Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Focus on the Positive

Living in Central Victoria, the last two weeks have been proven to be a difficult time to maintain a positive outlook. With the number of people out of a job and the economy nosediving everything looks gloomy. Then again, how do you compare this with the death toll from the bushfires now over 200 and over 1000 homes lost. I live 20Km from one of the fires that broke out on 7th February so was naturally worried but a friend of mine got out of Marysville about 1.5 hours before it was lost. How do you balance that with reports that up to 100 people lost their lives in Marysville? You don't and you can't. All you can do is grieve and then remember to focus on the positive.

It will become obvious that for most of us, we have friends and family to help share the load. Hopefully for those left without a family, friends will help fill the void.

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

The Karma Deal (not to be confused with a bluebird)

I'm not sure if I coined the term Karma Deal or not. The first time I used it was in 1994.

A colleague and I had started the Melbourne office of a distributor and we were having trouble getting the orders flowing. After a few months of desperation I went to a former senior sales executive that we had both worked with a few years prior and asked him, what was his secret?

He gave us a simple format that provided regular activity and contact with companies that should be interested in what we had to sell. It worked! And every time sales slowed down we would dust off the same routine and it never failed to work. The funny thing was that, often, the sales came from a different direction than we expected.

The lesson we learned was that the sales never came if we sat pondering the universe. Eventually, it became obvious that we created our own Karma.

Bluebirds are those opportunities that fly in the window with the salesperson not having to lift a finger. They have nothing to do with Karma!

Go to http://www.intermizzi.com.au/ to find out more.

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Making More Of It Obvious

Most of the people I know make sure that they read and listen to new ideas because it is obvious that the quickest way to gain knowledge is to learn from those who are already successful at it.

So when there are thousands of books, audio streams, courses, websites and blogs out there, how do you know which ones to follow up? I do know some people who seem to be trying to read everything that comes along. I prefer to follow the path of the advice above and take recommendations from those who have already read the book.

A recent great read is the book Made To Stick by Dan & Chip Heath. It is about making ideas stickier. They have some great free resources at their website www.madetostick.com

Go to http://www.intermizzi.com.au/ to find out more.