My friend Des Vadgama tipped me of about this ‘interview” video on YouTube.

The “interview” style reminds me of my early days in the world of Double Glazing Direct Sales — and group interviews to find those unique individuals who could actually make it in the world of Commission Only Direct Sales. Mind you, we were never as HARDCORE as this — actually we were really wussy’s in comparison

WARNING: If you are the sensitive type and in particular if you have issues with the F Word, then do not watch - it will offend!

The film takes a look at the world of “boiler room” (seedy, dishonorable, and often fraudulent) brokerage firms - Double Glazing sales was quite tame by comparison.

Hope you enjoy

Forget New Year Resolutions and make Every Day Resolutions instead.

In the light of new IMPROVED knowledge / Information - DO NOT WAIT a year to change what is clearly not working.

Life is short, break the rules, Forgive quickly, love truly, laugh uncontrollably, and never regret anything that made you smile.

When we wake up in the morning we have two simple choices. Go back to sleep and dream. Or, wake up and chase those dreams. Happy New Life!

Great video from my friend Perry Belcher - pretty well sums up all this Social Media stuff. I have known Perry a few years and he never fails to impress - one of these super creative people who has the ability to re-invent himself on a regular basis.

This is a great quote from Perry:

Love me / Hate Me — there is no money in the middle!

Follow Perry on Twitter: http://twitter.com/perrybelcher

We are all different

For me the “penny dropped” they day I said to myself: Is someone elses opinion of me more important than my opinion of me?

For me, the answer was NO. In other words, as long as I feel RIGHT about me, then why should I CARE about what other people think of me.

We only have control over our own thoughts, our own opinions. We can’t control and should not want to control other peoples opinions – so frankly it is an impossible task to try and consistantly be “held in good opinion” by others.

I also realised that in life being HAPPY was more important that being “right” in the opinion of other people.

By the way, I do CARE and respect the opinion of a good number of people people, it is just the case that I do not run my life to seek their approval.

Love and respect yourself first and the love and respect of others will follow.

Peace and love

Barry

Building Personal Brand Within the Social Media Landscape

(What a BullShit Title! - but then it is from Web 2.0 Expo NY)

Anyway - I don’t have the time to tell you how good this is today - Just watch it

Afterall, what other productive thing were you going to do for the next 15 mins 27 seconds!

Fav Quote: “Stop watching fxxking LOST!”

“Intent is not a thought, or an object, or a wish.

Intent can make a man succeed when his thoughts tell him that he is defeated.

It operates in spite of a warriors indulgence.

Intent is what makes him invulnerable.

Intent is what speeds a shaman through a wall, through
space, to infinity.”

–Carlos Castaneda

Beyond The Call Of Duty With The Glovers

When you enter this world you are told that there are certain things you must do: Pay your taxes, eat your greens, wash behind your ears and work hard. Within reason, what you do the remainder of the time is optional, a grey area in which you set your own schedule.

To some people this is a loophole in life, it is an excuse for them to sit at home watching TV and claiming benefits for life. For most of us, we occasionally work hard, occasionally play hard and without over-exerting ourselves, we do the best we can.

But there are a few special people out there who go above and beyond the call of duty. They go so far outside of the grey lines that it is quite unreal.

I have had the honour of saluting two such people… the Glover brothers: Andrew and Matthew Glover.

The Glover Brothers

Together they run the very successful conservatory business: Conservatory Outlet and a double glazing business called West Yorkshire Windows . These are two very hard working guys, but it is away from work that these guys really take things to a whole new level.

Matthew does a lot of work for a charity called HEAL, and has previously ridden across parts of India in an aim to raise funds. Personal safety, and health are put to one side to make way for a drive and desire to do good in the world.

HEAL described this as “the most ambitious fundraising event our charity has ever undertaken”, and it paid off, raising over 100 thousand pounds for the charity.

Check Out:

Cycle India 2008 and the Heal Childrens Village

Andrew is no different, in fact, at the time of writing this, he is cycling across America with “Ride 4 Hope” This team will ride over 3,000 miles across the USA for Hope House Children’s Hospices, raising much needed funds for the terminally ill children they care for.

(Andrew is the one not wearing a helmet!)

An amazing feat that has had more than it’s fair share of cuts, bangs and bruises.

Here is the thing… they didn’t have to take the time and effort out of their busy lives to do this. At aged 4 they were not told to tidy their bedroom and then raise hundreds of thousands for charity… at no point anywhere in the grey line was this to be found… but they went outside the line and beyond the call of duty, and frankly, the very least I can do is raise awareness and show my appreciation with this post.

So here’s to the Glover brothers, proof that life on the edge is truly the best place to be.

If you would like to support Andrew you can do it at

www.justgiving.co.uk/andrewglover

and more info at:
http://www.hopehouse.org.uk
and
http://www.gmfundraising.co.uk

Well Done Guys - and thank you both for inspiring us all

Barry Dunlop

PS: For those who do not know - Matthew Glover is also the face behind The Renegade Conservatory Guy Website

I have just been watching a very inspiring video featuring Sir Richard Branson, courtesy of Joe Polish

I have met Joe Polish briefly at Yanik Silvers Underground Seminar in LA - a very impressive guy and one of the brightest marketing minds around.

You will find the video here: Sir Richard Branson, Rebel Billionaire and Founder of the Virgin Empire on Video

Sir Richard speaks about Entrepreneurial Success & Contribution and frankly this is one of the best business videos I have seen in a long time.

I really encourage all of you who read this post to watch this video. If you are passionate about business and also want to make a real difference in this world you will love this Video

I will get to Gardenpride Conservatories and the point of this post in a moment - but first one thing that still really gets me hot under the collar is when conservatory companies and their website designers STEAL images that belong to me or my company and put them on there website, as if it was work they did.

When I set up websites like ConservatoriesOnline.com/ back in 1999 I really was a First Mover in the area of creating information websites for consumers related to conservatories, double glazing, kitchens etc. Naturally this has meant some “copycats and of course I have no issue with that - healthy competition!

What I have objected to over the years is the number of websites that have stolen images from my websites without asking permission or paying for the right to use the image.

Indeed, it got so bad sometimes that when I eventually caught up with the culprit’s that they would claim that they had not stolen it of my website but another website that had originally stole it of me.

When I could (as in when I had the time) I would chase up these “offenders” and ask them to either 1) Remove the Image, 2) Pay for the Right to use or 3) give a credit to the original source of the image.

All companies had to do was ask - politely. But you know, a surprising number never did ask.

To be honest I have got fed up writing to companies and explaining the error of their ways, so for a change, I thought I might just high-lite some of the particularly bad examples here.

Take for example Gardenpride Conservatories, of Lowfields, Little Eversden, Cambridge - their home page is currently displaying a photograph of a conservatory that is in fact my own conservatory at home:

SEE SCREENSHOT of Gardenpride Conservatories website: (My conservatory is bottom right)

Interestingly, they claim that they supply a conservatory using 70mm Synseal Shield “Synerjy” profile - but my conservatory was built using Rehau Frames and a Quantal Conservatory Roof.

I wonder what “excuse” Garden Pride Conservatories will use when they eventually contact me about this post - to explain this happening??

Just so I am clear, I am not saying that Gardenpride conservatories are a bad supplier of conservatories, I know nothing of their reputation in their area.

What I am saying guys is GET PERMISSION !!

In “Confessions of a Serial Entrepreneur,” Stuart Skorman recounts the ups and downs of his high-stakes career. Skorman launched the online video store Reel.com in 1997 and sold it three years later for $100 million — but his online learning site Hungryminds.com bombed. More recently he made a come back with Elephant Pharmacy. Skorman takes us to the card table to show how business can be played like a game of poker.

Stuart Skorman’s first point — the arrogance of success — or becoming arrogant because you are successful is one that I have experienced personally. Indeed, these days when I speak in public about business this is one of the main points I make. Arrogance means that you think you can not learn from someone else, that you know it all and more importantly leads to you making “casual” decisions that lead to business failure.

All the points Stuart Skorman makes are spot on - for many of us there will be nothing that NEW here - but for sure, it acts as a great reminder.

One final thought about business - one that has served me well is this.

In running a business there will be good days and there will be bad days. Days when the new orders coming through the door are so many you can hardly keep up, and other days when you keep checking the phones to see if they are working, as there is so little going on out there.

Now I would like to say I have some secret formula that fixes this so that you only ever have good days - but I don’t. What I do know is that business like it or not is a game of averages (not too many business gurus are going to tell you this) and truthfully, as long as you are always doing the right things, making the right number of calls, being productive etc then on “average” the result will be one that you can be happy with.

That is why when some days things are really good and business is booming I do not get too excited and likewise on other days, when things are a bit slower, I do not get depressed.

Of course, if things are continually bad / slow for a long period of time, the above does not apply. In that case, you clearly need to change direction. I am just relating here to the general ups and downs of running a business that happens often in the same 24hr or 7 day period