It’s good to see that internet marketing is becoming more mainstream, although the internet is washed up with plenty of useless or limited shelf life products right now.

If anyone has any general questions or concerns about Internet Marketing then feel free to ask me. I do 90% of my work in it and I’m exposed to buying ads, social media, SEO and all other major concepts every-day. Feel free to hit me up with an idea, general question or “would this work?”. I’m happy to dedicate some time to getting others started =)

Living in Melbourne bores me mostly. Having been here more or less again for 5 months now has given me enough time to settle back down. I like the company of different friends and the challenge of different projects here,but just not much happens to be honest.

I’m here for several months this year working on some projects and getting some things in order.

I’ve always spoken very fondly of Malaysia and other SE Asian countries. I appreciate the frantic nature, the unpredictability and the fact that not every rule or norm is set in stone.

I am damn lucky to be able to choose, and grateful for my position, although I know much where I’d rather be right now!

People have either an abundance mindset or a poverty mindset. Despite some generalizations and only two very distinct categories, I believe this to be true for the most part. I have plenty of friends who fall into each category, and it’s very easy to see how this affects their every-day life in a positive or negative way.

I believe there is an abundance of success, wealth, happiness, money, love, and almost every other feeling and positive emotion in this world. One of the most valuable seminars I ever attend was T Harv Eckers Millionaire Mind Intensive. I enjoyed it so much, I went back 2 more times! Harv used NLP effectively and was able to examine and change attitudes towards money from so many people in the audience. Unfortunately, it appeared to me that the vast majority of people in the audience already had an abundance mindset. Those that needed the seminar most were not spending their weekend at a seminar, they were doing something else.

Having an abundance mindset myself, I have a hard time explaining to someone who doesn’t have one why they should change their thoughts. Unfortunately, knowing how hard it is to change patterns so deep makes it a difficult task. Having an abundance mindset does make the world more interesting and positive. It’s great to see people succeed, it should be shared. More often than not, when people succeed, they do share.

What sort of mindset do you have? Do you wish to change it?

One technique that I’ve used with great success recently, is maintaining a document where I dump the contents of my mind that are troubling me or I’m thinking about more than I should. This is based on the theory that when you write something down, your mind no longer protects against forgetting it and hence you’re able to dwell over it sub consciously while you’re sleeping or doing other activities while having a clearer mind at other times.

I write down a lot of ideas and problems and reflect on them briefly before I sleep. You can do this in a notebook or on a phone note. I use Evernote which I sync with my Mac and iPad. I find that I often awake with the solution to the problem or a bright idea. Every time I add to the list I scan it to quickly remove things which are no longer a problem.

Try it some time =)

There is something special about seeing developments enhance a country at a really fast pace. On one hand, it shows the movement of a country towards a great commercialization and arguably a shift from traditional Eastern cultural normals to a more Western context. On the other hand, it is dangerous, especially for a country such as Malaysia where working wages are not rising as fast as they should, and for the majority of the working population, spending more money on “non essential” living expenses will put them into dire financial trouble quickly.

A personal reference is the amount of new cafes, restaurants, and glitzy shopping centers that have emerged in the past 3 years. Increasingly, Malaysians are flocking to designer coffee shops to sip drinks with increasingly pretentious names and be seen. For the young, it’s cool to check in to the latest shop and spend 10-15RM on a “coffee”. We’ll only pay $4-$5 AUD for a better tasting coffee in Melbourne, and wages are much higher comparatively.

I feel that it is a dangerous trend because such establishments encourage enhanced commercialism and for consumers to spend on lifestyle and technology. On the other side, it’s a great opportunity for business to capitalize and get massive presence and following by offering prizes that are relatively inexpensive to purchase for them, but have a greater influence on the population as a whole.

I’m looking forward to seeing this in another 3 years. =)

This video inspired me to work harder. Check it out below!

I Believe I can Fly ( flight of the frenchies). Trailer from sebastien montaz-rosset on Vimeo.

You can view the website at www.sebmontaz.com”

It’s hard to capture exactly how this feels in a still picture. The breeze, the sounds of the trees, the fresh air. It’s 28 degrees outside, so it’s the perfect weather to sit on my veranda and write a blog. This is one of the best things about Melbourne, the parks and trees, and just the ability for recreation in general.

Can’t wait to sit on my Veranda for at least a few more hours =)

Seeing Tim Ferriss and Richard Branson speak about entrepreneurship, success, and life did seem like the good use of some time. I didn’t know most of the supporting speakers, so I figured I could pick and choose, and make the most of my time through the 2 days.
I didn’t pay for tickets to the 21st Century Financial Education Summit with money, but I did give up 2 days of my time.

Tim Ferris was up early on Day 1, this was great. It was cool to see him speak, after frequenting his blog, twitter, reading his books and seeing similar video presentations. He doesn’t speak often, and this was the first time in Australia, so that was cool. I left soon after lunch, seemingly bored of the following speakers and taking the reasonable prediction that Branson would not be speaking that day as he was still in New Zealand according to his Twitter feed.

On Day 2, I arrived at 11am. It was boring, a total waste of time as for the second day in a row, as the organizers refused to give out an actual accurate agenda and it was all “subject to change”. For a seminar that was meant to be about money, business, and success – it’s highly ironic that they didn’t let us manage our own time, instead needing to stay around the venue, with expensive pies and pizza only available to purchase, and the weather outside raining heavily, which made going any further away quite difficult. I passed the time by reading books from the Kindle App on my iPad, hoping that the next speaker would be more interesting than the last. Approaching 5pm, it became evident that Branson would be the last act for the day, and at around 8pm, he emerged for a standing ovation, with Eddie McGuire and the audience asking him questions for about an hour. It was good to listen to, and made some of the conference more bearable, despite me not being the only person in the room, frustrated with the complete disregard of the organizers towards the audience.

I walked back the 2KM into the city to catch a bus home. It was a frustrating couple of days, and taught me to make better use of my time and not worry too much about a few keynote speakers if I can make a better use of 2 days with my own time.

When I first came to Melbourne just over a month ago, I just slept for ages. Months of pushing myself finally got reversed in a few days of solid sleep. After the sleep, I went to work on some exciting projects here in Melbourne and see people I hadn’t seen for a long time. Most importantly, I got some regularity back. I came to Melbourne to discover what exactly I wanted to do and why. To plan, to work out what was important to me, and what wasn’t, to get that clarity I had been so highly desiring for so long.

I’ve been finally able to focus on projects that I’ve been neglecting for too long, things that I’ve put aside for other people’s interests. Re-focusing has allowed me to discover again what’s important to me. It’s allowed me to get on with things that have a greater value.

I’ve realized that I need to spend more time here in Melbourne and capture this positive energy. I’m in a good cycle and plan to continue it for some time. I need to plan a trip of 2-3 weeks back to KL in the next month or two to meet up with friends, settle a few things and then come back again to Australia. I plan to leave Malaysia for the next 6-9 months while I prepare things and get them into order.

The plan is to visit Malaysia in short bursts over the next 6-9 months to visit friends and check out different things (offices, meet potential business partners e.t.c.) before going back with a solid plan of attack and a registered company, work visa and recruit a team to work on our different products & consulting business some time mid next year. It may be sooner, but that’s only if one of our launches goes much better than anticipated. Create My Game and the Facebook version of Urban RPG have a lot of momentum behind them, and I can’t wait to recruit the product team for them in an office in KL. Our last job add got 150 awesome applications, and there is so much good talent out there!

It’s actually been very difficult to make this decision. I enjoy living in Malaysia immensely, and I’m going to miss it for the time being. Every morning the warm KL sun would shine through my window and slowly wake me up. I miss that. I miss the taxis and the animated Mamak shop owners. Ironically, the taxi I was in to the airport broke down 5KMs from the airport and I almost missed my flight home. I was helping the driver change the tire on the side of the road as cars whizzed past. He assured me we could change it in 10 minutes and we did, despite the crappy tools from Proton that came with the car to get the wheels off, and having to jump on the lever to jack up the wheel properly. I checked in 40 minutes before the flight.

Most of all though, I miss my friends and everyone who has become such a big part of my life. Even though I’m not a Malaysian, I’ve always felt welcomed by everyone. I’ve learned so much about myself in just under three years, and grown a lot as a person. I’ve developed some close friends that I don’t have anywhere else in the world. Most importantly though, I’ve appreciated a country that is so different from my own. I’ve been able to observe, and then live a totally different way of life, and get to meet and understand a whole variety of people. Thank you to everyone! =)

The most exciting thing about it is, there is so much more to be experienced. I’ve decided that Malaysia is the country where I want to expand my business and have a solid plan to do that. I’ve learned what I need to know, and now the plan just needs to be executed. I really can’t wait!

I was next up. My heart rate went a bit faster, knowing that it was only minutes until I had to give my presentation. I didn’t really pay too much attention to the current presentation, my brain all too focused on the words I was about to say. I felt prepared, my reports ready to give to the judges , my slides in my head. Applause signaled that I was almost up, I took a couple of deep breaths.
 

It wasn’t nervousness as much as it was revealing something that was very important to me for the first time. I was about to present my business at the time Urban RPG (www.urban-rpg.com), to a panel of highly successful judges, my fellow entrepreneurs and an audience. I stood up on the podium and started. Despite all my rehearsal on timings, the time seemed to fly. Before I knew it, my presentation was over and I had to face the wrath of the judges questions. They scolded me about my lack of numbers and planning information. They told me I displayed lots of passion, but I didn’t show how I would achieve growth. Compared to some of the other contestants, this was kind feedback.

I thanked them for their comments and stepped down.

That was the finals of the Global Student Entrepreneur Awards in Melbourne, Australia almost three years ago to this day.

I made some great friends, met mentors, clients, and business partners from this contest. I still remember it vividly and followed up everyone. This was a shifting point in my entrepreneurial life. Then late last year I was asked if I wanted to help promote the competition. I was asked to apply for an Ambassador role for South East Asia & Australia. This aligned to one of my personal goals of promoting youth entrepreneurship, so I took it.

Tomorrow, I am looking forward to witnessing two of my friends participate in the Malaysian national finals. They’re both great young entrepreneurs and a great influence on other young people. The winner tomorrow will be attending the Global Finals in New York, USA in November. This winner will be a worthy representative of Malaysia on the Global stage.

Best of luck to all participants tomorrow! =)