Have the best 2019

For some it’s been amazing

For others a challenge 

Either way you have the opportunity to go into going into 2019 on fire!

Maybe your year was amazing - and you’re in the best shape of your life, or you just feel amazing and you’re at peace…

If so - fuel it, compound it, and feel the gratitude .

Truly feel it in your cells..

Nothing furls sustainable success like vision and gratitude..

If 2018 was a shitty  year - maybe the relationship didn’t work out, your business didn’t take off, you lost a loved one , you’re not in the best shape of your life, you’re in a job you don’t like, or maybe you’re dealing with some problems from your childhood that you’ve just never been able to shake...

Remember ... that’s ok 

The valleys of our life, the down parts of life, the sad parts of our life… that’s when:

• We typically discover a new path that leads us to our next level
• That’s when we say “enough is enough!”
• Thand’s when the new business comes
• That’s when we discover who and what we want in a relationship
• That’s when we take control of our health
• That’s when we quit dabbling and gain the capabilities to start and scale a business

Without darkness there can be no light, without the valleys there can be no peaks…

It’s impossible to know abundance, joy, and wealth until you know what it’s like to struggle…

You can’t appreciate it until you’ve gone through failure and defeat...

So if this is your best year: Compound it!

But if it’s one of your worst: learn from it - plan and take action 

2019 is designed for you. 

You will come out of it with lessons, with skills, and capabilities that can take your life to that next level… And it will give you the gratitude to appreciate what you’ve achieved once you get there.

Inspired by Dean Graziosi dean@deanslivecast.com

Office Evolution ranked #2 franchise in Entrepreneurs 2018

Office evolution is not a workspace with Ping-Pong tables and kombucha on tap, like WeWork and Regus, which tout Silicon Valley.

Office Evolution founder and CEO Mark Hemmeter saw a marketplace of entrepreneurs - many of them professionals that have managed small businesses such as accounting or legal firms, and are already plugged into a more traditional community. Many have known each other for many years - and since 2012 have opened more than 50 locations - each of which has its finger on the pulse of what its particular community needs.

BBG www.bbg.business provides these firms an opportunity to collaborate learn and grow with each other through a process enabling members to build know like and trust with each other. As CEO Geoff Hirsh says “if I sit with you for 3 hours a month with a mindset of “ how can I help you” what’s the chances of us doing business together ?”

Best

Ivan

Ps feel free to download my business card https://members.referron.com/bsivc. 

4 tips to improve your engagement on linked in from Simon Clarke

https://www.linkedin.com/in/sjcsystems

Are you one of the countless members on this platform who has something to promote? 

Are you posting content about your employer, about your own company, or about yourself?

Do you get constantly frustrated when you've done the hard yards, added a lot of connections on your network, and yet still only have a few hundred views?

There are four simple steps that you can take to dramatically increase the audience of your submitted content:

1. Never, ever, embed a link to an external website in the body of your post. LinkedIn want clicks on THEIR site, not have you going off to externally hosted content, where you may never return from. If you have a Press Release or some other content, either post it here using the "Write an Article" option, or post a summary and reference the first comment to find out more. Having posted that summary, immediately comment on your own post and paste in the link to the external content. LinkedIn will look at your post and rank it higher because it is internal content. Hence you'll get more views.
2. Use short, easy to read grammatical constructs. Bullet points, numbered lists, short sentences.
3. Make your content bite-sized literally and easy to digest. 
4. Try to avoid jargon or explain it, especially if it has different meanings in other parts of the world.

I hope these four tips improve your audience engagement. Please comment below with other tips that you've found to improve your content readership.

Do Gen Y’s want what we are keen to leave them?

There is going to be a massive transfer of wealth over the next 10-20 years – the likes of which the world has not seen.

There is a massive gap in getting businesses investor ready or ready for succession.

 

Do the “gen ys”  who are set to inherit these businesses want them or have they got their own agenda?

The 10 Gems from Peter Williams Mastermind Lunch on Advisory Boards

1. Secret is to have a great chairman 
2. Hire for talent and rent for experience
3. Major differences between a governing board and advisory board
4. It’s lonely at the top  - an advisory board can be a great “sounding board”
5. Leveraging Outstanding skills 
6. An Advisory Board is easy to change 
7. Important for advisory board to have a structure and frequency - not random
8. Remuneration - investment is outstanding value for money 
9. Need to know your why before getting an advisory board
10. Ensure your advisory board is results focussed 

Active Listening is an Art

Over the years , I have attended countless meetings ...... and I so often don’t implement  the secret that I know makes for a successful meeting - and that is 

Below are 3 key strategies - that I am going to make an active point of improving.......

1. Give people time to reply 

I am guilty of starting a conversation and putting a thought or question out there, and instead  of giving the other individual time to formulate a response, i immediately re-phrase the question or remark and answer it! 

I tend to hi-jack a conversation and realise that I spoke too soon and cut off the other person’s response. 

2. Listen to understand 

We often don’t hear, or worse, understand what the other person  says because I am so busy formulating our response  to what I assume they will say. 

I want to be perceived as quick witted and always prepared with a snappy comeback to any question or comment.  

The problem with this is that I missing so much vital information, because I am not actively listening to what the other human is saying 

3. Listen with intent and notice verbal and non verbal cues

Hear every word, pick up on each nuance, and watch their non-verbal body language. 

For example 

When a person is excited to share information, or tell you a very key point, they intuitively lean forward as if to say, “don’t miss this next point because it is very important”. 

Whether they raise or lower the volume and the tone they use - watch for non-verbal hints.

Hear what your client tells you, and how many times and ways they tell you the same thing. Listen to what they need and frame your response on how you can help them .

 

This is a tip that my mentor Allen Pathmarajah shared with me - (that works really well when I use this strategy)

Count to ten before responding 

It will seem like an eternity, but be smart and give the person with whom you are communicating the time to acknowledge your comment or statement. 

It expand the opportunities for communication, and gives you time to hear and take notice of what they are trying to say and how they are feeling 

Listening builds respect and credibility

And by the way , 

Listen and Silent have the same letters 

Does Culture eat Strategy for breakfast?

We had a great knowledge share  by the legendary Monica Graham on what’s more important in a business - culture or strategy? - and came up with some interesting insites - or what I call “gems”

What you think about in your business becomes the actions you take, and those actions lead to your business habits, which go on to shape how you conduct business (your business character).

And that shapes your business destiny.... and ultimately your business culture.

As a business yoy need  to be very careful about what you as a Business think about and focus on. 

In our BBG Thinktank that followed - facilitated by BBG facilitator, Judith Rose Max , the answer we came to after much discussion and collaboration was 

Leadership eats strategy and culture for breakfast 

Have you thought about where your business wants to be in 6 months, a year, or 5 years?

Have you thought deeply about how to get there?

Have you thought about what type of culture you need in your business in order to set yourself up for success next year?

So, the question to ask is 

What is leadership?

Join Maxwell says “leadership is about influence - nothing more - nothing less

Monica shared with us a McKinsey model on Influence - on how to change mindset and behaviour 

The 4 steps are

1 Role Model 

Your business is a reflection of you. 

If you think above the line - so will your team 

If you have a spirit of generosity - so will your team. A leader will attract people who share the same values.

2. Fostering Understanding and Conviction

Show people that you care - capture their hearts - and they will share with you their minds.

It’s the soft skills, relationships and collaboration - the humanity - that will enable you to survive and thrive as a leader and ultimately as a business 

3. Develop talent and skills. 

In this crazy world of technology and Murphy’s Law” - things are changing at a rapid rate. With machine learning and AI providing the technology  providing  the “heavy lifting”  and “precision” - those that will survive and thrive will be those that will be able to learn how to learn. 

Your business will attract the brightest and best teams if you provide an organisation that provides and encourages continuos learning and training 

4 Reinforce with formal mechanisms 

• Systems and processes are key 
• Have formalised Onboarding sessions
• Continuous training is key 
• Have formalised accountability sessions
• Share wins
• Reinforce your culture
• Get your team to use the tools that you have (Referron or hubspot or salesforce or Act ) . 
• Reward and recognise outstanding behaviour 

Monica shared with us a video on 

“the importance of living above the line”

Monica spoke about the importance of teams having an owners mindset

• Where cash is king 
• Act now
• Be accountable
• Challenge and respect
• Have clear discussions and outcomes and
• Be fit for purpose 

I had the privilige of being in the KLT hotseat  -  which to me was of massive benefit - as I had the insights and assistance from 7 amazing humans! 

What is the BEST Way to Start a Speech⁉️🤔

Great post by the legendary Bobby Umar

http://www.raeallan.com/

Every good speaker has their style 👏🏾

⁣

We also want & need to be unique for our audience

One of the hardest things for any speaker journey is to figure out how to start & how to end a good speech

Over the years I’ve learned many different tactics that work

Imagine you’re on stage or in front of an audience..

What do you do to get their attention, to get them to invest in you?

⁣

There are many options:

⁣

❇️ QUESTIONS: Start with a compelling question (often seen in TED Talks) 🌟

⁣

❇️ GRATITUDE: Focus on thanking, being grateful & share why 🙏

⁣

❇️ MUSIC/IMAGE/VIDEO: Something to grab their attention 🔥

❇️ STORY: An opening story is often the best way 💯

⁣

Anything else⁉️🤓

I’d love to hear your thoughts so COMMENT below 👇🏽🤗

✳️ Follow the  #PowerOfConnection channel every Mon/Wed/Fri

#motivation #personalbranding #careers #entrepreneurship

Great comments from interesting people:-

Isaac Mostcovitz

Nail your open and close. If needed, write the sentences down. The rest of the speech is less important. You can improvise if needed. 

Never start with a video or something similar. It distracts.

Ross Simmonds

Start with a story

Show your passion and have energy

Nick Gibson

Ask a question - engage the audience

Kimberley S

Fast forward to the climax of the story /\ then start at the beginning so they understand how we got to the climax. 

Ivan Kaye

Get to know your audience - engage them 

Aditya Mukherdjee

A video with an energising song 

Furan Qureshi

Verb it. Shock, Surprise, Challenge (keep a few chocolate bars as reward), Question then walk around the audience with a mike, Humour (make sure it's related to the topic or something current),  Play a video, Make them Sketch you, Start talking from a space that they can't see you and walk up to the stage/podium while talking, and if you like try this one - come on stage walk up and down without speaking a word without eye contact for 5 seconds, then very softly and humbly ask everyone to make a wish and pray for it. The last one has usually feedback as 'that was so relaxing, that was a great start, guess what-my wish came true ......

Izzy Mamnoon

Be authentic, vulnerable and relevant - use your body - project your energy 

Speak slowly and clearly -

Vishnu Chinta

A story about childhood in a more insightful and most common way, where everyone in the audience relate to, can get audience's interest in to your speech!

C Jos

Smile: Just a warm hearted smile and be grateful  saying that how thankful it is to see the respected audience there (even if only 2 are present)... 

Amit Jain

 I often keep asking questions to the audience to keep them engaged during my training sessions...usually works well!!

Fared a Zaeimfar

Start strong and share a relevant story - to the point - people want to be engaged !

Dave Rosenberg

Understand what you want to achieve - share 

I like to start with something "disrruptive/interruptive." 

Every attendee has a potentially different outcome.  You must bring everyone in the audience to the same place .  Once there, you have their full attention!

Nancy Narang

Start with some alarming statistic or fact. Gets ppl attention maybe?!  🙂

Michael Page

Start with a simple compelling story:  “It was...<date, time, place>...”

End by circling back to the simple compelling story: “Like the story of the <story topic>, we are...”

Start and end in a same place with substantial and compelling content in between.

5 gems to help you build an Awesome team that Knows likes and trusts each other

Inspired by HBR article 

“Build Self-Awareness with Help from Your Team” by Audrey Epstein

https://hbr.org/2018/08/build-self-awareness-with-help-from-your-team?utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=hbr

Courtesy of www.bbg.business - during a “BBG KLT Hotseat”

A Harvard study showed that 95% of people think that they are self aware - but only 5-15% of people actually are! 

An important trait of an effective team is that they give effective feedback in a positive way.

Peers in high performing teams feel accountable for each other’s success, and willingly provide support and candid feedback with a spirit of generosity to help each other be at their best.

They will

• spend time debating, discussing problems, and making decisions
• address unacceptable team behaviors promptly
• give each other tough feedback
• Talk about those “undiscussables” that others can’t talk openly about

There are 2 types of teams says Audrey 

Crappy teams - that have distrust, politics, infighting, and gossip 

And 

Awesome teams - that have trust, candor, feedback, shared goals, and joint accountability.

They talk honestly and openly about each other’s strengths and weaknesses, and because they trust each other, they assume positive intent when the tougher conversations happen. It’s ok to mess up and fail. It’s ok to be vulnerable

What if you could get honest insights and feedback from coworkers who are truly committed to your success and get to see you in action all the time, on both your best and worst days? 

You can, and you will, if you build an Awesome Team. 

Imagine if you were surrounded by people motivated to give you useful feedback says Audrey Epstein - an emotional intelligence guru! 

She gives 5 tips to building a great team 

1. Assume positive intent. Give your teammates the benefit of the doubt. Assume they are providing feedback not to judge you but to make you better.
2. Talk to your teammates, not about them. You can’t solve problems with gossip. Venting without follow-up action ensures that you are building cliques and solidifying rifts. It takes courage, but talking directly and respectfully with teammates when something goes wrong can solve many misunderstandings without creating drama or bringing others into it.
3. Care about your teammates’ success. Start by taking an interest in your teammates’ success. Ask questions about their concerns, know what their goals are, help where you can, and be a good listener and collaborator. You can’t be a great teammate if you don’t know what drives others’ success.
4. Push your teammates to do their best work and vice versa. Great Teams, have members challenge each other to reach their goals. They don’t spend energy watching their own backs, so they take risks and reach higher. Start by asking your teammates to challenge you. Bring them ideas and ask for input. Ask for feedback on your plans. Embrace the idea that your teammates make you better.
5. Ask for personal feedback. Before offering feedback, ask for it first. Ask your teammates what you could do to better support their success. Ask peers for suggestions on one behavior you could work on to become a better teammate. Give permission for teammates to share feedback by asking for it regularly and listening openly. Thank others for giving you feedback.
   

It’s up to you to build a great team of people who know, like and trust you. You need to nurture those who will support you, and challenge you to be your best. 

Surround yourself with people who will speak their truth, even when it’s hard. And then listen. When you do, you will see an amazingly positive impact — on you, on them, and on the overall success of your team.

• Great teams deliver stronger results, faster. They’re more innovative. 
• They challenge you to learn more quickly and to be at your best. 
• And, let’s face it — they’re simply more fun to work with.

As my mentor Alllen Pathmaraja says ... there is

EQ, IQ and most importantly LQ - likability quotient! 

Best

Ivan

Ps feel free to download my business card https://members.referron.com/bsivc. 

Let’s Dance

Great Advice from a Paul!

If you've ever wondered how to get through the doors of buyers you need to talk to? 

Step One: 

Find someone with a key.

 They can open the doors you would take months to get through (if at all) because they already have a trusted relationship with the people you want to talk to. 

Too simple, too good to be true? 

Yes for most people, because many people in business rely on cold calling (strangers talking to strangers), ineffective advertising (they can't measure) or attending networking events (strangers not listening to strangers) that are nothing more than a social or pitch fest.  

No wonder they become impatient, frustrated, cynical. 

Step Two. 

Focus on closer relationships.

Focus your time on developing meaningful relationships with those people with the key to open the doors you want to walk through. Referral partners. 

Challenge. Most people think that a friendly chat at a networking meeting or even over a coffee is a relationship developed. Wrong. 

It takes time to demonstrate that you are competent, generous, reliable, trustworthy. 

It takes time to get past knowing what someone does to know who they want to connect with and why. Most people don't get past one meeting. 

The so-called relationship is superficial or maybe purely digital. 

Yesterday I was speaking with Mark Stonham (LinkedIn strategy guy) and we were discussing the challenges we all have connecting with people who are all on different social networking channels. People very distracted, busy, stressed and typing instead of talking. 

Perhaps now is the time to stand back and focus on meaningful face to face referral partnerships. People who already have the key to unlocking the doors to opportunity.

Obvious really. It's just two-steps that we need to practice if we want to dance. 

Paul Clegg will help you get in front of people who want to buy your stuff, so you spend less time chasing people who don't. Why can I guarantee that I can introduce you to potential referral partners who already have trusted access to the clients you are trying to reach. Because I've been doing it successfully for over 17 years

An awesome BBG Forum and Hotseat with Wayne Brightman as the Hotseater

Last Friday ended with an absolute high for me after attending Mark Pinhorn’s  BBG Hyd Sutherland forum.

Know Like and Trust (KLT)  with the group kicked in - and the forum was used to build trust with members focussed on adding value to each other with a real “spirit of generosity.”

The hotseat with Wayne  Brightman was gold - he has given permission to share the following email he sent following up of his klt hotseat - which got an immediate masssive response - and further offers for help from each of the bbg forum members:-

Wayne’s Letter:- 

“Good Morning all,

 

I’ve  attended many networking meetings/events over the last 4yrs - so without prejudice I can say we have an amazing group that should be a benchmark for BBG moving forward.

I would like to thank everyone for the feedback at yesterday’s meeting. Some I have called personally and as time got away yesterday I didn’t call all but please do not feel your forgotten I’ll call during the week.

 

Danielle if there is still seats I would like to take 2 tickets please, also I would like to assist more with “KC”, we’ve provided pens in the past but after engaging with you and another board member I now feel I can do better.

 

Craig, WOW I woke up Friday thinking I would have a chat to you about succession planning and now … I want to learn much more

 

Anna, Loved your presentation and I should have invested way more over the years as I had the ability to do so, it’s very refreshing to here you can over pay for a personal property because you can, I did that for my mum in 1993, (one day we’ll own it)

 

Mark…. Yeah you know mate”

 

Wayne Brightman Director at Promo-More A  6/63-73 Willarong Road Caringbah NSW 2229 P  (02) 9526 7751  M  (+61) 0410 415 093  E  wayne@promo-more.com.au  W  www.promo-more.com.au

Subscribe for free:Subscribe Here

The klt hotseat

Hotseaters - you can use this to talk at - or you can use this to share an issue and ask for help - hint - people want to help and add value !!

The objective is not for the members of the panel to rant on and show people how good they are - the objective is to find out ways where they can genuinely help the person in the hotseat with a spirit of generosity. 

Not only for the 15 minutes they have to ask relevant questions and give advice  - but actively over the next month or year!! 

Who can you refer the hotseater to?

How can you help him/her?

What advice can you offer the hotseater solve that issue and help grow their business?

Over the months and years that The BBG forum meets -  its amazing to see how KLT  developed  - members  start referring - and they become each other’s advisory board! 

Guests are welcome and have an opportunity to network with members and guests and to contribute to the hotseater and take away gems that are given and have an opportunity to start developing relationships with people who they meet.

The hot seat for hotseaters and interviewers can be extremely powerful. 

Like everything in life - Depending on what you put into it - you get out of it

Some tips for the hotseater 

• Acknowledge the person and thank them for the advice - meet with them to further explore the gems that they give 
• This is an opportunity for you to actively build your business and create advocates!

2 things I’m going to leave you with:-

1. Who do you want to be in your BBG chapter? Be sure to invite them as a guest to the next forum

And 

2. What are you going to do to add value to someone in your BBG chapter this month?

Best

Ivan

Ps feel free to download my business card https://members.referron.com/bsivc. 

Thinktank on Continuous Improvement

At the recent October monthly meeting for BBG's Sydney Eastern Suburbs Chapter a diverse and experienced group of professionals worked on a range of topics around increasing business success through branding and digital marketing exercises.  

As part of the session, we had a Think Tank knowledge share breakout where we discussed related matters around "what is going well?" and "what needs to be improved?" in our collective businesses.  

In my 40 years experience of hiring and working with "A" players, my maxim has been that they always know what they do well and what the resulting impact to the business has been.  In equal parts, they also acknowledge mistakes or areas for improvement.  This group verified that maxim.  They quickly produced a revealing and salient list of positives and "kaizen" points.

The ideas revealed the imperatives of customer focus and service delivery as being paramount.  A part of this is the enablement and support of staff through training and marketing communications.  

It was a useful exercise to learn from each other and engender trust in a breakout group of professionals put together for a short session.

Here are the two lists.

Current Successes

• Speed and accuracy of responding to customer requests
• System and rules based processes
• Strategy with objective and measurable outcomes
• Track record
• Ease of doing business
• Flexible business model
• "Can Do" attitude
• Go anywhere attitude - ".com" compared with .com.au and no fixed address
• Niche market clearly defined
• Holding inventory to speed response

Kaizen Points

• Training for all staff
• Constant marketing
• Meaningful, value-add "Invitation only" customer events
• Value proposition - re-visit and reset
• Messaging: Advertising, Marketing, Internal communication
• Personal Motivation for business growth
• Consistency of delivery

Craig Saphin Managing Director www.craigsaphin.com craig@craigsaphin.com

csaphin Australia . Singapore . Japan