So in no particular order, this is what has been going on:
- Travelled to South Africa at the beginning to March - you will recall that my mother (aged 88) had taken a fall and was in rehab mode. My sister had spent a few weeks with. We arranged for a live-in carer to cover the time before I could make a trip. That worked well so that by the time I arrived there she was mobile again and cleared by the doctor to drive her car. In fact I did not have to do very much at all other than get on top of her financial matters and do the filing. I did take a pilgrimage out to the Magaliesberg mountains to the north of Johannesburg to pay tribute to my friend, Beresford Jobling, who died there last August (http://breatheyourdreams.blogspot.com.au/ for a tribute I wrote)
- Followed that up with a trip to Pattaya Thailand to attend David Cavanagh's Best Coaching Programme. I had been lucky to win that trip during the Jeff and Kane Industry Rockstar Intensive course I had done at the end of January. While I fancy myself as a bit of an IT geek and quite able to find most of the things I need to build my Internet Marketing businesses this struck me as a way to turbocharge my progress. The training program was brilliant in content but especially in the group of attendees. Pretty well all of have been through a Jeff and Kane event - so a bit of self-selection produced a group of people ready to make go of the things they were learning. The content was jam packed with practical hints on things to explore; tools to use; products to sell; traffic methods to apply. I signed up for the next level program to further accelerate my Internet Marketing efforts - and to leverage the outsourcing models that David applies in his business. The video below was based on stuff learned in his course - a first attempt for me at filming and editing a video - and a subject I love - airlines and flying. There is a lot of stuff to follow in this whole area. If you ever get a chnce to do one of David's courses - do it. It will pay for itself in weeks if you take action.
- Spent a weekend in Thailand after the course - Lorraine flew up and we spent a few days together. We rambled around Pattaya a bit. The highlight of that was that we were having dinner with a few members of the group at one of the seafood restaurants on the pier. It had been a bit of a challenge to get everyone to agree to a spot but I knew where I wanted to be. We sit down at a table and I hear a voice over my shoulder "that explains why you did not respond to my e-mail". The last time I had been at the restaurant was with my friend of 18 years from Basel Switzerland. We had spent a week celebrating his 50th birthday and playing some golf. And there were Daniele and Heinz. Another lesson learned - when the universe sends signs, FOLLOW them. Got to spend a night in Bangkok - that was nice to reconnect with that city - great to revisit some old haunts and to remind ourselves how hot hot it gets.
- Markets have been interesting to say the least. The period of retracement and consolidation that started in January has persisted. The events in Cyprus put a big spoiler into what was proving to be a nice run-up in European Equities. At least I felt I was well positioned when I took off on my travels - and it seems to be holding out fine. The beauty about the markets right now is that everyone is so scared that Options Volatility is quite low - hence cheap to get into position. The FX markets have shown similar results to January - so in March my robot outperformed my own account which outperformed my outsourced account. All of this was put in the shade by the massive action announced by the Bank of Japan last week. I am pleased to say I was positioned for that and even managed to get some FX trades on to add to the long dated options I have running. Looking good so far. Now we need to worry a little about the politicians in Europe and the President of North Korea. They can between them very easily make a mess. And then there is a new outbreak of bird flu in China. Still waiting though for the markets to work out that investing in fixed interest at yields lower than inflation is not CLEVER
- And the big cycling news is that Cycle Around Australia 2013 kicked off with an on time departure from Melbourne on March 23. day 17 in and all seem to be doing well. The blog can be found here http://melbourne2cairns2013.blogspot.com.au. The riders are supporting a charity for this ride. The charity (TADVIC) provides modified bicycles for disabled children - a worthy cause. Have a look at the video I made for the cause - a first attempt too with a new piece of video editing software I do not understand. Head here to make a donation http://bit.ly/YxEHlc
What next:
- Focus on building my Industry Rockstar profile as a Business Coach. This is going to be a webinar driven business and the focus is going to be Internet Marketing Business and building an Internet Marketing Engine.
- Start driving some serious traffic efforts leveraging the software tools I have already amassed - Facebook Formulas; D4U Twitter (that is going well); SocialSpeed; Spiders Web; Traffic Amplifier; and more.
- Build my own brand presence - probably will drive two Mark Carrington Business Coach and Mark Carrington Affiliate Marketer.
- Keep on finding good market opportunities for the investment markets.
- I do need to get on the bicycle to do some training as I am currently scheduled to depart Katherine for Broome on June 4th. Lorraine has had to withdraw from supporting that leg of the ride - that means I will most likely ride from Darwin 4 days earlier. The tricky part is I have a broken hand - will have to do the first 3 weeks of training on a cycle trainer. Will be watching tons of webinars in that time.
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