Where do ideas come from?

Have you ever wondered where ideas come from and what might stop them coming in?

Take 10 minutes of your day to listen to me in conversation with Susie Pearl, you might just have an idea as a result that could change your world …

[audio: https://www.tomevans.co/podcasts/susieAndTom_001.mp3]

If you haven’t got Flash player or have an iPhone or iPad,

click here to listen or download the MP3 file directly

The Quantum Collapse of Thought

Many people say they have trouble making their mind go quiet in meditation – well if you’ve ever driven anywhere and not known how you got to the other end, you have unwittingly entered a meditative state. This visualisation, which is not to be listened to while driving, will teach you a foolproof technique – enjoy.
[audio: http://www.thebookwright.co.uk/podcasts/collapsingThoughts/collapsingThoughts.mp3]

For more information on Susie, her work, her writings and her workshops, visit www.manifestgenie.com

… you can also follow Susie on Twitter at http://twitter.com/manifestgenie

Just reading her blogs and following her tweets is enough to bring more magic into your life …

Creating a Business to Love

I count myself  as being very lucky to be able to do work which I love. I’ll be the first to admit that it’s at least 50% by ‘chance’ that I ended up in this position.

If you met me just a few years ago, you would have met a bored IT consultant … now I’m an author with four books to my name and fast becoming known as a specialist at the art and science of light bulb moments.

Along the way too, I’ve been blessed to meet many special people who have achieved this nirvana themselves. Earlier this year, I was absolutely honoured to meet up with Judith Morgan who turned out to be a specialist in helping people achieve this very goal.

Judith’s running a workshop for Alternatives in London on the 6th November and you can hear us chatting about how to go about running your own “toptastic” business here.

[audio: https://www.tomevans.co/podcasts/judithMorgan.mp3]

If you haven’t got Flash player or have an iPhone or iPad,
click here to listen or download the MP3 file directly

For a place on the workshop, go to Alternatives.org.uk

For more information about Judith and the fabulous work she does, visit her web site www.judithmorgan.com

If you can’t make the workshop, I highly recommend getting a copy of Judith’s ebook Creating a Business to Love

Marketing in Tune with the Moon Phase

If you look around the Internet, you will find no end of advice and tips on marketing. As soon as a new fad comes out, all of a sudden we end up with no end of self-proclaimed gurus with expertise expressed in TLA’s (three letter acronyms).

Surprisingly, there is one influence which affects the result of marketing campaigns which yields no search results yet which has a major effect on the success of any marketing initiative (although I hope the search results will change once this blog is out there).

Now many vintners and farmers have twigged that the Moon has a significant affect on their crops. Sailors are very respectful of the Moon phase as their lives might depend on the height and power of the tide.

Astrologers are somewhat derided by their observance of the Moon phase. One day astrologers and astronomers will compare notes and find there is more common ground than they thought.

It’s the closest astronomical object to us yet, if you asked most people, they couldn’t tell you the current Moon phase – not least it’s distance from the Earth and in which direction it was moving relative to them. It’s almost too much in our faces. Any Martian would be able to tell you that the Earth has 13 lunar months a year and they are all about 28 Earth rotations long (that’s a day to you and me) – give or take one or two. Our man-made calendar obfuscates what is really going on … conspiracy theorists might tell you that this is on purpose.

Incidentally, you can find out the current phase of the moon here … or if you have an iPhone, get one of the many excellent apps like Moon Phase

And to understand how Moon Phases work, see this excellent exposition and explanation …

… or why not have a go at taking great photographs

If you synchronise your marketing (and sales) activities to the Moon Phase, you will find that everything flows with much more ease and customers and opportunities will start to find you … as if by magic. I’ve been doing this for about two years now and have virtually abandoned all other ‘formal’ types of marketing activity.

Now there are two reasons why this works. Either the Moon is having an affect on our consciousness or it’s acting as a big reminder in the sky that we should work through our concepts in a logical manner. If it works, it’s academic if it’s either, or both, of these in operation.

The diagram below shows how to do it:

Step 1 : from new Moon to 1st quarter : engage in brainstorming activities

Step 2 : from 1st quarter to Full Moon : brief the client, get them to buy into your dream or, for yourself, just imagine where this might take you

Step 3 : from Full Moon to Last Quarter : evaluate your options, market test your ideas

Step 4 : act on your marketing plan based on acquired knowledge from the last three steps

and Step 5 is to report back in the Comments here to tell me how you get on

If you want to know more about synchronisation with natural daily, lunar monthly and yearly cycles, get a copy of my new book, The Art and Science of Light Bulb Moments

If you think this is completely bonkers, just try it once before you make that call … if it’s wrong there is no harm done. If it’s right, you may find a whole new way of being and doing.

7 Top Tips for Blogging Lists

Blogs that list “things” are some of the most popular and retweeted blogs on the Interweb. Like all these things, there are some do’s and some don’t.

Here’s my top seven tips:

1. Make sure the title is snappy, contains a pun or humour and even try and make it rhyme – kind of like this one

2. Go for something that’s topical – e.g. iPad, Ryder Cup

3. Seven is the optimum number as most people can (just about) hold seven things in their short term memory

4. If you have to list more than seven either rank them – e.g. Top Ten in order of popularity – or group them

5. For grouped lists, three is a brilliant number – e.g. Good, Bad and Ugly or Top, Middle or Bottom

6. Three and five are also good numbers, especially when the list have equal weighting like an equilateral triangle or five pointed star – your 3, 5 or 7 points can also form an ACRONYM or MNEMONIC so the list can be remembered more easily

7. Make sure you end with an invite for others to add their thoughts to the list as I am doing now  … please add your tips below

If you want to know more about the psychology of writing brilliant blogs with eye catching and brain-catching headlines, come along to the You Only Have 1 Second series of workshops – details here