Dreams Do Come True authors make their first donation to St Marys Hospital

Trudie and Lloyd Thompson have made their first donation to the IVF fund at St Mary's Hospital, the IVF facility that made their own dream come true.

'Dreams Do Come True' documents their unconventional love story as they deal with a 12 year course of IVF that sees them lose two businesses and eventually file for bankruptcy before finally realising their dream of becoming parents. 

Lloyd, who is now a proud father to 12-year-old Jaja commented; "Writing the book was a great way for us to reflect on the whole journey that really made our world complete - even though we do talk about it nearly everyday. For me writing this book was a great way to show other men that it is ok to talk about IVF, you don't need to keep it locked in."

Trudie added: "I started writing my feelings down as over the years I came to realise that until I had my beautiful boy I was addicted to getting pregnant as it was all I wanted in the world. Throughout our IVF I experienced a range of emotions, so I really wanted this book to help others who might be experiencing the same. It is also very important to us as a family that with this book we are be able to give something back to the hospital that set us off on our journey – Saint Mary’s Hospital."

Still searching for a solution to life’s problems? Try Accepting the Radical

Accepting the Radical is the new book from experts Ronna Smithrim and Christopher Oliphant, and it contains surprising advice for anyone seeking support with their success in life. Rather than looking for a problem and trying to ‘fix’ it, the authors advocate accepting yourself fully as you are, as a route to achieving the life you want. If this approach seems radical, then it is – Radical Acceptance.

Oliphant explains, "Our journey began when we started out using the various ‘fix’ therapies – but soon found them to be limited. The more we explored, the more the idea of acceptance emerged. This led us to develop the Wheel, a tool we explore throughout the book. We carried on, developing the idea of acceptance until it emerged in its current form."

Oliphant and Smithrim continued to develop their new approach, continuing to achieve outstanding results with their clients until, one day, someone asked them what they did, what was this way of thinking and teaching called? Smithrim replied, "Acceptance, I suppose: Radical Acceptance." And so it was born.

The authors explain the principle of Radical Acceptance; "The basic premise of Radical Acceptance - what makes it so different - is that your ‘fixer’ is powerless: no matter how hard you try, you can never fix yourself. What’s so paradoxical about acceptance is that the more you accept a part of who you are, the less you need to act on it. Radical Acceptance has the power to give you a degree of control over your life that endless years of ‘fix’ therapy couldn’t touch. Its subversive teachings can help you to recognise and accept the powerlessness of the ‘fixer’ within you. From there, you can accept all of who you are."

Since the creation of Radical Acceptance, the authors have taught the simple yet powerful principles and techniques to groups around the world – and under constant pressure from the students in these groups have finally produced this book. What it contains won’t be for everyone: Radical Acceptance is a multi-faceted approach to personal growth work which can be both demanding and painful, opening up doors in readers’ lives that can be highly challenging yet ultimately liberating.

With the tools, exercises and case studies shared by Smithrim and Oliphant, readers will discover a new way of seeing life’s problems, both for themselves and for their clients, quickly discovering that the path to happiness, success and fulfilment really does lie in Accepting the Radical.

"Accepting the Radical: You Can Not Be Fixed", ISBN 978-1-9082931-0-7, is published by CGW Publishing and available now from all good book stores, priced at £15 or $25.

Why All the Fuss About Books?

With Amazon pushing the Kindle and WH Smith pushing the Kobo in a battle for first place under the Christmas tree, a lot of people are asking what the big fuss about paperback books is. Surely people read for the content of the book, and therefore an ebook reader is a no-brainer? Why harp on about ebooks meaning the death of the printed book? So what?

Some people would be cynical and say that the big publishers are so tied into the print production business model that they can't exit gracefully and still protect their profits.

However, I have a different view to offer you that explains the reason behind our love affair with the printed book.

Consider what we had before the advent of the printing press: Nothing. There was no unified written language. Symbolic languages were the property of royalty and priests. Knowledge could only be passed down through word of mouth or the equivalent of cave paintings. People couldn't even do simple multiplication because there was no written language with which to effectively represent numbers.

The printing press was our very first attempt, as a society, to make language accessible to all. The printed book represents knowledge torn away from the select few and made available to the masses. The printed book represents freedom; not just freedom of knowledge but freedom of a society.

So you'll have to forgive our love of printed books, they have a very special place in our history.

Another Great Review for Dreams Do Come True

We saw a lovely review for Dreams Do Come True on Waterstones' website today:


Having not read a book for years I wasnt sure what to expect. However we all have dreams and in this case some do come true! A compelling story of a couples triumph over adversity. Showing grit and determination to ultimately suceed when others could have wilted. Captivating read, covering a range of emotions, highs and lows, sorrow and ultimately the joy of bringing a child into this world. Overall you feel a part of the journey. Well written and well worth a read!

'Lofty', Bolton, UK

Yours Magazine features Dreams Do Come True by Trudie and Lloyd Thompson

Yours Magazine recently interviewed Trudie Thompson's Mother and Son for a special feature article.

November 29 - December 12 Issue 129

Review for The Pitching Bible by Gavin Duffy of Dragon's Den Ireland

How come you can pick two or three exec’s who are brilliant individual presenters but put them together to make a pitch presentation and you often don’t even get the sum of the parts? The reason, they haven’t read The Pitching Bible by Paul Boross. Boross is the boss when it comes to learning the know-how of successful, effective and memorable pitching.

Gavin Duffy - Dragons’ Den Ireland

The Pitch Doctor in The Telegraph

Paul Boross, author of The Pitching Bible, was interviewed recently for The Telegraph's business technology supplement.

Dreams Do Come True hits Number One on Amazon

We're very excited to announce our second number one ranking book; Dreams Do Come True by Trudie and Lloyd Thompson.

Following their appearance on BBC Radio Lancashire's Sally Naden show, their book hit the number one position on Amazon in their category - pushing Robert Winston's book into third place:

Corporate Godfathers due for November release

The author of Corporate Godfathers has this to say in the opening of his new book:

I wanted to get a reaction to this manuscript before submitting it for publication, so I asked a book reviewer who doesn’t know me or anything about me to take a look at it.

She read for about five minutes, and said: “This is scary. Is it a work of fiction?”

I answered, “How much truth can you handle?”

She caught her breath, picking up the implication of my question.

A shadow of fear passed over her eyes.

I said, “If it makes it easier for you, just go ahead and call it fiction. You’ll rest easier at night.

But remember what Harry Truman said, ”I never give them hell. I just tell the truth and they think it’s hell.”


Corporate Godfathers is available soon, ISBN 978-1-9082931-1-4

The Pitch Doctor a Big Hit at MIP

Paul Boross, author of The Pitching Bible, delivered a keynote seminar at the MIP media festival in Cannes last week.

The seminar was covered both in MIP's daily newspaper, shown on the right, and also in the MIPCOM blog, which is copied below.

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He began by teaching us to expect the unexpected. Boross has a psychology background (neurolinguistic programming, specifically) as well as a performance background, so to warm us up he brought his cohort Robertson onstage to sing us a song.

“That’s something you didn’t expect, wasn’t it…?” he goaded. “That is MIP. Expect the unexpected. Go with it.”

He later framed this moment by pointing to its memorability: none of us will ever forget Robertson now, and it is true he suddenly seemed imbued with a singular and special quality.

Our second lesson: “The meaning of your communication is the response you get.” If you don’t deliver the message people want, it’s your responsibility. Our job at MIPCOM is to clarify the message we’re delivering.
He also emphasised the importance of being in the right headspace: “We programme ourselves for success or failure.” At this, someone in the audience unexpectedly began chirping, “that’s true, that’s true” with great conviction, as though at church.

Nervousness is natural. “There are two kinds of people in the world,” said Boross: “people who are nervous, and people who are lying.” It’s how we deal with that nervousness that counts. To explain, he pointed to a concept called the “cybernetic loop”: the notion that the mind and body affect each other. What you do with your body will alter your attitude, and vice versa: what you concentrate upon changes your outward comportment.
This is important when you’re pitching. As humans, we can recognise when someone is depressed or nervous. So sell a confident front. “People buy people. People buy from confident people.”

But mainly he emphasised the importance of building rapport instead of focusing on selling. A hardcore sales attitude creates an instant barrier between you and the person in front of you, who probably doesn’t want to buy what you’re punting. You also lose focus on the individual, and ultimately lose control of the outcome of the meeting.

When your focus is entirely on connecting with that person, you keep the door open for future productive opportunities. “Think of sales as the transfer of enthusiasm from one person to another,” Boross said.

Which brings us to the importance of following up: when you do it, remind people why it was so great to meet them. Personalise your email and demonstrate to what degree you’ve listened to them and found them special.

Attitude will carry you through MIPCOM. And the most important thing you want to do here is build rapport, whose dividends pay off indefinitely:

To sum up, the best networkers:

• Engage
• Interact
• Make good eye contact
• Don’t complicate things

Follow Boross on Twitter (@paulboross), and read his own five tips on making the most of MIPCOM, posted just prior to the show.