Geoff Doyle, founder of Greatness HQ has been running his own businesses for almost 20 years. His website oozes with his true belief in human potential so I wanted to ask him for tips and inspiration!
But having an interview with Geoff isn’t one-sided. He’s as interested in you as you are in him.
- Greatness HQ logo
SD: When did you set up the Greatness HQ blog and did people take to it straight away?
Geoff Doyle: I was the CEO of a real estate business that had over 50 offices across Australia as well as a few in New Zealand. My exit from the business occurred about 18 months ago and I was unemployed for the first time, so I thought that I would take it easy for a while and just get a job running someone else’s company - but I found that those type of roles are hard to come by when you have always been self-employed. Everyone thought that I would want to leave, so I eventually came to the idea that I would need to work for myself again.
This time I was looking for something that would allow me to work from home and spend more time with my family. I have a couple of websites and have been actively following some people on the internet for a while and thought that this would be the way to meet my requirements; so Greatness HQ was started around October last year. For this site my original thinking was that it would be targeted at guys (as one of my other sites is female friendly), but I am finding that while I have a slight male dominance in those coming to the site it is pretty even.
SD: Do you think being business-minded already was advantageous for you? That's something that I find a lot of creatives struggle with.
GD: As a general rule the more creative a person the less business minded they are. For this person I would encourage them to focus almost exclusively on the creative stuff they do so well, but they must get someone on-side to drive the business side.
I disagree very much with the creative person who shuns money, as if it is something that makes them dirty. I would argue that they have a responsibility to be commercial so that they can share their creativity with the world. Without the financial support they will struggle constantly and maybe never have the opportunity to have a voice for whatever their creative talent is so my answer is that they have to look after the money side of things either them elves or via a manager or close friend.
I disagree very much with the creative person who shuns money, as if it is something that makes them dirty. I would argue that they have a responsibility to be commercial so that they can share their creativity with the world. Without the financial support they will struggle constantly and maybe never have the opportunity to have a voice for whatever their creative talent is so my answer is that they have to look after the money side of things either them elves or via a manager or close friend.
SD: On the flip side -there's the person who wants to make money and take the money but in a lot of cases have no choice but take expenses only. It can be tough to negotiate if you don't know how to value yourself.
- Geoff Doyle's website Greatness HQ
GD: As a writer you know how much time and effort goes into creating a book. Now there are 1000s written each year, but very few actually generate any real return for their authors. This is so sad. This is where marketing comes in and can enhance the value of the book. You need to have a belief about what you do, and about the value that you add. People will often pay much more that you think for a service as long as you are adding heaps of value. The internet has driven down the value of a lot of things around the world.
SD: I guess it can be used to advantage too - to create a portfolio of proof of whatever service you say you do.
GD: For example there are so many places where you can source articles for a blog for around $5 to $7 an article. This makes it difficult for a writer in a major economy to participate. So there is no value in being the greatest writer, actor, painter if you are totally broke and living in poverty. That poverty can help to amplify the creativity, but it is likely to diminish it as the person is spending their time worrying about paying the rent.
Just thinking about what you are doing, you have the opportunity to make a big difference in the lives of a lot of people. Selina, may I ask what sort of writing do you do?
SD: Yes we are learning - especially advocating thinks like kickstarter while we learn about funding. I’ve written for various organisations on different topics. I would like to continue on a career path writing about music and human rights issues.
GD: Did I see somewhere that you have travelled a lot with your human rights work?
SD: No, but I work for Deeyah Khan. She's a Norwegian Pakistani female who was a child star and attacked by her community for being a female singer so now she works to help empower music artists and women around the world.
SD: No, but I work for Deeyah Khan. She's a Norwegian Pakistani female who was a child star and attacked by her community for being a female singer so now she works to help empower music artists and women around the world.
Geoff looks her up on Wikipedia and notices her work to educate on honour killings in order to eradicate the practise.
- Deeyah's website Memini - in remembrance of women murdered in 'honour' killings
GD: These are terrible things, you must be a strong person to be prepared to shine a light on these issues.
SD: She (Deeyah) is - she has had threats on her life but it's made her more determined to speak out.
GD: There seems to be some real unrest in the UK at the moment after the killing (Drummer Lee Rigby) last week.
SD: It's gone both ways, communities coming together too. But what makes me angry is that the troublemakers from both sides - EDL or Muslim extremists - they have the same agenda. These organisations want to create division and people fall for both. That's why people have to speak up and I think good people are getting airtime this time around.
GD: That is good news. So with the honour killings that you have written about, how many has there been in the UK or Europe?
SD: I think it's estimated around 100 a year in the UK, I’d need to look it up – I know it’s not an accurate figure of how many killings take place anyway, because the figure is only what's reported.
GD: Seriously?
SD: It's very difficult because if a family wants to hide the fact they killed their own child - who is going to report it if they’ve isolated that child without others to notice them missing?
GD: Yes. So how can these killings be stopped?
SD: I think Deeyah's mission; which is to get organisations like schools, hospitals and police to know the signs will help a lot. So hopefully this way they (potential victims) will know they're not alone if they learn in school. it's a difficult crime to identify but just by bringing it to attention that's a step, because the tight-knit communities who commit to this mentality try to keep such practises to themselves.
GD: You need to find the strong men that are prepared to renounce these practices and publish their stories. the stories of how they may have found other ways to be true to their religion but also being merciful to their daughters. I know that they will be running the risk of being ostricised in their community but these are the guys that can start to turn this around.
Selina this may be your challenge to shine a light on these guys.
SD: I agree with what you said Geoff, with your motivational website I could just find the strength to do so.
We ended the conversation here, with Geoff apologising if he went off-tangent from what I asked of him. He is also a strong advocate for self-publishing books on Amazon because of the benefits.
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