Strategically brilliant

         

 

 

Edition 210 Monday November 4th 2013

 

Hi, whoever thought of putting a sticker on every individual piece of fruit you buy needs to be identified and tortured slowly !!! Crikey is it annoying or what?...has anyone ever stopped to read what these actually say before they buy them?, how many are influenced by these half baked excuses for a marketing campaign? Yes I am annoyed and yes I did eat a couple this weekend before noticing them arrrrgggghhhh.Thing is I cant boycott fruit as all my favourite stuff has a sticker on it!

Moving on….literally in fact I pulled out in to one of the busiest roundabouts in crazy Auckland traffic last week (in Summer mode by the way) anyway I pulled in front of a angry man driving a modified vehicle synonomous with this particular part of town. If he was angry before I did that then he sure was angrier afterwards to the point where he stopped and insisted we had a chat!! Eeeeek,now I am no hero and from the looks of him physically he had eaten a great deal more pies than I had in his lifetime so I adopted a concillatory approach rather than a confrontational one and it took the wind out of his sails in fact he ended up apologising to me for being so aggressive! You see he was expecting me to be  exactly the same way and anticipating a fight and didn’t know how to deal with a gentleman, sheer strategic  brilliance I tell you, mixed with more than a tinge of luck that we didn’t collideJ!!!

Halloween and Guy Fawkes in the same week does my head in, we will have to be strategically brilliant later in his life to successfully avoid both of these imported commercial rip offs…arrrggghh!

Fletcher got given the coolest pair of Nike shoes as a hand me down from his mate Brooklyn. He lives in them and we have to hide them before bed or they would be worn in there too !!!

I hope you had a relaxing fun weekend with family and friends, have a great week, cheers Jonesey

 

Harry and the Hendersons reckon Guy Fawkes sucks !! besides which there is never enough room for them in our bed when we are being attacked by fireworks!!!! Please be over soon!

 

“On any given Monday I am one sale closer and one idea away from being a Millionaire.”

 Larry D. Turner

 

Sales snippets from the week that was;

 

• Our late ex Prime Minister Sir Rob Muldoon once said :”Any advertising is good advertising” and judging by the feedback we got during the week after one of our trucks rolled over blocking a motorway onramp for most of the day he may well have been right ! Thankfully no one was hurt and all was eventually back to normal.
• Speaking of advertising we continue to benefit from strategically well placed sponsorship of high profile events, programs and environmental initiatives. The key is to definitely target specifically rather than try to be all things to all people (good luck or good management??).
• A guy came up to me in the street last week as I was getting into the Green Gorilla mobile and introduced himself and asked who we were purchasing safety equipment from? Turns out he has started a business locally specialising in this gear and wanted to know who in our business was responsible for these purchases. Great initiative and certainly the right way to generate leads and hopefully new buisness. A great example and motivation to me to do a couple of cold calls that day too!!
• I know I go on about Toastmasters a bit but Crikey there is no denying it has to be the best value personal development training in the world!! Where else can you get  fortnightly training, development, motivation,inspiration, evaluation, breakfast(at our club) and mentoring from experienced experts for $15 bucks a meeting. That’s one and a half hours of personal development for $10 per hour !!!! Now I challenge you to get approximately twenty three x ninety minute training sessions for $300 bucks per year What are you waiting for?
• www.toastmasters.org.nz use the club finder and make contact with some clubs that meet in your area. You can visit as many as you like as many times as you like for free before either deciding its not for you or the club you prefer to join….could it be any closer or easier!??....Ok I promise I will leave it there…….for this week J

 

“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving”. Albert Einstein

Summer mode

         

 

 

Edition 209 Tuesday October 29th 2013

 

 Hi, is there anything better than a fine long weekend? I am so glad I took an extra day to recharge the batteries and stack up some much needed ZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzz’s. Fletcher is at a cool age at the moment exploring everything and pretty much still cute and doing as he is told (the calm before the storm?). We chillaxed and enjoyed the sun whilst also managing to get some stuff ticked off the to do before xmas (only 8 weeks??!!!and counting ) list….YAYJ.

We couldn’t believe how sluggish my new car was off the mark, it is so sssssllllowww we had started thinking ill of its Asian origins and wondering how long we would survive the many intersections we encounter daily/weekly. It was so bad Christine refused to drive it and was reluctant to even ride in it with me…….hmmmmm could be career and family life limiting so time to get it back to the dealer and hold my breath in the service area until they fixed it!!! Well I didn’t have to wait long as a crowd of service personnel quickly surrounded the car and insisted I unlock the drivers door and stop holding my breath !!! It wasn’t long before someone pointed out that I had been driving in ‘winter’ mode not ‘summer’!!!!! Seems it was rectified with the simple flick of a switch!, the difference between starting off in first gear (summer) and 2^nd gear (winter) the winter mode being used where snow and ice make 2^nd gear safer and slower to start off in…..eg; not in Auckland (hurry up dickhead, race to the death every day)) traffic conditions !!! I wish I could have shrunk into my sunglasses case and zipped it up to avoid the red hot embarrassment of the moment but alas I took the full brunt of the service teams sympathetic looks as the penny dropped!!! If in doubt of course I guess I could have referred to the manual that the nice Asian manufacturers had so kindly printed in ENGLISH!!!! Yes I hate it when that happens but at least we and all who travel with us will now be safe in Auckland traffic.

I hope you had a ‘safe’, relaxing and fun long weekend with family and friends and that you are looking forward to another short but successful week ahead, take care , cheers Jonesey !!

 

Harry and the Hendersons instinctively know the exact moment we wake up. Then they wake us 10 minutes sooner!!!!.....GGrrrrrrrrrr J

 

“Don’t freak, just speak.” C. B. Jones National Table Topics  finalist!!!

 

I talked recently about winning a Toastmasters contest and how chuffed I was about that…..well I am still basking in the glow and as a typical salesman I want to tell you more about how bloomin wonderful I am !!!!

You see I have now qualified for the national final and I will be representing a dozen Auckland Clubs as their representative…..one of eight finalists nationally fighting it out to be crowned New Zealand Champion!! Crikey, so close yet still so far.

The competition is even more intriguing as it is the ‘Table Topic’ competition which is all about the art of ‘Impromptu’ speaking or making something up off the cuff and on the run……perfect for someone like me who loves the sound of their own voice and is full of the proverbial on any topic…..or so you might think!! Thing is no one knows what the topic will be so no preparation is possible prior to!!

Impromptu speaking is tough going and you need to be on your game to make something up that has an opening, a body and a close all this in just 2minutes 30 seconds !!!

Crikey, no pressure but great training for the game of life where we are placed on the spot all the time and how we react dictates how successful or otherwise we will be……cant wait, watch this space!

 

Join now ; www.toastmasters.org.nz you know you want to !!!!!

 

“We all have butterflies, question is, are yours flying in formation?.” C.B. Jones

The RAOK Challenge

         

 

 

Edition 208 Monday October 21st 2013

 

 Hi,wow what a week it has been on the Jones roller coaster ride this week! A ghastly gastric bug stopped Christine in her tracks on Tuesday so I dutifully assumed the role of activities director with Fletcher for the day. Christine was appreciative of the rest and I returned to work Wednesday for a rest after an unbelievably fun but very exhausting day in the zoo!!

Speaking of Wednesday I ran through a bunch of blue bottle jelly fish in the early darkness on the beach. I didn’t realise I had done this until I felt a stinging sensation on my lower leg later in the shower. The affected area then swelled and broke into an angry rash which degenerated into an open broken skin wound…..as if that wasn’t bad enough I then experienced  fever and nausea from the evil jelly fish poison that had obviously entered my system….crikey !!! Then after battling the Blue fever and to top off  the week I contracted the ghastly gastric bug from Christine on Friday for a weekend spent in close proximity to one very important little room of the houseL.Harden up Jonesey!

Staying close to home proved to be a blessing in disguise as we explored a couple of local spots with Fletcher which were cool fun. He is fixated with birds at the moment so the local Gannet Colony was a special treat combined with a visit to the local park rides and the wild west coast black sand of the beach and he was made up ! Often the simple things closest to home are the most enjoyable or rewarding…….love where we live Daddy !!!! J

I competed in a Toastmasters competition on Saturday and was lucky enough to win the right to represent Auckland at the upcoming National final in November,fiercely competitive and proud of it!

In my fragile state I was in bed before the All Blacks played on Saturday night !!! so we managed to hang out till 10.30am Sunday to watch the boys maintain their unbeaten run for the season….legend.

Yay , Labour Weekend approaches and we have leave booked Friday to make it a four day bonanza.

I hope you had a great weekend with family and friends and that you also have a relaxing long weekend planned to spend with those closest and most important to you……Cheers Jonesey.

 

Harry and the Hendersons reckon they, like our shoes, are comfortable. They might be a bit out of shape and a little worn around the edges, but they fit well. Scooby Doo !!!

 

“Unexpected kindness is the most powerful, least costly, and most underrated agent of human change.” Bob Kerrey

I was parking in town last week and a guy came up to me and gave me his parking ticket that still had almost an hour left to park on it…..it was a small gesture that helped and meant a lot to me!It was a “Random Act Of Kindness” (RAOK) that served as a timely reminder how powerful these simple inexpensive gestures can be. The thing I like is how they benefit both the giver and the receiver equally and the diffreence they can make to both.

RAOKs are spontaneous acts of generosity that don’t have to be done and generally are not noticed if they don’t happen but have a huge effect when they are performed. They can be as simple as opening a door for somebody or even saying please and thankyou where most people let it slip past these days…..simple little disciplines in our daily lives, again sadly missing from most.

Last week inspired by this RAOK I was moved to provide my services as a mentor and volunteer to present at two industry forums on behalf of customers. None of this I was contracted or expected to do but all that I was happy and motivated to do and as a result of doing !! Unselfish and unsolicited yet unbelievably satisfying !!!

Your challenge this week is to become a RAOK performer,your chance to shine……”Just do it” Cheers.

 

“What wisdom can you find that is greater than kindness?”Jean Jacques Rousseau

Thumb and dumber

         

 

 

Edition 207 Monday October 14th 2013

 

 Hi, I accidentally cut myself with our large carving knife recently. It started to fall off the bench so I instinctively tried to catch it( that was bright). I am still trying to figure out why I did that, maybe with my form, it would have carried on to stab me in the foot or something!! Anyway I managed to cut my thumb slightly right on the end . I doubt there would have been more blood had I cut the thing off altogether. Anyway the point is that during the healing process my thumb was painful and I couldn’t believe how many day to day things I do that involve the use of my thumb (eg;try doing the buttons of a shirt up with a sore thumb …..agony!!)…..dont we take so much for granted regarding our health, we need to be more careful and aware,in my humble and painful view!

Continuing on the health theme I bent over to pick up something last week and the seams of my work trouser bottoms decided enough was enough and gave up the ghost. It is a little unfair to blame the seams when it would be fairer to point the blame at the extra strain they may have been under lately!. I would love to tell you it is because of the further development of muscle thanks to the gym however,sadly that is not the case. Yes the battle continues and no matter how much one may exercise one  still has to watch what one eats so why doesn’t one??,hmmm diet starts tomorrow!

Fletcher file; one of our fears was realised last week when Fletcher,who spends a lot of time with Harry and the Hendersons, was discovered eating some dog biscuits !! Now not only does he think he is a canine he has also taken a liking to their food. Whilst the opportunity to save some money on the food budget was tempting we had to draw the line and instruct him eating dog biscuits was a no no J

Dad is recovering slowly at home under the watchful eye of the best nurse in the business @ #21. We are a thoughtful lot though as the sign on the back of Dads boat trailer many years ago lays testimony to, it read “ 13.5 metres to pass, do not worry if you cant pass……at least you are keeping up with the Joneses.”J and on that note, have a great week!……Cheers Jonesey.

 

Harry and the Hendersons reckon dogs' lives are too short. Their only fault, really!!!

 

“Never try to teach a pig to sing. It wastes your time and it annoys the pig.”

 George Bernard Shaw

 

Some sizzling snippets from the week that was;

 

• I always carry business cards and hand them out whenever I meet anybody business or personal.They are a great way of getting your message out and providing all your information. Imagine my embarrassment when one of the recipients actually read the card I gave him and noted it didn’t have my name on it ! Seems I had been inadvertently handing out one of my colleagues cards for most of the week !
• Due to a recent acquisition I have some new staff in my team. This presents me with a great opportunity to review my performance to ensure any habits, familiarity or laziness are eliminated from my daily efforts to manage and motivate my team. It is a reality check on the level of professionalism I bring to my role and a reminder to set an example at all times.
• Further to my note last week about accepting opportunities to present to industry groups or associations I did exactly that this weekend. A colleague and I presented to the Association of Wall and Ceiling Installers (AWCI) about our recent plasterboard recycling initiatives. This was as a big thank you to several customers who are members who are supporting our initiative.
• How about that Green Gorilla exposure on “The Block NZ” We were not just pretty faces and bins we actually recycled 40% of the waste off the program!!  Legends !! Go the extra mile!!

“I learned long ago, never to wrestle with a pig, you get dirty; and besides, the pig likes it.” George Bernard Shaw

Valet to the Stars!

         

 

 

Edition 206 Monday October 7th 2013

 

 Hi,our very own blackbirds are nesting in our letter box, daylight saving jet lag is over and the bbq has had its first serious work out…..ahhhh there is warmth in the air and a spring in the step with another iconic kiwi summer in prospect. Also time to tackle the lawns and outdoor chores that have been on hold during the winter months. After a huge day outdoors on Saturday we treated ourselves to a hot bath, mainly because Auckland were getting kicked by Wellington in the footy ! Crikey that was amazing, our poor bath, ignored for so long in favour of the quicker less soothing shower, our aching bodies promise to savour you on a more regular basis!

 Thanks for all your messages re Dad, I am pleased to report that his surgery went well and he is recovering well. A reconditioned heart, a lot to be grateful for and even more to look forward to.

Fletcher update; our little man is so funny, if he is up before I go to work and when I get home he will either select a pair of shoes for me to wear or put them away for me after use!!(see attached photos). He is growing like a weed and developing personality and character features that Christine and I either claim or deny is linked to us depending on how cute or obnoxious the trait might be!! J

One of our older boys,Mark is home currently from the UK and it has been cool to catch up with him before he heads off to experience and write a new chapter in his seamingly never ending OE adventure. “May the sun always be on your back and the wind always be on your face” ,go well son.

Wow, how about that All Black game against South Africa, the stuff All Black legends and folklore are made of. I can remember watching as a wide eyed kid years ago with Dad when legends of the past like Colin Meads (playing with a broken arm) and Bryan Williams (who mesmorised the Springboks with his magical side step as a 19 year old) etched themselves into the history books forever.

I hope you had a relaxing spring/summer weekend with family and friends and that you have an awesome week ahead, not long now till Labour weekend J……Cheers Jonesey.

 

Harry and the Hendersons reckon some days you're the dog; some days you're the hydrant.

 

“Customer service is not a department, it’s everyone’s job.” Sam Walton

 

We have recently secured a recycling service supply deal with a large chain store. We will be supplying 30 stores in the Auckland area which is very cool and a great coup for our company.

As part of the roll out I had to call each store to make sure they knew what they were getting, when and what they had to do and what to expect from us in return!

The thing that amazed me was the difference in phone answering, service and attitude from one store to the next. They ranged from super receptive and enthusiastic to mildly interested to couldn’t care less. It proved to be an interesting independent customer service observation exercise which while unintentional did provide a useful insight into how the stores were tracking in these areas.

I was faced with an equally interesting decision to make…..did I ignore what I had observed? or did I mention it to my contact and pass on the information/assessment for their future benefit?

I chose to share the info and observations I had made as I believed it would enhance our relationship with our new customer as well as benefitting them with targetting training and development needs. In other words or ‘sales speak’ a win/win outcome for all parties.

Luckily I was right, my customer was appreciative and asked me to present my findings to one of their Managemet team meetings for the benefit of all Managers…..amazing, I couldn’t believe it !

So an awesome outcome was achieved from taking the initiative derived from something initially unrelated but eventually super relevant and mutually beneficial.

I believe we are surrounded by opportunities like this every day, we need to ‘get better’ at recognising these and to then make the most of them!!!....Good luck, keep your eyes and ears open!

 

“We won’t complain. We just won’t come back” Mr & Mrs Customer!!!

YAY !!!!

         

 

 

Edition 205 Monday September 30th 2013

 

 Hi, the last of the birthdays during the Joneses birthday season is fittingly my Fathers on the 28^th. These birthdays are always special as Dad reckons he was born at midnight so the celebration should be a two day affair over the 28/29 September!! This weekends event was certainly special and different as our family assembled in his hospital room complete with cards, presents, cupcakes, chocolate cake and bubbles (compliments of his biggest and most loyal supporter my beautiful Mum). Crikey I don’t know how much of it we were legally allowed to have in there but it didn’t matter to us as the most important thing to us was Dad!

It was a bit surreal as Mum gave the first public speech I have ever heard her do and the rest of us mixed and mingled with Dad in no doubt this was indeed ‘his’ special day which was cool.

It is times like this that I regret not having made a bigger effort to be closer to my brother and sister or that I havent visited Mum and Dad more often. It is also times like this that I realise saying family is important to me is one thing, doing something about it is another thing altogether !! I guess I am lucky that I still have a family and an opportunity to do something about that regret.

Dad is booked to become a member of the open heart ‘zipper club’ on Wednesday so very cool for his family to be together prior to this life enhancing surgery,wow isnt life a wild roller coaster ride!

Speaking of roller coasters what an amazing few weeks it has been following Team NZ’s fortunes in San Francisco! I don’t know about you but it all got too much for me and I had to stop watching and just got text updates from Christine. I couldn’t bear it and was left totally gutted and flat at the end of what had been an amazing journey for the counntry and especially the team in San Fran. I know everyone will have their own opinions and heaps of them but for what it is worth I am proud of the team, I think it was money well spent and I would do it all over again in a heart beat,so its out there.

Yay the All Blacks, Yay daylight saving and Yay another exciting week ahead, have a good one! Cheers Jonesey!

Harry and the Hendersons  feel very strongly that they should always go with us in the car, in case the need should arise for them to bark violently at nothing right in our ears !!!!!

 

“No one has a greater asset for  their business than a persons pride in their work.” H Ballou

I saw an amazing thing last week……a local road is getting a much overdue conversion from gravel to tar seal. There are workmen, diggers, rollers, tip trucks and graders everywhere. The weather has been all over the show and all the gear is covered in dirt but I saw a truck driver out cleaning the body and cab of his truck with a rag while he waited to be loaded. I couldn’t help myself and asked him why he was doing that? He asked me ‘what I did for a crust?’ I told him I was a ‘professional sales person’ (I like saying that!) to which he said “do you clean your car ?” I said yes and he said then I clean my truck for the same reason! I am proud of what I do and the state of my truck reflects who I am and how I feel about that and what I do……I thought OMG how true is that !!!

I clean my car regularly because I want to set a good example to my staff, I want my customers to think I am proud of my company and what I do so the appearance of my car is an important part of maintaining that image. I feel privileged to have a company car (even if it has a Gorilla on the side of it) and I think it is important I treat it like I would if I owned it. Funny thing is I feel better  about myself and my company and its services when I am in a clean car!!

I didn’t stop there I cleaned my shoes, ironed my shirts and even purchased a couple of new ones because I was so impressed with what I saw the truck driver doing.

Pride in appearance and pride in vehicle cleanliness both reflect to others what type of person we are and what is important to us.I believe this sends an important message to people about us and our companies before we utter a word or provide any service or product.

Thanks to Doug my new friend the truckie for a timely reminder about the importance of ‘pride’ J

“We know that America thrives when every person can find independence and pride in their work.” Barack Obama

In a heartbeat

 Hi,if someone tells me to take it easy I usually ignore them and go twice as hard out! Seldom have I listened to my body preferring to take the ‘she’ll be right’ approach to most injuries and ailments. I was guilty of playing footy when injuries weren’t right and as a case in point have continued to train over the last three weeks with a chest infection opting for the ‘sweat it out/break the fever’ cure rather than the ‘rest and recover’ approach!

I believe this behaviour is sort of thanks to Dad who was and still is exactly the same today in his 80’s!! So it was not a surprise for me to learn late last week that he had been admitted to hospital  experiencing breathlessness and chest pains after a week at their Waiheke retreat where he had been over doing things! Crikey , tell me about it, this,not three months after dodging a bullet from a near fatal car accident ! Talk about having a charmed bullet proof life, if he was a cat he would have well exceeded the nine so called lives they are allocated, years ago!!

After observation it appears the expert smart money is on valve replacement surgery where all going well with the rest of the body the new valve has the potential to see this caped crusader hit triple figures……..god give the rest of us the strength and patience,we love you Dad!!..hang in there!!

Talking about health and living longer, a smoker friend of mine revealed he has managed to kick the habit which is a huge achievement but not as BIG as the annual saving calculated at nearly $9000!!!   The final word on living longer this week goes to Winnnie the Pooh who  said  “ If you live to be a hundred years old I hope I pass away a day sooner so I never have to live without you”…….that perfectly sums up feelings about true friends and family for me !!!

I hope you had a relaxing weekend with family and friends, have a great week, Cheers Jonesey!

 

Harry and the Hendersons reckon if you think dogs can't count, try putting three dog biscuits per dog in your pocket and then give each only two of them.

 

“Yesterday is a canceled check; tomorrow is a promissory note; today is the only cash you have - so spend it wisely.” - Kay Lyons

 

There are 148 hours in every week, if we are lucky we will sleep for approx 56 of those and if we are unlucky or disorganized we will work for approx 60 of those or maybe 50 if we are on to it! You don’t have to be an Americas cup scientist to realize this isn’t a lot of time in the scheme of things.

We are all surrounded by time thieves who have nothing better to do but steal time from us.

A perfect example of this was a meeting a colleague and I had last week that ran for 4 hours!! Yes 8% of an organized work week or 6.6% of a disorganized one, in any ones terms a big slice of time! The thing that made it worse was it was pretty much a waste of that time when related to the value it added to our business. We learnt some lessons that are relevant for all meetings; 1)Keep any meeting to 1 hour max,2)Set an agenda for all meetings and stick to it, only add extra items before the meeting starts not during or at the end, 3)Before setting the meeting ask yourself “Is this the best use of my time”, could we do this over the phone or via email? 4)Follow up all meetings with minutes and an action list with deadlines. I am sure there are other ‘do’s’ and ‘don’ts’ but this was a good wake up call re time and its value for us. I guess the important thing is we are committed to learning from it and putting in place measures that will ensure it doesn’t happen again.

Time is such a precious commodity!!.....use it or lose it !!

 

“Time is our most valuable asset, yet we tend to waste it, kill it and spend it rather than invest it.” – Jim Rohn