“The winners will be the ones who go in head first, take the risk and do the work”
My personal review and testimonial of the London Real Business Accelerator.
The reasons for becoming an entrepreneur are as diverse as there are people on the planet deciding to walk that path. My entrepreneurial journey is mainly driven by two motivations:
Firstly, experiencing freedom in my life by living and creating intentionally, thus earning the money I need to live the life I want on my own terms, and secondly, finding the joy and deeper meaning in what I do by connecting with people, helping others light up there life, being with them and supporting them on their path unfolding their inner potential with all the good things I can give, reminding them that they have their own genius to share with the world.
For me being an entrepreneur is an ongoing journey of personal and spiritual development in which connecting, sharing and creating play the most important role.
’Cause let’s honestly face it: If you ever tried to do “your thing”, at some point you realized that eventually you are lonely. Why? Because it is YOUR own path. Nobody walked it before. There’s nobody to take you by the hand to do it FOR you. There is nobody you can follow step by step. All you want to create has to come out of your own conscious realm of deciding, conceiving, creating and manifesting if you aim to create a business that is totally aligned with who you truly are.
We see all the successful people out there and often assume: “It can’t be that hard to do it ourselves”. But of course we only see the results, not the path THEY walked. We don’t feel the pain, doubt, fear and frustration they felt. Only smiling faces and wallets full of money — dream life par excellence, right?
A Short Story of the Past
Once we dare to take the first steps on our own path, we get a glimpse of what it really means. The primary driving factor for me was: “I want to do work that matters, something I can wake up to every morning and be lit on fire so I jump out of bed and can’t wait to do whatever is due that day”. I wanted to be happy. Doing something I love. Helping people and connecting with others.
Well, today is the 25th of November 2017.
Ten years ago, to be precise on th 13th of November 2007, I wrote down these sentences in my diary:
I am currently standing in my kitchen, spreading butter on a slice of bread, as an insight is striking me:
I don’t know what to do with my time — or no, it is more a feeling like: I have all these ideas and wishes inside of me, but yet there is this fear of something keeping me from giving in to these wishes and putting my ideas into action. Fear of people I don’t know? The insecurity to show myself to others, seemingly defenseless? Is there a real reason for this fear? I only feel that I need to manifest these wishes into reality soon, otherwise I will become more and more unhappy with my life, because there is already this huge longing, this desire that tells me that I need to do something else, something bigger then simply “studying” at the university.
Eventually, it took me more than nine years from the date of this entry in my diary to put my ideas and wishes into action. I don’t want to mention the number of times I actually wrote similar sentences down that always ended with “Finally go and take action. If you want to create the life you want YOU are the only person who can do it”. So much longing. So many limiting beliefs and destructive self-talk telling me “I can’t have such a life that I would feel happy with”.
All self-solidifying excuses to NOT facing my own fears. And it got worse and worse, followed by occasional periods of oblivion that diminshed the “pain” of lost self-expression, authenticity and self-alignment, until the waves rose up again, riding me deeper into a latent depression of lost self-worth.
Entrepreneurs are Actors in Disguise
Shakespeare wrote:
“All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players.”
(As you Like It; Act II Scene VII)
Sounds reasonable? — Probably.
What does it imply? — Hmmm, let’s see…
- Actors do what their profession says: They play. They show themselves. They present what’s in them and they give us the chance to take part in a game that has the capacity to touch us deeply within our own soul, inspiring us.
- They are aware of the fact that they are seen up there on the stage. They know that they go out there with all the chances to be hated or praised, loved or rejected. And always people will be there from both sides. And still they do it, because they like to play, like to interact, create, inspire, connect and express themselves.
And the really good ones know the secret that shields them from any critique the ego might take seriously: It is not as much about them as it is about the other people whose lives they get the chance to touch. With the best intentions in mind they know they shouldn’t take critique of any sort personally. Criticising eventually says more about the person giving it than the one receiving it. Nevertheless, you can learn from it, as every play is experiencing yourself in relation with others.
So How Does That Connect To Entrepreurship Now??
It’s simple: Entrepreneurs are actors in disguise. They play the game of providing value to other people by listening, creating, connecting and sharing. But at the heart of this lies the confrontation with themselves: The only person keeping you from being able to do that is yourself — your fears, your self-image, your choice of people you surround yourself with — all of that influences your ability to go out of your own way and start creating and allowing yourself to be seen by the world. For only when you let other people see you, they get the chance to start the interaction, which allows you in turn to provide value and finally transform from “Wantrepreneur” into Entrepreneur.
The Winds of Change Start Blowing Once You Find Your Tribe
As I said above, motivations to take the first steps on the path of entrepreneurship are individually different. Same is true for the excuses we come up with that keep us at the level of “Wantrepreneurs” instead of really doing it and transform into an “Entrepreneur”.
My biggest excuses were:
- “I don’t know what I want to do”.
- “I am afraid of what people might think of or say to me once I do what I want”.
- “I don’t know how to do at all and what to do first”.
- “I don’t think I am experienced and knowledgable enough to do something on my own — I need to learn more and get more knowledge first in order to be ready to go ‘out there’ and show myself”.
And then it happened — literally over night…
A good friend of mine, Egwin Ertl, called me to ask my opinion on a Business Accelerator Program offered by the founder and host of London Real, Brian Rose.
“Is that program any good you think? After all I’d need to pay $3,000 for it.”
From what I noticed of London Real and Brian Rose (watching his Tedx Talk and some of his live interview episodes), my outsider perspective was that he built a business from scratch himself and thus must have real life knowledge and experience on how to do that. Apart from that, the guy seemed like a MAKER to me who prefers action over blabbering, and apart from it all — although I did not know him personally — my first impression was that of a decent guy with big passion for his thing, a big heart and the honest desire to help and inspire people to live better lives.
After that talk I watched some videos on the accelerator program myself and read the sales letter on his website. After all, I was struggling with my own entrepreneurship way, slowly getting traction, but still feeling like I did not know what the way to do things for me should look like.
Well, about a day later, I enrolled to the “Biz Acc” as well. Together with about 140 other people that wanted to do the same thing as I did: Build a profitable business based on my own passions and talents that gives me the freedom and meaning in life I was looking for for so long!
And So The Ride begins…
I’ve read blog posts en masse on building your own business or overcoming the fear of rejection, bought different books written by famous entrepreneurs, watched videos, enrolled in different online courses — but always left out the one thing every successfull entrepreneur reminds you to do: Putting all that you learn into practice — ’cause thinking and consuming won’t get you there.
So what happened? I got trapped in the “analysis paralysis” of consuming too much, but doing nothing. Like many Wantrepreneurs happen to do as well.
So, let me take you on a quick tour through the London Real Business Accelerator Program, in which I was confronted with myself in a straight, demanding and at the same time loving way that nobody ever let me experience before.
Week 1: Bulletproof Your Business Idea
This first week was all about getting to know our “tribe” — the 140 or so people that were in the same close group with me — and doing a special VLOG-Challenge in order to get accustomed to be “on stage”.
The most important things this week? Building relationships and getting over my fear of presenting myself on video, letting myself be seen by others, talking about my ideas, getting my own mindset right and feeling the support and connection with all those like-minded people around me there.
Apart from that this week was all about reflecting my own passions and talents, and having a good look into the “market” — checking for the sweet spot of finding a profitable idea that you like to work on and others feel they would benefit from, thus preparing the ground for a real business.
Question to you: Did you ever take the time to watch 90 personal introduction-videos by other people and comment on them? I tell you: It creates bonds. And it is no waste of time, as the people I met there would accompany me for the next years and decades to come — as peers and also partners in crime, life and business!
Week 2: Find Your Micro Niche
“The most important module on this course” Brian told us (as every week to be honest…).
“Getting your niche right, going even more and more ‘micro’ until it hurts, will give you the possibility to let people know how much you care and that you really can help them — most businesses leave this step out… and fail.”
Want to know what was the most difficult for me here?
I tell you: I believed that by deciding for a very narrow market niche I will narrow down my own expression possibilities and actually “fix” a direction for good that I might regret 6 months later. So much resistance here!
But eventually I realized that this is not the case. Narrowing down your niche helps you to get a foot in the door, because every journey of 1,000 miles begins with the first step. And you cannot go all paths at the same time!
And most importantly: You can ALWAYS decide on a different direction. Why? Because YOU make the decisions in your life and business. Stop fooling yourself and become aware of your possibilities. Not making decisions out of the fear to make a wrong one is resistance in disguise!
In this case, the big lesson was: “Trust the process, even if you feel resistance. We walked the path and we promise you: It will work for you as well.”
After those first two weeks I felt already transformed in my mind like never before. Finally I discovered and allowed myself to feel the thing I am passionate about, which was there all along, but I never listened: Facilitating personal development by teaching and helping people see ways to connect with themselves and those around them, helping them unfold their inner potential.
And why did it finally “click”? — Because Brian and the team on the “Biz Acc” made me talk about my ideas on video and share these messages with the others!
Simple, but effective. Bloody hell!
Week 3: Build Your High-Performance Website
Having the overall frame of the business idea ready, we now learned a simple way to set up a website and connecting an email auto-responder with it, as the most important thing to build a business is sharing value with people and getting their email contacts for later interaction.
This module was a bit like holiday for me, as I was quite comfy setting up the technical stuff.
Week 4: Make Your Content
“Giving comes before receiving — and earning money is a by-product of providing great valueable content to people that helps them solve their problems, help them achieve their goals and put at rest their inner desires.”
Having to do my first 3-part video series and providing concise content for my audience proved to be quite a challenge for me, as I had to stop having cloudy, “creative” thoughts and actually forcing myself into manifesting something real and concise.
Why was that hard for me? Because I thought I would limit myself by choosing some small bit of “Intellectual Property” that would not be able to explain the whole picture to my audience. Only later I realized that it is okay to do that, simply because all business activity is an ongoing, living dialogue with the people you care about and who care about your message.
Week 5: Kickstart Your Social Media
As mentioned earlier: “Wantrepreneurs” struggle with letting themselves to be seen by others and believe they can simply avoid this step and still become successful. However, Entrepreneurs know they actually NEED the stage and publicity, otherwise they cannot help the people they care about.
So this week was dedicated to creating channels of presence, such that our audience can find us and knows we are here at all!
Week 6: Create Your Product
Again a step of manifestation! Creating a well-framed 6-part video course to give even more value to our target audience. But did we create the whole thing from beginning to end? Nope!
We made the concept, wrote out the details of content following a special structure, but we only filmed the first video. WTF!?
Week 7: Sell Your Product
What, wait… DOING MY OWN WEBINAR? Seriously, Brian?!
“But how can I sell if I don’t have the whole product ready, yet!?”
“Well, trust the process and just do it! Give value, talk about it. And offer more help — especially by putting a price to it.”
The big learning in this week was: You don’t wait with the selling until your product is totally ready! In fact, you sell the idea by talking about it. This is called a “Minimal Viable Product”. If you cannot find people who would give you money for you talking about your idea in the first place, why would you bother with wasting money and time on creating that thing?
In this week I also learn to “play” again, like a child. Making up ideas, talking about them. And getting a first glance again of what it means to not taking things so seriously. All business is at every point in time a process of human interaction and communication. You never need to be perfect, but you need to show care and respect for others. That way you build lasting relationships and discover your own authenticity that people will feel radiating from you when residing in your presence.
Needless to say that my first webinar was in fact a great and exciting experience.
I even got the first four sales for my first low-cost product “The Self-Esteem Lunchbox”.
What was the light-bulb moment here?
I remembered how much I ENJOY talking in front of people and sharing my perspectives with them! This moment of being able to inspire others with what is close to my heart is the most fulfilling experience I know!
After the second weminar it happened that a big switch turned around in me so now I thought: “I really have something to offer to people that is valueable! People like my ideas and what I got to give, and they even pay me money to do so!”
The Final Episode — Week 8: Launch Your Business
I said at the beginning that Entrepreneurship is a lonely path. Well, this is not exactly true. Let me explain…
As an entrepreneur you are responsible for everything you do or don’t do. You only get what you ask for, and often times you have to motivate yourself to overcome periods of emotional drought and frustration that nobody feels the way you do. You are alone with taking action INSIDE yourself.
BUT…
The game starts to change once you realize that it is your free choice to connect with people that are on the same “page” with you. Once you start talking about your doubts, your needs, your ideas. Once you show your vulnerability.
And then, the magic happens.
You realize that you can connect to others by sharing and letting them take part in your journey. As it is always about the journey. You still have to make decisions by yourself and walk the walk step by step on your own pace.
However, being in connection will give you strength, courage and the vision to go on until you created the reality you wished for.
This week adds another aspect to the journey on this course: Connecting to your network of weak ties, friends, family, partners, influencers, gatekeepers and other people or businesses that could help you spread your message by forming partnerships and exchanging value with others.
Besides all the other “most important modules” on this course, this one is also a “most important one”. Don’t sit on your eggs — let’em hatch!
My Résumé on the London Real Business Accelerator
In eight weeks I went from “being in the same situation and internal, emotional state as 10 years before” to “inspired”, “eager to create” and “centered in the knowing of what I want to contribute to the world” not speaking of the fact that I now have the self-confidence and understanding of fundamental processes of how to build a profitable and valueable business from scratch and how to scale it. This knowledge will stay with me for the rest of my life, spiced up with the experiences of this first round of “playing entrepreneur” — no matter if I change my business idea later or stick with this one.
Being around people and having a TEAM at my side that I know will help me when I need support for the next years and decades to come feels like a “normal” thing now. I don’t want to imagine that out of my life anymore.
A little note on the side: My father actually took part in my journey pretty intensely. Being an entrepreneur, craftsman and artist of the former generation himself, he witnessed my transformation live. And it inspired him as well!
“So the London Real Business Accelerator changed your life?!”
NO! It didn’t!
“What?? But all the things you just said…!”
Ok, listen. Not the Biz Acc changed my life…
I changed my life! And ONLY YOU can change YOUR life too.
It will always be YOU doing that. Nobody can do it FOR you.
HOWEVER…
The environment Brian and the whole team of London Real create for the experience taking place during these eight weeks in the Business Accelerator provide all the support you need in order for this change to emerge by itself.
The only thing you need to bring to the table? — Be willing and prepared to let this change happen, accept your resistances but don’t give in to them, go where your fear is and be with it while doing what they ask you to do, trust the process and simply do the work.
“But why are you so confident in recommending this course? What’s the difference to any other business course out there?”
Apart from more than 4 hours of no-BS video material on the fundamentals of how to build any kind of business from scratch, more than two hours of live coaching twice a week and a clear process to follow taught by people who already built successful businesses, you mean?
I think the two strongest reasons for me are the community of like-minded, highly positive and supportive people I got in contact with that totally changed my sphere of influence and go me out of my own shitty-zone of “no action but doubt” as well as the strong implementation of accountability, motivation — not just a facebook group, but the actual blood and flesh of it, through which you really get called out for not doing the work you know you must do yourself, and at the same time the feel of the supportive team-spirit washing over you whenever you feel down, frustrated and losing hope, or letting you rise up even further on the wave of excitement, when everybody shares their little or big successes.
Still hesitating?
Don’t. Stop thinking. Start playing & creating.
Get on there and change your life with the best support you can find for this journey.
Thank you, Brian & Team!
