Neil explores the concept of the reticular activating system (RAS) and how it can be harnessed to achieve goals more effectively. Neil explains that the RAS is a filtering mechanism in the brain that determines what information is important and worthy of attention. By setting clear goals and affirming them daily, individuals can activate their RAS to seek out and notice opportunities and evidence that align with their goals. Neil also introduces the idea of confirmations, which involve actively observing and documenting instances that support one's goals. By implementing this feedback loop of goal-setting, affirmation, and confirmation, listeners can enhance their belief systems and manifest their desired outcomes. Neil encourages listeners to try this approach and shares his own experiences of its effectiveness.

• The reticular activating system (RAS) is a small network of neurons in the brainstem that plays a crucial role in attention, focus, and motivation.
• The RAS acts as a filtering mechanism, allowing only information that it considers important to pass through to the brain.
• When we have a specific belief or goal, the RAS becomes more attuned to noticing information and sensory data that align with that belief or goal.
• Setting clear outcome goals and process goals is essential for achieving success in a tutoring business.
• Using affirmations and confirmations can help strengthen beliefs and reinforce the RAS's focus on bringing more of what is considered important into one's life.

The Process

1. Set Goals:
   1. Specific – eg hours taught per week
   2. Written down
   3. Present tense
   4. What I want – not what I think someone else want for me
   5. See yourself doing the things which produce progress toward the outcome goals
   6. Have quantifiable results – eg the number of new students recruited per month
   7. Visualise taking the call from a new student and adding them to your tribe
   8. Design the perfect execution of the activity
   9. Outcome goals – e.g., to have a full roster of guitar students and a waiting list to study with me
   10. Process goals – the activities which will bring me the outcome goals
2. Read and/or re-write your outcome goals every day – the well-known idea of affirmations. Add emotion of any kind to those affirmations and kindle the interest of the RAS: if you’re excited, fearful, anxious or whatever, the emotion you use will goose the RAS and prompt it to allow what we want to be noticed. This is all well and groovy – and it works, to a point
3. CONFIRMATIONS
   1. Take note of information and sensory data which relate to your process and outcome goals
   2. Write them down, either immediately or as part of your day-end review and shutdown routine
   3. This simple act loops back to the RAS and encourages it to gather more of that good stuff
   4. Tomorrow the RAS will be even better at bringing you more of what you believe – strengthening your belief in whatever you’ve decided is significant to you 
4. Refine your goals: in light of all this confirmatory data, recalibrate your goals and update your affirmations

BEST MOMENTS

"And if we can figure that out, how do we use it to get more of what we want, to get it faster and to get it with less effort?" - Neil Cameron

"The RAS actually rejects vast amounts of sensory information, prevents it from reaching the brain. It only allows information that it considers important to pass." - Neil Cameron

"I think it's really important to read and probably rewrite your outcome goals every day. I do mine every day. This is the well-known idea of affirmations." - Neil Cameron

"If affirmations work, confirmations turn up the turbo boost. A confirmation is really taking note of information and sensory data which relate to the process and outcome goals." - Neil Cameron

"Once you've given it a go, drop me a line. I always love to hear from you guys, because I'm here to learn from you. I'm here to help, to share what I've learned so far on my journey." - Neil Cameron

VALUABLE RESOURCES
The Tutor Podcast
www.Neilcowmeadow.com

CONTACT METHOD
[email protected] 

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!

In this episode, I'm excited to share two heartwarming stories of the impact my teaching has had on my students. One of my former students credits me with changing his life through guitar lessons, which ultimately led him to pursue a successful career as a professional musician. Another student, who visited from the US, commends me for simplifying the complexities of playing the guitar, making it easy to understand and master.
I firmly believe in the power of minimalism, striving for maximum return on investment for my students.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• The power of simplicity: The podcast emphasises the importance of simplifying teaching methods and language to make it easier for students to understand and learn. The host believes in stripping away unnecessary complexity and focusing on the core principles.
• Impactful teaching: The podcast shares a story of a former student whose life was profoundly changed by the host's teaching of guitar. The student went on to become a professional musician and credits the host for his success.
• Making it easy: The host believes that the role of a teacher is to make learning easy for students. They aim to simplify the learning process and provide tools that enable students to play the music they want to play with less effort.
• Rejecting pretentiousness: The host expresses a disregard for academic and pretentious language in teaching. They prioritise plain and simple language over fancy words and esoteric concepts. The focus is on practicality and effectiveness.
• Continuous improvement: The host emphasises the importance of constantly refining and improving teaching methods. They strive to make their system leaner, slicker, and more useful, always seeking maximum return on investment for their students.

BEST MOMENTS
"He verified my identity and then said, I just want to say thank you to you. He said, the way you changed my life through your teaching of guitar has been profound."
"That's the sign of a really great teacher. They take something complicated and difficult and make it simple."
"I know that approach will upset many academics and it will really annoy the dyed in the wall old fashioned traditional types. But frankly, I couldn't give a monkey's."
"Her job and my job as teachers is to make it easy. Period."
"The writer Antoine de Saint-Exupéry put it beautifully when he said, perfection is achieved not when there is nothing more to add but when there is nothing left to take away."

VALUABLE RESOURCES
www.Neilcowmeadow.com

CONTACT DETAILS
[email protected] 

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!

In this episode, Neil Cameron tackles the topic of perfectionism and its impact on students. Neil shares his own perspective on embracing imperfection and highlights the fear that many students have of being anything less than perfect. He emphasises the importance of playfulness as a superpower for teachers, explaining how it can help students overcome their fear of imperfection and create a more enjoyable learning experience. Encouraging tutors, teachers, and coaches to have fun with their subjects, be silly, and not take themselves too seriously, as this can help students feel more at ease and open to learning. By fostering a playful environment, Neil believes that both teachers and students can thrive and experience the joy of learning.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Perfectionism is a common struggle for students, causing them to fear being imperfect and preventing them from trying new things.
• The norm of learning less and less is becoming prevalent due to the fear of imperfection and the overwhelming prospect of beginning something new.
• Playfulness is a powerful tool for teachers to help students overcome perfectionism and fear of imperfection.
• By being silly, playful, and having fun with subjects, teachers can create a lighter atmosphere for students and encourage them to be more open and less critical of themselves.
• When both the teacher and the student are having fun during lessons, learning becomes more enjoyable and effective, leading to peak moments of flow and better overall outcomes.

BEST MOMENTS
"I'm totally well adjusted to being imperfect, to being gloriously bad at stuff to begin with and progressively less bad over time."
"Even Japanese kids are lousy at speaking Japanese to begin with, aren't they? Doesn't stop them trying though."
"And here's the paradox as far as I see it. We've all learned this perfectionism paradigm, but we weren't perfect at perfectionism to begin with."
"Because if you take that deal, it's pretty much guaranteeing failure to even start. Because the prospect of beginning the new thing and being imperfect at it, well actually being bloody awful at it to begin with, overwhelms most people to the point that they don't even try."
"And that's why fewer and fewer people are trying new things. And the norm now seems to be to learn less and less."

VALUABLE RESOURCES
www.Neilcowmeadow.com

CONTACT DETAILS
[email protected] 

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!

Neil delves into the often overlooked aspect of self-care for driven entrepreneurial individuals. He emphasises the importance of prioritising oneself and taking care of personal health and well-being. Neil shares his own experiences and insights, highlighting the detrimental effects of neglecting self-care on both personal and professional aspects of life. He encourages listeners to schedule downtime, engage in physical activity, cook nutritious meals, and spend quality time with loved ones. Neil also emphasises the need to detach from negative influences such as media and politics for mental well-being. Ultimately, he emphasises that self-care is not selfish but rather a necessary foundation for success in business and life.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Taking care of ourselves should be a top priority as tutors, teachers, or coaches. Neglecting our own health and well-being can have negative consequences for our business and relationships.

• It is essential to schedule downtime and allocate resources for self-care. This includes activities like exercising, spending time with loved ones, and enjoying personal hobbies.

• Avoid letting your business mission take over and encroach on your self-care time. Set boundaries and prioritise your own well-being.

• Cook your own food and prioritise healthy eating. Avoid fast food and make a shopping list of nutritious ingredients.

• Detach yourself from fear-mongering media and negative influences. Take care of your mental health by removing negative sources and focusing on the positive aspects of life.

BEST MOMENTS

"Making ourselves top of the list and the most important thing we must do every single day."

"If you're messed up, how can you be good for your business or for your customers?"

"If someone else is more important than you, you don't really have a life."

"Whatever else is happening in your life and your business, there's one common component central to everything that you do. And that's you."

"Looking after number one is the priority one. Everything else relies on it. Because everything begins with you."

www.Neilcowmeadow.com

[email protected] 

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!

Neil delves into his unique perspective on the renowned book "The 5AM Club" by Robin Sharma. Neil charmingly categorizes individuals as larks, night owls, or even daring vampires, all while emphasizing the significance of personal rhythms over rigid routines. He underscores that success thrives not solely in the crack of dawn, but in one's ability to shape their environment, concentrate deeply, and manage tasks and engagements. Neil warmly invites listeners to explore diverse approaches and exchange their stories. Ultimately, Neil offers a down-to-earth stance on tailoring the perfect formula for success within the realm of tutoring entrepreneurship.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

1. The 5AM Club by Robin Sharma promotes the idea of waking up early and following a structured morning routine before the rest of the world gets busy. While this approach may work for some, it is not the only morally correct way to start the day.

2. It is important to work with your own natural predisposition towards being a morning lark, a late night owl, or somewhere in between. Whether you are a lark or a vampire (night owl), you can still achieve success by taking time for yourself, isolating yourself, and focusing on activities of high value when there are no distractions.

3. The core truth of the 5am Club is not about the specific time you wake up, but rather about isolation, focus, and control. Having routines and systems in place to take care of business while nobody else is looking is what truly matters.

4. The book may have a tacit attitude towards non-5am Club members, making it seem like there is something wrong with them. However, it is important to remember that everyone has their own natural rhythms and ways of working that can lead to success.

5. Ultimately, it is up to each individual to find what works best for them and their own unique circumstances. Experimenting with different waking and working schedules, and finding a routine that allows for isolation, focus, and control, can lead to personal and professional growth.

BEST MOMENTS

1. "Getting up at 5AM and immediately running your same structured morning routine before the rest of the world gets busy and starts making demands on you will change your life."

2. "These people are the larks and the wannabe larks. Those annoying gits who wake up early with a big smile on their face, ready to go and seize the day."

3. "Maybe I should write the 3am Club. The nocturnal antidote to Robin Sharma's smug larkery."

4. "Larks do get things done before the world's up. They're five miles down the road before the world has got its boots on. But the vampires, that's us, we work deep into the small hours when everybody else is lost in their dreams."

5. "It's not the time of day you wake up that matters. It's your ability to isolate yourself, to focus and control your activities and your interactions. That's the 5am club's core truth."

ABOUT THE HOST

www.Neilcowmeadow.com

[email protected] 

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!

People are by far the most complex conundrum for anyone to ever face. People are invariably the root of any problem that challenges and vexes us. Neil takes a look at the eternal walking mystery that is other people.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Take away the humans from almost any situation and most of the problems go away.
• People bring problems, but our ability to help them is a possible rich opportunity.
• If you find yourself in the presence of a control freak, narcissist or gaslighter, do yourself a favour and extricate yourself promptly.
• There is no amount of money worth being made completely miserable by another toxic human being.

BEST MOMENTS

‘People are without doubt the most complex, baffling, vile, beautiful, perfect, flawed, adorable, intriguing, savage, noble, mendacious and honest organisms in the cosmos.’

‘Some people are not good opportunities. The person may be just an opportunity to spend time with someone you don’t like.’

‘Don’t waste your life on a person who is a fixer-upper.’

VALUABLE RESOURCES

The Tutor Podcast

 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]

Almost everyone worries. From niggling concerns to full-on, sleep-crippling, progress-crushing hand-wringing, we are all sidetracked and stymied by possible disastrous outcomes that may happen or may not happen. Neil gives his take on worry and the futility of constantly considering future catastrophes and some alternatives to this drain on your time. 

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• If we are fixated on future events we rob ourselves of the joy of the present moment. 
• Worrying is a habit that gains us nothing.
• While we are worrying, we cannot deal with current problems and make long-term plans.
• You may begin to expect things to go wrong. Worry solidifies the expectation of failure. 

BEST MOMENTS
‘That dismal, catastrophic future burns all our time and energy that we have right now that we could be better using to create different future outcomes.’
‘Very often the flip side of worrying is that we can become so over-awed by what we’ve worried into existence in our own mind that we become paralysed by it.’
‘Write down your current assessment of the reality that you’re dealing with. Take a little time and write down your worst-case outcome, the very thing you’ve worried into existence.’
‘Block some time in and mark it ‘worry hour’. If you know that you must sit and worry about a problem for an hour, or two hours or more, you’ll immediately get total clarity on whether that’s a good use of your time.’ 

VALUABLE RESOURCES
The Tutor Podcast
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] 

Neil tackles the difficult decision of when to quit work and retire. This is often not only influenced by finances but also societal pressures, family, health and your own love for your job. He shares his thoughts on this landmark point in most of our lives. 

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• What we do is part of our identity. 
• Retirement can be the start of a mental and physical decline.
• Work can provide an active brain and a sense of achievement.
• If we choose to continue to work we can continue to pass on our skills, insight and knowledge.
• Say no to golf!!

BEST MOMENTS
‘I believe there are significant downsides to retirement as envisaged by my parent’s generations.’
‘The state pension system is bankrupt now and has been bankrupt for decades.’
‘Over the working life that we all have we tend to accrue a vast body of knowledge, a wealth of insight and understanding. If we retire, all of that knowledge, insight and understanding is removed from circulation.’

VALUABLE RESOURCES
The Tutor Podcast
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 key question you should ask yourself is ‘What are the 100 stupid things that I’m doing that really muck things up?’ Neil encourages you to take the time to give real thought to the truth.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Honesty is important to find your worst stupid things.
• Do not stop until you have at least 100.
• The counterpart question is ‘What are the 100 smart things that I’m not doing?’

BEST MOMENTS

‘I want you to charge at it!’

‘This is going to be an uncomfortable process if you do it right.’

‘Objectivity is tough because we all rationalise a lot of the stupid things we do.’

‘Just trade one bad thing that you are doing for one good thing that you can start doing.”

VALUABLE RESOURCES

The Tutor Podcast

 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]

Neil explains the concept of scripts, the simple and powerful tool for defining all things that you would like to have and be, and that are particularly good when used by people with poor self-image, low motivation or lack of direction.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• A script should be properly written down and consistent and should be read aloud at least twice a day. We tend to manifest the things we say.
• Begin with the idea of anything you want to come true for yourself. Write in the present tense, ‘I am..’ to reinforce the statement. You will naturally in your actions begin to assume the virtue that you aspire to. 
• Incorporate your goals and target date them.

BEST MOMENTS
‘I’ll ask them to read it aloud at least twice a day. First thing in the morning to prime the mind for the day. Almost like giving them a prod and saying, remember this? Then last thing at night is to program the unconscious mind for integration of those ideas whilst sleeping.’   
’How will you know you’re failing if there’s no parameter for success or failure?’
‘Try it on yourself guys. Write yourself a script if you feel that you are lacking in purpose or if you fear making mistakes or you don’t really have your direction sorted out.’

VALUABLE RESOURCES
The Tutor Podcast
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]