Study Self motivate … and enjoy

2 May

Study plan 2019

Big news! Perfection is passé. 

Being a perfectionist often leads to wasted time poring over irrelevant details. It can also de rail achieving in a learning situation.

LEARNING IS A LIFETIME THING

Often perfectionism leads us to compare ourselves unfavourably to others who seem to be more successful than us. This can lead to a ‘lazy’ mentality where motivation gradually fades. ‘Why bother? I’ll never match up.”

ENNUI is a french word

Ennui has many definitions, but here’s one I found:

A feeling of listlessness and dissatisfaction arising from a lack of occupation or excitement. “he succumbed to ennui and despair.”

 

ENNUI and social media

Ennui can be a symptom of other significant issues but it is not uncommon in the era of perfect vis a vis Instagram, selfies, curated lives and other social media myths and legends. We can all succumb to this when we don’t get our fix of likes, comments and shares.

I have a teenager who has recently kind of dropped the ball when it comes to getting his studies done. He’s a bright kid and in his final year but he seems to have slowed right down. Yes he’s inundated with homework. Sometimes too much, but if he gets a routine going … he can get the work done.

I created this plan for him to follow a ritual to get his mind into gear and the work done.

As Stephen Fry once said. He was successful at Cambridge where other more intelligent people failed – because he ‘found out what they wanted and gave it to them.’

Energy, enthusiasm and entrepreneurship … new pioneers 2018

31 Dec

I can’t help it. I admire entrepreneurs and pioneers in small business. People with energy and enthusiasm who take an idea and make it work. I call them the new pioneers. More often than not the ideas don’t always work.

Pioneers can face resistance and moments of failure. And it hurts. But we don’t learn from success.

New pioneer #1 THE LUCKY BEE AT FRANKIES ROOFTOP. 

Matt Bennett and Rupert Noffs from The Lucky Bee at Frankie’s Rooftop. Who would have thought that a New York restaurant would land in Woy Woy on the central coast of NSW. Always scenically magnificent but not always classy (no offence!) – this dynamic duo has turned a pub into a destination for foodies. The boys have so much energy and  enthusiasm … you could bottle it. There’s an idea!!!

New pioneer #2 BREW HA HA 

Denis & Mirjana Dordevic from Brew Ha Ha Coffee Roasters in Lilyfield, Sydney also rank as pioneers and entrepreneurs with flare and enthusiasm + great coffee and food. I’ve watched this business grow with the energy and love the owners and staff put into it. They regularly change their offerings to keep things fresh. 

New pioneer #3 JACK RABBIT SLIMS

Andrea and his team from Jack Rabbit Slims Barbershop in Kings Cross have energy in spades. I remember when Andrea started out in a little concrete box next door to the Piccolo Bar. Just one chair and a toolbox but Andrea can cut hair. He’s not your ‘grab the clippers and mow the lawn type’ barber. He understand the nuances of hair and the directions it can take. I know because I have a lot of it and it grows fast in weird directions. Andrea takes a lot of care and it shows. It’s sometimes hard to get a booking.

New pioneer #4 GREENWICH MANAGEMENT COLLEGE

I’m biased here. I do some teaching and instructional design for Greenwich and I have to say that in my experience in this field and with numerous colleges and RTO’s, this place stands out in a crowded space. The management and staff have built the machine but the students have brought the energy. They come from all parts of the world … from Mongolia to Brazil, Italy to Macedonia, Colombia to Azerbaijan, the US and Ireland. Often they work multiple jobs as well as study but they are amazing. The college services are fine tuned and the management skilled listeners and entrepreneurs.

Here’s to all the new pioneers of 2018. Doing things differently with enthusiasm and love.

It shows.

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The new pioneers: Brew Ha Ha

29 Nov

Brew ha ha case

I love small businesses that work hard to differentiate themselves from the competition. I call them the New Pioneers. They work their businesses like the old world drovers who rode quarter horses and steered them like cars to round up and drive the flock. They don’t rest on their laurels and plan and produce new products to offer something fresh and wonderful to their customers and they use marketing and social media so well to be liked, viewed, commented on and followed = all good for SEO.

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Brew Ha Ha Coffee Roasters in inner city Sydney could be just another cafe, but it’s not. They keep producing not just the best coffee from premium roasters and skilled baristas – they also offer great and creative food in a ‘foodie’ society … and they get recognised (see above).

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Vibrant businesses like Brew Ha Ha obviously love what they do because they do it well or vice versa. Screen Shot 2018-11-29 at 10.10.08 am

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Did Leonardo Da Vinci have a Macbook Pro?

7 Oct

McKinsey Quarterly recently published an article about the rising importance of creativity in the digital world … and it’s good news!

The creative economy

As we labour away in a frenetic 4th Industrial Revolution where WORK is being transformed by algorithms and bots … some of us wondering where we will fit, the one shining star is digital creativity.

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See machine learning is great for programmed processes but not so great for human creativity. That’s where Leonardo fits in. I know for sure he didn’t have a Macbook Pro but his fecund mind and total genius produced art and engineering and product design.

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Who cares if you are marketing on Instagram, Facebook or Youtube – it’s still all about great content and that has to start with big ideas.

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This has to start with an existential approach to business thinking and that will come from the top.

source: https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/organization/our-insights/five-fifty-Creating-Creatives

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Like … I’m just doing this in between auditions

12 Mar

Australian Youth Hotel

It is a funny name for a pub, The Australian Youth Hotel but it’s a great experience.

Yesterday my family popped in for lunch at this inner city of Sydney establishment. We ate in the dining room which was ‘classily’ designed with no blonde wood in sight.

We were served by a young lady who was exceptional in her friendliness (un-robotic), knowledge (food and wine) and general manner. I asked her if this was a part time gig (was she studying?) No, it was her job full stop and she did it well.

Sometimes wait people (don’t you hate that expression,) can be over the top with fake bonhomie which can be invasive and repellant. Like I’m just doing this in between auditions scenario. Often it can be non existent. This experience was real.

It’s good when people serving you like people!

On the way out I kind of discovered the secret. I spoke to the boss (family run business,) and told him how great the experience had been and pointed to the young wait um person.

‘Oh.’ He said with a smile. ‘You got her on a good day!’

Good bosses who make for happy workplaces create a customer service culture naturally. There’s no training needed. It’s natural, which is why Richard Branson is so correct when he says look after your people and the service will follow or words to that effect.

I love small business.

 

Welcome to the emojincey ward

1 Mar

emojincey ward

The digital sphere can be complicated for marketers and business operators, trying to keep up with all the new features social media is offering as well as apps and other whizz bang offerings.

I use the term whizz bang because when you really look at a lot of these innovations, they offer the excitement of the new. And we have been trained to upgrade from old to new even when the new features aren’t that special.

In the olden days marketing was relatively simple.

  • Create the message
  • Match it to your target market
  • Choose the best media option
  • Run the ad or the campaign.

Now targeting requires sorting through many variables to do with lifestyle and behaviours.

Ads or posts are run and testing is conducted using the analytics.

Often we are advised to run separate campaigns to ‘test’ the efficacy and effectiveness.

We are told to be strangely unique to cut through and to tell stories not to just sell.

TV channels have been replaced by internet influencers who command vast audiences.

It’s so un marketing in the traditional sense where a product or service was promoted to a market.

OK … that’s simplistic.

And there’s likes and follows. Shorthand ticks of approval from our ‘community.”

Other shorthands include the emoji.

now featuring an array of cute visages with stand out emotions. And gifs.

Like it or not, we are in the age of shorthand … short attentions span.

Ultra convenience services such as UBER Eats and Netflix stop people socialising.

But people are people and will no doubt get bored with social which is why they have to keep changing and updating and adding features.

Great advertising is still about the creative. Cut through only occurs when people stop and take notice.

So let’s open the emojincey ward where people are people and emotions aren’t a quick flick, insert and like.

emoji image:  

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Do what it takes to stand out

1 Jan

Rombaut shoe copyAs I delve deeper and deeper into the world of digital marketing and social media, discovering countless apps, knowledge bases, channels, classes and courses, tips, tricks (hacks), opinions, videos, podcasts and webinars, influencers, etc. – it can tend to be overwhelming.

One thing hasn’t changed though and that’s the need to be creative. To have big ideas (thanks David Ogilvy) and to be brave.

It doesn’t matter what medium you are on – achieving cut through is more important than ever.

It might get people to stop just for a second.

AIDA = Attention Interest Desire Action

 

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How Neruda let me be innovative

24 Jun

Last week I went to see a movie and there weren’t any super heroes in it.

Wait a second … there was a super hero but he didn’t have tights, a mask and a logo emblazoned on his muscular chest. No. This super hero was a middle aged, portly man with thinning hair. His super powers weren’t your usual mix but instead consisted of words and phrases and phrasing. The hero was a poet. The movie was Neruda. 

neruda_ver6

It was a beautiful film but not easy to follow. It was a portrait of a poet and a politician from Chile set in the 1950’s and it was a crime drama. Neruda was a member of the Communist Party (along with Pablo Picasso) who idealised communism as an ideal and an antidote to fascism. Of course these intellectuals were to be proved wrong when the walls went up but at the time it was about equality for all. When the government decreed that Neruda was to be arrested, he begrudgingly fled. The crime drama was the chase by a young detective who had his own back story.

neruda

Neruda performed his poems throughout the movie and that’s what opened the gates for me. During the movie, (which was subtitled), I listened to and read the words and i felt free. A lot of the poems were about love.

Neruda was romantic and seductive.

I’ve never been a great reader of poetry and to be honest it baffles me.

I just know that the words sometimes clash and when they do there’s a spark of freedom. Freedom opens the mind and can lead to innovative thoughts.

When was the last time you felt free?

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DISRUPTION HAS HAPPENED BEFORE

12 Jun

disruption is nothing new

Wow what an amazing world we now live in. Technology rules … OK!

Disruption like fake news is a hot cliche. Could be the hottest right now.

Disruption describes new technologies and new business models that disrupt the current models, processes and accepted standards of business.

  • Taxis were disrupted by UBER
  • Graphic design was disrupted by Adobe
  • Hotels/accomodation was disrupted by AirBnB
  • Commercial real estate was disrupted by WeWork
  • Photography and processing was disrupted by mobile phones + photoshop

It’s nothing new though. As the above photo depicts horses and carriages with a trolley car and next to that an early motor car. That was a disruption. But they didn’t have that neat phrase to label things.

In business we must track trends or we’ll be left behind holding the box brownie.

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The importance of data is ‘yuge!’

10 Jun

Here’s a story I found on a blog I subscribe to. It’s about the people-based research and targeting platform developed by Merkle which has ‘tagged each person with digital IDs with hundreds and sometimes over 1,000 attributes. At this point, the total database covers 242 million people and counting.’

This supposes that people like targeted advertising and are OK with ‘a holistic understanding of people’s behaviors and motivations.’

‘“We’re undertaking a transformation as a global enterprise,” said Dentsu Aegis Network Americas CEO Nigel Morris.’

big brother

It looks like George Orwell was right but he just got the era wrong.

OK – I like a targeted ad as much as the next person but I already bought a BBQ!

https://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/302542/census-advertising-dentsu-rolls-out-new-platform.html

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