Reviewing my intrinsic drivers

It's nearly the end of 2012 and what a year it's been. I joined a team of wonderful entrepreneurs, discovered my love and passion for marketing, gotten married and got a puppy named Anya among many other things.

The New Year is a great time to be reviewing goals and what we're up to in life. It's a time where we're not so much on the hamster wheel of life and can stop to think.

Instead of just setting some goals for the next year. I'm reassessing what my intrinsic drivers are. I'm looking at the things I enjoy doing, then delving deep into what are the specific aspects within those things that really give me that sense of fulfillment and satisfaction.

I'll use this information as my golden compass. A way to guide my decisions in the next year.

Off for a bit - I'm getting married.

I'm getting married in two days time and then after that I've got family around. I thought I'd just say thanks to the people that regularly follow my blog and I'll start posting again shortly after the holiday period!

Happy holidays and see you again soon :)

Traffic, it's just like showering.

Friends of mine ask me how I could possibly like living in Auckland with all the traffic.

I drive to work every day in Albany and I live down in Burswood. For people that don't know, that's about a one hour drive each way in traffic.

I don't get stressed out or worried about traffic. In fact, it's something I sometimes look forward to. It gives me the perfect opportunity to think and mull ideas over.

Now, it's amazing how many great ideas and thoughts come out of that time in traffic. If you think about it, it's one of those only times where your brain isn't really occupied but at the same time you can't switch off or do something else.

It's like showering. You can't really do something else, and your brain isn't overly utilised.

Sitting in traffic, I think about marketing concepts, business ideas, observe my thought patterns and all sorts of things. Or I don't think and train my brain in being present to what's going on around me.

I used to have my radio on all the time but now I switch it off.

Give it a try, just notice what happens...

The importance of values and visions

I've been reading a book called Marketing 3.0 and it's about how marketing has evolved and what the state of marketing is.

In the mid 19th century, marketing was focused around the product. Get the product out there, get distribution and manufacturing right, promote the facts and features. Pretty much, the more advertising you did, the more sales you made.

Then, as competition heated up, those old ways started becoming less effective and marketers moved to customer focused marketing. Excellent customer service, customer focused products and thinking, CRMs, solving problems. Bringing emotion and feelings into the mix.

Today, we're now at the next level. We talk about tribes and making a difference in the world. About our values, our drivers and visions.

As we develop our businesses in today's market, it's becoming so important that we're clear about our values and vision. It's what has our customers flock to us, be loyal to us and support our growth. After all, if we're fulfilling on their common values and vision, why wouldn't they want us to grow? Simple really!

So the first step for our businesses is to determine... what ARE our values and vision? What difference are we making in the world?

It's no longer sufficient to provide a great product and a fantastic customer service. We have oodles of choice now, I want to buy from a company that believes what I believe.

The Dip

It's post 38 of my blog and I've begun to slow.

You may have noticed that my posts went from one a day down to one or two a week.

I don't have enough time. I'm distracted with other things. The blog isn't a high priority. I can't think of anything to write about.

Those are the thoughts that come up and I know I've dropped into the dip. Or as the saying go, I've hit the wall.

It's at this point that many of us will give up. I've done it many times before - I'm very familiar with the dip. What I'll usually do here is listen to those reasons, justify them and give up. After all, I am too busy. I do have better things to do and I really don't have anything to write about.



So what am I going to do about that?

Not give in to my thoughts. After all, they're just thoughts born out of survival. I don't want to fail, I don't want to push beyond this point and find that I don't make it. I don't want to look bad. That's what my humanity wants to avoid.

To have a chance at success then is to continue to honour my future that I'm creating. This blog is integral to my future as a marketer.

This show will go on!

Social Media, a one to many relationship? Why?

Most companies, if not all of them do social media on a "business" to "consumer" level.

That is, one entity to many consumers. Doesn't that seem a bit weird? Since when did a business have a single voice. The entity itself doesn't exist without the people.

When you walk into a retail store, you aren't greeted by the "business", you're greeted by one of the people of the business. Your experience is with that person and how you rate that interaction with the business is highly dependent on that single person.

So why is social media different? I find it so strange when a "business" responds to a post by a single person with a: "Thank you John, that's a really great question! We are looking at...". Who speaks like that in real life?? That's weird!

What if each social media business account was not administered by one person, but rather a community within which many people within the business could interact with others. More like a forum than a social media profile.

Many representatives of a business to many customers.

Makes sense doesn't it?

Now the warning bells would be going off for a number of people - what if people say the wrong thing, we don't have control over our brand, it could all get out of hand!

It's not really that different from your retail stores. Your team are constantly speaking with the customers anyway. Whatever they do will get spread by word of mouth. You're only augmenting what's already happening in real life.

If you're afraid of what your staff might say - you might want to look at why you're afraid of what your staff might say...

Internal dialogue

I've been spending a lot of time in my head this week, just noticing all the stuff I say to myself.

You know, all those judgements, opinions, reactions, thoughts and feelings.

By taking on this practice, I've been able to catch myself having thoughts that really undermine what I'm out to achieve.

Catching these thoughts allows to take an action contrary to the thought or take an action consistent with that thought. The key here though is that I now have a say in the matter.

This week I've taken actions that I normally wouldn't have and I've felt peaceful and been settled when I usually would've been stressed.

When you're next confronted by something, just notice the thoughts that you have. That's just all part of your survival mechanism.

If you're interested in learning more about this, I'd recommend Eckhart Tolle's book The Power of Now or check out Landmark Education.

Best example of product placement in a movie

...goes to Aston Martin in the James Bond series.

I marvel at how well they've been able to pair their car up with a story and fictional character.

It's such a perfect marriage that you can't help but think of Bond when you see an Aston - regardless of the model!

I just saw the new Bond movie and I can tell you it definitely makes me want an Aston that much more and it only had the Aston Martin DB5 in it for a short period. People actually gasped and clapped in the movie when they first showed it!! You could feel the excitement in the theatre.

I dream of creating something that revered and people get gushy about...

Struggling to keep momentum

This week has been tough.

I've not made the number of cold calls that I want to and as a result not booking the appointments I need to make sales.

There have been some other big priorities that I've been working on but I've noticed how quick I am to drop cold calling down the priority list.

The impact of doing this is that now my momentum has slowed and I'll have to build it up again and I always feel like I'm behind on what I'm up to.

Things I can do moving forward is to make cold calling and lead gen a priority - keeping the momentum is vital and it'll be a lot less work in the long run.

Getting clear on our value proposition

Yesterday we had a fantastic workshop session around our business with a very experienced specialist in our industry.

One of the most valuable things that I came away with was becoming much clearer about our unique value proposition.

Being in the grind day in day out was like having blinkers on and just having that external light shone on things made things so much clearer.

The end result I can see is a much clearer value proposition when talking about what we offer.

Emotional Value

Emotional value is the intangible value we place on products (and services).

It correlates with the financial value of a product.

It's subjective.

It has us be irrational when making decisions.

A great example of emotional value is in cars. Here's an example of a Ferrari 250 GTO, the most expensive car in the world - ever.

http://www.topgear.com/uk/car-news/ferrari-250-GTO-sells-for-35-million-dollars-2012-06-06

$35 million dollars it sold for!

This car was sold for $18,000 when it first came out in the 1960's and in today's equivalent price, that would be around $130,000. Less than a typical Mercedes!

How did it get to be so expensive? It's nothing to do with the features or the handling. It's a very old car and Ferraris back in the day weren't the incredible machines they are now.

It's all emotional value. The story behind the car, the pedigree behind the Ferrari badge, the story behind the history of the company, the one off unique nature, the prestige that comes with the car, the story YOU tell yourself.

The subjectivity of emotional value comes into the picture too as the emotional value would be near zero for someone not into cars.

As a result, this person that's not into cars would only pay material value. Nowhere near $35million. This illustrates so clearly how emotional value has a direct impact on financial value.

So when we're creating a product or service, we're limited with how far we can increase the material value of a product. There are only so many features we can put on a product or service. The emotional value however is limitless.

Instead of looking at how we can make things cheaper and better, how about looking at how we can create more emotional value?

Sweat the small things

My fiancee and I went to a place called Quirk dessert yesterday in Howick.

She had heard about it and we thought we'd give it a try. She'd read a few good things about it so I expected something pretty awesome.

It was 7:30pm and it was more or less dark by the time we got there. I walk in and my first impression is how the fitout is cheaper than I expected. Fluorescent tubes lit up the place with sterile blue light, the decor was a bit of a medley of things you'd find from garage sales and there was a cheap t-shirt with the plain text "Quirk" printed on the front for $40.

I grabbed a menu, cutely shaped in a big wooden "Q" and the inside pages were cut pieces of laminated paper - not cut very neatly I might add. I flip through the menu and check out what's on offer. What I order is a Kiwiana Sundae. Two big scoops of hokey pokey icecream, flake, crushed crunchie bar and cream.

All for $10.50.

What I want to point out is that I would have happily paid $10.50 for a great experience and that dessert. Or alternatively, an excellent dessert and that average shop experience.

The problem was, neither was that impressive. Now none of what I described was anything major. Changing the fluorescent tubes, cutting the menus properly, taking that t-shirt down would make a massive difference. Their service was good, the place is reasonably popular based on reviews and the dessert wasn't horrendous. However, it was plain and that's why that place will never take off like it could.

As business owners, we need to sweat the small stuff. It's the small things that come together to create that full experience that we crave.

It's the small stuff that creates a believable and memorable story.

Getting it all done

I'm getting to grips with the fact that I will never get it all done.

The temptation for me is to take it all on, and make sure that I complete everything that I set out to do. The reality is though, if I'm up to a lot of things and I'm ambitious, I'll always have more to complete than I have time to do.

The pitfall for me is to work into the evenings and beat myself up when I don't get it all done.

The thing to notice is when I go into that mode. Acknowledge that I won't ever get it all done and simply reorganise things as I need to and communicate with anyone that is relying on me to get something done.

Then I get myself some icecream and just relax. It's all good.

Cold calling tip #3

#3 - Respect their time

When we get cold called, doesn't annoy you when the person on the other end is just talking a million miles and hour and not giving you an opportunity to respond? A lot of us just aren't rude enough to hang up - we're left feeling frustrated.

So the first step I take is to ask permission to talk. I ask them "have you got a couple of minutes to chat?".

Sure you'll get some people that say no they're busy - but that's no problem, just ask them when the next best time is to call them.

For those that say yes, that's great. The key here then is not to speak too quickly and throw everything at them before they can respond. You've now got permission to talk to them so take your time and have a conversation, not throw a sales pitch.

My rule of thumb here is to let them speak. Listen more than talk. Just because it's a cold call it doesn't mean you have to do all the talking.

The end result if it's all gone well is that they'll end up suggesting we meet. They already know that's what I'm after and it becomes natural once all their concerns are resolved.

Cold calling tip #2

#2 - Being Prepared

I do a decent amount of research before calling someone. I think about what value do I bring to the call? What do I know about their business? What are they doing in terms of marketing already? Would my solution give them a good return on investment? All sorts of things.

Now there's a fine line between doing enough research and too much research. After all, you could do all the research in the world and they may just hang up on you straight away.

However, in my experience, the difference the research makes is not necessarily the fact that you can spout out lots of info about their company, but it's rather the confidence having this knowledge brings.

When they say, "What makes your service different from every other man and his dog that rings me?"

I can say "Well, I see that you're doing Yellow Pages advertising, spending a decent amount on Google Adwords and based on your radio advertising I know you're trying to promote office furniture. Our solution is a specific approach that could drop your Yellow and Google Adwords spending to nothing and whilst bringing you more office furniture customers. Based on what I've found about your business - I know we can provide a realistic return on investment."

That little amount will make you stand out from the rest - it's simple.

For you others that aren't into business. Think about using this for job interviews and networking.

Doing your research shows interest and respect.

Cold calling tip #1

Recently I've been having some great success with cold calling and I thought I would share some of what's been working for me.

In this post I'll share #1.

1. Being Authentic
When I call someone, I don't try and strategise or fumble my way through things. I don't run through a script or get attached to any sort of result. I say what's honestly there in my mind. This is especially important when they throw curveballs at you, like "you're the 5th person that has called me today" or "what do you want?!".

By speaking from being authentic and not trying to have the perfect answer, you come across as a human and honest. That really lands over there with the person you're calling.

Sometimes from a cold call, I'll end up dancing in a conversation for 5 minutes before it gets concluded. That's quite long for a cold call. More often than not, after dancing around for this long, the appointment gets booked. They're satisfied I'm not hiding anything or trying to manipulate them in any way.

Trick or Treat!

It's Halloween and you would have seen young kids wandering the streets dressed up as ghouls, ghosts, zombies and the like.

Ever considered that they're cold calling?

If you're currently recruiting for your sales team, you should go out and look for the kids that have the biggest and heaviest bags of candy. They're your child prodigies!

It's the same with fundraising and selling chocolates. There's something innocent about a young child knocking on your door selling you things to fundraise. You don't feel threatened, you don't expect them to try and rip you off and they're doing something good for society.

My thought is - how do you in the first few seconds of that cold call convey that sense of innocence and authenticity?

Help your idea blossom by sharing it

Remember to share your idea.

Nobody ever succeeded with there business idea by keeping it a secret. Today I shared one of my business ideas with a friend of mine and what came out of the discussion was fantastic. I got to see some different angles I hadn't considered before and opportunities opened up right in front of my eyes.

Sharing an idea is like watering a seed. The more you share it, the stronger it becomes and it develops. It'll get to a point where it's strong enough to survive by itself and takes on a life of its own. You now just need to nurture it and watch it blossom.

If you don't share it, the idea will never see the light of day. It stays as a seed.

I know from experience. I come up with great ideas, keep them in my head or only share them with one or two people. Before I know it, I've talked myself out of it, taken no action and trashed the idea.

What's your idea? Will you share it with me?

Intrinsic Drivers

It's those things that float your boat.

There's certain common aspects to the things that you love doing and things that really fulfill and satisfy you.

For me, one of my intrinsic drivers is "experiences". Having beautiful memorable experiences whether they be my brother's wedding, a valentines day picnic or a trip over to Hong Kong. It doesn't stop there either, that driver is also fulfilled by creating and sharing experiences for others.

If I look at my life, a lot of what I value is in experiences. I wrote about it in a previous blog where I'm not a big present giver or receiver but I do like creating an experience to share for that special occasion instead.

Right now, I'm in the process of discovering my intrinsic drivers. That involves observing what I feel drawn towards, looking at what I really love doing and enquiring into why I want certain things in my future life.

This is a fundamental step as it allows me to clearly define what I want to achieve in my life. Part of this blog is about how I'm going to leave a positive mark on the world. What will I be known for?

By creating a mission/path that fulfills on all my intrinsic drivers, I'm going to far more enjoy myself, be fulfilled and put my heart and soul into it even when the going gets tough.

Take a moment to think about what you're up to. What floats your boat? What's the common intrinsic driver?

If you want to learn more about intrinsic drivers, read the Winner's Bible by Kerry Spackman. A brilliant book!

Ideas. Sometimes they come easy sometimes they don't.

Ever noticed that when you're in the shower, exercising or in bed that you come up with epic ideas?

Then in contrast, you find yourself at a loss when you're brainstorming and trying to come up with that perfect idea.

I notice it all the time and it's something that I've been musing about. Why is that?

What I've noticed is that when I'm focused on coming up with ideas and being creative, my mind is blocked up with the concern about producing a result. I'm strategising, analysing, judging and trying to work it out. My brain's all busy doing that rather than being creative.

Inspired creativity doesn't work like that.

It comes from a sense of wonder. From being creative for the sake of being creative.

When we're in the shower, exercising or in bed, our brain is not focused on generating any result. It's in a relaxed state, in a state of wonder. From there, your brain is free to do the work for you - piecing together your knowledge into fantastic and brilliant ideas.

If you think you're not creative. Just notice next time you're in the shower or going for a walk. What ideas pop up for you? Your point of view that you're not creative stifles your very creativity.

Keep on going.

I've now written 20 posts and I can see the wall coming up. I can see that dip that I'm going to have to pull myself through.

My mind is telling me to give up, to stop writing. People don't want to hear about you. People don't want to see all your posts on social media.

In fact, writing this very post is confronting as it has me think about what people might be thinking about me.

I don't want to be disliked - I'm a people pleaser. However, it's this little voice in my head that's going to keep me from achieving what I want to in life. If I'm not willing to risk looking bad and upsetting people, then I'll forever play safe in my shell.

I'm going to keep going. My goal is to inspire, challenge and grow both myself and others and if I stop here, that goal isn't going to be fulfilled.

I know some of you read it and that's enough for me :).

Keeping a clear picture

There's a lot going on in my head. Lots of ideas, lots of dreams.

I've put them all up on a wall so they're out there now. I've had my goals up on the wall in this arrangement for a couple of weeks now and it's great.

I can refer to them while I brush my teeth and Lisa my fiancée can see what I'm creating for my life as well. I think that's hugely important and she's going to a big part of helping me fulfill what I'm up to in life.

At the bottom I've literally just created a business ideas area. If you know me you'll know that I come up with business ideas incessantly. I like to think a lot of them would work too!

The problem is of course that I don't follow through with them. I'm always wondering about the amount of time or money I have to dedicate to these projects and more often than not I pull out of doing them.

So, what I've done to clarify my thinking is I've put on the Y Axis the priority. That's how well that idea fulfills on the needs I have - marketing experience, contacts, finances etc

On the X Axis, the closer the idea is to the middle, the more it fulfills my intrinsic drivers. The stuff that floats my boat.

In doing this exercise, I became much clearer and I can rapidly see what's of most importance to me rather than having this confusing snow globe in my head.

I'll review this as I go on a daily basis. It's a great starting point :)

Our little voices

The unknown is scary.

Our mind doesn't want to deal with something that's scary. Our fight or flight response protects us from taking that sort of action.

Just stop for a moment. Think about something you've always wanted to do but never got around to it... or it's one of those things that you'll do one day.

Just listen.

Listen to those thoughts, that little voice inside your head telling you things. Often they're reasons why not to do something. For me, it often says "what if you miss out on this or that??". "That's not going to work". "People won't like you if you do that".

Now those voices aren't bad. They're what keep us safe. It's part of the predictive system that we have for protecting us. We predict what will happen in the future based on our past and your little voice relays those things back to you to "protect" you. Only those things that you're protected from aren't going to kill you, nor even true!

In the weekend I made a choice. My voices were going crazy and I all I did was notice all those voices. Then, I put the voices aside and made a choice freely.

The result? Clarity. I'm so clear. Because it wasn't a choice made based on my voices/thoughts/reasons/considerations, it was one that I don't question myself on. It's empowering.

Experiences - an intrinsic driver

I wrote my secret vows for our wedding the other day.

I expressed myself authentically in my tatty little red book (Lisa don't go through it :P), I observed myself as I progressed through the process of crafting the vow.

I got to see something I had never seen before. I place massive value on experiences. I found myself becoming particularly emotional when thinking about the experiences that Lisa and I have had and will have in the future.

When I made a deeper enquiry into this, I started to see how it played it out in my life.

I'm not a big present buyer or giver. In fact, my excuse is that I would much rather go have an experience and do something special. Go out for dinner with friends, go see a movie, go somewhere special - that sort of thing.

Then I looked at how that influences my relationship with Lisa. She loves presents and the act of giving and receiving. Doesn't make sense to me but I now have a greater appreciation of how for her, gifts are as important for her as experiences are for me.

Experiences. One intrinsic driver of mine. Or in other words, it's what floats my boat.

So how do I incorporate that into what I do in life?

Emotional buying

I just came across the all new Toyota Corolla: http://corolla.co.nz/

I love what they've done. It's not just about the car. It's selling the experience and the story behind the car. It's selling you the emotional connection that you'll have with your car.

If you read through the site, it's not dry specifications. It's all about how each feature will apply to you and how it'll make you feel.

It's quite different to the old story of Toyota reliability. With cars becoming more reliable, people just don't care as much as anymore.

They know buying a car is an emotional decision, not a logical one. That's why the GT-86 is sold with fun in mind and this Corolla is selling you a connection to a car like you'd have a connection to a pet.

Watch the video advert of Alloroc the cat. It's very cute :).

On another note, isn't it a great looking car?

The backdoor

Last night over a pretty average butter chicken, a very good friend of mine - Henare - helped me see something in my life that I hadn't seen before.

I'm really good at coming up with ideas, getting people enthused about them, going part way down the track and giving up.

I know for myself that I don't commit to business ideas because I feel like if I do, I'll miss out on something else.

So what I do then, is I always leave myself a backdoor. I never commit fully, only test the waters. When things look tough or I'm at the point of no return, I often back off and talk myself out of the idea. I find reasons why it won't work and don't work to find a solution.

Doing this really sucks. Nothing ever gets accomplished and I feel incompetent. Not only that, I know it's frustrating for Lisa (my fiancée) when it seems like every week I'm doing something different.

The access to doing something else is noticing when I start to hold back and do it anyway. I have to burn the bridge that I walked across so I have no turning back.

So I ask myself - what is it that I would commit my all to? Perhaps I should ask, what would I be ready to die for?

I've got some thinking and brainstorming to do.

Creating (product) experiences

I want to create experiences for people that are truly joyous.

Cars are close to my heart and I know that I'm going to have a car collection.

It's amazing. A car is a collection of shaped metal, plastic and other various materials. If you turned one to scrap, there's not actually anything to be loved.

However, arrange those pieces into a Ferrari 250GT California and you end up with a car that's truly remarkable: Top Gear James May drives a 250GT.

There are a number of other cars that are equally sought after. It doesn't say it in that short clip but Chris Evans the owner of that car paid 5.5 million pounds for that car.

What I'm most interested in is the experience James May has - the fulfilling a childhood dream part of his experience. It's the whole story, one that has been going on for decades for him that comes to a climatic conclusion. He's fulfilling a childhood dream or story.

So how do we create such experiences? How do we create and share incredibly moving and memorable experiences with our customers? How do we create brands and products that people emotionally connect with?

That's what I'm interested in.

Patting myself on the back

I don't really give myself enough acknowledgement.

For me, it's like climbing a mountain. I'm climbing climbing climbing, slogging my heart out and I get to the top of the mountain. Instead of turning around, admiring the view and giving myself a high five for my achievements, I look up at the next mountain and just continue climbing.

The impact on me is that it's just so tiring and debilitating.

The biggest thing is that it stops me from creating. When I'm not allowing myself to be as great as I can be, playing myself down or criticising myself for the things I can improve on, I don't get to be creative, passionate or inspiring.

The times when I do produce my best results are when I'm allowing myself to acknowledge how awesome I am. That's when I'm bold and unstoppable. At that point I'm fully self expressed.

When I'm making cold calls like that, the conversations are completely natural. There's no forcing the call, or trying to make an appointment. I'm know what I'm offering is brilliant and I know that I am making a great contribution to them - it's up to them to say yes or no. More often than not, it's a yes.

The thing is, this isn't a natural way of being for me - but I'm committed that it becomes natural. More often than not, I talk myself down, I doubt myself and I analyse the crap out of everything.

So all I'm doing right now is noticing when I do that... it's at that point that I'm able to interrupt my automatic behaviour and go back to acknowledging myself and being awesome :).

Commenting!

I've just been playing with the settings of my blog so it's now possible to comment on my blog posts.

I didn't realise I had it on a setting where you had to have a Blogspot account. I've changed it so now you don't need one :)

Trying to get it all done

You and I will never get it all done.

It's human nature.

Even though I know that, there's no stopping me from trying. Today I spent a good part of the afternoon feeling stink about how much I had accomplished. In fact, I had produced some pretty great results over the last week but that all doesn't matter when I'm beating myself up.

I was "overwhelmed". I've just taken on some new responsibilities and I wasn't responsible in the way I took things on.

Ever notice those times when we say yes to things we know not to say yes to?

That's why we get overwhelmed and then we get resentful and justified. It's just a lot easier to say 'no' in the beginning and be responsible. In fact, it's a much more powerful way of dealing with life.

People respect knowing up front rather than being let down when you don't complete it.

In saying that, don't go around avoiding being overwhelmed. That experience comes part and parcel with growing and taking on life. I just know my access to not having my brain exploding everywhere is getting in communication with people and saying what I will and will not do and by when.

If you're like me and been feeling a bit overwhelmed, think about who you need to talk to be responsible with what you've promised. Communicate first. Action later. Don't do what I do and just try and push your way through it. You'll end up wanting to punch someone in the face.

I broke a promise I made yesterday

When it came to doing my cold calling at the time I scheduled today, I started 10 or so minutes late. As I had mentioned in my previous post, I was going to start right on time.

What may not seem like a big deal - after all it was only 10minutes - actually had a big impact.

I had broken my promise and that left me feeling let down, weak and guilty though at the time I didn't see it for myself. To cover it up I drove myself to produce results so I could justify to myself it doesn't matter that I was late in starting.

Well... I ended up floundering for the next 2-3 hours until I actually said something to another person rather than hold it all in.

Once I was freed up - having acknowledged my broken promise - I booked two appointments and had great results! The weight lifted.

It seems minor but it's really important. Being someone that honours their promises (no matter how small) gives me power, respect and trust - not just from others but for me to myself.

Broken promises can be cleaned up but if they're left - they hold performance back.

Getting up in the morning

Sometimes it's very hard to get up in the morning.

This morning I woke up at 6am and then didn't get up until 6:45am. It's that dreaded "snooze" phenomenon.

I roll over, my cat walks on me, I push her away then roll over again. I close my eyes and try not to think about doing anything just so I can eek out those extra precious minutes of sleep.

In reality, those extra minutes of sleep really don't make a difference. In fact, I end up getting later which means I don't have time to just chill out while I have breakfast or take my time in making a really good lunch.

If I relate this procrastination to the day - any time I procrastinate, I make more work for myself. Procrastination is never satisfying. It never delivers on anything beneficial yet I still do it. It just draws out the amount of time that I'm left anxious about doing something.

Tomorrow morning, I've set my alarm for 7am. I'm going to get straight out of bed when I wake up and have some time to myself before I start work. I also have some work scheduled in the day and I'm just going to do it as soon as that time arrives.

Let's see what happens.

The best get picked first.

I'm good at a lot of things.

But good is not remarkable. Good is not the best. Good is normal.

Remember back when you were at school and you when people were being picked for a game of soccer/rugby/netball. I was never the first one picked but I was never the last one picked either. I was in the middle and that's not memorable.

In society today, what do you go for? Do you pick the 2nd best TV? The 3rd best wedding photographer?

In society, we pick the best (within our criteria). Makes sense.

So when it comes to building a team for a business or project - we want the best people in our team. If we look at the most successful businesses, at the crux of it they always have the best team. The best people for each specific role.

How do I get picked for that team? Being good at sales, marketing, systems, product development and all that makes no difference. I have to be the best - so that I'm the go-to person when you put together that dream team.

I looked at what floats my boat, what I love doing. What is it that I can see being a part of what I'm up to in life? For me, that's being the best marketing storyteller there is.

What about you?

New Zealand Innovators

Last night I attended the New Zealand Innovator Awards last night courtesy of Nick of Paperkut (www.paperlessreceipts.com).

The winners of each section walked up on stage to receive their prestigious awards and as they did, the host would read out a description of what their business or innovation is.

What blew me away is the level of innovation in New Zealand. Many of these companies I'd never heard of before and in a way it's no surprise because their products and projects are global. A team of graduates in university had developed a water monitoring system being implemented over in Asia and the Middle East whilst another company was completing a project to have the world's first 100% solar powered nation.

All based out of New Zealand.

New Zealand has so much potential to be a major technological and innovative powerhouse on a global scale.

We need to be willing to stand out and not be afraid to take on the world.

The value of an experience and story

Lisa my fiancee is in Canada at the moment and she rung me up excitedly.

"I just made my first spend in Canada and it wasn't for me! I'm still giggling!"

"What was it?"

"I've just been to this amazing store where I made a teddy bear for my flower girl!"

She had just been to "Build-A-Bear Workshop" at Niagara Falls and here's a picture of it.

Incredible. There's a whole process that goes into building the bear and it's amazing what a difference this experience adds to an industry that has been around for aaaages.

Buying a great soft toy teddy bear isn't memorable. Buying a great soft toy teddy bear that you made is far more memorable and worth talking about. Lisa is no doubt going to talk about that experience for a long time to come!

There's now a whole backstory that goes with her teddy bear.

What about other industries then? Can this be replicated in other places to create joyous memorable experiences? Not in the world of mass production that we have today but what if you were take a mass produced product and make it personal?

I think that's where we're heading. Products are so easy to buy these days. We have so much choice. The ones that will stand out are where we can add our own personal experience and we'll pay more for it too. I know Lisa did...

Imagine being involved in the process of building your own car - we're part way there with picking options. What about custom making your own smartphone case? What about a restaurant where you get guided to make your own dinner or dessert?

I like the idea of crafting joyous experiences for people.

The value of action

This morning I didn't feel like doing anything at all. I felt like that all the way as I drove to the office.

I got to the office I still felt like that. It certainly seemed like one of those days where I'd get nothing done.

Instead of getting stuck and sulking about my situation. I took the action I knew I needed to take even if I didn't feel like it. That was to cold call and book a couple of sales appointments.

And that was it. Immediately after having that first call that cloud lifted. The very act of taking the action I was procrastinating about lifted that gloomy feeling.

It's simple really. The next time I feel gloomy, just look at what I haven't done that I know to do and do it.

Not taking risks is the biggest risk of all

Today I've been thinking about all the hair brained ideas I've had.

I'm sure you've had lots yourself and many of them were nuts but there were always a few that you thought that would be absolutely brilliant.

I've had many of those and many of them haven't gone anywhere. They swirl in my head like a snow globe.

The reason why they haven't gone anywhere is that I haven't been willing to risk myself. To what degree varies - from not sharing the idea at all through to not taking the actions I know to take. Hidden inside that is the biggest risk of all and that's becoming a permanent snow globe.

What I'm learning to do is to share my ideas, to speak out and express how I think things should or could be. To take that first step. To not do that is to risk stagnating and ending up as a "I could have, or that could have been me".

As I went through this thought process today, I became clearer on how I might set myself up to take risks. What is the safety net I could put in place to take bigger and bigger risks?

Well - my answer to that was to create a financial foundation that supports my life necessities. You know, Audi RS4, big car garage and a lifestyle family home complete with brilliant views.

From there I've got a foundation that enables to risk big on my ventures without falling back to a destitute entrepreneur.

I'm going to poke a hole in my snow globe and watch the storm ensue...

Innovate.

Today, I had the pleasure of having meetings with two new potential clients that were open minded.

I'm a partner in a marketing business - an entrepreneurial marketing business at that. That means I get to be creative all day coming up with new ideas on how to grow people's businesses.

Often times our potential clients are quite set in their thinking - more to the point are quite fearful of dramatic change. What they're missing though is that without changing and innovating, they stop being remarkable and miss out on being the leader in their field.

These two businesses were different and it came down to the individuals.They were up for a conversation about how they could innovate and be the leaders in their industry. Now that lit me up.

This driving of innovation and doing something remarkable really speaks to me. How do we have our businesses stand out? And... what does standing out look like today? Standing out tomorrow is going to look different to how it looks today.

The question I'm asking myself right now is how do I personally stand out? What makes my blog more interesting to read than others?

It's a bit scary.

Now that I have my blog, it's actually got me all excited.

I feel like I'm now actually taking steps toward crafting a future that I want to live. This taking action business puts me out there in the real world - a world where I'm actually at risk. It's where things happen.

It's a bit scary actually. Sharing my thoughts to the world. My brain tells me not to do it. To stop the feed to Twitter and LinkedIn and to just post for myself. To keep it all private and avoid being judged. But that's what it's like to be a leader.

What I want to achieve with this blog is to share about my journey of discovery of creating who I want to be and how I want to leave my mark on the world. If I'm out to be a leader in this world, I've got to lead. Not just read or learn about it.

Even after only two posts, I know I've already made a lot of progress in my thinking. It's amazing what taking action does.

Taking action

Instead of sitting on my hands. It's time to take action. Here's my first action.

Over the last couple of months I've been thinking more and more about what I want to achieve in life.

Life is really a game. If you think about it, there's actually no inherent meaning in life. If human's didn't exist, there wouldn't be any meaning. Meaning only exists in human language.

As life is a game, let's make it a game that I want to play. Let's make it a game that by the end of it I don't feel like I've just the last 40 years of my life playing World of Warcraft.

So that brings me to this blog. I've got some ideas of what I want to do and fundamentally it involves making a difference in the world. To make a difference in the world, I'm going to have a lot of difficulty making that difference in my own head.

Sharing an idea can be the beginning of something amazing. Like a drop of water in a pond, you don't know how far reaching the impact of your sharing can be.