Pace your Passion

I’m so fortunate to have a child who loves to read. Well, she’s only 13 months, so right now she loves to be read to. She’s obsessed with books with flaps to fold down, things to move or touch and shiny bits.

She’s also newly fascinated with turning the pages. So much so that she’ll turn them quicker and quicker laughing more and more and all the while making it impossible to read the words, or for her to fold down the flaps she loves so much.

Bless her, in finding one part of the process she loves she’s missing the other parts (for now).

In watching my daughter’s frantic pace it reminded me of times in my career where I’ve discovered a passion for part of a job. I’ve then proceeded to do that part to the best of my ability, with all of my passion, only to sweep other parts of the job (that I didn’t enjoy as much) to the side, forgetting, delegating or under-loving that part of the role. Only problem is, just like my daughter, in doing this you miss the whole story.

The ice cream sales person who loves to sell and create beautiful tasty treats, but doesn’t like to clean their workspace ends up in trouble.

The property manager who loves to interact with clients, but hates to write a proper condition report ends up in trouble.

The travel agent who loves to book exotic locations, but doesn’t dot the I’s on getting the dates right… well we all know where he ends up!

If you just want to turn the pages, you miss the book. Very few of us have such a specialized job that we’re going to love each and every part of it, but what if you just blitzed through the mundane and reveled in the exciting? What if you get the boring stuff done first, and leave the stuff you’re passionate about for the best part of the day? End on a high note, not on a hiding note!

By Kirsty Dunphey with No comments

Perfect is Passé

I’m getting quite into my photography at the moment http://www.facebook.com/GreenEyedGirlPhotography). One cool thing about photography? It’s teaching me that perfect can actually be a bad thing.

These days digital cameras are a gazillion megapixels with all sorts of auto focus and crystal clear clarity – and yet, my eye is still drawn to photographs with artificial imperfections added. Added grain, lens distortion, holga effects – all imperfections that technology could have done away with, but that I still adore looking at.

With technology you can perfectly email all 456 of your hot leads the exact cookie cutter email right now, or you can write ten of them an imperfect hand written card (only slightly above readable if you’re me!) and get a stronger and more real response from the imperfection.

You could perfectly create and send a text message to all your employees in about 5 seconds. Or you could pick up the phone and speak to one of them and create a real connection despite the fact that you might have (in my case I always seem to have!) a child babbling in the background.

You could perfectly inbox every contact you have on LinkedIn with something they may not all to hear about, or you could take the time to personalize a message to a client who will really value the contact.

Perfect ain’t all it’s cracked up to be. Personal is. What’s your choice today?

By Kirsty Dunphey with 1 comment

Where is that place?

I was watching a television advert on my local Tasmanian station last night advertising a gorgeous tropical looking resort.

My husband and I both instantly looked at each other and said it looked awesome. We waited to see where it was. No location was named. We had recorded the program we were watching, so we rewound the advertisement back, still no location.

We then googled the address only to find out it was in Bali! As gorgeous as it was, having to google it to find out the location (and instantly finding 10 other ways to book accommodation there) was I’m pretty sure not what the travel agency had in mind while running the advert.

It reminded me how easy it is to get so caught up in a concept that you miss the obvious. I’ve done it myself getting a few thousand brochures printed only to find out they didn’t have important information on them.

So the next time you’re working on an important piece of marketing – have fresh eyes take a look at it and give you some feedback. Form your own little advisory committee of people (with some preferably outside your industry) who will run their eye over something and give you their (honest!) feedback.

By Marjorie with No comments