As you have seen over the last few months I have been playing around with the website ‘YouTube’. Well now I am slowly going back and uploading footage from the past TV interviews, so maybe in another ten years I will have some stories for the kids.

This first video takes us all the way back to 2002, where Brent Williams and I were interviewed on Sunrise, regarding our first book for teenagers titled ‘The World at your Feet’. It was our first ever experience of being on LIVE television and I must say that I was totally freaking out… While they where doing the count down (3, 2, you’re on the air) I thought my heart was going to pop out of my chest it was beating that hard and fast.

The good news is I survived and since then it has got a whole lot easier!

Please enjoy and feel free to leave me a comment in the section just below. I’d be keen to hear your thoughts.

I’m back from Singapore and guess what? We have another Secrets Exposed book out. It is titled ‘Secrets of Inspiring Women Exposed!’

This groundbreaking book takes you up-close and personal with thirteen women who have each reached extraordinary heights of success in their chosen path. In a candid and heart-warming way they share their inspiring stories and secrets to achieving greater personal success and happiness!

Here are the names of the thirteen delightful women…

Lauren Burns (Olympic Gold Medallist)
Jo Cowling (Biggest Loser Contestant)
Mia Freedman (Former Editor of Cosmo)
Rosie Pekar (Dynamic Motivational Speaker)
Miriam Schafer (Wholistic Life Coach)
Kim McGuinness (Founder Network Central)
Lisa McInnes-Smith (Best-selling Author)
Terry Hawkins (Human Performance Coach)
Jennifer Jefferies (Work/Life Balance Expert)
Denise Hall (Entrepreneurial Mother)
Cydney O’Sullivan (Multimillionaire Investor)
Sally Anderson (Legacy Coach)
Simone Preston (Founder Business Women Connect)

Now this book won’t be in bookstores until the 2nd week in April. However, if you’d like to order a copy hot off the press then we have just put a new website.

http://www.secretsexposed.com.au/iwletter

Oh, I am also very pleased to inform you that the co-author for this book is none other than my assistant and our publishing co-ordinator Emma Lyons. Having come across from New Zealand just eight months ago she has done a remarkable job putting together the hundreds of moving parts for each of our new titles, so it was only fitting that she is the co-author for this book.

This is of course Emma’s first book and we are all extremely happy to see her reach this goal. Here is a photo of Emma holding the book for the first time. Look at the smile on her face!

In case you think that my life in Vietnam was total bliss, you’ll be pleased to know that I have been working very late into each night, as I am busy editing and piecing together one of our upcoming books titled Secrets of Great Success Coaches Exposed!

One of the not so good things about publishing is DEADLINES. If one part in the process is delayed it affects EVERYTHING. Thankfully I am pretty determined so it is on track. (OK enough rambling!)

Here is something that I was reading today written by Domonique Bertolucci, one of the contributors in the book. I really liked these ten points, so I wanted to share them with you…

If you want to be ‘the best you can be’, incorporate the following ten principals into your life:

1. The principle of choice – it’s so important that you realise that the first and most important step in becoming the best you can be is to simply decide to be that person. Make the choice to live up to your potential and step into your brilliance.
2. The principle of influence – don’t waste energy trying to change or control things that are well beyond your control. Instead, focus on the things that are within your control and create strategies that support the outcomes you can influence.
3. The principle of presence – don’t live in the past, blaming your current reality on outdated stories from childhood, early adulthood or even last week. At the same time, don’t be so busy dreaming of your future that you overlook or waste the opportunities that are presented to you today. It’s important to accept the past, dream of the future, but live in the moment!
4. The principal of positivity – if you expect things to turn out well, they usually do. Likewise, if you expect to be disappointed, let down or to experience failure then it’s highly likely that will happen. Start expecting the best from life and you will usually get it.
5. The principle of belief – one of the most important ingredients in creating any success in life is to believe in it. You need to learn to believe in your dreams, your ideas and yourself. It’s amazing what becomes possible when you believe.
6. The principle of permission – the only person who can hold you back in life is you. Overcome your limiting beliefs, ideas and attitudes and give yourself permission to truly shine.
7. The principle of abundance – very few people are genuinely going without, and yet I hear so many affluent, healthy people constantly talking about all the things they don’t have. A poverty mentality is a serious affliction. When you focus on how much you already have your true desires will be easily met and you will discover how little you genuinely need.
8. The principle of generosity – be generous, not just with the gifts you give, but also with how you give of yourself. To be truly generous you need to give your time, energy and spirit. Avoid judgement and be generous in your assessment of others. What you give in life will determine what you receive.
9. The principle of commitment – it won’t always be easy to do, be or have everything you want in life, but if your desires are genuine, over time these things will begin to come to you with ease. Don’t give up or choose a more complacent path. If you are committed to being the best you can be, then you’re already becoming that person.
10. The principle of courage – if you want to be the best you can be you need to do the right thing, not the easy thing. I don’t mean right or wrong in a black or white, moralistic sense; the principle of courage is about doing the right thing for you and having the courage to do it, even if it feels like the hardest thing in the world to do at the time!

Secrets of Great Success Coaches Exposed! will be coming out in early May. But make sure you stay tuned to this blog as in the next couple of weeks I will be sharing more information what exactly who is in this book – it is a great line-up and we have our first two ‘Secrets Exposed’ contributors from the United States.

Some people have asked for some pics, so here they are… The other two guys are Brent (blond hair) and Ryan (red hair)… my two best friends since the age of thirteen.

OK, OK… I know what you’re thinking! You were just in Singapore, what are you doing now in Vietnam? Let me explain…

In Singapore we are running two Empower U programs. Both of them run on a Friday night, all day Saturday and all day Sunday. That leaves four full days in between. As we have been to Singapore umpteen times (don’t get me wrong it is a great place – I love it) however, we felt it was time to do some exploring.

So we checked it and discovered it was $160 for flights and $40 per night for five star accommodations. It sounded good, but it wasn’t until we found out that our hotel offers full-body 90-minutes massages for get this $10, so we said ‘That is it. We are going’

Here is a short video I recorded this morning just for you. It only goes for one minute so check it out.

Well it is Monday and we have just finished our biggest Empower U program – over 200 participants and another exceptional experience.

Why I am writing to you now is that over that last 12 months I had over a hundred emails from people wanting to learn more about the work that I do with teenagers.

You can check out the website, you read some of the publicity articles and even view the Empower U pictures in the photo gallery… however, nothing can compare to the feelings and emotions of actually being there and physically present at the program.

Considering that you have to qualify to come along (you need to be aged between 13 to 21), my co-presenter at the program Brent Williams whipped together this short video to give you an up-close and personal experience of what it is like at the program. Please take a look!

Just arrived in Singapore, however before I left Sydney I was totally thrilled to discover that the NewsLink bookstore in the airport had not one but two new Secrets Exposed books.

Here is a quick photo that I snapped, I couldn’t help myself…

They are out there, so please visit your nearest bookstore and request your copy today!

In a couple of days time I am travelling to Singapore to run our biggest youth seminar ever – over 240 participates are booked in which will surpass our previous record of 185. In need of a little inspiration myself I picked up a copy of our newest book and re-read a couple of pages by Robyn Henderson. She is a totally amazing woman that has delivered more than 150 presentations per year for more than a decade.

Below is a small extract from Robyn’s chapter, where she very clearly and concisely outlines the ten biggest most novice speakers make. I know I got a lot out of it, so I am sure that you will too. Enjoy!

Robyn, what are some of the more common mistakes novice speakers make?

Having been a professional speaker for the past 14 years, I have seen a lot of speakers and I have seen a lot of simple mistakes made by both new and experienced speakers. Some common mistakes include:

1. Trying to squash too much content into your presentation – many people who get up in front of the room may have worked in an industry for ten or more years and think they have to include every single thing they know in a one-hour talk. You’ll discover it’s far less stressful on both you and your audience to concentrate and expand upon just a few key points. This helps to imbed the learning and is usually much more effective than covering so much ground that you leave the audience’s heads spinning.
2. Going over your allocated time – surprisingly, when you get into a speech you often reel off way more information than you planned to, and often underestimate the level of audience participation. This makes it easy to get carried away but you must keep an eye on the time. You are never to go overtime, no discussion at all on this. If you go over time you are taking someone else’s time, be it the audience or another speaker, and you have no right to do that.
3. Not giving a handout to an audience, even if you are not being paid for the presentation – respect any and every presentation and treat it like the most important speech you’ve done. This means giving the same resources you would if being paid (this may be a simple one-page handout that adds value and also lets people know where to find further information).
4. Thinking you are better than anyone else in the room – well, you are not! Often this comes from a misguided belief about why you are at the front of the room. If you are not coming from a genuine position of wanting to help by sharing information and ideas then you might want to examine your motives. Remember, a speaker’s role is to serve their audience and the greater service you can be of to people, the greater speaker you will be.
5. Arriving late to the venue, being unprepared and not knowing enough about the industry or profession of the audience – this basically says you do not care enough about your audience. If you can’t commit to being on time and researching your audience then don’t commit to the presentation.
6. Telling stories that go on for too long and have no relevance to the point you are making – the only purpose of a story is to make or reinforce a point. If it doesn’t, leave it out and find one that does. Also, there is a difference between delivering a speech and delivering a training session. A good speech can deliver a story in 40 seconds that might take ten minutes to deliver in a training session.
7. Using quotes and stories from speakers or authors and not acknowledging them as the source – this is self-explanatory and as Brian Tracy once said, ‘…always acknowledge your sources. First because it’s the right thing to do and second, if it’s wrong you can blame somebody else’.
8. Thinking that you can charge top money for poor quality presentations – there’s a tried and true rule which can basically explain every business success or failure throughout history and that rule is to always ‘under promise and over deliver’. If you concentrate on being the absolute best you can be and deliver massive value, then the money will eventually find you. Speakers that over promise and under deliver, in my opinion, do more damage to themselves and the industry as a whole than they realise.
9. Not walking your talk – many speakers deliver material that is completely inconsistent with who they are or what they do off stage. A classic example of this could be a very stressed person talking about work/life balance.
10. Criticising other speakers publicly – remember what your mother told you, ‘If you can’t say something nice about someone…’ Criticising other speakers or telling derogatory stories about people without seeking their permission, which of course they would not give, is totally unprofessional.

This an excerpt taken for ‘Secrets of Great Public Speakers Exposed!’

For more information or to purchase this book, please visit… www.SecretsExposed.com.au/gpsbook

This month we are thrilled to have two all-new books for people to add to their collection. As you can see from the photo the colours are now looking pretty fab!

Both books are now on our website. For more information please go to…

‘Secrets of Small Business Onwers Exposed!’
http://www.secretsexposed.com.au/sbobook

‘Secrets of Great Public Speakers Exposed!’
http://www.secretsexposed.com.au/gpsbook

It is official… the number one fear for human being is not spider or snakes or even death itself – it is Public Speaking. As the old jokes goes, at a funeral the majority of people would rather be the person in the coffin rather than the person delivering the eulogy.

To help people concern this fear once and for all, we have just release a brand new Secrets Exposed titles, which is set to come the countries public speaking handbook.

Titled Secrets of Great Public Speakers Exposed, the book featuring fifteen of the highly experienced industry professionals that make hundreds of thousands of dollars ever year from their craft – and some that earn well in excess of $1 million per year.

Whether you are a professional, community leader, teacher, business owner, sales person – or in any role that involves people, this book is for you… You’ll discover all the insider secrets and how you too can conquer your fear and become an exceptional public speaker!

To purchase your copy today, go to www.SecretsExposed.com.au/gpsbook

To give you a little more detail, in this book you will discover…

Why the ability to communicate in public is critical to your success
The essential skills all successful speakers have in common
How to overcome fear and project confidence to your audience
How to plan and structure a presentation for maximum impact
How to use the right type of humour and have your audience in stitches
Simple techniques to communicate subconscious messages
What it takes to make $1 million a year as a professional speaker

As of the amazing speakers we have assembled, you’ll be learning from…

Doug Malouf (Speaking Coach) • Shelley Taylor-Smith (World Champion Athlete)
Carl Barron (Leading Comedian) • Matt Church (CEO Thought Leaders)
Peter Sheahan (Generation Y Expert) • Catherine DeVrye (Best-selling Author)
Gavin Blakley (Former Toastmasters President) • Ron Tacchi (Corporate Speaker)
Ron Lee (Corporate Ninja) • Lisa McInnes Smith (International Influencer)
Billy Graham (Boxing Champion) • Candy Tymson (Gender Differences Expert)
Michael Rowland (Personal Development) • Chris Rewell (Image Consultant)
Robyn Henderson (Networking Expert) • Amanda Gore (International Speaker)

So why not grab your copy today at www.SecretsExposed.com.au/gpsbook