The tour is on

What a start to the Dr. Naidu tour, organised by Team Europa! The Amsterdam venue on Tuesday night saw some 200 people stay late for a lot of information on OsteoDenx and answers to queries about the product, after a very thought-provoking introduction first where Dr. Naidu showed the state of the planet and what challenges we are facing on a global scale.

This was also part of the message on Monday evening's conference call with Curtis Bennett. Probably the best conference call we have done so far. What a promotion for Nikken and our technologies from this independent scientist who was himself first a sceptic but proved to himself the power of our technologies by measuring the effects with his thermal imaging equipment.

Both men will appear at September's Nikken On Tour. You better be there!

Curtis Bennett joins conference call

Next Monday, 9 June, we have the honour of featuring the gentleman on this photo (yeah, the guy on the left) on our Rhythm of Nikken conference call.

Curtis Bennett is a Canadian scientist who currently spends a lot of time imaging and providing information related to climate change.

Actually, he will be on a tour, visiting many cities to assess and give missing information on global warming.

However, the discussion on Monday will also be very specific to Nikken products and their role to a health life and a healthy planet. Curtis is the scientist featured in the popular DVD "Thermografix" where he proves the effect of some of our magnetic products through thermo graphic imaging.

Read his blog here, scroll down to 27 June 2007.

Join our call on Monday at 7 pm UK time:

Phone: +44 (0) 203 0032 666

PIN: 3096166

Keep it simple!

Spending time with children acts as a good reminder to keep things simple, pure and to the point. Adults often tend to complicate things for no good reason at all. Maybe it's too much formal education? Too many abstract ideas in our heads.

Children are cool. They tell you what they think (until we teach them not to). They ask for what they want. And they are good at it too. Children go for it! And they should. It's their planet as much as anybody elses.

After years and years of trying to find a good "system" to keep all my task and time management in one, good place... I finally solved all of those problems. And the solution was simple. I have tried all sorts of time management systems, the Tony Robbins one, the FranklinCovey, the David Allen. But good, flexible systems to support those methods have been failing. Their softwares have been unflexible and with too many bugs.

What if we could use a tool that we already use, every day? For many people Outlook isn't powerful enough. And it has not been built to act as a good time and task management tool. But you can make it one. With a few clever settings, and a few simple skills, your e-mail client becomes a very useful and powerful task management software. No to-do-lists that grow out of hand, no problems with scheduling follow-ups, checking projects, goals, roles...

What I'm promoting here is Michael Linenberger's book "Total Workday Control" which teaches you just how to do that in Outlook without any plug-ins or other needed software.

The benefit? More done in less time. Peace of mind. More time to enjoy on the Family Pillar. Like playing with your kids.

And talking about keeping it simple. Remember to do it in your business. Talk to people and ask what they want. Provide them what they want. Believe in what you do and be excited. Your excitement is contagious. We can learn that from kids as well...

The transformation gap

"You will spend most of your life in the transformation gap."

was one of the key messages that stuck in my mind after Nikken On Tour. Visiting four cities, Nikken was on tour specifically on the topic of network marketing this month. Our guest speaker was none other than Jerry "DRhino" Clark. And transformation meaning change and growth - being in the transformation gap means power.

With humour and incredible presence, Jerry made clear what it takes to achieve success in network marketing, mastering the three angles of the Success Triangel: internal communication, external communication and technical know-how.

The meeting in Paris was an incredible experience. The venue was sold out and the number of attendants exceeded available seats. Almost 600 people joined us on this magical Sunday with great atmosphere and a lot of excitement. On Tuesday, in Budapest we had around 200 people turn up and it was an unforgettable evening, as we started the meeting by pinning Hungary's first Diamonds Arpad and Zsuzsanna Bilibok.

You should have been in Budapest. The training was among the best I have ever seen. Both fun, energetic and very profound.

Powerful launch of new HBM in Finland

The new format HBM was successfully launched in Tampere, Finland, last weekend. 44 participants enjoyed a very focused, streamlined and brilliantly delivered training by our Finnish HBM Trainer Kristiina Harju, who is also an experienced international leadership trainer, author and corporate coach. Actually, in just a few weeks time, Kristiina will be in Paris to accept an international award for leadership development.

Four Platinum couples were present at the HBM to support their teams and the entire training ran smoothly and all participants reported how beneficial they found the training.

Finland is a steadily growing market. Year after year they keep improving. Keep up the good work! And welcome to the next HBM in September!

Healthy Body - and what I do about it...

The Five Pillars of Health is really cool. So simple but the more you allow yourself to focus on the value of this simple philosophy, the more it makes sense and the more you find yourself making subtle changes that gradually but powerfully impact your everyday life and bring you more balance and joy.

Like the Healthy Body. So where do we start? Nikken products obviously so you get good sleep, pure water and air, nutrition .... and so forth.

And then? Relaxation? It's so easy to go for your goals and stay productive all the time.... so you don't take the time to relax. Or when you get overwhelmed to find a distraction to bring you a temporary feeling of relaxation when you are really building up tension in front of the TV or on the internet.

When you could engage in the simple act of giving yourself a massage with the Magboy. Not having a partner around is no excuse. You don't need another person and the Magcreator to totally re-energize your body with some bumpy magnets. Just take out your Magboy and start. Work on your entire body and notice the difference. Take a few deep breaths. And stop thinking. About anything. Not even your goals this time. Your brain deserves a rest.

Exercise is a fun thing. Hard to get started but hard to stop once you have... Like somebody intelligent said: "everything is hard until it gets easy". Once you are in the habit of taking a daily walk or run in your CardioStrides, it will be easier to do it than not to do it.

This morning for example, after just a few hours of sleep in my Nikken sleep system and an intense week, I got as usual at 6 am (no 4 am pick-up for an airport today...) Looked outside the window. Had a sudden thought to stay in bed for an extra half an hour and skip my morning jog.... But what amazed me today was how easily that thought just disappeared. The new habit has taken over. It takes more effort now for me to stay in bed than to go for a run!

And it was such a good decision. I will benefit all day from my morning jog.

Just like you will benefit for the rest of your life when you follow the simple disciplines of activities that match your values, your dreams, your goals. Like talking to new people. It does get easier when you do it every day. After a while you can not not do it. So just do it.

The World's Longest Hug

On Valentine's day this year, Paul and Sandra Gerrard from London achieved a Guinness World Record by clinging to each other for 24 hours and 1 minute in the world's longest hug.

Both were wearing Nikken products to stay strong and balanced while spending a well earned 24 hours together. Both of them had a life long dream of beating a world record and had been leading very busy lives.... so the idea of this hug was the perfect combination for them.

For those of you who have attended HBM.... 4 4 4 !

Jan Carlsson gets DSA Award

Jan Carlsson from Sweden is one of Europe's most successful Platinum level Consultants. He lives a comfortable NIKKEN life style on the "gold coast" outside of Gothenburg, and enjoys leading his productive team with a very coaching-oriented approach.

On 8th March, Jan was awarded the Swedish Direct Selling Association's award for "excellency in direct selling".

Congratulations Jan! Keep up the good work. And thanks for the wonderful testimonial you gave on stage. Nikken rules!

News from Brussels - NIKKEN joins FEDSA

Two new companies joined the European Federation of Direct Selling Associations this week. One of them was telecommunications company ACN and the other one is NIKKEN.

FEDSA is a lobbying organisation in Brussels with one aim: to protect the interests of the direct selling industry in the European political arena. The members really consist of the national DSA's, but big, international companies such as NIKKEN can also join as corporate members in order to get a first-hand view of what is happening in the industry, and also in order to contribute both financially and with direct engagement in the different issues.

Of course, we were courted by many of the DSA's that we have not joined yet. We are already members in the UK, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Russia and Turkey, and applying in France as well as with the German UV-DV. But they all want us ....

It will be interesting to follow some of the issues that are currently on the table. More on that later.

From Brussels: Big DSA day

Belgium is quite an interesting country. It has always intrigued me and I'm sure many others. Also in the Nikken world, sometimes overlooked or seen as an outsider. But then, suddenly, people from both language groups start creating momentum and Belgium starts to climb the charts of top European countries. Belgium did a great February and almost, almost beat Holland that we usually hear more about.

The business knows no boundaries, really. Romania climbed nicely in February, beating Denmark. Hungary had a great month and established itself clearly as the third largest market in Europe after Germany and France.

Writing this in central Brussels, waiting to meet delegates of FEDSA, the European Federation of Direct Selling Associations. This is the industry organization that does lobbying for us directly at the EU level. They are doing some good work, including a recent study that really supports the industry and has been presented to EU politicians. Most national DSAs are members of FEDSA, but also some large, international companies as corporate members. We are applying for membership tomorrow and it will be interesting to hear what happens in the corridors of Brussels when it comes to Direct Selling.

Also tomorrow, our application for the new German counterpart, UV-DV, will be handled.

So by the end of tomorrow we might have joined two more strong forces to promote direct selling in Europe.

Speaking of which, the very active and well managed Swedish DSA has its annual gala in Stockholm on Saturday. NIKKEN is of course represented and there will be photos from the event available here soon.