The Interview
Damien Senn: Neil, you are no stranger to adversity. Tell me about your own personal experience of hitting rock bottom and how it motivated you to turn your life around once and for all.
Neil Asher:
I was a chef for many years and I’ve cooked in some of the best restaurants in the world under people whose job it was to shout at me all day! (Think Gordon Ramsey!) and then I owned 5 restaurants in Jersey and Sydney until finally I owned a HUGE restaurant with 45 guys working for me and realised I didn’t actually like what I was doing anymore….. Well once I had this profound realization being the huge action taker I was (sic) I waited 18 months and started drinking A LOT instead!!
Then one day a friend recommended I see a life coach, I was aghast! A Life Coach!!! ME!! Never, I was scared and insecure hiding behind bravado and ego.
But I grudgingly went, and BOY I was very hard work!! Shut down emotionally and scared to reveal who I was.
Caro (my Life Coach) was up for the challenge!
She worked with me and helped me so much that I used to leave my coaching sessions on a high, then one day she asked me about my purpose in life, I’d never thought of it before but with her help I uncovered it:
“My mission in life is to create companies that inspire and educate people and leave a positive impact on the world and to be a role model of the limitless possibilities of mankind”
I cried the first tear in many many years and was left feeling inspired and unsure of the future as I knew for sure I was in the wrong job….
I called Caro the next day for some advice and told her I was scared but I knew I needed to make a change, she coached me through it and asked me great questions and I knew that I wanted to be a life Coach too.
So I spent the next 5 years studying with the best of the best (my father taught me this) and I now lead the sort of life I could only have dreamed of 6 years ago.
Damien Senn: You have invested an incredible amount of time, money and energy into your own personal development journey. Who have been your most influential teaches and why?
Neil Asher:
Well I have learnt from many many great people but the person whose work I most admire for personal transformation is Dr John Demartini. I find his work has, for me, the truth within it. This is an important concept!
I do not believe in getting all hyped up in a seminar and then spending the next 12 months trying to figure out why that is not sustainable. I believe in balance and in finding your inner “guru” by following the wisdom of your soul.
Damien Senn: You went from working in a cafe to owning a million dollar company in the space of a year. What mental shifts were necessary to make this transition?
Neil Asher:
Ha Ha! Well the BIGGEST mental shift that everybody has to make is to love themselves for who they are…. But to apply that to this concept the mental shift was “I’m the right person to be doing this” my thought process at that time was why the heck not!
If someone else can do it then so can I… I just have to learn what to do then apply it.
I still have this belief now.
As far as business is concerned I had to value myself. Pure and simple. Once you value yourself EVERYTHING changes!
Damien Senn: Your company New Insights Life Coaching trains busy people to become life coaches. With many Life Coaching training companies out there, what is it that sets yours apart from the rest?
Neil Asher:
Well the No 1 thing is our focus on helping our coaches to start coaching businesses. Many many people do courses whether they are NLP courses, coach training courses or whatever without realizing that ultimately they’re getting into business for themselves.
This is an important distinction.
Because as I tell my coaches “It’s no good being the best life coach in the world if you’re broke!”
So we teach our coaches the skills to run a business as well as be brilliant coaches. We are the only coaching company in the UK that does that…. To me it’s obvious but you know as well as I do that obvious just means I’ve thought it through!
PLUS
Because of our focus on getting coaches going in business we also offer a very unique coaching guarantee and essentially what we say is this: apply what we teach you, implement what you learn, ask for help if you need it and you will get 10 clients as a result of our course.
Nobody else does this…. We’re the only training company that focuses on this for our coaches.
Damien Senn: What kind of results have your coach training graduates enjoyed?
Neil Asher:
Great a chance to brag about our brilliant coaches!
O.K. well we have coaches earning over £5000 a day as executive coaches.
Coaches speaking in front of 1000’s of people and inspiring them to move forward in their lives.
Coaches working with teenagers to truly believe in themselves.
Coaches running seminars for personal development.
Coaches creating change within companies so that people are inspired to be there.
Coaches working with couples to help them re-kindle the love in their relationships.
In short we help our coaches to fulfil their dreams :-)
Damien Senn: What personal qualities do you think a person must have before thinking about a career in coaching?
Neil Asher:
Well the only thing that matters is a desire to learn and a love of helping people. Everything else we can teach you, BUT so far I haven’t been able to figure out how to teach those 2 things to people.
So if you have those we can help you to become a coach.
It doesn’t matter what you’ve done or haven’t done in the past. Heck I was a chef! So if I can do it anyone can!
Damien Senn: You're an advocate of Holosync mind technology. Can you tell me about how it works and the impact it has had on your life?
Neil Asher:
I use it everyday. I personally get a lot out of it and I use it to focus my mind.
I’m a big believer in trying things out and seeing if they work for me, I do not believe that everything works for everybody and I run a mile when I’m told it does!
But after testing holosync I noticed a difference in my mental stamina and also in how I focused and used my mind.
I speed read as well and I found it helped me to integrate the books I was reading at a much deeper level.
Damien Senn: What memorable mistakes, if any, have you made in business? What did you learn from them and how can they be avoided?
Neil Asher: :
WOW where to begin!
O.K. first a word on mistakes…. If you’re living your life in fear of screwing up just know that you will NEVER be a success.
Failure is a necessary part of success.
One of my mentors who was making over £10 million a year at the time told me this “if you want to truly be great and do great things you HAVE to screw up all the time! In fact if you’re not making at least 1 mistake a day you’re just not trying hard enough!”
O.K. with that said my most memorable mistake was taking my eye off the ball with my wife…. 1 year ago I was working so hard, travelling the world, and for all intents and purposes I was a huge success. I was making about 500K a year profit and thought I was doing the right things.
BUT I wasn’t paying attention to my wife and her needs so I nearly lost her… it was very very tough for me as I felt embarrassed that I’d dropped the ball. PLUS of course I’m a very successful life coach and that should just not happen to me!
So it was a very humbling experience for me to tell my coaches what had happened and to get their help to get my relationship back on track.
So now I structure my life and business much differently and funnily enough I do more with less time!
Everything in my life and business is systemized so I can free up tie to focus on what’s important to me.
Damien Senn: What are the best and worst things about being an entrepreneur?
Neil Asher:
Best is the thrill of the chase and the fulfilment of creating something that works, for me entrepreneurs are very unique people with very unique values. I love hanging out with other entrepreneurs and my coaching groups for entrepreneurs are very popular.
So best thing is hanging out creating ideas and solving the troubles of the world :-)
Worst for me is loneliness, to be an entrepreneur is to be a maverick and as such you will always live on the periphery of society I’m aware of the hierarchical structure within society and the dynamics of this and I could go into that AT LENGTH!
But that’s a whole new story!
So I’m basically a very social person and love to hang out and help other entrepreneurs kick ass and fulfil their dreams… that for me at least is great fun.
Damien Senn: Are there any other thoughts, insights, or advice that you would like to offer would be entrepreneurs thinking about setting up their own business?
Neil Asher:
Yes, get started!
You cannot change direction if you’re standing still and just know that you will screw it up A LOT and that is all part of the game.
Surround yourself with like minded people.
Think about joining a coaching group if you have access to one.
And know what business you are in…. it is NOT the business you think it is!
If you’d like to learn what business you’re really in e-mail me and I’ll tell you ?
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Plan everything but expect not to follow up. But planning will help you believe it’s possible.
One final word, work on you…. You are your business and your business will only ever get as big as you and your vision allows it to. So work on you ad your business will automatically grow…. I see this time and time again.
Thanks for listening in and if you have any questions then please feel free to e-mail me, I’d love to help you :-)
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