Blogs

The Cure for Monday Morning Blues

I rarely work on Mondays. It's the single most effective stress busting decision I've ever made.

For the past 5 years, I've woken up, walked the kids to school, got home and thought to myself - "What should I do today?".

OK - sometimes I use up my Mondays for meetings with prospective customers or to dabble with something work related but generally, it is guitar, shopping or reading territory.

The stress busting bit is that whatever I do is my decision - I don't "have to" do something specific if I don't want to.

A lesson from the Pawn Stars on how to reposition your brand

Businesses spend millions re-branding - employing expensive agencies to help define their brand values and convert them into messages and symbols that their customers will relate to. Some business, like Pizza Hut, even spend the cash on pretending to re-brand - starting a media stir by claiming they were about to change their name to Pasta Hut in order to promote their range of food.

Some help with your New Years resolutions as part of mine

5th of January 2010 and I've made one resolution - to be more generous.

3 years ago, I wrote How to be exceptional'.

Since then, it has helped hundreds of people to become better at what they do. From friends and family, to colleagues, to friends of friends' family and colleagues, to customers - you get the idea - lots of people have found it really useful.

The main feedback I get from people who have read it is - "VERY powerful and REALLY easy to read".

Movers and Shakers - no skills but plenty of talent

Sky+ has a lot to answer for. I wouldn't class myself as somebody who watches a lot of TV but every time I start up a conversation with a friend or colleague about a show I'm watching, I seem to be the only one who is watching it. I tend to catch part of a programme and then record the series on Sky+ (which is the UK equivalent of TiVo) - my unconscious rationale is that there's never anything on TV so if I squirrel away mildly interesting programmes, when I feel like watching TV there'll be something to see.

Slippery Business - being true to your brand

WD-40 haven't changed their product packaging or logo since its inception in the 1950s - a simple, utility blue and yellow can with a red cap and the letters WD-40 in a large capital letter font.

Customer satisfaction by literally going the extra mile

I've not been blogging as frequently recently. I'm not lazy - I have some pretty good excuses, which, if you read my next few blogs, you'll kind of get the feel for.

What's the best pie filling - Apple or Blackberry?

Vodafone has really good customer service. I'll get that out of the way first.

Polite, experienced people who are able to deal with whatever query you throw at them on the call without the need to pass you around. They also keep good call notes so you don't have to re-explain your problems if you call back and they seem to have access to enough information to be able to quickly make customer service decisions. 8 out of 10.

However, I've recently cancelled my Vodafone contract with 12 months left to run at significant cost.

The man who could sell chocolate but not himself

I've just been to a meeting with a potential customer (or probable purchaser as I like to think of them). I travelled by train because it's Friday and the 'probable purchaser' is based in a notoriously busy location for traffic. And, come to think of it, I really enjoy train travel - I get lots of opportunity to think and work on things like Blogs.

On my way back, I popped into a newsagent in the station to look at magazines and I was blown away by the shop assistant.

What you can tell from somebody's notepad

If you work in an office, you probably carry a note pad around with you.

Some people take a laptop to meetings and type as they talk, I'll address them in another blog some time - they're worthy of some special comment. But, if you're still in the old fashioned days like the rest of us, read on....

I have been doing some work recently in a very big organisation - one of the worlds top 10 organisations. While I've been there, I've been interacting with a couple of people who are at different places on the notepad spectrum. And they both project very different images.

Cool Running - Using a legend to create legends

In my last Blog - the Wolves and the Storyteller I talked about working with professional rugby league players at Warrington Wolves earlier this year and how we used story telling to get some important messages across. I ended the article on a 'best wishes' note as the team were preparing for the 2009 Challenge Cup Final at Wembley and committed that I'd share the story we used in our session with them if the Wolves won.

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