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Google Calendar, Timetrade, Pinterest and Inspirational Tips from Simon Jordan of SimonJordan.com
What We Recommended:
Tools & Apps
Simon uses his Get More Done Today system to stay organised and get stuff done. It’s a day planner, with the planning completed the night before, free to download.
Google Calendar – for diary scheduling and planning
Google Translate – as he lives in France and is learning the language!
TimeTrade – to allow people to schedule calls and meetings automatically into his diary
Simon uses his iPhone extensively to run his business – even from the side of the lake!
Pinterest – to search for inspiration or motivation to find ideas and people to connect with
Tips
Charity – Silver Line – Simon regularly volunteers through this charity, speaking with lonely people
Simon tries to exercise most mornings, outside. “Gets the blood pumping and it’s my time”
He recommends no tech for the last hour before bed
Simon eats a good quality clean diet and is vegan
“I only work four days a week now, every Wednesday is family time because the kids’ school is closed on a Wednesday. April and I down tools and we spend the day. It’s good, because you’re still more productive. You’re just as productive on the other days, in fact you’re probably more productive because you know you’ve only got four days, so it’s good. When I started using this system, I think I got more done in three hours focused work than I did in two days. It’s phenomenal how much time you waste, especially on social media.
When it’s all ‘going wrong’ “I have to think, in a day’s time, a week’s time, will it really matter? No, not really. What can you do? If you can’t fix it right now, don’t give it too much energy”.
“Gratitude is the language of the truly rich. When you come from that place, energy flows.”
“I only check my emails at 10 o’clock in the morning and at 4 o’clock in the afternoon.”
Time blocking is key in managing Simon’s diary, scheduling blocks of time in for the week in advance, like for coaching or other projects
“I love the line that Jim Rohn wrote, don’t wish it was easier, wish that you were better’.
“I love the line, true success is knowing that someone else has breathed more easily because you’ve been there.”
To Contact Simon Jordan
SimonJordan.com
Simon’s Twitter
Simon’s Facebook
Simon’s Instagram
One Planet One Place
One Planet One Place on Facebook
Read Full Transcript
Jo Dodds: I'm really pleased to be interviewing Simon Jordan, of SimonJordan.com. Hi Simon, thanks for joining me.
Simon Jordan: Hi Jo, lovely to be here. You're in the UK and I'm over in Normandy in France, and this Skype connection's fantastic.
Jo Dodds: It is, it's so clear. Unlike our French, I think, probably.
Simon Jordan: Oh yeah, don't start there. Mange tout, mange tout, Rodney.
Jo Dodds: Why don't we start by you telling me a bit about you, what you do, and where you do it. Clearly France, but a bit more about your setup if you like, your home working setup.
Simon Jordan: My home working setup. At the moment, we've moved to this 13th century farmhouse only about six weeks ago. Six weeks, two months. The office, which is an external barn, isn't properly set up so I'm currently working from the kitchen table. It's good enough, the internet's good here. When it is set up I will have my big iMac, and a screen, makes it look like a Bond set, but at the moment I'm working on my laptop. Pretty straightforward. I like to keep the area reasonably clutter-free, I don't want mess everywhere. With three young kids around and everything else, the animals, it's sometimes not easy. Certainly not on the kitchen table, that's for sure.
Jo Dodds: Flesh that out a bit, then. What do you do? Why are you in France?
Simon Jordan: What do I do. Good point. I am a marketing/branding consultant/coach. I help entrepreneurs, business owners, coaches essentially, that's my target market. My target market is coaches, authors, speakers, and consultants. That's the crux of it. What I do, Jo, is clients will come along to me and say their marketing's not working. Maybe their branding's not right. They're not getting the recognition they want, they're not selling their product, they're not getting out there. Their brand isn't recognized, they're not known, they're not a key point of influence or whatever the issue might be. What I do, I will look at them and work out what is it that people buy from them? What is it about their personality people love? We take that, this is that building the brand first off, so we take their energy, their passion, their love and those characteristics will go up to build their personality. We incorporate that into their branding.
Their online image, be it on Facebook, across any social media platform, their website is a true representation of who they are. It beams out their personality. My job is to encapsulate their passion, their energy, their true personality in their marketing. When someone comes across the website they think, you know what, I really like this person. I get their energy, I get what they're about, I like what they're about. Also, on the flip side, some people go I can't stand that person, I don't like what they're about. Well, that's great, because you don't want the difficult clients.
I now work more with the energy side of it as well. Sounds a bit hippie, but it works when you get that energy right. When you get the true personality of that person, because we buy on emotion, when you get that in the website and all the marketing it works. When their personality beams out across all social media platforms, that's what people buy into.
The other side of my business is my philanthropic side, which I can still say at this hour, is One Planet One Place. This came about, if people check out my website SimonJordan.com you'll see my backstory and how I built the business. I set up SimonJordan.tv, Simon Jordan radio shows, Simon Jordan blog. I was doing all these things, I thought, you know what, it sounds a little bit egotistical. It's got my name all over it, which is great for building a brand but starting to make me feel a bit - not so much uncomfortable, because it was working wonders, but the radio show which is actually a podcast and I was interviewing these incredibly successful business owners but it wasn't about the cars, houses, all that stuff, that doesn't really bother me. It's not what I'm really interested in. It was the backstories, it was where they were coming from.
One guy I interviewed, a guy called Randy Gauge, he could only be American with a name like that but really lovely guy. He said he'd been shot, he'd been stabbed, he'd been in prison, he'd been bankrupt, all these horrific things. He was on his friend's floor, living on his friend's couch, sitting on the floor at this time, thoroughly dejected with life and eating macaroni cheese of all things. He said that was the lowest point. I was at an advantage.
I said, Randy, what do you mean you were at an advantage? He said, I had nowhere else to go. The only way I could go was up, to go forward. I thought, that's fascinating. It really got me thinking about the other guests, as to how I would be probing them and asking these deep questions. I thought, you know, there's more to business than this. The world isn't just about business, it's about love, yes it's about money because we need money to do more things with, and I think Franklin Roosevelt once said if you want to help the poor don't become one of them. I found these amazing interviews and one day, I was probably climbing a mountain or something like that and this line came to me: don't think of the world as separated by countries, think of the world as separated by ignorance. One planet, one place.
We're all on the same rock. We all come from the stars if you want to be all hippie about it, and we're all fragments of the universe. Why can we not get on? There are more cells in our body than there are people on the planet, and it all gets on. We have to or we couldn't function. We would die in an instant if the cells don't work. Why can we not get on? That's where it all started. I thought I want to give something back.
In 2012 I launched One Planet One Place. We had 22000 visitors on the first month, second month I was chucking so much content at it, you'll understand this. Content is king of blogging, and I was doing a daily show which almost killed me. I was interviewing all these people, number one in Google on the second month, had a 1.3billion site which was just phenomenal, even above the one planet BBC TV program. Just because of the strategies I teach my clients, that's what I used to get it up there.
It was there, it's still there. It's my philanthropic site and it's there to really be the conduit for people's stories, people's inspiring stories to get out there. With my marketing knowledge and my connections, to really interview these people where I think those are amazing stories. People have literally, are doing incredible things on the planet. I want to be able to interview them and share their stories so my audience can see it. The One Planet One Place Facebook page, we're now at 119000, 120000, I can't remember now. It's all organic. It's how we're doing it, we don't pay for likes, we don't promote the thing. It's what we're sharing, I share inspiring images and I say it's about inspiring change.
I want people, I did a rant on Facebook a couple of months ago called ‘no more amen’. That's going to get people listening. What it was was a picture of this young family, the eldest daughter must have been probably not even in double figures, Ellie's age to be honest. Covered in brick dust, and the siblings, and she was holding a baby. Awful, awful picture, very sad. Her family, her parents had been killed, she's the only one left so she at this age has to bring up the rest of the kids. This person posted this picture and just said, this is terrible, don't scroll past this without typing amen.
I thought, what the bleep bleep bleep is amen going to do for this family? Does that satisfy our guilt? Oh yeah, we'll just type these four letters and that's it. I ranted on this, saying I'm sick of seeing these things. We can do more, we can all make a difference. Maybe not to that family because we're not there, but we can donate. We can do something. We can do more in our community. Don't just turn a blind eye and go I'll buy a little badge and that'll do me, I'll type amen or whatever it might be. What can we do as human beings, certainly over in the west where we have everything, I say gratitude is the language of the truly rich. We don't have to have so much to have gratitude, so what can we do with our abundant lives to help these people?
This rant went on. It was great, and it made a difference, and I said on the video, I don't want you to watch this and think oh yeah it's good. I want you to feel uncomfortable and for you to actually take action, because there's no point having all these ideas without taking action. What can you do? How can you go and help?
Once a week, for half an hour a week, I volunteer at this charity called Silver Line. I speak to this lady who's nearly 80 and she lives on her own, doesn't have any family around her. I'm probably the only person she speaks to all week, some weeks. I'm that one voice for her, half an hour out of my week, that's nothing. I'm not saying that to say, oh, look at me, I'm saying that to say, we can all do something. Yes we all have busy lives, I've got three stepkids here, we live on a farm, we've got three goats, we've got five horses, we've got a dog, we've got two cats, chickens, it's a busy time. But we can all do something.
That's what the video was about. That's what One Planet One Place is about, just inspiring change, to be that ripple to that stone in the pond. You know what, I can do something. Doesn't matter how small it is, could be just smiling a bit more. Saying thank you and looking in the eyes of the person who gave you a cappuccino this morning. That's essentially what it's all about.
Jo Dodds: Brilliant. It sounds like it's majorly hectic.
Simon Jordan: Yes.
Jo Dodds: You've just painted a picture of what goes on. What's a typical day look like? I appreciate in most people's cases there isn't a typical day. What sort of things are you getting involved in, how are you delivering these services, presumably not in person mostly as you're in a different country now.
Simon Jordan: If you're wondering what that noise is, one of my dogs is moving all the chairs about. He's a springer spaniel, mad as a box of frogs. Aren't you? Yes. I think he probably wants to go out now.
I deliver it, basically, I coach all my clients via Skype, how we're doing it here. Big online presence, similar to you. That's how I deliver it all, my clients come on, we discuss the coaching sessions, I work with them one to one, we'll do their branding formula if needed, we'll build a whole marketing strategy, collateral, all that kind of stuff, or they just come on with coaching. I've got clients now right across the States, I'm in group coaching, groups as well.
Jo Dodds: In between that you'll pop out and feed the goats.
Simon Jordan: I will indeed, yeah. April and I, we're setting up an animal sanctuary. We're both vegans. I don't knit my own socks just to let you know. Very broad, very fit. Some people think vegans are skinny people who don't look healthy. Far from it. We're both animal lovers. We got this place, we've got 32, 35 acres and we wanted to do something with it. We've got the opportunity, so the farm came with a fair few animals anyway. Now we've got a horse, two donkeys, two ponies, we've got four goats now, we're getting two pigs, and it's brilliant. We're going to be getting sheep and all that kind of stuff as well. It helps with the land. We're growing our own organic veg, because it is an organic farm. On site we also have an organic brewery which I probably mentioned.
It's pretty hectic, but it's fabulous. I spoke to a client earlier today, when I'm not coaching, I'm not working with my clients I'll go out and I'll be fixing fences. We have people, gardeners to help us access it, it's a lot of space to look after. When I built the goat hut, I'd never built anything like that before. I remember watching YouTube videos thinking, yeah, I can do that. I went out and did it. I bought all the gear.
Jo Dodds: How hard can it be?
Simon Jordan: Very hot afternoon, it is very hot over here. Hammer and nails, and built this thing, and it's fantastic. We got the hay, it's watertight, it's brilliant. They're on a part of the farm where it's a slope, it goes down to the river, so they go down and drink from the river and the goats are very happy there. They're all girls, we don't want a billygoat, we don't want mating going on. They do escape every now and then, which is hilarious. I feel I'm putting something back. It is brilliant.
For me, I'll go up and I will - it sounds really hippie - I'll just sit with the horses. I will just sit on the ground, they come around, some of them lie down and it's brilliant. It's such a switch off. I'll read books, things like that. For me it's just that connection. They don't have worries about business. They worry about the next bit of hay, that's it. To be around and connected with them, and their energy, I love it. And the goats, April calls me the goat whisperer. They follow me round when I go in there and tidy up and fix stuff. It's brilliant to have that connection. We've got the dog, we're getting another dog now as Happy needs a companion. It's a brilliant place and the kids love it as well. They go out, they ride around, they've got the river that runs through it as well.
Jo Dodds: That whole relaxing piece, it tends to be out and about in the garden.
Simon Jordan: Without a doubt.
Jo Dodds: On the farm.
Simon Jordan: I try and do exercise most mornings. I go out to the barns, it's got a space there which we're turning into a four bed retreat. It's going to be nice. I go in there, and it sets my day up right. I went for a run round the lake, we've got a lake five or ten minutes from here. I drove down there. It's great, you can run around it, you can go boating, you can swim across it as well. I do that. It gets the blood pumping and it's my time. I'm not good at meditating with candles and listening to whales making love, that's just not my thing, but me running, I love it.
September this year, hopefully if my knees are good enough, I was supposed to do the Three Peaks which is climbing the three highest peaks in the UK all within 24 hours for charity. My knees, I've had issues with them. I couldn't do that or I'd be a cripple, I think. Hopefully I'm training for that now, which would be in September.
Jo Dodds: Cool. I tried to do the Three Peaks once, I managed 1 1/4.
Simon Jordan: Good for you! At least you tried it!
Jo Dodds: I did one, I was very impressed, and then the second one I started going up and after 20 minutes I thought I'm going to hate coming down this one, I don't think I'll go any further. I was the only person on the coach cheering when they said that Snowdon was shut!
Simon Jordan: Did you start up Ben Nevis?
Jo Dodds: Yeah.
Simon Jordan: That is the hardest one. You're starting at ground level. Snowdon, you're already, I don't know, 1200 feet up before you start. People think climbing a mountain's hard, it's actually coming down, it's the work on the knees, it's really bad. That's what I'm worried about.
Jo Dodds: Worst bit for me was coming down at 3 o'clock in the morning down Ben Nevis, and all these people running past me going up, at 3 o'clock in the morning might I add again. Just for emphasis. 'Morning!' I'm thinking, 'Nutter.' Why would you want to do that? And why would you be running?
Simon Jordan: Exactly. My knees are shot, I've run marathons, stuff like that, for charity again. My knees aren't as good now.
Jo Dodds: In the morning you're doing your exercise. Do you have any evening routine, as a wind down process?
Simon Jordan: Beer and go to bed! To be honest, I try, it's not always easy. Now there has to be structure in the evening, the kids go to bed, April and I will sit down. I try and switch off. We're not plugged into mains TV here in the sense of terrestrial, we don't have channels here, so we'll watch a movie. I love watching movies. We got a whole massive collection of movies.
Normally we're working. There's so much to be done because we're building the farm site here, we're going to be launching the animal sanctuary, we're doing a crowdfunding campaign. That's good because it's summer holidays now, that's going to be launched in September. Meadows Sanctuary it's called. We're doing that, so there's always stuff to do but I try and switch off. Our days start early with everything going on, so I'm normally up by 6. I try and be in bed by 10, 11 at the latest. I try and switch off all computers, technology, I don't like tech in the bed either. No phones or anything like that. I don't want it really. I switch off at least an hour before.
Now, with the light, you can still be out at quarter to 11 at night. It's bright enough, because it's summer. I will go out, put the goats to bed, not literally in bed but make sure they're all tucked in, they're not wandering around. The older two, they are tethered otherwise they'll run. They've got 20 foot of chain so they've got a lot, they're not really constrained. They still eat everything. I make sure they've got a smaller leash so they're inside, they're safe. They've got little ones in there as well.
That's it, make sure everything is OK, they get a bit of food, they all get a bit of hay at night and I'll come back. Have a shower, if you really want to know. And off to bed. That's essentially it, it's that wind-down time. For me it's that wind-down time, just being with the animals, I'll have a walk around the farm and stop talking about business. We're both passionate about it, what we're doing.
That's really the wind-down, that connection. We have both very busy lives, we work together a lot on similar sort of stuff and we always talk about, but at night when it's that peace and quiet because you don't hear anything round here. Distance from the road, all you hear is the river and the birds. We walk around and chat, check on everything, talk about the farm and the ideas we've got and what we're going to be doing. That's it. Peaceful time.
Jo Dodds: How do you keep healthy? You talked a bit about exercise, and you talked about your diet. What sort of key factors are there for your health?
Simon Jordan: It is about eating good quality food. We try and eat organic obviously, this year we are setting everything up to because it's an organic farm, there's no pesticide being used here for about 20 years now. We will be growing our own organic veg, so there will be that. For us it's about eating good quality clean food as well, and I became a vegan about a year ago now. It's a normal transition from being a vegetarian but I was, I don't drink coffee, haven't drunk caffeine, I'll have decaf. I haven't drunk coffee probably for about a year now and all because I did a three day detox. I used to drink a lot of coffee. I would never use a spoon pouring the coffee in. I could stand a spoon up in it.
I had a headache, after this three day detox I had a headache for two weeks. This is not good. So I'm going to give up coffee. It was a bit of a struggle, but I do not miss it at all. I like my tea, I like a nice strong cup of tea. There is caffeine in there, but nothing to the strength that I was having it before with coffee. I would overdo it, I really would. I would feel, I used to be very aware, I don't know if you know my backstory when I was 28 I was 23 stone, drink, drugs, the rest of it and heading south very quickly. It all turned around, got fit and healthy, lost 10 stone in weight in 18 months and finished the London marathon in 3:45 having been a big chubber.
Achieving that, which was good, laid the groundwork for what I've achieved so far, the mindset. In terms of staying healthy, having done that detox, I realized this stuff I'm putting in my body has a massive effect on my mood, on my energy and I can't eat red meat. I used to love steak, but I can't eat it, I'm one of those people... I can't break it down, it's like eating concrete. The day after, I - I feel like a lead weight in my stomach, it just doesn't agree with me.
I thought, and it was a fellow Steve Trister, he became a vegan after he watched this film called ‘Earthlings’, which is awful. If you want a shocking hour and 45 minutes or whatever, I haven't actually watched the whole film. I watched I think half an hour of it. Couldn't stop crying, and I thought that's it, I can never touch anything like that again. I don't want to be part of this.
I don't preach veganism, people can eat whatever they want, but I want people to make their own choices and have a healthy life. I see a lot of people who struggle, as I did, with health and stuff like that. My weight is now my ideal weight, I feel full of energy, yes I get tired, I still get slumps in energy but I know what can perk me up. For me it's about eating good quality food. I try and eat fruit in the afternoon. I don't eat biscuits and cake and stuff like that, only because I don't have it but I make homemade flapjacks and stuff like that which is so easy to make. Anyone can make it, it's so simple, I don't need a recipe. The kids love it, and it's good stuff. Yes you've got syrup in there.
Stuff like that, regular exercise, plenty of water, fresh fruit and veg and that's it. Eat a rainbow diet. It's pretty simple. And exercise. There's nothing difficult, to be honest, and that's what I learnt. Do this diet, do that, no. Exercise and eat healthy. That's it. It helps me, what I did notice before with the detox, I always had a fog. I'd be tired, which would affect my mood, or I was never really feeling great. When I cleaned my diet up, it was suddenly, I can think clearly. My decisions are better, I feel better. Everything seems to be better. For me, it works. Not for everyone, but yeah, it works for me.
Jo Dodds: Cool. To change the subject a bit, what about how you manage your time, make sure you get stuff done? Do you use a to do list, have you got particular apps or tools that you're using?
Simon Jordan: I use, I created one about five or six years ago called my Get More Done Today system. You can probably download it, free plug, there's a download. I'll have to find it now. It's a day planner, let's have a look. Hang on.
Jo Dodds: Please hold for a while.
Simon Jordan: It's something I created ages ago. I was speaking at an event, let me see if I can find it now. I was speaking at an event, I was talking to people about how you can, how your day can work better. I came across this thing, I thought, here we go, this is how I plan my day. It was an Aha moment. It was an old boss who said to me once, plan your day the night before. It's something I've always done. I created this system called my Get More Done Today system, I can't find the link for it now but if you email me -
Jo Dodds: I'll put it in the show notes, I'll remind you.
Simon Jordan: Essentially it's an A4 sheet of paper, really simple, I've tried all the gadgets and stuff but I loved handwriting. I love using a bit of paper and a pencil, to be honest. I go to meetings with people using Mont Blanc pens and I pull out a bloody pencil. I like the feel of it, I'm an artist as well so I like the feel of it.
It's a sheet, A4 paper, and I've designed it so you have from 8 o'clock in the morning to 8 o'clock at night, in half hour segments. On the right hand side it'll have people you need to call, top 10 people. Underneath that is your priority list. First top 10, and then underneath that is not that important. When I say important, what is urgent right now? Other people think, I'll work on this bit. Is it urgent? Are there other things which are a bit more pressing?
When you fill it in the night before, sometimes I'll do two days in advance. Certainly if I come to a Friday, I try not to work at the weekend because it's family time. I only work four days a week now, every Wednesday is family time because the kids' school is closed on a Wednesday. April and I down tools and we spend the day. It's good, because you're still more productive. You're just as productive on the other days, in fact you're probably more productive because you know you've only got four days, so it's good. When I started using this system, I think I'll get more done in three hours focused work than I did in two days. It's phenomenal how much time you waste, especially on social media.
It's a really simple sheet. I'm giving it away for free if people want it. It's just, plan your day. When you start next morning, at whatever time you get into the office, you don't think: what am I supposed to be doing today? You then spend a couple of minutes trying to work out.
The other thing is, on my email, here's another tip, I have turned off on my phone auto send and receive. Unless you're a paramedic or a doctor on call, you don't need to be on call all the time. I only check my emails at 10 o'clock in the morning and at 4 o'clock in the afternoon. I have it, if people email me, there'll be a message saying so I can focus on my clients I only check my email at 10 o'clock and 4 o'clock. I just do it at those times. If I'm working with a client, sometimes I have to check them more often, but it's little things like that.
That's how I plan my day. Plan it the night before, so then when you've done it, you think, I know what I'm doing tomorrow. You can forget about it. Put it out of your mind. It's as simple as that. You've got it all written down, great. You know what you're doing. And if you can schedule it, right, I'm going to be working with Jo or doing this or whatever, that's going to take an hour of time. OK, I'll block out that time. Obviously I've got my coaching calls as well, which I have set times, so that's 7 slots per week which always they're in my diary and people book them online through an automated system. That's already booked in, so I know when someone's booked in because it pops up on the calendar and I get a notification.
Really, the essential thing is, turn off auto send and receive, try and check your emails twice a day. Plan your day the night before. It's as simple as that. When you leave the office, or your kitchen table as I am now, you think, I know what I'm doing tomorrow.
Jo Dodds: That's really helpful. Are there any tools or apps that you particularly recommend, that you couldn't live without?
Simon Jordan: Couldn't live without? Probably my photography one, I love that. I just use Google Calendar. That's the one I love. I'm just going to open up my phone now actually. No, essentially that is it. In France I use Google Translate a lot. Google Calendar is fantastic, because all my system, all my scheduling, is done automated through this business website, Time Trade or Time Drive I think. [crosstalk 00:27:14] You probably know it, it's a brilliant system. That links through to my Google Calendar. Essentially that is it.
What I love, I've got the new iPhone, I was sitting at the lake yesterday while the kids were out swimming and happy with running around. I'm on my phone, and I'm running my business from there. It's fantastic. It's great. My business is now set up, I have an internet connection, I can work from anywhere. It doesn't matter. I try to come to London once a month, if possible, which I met you last month because I was filming in London. I was being filmed for an interview. It's great, I come, I meet up with a load of people, I have a packed 48 hours probably to meet as many people as possible and I come back here. That's essentially my networking. I've done thousands of networking events in my time, and now I've set the business up I don't need to. I can live, I hate the term, don't hate it, strong word, the laptop lifestyle - but I am living that, I suppose. Laptop farm lifestyle.
Jo Dodds: Rather than the beach.
Simon Jordan: Indeed.
Jo Dodds: What about if things don't go right on a day? What about when it all collapses around you, how does that all pan out?
Simon Jordan: I hit the bottle, Jo, very hard. You won't see me for two days. No, of course things do go wrong, a lot of
the time. Blimey, especially on the farm. If the goats have escaped, or I don't know what's happened -
Jo Dodds: I just have this vision of you chasing around after these goats while you're in the middle of a coaching call.
Simon Jordan: Oh, it's hilarious. I tell you what, April and I work at the kitchen table and we brought the ponies down to cut the back grass. It sounds a bit weird, they're not very good with the lawnmower. The back garden's like an acre, it's a field essentially, there's a river the other side but we are tidying it up because we want to make it - there's a trampoline and a lot of stuff for the kids. We brought them down and we closed off either end. But no, County, who's the bigger pony, there's Selina who's literally - she could stand under my legs, I'm 6' 2", she's so small. She's so sweet. They were round the front, walking past... I was like, oh bloody hell, they've got out! We went running out, and I thought, this is hilarious. This is absolutely hilarious.
Things do fall apart. It's life. Yes, I still get angry, bloody hell, what's this, what's going on, but I have to think, in a day's time, a week's time, will it really matter? No, not really. What can you do? If you can't fix it right now, don't give it too much energy. I've had quite a few clients recently who, through issues of their own or whatever, some clients have a fear of success or whatever. They haven't fulfilled or they can't go through with the next session, they can't pay for it, whatever the situation. I think, OK, fair enough. One door closes, it's not closing because they'll continue working with you, but it'll open up something else.
What I try and do is try and keep the energy, something I've learnt over the last two years, it's about the energy. When I've come from a place of lack or a place of fear, worry, hate, whatever it is, you're going to attract more of that. When you come from a place of love, gratitude being the biggest thing, I've said before, gratitude is the language of the truly rich. When you come from that place, energy flows.
I was back in Wales at the farm my parents owned. I've still got an office there, which I'm moving slowly everything down here. I was running down the beach and had come out of the beach and I was running through the forest, and I had come across this beautiful wooden bridge. This story will make sense in a minute.
There's a river running underneath it, fast-flowing river. Bit like here, but it's all very boggy round the river. On the left hand side the stream is flowing beautifully, absolutely no resistance at all. It's just flowing down. On the right hand side of the bridge, there's all these rocks, boulders, and the water's spitting up, frothy, and stuff like that. And I thought, that's a brilliant example of how a lot of people's lives are, including my own sometimes. The boulders are what we put in our way. We trip ourselves up. It's our negative thinking, our environment, the food we put in our body, or whatever, which stops that flow. The worries, fears, hates, whatever the resistance. We need to be really on the left hand side of the bridge where everything's flowing.
What is stopping that flow? Everything flows, health can flow naturally. We're born healthy. 99% of us, except for the kids who are born with horrible stuff but the majority of us. What are we doing, what are we blocking, doing that's blocking that flow? Be it financially, be it abundance in health, in love, or whatever. What are we doing? It's about looking at that, and always coming from a place of gratitude and love, essentially.
This is what I work with my clients as well, when they say it's just not happening. I'm working with a guy at the moment, for confidentiality I can't mention it, but he has had struggles and we've worked on his energy. Yes I do branding and marketing, but I can step into that arena at some stage. I'm certainly not a life coach. I'll never tell you how to mend your relationships. But from my own learning, it has, from what I've discovered, that when you come from that place it's like...
I'll give you an example. It was about a year ago. I went out and spent a load of money on something. I don't spend frivolously, I save a lot, but anyway. I had to go spend a lot of money, it was on a Saturday and I came out of the shop thinking, big spender, spent all this money, blah blah blah. But hang on a minute Simon, you're coming from a place of lack. Change that around. Let's look at having gratitude. I thought, aren't I so lucky that I have that money to spend? I've had the clients, I have the talents, the skills, or whatever, in order to attract that money, those clients to me in order for me to have that money to then spend to keep that flow going, to keep the abundance flowing. You say, we're in a recession, whatever. The money is still here. It doesn't leave the planet, the money is still here. When you are blocking yourself it won't flow.
I changed my energy, and suddenly, I felt on a cloud. I thought, this is fantastic. It really shifted. That night, had a new client come in, paid me up front, and I made a thousand times more than I spent that day. It was all from the energy. I've had it recently, there was a lot of stuff happening on the farm, a lot of expenditure. Oh, no. Suddenly, things are happening within the business. Why's that? Because I'm not coming from the right place, I'm coming from a place of lack. I'm the boulders in the river. I changed it, and things are picking up again.
Every time, I'm given a little nudge saying, you're coming from the wrong place. Come from this place, and then you won't be the boulder. Step out of your own way. It's something I've learned from interviewing hundreds, if not thousands of people now. That's one of the biggest things I've learnt, get out of your own way. Find what the blocks are. It happens. It sounds hippie, I don't care. It bloody works.
Jo Dodds: What about something you are learning and inspiration, are there any books or films or music or anything that you'd recommend to people?
Simon Jordan: Yeah. This is going to sound really weird. Pinterest.
Jo Dodds: All right.
Simon Jordan: I love going on Pinterest just to see. I'll put in inspiration, or you can put in motivation, you mostly get gym stuff coming up. People work out and that kind of stuff. But inspiration, I love some of the stuff on there. I follow other Facebook pages, and I'm inspired by people I interview. I don't have a lot of time. I love to read, but Jo, when I go to read I normally read in bed which means I fall asleep within half a page, I end up reading the same page five nights in a row. I'm going to finish this in a minute before I fall asleep.
I read when I'm on holiday. But in terms of, yeah, from social media, I get a lot of inspiration. I watch what other people are doing in my arena, and see what they're doing. I love the line that Jim Rohn wrote, business philosopher Jim Rohn, don't wish it was easier, wish that you were better. Think, what can you do to be better?
Things like that. I've got his book of quotes. Seeing that stuff on Pinterest on the inspiration, that comes up, the key inspirers on the planet, I look at what they've written and that's enough for me. I have enough around me, I suppose, I don't need to have all the stuff. April and I work together and we inspire each other, we push each other forward. April came back last week from Downing St, what she's doing with charities, and that inspires me. My clients inspire me when I see what they've done. The people I interview for One Planet One Place, they inspire me to carry on doing what I'm doing, to create more, to have a better life really and to help the people around me.
Jo Dodds: Yeah. On a day when you end the day knowing that you've had the chance to live more, as I call it, do the stuff that you want to do rather than the stuff that you have to do or feel like you should do, what have you done? What's that day look like?
Simon Jordan: I have served my clients. I've made a difference to them. I have, a minute before I jumped on this call for this interview with you, I was working with a client who's over in Ireland and we're working together with a client in Spain. I know I've made a big difference to her. We ended the call, she said something, and I said have a look at this. Have a look at this, I think this will really help you, and I gave her something. She said, that's amazing, thank you so much, that has made a difference already. That's great. I love the line, true success is knowing that someone else has breathed more easily because you've been there.
Jo Dodds: I like that.
Simon Jordan: I keep forgetting the guy's name who said it. Brilliant, absolutely brilliant. It's true.
If I've made a difference to someone else, and at the moment it's summer holidays so if the kids, if they've had a good day, they've had fun, they've had a good meal or whatever it might be, the animals have been fed, to be honest it's simple things. I'm not big money. Yes we've got all this around us, and the acres, and stuff like that, and we've got some amazing things happening which will bring a huge chunk of change. But, I think of that, I think what can we do with that? What good can we do with that money? Keeping it in the flow.
What I've done with my clients, how I've inspired them, with the kids, and what have I done for myself as well. I went round the lake this morning, so that for me made a difference to me, my energy. Yeah. That's how I know I've done a good day.
Jo Dodds: Excellent. Thank you.
We're almost at the end of the interview. How can people find out more about you and talk with you? What would you like them to do?
Simon Jordan: Go to SimonJordan.com, and it's on there. I'm just about to launch a new website as well, because I'm bored of that one now.
Jo Dodds: That's the problem when you do websites, isn't it? You can easily do that.
Simon Jordan: I know. I'm a fussy so-and-so. It's on there, or go to One Planet One Place. Connect with me on Twitter @TheSimonJordan, Facebook as well, The Simon Jordan. Go to SimonJordan.com and it's all on there. The Facebook page as well, for One Planet One Place. It's spelled ONE, One Planet One Place, put that on there, connect. If you've heard this interview, send me an email saying love what you're doing. If you want a day planner, Jo will put that on the site if I can find the link. If not, email me.
Love to connect. I'm on Instagram and lots of other little things. You'll find it.
Thank you very much, Jo, real pleasure. Lovely to speak with you.
Jo Dodds: Thank you. Really enjoyed talking to you and hearing about all of your very rustic life now.
Simon Jordan: Oh yes indeed.
Jo Dodds: In a different place. Great to hear that, and I'm a little bit envious of the -
Simon Jordan: The goats.
Jo Dodds: That you can go out into the farm and sit down in the grass with the animals and relax.
Simon Jordan: This time of year, though, all the bloody horse flies around. Sit down for about five seconds, I've been bitten!
Jo Dodds: I'm not envying you so much now.
Simon Jordan: You're OK with goats. It's the horses.
Jo Dodds: I'll sit in my garden and appreciate there aren't any horse flies there now. Excellent. Thanks Simon, have a good evening.
Simon Jordan: And you. Take care. Bye.
Released
Episode
20 Jun 2015
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The post Simon Jordan on Show #5: Google Calendar, Timetrade, and Inspirational Tips appeared first on Use your POWER to Live More.
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