Glenn Edley: Learn every day

Glenn Edley

Glenn Edley has made some tough decisions in the last 12 months and he is now seeing the benefits. After his first e-mail business was bought within six weeks of starting, he knew he was onto something. He has also turned one of his weaknesses (Mondays) into a strength.

He shares with us some of his learnings about business, maintaining motivation and focus during the recession and how he creates action despite the distractions.

Hometown

Auckland, New Zealand

Hobbies & Interests

Learning to play guitar, love cars, read a lot online and offline, like a bit of philosophy, design, architecture and art. Oh and I like bikes both powered and eco-friendly pedal ones.

My Companies & other Roles

My primary business is Spikemail. I also own Email Direct with Mark Hobday and we just started mygymdirect with two other business partners.
I write the MondayMotivator (haven't missed a Monday for six years now) and the mini-motivator. Have a car blog, car137.com, and generally try and help people out with email marketing who either can't afford Spikemail or are a not-for-profit.

What were the circumstances around you coming up with the idea for Monday Motivator?

I was just learning about email marketing, starting a new business, seriously broke and I thought it would be a great way of keeping in touch with my friends family and prospects. Another reason was I had been living a lifestyle that meant my discipline was out the window. Writing the MondayMotivator meant I had to get up on a Monday morning, be still, write and get that email out by 9am. In the beginning I failed a few times and people let me know. It took awhile but my discipline came back and I feel positive it's the best thing I could have done to get myself out of a hole - inspire others. Works every time.

How do you manage your time between the different brands and businesses that you run?

I am getting better at this. Lately I have needed to keep a close eye on the clock at meetings, which I hate. Also I have started to say no. Saying no is one of the most empowering things you can learn to do. Learning to say it nicely comes from knowing what your goals are, who is relying on you and how much energy you can really put into a new project.

What does the recession mean to you? How are you responding to it personally and professionally?

The recession hit me hard in December when a major client's NZ operation closed down. I feel I really put my head in the sand for a while and pretended the recession didn't exist as we were still getting new clients. Then it slowed as people were unsure what was going to happen and budgets were cut. This made me really look at my business hard. I realised it had become bloated and it was time to get Spikemail back into shape. During that process the ideas I had and actions I took opened me to new opportunities.

Recent accomplishments that you are proud of?

Being happy with Lauren travelling for three months without me. Generating $184,000 for a client from one email was pretty cool. They had a fantastic offer though. Manning up and making some difficult decisions that have positively affected my business.

Did you celebrate them? How?

I love celebrating big and small wins so Lauren and I go to our favourite restaurant, Meredith's, whenever we can. Mostly I just do a little dance in my office or the Wendy Petrie fist pump. You should mark your accomplishments. It will make them easier to remember when you're feeling like crap after a failure.

I am busy at the moment doing:

Anything I can to keep myself busy while Lauren is overseas for three months. That includes; renovating, tweeting, reading, concreting, starting a new business, starting a new blog, moving all my content to glennedley.com, writing articles, researching as much as I can about the things I love, consulting with companies.

What keeps me up at night?

Boy racers thinking they are drifters past our house, Twitter, proposals, and ideas for clients, myself and even friends and family.

What drove you to become involved in your industry?

I love email marketing. It is grossly underestimated and underused in New Zealand. There are definitely companies doing it right but so many more are either doing it really badly or not at all. Sometimes not-at-all is the right way to go. It's terrible. Compliance is a big thing for me. The Anti-Spam Act was an excellent step in legitimising email marketing but became a painful experience for many companies. I work very closely with the Anti-Spam investigators and meet with them whenever I can to see what's new and run ideas past them.

My big hairy audacious goal this year is to:

Reach $100k per month turnover - with 3 staff.

I knew I was onto something when:

A company brought my first email marketing business six weeks after I started it. That was serious confirmation I was doing something right.

My secret for getting things done is to:

Do them straight away and turning everything off so I have no distractions.

My darkest hour was when:

I was owed money by a business partner, realised I wasn't ever going to get it, and a supplier shut down the business until I paid them an outstanding amount. This killed me at the time but if the supplier had let me go on as I was I would have been worse off. One of the best business lessons I have ever had and the guy who did it to me is a good friend and we still do business together.

I came through it by:

Getting my head out of the sand, sharing the problem and coming up with a plan to get out of it. That only took a week but I learnt how to never put myself in that position again.

What would do if you were not ...

An email marketer? Maybe a professional race car driver. I might still achieve that goal though.

What do you do when things aren't going your way?

I probably jump up and down like a little kid for about 2 seconds and then work out what's happening to make things not go my way. Then I either go with it, because you never know it might be the right way, or work out how to make it go the way I want.

What is the most important piece of advice you'd give to people who are struggling to create a positive change in their lives?

Practise smiling. Look at yourself in the mirror every morning, every day and every night and smile. Smile so hard it hurts and then smile at other people. They will smile back and you will feel amazing. I smile and laugh a lot. Sometimes I don't know why but it feels good and it makes other people feel good too. I might talk a lot but people seem to like having me around. Smile.

What is the hardest lesson you've had to learn in life?

That I cannot trust everybody I like. Does that stop me trusting people? No, but it makes me ask more questions.

What separates successful people from unsuccessful people?

This really does depend on your idea of what success is. However, hard work and knowing what you want, even if that changes, and wanting to produce great things is what separates the successful from the unsuccessful. On a business front though execution and sales skills is what separates successful people from unsuccessful people.

Do you have any daily rituals that help you keep focused and in the right mental state to succeed?

I have realised that little routines make your life a lot easier and able to be in a successful state of mind. I call this the Art of Laziness because you are constantly looking at ways to improve things or make them more efficient so they don't take up your time and you can put all your energy into what you want to do. So my biggest ritual is getting my clothes, lunch and everything else I need ready before I go to bed. Then I can just get up, put my clothes on, have my breakfast, pick up my stuff and go. Makes every morning a breeze. I don't have kids right now though so maybe ask me this question in a few years.

Do you have a formal goal setting process?

Sometimes. Mostly though I put my goals into a Mind Movie and I play that as often as I can. However I might write down some milestones so when I get to them I know I am on track to getting my goal.

Have you ever been scared to .........? What did you do about it?

I am always scared to pick up the phone and ask for a meeting. To get over it I just do it. I'm still scared but I do it and soon as I'm talking about email marketing I'm fine.

What comes first...success or confidence?

I have written about this before and I feel positive confidence comes first. However, it comes from small successes. Succeeding on small things allows you to grow your confidence to try bigger things and then bigger things until you're successful.

The Parting Shot:

I'm excited about the creativity and the ideas coming from the fact people have been cruising until the recession bit them and are now using that creativity to boost their businesses and create change. It's an exciting time to be alive.

* Dwayne Alexander is founder of LiveMyGoals. Follow him on Twitter.