A British Entrepreneur in America

I'm busy working with Crazy Jack writing our first book and both of us are writing furiously in order to get the inner salesman finished, released quickly and without starting sixteen more in the process!

We are both fighting our natural instincts of being entrepreneurs and this means doing the opposite of what we normally do - focusing on the task at hand and finishing it ourselves, without the usual hand-off to other people!  Getting it done is a alien to the mind of many entrepreneurs as our minds are simply too active and always looking for the 'next' venture!

This ballistic striking e-book is selling well and shortly we will launch the two-part DVD.  I love the simplicity of on-line business because as an entrepreneur, I can do business in the four corners of the world with good quality information, some web space and a PayPal account!  Clearly the opportunities are huge!

I must get back to the book now and start thinking of the next one!

 ~ Neil

Technorati Tags: sales training, entrepreneur, sales coach, striking, opportunities 

Crazy Jack and I have just started working on our first book - the Inner Salesman!  We know we are perfectly qualified to write a book because:

a) We've never written one before

b) Our spelling is the square root of atrocious

c) We love the sound of our own voices and now, we can love our own writing

So we begin today, furiously dictating and typing to each other and somehow managing to agree on everything and stay on the subject!  Then we hand it over to my assistant and partner in Franklin-Spirko, Alison Smith, who is tasked with the proof reading. Alison complains that not even the spell-checker can decipher this mess and Crazy replies - "thats what editors are for".  this is not going to be easy!

We have now launched the first e-book on Ballistic Striking - this is the book to accompany the video on the same subject featuring former Olympic Athlete, Martial Artist and KGB operative, Val Riazanov.  I have a personal interest in this project as do my ribs, stomach and every other body part that has been graced by Val's fists!  He now tells me the next one is going to be Ballistic Kicks - can't wait! 

Back to the book - Jack and I firmly believe that selling does not need to be taught, it is a skill we are born with and fail to utilize correctly throughout our lives.  Sales training is a huge industry and unfortunately, most of what is taught does not work.

This is where we come in!

~ Neil 

Technorati Tags: Sales, Jack Spirko, Val Riazanov, KGB, training, sales advice,

I've still got Martial Arts on the brain and I forgot to mention two other favorite Martial Artists of mine, Rexley and Roy.  These two are 'special' and a constant source of inspiration to me!

I think I'm finally over the jet lag from my recent Asian trip, after nearly two weeks and now ready to back into the business world.  The Franklin-Spirko team led by Crazy Jack, are busy putting the finishing touches to our website.  I can't believe how much I have changed my attitude to websites - I know I keep repeating this, but I used to be the one to agonize over every specific detail, not to mention the copy, believing that a 'perfect' website will make the business better.  You have about 8 seconds to capture interest on a website - if that is achieved, then you have a chance that the person will read just a little further before moving on, or at best will be locked in your site and start to become a potential customer.

At Franklin-Spirko, we have a great phrase:

'you believe in your company.  Our job is to make your customers believe in you'.

At the end of the day, it's all about belief and you may ask how we do it - it's really a simple process, first we dig deep into the company and extract the message.  Then we position that message in the eyes of the target audience or market and never, for the business owners.  Finally, we market the hell out of it using online and off line techniques!  The process is all about transfer of belief, which is my all-time favorite definition of selling.

~ Neil

Technorati Tags: selling, marketing, belief, customers, Asia, Judo, purist, Martial Arts 

Martial Arts hold a special place in my heart and the other day, I spent some rare time browsing through videos on youtube and searching forums, but I am amazed at how much junk is out there and I am sad to say, most of what I watched is so far away from reality and in my opinion, dangerous for the people learning.  I've been doing Martial Arts for 25 years and like most people, I took up Martial Arts to defend myself and also to gain self confidence.  The arts are very diverse, but in real terms, any art must be able to deal with combat at all ranges - close, medium and long. Sadly, many are unable to do this and in the worst case, they provide the practitioner with a false sense of security.

Over the years, I have been lucky enough to train with some of the finest teachers in the world, in my search for arts that really work and teachers who can really teach.  My very first teacher was a guy called Kevin Brewerton and Kevin taught me near my home in Southern England way back in the early eighties.  For me, Kevin's teachings provided a much needed boost of self confidence as well as getting me extremely fit!  Kevin concentrated on the sporting and competitive aspects of the arts and himself became a five time world champion in his field.  Kevin now lives in Los Angeles and I made a trip there last year to see him and am amazed that he looked younger than when I last say him 15 years ago!  Kevin is also a successful actor, author and personal trainer.

I wanted more out of the arts than sport and I was lucky enough to meet a guy called Floyd Brown, who was practicing Thai Boxing - now this was reality!  Floyd also introduced me to a Martial Arts Legend - Steve Morris.  Anyone who is anyone in UK Martial Arts will have heard of Steve.  Steve opened my eyes to reality and when I was training with him back in the late eighties/early nineties, I think he was in his fifties, although he had the physique, speed, movement of someone in their twenties, not to mention devastating power! There was absolutely no doubt in my mind, after meeting him for the first time, that he could really 'do the business'.  What further amazed me was how articulate he was in explaining the science behind his theories and also the fact that he has dedicated his entire life to the Martial Arts.

Now back to the 'fake' aspect of Martial Arts.  If you search Russian Martial Arts, you will come across an art called Systema, meaning 'system'.  I came across this art some years ago and ordered some videos from Vladimir Vasiliev, who is based in Canada.  My first reaction was they were fake - I had a background in traditional, 'hard style' martial arts and boxing, so to me, these were as far removed from reality as you could get!  I immediately sent copies to Floyd, who thought the same, but then we both thought, "what is it's real"?  there was a training trip to Moscow that year and both Floyd and I decided to go.  Sadly for me, I had to cancel due to business commitments, but Floyd went!  Floyd came back a changed man and told me that this was what we both have been searching for.

Following the trip, Floyd and I started training in London and this is when I met Val Riazanov, who is now a friend and also the teacher on the DVD we are producing - Ballistic Strikes.  Now meeting Val opened me to a whole new approach in Martial Arts, one of simplicity, relaxation and devastating effectiveness!  Val offered me to go to Moscow with him to train with the head of Systema, Mikhail Ryabko.  I jumped at the chance.

I want to set the record straight about training in Moscow and with Mikhail Ryabko, Val Riazanov and Vladimir Valsiliev.  There is much written about Systema on the Internet and I can understand everyone who has not met any of the aforementioned instructors, looking at the videos and deeming them fake, after all, I did.  But when I when I first met these instructors, they simply said to me, "attack me, any way you want".  Now I have met many 'masters', who invite you to attack them in a specific way, but not many who simply let you do what you want.  Naturally, being the gung ho skeptic, I did and very quickly wished I did not!  Many other 'famous' Martial Artists have done the same, with the same result and I can personally assure you, there is nothing fake about these guys.  

You must also understand that Systema has no belts, gradings, stances, katas, forms etc - it is up to the individual to apply the principles to their own body and effectively, work it out for themselves.  the principles are easy to learn and with practice, can be applied and I can testify to this first hand!  It is however, this 'interpretation' that can lead to people not understanding the principles and in my opinion, this is why the art sometimes gets a bad name.  If you wish to learn or have any doubts, simply go to a seminar with any of the aforementioned and your doubts will disappear!  There are many other fine instructors out there, but I have not had the pleasure of training with them - both inside and outside of Russia.

Moving forward, I am working with Val on a series of DVD's - these will focus on Ballistic Kicks, fighting from the stand up position, going to the ground and then back up to standing, weapons training, as well as discussing the psychological aspects of combat - all under the name of the Val Riazanov Total Combat System!

I'm excited about it all…except the pain! 

~ Neil 

Technorati Tags: Russian Martial Arts, Val Riazanov, Steve Morris, fake, conditioning, ballistic striking, Thai Boxing, Systema 

Many people have asked me why I chose to move to America, especially Dallas.  Now I want to make one thing clear from the outset, I am extremely proud to be British as I would expect everybody to be just as proud of their own home country - it's just that I don't like what Britain has become and more importantly, what I believe it is going to become.

Britain is moving to be part of a European 'super state' and this is something that is going to happen seemingly without the consent of the people and has been planned for a long time.  I am not going to lay the blame on the existing government (although they have played a significant part) or previous governments - they all got it wrong.  the idea of a united Europe is in theory, a good one, but how do you unite such diverse Countries and cultures?  For me, this is the greatest challenge as they really are so diverse!  The issue is that European decision making will be done in Brussels, Belgium - the European Union will decide and set policy for the rest of the member states (sorry, Countries)!  Already this has happened with the passing of some insane and even comical laws! 

One example is how Britain moved into the metric measuring system - from pounds and ounces into grams and kilograms - not that I am against this in any way.  What I am against is the forcing of retailers to no longer be able to display the old system after a certain period of time - granted you may say, if the time line is enough then people should have learned and changed.  but what about the elderly - many who have spent 90% of their lives in one system and who now have to suddenly learn another - some of which had fought in two world wars, surely we can have a 'dual' system whereby we can display goods in both the new and the old?  Not according to Brussels, who declared this very practice as illegal.  You might think that this was trivial in the overall picture, but for me, it was a sign of things to come.

I love Europe - I have traveled through most of it and I love the individual cultures, food, lifestyles and I even enjoyed changing currencies and trying to figure out if I was really better off buying beer in Spanish pesetas compared to English pounds!  I agree with the creation of maybe a 'trading currency' to help encourage countries to do business with each other, but to take away the heritage of a country and change its currency is in some ways, heartbreaking.  This is exactly what will eventually happen to the British pound. 

Growing up in England has left me with fond memories - I say England because there is a sense of pride about where you are from in the British Isles.  My Mother is Welsh, so I have Celtic blood in me and I am extremely proud of my Welsh ancestry also (especially when Wales win at Rugby)! 

Britain today is a shadow of its former self - the health care system is seriously short of cash and patient care is declining, the police and law and order system is virtually powerless to deal with the burning issues of increased violent crime, the education system is declining and all of this in spite of increased taxation!

Deciding to come to America was fairly easy due to my business interests, but I was extremely and pleasantly surprised after living here just for a few months.  I saw children playing in the streets, shopping malls devoid of graffiti and people are consistently polite and friendly. 

For me, this was the Britain of old.  

~ Neil 

Technorati Tags: European Union, America, Tony Blair, Politics, Euro, Wales, Currencies, business 

Bomb scares are not what they used to be!

Coming from a military background and growing up in the 70' near England's military capital Aldershot, you become used to the threat of bombings, given the situation with Northern Ireland, but I must admit, the two scares we had not so long ago at our offices in Frisco, Texas, left me a little perplexed!  There was a positive outcome though, we found our latest favorite martini bar at the Zea Woodfire Grill, just down the road, where we adjourned to after waiting for nearly two hours in the car park at our offices. It was here where the concept of Franklin-Spirko was born!

Crazy Jack has just returned from vacation and on his first day back at the office, I could sense a martini was required - myself, Jack and Alison Smith, my assistant and also a co-founder of Franklin-Spirko made our way to our 'creative haunt'.  It's amazing what a couple of martinis served with almond/blue cheese stuffed olives can do for creativity - I could literally see concepts flowing out of Crazy's head and websites being designed by the second!  I must confess, Jack has come up with an absolutely genius idea, which we have added to the previous 100 list of absolutely genius ideas - seriously, this one is up there with the best - stay tuned!

It's good to hear that my blog is getting around - I received an email from an old work colleague of mine Alistair Rynish.  Alistair was with me in my technology staffing business, dataworkforce and helped me launch dataworkforce here in Dallas, back in the late 90's.  Alistair now runs his own successful telecommunications staffing business, First Point Group and is based in London.

Time now for a little drum practice - as my drum teacher Wez, back in England used to say, "I can't teach you how to play, only how to practice"!  I replied "that's because you heard me play"!

~ Neil

Technorati Tags: ideas, creative, martini, grill, military, telecommunications, drumming 

Just had the first sales meeting for Franklin-Spirko and to start as we mean to go on, we put the title of this post in bold letters on the white board.  We must practice what we preach, so the point of our meeting was to talk firstly about revenue, then move on to revenue and then finish with revenue - we replaced 'any other business' with 'any other revenue' - after all, what are we here for!

Franklin-Spirko has a slightly different approach with our staff - we actually encourage our employees to have other business interests!  This may seem a little divorced from the traditional 'corporate' world, but we need our people to 'feel' the pain of running and operating a business - otherwise how can they best advise our clients?  Also, it keeps them creative, fuels the ambition and most importantly, shows how much trust we place in them.

Our staffing business C-People has just launched their website - in conjunction with Franklin-Spirko of course!  The single, most important message of C-People is Profitable Hiring.  Think about how much time the corporate world wastes on trying to hire the wrong people and ultimately the cost. We are producing a white paper on this very subject, to get the the industry angry!  Yes, the industry needs to get angry about this and realize how many dollars are literally thrown away in the quest for talent.

Any staffing business MUST ensure they are contributing profitably to the hiring process and that means ensuring they do not waste ANY of their candidates or clients time - and of course, their own.  I am amazed at websites that do nothing more than talk about how great the company is, how they specialize in temporary and permanent recruiting etc, but fail to articulate about how they as a company, contribute to their clients profits.

Let's never forget that there is only one real differentiator that any company can have and that is its people - products and technology can only go so far, but we will always come back to the caliber of the people - that's why the staffing industry is so huge and lucrative and for C-People, we are driven by ensuring that what we do, is focussed on creating a profitable return for our candidates, clients and in developing long standing profitable relationships.

 ~ Neil

Technorati Tags: staffing, meetings, boredom, revenue, corporate, profitable, creating 

Just returned from a trip in the Far East and I must say, much has changed since my last visit several years ago.  I always like doing business in Asia, it is fast paced, but with a sense of 'precision' - you have to be very careful to understand the culture of doing business in Asia.

Many years ago in my staffing business when I was based in London, I made the decision to work in mainland Europe.  This was because the European markets were on the brink of huge expansion in the sector I was operating in.  My first thoughts were to just 'dive' in and start selling and it was only a chance conversation with a friend of mine that made me re-think.  He said that it is absolutely essential to get as much background information on the Country, culture, history and economics before you attempt to do business - your customers will appreciate the 'homework', not to mention the interest you are showing.

Over the years I have always ensured that I have a good knowledge of the Country I am going to visit and it's a piece of advice I would give to anyone attempting to do business outside of their home Country - it may sound obvious as you read what I am saying, but I guarantee you that the majority of people don't and that is one competitive advantage you can have almost instantly!

I must say that having flown to Asia from my new home in Dallas, as opposed to London, adds about 10 hours to the flying time, but one thing I do enjoy about flying is the time I get to read.  I was lucky enough to have a book given to me by Cary Tobolka, President of our Staffing Business C-People called Talent Force, by Hank Stringer (Cary even got me a signed copy)!  The book talks in depth about how to build a quality talent pool for your business and how the most important asset of any business and the only real key differentiator, is the people - something I agree totally with Hank on.  the book is a must read for anyone in the staffing/HR business.

~ Neil 

Technorati Tags: culture, talent, Asia, business, HR, staffing