Archive For: Success

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!

 

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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!

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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!

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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?

 

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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.

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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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What Defines You?

Image: ShutterStock

While going to the Physiotherapist (some same Physioterrorist) isn’t fun, the outcomes have been good. But a recent encounter with another client got me thinking.

The Physio has me doing hydrotherapy for my healing ankle. Usually there are two to five of us in the pool at once. As I was doing my weird stretches I said to one of the guys I had met before, “How are you doing?”

Now I was making polite conversation. I should have thought about the question I asked because he then took quite some time to tell me how he was doing. Yes, he is in an unpleasant situation and he has multiple injuries. Yes it has had an impact on his life and that of his family. But there has to be a good side somewhere doesn’t there?

Thinking about that interaction, I made the choice to not be defined by my injury.

The impact of my broken ankle is ever present in my life but I talk about it too much, give it credit too much, allow it to impact too much. The time has come for me to move on.

Sure, there will be a lasting impact but that is for me to manage. I don’t need to keep going on about it. I know there is a significant shift in mentality when I focus on what I CAN do rather than on what I CAN’T do.

Do you know people who are defined by what they think is holding them back?
By whatever event has occurred to them in their past that they can’t move past?
Are you one of those people?

Maybe it is time to focus on all the amazing things you can do, the experiences you can have, the relationships you can be part of.

Don’t be defined by events, thoughts and actions that are best left relegated to the past.

What defines you?

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Banish the Beige

Image: Dulux.com.au

I am terrified of Beige. Not the colour, as the colour above is the colour of most of my internal walls at home. I fear the Beige Life.

Beige seems to be gaining a grip on us. Here are a few reasons why:

  • The increasing number of people who seem to get offended on behalf of others
  • Political correctness 
  • Politicians trying not to upset potential voters
  • People not willing to take responsibility
  • Lack of courage in being willing to express beliefs
  • The decrease in skill on how to debate an argument
  • People attacking people and not the subject of the discussion
  • Close minded people who can’t see that just because they don’t agree, it can still a valid view point
  • FOWOT (A term I learned recently from Amanda Gore – Fear Of What Others Think)
  • Living a life of what other people think rather than what you want

I was reminded this week of the value of a colourful life, of staying true to your beliefs and values, of being open to new and different ideas, to calling out bullshit when you see it.

How are you adding colour to your life? How are you Banishing the Beige?

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Back to the Future

My gorgeous wife and I were out celebrating life and we had a flash back. A flash back to the future, if you will!

Soda Rock Diner was celebrating a move to a new location and had set up Doc and the Delorean out the front.

This was a great idea (although Doc was not quite a close match) for a couple of reasons.

  • It’s a great call back
  • It’s brand relevant
  • It was interactive

As a speaker/MC, one of the great tools of a presentation is the Call Back. It is where you mentioned something (a topic, a story, an item, an event) and then later in the presentation when the audience has almost forgotten it, you refer back to it. Comedians use this tool a great deal to excellent effect.

In this instance, people my age (almost 50!) grew up with Doc, the Delorean, Marty McFly and even Einstein (the dog who was sitting on the back of the car). Seeing the car was a great call back to an earlier part of my life which associates with a fun and positive memory.

It was Brand Relevant for Soda Rock as they are an American Diner complete with rollerskating waiting staff and Elvis. In Back to the Future II (and possibly some on Back to the Future) was set in a diner like this one. It was also October 21st which is one of the dates that Doc and Marty head to. So it was well themed and matched the brand of Soda Rock.

It also attracted a big crowd. People were lining up to sit in the driving seat and get their picture taken (look closely in the pic above and you will see a young girl in the front seat (on the left). I suspect there would be a lot of images on Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat and other social media of the Delorean, and possibly even tagged Soda Rock.

With the marketing of your business or the marketing that appeals to you, how does it take you Back to the Future?

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What Are You Creating?

I spent a couple of days at The Shed last week doing a few things.

It is a beautiful place that helps me reset my brain when I am feeling frustrated.

Let’s face it, there is a lot to be frustrated about.

Politics, sexism, war, treatment of indigenous peoples, treatment of refugees, people who don’t return phone calls, internet trolls, people who get offended by everything, people who never get offended, traffic, public transport, bad service, business deals that fall through, prospects who are incredibly rude … the list goes on.

Victor Frankl famously wrote in his book, Man’s Search for Meaning, that there is a gap between stimulus and response.

So no matter what happens to you, you get to choose how you will respond to the stimulus rather than simply reacting to it.

What this means is rather than looking at how the world is and what we have to deal with to exist in it, we can ask, “What sort of world do we WANT to live in” and make choices to create that world.

Sometimes others may not support our choices but we have no control over that. All we can do is have control over our own decisions. To be frank, sometimes those choices are hard and the cost may be high, but they are almost always worth it.

The choices we make create our future. What kind of future do you want? What choices do you need to make to have that future come in to being? What can you start on today to make that happen?

In essence, what are you creating?

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Put It Down

Technology is amazing.

We now have devices that give you access to the knowledge of the world with a click of a few keys (granted, we only use it to watch cat videos but we COULD do other things with it!) These smart phones have more power and capacity than the computers that sent people to the moon.

It is starting to feel like the cost of this technology is our own humanity. What price are we willing to pay for all of it’s advantages?

Don’t get me wrong, I am part geek and I like my phone to be within arms reach at all times. I love technology and what it can do for us. But we have to keep our mind open and not just following it blindly.

Technology is like fire, a brilliant tool but a poor master.

Here are a few things you can do to make sure you are not at technologies beck and call:

  • My phone and computer have ALL notifications turned off. I choose to run my day rather than let my devices run it.
  • My gorgeous wife and I will often leave our devices at home when we go out so we can be present for each other.
  • I will turn my phone on to Aeroplane mode when going into a meeting so I won’t be disturbed.
  • When friends are over for dinner and the phone rings, I don’t answer it (I know!! Radical isn’t it!)
  • I use my calendar to plan times to NOT do things like – no email, no meetings, no phone calls.
  • When working on an important strategy or creative piece, I will turn my phone of to prevent distractions.

These ideas are not rocket science but they are necessary sometimes so I can be sure that I am using technology and it is not using me.

What do you do to make sure you are making the most of technology but it is not making the most of you? How do you “put it down?”

 

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Does It Help?

Image: ShutterStock

As you may know, I broke my ankle earlier this year. My recovery is going well. I have all the steel plates and screws out and my treatment regime is not regular physiotherapy to get my range of movement back.

As part of my post surgery review, I had a check up with my surgeon. My physio asked me to have the surgeon send the notes from the original operation as he didn’t have those and wanted to see what physical limitations the surgery may have caused.

So far, so good. All very simple and normal questions that you may think about a persons recovery. This is where it got interesting.

So I went and had a chat to the ankle specialist who has taken over my “care” from the surgeon as their processes dictated. The care is in quotation marks because this doctor has very few people skills, struggles to answer direct questions and starts ruminating about problems you may have in 30 years time. He’s a bit weird (but apparently brilliant!).

At the end of my consultation as I asked if he could send my notes on the first operation to the GP practice my physio works out of. He gave me the look that said “that’s beneath me” and actually said, “just ask the girls at the front desk and they can sort it.”

Ok then.

At the front desk I asked the same question of the receptionist who said, “Why didn’t the doctor just ask for it?” To which I replied, “he said to ask you.”

She then said that for her to release it she would need an application under the freedom of information act. It would be easier if I got my GP to request the information to be sent.

Oh dear.

I rang my GP clinic after I left and explained the situation. The receptionist said, “Oh dear. It sounds like you have been getting the run around.” I gave her the identifying information and she said she would fax a request straight away.

Yay.

Then I asked if she could send a copy to the Physio who works out of their rooms. She replied, “Oh no. He will have to request it. We can’t just give it to him.”

Now I KNOW that this is minor to what others have to put up with in both the medical and non-medical professions. And I KNOW that there are many people who follow policies that they KNOW stuff around their clients but they have no choice as it is mandated that they do it.

Policies and procedures are an important part of business systems and great customer service. Celebrated author Michael Gerber in his book The E-Myth Revisited, stated that “Systems run the business and the people run the systems.”

So what policies do you have in your work place? Do they help or hinder the customer? How do they make life easier for everyone?

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The Other Side

I had the good fortune to hear Travis Bell, The Bucket List Guy recently.

He has some excellent processes and ideas on how to formalise creating and achieving bucket list items.

It is way more effective than that thought that “one day” you will achieve some dream.

The one key point of Trav’s that I really love is about the impact of achieving what is on your bucket list. Because it is not about the item. It is not about getting a photo of having achieved it. It is not about boosting your ego by achieving it. It is not even about bragging rights for having achieved it (let’s face it, most of our friends will say “that’s nice” and move the conversation on.)

What Trav says is that achieving your bucket list item is all about who you become on the other side of having achieved it.

Having proven to yourself that you CAN reach this goal, and having the inner satisfaction of knowing all the battles you have faced to get there. The internal reward of who you become on the other side of your achievement is what makes it all worth while.

So what do you need to put on your bucket list?

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The Art of Polite Debate

Image: ShutterStock

It’s official, we have lost the art of polite debate.

The evidence is littered across the pages of Facebook, scattered in the comments on YouTube videos and evident in any of our recent vision of political discussions.

There are two impediments to our ability to debate politely: 1) Our Target and 2) Our Beliefs.

Our Target

Our target has shifted. In the past it was simply the person with whom we were talking. Now it is anyone watching. So our arguments have to be inflated, exaggerated, entertaining, influencing and somewhat over the top. Not for the person we are debating but for anyone else who may be watching.

Our target has also moved from the subject matter to the individual. A healthy, logical argument would attack the subject and poke flaws at the process or logic that was used and during the discussion, offer an alternate, more robust and more logical method to come to a conclusion. Now it seems the first step (or if you are lucky, the second step) is to attack the individual.

When I say “attack” I really mean it. The abuse and vitriol that is used is astonishing and all it does is make the person being attacked more defensive and closed minded in their beliefs.

Our Beliefs

The Josh Wheedon film, Serenity, has a fantastic scene where the older cleric discusses how the government operative has a blinding belief that drives him and nothing can stop him because of the strength of his belief.

We see this every day.

Logic no longer has a place in many discussions, let alone debates. Some people’s beliefs are so strong that they can not even consider the undesirable impact of their beliefs. Their belief is so strong that they struggle to see why anyone could have a different perspective from theirs. Their belief is so strong that their mind is closed. Closed even to different approaches that may make their lives better.

So what can we do?

There are a couple of key elements to a healthy, polite and respectful debate:

  • Attack the subject and not the person – even if you think the other person is wrong, even if you don’t think they deserve it, treat them with courtesy.
  • Base your argument on proven facts – opinions are great but some are wildly inaccurate and damaging. Facts will always serve you well.
  • Be passionate about your position. Facts alone won’t do it but be careful not to be blinded by passion.
  • Be willing to be wrong. If you are not willing to even consider the opposing view point, how can you hope for your opposition to be open to your perspective.
  • Listen to what is being communicated. If you are unable to listen, your debates has just become a shouting match.
  • Don’t let your beliefs stop you from seeing the truth. The facts and truth have a power to them that beliefs never will. Sometimes you need to get out of your own road.
  • Let it go. Sometimes there are debates you will never be able to take part in (let alone win). These are the ones you have to walk away from. Adding fuel to the flame will only build a bigger fire and risk you getting burnt. Choose your debates wisely.

No matter what you debate, you can always do it politely and with respect while being passionate about your position.

So how will you practice the art of polite debate?

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Extreme Self Care

Image: ShutterStock

One thing I work on with all of my mentoring clients with is Extreme Self Care. That is, putting significant effort into making sure your needs are met and that you get what you need to protect yourself as you grow.

Most commonly this is the old story from the flight attendant telling you to put your own mask on before trying to help others. But it is more than that.

It is standing up for yourself and even fighting for yourself when you need to.

I have a situation like that at the moment.

Naturally I have considered the situation from a customer service perspective as well as from a brand impact perspective. I have even received external advice on the situation to take any personal opinion out of the situation. The outcome is that I will be enforcing a cancellation fee.

The reason?

I am worth it and so is my business. It is worth fighting for. It is worth delivering good service for. It is worth practicing extreme self care for. It is also worth respecting.

It is not the easier path but it is the more worthwhile and rewarding path.

Where do you need to practice Extreme Self Care?

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