Articles - Geoff Blades

So long as ur home, you might as well swing from the chandelier

This song started playing randomly on my phone this am.

I don’t know if you know it?

By Sia, in the chorus she sings—

I’m gonna swing from the chandelier, from the chandelier

I’m gonna live like tomorrow doesn’t exist

There’s some bad “teachings” from this song I’ll talk about in a bit.

But there’s much good to get from it too.

Lemons from Lemonade

There’s of course lots of bad sh*t going on right now.

People are sick and dying.

Our economy and financial futures look bleak.

For the greater good we’ve given up all of our freedoms, uncertain what we’ll get back.

Yes, we can sink in this.

Spend your days and nights filled with terror, fear, worry, anxiety, depression.

Or you can use these hardest times to get stronger.

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Advice from the ER—Especially now this 1 principle matters most

Now is obviously a hard time for many of us.

First and foremost all of our hearts go out to those who are sick and directly impacted by the virus.

For many others on the frontlines, in our medical and emergency services, it’s harder than ever.

Yet fortunately, this is what they are trained to do.

“It’s always chaos around here”

A friend in emergency medicine said to me.

His business is emergency, and he’s been conditioned to deal with it.

“You can’t know whether you can save the patient, or often even what surgery they need.”

But that’s when you fall back on your most basic training, he says.

“You do the most important thing right now that the patient needs, and go from here.”

It’s simple, right?

But especially in our hardest times, this can be very hard to do.

This is my home tie, and 2.5 other devices for best working from home

Meaning it’s the tie I wear when I’m working from home.

You know, like your favorite sweats that you might only wear indoors.

This is my tie version.

Dress to impress YOURSELF

Home tie is just one of the “devices” I’ve developed over the years for working from home.

See, as many more people now know, it can be hard to work from home, right?

You have lots of distractions you don’t have in an office, don’t you?

Like this Kat sitting right next to my keyboard.

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How you stop the virus killing your life, by focusing on these 3 things

When I worked on Wall Street I never understood why busy people wasted so much time.

Much of the day in fact gets slaughtered in things that have zero bearing on your success.

Just chopping things out.

And focusing on what truly matters, you can massively amplify your success in far less time.

Thinking is the same.

70,000 mostly negative redundant thoughts

As I’ve written about lots of times—like here, here, here—the brain is a hellish machine that ruins your life.

Killing your seconds.

Killing any chance you have of living in a positive mindset.

Killing precious moments you could be focused on valuable things.

Killing your life.

Such is the plight of humanity.

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A thought experiment from a former intelligence officer with a chilling scenario

A buddy is a former spook.

If you met he’d seem very much like a regular guy.

Interesting background, fun to hang out with.

But if you get him talking on topics that some might call conspiracy, well, he’ll go to town with you.

Not in a David Icke crazy kind of way

But in the way that intelligence officers are paid to think.

Potential scenarios.

What risks we might face.

How to thwart them.

Best respond in some worst-case scenarios.

Over the years he’s thought through many such cases that most of us never want to imagine.

“And you wouldn’t be surprised to hear how many of them have been cooked up by someone,” he says.

“Movies like Contagion and Impossible Mission 2 give bad actors good ideas.”

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Feels like America is getting back on the horse, just like we’re still having sex

“We’re still having sex,” my friend said to me.

“What?” I blurted.

“Do you know that some 75 million people have been infected with AIDS and 32 million have died?” She said.

“Yet we haven’t stopped having sex, have we?”

That’s a reason I got good with this shutdown

I accepted it won’t last long.

It’s inevitable.

Just a matter of time before Americans say—

OK, so there’s a threat… we’re getting back to work anyways.

“When haven’t we faced threats?” A military buddy said.

After the most devastating attack on American soil on 9/11…

When we still faced a real threat of terrorists blowing up sporting events, public gatherings, planes, and everything else…

We didn’t just shut down.

Hide in our homes for the next decade.

We got on with it, and for better and worse we kicked back.

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Forget about Mad Max, Dark Knight Rises, becoming a virologist

I’m pretty good in the mind.

Tens of thousands of hours researching these topics.

Hours a day of mental conditioning does this for you.

But I’m still human, and sometimes still need a bailout of my own thinking.

Fortunately I’m surrounded by pros

Some of them are experts in the mind.

Others are my friends and clients who I’ve helped over years on these topics…

Who can then help me back when my mind starts to run on.

Such as yesterday.

When Cuomo announced we were locking down New York.

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Again this is only for bankers who especially now must be more commercially effective

Rainmaking Bankers

Hi there.

I hope you’re doing as well as can be expected.

I don’t know if you checked out this free video program for winning in banking I sent around a couple weeks back.

I’ve been getting a ton of great feedback on the program.

And people keep telling me it’s even more valuable now.

It’s of course gotten harder to win

The markets and economy are in tatters.

And it’s of course a much harder time to drive your banking business.

Less meetings.

Capital markets are closed

Fewer companies will transact.

It’s harder to connect with your clients but also a time when they need you even more.

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How to focus on crucial goals, without any clue where the future is headed

“How are your 2020 goals looking?” I asked a client I might take on.

“A complete disaster, “ she said.

Not surprising.

Her business is directly tied to public appearances, which in a world of social distancing is equivalent to leprosy.

“Just the last two weeks our business is 90% off forecast,” she added.

That’s why forecasts are useless…

Now, don’t get me wrong, of course there’s real value in long-term planning…

And all of my methods are built around projecting out your Grandest Reality.

The problem is we fool ourselves into believing we have any clue what the future holds.

The human brain HATES uncertainty, and does anything it can to “create” stability.

Yet as I say in this video, I can’t know if my heart will be beating by the time you’re watching this!

Still, how much time do we spend thinking we can plan our careers, businesses, lives?

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Now is your time… to show whether you’re forged of butter or steel

How quickly the world can change, right?

Just a few weeks ago it was business as usual and now…

Well, what is it?

Do we even know yet?

Certainly not the usual

Things aren’t just carrying on as they were.

There’s been a massive shock to the system, and we don’t know what it means.

It certainly looks like we’re headed into some tougher times.

Like after 9/11 and the credit crisis, many industries and businesses have already been massively hit.

Many people too.

It’s a time when we can fall over.

Calm is more contagious than any virus or meme

You’ve certainly seen the Keep Calm and Carry On meme but do you know where the phrase comes from?

In 1939 in preparation for World War II the British government printed Keep Calm and Carry On posters they pasted all over London.

The purpose was to keep up British morale ahead of the imminent Nazi bombings.

And also to ensure when the bombing started, the Brits remained strong.

“Your buddies die when you panic”

“In the SEAL teams,” my shooting instructor said to me…

“The first and most important lesson you’re taught is that calm is contagious.”

Calm breeds calm.

“And that’s most crucial in a firefight,” he said.

If as soon as bullets go flying operators start running around like headless chooks of course more die.

1 thing 5X+ more terrifying and contagious than Coronavirus

There are some things we just shouldn’t say in our modern world.

And more personally, I shouldn’t say.

Since I was a kid I’ve been told to keep my mouth shut.

But often I’m too busy jamming my foot in it saying stuff like…

$850,000,000+ COMPLETELY wasted

By just two candidates running terrible campaigns.

One of the smartest investors on the planet, Tom Steyer, invested $253,718,074 to “buy” zero delegates.

Imagine what social impact that money could have had invested in the sad, rampant homelessness in Steyer’s hometown.

For his $600,000,000 Bloomberg at least bought himself double the delegates of mayor Pete and nearly 10% of Bernie’s count.

If only he’d spent another $5,400,000,000 he might have had a chance.

In the pursuit of social justice more money has been “invested” in cheesy advertising by two dozen Dems than any other campaign in history.

Yet we’re still looking at a near certain Trump victory.

Maybe it’s OK to say that, but not so sure about this…

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He learned to walk again, so you can run through your goals!

I don’t feel like writing a dramatic opening.

About how this young fit man with big aspirations severed his spinal cord playing football.

Laying on the field unable to move his limbs, terrified.

Years, decades of tireless struggle just to use his legs again.

I don’t want to talk about how it puts our lives in perspective.

Only to say that talking with Rodney Flowers on this podcast showed me something about our goals.

I won’t suggest you listen to this podcast

I greatly respect your time.

And you may know I don’t listen to podcasts like I don’t listen to the radio.

Yet I will say that if you’re looking to learn more on our limitless minds.

And what we can will our bodies to do.

Then you might get value from our podcast or even just scanning this transcript.

This is only for bankers who want to make more money working less

I know not many of you are bankers.

And that not all bankers want to make more money…

Let alone by working less 🙂

But for those who do, this short video program is for you!

For crushing your career in banking

With less effort.

In less time.

Making more money.

Getting promoted faster.

Creating more options in your career.

You want to be making it rain.

Because this Masterclass is 16 hours of rainmaking pleasure

And because I know some of you love my ranting at a camera…

We’ve recorded this short video program that gets to the heart of the Rainmaking Bankers Masterclass.

This free program gives away the golden goose for making more money in banking.

And if you’re serious about getting it pouring, gives you more intel and a deeper discount on the full program.

For a limited time only, you can check out the video program here.

Or if you like you can also get the program straight from the website for 30% off right here.

Kindof 5, more like 3ish, blatantly obvious things Bloomberg did wrong

Combating Trump

So I got a lot of questions on what I wrote last week on Bloomberg’s terrible debate.

I know a lot of capitalist-types like “Mike,” and were bummed at how poorly he performed.

Hence, I mostly got questions about what he could “do” better. (they still didn’t want to believe he’s done)

To be totally honest, I’m way over this topic of politics.

And I know you might be too, so I won’t be coming back to this much more.

Yet I feel it’s my civic duty to point out a handful of the BLATANTLY OBVIOUS mistakes that have ended him.

1. Look at this campaign page

What do you see?

“Mike will get it done.”

“Mike will fix healthcare.”

“Mayors like Mike.”

Mike. Mike. Mike. Mike. Mike.

Who? They’ve obviously gone with “Mike” so the $60bn man sounds more every day man…

Yet how about not making his campaign all about Mike, but about every man and woman?

As self-centered as Trump obviously is, he won because his campaign was the least self-centered.

Hillary went with Make HerStory.

Trump rallied around America being greater.

Just like Barack’s Yes We Can, it’s about us, not you, you, you, Mike.

Just like that Bloomberg is game over

Combating Trump

It’s obvious through a lens of influence why so many leading candidates fail.

Politics is a game of influence.

Of course many of us would like to believe it’s about substance.

In the same way we want to believe guests on late night talk shows aren’t just actors promoting something.

No-one playing basketball on a football field should expect to win.

Trump proved with no political experience that powerful influence was all he needed to win.

Powerful slogans. Powerful messaging. Powerful debates.

Like Schulz who failed to even get started, Bloomberg proved the opposite.

No slogan.

No messaging.

No influence.

No debate.

Game over.

fyi, because I think we can all benefit from this, the Masterclass for Combating Trump is free.

“Not my Presidents Day,” sadly this CEO said

Combating Trump

“I thought you love America?” I asked her.

“I do,” she said, “What’s that got to do with anything?”

Smile on my face I said, “Well I know you believe in democracy and the rights of your fellow Americans to choose…”

Knowing where I was headed, she jabbed me in the ribs with her fork.

“I know your games by now and I’m not playing,” she said.

I couldn’t help myself.

I just find it fun to play with people who take this political theater so seriously.

“But it’s different with him…”

She started on the usual rant about the President.

Nothing unusual, just the typical copy you hear from a democrat.

Like those Republicans still groaning about Bill and Hillary, the same headlines never get tired.

She’s not talking about Russia anymore.

Just the impeachment. How he’s a pig. Stupid. Racist. Bigot.

But she’d just got done talking to me about inclusiveness and respecting different choices, so again I couldn’t help myself…

“Well, I know how important inclusiveness is to you, and I know you have great respect for other people’s vote.”

“You can’t get me that way,” she said.

How Victoria’s Secret angel Elsa Hosk helped me improve my modeling

I have a confession for you today.

It’s a little awkward for me to share.

Now I’m not expecting that you’re a priest or priestess and sharing this with you absolves me of my sins…

But I feel we’re real honest with each other so it’s good for me to share anyways.

I’m No Angel

I suspect you already know this about me but…

Sometimes I do things where I have an ulterior motive.

If you read back through many of my newsletters for instance, you’ll see lots of hidden meanings.

Ambiguities.

Often I’m sharing different messages for people at different initiations, such as this article on the hidden secrets of the mind. (confessing again, not the real hidden secrets, just those I can share publicly)

And then there’s articles like this one picturing Victoria’s Secret angel Elsa Hosk in her lingerie.

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How to win more like AI, without being a robot

A client has an enormous opportunity in front of him.

But with enormous opportunity often comes an enormous challenge.

“There are steps I want to be taking,” he said “but I find it hard to get myself to do it.”

Perhaps like me you’ve faced the same type of problem?

He’s never procrastinated before.

Has a massive “why” for getting it done.

Yet it can be hard, can’t it, to take those most important steps that propel you forward.

The Resistance We Face

You may have seen me write about this topic before.

Over the years I’ve talked a lot about the ways we can get stuck in our massive goals.

See, the more important the task.

The bigger the opportunity.

Often, the more you want it.

The more likely it is that your brain throws roadblocks in your way.

Fear of failure. Fear of success. Fear of getting it wrong.

Such things can cause you to resist taking actions that lead to what you want.

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will the super you keep showing up?

an old buddy said to me the other day—

what’s going on?

it’s like I don’t know how you’re gonna show up anymore.

you started popping up in ties on videos.

then you dropped your email headers and started to get simple.

I just don’t know who you’ll be next time I see you.

who are you going to be?

I asked—

when you get home tonight and you’re with your family.

who are you going to be?

which version of you shows up there?

how do you speak?

behave, be?

how is that version of you different to who you show up as in business?

with your buddies?

when you’re hanging with one of your oldest and best friends?