Starting Over Again

Starting Over Again

“Recreate your life, always, always.  Remove the stones, plant rose bushes and make sweets. Begin again.” ― Cora Coralina

Today marks the beginning of a new era.  Today is the rebirth of The Executive Mastermind Program.

Starting Over Again

Why starting over again?  For the same reason that from time to time we change cars, get a new computer program, or update anything else.  Whilst the previous workshop program was brilliant and changed the lives of hundreds of people over the decade, time marches on, regulations caught up and technology shifted so far, it had to be reworked to bring it into the 21st century, not as a catch-up, but to again make it the leading edge program for people seriously wanting to change their lives and their businesses for something better.

Let’s look at what we had, in the former program.

Four weekend workshops, starting with a massive paradigm shift in Weekend 1, and with each successive weekend workshop building on the previous, leading to an incredible climax of successes and achievements by the end of the fourth and final weekend workshop.  The content is a powerful combination of soft skills, goalsetting and entrepreneurship – teaching people how to really live their lives, not just make their way through them, whilst having entrepreneurial resources and strategies at their fingertips.  Incredible, empowering, unleashing the inner warrior within all.  NLP and Excellerated Learning presentation styles, formation of Mastermind Teams, some of which are still meeting, decades later, the success strategies are still empowering the people.

Let’s look at some of the changes.

Rules and regulations.  I was giving advice from the front of the room that became illegal.  Not because it was wrong, but because the regulation changes said that suddenly I needed a piece of paper, a qualification, to make it legal to talk about those subjects I had been teaching since early in the decade of the 1990s.  I had to become a financial advisor if I wanted to continue to talk about financial strategies and teach people the wealth strategies I had learnt and developed alongside some of the greats, such as Robert Kiyosaki, Blair Singer, John Burley, Jim Rohn and Michael Domeyko Rowland.  When the rules changed, it became illegal for me to deliver around one-quarter of the program I developed and had been presenting for over a decade!  That had to change.

I became a financial advisor.  Legal again.

Technology.  I used flipcharts and huge coloured pens and still will, but now we have iPads, tablets, phablets, smart phones and a myriad of other technological gadgets that have reshaped the way presentations are made.  Mind you, the human brain still learns in the same way; the challenge has been in adapting the technology to empower the human mind and it’s learning styles, rather than numb it down.

We have all seen children mesmerised into silence by the lounge-room baby sitter, the TV.  A lot of technology does that, including many video presentations, PowerPoints and other high-tech equipment presentations.  Some of it is the electronics and the frequencies they operate on, some is the dazzling speed at which the images flash across in front of us. Some is the laziness of the presenter, trying to get technology to make their job easier, instead of making the learning task easier.

There will be some changes to the presentation style, but the flipcharts will remain.  The games will remain.  We will still talk to each other and interact as humans, even if we have to learn it all over again!

One of the challenges with technology and especially with the “digital natives” who were born into a world where computers and the internet were already embedded as a way of life.  They have never known a world without a smart phone, without high-speed broadband and without instant gratification of a want or need in the technological world.  The problem is that with such information available on demand in a millisecond, attention spans have greatly reduced.  Website marketeers know that they have a matter of seconds to get their message across before the web surfer has flicked onto the next page, if their attention has not been caught.

Therein lies the challenge of matching the speed of technology with the mind’s ability to learn, and the attention span of the learner.  Whilst for a time it is possible for a fast mind to keep up, they tire easily and subconsciously check out without the person being aware.  It used to be that you could read yourself to sleep with a book where you didn’t recognise a word.  Physically you read on, but mentally, your mind’s attention has snagged on that word it didn’t understand and next thing, you’re asleep.

With technology, it happens in milliseconds, because there is just so much information flowing at us that it is not possible for a human mind to consciously or even subconsciously absorb it, file it and manage it, without the person being rendered unconscious. It’s literally like dropping a filing cabinet on them – too much for the mind to handle.

The challenge is to deliver the filing cabinet full of information in the way that the person loves having all that information delivered and is excited about taking it away with them!

We do that with the fun and interactive engagement that is required for the learning to occur and while it utilises technology, it isn’t hijacked by it!

What hasn’t changed?

The people haven’t!

The catch cry of the clients of the Executive Mastermind Program was always “I expected more out of life than this, by now!”  These great people went to school, studied hard as they were told, got the job, the house and mortgage, married and had 2.5 children and looked around for what they were promised.  They kept their end of the deal – but there was no reward except that life got tougher. The mortgages got bigger, the regulations got tighter and the wages didn’t keep up.  They felt screwed by life. They were promised in school that if they kept their heads down and worked, they’d have a great life.

They still want it.  Now, the lies are bigger, but not as easy to hide because the power is with the people. They have the internet and they are no longer the mushrooms, being kept in the dark and fed manure.  They have access to the knowledge and know how to use it to regain their power.

And that is where the Executive Mastermind comes in.  Starting over again in 2016, we plan to run our workshop programs with a similar structural format, because we know that works.  With some technological enhancements, we will make it even more powerful.

“A Sunrise is God’s way of saying, “Let’s start again.”
― Todd Stocker, Refined: Turning Pain Into Purpose

What else changes?

In addition, we are offering some new services and opportunities.  They include:

Yes, there’s a lot going on with Executive Mastermind.  Starting over again has been more like drawing another arrow into the bowstring.  Rather than starting over again, it’s more like reloading for the next round!

We are delighted to be back, offering these empowering services to you once more. We look forward to meeting many more people this time and making our unique style of difference in the lives of hundreds more incredible people from all around the world!

Til next time, fair winds and full sails.

Ray Jamieson

“If I must start somewhere, right here and now is the best place imaginable.” ― Richelle E. Goodrich