Hair Today.... Gone Thursday

Well, about a month ago I decided I was going to shave my head for charity. I'd been growing my hair for a few years to donate the hair and thought - why not go one step further and raise some money for some fabulous organisations at the same time. (Read more about the initial inspiration here: http://blog.kirstydunphey.com/2012/08/can-you-help-me-shave-my-head.html).

I set myself the goal to raise $10,000 in a month with the head shave and before I could chicken out I quickly emailed the goal out and put the word out on social media. The first donation I received back was a big one - from Sally who I have the pleasure to work with at Elephant Property. I was delighted that my little Elephant family actually contributed over 10% of the total funds - they're a small group but with very big hearts. From there, I was absolutely amazed at the emails I started to get back. Not just pledges to donate, but people sharing with me their heart felt stories about their experiences with cancer. To say it was emotional doesn't even begin to describe it and my team can tell you I sat my desk near tears reading many of the emails.

In 3 weeks and 1 day from that first email blast out I hit my target of $10,000 with one very lovely family knowing I was so close telling me to make their donation whatever I needed to reach my goal. 4 weeks to the day I started the fundraising journey I set about losing my locks and to following you'll find a video of the big shave as well as the photo trail of what happened on the day.

I'm getting asked three questions now a lot so I'll answer them here:

1. YES - I am still accepting donations (just email me - kirsty (at) elephantproperty.com.au) and hoping to get everyone who has pledged to confirm their donation with me in the next week or so.

2. NO - I am not used to my hair or lack thereof yet! I don't quite recognise myself and it's a real insight to get a feeling of what people who go through this for medical reasons feel. I'm doing my best to rock my new extreme do with confidence, but I will say - it's been an eye opener.

3. YES - my little girl (20 months old now) had no issues recognising me and wasn't at all phased by the big chop, she just wanted to show me the slide she'd been playing on all day, and while she's not keen to touch my head, aside from that all is normal (phew!)

Thank you again to everyone who has supported me during this journey whether it's been by donation, kind word or even hat (Thank you to Marea and Sharon http://www.etsy.com/shop/shazzasknits).

The 4 rather large pony tails will be sent off to Princess Charlotte's Tresses for Princesses Foundation this week and the funds raised for Canteen, Australian Cervical Cancer Foundation and Ovarian Cancer Australia will be sent in September.

Thanks to Jamin and Megan for photos and video and to the fabulous Catherine Cocker of Bladerunner hair for the stylish do!

By Anonymous with 4 comments

The power in a perspective change

I was in a Country Road store recently and the following rack of clothes caught my attention.

Rather than call these clothes a “sales” rack or discount them heavily they referred to them in a positive light. These are the “last of the best sellers”. To me that made this rack go from bargain basement, to a far more enticing proposition instantly.

What words are you using in your business that might have a negative connotation? “Sorry” “Unfortunately” “Sale” “Bargain” “Discounted” “Economic Downturn”. Could a simple perspective shift like the “last of the best sellers” rephrase any of them in a positive light?

Those of you who work in a retail environment will know how frustrating it can be keeping your shopfront clean and neat during autumn with the wind sweeping leaves in and out open doors. This fabulous florist I recently passed had taken leaves in the shop to a whole different place. Their front window was decorated with leaves, their floor was covered in Autumn leaves and it was nothing short of SPECTACULAR.

A negative, turned into a gorgeous show case. Inspiring stuff. What negative can you make into something stunning today?

By Kirsty Dunphey with No comments

You're as cold as ice

10.00am was when the sales person was meant to show up. We were excited to see her, my business colleague had given her a good wrap, her follow up emails prior to the meeting were great, we were excited to know more about her product.

10.05.
10.10
10.15
10.20 – still no salesperson.

Our mood had shifted. We were impatient. We had other appointments.

10.25am and the sales person breezed in our door. Everything would be ok we though, she would apologize, say her flight had been delayed, apologize for not calling the instant she got off the plane.

We waited with anticipation for the apology… that never came.

The salesperson simply ignored the fact that she was nearly half an hour late to the appointment. And with every minute she ignored it, the room and the reception got colder and colder.

I’m crazy about being on time and did have another appointment to get to at 11 so I was of course peeved. But the most interesting thing about the whole situation to me was the reaction of my business colleague. Now if I say this lovely lady is canned sunshine, I wouldn’t be over stepping the grounds. I’ve recounted the fact that she didn’t smile at the salesperson and wasn’t her usual warm self to others in the office and they flat out don’t believe me!

But failing to acknowledge her lateness with an apology that, I predict, would have smoothed over the waters almost completely had such a profound impact on my incredibly friendly colleague and friend that even she couldn’t help but be “as cold as ice”.

We all mess things up. We’re human. But I do wonder how different this meeting would have been if the salesperson had called from the airport, or apologized the instant she walked through the door.

Until then…. She turned my bucket of sunshine into a bucket of ice (but thankfully, she thawed about 4.5 seconds after the meeting).

By Kirsty Dunphey with No comments

Can you help me shave my head?

Hi and thanks for taking 5 minutes from your day to read below,

As many of you would know, for the last few years I've been growing my hair in order to get it long enough (35cm) to donate to the Princess Charlotte Alopecia Foundation's Tresses for Princesses (http://www.princesscharlottealopecia.com/TressesforPrincesses.aspx).

Alopecia is an autoimmune disorder that results in the total loss of hair. While not life threatening, alopecia can have a devastating psychological effect on its victims, as they struggle with the pain of feeling “different.” Tresses for Princesses sells hair that's donated and uses the funds to buy medical wigs for little girls who are suffering from alopecia. I have both a friend and a relative who have alopecia and I've been excited to do this for some years now. This gorgeous picture below is of two sisters where one has been growing her hair to make a wig for her sister.

But - in the past couple of days I've sucked up the courage with thanks to words of wisdom from my fabulous cousin Kate and a very inspiring friend Kylie who have both shaved their heads to completely go the full shave in efforts to fundraise for some very worthy charities.

My goal - to raise $10,000 total to be split amongst the following three charities:
http://www.ovariancancer.net.au/ - Ovarian Cancer
http://www.canteen.org.au/ - CanTeen
http://accf.org.au/ - Cervical Cancer

So - here's what I'm asking, and I hope you can email me back and let me know if you're prepared to make a pledge for a donation.

- Any donation will get a tax invoice from the oganisation and be fully tax deductible
- Any donation over $50 and you can specify which of the above three organisations you want your donation to go to (otherwise I'll just split the funds evenly)

- If you make a donation of $100 or more, I'll send you a copy of my book to say thank you - http://blog.kirstydunphey.com/p/retired-at-27-if-i-can-do-it-anyone-can.html and I'll list your details in a blog post on all of this on my website as a thank you
- If you make a donation of $500 or more, I'll forward it on to any cancer related charity of your choice - and again organise you a tax invoice
- If you donate $1000 or more you can come and chop off one my pony tails (I have a LOT of hair!)

My promises:

- Once I raise $10,000 I will swallow the considerable pride I have in having long thick hair and the part of the identity that's linked to that and will shave my head
- I won't ask you to donate anything until I get the $10,000 raised - all I want you to do is pledge your donation until then
- I'll video my little head shave and share it with you all

Below pic (courtesy of Alan Moyle) is what my hair is like now (ish - perhaps not as glam!) and I promise to get some happy snaps of me with my bald (and no doubt cold!) head once I've gone the big shave.

Now if you're happy to pledge some funds justemail kirsty (at) kirstydunphey.com and let me know what you would like to donate.

Oh yeah - my goal is to raise the funds in a month? Eep - let's see how I go.

Thanks for your time and support and, if you think it's appropriate, for forwarding this email on.

By Kirsty Dunphey with No comments

What would you pay if you didn’t have to pay anything?

I ran a bit of an experiment in late October last year. I offered people a chance to get a physical copy of my book – Retired at 27, If I can do it anyone can for nothing (virtually – there was a postage and handling cost of $5 in Australia, $10.00 world wide). The only catch was that they were to read the book within a month and then pay “whatever they thought it was worth”.

I was inspired by a very cool online t-shirt company http://hipstery.com/ who ran a similar promo last year. I bought one of their t-shirts (a mystery one) and then paid what I thought it was worth.

Results of my own experiment were mixed.

About half the people who bought the book paid “what they thought it was worth”. I was pretty delighted to see that the average sale was actually $24.67 (the retail price for the book is $24.95). We had numerous people pay $40, one even paid $50 (which was quiet surprising given that his book got “lost” in the mail and he paid this before he even received it) a bunch pay retail and the lowest price paid was $10.

However, not overly surprisingly over half the people who said they’d pay what they thought it was worth paid nothing. Most disappointingly I had a couple of people request via email numerous copies at this price and also pay nothing – those ones stung, I’ll admit that.

Keeping in mind that I wanted to write a blog post about the experience I emailed everyone who paid nothing and asked them one simple question – why did they make that choice? Was it that they thought the book was worth nothing (no-one said this was the case), was it that they had forgotten (a couple said yes and promptly paid) or was it another reason?

To me this was the most interesting part. I only got replies from perhaps 10% of the people who didn’t pay. Some confessed to laziness, others stated they weren’t paying until they read the book, others had said that life had gotten on top of them.

One very earnest lady contacted me 8 months after the special to say that she’d finally read the book and it was actually a really cool email to read. She gave me some feedback on the cover image, which I totally agree with and she wrote this:

“Retired at 27 is easily the best business book I've read to date, made especially so because it is written by someone with credibility, which you establish right up-front, and also because it gives practical advice than anyone can follow and addresses a number of issues that other books skim over or completely miss… I think your book is worth $40. I haven't paid more than $35 for a business book (in fact many, like the E-Myth Revisited, 7 Habits, How to Win Friends etc I have bought second-hand) so I figure if yours is the best, it should be worth the most.”

What have I learned from the lesson? Well, it’s been an interesting mix of both restoring my faith in humans (in an era where it’s so very easy to get so much for nothing) and it’s also taken away from that a bit. All said, the positive has outweighed the negative. Those who read the book and enjoyed it and sent me emails like the above have no idea how much that brightens my day. For those of you who didn’t contact me (or pay!) I do hope you got something from the read, or passed it on to someone who did.

By Marjorie with No comments

Can you help me shave my head?

Hi and thanks for taking 5 minutes from your day to read below, Some of you would know that for the last few years I've been growing my hair in order to get it long enough (35cm) to donate to the Princess Charlotte Alopecia Foundation's Tresses for Princesses (http://www.princesscharlottealopecia.com/TressesforPrincesses.aspx). 

Alopecia is an autoimmune disorder that results in the total loss of hair. While not life threatening, alopecia can have a devastating psychological effect on its victims, as they struggle with the pain of feeling “different.” Tresses for Princesses sells hair that's donated and uses the funds to buy medical wigs for little girls who are suffering from alopecia. I have both a friend and a relative who have alopecia and I've been excited to do this for some years now. This gorgeous picture below is of two sisters where one has been growing her hair to make a wig for her sister.


But - in the past couple of days I've sucked up the courage with thanks to words of wisdom from my fabulous cousin Kate and a very inspiring friend Kylie who have both shaved their heads to completely go the full shave in efforts to fundraise for some very worthy charities. My goal - to raise $10,000 total to be split amongst the following three charities:

• http://www.ovariancancer.net.au/ - Ovarian Cancer
• http://www.canteen.org.au/ - CanTeen
• http://accf.org.au/ - Cervical Cancer

So - here's what I'm asking, and I hope you can email me and let me know if you're prepared to make a pledge for a donation. 

•  Any donation will get a tax invoice from the oganisation and be fully tax deductible
•  Any donation over $50 and you can specify which of the above three organisations you want your donation to go to (otherwise I'll just split the funds evenly)
•  If you make a donation of $100 or more, I'll send you a copy of my book to say thank you - http://blog.kirstydunphey.com/p/retired-at-27-if-i-can-do-it-anyone-can.html and I'll list your details in a blog post on all of this on my website as a thank you
•  If you make a donation of $500 or more, I'll forward it on to any cancer related charity of your choice - and again organise you a tax invoice
•  If you donate $1000 or more you can come and chop off one my pony tails (I have a LOT of hair!)

My promises:

•  Once I raise $10,000 I will swallow the considerable pride I have in having long thick hair and the part of the identity that's linked to that and will shave my head
•  I won't ask you to donate anything until I get the $10,000 raised - all I want you to do is pledge your donation until then
•  I'll video my little head shave and share it with you all 

The below pic (courtesy of Alan Moyle) is what my hair is like now (ish - perhaps not as glam!) and I promise to get some happy snaps of me with my bald (and no doubt cold!) head once I've gone the big shave. 




Now if you're happy to pledge some funds just email me kirsty [at] kirstydunphey.com and let me know what you would like to donate. 

Oh yeah - my goal is to raise the funds in a month? Eep - let's see how I go. 

Thanks for your time and support and, if you think it's appropriate, for sharing this blog with your networks.


scared and excited,


Kirsty 

By Anonymous with No comments

Older, wiser?

I’m not sure when it happened, but all of a sudden it seems, I’ve gone from being young to being old. Not in my head, not in my personal life, certainly not in the number of shoes I own, but in the workplace.

When I started my first real estate agency at 21, I was young in my own company, in my state, in my industry. I’ve been fortunate enough to have received lots of press and awards, based in part to the fact that I started that business at such a young age.

And then, without realizing it, in starting my most recent real estate agency Elephant Property – I’ve become the old one! After a quick stalk on facebook I’ve just discovered I’m the single oldest person (at 33) in our organization, barring one of our gorgeous business partners who isn’t based physically in either of our offices.

Last year one helpful younger staffer mentioned that perhaps she would have someone run upstairs for two of us old girls to save our legs! I find myself saying things like “what do you mean you don’t know who the Rolling Stones are?”

So while I can’t trade on my youthful status anymore, I can still remember the lessons I learnt from those times:

• Counter youth with enthusiasm and by studying and learning more than your older counterpart
• Try new things! Your local marketplace doesn’t need another business doing exactly the same things as everyone else. Be different – even if it means stuffing things up!
• If you’ve got a point of difference (like being young) - use it, don’t hide from it!

And now I can use some of the wisdom I’ve gained with my more senior age (compared to 21!) to remember:


• Not all business is good business, sometimes it’s better to turn down business than to enter into a long term relationship with the wrong clients
• Not every team member will do things exactly your way – as I age I’m learning (somewhat) to release my inner control freak and trust the people around me more and more (when they’ve shown they have earned it!)

And now… rather than sit here and count my grey hairs – I’m off to make some more mistakes, do some cool things and learn some more lessons.

By Kirsty Dunphey with No comments

I sit in a hallway

In the lovely pink Elephant Property Launceston offices I sit in a hallway, next to the photocopier and I have the smallest desk out of every person in that office.

I sit next to a glorious pink office (with walls!) and a huge desk. I could have it (or any other) office in the building as my own if I wanted.

But unlike the Kirsty of 15 years ago I’ve realized it doesn’t matter where I sit. It doesn’t matter the size of my desk. It doesn’t matter what my title is.

All that matters is the value I provide and the contribution I make to the company. I could do that sitting on an upturned paint can with my laptop in my lap out in the alley if I had to.

Who cares where you sit, the days of the corner office status symbol are long gone. What value do you create? Would you be missed if you were suddenly gone? Would you leave a gap more sizeable than the dent on your plush office chair?

By Kirsty Dunphey with No comments

Drama-Queen-Itis

I have a flair for the dramatic that I have to reign in at times. No – I’m not theatrical – I’m a drama queen waiting to happen. I realized it (again) as I walked to the bathroom tonight. I felt a stabbing pain in my head. Instantly, instead of thinking “paracetamol” –I thought “brain tumor” which lead quickly to: what my little girl would do without a mother, should my husband remarry (I decided yes), how would I make sure he knew to remarry and on and on.

Now - I’m a (mostly) reformed drama queen. I keep these mental outbursts to myself barring short confessions like the one I’m making to you now. Unchecked – drama-queen-itis can be a menace.

Now ladies, all of you have at least one girlfriend who brings the drama with her wherever she goes. You’ve probably learned to deal with it on a friendship level. What I want to talk about today is the drama queen in the workplace.

He’s the one (oh yes – they can be male!) who doesn’t just have a cold, they have the plague.

She’s the one who isn’t driving calmly somewhere, she’s got to go immediately because it’s an emergency.

They’re the one whose relationship is always on the brink of disaster (although their partner typically doesn’t know anything’s wrong).


It’s the employee who always has the client who makes her life impossible and absolutely cannot be reasoned with.

In short, they create chaos where it doesn’t need to be.

What to do if (like me) you have drama queen tendencies? Go back and read the children’s fable the Boy who Cried Wolf.

What to do if you work with a drama queen? Get a salt shaker, pop it on your desk and either, learn to take everything they say with a grain of said salt, or reconsider and find yourself an employee (if you’re the boss) who you know is grounded, reliable and speaks the drama free truth.

By Kirsty Dunphey with No comments

360 Degree Performance Reviews

Like most organizations, at Elephant Property, we conduct performance reviews of our team every 6 months. We assess what each team member can improve on going forward and what they’re doing well.

Starting last month and finishing today in both our offices, we also allowed the staff to rate each person in a business ownership, leadership or management role in our organization.

Terrifying? A little. Valuable? Absolutely.

What I’ve found over the years in doing these to be really important:

1. Guarantee anonymity to the team participating – it’s the only way you get honest results. We have them compiled by one staff member and all put into an envelope and mixed up. Everyone marks in the same way usually with the same pen.
2. Properly explain how to fill the forms in. I even fell in a hole with this on the most recent round – need to remember this more carefully next time!
3. Take it on the chin. Take the feedback you get as areas to improve upon and areas you’re doing well in. Not – well the staff clearly hate me!
4. Assess multiple leaders, you’ll almost always find that one leader’s strength is another’s weaker point – meaning you have what you need in house to improve.
5. Reassess every 6 months making sure your leaders focus on improving their scores each time.

Want a copy of the form we use in house for our management 360 degree performance appraisals? View or download it on our facebook page here.

By Kirsty Dunphey with No comments

Delivering feedback

I’ve made my fair share of mistakes when passing on feedback to someone for something they’ve stuffed up in the workplace. Each one of the below steps is pretty much based on an epic fail of my own.

But in chatting with a new leader in our organization this past week about how she addresses feedback with her own team – I found that given all my failures it had actually mapped out a pretty nice roadmap that works for me on giving feedback.

1. Address things when they happen, don't stockpile them

2. Address things with the person in private as opposed to in front of others in the office

3. Bring up the issue and have the person you're addressing it with come up with the solution

4. Agree on the solution giving suggested revisions if needed and then confirm with them that they can do what they've said and that they think it's fair

5. Stress to them that everyone makes mistakes, but that you just don't want to see these mistakes repeated.

6. End with praise for something they are doing well at the moment and that you want them to continue or build upon

By Kirsty Dunphey with No comments

Who are you cheating?

I was at the gym this morning and I watched a lass pumping iron. Only… there wasn’t much pumping going on. Her movements were only half completed, her weights weren’t challenging, she moved too quickly, her enthusiasm and focus clearly wasn’t there in the gym. She was cheating herself out of the workout she could have had.

It would have been harder for her to move more slowly, to fully extend, to pause in the right spots, to really feel the workout she was doing. Harder in the short term, but at what value long term?

With a couple of weeks of going that little bit harder in her workout her body would have found those same movements easier. They’d be capable of doing more, going harder, lasting longer.

When you’re physically training yourself, it’s not just about the number of repetitions you can do. It’s about the value of each repetition.

In your workplace, are you just going through the motions and completing each task or are you pushing yourself to do that little extra to really get value into each task you do?

In the same way that your bicep, or hamstring is capable of more within a few weeks if you push and stretch them, I really truly believe that your brain is too!

What are you capable of?

By Kirsty Dunphey with No comments

Does my butt look big in this?

A client’s wife recently told a customer in her retail store that an outfit she liked wasn’t the most flattering for her figure. Her husband’s face lit ups as he recounted the story proudly to me.

Apparently this customer in his wife’s store was all set to buy the outfit she was wearing, but his wife (a mature and lovely lady who I’ve known for years) pointedly let her know it wasn’t the best purchase for her.

I laughed when her husband told me the story – it’s exactly the sort of thing I would expect his wife to do. She was my travel agent for years and I vividly remember her telling me: “Kirsty, you’re not doing it that way” (usually for my own safety and always for the best in hindsight!)

The best salespeople in my opinion will always overlook the glory of a quick sale in favour of building a lasting relationship built on trust. It’s a lesson usually learned with years of experience.

“How amazing would it be if you could teach an 18 year old sales person that trick eh!” client said proudly of his wife’s actions.

How amazing indeed.

By Kirsty Dunphey with No comments

Eye on the prize

As it rocked backward and forward rhythmically the kookaburra became even more fascinating to me. While the branch it perched upon swayed to and fro in the wind, the kookaburra’s head didn’t move.

As the branch moved backwards, the kookaburra’s body went with it, but it’s head and most importantly it’s eyes remained stationary, many small muscles compensating for each movement in the wind.

While watching for food, or predators the kookaburra always has an unblurred, undeterred view of its surroundings.

It’s a neat genetic ability and one which I’m sure helps many kookaburras survive and thrive (especially in my back yard!)

I’ve known a few kookaburras in my professional life too. Their eye is always on the prize. Regardless of whatever currents or wind or distractions are moving their branch, they remain laser focused.

How can you emulate a kookaburra? How can you block out distractions and keep your head steady when all around you is moving?

By Kirsty Dunphey with No comments

This auspicious looking vehicle was, with love, relegated to the rubbish bin today. It’s sat proudly in my home office for the past 6 years serving as a gorgeous memory.

It was lovingly created for me by my husband. As you can see, it’s a cardboard box, with some fairly rudimentary drawn on wheels, personalized glamour license plate and a little name tag saying that it’s the Inconceivable Enterprises company car.

Every time I think about my company car I smile.

If I flash back to when my husband gave me this “box,” it was about 3 months after I sold my real estate agency. I was suffering terrible separation anxiety from this entity I’d created. I missed my team, I missed my workplace, I missed my desk and I was venturing out into the unknown in following new paths and adventures (under my company Inconceivable Enterprises).

I was working from home and feeling completely lost and utterly directionless. Every day for so long I had awoken with a purpose, a corporate home, goals to achieve and things to do. Now, I was waking up and walking down the hallway to my “office” and spending most of the day in my pajamas!

I was coping poorly with the transition and my husband, seeing this (and perhaps hoping to coax me out of my ugg boots), whipped up this gorgeous company car for me.

It had the desired affect. It put a smile on my face. It gave me a kick in the butt and it also left me with something joyous in my office to look up to and smile if I ever felt low or lonely.

Over the following months I ramped up my corporate speaking work, set up a passive online business (www.reallysold.com) and wrote my second book
(http://blog.kirstydunphey.com/p/retired-at-27-if-i-can-do-it-anyone-can.html) and hired my first staff member (making it that little bit more difficult to spend all day in bed-ware).
It was just a simple box that my husband knocked up in a few minutes, but there was love behind it. There was meaning behind it. It inspired me.

I’ll always have the memory of my box car and will always try to remember that little things can sometimes have a profound affect.

By Kirsty Dunphey with No comments

Write it down

This rather gloriously drawn image poked its head out at me while I was “de-cluttering” today. Now, clearly I’m not Picasso, but I do appear to be a pretty good fortune teller.

I’m not sure when I drew this, but it clearly lists three goals I wanted to achieve before I exited my 20’s (15 March, 2009).
- Baby Teresa
- Graduate MBA
- Travel Egypt

As I write this today I’m 33, so a couple of years have passed, but each one of these goals can well and truly be classed as completed (well – one is still and will always be a work in progress – Baby Teresa).

So here’s how I went:

I travelled to Egypt in 2010 (so a little later than predicted) with a gorgeous girlfriend Peta. We spent 5 glorious weeks in Egypt and Jordan and it was phenomenal. I learnt basic Arabic, I ate new exciting dishes like fuul (yum) and best of all I saw the Pyramids and Petra.

I finally (and I say finally because I was at uni on and off for 12 years!) graduated university with an MBA on August 17th 2009. Now on this one I actually did hit the time frame because I finished my last class in January of that year just missing the graduation ceremony so I had to wait until August to officially graduate.

And Baby Teresa (www.baby-teresa.com) launched in September, 2009. It’s a project I’m so passionate about and lucky to have co-founded with my gorgeous business partner Sammie. It’s a clothing line where for each romper we sell we also donate another to a baby in need. We’ve now done donations in over 20 countries world wide.

Now, looking back, am I fussed that 2 (almost 3) of these goals were achieved after the time frame I’d drawn on my piece of “art”? Not really! I was pretty close scraping them all in within 10 months of my time frame.

What’s most important here is that I set myself targets and I achieved them. I wrote down what I wanted to do and become and here I am with every one of them done.

I don’t usually goal set in this way above (pretty pictures, vision boards etc), I have a box of goals which I blogged about here in 2008. It’s super low tech, just a file card box with one goal on each card. When I achieve something I write the date I did it – and usually a little smiley face. I don’t think it matters HOW you go about detailing your goals – just that you do it?

What are your goals? Write them down. Heck – write them down by telling them to me - I want to know – head on over and let me know on
facebook: http://www.facebook.com/KirstyDunpheyEmail

By Kirsty Dunphey with No comments

Tiny things engender big loyalty

I picked up my little girl from gym child care this afternoon and as we were about to walk out the door one of the carers handed me this:

My first mother’s day present from my little girl. She’d decorated the heart and they’d made them together earlier in the week.

Total cost to the organization – maybe one or two dollars? Loyalty cost to the organization – (a very clichéd) priceless.

Thanks to the fabulous people at Orbit fitness for making my day and reminding me of a very important business lesson!

By Kirsty Dunphey with 1 comment

Day 3 out of my comfort zone

A friend recently posted the below image on her facebook page. I saw it and instantly it registered with me. I realized immediately that there was one aspect of my life where I was severely stuck in my comfort zone.

I am very proud to be one of the co-founders of a gorgeous organic line of baby clothing – Baby Teresa (www.baby-teresa.com) – for each romper we sell we also donate another to a baby in need somewhere in the world.


The donation aspect of the program has always been my “baby” (for want of a better word). I’m in my “comfort zone” organizing donations, conducting them, liaising with the people involved, it’s the whole reason I got involved with my lovely partner Sammie in the clothing line.

But given that we’ve just launched our organic line and our product range is substantially different (and better) to our last, where the organization really needed someone was on the ground getting us into stores.

It’s been a really long time since I’ve had sold in a retail sense, let alone walking into a store and cold-selling the owners on a new product. That I’ve never done. It was outside my comfort zone, in an industry I am not 100% familiar with (unlike my comfort zone of realestate) and an industry where no-one had ever heard of me. I’ll admit, I was doing a lot to push the responsibility further and further way. I was making excuses “well as soon as we have the packaging I’ll try and get us some stockists”.

Cut to me seeing the image above. Recognizing that I was in a massive comfort zone rut and actually getting off my butt and walking into some stores and saying hello.

Day 1 out of my comfort zone

I visited 2 stores. Neither had the correct person there that I needed to speak to. I left samples at both and walked away slightly dejected, these were the 2 stores I really wanted to stock my product in my hometown.

Half an hour later I received a call back from one of the stores, the owner was now in and could I come back and chat. You bet I could! I raced back there, had a great chat with the owner of the store and secured our first stockist in my hometown. The owner of this store “got” our product, she had a personal connection to the donations we do overseas and I knew from one minute in that the pitch was going down a treat and that we were on the same page.

I was on such a high, that I let the other store I’d been hoping to land that would target a different market filter out of my mind somewhat. I had been hoping to go back into the stores 3-4 days later and see if they’d looked over my samples. Much to my horror I started to make excuses again! I couldn’t go in on that day because that’s the day I was home with my little girl and it wouldn’t be possible. I could have kicked myself. Fast forward almost a week and I forced myself to pick up the phone and ask if the lady I needed to speak to was in that day. She wasn’t and she was working from home. I did however get her email and popped a nice email through to her hoping to catch up. If I hadn’t pushed myself to make that second contact I wouldn’t have received the email I did late that night confirming that this store would also like to stock Baby Teresa!

2 attempts, both first choices, 2 new stockists. What was I so afraid of?

Day 2 out of my comfort zone

The familiar feeling of dread set back in as I made my way into another shop where I’d had a personal introduction made in the other end of my gorgeous state. This meeting did not go well, again, I knew a minute in that this shop wasn’t going to take on our product (despite how well I thought it suited!) A hit and miss.

What was important from here? That I didn’t let it defeat me. That I didn’t pout because my perfect record was broken. That I got off my butt, out of my comfort zone and back out the door again.

Day 3 out of my comfort zone

This Saturday just gone I set up a bit of an epic road trip. I had my 15 month old daughter with me and we were going to hit 8 stores (recommended to us by fans of our product on facebook) along the North West Tasmanian Coast. My goal was to get 2 new stockists for Baby Teresa that day.

My first stop was less than encouraging. In fact, it was pretty unpleasant. My daughter wriggled and groaned about in my arms, I dropped my presentation kit and the shop owner was in no way keen to have me there.

The temptation to turn the car around was high!

Despite that, I kept on with the plan. I went into 7 different shops that day (one had moved and I couldn’t track them down) and had 7 really different experiences. I met lovely business owners, I met great staff and I had ups and downs.

I left at the end of the day with one confirmed order and a great new stockist and another lovely shop keen to stock our product – but the set up for the store didn’t ideally work with our overall vision. It wasn’t the 2 stockists I aimed for, but it was one great one and I did actually spot another target on the way home and although they were closed, we’re chatting online right now and I’m hopeful of another great stockists that way soon.

So that was my first 3 days really outside my comfort zone in what I’m embarrassed to say has been some time in a professional capacity. I’ve owned real estate agencies since I was 21, showing up at my “day job” at Elephant Property is so far inside my comfort zone that it’s as comfy and warm as my bed in the morning. That’s not a terrible thing! I love the feeling when I walk into work, I love that over the years I’ve put in the work to earn that feeling of comfort.
BUT (and it’s a butt as big as an Elephant’s) – if I don’t push myself outside that comfort zone whether it’s with Baby Teresa, my photography, my personal life, my travels, my adventures and in other aspects of Elephant Property – I’ll never be more than I am today.

Those 3 days outside my comfort zone are the first of many to come. One day was perfect, 2 stockists approached, 2 gained. One was a disaster, one stockist approached, one big fat rejection. One was a great end result with mixed reactions.

I guess that just goes to prove that when you’re outside your comfort zone there are no guarantees. Life is unpredictable, but I must say the smile on my face at the end of days 1 and 3 was big. The sense of accomplishment was huge. That’s where my magic happened in April, 2012. In May, that magic’s going on the road as Sammie and I head over to Victoria to find great stockists there.

Where is your magic going to happen in May?

By Kirsty Dunphey with No comments

Your journey will be different…

I recently watched speaker Bernadette Black
(http://www.bravefoundation.org.au/html/events/bernadette_black.html) give a very inspiring presentation. Each time I see Bernie speak, I feel the same emotion and am moved in the same way I was the first time I saw her.

Her story is extremely real and personal and she talks about her past in falling pregnant at 16 and what she chose to do with her life after that point. In short, she’s a great speaker and if you get the opportunity to book her or watch her, I strongly recommend it.

One line from her presentation really resonated with me after seeing her this last time. Upon finding out she was pregnant she went and told one of her school teachers. His response to her was: “Your journey will be different, but the destination can still be the same”.

I love this line. I love it in so many different ways. How often are we confronted with a huge roadblock or impediment in life where we think that we simply cannot achieve what we had previously dreamed?

Your journey will be different, but the destination can still be the same.

Words to remember

By Kirsty Dunphey with No comments