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100 Beatings

Could you handle 100 Beatings?

My personal trainer, who is also the Sensei and owner of Dynamic Martial Arts, decided he was up for a challenge, and it was for 100 Beatings.

Technically, this is the 100-Man Kumite and only 28 people in the world have ever done this. At a high level, this challenge is fighting 100 two minute fights with a 30 second break in between.

You can tell from the image that he is not really smiling, it is just a grimace of pain to hold himself up. Notice how his crisp white outfit is almost translucent from his sweat and filthy from being hit so much. Imagine what his body is like!

Throughout his long preparation, we have been talking about the kind of challenges he would be facing. He knew that the mental challenge would be harder than the physical (although he knew the it was going to hurt … a lot!)

Speaking with him today, two days after the fight, he said that he was expecting to have had enough at about round 50. To his surprise, that feeling of “I have had enough” came at about round 20.

He was hoping that some of his opponents may have given him a little pity at some stage but that never happened. He said that they came out fighting and they did not stop. In return, his opponents said that he gave as good as he got.

When his daughter jumped on his lap this morning, he screamed out in pain. He hobbles rather than walks and he knows it will be another day or so before he returns to some degree of “normal”.

But as many sports coaches have screamed over the years, the pain is momentary while the results last a life time.

Sometimes our challenges seem never ending.

We are tempted to give up and turn away.

The pain seems intense and never ending.

At every curve, someone seems to be taking another swipe at us.

So you have to ask yourself, how badly do you want it? The results you are after, how badly will you work for it? How much pain (both physical and emotional) will you simply just “take” as your strive for your goal?

While he is not yet ready to fully enjoy it, I have no doubt that for the rest of his life, Chris will have the great satisfaction that he faced 100 beatings and succeeded.

No one can ever take that from him.

What can no-one ever take from you?

PS To hear more about Chris and how he runs his business, have a listen to his episode on the Get More Success Show. Click here to listen.

Your Systems Suck

Image: Shutterstock

I love systems in business. I am a huge fan of Michael Gerber’s system implementation ideas that he proposed in his book, The E-Myth revisited. The short summary of which is, “Systems run the business and People run the systems.”

But your systems suck! They suck if they are focussed on the wrong thing.

Let me tell you about the new cafe in our area.

After spending a colossal amount of money on shopfitting, the cafe at the bottom of the shopping centre near me has finally opened for business. Always one to support a new local, my gorgeous wife and I went there for lunch.

A mature woman who looked like the owner seated us, was very friendly and put us in a booth near the back, overriding the reserved sign. We guessed she was the owner as she joked about how it wasn’t reserved if she was seating us there.

She took our drinks order and left us with the menu. All pretty good and what any typical customer would expect so far.

A different waiter came up after a few minutes and asked did we want to order drinks. We had ordered but he didn’t know that, and it is not unusual for this to happen. So far all good.

Then we asked to order our meals. His response was, “I can’t take your order. I will get someone to take your food order.”

OK – that was a little weird. Maybe he was new, didn’t know how to order food yet or something else. Certainly the food order person would be right over.

A couple of minutes later a waitress brought over our drinks. Yay! We had a little joke with her and then said, can we order some food. Guess what she said …. “I can’t take your order. I will get someone to take your food order.”

You have got to be kidding me! Ah well. Maybe she is new too. The cafe hasn’t been open long.

After a couple of minutes a third waitress (fourth if you count the boss who seated us) came over and asked, “are you ready to order?”

We ordered, ate, did the crossword and had an amazing conversation that you would surely be jealous of if you saw a picture of it on Facebook or Instagram!! (Ok, it was just your typical couple chat in a cafe)

As we left, the person who I paid, who looked like the other co-owner as he wasn’t wearing a uniform like the others and was a mature man, asked, “How was everything?”

I couldn’t let the opportunity pass. I told him it was a little weird that when we ordered, two staff members were unable to take our food order. Were they new or something?

Here is what he said, “No it’s not weird. Maybe they are new but we don’t want the kitchen to get slammed, specially when it gets busy. If it gets too busy wait staff can make mistakes so only two people on the floor can take food orders. It’s not weird.”

So their systems exist for them and not for their customers. The fact that their customer (me) is saying that it is weird because I didn’t know what is going on meant nothing. This is all about making their kitchen process smoother.

The fact that he didn’t really care what I thought or said was also a bit strange. If you don’t care then don’t ask.

Your systems suck. They are not about making the customer experience better they are about trying to control the flow in the kitchen at the expense of the customer experience.

If your kitchen is getting slammed then look at your ordering or kitchen process. Surely it can’t be that hard?

What it means for us is that we have lost all interest in returning to that cafe. We had noticed the private table out the back and I had made comments on how it may be good for a family function or for a small client get together.

Not now because their systems suck.

What about you? Have you designed processes to make your life better or easier at the expense of your customer?

Quite simply, do your systems suck?

5 Minutes vs 40 Years

I was fortunate enough to host the Opening Ceremony of the Global Speakers Summit in Auckland, New Zealand recently.

As a fun MC kickoff, I performed what I refer to as my Impro Slam Poetry. That is where I ask the audience a question (in this case, What do you want to get from the conference?) and then get about 10 words or statements from them.

Then, off the top of my head, I create a piece of poetry that I make fun, entertaining and relevant to the event. It’s got a lot of energy, I love to do it and the audience are always amazed at how it is done.

Afterward I am always asked, “do you have part of it pre-written?” And the answer is “NO.”

It is not a trick, it is a skill. Each time I do it, a poem is made up fresh using the words provided.

It’s not five minutes of trickery, it is 40 years of skill.

It’s the same with what you do. You can probably create or tweak a spreadsheet without thinking about it, or whip up a powerpoint slide deck without thinking about it. Maybe ride a unicycle or stitch up a dress or even speak a foreign language. These skills are something you build over time but look impressive when you only see the end result.

So what are your skills? What can you do that other people think is amazing but you know it is years of practice that builds the skill?

More importantly, what is it you WANT to be able to do? That is what you need to start working on today so that in 10 years it looks like magic!

Are You There?

One of the key elements of marketing I learned very early in my time as being a member of Professional Speakers Australia, is that there is a huge difference between being good and being there.

Many people are focussed on being good. Getting everything just right with the right image, the right text, the right message, the right style, the right level of rightness!

Others put something pretty good together and just start getting it out there.

People in the second category seem to get more business than the first and those in the first category seem to get more frustrated!

A case in point is the document above (you can click on the image or this link to see the document in detail). I have had the vision for this document for some time (about four years) and I just haven’t been able to get it exactly how I wanted it. It is my speaker “1 Pager” so it has a lot of information about me and what I do.

I wanted to present it in a way that wasn’t all about me. I wanted my prospects or clients to read it and think of their own problems and how I can help solve or address them. I wanted people to laugh a bit and have an understanding of who I am and how I work.

After a fair bit of work, I think I got most of that. But it wasn’t perfect. Shifting my focus to being good, I just got some printed and have started sending to clients and prospects with my special gift. (Let me know if you are interested in receiving a hard copy with the special gift or finding our more about what I do.)

As I was putting the packs together, I noticed two minor mistakes that most people wouldn’t even notice. I am sending them anyway. I have fixed the mistake for next time but the first print run has been completed.

Now I will see what sort of results it wields – I guarantee it will get greater results than me just thinking about it for another four years!

There is a massive difference between being good and getting it perfect, and being there and getting paid!

What about you? What are you working on that is not quite good enough and just needs more attention that honestly could be put out to the market place where they can get value from it right now?

Don’t just be good, be there!

Do You Serve?

Image: ShutterStock

I was lucky enough to spend Sunday in beautiful Adelaide, one of Australia’s prettiest cities. The City of Churches as it’s known.

I must confess, it was a long day. Up at 5:30, off the airport, fly, get collected at the other end, drive to venue, setup the AV, run a five hour session, back to the airport, through security, straight to the plane, fly, airport, drive home, relaxing by 7:30pm. I did all this, gave away $500 worth of product, offered 15 hours of consulting/coaching services, and got paid $0, zero, zilch … nada.

Now I am not seeking praise or attention (ok… maybe a little attention) and I happily gave of myself and my products and services. This was done, not with the intent of commerce, but with the intent of service.

Currently I am the National President of Professional Speakers Australia. Over the years I have taken multiple roles within the organisation and will continue to do so into the future. The reason I serve is that it makes our association stronger, our industry more robust and it also creates great connections for me.

While I don’t approach a service position thinking “What can I get from this?” I have found that I will always get a return. For example, the workshop I ran on Sunday. Part of it was about creating a speaker “One Pager”. I had a vision for my one pager for some time but had procrastinated too much to actually do it. I couldn’t speak on the importance of having one with out actually having one, so running the workshop forced me to create my vision of a one pager, and I am very pleased with it.

Service pays in ways that you wouldn’t even dream of when you start to do it.

What about you?

In your industry, in your family, in your hobbies – do you serve?

Plan Backwards

Image: Shutterstock

The year has started and no doubt you have some plans in mind. You may have even done some formal planning. I have found the best way to make your plans actually happen is to plan backwards.

This method applies whether you are planning an event, a project, a sales target, or simply planning to by a house.

Dr Stephen Covey has as one of the seven habits of highly effective people to “Begin with the End In Mind.”

For us this means looking at what do we want to achieve and by when. For example, maybe you want to achieve $200,000 in sales this year. That is the goal, the target, the thing that keeps you inspired. I would be using language about that. “Project 200k”, tracking for 200k or something to ensure it keeps top of mind.

The next step is to work backwards. If you are wanting $200k this year then how much is that per month? Let’s face it, Jan and Dec are hard to get anything done (well Jan has already gone!) so you are looking at $20k of sales each month.

So let’s break that down even further by continuing to work backwards.

What is your average sale size?
How many proposals do you need to make a sale?
How many meetings do you need to get a request for proposal?
How many sales calls do you need for a meeting?

This will then set your daily plan for you and you will always know what to do.

For example, let’s assuming the following.

Your average sales size is $5,000. You historically send out three proposals to make a sale. You need two meetings to get a request for a proposal and make five sales calls to get a meeting request.

Working backwards, to reach $200,000 you need 40 sales of $5,000. Based on ten months this is four sales a month.

Each sale need three proposals, so that is 12 proposals a month or 3 a week. To get a proposal request, you need two meetings so that is six meetings a week. Each meeting takes five sales calls so that is 30 sales calls a week or six calls a day.

What this means is that to reach $200,000 you need to consistently make six phone calls a day.

This process works for all kinds of planning. If you are yet to plan your goals for the year, I strongly suggest you plan them backwards. If you do that, you can almost guarantee you will achieve the outcome you are after.

Australia Day

Image: ShutterStock

Australia Day is a challenging day for me.

Growing up, it was a huge day of celebration. My favourite aunt has a birthday on that day (Happy birthday Glenda!) and it was the celebration of the birth of our country.

As time went on and I learnt more about the world I live in. I discovered it was not the day our national was born. It turns out that the Australian Aborigine is one of the oldest peoples on the globe so our nation was born far earlier. In fact, Australia Day was not a term used officially until 1935. Over more recent years, it has also been referred to as Invasion Day as for many of our indigenous peoples, it represents the day they were invaded.

For me, I am proudly and happily an Australian. But I feel conflict that our celebration is done on a day that causes others great pain. I am also embarrassed about some Australian’s who minimise that pain, ignore it or even worse, invalidate it.

I have no solutions but I do have hope.

The conflict continues to get coverage in all forms of media. So what that brings is discussion, conversation, education, awareness – and these have to be good things. Yes there are extreme opinions on both sides, and typically there always are, but through the discussion comes increased understanding.

In the work that I do in events, this conversation also happens around the Welcome to Country or Acknowledgement of Country.

I didn’t truly understand what they were and was concerned it could political correctness gone too far. So I sought out an Aboriginal Elder and had a frank and open conversation with them. It was most enlightening. Now I am an advocate for the Welcome or Acknowledgement of Country to be in each program I host.

While it seems like a small thing, it continues the conversation and increases awareness. It usually takes less time than the announcement about mobile phones but deepens what it means to be an Australian. If you run events, I implore you to have a genuine Welcome to Country or Acknowledgement of Country in your program.

While the discussion about Australia Day and the best day to celebrate it continues, I will continue to be grateful each and every day that I was blessed to live in this country and make each day Australia Day.

Better have a Tim Tam to celebrate!

PS Here is a fun advert for lamb that gives a fairly good summary of the last 250 years or so

Beware Perceptions

For those of you who don’t know, this is Winston and this is me badly in need of a shave. Pretty much how I looked this morning. What you can’t see in this photo is that I am 190cm (6’3″ in the old scale) tall and large framed (also referred to as a Nutritional Overachiever or A Big Unit)

As is my wont, upon arising, I took the trusty Winston the Wonder Poodle for a walk, during which I gave one couple the fright of their life.

As I was coming around a bend I saw an older couple (who must have been mid sixties ) see Winston and I and then had their eyes open wide with fear. The man quickly turned around and strode off. Noticing the lead over the ladies shoulder, I guessed they must have had a dog walking behind them off lead.

Suddenly the woman looked down, saw Winston and then noticeably relaxed. She then called to her partner, “it’s just a puppy.”

“Puppy”, I thought. Winston is turning five this year. He is fully grown.

As I got closer to them and said hello, they said, “We saw you coming but didn’t see your dog. We thought you must have had a big dog.”

When their Maltese Princess (their words, not mine) came into view, Winston excitedly said hello and we moved on.

So obviously their perception was that as a scruffy larger fellow, I should have a larger, fiercer dog that could be a danger to Maltese dogs.

A couple of blocks later I passed a mature woman, who had your stereotypical grandmother look, walking her very large Irish Wolfhound.

Perceptions can do you such a disservice, yet we all have them. Stereotypes that enter into everyday thoughts. Sometimes they can negatively impact on us and other times they better prepare us for a situation. One of the best things you can do is become aware of your perceptions and challenge them.

Maybe they are true, maybe they are not or maybe the are partially true.

What perceptions can you challenge and what perceptions do you think people will have about you?

Maybe I need to shave and wear something more formal when taking Winston for a walk!

Beware the Intimate Enemy

On Saturday I shovelled 2 cubic metres of soil from the driveway into the new garden bed and I had to fight my Intimate Enemy every step of the way.

Sally Kempton said, “It’s hard to fight an enemy who has outposts in your head.”

Saturday was a typical Melbourne summers day – drizzly rain that would start and stop, a bit warm and, due to the rain, a little sticky. Not the most pleasant conditions.

Let’s face it, shovelling and wheelbarrowing slightly wet soil is not an easy job either. At every stage my Intimate Enemy was telling me why I should stop, and there we a lot of reasons. Here are some of them:

It’s raining, you could get sick
You broke your leg and this is a large strain
Wait until the weather gets better
It would be easier if someone helped you
The dog will get mess everywhere
You’re tired and need a break
You did a lot of physical work yesterday
(insert feeble excuse here…)

In case you hadn’t worked it out, my Intimate Enemy is my own brain.

What was even more peculiar is that I could see it happening. So at that time I would just counter the Intimate Enemy with logic.

If I don’t do it, it won’t get done.
I need to move the dirt to access the garage
It will only take a couple of hours and I have nothing else planned to do
If I don’t do it now then I will only have to do it later.

Along with logic I used my other secret power. The power of Dory!

That’s right, I was simply repeating to myself “just keep swimming, just keep swimming” as I did each shovel and each barrow load of soil. I knew it was just time and effort that would get me there. With the power of logic and Dory I persisted and finally the job was done.

Do you have an Intimate Enemy with an outpost in your own head?

It is amazing how the biggest barriers to some of the goals we set is ourself.

When your Intimate Enemy attacks, why not try a little bit of logic and Just Keep Swimming!

Want a FlashPacker?

My gorgeous wife and I went away with friends to Broome over the New Year break. As you can see above, they have some amazing sunsets, friendly locals and wild and wooly cyclones (we were waylaid by a day as Tropical Cyclone Hilda had a quick visit).

As with all holidays, I love staying in really fabulous places but I hate paying through the nose for them. Fortunately, our travel buddies, Danielle and David, found a very cool unit on Air BnB that we booked for the week. (You can check it out here).

Little did we know that this was part of a FlashPackers.

Now I know what you are thinking, what on earth is a FlashPackers. Well, a FlashPackers is a BackPacker accomodation that is pretty flash! The building is super clean, they are a bit more expensive than your usual back packers, they have tighter rules than a back packers to deter unsavoury types and their services are better than usual.

What that meant for us was down stairs from us was a bar with cheap (but cold) beverages, some cheap and cheerful food, a pool (with Unice the Unicorn) and some super helpful staff. We had the privacy of our apartment but services of a greater accomodation right on Cable Beach all for 1/3 of the price of other resorts nearby.

So now I will continue to look for FlashPackers, or the equivalent in what ever area I need something.
You know what I mean, it does the basics really well, gives you a few bonus extras, makes you feel at home and super comfy without having to pay a premium price.

What about you? Would you consider a FlashPackers?

When it comes to events and MC/Hosting services, I could be the FlashPacker you are looking for so get in touch!

Fabulous Festivus!

Image: ShutterStock

It’s almost the end of the year. How ever you celebrate it, from our family to yours, Merry Christmas, Happy Festivus, Jolly Hannuka, Fabulous Kwanzaa, Joyous Bohdi or at the very simplest, have a Cool Yule.

It’s funny that during this relaxing time of holidays, I have a lot to do. Website refresh, garden retaining wall to build (with corresponding dirt and mulch shovelling into the garden bed), shed walls to line and a host of other things. I am realistic enough to know that they won’t all get done by mid January.

One thing that I know will get done is the Annual Review that I do. This time of year is great to look back at what I learnt and achieved in the year gone and what plans I have for the year ahead. I have done it so frequently that I have created a two page template for it.

As my festive gift to you, I want you to have a copy as well. Feel free to share it with others who may find it useful. You can access it here.

It has been a weird year for me. The broken ankle in March really blew my plans out of the water and while I have pretty much recovered, it continues to have an impact and has helped me reassess a lot of what I am doing.

It has been a weird year for the world. While Brexit, Trump and North Korea continue to make head lines, fewer people live in extreme poverty, the number of people without access to electricity world wide fell to below 1.1 billion for the first time, measles has been eliminated in the UK, and many other fantastically positive things are happening (you just don’t hear about them much).

So here is to 2018. May it hold great joy, success and happiness for you and those you care about.

My focus for 2018 is to MC a lot more events, host different conversations and facilitate some great discussions. If you know of events, showcases or conversations that need a professionals touch, please let me know as I would be glad to assist.

What is your focus? What are you aiming for? How will you know that 2018 has been a success for you?

Until next year, enjoy the festivities!

Why Fight It?

During a recent conference I was hosting, I received a phone call from a speaker I am mentoring. They had won a gig for their largest ever audience (yay!) and now they were getting a bit of stage fright (oops) and their question was, “How do I get rid of it or deal with it?”

Stage fright or pre-show nerves are an interesting beast. You want some but not too much. Enough to keep you on your toes but not so much it is debilitating.

For me it is not the size of the audience that impacts stage fright, it is what you have to do. I have worked audiences over 2,000 and 3,000 people with little fear while hosting a conference or gala dinner. I am even comfortable if my jokes fall flat. But the audience of 28 people when I performed a one man show in the Melbourne Fringe festival nearly had me passing out! The tight confines of the script, the telling of other peoples stories, and being Gough Whitlam had me all in knots. I was not used to being so restricted.

So how do you get rid of your stage fright?

You don’t! It is a valuable part of you. Don’t fight it but embrace it. Acknowledge that it’s job is to keep you safe and that you will be super safe on the stage. Most people in the audience will be so pleased that they don’t have to give the presentation and they will be wanting you to be doing a great job.

I assume you know your stuff, or you wouldn’t be asked to present on it. So there is very little than could go wrong and a whole spectrum of things that could go right! Embracing the fear and reminding yourself of all the things that will be great about your performance will help keep your stage fright manageable.

You can’t get rid of stage fright and you wouldn’t want to. It is a powerful tool to motivate you to get your techniques, content and performance skills up to standard. Why would you want to get rid of that?

You will also find, the best way to manage your stage fright is to do more presentations. The more you do, the better you get at it and the less negative impact your stage fright will have on you.

So why fight it?

Are You Serious?

A recent event I was hosting for the Queensland Department of Communities was their Community Recovery Forum.

It was a serious day talking about serious topics. Financial resilience, community impact, infrastructure, economic impact, and much more.

Personally, I spent most of the day laughing and making sure the audience did too!

In fact many of the delegates, when they spoke to me, would comment about how boring the event could have been if I wasn’t continuing to brighten it up. From the Rock Star welcome for the Director General to throwing the microphone cube around the audience, the day was loaded with fun things.

My personal experience is that when something is fun, my mind is more open to learning about what is happening and being open to new ideas. When things are too serious or monotonous, it takes all my effort just to stay awake and focussed on what is supposed to be happening.

There is no doubt about it, life is serious. We make serious decisions with serious impacts and serious conditions exist all around the world.

But being serious takes so much effort and is so draining!

Let’s face it, no one gets out of life alive.

So can I encourage you to take serious situations seriously but having a laugh at them or during them?

It doesn’t mean you don’t treat them with the respect they deserve but it does mean you focus on the positive and fun elements of what you are facing.

Emergency Service personnel typically have very dark sense of humour. Patients with critical diseases can most often find something to laugh about. Fortunately most of my days are far less serious, so surely I can have a laugh?

So what have you got happening today that feels a little serious and how can you have some fun with it?

By the way, if you have a conference or event that you need to have more fun at (all while taking it seriously) don’t hesitate to get in touch and we will see how I can help.

Losing $290

We have remote roller doors on our garage. They are nine years old. After nine years, the remotes don’t work like they used to.

You can see one of them has a bit of melting going on! The others used to work as we turned the corner near our house and now they struggle to work parked out the front of the garage.

Yes we have tried new batteries. Yes we have swapped remotes. Yes we have Googled looking for answers.

It got to the point that I thought I would call the manufacturer and get a service call. They recommend an annual service call and I thought after nine years it wouldn’t hurt to have one.

Talking with the support team they told me that a call out fee was $150 and that remotes were $70 each and if the mother board was faulty you are looking at around $600. I figured a call out fee and a couple of remotes (approx $290) to get another nine years of smooth operation was a price I could pay.

The service was booked in, I changed plans to be available and I was all good to go on Wednesday sometime between 8am and 12noon with a phone call about 30 mins before the technician arrived.

At 12:15 having no contact, I called to find out what was going on as I had to leave the house in 5 minutes.

To this day, I still don’t know what happened. The person on the phone didn’t know what was happening and put me through to the service department. They didn’t know what was happening and said the technician must have had a problem. I rescheduled the appointment (and later cancelled it). During this call, no one said sorry. No one acknowledged I had a problem and they would fix it. I even said i was quite annoyed and disappointed and the person on the phone reinforced that they didn’t know what had happened to the technician.

I have since found a place on the internet (Brisbane) that can send me aftermarket remotes for $15. I received one today and it works from the corner like the old one used to. I am very happy. I have since ordered a couple more as I reckon I can spend up to $290 on remotes and still be ahead.

Customer service is all about acknowledging the emotional state of the customer. It may not be your responsibility, but if you don’t acknowledge it, you will get the blame for it anyway. If they had said, “Terribly sorry. I am not sure what has happened. We usually don’t operate like that. I can appreciate you took the morning off to be there. If you would like, I can put you on hold and find out how long the technician will be or I can reschedule the appointment. What would you prefer?”

But their perceived lack of caring has cost them at the very least $290 and possibly more. No matter how good your product is, if you don’t care about your customer it will show.

With Amazon about to enter Australia, this is more important than ever!

How do you acknowledge your customers emotions?

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Archives

100 Beatings

Your Systems Suck

5 Minutes vs 40 Years

Are You There?

Do You Serve?

Plan Backwards

Australia Day

Beware Perceptions

Beware the Intimate Enemy

Want a FlashPacker?

Fabulous Festivus!

Why Fight It?

Are You Serious?

Losing $290

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