When hard work pays off.

THREE STEPS TO BREAK FROM FEAR.

2019-09-03T21:27:00.001-07:00

One of the things that I have often found that is that many people are holding themselves from manifesting purpose. Many times, its often fear that stops many from walking into what they need to walk in.

Here are three steps to break free from fear.

1) Identify the fear.

This is is the first step in the process. Identify the fear! There is power in precesion. If you are talking in general, you miss the target. The key lies in identifying what the fear is. Is it fear of heights?? Is it fear of rejection

2) Replace it with the Truth.

On this one, we already know that the fear is not real. So what we need to do is to replace it with the truth. Finds facts and information that proves the fear otherwise. If its heights, focus on the fact that many people have gone over and above those heights and are doing okay. The other way is to go through bible passages that promise victory over that particular area. Depending on the nature of the fear, some people will opt to meditate on God’s truth, which is the bible. Meditate on it, and this will increase your faith over that area.

3) Go do that thing,

This is where we take action in the direction of our fear. We have identified it and we have replaced it with the truth and the next thing we do is to walk out that truth. For some it’’s actually going on the plane and take your first trip! (yes I know some have a serious fear of flying) .

If it was fear of disappointment, then pick up the call and make that call, you have been wanting to make that call for a long long time! Make the call and you can find the answers that you are seeking. You can apply this step process to any area. The most important thing is identification of that fear. Many times, people are not even aware that they are scared or there is some under current of fear!

I hope this three step process will help you out and you can be able to take a step closer to your purpose and allow that leader within you to manifest!

For more on Identiy, you can download your Free Ebook by going here: Identity

Thanks

Wisdom V Mupudzi

My Official Response to Relevant Magazine's , Have Christians Turned Marriage into an Idol.

2019-05-08T22:50:00.000-07:00

Its not everyday that I get prompted to response to a news piece, article etc. Most times I just comment on the post and keep it moving, however, today I wanted to respond to this piece by relevant magazine

One of the main reasons is that Idolatry is huge and also God hates idols, and for many people wanting breakthrough in this area of relationships and or any other areas, idolatry can often stand in the way of the much sought after breakthrough. Anytime we worship or exalt anything above God, we get out of Devine Alignment, and this can lead to a whole bunch of issues that we never saw coming!

The best place to be, is the place of Devine Alignment.

Yes, the answer is yes. Marriage has been turned into an idol, the end- all and be- all of life. I like the fact that Tyler spoke about ''unwritten rules'' and i would add to that and say yes there are unwritten rules and codes. For example, in some churches, single ladies in leadership only date other single men in leadership. There are no written rules,but they are real. A couple years back i was chatting with a few guys just near one of the church doors. This is at one particular church, I have visited many churches over the years and I have come to appreciate the role of church culture in driving beliefs and conduct among many singles. I have also heard the similar dating dilemmas ranging from, ''there are no men in the church'' to whatever else you may think of. I am also currently planted in one.

Having said that, back to our story. From the blue, here comes a young brunette bubbly and beautiful breezing through. As she turned, we locked our eyes, and as she was in a rush i allowed the moment to pass, and i asked the gang, "'who was that?". The answer blew my mind, its blah blah but if you want her you have to be in the worship team!!! Whaat!!!Cut a long story short, that girl was later dropped by someone in the worship team as he went and chose someone else,it was brutal and she had to change churches and has since moved on!

Having said that, you then wonder how many guys or relationships have been ''killed'' because there is some rule that is unwritten that someone hinted to. Truth be said, if I had gotten to know the girl referred to, i wasnt going to pass the opportunity because someone said you are not in the worship team! This may sound extreme, but the truth is, this is extending to many areas. Idolatry extends to other areas other than marriage in the 21st century. We are seeing a new wave of pastors who seem to put one gender above the other gender, women to be exact. I believe both genders are different and play different but powerful roles in the marriage institution. I think the moment we want to elevate the importance of one gender above the other one, we are missing the point! God in His infnite wisdom, chose to have a man and a woman coming together to form a powerful union. Both genders need each other, that simple. I included this as I have picked up disturbing under tones coming from many pulpits.

Some pastors have been turned into idols, worship by itself has been turned into an idol, you will find that many people will gravitate towards worship team, as opposed to prayer team, ushering etc. Some will only go to those areas because they dont have a good voice, or they know the restrictions or politics required to join the team, such that they dont bother. However, to not deviate from our topic, I believe marriage has been turned into an idol and the far reaching implications move just being a spiritual issue.

Not only has marriage been turned into an idol, expectations are that its going to be perfect. Something out of a hollywood movie etc, but reality is often catching up with many newly weds as they discover many things that they should have learnt prior to enter it. One of the things that many pastors are not addressing is the issue of bloodline issues. Many christians are in denial about this, in my Award Winnning Book, Uncommon Destiny Uncommon Partner I cover the topic in great detail.

If you check many of the pastors that have ''fallen'' due to extra marital affairs, you will see that they had a rough upbringing with things that you can track to their bloodline. Some of the pastors have openly confessed that their childhood challenges are scattered through their families, ie its in the blood.

In simple terms,its in the bloodline, but having said that. This doesnt mean the pastors had no responsibility, of course they did! How can a pastor cheat with a god daughter? or God son or whatever the case is. Lets think about that for a second, what is happening here!? We are living in a world where sound doctrine is slowly and surely being kicked to the curb. Whilst people are caught up in idolatry, there is less time spend on actually preparing for marriage, what does it even mean to get married!? Am I allowed to bail!? If im allowed, what are the circumstances that would sanction me bailing! If I walk out, can I start again, and when is it okay for me to remarry! These are issues that many singles need to be looking at rather than carry fantasies all day about Boaz. Many singles are feeling the pressure, especially women. It looks like the pain is more entrenched among the ladies, over the years having spoken to both genders I can say that whilst there is pressure on both side, many single ladies seem to bear the brunt of wront doctrines and the idolatry that is going on. What do you tell a woman who is single in her late thirties, who has been told, sow seeds, serve the church or the house, and all the that. She has done that, she has been to every conference, she sows seeds, and she is serving the house and doesnt miss a church event. Who promised Single ladies that if you serve the house you get a husband? This is another topic for another day.

Boaz

With Boaz, its a related idol. To some, Boaz should come perfect, He has no issues. However, darling you have issues but you want Boaz to have no issues, how does that work!? We are people and we are on a journey, you will be surprised by many ladies who still have bitternesss in their hearts towards that guy who hurt them 5 years ago, or that brother who left them 2 years ago and dated and married someone else! Those things like bitterness, jealousy need internal work, before we can talk about a stable and fruitful relationship. If bitterness is not left at the door, it will surface in the marriage and the whole thing can unravel. Its good to have a high expectations and standards, but its unfair to measure every man through the lense of an idol that we created. The same applies to guys, we have a lot of men, who have been rejected and years later havent fully recovered from that rejection. This often takes its toll, however, ''doing the work'', means a guy can move on, and prayerfully find someone else who feels the same way about him and can create a future together. Having a God centred, not church centred life and working towards Purpose as well as ''doing the work'', will definitely go a long way, than always stressing about Boaz, week in and week out. Its always a concern whenever a group of christians gather together and the only thing that they talk about is marriage, boaz and relationship. You will be surprised, that there are circles like that. However, the reality is the world is bigger, there are so many things, topics, and issues we can talk about other than marriage, boaz and relationship. This is one of the by products of idolatry!

Any time there is idolatry, there is a legal access for the demonic. Most churches dont talk about demons nowadays, but the truth is idolatry invites the demonic. This is why so many ladies that go around town telling everyone that, ''God said, Peter is my husband" get a rude awakening when they discover Peter is marrying someone else.

I am not at all suggesting that idolatry is only among the ladies, even among the men you can find it. However, from what I have seen, its predominantly among our sisters especially when it comes to this issue of marriage. As stated above, idolatry opens the door to the demonic and this means, there can be several forces at play and one may end up in Self Deception, thinking that God said , '"Ryan Seacrest'' is your husband, but God didnt say anything, He is waiting for you to repent from idolatry so He can reveal to you the right one! Dating should be a fun and a process of ''Self Discovery"' as well as '' We Discovery'', you are discovering what you like about him or her, and you are also discovering your differences, things that blend you together, are you visions aligned though different, how do you feel after each meeting with him or her! So the whole process should be fun and engaging, whereas Idolaty leads to complications which are unnecessary.

Dating Should Be A Fun and Engaging Process

Does God speak, yes He does. However, when we obsess about marriage, we end up giving ourselves answers and think its God but its not. Trust me, i have heard countless stories of innocent God loving girls who thought so and so was their , ''one'', only to discover he is married, seeing someone else or he was single but simply chose to marry someone else. This requires a whole book by itself i have to say, as there are so many variables. Idols such as Boaz, lead to self deception, and its unnecessary!

In Conclusion

It is time for the church at large to really examine how we view marriage, particularly singles. If we dont idolise marriage, our young people will have more freedom to be able to go on dates and take the time they need to evaluate and make sure they have heard from God, and they are walking into marriages and relationships that He is endorsing. Anytime there is idolatry, there is a whole bunch of demonic activity that takes place, and for some its a case of repenting from idolatry that will bring the much sought after breakthrough.

Relationships, marriages, and anything that God created is beautiful but many times when we become obsessed, we deviate from the original mind and intent of God, this which only leads to chaos! To maximise your Single Years, you can check out my ebook Unapologeticall Single, which helps you to make the most of your Single Years!

Blessings to you all.

Wisdom V Mupudzi

Award Winning Author and Digital Publisher.

The Rise of the Heart Centred Entrepreneur.

2019-04-01T21:33:00.001-07:00

With each societial and technological change, there are always opportunities, market shifts and the other good stuff that takes place. One of the by products of the Digital Revolution is the emergence of the Heart Centred Entrepreneur.

Yes, these are men and women, who are outright ''odd' from the outside. They take calculated and intuitive risks that can pay off for decades. A lot of them are inspired by people like Richard Branson, the late Steve Jobs etc Richard Branson has become the pinnacle of entrepreneurship and longevity for so many. I'm sure many of us have read his books and have read snippets of his biography gazillion times so I wont go much into his past.

However, we are also seeing the dynamic duo of Entrepreneurship and Philanthropy that is beautiful for the soul. In other words, this new generation of Entrepreneurs has a good sense of responsibility of their environments, they are more than just the ''laptop lifestyle'', the Lambos, the private jets, nothing wrong with those things, but they are also about heart. Rising to the challenge to contribute towards meaningful causes.

Heart Centred Entrepreneurs come in many forms. Some of them love to do business the good old bricks and mortar way, but also combine that with a solid and kick ass lead generation machine that is driven by the internet. This is often under girded by a strong back end.

We also have the other league of heart centred entrepreneurs who are more inclined to be operating on a laptop somewhere. They have managed to turn thier passion into profit. They are lost heart and soul into their passions, for some its coaching people to break through into a better version of themselves. This can cover from fitness coaches, life coaches etc however at the end of the day whererever you find them, they are making a difference in an area that they are passionate about Technology is coming in handy in terms of connecting with more people at a fast pace.

Think about the fact that today anyone can run an ad on any of the digital channels and choose which country they want, gender, and the lifestyle of those people and want they want. So for example someone can run an ad targetting women between 30- 40 who are engaged, targetting them with all things ''bridal''. This was never possible in decades gone by. Depending on budget, that can be rolled out and in a few days, thousands of those women will have eyeballs on whatever it is that person is selling. Welcome to the digital age, the age, that made the word, Avatar trend among a lot of Heart Centred Entrepreneurs.

The other ''sexy'' aspect of this new breed of entrepreneurs is the area of thought leadership. There are old paradigms that are being disposed off as they no longer serve us. New thought patterns are emerging that are raising the bar in every sphere and arena of commerce and trade. Once upon a time, hustling was the black, looks like we have evolved again, being in flow, and resting more is now the new black. Things like yoga, meditation, are now becoming part and parcel of industry and commerce. Such movements are championed by thought leaders, and other thought leaders amplify the practise and it spreads like a veld fire.

The same with Customer experience. The world has shifted from the hard core sales tactics, its now more about creating a good customer experience right from the moment the customer enters our doors or our sales funnels. The willingness to challenge the status quo and being able to navigate new possibilities and finding those areas of potential improvement.

Having said that, I think a book is a good way to share one's perspectives and one's vision for an industry, a sector or even best practise ideas etc. The other thing is that books can be sold whilst you are asleep, and of course the sentimental value of having a book in print etc. Can easily be given out to potential clients who can actually become clients.

Having said that, if you have a book idea, or you are thinking of writing one whether fiction or non fiction, you are welcome to join me on this Live Webinar where will go deep on the subject of writing and publishing.

Thanks for reading to the end, and always remember, you have an Uncommon Destiny! So cheers to manifesting purpose, whilst leading with the heart.

Wisdom Mupudzi
Wisdom Unlimited International

How to Write Your First Book.

2019-03-25T21:31:00.001-07:00

From time to time, i get ''inboxed'' or "DMs"" from people asking how do I write a book. Some are more specific, they want to know how to write their first book. Having done both print and digital, I can surely answer from experience.

With the explosion of the digital age, we have seen a lot of physical bookstores go bust! Main reason being that people are opting to buy their books online. Not only that, but the emergence of digital options such as audio and ebooks has meant that many people no longer have the need to walk around with a big heavy book on their daily commute. Some find it easy to just plug in their headphones, and get lost in one of the new fiction thrillers, and listen to the voice of the narrator. Others get their tablets, and kindle fires out etc and off to ''space'' they go just delving into a good book whilst the train, bus or whatever else is moving. Had a chat with a former boss a while ago, his favourite thing is to play audio books in his car, on his way to and from work. Of course, we still have another part of the population that loves the good old hard copy, hard cover etc, something that they can touch and feel.

A book that they love to touch, peruse the pages, scribble along, jot a few ideas down on the page etc. When it comes to books in Australia, Booktopia is one of Australia''success stories. It sells the whole ''Tri Factor", print, audio and of course ebooks. Having used their service from time to time, I can surely see why the brand has grown so big in such a short period of time. The customer experience has been great thus far.

Having said that, to going back to the original question, how do you write your first book. I know many people love to go quick to the writing part. We have to ask a few questions. Who is the book for? Why are we writing the book, do we have a burning message already or we are just intentionally wanting to write a book but we dont know what to write about as yet. Do you want to write a book to boost your business or your personal brand. The answers to the above, will determine many things relating to the direction of the project.

This is where many people miss it, especially its non fiction. Whilst its not necessarily necessary, it helps too, if one is thinking of doing several projects or its just a one off project that one is doing. However, most times, once you write your first book, other ideas for follow up will start coming along. Just like a musician, once they finished the first song, the ideas for the next song, and the next one pop ups!

With a lot of Heart Centred Leaders and Entrepreneurs, a book is a good way to share their message, and their passion and their heart basically with the rest of the world. Just recalled that Barrack Obama already had books before he became President. Former British PM, Tony Blair has a book too. So one would consider a book from the side of thought leadership perspective too.

This is basically the foundational aspect of actually getting a book done. This is beyond just getting excited about the thought of having a book or wanting to see your book instores etc. Whilst there is that sentimental feeling of holding your first book in your hands, its good to take time out to really think about the big picture. I remember, when i first held the print version of my first one, Uncommon Destiny Uncommon Partner which was born from a place of wanting to make a difference and passion after seeing the many destinies that have been brought to ruin due to mismatches in relationships. In Australia we have seen the devastating effects of domestic violence on both the victim and also on families at large. I covered that as well, including lessons from the famous Gittany case that rocked the airwaves a few years back.

Also as writers and authors, we have to have a sense of responsibility of the words we put out there. Its more than just writing, its a craft, its an art and its communicating. So one must take time in my opinion to actually think about the big picture etc and of course then get writing, when the job is done, seek out the right publisher and the right platforms depending on circumstances etc

Having said that, in my How to Write and Publish your First book Webinar we will look at and more.
If the idea of writing a book appeals to you, you are welcome to join in, same as if you have a book project in the wings, I'm sure you will get some key nuggets!

Thanks

Yours

Wisdom V Mupudzi
Wisdom Unlimited International

Unapologetically Single - Three Things To Do Whilst You are Still Single.

2019-03-20T19:31:00.001-07:00

Life is a journey and a process. We all have desires, and ambitions that we harbour, for some, some are entrenched in their hearts of hearts and not even their best friend have a clue. These become sacred desires and goals. For many, one of the desires is getting married. Having said that, some want to keep it Oprah Style, unmarried forever! Some want to just enjoy the relationship without the commitment that comes with the bells and whistles, where you find yourself on the spectrum, I''m not here to judge you. At the end of the day, you decide whats good for you, and you make the shots.

Lets just make one thing clearly though, you are not your relationship status, and neither are you defined by it! So many people in their late 20s, thirties, forties etc are hurting because they have attached their identity to their relationship status or maybe the people around them, have attached their identity to their relationship status! For many Singles, in their 20s,30s, 40s,50s etc, there are carrying a sense of shame. This is more so, for those who live in environments where being married is highly esteemed and is ''deemed'' more superior than being single. Life is a journey, no one stage of life is superior than the other. Hope that heals someone, so if you are single, you dont need to carry shame, it is this shame that has made many make rushed decisions that placed them in marital prisons, that they are trying to break out of! You know you, you decide when you want to get married etc

Often for many the question becomes, what should one do before they find the one or before marriage? I say this, I know many are ''waiting on God'' on this area of relationship. Which brings the question, what does ''waiting on God for a spouse'' even mean? Thats a topic for another day! Having said that, to go back to my original question of what should one do, whilst they are still searching for the one, or whilst they wait for the one to find them? Well, here are three destiny definining things you can do, these three things are way better than living life miserable and boring because you are waiting for the ''one'' to make you happy when you find him or her! Hope they bless you.

Find Your Purpose.

This is I suppose the most important aspect of the singleness phase. I believe its a season of finding oneself, one's purpose. What I see often is that many times, many people have jumped from one relationship to the next without giving themselves, "breathing space". This breathing space, is often necessary in bringing healing and self discovery.

Often its easier to find purpose and to pursue, nurture and develop your gifting whilst single. This is mainly because of the time factor, we all have responsibilities that demand our time. However, someone single controls their time with less obligations than someone who is married due to the marital covenant relationship and responsibilities that come with it. Finding your purpose, prior to marriage helps in that, you are already on your path and you know what works and what doesnt. Often many times when people are already married and they try to navigate into their purpose etc, the changes required many times can often create tensions and many times marriages have ended because someone decided to take a new path that may have brought tension into the relationship. Having said that, the aded bonus is we are more attractive when we are happy and fulfillied in our purpose, than being miserable.

Here is a classic example. If you are called to be a pastor, you know the demands of what being a pastor brings, this means, you are going to need to be with a woman or a man who is comfortable handling that. This basically means your calling or your purpose is already doing the vetting for you to some degree. In my award winning, Uncommon Destiny Uncommon Partner book, I go deeper on this subject. Often easier finding purpose Single than make the adjustments to accomodate your purpose when married. Definitely one thing worth doing whilst Single.

Build a Business.

Been speaking to a few people lately who are feeling the tag or the pull towards entrepreneurship. I personally think again, this is an endeavour worth pursuing whilst single. Especially in the formative years, many times a business can become like your ''baby'' that requires your time and attention often. Building a business from the ground up is not a walk in the park, whilst there are variables depending on the nature and type of business, make no mistake it will demand time Among married couples, sometimes this can become an issue when one of the partners spend a disproportionate amount of time in the business at the expense of ''our time'', many problems can emerge from that scenario. However, its often easier when the business has beeng going for a while and the systems required are already in place etc, it means the owner now spends less time in the business Having said that, some couples started businesses after they got married, whilst it wasnt easy, they persevered and went through the hard yards together and ultimately got to the other side. Having said that, if you are single and you have been feeling the pull to get into business, its a good idea to get into it now rather than wait. The big thing here is the time and sometimes financial commitments required. Many businesses in the beginning will demand a lot of money, if you are single this often easier as you are the decision maker. If you are married, then thats a joint decision that requires a different conversation. Having said that, aint it more powerful to be ''found'' or to find the ''one'' with a few more coins and with more time freedom as you no longer work for anybody but you call the shots! One of the things thats happening is that due to the changes in technological, its now more easier to turn your passion into profit or build a business around your passion or hobby. There are many advantages of doing that, you can learn more about this in this Passion to Profit Webinar . For some the biggest advantage is the ability to work from anywhere! The choice is entirely up to you!

Healing and Deliverance from Generational Cycles.

This can be a foreign or familiar issue depending on one's background, I get that. This simply comes from the notion that in every family tree, or ''Bloodline"" there are patterns, trends etc that may not be so obvious, however, upon enquiring, one can see them. They often sound like, cousin such and such had the same issue, the mother did the same thing and the grandmother suffered the same fate and now the daughter is going through the same thing. Anytime you see such trends and patterns, its a sign thats a generation cycle and trend that needs to be handled. This is one of the issues that I address in the relationship book . The number one thing that I hear from couples that have read it is, "" I wish i read the book before I got married!". Just this morning I watched a brief recorded live stream where one of the pastors was sharing that after she got divorced, she later learnt some things that had she known before marriage, her marriage would have been intact.

Inner healing is also important. Yesterday morning in my Facebook feeds someone posted that they are seeing the importance of healing and deliverance before marriage, because they are dealing with things they should have dealt with a long time ago. I have observed after talking to many people that many times people carry deep seated internal soul wounds that need healing and many times deliverance from. Deliverance doesn't have to be a spooky word or a word associated with hoccus poccus, no, its good, its healthy, the process may not necessarily be sweet, but often the outcome is. Its simply moving one from one state to a better and more healed state, if there was dysfunction before, after deliverance, the person enjoys peace, and calm delight. With what I have seen in churches over the years, and just this year alone, I will say its a much needed ministry and if more people got delivered prior to marriage, many marriages will be sweeter and many would last a life time.

I have learnt to be content and to maximise each season and phase of life. Many times people who are Single can get carried away with the idea of marriage, they misss key aspects of preparation, then when married they realise they lost the freedom that they used to have when they were single. Unfortunately the hard truth is when you are married, you cant live life like you are single, making decisions like you are on your own, you cant. Every commitment will have to be assessed in terms of how it only affects you but your better half too etc Bottom line, make the most of your single years, and tap into that freedom and maximise your purpose, build that business, go to Tahiti, Uzebekistan like you have always dreamed of, or maybe Copenhagen or maybe Monaco hint hint, cough cough..lol., or maybe you need to dig deep into God till you find His original intent and mind for your life, do that too!

God bless you, cheers to being Unapologetically Single! If you are ready to turn your passion into profit, then catch this Free Passion to Profit Webinar

Last but not least, to follow me on Instagram, Wisdom Unlimited International Instagram

Wisdom Mupudzi

Wisdom Unlimited International

Africa's Greatest Problem Is Not Poverty but Its this.....

2019-03-04T23:03:00.001-08:00

Barely a month goes by, before I meet people collecting money for various causes and charities for a poverty related issue, ranging from lack of water, some disease or some other social injustice where the root cause of it is poverty. For many of the charities, its usually all about poverty etc It is through some of the discussions with some of the charities that have sparked this blog post. I know many of them will just be doing their job, but it comes clear that some of them have no full grasp of what the continent is like, of course, there could be one or two, who still think Africa is a country, go figure! Which then brings me to another issue, the fact that poverty in Africa is not the real issue. Poverty in Africa is just a symptom.

Just this year alone, we know there was was a crisis in Congo and a contested election, and Joseph Kabila basically defied the intention of OAU to delay the swearing in etc. We know the Consitutional Court had to intervene. The same thing happened in Zimbabwe where the Constitutional court ruled in favour of the announced winner in 2018! This is becoming a pattern, what we need is to see the elections being lifted in terms of standards such that the elections will be free, credible, and without any shadow of doubt. This would ensure that the days of contention via the Con Courts will be a thing of the past.

Greatest Issue in Africa.

Lets cut to the chase, the issue is not poverty Poverty is a symptom of a bigger underlying issue which is leadership. Anytime you have a wrong person driving the bus, the whole bus's fate is sealed! In the words of Jacque Nasser," its more than getting the right people in the bus, but also getting the right people in the right seats!"

Anytime a leader is out of Alignment with heaven's ordinances and in violation of spiritual laws, there is going to be mayhem, chaos and dispondency. This then trickles down to lack of goodwill, and a general resentment from the masses. Its crazy that in 2019 we have to go back to the basics of human rights, respect for human life, and the need to leave a legacy. The need to leave office and country better than it was, when one got into power. Think about all the African countries that got independence from their colonial masters, be it that they were colonised by the French, the British or the Dutch. Are these countries better off now or they are fundamentally worse?? if they are worse off, why is that?? Lets not blame IMF, World Bank or some other insitutions. True leadereship starts from a place of owning our results and sometimes we have to admit that you know what, we have messed up its time for someone young and vibrant to take over. Thats more honourable than driving an economy to the ground in the name of holding on to power for the sake of it. This is the challenge that a lot of countries have faced over the years, the first generation of presidents that came after the colonial masters were dislodged. Many of them have tended to overstay their welcome at the helm. This often sparks unrests, protests etc especially when the economy is falling on its knees daily and the masses can only dream about the ''glorious past'' instead of having hope in the future. When a nation starts glorifying the past instead of looking into the future, its a sign that things are really bad!! Unfortunately this is the fate of many african countries at the moment.

In my previous blog post, I wrote about the fact that the church must move from just having church on sunday as usual, but actually start taking initiatives and also being a voice. Having said that, some churches have already started initiatives to engage governments and the broader community for the benefit of the church as a group of people.

Anyone watching news bulletins on many networks would be forgiven for thinking that Africa as a continent is just a basket case that needs a ''Saviour" to come from somewhere to save it. I dont necessarily agree to that sentiment. The issues lies in leadership. Whilst many of the young people of today are appreciative of the role of many of these current leaders in bringing independence, young people are not impressed by leaders who continue to cry foul about the colonial masters without taking responsibility of the results they are producing.

I mean, a country that gained independence from the colonial masters, 10,20, 30 years ago, has no business perpetually crying about colonial masters. How about taking responsibility of the current macro economic situations prevailing in those countries and actually paving way for new blood to come in. There is no country that is beyond repair, the challenge is getting the right people who can run with the torch to get into office. I find it interesting that a leader can be surrounded by the most powerful and most educated economist a country can ever have, but still choose to be deaf to sound economic policy! I have seen churches on the brink of collapse get revived when the right person takes over, I have seen companies on the verge of shut down, with leadership changes, they were given a new lease of life. Bottom line, things can be changed, however, it usually starts at the top!

Ties that Bind.

We are seeing countries not only in Africa but in many parts of the globe getting loans from China, and failing to pay, which then leads them to have national assets being taken away. This is a grave concern at the moment in Africa, mainly because countries fought hard to gain independence from the British, the French etc, however through bad governance, miss management, slowly but surely, China is becoming the next colonial master. I wouldnt blame China on this one, they are looking out for their people by spreading their tentacles to gullible leaders. Again its a decision to take out the alluring Chinese loans and accepting the term of conditions that have been proved to be pro China at the expense of the borrowing nation.

Its those African leaders that are taking the loans, and giving up key national assets upon failure to pay. I am sure in each of the struggling countries, there are technocrats who can turn things around given the chance. aint it crazy, those leaders will take the money, blow it as they wish, but when they are out of office, those nations will have to pay back the loans, whilst the leaders who took the loasn are long gone. Talk about a debt and povery legacy!

I have seen this time and time again, often the people who can turn things around never make it to key positions. Or even if they do, some times economic decisions have to be by passed in favour of political mileage. This is one of the problems we are seeing in a lot of african countries. Leaders who make political decisions to gain political traction at the expense of the economy, in other words, let me stay in power at the expense of your future! Go figure right!?

Rich Continent and Change

Africa as a continent is rich, make no mistake about that. Rich in terms of human resources, natural resources (gold, diamonds and the lot), etc ,however, the issue of leadership is where the bottle neck is.Under right leadership and management, the respective countries with their minerals can fully enjoy the full benefits of those resources. This requires transparency when it comes to handling such precious stones, i think Leonardo DiCaprio in the movie Blood Diamond, was just showing us, some of the political trickery that happens in some of these countries.

If the right leaders can find their way to the top, then we can see a new africa emerge. I believe this is in the process, however, its not going to be a walk in the part, as we have decades worth of strongholds that needs to be demolished so a new way of thinking and doing can be established. We have so many powerful business leaders across Africa, some of them are at the helm of their own multi million dollar corporations and some even Billion Dollar companies. I beleive Entepreneurs predominantly drive economies, if you make the life of enterpreneurs unnecessarily miserable, it wont be long, before the whole economy follows suit.

Whilst there were movements like Band Aid and they were and are appreciated for their help. Their help is only needed for the short term, the same goes for World Bank, IMF etc, those organisations are ideally needed for the short term, in other words for those times when we need to ''fix'' things.
The role of African Union, SADC and many regional bodies will need to be reevaluated in terms of their ability to hold heads of state to account. If not checked, it could just be a case of having institutions that rubber stamp certain things and also turn a blind eye to certain things depending on their closeness to the presiding head of state! If regional bodies in Africa and the mother body, OAU cant hold african governments to account, who can?

However for the long term, the cry for both the young and the old both within the respective countries and those in the diaspora is to have, well to do economies. Economies with a functional currency, minimum corruption if at all, a high employment rate, single digit inflation, and an economic climate that fosters new budding entreprenuers to emerge, grow and flourish. This requires visionary leadership that is prepared to learn from the past, and also be able to listen to sound economic policy that is surrounding them. The economy first, not politics or party politics as we have seen in some of the countries over the years.

An economy where there is rule of law, and also president coming in, do their 1 or 2 terms, and leaving office, peacefully and of course free and fair elections, where there is no blood shed, and a free and credible process that makes the loser lose with no irregularities to point out. This may sound like a dream, however i believe this is possible as the new generation of technocrats gets into office. I believe this will see a total make over of the continent of Africa into the number 1 destination of choice for the savvy investor! It's a long road to freedom, but by raising consciousness we can at least start! Lets use our gifts and skills and passionately serve the world and make it a better place.

thanks for reading to the end

Wisdom V Mupudzi

Wisdom Unlimited International

Wisdom is an Award Winning Author, Digital Entreprenuer who encourages people to manifest their leadership potential and purpose by finding their passion, and using their gifts to make a difference in the world today. You can download, the FREE EBOOK, Ten Things You Need To Know About Passion

Redefining The Role of the Church in today's world!

2019-02-01T17:00:00.001-08:00

We are seeing how the world is changing and how spirituality has become more mainstream. We have seen the Queen of day time television, Oprah Winfrey have interviews with different and key leaders of different faiths and religious background etc. Not only that, we have seen commercial adverts of various kinds inviting us to things, events etc of different spiritual nature.

One of the key ways to identify what's happening in a country etc is to look at what is happening on its television sets. By the same token, the television or the media channels be they digital or traditional as we know it, can give us an indication of the type of conversations taking place. With all that is happening around the word, when it comes to spirituality and religion, one then has to task, what is the role of the Church in the modern day era?

Here is my take on it and I answer from these Three Main Areas.

Shining the Light.

I beleive the role of the church can be multidimensional. So when it comes to shining the light, I beleive the role of the church is to ensure that, those dark areas of the world get the light. They say, when you know better, you do better. This means it will be irresponsible to see danger that is coming and you say nothing when you can see your neighbour cant see what's ahead. So by shining the light, it means the neighbour or friend can now see clearly and be able to move forward without fear but with confidence because they can now see clearly and are able to see the danger for themselves. For the most part, people are given the choice to choose what religious or spiritual activity they want to get involved in, if at all. Of course, there are a few countries where the freedom is not fully present etc However, for the broader world, its safe to say that freedom enables dialogue to take place, which means any blindspots that one party can't see can be exposed by another party of a different belief system altogether. I think this is healthy as people are able to change their mind and choose a new path willingly. I believe this is one of the roles of the church. The church itself must always be in Alignment in terms of purpose and function, this is in terms of bringing Heaven's agenda on the realm.

Leadership

I beleive the Church needs to provide leadership in the broader society. I find it interesting that in medieval times, many kings spoke to and sought prophets in key moments. Whilst the world has changed, I recognise even today, some leaders of nations are calling upon Prophets at key moments. Although this can be done as a clandestine operation, go figure right!

We shoud see more of this, not necessarily as clandestine operations but in broad day light. I just recalled that during the campaign trail and even after being sworn into office, President Trump has from time to time been surrounded by Evangelicals of rank and file. Whilst there was controversy when it came to some of them, they key point being, he recognised the need.

One of those areas is the area of politcs. When a nation is going on a downward spiral, it is essential that the Church speaks up. At the end of the day, the Church as a group of people collectively carry significant buying power, and shouldn't be visited during election time when someone needs votes. We have seen this many times, when those on the campaign trail want to visit churches, because they want a church vote. That's rooted in 'transactional relationship', however, what im talking about now is going beyond elections. This means the church as a group of people being represented at a high level and being heard, macro and micro economic fundamentals being adjusted positively because the church has spoken.

Leadership Upbringing and Release.

I think most of the world's global problems can be traced to one word, Leadership. Many times be they economical or political, the biggest challenge of a lot of 3rd world economies isn't poverty. It is leadership. Poverty is just a symptom of a deeper underlying issue. Growing up in Southern Africa, I saw the impact of bad governance, and also the impact of poor judgement and poor decision making.

Many times people run for public office without really examining their motives. I beleive its the role of the church throughs its pulpits to champion good governance, and begin to define what good leadership looks like and what it doesnt look like, I say this because ultimately, when those young people who are at University etc get into the market place and get to run for public office etc, if they were raised properly and have that responsibility to create a new and better future for their peers and those unborn, it creates a sense of urgency, legacy and the proper perspective of why we go into public service. We dont go into public service to loot but we go into public service to serve and to champion the needs of people and to advance God's original intent for humanity, which is prosperity, good governance and a relationship with Him.

However due to entertainment, and sometimes church politics, we are not seeing as many leaders as we would want, being raised up. So its the responsibiltiy of those leaders to now carve out a way to groom, upbring and release the new trail blazers etc, The responsibility of the young ones is to be teachable, and a willingness to seek out those already flourishing in their area of calling and be able to sit down and learn. I know we know baby Jesus from the age of 12 would be in the temple at the feet of those elders being ''fed"".

The world is changing and the church is, to quote Dr Cindy Trimm, "" a day late and a dollar short"". So its time for the church to rise up and be the very best of what God has called it to be, which is to shine the light, and continually unleash more power brokers and trail blazers in all spheres of the earthly realm.

Thanks for reading till the end, you have an Uncommon Destiny! For more on Alignment go here

Wisdom V Mupudzi,

Wisdom Unlimited International

One more thing......

2018-12-28T18:00:00.001-08:00

Its that time of the year, when one year closes and a new year knocks on the door. Happy Holidays to you if you are on holiday like most. However, I know some are busy flat out during this time and only to take their holidays around mid Jan etc. Where ever you find yourself I hope you are having a great time.

As we brace ourselves for a new year, I thought I would do one final post for the year that is 2018. What a year this has been in the market place. Here are some highlights.

Billion Dollar Club has a New Member.

We opened the year with the release of Black Panther, a movie that went and joined the Billion dollar club within the first weeks of its release. This movie was directed by Ryan Cooglar whose other conquests include Creed, and his returning to write and direct Blank Panther 2, yes, there is another one coming, if you didn’t know, now you know! Other Directors who have had movies hit and exceed the Billion Dollar Threshold in terms of revenue at the Box Office include James Cameroon
( Titanic, Avatar etc ) , Michael Bay ( Transformers: Dark of the Moon) , Steven Spielbeg ( Jurassic Park) just to mention but a few. Of course this year we went on to see a few other titles, the return of the Misssion Impossible franchise, which wasn’t all that impressive. However, I suppose, Black Panther was the one that was the highlight of the year. For a while, it was all about #Wakanda, and vibranium. If you missed it, you can now watch it via #Stan or you can just get the digital version via Google Play etc.

Black Panther

Technology Impact in the Market place.

This year, we also saw the continual shifts in the market place. Technological changes are having an impact in the market place both good and bad depending on where one is sitting. We saw a few companies in corporate Australia announce redundancies, this include National Australia Bank, Optus etc. we also saw financial issues hit, Max Brenner etc. This all reminded us that market forces are real. Channel 10 after having been taken over by CBS also launched its streaming service, which is predominantly running on old shows. This is how industry is changing, many of today’s young people have moved away from Free to Air but would rather stream on #Netflix, #Foxtel etc, however I personally like Stan. Used to be a big fan of one of Australia’s biggest television exports, Home and Away, but we are no longer in the same “’What’s App Group””. I no longer have time for free to air anymore. I know Youtube is proving to be a top contender in this space, as it has many shows that include Drama etc and even the current commercial structure of Youtube indicates that they have big plans and this spells a lot more competition for the Free to Air Networks in Australia as the effects of the digital revolution take root. Was at a business break fast meeting on Social Networks a while ago, and one of the speakers spoke about how he has three kids, and none of them have a relationship with any of the Free To Air networks, I think the oldest is about 12, he said one of the things that his kids would rather watch is Youtube among many others. Of course, this is may not be a full representation of the broader population but it does tell us what’s happening in the market. I think most of us, at 12 years old or so, the only thing we knew was Free to Air. However, this generation is bombarded left,right and centre with serious and a plethora of options. So in a nutshell, I expect the battle for the elusive advertising dollar by the networks to intensify as advertisers aim for Digital Channels where many of today’s viewers and consumers are and spend less on traditional television as we know it.

Speaking of the Digital Revolution, we know some of the key players of it, include Apple, Paypal, Amazon etc. This year we saw Apple become the first Trillion Dollar company and was shortly followed by Amazon. However, I predict that in 2019 we will have a 3^rd company hit the Trillion Dollar threshold by December 2019, watch this space for more details. To take advantage of the shifts taking place and how you can leverage the digital economy to advance your purpose, see WealthTransfer

Amazon and Apple were the first to hit Trillion Dollar Threshold in 2018.

Mental Health and Depression

Mental health continues to be an issue and the awareness of it is continually getting momentum. In this regard, 2018 also saw conversations around this taking place a lot more. We know in the last couple of weeks, Majak Daw was involved in an incident, and this was related to mental health, and there were numerous calls for the sports community to tackle this issue of mental health more, as well as specifically the Australian Football League. Speaking of mental health, we also saw James Packer, step down from over 20 plus board positions so he can focus on his health. Being a billionaire, and considering his position in the broader international community as a solid businessman I think it’s a commendable thing that he did as often over the years we have lost the who is who of Hollywood due to issues relating to mental health. The list is endless, but this year also saw Avici, committing suicide, again this was mental health related issues. He died at a young age of 29, and had made a name for himself as a Dance Maestro across the European Club circuit etc. Some of his anthems will continue to grace the airwaves and the dance scene for years to come.

So I think the continual discussion about this topic is healthy for the broader community, not only in just Australia but the world over too. Coming out in the open, is not a weakness, but it’s a sign of strength and it also encourages others to step up and seek and get the help they need. I know Corporate Australia has various initiatives that are going on to try and raise awareness, things like “ Are you okay day’’, are a reminder of how crucial this topic is, we don’t have to wait though for such a day, we can always pause the question, “ Are you okay”” whenever we get the signs that someone close has changed behavior or just maybe on a hunch, no harm in asking. If you happen to be in that situation or you know someone who needs help, you can call Life line on

13 11 14

Sports

Of course in terms of sports, we saw the world cup, the 21^st FIFA World Cup in Russia and France emerged the winner after beating Croatia in the final. This was one of those highlights of the year that football lovers will have to wait for another for 4 years. For the AFL Fans, West Coast Eagles beat Collingwood in the Grand Final to take home the coveted title. As usual this is always a sporting highlight in the Australian Sports Calender. I have been a supporter of Collingwood and I certainly wish them better prospects as we head into 2019.

What a year this has been, and I’m so glad we have come this far. Thanks for reading and I look forward to serving you with more great content in 2019. Taking a break from Social Media, but I will be back soon, here is to wishing you a great and an amazing cross over into 2019!

For more on the Digital Economy and how you can take advantage of it, go here

Thanks

Wisdom V Mupudzi

Guest Post by Sword Queen

2018-05-21T03:31:00.003-07:00

Delighted to share this week's blog post, by our very first guest, Sword Queen! Enjoy!

THE GOOD NEWS

When you switch on the television/radio, look on any news website, you hear nothing but sad/bad news. Disasters are looming left, right and centre. Frustration is just a click away, a website away, a page away, a channel away. We have become a world of pessimists, we have somehow lost hope in each other as humanity and act like we are stranded on Island doom, and there is no way out.

Such seems the state with relationships these days. Dating has become a minefield. We are going into relationships with records of failures and baggage. We are hurt from giving our time/efforts/feelings to people who in the end proved not ready, unsuitable and just wrong to receive from us.

Or are we making wrong decisions from the start? Are we attracting/being attracted to bad news? Has this world made us believe we cannot meet the right person that easily? Mismatched characters, incompetent personalities, emotional intelligence challenged beings are masquerading as potential life partners because attraction and images are going before character and real attitudes.

The time frame is also a major player in relationships, people are racing against age/pressure of family and friends and most importantly social platforms. There are expectations to certain roles that one must be in a ‘stable partnership’. You are regarded as a misfit in some cultures, should you want to spend time alone, let alone the rest of your life!

But what misfit? Would you rather have many unhappy couples in the world? Or, happy individuals who contribute to the corporate, industrial and commercial world, with out marital status being of reference?

There is rarely good news on the News channels, a dog being found after having gone missing is some of the most cheerful news you hear these days.

But I would like to argue that the Good News is YOU!

Hello and welcome to Channel You

You will be looking at how you have survived all these years with your good self, How you allowed yourself to grow from pain, short lived promises, unscrupulous characters trying to disturb your course, interrupted hope, sad endings and terroristic agendas!

The weather is that your hope shines, and showers of much needed growth are going to rain on your fertile ground of expectations. A plant of you shall yield fruit to greatness, creativity, newness, evolving and above all distinctive, undiluted contribution to the world.

Finally, in this news, your journey will conclude as you wish it to be and should you find others to present your news with, great. However, your news should always be in tune to the goodness that can never be experienced by anyone else.

The Good news is that your life is exclusively different and a story that no one else has claim to. But your decisions and choices will make it worthy of reading/sharing or writing about. Otherwise most will just switch your channel off.

Decide today to make it a worthy piece of News!

The Good News!

©Faith Swordqueen

Check me out on Facebook

Three Steps To Overcome The Shiny Object Syndrome

2018-04-19T05:27:00.001-07:00

One of the most common problems that you find among a lot of entepreneurs is the "Shiny Object Syndrome", this is more common among those in their early stages. For the more seasoned entepreneuers, the wisdom of the age, experience and a better grounding in their purpose and life time mission often make it easier for them not to find this as an issue.

So today I want to offer three tips on overcoming the Shiny Object Syndrome.

Clarity.

This is the most important aspect of everything. I know life happens etc and many people we are all on a journey and at different stages of our journeys at that. So, we haver to be clear, what is it that we out of life, where do I want to go??

Values are so important. For people who value safety and predictability, they may find it easier to stay in a job than take the entepreneurial route. This is because this path is highly unpredictable in a lot of cases, and many instances there will be highs and lows. Some people definitely cant handle that, they would rather be in a place of consistency, with set hours, and find their way up the corporate ladder, and that is okay, ( no judgements here).

Sometimes it takes time to be super clear on our mission and on what we want to accomplish. This is more than financial goals. For many people, life has gotten in the way and they have totally forgotten what it is that they want. Couple weeks back I was walking out of Starbucks and I met one of those Customer Surveys personnel. With my background in customer service, I knew the whole point of the exercise, and I decided to take a coupla minutes to answer the questions just to share my thoughts about my customer experience in Starbucks. As the lady wrote down my name, we began to chat, and to cut a long story short, she had just returned to her first love, which was teaching. When she grew up, priority for education was given to the male children of the family, so this had an effect on her career and life got in the way to the point, where she never really had a chance to do what she wanted to do. The good news is she was now finally able to do what she really wanted to do, which was to teach, and she believes this is her life mission. Many people never get a chance to do what they really love. So take time out, to really hone in and discover what it is that you really want. You may not know the "How"' yet, but dont worry about that now, just be clear about what you want and what you feel is your life purpose.

Vehicle.

This is one of those big ones. They say if you dont know where you are going, any road can take you there. Well, you could basically rephrase that and say, "If you dont know where you are going, any vehicle can take you there". Over the years I have met people with $7 000 Real Estate courses, that are still 'shiny'in their boxes and never been opened. Maybe you are one of those people who bought the $3000 ebay courses, and up to now, you haven't started selling anything on ebay. No judgements here!
Many people would then wonder, if you are going to spend money on those courses and not utilise them, what happened?? There are many reasons behind them, one of them is the issue of Passion. Whilst in the room or whereever these courses were being sold, its easy to get caught up in the excitement etc, but the truth is that some people can take the same courses and get results, and some can get the same courses and do nothing. Whats the difference, the difference is usually that the person who get results can see how the course or whatever it is, will take them to their 'destination', the other difference is passion.

Yes, sometimes, life happens to the all of us, and many times, there is like a "Hidden hand'that operates behind the scenes, that what we think is a set back is a set up for the next phase. Who knew that the Queen of Television was fired as part of her journey, but all that was bringing her to more glorious moments. I'm saying this for people who are in that phase where what you thought was your vehicle, got a little bump in the road. Stuff happens I get that, but I know sometimes we can also happen to stuff so long as we remain clear and not lose sight of the big picture! The Holy Book, says , All Things Wotk Together For Good For Those Who Love God And Are Called According to His purpose!

For many people its those life disruptions or interruptions that caused them to really think about what they really want out of life and where they want to go. Without those interruptions, they would not have taken time to self examine and do the work on the inside required to explore.

Nothing wrong with changing Vehicles, and I know many people have had no choice but to change 'vehicles', the contract ended, the investment tanked, or maybe an entire industry was wiped out by the technological changes. Either way, coming back to the place of clarity means even if Vehicles change, that internal compass will help you with the next decision and your next best thing!

3 Understand That The Problem Is Never The Shiny Object.

This is so important to understand. Anyone can take the same Real Estate course that somebody else can''t get results with and get results. Same as the Ebay, someone can take it and get results. Vehicles will always come and go, but what its about identifying the right vehicle and then run with it and start getting results, once you get results, you can then build a system around it and of course, you can then switch to another thing etc. The problem is when we start switching from one thing to the next without getting results in the first thing. Same as idea, they may come a dime a dozen, find one that you are willing to commit to, work on that one till you get some results.

So to overcome the 'Shiny Object Syndrome''

1) Get Clear, (spend the necessary time to evaluate and really think what you want to do if money or time was not an issue??)

2) Identify the right Vehicle ( take the time to examine your options and find the best one that you want to proceed with for example if you have decided that you want to build an Ebay Business, then work on it till you start getting results before you jump to the next vehicle etc. The problem is when people do the Ebay Course but because there is a learning curve, they dont get results immediately they want to jump ship and switch to another thing like start a Profitable Youtube Channel, this then creates the cycle of jumping from one thing to the next, mainly because you will still need time to learn how Youtube works, and also how it is monetized etc.

3) Never forget that often than not, the problem is not the Shiny Object.

Definitely in overcoming the Shiny Object Syndrome, passion is something that helps in grounding you and keeping the main thing the main thing. When you find your passion, you come alive, when you do it. When you have your passion its easier to say NO to the wrong things, because you are in alignment with your soul purpose and life takes a different meaning, even if you change a 'Vehicle'there is a common thread that grounds you. So in overcoming the Shiny Object Syndrome, Passion certainly helps.

For more on Passion go here

Always remember you have an Uncommon Destiny and thanks for reading to the end

Wis

It's More Than Just "Likes" (Three Things That I have Learnt By Being A Social Media Practitioner)

2018-04-09T02:00:00.003-07:00

Okay this is the era of Social Media, society, business, politics will never be the same again. I bet, there are many people whoc now miss the pre Social Media era. Whilst many people are now being selective of which platform they want to be on and for what purpose, there is also a huge number who are present on more than one platform. Some are on P interest, Snapchat, Linked In, Twitter, etc. This is the same for business people, some have a multi presence, and others have chosen only one platform that they zero in on, and from time to time, provide links to the existing 'trmamibe'for them to connect through the other platform.

So today I want to share a few things that I have learnt from getting my hands 'dirty' in a few of the platforms. By actually doing, you get to understand many things, how people respond, etc. This is what Gary Vee labels as being a 'Practitioner', being present, posting, tweeting, running campaigns, split testing etc. There are rare gems of wisdom and insight that get unleashed by getting in the 'trenches', today I just want to share three things out of the many things I have learnt.

Its More Than 'Likes'.

This is really huge for Facebook. At times, many people can get carried away by the number of 'likes' on a page. Its actually the faces behind the 'likes'that matter. Whether a page has 500 'likes'or over a 1 million, its the faces behind the 'likes'. The people that come to your page, and choose to stay. What do they 'like', and many who find your page because a friend of theirs has 'liked' one of your post and that has appeared in their newsfeeds, and they decide to check your page out and decided to stay.

One of my pages is a faith based one, I have shared things out of my heart at times and suddenly you get a DM, somebody saying, thanks for posting etc and then they go into their own story with so much detail. Its in those moments, that you realise, people are coming from various backgrounds and diverse circumstances and often behind each 'like'they could be a story that someone has, and because of that, they resonate with your post, article, story or whatever it is.

This is different from someone who uses Social Media to seek validation. They post a selfie to see how many Insta 'likes'' they get, or how many Facebook "likes'they get. That is a whole new topic for another day on how Social Media is affecting the young generation predominantly psychologically etc From cyber bulling, to low self esteem, low self worth etc. Although those things mainly affect young people, you will be surprised by the number of adults that have been cyber bullied etc, and its never good, whatever the age, gender or race.

However for the Facebook Adminstrator, this post was just a reminder or a little nudge to say that, lets not forget behind each 'like'is a face, usually that is anyways!

Engagement.

This one ties in with the above. This is one of the ways that one sees that they have the right people on their page, thats engagement. Of course, 'likes'are part of engagement, and they basically tell Facebook that this content 'here' is cool, naturally that get exposed more. This applies too to those long or even short and punchy ads that gets more reach and pretty much lowers the cost per conversion, depending on where the traffic is being sent to.Biggest thing that expands your reach is obviously 'share'. I'm sure you would probably have seen one of those post thats too good not to share that you have to ''share'', and or tag a few people. With good copy, the cost per click or conversion cost can come tumbling down.

Also when it comes to Ads, lack of engagement or the level of engagement can also act as a feedback mechanism in terms of letting you know that your targetting is off. Sometimes its targetting gone bad, or its just simply a case of tweaking the Ad or its message.

Whether its paid traffic or organic traffic, Engagement is definitely a key indicator on many platforms. For the administrator that helps in knowing what each face is responding to, and through that, you can give your 'tribe'more of what they respond to, whether its a topic or a product, or suite of products.

So essentially this on Facebook simply means that each administrator has the chance to pay attention and translate and understand what the 'faces' behind the 'likes'are saying. Sometimes you can begin to see a particular pattern depending on your audience.

Either way, engagement is such a powerful feedback mechanism if used within its context and with the goal to provide our ''tribes'' with things that matter to them a lot and serve them with those things be it content, services, information or information pertaining to products etc.

Community

This is definitely the overall aim of many players within the digital space. Whether its on Facebook, Instagram etc. I see many administrators come from that place of creating a community. This is totally cool, as it has a lot of people gather around a particular topic,way of thinking or movement. Of course there are strategies to take the community from the original platform to else where the administrator of the Page for exsample, can now communicate exclusively with the 'tribe'. This can be through a membership site etc. Also in terms of community, many people love to use Facebook Groups, as something etra not just sticking to the Facebook Page as we know it.

Someone coming from a place of building a community will think long term. There really is no end to what level the community can go to. This also can also be extended to Youtube, your subscribers can be and are a community that you can build that is interested in what you have to say, and again, there also various strategies and tactics to get that community off Youtube to your own 'space'where you can communicate with them directly off the Social Media Platforms. Part of building a community is being able to respond to DMs, responding to questions etc. Often many times, you can have the 'tribe'answering each other's questions depending on the platform etc. Ever seen those moments where trolls come on a page, and the administrator says nothing, but the 'followers'on the page, defend the administrator or some times go on an all out áttack'on the trolls in defense of the Administrator of the page etc.

So platforms such as Facebook can be used to build communities etc. Whatever that ties the community together is quite crucial, can be a hobby, chess, new mums, empty nesters, whatever you can think of and you can build a community around. Main thing is thinking long term etc.

Thanks for reading to the end. These are some of the things that I wanted to share when it comes to actually doing stuff on Social Media. This definitely is hands on, not just theory etc.

People can often be brough together by a sense of purpose or sometimes by a passion.

For more on passion, go here>>.Passion

You have an Uncommon Destiny

Wis.

Four Reasons Why Entepreneurs Make Better Leaders!

2018-03-30T00:02:00.001-07:00

Okay, often I get asked, what is the number one problem for Africa. Many times people think that Africa's greatest problem is poverty, yes, there is poverty in a lot of African nations, but the truth of the matter is that poverty is a symptom of a bigger and more complex issue. The issue is leadership. Well, you can take a good economy with a stellar BOP, a sound GDP, and a national budget surplus, place it in the hands of chaotic leader, what do you get?? Well chaos beget chaos, that simple. That leader will wreck the economy. You can take an average to do economy, and place it in the hands of a Visionary leader who has the heart for leadership, his nation and who can elect the right team to sit in the right seats and the economy will go places!!

More about leadership in future post. Today I want to look at Four Reasons Why Entepreneurs Make Better Leaders.

Vision

You see, when you become an Entepreneur, by default, you learn to cast a vision. You learn the art of giving 'birth'to things. Being able to start a project unto completion. You learn what I would like to call, "Stick to itiveness'. In short you cast the vision and you go for it, you twist, turn, go over, go through challenges till you reach an outcome. This also helps with the journey of life, you learn to crystalise your vision etc. You will be surprised by leaders across religious organisations etc who have no clear vision. In essence, vision is about where am I, where I am intending to go? On a macro level, it becomes where are we, and where are we going? Or rather where do we want to go???The road of an Entepreneur is not necessarily smooth, but you learn to tweak, and explore new pathways towards the intended outcome. This is where unique competences such as diligence, showing up no matter what are honed! That doesn't get taugh in text books. I believe this ability to take something from the invisible realm and bring it to manifestation where it can be touched by everyone is one of the things that makes Entepreneurs better leaders. Its the school of hard knocks, that gives them the resolve, and many times the pitbull tenacity to be able to cast a vision and follow through.

Even the bible says, Without a Vision, the people perish. I can tell you, the reason many organisations including churches are failing is because there is no vision. If you are a leader, the key fundamental question becomes, where are you and where you are taking your people, your church, your political party etc Some of the greatest leaders of our time that happen to be entepreneurs include, Strive Masiyiwa from humble beginnings in Zimbabwe has created an empire that includes a telecom company among many other high tech investments. Of course we have house hold names such Richard Branson who is well known for his unique ability with people, being able to select the right people and the right team for his endeavours, Bill Gates etc. One of the reasons why I love Entrepreneus is I appreciate the journey and also I believe they are the few people who can hold governments to account. Even when you fail when it comes to one or two projects, you learn to bounce back, which further produces ïnternal steel'. Some of the by products of being an entepreneur can't be honed else where but in the trenches of entepreneurship. This then helps with future endeavour, so on this issue of casting a vision, this is one forte of many entepreneurs.

Social Responsibility.

In the old days, corporate reporting, was usually limited to financial reporting, where it was all about the numbers. However with time, we saw the coming in of what they call, Triple Bottom Line, which basically looked at an organisation's Financial Reporting, Social Responsibilty and of course the envinronment. I love the new generation of entepreneurs that are not waiting for governments to solve both environmental and Social issues. Truth of the matter is that governments of this world are heavy laden with issues, worse in third world countries, so I totally love the modern day entepreneur who is Social Responsible. This comes with that awareness of knowing that your business is in a country, and a community, and the least you can do, is to make a difference, reaching out to someone else's need. Whilst Strive Masiyiwa is known for paying school fees for tens of thousands of school kids, Bill Gates with the Bill and Melinda Foundation are known for their humanitarian efforts that cover many angles whose primary focus is on health and well being as listed on their website. I could list a whole range of initiatives that were started by many entepreneurs, but at least you get the idea. There is such a consciousness that has been raised across the modern enteprenuers, that there is enough to go around, so when I get something, I have the responsibility to share some of that with someone else who is worse off without fear of lack. I think someone who is already on that frequency of Social Responsibility if they were to take public office or head a government, they are more likely to use the office to foster positive change, this is different from someone who comes in with the idea, that íts my turn to ''loot', this is what is keeping a lot of third world countries in acidic poverty, and being in chains to Britton Woods institutions such as IMF and World Bank. I totally beleive entepreneurs have the power to keep governments to account not only because they have the financial muscles to do so but they are setting an example of not only looking after the social aspect of where their businesses operate but also are playing a pivotal role in the area of Environment protection and preservation.

( Dr Strive Masiyiwa, one of Africa's finest Global Leaders and Entepreneurs ) pic cred:Google

Good Governance.

Being an entepreneur teaches you stewardship. How you handle the first $100 determines if and how quick you get your first $1 000 etc. I have seen many people jostling for leadership positions, but at the same time, they know nothing about being a good steward. With being a good steward comes the responsibility to use what we have to create more. Someone who hasnt been able to handle much, when they see much, they are more likely to waste, however, for someone who started with little and begin to use what they have and multiplied it, ,when they handle much, they are more equipped to handle it. This is what happens with a lot of lottery winners, who after a few years go broke again. How?? Well, the fact of the matter is that they didnt have the capacity to handle the millions that they won, this is so true particularly for those lottery winners who were in serious financial hardship. There is a difference between a person who goes through a rough patch, financially but ultimately uses what they have, and pitbull tenacity to place themselves in a better place. When they get to 'better'they have picked a lot of competences, which includes discipline, a sense of responsibility etc. So for a lot of third world countries that are struggling we see that this aspect of Governance is one area that they need to get their game up, #GovernanceGoals. Without getting into too much detail, the current moves being made in South Africa regarding the land issue are going to lead to chronic poverty and years of unnecessary economic ruin. Whilst the land isssue is always a ticking time bomb and a volatile issue among African countries, no one disputes that, but the issue is how do we go about addressing the issue. Definitely trying to punish the present land owners for the 'sins'committed by their forefathers is not the right way, there has to be a good and proper way that leaves all the spheres of the economy sound and productive. If we are going to drive the whole economy to the ground in the name of land, what are we doing????Again this is an issue of Governance. All the same, Good Governance and Good Judgement go hand in hand.

Heart Centred Leadership

I like how the modern day Entepreneur is so different from the old school, macho, egotistical type of entepreneurs who was associated with nothing but dollars and flaunting the latest 'toy'. Nothing wrong with 'toys' but the deal is that there is a new breed of entepreneurs who are driven by passion, making a dent in the universe and leaving a legacy. This has to do with leading from the heart, where things like compassion are as relevant in today's business environment in a much more pronounced way. Just remembered listening to Gary Vee talk about his wine business and how one fateful night before christmas a customer had not received her case of wine, it wasn't necessarily the company's fault but if I remember correctly there were prevailing circumstances that caused the delay. Gary narrated how he drove that night for more than an hour or so in the crazy weather to go deliver that case of wine as he knew how important this was to this customer. Well, this is not only good customer service, but it shows some of the key traits of heart centred leadership in business. One more story, well when I was in Southern Africa I worked for a cigarette manufacturing company. Whilst there I happened to have a chat with one of the drivers who was really having a hard time. His son needed heart surgery, this kid was less than 5 years old and as he shared his story it was quite clear that there was nowhere he could afford to have this done. Not only that but time was of the essence! Well, to cut a long story short, this guy was also driving the Financial Director at the time. To cut a long story short, a decision was made to have his child's heart surgery covered by the company. Of course the company was not obligated to do that in any way, but it just shows the calibre of leadership that the Financial Director was and his team. This was heart centred leadership demonstrated!

Its leading with passion, leading with authenticity, compassion for people etc. This also is extending to human resources. Entepreneurs such as Lisa Messenger, Darren Stephens just to mention a few not only recruit on skill, but also look at things like values. Naturally when values fit, its easier to capture the vision of where the organisation is going and run with it. Bottom line is that this is how the business world has evolved, as much as we all love things that boost our bottom lines, at the end of the day, leadership is a state of being, its more than judgement calls, sometimes we have to uncover whats driving the judgement calls. Having said that, I just love the new breed of entepreneurs that are rising up and also the old school entepreneurs who have been in the game for decades but are still able to evolve and transition with today's market place needs, trends and demands. Society is shifting every couple of years and we are rising to new levels of consciousnessness as a people, and oi, its an exciting time to be alive! Not only that, but to see the leadership shifts, paradigm shifts and the global macro economic environment, transition and evolve is equally exciting!

For all things Passion, go here>>Passion

(down your Free Copy of this Ebook in the link above)

(N.B This post is about championing some of the key traits that Entepreneurs have and also some of the key competences that make them tick. You may have developed some of the traits without being an entepreneur and that's okay. )

You have an Uncommon Destiny!

Wis

Three Preliminary Steps To Publishing Your Book

2018-03-20T04:11:00.003-07:00

As the world continually evolve, we are seeing how so connected we are through the technologies and platforms and also how we are also getting disconnected in real life. I mean on one hand, we have the technologies that connect people and on the other hand we have people getting distracted by the very technologies. With many people, their quality time to connect with people in their day to day lives is being'' chewed''by Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat etc. However at the end of the day, its always a personal choice as to what one decides to allocate their time, focus and attention. What, when and how.

Having said that, we cant ignore the power of these technologies in helping people turn their Passion into Profit, and things like automation etc. Amazing how the digital revolution is revolutionarising industries etc.

Well today I want to share a few tips before one gets their Book written and ultimately published. Jeff Bezos has pretty much taken power from the traditional publishers as we know them and liberated so many authors and publishers whose work would not have seen the light of day under the traditional publishing model. Their work can be seen, cherished and its making a difference in the lives of millions of people, that my friend is positive disruption.

If you intend to write a book or you have ever thought of taking your knowledge and package it as book this is definitely for you.

1. Clarity

This is where the starting point is. Many people get in trouble later, because they haven't thought about this process. If you are going to write a book, you will have to be clear on a few things.
Is it going to be fiction, non fiction.

What is your goal with the book? Do you intend to write to boost your business? ( big topic altogether), do you have a message? Is it a one off thing or you want to write a couple more? Who are you are writing the book for? Single Mums, Boss Babes? Single Dads, Young Parents, you get the idea ( I know many people want to write a book that everyone will read, well, it doesn't work that way!)

All the above, will determine a lot of things. For example, if you are going to write to build a personal brand, or to boost your business. This is going to require a different approach for example from someone who is writing because they just want to share a message that has been burning on their hearts for a while. Either way, whatever you decided to each of the above questions will definitely have an effect on the way the whole book project will come together. To get the most out of your book project, I do have a 5 Step Process, "Passion to Profit in 5 Easy Steps' that one can apply to any business idea, current business etc and of course this includes any book project. I fully explain many things which include the evolution of marketing from Push Marketing to Pull Marketing, Attraction Marketing etc. You can get more information about that in the free ebook that you can download here

( just like the water, be crystal clear )

2. Print Versus Digital

This one ties in with the first. By being clear on the objectives, we then delve into, are we doing Print or Digital, or we are doing both. There is a third option, Audio. With Audio now a first choice for many ( many people love to listen books on the daily commute, via train, car or whatever applies) , this can be done as a secondary option backing the print and or digital versions. There are many reasons why one would want to do print first, and there are many reasons why Digital Format is the most potent one for those who are looking to build a business around it as opposed to just write a one off. Susan Collins the author of Hunger Games series ,during her peak was out selling the print editions as much as four times through the Amazon Kindle. Whilst run away successes like that are not the standard or the normal, they do happen. JK Rowling also apparently had not given rights to her digital formats for Hary Potter books to her publishers so she was able to publish all her digital versions on her website.

This is also another topic by itself, the issue of rights. This has to do with Content Creation, Ownership, the legitimate owner is the creator of the content. I can write a song and hire session music to do the vocals and music arrangements etc, but ultimately I own the song! This is why legends such as Quincy Jones have created fortunes, although sometimes you dont hear their voices on radio frequently as much as the less 'loaded' musicians. Welcome to the business of Content Creation and Ownership. Coming back to the issue of books, when you write the book, you own the global rights to the book. The real deal is putting your name on something, more about that in a future blog!

In terms of distribution, you have a number of options which include selling regional rights etc, licensing arrangements etc. Well the biggest advantage with the kindle format, is that there are no overheads. Anyone can buy and read your book straight away and they can start reading straight away. Again, this is heavily tied to, what was the original objective of writing the book in the first place.

I chose primarily to stay in the digital space as it suits my vision, however im not limited to that. Of course I do have a print edition for Uncommon Destiny Uncommon Partner and of course many other print additions shall follow as we go. However that experience of carrying an idea to conception and going through the process of writing etc has given me a lot of experience that has enabled me to see the many mistakes, pitfalls that many people make when it comes to turn their passion into profit, or just trying to give 'birth'to their ideas or vision. Being a big advocate of disruptive technologies, ideas and concepts, I chose to dig my heels in the digital side of things, for both personal, and overall big picture game plan.

In a future blog post, I will have to do another separate post soley focussed on the Publishing Options, there are several which include Traditional Publishing. Of course Traditional Publishers understandbly gave Jeff Bezos grief as he was trying to get this Kindle empire to take shape. However, either way, the world will no longer be the same, Jeff Bezos successfully disrupted the Publishing industry as we know it!!!Of course there are pros and cons of going the traditional publishing route, depending where one is, some can use a 'hybrid'model, more on that in a future post.

3 Where do I start?

this is the common question that many times get in my inbox or social media DMs. Many people approach me all the time, "i want to write a book, where shall i start'. Some have been saying for the last 5 years, that they want to write a book, up to today, they haven't got the book out yet.

You can start off as a 'Side Hustle', and build from there. I suppose once you start and you are passionate about it, its no longer, 'work', its just you doing your 'thing'. In my experience because I had spent so many years with a strong passion for relationships etc, when it came to writing time, I never struggled, and I don't, of course now im more experienced than before. I have learnt to appreciate every win, and not take anything for granted. I know bloggers who put post everyday, and not only that i know some serious female entepreneurs who may not put a blog post, but oh boy their facebook posts are wayyyyyy too long. What I am i saying, I am saying, when you find your passion and your 'zone', you have your unique process yes, but you are in 'flow'. No resistance, just 'flow'. Thats what im talking about

When it comes to get started, I say start off from a place of Passion. For more on Passion and key fundamentals on this destiny defining subject, download your free ebook below.

Download Your Free Ebook By going here>>>>>>>TenDestinyDefiningThingsAboutPassion

thanks for reading to the end

Wisdom V Mupudzi

( Wisdom V Mupudzi, is an Internationally Award Winning Author with over a dozen ebooks on Amazon Kindle Platform, Smashwords, Itunes etc. Winner of an E Lit Award, E Lit Awards are run by the Jenkins Group a company based in Michigan, United States with over 22 years in the Publishing Services Industry, the awards were created to honour Digital Publishing Excellence )

Three Fundamental Business Lessons From The Monster of a Blockbuster That Is Black Panther ( recently hit the $1 Billion Threshold and counting)

2018-03-12T03:43:00.002-07:00

Okay, in my previous post, (Three Life Lessons From Black Panther) I made a prediction that it would hit a Billion dollars in revenue by the 31st of March at least and that likely to happen before the 31st. Well this past weekend, Black Panther has continued its winning streak and smashed the record books again, it has just crossed this billion dollar mile stone.

This week I wanted to share Three Business Lessons associated with the movie.

1) Disrupt the Narrative.

There was always a narrative within Hollywood about movies hugely composed of men and women of colour. Even if you were not going to find it on paper, certain narratives are just out right political and toxic. So there has been a narrative that has existed for years of the man of colour who is broke, busted, criminal element, gangster etc. I have already indicated that this movie has disrupted that narrative. Here is something to think about. What narratives have your made about your customers or certain demographic sections of the economy, are they true. Jeep made a fortune by this lessson, for a long time, there was a narrative 4 by 4s were mainly for men. Well, Jeep disrupted that by introducing the She bought a Jeep ads which I understand caused the sales to sky rocket among the female population and of course other rival companie in the same 4 by 4s market introduced their own version of ads to promote their own brands etc. Another example is of a holiday company that was promoting a particular type of accomodation, from the outset, they thought the right people for it were back packers, but upon the recommendation of a marketer to do a market research, they found out that actually the travellers that would find that product appealing were mostly single ladies, and most of them earning in excess of 6 figures, thankfully they hadn't gone into heavy marketing, so they were able to retarget and of course increase more value geared towards that particular income bracket. End result, that research prooved priceless! From assuming that their customer base were back packers to actually finding out that the real treasure was in the professional female solo travellers who were cashed up. This discovery totally boosted their bottand rake om line. So as a reflective thought, what assumptions have you made about your customers? What are the long term narratives that have been in your market?? Are they fact? How can you disrupt them?? think about that.

Risk It To Get The Biscuit ( Making Calculated Risks)

Black Panther is definitely one of those big budget movies costing $200 million. Those sort of amounts are usually associated with big names like James Cameroon, Steven Spielbag, George Lucas etc. However this was a huge investment for Marvel. Kevin Feige Head of Marvel Studios is quoted by Vulture, "“It’s a big story that deserves to be told in a big way, for all of the cultural and political reasons that people talk about, but also because it’s such a key corner of our Marvel universe, and has been for decades and decades,” said Feige. “We wanted to do it justice, and we have a studio with Disney, and leaders with Alan Horn and Bob Iger, who supported us a hundred percent.”

Ryan Coogler's earlier works include Creed ( which I so enjoyed, found it motivating), Fruitvale Station and many other short films etc. According to Forbes, Creed had a budget of $35 million and raked in excess of $173 Million world wide. Whilst Ryan has established a track record over the years, the fact of the matter is that its definitely a huge commitment that is not for the small boys, moving from $35 million to handling something in the realm of hundreds of millions. Its more than numbers, its a judgement call, its intuition its trust, its faith, and its commiment.Obviously that has paid off, big risks big rewards. I'm sure Kevin Feige knew from the get go, what sort of commitment he was entering into. I think this is what life is all about, going all out, sometimes when we are conservative, we hold us back, we stay within the confines of what is 'safe', but when we go all out, we grow, we expand and we evolve!!!

Passion

In today's business environment, we are in the world of heart centred entrepreneurs and leaders, this is the era, where soft skills are equally as important as technical skills. Along with leading from the heart comes passion, you are committed to a cause or a project, because hugely you care. Of course, not all industries are like that. However, when passion is present, it permeates the room should one be speaking on the stage, platform or whatever else. With passion, you get up the next day, when you have been knocked down today. You build and flex your muscles with each small win. Sometimes with passion, comes pain. Well, Lupita Nyóng'o had to come to terms with her passion for acting, just admitting that desire and embracing the pain of it, is what saw a new door for her open up, 12 Years a Slave. Many times we deny ourselves the chance to be and to become, because maybe it hurts to accept what we really want, and we supress our desires. I remember Lupita mentioning that, one of the reasons why it was hard for her to accept her dream of becoming an actress had to do with macro economic and social construct of Kenya. Whilst times are changing, not so long ago in many third world countries including many African countries,you couldnt tell your parents that you want to be an actor or actress without raising eyebrows. An ácceptable'dream was one of becoming a doctor, a nurse, or something like that. This is just to give you a back drop, so you can understand why just admitting that she wanted an actoress was a break through. Often with pain, people can often shut down and are afraid to want what they want or should i say, to give themselves permission to want what they want. There is a reason why we are passionate about why we are passionate about, and often the real treasure is in exploring and discovering the path associated with our passion.
What are some things that you are passionate about, that you have dropped out of fear, or you have hidden from yourself, or you are afraid to want, because you are scared of being judged?

Discover more on the power of Passion and key fundamentals of it by going here: Ten Destiny Defining Things About Passion

You have an Uncommon Destiny!!!

Wisdom V Mupudzi.

Three Life Lessons from Black Panther

2018-02-22T03:41:00.000-08:00

Three Life Lessons from Black Panther.

Okay, this is the most talked about movie at the moment. I personally love how the movie disrupted the narrative that Hollywood had set for the man and woman of colour. This is the narrative of thugs, gangsters, drug dealers, maids, and all sorts of roles that are more on the inferior side of life. For the first time we see that narrative being disrupted by displaying a new image of the man and woman of color who is high tech, sophisticated, walks in power, in control and in charge. I could go on and on, I understand it had a budget of $200 million, the most given to a man of colour at that. Well in its first weekend, it raked in over $300 million in its first weekend, I’m sure the Exectives at Marvel are jovial, I mean who gets such a return on investment in the first weekend, this basically all that is going to come in now, is just profits, more profits. My prediction is that by the 31^st of March, this movie should have exceeded the $1 billion dollar threshold launching into a new league that includes James Cameroon’s Titanic, Fast and Furious etc. This may happen earlier though, having said that, today I want to share three life lessons from the movie.

Your Identity.

I mean in the movie we see the importance of royal blood. Not only that, but we see the importance of knowing you have royal blood. Not knowing you have royal blood, means you can easily miss the opportunity to get what’s yours. I mean we see that in ritual combats in the movie, where inorder for you to contest for the throne, you had to have royal blood within you. Having royal blood qualified you for that ritual combat despite your chequred past.

You can apply this from the Kingdom perspective ( for saved and sanctified Christians). You see there are covenant rights that come with being a child of God. Identity is not only important from a spiritual side of things but also from a practical side of things, how many people have walked in doors that were initially shut, but because of their identity, those doors opened. Think of all the sons and daughters of people who are politically, socially, or economically, who don’t know what rejection looks like, simply by virtue of who is their father, they get through doors, one simple phone call, and ‘heaven and earth’will basically move to make a way for them. Well I know one thing for sure, you were born for a purpose. You were created to solve a problem on the earth realm, you may have been through rejection, trauma, all that and many other things that we can’t list here, but believe and know you have a purpose. You were born and created with a dominion mandate, find your sweet spot and allow the genius within you to manifest, you don’t need my or anybody else’s permission , but in any case, if you were looking for it, I here by say, just go, permission granted. We are waiting for what you have to offer, the world is waiting, with your flaws, with your uniqueness, with all that you are, embrace the sum total of you and know, you have a dominion mandate, find your genius zone and shine!!

Loyalty (Who and What Are You Loyal to and why)

One of the key lessons in the movie is the power of loyalty. One of the top security personnel in the movie said, “”im loyal to the throne and whoever is sitting on it”. This means she was above ‘”Personality Politics”. That means, it didn’t matter who was sitting on the throne, her role and mandate was to protect the king and his mission over Wakanda. This brings me to the question, who are you loyal to and why?? Are you loyal to a particular ideology no matter who is spear heading it, are you loyal to a political party and its principles no matter who is at the helm??? I have to say, one of the most difficult things to find in this day and age is loyalty, when you find it, reward it. Loyalty is found when the rubber meets the rod, not when its raining ‘’chocolate and candy’’. When the chips are down, the investment has tanked, when there is a sexual scandal in the church and almost everyone is leaving, this is when you find loyalty!!!Who is loyal to you and why?? Who are you loyal to and why?? Something to think about. Many times, who you are loyal to can determine the type of favours that come or don’t come to you. With loyalty comes consistency, who has been consistently showing up in your life?? Take it from me, loyalty is something that is very crucial and its expensive, don’t expect it from opportunity seekers who gravitate for the next big thing at every turn. Once you find it, reward it and just say thank you. Who do you need to call today, send an email or DM and tell them, thank you for being there!!!So loyalty is one of the key things we learn in Black Panther.

Passion.

When it comes to purpose and fulfillment of destiny, one thing for sure is Passion is a major ingredient. Well, oh boy, there is plenty of passion in the movie. One of the areas we see raw passion and fire is in the ritual combats, I mean, we see the passion for the throne, manifest in one on one combat. Blow after blow, the hunger, the desire for the throne. Sometimes when you are passionate about certain things, you have to fight for them, sometimes people have to fight emotionally, financially, psychologically, and sometimes when push comes to shove, physically. What are you prepared to fight for, are you willing to put in those extra hours at work so you can get some extra cash to pay that mortgage off, that university degree, everybody has told you to give up on your dream, but you can’t, because the passion and the hunger for the vision you have for yourself cant be tamed.

Maybe you haven’t found your passion yet, or you are still searching for that one thing that you are passionate about. For some its drama, your work full time, but after hours and weekend you are busy in the theatre, practicing and rehearsing plays etc For some its gardening, you love your gardening, when you are in the garden, you feel like ‘home’, maybe you are on the creative side of things, be it in arts, beautician, hair dresser, you name it. Here is good news, I also know that whatever you are passionate about, there is a good chance that you can turn it into Profit. This is what allows many people to leave their day jobs so they can focus solely on their passion, because the profits are enough to ‘fire their job and go to work’. Work is attached to purpose, so for many people the challenge is to leave their job so they can go to work!!!

FREE EBOOK

Having said that, whatever stage you are on, on the path of purpose and destiny, you can Download my Free Ebook, The Ten Destiny Defining Things You Need to Know About Passion. This will help you on your purpose journey and also lay the necessary powerful foundation as it regards to Passion, you can download it here>>>https://wisdomunlimitedinternational.lpages.co/tendestinydefiningthingspassion/

Three Reasons To Create an EBook Business.

2018-02-21T01:48:00.003-08:00

Three Reasons To Create an EBook Business.

It goes without saying that the Digital Age is upon us. We have seen a massive change in the way people are consuming content. We have seen shifts in many industries including television. Even Free to Air networks have pretty much afforded people the chance to watch what they want when they want. I can’t remember a time where if you missed a show and you didn’t set the VCR to record, that would have been that. Seems ancient now, well. Every major network in Australia certainly has apps and an online presence that allows people to be able to watch their favourite shows during the weekends or whenever it suits them, for a limited time of course for some of them.

Well there are many online businesses available at the moment and many are providing people the chance to connect with new audiences. Also it’s affording people the chance to get exposed to fresh content they would never would have received had this chance been absent. New products and new savvy ways of delivering them keep popping up.

Today I want to look at Three Reasons to Create An Ebook Business.

Hunger for Information.

One thing that’s clear is that this era is also known as the Information age. There is a huge hunger for information and people continually spend on information products of varying kind. Whether it’s through the Amazon kindle platform, Itunes or through a plethora of other platforms. There are many people seeking for information even in the most tiniest of niches. The beauty of it, is that many are willing to pay for it. This has seen that term ‘monetizing’ your passion. Simply means you have taken your passion or what you know and turn that into products or programs that some other people can buy. End game is critical, as some people just want to earn that extra income whilst sharing their knowledge and expertise. Others want to commit fully into this and share their knowledge and reach as many people as they can and ultimately leave their day jobs so they can do this full time. Whatever the reason for motivation maybe, there Is such a huge global hunger for knowledge. There are some niches that are considered “evergreen’, things like spirituality, business, and relationships. These will always be “ever green’ as there is always a huge demand for information, for all these areas we are always and constantly evolving and new ways of doing things are emerging etc. So that never ending demand for information and willingness for people to pay for it is what drives the information industry like a well oiled machine.

Work from Anywhere

This I suppose is one of the biggest reasons to run an ebook business. Having the ability to work in any location as long as there is an internet connection, one can be creating great content and publishing on the above pre mentioned platforms like Amazon etc. Others use their own platforms now, where they have their own servers etc Often times we walk into café’s and we see people having that never ending coffee session, it’s not surprising that many times people will be actually running their online businesses. These of course include ebook businesses. Whilst sleeping, people are earning as you can imagine in another time zone its day time and there are people searching for top quality information.

As long as one has a computer with internet connection one can pretty much work. No longer being tied to one location. Definitely those who run successful ebook businesses can live and are living the ‘Laptop style’. I know this can be foreign to many people. This is because most people we are not aware of the possibilities as we are all ‘conditioned’ for jobs, I was too J However having published my first ebook and several years I have grown as a person and gone deeper into the digital age and its possibilities. This can be hard to fathom for those starting out, as there is a change of vocabulary etc and understanding how the whole internet business works etc. One thing is for sure, there is no magic button on the internet that creates money, one need to understand a few things and one needs to do the work just like any other business worth its salt.

Scalability.

This is one of the key reasons to run an internet business as its easily scalable. There are many ways, and strategies to scale it up. One of the most reliable ones of course is paid traffic, whilst many may like to do it the old fashioned way, of organic traffic. However, those who want results, like NOW, they go for paid traffic as its traffic on demand. I guess I don’t have the list the pros and cons of each as they become apparent. Strategies may vary from things like paid Youtube Traffic and sites like Outbrain which is a platform which churns top quality content and of course leads and sales for its customers. Scalability can also be achieved through Joint Ventures or Strategic Partners in the same niche who have a bigger fan base than yours. Agreement can be made in exchange for commission per sale or some other arrangement, what’s important is that the two parties agree and also the relationship is mutually fulfilling.

So as one can imagine, there are many approaches to upscaling an internet business. Find one that suits and run with it. Otherwise Scalability is a key feature that most people who are venturing into business look for. We even see that being a major focus in Business Shows like Shark Tank etc. Busianesses that are not scalable are often shunned away, as the investor wants to know ‘how big can this get??”.

Well if you have a topic, a subject, an area of expertise that you are passionate about. Even if you are still searching for that óne' thing, that you call your Passion etc, for more on Passion, see my Free Ebook which you can download .here

Always remember, you have an Uncommon Destiny!

Wisdom V Mupudzi, Award Winning Author and Digital Publisher

Three Relationship Mistakes That Many Christian Single Ladies Make.

2016-06-27T19:36:00.000-07:00

So, it has become apparent that the main areas of warfare for the modern day believer are Relationships, Health and Wealth. I call this the Tripod. One often affects the other etc. There are many spiritual and practical reasons why things are like that. Having said that, today I want to look at Three Relationship Mistakes That Many Christian Single Ladies Make. I say this from research, my experiences,experiences of close friends and associates and also talking to many single ladies that I have met in my day to day interactions etc.

1) Being in Denial.

This one is so common among many christian single ladies. This is also common among feminists who project the idea that they don't need a man. I will not go into that debate about the difference between wanting a man and needing a man, will save that for another day. Bottom line, men and women were created for each other! Denial can be found in many facets of life, this could be in relationships, finances. Its simply refusing to acknowledge what is. The truth is that many single ladies are single because they are projecting or carrying the idea that they don't need a man. Whether you think you don't need or want a man, both will lead to the same outcome, which is to keep men at bay. Rather than deal with the pain of not having a man or embracing the journey and knowing that this season one may not be in a relationship, they still need a man or want a man.Many people would rather hide that desire from themselves and to protect themselves from the pain. This can be so dangerous as it can drive a message home to the subconscious that we don't need a man. This then sees a lot of women, walk around with that belief system and naturally the subconscious mind is more powerful than the conscious. So without knowing we have a generation of young beautiful women, who are driving men away without knowing. In Destiny Code I fully explain the power of the subconscious mind and its importance in our lives.

What actually brings healing is to actually admit that, ' you know what, i may be single, but i do desire to have a man". That's when the real work begins! Interesting that before Lupita N'yongo got the role of 12 Years a Slave that made her a household name, she had actually cried 2 months prior when she decided to get real with herself and realised she actually wanted to be a movie star. It was such a big deal for her to admit that, at that point that's when broke down and cried, and 2 months later the role came up and the rest is history. She had to stop being in denial that she wanted to be a movie star. Sometimes we are afraid to want what we want. For many reasons, that could be social, economic or just basically that what we want is at odds with what we think we are supposed to want. Another example, its easier for someone who doesn't believe in God, that they want to be rich, than for a christian to admit that they want to be rich! think about that one!

So we have many christian women, who are afraid to admit or embrace the idea that they are single but in reality they want a man. We put on these phrases to protect ourselves and help us cope in the short term. But that doesn't help our case in the long term. Phrases like " im married to the anointing', honey?? what does that even mean. Many preachers are not helping, they are more concerned about their ministries and will do anything to build them even at the expense of single christians who will gravitate towards any doctrine that promises them things even if that doctrine does not measure up if measured against the Word of God. ( more on that one later)

In essence, nothing wrong with a woman admitting that she desires to be pursued, to be wined, to be dined. Taken out to romantic getaways etc. God can still be involved in the whole process. People have made dating an evil word?? The long term impact of this can't be denied. We have a generation of young, beautiful, amazing, God loving women, who are at breaking point with that proverbial question, "God, where is my Boaz??" Did he got hit by a truck on his way to me? There is so much pain in our sisters that many preachers cant handle. ( When I wrote my controversial, Uncommon Destiny Uncommon Partner i was simply sharing my expertise so others can benefit and find healing and also prevent themselves from going through what other people have gone through.)

Honey, how can you know a guy, if you don't spend time with him??? Same with you fellas, dude, if you don't spend time with her away from her 'Girl Brigade', how will you know if she is the 'one'?? God speaks, but He is not the author of confusion. When we get to know people we get a full picture of who they really and they get to know us too. This one of God speaking is a whole topic that needs a separate blog post. In the above mentioned book, I wrote a true story of 5 girls who thought or believed that a certain 'hot' ( according to females of course) Youth Pastor was their "Boaz' or husband to be. Guess what, he went and married someone from overseas. Which tells us that none of the girls heard from God!! (If you really believe God spoke to you about someone, I recommend reading Uncommon Destiny Uncommon Partner and read the chapter on Safeguards and be very careful and discernment in who you disclose to and what you do. God speaks but lack of wisdom can get you undone!)

Dating in its essence is about knowing one another, do we share a bond, can we build a future together. Do our values match, do I feel at peace in his or her presence. Does he or she get me excited, do I go deeper in God as a result of me spending time with him or her. Its about exploration, what does he think about this topic or that topic. Now, just because I have used that word, exploration, doesn't mean you should get wrong ideas about what i mean here! How does she respond when i'm talking? Do I want to spend more time with her after each interaction? She is bold and sassy but her soft sweat side seems to have caught my attention etc.Or he doesn't have it all together but I like his passion (borrowed this one from a female referring to a certain dude)

To end this one, lets be truthful with whats really going inside our hearts. The truth will see you free, even if it might piss you off in the process!

2) Ignoring the Prophetic.

There is so much confusion about the prophetic today. Many people think that the prophetic is about promising them cars and houses. We have mistaken the prophetic for entertainment.Yes God wants to speak to you about your future, but He wants to speak to you about this season too. If you cant go through this season how can you get to that future, where supposedly everything beautiful lies???

The prophetic sometimes gives us warnings, and exposes diabolical agendas of people who smile at us day and day out. This is where sometimes ladies miss it, because sometimes God gives warnings through dreams, or sometimes through that small voice when all is quite. By the same token, God sees potential in all of us. This is why if you are a dude, you cant judge a sister's destination based on who she is today. The same applies to ladies, its dangerously misguided to write off anyone based on who they are today, cause ultimately no one knows whats on the horizon. Was coaching a sister from India but based in Australia, through discernment i picked up that in her past lied someone who could have been a potential candidate. I put that to her and she waited she smiled and got shocked at the same time. She started explaining all the excuses why she never took the guy seriously etc.Well it so happens that the guy has moved on and is doing well for himself. I suppose i had to visit her past because i think God was doing a work in her in terms of how she sees and treats people. I had done my job, shedding light on what was hidden.

Having said that, who we decide to travel with in the next season is always a personal decision that we have to take seriously before our Creator. We must be careful how we treat people, i believe that sometimes in rejection, there is redirection. However, its how we do the rejection that reveals our hearts more than anything.

Just 4 years ago i was due to go on a date with someone the next day. The day before the date, as i was seeking His Face for something totally different from relationships. I suddenly had an urgent and clear impression to cancel the date. I knew i had clearly got a 'download', well i had to ring the lady in question and cancel the date, that's a cringe worthy phone call, no guy wants to do that, unless they have to! OMG!! lets just say i saw a side to her that I had never seen before, and well lets just say i'm glad I cancelled the date!

Was also coaching a dude from Africa and based on his dreams, i picked up a few things. One of the things which was so clear was that although he had ended up in trouble with a sister. He was kind and frank enough to say that God warned him from the moment he laid eyes on this sister, not to go there! But he did and it costed him! Friends when we ignore the prophetic, we pay a price. I know most entertainment laden pulpits don't tell you this. The prophetic doesn't happen in church on sunday, its everyday and we need it! Check this, when the Sydney seige took place, there is a woman who came to grab coffee daily in the fateful cafe. However, on the day in question, she decided not to grab a coffee. This was her daily ritual around 10am she was in that cafe' daily without fail, but for that day, she decided not to walk in! That's the power of the prophetic.

Joni Lamb, wife of Marcus Lamb, owners of Day Star Television met her husband Marcus the very day she broke up with her then boyfriend. Marcus was coming to preach in town during the evening. The night before she clearly had heard from God that she needed to bail! Next morning, she saw the dude, broke up with him and the very night met Marcus. We don't know whether Marcus was going to be in town again had she missed that moment that day, this thing is real! I know there isnt much talk about discernment and the prophetic, our view of the prophetic is so perverted that many people are needlessly ending in disasters and situations that they were never created for! To fully comprehend the power of the prophetic and what its about and what it is not, see my recommendation That book will save you time and also save you from making unnecessary but costly mistakes!

Moral of the story, if we ignore the prophetic it costs us. The prophetic should be given top priority over the opinions of those who think they love us. Discern and decide who moves with you in the next season, it doesn't matter how glorious someone dresses, if you pick anything contrary from the prophetic dimension go with that. Just recently i was in a situation, but because its unfolding i cant go into details. Lets just say i went behind the scenes to get answers! The answer i got was shocking and completely opposite to what i would have vied for in the natural. I will leave it at that!

3) Rules of Engagement.

When Serena Williams is courtside whether its the Aussie Open or Wimbledon, there are things she cant do on the court. There are also things she is supposed to follow and respect. These are the rules of engagement on the tennis court. In other words, she has to engage herself on the tennis court in a certain way, if not, she faces the wrath of the Umpire or the ITF!

This is what is happening today, i see so many wonderful ladies who are not fully aware of the rules of engagement and hence this is playing havoc when it comes to getting their "Boaz'. One of the harsh realities is that many ladies will get a boo, bae nicely but just before getting married. They mysteriously split with him, either due to a fight or some other excuse that acts as a glitch! Try talking to a woman who has had that happened a few times. Many ladies give up hope understandbly, what breaks my heart is the fact that these are amazing women, beautiful personalities and characters etc. This is the drama that plays behind the scenes, and suddenly manifest. They break up just on the brink of marriage. In some cases, there are 'bloodline' issues that need to be handled before "Boaz' can manifest. In Uncommon Destiny Uncommon Partner, we looked at a few key things. However some of the things include altars, covenants working behind the scenes etc but having an impact on what shows up or doesn't show up etc

Having said that, Ephesian 6 makes it clear, that there is a raging battle taking place. Then question is how do we fight and most importantly how does one win. Well, entertainment wont cut it, but prophetic insight, revelation, obedience and timely action will results in change. This is why we must never be content with just entertainment on pulpits, we need to know the Word, Covenant rights and the rules of engagement.

Not knowing rules of engagement will cost. Lets just say i had a dream in 2005 that changed the way i do things and that taught me that its not enough to just go in church and listen to a sermon. I had to take responsibility of my ignorance! The fact is just because pastors are not teaching about certain things doesn't mean that you can use that as excuse to be exempted from those things. In the realm of the spirit ignorance is not an excuse! Let those who have ears, hear what the spirit is saying this hour!Disclaimer, i don't claim to know everything, however, i have spent over 6 years serving and heading the ministry of prayer in a local church which exposed to majority of the issues that people are dealing with. You know how it is, most times if you heading that ministry, you get a lot of prayer requests from people, that is what also forced me to grow so I could be effective in my ministry.

You have an Uncommon Destiny!

With tons of love,

Wis

Wisdom Mupudzi is an Award Winning Author, Serial Digital Publisher, you can check out more of his cutting edge content on Amazon, kobo, Smashwords and Itunes.

Four Reasons To Build A Business Whilst Single

2016-05-31T06:55:00.001-07:00

It has become crystal clear that we are in the age of the Entrepreneur. There has never been a better time to be an entrepreneur. Business Consultant and Marketing Gun, Kane Minkus says the next decade is the decade for the female entepreneur. Men, dont despair, your chances and choices are wide open too. One thing I love about this era is the explosion of "Heart Centred Enteprenuers'. These are people that are able to turn what they love or passion and monetise it and be able to build their business. It doesn't get more authentic than that!

Having said that, here are Four Reasons To Build a Business Whilst Single.

Time Factor

Building a business from the ground up, takes time, effort and commitment. The number one thing we all have but in limited supply is of course time. Its much easier to build a business when you are single, as you have more time. Compare that with someone who has a family, spending quality time with one's loved ones and managing the business etc. The early years of a business are often time consuming, and most businesses will require more of you at odd times etc. Its easy to sacrifice an entire weekend towards your business when you are single than when you are married, or when you have a family. Sometimes marriages have to end because dad or mum is spending too much time in the business. It doesn't have to be that dramatic, but relationships sometimes do end because someone is spending too much time in what I dubbed the "kitchen' in my award winning ebook, Uncommon Destiny Uncommon Partner. Whether the kitchen is the business or actual employment where one is employed by someone else. Its interesting that even in the Social Experiment, Seven Year Switch,one of the reasons why one of the couples had problems was because the husband was spending too much time in the business and he had no 'off' button. Well that couple had to make a decision, and the husband ditched the business but went for a 9- 5 job. Since then the wife says she has never been happier and she got her husband back! That serious! She did make it clear that she loves the certainty of knowing that he goes to work in the morning and finishes at 5pm and leaves his work at work and then comes home. Whereas when he had a business, that couldn't be the case at all. I guess that drives the point home!

Thinking in Twos,.

When you are in a relationship, or you are married, some business decisions you will have to think in terms of twos. In other words, how will this affect your significant other, or your husband and kids whatever the case may be. If you are single, its just you and your judgement call. For example you may have had a lot of success and new opportunities show up for more money,but your significant other now wants you spending more time with the family than travelling too much. So when you are single, you have that flexibility to think and just go for it, depending on your goals of course. You think solo or of course if you have business partners etc that's a different story, but I trust that largely
you get my drift.

Things like starting your family etc can be impacted by your business. This is not to paint a dull all picture about building a business but its just about being practical. A lot of people have romanticised businesses without fully comprehending what exactly it costs to build a business and what it takes both emotionally and financially. Of course, the journey of an entepreneur is exciting, the danger, the risks, the possibilities of what can be and the possibilities of each new day. Often easier to make heavy destiny altering decisions for your business when you are single than married.

Freedom

One of the things that I love about being an Entepreneur, has to do with the freedom. Freedom to craft your ideas and run with them as you wish. Calling the shots, and of course not ignoring the market forces. So the freedom that one has both as a single and as an entepreneur means you can fully engage your passions without restrictions. Sometimes people have found love through the journey of being an entepreneur, that's also wonderful. Often with each business venture, project, you grow as a person. So if you are single, rather than stress about not having a boo or a diva, whatever you call them, it may be a good idea to build a business or start if you have been wanting to go that path.
The other thing is when you build your business well and let say by the time you get married, you no longer trade time for dollars like most people. It means you can be free to live on your terms, you can be there, when your wife, boo, diva, bae or whatever you want to call them, wants you to be there. Because you are not confined to the the traditional 9-5 job. Of course, some people have managed to ditch their full time jobs by having a business whilst having a family. That may not necesarily have been an easy transition, however, the point is it's easier to make that switch when single. Seasons and values change with time. So yes, in the early years sacrifices need to be made, however, when they bring dividend, you can spend more time with people you want to spend time with when you want to spend time with them. Think about that, whether you have started a business, you are thinking of starting one or you intend at some point to ditch the 'system' so you can have more freedom, either now or later when Boaz or your Diva has showed up!

Purpose Factor

This is the big one. You see many people are not able to step into their purpose fully, because they are in occupations that they hate. In other words, they are just there for the money. However, running a business that is scale able means, there are no limits. The number one issue is we were conditioned for one source of income, a job! This is why Robert Kiyosaki said when he went back home after more than a decade, some of his elders were asking if he had found 'it'. What? I'm glad you asked, a job! This is why some times many entepreneurs can go through seasons of relational shifts. This is because a JOB is what majority know. I have nothing against being employment. In its proper context, employment gives one a crack at life. Whether gaining new skills, serving, etc. In fact it is often said that 67% of successful businesses were started by people who were directly or indirectly working for those industries at some point. Meaning if you want to be successful in ministry, it pays to serve under someone else and know the corners etc. This is something I did for about 6 years, so I can tell you without flinching whats wrong with many small churches because I have seen the politics etc. The same applies to business, if you want to own a coffee shop, maybe its a good idea to just go work for one. You don't have to, but it will give you a good idea and of course you will still need to do your market research etc Other option, is maybe speak to a lot of people who have worked for a coffee shop, or who own one. You will be looking at their number one challenges etc Whatever area you want to get into, do your research well. Or maybe you already have experience in an area, how then can you leverage on that experience and create new opportunities??

To fully enter purpose, one must be liberated from the world 'system'. Whether you get liberated by working part time till you are able to fully walk away from a day job, or just go 'cold turkey' and jump off the cliff and build your parachute on the way down. That will be something personal and that must be evaluated. We have so many preachers, worship leaders, who are not able to fully enter those arenas because monday to friday, they are in jobs they hate. Well, rather than stress about a boo or bae, in my humble opinion, i think there are so many things that one can do during the single years. One of those things is build a business. Ministry when you have resources is fun, and on the flip side, ministry without money is a massive yoke. Unfortunately few churches are striving to the point where they have people employed full time or maybe relatively few people like Kari Jobe, who are now in ministry full time and live off what they earn through their talents. By leveraging on the Digital age and prevailing opportunities in the Digital Age the possibilities become endless!

This is why I love the digital age, as it offers many opportunities to monetise what you do. This means with proper marketing, and proper planning one can then serve and eat, without needing the day time job like most!That is of course going to be different for the people who are teachers, doctors etc Nothing wrong with that. I know soapie stars who turned their backs on fame and went to teach,. That's noble in my books, the most important thing is to live your values without apology and manifest your purpose. Whatever your purpose is, go for it. It doesn't matter how less appealing it maybe to other people.If its teaching, go do that. If its being an evangelist go do that. What counts is that you are living your highest values or you are in the process of making adjustments so you can live them.

So no doubt, owning a business that gets you revenue will certainly help you be free from the world system and manifest purpose. If many pastors could have businesses that generated income, they would not rely on the church to pay their bills. Even now, there is a growing trend of people like Joel Osteen who are no longer on the payroll of their churches. In other words, they are earning enough through other ventures that they are not a burden to their churches. In actual fact some give more into their churches more than their members. Hear me and hear me well, I didn't say that pastors should not get paid, but i just shared whats happening now. Before you misquote me, i wanted to make that clear.

In a nutshell, maximise your days or your years of being single! Leave a thumbprint, a foot print and leave a legacy! You have an Uncommon Destiny!

Four Easy Steps To Profit With Kindle

2016-05-17T19:34:00.000-07:00

Its no secret that we are now in the Digital Age, in the Digital Economy or as I prefer to call it, 'The New Economy', there are tons of opportunities that exist now that never existed decades ago. One of those opportunities exist on Amazon. You can do so much on Amazon other than just shop ebooks, fashion, the latest porter mannia fad or gizmos. You can get paid by #Amazon, and there are multiple ways to get paid on Amazon, one of them through the Kindle. Having written and published 10 ebooks on Amazon, Smashwords and itunes. Here are Four Easy Steps To Profit with Kindle. It was a special day many years ago when i first received a cheque from Amazon, of course I have since moved away from cheques to bank transfers instead. One thing then is that though I didn't know much about SEO or Search Engine Optimisation, I knew then that I could share my work and get paid, as I had the proof in my hands and I knew I had to keep learning and growing to become better. So here are the Four Easy Steps to Profit with Kindle.

PASSION

This is the first key element for any one wanting to gradually build something of substance using the kindle platform. Passion is key in the sense that if you are going to be writing and publishing content on the kIndle platform, its easier to do so in any area that you are passionate about. Sometimes when you talk to people, you don’t have to ask what their passion is. They light up when they start talking about what they are passionate about. I remember when I wrote Uncommon Destiny Uncommon Partner, because I had been passionate about the area of relationships for so long and had learnt a lot through other people’s mistakes, my own dating mistakes ( yes I broke some hearts too in my journey and i was burnt too and of course the ones that got away too), research etc it was easy for me to put pen to paper. So passion plays a part in making the writing process and research process much more easier. This has been such a key ingredient in my work, all my ebooks have passion all over them and my readers often point that out.

Research.

This is key. Now that you have found an area that you are passionate about the next part is to research that niche. What are the issues? What do people need the most? What help can you bring to the market and most importantly what are people buying within that niche. This is important because when I was in my home country there were plenty of songs that got a lot of ‘air time’ on radio and hearing them a couple of days on radio you would think that they were top sellers right??? NO! Hashtag fail!

You see there was such a contrast between what people chose to have played on radio and what they were buying. You would look at the music charts and you would see that most of the cds, Lps etc that were in the top 10 music charts were actually the traditional type of genres, sungura (museve) etc. This was different to the urban grooves, the hip hop songs that were being done by the teenagers etc who were copyng their western world counterparts. As I grew up and maturde I later learnt why that was. Where people put their money on is more important than what they say. As a side note, one of the easiest ways to check someone’s values is look at what they spend their money on. That’s what they really value not necessarily what they say. More about values in another post, but I hope you get the idea. What are people buying in that niche, which problems can you solve that people are willing to pay for. Of course there are multiple ways and tools that you can use to do the 'digging' and be "Jack Baeur' for a moment or two.

Write and Publish.

Now that you have the passion and have a clear objective of why you want to produce the content. Of course, you have researched, you now know what people are buying in that chosen niche and you know what the issues are and you know what you want to bring to the table that the market has never had before, you can then write. After writing then comes the editing, some prefer editing as they go. Others just go for hours on end and then edit later. I prefer the latter, as I just want to flow and then do my round of editing and then of course email that to an editor. As you do more work you can rely on one editor or two, that you outsource your editing to. That way you have an ongoing relationship with someone who now gets your work style etc and its easy to communicate and deadlines if you have a regular editor that you go to, although if you want to, you can choose new editor for each project, perfectly fine too. This of course applies to graphics, you can design on your own or out source to one person or have different ones for each new project. I like to keep things simple by having those relationships, graphics I know who to go and editing I know who to go etc.

Of course SEO is key when it comes to writing and headlining your ebook on Amazon. The words you use to describe your books, all those things help in having your audience find you. I have about 8 facebook pages, a few of them run on autopilot and generate for me traffic without effort. Why?? Because of SEO, Google is always updating its algorithmn and this means in these days of Social Media there is more weighting given to Social Media because that's where people are.

Upscale and Accelerate.

One thing is that once you earn your first $10 online, you know the possibilities, all you need to do is to upscale or do 10 times more what got you the $10 and you get $100 etc. I knew that from the get go, that it was possible to upscale although I didn't know how, but now I do :)

You can also accelerate by cutting the learning curve so you can move faster towards your goals by going here Like anything new, there is always a learning curve, but 'stick to it ivenesss' is what makes the difference, some publish one ebook and then they give up. Others persevere and like I said once you earn your first dollar, you can always upscale. This post is not for those looking for a get rich quick scheme, but mainly for those who are looking to create long term income via the Amazon Kindle Platform whilst sharing their passion, knowledge and expertise to make a difference in the lives of others.

To discover more about the current prevailing opportunities in the Digital Age and what this means for you and most importantly, what you can do to start go here

Always remember you have an Uncommon Destiny!

Three Things To Know About Dating Entepreneurs

2016-05-09T19:32:00.000-07:00

The world of dating and relationships continue to evolve and transition just like the people who live them. Whilst most people are happy to just have a job in turbulent economic times and even in boom times, there is a group of people that is willing to venture on their own path no matter the state of the economy. These group of people have the gusto to forge and try and often succceed in creating their own economies. Meaning it doesn't matter where they are, they are ready to live life on their terms.

So in this post I just want to share a few things about Dating Entrepreneurs. You may be an Intraprenuer at present but somehow the allure of doing your 'own thing' keeps giving you a tag that you cant ignore and you know eventually you will have to get off your bum and 'take action'. Deep down you are an entrepreneur at heart. This post is also for anyone who is 'pursuing' or being 'pursued' or maybe dating an entepreneur or someone with an entepreneurial bent.

Vision

This is one of the things that is very common among Entepreneurs. Having the capacity to see the future and craft the present into forging a clear path towards the intended destination.Sometimes there can be sacrifices that need to be made to create the desired future. Journey of Enteprenuers is never easy and sometimes the two dating parties will have to make sacrifices together to create a desire outcome. Things can often get tricky when one of the two parties doesn't believe in the 'dream'.
Sometimes many people who are dating enteprenuers can often think they are living in 'la la land'.
At the end of the day it comes down to clarity of intended destination and its feasibility. Depending on what stage the enteprenuer is at, this can have varying degrees in terms of impact on the relationship. A well established enteprenuer will naturally have less pressure than someone still starting. Well established ones will naturally have the systems in places for the business to run without them and some do employ a manager who run the business for them, whilst they do other things. However, not many people are that lucky to meet and date people at that level. Many times people meet people at different stages of the entepreneurship journey. The key being communicating that vision to the significant other and ensure you are both on the same 'page'. One of the many couples that inspired me a lot is Robert and Kim Kiyosaki. Whilst they have always said they met
each other before they were rich. One of the clear things early on, was their desire and vision to live outside the 'system'. In other words they wanted to create a life and live life on their terms, without a 9-5 job. This is something that they have been advocating for years.

So in a nutshell, its critical for the vision to be clear from the get go. Its easier to 'get each other' when both parties are enteprenuers or have a natural inclination towards enteprenuership. However even if one party is not an enteprenuer, things can still work out, that's why its critical to have clear communication. So many challenges can be overcome by clear communication.
Even if one of two parties is still an intrapreneur, clear communication helps in terms of clarifying where both parties want to go and why?

So in essence, entepreneurs are 'big picture people' and hence this can present interesting and sometimes challenging dynamics.

High Highs and Low Lows

Sales Queen and Entepreneur, Lisa Sasevich describes this as living in the Himalayas. This is mainly because of the journey that entepreneurs embark on. Its a journey of passion, hard work and of course, high highs and low lows. The main thing is being able to navigate the ups and downs and hopefully build a business that makes a difference in the life of others.

With that is also the freedom that comes from building a business that you love and living life on your terms. This is crucial for anyone dating an entepreneur or being pursued by one. With my
interactions with many business tycoons of different levels it became crystal clear that majority had it tough and they perseverence and came out on top. Majority didn't inherit their wealth, they got off their bums and made it happen!Of course everybody is excited about the high highs, its no brainer, are exciting and life is a breeze. However I always say, before the Glory, there is a Story!

Himalayas

I don't know how much food stamps work in America but be that as it may, some entepreneurs from the U.S were on food stamps and worked their way to build 7 figure businesses. This is a classic example of low lows and high highs. Some like Jeff Walker lost business partners and had to start their businesses again from scratch and build it to over 8 figures etc. This is a life of extremes, but i suppose once you the learn the fundamentals of building a successful business, you can lose it all and start again and come out on top. Of course, I don't wish that on anybody but stuff happens. Well I suppose those who recover know that they build the business and the business didnt build them.
By undersanding this key part of most entepreneurs your relationship can navigate and be able to last more.

3 Continual Education

If you are going to be a successful entepreneur in the 21st century, you will have to be able to invest in you. This means continual education, whether through the formal education or through trainings by individuals who have mastered what you want to master. Generally speaking the education system cant keep up with the rapid speed of change, and hence there is need to adapt and change your learning methods. Was teaching a group of MBA students a while ago and it dawned on me that by the time they finished their degrees, Social Media would have changed. I have a business degree and interestingly many of the things that i learned through the 'hustle' out weigh my University education. I m not saying getting a business degree is bad if you want to get into business. All im saying is that explore your options and find whats best for you and be opening to new forms of learning. Whilst my degree laid the solid foundation of number crunching and owning my numbers, there are some things and strategies that are on the cutting edge that i learned from individuals who are on the top of their game. Example most traditional institutions have largely focussed on Push Marketing, but things have changed, particularly online, and Attraction Marketing is the 'in' thing when it comes to doing business in the 21st century.

So if you are going to be on the cutting edge you will have to invest in you. This means whoever you date or you pursue must be able to get this and see how crucial this is for your business and your overall well being. Most entepreneurs that I meet in the 7 and 8 figure range, have invested in excess of a minimum of $250K, Yes, that's minimum, this shows the power of information. Of course this goes beyond dating, and into marriage, continual education must and will continue to be a key part of the entepreneur in the relationship or in most cases, both eventually embrace it!

People are at different levels and of course one will always have to start at the level they are and move from there. There are free seminars, free books, there are paid seminars, and etc. However at the end of the day, continual education and continual investing in one's education is key part of being a global leader in the 21st century. So both parties in a relationship must get this, and give each other room to grow and not get freaked out if one party wants to do a $5000 3 day course or even something much more 'ridiculous' than that. Of course the numbers will always be relative to the circumstances of the two parties concerned.

By understanding these three things I hope your relationships can be made stronger and you can date whoever you date especially if they are an entepreneur with an undersanding of the above.
For more on purpose and relationships see you have an Uncommon Destiny

The Story Behind “Uncommon Destiny Uncommon Partner’ and Three Reasons Why Every Single Person Ought to Read it.

2015-12-16T17:42:00.002-08:00

A few years ago whilst having dinner with friends, we began to chat about a lot of topics. One of the topics that we then delved in, was the subject of relationships. I must admit its one of the topics that I have always had a passion about for many years and still do. Having met renouned author and businessman, DR John Gray of ‘Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus’.

Bedroom Factor.

So naturally the conversation covered many dimensions of relationship. One of which is the ‘Bedroom Factor’. Well its at that point when I realised the over emphasis on the “Bedroom’ was too much. I interjected and hinted that its not all about the bedroom, there are things like the “kitchen’, the “lounge’ etc. In that moment a friend of mine suggested that I write a book and he would buy it. A few days later a few more people said the same thing. One thing I learned is that true friends will push you into purpose. True friends will push you towards birthing that which is on the inside that you need to bring out.

On the bedroom Factor I think Hollywood has done a disservice to upcoming generations. There is such a huge ephasis on sex and marketers who say ‘Sex sells” are not helping. Relationships come with responsibily and what happens in moments of bad days when the ‘lovey dovey’ feelings have seemed to have gone on holiday. True most single people look forward to the bedroom aspect of marriage ( for those who decide to abstain till their wedding day), however we all know that marriage is more than the bedroom. This then introduces the Wise House Model which looks at the symbolic meaning of each of the rooms in a house. These cover both spiritual and practical aspects, its often the spiritual side of people that is often neglected in most relationship books as most authors concentrate on the lovey dovey side of things. I chose to cover a lot of the spiritual aspects and symptoms that many people have had to deal with and I include how to break free.

Purpose.

Each individual was born for a purpose. This may sound like a cliché’ but its true. There is a bigger person on the inside of us who desires to manifest. This is why many people know that they know that they got to be dancing, singing etc even if they may doing something completely different. Bill Gates for years wrestled with something on the inside that he had never seen before but he knew he had to bring out. That thing was Microsoft which went on to be worth billions. Often sometimes relationships can be a hindrance to purpose, wrong ones that is. However, right ones, are a catalyst towards purpose. There is scientific evidence that your income will not be far off from the 5 closest people to you. Purpose is our rasion’ detre’ and therefore true love should thrust us toward purpose and not from it. Love and purpose are not mutually exclusive, but should exist in harmony. Many people have found purpose and as they started gravitating towards their purpose, they realised the person who they thought was the ‘one’, wasn’t actually the one. With purpose and maximising one’s potential, there will be sacrifices and it takes someone understanding to be able to understand and be prepared to make the sacrifices. In Uncommon Destiny Uncommon Partner, I zero in with greater detail on the power of a purpose driven life. I also bring to the table various dynamics at play that can be avoided before someone gets married. I have to counsel a lot of married couples over the years mainly on the spiritual dynamics that they should have dealt with prior to marriage.

Domestic Violence

This is a national crisis at the moment if you are in Australia. Shocking that this is happening in the First world economy. I believe this is one of the huge topics that will need people to reexamine what is acceptable and what is not in a relationship. As a society we have to know and identify the key traits of an abuser. I used the biblical character of Jezebel in an in depth analysis of what I call ‘Three Signs You Are Dating Jezebel’. One of the land mark cases in the area of domestic violence in Australia is the Gittany case which was featured on Sunday Night on Channel 7 in detail in the first quarter of 2014 that I specifically analysed the presiding judge’s statements and how it pretty much described to a T the clues that pointed to the presence of "Jezebel'.Whilst discussions on this subject have often focussed on women victims, the ugly truth is that many men are victims too and this is because of many reasons, which i shared in the book as well.

Last but not least, you have an Uncommmon Destiny, always remember that. You don’t have to go through what other people have gone through. For more see Uncommon Destiny Uncommon Partner

Blessings and happy holidays!

Four Reasons To Keep Calm and Enjoy The Humble 'Days'!

2015-08-31T19:37:00.001-07:00

In the pursuit of greatness we all have to start from somewhere. Its all lovey dovey when someone has reached mastery or pretty much the summit of who they really are in a great measure. Upon reaching mastery of our craft, whatever the case maybe, we flourish and many more doors than we can handle open. Its easy for people to emulate and envy legends at the top of their game, whether its Serena Williams, Mack Zuckerberg or maybe Marrisa Mayer. The truth of the matter is that they all started from somewhere. In this post I want to highlight four reasons why we must embrace those humble and nimble days knowing they serve a purpose.Also this is September, the 9th month, some have dubbed this the month of giving birth. I know many people are 'giving birth' to things, ideas, projects, new partnerships, alliances etc.

I hope the Next Four Reasons will shed light on a few things and also empower you towards your journey!

1) 10 000 Hours.

Our humble days are simply the days where nothing 'major' is happening. Those days when we are starting out something and its maybe early days and we are seemingly far away from the full realisation of potential. We are not yet maximising our potential or the potential of a 'thing' or 'project'. If you are a preacher, maybe you are just starting out, there are only as few as maybe less than 10 people coming to your church. Maybe you are an intern, you are eyeing the CEO Position, or maybe the Finance Director position. Maybe you are newly weds and the early days of marriage are not as rosy as they are supposed to be or as you expected them to be. What do you do??? Its a PROCESS of becoming one, and its a PROCESS required to move from potential to fully maximised reality.
What do you do in those months and sometimes even years if you are a young preacher or minister?? Even people like TD Jakes, Creflo Dollar had to all start off with just a handful. They had to go through their own process to build an institution that is attended by people in the 5 figure range. Same as many CEOs, many started as 'random' workers and of course many started off as interns. They had to go through their own PROCESS. The 10 000 hrs threshold is a theory that has resonated with folks like Malcolm Gladwell as well as Three Time Commonwealth Table tennis champion, Matthew Syed in his book, Bounce, which I read and loved in the first quarter of 2015. The idea behind Bounce it is the fact that what most people think is talent is purely effort, hard work and tons of practice.I loved the extended research and scientific evidence presented in that book. The estimated time or hours required to reach one’s peak in an endeavor is 10 000 hours or maybe 10 years on average. Of course this is a rough estimate or guide. I checked this theory myself and it resonated with me. Serena and Venus started playing tennis around about 3/ 4 years old. Clinched their first major junior championships around the age of 12/13. That’s pretty much around about the 10 year mark. Of course to some people to reach their peak it may take more than 10 000 hrs and for some below that. However the bottom line is that each one has to find their own ’10 000hrs’ to commit to a particular course of action as part of a grand vision. In my Kindle Ebook Destiny Code , I did mention that purpose is key to destiny. Of course I also highlighted why Spirituality is also a key component of who we are as people. In this one, I also explored how Purpose, Relationships and Spiritual come together in the fulfillment of one's destiny. The world has become more spiritual or more open to the idea of spirituality. Besides Spirituality of course, there is the natural stuff, stuff that that needs to be handled on a practical level. Well if you are going to fulfill your destiny, you are going to have to find your ’10 000’ hours ,to reach your full potential so you can manifest your purpose, it doesn’t matter how ‘anointed’ you are , you will have to find time and you will need to make sacrifices so that you can reach your peak. I know many will want to be debate the 10 000 hrs idea, but essentially the bottom line is any worthwhile achievement requires and demands our time and attention. So it doesn't matter what path you are own, you will need to go through your own PROCESS of committing time and energy into something that is potentially bigger than you.

2) Discipline.

Whilst success brings goodies, the days of preparation offer us a lot more in terms of character development and equipping. Those years of discipline are critical to ensure that we develop the necessary discipline to sustain whatever it is we are building. If you have a business and you don’t develop the necessary discipline to be able to handle the business in its infancy or in its nimble days then if it ‘explodes’ you may drive your business to the ground. This mainly due to the lack of competencies that should have been developed in the early stages. We see many corporate collapses occurring from time to time, usually if we track back to the original days of the business starting many times people discover trends and habits that predicted doom. So maybe you are just starting a new project, business, church or whatever it is and you feel like nothing is happening. Don’t be dismayed, use the nimble and humble days to prepare and have a firm foundation and also ensure you have the required disciplined to continually do those little things that you ought to be doing. Maybe you are back on the fitness regime, you have an ideal weight goal in mind. In the early days its proving to be tough, but maintaining the discipline and waking up each day or three or four times a week to exercise, go to the gym etc. Continually being disciplined will eventually lead to a turn around. I have always been a fitness freak from my teenage years but along the way, I dropped out and started out and dropped out. However, last year around September, I decided to come back to fitness permanently. First month was hard but by the 2^nd month I was now on auto pilot, didn’t have to force myself, now it’s become a part of me. In a week’s time I celebrate a full calender year of consistency and discipline in this area of fitness, in essence you can say I got my fitness mojo back, sounds like a book title huh?? I intend to keep it that way. Of course there is more to how I fully gained discipline to be able to maintain that and presently maintaining that. More about that in another post.

One of the things that I champion is good leadership and no price for guessing that I totally hate bad leadership or bad governance wherever I find it. I have walked in, in many organisations and those organisations are expecting ‘miracles’. It gets interesting when you look at whats on the ground and realise, they don’t need another ‘miracle’ they need to get disciplined in one area so they can bring a turn around.So this is one of the reasons why the humble and nimble days are important, they foster discipline. Its either pain of discipline or pain of regret, the choice is yours!

3) Relationships.

Everybody can love you and be with you when sales are going through the roof or when the church is packed to capacity and when conferences are selling like crazy. However, its in those early days when nothing is seemingly going on that we see who is really for us. I love the fact that Robert Kiyosaki of ‘Rich Dad Poor Dad’ met his wife, Kim Kiyosaki before they were both millionaires. They met when he had no money. Was listening to one of his CDs where he was explaining that he knows his wife loves him for him not for money, the reason was simple, when they met and fell in love, he had none! I'm highlighting this because just in the last month alone I have spoken to people on different sides of the spectrum on this. One is in Six figures encroaching Seven figures but they are questioning whether the person they are with loves them for who they are or for the 'goodies'. The other person is in a state now where they don't care about stuff anymore and just met someone who is loaded and this person doesn't care about stuff too. With the 2nd situation, i was like that's the best place to be, at the end of the day, stuff is just that, stuff! "Toys' are just that, what counts is whats the two people share and where they want to go together. The first situations I had a few pointers, but I figured this person needed to really figure this on their own and find out the truth for themselves. All i had to do was to ask the right questions and interestingly light bulbs were switching on. So I was respectful enough to allow them to figure it out and find the answers they were looking for and make a decision that they feel is the right one. I suppose the basic fundamental need of people is essentially, to be loved and accepted for who they really are. I see this many times across my inboxes from my Facebook pages, and sometimes comments on some of my articles. No masquerades and no alterior motive. Someone said, 'IF YOU MARRY SOMEONE FOR SECURITY, YOU ARE EXHIBITING YOUR OWN INSECURITIES!!" #selah

You can take this relationship side to a small businesses. Some businesses were started in garages with only 1 /2 stuff but those people that remained and were part of the process were life long friends and naturally in the days of spoils, they get a good share, and rightly so I must say! This really hit home a while ago when I was looking at some of the billionaires that came on the scene after Facebook’s IPO. Many of the folks had been with Mark Zuckberg in the early days of formation. Of course some people had jumped ship and naturally were not part of the ‘spoils’. So the humble and nimble days are the days to sort out your relationships, this is not only in terms of romance but in friendships etc. Just over a fortnight ago a close friend from the UK was having a bad day and needed to talk, despite what I had on my plate, I cleared my scheduled so that we could squeeze a Skype Call. Bottom line, it’s a friendship that was nurtured not necessarily in the glory days, but it’s a friendship that matters.

So if you are in your nimble and humble days, keep calm and enjoy the ride! Find those who are for you and nurture and build those key relationships. Don't forget to reward loyalty, loyalty is something hard to find. This is a microwave era, people want instant gratification. So loyalty is an endangered specie and you must reward it. Some people may not be able to do certain things but because of their loyalty, many people particularly bosses can given them key and sensitive positions and then take the time to thoroughly train them. There is so much to be gained in the nimble days, its about perspective. Sometimes in our nimble days we meet mentors who become a life time key of support. Sometimes we are approached and we offer insight or advice that is life changing to someone and friendships are formed. Was talking to a friend the other day, and boy were they shocked! I told them the exact meaning of the body language that we had witnessed and they knew I was correct. I knew who was in the room, where and what were they doing. It has become 2nd nature for me, I'm very sensitive to atmospheres and usually when I enter a place i like to get a sense of who is present and where. This person was shocked. I later explained that I have been blessed by some other folks that I have met over the years who have taught me many things and many of them have become dear friends. This is why I love one on one dates, be they coffee dates, lunch dates etc they allow people to sit and talk and just chat, and I take in everything. Eye movement, body language etc. Make no mistake my BS detector is always on in such times. Will get into that later I suppose when next I do a post on dating, relationships etc.

4) LEARNING

This is the number one thing that I love about the humble and nimble days. There is a lot of learning to be had. I’m reminded of the time I worked for a TV station and at the time I was 19 years old and I knew nothing about the television industry, broadcasting and the power of television. Those few years taught me so much about the industry and I met so many amazing people who were at the top of their game. Whilst this was in a third world country, obviously it pales in comparison when you compare that to the cut throat arena of western countries. Whilst those years were humble, I figured in hind sight they taught me so many things and laid a good foundation of what the media is about. Markets may differ but the fundamentals don't change. So if we are open to learning, we get so much out of those humble days. Although my television show was aired in the mornings, it pretty much changed how people saw me in the ‘hood’. Walking in the street and suddenly faces that never paid attention to you start recognizing you. Learned a lot and one of those things is ‘TELEVISION CAN KILL YOU OR BREAK YOU’. This is why sometimes I get surprised when people are appearing on cheesy ‘reality shows’, because I already know what’s potentially could be waiting for them, and sometimes when television has done its damage there is no quick recovery, it can take a very very long time. Just in case you are thinking of going down that path, know exactly what you are in for. So another key in this process is identifying who is within your reach that you can learn from, are there courses that you can pay for to learn more. Yes, if you are not willing to pay for it, you don't value it! Find good mentors, teachers, and even formal and informal training. Its those seeds of investing in oneself that often take us to the next level. Next level doesn't necessarily come because you want it to casually, its more about what we are willing to do to get there. How bad do you want it???

So essentially, most things have a learning curve. So when you go through stuff because you are going through your ‘humble days’, don’t despair. You are not alone, most achievers have been there. Remain committed to your craft or vision and in due time, you will reap. A few years ago I released my first and award winning ebook, Uncommon Destiny Uncommon Partner. This taught me so many things and that was my first ebook that was published by someone else and shortly after I took the reins of all that I produce. I started learning about SEO, Business Models etc. You got to be hungry. The choice is always yours, you can either listen to naysayers or keep your nose to the grindstone and do whatever you have to do to get to the next level, this of course includes learning. So wherever you may find yourself, be encouraged. One of the Core Values at the Core of everything about me and what I do is Continuous Improvement, and without a willingness to learn, there can be no Continuous Improvement.

Whether you are a pastor of a church of less 20 people, or you have started a new business, new blog, new shop, new fashion designs, new radio show, whatever the case maybe, my message to you is simple, KEEP CALM AND ENJOY THE HUMBLE DAYS, THEY ARE SERVING A PURPOSE! MAKE THEM COUNT!

I hope these four things I have mentioned above will bless you and encourage you to keep going and growing!

Blessings.

Three Ways In Which The Digital Age Has Changed How We 'Do' Church

2015-08-23T19:18:00.002-07:00

THREE WAYS IN WHICH THE DIGITAL AGE IS CHANGING THE WAY WE 'DO' CHURCH

We are currently in both the worst of times and the best of times, this all depends on which lense you are using to interpret the world around you and the daily events. This also depends on what you choose to look at and what dominates your focus. Technology wise , we have never been more sophisticated and high tech. This age has been dubbed the information age or the digital age. Over the years we have watched nations switch from analogue to digital. Naturally every major area of life has been impacted by the ushering in of the digital age. So today lets have a look at some of the ways the way we do church has been changed or impacted.

1 Live Stream

Many mega churches offer this service. This is when you can’t be at church in person or you have chosen to take time from your normal Sunday or Saturday routine or whatever the case maybe, and decide to spend time with family at home or some other reason. Not only that, but this is powerful when it comes to international events. For example, the recently concluded MegaFest hosted by Bishop Jakes, usually streams live or have some sessions streamed live. Been on their website (The Potter's House) main website a couple of times and I have loved the fact that there have a specific button for those on Android etc. I remember three years ago I actually spent an entire weekend watching all the live streamed messages during one of the conferences. The line up of speakers were to my taste. Some people drive an hour to go to be physically in church, so you can also imagine how this can be handy on weekends where they are exhausted and need to rest. lets not forget the international audience of many churches. Depending on where one is and what they want, there is the option of choosing a plethora of international 'dishes' and be 'fed'. Of course, not everyone is on board, many churches are still to catch up on this. Some churches are still so small that they feel they don’t need to do so. Some relatively small churches do have Live Stream, and people do have options which is good. However, the bottom line is that this facility has changed how many people do church. Millions of people across the globe, both attend live stream services and of course millions more attend in person.

2 Tithes and Offerings

Whilst the message of tithes and offering offends some people, the truth is millions are being poured into offering buckets each week. Many people now, opt to just pay their tithes online and then live stream the service at home. This can be either using mobiles, tablets, Macs etc. Also this has afforded many individuals from one country to give to another ministry in another country easily. Imagine the days where there was no internet and churches didn’t have a website so people could give online. Some people used to use conventional mail, send cheques etc, that seemed long a process and costly. Whereas in the digital age, using your paypal or credit card, you can send an offering or ‘seed’. In some ministries you can give by text messages, you text the amount you want to give and with a special code to a special number and voila, you are done! I'm sure I have already made some people nervous, churches without a website and an offering button of some sort. This is also a touchy subject for some, many people still have a problem with the tithe. If you are new to this, it simply means giving 10% of your income to the church that you attend or 'receive' from. Well, having said that, some people of various backgrounds and beliefs still take 10% of their income and give it to charity or whatever cause they have decided to be part of. This has nothing to do with religion, but I suppose christians have tended to claim and own this principle because of its widely known biblical origins. So in essence the subject of giving 10 % is bigger and broader than the confines of Church. Attend any circular business seminar and I'm sure sooner or later you will hear the suggestion give some of what you earn to charity etc. Returning to giving in the church, essentially, tithes and offerings can now be given out in multiple ways other than the usual offering bucket. Churches without a website of course naturally are missing out on potential possibilities. Yes you can still find churches in the first world economy without a website. Even churches in the third world economies many of them do have websites of which friends and associates in the diaspora can catch up on what the beloved pastor and the church are up to. Not only that but to also take part in supporting the ministry etc I guess it’s an individual church’s decision to decide on how they want to be present online or not be present online in the digital age. This also depends whether they have a Digital Strategy or not. All I am doing today is to highlight how the digital age is shaping our society.

3 The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.

In the old economy, pastors, teachers and many leaders could get away with false doctrine. In the digital economy it’s proving to be tricky, as all it takes is a tweet, a facebook post and the pastor is exposed. I will not indulge you by listing names and incidences, however i'm sure if you have been on facebook, twitter etc you would have come across news and pictures of pastors and leaders in various less flattering statements and conditions. From churches were people were eating grass just over a year ago, to the most recent story of a pastor playing with snakes in church etc. This is what the digital age is doing. Even church closures are being accelerated, once a news story breaks out, no matter how inaccurate It is, the damage can be done. This will require whoever is being mentioned to go into damage control. Many times ‘Damage Control’ may not work. In the old economy pastors could manipulate, control, bully etc and many people would put up with it, this was because to some people this was ‘normal’ however as Facebook and many other platforms are connecting the world, it's making people talk and realise that they are not alone. Between January and March 2014 I spoke to over 100 people over skype, this was in skype prayer groups, prayer lines etc At the time I was going through a personal challenge that had to do with everything ministry. Those chats made me realise common patterns and trends that without the aid of technology I wouldn’t have found it. You see I found out the many ‘issues’ that a lot of small to medium sized churches had in one country were also similar to the same that people in other country were going through. Case of same script but different cast. This led to my ebook, Head to Head With Jezebel which also looks at several things and fundamentals to consider before joining a church. I wouldn’t trade those skype conversations for anything, one thing that I quickly realized is that there is need for good governance and accountability in many churches particularly small to medium sized churches. People can’t blame the devil or “God’s timing’ for everything. You can’t start a church and think you will wake up tomorrow with good governance skills, it doesn’t work like that.

I hope you get my heart on this. I'm not against small churches at all, there are plenty of vibrant, and young ministries that are on their journey and are incredibly amazing and with amazing leadership. I know several leaders who run small churches and give their heart and soul to the work of the ministry and in due time there are heading for greater seasons of flourishing. Some people are just starting out in ministry with a few people and that is okay, I always encourage those in their early days to get the small things right and stick to the original God given blueprint. Having said that, I cannot ignore the thousands of people that are being burnt and walking away from God because they fell victim to the devices of self serving leadership. In essence I'm for doing things God's way, size of church is irrelevant, what matters is the heart of God and the plans and purpose of God being championed and manifested!

There are many governmental issues that cause many small churches to remain that way. I included many of those things in the above mentioned book. We all have seen article after article, post after post about pastors that are manipulative, outright bullies and controlling. Sometimes even sexual molestation, and child sexual abuse emanating from the so called 'leadership'. If anything the church should be the standard bearer when it comes to good governance and leadership. So what the digital age is doing is quickly bringing those cases to light, i may not agree with social media trial but bottom line, the digital age is unearthing a lot of things that people didn't know about. However, on the positive side, good deeds are not going unrewarded. There is also positive news of pastors and leaders who are making an impact and changing the world and making it a better place. So as you can see all the digital age is doing is amplifying what is. This is also leading to closure of certain churches, if those churches were going to close in a few years, what the digital age is doing is fast tracking their closure Sometimes news break out so fast and the media gets on top of it and the rest is history!!!One casualty for example who fell from grace at the speed of lighting is Mark Driscoll I will not comment on any of the allegations etc, however , here we are seeing a classic case of someone who fell from being a media darling around about the early parts of 2014 and by the time the year ended, things had gone South for him, ministry wise.

In conclusion, I suppose all our lives have been changed and will continue to be changed by the new advances in technology. Whilst the technology is just that, technology, its how we use it and what is the out come of our use of it that becomes fundamental. Two out of the 7 of my core values that govern how I write, speak and publish ebooks etc are Continuous Improvement and Good Governance. So naturally I am a strong advocate for Continuous Improvement and Good Governance in both religious and non religious organisations. We need Good Governance in both Churches and the Corporate World. Good Governance and Continuous improvement among other things of course will ensure longevity and a good future in our organisations.

Blessings.

Three Type of Leaders to Avoid in the 21st Century ( Part 1

2014-09-08T20:10:00.002-07:00

The world is changing at a fast pace and its undebatable that many things have no option but to change or they become obsolete. One of the key areas that we are seeing change is in the area of leadership. What a leader is today and what a leader was 20 years ago has evolved and will continue to evolve. Having said that, there are some traits though that will continue to be at the core and heart of leadership.

In this three part series Im looking at three traits that if a leader doesnt have, its time to step back and rethink. The first part for today is Vision. So needless to say avoid, Vision Less Leadership.
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Vision.

This may be obvious to the average corporate person. Whilst this may be so, you will be amazed by how many churches, religious organisations and the like who dont have a clear vision. Submitting to such a leader who has no vision can lead to frustration and disappointment. Why? Mainly because they have no clear direction of where they are going and sometimes anything goes in whatever they are doing. A few years ago, I happen to be sitting in a conference and the visiting Bishop from Zambia said, 'There are three places that people die. People die in churches, marriages and in business!' That statement never left me since then, Experiential and revelational wisdom has certainly made me see the truth behind this. Many people are good at execution but under vision less leadership they are frustrated. One of the reasons why people die in those three places sometimes is lack of clear vision, where are we going? I must also highlight the fact that its not enough to have a vision, it needs to be articulated well and make sure the rest of the team is on board and they fully understand it.

Its such a loss and waste of talent and resources to be under leadership without a clear vision. I have seen this in many places, both religious and the non religious circles. So its dangerous to be under a leader who has no vision, where are they taking you to if they dont know? Maybe they do, but its not clear, how are you are going to know that you have arrived? Many people mean well and their intentions have been misconstrued, instead of the people that they are serving supporting them, they actually started fighting them. How sad, this in part is also caused by a lack of clear vision that fosters discipline and accountability and also lines of operation etc.

If someone is starting small, with a dedicated team and a clear vision, they can do more exploits than someone with a large team and but no clear vision. Clear vision fosters discipline and gives direction. Its also easy to know who belong and who doesnt, those who belong will resonate with the vision and they dont need to be manipulated in any way but they are able to buy into the Vision, willingly and will be committed to the vision, because they see the big picture. They become excited and are prepared to be part of it and do what it takes to bring it into reality whether through giving their time, money, gifts, talents, access to their networks, and anything that may be fundamental to the fulfillment of that vision.

From the Vision, then stems Strategy and of course execution. However, the starting point is always Vision. Let the vision be clear first and from there you can decide whether you want to be a part of something or not. Having said that I think its safe to say avoid Vision less leadership.

I believe leadership is a heart condition. Its a heart that leads, guides, nurtures and mentors. So let me just salute all the leaders out there who are doing things right, whether in politicss, business, entertainment, religious institutions, institutions of learning etc and of course that single mum who is juggling being a father and mother at the same time, doing the best she can to provide a safe environment to which her son/s or daughter/s can grow up to be the best they can be. Not forgetting of couse the single dads out there who are doing it tough, juggling a plethora of responsibilities but they keep on keeping on.

Keep an eye for Part 2 and thanks for dropping by :)

Wisdom Mupudzi is an E Lit Award Winning Author, and Infopreneur. For more on things to consider in a leader check out Head to Head with Jezebel. For a Free Ebook go here
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Three Reasons Why We Should NOT BAN BOSSY

2014-06-04T23:14:00.001-07:00

Three Reasons Why We Should NOT BAN BOSSY!

So a few ladies led the campaign to ban the word bossy, led by Facebook’s COO Sherly Sandberg. This set in motion different reactions from different people, and here are three reasons why we should NOT ban BOSSY!

Calling a ‘thing’ a ‘thing’.

Whilst the reasoning behind the campaign sounds noble, the truth is that some kids are out right bossy. Being bossy triggers images of those kids who by nature find it easy to ‘boss’ their way and get others to do what they want to do. The other kids may not know why but in some way they end up doing what these kids (bossy kids) want them to do. These kids may end up being outright bullies, because they are so used to getting their way. Part of bullying comes with intimidation and growing with that behaviour will mean they can grow into something much worse. So being bossy must not be banned we need to call it like it is when we see it manifesting!

Difference between showing initiative and being bossy.

When a child is showing initiative that must be celebrated. That is far from being bossy. What parents or anyone responsible for a child can do is to celebrate that whether it’s a boy or girl and say it out loud that they are showing initiative and they are leading and that's a good thing. Rewarding initiative is good, from a psychological point of view, it will ‘anchor’ that in the child that showing initiative leads to rewards, and yes in most times, the big winners and big achievers in life are the ones who show initiative. Showing initiative is a key part of being a leader, leaders see what others don’t see and step up to the plate and kids should be rewarded for taking initiative but not for being bossy. Being bossy also conjures images of the high powered executive of yesterday who used command and control. Of which command and control is now obsolete, as organisations take up flat organisational hierarchies. Having said that you may still find organisations that may include religious organisations still running behind time, still operating using command and control.

Bossy and Initiative must co exist for distinction purposes

Yes we need the words together, this way, we can quickly differentiate them. You will see some children are outright bossy but far away from having initiative. They don’t come up with anything that demonstrate initiative but maybe good at ‘bossing’ their way to get others do what they want. These kids may be the ones that can often be intimidating to others, the intimidation may have different roots. However, these kids will tend to be ‘the boss’ maybe at the school grounds or in any location. This has nothing to do with initiative but just being a bully, if unchecked this can grow to toxic levels. So I say lets reward initiative, but thwart bullying. So making the distinct difference and rewarding initiative will take us a long way, rather than ban bossy. If we ban bossy children who are outright bossy and carry mild forms of being a bully will evolve into something much worse.

So with that, I say lets not ban Bossy but keep it and make the distinction between being bossy and showing initiative. Let initiative be rewarded from an early age and this will in turn take the creative juices of the next generation of leaders to another level.

Wisdom Mupudzi is an Award Winning Author who believes in relationships that serves and empowers purpose. You can check out his latest release, Head to Head WIth Jezebel