'How did you become so wealthy?' is a question I've asked plenty of people in my life. But the answer I got from a very successful colleague of mine when I worked at Xerox wasn't about a product, or a service, or a sales  or marketing strategy. It was about a belief that underpinned everything he did. His answer was this. "I got rich by making other people rich... I add value to peoples lives." He took it upon himself every day, to go out and add value to peoples lives - whether it was his clients', or his customers' or his friends'. Now you're not necessarily going make people rich simply To View More >>

Imagine if there was something that, if you did it consistently, would improve all relationships completely. Wouldn't that be amazing? I don't want to overstate it, but I think the concept of the "Umbrella of Rapport", might just be that powerful, so please enjoy. Today I came across some notes from an internal presentation that I did for our sales people last year on how they might improve their relationships, in this case with our clients. Part of it included this powerful idea. I don't take credit for it, I first heard it from Tony Robbins, but I have added my own thoughts below. In my opinion To View More >>

I found myself in trouble on Twitter this morning ... ok "in trouble" might be a bit strong, but a tweet I received did make me realise something I was doing was causing offence and of course don't want to do that. In my "Direct Messages" (inbox) I received the following tweet. At first I thought #DM meant "Deep and Meaningful" ... what no deep and meaningful conversation?, what a weird thing to say ... but then I realised more seriously that they meant "Direct Messages". So what happened, and why is this important? juhasaarinen seems like a pretty cool person. Certainly they have an interesting To View More >>

As I sat down to write this I wondered about my title, I tossed between "Don't forget your belt" and "Drinking $200 bottles of wine". "Don't forget your belt, was a travel tip for men. If you are going to go away with your wife for the weekend, heed my advice and pack early, if not you will be like me rushing out of the house late, forgetting your belt and will spend all weekend pulling up your jeans. :) Anyway, I'm sitting here buzzing after a weekend away with Sonya where we spent two amazing days exploring a jewel in our own back yard, Waiheke Island. As many people know I am passionate about To View More >>

Is it possible there is something to be learned from the Fire Service when it comes to handling customer complaints? I strongly believe so and share that learning here. Scenario: Imagine a car accident on a busy highway, multiple serious injuries and heavy traffic. You know there will be lots of screaming and emotion, and this really is a life and death situation for the people involved. The Question is ... What would you do? The amateur care giver rushes in looking for the sickest person, gets caught up in the emotion and most likely gets themselves injured or killed in the process. Not good To View More >>