How do you manage five businesses? How much time do you dedicate to each and which ones are self-sufficient?

Managing five businesses is sometimes a little bit like the old circus skill of spinning plates. There is Dream Express Publishing, Kapow Media, Tomorrows Youth, Network 21 and Get Published Secrets.

As we now have some great team members all businesses are self-sufficient to a point and take me about 2-3 hours per week to manage and maintain. However, each month or so I shift my time and focus on a particular area to really build it up so it becomes more profitable, then I put systems in place which will make future growth easier and more predictable.

Right now much of my focus is on Dream Express Publishing, which owns the ‘Secrets Exposed’ brand. We have experienced significant growth over the last few months and we now also have our books selling in New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia and Brunei. Plus we are working on expanding our product line for 2007 which is going to be very exciting for us.

You have always had a competitive streak and edge, where does this stem from?

Yes I’ve always thrived on healthy competition. This stems from my sporting background. At the age of seven I got into Gymnastics and by the age of nine I was training about 36 hours per week (2 hours in the morning before school and 4 hours after, Monday to Friday and another 6 hours on Saturday). It was of course very intense and took up most of my life until the age of 18.

However, through this experience I learnt a lot of very valuable principles like; goal setting, personal discipline, priority management, delayed gratification, attention to detail and the importance of having a coach – all principles which are very much a part of my business career today.

Has this edge hindered you in any way, or has it all been positive?

I think many of the qualities that I posses are like a two edged sword and what I have found is that any positive attribute taken to the extreme can become more of a negative. For example, as a former gymnast I am a real perfectionist. While this is certainly a great trait to have, often times it slows things down dramatically and at worst you end up not putting it out there because it is never quite right.

I have now learnt that speed to market is key, so it is better to have a product that is 90% complete and 100% out there, than a product that is 100% perfect and not out there. Another saying that really helps me in curbing my perfectionism comes from leadership expert John Maxwell and it is, “Don’t spend a dollars worth of time on a ten cent decision.”

How is Tomorrow’s Youth doing, has it matched your expectations and if so why do you believe it has been successful?

Tomorrows Youth International is a wonderful organisation and one which we are very proud of. To date we have now run our 2 ½ Day Empower U program for over 10,000 teenagers across four different countries. The reason why it has grown so well is because of the passion and dedication of the amazing group of young people that we work with. We very much pride ourselves on being an organisation run for youth and by youth, so with that there is always a great amount of enthusiasm and a constant source of fresh ideas.

As for meeting expectations, with over 1.8 million teenagers in Australia alone and a program which has proven it can have a significant positive impact on 99% of those teens, I don’t think that we will ever be completely satisfied.

How do you empower youth to succeed?

The main program we run is a 2 ½ Day seminar called Empower U. There we teach practical life-skills that aren’t really focused on in schools. Things like; goal setting, communication skills, leadership, money management skills, team building, career skills, creative thinking and much more.

However, I think the real power behind what we do comes from our ability to make things FUN! At the seminar we have a giant sound system, laser lights and smoke machines. Also along the way we play heaps of cool games, watch inspiring movie clips and do some really life-changing processes.

The end result is that the teenagers walk away with a renewed vision for their life, absolute belief in themselves that they can do anything and the tools and skills they need to make it happen.

How were you empowered to succeed?

Outside of my sporting background which took up the majority of my younger years, since finishing school I have attended hundreds of personal and professional development programs and learnt many things. Some of those include; ‘work harder on yourself than you do on the job’ and ‘you don’t get out of life what you want, you get out of life what you expect’.

I suppose the other thing is that I really enjoy all of the things that I do which really helps a lot.

What was the motivation behind the series of books? You have structured the business of them in an interesting way, how did you come up with this idea?

While working with teenagers, one of the things which I always say is that there is only two ways to live your life – one is through ‘trial & error’ and the other is by ‘following a recipe’. I discovered that whatever you want in life chances are that someone out there is already living it. They have already invested the time, effort and money and eventually succeeded. So sure, you can go out and do it all yourself or you can find someone that already has the results you want and ask them to share what they have learnt.

Having shared this advice with thousands of people, I found that a small percentage would act on this advice but the vast majority wouldn’t because of a lack of confidence or the skills to contact people in high places. Then it occurred to me what if I could find, contact and interview hundreds of successful people myself and then put that wisdom into a series of books. Surely that would help a lot of people.

Also following Zig Ziglar’s saying, “If you help enough other people get what they want, you will in turn get what you want”, I knew my idea would make for a good business too.

How much difficulty did you have getting the first book up and running? Did you put anything on the line to do this, apart from your sanity?

I had a lot of difficultly. I haven’t yet worked out whether it was an act of stupidity or an act of genius but having no real experience or a track record, I decided to produce the first five ‘Secret Exposed’ books all at the same time! I just figured that for economies of scale it would save a lot of time in the long run and it would mean that I could hit the market hard – releasing multiple titles quickly to make it impossible for a potential competitor to catch me.

I think my crazy gamble worked as the brand has now been very well received by bookstores and the public, to the point where I have now had interest from people that want to license my system to produce ‘Secrets Exposed’ books in other countries.

What have you learnt from a business perspective from the people who have participated in your books?

Wow this question certainly can be a book on its own, however, I’d have to say that the single biggest quality of a successful entrepreneur is ‘resilience’ – the ability to bounce back quickly and keep going. I’ve discovered that successful entrepreneurs aren’t immune to problems and challenges. In fact they have simply pushed through and overcome more problems and challenges than most other people – that’s why they are so successful.

As an example, one of the individuals featured in my book Secrets of Male Entrepreneurs Exposed is the founder of Nudie Fruit Juice, Tim Pethick. In 2004, his factory was burnt to the ground. While this was happening, Tim’s marketing director turned to him and said, “What are we going to do now?” and Tim’s answer was “Well tomorrow we better start looking for a new factory.” Without even skipping a beat or allowing himself to wallow in his own self-pity for a few weeks, straight away his reaction was, ‘this has happened; let’s deal with it right now so we can move on’. There are dozens of stories demonstrating the important of resilience throughout each of the ‘Secrets Exposed’ books.

What did you hope to achieve from these books?

For me it is about helping people to get up-close and personal with highly successful individuals, providing a medium to discover their inspirational stories, what drove them to achieve and how they approach challenges in their life and business.

The end result of this is that I want people to know that the people we admire and marvel at today once started in exactly the same place. The vast majority didn’t come from privileged backgrounds and had very rocky roads with their fair share of misadventures and personal obstacles that they had to overcome.

The other side is people also need to know that high achieves take the time to really think about what they want, and then don’t compromise and sell out when things get a little tough. Also, successful people are commitment to continual growth and they understand the power of simple positive steps compounded with time.

What more do you hope to achieve?

Moving forward in 2007 we will be releasing another ten ‘Secrets Exposed’ books into the market. In addition, we will be working on extending the product line of the brand to included mini quote books, audio books, DVDs and of course a ‘Secrets Exposed’ seminar series. While that is occurring we will begin the licensing of our intellectual property and brand internationally, so an individual can produce their own series of books featuring successful people from their country. First on the list is New Zealand, then into Asia before we head to the United States.

Outside of business, starting a family, more travel and resting a little sounds pretty good.

What do you consider to be the most important entrepreneurial traits you have?

Well I guess that I am a very creative individual that likes to dream up ‘out-there’ ideas and then work to bring them to life. Also I am a bit of a workaholic so I get lots of stuff done and manage lots of moving parts. At times this trait can mean I sometimes neglect other areas of my life, so I’ve taken on new staff and am now learning to delegate repetitive tasks and activities which don’t directly relate to earning income.

Other traits would have to be my determination to not take no for an answer and my ability to build solid relationships with key people in high places.

What is success?

Of course everyone has there own definition and interpretation of success. For me success is about three words; Balance, Happiness and Impact.

Firstly, there are many different facets to a person’s life. It is a waste of time being a multi-millionaire if you’re unhealthy, your marriage is in taters, you have a poor relationship with your kids and you do nothing for your community – really, what is the point. I believe that for a person to be truly successful they must take some time to focus on each aspect of their life. It doesn’t mean every area needs to be a perfect 10 (nobody’s is), however it is important to keep things balanced and in the right perspective.

Secondly, people need to focus on doing things that are going to make them happy. Don’t wait because weeks quickly become months and months quickly become years! Maybe it is a dream holiday with the family, taking up a sport or hobby or time with special friends. Remember this saying, “Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success.”

And thirdly, at the end of our lives I believe that we should be able to say ‘I gave more to the world than I took from it’. So for me, making a difference and having an impact on people is an important thing. And I really see the things that I am doing now as just the beginning.

What five things have most influenced you?

1. My wife Katherine. She has a great business brain and always knows the right thing to say at the right time.
2. Meeting the hundreds of inspiring people who are part of the ‘Secrets Exposed’ book series.
3. Being an elite Gymnast for seven years and having a great coach that always let me know that I was capable of achieving more.
4. Being involved in Network 21, a training company that offers great seminars in personal and leadership development.
5. Working with teenagers – they never cease to amaze me with their creative spirit and desire to make a difference.