The Tutor Podcast

Are you fed up with working your current job, but too comfortable to take a leap into something different? Join Neil today as he explains how working absurdly hard on yourself and your business will allow you to create your own normal and live a life most people can’t. Today Neil outlines why being comfortable in life can make you weak, why taking each challenge thrown at you will allow you to grow and why others will envy your new life since you decided to get out of your comfort zone and do what they didn’t. KEY TAKEAWAYS Beware of comfort. Comfort makes you soft, softness makes you weak, weakness makes you vulnerable and being vulnerable makes you a victim. Rather than maintaining a comfortable lifestyle, go for something that challenges you, because a challenge is an opportunity dressed in working clothes. If all you do is take these challenges and overcome them, you will have endless growth. When you leave your comfort zone, you will find out what you are made of. As a business person you have to be prepared to make unpopular decisions, when you begin to work absurdly hard on yourself you will begin to change. Calibrate your normal for what is going to get you where you want to go, and stick with it. Set yourself a normal level of income, for where you are now and then recalibrate it every so often, gradually moving the ratchet upwards and upwards as time goes on. Decide what is normal for you and then go and find yourself a convoy of like-minded people to involve yourself with. Day by day as you exert control over how life goes for you and you begin to work harder and harder you will begin to disregard the negativity. Throughout the time you will grow to trust yourself and develop and learn new things daily. What you have now become will allow you to help people and add something to the world. When you work absurdly hard, you can wind up doing exactly what you want to do each and every day and get very well paid for it. Working hard allows you to build and grow a business and a legacy which will allow you to help a ton of people in achieving what they want in life. You will look at others and see that you can do what they can’t because you did what they wouldn’t. BEST MOMENTS “Make sure the money isn’t driving you. Make sure it is just a byproduct of being successful” “If you never tested to see what you are capable of, how would you ever find out?” “Why try to fit in, when you were born to stand out.” VALUABLE RESOURCES Listen to The Tutor Podcast on the Apple Podcasts (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-tutor-podcast/id1369191372)! Build Your Online Course Week 1: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/build-your-online-course/id1369191372?i=1000477109724 Course Planning Week 2: Who Am I?: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/build-your-online-course/id1369191372?i=1000477109724 Who are They? (Know Your Punters): https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/who-are-they-know-your-punters/id1369191372?i=1000478984529 Read the Weird Things Guitarists Do book by Neil Cowmeadow, which is available now on Amazon. Link - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Weird-Things-Guitarists-Do-Misconceptions/dp/1519026579/ Contact Neil via this website - com! ABOUT THE HOST Neil Cowmeadow is a maverick peripatetic guitar teacher from Telford with over 19 years’ experience in the business of helping people. Learn how to start, grow and love your business with Neil’s invaluable advice and tips without the buzzwords and BS! CONTACT METHOD [email protected]

Win the first battle of the day and you won’t end up chasing the rest of the day. Every day is a battle and the morning is the first fight of the day. If you can master morning routine and develop an organised plan your chances of a successful day/week will drastically improve. Listen in today to hear Neil share his thoughts on winning the morning battle and how you too can create a plan and see better results and a huge payoff every day. KEY TAKEAWAYS If you can win the morning battle then you don’t need to play catch up all-day. The morning is when you should take care of the crucial stuff that you want to be done before anything else. If you win the first battle of the day you can put yourself in a positive place, just by developing a positive routine and using it every day (including weekends) Ask yourself, what would your perfect morning look like? How would it feel to get ‘that’ done before you start the day? By creating a routine you will begin to operate by habit and will see better results with less effort, but if you make up your morning routine on the fly, it will take a lot more mental energy. One of the most essential things you can do is to have a plan for every day. You should prioritise and diarise your daily tasks so that you know what you’re doing and when you’re doing it. Brain dump. Write everything down that you need to do, plan and action that week, preferably with a pen so that you can’t remove it and you keep yourself accountable. Train your unconscious mind. When you layout your projects for the next day and tell your mind to ‘get to work on it’ your mind will gather, prepare and queue up everything that you need to complete your project in the morning. Your routine and your plan overtime will become who you are and you will automatically be admired by people and your position in the marketplace will improve. BEST MOMENTS“Don’t let the day begin out of control.”“Keep pace with a time-based plan than chasing your own tale and not having any plan at all.”“Life is a serious business and can be great fun, but ‘winging’ it is not an option”“Planning needs a little discipline. A little bit of discipline over time will bring about huge payoffs.”“I’m not driven, I’m compelled and drawn towards what I do”“Be someone with a good flight plan” VALUABLE RESOURCES Listen to The Tutor Podcast on the Apple Podcasts (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-tutor-podcast/id1369191372)! Build Your Online Course Week 1: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/build-your-online-course/id1369191372?i=1000477109724 Course Planning Week 2: Who Am I?: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/build-your-online-course/id1369191372?i=1000477109724 Who are They? (Know Your Punters): https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/who-are-they-know-your-punters/id1369191372?i=1000478984529 Read the Weird Things Guitarists Do book by Neil Cowmeadow, which is available now on Amazon. Link - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Weird-Things-Guitarists-Do-Misconceptions/dp/1519026579/ Contact Neil via this website - com! ABOUT THE HOST Neil Cowmeadow is a maverick peripatetic guitar teacher from Telford with over 19 years’ experience in the business of helping people. Learn how to start, grow and love your business with Neil’s invaluable advice and tips without the buzzwords and BS! CONTACT METHOD [email protected]

How do you see your students? Are they just your customers and cash cows or are they something more, something of greater significance? Today, learn how to start, grow and love your tutoring, teaching and coaching business by going beyond your remit to help your students and undergo the process of not just being a tutor but becoming a mentor. KEY TAKEAWAYS Make your students your tribe, your extended family and go beyond your remit. The purpose of being a great teacher is to be able to empty yourself and refill yourself with more and better and to give away. As a teacher and a leader of your tribe, it’s your purpose to maximise how you can help them. If a student asks for help, it’s because you have their trust and you must respect their vulnerability. By becoming an expert and a teacher in what you do, your calling is to reach forward and help others learn and be better. Being the best version of a teacher you can comes from engaging with the whole person. A student cannot focus if their mind is elsewhere as where the mind goes, the body follows. Don’t be narrow in what you do, always try to help your student in life, the universe and everything. One of the most rewarding parts of being a teacher is seeing that person grow and develop and being part of the catalytic acceleration of change in their minds. Be a really good listener. Listen intently to the language that people use because it will contain clues for us to use to help them. Whatever you teach, take coaching or counselling course so that you can better resonate with your students. Have an ongoing relationship with your tribe and care about them, believe in them and be there for them because when you achieve this, tutoring stops being work and becomes ‘hanging out with your friends.’ BEST MOMENTS “Sometimes leading to becoming a confidant of the student and more often than not becoming their friend” “Save your students time and give them the confidence to go after what they want. Move them close to their dreams.” “Help your students understand the knowledge, understanding, music, passion and joy that there is in the world.” “Empty yourself and more will be given unto you”“Be the best version of a teacher that you can be”“Where the mind goes, the body follows”“You have to engage with the whole person”“Listen intently to your students and it will reveal their answers” VALUABLE RESOURCES Listen to The Tutor Podcast on the Apple Podcasts (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-tutor-podcast/id1369191372)! Build Your Online Course Week 1: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/build-your-online-course/id1369191372?i=1000477109724 Course Planning Week 2: Who Am I?: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/build-your-online-course/id1369191372?i=1000477109724 Who are They? (Know Your Punters): https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/who-are-they-know-your-punters/id1369191372?i=1000478984529 Read the Weird Things Guitarists Do book by Neil Cowmeadow, which is available now on Amazon. Link - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Weird-Things-Guitarists-Do-Misconceptions/dp/1519026579/ Contact Neil via this website - com! ABOUT THE HOST Neil Cowmeadow is a maverick peripatetic guitar teacher from Telford with over 19 years’ experience in the business of helping people. Learn how to start, grow and love your business with Neil’s invaluable advice and tips without the buzzwords and BS! CONTACT METHOD [email protected]

The lockdown has affected us all and the change in daily routine and stresses of what’s to come, may have impacted your health and wellbeing. Today, Neil shares his personal experience with how the pandemic has affected his physical health and shares tips on how to overcome this, from being completely honest with yourself and admitting your bad habits, to looking back at when you were at your peak health and what you did differently then, as well as making sure your workspace is a stress-free environment, both physically and mentally. KEY TAKEAWAYS When you hit your crisis point, the key is, to be honest with yourself. Take a look at yourself and if your health is not where you want it to be, and you are able to control that, then be honest about it and ask yourself ‘what am I doing right?’ and ‘what am I doing wrong?’. Once you have figured those two things out, the process of improving your health and fitness can start. Look back at everything you have done, when you were in the kind of shape you wanted to be in and when you were functioning at a high level, look at what worked before. Look back down the timeline and figure out what you were doing back then to get you into your best shape. Have a shopping list. Having a shopping list reduces the chances you pick up stuff that doesn’t work for you, the battle for your health and your wealth is one that can be lost in the supermarket aisles. Use the right kind of shopping list to keep you on track. Get yourself some good lighting in your workspace. Without good lighting, you are going to be straining at everything, lay your work area out properly so that the workflow is simple. Ensure everything is at the right working height for you, the whole point of this is to reduce the amount of stress. When you are stressed emotionally and physically you release stress hormones which affect the production of fat in your body. Look after yourself, look after your health. Without your health, how can you thrive? Don’t chase the wealth at the expense of your health you have to think long term and as a business person, you want to go into every business encounter with boundless energy and mental clarity which you can’t get if you are poisoned by crap food and you are dragging excess weight. An ugly truth is that the better you look and the better you feel, the more attractive you are to the people with whom you interact on a business and personal level. This makes you a better asset to the business, you are more valuable if you look and feel better. BEST MOMENTS “The foundation of life is deep health and energy, and we should never neglect them. Without these, it is very hard to stay in business and work the kind of hours with focus energy and drive. “ “This was my crisis point, this was my wakeup call and I had to get really honest with myself, and that is the key.” “Anything that you realise is not good for you, stop doing it, it is not hard.” VALUABLE RESOURCES Listen to The Tutor Podcast on the Apple Podcasts (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-tutor-podcast/id1369191372)! Build Your Online Course Week 1: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/build-your-online-course/id1369191372?i=1000477109724 Course Planning Week 2: Who Am I?: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/build-your-online-course/id1369191372?i=1000477109724 Who are They? (Know Your Punters): https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/who-are-they-know-your-punters/id1369191372?i=1000478984529 Read the Weird Things Guitarists Do book by Neil Cowmeadow, which is available now on Amazon. Link - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Weird-Things-Guitarists-Do-Misconceptions/dp/1519026579/ Contact Neil via this website - com! ABOUT THE HOST Neil Cowmeadow is a maverick peripatetic guitar teacher from Telford with over 19 years’ experience in the business of helping people. Learn how to start, grow and love your business with Neil’s invaluable advice and tips without the buzzwords and BS! CONTACT METHOD [email protected]

Learn today how to structure your course module or lesson pitch which will outline to your students why they are learning and what they are there for. Learn why it is important to tell your participants the relevance of the content they are learning, the consequences of not completing the course to the best of their ability along with the benefits they will reap when completing the material. Key Takeaways Whether you are starting a model to give the overview or whether you are in the detail of a lesson, it is important to use the ‘pitch structure’ to capture your student’s attention as to why they are learning in the first place. Firstly you start with The overview: What is it that this particular course or lesson is about? Pretty often this is just the title of the course, module or lesson. Secondly, tell the participants why it is vital that they learn this stuff as well as telling them why it is relevant. It is obvious why it is relevant to you, but make it relevant to them so they can buy into the idea of following the instructions or the course. Include instructions on how to use the course or module and how everything works. You then need to create a further incentive to apply with the instructions by outlining the downsides of skipping the content completely and the downsides of not using it. Reconfirm the benefits of completing the lesson along with the benefits of using the material. Remind them to go back and review the material over time and then revisit the consequences of them not using the valuable information they have learned. Best Moments “Really get that point across so there is no doubt and what they’re looking at.” “The downsides of not using what you’ve learned once you have learned it is more insidious if you learn it and you use it you have it and you’re on the path to mastery.” “If you’re not using it, you might as well not know it.” VALUABLE RESOURCES Listen to The Tutor Podcast on the Apple Podcasts (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-tutor-podcast/id1369191372)! Build Your Online Course Week 1: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/build-your-online-course/id1369191372?i=1000477109724 Course Planning Week 2: Who Am I?: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/build-your-online-course/id1369191372?i=1000477109724 Who are They? (Know Your Punters): https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/who-are-they-know-your-punters/id1369191372?i=1000478984529 Read the Weird Things Guitarists Do book by Neil Cowmeadow, which is available now on Amazon. Link - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Weird-Things-Guitarists-Do-Misconceptions/dp/1519026579/ Contact Neil via this website - com! ABOUT THE HOST Neil Cowmeadow is a maverick peripatetic guitar teacher from Telford with over 19 years’ experience in the business of helping people. Learn how to start, grow and love your business with Neil’s invaluable advice and tips without the buzzwords and BS! CONTACT METHOD [email protected]

about how to structure your course. The structure is as important as the content. No matter how rich the knowledge you offer, if the structure itself that will take them from A to B is not solid, then you have nothing. The transformation that you (and the student) want can happen if you set a formidable structure for learning. You don’t need to be a licensed teacher or educator to be able to do this. There are no specific rules. Let Neil help you. Listen in to this latest episode of The Tutor Podcast now to learn. KEY TAKEAWAYS First, the structure of your course must help you build a bridge that connects you to your students, so that it’s easy for information to travel. Also, to build a bridge that will get them from ‘feeling stuck’ to ‘enlightened’. It’s time to build that vessel. Second, identify what you’ll need (the resources), and they’ll need from you. What do they want? What specific parts of their guitar-playing do they still need to improve? Third, there is no one-for-all template to follow. No particular length, no particular number of courses, and no particular instructions on how you should section them. You have to learn how to adjust for your students. Fourth, study your own module. You are the master of what you created. There’s no one else who should know what lessons fall under each section than you. And also make sure that everything’s well-researched. BEST MOMENTS “Structure will make life easy for your customers.” “Focus on the structure of the course…content will present itself when you begin the structuring process.” “As far as the live face-to-face lessons go, I’m very happy with them.” “But people who came from different avenues, who didn’t study educational techniques, this [structuring] will be helpful.” VALUABLE RESOURCES Listen to The Tutor Podcast on the Apple Podcasts (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-tutor-podcast/id1369191372)! Build Your Online Course Week 1: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/build-your-online-course/id1369191372?i=1000477109724 Course Planning Week 2: Who Am I?: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/build-your-online-course/id1369191372?i=1000477109724 Who are They? (Know Your Punters): https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/who-are-they-know-your-punters/id1369191372?i=1000478984529 Read the Weird Things Guitarists Do book by Neil Cowmeadow, which is available now on Amazon. Link - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Weird-Things-Guitarists-Do-Misconceptions/dp/1519026579/ Contact Neil via this website - NeilCowmeadow.com! ABOUT THE HOST Neil Cowmeadow is a maverick peripatetic guitar teacher from Telford with over 19 years’ experience in the business of helping people. Learn how to start, grow and love your business with Neil’s invaluable advice and tips without the buzzwords and BS! CONTACT METHOD [email protected]

How’s your tutoring business doing during this time? We are now in the fourth week of our Building Online Course Special, and Neil hopes that you’ve been jotting down everything since the beginning because he has more to share. Today, he wants you to focus on the WHY of things rather than the HOW. Why start this course? It’s easy to plan and deliver when we know the reason and the purpose. If we want to help our students effectively, then revisit our approach. What should be changed in your approach to really make a big transformation in their lives? There are a lot of questions that Neil can help you to answer so listen in now. If you missed the first three episodes, don’t worry--you can check the links to them below! KEY TAKEAWAYS Stage 1: Revisit the reason for the course’s existence. Neil deep dived on this in the second part of the special. (You can check the link below, if you have missed it.) The gist, for Neil: to help his students learn and love guitar playing more and more. Stage 2: Why does this course exist? How is this different from thousands of courses that are available online? If your approach won’t be any better than those, then why even bother? Make sure that you serve your purpose, aside from standing out. Stage 3: Figure out why they must choose you. Always make sure that you’re helping them achieve their goal. You don’t want to be presenting a forgettable and bland course out there. Stage 4: What’s in it for the customer? Time is always of the essence. Make sure that you provide worthwhile and clear lessons. Stage 5: What is their endpoint? Provide something that will change your students’ lives. Neil is sure that his students will graduate more confident, more agile, and more knowledgeable after each course. BEST MOMENTS “Focus on the results of your customers.” “I want them to feel that their breaks are finally off and that they didn’t lose anything.” “Overall, I want to transform their experience in guitar and music from something difficult into something that is beautiful and joyous.” VALUABLE RESOURCES Listen to The Tutor Podcast on the Apple Podcasts (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-tutor-podcast/id1369191372)! Build Your Online Course Week 1: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/build-your-online-course/id1369191372?i=1000477109724 Course Planning Week 2: Who Am I?: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/build-your-online-course/id1369191372?i=1000477109724 Who are They? (Know Your Punters): https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/who-are-they-know-your-punters/id1369191372?i=1000478984529 Read the Weird Things Guitarists Do book by Neil Cowmeadow, which is available now on Amazon. Link - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Weird-Things-Guitarists-Do-Misconceptions/dp/1519026579/ Contact Neil via this website - NeilCowmeadow.com! ABOUT THE HOST Neil Cowmeadow is a maverick peripatetic guitar teacher from Telford with over 19 years’ experience in the business of helping people. Learn how to start, grow and love your business with Neil’s invaluable advice and tips without the buzzwords and BS! CONTACT METHOD [email protected]

In the third week of our mini-series on building online courses, we focus on knowing who your customers are. This is another important matter if you want to really make sales. Neil gives the low-down on how to scrutinise the demographic aspects. Who comprises your target audience? What do they really want? There are a few questions that you can use as a the backbone when building your online course. They’re very easy to follow, just be open-minded and imaginative. If you’ve missed the first and second episodes of this mini-series on The Tutor Podcast, see links below! KEY TAKEAWAYS Which of the niches am I really passionate about? And what am I really good at? For Neil, aside from his expertise in guitar, he can teach well—simplification and clarity are what he offers. So, you need to be introspective and be honest with yourself first. You have to be totally clear on what you’re going to offer and what will your approach be. Some might prefer that the course be straightforward and fast-paced, whilst others might prefer it to be laidback with no fixed schedule. Your goal is to meet their needs. It’s true that there are many great resources out there for free. But if you aren’t aware what suits you best, then you’ll end up wasting time and money on poorly chosen online courses. Try looking for guitar tutors who can customise and adjust for you. What does my customer want first? Since there are different kinds of learners, gauge how your student responds first. Since they aren’t face-to-face classes, there will certainly be different challenges. You want the same great results but with a different approach. Brainstorm and do your research. Chances are there are already guitar experts who have done online courses before. Know what worked and what didn’t work. BEST MOMENTS “The course can’t be for everyone.” “What do they want most? Mostly, it’s fun and freedom to get up and play anything.” “Remind them that insanity is doing things over and over again and expecting different results.” VALUABLE RESOURCES Listen to The Tutor Podcast on iTunes (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-tutor-podcast/id1369191372)! Build Your Online Course Week 1: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/build-your-online-course/id1369191372?i=1000477109724 Course Planning Week 2: Who Am I? https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/build-your-online-course/id1369191372?i=1000477109724 Read the Weird Things Guitarists Do book by Neil Cowmeadow, which is available now on Amazon. Link - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Weird-Things-Guitarists-Do-Misconceptions/dp/1519026579/ Contact Neil via this website - NeilCowmeadow.com! ABOUT THE HOST Neil Cowmeadow is a maverick peripatetic guitar teacher from Telford with over 19 years’ experience in the business of helping people. Learn how to start, grow and love your business with Neil’s invaluable advice and tips without the buzzwords and BS! CONTACT METHOD [email protected]

Welcome back to the second part of our discussion on building your online course! This special focuses on how to construct your course design templates. But first, Neil discusses the most important thing before making any drafts—self-identity. Neil wants you to look inwards, and ask yourself: Who am I? This may seem useless for some, but it isn’t! You don’t want to be offering an online course that you don’t whole-heartedly know and want. He’ll be discussing this thoroughly, leaving no rocks unturned, so that you can also gain students even amid a crisis. There’s a list of essential questions you can jot down and use too, so tune in to The Tutor Podcast today! If you have missed the first part of this special, then make sure you go back to the previous episode to ensure you gain all the knowledge you need. KEY TAKEAWAYS Your self-identity must be at the very heart of crafting a course. As an educator, it’s your voice (literally or figuratively speaking) that they’re paying attention to. It won’t be easy to teach and impart value if, in the first place, you have attracted the wrong people. Be clear about what you want. What can you benefit from the courses you’re about build and put out? Impart value to others Generate leads Position yourself as an expert Increase sales Attract your target demographic What value are you going to deliver to your customers? Know your forte, and never stop learning about it. This ensures that the knowledge you impart to your students is of prime quality. Always aim high, as they say. What difference can you make to your customers? For Neil, he wants music to be fun and simple. Not as technical and theoretical or not as freeform as other tutors. Just the right amount, depending on the student’s capability and pace too. What is your strongest reason for creating your course? Neil: It’s to reach more and more people. It might be slightly different from everyone else’s. But the increased engagement is one of the benefits you’ll get from publishing your courses. What ‘special ingredient’ can you add to all these that you’ll serve? To put this simply, it isn’t just your brains and talent you need for this to work. You need to connect with them first. For Neil, it’s his humour and wits that contributes to his successes. What results do you want? Do you want them to have a fresh perspective on something? Do you want to just polish whatever talent they have already? Do you want them to want to take the next course with you too? It’s up to you! BEST MOMENTS “I’m a coach who’s helping people, and reaching back from where I am to help people forward to get where they want to be with the instrument.” “It’s important for me to get it done, to prove that limitation is entirely fictitious.” “It’s okay to have fun and to enjoy yourself… That’s the big result that my superpower can make.” VALUABLE RESOURCES Listen to The Tutor Podcast on iTunes (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-tutor-podcast/id1369191372)! Read the Weird Things Guitarists Do book by Neil Cowmeadow, which is available now on Amazon. Link - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Weird-Things-Guitarists-Do-Misconceptions/dp/1519026579/ Contact Neil via this website - NeilCowmeadow.com! ABOUT THE HOST Neil Cowmeadow is a maverick peripatetic guitar teacher from Telford with over 19 years’ experience in the business of helping people. Learn how to start, grow and love your business with Neil’s invaluable advice and tips without the buzzwords and BS! CONTACT METHOD [email protected]

Sow the seeds today, then harvest the fruits of your labour tomorrow! In this episode of The Tutor Podcast, Neil gives a step-by-step process on how you can build your online courses. People right now are looking for ways to cope amid the coronavirus pandemic. Why don’t you offer them your knowledge and expertise on guitar playing (or whatever you want!) instead? Start laying out your courses now. Learn some useful strategies from Neil when you listen in today. You’ll be helping someone in no time! KEY TAKEAWAYS Start building and producing your online courses right now. If you have already established your credibility then you have an advantage as people will come looking for you. But if you’re just starting, it’s best you manage your expectations, it will take time and effort building up your following. You’ll need a lot of patience if you want to see significant results from the content you post. These are little treasures waiting to be opened by the ones who need it. It doesn’t get deleted, and it doesn’t get lost. You’ll just have to update it from time to time. Do multiple online guitar courses. Portion them; write about sub-niches that you are very knowledgeable of. It’s better if you concentrate on a funnelled down topic since there’s already a plethora of resources available online for the mainstream ones. The best thing about this is it can be a passive means of an income stream, you can earn more if you create better quality content. This has been perfect for Neil since it expands reach. Whilst he teaches inside the classroom, he also assists self-study students online through his lessons. BEST MOMENTS “Once you’ve built an intellectual property, and it starts to generate money for you, you’ll realise it’s an asset.” “I can reach out to people who can’t get to me whenever and wherever I want.” “All you haven’t written yet…it can be paying you for years.” VALUABLE RESOURCES Listen to The Tutor Podcast on iTunes (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-tutor-podcast/id1369191372)! Read the Weird Things Guitarists Do book by Neil Cowmeadow, which is available now on Amazon. Link - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Weird-Things-Guitarists-Do-Misconceptions/dp/1519026579/ Contact Neil via this website - NeilCowmeadow.com! ABOUT THE HOST Neil Cowmeadow is a maverick peripatetic guitar teacher from Telford with over 19 years’ experience in the business of helping people. Learn how to start, grow and love your business with Neil’s invaluable advice and tips without the buzzwords and BS! CONTACT METHOD [email protected]

Which of your definitive goals have you not yet achieved? It’s difficult to keep track of deadlines or give your high performance for every single task when there’s a lot on your plate. Sometimes, you’ll need to sound the alarm and just ask for help. In this episode of The Tutor Podcast, Neil talks about the benefits of having accountability partners and invisible friends. Yes, that’s right. Even amid the lockdown caused by the coronavirus, you can still find someone who can help you keep on track. You’ll just have to do meetings virtually to make sure that both of you are being accountable for what you are doing. Listen in to know more about this today! KEY TAKEAWAYS Get yourself an accountability buddy. For some, it's difficult to stay on track when they do things alone. Find a trusted friend or colleague who can keep you motivated and responsible. Better if he/she is someone you’re comfortable with so there is no pressure. Take note: an accountability buddy differs from a mentor. Your accountability buddy should be most likely on the same level or journey as you. He/she will act as neutral support. Maintain the symbiotic relationship. Meaning, give, and take. Remember that both parties should benefit from this partnership. Availability is also important; it should be easy for both of you to consult each other once in a while. Sending them messages through email or SMS from time to time also shows that you care, aside from serving as a reminder. Neil, himself, admits that he needs an accountability partner. It’s always easier to slack, so his accountability buddy helps him avoid this from happening. Neil has to report to his partner regularly (i.e. monthly), and his partner assesses. If he sees that some tasks weren’t checked, then they go back to the planning board to keep Neil on track, again. If you’re thinking of looking for an accountability buddy amid the coronavirus pandemic, then go, it’s possible. Jot down first the qualities and benefits you want from them. When you already know who you want, then it’s time to interview prospective partners. Make sure you are also the one they’re looking for since it’s a two-way process! BEST MOMENTS “Find someone you like and trust, not someone you’re in competition with.” “This is a two-way street… It’s a back and forth all the time.” “Having someone who’s also an entrepreneur and on the same journey as you… is encouraging and serves as a great support mechanism.” “Anytime you have a deadline and a level of expected performance, it holds you to account.” VALUABLE RESOURCES Listen to The Tutor Podcast on iTunes (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-tutor-podcast/id1369191372)! Read the Weird Things Guitarists Do book by Neil Cowmeadow, which is available now on Amazon. Link - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Weird-Things-Guitarists-Do-Misconceptions/dp/1519026579/ Contact Neil via this website - NeilCowmeadow.com! ABOUT THE HOST Neil Cowmeadow is a maverick peripatetic guitar teacher from Telford with over 19 years’ experience in the business of helping people. Learn how to start, grow and love your business with Neil’s invaluable advice and tips without the buzzwords and BS! CONTACT METHOD [email protected]

Well, not literally! What we mean by ‘steal from everyone’ is get ideas and learn from EVERYONE. (Emphasis on the word everyone!) In this episode of The Tutor Podcast, we learn about the importance of learning in and out of a classroom. Sometimes, when we set our goals and lay down our paths we’ll walk on, we refuse to see the benefits of having to explore other paths. The truth is, there are many things you can learn from other fields, from everyone. Don’t be a snub. Diversions are fine, as long as we gain recent knowledge. Neil also discusses on how you can strengthen your tutor-student relationships, so tune in! KEY TAKEAWAYS Learning doesn’t stop once you leave formal education. This should be the time you become intentional in looking for ways to widen your knowledge more and broaden your skill set. Since there’s a chance you’ll stagnate or even forget all you’ve studied about. You should also see this as an opportunity to explore things outside of your field. Take guitar lessons, for instance. When Neil teaches, he notes all his students’ opinions, feedback, or critiques. Some may feel offended. But learning is a two-way process—a tutor must not be threatened by such. Why dismiss an idea that can improve your (teacher-student) relationship and yourself too? There are things outside your field/industry that may also help you advance in your own career. For example, for guitar tutors, a little knowledge on kinesiology, human behaviour, or even storytelling can make an enormous difference. The dynamics inside the classroom will change. Always aim to be better than who you are today. Keep progressing. Make use of the resources and tools—podcasts, books, workshops, and so on. There will always be something new you’ll learn once you utilise those. Theories, ideas, views, etc. are also changing. You need to be updated. BEST MOMENTS “Nobody has a monopoly on knowledge.” “The wider my view is for my world, the more I can look around for useful knowledge and insights bring back to what I’m doing.” “We know what we know, but we don’t know what we don’t know.” “Basically, I just know my stuff. As far as I know, for my students, it makes me much more credible and more valuable in their eyes.” “I tell my students, ‘Everything you learn from me will ripple out to all aspects of your life.’” “Learn more, earn more!” VALUABLE RESOURCES Listen to The Tutor Podcast on iTunes (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-tutor-podcast/id1369191372)! Read the Weird Things Guitarists Do book by Neil Cowmeadow which is available now on Amazon. Link - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Weird-Things-Guitarists-Do-Misconceptions/dp/1519026579/ Contact Neil via this website - NeilCowmeadow.com! ABOUT THE HOST Neil Cowmeadow is a maverick peripatetic guitar teacher from Telford with over 19 years’ experience in the business of helping people. Learn how to start, grow and love your business with Neil’s invaluable advice and tips without the buzzwords and BS! CONTACT METHOD [email protected]

Live your life YOUR way. It is only you who holds the wheel, and not anyone else. If you are controlled by others, then most likely, you’ll be confused where you should go. In this episode of The Tutor Podcast, Neil gives some useful survival tips for aspiring entrepreneurs, not just applicable for those in the tutoring business but also for those in different industries. It’s always the same problem that entrepreneurs face at the beginning—it’s having no time anymore for nurturing their relationships. The truth is… you have to accept that there will be people who will stay and people who won’t. So how do you determine who they are exactly in your life, you ask? Let Neil help you get some answers today when you listen in. KEY TAKEAWAYS Do something rewarding. If watching the television all day is what you see as the best use of your time, then you need to change something in your life. Successful entrepreneurs like using their time productively. As much as possible, they want to work all the time. But the key here is to achieve work-life balance, so you don’t burn out. A workaholic entrepreneur might sever a few relationships too. Some connections are worth saving while others aren’t. There are people who’d wish that you bring back the ‘old’ you, who you were before you were an entrepreneur. But things change. It might be difficult, but these are people you should keep a distance with. Though it’s true, that things will change when your priorities come clear to you, make sure also that you nurture the relationships you value. To achieve your dreams, there are things you need to sacrifice. A day of golfing with colleagues, your Sunday brunch with extended family, or the usual pub hangouts, will be hard to fit in a busy entrepreneur’s schedule. An understanding person will understand such changes in your life; remember that. Survival Tips For Aspiring Entrepreneurs: It’s your life. Nobody can live it for you. Nobody cares about what you do. Listen out for flattery in disguise. Listen to the language. Solitude is not loneliness. Be hard to reach. Get your mobile phones and other technologies that distract you out of sight. Be visible. Stay in contact with business stockholders. Whatever you do, you will be judged. So just be yourself. BEST MOMENTS “Don’t consume your life doing unhappy things.” “All I want to do is get back to doing to what I love the most, teaching, playing guitar, and building a business.” “As an entrepreneur, you don’t fit the old story of who you are.” “Life is not a popularity contest.” “You have to be comfortable with yourself to enjoy silence.” VALUABLE RESOURCES Listen to The Tutor Podcast on iTunes (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-tutor-podcast/id1369191372)! Read the Weird Things Guitarists Do book by Neil Cowmeadow which is available now on Amazon. Link - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Weird-Things-Guitarists-Do-Misconceptions/dp/1519026579/ Contact Neil via this website - NeilCowmeadow.com! ABOUT THE HOST Neil Cowmeadow is a maverick peripatetic guitar teacher from Telford with over 19 years’ experience in the business of helping people. Learn how to start, grow and love your business with Neil’s invaluable advice and tips without the buzzwords and BS! CONTACT METHOD [email protected]

Are you having a tough time managing your schedule lately? If some of you are having a eureka moment about money-making ideas, and not knowing when to do it and where to fit it in your schedule, then you need to know about the 70:20:10 model. In this episode of The Tutor Podcast, Neil shares how he uses this model to his advantage as a teacher, a property investor, and a music creator. It’s a matter of organisation and discipline. Easy-peasy, right? According to Neil, the only trick after learning about this concept is to JUST DO IT! Tune in now to know more about how you can divide your time among your activities. KEY TAKEAWAYS The trick is to figure out how much time you allot for work, business, or anything else, really. Divide them into three using the 70:20:10 model. The 70% division belongs to the core tasks, the 20% is for the secondary ones, and the 10% for the upcoming tasks. You’ll have to remove the time you allot for rest and leisure, just so you know. For Neil, the 70% of it is allotted to his foundational activity. It’s guitar teaching that is his ultimate passion and also his major income stream. He still does this most of the time, even today, amid the coronavirus pandemic. Another thing is he creates content (blogs, videos, articles, etc.), markets them, then tries to engage with every prospect (i.e. students). He believes that if there is enough of his quality content out there posted, then this can give him a passive income. This can help him move on to the 20% and 10% activities. The 20% of Neil’s activity is allotted to building and growing his property portfolio. This also acts as another stream of income. Tasks for this involve property maintenance, finance, budgeting, and looking for investors. Since he’s a guitar teacher, he also creates music. This is the 10% division. He writes, composes, and records. He’s got a million ideas, and he needs to transform it into something valuable. BEST MOMENTS “If I can make the fun things that I get paid for more fun than the things I don’t get paid for, then working 7 days a week should be a no-brainer!” “It’s very risky to have one income stream.” “If you use it, it’s gonna work.” “Having only one income stream leaves you very vulnerable.” VALUABLE RESOURCES Listen to The Tutor Podcast on iTunes (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-tutor-podcast/id1369191372)! Read the Weird Things Guitarists Do book by Neil Cowmeadow which is available now on Amazon. Link - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Weird-Things-Guitarists-Do-Misconceptions/dp/1519026579/ Contact Neil via this website - Neilcowmeadow.com! ABOUT THE HOST Neil Cowmeadow is a maverick peripatetic guitar teacher from Telford with over 19 years’ experience in the business of helping people. Learn how to start, grow and love your business with Neil’s invaluable advice and tips without the buzzwords and BS! CONTACT METHOD [email protected]

We all know how stressful life has become during this coronavirus pandemic, so in this episode of The Tutor Podcast, Neil lets you have a peek on his own list of surviving lockdown tips! The top priority is to keep your (physical and mental) health always in check. For Neil, having a routine helps. But since movement is very limited, Neil suggests ways on how you can tweak it. If you think there is no other way around how you can get yourself to sweat, well, let Neil prove otherwise! Neil also gives tips on how you can improve yourself and grow your business. There’s so much time made available to you right now. Be productive. Join in the discussion now. KEY TAKEAWAYS Have a plan set for each day. This forces you to envision having wonderful days. We aim for worthwhile activities when we detail our routine. We automatically don’t include something that we deem as a ‘failure’ or ‘pointless’. Move more. Since most work from home is sedentary, you need to take minor breaks to get your muscles moving. Walk around the room, do simple gym-free workouts, or even do some chores. Keep communication channels open. If you live with someone else, it may become stressful. It’s important to talk about your feelings and set some rules. If you’re feeling lonely, reach out to your friends. There are a lot of video calling applications out there that you can utilise. Check your food consumption. Most of us have limited outside access, the gym and sports facilities where we usually do physical activities are closed. We can neglect our health and fitness. For food, Neil advises that you keep a grocery list that ONLY has healthy foods. Get rid of old unpleasant habits. Remove triggers for negative behaviours to make this task easier for yourself. To get used to good habits you’re trying to incorporate, it’s better to associate them with pre-existing pleasant ones. Add new streams of income. If you have promising content in your backlogs, you can repurpose it. Now’s the time to market any extra content online as social media usage is at an all-time high Learn unfamiliar things. There have been many resources made available for free online lately due to the coronavirus. Maybe it’s time to try them out. BEST MOMENTS “I have observed that society is fragmenting, people have turned against one another… it’s very sinister.” “The best defence is to have a plan every single day.” “It’s now easier than ever to get healthy. It’s easier to get healthy food than to get a crappy Big Mac.” “Learn voraciously and insatiably.” “Keep on moving in the direction you want to go.” VALUABLE RESOURCES Listen to The Tutor Podcast on iTunes (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-tutor-podcast/id1369191372)! Read the Weird Things Guitarists Do book by Neil Cowmeadow which is available now on Amazon. Link - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Weird-Things-Guitarists-Do-Misconceptions/dp/1519026579/ Contact Neil via this website - Neilcowmeadow.com! ABOUT THE HOST Neil Cowmeadow is a maverick peripatetic guitar teacher from Telford with over 19 years’ experience in the business of helping people. Learn how to start, grow and love your business with Neil’s invaluable advice and tips without the buzzwords and BS! CONTACT METHOD [email protected]

In this episode of The Tutor Podcast, Neil explores how you can redefine your ‘normal’ and set your trajectory in a positive direction during this unprecedented time. Neil talks about his experiences setting up new online coaching so that he can coach his students over the internet using streaming and video calling technology. Neil focuses on adding or changing 1% of your lifestyle or business every day, create incremental change to better your productivity and success in the long term. Neil also explores the theory of the ‘Locus of control’ and how it dictates how we react in these stressful times. You are the creator of your own reality! Take control and change your lifestyle to unlock your potential! ABOUT THE HOST Neil Cowmeadow is a maverick peripatetic guitar teacher from Telford with over 19 years’ experience in the business of helping people. Learn how to start, grow and love your business with Neil’s invaluable advice and tips without the buzzwords and BS! CONTACT METHOD [email protected]

In this episode of The Tutor Podcast, Neil discussed Warrant Buffet’s Two List Model. The first list is the top 5 things that YOU can DO that will change your life. The second list is for everything else that you want to do. You should then discard the second list and primarily focus on the first 5 and most important ways that you can improve your life. This will give you CLARITY and give your life a mission statement. Neil gives his take on these lists, laying out the ways that he wishes to enrich and improve his life. He then gives his opinion on the Warren Buffet’s model, explaining how it has the potential to change your life and mindset. ABOUT THE HOST Neil Cowmeadow is a maverick peripatetic guitar teacher from Telford with over 19 years’ experience in the business of helping people. Learn how to start, grow and love your business with Neil’s invaluable advice and tips without the buzzwords and BS! CONTACT METHOD [email protected]

The UK government is giving out financial aid to small businesses, but do tutors who manage their businesses from their own homes get some? It depends. If you pay business rates, then you can receive from the Small Business Relief Fund. In this episode, Neil discusses more on what sole proprietors like him are facing amid the COVID-19 outbreak. The government has forgotten about hardworking educators. But not only them, several workers too are getting furloughed because of the current situation. Start learning on what does this mean for you, when you tune in. KEY TAKEAWAYS When you’re in furlough, you aren’t paid. You might get payment for an invoice on something that you’ve done before that, but not during the furlough period. The minimum time to be furloughed is 3 weeks. You must change your status if you want take on a job/task. Question and Answer: What type of task can I give to my employee that’s in furlough? Nothing. Not even a single sales phone call or email. Can a furloughed employee look for another job? Yes. BUT it should be treated as an unauthorized unpaid leave by your current employer. All eligible businesses in England, who pay business rates, can receive a £10000 payment under the Small Business Relief Fund. So, if you aren’t eligible, just like Neil, a tutor who works from home, you won’t receive any. For employers, ensure that the employees who work from home have the capacity and the equipment needed. Some aren’t capable of working from home because of their economic status. Note that the government allows people to travel for work, given that they don’t show coronavirus symptoms. BEST MOMENTS “When furlough directors need to carry out particular duties to fulfil statute obligations that they owe to their company, they can do that. But they must do no more than they’d be reasonably judged necessary for the purpose.” “The government does not recognise the vast number of sole proprietors and sole practitioners.” “Employers and employees should discuss working arrangements. And employers should take every step to facilitate.” VALUABLE RESOURCES Listen to The Tutor Podcast on iTunes (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-tutor-podcast/id1369191372)! Read the Weird Things Guitarists Do book by Neil Cowmeadow which is available now on Amazon. Link - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Weird-Things-Guitarists-Do-Misconceptions/dp/1519026579/ Contact Neil via this website - Neilcowmeadow.com! ABOUT THE HOST Neil Cowmeadow is a maverick peripatetic guitar teacher from Telford with over 19 years’ experience in the business of helping people. Learn how to start, grow and love your business with Neil’s invaluable advice and tips without the buzzwords and BS! CONTACT METHOD [email protected]

“It’s a catalyst to action. That’s what we have now.” More than half of the world right now are feeling the impact of the Covid-19 outbreak. The pandemic has caused delay in our businesses, our daily routines, and most definitely, the help we give to other people. There are a thousand ways you can help. (And they really weren’t kidding when they said that.) Surely, we can find alternatives, even at the middle of the quarantine situation. For educators, teachers, and tutors, maybe now is the time that we create or repurpose our content to online videos? Or online courses? Neil discusses more on how you can keep it going amid the Covid-19 outbreak, so tune in to the latest episode of The Tutor Podcast. KEY TAKEAWAYS Keep on helping people. Choosing to better yourself must not stop, even in quarantine. If you can teach and give them the resources they can consume during this time, go for it. Keep your routine going. Have a list of the things that need to be done, and schedule them. It’s more difficult now to follow your usual routine because you’re just staying at home. Remove distractions. Find alternatives for the parts that you usually do outside (i.e. running). The business goes on. You can continue delivering your services. If you can’t teach face-to-face, look into webchats, online courses, etc. Once you’ve recorded yourself teaching and posted it online, you now also have content that can gain traction whenever. Think of ANY thing you can do to keep the momentum going. You can change your ways on how to create or even repurpose your existing content. Just ensure you are being smart and responsible considering the current situation. If there’s a system in place, then you shouldn’t feel threatened whatever problems may arise. You’ll surely survive during and after a crisis if there’s a consistent flow of work and income. Start acting now. BEST MOMENTS “If you don’t believe in yourself, you’re up a creek.” “We need to preserve some self-control, because so much now is being taken away in terms of our freedom and movements.” “If we can keep heling others, we can help ourselves.” “This is the moment for growth and scale.” VALUABLE RESOURCES The Tutor Podcast Weird Things Guitarists Do book by Neil Cowmeadow www.Neilcowmeadow.com ABOUT THE HOST Neil Cowmeadow is a maverick peripatetic guitar teacher from Telford with over 19 years’ experience in the business of helping people. Learn how to start, grow and love your business with Neil’s invaluable advice and tips without the buzzwords and BS! CONTACT METHOD [email protected]

This time on The Property Tutor Podcast, Neil gives his take on Covid-19. He discusses how it has affected businesses, with some already going into administration and others hanging on by the skin of their teeth. Neil gives sound advice on how to deal with your mental health and business problems, as well as giving ideas on how your business can survive Covid-19 through digital distribution. Above all, Neil looks for the ‘Opportunity in the Crisis’, to capitalise on Covid-19 to come up with creative solutions that benefit us all. He talks about his own personal near-death experience and how he learned first-hand to create income in a difficult time. VALUABLE RESOURCES The Tutor Podcast Weird Things Guitarists Do book by Neil Cowmeadow www.Neilcowmeadow.com ABOUT THE HOST Neil Cowmeadow is a maverick peripatetic guitar teacher from Telford with over 19 years’ experience in the business of helping people. Learn how to start, grow and love your business with Neil’s invaluable advice and tips without the buzzwords and BS! CONTACT METHOD [email protected]

There are four types of people: Larks, Owls, Cows and Vampires. By working out which one you are, you can manage your life in order to fit your natural tendencies. But which one are you? In this week’s show, Neil takes you through each type in his own unique way, and tells you all about how you can achieve a far happier existence by applying a simple rule: To know and understand yourself is to manage and master yourself. KEY TAKEAWAYS Larks - The annoying types who wake up very early, full of energy and bounce and ready to take on the world. Owls - These are the opposite to larks. They tend to take all day to get going, but can work well into the night. Cows - Most of society stick to a regimented form of workday, finishing in the early evening and grabbing a few hours for themselves before going to sleep, so that they can do it all again the next day. Vampires - Those “nocturnal beasts” who do their best work during the wee hours, when the rest of the world is asleep. The Oracle Of Delphi had an inscription upon entering which read “Know Thyself”. This feeds into an invaluable lesson in life, that to know and understand yourself, is truly the best way to manage and master yourself. When transitioning between careers that had starkly different working times, Neil was told to diarise his day in order to identify where he was falling short. Through this process, Neil realised that his life was suffering a hangover from his previous life as a “vampire”. By making adjustments, he was able to make himself more effective in the daytime. By knowing the kind of creature you are, you can make sure that you’re doing your best work at the optimal time, and thereby making the most of yourself. Develop your own routine, and build it around your rest periods and the times of day in which you have the most energy, and produce the best results. Working for yourself allows you to really develop the best template for your working day. Don’t assume that just because your daytime is free, that you’ll do your best work there. Perhaps you could do something more productive, so plan ahead. BEST MOMENTS ‘I hate ‘em…' ‘I reckon I’m at least 51% vampire’ ‘Bit of a pattern developing there, guys…' ’The casino business had pressed me into the ranks of the undead!’ ‘It doesn’t matter if you’re a lark, an owl, a cow or a vampire. You can tailor your life to fit you' VALUABLE RESOURCES The Tutor Podcast Weird Things Guitarists Do book by Neil Cowmeadow www.Neilcowmeadow.com ABOUT THE HOST Neil Cowmeadow is a maverick peripatetic guitar teacher from Telford with over 19 years’ experience in the business of helping people. Learn how to start, grow and love your business with Neil’s invaluable advice and tips without the buzzwords and BS! CONTACT METHOD [email protected]

105TTP Self Sabotage & Being Calibrated Perfectly DESCRIPTION ‘It’s all about calibration – we work perfectly, but if we are mis-calibrated we’ll work perfectly in pursuit of the wrong thing’ In this fascinating episode, Neil explains how self-sabotaging behaviours can be conquered if you are aware of the behaviours and take action to change them. The key is our own perception of normal and the story we have for ourselves, the inner voice that always seeks to return us to our own ‘normal’. If you want to bring your story into your reality and make choices that will drive you forward then listen in. KEY TAKEAWAYS Sabotage is defined as any deliberate action aimed at undermining or impeding the progress of a person or organization. Often it is voiced as a misunderstanding and rationalised in some way. If you are your own saboteur, you are potentially taking actions that could cost you time, money and impact on the relationships you have. Self-sabotage is linked to how we feel and what we perceive as normal. If things are going well and exceeding expectations people will self-sabotage to bring things back to what they perceive as normal – often a lower level because that’s where they feel they deserve to be. The same self-sabotage is in action when the situation is below expectations. We are our own worst enemies, and we are our own greatest assets. At the time of self-sabotage, you will justify almost any of the actions you take. Changing Becoming aware is vital – when you are about to do something self-sabotaging ask yourself; Is this what my business is really all about? Is this helping me, or is this hurting me? You must be honest with yourself because the easiest person to fool is yourself. Prevention Schedule regular time slots to analyse what you do and reflect and review your actions, it will help you stay on track. Update the stories you tell yourself as these have a habit of coming true. Your inner narrative should be constantly evolving as you do to provide the clarity you need. Calibrate your own stories: tell yourself better lies and start living in accord with them Check your progress honestly, eliminating what doesn’t help you and focussing on what you need to do to bring your story into reality. BEST MOMENTS ‘It can be easy to be lured into doing daft stuff that won’t help you’ ‘Our inborn tendency to stay true to whatever lies/stories we tell ourselves’ ‘We’ll unconsciously act to exert control and restore the situation to whatever our idea of normal should be’ VALUABLE RESOURCES The Tutor Podcast Weird Things Guitarists Do book by Neil Cowmeadow www.Neilcowmeadow.com ABOUT THE HOST Neil Cowmeadow is a maverick peripatetic guitar teacher from Telford with over 19 years’ experience in the business of helping people. Learn how to start, grow and love your business with Neil’s invaluable advice and tips without the buzzwords and BS! CONTACT METHOD [email protected] The Tutor Podcast Twitter

In this episode Neil explains how you can turn your problems into positives and how a problem can not necessarily be a problem. He discusses how problems can depend on the perspective and mind-set that you have on a particular issue. KEY TAKEAWAYS Whatever the problem is that you’re facing, ask yourself what is the reality? It’s all malleable and you might find that it’s not a problem. Where is the opportunity in the problem to find the positives? Some problems are great problems to have because you can choose how you frame the problem. Facts are facts but your perspective on those facts will determine whether the problem is actually a problem. Can you use the problem to motivate you to do something positive for yourself? If you can control the mind and its perspective, then you can turn problems into positives. Always question the reality when you face a problem and shift your perspective. BEST MOMENTS ‘When is a problem not a problem?’ ‘Situations are just situations’ ‘Seize every opportunity you have’ VALUABLE RESOURCES The Tutor Podcast on Twitter: https://twitter.com/tutorpodcast ABOUT THE HOST Neil Cowmeadow is a maverick peripatetic guitar teacher from Telford with over 19 years of experience in the business of helping people. Learn how to start, grow and love your business with Neil’s invaluable advice and tips without the buzzwords and BS! CONTACT METHOD Neil Cowmeadow [email protected]

Some very high-profile people have made excellent use of social media to position themselves as experts and to develop a personal brand – and that’s SM being used as a valid strategy and a powerful marketing tool. It helps if you are young, female and good-looking. In this episode Neil discusses how you can use social media to grow your business. KEY TAKEAWAYS We can all learn from their examples if we want to “big ourselves up” and be more visible. SM reaches countless people, so it should be possible to construct a following for yourself, regardless of what niche you are operating in. You have to be very consistent for a very long time to grow your tribe, but it’s doable. You’ll be posting regularly and often, dealing with fans and trolls – lovers and haters. Weigh up the pros of doing lots of SM – then consider the Cons. Social media is a really big deal to a lot of people – we, as tutors need to decide whether we want it to be a big deal for us. Use social media going to give you a commercial advantage or marketing edge There is way more people consuming content on SM than there are producing it – so the chances are that you will be a consumer rather than a producer. That time could be better spent face to face with clients, marketing, developing IP such as music, writing, courses and so on. BEST MOMENTS ‘Everything has up/downsides’ ‘Getting sucked in to the YouTube vortex is – for me – the kiss of death.’ ‘SM is a gold mine, but for the vast majority it is a black hole.’ VALUABLE RESOURCES The Tutor Podcast on Twitter: https://twitter.com/tutorpodcast ABOUT THE HOST Neil Cowmeadow is a maverick peripatetic guitar teacher from Telford with over 19 years of experience in the business of helping people. Learn how to start, grow and love your business with Neil’s invaluable advice and tips without the buzzwords and BS! CONTACT METHOD Neil Cowmeadow [email protected]

What are the most important numbers for your business? Knowing your numbers is key to knowing whether your business is going to work for you. Being good at something doesn’t necessarily mean you can turn it into a successful business unless you know your numbers. Neil takes an in-depth look at the numbers in your business helping anyone who has a tutoring business to understand what and how they can have a truly successful business doing what they love KEY TAKEAWAYS As tutors, business isn’t usually an area of special knowledge There is a focus on the technical skills and knowledge needed to teach and the necessary business skills may be neglected. What are the most important numbers for your business? It’s not how much money you bring in to your business it’s what there is after you’ve paid for everything. There are two variables that generate profit - sales and costs Sales are generated through; Teaching fees Product sales Royalties & commissions Investment incomes Anything else that brings money into the business Costs are incurred through; Wages Cost of goods and materials (sheet music, strings, etc) Equipment purchase/leasing/rental Travel – motor use/trains/planes/hotels/food Rent, rates and other property expenses: fuel gas, electricity, insurance etc Everything else that is vital to the running of the business and which takes money out of the business. Until you understand and know what your numbers really are, you don’t really know if you have a viable business. Without the numbers, you can’t assess where you are. You have no baseline to and cannot measure the effect of any changes you may make to how you run your business. How can you increase your revenue? Think about it – could you:increase your customer base, Raise your fee rate,Increase the frequency of sales How can you reduce your costs? Look at all your costs – the fixed costs, and the variable costs of doing business Fixed costs don’t vary with the amount of work done – rent, fixed salaries etc Variable costs depend on the amount of work done – e.g. cost of travel to a client’s location You have the control to raise your income and reduce your costs if you understand the numbers in your business. Get the clarity you need on your numbers and then you can move your business forward and make more money. BEST MOMENTS ‘It’s easy to confuse our excellence and specific technical skills with having a good business, but they’re very different things. ‘Turnover is vanity, profit is sanity’ VALUABLE RESOURCES The Tutor Podcast Weird Things Guitarists Do book by Neil Cowmeadow www.Neilcowmeadow.com ABOUT THE HOST Neil Cowmeadow is a maverick peripatetic guitar teacher from Telford with over 19 years’ experience in the business of helping people. Learn how to start, grow and love your business with Neil’s invaluable advice and tips without the buzzwords and BS! CONTACT METHOD [email protected] The Tutor Podcast Twitter

Neil has been thinking about time and its value and explains the importance of punctuality and respect for time in relation to your tutor business and to life in this episode. We all have people in our lives who are punctual and also those who are consistently late and Neil explains how our punctuality or lack of is woven into the respect and the trust we have with others. A lack of punctuality gives permission for others to mess you around whilst punctuality and consistency are the hallmarks of excellence – listen in and find out how you can respect both yourself and others through the way you manage your time. KEY TAKEAWAYS Not only do you have to respect your own time but you must also respect the time of others. If you don’t respect their time they won’t respect yours. Always be punctual and consistently on time. Consistency is the hallmark of excellence Punctual people are more likely to be perceived as trustworthy as opposed to those who show up late and are seen as unpredictable. Punctual people do better than people who are late because they get more respect. Punctual people earn more money because they command more trust and respect, It automatically positions them as experts. People who show up on time get more referrals as people won’t recommend someone who doesn’t show up on time. When you make it easy to deal with you, your students will back for longer. When you are punctual, reliable and consistent you are automatically perceived as having everything together in your life. The 3-step formula for earning extra credibility, respect and ultimately higher fees just by being punctual are; Show up on time and leave on time (don’t give the impression you have nothing else to do with your time) Show up prepared have everything you need and in working order Deliver a kick-arse content that is fun for your students and for you. BEST MOMENTS ‘Because I’m always on time my tribe is always on time’ ‘If you are consistent and punctual then your tribe will love you’ ‘There are only so many hours in the day so I put a start and end time on everything’ VALUABLE RESOURCES The Tutor Podcast Weird Things Guitarists Do book by Neil Cowmeadow www.Neilcowmeadow.com ABOUT THE HOST Neil Cowmeadow is a maverick peripatetic guitar teacher from Telford with over 19 years’ experience in the business of helping people. Learn how to start, grow and love your business with Neil’s invaluable advice and tips without the buzzwords and BS! CONTACT METHOD [email protected] The Tutor Podcast Twitter

You can wake up 2,3, or 5 years down the line and wonder what has happened and where the time went. This is particularly common to driven personalities and entrepreneurs who are immersed in their work, have a strong inner compass, determined action takers and some might say obsessed. Neil explains an easy method for how you can avoid this from happening. KEY TAKEAWAYS Check your progress every couple of months. A good way to do this is to have accountability days every month to check the performance of the business and work on the next acquisition or deal. Spend the whole of that day examining your business – get away from your desk and turn the phone off. If it’s urgent they’ll call back Make a date with yourself to do this regularly – in your diary – don’t let anything shunt it off your schedule, because it matters too much to let it slide. When you’ve done your reflection analysis – make your plans to implement what you noticed about your business. Do it, and see how you get on – I’m pretty certain that you’ll have an “A-ha!” moment or six when you do the work and get honest with yourself – I know I did! BEST MOMENTS ‘Planning and reflection works’ ‘Bottom line is that this stuff works.’ VALUABLE RESOURCES The Tutor Podcast Weird Things Guitarists Do book by Neil Cowmeadow www.Neilcowmeadow.com ABOUT THE HOST Neil Cowmeadow is a maverick peripatetic guitar teacher from Telford with over 19 years’ experience in the business of helping people. Learn how to start, grow and love your business with Neil’s invaluable advice and tips without the buzzwords and BS! CONTACT METHOD [email protected] The Tutor Podcast Twitter

In this episode Neil shares an effective technique for solving problems without having to ask anyone else or search anywhere for answers. KEY TAKEAWAYS This podcast is the tens of thousands of hours spent learning my industry and within business all boiled down to bitesize episodes. Have 10 minutes of uninterrupted time. No phone, no noise, no people or anything that can distract you. Have a really nice pen and really nice paper or whatever you’d enjoy writing with the most. At the top of the page write down the problem you have. Re read it and then write down as much as you can that pops into your head that may be helpful to overcome or solve this problem. Write without stopping and don’t stop or have a break. Don’t worry about any punctuation or spelling, just get it down. Often you already know the answer but the problem is hiding it. The main thing about this exercise is not to self critic or try to be clever, just get your thoughts down regardless of whether it’s good or bad. BEST MOMENTS ‘More important than all that cash is time investment’ ‘Time is the most precious thing you have’ ‘The more you do it, the better you get’ VALUABLE RESOURCES The Tutor Podcast Weird Things Guitarists Do book by Neil Cowmeadow www.Neilcowmeadow.com ABOUT THE HOST Neil Cowmeadow is a maverick peripatetic guitar teacher from Telford with over 19 years’ experience in the business of helping people. Learn how to start, grow and love your business with Neil’s invaluable advice and tips without the buzzwords and BS! CONTACT METHOD [email protected] The Tutor Podcast Twitter

Doing your tax Self-Assessment can be stressful because it can get you flagged for investigation by HMRC, you can have fines for late filing, additional charges and interest for late payment and you’ve no idea about upcoming tax liabilities. You don’t even know if you really have a business. So in this episode Neil tells you how you can get on top of your business finances and stresses the importance of doing so. KEY TAKEAWAYS Ensure you do your books and meet the deadline for your tax return so that you know you’re making money and don’t get fined. Keeping proper accounts of where your business finances are, are bloody important part of being your own boss. These days a book keeper isn’t necessary in order to keep on top of your books, use accounting software that can link to your bank and your phone. The benefit of doing everything digitally is that it’s fast and easy to do which allows you to do what you do best. It only takes 10 minutes a week to do your accounts, as long as you do it consistently and regularly. It’s also a lot better than leaving it all last minute. If you leave everything last minute, then you’ll get stresses which will then have a negative impact on all other aspects of your business and even your personal life. No matter how good you do your taxes, HMRC will find some way of fining you. If the business part of you isn’t good, then you wont be able to sustain being a good tutor. BEST MOMENTS “Accounts are vital for your survival and to your success” “There’s nothing mysteriously difficult about keeping your books in order” “If your back office is a mess then it’s likely to spill over into other parts of your business” “Business first then tutor” VALUABLE RESOURCES The Tutor Podcast on Twitter: https://twitter.com/tutorpodcast ABOUT THE HOST Neil Cowmeadow is a maverick peripatetic guitar teacher from Telford with over 19 years of experience in the business of helping people. Learn how to start, grow and love your business with Neil’s invaluable advice and tips without the buzzwords and BS! CONTACT METHOD Neil Cowmeadow [email protected]

Neil explains the benefits of tutoring in the private sector and why teaching in the mainstream system may not be for you. KEY TAKEAWAYS The reasonable man adapts himself to the world, the unreasonable man persists to try adapt the world to himself, therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man The school teaching system for tutoring is boring and can give people itchy feet. If you’ve got a thought of your own, Ofsted is likely not to like it. When you’re stuck teaching in the education system you’re limited to the amount of money you can make too. Being a misfit from the mainstream can make you a winner. A lot of parents look for someone who makes learning fun. No one wants a normal tutor. BEST MOMENTS “don’t teach all day mark all night” “Creativeness and individualism is being squeezed out by the education system.” “The mainstream system is ill” VALUABLE RESOURCES The Tutor Podcast on Twitter: https://twitter.com/tutorpodcast ABOUT THE HOST Neil Cowmeadow is a maverick peripatetic guitar teacher from Telford with over 19 years of experience in the business of helping people. Learn how to start, grow and love your business with Neil’s invaluable advice and tips without the buzzwords and BS! CONTACT METHOD Neil Cowmeadow [email protected]

the self-employed. You can minimise your tax bill, just to let you know. So, instead of missing the deadline, start learning about the benefits of being proactive for paying taxes. The self-employed people are at a better position in regard to taxation than the majority. Let’s do our responsibilities as citizens. Pay your taxes and sleep soundly at night. KEY TAKEAWAYS You’re only liable for tax on your profits, so make sure to: Claim all allowances Use of your own car for business Use of part of your home for business Investment reliefs Account for all expenses (e.g. materials, equipment, marketing, etc.) Ask accountant on how you can save tax. Your accountant should help you save on your taxes. If you think he/she doesn’t understand and help your situation, find a better one. Don’t file late. You save up and earn more when you avoid fines! If you still don’t have the exact figures, use provisional (best estimate) figures. Always plan. Know how you want your business to grow and where your finances will be. Neil assures you you can save mores on taxes when you’re on the right track. BEST MOMENTS “Don’t file late!” “Tax code is not your area of expertise, it’s theirs (accountants). They’re working for you” “Have a set day and time when you update your records and take care of business. It’s a pain, but it’s less of a pain than sweating over doing a year’s worth of your books at the last minute.” VALUABLE RESOURCES HMRC - https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/hm-revenue-customs The Tutor Podcast on Twitter: https://twitter.com/tutorpodcast ABOUT THE HOST Neil Cowmeadow is a maverick peripatetic guitar teacher from Telford with over 19 years of experience in the business of helping people. Learn how to start, grow and love your business with Neil’s invaluable advice and tips without the buzzwords and BS! CONTACT METHOD Neil Cowmeadow [email protected]

'Most new years resolutions last up until March as they're far too demanding.' In this new year's special episode of the Tutor podcast, Neil explains how you can make your new year resolution more effective and long-lasting. He also explains why the resolutions and goals usually fail and how you can stop yourself from falling down the same pit! And of course a very Happy new year! VALUABLE RESOURCES Atomic Habits – James Clear | Amazon https://amzn.to/37pfC7Z The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do, and How to Change – Charles Duhigg | Amazon https://amzn.to/2O75SYN Do More Great Work – Michael Bungay Stanier | Amazon https://amzn.to/2qlirXm The Tutor Podcast on Twitter: https://twitter.com/tutorpodcast ABOUT THE HOST Neil Cowmeadow is a maverick peripatetic guitar teacher from Telford with over 19 years of experience in the business of helping people. Learn how to start, grow and love your business with Neil’s invaluable advice and tips without the buzzwords and BS! CONTACT METHOD Neil Cowmeadow [email protected]

Neil explains the importance of using humour and fun in your lessons so that your students enjoy coming. Neil emphasises this for adult students even more than younger clients. KEY TAKEAWAYS Often when a I receive calls it’s from someone who’s looking to book lessons for someone else. Usually when it’s an adult who wants lessons it’s someone who wants to relive the days when they used to play in a band or understand more etc... Many other people do lessons after their kids have grown up that were on the back burner. However, it all boils down to one thing which is fun. As teachers you need to make it fun, figure our ways to make it fun so that your student enjoys their lessons. Also if you don’t find it fun then your student will often mirror that from you. Always praise progress and don’t be too harsh on them if they are going through a bad time in their lives and are struggling to play. Use humour and stories in your lessons to make them more interesting and fun. If it’s fun for you, it’ll be fun for them. BEST MOMENTS ‘It all boils down to fun’ ‘There’s no such thing as a stupid question’ ‘Bypass their limits and get them higher than they ever expected they would get’. VALUABLE RESOURCES Atomic Habits – James Clear | Amazon https://amzn.to/37pfC7Z The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do, and How to Change – Charles Duhigg | Amazon https://amzn.to/2O75SYN Do More Great Work – Michael Bungay Stanier | Amazon https://amzn.to/2qlirXm The Tutor Podcast on Twitter: https://twitter.com/tutorpodcast ABOUT THE HOST Neil Cowmeadow is a maverick peripatetic guitar teacher from Telford with over 19 years of experience in the business of helping people. Learn how to start, grow and love your business with Neil’s invaluable advice and tips without the buzzwords and BS! CONTACT METHOD Neil Cowmeadow [email protected]

“Never go a day without making at least the smallest amount of progress” In this episode Neil discusses what some of the best things you can do whilst everyone is away for the Christmas holidays and you’re feeling a little low. KEY TAKEAWAYS If you are a bit like me and you feel a bit down because all of your friends are away and unavailable to play guitar together then it may be a good time to have some deep thoughts about who you want to be working with and where. Think about how you want to live and reflect on your past year but be grateful for the present time. Then think about the future and plan for next year, the challenges you may face and the journey you want to take. It’s easy to just avid all of the issues you may face but don’t leave them otherwise it’s likely for them to get worse. Start to work to make good things happen. The purpose of my business is so important to me but it needs to deliver its purpose. Now is a great time to sit down, make a list and start doing the things you need to do in order to move forward. BEST MOMENTS ‘Don’t just stick your head in the ground’ ‘What are your values?’ ‘The magic isn’t in the size of your actions but in the relentlessness of progress.’ ‘If you love what you do then you’ll never work a day in your life’ VALUABLE RESOURCES Atomic Habits – James Clear | Amazon https://amzn.to/37pfC7Z The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do, and How to Change – Charles Duhigg | Amazon https://amzn.to/2O75SYN Do More Great Work – Michael Bungay Stanier | Amazon https://amzn.to/2qlirXm The Tutor Podcast on Twitter: https://twitter.com/tutorpodcast ABOUT THE HOST Neil Cowmeadow is a maverick peripatetic guitar teacher from Telford with over 19 years of experience in the business of helping people. Learn how to start, grow and love your business with Neil’s invaluable advice and tips without the buzzwords and BS! CONTACT METHOD Neil Cowmeadow [email protected]

I was having a coffee with my friend Katy last week – like me and you she’s a tutor, but she’s not currently tutoring anybody...her students have moved on and the phone has stopped ringing. I explained how I advertise and market my guitar teaching business and how customers found me – all the real-world stuff and the online, too. KEY TAKEAWAYS Out of sight is out of mind, and that’s one place we cannot afford to spend much time in. Step forward: increase the number of people who know you in a positive way: Every person has a network of contacts, the more people who know you positively, the more chance you have of being mentioned to their network. Your marketing system should provide you with a steady stream of students and clients at a cost far below their lifetime value to you and your business – preferably for free. As business people we understand that nobody is coming to the rescue, so we are in charge of our own destinies – and we make it happen for ourselves. Don’t be squeamish about marketing and advertising, because all it is is putting the right service (us) in front of the right people (our tribe/demographic) and giving them the chance to say yes to what they really want and need. BEST MOMENTS 'Book yourself Solid, observing your goals' 'You are your own USP' 'Pay the price – it’s a long game we’re in' VALUABLE RESOURCES Atomic Habits – James Clear | Amazon https://amzn.to/37pfC7Z The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do, and How to Change – Charles Duhigg | Amazon https://amzn.to/2O75SYN Do More Great Work – Michael Bungay Stanier | Amazon https://amzn.to/2qlirXm The Tutor Podcast on Twitter: https://twitter.com/tutorpodcast ABOUT THE HOST Neil Cowmeadow is a maverick peripatetic guitar teacher from Telford with over 19 years of experience in the business of helping people. Learn how to start, grow and love your business with Neil’s invaluable advice and tips without the buzzwords and BS! CONTACT METHOD Neil Cowmeadow [email protected]

In this episode, Neil explains why the festive period is a double-edged sword for people in the tutoring industry. He discusses how you can make the most of your time during Christmas and the new years break! KEY TAKEAWAYS There are lots of tutors who moan about being poor and don’t have enough money; these are the people who usually shut shop over the Christmas holidays. When you close your business over Christmas and come back, you want your students to be excited to come back to your lessons. Some of your students may not come back though. You could just go part time rather than completely shut down. This can be handy as it gives you the extra time over Christmas but also allows you to keep your students on through to the new year. Don’t forget to remind your students 24 hours before their lesson after the new year. If you’re choosing to carry on over the Christmas break, then as your current students if they want extra bookings which many of mine do. The fill the gaps with students that you have on your waiting list. Gift cards for lessons are a great way to bring in extra income over the Christmas break. This is a great tool to bring more customers into your business too. BEST MOMENTS ‘A special bar humbug from me’ ‘Maintain as much momentum as you can’ ‘Enjoy the downtime, maximise the rest.’ VALUABLE RESOURCES Atomic Habits – James Clear | Amazon https://amzn.to/37pfC7Z The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do, and How to Change – Charles Duhigg | Amazon https://amzn.to/2O75SYN Do More Great Work – Michael Bungay Stanier | Amazon https://amzn.to/2qlirXm The Tutor Podcast on Twitter: https://twitter.com/tutorpodcast ABOUT THE HOST Neil Cowmeadow is a maverick peripatetic guitar teacher from Telford with over 19 years of experience in the business of helping people. Learn how to start, grow and love your business with Neil’s invaluable advice and tips without the buzzwords and BS! CONTACT METHOD Neil Cowmeadow [email protected]

“Habits are probably THE one thing that separate successful people from unsuccessful people, because what you do – day-to-day – is who you are. The real test of a person is what they do consistently.” – Neil Cowmeadow In today’s episode of The Tutor Podcast, we dive deep in how to do a habit upgrade! No successful person is happy about being stuck on version 1.0, right? As much as possible, we want to improve every time to be the best version of ourselves someday. So, in line with this, Neil shares a few useful strategies on how you can build the machineries of success, aka the ecosystem of habits. No need to perfect things. What makes a difference is when you become purposeful and upgrade things incrementally! KEY TAKEAWAYS Don’t try to be perfect. According to Voltaire, “The perfect is the enemy of the good.” You should be happy about how you improve continuously. Baby steps. Small changes add up and even compound one another, therefore bringing you much stable and fulfilling marginal gains. Build an ecosystem of habits—the machinery of success. Again, don’t aim to be perfect through and through. Start out a little, then tweak now and then. Replace worn-out parts, lubricate, upgrade, and maintain the machinery of success. Design the purpose (outcome, resources, location, and time). What outcome do you want? Where do you get the resources? Where will it happen? What will be the duration? When will it start? Identify and write down critical factors. What are the non-negotiable things when you will incorporate a new habit? What old or current habit do you have that you want a new habit be attached? Piggybacking – doing habits simultaneously Tailgating – doing habits sequentially Draw up a model week. Make a template. Designate slots for the non-negotiables (i.e. spending time with your family), for a technology detox, and for your habit blocks. In this way, you’re able to preserve your time and your availability is made aware to the surrounding people. See how it goes for a month or two. Change immediately the obvious mistakes. Always test your model plan. A person will always revert to their normal behaviour (habits) – reversion to the norm shows us who a person is, even who we are – habits are our norms, and we get to decide what they are - and we define ourselves. BEST MOMENTS “Whatever you are, wherever you are at the moment, start with what you got.” “Ask yourself, ‘If I wasn’t already doing this, would I do it now’?” “It’s easier to attach a new habit to something that’s already been a habit.” VALUABLE RESOURCES Atomic Habits – James Clear | Amazon https://amzn.to/37pfC7Z The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do, and How to Change – Charles Duhigg | Amazon https://amzn.to/2O75SYN Do More Great Work – Michael Bungay Stanier | Amazon https://amzn.to/2qlirXm The Tutor Podcast on Twitter: https://twitter.com/tutorpodcast ABOUT THE HOST Neil Cowmeadow is a maverick peripatetic guitar teacher from Telford with over 19 years of experience in the business of helping people. Learn how to start, grow and love your business with Neil’s invaluable advice and tips without the buzzwords and BS! CONTACT METHOD Neil Cowmeadow [email protected]

Today Neil talks about being unapologetic and identifying yourself as an entrepreneur. His tutoring business is all about infecting as many people as possible with his love affair with the guitar and making it as much fun for his students and himself as he can. This means he’s working when everyone else is playing and that can be a problem, particularly for personal relationships and achieving a social life or sometimes just a life! Being an entrepreneur is fundamentally different to what most people do and others can find it difficult to understand but what’s the point of doing less of what you love in order to do something you like less? There is great value and important advice for all entrepreneurs in this episode listen in now. KEY TAKEAWAYS Because it’s your business and you are responsible for your own success or failure, you have to put your commitment into your students and your business ahead of any social activity. You can’t be everywhere and do everything, you will have to make choices – and some of the people around you are not going to like your choices. If you work hard in your business and love every minute of it, a lot of the people around you won’t understand, because it’s so far away from how life is for them. It can be really tough to tell your wife, friends or your kids that you can’t do certain things because you’re working. In some circumstances it can cost you a relationship, strain family ties – but you have to do it, because your business shouldn’t take second place. Be discerning and selective about when you say “yes” and make “no” your default answer to anything which pulls you away from your vision, your business and your values. Entrepreneurs are different they are impatient and want things done they are more positive with more alpha behaviours. As an entrepreneur your energy is different, you have a different vibe and are from a different tribe. What matters is spending more time face-to-face with your own tribe: your students, mentees, collaborators and fellow entrepreneurs – the people who get you Take the time to be there for the people in your life who matter, when it matters – be discerning and remember your business has two main functions: To make money for you To allow you to live life on your own terms and manage your own time. BEST MOMENTS ‘Faces tell stories and entrepreneurs have different more positive wrinkles’ ‘Why are people so keen on holidays is it to escape an ordinary life? if you find your passion you won’t need a holiday’ ‘Remember the golden rule - if it’s not fun don’t do it’ ‘Dignity - I have zero tolerance for drunks. Having been one myself, I’m amazed to see people slosh down a load of booze and completely lose their dignity’ ‘That’s why work/life balance is a crock, and why you shouldn’t fall for that loser’s limp. VALUABLE RESOURCES The Tutor Podcast Weird Things Guitarists Do book by Neil Cowmeadow www.Neilcowmeadow.com ABOUT THE HOST Neil Cowmeadow is a maverick peripatetic guitar teacher from Telford with over 19 years’ experience in the business of helping people. Learn how to start, grow and love your business with Neil’s invaluable advice and tips without the buzzwords and BS! CONTACT METHOD [email protected] The Tutor Podcast Twitter

‘There are lots of opportunities around for us to make more and more money and the more we do it the easier it gets’ Neil is returning to the subject of money because how you think about money can have huge consequences for your business and your financial well-being. If your belief systems around money aren’t helping you then they are hurting you and if you don’t master what you think about money, success and wealth you’ll go with any ideas from any source. The money talk is a conversation we should all have with ourselves on a regular basis and in this episode Neil shares how that conversation should go if you want to make your money work for you and grow. KEY TAKEAWAYS Money is just a way of storing value and a great mechanism for exchanging value with very little effort and friction. Money is the by-product of excellence and the best way to get more money is to become more valuable and get paid what you are worth because people won’t give you money if you are not worth anything. If you haven’t already got one build yourself a money bucket and get started when that one’s up and running successfully then start another and fill it with more money. There are basic rules to getting wealthy and like any sport, if you don’t know the rules you can’t take part in the game successfully or effectively. There are lots of opportunities around for us to make more and more money and the more we do it the easier it gets Bad debt is what you owe to pay for liabilities such as a car. Good debt is what you owe to purchase money-making assets such as a mortgage on a rental property. Good debt is a debt that costs you less than the income it permits you to generate. Understand the difference between good and bad debt and put it to work for you. Embrace the tax system – if you learn how the system works you can learn how to minimise how much you pay legally. Don’t take money advice from someone who hasn’t got any money! Get around people who have money and it will rub off on you. Value money and you’ll attract more to you, make a conscious choice to have or not have money. When you have money use it for good by your own standards. The money game is fascinating and fun. If you do it right the odds are in your favour if you blunder in uneducated the odds are against you but if you don’t get in the game you are at massive risk and cannot possibly win. BEST MOMENTS ‘Set up a savings bank account and begin today’ ‘It’s much easier than bartering and let’s face it you can’t put a pig in your wallet!’ ‘Money in itself is neutral a resource that can be used for good or bad, it only amplifies who you are’ ‘The nicest people I’ve ever met have all been wealthy people whilst at the other end of the social scale the skint people tend to be a lot less pleasant’ VALUABLE RESOURCES The Tutor Podcast Weird Things Guitarists Do book by Neil Cowmeadow www.Neilcowmeadow.com ABOUT THE HOST Neil Cowmeadow is a maverick peripatetic guitar teacher from Telford with over 19 years’ experience in the business of helping people. Learn how to start, grow and love your business with Neil’s invaluable advice and tips without the buzzwords and BS! CONTACT METHOD [email protected] The Tutor Podcast Twitter

Neil explain how using WonderVerbs can boost your teaching to another level. In this episode Neil shares how intertwines WonderVerbs into his teaching and how you can too. Listen to this episode to find out more! KEY TAKEAWAYS The best way to include WonderVerbs into your teaching is to download them in PDF form, print them out then weave them into your lessons. You can find them on Neilcowmeadow.com Always add to your verbs so that you don’t become stagnant. It’s always good to see how your students respond to new powerful words too. Create different, better and stickier sentences so that they capture, intrigue and motivate your students. Mucking about with language and stories can help when teaching as it keeps your lessons interesting. BEST MOMENTS ‘Conger pictures and intrigue your students.’ ‘Create sentences that revolve around your wonder words’. ‘Stumbling is a necessary stage.’ ‘Don’t let your words be dull.’ VALUABLE RESOURCES The Tutor Podcast Weird Things Guitarists Do book by Neil Cowmeadow www.Neilcowmeadow.com www.Neilcowmeadow.com/free ABOUT THE HOST Neil Cowmeadow is a maverick peripatetic guitar teacher from Telford with over 19 years’ experience in the business of helping people. Learn how to start, grow and love your business with Neil’s invaluable advice and tips without the buzzwords and BS! CONTACT METHOD [email protected] The Tutor Podcast Twitter

Effective communication isn’t a one-way street. Listening is as much a part of effective communication as speaking, but what’s the best way to really listen to what’s being said? If you’re in the business of tutoring, then it’s especially important to hear what’s being said and understand what’s going on, as by doing so we can decide on the best way of instructing our students. In this special episode, Neil shares some of his wisdom on the best ways of spotting potential communication blocks, and how to deal with them. KEY TAKEAWAYS Compliant responders work with you. They want to say yes, so go with it. Polar responders go against what you’re saying and often argue against what you’re suggesting. By dropping your breath and allowing for pauses, you’ll force your student to mentally concentrate harder, as well as relax. By adding the word “yet” to a statement of defeat such as “I can’t do that”, you’ll coerce them into mentally believing that any limitations are temporary. Tricky procedures or difficult processes can always be surmounted by gradual improvement. You can make your way around any obstacle if you go slow enough. Sometimes all that’s needed is a change of mental interpretation. If a student believes their fingers are slow and heavy, ask them to imagine that they’re swift and nimble. It’s a technique that often produces instant results. BEST MOMENTS ’Surely they can’t mess THAT up!’ ‘It’s all useful information’ ‘You can eat an elephant eventually if you slice it up thin enough’ ’Their words are windows to their minds' VALUABLE RESOURCES The Tutor Podcast Weird Things Guitarists Do book by Neil Cowmeadow www.Neilcowmeadow.com ABOUT THE HOST Neil Cowmeadow is a maverick peripatetic guitar teacher from Telford with over 19 years’ experience in the business of helping people. Learn how to start, grow and love your business with Neil’s invaluable advice and tips without the buzzwords and BS! CONTACT METHOD [email protected]

Weave these three strands into your tutoring and your self to become more persuasive and get people to trust you more. In this episode Neil explains what these 3 strands are and how you can apply them to your life. KEY TAKEAWAYS It’s not all necessarily about the knowledge you know that makes you a good teacher but it’s the way you communicate it across. ETHOS: Establish yourself as credible before anything else. You can do this in the form of the way you physically dress, the terminology you use or your surroundings. CAREOS: Display your ethos everywhere and show you’ve mastered the skill before you teach it. PATHOS: This is any form of emotional response. As you weave in Pathos to your story you grab the attention of the audience. Sharing your emotional highs and lows makes you come across as more human. LOGOS: This is any tangible research that supports your ideas. You can use statistics, data or facts. Until the audience knows your credible they wont believe in what you’re saying so use this to gain their trust. If you don’t have Ethos your audience will be asking themselves why they should listen to you. Without Pathos your delivery will be dry and without Logos, your audience will think you’re just spouting off about your opinions. BEST MOMENTS ‘Tell stories within the framework of the persuasion, known as rhetoric’ ‘You only need 3 things, like a tripod needs 3 legs’ ‘Layer it in as you go without making you look like an egotistic idiot’ ‘Show your audience that what you’re showing matters’. VALUABLE RESOURCES The Tutor Podcast Weird Things Guitarists Do book by Neil Cowmeadow www.Neilcowmeadow.com ABOUT THE HOST Neil Cowmeadow is a maverick peripatetic guitar teacher from Telford with over 19 years’ experience in the business of helping people. Learn how to start, grow and love your business with Neil’s invaluable advice and tips without the buzzwords and BS! CONTACT METHOD [email protected] The Tutor Podcast Twitter

‘Your whole life gets to be a whole lot more fun when you decide what’s normal for you’ This absorbing episode explores what normal is and why we should all be able to choose and take control of our own normal in life. By definition tutors and entrepreneurs have chosen to walk a different path, a path of their own and this podcast is an invaluable insight into how we can calibrate and regulate normality to stay happy and healthy. KEY TAKEAWAYS Normal is mostly perceptual, Philosophers and psychologists wrangle about what’s real versus what is subjective and objective but they agree that how we respond to, and interpret anything that is done to us impacts on well-being and mental health. Normal is what happens most of the time it’s how we’d ordinarily behave and ordinarily think. We moderate all the external stimuli through our beliefs and behaviours and this interpretation is manifested in the way we respond and behave. We always have a choice and unless we exercise that choice today will just be yesterday repeating itself. Decide on your own personal normality, how to do it and how to create a better reality out of that better normality. Visualise in detail your perfect day and over time repeat and refine it clarifying in your mind what you ultimately want and then take action. When you set up a trajectory for your life each small action makes a difference and if you keep doing it, it becomes a habit, your normality. Those small changes build into a different way of moving through the world and as you change your business will change with you. Over the course of a lifetime the change is huge, just keep on recalibrating normality every day. We all create our own lives and decide what normal looks, sounds, feels and smells like for us and it's vital to take control of your own normal. BEST MOMENTS ‘Luck as got nothing to do with it I get to do what I love every day because I chose it’ ‘I like most people grew up learning to fit in and accept things the way they were, to go with the flow, not make waves or stand out from the crowd’ ‘You can’t fly like an eagle when you roost with turkeys’ VALUABLE RESOURCES The Tutor Podcast Weird Things Guitarists Do book by Neil Cowmeadow www.Neilcowmeadow.com ABOUT THE HOST Neil Cowmeadow is a maverick peripatetic guitar teacher from Telford with over 19 years’ experience in the business of helping people. Learn how to start, grow and love your business with Neil’s invaluable advice and tips without the buzzwords and BS! CONTACT METHOD [email protected] The Tutor Podcast Twitter

Do the small things every day that will aggregate over time to a critical mass and boom! As someone with over 20 years, experience and expertise as a tutor, coach and business mentor Neil reflects on the reoccurring theme of being an overnight success. He explores how and why we perceive individuals as having always been successful and provides some great practical tips on how you can create a critical mass that will make the difference from the little things you do consistently every day. Listen in and find out more. KEY TAKEAWAYS Overnight success We tend to see how people are now and assume they are just that way when in reality everyone is constantly in transition and evolving year after year refining their approaches, developing and tweaking ideas. You only see the carefully managed image that someone chooses to show. You don’t see the history or the time it took to arrive at the present. Nobody is an overnight success; The little things It all takes time whatever you are involved in and there will be setbacks and disappointments along the way. Whether you are only just starting or planning to grow your business it takes time. If you put the work in and consistently focus on the day to day processes everyday things will move forward. Paying daily attention to the little things adds up over time. Goals The human mind doesn’t like vagueness it thrives on specifics and a short timeline can be setting you up to fail. Everyone overestimates what they can do in a year and underestimate what they can do in a decade. Having goals is a vital part of any business and thinking 10 to 15 years ahead is an effective time frame for your business vision - what you can imagine and what you can conceive looking forwards. We don’t notice the tiny changes as they occur but we see them when they achieve critical mass That single first student has become a booked solid schedule, your income exceeds what most people earn, your life and business fuse into a constant stream of fun and you are making a positive impact on people’s lives. This is when the realisation that you’ve achieved can make you feel like an overnight success. When it happens to you, enjoy it you’ve earned it, paid for it and deserve it because you did the little unseen daily things and put the time and achieved your critical mass, so party on! BEST MOMENTS ‘There are highly talented and skilled tutors who are scrapping around for clients because they have not set any goals’ ‘Some of us will carefully plan our businesses but some wont’ ‘They lurch from crisis to crisis in a perpetual state on emergency and stress but I know that paying daily attention to the little things adds up over time VALUABLE RESOURCES The Tutor Podcast Weird Things Guitarists Do book by Neil Cowmeadow www.Neilcowmeadow.com ABOUT THE HOST Neil Cowmeadow is a maverick peripatetic guitar teacher from Telford with over 19 years’ experience in the business of helping people. Learn how to start, grow and love your business with Neil’s invaluable advice and tips without the buzzwords and BS! CONTACT METHOD [email protected] The Tutor Podcast Twitter

In today's episode, Neil discusses how he schedules his lessons and why he isn't keen on taking lots of breaks during the teaching day. "Maybe I’ll ring a bell in your mind, maybe you’ll think differently and have a different approach – either way, take whatever is useful from here and do let me know your thoughts and ideas."KEY TAKEAWAYS First of all, I confess to not liking breaks very much: I teach back-to-back lessons, usually in blocks of 4 or 5 hours. A couple of my tutoring friends think I’m working too hard and should have a break between every lesson, but I can’t agree with them. There’s not much I like to do more than teaching, so I want to do it as much as I can, whenever I can, and as often as I can. That’s also why I don’t do holidays – because not doing something that’s incredibly rewarding and massive fun in order to do anything less fun just doesn’t make sense to me. I do limit my face-to-face teaching time to 50 hours a week, so I want to concentrate my 50 chargeable hours into highly productive blocks. Peak time for me is between 5pm and 10pm weekdays, so I usually book that period solid and don’t schedule a break for myself. I’ll book the rest of the day in booked-solid blocks, consolidating as many lessons as I can into each day. Breaks don’t pay the rent – let’s say you charge £50 an hour for your tuition – every 30 minute break costs you £25 – or to put it another way, your hourly rate drops to £40per hour. Breaks disturb my rhythm – I’m much happier as one lesson runs into the next, there’s a sort of momentum built up and my energy stays high when I’m teaching – breaks, on the other hand, are slumps in my energy, so I have to regain that momentum every time I take a break. To me it’s like driving in stop-go traffic, accelerating from rest and working up through the gears uses more petrol than cruising at a steady 60mph on the motorway. Breaks break my state – When I’m teaching I’m at my best – alert, interested, enthusiastic, funny, caring and committed: this is how I love to feel and how I love to move through the world. Every unnecessary break I take moves me out of that state and is a less enjoyable experience. Teaching is bliss – it is something I love to do - I’m in flow, most of the time – Mihaili Czikzhentmihaili – peak state. Time distortion: hours fly by in a pleasurable state for me – I project that and my students pick up on it, too. I believe it makes me a more effective teacher, too. VALUABLE RESOURCES The Tutor Podcast Weird Things Guitarists Do book by Neil Cowmeadow www.Neilcowmeadow.com ABOUT THE HOST Neil Cowmeadow is a maverick peripatetic guitar teacher from Telford with over 19 years’ experience in the business of helping people. Learn how to start, grow and love your business with Neil’s invaluable advice and tips without the buzzwords and BS! CONTACT METHOD [email protected]

‘Most of the time our emotions manage us, we don’t manage them’ In this episode, Neil explores how our emotional state impacts on our responses and how this, in turn, influences how we are perceived. This is a fascinating look at how our emotions work and what we can do to be in control of our emotions and use them as a positive resource. Listen in and find out how you can be in control positively. KEY TAKEAWAYS What are emotions? They are unregulated responses to stimuli and come from the mid part of your brain. Emotions are fast responses and they can be so powerful that they completely take over. This can be dangerous if the response is anger because this emotion blocks out any regulating thought. Emotions are generally just triggered by the beliefs you hold in your mind. A belief is a decision you’ve made once based on the information you had at the time you can change your beliefs based on having different or better information. Your predominant emotional state usually defines your perceived personality; Depressed people spend more time feeling low about things whilst optimists spend more time looking at the positive. Everyone’s personality is essentially driven by emotional states and you get to decide the state you are in. Master your emotions You’ve got to master your emotions or they will master you. What goes on around you is essentially neutral and how you respond is crucial. Whatever happens, the first thing to do is take a pause, – say nothing, do nothing notice the emotional spike within as you begin to respond ask yourself is this a helpful response? If it is not, imagine the best response and recognise when it begins to occur in you. There are events every day in tutoring and you can choose to respond positively every time. Develop a teaching state Developing a separate teaching state of mind can be very helpful, ask yourself the question; What would be the very best version of me do? Keep your problems out of the teaching space Whatever your personal worries or challenges you must not bring them into your teaching space. They are your student, not your counsellor and if you are a mess you will lose your position of authority If you display any negative emotions it is bad for business. Whatever happens – pause and think about what the best response is, and use it You can come to terms with lots of challenges in this way and the more you do it the better you get at it. We all experience emotions so it makes sense to be in control and manage them positively The forces that are already driving you are either adversaries or resources for you to use. BEST MOMENTS ‘Things going on in the world are not about you, leave your ego at the door and respond to whatever is coming to you in your own chosen way’ ‘Decide how you want to respond and apply that to everything that happens’ ‘It's important to understand that people often invent bullshit stories and fake reasons, this is a way of protecting themselves and their own egos’ VALUABLE RESOURCES The Tutor Podcast Weird Things Guitarists Do book by Neil Cowmeadow www.Neilcowmeadow.com ABOUT THE HOST Neil Cowmeadow is a maverick peripatetic guitar teacher from Telford with over 19 years’ experience in the business of helping people. Learn how to start, grow and love your business with Neil’s invaluable advice and tips without the buzzwords and BS! CONTACT METHOD [email protected]

When you’re in business yourself it’s easy to get sucked into doing the same day to day things. In this episode of The Tutor Podcast Neil explains the best and most effective way, that he’s found, to work in your business and not on your business. KEY TAKEAWAYS Become invisible for a day or two every month, get off of the grid and eliminate all of the distractions like phone and emails. I find that at home it’s harder to do thins and completely get away so I like to be completely away somewhere else in a different location. Clear a whole page in your diary and go into ‘total lockdown mode.’ As soon as it’s in your diary then commit to it. Ensure you have a plan. Book a venue where you can sit and get stuff done. Order food and drinks at specific times and plan when you will take breaks so that you know exactly how your day is mapped out. Structuring the day will help you to stay on course and get the work of great value to you done. Getting away from your usual surroundings can also help to clear your thinking which will bring new ideas to mind. Having a different place to work in can take the emotion out of the business. The location of where you go away should be far enough that you can just pop back home to do something. If You really can’t get out or away from your normal place of working, then hiding your car around the corner can be a good method of stopping people from distracting me. Make a habit of doing this every month so that you can get the really important work done. BEST MOMENTS ‘Being busy can blindside us to working on instead of working in our business.’ ‘It’s great to be wrong about stuff because being wrong gives you an update on your thinking and how you can do better. ‘If It’s really important, you will hear about it’ ‘You’ll be surprised at how much easier it is to think when you’re away from your desk’. ‘Don’t be a busy fool’. VALUABLE RESOURCES The Tutor Podcast Weird Things Guitarists Do book by Neil Cowmeadow www.Neilcowmeadow.com ABOUT THE HOST Neil Cowmeadow is a maverick peripatetic guitar teacher from Telford with over 19 years’ experience in the business of helping people. Learn how to start, grow and love your business with Neil’s invaluable advice and tips without the buzzwords and BS! CONTACT METHOD [email protected] Twitter: @Tutorpodcast

‘Get started, the difference between 0 and 1 is all the difference in the world, make that difference and then it’s just scaling-up’ It’s the time of year when things are changing, schools start a new year - new students begin, schedules are reorganised and it’s time to maximise revenues. This is a good time to start working on your tutoring business so where do you begin? Neil is talking about how his own journey started and has some great advice about how you can get started as a tutor and create a business that will give you the life you want. KEY TAKEAWAYS Having a Mentor When you are beginning anything its key to find a mentor, someone who has been there and knows the way, they will hold you accountable, support and guide you. Learn everyday Look at those around you in tutoring who are doing well, what are they doing? Take a proven model and use it, adapting it to suit you. Which wider business models work well? keep notes and use them in your business. Read or listen to business and finance books and podcasts regularly. Where to begin Begin your business by designing it around your own wants and needs. The purpose of your business is to give you the life you want so you must know what this is, be selfish. Construct your perfect day in detail and use this as a basis to allocate time to your important activities first. What is your unique selling proposition (USP)? why are you special? Finding students There is no point in being brilliant if no one knows about you. You must tell everyone what you are doing and that you are the best tutor for them. Develop your elevator pitch and let everyone know what you do. Marketing Harness the power of social media to get yourself known. Get into local sales groups and discussion boards, where people are asking each other where can I find….? You must have an online presence; it is a non-negotiable. Post content that is subject-specific as this will enable search engines to find you. Be Professional Work on your business as well as in it. As a business make sure you keep records of sales, expenses and mileage. Register with HMRC, set up a business bank account and monitor your progress. Always think like a business person, be efficient and make the best use of your time. My whole business revolves around me, what I love to do on my terms. Get started – because that’s the difference that makes all the difference. BEST MOMENTS ‘I love mentoring, and I want to help even more people get paid for doing what they love’ ‘The more people you help the more your life gets better’ ‘Get the biggest benefit out for the smallest input in’ ‘What is it you are truly fabulous at?’ VALUABLE RESOURCES The Tutor Podcast Weird Things Guitarists Do book by Neil Cowmeadow www.Neilcowmeadow.com ABOUT THE HOST Neil Cowmeadow is a maverick peripatetic guitar teacher from Telford with over 19 years’ experience in the business of helping people. Learn how to start, grow and love your business with Neil’s invaluable advice and tips without the buzzwords and BS! CONTACT METHOD [email protected]

Now is the best time. Now is ALWAYS the best time. Let yourself be seen and heard. How can you offer your service to the right people if they don’t know who to approach? You got to find your clients if you want to be big as a private tutor. Neil says that since the school summer holiday is coming up, make the best out of this break to market your services. Holidays are a perfect time to talk to parents about how you can give better than what their kids’ school offers. Seize the opportunities now! Get seen, get hired, get paid. Start tuning in to The Tutor Podcast to learn more. KEY TAKEAWAYS School summer holidays serve as a rest for students and educators alike. For the UK, there’s a peak demand for travel, traffic jams, and inflated prices. Is the timetable for schools still applicable with the education provided in the present? Neil believes that learning should be perpetual and that the school calendars should be re-evaluated. Private tutors should take advantage of these times. Most parents are dissatisfied with how their kids receive their education these days. They’re looking for tutors that can provide better education compared to what the school offers, and they’re prepared to pay them well to do this. Double down on your marketing. “The job of marketing is to make the product or service more visible to potential customers and to capture their attention – and ultimately occupy mind space.” Make your brand and service you offer visible through signages, banners, clothing merchandises, etc. Talk to people and let them do the spreading of the news about you. BEST MOMENTS “I’m bewildered that education system has not moved with the times.” “Being a tutor is the best thing that you can do with your skills and knowledge.” “Do whatever you can to be seen and get noticed.” “You have to get yourself seen and found.” VALUABLE RESOURCES The Tutor Podcast on Twitter: https://twitter.com/tutorpodcast ABOUT THE HOST Neil Cowmeadow is a maverick peripatetic guitar teacher from Telford with over 19 years of experience in the business of helping people. Learn how to start, grow and love your business with Neil’s invaluable advice and tips without the buzzwords and BS! CONTACT METHOD Neil Cowmeadow [email protected]

There’s a certain satisfaction in taking the train - safely, confidently delivering you to your destination without the hassles of traffic while generally providing you with a pleasant landscape along the way. In Neil’s opinion, that’s how life should be - we get on at a predetermined destination and move through our day automatically, or “running on rails”. Often in business we find ourselves becoming overwhelmed by our daily tasks, which gradually encroach upon our lives until we find ourselves overtaken and overwhelmed. This can lead to less free time and a steadily dissatisfied home life. We need to remember that our work lives, too, need to be “running on rails”. By following Neil’s practical tips, you can make sure your work life runs on rails, and by doing so, make life that little bit more pleasant. KEY TAKEAWAYS Waking Time - Set your wake up time for the same each morning, but make sure it’s not too early. Get the sleep you need! Morning Routine - Whether it’s exercise, meditation, journalling, or even the steps you take in order to feel fresh for the day, treat it like routine. And make sure you dress the part. Big Tasks Time - There has to be a set time each day for the nitty-gritty of work, that period of the day in which you get things done, and take care of the “big dogs”, the tasks that absolutely have to be overcome. Learning Time - Devote a portion of each day ti improving yourself somehow, whether by reading, watching documentaries, or listening to podcasts. Self-improvement is the key to lasting happiness. Work Time - When you work, work your hardest! Meal Times - Take scheduled stops to refuel. Nap Times - Naps can completely refresh your day, provide you with a burst of energy, and improve your daily outlook. Stop Times - Know when to go home and stick to it! You don’t have to achieve everything in a single day. Remember that you should always finish when you’re done, not when it’s done! Leisure Time - Mark your holidays on a calendar. It gives you something to aim for. Remember that work fits around you and your family, not the other way around. Bed Time - Have a set bed time and stick to it. Set an alarm if you need to, but make your way to bed at that predetermined time each night. Have a bed time routine, too. Fill in your journal, turn off your screens, repeat any mantras or self-hypnosis techniques you may use. BEST MOMENTS ‘I’ll probably grow out of it eventually… one day…' ‘Lay a track that will take you from where you are to where you want to go every single day’ ‘I visualise a four man bobsleigh team’ ‘I will not slob around the house in a manky onesie looking like a bag of crap’ ‘If you’re not learning, then what business do you have in being a teacher?’ ‘One single idea can be worth a fortune' 'Finish when you’re done, not when it’s done' VALUABLE RESOURCES The Tutor Podcast Weird Things Guitarists Do book by Neil Cowmeadow www.Neilcowmeadow.com ABOUT THE HOST Neil Cowmeadow is a maverick peripatetic guitar teacher from Telford with over 19 years’ experience in the business of helping people. Learn how to start, grow and love your business with Neil’s invaluable advice and tips without the buzzwords and BS! CONTACT METHOD [email protected]