The Act of Attraction
What can you tell our readers about your new book The Act of Attraction In Business?
The book is about the application of The Act Of Attraction, which is a holistic and practical approach to creating successful outcomes, in business specifically. It is holistic because it incorporates every element of our activity and it’s practical, because it leads you through a process to enable you to align your activity, so that you move towards the intended outcome with ease. Whilst the book is written for the business context, The Act Of Attraction itself is as applicable in life generally as it is in business.
The basic premise of the book is that attraction is already working for all of us, whether we are aware of it or not. We are already attracting the people, circumstances and outcomes in our lives through our activity, be it our INTERNAL activity: our desires, beliefs thoughts & feelings, or our EXTERNAL activity: our language, behaviour & actions. Whether you are attracting the things you want or not is another matter.
The Act Of Attraction explores the 4 elements that make up our activity in some detail: VISION, MINDSET, BEHAVIOUR and PLAN and it shows us how aligning those four elements so that they work together, creates the TRACTION we need to move our lives and businesses forward. Because it’s when we align what’s going on in our head with what we’re actually doing that we create extraordinary results!
2. You left a career in HR and management to undertake training in Psychology, so at what point did you decide you wanted a change?
It was as a result of realising that in the pursuit of ‘success’, I had managed to ‘successfully’ plan myself into being miserable that I took the plunge. I was a natural planner from a very young age and because planning works, I had always managed to achieve the things I planned to achieve. However, back then I was misguided by goals that were based on what I thought would bring me success based on conventional ideas of what success represented, rather than what I actually wanted and so, whilst I had ticked every box and certainly ‘appeared’ on the outside to be ‘successful’, I found myself at 28 having the life shattering realisation that I was really dissatisfied with my life. So I changed it. That was ten years ago.
3. Have you always had an interest in people?
Yes. People have always fascinated me. I studied Sociology and Philosophy at college. When I look back, I realise that my management route was driven by a desire to influence the development of people and it’s the reason I went into HR. Since I left corporate, I have been driven by a fascination with what specifically enables people to create success in their lives and that fascination has influenced every decision I have made both personally and in business.
4. Tell us about your development of a business network from one to sixteen groups.
I was fresh back from Melbourne, Australia, newly qualified as a Clinical Psychotherapist/Hypnotherapist, with just a year of practice under my belt. I moved to a small town called Penarth in South Wales and setup practice working for myself. Having always worked in large corporations, I was suddenly aware of the need to be a jack of all trades. When you work for yourself, you have to get the work as well as fulfil the work which means suddenly I was faced with prospecting, marketing and sales. So, I went out networking. I joined a small business networking group in the South West of England called 4Networking and within a month I became the Group Leader. 4Networking had aspirations to grow and so knowing no-one in Wales, and seeing the opportunity to develop my own network and business using this new networking platform, I created a plan to open 8 groups across Cardiff and Swansea. As the network grew in South Wales, so did my profile and reputation and as a result, my business. I went from a struggling start-up to drawing 1K a week in 12 months and in the process I developed a 4Networking region of 16 business breakfast groups across South Wales. I believe it was the combination of my operational grounding and by then a well-developed understanding of people that enabled me to develop the infrastructure, including the leadership team, processes and training materials to enable that growth so quickly. As a result, my region and leadership style became the benchmark and blueprint for all other regions UK-wide as we developed 350 breakfast groups around the country.
5. Tell us about Alpha Associates.
Alpha Associates is my business and what we do is essentially develop businesses and business people. We do that through business strategy, mentoring, coaching and training and The Act Of Attraction is one of the programmes we offer.
6. Who is your book aimed at?
The Act Of Attraction is about creating successful outcomes, and the book is about the application of that in business specifically. It is applicable really to anyone in business, but it was written specifically for the owner of small businesses, from sole traders to those with a few employees and premises who have aspirations to grow but who struggle with juggling the many different aspects of running a business.
7. What is the first step we can take today to attract people towards our business?
The first step is knowing what you want! So many people don’t take the time to define what they want or where they want to be – instead they just let life happen to them. Either that’s because they don’t believe they have any influence over it, or they are focused on what they don’t want instead of what they do. Knowing what you want is essential in creating it and I call this visioning. A vision is a picture of how you want the business to be in the future and because it’s forward focused, it provides direction, and forms the basis of the strategy and all activity going forward. It includes what you want, in other words, your intent and it includes why you want it, in other words, your purpose. And because it includes both ‘what’ and ‘why’, it motivates the people in the business to take the action necessary to make it happen.
8. Tell us about a normal day in your world.
There is no such thing! Every day is different. I could be doing a visioning day with a new client at their office, or training their team, I could be coaching clients from my office on skype, or I could be travelling down to London for an event, or to deliver a mastermind group. Or I could be catching up on paperwork in my office. I love the variety!
9. Who have been your greatest influences over the years?
I have been influenced by so many people over the years, from the lady who inspired me to move into Human Resources all those years ago, to my dad’s wife who reached the pinnacle of her career in her late 30’s, to the Director of Strategy at 4Networking who believed in me and without whom, I would have achieved 50% of what I did, to the national team I worked with at 4Networking who lived and breathed an open and transparent culture where everyone was encouraged to drop their guard and to be the best them that they could be and where collective support was paramount.
But to be honest, each and every one of the hundreds of people I have worked with, whether in the capacity of a leader, a mentor, a therapist or a friend have influence me greatly and their influence shows up in The Act Of Attraction In Business.
10. What is next for you?
It’s a great question! It’s been a big year and having written the book, I am keen to see how it is embraced by the small business community, so the focus for now is on PR opportunities like this one. In the medium term, I am very keen to take this work into small - medium sized organisations with aspirations to grow and to speak to audiences about The Act Of Attraction. Longer term, I would like to create another national business network where the emphasis is on enabling people to rid themselves of the restrictions of old outdated conditioning and to step up and achieve the success that they desire. And, I believe that The Act Of Attraction is key to that.
Click here to buy The Act of Attraction by Tamsen Garrie
Female First Lucy Walton