This interview was conducted with top Musicians coach Kavit Haria.
For more on Kavit click here Kavit Haria: Hi Damien, it's a pleasure having you on "The Kavit Show". Thanks for taking the time to be here. You're one of the UK's top internet business coaches. Could you tell us how you've come to be where you are today? Damien Senn: Hi Kavit, it's a real pleasure to have the opportunity to share some of my ideas and experiences. So how have I come to be where I am today? Well it has actually been quite a journey of discovery I must say. I launched a life and business coaching practice in July 2005. Despite having quite extensive business experience, I had very little knowledge about how to practically market a small start up business. Out of all the possible ways I could have marketed my business, my intuition was telling me that I should invest all my time, energy and effort in marketing myself on the internet. I quickly found out that not only did I absolutely love marketing online, but I also discovered that I was actually quite good at it as well. Around a year later I was looking at a list of my coaching clients and realised that all of them had come to me to learn about how they too could market themselves online. It was at this stage that I knew that I had found my niche and I haven't looked back since. Kavit Haria: Damien, you're a chartered accountant, right? What made you make the change to becoming a coach and how did you come to the decision? Damien Senn: When I graduated from University, I closed down a part time events business that I had set up for fun with a friend and jumped onto the first wrung of the corporate ladder on a highly sort after graduate program. Being young and impressionable, I was somehow seduced by the idea of wearing shiny suits and making a lot of money. On my very first week on the job I had this sickly feeling in my gut that I was doing completely the wrong thing and selling out on my entrepreneurial aspirations. Despite qualifying as a chartered accountant and enjoying the trappings of a successful corporate career, that dull lingering feeling that I was doing the wrong thing never left me. At the age of 29, I knew that could no longer ignore the fact that I thought I wasn’t putting my talents to best use, so I made the decision to leave the corporate world for good to chase after my entrepreneurial dreams. Both coaching and internet business have been great vehicles for me to do this. Kavit Haria: What are your three most important success principles Damien? Damien Senn: (1) Spend as much time as you can doing the things that you enjoy and have a genuine talent for. Each of us come into this world with special gifts. The challenge we all face is to uncover these talents and then put them to good use. (2) Don't be afraid of letting go of something good for something better. Most people are so ruled by fear that they end up clinging to a life that is so far beneath what they are truly capable of. (3) Everything in this world is energy. Surround yourself with inspirational thoughts and people. It can't help but have a knock on effect! Kavit Haria: Damien, if you were the President of the United States, what changes would you make with immediate effect? Damien Senn: I have to say that I have never really been drawn to the political arena. Personally I think I would have a much better chance of creating positive social change in the world by establishing thought provoking commercial enterprises that inspire people to think for themselves and be the best they can be. But if I was president of the United States, the number one thing that I would focus on would be to lead by example and create possibilities for a better way of life for all human beings, regardless of where they live on the planet. Kavit Haria: Damien, let's talk entrepreneurs. In order of importance, what do you feel are the three main characteristics of highly successful entrepreneurs? Damien Senn: (1) Know what you are good at. As an entrepreneur you absolutely have to know what you are good at as well as know what you are not good at. Once you've worked this out, only do the things you have a genuine talent for and then delegate the rest. (2) Create a compelling vision. You have to have a compelling vision of what you want to create. I think it is important that your vision be so much bigger than just creating wealth for yourself. (3) Make as many mistakes as you possibly can. Don't be afraid of making mistakes. The faster you make mistakes the faster you will learn. Kavit Haria: One aspect of your work is to help businesses become more profitable. Can you share a few tips as to what your strategy is on this? Damien Senn: You're best chance for profits in business is to discover where your talents and strategic competitive advantage lies. My talent as a coach is to find the gold that resides in each one of my clients.There are a number of different processes that I have personally developed to achieve this. Once I have a good understanding of where my client's true talents lie and what it is they want to achieve through their business, I then help them to devise and implement strategies using the internet to help them move towards achieving their business vision. The strategies that I help clients implement typically involve helping them make more money, build a bigger profile or save precious time.
Kavit Haria: Damien, you're also the co-founder of the popular London internet entrepreneurs networking club called Web Wednesdays. What's the idea behind that and what will people get out of attending it?
Damien Senn: When I kicked off my business, it become blatantly obvious that I was going to have to get out there and broaden my network of contacts. My first networking experience happened to be a speed networking event for entrepreneurs (based loosely on the concept of speed dating). Each person had 3 minutes to explain their business to someone before being shuffled in front of another person in the room. I found the whole experience excruciating and totally unproductive. This experience motivated me to think long and hard about the people that I wanted to attract to grow and support my business. When I had this picture in my mind I noticed that there was no networking group bringing together the type of people I wanted to hang out with so I decided to set one up myself. I set up Web Wednesdays based around the principles of how I like to meet and relate to people. The club meets on a monthly basis and attracts a wide variety of people interested in the internet. The event is very informal and there is no pressure to meet anyone. People just mingle and talk to the people they want to about anything they want to. Nothing is ever forced. The fascinating thing about this approach to networking is that you always seem to end up talking to the very people you need to. For more info see www.webwednesdays.com Kavit Haria: You talk about self-empowering rituals. Can you share a little about what they are and how one can create their own set of self-empowering rituals? Damien Senn: My self-empowering rituals are disciplines that I have committed to for life that give me the strength, confidence and life force to go after all the things I desire. The basic concept behind these rituals was to try and recreate my perfect day everyday and they're designed to support the full potential of my mental, physical, emotional and spiritual self. The best way for someone to create their own set of rituals is first to become aware of the things that place them in a happy and vibrant space as well as the things that actually have the opposite effect. Once you have this awareness you just start off doing more of the things that support you and less of the things that don't until it actually becomes a complete way of life. Kavit Haria: So Damien before we end, what can we all look forward to seeing happening in the world of Damien Senn in 2007 and onwards? Damien Senn: It is definitely going to be a big year for me this year. I am in the process of developing two specialised internet related coaching programs which I am very excited about as well some interesting digital products. I also plan to do a lot more public speaking this year both in the UK and internationally. For your readers who are interested in finding out how they can use the internet to achieve their business dreams, I am co-facilitating a couple of internet marketing workshops with Davide De Angelis (see www.themoneyshaman.com) for Alternatives on 24-25 of February 2007. See here. The workshops will sell out so they'll need to be quick! Kavit Haria: Damien, it's been a real pleasure having you here. Thanks for taking time out to provide with some great insights. Is there anything else you'd like to share that will be of value to our readers? Damien Senn: I think the most important thing you can do in this world is uncover your own personal truth and then be brave and bold enough to be your own truth. So in closing, I'd just like to wish anyone who is reading this the very best of luck in achieving this. It's been great chatting Kavit. Thanks for inviting me along! | 