David and Goliath

David and Goliath!

Have you ever wanted to succeed in something however things keep getting in the way? My passion since becoming a kinesiologist has been to make the modality of kinesiology a widely used therapy for our Senior citizen population. One day it will be a standard form of care, and I look forward to that day with hope and enthusiasm. What is side tracking me is the situation of financial independence.

Our family has been swept along in an event of mammoth calamity along with nearly 3000 other Australians in the collapse of a large financial company. The life savings and in many cases the family homes of the survivors have gone. It wasn’t declared a national disaster or even spoken about with alot of sympathy by many others, but it has torn the hearts and souls out of the people involved. It has become a case of David and Goliath, where the everyday mums and dads are David and the banking systems are Goliath. What the Goliaths did not expect was the support, friendship and downright tenacity of the ordinary folk.

Unfairness of any kind is not tolerated well by the Australian public and this group of people have been treated most unfairly. So like any minority they have formed a common group and from the ground up have sought support and help from many avenues. We have had to face the public censor of being called greedy, been shown in the media as victims, written Parliamentary Inquiry submissions that bear our angst to the world and to live with the knowledge that possibly it is all to no avail. Many lives have been permanently shattered with some having no hope for getting back their life savings, all has gone. This has come at a high price for many as, like most everyday people, being in the limelight is not always comfortable or welcome.

However this will be a long battle with no guaranteed outcome, so it is dependent on all the families to survive however they can. On one of my many sleepless nights I felt impelled to write a poem, not any poem but an inspirational and energetic poem. This poem would be my and many others salvation, I didn’t know how it would work I just knew it would. I wrote my poem then called “For what am I bid for this fantastic precious piece of string?” and have since then have been putting together my knowledge to release it to the universe. I have gone to internet courses, inspirational weekends, written blogs, joined and embraced Face Book, conquered technology (sort of), and am gradually getting ready.

So my energy and focus have been split between my two hearts missions and they have been entwined together as they both require each other to succeed. The change I will make in the world is that I will make a difference to peoples’ lives, for the better, I will succeed. If I can pass subjects like Chemistry, Bio Chemistry, Anatomy and Physiology, Muscle Skeletal, the majority with 7’s and overcome my fear of the weird stuff like Chakras, Auras and Meridians and the like, all the time having hot flushes and fried brain function from menopause. As well as still be a Wife, Mum and daughter, start up a successful small business, well as Helen Reddy says “I can do anything, I am women”

I want to create peace in my life. To have the financial abundance that enables me the opportunity for people to choose to change their lives.....for the better.

What next for Green String!

What Next for Green String

The processes involved in any plan can often be momentarily sidetracked. At present in my home town and state there is a natural disaster unfolding and for now my blogs will reflect this. However it does not mean that I have given up , it just means there are actually some other things on my priority list for now. The same happened whilst I was enhancing my Internet Marketing skills to enable me to help others with my inspirational poem. Life has a way of giving us more to do and also to allow us to take a break from the emotional trauma and be practical. This allows our adrenal response to settle down and get ready for the next wave. A group that was formed for preserving sanity and as a life line for the Storm Financial Survivors was called Storm Investors Community Action Group or affectionately known as SICAG. I will talk more about them and how they have helped a group of people stay alive and connected in a further chapter.

For now however please enjoy this next article written by Performance Forums PF which is very relevant to the people of Queensland in January of 2011.


Tips to clean up after a flood

Not Another DVD!

Not another DVD!

This is it, my friend and I are going to make this Internet Marketing business ours! Between us we will get it right, and by making sure we have our weekly meetings we will be able to help each other, and support each other, and what we do not understand we can ask our mentor.

Luckily the first dvd was given to each person to take home from the seminar, that way I could get started straight away. Before I started to forget the terminology....which to me is still so strange. All of the knowledge that I was acquiring was what I needed to be able to easily make my poem known around the world. Once I had a proven process I could copy that process and that would be that. I keep assuring my family that it would not be very long before my poem, My Green String was a number one best seller:)

Well can I tell you now how much those monthly DVD's became a stress to me. You see it was not just the watching of the DVD's, it was the understanding what they actually meant, most times I couldn't do what they assured me was so easy. I was dammed if I could come up with a niche market that had a certain number of searches, and also a green bar and no competition, and the right keywords and and and and! it went on! Then there was the, for me, the challenge of the computer.

I was given lots of pre-packaged ebooks, all I had to do was market them and put them on a website, buy a domain name, get my keywords, and presto...I was making money...while I slept! Well I can tell you from this little black duck, it just didn't happen. You see although I was qualified by the aspect of being a computer illiterate, remember "Mum Not Geeky", that label didn't suddenly lift. I retained that ability to be absolutely flattened by the technical aspect of the computer. I would go to download my E-book material, and click to open......then this mysterious thing called 'winzip' would require me to say yes to things and then....it would disappear!

I have no doubt that my technical language will give you a small hint as to my ability, my children got so frustrated with me "loosing stuff" they made me a folder on my desk top called "Save in me". That way they felt I could put any thing I was downloading or saving in that folder and I would find it again. In theory that is correct, in practice not always. It was a long time later that I found, quite by accident, a drop down box called "downloads". You would be amazed at how many times I had downloaded the same article because I never could find it again. I really should have been given E for effort!

Another aspect was the reams of paper I was using by having to print all the instructions, and there is no point in you telling me now just to open and shut the little windows as I follow instructions. By the time I had clicked off one and opened another, I had forgotten the word or code I was using, so had to go back again. I hadn't quite got the hang of cut and paste yet! So I have lots of folders with instructions which I would precede to tick off as I completed a task. This was getting quite time consuming, and yet another DVD would arrive! Plus of course there was all those emails coming from all those great sites that would help me.

Was I enjoying what I was doing, did anything go right? Well yes, in a big way I was enjoying myself. I was certainly being challenged, however it was keeping me busy. I also felt a big sense of achievement when I managed to move onto the next step, or understood an article, or for me found something I had downloaded. The thing is I am the same as anyone else, all this was happening in my spare time. I still had a family to look after, a house to run, a business to work in these aspects of my life didn't stop just because I wanted to learn something new. It was on top of everything.

Our financial situation was still the same as well, nothing had changed there at all. The anxiety of the GFC and all of its ramifications to us and all the other ex Storm Financial Clients had not gone away. They had in fact gotten worse, because on top of anything else, we had to find paperwork from nearly ten years ago, and fill out questionnaire after questionnaire and financial statements and profiles listing how much you spent on groceries, cars, insurance etc etc when you first applied for the loan, and the same for when the loan may have been topped up and for now. Trying to get information and copies of loan documents out of the banks was like getting blood out of a stone. A stone also had more sympathy. They were dark times, with high tension, anxiety, stress and depression. Little wonder that the other stuff I was doing was like a circuit breaker. Frustrating but at least do able!

I had worked out a plan of attack for the DVD's , each month I got one that was for the Internet Marketing and usually a couple of bonus ones to watch, really a lovely gesture, but boy just added to the pile. So I got smart, I would only watch the important one and would keep the others for a rainy day. I managed to get through about 5 months, before I started to say I will look at that one later. I am not saying I had given up, I had just diverted a little. My clinic had started to grow and I also managed to write a workshop, which I run a couple of times each year. The other thing I did was to start to mix with other people who had already become successful with using the internet for business. I even wrote one of those E-Books and managed to upload it onto my website, so other people can download it:)

How is My Green String coming along....that is yet another story:)

Jack's Back!

Jack's Back!

I had been listening to the evening news and heard the announcement that John Farnham had announced his return:)

This just had to be another sign that I was on the right track. The euphoria from the seminar had died down to a large degree and really I was no closer to making my family fortune via Internet Marketing. I had however started to read lots about it and to make sense of some of the more technical terms. I mean I now knew what a blog was...still couldn't seem to keep my posts from going to cyberspace! and I knew that an E-Book was one that you downloaded..again I am still a tad disappointed by that as well..and I knew that I had to rank on Google's SEO listing for people to find my stuff. Would also like to brag that I actually knew what a SEO was.....Search Engine Optimization.......go me:)

Now all of this to you, the experienced Internet Marketer or Seminar Groupie, this is no big deal at all, but for me it was major! This was the start of my not being blasted by words and being defeated before I'd had a chance to have a go. As a kinesiologist I am constantly working with clients to address Stress Triggers and emotional trauma from words, so I knew that to succeed I had to be not stressed by terminology. Now my good friend contacted me about another...wait for it....Seminar! Again being held in Brisbane and this time she had the free tickets. Would I like to join her.....would I what.....you betcha! I figured I had survived the last one and at least I knew what to expect this time, and the best bit....I would understand all that was being said:) I know exactly what you are thinking and I have to agree......It was nothing the same. This time there were several guest speakers each of them experts in their fields and each with a massive learning opportunity. Once again I was gobsmacked and spent much of the day with my jaw on the ground. One of them a guy called Brett McFall spoke just to me...."create abundance, enjoy work life balance, work smart not hard, and the icing on the cake...make money while you sleep!" and all of this easily! Now it all sounded great but honestly the "making money while you slept" was a real good option for me. I love to sleep:)

I looked around the room and again saw people from all walks of life, ages, nationalities and a pretty even mixture of male and female, each person being open to new concepts and ideas. Again the notion that even a novice computer illiterate could easily, with the right guidance and a personal determination achieve financial security. All one had to do initially was take some ACTION.

Remember my story, a stay at home Mum, who at 46 who decided to study and get a diploma of Kinesiology and managed to study and achieve good grades for subjects like chemistry, anatomy and physiology, nutrition, and not to forget that abstract concept of kinesiology and natural therapies. Then to get my Diploma and have the GFC nearly wipe us out financially so that our family lived in a constant state of anxiety, stress and depression. My Green String the inspirational poem was going to make a difference, all it needed was for me to conqueror Internet Marketing and the computer.

We sign up......my friend and I...committing that between us we would understand what we needed and give each other moral support. Of course we had the support of the person whose program we were buying as well. All in all a win win win situation:) Was I aware fully of what I was getting myself into?...not a chance! Here's a sneak preview...Dvd's to watch at least one per month, workbooks to complete, blogs to write and post, key word research, market research, niche markets to find, cd's to listen to, programs to download, groups to join.....EEEK!

About this time my friend and I, realize to survive we needed to be very committed and arrange to spend at least one day a week on our internet work. We would do this methodically and draw up a plan, and stick to it. It would require baby steps and as much as we both wanted it now....first we had to breathe! Oh and of course we were one up on most others we knew how to de-stress and to use a technique called Frontal/Occipital....a visualization process so we could dream the dream, see it, feel it and taste success:)

Breathe!

My son thinks it's a scam!

My Son Thinks It's a Scam!

I had decided that if I could convince my son to buy my 10 copies of the YOTA book then there was still a chance that I could win the $1000 prize money. My idea was a great, however there were several aspects that could possibly affect it. The first and most obvious was the fact my son was not actually at home today, he was staying at a friends and even more iffy was the fact he was definitely NOT a morning person and the third fairly substantial issue....I drove him nuts asking for his help on the computer! He would cringe whenever I mentioned the words.."I am only just..."!

He could only say 'No' and then I would be at the same place, so I bit the bullet and rang him, and offered him 50/50. Money can be a great motivator, and luckily I catch him in a good morning mood...:)

I arrived at his friends house and wonder of wonders the link actually worked! Great! My plan was coming together........yes for about three seconds! The beautiful book with the Purple Dragon and Gold Coins on the front cover, that was going on display in my clinic was in fact an E-Book! Quite honestly I had never heard of an E-book, well I had heard the term mentioned at the seminar but I assumed that mean't you bought it via the computer and you received the book in the mail. Nope, you did buy it via the internet, but then you downloaded it and if you wanted a copy you printed it.

At this stage I was standing with my mouth open looking apparently quite upset.....and my son then said..."Mum are you sure you are not being scammed? It all seems a bit dodgy to me!" Great that was all I needed to hear. I assured him it was all above board and he proceeded to buy my copy of the E-Book. Yet another lesson for me, you could only buy one at a time, so one would have to do! I am now also running late!

Needless to say I did not win the $1000, however I can tell you over those two days I received so much information and a whole new world full of exciting opportunity. I even learned many new words, even if I didn't really know what they meant, yet! My mind was full of blogs, adwords, search engines, twitter, facebook and the list just went on and on. What was I going to do about it, not sure yet, however I figured it was like a huge jigsaw puzzle and the more I fiddled and played with everything, eventually it would all come together.

Now for all you computer experts and Internet Marketing Guru's do not always assume that a newbie knows something, often they will in actual fact not understand 90% of what you tell them. I know you have been doing this stuff for ever and think you are going back to basics...I am here to mention to you.....some of us do NOT know ANYTHING about what you are telling us. Do not assume we know something, because as the old saying goes...assume just makes an Ass out of U and Me!

One of the many pieces of advice I got out of the seminar was the fact that I might experience a syndrome called....PSWS..Post Seminar Withdrawl Syndrome.....how true that was. After the euphoria of the 2 days and the ongoing brain stimulus I came down to Earth with an almighty thud! Suddenly there was no one there to keep the uplifted tide going, I ended up with more questions than answers and my copious notes just didn't seem to make any sense. So the home work started, I read blog after blog and even managed to write a couple that did not end in cyberspace:), I eventually downloaded my E-Book and I signed up for some must have newsletters about Internet Marketing.

This all started a chain of events and sudden emails that invited me to all these different Internet Marketing seminars. I was telling a colleague and friend of mine about the amazing time I had and she said she loved going to seminars and was happy to come along with me and we could share the knowledge and generally bolster each other up. Great idea that, it means that if you do not quite get it, the other might have got it so you learn and share together:) Two heads are certainly better than one.

I was being constantly inspired to use the internet to gather momentum and to learn how to share my special poem with people across the world. My Green String was getting ready to roll:) Stay tuned:)

Day two Internet Marketing Overload.

Day two Internet Marketing Overload!

What an amazing day that had been! I listened in awe and some disbelief at what was being shown and told about having a successful business on the internet. I was certainly being encouraged to think outside of my personal "square" and to embrace the idea of this whole new world that was opening up at my feet. Both presenters had very different styles, however they were both very inspiring and I might add very uplifting.

By the end of that day I had bought a book for 4 paperclips, exchanged a @20 note for $40 and had my brain exploded and buzzing at the same time. If that wasn't enough a challenge was issued.......

Whoever sold the most copies of a book called.....Yota, which by the way had the most amazing Dragon and gold coins on the front cover!, would win $1000. That was certainly a great motivator, and on the journey home I had not only decided that I would win it, I had worked out what to spend it on as well. Lucky for me when I got home I could get straight into selling my copies of the book. This book was written by Sean Rasmussen, Aussie Internet Marketer, one of the inspiring seminar presenters.

The children were all out and my husband had been called into work.....peace and quiet for me:) Money for jam was the thought that popped into my head. However remember that energy called the Universe, well she had decided I was getting ahead of myself and the first glitch of the night was.......NO Internet! Surely not, I didn't even have any kids on hand to fix it....ugghh! I had so many plans, and lots of homework and I needed the internet to do them.

You also have to remember my code word...'Mum Not Geeky', boy was I in trouble. Then I had a brainwave, we had recently bought a little black stick thingy that was supposed to get you onto the internet. A wireless internet connection, was I game to plug it in and get it to go. My son had frequently given me some very strict instructions that if I was unsure about what I was about to do to the computer...do not do it! But surely I couldn't do too much harm, by just having a go? Fingers crossed and lots of good luck, I actually managed to get the thing to work and to get connected to the internet.

I mentioned homework, well that part involved writing a blog...not really sure what a blog was, I had to sign up to a rather dubious thing called facebook! and I had to sell as many copies of a book that I could. I had figured that 10 copies would be plenty. At this stage it was close to midnight and I had hardly started, in fact I was getting increasingly convinced that I had no idea of what I was about to do and how! I read over my notes and found that I was supposed to sell them via an affiliate link......a what? and again to whom?....and how? Rereading my copious notes again, it was starting to make sense sort of! I was to write a blog and attach an affiliate link and sell the books that way.

At the seminar it had sounded so very easy. Finally I managed to write a very blobby blog, and can I please ask if anyone finds any of my initial blogs in cyberspace could they either return them or burn them. I lost count of the number of times I pressed a button ( and I still not sure which button that was) and all my hard work would disappear...never to be seen again. So I would restart and it would happen again, and again...UGGRRHH! I might add by this time it was 3am and I had not sold a single book. I had however joined Facebook, and I was scared stiff at what I had done.

I am sure you can also be aware at how emotional I was at this stage, how the heck if it was so damm easy why was I finding it sooo hard. I was not only fighting blogs! I was also fighting tears of rage, disappointment and self doubt. If I couldn't even find someone to buy a book from me how on earth was I going to sell them a poem?

Enough of this, I conceded defeat and went to bed. I am sure that I had just gotten to bed when the alarm said it was time to get up. There was however a bit of hope for me, if I could get to see my son before I went to the seminar, I could get him to show me how to buy the books, I would buy 10 copies and sell them from my clinic. I would convince him to help with a good old fashioned bribe.....I would share the $1000 with him.

Armed with this plan........

Why Green String?

Why Green String?

Good question, why indeed. As you will know if you have been following this blog I had written an Inspirational Poem and was at a quandary as to what title to give it. Up to know I was using a very long title and it just didn't fit the poem. I was after something catchy and memorable!

As I sat in my clinic trying this and that, my son decided to ask for my opinion on a fancy dress costume that he was making for an upcoming party. The theme was a jungle theme and he had spent considerable time looking for the perfect outfit. Unable to find what he was after, as he was leaving the last shop he spied some artificial fern leaves and figured that they would make a perfect costume. He also found a ball of string with which to tie them on. He was delighted!

Now as his Mother, I felt it was my duty to tell him he could not just wear fern leaves in public without suitable clothes under them. I should have saved my breath, as he assured me it was a private party and he felt they were just the thing and he would lose the effect if he had to wear other clothes as well!

Great here we were in the middle of a financial meltdown and my son was about to be arrested for indecent exposure. Just what I needed to take my mind off things...NOT! I went on to say that he would have trouble keeping them in place, when he produced his unique idea...a ball of string. He was quite convinced that this string would keep the fern leaves in place and all would be good..trust me he said I know what I am doing. Oh Boy!

As he turned to leave the room, I suddenly realized that the coloured string was just what I had been looking for......a simple, catchy and perfect name for my poem....Green String! He was more than happy to let me cut off a length of the string and we parted, each to work on our own master pieces. I still thought he was mad, and was sure to be arrested, however I deep down believed he would not actually do it. I mean imagine how prickly it would be and the thought of sitting down...well the mind boggled!

However I had more important things to do....the name was absolutely perfect....and to have an actual piece of string to go with it....wonderful! To get with the vibrational energy I attached a piece of the string to one of my magical $1m notes and placed it on our fridge. As each family member came home I told them all about the name and how soon our challenges would be over:)

All I had to do now was to work out how to tell people about the poem, how to sell them the poem, how did they pay me for the poem, how did I get the poem to them and most importantly what format was the poem going to be in? I definitely required some help and guidance, a chance email very quickly got my attention.........

"You have won two tickets to an Internet Marketing Seminar in Brisbane" ....what was I waiting for?

Oh and do you think my son wore his fern leaves?...I will let you know tomorrow:)

To Buy or Swap!

To Buy or Swap!

Well that was the easy part, my poem was written. Regularly over the course of many nights, I would get up write a line or two and then go back to bed. It was a welcome change to laying in bed with the whole saga going round and round, at least this way I was doing something productive, even if did sound kind of crazy.

OK so the poem is written, now what? Gosh it didn't even have a title and how on earth was it going to help? It was obviously the first sign of madness creeping in, although each time I read the poem to myself I got goosebumps. It was quite touching even if I do say so myself. I still didn't know what to do with it. Maybe I could sell copies of it to others, possibly turn it into a poster and sell the posters, or better still one of those affirmation cards that people buy, however I would need to pretty it up, get some graphics or artwork done. This gave me a whole other set of problems and practical issues. Who could help me?

Needless to say, my family at this stage did perhaps think I was a little nuts. One of them however got my creative juices flowing by mentioning the internet and how you could reach many people through this medium. It triggered a distant memory of a story of someone who swapped a red paperclip with people around the world and finally received a house. That was it! All I had to do was trade my poem on the internet, trade or sell it enough times to get rewarded and our financial issues would be over. How easy would that be!

Yeah right!....how wrong I was...Easy? I now had another set of things to worry about and ponder on. For starters I had no name for my poem, and if you remember back to my first blog my computer code name was 'Mum Not Geeky'. What seemed like a great idea was very quickly grinding to a halt. I had been so certain that I could help our family get out of the ruin that we were facing.

Do you know how annoying it feels to know deep within yourself that you are on the right track and yet things beyond your control seem to derail you very easily?

I knew that my poem was given to me to make a difference, it was a gift from Grace, and it was up to me to ensure that I shared it with others. So long as I believed in myself, I could and would be successful.

Gosh if someone could swap a red paperclip for a house, there had to be a way that an Inspirational Poem could also be swapped or traded.

It was time to get serious and first on the agenda was to give my poem a name. I again received some divine intervention, this time in the guise of my son, and his idea of a suitable costume for a fancy dress party.................that however is tomorrow's story...stay tuned!

Internet Marketing for Beginners!

Internet Marketing for Beginners

Your require no Computer skills! Internet Marketing is easy! Anyone can do IT! Earn Money quickly and easily! My way is the best! Earn Money while you Sleep! Find a Niche!

Just...Just...Just!

Has anyone heard any of those sayings before? About two years ago now I became interested in the idea of utilizing the computer to generate wealth. As the adds go..easily, while I slept would be great, and as I was a complete non geek, I figured that I had the first qualification down pat:)

Now I know you are asking the question, "Why would a non geek, wish to utilize the computer as a way of generating income?" Believe me I still often ask myself the same question! However, the main reason was due to urgency and a crazy idea. In Dec 2008 my family returned from their annual 10 days holiday at the Sunshine Coast, to a phone call that has changed our lives. We received a call from CBA's Colonial Geared Investments asking for and as quickly as possible for over $105,000 because our Share Portfolio with Storm Financial no longer existed. The money was the shortfall that was owing to CGI, and how were we intending to pay it? Welcome home:( We were told that all of our well saved cash funds, our personal shares and all income that came those shares, our retirement plans and more scary our home was all either gone or would be gone when the banks finished with us. We were not the only ones, altogether there were over 3000 investors caught up in this living nightmare. I just didn't know too many of them at that stage!

To say that we were in shock is an understatement. How could this have happened? Why did it happen? How could we gain help? Who could help us? these are just some of the questions floating in our heads. As with any disaster or trauma, basic life has to go on and the days gradually crept into weeks and the intrinsic human ability to survive kicked in!

I kept having a dream to write a poem...not any poem...an inspirational one...one that would help us and many others caught up in this trauma to survive.

Now I know what you are thinking...."She's mad! A poem! What on earth! Is that the best you can come up with!" Believe me I have heard all the comments, lots of times, I even say them to myself quite often. However dreams start ideas, and these ideas can turn the tides and create huge change.

I listened to my dreams, and over the course of several nights, got up many times and wrote lines, one at a time and the result was a gift from the Universe, my poem

Why Green String and what that has to do with Internet Marketing? Well you will have to follow my blog to find out:)

See you tomorrow.