New project launching tomorrow - tune in for nix!

Hi All,

Just a quick one to let you know my new little project http://somewherelive.com/ is launching tomorrow at 9.00am (on the East Coast of Australia) with a free live stream of customer service guru Glen Coutinho.

It's going to be nice and interactive - anyone watching can tweet questions, comments, thoughts with the hashtag #somewherelive and I'll be your voice in the session (along with a live audience).

If you're in real estate - it's got to be a must, if you're in business for yourself - I'd strongly recommend it if you want to enhance your customer service and if you're in sales in any form - WATCH!

I'm very excited, a little nervous and keen to have your thoughts and feedback!

So - to watch, just register at http://somewherelive.com/ and click "watch live"tomorrow!

Kirsty

By Anonymous with No comments

Red licorice

My husband and I were reminiscing about the sorts of presents we used to get our parents when we were younger. He fondly recalled one year when he got his dad red licorice as a birthday present. He told me he couldn’t have been more excited to get this awesome gift for his dad and that he was so positive that his dad would love it. Now, knowing my father in law, I’m sure he gave every impression to his young son that he couldn’t have been more excited at the gift – but my husband realizes now that it probably wasn’t the ideal present for him. You see, my husband made the classic mistake of giving what he would have liked to have received.  As a child, the idea of a big present of red licorice was the stuff of dreams, and that’s why he chose it for his (much loved) dad.

Simple childhood mistake right? Not so much. I bet you, like me, make this same mistake in your adult life all the time. I bet your sales pitch is heavily skewed to how you would like to be pitched to. I bet your staff management and reward techniques are those that would work beautifully if you were managing yourself. And if any of you have read the book “The 5 Love Languages” you’ll know how easy it is to show love and appreciation for your partner in the way that you’d like to receive it.

So – my homework for you today:

   - Grab a copy of The 5 Love Languages if you haven’t read it. It’ll change your life.

   - Analyze one area of your life in which you think you might have a red licorice skew and try and enact some changes. For me –it might be the way I reward my staff at work. I’d love to be offered extra opportunity for travel, training and money – but I’ve got to remember the staff that would respond equally well to more time off work to pursue personal interests, or having the company get involved in a charity that is important to them or public praise of their work. 

By Anonymous with No comments

Testing the Tagline

I’ve been emailing back and forth with a girlfriend in real estate who is about to get her car branded up. She’s a clever cookie – so she got her branding mock up done and then sent it out to a bunch of people to get their opinions and thoughts on what she’d missed or could change.

One of my suggestions was that she needed a tag line on the rear window. Since then every car with tag lines on their rear windows have been jumping out at me and I’ve been busily snapping photos and sending them to her.

She’d brainstormed some ideas – but when we sat down today we mulled them all over. I wanted my friend to leave with something concrete - so I said she wasn’t leaving until we had 3 taglines to test.   Effectively trapped in my kitchen we both just started rambling to get our 3 taglines to test.

Why would someone want to use Jane as their real estate agent? What were her best features we wanted to emphasize? What did we want to avoid? How were we going to get something that didn’t sound super cheesy, but that was something that you’d remember and would make you pick up a smart phone and make contact with Jane.

We also googled for our inspiration –steering clear of other real estate agent’s taglines. We got started with #2 below on a list of websites with taglines for charitable organizations.

In the end we came up with 6 taglines to test – knowing which one we were both super pumped up about, but wanting to see what other’s opinions were.

1. The go to girl for real estate

2. The agent for the home you cherish

3. Not your typical real estate agent

4. Jane Crawford - A fresh approach

5. I can put a value on your home - but never on our relationship

6. Jane Crawford - exceptional agent, mediocre runner (and a whole series of these cook, gardener changing them often)

So how could we test them? Sending them out to Jane’s friends was a good start – but we also wanted unbiased opinions from people who don’t already adore her. Thank you facebook. We posted the taglines asking for feedback on a real estate group and also on my facebook page  (https://www.facebook.com/KirstyDunpheyEmail/) - a couple of hours later and 50+ comments were received. Voila instant feedback.

Overwhelmingly we had our suspicions on what we thought was the best one confirmed and Jane’s car is now going to be branded on it’s behind with “exceptional agent, mediocre...” and then the last word is going to change every few weeks and tie in with her other marketing (letterbox drops, facebook page, newsletter etc).

A fun hours spent with a fun result. So next time you brainstorm – maybe lock yourself in the kitchen (or wherever you need to) til you’ve got at least 3 ideas – and test the immediately. 

By Anonymous with No comments

How I got out of a funk

“I’m in a funk” I said morosely to my husband. He’d heard it before from me. Sometimes I just fall into “funks”. Nothing’s wrong. In fact, I’m rarely in a funk when something’s wrong (I kind of thrive on fixing problems). I’m usually just bored and lacking motivation. Hey – I’m sure it happens to everyone, and you probably have your own definition of a funk.

Contributing more to my, for want of a better word, funky-ness, lately is the fact that I’ve been more house bound that I’m used to with the birth of my gorgeous new daughter. I adore her, but I do get a little stir crazy when trapped in the house for too long. (Don’t even get me started on how insane I went trying to work from home full time after doing/writing this: urlm.in/rzaz)

So – I was in a funk. And like I said earlier, I’m a bit of a problem solver, so I decided to try a new way of dealing with my “funk”.

Every day I work through a to do list on my calendar. At present, there are 25 different things on my “every day” list from taking certain vitamins, doing certain exercises for my constantly misbehaving back, reading a certain amount for myself and to my kids, taking a photo etc etc – as well as the other tasks that are specific to that day. What can I say – I work well with a list.

But – back the funk. To try and resolve the issue I added one extra task to the list. I don’t do it every day, just days that aren’t as “full”, days that I know I’d be more prone to falling into a funk. It is my audacious daily goal. I think I have Eric Wahl’s Unthink to thank for the idea (http://theartofvision.com/unthink - it’s a great read, check it out and also check out his cool online tool to help you uncover what kind of artist you are in the workplace http://theartworkrevolution.com/ - I’m an inventor/sculptor).

So my first audacious daily goal was to do 1000 mountain climbers (http://youtu.be/KI8u58hPam4). I had all day to do them and every time I felt a little bored or stagnant, I just hopped on the ground and did another 50 keeping track of the tally as I went. My 2.5 year old daughter thought I was insane at first and I was told sternly (as only a toddler can) to “stop doing that right now”. But by the end of the day, whenever she’d see me pop my hands down on the floor to crank out another 50, she’d join in with her own adorable toddler version which most amounted to her doing almost headstands.

Next daily goal – 2000 crunches, then 1000 calf raises then 500 tricep dips. Then I veered a little and my goal was to cook three meals from scratch in a day (I’m very undomesticated, this was a stretch for me). Then back to the more physical stuff, 200 push ups off my toes. And today’s goal – write 10 blogs (this is number 4 of 10 and I usually write just one a week).

The cool thing I’ve found? When I’ve got a goal to focus on and work on and a fixed deadline - I’m far less likely to get into a funk (so far, zero funks on audacious goal days). Second side benefit – proof positive what we as parents do in role modeling for our kids.  If my girls see me being fit, they’re going to be far more likely to do the same – likewise, when they seem me going nuts for chocolate, I think I can make the connection. Third – I’ve always known I’m the kind of person who thrives on challenge and goals. If I set myself a goal – I’m going to achieve it, even if at 11pm I’m still cranking out sit ups (hasn’t happened yet). And finally, if my goal isn’t quite enough of a stretch (my original tricep dip goal was 300) – I can simply reassess the goal and make sure it is.


Want to help me? Send me an idea for something I can use on my next audacious goal day by commenting on my blog - http://blog.kirstydunphey.com/ or emailing me Kirsty (at) kirstydunphey.com

PS - I reached my goal of 10 blogs, and, the very next day wrote two more - easily, they just came to me, and then the next day another one popped out. It seems that my rubber band of writing was stretched and found it that bit harder to go back to normal!

By Anonymous with No comments

Proof of the Proof

A girlfriend, very fabulous, very creative, asked me to proof a crowd funding idea she has for a business this week. She always has a fun spin on things and never likes to be called the CEO of a company.

So she’d made up a name that had a play on her business name in the job title. Only…. I had to let her know, upon proofing her presentation, that her choice of unique job title was also slang for a lewd sexual act. Oops!

Just goes to show, a simple proof read by someone with fresh eyes can pay huge dividends.

And clearly I need to take my own advice after recently sending my clients a card telling them of our recent award success that "None of it happens with you" clearly missing the word "out". Oh dear!

By Anonymous with 1 comment

Get Your Golden Rule Straight

I opened up the Hobart Mercury Property Guide recently and sat down to enjoy a luxuriating read only to be struck down moments later with a sense of irate anger.

I usually enjoy reading the “property expert” pieces in various news publications. As a real estate business owner (www.elephantproperty.com.au) and avid property investor I figure you can never be exposed to too much information about your passion or your career.

Only the article I read about the “golden rule of investing in property” printed on the inside of the cover was shameful.  This article (pictured) was written by Andrew Winter @andrewtwinter “FOXTEL TV's Selling Houses Australia - Presenter and Property Expert. NewsLtd Property Writer”. It’s my opinion that articles like this are part of the reason that people buy investment properties without doing enough research and that is what limits a lot of people to just one investment property. Anecdotal figures told to me say more than 80% of investors stop at one property. If I look at my history in real estate (almost 20 years) the stats on the investors I’ve dealt with over the years would back that up.

Now shameful is a pretty strong word – so let’s drill down on what I found so abhorrent. Firstly – Winter states that your golden rule in real estate should be don’t buy the home unless the rent equates to at least 1 per cent of the purchase price – an example he gives is $400 per week rent on a $400,000 purchase. Now simple maths aside (1% of $400,000 is $4,000 not $400) I don’t disagree with this as a general guiding principal to START with.

But then Winter goes on to say that “at $425 - $450 per week you should be very excited and buy the property immediately. Even higher? Well, book the holiday to Europe.” Utter nonsense. He does state that it’s a “rough guide”, but to advocate going out and buying a property “immediately” when it’s showing a return of less than 6% without even mentioning other factors such as buying costs, vacancy rates in the area, maintenance, property management costs and the borrower’s repayment abilities is what gets people in over their heads and leads to them making uniformed decisions.

The crux of the lunacy in this article for me was when Winter described himself as “old-fashioned” and wanting investments with a “positive cash flow”.  You know what– me too! Only I want it to be an actual positive cash flow.  Let’s take a property that Winter would is recommending we, the reader, buy immediately - one returning $425 per week on a $400,000 purchase.

Let’s look at an absolute best-case scenario:

·      -  Annual rent would be $22,100 (not taking into consideration any time for vacancy – which of course isn’t that realistic).

·      - Let’s say you manage it yourself (I wouldn’t recommend it – but hey, I’m a real estate agent) so you’ve got no management fees – but you’re going to have council rates, water, land tax - $3,500 at a bare minimum (probably more.)

·      - Let’s say you have the only investment property in the world that requires no maintenance (again, completely unlikely – but we’re looking at a best case scenario) – but you’re likely going to have smoke alarm compliance costs and other unavoidable expenses – let’s do a very conservative $500 estimate.

·      - Say you got a 4.5% loan, you’re on interest repayments only and you had 20% cash deposit as well as being able to fund all your initial costs such as stamp duty, conveyancing, building inspections etc. You’re going to be outlaying $18,000 on interest (not to mention other associated banking costs).

And this super property that you should buy immediately – how positively geared is it given all the above near impossible “best case” scenarios? It’s earning you the princely sum of $100 per year. Now sure – you’ll likely have some depreciation benefits to consider in there based on what type of property you purchase – but more likely than not, you’ll also have costs to engage a professional property manager (who will likely more than earn their fee), you’ll have maintenance issues that pop up (yes, even in a brand new property), you’ll borrow more than 80% and shock horror – that property might sit vacant a few days every now and then. That $100 isn’t going to go too far. You could look towards capital growth – something all investors desire, but it’s not cash flow.

Now – I don’t want to sound like a negative nancy. I love property investment. It is one of my true passions in life. But it isn’t a board game of monopoly. It takes actual understanding of the concepts at play. Mess it up and you won’t lose a tiny red plastic hotel – you could lose anything from a lot of sleep to a lot of your financial freedom or more.

Want to start investing in property? Here are my tips:

Whether the property you buy is negatively or positively geared – look for all the areas in which it’s potentially going to cost you money. Work out a worst case scenario (including one where your personal circumstances change – unexpected baby, loss of job, illness) and consider all the potential expenses.

Speak to a successful, real world investor. If my experience in real estate has taught me anything it’s that you probably already know one. It could be your builder, the school teacher down the road or your uncle. Do not only talk to people who have had one crack at investing, had a bad run and given it up.

And finally - don’t rely on “golden rules” presented by “experts”. Do your own research, work out your financial goals and what works for you. And if you really, really want an expert – I’d recommend Jan Somers (check out any of her books in your library or at any good bookstore). 

By Anonymous with No comments

Perfect is overrated

One of the greatest highlights of my life was walking out of a train station about 13 years ago. It was a cool day in January on my first ever trip overseas and the train station was in Rome. It was Colosseum station to be exact.  As I walked out of the station, the crumbling façade of one of the world’s most beautiful and iconic buildings hit me straight in the face. It was an epic moment in my life. The Colosseum is not perfect in it’s preservation, we all know that, but it is still somehow absolute perfection.

On the same trip myself and thousands of others that hour alone flocked to see the leaning tower of Pisa, famed for its imperfection.

Venice, the most romantic city in the world is slowly but surely sinking further and further down into the ocean – that’s hardly perfect, but if you’ve ever been there you’ll hardly take that away as your strongest memory.

And Florence, ahh Florence, my favourite Italian city. The home of Michaelangelo’s statue of David.  And as ripped as his abs look – I doubt any man these days sculpted as such in all his glory would be happy to say it describes perfection. (Of course I’m talking about his disproportioned hands here).

I’ve said it before (http://blog.kirstydunphey.com/2012/02/perfect-is-passe.html and http://blog.kirstydunphey.com/2007/11/how-to-become-rock-star-perfectionist.html) and I’ll say it again – take a pass on perfect. 

By Anonymous with No comments

When to leave?

I’ve had people say I was crazy for leaving my former real estate agency when I sold my share a few years back.

Since I’ve left it’s gone from being a very successful 6 agency group to the largest network of real estate office in the state. I’m so proud of my former business partner and the team he’s built and what he’s grown with the company we started. I have nothing but respect and admiration for him – but I also knew, it was the right time for me to leave when I did.

Since I sold my share in my agency, after a sabbatical from the industry, I went back into business with former colleagues and started a new real estate agency. By design, we’re smaller and we will never attempt to do what my former agency has done in terms of conquering the state in all aspects of real estate. We’ve grown slower than my former real estate agency. At this point in time in my former agency we had 5 times the revenue with 10 times the staff.

In much the same way I was able to craft what I wanted from my investment portfolio with properties 2, 3, 4 and onwards learning from the lessons from property 1 as I also did learning lessons from parenting my first child that have resulted in many things being less daunting and smoother with bub number 2, I’ve been able to shape this new real estate venture so that it better suits my needs and where I am in this journey of my life.

Would I have made a higher annual salary if I’d stuck with real estate agency number 1? Almost definitely, but I wasn’t getting half the joy I get walking in the door at my current agency – for a number of reasons.

Did I not repeat any mistakes in real estate agency number 2? Sadly, but meaningfully I repeated the exact same largest mistake I’d made the first time around. But assess and reassess it as many times as I have, I’m not sure I could have avoided it either time and still achieved the eventual goal. What I did learn was how to extricate myself from it and protect myself better.

So how did I know it was the right time to leave? How do you know it’s the right time to leave anything? When does the cons list outweigh the pros. When does the joy you’re getting become outweighed by the frustration. When does any monetary tradeoff not compensate for the gnawing feeling inside your gut saying that it’s time to try something new.

And finally – when can you push yourself off the ledge into the unknown and take the risk? That one’s the hardest.

By Anonymous with No comments

What’s in a name?

Did you know iconic fashion chain Zara was originally going to be called Zorba – but ran into difficulties because there was a bar in their local town with the same name. So they kept the Z and improvised.

Did you know Adolf founded Adidas? Adolf Dassler that is – and his nick name Adi provided the basis for the name.

3M – probably best known to you for the post its sitting on your desk right now was originally called the Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company! Yup – I think 3M was probably a good choice and a great example of something morphing as a company’s focus changed.

At our real estate agency we get someone calling every day asking for “Allison” – it seems voice to text likes to change “Elephant property” to “Allison Property”. Ahh well – we also have fabulous name recognition because we chose to call our business something a little different to a standard.

Lego is a combination of Danish words to mean “play well” – brilliantly (and apparently coincidentally) it’s also Latin for “I put together”.

Facebook or “the facebook” as it was originally named after a book given out at American universities to help students get to know each other.

Ultimately, whatever business name you choose is important – of course. But far less important than what you do once you’ve made that first decision. Who’d have thought we’d all be buying books from a river (Amazon), or that a surname of the somewhat obscure founding brothers would sell more hamburgers than any other organization in the world (McDonalds) or that the world’s largest online auction house was a backup name (Ebay was originally EchoBay but morphed when the domain name couldn’t be registered).

By Anonymous with No comments

Staffing Secrets

I recently stumbled across a super cool TV show called “Hotel Secrets” – it’s like travel porn for someone like me who is obsessed with travel. In watching an episode today I became enchanted with Ashford Castle in Ireland (http://www.ashford.ie/) and it immediately got added to the travel section of my goal box (my form of a bucket list).

It is spectacular – a real castle steeped in history, tradition and stone. The other thing I loved? In introducing the castle, the manager took time to introduce 5 or so staff members listing how long they’d been working there – 30+ years, 20+ years, 15+ years… the list went on and on with one chap being there over 60 years.

Imagine how well you’d know your job and your environment after that time? Imagine how great a workplace it would need to be to have you stay that long? You got a sense of the character of the castle and it’s staff in the 30 seconds the staff were being introduce that was infectious. Their website even has a section devoted to the “characters of Ashford” and of course it lists the time each has spent with the castle. It made me instantly want to go and revamp our website to get more personality across.  What about your promo materials & website? How well do they convey the personality behind your brand?

By Anonymous with No comments

The value in a dress rehearsal

My beautiful eldest daughter was the flower girl in one of the most fun weddings I’ve ever been to this Saturday just gone. And she looked picture perfect with cute little silver shoes, a gorgeous hand knitted cardigan courtesy of Nanna and a superb white dress chosen by the bride and I.

Only problem was… the dress came right to the floor so that every time she tried to walk she stepped on the dress and almost fell over. Now we’d done what I considered a “dress rehearsal”. We’d put the dress on, we’d practiced throwing fake flowers and we tried on the shoes. But silly me, I hadn’t actually had her try and walk in the dress!

It reminded me oh so clearly that for a dress rehearsal to be any good – you have to step through every part of the process as silly and minute as they may seem at the time.

Before your new staff member is let loose on any member of the public, have they had a full “dress rehearsal” with a team member or their manager right down from greeting the client, doing the full job function and then bidding the client farewell.

If you have staff members who pitch to clients for new business, get it filmed so they can (horrifying as it will no doubt be) watch themselves back in glorious detail – the best learning experience.

If you're sending out a card to all your clients - proof, double proof, have 6 people proof it (I just learnt this the hard way after missing the word "out" and telling our clients that our success wouldn't have been possible "with" them - oh dear).

And before you launch that new website have a whole bunch of people view it, test it, scrutinize it from every angle before you let the public loose on it!

By Anonymous with 1 comment

The Dog Whisperer

Our real estate agency Elephant Property has an unofficial staff member – Terry, our maintenance man. He’s a constant source of lightness and unbridled energy in our office and I love him.

He’s also one smart cookie. Just recently he told me how he always carries a pocket full of meaty bites (dog treats) – because he often has to go into properties that have dogs. He’s been called the dog whisperer by one of our tenants recently after he charmed their two large dogs.

How simple of an idea is it? Encounter lots of dogs each day, many of whom aren’t so happy about having you on “their” property. Carry a treat or two with you?

Who do you encounter daily that isn’t so fond of seeing you and what could you carry in your pocket to charm them?

Maybe you have crayons or a cool stuffed toy in your office for calming noisy toddlers while their parents sign important documents? For the older ones, perhaps it’s an ipad they can play with while Mum or Dad is occupied? Perhaps you drop off a mini chocolate bar with your tax invoice? Or – and I love this one, you’re the hairdresser with an awesome chair for the kids to sit in while getting their hair done.

Who do you need to whisper to?

By Anonymous with No comments

Sleep deprived and desperate

I’m at the end of a long day that has involved me setting myself a one day goal of writing 10 blog posts (I usually write one a week). This is post 9 of 10. Fittingly after such a prolifery of verbage I am, as just illustrated, making up words and lacking a little inspiration.

So I posted on my facebook page – facebook.com/kirstyDunpheyEmail asking for suggestions / thoughts / random words.

My favourite response was this one:

“Should we be scared that parents with no sleep operate machinery, drive cars and raise children...”

I guess I found it appealing due to it’s comical nature, and the fact that I have a newborn and a toddler on the go at the moment – who at times, like to tag team their wake ups.

We have four parents on our team at Elephant Property with 5 kids 5 or under – and despite the fact that we offer a flexible work week / working hours - many of us, at different times operate the “machinery” of our business severely sleep deprived.

Are we at our best when sleep deprived? Probably not. Does our work suffer due to this? At times, I’m sure it has. But probably not more than the 20 something who’s had a big night on the town the night before or the passionate hobbyist who’s been pursuing an out of work passion until 3am.

In short, we all have days where we’re not at 100%. But, there are certain advantages to having parents (well rested or not) on your team.

If they have kids who are toddlers or older – they practice negotiation on a daily basis.

If they have multiple kids, or have ever tried to complete even the simplest of tasks with one demanding child, they know how to split their attention when it’s required.

If they’ve raised well-behaved children, they’ve had first hand practice at providing discipline and coaching – ideal qualities in a manager.

In short, I think the benefits outweigh the negatives.

BUT – I believe, if you want to have parents, especially those with young children working in your company, flexibility is the best gift you can give them. And I had no idea of this before having my first child, so sincere apologies to the parents who worked with me before then (I just didn’t get it!)

By Anonymous with 1 comment

Low tech strategy in a high tech world

My facebook feed erupted this week with anger. Non-parent anger over parental obsession. Maybe you know what I'm talking about? It started with posts like "I need cards 5, 36, and 45 to complete Jimmy's collection" and ended with "If one more person posts about bloody animal cards I'm unfriending them!"

Yep - it's officially 1984 again and swap cards are all the rage. The 100 cards given out for free by a large supermarket chain are highly prized by parents, grandparents and even the occasional child and I have friends who never shop at this chain racing over there to make sure they stock up on cards for their kids.

I'm not immune, I was astounded and very grateful recently as a lady in front of me at the checkout with adult children handed my 2.5 year old a fistful of cards from her $300+ grocery shop. But I must admit - I have no idea what cards we're missing, only that we have a shark and that a shark (according to my daughter) can eat a parrot (but you shouldn't let it). 

In chatting with my lovely checkout lady yesterday she told me my supermarket had actually run out of cards so successful was the promotion, and then she proceeded to tell me that she'd bought the commemorative album for her grandkids. 

Now would this campaign have been more successful if instead of a small piece of cardboard it involved an ipad or a computer? I doubt it. Sometimes it pays to look to the past and think simple. 

By Anonymous with No comments

MONA-isms for your business

If you live in Tasmania and haven’t been to MONA (Museum of Old and New Art) yet – I can’t fathom why (it’s free for all Tasmanians and worth a drive across the state and more). If you live near to Tasmania, you won’t regret hopping on a plane to see it (even if you aren’t a typical museum lover).  And if you’re far far far away… Maybe add it to your bucket list – it’s that good.

MONA is architecturally spectacular, deliberately shocking and utterly entrancing. I’ve been numerous times and my most recent visit was with my 12 week old travelling buddy. MONA is the first thing I recommend visitors to the state go to (and that’s saying something – we have a whole lotta amazing stuff in this state).

So in visiting this time, I tried to look at what David Walsh has achieved at MONA to see what could be replicated in any business (you know, that didn’t have a multi-million dollar budget and a penchant for putting genitalia on the walls). Here’s what I came up with.

Be real

As you stroll around MONA strapped into your personalized ipods which give you all the museum guff on each piece of art that takes your fancy. David Walsh often comments on the pieces he loves and his take is, how shall I put it, not very museum curator-esque. He uses real language and in reading it, I can imagine him speaking to just to me.

Non-MONA example: S. Group architecture and design here in my hometown of Launceston. This page starts off very much as you’d expect an architecture firm, but mouse over the photos and read the profiles and you see personality and real-ness pouring out - http://sgroup.com.au/meet/

Be social

As you walk around with your groovy ipod at MONA you can Love or Hate the artwork with a click of a button and – if you’d like, you can get a very awesome map of your journey complete with full social media integration emailed to you called your “O tour” http://www.mona.net.au/theo/

Non-MONA example: In chatting with the founders of Flat Tummy Tea recently (http://www.flattummytea.com.au/) also based in Tasmania.  I commented on how fast their facebook page followers were increasing. Now the founders are a bit younger than me and while I use instagram, I must admit I had no idea the power of it from a marketing perspective especially to a younger demographic . Bec mentioned how fast their instagram following (http://web.stagram.com/n/flattummytea) has grown and it’s awesome to see how they’re tapping into a young demographic with real time testimonials like this http://web.stagram.com/p/515482027391159741_416639066. Why is instagram hitting a younger demo? Check out this recent mashable post called “I’m 13 and none of my friends use facebook” (http://mashable.com/2013/08/11/teens-facebook/).

Be noticed

MONA strives to be something people talk about. From the pink flame covered busses that can transport you there, to the in your face controversial artwork, much of which has no common thread other than that David Walsh liked it.

Non-MONA example: I’ve become a little obsessed lately with Jessie Walsh’s project http://fortydaysofdating.com/ - check it out, but be warned, you might get stuck in there for hours. Jessie’s day job is as one of the founder’s of Sagmeister and Walsh – a design company (no doubt benefiting from lots of extra interest after 40 days). I can’t help but keep going back to their website http://www.sagmeisterwalsh.com/ - because the front page is a live web cam above their office. Simple and a little addictive, much like Forty days of dating (which has just been picked up by Hollywood http://www.theatlanticwire.com/entertainment/2013/08/40-days-dating-latest-internet-project-be-co-opted-hollywood/68387/)

So that’s just three things – be real, be social, be noticed… I could go back to MONA for 40 days straight and find umpteen more things – but I also see them when I get great service at my petrol station or have a conversation with a friend about their son. If you open your eyes you can R-E-D anywhere (read this to find out what I mean by R-E-D http://blog.kirstydunphey.com/p/retired-at-27-if-i-can-do-it-anyone-can.html)

By Anonymous with No comments

Step To It

So this week saw the end of Steptember (http://www.steptember.org.au/)– a fundraising initiative by the Cerebra Palsy alliance encouraging fundraisers to form teams of 4 and fundraise while every day for 28 days attempting to get 10,000 steps a day.

While we raised a small amount for Cerebral Palsy (and hope to do significantly better next year with the event and fundraising already booked into our Elephant Property calendar) the other benefits to our firm, and to me personally have been huge and mostly unexpected.

Some of the best include:

-       Watching one of our quietest team members take a commanding lead in the step tally early and commenting daily as to how much better she felt getting out and walking each day.

-       We had friendly rivalry between our two teams and were able to invite two casual staff members to have more of an interaction with our permanent staff members by being valuable members of the teams.

-       Hearing how many staff are committed to keeping up their daily step tally even after the month is over (three of us are all getting Fitbits on Monday thanks to a recommendation from an interested client)

-        I realised how close I live to one of my hometown’s natural wonders. What would have previously seemed like a huge distance away became an almost daily (weather and child dependant) stroll that I grew to love and missed when I couldn’t get there.

-       I realised I actually love walking! I’d had getting out for a daily walk on my “to do” list each day since having my second bub and made every excuse as to why I wouldn’t get out there (replacing it with most indoor resistance exercises)

-       I actually stepped the equivalent of 304.59 kilometers (402057 steps) for the 28 days – so much more than I thought I’d be able to do on day 1 when I struggled to reach my 10,000 and wondered what I’d gotten myself in for.

So thank you to the #Steptember crew for all of the above and more and we look forward to doing it again next year.

What can you do to add an element of fun or fitness or fundraising into your work environment?

By Anonymous with No comments

But I don’t want to get her fired!

A close friend of mine just had a horror experience with a local business. It was the first day for the staff member who was serving her and, without going into too many details, it was an up close and personal experience that, due to the occasion it was required for, should never have been left in the hands of someone on their first day, in their first job.

“What do I do if she (the owner and the person who had recommended her to the service) asks for feedback?” my friend asked me “she was such a lovely girl – I don’t want to get her fired!”

So now this business is in a predicament. My friend feels unable to give them feedback that they need to hear because she’s worried about the impact of it. My friend is extremely sweet and likes to avoid conflict at all costs.

The feedback this business really needs to hear shouldn’t put that staff member in danger because it’s not  – “your staff member wasn’t up to par”, the feedback is “your staff member wasn’t adequately trained or experienced yet to deal with my needs and shouldn’t have been let loose on me yet”.

One is a staffing issue, one is a training / management issue.

How can people provide feedback to you in your business? After writing this – I’m off to design an anonymous questionnaire for our customers right now, hopefully so that I won’t repeat this mistake in my own business.

By Anonymous with 2 comments

This is Xavier’s bucket list – he’s 4.5, what’s your excuse?

I got a gorgeous email recently from a wonderful friend chatting about a lunch she’d had with her little boy Xavier that day. They were talking about holidays, dreams, aspirations and very inspiringly, they decided to write Xavier’s bucket list.

Everything on it was thought up by him, here goes:

•      Ride in a sea plane

•      Be a doctor

•      Be a photographer

•      Be a dad

•      Go to a restaurant on my own for peace and quiet

•      Be a fireman

•      Be able to read a list (I think he means this one)

•      Make cup cakes on my own

•      Go to a One Direction concert

•      Go to a Bruno Mars concert

•      Be a singer

•      Be an artist

And since the first draft he’s also added going to Legoland.

He’s 4.5 and his bucket list will rival many of you who are reading this! C’mon – what’s stopping you? Want more inspiration than Xavier’s rad list above? Check out Ben’s adventures over at Red Rucksack  or Candy Chang’s incredible Ted talk “Before I die”.

What’s life without dreams?

PS – since compiling his bucket list, Xavier’s Mum had a friend post on facebook within days that she had to give up her two One Direction tickets. Bucket list fate I say! Xavier will tick this off in October. And – I’m encouraging him to set up a photo blog right now, I know he took some great photos at a wedding we recently attended. Why not head here and leave him some love http://xaviersphoto.blogspot.com.au/

By Anonymous with No comments

The value on being unpaid

There’s been a lot of furor lately about unpaid internships with headlines like “Sheryl Sandberg earns $100m, but won't pay interns” (http://www.news.com.au/money/money-matters/sheryl-sandberg-earns-100m-but-won8217t-pay-interns/story-e6frfmd9-1226697612115) flooding my twitter feed.

I’ve enjoyed reading both side of the argument including one my favourite writers Mia Freedman who has loudly and proudly talked about the half dozen women she’s hired who started as unpaid interns – and about her own experiences with unpaid work to get her foot in the very competitive industry of magazines.

My thoughts? Well – I think of April, who has just received a paid position casually at our real estate agency Elephant Property. We didn’t have a position that needed filling: we created one for her. It’s only small at the moment a few hours, but it will likely grow in the future if she keeps on impressing us.

Why did we create a job for April? She came to us on a form of internship from a local high school. She was polite, well presented, eager and did the work given to her well. That said, we’ve had perhaps 10 other students perform equally as well as April during their time with us and while we’ve maintained a lovely ongoing relationship with many of them we haven’t created a job for any of them.

April got a job, because April showed initiative and dedication and determination. Upon leaving her one week’s initial stay with us (part of her schooling program), she took it upon herself to ask to come back for her entire two week school holidays and work, unpaid for the experience. While we didn’t allow April to give up her entire holidays, she did come back in for 2 days during her holidays and was so keen to continue to volunteer to come back in to build her experience after this that we knew she would make a lovely asset to our team. Anyone who shows that much commitment and dedication gets bonus points in my eyes and while April never asked for a paying job, she did show with every action that she deserved one.

If I were looking for work right now I’d target in on the company/ies I wanted to work for and if I couldn’t convince them in an interview that I was the gal for them I would absolutely be offering to come in, unpaid, to show them my worth and value.

Heck, there are companies I’d do an unpaid internship at right now and many that I would pay for the privilege of doing so for what I would learn. Would I feel exploited at the end of it? Hardly, I’d feel enriched if I were given the opportunity to learn from the inside. And the beautiful thing about it would be that if I felt exploited I could simply leave. 

By Anonymous with No comments

Be consistent in your love letters

When my first daughter was born I wrote her little love letters almost weekly for the first year. I wrote about my dreams for her, my pregnancy, her adorable father and all the cute little things she was doing and at what stage. After her first year had passed I compiled the many many pages of letters into a photo album with all her first year’s photos. Well – 6 albums actually (I’m a bit of a prolific shutterbug).

A well-meaning mum said to me wisely upon viewing my efforts, “you’ve made a rod for your own back now” indicating that I’d need to put in the same effort for any future children. And now having had my second child, I understand what she meant. While I have the same desire to write to my new daughter, the frequency is harder to keep up due to numerous reasons including illness and chasing an active 2.5 year old around!

I will keep writing, but part of me hopes my gorgeous second daughter doesn’t decide to do a page count!

In thinking about it today it reminded me a company we deal with at work. There aren’t a lot of options for who we choose in their field and I’m neither overly happy nor disappointed with their service – but – about three or four years ago they did something that wowed me. They sent our office the coolest Christmas gift. It wasn’t overly expensive, but it was just super fun and creative. I talked about this gift to my family and friends. In the office we all fought over what part of it we’d each get to have. During the year I must say I actively watched our usage of the company far more closely. And when the next Christmas came around, I eagerly anticipated what they’d do to match or top the previous year’s awesome effort.

Only they didn’t. They didn’t top it, they didn’t match it… they didn’t actually deliver it.  I was sad. I was so sad (much to the embarrassment of my business partner) that after 2 years of no gift I asked some reps from the company at a trade show what we’d done to go off the Christmas gift list. They just chuckled (clearly thinking I was having a joke).

They’d set an expectation within me of something creative and fun at Christmas time – and once they’d set it (in such a memorable way) I missed it. Does it mean we don’t use them anymore? Of course not. But do I pay as much attention to our usage of the company in the years since – I don’t.

Once you set a standard – it’s hard to go back on it without it having some measurable effect on the impact of your brand.

I used to publish a weekly newsletter from my blog and still use the website that managed my database and sent the e-newsletter for some other business ventures. For years I’d referred people to them and when those people signed up to create their own mailouts, the company would send me a quarterly referral cheque. Until the company sold and they decided they didn’t want to do that anymore. Now the cheque wasn’t going to swell my bank balance significantly, but the letter I got from them stating that it wasn’t viable for them to continue paying referrers was harshly worded and cancelled payments without notice. Do I care to refer to them anymore? Not so much. Would I have referred to them in the first place without the reward for referring – I don’t doubt I would have. I only miss the referral fee because I was used to getting it.

I only miss what I had grown accustomed to. This for me is an important lesson to remember as I’m all for constant innovation especially in a service capacity – but I need to remember that if it’s not sustained, it can send the wrong message to my clients who may have been just as happy without it in the first place.

PS – I’ve long been an advocate of the book “The 5 love languages” – I’d strongly recommend it as a read for anyone wanting to improve their relationship BUT also for anyone who wants to understand why the client gift’s, rewards and thank yous won’t have the same impact on every person as it would on you.

By Anonymous with No comments