Make Your Mark Blog

Hi there Shed here… Great to see you - have you lost weight / been working out?

Today I’m going to encourage you to start working for yourself or at least start up a sideline that’ll bring you great adventures and lots of money too…

It’s my fervent belief that you can get any idea off the ground - it just takes three simple steps:

All you need is a good idea you believe in, an expert to help you bring it to life and then some careful attention to detail to ensure your vision is executed to your satisfaction. These steps to success are exactly what I go through in my book ‘Ideas Man’.

Anyway, this month, the whole thought of working for someone else inspired me to think up a new product…here’s the prototype…

So now I’ve got this prototype, it should be much easier to find a company who already makes and distributes novelty gifts and then persuade them to release it as a product.

Recently, a friend of mine told me he’d come up with an idea he thought I may like. He said I should launch a new range of breakfast spread called ‘I Can’t Believe It’s Not Buddah’. I loved this idea so much that I got fired up about turning it into reality. It took three different moulds (bought online) and five tries with loads of butter (I discovered you need to melt the butter until it’s soft, not runny) and finally this wonderful result came out…

Maybe it’s an idea that will spread!…

I love this butter idea so much that I’m thinking of creating a whole new ‘novelty butter market’ by selling tiny mini ‘Buddha Butters’ in little packets. Do you think it would sell?

I’ve even trademarked the name ‘I Can’t Believe It’s Not Buddah’, and we’ll see if that works too.

All the best and I wish you huge success if you decide to start something new today…

Yours,

Shed

———————————————————————————————–

Shed’s bestselling, inspiring and amusing book IDEAS MAN is out now.

See more of his adventures and products on www.IdeasMan.co.uk

Read Shed’s inspiring story.

———————————————————————————————–

Hi, Shed here… Might I say how gorgeous you look today…

This month, I’ll prove to you that the process for turning your ideas into amazing adventures is wonderfully and devilishly simple. It goes something like this: you have an idea in your head, you take steps to make it happen - then… incredible opportunities arise:

All you have to do is START DOING SOMETHING NEW…

THE WORLD’S NEWEST CELEBRITIES - let’s see what you think…

This is a great example of how an idea can cause an adventure. Three years ago, I created a new range of sweets - and unknown to me, a packet of those sweets got sent to a guy in China called ‘Dominic’. He called me up, we became great friends and three years later - just recently - Dom flew me out to Beijing for a book launch for my new title, IDEAS MAN.

Years before I made contact with Dom, I’d been trying to release a new set of ‘trading cards’ for kids (the full exciting story is chronicled in my book). The range of characters is called ‘HELLEBRITIES‘, and here are a couple:

Even though the HELLEBRITIES trading cards never got the backing for a global launch, whilst I was in China I took the opportunity to see if I could turn some characters into 3D Figurines instead. What’s brilliant about China is that there are loads of talented people over there who can help with your idea (for a much lower price than here), and they’re even reachable through the internet (just Google ‘China Manufacturers’). Here’s what the sculptor produced:

If you’re a manufacturer or a retailer and you’d like to help make the HELLEBRITIES range the huge worldwide success it deserves to be, please get in touch through my personal site.

So that shows you how one idea (my range of sweets) can then create a huge adventure (a trip to Beijing) and also make another idea come to life (the HELLEBRITIES models). Pretty exciting!

And this is proof that…

***WHEN YOU START MAKING A NEW IDEA HAPPEN, YOU NEVER QUITE KNOW WHERE IT MAY TAKE YOU…***

All the best and here’s to your ideas!

Yours,

Shed

———————————————————————————————-

Shed’s bestselling, inspiring and amusing book IDEAS MAN is out now.

See more of his adventures and products on www.IdeasMan.co.uk

Read Shed’s inspiring story.

———————————————————————————————-

Hi, Shed here… Great to be with you.

This month, I’ve got two new ideas for you…

1) THE p-Pod - the next big thing in MP3 players?

Forget apple! The next big thing is PEAS. I am very proud to show you my latest idea for a new mp3 player - ‘The p-Pod’:

If you’re a model-maker, graphic designer or manufacturer and you’d like to help me get this idea off the ground and into the shops, please get in touch through my personal site.

2) THE AMAZING ‘DRY CLEANING’ ADVENTURE (never thought I’d write that sentence)

Life is very exciting…because you never know when an idea might hit you. I was in a Dry Cleaner’s shop and became intrigued by the plastic covers used to protect people’s clothes. I noticed that they were printed with the name of the Dry Cleaning shop - and also that there was a space of white in between the reoccurring information.

So I asked myself the question: “Why can’t I use that space….perhaps to promote my new book?…”. I spoke with the Dry Cleaning bosses - a pair of lovely guys named Masood and Ali - and after we came to a deal, we printed a new batch of covers, complete with an advert showcasing - IDEAS MAN…

So, this adventure neatly proves that…

***OPPORTUNITIES ARE EVERYWHERE***

..and so, this means that you can take your amazing brain and just look around, whilst all the time thinking: “What could be done better?” or “What could I do slightly differently?” and you’ll be coming up with great ideas and having superb adventures in no time…

All the best,

Yours,

Shed

Shed’s inspiring, informative and amusing book IDEAS MAN is out now.

See more of his adventures and products on www.ideasman.co.uk

Read Shed’s inspiring story.

Hello. My name is Shed.

I know that sounds a bit odd, but my parents called me that from an early age (it’s short for ‘Sheridan’).

Anyway…it’s great to be with you.

One of my huge passions is coming up with new ideas and then making them happen. You can see the sort of mischief and entrepreneurialism I get up to, on my personal site.

Right now though, my only focus is YOU. My aim is to make this blog incredibly useful (and hopefully also entertaining and interesting) for you. You can judge whether I succeed. . .

First off, I’m going to read your mind. So, prepare to be astonished.

Ok, good… hold still…it’s coming through.

The fact that you’re visiting the ‘Make Your Mark’ website tells me so much about you. First off, it tells me that you’re someone who wants to make things happen.

Secondly, you’re someone who searches for information on how to make those things happen. Already, these two facts about you mean that I know you’ve got all the talents needed to achieve success in any field you want, namely: you’ve got both the desire to succeed and also the intelligence to search for ways to make your success happen.

So that’s good news for starters, isn’t it!

In this series of blogs, I’m going to share with you some of my adventures in creativity and entrepreneurialism and give you my secrets of success. Hopefully you’ll find them both interesting an inspiring… If you enjoy them and find them useful, you can read more of my adventures and secrets for success in my latest book ‘Ideas Man’…

All the very best and I wish you great success…

yours,

Shed

SHED’S TEN QUICK SECRETS OF SUCCESS (PART 1: Secrets 1-5)

1- TO GET YOURSELF NOTICED, GO ABOVE AND BEYOND

For my first job in television, I wanted to make myself stand out amongst the thousands of applicants all equally able and willing to get their chance at working in one of the most diverse and upcoming production companies in the UK.

So, I sent my potential employers a pizza with the following message printed in the lid: “Wanted to give you a pizza my mind and say thanks for the interview…”.

Oh, how cheesy (ouch) is that! But it worked because the bosses noticed me. After I sent them scripts proving I was passionate about the job, they interviewed me and eventually hired me as a trainee.

So…research is key. Find out all you can about the job you are going for and the people who are ultimately responsible for making the decisions.

Then use your initiative to go above and beyond and make your application stand out.

2- FIND INSPIRING PEOPLE WHO SHARE YOUR DREAM TO WORK WITH

No matter how great and unique you are, it’s always better when you’re succeeding with someone else. We all need other to help fill in our skill gaps.

So it’s a good idea to always search for the best (and most knowledgeable people) in the field you’re hoping to succeed in and persuade them to work with you.

It’s also a good idea to share your goals with others by telling people (who you trust) about your aims.

Doing this will set your idea in motion, because when you’ve told someone you’re going to do something, you’ll want to prove to them you can.

And hopefully, they can also help you stay motivated. . .

3- DON’T JUST DREAM IT…DO IT

When you have an idea, the worst thing is to sit there and spend valuable time thinking about making it happen. So, stop thinking and start doing.

We all have creative ideas from time to time and the longer we sit and think about them the more we fill ourselves with self doubt and in the end stop doing it.

These days, with the internet at your fingertips, you are always so close to people who can help. As long as you start making your idea happen and then learn from the journey, you can’t go far wrong.

And remember, as Walt Disney said so well, “If You Can Dream It You Can Do It”.

4- PACKAGING IS KEY

One of the first novelty products I launched was the ‘Butt Plug’ – a bum shaped mould that goes on the back of an electrical plug.

Unfortunately, the packaging wasn’t quite right. It didn’t clearly tell the customer what the plastic bum was for.

Presentation is always key when you’re pitching anything – you must communicate quickly and professionally what your message is.

5- AIM TO FAIL

Try to re-train your mind and persuade yourself that when you try something new and than you fail, it’s a good thing.

It’s good…because, if you fail at something, you know you’re moving towards your goal.

All you then have to do is learn from those hiccups and power onwards and you’ll succeed.

(SECRETS 6-10 coming soon….)

All the very best in your endeavours…

Yours,

Shed

*****

To read more of Shed’s adventures in entrepreneurialism and find out the secrets of success, see Shed’s New Book ‘Ideas Man‘ and view his news and products on www.IdeasMan.co.uk.

Also, if you work in the Tea Bag industry, The Bottled Water Industry The Cheese Industry or would simply like to explore working with Shed on one of his new ideas, please contact him through www.IdeasMan.co.uk too.

*****

Read Shed’s inspiring story