Success | Warwick Merry CSP CVP

Archive For: Success

How to Answer the Burning Question, “Was it worth it?”

As I have mentioned many times, my gorgeous wife and I have a small farmlet about 90 minutes away.

We were there again this weekend and I spent a couple of hours foofing around with some fencing that needed the box stay restrained, the droppers re-aligned, some significant wire repairs and most of the wires re-tensioned. During the process, it started raining heavily (of course!)

Was it Worth it?

To do all of this work, I had bought some equipment: 1.5km of medium tensile wire, a wire spinning jenny, wire strainers, gripple strainers, gripples, staples, fencing ties and some other gadgets as well. I am sure it was over $500 worth of stuff (most of which will last a long time and be used for many fencing jobs).

Was it Worth it?

My wife and her friend were sitting in front of the fire, enjoying drinks, cheese and nibbles on a gorgeous, relaxing Saturday afternoon while I was out there with Winston the Wonder Poodle accidentally putting to much strain on an old wire, struggling with high and medium tensile wire, trying to tie knots that will last for years and getting harassed by horses.

BUT WAS IT WORTH IT?

When it comes to measuring success of any venture, you need to consider the three R’s. ROI, ROO and ROE. Specifically Return on Investment, Return on Objective and Return on Energy.

ROI – Financially, it probably wasn’t worth it. I could have paid a handyman $100 and they could have done the work. But longer term, the financial side of of the equation will pay off. There is a lot more fencing to be replaced and a bit to repair. Having our own gear gives us the freedom and flexibility to do it when we want and cheaper than getting someone else to do it.

ROO – It was certainly a worthwhile objective. The big hole in the fence meant that cows from next door were coming to and fro as if they owned the place. Now that fence is fairly solid and I have a lot more confidence. My objective to have it animal proof (except for the Kangaroos) has been achieved. It also looks a lot tidier.

ROE – No doubt I could have hung out in front of the fire just relaxing. But the sense of achievement I got from tapping into some skills I hadn’t used since I was a teenager was fantastic. Knowing I have made the fence animal proof once again means I no longer have to wonder about how to get the animals back and what sort of impact they may have on our property or the horses.

So Was It Worth It? Definitely.

Here’s the thing. So often we do things, socially, around the house, at work, for others and we don’t consider “Was it worth it?” In my experience, this is particularly true for businesses who sponsor events or want to exhibit at trade shows. Often this is because we don’t know WHY we are doing it. So how can we tell if it is worthwhile if we don’t know why?

It is important that we take the time to calculate if our effort was worth it and if we got the results we were after. If we didn’t consider why not and what we can do differently next time.

That way, you can always answer the burning question, was it worth it.

PS If you are considering Sponsorship or Exhibiting, join me on a free online session on How to Get the Foundation Factors of Sponsorship Right.
Click here for more information on the session or to register.

Can You Help With a Bale?

Sorry the photo is bad but it was taken back in the day when we couldn’t see the photo immediately after taking it, so it will have to do.

It is my dad, feeding out hay in the “Bull Paddock”. It was rare to have so many cattle in here but it was because, at this time, 1/3 of the farm was flooded and under water so the cows went wherever we had space.

Times have changed.

Those trees aren’t there anymore. In fact, the house got burnt down six months after our family sold it. (It lasted over 100 years in our family and six months in someone else’s!)

For many farmers, the grass isn’t as green either.

That is the life of a farmer. Constant changing of factors beyond your control.

While farmers have developed a reputation for complaining about the weather (it probably is the most discussed topic), no amount of complaining changes it.

Too wet and it washes the crop away or makes it impossible to put your cattle on it. Too dry and everything dies and you have to sell or kill your animals. That Goldilocks Zone where everything is “Juuuuust right” is so rare.

Add to that the prices you are paid for your crop, cattle, milk or produce is typically set by someone else and it becomes a challenging life. My Uncle and Aunt say “Farming is the kind of thing that looks great from a car window”.

Out of interest, the milk price today in Victoria is about 44 cents per litre according to Dairy Australia. According to correspondence to the Australian Parliament from the Australian Milk Producers Association, the milk price in 1985 was about 32 cents per litre. That is about 1% increase per year. Far less than the CPI. Some dairy farmers are being paid less per litre than what it costs to produce.

The current drought in NSW and QLD is reaching crisis point. No doubt you have seen footage, images or heard stories about the complete lack of feed. So I am going to do a little something for the farmers and I am hoping you can help.

If you are in Sydney on Tuesday 7th of November, I will be hosting a LinkedIn Panel Session for LinkedIn Local Sydney and all proceeds will be going to Buy A Bale to get more hay for our farmers.
This will be an amazing session with some great speakers who will share their experience on how you can make the most of LinkedIn. You also get to ask as many questions as you want.

Our fabulous line-up of speakers include (click on their name to check out their LinkedIn Profile):

JILLIAN BULLOCK
Award Winner for ‘Best Use of LinkedIn 2018 Australiasia’ from the Social Media Marketing Institute, and a Certified LinkedIn Ninja.

JANE JACKSON
Best Selling Author of Navigating Career Crossroads, ‘Your Career’ Podcast Host, and Career Management Coach

ANNA McAFEE
Global Founder of LinkedInLocal and the Aussie lady who started a viral global movement

GEOFF ANDERSON
Video Producer, Best Selling Author of ‘Shoot Me Now’, and Keynote Speaker

DION WOO
Entrepreneur and co-founder of LInfluencers, a group who leverage the influence of companies, individuals and charities

You can find out more or book a ticket here.

If you are not in Sydney and still want to help, you can donate to Buy a Bale here. To help us track our campaign, if you can please put under “How Did You Hear About Us” – Other and then put our campaign number, RASN94911 in the details field.

Thanks for your support. I hope you can help with a bale.

Are You Prepared For Major Failure?

“Expect the Best and Prepare for the Worst” has been my mantra in preparation for the events I host. It also applies to other areas of my life.

On the way back from the shed yesterday, the car felt funny. It had some weird vibrations going on and I couldn’t work it out. When I saw in the mirror some bits of rubber flinging into the air, I knew I had a problem.

I pulled off on the side of the road. Then I thought traffic was pretty busy and I didn’t want to get too close to it. The emergency lane was pretty narrow as they had that new barrier wire up. So I just got very close to it.

Yes, my tyre was flat – well, probably a little beyond flat! Luckily I had a spare, most trailers don’t. Let’s be honest, it wasn’t luck, I made sure I had a spare on the trailer and I check it’s air pressure when I check the trailer tyres.

A quick change of tyres and I was back on my way.

Again, I was expecting the best but preparing for the worst.

The same thing happens in the events that I host. Things go wrong ALL THE TIME. It is just a matter of planning for them knowing that you can plan for 80% of the problems but 20% will come out of left field and you just have to deal with them.

In my 20 years of hosting events here are some of the things that have happened to me and others around me:

Yesterday my friend landed in Sydney to do her early morning keynote and her luggage (with her performance outfit) went to Adelaide
Flights have been cancelled, missed, delayed causing speakers to be late or not turn up. I had a flight rescheduled coming from Perth to Adelaide. By the time I got to Adelaide the even would have been over. So instead I went back home to Melbourne and had 20 mins to spare to present to the audience over the internet!
AV has failed (this happens so often that it is not really a problem anymore. The show will go on!)
Power outages
Evacuation alarms – one went off at a charity dinner I was hosting right as we were coming to the end of the night and half the people simply went home!
Speakers not showing up (this has happened a couple of times and my event organisers love that I have a keynote up my sleeve and ready to go when it does)
A death at the event. This has happened once for me and has had me re-evaluate some of my protocols.

So Dear Reader, in what you do and in your life, how do you expect the best and prepare for the worst?

Are you prepared for major failure?

Do You Match Your Marketing?

Most of us have been into, seen or drooled over cake displays like this one. Or maybe this one

With great anticipation we order the piece (or two) that we have our eye on.

It looks amazing and smells fabulous. A little bit of drool starts to form as our mouth begins watering.

We sit at the table with anticipation as finally the piece is served, maybe with a flourish, a dab of cream or some other garnish.

We probably take a photo of it, tell our dining partner how good this will be and then we have the first bite.

This is where reality comes crashing down on us.

So often the piece we have selected does not live up to our expectation or to the promise that has been made of it. We have inadvertently fallen prey to the Marketing Gap. The difference between what is marketed to us and what is delivered to us.

Companies do the same thing.

They spend a lot of money marketing a product or service and telling us how good it is. The marketing is exciting. It’s colourful, vibrant and enticing. We believe it, try the product or service and are disappointed.

Movie trailers seem to be the worst at this. Promising something that is never delivered.

Prospective partners can fall into this trap also. They start off being awesome only to fall back into their old ways once you have committed.

Social media seems to amplify the Marketing Gap. What you see on Instagram vs IRL (that’s In Real Life for us oldies) can set you up for major disappointment.

How is Your Marketing Gap?

In what you do – professionally and personally, do you deliver on your “marketing?”

Authenticity and open communication is so important in managing expectations and your own success. Please make sure you match your own marketing.

PS I had the Mini Yoyo – it wasn’t really that good.

How You Can Tell If Your Event Is A Success

Too often we focus on the cash flow or the ROI of an event when we are measuring success and not the ROO and ROE. Whether this event is a corporate conference, a party with friends or your child’s next birthday party, the intent of this is the same.

Don’t get me wrong, a financial analysis (Return on Investment ROI) of your event is imperative, but it is not the only thing. You have to look at your Return on Objectives (ROO) and Return on Energy (ROE) as well.

ROO is important as once we know our objectives, it will change the focus of the event and what we do at it and with our attendees.
ROE is so important as we only have a certain amount of energy to contribute so we want to put that energy in the right spots.

The problem with this is that most events do not have well considered Objectives or they are not measured appropriately. All too often people write of the cost as a “Branding effort” without even attempting to measure how it impacts the brand.

For your next event you need to ask yourself some key questions:

How will we determine if this event is successful?
How will we measure it?
What systems do we need to put in place today to help measure it?

Sometimes your measure of success is long term and you can be willing to make a financial loss in the short term for a much greater return down the track.

Whatever you decide, you have to measure it. As the old saying goes, “What get’s measured, get’s improved.”

Do You Get Compliments That Count?

I was thrilled to host the Australian Fraud Awards last week. The client was delighted with the job I did, but that is another story.

This story is about the little microphone that I use (see the image highlighting). It is a dFine 4088 from DPA Microphones.

You may well be thinking, Who Cares? And the answer is, the audience.

At this event, the AV crew said afterwards, “We love your microphone. It is fantastic.” So when the experts compliment your equipment you know you have done well.

I first saw speakers like Lisa McInnes-Smith, Amanda Gore and Keith Abraham have their own microphone. So I set a goal and then bought my own mic as a reward for myself for reaching that goal in my business. But during the research I did, I wanted to get a mic that sounded good, was easy to use and was comfortable for me.

Having the right gear makes all the difference, regardless of what you do. Having your own gear that is tuned to you, adjusted to your needs and works every time (that the pro’s think is amazing), well that is what the pro’s do.

Without it you will be “OK” but who wants to be OK when you can be AWESOME!

So Dear Reader, how good is your gear?
Have you got gear so good that the pro’s compliment it?
What gear do you need?

What Are You Laughing At?

I love the idea that life is far too important to take seriously.

Let’s face it, no one gets out alive (although we act like we are invincible) and some people are waaaaay too serious.

Laughing does amazing things to your body. It releases some fabulous chemicals and drugs that help you relax, de-stress and shift your perspective on to what is truly important for you.

Whether you are laughing at yourself, cat videos on the internet, classic comedy sketches, Australian Politics (don’t get me started), US Politics (just … don’t…), funny songs, family interactions, some other bloke being hit in the testicles (it’s always funny when it happens to someone else) or just laughing for the sake of it, it is so important to have a laugh.

Sometimes you have to laugh in the middle of a meeting. You know those ones that if you don’t laugh you are going to cry?

I am often laughing on stage – regardless of how serious the event is. The delegates love it, the organisers know how important it is and the person who signs the cheque loves the energy it brings to the event and the number of people who then make the commitment to come back next time.

I recently had the good fortune to be interviewed on the Laughter Channel Podcast. The host, Pat Armitstead, grilled me about comedy, laughter, influences and the importance of laughter. You can listen to our episode here.

But for you, Dear Reader, what are you laughing at? How are you incorporating some laughter in to your day?

PS If you are super keen you can watch the video of the interview here.

What Could You Do With A Million Bubbles?

I am thrilled to be working with Peter Merrett from the House of Wonderful to bring together a fantastic EXPERIENCE in Sydney.

Now this is where a usual post would bang on with sales copy and get you to sign up. Let me approach it differently.
If you are after an amazing interactive experience in Sydney on Thursday September 13th, then click on the image above to find out more and get your ticket. It will be an experience you will talk about for ages!

OK – no more sales.

Let me quickly chat about why this event and this opportunity stood out for me and how you may shift your events because of it.

The event is focussed on customer experience and I think as someone who has hosted and attended many events, the experience is beginning to feel the same. Have you ever been shopping and wondered, “am I in Myer, David Jones or Kmart?” Yes the venues are a little different but the EXPERIENCE is all the same.

How many events have you been too that are along this line:

Welcome
CEO Welcome
Amazing Speaker 1
Inhouse Speaker 1
Morning Tea
Breakout sessions
Lunch
Amazing Speaker 2
Afternoon Tea
Inhouse Speaker 2
Inhouse Speaker 3
Closing
Drinks

They are barely memorable.

It is a balance between Education and Entertainment. We are now of the age that if we are not entertained, we will whip out our mobile phone to check emails, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Whatsapp or eBay. We are still paying attention (sort of) but if we are not entertained, or inspired our brain moves on.

With the hosting work I am doing, this has had me continuing to raise the bar. From turning the delegates into a choir (sounds good when there are 500 people singing and laughing), to connecting with the delegates by making up some funny jokes with and about them on the spot, to getting ideas from the audience and turning it into poetry as a bit of a poetry slam – it is amazing the things that can happen. For one client we turned their IT briefing to their clients into a Graham Norton style interview panel. I must confess that one went from Boring to Boinnnggg quite well.

Now some people think that if it is too much fun then the delegates or audience are not learning. That is simply not true. Laughter opens the mind, keeps people focussed and makes the experience more memorable.

So Dear Reader how are your events?

As an attendee or organiser, what are you doing to fire them up?

How can you get a Million Idea Bubbles popping for your clients and delegates?

If you are looking for ideas, join us in Sydney so we can show you what to do with a million bubbles. (Oooops… a final sell!!)
Head to A Million Bubbles for more information and to register.

See you there!

When is the Best Time To Invest in Your Future?

I love big old trees like this one. It is one of the many old gum is on our property in central Victoria. But for me to appreciate this tree today, something had to happen many years ago.

It is the same with our future. A bright and prosperous future depends on us doing great things today. While in the world of social media, some people become rich, famous, celebrities, influencers and fabulous overnight, I can tell you (particularly in my case) that is not the norm.

Many years ago, the band The Presidents of the United States of America released an album which had a few songs about peaches. In one, there were millions of peaches, in another they were eating peaches on the back porch. The concept of eating your own home grown fruit has always appealed to my gorgeous wife and I – so to make that happen, we had to do something today (well a couple of days ago actually).

I know I have mentioned before the saying, “The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago and the second best time is today.” So we have chosen to embody that saying, peaches and all!

On Saturday we had 43 people and 5 dogs come and help us plant about 60 fruit trees and about 20 Golden Ash trees on our block with a Shed on it. We had done the hard work prior to fence off the area and protect the trees from the horses, kangaroos and anything else venturing in the paddock as well as setting up an automated irrigation system and pretreating the soil (there is a bit of clay there!)

It was a magical day and a pure delight to have family and friends helping build a better future for us all to share. Yes it was cold. Yes it had a bit of rain. Yes one of the dogs (naughty Molly) thought the trees were sticks to play with and tried to run off with them, but having that many people meant that it wasn’t a great deal of work but there was a lot of celebration. Check out the photos below.

Dear Reader, I am sure you are thinking, “well that’s nice but I don’t have a block or want fruit trees.” That’s ok. Everyone is different.

So what DO you want in your future? What do you need to do NOW to make it happen? Who can you get to help you start or progress your dream NOW?

Let me know if I can help.

The Golden Ash

The Orchard

Some Workers

A Big Feed

Staying Warm

Even Horses Love Selfie

3 Steps to The Top Job You Really Want ???

Amanda Blesing works with CSuite women to do what they do better. We caught up a little while ago and talked about some of the issues that women face and one kept recurring.

So many women know they are ready for the next job up the ladder but they struggle to get it. So I asked Amanda, how can a woman/person get that top job they really want and she said there were three key things:
1) Back Yourself
2) Sell Yourself
3) Express Your Value in a way your target understands

These some three strategies work for all people – regardless of your sex. Chatting to Amanda and a couple of other colleagues about this and we thought that most people get the first one ok. The second one can be a struggle for some – particularly those who don’t want to “big note” ourselves.

But some people do number 2 amazingly well. There are plenty of people out there that everyone identifies with. “How did they get that position, job, role, contract? I am way better than them!” And you are too! But they are better at selling themselves.

I think number three is the one that takes the longest to truly understand and embrace. So often we get excited about our stuff and start telling clients, prospects, and random strangers how good it is. But we do it in a way WE understand rather than taking on board, what is important for our clients? What counts for others?

So Dear Reader, how can you take on Amanda’s three key tips today to reach for that next job, contract, sale, connection?

Events Are Not All Glamour

Last week I hosted the Queensland Mining Awards. It was a fantastic night. Over 600 people came together in a stunningly decorated venue to celebrate innovation, community support and achievements in mining.

What you usually don’t see is all the hard work and lack of glamour happening back stage. Like this photo.

While everyone else is being waited on, the support team and I were back stage getting ready for the next round of awards, dressed super stunningly, balancing our meals on our laps. Quickly dealing with any hiccups that may happen, guiding recipients to the media wall for photos, ensuring recipients are in the room for their announcements and any number of other small things that happen throughout the course of the evening.

All smiles and glamour regardless of what is actually happening.

I am certain you are the same at your work.

Often the story of the graceful swan is shared, smoothly gliding along the surface while paddling like crazy beneath.

While the event was a huge success, there was so much that went into it. Months of planning to assess the awards, set up for the venue, logistics for sponsors, pre-recorded video and audio, rehearsals of timing, comedy routine preparation (and changes and practice and changes and practice…), media announcement of winners, social media postings, media interviews, and so on.

Events are no small thing to get right. It is so worth having the professionals help make it happen.

What behind the scenes work do you do that no-one else knows about?

How is Your Underlying Structure or Strategy?

After 8 years of talking about it, we are finally getting a deck!

One of the key things about it is making sure we get the structure right. Granted, we want it to look good but if the support is not there or the layout isn’t in the right direction, it won’t get the results we are after. It won’t meet the purpose we need it for.

A concept I learnt from Paul McCarthy and Brad Tonini is the concept of “For What Purpose?”

The simple act of asking what is the purpose of this action, this idea, this building, this online course, this book – help dictates the strategy. Too often people believe the rubbish perpetuated by Hollywood Movies, “If you build it, they will come” (Spoiler – THEY WON’T!)

How is your strategy?

Does you have a well thought out plan of:

What you are trying to achieve
Who you are trying to achieve it for
Where you will be working on it
How you will achieve it
How you will celebrate when you achieve it

You have to get the strategy right for the results to follow. Let me know if you need any help.

What Is Success?

Recently I took part in the 10 Tips in 10 Days challenge. That’s where I had to create 10 short videos to be published once a day. Each video had to give some kind of tip or advice on an area in which I had expertise.

In a coming post I will like to all 10 tips for you, but today is all about the first tip. That tip is to understand for you What is Success.

As host of the Get More Success show, I have asked almost 100 people how they define success. Everyone has a different definition but a recurring theme is that of Freedom. Click on the image above to see the short video about it.

Famously, Ralph Waldo Emerson had this to say about success:

To laugh often and much;
To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children;
To earn the approbation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends;
To appreciate beauty;
To find the best in others;
To give of one’s self;
To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition;
To have played and laughed with enthusiasm and sung with exultation;
To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived

This is to have succeeded.

So as you consider your future, how do you define success for you?

It could be in money, it could be in experiences, it may even be how you related to those in your life. The key thing is to know that there is NO wrong answer, and no answer to be embarrassed about as long you have something you are aiming for.

It is interesting that many people have no idea what success it. They still work hard and and continue moving forward but don’t know what they are aiming for.

So Dear Reader, what are you aiming for? How will you define success? What is it that you focus your energy toward?

Only by knowing what Success is will you know where to best focus your attention.

It’s 2019 (Financially)

Yet again, time has ticked over and here in Australia it is now the start of the new 2019 financial year.

So where are you?

I have spoken to some of my friends on colleagues who talk about “getting ahead”, “putting some money away” or “trying to get some leverage”. A recent post on LinkedIn talked about property prices in Sydney 20 years ago and the majority of the commenters were along the lines of “If only I knew”, “I wish I had a time machine” or “I shouldn’t have sold when I moved”.

I love the Chinese saying, “The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago, the second best time is today.”

Whether that is an actual tree, a money tree or a family tree, the saying is true. The image above is where my gorgeous wife and I will be planting approximately 60 fruit trees. You can see the divots (and if you squint you may be able to see the pink X’s) where we are getting the local bloke with a digger to dig the holes for the trees.

We will be planting another 20 or so Golden Ash at another place on the farm and, all going to plan, next year we will be putting in quite a few slow growing trees like Oak and Maple as well as another 20 Claret Ash.

To be quite blunt, we will be dead before some of these trees reach their maturity and magnificence. The fruit trees alone will take five years to get to a stage they will bear fruit. I suspect some trees may die as we fine tune irrigation, try and keep the kangaroos and other animals at bay.

But the second best time to plant is today.

Will you be in the same financial position this time next financial year?
What will you do to “Plant your tree”?
What financial plans do you have to put in place?
Who do you need to speak to to get the facts and make it happen?

Let 2019 be the year that you trees and financial future flourish.

Let me know if I can help at all.

Get By With A Little Help From My Friends

Photo: Andre Elhay

Saturday night was an absolute hoot! In fact, so was Saturday afternoon. We played games, won prizes, ate food, chatted and enjoyed the night all for a great cause.

My buddy Leanne was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease about 12 months ago. It is a shit disease. No known cause, no known cure and no real treatment. For a few statistics, check the MND Australia website.

The reality of this is that there is minimal support out there for those with MND. The medical industry’s approach is, “You have about two years left, go and enjoy what you can.” The insurance company’s approach is, “We are good at taking your money but not at paying it back. Your symptoms don’t meet our criteria.”

Due to the rapid onset of this disease, it means you need loads of new equipment quickly. Wheel chairs, cycles, home adjustments and so on. It also means your partner can’t work as they need to look after you (and don’t even ask about how hectic the night time is what with cramping, minimal muscle control so have to be turned, and then needing to go to the toilet.)

This is where Leanne’s friends came in. Over 350 people got together for her FUNdraising. People generously gave their time, money, goods to help raise fund for her. I was privileged to be able to host the event. At the end of the evening, we had raised well over $30k for Leanne.

In her speech, Leanne remarked how important it was to hug your friends and those you love because life is fragile and when you are unable to do so, even when they are standing in front of you, it is tragic. Take time to appreciate what you have because when it is taken from you, you will miss it.

We humans think we are invincible yet life truly is very fragile!

But as the Beatles, Joe Cocker and even The Ice Haloes (ok you got me, it’s my singing quartet) tell you, you can get by with a little help from your friends.

What do your friends need today? How can you help them get by?

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