Hey guys,

In the run up to tomorrow’s BIG launch. We’ve had a number of questions keep coming up. We thought that it was a good idea to collect the answers here, so that you can be completely confident that what you’ll be investing in tomorrow will be the right thing for you.

** It’s in our best interests to make sure that you’re completely informed, as if you take a space, and then back out in the first month (getting your full refund) we’ll have lost a participant, and the revenue! **

So what have you asked us specifically about this course :

1 ) You mention that it’s a 12 week course, when will it start? When will these bi-weekly e-workshops be?

If you manage to get a place on the course tomorrow, you will immediately receive an e-mail with links to the first bundle of bonuses we’ll be sending out. You’ll receive a user name and password to your customer management page, and a link to the ‘Executive Rockstar Virtual Business School’ that opens it’s doors next Monday. So this week you’ve got time to read a few of the bonuses, bask in the glory of knowing that you managed to get a place, and prepare to meet the rest of the community when we start next Monday.

Next week, we’ll introduce you to the platform, the e-webinar service, and walk you through a couple of exercises designed to have you get the most from the course. Like the first few days of any good course. There is a little admin and learning the ropes to do before we dive into the content.

Then it’s full steam ahead with seminars, e-book summaries of the content, interviews, resources, and links to useful services, content, and experts. We are working full time on delivering the best in focused content to you, and we intend to over deliver.

2 ) OK, so what are the dates and times of the e-workshops you spoke about?

We started off with a definitive schedule of e-workshops, but then we realized that we need to create the schedule when we know who has joined, and which time zones they are in!

Of course, we’ll be repeating seminars once a week, so there is a good chance that you will be able to get to one of the seminars every week… and failing that, catching the ‘recorded’ video of what happened. This is a community, and as such we will schedule around times the majority find most convenient.

3 ) Who will present the e-workshops?

You’ve met Philip and myself. We are the lead faculty on this course, and we’ll be delivering the majority of the content. For a couple of specific areas we have contacts who are just world class performers, and so there may be a couple of ‘guest star’ facilitators. We’re still in negotiations.

4 ) You talk about a community, but how will we interact?

Our ‘virtual business school’ means that everyone has a profile, with personal learning logs: where you can reflect on what you are doing, and see what other people are thinking about, group forums: to discuss the content and the subject matter, recommend links, and receive advice… and even virtual meeting rooms for you to use for peer group get-togethers and ‘virtual master mind’ groups…. and that’s not even mentioning the course materials, the calendar, and links to external resources.

We are looking to create a community of practice that takes the best of what we’ve got to give, and takes it one step further!

5 ) Are any holidays planned?

We are planning to break the course for two weeks over Christmas. Which will provide some useful time for reflecting on the first few weeks of the course, and some time for envisioning the success you’ll be acheiving next year.

6 ) Do I need a fast computer of Internet connection?

If you’ve managed to get good access the content we’ve been putting up on this site, you have a machine that’s fast enough, and good enough bandwidth to handle the course. We won’t be asking you to install any software on your machine. For those technically minded amongst you, our e-workshop platform uses a Java download to do all of the clever stuff. Obviously as this is a multi-media community, a microphone and webcam is useful, but not a necessity.

7 ) What happens after 8 weeks?

My favorite bit! We poll the community on what it feels would be the best subjects to cover in the last four weeks of the course! Then we go and find the experts, resources, and materials to make it work! You’ll have already received 8 weeks of amazing value, but this just takes things to a different level!

8 ) ..and I can get my money back, or additional coaching help if the course isn’t working out for me?

Definitely. We have to de-risk this for you if you are going to invest in us. So if you decide in the first month that this really isn’t for you. We’ll give you your money back, no questions asked, with a smile on our faces. If after that you just don’t feel that you are making the progress you think you should be, even though you are taking advantage of all of the seminars, and getting involved in the community and the various assignments we recommend… then we will step in and arrange some personal coaching with you to make sure that you get far beyond your money’s worth! We are looking for fantastic references from every participant after this course, and to get those, we need to make sure that you’re happy.

9 ) …So does it stop after 12 weeks?

No, when a group like this shares 3 months of learning, and understands what it means to put this new learning into practice in a way that will change lives…. that group takes on a life of its own, and this course will be just the start. How will the community develop? What experts would you like to get in? What sub-communities might form? How will it turn out?

We don’t know! But we’ll be here to move the whole thing forward, connect the right people in, and make ‘Executive Rockstar Alumni’ an exclusive network that people will fight to get in. There will be a monthly charge for the ongoing membership of the network, but we will make sure (again) that it is well worth the small monthly cost!

So, there you go. If you have any further questions… please post them in the comments section below, and we’ll get back to them some time today!

See you tomorrow!

Jason

Faculty : Executive Rockstar Initiative

I set some time aside this weekend to create a video for you describing the best method for structuring business documents that I’ve ever found. (Yes, that includes reports, analyses, slides, and even important e-mails)

It really does provide a template for creating world class business documents; it’s easy to learn, I can take you through the basics in a few minutes, and many of the large consultancies recommend this method to their consulting teams as THE way to create documents for clients.

Enrollment for our 12 week group coaching course opens on Tuesday, and we still have plenty to do to prepare for 200 eager participants… so I thought that I’d squeeze this in tonight for you. I hope that you find it useful!

In order to bring you real insights from ‘Executive Rockstars’ who achieve continued and frankly amazing levels of success, I’m publishing a few more of my recent research interviews which form the basis of a new article to be published in the national press in the next couple of months.

It’s so refreshing to hear from these kinds of guys first hand, that I want to share just a few of these recordings with you.

Today, we meet Brad Stroh who left his job in Venture Capital to create his own company in 2002 with co-founder Andrew Housser.

‘The Freedom Financial Network’ – which includes Bills.com – clocked up an impressive $43.5 million in revenues in 2007, employs 420 engaged employees in three offices, holds the No. 257 spot on the Inc. 500 list for 2008, and was ranked as the No. 3 fastest-growing company in America on Entrepreneur Magazine’s Hot 100 list for 2008 

So what are Brad’s Executive Rockstar secrets? How does he structure his time? How does he handle overload? What is his key career advice?

Brad ‘followed his internal compass’ out of a well paying position with a Venture Capital firm, and obviously has to juggle a family life and a fast growing business; so it was great to be able to ask him about how he manages to fit it all in, and how he prioritizes things.

** For those of you who want this interview ‘to go’ right click this link, select ’save as…’ from the options, and upload to your favorite MP3 player!**

Jason Bates
Faculty : The Executive Rockstar Initiative 

Many thanks to everyone who entered our ‘best career advice ever‘ competition to win my new Olympic Gore-Tex sailing jacket! Our judges sorted through the entries (which were anonymized) before picking a winner….

The winning sage advice was sent in by Jim Tuffin at the start of the week…

“I wanted to submit a little bit of advice that I think is really important if you are to succeed in anything that you wish to do, be it being an Executive, an Entrepreneur or a Father!

You have to know what it is that you want to achieve, what your goal is, and then simply take ACTION!  Too many of us sit back and wait for things to happen, and not surprisingly when they do, it is often not what we expect or want. The secret is - that you need to take control, you need to move towards your goal, you need to start … and that takes ACTION on your behalf.

I hope this is useful to all … it is one of those tips that everyone will nod at and agree, but few follow through on!”

We have to agree that our judges picked some good advice here. It’s great to strategize and dream about where you want to end up. But actually doing something about it, taking that first step, and the next, and the next, is rare in this world of ‘much talk but little action’.

What did you do today to move you towards where – and who – you want to be?

We had a lot of great advice sent through. So many thanks to those who entered the competition. We’ll be collating it and distributing it out to the people who participated.

As for Jim, well he has some nice Gore-Tex heading his way… congratulations!

Jason Bates
Faculty : The Executive Rockstar Initiative 

Last week I managed to secure an interview with the amazing Tom Searcy. Few people have taken small companies and created the explosive growth that Tom has. Even fewer have done it twice… but FOUR times!? Four companies, four successes, four IPO’s. Taking his companies from $15 million to $150 million in short order is a Rockstar talent, and Tom has it! He graciously agreed to share some of his secrets in an interview for a piece I’m writing for a national newspaper. This is a great interview!

Tom leads a company called Whalehunters that helps other companies achieve explosive growth through large account sales. But, can he provide insight into how can you personally achieve explosive growth in your career? I think he can!

Listen to the interview above to find out the best career advice Tom ever received. Find out his three keys for creating urgency for your staff, and understand how you can help people overcome overload. There are some great comments here from an executive at the top of his game. 

** A number of people have asked for some of these interviews in a form that can be downloaded to their MP3 players. If this fits with you please ‘right click’ on this link, and select ’save as…’ from the options **

More great interviews to come next week!

Best wishes,

Jason Bates
The Executive Rockstar Initiative. 

As part of the research I’m doing for an article in a national newspaper. I’ve managed to secure interviews with ‘Executive Rockstars’ who are truly at the top of their game.

First, Morris Reid. As a senior staff aide in the Clinton Administration, Morris had direct access to some of the most powerful men on the planet.

Now, a top branding and political strategist from Washington D.C. Morris has worked with high-profile individuals, government officials and corporate executives in the successful resolution of complex and high-level political and corporate issues for more than 15 years.

He truly gets things done! A commentator for CNN, MSNBC, and ABC, a regular in the US quality press, a prominent philanthropist, and a nice guy. How does he organize his days? What is the best career advice he’s ever been given? Did he always know what he wanted to do?

This is the first in a series of interviews we’ll be doing with real ‘Executive Rockstars’ as further research into how they prioritize, organize, and see their work lives ‘day to day’

Look out for the article in your Sunday papers. In the mean time, enjoy.

Best wishes,

Jason

Jason Bates
Lead Faculty : Executive Rockstar

Find out more about the Executive Rockstar Initiative for Career and Business Success

Perhaps you, like me, find the idea of being famous hard to stomach…but there’s no doubt that being slightly famous can help your career and business succeed - if you do it in the right way. So I’m not talking about Paris Hilton or Rafael Nadal famous, I’m talking about Lars Hilse famous.

Who is Lars Hilse?

Maybe you know him already, or maybe you haven’t come across him yet, but in my circles he seems to crop up A LOT!  Somehow he’s managed to create for himself a global reputation and consulting business as a web strategist, from an 800 person village in Germany.  It’s so rural there that the bandwith was so low we couldn’t record video!  So here is my audio interview with him about how he’s done his own personal reputation management.

I hope you enjoy it - and there’s much more about this topic to come!  Look out for big news on the Executive Rockstar front page, coming soon.

And here’s a link to Lars Hilse Web Strategist if you want to contact him directly.

Warm Regards

Philip Greenwood

Lead Faculty Member
JV Partner Manager

This is a really useful tip for when you’re pushing the boundaries on your technical knowledge in order to deliver something a little more complex than you usually would – maybe a ’signature project’ – and things go wrong. How do you find technical answers to your IT problems quickly? My favourite resource is …

Experts-exchange.com: A very useful subscription based service that puts an army of technical experts at your finger tips for less than $10 a month. It’s a good service, but if you don’t have that many technical problems to solve, it might be worth knowing about the ‘back door’ to getting experts-exchange advice without subscribing to the service.

So, if you search for the technical problem you are interested in on Google remembering to add the following text to the end of your query:

site:experts-exchange.com

Google will show you all of the experts-exchange pages related to answering your query.

From first glance it appears that you have to subscribe to a 7 day trial in order to get to the answers. but take a closer look, and you’ll notice that the experts-exchange page you’ve arrived on is a very very long web page. Just look to the right! That’s a screen print of it!

Just scroll to the bottom of that long page and you’ll find the answers that you need in clear text waiting for you!

WHY? HOW?

Well, Experts-exchange wants Google to index its entire site including the answers, but doesn’t want to share them with you for free. So it hides the answers at the bottom of the very long page. It believes, probably rightly, that no one in their right mind is going to scroll all the way down through 3-4 pages of text looking for answers. BUT, that is just where you’ll find them!

NOTE : If you go directly to the page - through a bookmark or typing in the address - the answers won’t be there. It’s only when you go to a page via a google query that you find the real answers in clear text.

So to find the answers to your most difficult technical queries, just add ’site:experts-exchange.com’ to the end of your google queries, read the questions at the top of the pages, and scroll down to the bottom of the page for all of the answers!

To make it even easier for you: I’ve created a custom google search that does this for you. Just bookmark the following address, and remember that you have the link the next time you run into a technical problem.

The Executive Rockstar IT Answers search page

I’m sure that you will find this helpful, it’s definitely saved me a few times.

There is no charge. ;o) But I would appreciate a ‘digg’ using the icon at the top right hand side of the page if you find this tip helpful.

…until next week.

Best regards,

Jason Bates
Faculty : ExecutiveRockstar.info

Find out more about the Executive Rockstar Initiative for Business and Career Success

What’s new this week in the world of the Executive Rockstar? Economic briefings, Insider techniques from the ‘big boys’, and competitions for an Olympic jacket. Just your normal week then ;o)

It’s been a great week, with a surge in people joining the community, and some great new content.

The links you probably want to check out :-

1. Sebastian Lyle’s excellent economic briefing. An EXCLUSIVE for Executive Rockstar! Know what to say when the CFO talks about the death of Hedge funds, and get a perspective on the market from a top financial commentator.

2. Philip Greenwood explains the basics of Issue Decomposition. A closely guarded secret from the top strategy consultancies that will clarify your position, and build your reputation.

3. Instant answers to difficult technology problems. Everyone encounters a technical problem once in a while. What’s the best free source for answers to your IT questions? It’s sneaky, but very cool!

4. The competition for my Olympic sailing jacket enters the second week. As predicted with over 1000 visitors to the page, we’ve had 10 entries. Rockstars understand that competition scares the majority of people off. The bigger the competition, the more the crowd thins! Send me your top career tip!

We know that many of you are worried about your positions and your businesses as the economy deteriorates, and so we’re accelerating our plans to coach you in the absolute ‘need to know’ techniques, tools, and tactics for improving your productivity, playing to your strengths, and building your reputation with the people that matter. We know that you need to make your mark NOW, and start building your reputation before companies start the thinning-out.

BUT, we have to be sure that we can deliver exactly what you need before we announce anything, so bare with us, we’re moving heaven and earth to make something pretty special happen for you next month!

Regards,

Jason Bates
Philip Greenwood
Lead Faculty : Executive Rockstar

Find out more about the Executive Rockstar Initiative for Career and Business Success

Today I’m going to introduce you to a technique that will enable you to take control of meetings, influence strategic direction and give you a real edge whenever complex questions need to be asked and answered.

There are few techniques that $5,000 a day strategy consultants rely on time and time again. This is one of them.

Have you ever noticed that powerful leaders seem to be able to simplify issues down to 5-9 points? How everything seems much simpler, and more easy to fix, when someone with a clear view of the problem steps up and explains things, setting the direction for the team? How do they do that?

In troubled times, companies need to feel that their employees and suppliers have a clear and compelling view of the situation and what needs to be done about it: this is what a mastery of issue decomposition will give you.

I hope that you enjoyed the presentation - it’s very much an ‘insider’ technique for deconstructing complex problems and complex processes.

I will warn you that you aren’t going to master this framework watching a twenty minute video - there are intricacies in picking dimensions, ordering the branches, and finding branches no one else would think of. But the video will give you a jump-start to put this powerful technique to work!

And when you’ve finished watching the video, what then?

Use it!  It’s the best way to learn…

1) Identify the biggest issue currently facing you, your department, your company, or your market. (Or you could start with the key question:  What are the big issues facing..?)
2) Create an issue decomposition for the issue or question - and notice how your thinking changes as you do the exercise - you may not notice it immediately, but with just a little persistence, you’ll start to see some results!
3) Leave me a note in the comments section below if you get stuck, or want to know more.

We’re going to get deeper into this framework in a future seminar, because it not only provides a backbone for setting agendas, building your reputation, and getting to the heart of things, it’s also a great tool for creating persuasive and powerful communication about those issues and answers.

Until then…

Best regards,

Philip Greenwood
Faculty : Executive Rockstar

Find out more about the Executive Rockstar Initiative for Career and Business Success

What do you say when you’re talking with colleagues about the stock market crashing for the umpteenth day in a row? Where is your money safe? What do the experts say when they aren’t being misquoted in the news papers?

It’s vital for every Executive Rockstar to understand the fundamentals of what is happening, and so we got the best financial mind we know to explain what’s happening in a one off specialist Executive Rockstar briefing.

We hope that you enjoyed this specialist briefing - we’ve got more great interviews and briefings lined up with clients: Executive Rockstars who have made literally hundreds of millions of dollars doing signature projects and standing-out from the crowd.

Though times are getting tough, we’re going to make your position totally recession proof before Christmas. Mark my words! As I’m sure you realize, the warm up content from the last few weeks has tested our equipment and multimedia servers. Now It’s time to make some changes!

Although…

We’ve had some feedback from a few people who haven’t been too impressed with us giving away secrets that they think should remain hidden:

“I’m ex-Andersen and just read your first glossy.  Good stuff.  I know this path well.

I left the firm after four years and within a short time after that was making more, working less, and putting together deals with full partners who wouldn’t have given me the time of day had I stayed within the boundaries of the traditional ‘ladder’ at the firm.

Question is, why are you sharing it with the doozers?

Why are we sharing it with ‘the doozers’?  Because the self-appointed ’select few’ have had it too good, for too long. It’s time that you understood their secrets, and we are going to make that happen!

Check out Philip Greenwood’s introduction to Issue Decomposition — a killer technique from the big strategy consultancies. I’m sure that someone won’t be pleased that we’re sharing this. Poor them!

Keep the Faith!

Philip Greenwood
Jason Bates
Lead Faculty : The Executive Rockstar Initiative

Find out more about The Executive Rockstar Initiative for Career and Business Success

Did you see that I got to go sailing with the British Olympic Sailing Team, a couple of weeks ago? On that trip, I was given a really nice limited edition 2008 ‘GBR Team’ Goretex jacket, and on November 3rd I’m going to give it away as competition prize to this community: specifically to the person who sends us the best career tip!

WHY? Because although we have an amazing array of tools, tips, and tactics for making your career strategy really fly, we are always open to learning more – and we know that you have something special to share with us!

It’s easy to enter, and it’s a great prize… so show us what you’ve got!

What do you need to do to win this rare limited edition waterproof?

1. Send me your top tip, tactic, tool, or advice for making a modern career fly. What piece of advice have you most valued through the years? How has it affected your career? Send us a two minute e-mail, now!
2. In two weeks (November 3rd), we’ll be asking a couple of ‘Rockstars’ to pick a winner, and the next morning I will post my jacket directly to the winner - first class!
3. We’ll collate the entries into a killer document that we’ll distribute later to everyone involved. So just entering will give you a chance to see everyone else’s best advice… a prize in itself!

I’ll even try to get a photograph of the winner in their jacket, we’ll post that too, with a free link to your business / online profile etc. (Hey, we’re even giving you a chance to build your reputation here!)

So what are you waiting for?

Send your hastily written entry to  :- competition@ExecutiveRockstar.info

There will be less people entering than you imagine, and it couldn’t be easier to WIN!

The not-so-small print :-

Can we just assume that you understand that this will be a fair competition with no hidden catches. You know the score: The judges decision is final, there is no cash alternative, etc. etc. I’ll anonymize the advice and get a couple of ‘impartials’ to choose their favourite, and that will be that.

Anyone can enter, but the important thing is that if we are going to collate all of the advice into a document and send it out to people, you need to own the rights to your advice, and give us full permission to reproduce and distribute it electronically, in hard copy, edited as we see fit (with full attribution to you of course) for perpetuity. (If you aren’t prepared to allow us to use your advice in this way, please don’t enter the competition. We have to cover ourselves, I’m sure that you understand!)

Oh, and for those of you who love last minute dashes, the final possible moment to enter is midnight - November 2nd

I really look forward to reading your entries…. It’s a really nice jacket.

Good Luck, Rockstars!

Jason Bates
Faculty : Executive Rockstar

Find out more about The Executive Rockstar Initiative for Career and Business Success

I’ve had a number of people get back to me and say that while they downloaded ‘The BIG Plan’ – our killer career strategy modelled on the high flyers we’ve worked with over the last 15 years – they haven’t had time to read it yet.

Well, I have some good news for those guys… because I recorded a recent webinar presentation I gave to some consulting companies and I’m pleased to be able to give you that video now.

So you ’stress-monkeys’ out there, who fool yourselves into believing that multitasking really works, can now do something else, as you keep one eye on this video, and finally find out what all the fuss is really about!

Of course now you’ve seen the film, you may want to read the book. It’s funny how that happens! If you follow this link, you can get your own copy FREE now!

Best regards,

Jason Bates
Faculty : Executive Rockstar

Find out more about the Executive Rockstar Initiative for Career and Business Success

With the crisis in the stock market dragging on, I think that everyone has been keeping an eye on share prices this week… trying to work out how the events that are impacting the banking sector are going to ripple out through the real economy to our companies.

But there is another reason why the stock market interests me. The pricing of shares truly reflects the level of confidence that investors have that a company is going to do well in the future.

Just like you, companies have to own a niche, a vision for the future that investors can buy into, and a reputation for doing something well, based on solid historical results.

So the question shouldn’t be ‘How is the stock market doing?’, but ‘How is your own stock doing?’ - your personal equity, your perceived value, the confidence that your boss, your colleagues, and your customers have that you are going to produce spectacular results from them.

Are you an ‘Apple’? Innovating with signature projects? Building a reputation for understanding the fundamentals about what consumers want from their products? Do you think about your reputation, your ‘look and feel’? (excuse me ;o)

Is your stock on the rise, or is it on the fall? Is it a commodity stock, that fluctuates along with how the rest of the market is doing?

Executive Rockstars, just like the large corporations, understand that while results count, their beneficial impact can be vastly multiplied with a good story-line, a strong stance, and a little style.

How would you value your equity?  Let’s ask some challenging questions:

• What is your ‘relative performance’ - does your ’stock’ growth out-perform the rest?
• What is your ‘relative volatility’ - does your ’stock’ rise and fall faster or slower than the rest?
• What have you done recently that will have made a splash with the ‘analysts and investors’?
• How did you capitalize on that success to build your reputation?
• Are there specific ‘analysts and investors’ that cause you trouble?
• How do you handle their concerns?
• What is your ‘descriptor’ - What are you known for?
• How is your niche doing in the marketplace… is it a growth sector or is it in decline?
• How could the current real market situation be the best thing that has ever happened for your ’stock price’?
• Are you making appropriate investments in yourself to keep your ’stock’ moving ahead of the competition?

Did you just read through them, or did you really stop to think?

Jason Bates
Faculty : Executive Rockstar

Find out more about The Executive Rockstar Initiative for Career and Business Success

Footnote : In 1997 David Bowie sold 10 year’s future royalties to his back-catalogue - known as ‘Bowie Bonds’ - for $55 million.  A large institutional investor (Prudential Insurance Company) bought the whole offering…they saw a strong personality with a reputation that drove consistent sales of his existing repertoire.  Who would buy yours?