I thought this book was magnificent and completely fascinating. I constantly found myself trying (with limited success) to explain it’s brilliance to others and couldn’t wait to get back to read the next chapter. The message was profoundly simple but illustrated like this there were so many “ah-ha” moments for me. If you liked Freakonomics my bet is you’ll love this too.
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So, more and more these days I’m getting asked about social networking / web 2.0 and what on earth their purpose is. This includes websites like: • Twitter • Blogger • Facebook • Linked in • Myspace Now, if you’re online, I doubt you’ve managed to exist without knowing about one or more of these sites, but from a business perspective, what’s their use? We’ll go through each quickly, but there’s some general pros and cons that cover them all: Pros• Greater access to customers in a non-invasive, opt in (ie the person says they want to get your twitter updates or read your blog etc) • Using these sites allows you to put a more human face on a business • Almost all of these sites don’t cost anything (except your time) to use Cons• These sites demand time. I know people who invest upwards of an hour on social network sites every day (I don’t – but it does take time) • Like a website, if you don’t update and keep things fresh on social networking sites there isn’t much point TwitterIt’s the latest and the greatest if you listen to celebs like Ashton Kutcher @aplusk (putting the @ symbol in twitter speak means that you can find Ashton at www.twitter.com/aplusk) or Ellen @TheEllenShow who are all raving about it. In short, Twitter ( www.twitter.com) was built to answer the question, what are you doing? You get 140 characters to let people know what you’re up to. From a business perspective, I use @kirstydunphey to tweet (a tweet is a post on twitter) and push traffic towards my blog (more about blogs later), to promote listings (with my real estate hat on) and to stay in touch. Some tweeters to check out from a business perspective include: @zappos – Zappos CEO (service oriented online shoe store in the States) @miafreedman – former Cosmo editor and current author and blogger @Rove1974 – TVs Rove McManus @ThisIsSethsBlog – Seth Godin, author and blogger Facebook / MyspaceI’ll lump these two together because they’re really similar. Myspace used to be all the rage and in the last two years it’s become more about facebook. I maintain a presence on both, but if you’re strapped for time then it’s more likely that you’ll go with myspace if you target a younger key demographic (say 10 – 19 year olds) and facebook if you’re targeting an older demo. Both sites allow you to connect with friends (facebook prefer you connect with people you know, whereas myspace don’t care with people often having thousands of friends they’ve never “met” outside of myspace). Graphically facebook is a little cleaner while myspace allows you to customise your profile a lot more. Secure wise, I allow anyone to access my myspace page ( www.myspace.com/kirstydunphey) because I don’t use it for anything personal. Myspace is just about business for me in terms of driving traffic towards my blog and books and keeping people updated about my businesses. Facebook on the other hand I actually use to connect with my friends so I’ve tweaked my security so that the general public can’t see much about my personal side, only really the basics and my status updates (like a tweet but for facebook). Facebook has another great functionality though where it allows you to start groups and fan pages. We have a fan page for all our businesses and it allows others to become “fans” and show that they love the business on their profiles. It’s all just basic free marketing. Linked Inwww.LinkedIn.com is like facebook but for business connections. A fabulous tool if used properly you upload your business / resume history and find people you know (the same as facebook), but from there, say you want to get in contact with an exec at IBM or any company, you can find out how, through your network you know that person. It might be that you’re 4 degrees of separation away (ie: you know someone, who knows someone, who knows… you get the picture) but linked in will allow you to trace that relationship to get in contact with that person. Another handy functionality is the ability to write referrals / testimonials about people you’ve worked with. BloggerI use google’s free blogging site www.blogger.com to run all my blogs, but there are plenty to choose from. Blogging allows you to post online articles which can then be indexed and searched by web engines such as google. It’s a great way to increase credibility, drive traffic to your website and to give the world more of an insight into your business. Our real estate agency uses one ( www.elephantproperty.com.au/blog) so that we can update people on our market, the economic conditions and what’s going on in property generally. People can then subscribe to get your blog updates delivered to their inbox (like a newsletter, only you don’t have to go to the trouble of making it and emailing it) and you can also subscribe to blogs you like reading, or a reader can simply come back to the website when they want to find out more. Phew, the conclusion So that’s basically it on the social networking sites I use for business. There’s a few more you may want to check out, but my advise is as follows. • Don’t do everything! You still need time to run your business. • Find out what works for you by employing simple and free google analytics on your website so that you can see where your traffic is coming from (if you’re tweeting like a crazy person plugging your blog, but no one is visiting, then maybe it’s not working for you) • Utilise tools like www.ping.fm which will allow you to update your status simultaneously at all your sites so you don’t have to log into them all • Link to your social networking on your website (see www.threadless.com for a great example of how to do this) • And remember, if you don’t intend to update these sites, don’t bother! You’d do better to concentrate on more traditional marketing. Now... off to post this article as a blog on blogger.com and then use ping.fm to update my status on linkedin, twitter, facebook and myspace to point to it! Sign up to Kirsty's weekly email: www.kirstydunphey.com
I had lunch a few weeks ago at a great little restaurant. Our waiter was very well spoken his restaurant patter flowed from his tongue like poetry. Until that is, we started talking back. Whenever we interrupted his well prepared dialogue he stammered, blinked wildly and then went back to his script as though we’d said nothing at all. He’d memorised what he was meant to say beautifully, but he hadn’t internalised it at all and as such, if we didn’t say our lines perfectly, he was thrown. Unfortunately no-one had given us a script for eating lunch! I’ve written before on the fact that I love scripts and dialogues. I love it that when I call my hairdresser they answer the phone “how can I make your day” I love that many Harcourts offices answer the phone “it’s a great day at Harcourts”. That’s memorisation, but when you ask someone what the company’s all about. They can memorise your mission statement or you company profile and repeat it verbatim, or they can have internalised that information so that they can speak conversationally about it (with interjections) and not be thrown. Memorisation’s a great start, but internalisation and be able to interject a scrip with a personality is key. Many thanks to Rob Morton from the Disney Institute www.disneyinstitute.com for reminding me what an important topic this is in a recent speech of his.
I agree that the best tennis coach in the world doesn’t have to have Roger Federer’s skills on the court. I agree that the best swimming coach in Australia doesn’t have to be Stephanie Rice in the water. BUT, if you’re going to get a coach or an advisor in the area of money, health or happiness I think they have to have proven their ability on themselves first. I personally wouldn’t want to go a business coach who’s never run a business. I wouldn’t invest my money with someone who doesn’t invest themselves and who hasn’t shown a past ability. I also couldn’t take health advice as seriously from someone who wasn’t practising healthy behaviour. These days you can be come a life, business or wellness coach by way of franchise or by simply putting out a sign that says that you are one and I think it’s crazy. Be careful who you put your trust in. Ask questions. Be assertive. And as always, if someone presents you with an offer that’s too good to be true, it probably is! Sign up to Kirsty's weekly email at www.kirstydunphey.com
 I’ve just spent the better part of the morning marvelling at the ridiculously low prices that you can get real estate in the United States for at the moment. Case in a point, a 5 bedroom, 2 bathroom, 3 storey brick home just sold for $7,102 USD in front of my eyes in an online auction. I get so many emails at the moment from investors keen to grab their $7,102 investment property in the States sight unseen thinking it’ll be a gold mine for them as prices eventually go up and the rent will cover the teeny tiny mortgage in the meantime. “Caveat emptor” is Latin for “buyer beware” and it’s my motto when buying any piece of real estate for investment or otherwise. Whether the property is in the States or 3 hours away in Australia, regardless of the price I still advise you to go through a lengthy research process including: • Finding out what the street and suburb are like. What are homes of similar quality renting for in the area? Have you had an independent property manager (ie: not someone working for the company selling it) go and give you a rental estimate? How long are properties taking to rent in that area? • Is the home even rentable in its current state? What repairs need doing? Have you had a building inspector look at he property? • If you’re looking in the States, what back taxes are owing, are you buying the property outright or taking on debt from the previous owners? Are you buying through a legitimate source? Also check out www.zillow.com for some great info on neighbouring properties. • Have you made contact with a good (no, great!) property manager to look after the property for you? • Do you have someone looking after your legal interest and making sure that any contract you sign protects you adequately? And please please please consider going to visit the property before buying it. A few hours on a plane gives you an opportunity to see the neighbourhood for yourself, to view similar rental properties, to chat to neighbours and so much more.
At 18 I received some of the best life and “interview advice” from my boss at the time Nick. I was interviewing with him and he asked me about where I was working at the time. I proceeded to tell him I couldn’t wait to get away from the place because I really was having issues with the boss. Now, even though these issues were justified (a death threat is a justified issue right?) Nick sat me down after I got the job and explained to me that a future boss doesn’t want to hear about your issues with your current boss. This was one of many lessons he taught me during the time I studied while working with him. Another one that stuck with me was when you start a sentence with “In all honesty…” you’re inviting the person you’re talking to think that you’re not speaking with honesty at other times. I was reminded of these lessons when chatting with a friend recently who was having an issue with her boss. They didn’t appreciate her. They didn’t respect the work she put in. They took her for granted. No death threats here which is a great start! But it got me to thinking I’d had a similar discussion with her about her previous boss, and the one before that, and the one before that. When a pattern like that emerges, where you’ve been at odds with every boss you’ve ever worked for, maybe it’s time to look internally instead of continuing to push the blame outwards? There are great bosses out there and of course really average ones, but if you’re always looking for flaws instead of appreciate opportunities you’ll always have a martyr complex and be wondering why you’re not being fully appreciated. Who knows, given the economy (I was told just this weekend that 500,000 people in the States are losing jobs each month!), you could turn your feelings around and start appreciating your boss for the very fact that you have a job right now. So, wrapping up and in all honesty… er I mean with as much honesty as I always write: • If you can’t stand more than 60% of your current / previous bosses and managers, maybe it’s you. • If you can’t stand your current boss but aren’t going to leave, try and change your attitude by realizing how lucky you are to simply have a job at the moment and consider what you can do to make the attitude more positive. • If you’re getting death threats, leave your place of employment, but keep it to yourself in future job interviews! Sign up to Kirsty's weekly email online at: www.kirstydunphey.com/weekly.html
Added Jan 6, 2010, Under: kiva
I’ve just arrived back from a 4 week holiday today to receive a great email from www.kiva.org telling me that I have enough credit to loan back some of the money I’ve already loaned to micro entrepreneurs. That’s the awesome thing about Kiva. You can make some initial loans (of $25 USD) and then as those people pay the money back you can keep lending it, or if you need to, you can withdraw the money. I’ve never had any other charitable type donation give the money back to me or allow me to keep reloaning it!!! Happy to have sent some money towards a group of 9 women in Ghana today through our lending team. Added bonus of Kiva: it helps with your geography, now exactly where is Ghana… I highly encourage you to go check out the site today www.kiva.org and make your own micro loan to an entrepreneur who needs it.
I’m not sure I could ever be in the military as my father was. Blind obedience doesn’t sit well with me, and yet it’s a way of life and a vital tool for survival in the military. In a business environment however, I think that blind obedience only hamstrings an organisation.  Any manager who expects and wants blind obedience is really just saying they want to constrict the growth of an organisation. There’s a huge difference between respect and blind obedience. • Blind obedience keeps on doing something even when it knows there’s a better way. • Respect, says “have we ever thought about adding / changing…” And while there’s a huge difference between respect and blind obedience there are also miles between respect and disrespect. • Respect says “I’ve been thinking, what if we tried…” and clearly and concisely states their point for their manager. • Disrespect says “That’s stupid and inefficient” either to their manager’s face or behind their back or continues to press their point long after their manager has considered it and decided to go in another direction The problem? So many employees think that what their manager wants is blind obedience. The secret? The best managers want your input. They want you to help your organisation get better. When you improve something, everyone benefits and you make your manager look better. They may not always take your advice, or move in your direction (as a manger that’s their choice), but done respectfully it will always be of benefit. Tweak your communication so it’s always respectful and always helpful and you’ll soon see that a first class manager will welcome your suggestions. What to do if you have a manager who isn’t first class and who only wants blind obedience? Firstly, find out if this is the case or if you just assume it is (have a coffee with them and try them out on one piece of feedback, ask how they like feedback delivered). If you’re positive that they only want blind obedience my advice is: fall into line (but keep your eyes open for a different manager or mentor - you deserve better).
I have a budgie named Walt (Walt Disney), I honeymooned at Disneyland, I’ve written articles and more about them. You could say I’m a crazy Disney fan. Why? Because of the magic. Walt Disney wasn’t perfect, but he did try to distil a little bit of magic back into the lives of the people who interacted with a Disney product. I’d like to think that while Walt isn’t still with us (the man, not the budgie), that spirit of creating magic still is. I feel it when I walk into a Build a Bear store where they create a retail experience like no other where you actually make your own teddy bear complete with the ritual that goes along with giving you bear true heart. The magic was there at a character filled and people packed restaurant I once went to in Texas. There were around 8 of us dining on a huge round table and when it was time for our meals, 8 waiters all stood behind us and in unison placed our plates in front of us. Magic surges from the website at Toms Shoes www.tomsshoes.com where you know that for each pair of shoes you purchase they also donate one to a child in need. What are you doing to create the magic in your life? Sign up to Kirsty's weekly email online at: www.kirstydunphey.com/weekly.html
One of the most read articles I’ve ever written was on “ Killer Customer Surveys” – however it’s just been brought to my attention that I’ve missed a vital part of it. Now that it’s been pointed out to me – it’s so clear! Let’s say for example, you’re asking people to rate your: • Website • Customer service • Newspaper advertising • Phone manner You get an average rating of 9/10 for website and newspaper advertising and a 7/10 for customer service and phone manner. Most businesses would be fairly happy with this overall average of 8. BUT – what if you add an extra portion to your customer survey’s that also asks them to rate how important each of those items are to you. From there you may get a totally different picture. What if people still love your website and newspaper advertising but it’s not at all important to them. The customer service may be all the client cares about – and rates this as VERY important – and you’re only getting an average of 7 in this area. The 9’s you’re getting on the other two items which aren’t important then don’t contribute to an overall rating of 8 – they’re simply not important. One simple addition to your survey could shed a whole new light on your customer’s wants and needs. Sign up to Kirsty's weekly email online at: www.kirstydunphey.com/weekly.html
I like to be first in… with my Christmas cards that is. I send them mid to late November and I like the emails I get proudly proclaiming that I was that person’s first card of the season. I’ve done this for the past few years and it’s my way of differentiating my cards from the mass of cards that always arrive from about the 10th of December onwards. But, I’ve been trumped this year. Lonely but spectacular, the last card I have left from the recent holiday period sits magnetized to my fridge. All the Christmas cards I received have long gone, as has every Seasons Greetings. The last one standing however is a card I received early in the new year. It’s a Happy New Years card and I’m proud to say it’s the first one I’ve ever received. The savvy entrepreneur Susan Henshaw who mailed it to me has found her own way of being different, unique and remembered. Speaking of being remembered… did you hear about Sam Cawthorn’s recent visit to meet the Prime Minister for the Young Australian of the Year awards? Sam’s a fabulous speaker and trainer who was involved in a horrific car accident and had his right arm amputated. When he met the Prime Minister of Australia, on a dare from his daughter, he unscrewed his hand so that it actually came off when the Prime Minister shook it! Sam didn’t win Young Australian of the Year for Australia, but by being different (with a sense of humour) he actually ended up with world wide media coverage (just google Sam Cawthorn Kevin Rudd to see exactly how far the story ran!) It doesn’t take much to be different, but being different means being remembered, it means standing out, it means people will talk about you and the services you offer. I think it’s the simplest marketing out there! Here’s to a very different 2009 for all of us!
Just to prove that you really can find anything on the internet if you just know the right place to look: http://www.sixmonthmba.com/2009/02/999ideas.html998 different business ideas contributed from 9 fine young business minds (well Seth Godin thought so), and heaps more in the comments, and while 789 isn’t much of a winner… there’s some awesome content in here even if it does nothing but spark your imagination and creativity. My other favourite places to find “anything”: • Another Seth Godin creation: www.squidoo.com – a lens on anything • www.wikipedia.org – wiki your way to untold knowledge • http://scholar.google.com/ - Google scholar, essential for those university types out there looking for references • www.threadless.com – any t-shirt (well, almost) • www.twitter.com – for any amount of ramblings • www.reallysold.com – any real estate advertising phrase (and any shameless plug for writer’s own product) • www.facebook.com – for any old friend you thought you’d never hear from again (and a few stalkers you never knew you had) • www.99designs.com – any logo designed for you in ridiculously quick time • www.kiva.org – any aspiring micro-entrepreneur in a third world country waiting for you to assist • www.etsy.com – any handmade item for you to purchase With so much information out there – the excuse of I can’t think up a business idea, or I can’t find a creative gift, or I don’t know how to find that information really just don’t cut it anymore.
You’re palms are sweating. You’ve spent the last 10 days preparing this speech and you know every point inside and out. Your power point presentation doesn’t suck. You manage to stop your knees from knocking. You look smoking hot (hotter still because the audience can’t see the huge knot forming in your stomach).
You get to the podium and you start your speech.
How you open that speech and what you say in that first minute will either entice and engage (or more crassly grab ‘em by the balls) or alienate and stagnate (kick ‘em in the balls) your audience.
4 sucky ways to open
1. ZZZ out. “My name is Brad Jones, thank you for having me here”. Your audience thinks: nothing. It’s unexciting, unimaginative and unnecessary. You’ve just wasted your best chance to make an impact.
2. Lame out. “I flew in this morning and man my arms hurt”. A weak joke or a lame cliché is a one way ticket to rolling eyes and stifled (or not stifled) yawns.
3. Freak out. By telling the audience you’re nervous. As a speaker, I’ve done this myself, even mistakenly thought it was endearing at times, but after your first 3 speeches, kick it from your repertoire immediately. Fake your confidence until you’ve spoken enough to have it for real.
4. Zone out. Looking at your notes. Even if you can’t remember your whole speech, you can for darn sure remember the opening sentence. Make eye contact during that first moment for a much more memorable entrance.
4 rocking ways to open
1. Shock ‘em. I sat on a panel once at a high school and delivered what I thought was a great little speech. Also sitting on the panel were respected sports people, politicians and a who’s who of my local area. I had no idea who the last person on the panel was however. Her opening: “Hi, my name’s Janice and I’m a hairy legged lesbian”. Total silence for about 3 seconds, and then the room went crazy. She had the audience in the palm of her hand, every other speaker including myself was forgotten and she was mobbed like a celebrity at the end of the talk.
2. Question ‘em. I love to open my speeches with a question, something to get the audience thinking about your topic immediately. I’ll often go with “ when you were 5 years old what did you want to be when you grew up?” Depending on the audience we get some laughter out of these answers to (strangest answers to date being “cat” and “fire truck”) or I can usually get a chuckle when I assure them that at 5 I was 99% convinced that I was going to be Madonna when I grew up.
3. Statistic ‘em. If you’re speaking on health and fitness you might state that statistically speaking, given the number of the people in the room X number of them will die of obesity related disease before they turn 70. Or someone talking about the importance of sleep might say that if you miss X hours of sleep it’s like being over the legal alcohol limit (so that when you pick up your kids from school it’s the same sculling 3 beers just before getting them). On this though – make sure your stats are well researched and you can back them up if you need to.
4. Story ‘em. The best speakers are all story tellers. There’s a reason reality television is the phenomenon it is today: people are interested in other people’s lives. Where possible share your own story, where it’s not relevant, find an inspiring story and share that to illustrate your point and set your mood.
And don’t be afraid to combine these. Shock them with a scary statistic. Or I typically like to question my audience and then work into a story. I’ll sometimes ask my audience who among them has had a bad day in the past month. Typically 80% of the hands in the room will go up. From there I’ll share a story about the day I met a man who’d had a really bad day Walter Mikak (www.waltermikac.com.au/) who lost both his daughters and his wife in one day in the Port Arthur massacre in Tasmania. After I’m done sharing part of Walter’s remarkable story and the perspective it’s given me on bad days, I’ll ask the same question again – who really has had a bad day in the past month?
So, rock ‘em, shock ‘em and blitz ‘em or freak out, lame out and zzz out: the choice is yours.
So the question here is how do we whip our staff into a frenzy (as opposed to just whipping them)!
Having been a small business owner with a growing number of staff the focus on keeping them engaged, encouraging them to grow but still stay with us and finding time to run my business often felt overwhelming.
To follow are the simple, and yet at the same time not to simple top ten tactics that worked for me.
1. Communication – find ways to get your team to come to you when there’s an issue, not to whinge behind your back.
2. Create problem solvers – encourage your team to bring any problem to you, but to always bring a solution at the same time.
3. Reward fairly - based on performance, not time in the job.
4. Develop champions – who can grow into their roles and champion and action new ideas and techniques.
5. Trust – regardless of how you’ve been burnt in the past, treat your team first with trust.
6. Reward creatively – consider education rewards, family based rewards (such as dinner vouchers) and tiny rewards (such as their favourite chocolate bar) instead of just standard pay rises or bonuses
7. Involve your team – get their opinions, seek their feedback, hunt out criticism before it infects your organisation
8. Show the path – foster career drive by showing your team the career paths open to them within your organisation.
9. Listen – instead of always talking.
10. Lead by example – live in a manner consistent with what you say. It’s managing, not parenting, so “do as I say, not as I do” aint gonna cut it.
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