I am going to let you in on a story – it’s one of those background stories of my life that I believe is important to tell for your benefit.  The title of this post will make sense as you read through.

So, there I was – a successful property investor, health professional, academic, editor, entrepreneur – but I was still stuck doing something that was preventing me from doing all the other things I wanted to do.

I had to turn up to give lectures and then turn up to consult patients who were booked in one after the other after the other – and I just didn’t have the flexibility to go and work on my other ideas.  Nor could I just decide to take the afternoon off to pick up the kids from school or go watch a movie.

I had significant professional responsibilities.  Not to mention that at the time I was the sole income earner with a young family.  Like many people in my position, I felt trapped.

I hated that feeling.

As the years went by I became more and more committed to changing things.  I was highly motivated to make that change – to do whatever it took for me to bust out – but I wasn’t quite sure what to do or how to do it.  I certainly didn’t want to embark on another ‘offline business’ and while I had amassed a sizable property portfolio – it was not ready to harvest and I had also reached my borrowing capacity.

And then I attended something I would not normally attend.  It was an internet marketing seminar – one of those with lot’s of speakers.  How I ended up at that seminar is another story – but what I didn’t expect was that each speaker would provide an opportunity to train with them or undertake a course of study in their system of online business and internet marketing.

Looking back now, I will be forever grateful for the opportunity to attend that event. I was gobsmacked at what I learned about what was possible online.  For the first time in a long time I was filled with an indescribable enthusiasm for the future.

The internet provided me with a way to do what I wanted to do.  On my terms.  In my time. And to get paid for it.

No wonder I was enthusiastic.  As corny as this sounds, it was like a dream come true.  It was the answer I needed.

I purchased a number of courses at that event and I did all the lessons, watched the DVD’s, listened to the CD’s. I spent hours watching training videos on the internet.  I have never hesitated at educating myself.  I implemented what I had learned and things began to happen.  I wrote a book and became a self-published author.  I earned some income online one night while I was asleep – the money was in my account in the morning when I woke up.

You might understand why I could not wait to get up in the morning.  And if I ever had insomnia, then “internet marketing” for want of a better term, had cured it because I didn’t want to get to sleep.  There was always something new to learn, try, and do.

What did I learn that got me started?

• I learned how to research a market to see if the market had money in it
• I learned how to create a product (in this case, write a book and self-publish)
• I learned how to set up a website
• I learned how to write copy that would sell things online
• I learned about how to get people to your website
• I learned about collecting people’s emails and building a list
• I learned about the idea of getting other people to sell your product – called affiliates.

In the process of learning all this, I discovered that I could help other people do the same – and that they would pay me for it.  It was very strange to find myself being paid to set up someones website for them – but I was having a blast doing it, so why not?

I had a problem though.  There were certain things that I was struggling with.  I had learned a lot about “what was possible” on the internet, but I hadn’t learned as much about ‘how’ to do it.

And this was a key constraint – until I attended an event on the Gold Coast at which I heard James Schramko speak.  He caused an absolute buzz.  He was new and had a fresh approach and it was obvious that he was highly capable.  If there was one speaker at that event that I had to know it was James.

2.30 AM - A significant event with James Schramko

And despite promising myself (and Rhoda) that I wouldn’t spend a cent at this event – I purchased a ticket to James’ course – the first one he had ever run on internet marketing.  It was two weeks later back up on the Gold Coast – so there were more flights and accommodation to arrange.

That weekend goes down as another major turning point in my internet career. For the first time I found myself in the company of someone who not only knew what was possible online – but also knew ‘how to do it’.  And not only that – he showed me how to do it.  In particular, something I was struggling with and that was taking me at least two weeks to do, he showed me how to do it in 20 minutes.

And when you analyze that – what he really showed me was how to leverage my time by using a straightforward system that he had worked out.  He had taken something complicated and made it easy.

it was an awesome weekend.

The Mountain Bike

Me with the Giant 'Halo' Mountain Bike

It turned out that James lived not far away, and we caught up for a coffee.  He asked me if I did mountain bike riding, and without missing a beat, I answered, “I’m picking my bike up next Tuesday”.

That bike was a wise investment.  Not only for the fitness factor of course, but because I was one of the few people in Australia who had James’ attention for 60 minutes without a computer or phone nearby for distraction.  The mountain bike ride became the internet marketers version of the corporate golf course.

From that first event, and from then hanging out with and becoming good friends with James, my business took off and my opportunities exploded.

I have since gone on to study with and learn from a number of high level internet marketers and business coaches.  I have traveled the globe to find advanced training.  As I said, I have never shied away from paying for education.  When it is the right education, the return on investment is always massive.

The one key thing about James that stands out to me is that he is also constantly learning new concepts, strategies and tactics, and using these to be innovative in his business. Unlike other teachers in my past whom I have outgrown – this is definitely not the case with James.

Apart from being a great mate – I also get ‘business’ value from hanging out with him because he is world class when it comes to this internet stuff – and it is without equivocation that I wholeheartedly recommend any training that James puts on.

Frankly – if you get a chance to learn from James, then you should do everything you can to be there.

James Schramko and Richard Branson

Now – it happens that James is holding one of his rare training events in early September – it’s called Fast Web Formula 2 and it’s on the 10th, 11th, and 12th.  It’s in Sydney and you should be there if you are at all interested in online business or internet marketing.

Not only because you have an opportunity to learn from James, but because he is bringing some of the best minds in internet marketing to this event.  What cost me tens of thousands of dollars in travel to go see these people, you can see at the one time and place in Sydney, Australia.

Frankly, if you’re the least bit serious about doing what you want to do and earning money online, then you should be at this event.  As I said to someone the other day who wasn’t sure about attending, “well, if you don’t attend you’re not serious about your business”.

Now, it so happens that Sir Richard Branson is speaking at another event on that same weekend, along with a range of other speakers.   I haven’t heard Sir Richard speak before and it’s been on my list of imoprtant ‘things to do’.  It turns out that I’ve got a special invite to the Richard Branson event – and I’m not sure what that might turn into – but I’m keen to find out.

So – two great events on the same weekend – and here’s the thing.  I will spend the majority of that weekend at Fast Web Formula 2 with James Schramko.

And the reason is this.

I know that I will learn things at that weekend that will make an immediate difference to my business.  James never ‘just’ teaches what’s possible.  He never ‘just’ teaches you how to have the right ‘mindset’.  He actually shows you how to do stuff – and for me this differentiates his training. Not to mention the other world class speakers who will also be presenting over the 3 days.

I rarely promote events – and this is an extremely worthwhile exception.  At the very least I want you to follow the link below to check it out.  And if you decide to go to Fast Web Formula 2 after reading this blog post – then let me know and we can hook up at the event.  It’d be cool to meet someone else who is serious enough and smart enough to attend.

UPDATE (22/08/10):  There are only a few spaces left.  No spin.  Just the truth of the matter.

In this short post I aim to crush the common myth or logical fallacy that something requiring effort is hard work.  As you’ll see, this is an obvious myth and yet our laziness allows it to permeate through our conversations unchallenged.  And then this makes it’s way into our decisions and actions.

The reason that I think this is an incorrect understanding is that it only gives one out of four potential scenarios – and if you don’t consider the other three options then you could be making a big mistake or false assumption.

Now I decided to get funky with a self-created graphic here to illustrate what I’m talking about.  The table below pitches “effort” and “hard work” against each other to show that they are not synonymous – that they do not mean necessarily the same thing.

Checking out the diagram below you can easily see that in the top left we have something that takes effort and is hard work.  The top right has something that takes little effort, yet is still hard work.  The bottom left shows something that takes effort but is easy and doesn’t require hard work.  And the bottom right shows something that takes no effort and is easy as well.

What’s the point of sharing this with you?

Well, when it comes to taking action to change or achieve something in our lives we often get stuck because we think it’s going to be ‘hard work’.  Getting that degree is going to be lot’s of “hard work”.  Starting that business is going to be lot’s of “hard work”.  Having kids is lot’s of “hard work”.  A lot of people are scared of hard work, so when they imagine that something is going to be hard work they opt out.

Well, let me say, the hardest “work” I’ve ever done actually required very little effort.  For example, turning up to a mind numbing job that didn’t require me to think much or do much was the hardest work I’ve ever done.  Yet, on the other hand, some of the “easiest” things I’ve ever done have required massive “effort”.  For example,

• It’s easy to stay up all night when your child is sick (a big effort that is NOT hard work)
• It’s easy to work late into the night on a new business that you love doing and you’re passionate about (big effort that is NOT hard work)
• It’s easy to give up work to study full time for 3 years pursuing the career you want – if it’s really what you want (big effort that is NOT hard work)

Ya feelin’ me?

For me, one of the best things about the internet is that while it might start out being easy and a big effort, the effort can gradually reduce once you have systems in place, software that automates various functions, and outsourcing in place to free up your time.  Then it becomes easy and with little or no effort – but if you’re like me, you just fill up the spare space with something else that’s cool and groovy to throw effort at – so I rarely end up in the easy and no-effort box – I get bored in there.

Soon, I’m going to be teaching a group of people what they need to know in order to have a crack at using the internet for business.  A lot of people teaching this stuff try and make out that it doesn’t require much ‘effort’ or ‘hard work’.  They shy away from these terms in case they frighten off potential students and some go so far as to say that it doesn’t require any effort at all.  And I can understand that approach.  Let’s face it, by analogy, the government doesn’t run “give up smoking campaigns” on national TV by pointing out how difficult it is going to be to give up smoking.  They  play down the negative and spotlight the positive.

Well, that’s kinda what I’m doing here – however I am highlighting the fact that it does take effort to set this internet stuff up.  It takes effort to understand how it works and to know what you should and shouldn’t be doing.  How can you problem solve challenges and opportunities in your market if you don’t know or understand the business medium.  There really is a bunch of stuff you should know if you’re going to have a crack at this internet thing.  Even if you never actually end up doing this stuff yourself, because you choose to outsource it all instead, then you’ll be a much better outsourcer because you know your business.

Sure, you don’t have to know how a car works in order to drive it.  But you still have to learn how to drive the car.

If someone tells you that you can become an internet entrepreneur without having to put in effort or know much stuff, then they’re shielding you from the truth, when really they could just be honest and say, “it will take effort, but if you are doing what you love doing and making a dent in the world, then it wont be like hard work.”

My view is that doing what you love to do is the easiest thing you could ever do – even if it requires more effort than you could imagine.

PS:  If you’re a physicist and you would like to correct my understanding of work by reminding me that it’s actually force times distance – don’t worry – I get it.

I was in a meeting the other day with a person who has a stack of expertise and a high profile in their particular area – and they asked me what I was doing now that I’d sold my practice and ventured out into ‘the internet’.

They were trying to get their head around what I did – was it advertising, selling stuff online, using facebook (“how do you use facebook!?”) – what is it that you do Nic Lucas?

They were also trying to get their head around my PhD in diagnostic medicine and where it fits in – because “internet” and “diagnostic medicine” seem like totally separate fields – well at least on the surface.

I explained that I wasn’t really an “internet marketer” although I do use and consult on “internet marketing strategy”.  And I’m not an “advertiser” although I do use and consult on “internet advertising”.  And while I’m not really a social media consultant, I do use and consult on social media strategy.  And while I do have “online businesses” and consult on “online business strategy”, I also do stuff in the not-for-profit sector and the “just for fun” sector.  And yes I do have a search engine optimization (SEO) business, but I do more than SEO – way more.

So, I needed a term or phrase that covered all of it – and by doing this I didn’t end up in a ‘niche’ that’s easily understandable – like SEO consultant.  Instead, I ended up in a top level category that’s a little vague and hard to define in 30 seconds – and that’s digital media strategist or web strategist.

Digital Media Strategist

Digital media consists of things like digital text, digital images, digital audio, digital video and other digital content that can be created, referred to and distributed using computers and over the internet. Digital media represents a profound change from previous (analog) media.  (Source Wikipedia)

A strategist is a person who is skilled in designing and planning the necessary actions to achieve a major or overall aim. (Source Wikipedia)

So, a digital media strategist is someone who is skilled in designing and planning the necessary actions to create, refer to and distribute digital content over the internet to achieve a major or overall aim.

Yeah – I quite like the sound of that.  And, it does sum up what I do these days.  So, what does Google have to say about “digital media strategist”

Well, at the time of writing, I’m sitting at number 1 in google for this search term.  Now, full disclosure here about this result.

• First, I was not signed into my Google account when I made this search and took this screen shot.
• Second, I had not been searching for it over and over again – it was the second time I had searched for it on this computer and in this browser.
• Third, this search was performed in Australia and is likely to yield different results if performed in the USA, UK or Canada for example.

For the fun of it, I also did a search for “social media strategist” and found this result.

I’m hanging out here at position number 5.

So, according to Google, I am recognized as being a relevant person in this space.  Thing is, when you check out my twitter or Facebook accounts – I’m not teaming with followers or friends.  I’ve been very selective with my connections – especially on Facebook.

Why else might Google think I’m relevant?  Well, recently I’ve been working on a project called Election 10 – it’s all about social media and the Australian Election in 2010.  Here’s a screen shot that reflects my moves in the political media space:

What’s fascinating and encouraging about this is that we’re in the company of major Australian television channels, formal educational institutions and mainstream journalism.

And further, for this particular site, I haven’t used any ‘fancy’ or ’secret’ SEO tactics.  I’ve stuck to good quality on-page SEO combined with some social media stuff.

And there are a whole bunch of other keywords that I rank for on the first page of Google that demonstrate my active participation and success in this ‘web strategy’ space.

Moving into the digital media space

Now, here’s the cool thing – and something I think is a point of encouragement for people who want to move into digital media.  I’m not a journalist.  I’m not a university trained or industry trained ‘marketer’.  I’m not an IT specialist. I’m not computer programmer or tech geek.

What I am, though, is a medical researcher with a background in neuroscience and public health.  And I am drawing on these skills and experiences to move into the digital world and they give me a unique spin on things.  They’re the same skills – with a different application.  Admittedly, I’ve dived pretty deep into this digital media space – and with gusto – but that kinda goes without saying.  If you really want to do something, then be passionate, interested and persistent with it.

Some Strategic Thinking

When is a rock, not a rock?  When it’s a paper weight, or a weapon, or jewelry, or an ornament.

When is a medical researcher, not a medical researcher?   When they’re a digital media strategist.

Learning to look at your skills and experience – and to consider their most valuable and interesting application – now that’s a recipe for some imaginative thinking and problem solving about how you might move to the next step in your plan.

So, digital media strategist – or web strategist for short – I’m happy with either of those terms for now.  But what about the stuff I do offline – the stuff that’s not digital?  Well, that’s for another post.  Let’s just say that it’s pretty damn hard to categorize people these days … so I’ll argue that you don’t want to fall for the trap of categorization, lest it limit your thinking.

Related posts: Hardware for a Web Strategist, Advanced Social Web, David Bullock,

I was looking at my desk the other day reflecting on all the bits and pieces I now have at my disposal to run my growing online portfolio of businesses – and this is just the hardware.

See, what happens is that you start out on this internet journey with a laptop and standard software, and then you keep coming across better ways to do things, necessary tools, and absolutely stacks of software.

The software is particularly useful because it’s what sets online business apart from offline business – software is the magic that holds all this together.

I thought I’d run through the stuff I have in my Web Strategy Den and explain (or is that justify ) why I have these tools.

Tools for Web Strategy and Social Media

The first and most central piece of hardware is my MacBook Pro.  It’s pictured on the stand with the screen closed, because I use an external screen when I’m hanging at home for the visuals – I can simply see more stuff on the big screen (OK – this was a want, not a need – but having the big screen sure has made for a more enjoyable experience!).

The MacBook Pro has all the necessary software and I can pretty much run my business straight from that laptop – which is what I take with me when I hit the cafes for some light relief.  I have it on a stand for two reasons:

1. to create more space, and
2. to get it off the desk for ventilation.

You’ll also see me giving away my age with the white iMac.  This is what I started out on – but couldn’t take to a cafe – so it really didn’t suit my lifestyle.  I use it now as another back-up and I can record screen casts on it while I’m using my MacBook Pro to run webinars (which are a great social media strategy).  This is also the kids computer – so they surf the net and do homework on it, which I like as it get’s them in the room with me, rather than me being shut away from them.

Rhoda also uses this computer for her digital media strategy stuff – which is starting to pick up now as we’re working on a joint project together.

The small white Macbook – well, that’s just a roaming browser basically.  And a useful DVD player!

The PC – which I wish wasn’t there.  I only use it for two programs that are still not available for the mac.  One has to do with internet marketing and the other is a stats program for my PhD research.  I’m hoping that soon I’ll be able to clear that thing off the desk for good.

Computer Back Ups

You’ll notice quite a few back-up options on my desk.  I already use the iMac as a back-up.  I have three external drives visible in the photo and two others that you can’t see.  I rotate these and back-up regularly (I’ve scheduled back ups into my iCal with audible reminders).  Why so paranoid?  Well, I’ve had two hard drives crash, so it’s once bitten twice shy, twice bitter, freakin’ paraniod!

The Smart Phone

Also featured is my iPhone – never very far away from me at all.  Of course, it’s not really a phone and I can almost run my business from it.  What do I use my iPhone for besides the phone?  Well mainly, it’s this stuff:

• text / SMS
• facebook updates and social networking
• twitter updates and networking
• skype chat
• foursquare location updates (sent to facebook)
• reeder (a really cool app for my Google Reader and recommended by Ed Dale)
• google (the full suite, using primarily Buzz and Maps,)
• qik for real time streaming video to the web
• proprompter which turns my iPhone into a telepromter (for the videos I do)
• HT Recorder (for audio and podcasting)

You might also note that I have a USB hub, which gives me a whole lotta extra USB ports for all my peripherals.  It’s a powered USB hub so I can plug anything into it that needs power to work.  This was a time saving purchase … very useful.

Web cam and microphone

You’ll see that next to my screen I’ve got a web cam – it’s got a DV in and so I can use it for things like screen casts.  It’s just more flexible than using the display camera – because I can change orientation, zoom, effects, exposure etc.  I need to use a fire-wire connection for this.

Almost there …

Next is a good quality microphone – you can see it sitting in the box.  Fact is, I often just use the display audio and have found it works just fine.  Other times I use a Sony lapel mic and that also works really well.

Paul Smith

The last thing I have tagged in the photo is my “Cool Paul Smith Play Thing”, which I bought in the UK when I was over there launching my Advanced Social Web course.  It’s a block made of 8 smaller blocks which fold and unfold – with each configuration creating a different surface image.  … yeah … I know … you kind’ve have to see it to get it.  In any case, you should just know that it’s very cool and that it’s important to have very cool things on your desk when you’re a groovy web strategist.

Now, having all this stuff looks good – but I’ll let you in on something.  Most of it is unnecessary and you can make a huge dent in starting an online business with just a great laptop, camera, mic and back-up system.  What I do when I get together with my internet marketing mates is check out the software they’ve got – that’s where the real money is hidden.

Did you enjoy this light hearted edu-post?

If you did, it’s easy to share and spread the love around.  Simply share the link with your friends on facebook or twitter (or wherever you hang out) and let them know to come and check this out.  Someone else who has an awesome setup at home – earns stacks of money – and who I ask for advice is James Schramko – you should check out his Facebook page too!

For a long while there – I didn’t like marketing.  Maybe I was brought up that way.  Maybe it’s also just that natural dislike of being “sold”.  I was distrustful of sales people.  “Buyer Beware”.

But what was the real issue here?  I mean, really, I did actually ‘need’ stuff in my life.  And I did ‘want’ stuff in my life.  And I found out about the stuff I needed and wanted because of marketing.

So, this whole dislike of marketing was internally inconsistent.  I had to narrow this down to something that made sense.  And as it turns out, I love being “sold” when the thing that’s being “sold” to me is exactly what I either need or want.  I can’t stand being “sold” something I don’t need or want – and that’s the point of this short post.  Marketing isn’t a problem.  Trying to sell something to someone who doesn’t need or want it is the problem.  Trying to sell something that doesn’t work – that’s a problem.

In her new book, Vanessa Fox talks about the Marketing in the Age of Google.  The tag line on the book is “your online strategy IS your business strategy” [bold mine].  Vanessa used to work for Google in their webmaster division, so that’s why I decided to get this book.  It’s a good read.  There’s only one point I want to take from the book and emphasis here, and it’s this stuff Vanessa quotes from Geoffrey Miller:

“Marketing is not just one of the most important ideas in business. It has become the most dominant force in human culture.”

Miller defines marketing as “[a] systematic attempt to fulfill human desires by producing goods and services that people will buy. It is where the wild frontiers of human nature meet the wild powers of technology.” He goes further to describe the marketing revolution of the 1950s and 60s as a shift to understanding that a “company should produce what people desire, instead of trying to convince them to buy what the company happens to make.”

I like the new marketing.  I like marketing in the Age of Google.  I love the experience of looking for stuff on the web and finding webpages that are a perfect match for what I was looking for.  It’s what I try and do when I develop my own products and services – and it’s what I now help my clients do as well.  When you are marketed to in this way, it’s a pleasure.  And it sure makes that ‘other’ type of marketing look and feel even worse.

I had a significant birthday coming up and I had planned to do it in style.  Rhoda and I love Italy, and so we planned a trip to Rome followed by Portofino, Lake Como, Milan and then back to Rome.  We stayed in fine hotels in either the center of the action or water front.  Shopping for the whole family.  Lunch and dinner out every night.  

It was great – until half way through, one of my kids became seriously ill and was admitted to hospital by ambulance.  So, here’s me, driving the black BMW we had hired, chasing the ambulance from Lapagna to Genova along an Italian autostrade at high speed through tunnels and over very high bridges.  It was a rush … anyway.

A week later, and I’m still sitting in a hospital room – next to the bed – listening the sound of a sick child, having the intravenous pump get blocked waaaay to often and start that beeping sound – calling the nurse – trying to communicate with my poor Italian and her poor English.

It’d be much harder if I didn’t have a medical background.

With all this time on my hands, I’d have thought that I’d be productive with ‘work’.  But I haven’t been inspired to do anything much.  I’ve mostly done just what a parent should do – and that is to do whatever their sick kid wants them to do.  Play cards?  Sure.  Play the nintendo DS?  Sure.  Watch that movie again and again.  No problem.  Record funny voices on my iPhone and play them back at double speed? Ha! Let’s do it!

It’s just that right now it’s really dragging on.  And I can’t sleep.  And I feel like writing for the first time.  I’m in the mood to write something significant, honest and succinct.

it’s a message to myself and to you, and it goes like this (with profanity removed for those who might choose to be offended):

For *&^#’s sake, will you just do what it is that you want to do.  Don’t just try it, do it.  Get in and make it happen – whatever it is that you want to make happen.

It will never, never happen unless you make it happen.  If you’ve been working on something and it’s going nowhere, then get help or move on to something else.  If you’ve been contemplating something but you’ve never taken action, then just do something – anything, to make it happen.

And if you’ve got no idea – don’t know where to start – then just start something.  It doesn’t matter if it’s ‘wrong’ or ‘right’, just start.

And if you’re too scared to take action – then grow the $%^* up and do it anyway.  Too scared – don’t be lame …

And if you’re “too young” then get over yourself – you’re not too young.  And if you’re “too old” then get over yourself – you can’t afford to waste time.

It doesn’t matter what your goal is – maybe it’s to start a business and retire young.  Maybe it’s to become an internationally recognised researcher.  Maybe it’s peruse a professional career.  Maybe it’s to become a billionaire (and I did meet a guy recently who’s on his way).  Maybe it’s just to have awesome coffee at home every morning before work.

Will ya just stop wishing and start doing.  

And it doesn’t matter to me if you’re a habitual failure or a superstar success – both groups of people are missing amazing opportunities RIGHT NOW because they’re not looking.

What I’m talking about is taking your idea – no matter what it is and no matter who you are – and turning it into a reality while having a party doing it.  This is my public health message – and I feel it strongly.

The near-death thing

In 2005, I had acute appendicitis.  It developed on the night before my mothers funeral – my mothers funeral for crying out loud.  Instead of going to hospital as I knew I ’should’, I stayed for the entire day and then rushed 1hr to a city hospital (thanks for the lift JB).

It turns out that this was rather life threatening.  My appendix was wrapped around my ureter (the tube coming out of my kidney).  I had emergency surgery and then developed a secondary abdominal infection.  Apparently, I was on endone for the pain – which is also a respiratory suppressant.

During that period of hospitalisation, I stopped breathing a couple of times.  And it felt great.  I’d never felt so peaceful and I’ve never felt so peaceful since.

I had zero air hunger. Zero.  I experimented with this.  I’d have to force myself to start breathing again – but then without me knowing, I’d have stopped breathing again and find myself experiencing this incredible peace.

Now – I don’t really go in for all that ‘after-life’ stuff – spirits leaving and minds persisting outside the body.  I’ve got too much neuroscience knowledge to believe in that.  And I’ve got no proof that near-death experiences are anything other than a neurophysiological event.  And I don’t even know if what I had was a near-death experience.  So, I wont label it as anything other than what it was – I stopped breathing, had no air hunger, was incredibly peaceful and needed a damn good reason to force myself to start breathing again.

When you’ve had something like this happen to you – and this is the first time I’ve made this information public – you can develop a fairly brazen approach to things.  It’s like, you’re alive, so act the part.  Don’t join the league of the walking dead and move through life being subjected to:

1. fear
2. a job or life role that you hate
3. people who harm you
4. bad coffee, bad hair, bad breath … I could go on

Now, when I start on like this, I start to sound all ‘motivation-ey’.  Like a shiny-toothed, slick personal development guru offering cheap advice that turns out to be expensive. I could try and write a deep and meaningful post about how I chose to breathe and how I chose ‘life’ – and oooohh how wonderful (puke). But I’m not going to write that sort of post.  

Look, you’re not my responsibility.  I’m not fussed if you decide to live in a grotty box for the rest of your life so long as you don’t try and bring the rest of us down.  

But – I am excited by people who ‘give a stuff’ and who want to get stuff done.  I’m an imagination hunter – and I dig it when peoples’ imagination grabs hold of them and makes them do things that are out of the ordinary – for them.

Anyway, keeping to my goal to be succinct:

You’re here.  Don’t be boring.  Do cool stuff.  That’s it.

The other day the strap on my computer back pack broke while I was out at one of my ‘offices’ (a cafe near the beach that does a particularly good espresso), and it dropped from shoulder height and hit the ground.

Yes, it had my Macbook Pro in it.

The Macbook got a nice dent right over where I know the hard drive is located.  The first thought to run through my mind was, “when was the last back-up”?

Fortunately for me, I own a Macbook Pro and that little baby didn’t miss a beat – despite landing right on it’s edge.  I got the geniuses at Apple to check it out and all’s good.

But.  Imagine if it had not been ‘all good’.  Imagine if I didn’t have a back-up in place.  It would have been all over.

I read about a woman the other day whose laptop was stolen from the back of her car while she ‘just went into get some milk at a shop’, and she lost three years of work on the ‘parenting home study course’ she had been developing.  She had no back up.

Then I was talking to a mate of mine who I’m in business with and he admitted to having no back up either.  Crikey.

Given that we’ve got some incredibly valuable video footage and a business that we’re launching internationally, the topic of  computer back-ups dominated my thoughts for a few days – he was concerned too, and sent me a blog post on best practices for backing up your computer.  I checked my own system against their recommendations and I scored fairly well – but fell short of the complete paranoia that they recommend – so I went shopping as I explain below.

Here’s what I’ve got (and what I recommend that you do instantly if you don’t have this going on already)

1. My Macbook automatically backs-up to my time capsule (an Apple hard drive) – every hour on the hour.  It backs up my entire computer, so if it had developed rigor mortis after I’d dropped it the other day, I could have had my entire system up and running again within a few hours (and after buying a new mac book).  But is one back-up enough?  Nup – because what happens if the back-up fails.
2. So, I have another hard drive that I manually back up to ‘each week’ – although, I’d missed a few weeks.  So, now I’ve entered a recurring reminder into my iPhone so that I wont forget.  The hard drive uses firewire 800, so it’s very fast – and runs in the background while I’m doing other stuff.  The potential drama here is that because this hard drive is in the same location as my time capsule, if I was robbed – or if the house burned down – or if I lost my entire cafe latte over both at the same time – then I’d be screwed.
3. So, today I bought another 2 hard drives – 500GB and around $200 each  I will back-up my entire computer to those as well – and keep one in a different location in my house – and one in an entirely different location off-site.
4. And then there’s this cracker of a service.  For literally cents per day, my entire computer is automatically backed-up to a data storage center.  And it keeps 30 days worth of back-ups, which means you can go back 30 days to retrieve stuff if you have to.  The concern here is ’security’.  I can’t advise you on this – it’s your call.  I’m more concerned about loosing my stuff than I am about someone cracking the military-grade security that they use to protect my stuff.  It’s the piece of mind I get knowing that if anything happened I could have my entire system up again fast – including all my applications, files, keychains, photos, videos, emails, websites – all of it – completely restored onto a computer in a short time.

So, what do I think you should do?  The cheapest and most automated solution is to use the data storage and back-up service offered by mozy. Next is a coupla 500GB hard drives and a routine system for backing up.  The more expensive but automated system is to get a mac, use the time-machine function in the MAC OS X coupled with a huge hard drive like the Apple time capsule.

By the way – what did you think of the title of this post?  I had a little chuckle to myself when I thought of moving around the words.  It was originally going to be “back up your computer to save your ass”.  Maybe you didn’t like me using the word ‘ass’?  What ever the case, leave me a comment – I’m all ears to people who follow my stuff and your comments inspire me to write more.

Oh – and one of the main reasons I need to back up my computer so thoroughly is because I run my businesses from a single laptop while I hang out at cafes and beaches.  I used have to turn up to the same place day after day – tolerate committee meetings, administrivia, peak hour traffic, etc.  If you’re interested to find out how I changed everything, then grab a copy of my comprehensive and UN-corporate guide to online business … it’s a blast … you just need to tell me where to send it.  Enter your email address at the top of this page to get instant access.

I get this email.  It’s an invitation to give a presentation to a group of new online entrepreneurs based in London.  “Cool”, I think to myself, “I’ve presented to business groups in Australia and New Zealand – why not the UK”? And I needed to visit the shops in Covent Garden and on Oxford St.

The email also presented the opportunity for me to be able to take on mentoring or coaching students from the event – something I’d already been doing on an individual basis with various experts – helping them with their web strategy.

So, I had the system.  I just needed to develop the presentation and formalize my coaching program – not too hard when you’ve been a lecturer for 15 years.

Advanced Social Web for Online Authority and Online Business

And so this is how Advanced Social Web came about.  It’s all about the web – the web is a social machine – and to win at this game you have to have an advanced strategy.  So, I decided to get serious about this and booked myself a secret hide-away and for four days I put together the basic outline and then spent the new few months filling in all the gaps.

London was a huge success.  I had a great crowd at the Novotel, St Pancras.  I presented the concepts of the Freeconomy and the Socialconomy.  I talked about how the internet is a brain and how understanding this can help people earn an income online.  I talked about what it takes to become an authority and based these steps on my own experiences.  I talked about the opportunities available online for people who become an authority – or trusted guide – in their field or market.  I talked about how to make all this happen efficiently and strategically, with systems and software.

And I hit the mark.  The feedback I received was amazing – so good that I should have asked for testimonials.

The best thing about that whole process, however, wasn’t my talk, my information, my anything.  The best thing was that a group of highly talented people with a diverse range of experiences, decided to take action and allow me to help them move forward.  That was by far the coolest thing.

Anyone can dream.  Anyone can crap on about how they’re going to do this and that.  But this represents the sea of people who never take that dream forward.  Who never actually do “this and that”.  And after speaking to thousands of people over the last year, this lack of decisiveness and lack of action has become incredibly boring to me.

And this is why – when faced with a group of people who are actually prepared to step up and do something – I feel the opposite of bored.  I feel excited.  Enthused.  Joyful.  I want to see them succeed.  I want to be a part of that.

So my Advanced Social Web program is running right now.  I’m not, as yet, promoting it anywhere else.  But watch this space – there are going to be some great success stories.

If you’re interested in learning more about what I’ve learned and what I’ve got to say about all this stuff, then grab my comprehensive free guide – you just enter your email at the top of this page so I know where to send it.  And yes, the word ‘grab’ is a verb – you actually have to do something to get something.

So grab the guide – I dare you.

I’ve finally decided to put together a guide about how I’ve managed to change everything over the last 18 months.  I’ve gone from University lecturer and health professional to:

1. starting an online education company,
2. consulting to professionals about how to become an online authority using social media,
3. running an exclusive search engine optimization business,
4. launching a web design business,
5. selling a bucket load of useful things online, and
6. getting to speak about all this on international platforms in front of hundreds of people.

Of course, I’m still a health professional and I could be a lecturer if I wanted to be – but I’m now I’m on a very different path and I get to choose – it’s my choice.

On reflection – that’s quite a big change.  And the more people I meet, the more people are interested in how I’ve manged such a shift in career.  It would seem that there are a stack of people who’d like to attempt the same sort of thing, and so that’s why I’ve decided to write this guide.

I guess I’m thinking it’ll be more like a story, but written in a step-by-step format so that you can see what I actually did with the aim of you thinking about how you could do something similar – because the steps are bound to be the same even though the individual stories will be different.

Now one thing I’ve learned in all this is not to presume what people are going to want to know.  If I’m going to go to the trouble of writing a guide that I give away for free, it makes far more sense to first find out what people actually want to know – so that I can then include that info in the guide.

So this means that you get to participate in this process.  I’ve set up a survey – just a short one – four questions – and when you fill in your questions and tell me what you want to know, then I’ll include the answers in the guide AND put you on the list to be the first to receive it.  Sound like a plan?

Oh, and apparently, if I include the word NOW in the next line, you’ll be more likely to go do it now, so watch this:

Go here to take the survey NOW!

There have been many analogies to help explain the internet – but the best analogy is the brain.  Not only is it an analogy – but it’s a direct comparison.  As Jeffrey Stibel says, the internet is not like a brain – it is a brain.

Having a background in neuroscience – it’s easy to see the similarities.  But rather than this just being a compare and contrast exercise, there is good reason to understand why the internet is a brain.  You can look at the way the brain functions to create hyper-awareness of information to help understand how to create hyper-awareness on the internet.

Here are just a few simple examples of brain-internet similarities.

1. The brain is a large network of interconnected neurons, and the internet is a large network of interconnected computers
2. The brain isn’t about neurons, but about communication between neurons, and the internet isn’t about computers but about communication between computers
3. Both the brain and the internet are all about human communication.
4. One of the key ways humans communicate is with language, and one of the key ways that the internet communicates is through keywords (or search terms).
5. The functional unit of the brain is a synapse – the connection between two neurons.  The functional unit of the internet is the hyperlink – the connection between two different locations or webpages (or specific URLs).
6. The more information that passes through a synapse, the ’stronger’ that synapse becomes.  The more information that passes through a neural pathway, the stronger that neural pathway becomes due to an increase in the number of synapses.  The more traffic that passes through a ‘web pathway’ (through hyperlinks) the stronger that pathway becomes due to an increase in the number of hyperlinks.
7. Because there is ‘too much information’ our brain has filters to reduce the noise and only allow important information through to consciousness.  Because there is too much information on the internet, the internet also has filters to reduce noise and promote important information.  One example of such a filter is Google search.  It filters millions of websites so that it can display the most appropriate website amongst all that noise.  The bigger example is social media, where the crowd is the filter.  The crowd filters information by either sharing it or not sharing it, by ‘liking’ it or ‘not liking it’, by rating it or not rating it, by ‘flagging’ it as inappropriate or not flagging it.
8. We only become aware of something if it passes through our filters and hit’s our consciousness, and we only become aware of something on the internet when it passes through the filters and hit’s our consciousness
9. When a brain becomes consciously aware of information it may amplify the signal to create hyper-awareness – and an example of this is hyper-algesia (a heightened awareness of pain).  Likewise, when an individual becomes consciously  aware of information on the internet they may amplify the signal by sharing or promoting that information to their friends or contacts.  This is the start of something going ‘viral’ and is the mechanism by which the market can create hyper-awareness of a website, song, video, image, product or service.  The internet works to filter out the noise but amplify the signal of something that passes through the filter in order to more clearly evaluate the importance of that signal.  The more people who share a particular ‘thing’ online, the more it get’s shared.  The more that particular thing gets shared, the more the search engines become aware of it and rank it highly in their search results.  The higher the particular ‘thing’ is ranked in search engines, the more people ‘find it’, and the more they find it, the more they share it.

What does all this mean?  Let’s work backwards.  If you want to create hyper-awareness of anything online, be it a product, service, charity, public health message – whatever – then you need to be able to get that information through he filters of the internet so that it reaches the consciousness of the group or market that you’re targeting.  In order to do this, you must understand the filters and how to pass through them.  Those filters are ’search filters’ (e.g Google) and ’social filters’ (e.g social media).

The functional unit is “keywords contained in hyperlinks”, and this has now expanded to include images, audio and video contained in hyperlinks.  Still, the ‘keywords’ are at the center of how the internet-brain organizes everything, and so keywords are the essential starting point for any online promotion.

Keywords start out life as ‘an idea’ in someones brain … but that’s for another post.  Thanks for reading.