Guerrilla From The Bush

Chapter 24 My Twist On Twitter

2009-05-24T17:06:00.007+10:00

Greetings from rural Australia.

I first discovered Twitter in 2007, not long after Twitter was launched. I signed up because it was highly recommended. But after looking at Twitter more closely, I decided it just wasn’t for me.

For several reasons.

I’m a very private person and have never been compelled to discuss my comings and goings with my closest friends or even my sister, Janet, who I adore. My favourite topic isn’t me.

I can’t think of one endeavour I do that’s of enough interest to coerce another person to want to read about it.

Because I don’t do off the wall activities.

I’ve never bungy jumped.

I’ve never harnessed up a pack of Huskies to a sled to traverse the landscape of Antarctica.

I don’t do white water rafting, although a drop of rain in my drought ravaged rural village would be more welcome than a froth of waves.

I’m sure you get the point.

But when Twitter makes the news on my favourite radio station, the conservative ABC Radio National, and is even discussed on Geraldine Doogue’s Saturday Extra’s Program, it’s time to revisit Twitter.

And my first impression hasn’t changed.

I recently left a comment on Valerie Khoo’s Sydney Morning Herald, Small Enterprise Blog, to say that Twitter is in danger of becoming a worse pest than SPAM on the internet.

There’s a lot of shouting and posturing on Twitter.

And some people post TWITS every hour, so if you’re following them, you have 24, 140 character messages that contain trivia about what they have for lunch, where they’re going, what they’re seeing, to wade through.

Some people have 25,000 followers and are following 25,000 people. This is about quantity, not quality.

I’m still adamant that there’s very little quality information on Twitter.

In many cases, Twitter is no more than minute by minute commercials posted by business people who want something from you, with no hint of giving something back. Especially for free.

But the hub bub about Twitter intrigues me. And it’s hard to ignore the crescendo of hype that now pervades the media. Which means Twitter is no longer in ‘early adaptor stage’ and is very much in the mainstream of communication technology.

So it’s back to the drawing board.

How can I use Twitter to my benefit? Even though I’m not inclined to share the minutiae of my life with people I know little about.

In my favour, I have Sherlock Holmes character traits. I love investigations because they all too often lead to opportunities.

I’m also an avid reader of business books. Stay with me, this thread does lead somewhere.

I read little fiction these days because I’ve no reason to escape reality. I’m living my dream.

I’ve established a world wide business while living and working from my beautiful rural property in the Central Tablelands of NSW.

I look out any window and see serenity. I walk outside and am surrounded by tranquillity.

Birds and kangaroos are my constant companions, as is my partner, exceptionally talented architect, Victor Pleshev, and my three dogs.

City slickers envy my early morning walks in the rising sun, swathed in the morning mist, with my dogs galloping through the bush. The only sounds I hear are the chatter of the birds and the thump, thump, thump of the kangaroos as they traverse across the landscape.

And I have no near neighbours who drive me to distraction.

So I devote my reading time to anything that will make a difference to the success of my business. My voracious appetite for business knowledge has never let me down.

And opened my eyes to the value of Twitter for me.

Two facts come to light immediately while ruminating about Twitter.

It’s an often quoted homily that you are who you surround yourself with.

If you want to be the very best at what you do, hang out with people who are doing what you want to do. Go to where the people are who are achieving their goals. If you want to be at the top of the tree, climb up there and hang out with the ones who are making it to the top.

Second, if you want to be hugely successful, tap into a simple, but effective strategy used by everyone who’s reached the top of their profession or industry.

Stop talking and start listening.

My little village of Ilford NSW is populated by farmers. Some of them quite famous, like Sydney heart surgeon Matt Bayfield, who owns the adjoining property. His sheep graze on my property to keep the grass down to extinguish any possible bushfire hazard on the rare times we have gully washers of rainfall.

But I’m not interested in becoming a heart surgeon. Nor am I interested in sheep farming. Although Matt is a lovely man and he and his wife Meredith and children are a charming family, there’s little in common to share with him when it comes to my business.

In fact, there’s little opportunity for me to mix with high fliers who I can learn from, anywhere in my region.

The tyranny of distance is a major drawback. And not everybody wants to share their secrets of success.

Can Twitter be the answer?

Is it possible to be a voyeur and tap into some quality information without committing myself to participate in the endless chit chat?

I reactivate my account to do some research.

I key in the names of people I admire, and discover all but two are on Twitter.

This is promising.

I then look at their messages to evaluate the quality of information they’re transmitting.

You can do this without permission from anyone. If someone has a Twitter account, you’re able to look at all the messages they’ve posted. It really is freedom of information in the truest sense.

And because Twitter is about talking, I can deduce from their posts what’s quality information and what’s trivial rubbish.

This Guerrilla From The Bush discovers she can turn a negative, for me, into a positive, purely by surveying the landscape, twisting it around and upside down, looking at it from a completely different perspective, and transform it into a market research tool I can make work – for me! And for free!

I use Twitter to hang out with the people I admire who are posting quality information on their Twits. And I’m listening to what they’re talking about.

Like master persuader David Lakhani of Bold Approach, who has written some awesome books about persuasion in marketing. And devoured by me.

And super traffic generator Alex Mandossian, who’s go, go, go all the time. His Alex Mandossian Blog is worth a visit because his energy is contagious.

Street Smarts Marketer Kathleen Gage, whose down to earth information is so refreshing to read.

Tellman Knudson, because I witnessed his rise from nowhere to somebody in a few short years. And I love his funky emails, even though I read only a few. But his List Building Blog is a must read.

The Ezine Articles Team, because I submit articles to them.

And Victoria Hansen, because she’s a very savvy media entrepreneur who I admire and she’s also a friend of 20 years.

What do I get in return?

By Twitter standards, not much. The objective on Twitter is to be followed, so you can shout and be heard, like the screaming that goes on at a football match.

But I want to be quiet and listen so I can learn. I want to follow.

The first thing I notice is that super successful people are always doing something significant to move themselves forward one step at a time.

Imagine the cheek of Victoria Hansen sending a Twitter message to Hugh Jackman, requesting an interview for her podcasts on Please Explain!

David Lakhani posts numerous links to videos and websites which are rich in content and are fabulous learning experiences. He’s a giver. These links have nothing to do with his business, Bold Approach . He just passes on information that he thinks is of value. And much appreciated by me! And remembered every time he brings out a new book.

Alex Mandossian is a learning machine. His Twitter posts are rich in content, content, content. Following them can be exhausting, but it’s all free and valuable.

The Ezine Team is awash with tips about writing articles and getting them published without hassles. Using keywords to make them valuable to search engines. How to create the perfect resource block. And more.

So if you’re like me and can’t see the value of Twitter, twist it around and use it to look into what the important people in your industry are doing.

Observe. Listen. And learn.

You’re not only hanging out with people who are making a difference, but you’re listening and learning, rather than wasting your energy shouting above the roar to be heard – by no one, really.

Then emulate – copy, imitate - what they’re doing.

Most are really upfront people who knock on doors and ask permission to enter. And they knock on so many doors it’s a given that some will open. That’s why they’re where they are.

They’re also doing things to create interest in themselves and their business.

Kathleen Gage is 55 and a non-runner. But she’s participating in a 26 mile marathon to raise money for the Leukaemia Foundation. Spurred on by her friend, Sam Crowley, who’s the ‘Every Day Is Saturday Guy’.

A tip.

Before you click on Follow, look at how often someone posts to Twitter. If they’re posting every hour on the hour, give them a miss. Most of it is trivia. It’s a lot of shouting and hollering and little is of substance.

One last word.

There’s a lot of information to wade through. It’s like putting together a jigsaw puzzle. Some of it fits perfectly. And sometimes you struggle to see the relevance of the piece you’re looking at.

By listening to and following people who are doers, you can pick and choose what’s relevant to you. You can adapt anything to suit your own circumstances.

I guarantee you it will be hard to walk away from these Twitter messages without some compelling information that will force you to sit down and write out a marketing and action plan, just to keep up.

If you’re having a tough day and can’t see the trees for the forest, click on Twitter and follow some of your doers for a few minutes. It lifts your spirits and energises you to move forward one more step.

If you have a creative and adventurous spirit, you’ll always turn a sow’s ear into an exquisite silk purse.

That’s my twist on Twitter.

What’s yours?

I invite you to post your comments and share your opinion with others.

Take care,

CAROL

Carol Jones
Director
Interface Pty Ltd
Ilford NSW 2850 Australia
Designers of The Fitz Like A Glove™ Ironing Board Cover
Our simple design solutions make every product a joy to use

Let’s have a chat. Ring me on 02 63 58 85 11 if you’re within Australia, OR
+612 63 58 85 11 if you’re outside Australia

The Fitz Like A Glove™ Ironing Board Cover, Roadworks Apron, Log Lugger, Travel Bug Shoe Bag, Mr Chin’s Laundry Bag and Sweet Shoo are all simple solutions for difficult problems. And every one is a joy to use.

We’ve developed markets for these 6 products without national or international retail distribution. To see what we’ve achieved, click on our website at www.interfaceaustralia.com.

Read the story of how our business began on The Ironing Board Cover Lady. No sales hype. Just a down home story about how we started our business on the dining room table of our rural property, driving on ‘L’ Plates, without an instructor.

A comment about LinkedIn. If you’re not a member of LinkedIn, when you click View Full Profile, you’ll be asked to join. It’s free and the option is yours. There are benefits to joining. Once you’re a member, you can key in the name of any person you do business with. If they’ve taken the trouble to complete a Profile, you’ll be able to assess their background, their capabilities and the calibre of person they are. You might be, as I am, often pleasantly surprised. So go have a look.

Chapter 23 How To Create Your Own Bad Publicity

2009-05-13T08:14:00.007+10:00

Greetings from rural Australia.

Creating your own bad publicity is very simple. Just don’t keep your word.

Nothing infuriates people more than being let down. And the chatter and prattle that passes from mouth to mouth once someone starts to poison you because of your bad manners, is like a stone rolling down a hill. It gathers momentum with every tumble, crashes into obstacles and causes you great harm along the way.

Most of us crave publicity, because we know that it attracts the right customers or clients to your business.

But it’s so hard to get.

So why does a high profile business expert think nothing of creating bad publicity for himself and his business when he knows better?

I’m flummoxed by the lack of attention to detail that’s considered unimportant and which only leads to guaranteed mistrust on the internet.

I recently signed up for one of this expert’s free Ezines.

On the 11th of May 2009, I receive an email from this expert offering me a trial subscription to a members only newsletter/coaching course.

The email that arrives on the 11th of May also says that if I take up the trial subscription, I can attend a free telecoaching seminar on May 12th.

I am already very impressed by what I read so far by this expert, so eagerly submit my payment for the trial subscription.

A thank you email immediately arrives with the link to the necessary call-in information for the teleseminar.

The link I pay for is a 404 – link not found. The link is to a February edition of the newsletter which has already been removed from the internet.

As scams on the internet are as common as fleas on a stray dog, I am now on full alert.

I email his assistant, described by him as a fabulous woman and a wonderful person to interact with, to say how disappointed I am that the link is a 404. I request an active link to the call-in information. If this can’t be done, I request a refund.

I am polite, but terse.

As with all things to do with the internet, which is the last frontier, distrust is rife.

Online rating reviews overflow with bad experiences. Far too many people pay for something they never receive. Or receive in a diminished format.

When you pay your money to someone you don’t know, and your link is bodgey, you automatically assume the worst. You judge the book by its cover. Especially when the company you’re dealing with presents itself as trustworthy. It’s natural to expect them to be, and do, better. When they aren’t, you’re as suspicious of them as you are of a spouse you believe is cheating on you.

Anyone who reads the first page of my website will glean that trust on the internet is a big issue with me.

The reply email I receive is from his assistant and is for a refund.

This wonderful, fabulous woman who is a joy to interact with offers no explanation and no apology. Just the details of the refund made to my credit card.

I am confounded that he chooses to give me a refund rather than what I ask for and am promised. Which is an active link for the call-in details for the teleseminar. It’s all that I want.

To me, a promise is a promise. Yes, I’m naive enough to expect people to keep their word and although not shocked when they don’t, I am always deeply disappointed.

Ditto for their behaviour. Having read his opinion of his assistant as the eighth wonder of the world, and having read glowing, walk on water reports about him and his expertise on the internet, perfunctory is not what I expect.

I will tell you again that what I read up to now about his methods is impressive and I looked forward to a long business association where I learn a great deal from him.

To get a perfunctory refund with no explanation puts him into a totally different picture frame.

I take him out of the hand carved, ornate frame, overlaid with gold leaf and expensive non-reflective glass, and put him into a tacky, chipped and battered frame, with a cracked pane of glass.

It’s a given that the easiest activity in business is to care for a happy customer.

But the real measure of a business and the calibre of its people, is the way they handle a grumpy, disappointed customer who feels they haven’t received what they paid for.

To pack up your marbles and go home smacks of the tantrums thrown by spoiled children who are used to getting their own way.

The reaction to my terse disappointment doesn’t match what’s written about this expert and his assistant on the internet.

You know what? Once you realise your image of a person doesn’t match the reality, the seeds of bad publicity start to sprout.

Think about it. How many times have you been tempted to put a different, more realistic slant, on a person you know to be unlike their public image? It could be a relative, a co-worker, a pillar of the community. I bet you’ve exchanged differing views more than once.

Obviously any criticism about his manner of business is not to be tolerated. And the person causing the criticism is to be despatched as quickly as possible.

Unfortunately, I don’t go quietly.

I’m also not the only person involved in this scenario.

I am so excited by what his company promises to offer, I email the information to a friend, who also signs up for the trial subscription.

He receives a different email link to mine. His link is to the March newsletter, which is active, and which gives the date for the April teleseminar, along with call-in information.

We put our heads together and deduce the call-in number, access code and time of day the teleseminar takes place must be the same. Apply that to the May teleseminar and we should be OK. Just show up at 7AM on May 12 and listen.

I’m there at 6:45AM. So is my friend and a few other listeners. But the host is a no show.

Ever the optimist, I’m the only one left listening to teleconferencing music at 7:30AM.

It finally sinks in that we’ve all been duped and I hang up.

You’re not surprised, are you, when I tell you that there isn’t a positive comment made by anyone.

This ‘Expert Number One’ was recommended to me by ‘Expert Number Two’.

I have nothing but the utmost respect for Expert Number Two.

Because he’s a vocal advocate about the productive use of your time and makes a huge issue about not allowing other people to waste YOUR TIME, I fax a letter to him, telling him that his Expert Number One has let him down in a big way.

Yes, this does rub off onto him. I trust his recommendations and am disappointed that Expert Number One not only wastes my time, but the time of the others waiting for him on the call, including my friend.

And because I never do anything behind the back of another person, I email a copy of my letter as an attachment to Expert Number One.

What time do I send my fax and email? At 8:30AM May 12th. It’s now May 13th. And more than 24 hours later.

So far, the silence is deafening.

As an important addendum to this, do you ever wonder why people are so reluctant to give you names of their friends and relatives as referrals? Many people say referrals are almost as hard to get as good publicity.

Guess what?

The scenario above is reason number one.

People who care about their personal reputation will not make a referral to you of someone they know, just in case you treat their friend, relative or co-worker like Expert Number One does. Which is nothing short of a lack of respect.

This lack of respect comes back to smack you in the face if you’re the one who makes the referral.

Remember my friend who took up his subscription at my recommendation?

He’s now casting aspersion on my judgement and ridiculing Expert Number Two. Guilt by association.

Suddenly, I’m not only disappointed, but I’m on the defensive.

I’m always inclined to give the benefit of the doubt. It’s possible to blame some of this on the prolific use of auto-responders and simply not checking what you send out.

All that needs to be done is to make sure the link is active and correct before emailing it to those of us who take up his offer.

It’s something to be done by an assistant. And checked regularly on a specific day every month. It’s a procedural part of a system. Which obviously isn’t in place in this organisation.

Expert Number One is earning what he reaps. Well deserved bad publicity for being careless.

The truth is, he’s been offering this trial subscription for more than 9 years. He’s had plenty of time to perfect the delivery of correct links that are part of the trial. He’s had plenty of time to practice getting it perfect every time. He’s had plenty of time to make sure there are no hiccups.

Most importantly, he's had plenty of time to make sure he delivers what you pay for and expect.

Why am I really annoyed?

Because too few people make a business truly accountable for how it performs. If they’re not overtly ripping off the public, there’s little criticism or demand for accountability.

In essence, I wasn’t ripped off. I was given a refund.

But yes, I was ripped off, because I expected more and better. Being ripped off includes issues that are more than financial.

Acceptance of the mediocre is currently the norm. And that’s what we get. Mediocre people running businesses that are written up as extraordinary.

Dumbing down in business is as prolific as the dumbing down of the press, the dumbing down of our education system and the dumbing down of our expectations of just about everyone and everything.

How many people do you consider to be head and shoulders above the rest? How many people do you consider to be truly outstanding? How many businesses do you consider to be the crème de la crème?

Also, the lack of response to my email of more than 24 hours ago regrettably confirms my view that he has dismissed me as unimportant.

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd was recently described as being intoxicated with his own magnificence.

Is this a necessary trait to become a celebrity in the business world, too?

What do you think?

Does it mean Expert Number One isn’t interested in my perspective? Is he too busy to respond? Is he too caught up in his own importance and therefore deaf and dismissive to the mutterings of the underlings?

This is definitely not the first impression I formed of him from what I read about him on the internet. And to discover that it’s false is doubly disappointing.

It’s generally accepted that it’s dangerous to underestimate and dismiss the perspective of a cranky employee or customer. You do so at your own risk.

A little Australian called Bernie Banton brought James Hardie Industries to its knees in the asbestos war for a compensation fund for mesothelioma victims.

James Hardie pulled out all the stops to defeat Bernie. They diverted funds overseas and even registered overseas part of their corporate structure that applied to compensation. They hid valid information and tried with all their might to discredit and smear Bernie and the other victims.

But Bernie won the fight, just before he died from mesothelioma.

James Hardie Industries misjudged, trivialised and dismissed the fire in Bernie’s belly to make James Hardie accountable and to extract justice for all mesothelioma victims.

And the likes of high fliers Meredith Hellicar, at one time one of the most admired women in corporate Australia, Peter Willcox and their co-directors at James Hardie were damned in the courts and are now unemployable. They are paying a huge price for their lack of respect for accountability.

This is a messier and less glorious version of Susan Boyle slaying the judges and the audience on Britain’s Got Talent.

The message? Never underestimate an individual’s drive to make a point.

To my regret, Expert Number Two is distrusted by my friend. Nothing I say changes his mind. Again, it’s a case of guilt by association.

My perspective is this. If he ignores me, I have no option but to question his veracity.

If their silence is permanent, I’ll mull over putting names to Expert Number One and Expert Number Two, as I have in other posts. But I’m giving them both the benefit of the doubt and waiting to hear their side of the story.

But I want you to remember this.

Every action you take is like a pebble tossed into a tranquil river. The ripples spread far and wide. It’s a given. You affect more than one person at a time, every time you deal with someone else. There will always be someone who holds you accountable for your actions.

Don’t trivialise any relationship with a customer or potential customer. You may not agree with their sentiment, but their perspective is as important to them as yours is to you.

I live and work from a remote property in the Australian bush. In a rural village called Ilford. In New South Wales.

As an ex-New Yorker, I’m a rank outsider.

The one thing I observed in my early days here is that everyone is either directly or indirectly related to everyone else. I instinctively knew to be circumspect about what I say. And as a local business, to make sure I’m friends with everyone. But socialise with no-one. Never get caught up in local politics.

Because what I don’t know is the complex matrix that connects these people to each other.

It’s the same with business relationships. There’s only 6 degrees of separation between you and the person you want to meet or do business with. What you may not know is who the 5 people are who are separating you from them.

The person you just buzzed off as ‘not important enough to keep your word with’, may know some very powerful people who will hold you accountable and put a serious dent in your business reputation and your credibility.

If your performance doesn't match up with the image your customer has of you, I guarantee you the seeds of bad publicity will quickly sprout.

If you ignore the ripples of accountability by not keeping your word, I guarantee you that this is the best and quickest way to create unwanted, bad publicity for yourself, with no help from anyone else.

People who know me never underestimate this Guerrilla From The Bush. I have zero tolerance for not keeping your word.

Read this story many times because it’s a graphic illustration of what goes through the mind of a customer when you let them down by not keeping your word.

And multiply me by 1,000.

That’s the number of people who may not be as articulate as I am and write about their experience with you on a blog, but express their disappointment and annoyance in other ways.

The beat of the tom toms on the bush telegraph is still alive.

And be very aware of the power of social networking. All those short and snappy status messages beamed from friend to friend start to add up to a story about you.

My most popular posts are those written about bad manners in business. They’re clicked on more than any other, by men and women all over the world.

Not keeping your word is bad manners and wastes the time of other people. It’s self-centred, self-focused and selfish. All the qualities you want to avoid when dealing with other people.

What’s your take on this? Do you think not keeping your word is bad manners? Or do you think this is acceptable behaviour in business today?

I invite you to post your comments and share your opinion with others.

Take care,

CAROL

Carol Jones
Director
Interface Pty Ltd
Ilford NSW 2850 Australia
Designers of The Fitz Like A Glove™ Ironing Board Cover
Our simple solutions for difficult products make every product a joy to use

Let’s have a chat. Ring me on 02 63 58 85 11 if you’re within Australia, OR
+612 63 58 85 11 if you’re outside Australia

The Fitz Like A Glove™ Ironing Board Cover, Roadworks Apron, Log Lugger, Travel Bug Shoe Bag, Mr Chin’s Laundry Bag and Sweet Shoo are all simple solutions for difficult problems. And every one is a joy to use.

We’ve developed markets for these 6 products without national or international retail distribution. To see what we’ve achieved, click on our website at http://www.interfaceaustralia.com/.

Read the story of how our business began on The Ironing Board Cover Lady. No sales hype. Just a down home story about how we started our business on the dining room table of our rural property, driving on ‘L’ Plates, without an instructor.

A comment about LinkedIn. If you’re not a member of LinkedIn, when you click View Full Profile, you’ll be asked to join. It’s free and the option is yours. There are benefits to joining. Once you’re a member, you can key in the name of any person you do business with. If they’ve taken the trouble to complete a Profile, you’ll be able to assess their background, their capabilities and the calibre of person they are. You might be, as I am, often pleasantly surprised. So go have a look.

Chapter 22 Doom And Gloom Is A Mindset, Not Reality

2008-10-21T16:34:00.003+11:00

Greetings from rural Australia.

The doomsayers are in their element. There's hardly a positive word spinning around in all the doom and gloom we're reading.

Perhaps it's true that most people love hearing bad news. It sells more papers and keeps more viewers glued to their TV's and radios than almost any other topic outside the Olympics and a royal wedding.

The business world has crashed into the side of a mountain and set loose an avalanche of unprecedented mayhem.

This is déjà vu for me.

My partner, Victor Pleshev, and I lived through the 1989 'recession we had to have'.

Yes, our architectural business finally crashed in 1992, when all our property developer clients went bankrupt, owing us hundreds of thousands of dollars we couldn't collect. So they took us with them.

We had to sell our home and valuable possessions to avoid bankruptcy. Everything we worked for, for almost 20 years, went up in flames.

And we had to quickly start again somewhere else, doing something different.

So I speak from experience.

Doom and gloom is in the mind of the beholder. I can assure you that more doom and gloom exists in a person's mind than exists in reality. Perception is everything and if you perceive doom and gloom around you, that's the world you live in.

When we lost everything in 1992, we escaped Sydney to live in the bush, where the cost of living more closely fit our economic circumstances.

And I've learned even more about coping with adversity in the 16 years we've been here.

We've had unrelenting drought for 13 of those years.

I've seen our surrounding small towns lose all but one bank, the railway and coach services. And every business has suffered with that loss.

Agriculture and mining have waxed and waned many times during these 16 years.

But there's been one constant.

The tenacious belief by 'the locals' to keep pressing forward.

Some bush philosophy.

Many locals shake their heads at the panic selling of the stock market. Why, they wonder, do people sell their investments when they're on the way down?

What does a farmer do when cattle or sheep prices are going down?

They protect their investment by holding onto their livestock for as long as possible, so when prices go up, they're well placed to take advantage of a much better opportunity.

During the downward slide, they don't let their livestock die in the paddocks. They water and feed their animals to keep them as healthy as possible for when the good times return.

Because the good times always return.

Two years ago, when we had 3 years in a row of very little rain, one of my neighbours, who has a 4,000 hectare property with many dams, had all of his dams completely dry up.

He has a properly stocked property. Neither too many, nor too little sheep, for the prevailing conditions.

He's in his 60's, and every day, he drove to the nearest river and for 6 hours each day, he legally pumped water from the river into his truck and hand watered his sheep. This took several trips of driving back and forth.

His wife, also in her 60's, hand fed the sheep while he was collecting water. They were exhausted at the end of every day, but they never thought about packing it in. Even when the cost of feed increased daily.

Why?

Because they have a 40 year investment in their sheep. And they won't let anything dire happen to them unless there's no other alternative. And also, because they love their sheep.

Last year, when rain was adequate and wool prices were good, he was smiling and thought the effort to keep going was worth every minute.

Perhaps we should think of our business in the same way.

Marketing, collecting fees owed to you, pulling out all stops to keep your business going if it's at all possible, should be on your agenda. These activities are equivalent to the watering and feeding of my neighbour's livestock.

And equally as hard to do when times are tough, but you’ll be surprised at how your business will be so much stronger when the good times return.

Because the good times always return.

Those of you who love your business will keep pressing forward, if you can. And you will have a much better business than you possibly imagined.

W Clement Stone, the 20th century billionaire businessman who wrote many books, including The Success System That Never Fails and Success Through A Positive Mental Attitude, says "every adversity has the seed of an equivalent or greater benefit".

And it's true.

Losing our business in 1992 was hard, but we so loved owning our own business, we started a much different one, in the depths of the worst recession on record since the depression.

'Doom and gloom' wasn't part of our vocabulary or mindset.

And that seed of adversity has blossomed into a worldwide business that gives us much pleasure.

I'm watering and feeding my business every day, without fail. And I hope you are of the same mindset.

Perhaps, like me, you look forward to the end of the doom and gloom gabfest.

Yes, I’m a Guerrilla From The Bush and have learned so much about what’s possible, I want to share it with you.

What’s your plan for weathering the current crash and burn mentality?

I’d love you to post your comments and let’s see if we can help each other. Your expertise and wealth of experience is wasted if you don’t share it with others.

Take care,

CAROL

Carol Jones
Director
Interface Pty Ltd
Ilford NSW 2850 Australia
Designers of The Fitz Like A Glove™ Ironing Board Cover
Our simple design solutions make every product a joy to use

Let’s have a chat. Ring me on 02 63 58 85 11 if you’re within Australia, OR
+612 63 58 85 11 if you’re outside Australia

The Fitz Like A Glove™ Ironing Board Cover, Roadworks Apron, Log Lugger, Travel Bug Shoe Bag, Mr Chin’s Laundry Bag and Sweet Shoo are all simple solutions for difficult problems. And every one is a joy to use.

We’ve developed markets for these 6 products without national or international retail distribution. To see what we’ve achieved, click on our website at www.interfaceaustralia.com.

Read the story of how our business began on The Ironing Board Cover Lady. No sales hype. Just a down home story about how we started our business on the dining room table of our rural property, driving on ‘L’ Plates, without an instructor.

A comment about LinkedIn. If you’re not a member of LinkedIn, when you click View Full Profile, you’ll be asked to join. It’s free and the option is yours. There are benefits to joining. Once you’re a member, you can key in the name of any person you do business with. If they’ve taken the trouble to complete a Profile, you’ll be able to assess their background, their capabilities and the calibre of person they are. You might be, as I am, often pleasantly surprised. So go have a look.

Chapter 21 Good Manners in Business. Volume II. A Tale Of Three Encounters.

2008-10-02T14:36:00.004+10:00

Greetings from rural Australia.

My April posting, Chapter 18, Good Manners in Business. Where Are They? . . . hit a nerve with quite a few people.

A subject that I thought was a sleeper, turns out to be quite important to people. I was surprised by the emails and phone calls I received.

Three in particular stand out.

My first encounter was with a prominent, award winning business woman. She rang with her own experiences of bad manners. Which ranged from helping others and never hearing a thank you for her efforts. To her emails, letters and phone calls that went unanswered. Even her local shopkeepers were rude to her. And it appears that in her life everyone is left wanting.

As I’m a curious soul, I visited her website to find out more about her business. And was confronted with a very dull and dreary site. Much like her, I said to myself. First impressions always make the biggest impact!

Fast forward to July. A very good business friend emails me a list of people she wants to contact and asks if I know any of them. Yes, I do! My award winning business woman is on the list. And I quickly look up her website so I can email my friend her contact details.

But this time, her website is anything but dull and dreary. She’s transformed her site into a wondrous, vibrant site, complete with the addition of a new product range and a new business partner.

Perhaps her new business partner is the oomph! behind the transition from dull to divine.

This is a rule I always live by. Not noticing and commenting on a job well done is also a form of bad manners.

So it was a natural reaction for me to go to her Contact Us page and send her an email waxing lyrical about her stylish new look.

8 weeks later and I’m still waiting for her ‘thank you for noticing’ reply. And I know she received the email because her online email form has ID monitoring and I had to decipher KRAZY letters before I could send the email.

So, is this a case of her not noticing that her lack of response to my email is just as much bad manners on her part, as the people who don’t respond to her emails?

You know what? I don’t think people think they display bad manners. But they do notice when bad manners are lacking in their interactions with other people. Strange, isn’t it?

Christopher White is one half of the charm and charisma behind TalaFarmStay B&B. We met over the telephone in October 2007 when he placed an order for The Fitz Like A Glove™ Ironing Board Cover after reading about me on Rob Ingram's The Country Squire page in Australian Country Style Magazine.

And we’ve been in contact ever since.

He reads all my posts and emailed me to make his own observations about manners in business.

He emails me his best tips for starching and scenting the sheets and pillowcases for his B&B.

He tells me stories about his best guests and Albert, his Pug, who snores. He sends me photographs of their ritual Saturday night ‘Black Tie & Tails Dinner’ and of his beautiful farm on the north coast of NSW.

And we share stories about customer service, manners in business and about how it’s the little things you do for people that count.

And one thing Christopher always does is reply to every one of my emails and he always says thank you.

Go to his website, TalaFarmStay B&B, and you'll notice that it’s all about helping you enjoy yourself and making you feel at home. It’s no surprise that his guests keep coming back for more of his alluring TLC.

When I wrote my chapter on manners in business, I quoted from the website of Chris Rewell, the renowned image consultant. And included a link to her site.

I didn’t know Chris then. But I knew that her comments about manners were spot on.

To my surprise, I received an email from her thanking me for mentioning her. Her husband was doing research on her and came across my post in Google.

Ten days ago I did a check of all my links on Guerrilla From The Bush to make sure they still connected to the right place. And noticed that Chris has also revamped her website.

As she had an outstanding website to begin with, it is amazing to see her new look is even better. And as I did with the business woman in my first encounter, I left Chris an email to congratulate her on being able to deliver something even better than before.

It only took a few days for Chris to say thank you. This is one busy woman who travels everywhere. And it wasn’t a short, cursory email. It was filled with news and snippets of her busy life since April.

Chris is a very charming woman and a pleasure to keep in touch with.

And this is what good manners is all about.

When you display them, everyone notices how charming, courteous and charismatic you are. You radiate an aura of magnetism that attracts people to you. People can’t help themselves. They want to do things for you and with you.

When you hide them under a bushel, everyone thinks you're crass, selfish, self focussed and ego centric.

Out of my three encounters, which person do you prefer to do business with? Christopher White and Chris Rewell get my vote at every tick of the clock.

By the way, Chris Rewell now has a second website you should visit. It’s What Colour Am I, which is an innovative new book, written and designed by Chris. It takes you through an easy colour process and shows you your most flattering colours. It’s a clever, new approach to personal image.

Just as an aside, colour is one of the most important influences in your life. And when you’re wearing colours that suit you, you unconsciously impart an air of glamour about yourself.

When I was growing up in New York City, my mother was a couture dressmaker and she knew all about the impact of colour. She always dressed me in cool colours and my older sister in warm colours. And we both looked glorious when we promenaded the streets of New York City on Sunday afternoons with our mother and father.

So go visit Chris’ site about her new book What Colour Am I.

Please believe me when I tell you that if you want to be extraordinary, you simply have to go that extra mile. And as you can see, it doesn’t take much effort to travel so much further than your competitors.

Yes, I’m a Guerrilla From The Bush and have learned so much about what’s possible, I want to share it with you.

What’s your experience with manners? Both good and bad.

I’d love you to post your comments and let’s see if we can help each other.

Take care,

CAROL

Carol Jones
Director
Interface Pty Ltd

The Fitz Like A Glove™ Ironing Board Cover, Roadworks Apron, Log Lugger, Travel Bug Shoe Bag, Mr Chin’s Laundry Bag and Sweet Shoo are all simple solutions for difficult problems. And every one is a joy to use.

We’ve developed markets for these 6 products without national or international retail distribution. To see what we’ve achieved, click on our website at http://www.interfaceaustralia.com/.

Read the story of how our business began on The Ironing Board Cover Lady. No sales hype. Just a down home story about how we started our business on the dining room table of our rural property, driving on ‘L’ Plates, without an instructor.

A comment about LinkedIn. If you’re not a member of LinkedIn, when you click View Full Profile, you’ll be asked to join. It’s free and the option is yours. There are benefits to joining. Once you’re a member, you can key in the name of any person you do business with. If they’ve taken the trouble to complete a Profile, you’ll be able to assess their background, their capabilities and the calibre of person they are. You might be, as I am, often pleasantly surprised. So go have a look.

Chapter 20 And 'The Secret' Is . . . .

2008-06-22T10:43:00.008+10:00

Greetings from rural Australia.

The secret is this.

Nothing! Nothing! Nothing! And nothing again! Ever happens until you get off your derriere and take action.

What’s The Secret I’m referring to?

It’s the concept and book and DVD The Secret by Rhonda Byrne.

The synopsis is this.

Think positive thoughts, send those thoughts out into the universe, and good fortune, wealth, happiness and nothing but good tidings will come your way forever.

It’s both the guardian angel and fairy godmother waving their wands over your life to create copious quantities of fame, fortune and unbridled wealth, without you having to do anything other than send out positive thoughts into the universe.

You wish! And I wish! It was that easy.

And so many people have been taken in by this concept. Including Oprah Winfrey, who ranks as one of the most take action oriented people in the world.

My good friend, Jill Weeks, the co-author of the bestseller, ‘Where to Retire’, and I exchange a lot of business information that we think might please each other. And especially anything to do with marketing, as we’re both interested in the subject.

She recently emailed me information about the successful marketing campaign behind The Secret.

I couldn’t help myself. This is my reply to her email.

JILL,

Thank you for this.

The marketing plan for The Secret is very interesting. But they forgot to mention one thing. The whole success behind The Secret is the myth behind the message that you can get anything you want just by wishing for it. It was embraced because it was like getting paid for doing nothing. That was the engine driver behind its success.

Their media campaign was very extensive, but can you imagine it being that successful if the message was this: - To be successful, you have to get off your derriere and put in some seriously hard work by taking action. No action, no riches.

Instead of, you can sit on your derriere like a couch potato, send your wishes off into the universe and enjoy the spoils.

Sorry, Jill. The Secret drives me to the edge of distraction. Just like over pampered, mollycoddled children.

Take care,

CAROL

And that’s the problem in a nutshell.

Rhonda Byrne has convinced people they don’t need to do anything to achieve their goals other than wish and dream.

Because that’s such an easy option, isn’t it? When faced with a choice, we always want to take the easy way out.

One of her stories is about John Assaraf and his dream home.

Who’s John Assaraf?

He’s an internationally best selling author and co-founder of OneCoach, a highly effective small business growth program.

About 8 years ago, he did a storyboard of his future life. And part of that storyboard was a picture of a house he saw in a magazine that he decided would be his ideal future home.

And yes, 8 years down the track, when he had amassed a significant fortune, he tripped across that house while looking for a place to relocate. Purchased it and now lives very happily in it with his wife and son Keenan.

What’s missing here?

The hard work he put into the intervening 8 years that brought him his great fortune.

It didn’t fall out of the sky.

He set up quite a few businesses in those years, worked hard to make sure they were successful, and when they met his goal, on sold them for a profit.

And when he had enough money invested and the time was right, he went on a house hunting spree to find his dream home.

In other words, his dream home is the result of 8 years of hard work.

Eight years of John Assaraf getting off his derriere and putting in the hard yards to achieve his goal.

John is very quick to correct any misapprehension people have that his dream home and significant wealth came from just dreaming.

As he says, you need to have the dream.

But the dream doesn’t come true without putting into place all the tools and skills you need to bring it to life.

And that’s still not enough.

Once the dream, the tools and the skills are in place, you need to take action and do things to bring the dream alive and keep it alive.

But knowing he wanted a dream home in the future was an important first step for John.

So that part of The Secret is true.

You must recognise and articulate what you want to achieve.

But that’s the only part of The Secret that will help you.

And it’s interesting to note that Rhonda Byrne is now involved in a $15 million lawsuit brought against her by one of her collaborators for breach of contract.

What does this mean?

She didn’t take the right action to tie up the loose ends. She obviously didn’t dot the ‘i’s and cross the ‘t’s’ in her negotiations. There were too many loose ends that created a loophole for someone to be able to bring a lawsuit. Whether she wins or loses, she has a messy few years ahead of her.

The Secret isn’t exactly going to her plan.

Frank Rumbauskas of Never Cold Call Again is also in anti The Secret mode.

This is a snippet from an email he sent out the end of May. It’s an email he received from a customer praising his program and book regarding Never Cold Call Again. And a portion of his response.

QUOTE

Ashley thanked her for her praise and told her she is the kind of customer we really appreciate - someone who actually puts the information into action, explaining that people who return the product under the 30-day trial seem to think that leads will magically appear on their desks the next morning (in other words, they need to go back to reading magic books instead of my book).

The customer went on to say,

"I can see that. 'The Secret' has ruined everyone. Salespeople all now believe they can just sit back and wish for the things they want without having to do any work to get them."

She, on the other hand, applied the material and signed a six-figure contract (and got a fat commission check for it) only 10 days later. And then repeated the process. I'm sure she'll continue to do that over and over again.

This is what happens when you decide to get into ACTION and actually DO something to make your future happen for you, instead of sitting around being lazy, only hoping and dreaming but not DOING.

END QUOTE

Are you convinced yet?

So what are you going to do now?

Still hold onto the myth that your dreams will come true just because you want them to?

Or take a reality check and understand that your dreams are just the first step. An all important first step.

But if you want to be able to fly your plane, you need to get into the cockpit, learn the controls, learn how planes operate, learn safety standards, then get up in the sky and practice, practice, practice, until you’re a skilled pilot.

All that takes thousands of hours of work, work, work. And again, remember this. The only time success comes before work is in the dictionary.

What’s your preference?

Your dream?

Or the better, more worthy reality that you bring your dream to life as soon as you start to put in the hard yards?

And you keep your dream alive and moving forward by doing over and over and over again all those things that make your dream come true.

Only a few will opt for the latter. Which is why only 5% of people are truly successful.

Russell Crowe and Cate Blanchett are two of the world’s finest actors. Not only because they had a dream to be the best. But because they both have put in the multitude of hard yards to get where they are today.

The fact they’re Australian and not in the mainstream of celebritydom makes their achievements all the more significant.

You know what? I’m an experienced Guerrilla From The Bush and I know that taking action and putting in the hard yards is the only true path to success. Once in a blue moon you strike it lucky and things fall into place with little effort. But believe me when I tell you this. It’s a rare occurrence.

Do you agree? Or disagree?

I’d love you to post your comments and let’s see if we can help each other. Your expertise and wealth of experience is wasted if you don’t share it with others.

Take care,

CAROL

Carol Jones
Director
Interface Pty Ltd
Ilford NSW 2850 Australia
Designers of The Fitz Like A Glove™ Ironing Board Cover
Our simple design solutions change your attitude and make every product a joy to use

The Fitz Like A Glove™ Ironing Board Cover, Roadworks Apron, Log Lugger, Travel Bug Shoe Bag, Mr Chin’s Laundry Bag and Sweet Shoo are all simple solutions for difficult problems. And every one is a joy to use.

We’ve developed markets for these 6 products without national or international retail distribution. To see what we’ve achieved, click on our website at http://www.interfaceaustralia.com/.

Read the story of how our business began on The Ironing Board Cover Lady. No sales hype. Just a down home story about how we started our business on the dining room table of our rural property, driving on ‘L’ Plates, without an instructor.

A comment about LinkedIn. If you’re not a member of LinkedIn, when you click View Full Profile, you’ll be asked to join. It’s free and the option is yours. There are benefits to joining. Once you’re a member, you can key in the name of any person you do business with. If they’ve taken the trouble to complete a Profile, you’ll be able to assess their background, their capabilities and the calibre of person they are. You might be, as I am, often pleasantly surprised. So go have a look.

COMMENT From Jill Weeks June 23, 2008 9:57 AM

If it's a secret, why tell everyone!?

Jill

Chapter 19 Don’t Fence Me In

2008-05-10T22:06:00.007+10:00

Greetings from rural Australia.

It was the email from my friend and publicist, Penny Stevens of Awarehouse Communications, that began a train of exchanges between me and a number of business friends about the nanny state.

Penny lit the spark with her comment that she was rapidly becoming a very grumpy old woman over the encroachment of the nanny state into all facets of our life, including personal, business and political.

And most pointedly, the upbringing of children.

She recounted the restrictions put in place at her grandson’s school in the UK.

Private photographs taken by parents and other relatives at school events are banned.

Why?

In case they find their way onto the internet and onto the computer screens of paedophiles.

##!*

And then she quickly moved onto the mollycoddling of today’s children.

More ##!*

The truth is, Penny is a very fiery lady and above is just the gist of what she said. I can't repeat what she actually said.

But her view is shared by many people.

Me? I have no children. So I have no biases for or against children.

I confess to not being attracted to babies.

But I’m utterly enchanted and captivated by the innocence of toddlers to 5 year olds and their reality check on life. On their ability to tell it like it is without the restrictions and constraints of political correctness.

And I’m mesmerised by spunky teenagers who are suddenly aware of their sexuality, interacting with each other. Observing them testing their boundaries is totally absorbing.

I also admit to not having a bad experience with a child or a teenager, even though I frequently come into contact with both.

Well, only once.

It was a two year old who accompanied her parents to a meeting at my office in Balmain.

She’d just had lunch. And was jumping up and down with excitement at being at a ‘big people’s’ meeting.

Her jumping up and down was creating a milkshake inside her tummy, which just had to explode, all over our boardroom table.

All I could do was stare. I was in shock and awe from the sheer spontaneity, velocity and volume of the explosion.

I was saved by my elegantly dressed secretary, Sharon Cook, who arrived, mop and bucket in hand, explaining to all of us that her son, Julian, does the same thing at home.

Sharon always put everyone at ease. You want to be in her lifeboat when catastrophe strikes.

I first became aware of children being protected from the world at large in the early 80’s, when I overheard a co-worker mention she doesn’t let her 14 year old daughter walk to school because she might be kidnapped.

I thought this was outrageous and had to be a one-off.

You see, when you don’t have children, neither do most of your friends. Birds of a feather do flock together.

And I have very little in common with parents. So I’m usually a decade behind everyone else’s knowledge of parenting techniques.

But then I noticed I was reading snippets here and there of parents and journalists discussing the perils of ‘stranger danger’.

As parenting escalated to competition status, even I became aware of the intense rivalry between mothers about who was rearing the most gifted, talented, brilliant child.

Mothers are applauded or condemned on the basis of whether they give birth naturally, breastfeed their child until it’s at least 16 years old, and begin their child’s education not at the age of 2 hours, but in the womb.

Competition has swiftly moved from the workplace to the child’s nursery.

And there appears to be nothing more ferocious, or as competitive, as an ambitious mother who wants her children to be the best – at everything. Her dedication to achieving her results has no boundaries.

The current terms permeating lifestyle articles are ‘helicopter parents’ who constantly hover over their children; ‘hyper parents’; ‘curling parents’ who walk in front of their children, removing all obstacles; ‘education mothers’ who devote every waking second to steering their children through the school system; to the current, all encompassing, ‘age of the managed child’.

And I’m totally bemused by the concept of organising ‘play dates’ for a child.

Play dates?!

What an absurd concept. It’s no different to and just as stifling and restrictive as arranged marriages. It’s a Victorian era concept, not 21st century.

What ever happened to going out onto the street and mixing it up and interacting freely with all the children in your neighbourhood?

Wow! Are these kids in trouble?!

I gleaned the above terms from a recent article in Sunday Life magazine titled ‘Growth Industry’ by Carl Honore, author of ‘In Praise of Slow’.

Although I admit to being aware of most of them from reading lifestyle articles by social historians like Hugh McKay and lifestyle journalists such as Mia Freedman and titbits from Maggie Alderson’s comments about her daughter and her friends.

But I found Carl Honore’s ‘Growth Industry” article disturbing.

Because he’s telling a real story about his son and children his son’s age.

And it’s alarming.

Parents have hijacked childhood. Today’s children in middle class homes are over protected, over managed and over parented. Adult anxiety and intervention in the lives of their children are unprecedented.

For instance, some pregnant women spend time every day ‘pumping WombSongSerenades’ into their pregnant belly in the hope of stimulating the brain of their unborn infant.

Children have PDA’s to keep track of their extracurricular activities. Piano lessons, baseball matches, Spanish lessons, basketball practice, soccer, tennis, swimming, karate and after school tutoring.

At 10 years of age, the son of one of Carl’s friends is expected to learn how to ‘manage his time’.

The following really alarms me.

Carl’s son, who is 7, like two thirds of his friends, has never walked to the park alone.

Mobile phones now double as tracking devices. If a child drifts out of the designated ‘safe zone’, their parents get an instant text message alerting them to the transgression of their precious asset.

Day-care centres and nurseries now install webcam so parents can check on their children at any time of the day from anywhere in the world.

And holiday camps now relay daily video clips of their charges to inboxes back home.

Help! Help! I’m suffocating!

As Carl aptly admits, “we’re raising the most wired, pampered and monitored generation in history”.

And asks. “Is this a good or a bad thing?”

Before I scream out my answer, let me tell you about my childhood.

I grew up on the streets of New York City and after that, Pennsylvania. And after that, a small town in southern Virginia. All in the USA. The home of rapists, muggers, thugs, murderers, kidnappers, thrill killers, et al.

Without exception, everywhere I lived, I walked to school. Often on my own. I picked my own friends. And went outside and played without parental supervision.

And just so we're on the same train, I lived in working class neighbourhoods. My world was one of families who struggled financially. Moms stayed at home to look after the kids and dads went to work in the factories.

In New York I played with the boys in my neighbourhood.

And they were tough.

I got into skirmishes, often got injured while playing, organised my own ferocious pay back, defied teachers who were tyrants and revelled in my proudest achievement, reducing my school bully into a screaming, crying wuss.

Once we left New York City, I didn’t have a gaggle of friends. We didn’t live in a neighbourhood with many children. And I discovered I was fussy about who I associated with.

In Pennsylvania, I walked blocks and blocks to visit my special friends. I often rode my bicycle, on my own, to secluded areas, to camp out and read my latest Nancy Drew mystery.

I climbed giant trees. I played in the local playground. I taught myself not only how to swing standing up, but to swing so high, I could wrap the bars.

Even I admit that was a bit scary and not something I’d recommend to someone else.

My play time was often on my own, sometimes with other kids. But it was always away from the prying eyes and supervision of my parents.

At the age of 9, I took the allowance I’d saved up and hopped a bus into town to buy my parents and sister presents. I did have to convince my parents that I understood the dangers of talking to strangers. But once I convinced them I understood the consequences and was trustworthy, I did it often.

That progressed to me and my friends going into town every Saturday to go to the movies. No chaperones. Just the bus driver wishing us a good time and telling us to behave ourselves. When the afternoon movies finished, we walked everywhere on our own before we caught a bus back home in time for dinner.

Stranger danger wasn’t a term used then. But every parent instilled into their children the dangers of talking to strangers. That we weren’t to get into a car with a stranger, or go with them anywhere for any reason. And we understood the ramifications of that and adhered to those rules.

And I don’t have a single friend who was lured away by an evil stranger.

And you know what? On some of my solitary journeys, I got lost. There were no tracking devices and I had to find my own way back home. Sometimes, I had to rely on a grown up, a total stranger, to help me find the way.

By mixing it up in the hurly burly of life, I learned how to be responsible. How to look after myself. How to pick my friends according to my own values. How to figure things out for myself and solve my own problems. How to judge the sincerity of a stranger.

And best of all. I became self reliant, trustworthy, confident, a good problem solver and a very good friend to others.

I also learned nothing in life is free. That everything you do has a consequence and everything comes at a price. You can’t be both active and a layabout at the same time. You can’t have an all day Saturday job for pocket money and go to the swimming pool with your friends on Saturday afternoon.

And I experienced the greatest gift a parent can give to a child.

The freedom to develop my personality and my own values outside of the shadow of my parents. At my own pace, in my own direction, in an environment with boundaries, but not with my parents breathing down my neck, monitoring and checking up on every minute of my life.

And equally important, I experienced the freedom to make mistakes and discover for myself the impact of the consequences of those mistakes on my life and those of others.

What has this got to do with being a Guerrilla From The Bush?

Everything.

These wired to the apron strings of their parents, over pampered, over monitored children are tomorrow’s leaders.

What kind of person can lead a business or a country who has never walked to the park on their own?

What kind of person can make a judgement about others when their parents have hijacked their social skills by selecting children for approved play dates?

How can a person recognise real danger when everything and everyone outside their personal space is considered dangerous?

How can they show compassion for the differences in people when they’ve never been exposed to people who are truly different to them?

How can they understand and deal with rejection, disappointment or failure when their presumed brilliance at everything is constantly reinforced at the home front?

How do they go forth and conquer the world when they’ve been monitored and pampered to death and stripped of their coat of armour that protects them from the hurly burly of life?

Away from the cocoon, how do they learn to dig deep down into their soul and find the grit to keep going when the going gets tough?

Can they become the future Thomas Edison’s? Will they have what it takes to try 10,000 experiments before a light bulb lights up their world?

Do you get my gist?

My instincts tell me tomorrow’s leaders will be no better than today’s George Bush.

Pampered show ponies who have never had to do the hard yards. Who can’t make decisions. Don’t have vision. And quickly rise to their own level of incompetence because they’ve never been tested until it’s too late.

And who are devoid of the basic street smarts that characterised the Harry Truman’s, Winston Churchill’s, Bob Ansett Sr’s and Weary Dunlop’s of previous generations.

You know what?

I’m old enough to hope that I won’t be around in 40 years time to witness the straight jackets the public will be confined to. Because freedom as I know it will be a thing of the past. And the nanny state will reign supreme.

As my fiery friend Penny Stevens says, ##!*!

I’d love you to post your comments. Your expertise and wealth of experience is wasted if you don’t share it with others.

Take care,

CAROL

Carol Jones
Director
Interface Pty Ltd
Ilford NSW 2850 Australia
Designers of The Fitz Like A Glove™ Ironing Board Cover
Our simple design solutions change your attitude and make every product a joy to use

The Fitz Like A Glove™ Ironing Board Cover, Roadworks Apron, Log Lugger, Travel Bug Shoe Bag, Mr Chin’s Laundry Bag and Sweet Shoo are all simple solutions for difficult problems. And every one is a joy to use.

We’ve developed markets for these 6 products without national or international retail distribution. To see what we’ve achieved, click on our website at www.interfaceaustralia.com.

Read the story of how our business began on The Ironing Board Cover Lady. No sales hype. Just a down home story about how we started our business on the dining room table of our rural property, driving on ‘L’ Plates, without an instructor.

A comment about LinkedIn. If you’re not a member of LinkedIn, when you click View Full Profile, you’ll be asked to join. It’s free and the option is yours. There are benefits to joining. Once you’re a member, you can key in the name of any person you do business with. If they’ve taken the trouble to complete a Profile, you’ll be able to assess their background, their capabilities and the calibre of person they are. You might be, as I am, often pleasantly surprised. So go have a look.

Chapter 18 Good Manners In Business. Where Are They?

2008-04-14T18:07:00.007+10:00

Greetings from rural Australia.

Good manners in business appears to be an oxymoron. Like business ethics.

The lack of manners in business is not only annoying to me, but to many others as well. The reason I was motivated to write this chapter is because readers of my blog asked me to.

What exactly is good manners in business?

Exactly the same as good manners at home. If you were taught manners at home, having good manners in business should be a natural follow on.

But is it?

Either the majority of business people were brought up in Mother Hubbard's cupboard; or if they weren’t, they obviously don’t think manners in business is important, because they often don’t bother to show any.

Good manners is about being gracious.

It’s about putting someone else before you. Your focus is on making things very easy and comfortable for the other person. It’s about making them feel good about doing business with you. It’s all about them. It’s never about you.

And good manners should be displayed just as much when someone is selling something to you as when you’re selling something to someone else. We all have something to sell every day of the week.

One of the biggest turn offs in business is the rude, abrupt, callous and often insensitive manner in which a business person says no. And it speaks volumes about their personal character and integrity.

Job applicants tell endless stories of sending in an application and never getting a response. Not even a thank you, but no thank you. How rude and insensitive this is. To not even take the time to acknowledge the effort a person makes to apply for a job is selfish in the extreme.

Major companies are renown for this. And many small businesses think this is an acceptable form of behaviour as well.

Advertisers constantly complain about clients sending in new material at the last minute. Squeaking in just before the deadline. Even though they know several weeks ahead what date the deadline is.

Perhaps the most common complaint about bad manners is when someone leaves a telephone message on voice mail and the phone call isn’t returned. It’s particularly annoying if it’s someone they’re doing business with. When the call isn’t returned, their bad manners are on show. And noticed.

This one is almost as bad. It’s the person who leaves a phone message but not their phone number.

Few of us are walking phone books. It takes just a few seconds to leave a number.

How long does it take for the recipient to scrounge around, looking for the number? More than a few seconds.

This is thoughtless, selfish and self centred.

The simple act of acknowledging a personal letter or an email that requires a reply is good manners.

To ignore the letter or email and not reply is not only bad manners, it’s extremely rude. Like not replying to an invitation to someone’s house for dinner.

To attend a company function and not send a thank you within a few days is crass. And the company who gave the function knows who you are. And remembers you.

Here’s a few examples to ponder over.

I recently watched the movie ‘Triumph’. It’s the story of Ron Clark, an American teacher who triumphed over adversity.

He took on a class of ratbags and drop outs in a poor neighbourhood and asked them to reach for the moon and landed them among the stars.

He motivated this class of no hopers to achieve spectacular and unheard of – for them - academic success within 12 months. And wrote himself into popular culture as a can do, miracle teacher.

He certainly motivated me.

I was so impressed with his story, the next day I went to his website, Ron Clark Academy, to see what it was all about.

Because his academy is free to selected disadvantaged children, he depends on donations.

There’s a section of his site that says his academy takes donations in kind.

As The Fitz Like A Glove™ Ironing Board Cover in on the boards of fashion designers, I offered his academy as many covers as they needed for their fashion design courses.

In my email I told him I’d just seen the movie ‘Triumph’, and was so motivated by the good experiences he was giving disadvantaged children, I wanted to help. And then thanked him for the opportunity to be able to give something back to his community.

That was over a month ago.

I’ve heard nothing.

Not even an auto responder to say thank you, we’ve received your email and will be in touch shortly.

Or an email from the Mail Administrator to say his email address was no longer active.

Do I feel the same as I did when I finished watching the movie?

Of course I don’t.

And if they replied now, they’d have to have a very good reason for taking so long.

Because I no longer feel the same intense, keen desire to help them that I did a month ago.

Another for instance.

After writing Chapter 17, What An Attitude!, I emailed the link to this chapter to Lyn Palmen of Women’s Network Australia.

On a Saturday afternoon.

I told her she so inspired me with her enthusiasm, I felt compelled to write about her.

She replied to that email that Saturday evening. Even though she’s travelling on business with her daughter Maddi in tow.

That’s pretty perfect.

Another for instance.

My bank is Westpac.

I had an idea to do a joint venture with Westpac using one of my products. I didn’t know where to start. But I thought starting at the top and working down was my best option because decisions are always made upstairs.

After looking at Westpac’s website, I decided that a letter to Ilana Atlas, Group Executive, People and Performance, was my best option.

Ilana not only answered my letter within a few days of receiving it, but was instrumental in getting me in front of the right people.

And yes, I did get my product into Westpac. But in a different way than I first envisioned.

Another score of pretty perfect. And I won’t hear a word said against Westpac.

Yet another for instance.

Jodi Picoult is a best selling author. Her 15 novels have sold 12 million copies around the world.

Change Of Heart, Nineteen Minutes, Handle With Care and My Sister’s Keeper are some of her titles.

12 million copies sold is 800,000 sales per book. She ranks up there with Dan Brown and James Patterson as the top 3 authors for worldwide sales.

She’s also a busy mum with 3 teenage children, yet manages to research and write one novel a year.

In a recent magazine interview for New Idea, Jodi says she gets 150 emails a day.

And takes the time to answer every one.

Why?

She says it’s common courtesy. There are all these books out there, and you picked mine, she reasons. I just want to thank you, she says earnestly.

That’s very perfect.

Unfortunately the likes of Ron Clark Academy outrank the Lyn Palmens, Ilana Atlas’ and Jodi Picoults of the business world.

Unwillingness to communicate effectively is endemic within organisations. Both large and small.

But it comes at a price.

If given a choice, people gravitate towards the company that pays attention to them.

Because nobody willingly wants to be ignored.

Do you?

And ignoring a customer, a supplier and a prospect is an appalling display of bad manners.

When a business shows bad manners, they’re telling you and me that we’re not as important to the business as they are to themselves.

Here’s some more examples of bad manners.

Look at websites.

A significant percentage have no real contact information.

Most have only email contact. Some might also have a telephone number. Very few have a personal name to put with the business. And an alarming number don’t have a physical address.

How do you complain? Everyone can ignore an email.

Or is this the reason information is so scant? They don’t want to know?

This goes beyond lack of communication. When I see this, I come to one conclusion. I don’t trust them.

What’s the first thing I think of when I see a website with scant information?

What are they afraid of?

Do they fear me calling them on the telephone and interfering with their day? Or complaining about a faulty product or bad service?

Might I send them something in the mail? What’s so bad about opening an envelope?

Aha! I’ve come to the conclusion they’re laying low because they’re chased by debt collectors.

What if I want to see what their premises look like? Or are they a scam site and there is no fixed address?

Perhaps you’re not aware this is what other people think.

You’re now on notice, because now you know.

I recently visited a marketing website because I was invited to drop in and have a cup of coffee. And I wanted to know where I was going.

I was going nowhere.

The only information on the site was their telephone number. No names of the owners, no physical address, and the only email contact was through a form on their site. Even worse, they didn’t have a listing in White Pages Online.

This is a marketing company spruiking how they keep you in touch with your target market.

They should be ashamed of themselves for being so focused on themselves.

On the same day, I searched on Google for another marketing organisation which invited me to attend a workshop.

I had exactly the same experience as the first one.

Only a telephone number.

How can I know if I want to attend a workshop if I don’t know where it is?

What do business owners think of when they design their Contact Us page?

Not you and me, that’s for sure.

What do I think of them?

Selfish, self centred, self focussed, perhaps ignorant, but most certainly displaying bad manners bordering on smugness and rudeness.

Strike two. One more and they’re out.

Another example of bad manners.

I recently read a response to Valerie Khoo’s Sydney Morning Herald Small Enterprise Blog on the subject of contact information.

A reader, who has just finished building a house, says he was constantly dismayed at the number of businesses who don’t have their street number prominently displayed.

And the trouble he had in finding their location so he could look at products.

Why expect a customer to drive around and around and around in traffic looking for a number that’s not there?

Why not make it easy for them to find you?

A simple fact. It’s dangerous for a driver to have to peer at buildings for a number while in traffic.

If nothing more, why not care about the driver’s safety and the safety of all the other people on the road dodging him while he’s careering around trying to find the right premises?

How many times have you received an invoice, wanted to query it and found there’s no telephone number? Or no address to send a payment to?

Quite simply. Why not care about other people?

That’s what bad manners is all about. Not caring about those around you.

For some of you reading this, you might think this is trivial compared to the other issues facing a business.

Such as the spreading doom and gloom about the lack of consumer and business confidence. The several rises in interest rates. The effect of the collapse of Opes Prime and the sub prime loans debacle.

Think again.

Bad manners in business might not be the topic of the month.

But believe me when I say it’s a topic that smoulders away.

To see what I mean, casually mention it as an aside to someone and then listen to them blast away on the subject for as long as you’ll give them.

One day you might lose a customer for no other reason than you ignored them once too often. Your behaviour fanned that smouldering ember into a flame of irritation so intense, the only way to put it out is to dump you.

You might be surprised to learn that almost everyone is business has dumped someone for this very reason.

Can you afford to lose any client or customer?

What’s the cost to you and how much harder is it to find new customers in an uncertain market?

How much easier is it to smooch your current customers into staying with you purely by paying attention to their needs by being gracious and displaying good manners?

The well respected Sydney Image Consultant, Chris Rewell, has devoted a page on her website to good manners and business etiquette.

She makes two thought provoking observations.

“Good manners open doors that a good education will not”.

“Good manners make the world go around with less confusion and fewer misunderstandings. Good manners reduce ignorance and awkwardness”.

Visit Chris Rewell's website at www.chrisrewell.com.au/busetiquette.html to read more of what she says about business etiquette.

I might be a Guerrilla From The Bush, but I know that please, thank you, how can I help you and returning phone calls all enhance my standing in the eyes of customers, suppliers, prospects, friends and family. I know that good manners is all about common courtesy, trust and endearing customer service.

What do you think?

I’d love you to post your comments and let’s see if we can help each other. Your expertise and wealth of experience is wasted if you don’t share it with others.

Take care,

CAROL

Carol Jones
Director
Interface Pty Ltd
Ilford NSW 2850 Australia
Designers of The Fitz Like A Glove™ Ironing Board Cover
Our simple design solutions change your attitude and make every product a joy to use

The Fitz Like A Glove™ Ironing Board Cover, Roadworks Apron, Log Lugger, Travel Bug Shoe Bag, Mr Chin’s Laundry Bag and Sweet Shoo are all simple solutions for difficult problems. And every one is a joy to use.

We’ve developed markets for these 6 products without national or international retail distribution. To see what we’ve achieved, click on our website at http://www.interfaceaustralia.com/.

Read the story of how our business began on The Ironing Board Cover Lady. No sales hype. Just a down home story about how we started our business on the dining room table of our rural property, driving on ‘L’ Plates, without an instructor.

A comment about LinkedIn. If you’re not a member of LinkedIn, when you click View Full Profile, you’ll be asked to join. It’s free and the option is yours. There are benefits to joining. Once you’re a member, you can key in the name of any person you do business with. If they’ve taken the trouble to complete a Profile, you’ll be able to assess their background, their capabilities and the calibre of person they are. You might be, as I am, often pleasantly surprised. So go have a look.

Chapter 17 What An Attitude!

2008-04-12T09:02:00.005+10:00

Greetings from rural Australia.

On April 7th, I received the following email from Lyn Palmen AM, Founder and Managing Director of the Women's Network Australia at www.womensnetwork.com.au.

This was her opening statement in that email newsletter.

Dear Carol,

Re: The Business of Fun

Sometimes I just have to delight in the diversity of my life and the contrast every day brings with it. It's school holidays in Qld so tomorrow my daughter Maddison (11) and I are heading off to Melbourne so I can host our Power Tea at the beautiful Windsor Hotel (very swish). 'Building an Export Market' is the topic being discussed over the table that day. The next day we are in Sydney where I am hosting our April networking luncheon, addressing the topic of 'How to Take Control of the Sales Process'.

Then, having just done the tween darling, Hannah Montana 3D Concert last week (at which unbeknownst to me I was seen by WNA Members dancing in my 3D glasses - there's a WNA Member around every corner these days), I am off to see the long anticipated High School Musical on Ice extravaganza with Maddi in tow as my cover . You just have to love being a mum in business - personally, as a single Mum since Maddi was born, I have always found blending it all has been a rich and rewarding experience . Sometimes you just have to act like a kid - don't you!

Here it is the 12th of April, and I’m still musing over the contents of her statement.

Why?

Because it’s such a different attitude to 99.9% of men and women who juggle a career with children. It’s clearly 180° in the opposite direction.

I’m a sponge for lifestyle stories. Outside of eavesdropping, it’s my second favourite past time.

I devour lifestyle magazines and lifestyle articles in newspapers, listen to ABC Radio National’s panorama of lifestyle segments and watch most lifestyle documentaries on ABC1 and SBS TV.

So again, why?

Because your business and mine is all about people. No matter what you sell, and we all have something to sell every day, our end product or service goes into the hands of a person.

And the buck stops at you in terms of how you perceive your business.

And your customers instinctively respond to your perception.

Understanding the dynamics of what’s happening in the lives of others helps you become more in tune with what pleases them and how to please them.

The what and how you do it depends 100% on your attitude.

And how many times have you heard someone sound so energetic and joyful about being a single mum as Lyn?

More precisely, how many times have you heard someone sound so energetic and joyful . . . period?

It’s rare, I think.

After observing and reading about people since I was nine years old, I’ve discovered very few people who are truly energetic about much in their life.

I scan a number of blogs each week. Both business and personal. Far too many posts read like an Agony Aunt column. Comments made by people burdened by their own misery.

What you mostly hear is how tough it is to be in business. How tough it is to be a parent. How tough it is to keep a relationship going. How tough it is to make friends. How tough it is to get up in the morning.

They perceive life to be so tough, you can see that it’s an affliction that makes them want to keep their head under the doona and stay there for infinity.

Many lifestyle issues today are about the home and workplace balance. About the hazards facing children today who have two working parents or who are in single parent households.

But I read little about the joy expressed by Lyn in being a parent.

About the joy of taking her daughter with her on business trips during the school holidays. About the joy of getting down and doing girly, childish things that please both her and her daughter, Maddi.

And I can’t remember the last time I read how joyful it is to be a single parent. Certainly nothing expressed with the same ‘joy de vivre’ as her comment that being a single mum in business has been a rich and rewarding experience.

I notice that Lyn translates the business of fun to her own business, The Women’s Network.

All her emails and newsletters are full to the brim of possibilities and opportunities for women in business. And I see there are men who participate as well.

This has been her business since 1990. It started out as a few women helping each other, sharing business contacts, information and ideas for success. 18 years on and, according to her website, it has become the nation's leading networking organisation for women in business.

How much of this success is the result of her drive, ambition and her ability to enjoy herself and make her business fun?

All of it, I bet.

Attitude is everything. It makes or breaks you.

A ‘Lyn Palmen Attitude’ conquers your fear of rejection, it gets you over the low points we all experience, it gives purpose to you getting up the in the morning and starting your day with a sparkle instead of a groan.

And she has that other special ingredient that makes or breaks your business.

She loves what she does. With gusto.

I hope you can you see how every topic so far in Guerrilla From The Bush ties together and forms a circle that’s your Sphere Of Success.

I hope you can also see how your deep seated emotions affect your business more profoundly than mastering MYOB, Google Analytics, ROI or any MIS system.

Your emotions determine what shape and form your business presents to the public. That loving what you do propels you to places you never dreamed possible.

And it’s an established fact that we all aspire to mingling with the top 5% of people, whoever and wherever they are. And these top 5% are the movers and shakers in their industry.

Almost without exception, in small business, they’re the men and women who are full of pizzazz and zest. They’re the ones who shimmer and light up a room. They transfix you with their enthusiasm when giving a presentation or talking about what they do.

They are where they are because of their own belief in themselves, their company, their product or service. Their drive and ambition makes things happen. They ignite the spark that becomes a roaring flame of passion.

In other words, they are where they are because of their attitude.

Have you noticed I emphasise in small business?

Why?

Because the top 5% of men and women in big business can be dull, tedious and dreary.

Rarely are they at the top because they’ve built a business from the ground up.

They’re there because they have MBA’s and have learned to climb the corporate ladder.

They learned long ago that their deep seated emotions are unwelcome and unwanted in corporate life.

They’re stilted by the pressure to conform.

To get where they are, they’ve learned a different set of skills.

Which eventually turns them into corporate clones with no distinct personality.

In small business, it’s all about attitude. And attitude matters.

Are you aware of your attitude?

Is it positive or negative? Is your glass half full or half empty? Is everything all bad?

What’s your focus? Do you focus on yourself? Or on others? Or are you so overwhelmed, you’ve lost your ability to focus on anything?

Nothing is ever all good or all bad, but it’s important to focus on and celebrate the smallest things. And best of all, when you focus on others rather than yourself, your rewards can be outstanding.

For example.

Many years ago, a Sydney based company, which has now been swallowed up by a larger organisation, built up their business simply by focusing on their staff and celebrating the smallest achievements.

These celebrations electrified their staff and kept them motivated and stimulated. This company had plenty of competition, but they had a company policy not shared by anyone else in their field.

That attitude matters. And a firm belief that motivated staff press on and do things that take the company to places never dreamed possible.

They celebrated the smallest new jobs, everyone’s birthday, and both personal and company milestones.

Special occasions like Valentine’s day, St Patrick’s day, Easter, a new baby, all warranted at least a cake at afternoon tea time.

Valentine’s Day was special. It was an opportunity to create a company bonding experience.

First thing in the morning, everyone picked the name of a co-worker out of an urn and they lavished attention on their 'Valentine' for the day. Including the company founder and all the top brass.

Do you get it?

In 1988, I remember attending an Institute of Directors lunch where the Founder and MD of this company was sitting at my table. He was an inspiringly positive and charismatic gentleman in his early 50’s.

During lunch, I observed he rarely talked about himself, but was interested in everyone around him.

When the luncheon finished and I was walking out with a luncheon companion, I heard a disparaging remark about this particular company. It was a put down made by someone critical of the company’s ‘party mode’.

Their credentials spoke volumes for the success their ‘party mode’ brought them in their market segment. And I was intrigued that the concept of celebrating achievements was misconstrued into being a trivial pursuit.

They were number one in a very crowded market. They also had a top class reputation for good, solid work. So good, in fact, they reached the stage where they could avoid the ‘cattle call’ of competing for a project with every Tom, Dick & Harry.

In 2000, they were rewarded with multimillion dollar profits when they accepted an offer to merge with a larger organisation.

Where is the new, larger company today?

I don’t know.

I never read anything about them.

As a much larger company, I suspect they’ve been overwhelmed by the clone syndrome and are now operating just like everyone else.

They’re probably preoccupied with ROI and MIS reports while contending with all the other albatross necklaces that medium to big business seems to delight in asking their management to wear.

If you’re reading the papers and listening to the news, you’ll know that in the coming months, your attitude will be truly tested.

We seem to be entering a new period of doom and gloom.

The media is already awash with bad news and anecdotal evidence of lack of corporate and consumer confidence.

This is what the media loves.

Bad news.

It sells newspapers, magazines and keeps people glued to their TV’s and radios for further confirmation that we’re heading in a downward spiral.

Bad news causes angst.

And angst drives people underground with fear. And their fear stops them from taking action to do things. And before you can blink your eyes three times, businesses start to fold.

And once businesses start to close, a form of depression takes hold and the economy starts to slide downward at a faster rate. Everyone seems to have the ‘black dog’ of despair hanging over them.

Then they start acting like lemmings, ready to jump off the precipice at the slightest nod from the Pied Piper.

They bunker down, nurse their misery and take no positive action. They blame their fear of everything and justify their inaction on ‘the state of the economy’.

Hang on.

Everyone?

If you had your druthers, which email would you prefer to receive?

Lyn Palmen’s ‘business is fun’?

Or the dreary drivel now coming your way from Tom, Dick & Harry, who want to beat up the doom and gloom so they can prey on your fear?

Just remember one thing. Attitude matters.

Lyn Palmen’s Women’s Network Australia started in 1990. At the beginning of the ‘recession we had to have’. It was the worst recession since the depression of the 1930’s.

But even in the deepest recessions, the businesses who believe in themselves keep moving forward.

As a Guerrilla From The Bush, I implore you to take a close look at your attitude. Because it makes or breaks your business. In good times and bad. But when the doom and gloom soothsayers take hold, your attitude is more important than ever.

If you have a plan and a vision and see a future ahead of you, and work to your plan and revise it when necessary, your business is in good hands. Your attitude will carry you through the uncertain times.

What I want to know is this. Why shouldn’t running a business be fun? And for most people, why isn’t it? At what stage does life stop being fun and become a chore?

I’d love you to post your comments so we can help each other. Your expertise and wealth of experience is wasted if you don’t share it with others.

Take care,

CAROL

Carol Jones
Director
Interface Pty Ltd
Ilford NSW 2850 Australia
Designers of The Fitz Like A Glove™ Ironing Board Cover
Our simple design solutions change your attitude and make every product a joy to use

The Fitz Like A Glove™ Ironing Board Cover, Roadworks Apron, Log Lugger, Travel Bug Shoe Bag, Mr Chin’s Laundry Bag and Sweet Shoo are all simple solutions for difficult problems. And every one is a joy to use.

We’ve developed markets for these 6 products without national or international retail distribution. To see what we’ve achieved, click on our website at http://www.interfaceaustralia.com/.

Read the story of how our business began on The Ironing Board Cover Lady. No sales hype. Just a down home story about how we started our business on the dining room table of our rural property, driving on ‘L’ Plates, without an instructor.

A comment about LinkedIn. If you’re not a member of LinkedIn, when you click View Full Profile, you’ll be asked to join. It’s free and the option is yours. There are benefits to joining. Once you’re a member, you can key in the name of any person you do business with. If they’ve taken the trouble to complete a Profile, you’ll be able to assess their background, their capabilities and the calibre of person they are. You might be, as I am, often pleasantly surprised. So go have a look.

Chapter 16 Rejection! Is It A Death Blow?

2008-03-07T15:06:00.015+11:00

Greetings from rural Australia.

Rejection is one of the most feared and debilitating emotions you can experience in business. It so paralyses some men and women into inaction, that they eventually go out of business.

90% of new entrepreneurs are too frightened to pick up the phone and ask for new business because they fear rejection. Cold calling is rated as one of the scariest things a business person is asked to do.

Do you agree?

Fear of rejection starts in childhood and is a natural response to being excluded.

Everyone has a story to tell about the first time they were rejected by their brother, sister, in the playground, by a friend, a teacher, a girlfriend, boyfriend, an employer.

Remember the school bus? You can't sit here. This seat is reserved for Emily, not you.

The football team? You’re the last man standing. No one picks you. You hope the ground opens up and swallows you before they see the grief on your face.

Sound familiar?

And we can all remember the chilling feeling of desolation at not being liked, accepted, considered important, valuable, loved, appreciated.

Your response to your fear of rejection either liberates you – or keeps you imprisoned for the rest of your life.

Think about that.

What joy is there in living within a prison of your own making?

No one escapes being rejected. Everyone alive has been rejected for some reason at some time.

There are no exceptions.

Prejudice and bullying are forms of rejection. And school bullying is probably the first time some of us confront rejection.

I remember my school bully.

Her name was Frances.

I was 9 years old, she was 10 years old.

I was the smallest child in my class and very shy.

She was the biggest and the loudest.

The school foyer led to a very wide and high staircase that we all had to climb to get to our class rooms.

And every morning Frances was waiting at the top of the stairs, always with her arms folded and her legs spread apart. Waiting just for me. So she could push me down the stairs.

She terrified me.

And I hated going to school because of her.

And like most children, I never told my parents.

And my teachers didn’t care. I remember one of them actually laughing one morning when I went tumbling down the stairs I had just climbed up.

My fear was so acute, it was making me sick.

I started dawdling on the way to school and discovered that if I got to school just as the bell rang, the staircase was empty and I could sneak into class just a little bit late and avoid Frances.

But not for long.

My teacher started disciplining me for being late and threatened to tell my parents. If I didn’t straighten up, she would ask them to come to school to explain why I was perennially tardy.

No. I couldn’t let my parents know I was afraid of a classmate.

So it was back to the daily confrontation.

Until one day I realised I couldn’t live with this fear anymore. I somehow had to resolve this daily skirmish.

I plucked up my courage and during recess, asked Frances why she always pushed me down the stairs. She responded by laughing at me and pushed me down yet again.

One morning I stood at the bottom of the staircase, eyeing off Frances.

I walked up the staircase with a plan.

Frances saw me and positioned herself to stand in my way.

In a flash, I ducked down, ran between the gap in her legs, turned around and with all my strength, pushed her so hard from behind, she flipped over and crashed down the stairs, head first, to land in an almighty heap, screaming and bellowing and threatening me.

Now I was even more terrified.

I thought she would kill me.

But that didn’t happen, because like most bullies, once confronted, Frances never bothered me again.

The school’s reaction to my audaciousness and act of desperation is another story.

Tackling my daily fear head on liberated me and improved my quality of life beyond my wildest expectations.

A recent story about Peter Holmes à Court in ‘the (Sydney) magazine’ tells of his exclusion at boarding school and being bullied and punched because he came from a super wealthy family.

Peter tells this story often and recalls how mystified he was because he honestly didn’t know if being rich was a good or a bad thing.

At the time, his father, Robert Holmes à Court, was Australia’s first billionaire. Before Kerry Packer. And today, his mother, Janet Holmes à Court, is Australia’s richest woman.

Peter is now Executive Chairman of the South Sydney Rabbitohs Rugby Club. He’s co-owner along with his friend, actor Russell Crowe.

Has rejection as a child toughened him up?

The Rabbitohs are the underdogs in the National Rugby League (NRL). And the NRL lags behind the Australian Football League (AFL) in attendances. In other words, they’re at the bottom of the heap.

Publicly losing is one of the most heartbreaking forms of rejection. And part of his football baggage.

Believe me when I tell you that rejection is part of everyone's life.

And some people face it many times in a day.

Think of the entertainers who get rejected at casting call after casting call.

Would you want to put yourself through that agony just to get a part in a movie or a play or a musical?

But they do. Because that’s the life of an entertainer. They have to endure the rejections before they get the acceptances.

And in business, it’s just as pernicious.

Think about this.

Any day of the week, only 3% of your market is ready to buy what you have to sell.

Next time you go to a function, ask how many people at your table will be buying a car in the next week or so. Around 3% will put their hands up. Ask how many will be buying a car in the next two months, and another 3% will put their hands up.

94% of the guests aren’t in the market for a car on that day. Or a photocopier. Or a new computer. Or sales training. Or anything else you want to sell them on that day.

The numbers game says only 3% of people want what you’re trying to sell them on the day you call, send your brochure, put your ad in the newspaper, on radio or on TV. The rest aren’t interested - on that day.

Could this be the reason average response rates usually hover around 1%-2%?

Rejection is endemic in business and so much a part of finding new business that you either accept it, get over it, and move past it; or go out of business from your fear of being rejected.

Think about this.

When your phone rings with a sales person on the other end, do you say yes to everything?

I don’t think so. You’re not in the market for everything every day of the week.

And neither is everyone else.

Even when you’ve narrowed your market down to a highly targeted segment, you’ll still be rejected. Because only 3% of people are in the market to buy at any given time. Another 3% might be, and 94% will say no.

“I’ll think about it” is business speak for NO!

A no isn’t a personal refusal. It’s just a fact. I’m not interested at this time.

Accept rejection as part of the territory. And the rudeness, the abruptness, the gruffness and the apparent lack of bad manners that accompany many rejections.

Accept it. Then move past it.

You can’t grow if you’re not expanding your customer base, or increasing the amount of product a customer buys from you, or forming strategic alliances with other businesses.

All 3 require you to ask someone to enter into a transaction with your business. And if you don't ask, you perish.

Do you know what the best way is to overcome your fear of rejection?

It’s by doing what you need to do. And doing it over and over again until you’re not bothered by the rejections.

Make the phone calls. Get used to being told no.

I learned the following from Brian Tracy, perhaps the best down to earth salesman of all time.

When you do what you’re terrified of doing, you develop courage.

When you develop courage, your tension is reduced and your stress levels go down.

Then your fear stops.

When your fear stops, you own your future.

When you own your future, you prosper.

At one time, I, too, was fearful of cold calling. But Brian's advice turned that around for me. I'm now so used to approaching companies and people cold, I don't even blink an eye. Yes, I get told no. But I accept that as part of my path to success. And so should you.

Remember that everyone, including the best sales people, get told no every day of the week.

But they also know they can’t get to the yes people until they go through the no people.

A friend of mine owns a business services company. His favourite story of triumph over rejection happened in the 90’s when he secured IBM as a client.

Everyone congratulated him and told him how lucky he was to score IBM, as they rarely change suppliers.

He tells me he wasn’t at all lucky.

He endured 10 years of IBM rejecting his overtures. But he knew if he kept at them, he’d be first in line when they were ready to make a change.

Why?

Because almost everyone else drops out at the first rejection.

It’s a fact. 95% of companies never knock on a door twice.

During his 10 years of perseverance, IBM got to know him and what he could do for them. They were almost friends. And when they changed, there was no competition. It was just a phone call to say, come on over and let’s talk.

That’s the upside of accepting and mastering rejection.

It’s never a permanent no.

Situations change. Going back to see if the landscape has altered, results in laying the foundations for future business.

I’ve developed an institutional market segment by going back to it over and over again.

My first foray into the segment was a 100% rejection rate. Doors slammed in my face one after another.

It was a bit sobering, but reflecting on it, I changed my approach and tried a second time.

The second time I got a 99.99999% rejection rate. But this time one door opened and I gained a new customer.

Most people would have given up. But I thought one customer was encouraging.

Now I have 83 loyal customers from that segment. Who buy from me on a regular basis.

And mull this over.

95% of companies would have walked away, convinced there was no business there for them to get.

This market segment is a hard market to crack. And I did this over a period of three years by ignoring the no’s and knowing that situations change.

And combined that with my firm belief that the segment could use my product.

I just needed to develop a relationship with the market so I could also develop the skills I needed to be able to sell to them.

People buy when they know you, trust you and have confidence in you. When you take the time to develop those characteristics, you become irresistible.

And I did.

This is what happens when you overcome your fear and keep going back.

The more someone hears from you, the more they get to know you. The more they get to know you, the more familiar you become.

In return, you get to know them and start to develop a feel for what they’re looking for. You start to develop the skills you need to have, to be able to sell to them.

Then one day, they sit back and can’t understand why they’re not doing business with you.

Overcoming your fear of rejection is a process. And this is how it works.

1. Keep doing what you’re terrified of doing because it develops courage.

2. Once your courage kicks in, it reduces your tension.

3. Which reduces your stress levels.

4. And changes your attitude from negative to confident.

5. Suddenly, people are responding to your confident manner in a positive way.

6. You’re developing and mastering the skills you need to own your future.

7. And to your surprise, you’re prospering.

Try it. It works.

This isn’t a one week trial.

Like everything in life, you need to put effort into it. Work at this process for 6 months.

You have to be serious and committed.

Because . . . .

There will be days when you’ll feel like you’ve gone 10 rounds with an angry Tasmanian Devil.

But if you practice making cold calls every day for 6 months to your target market, you’ll be amazed at the difference it makes to your business, your self esteem and your confidence.

If you’re really serious about overcoming your fear, you’ll notice your focus changes from you - to them.

You’ll start thinking about how you can help them.

And when your customer becomes more important than you, you begin the alluring process of developing a relationship of trust and confidence that’s appealing to them.

Your skills in opening doors and closing sales will improve exponentially with your effort. And before long they will skyrocket.

I’d be hard pressed to believe you weren’t experiencing significant positive changes in your revenue at the end of 183 days.

Is your fear of rejection a death blow to your business?

Or do you brush it off and say it’s part of business and part of what you need to master so you can move forward and find the people who want to do business with you?

It’s a choice. And it’s your choice.

Freedom or imprisonment.

Death or success.

It’s that simple a concept.

You can liberate yourself and own your future by accepting rejection as part of your business life. Master rejection and you prosper.

Or you can live in a prison of fear - of your own making, until diminishing returns force you out of business.

This Guerrilla From The Bush makes that choice every day. Vive le freedom!

What’s your secret for overcoming rejection?

I’d love you to post your comments and let’s see if we can help each other. Better yet, let’s have as many people as possible pitch in and share their experiences.

Take care,

CAROL

Carol Jones
Director
Interface Pty Ltd

The Fitz Like A Glove™ Ironing Board Cover, Roadworks Apron, Log Lugger, Travel Bug Shoe Bag, Mr Chin’s Laundry Bag and Sweet Shoo are all simple solutions for difficult problems. And every one is a joy to use.

We’ve developed markets for these 6 products without national or international retail distribution. To see what we’ve achieved, click on our website at http://www.interfaceaustralia.com/.

Read the story of how our business began on The Ironing Board Cover Lady. No sales hype. Just a down home story about how we started our business on the dining room table of our rural property, driving on ‘L’ Plates, without an instructor.

A comment about LinkedIn. If you’re not a member of LinkedIn, when you click View Full Profile, you’ll be asked to join. It’s free and the option is yours. There are benefits to joining. Once you’re a member, you can key in the name of any person you do business with. If they’ve taken the trouble to complete a Profile, you’ll be able to assess their background, their capabilities and the calibre of person they are. You might be, as I am, often pleasantly surprised. So go have a look.

Chapter 15 Bad Start. Great Finish!

2008-02-28T14:05:00.003+11:00

Greetings from rural Australia.

In ‘Idle Chatter. Does It Matter?’ I say good news travels slower than bad news.

Look at me. I’m a perfect example of that axiom. This chapter is about a so much better than expected service experience. But I don’t write about it first.

You see, those pleasure hormones kicked in so well, I didn’t feel the need to let off steam.

I write about my worst service experience first, because it’s the one that still gets the adrenalin flowing and the pressure valve rocking back and forth.

On the other hand, in my daily conversations with customers and friends, I do pass on my good experience.

When the opportunity arises.

Which is how most good news travels. When the opportunity arises.

In our house, the chores are divided. What I do, my partner, Victor Pleshev, never does. And what Victor does, I stay away from.

There’s no point in buying a dog and then wagging its tail when it will quite happily do so on its own, without help from either one of us.

Victor’s a floor man. He loves clean floors.

So the vacuum cleaner is his domain.

And he vacuums regularly, because we’re a home based business with neat and tidy as part of our register of standards.

We also have 3 rather large dogs that bounce around inside, so dog hair floating about at will, wreaking havoc with our electronic equipment, is a no! no!

Ditto for the car.

Victor baulks at sitting on car seats that have more in common with the fur coats of our dogs, rather than the manufacturers’ recommended covering.

In the last 30 years, Victor’s had less than a handful of vacuum cleaners.

A Miele that lasted for 27 years and was his best pal; and most recently, a Panasonic that blew up within 3 years.

Why not buy another Miele rather than replace it with a Panasonic?

At the time, he consulted Choice Magazine. It said that in their tests, the Panasonic performed better than the Miele. It was also less than half the price. Both very attractive to the man researching vacuum cleaners.

Unfortunately, no one predicted the motor would blow up within 3 years.

Or maybe a 27 year life span for vacuum cleaners has been drastically shortened by the manufacturers to ensure we buy more often.

I can muse about that forever and never know the answer.

When the Panasonic would no longer suck up or suck in, because it could no longer even whimper, we were faced with a dilemma.

What do we buy?

This being the royal ‘we’.

Although I don’t use the vacuum, I am included in the pre-buying stage if I can add something of value. But the final decision is always Victor’s.

He was adamant there would be no further consultation with Choice Magazine. Why? He’s not convinced longevity can be part of their testing criteria.

So ‘we’ went back to the old fashioned method of investigation.

Word of mouth.

I’ve always been fascinated by the number of women who happily blurt out to me how much they love their Dyson vacuum cleaners. At the post office, in my local IGA store, the hardware store. They seem to be everywhere in my rural community.

And it’s obvious rural men don’t discuss the pros and cons of vacuum cleaners.

This topic is strictly ‘women’s business.’

So where do men turn when they want to find out about a domestic appliance?

The internet, of course. Because it’s anonymous and ‘your secret is safe with me’ is guaranteed.

Victor likes what he reads about James Dyson himself. His story is part of their website.

He’s bonding already.

And he can’t fault anything about the benefits of the vacuum cleaner. It solves every cleaning situation he can think of. Home, car, the bloke’s shed, dog hair, copious and insidious dust from our dirt road.

What benefit does he like best?

It’s bagless!

Out here in rural Australia, retailers who stock vacuum cleaner replacement bags for anything but the latest vacuum models are difficult to find. He noticed it was getting harder to find bags for his 3 year old Panasonic.

He was sold!

Bagless with great sucking qualities. What more could he ask for?

An order is placed by telephone to our favourite retailer, David Jones in Sydney. We like them because they have great product knowledge and stand by the products they sell. If anything goes wrong, they’re helpful.

And they deliver pronto.

Two days later, the vacuum is waiting for us at our local post office in Kandos, NSW.

In great anticipation, the box is opened at 7pm and all the parts laid out on the floor. Ikea style. All that’s missing is the ubiquitous Allen key.

Then things start to fall apart when we look at the instruction manual.

No words. Only pictures and diagrams.

Between us, we have 4 university degrees and two lifetimes of problem solving skills.

Between us, we can’t fathom a thing the instruction manual is trying to show us.

4 hours later, we manage to assemble the Dyson and figure out some obscure, but necessary features, like how to convert the turbo head from carpets to hard floors.

A test run at 11pm that night confirms what everyone says.

It really sucks up and sucks in with gusto. We nickname it ‘The Dirt Decimator’.

Warranty cards are my responsibility. When sending Dyson’s back, I filled in the questionnaire and in the comments write this:

“Although the vacuum cleaner is truly better than most, I wouldn’t recommend it to any of my friends because no one I know reads hieroglyphics and therefore wouldn’t be able to assemble the vacuum without a struggle.”

I got that off my chest!

Victor blissfully vacuums for 3 weeks.

Then the turbo head stops turning.

Victor bypasses David Jones and goes directly to Dyson Australia.

Why?

Because Dyson’s website makes it easy to complain to them, 7 days a week.

Within Australia, there’s a Helpline 1800 number that operates 10 hours a day Monday to Friday and 7½ hours a day Saturday and Sunday. Outside of business hours you can contact them by email, stating your problem, and they’ll ring first thing next business day. All bases are covered.

What a plus. And how unusual is that? A company that goes out of its way to let you know how to contact them if something goes wrong.

But. The utterance on the other end of the phone call to customer service is the one you hate hearing.

“We’ve never had a Dyson come back under warranty!”

Why are we always the first, we ask each other?

To their credit, they take a different stance to Breville.

At their expense, they send a courier to our rural village to pick up the vacuum cleaner and all its accessories. And ask Victor to include a letter telling them what’s wrong.

Victor also adds a comment about the turbo head not cleaning wood floors as well as he expects. Is there another attachment he can purchase?

Their service is outstanding.

A courier picks the vacuum cleaner up within 48 hours.

After being looked at by their service department, we receive a phone call to tell us the turbo head is indeed faulty and a new head is now ours. They also tell us the date they will return the vacuum to us. At their expense.

During this phone call, I point out the difficulty we have in interpreting the instruction manual.

Customer service says they receive ongoing complaints about it. It’s not just me being fussy.

But, they explain, James Dyson is an engineer and inventor. And the manual is done in the UK, by him. They always send him the comments and hope that one day, he’ll realise his brainwave patterns are different to yours and mine.

Their empathy soothes me. I’ve had my say and they’ve given me an answer that’s not perfect, but I can live with because they agree with me.

Isn’t this the essence of personal bridge building? Two hands clasped together in unison.

The box arrives the next day.

Victor opens it and to his utter amazement and pleasant surprise, packed inside is a gift from Dyson Australia. A separate brush for cleaning wood floors.

They not only read his comments but acted upon them.

This bridge is becoming a steel structure.

The whole transaction takes less than a week. Their customer service is always about us, not about them.

Have we changed our opinion about recommending Dyson?

You bet.

But always with the qualifier. You have to get past the struggle with the instruction manual, we tell people. But it’s worth it, we reassure them.

I can hardly believe I say that!

When the discussion is about vacuum cleaners, we tell everyone how much Victor loves his Dyson.

Dyson Australia made sure our bad start had a great finish. And I’ve certainly changed my mind about their product purely because they have such wonderful customer service.

And that’s what you want. If nothing goes wrong, terrific. But if something does, you want to know you’ll be looked after promptly, listened to and treated with respect.

We love our Dyson!!

Or do we just love Dyson Australia? It’s hard to separate the two.

This Guerrilla From The Bush is no different to anyone else. Respect and empathy when dealing with me will get you everywhere.

What about you? Have you had similar good experiences?

I’d love you to post your comments and let’s see if we can help each other. Better yet, let’s have as many people as possible pitch in and share their experiences.

Take care,

CAROL

Carol Jones
Director
Interface Pty Ltd

The Fitz Like A Glove™ Ironing Board Cover, Roadworks Apron, Log Lugger, Travel Bug Shoe Bag, Mr Chin’s Laundry Bag and Sweet Shoo are all simple solutions for difficult problems. And every one is a joy to use.

We’ve developed markets for these 6 products without national or international retail distribution. To see what we’ve achieved, click on our website at www.interfaceaustralia.com.

Read the story of how our business began on The Ironing Board Cover Lady. No sales hype. Just a down home story about how we started our business on the dining room table of our rural property, driving on ‘L’ Plates, without an instructor.

A comment about LinkedIn. If you’re not a member of LinkedIn, when you click View Full Profile, you’ll be asked to join. It’s free and the option is yours. There are benefits to joining. Once you’re a member, you can key in the name of any person you do business with. If they’ve taken the trouble to complete a Profile, you’ll be able to assess their background, their capabilities and the calibre of person they are. You might be, as I am, often pleasantly surprised. So go have a look.

Chapter 14 Idle Chatter. Does It Matter?

2008-02-24T10:33:00.004+11:00

Greetings from rural Australia.

One of my favourite pastimes is eavesdropping. There’s nothing people talk about that doesn’t interest me.

And they openly talk about almost everything. Their sex lives, husbands, wives, children, love affairs, and believe it or not, their sexually transmitted diseases and the appropriate remedies. Their job, co-workers, neighbours, who’s snorting what, and their most recent good or bad experiences.

There isn’t much that I haven’t overheard in my guise as eavesdropper extraordinaire.

And I’ve noticed that good experiences don’t travel very far. They’re talked about only if the opportunity arises.

How often has a friend rung you to blurt out, “Emily, you won’t believe the fabulous experience I just had at Harvey Norman/David Jones/The Good Guys!”

The truth?

The odds are you’ve had this sort of phone call as often as the one that tells you a million dollars is waiting for you at the lotteries office.

But, how many times has a friend called you on the pretence of saying hi, only to then harangue you with their most recent ghastly experience with a tradesman, retailer, the tax office, their sister/brother, the boss?

More than once, I bet.

Why does bad news travel faster than good news?

Because your good experience at Harvey Norman/David Jones/The Good Guys doesn’t ruin your day.

It actually enhances your day. There’s no stress, no pain, and no reason to burden someone else to seek relief. The pleasure hormones are doing their job.

Bad experiences are giant stress builders.

The adrenalin is flowing and it needs to be released. When the pressure valve starts rocking back and forth and is about to pop off, it’s time to let off that steam.

Physiologically, you almost can’t help yourself. The need to expunge yourself of your anger, your grief at being let down – yes, it is a form of grief – your disappointment, et al, is so strong, you look for an outlet.

And you do it in the most natural way known. You tell someone else about your horrible experience. Because "a burden shared is a sorrow spared."

And if they’re letting off steam about you, your company, or your products, you’re in trouble.

Because the beat of the tom-toms goes from village to village to village to village.

Regardless of the truth, mud sticks.

50% of people will always believe the story. 50% will judge for themselves. Take Lindy Chamberlain. Despite being cleared of charges of killing her baby, Azaria, a proportion of the population still thinks she’s guilty.

What can you do to soften the beat of the tom-toms?

Make sure you fix any problems your customer has immediately and to the complete satisfaction of your customer. It’s as simple as that.

By thinking of your customer first, you’re also putting your best foot forward and selflessly guarding the one thing money can’t buy. Your good reputation.

For example.

My partner is Victor Pleshev. His mother, Rita, is 81 and lives with us on our 54 hectare rural property, but in her own home. 6 years ago she decided she’d like to buy a bread maker and bake bread for us. It’s one of her ways to say thank you to us for caring for her.

In 2002, there was only one department store in my region. Myer’s in Bathurst NSW.

With her son, Victor, in tow, and after much discussion with the sales assistant, she decided on a Breville bread maker. And the top of the range. Rita only buys quality.

In 2002 she was 75 years old and although not frail, definitely not robust.

Not being strong enough to pull a plough is a problem for her and her bread maker.

When the bread’s ready, she’s never able to get it out of the bucket. She always has to ring her son and ask him to come down and do the job. And even he sometimes struggles to get the bread out.

After several months of this, Victor rang Breville to say there was a problem with the bread maker. As it was still under warranty, they asked it to be sent back to them to be fixed. The delivery to them was at our expense.

Victor was astonished to receive a call from the Service Manager to be told there is nothing wrong with the bread maker.

A discussion ensues about his mother, her age and a comment about her being more on the frail side rather than robust.

The Service Manager points out the model she purchased is unsuitable for her and acknowledges there are problems with releasing the bread for someone who is frail.

As the bread maker is still under warranty, and the Service Manager acknowledges the bread maker is unsuitable for her, Victor asks if it’s possible to replace it with a model that is more suitable for her.

Absolutely not, comes the reply. Breville isn’t responsible for customers’ not choosing correctly.

Another discussion follows about whose responsibility is it? Is it Rita’s responsibility to know what’s best for her? Or Breville’s or Myer’s?

It’s Myer’s responsibility, he replies. They sold her something that isn’t right for her. Take it up with them.

What does Myer’s say?

Not their problem.

It’s not up to us to know the physical capability of a customer. Anyway, they say, they don’t advise, they just point out the differences between products and brands.

Victor points out that at no time was it mentioned to his mother that bread was harder to get out of the model she purchased as compared to others.

Myer’s reply?

We’re not aware of that. Take it up with Breville.

Myer’s closed down in Bathurst NSW before we could vote with our feet and not make any more purchases from them. They left us with K-Mart which is now Target.

Breville?

Breville asked us to pay to get the bread maker returned to us. In the opinion of the Service Manager, as there is nothing wrong with it, Breville isn’t obligated to pay for its return.

Rita still uses her bread maker and curses it every time. What else does that do? It reinforces her resolve to never again buy Breville.

Think about that. Every week, she’s reminded by Breville!, to never buy another Breville product.

As a family, we no longer buy any products made by Breville. That’s not going to put them out of business. But when I see someone eyeing off a Breville product, I can’t help myself. I relate my experience with the bread maker. And then let the customer make their own decision.

How many times have you been the customer caught in the middle between the manufacturer/service and the retailer/service provider? And how many times have you been the loser?

Never forget how you felt. Because that’s precisely how your customer feels.

Listen to this.

Whatever the cost is to you to rectify a problem to the complete satisfaction of your customer, it’s never as great as the price you pay, when they start blabbing about you to all and sundry, and in as many public forums as possible, about how you let them down.

Read that paragraph again.

Anger and disappointment are real and palpable emotions. And the prime movers that drive people to bad mouth you.

How much would it have cost Breville to replace Rita’s bread maker? A pittance compared to the nuisance caused by an unhappy, disappointed customer and her family who look for opportunities to relate their experience.

Listen to this again. If a customer comes to you with a problem, fix it to their complete satisfaction. If you don’t, I guarantee you they’ll create opportunities to rip you to shreds.

Take it from this Guerrilla From The Bush, idle chatter always matters. And you need to know when to attack and when to give a hug. Do you?

What’s your personal experience with disappointing service? How do you handle it in your company?

I’d love you to post your comments and let’s see if we can help each other. Better yet, let’s have as many people as possible pitch in and share their experiences.

Postscript 15th April 2008

Chris White, a truly lovely customer, of TalaFarmStay in the Northern Rivers Region of NSW, had a similar problem with his breadmaker. To read his clever solution, click on Comments below.

Take care,

CAROL

Carol Jones
Director
Interface Pty Ltd

The Fitz Like A Glove™ Ironing Board Cover, Roadworks Apron, Log Lugger, Travel Bug Shoe Bag, Mr Chin’s Laundry Bag and Sweet Shoo are all simple solutions for difficult problems. And every one is a joy to use.

We’ve developed markets for these 6 products without national or international retail distribution. To see what we’ve achieved, click on our website at http://www.interfaceaustralia.com/.

Read the story of how our business began on The Ironing Board Cover Lady. No sales hype. Just a down home story about how we started our business on the dining room table of our rural property, driving on ‘L’ Plates, without an instructor.

A comment about LinkedIn. If you’re not a member of LinkedIn, when you click View Full Profile, you’ll be asked to join. It’s free and the option is yours. There are benefits to joining. Once you’re a member, you can key in the name of any person you do business with. If they’ve taken the trouble to complete a Profile, you’ll be able to assess their background, their capabilities and the calibre of person they are. You might be, as I am, often pleasantly surprised. So go have a look.

Chapter 13 Opportunity Knocks Only Once? Rubbish!

2008-02-20T10:25:00.005+11:00

Greetings from rural Australia.

When I was growing up, I was told by my parents, my school teachers and just about every adult I came in contact with that: - opportunity knocks only once.

And when it knocks, if you don’t grab this opportunity, it’s gone forever.

Do you believe that?

In a gentler era, it was assumed that you waited for opportunity to knock.

Unless you were Henry Ford, a Rockefeller, a Morgan, Andrew Carnegie. Or any of the giant industrialists of the early 20th century.

Why did people assume that these industrialists were in a class of their own and been given special qualities that separated them from mortal men in business?

They really were special, and would be considered special today, but not for their esoteric qualities, but for their ability to look for unseen opportunities, grab them and develop them. With complete disregard to their consequences.

They were ruthless and often dishonest. Their tactics coined the term ‘Robber Barons'. It was the days of the wild west of business.

Like the internet is today. No regulations and anything goes.

Their mystique emanated from their extreme wealth. Wealthy beyond the ability of normal people to comprehend. And therefore, the public enshrined them as members of a very special and select club.

Very little was published about business success in the early 20th century, and probably not many people were interested in it. The average business was still a mom and pop shop. Grocers, drapers, butchers, bakers, green grocers, coopers, farriers, the ice man, candle makers, barbers, tailors, dressmakers, shoemakers, snake oil salesmen. Businesses built on either a locally required trade or service.

The thirst for business knowledge had its awakening in the 1970’s, when the business world started to become more competitive. When globalisation was still an embryo.

This was the era of Mother England cutting its ties with Australia. Suddenly business was faced with finding their own markets, rather than just selling their commodities and products to an agent, who forwarded everything to England, and what happened after that was of no concern to Australia. Until the cheques stopped arriving.

To say business scurried to find their feet is an understatement. Consultants of every type crawled out of the woodwork, giving advice to an ignorant community hungry for information about ‘how to do’ just about everything past the production stage.

There was such a demand for the instant fix, the snake oil salesmen were resurrected.

Initially, this thirst for knowledge was confined to large business.

Small business had yet to experience the effect of a super store on every corner. This was still the glory days of word of mouth being the main source of customers.

In the mid 1980’s, I distinctly remember the conversation at a dinner party given by the owner of a small, local travel agent, musing over an ad placed by her competitor. “Business must be bad, she announced, for Adele to be advertising.”

In the 1980’s, marketing was as alien a word to the vocabulary of small business as Al-Qaeda was to the western world in 2000. And only a large business would advertise. Or a small business in trouble.

That changed for my travel agent friend when Jet Set and Harvey World Travel started poaching her local clients. She was stunned, as she assumed they would never leave her. Then along came Flight Centre.

What does she do today?

What everyone in business has evolved to doing.

Not waiting for opportunity to knock on your door, but looking in every nook and cranny for an opportunity to latch onto, and call your own, before your competitor does.

It’s hard to believe in today’s competitive environment that a mere 30 years ago a gentler age existed where a shingle hung from the outdoor rafters of your place of business brought in customers.

A few facts.

The average customer today is bombarded with 30,000 sales messages a month. It takes 8.4 sales attempts before a customer/client has any idea who you are, let alone be ready to make a decision to buy from you.

Is this business environment today so competitive that opportunities are limited?

No!

Men and women in business who have survived the early stages of slash and burn are experts at finding opportunities. And they exist almost everywhere, if you’re prepared to do some hard work and develop market niches.

The world is too big for you to be a generalist. Leave that to Big W and Wal-Mart.

But you can be a specialist.

For instance, break your product market down into segments then break it down again and again until you discover the one niche that has a need and no one is filling it.

For example.

Butterfly Releases. Fill the sky with the release of beautiful butterflies to add a unique and memorable touch to your wedding day and other special occasions.

Simply Rose Petals. Simply Rose Petals grow and supply hand-picked specialty dried rose petals for wedding decorations, spa retreats, and wedding confetti. From the family farm in Australia, Sarah and Jan send rose petals all over the world. They were the first to do this.

The Swanky Hanky. Made in Mudgee NSW by 4 Corners Designs, these beautifully made hankies have perfectly mitred corners. And boutique shops clamour for them.

Do some research on the internet. Key in a market segment and see what comes up. And look past pages 1 and 2. These are the companies that are doing well. Pages 3 and backwards might just ignite the crucial spark of imagination that opens up a whole new niche for you.

What have other people discovered that you can take to greater heights?

And remember this. Just because a company isn’t doing well in their niche doesn’t mean it’s not viable. Some companies are just hopeless at marketing.

When we first started our business, we were shut out of the retail market. To get our product established, we took the alternative route of field days and home shows, because The Fitz Like A Glove™ Ironing Board Cover was perfect for demonstrating.

I observed another exhibitor who was a master at demonstrations.

He took a product that languished on the shelves of retailers and turned it into a multi-million dollar business by demonstrating the versatility of the product. He bought the rights to the product and after 10 years on the road, retired before the age of 40 a very wealthy man.

What can you do with your business to turn it into a treasure trove of opportunities?

As a Guerrilla From The Bush, I can assure you there is a wealth of opportunities waiting for you to uncover. But it takes effort and that’s what takes you to places you never dreamed of.

I’d love you to post your comments and let’s see if we can help each other. Better yet, let’s have as many people as possible pitch in and share their experiences.

Take care,

CAROL

Carol Jones
Director
Interface Pty Ltd

The Fitz Like A Glove™ Ironing Board Cover, Roadworks Apron, Log Lugger, Travel Bug Shoe Bag, Mr Chin’s Laundry Bag and Sweet Shoo are all simple solutions for difficult problems. And every one is a joy to use.

We’ve developed markets for these 6 products without national or international retail distribution. To see what we’ve achieved, click on our website at http://www.interfaceaustralia.com/.

Read the story of how our business began on The Ironing Board Cover Lady. No sales hype. Just a down home story about how we started our business on the dining room table of our rural property, driving on ‘L’ Plates, without an instructor.

A comment about LinkedIn. If you’re not a member of LinkedIn, when you click View Full Profile, you’ll be asked to join. It’s free and the option is yours. There are benefits to joining. Once you’re a member, you can key in the name of any person you do business with. If they’ve taken the trouble to complete a Profile, you’ll be able to assess their background, their capabilities and the calibre of person they are. You might be, as I am, often pleasantly surprised. So go have a look.

Chapter 12 Are You Courageous?

2008-02-17T13:22:00.009+11:00

Greetings from rural Australia.

One of my favourite Saturday morning programs is Saturday Extra with Geraldine Doogue on ABC Radio National.

Saturday morning, the 16th of February 2008, she was talking to Don Watson, one time speechwriter for former prime minister Paul Keating, and these days author and the expert you turn to for discussions regarding the English language.

Don’s best selling book ‘Death Sentences: How Clichés, Weasel Words, and Management Speak Are Strangling Public Language' stays on the best seller list.

As one reviewer aptly points out, “He takes up the fight against the pestilence of bullet points, the dearth of verbs, the buzzwords like valued customers, the weasel words like downsizing, reengineering, and the incessant cant that politicians speak to us and to each other in, with their clichéd, impenetrable, lifeless babble.”

Geraldine and Don were discussing Kevin Rudd’s historic ‘Sorry’ speech in Parliament on Wednesday, February 13th 2008.

The conversation ranged from the significant effect of Kevin Rudd writing his own speech and avoiding the common ‘pestilence’ of the modern day speechwriters. Avoiding words the public is weary of hearing, like ‘moving on’, ‘transparency’, and ‘impactful’.

To all who heard Kevin Rudd’s speech, it was heartfelt and genuine. Even if you don’t agree with the apology, his speech was moving and came from deep within his heart and soul and not out of the head of a third party.

The apology was a courageous move for Kevin Rudd. Not every Australian agrees with the concept of an apology. And writing his own speech accentuated that courage. Very few prime ministers write their own words.

Don Watson made a comment that can be applied to your small business.

He said countries become courageous when they do courageous things.

Those words equally apply to a business. Companies become courageous when they do courageous things.

So what’s courageous? Plucky, spirited, audacious, gutsy, bold, daring and above all, brave.

Read any women’s magazine, and you’ll read stories of everyday families leading courageous lives. Families who have children with overwhelming disabilities who have to find ways of incorporating those disabilities into a life of normality. Families who have to be brave all day, every day, just to get through the day.

Bravery in business takes a different form.

It’s courageous for a business to take a different stance to issues of morality than other businesses. It’s courageous for a business to set itself up purely to give to others, rather than giving to itself. It’s courageous for a business to defy the trend of their industry and walk a different path.

For instance.

In the 1980’s, before maternity leave became an issue, child care facilities were the hot topic. They were scarce and expensive. And most employers were completely against contributing to the cost of child care for their staff.

Why?

These companies were run by men who were the young fathers of the 1950’s. Child care was women’s work. If you want children and can’t afford child care, stay at home and look after your children. Just like their wives did.

But Lend Lease had a different perspective. Spurred on by the rise of women within their company to executive status, they opened the first company based child care centre. To much applause from women everywhere. And the brick bats and jeers from the rest of the corporate world.

It’s hard to believe, in 2008, that such a decision a mere 20 years ago was considered courageous and ground breaking. But Lend Lease really bucked the corporate system and dared to be different.

It didn’t take too long before other larger companies recognised the importance of company based child care in retaining their best staff. And today, it’s not unusual for the company you work for to offer assistance with your child care.

But I am mindful that this is not the case with all companies. But it’s no longer a ground breaking issue. It’s more a matter of what your company wants to give you in return for your services.

A business started purely for a social cause is Taylor and Khoo. It’s a fashion and homewares label started in 2002 by Kylie Taylor and Valerie Khoo for the sole purpose of helping disadvantaged orphans at the Sunrise Angkor Orphanage, Siem Reap, Cambodia.

The owners of Taylor and Khoo, Kylie Taylor and Valerie Khoo, derive no income from this business. All proceeds are used for food, medicine and other basic necessities for the orphanage.

And they also give back to the Cambodian community.

Apart from raising funds for the orphanage, Taylor & Khoo helps to generate new income for Cambodian small businesses and individuals. Instead of buying from a handful of factories or suppliers, Taylor & Khoo sources its production to a wide variety of individual seamstresses, small family businesses and workshops that employ disadvantaged groups.

Both these women have full on, high profile jobs in their own right.

Kylie Taylor is group managing director of Baldwin Boyle Group, a public affairs consultancy in Melbourne.

Valerie Khoo is director of the Sydney Writers’ Centre, Australia’s leading centre for writing training. And is also editor of the Small Business Enterprise Blog for the Sydney Morning Herald.

Any business, whether making a profit for you or not, takes time, dedication and commitment. And for these two women to so selflessly give of themselves and commit themselves to the bold dream of helping a community thousands of kilometres away is plucky, spirited and gutsy.

Daring too. It can’t fall on its face. There are too many children and adults who benefit from this venture to countenance the spectre of failure. The pressure to succeed is always on.

These friends have won 5 awards for their audaciousness.

2004 Family Circle Women Who Dare Awards
2005 Australian Humanitarian Awards
2005 Australia Post Small Business Awards Special Judges Commendation
2006 UTS Alumni Leadership Award
2006 Anthill 10 Coolest Companies in Australia.

Imagine winning a ‘coolest company’ award for being a giver!

All the money won from these prizes was redirected back to their orphanage.

Professions are classy ghettos. Ghettos in the sense of:- like people living together in similar circumstances. In this case, change living to working.

Accountants, solicitors, doctors, architects all embrace similar types of ethics. Their professional institutes demand a sense of cohesion about the way in which they work.

And few break that mould.

But I’ve discovered a doctor who is very courageous.

He’s actually a customer of mine. And I’m unable to use his name because he doesn’t need, nor want, the recognition.

But this is how this suburban GP runs his practice.

He abhors the over use of medication to treat patients.

For example.

If you visit him and you’re a Type 2 diabetic, he’ll prescribe the minimum of medication and prescribe the maximum of changes you need to make in your lifestyle to reduce the effects of diabetes. Such as diet and exercise.

If you’re a smoker and are experiencing smoking related illnesses which haven’t reached the stage of being life threatening, his first prescription is to stop smoking.

If you’re overweight and have obesity related illnesses, he also sends you to a nutritionist, dietician and gives you no choice about discovering the benefits of exercise.

If you have high blood pressure caused by stress, along with the minimal medication is a list of things to do to change your lifestyle to bring down and maintain low blood pressure. He prefers you to maintain your low blood pressure through exercise, diet and a more relaxed lifestyle, than by medication.

I hope you’re getting a clear picture of how this doctor runs his practice on a self help basis.

He started this when he discovered he was growing intolerant of the revolving door of patients who refused to change their personal habits to help themselves. He was alarmed at the number of patients who think popping a pill is the magic cure.

He thinks patients are over medicated and under informed about the benefits of lifestyle changes.

He’s such a firm believer in lifestyle changes being more beneficial than medication, he will no longer see a patient if he can see they don’t want to help themselves. If you have a persistent, hacking cough and want to keep smoking, that’s fine. He simply refers you to another doctor.

He’s discovered that many people embrace this ‘daring’ philosophy and his practice is now so busy, he will only accept patients if they’ve been referred to him by an existing patient.

Audacious, bold, daring and brave. And busy!!

Perhaps this is the doctor of tomorrow.

Do you do things that defy common wisdom? Do you move out of your comfort zone to achieve the results that will take you to places you never dreamed possible? What’s your ground breaking initiative that could turn into tomorrow’s norm?

As a Guerrilla From The Bush, I know there’s someone, somewhere who will discover a bold, new way of doing things. Share it with us.

I’d love you to post your comments and let’s see if we can help each other. Better yet, let’s have as many people as possible pitch in and share their experiences.

Take care,

CAROL

Carol Jones
Director
Interface Pty Ltd

The Fitz Like A Glove™ Ironing Board Cover, Roadworks Apron, Log Lugger, Travel Bug Shoe Bag, Mr Chin’s Laundry Bag and Sweet Shoo are all simple solutions for difficult problems. And every one is a joy to use.

We’ve developed markets for these 6 products without national or international retail distribution. To see what we’ve achieved, click on our website at www.interfaceaustralia.com.

Read the story of how our business began on The Ironing Board Cover Lady. No sales hype. Just a down home story about how we started our business on the dining room table of our rural property, driving on ‘L’ Plates, without an instructor.

A comment about LinkedIn. If you’re not a member of LinkedIn, when you click View Full Profile, you’ll be asked to join. It’s free and the option is yours. There are benefits to joining. Once you’re a member, you can key in the name of any person you do business with. If they’ve taken the trouble to complete a Profile, you’ll be able to assess their background, their capabilities and the calibre of person they are. You might be, as I am, often pleasantly surprised. So go have a look.

Chapter 11 Emotion And Passion In Business. Are They A Good Mix?

2008-02-15T14:13:00.009+11:00

Greetings from rural Australia.

If you’re like most men and women who start their own business, you’ve worked for other people first. And you discover very early on that there’s rarely a place for your emotion and passion in someone else’s business.

With the exception of truly special companies like Google.

If you go down the honour roll of successful businesses started by entrepreneurs, the stories are very similar.

Take Chet Holmes.

Chet is one of the world’s finest salesmen. Extraordinaire, to be truthful.

There’s nothing about sales that Chet doesn’t love to do and do it well. He’s a master at cold calling. He’s a master at giving a customer a multitude of good reasons why they should do business with his company. He’s a master of charm as well as being a master of policies and procedures.

He started out selling furniture at the age of 19. University wasn’t part of his future. He was raring to get to work and make money.

The furniture store had a bonus for any sales person who made $20,000 in sales in any month. A target rarely met. Chet made $18,000 in sales his first week.

His thoroughly researched and polished sales skills made fortunes for other companies in the Fortune 500.

And he left every one of these companies because they didn’t want any part of the one element that made him a star.

The emotion and passion within him that created the burning desire to be super successful.

Today he’s a super star in business and owns several sales and marketing companies, none of which are small businesses. He’s revered around the world as a can do practitioner who turbo charges your business with his insights and systems based policies and procedures.

Jay Abraham is another highly charged individual who’s considered to be the master of marketing for small, medium and large businesses. He’s driven by his emotions and passion to be the best. By his unshakable belief that everyone can do well in business if you just look at what you’re doing and ask yourself where the opportunity and the passion is.

Just listening to Jay speak conjures up a visual image of zillions of jumping beans inside a small container, beating at the sides to get out. His energy is palpable.

Jay’s earned wealth for himself and others by showing people how to, first, unlock the passion necessary to succeed in business.

Closer to home, there are more examples of successful businesses built on a base of emotion and passion.

Do you know Sarina Russo?

She’s a failed legal secretary. One of the worst in the world, having been fired from all her jobs because she couldn’t type and wouldn’t take instructions from other people.

Not only did she feel she was smart enough to run all the companies who employed her, she thought she was smarter than everyone who employed her.

That raw emotion of self belief has built a $70 million empire that began when she started a typing school in Queensland in 1979.

She also failed high school. Redid year 12 three times. And is now a graduate of Harvard Business School.

Today, she hosts fundraisers for both the liberal and labour governments (you can’t be too careful) and icons like Bill Clinton. And rubs shoulders with business moguls like James Packer when invited to sit on boards of directors such as Challenger.

She’s emotionally charged, quirky, has no inhibitions and conquers all within her aura with her passionate embrace of life and business.

Gabby and her sister Sheridan Simpson are the Clean Queens. A business with a distinct difference.

They’re forensic cleaners and they clean up after dead bodies. Murders, suicides, overdoses, lonely people dead for days before someone finds them.

Their cleaning tasks are, by necessity, devoid of emotion, but not a sense of humour.

On their cleaning van, next to the Clean Queens signage, is Gabby's avatar. It’s a spunky, sexy woman with red hair in a perky pony tail, ruby red lips, big hoop earrings and wearing a gold crown atop her head; while thrusting out her large breasts that accentuate a tiny waist; shown off to perfection by her crisp white uniform.

Very eye catching.

Gabby loves what she does and is passionate about her work. She wishes she’d discovered this years earlier. For her, it’s the ideal job. There’s no set routine, no 9-5 regime, no one tells her what to do and every job is different.

But it’s not for everybody. On her website, Clean Queens, Gabby lays out their criteria for employment.

Read this.

“Should you be interested in a position at Clean Queens, we would like you to consider a few of the following points before you apply.

• If you want to be a Homicide Detective - join the Police Force.

• If CSI on TV grabs you - join Forensics.

• If you want to handle dead bodies – contact the Funeral Association.

• You should have at least 4 years experience in commercial and domestic cleaning.

• This is not a 9 to 5 job. It is on call 24/7, 365 days a year.

• This is hard work, in unusual, restricted areas, in uncomfortable PPE. The odours can be with you for days afterwards.

• If you have watched all the latest documentaries on Crime Scene Cleaning, this is not a Get Rich Quick Job.

• Dealing with family members, elderly, people suffering mental health issues, disability, drug and alcohol abuse, they are all very sensitive clients.”

This is not a glamour job! Yet despite all the filth and contamination in her job, she loves what she does because “it is gratifying on completion of a job when you’ve been able to help someone in real need.”

Self belief, determination, passion, a burning desire to succeed, the satisfaction you get from helping others in need, are all emotions.

Can you envisage running your small business without them?

As a Guerrilla From The Bush, I know that love of what you do, your passion and emotions turbo charge a burning desire to be the best. They’re all part of the mix that takes you to places you never dreamed of.

What are you passionate about? What’s your burning desire that will take you onwards and upwards?

I’d love you to post your comments and let’s see if we can help each other. Better yet, let’s have as many people as possible pitch in and share their experiences.

Take care,

CAROL

Carol Jones
Director
Interface Pty Ltd

The Fitz Like A Glove™ Ironing Board Cover, Roadworks Apron, Log Lugger, Travel Bug Shoe Bag, Mr Chin’s Laundry Bag and Sweet Shoo are all simple solutions for difficult problems. And every one is a joy to use.

We’ve developed markets for these 6 products without national or international retail distribution. To see what we’ve achieved, click on our website at www.interfaceaustralia.com.

Read the story of how our business began on The Ironing Board Cover Lady. No sales hype. Just a down home story about how we started our business on the dining room table of our rural property, driving on ‘L’ Plates, without an instructor.

A comment about LinkedIn. If you’re not a member of LinkedIn, when you click View Full Profile, you’ll be asked to join. It’s free and the option is yours. There are benefits to joining. Once you’re a member, you can key in the name of any person you do business with. If they’ve taken the trouble to complete a Profile, you’ll be able to assess their background, their capabilities and the calibre of person they are. You might be, as I am, often pleasantly surprised. So go have a look.

Chapter 10 Is There Such A Thing As Bad Publicity?

2008-02-14T13:17:00.005+11:00

Greetings from rural Australia.

What is bad publicity?

It depends on the perception people have of you. And how you want them to perceive you.

If you’re Benji and Joel Madden of the band Good Charlotte, positive publicity is bad publicity. These are the bad boys of pop punk bands. Their image borders on predatory and feral. Helping little old ladies across the street is bad for their image.

Marcus Einfeld is a former judge. His car was caught speeding by a speed camera. And to avoid paying a $70 fine, he said he wasn’t driving the car. Someone else was. That person happens to have died prior to the date of the speeding offence. He’s accused of lying about who really was behind the wheel of his car.

Ouch! That’s bad publicity.

The next one is interesting.

Shannon Lush, the acclaimed author of Spotless and bearing the moniker of ‘The Queen Of Clean’. She’s an icon in the world of clean and green, thanks to the ABC recognising her extraordinary knowledge about removing stains.

She was on the front cover of Good Weekend’s February 2, 2008 edition.

She’s sold over half a million of her Spotless books and it continues to fly off the shelves at 1,000 copies a week.

I was compelled to read every word of this article so I could understand why she’s so brilliant.

According to Jane Cadzow, the journalist who wrote the article, Shannon’s father was an industrial chemist, amongst other things, and taught Shannon about the chemical composition of the objects around her and the ways in which different materials interact with one another.

Not the sort of exposure most children get to chemistry so early in life. And she loved it and soaked up everything he taught her. And went on to learn more on her own. In Shannon’s words, “chemistry is like breathing for me.”

Very impressive. And so far, great publicity.

But as the article delves deeper into the life of Shannon Lush, issues arise which border on unbelievable. Or at least highly sceptical.

She met her husband, Rick, as a result of speed dating. She went out with 600 men in 12 months, some more than once, before meeting Rick. She says she had 4 dates a day. She didn’t pay for a meal for an entire year.

She thrives on 90 minutes sleep a night. If she gets 4 hours or more, she feels like she’s drunk from too much sleep.

She lifted a crashed car up and off a neighbour’s garbage can. In front of the police investigating the accident.

And to paraphrase Good Weekend.

Shannon held a solo exhibition, renting a house and completely fitting it out with her art and handicrafts. There were 40,000 pieces that took her just on 3 months to complete. Everything from miniatures the size of a fingernail to pictures that covered entire walls. 8,000 ceramic pieces. And glass. She retiled an entire bathroom with handmade tiles. And made all the fittings for the bathroom as well.

From Spotless to breathless.

I grabbed my calculator and did the maths. 90 days times 24 hours per day are 2,160 hours or 129,600 minutes. 40,000 items is one made every 3.24 minutes. Without sleep.

Is this possible? Even plausible?

This doesn’t diminish the popularity of Shannon’s show on 702 ABC Sydney. Her devoted listeners never stop calling in with questions. And Shannon says there isn’t anything she’s come across that she can’t remove. Her popularity is a testament to this.

But what did the article in Good Weekend do for her image?

Did it change my perception of her?

Yes, it did. I’m seriously dubious about her superwoman abilities.

Is this a case of bad publicity? Or too much information?

I’d like you to tell this Guerrilla From The Bush your opinion. Is this bad publicity, good publicity, too much information, or just a case of a superwoman who’s in a class of her own?

Let’s look at a different scenario.

We’ve all heard there’s no such thing as bad publicity. Taking into account that most bad publicity is brought about by a series of events not dissimilar to Marcus Einfeld’s incident, on a grander scale, can bad publicity hurt you?

If you think not, think again.

Bad publicity has destroyed companies and people.

Think Enron. HIH Insurance. Rodney Adler. James Hardie Australia. Watergate and Richard Nixon. Monica Lewinski.

At the end of the day, when all the dust has settled, you have only one attribute in business that you take from place to place. It’s your baggage. And that baggage is your reputation.

Besmirch it at your peril.

I’d love you to post your comments and let’s see if we can help each other. Better yet, let’s have as many people as possible pitch in and share their experiences.

Take care,

CAROL

Carol Jones
Director
Interface Pty Ltd

The Fitz Like A Glove™ Ironing Board Cover, Roadworks Apron, Log Lugger, Travel Bug Shoe Bag, Mr Chin’s Laundry Bag and Sweet Shoo are all simple solutions for difficult problems. And every one is a joy to use.

We’ve developed markets for these 6 products without national or international retail distribution. To see what we’ve achieved, click on our website at www.interfaceaustralia.com.

Read the story of how our business began on The Ironing Board Cover Lady. No sales hype. Just a down home story about how we started our business on the dining room table of our rural property, driving on ‘L’ Plates, without an instructor.

A comment about LinkedIn. If you’re not a member of LinkedIn, when you click View Full Profile, you’ll be asked to join. It’s free and the option is yours. There are benefits to joining. Once you’re a member, you can key in the name of any person you do business with. If they’ve taken the trouble to complete a Profile, you’ll be able to assess their background, their capabilities and the calibre of person they are. You might be, as I am, often pleasantly surprised. So go have a look.

Chapter 9 Perception Is Reality

2008-02-14T10:14:00.003+11:00

Greetings from rural Australia.

Have you ever witnessed, or been part of this kind of conversation? You and your friend/partner/business associate are discussing an occasion you shared in common. The conversation is getting down to the nitty gritty.

Considerate Caroline says, “That person was so aggressive and overbearing, they really annoyed me”. Dynamite Joe says ‘I didn’t find that to be the case at all”. “I thought that person was just being firm and authoritative.”

That’s a simplification of a discussion. But what I’m demonstrating is that we all see things differently and therefore perception of reality differs from person to person.

Our brains process information in different ways. No two brains have the same microprocessor. We don’t buy our brains from an IT store. Our wiring is unique and this difference in wiring is what makes each one of us unusual in our own way.

Read this scenario. This is what happens when people go on job interviews and are interviewed by several people. The applicants are narrowed down, the selectors get together and discuss their perception of each person.

Perceptions differ from selector to selector. It’s the common elements that determine who gets the job. And the job goes to the person who ‘fits in’. The person who’s perceived to be the most suitable.

And have you noticed how much alike people in each company are? They’re hired because they’re compatible.

If you’re trying to score a major client, do you know how that prospective client perceives you? Many a deal’s been made and lost based purely on perception.

How many times have you heard this? “I contracted them because they just felt right.”

Perception is a package. It has an outer layer, the wrapping, and the inner core, the contents.

Both are important.

When trying to open doors, your prospect is looking at the wrapping first. If they like it, they’ll open the package to inspect the contents.

Let’s say you’re a small home based business. You have a set of skills that are valuable to large companies. Let’s say these companies are in the BRW top 100.

When these companies secure products and services at a high level, their perception of you is crucial to getting the door opened. You must be perceived to be totally professional and able to perform.

And!

To make it simple. They want to see men and women who look and act just like them.

When you’re in front of them, what’s going through their minds? What are they thinking of you? Do they perceive you as being on the same level as them?

If they don’t, you’re out of the picture.

You can have the best skills in the world, be the smartest in your field, but if you’re not presenting yourself in the same ‘picture frame’ as the client you want to secure, you’re not going to have your picture taken together.

Perception is reality.

You’re walking down the street and you see a man who’s dressed like a thug. So you assume he’s a thug. And feel threatened.

You walk down the street and you see the same man dressed in a suit. So you assume he’s a business man and you feel safe.

Neither image guarantees violence or safety, but your perception dictates how you respond to this person.

The same with potential clients. How you’re dressed, what you wear, how you speak, your presentation skills, the car you drive, your connections, all add to the perception your prospective client has of you. This is your outer wrapping.

Even though individuals differ in their wiring, there are elements in common that you can polish to suit the types of companies you want to attract. And add individual elements later, to suit individual prospects within those companies.

Why? Because you can manipulate every perception someone has of you. That’s what’s so good about perceptions. They’re all surface mounted and you can change them.

Don’t believe me? Britney Spears has lurched from virginal girl next door to the pop princess from hell.

Many years ago, a business woman left a corporate giant to start her own consulting business. In the 1980’s, before home based businesses were the norm.

She was a cracker jack at conflict resolution and could solve difficult human resources conflicts within companies.

She started with just her ambition to make it big in her field.

To attract the companies she wanted, she had to be perceived as already being successful.

So she developed her own ‘media kit’.

She already had an impressive track record in conflict resolution, so she wrote to everyone she had ever been associated with and asked them to write letters of testimonials regarding her skills. And she received enough to make a good ‘skills book’.

She had an ordinary car that she knew wouldn’t impress her prospective clients. So she arranged several appointments on the same day of the week. And she rented a BMW for the day. Why? So she’d have the right car in the allotted parking space at the company she was visiting. Do people look? Yes they do!

Her grooming was impeccable because she paid attention to details.

She dressed for the occasion. She knew her way around the garment district in Surry Hills and all her clothes were designer defects purchased at a fraction of their real cost.

Her make up, hair and nails were done by her, with techniques learned from a professional.

Her business accessories were always the best. She stumbled upon a Gucci briefcase in an op shop, and assembled the rest by buying well.

This was the outer package that formed the perception that she was equal to the class of customer she wanted to work with. And because the wrapping was what they expected to see, they opened the package, examined the contents and knew she was more than capable of helping them.

25 years later she’s based in London, the proprietor of a substantial consulting business employing 25 men and women, with clients throughout Europe.

She was my neighbour when I lived in Balmain.

Her drive and ambition were palpable and she knew the importance of perception.

How many times have you tried to attract a client, only to realise they didn’t perceive you to be ‘one of them’?

Get into the heads of the people you want to do business with . If you have the skills they need/want, find out what you need to do to change their perception of you. It is within your control to change how people perceive you.

One of the best ways to be embraced is to emulate your prospect’s mood. If they’re serious and stuffy, so are you. If they’re smiling and happy, so are you. If they’re frowning and worried, so are you. Adapt your body language to theirs.

They don’t want to see ‘different’. They want to see ‘compatible’. That’s how to start to be perceived as being ‘one of them.’

You can’t be all things to all people, but you can be significant to some people of your choice.

Who do you want to attract? Study their professional image. Look at the type of people they choose to work with. And work out how you can ‘fit in’ and be ‘compatible’ with the perception they have of who they want to work with.

Always remember that people do business with people they know, like, trust and have confidence in. Perception is everything.

As a Guerrilla From The Bush, I’ve learned that anything is possible.

How have you adapted yourself to get your foot in the door of clients you want to attract?

I’d love you to post your comments and let’s see if we can help each other. Better yet, let’s have as many people as possible pitch in and share their experiences.

Take care,

CAROL

The Fitz Like A Glove™ Ironing Board Cover, Roadworks Apron, Log Lugger, Travel Bug Shoe Bag, Mr Chin’s Laundry Bag and Sweet Shoo are all simple solutions for difficult problems. And every one is a joy to use.

We’ve developed markets for these 6 products without national or international retail distribution. To see what we’ve achieved, click on our website at www.interfaceaustralia.com.

Read the story of how our business began on The Ironing Board Cover Lady. No sales hype. Just a down home story about how we started our business on the dining room table of our rural property, driving on ‘L’ Plates, without an instructor.

A comment about LinkedIn. If you’re not a member of LinkedIn, when you click View Full Profile, you’ll be asked to join. It’s free and the option is yours. There are benefits to joining. Once you’re a member, you can key in the name of any person you do business with. If they’ve taken the trouble to complete a Profile, you’ll be able to assess their background, their capabilities and the calibre of person they are. You might be, as I am, often pleasantly surprised. So go have a look.

Chapter 8 Take Action Or Die A Slow Death From Starvation

2008-02-12T06:28:00.004+11:00

Greetings from rural Australia.

Now that you know the importance of loving what you do, what are you going to do with what you love?

Nothing happens if you don’t take action. You have to do something to make things happen.

It’s one thing to love your craft, but you want to make money from it, don’t you?

Taking action is the second most important element of your guerrilla arsenal. This is what starts to bring your customers through the door and money into your till to pay the bills.

Who wants to know about you? Where do you have to go to get noticed? What do you have to do to get something going?

Today. Not tomorrow.

There are a plethora of websites and learning facilities to point you in the right direction. Look up your market segment on Google and it’s awash with opportunities.

But many people in small business are still stuck in a rut. Because taking action is so much harder to do.

I sit in on teleseminars from all over the English speaking world. It’s not unusual for me to be up at 2AM, dialling in on Skype to listen to yet more information about how to improve my small business.

The Question and Answer segments are revealing. 99.9% of small business owners who ask questions all suffer from the same affliction. Procrastination.

This is another common affliction. Gonna do! When I have time, I’m ‘gonna do’ this.

This is the excuse people give when they know they need to get off their derrières and do something.

Yes, yes, I’m 'gonna ring' that company, next week, 'when I have time'.

Sound familiar?

There is no, ‘when I have time’. There’s only ‘YOU MAKE THE TIME’.

Sometimes we’re too scared to take action. We get paralysed with fear that what we’re doing isn’t right. Sometimes we just don’t know what to do.

But remember this. If you don’t take action to make something happen, you’re starving your business to death.

Another reason we don’t take action is our expectations are unrealistic.

For instance, in today’s overloaded with information society, it takes 8.4 approaches before a potential customer has any idea as to who you are.

When do most people give up?

95% of small businesses down tools after the first approach. Less than 5% go on to make the 9th approach and score a victory.

And these courageous and persistent men and women are refining their approach with every attempt. They’re not sending or phoning with the same material every time.

They’re modifying it a degree at a time, to keep it fresh and to make sure they’re getting noticed. And they’re learning as they go.

And brushing off the rejections. Rejections are part of being in business. Accept them and keep moving forward. You’re not going to please everyone.

With that sort of persistence, someone is going to ask you to back off. And of course, you will. You don’t want to be a pest.

But listen to this. This is the reward for taking persistent action. By the time you’ve made your 9th attempt, probably 40% of the people you’ve contacted will become a customer. Maybe not immediately, but I promise you, they will eventually come on board. Or recommend you to someone who will.

Why? Because you’ve given them time to get to know you, like you, feel confident in you and trust you to do business with.

How perfect is that?

And the 95% who didn’t persist with taking action are slowly starving themselves out of business.

No one said being in business was easy. It’s not. Lauren Bacall is famous for her comment about old age. “Old age ain’t for the faint hearted”. And neither is business.

Procrastinating and not taking action is the biggest reason a business fails. To be successful, you have to do something every day to make things happen.

No one is immune from procrastination. But I’ve put a system in place to make sure I give it the brush off when I think it’s rearing its head.

When I know I'm deliberately putting something off, that I know I can do, I ask myself a series of questions.

1. What's my intention? In other words, why am I doing this or why do I
need to do this?

2. Will doing this take me closer to my intention?

3. What do I need to do to get this done? In other words, what actions
do I need to take to complete the task?

4. When I finish this, will I be closer to my goal, or further away from
it? (Repetition never hurts!)

5. Is what I need to do, right now, too hard? Probably not.

6. So why aren't I changing the hour I’m in now?'

Every time I go through this sequence, I do the task and it gets me closer to where I want to be.

It hasn't failed me yet.

If I have a challenge, where I'm not sure I know what I'm doing, I ask
myself a different series of questions. They are:

1. What's my intention? What’s my goal? Why do I want to do this?

2. To do this, what skills do I need?

3. What skills do I have?

4. What skills do I need to learn or acquire from someone else?

5. What policies and procedures do I need to put in place to make this
happen?

6. What can I do right now, to change this hour, and start making things
happen?

Have you heard of changing the hour?

It’s a great concept. You can’t change the hour that’s just passed, but you can change the hour you’re in now. Just simply by doing something, now, that will take you one step closer to your goal of being a success in business.

All success comes in small incremental steps. “Take it by the yard and it’s hard, take it by the inch and it’s a cinch” is an American saying, but very true.

What will you do right now, to change your hour?

Being a Guerrilla From The Bush I’ve learned that changing the hour is crucial to my success. And yours too.

Tell me what you’ve done to change your hour and move your business forward.

I’d love you to post your comments and let’s see if we can help each other. Better yet, let’s have as many people as possible pitch in and share their experiences.

Take care,

CAROL

To see what we’ve achieved, click on our website at www.interfaceaustralia.com. We’ve developed markets for 6 products without national or international retail distribution.

The Fitz Like A Glove™ Ironing Board Cover, Roadworks Apron, Log Lugger, Travel Bug Shoe Bag, Mr Chin’s Laundry Bag and Sweet Shoo are all simple solutions for difficult problems. And every one is a joy to use. Have a look and see for yourself.

Read the story of how our business began on The Ironing Board Cover Lady. No sales hype. Just a down home story about how we started our business on the dining room table of our rural property, driving on ‘L’ Plates, without an instructor.

A comment about LinkedIn. If you’re not a member of LinkedIn, when you click View Full Profile, you’ll be asked to join. It’s free and the option is yours. There are benefits to joining. Once you’re a member, you can key in the name of any person you do business with. If they’ve taken the trouble to complete a Profile, you’ll be able to assess their background, their capabilities and the calibre of person they are. You might be, as I am, often pleasantly surprised. So go have a look.

Chapter 7 Do You Love What You Do? Volume 3

2008-02-11T17:31:00.007+11:00

Greetings from rural Australia.

Perhaps you didn’t quite believe me when I said that when you love what you do and you nurture that love, it will take you places you never dreamed of.

So I'm going to rev this up to maximum torque.

Who is Jamie Durie?

Is there anyone who hasn’t heard his name?

He started his career as a buffed male dancer in the late 80’s dance group Manpower. His life in Las Vegas was everything a young man could dream of.

Except he tired of it.

And came back to Australia to pursue his true love. Gardening.

He enrolled at the Ryde School of Horticulture and sopped up everything he could learn.

He also has a characteristic in common with all successful people. His optimism and belief that everything is possible. He has this in spades.

Several years ago there was an article about him in Wealth Creator Magazine. Like all of us, he has his dark days. He’s lost several million dollars in deals that weren’t put together as tightly as they should have.

He has a teenage daughter, Taylor, who still lives in Las Vegas with her mother. Although he’s very much a committed father, he’s still separated from his daughter.

No one’s life is perfect. Mega successful people have just as many crashes in their lives as you and me. But their belief in themselves and their ability to pick themselves up and put that life back together, is what takes them to where they are.

Jamie is the first to admit that he’s where he is more by good luck than by good planning. Don Burke spotted him and gave him his first break when Don asked him to appear on Backyard Blitz, which is a Don Burke production.

And Jamie's certainly not an overnight wonder. He's spent close to 20 years fanning the flames of his passion.

Now he’s Oprah Winfrey’s gardening buddy and who knows where he’ll go from here.

But his overriding passion in life is gardening. He has the drive and the ambition to be better at it than most. And to keep learning and nurturing and pushing the boundaries of the envelope.

Combine that with his natural charisma, eternal optimism, heartbreaking smile, and his ability to say yes when opportunity comes knocking, and you have success oozing out of all his pores.

Handsome and buffed isn’t a prerequisite for success.

But love of what you do is.

Peter Cundall is the antithesis of Jamie Durie. He's 80+ years old. With a body that's seen hard work in his days. But that twinkle in his eyes shows you how much he's in love with what he does. That love has turned him into Australia's foremost gardening icon.

He’s the idol of every man and woman who’s ever aspired to having a successful vegetable garden.

Is there anything Peter Cundall doesn’t know about vegetable gardening?

His delivery catches your breath. He’s so in love with his subject, he can’t speak quickly enough to get the words out to tell you everything he wants you to know. He wants to share all his knowledge with you. And he loves doing it.

It shows on his face and in his mannerisms.

Jamie Oliver's accomplishments for a young man under 40 are breathtaking.

Jamie was an apprentice chef to Gennaro. And could have morphed into just another good chef. But Gennaro saw a spark when he realised Jamie possessed a deeper and more abiding love for food than anyone else.

And became Jamie’s mentor and a life long friend and critic. The two together are like an old married couple who can't live with each other and can't live without each other.

Jamie exhibits a tendency to be grumpy and irascible, and you either love or hate him, but he lives, eats and breathes food. He’s clearly obsessed with the benefits of fresh food that's cooked simply.

He also likes things done perfectly.

And he never stops doing the impossible.

His push for better food in British schools went straight to the desk of Tony Blair.

His Fifteen restaurants, which are all a registered, non-profit charity, have given street kids a new chance for a better life.

This is where love of what you do can take you.

Not everyone aspires to achieve fame and fortune at this level. It's hard work and you have to be very careful and mindful of your image. You lose your private life, which can be hard on your family.

But you do aspire to achieving success in your business. And you can’t achieve a high level of success without loving what you do.

What do you love about your business? What can you grab with both hands and turn into an obsession? What do you love that motivates you to get out of bed every day and go for it?

Find that spark, nurture it and you’ll discover that it will take you places you never dreamed possible.

As a Guerrilla From The Bush, I know that anything is achievable.

What are you going to do today to ignite a spark into a flame of passion?

I’d love you to post your comments and let’s see if we can help each other. Better yet, let’s have as many people as possible pitch in and share their experiences.

Take care,

CAROL

To see what we’ve achieved, click on our website at www.interfaceaustralia.com. We’ve developed markets for 6 products without national or international retail distribution.

Read the story of how our business began on The Ironing Board Cover Lady. No sales hype. Just a down home story about how we started our business on the dining room table of our rural property, driving on ‘L’ Plates, without an instructor.

A comment about LinkedIn. If you’re not a member of LinkedIn, when you click View Full Profile, you’ll be asked to join. It’s free and the option is yours. There are benefits to joining. Once you’re a member, you can key in the name of any person you do business with. If they’ve taken the trouble to complete a Profile, you’ll be able to assess their background, their capabilities and the calibre of person they are. You might be, as I am, often pleasantly surprised. So go have a look.

Chapter 6 Do You Love What You Do? Volume 2

2008-02-11T14:28:00.003+11:00

Greetings from rural Australia.

Loving what you do does more than release the pleasure hormones of dopamine, serotonin and norepinephrine into your system.

It creates a state of well being that makes you attractive to other people.

Have you ever wondered why some people draw you in like a magnet?

Next time you’re attracted to someone you admire, observe what you’re feeling. What is it about that person that’s switching you on?

You’ll probably realise that it’s their self-confidence, their posture or stance, their sense of authority based on their depth of knowledge, their bright and sparkly ambience, combined with a sense that all is right in their world.

That’s what attracted me to Jill Weeks of Lifestyle Matters.

We met several years ago when she rang me for a book she was researching.

She and her husband Owen are experts on how to approach your retirement. But this isn’t boring, technical information that you can download from any website.

This is hands on knowledge they acquired when they took a year off and travelled around Australia to find out what people over 50 were doing. Where were they retiring? And what did they really do when they retired?

Owen Weeks started out as a financial planner. He built up a business that was so successful, he was made an offer he couldn’t refuse by the William M Mercer Organisation.

He spent 6 years still attached to the company, but in a very changed role.

He went from hands on business owner interacting with his clients, to an Executive Manager in their ivory tower, staring at spreadsheets and all the other day-to-day management and reporting minutiae that large organisations seem to think add value to your day.

He missed the fun he had when it was his business. And most of all, he missed interacting with his clients and writing books to help them.

Jill is a teacher, trainer, author and aided in her insights by her major in psychology. She and Owen complement each other’s skills.

When Owen said let’s drop everything and travel around Australia, she leapt at the opportunity.

They both have an intense curiosity about what happens when you make your decision to retire, relocate to a destination, and put down new roots. Do you thrive? Or just survive?

These aren’t answers you get from a questionnaire.

These are answers you only get from travelling from place to place, talking to people and observing the dynamics that are in play. This is more than statistics. This is getting into that person’s skin and looking at their retirement through their eyes.

They travelled to more than 200 destinations when researching their book.

And that book ‘Where to Retire In Australia’ is a bestseller.

Because it’s not only about places to retire.

Its focus is precise.

If you moved to Mudgee NSW, what could you do there to make an income, if you decided you didn’t want full retirement? What does Mudgee have to offer someone over 50? What kind of a community is it? Would Jill and Owen recommend it as a retirement destination?

Their love of the subject has turned them into experts and celebrated speakers.

Organisations like accountants, financial planners, banks, and human resource groups, who offer services to the over 50’s, clamour for their knowledge.

They educate these groups on what the over 50’s are doing, what they want from these organisations and what affects people over 50.

These are the baby boomers and they’re still big business.

And this couple can speak about any facet of this age group. Nothing escapes them.

Jill and Owen have a long list of topics they’ve written about.

Pursuing Your Passion
Things To Do Over 50
7 Things Smart Retirees/Seachangers Do Before Moving
You and Your Partner's Retirement
7 Tips To A Successful Lifestyle
Future Trends you Cannot Ignore
Refire! Don’t Retire.
There’s more!

Jill and Owen’s love of their subject took them down the road to success. They were the first people to do Lifestyle books in Australia.

Find something in your business that you love to do! Develop it, nurture it, and in time, it will take you places you never dreamed of.

If you love what you do, taking action is natural.

As a Guerrilla From The Bush, I appreciate what Jill and Owen have achieved. They’ve put in lots of hard work to get where they are. Nothing is easy. But was it really work? I think their business is very much a labour of love.

What do you love to do in your business that you can develop and nurture and turn into an asset?

I’d love you to post your comments and let’s see if we can help each other. Better yet, let’s have as many people as possible pitch in and share their experiences.

Take care,

CAROL

To see what we’ve achieved, click on our website at www.interfaceaustralia.com. We’ve developed markets for 6 products without national or international retail distribution.

Read the story of how our business began on The Ironing Board Cover Lady. No sales hype. Just a down home story about how we started our business on the dining room table of our rural property, driving on ‘L’ Plates, without an instructor.

A comment about LinkedIn. If you’re not a member of LinkedIn, when you click View Full Profile, you’ll be asked to join. It’s free and the option is yours. There are benefits to joining. Once you’re a member, you can key in the name of any person you do business with. If they’ve taken the trouble to complete a Profile, you’ll be able to assess their background, their capabilities and the calibre of person they are. You might be, as I am, often pleasantly surprised. So go have a look.

Chapter 5 Do You Love What You Do? Volume 1

2008-02-11T13:05:00.004+11:00

Greetings from rural Australia.

There are two concepts to embrace, that are well within your power to do, which will turn you into a powerhouse of energy and turbo charge your business.

Love what you do.

Take action.

Hard to believe, isn’t it, that two such simple concepts can do so much for you.

Do you love what you do? Do you love any part of what you do in your business?

If you don’t, you’re in big trouble. Because loving what you do is what gets you across the line when the going gets tough. It’s what sees you through the darkness when things start to stall.

Physiologically, your body is a chemistry set. Every time you do something, you’re sending messages to your brain in the form of neurotransmitters. They give instructions to your brain to either release or suppress particular hormones.

When you feel fear, your brain releases adrenalin. To give you the energy boost you need to fight – or ‘flight’- the situation.

Adrenalin is a stress hormone. And too much adrenalin without the opportunity to burn it off with flight, creates unchecked, increased heart rate and feelings of anxiety.

If you don’t love what you’re doing, I have a feeling this is how you feel most of the time. Isn’t it?

When you feel depressed, your brain suppresses the hormones that add vitality to your life. The hormones we’ll talk about below that put a zing in your step.

When you love what you do, your brain is releasing dopamine, serotonin and norepinephrine into your system. Exactly the same hormones that are released when you fall in love.

These are the pleasure hormones. It’s a chemical cocktail that gives you a natural high.

Winning the lottery, scoring your first big sale, the birth of your child are all occasions when these hormones are raging through your body. You love life and every day is a blessing.

You can tell when people love what they do. They speak with enthusiasm. They find a reason to take action. They have a vitality about them that’s almost like an aura.

And they can’t help but be successful. Their love of what they do keeps them at the coalface, constantly chipping away, until the light at the end of the tunnel appears and bathes them in sunshine.

This isn’t a fairytale. Everyone has dark days.

Thomas Edison did more than 10,000 experiments before he perfected the light bulb. But during his gloomiest moments of self doubt, his passion for his work motivated him to do one more, and another one, and one more again, of those 10 thousand plus experiments.

Until he reached the moment when - there was light!

I’ve seen first hand how love of your craft makes people glow.

Penny Stevens and Rob Ingram of Awarehouse Communications in Cobbora NSW are long standing friends.

Penny Stevens is a powerhouse publicist. She’s the force behind the publicity that makes the Schools Spectacular we see every year on the ABC such an outstanding event.

Rob Ingram is a renowned and well respected wine and food journalist.

Rob also has another identity. He’s the Country Squire for Australian Country Style magazine. My call to Australian Country Style confirms what I suspected. That Rob receives copious quantities of fan mail for his articles.

Rob’s Country Squire Page is a labour of love. And it shows with every article. He keeps us informed about Penny, The Chosen One; Barney the Retriever, his second love in life; and the locals in his extended community out in the bush.

Talk to Rob about the Country Squire, and his face lights up, his talk is animated and he softly chuckles about the goings on in his community. The pleasure cocktail is flowing through his body.

Penny is an edgier person than Rob. Not as laid back. But down to earth and firmly grounded about what matters in life.

Penny and Rob relocated to their country home on a permanent basis in 2006.

The local community admires Penny’s prowess as a publicist. So they approached her to promote the Dunedoo Open Garden Day in October 2007.

There was one major problem, though. Only one garden was fit to be open. All the other regulars were decimated by the extended drought. But the garden organisers thought Kylie’s garden looked terrific and they should go ahead.

Penny put everything she had into this project. She mobilised magazines, newspapers and even got Reg Kidd, The ABC’s garden presenter, to be there on the day. Everyone was talking about the Dunedoo Open Garden Day.

500 people came to visit Kylie’s garden. The day raised $10,000 for charity.

And Penny’s jubilation produced a chemical cocktail that kept her on a natural high for days afterward.

This is what happens when you love what you do.

You figure out how to convince the public that it’s worth their while to drive from far and wide to visit one garden.

You figure out how to convince Reg Kidd from the ABC that it’s worth his while to appear on the day to talk about one garden.

You figure out the angle that’s most appealing to the magazines, newspapers, radio and TV so they publicise your Open Garden Day event featuring just one garden.

A lesser publicist would have walked away from this. But Penny loves what she does and couldn’t resist the challenge.

There’s more than one Guerrilla From The Bush and we’ve all learned that anything’s achievable.

What do you love about your business? All you need to do is identify one element that really switches you on. And then turn that into an asset that you can grow with, capitalise on, and use to move you forward.

I’d love you to post your comments and let’s see if we can help each other. Better yet, let’s have as many people as possible pitch in and share their experiences.

Take care,

CAROL

To see what we’ve achieved, click on our website at www.interfaceaustralia.com. We’ve developed markets for 6 products without national or international retail distribution.

Read the story of how our business began on The Ironing Board Cover Lady. No sales hype. Just a down home story about how we started our business on the dining room table of our rural property, driving on ‘L’ Plates, without an instructor.

A comment about LinkedIn. If you’re not a member of LinkedIn, when you click View Full Profile, you’ll be asked to join. It’s free and the option is yours. There are benefits to joining. Once you’re a member, you can key in the name of any person you do business with. If they’ve taken the trouble to complete a Profile, you’ll be able to assess their background, their capabilities and the calibre of person they are. You might be, as I am, often pleasantly surprised. So go have a look.

Chapter 4 How Important Is Price?

2008-02-10T20:22:00.003+11:00

Greetings from rural Australia.

How important do you think price is to your success?

To some buyers, it’s everything.

For a business, one of the easiest routes to take is to sell on price. To always be cheaper.

But let me tell you now, for a small business, this road is paved with misery. Because your customers have no loyalty to you other than how cheap you are. As soon as another business is cheaper, they’re no longer your customer.

One of the hardest routes to take is to sell on quality and added value. And have that reflected in your price.

But once you learn to sell on your added value, you attract a different class of customer. These customers are discerning, loyal and know that there’s not as much choice amongst quality as there is for cheap.

Businesses in the service industry have a better understanding of this than businesses that sell a product.

Apples aren’t always the same when choosing a solicitor, accountant, doctor, dentist, therapist, personal trainer, etc. Their personalities, their knowledge and their reputation are all part of the mix when you make a decision. And the pros in the service industry are fully aware of this and know how to present their differences in a favourable light.

Plus you seem to have more of a gut feel about what feels right when discussing your needs with them. It really is a case of who you like and trust, before who fits your pocketbook, when making your choice.

Products are not so clearly defined. It’s harder to sell the added value. Because sometimes you’re not truly aware of what your added value is.

Take book stores.

They have a really tough time now competing with the mega stores like Big W and Borders. Although Borders is no longer opening new stores, they have a substantial number of existing stores still operating. Small, independent bookstores are closing with unprecedented regularity. As are chains in regional centres.

When I arrived in the bush in 1992, my largest regional centre, Bathurst NSW, had Angus & Robertson, Dymocks and the ABC Books. Only the ABC is left standing. With Big W as a backup.

And where to buy is sometimes a hard choice for customers to make. Why should someone pay $10 extra for a book at your store, when they can get it so much cheaper at these mega stores?

Sometimes the difference is in the subtlety of the offering.

Abbey’s Bookshop is a successful bookstore in Sydney. It’s been a family owned business since 1968, when it opened its doors. And they pride themselves on being Australian owned and independent.

They’ve also got their mix right.

They specialise in history, science, philosophy, classics and crime. And they stock the entire range of Penguin Classics. As well as being a general bookstore.

They have 40,000 titles in stock. Not on their database, but on the floor. For you to choose from today.

And they have a backlist of hard to get books you can order from. From publishers throughout the world.

How many titles does Big W have? From my observation, only a limited range of books. Will they order books in for you? No, I don’t think so.

Abbey’s provide excellent customer service through their information terminals located at the front of their store and other information and service areas located throughout the store. And they have visible staff manning the store. No running down aisles, looking in nooks and crannies, for a sales assistant.

You don’t want to visit the shop? Order by phone. They have 8 separate phone lines so you rarely get a busy signal. And an 1800 number for out of towners.

Want to order online? They’re not hard to find. Key in book stores on Google Australia. They’re in 6th place.

They apologise for the fact that not everyone who works at Abbey’s can be an expert at everything. But they assure you that all their staff have a strong interest in at least one of their specialisations, some are even degree qualified. And they offer friendly, knowledgeable service.

This is outwitting your competitors with chutzpah.

And yet another example of the power of the personality that’s running the business. They’re a family owned business that puts their customers first because they know first hand the value of their customers. If money isn’t coming in through the till, the family doesn’t eat.

Does price matter here? If your customer is a bookaholic, I don’t think so.

And the book market in Australia is substantial. Hugh Mackay, Australia’s social biographer, recently wrote that per capita, Australians buy more books than anyone else in the world.

Borders and Big W are run straight from a textbook. Do this, do that, but not this and not that. They have no flexibility, so they can’t deviate from the rules. They all look alike, and although they certainly provide adequate service, they can’t come close to offering the hands on, personal service, coupled with the extensive knowledge about their range of books, that Abbey’s does.

You can do the same. Scale it down or scale it up. But look at where your competitor is vulnerable. Look at the things they can’t do that you can. And go in with your best tactics to outwit them. And make sure everyone knows the difference between you and them.

That's how you sell your added value and command a premium price. No, it's not easy. It takes courage. It takes patience. And a strong belief that there are customers out there who want your added value. And believe me when I tell you that they're there, and they'll find you, if you're promoting yourself in the right place.

That's another subject. Promoting in the right place.

Yes, I’m definitely a Guerrilla From The Bush and I’ve learned so much about outwitting retailers. My $39.95 Fitz Like A Glove™ Ironing Board Cover competes every day with a $4.00 product. Yet I’ve taken 90,000 customers away from the large retailers. And so can you.

What do you do that’s different? Or, what can you do now that’s different? Every large company is vulnerable somewhere. Think about it and take action to implement a guerrilla tactic that will reap you new customers. Many of them are there for the taking.

I’d love you to post your comments and let’s see if we can help each other. Better yet, let’s have as many people as possible pitch in and share their experiences.

Take care,

CAROL

To see what we’ve achieved, click on our website at www.interfaceaustralia.com. We’ve developed markets for 6 products without national or international retail distribution.

Read the story of how our business began on The Ironing Board Cover Lady. No sales hype. Just a down home story about how we started our business on the dining room table of our rural property, driving on ‘L’ Plates, without an instructor.

A comment about LinkedIn. If you’re not a member of LinkedIn, when you click View Full Profile, you’ll be asked to join. It’s free and the option is yours. There are benefits to joining. Once you’re a member, you can key in the name of any person you do business with. If they’ve taken the trouble to complete a Profile, you’ll be able to assess their background, their capabilities and the calibre of person they are. You might be, as I am, often pleasantly surprised. So go have a look.

Chapter 3 Be Careful How You Say No

2008-02-10T16:43:00.003+11:00

Greetings from rural Australia.

We all get calls during business hours wanting to sell us something. 99.9% of the time they’re an unwanted intrusion. Some are annoying because they’re pestering.

But they’re all made for the very reason we’re all in business. To make a sale and get a new customer.

But be very careful how you say no. The person on the other end of the telephone is always a potential customer. If not directly, they may know someone who wants to do business with you. And general talk about bad experiences travels faster than positive experiences.

Think about which one you do more frequently. Rave about a good experience or complain about a bad one?

As a business, I give to charity. And I’m rung many times during business hours to GIVE.

On this particular call, I felt that I was being pestered. I’d been rung by this charity 3 times in 3 months. And I was a little annoyed. To be truthful, really irritated.

But I’m always mindful that everyone is a potential customer.

I put on my best manners and explained that although I’d love to be able to give some more, I just couldn’t. And that it broke my heart to say no.

Which is the truth. I really hate saying no. I wish I could give to everyone as much as I’d like. But this time, I just didn’t want to.

The woman on the other end floored me with her response.

She said her daughter had recently given her a Fitz Like A Glove™ Ironing Board Cover as a gift. And she loved using it. And my gracious rejection to her appeal for help made her feel all the more committed to her cover.

Listen to me, because this is the truth. You just never know who’s on the other end of the telephone or the email.

I’ll tell you why I’ve chosen to always be gracious in saying no. And it is always a choice.

In Chapter 1, I told you I’ve had more doors closed in my face than opened.

Many years ago, in my first foray into joint ventures with appropriate companies, I contacted iron manufacturers. Makes sense, doesn’t it? Why shouldn’t we do a promotion together?

The Marketing Manager at one company informed me that he doesn’t do business with anyone who has to contact him. He knows every business out there that’s important and mine isn’t on his list. If he wanted to do business with me, I’d know about it.

I have many conversations with my customers about which irons they use. And I’m often asked which irons, in my opinion, are good to own.

Guess which one I never mention? And which one I’ll NEVER buy.

It’s a proven fact that emotion lies behind almost every decision you make. How you’re treated directly affects how you respond. You may justify your actions in a logical manner, but your reaction is triggered by your unconscious emotional response to a situation.

So choose your words carefully when rejecting someone, for any reason. 6 degrees of separation is a reality, not a myth.

There’s no justifiable reason to not be the most well mannered Guerrilla From The Bush. One of the most common complaints today is the lack of manners in business transactions.

How do you say no to unwanted phone calls? They’re an intrusion in our business day and I’d love to have your take on how you handle them.

I’d love you to post your comments and let’s see if we can help each other. Better yet, let’s have as many people as possible pitch in and share their experiences.

Take care,

CAROL

To see what we’ve achieved, click on our website at www.interfaceaustralia.com. We’ve developed markets for 6 products without national or international retail distribution.

Read the story of how our business began on The Ironing Board Cover Lady. No sales hype. Just a down home story about how we started our business on the dining room table of our rural property, driving on ‘L’ Plates, without an instructor.

A comment about LinkedIn. If you’re not a member of LinkedIn, when you click View Full Profile, you’ll be asked to join. It’s free and the option is yours. There are benefits to joining. Once you’re a member, you can key in the name of any person you do business with. If they’ve taken the trouble to complete a Profile, you’ll be able to assess their background, their capabilities and the calibre of person they are. You might be, as I am, often pleasantly surprised. So go have a look.

Chapter 2 Do You Get Out Of Your Shell And Build Relationships With Your Customers?

2008-02-10T13:58:00.003+11:00

Greetings from rural Australia.

You hear a lot about how most small businesses fail within 2-5 years. That’s pretty scary when you’re starting your business. But the truth is a little more encouraging.

Some early business failures are the result of marital break-ups. The business was a joint effort which now has no chance of working.

Same for business partnerships. Some people find out too late that their personal friendship doesn’t translate into a working relationship. So the business closes down.

Other people just weren’t prepared for the hard slog and don’t want to have to put in the monumental effort required to get a business off the ground. They discover too late they don’t want to eat, breathe and sleep the business.

Ditto for those men/women who are pressured by their families to give it away and get back to having a family life again. It’s easier to walk away in the early stages, before you know what’s possible.

The remaining business failures are caused by one or all of the following. Poor management. Lack of customers. Lack of motivation. Lack of focus. Poor cash flow. ‘Lack of’ being the operative words.

What’s the most important element of your business after what you have to offer?

Customers!

There’s no point in focusing on financial management, staff management, etc. if you don’t have customers. No customers or not enough customers mean there’s no money, or not enough money, coming through the doors and into the till to make your business viable.

So how do you get more customers who want to stay the distance with you?

By building relationships.

You don’t sell to inanimate objects. Although some businesses treat their customers as if they are.

You’re always dealing with people. People buy your product or use your service. And when they tell their friends and business associates they had a good buying experience with you, you’ve scored a success.

Have you ever wondered why some businesses are so much more successful than others? Even businesses in the same category, with the same products or services to sell, differ in their success.

In my regional shopping area there are three newsagents within 3 blocks of each other. All selling the same items. One is so much more successful than the others. When you walk in, there’s such a sense of vitality and friendliness in the air, you can’t help but want to hang around and soak up the ambience.

Why?

It all comes down to the people behind the business.

You can know everything about your business, but if you’re too difficult to deal with, or aloof, you won’t be able to be as successful as the person who’s charming your customers every time they enter their business.

Most of us have been to a MacDonald’s, Hungry Jacks, Big Rooster, Pizza Hut, et al. If you patronise more than one MacDonald’s, do you notice a difference in ambience from one to another? I do. MacDonald’s is run by a textbook. But there’s also that special added ingredient of the personality of the franchise owner.

That personality shines through to their staff and determines how people are greeted when they enter the restaurant. Some restaurants are brimming with friendliness; others just do what they have to do. And if given a choice, which one will you go back to? The friendly one always wins out.

Think about how you choose your doctor or dentist. All things being equal, meaning they're very competent, which one do you gravitate towards? If you have a choice, it's always the one who shows you personal warmth and has a genuine interest in you.

Consciously or subconsciously, we all do business first with people we know, like, trust and have confidence in.

The more you let your customer know that you’re a friendly business, who is interested in them, the better chance you have of developing loyalty in this fickle buying community.

Every business transaction is about WIFM. What’s in it for me?

And that’s a two way street. Your customer is interested in themselves first. Naturally. They’re paying you.

And if you’re interested in them, there’s a great deal in the transaction for you. Their loyalty, repeat business, word of mouth, referrals, recommendations. All free of charge because you put them first.

Human beings haven’t changed in a billion years. We still have the same emotions we had when we lived in caves. We love, hate, experience greed, envy, suffer loss, and most of us revel in being appreciated, recognised and valued.

Be the business that shows warmth and goes out of its way to do something special or unexpected for your customer. Greet people warmly when they enter your business or telephone you. Always look for ways to let your customer know you really value their patronage and want them to keep coming back.

Building relationships isn’t rocket science, but it is time consuming. And very rewarding. What it does is keep customers buying from you for a long time. That customer retention means your efforts to get new customers are actually growing your business rather than maintaining a status quo if your existing customers are using the exit sign too often.

Yes, I’m a Guerrilla From The Bush and have learned so much about building relationships and what’s possible; I can’t help but want to share it with you.

What’s your experience with building relationships? What do you do to let your customers know you want them to keep coming back?

I’d love you to post your comments and let’s see if we can help each other. Better yet, let’s have as many people as possible pitch in and share their experiences.

Take care,

CAROL

To see what we’ve achieved, click on our website at www.interfaceaustralia.com. We’ve developed markets for 6 products without national or international retail distribution.

Read the story of how our business began on The Ironing Board Cover Lady. No sales hype. Just a down home story about how we started our business on the dining room table of our rural property, driving on ‘L’ Plates, without an instructor.

A comment about LinkedIn. If you’re not a member of LinkedIn, when you click View Full Profile, you’ll be asked to join. It’s free and the option is yours. There are benefits to joining. Once you’re a member, you can key in the name of any person you do business with. If they’ve taken the trouble to complete a Profile, you’ll be able to assess their background, their capabilities and the calibre of person they are. You might be, as I am, often pleasantly surprised. So go have a look.

Chapter 1 Are You A Guerrilla?

2008-02-10T12:31:00.003+11:00

Greetings from rural Australia.

Are you a guerrilla? So what’s a guerrilla anyway?

Guerrilla is a Spanish word that means small war. But not just any ‘small war’. It’s a war where your agility, mobility and ability to react quickly allow you to ambush your opponent when they’re most vulnerable and you can score a victory. This agility means you have the advantage of surprise and can mobilise an attack when your enemy least suspects it.

Large institutions like Westpac, BHP, General Motors, and Qantas are not guerrillas. They need consensus and never ending board meetings to plan their attack.

A small business is a guerrilla. It’s like a football scrum. A few words of instruction in the huddle and then every player moves swiftly to unbalance the opponent so they can take advantage of a fleeting opportunity.

In 1984, Jay Conrad Levinson coined the term ‘Guerrilla Marketing’ and changed forever the way small business outwits their larger competitors.

In short, guerrilla warfare is when you outwit your competitors with your mobility, agility, wisdom, experience and cunning to take them by surprise. And do what they can’t/won’t/haven’t thought of, to do. Your highly targeted hit and run tactics get results.

Isn’t that what men and women in small business try to do every day?

Do you act like a guerrilla? Do you want to be a guerrilla?

Stay with me and learn how I had to become one, when, in 1994, I established a product design and marketing business, from my property in a village in rural Australia. Before the internet, email, call waiting and Telstra MessageBank.

Isolation from my neighbours and other people in business, combined with the tyranny of distance, where I drive an 80km round trip just to buy a litre of milk, can be overwhelming. But none of this is a problem when you change your attitude and open your mind to what’s possible and achievable.

I’ve had more doors closed in my face than doors opened.

When we introduced our first product, The Fitz Like A Glove™ Ironing Board Cover, I had Hills Industries, the maker of ironing boards, tell me I’d never sell more than 200 of them.

I’ve had major retailers tell me no one wants to buy premium ironing board covers, and more pointedly, our customers don’t want yours.

I’ve had sewing companies throw us out because our standards for manufacture are too high.

In 1996, we were banned from participating in Floriade. The organisers said ‘ironing board covers’ are too downmarket. In 1995, we were a gigantic hit at Floriade. When we didn’t appear in 1996, the organisers were forced to give our phone number to repeat visitors who wanted to know where we were.

In spite of all these setbacks, or perhaps because of them, I have a thriving world wide business. Even though I live and work from a small rural property in the bush and have no national or international retail distribution.

Our most famous product, The Fitz Like A Glove™ Ironing Board Cover, has 90,000 enthusiastic customers around the world. Because these customers asked for more products, my partner, Victor Pleshev, an architect and also the designer of our products, and I added another 5. The Roadworks Apron, Log Lugger, Mr Chin’s Laundry Bag, The Travel Bug Shoe Bag, and Sweet Shoo.

I’ve found markets for all these products by going outside traditional distribution channels and outwitting the major retailers.

Was it easy? Absolutely not!! But the adage that what doesn’t bury you makes you stronger is alive and well in our business.

Yes, I’m a Guerrilla From The Bush and have learned so much about what’s possible, I want to share it with you.

So hang on, we’re going to have fun and learn from each other.

What’s your biggest challenge or frustration in running your business? How have you outwitted your competitors?

I’d love you to post your comments and let’s see if we can help each other. Better yet, let’s have as many people as possible pitch in and share their experiences.

Take care,

CAROL

To see what we’ve achieved, click on our website at www.interfaceaustralia.com.

Read the story of how our business began on The Ironing Board Cover Lady. No sales hype. Just a down home story about how we started our business on the dining room table of our rural property, driving on ‘L’ Plates, without an instructor.

A comment about LinkedIn. If you’re not a member of LinkedIn, when you click View Full Profile, you’ll be asked to join. It’s free and the option is yours. There are benefits to joining. Once you’re a member, you can key in the name of any person you do business with. If they’ve taken the trouble to complete a Profile, you’ll be able to assess their background, their capabilities and the calibre of person they are. You might be, as I am, often pleasantly surprised. So go have a look.