12 Days of Christmas 2012

Welcome to the Twelve Days for Christmas for 2012.  

Maybe you don't celebrate Christmas, maybe you are more a Haj, Chanuka or Bodi day kind of person. It doesn't matter, this applies to everyone.
Last year I put out the 12 Days Challenge and it got a great response so here it is again.

Here is your challenge for the next twelve days.  Don’t forget, that they are cumulative, just like the song.  That is, on the first day, you give the first thing. One the second day, you give the second thing and then the first thing.  On the third day you give the third thing, the second thing and then the first and so on.

Your Twelve Days and their challenges:
On the first day of Christmas I gave to my partner or best friend, an extra long and extra firm hug.
On the second day of Christmas I gave to a person on the road, 2 moments to cut in ahead of me.
On the third day of Christmas I gave to the person on the street $3 for a coffee treat.
On the fourth day of Christmas I gave to a member of my team, 4 minutes to tell me what they thought of me.
On the fifth day of Christmas I gave to myself 5 minutes of mediation.
On the sixth day of Christmas I gave to my family, six minutes of singing silly songs.
On the seventh day of Christmas I gave to my kids, seven minutes of undivided attention.
On the eighth day of Christmas I searched my memory for eight things I learned from this year.
On the ninth day of Christmas I wrote in my diary, nine goals for the coming year.
On the tenth day of Christmas I gave to my friends, ten minutes of non-stop praise.
On the eleventh day of Christmas for my sanity, I gave myself an eleven minute bath (Frankincense and Myrrh is optional).
On the twelfth day of Christmas I committed to the community twelve hours of my time as a volunteer.

It is ALMOST singable to the original tune!!  Don't be discouraged if you don't get it perfect but do act on as many as you can.  Carry the spirit of Christmas and giving with you as you do.

PS I know that the 12 Days of Christmas don't officially start until the 29th of December but I thought I would get in early! Have a fabulous festive season and here is to a magnificent 2013

How Good Is Your Call To Action?

I spoke to a school group this morning. On the way there I saw a delivery van covered with signage on their products. There was lots of colour and pictures but the sign that stood out was words saying 

"Book with me Now!"

My initial response was 'Book what?'

You see their signage got attention but you could not tell at a glance what it was for. With signage on a vehicle that moves at somewhere between 40 and 100 km/h you have to be able to understand it in a single glance.

This is a principle that I share with clients in my Exhibiting work. Can you tell at a glance what your stand is about?
It is equally applicable to the action line on an email. If the recipient cannot understand what you want from them at a glance, then you need to rework your call to action.

Are you getting the response you want with your "Call to Action?"



PS Be careful with abbreviations too. This sign was taken by a friend of mine in the USA and I don't think it says what they want it to!

Are You Trained?

Are You Trained?

I spent three days last week locked in a room with other similar minded entrepreneurs. Well maybe not locked but you get what I mean. We were looking at how to transform our businesses and take them to the next level (or even the one beyond that). The final day was planning and commitments for 2013 with an action plan to help get us there
.
As a business owner it can be hard to dedicate this kind of time for additional training and development.

As an employee as well, there is always too much to do to spend time off getting training and development.

I have heard it said by many business gurus, "Too many managers say What if I train my employees and they leave, but what if you don't train them and they stay!"

By the way, don't wait for others to pay for or approve your training either. If you really want it or need it, be prepared to finance it yourself, after all, you get to keep it!

So what training do you need? What skills do you need to develop? What will you do TODAY to make that happen?

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PS Tomorrow night (Tuesday 4th December) we will be hosting the 5 Keys to Successful Exhibiting training from 6pm in Doncaster. Be my guest and use the promo code EASCOMP for your ticket at my expense. To register or find out more details, visit EASInstitute.Eventbrite.com