Well, doesn’t 2024 just keep dishing out the lessons? Some expected. Others less so. Fortunately, these days my mindset has shifted & I’m better at recognising the lessons I need to learn. Let’s say, I better understand the benefit of the Right Kind of Wrong. It’s like I’ve finally worked out which humility lever to pull, in order to be my Optimal self. To be clear, my definition of optimal today is a stark contrast to the days of old when I only had two gears, full pelt & asleep. No doubt I was a slave to The Perfection Trap back then. Today it’s hard to hurry me. My ambling pace cons ..read more

Consider this. You are walking out of the supermarket looking like a lopsided balancing scale, laden with bags in each hand.  The right heavier than the left. Accidently, you make eye contact with an over-enthusiastic sales person standing at a “pop up” stall. They are holding a wooden clipboard & are desperate for your name to be the next on the list for their subscription meal service. “I don’t have this in me right now,” you think to yourself.  While you are prepared to give them a wide berth & walk the longer route to the carpark, you can feel your right fingers turning n ..read more

Have you ever walked away from a customer conversation grinning ear to ear thinking to yourself, “Self, we bloody nailed it!”?  You’d spent the past hour with one of your top customers reinventing your collaborative world, leaving no doubt the pronoun “we” would be the descriptor used you’d both be using to describe your partnership for another two years. You’d spent hours preparing.  Pouring over two years worth of data to identify trends, support your claims & build the case required for your service contract to be re-signed. It paid off.  So well in fact, you figured you ..read more

“I’ll do it!” she said with gusto in the team meeting. “Thank goodness, I was hoping she’d volunteer. She always jumps at an opportunity. I might meet that deadline afterall.” You thought with quiet relief. “It’s a busy week, but I’m sure I can squeeze it in tomorrow night after dinner. It’s another chance to prove myself.” Her busy mind thought, while calculating the rapidly diminishing hours in her next day. There are few things as energising as an aspiring young team member radiating enthusiasm. It can feel like an emotional contagion sweeping through a team meeting. Maybe even cracking the ..read more

“Hi Peta, just your coffee?” “Hey Gabe, yep the usual please.  Thank you.”  It’s the conversation which starts my every day. I’m a regular at my local coffee haunt. They see me crossing the street & have already reached for the cup which will become the vessel for my steaming latte & kick starter for my sleepy mind. I’ve been a committed customer of this small, local business for two years. A decision I instinctively made on my second visit. To my unexpected delight, they’d remembered both my name & my coffee order from my first visit. I was theirs. For two years our conv ..read more

Have you ever looked back on a story you wrote in primary school? You might have been all of seven years old. You were yet to receive your pen licence and your scratchy, HB leaded words were so large you could only fit four per line. (Smudged in a leaded shadow if you were a rookie left hander!) What you lacked in finesse you made up for in imagination. Creating sentences & stories with words made from combinations of letters which made sense to you. “The bare sat on the seet eeting his selary.” Of course bears sit on seats eating celery, why not? In the day, you were proud of what you cre ..read more

Have you ever made a mistake which had ramifications for your Customer? An innocent mistake whereby in the split second following your realisation, the bottom fell out of your guts and you could feel the prickly heat of embarrassment race up your neck. You stuffed up and the customer paid the price. I distinctly remember a nervous moment standing in an operating room when I was green to the game. The spinal surgeon, his eyes focused on the oozy operating site, had tools flying in and out of his hands like a well rehearsed anatomical machine. He called for his implant, “6.5 x 50 mono!” I froze ..read more

What is it that makes the air of New Year’s Day feel lighter? 24 hours ago, I was the same person, wearing the same ankle high gardening boots, mesmerised by the same view, breathing the same country air. But today, that air feels different.  Not to upset tradition, last night I kept Nana hours. I was tucked up & lights out, one minute past the moment daylight was swallowed by the sparkly night sky.  Call it 9.30pm. Hours later I woke to the unmistakable sound of distant percussive explosions. It was the exact stroke of midnight, & as though my subconscious was prodding me aw ..read more

Here we are in December 2023 & each of us has lived another calendar year of powerful customer moments. Colourful moments strung together by routine days. Courageous moments when we dared ask a bold question. Competitor moments which pushed our hot buttons. Regretful “shit-hit-the-fan” moments which delivered impactful life lessons. Satisfying moments when a customer referred to our partnership as “we” for the first time. Imperfect moments which tested everyone’s resolve. And elevating moments which helped us realise our hidden potential. Each were impactful, involving some element of huma ..read more

You approach the crowded intersection & the lights suddenly turn.  The luminescent green light signalling “go”, now a burning amber ball. You have two choices.  The foot pedal on the right, or the foot pedal on the left. What’s the difference between those choices? Arriving two minutes later at your destination? Hearing another song on the radio? A human life? Let’s face it, the universe is in a hurry. A hurry to tick off the checklist, or progress a career.  A hurry to make a million, or share a latest triumph on the digital highlight reel. A hurry to succeed. Be noticed. F ..read more