Have You Exercised Your Slack Muscle?

Have You Exercised Your Slack Muscle?

Wifey and I are into investment properties. We like them and they work for us.

Late last year a tenant advised us that someone had broken in and done some damage. It turned out the damage was smashed walls, windows and a massive mess. The neighbours advised us that within weeks of moving in there was a huge party and the cops had to be called. In fact, the party made the local paper. Personally, I suspect the damage was more "party" related than "break-in" related.

Anyway, the landlord insurance covered the replastering of the third of the house and we took the opportunity to repaint the entire inside of the house and re-carpet it. That is not us hiring painters, that is wifey and I spending three 14 hour days washing ceilings and walls and then giving the ceilings, walls, door frames and doors two coats of paint.

To be honest, I was physically shattered!

I am used to speaking on stage, strutting around trade shows, talking on the phone or working at my computer. I have all these muscles that had gone slack in my body. An intense painting work out reminded me they were still there.

It got me thinking about some of the muscles I used to exercise in the workplace but haven't for a while. I haven't done cold calling for quite a while, I haven't done random networking for a while and I haven't called my old clients to see how they are for a while. Like my slack painting muscles, when I do this it may feel strange, hurt a bit, make me feel exhausted or even turn me off doing it ever again. It is so important to exercise the slack muscle in your business. To do the tasks that pay off, even if you don't want to do them.

Have you exercised your slack muscle recently?




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What About the Little Guys?

In the last couple of weeks I have been on three different airline; Qantas, REX and Jetstar. The service I got varied with each one. More importantly, it varied against my expectation.

The first flight was Qantas. To make things easier for them they now have autobaggage book in. In fact, it is ok for the traveller too, unless you have unusual luggage. I had a guitar with me. The auto check in wanted to charge me an extra $30 as I had an extra bag. I spoke to the assistant (when I could find her) and had a conversation about luggage andwhat was allowed in the cabin etc.  This was from the premium airline. I had 25kg allocation and still I was hassled.

Compare that to REX airlines. When I booked I noticed that the luggage allowance was 15kg. I knew I would be over with the guitar, amp and other things I had so I rang them to try and buy more luggage allowance as it is usually cheaper to buy beforehand than at the airport. I was advised that I could only get it at the airport. I steeled myself for the $5.50 per kilo extra I would have to pay (I guessed about $40) and then checked in when I was in Sydney. At check-in the bag and guitar weighed a total of 22.5 kg. As I waited to be told "That's $40 please" he actually said, "Let's say that's 20kg and there is no extra charge. By the way, would you like an exit row? It would be more comfortable for a guy your height." I was stunned.

In an age where the focus is cost cutting and bottom line focussed (particularly in the airline industry), it was a delight to get great service. This service continued on the flight - but that's another story.

As a small to medium business, how can you beat the big guys at their game? As a big business, what can you learn from the little guys?

Are You Ready?

Based on last week's Get More Goer, it seems like most of you are back at work this week. This email is probably just one of the many in your inbox - hopefully it is not buried! Some of you have been back on the job for a week or more so this is a quick reminder.


But are you ready?


Is your desk all clean, your in tray empty, your mindset clear, your enthusiasm fired up and all ready for a cracker of a 2012?
If you are not quite ready, don't forget to use the Regular Results Review to get your focused. You can get a copy here 
If you need some music to focus your self, here is a song I recently discovered that inspired this post. Are You Ready? by Fatty Gets A Stylist 


Now you are ready, LET'S GO!

 Image: Flikr Dru Bloomfield

What's the Theme?

Happy New Year! 


I hope that this year is full of success, fun and happiness.


Did you make a New Year's resolution? I think New Year's resolutions are too hard. Too many things to remember, too easy to get side tracked, too easy to go back to old habits, too similar to last year's resolutions (or is that revolutions), and too easy to simply lose interest.


So for this year, I am having a theme.  It is something in addition to the goals of my business and my personal goals but it is the essence of my focus for the year. It is something to keep me on track and progressing.  It is one simple statement; in fact it is three simple words. It's easy to remember, easy to focus on and easy to adjust my course when I stray.


My theme for this year is

MAKE AN IMPACT

What's yours?

What About This Weather?

Whew! It was a SCORCHER here in Melbourne yesterday 40 C. Overnight it got down to a low of 24 C and we are up for another hot day today. I could whinge and whine about how hot it is. I could complain that I don't deal with the heat well. Just so you know, I am a son of a farmer so I know how to complain about the weather with the professionals!

The weather is something I can do nothing about.

The saying "it's not what happens to you but how you deal with it that counts" is best represented by the weather.
In business it may be you main customer no longer buys from you, your key employee resigns, someone else owns a trade mark you were after or some other unfortunate event.

So today, I am not going to say anything about the weather. I will simply do what it takes to make sure my needs are met. It could be going to the cinema, it maybe working out of an airconditioned cafe, I may even need to go and hangout in the freezer section of a supermarket. 


It is the action I take that will determine how well I deal with my situation.

Have You Got What It Takes?

It's the Festive Season!

Whether you celebrate Christmas, Chanuka, Bodhi day, Kwanza, Al Hirja, Festivus (Seinfeld's Festival for the rest of us) or your own personal celebration, have you got what it takes?

What I mean by that is have you got the right tools, the right mindset, the right setting to make your festival the best one ever.
I celebrate Christmas, so here are my Christmas presents for you:

Firstly, you are going to need some festive music, so here are some tracks that my choir perform.

• Glory Manger - A gospel carol 
• Go Tell It on the Mountain - A funky version of the classic
• Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas -  A relaxing tune full of harmonies

Next you are going to need some guidance on how to spend the 12 days of Christmas. Rather than provide it in song format, Wifey and I have re-written it so that it suits all denominations and faiths. Now technically, the 12 days of Christmas start on 26th December so you have plenty of time for them. So here is the modern 12 Days of Christmas

While you are relaxing over the festive season, you are probably considering the year ahead and even the year past to see what you did well and what you want to achieve for 2012. To help, I have the Regular Results Review guide. A simple 2 pager to help you focus on what you want to achieve.

For those of you who are wondering what to get yourself for Christmas, then maybe this is for you? I have just released a 12 CD pack Get More Business Success. I have an initial release deal for you to celebrate. You save $450. You can find out all the detail on the Get More Business Success page.

Thank you dear blog reader for reading my thoughts and observations every week. I hope 2012 is full of your wildest dreams coming true and I look forward to continuing to be of value to you in the future.


Merry Christmas and have a fabulous festive season.


Warm regards




Warwick Merry
The Get More Guy

Humans Can't See

Humans MUST be admired for their commitment to selective blindness and ignorance. They KNOW what is in their best interest yet they continue to ignore it and pretend that their situation is different.

It started with dog poo.

Dog owners are typically responsible and pick up after their animals as required by law, but there are a minority (or is it a silent majority) that CANNOT notice their dog bearing down to squeeze out a nugget.

Surely the human must notice the tension on the lead or strange circling behaviour of their pet, but it always seems to be at that time that the human gets in touch with their Ornithology gene and starts bird watching.  This leaves the nugget on the footpath or nature strip of some unsuspecting home owner to be flung around when next the lawn is mowed.

Even worse, it could be at the park where “everyone does it – so it must be ok”. It is not ok. Ask any amateur sports person who has slid through it, stomped on it, hit it, fell in it or kicked it and see what they think of it.  Ask any pram pushing parent how they felt when they got the pram in the car only to discover their new aromatherapy was Eau du Puppy.

You would have thought we would have learnt.

By now you may be thinking either “oops… I’ve done that” or “it’s a disgrace, damn dog owners.” If you are of the latter, when was the last time you chucked something out the window of a moving car, put a non-recyclable in the recycling bin, put a recyclable in the non-recycling bin or threw some foreign object in a water way?

In Ye Olde Englande, humans just lobbed the bath water and chamber pot out the window. Over the years this slowly moved to open sewers (pumped straight into the river) to closed sewers (still pumped into the river) and now finally we have some decent sewage processing that can turn our waste into pure water and by product.

You would have thought we would have learnt.

We now have expeditions that are hiking up Mount Everest purely to collect the rubbish. From empty oxygen cylinders to dead bodies, we continue to leave our waste in some of the most pristine areas. There is so much space junk orbiting the earth that it is starting to damage satellites and there are high level discussions to do a rubbish collection space run.

You would have thought we would have learnt.

The younger generations seem to be more accustomed to considering the full impact of their actions but there are exception. The more mature generations, who run most of our corporations, are less likely to consider the impact of their actions and those of their companies than the impact on their bottom line.

What is needed is RESPONSIBILITY. That equates to the Ability to Respond. It is not fun to pick up dog poo, especially if you have a big dog. But if you choose to own a dog, part of the deal is looking after it. It is not fun to correct the environmental and social impact of your business but that is part of the responsibility of running a business.

Humans MUST be admired for their commitment to selective blindness and ignorance. They KNOW what is in their best interest yet they continue to ignore it and pretend that their situation is different.

Where can you take responsibility?

Image: http://dogblog.dogster.com