The Tutor Podcast

Neil Cowmeadow

The Tutor Podcast the weekly show that’s all about the business of helping people. If you’re a tutor, a teacher or a coach, join your host Neil Cowmeadow for news, tips and insights to help you Start, Grow and Love your tutoring business. Plain English, no buzzwords and no BS. So, if you want to make more money - and make more of a difference - The Tutor Podcast will be with you, every step of the way.

  1. 6d ago

    THE EVILS OF TAXATION

    Hi, it's Neil Cowmeadow here with episode 449 of the Tutor Podcast, the Monday morning shot of over-caffeinated uncommon sense for anyone who wants to start, grow, and love their own tutoring and coaching business the same way as mine. My aim is to bring you the ideas that have helped me in my business journey and life, as a teacher, property investor, mentor, and parent (even in a no-nonsense no-BS kind of way), in the hope that it helps you to ave as much fun at work and in life as I do. Although I'm here to share, I'm also here to listen. If you have any ideas that you think might be of interest on the show, or any questions, then get in touch. It's info@neilcowmeadow.com or you can find me on X, where I am @TutorPodcast. Maybe you can help me to learn something new, something different, something better maybe, and maybe I can help you and share what you learned. I don't have all the answers and nobody does. Maybe you got a some better answers that would be helpful to myself and to others. Again it's info@neilcowmeadow.com or @TutorPodcast on X, formerly known as Twitter.  If you're good with all that, well okay, let's crack on with today – And we're following up from last episodes, 447 & 448- when we spoke about the fear of money and some ideas around it. In episode 447 I promised to go through some fundamental ideas about money which have been helpful to me over the years. So today we’re going to look at one of the biggest evils ever to befall a people or nation: taxation. Upfront, I’ll confess to having a position on taxation – it’s very simple: taxation is theft. Governments have given themselves the ability (it is not a Right, it’s a power they gave themselves) to decide how much of oyur money, my money - everybody’s money – they are going to extract at gunpoint from us.  Gunpoint? Yes, because if we don’t give them their self-appointed slice of Our cake, they will take us to court, impose fines on us, seize our assets or put us in prison. Should we resist, then the penalties escalate still more… at the end of the road of resistance there is armed resistance to being arrested… and the police are the ones with the guns, It is a deeply offensive system to anyone who is prepared to do something for themselves, work hard and long in pursuit of their goals, only to have corrupt governments steal a huge part of what has been earned, Whatever you do in the UK or any other developed nation, tax is likely to be your biggest expense. More of your money goes to government in the vast array of taxes foisted upon us than almost anything else you could think of. You are first directly taxed when you earn: income tax and National Insurance.  Income tax is a fairly recent invention, before which, there was no need to steal from the people of the land. Governments balanced the books the best they could – borrowing from private individuals and banks like a real person had to… they didn’t appoint themselves powers to steal from the common man to clean up their mess. Like so many other vile impositions, this was introduced as a TEMPORARY MEASURE… in 1799, then withdrawn – only to be reimposed and withdrawn again, before becoming a permanent blight on the people in 1842 because - once a government figures out how to fleece the population and get free money to buy votes with… well, they ain’t rolling that back any time soon. At least Income Tax calls itself what it is – but what about the euphemistically-named National Insurance? Well, it’s another tax – whatever you’re told it is called. So you’re robbed twice before you ever see a penny of what you’ve earned. It is criminal. The slime of government don’t wait outside the staff entrance to rob you – no: they make your employer collect the taxes for them. This imposes costs on the employer, who has no choice but bear it – suppressing wages and reducing the profitability of the business. The business not only has to pay to administer the tax on YOU, but is also taxed for employing you: employers’ NI. No wonder employers resist hiring… It makes my blood boil… unaccountable idiots in Westminster presuming to preside over everyone else in the country, paying themselves and their cronies/special interest groups with your and my money. AND it only begins with your paycheck – because if you do pretty much anything in Britatin, you’re being taxed on it. Taxed over and over again. You and I are merely cows to be milked in the great tax-farm that is the system we were raised under So let’s look at the next set of taxes you’ll be forced to pay: Consumption Taxes Every time you spend your remaining take-home pay, you face indirect taxation: here’s a quick list and a breakdown: Value Added Tax (VAT): The standard rate is 20% on most goods and services. Here’s how the government steals a chunk of any uplift in value a business makes: a tax on profit before the business is taxed agin on its profits (corporation tax) Over a lifetime, a significant portion of your disposable income goes toward VAT on electronics, cars, household items, and standard services. Duties and Levies: Depending on your lifestyle, you pay heavy specialized taxes built into the price of specific items, such as  Fuel Duty (petrol/diesel) another weasel word, duty: it’s a tax! Vehicle Road Tax Alcohol & Tobacco Duties – that weasel word again: it’s a tax! Insurance Premium Tax. And if you start to do OK for yourself in any way, the taxman will be there to rob you a bit more with Wealth and Property Taxes As you move through milestones like buying a home or building basic savings, you trigger transactional or localized wealth taxes: Council Tax: A recurring annual tax paid to your local authority based on the property value band you live in. “ah, but that’s a local tax – nothing to do with us” say the Westminster robdogs… what a con: it’s smoke and mirrors, because Westminster gave councils the right to raise this tax: therefore, it’s on Westminster Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT): Paid when purchasing a home or land in the UK over a certain threshold. Want to buy a home? Hand over your money… If you want to buy a second property to rent out and help your retirement, good luck - the taxman will steal 5% EXTRA from you… Capital Gains Tax (CGT): If you happen to own and then sell non-exempt assets (like a second home or shares held outside of an ISA) that have grown in value, you face a tax on the profit. But here’s the thing: assets – real assets – rise in value over time, because the system engineers inflation into existence… so more tax is generated. There are taxes on gifts, too…  Whatever you want to do with your money, the political parasites will want a piece of the action. But it gets worse: even more cynical is the way tax-free thresholds don’t rise with inflation, so more and more transactions become taxable. This is called bracket creep, or fiscal drag: more euphemisms and weasel-words…. SO let’s say you’ve had a good life: worked hard, built something, made something happen for yourself and your family…. I have some bad news for you: this is where HMRC really do you over with End-of-Life Taxes Inheritance Tax (IHT): a totting-up tax when you pop off your perch. Vile, vile, vile. Any wealth you have accumulated beyond an imposed threshold at the time of death is taxed at 40%. FORTY percent!!! You can almost hear them say “Well done you - You’ve spent your whole life paying in to a rigged game and managed to hold on to something… well done you – now we’re going to take nearly half of that away, just because we can. Tough shit” My point is that if you don’t take every step you can to limit your exposure to tax, your chances of ever making – much less holding on to – money is pretty slim. You MUST order your affairs in such a way as to minimise the amount of tax payable: that is what the law says is your right. You’re not dodging tax, you’re learning how the rules work and structuring your affairs so that you can prevent yourself being robbed. Evading tax is a criminal offence (the threat of fines and prison I mentioned at the start), but tax planning and minimisation is completely legitimate. If you’re not looking at this, you’re a moron. This is why being in business and investing aggressively is the best way to build wealth. On an average wage you can’t do it because you’re fleeced at every step. The average person in the UK is robbed of around 40% of everything they earn: direct taxes income tax and NI, then consumption tax VAT, excise duty/tax… the list goes on, capital gains tax, and then finally inheritance tax. Ever get the feeling that the game is rigged against you? That’s because it is. Ignorance is no defence: but understanding the game and its rules is. Learn the rules to play the game better is common sense… Ever wonder why you aren’t taught money at school? Now you know why: if you understand money you will be harder for Hmrc to rob. The ugly truth is this: all the government wants from you is to pay up every week or month and then die, obediently submitting to being milked at every step. Get educated about tax – get educated about money – and keep more of what you make.  We're going to wrap it up there because I’m trying to keep this brief. If you enjoyed the show, please like or subscribe. Feel free to send any questions or feedback to info@neilcowmeadow.com. Leave me a message on X where I am @TutorPodcast, and all being well, I'll see you in the next show. I hope this talk has been useful to you. Till next time, remember that you're always loved and you're never alone. Stay healthy, stay useful. Have a fabulous day.

  2. Oct 18

    A Matter of Great Interest

    Hi, it's Neil Cowmeadow here with episode 448 of the Tutor Podcast, the Monday morning shot of over-caffeinated uncommon sense for anyone who wants to start, grow, and love their own tutoring and coaching business the same way as mine. My aim is to bring you the ideas that have helped me in my business journey and life, as a teacher, property investor, mentor, and parent (even in a no-nonsense no-BS kind of way), in the hope that it helps you to ave as much fun at work and in life as I do. I don't have all the answers and nobody does. Maybe you got a some better answers that would be helpful to myself and to others. Again it's info@neilcowmeadow.com or @TutorPodcast on X, formerly known as Twitter.  If you're good with all that, well okay, let's crack on with today – And we're following up from last episode, 447 - when we spoke about the fear of money and some ideas around it. In episode 447 I promised to go through some fundamental ideas about money which have been helpful to me over the years. So Let's have a look at one of the fundamental ideas in business and personal finance that people are terrified of: credit. Many of us, myself included, grew up in environments and families and social groups where credit was seen as a bad thing, where you were encouraged never to be a borrower. If that sounds familiar to you, you're not alone. Not taking on a bunch of expensive debt is often a good thing but sometimes it can be a missed opportunity. Fundamentally we all need to understand the difference between good debt and bad debt because they are very different animals. Let's take a look at bad debt first because that's the one that we were really being warned against I think. Bad debt is the loan or advance of cash that you take in order to buy something that has no greater return than the value of the debt you took out. This might be something as daft as borrowing a ton of money to go on a holiday, or for designer clothing, or an expensive car, because you think it gives you some kind of social status. The problem is that the initial cost of the item is just the beginning. When we buy things on long credit we have to pay additional charges to the person or organisation that loaned us the money.  That's pretty bad in itself, come on, but a lot of times we'll buy items which depreciate in value. At the same time we're paying extra just to own that depreciating asset. Just suppose you go and spend a couple of thousand pounds on a bunch of new clothes for yourself. Maybe they've got the right labels on and are all the rage. By the way, the instant you put them in the bag and take them out of the shop, they're worth very little because they're now secondhand. The same thing applies if you buy a new car. The instant you put the key in and drive it off the forecourt, the value of that vehicle falls significantly. You will feel good for the first week or two whilst you have a brand-new car but that brand-new car is now only worth a percentage of the sticker price on the forecourt. If you bought at that sticker price on credit, the amount you owe for that now-depreciated vehicle is much higher than the sticker price.  Congratulations. In the time it took you to put the key into the car and drive it off the forecourt, you may have lost as much as 20% of the sticker price! Certain electric vehicles seem to be particularly prone to even higher rates of depreciation – there are some horror stories out there - but the average annual rate of depreciation for a typical electric car runs at about 20%, which is a few percent higher than that for an internal combustion engine vehicle. Do you opt for an electric, petrol, or diesel car? The new car carries a premium cost and if you're buying it on credit, that premium cost is even greater than the burden of depreciation, Because you're going to be paying it off for the next few years, And the cost of that time is paid for in money. The same story applies if you're using your credit cards or a personal loan to buy Depreciating or wasting assets. If you must buy such things and you can do it legitimately, buy it through the business. For me an example of a wasting asset is a guitar, but that's a tool for the teaching business, isn't it? To put it in a nutshell, bad debt is debt that costs you more than the value of the thing the debt is paying for. That's the dark side of debt. We'd better have a look at the bright side now. This is the concept of good debt, which I needed to have explained to me a long time ago by my then boss, Mark, who is an absolute business genius. Good debt is money that costs less to borrow than the value of something it buys. Simple but I never really thought of it that way. I was still saddled with the idea that all debt was bad and I should avoid it at all costs. Let's say that you have a fantastic opportunity to acquire business premises for what you do. The impact on the business is all positive. You can teach more in that environment because it's not working out of home. When you're not working in there you can rent the room by the hour to other teachers and tutors. The problem is you don't have the money to acquire those premises so you will have to borrow the money. Borrowing the money for those premises can be very good, because if the premises generate more money than the cost of taking out the loan, you’re quids-in. By taking out the loan you acquire an asset which pays for itself and gives you a profit on top. This is a good example of how good credit works. In my property businesses: I use borrowed money where I can to fund deposits, then I leverage that borrowed money again using mortgages For the balance of the purchase cost.  If I am creative enough. I  can acquire properties with little or none of my own money. Provided the rental property produces more revenue than I need to service those debt obligations I'm making money out of thin air. These days I'm not afraid of using credit - Provided it is good credit and not the bad kind. It's very, very important to understand the difference between those two things. One will make you wealthy. One will eat you alive. Here's a quick tip about credit in general. It is called the Rule of 72 and it's a quick and dirty way of calculating how fast your money will double or halve in value (depending on whether you're making money by or paying interest to a lender). All you have to do is divide the number 72 by whatever interest rate you're earning or paying. This will give you a good approximation of the number of years it will take to either double your investment principal or halve the value of a depreciating asset. Let’s say you have an investment which returns 5% per year. Divide 72 by 5 and you come out with a number just over 14. That means it will take just over 14 years to double your initial investment. If you could make it 7%, it’ll take around 10 years to double your initial investment, and so on. Likewise, if that new car depreciates at 20% per year it will be worthless in around three and a half years – at least on paper. In practice there is always a floor: the scrap value of the metal itself. That’s the big difference between good and bad credit. The financial difference is more profound, because it is a spread: the difference between the value of an appreciating asset (say, a property) which makes you money and a depreciating asset (say, a car). The good credit funded positive asset might make you 10K per year, the depreciating car, watch, iPhone or gadget might be costing you thousands of pounds per year as its value falls – lets say the car depreciates 1oK this year. The 10K positive and the 10K negative are a combined spread of 20K: both outcomes are built on credit: which one would you like?  We're going to wrap it up there because I've got things to do, people to see, and I know you do too. So I'm always trying to keep this brief. If you enjoyed the show, please like or subscribe. Feel free to send any questions or feedback to info@neilcowmeadow.com. Leave me a message on X where I am @TutorPodcast, and all being well, I'll see you in the next show. I hope this has been useful to you. Till next time, stay healthy, stay useful. Remember that you're always loved and you're never alone. Have a fabulous day.

  3. Oct 11

    What To Do If Money Scares You

    Hi, it's Neil Cowmeadow here with episode 447 of the Tutor Podcast, the Monday morning shot of over-caffeinated uncommon sense for anyone who wants to start, grow, and love their own tutoring and coaching business the same way as mine. My aim is to bring you the ideas that have helped me in my business journey and life, as a teacher, property investor, mentor, and parent (even in a no-nonsense no-BS kind of way), in the hope that it helps you to ave as much fun at work and in life as I do. Although I'm here to share, I'm also here to listen. If you have any ideas that you think might be of interest on the show, or any questions, then get in touch. It's info@neilcowmeadow.com or you can find me on X, where I am @TutorPodcast. Maybe you can help me to learn something new, something different, something better maybe, and maybe I can help you and share what you learned. If you're good with all that, well okay, let's crack on with today – and we need to talk about money: Talk about the fear of money. This is based on a conversation I had with one of the listeners. He is an extremely smart wonderful person but he's afraid of money. So my excellent friend and all my excellent friends who listen in, this one's for you. I did a little bit of grubbing around to try to investigate fear of money and it turns out there are three principal ones:  Chrometaphobia, which is an extreme fear of spending money. This makes misers out of successful people. If you fear to spend money and use money as a tool, the tool controls you. Peniaphobia, which is a persistent irrational fear of poverty. A long time ago this would have been a completely rational fear since there was no safety net of state benefits for anyone. A hundred or so years ago, back in the day, society and your community would probably look after you so you didn't die of malnutrition or exposure. These days you have to work quite hard to be in absolute abject poverty. Plutophobia, which is an intense fear of wealth or success. This is possibly the most bizarre of these fears. If you have plutophobia, the intense fear of wealth or success, ask yourself: How is that ever going to help you to do well in life? You would have to be mental to believe that, wouldn't you? Who knew?  I didn't even know there was such a thing as a fear of money but I've met lots of people who have peculiar relationships with money: from the tightwad who never wants to put his hand in his pocket to the guy who seems to make his money disappear as soon as it lands in his bank account, and all points in between. From people who save incredibly hard and spend nothing to people who spend everything and save nothing - We all know people like this, don't we? How you got the fear is something you can't really go back and do anything about. The chances are it will have come from parents, teachers, peers, or some experience along the way that fundamentally shifted your relationship with money. What I'm more interested in is developing a healthy and positive relationship with money, finance, and making things work better for yourself. First of all I think it's vitally important to understand that money is really just the counters in a game called life. It's completely made up. Money is a fiction that makes society run more smoothly than if we all had to carry around a pig under our arms to barter with. I think we all need to get over the idea that there's some inherent value in a particular piece of paper or plastic and that the numbers on the screen of your bank app mean absolutely jack shit. That's why banks can create money out of thin air on a bank screen and lend it to you, thus exerting vast amounts of power over you and your behavior whilst extracting additional value (interest on the loan) from you on something that they conjured out of thin air. That is f*****g magic. I'm not here to tell you if that's right or wrong. What I am here to tell you to do is acknowledge the fact that it's just a game and you're playing the game. Stepping back from understanding the rules of the game will not make you a better player. It will make you a bigger loser. It's vitally important, and this is my big point for today, to realize that money isn't good and it isn't bad. It is, at its heart, completely neutral. What makes it good or bad is how you or I choose to use it. Like any tool, a knife can be used to kill or to perform life-saving surgery, to murder or to prepare dinner for your loved ones. The knife itself is morally neutral and so is money. I love the idea that money is an amplifier. It will allow you to do more of what you already do. If you're a charitable giver you'll probably give more if you have more money. If you're a dick you'll probably do bigger-scale dick things if you have more money to finance your dickery. This is the reason so many people who win lotteries or, back in the day, the football pools, would often go broke very quickly.  Money doesn't do anything other than reveal who you really are.  Speaking very personally I've been able to do a lot more good as I've done more in business and property. I've been able to help more people because I've had more money to do it with - Just like owning better tools and more tools has allowed me to do more interesting jobs. The money is just a store of value that can be deployed, or spent, or invested as you please. It is convenient and reduces friction in society, that's its job and it's very good at it. What money isn't is the end point. If money is the end point of everything you do, you have a serious problem. There is always more money. You can't have it all so you'll always be chasing something that cannot possibly be achieved. Frankly if you were to acquire all the money in Britain, for example, you'd find that the government would simply print a whole lot more. That new print of money would cause the buying power of the money you already had to fall in value. This is inflation and it's built into the system. In a real money system there would be no inflation and the currency would be stable. However governments successively have inflation targets, which function just like another stealth tax on your overtaxed earnings. So - If you're afraid of spending your cash or investing your cash - just remember that you should be more afraid of leaving it in the bank earning very low returns (because its buying power is being systematically eroded by inflation, completely by design). And as far as your phobias go, start exposing yourself to the things you're afraid of. Initially this will be uncomfortable but that discomfort will diminish over time given exposure. Growing up in my family, we didn't really talk about money, so My brothers and I left school and went into the world of work with very little understanding of money. Pretty much no idea of saving, and it took years and years to get past that and to think in terms of saving, investment, then later into business and entrepreneurship. I've always tried to teach Alex, my son, how money works and he's starting to get it.  Money is not difficult but the rules are hidden in order to keep you poor and compliant. What I want you to think about today is breaking away from your servitude to money and the slavery of debt and taking control of your money so it works for you instead of for the banks and the government.  This is your wake-up call. The future starts now and it's looking bright.

  4. Oct 4

    Happy Birthday, Property Me

    Hi, it's Neil Cowmeadow here with episode 446 of the Tutor Podcast, the Monday morning shot of over-caffeinated uncommon sense for anyone who wants to start, grow, and love their own tutoring and coaching business the same way as mine. My aim is to bring you the ideas that have helped me in my business journey and life, as a teacher, property investor, mentor, and parent (even in a no-nonsense no-BS kind of way), in the hope that it helps you to have as much fun at work and in life as I do. Although I'm here to share, I'm also here to listen. If you have any ideas that you think might be of interest on the show, or any questions, then get in touch. It's info@neilcowmeadow.com or you can find me on X, where I am @TutorPodcast. Maybe you can help me to learn something new, something different, something better maybe, and maybe I can help you and share what you learned. I don't have all the answers and nobody does. Maybe you got a some better answers that would be helpful to myself and to others. Again it's info@neilcowmeadow.com or @TutorPodcast on X, formerly known as Twitter.  If you're good with all that, well okay, let's crack on with today.  It's crept up on me lately that this is actually a very special week. It's the last day of September as I'm recording this, which means that tomorrow (Thursday) it's actually my 10th anniversary of being a property investor. That's 10 years of buying residential properties in the background of running my teaching business.That particular journey started after I had a big cycling accident in Spain and realized just how close I was to being in deep financial trouble – the realisation that I (and perhaps you, too) might be one accident or illness away from going broke has driven me to build an investment portfolio and given me a significant degree of financial freedom. This is not a bragfest – frankly, if I can build something significant in the background of my teaching business, then anyone can – including you. I share this with you to: Inspire you, because I am proof of what is possible for you, and Because there’s a point that’s worth sharing – especially if you are driven and prone to self-neglect, as I am: Celebrate the Wins! You know how it goes – you’re in it every day, working hard to make something happen, build something, help someone – no matter what it takes, you’ll do it. You’ll do more for anyone else than you’ll do for yourself – just like I will. You set a goal, reach it and screech right past without stopping, because you’ve already got your next goal in the crosshairs and you have a ridiculous tendency toward tunnel vision. Sound familiar, or is it just me?  It’s as though you’ve just completed a marathon and breezed straight past the finish line without bothering to collect your medal or souvenir tee-shirt, so focused are you on the next marathon on your calendar. Understandable – perhaps even laudable – but I’ve come to believe we miss something valuable: reinforcement and confirmation of the victory and the triumph of the struggle. We – as the old saying goes – don’t pause to smell the roses, to savour the sweet smell of success: no, we just ring the bell and call out “next!” as we re-roll our sleeves and pitch in to the next project, and the next… I’ve been aware of this trait for years – my wonderful ex-fiance and friend more or less dragged me kicking and screaming to accept my degree after years of work around my job and home renovation project, my businesses and being dad to Alex… I’m grateful to her for strong-arming me to the ceremony, because it turned out to be a cherished memory that we would never have made. It was a pretty big win. So last weekend I sat down to reflect on the first ten years in property, on the achievements, pitfalls, lessons learned, promises kept and friends made along the way. The portfolio has grown to something significant and is still growing, and I’m almost proud to have gotten this far. But more than the financial and property parts of that business that I have grown – I realised that the business has also grown me in return. A wise man – I think it was the great Jim Rohn - once pointed out that the greatest wins are not on a balance sheet or revenue statement: they are the person you become along the way. Man, he nailed it.  So tomorrow morning I’m going to pause and celebrate the last ten years in property… and while I’m at it I might allow myself a smile and think about what I’ve managed to achieve in the last 27 years teaching guitar, collaborating on musical projects, writing books and songs, developing and refining new learning pathways to help my tribe, and so much more. Most of all I’ll be grateful that I tried, that I didn’t listen to the doubters and the inner voices who wanted me to stay who I was back then. So now it’s your turn: pause and think about your own wins in life and business… really pat yourself on the back and notice how you’ve grown and built in your own life. And most of all – remember to be grateful to yourself for believing in YOU and for you taking the chances that made all the difference to you and to those around you. You did great, didn’t you? We're going to wrap it up there because I've got things to do, people to see, and I know you do too. So I'm always trying to keep this brief. If you enjoyed the show, please like or subscribe. Feel free to send any questions or feedback to info@neilcowmeadow.com. Leave me a message on X where I am @TutorPodcast, and all being well, I'll see you in the next show. I hope this has been useful to you. Till next time, stay healthy, stay useful. Remember that you're always loved and you're never alone. Have a fabulous day.

  5. Sep 27

    Your Standard Questions

    In this Monday morning Neil tackles the ever-growing entrepreneurial to-do list and shares a ruthless but effective prioritization strategy inspired by Warren Buffett. Neil also breaks down why getting out of your own head by hiring a mentor can be the ultimate catalyst for saving time, making more money, and eliminating limiting beliefs. KEY TAKEAWAYS The Trap of the To-Do List: As a business owner, your task list will inevitably grow faster than you can complete it. Success comes from eliminating distractions, not just working faster. Warren Buffett’s 5/25 Rule: Write down your top 25 priorities. Circle the absolute top 5. Cross out the remaining 20. These are not secondary goals; they are dangerous distractions and "thieves of time." The ROI of Mentorship: A strong business coach or mentor should always pay for themselves by helping you make more money, save time, solve problems, and reduce costs. The Train Platform Metaphor: When you are stuck in your own head, it is difficult to see your situation objectively. A mentor acts as the "unconnected person on the platform" who can clearly see which train is actually moving. ACTION STEPS Brain Dump: Grab a cup of tea, a pen, and paper. Write out absolutely every priority or project you currently have in your life. The Ruthless Cut: Brace yourself and circle only the top 5 items. Cross off everything else on the list, recognizing that they are merely opportunities to do less important things. Create Visual Reminders: Write your final top 5 on two index cards. Place one on the microwave and keep the other by your computer (or set it as your phone wallpaper) so you are constantly reminded of your focus. Seek Perspective: If you struggle to cut your list or find yourself caught in limiting beliefs, actively look into hiring a mentor to give you an objective lens and call you out on your own nonsense.

  6. Sep 20

    The Second Tier Priority Trap

    Hi, it’s Neil Cowmeadow here with episode 444 of The Tutor Podcast, the Monday morning shot of uncommon sense for anyone who wants start, grow and love their own tutoring, teaching and coaching business – the same way I love mine.  I’m here to share ideas that have helped me in my business journey as a teacher, entrepreneur, investor and mentor in  a no-nonsense, No BS kind of way... in the hope that it helps you have as much fun at work and in life as I do. And – of course - I’m listening: so if you have any ideas that you think might be worth exploring on the show – get in touch info@neilcowmeadow.com or on X where I am @TutorPodcast, and maybe you can help me to learn something new, something better?  And I don’t have all the answers – nobody does - and if I rely on my own miniscule brain to solve all of my problems…. Well..... If you’re good with that, let’s crack on...  Everybody has a to-do list, don't we? If you're in business for yourself, that to-do list is usually enormous and getting longer. I guess you could say that if you're alive your to-do list is always getting longer because new things are tagged on the top faster than you can take stuff away from the list. Now here's the thing: not everything on that to-do list should be there. There's a story going around about Warren Buffett talking to his personal pilot. I guess you can afford a personal pilot when you're one of the most successful investors in history. Buffett asked the pilot what his top 25 priorities were and the pilot, a guy called Flint, wrote down 25 things. Great so he's got some clarity on a whole bunch of stuff. Buffett asked Flint to circle the top five priorities. Flint went ahead and circled, unaware of the trap he was falling into. With the five top items circled Buffett took a pen and crossed out the other 20. His reasoning is simple: the top five items are the ones that matter most to you. The other 20 are distractions, traps, and the thieves of time and attention. I looked at my goals list, my priorities list, and it's huge. When I finally did pluck up the courage to grab a pen and circle the top five things on the list, it was very uncomfortable to look at the remaining 80 or so and realize that they'd be nice to do but probably weren't worth my time and attention if it took me away from the top five. Does that make sense? Now write those top five things out on a couple of index cards, two sets. I suggest attaching one to the microwave door in the kitchen because you'll go there all the time and constantly remind yourself of what your top five projects are. The other reminder should probably go on your computer. Maybe even make it the wallpaper on your phone. These are the places where you go and will need to remind yourself of what to focus on. If this is hard for you – get a mentor – someone you trust and who won’t pussyfoot around. If you don't have someone like that in your life, then consider hiring a mentor or business coach to help you. Remember that a good mentor should pay for themselves by making you more money saving you time solving at least some of your problems, and reducing your costs. Having a mentor is the gold standard – but you can do it solo. It's really useful to sit down with yourself and dig away at your thinking. Put on the hat of an experienced business coach and look at things as though from their point of view. You could even have AI do it for you if you construct a prompt correctly. I love mentoring and I love being mentored. Mentoring is one of the hardest things I do, and on e of the most rewarding. When someone “gets it” and see’s their own potential – then goes out and takes action – that’s just fabulous… I wish I’d hired a mentor much sooner – it would have saved a lot of time, money and frustration, because I used to spend way too long inside my own head, caught up in my very own nonsense and limiting beliefs. My mentor got me out of that loop. Incidentally, his metaphor was that it’s life is like you're on a train at a station and the train on the next platform to you begins to move. You can't tell if it's your train moving or theirs. Your mentor acts as the unconnected man standing on the platform looking at both trains. From that point of view it's pretty bloody obvious which train's moving, isn't it? That's the power of having a mentor who is outside of your situation. A good mentor can look at it objectively and give you the real deal or at least a different lens to look through. Several of my mentees have said that this is the one thing that transforms everything, because they've been so caught up in their own heads, their own thinking, and the constraints of their own beliefs and paradigms that they can't see the wood for the trees. It makes me smile when one of the guys thanked me for calling them out on their own b******t. So here's my suggestion: take a cup of tea, pen and paper, and start writing out your priorities. All of them. Every single one.  Now brace yourself. Go back and circle the top five. Not the top six, not the top four, just the top five. Ask yourself - if those five things happened, would the rest of the list be important anymore? If you look deep inside of yourself, the answer is probably no. Those forty-seven other things aren't important.  So now take your courage in both hands and cross off everything on the list that is not one of the top five.  You'll find this exquisitely uncomfortable but that's not my problem. As you eliminate the traps and distractions of the lower-priority items, you may feel, though, you're eliminating opportunities. You are. The opportunities you're eliminating are opportunities to do less important things.  The more important things you need to focus upon are the top five items that you circled in the brain dump of everything you think might be ever so slightly important in your life, within which are the treasures of what matters most. Try this for yourself and let’s see how you get on… I'd love to hear from you. Drop me an email to info@neilcowmeadow.com and  if you have any comments, questions or problems,  get in touch  - again it’s info@neilcowmeadow.com    or on X where I am @The Tutor Podcast Let’s leave it there for today – I hope this show has got you thinking and has been some help to you and that you’ll join me next time on The Tutor Podcast for more No-BS tips and ideas of how to Start, Grow and Love YOUR Tutoring Business – just like I love mine. Till then, remember that your time is precious, your life is largely what you make it, so always make it good. Be excellent to yourselves - stay healthy, stay useful, remember that you’re always loved and you’re never alone. Have a Fabulous Day!

  7. Sep 13

    Resistance is USEFUL

    Hi, it’s Neil Cowmeadow here with episode 443 of The Tutor Podcast, the Monday morning shot of uncommon sense for anyone who wants start, grow and love their own tutoring, teaching and coaching business – the same way I love mine.  I’m here to share ideas that have helped me in my business journey as a teacher, entrepreneur, investor and mentor in  a no-nonsense, No BS kind of way... in the hope that it helps you have as much fun at work and in life as I do. And – of course - I’m listening: so if you have any ideas that you think might be worth exploring on the show – get in touch info@neilcowmeadow.com or on X where I am @TutorPodcast, and maybe you can help me to learn something new, something better?  And I don’t have all the answers – nobody does - and if I rely on my own miniscule brain to solve all of my problems…. Well..... If you’re good with that, let’s crack on...  Ever watch one of those old sci-fi movies where the aliens nab some earthlings at raygun point, reminding the puny earthmen that Resistance is Futile….? Maybe you – like me - love those old black & white films – even if the special effects creak visibly and the aliens are obviously just some guy wearing a dustbin and some oven-gloves… Even the ultimate villain Darth Vader oozes that “resistance is futile” menace – though it amuses me to think of David Prowse’s high-pitched voice instead of James Earl Jones’ deep, menacing growl…  But what if Resistance was useful sometimes? What if we set about using Resistance to our advantage, rather than assuming it is always a negative – let’s spin it to a positive… how’s that grab you? In my experience, even knowing that Resistance is a variable is a surprise to some people. Grasping the idea of engineering Resistance to suit our own ends is frequently overlooked: a blindspot to some people. Resistance is the drag or slip that makes something hard or easy, depending on how we engineer it. If you look at any activity in your life you’re looking at a system of some kind: it’s a “do X, produce Y” kind of a deal. Somewhere within that system is a friction component: more friction reduces the efficiency of the system, less friction increases the efficiency of the system. Simply identifying that there is a system in operation is quite a surprise.  But once you've identified that there is, in fact, a system in operation, you can begin to tweak the components to reduce or increase the friction within the system.  For example if your system is to go to the gym to get healthier, what are the friction steps within the system of going to the gym and doing the training that make it hard to execute and let the system run freely? If your system is teaching guitar to make a good income, where are the friction steps that reduce the efficiency of the system and lower the output whilst jacking up the effort? In both those systems you want to reduce or eliminate the friction completely so the efficient system runs and produces better results for less effort. In our gym example it might be that you sleep in your gym kit and put your trainers in the bathroom door so that when you wake in the morning and go for a pee, you inadvertently step into your training shoes. Does that make sense? In our guitar teacher example you could reduce the friction by eliminating voids between students: booking everyone in back to back at a single location so you're not spending time in the car travelling. You're not sitting around between lessons twiddling your thumbs, doom scrolling, and generally feeling frustrated because that time isn't producing anything for you. Conversely if you're doing something that is producing undesirable results, how do you increase the friction within the system that's producing those results so that the likelihood of that system running efficiently is reduced. Or better still, eliminated completely. For example you have a tendency to raid the fridge late at night, usually just before bedtime. This isn't helping your health, your figure, or your self-esteem because you're constantly beating yourself up about being a late-night greedy pig. A radical solution to increase friction might be to use a U-lock, like you'd use on a push bike, to lock up the fridge and freezer doors at an appropriate time. Make sure to put the key somewhere inconvenient, where the effort of retrieving the key before you go and get it is sufficient to put you off. For me that might mean putting the key to that U-lock in the glove compartment of the car at my “no eating deadline”. Now, when I’m fancying a snack, I look out of the window and see the car parked out in the drive in the rain and cold. Believe me, when I've got my pajamas on, that's a lot less appealing! I remember an old colleague who had a tendency to buy loads of stupid stuff on her credit card. This was a major problem for her as she ran up tons of consumer debt and struggled to pay it down. I can't remember where she got the idea from but she wound up freezing her credit cards in her home freezer. They sat in a block of ice, forcing her to think things through whilst the cards thawed out before they could be used. That's a pretty cool idea if you’re prone to comfort-spend out of control or you've got bad impulse control. Friction engineering can be applied pretty much anywhere in your life, making the things you want easier and the things you don't want a lot harder. To me it makes so much sense to engineer your environment to do some of the heavy lifting for you. Not everybody agrees. Personally I'd sooner spend a bit of time engineering my life's systems, processes, and environment to reduce friction (so I can get more of what I want with less effort and to block my own inner moron by imposing friction at every step of the processes, systems, and environments that produce the outputs I don't want). I suggest you change one little thing for one little system or process in your life, just to see how you get on. Let it run for a while, then tweak it, adjust it, notice the difference. When you've got that nice and smooth and bedded in and you get more of what you want for less effort (or less of what you don't want for more effort), reapply the system to the next thing in your life you want to change for the better.  Work, business, diet and exercise, relationships… everything. Start with One Thing, today, and let me know how you get on. I'd love to hear from you. Drop me an email to info@neilcowmeadow.com and  if you have any comments, questions or problems,  get in touch  - again it’s info@neilcowmeadow.com    or on X where I am @The Tutor Podcast Let’s leave it there for today – I hope this show has got you thinking and has been some help to you and that you’ll join me next time on The Tutor Podcast for more No-BS tips and ideas of how to Start, Grow and Love YOUR Tutoring Business – just like I love mine. Till then, remember that your time is precious, your life is largely what you make it, so always make it good. Be excellent to yourselves - stay healthy, stay useful, remember that you’re always loved and you’re never alone. Have a Fabulous Day!

  8. Sep 6

    Kill Yourself to Save Your Life

    Hi, it’s Neil Cowmeadow here with episode 442 of The Tutor Podcast, the Monday morning shot of uncommon sense for anyone who wants start, grow and love their own tutoring, teaching and coaching business – the same way I love mine.  I’m here to share ideas that have helped me in my business journey as a teacher, entrepreneur, investor and mentor in  a no-nonsense, No BS kind of way... in the hope that it helps you have as much fun at work and in life as I do. And – of course - I’m listening: so if you have any ideas that you think might be worth exploring on the show – get in touch info@neilcowmeadow.com or on X where I am @TutorPodcast, and maybe you can help me to learn something new, something better? Because I’m smart enough to realise that I don’t have all the answers – nobody does - and if I rely on my own tiny, pea-sized brain to solve all of my problems…. Well..... If you’re good with that, let’s crack on...  One of the ongoing themes of this show – and, by extension, my life – is growth, constantly evolving oneself into a slightly better version of who we are and who we want to be. That’s not an unusual aspiration – surely most of us who are doing it for ourselves want to get better, don’t we? To be perpetually in motion in pursuit of a worthy goal is often considered to be the hallmark – or one of the hallmarks - of a good life. Capital G, capital L. If you – like me – are wired up this way you’ll know the feeling of intrinsic excitement that comes from immersing yourself in The Thing that You Love To Do: you maybe feel - as I do – that you’re somehow vibrating at a higher speed than almost everyone else.... The truth is that being in this state – let’s call it Flow - Mihail Czikszentmihaili’s term for a peak state of absorption in a task or work... So we tend to feel at our best when up to our necks in The Work. To me this is a Good Thing. But there’s a catch to changing yourself and evolving yourself... You have to kill yourself. Not completely and forever, anyway. No – what you have to do is kill the person you were in order to allow the person you are becoming to emerge from the sloughed skin of who you used to be... The person you have been up until now is not the person you need to be to take you to the next level – and there’s no room for passengers on the journey. If you can somehow manage to drag your own sorry carcase over the line, all power to you, my friend. But I guarantee you this: you won’t be able to drag anyone else over the line. The margin for error is so small, the drain on your strength, energy and commitment is so appalling, that you can – if you’re obsessed and fortunate enough – do it for yourself, but you can’t do it for anyone else. And the person your family and friends have known for years? Well – they are the first casualty of your endeavours... Old you – even up until today – may be little more than a snivelling, quivering heap of fears, doubts and excuses, justifications and rationalisations. Kill Old You. Every day, tear out from yourself one small part of the limitations and beliefs that no longer serve you. Tear your old self apart in order to make room for your new self, building yourself to be better than before. Change is hard, yet it is the one constant of life. Change is inevitable: growth or decay... nothing stands still... everything is either getting better or fading away. Ultimately, over time, you’ll hardly recognise the person you have become... the slight changes often happen undetected – normalised each day but compounding up over years – endlessly ratcheting-up what “Normal” is for you, so the imperceptible death and casting off of the Old Self happens without you really noticing it. But at some point you pause, and it hits you... in an unguarded moment you see yourself as you have become... Look cold and hard - regard yourself with an unflinching eye and recognise the transformation you have wrought. The weak forged into strength, the miser turned philanthropist, the fearfulness crafted into courage, the loafer turned worker, the old you has perished... killed by your own hand and your own will in an act of premeditated force. Seems to me that killing yourself to live better is your duty. What do you think? I'd love to hear from you. Drop me an email to info@neilcowmeadow.com and  if you have any comments, questions or problems,  get in touch  - again it’s info@neilcowmeadow.com    or on X where I am @The Tutor Podcast Let’s leave it there for today – I hope this show has got you thinking and has been some help to you and that you’ll join me next time on The Tutor Podcast for more No-BS tips and ideas of how to Start, Grow and Love YOUR Tutoring Business – just like I love mine. Till then, remember that your time is precious, your life is largely what you make it, so always make it good. Be excellent to yourselves - stay healthy, stay useful, and Have a Fabulous Day!

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The Tutor Podcast the weekly show that’s all about the business of helping people. If you’re a tutor, a teacher or a coach, join your host Neil Cowmeadow for news, tips and insights to help you Start, Grow and Love your tutoring business. Plain English, no buzzwords and no BS. So, if you want to make more money - and make more of a difference - The Tutor Podcast will be with you, every step of the way.

Information

  • Creator
    Neil Cowmeadow
  • Years Active
    2018 - 2026
  • Episodes
    447
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2025 Neil Cowmeadow
  • Show Website
    The Tutor Podcast