Five Bucks.

I need some help. I know, I know, replies referring to my state of mind, along with offers too extreme to print will flow forth, but I was referring to help with my blog and the marketing required to give it a higher profile on the net. I had been thinking who, how and what is required to market my blog so the New York Times finds me and offers that once in a lifetime chance to continue viewing the world my way from the front page.

Obviously this project requires a marketing budget and expertise to increase my following and gain notoriety, enough to warrant the NY Times offer. My cards, after the Christmas crush, left me with $105.00 credit to encourage someone, anyone, from a marketing company to give me advice and solutions to my dilemma of global blog domination. I was surprised what was on offer.

I was provided with the following solutions, that would give my blog the needed profile upgrade to entice NY to come a calling. To start with, I was provided with a business plan and a complete 30 page SEO and SEM report on my blog site. I was indexed in Google within 48 hours and had my site submitted to Yahoo. I had my blog tweeted to 15,000 new followers along with an ad on a website with 140 million hits. A full HD video of my blog on YouTube was listed with a professional testimonial in any language I chose. Not forgetting the power of social media, I had a Facebook App developed and uploaded along with a QR code in case I ever decided to sell anything on my blog. I was guaranteed 10,000 unique visitors sent to my blog site along with 200 articles posted to 200 sites further enhancing my profile. To finish the ambush marketing side of the campaign, I had a new logo designed, graffitied on walls, the sides of cars and on the fingernails of girls prepared to walk around their neighbourhoods with "O Business" in neon lacquer. Getting close to my budgetary limits I spent $10.00 to run two commercials a day, for five days, on a new country music station along with finding a business mentor to discuss any future marketing and business scenarios.

After accomplishing all of the above, I was left with $15.00 credit towards my second quarter marketing plan, which will include a receptionist for an hour, someone to make hard decisions for me and finally someone who will write my name in coffee cups, because I think that looks cool. Each of the above tasks cost me $5.00 from one of the more interesting crowd sourcing sites, Fiverr. It is gaining notoriety as the place looneys, loose cannons, creative types, business start ups and those hard up for cash gather in one crazy place. Some say Fiverr is catering to the lowest common denominator, those willing to do anything for $5.00, others look at it, as just another aggregator of human resource, while many like me, think it's a hoot and shouldn't be taken too seriously. After all, how much credence would you put on someone providing a business plan, being a business mentor or having your logo painted on finger nails for five bucks?

There seems no limit to what people are prepared to do, for fame, infamy and $5.00. You be the judge on the merits of crowd sourcing with a difference.

P.S. I didn't really spend the money. I'm sure the NY Times will come a calling, anyway.

Merry e Christmas.

In past years I was diligent in sending out Christmas cards to friends and relatives, no matter the expense or time required. I took pride in good English along with heartfelt messages I hoped would make the string of cards in the venetian blinds or better still the string of cards across the mantle piece. Things change and nowadays I send e cards and I lament the demise of a tradition, because no matter how efficient, it's hard to string e cards anywhere.

A tradition that has been in tune with this time of year, since the first commercial Christmas cards were commissioned by Sir Henry Cole in London in 1843 featuring an illustration by John Callcott Horsley. By 1860 they were commercialised by Charles Goodall and Sons and today, according to the Greeting Card Association, still number close to 2 billion sent every year. A number that is quickly dwindling.

Like e books, I think e cards will take over the printed variety, especially if I am an example, not buying cards anymore and not spending hours agonising over the litany of verses designed to bring fond memories of Christmas to all my friends. Interestingly I don't have any more cash or time, now that I'm no longer involved in the card exercise. Seems there is always something to take over the extra time and money, no wonder it's hard to save.

Having said all that, Christmas is still a time to reconnect with friends and relatives and regardless of how you say it, the thought of good will and cheer to all, remains the same regardless of the media used. I worried at first I wasn't putting the same enthusiasm and forethought into my cards because now they were just bytes of information transmitted via the ether and surely people could just dismiss them with a click or worse, they get stuck in the spam filter.

Yet the time dedicated to finding just the right card, with just the right music, with just the right message, interactivity and the ability for personality to shine through, quickly put paid to that thinking. Where a Hallmark shop would have hundreds of cards to chose from, I now wander sites with unlimited choices equivalent to an airport hangar filled with paper, looking for just the right card. My appreciation of the e card and it's ability to make people smile and think of the sender along with being able to reply instantly, has increased to the extent I now look forward to receiving them as much as sending them.

Along with my geeky side, my inner recycler is also feeling righteous not worrying about cut down trees and wondering what to do with the piles of old cards the day after New Year.

So this Christmas, embrace the new medium of e card connection and enjoy the interactive nature because your friends have taken time to think of you as they hit the send button. The e revolution won't subside and next year, I'm sure I'll be talking about my new e presents. The e shirt, the e tie and no doubt the e underwear, all guaranteed to fit, no matter how much pudding I eat.

Pregnant Pause.

A silence, a crystallistion of thought, a moment, a reflection, a pause filled with delicious anticipation of the next word or insight has given way to fillers in today's speech vocabulary and terminally haunts elocution experts of yesteryear as people rabbit on, rather than take a breath. I listen to industry leaders, politicians, entertainers and the odd footballer and it is rare I come away remembering more than "in between" words repeated ad nauseam connecting what should be salient messages and intelligent insights.

"You know", "ah", "like", "er", "right" and the always reliable, tried and true ubiquitous "um" are go to words for speakers waiting for their mouths to catch up with their brains, or vice versa, depending on how many goals they've just scored. Such words, grunts and unintelligible sounds, used to link thoughts and ideas, were once the realm of first time speech givers but have become the norm as communication escalates via the new media outlets. It was not unheard of, for people to fear a speech more than death and sometimes listening to bad speeches was close to dying as "ums" outnumber real words.

The considered and practiced speech or presentation has long gone the way of the lectern, as cordless mikes give people room to roam and ruminate on their favourite subjects, while mangling the "King's English". As hard as it is to shut people up, on Youtube or countless web avenues, the distraction of "disfluencies", the "ums", only end up discrediting and highlighting the lack of preparation of a speakers.

Those little, one syllable words show volumes about the insecurities and concerns speakers have, as well as communicating they have not taken the audience seriously and practiced before stepping on stage. Even if speakers are experts in their field, the "ums"and "ahs" bring forth a mediocrity of knowledge and insecurities that will not endear you to your audience. Many speech experts (have they ever "ummed"?) see these speech hesitations as lack of self confidence and sincerity and consider them a virus ruining speech at all levels.

The challenges seem insurmountable to many but there is a sure save answer to all the concerns bought forward by the disfluencies and hesitation trapdoors, stop talking. For some this is the complete answer, but for those that have to get up on stage, bring forth your inner Al Pacino or Meryl Streep and use silence rather than the ubiquitous "ah" to bring your audience forward in their seats, while you gather your thoughts for the next intelligent insight that will have them clapping at the end.

The pregnant pause, long disparaged and little used, is seeing a revival of sorts but requires a strong backbone as most speakers don't operate well in a vacuum and it's easy to insert a quick "um" into a speech to cover the overwhelming and crushing silence. So next time, think about drawing a breathe before opening your mouth and setting forth on the good ship "listen to me". Brings new meaning to "grow a spine".

After all, like, ummm, ahhh, you know, how hard, is, ahhh, talking, right?

You're So Vain.

"I bet you think this song is about you" warbled Carly Simon in her get back song, to Warren Beatty after their short lived dalliance. Her take on their relationship centred on the one sided affair Beatty was having with himself, while escorting Simon, who ended up a mere handbag to his vanity. The vanity and narcissistic attitudes of Beatty, as one of Hollywood's pretty boys, was not an option for most people other than singing into a hair brush in front of the home mirror. Times have changed and the social media revolution has given the narcissist in us all, carte blanche to become self absorbed in our own legend.

We all know them, those people a little more inclined to look in the shop window as they walk by, flex a little too much at the gym and remain self absorbed even in catastrophic situations while still maintaining a perfect coiffure. How much fun are they having on Facebook,Twitter and the plethora of forums and activities designed to bring out, attractive, attention seeking, over confident, ego driven, high maintenance individuals, showing the world, it's all about them. Are we headed for a future where the self absorbed become the bench mark for individuality and success?

Facebook and the entertainment world aside, business has long endured those requiring our utmost attention and many of today's leaders fall into what is referred to as "business narcissism". Recent studies found people born between 1977 and 2000 more narcissistic than previous generations and that male business students the most narcissistic of all. In a study of over 500 US undergraduates, statistics revealed students motivated by money were more likely to be narcissistic than those motivated by wanting to contribute and help others. So it seems we can look forward to more leaders of industry self absorbed, needing attention and not interested in higher visions for making the planet a better place to live. Seems business schools have become a hotbed of reinforcement for narcissistic attitudes creating leaders with entitlement, exploitive and empathy issues.

Business narcissism can build up out of a leader’s thinking they are the exception to every rule and every challenge they encounter is exceptional and requires only their specific skills. Think about CEOs, defending their pay packets and share options, that have no place in the common man's thinking, with no other response than "I'm worth every cent". This is narcissism at the highest level and used to be difficult to focus on, as inappropriate behaviour, but where the web is seen as an enabler, it also has the power to spot light inappropriate narcissistic behaviour.

People taking themselves too seriously, especially in business circles, becoming too self absorbed and self centred and requiring the highest maintenance, whether via money or sycophantic attention are now at the mercy of the anonymous and the direct via the same avenues they seek attention through. The ability to take pot shots at the high and mighty and poke fun at those putting themselves on a pedestal provides balance in the tug of war between the preeners and the doers.

So while we may give a wry smile to people living large via Facebook we have the opportunity to bring attention to those in power and highlight the need for a balanced approach to business views, other than their own. By the way, does my bum look big in this suit?

Grunt Work.

Fortunately or unfortunately, I am as connected as can be, from smart phones to iPads to any technology nearby, I will connect and communicate whenever necessary and sometimes when it's not. This is the world today, not just the future, and there are few moments or locations when I am not in communication mode or within range of a WiFi zone. Having said that, there are times I enjoy leaving everything behind, especially while exercising, either on long runs with the iPod playing my favourite running tracks or at the gym trying to figure out the latest equipment that will have me looking ready for the Summer ahead.

This is not so for everyone and while I barely get through my weight sets without passing out from exertion, many people continue to text and call while throwing around heavy equipment, which always brings a wry smile to my face. My understanding of the need to stay connected battles with my requirement to concentrate on what I'm doing in the gym and I wait for the day a treadmill throws an unwary emailer off the tracks. I wonder how much energy is expended on the phones versus the technology equipment. Curling while texting at my local gym is common practice with people barely out of breath in case a call comes through.

The two camps of opinions are polarising the gym sector with some gyms siting safety issues and going so far as banning mobiles, but with almost everyone having music or apps such as Gym Buddy or Cruncho Meter on their phones it's hard to say no when a phone is strapped to an arm with earplugs. In the end gyms are not cinemas or libraries and grunts and groans from fitness buffs will continue to mix it with phone calls that couldn't wait another 30 minutes.

The other aspect of smart phones that is causing gym owners concern, is the "Funniest Home Video" syndrome as privacy and security come into play for people not in their comfort zone doing ridiculous things to stay in shape or worse, scantily dressed or undressed in the locker room. For most people, their gym look, is the least attractive and the last thing they want, is to find themselves on YouTube or Facebook going viral because their spandex didn't quite hold everything in place. YouTube is awash with inappropriate gym videos of unsuspecting barbell junkies in a zone of their own.

So the challenge for gyms and similar establishments, is deciding on appropriate mobile protocol to be used between the racks of weights and stair master machines that will enhance people's exercise regimes while not mandating against use that will drive customers to another gym.

The ubiquitous nature of the smart phone will continue to challenge establishments like gyms and in the future will no longer be absent from even the "shush" areas of libraries and cinemas. How do you say no, to life's communication enabler when we've all decided to start talking at once? Good luck with that.

School Dances.

My first girlfriend in primary school was cute with blonde hair and freckles. I was 11 years old and it took me a year to muster up the courage to ask her out, to the end of year dance. At the time I didn't really know why it too me so long but the angst and anxiety built up, confined me to hanging with the boys at the marble pit. Not that I knew what angst and anxiety was but something was stopping me from just marching up and asking her to the dance. The lack of control, of another person's feelings, created a hurdle I didn't jump till many years later.

I had not had any rejection at that early age, after all, I did my homework and cleaned the yard, so no, was not something I heard from my parents when asking for anything. Yet this innate fear was palpable and unexplainable when facing that decision and didn't go away for many dances to come.

I look around and that fear still exists for a lot of people, especially in sales. A no, a thanks anyway, not today and a thousand others are encountered daily and are over in a second, but the fear of rejection can last a lifetime. Everybody hates rejection but most don't do anything to climb that mountain or get that gorilla off their back. Often it's too easy, not to make that call, not to make the meeting or just not even try and answer the call. With hindsight and therapy it is often easier to come up with reasons rejection doesn't have the sting we all fear.

Most of the time, what you consider a rejection has nothing to do with you and the number one lesson, is not to take it personally. Could it be a rainy day, did the kids not behave, did the mother in law cause problems, is the economy not being kind to your client? So many variables you have no control over. The next time you meet that person they may have had a wonderful day and the result turns around. Often the stories you build up, never exist and you only build them, to explain the end result.

The majority of rejections are never real but we carry the scars of the few that did cut deep and manifest them onto every decision carrying any weight. Especially if the rejecter has some importance in your work life or you have a closer relationship, rejection can be more traumatic.

So you need to ask yourself serious questions and set parameters to gauge your breaking point. How many negative responses before you to start taking it personally? What management level causes you to tremble the most? Being involved is part of the sales process but does that extra engagement with your client make it more personal and does criticism or rejection hurt that much more?

In the end, things you have control of, your beliefs, your attitude, your emotions and your actions are the only things that will work in over coming rejections and letting you move forward. I know you are all wondering, so to get you out of your misery, she said yes to the dance.

That's too much man.

My first car, a second hand Beetle came in 3 colours, black, white and I can't remember the third colour. The colour wasn't important as a choice factor but how many sand dunes it could traverse or how many people it could carry home from the pub and never having to worry about putting water in the radiator were important but never mentioned in the brochure. Choosing a car was easy when the parameters of choice were limited in colour and aimed at a market not mature in advertising and accepting of offerings.

So I'm in the US, where "you better have this product or I'm going somewhere else" attitude extends to over 350 models of cars, more than 6000 banks and so many breakfast cereals and that the first 3 letters of the alphabet cover more than 140 packets in the supermarket aisle. Companies have made no secret of their desire "to own the customer" and have ramped up choices because this is what they believe will keep them at the forefront of customer advocacy, choice.

It is also why confusion and abundance of choice are turning ordinary shoppers into "paralysed avoiders". Throw in regret, panic and anxiety about choices made and not made and you have a consumer base looking for a way out of the choice maze. Do you really need hundreds of breakfast cereals to choose from? How many cars are you really going to look at? Don't even get me started on how much money I'd need to have, to contemplate more than a couple of banks, let alone 6000.

One of the issues psychologists are concerned about, are children growing up with abundant choice and never really choosing anything. The so called digital generation is bombarded with so much choice, they end up continually picking, not choosing and end up hoping for the best. As opposed to making a choice and managing the outcomes of that choice, which prepares them to cope with an adult world.

Having said that, a 2010 study by researchers at the University of Bristol found that 47% of adult respondents, thought life was more confusing than it was ten years ago, and 42% reported lying awake at night trying to resolve problems. So no one is finding it as easy as it used to be with retailers fighting for attention at every chance.

Some though, are getting the message and have worked out that selling fewer products at a higher quality can gain significant market share. One of the best examples is Apple, whose entire product range fits on a coffee table. Using only continued design enhancement on those few products it has become the most valuable company in the world. The less is more mentality is slowly becoming a movement within US retail and companies such as Proctor and Gamble experiment with products such as shampoos, taking their Head and Shoulders range from 26 to 15 and improving sales by 10%. This is further emphasised by a 2006 Bain study suggesting that reducing complexity and narrowing choice can boost revenues by 5-40% and cut costs by 10-35%.

So in the end, the most important thing, isn't what we choose but that we make a choice and have the capacity and coping ability to manage and live with that choice. Now, coco crisps, crispy chocs, coco roos, coco pops, coco puffs, cocoa hoots, chocos, chocolate flakes, chocopic, chocolate crunchfuls, chocolate checs, chocolate cherrios, count chocula, chocolate oat crunch, chocolate peanut butter, chocolately peanut butter crunch?????

$ervice.

I have been coming to the land of the shopping mall,since the late 70s and always enjoy my time, especially when it comes to purchasing with a great exchange rate but more importantly with great service. My first trips were not about malls but about drinking and sporting events, travelling with friends and marvelling at the cheery faces greeting me from behind the bar. Cheery faces wrapped around home spun greetings of "have a nice day", "glad you could join us" and "I'll be your waiter tonight". All for $4.50 an hour and all seemingly plastic at the time.

I say at the time, because at home we hadn't bothered to go past G'day in the service industry and anything beyond seemed slightly sycophantic behaviour. As far as we were concerned, the product was the desired result and we weren't interested in wrapping it in any extra layers of service. Things change and decades later many of us find ourselves in service industries, competing for the same market and having long ago agreed the US is a bench mark. A bench mark created out of competitive necessity and a long instilled cultural norms surrounding service.

The $4.50 hourly rate still exists in the US and the jokes around working for that extra tip continue but nothing has changed regarding service and that's a good thing because all those years ago it wasn't plastic, we just hadn't caught up. The service mentality, especially in the retail sector, is an ingrained culture within the US and has become second nature. The fact that it exists at the lowest end of the pay scale extrapolates out to superb service at the top, that is only found in niche markets at the high end back home.

For many years, the jokes aimed at American tourists, coming to Australia demanding better service from restaurants and shops, showed our lack of intuition in matters surrounding a full product offering. No wonder they ended up building brand hotels where ever they travelled, at least they could take the service mentality they were used to, with them. As a callow youth travelling around the world, it never occurred to me, to listen and learn and take back lessons from the most competitive retail society on the planet and try and integrate them into my own businesses. It was more fun having a laugh at someone in a loud shirt wanting that extra bit of service because we were afraid to look into ourselves and know this was the future.

Service in the US is no longer attributed to that end of day, tip jar mentality, it is part and parcel of the offering of daily life and continues to be a bench mark. Travel around Europe for a while, you'll see service slide as you head south towards the Med, walk through one of our department stores over Christmas looking for some help or try and get a tradesman to show up on time. All indications there are still things to be learnt from the land of the dollar bill.

Newman's Own.

I've always been a fan of Paul Newman's pasta sauces. Firstly because he was a great actor and it was cool for a celebrity to muck about in the kitchen, way back in 1982, many years before the celebrity huckster movement. Secondly and most importantly because all the money went to charity. Could I make a better sauce, of course, but time restrictions and laziness often conspire and of all the sauces on the supermarket shelves I grab Paul's because it makes me feel good. With over $300 million given to such projects as the "hole in the wall camps" for kids, arts and education and breast cancer research, Newman's Own gives back and makes a difference.

I'd like to do more of the above and whenever a product associated with a social cause or conscience I agree with becomes available, I look into the viability of that product fitting into my lifestyle. Global surveys have found that just over half (51%) of all consumers would like to reward responsible companies by buying their product or shopping in their premises, with 53% saying they would pay a 10% premium for products from a responsible company. We all want to do better, give back and feel like we have done some good, often life gets in the way so we are happy for someone else to provide the avenue, even if it is only pasta sauce.

Surveys go onto to show that 85% of consumers want companies to do the right thing and be engaged in social issues but not many (22%) consumers think they are doing or getting enough. A recent list of the most "positive" global brands still finds most lacking in the "social graces" and more interested in output. Ikea, Google, Nestlé, Danone, Leroy Merlin, Samsung, Microsoft, Sony, Unilever and Bimbo make the top ten list but the question of whether they impact people's lives for the better remains generally unanswered.

The future will see people more informed about the social conscience of companies and products they sell and it is not too far fetched to think consumers will reward the "good" guys and either avoid or negatively feedback on the"bad" guys. How you are seen in the future as far as your social conscience and the good work associated with that, could directly impact your bottom line.

It's not all about the big boys with so called disposable profit, paying out to make themselves look good in the eyes of the consumer. Without a heart companies are easily identified as buying a social conscience for bottom line results and consumers are savvy enough to see through the dollars splashed about. Size is not as important as good will and altruistic tendencies and even the little guys have opportunities to make a difference.

A good friend, running a successful travel agency in Melbourne, has supported causes for years and recently set up a micro financing project in Malawi, working with locals to make a difference in their daily lives. Loans available through "reHope" will give people opportunities to improve their lives significantly and it all became a reality because Karsten Horne, owner of Reho Travel cared more about making a difference than the next dollar. Now wouldn't you want to book your travel through someone that truly cared?

So next time you are shopping for anything, contemplate making a difference, even if it's only with a jar of pasta sauce.

Emotional Quotient.

A Qantas friend asked for my opinion on the latest disruptions, mud slinging and emotional turmoil encountered over the last month with the national carrier. I thought about what it meant to be Qantas staff, disrupted travellers and the general public accosted by a media frenzy. In the end I ended up with one opinion. You cannot run a global business, along normal business lines, including hard line decisions, if your business segment is in travel and tourism. It is without a doubt the most emotionally charged and angst ridden sector within the business community. When was the last time you heard a squeak out of the CPAs, the RTA or the Real Estate Institute? Okay, lame examples but if you did, would it amount to the last month of Qantas woes?

No matter what decisions are made by airlines within travel and tourism, the global consequences are far beyond the scope, of business objectives and this brings decision makers into confrontation with the biggest disadvantage the industry has, emotion. No pragmatic decision to cut staff, introduce new procedures and processes, buy equipment, change direction or even tamper with the lunch menu can be made without encountering an emotional wave tossing the decision makers to the beach.

While emotion is often seen as a disadvantage from a decision making process, travel and tourism have always been about passion and emotion, a lifestyle built on service driven by emotion to succeed. So the struggle between getting you from A to B safely, making your holiday memorable and accomplishing corporate travel objectives, all the while working with big entities needing advantages over each other, sees the industry balancing on an emotional fulcrum.

General Motors Holden deciding to cut a line of unprofitable models, Coles not providing the cheapest muesli bar alternative and the local pub not serving your favourite beer are business decisions made by management to increase bottom line and stay in business. None of them cause the consternation and emotional outbursts an airline creates via cuts, changes or challenges to the states quo. Everything about travel, from making initial decisions on a holiday, saving up the required money, to lists of shopping and tours along with who you travel on, are emotionally based decisions that don't have a plan B because that would be too practical and unemotional.

Some see the airlines as emotional cripples, not able to see or care about the people they compromise, disadvantage and generally disrupt. I see airlines trapped in an industry not always ready to make hard decisions because the bottom line is people and lifestyle, not dollars. Perhaps the airlines need to get in touch with their EQ before making decisions? Perhaps airlines should consult more with the industry they service? Or maybe they just need to not change anything and we'd all be happy?

None of that works if you run a business. You being the operative word, not them, not others but you. Welcome to The airline CEO's world. I'm sure sometimes they wished they worked for a widget company, only responsible for a simple product, or providing a service without emotional turmoil attached?