Last week I attended a course on Attracting, Hiring and Retaining the Best People. It was session 1 of 3 organized by StartupDigest University, the insider’s guide to the startup world. This week was session 2 and the topic was Top 5 HR Mistakes & Compensation 101.

“Right now there is a war on talent. The entire technology sector is hiring, virtually every startup (alive) is hiring, and VC’s are even creating newsletters to help their startups hire. Hiring is the most important function of a startup founder/CEO. With the talent war raging, it is clear that finding and hiring the best people is one of the most challenging aspects of an entrepreneur’s job. Developers are elusive and expensive, and it’s hard to find a business or marketing person among the noise.” ~ StartupDigest

This evening had 2 great speakers which filled the event with tactical knowledge and inspiration rather than just inspirational rhetoric. There was no bullshit. The folks in the room were A-players, smart and were thirsty for education which would serve as the arsenal of hiring tips and tricks.

Here’s what happened.

Brian Helmick, Founder & Managing Partner at Algentis

Brian Helmick, Founder & Managing Partner at Algentis

About Brian:

• Brian Helmick is the founder of Algentis, an HR Software & Services firm that simplifies operations for small and medium-sized businesses by assuming the burden of HR administration.
• Algentis provides a technology-enabled service offering which seamlessly integrates HR compliance, payroll, benefits, and insurance.
• Algentis helps startup clients with all the headaches associated with HR, so entrepreneurs can focus on the core aspects of their business.
• Website: http://algentis.com/

The presentation notes covered 5 HR mistakes:

1. Misclassification of Workers

• There are strict IRS guidelines and the choice isnt yours. Learn those guidelines or speak to a specialist.
• Most startups break this law.
• If an employee is made to work strict 9-5 hours on a computer provided by the employer then they are labelled as an “employee”. Else, a contractor. Some employers get around this label by adding computer expense into employee’s salary vs providing them the tool/s.

2. Errors in Hiring

• Improper interview questions – personal type like age, race, state etc. this can lead to being sued should the unsuccessful candidate believe it was due to these personal questions they were not hired.
• Hiring for skills and not fit. Companies change so hire for fit to make sure to retain great employees.
• Ask for candidate references and then ask the references for another degree of references. You need to really know how this person is and not what their friend (reference) scripted.

3. Improper Documentation

• Don’t use your friends legal documents. They are not fit for your purpose.
• Average cost to defend against an employee claim is $150K.
• On average, most HR issues are not seen until the company hits the magic 20 employees.
• Poor documentation of performance, attendance & misconduct. When you document make sure it is stored in a safe & secure place.
• Wrongful termination award is $125K.
• Do quarterly reviews – to speed up the process get the employee to do self reviews and no more than 3 questions with a scale.

4. Errors with Employee Terminations

• Too slow to fire – always. Nobody ever complains about firing somebody too quickly.
• An under-performer is incredibly costly financially, your time and morale.
• A lot of this is due to the “termination discussion” which is not fin and mostly emotional.
  • Start with the conclusion and keep it short.
  • Make it clear that the decision has already been made.
  • Be sensitive of the other person’s feeling – do not let it get personal.
  • Severance is highly recommended to minimize getting sued especially if the employee is volatile. But do not make this a policy since it can be used against you.
  • If the employee threatens to sue you. End the conversation and contact your lawyer.
  • Finally, always give the final paycheck on the employee’s last day.

5. Unsuitable Benefits & Insurance

• Workers compensation insurance of at least $100K is legally required.
• Choosing benefits:
  • Basic = Medical only
  • Basic plus = Dental, Vision and FSA
  • Premium = Medical, Vision, FSA, Transportation, Unexpected life events and 401K.
• Having a good plan helps with recruiting.

Compensation 101

Before you begin, always work out your strategy e.g. low cash and high equity reward or high cash and low equity. Don’t shy away on spending if you find the perfect person.

There are 3 components:

1. Cash
   • Easiest for both to value.
   • Cash bonuses have mixed review – they are not properly valued by employees if at 10-15% of their base salary. Best to give this as merit instead.
   • Studies have shown that behavior changes at 25%+ of base salary. Which is why it works so well in Sales and Financial Services industry.
2. Benefits & Rewards
   • Small personal incentives like a restaurant / theater voucher or a letter to spouse are most powerful.
   • They help build the company culture and show that the employer cares. Yet are cheaper to implement then a 10K bonus.
3. Equity
   • Common terms:
     

     Vesting	3-5 years
     Cliff	1 year
     Expiration	90 days after employee leaves
     Buy back	Company to buy back the options

   • Equity split for non-founders:
     

     COO	2-5%
     Cxx	1-3%
     VP of Eng.	2-4%
     Other VPs	1-3%
     Directors	2-5%
     COO	0.75-1.5%
     Key Eng. Roles	0.25-1.5%

Taso Du Val, Co-Founder and CEO of TopTal

Taso Du Val, Co-Founder and CEO of TopTal

About Taso:

• As an early and lead engineer at Fotolog (Acquired by Hi-Media for $100m), Slide (Acquired by Google for $224m), and his own companies, Taso brings unprecedented top management and engineering experience to TopTal.
• While running a small consulting firm, he recognized that while many of his co-workers overseas were just as good as his friends and colleagues at Google, Facebook, and other companies with notable top engineering talent, it was simply impossible to find them.
• TopTal was created as a solution to the sky-rocketing demand for top engineers in Silicon Valley, US, and Europe despite the shrinking local graduate rates of such engineers.
• Website: http://toptal.com/

The presentation notes:

• There are 4 types of labor outsourcing:

1. Traditional outsourcing – using consulting firms.
2. Democratized outsourcing – providers of a virtual marketplace for freelancers and freelance agencies to negotiate work contracts with businesses that hire independent professionals and agencies.
   • Companies in this space include: elance, odesk etc.
3. Crowdsourcing - Crowdsourcing is the act of outsourcing tasks, traditionally performed by an employee or contractor, to an undefined, large group of people or community (a crowd), through an open call.
   • Companies in this space include: crowdflower, mechturk etc.
4. Top sourcing – sourcing company full of expertise and knowledge to help businesses cut procurement costs.
   • Companies in this space include: toptal etc.

• Managing remote labor:
  • Learn to manage your local staff well before managing remote staff.
  • Communication is VERY important.
  • Product is the most important thing. Period.
  • When your remote talent is better than your best developer, you know you’re doing it right.
  • Use Skype excessively (24/7).
  • If 2 days go by without communication, fire instantly.
  • Expose them to Silicon Valley (TechCrunch, Quora etc).
  • Use PivotalTracker or similar Project Management tools.
  • Daily Scrum (development) works very well.
• A note on communication with foreign hires:
  • Proper English != Communication
  • Bad English != Bad Communication

Isnt this educational and inspirational! Great content from great founders that know what it takes to hire the best people. So this was part 2 of 3 and I will be posting links to full videos of the event later in the week – so come back to check this blog for more updates.

Happy hiring!

This post is also posted on my other blog “The Road to Silicon Valley”.
URL: http://www.theroadtosiliconvalley.com/jobs/attracting-hiring-retaining-best-people/

~ Ernest

Linked mentioned in this post

• StartupDigest: http://startupdigest.com/
• Algentis | HR Outsourcing | Payroll | PEO: http://algentis.com/
• TopTal – Direct access to the top developers: http://toptal.com/

So recently I was invited to a 3 evening course at StartupDigest University via Hacker Dojo on Attracting, Hiring, and Retaining the Best People. Today was day 1. More to come over the next 2 weeks. StartupDigest is the insider’s guide to the startup world and the evening was hosted by Gagan Biyani, Co-Founder of Udemy, where all the videos of the presentations will be hosted later on.

Gagan Biyani, Co-Founder of Udemy

“Right now there is a war on talent. The entire technology sector is hiring, virtually every startup (alive) is hiring, and VC’s are even creating newsletters to help their startups hire. Hiring is the most important function of a startup founder/CEO. With the talent war raging, it is clear that finding and hiring the best people is one of the most challenging aspects of an entrepreneur’s job. Developers are elusive and expensive, and it’s hard to find a business or marketing person among the noise.” ~ StartupDigest

This evening had 2 great speakers which filled the event with tactical knowledge and inspiration rather than just inspirational rhetoric. There was no bullshit. The folks in the room were A-players, smart and were thirsty for education which would serve as the arsenal of hiring tips and tricks.

Here’s what happened.

Immad Akhund, Co-Founder and CEO of HeyZap

Immad Akhund ~ Co-Founder and CEO of HeyZap

About Immad:

• Immad Akhund is the CEO of HeyZap and an engineer.
• Having studied Computer Science at Cambridge University and co-founded 3 successful start-ups.
• He was previously a co-founder and the CTO of Clickpass.com (acquired by Yola.com).
• Clickpass partnered with Plaxo, Scribd, Disqus and others to power their sign-on through OpenID.

The presentation notes:

• Recruitment is a Marketing Exercise. You must market yourself and your company over and over so it gets into people’s head that you are a good company.
• Ask yourself “Why should this hire give several years of their life to your vision?”. Remember that you aren’t the only making favors here.
• Hire Generalists over Specialists.
• Spend time on your jobs page to make it Marketable. It should lure talent in. See http://www.heyzap.com/jobs
• Use all the available channels to get talent. Being: Internal, Online, Offline, Campus and New clever ways like running random competitions for others in the social space to re-tweet your job ads.
• Give employees a hiring bonus $2-10K to show you care.
• Good people have at least 5 friends that are like them. If you find an A-player tap into their social grid since there is a high chance their 5 close friends will also be A-players.
• Add “We are hiring” to all your blog posts.
• Online communities like HackerNews, Reddit, StackOverflow, GitHub et al are one of the best sources of A-players.
• Organize ”open house” like Startup Crawl to allow A-players to come and have an open chat with you.

Auren Hoffman, Founder and CEO of Rapleaf

Auren Hoffman ~ Auren Hoffman, Founder and CEO of Rapleaf

About Auren:

• Auren Hoffman is the CEO of Rapleaf and an angel investor.
• Rapleaf helps B2C companies give their consumers a better experience by providing automated search services for each consumer.
• Auren is also a non-employee cofounder of BrightRoll and a co-founder of AdRocket.
• From 2003-2006, Auren served as Chairman of Stonebrick Group and Chairman of the Connector Group (Silicon Valley 100).
• Previously, he founded and sold three Internet companies before age 30: BridgePath (sold in 2002), Kyber Systems (sold in 1997), and GetRelevant (sold in 2002).
• He writes a blog called Summation ~ http://blog.summation.net/

The presentation notes:

• 3 ways to find an A-player:
  1. Having worked with them,
  2. Knowing someone who vouches for them and
  3. Reflective interview process.
• Resumes are bad since they are nothing more than marketing and act as a selling document.
• As the interviewee, you should always show up on time. Be respectful of the candidates time too.
• Once you get comfortable about their specific skill there is no need to further drill it. Move onto other questions.
• Get the candidate to teach you something. If you see they have a specific interest / hobby like chess, ask them to teach it to you (crash course) in the interview. Few people can “simply” explain complex concepts. Yet being able to explain a complex concept in simple understandable terms by breaking it down and even drawing it on the board is an important quality of an A-player. Every complex concept can be explained easily by an A-player.
• Ask insightful and hard questions which are interesting for the candidate. Ask about:
  • Their thesis,
  • Current events like WikiLeaks and the ethical dilemmas created,
  • Drill into something they stipulated they are good at and see if their depth of knowledge reflects it,
  • Ask curious questions like: “How do you think LinkedIn generates the n-th degree contact/s?” Even if you don’t have the answer observe how they tackle the problem.
• Don’t ask typical questions most interviewees ask. Come up with something clever that is specific to the candidate and see the fire it ignites in their desire to get to the answer. If you get a call or email after the interview with the answer then this is a great indication of the desire and fire that burns in A-players.
• Don’t talk more than 25% of the interview. You want them to do the talking since you need to get the answers to your single question – “is this an A-player”.
• Try to determine how Smart the person is by accessing:
  • Are they curious?
  • Do they ask the right questions?
  • Do they engage in further deeper discussions?
  • How well do they take feedback?
  • Are they unsatisfied with mediocre answers?
• You can even get the candidate to do a presentation on their topic of choice and see how they can explain and simplify it enough so it’s crystal clear and educational. Make sure the topic is hard so you can see their thought processes. Then ask yourself the questions above whether this candidate is smart.
• Overall, you need to determine whether you would enjoy working with this person. At the beginning stages of your company you are the company culture and bringing in a new employee may change or enhance it.
• You get to choose the people at your company. Therefore choose wisely.
• Choose 3 key criteria you want in the people you hire and stick to them.
  • Rapleaf has the following:
    

    A. Scary smart B. Gets things done C. Nice & friendly

  • Notice how there is no technical skills listed. Remember, top 3 only since in a Venn diagram too many circles creates too many overlaps which are too small. You want a nice chunky even spread.

• Finding a Co-founder is always hard. So when you think you found one do something together to determine “compatibility” - something like a blog post together or running an event. This will help you see whether this person is trustworthy, follows up with their word and has passion for their work. The try before you buy approach. But always remember, that no matter what, even the 1st employee should be called a “co-founder”, looked after with good equity and be treated as such to help your vision come to life and ultimately success.

Isnt this educational and inspirational! Great content from great founders that know what it takes to hire the best people.
So this was part 1 of 3 and I will be posting links to full videos of the event later in the week – so come back to check this blog for more updates.

Happy hiring!

This post is also posted on my other blog “The Road to Silicon Valley”.
URL: http://www.theroadtosiliconvalley.com/jobs/attracting-hiring-retaining-best-people/

~ Ernest

Linked mentioned in this post

• StartupDigest: http://startupdigest.com/
• Heyzap › Powered Up Products for Game Developers and Publishers: http://www.heyzap.com/
• Immad Akhund’s blog: http://www.immadsnewworld.com/
• Rapleaf – Personalizing the consumer experience: http://www.rapleaf.com/
• Auren Hoffman’s blog: http://blog.summation.net/

Last weekend I attended another awesome Bay Area seminar organised by Jeff and Kane to discover the distinct models and techniques to exponentially increase my tangible results.

Who are Jeff and Kane

For over a decade now, Jeff and Kane have been dedicated to modeling the most successful executives, service professionals and independent contractors to discover the difference that causes professional excellence, financial success and accelerated results. Obsessed with the question of how to achieve true and sustainable business and life success, they have filtered out the most effective, lucrative and powerful techniques for consultants, authors, coaches and professionals to quickly build a six and seven-figure income.

What was covered

In a nutshell, this:

The Industry Rockstar Formula

Your mentality creates your reality ~ Sean Stephenson

Look at something in the room and focus on it carefully. Now close your eyes and recall what you were looking at. Notice its shape, color, location in space and any detail. You can now open your eyes. Did you realise that your mind did not distinguish any difference between the reality when your eyes were open and closed. The word reality is all in your head. Not outside. How you create the experience in your life, whether it’s financial, business or personal, is all in your head. To start changing the outside you need to change the inside. As Sean Stephenson said, Your mentality creates your reality.

Some gems:

• People don’t buy process, they buy results.
• Everyone experiences fear, even successful people. What matters is who are you when that fear surfaces.
• Emotions are a barometer. What is your barometer telling you?
• There is never a perfect time to get started. Start today so you can start learning earlier in life rather than later.
• Can’t get to great without good.
• Be obsessed with results since people pay for it.
• Identify where are the rockstars in your industry and follow them to understand their framework.
• Benjamin Zander talks about our untapped love for all new possibilities, new experiences, new connections. Click here to watch video.
• Anchor your name with possibility – see below.
• Stay to the right of your clients since this is the “future” and it’s where you want to position yourself in.
• Buying is an emotional experience. People go through the following steps when buying: Curiosity, Empowerment, Value + Hope, Urgency and Being Right.
• Frameworks show “attributes one is to have. That way you can get those results.

An exercise - what is your perfect day?

The following is a great exercise to get you thinking about where you are today and where you can be tomorrow with some effort.

1. Separate a page into 2 columns and in the left column label it “My average day” and in the right column “My perfect day”.
2. Starting with your average day answer the questions in the photo below.
3. Now answer the same questions under your perfect day.
4. Look over your answers. Notice something that can be made better. If so, great!
5. Now ask yourself this: What is the structure you need to get to your perfect day.

What is the structure to get you to your perfect day?

Anchor your name with possibility

To leave an impact on the people you meet and be in a position to introduce yourself and what you do to add value in the first 30 seconds is pure gold and worth every penny. Many people associate them self to their job or some other unrelated identify which adds little value to the person they are speaking to. Start your introductions in this format:

Typically I work with PERFECT CUSTOMER who have challenge of PAIN. I help them get RESULTS.

Fill in the uppercased words with your value add. For example, mine is:

“Typically I work with hackers, thinkers and tinkers who are full of ideas but fail to capture them, face anxiety and planning challenges. I teach them how to offload this weight using technology for future processing & action. Hi, my name is Ernest Semerda.”

Pretty powerful right?

We covered plenty of content

Building rapport – leadership at it’s best

Rapport is one of the most important features or characteristics of subconscious communication. It is commonality of perspective: being “in sync” with, or being “on the same wavelength” as the person with whom you are talking.

We practised Jeff+Kane teachings on how to achieve good rapport with your fellow peers to build good relationships at work and in personal life.

• Mirror the person you are speaking to, since on a subconscious level you will connect and build trust (rapport) faster. We naturally mirror those that we like so this is just a way to speed it up.
• Mirroring is simply matching the vocal, physical, gestures and breathing of the party you are conversing with to build trust.
• Back track keywords of the individual you are speaking to. This is actually an easier approach to trying to identify their primary mode (visual, auditory or kinesthetic) and then using those appropriate words.
• Building a connection with the other party leads to trust. This is rapport.
• Anthony Robbins uses all 3 primary modes in his introductions to grab the attention of the wider audience.

A photo opportunity with the industry rockstars Jeff+Kane.

From left: Jeff, Ernest (me) and Kane

Book recommendations by Jeff & Kane

• It’s Not How Good You Are, Its How Good You Want to Be: The World’s Best Selling Book
• Great Motivation Secrets of Great Leaders
• Rules for Renegades: How to Make More Money, Rock Your Career, and Revel in Your Individuality
• Secrets of the Millionaire Mind: Mastering the Inner Game of Wealth

Watch out Australia! These boys are coming your way

2011 is the year Jeff+Kane are set to tour across Australia running 10 seminars.
So if you are interested attending a seminar ran by Jeff+Kane visit their website: http://jeffandkane.com/
If you have attended any of Jeff+Kane seminars please share your feedback in the comments section below.

So in the end of all of this what did I walked away with… that time is now to start making a difference in my life!

Ernest

Finally a reality series worth watching. It is called Breakthrough with Tony Robbins now showing on NBC (and Hulu). It follows Tony Robbins (self-help author and success coach) as he helps the show’s participants face their personal challenges.

What is a Breakthrough?

A Breakthrough is a moment in time when the impossible becomes possible. When something happens that shapes you, that moves you. Maybe you meet someone who inspires you. Maybe it’s a tool or a strategy that you learn. Maybe you finally get so fed up you won’t settle for the life that you have any more. It’s when something inside of you clicks and everything changes. You take massive action and you transform your life. More about Tony’s Breakthrough show here.

Breakthrough with Tony Robbins - new TV series

The show – Breakthrough with Tony Robbins

I just finished watching Episode 1 (hulu video below) where Tony Robbins helps married couple Frank and Kristen come back together after a tragic accident. The story show us how doing something different helps you to see & experience the world in a different light instead of sitting at home feeling sorry for yourself & living inside false thoughts (your head). Tony is amazing at helping people realise their potential. This is a must watch!

The ONLY reason you don’t have exactly what you want is the story you keep telling yourself about why you can’t have it or don’t have it already! ~ Tony Robbins

If you want to read more about Tony Robbins and see a video recording of Tony teaching UPW (Unleash the Power Within) attendees amazing way to view life click here.

What Tony teaches us in this show (the take-away / to-go)

• There is no challenge you cannot face or overcome.
• The events of our lives do not control our lives.. our decisions do.
• Life gives us these events because we have to grow. Realise this. Welcome it.
• To feel meaningful and alive we must have progress. Progress is Growth.
• Whatever you fear today is small when compared to a bigger fear. Fear is always comparable.
• It’s not what we face rather what we do with what we face that matters. It’s the action to unleash your human spirit to change your game of life.
• The worst thing one can do is to not take control of the force that controls your life. And that force is human emotion.
• All breakthroughs start with a change in your beliefs.
• Your beliefs make you “feel certain” and no talking (lecturing) can change you like an “experience”. An experience where you realise something deep.
• You get freedom when you push through your fear.

Change your belief by changing your experience – Tony Robbins

How to apply this to our own life – steps to transform

1. 1. Identify where you live emotionally. eg. depression, anger, feeling guilty /sad etc… that should good emotional fuel to take action. One side of the paper write down what empowering emotions you experience in a week eg. love, peace. And on the other side disempowering emotions eg. fear, depressed, overwhelmed etc. Circle the top 2 on each side.
2. 2. Identify the antidote. If fear is controlling things, we need an antidote called Courage. Courage doesn’t just mean you are scared, but it means you are scared but will do it anyway. It’s an emotional muscle. You just excercise it by facing it head first.  Identify the emotional state(s) you would you like to feel (to change the game) when experiencing those disempowering states and use them as an antidotes.
3. 3. Practise that emotion. Do it enough consciously that you can go from frustrated / depressed to determined. “Emotion is created by motion.”  Notice how you motion changes when you are sad. eg. slow, body sagging (body language). Realise that this affects your “emotion”. Knowing what to change when it happens will help you practise the antidote in response to a disempowering emotion. Ask yourself “what do I do when I feel loved / happy”. What are my antidotes? – from worried to determined, from not sure to focused etc.. learn and practise that emotion.
4. 4. Condition it. Up to a point so that it becomes automatic (a habit). Figure out where you live emotionally and practise it 3/4 times a day for 7 days. If you want to learn about building habits visit my prior post here.

And remember…

New pattern = New life
Our life is a reflection of our emotional patterns.
You can face any challenge from those emotions and overcome it.

You can do this yourself right now!!

The best way to keep something in your body is to share it with someone else. It has to be about WE, not just me. Pay it forward by sharing this post with people you feel will benefits from this knowledge.

We can make ourselves miserable or we make ourselves strong, the amount of work to get there is the same. ~ Anthony Robbins

Enjoy!

Ernest

To make sure you dont miss any upcoming posts, I recommend you to Subscribe to my free newsletter. It’s exciting and energizing! Click here to subscribe to my free newsletter.

This is going to be my shortest post to date. But it’s also going to carry a powerful message on how you can become “aware”, what some motivational speakers call “to wake up in life”.

Sean Stephenson said something which blew my mind away. He brought change to my mind. Change I am very grateful for. It has allowed me to build stronger awareness. Sean said:

The second I don’t like somebody they own me – they own me, my energy, my thoughts, my feelings!

Do you understand this? It is more than just a great quote, it’s am empowering message which carries a very powerful application. It tells you specifically how to bring awareness in 1 sentence. Awareness is key to being awake. Next time your mind/body wants to react negatively (due to bad habits – faulty programming), stop and think about the message in this quote… If you let it happen “automatically” they own you, your energy, your thoughts, your feelings! … instead become aware of what your body is feeling and respond appropriately so that YOU own your energy, thoughts and feelings!! Wow. Powerful stuff.

If you want to know about Sean visit his website: http://timetostand.com/
And don’t forget to watch his video on the front page to understand Sean’s amazing life.

If you want to know how to change your faulty programming (bad habits) read my post on developing new habits.

Ernest

Yesterday (Sunday 28th of March 2010) I got the pleasure to meet one of the best business minds in the world! Keith J. Cunningham. You may know him as the “Rich Dad” from Rich Dad Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money-That the Poor and the Middle Class Do Not!. He gave an inspirational and eye-opening 5 hour talk on business school for entrepreneurs at the Bay Area PowerTeam group.

Me & Keith J. Cunningham

Keith J. Cunningham ~ the Rich Dad from Robert Kiyosaki's "Rich Dad Poor Dad"

Urszula & Keith J. Cunningham

About Keith J. Cunningham

• Keith is one of the world’s foremost and most sought after business and wealth building experts.
• He teaches based on over 25 years of personal business success.  He has built, bought, and sold more businesses than most can imagine. He is the main business & wealth expert at Tony Robbins’ Wealth Mastery and Business Mastery Courses.
• Keith is THE go to guy for many of the industry’s top thought leaders  – Tony Robbins, Robert Kiyosaki, Dr. Dolf DeRoos, T. Harv Ecker, Brain Tracy, Jack Canfield, and many more.

If you want to know more about Keith, check out Keith’s full bio here.

Take home notes from the seminar

Notes:

• Leaders have followers and take them towards an uncertain future.
• A pencil is better than a sharp mind. ~ Always have a pad and pencil where every you go since there is something always to learn and take away.
• When the tide rises it lifts all the ships. All you have to have is a boat in the water. ~ I love this one since so many people wish they could be wealthy but yet do not have any ships (investments) in the water waiting for the tide to rise.
  
• You don’t do what you do know.
• Run the Business NOT the Operations. ~ This is the difference between owning a business which can run autonomously without you or a business which needs you around 24×7. You want the former.
  
• A good idea yesterday is not necessarily a good idea today.
• Learning doesnt happen until something happens.
• Most people are good at goal setting but fail at goal achievement. ~ Oh this one is really good! how many people have you heard say they know all about goal setting but yet fail to execute on their goals. This is the silent killer.
  
• Don’t let perfect get into the way of possible.
• To become a master teach what you learn. ~ Have you found your true calling?
  
• Business makes money, hobbies do not.
• Customer’s do not want a value proposition, then need success proposition.

What is Success?

1. FOWTW
Find Out What They Want

2. GAGI
Go And Get It

3. GITT
Give It To Them

4 Rules to getting VC consideration – from the Q&A:

Note – this is VC consideration not buying. VC’s get a ton of offers each day so how do you get distinguished from the rest? This is how:

• Management – It’s about Execution Intelligence. Having those that run know what they are doing i.e. a good track record.
• PUD (Pimp Up Demand) – Having a proof of concept. Something to show that you have demand for this product or service.
• Nice to Have – What are the barriers to entry for your competitors. How are you stopping competition eg. patent / IP etc. Think of a great restaurant you know… was it McDonald’s? – it does have a strong brand which protects itself.
• R/R (Rich & Reward) – If I sell you 1% of my company for $1m does this mean your company is worth $100m. The only way this can happen is if you have great management (point 1), PUD (point 2) and ways to stop competitors from replicating you (point 3).

Keys to the Vault – Keith’s new book

Having only just found out about Keith’s new book called “Keys to the Vault: Lessons From the Pros on Raising Money and Igniting Your Business” I havent had the pleasure reading it yet. But it is now on order from Amazon If this book is anything close to what I heard at Keith’s seminar then it’s a gold keeper – a true key to the vault of success.

Watch these videos – they will inspire you

Keith has a number of free videos available on his website. I highly recommend you spend some time watching them and you will definitely walk away with new knowledge.

Videos: http://www.keystothevault.com/video/index.html

Keith discusses the following topics there:
1. Hiring the Talent
2. Is vs Ought Part 1
3. Is vs Ought Part 2
4. Most Peoples Lives
5. Setting the Culture
6. Success
7. The 3 Big Dials

Keiron McCammon – special guest

I also had the pleasure meeting and speaking to Keiron McCammon. A successful entrepreneur, the man behind kaboodle.com and onehandedblogger.com. Kaboodle has grown to be the #1 social shopping site on the web, with over 15 million monthly visitors and is a top 150 Internet property in the US. It continues pioneer and dominate the social shopping arena. Keith is an amazing individual having battled great obstacles in his life and on his blog he shares these stories which will inspire you.

KaBoodle – shopping site
http://www.kaboodle.com/

Keiron’s Personal Blog inc. his upcoming Ironman World Championship. Click link below and help Keiron raise $10,000 for the Challenged Athletes Foundation!
http://www.onehandedblogger.com/

Me & Keiron McCammon

As always I love questions so please ask!

Ernest

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A great man has left this world yesterday (5th of December 2009). A man who made a difference in my life and in many others who had the pleasure to hear him speak. His name is Jim Rohn. Jim is considered a “Business Philosopher”. He does not claim to teach novel truths, only fundamentals.

A tribute to John & his great work has been setup on his website here.

Jim Rohn (September 17, 1930 - December 5, 2009) - A Tribute

What I will share with you are some of his amazing teachings, which if you haven’t heard / seen will hopefully change your personal philosophy.

Become more Valuable

My all time favorite and memorable message I got from Jim is:

1. To make more money you need to “Be more Valuable“.
2. To become more Valuable: “Learn to Work Harder on Yourself then you do on your job” 
– Jim Rohn

We get paid for bringing value to the market place. Market place = reality. It takes time to bring value to market place. We dont get paid for time. e.g. getting paid $30-50/hr is not true. Not per hour. You get paid for the “value” you put into time. All you have to do is become more valuable.

So how does one become more valuable?

• Change your life change your future.
• Read books! Gain wisdom of the world. “All Leaders Are Readers” – Jim Rohn
• Look within and let results teach you a great deal about your own activity, attitutde & philosophy.
• Results are the name of the Game.
• Make measurable progress in reasonable time.
• The truth is to ammend our errors & pickup our disciple.
• Welcome all experience, you never know which one will turn everything on.

The day that turns your life around

1. Disgust - The day you say “enough is enough” and you make a life changing event. This may be the day you realise that being taken for a ride is enough and you will make a stand and make a difference in your life.
2. Decision - Decision making is a life changing day. Make sure that the day you make a decision to change your life is followed with action.
3. Desire – Wanting bad enough to make a change. Sometimes desires wait for a trigger.
4. Resolve - That I “will”. ie. “I will do it or die” Promising yourself that you will never give up.

“There are a lot of speakers who have similarities to other speakers, and many times people can get them mixed up. But not Jim. There is nobody like him in the world. There is – and always will be – one Jim Rohn.” – Brian Tracy

Memorable quotes from Jim

Formula for Failure:
“Failure is a few errors in judgement, repeated every day”

Formula for Success:
“Success is a few simple disciplines, practiced every day”

• “Success is something you attract by the person you become”
• “You can’t change destination overnight but you can change direction overnight”
• “Make measurable progress in reasonable time”
• “Profits are better than wages”
• “Wages make you a living. Profits make you a fortune”
• “Work harder on yourself than you do on your job”
• “For things to get better, you have to get better”
• “Your personal philosophy is the greatest factor in your success”
• “Don’t wish it were easier. Wish you were better”
• “Don’t neglect the things that are easy to do”
• “Beware of what you become in the pursuit of your goals”
• “If you wish to be happy, study happiness” … “If you SEARCH you will FIND” – Bible
• “Life doesn’t give you what you want. It gives you what you deserve”
• “Don’t mistake movement for achievement”
• “Everything is within reach”
• “It is always 1st a study then a practice”

For more great quotes from Jim Rohn’s work read The Treasury of Quotes.

Jim’s videos – How to have Your Best Year Ever

Jim Rohn – How to have Your Best Year Ever 1 of 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JfA-qNWLBHo

Jim Rohn – How to have Your Best Year Ever 2 of 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2AyudSJl_s

Jim Rohn – How to have Your Best Year Ever 3 of 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWOJt1kCYP0

His messages will live forever!

RIP Jim Rohn. (September 17, 1930 – December 5, 2009)

Further reading & listening material

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Today I came across videos & pictures I took at the 4 day weekend at Anthony Robbin’s UPW (Unleash the Power Within) back in September 2008.

The song played in this video “Life will never be the same, Life is changing by Haddaway” is well engraved into my subconscious. And it hammers home a message and gets the heart pumping!
All this from using NLP techniques; an amazing set of tools which we can all learn very easily and apply to make good changes in our life.

Anthony Robbins UPW – Life is changing

Here is the full track of this amazing song.

Haddaway – Life

Here are the lyrics:

Life Life will never be
Life life will never be the same

Time is gettin’ cold what is going on
What is on your mind are your feelings gone

Need to see it clear where do we go
why are you doing things all the things you do yeah
yeah

Life will never be the same life is changin’ yeah yeah
life will never be the same life is changin’

Everybody needs somebody to love to love

Solo yeah
yeah oh oh

In the name of love you should draw the line
got to feel secure
that you’re still mine yeah
yeah

Life will never be the same life is changin’ yeah yeah
life will never be the same life is changin’

Everybody needs somebody to love to love

Solo yeah
yeah oh oh …

Life will never be the same Life is changin’

Solo oh oh yeah
yeah oh oh yeah
yeah
oh oh yeah yeah

Life will never be the same life is changin’ yeah
yeah
life will never be the same life is changin’

Life Life will never be
Life Life will never be the same

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Met someone new today (27th September 2009) – Shore Slocum. I’ve never heard of Shore until a week before when I received an invite to one of his seminars. Wow, was it an event. Shore covered the universal laws of nature and how we work with or against them with insights into our level of personal and professional success. Shores passion is uncovering the hidden workings of these concepts and most importantly the utilization of the laws in your life.

Scroll down for Loren and Shore’s “Life Tuneups” – addressing a different topic each week such as wellness, spirituality, and personal growth.

Shore Slocum with Ernest Semerda

Here’s a video from YouTube of Shore talking about his work:

About Shore Slocum

SHORE SLOCUM — http://www.shorespeaks.com

Rated the #1 speaker out of 45 at Inc. Magazine’s International Conference and ranked as the Top Speaker for Anthony Robbins Leadership Mastery Program for the past 7 years, Shore’s capacity to command an audience is proven, as is his talent for creating a relaxed, team-oriented rapport with his audience while getting them “off the bench and into the game.” Shore employs a number of tools, games, and strategies to help people not only grasp a concept but to physically anchor it in their system to maintain lasting momentum. His use of interaction, humor, and extraordinary storytelling touches hearts and inspires audiences into action.

Shore’s vision is to empower individuals, teams, corporations, and communities. He powerfully accomplishes this by providing individuals with the hidden keys that enable them to tap into their innate power and the ability to put their heart and spirit back into everything they do.

For over 20 years, Shore has combined his study of the science of achievement and personal development with an active role in corporations all over the world. He has worked closely and collaborated with other great speakers, leaders, and authors such as Wayne Dyer, Deepak Chopra, Mary Manin Morrissey, Bob Proctor, John Assaraf, Norman Schwarzkopf, Scott deMoulin, Anthony Robbins, Mary Lou Retton, Larry King, Zig Ziglar, Bobby Knight, Dan O’Brien, and Christopher Reeve.

Shore has been absolutely instrumental in helping thousands of people achieve their dreams. Don’t miss this rare opportunity to see him live in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Life Tuneups

Addressing a different topic each week such as wellness, spirituality, and personal growth, Loren and Shore will share their experiences and advise and inspire listeners to wake-up, stop making excuses and to tuneup their lives! Life Tuneups is broadcast live every Thursday at 1 PM Pacific Time on the VoiceAmerica Variety Channel.

You can listening to past shows here: http://bit.ly/LifeTuneups

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I’m buzzing full of positive energy! Today (28th June 2009) I attended a seminar by Jairek Robbins on Creating Certainty in an Uncertain Time. Plenty of take home learning’s, life techniques and I even got to have a great conversation with Jairek.

Jairek Robbins with Ernest Semerda

Jairek Robbins with Ernest Semerda

Favourite Quote from Anthony Robbins

About Jairek Robbins

JAIREK ROBBINS — http://www.jairekrobbins.com
Jairek offers his lifetime experience growing up in the Personal Development industry. From spending time in Denmark with John Grinder the Co-Founder of NLP to Leaderships Academy with the Anthony Robbins Companies.

At 20 years old Jairek was coaching individuals from around the globe, sharing with them the Jairek Robbinsuniversal tools, ideas and strategies it takes to create an extraordinary quality of life and Business.

As a speaker Jairek shares his unique view of what it takes to create an Extraordinary Quality of Life, define and achieve consistent lasting results in your profession, as well as clearly assists in creating a powerful vision for your overall success.

Jairek has his BA in Psychology from the University of San Diego and has spent his entire life immersed in the Personal Development Industry. In working towards his greatest passion of helping people achieve their peak potential Jairek was awarded in 2008, “The Congressional Award, Gold Medal”.

From 2006-2008 he served as a representative of Robbins Research International 1 of 11 organizations under the Anthony Robbins Companies. He advised and consulted with Fortune 500 companies, executives, managers and sales professionals in the areas of personal and professional achievement and sales mastery. During this time he traveled 48 weeks a year speaking to over 400 companies giving presentations and running training programs throughout the world.

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