4 Things I learnt today

This morning I attended my first Mother's Den networking brunch. Hands in the air for Uldouz Van Eenoo for creating the most welcoming and warm networking event I have ever been to. Those women are so positive and so excited to meet new people and at the same time, be down-to-earth and share themselves. I could go on, but really, the only way you are going to get where I am coming from is to attend one so sign up to the newsletter and maybe I'll see you next year.

I also attended a talk by Samantha Hornitzky this evening. (I know, get me, out the house without kids twice in one day). Her talk was on daily practices that can make us happier at work, or at least break unproductive thought patterns. It was exceptionally honest and I greatly admired her for that.

Of course, practicing gratitude was mentioned (turns out there are brilliant apps to help you journal that) and in the spirit of self-reflection, I'm recording here some lessons I've learned from today.

1. Iron your shirt the day before hand.*
2. A great way to enter a conversation is to broadcast that you are doing so. If, 'Hi, I thought I'd come over and introduce myself, so I'm crashing this conversation' is not taken well, then they probably aren't my people.
3. Start a positive relationship with yourself: get your phone out, open the voice memo app and give yourself feedback on the day. For example, 'Heather, I thought you were exceptionally organised today but let's work on ironing your shirt the night before.'
4. I am a herd animal and I get my energy from others.

I'm pleased with these lessons. Today was a great day.

*That way you can tell it's stained before you are 5 minutes from catching the train.

Done is better than perfect

I just watched an interview between Marie Foleo and Seth Godin. There's nothing like listening to Seth to make you take stock and be inspired to cull unimportant shit from your life and use your brain more often.

There were two comments Seth made that have prompted me to write this post after so long. The first was a straight-up call to stop worrying about what you write and just commit to it because it will change the way you see the world and make you question it when you know you have to produce a brief commentary on it every day. 

The other remark was regarding people who are productive are those who are 'ready to ship' - essentially, they get stuff out there rather than worrying about whether it's perfect. I've heard it referred to as 'done is better than perfect' before.

I get it in regard to work but for the past month I've been trying to apply it to my life more. I'm enjoying it. Here are some examples:

• I had a bath today and if I'd listened to the voice inside my head saying that I should also boil the kettle to steam my face and put a facemask on, I wouldn't have done it. As if relaxing should be done perfectly or it's of no value. Madness.
• This morning I retouched my toe nail colour for the third time. 
• I've exercised probably twice as often as previous months because I've accepted that a 25min jog is better than the 45min one I was never going to do.
• This blog post. 

For over a year now I have been saying that I want to write on here more often but I've also thought I 'should' have a format and structure and themes... ah fuck it, you're going to get what you get from now on. Just because I don't have the time to plan a blog doesn't mean my ideas don't have merit.

Existing Customers 101: Part 1

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When people think of growing their business, they often get excited about new products or reaching a new target market. In addition, there's often a flurry of new projects or spending. 

Looking after the customers you already have is often much more economic and rewarding though. It can pay off dividends in areas such as;

- increasing average spend
- decreasing amount of time between customers' visits
- increasing new clients through referrals
- increasing staff morale through strengthening relationships and getting a high from being appreciated,
- plus, of course, it builds up that bank of loyalty that allows you a buffer in the future if you have to move an appointment, are too busy to serve them in a respectable time, or they have a less than average experience.

Start by working out which of these benefits specifically fit your current business goal (I'm guessing it's a high chance that you choose referrals or increasing average spend). By being clear about what you want to achieve, you can start being a bit selective about which existing customers you want to reward.

For example, if you want referrals, my suggestion is that you list which customers are your talkers. You know the sort because they've told you about their pets, their hairdresser, their kid's teacher, etc, and only stopped because you managed to palm the conversation onto another customer. Clearly, if you can do something notable for these clients, they'll probably have told 50 people by lunchtime. Note: Extend this principle to online talkers: stalk which of your customers have the most followers on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, etc. 

Similarly, if you want to increase average spend, do your homework and research which customers you believe are worthwhile targeting. If you've got a program that allows you to see average spend patterns, play with the data to spot trends. Are there examples of customers who suddenly started spending more? Was it after a particular event like learning about a new product or dealing with a different staff member? If you sell big ticket items, after how many visits do your customers commit? Also, it's worth spotting which customers spend a similar amount each visit whilst others vary enormously.

* This is how I feel when I reward existing customers. He's available here if you've got a mad urge to own a gold-plated Lego man by the by.

Sort of another rant. Pwow, pwow!

I flew to New Zealand a few weeks ago and in a fit of stupidity, read the inflight magazine. There was an article in the 'Business' section about rising stars on YouTube.

(I tore the article out but I can't find it and it's driving me nuts. I would have written about this two weeks ago if I hadn't been spending all that time going through the clothes I wore on that flight.)

Essentially, the first half summarised how Australians such as Troye Sivan, Lauren Curtis and Elise Strachan have risen to fame through their videos (in order) on being a teenager and coming out in WA, makeup tutorials, and cupcake addictions. Then it guesstimated at how much they were earning and how many avenues of income there were on YouTube. And amongst all of it, there was this severely, eye-twitchingly irritating sentence linking the two halves of the article along the lines of, 'In essence though, these Australians have done the same thing all successful business models achieve: identifying a gap in the market and targeting that market.'

Excuse me!? You really think that's what attracted people to these YouTube channels? That they went, 'Oh great, I've been looking for a video on coming out as a teenage boy in Perth, why wasn't this need catered to earlier?' 

No. NO! These YouTube stars had something they cared about, it was all they thought about in their free time, and they wanted to share it with others. They filmed and shared their passion for the sake of it, not to 'find a gap in the market', and then their honesty and human-ness found an audience. Simple. 

Simple unless all you think about is making money. 

I wonder if the person who wrote this article really believed Troye Sivan had a business model or whether they just had a deadline to fill. Nonetheless, I'd much rather have read an article about how to live more authentically every day rather than how to try and copy the authenticity of others who in order to make money.*

*Less angry posts will follow soon, I promise.

Wardrobe Daydreams/Nightmares

I'm preggers again. I'm already missing my regular clothes. And all the maternity stuff I can find is either grotesque (horrendous photographic props* or t-shirts with 'humorous' captions), or I like it but the model is too self-satisfied or wearing too much foundation… see above and below. 

And then I found Andreea Lofgon on Etsy. Ah haaaaaaaaaaaa. 

I could wear these as pyjamas too right? 

And these are all the colours it comes in! ARGH! 

*I'm not going to post a photo, I won't lower the standards of my blog that far: if you feel you must, here. But I flipping warned you.

Recruitment, Part 4: Other important stuff

There are a few notes I want to squeeze in here between your recruitment mission and the hiring and training part.

One is that you don’t have to hire. If you get through everything we just talked about and you still don’t feel 110% positive that you’ve found the right person, don’t hire. Yes, you’ve spent a lot of time and energy on the process but do not make the mistake of committing to a doomed project. Once we’ve invested time or money into something we find it psychologically very hard to withdraw, even when continuing will cost us more time and money. So just take a step back, breathe deeply, and try again a week or two later. Chances are that you’ll get new candidates apply who weren’t looking last month, or who missed your Facebook ad, or who felt OK with work but this week have had it up to their back teeth with their boss. And for those candidates you were close to hiring, just tell them you’re casting the net again and if they really feel they are the right person then they are very welcome to apply again and prove it.*

Another is that trail days, weeks, or even months are a very good idea. Again, you might think because of the time and money you have already invested that you need to just make a commitment and ride it out but that maths simply doesn’t work out. A great employee will grow your business, help your colleagues grow, and eventually attract new candidates and train them. A shit one will take the same amount of training and wages and then undermine your businesses culture and potential. It’s disrespectful to your other employees and to your own dreams to hire someone unworthy. So invest in trail days or weeks and in a year’s time when you aren’t cursing that new employee for losing a sale/customer/company phone you will look on that few hundred dollars as a wise, wise choice.

Last but not least: the recruitment process and especially the interview should give the future employee a very thorough idea of who you are and what your business culture is. If they join your team and are disillusioned or misunderstood what the job was about, that is your fault. No question about it. 

*A small company did this to me once and it absolutely worked on me; the fact that they had such strong vision not to settle for someone 90% right just made me ache to work there the more. 

Wardrobe Daydreams

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I saw these earrings about 8 months ago in a vintage store in Katoomba, possibly this one, and have been mulling them over since. I've put them on a pedestal as the benchmark for 'magical everyday studs that would make me look elegant even when all I've managed is jeans and non-toddler stained t-shirt.' Since I haven't come across any viable contenders, I decided last week to get them. BUT when I went online just now, I saw this pair below. So now I am in complete decision-paralysis. Dammit Ms. Murrell, now it's going to take another 8 months to commit. 

* Availble from here in case for some reason the website beautifully incorporated into the packaging has completely missed you.

Recruitment, Part 3: Interviewing

Eurgh, interviews. I honestly think I prefer being interviewed than interviewing sometimes. It is so tough to work out if the answers you are being given resemble the truth and whether the questions you are asking are really getting to the heart of the matter. Of course, often you know straight away that someone isn’t a fit, but it’s when you’re at round two and have a handful of potential candidates that I just wish I had a crystal ball.

There are a few solutions.

Firstly, now you have your ‘essentials’ list narrowed down, form some questions that ask for examples of those behaviours. Instead of asking, ‘are you able to give honest feedback, even to your manager?’, ask ‘can you give me an example of a time when you’ve given honest feedback to your manager even though you knew they didn’t want to hear it?’. Make it clear that the interviewee has as much time to answer these questions as they’d like, and you can even come back to them. After all, you want a real answer to the question, not to know whether or not they have an indexed memory.

Secondly, try to organize the interviews so that afterwards, several interviewees are able to mingle with you and your employees over a cup of tea and biscuits. The candidates will get a chance to get more of a feel for the business but your employees will also get a chance to pick up on any red flags. It’s incredible how much people will say, even to the person who just interviewed them, with a cup of tea and a biscuit in their hand when they think the interview is over.

Lastly, when you think you have made a decision, use their referees. When you get their previous manager or colleague on the phone, tell them you are a small business looking to invest a lot of time and money into [successful candidate] and you would really appreciate it if they could answer some questions. Then ask them a few of the same questions you asked the candidate. Even down to examples of the behaviour whenever possible. If they don’t have time, ask when would be a better time to call back, because you need to hear about their experience with the candidate.

PS. If you've got any magical interview questions that you have used or had used on you in the past, please don't be a dick and keep them to yourself: comment below. 

Recruitment, Part 2: Who are you really hunting?

You probably have a pretty clear idea in mind of the type of person you’d like to employ and the skills you’d like them to bring to the table. Nevertheless, please do a little planning before launching into The Hunt.

Ask your other employees or colleagues who they think the business needs – especially those who will be working alongside the successful applicant. You’re looking for them to brainstorm both the perfect traits and skills. Even in the unlikely event that they don’t come up with any new ideas, getting people involved in the process and respecting their opinions is just one more way to get people to take responsibility for the culture of where they work.

Next, try to list some personality traits that neither you nor your team is strong in. You probably envision your perfect candidate to be someone who fits into the team because they are very similar to you and your staff. However, the perfect candidate is probably someone who compliments the team rather than fitting in because they have the same core values but have strengths where you currently have weaknesses. For example, maybe your existing team is great at attention to detail so someone with excellent ‘big picture’ skills would be an interesting addition. Diversity takes a little more management but in the long term brings about a robust and dynamic business.

Draft up your initial ideas, your colleagues ideas, and those complimentary traits into a list of ‘desirable’ and ‘essential’ criteria. Standard practice. Now have a play with that list and pretend someone has all the desirables but none of the essentials, and another candidate is the opposite. Technically the candidate with all the essentials but none of the desirables should be the more employable, but are they? Or is there something in your essentials list that, really truly, isn’t essential? Is something on your desirable list, like the right attitude, actually an essential? Getting this list right by using your vision for your culture and knowing your weaknesses will really help attract the right candidates. What if you had ‘degree in events’ on your essentials list and were discouraging experienced candidates? Or even un-experienced ones who had the energy and creativity your already very experienced team needed? You’d be missing out on new ideas and paying a lower salary because you assumed a degree was what your business needed. Or what if ‘full-time’ work was assumed when really, for the right person, you could manage 9am-3pm school hours?

My point is: if you have your cultural values worked out and adhere to them, then you can and should think outside the box with other aspects of recruitment. 

An Interview with 2773

I don’t know if you’ve heard the rumour but a friend of a friend of a friend heard that one of the staff at Glenbrook’s 2773 café has a tattoo of the cafes logo. LET ME REPEAT THAT: one of the staff had a fork and spoon and the numbers 2773 permanently and painfully needled ONTO THEIR BODY. Clearly, the owner of 2773 was the person I needed to interview about the elements of culture that I’ve just covered in Culture 101.

Introducing Shane Simpson. Café 2773 is actually his fourth café venture and whether you’re a local hardcore Jazz Apple fan or a new convert to 2773, there’s no denying the café has been permanently busy since opening a year ago. So, in his own words;

“I’d describe our culture as positive. We try to empower our people in two ways. Firstly, we allow them to exercise their personality. Customers buy that; they connect with our staff when they are allowed to be themselves. We don’t want to make everyone the same and we want to see what they can bring to the table. It also means our staff aren’t confected when they’re serving. Secondly, we try to encourage them to make their own decisions; we have strict guidelines but we try to give people ability to make decisions.

“I think what builds a culture is people have to like you, their boss. They have to care, so you need to care about and know about their lives too.

“Hospitality is notorious for being a crap place to work with cranky pricks in the kitchen kicking breadbaskets about. It’s a hard job. If we all won Lotto tomorrow I think the last place you'd find us is at work but until that happens I think it important to make the workplace fun to be around, or at the very least, pleasant.

“In terms of processes that we have in place to keep the positive culture, I think doing little things for your staff that they aren’t expecting goes a long way. Say, if they like a certain cuisine buy them some vouchers for a meal out there. If you build your key players and look after them then they become your ambassadors.

“Also, this could come across as ruthless but hire carefully and fire quickly. If we think a staff member is precarious or seems likely to misrepresent us or let us or the team down, we’ve learnt from experience and we don’t wait for that to happen. When I get complimented on our staff, you feel like saying, its no coincidence. When you open, 60% of the ones you start with might not be right but you’ll get there.”

Oh, and the rumour about a staff member with a tattoo of the logo?

“We’ve got two! They got them together. One of them has left, Amanda; but she’ll be back, she’s pretty flighty and moves around a bit.  Any staff who leave and want to come back we welcome back with open arms. We’ve had some staff with us for seven years, and others who have left two or three times for other work and come back to us.”*

There was something Shane didn’t say that only occurred to me after our chat. He might not even be aware of it. As far as I can tell, he is living the culture he wants 2773 to have. Notice how his personality is front and centre? I’d never met Shane before but he was honest, authentic and a little rough around the edge, and exactly as he said, “customers buy that”. I did.

*And folks, I don’t know if you’ve ever worked in hospitality, but seven years is im-press-ive. Hey, it’s impressive for most employers nowadays. 

Wardrobe Daydreams

I want these. I really want them. I haven't got like this over a pair of shoes since I was in my teens. How perfect are they for the Australian autumn? Sod it, I don't care if they are perfect for the season or not. Just look at them. Plus, I want all my friends to own them so we can hang out in the foyer of a budget hotel, like this...

Available from Olive Thomas shoes in Tel Aviv, see here.

Recruitment, Part 1: The Hunt

Finding new staff is really, really difficult. It's difficult for multinational corporations with entire HR departments, it's difficult for long-standing businesses, it's difficult for start-ups, it's difficult for Bill Gates. Everyone knows that people are a key factor in success but it's easier said than done when that means attracting the right person, realising they are the right person amongst all the candidates, and then managing their expectations to get them off to the right start. 

How do you start the hunt? The culture of your organisation that I've spent the past five weeks banging on about is a good starting point: is your business somewhere with an attractive personality, GSOH, who likes walks on the beach? Because if you've grown an authentic and unique culture then over time I'll wager you'll have applicants come to you.

But you already know how important I think culture is and even if you have it, when you do decide that you can't manage everything in your business yourself and need to take the scary plunge of employing someone, start by brainstorming the places your perfect employee might hang out. Instead of paying Seek or CareerOne for a pretty generic ad, first ask yourself:

• Where do they shop? Where do they eat out?
• What do they like to do on their days off? 
• How do they like to portray themselves?
• What are their habits? 

You may think this is all irrelevant and will narrow your field so completely that you'll miss most of your potential candidates but what you are really doing is increasing your efficiency and sticking to your cultural values. Say you need to hire a new estate agent for your team, for example: are you a 'family values' business or are you aiming for a swanky, boutique feel? For the first, you might put up posters in the local park or family-friendly cafe, for the latter you might ask to leave brochures in a fashionable clothing store. 

Once you've spent at least 20 minutes scribbling ideas on an A4 piece of paper, see if any of these resources might be a way to reach out to that perfect candidate:

• Ask your employees if they know anyone, or their friends know anyone, or their kids know anyone. If each employee roughly knows a few hundred people in the area and you have more than one employee, then friends' of their friends would be a circle of thousands of potential referees. Simple but surprisingly underutilized,
• Gumtree - for trades or uni student roles in particular, usually so cheap that it's always worthwhile,
• Local media - not TV, I'm talking school or church newsletters, cafe or gym bulletin boards, even a local market stall,
• Client email update or your business' Facebook page - even if you don't get any referrals, phrased correctly, it's an advert of your business itself because the traits you are looking for should be why your customers use you, 
• School career advisor - if you need a weekend casual or junior, I strongly recommend contacting the local schools to see if you can spend 5 minutes in one of their assemblies outlining why your business rocks and what type of stella employee you are after. You'll be surprised how enthusiastic most schools are, especially near the end of a school year. 
• Consider holding a free seminar or open evening and inviting local professionals to network, mingle, have a beer, and obviously at some point in the evening make sure it's clear (but not tacky) that you have a position to fill. Please make sure the evening reflects your business: there's no point creating an illusion and attracting the wrong sort of people, 
• Facebook! I highly recommend that you have a play with Facebook ad manager (use the boosted post function) and search for your perfect candidate using their extremely fine-tunable parameters. It's scary how much information they have on people, you may as well use it to your advantage. And you can set the budget as low as you like. 

Above all, be creative. It might take more leg work but an ad online can set you back $300 and won't show your business' personality half as well. 

Of course, all this goes hand in hand with knowing what type of employee you want, so three guesses what I'm writing about next week?

PS. If you are still tempted by a regular old online ad, remember: businesses generally get the staff they deserve. If you think you deserve brilliant, committed and sincere staff then start by being brilliant, committed and sincere in your hiring process. 

Cultivating Culture, Part 5: Maintaining the change

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Some of the examples of processes I mentioned last week are what can be called external energy. They are great as reminders for how you want your business to run and I know they will help your staff understand the direction you want your business or team to head in.

For the long run, be aware that consistency is the tough part. The trick is to use both internal and external energy to keep moving in the right direction. This is why the questions at the start of this mini-series were so key: knowing who you are and what makes you tick, the internal energy, is so much more driving over time. Motivation can’t be relied upon forever, but owning something as part of your identity will stay with you. 

So for the internal energy, after the first few months of moving towards your new culture, you need to revisit some of the sort of questions you and your team asked at the start:

• What makes us stand out?
• What environment are we trying to create?
• How do we want your customers to feel when they leave?
• What are you committed to? What would you defend?
• How does your personal role at work relate to all that?
  

I'm not saying you jump your staff with revisiting these all at once but getting round to one of these questions in a casual way at the tea station or in one-to-ones gives your staff the opportunity to own the culture and add to it. If the idea is making you uncomfortable, just think of it like this: they want to be happy at work and be a part of something, so by asking a sincere question and genuinely listening to them, you are helping both the culture and your employee grow. If you go in with the right attitude of really wanting to hear what they have to say, it’ll come across and not set any BS detectors off. Plus, going in with the intention of being helpful will most likely also create some new ideas for processes to help the team continue the cycle.

You’ll obviously also need to have conversations like this with yourself too. Mentors are fantastic, as are journals. External prompts can be of use here - remember the trick is to use both in tandem. So think post-its on your mirror, pod-casts, TED talks, diary reminders, new workplace processes, a creative brainstorming session with your team. Whatever works for you. If you can set up external processes to prompt you into being grateful for what you have and proud of where you are going then you’ll maintain your internal energy.

One of the best processes I’ve heard a business owner put in place was this: every day before he got out of his car and entered his business, he turned off the engine, closed his eyes, and envisioned how he wanted that business to feel. His opinion was that even if he was running late, if he walked in with the exact attitude and presence that he wanted his employees to emulate then that was far more valuable than saving two minutes. It really struck me with its simplicity because who we are when we get out of the car is so rarely who we want to be when we walk in to work. And yet it’s such a perfect, private space to switch off for a minute and visualize how we want our day to go.  

Try it next time you turn the car off.

Who are you? Where are you going?

*Available to buy here.

The Tribe

I'm in a real life chicken and egg situation. 

I want to get started with my Tribe idea (see here to catch up) but I keep oscillating between thinking I need the Tribe first and then thinking I need the businesses first.* 

In my head I can picture both perfectly. The Tribe are made up of switched-on, stylish, ethically conscious women who, although they value buying local/organic/fair-trade, also hate the smell of hemp and would never own a dream catcher. 

The businesses who I know are out there that I want to involve are principled, value quality, and have a strong tie to the local area. 

So the conclusion I think I'm coming to is that my Facebook page (here) is the best place to scope a bit of a guesstimate of support. 

If you know anyone who you think fits either of the bills above, please share this with them. To be a receiver they need to be based in Blaxland, Glenbrook or Mt Riverview for my hand-delivery idea to work out. 

*The other thing I can't stop thinking about is the beautiful brown paper packaging I would use for the parcels but we'll leave that for another time. Ok, FINE, IF YOU INSIST, this is one idea I love the simplicity of: 

The Creative Fringe

A year ago when my little one was only a few months old and going through a phase of sleeping plentifully (ha! HA! HAHHAHA!), I started researching replicating the work I had been doing in England, in Penrith, Australia where we had just returned to. I quickly came across The Creative Fringe: it was a new co-working space on York Street and I was suddenly hooked, like really head over heels hooked, on this idea of someone providing a modern, flexible and inspiring space for professionals thinking outside of the box who also lived in Penrith. They even did monthly talks on aspects of work that were a little left field. It was so up my alley that I hurriedly followed them on Twitter, Facebook and sent off an email introducing myself. 

Over the months that followed I continued my admiration and updated myself regularly. I found out that it was the brainchild of Debbie O'Connor of White River Design, a graphics company with a similar ethos to mine that a logo should be part of a much much bigger picture. So I followed WRD too.

I then added Instragram to the multiple pages and feeds and occasionally emailed the team about talks coming up. I even accidentally came across a Freecycle request from one of the team for some rugs to kit out a new area of The Fringe and felt even more so like this relationship was just meant to be. 

Then a member of the team, Katrina, launched the Westies a few months ago. It's a blog with the aim of reclaiming the word Westies: it's a showcase of stories and pictures of straight-up, down-to-earth Westies. I followed that too. 

It wasn't until last month, however, that I actually managed to attend one of the talks. Yep, that's right; all this love and yet I hadn't shown my face once.

I had essentially just been breathing heavily down the line via social media. 

But a month ago I finally went to a talk and it confirmed everything I had hoped about Debbie and her team and The Creative Fringe: they have started the ball rolling on something that is going to change the fabric of Penrith. In essence it's as simple as hiring a professional and creative desk space for $40 a day but in practice it's about rethinking our perceptions of where we live: Why is Sydney CBD really so much 'better' than Penrith? There are plenty of professionals with creativity, experience, finances, energy, talent, you name it, with the postcode 2750. They just all travel to the city too. Stoopid, eh?

This month The Creative Fringe will have been operating for a year. In that time, they've already introduced hundreds of like-minded individuals to one another and started a movement to reclaim the West. I'm sure there've been tough times but I see ripples. Well done folks.

PS. In case you've been hiding under a rock recently, they are also hosting the Westies Fringe Market this Saturday 9th May, 8am - 1pm. Here's a link.

Cultivating Culture, Part 4: The Processes

Now to put that business mission statement into practice. What you need to do is work out some processes for each aspect that you want to achieve. Write out two columns: one for the goal, one for some ideas to help your team achieve that culture.

A really straight forward one for example is if you want your business to have a certain ‘look’, say, a stylish, super fashionable vibe, then write an appropriate policy on appearance. I’m not talking just ‘polish your shoes’, I’m talking ‘if Olivia Palermo wouldn’t approve, don't do it’. Give the policy the same character as you vision for your culture and people will get the picture.

That's a fairly obvious one. The ones that are going to help you on a daily basis might have to be more creative. Do you want a playful atmosphere? Then maybe every month a different employee is the Play Police and they are responsible for injecting a bit of spontaneity and humour into their colleagues’ days.

Maybe you want your employees to have the best technical information around. I suggest that you need to sit down with them on a quarterly basis and plan their upcoming training. Get them to research the courses they want to do; see if you can get any of the sales reps in to teach a course on a difficult aspect of a product; schedule in some time when one employee can coach another.

Perhaps you envision your business having great teamwork. Then start a recognition program. Again, I’m not talking tacky primary-school style certificates but something more in line with your culture. Look at giving everyone an object, say a silk flower or a pin badge or a little toy that has something to do with your industry, and ask him or her to give it to a colleague when that colleague does something to help them. Or even an anonymous teamwork star chart that anyone can add to for anyone. Adults aren’t usually great at saying ‘I really appreciate what you just did, it made me feel important and made my work much more rewarding’*; we find it much easier to just leave a token on someone’s desk.

For one business I consulted with, we ambushed the blackboard outside their shop and would find a quote every month or so that summed up their culture. That way clients mentioned it when they walked in, reminding the staff of what they were a part of and starting a conversation.

If you want your business to be known for it’s calming and competent atmosphere, whether you are an accountant or a beautician, why not ensure everyone schedules a 10-minute me-break into their day? Do you have space to make a comfy corner in the staff room specifically for this? Or even just a novelty set of headphones that staff can borrow and then everyone else knows they are spending ten minutes looking after themselves? If ten minutes sounds like a lot, just think of the time, energy and money you could waste trying to attract new business when all it could take is your staff having an infectiously reassuring attitude worth talking about.

As with the other weeks, I recommend asking others for input and taking your time. Ideas will come to you at odd times if you let it ruminate and they can take on a whole new level if you allow your employees or colleagues to join in.  If you want some help, I’d love to be involved: write in the comments section below or just share what processes you’ve heard of that you enjoyed. 

*Try it though, you’ll be amazed how far it goes.

Wardrobe Daydreams

About a year ago, I made a key rack out of some drift wood. When I say made, I drilled five holes in it, screwed in some hooks and then used copious amounts of double sided tape to attach it to the wall. Since then, I have had a pretty good idea of where my keys are. It makes me feel very grown up.

Not so for my phone. I can never find it and if I do find it easily then the battery is dead. Even when it's charged, I can hardly see the screen because I dropped it face down on the curb a few months ago. The very antithesis of grown up. It's an excellent situation for a self-employed word-of-mouth consultant, non?

This desk organizer is not just in my day dreams because it looks so sleek and Scandinavian, nor is it because it's made in Australia, nor is it because it's made my a collective who call themselves Made From Good Deeds. No, it's because I endow it with magical properties of solving all my phone dilemmas: it would both store and charge my phone. Angels would sing. For that reason, I don't think I can ever purchase it.* It would be too much of a disappointment to have the illusion shattered. Besides, unless it comes with something to zap my 15 month old every time she went near it, my phone would still end up in a toy aeroplane chilling out with the Duplo zebra on a semi-regular basis.

*Also, it would not look like this on my desk. My pencil holder contains one hundred and three broken pens that I optimistically keep hold of, one working pen, two screw drivers, the kitchen scissors, and a set of oversized German colouring pencils that I've had since I started primary school some time last century. 

Are you sitting comfortably? Then I shall begin...

In general, I’m an advocate of Penrith City Council’s ‘Penrith is Here’ campaign. But today they are the butt of a rant of mine: have you seen the ‘Litter-Free Promise’ signs around? The great big banners strung up near some main intersections in the area?

Question for Penrith Council: Did ANYONE in charge of this campaign even show it to anyone outside of his or her cubicle? Because if they had, they would;

1. Realize that most of the text is too difficult to read from a moving car or even a stationary car that isn't at the very front of the lights, and

2. Realize that the sign’s main text (‘Take the Litter – Free Penrith Promise’) reads like a jumbled up slogan to free Penrith by taking litter, rather than the intended slogan to galvanize people to promise to make Penrith litter-free.

In my not-so-humble opinion, the text above it is the one that should be large: Love Penrith? That’s the one you want people to answer yes to if you want the next question to also be a yes. And to get them to say yes to that question needs some creativity if you want to reach the people littering.

I think part of the reason this gets my goat so much is that I think it is trying to emulate a fantastic and successful word-of-mouth campaign run in the 1980s called ‘Don’t Mess with Texas’. Mike Blair and Tim McClure of GSD&M were the brains behind it: when asked to create an anti-litter campaign, they pinpointed that 18-25 year old males in their beloved cars were the main culprits. The slogan was derived from a saying of one of their mums, and when it finally got past the polite and reserved Texan government department, it was printed on bumper stickers and given out for free at petrol stations state-wide. Then, once everyone already had the sticker on their cars and were familiar with it, they got a well-respected Texan musician to say the slogan on a TV ad (here) and mention it whilst performing for a much-followed Texan college football game. Job done. The slogan is as much a part of Texas now as the Lone Star AND most importantly, reduced litter in the following four years by 72%. Seventy two percent!

The reason it worked was- wait for it - they knew their target audience. I know, it's such a little thing in marketing eh? Not. NO WHERE in your Litter Management Strategy, PCC, do you define the target audience as anything other than the 'community'. Really!? The entire community litters? From the grannies to the Panthers fans to the school kids - they all litter the same amount!? As a result of actually identifying their target audience, the DMWT campaign worked because:

• Their slogan was in the same language as it’s target audience, an audience who wanted to be seen as rule-breakers (unlike the Penrith banners, as they seem to be politely targeting families. I’m going to take a wild guess that the majority of Penrith litterers are not the general 'community' but are the same image-focussed, mildly anarchic, anti-community 18-24 year-olds who are NOT going to download your PDF certificate taking the Promise...)
• They did the brainstorming and creative legwork to reach the target audience (don't even get me started on a comparison)
• They had the patience to see a slightly more complicated (but actually very low-cost) campaign through (see above.)

And as an added bonus, because the slogan and campaign was deemed as 'cool', the whole Texan community from the grannies to the footy fans to the school kids did take it on board. But only because one target audience was identified and made it visible.

Littering costs millions of dollars for states and councils. It's disgusting. Spend the freaking time, energy and creativity on a campaign and see the results. In short, stop being as lazy as the litterers. 

Bam. Rant over.*

*PCC, if you can show me the numbers that prove to me this campaign did work, I will retract all of the above in a heartbeat.

Cultivating Culture, Part 3: Personal and Business Mission Statement

Part 2 of this series on culture covered working out who you are and what you stand for. Whether or not you got some answers out of that will entirely dependent on how much effort you put in. I'd love to put it differently, in a way that doesn't sound like my mum, but that's the way it is.

Once you've done all your brainstorming, bring it together into one or two coherent sentences to form a personal mission statement. As Stephen Covey says, it can help to start with the end in mind: you have an idea now of who you are, where you want to end up, who you want to be, so what few sentences will help focus you on that goal?

If you're about to gloss over this and can't really see the value because you feel you roughly-sort-of know, here's a reason to actually write one down: it will stop you wasting time on distractions. I was offered a job about 8 months ago and on paper it was pretty great: flexible hours, working for a sport I used to compete in, a role I had experience in. Lovely. But whilst it was a fantastic and much needed compliment at the time, it didn't take me long to see that it wasn't in line with what I really wanted to achieve. As much as I wanted the mental stimulation and the conversation of adults, I said no and continued learning how to be a mum.*

And for the daunted of you out there (as you all should be: this whole shebang has been a big task), please remember that nothing you write has to be set in stone. We all grown and change and learn new things, so our mission statements should evolve as well.

They can be as simple as...

"To have fun in my journey through life and learn from my mistakes" - Richard Branson

Or as irritatingly pious as...

"To use my gifts of intelligence, charisma, and serial optimism to cultivate the self-worth and net-worth of women around the world." - Amanda Steinberg

Or as brilliantly intelligent and beautiful as...

"Use my creativity, bluntness and curiosity to build authentic relationships" - Me

Right: moving on.

You can guess the next bit... you now need to do something similar to this with your business/team/family. Except it's more fun with others. I highly recommend getting everyone involved into the kind of brain storming session you did last week, but obviously bent towards the team you want to be.

If you like (and if you run the show), maybe come up with a list of values first and ask your team to rank them. That way you have some control over the outcome but your team will also be able to take ownership of the culture and help you build it. Again, there's no right or wrong answers to these values; if you and your team value fun and creativity over punctuality and appearance, that's a-ok because when you all agree on it and believe in it, you will attract customers who also prefer a wacky sense of humour to keeping time. But you do need to vocalize these things with your team to make your business stand out. 

Then the next step is communicating these values to your customers.

*aka, learning how to be patient and empathise with a small person despite having cauliflower cheese in my hair.