Beauty and the Brain

I’ll admit it I love Jamie Durie. Here’s a man who was famous for his glistening pecks, and his ability to flip over his head while simultaneously writhing semi-naked and yet today, nannas all over Australia queue up to get his latest garden design book and my husband oohs and ahhs over (no, not his pecks) but his outdoor wall gardens. He’s moved from beauty and brawn to brains and business savvy.

Another beauty to brains example is Tyra Banks. Obviously beautiful she was making astute moves even when she was still marketing with just her beauty. When her body started to change and become fuller than the rake thin models of the day instead of starving herself to remain on catwalks she shifted her career over to a market that appreciated her increasing… er assets, the swimsuit edition of Sports Illustrated and Victoria’s Secret. Since retiring from modeling full time she’s shown the brain that’s also a sizeable asset in starting up Bankable Productions under which she helped create America’s Next Top Model which is now a worldwide franchise.

I guess you can simply use your beauty to get what you want a’la Anna Nicole Smith or more impressively you can leverage the connections and experience you get from your beauty and parlay that into further dealings where your brain also gets to shine.

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By Kirsty Dunphey with No comments

Kirsty Dunphey launches her new passion project: Baby Teresa

You may have heard whispers about a new project I’ve started called Baby Teresa. Now that our website is up and running I wanted to tell you guys all personally – I’ve started a baby clothing line!!

Weird right? I would have thought so too if you told me I’d be doing it two years ago! The thing that makes this so appealing to me though is that for every baby all-in-one outfit we sell, we donate another to a baby in need.

So far Sammie and I at Baby Teresa HQ have donated outfits to needy babies in our home state of Tasmania and just last week we sent our first donation off to Uganda in the middle of Africa. Our eventual goal is to clothe at least one baby in every country in the world!

It’s darn exciting – and I’d love you to help us get the word out there about it so that we can help kids who aren’t as fortunate as the ones we know and love.

So… if you’d like to help here’s what can you do:

1. You could forward this posting on to any expecting or current Mums, any shops you think should be stocking Baby Teresa, any media person who you think should know about us or anyone you think might be shopping for a baby present.

2. You could join our facebook fan page here and tell your friends on facebook, twitter or in your blog!

3. You could check out our website and give us some feedback on what you like and what you’d suggest www.baby-teresa.com

4. We’ll be doing launches for Baby Teresa all over the place. If you want to be on the invite list – it’s as simple as replying to this contacting us and telling us where you’re at!

5. Finally – if you want to buy a Baby Teresa outfit for a baby you know (and in the process give one to a baby in need that you don’t know) – head here: www.baby-teresa.com/buy.php BUT - as a special offer for my VIPs – you can check out our cool special offers (only available for Kirsty’s VIPs) here: www.baby-teresa.com/vipbuy.php



What are people saying about Baby Teresa?

It wasn’t until I had my own baby that I realized how unfair it is that not every baby in the world is as loved and well provided for as my own. With Baby Teresa I get the fun of shopping for my own child, and the knowledge that I’m helping another child as well. It’s a great feeling. Bella Fountain

I’ve spent the better part of the last 3 years over working with disadvantaged children, orphaned children and children that have been abandoned and I’ve seen how excited they get about something so simple as having something new to wear. It’s the small things that we really take for granted back home. So many children over here have never ever had a single new thing to wear - in orphanages, shelters and poor families it is always hand-me-downs and not enough. Children in the Western world are such an important, treasured part of our lives. It's our culture to keep them safe, loved and to be able to spoil them! Its great to be able to give people the opportunity to still partake in that mind set while being able to benefit a less fortunate child overseas at the same time. Carrie Hesketh


And finally..

Thanks for your support as always. Obviously this is a bit of departure from what you’ve usually seen me doing – but the joy its bringing me lets me know how right it is!!

Stay fabulous (I know you will!)

Kirsty

By Kirsty Dunphey with No comments

The Best Applicant Ever!

In the early days of having my first real estate agency, me and my two business partners would conduct all our interviews for new staff.

We’d spend what we thought was an appropriate amount of time with each applicant – about 40 minutes in a first interview. What was strange though was that we loved every applicant, they were all the best applicant ever!

After sitting down to look at our interview process to find out why we loved everyone we found it went something like this:

• Applicant enters the room
• Applicant introduces themselves
• Myself and my business partners proceed to speak for 38 minutes about why our company is awesome
• Applicant nods politely
• We love applicant

We were just so darn excited about our company that we did a sales pitch to the person who we should have been hoping would do a sales pitch to us! When we figured this out and started letting the applicant pitch to us we had a lot more success.

We also discovered some great interview questions along the way, these are a few of my faves:

• What do you know about our company? (c’mon a simple google of your business should give them some great info here if they’ve bothered to take the time)
• Why are you leaving your current job? (as soon as anyone started to have a go at their previous boss, regardless of how justified it might have been, they’ve shot themselves in the foot – after all what will they say about their next boss? Discretion is key.)
• What would you do this situation…? (use a real tricky situation you’ve had happen at your workplace)

Depending on the type of organisation / type of staff member you’re looking for I also love:
• An in workplace trial period (maybe a day where they come and work for you)
• After this ask them what they think can be improved about your workplace, what did they enjoy, is this the type of place they can see themselves working?
• Where you can’t do an in house trial period, set them a task to do between job interviews 1 and 2 such as look at our 3 biggest competitors websites and tell me what they have that we don’t… go to this open home and tell me what we could be doing better… rewrite this piece of literature… (find a task that will give you an indication 1. of their work ethic and 2. of whether they’ll be good at the job you’re hiring them for!)

And above all else, hold off on the sales pitch during your interviews! (I still find that a hard one!)

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By Kirsty Dunphey with No comments

Star Struck – Creating a Buzz

It was my first time in Hollywood, I was staying just off the main strip and on our first day we took a wander to see the stars on the sidewalk and of course to go “star-spotting”.

I was in luck almost immediately. Outside Grauman’s Chinese Theatre a small but determined crowd had started to gather. Like moths to a flame we joined the crowd jostling and craning our neck to see who the celebrity in the inner circle of the group was. Autograph pads were flying, cameras flashing, excitement was most certainly in the air.

After around 5 minutes of rubbernecking I was still no closer to finding out which celebrity was in the middle of the crowd. I asked the question to the excited person next to me, they had no idea. Five people later and I finally got my answer.

It was the 12th guy from Oceans 12! (The new Oceans 12 movie staring the delectable George Clooney was about to come out at the cinemas in a few months).

By this stage the crowd was whipped into an extreme frenzy with certainly over 100 people all clambering to get their taste of this “celebrity”. After around 10 minutes, we left the autograph signing mass without our autograph, but still excited to have seen a “star”.

You can imagine my surprise a few months later watching the Oceans 12 movie only to find out that there was no “12th guy” in it! It was the same original cast as in Oceans 11.

Now you can either look at this one of two ways I feel:

The first, 100 people on the streets of Hollywood were conned into thinking they saw a celebrity.

The second: 100 people on the streets of Hollywood were given a “star” sighting and something exciting to go home and tell their friends AND we can learn the lesson that it’s easy to create a buzz about ANYTHING if you think about it hard enough.

So, taking the second lesson, when your business opens its doors for trading, or has it’s 5 year anniversary, or hits a milestone, or starts selling a new product, what can you do (without lying!) to create some buzz and excitement?

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By Kirsty Dunphey with No comments