Kirsty's Blog

Does your organisation boo?

Kirsty Dunphey (www.reallysold.com) — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 04:30:01 -0600

The air was electric as I looked over a sea of bobbing blue caps hotdog in hand. It was my first Chicago Cubs baseball game at historic Wrigley Field and I was loving every minute of it. With every crack of bat to ball my breath paused, my neck arched and I took another bite of my fabulous Chicago dog.

That day, like so many others, was not the a day for Cubs victory – but one moment definitely stood out. The opposing team hit a huge fly ball right…. out…. into centre field… home run.

All of a sudden the crowd started to boo and howl wildly. My husband asked me why the Cubs fans were showing such poor sportsman ship. Being a nerd (with access to Wikipedia on my iPhone), I knew exactly what the boos were about.

It was soon readily apparent to all Australian tourists at the game that the booing wasn’t about the home run. The boos were about the fan who caught the home run ball keeping the home run ball from the opposing team! Culturally speaking, Chicago Cubs fans throw back the opposing team’s homers and nearly every one of the 35,000 people at the game let their feelings be well known on the subject!

Now whether you agree with throwing back the homer or not (my husband adamantly states that regardless of the boo-ing, he’d be keeping that homer!) you’ve got to admit, this is a very clear indication of the culture of Wrigley Field.

Is the culture within your organisation as readily apparent to new comers? Now I’m not suggesting that you should be getting boo-ed by 35 accountants in your firm when you don’t refill the paper in the photocopier. But I am wondering how comfortable the team around you feel about pointing out when someone isn’t living up to your office culture? Does the new guy know that in your firm you reward other’s successes, you actively engage with the people around you, you say good morning with a smile each day, you don’t take shortcuts, you get your filing and other little tasks done, you treat even the most junior of staff members with respect…. And who amongst his peers will figuratively boo at him if he doesn’t?

Kirsty Dunphey is the youngest ever Australian Telstra Young Business Woman of the Year, author of two books (Advance to Go, Collect $1 Million and Retired at 27, If I can do it anyone can www.unleashedknowledge.com) and a passionate entrepreneur who started at age 15 and opened her own real estate agency at 21. Kirsty’s current projects include www.reallysold.com which helps real estate agents write amazing ads, Elephant Property www.elephantproperty.com.au a boutique real estate agency purely for investment property owners, Baby Teresa www.baby-teresa.com a baby clothing line that donates a baby outfit to a baby in need for each one sold. Find out more about Kirsty at her website www.kirstydunphey.com where you can also sign up for her newsletter.

A Heartfelt Apology

Kirsty Dunphey (www.reallysold.com) — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 04:25:55 -0600

Sometimes I feel as though I’m one of those people that likes to nitpick. I’m so fixated on customer service and get so disappointed when it doesn’t live up to even basic standards that I’m often “whinging” about the dodgy hotel experience I had or the conference I attended that did such and such.

I almost think that sometimes I’m a little programmed to see the wrong, which is why it was so nice that a bad service experience yesterday turned into something kinda great.

I’d emailed a property manager to meet my husband at a property at 1.00pm amongst a whole swag of other things, they’d confirmed with “all done”. At 1.13pm I got a call from my husband – no-one had been there to meet him. I called to chase up and long story short, the property manager hadn’t read the part of my email about the appointment.

Her boss apologised to myself and my husband which was fine, but the thing that had me leave the experience with an uplifted feeling was her apology to me on the phone. It was heartfelt. It was genuine. She didn’t offer any excuses. She just assured me that it wouldn’t happen again and took her lumps. She then followed it up with a further email.

We’re human. We mess up. All of us (I know I certainly do!). It’s what you do when you mess up that determines how that relationship will progress.

Option number 1 is:

1. Own it

2. Convey your apology in a heartfelt way

3. Put a plan in place so that it doesn’t happen again

You easily have the power to turn a bad experience into a positive. Where you run into trouble is if you follow the dodgy conflict resolution strategy of Option 2:

1. Bury it

2. Deny it

3. Shift the blame

The next time you mess up – and we know it will happen – what 3 steps will you decide to do?

What story do you tell?

Kirsty Dunphey (www.reallysold.com) — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 04:21:34 -0600

Some of my favourite songs are those that are able to convey a storyline worthy of a full feature length movie in only a few minutes.

There’s the eternal Kenny Rogers (yes, I like Kenny and won’t hear anything negative about that) with Ruby don’t take your love to town.

More recently, and while it’s not as powerful as Ruby, I still love the simple and beautiful story in Teenage Dirtbag by Wheatus.

And the shocking (well I found it shocking the first time I listened to it) All I wanna do is make love to you by Heart.

This got me thinking, if a musical artist can convey that much of a story line in such a compressed time, so too can a business in their marketing materials. For my money, the “about us” page on your website is the best place to start.

One of my favourite corporate about us pages is that of the recently aquired Zappos. Check it out to see how they’ve incorporated testimonials, video, social networking, blogs and more.

Even on twitter where you’ve got only a few tiny characters for your bio, http://twitter.com/caseystevens got my attention with hers (although I don’t know if I agree with the ugg boots):

• Bio Yes to: Marketing, Dancing, Dogs, Pina Coladas. No to: Brussel sprouts, violence, wearing ugg boots outside

Check out this fabulous article to see a few more wacky but story filled examples.

Here’s a simple checklist for your website’s about us page:

• Does it adequately convey the personality of you / your organisation?

• What else can you do to link it to your social media output (twitter, facebook, linked in etc) • Does it help people get to your blog (er… do you have a blog?)

• Could it link or show testimonials?

• Can it help me find your team bios?

• Is it current and up to date?

• Does it link to the other pages on your website?

• Have you missed anything “bragworthy” – awards, qualifications etc?

• Is it visually appealing?

• Is there anything on there that would make me want to tell someone else to check out that page? Now, I’m leaving now ‘cos you just heard the slamming of the door (if this doesn’t make sense then I humbly request you start listening to more Kenny Rogers!) I’m off to work on updating my about us pages… how ‘bout you?

Also If you know of any great “about us” pages, please put them in the comments here, I’m always up for seeing fabulous examples.

Hidden Secrets: the Corporate Alleyways

Kirsty Dunphey (www.reallysold.com) — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 17:32:17 -0500

On a recent trip to Melbourne I found myself, yet again, past dark sidling up a seemingly deserted alley way. I was in search of “La la land” a bar.

You might already know that seemingly all the very groovy bars in Melbourne are hidden in laneways more befitting a morose mugging than a civilised cocktail. It’s part of the culture and thankfully I have my Bar Secrets Melbourne cards so that I can try a new one each time I’m there.

I have to lurk in a laneway in Melbourne to manifest my mohito, but did you know in the corporate world you’ll also have to do some covert skulking?

The corporate alleyway you might have to lurk in could be:

• Knowing the right after work drinks place to network with your target demographic.

• Knowing which receptionist to turn on the charm with to get your messages delivered on time.

• Knowing what bottle of wine is the client’s favourite to ensure their repeat business.

• Knowing that promotions at your office get decided by a select few at a monthly luncheon.

There’s secret “laneway-like” world in almost every workplace and every industry. How many corporate secrets do you know? Too bad there isn’t a card that can help you out with that one. But you could try:

• Finding out where the most successful person in your industry has their after work drinks (you could even, shock horror, offer to buy them a drink).

• Charming all the receptionists at your work place (being nice to the front face of your business always pays off in the long run, they are your tie to the rest of the world).

• Ask your best client’s assistant or partner what their favourite drop is so that next time you get them a gift you know it’s spot on the money.

• Find that person who got the promotion you wanted and take them out to lunch to try and unearth their secrets (a good mohito helps with this too).

Good luck in uncovering the hidden laneways of your industry and workplace.

Kirsty Dunphey is the youngest ever Australian Telstra Young Business Woman of the Year, author of two books (her latest release is Retired at 27, If I can do it anyone can) and a passionate entrepreneur who started at age 15 and opened her own real estate agency at 21. Currently Kirsty heads up www.reallysold.com the premium online copywriting site for real estate agents and is a co-director of Elephant Property www.elephantproperty.com.au Launceston, Tasmania's only boutique real estate agency purely for investment property owners. Kirsty's other ventures are outlined at her website www.kirstydunphey.com where you can also sign up for her newsletter.

The Value of Pancake Promises

Kirsty Dunphey (www.reallysold.com) — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 17:22:13 -0500

When I was about 6 years old I was at my Mum’s workplace running amok as I always did. When it was time to go I’m not sure what came over me, but I refused. I hid under tables, I ran from my Mum and I basically caused all sorts of fuss and embarrassment for her.

I then got the brilliant idea that with this newfound leverage over my Mum I’d start making demands (genius I know!) I wasn’t leaving the office until she promised me that we could go out for pancakes.

After much to-ing and fro-ing my Mum finally gave in. I’m sure I let out a yelp of delight and we left the office.

I’m sure it comes as no surprise to you that, sadly, there were no pancakes that night or for a very long time afterwards.

It taught me a really important lesson though – making demands is pointless if you’re looking for a good long term relationship. Even if you are able to demand your way into what you want, the animosity created by that demand leads to ongoing acrimony.

I’ve seen it time and time again in workplaces where employees will make demands of their employer and wonder why neither party ends up with what they want. So, how about this – the next time you want something, rather than demanding it, why not show some VALUE.

If you want a new coffee machine at work, put together a quick proposal that will show your boss that it’ll give each staff member an extra half an hour in the office a day (rather than going across the road to get coffee) thus providing him with X number of extra work hours a week, that’s a VALUE.

If you want a payrise, put together a list of your VALUE (not demands) to the company. Show the improvements you’ve made in the past X months, the increase in revenue to the company, the benefit on office morale and then go to your employer with a plan for how you can continue increasing the VALUE to them.

As a child, how much better would I have been when Mum wanted to leave the office for me to say, sure, let’s go now, and by the way, is there any chance you could look at us having pancakes at some stage in the next little while if I clean my room and do the dishes as soon as we get home? Ahhh… if only I’d known!

Put The Magic In

Kirsty Dunphey (www.reallysold.com) — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 17:18:51 -0500

The highlight of every weekend I spend in Melbourne is a trip to the magic shop in Southbank. Yes, I’ll happily confess I’m crazy for the magic. I’ve always loved it. But I don’t go into this shop just to buy magic tricks.

Every time I go into this shop it’s an experience. The staff are all dressed in bow ties and when asked, or even sometimes when you don’t ask, they’ll start demonstrating their wares by performing fantastic magic tricks. I adore watching their demonstrations (they’re flawless and funny) and it’s great for business. I want to do EVERY trick they show me and I tell all my friends (and now you guys!) that they have to go into the shop. Cost to the shop?

Nothing. When the staff are busy serving, they don’t do tricks, it’s just in between customers buying. The benefit? Immeasurable I’m sure.

Now while a magic shop can literally create magic in their shopping experience, I don’t think it’s a feat beyond any business.

The restaurant Bubba Gump (based on Forest Gump) in the States did it for me by having a sign on each table that could be flipped to say either “run forest run” or “stop forest stop” depending on whether you wanted service for your waiter. I loved it so much I thought about getting my own portable version to take to every restaurant with me (it’s so frustrating to wait and wait for service!)

How will you create magic in your business today?

Linked in to who? Tweeter-whating? Myspace, who’s space is that? (or social networking: how to work it for business)

Kirsty Dunphey (www.reallysold.com) — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 01:22:49 -0500

So, more and more these days I’m getting asked about social networking / web 2.0 and what on earth their purpose is. This includes websites like:

• Twitter

• Blogger

• Facebook

• Linked in

• Myspace

Now, if you’re online, I doubt you’ve managed to exist without knowing about one or more of these sites, but from a business perspective, what’s their use?

We’ll go through each quickly, but there’s some general pros and cons that cover them all:

Pros

• Greater access to customers in a non-invasive, opt in (ie the person says they want to get your twitter updates or read your blog etc)

• Using these sites allows you to put a more human face on a business

• Almost all of these sites don’t cost anything (except your time) to use

Cons

• These sites demand time. I know people who invest upwards of an hour on social network sites every day (I don’t – but it does take time)

• Like a website, if you don’t update and keep things fresh on social networking sites there isn’t much point

Twitter

It’s the latest and the greatest if you listen to celebs like Ashton Kutcher @aplusk (putting the @ symbol in twitter speak means that you can find Ashton at www.twitter.com/aplusk) or Ellen @TheEllenShow who are all raving about it. In short, Twitter (www.twitter.com) was built to answer the question, what are you doing? You get 140 characters to let people know what you’re up to.

From a business perspective, I use @kirstydunphey to tweet (a tweet is a post on twitter) and push traffic towards my blog (more about blogs later), to promote listings (with my real estate hat on) and to stay in touch.

Some tweeters to check out from a business perspective include:

@zappos – Zappos CEO (service oriented online shoe store in the States)

@miafreedman – former Cosmo editor and current author and blogger

@Rove1974 – TVs Rove McManus

@ThisIsSethsBlog – Seth Godin, author and blogger

Facebook / Myspace

I’ll lump these two together because they’re really similar. Myspace used to be all the rage and in the last two years it’s become more about facebook. I maintain a presence on both, but if you’re strapped for time then it’s more likely that you’ll go with myspace if you target a younger key demographic (say 10 – 19 year olds) and facebook if you’re targeting an older demo.

Both sites allow you to connect with friends (facebook prefer you connect with people you know, whereas myspace don’t care with people often having thousands of friends they’ve never “met” outside of myspace). Graphically facebook is a little cleaner while myspace allows you to customise your profile a lot more.

Secure wise, I allow anyone to access my myspace page (www.myspace.com/kirstydunphey) because I don’t use it for anything persona. Myspace is just about business for me in terms of driving traffic towards my blog and books and keeping people updated about my businesses. Facebook on the other hand I actually use to connect with my friends so I’ve tweaked my security so that the general public can’t see much about my personal side, only really the basics and my status updates (like a tweet but for facebook).

Facebook has another great functionality though where it allows you to start groups and fan pages. We have a fan page for all our businesses and it allows others to become “fans” and show that they love the business on their profiles. It’s all just basic free marketing.

Linked In

www.LinkedIn.com is like facebook but for business connections. A fabulous tool if used properly you upload your business / resume history and find people you know (the same as facebook), but from there, say you want to get in contact with an exec at IBM or any company, you can find out how, through your network you know that person. It might be that you’re 4 degrees of separation away (ie: you know someone, who knows someone, who knows… you get the picture) but linked in will allow you to trace that relationship to get in contact with that person. Another handy functionality is the ability to write referrals / testimonials about people you’ve worked with.

Blogger

I use google’s free blogging site www.blogger.com to run all my blogs, but there are plenty to choose from. Blogging allows you to post online articles which can then be indexed and searched by web engines such as google. It’s a great way to increase credibility, drive traffic to your website and to give the world more of an insight into your business. Our real estate agency uses one (www.elephantproperty.com.au/blog) so that we can update people on our market, the economic conditions and what’s going on in property generally. People can then subscribe to get your blog updates delivered to their inbox (like a newsletter, only you don’t have to go to the trouble of making it and emailing it) and you can also subscribe to blogs you like reading, or a reader can simply come back to the website when they want to find out more.

Phew, the conclusion

So that’s basically it on the social networking sites I use for business. There’s a few more you may want to check out, but my advise is as follows.

• Don’t do everything! You still need time to run your business.

• Find out what works for you by employing simple and free google analytics on your website so that you can see where your traffic is coming from (if you’re tweeting like a crazy person plugging your blog, but no one is visiting, then maybe it’s not working for you)

• Utilise tools like www.ping.fm which will allow you to update your status simultaneously at all your sites so you don’t have to log into them all

• Link to your social networking on your website (see www.threadless.com for a great example of how to do this)

• And remember, if you don’t intend to update these sites, don’t bother! You’d do better to concentrate on more traditional marketing. Now... off to post this article as a blog on blogger.com and then use ping.fm to update my status on linkedin, twitter, facebook and myspace to point to it!

The time is 2.30 (tooth hurty!)

Kirsty Dunphey (www.reallysold.com) — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 02:12:18 -0500

I’m Horrified. That’s right, Horrified with a capital H.

I just received this text (SMS) message verbatim.

Hi u are due for ur regular dental check. We are booked for 6wks.Call on 63xx xxxx.

Now don’t get me wrong. I’m all for a strategic use of a text message. I get a sensational one from my physiotherapist to remind me about appointments and we even use them in our real estate agency for rent reminders, but this text message is, in my opinion, appalling.

What’s more, there’s an extra 69 characters they could have used in this text message without spilling over into a second message and thus costing them more.

I get that there is a language that people use for text messaging and I get that abbreviations make things easier to fit in to the limited space but c’mon! This text is just crazy. I don’t want to get my teeth checked by a place that sends out reminder text messages that look like they’re from a bored 17 year old.

The sad truth is that I will end up going back to this dentist (it’s near on impossible in my area to get into another) and I won’t let them know how horrified I was by this text message. How could they get the feedback? The next time I’m waiting the 30 minutes in the surgery why not give me a little survey that says “what can we do better?” Then I’d share it with them.

Until then though, in language my dentist’s receptionist will understand if no one else: C u l8r, KD.

Getting the deal across the line

Kirsty Dunphey (www.reallysold.com) — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 01:53:59 -0500

So, you’re about to buy an investment property, or any property for that matter and you want to get the absolute best deal. Always keep in mind that a contract for purchase doesn’t just consist of a price. Many times there are other conditions on the contract which are just as important to the seller as the price.

If you’re trying to get your offer accepted and it’s not quite at the sellers asking price, or you’re in competition with other buyers and want to make your offer stand out… here are a few things you can try to help smooth the deal.

1. Leave the settlement date (the date when you officially own the property) off your original offer and let your agent know that you’re happy to settle whenever suits the seller. If a certain time specifically suits them (quick or a long), being flexible may just help you get the deal across the line

2. Put down a sizeable deposit. This shows you’re serious and are capable of completing the contract. Oftentimes attaching a cheque for the deposit to your offer is enough of a mental stimulus for the seller.

3. Where possible make your contract unconditional or subject to as little as possible. Unconditional means that a contract isn’t subject to a building inspection, finance, selling another property etc. If you can get your building inspection done prior to offering and have your finance approved, this can be a very strong incentive for a seller to sign and put the sold sticker up straight away.

4. Consider letting the agent pass on your circumstances. You’d be surprised how many sellers I’ve dealt with over the years who like to know who is going to own their property after they’ve moved.

It’s important to note that if you’re not able to do points 2 and 3 – DON’T! These are only handy hints and they only work if you’re able to do them.

The points also work in reverse if a seller wants you to come to their price. You can then start to be more rigid with settlement date (perhaps you want to stretch it out so that rent increases can be completed) or deposit (perhaps you want to put down NIL deposit so that your cash isn’t tied up).

Contracts are like living breathing organisms and they’re open to being changed, amended and reworded so that they best suit the parties involved. Before you sign any contract make sure the agent takes the time to explain it and that you’ve read every part of it. Where possible, take it to your conveyancer or solicitor to check over.

Real estate agents – these points are important for you to note too in trying to get your contracts to come together!

Happy purchasing!

Kirsty

In all honesty… I hate my boss!

Kirsty Dunphey (www.reallysold.com) — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 20:25:22 -0500

At 18 I received some of the best life and “interview advice” from my boss at the time Nick. I was interviewing with him and he asked me about where I was working at the time. I proceeded to tell him I couldn’t wait to get away from the place because I really was having issues with the boss.

Now, even though these issues were justified (a death threat is a justified issue right?) Nick sat me down after I got the job and explained to me that a future boss doesn’t want to hear about your issues with your current boss.

This was one of many lessons he taught me during the time I studied while working with him. Another one that stuck with me was when you start a sentence with “In all honesty…” you’re inviting the person you’re talking to think that you’re not speaking with honesty at other times.

I was reminded of these lessons when chatting with a friend recently who was having an issue with her boss. They didn’t appreciate her. They didn’t respect the work she put in. They took her for granted. No death threats here which is a great start! But it got me to thinking I’d had a similar discussion with her about her previous boss, and the one before that, and the one before that.

When a pattern like that emerges, where you’ve been at odds with every boss you’ve ever worked for, maybe it’s time to look internally instead of continuing to push the blame outwards?

There are great bosses out there and of course really average ones, but if you’re always looking for flaws instead of appreciate opportunities you’ll always have a martyr complex and be wondering why you’re not being fully appreciated. Who knows, given the economy (I was told just this weekend that 500,000 people in the States are losing jobs each month!), you could turn your feelings around and start appreciating your boss for the very fact that you have a job right now.

So, wrapping up and in all honesty… er I mean with as much honesty as I always write:

• If you can’t stand more than 60% of your current / previous bosses and managers, maybe it’s you.

• If you can’t stand your current boss but aren’t going to leave, try and change your attitude by realizing how lucky you are to simply have a job at the moment and consider what you can do to make the attitude more positive.

• If you’re getting death threats, leave your place of employment, but keep it to yourself in future job interviews!

Memorisation vs Internalisation

Kirsty Dunphey (www.reallysold.com) — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 20:17:15 -0500

I had lunch a few weeks ago at a great little restaurant. Our waiter was very well spoken his restaurant patter flowed from his tongue like poetry.

Until that is, we started talking back. Whenever we interrupted his well prepared dialogue he stammered, blinked wildly and then went back to his script as though we’d said nothing at all.

He’d memorised what he was meant to say beautifully, but he hadn’t internalised it at all and as such, if we didn’t say our lines perfectly, he was thrown. Unfortunately no-one had given us a script for eating lunch!

I’ve written before on the fact that I love scripts and dialogues. I love it that when I call my hairdresser they answer the phone “how can I make your day” I love that my old real estate agency answers the phone “it’s a great day at Harcourts”. That’s memorisation, but when you ask someone what the company’s all about. They can memorise your mission statement or you company profile and repeat it verbatim, or they can have internalised that information so that they can speak conversationally about it (with interjections) and not be thrown.

Memorisation’s a great start, but internalisation and be able to interject a scrip with a personality is key.

Many thanks to Rob Morton from the Disney Institute www.disneyinstitute.com for reminding me what an important topic this is in a recent speech of his.

Blind Obedience

Kirsty Dunphey (www.reallysold.com) — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 20:07:05 -0500

I’m not sure I could ever be in the military as my father was. Blind obedience doesn’t sit well with me, and yet it’s a way of life and a vital tool for survival in the military.

In a business environment however, I think that blind obedience only hamstrings an organisation.

Any manager who expects and wants blind obedience is really just saying they want to constrict the growth of an organisation.

There’s a huge difference between respect and blind obedience.

• Blind obedience keeps on doing something even when it knows there’s a better way.

• Respect, says “have we ever thought about adding / changing…”

And while there’s a huge difference between respect and blind obedience there are also miles between respect and disrespect.

• Respect says “I’ve been thinking, what if we tried…” and clearly and concisely states their point for their manager.

• Disrespect says “That’s stupid and inefficient” either to their manager’s face or behind their back or continues to press their point long after their manager has considered it and decided to go in another direction.

The problem? So many employees think that what their manager wants is blind obedience. The secret? The best managers want your input. They want you to help your organisation get better. When you improve something, everyone benefits and you make your manager look better. They may not always take your advice, or move in your direction (as a manger that’s their choice), but done respectfully it will always be of benefit.

Tweak your communication so it’s always respectful and always helpful and you’ll soon see that a first class manager will welcome your suggestions.

What to do if you have a manager who isn’t first class and who only wants blind obedience? Firstly, find out if this is the case or if you just assume it is (have a coffee with them and try them out on one piece of feedback, ask how they like feedback delivered). If you’re positive that they only want blind obedience my advice is: fall into line (but keep your eyes open for a different manager or mentor - you deserve better).

10 ways to become an employer of choice, create staff loyalty and increase retention and engagement

Kirsty Dunphey (www.reallysold.com) — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 21:49:49 -0500

So the question here is how do we whip our staff into a frenzy (as opposed to just whipping them)! Having been a small business owner with a growing number of staff the focus on keeping them engaged, encouraging them to grow but still stay with us and finding time to run my business often felt overwhelming. To follow are the simple, and yet at the same time not to simple top ten tactics that worked for me.

1. Communication – find ways to get your team to come to you when there’s an issue, not to whinge behind your back.

2. Create problem solvers – encourage your team to bring any problem to you, but to always bring a solution at the same time.

3. Reward fairly - based on performance, not time in the job.

4. Develop champions – who can grow into their roles and champion and action new ideas and techniques.

5. Trust – regardless of how you’ve been burnt in the past, treat your team first with trust.

6. Reward creatively – consider education rewards, family based rewards (such as dinner vouchers) and tiny rewards (such as their favourite chocolate bar) instead of just standard pay rises or bonuses

7. Involve your team – get their opinions, seek their feedback, hunt out criticism before it infects your organisation

8. Show the path – foster career drive by showing your team the career paths open to them within your organisation.

9. Listen – instead of always talking.

10. Lead by example – live in a manner consistent with what you say. It’s managing, not parenting, so “do as I say, not as I do” aint gonna cut it.

When to pop the question?

Kirsty Dunphey (www.reallysold.com) — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 19:43:52 -0500

You’d be unlikely to ask your girlfriend to marry you while she was sitting on the toilet (I hope!) You’d also feel uneasy if your taxi driver asked you to fill out a survey on his driving skills as soon as you hopped inside his taxi. And I’m sure you’d be reticent about asking for a pay rise in the middle of a disciplinary discussion about your extreme use of facebook on work time.

Sometimes when you ask is just as important as what you’re asking.

I was reminded of this recently at a speaking job. I make it a priority to get feedback after my talks but in my eagerness to promptly ask the organiser if he was happy with my performance… I did so while we were both still on stage in front of 500 people (thankfully my microphone was off).

I think, on that day, something in my subconscious needed some positive reinforcement so I asked the question at a time when the organiser couldn’t possibly give me bad feedback. For one, he had about 5 seconds to answer and secondly who’s going to say they weren’t happy while the speaker is still on stage!! It was a silly time to ask, and it made his response meaningless, but it was a good lesson for me to learn because I know it’s not the first time I’ve eagerly done this.

When I followed up via email later on and asked the question again (at the far more appropriate time) I got exactly the kind of valuable feedback the question (at that time) deserved.

What’s an important question looming in your future and when is the most appropriate time to ask it?

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Crazy about the clean: why did you get referred?

Kirsty Dunphey (www.reallysold.com) — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 19:42:53 -0500

In chatting about the ancient art of tattooing recently (no, I’m not game enough to have any, but yes, I find them fascinating) I was surprised to hear my husband of all people highly recommending a particular tattoo artist.

Given my husband’s tattoo free stance I was surprised that he would recommend anyone and was keen to find out what was so amazing about this artist’s work. Turns out however that my husband wasn’t referring him based on his work but on the fact that when a friend of his tried to enter the premises with shoes on he was told to leave and the floor was immediately mopped where he’d walked. The commitment to maintaining a sterile environment had impacted on the person getting the tattoo so much that he had then told it to who knows how many people and that story had impacted on my husband enough for him to pass on the artist’s name.

It’s an unusual referral chain! Who’d have thought a tattoo artist would be getting referred because he was crazy about the clean? I certainly wouldn’t have, but his passion for sterility made such an impact that it’s become a little bit like urban legend and inspires confidence in respect to safety to those that hear about the story.

It got me thinking that you might not always know why people refer you: I’ve heard home owners refer builders because they took the time to clean up their work site at the end of each day and one of my uni lecturers loved telling the class that he flew Singapore airlines because they always have the “prettiest” cabin crew.

Or why people don’t refer you: I’ve heard an irate friend tell people not to shop at a local grocery store because they rudely refused a $20 note when she was shopping for something that cost less than $5.

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What would you ask for if you knew you couldn’t fail?

Kirsty Dunphey (www.reallysold.com) — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 19:41:56 -0500

Last night the proud dad of my 3 year old nephew recounted my nephew’s “order” at their recent family BBQ.

When asked what he would like to eat, Patrick replied that he would like “20 sausages” and then after thinking about it a bit more, he decided that no, he would like “all the sausages”.

But what would his Dad eat? Well, Patrick has a plan for that too. His Dad was allowed to eat “BBQ sauce”.

Of course, the story received a few giggles all round. It got me thinking though: a 3 year old has no imposed limits (self or otherwise). When Patrick thought he wanted “all” the sausages, that’s exactly what he asked for.

If you had no self imposed limits –what would you ask for? What would be “all the sausages” for you?

An earth shattering-ly mind blowing relationship full of passion and love?

A career that makes you smile just thinking about going to work each morning?

To visit every country in the world at least once?

The ability to change the world?

A wardrobe that houses 1,000 gleaming pairs of shoes… (ok that one may just be me).

Thanks to Patrick for reminding me that 3 year olds, while they don’t always get “all the sausages”, are amazing because at least they ask for them!

Ask the world for something amazing today – and then take action to start making it happen. You may not get “all the sausages” but you’ll never know if you never ask!

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Don’t forget “back thing”

Kirsty Dunphey (www.reallysold.com) — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 19:40:44 -0500

We found this workout regime downstairs in our “shed”, a reminder of inhabitants past.

I had to take a photo and share it with you because it so accurately represents the procedures I find in so many small businesses.

I’m sure the exercise “back thing” was completely self explanatory to our lone exerciser in the shed, but if I were to try and replicate his exercise plan using just his procedure it’d be complete pot luck as to whether I was anywhere near what he meant by “back thing”.

How many “back thing”-esque occurrences are there in your procedures?

If I came into your workplace today and sat down with your procedures could I complete your systemised tasks or would I be left scratching my head and wondering what on earth you meant?

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10 ways to reward (and therefore retain) staff

Kirsty Dunphey (www.reallysold.com) — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 19:36:59 -0500

1.    Give them a pay rise.
The downside: A $2,000 pay rise may equate to an increase in take home of only say $25 per week to your employee, not ground breaking. Plus, you’re then committed to that extra $2,000 ongoing.

2.    Give them a bonus
The upside: A bonus is a one off, it’ll mean a lump sum goes to your employee (to some this is much more exciting than a trickle feed of $25 per week). It’s also not an ongoing commitment.
The downside: A lump sum payment can be harder on your cash flow.

3.    Public praise
The downside: Some people can get really embarrassed and you can be seen to be playing favourites.
The upside: For those that love the spotlight, this praise in front of their colleagues can be worth more than gold.

4.    Private praise
The upside: This is so easy to give, as long as you remember to and are sincere.
The downside: The words “come into my office I need to talk to you” may initially strike fear into your staff if they are more used to fire coming from your tongue than praise.

5.    Home style praise
Sending a heart felt card or letter home to a staff member’s parents (for Gen Y’s) or to their partner or kids is a gorgeous way to show your appreciation.
The downside: sending the same letter to all your staff is just lazy and you’ll get busted.
The upside: having your staff member’s family feeling awesome about where their relative works and what type of person they work for.

6.    Gifts galore
The upside: A well thought out gift is remembered and talked about, cultivating a stronger culture for your organisation. Using the “magic form” we developed in our organisation is an ideal way to get the low down on what would really delight your staff. Want a copy? Contact me here and I’ll send it to you: www.kirstydunphey.com/contact.html
The downside: A lame impersonal gift does nothing to cultivate the relationship going forward.

7.    More responsibility / promotion
The upside: If you chose the right person to move forward in your organisation they’ll grow and shine with the responsibility.
The downside: Promote a person not yet ready into a management role and you’ll not only have issues with that person but with all they manage.

8.    Flexibility
The staff member who knows that they can take off an afternoon to watch their kid’s swimming carnival and make it up later tends to value the organisation a lot more than the rigidity of always adhering to the letter of the law.
The upside: adding flexibility such as the above example, or allowing a staff member to start an hour early, or offering a day off per year for your staff to do charitable work can be easily implemented.
The downside: it takes management to monitor this to ensure flexibility doesn’t equal you being walked all over.

9.    Train them / develop them
One of the greatest compliments you can give to a staff member is to say – I appreciate you and I want to see you develop and grow. Easy ways to do this: get a speaker/trainer into your office, do a training session yourself, go buy a book (link to www.unleashedknowledge.com) or buy one for each of your team members or set up a training library your staff can borrow from at any time.

10.    Your time
One of the biggest complaints by staff in my experience is that “my manager doesn’t listen to me”.
The upside: It’s easy fixed if you know about it and care to take the time.

The manager’s dilemma?
You now have to pick the right reward for each of your individual team members. For the introverted person, public praise could be the worst thing they can think of. For some, throwing money at them when all they really want is a heart felt thanks could be a huge insult.
It’s not easy to reward appropriately, but the best manager’s try and try again until it becomes another skill in their talent war chest.

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Is there a bomb on your bus?

Kirsty Dunphey (www.reallysold.com) — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 19:35:12 -0500

Have you heard that much touted employee hiring practice of “getting the right people on the right seats”? Whenever I hear that I always think of seating people on a bus… and then I always think of the movie Speed.

You remember Speed right? Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock burning down the road jumping broken bridges, looping cameras, staying above 50 miles per hour, flirting like crazy and all so the bomb in the bus doesn’t detonate (ok, the flirting may have been optional in terms of bomb safety but you get my point).

How different would this movie have been if Ellen Degeneres were cast instead of Sandra Bullock?

She almost was you know! Now don’t get me wrong, I think Ellen’s a riot (and I dance with her daily) – but I can not imagine that movie with her in that role!

In my early days in real estate I almost put on a staff member who I’m sure would have been good, but would not have fit in with my organisational culture. In short, they wouldn’t have been the right fit for my bus. The short term loss of not putting them on stung (but nowhere near as much as the long term pain of having that cultural clash would have).

Now the bus analogy works equally well when you’re looking for work. Don’t do a Meg and miss the fabulous bus.

Meg Ryan has had some great hits, but Top Gun not withstanding, what about the movie lead’s she turned down – Pretty Woman, Basic Instinct, The Silence of the Lambs and Ghost. Some great busses for sure there.

Whichever bus you’re hopping on or loading people on today – I hope it’s the right one for you!

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Stop making promises!

Kirsty Dunphey (www.reallysold.com) — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 17:02:11 -0500

Just this morning a friend called a service provider and was told by his office that he’d call back in “10 minutes”. 30 minutes later, he was on the phone to let her know that he’d call back “in an hour”. 2 ¼ hours later, she’s still waiting for his call.

Two broken promises within the first 3 hours of the day. How keen do you think she is to give him her business now?

Wouldn’t it have been easier for his office to say that he would “call her back”, or “call her today”.

Then when he’d called 30 minutes later to let her know he couldn’t help her immediately she would have been pleasantly surprised rather than thinking “is this your definition of 10 minutes?”

What’s more, he doubled the mistake by making yet another promise (which was soon to be broken).

My advice:

• Don’t allow others to make promises on your behalf.

• Don’t make promises where you don’t have to.

• When you do make a promise – KEEP IT (write it down, tattoo it on your arm, put a reminder in your phone, figure out a way to make sure you keep your promises, or let the person know that you can’t (prior to the promise elapsing)

• Learn what a promise is. A promise is a claim that you’ll do something. Don’t feel like you need to say “I promise” for it to be a promise, all you need to say is “I will”.

And finally – just remember the old adage that promises are like babies… easy to make, hard to deliver.

Three quick easy and not too shameless ways to get publicity for free

Kirsty Dunphey (www.reallysold.com) — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 16:59:41 -0500

1. Entering (and preferably winning) awards programs = free publicity and credible media opportunities. But you know what, entering, being nominated or being a finalist and not winning also has the fabulous benefits of the networking opportunities and in many cases it gives you an ability to sit down and do some very cathartic thinking about your business.

2. Perform a survey and put out a press release on the results. We just did one recently on the real estate industry here: http://kirstydunphey.blogspot.com/2008/09/real-estate-agents-trustworthy-is-new.html using a free online survey program and having 500 people respond. The results give journalists some statistics to work with and help get your name out there when you're published as a source.

3. Subscribe to HARO (help a reporter out www.helpareporter.com/)! There are lots of journalists / bloggers out there looking for great sources – it can be a bit US centric, but there are still awesome opportunities to be found.

Finding Mentors

Kirsty Dunphey (www.reallysold.com) — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 16:57:05 -0500

Excerpted from Kirsty’s first book Advance to Go, Collect $1 Million.

Be careful when you approach a mentor! Realise that if it is someone very successful they are going to be very busy. Here are some tips for making your approach.

Be serious

Most mentors immediately start suggesting things that will push you past your comfort zone. If you’re not prepared to try everything your mentor suggests, stop now.

Ask permission to approach your mentor, recognise their time constraints and be reasonable with your requests

For example, I frequently get emails from young people entering the real estate industry. Many of them ask me questions like: “Can you tell me what your secrets are? Can you tell me what to do to be fantastic in real estate?” How do you answer such questions without typing back a 100 page email? These people are on the right track but that’s not the sort of question you ask of strangers. What I usually tell them is to find a local agent who they can shadow, emulate and learn from. I can no more tell someone all I know in an email than tell them how to be a great lawyer or hair-dresser.

Put forward options that would make it easier for your mentor to help out

For example, I have only approached a possible mentor very recently and was terrified! She is a superb professional speaker and I thought she wouldn’t have time to assist, so I‑gave her some options.

• Option 1 – Give me her upcoming schedule and where possible I could fly to watch her speak and learn from her.

• Option 2 – I could organise a monthly fee in exchange for assistance over the phone or via email.

• Option 3 – I could fly her down to watch me speak and have her comment if possible. By giving her these options I was guaranteed a better strike rate than if I’d just gone in with option 3.

Tell them why you want to learn from them

Be honest and tell them why you want them as a mentor. I told my speaker mentor that she was the best I’d ever heard (and I’ve seen some of the best in the world) and I wanted to learn from the best. Don’t go over the top, but this person needs to know why you want to learn from them.

Be careful of who you associate with

Don’t let anyone else bring you down. If they make you feel insecure or less than the fabulous person you know you are, take yourself out of that situation and surround yourself with positive and inspirational people. Don’t let anyone steal your dream away from you. Often the most dangerous are those with “your own best interests at heart.” Sometimes in life, to get what you really want you do have to take risks and this can scare those near and dear to you.

Don’t settle for mediocre company! Surround yourself with brilliant, knowledgeable, motivated, creative and talented people. This is positive for your business, and for your professional and personal growth. When I say surround yourself, I am not just talking about people in your office. Offer to take the most inspirational business person in your town out to lunch. Subscribe to an email list of one of your mentors. Or, take a huge risk and pick up the phone or email one of your heroes – you will be surprised at their responses.

What I would look for when choosing a real estate agent

Kirsty Dunphey (www.reallysold.com) — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 03:33:32 -0600

I’ve worked in real estate since I was 15 years old. One of the main reasons I wanted to open my own agency at the age of 21 was that I was aware that not all real estate agents are equal. Some are dreams, some are nightmares and many are in the middle. I get asked all the time – “how do I find a dream agent to sell my home?”, so this is what I’d look for in trying to find my dream agent.

The dream agent shows me the price

An agent who can SHOW me why they’re saying they can sell my home for a certain price. The way they would need to show me would be by showing me what comparable properties had sold within the past 3 – 6 months (I’d want to see addresses, photos and sale prices). Even better if they have personally or at least their company have been responsible for some of these sales.

The nightmare agent tells me the price

I don’t want an agent who:

• Finds out and then tells me the price I want to hear

• Finds out the other agent quoted prices and then quotes a selling price higher to get the business

• Plucks a price out of their head

• Bases their price on properties that are not comparable to mine

The dream agent’s marketing is first rate

I want to look at your website, your property presentations on real estate portals (like realestate.com.au), your brochures, your sign boards, your newspaper advertisements and see:

• Consistency of branding

• Quality

• Readability

• Descriptive eye catching wording

The nightmare agent’s marketing isn’t flexible

I want options and I want to know why you recommend that marketing option for my property, not a one size fits all approach.

The dream agent talks with me

Their presentation is question based and they take time to find out about me and what I’m looking for. They know their stuff, but they find out what areas I’m most concerned about before launching into a recorded message-like presentation.

The nightmare agent talks at me

Their presentation is said at me and they speak more than 80% of the time.

The dream agent is a natural negotiator

I can test this out by asking them to drop their commission (if they don’t negotiate hard for their money, what are they going to do when it comes to negotiating for mine?). I can also test their negotiation skills if I’ve ever bought from them before – did they get top dollar out of me then?

The nightmare agent is a natural regurgitator

The other agent offered you 20% off? Well we can offer you 25%... The other agent said they’d do that? Well I can do better.

The dream agent cares

I can test this out by showing up 10 minutes before one of their scheduled open homes and watching them arrive, set up and conduct the open. I can test it by taking note of any promises they make (they’ll call me Monday, they’ll find that information out by Wednesday) and see if they live up to it.

The nightmare agent talks at me

The nightmare agent screams in at the last minute for an open home, doesn’t tell me their name and doesn’t follow up.

The dream agent has fans

And they’re more than happy to let me know about their fans by showing me testimonials (lots of glowing ones) and by allowing me to contact people they’ve sold houses for in the past month.

The nightmare agent has people fanatically trying to track them down (to complain)

The dream agent remembers me

Long after the sale.

The nightmare agent develops acute amnesia

As soon as they get paid.

Celebrate Bad Times… Come On!

Kirsty Dunphey (www.reallysold.com) — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 20:41:41 -0600

(sung to the eternal Kool and the Gang hit tune)

Loving this Seth Godin post I just read on his personal “career ending” failures.

Here’s someone who has achieved so much and is one of my personal role models and yet his failures are equally impressive I have to say!

When I interviewed Seth in 2008 he had this to say about his failures:

My list is way too long for this email. I regret not starting a search engine in 1995. I regret thinking too small in many of the first businesses I started. Small thinking with small goals and small deliverables to the wrong clients. But you know what? I'm not sure I'd change much. The misses are worth at least as much as the hits.

Which just reinforces the fact that it doesn’t matter how much success someone appears to have had. They’ve usually had just as many if not more failures along the way. The successful person just doesn’t give up. They learn, they become better, they move on and up not making those same mistakes again.

What have you failed at lately?

It’s Not You…It’s Professional

Kirsty Dunphey (www.reallysold.com) — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 20:36:48 -0600

It’s not you it’s me… I need some space… I want to concentrate on my career…

I could go on and on with this list of corny overused dumping phrases, we’ve all either heard or said them, but what to say when you’re doing a professional dumping.

By professional dumping I mean rejection in a business sense…. Firing someone, not hiring someone, saying no to a sales person’s pitch. We really have an awful lot of professional dumping to do in the business world.

How do you do it so that you get your message across without having the dumpee despise you, key your car and run over your puppy?

Well how about this for a rejection letter:

We're sorry to say we couldn't accept your proposal for funding. Please don't take it personally. Despite the stock market crash we got a record number of applications this time, and the average quality was high. And since there's a limit on the number of interviews we can do, we had to turn away a lot of genuinely promising groups.

Another reason you shouldn't take this personally is that we know we make lots of mistakes. It's alarming how often the last group to make it over the threshold for interviews ends up being one that we fund. That means there are surely other good groups that fall just below the threshold and that we miss even interviewing.

We're trying to get better at this, but it's practically certain that groups we rejected will go on to create successful startups. If you do, we'd appreciate it if you'd send us an email telling us about it; we want to learn from our mistakes.

Y Combinator Staff

It’s from the team at www.ycombinator.com and I think it’s one of the more brilliant rejection letters I’ve ever seen. It’s humble and endearing yet it gets the message across. I’ll definitely be rewording my “professional dumping” after reading this – how ‘bout you?