Big D

Edition 166  Monday 26^th November 2012

Hi, it had to happen and it did….someone finally fell in love with our beloved Retro Suzuki on Trademe and had to have it. I had done my best to delay the inevitable by pitching the price far too high but even that in the end wasn’t enough.Big Don from Wellywood is the proud new owner, he was so keen he flew up from the Capital and rode her back. Big D is a big unit alright, lets just say that the tyre pressure we had set for Christine and I riding together was perfectly set for Big D riding on his own. He arrived home safe and well two days after taking ownership after a perfect road trip on his new toy. It was sad to see her go but great to know Don will use her a lot more than us and love the ride!

We had some great trips and fun times and enjoyed remembering those fondly over a couple of quiet ones last week.Thankfully we did 25000 accident/incident free km,the only time she went down was when I was in too much of a hurry to get to a public toilet and didn’t put the stand down properly J.

Retro has been replaced in our family by Fletcher who will be equally as challenging, enjoyable and fun to go places and have adventures together with. There is nothing more important than family and friends and making sure that we all make the most of every minute we can to be together. Sometimes that is not as easy as it sounds and there may be issues or obstacles to overcome in order to achieve it, however , it will always be worth it. We attended a funeral of the Father of one of our friends this weekend, he was 57 !!!, life is too short to not seize every opportunity to celebrate family and friends…..I hope you took some time out this weekend to do just that.

Have a great week, Cheers Jonesey!

Harry and the Hendersons love the cruisy music in the car on the way to their dog walk!!

“Selling the ‘sizzle’ is about saying yes to everything.” Sales

One of our boys ,Matthew installs heat pumps for a living. We were lucky enough to get a ‘family’ deal on a system recently. I was apprenticed to assist the install and whilst a monkey would have been more assistance I was amazed at the workload involved in installing a basic heat pump.

I am sharing this with you because like the quote above says most sales people make the Operations/Installing/delivery departments or teams lives hell in most companies I know by promising the earth and saying yes to everything without applying a lot of thought,fact or logic.

Matthew confirmed this when we were working together by saying their installation team could be at least 25% more productive and profitable if the sales team understood and consulted more before selling their companies products and services.

I thought about this and it occurred to me that the same applied at Green Gorilla where the operations team used to have hair once before they pulled it all out having to deal with some of the situations our sales team commit us to on a daily basis.

Imagine being at least 25% more productive and profitable. Imagine Operations and sales working together instead of on different wave lengths or pages of the book!

We talked a few episodes ago about walking a mile in customers moccasins before you could really understand what they wanted or needed. The same applies inside a company, we need to understand completely what our Operation is capable of delivering before we commit them tpo delivering it!! Sounds basic and easy but there are not many companies I know (ours included) where there isn’t a lot of room for improvement in communicating this information…over to you !!!

 “Always under promise so we can over deliver.”  Operations

Real Groovy!!

         

Edition 165  Monday 19^th November 2012

Hi, ‘to be honest’ I have been working on my anger management issues.’To be frank’, it doesn’t seem to be working!’To be fair’ I obviously havent been trying hard enough! ‘At the end of the day’ I know this because there was another complaint received to our office about my driving last week! Yes I admit at times I find it hard to tolerate people who do 60-80km on a 100km open highway,nearly as annoying as people who start or end sentences with one of the highlighted cliches above!

So…there was only one thing for it….off to Real Groovy(you have to go there!) in town to buy some soothing music for the car! Four bargain priced CD’s later and I am in a better place while driving….we shall see!!

Ponder this;

• Do you know where the spare tyre, jack and tools are in your car?..checked them lately?
• Harry Jones is feeling Scooby Doo with his brand new # 1 shave for Summer.
• From the Fletcher Jones file…Mum is a cool entertainer but I am afraid Dad needs work!
• Prince Charles birthday 14/11, 9 months after Valentines Day !!, go Phil and Liz!!
• Selling stuff on Trademe……almost as good as buying more stuff !
• Rescued West Coast buoys to adorn Jim and Ngaire Joneses garden at Waiheke Island.
• Meet George the Gorilla (attached) made completely from recycled automotive parts!

I hope you all had a relaxing weekend with family and friends…..be sure to look out for me next week on a highway near you as I sing my way joyfully along as I go !!! Have a cool week, Cheers Jonesey!

Harry and the Hendersons are living the dream with Mum and Fletcher home all day to play with!, after all, lets face it who wants to go for a drive with the grumpy man !!! smile Pop!

“Training gives us an outlet for suppressed energies created by stress and thus tones the spirit just as exercise conditions the body.” Arnold Schwarzenegger

Work/life balance is something I have been focusing on more lately especially with our new son.

Getting home and spending quality time with him and Christine is an important part of the day.

Exercise plays a big part in making each day a balanced one.

I try to exercise for at least 30 minutes each day and on most days manage to stretch that out to an hour! I know what you are thinking and saying apart from ‘What a Hero’ you are probably saying, “where do you get the time?”

It isnt easy, if it was I wouldn’t be having to have this conversation with you !!

I havent got a lot of time so I have to plan my exercise carefully, I rise early at 5.30am and train for 30-45 minutes before getting ready and heading off to work. The early start with exercise sets the day up perfectly.

I have found a secret recipe to breaking a busy day in half and recharging the batteries I head to the public pool up the road from work at lunch time and swim a kilometre. All up including getting there, lunch and back to work or to my next meeting this takes 30-40 minutes !!

There was a time when I was first to work and opened the gate each day, worked all day, gulped lunch at the desk, had no real breaks and closed the gate as the last to leave at night, there was something seriously wrong with that picture. I am glad I realised that and did something about it!!

“An early-morning walk is a blessing for the whole day.”

Henry David Thoreau

George the Gorilla

Feed the hungry Gorilla

         

Edition 164  Monday 12^th November 2012

Hi,thanks for the feedback from last week which basically followed a common thread summarised as follows; “Harden up, you have been a Toastmaster for over 20 years you should and do know better!”

Enough said…..clearly if you want something bad enough you will do what is necessary…..right !

Old habits die hard that’s for sure, I have a bad habit of looking at emails and text messages when the traffic is at a standstill or inching ahead at motorway onramps etc…until last week when distracted doing just that I drifted ever so slowly toward a barrier and as expertly as you please managed to side swipe it before correcting at the last minute !! Habit now broken as well as providing outstanding entertainment for those behind, ahead and beside me in the queue! Wake up man !!!

Other recent ‘Jones stuff’;

• Harry Jones and our vacuum cleaner cant wait for his summer # 1 shave next week !
• Mark Jones has arrived in the big apple post storm but pre snow…..very cool mate!, enjoy.
• Jim Jones has reluctantly decided to part with his beloved lifeboat ‘The Ark’, Noah bull mate!
• Corporal Jones of Dads Army said ‘Don’t Panic’ for the final time at 92! RIP Clive Dunn!
• Boris Jones the cat continues to live a charmed 3 legged life in the ‘departure lounge’ at 48 !
• Fletcher Jones cruised effortlessly through the 6.5kg and 65cm barriers at Plunket day !!

I hope you, your family, and friends are also continuing to do all sorts of new and exciting stuff in an effort to wring every last bit of fun and enjoyment out of your lives. Life is too short a trip to not be always trying to make the most of every experience, no one wants regrets in the departure lounge!

Have an awesome week ahead going for it ……..Cheers Jonesey

Harry and the Hendersons milked the Guy Fawkes thing for all it was worth gaining 3 sleeps on the bed with Mum and Dad,see the joy on the grumpy mans face,roll on New Year 

“Spend a lot of time talking to customers. You’d be amazed how many companies don’t listen to their customers.” Ross Perot

We are in the fortunate position of experiencing some significant recent growth as our little start up business flexes some Green Gorilla muscle out there.

A recent investment in a new resource recovery facility combined with increased brand awareness has seen a steady incremental increase in customers and volume which is awesome and satisfying.

In some ways the easy part is over and now with some growing pains emerging we need to consolidate, maintain and put the necessary infrastructure in place to take our business to the next level and beyond.

One of our major points of difference to date has been our ability to provide quick, quality, personal service at a competitive price however the honeymoon period is over and our customers want and expect more!

As Ross Perot’s quote above rightly says we all need to listen carefully to our customers so they can be an integral part of our survival and future growth. I have always loved the following quote, for me it says it all about the importance of knowing your customer;

“To understand the person, you must first walk a mile in their moccasin.” Indian Proverb

Talking with and listening to our customers is something everyone in our organisations must play an active part in doing daily. Only when we do this(walking in their moccasins) will we be able to understand what they want and need and be able to empathise with them. This will allow us to recognize what they need from us and identify any areas where we are not meeting these needs!!

 “Customer service is not a department, it’s everyone’s job”. The growing Green Gorilla!!

R.I.P. King of Wing

         

Edition 163  Monday 5^th November 2012

Hi, drum roll……..Ladies and Gentlemen, and the runner up to the runner up of the eventual runner up is “The Jones Boy” Hmmmm, coming 4th was disappointing but something even more annoying was knowing I could have done a lot better! Don’t you hate that feeling?,YES, so if you could do something about it, would you, YES, then why didnt you this time and the last and the time before!??

It was the Auckland final of the Humorous Speech Contest. To qualify I had won two previous contests, I had weeks between each contest to practise, practise,practise but instead all I managed to do was procrastinate,procrastinate,procrastinate!and the rest I am embarrassed to admit is ‘sad me’ history!

So….you are hearing it here first….”The King of Wing”(me) is hanging up his ‘crown and gown!’(perhaps an obvious talent and career as a Poet beckons?) But NO, I decided in that cold heartless, thankless 1^st,2^nd or 3rdless public speaking Mecca that is the Mt Eden War Memorial Hall that I will no longer insult my own or my fellow competitors intelligence by taking the stage anything less than totally prepared. Continuing to rely on my finely tuned ‘just wing it’ skills is too stressful for all concerned….enough said, mark my words, watch this space……..easy to say, well see!!!

Ladies and Gentlemen, todays lesson, there is only one way to succeed;Practise, Practise,Practise!

We had a cool weekend catching up with family and friends whilst also managing a compulsory carrot caké muffin pit stop and plenty of R&R.

I hope you also got to do some favorite stuff whilst staying in touch with those closest to you.

Have a great week ahead, take care if you are celebrating Guy Fawkes and remember the animals!

Cheers Jonesey.

Harry and the Hendersons burnt an effigy of Guy Fawkes at the local fireworks protest!!! 

“The single biggest problem with Communication’ is the illusion that it has taken place”

George Bernard Shaw

I have attended a number of events recently where I have listened to people present on numerous topics for varying lengths of time.

Listening to others is always an interesting exercise for me because I have to discipline myself to do so in order to get the most from a presentation. This is not made easy when the presenters are clearly unprepared or even more clearly reluctant to be there. You can always tell these ones as they will read from their power points which will have too many slides with too much info on each one..you know the ones don’t you,sadly you can guarantee they will be at every event.

Like the self proclaimed ‘King of Wing’ mentioned above there are far too many of us who don’t prepare and practise enough before a presentation….Dont let this happen to you !!

Here are some tips when presenting;

• Practise, Practise, Practise…….no I mean it, you must devote the time or you will fail!
• For power points….max 12 slides, max 4 points per slide (include pictures =1000 words)
• Concentrate on 58% body language,32% tone of voice and 10% speech content because the more effective you are in these areas the better you will communicate and connect to and with your audience J.
• Don’t read from your power point.
• Practise, Practise, Practise………..I mean it !!!(speaking from a lot of experience)
• Hang up the ‘King of wing’ crown and gown for good…’She wont be right’……..GOOD LUCK

“ I like to listen,I have learned a great deal from listening carefully. Most people never listen” Ernest Hemmingway