Bryan Stephens

As mentioned in a previous post, I planned to write a little about the guest speakers of UYMG Sydney 2008. Today I will write about Alan Forrest Smith.

Alan Forrest Smith is well known in the Internet Marketing world as an expert copywriter. Not only has he written for Stephen Pierce, but he has also written for the likes of Jay Abraham group, Marlon Sanders and Ted Ciuba.

Alan started used copywriting for his hairdressing business, but he read tons of books and attended many courses to perfect his skills. He now teaches others how to become great copywriters as well as some other Internet marketing skills.  You can find more information about Alan Forrest Smith and his copywriting skills at his Orange Beetle site.

When Alan Forrest Smith got on stage at UYMG, he was wearing a kilt. He reminded me of Billy Connolly when he mentioned words to the effect, in a Scottish accent of course, ”Before I came up on stage a couple of people were asking me why I was wearing a long dress…. you can find them lying on the floor towards the back of the room”.

I spoke to Alan during the event and found out that he came from Edinburgh, Scotland. I noticed that he said the word “wee” a wee less than my Glasgow born girlfriend Maureen does.

I found Alan Forrest Smith’s girlfriend to be very nice. I think her name was Katherine, but please correct me if this is not the case. She was amused that there was a picture of Pavarotti at the Acer Arena because of the likeness between Alan Forrest Smith and Pavarotti. I should have taken a photo of Alan with the photo of Pavarotti in the background, but I did not think of it at the time. The photo below is a blown up version of the Pavarotti photo taken behind the photo of Laura and me.

As you are probably aware by now, my dad “John” was one of the Alpha Leaders at UYMG Sydney last month.

In the last post I wrote, dad made a comment “I am disappointed that you did not link to the video of the dancing on stage at the start of day 2 when that “Old Bloke” showed the youngsters  a few steps.  Anyhow the video failed to show most of the dance steps and focused mainly on upper body movements. ”

Well I have now included the video of dad performing and starring on stage along with some other Alpha Leaders.  You can see it below. In my opinion, he really did dance very well and I know that some others agree with me. Unfortunately, I was at the door, so I did not get to see him or the other Alpha Leaders perform live. Thanks for taking the video Sern Yi.

UYMG Sydney March 2008 (Unleash Your Marketing Genius) has been and gone and I had a wonderful time again. I wanted to get this and some other UYMG posts out earlier, but I had some unforeseen difficulties that I had to sort out first, including computer PC problems. I will not get into that now though.

The attendance was good considering that the WIS (World Internet Summit) was being held at the same time, and there was a great deal of energy in the room. Thanks for all that participated in the event to make it all so worthwhile. The good news is that UYMG and WIS will be combined in Dallas, Texas 22-25 May. I will be there, so hopefully I shall see you there too.

Many may not realize that Stephen Pierce did not get his luggage until the day before he had to go back home. In fact both he and Alicia lost their luggage on the return trip too   . Stephen and Alicia had to hustle around town to find suitable clothing for him to wear at the event. Alicia told me that she had previously bought some expensive clothing for Stephen just for the event. Despite all the chaos, Stephen provided a few days worth of  internet marketing and related content in his usual professional and informative manner. Everyone seemed to pay close attention to every word he spoke, as they should have.  I was quite amazed and impressed with the fact that Stephen sometimes did not know what he was going to talk about until moments before he went on stage.

Above is a photo taken of Stephen Pierce with me at UYMG Sydney 2008. Have a look at the size of his fist and forearm. I had better stay on the good side of Stephen… only joking.

Alicia was as lovely as usual at UYMG Sydney 2008. Every time I have been in contact with Alicia she has been very helpful and friendly to me.  I know that Alicia has faith in me and I really appreciate the support she has given me. Alicia does a lot of work in the background to help support and promote Stephen and they complement each other very well. I loved the hat that she was wearing at the event. The hat can be seen in the photo below of Alicia Pierce and me.

Laura Remeselnik is well known within the SMCC community, where she works flat out. It was her first appearance at a UYMG event in Sydney and I was glad that I got to catch up with her in real person after receiving many emails from her in the past. Laura, along with with Sern Yi (The SMCC development manager and one of the nicest person that I have met), gave a hands on presentation about web pages and ftp.  I found Laura to have a pleasant and unique personality.  I enjoyed the conversations that I had with Laura and enjoyed working with her at the event. Laura is also mad about craft work, so we had some craft exercises to do in the pre UYMG training.

Above is a great photo of Laura Remeselnik and me at UYMG Sydney 2008. Don’t worry Maureen (my girlfriend), Laura is happily engaged to be married. Raymond, make sure that you take notice of that last sentence! Also notice the picture of Pavarotti in the background? That photo of Pavarotti will become relevant in a future post.

Unlike 2007, UYMG Sydney 2008 was held at the Acer Arena at Sydney Olympic Park. While the Acer Arena may have been difficult for some people to get to, I had the pleasure of dealing with some of the staff who ran the Arena and I found them to be very nice. In case you are reading this post, a warm hello to all, including the manager, head caterer and the cleaner. 

My dad “John” was part of the Alpha Leadership group this year and we both shared accommodation at the Ibis. The Ibis was less than a 10 minute walk to the Acer Arena, so it was very handy for us. I only wished that they remembered to replace the towels when they took the used ones away for cleaning. My dad was suffering from a cold and was coughing and spluttering at night.  You would not know it though as he was lively and very helpful at the event.

Below is a photo of Stephen Pierce, dad and me at UYMG Sydney. You can see dad and me propping Stephen up to make him look taller, well it almost looks that way.. lol.

UYMG had several guest speakers of which I shall write posts about in the future. Inanna Lawton and Melissa Hewetson both presented in the previous UYMG event too. Others included Allan Forrest Smith, Nikhil Parekh, Andrew and Daryl Grant, Janet Switzer, Ken Shimizu and Ben Teo. 

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.