Rising from the Ashes

Girls Are Like

Graham Phoenix — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 00:37:32 +0000

I love this tree of love found all over the internet. It’s message is worthy of some thought for men. I know men are not usual prone to seemingly soppy messages like this, but sometimes, just sometimes, they can learn from something so ‘unmanly’. What do you think? Am I barking up the wrong tree?!

Girls are like
apples on trees. The best
ones are at the top of the tree.
The boys don’t want to reach for
the good ones because they are afraid
of falling and getting hurt. Instead, they
just get the rotten apples from the ground
that aren’t as good, but easy. So the apples
at the top think something is wrong with
them, when in reality, they’re amazing.
They just have to wait for the right
boy to come along, the one
who’s brave enough
to climb
all the way
to the top
of the tree.

What Bubbles Taught Me

Graham Phoenix — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 04:47:59 +0000

Bubbles is a sweet little Spanish Water Dog. I met her at a house in Gin Gin, QLD, Australia. Her favourite game is to chase tennis balls that you throw for her. She places the ball at your feet and stands waiting for you to throw it. All the time she is focused on you, gazing expectantly into your eyes. You throw the ball and she hares after it, brings it back and the whole process starts again.

This is a favourite game for many dogs, so what’s the difference with Bubbles. Her good-natured persistence is a amazing. She will play this for hours without fading. The way she plays is a great lesson for us all. The great qualities that she displays that we could all learn from can be summed up as follows:

1. She knows what she wants.

This is critical in shaping our lives. Where are we going? What are we trying to achieve? What do we want from and in our lives?

2. She asks for what she wants.

How often do we bemoan not getting what we want, when we have never even asked for it? Do we know how to ask? Do we know what to ask for?

3. She expects to get what she wants.

Do we have certainty about what is going to happen? Do we live our lives expecting to live our dreams, or do they remain remote and unattainable?

4. She never gives up.

Are we sure and keep going? Can we weather the rejections and the times it doesn’t happen? Do we have the courage to keep going because we know it will happen?

5. She is grateful when she receives it.

No matter what we have endured on the way, are we truly grateful for what we get? Do we resent the rejections or do we celebrate all the steps on the way?

6. She always wants more.

Once you achieve your goal do you keep going? Do you lift your Vision, re-visit your goals and want more? Do you treat your Vision as an end and give up once you get there?

7. She does it with rapport.

Do you enter the world of those you are trying to enroll in your Vision, or do you annoy them into supporting you? Do you find out what’s in it for them, or what’s in it for you?

Bubbles is an inspiring teacher and she doesn’t even know it, she’s only a dog. Hmmm… could this be a lesson for us all?

Magic Moments 2009

Graham Phoenix — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 04:07:22 +0000

Cheta and I had a fabulous year last year. We took lots of pictures and Cheta has made a fantastic record of the year in this video. It presents all the many things we did and places we went during the year.

Enjoy.

Interview on Voice America | Celebrate

Graham Phoenix — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 14:12:50 +0000

I have received an invitation to be a guest on a radio discussion programme on the ‘Voice America’ network. Apparently I am an ‘interesting’ person. The interview is with David Gibbons who has a great english voice and who leads fascinating, worthwhile discussions on issues that matter.

This is great for a number of reasons and is something to celebrate. I always celebrate even my smallest successes or advancements, it inspires me and makes me want to go further, to deepen my experience. So what are my reasons to celebrate?

First, and always first, it feeds my need for significance. It often surprises people that I am open to admitting this. Significance is one of Tony Robbins’ ‘Six Human Needs’. For me it has always been an important one. I used to fight this until I realised it could be used for god, both mine and others. So I now go for significance as long as it is of benefit to people. If at the same time I feel great about it, that’s ok with me.
It means that my name is getting out there onto the cloud. I took the ffort to find out where they had come across me from. It turns out it was facebook. That I had not expected. There is some use to it after all.
It gives me the opportunity to spread my message to a wider audience. By my message I mean the totality of what I am talking about via my sites. My work with men is very important, helping them to realise a better future.
It helps me to develop my business model through marketing of a focused nature. Mt blogging is a business not a hobby. It is important that I develop it by whatever means are congruent with my aims.

So I will keep you in touch with what happens on it, indeed I expect you all to be listening to it when it comes out.

Perpetual Traveller

Graham Phoenix — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 05:09:36 +0000

Wow!!! I feel on top of the world!!!

Today I have had an interview published about my life as a Perpetual Traveller. People want to read about me and understand what I do. Hop on over to Jet Set Citizen to read the interview. Great Job, John! It looks great.

This is not my first interview. In my life as lighting designer I have been interviewed for magazines a number of times. The most memorable occasion was the time I was in Sao Paulo, Brazil, being interviewed for a Brazilian lighting magazine. There was me, a lovely female editor and a lady from my office back in London, in a cool bar tucked away in the city. That was the night I discovered Caipirinhas…

(Caipirinha is Brazil’s national cocktail, made with cachaça, sugar and limes. Cachaça is Brazil’s most common alcoholic drink, and comes from the fermentation of sugarcane juice that is afterwards distilled.)

The rest disappeared in a haze of alcohol…

Still the point now. as then, is that it shows some recognition and appreciation for what I am doing in my field. the field now is blogging and, in this case, it is the niche of Independent Traveller or Digital Nomad. This is a serious area for me. I have written about it on my site, Travels of an Earth Pilgrim, and I live it every day. Everything you read is written and posted by me as I travel. I have no home, I house-sit and stay in apartments or wherever, as I move around the globe. It’s a lifestyle I love and one I recommend to others.

I am developing my new career as a professional writer through the medium of professional blogging. I know that this is something that lots of people are doing in order to develop an independent income. I am, however, passionate about what I do and reasonably expert at communicating that passion. I am finding a new-found love of words, interesting as my career has been visually based, and a love of communicating with people.

So on into the future. A future that heralds a whole new way to get to know people and for them to get to know me. I love that people can get to know me like this and I enjoy turning this into a career.

I will keep you updated on my progress.

There’s no one moment…

Graham Phoenix — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 08:26:24 +0000

Gary Vaynerchuk is an incredible communicator and an honest, passionate human being. This morning I watched a webinar on which he was the guest. He completely blew me away with his sheer energy but also with the way he spoke in a straightforward and blunt manner. He was so refreshing in this world of internet marketers who whirl you around and keep you hanging on so they can extract a little more, or even a lot more, money out of you.

There were many pearls of wisdom from Gary this morning but the one that resonated with me was,

“There’s no one moment!”

This was his response to a question about how do you know at what point you know you are going to be successful. He talked about the time and dedication it took to become an expert in whatever field you are in. He worked on his wine business for 14 years before things started to happen for him, and he is someone with enormous dedication and energy.

“You’ve got to do it over and over.”

He said. There is little substitute for hard work, for staying up late and getting it right. There are no short cuts in the internet business. There is so much competition that you need to give great quality in your content. It’s no use expecting fast results from quick fixes.

“There is only right or wrong in quality.”

This was music to my ears because this is how I have seen it all my life and I can not believe that people lose all sense of discretion when it comes to information products on the internet. I have been a lighting designer for 40 years and I have built up a level of expertise which is rare. I see competition from new, young designers and they just find it difficult to make it. They miss the fact that it needs time and expertise. You need to become good at sometihng. Malcolm Gladwell in ‘Outliers’ talks about the 10,000 hours need to become an expert at something, to become world-class.

Gary went on to say,

You are going to be embarassed, do it the right way. Be proud of it.”

There is such a record of all that you do now that your grandchildren are going to be able to look back and see what you got up to. Do you want them to be embarassed about your sleazy selling tactics on the net or do you want them to be proud of the quality you produced, the inspiration you gave to people and that fact that you earned a living doing it.

Blogging is a fantastic business, but it needs you to be serious about it, not just messing with things hoping you will become a millionaire!!!

Cafe Segovia Rocks

Graham Phoenix — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 02:39:07 +0000

Cafe Segovia, Block Alley, Melbourne is a really cool place to go and hang out. Gary runs it and is an ever pleasant and attentive host. It’s tucked away down an alley in the CBD and can be easily missed if you don’t look for it. Many people do find it and have a relaxing time whiling away the hours. You can eat, drink, listen to great live music or just hang out and people watch.

I have seen the reviews and noticed that a number of people have had bad experiences with the food and with the cost. Well I understand the reaction but it really all depends on what you are looking for and why you are going there. If you want great food there are ecrtainly many better places to go, Melbourne has an amazing selection of fabulous restaurants. If you want an economical evening, steer clear. It is expensive, particularly the wine, and the evening can break the bank if you don’t take care. But if you want a fabulous, relaxed evening out with friends there are few places to challenge it.

We were invited there by a friend and being our first visit we found it difficult to find. We sat inside and felt uncomfortable squeezing our way into the alcove seating. Our friend, when she arrived, immediately took us outside to chill out in the passageway. The wine flowed, a great chilled Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand, and nibbles came and went. There were great wedges that were freshly cooked, hot and delicious with mayonnaise.

I was curious about a weird looking man in a long leather coat and a ponytail who was hanging around in the alley. He had a load of ’stuff’ with him and seemed to be some kind of well-dressed bum. He kept hanging around, going away, coming back and hanging around again. Ahh.. I eventually realised he was part of the evening’s entertainment.

At around 7ish a few of the tables were cleared away to create a space for a jazz trio to setup an play. This was right opposite where we were! Front row seating! Now we understood why our friend was so insistent on taking us outside, it wasn’t just the smoking. The music was chilled and absolutely perfect for a Friday evening sipping chilled white wine. Guitar bass and drum worked their way through some excellent Latin Jazz with extraordinary performances from the guitarist, the weird looking bum.

We’ve been back a couple of times. Last night was during the week with few customers and no band. We knew the place, enjoyed the atmosphere and just let it all flow. We learnt that it is closing on Monday for a couple of weeks for refurbishment, I hope they don’t spoil the atmosphere. We’ll see. When we come back to Melbourne we’ll check it out and report back.

Professional Blogging

Graham Phoenix — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 04:23:05 +0000

I now feel like a Professional Blogger, a serious writer, an internet businessman. I start to understand where I am and where I still need to go.

I am a lot further on than I realised. I have learnt a lot and put much of it into action. I am on a roll.

I have always known how much I have to learn but the shock is to realise how much more many other people have to learn. I have a head start, I am dedicated, intelligent and I have a passion. Just try and hold me back.

These thoughts have come from two Webinars I watched in the last two days. two contrasting approaches to the subject of making money through blogging and the internet.

The first was by Sue and Steve Soucy as part of their Millionaire Affair. It was the first of their webinars on how to become a millionaire with Wendy Moore on ‘How to use Social Media to Attract Media and Build Your List’. Well it should have been the first, but we are in Australia and we got the time wrong. So when we checkedc in 90 minutes late we discovered things still happening and, more importantly, that it was going to be repeated the next day. So nothing lost.

Then I connected in to webinar by David Risley on the launch of his new Blog Masters Club. I checked in early this time, it’s good to learn from your mistakes. David was on early checking everything worked so when the time came we were ready to go. It ran like clockwork and was fantastic to listen to. he had lots of content and was honest and open about what he was selling and what he could offer. I was blown away by what hw was talking about and was really excited about a six month programme to launch my blogs as a business rather than a hobby. So I signed up. This is the year I wanted to make the shift and I am determined to make that happen. David appeared in my view as just the right time and I listened. If you you follow my blogs you will see the difference. When you do think of david and all the work he did to help.

So this morning we logged in for the second go at the Millionaire Affair. We it worked this time. Congratulations to Steve and Sue for sorting out the tech stuff and making it happen. But the content was really rather weak. Wendy Moore was very sweet and clearly has had some success at what she does, but there really was too little content. We were told we were going to hear about list building and getting traffic and it really was not much more than a few simple examples of how it has worked for her. Oh and constant references to her site and the free reports. Going there you find a signup for her membership site at a large sum per month. I received some of the goodies, one was a report on how to build a customer list get get clients. It had two pages of content of the most simplistic nature. I’m sorry Wendy, it was great listening to you, but I have yet to see that you have anything to offer.

The other issue I had with the last webinar was Sue Soucy. She kept talking over Wendy and going on about the technical problems they have been having. She loves the sound of her own voice and needs to learn to respec t what her interviewee is saying. If she is such an advocate of the Law of Attraction she must stop talking about technical problems, she is jst attracting them. Show yourself to be worthy of being a millionaire, Sue. Listen to Chris Howard, you next interviewee, ‘What do I have to do to become the knd of person who attracts millions?’, hmmm… I wonder.

Kirtan Shmirtan

Graham Phoenix — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 00:58:13 +0000

Went to Govindas in Darlinghurst, Sydney last night for some Kirtan chanting followed by a vegetarian dinner. The place was packed and raring for some great chanting. Kirtan is call-and-response chanting performed in India’s devotional traditions, it involves chanting mantras to the accompaniment of instruments such as the harmonium and the two-headed drum. Somehow it did not live up to the expectations I had and left me a bit flat

Kirtan relies on the power and influence of the caller who takes you to a meditative place where the sounds of the mantra, rather than the meaning, take over. He leads you in a way that means you don’t need to think, you just flow along with where he is going. For this to work he needs to be clear and strong so you don’t let your mind get in the way. Once he has established the rhythm and melody he can improvise and vary both to raise the level of excitement and involvement.

Somehow last night this didn’t happen. The callers were from ‘Le Carnaval Spirituel’ (see below) and, I felt, were too interested in performing and showing their virtuosity than truly leading. One of the men was so weak in his leading that it was extremely difficult to work out the rhythm of what he was singing. Part way through the evening drifted away with a rendering of ‘Hare Krishna’ that just went on and on. There really is a lot more to Mantra Chanting than ‘Hare Krishna’.

I found it interesting that the evening was about peace and love and yet when we arrived we were greeted with anything but. We were greeted by a lovely, friendly lady in a tiny lobby. While trying to sort out paying and removing our shoes we were shoved and jostled first by a man who was keen to push past and then by a lady dressed in ‘indian cotton’ who insisted on pushing aggressively past even though there was little room. “But I am already ‘in’” she kept saying. This was a clue to the rest of the evening. It was for those who were ‘in’.

Three of the world’s most popular Kirtan performers will be taking part in the show. Indradyumna Swami, an enigmatic traveling monk who founded Le Carnaval Spirituel in Paris, France in 1979, has been circling the globe performing kirtan for over three decades, often to Woodstock-like crowds and has performed for many world leaders like Nelson Mandela. New Zealand-born Sri Prahlad catapulted to fame as a child prodigy in the late 1980s when his debut album “Through the Eyes of a Child” topped the Australian and world music charts. Since then his evolving distinctive style of Kirtan has brought him the love of audiences worldwide. Tribhuvaneshvar, affectionately known as Tribi, has enchanted music connoisseurs with his soft, melodious European style Kirtan.

Wicked, or is it?

Graham Phoenix — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 04:42:11 +0000

Last night we went to see the musical, ‘Wicked’ at the Capitol Theatre, Sydney. It was a phenomenal feast for the eyes. The lighting was excellent, the costumes were fascinating, the set kept you involved, but the show, well that’s a different matter. The show itself left a lot to be desired. It was weak and ultimately went nowhere. It was just so American with trite messages about not judging people by the colour of their skin! Oh I’d never thought of that before…

The plot was just facile. It provided no tension, no uncertainty and seemed to, ultimately, lead nowhere. I have never seen the Wizard of Oz and so am unfamiliar with the exact requirements for fitting in to that story, but from what I have been told that leaves a lot open. I understand that The Wicked Witch from the West really was wicked. Well this green person was none of that. I could at no point believe that the eprson we were following was ever really wicked. Yes, she was mis-understood, but when did she, in fact, do anything that filled anayone with horror. It was all a misunderstanding… duh!!! Now wouldn’t it have been great if it had turned out that Glinda the Good was in fact putting on a green costume at night and rushing around doing wicked things to get back at her dull, but reasonable friend who had insinuated herself into her life. You could have set up some real tension and finished up the show with a monumental showdown that had everyone on the edge of their seat!

The music was ultimately dull and repetitive. The song ‘Popular’ was fun, but lead nowhere. All the set pieces were in the first half and it left me feeling dissatisfied at the end. There was no climax, it just sort of ended, ran out of steam. was nobody looking at the overall show with a critical eye, someone who did not buy into it, someone who could kick ass and say, ‘It’s not good enough’!

I love the theatre and have spent many years of my life working in it. It can provide excitement, tension and a different view of life. It should challenge people and make them think, even while entertaining. This show challenged nobody, other than people who have lived as hermits for their entire life. I think we all know not to judge by appearances, to look into someone other by influenced solely by what we see. Please can we have someone more inspiring in future.