This has got to be more of the more unlikely places to be writing my newsletter!  I’m in the café of Hever Castle in Kent, about three hours early for a poker crony’s wedding.  Long story short, my sister Heather is singing at the service and she had a London Symphony Orchestra rehearsal to fit in first, there are no tubes and works on the train lines – nothing south of Haywards Heath.  So I’m running chauffeur service, early start and all.

Hever Castle, as any student of history will tell you, was the childhood home of Anne Boleyn, and very beautiful and tudor-bethan it is too.

I’m very keen on the Tudors, with Anne Boleyn and Elizabeth I being particular heroines of mine.  Both obviously very clever and politically astute women, somewhat shackled by their being born in a particular time, but both doing the best they could in very difficult circumstances.  Anne was further handicapped by a slight physical deformity that enabled her detractors to label her a witch!!  And imagine Henry VIII as your father or husband…….Alpha male extraordinaire…..can’t have been easy eh?

We are going to be located in the Hester Wing which is very atmospheric but they were not ready for arrivals this early, so I’ve been dispatched to the restaurant / café where I’m surrounded by mums, dads, kids and grandparents on a historic day out.  I wonder what they make of me tucked in the corner with the laptop.

No internet connection (unless I figure out an iPhone hack, but there’s barely a phone signal either) however the cappuccino and scones are excellent and I have a power point for my computer so it’s all good.

Later I have to figure out my way to Hever or Edenbridge Station to pick H up, and then get her back to the Castle in time to sing, but I’m sure I’ll work it out!

Workwise, it’s been an eventful couple of weeks, starting with the Joint Venture Workshop with Sohail Khan up near Luton somewhere then down to London for Dan Priestley’s excellent “Key Person Of Influence” day at the Mermaid Theatre.

Incidentally, while I occasionally get emails berating me for letting my list know about events, webinars and special offers, this time I got a lovely Tweet from a chap who had gone to the KPI day on my recommendation and who absolutely loved it.  He’s now thinking seriously of joining Dan’s programme.

Both sisters joined me for that one and there were plenty of people I knew there, including Ecademy Blackstars and also internet mentoring client Alex Garcez, the Speed Reading Coach.  It was nice to meet him in person along with his wife Lollie (who met at a Yes! Group meeting apparently).  Alex was one of my first Marketing MOT freebies, joined the mentoring program and his website is coming along in leaps and bounds now, and getting him clients all the time.

We all got lots out of that KPI day, at which Mike Harris (started T-Mobile and Egg Bank) , Penny Power of Ecademy fame and the Book Midwife, Mindy Gibbens-Klein spoke.

Sarah got a more focused sense of direction for her Rawrrr brand and Heather got lots of ideas of how to become a key person of influence in the jazz world prior to the release of her first album.  That album project is very exciting and coming along apace, with various world class musicians keen to get involved.

It will be interesting to see how an independent album, sold largely online, will fare in the traditional classical & jazz world.  Heather’s mailing list is growing daily, due to her blogging, YouTube channel and having been heavily featured on Susan Boyle’s fan forum, after singing on both albums.

There is an interesting precedent, where Armand Morin’s country & western alter ego Michael Lee Austin released his first single and it went straight to the Billboard Country chart, but then Armand does have a huge mailing list and lots of strategic partners with the same.

I got even more focused about what Dan calls my “Perfect Pitch” for The Business Success Factory which stood me in good stead when I visited the Sussex Innovation Centre on the Sussex University Campus on Friday.

I was invited to meet Paul Jordan, by another poker buddy of mine, Paul Stanford of 4 Momentum, just because it’s a cool place that incubates new businesses, particularly fast growing innovative ones.

Paul J turned out to be an ex-bank manager and knew not only my old bank manager, Mike Murray from Nat West, Worthing (much mentioned in my book) but Mike Ogilvie, Accountant & Business Coach, from Eastbourne, whose partner at the time, Julia of Cooden Property, was one of my Money Gym clients.  Julia is a successful property investor in the Hastings / Bexhill area who used the internet to attract below-market-value (BMV) deals.  Small world.

At the Sussex Innovation Centre, the incoming business is interviewed to ensure they meet the criteria and then pays normal market rent for their space, which includes a reception,  nice café/restaurant, meeting rooms, boardroom and seminar room they can use.  However,  there are also peripheral optional extra services – secretarial and accounting – and strategic mentoring available, alongside the chance to opt into a “Power Plan” which aims to double their turnover in a year.

A very enjoyable hour or so, and while we are not sure how we could work together, unless it’s to get me in to speak, it’s always very cool to meet some of the movers and shakers in the business community locally.   They also recommended that I get involved with the Brighton Chamber of Commerce, now I live in Hove, and also Wired Sussex.  I’m looking forward to a Business Curry Club night on Tuesday at the Lansdowne Place Hotel too.

The problem with all this intense networking is having time to do the follow up AND your usual stuff.  I do enjoy it though.

We finished the website of client EnterpriseDataManagementWorks.com, where I moved it from their existing Google Sites platform, which I’d never heard of before, to the much more flexible WordPress, on their own domain (including crucial key words) and hosting.  It just needs the code for their enquiry form and training course details dropped into the relevant pages.

The client can now simply point their existing domain at the new one, allowing them to benefit from any existing traffic and to use up their old stationery of course.  Then they can choose which domain name to use on business cards going forward.  And start to build on the WordPress platform which will give them better search engine exposure and more flexibility with further plugins, the ability to blog and being hooked up to all the top social media sites.

On my own site, I’m all geared up for testing my new pages for conversions, where I’m going to be giving away my Money Gym ebook to the subscribers of all my new joint venture partners.

Then the new subscribers are offered a “one time offer” or OTO, which includes a month’s trial of the new Money Gym membership site, located on the brand new Kajabi platform.  The JV partner gets 50% of the OTO sale and 50% of the recurring membership fee too so it’s a nice offer.  If you have a decent sized list and would like to be one of my JV partners,  just drop me an email at nicola@nicolacairncross.com

While all that is going on, I’ve started work on my next book which I’m very excited about as it’s going to be a key part of my business going forwards.

So, all in all, an exciting couple of weeks, and now a wedding to look forward to.  Perfect.

Best I start making a mess of our lovely room and get ready eh?

I love a nice wedding don’t you?

All that new beginning, hope and joy stuff going on.

I’m bound to boo.

p.s. You can read this week’s other ezine article over at http://businesssuccessfactory.co.uk/?p=3137