Self Made Minds - The Book, The Group, The Movie

We started Self Made Minds back in in 2007 (dang that’s a long time) and stopped doing regular posts back in 2010. It opened so many doors for me and I have made lasting business friendships because of it. I’ve tried to relaunch it a few times but find it difficult to find the time (and motivation) to do long posts which a lot of topics require. So I think a new approach is needed and I hope I have the solution. A Book and a Facebook Group.

I guesstimate that 75% of my Facebook friend list are people that run their own businesses, some of whom are VERY successful. So I’m going to write the SMM book and share peoples journeys (this also gives me an excuse to go visit folk and some of them live in nice places 🙂 ). As an example of some the things my friends have done/do:

* Multi million pound sellout of his security company, he’s now started a new security software service
* Brews and sells his own beer from the basement of his pub
* Sold company for high $xxx,xxx,xxx to a top 10 tech firm, that was his fifth sellout, he’s sold at least 1 more since
* His huge SEO company imploded, he reinvented himself and is happier than ever
* Content sites that were making $xxx,xxx per month from Google
* Some of the biggest eBay affiliates in the world
* One of if not the biggest blog network in India
* Youtuber with 50K subscribers, he’s not even a teenager yet
* A cafe owner who’s added a micro bar to it
* Importing products from China and selling on multiple online marketplaces
* An SEO company that sold for £xx,xxx,xxx
* Some dude that lives in a mansion surrounded by reindeer (sorry Scott)
* Sold an affiliate site, started a playlist site, sold that, started a record label
* A digital nomad who travels the world and sells his private label product online to fund his lifestyle
* Imports heavy machinery from South Africa and sells all over the world
* An ex ballet dancer who’s wife’s business is one of the biggest wholesalers of greetings cards in the UK
* A pyrotechnician who does huge firework displays
* A gold trader who creates viral adverts to increase his business
* A contestant from Dragons Den who turned down the dragons offer

I could go on and on writing this list but I’ll stop there

I find a lot of successful people are often happy to help and share their knowledge and experience. Which is what I want the Facebook group to be all about. I also find networking really important, I’m not very good at networking in person (I’m a bit socially awkward like that), but I’m really good at connecting people online.I often introduce people that I think can help each other.

So there you go, what do you think?

Answer in our Facebook group 🙂

About Al Carlton

Al quit the 9 to 5 rat race in January of 2007, before then he was a software engineer and systems architect of financial system. Nowadays Al spends the days running his various businesses and experimenting with different ideas and opportunities.
Al can be found on twitter at AlCarlton.

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