Add this to your reading list and don’t be scared by the heart!

I’ll often say that a The 5 Love Languages is the best book I’ve read in years. Now it has a huge love heart on the front cover and has fundamentally been written to help people improve their romantic relationships – however, I’m happy to go on record as saying that it can even be one of the best business books you’ll ever read too.

The principle behind the book is that people primarily show love in one of 5 ways and that’s the way they most like to receive it. Too bad if the person you’re showing love to prefers to receive it in a different way – we’re mostly hardwired to show it in our own way as a default.

After reading the book we figured out that my husband and I have pretty much completely opposite love languages. I like presents and gifts, even if it’s just a rock from the garden or a card. My husband likes acts of service, ie: when he’s painting the deck or vacuuming, that’s how he’s showing me he loves me. (Vacuuming?! How was I meant to figure that one out!!)

The reason I say this book is one of the best business books I’ve ever read is that the same principle applies to rewarding clients and staff. You’ve got to find out what language they speak and reward or recognise them in the same way. Giving a monetary bonus to a staff member that just wants you to take 5 minutes to tell them in a heartfelt way that you appreciate them is almost pointless.

I highly recommend you don’t get scared off the big heart and put The 5 Love Languages on your personal and business reading list for better relationships (with everyone!)

To sign up to Kirsty's weekly email head to: www.kirstydunphey.com

By Kirsty Dunphey with 1 comment

What’s in a name?

You don’t enjoy lunch by having a “Big Kroc”, even though Ray Kroc is the one really responsible for the McDonalds burger you’re chomping into, not the McDonalds brothers.

And you don’t slip on a gorgeous pair of “Tamara Mellons” to accentuate your calves, it’s Jimmy Choos the ladies desire, even though Tamara Mellon is the founder and driving force behind the Jimmy Choo company.

Even Betty Crocker wasn’t Betty Crocker! She was Marjorie Husted, and in this case Betty doesn’t even exist the name just sounded “cheery”.

So just because you work under an organisation that sports another’s name or identity be it a Harcourts, a Ford, an Ernst and Young or Jones Local Family Store – it doesn’t mean you can’t capture that branding and make it your own.

You can be Jill Jackson the amazing agent who is the first thing people think of when they think “real estate” or “LJ Hooker” in your area.

You can be Tom Bakerson who buys the company “Smith Records” and takes it to the world by making it your own.

In short, anything’s possible under any name. Now I’m off to answer a call on my iJobs phone…

To sign up to Kirsty's newsletter head to: www.kirstydunphey.com

By Kirsty Dunphey with 2 comments

12 Too Easy Ways To Improve Your Customer Service.

1. Find out your customer’s birthday and incorporate a way to surprise them that also benefits your business
2. Have a trusted friend or advisor you trust walk through your business and comment on anything they don’t love
3. Have a friend call your business with an enquiry while you listen on speaker phone
4. Learn to love complaints. Keep a log of any complaints and actually do something to ensure they don’t happen again.
5. Systematically ask your customers what they like and don’t like about your business
6. Work out a way to give your clients a gift that costs you nothing, but gives them value. The easiest way is through a strategic alliance with another business who wants access to your clients, ie: a photographer, coffee shop, restaurant, video rental store, homewares store etc.
7. Acknowledge every customer as soon as they walk in your door (even if you can’t see to them immediately – a smile costs nothing)
8. And on that note… Smile. When you see customers. When you’re on the phone. When you’re in the street.
9. Make sure customers can identify who your staff are (uniform, name tag, groovy apron, funny hat – doesn’t matter how!)
10. Clearly display your opening hours on your front window and website. There’s nothing more frustrating than standing outside a place of business clueless as to when it opens.
11. Get back to emails promptly (set a minimum standard in your workplace and make sure everyone knows it).
12. Send awesome Christmas cards that are personalised and let people know you actually took the time to think about THEM not just about getting the cards done.

To sign up to Kirsty's weekly newsletter head to www.kirstydunphey.com

By Kirsty Dunphey with 2 comments

Change Much?

I used to think I was open to change.

I used to even go as far as to say that I embraced, loved and welcomed change.

I was mistaken.

You know how I know?

3 hours after getting my new Apple Mac laptop I was reduced to Neanderthal like beating of clenched fists on my desk because I could no longer “alt tab”, because “alt s” no longer saved anything and because “alt f a” certainly no longer saved anything as anything else. In fact, my well-worn “alt” key was pretty much redundant and my “alt” loving brain couldn’t seem to handle it.

3 days later I was still claiming that I hated this new shiny silver laptop that had oozed it’s way onto my desk.

3 weeks into the experience I’ve realized I’ve had to re-look at my whole opinions about change. I can’t just say I like change when it’s easy and smooth and intuitive. Sometimes change is going to force you out of your existing habits, sometimes it’s not going to flow seamlessly and sometimes it’s going to be a pain in the butt.

But if what you’re working towards leads to greater utility – might it not be worth it to find an “alt”-ernative to brutally abusing your desk?

And now as my phone rings with a new ringtone I made myself using Apple’s Garage Band and I edited a new movie for my real estate agency made in half the time using iMovie while setting up a new document for www.baby-teresa.com using an Apple template I can just now start to see the rewards for me being worth a bit of short term change pain.

Are you willing to go through some short term change pain – to get better results - or will you just keep short changing yourself because you can’t hack the first 3 weeks?

To sign up to Kirsty's weekly email head to: www.kirstydunphey.com

By Kirsty Dunphey with 1 comment

Delegate Good Times, C’mon!

This weekend we gave two rectangle pieces of material to my mother in law and asked her to sew them together into a table cover for us. Moments later with a whirl on her sewing machine she handed them back to us, sewed end to end into a really long rectangle, when what we actually wanted was them sewn side to side into a square.

It reminded me of one of the most important lessons in any workplace – communication is key. With a few more words, or a simple demonstration we could have more than adequately shown what we wanted, but we were rushed, and on the phone and didn’t take the time (miniscule as it was).

I’ve seen this time and time again in so many workplaces. Staff are thrown in over their heads and not adequately communicated with and it leaves managers or business owners spouting words like “If you want something done well…” and “Nobody listens to me!”

What can you be taking more time to explain today? So what if it takes you twice as long to explain it if you never need to explain it again and can delegate that task with confidence thereafter?

To sign up to Kirsty's newsletter head to: www.kirstydunphey.com

By Kirsty Dunphey with No comments

A Duck And A Dream

I had the pleasure of watching arguably the world’s best magician David Copperfield live in Melbourne recently. The magic itself was awesome: motorbikes and cars were materialised on stage, a paper rose was lit on fire and turned into a real rose and of course there were ducks (well one duck at least called Webster).

Strangely what stood out for me the most though was Copperfield’s story about his father and his grandfather. Copperfield’s father won a prestigious acting scholarship (also won by Robert Redford and Danny Devito) but his father (Copperfield’s grandfather) banned him from taking it with threats of disowning him. His father acquiesced.

At the age of 14 when Copperfield decided he wanted to pursue a life as a magician his grandfather tried the same act on him telling him that performers were “bums”. Obviously Copperfield wasn’t dissuaded but sadly his grandfather never spoke to him again.

I’ve got to have such respect for someone with the maturity to determine a career path at age 14 and to overcome such obstacles to follow it. He had a dream and wouldn’t be bullied into forsaking it.

I feel sorry for his grandfather. Firstly, he’s attempted to bully two generations and has succeeded in helping one give up his dream. Secondly, he didn’t have the courage to admit he was wrong prior to his death when Copperfield had obviously proved he wasn’t going to be a “bum”.

If there’s someone around you: young, old or even yourself with a dream, what can you do to encourage it today?

And just for a giggle, here’s Webster (the duck).



To sign up to Kirsty's weekly email head to: www.kirstydunphey.com

By Kirsty Dunphey with 1 comment

Message In A Bottle

In my continuing theme of “little ways to set yourself apart” let me show you the best gift voucher I’ve ever purchased.


It’s from the Drunken Admiral restaurant in Hobart, Tasmania. These guys really know how to do little things that make people talk.Their gift vouchers come “message in a bottle style”. Their seafood chowder which is truly world class comes displayed on a printed version of the recipe, but in pirate style the secret ingredients are “burned” off it. There’s a romantic booth for two that you can book which his actually inside the hull of a ship.

They’re little things, but they get me excited, they make me want to tell friends and they make me want to come back!

What’s the “little special” about you or your organisation?

To sign up to Kirsty's weekly email head to: www.kirstydunphey.com

By Kirsty Dunphey with No comments

How much does it cost to make someone feel special?

My husband and I cruised through Alaska as part of our honeymoon. On this trip a fellow traveler told me that Alaska is the “cruise you take before you die” (the comment was more to do with the average age of the cruisers, not the danger level involved in trying to run on a treadmill while the ship dodged icebergs!)

We LOVED Alaska and this cruise despite the fact that we may have been the youngest people ever to set foot on the shuffleboard deck.

One of the reasons we loved it so much was because of our housekeeper Merawai. There’s a reason I still remember her name 4 years on (and it’s not just because she liked to enter our room without knocking.)

Every morning when she serviced our teeny tiny cabin she’d leave us a towel folded into a create of some sort. She’d use my glasses as props, or hang them from the ceiling.


It was systemized brilliance and gave us a giggle each and every day. It cost the company a little in time and nothing in materials and 4 years on I’m still telling people about the experience.

What could you start doing today to make someone still feel the need to rave about you 4 years on?

To sign up to Kirsty's newsletter head to www.kirstydunphey.com

By Kirsty Dunphey with No comments

Question on purchasing multiple properties

Question (paraphrased slightly)

How does a normal person on a normal salary get to a position where they can accumulate multiple properties purchasing negatively geared properties?


Response

What a great question! And one everyone should ask himself or herself prior to starting to accumulate property.

Step 1: Work out what each property you’re looking at will cost you on a case by case basis. The best way to do this (I think) is to read Jan Somer’s investment books on residential property and formulate a spreadsheet (excel is great for this) which takes into consideration all estimated expenses (land tax, insurance, property management fees, marketing, estimated maintenance, body corporate, interest and more) and then factors in any tax and depreciation benefits and works out approximately how much that property will cost you to own per week.

Step 2: If your goal is to accumulate lots of properties, the closer to neutral and positively geared properties you can find, the better. That’s easier said than done in many markets, but I think the best way to find these properties are:
- Look at lots of properties and do lots of research
- Get a property manager (not a sales agent) to give you a rental prediction on any property prior to you making an offer
- Don’t be afraid of making cheeky / low offers. If you’re worried about offending the owners of the properties, just remember, they can always say no. But if you don’t offer them anything, they never have the chance to say yes and you usually have little idea about their circumstances or motivation.
- Revert to step one and work out your numbers (all of them including EVERY expense)! The most common mistake I find these days comes down to basic math. If you’re paying $350,000 for a property and it’s renting for $350 per week that’s NOT a 10% return!

Step 3: Talk to your account about the best entity / people to own the properties under. For you it might be in one partner’s name or in a family trust, but work out what’s going to get you the best protection and the best tax benefits. You might also want to talk to your accountant about getting the amount you are taxed at your main place of employment decreased on a regular basis rather than getting a larger return at the end of the year – this can be great for cash flow.

Step 4: Maximise your rent by:
- Finding a great property manager who will get you top dollar
- Staying on top of regular market rental increases
- Looking at ways to increase the rental return on properties (if a tenant is prepared to pay extra for different heating, a carport, new carpet etc: work out your sums!)

Unless you work towards the above steps you may find it hard to accumulate more than a couple of properties as your cashflow will be depleted. Perhaps this is why around 80% of Australian investors only own one investment property!

Now of course there are lots of other strategies, but what I’ve outlined above is a fairly simplistic strategy for buying and holding residential property long term.

Of course, this information is general and should not be construed as financial advice. Consult your accountant for information specific to your circumstances.

Kirsty

By Kirsty Dunphey with No comments

Jim Rohn

I was so sad this morning to hear of the passing of Jim Rohn.

Watching him speak years ago in Sydney had a profound impact on me.

I highly encourage you all to hit YouTube, google Jim and look into his books and CDs.

His message is timeless and always powerful.

Rest in Peace Jim Rohn.

By Kirsty Dunphey with No comments

Common Courtesy Creates Captivated Clients

My parents in law are presently undergoing a kitchen renovation – stressful enough at the best of times, but made all the worse by having tradies stomping muck all over their floorboards, chipping bricks into their brand new bench tops and leaving all the cupboards full of sawdust.

We spent a fair amount of time this weekend discussing the simple things those tradespeople could have done to create an absolutely captivated client who told all their friends about their service:

• Brought some tarps to cover the bench tops while they were working on the bricks
• Wore hospital booties over their boots when they walked inside (we’ve used these previously at open homes and given you end up with bright blue covered feet, they’re a prominent advert for your care)
• Brought a dust buster or vacuum to clean up after themselves

If any one of these simple acts had been done my parents in law would have been raving about them and recommending them to every one of their friends.

As my mother in law said: “it’s just one of many jobs to them, but this is our house”.

Now whether you work in a trade, or in any other field, a simple act that doesn’t take much time or forethought can often have the power to amaze and impress.

Like the real estate agent who brings a CD of appropriate music to play at her open home, or the hair dresser who offers to save a lock of a child’s first hair cut for a doting parent or the insulation sales person who sends back his quote with a dog rusk for the beloved family pet. Having just read the book about John Ilhan, founder of Crazy John’s I loved the part of the story where it detailed that Crazy John staff would program in mobile phone numbers into their clients phones (common courtesy and a great business idea – after all, if the numbers are already in there, they’re more likely to call them right!)

What can you do today to captivate and amaze?

Sign up to Kirsty's newsletter here: www.kirstydunphey.com

By Kirsty Dunphey with No comments

What Story Do You Tell?

Some of my favourite songs are those that are able to convey a storyline worthy of a full feature length movie in only a few minutes.

There’s the eternal Kenny Rogers (yes, I like Kenny and won’t hear anything negative about that) with Ruby don’t take your love to town.



More recently, and while it’s not as powerful as Ruby, I still love the simple and beautiful story in Teenage Dirtbag by Wheatus:



And the shocking (well I found it shocking the first time I listened to it) All I wanna do is make love to you by Heart:



This got me thinking, if a musical artist can convey that much of a story line in such a compressed time, so too can a business in their marketing materials. For my money, the “about us” page on your website is the best place to start.

One of my favourite corporate about us pages is that of the recently aquired Zappos Check it out to see how they’ve incorporated testimonials, video, social networking, blogs and more.

Even on twitter where you’ve got only a few tiny characters for your bio, http://twitter.com/caseystevens got my attention with hers (although I don’t know if I agree with the ugg boots):

• Bio Yes to: Marketing, Dancing, Dogs, Pina Coladas. No to: Brussel sprouts, violence, wearing ugg boots outside

Check out this fabulous article to see a few more wacky but story filled examples:

Here’s a simple checklist for your website’s about us page:

• Does it adequately convey the personality of you / your organisation?
• What else can you do to link it to your social media output (twitter, facebook, linked in etc)
• Does it help people get to your blog (er… do you have a blog?)
• Could it link or show testimonials?
• Can it help me find your team bios?
• Is it current and up to date?
• Does it link to the other pages on your website?
• Have you missed anything “bragworthy” – awards, qualifications etc?
• Is it visually appealing?
• Is there anything on there that would make me want to tell someone else to check out that page?

Now, I’m leaving now ‘cos you just heard the slamming of the door (if this doesn’t make sense then I humbly request you start listening to more Kenny Rogers!) I’m off to work on updating my about us pages… how ‘bout you?

Also If you know of any great “about us” pages, please put them in the comments here, I’m always up for seeing fabulous examples.

To sign up to Kirsty's newsletter head to: www.kirstydunphey.com

By Kirsty Dunphey with No comments

Would you write a reference for your boss?

This week while making an application for a new employee under a scholarship program for our new real estate agency Elephant Property (www.elephantproperty.com.au) I had the strange experience of asking two former employees who had worked with our team under that program to write me a reference!

I’m in the position of still closely following the careers of both these former staff members and I was flattered and brought to tears by what they both wrote which was fabulous (thanks Emma & Clinton) but it got me thinking, how would you feel if your last boss asked you to write them a reference?

Would it be glowing? Would it be honest? Would you even bother?

In reading “Leaving Microsoft to Change the World” by John Wood (amazing book!) one story about his former boss – Steve Ballmer (now CEO of Microsoft – stuck with me.

John mentioned off hand to Steve (arguably one of the most powerful business leaders in the world) one morning that he was planning on running the Boston marathon later that year.

The day of the marathon came and immediately afterwards John caught a flight directly to an important Microsoft announcement by Steve. After the hubbub of the announcement had died down Steve, surrounded by his entourage, walked past John and as he was passing called out “3 hours 4 minutes in the marathon – sensational” (or something to that effect). When John queried how he knew this he said that he makes it a point to know everything about his team.

To me, that’s an awesome leader and if you read Leaving Microsoft to Change the World you’ll see that John Wood writes Steve Ballmer a great reference in what he says about him in those pages.

So, would you write that reference for your current boss or are you perhaps the type of boss that would have that type of reference written about you?

To sign up to Kirsty's newsletter head to: www.kirstydunphey.com

By Kirsty Dunphey with No comments

What can you learn over coffee or in a weekend?

I’ve just had a super weekend. Yes there was a pole dancing party (which I bought at a recent charity auction) and yes there were cocktails, but what’s more there were two amazingly inspirational business women for me to network with.

These two women were Lara Solomon, founder of www.mymocks.com and author of Brand New Day and Kate Tribe, founder of www.triberesearch.com.au.

Now I’m a huge believer that one of the best ways to increase your own knowledge is by simply having a chat with someone fabulous. Neither of these women work in my industry, but both always have amazing insights and I can always learn something that I can R&D (rip off and duplicate – thank you Mr. Terry Watson www.terrywatson.com) into my business.

So instead of just hogging their brilliance I thought I’d share some of it with you this week and encourage you to head out and do some R&Ding of your own.

A little of what I got from Kate:
• Tribe Research has an ex staff members club where they’re invited to staff events, get an update newsletter and even get a trophy when they leave! What a fabulous way to ensure that staff members (many of Kate’s obviously leave on great terms) stay advocates of the firm and would encourage others to work at the firm in the future.
• Tribe also send business birthday cards by finding out when a company was created searching through ASIC. As Kate and I discussed at length – anything strategy like this isn’t a short term measure, you might only find out how appreciated it is after the 3rd or 5th year (or even later), but how much will it make you stand out!

A little of what I got from Lara:
• Lara had just arrived back from a mansion in Beverly Hills (yes 90210) where she was promoting Mocks at a pre-Emmys event and getting amazing snaps of celebs like Jennifer Love Hewitt and Randy Jackson (American Idol) with her products. What a sensational way to create buzz and get celeb endorsements!
• Lara’s business is also breaking into the US at the moment and so we had some fab chats about drop shipping, manufacturing, PR firms and distributors. For more on this, check out her smart company offerings.

So, when was the last time you spent a weekend, a lunch or a coffee with someone you found inspirational?

Sign up to Kirsty's newsletter here: www.kirstydunphey.com

By Kirsty Dunphey with No comments

Does Your Organisation Boo?

The air was electric as I looked over a sea of bobbing blue caps hotdog in hand. It was my first Chicago Cubs baseball game at historic Wrigley Field and I was loving every minute of it. With every crack of bat to ball my breath paused, my neck arched and I took another bite of my fabulous Chicago dog.

That day, like so many others, was not the a day for Cubs victory – but one moment definitely stood out. The opposing team hit a huge fly ball right…. out…. into centre field… home run.

All of a sudden the crowd started to boo and howl wildly. My husband asked me why the Cubs fans were showing such poor sportsman ship. Being a nerd (with access to Wikipedia on my iPhone), I knew exactly what the boos were about.

It was soon readily apparent to all Australian tourists at the game that the booing wasn’t about the home run. The boos were about the fan who caught the home run ball keeping the home run ball from the opposing team! Culturally speaking, Chicago Cubs fans throw back the opposing team’s homers and nearly every one of the 35,000 people at the game let their feelings be well known on the subject!

Now whether you agree with throwing back the homer or not (my husband adamantly states that regardless of the boo-ing, he’d be keeping that homer!) you’ve got to admit, this is a very clear indication of the culture of Wrigley Field.

Is the culture within your organisation as readily apparent to new comers? Now I’m not suggesting that you should be getting boo-ed by 35 accountants in your firm when you don’t refill the paper in the photocopier. But I am wondering how comfortable the team around you feel about pointing out when someone isn’t living up to your office culture? Does the new guy know that in your firm you reward other’s successes, you actively engage with the people around you, you say good morning with a smile each day, you don’t take shortcuts, you get your filing and other little tasks done, you treat even the most junior of staff members with respect…. And who amongst his peers will figuratively boo at him if he doesn’t?

Sign up to Kirsty's weekly email at www.kirstydunphey.com.

By Kirsty Dunphey with No comments

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.

Sign up to Kirsty's weekly email at www.kirstydunphey.com

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!)

Sign up to Kirsty's weekly email at www.kirstydunphey.com

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?

To sign up to Kirsty's newsletter head to: www.kirstydunphey.com

By Kirsty Dunphey with No comments

A Heartfelt Apology

Sometimes I feel as though I’m one of those people that likes to nitpick. I’m so fixated on customer service and get so disappointed when it doesn’t live up to even basic standards that I’m often “whinging” about the dodgy hotel experience I had or the conference I attended that did such and such.

I almost think that sometimes I’m a little programmed to see the wrong, which is why it was so nice that a bad service experience yesterday turned into something kinda great.

I’d emailed a property manager to meet my husband at a property at 1.00pm amongst a whole swag of other things, they’d confirmed with “all done”. At 1.13pm I got a call from my husband – no-one had been there to meet him. I called to chase up and long story short, the property manager hadn’t read the part of my email about the appointment.

Her boss apologised to myself and my husband which was fine, but the thing that had me leave the experience with an uplifted feeling was her apology to me on the phone. It was heartfelt. It was genuine. She didn’t offer any excuses. She just assured me that it wouldn’t happen again and took her lumps. She then followed it up with a further email.

We’re human. We mess up. All of us (I know I certainly do!). It’s what you do when you mess up that determines how that relationship will progress.

Option number 1 is:

1. Own it
2. Convey your apology in a heartfelt way
3. Put a plan in place so that it doesn’t happen again

You easily have the power to turn a bad experience into a positive. Where you run into trouble is if you follow the dodgy conflict resolution strategy of Option 2:

1. Bury it
2. Deny it
3. Shift the blame

The next time you mess up – and we know it will happen – what 3 steps will you decide to do?

Sign up to Kirsty's weekly email online at: www.kirstydunphey.com/weekly.html

By Kirsty Dunphey with No comments