Well, UYMG Sydney 2008 has finished and I am now home in Brisbane again. What an amazing time we all had there. I had loads of fun, learned a great deal and met many wonderful people with lovely smiles. I would like to thank everyone who attended the event. Stephen and the guest speakers gave some great content but the participation of all attendees made the event all so worthwhile. I shall be posting more about the UYMG event over the next few weeks with some photos included.
Before the event, the Alpha Leaders had 2 days of training. Part of the training included a game where we had to split into 2 teams and quickly write down as many things down about a member of the opposite team in 2 minutes. The team that I was in lost the game, but at least that meant that we received the most compliments.
Below are the compliments that I received, in the order that they were written.
Good family man, technical, knowledgeable, helpful, friendly, caring, loving, funny, supportive, expert in his field, honest, handsome (says Robert and Janet), happy, enthusiastic, tall, masculine, intellectual, gentle, sense of humour, good heart, strong, vibrant, loves the weather, amazing, ambitious, entrepreneurial, helpful and genuine.
No wonder the other team won…they doubled up on helpful, lol. Anyway, it was a good exercise to participate in. Too often people find the negatives about others when they should really focus on the positives. There were many very nice compliments, so thanks to all Alpha leaders who came up with them for me.
Below is a video of the Alpha leaders on stage with Stephen Pierce and Alicia Pierce at the close of the UYMG Sydney 2008.
It was also special to have my dad, John, as part of the Alpha leader team this year. I am sure that he entertained many of you with his dad like sense of humour.
UYMG Sydney 2008 is March 14th-16th, so there is not long to go. I will be one of the Alpha Leaders again. This time my dad shall also part of the group, which will make it even more special for me.
The event will be held at the Acer Arena at Sydney Olympic Park, which is very appropriate during an Olympic year. Unlike last year, Laura Remeselnik will be attending. I will be looking forward to catching up with her too.
UYMG events are not only good for learning matters related to Internet marketing, but also for building relationships that could be very beneficial for your business. Last year I recall asking someone what his passion was. He gave me his reply and then another person with a related passion overheard his response. They then got together to discuss how they could help each other.
Below are some photos of UYMG Sydney 2007 that I have not previously shown.
David Lakhani gave a presentation to help people gain motivation. I missed most of his presentation, but my dad was very impressed with it and told me that he caught the attention of everyone in the room.
Patric Chan gave a presentation about web 2.0. Patric certainly does have a great knowledge in Internet Makerting and dad and I were impressed how he remembered everyione’s names. I spoke to his wife, Emily, during the event too and found her to be a pleasant person.
I saw Jennie Armato give a presentation before, so I knew that she was full of life and energy. Jennie started the presentation sipping on a cocktail in a beach scene and had the UYMG audience in a trance. Janet Rundle was her “buddie” and she did a great job helping her out.
Deb and JP Micek gave a couple of presentations at UYMG Sydney 2007, but they were particularly focussed on new media. They also promoted their blog i360 software.
So you can see that there was plenty of talent at UYMG Sydney 2007 and there certainly will be more talent to see at UYMG Sydney 2008. I hope to see you there.
I have always found the Glass House Mountains a spectacular view while driving towards the Sunshine Coast from Brisbane. They are actually volcanic peaks that were created about 24 million years ago. I have often wanted to climb one of them and last Sunday I finally did.
As you may already know from the previous post, Maureen and I stayed at a log cabin at the Glass House Mountains called Crookneck Retreat. If not you can read about it and see some pictures of this lovely place here. We decided that we go on a bush walk while staying at Crookneck Retreat and we were advised that the walk and climb up Mt Ngungun was very nice, so long as it is not too wet. The added bonus was that the walk started about 2.5km from Crookneck Retreat, so it was easy to walk to it.
Maureen and I decided to walk to it. There were quite a few showers the night before, but there had been plenty of sunshine in the morning, so we hoped that the track would be suitable. Along Old Gympie Road we noticed Mt Ngungun to the east. The picture below was taken while walking along Old Gympie Road and it shows the highest peak that we will be attempting to reach.
Not far along Old Gympie Road we had to turn left onto Fullertons Road. Fullertons road was quite a narrow road, so now I knew why Brett suggested that I take Coonowrin Road to get to Crookneck Retreat rather than this road. While walking along Fullertons road we noticed a better view of the cliff of Mt Ngungun.
As we walked further along Fullertons road towards Mt Ngungun we were close to a farm house and we noticed a great view of Mt Coonowrin (Crookneck) and Mt Beewah behind us. The farm house had magnificent views of Mt Coonowrin, Mt Beewah and Mt Ngungun. They also had 2 dogs that let everyone know that we were walking past the property.
When we arrived at the entrance of the walk we noticed that there were about 5 cars parked in the provided car park, so it seemed to be a popular walk. The first part of the walk was a dirt pathway with a relatively gentle rise that snaked up the mountain. We were told by a couple on top of the summit later that there used to be a steeper walk in that section but they closed it for regeneration. We were walking in a rain forest environment with plenty of ferns and trees and the moisture from the plantation made the environment very humid and we were both perspiring.
Then the path turned into a rather steep rock climb. There was a slippery clay type substance between the rocks, so care needed to be taken while walking up. We were concerned with the return trip down, but that proved to be OK in the end. I can understand how this could be a little dangerous if it was too wet. Showers did fall while we were walking up, but that cooled us down a little. Also we noticed that others were successfully climbing down from the summit, so we continued our journey.
The photo below shows Maureen on the way down this rocky climb. To her right is a cave that is part of the scenery on this walk.
At the top of the picture above, there was a plateau followed by a further rocky climb. This section was not quite as rocky but had plenty slippery clay parts to avoid.
Eventually we arrived at the summit and enjoyed the spectacular views. It was very windy at the top and it was also cooler, which was pleasant after a sweaty walk to the summit. A French Girl and a girl from Chile were kind enough to take some photos of Maureen and me at the top of Mt Ngungun, including the 2 below.
I also took this photo of Maureen with Mt Tibrogargan and what I think is Mt Tibberoowuccum in the background.
After the trip we returned to Crookneck retreat where I had a nice shower followed by a relaxing spa with a glass of bubbly. The photo of me in the spa in the Valentine’s Vacation To Crookneck Retreat was taken after this walk and it showed that I did get sun burnt. So even if it is a cloudy day, I suggest that you protect your skin with sunburn cream and also wear better clothing than I did (a collar at least).
I decided to take Maureen away to a romantic location as part of a Valentine’s day gift. I spoke to her in advance so that we could make arrangements for the weekend and we decided that a log cabin would be a nice place to spend some time together. I did quite a bit of internet research to find a nice cabin to go to in SE Queensland, but Crookneck Retreat really did catch my eye.
I rang Crookneck Retreat up to ask them some questions about it, but got their answer machine. Brett returned the call soon afterwards and I found him to be a pleasant person to talk to, so I booked the weekend on the spot.
Crookneck Retreat is located just to the west of the Glasshouse Mountains township, which is about an hours drive north of Brisbane. When we arrived we met Brett, Megan and their kids. They were very friendly and offered us some dvd’s for our stay. We drove down a pathway surrounded by macadamia nut trees, which led to our cabin. There are 2 cabins on this property. Below is a picture of the one we stayed at.
When we opened the door to the cabin, we heard some lovely soothing and relaxing music. The CD was called “Cafe De La Mer” (Jens Buchert). The cabin was very clean and nicely presented. There was a basket on a table with some biscuits and a bottle of wine.
The wine, King River Estate Merlot 2004, was pleasant to taste along with cheese that was placed in the fridge. Also in the fridge were some chocolate coated macadamia nuts and some Maleny Milk. Maureen says the milk tasted very creamy and she really enjoyed it. The cheese was “Maleny Triple Cream Brie” and it was extremely tasty. There was a table on the deck in front of the cabin where you could crack some macadamia nuts that were provided in a basket with a very effective tool. The photo below shows Maureen at the table enjoying some of the treats.
The bed was presented very well and it was also very comfortable to sleep in. The twin spa was located right next to it and the ensuite was located the other side of it.
The other side of the log cabin had an entertainment area and a kitchen. There was also a fireplace and air conditioning system. We did not need to use the fireplace or the airconditioning unit, but the fireplace would be nice to use on a cold wintery night.
I loved using the twin spa. We bought a couple of bottles of bubbly and sipped on them while taking a spa. There were also some scented candles surrounding the spa.
The views of the spa were very impressive. From where I was sitting you could get a view of part of the macadamia orchard and also the top of Mt Coonowrin (Crookneck). Below are two photos that were taken just in front of the window of the spa.
and the zoomed photo
At night we watched some dvds. Maureen and I found the leather couch very comfortable. You can see how content she looks below.
We used the BBQ facilities when dinner time came around. Below you can see Maureen attending to some chicken that we were cooking on the BBQ. They were yummy. Crookneck Retreat does provide BBQ packs at a cost, but we bought our own.
There are plenty of activities to do while staying at Crookneck Retreat, including climbing mountains, going to Australia Zoo, visiting Maleny and Montville or just relaxing in a peaceful environment. We climbed Mt Ngungun on the Sunday and the details of that adventure can be found here.
In summary, both Maureen and I really enjoyed our stay at Crookneck Retreat and we plan to return there. We thoroughly recommend it. You can find more information about Crookneck Retreat here.
As most of you will know already, I am a big fan of Stephen Pierce. I have listened to him speak live several times and I shall be looking forward to seeing him speak again at UYMG Sydney in March.
One of the many amazing things about Stephen is his ability to talk. He comes across to me as someone who can talk about topics such as business strategies, internet marketing and personal development in a structured, comfortable and entertaining manner.
The good news is that you can listen to some talks that Stephen Pierce has done and even talk back to him. DTAlpha TalkBack is the place to go to listen to and talk with Stephen Pierce. He has been doing regular talks on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Below is a snapshot of part of the DTAlpha Talkback page.
On the bottom left hand side of this page is a section that leads to some games that you can play for free to help you learn more about internet marketing.
The latest talk Stephen Pierce presented was done on Wednesday and it was titled Making It Easier DONE Than Said . In this talkback session Stephen talks about a strategy for getting things done. In summary, he says that you need to outline what needs to be done first. Do not go about doing things in an ad-hoc manner. After that you need to make a decision and know that you can do it. You need to believe in your abilities. You then need to decide whether to do it yourself, insource it, outsource it or use a combination of the 3. Finally you should ask yourself what you should do more or less of (broaden or narrow your focus).
I been very impressed with the presentations that Stephen provided, but I also found the comments made by Stephen and other contributors very interesting and enlightening. I thoroughly recommend that you check DTAlpha Talkback out now.
As part of the Alpha leadership program, we were all assigned a “buddy” to look after during the UYMG event. Although I chose Vanya and Jody, I did not really know them. As it turns out, I believe that I chose wisely.
Vanya and Jody were invited by Stephen and Alicia Pierce to give a presentation at UYMG Sydney 2007. I met them both on the Friday morning of the event and I felt very comfortable in their presence. I seemed to relate to what they had to say and was amused when Vanya demonstrated some finger mathematics to me on the way to lunch. I also learned that they lived reasonably close to me.
Vanya and Jody have a business “aquawebsites” which has really flourished since they decided to have Stephen Pierce as their mentor. They have 2 staff now (Samyo and Ken), who also attended UYMG Sydney as students. They were very nice people too. My dad also seemed to get along with all 4 of them too.
Although their business has much to offer, Vanya mostly gave a presentation about their autoresponder system. He showed how easy it was to set up multiple newsletter messages on the autoresponder. Vanya was nervous about giving the presentation in front of a relatively large crowd, but I felt that he did a great job before his time ran out.
When I looked closer at what Vanya and Jody had to offer their clients I realized that they provided an excellent service at a bargain price. Some of my friends from SMCC mastermind group thought so too and they signed up for the aquawebsites package. I spoke to Jody yesterday and she told me that they are just putting video into their system now. These guys are keeping very busy to improve their system and to keep up with the times. This is another reason that I would thoroughly recommend what Vanya and Jody have to offer. I have already done so to a friend of mine.
Some of the features include
A shopping cart system that allows unlimited products
A 2 tiered affiliate program
Hosting and domain with unlimited webpages
An autoresponder for sending newsletters
Customer Login Area
Tax Invoicing and accounting system
24/7 help and support
There are many more features that can be viewed here.
I was asked just over a week ago to give a presentation about wordpress templates for the mastermind group on Thursday 13th (Today). Unlike other mastermind meetings though, this one will be live across the world via a webinar. Time has flown by, but hopefully I have enough information to give a useful presentation.
If you do have any comments or questions about this presentation, please place them here on this blog post.
What I did notice was that some of the images may be difficult for some people to see clearly during the webinar. There is no need to worry though, as I will be giving the presentation away in a PDF format with more defined images. To obtain a copy of it, enter your details in the opt-in box on the right hand sidebar, just under my photo. The guide should be ready during the weekend sometime and it will be updated at times with answers to some of your questions.
Kerri Witt has been promoting the event on the SMCC forums and this is what she had to say.
“Bryan’s doing a much requested techie presentation on changing templates on your Wordpress blog. You’ve heard me (Kerri) say like a broken record, “do PRISE, don’t pretty up your blog, do PRISE, understand how the recipe works”. We’ve got a lot of people in our Mastermind who have now finished PRISE, understand what Plugins and Widgets are and are ready to Pimp Their Blog (to borrow JP & Deb’s term). Bryan’s going to be showing us how you can do this for free using Wordpress templates.
- How to test out a template to see if it will work for you
- Why just any template won’t do
- What’s important about Widgets
- How to redo your optin box for your new template”
I hope that you learn something from the presentation. Remember to leave any comments or questions on this blog post.
Melissa Hewetson was a guest speaker for UYMG Sydney 2007 and I was fortunate enough to spend some time talking to her before and during the event. I recall having a conversation with her about how I have very visual meditations.
What I noticed about Melissa was that she always seemed to have a smile on her face and that she radiated love all around her. I found that I was always smiling at her too. It was contagious in a nice way.
Melissa has had over 20 years experience practicing metaphysics. She is a great believer in the possibility of gaining a higher energy by breathing consciously, or at least being aware of your breathing.
Melissa has read many books and has acquired a great deal of knowledge from them. She has read many similar to “The Secret” where the law of attraction is prominent. She gave a speech to the Alpha Leaders about a related topic that she called “The Law of Gratitude”.
Some of the things that she told us were similar to…
Write a gratitude list and say them out loud every morning
Treat each day as a holiday
Appreciate friends, neighbours and family
Learn to forgive yourself. If can only forgive someone else if you forgive yourself first. The same applies to love. You can only love another if you love yourself first. We cannot receive what we don’t have to give and we cannot give what we don’t have inside.
Trick your mind by saying that you will have a “crappy day” unless you don’t feel
This is a photo of the stage and function room before it was properly set up. A work book, toy and a whistle was placed on each table for all to use and enjoy. All Internet connections were hard-wired.
Jason Tan and Sern Yi made a special trip from Malaysia to Australia to help Stephen and Alicia on their tour. They are very experienced people who made me feel very comfortable as an Alpha leader. Thanks guys.
Kerri was the Alpha Leadership captain. I had met Kerri at previous Gold Coast and Brisbane mastermind meetings and found that she was a hard working person. We found out later that we live near each other and had some smaller meetings at times to help each other out. I shared the same flight to Sydney with Kerri and she helped me focus in the right direction for the UYMG event. Thanks for listening and guiding me Kerri.
I loved this photo of Joey and Richard wearing some of the cool glasses we bought for the event. Joey (the pump master) and Richard were very friendly and happy going people that made UYMG more enjoyable.
Marta is part of the traffic generation club that I belong to. I have been communicating to Marta over the Internet for months and it was a pleasure to finally meet her in person.
The photo above is one of Janet and Kerri with me. The event had finished, so Kerri could let her hair down. Janet and Kerri were the 2 girls in the Alpha Leadership group that also attend the Brisbane and Gold Coast mastermind meetings.
It was a pity that Karen could not make it this time. Janet and I have got together on occasions to help each other out with new ideas. I will talk about the “buddy system” another time, but Janet had 2 speakers to look after and I felt that she did a great job looking after them.
I was hoping to get a photo of J.P. and Deb with me, but they were already in demand. I liked them in this pose, so I seized the opportunity of taking a snap of JP and his 3 angels.
All 4 of us are members of the Gold Coast and Brisbane mastermind group. Tim Lee was the actual founder of the group and I was so glad that he was part of the Alpha leadership group with us. Angela Tsune attended UYMG as a participant with her brother. She also attended the UYMG Malaysia event and gave some insight of the event to Kerri and me a week or so before we left to go to Sydney.
I was so stoked to get this SP Alpha Leadership certificate and wanted to show it off. If anyone gets the chance to become an Alpha Leader, then I would thoroughly recommend it.
UYMG had finished and it was time to pack up. Here you can see Jason tan trying to get the air out of the ball. The girls were sitting on it earlier. I am not sure what was more difficult, blowing them up or letting them down?
After all was finished I had a drink with Trudy and my dad. Trudy was a childhood neighbour who let dad an me stay with her in her unit at Balmain. Thanks for letting us stay Trudy. Also thanks dad for taking some of these photos and for supporting me and the rest of the Alpha team during the 5 day stay.
When Maureen told me that her Nephew “John” was going to have a wedding at Darwin in December, I thought that it was a crazy idea.
You see, Darwin is a very hot and humid place to be at during December and some of her relatives were coming from a cold winter in Scotland to attend. The bride’s (Michelle) family mostly came from Melbourne. In any case the wedding went very well and I was glad that I participated in it.
Maureen and I left on a flight on Thursday night which arrived in Darwin just before 1am. I had caught a cold in the 3 day period between UYMG Sydney and the flight which made me have problems with my ears for the 1st time on a flight. I can now relate to those poor people who suffer from it.
John and June, Maureen’s brother and sister in law, were kind enough to let us stay on the 12th floor of the Marrakai apartments with them, however when we arrived they had fallen asleep and Maureen had trouble getting them to answer their phones. I thought that we were destined to sleep on the bench in front of the Marrakai, but June finally awoken to let us in.
I thought that the apartments were very nice and on the 12th floor there was a large balcony with 180 degree views of the city. Some of the views can be seen in the photo above and also the one just below. The fire season had finished, so the visibility was very good.
On the Friday morning, we awoken and prepared for the wedding. I had pre-planned a joke where I would wear a kilt that Maureen had made for me, along with a pair of thongs and a vest with Yosemite Sam on it. The idea was that it was 1/3 Scottish, 1/3 Aussie and 1/3 fun. Click here to see how Maureen made the kilt step by step.
Maureen was stunning in her blue dress.
What we did not realize was that Colin, the best man, had decided to wear a real kilt. You can see him in the photo below next to John and John’s dad (also named John).
After a bit of a laugh, I got dressed into some more sensible clothing (although the kilt costume may have been cooler) and we all caught a bus to the ceremony.
Family and friends piled into the registrar to see the ceremony between John and Michelle. The matron of honor was Michelle’s sister “Nicole”.
Afterwards we waited outside the registrar for a bus and I managed to get a lovely picture of John and Michelle with John’s parents (John and June).
Lunch was at the Buzz Café at Cullen Bay. Not only was the food and service really good, but the view of the marina was great too. Also, anyone needing to visit the toilets had a surprise coming their way. The men’s trough had a one way mirror where you watched people dine while you did your business. The toilet seats had red back spiders embedded in them.
After lunch we returned to the Marrikai for some speeches and then we went to the sailing club at Fannie Bay for the night. I actually snuck in a little nap before going there, as I was still not that well.
The band there was great and when I arrived people were dancing and having fun. Beer was available from kegs and late in the night someone bought out some fire starter drinks. Apart from some Tabasco sauce, I am not sure what else was in them. They did clear my sinuses a little though.
It was great to catch up with the people there and it was also nice to meet some of Maureen’s family. Some think that the Scottish are mad, but if you look at the video taken of David (June’s brother, who also attended the wedding) earlier this year, then you may make your own mind up.
