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It’s Good for You

I have just spent the weekend with 20 of my closest friends in an eight bedroom house. They are the choir that I belong to, Mood Swing. It was our band camp where we did some drumming workshops, body movements and, of course, some singing.

It is amazing the bond we have created, the fabulous music we create and and the fun we have.

It’s …. GOOD. Good for the mind, the body and the spirit.

There is so much research on how singing together is good for you and your community. Even corporate choirs are becoming more popular and provided as part of “stress management” in the work place.

What about you? Would you Sing For Good?

As I have mentioned previously, I am honoured to be one of this years ambassadors for Sing For Good. I can highly recommend that you have a sing with some friends, video it and submit it to the site. There are some great prizes on offer and also money raised goes to support the great work that Creativity Australia does with their “With One Voice” program.

If you are not the kind of person to sing, no dramas. Head on over to the Sing For Good website and support your favourite entry with a donation. (I recommend you consider Mood Swing’s entry, but I am biased!)

Even if you don’t do that, at the very least when your favourite song comes on the radio, sing a long to it. It’s even better if you are with someone else and you both sing a long. It does great things for your health, physically and spiritually – basically, it’s GOOD!

It’s Good to be The King

Elvis

On Saturday night, I was The King. The picture above proves it.

The Australian Glass and Glaziers Association celebrated at their annual conference with a Gala Ball that was themed as “Viva Las Vegas”. The Platinum Sponsors Viridian and G James got in to the act and created a Little White Chapel as well as extra theming including our own Vegas sign with flashing lights. One of the delegates even dressed up as one of the guys out of The Hangover.

For me, not only was I dressed as Elvis but I played the role the entire night This included presenting the awards as him (extra cheeseburgers and all!) and singing a bit of one of his songs to close the night off. The reason this is important is that it was more than just dress ups. Looking the part only gets you so far. You really need to BE the real deal.

The same can be said for what you do. Dress up, turn up and BE the person your role needs. Whether it is a professional role, a role you play in the community or a role in your family, you can’t just LOOK the part you need to ACT and BE the part as well.

Don’t worry, it’s OK if you don’t do it well, make mistakes or don’t quite hit the goal you have as long as you give it all you got.

If you give it everything then you can’t help but succeed. Then you too will know why it’s good to be the King!

Soothe The Beast

Music soothes the savage beast.

You know it’s true. Think of the times you have been “beast like” (angry, grumpy, sad… you know the feeling) and then a fabulous song comes on and you get a better perspective on the world.

Not only does music soothe YOUR savage beast, it can also soothe the beast of others.

It can soothe the beast of unemployment, poor health, loneliness and a sense of “not belonging”.

“But How”, I hear you ask.

Well Sing for Good is the answer. Sing for Good is a project run by the charitable organisation Creativity Australia. Creativity Australis supports people in need via their With One Voice program. For the last couple of years they encourage people to grab a friend (or three or 20) and record a video of themselves singing. This then gets loaded to their website and the world votes.

It is a fantastic initiative and I am an Ambassador for this year’s event. (So all correspondence should be to Ambassador Warwick!)

As an Ambassador, I wanted to be sure that I entered as well. You can see my entry here.

Can I encourage you to visit their website and find out all about what they do?
Then keep revisiting as more and more acts add their videos.

Don’t forget, you too can grab a few friends, sing a song you love and enter yourself. It is so much fun.

Thanks for helping soothe the beast!

Where’s Your Head At?

Greetings from Washington DC! I am over here speaking at a conference with only about 2,000 people!

While here I received an email from one of our tribe asking:

“I wonder your thoughts. A person I know said that he thinks it’s wrong to tell people/youth they can do what they want to do, be whatever they want to be.

He thinks it gives them a goal they can never reach, or a dream they can never fulfil, if they dream too big, or hope too high, they’ll never achieve it and be full of grief and hopelessness.

I say, dream as big as the stars and then have as much fun as you can getting there. Who’s right?”

You know the good thing? You are both right!

Henry Ford famously said, “Whether you think you can or think you can’t you are right”

So by this person telling anyone, “Don’t think too big, play a smaller game, you will never make it” they will make it true. AND they will be surrounded by people who think smaller, are self limited and typically unsatisfied and grumpy.

But amazingly awesome people like YOU who say “Anything is possible, dream big and strive towards it” create fabulously positive people! Let’s be honest, they may not make it, but they chance that they will make it is far higher. Maybe they won’t make their goal but they will make it far closer that the person who listened to the person saying “don’t try” and they will have one hell of a ride along the way.

I like to think that we are building a better world by talking about what’s possible not what’s impossible.

In Washington President Kennedy said, “We will go to the moon.” He didn’t say, “We’d like to but it’s too hard, too expensive and we may not make it.” Just recently, a satellite flew past the furtherest “almost” planet Pluto.

“We will go to the moon” has taken us much father than “that’s really hard and it may not happen.”

So what about you? Where is your head at?

Are You Leaving Signs?

There are certain signs everywhere. Some are easy to recognise and others take a little more effort.

The sign above was a little something I left for a friend. Let me explain.

We rented our friends weekender at the beach very last minute and we knew that they had other guests coming after us. I needed to let my friend know that we had cleaned her place so well that her next guests would be impressed.

What better way to show that than folding the toilet paper. She even had a laugh when I texted it to her.

What about your team mates, customers and family? What little signs are you leaving them?

These little signs can speak absolute volumes. So are you leaving signs?

Have You Got A Secret?

This is Ron Gottlieb.

He is the CEO of Ricky Richards, a manufacturer and wholesaler of industrial and commercial textiles and they are the platinum sponsor of the SpecTex 2015 trade show.

Also, he has a secret.

Ricky Richards are doing something very different for their industry. They have an exciting new industry partner. Click on the image above to see a three minute video where Ron talks about it and reveals the secret.

What was really cool was how they announced it. Over the past few weeks Ricky Richards has been posting images on their social media sharing how they have a “special announcement” and that you need to come to the trade show to find out what it was.

Their email footers have also been encouraging people to come and find out “the secret”. So the industry has been abuzz with this secret and many have come to the trade show to uncover it. But you had to go to the trade show to find out what it was and from there they have released it to the market place.

The secret is a great one. They have partnered with Melanoma Institute of Australia and are committing to significant donations on an ongoing basis. There are some real synergies between the companies and it not only helps Melanoma Institute but also Ricky Richards’ clients in the selling of their products.

What about you? Have you got a secret? Can you “reveal” it in a way that attracts attention?

Well That’s Different!

My gorgeous wife and I were thrilled to be part of our friend’s wedding on the weekend. She is Sikh so the ceremony and formalities were very different to the western ones we are used to.

Your head must be covered (and there are bandana’s at the door if you need)
You must leave your shoes at the door (most people had bare feet)
It is the bride who waits at the temple for the groom to arrive (and yes, he was late!)
The temple reserves the pride of place for the holy scriptures (that’s it under the pink cover that the holy man is reading from)
The groom walks around the holy centrepiece connected to his bride by a long red cloth and she follows behind him. (This was done five times during the ceremony)

It is by experiencing different lifestyles and cultures that we remove our ignorance and fear. We get to have an appreciation of what is important to others and understand who they truly are. You may not agree with their choices or wish to make them yourself, but you get to understand them more.

There is a lot of fear in the world, fear of lifestyles, culture and different life choices, a strong fear of people who are “different” to us.

We would make great progress in eliminating those fears simply by spending time with those people. Not judging them by OUR standards but learning what are THEIR standards. We may be surprised at how similar they are to our own.

The same can be said with that person in the workplace who you just don’t understand. What can you do to understand them better? Maybe their approach is not wrong, just different.

There is a lot to be said for getting to know someone and understanding that their way is not right, not wrong, it’s just different.

Do You Deserve Good Service?

This is Rachael and Erin at the Virgin Australia lounge in Sydney.

As a person who travels quite a bit, I have earned access to the lounge. This week as I was travelling home from Sydney to Melbourne, I asked whether it was possible to get an earlier flight. They were able to get me the flight two hours earlier which was fabulous for me. Naturally when I asked, I was pleasant, cracked a few silly jokes and was even a bit playful. I figure they have a busy job, at the very least I could be nice.

They said to me, “If only all of our customers were like you.” I asked what did the “other” customers do and I was amazed at their response.

Some customers demand (demand, not ask for) an earlier flight and when they are allocated a middle seat they refuse to take it and get huffy.
Others in this situation tell (again, tell not ask) them to move someone else out of an aisle seat so they can have it
Some customers will demand an upgrade to business class because they are Gold, Platinum, tired – whatever excuse they think will get one
Some customers grab a couple of mints out of courtesy bowl without even making eye contact (ok so that’s not too bad)
Then they told me on several occasions that customers will walk past and empty the entire content of the mint bowl into their bag (and the bowl is pretty big)

While flying I have also experienced some pretty atrocious behaviour in how flight attendants are treated by fellow passengers as well. By no means is this poor behaviour confined to the airline industry. Most of us have stories of very poor behaviours from people who are looking for customer service.

Do you deserve good customer service?

Personally, I do not believe the customer is always right, but they are always the customer, but do you really think you are helping your situation by being rude and obnoxious? In many situations the person giving service is paid a fairly low amount, is fairly young (so may not have developed some of the resilience to deal with highly emotional situations) and deals with issues all day long.

So here are some guidelines on how to get far better customer service by acting in a way that deserves it:

Smile – it makes a huge difference
Be pleasant – sometimes you won’t get your way and it is not completely (or sometimes even partially) due to the person you are dealing with and that is no reason to not be pleasant.
Express dissatisfaction with a situation not with a person – once you make it a personal attack it becomes much harder to get a mutually satisfying situation and it is frequently some time later by huge regret at what you said.
Know there are more customers than just you – really, taking ALL THE MINTS is not considerate of others, it is the same with demanding all the attention of the customer service person when your situation will not progress and there are others to serve.
Have a healthy perspective. Is it REALLY that important? If I didn’t get an earlier flight, I would still get home just two hours later. Really, would that be worth flipping out over?
Ask for more but be ok if you don’t get it – I will frequently ask for an upgrade whether I am flying or renting a car. Often I get a better car, sometimes I get an exit row, twice I have been bumped up to Business Class or Premium. I usually ask in a friendly, joking kind of way. But I feel for the person behind the counter when people “demand” an upgrade because “Don’t you know who I am?” Intimidation is not a good strategy for service.
Have fun. Customer service people are human too. Typically their job is repetitive, a little dull and they tune out. If you use their name (no doubt they have a name badge), have some fun with them then it makes everyone feel better and you never know how they may look after you.
Smile – I know I mentioned it to start with but it is too important not to mention again. So many people forget to do this. They get so swept up in their own importance, their own problems and their own thoughts that they forget to smile. If you do nothing else, smile and I am certain it will make a difference.

If you can do these things you will be far more deserving of good customer service and you are more likely to receive it. It is not rocket science. In many cases it is simple courtesy and expressing your humanity. But it is forgotten far too often.

So do YOU deserve good customer service?

I Need Help

Hey All – I need a favour.

I am creating a new website all about success and I need some photos to put on that website. Now I was going to get some stock photos and then I thought – hey I know loads of successful people.

So what I need are photos that you own and are willing to give me permission to use on the front page of my new website. For the top 10 photos (as voted by me) I will give you an amazing super duper prize as well as feature you in my upcoming podcast.

Your picture has to represent “SUCCESS” and while you and I know your family are successful, I don’t need any family portraits. I am thinking achievements, awards, holidays, goals, etc etc. But please feel free to use your own definition of success.

The ultimate resolution will be 1600×700 so think long and skinny (like me lying down!!)

Feel free to spread the word.

Simply email the image(s) to me warwick [at] warwickmerry dot com with a bit of an explanation to submit your entry.

This is a competition of skill and not luck (so I avoid any gaming laws). Judges decision is final. Fun level is high. Entries to be in by end of June 2015.

The Super Duper Prize for Top 10

Profiling on the upcoming Success podcast
A recording of the Get More Fun CD
Copy of the One Page Marketing Plan and One Page Business Plan templates
Link to your website in Credits Area
Link to your website when they click on the image
My eternal gratitude

Doesn’t that sound great?

I will also put all entries on a gallery page with a link to your website.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Who’s Looking After You?

We had a fabulous weekend away at this old butcher shop that has been converted into a B&B with a very French feel. It was lovely and relaxing.

By the way, when I say “We”, I mean four of our friends and myself. My gorgeous wife had to stay at home.

I would have loved for her to join us but she was very unwell and I couldn’t afford to get sick as I am off to Singapore on Thursday to deliver two different presentations at a conference and I am just getting over an ear infection.

We talked about it and decided that she would probably just stay in bed for the weekend so I stocked up the fridge with yummy foods and then cleared out of there before the dreaded diseases got me.

It was a tough call. I wanted to be comfort to my gorgeous wife but I also got it was very important to look after myself and my own health. If I am not prepared to make tough decisions about my own health, who will?

So who’s looking after you?

Happy Birthday to Me!

It’s happened again!

Another year has passed and I had another birthday on the weekend. It’s my 47th and every year just gets better.

I received a stack of birthday messages including birthday bacon. The birthday bacon below is from my lovely friends The Kemps.

Even though it is my birthday, I want to give YOU the presents. So for this week if you order my Get More Inspiration book, I will give you, in addition to the existing bonuses at www.GetMoreInspiration.com, a copy of the How to Bring Home the Bacon recording from the recent Taking Care of Business show.

Head over to the Get More Inspiration website to order the book package and I will give you this recording worth $39 at no extra charge.

Until next time, it’s Happy Birthday to me and keep on having fun.

What Are You Planning For?

Much to their disgust, kids all over Australia are heading back to school today. You can almost hear the collective sigh of relief from parents everywhere!

It is interesting how much planning people do for their holidays that they DON’T do for the rest of their lives.

As the holidays approach, the planning starts for trips, adventures, play dates and even “just keep them busy” activities. Now that it is over many people revert to “let’s just see what happens”.

Success starts with a plan.

Whether you are planning financial success, lifestyle success or corporate success, success starts with a plan. Once you know what you want, then you need to create a plan of action, which is closely followed by taking that action.

So what are you planning for?
What is it that you want to achieve?
What is it you want your family to achieve?

It takes effort, it takes discipline, it even takes compromise but the results are worth it.

So what are you planning?

Freedom (At Last)

Saturday night I had the great joy of hosting a Trade Show and Gala Dinner for one of my fabulous clients.

Like most Gala Dinners, there were awards, formalities and speeches. Once that had happened, it was time to relax and celebrate. This event had a great band that was really suited to the audience. They were called The Chosen Few. Dinner done, formalities over and so the band started.

The dance floor was empty!

Now I know that people are like sheep. No one wants to be the first person on the dance floor, they are waiting for others to go first. As part of what I do for clients, I will typically find someone during the course of the dinner who is happy to dance and then set the example by hitting the dance floor first. On Saturday the lovely Sam from The Cartridge Family joined me on the dance floor.

I know why people don’t want to get on the dance floor. They are scared of what others will think, whether it is their outfit, how they dance or some other thing people are scared of being judged.

Eleanor Roosevelt is quoted as saying, “What other people think of me is none of my business.”

The freedom of letting go of what other people think and just enjoying the moment meant that Sam and I had a great night on the dance floor. There were others sitting around the edge just bursting to get on the dance floor (they were dancing in their chairs almost) but when we invited them to join us, even when there were more people on the dance floor, they declined.

So where are you denying yourself freedom by being constrained by what other people think? What will you do today to give yourself the gift that freedom is?

Ethics, What Ethics?

One of my gorgeous wife’s friends is looking to buy a house.

After a lot of searching, she found one she liked. Like all good homeowners, she did her research. She had the conveyancer review the contract of sale/section 32 and she also had a property inspection.

For those that don’t know, a property inspection is where a qualified inspector comes and does a detailed inspection of the house and reports back to you important information about it. It is a valuable report that can prevent you from buying a house loaded with potential disasters. As with all transactions, the report is the property of the person who paid for it.

The day before the auction, my friend received a call from the person who did the inspection advising her that the real estate agent had contacted them and asked for a copy of the report so they could display it as part of the auction documentation.

Whaaaaa….

The inspector did the ethical thing and said it was not their call to make and the owner of the report (our friend) was the only one who could make that decision. The agent then advised they would contact my friend – which they never did. I suspect that they knew after paying hundreds of dollars for a report, our friend would not be willing to give it away to her competing bidders.

Here is the outcome of poor business ethics:

A formal complaint can be made against you to your industry body (as will happen in this case)
You will never get work from this potential customer again
Your reputation will be sullied in the market place
Your whole industry will be drawn into disrepute
You won’t sleep well at night

What about you?

How important are ethics to you and your business? How often are they discussed in your team meetings? What can you do to be sure that everyone on your team acts ethically even when no one is watching?

First on the Floor

My gorgeous wife and I went to a family wedding at the Plaza Ballroom on Valentines Day. (A cheap way to have a great night out on Valentines Day!!)

After dinner when the band started the dance music, people hesitated to get on the dance floor. As my wife has broken her foot (that’s another story!) she was definitely not going on the dance floor. So I thought I would ask one of the cousins who was over from the UK.

She adamantly refused to go on the dance floor until many others had. I even tried dragging her on but she would not budge. So I had to try other methods to get people on the dance floor.

My theory, just get on the floor. No one cares. Yes other people will watch you, some may even laugh but who is on the dance floor having fun? Who is on the dance floor enjoying themself rather than sitting there wishing they were?

In business, this is the same. Give things a try. Yes you may fail, yes people may laugh, yes you may stumble and fall but during your early business dance you will learn things that watching will never give you. You will get immense satisfaction from taking action rather than just thinking about it.

So why don’t you be first on the floor!

Image: The Marriner Group

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