love
Neil

p.s. If you need more help try our Life Purpose Programme – www.communitysoul.co.uk/lifepurpose.htm

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And while you’re here, leave a comment below and let me know what your guiding principles are.

At any point you decide you don’t like what’s happening in your life, you can begin to create something different.

It works like this…

We have a thought and suddenly it is now forming in consciousness. That thought will become reality in the next few seconds, minutes, hours, days, months or years. How long it will take to come into being will be dependent upon how much energy is required.

By energy I mean your conscious and subconscious energy, the urgency of your physical energy and actions, the amount of emotional energy and the amount of energy joining from other people. A rider here is also how much baggage you are dragging that might stop you from making necessary mental and physical changes.

Your energy combines with other energy forms outside of you. Like attracting like, joining together – thoughts externalising themselves and becoming physical.

What I failed to understand many years ago was that in struggling to survive day after day in a reality that didn’t work for me, I had chosen to forgo a reality that did work, that supported and strengthened me and led to bigger and better things manifesting in my life.

How we focus our minds for extended periods determines our outcomes. If we focus on things that we don’t enjoy, we compromise other things we could be enjoying.

When we say “Yes” to something we don’t want. We say “No” to something we do want.

When I focussed on getting through a day without abuse, I compromised living a life of freedom and happiness where people were kind to me all day long.

When I focussed on food to provide me with emotional – internal pleasures, I failed to externalise my desire to find a way to find a relationship that could meet my emotional needs and help me become healthier, more confident and more self-motivated.

When I focussed on being broke and worrying about money, I compromised getting out there and finding something that brought me an income.

What I’m talking about here is consciously taking back the control of your life. Finding integrity. Finding the fragments of your life that have become splintered, drawing them back to you, learning from your experiences and then recreating life in a way that is full of purpose, ful-filling (filling up the full) in every way.

A big juicy hug,
Neil

What can you do to take back control of your life? Leave a comment below…

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Neil Fellowes shows conscious entrepreneurs, coaches, consultants and complementary therapists how to make a difference AND a profit. Visit his website at http://www.communitysoul.co.uk

In this article I’m about to give you the 7 essentials of writing good marketing copy. Every page where you want to sell something or even offer a free gift will need these elements to encourage people to take advantage of your offer.

If you miss any one of these 7 essentials out from your copy you will seriously reduce the effectiveness of your copy.

1.    Title – this has to make a promise about what you’ll deliver and it must speak to your audience – so an audience we were speaking to on one of our web pages wanted more money and they wanted to make a difference in the world and they wanted to start doing that right now… and this is something we can deliver, so our title reflected all of those things.

2.    Sub-title – the subtitle builds on the title, it build the picture and gives just a little more of the critical information that might attract someone to read on.

3.    Rapport/Credibility piece –  I know the people I wanted to attract to a  programme I was launching wanted to attract clients rather than “win” clients. I know they are interested in “flow” rather than being “motivated” and I know they wanted me to show them the “how-to”. So I used their language to build instant rapport and credibility.

4.    We then need to get the benefits across quickly and we do this through a bullet point listed benefits. When your benefits create curiosity, they tend to work better, than when you just state something as a fact.

5.    Social proof – testimonials, show other people what they got from your offer. Use names where you can. Use pictures if you can get them. Use video whenever you can and the more specific you can be, the better.

6.    A call to action – this is about telling them what to do next. If you leave this out, it will seriously hurt your results.

7.    Contact details (either get theirs or give yours or both)

I want to mention that what I have covered here are just 7 essentials… These are just the basics.

Good wishes
Neil

p.s A great resource for something in more depth is my Insiders Secrets programme. Read about it here: http://www.communitysoulbusiness.com/insiderssecrets/

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What other essentials do you think are needed for great marketing copy?  Would love your thoughts on this blog. Leave a comment below.

Do you remember the moment in the movie The Secret where the boy had been visualising having a new bike. And then the door miraculously swings open and there it is, all shining and new.

And he manifested this!

Now there are those amongst us – parents – who might teach our children some, let’s call it  “mental preparation”. And like me, you may also suggest to your kids to stop wishing and get off their butts and “Get a paper round” -  or something similar – because that practical action earns the money.

In personal development and in spirituality we are encouraged to meditate, even chant the sound of creation; visualise money coming, shout out an affirmation and “Act as if,” but if the fivers, tenners and twenties are not flowing to your door, what do you do next?

Simple fact is, money knows no reason not to flow to your door. It doesn’t know or probably care if your view to money is spiritual or not. It doesn’t know if you have a zillion degrees and A’levels, what car daddy drives, what accent you speak with, or what you’ll do with money when you get it.

One argument is that money is dumb. It just doesn’t have a clue. It doesn’t know if it’s in your purse or my wallet, and it doesn’t care!

Another argument is that money is infinitely intelligent. Perhaps it would prefer to be with people who respect it, nurture it, look after it and are wise with it. Or…

Maybe money just is! And if this is true then we need to understand this…

If you don’t have enough money, it is not the fault of money.

Sometimes, as we would teach our children, we just need to get up, snuff out the candle and take some good old-fashioned action. Here’s an example of what happened to me…

Some years ago, during a period of intense visualising, affirming and acting as if (or so I thought) a wonderful experience happened. In the space of one afternoon I had three money making opportunities: A request to consult on a project, a request to advertise on my web site and a request for coaching from a new client.

Guess what I did?

I chose to handle the requests later!

So I’m asking for more. And more is coming to me. But I’m pushing it away through my actions.

I caught myself doing this and what I saw was a fundamental difference in attitude from the days when I succeeded with money and the days when I failed.

In the good old days, when money flowed to me, my priority was to ensure my prospective customer got the most immediate service possible. In my days of failure, the opposite became true.

And what did money do?

Money goes to the most available outlet. If we bung up the inlet valve, we send a message to money that we’re not ready to handle it. It will therefore find somewhere else to flow. It doesn’t distinguish anything else other than not you, not now.

If we make it easy for money to flow to us, by returning a call, providing the information the customer needs and closing the sale clearly and emphatically, money flows, no more questions asked.

Something to think about:
• See where you disallow money or push it away.
• See where you feel unworthy
• See when you put off allowing money come to you

Good wishes
Neil

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Neil Fellowes shows conscious entrepreneurs, coaches, consultants and complementary therapists how to make a difference AND a profit. Visit his website at http://www.communitysoul.co.uk

What are your thoughts on this blog? Would love for you to leave a comment.

What if you could double or triple your profits, while cutting your working hours in half?

The information I’m sharing in this article put me in the real flow of my business and we’re going to be looking at how you can do it too.

First off, let’s look at why this subject is important…

I know that a number of you would like to work less hours than you do and you are just not sure where to start.

Also, there are a number of you who have already achieved a level of success and the problem you may have is that you just don’t have enough hours in your day to grow further.

It’s also fair to say that many of you know you need to do something different in your business in order to grow it further, but you’re resisting it because you have a fear – maybe that’s about giving away some control.

If I go back a few years, I worked long hours. Sometimes I’d be working at 2am and would start again at 6am. I was frustrated. I was working long hours, but just didn’t feel I was getting the returns I wanted.

I remember Jo and I talking about this and we decided I should take some of my own medicine. For a while I’d been taking my own clients through a process of how to save themselves hours in business and yet here I was not doing what I taught.

So we began the process, which took 6 months initially.

The first step was to look at what only I can do, that no one else can do. And to cut a long story short that means public speaking, building key relationships and creating resources for our team.

That means that anything else I do, needed to be handled another way.

As I began to look at every task, strip it down and then outsource it, big holes in my diary began to appear where I now had more time to do the things that were most important for me to do.

Just taking this one action meant I had more time and the business had more potential.

Take a look at your daily routine and see where you are doing things you don’t need to do. Look at what someone else can handle for you.

Good wishes
Neil

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Do you try to do it all yourself? Would love to have your input — leave a comment below.

Neil Fellowes shows conscious entrepreneurs, coaches, consultants and complementary therapists how to make a difference AND a profit. Visit his website at http://www.communitysoul.co.uk

In this article I’m about to give you free and easy ways to develop your marketing copywriting skills.

The first tip is that to become a good marketing copywriter, you have to become a good marketing copy reader.

This means you have to invest time reading and learning from good copy and good copywriters. When I’m surfing the net, or when I get an email that I just can’t stop reading, I keep a copy of it.

I keep it in what I call a “swipe file”.  So this is where all the “good copy” goes that I receive. When I then come to writing copy or when I’m stuck on copy, I’ll go to the swipe file and look for inspiration.

Over time you start to notice what works for your audience and then less and less of your copy is written from scratch… because when you see what works for your audience, you repeatedly crib your own best copy, making adjustments based on what you’re offering.

So this is a free and easy way to start learning what sells.

A second free and easy way to become a better copywriter is to know who your customer is.

So many people forget – or resist – clearly defining who the customer is. In coaching sessions I’ve seen people wriggle and squirm on this issue or even tell me it doesn’t work, or their market really isn’t like that.

Personally, I believe you honour, respect and show love to your potential buyers when you take the time to get to know them by defining them.

If you never define who your customer really is, how will you ever really know what your customer REALLY wants – which isn’t always what you offer, or at least not the way people often offer it.

When you fail to define your customer what you do is end up pressuring or shoe-horning someone into buying your product or service and that never feels good, for you or them. But when you define them and what they want, it becomes easy and natural.

Interestingly when I spoke to one of the world’s top marketing copywriters about writing copy for us, guess what his first question was?

“Who’s it for?” Now if that’s a question he asks right up front, who do you think you should be?

When we really defined who a particular event was for and created marketing for that niche, 77% of the people who hit that web page took the offer we were making.

Later when we tested the same page against less targeted people, the conversion fell to 38% (which is still good – but can you see clearly the difference in what happens when you are more specific?).

Honour, respect and love your customers today by defining who they are and what their real needs are.

Good wishes
Neil

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Would love your input: Have you made it a point to get to ‘know’ your customers? How does this help with your marketing copy?

Neil Fellowes shows conscious entrepreneurs, coaches, consultants and complementary therapists how to make a difference AND a profit. Visit his website at http://www.communitysoul.co.uk

It was one of those days, everyone seemed to be picking on me: my kids, my bank, my electricity supplier, even my computer. And everything that should have been done, was just taking longer and longer. Then something occurred to me.

Moving Away From Negative Energy

I’d decided to remove myself from all the negative energy, and decided to shut myself away from everything. And in the peace and tranquillity of that space I discovered something.

What was it?

I was the common denominator – the one they were all picking on.

Gradually it all began to unfold. I was in a bad mood. It was me that was having the impact on everything around me. All that was happening was that everything was reflecting back at me what I was putting out.

And that was when I picked up a book I recommend you read, ‘Ask and it is Given‘ by Ester and Jerry Hicks. The book fell open on these words: ‘Your thoughts absolutely equal your point of attraction, the better you feel the more everything around you improves.’

And then a few lines down, the book continued to rub salt into my wounds. ‘When you put yourself on a schedule where there is a deadline, then often the shortage of time or money looms up and contradicts the energy, making you miserable.’

I got the point!!

It Seems to Come From Nowhere
Frustration can seem to bubble up out of the blue. However, if I looked back on my day there were pointers right from early morning. First thing, as I was dressing I asked my partner if something at work was frustrating her. She told me no and I concluded I had got it wrong. Then there were computer problems, then a power cut, my bank failed to wire money on a business deal that could be worth a substantial sum. The whole day just built up, right to the moment where my son disagreed with me and my daughter raised her voice.

But get this.

When I wanted to say something back. But instead of saying anything I got one of those irritating tickles in the back of my throat that rendered my voice useless. All that came out was a helpless croak. And while my son and my partner fell about laughing and my daughter marched off to her bedroom in annoyance, I decided to call it a day and closed myself away to reflect.

The Truth
Frustration doesn’t come from nowhere. It’s the build up of events, often self-inflicted deadlines or unreasonable demands. As the pressure mounts we become less reasonable, with ourselves, with others and even with our work.

The words of Ester and Jerry Hicks were timely reminders for me and I hope reminders to us all that our thoughts are our point of attraction. If we feel frustrated then we attract more frustration. If we feel happiness then we attract more of that.

Best
Neil

Leave a comment: What is it that you’re trying to attract?  How long can you maintain your focus on this before something occurs and makes you think about that?

Neil Fellowes shows conscious entrepreneurs, coaches, consultants and complementary therapists how to make a difference AND a profit. Visit his website at http://www.communitysoul.co.uk

Financial transactions are as much about building relationships as they are spending money; so I have to admit, I do get a little peeved when I spend money and then feel disrespected by the company I’ve paid.

A few years ago we used to buy our food from the local superstore. We’d spend on average around £4500 a year there.

I had shopped with this superstore for my entire adult life and therefore spent in the region of £76500 in their premises.

But then I noticed their quality had dropped. The apples in the store were bruised. The tins were getting more dented. The tortilla wraps had begun sticking together, the pita bread had holes in them, and they had begun to have items they used to have in stock, regularly out of stock.

I wrote to the local branch. Three weeks later, when they hadn’t replied, I wrote to their Head Office. Funnily enough, they didn’t reply either. So I assumed that perhaps ignoring customer’s complaints was now company policy. I also noticed that nothing had improved in the store.

I suppose my £4500 a year is quite small compared to their annual profit of £2.65 billion. And I suppose losing my business doesn’t really mean that much to them.

However, this got me thinking…

I’d been wrestling with food miles and the environmental stuff for quite some time. I knew that my veg, even if grown locally will probably go to somewhere like Germany to get packaged before it will return to the UK and go on a shelf.

I know all this is not good for the environment. I know how superstores are now able to dictate pricing to suppliers and even influence town planning. I don’t necessarily like the idea of 180 new superstores being opened in the UK in the next 18 months. But I do accept there are some benefits to having these stores as part of the diversity of our culture.

But having said all that, when a company fails to value the relationship with a customer, then the customer is probably right to review the relationship with the company.

So I considered the food miles and the environment and the growth of the superstores and came to the conclusion… It was time to grow my own food, get my own chickens, shop where it is most convenient and buy local.

When we spend money in our local economy, most of it stays in our local economy, but when we spend it at a superstore, very little of it returns.

Since I live in the countryside and am surrounded by farmers – some of whom I know – I’d prefer to line their pockets than people who do not value my relationship with them.

I’d love to know your take on this.

Best
Neil

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Leave a comment: Have you ever felt unappreciated by the businesses you patronize? Did you go elsewhere? Or, what steps do you take in your business to show your appreciation to clients? I’d love to hear your story.

Neil Fellowes shows conscious entrepreneurs, coaches, consultants and complementary therapists how to make a difference AND a profit. Visit his website at http://www.communitysoul.co.uk

There are three factors that propel you towards better and better things. Trouble is, it’s one thing knowing them and quite another to act them out in day-to-day life.

Put into action these three key factors and propel yourself to success!

I know how life challenges can knock your confidence and impact your overall will-power. This is why you must have a dream backed up by a real purpose to pull you through.

But is that enough?

Below I’ve listed the three key factors that will propel anyone to success. I’ve then broken them down into bite-sized pieces to give you a taster of what is in store for you, if you’re looking to make some changes.

Here are the 3 vital factors:
1. Purpose
2. Will-power
3. Confidence

How do they propel you?

Purpose
If you don’t have a purpose behind a dream you might give up at the first challenge. If I didn’t want to take my most painful experiences and turn them into successes that others might find inspirational enough to pull themselves from heartache, I’d have given up years ago. In many ways I think I’ve decided to use myself as an experiment for others, picking some pretty major challenges. I’m not suggesting for a moment that you do the same, but if you’re not clear on your purpose, especially if you feel stuck in a rut at work, then please start to think about changing things. Life is too precious.

Will-power
A principle of success has to be will-power. When you have purpose you want to see something through. You become persistent and more consistent. Things that used to hurt or bother you no longer get in the way and often become the very reason for change. Last week I was writing a scene for a novel and needed inspiration. I looked up Martin Luther King. Now there’s a man who took more than his own pain and turned the pain into victory. His I Have a Dream speech is legend and clearly shows that King had enough will-power to move things, not just for himself, but for all of the downtrodden in his era.

Confidence
When you apply will-power consistently you push aside obstacles more often. When this happens your confidence naturally builds. When this happens it adds more to your original purpose. Your vision strengthens and you come alive with other ways to achieve the your outcome. The challenges get greater, confidence higher.

Can you Be Stopped?

Purpose, will-power and confidence are tools to use on your way to self-mastery. In pursuing any goal your going to have to develop self-control and self-discipline. You have to be resilient to the outside factors that stop you. Then you have to stop them.

How?

First, become vigilant to what you do and begin to master your mind – rather than have it master you!

If it’s your weight you have to remove the temptations from your home. Stop buying food that hurts your body and begin the education process to a better way of eating – such as reading books or going to lectures by experts.

If it’s business success you’re after, maybe your failure to-date may be to do with something you don’t know enough about. Decide if your path is your purpose, have the will-power to educate yourself in the areas of business that can propel you forward and grow in confidence along the way.

Whether it’s money, romance, family or just plain fun, start to explore and you’ll find yourself propelled to better and better beginnings to the day.

Greet tomorrow with Relish. Wake up to your dream.

Best
Neil

Neil Fellowes shows conscious entrepreneurs, coaches, consultants and complementary therapists how to make a difference AND a profit. Visit his website at http://www.communitysoul.co.uk

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Leave a comment: Do you practice the three vital factors?  What do you think could propel you to success?