Happy Jennifers!!

         

 

 

Edition 186 Monday May 20th 2013

 

Hi,it’s a hard road but after battling man fever (worse than man flu!!) I am pleased to say I got through with generous helpings of Sara Lee’s finest apple crumble, Mr Movenpicks legendary Maple Walnut icecream and a significant investment in medication ($38 bucks for Codral tablets, strewth !!)

I have said it before and I will say it again, I take my hat off to all the parents out there who have raised or are raising kids, good onya, it is full on !! Crowd control at 48 has taken on a new dimension with Fletchers recent mobilisation, even eyes in the back of your head are not enough to prevent the inevitable crashing and burning.After supervising the daily crawl to walk training sessions I find myself hanging out for sleep time and head straight to my bed at the same time he does !! To say I am the lucky one heading back to work for a rest on Mondays is an understatement!!,and we are having another angel from heaven??...what are we thinking or taking?

Thank you for all the feedback on our recent news, we appreciate your support and good wishes.

Quite scary on one hand but also cool to think about the exciting and fun times ahead raising our West Coast nuclear family. I hope you are also appreciating the importance of your family and friends in any time you have to spend with them. Have a great week ahead, cheers Jonesey.

 

Harry and the Hendersons reckon this quote by Roger Caras is Scooby Doo “If you don't own a dog, at least one, there is not necessarily anything wrong with you, but there may be something wrong with your life.”  Woof woof!!

 

“Quitting is not an option no matter what your excuse” Kings College Rowing Club motto.

 

There I was cruising along a bit more than I should have been last week, letting a few obstacles and challenges phase me and feeling a bit sorry for myself!!

It was late one day and I was tired and grumpy thinking life was a bit unfair and treating my efforts to succeed with contempt when I had the good fortune to run in to Jennifer the cleaner of the office I was working from.

I see her quite often and she is always cheerful and takes time to talk to me, listen to me and offer a word or two of encouragement and good luck.

Last week she shared a story with me that stopped me in my sorry little tracks and made me feel grateful that my problems were not really problems at all.

Seems her and her grand Daughter had their car stolen with all their possessions in it while they were shifting house. Her grand daughter is a struggling solo Mum of a three year old daughter herself and has precious little to begin with.

As the story of their terrible misfortune unfolded I couldn’t help but think about what an ungrateful wretch I truly was to be feeling so sorry for myself when there are obviously people like Jennifer and her family who are a lot worse off.

It is times like this that I need to remind myself of how lucky I truly am to have the life I have, with my current good health, my growing family including both parents, and some good friends.

Yes, we all need happy Jennifers in our life because they are what we should aspire to be like, people who don’t quit or get down on themselves or others no matter what happens !!!! J

To reinforce this message I coincidentally found the attached article from 1959 about the Kings College Rowing eight who won the prestigous Maadi Cup even after breaking a seat in the boat!! I hope you are also inspired by this especially if you have ever attempted rowing as a sport..enjoy!!

 

“Survival can be summed up in three words - never give up. That's the heart of it really. Just keep trying.” Bear Grylls

shooting stars

         

 

 

Edition 185 Monday May 13th 2013

 

Hi,it is said, if you see a shooting star it is good luck or a sign of good things to come so what say you see six on one morning like me? Well, I cant remember a crazier week full of events. Firstly I attempted to run in the storm on Monday morning and was nearly fried when a lightening strike took out the power transformer in our street while I was running past it!The ensuing power cut was interesting as we had to rely on candle power for light,LPG for cooking and the log burner for heat for the next 18 hours! I am no hero in an emergency,losing interest in roughing it by candlelight in no time, help Vector,lineman,help!!

Then Harry the hound turned 10 years old (70 in human years!!) and Fletcher turned 9 months as we celebrated both milestones in the week.

As chaotic as these events were they didn’t hold a candle(excuse the pun) to the one that turned our week upside down just as you would expect a positive pregnancy test to do I guess !!!!Crikey !!!!!!!!

When I said we were trying for another child we were hoping against hope and didn’t really think lightening would strike in the same place twice(again excuse the pun). To those who say shooting stars herald luck and good times I concur as we have been truly blessed with the gift of another child.

We enjoyed a sunny Mothers Day lunch with Mum on the Beach at Devonport.The tide was full and the day was picture perfect as our family were lucky enough to share that time with Mum. I hope you either got to do the same or were able to take some time out to remember your Mum if you were not able to be with her. I know we all know that we don’t do that enough so it is good to take time to remember because no one can ever love you more than or replace your Mum, cheers Jonesey.

 

Harry and the Hendersons don’t quite know what to make of it as they have only just got used to Fletcher and now there is another one on the way!! Happy Birthday Houdini !!

 

“When you see a good person, think of becoming like her/him. When you see someone not so good, reflect on your own weak points.”  Confucius

 

Last week we were on a site visit with a number of competitors. We were all submitting a proposal for the same job and had all been invited to inspect the new building together.

There was a representative from one of our competitors that I overheard running down all the other companies there on the day to the customer. I know this guy and had always thought he was a bit dodgey but never said anything just chosen to focus on what I was doing rather than get too fixated with him. I have always found this to be the best way when dealing with the opposition. I think it is healthy to have respect for a competitor and their products but not to be worried about them to the point where it distracts you from focusing on what you want to achieve.

Anyway turns out the dodgey guy didn’t stop at verbally bad mouthing his competitors he actually committed that criticism to writing about several including us! This served to put the customer off him. On top of that one of the dodgey guys colleagues is so disillusioned he is seeking to leave this competitor and join us !!

Wow, I have always believed in karma and this was a classic example, this guy is bad mouthing his competitors, he loses the big project and then loses a staff member because of his antics. Things sure have a funny way of back firing on you if you are critical, blame others or deny you have issues!!! Lessons; don’t bad mouth competitors or customers verbally or in writing. Always look for the good and go out of your way to help others. Don’t be fixated or distracted by the competition, good luck!!

 

“Karma comes after everyone eventually. You can't get away with screwing people over your whole life, I don't care who you are. What goes around comes around. That's how it works. Sooner or later the universe will serve you the revenge that you deserve.”  J Brody,

Bad habits 101

         

 

 

Edition 184 Monday May 6th 2013

 

Hi,we love wet and windy weekends at home hunkered down braving the elements totally fortified by cupboards full of comfort food!!! Add to that a never ending supply of sport and movies on the telly and the outside world may as well not exist! The secret is to have enough of everything to not have to venture out!! Any break in the weather has to be reserved for dog walking and golf ball hunting!! Its times like these  that you don’t mind your wheelie bin going out more than you do !!

From the Fletcher file; Mr Jones junior joined a local Play centre last week taking the intro to the locals in his stride as well as everything they had in the fridge to eat !! To say him and his Mum enjoy the time out is an understatement. That toothy smile is infectious on the local girls that’s for sure!

I am a little disturbed by Christines enrolment at a local gym in their boxing class although they say the punch that gets you is the one you wont see!??, I guess I will have deserved it if it does happen!

As my Global Exploring son Mark prepares to set off on the European leg of his never ending OE I find myself reflecting on how much I am going to miss him and regretting not doing more with him. Crikey being a parent is tough on the emotions and the top two inches no matter what age kids areL.

The lesson here my friends is to always make quality time to spend with the people most important to you. There are no medals or thanks for being the last to leave the office.On that note I hope you have managed to spend the weekend with the people closest to you and found the time to tell them you love them. Have an awesome week ahead and don’t forget Mothers Day Sunday,Cheers Jonesey.

 

Harry and the Hendersons reckon dogs are the only thing on earth that loves you more than they love themselves! ,they certainly seem to be the Grumpy mans only friends!! :)

 

“You only find out who is swimming naked when the tide goes out” Warren Buffett

 

I wasn’t caught swimming naked by the tide but I felt just as exposed when two Directors of our company asked to ride in my car to an appointment we were all attending last week.

 

For one reason or other I had not cleaned my car for some time and it was in a shocking state.

As someone who prides thereself in the appearance of self and vehicle I was mortified at this request.

 

I quickly tried to shake the carpets and brush the dog hair off the seats whilst emptying the previous weeks worth of accumulated business and private crap out of every parcel and door tray!!!

 

Unfortunately the notice was too short and the trip commenced badly with our principal shareholder finding a half eaten baby rusk embedded in the seat of his newly pressed trousers. As if this wasn’t bad enough the windscreen and passenger windows were so badly smudged with dog saliva and west coast sea spray that he and his fellow Director had trouble seeing out of the vehicle !

 

As if the physical appearance of the car wasn’t bad enough the Director sitting in the passenger seat in front with me felt threatened enough to grab the steering wheel as we moved off from the lights with two lanes going in to one as I finished a text I had started whilst stationary at the lights!!

 

Crikey what a bad experience, enough said, lessons learnt; Always have car clean enough to take Directors and Customers on tour. Sweep for baby food and dog hair post weekend, don’t text or email whilst driving. Bad habits 101,simple to do hard to rectify but something to always be “better” at !!

 

“Be fearful when others are greedy. Be greedy when others are fearful.” Warren Buffett

 

(This weeks quotes have nothing to do with the story bit I thought they were cool anyway enjoy!!!)

Smile :)

 

 

Edition 183 Monday April 29th 2013

 

 

Hi ,a good friend of ‘Upbeat’ ,John, (not his real name) was our guest at the weekly Friday ‘pizza and pinot’ session at 48 last week and after a pinot or 5 asked when the ‘Upbeat’ format was going to change?? We were instantly reminded of our new, improved and ‘shorter ‘ format announcement some time ago now!!! It is true shorter is better and I am accutely aware how little time we have to read the multitude of stuff that comes our way via the electronic air waves daily…there just seems to be so much to share with you on a weekly basis I guess I cant help myself! Hope you still find time.

I promise to try to keep it a bit briefer whenever possible!....WOW, further to the story last week about Jan the new owner of Paul the VW…well him and his partner Lucy took ownership at Auckland airport after flying up from Christchurch. To our surprise (horror?!) they didn’t head south they headed north to Cape Reinga no less on a 10 day North Island tour before heading back to the mainland and home !! 600km later with Paul going strong they stayed with us at Muriwai before heading to the BOP, Taupo, National Park, Palmy and on to Wellywood!!! Crikey good luck Paul. We reckon they will have covered nearly 2000km in Sir Paul by the time they get home (what a buy!!).

With the heavens opening up the night before we decided to give the Anzac dawn parade a miss but ended up having an ‘inhouse’ version at 6am with Fletcher wide awake screaming, heralding the arrival of more teeth to complete a real smile complete with top and bottom rows!! Lest we forget!!

We discovered another jewel in the Auckland crown on Sunday when we took Fletcher for a walk in Western Springs Park, what a gem it is complete with a plethora (this weeks word) of animal/bird life.Special highlight for us was undoubtedly the eels under the bridge we crossed and the sheer quality of the surroundings, hats off to the Auckland City Parks team, best part is it is free! Go soon !!

I hope you had a cool weekend with family and friends, enjoy your week……Cheers Jonesey.

 

Harry and the Hendersonsn thank you for the fan mail, they will attempt to respond in person to each of you . Afterall ‘Upbeat’ is ALL about them !!!!

 

“Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.” Bill Gates

I love coffee, and I make a point of treating myself to a designer coffee every morning from my favourite café close to work. I know I could have hundreds of coffees for the price I pay for my designer coffee per month but it is about more than the coffee for me.

It is the customer experience, the ambience the feeling of home and belonging I get from the cafe I refer to as ‘my place’. The reality is their coffee is not the best in town but their service and their hospitality is…….or was until recently……….grrrrrrrrr I was upset and no longer go there!!!!

How did this happen???

Simply because my café staff took me for granted and got complacent about my loyalty to them. They wrongly thought my commitment to them would endure bad service and arrogance. It takes a lot to upset me and most people I have found when it comes to customer service however once you do upset us we will vote with our feet and we wont come back. Worse still we will probably tell anyone else that will listen about how badly we feel treated….hmm not good.

We all need to remember we cant afford to take our customers or other people for granted, relationships are a work in progress and we need to be constantly working on them. Complacency, arrogance and familiarity have been the downfall of many a business and a relationship.

Customers are not forever unconditionally and my experience with my café was a good wake up call for me personally with my own customers and how I must strive to treat them at all times. There are no guarantees but there are plenty of competitors eager to take our place as providers to our customers. I have found another café that I am pleased to say has welcomed me with open arms!

 

“Customer satisfaction is worthless. Customer loyalty is priceless.”Jeffrey Gitomer

Cacophony!!!

Hi ,imagine running down a gravel country road in the pitch black dark with the surf roaring in the background and the lightening flashing and crackling in behind a curtain of black angry clouds crashing together to produce a deafening cacophony! This amazing amphitheatre greeted the Jones boy this morning,the wonder, power and the beauty of Mother nature,awesome!!bit scary though!!:)

DNS, not three letters that thrill me especially when they stand for “Did Not Start” my triathlon. There were a number of reasons the main one being a lack of time in the bike saddle prior to the event. Never mind it has made me more determined to complete the entire series later this year.

We reluctantly sold Sir Paul to a VW enthusiast last week, just one problem however, just like our motorbike sale,our buyer is from out of town……a long way out of town in fact,Christchurch !!!! Our buyer Jan (pronnounced Yarn) is headed up to Auckland to drive Sir Paul back via SH1 next weekend! Whilst we have sold our machine as a mechanically sound investment this impending trip has the potential to push that claim to the limit !!....good luck mate!!

I am always on the look out for new words or ones I don’t use a lot. Last week I heard one that I liked a lot and have attempted to use as much as possible recently. ‘Indomitable’ (incapable of being subdued : unconquerable) very cool to use. It is a good idea to incorporate new word usage into your vocab, why not try a new word every week…..starting this week….(mine is cacophony used above!!).

I hope you all had a relaxing weekend with family and friends as we head into yet another short week with Anzac Day approaching. I have added the Friday to create a nice four day long weekend. We hope to take Fletcher to his first dawn parade to commemorate our service men and women.

Cheers Jonesey.

Harry and the Hendersons used the thunder and lightening to good effect joining us petrified and huddled in our bed, together with Fletcher 6 in the Queen bed =chaos !!! :)

 

“Winners never quit and quitters never win.” Vince Lombardi

 

I am enjoying chasing leads in the field at the moment, banging on doors until they open and following up on referrals from the network we have established……sounds easy but it is far from it!

It is hellishly busy and the follow up is relentless and seemingly never ending. There are times when I feel so tired I cant continue but it is always the same thing that spurs me on and keeps me going! That is the sheer thrill of the chase and the buzzzz of winning and most importantly fear of losing!!

Quitting cant be an option, it is too easy to give up on a prospect who is hard to contact or elusive to the point of distraction !! That is the point where you need to double your determiination to make contact,set appointments and close sales.

It is particularly hard when you are out in the field on your own you have to be self motivated and driven but hey that’s why so many fail because they give in to the rejection, the pressure and the frustration of being a dreaded sales person….but guess what…..?

We are highly trained  professionals who have accepted a mission to sell to our existing and potential customers. We are ethical and honest and empathetic to our customers needs, we are going to make sure they deal with us because we are going to make it so much fun and mutually beneficial to do so.

Belief my friends belief in self, company, service and/or product is what we are about and what we have embarked on a lifelong career to convince all whom we come into contact with why we are out here walking the streets every day to achieve.

These are my self thoughts as I take on the world of sales every day, I hope they help you to do the same !! Good luck out there my colleagues !!!

 

“If you can accept losing, you can't win.”Vince Lombardi

 

'Fly' by nighters !!!!

         

Edition 181 Monday April 15th 2013

Hi ,white ceilings and walls are lovely and work well with the coastal theme however the common house fly,native to our hood is not coming to the party!! How is it they can suspend themselves from the ceiling upside down and still manage to mark my pristine paint job with their # twos?!!! Grrrrrrr, arrrrggghhhhh yes I am anal (excuse the pun) about this to the point of obsession!! This combined with enough dog hair discarded inside daily to make and sell wigs to bald people online tend to obsess my thoughts far too much. That is until I hear or see someone who has far greater things to worry about than I will ever have! It is then that I refer back to the ‘don’t sweat the small stuff’ mantra and realise the things I might perceive are problems don’t even feature on the problem radar of most others.So stop moaning when you have your health,happiness and a winning ruggers team!!

Speaking of winning what about those Breakers!!! NBL Champions for the third year in a row,cool!!

Winners are grinners and these guys certainly have made a lot of people happy over the years!!

I loved the story last week out of Christchurch about the Mum who has devoted her life to her two mentally handicapped sons. They are now in their early fifties and still both believe in Santa Claus! The Mum was appealing for some help and you couldn’t help but be moved by her story….bit like my reference above to there always being those who have bigger worries and need more help than we ever will.

We visited Nana and Poppa this weekend in the sleepy hollow of Devonport, they freaked out how big Fletcher had grown (now eight months!!),note to self we need to get there more often!!!!

I hope you were all able to catch up with family and friends too this weekend, there is nothing more important !!!! Have a great week ahead……….  cheers Jonesey.

Harry and the Hendersons are doing their bit snapping at flys around the windows and in mid air. Makes amusing watching like Mr Miarghi with his chop sticks on Karate Kid !!! :)

“Use it or lose it” Jimmy Connors

When we were kids at school we learnt stuff that we were told we would need for the future. That stuff was stored in our memory banks and I reckon most of it hasn’t been used to this day, well that’s how it feels to me anyway.

These days I find that the stuff I learn is from doing and that the more I do things the better I get at them. A lot of the stuff I learnt at school was theory rather than practical and as a result it varied greatly from the reality of actually doing things physically in the practical sense.

Enough of the rambling, what I am trying to say is that the people who succeed in this world are the grafters, the ones who fine tune, polish existing and regularly learn new skills(by doing).

The only way to do this is to always be looking for opportunities to extend yourself and your skill base.

To to this you have to be daring, to feel the fear but to take the plunge regardless, this is the only way you will get better and develop new skills and knowledge.

For example I was asked recently to run some workshops for a business I know little about. Instead of freaking out and declining I accepted and stepped up to the challenge. Some basic research and a consultative approach has led to a mutually beneficial outcome for all involved.

 I have got as much if not more out of the sessions as the attendees.  Any one can do this, you just need to always be on the lookout for opportunities to share experiences and  practise your skills so you can help others grow whilst getting better yourself….remember the goal for 2013!!!Be Better !

“Rather than viewing a brief relapse back to inactivity as a failure, treat it as a challenge and try to get back on track as soon as possible.” Jimmy Connors

Gold !!!

         

Edition 180 Monday April 8th 2013

Hi ,Zzzzzzz, Zzzzzzz, Zzzzzzzz the sweet sound of an extra hours sleep, gold !! Only trumped this weekend by Sara Lee apple crumble topped with slowly melting Movenpick maple walnut ice cream, also gold!!,Ahhhh lifes simple little treats and pleasures !

An extended Easter break enveloping a spectacular family wedding and visits to old favourite Matua and new favourite Auckland Zoo were definite highlights as well as the compulsory indulgence in annual favs,chocolate caramel eggs and hot cross buns with more than enough butter soaking slowly throughout the raisins and cinnamon ohhhh my god gastro gold !!

Hmmmmmm if I met my so called complimentary friend last week after our super indulgent wicked Easter he may well have been excused(not) for commenting about weight gain?!! Needless to say last week saw a return to the triathlon training with April 21 loomiing large on the radar!!

Poor old Oscar Henderson has pulled up lame and we find ourselves considering a number of options regarding the funding of surgery/ treatment including another house mortgage!!! When I pass from this world I want to come back as a Vet !!! Some tough decisions already taken with Sir Paul on the market after a brief stay with us and some big calls still to make. Normal family drama at 48 the house of Jones !! I trust you all had an awesome Easter break and enjoyed the two short weeks. A time to focus on where to from here as the wonderful Autumn hues abound and the thermometer drops slowly as our seemingly endless Summer drifts ever so subtly toward Winter!

Have a great week,  cheers Jonesey.

Harry and the other Henderson (Katie) love Oscar the magnificent to bits but reckon a donor hip is stretching that love a beach walk or forest track too far bro !!! :(

“Luck is a dividend of sweat. The more you sweat, the luckier you get.” Ray Kroc

Luck is a funny thing the more unlucky you think you are the unluckier you seem to get?

Then when you don’t worry about it you seem to get lucky breaks as you go along and sometimes find that you can get on a roll with one break seeming to come on top of the other and so on.

I have always believed you make your own luck and by just getting on with things rather than dwelling on others good fortune or your own lack of it that things will invariably work out.

Classic Example;….We are currently trying to source a new truck for our fleet but find there are no suitable new or second hand ones available, we are also trying to employ a new sales person but also find there is not a lot of suitable people walking around looking for the type of role we are offering.

In both cases we have particular requirements that the market seems incapable of providing at present……….until !!!........drum roll please …..

I was talking to one of my hardworking suppliers about a new customer when he mentioned his wife was pregnant with their second child. He indicated he was looking to sell his business and move into a more normal role that allowed him to spend quality time with his wife and young family…….WOW talk about a number of lucky breaks all rolled together!! From a point where we had no extra truck or sales person we are now presented with ; 1x truck (right size and set up), 1x sales person (right attitude and experience) 1x existing customer base and revenue stream, huge potential for future growth in an associated but new business area to the Green Gorilla!!

Crikey,who would have thought a multi solution to our needs was just round the corner? We would never have discovered this opportunity if we were busy dwelling on how unlucky we were at not being able to find what we needed instead of being focused on getting on with life anyway!

Hang in there, solutions to all our problems and challenges and more than our share of luck surround us daily…………GOOD LUCK haha !!! J Don’t wait, make some of your own !!!! Cheers Jonesey

“Diligence is the mother of good luck.” Benjamin Franklin