tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38787944926326091352024-03-13T13:21:03.882+11:00Mark Carrington - Cycle TouristBusiness strategist, Internet pioneer, Entrepreneur, Information Technology expert, Accountant, Lawyer, Author, Avid long haul cyclist, Home cooking hero, PhotographerCarrinmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01956327719089962286noreply@blogger.comBlogger28125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3878794492632609135.post-67407161820848782292020-06-10T21:51:00.001+10:002020-06-10T21:51:29.234+10:00Premium PLR Reports Review - Affiliate Marketing MasteryLatest product review in the world of Internet Marketing. How to deploy the latest PLR from Kevin Fahey <br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="270" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-c1j-T8EP7c" width="480"></iframe>Carrinmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01956327719089962286noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3878794492632609135.post-54942572604177892692016-06-21T16:59:00.001+10:002016-06-21T16:59:13.938+10:00Celebrating 60 yearsTime has flown by. In fact 60 years of time has flown by since I started my journey on this mortal coil. We had a celebration at home this weekend. This is the scene set and these are the stories I shared with my friends and family.<br />
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[Note: I have added some detail which was not in the story - you will find these in square brackets]<br />
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<b>Scene set.</b><br />
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I am sitting at home on Thursday and truck arrives from Absolute Party Hire. Somehow I do not think the marquee is being put up for Jeremy's christening party on Sunday. The cat is out the bag and 6 months planning by my lovely wife (Lorraine) comes into play. You see I turned 60 on June 19. <br />
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We had an amazing party with the marquee in the backyard decked out with a cycling theme. Two of my bicycles are hanging in the corners with an array of cycling jerseys and jackets that each tell a story of my cycling exploits. The guests arrive and we settle into a few drinks under the setting sun in the back garden. The threatened heavy rain has not arrived [and does not arrive until Sunday during the night]. <br />
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<b>The Story</b><br />
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So here goes the threads of what I said totally off the cuff though I had thought about the frame of what to say while I was on my bicycle on Thursday.<br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
I have been completely overwhelmed since I found out on Thursday that there was going to be a big party. I said to the guy in the bottle shop when I bought the beer today, "it is quite amazing to think that one has friends that can keep a secret for 6 months". It has been fabulous watching Richard [my oldest son who is 26] working with Lorraine these last two days doing all the food preparation. It is quite amazing to see so many of my Australian friends and family here. I could talk for hours about the story of the last 60 years, most of which none of you will know anything about. Rather than do that I thought I would take some slices of the story.</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
It all started in <b>1956 </b>[born in Pretoria, South Africa]. I do not know much about that. I do know that 1956 was the year the Suez Canal was closed and Gamal Abdel Nasser became the President of Egypt, really the first truly independent state in Africa [June 23]. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Rolling forward to <b>1966</b>, I cannot say I remember very much either except England did win the football World Cup (we used to call it soccer). I had not learned to ride a bicycle by then. I got my first bicycle when I was 12. [it was stolen before I learned to ride it]. In 1966 my sport was boxing and we used to listen to all the fights on the radio, including listening to the great Muhammad Ali fights. Rest In Peace, champ [1966 was the year he refused conscription - so he made big headline news in South Africa too]</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>1976 </b>sees me starting my first year of university in Cape Town. Sporting activity was focused on squash and field hockey and I played at league level in both sports. You would find me on a squash court 5 days a week and on a hockey practice ground or field twice a week. 1976 was a critical year in South African history as it was the year of the Soweto riots where the South African Police began the crackdown on rioting school children in Soweto. Two years later, I remember the police coming onto the university campus to deal with protests there. My cycling journey began a little after this and the year of my final exams a friend and I cycled over the mountains with our panniers loaded and did a 1,000 km, 10 day tour. We did not know what we did not know.</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Moving on to <b>1986</b>. These were the dark days in South Africa. The President at the time was PW Botha. He used to wave his finger and berate us from the TV. And I remember his Rubicon speech. "There comes a time in the history of a nation when there has to be a choice between peace and war" [Speech was actually made in Afrikaans in August 1985]. In that time, I was watching the role of the Army being changed to that of a force acting to suppress the rights of people I thought had rights to be free rather than a force protecting the borders. I was not prepared to do that. I came home from work one day late in 1986 and told my wife (at the time) that I had bought tickets and we would be moving to England (in February 1987). Little did I know that in 1986 the government had started discussions with the ANC which ultimately led to the release of Nelson Mandela and the democratic elections in 1994. Had I known that at the time I made my choice,the story could well have been different. As it happens the day after the tickets were bought, call up papers arrived for 3 months service in Soweto starting on February 14, 1987 (I flew the day before).</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Moving on to <b>1996</b>. I had joined a bunch of friends and we had started our own consulting firm. We were driving hard to grow a sustainable and credible competitor to number one in our industry, McKinsey & Co [where I worked for 6 years from 1987 to 1993]. I was travelling all over the place and working every hour a man could muster. I remember flying into Zurich from Athens to have lunch with one of my Swiss Bank Corporation clients. I was wearing the London uniform of the day - a grey pin stripe suit. Heinz says to me, "You look like shit. Your face is the colour of your suit". That comment set my resolve to keep driving hard at what we were doing so I could get to a point where I could stop and enjoy the fruits. As for sporting activity, no cycling as nobody in their right mind becomes a keen cyclist in England weather. [I played golf instead]. </blockquote>
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>2006 </b>finds me in Australia. The business is sold and I am now not working for anybody. It was a big and a challenging year. I had started riding Audax randonneuring events, many with my friend Karen over here who I met sometime in 2002 after my first cycle ride across Australia. We rode the Alpine Classic in January - the jersey is the first one in that array of jerseys you see. The mountain on that jersey is Mt Buffalo. When we reached Bright with 70 kms to go (up that mountain) the temperature was 42C. I remember well the crowds lining the streets when I got back into Porepunkah and Bright - they were cheering madly. I made it with 20 minutes to spare and was one of only 35% to finish. Nowadays the riders are stopped in Bright if the temperature is above 38C. This was a big cycling year as I was preparing to ride the pinnacle of Audax riding - the Paris Brest Paris 1200 km event - you will see the jerseys on the wall. In this year, I rode 12,000 kms including riding across Australia for the 3rd time from Darwin to Adelaide. 2006 was also the year that Lesley and I separated. And On June 21, 2006, my decision to leave South Africa was vindicated when my children's grandmother was murdered in her Cape Town home (aged 94). Rest in Peace Granny.</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Here we are in <b>2016</b>. In between these years, I have added another 4 trips across Australia. In all, two on the bicycle on the right (Giant road bike) and five on the folding bike on the left (Bike Friday). That is nothing compared to my friend Peter Shaw in the back there who cycled all around Australia in 2013 starting in Cairns and riding with Cycle Across Oz to Melbourne and then doing the last leg back to Cairns supported by his wife Jan. Back to the now, I am quite overwhelmed by the fact that you are all here [almost all of whom I have got to know in the last 10 years = the price of moving country a few times]. It is fabulous to see my two sons here. I thank you all for coming along to celebrate my journey. And I give all my thanks to Lorraine and to Richard for all the work they put in to put this together. </blockquote>
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Carrinmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01956327719089962286noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3878794492632609135.post-84188250035301661002014-10-29T23:22:00.001+11:002014-10-29T23:22:39.795+11:00Cycle Tour Australia Review of Cycle Across Oz<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="270" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/qx6Lru0JPkU" width="480"></iframe>Carrinmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01956327719089962286noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3878794492632609135.post-60998239176495676992014-09-29T13:10:00.000+10:002014-09-29T13:24:11.135+10:00Leadership leads Organisation Culture - guest blog from Chris Edmonds<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Over the last few weeks I have had the privilege of reading a pre-release of Chris Edmonds' new book <b>The Culture Engine: A Framework for Driving Results, Inspiring Your Employees and Transofrming Your Workplace</b></span><br />
<b><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-smcssPV6sIE/VCjIiNZyUxI/AAAAAAAABNs/jGPUo8GmdyM/s1600/Chris_edmonds_promo_03.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-smcssPV6sIE/VCjIiNZyUxI/AAAAAAAABNs/jGPUo8GmdyM/s1600/Chris_edmonds_promo_03.png" height="320" width="320" /></span></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I was a founding partner of an amazing management consulting firm, called Mitchell Madison Group, which started life in 1994. In 6 short years we grew MMG to a firm with 750 consultants in 16 offices across the world. Our main competitor, McKinsey & Company (where I worked for 6 years) had taken 50 years to grow to that size. What separated MMG out from the other firms I had worked in (Price Waterhouse, Deloitte, McKinsey and AT Kearney) was an amazing organisation culture. It was a culture that introduced talented young people and allowed them to grow really fast. It was also a culture where the leaders spent a large slice of their time with clients and with the teams - that is why our young people grew so fast and why our clients chose to grow our firm. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">As I read through Chris Edmonds' book, I was struck about how much we had done right. We created A Culture Engine that was unique and compelling and attractive to clients and staff. Many of my partners lived to a personal model that underpinned that Culture Engine. MMG was sold in 1999 and sadly disappeared in the aftermath of that sale and the 2000 dot com crash. MY guess is we could have had a very different outcome had we followed Chris Edmonds prescriptions a little more specifically, rather than the implicit way we had done. We had a vision of what we wanted to achieve. However, we never had a formalised organisation consitution. We did build into our evaluation systems all of the elements needed for a personal constitution as a continuum of skills (and culture) so that any member of the firm knew how to grow all the way through a career. Not all our partners had their own personal constitution crystallised. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Chris has penned this guest blog about the very subject of job, career or calling</span><br />
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<h1 style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-line-height-alt: 13.2pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-size: 21pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Job,
Career, or Calling?<o:p></o:p></span></span></h1>
<div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #555555; font-size: 11.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">How do you view your work? Is it drudgery? Is it somewhat<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><em><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">benign</span></em>,
somewhat<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><em><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">engaging</span></em>, or
possibly even<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><strong><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">inspiring</span></strong>?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #555555; font-size: 11.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Most employees see work as a<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><em><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">job</span></em>, a means of
funding life’s necessities. Some employees see work as a<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><em><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">career</span></em>,
a profession they can contribute to for years. A very few see work as a<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><em><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">calling</span></em>,
an avenue for meaningful contributions in service to others.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><em><span lang="EN-US" style="border: 1pt none windowtext; color: #555555; font-size: 11.5pt; padding: 0cm;">Jobs</span></em><span class="apple-converted-space"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #555555; font-size: 11.5pt;"> </span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #555555; font-size: 11.5pt;">are
a dime a dozen. People change jobs all the time. When one isn’t particularly
engaged at work, there isn’t much lost when moving from one job to another.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #555555; font-size: 11.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">A<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><em><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">career</span></em><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>brings a deeper level of commitment
and engagement. A career requires long-term involvement, learning and
progressing in skills over time. It’s a profession that requires investment of
time, talent, and sacrifice.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 14.4pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #555555; font-size: 11.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Over
the course of one’s career, one might work at a number of different companies
that provide avenues for professional growth and development.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #555555; font-size: 11.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">A<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><em><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">calling</span></em><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>is the deepest level of commitment and
engagement. A calling is a purpose-driven, meaningful pursuit to improve the
quality of life of others. It’s a service-oriented, heart-aligned, inspiring
avenue. It may take years to discover your calling. Once you find it, time
flies. Engaging in your calling recharges you and inspires you to your very
core.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 14.4pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #555555; font-size: 11.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Some
employees never find a calling in their workplace. They may find their calling
outside of work – or they may never find their true calling, at all.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #555555; font-size: 11.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">What
causes employees to see work as a job, a career, or a calling? Leaders have a
tremendous influence on employee’s perceptions of their work. Specifically, the
leader’s plans, decisions, and actions, day in and day out, can make employees
see their work as one of those three “levels” of inspiration.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 14.4pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #555555; font-size: 11.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Do
leaders pay attention to their powerful influence on employee perceptions? Not
really. Most leaders spend every waking moment on their product or service –
developing them, marketing them, getting them into customers’ hands. Leaders
put more thought into their products and services than into crafting a safe,
inspiring team culture for employees.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 14.4pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #555555; font-size: 11.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Yet
culture drives everything that happens in their organizations.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 14.4pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #555555; font-size: 11.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">How can
leaders ensure their work environment treats team members with respect and
dignity, that inspires great performance, deep engagement, and WOW’ed
customers?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 14.4pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #555555; font-size: 11.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Leaders
do so through the creation of an organizational constitution. An organizational
constitution is a formal document that outlines the business’ purpose, values
and behaviors, strategies, and goals.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 14.4pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #555555; font-size: 11.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Once
these expectations are mapped out, leaders must model, coach, and
reinforce them. Leaders must invest as much time and energy in team values and
citizenship as they do in managing results. By doing so, they create workplace
inspiration – not workplace fear and anxiety.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 14.4pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #555555; font-size: 11.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">If team
members are consistently treated with dignity and respect by bosses and peers,
they actively engage in the success of the business. They apply discretionary
energy. They have fun. They love serving customers.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 14.4pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #555555; font-size: 11.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Employees
who act like that, who are engaged like that, feel called to their work.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 14.4pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #555555;"><span style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 18pt;">Workplace
inspiration </span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;">doesn't </span><span style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 18pt;">happen casually. It takes intentional effort on leaders’
parts, every day.</span></span><span class="apple-converted-space" style="color: #555555; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 18pt;"> </span><span style="color: #555555;"><span style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 18pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #555555; font-size: 11.5pt;"><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">About Chris Edmonds</span></span></span></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/--EDq6XtOvuQ/VCjMWpOOhJI/AAAAAAAABN4/dOAGJRSu3Xo/s1600/chris_edmonds_headshot.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/--EDq6XtOvuQ/VCjMWpOOhJI/AAAAAAAABN4/dOAGJRSu3Xo/s1600/chris_edmonds_headshot.png" height="320" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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</v:shape><![endif]--><!--[if !vml]--><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Chris Edmonds is
the founder and CEO of the <a href="http://drivingresultsthroughculture.com/">Purposeful Culture Group</a>,
which he launched after a 15-year career leading and managing teams. Since
1995, he has also served as a senior consultant with the Ken Blanchard
Companies. Chris has delivered over 100 keynote speeches to audiences
as large as 5,000, and guided his clients to consistently boost customer
satisfaction and employee engagement by 40+% and profits by 30+%. He is the
author or co-author of six books, including “Leading At A Higher Level” with
Ken Blanchard. His next book, <a href="http://mymark.mx/CultureEngineBook" title="Link: http://www.amazon.com/The-Culture-Engine-Framework-Transforming/dp/1118947320/">"The Culture Engine:A Framework for Driving Results, Inspiring Your Employees, and Transforming Your Workplace" </a> will was published by John Wiley & Sons
in September 2014.</span></span></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
Get the book on <a href="http://mymark.mx/CultureEngineBook" target="_blank">Amazon </a><br />
Follow Chris on <a href="https://twitter.com/scedmonds" target="_blank">Twitter</a><br />
Add Chris to your <a href="https://plus.google.com/+SChrisEdmonds" target="_blank">Google+ circles</a><br />
Like Chris on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/DrivingResultsThroughCulture" target="_blank">Facebook</a>Carrinmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01956327719089962286noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3878794492632609135.post-76723400067947889262014-09-10T12:56:00.000+10:002014-09-10T13:03:19.982+10:00Dealing with a Closed Mind - Guest Blog from John Stoker<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">My guest blogger, is John Stoker who has just launched his new book <b>Overcoming Fake Talk:</b> How to Hold REAL Conversations That Create Respect, Build Relationships, and Get Results. John </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">is an expert in communications who believes
the human capacity to achieve astonishing results depends on the individual’s
ability to interact with others</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<img alt="Overcoming Fake Talk" border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-isZZv0DYkLs/VA-8FMacnDI/AAAAAAAABMo/Fge1tNltccQ/s1600/Overcomingfaketalk.png" height="320" title="Overcoming Fake Talk" width="320" /></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">As with other guest blogs I have hosted, I will tell a little more of my story. I grew up in South Africa and did all my formal education there. South Africans have a reputation for being straight talkers - and I have to admit I am no exception. We are basically taught to say what we think and not to pull any punches. That way you know where you stand and where I am coming from. When I moved to England in the late 1980s, I discovered a very different world. Straight talking was not viewed as a strength and I soon found that there was very little direct talk. There was always a sub text floating around which I was not very clued into - and not very good at grasping so I could act on it. I could have done with </span><b style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Overcoming Fake Talk</b><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"> right then. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In the book John outlines the elements of REAL Conversations as follows:</span><br />
<br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Recognising and suspending your thinking and judgment </span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Expressing yourself without creating resistance in others</span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Asking questions to increase your understanding</span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Listening and attending to the signals others are sending </span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">This framework would have helped me enormously as I grew my skills as a communicator and a consultant. The framework basically tells you to subsume your personality into the conversation until you have worked out all the cues and clues being sent by the other person - physically, verbally and emotionally. After all only 7% of communication is verbal, the 93% is below the line and under the radar. The straight talking South African was pretty clueless about all this subtlety and became even more exposed when the gaming about judgement and pigeon holing began. After all I was no more than a country yokel arriving in the big world.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Now for John's blog post - it is all about one of the big challenges in communication</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>DEALING WITH A CLOSED MIND</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<br />
<div style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;"><span style="color: blue;">Q: My partner is one of the most narrow-minded individuals that I
have ever met. If I try to offer a view that runs counter to his view, I get
major push-back. He just seems to reject anything that is outside his
experience or his way of thinking. How can I help him to listen and consider my
ideas and experience?</span></span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;"><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; margin-bottom: 11.25pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="color: red;"><span lang="EN-US" style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; line-height: 15pt; padding: 0cm;">A:</span><span class="apple-converted-space" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; line-height: 15pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;"> </span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; line-height: 15pt; padding: 0cm;">What
is difficult about this situation is your partner’s unwillingness to look at
situations or issues from a different perspective. We all have mental models or
hold assumptions that determine the way we see and interpret the events within
our experience. Our mental models are important because they impact how we
speak and deal with others. Your partner has the “I need to be right, not
wrong” mental model.</span></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; margin-bottom: 11.25pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"> </span></span><strong style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; line-height: 15pt;"><u><span lang="EN-US" style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">To Be Right, Not Wrong</span></u></strong></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">To some extent, we all want to be right. Being right puts us in a
position of power, where we feel great confidence, prestige, and self-assurance
that we are “the expert” on something. After all, we are often rewarded for
being right when our way of doing things leads to superior results.</span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; margin-bottom: 11.25pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; line-height: 15pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; margin-bottom: 11.25pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; line-height: 15pt;">Years ago, while teaching a critical thinking class, I had an
interesting experience with an individual who was determined to prove to me
that he was “right” about something. The interaction occurred because I said,
“Even though we all have an interest in ‘being right,’ there are many ways of
looking at reality. We really don’t know as much as we’d like to think we
know.”</span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; margin-bottom: 11.25pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; line-height: 15pt;">My statement caused a stir among the participants. About half an
hour later Jay raised his hand and said, “I know everything about something!”</span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; margin-bottom: 11.25pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; line-height: 15pt;">“You do?” I answered.</span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; margin-bottom: 11.25pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; line-height: 15pt;">“Yeah,” Jay nodded. “I know everything about writing my name.”</span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; margin-bottom: 11.25pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; line-height: 15pt;">“Are you sure?” I asked.</span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; margin-bottom: 11.25pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; line-height: 15pt;">“Absolutely,” Jay said.</span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; margin-bottom: 11.25pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; line-height: 15pt;">“Do you know how to write your name in Greek?”</span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; margin-bottom: 11.25pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; line-height: 15pt;">Jay thought for a minute and admitted, “No, I don’t.”</span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; margin-bottom: 11.25pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; line-height: 15pt;">“Well, call me when you can.” I replied.</span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; margin-bottom: 11.25pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; line-height: 15pt;">Another half hour went by and Jay raised his hand again.
“I’ve got it!” He said.</span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; margin-bottom: 11.25pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; line-height: 15pt;">I asked, “Are you sure?”</span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; margin-bottom: 11.25pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; line-height: 15pt;">With confidence, Jay replied, “Yes. I know everything about
writing my name in English.”</span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; margin-bottom: 11.25pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; line-height: 15pt;">“How many times did you write your name in English last year?”</span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; margin-bottom: 11.25pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; line-height: 15pt;">With a frown, Jay responded, “I don’t know.”</span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; margin-bottom: 11.25pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; line-height: 15pt;">“Well, call me when you know,” I said.</span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; margin-bottom: 11.25pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; line-height: 15pt;">Yet another half hour went by. Being very determined, Jay raised
his hand and offered, “I know everything about writing my name in English
once.”</span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; margin-bottom: 11.25pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; line-height: 15pt;">“Are you sure?”</span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; margin-bottom: 11.25pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; line-height: 15pt;">“Absolutely!”</span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; margin-bottom: 11.25pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; line-height: 15pt;">“Do you know how much ink you use when you write your name in
English once?</span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; margin-bottom: 11.25pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; line-height: 15pt;">Feeling a little deflated, Jay said, “I don’t know.”</span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; margin-bottom: 11.25pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; line-height: 15pt;">Everyone chuckled.</span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; margin-bottom: 11.25pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; line-height: 15pt;">Notice that in order to be “right,” Jay literally narrowed the
scope of what he said he knew, so he could claim to “know everything about
something.” Being right is a wonderful place to be, even if you’re only right
in your own mind! The challenge for all of us is to recognize that everyone has
something to offer because their thinking, their life experience, and their
view of the world is quite simply not our own.</span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; margin-bottom: 11.25pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"> </span></span><strong style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; line-height: 15pt;"><u><span lang="EN-US" style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">What Can You Do?</span></u></strong></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">There are a number of steps you might follow to help your partner
see the world outside his thinking.</span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; margin-bottom: 11.25pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; margin-bottom: 11.25pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; line-height: 13.5pt; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="line-height: normal;"> </span></span><strong style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; line-height: 13.5pt; text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">Recognize
Where You Are</span></strong></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">You must be aware of when your conversation is going below the
line. The “line” represents the choice people have to resort to some form of
“fight” or “flight” or to move above the line and engage in what we will call
REAL conversation. (Fight and flight are both below the line.)</span><span lang="EN-US"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">When your partner starts to become agitated, express negative or
“hot” emotion, or begins to disagree, you know you have to do something
different.</span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; margin-bottom: 11.25pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list 36.0pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">·<span style="line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><strong><span lang="EN-US" style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">Ask
Questions</span></strong><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">Stop thinking about what<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><em>you</em><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>would really like to say (or how you
would like to tell him off) and turn the spotlight on him. Ask him as many
questions as necessary to thoroughly understand his point of view. Here are
some questions you might consider:</span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; margin-bottom: 11.25pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><em><span lang="EN-US" style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">“What
experience leads you to that conclusion?”</span></em><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div align="center" style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><em><span lang="EN-US" style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">“Can
you give me an example?”</span></em><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div align="center" style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><em><span lang="EN-US" style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">“Why
is that so important to consider?”</span></em><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div align="center" style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><em><span lang="EN-US" style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">“Help
me understand how that applies in this situation.”</span></em><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; margin-bottom: 11.25pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">Ask questions until you feel that you completely understand his
view.</span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; margin-bottom: 11.25pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">The power in asking questions and listening to his answers comes
from allowing him to express points of view that are important to him. This is
very validating to a person’s ego. When you listen to his answers, it
communicates “I care enough about your thinking and experience to try and
understand.” However, you must be sincere about hearing what he has to offer.
If you patiently and honestly attempt to understand his concerns, you will take
the ego—or his need to “be right”—out of the conversation.</span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; margin-bottom: 11.25pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list 36.0pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">·<span style="line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><strong><span lang="EN-US" style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">Ask
for Assistance</span></strong><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">After asking questions and listening to his responses, ask him to
assist by giving consideration to your experience as well. Use an<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><strong><span lang="EN-US" style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">“Attention Check”</span></strong><span class="apple-converted-space"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;"> </span></b></span><span lang="EN-US" style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">to begin part of the conversation.</span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; margin-bottom: 11.25pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">An attention check is a statement of intention followed by a
question that solicits his engagement in the conversation. It would sound like
this:</span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; margin-bottom: 11.25pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><em><span lang="EN-US" style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">“I
really appreciate your point of view. I wonder if you would be willing to
listen to my experience as we consider what would be best for us to do. Can we
do that?”</span></em><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; margin-bottom: 11.25pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">Notice that this attention check affirmed his point of view and
then asked for him to consider your experience.</span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; margin-bottom: 11.25pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">Don’t worry that he will refuse: because you took the time to ask
him questions and sincerely listened to his responses, you have built
sufficient respect that he will be more willing to hear you out than if you had
tried to push your ideas or opinions first.</span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; margin-bottom: 11.25pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">·<span style="line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><strong><span lang="EN-US" style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">Be
Pervasive, Not Persuasive</span></strong><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">Persuading always seems to feel like pleading, convincing, or
winning someone over. Being pervasive, on the other hand, is about establishing
credibility, exerting appropriate influence, or using facts or data to bolster
your ideas and conclusions. Without supporting data, the act of sharing
opinions can turn into a war of words and wills that diminishes respect and
weakens your relationship. Identify relevant data and use it.</span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; margin-bottom: 11.25pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo5; tab-stops: list 36.0pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US">·<span style="line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><strong><span lang="EN-US" style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">Move
to Action</span></strong><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">Once you have shared your views or experience, then summarize both
viewpoints to demonstrate your understanding. Once this is done, you are ready
to ask, “What shall we do?” Hopefully, your partner will now be willing to
include and consider the point of view he has just heard you express.</span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; margin-bottom: 11.25pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><strong><span lang="EN-US" style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">In summary…</span></strong><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">The first challenge is to help him get past the need to defend his
perspective and then be willing to think about data or understanding that may
be different from his previous experience. Remember that it is not easy to get outside
of our own thinking because—in a very real way—all we know is based on what we
know. If we would simply ask ourselves, “What do I<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><em>not</em><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>know?”
we might be able to start seeing past what we<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><em>think we know</em><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>and be more willing to explore other
ideas and perspectives.</span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">Good luck!</span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;"><b>About John R. Stoker</b></span></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Bp9jWgCnnMw/VA-6kkKLl3I/AAAAAAAABMc/72CvDVReJGs/s1600/JohnStoker.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Bp9jWgCnnMw/VA-6kkKLl3I/AAAAAAAABMc/72CvDVReJGs/s1600/JohnStoker.png" height="200" width="200" /></a></div>
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">John R. Stoker has been facilitating and speaking to audiences, helping
them to improve their thinking and communicating skills, for over 20 years. He is an expert in
communications. He believes that human capacity to achieve astonishing results
depends on the individual’s ability to interact with others. <o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">John
holds a Master's Degree in Organizational Behavior as well as a J.D. Degree.
His landmark book, <i>Overcoming Fake Talk</i>, is both entertaining and
engaging, and it presents skills that help readers talk about what matters
most.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In the past, John worked as a practicing
criminal defense attorney, spent summers as a Grand Canyon white-water guide,
and taught on the university level for 13 years. John has been happily married
since 1994 and he and his wife Stephanie are the proud parents of five children</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 115%;"><a href="http://mymark.mx/FakeTalk" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; line-height: normal;">Buy </span><b style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; line-height: normal;">Overcoming Fake Talk</b><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; line-height: normal;"> from Amazon</span></a></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><a href="https://twitter.com/johnrstoker" target="_blank">Follow John on Twitter</a></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/DialogueWORKS" target="_blank">Like John on Facebook</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><a href="http://weavinginfluence.com/webinar/john-stoker-overcoming-fake-talk" target="_blank">Free webinar on September 11</a></span></div>
Carrinmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01956327719089962286noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3878794492632609135.post-73259194182229459882014-07-10T16:19:00.001+10:002014-07-11T10:47:27.976+10:00Leadership Reflections on Race Across America<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I returned recently from Annapolis MD where I had been
crewing in the Race Across America (or RAAM for short). This blog contains some
reflections on my experience in 2014, experiences all about leadership and participation.
I crewed in 2007 for a 2 man relay team and 2014 was for a solo racer</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">About RAAM<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">RAAM is a bicycle race that goes all across America,
starting from Oceanside CA (north of San Diego) to Annapolis MD on Chesapeake
Bay. The race covers 3,050 miles and climbs over 100,000 feet (4,880 kms and
33,000 metres) and is unlike the bicycle races we all know about, like the Tour
de France or the Vuelta Espana. The difference lies in that the race is not run
as a staged race and the racers are not permitted to ride in packs (i.e., in a
peloton). The basic idea is the racers all start on the West Coast with one
minute intervals and head to the East Coast following a fixed route as best
they can. They choose when to rest and when to sleep and when to ride – 24
hours a day. They are not permitted to draft behind another rider or a vehicle.
Basically what happens when one racer approaches another – ride up behind; make
the commitment to pass; have a chat on the way past and move on. The overtaken
rider then can choose whether to challenge the pass or drop back. The race is
split into Solo Racers and Team Racers – with Solo Racers starting on Tuesday
and team racers starting the following
Saturday. The teams are run as a relay race with changeover happening
day and night whereas the solo racer is alone.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Why do it?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In 2007, I was asked by a friend, Glenn Druery, who was racing in the two man Team Velokraft to crew.
Glenn and I were involved in endurance cycling events and he felt that I could
add to the team drawing on my endurance cycling and management leadership
background. And so it proved. The crew experience in 2007 was not great driven
by some mismatched expectations by some crew members and by a lack of good team
briefings by the crew chief. Crew members did not know what they had to do and
struggled to work it out for themselves in the absence of solid leadership from
the crew chief. So bad was it that the racers sacked the crew chief after 5
days and appointed me as crew chief. When I announced to the world that I would
be crewing in 2014 for Chris Hopkinson, I received a message of warning from a
crew member from his 2013 crew. We chatted and it was clear that the problems
were very similar to what I had experienced in 2007. The crew members had
different expectations; they had not been properly briefed about what they had
to do and leadership to plug the gaps was not there. Forewarned is forearmed –
I chose to take up the challenge without raising the specific concerns with the
racer and his crew chief. Why? I am wary of exaggeration and prefer to see for myself.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>What happened?</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I was somewhat relieved to receive a document before I set
out to Oceanside which outlined some of the things that we would need to deal
with – sleeping; driving; looking after the racer; mechanical checks to be
made. Important things like where to stay in Oceanside, what gear to bring,
what roles were expected were missing. That is not a problem as I had
provided enough time before the start to get the requisite level of briefing from the crew chief –
just set up a meeting and be told what to do. The rest of the crew were staying
in a house together away from the start in Oceanside (I had chosen to be near
the start to get into the atmosphere and to cut travel times). Well there were
a number of meetings set up and no briefing. I was due to meet the crew
chief at the first crew briefing meeting – well the crew chief did not appear.
So I attended the crew briefing
meeting - which followed the same format as the 2007 meetings. With 30 minutes to go before the race began it was clear to me that
many of the crew had not been briefed about what was expected of them. We would work it out somehow.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Differences from 2007<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The 2014 edition of RAAM was going to be a little easier than my
experience in 2007 for a number of reasons. </span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
</div>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; text-indent: -18pt;">Four of the crew including the crew chief had
prior RAAM experience (in 2007 we had none)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; text-indent: -18pt;">The crew chief decided that she would always be
in the follow vehicle and would be continually available to look to the racer’s
nutrition, medical and motivational needs. In 2007, this task was shared across
more than one team member. This sharing brought in a set of communication
challenges and in due course the racers got fed up – they were not eating
enough and could not perform.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; text-indent: -18pt;">The team would only operate two vehicles, one to
follow the racer and one to provide support services and in which the resting
crew would sleep. In 2007, we operated 3 vehicles: One to follow the racing
racer; one to leapfrog the follow vehicle and to carry the resting racer; one
as a sleeping vehicle to accommodate the resting crew and the resting racer
when he was on sleep shift at night – also to store provisions and provide
cooking facilities. This third vehicle was a major source of complexity though
it played a crucial role for feeding the racers (and crew) and for giving
racers chance to shower and sleep stretched out in a bed</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; text-indent: -18pt;">The support vehicle would not be used as a
follow vehicle. In 2007 the leapfrog vehicle could also be used as a follow
vehicle to cover times when the follow vehicle needed to stop to refuel or to
change over shifts. In 2007, there would always be a follow vehicle following
the racer</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; text-indent: -18pt;">When the solo racer stops to sleep the whole
team can stop. The teams never stop though we did have one break when our 2nd racer withdrew and the surviving racer needed a rest before finishing solo.</span></li>
</ul>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 18.0pt;">
<b><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">What was 2014 like?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 18.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I do not want to let this blog
turn into a whinge fest – all I will do is re-post a few
tweets and anecdotes about leadership that I sent out during the race: </span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="margin-left: 18.0pt;">
<ul>
<li><span style="background-color: #f4f4f4; color: #32363f; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">“Do you know what we have to do?” “Not yet”. “Good timing with 30
minutes to the start”</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: #f4f4f4; color: #32363f; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">First cooked meal since Monday going down a treat in Cortez CO. (June
13 and race started June 10)</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: #f4f4f4; color: #32363f; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">Dawn at Alamosa CO. It is cold and time to get on the road (June 14
after sleeping out at 3C - 38F)</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: #f4f4f4; color: #32363f; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">How do you expect us to stay awake if there is no cash for coffee and
drinks for the crew?</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: #f4f4f4; color: #32363f; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">Greensburg KS - had a shower - after nearly 5 days without one it had
to happen – June 16</span></li>
<li><span style="background: rgb(244, 244, 244); color: #32363f; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">Great leaders are not threatened by strong team members. They leverage
their ability to better results. @</span><a href="https://hootsuite.com/dashboard" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;" title="RAAMRaces"><span style="background: rgb(244, 244, 244); color: #239cb9; line-height: 115%;">RAAMRaces</span></a><span class="apple-converted-space" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span style="background: rgb(244, 244, 244); color: #32363f; line-height: 115%;"> </span></span><span style="background: rgb(244, 244, 244); color: #32363f; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">is showing that in spades</span></li>
<li><span style="background: rgb(244, 244, 244); color: #32363f; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">Leadership lessons from @</span><a href="https://hootsuite.com/dashboard" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;" title="RAAMRaces"><span style="background: rgb(244, 244, 244); color: #239cb9; line-height: 115%;">RAAMRaces</span></a><span style="background: rgb(244, 244, 244); color: #32363f; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">. Criticize independent thinking from the team leads to the end of all
thinking</span></li>
<li><span style="background: rgb(244, 244, 244); color: #32363f; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">Leadership lessons from @</span><a href="https://hootsuite.com/dashboard" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;" title="RAAMRaces"><span style="background: rgb(244, 244, 244); color: #239cb9; line-height: 115%;">RAAMRaces</span></a><span class="apple-converted-space" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span style="background: rgb(244, 244, 244); color: #32363f; line-height: 115%;"> </span></span><span style="background: rgb(244, 244, 244); color: #32363f; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">Treat people like they are stupid they will choose to act
stupid</span></li>
<li><span style="background: rgb(244, 244, 244); color: #32363f; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">Leadership lessons from @</span><a href="https://hootsuite.com/dashboard" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;" title="RAAMRaces"><span style="background: rgb(244, 244, 244); color: #239cb9; line-height: 115%;">RAAMRaces</span></a><span class="apple-converted-space" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span style="background: rgb(244, 244, 244); color: #32363f; line-height: 115%;"> </span></span><span style="background: rgb(244, 244, 244); color: #32363f; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">Leaders shout team members down. Team members go into
defensive silent mode"</span></li>
</ul>
</blockquote>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-aJbEqddSG7o/U74v4pTLe0I/AAAAAAAABK0/exLrQ2JJfUY/s1600/DSCN6098.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Team Hoppo in Annapolis, MD" border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-aJbEqddSG7o/U74v4pTLe0I/AAAAAAAABK0/exLrQ2JJfUY/s1600/DSCN6098.JPG" height="300" title="Team Hoppo" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 18.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">RAAM is a crucible in which
decision making gets tested to the extremes.
It is a classic multivariate problem with independent moving parts which
need to be scripted to a unifying script. As a management consultant, I created
the business concept of Decision Engineering, where an organisation is welded
together by a series of decision points. In one of my seminal projects on
Operational Improvements in British Airways, I invented the concept of a
Planning Envelope. Decisions within a planning envelope could be made 100% by
the deciding unit (e.g., cabin crew planning) without reference to any other
unit. As soon as a decision took the scope of impact outside the planning
envelope, notifications are needed to warn other affected units what is
happening (e.g., a late crew will impact the chances of on-time push back of
the aircraft which will affect downstream gate availability for an incoming
aircraft).</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 18.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 18.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">One might well ask how does this
apply to a team crewing a RAAM racer. To my mind, a successful team has clarity
on a bunch of things. I learned a lot of this in 2007 on the side of the road
from Lee Fuzzy Mitchell III who was crew chief of the team we were racing
against. Lee was the nicest man alive and there is nothing about crewing he did
not know. This is what has to be done right </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 18.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left: 54.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">1. <b>Criteria to be optimised</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 54.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">This is not hard although there
are quite a few to be taken on board. It is however easy to get the focus
wrong. </span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-left: 90.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level2 lfo2; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">a. Performance of the racer on the bike – nutrition; hydration; comfort; temperature
management; cleanliness; motivation; rest; sleep [not taking into account
issues like equipment choice which are pre-decided]</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 90.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level2 lfo2; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">b. Time of the racer off the bike - time to
recover; meaningful rest and time to prepare to start again</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 90.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level2 lfo2; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">c. Performance of the crew measured though quality
of decisions and ability to stay awake and to keep the racer performing to his
best ability – nutrition; hydration; cleanliness; rest; sleep; motivation and
expectations management</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-left: 90.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level2 lfo2; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">d. <!--[endif]-->Safety – racer while riding; racer while handing
off on the road; racer while handing off from a vehicle; crew while hanging out
the vehicle; crew standing alongside the road; vehicle while following the
racer; all other road users</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 90.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We had a mostly safe race. The
racer fell only once = once too many. I do recall the crew chief worrying about
the safety of the crew during a violent storm in Kansas, while insisting the
crew strap a tarpaulin over the external speaker system – winds blowing in
excess of 60 miles per hour. </span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-left: 90.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level2 lfo2; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">e. Costs – supplies; fuel; food for racer and crew;
incidentals</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 72.0pt; mso-add-space: auto;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 72.0pt; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">All through the race we seemed to have only two criteria in mind.</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 90.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l3 level2 lfo3; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
</div>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; text-indent: -18pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; text-indent: -18pt;">Keeping the racer on the bike and</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; text-indent: -18pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; text-indent: -18pt;">Minimising support vehicle movements so resting
crew could sleep</span></li>
</ul>
<!--[if !supportLists]--><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 72.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">What was really missing included
keep the racer properly refuelled so he could perform at top level day in and
day out. The crew sleeping model was totally undermined by excessively long
shifts – we certainly had several crew shits in excess of 12 hours and often
these were back to back with excessive vehicle movements in between (go ahead a
time station and then come back again to do a crew change)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 72.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left: 54.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">2. <b>Roles and responsibilities (and planning
envelopes)</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 54.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">This is both easy and hard.
Individual roles needed during RAAM are not difficult to perform and are easily
reinforced with checklists. Because the race runs 24 hours a day, roles have to
be rotated between crew members. This stresses communication at handover time
and between roles, checklists of things to be done and clear outlines of
responsibilities, decision criteria to be applied and timelines for actions. Of
course as tiredness creeps in, decision quality drops which means that things
like checklists become more important. And of course the whole system becomes
fully stretched if something goes seriously wrong. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 54.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 54.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In a good crew, the crew chief
has only to deal with problems and changes. All other tasks should happen
automatically within a planning envelope. For example, daily provisioning
should be from a standard list supplemented with special needs arising from the
prior day activity. Daily laundry should be planned in based on most convenient
laundry facility (given time constraints and opening hours); crew eating and
showering can be planned in. Mechanical checks of the bike should occur
automatically at every stop and every time the racer sleeps (which means the
mechanic has to be on shift when that is planned to happen); 6 hour shifts
should be between 6 and 8 hours long – not 14 hours long as happened many
times.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 54.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 54.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">And of course every role should
have a backup person ready to cover it in the event there is a problem (who not
only knows what to do but where to find everything needed to execute that role)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 54.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left: 54.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">3. <b>Lists and Checklists</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 54.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Lee Mitchell was a list and
labelling maniac. Every item of equipment was placed in a labelled box or
container. Every time an item was used it was placed back in the same place.
Every time an item was exhausted, the replenishment list was updated. Every input
and output to the racer was recorded – so that it was totally clear if the
racer was short of nutrition or hydration.
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 54.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 54.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">RAAM 2014 did not have a single
list that I saw. I certainly did not know where stuff was kept. The crew who had packed the vehicles did know - so I was covered there. Had the crew
chief been taken ill, we might have been stuck.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 54.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 54.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">From Fuzzy’s guide:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 54.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">♦ Stop and Eat sheets: record all intake of
calories, sodium, and fluid as well as peeing. For stops record time off bike,
race location and reason for stop. Remind each other to make entries on Stop
and Eat sheets.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 54.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">♦ If your rider hasn’t peed twice, drunk 4-5
water bottles, and eaten lots of calories and salt by 12 noon, plan on a DNF!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 54.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left: 54.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">4. <b>Communication (and Trust)</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 54.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Communication is the heart of any
group initiative. Team members perform better if they know what they have to
do. They perform better if they know what is changing that will affect their
ability to perform their roles. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 54.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 54.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">From the outset, we did not know what we had to
do and what was expected of us. And when we did apply independent thought and
did something that was at odds with the way the crew chief saw things, we found
out. Result was a crew that became unwilling to do anything or chose to do
whatever they wanted to do. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 54.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 54.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In a rolling 24 hour event like
RAAM, handover communication is essential. Knowing what has happened and what
is left undone is central to ensuring a repeatable performance and overcoming
obstacles. We had a weakness here but were protected because the crew chief chose to stay awake so much and to stay in the follow
vehicle. We did pay by the compromised quality of decisions as tiredness grew –
especially in some very long shifts we all did. Luckily we did not face any
serious catastrophes as this would have been a test the team would have failed.
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 54.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-left: 54.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">5. <b>Adjusting to solve problems</b> </span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-left: 54.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"> This is the real
test and one we never did not have to deal with. The process is not difficult. We would have
failed as item a. below was never clear.</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 90.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level2 lfo2; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">a.
<!--[endif]-->Reaffirm the decision criteria one is trying to
work to</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 90.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level2 lfo2; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">b.
<!--[endif]-->Layout the options for solution</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 90.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level2 lfo2; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">c.
<!--[endif]-->Evalaute the options against the criteria</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-left: 90.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level2 lfo2; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">d.
<!--[endif]-->Make a choice and live by it</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>What was 2014 like</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The final outcome is our racer, Chris
Hopkinson, completed RAAM in 10 days 17 hours and 55 minutes.</span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">He won the Jure Robic award for the
fastest male solo racer average speed into the Hanover PA time station at 14.55
miles per hour. He completed his race around 27 hours faster than his 2013
attempt - simply fantastic</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The real test of RAAM success is how the crew felt about it and would
they sign up again and could the racer have gone any faster or finished any
sooner. We ended RAAM with a great crew who would happily crew together again. All of the crew would crew
for the racer again – he was the consummate gentleman with a fine sense of
humour. The crew would also crew for other crew members if they chose to race. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">There is no doubt in my mind the racer could have improved on his race
performance.</span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">We were also a lucky crew as the problems we
had were not major – we never will know how much time we could have lost if
something really bad had gone wrong.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">One can only guess how much better our racer could have done
if a few things were done differently. </span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l2 level1 lfo4; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
</div>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; text-indent: -18pt;">Better preparation in equipment. there is always a way to get another 100 grams off a bike and a more streamlined way to organise things in a vehicle</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; text-indent: -18pt;">Better management of hydration and nutrition
based on full and proper measurement of inputs matched to measured outputs. Racer
was burning around 12,000 calories a day and was probably replacing up to 8 to
10,000 a day especially in the first 3 days</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; text-indent: -18pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; text-indent: -18pt;">Better tools for racer communication. Every time
the follow vehicle came up alongside the racer to discuss things, the racer
slowed down. (e.g., two way radio or even more full use of microphone/speaker
system)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; text-indent: -18pt;">Tighter management of rest breaks – every time
the racer took a break the 5 minute break became a 10 to 15 minute break (save 8
minutes each break times 4 to 5 breaks a day - 40 minutes a day)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; text-indent: -18pt;">Tighter management of sleep breaks – faster to
get down to rest; limit rests to agreed time periods; faster to get back on the
road would have saved at least 1 hour per sleep </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; text-indent: -18pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; text-indent: -18pt;">break (times 9 sleep breaks is 10 hours saved). This is the hardest part of RAAM as the racer has to sleep to stay safe when on the bike.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; text-indent: -18pt;">More sleep for the crew chief would have
produced better decisions (lower costs and higher racer performance) and
better team morale</span></li>
</ul>
<!--[if !supportLists]--><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">What did I get out of RAAM?</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In RAAM 2007, I crewed the night shift which meant I saw very
little of the route across America in daylight. This time around with 6 hours
shifts (in theory) work rotated through daylight and nighttime hours. So I got
to see a lot more of the USA by daylight. Highlights were crossing the Rockies
in daylight; enjoying a spectacular Kansas lightning show during dusk time;
camping along the side of the road under a full moon (in 2007 we were always on
the move). </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The crew did bond into a great team and
as a testimonial my crew partner wrote </span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="background: white; line-height: 12.2pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; tab-stops: 45.8pt 91.6pt 137.4pt 183.2pt 229.0pt 274.8pt 320.6pt 366.4pt 412.2pt 458.0pt 503.8pt 549.6pt 595.4pt 641.2pt 687.0pt 732.8pt;">
<span style="color: #1f1f1f; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">“We
made a great team. It was a pleasure to work with you. You would make a great
crew chief for someone. If ever interested in doing so in the future, let me
know and I will recommend you if one of the many racers I know is looking for
one. You do know your stuff. I will never forget the memories we share of this
past RAAM.” </span></span></blockquote>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 12.2pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; tab-stops: 45.8pt 91.6pt 137.4pt 183.2pt 229.0pt 274.8pt 320.6pt 366.4pt 412.2pt 458.0pt 503.8pt 549.6pt 595.4pt 641.2pt 687.0pt 732.8pt;">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-gplTsvHrlxY/U78uZljBsYI/AAAAAAAABLE/4Fjx8Ywv18U/s1600/DSCN6070.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Team Hoppo meets Pippa Middleton" border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-gplTsvHrlxY/U78uZljBsYI/AAAAAAAABLE/4Fjx8Ywv18U/s1600/DSCN6070.JPG" height="300" title="Team Hoppo meets Pippa Middleton" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pippa Middleton on the road</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 12.2pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; tab-stops: 45.8pt 91.6pt 137.4pt 183.2pt 229.0pt 274.8pt 320.6pt 366.4pt 412.2pt 458.0pt 503.8pt 549.6pt 595.4pt 641.2pt 687.0pt 732.8pt;">
<span style="color: #1f1f1f; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">And I did get to support a British cyclist who has written his name into the RAAM history books as a British cyclist. And as a Brit that makes me a proud man.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #1f1f1f; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="color: #1f1f1f; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Perhaps
a little ignominy to end it all. We had the pleasure of riding alongside one of
the 8 man teams (<a href="http://www.michaelmatthewsfoundation.com/" target="_blank">Michael Matthews Foundation</a>) in the latter part of the race. A team member was
<b>Pippa Middleton</b>, sister to the Duchess of Cambridge. We stopped for a chat
and a photo session and Chris and Pippa rode side by side for some time while
yours truly was navigating the follow vehicle. So distracted were we all that
the navigator sent the pair down a wrong turn and they headed off down the freeway off the route. Well
if one wants to get lost on a bike ride, getting lost with Pippa Middleton is
the way to do it. Sad to report this was the only navigating mistake affecting the racer and it cost valuable time.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 12.2pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; tab-stops: 45.8pt 91.6pt 137.4pt 183.2pt 229.0pt 274.8pt 320.6pt 366.4pt 412.2pt 458.0pt 503.8pt 549.6pt 595.4pt 641.2pt 687.0pt 732.8pt;">
<span style="color: #1f1f1f; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
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<span style="color: #1f1f1f; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
Carrinmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01956327719089962286noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3878794492632609135.post-17406669048265458442014-04-29T15:16:00.001+10:002014-04-29T15:16:24.591+10:00Inspired to Ride<div class="MsoNormal">
This is a story with a difference – it is not about my path
to success – it is rather a story about finding a capability that the bullies
doubted. Quite frankly, my path to
success came really easily. I am lucky to be blessed with remarkable intellect
and added to that a level of risk taking beyond most and a willingness to work
hard. Success followed.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
My life at school was bedevilled by the way of the bully who
found my intellect intimidating. It did not help that I was rubbish at sport,
no matter how hard I tried. I was the last to swim and sat on the side of the
pool during swimming PE until I learned to swim, with some help from my baby
sister. The day I showed the PE teacher I could swim remains firmly entrenched.
My first bicycle was stolen before I learned to ride, which I did with the help
of my mate next door on his bike. At high school, I welched out of playing
rugby be feigning a knee injury – that lie worked for 3 whole years and I could
play tennis instead. Until the rugby master asked the doctor. I did persevere playing tennis building on
the coaching I had when I was 10 or so. That led me to playing squash – my school
was the first school that had its own courts – I loved playing squash because I
could play alone, and I could take my anger out on the ball. Sadly I was not
the most patient of players and did take my anger out on the racquet more than
once – I think the record was 9 racquets in one year. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I practised hard to try to be any good. I spent hours hitting
and kicking and bowling balls against a wall. In one athletic season I practised
high jump and long jump and pole vault so much that I developed a stress
fracture in one leg. Sad as that year I had high jumped my own height applying
the newly invented Fosbury Flop and had a chance of winning the school
championship – could not jump. Oh and being
the first kid in the school to wear glasses did not help. Every fist fight started
with me having to find a safe person to entrust my spectacles to. My first
sport had been boxing. I used it a lot. I took to running – in this way I was able to
leave the school grounds and seek solace in my solitude. I vividly remember the
Alan Sillitoe book, The Loneliness of a Long Distance Runner. The running was
crazy too. Behind the school we had a big set of hills which were on private
property. The farmer was well known for shooting at trespassers using salt
pellets. I would rather take on that risk than face the bullies at school. I
was rubbish at running as it happened. The best I ever did was come second in
one event. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
For me the bicycle was very important. I could run away from
home and cruise the streets. In the 1960’s there was no traffic – we lived
quite some way out of the city. I rode everywhere. I took over my brother’s
racing bike when he went to sea. I took it to university and stated to ride
with a friend. We rode a lot – we rode the 2<sup>nd</sup> Cape Argus Tour in Cape
Town which is now the world’s largest ride. We did a tour after final exams and
headed up the coast and back over the mountains. We did not know what we could not
do – we just did it. It was a whole lot better than running – less pain and
more stuff to see in a shorter time period. </div>
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Many years later, I had sold my business. I had moved to
Australia and I had started to ride again. I saw an advertisement in Australian
Cyclist magazine from an outfit called Cycle Across Oz advertising a ride from
Perth to Melbourne. I sent in my money and did some training and I flew to Perth
faced with the task of riding 4,500 kms in 5 weeks. </div>
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Till then the most I had
ridden in a day was 120 kms and the most I had ridden in 10 days was 1,000 kms
when I was 20-something. In the first
week we rode 3 consecutive days over 150 kms into a head wind. In the 2<sup>nd</sup>
week we did the same again. I used to train 40 kms at a time and faced with a
160 km day I would start with one training ride and then do another and then do
another and 4 training rides later the day was done. So good was that trip that
I signed up again 2 years later – and rode harder and faster and did more
sight-seeing. On that trip I rode my first day of 200 kms in a day. It was no
harder than 160 kms. In 2006, a friend invited me to join a 360 km ride in
tribute to Sir Hubert Opperman, the doyen of Australian cycling. We rode that
pretty well continuously and I started my journey as a randonneur rider riding
long distances in set times. The
pinnacle or randonneuring is to qualify for and ride the 1200 km Paris Brest
Paris event held every 4 years. I qualified in 2006/7 and rode in 2007 – while I
did not finish I knew that I had found my capability in sport – I am an
endurance rider – and with 7 trips across Australia under my belt, the open road
is my oyster. I am inspired to ride and I just get on the bike and ride it.</div>
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Support my charity fund raiser from me ride from Sydney to Adelaide completed a few weeks ago - doors close on April 30 <a href="http://mymark.mx/FreedomWheels">http://mymark.mx/FreedomWheels</a></div>
Carrinmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01956327719089962286noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3878794492632609135.post-91026496132922998602013-12-06T17:51:00.004+11:002013-12-10T14:36:33.611+11:00The world mourns the passing of Nelson MandelaI woke this morning to learn that Nelson Mandela had died in his Houghton home at the age of 95.<br />
<br />
I felt a hammer blow to my life. Why should that be? I live a long, long way away here in Australia.<br />
<br />
In late 1986, I too began my Long Walk to Freedom.<br />
<br />
I grew up in South Africa as the 3rd son of an immigrant English family. I did not know it at the time but it was a privileged upbringing. My father worked hard to build our future and to build the future of South Africans as an entrepreneur and as pioneer building new industries. I knew very little about what was happening in the country other than what the newspapers told us and the radio made us believe. There was no TV until 1975. I was too young to know about Sharpeville but I do remember the outrage at the Park Station bombings and the headlines around the Rivonia trial in 1963 and 1964.<br />
<br />
At the age of 18, I was conscripted into the South African Defence Force to complete 12 months of National Service, a full 10 years after the Park Station bombing and the end of the Rivonia trial. My role was to become a defender of the homeland as a soldier. It was tough being an Englishman in an Afrikaner army - the bullying bothers me to this day still. In that time I spent 3 months on operational duty on the Angola-South West Africa (now Namibia) border. Our role was more a role of "hearts and minds' with the local inhabitants than anything else as there was no insurgency activity in our sector at the time. I was lucky to leave the border zone before the South African invasion of Angola to intervene in their civil war later in 1975. The words of the song go "I was only 19" - I celebrated by 19th birthday in that zone. That was not the end of military service for me - I was required to continue doing camps for a further 720 days over the next 10 years. I did about half of those in training roles and in guard camp roles. For the most part, I kept deferring them by studying, first full time and then part time (though attendance at lectures was a requirement to win deferments). <br />
<br />
I really started to notice what was going on during my time at the University of Cape Town - in 1976 the world we knew erupted with the riots in Soweto on June 16. The state of unease kept boiling and I do recall the day the South African Police broke up demonstrations on the UCT campus in 1978. I recall the strike by students in 1980 - I was working as a graduate assistant and was required to work - I seem to think the police were on campus those days too. As each year went by, the pressure of life under the apartheid government seemed to build and the willingness to impose ever increasing levels of repression just seemed to grow. First we had to listen to John Vorster berating us and then it was the turn of PW Botha, wagging his finger while he did the same. As a lawyer, it was tough to see our freedoms being eroded every day - I can only imagine how it felt to be in the majority. Come late 1986, it was becoming clear to me that my role as a solider was being changed from defender of borders to policeman in the townships.<br />
<br />
What choices did I have? Do the camps. Keep studying. Refuse the camps. Leave. <br />
<br />
As a lawyer I could not switch roles to repress a people whose rights were being repressed. I had already compiled 4 qualifications - studying was over. My friend Peter had already served 3 sentences in prison for refusing to do his camps - ten years in jail by the time he was 30. Not exactly top of one's ideal choices. I came home from work one day and told my then-wife that I had booked my flight out. I had already (in 1978) surrendered my South African citizenship in the offices of an officious Mr Viljoen in the Department of Home Affairs and prevailed upon him to grant me a return visa so I could leave. I remember that meeting well - he says, "I can tear up your British passport every day" and I said, "I can walk to the British Embassy and get another one, every day". On February 13, 1987 I departed Jan Smuts airport headed to a new world with no job and GBP1,500 in my pocket. My 3 month deployment as a solider in Soweto to suppress the riots which were a daily happening was due to begin on February 14. My wife would sell the house and follow later. She would hand over my military gear at the headquarters of the Rand Light Infantry in Johannesburg. "Where is he?" "I do not know. All I know is he has gone" "Fine, sign here".<br />
<br />
Little did I know was that the first meetings between the African National Congress and the Government had taken place in Lusaka, Zambia about the time I was booking that flight. Little did I know that talks about talks became talks and the journey to the momentous election of 1994 had begun as South Africa too began its walk to freedom.<br />
<br />
I have been lucky to have been back to work in post-apartheid South Africa and to continue my contribution to building and rebuilding the country. It has been a revelation to see the changes in the society to a more tolerant society (especially among younger people).<br />
<br />
Why then Nelson Mandela's passing hit me like a hammer blow this morning? Was it the reflections of decisions made and opportunities missed? Was it the nagging doubt about the true legacy he has left in the country? Was it the fear for my friends and family who still live there? My life has been deeply touched by the changes in the country - Tim Chadwick dead in an accident in 1975 on operational service; Leroy Mbili studying by candlelight while I lived in luxury; Gen Holdridge (my mother-in-law) murdered in her house in Cape Town at the age of 93 in 2006; David Rattray (a school friend and a man of Africa) murdered on Australia Day, 2007 in Zululand; Beresford Jobling (my best friend at school and my soul mate and a man rooted in Africa as a descendant of a British soldier and a Voortrekker leader) murdered on his farm outside Pretoria in 2012 followed in weeks by the murders of Anne and Shawn, friends of friends. There is a dark foreboding in Africa that lurks always.<br />
<br />
I hope only that South Africans remember this day and forever the legacy of Nelson Mandela - a legacy of forgiveness and reconciliation, a legacy of courage and fortitude, a legacy of smiling and compassion and a legacy of the amazing power of the extended African family - everyone is your brother.<br />
<br />
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<br />
I salute you and I pray for your countrymen with a heavy heart.<br />
<br />
<br />Carrinmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01956327719089962286noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3878794492632609135.post-75535991700668258342013-10-21T18:09:00.003+11:002014-09-10T12:06:08.125+10:00Greatness comes from Choice - Be Ready - Guest blog<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #333333;">In my last blog, I did something new - I featured a guest blog from Don Maruska and Jay Perry about their new book, <b>Take Charge of Your Talent</b>. This time I have a chance to do the same thing again - a guest blog about an exciting new book. As last time, I will preface the guest blog with a little more of my story. </span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #333333;">You will recall that a core part of my journey as a management consultant was with McKinsey & Company in London followed by the building of Mitchell Madison Group (MMG) to compete with McKinsey. I also told you that my time at McKinsey was not the easiest time in the world and that MMG was a totally different story. A big part of that MMG difference is that we were building our own firm and like good entrepreneurs were able to do things our competitors just could not and did not do. We were "out of the box" most of the time. It was an amazing time and we did some pretty amazing things. </span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #333333;">This introduction to my guest blog is not about that part of the story - it is about my story. McKinsey & Company is a remarkable collection of the best brains the world can muster. Getting in was a big deal. Getting a designation as an Engagement Manager was a big deal. Getting a designation as a Senior Engagement Manager was also a big deal as it showed that one was able to manage more than one team at a time and also manage more than one client relationship. The horrible truth is<b> <i>I was asked to leave</i></b> - after six years the collective view was that I was never going to be successful as a McKinsey Partner or Principal. That decision was something of a shock to me as I thought I was tracking well and had certainly outlasted the average tenure of around three years. </span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #333333;"><br /></span></span></span>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #333333;">My journey at Mitchell Madison Group seemed to be quite different. I also spent 6 years and had great success as a founding Partner. We were very busy building our business and did not think too hard about what we were each contributing to the story. There is no doubt that I was doing something quite different - perhaps because I too needed to be free of the shackles of McKinsey & Co. </span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #333333;">There are a number of things that stand out for me. </span></span></span><br />
<ol>
<li><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #333333;">I never had trouble staffing my teams and for a London-based business I had teams working in Switzerland, in Greece, in South Africa, in France and Spain and Germany. </span></span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #333333;">We ran a mentor program and I was always in demand to be a mentor, especially by our female consultants. </span></span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #333333;">I had a few clients make big project awards conditional upon me dedicating a significant slice of time to the projects and were happy to pay the very high per diems.</span></span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #333333;"> I was asked to run the European sales effort, and I will be the first to admit that sales is not my strength. </span></span></span></li>
</ol>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #333333;">Reading my guest's book brought it home to me. <b>As a leader, I had followers</b>. People followed me because I put them first - "put yourself in the other person's shoes or sit on their side of the desk", I used to say. I was always searching out a better way - my mantra is "the day you stop learning is the day you start dying". I was never afraid to take action. "Bring me opportunities not problems", I would say. My guest blogger's book crystallised for me why I had success at Mitchell Madison Group and not at McKinsey & Co. McKinsey were preoccupied with the 10% of leadership skill that lies above the waterline and at MMG we allowed our people to grow the 90% of leadership character below the waterline. We grew some great leaders.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #333333;">My guest blogger may not be a stranger to you. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; display: inline ! important; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 25px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">He began writing about a decade ago when he teamed up with Ken Blanchard to write<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span><b style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 25px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">The Secret: What Great Leaders Know and Do</b><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; display: inline ! important; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 25px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">. In 2011 he released<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span><b style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 25px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">The Secret of Teams</b><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; display: inline ! important; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 25px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>outlining the key principles that enable some teams to outperform the all the rest.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span><b style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 25px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">Great Leaders Grow: Becoming a Leader for Life</b><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; display: inline ! important; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 25px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>came next in 2011. I bring you <b>Mark Miller</b>, a speaker on leadership around the world and a chicken seller of note having led teams in Chick-fil-A for over 35 years, </span>which has steadily grown
to become the second largest quick-service chicken restaurant chain in the United
States, with over 1,700 locations in 39 states and Washington, D.C.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; display: inline ! important; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 25px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-converted-space">Mark has launched his new book <b>The Heart of Leadership: Becoming a Leader People Want to Follow</b> this week.Thanks for sharing your blog with my readers and I start with one of my favourite lines from the book:</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-EMqe2KIvQDk/UmTDHwvVNXI/AAAAAAAABAI/yTnGZLn5JQA/s1600/Leadership.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-EMqe2KIvQDk/UmTDHwvVNXI/AAAAAAAABAI/yTnGZLn5JQA/s640/Leadership.png" height="524" width="640" /></a></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; color: #ec2028; padding: 0cm; text-decoration: none; text-transform: uppercase;"> </span><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; color: #ec2028; padding: 0cm; text-decoration: none; text-transform: uppercase;">THE HEART OF LEADERSHIP:
HUNGER FOR WISDOM</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #333333;">I believe there are five core leadership
character traits that set leaders apart from those they lead. Unlike more
common character traits like integrity, honesty and loyalty, the traits I’m
referring to are what enable a leader to lead. They shape who the leader is as
a person and also drive their day-to-day actions. Today, let’s go a little
deeper on one of those traits -<b> Hunger for Wisdom</b>.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #333333;">The best leaders are wise
– some are wise beyond their years. Wisdom is the intangible ingredient that
enables leaders to make good decisions in challenging or uncertain
circumstances.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #333333;">As you know, for a
leader, the way forward is often unclear. Rarely do leaders have all the facts
or complete mastery of the subject when a decision needs to be made. In other
situations, a leader must choose between conflicting priorities or between
multiple, good options. Wisdom allows a leader to consistently make good
choices.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #333333;">How can you and I grow in
wisdom? Here are four ideas…</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #333333;">Embrace our Need for
Wisdom.</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #333333;"> Arrogance and pride
derail the career of many leaders. If we lose sight of our need for wisdom, we
are doomed as a leader. As Toynbee discovered when studying the rise and fall
of civilizations, one of the factors that repeatedly triggered demise was the
application of yesterday’s answers to today’s questions. The same is true for
organizations. This behavior is fueled by leaders who feel they’ve already got
all the wisdom they need.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #333333;">Seek Feedback and
Counsel.</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #333333;"> When we seek
feedback and the advice of others, we are on the path to wisdom. However, we
need to understand the difference between the two – feedback is about the past;
counsel is about the future. Both are critical. When we seek counsel, we are
borrowing the wisdom of someone else.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #333333;">Learn by Observing
Others.</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #333333;"> Leaders pay attention.
They are observant. We often see things others don’t. My theory is it’s because
we’re looking for things others aren’t. One of those things leaders are
constantly looking for is ideas that work – or don’t. Truett Cathy taught me
this. He said, “We don’t have to make all the mistakes ourselves, we can learn
from the mistakes of others.” That’s one way to grow in wisdom.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #333333;">Commit to Life-long
Learning.</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #333333;"> The more I learn,
the more I know how little I know. This is the ideal posture to grow in wisdom.
The realization of our personal limits opens our hearts and minds to new
possibilities. Possibilities fuel options. Options contribute to better
decisions. A spirit of curiosity, combined with the humility required for
learning, are the embers from which the fires of wisdom can ignite.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #333333;">One of my favorite TV
commercials these days is the “Most Interesting Man in the World” series from
Dos Equis. I love the tag line: “Stay thirsty, my friends.” My encouragement to
you is similar: Stay hungry my friends…hungry for wisdom!</span></span></span><br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dTTZ99T8-cg/UmTRrRpJp3I/AAAAAAAABAY/TKcKqtmEQyw/s1600/MarkMiller.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dTTZ99T8-cg/UmTRrRpJp3I/AAAAAAAABAY/TKcKqtmEQyw/s1600/MarkMiller.jpg" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #333333;"> Hungry for wisdom and ready to take action:</span></span></span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="color: #333333;">Listen to Mark in his free webinar about the <a href="http://mymark.mx/LeadershipWebinar" target="_blank">Heart of Leadership</a></span></span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #333333;">Get The <a href="http://mymark.mx/HeartOfLeadership" target="_blank">Heart of Leadership</a> from Amazon </span></span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #333333;">Check out Mark's blog at <a href="http://greatleadersserve.org/">GreatLeadersServe.Org</a></span></span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #333333;"><a href="http://mymark.mx/AssessYourLeadership" target="_blank">Assess your own leadership</a> right now</span></span></span></li>
</ul>
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Carrinmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01956327719089962286noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3878794492632609135.post-44198850305990252262013-10-04T12:21:00.000+10:002013-10-08T12:55:36.102+11:00Take Charge of Your Talent - a Challenge - Guest BlogToday's blog is a little different from what normally happens around here.<br />
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It starts with a little more about my story. My story is unremarkable. My grandfather was a coal miner who became a colliery manager - unheard of in the North of England in the 1950's. Miners used to spit on him in the streets. My father chose to break the mould in the same way and become a professional and qualified as an accountant. He took charge and applied his prodigious talent with numbers to accounting and business. All I did was follow along the same lines as a professional - I completed degrees an business and law with a view to becoming a lawyer. When I finished university I had 4 job offers - one with Unilever, one with Ford Motor Company, one with a law firm and one with Price Waterhouse in a new management consulting division. 3 quite different choices (Ford equals Unilever as big corporate, travel a lot, defined career path, etc). I made the choice to join a new industry of management consulting - my guess at the time in South Africa we were probably less than 50 people doing that - I was one of only 7 in my team.<br />
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That was an inspired choice to start working in a new industry which is nothing more than a talent industry. The first partner I worked for, Alan Tapnack (now a banker in London), understood that well and set me free to develop new consulting approaches to provide to our clients - I became a guru in financial modelling long before the PC or Microsoft Excel. Events in South Africa in the mid 1980's were not comfortable and I felt I had to make a choice between continuing to do military service for a regime I did not believe in or go to prison - I took my talent and put it on an aeroplane to London.<br />
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That talent took me into McKinsey & Company where one of the partners had identified that Information technology was a key issue that McKinsey had to tackle. My time at McKinsey & Co was incredibly difficult because, for the most part, they did not value my talent as a Specialist Industry Functional Consultant in IT. The tide did change when they hired back an experienced McKinsey Manager to drive the IT Consulting model - Sir Richard Heygate saved my career by giving me scope to exploit my talent and to not force-fit it into the McKinsey way.<br />
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In 1994, I moved on from McKinsey - ultimately I did not fit in their model and it was time for me to Take Charge of My Talent. I joined a bunch of like-minded ex-McKinsey consultants and started Mitchell Madison Group as a direct competitor to McKinsey & Co specialising in the Financial Services Industry. Over the next 6 years we ran a rocket ship that grew to the size that McKinsey had done in 50 years. What was the biggest success we had, you may ask? It was not only about clients. We waged an amazing competitive <b>war on talent</b> in recruiting the brightest people we could find. These young people had to be prepared to take charge of their own talent because we also took away the shackles of the role expectations that tied McKinsey down. For example, Alex Mahon, now CEO of Shine Group, moved from Business Analayst to Associate to Engagement Manager in 18 months - a journey that would have taken 6 years minimum at McKinsey. MMG was a success because we all took charge of our own talent. Now my success as a consultant came from one other thing that I was really good at - I coached middle managers inside my client organisations to do the same thing.<br />
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My guests today run the same mantra. One of them is a former McKinsey colleague. They have a mission to change the world by getting people to take charge of their talent. This is not a "beat the drum" and get the motivational juices going approach. It is a clearly articulated process with clear steps and clear roles to harness a few insights about one's hopes and aspirations and the obstacles getting in the way and building your own path to your own success. ENJOY (and buy the book)<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A clear process to take charge</td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 24px;">Don Maruska and Jay Perry are Master Certified Coaches who help people take advantage of business and personal challenges in unique and powerful ways. </span><br />
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<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Putting
the Keys to Talent Development in Your Hands </span></b><b style="line-height: 200%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> </span></b></div>
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<b><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">It’s time for a revolution in talent development. </span></i></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">For
generations, organizations have managed talent development. They’ve figured out
who the HiPo’s (high potentials) are and focused resources on them. “Trickle
down” talent development has shortchanged the rest and created a huge class of
PoPo’s (passed over and pissed off). In short, scarcity thinking has limited what
people and organizations think is possible. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Further, we hear leaders talk about driving down
corporate objectives through talent development as if people were cattle. Well,
hello! Most people don’t want to be told what to do. Even those who say they do
often resist direction. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">It’s little surprise that over 71% of American workers
responding to a Gallup poll report that they are “not engaged” in work or
“actively disengaged.” What’s worse is that high levels of disengagement have
persisted for more than decade, in both good economies and bad. In short,
there’s systemic problem with how organizations engage their talent. Our own
surveys of thousands of people reveal that even high performers in excellent
organizations have 30% to 40% of their talent untapped. It’s time for a change.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Let talent bubble up. </span></i></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Shift
from “trickle down” to “bubble up” talent development. That’s right; it’s
putting the keys to talent development in the hands of the people who have the
talent. This tracks a fundamental cultural shift of people taking charge of
many aspects of their lives, from booking their own airplane reservations to
buying and selling stocks. People want to be in charge of what’s important to
them, when they have the tools to do it. So, how can “bubble up” talent
development work for both employees and their organizations? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Catalyze employee self-motivation. </span></i></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">The
first key engages the fundamental source of motivation: employee
self-motivation. Instead of viewing managers as “cattle drivers,” think of them
as “catalysts” who act to accelerate thinking and precipitate results without
taking initiative and responsibility away from team members. This shifts from a
command-control culture to a take-charge culture. The latest insights from
neuroscience and psychology provide guidance on how to accomplish this
successfully. We’ve found that a carefully structured conversation that keeps
the participant in his or better thinking and in charge of the choices proves
useful for 90% or more of the participants and “very useful” and even “major breakthroughs”
in 20% to 30% of the situations. The great benefit is that employees don’t have
to wait for a supervisor or manager. They can follow the steps and enjoy the value
of a 45-minute Talent Catalyst Conversation with one another. Thus, all team
members with an interest in their talent and a willingness to be generous
listeners for one another can participate. This breaks down the barriers to
access.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Accelerate through obstacles. </span></i></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">The
second key transforms how team members think about obstacles. Indeed, as with sailboats
that head up into the wind and travel faster than the wind itself, team members
can leverage tools to turn obstacles into springboards for success. Such tools
include accessing inner qualities (for example, curiosity, generosity, and
assertiveness), mashing up the untapped resources before them to create more
out of what’s available to them, and “speed planning” that sketches out talent
action plans in less than 15 minutes to gain results quickly.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Multiply the payoffs for yourself and others. </span></i></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">The
third key invites team members to translate their knowledge and skills into
enduring career assets. They transform the ideas in their heads into tangible
value. For example, a staff member who wanted to become a supervisor documented
guidelines for giving performance feedback. She showed concretely what she
learned from best practices as well as her own experience in both mock
situations and project settings. These became the proof points for her brand:
“candid, constructive feedback that brings out the best in you.” As a result,
she landed the supervisory job and provided a valuable, tangible asset to the
organization for first-time supervisors.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Opportunities abound to unlock the talent within today’s
workforce. The keys are at hand. The perfect moment is now. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Take charge of your talent NOW</span></div>
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<ul>
<li><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Watch the webinar at <a href="http://mymark.mx/TakeChargeWebinar">http://mymark.mx/TakeChargeWebinar</a> - no opt in required</span></li>
<li><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Click </span><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 200%;"><a href="http://www.takechargeofyourtalent.com/"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">www.TakeChargeofYourTalent.com</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"> for more information</span></li>
<li><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Buy the book fro Amazon “<a href="http://mymark.mx/TakeChargeOfYourTalent">Take Charge of Your Talent: Three Keys to Thriving in YourCareer, Organization, and Life</a>” </span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">The time is now. I took charge and it changed my life. the consultants of MMG took charge and they built a great firm and changed their lives. We owe it to ourselves</span></div>
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<br />Carrinmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01956327719089962286noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3878794492632609135.post-31503586429759673542013-09-17T09:16:00.002+10:002013-09-25T14:12:23.447+10:00Another Winter Passes ByYou would think that with all the Internet Marketing training that I have sat through over the last 18 months that I would at least write blog pages more often. It just seems that life is so full that nothing gets done and life is so empty that nothing wants to get done. When I last wrote I was getting ready to cycle from Darwin to Perth as part of Cycle Around Australia 2013 and that was the true focus at the time. Well here goes with what has been happening:<br />
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<ul>
<li>I used the opportunity of the bike ride to raise funds for charity. I chose to use some new (to me) Internet Marketing tools to work out how they work and to identify what is the best method for collecting for a charity. What did I do? I collated all my email addresses into an autoresponder (I use <a href="http://mymark.mx/Getresponse" target="_blank">Getresponse</a>) mailing series and sent out a mailing newsletter to around 1,000 people from my email lists. First thing learned was that around 100 emails were not current. Second thing was a very high click rate to my donation page (around 30 percent) and a nice flow of donations. I also ran a Facebook event promoting the start of my ride and posting the link. That drew a little traffic and some donations. I also posted a link to my growing Twitter following and got some clicks but no donations. I did a follow up mailing to the people on the list who had not donated and achieved the same click through rate and about the same level of donations. LESSON: raising funds from charity is best done with people you know and mail more than once. </li>
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<tr><td><span style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><a href="http://bit.ly/FreedomWheels" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="251" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-dc1udMYwIfY/UkJNq8SZNqI/AAAAAAAAA9U/Ix-IZtsP-98/s640/FreedomWheels_clicks.png" width="640" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption"><a href="http://bit.ly/FreedomWheels" target="_blank">Click throughs from mailings</a></td></tr>
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<ul>
<li>I joined the Cycle Around Australia group in Darwin at the end of May. They had already ridden from Melbourne to Cairns and from Cairns to Darwin. Preparations were a little haphazard but somehow on the appointed start time on June 1, I was ready to ride with 17other riders - some I had ridden with before and some were new to me. Was so good to get back on the road and starting off on familiar territory on the road from Darwin to Katherine though the first 3 days into teh wind were a little tough and my lack of training showed up. The ride from Katherine to Broome into the Kimberley was new to me - it is simply the best section of riding I have done across Australia. the road basically runs from one big river system to the next and the next - easy downwind riding (though we had some long days) and amazing scenery as the rivers carve their way through the gorges. I wrote a journal as I normally do and you can find it on <a href="http://bit.ly/markride2013" target="_blank">Crazyguyonbike here</a> </li>
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<ul>
<li>I cut short my ride from Broome to Perth - something about "a road travelled twice" was getting to me. The dynamics of the group had changed quite dramatically with fewer riders and I had a bunch of things at home that needed attention. Truth is I was just not enjoying the ride as much as I would have liked. So I departed the ride at Coral Bay after riding about 3,400 kms (a little over 2,000 miles) - I had achieved key objectives of getting fit and losing some weight and gained a few new friends along the way. And my contribution to the charity fund raising to modify bicycles for disabled children will make a difference to 4 or 5 young children. There is still a chance to make a donation by heading over to <a href="http://bit.ly/FreedomWheels">http://bit.ly/FreedomWheels</a> - this page will be taken down in October - so get in fast. I must say I did learn a lot about the value of supporting a charity and the processes for doing so using Internet Marketing techniques. The link itself is a clue - it is free link shortener - what I like is I can choose the text and it gives me tracking data. [I have since built my own]</li>
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<ul>
<li>You may be wondering what did I do with the extra time I gained. I cannot say with hand on heart that I used the time well. I did get the tax department off my back for my superannuation accounts and got one year's backlog out of the way. I am still a little behind. I have ridden my bike a little bit and some of that weight has crept back on - but not too badly. I had planned to go to South Africa to see my mother (who is now 89) but that has not happened. I had hoped to make some more progress in my Internet Marketing and Business Coaching businesses. Truth is I have been struggling with some sever bouts of depression and spending way too much time staring into space pretending to be busy. I have so many things that need doing and do not really know where to start. This is a long story to do with the failures of the past; some challenges in my relationship; the fact I do not see my children often enough and the way I feel about life in Australia.</li>
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<ul>
<li>I did take the opportunity to travel to Thailand to attend the Fusion HQ Dojo in Chiang Mai. Fusion HQ is a software platform designed specifically for building internet marketing businesses. The dojo was as its name implies was a working training session - there were a variety of presenters (mostly now living in Chiang Mai) covering a range of topics in internet marketing and a number of hands on workshops for using the software. The software is simply amazing as it has built in all the tools one needs for a good internet business (except for shopping cart for a catalogue business) whether it be membership sites; affiliate marketing; sales funnels; email funnels; split testing - simply amazing. In due course I will be building my businesses on this platform and moving away from Wordpress and Weebly sites - a tool that everything in one place makes a lot more sense to me even if it is more costly to purchase. Head to <a href="http://mymark.mx/FusionHQ">http://mymark.mx/FusionHQ</a> to have a look see. The main thing I got out of the conference is a clear picture of how my Business Coaching can help other aspirant entrpepreneurs. We all face similar challenges in starting a business - and it gets harder as we get older. The challenges have to do with Strategic Focus - they have to do with Process Design -they have to do with Scalability. The promise of making millions or even hundreds of thousands do not flow that way - they take a solid business approach and business structure. More to come via <a href="http://markcarringtonbusinesscoach.com/">http://MarkCarringtonBusinessCoach.com</a></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Many of you will not know that I lived in Bangkok for a while. I really fell in love with Thailand and even found a way to deal with the assault on the senses that is Bangkok. Chiang Mai is an altogether different feeling - it has a serenity which one does not normally associate with Thailand. It starts with the airport being only 10 minutes from town. It continues with traffic that is just a little more ordered - not ordered like a Western city but not as scary. The city is laid on on a big plain with mountains standing about 1,000 metres high ringing the plain in the distance. It was not as hot as Bangkok and not as humid - and I was there in summer time. The city is less busy and the mountains provide an escape. </li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Markets took a little of a back seat while I was doing my bike ride. In the intervening period we have seen some interesting developments. The Australian Dollar took its tumble and my positions on that move worked well. Interest rates broke out of the long compressed trading range pretty much across the world - thus far my positioning for that is working well though in Japanese Goverment Bonds I am struggling - the problem is one cannot buy contracts far ahead enough in time to cope with short term volatility. In US stocks I have done well - the forced rotation into longer positions helped and the indexes have all obliged by moving higher. There has been the heralded debate about the fed taper and the big step down from that position in September. For now my portfolio is leaning toward more European exposure including European banks; exposure to shipping stocks; short interest rates and reduced exposure to emerging markets. For the most part part doing well. In FX trading I have stripped down my strategy to end of day trade ideas and focusing on the currency trends I see in my longer term portfolios - long GBP and short AUD and occasional forays to JPY longs. And my robots continue to turn over 2 to 3 percent a month which is more can be said of my outsourced FX portfolio - it is not doing well. The image below covers one of my accounts to the end of August - more like that and I will be a happy bunny - more than doubled since October 2012 [note: they do not all look like this but it does show the value of asymmetric trades using long dated options</li>
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<li>Moving forward what is the plan. More progress on my Business Coaching business (I am already helping someone build out his business in a challenging niche - his business is now much more focused and his materials fit his target market better). My mentor David Cavanagh will be helping with that. Have just started migrating my Twitter (and other social media) business - with over 100,000 Twitter followers across 3 profiles (<a href="https://twitter.com/go4forexprofits">https://twitter.com/go4forexprofits</a>; <a href="https://twitter.com/markscarrington">https://twitter.com/markscarrington</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/stratocharge">https://twitter.com/stratocharge</a>) it is time to take the business to a next level. Coming out of Chiang Mai too is a programme to write the next book and to publish an Apple newstand magazine on Cycle Touring - more about those developments later. And markets - more of the same - searching for asymmetric trades across the world and making it hard for Mr Market to take away the gains.</li>
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Till next time - stay safe and be happy</div>
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and ignore this whacky code - it is for Bing webmaster tools<br />
c73f922e2dda8e251062de777245b2d542d1e35d4b6cf7e26fCarrinmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01956327719089962286noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3878794492632609135.post-59271928001928865602013-05-01T14:06:00.003+10:002013-05-01T14:06:25.470+10:00Happy May Day to all<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">When I lived in England, May Day was for me the heralding of a new season. It was so easy to be caught out by the emergence of the crocuses and daffodils in February and March and those few sunny days about then too to think that SPRING was on its way. May Day with the extra daylight after the clocks moved - it was the beginning of a new season.. It feels a little that way here. I set out in my last post to stay sane and to stay safe. I also wrote down a bunch of things that I was going to do. It feels a little like some new beginnings: </span><br />
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<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Well I can report that I am safe. My hand is healing and the medical reports were that it did not require any intervention. Good news from that medical visit is that the plate that was inserted in my left arm (following a cycling accident in Switzerland in 2010) does not need to come out. The surgeon in Luzernkantonspital had intimated that it should come out in 2 years. Typical male - took me nearly 3 years to get that tested out. I did also see my doctor briefly to get the referral and will see her for a proper check up in May</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">I have spent some more time working on my <span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: #f6f6f6; color: black; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">Industry Rockstar profile as a Business Coach. So far I have written a first draft of the proposition and have created a Facebook Fan page. I found a great way to get the focus to doing the writing. I spent time with a friend building out his business ideas. I wrote up my draft so that he could copy the outline for his business - love the concept of WIN-WIN or Two-for-One. I also embarked on the 30 day <a href="http://getsocialforbusiness.com/blog/" target="_blank">Facebook Fan Page Challenge</a> run by Sue Worthington. Like all the things I do I have not really followed up on the challenge but I do have over 30 likes on my page from the challenge and I can get the insights and choose my own vanity URL. </span></span></span></li>
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<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">I did start to do some cycling training. I moved my flights to Darwin a little earlier so that I can start </span><a href="http://www.cycleacrossoz.com.au/" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Cycle Around Australia 2013</span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> leg third leg from Darwin instead of Katherine. I had been holding back from changing the flights because I was not really sure that I was actually going to be in a position to do the ride. My hand does not feel strong enough to allow me to ride on the roads - so I have installed the cycle trainer. That was a bit of fun as my small wheeled bike did not fit and I had to retrieve my original road bike from storage. The last time I broke my hand in 2006, I trained while watching the Commonwealth Games broadcast from Melbourne. This time I have been catching up on the training videos for the Steven Essa </span><a href="http://www.1shoppingcart.com/app/?Clk=4880815" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Webinar Magic</span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> program, I bought some time ago. As I will be using webinars for my Business Coaching efforts, it is great use of time = Two-for-One again. And for anyone wanting to explore the power of webinars to get 10 times the conversion rates compared to normal channels, Steven Essa is your man. Thanks Steve for being a great entertainer while you teach. So my fitness is improving. My weight has not really moved yet and blood pressure seems OK. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Cycle Around Australia 2013 has completed leg 1 from Melbourne to Cairns with 15 riders. It all seems to have worked well with riders enjoying the peacefulness of the Great Inland Way. 18 riders departed Cairns on April 29 headed for Darwin on The Gulf Ride. the tail end of Cyclone Zane has given them two wet days to start but day 3 is looking good. The blog for leg 1 is </span><a href="http://melbourne2cairns2013.blogspot.com.au/" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Melbourne to Cairns</span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> and for leg 2 is </span><a href="http://cairns2darwin2013.blogspot.com.au/" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Cairns to Darwin</span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">. Kathy updates these pages every day or two - bookmark them to keep track of what the riders are up to. We are still actively looking for riders for legs 4 and 5 - Broome to Perth and Perth to Melbourne. I have ridden both of those legs before and can vouch that they are great rides. Have a look at </span><a href="http://www.cycleacrossoz.com.au/"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">http://www.cycleacrossoz.com.au</span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> and see if you dare. Our charity effort is coming along - you will see from the blog page that we have raised $800 - without any real big marketing effort. We have also collected close to $500 in the collecting tins the riders have with them. Our chosen charity is the TADVIC Freedom Wheels campaign. <span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #545353; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 17px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">TADVIC’s highly skilled and innovative team of therapists, engineers and volunteers help children with disabilities to enjoy mobility and a form of recreation previously unavailable to them. If your philanthropy budget allows, head to our <a href="http://www.mycause.com.au/events/853" target="_blank">My Cause</a> page to make a donation. And my other contribution is I keep the websites running and our Page 1 ranking in Google remains for "cycle Australia". Quite happy with that.</span></span></span></li>
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<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">The markets have consumed a lot of my time - probably more than I would like and more than I need. The FX Markets continue to be difficult as the devaluation of the Yen has stumbled at the magical round number of 100 JPY to the US Dollar. My FX trading activity remains challenged - I lost 1.5% in my direct portfolio during April (a few bad trades in week one and a few in week 4). I am a lot more focused on the strategies I use and that is helping. I have paid the price of having too many strategies in my armoury. My robot is a much simpler person than me and it managed close to 4% in April (and it too had a bad week in week 4), And my outsourced portfolio managed 2.2% in April after a horror start. FX Options trading is working a little better with new positions added on JPY pairs and a few more short on the Australian Dollar. The prime focus during the days has been trading breakouts on ASX listed stocks and long dated options on the US market at night. With options volatility at pretty low levels there is no shortage of opportunity to position well. With my trip coming up during June and July, I have spent a lot of time in the last week or so extending expiries on short term positions to the time I get back from Perth. That has been fun - new skills learned and not fully mastered (2 nights ago rolled 3 contracts incorrectly and had to retrace at some cost)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Internet Marketing activity has been sporadic and not as focused as one needs. I have joined in a new mobile apps network marketing programme called Rippln. Like all MLM's it is grabbing its share of attention and detractors. What one cannot argue about is the impact they have made in getting 300,000 members signed up in two weeks. The basic idea is to build a platform so that members can benefit when mobile apps are shared rather than handing the cash to Apple or Google through their App Stores. If you want to join in my ripple just click on the image and collect your invite code. What I can say is my network has produced a reasonable number of members as I learn how to market. </span></li>
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<a href="http://bit.ly/RippLnwithMark" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><img alt="Join the rippln ripple" border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-naSueS-f-z4/UYCSRaw6d_I/AAAAAAAAAu0/Bsx9ouoXBq0/s320/rippln_300000.jpg" title="Stratocharge your Income" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">The next few weeks has to be about FOCUS on getting fit - as we ride typically over 100 kms every day and it will be hot, I need to get out on the bike for several hours at a time. A few things will have to slide. I will pick one Internet Marketing initiative and get it going well enough so that it can run solo while I am travelling - in 3 weeks that should be a good target.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"></span>Carrinmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01956327719089962286noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3878794492632609135.post-84659792567074541752013-04-08T16:48:00.002+10:002013-04-17T12:28:05.535+10:002013 Q1 Passes ByDaylight Savings ended this weekend in Sydney I wrote last around Valentine's Day and was not a very happy camper then. Well I can safely say that the two months that have passed have not been filled with great stuff. Well maybe that is more a picture of the way things stand right now - first piece is typing this with a broken right hand does not help. That is part of a long sad story which is probably best left to the halls of silence. All I will say it has been a re-run of an old movie - 7 years ago almost to the day I broke my right hand when all the emotional turbulence boiled over - that was the start of a journey out of a 25 year marriage which has brought me to where I am now. The lesson my counsellor used to hammer into me - we do not have to re-run the old movies. It is in our hands to change the endings of the movies as they play. It is a crazy man who lets a movie run the same way. I must be the crazy man - it is happening all over again. CRAZY MAN<br />
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So in no particular order, this is what has been going on:<br />
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<li>Travelled to South Africa at the beginning to March - you will recall that my mother (aged 88) had taken a fall and was in rehab mode. My sister had spent a few weeks with. We arranged for a live-in carer to cover the time before I could make a trip. That worked well so that by the time I arrived there she was mobile again and cleared by the doctor to drive her car. In fact I did not have to do very much at all other than get on top of her financial matters and do the filing. I did take a pilgrimage out to the Magaliesberg mountains to the north of Johannesburg to pay tribute to my friend, Beresford Jobling, who died there last August (<a href="http://breatheyourdreams.blogspot.com.au/">http://breatheyourdreams.blogspot.com.au/</a> for a tribute I wrote)</li>
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<ul>
<li>Followed that up with a trip to Pattaya Thailand to attend David Cavanagh's Best Coaching Programme. I had been lucky to win that trip during the Jeff and Kane Industry Rockstar Intensive course I had done at the end of January. While I fancy myself as a bit of an IT geek and quite able to find most of the things I need to build my Internet Marketing businesses this struck me as a way to turbocharge my progress. The training program was brilliant in content but especially in the group of attendees. Pretty well all of have been through a Jeff and Kane event - so a bit of self-selection produced a group of people ready to make go of the things they were learning. The content was jam packed with practical hints on things to explore; tools to use; products to sell; traffic methods to apply. I signed up for the next level program to further accelerate my Internet Marketing efforts - and to leverage the outsourcing models that David applies in his business. The video below was based on stuff learned in his course - a first attempt for me at filming and editing a video - and a subject I love - airlines and flying. There is a lot of stuff to follow in this whole area. If you ever get a chnce to do one of David's courses - do it. It will pay for itself in weeks if you take action.</li>
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<ul>
<li>Spent a weekend in Thailand after the course - Lorraine flew up and we spent a few days together. We rambled around Pattaya a bit. The highlight of that was that we were having dinner with a few members of the group at one of the seafood restaurants on the pier. It had been a bit of a challenge to get everyone to agree to a spot but I knew where I wanted to be. We sit down at a table and I hear a voice over my shoulder "that explains why you did not respond to my e-mail". The last time I had been at the restaurant was with my friend of 18 years from Basel Switzerland. We had spent a week celebrating his 50th birthday and playing some golf. And there were Daniele and Heinz. Another lesson learned - when the universe sends signs, FOLLOW them. Got to spend a night in Bangkok - that was nice to reconnect with that city - great to revisit some old haunts and to remind ourselves how hot hot it gets.</li>
<li>Markets have been interesting to say the least. The period of retracement and consolidation that started in January has persisted. The events in Cyprus put a big spoiler into what was proving to be a nice run-up in European Equities. At least I felt I was well positioned when I took off on my travels - and it seems to be holding out fine. The beauty about the markets right now is that everyone is so scared that Options Volatility is quite low - hence cheap to get into position. The FX markets have shown similar results to January - so in March my robot outperformed my own account which outperformed my outsourced account. All of this was put in the shade by the massive action announced by the Bank of Japan last week. I am pleased to say I was positioned for that and even managed to get some FX trades on to add to the long dated options I have running. Looking good so far. Now we need to worry a little about the politicians in Europe and the President of North Korea. They can between them very easily make a mess. And then there is a new outbreak of bird flu in China. Still waiting though for the markets to work out that investing in fixed interest at yields lower than inflation is not CLEVER</li>
<li>And the big cycling news is that Cycle Around Australia 2013 kicked off with an on time departure from Melbourne on March 23. day 17 in and all seem to be doing well. The blog can be found here <a href="http://melbourne2cairns2013.blogspot.com.au/">http://melbourne2cairns2013.blogspot.com.au</a>. The riders are supporting a charity for this ride. The charity (TADVIC) provides modified bicycles for disabled children - a worthy cause. Have a look at the video I made for the cause - a first attempt too with a new piece of video editing software I do not understand. Head here to make a donation <a href="http://bit.ly/YxEHlc">http://bit.ly/YxEHlc</a></li>
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What next:<br />
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<ul>
<li>Focus on building my Industry Rockstar profile as a Business Coach. This is going to be a webinar driven business and the focus is going to be Internet Marketing Business and building an Internet Marketing Engine. </li>
<li>Start driving some serious traffic efforts leveraging the software tools I have already amassed - Facebook Formulas; D4U Twitter (that is going well); SocialSpeed; Spiders Web; Traffic Amplifier; and more.</li>
<li>Build my own brand presence - probably will drive two Mark Carrington Business Coach and Mark Carrington Affiliate Marketer. </li>
<li>Keep on finding good market opportunities for the investment markets.</li>
<li>I do need to get on the bicycle to do some training as I am currently scheduled to depart Katherine for Broome on June 4th. Lorraine has had to withdraw from supporting that leg of the ride - that means I will most likely ride from Darwin 4 days earlier. The tricky part is I have a broken hand - will have to do the first 3 weeks of training on a cycle trainer. Will be watching tons of webinars in that time.</li>
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Above all I need to stay sane and stay safe. I do not feel either of those right now - hence one broken hand. <br />
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<br />Carrinmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01956327719089962286noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3878794492632609135.post-19550694001321586622013-02-11T14:53:00.000+11:002013-02-11T14:57:27.094+11:00Heading to Valentine's DayIt is hard to believe that January has gone and we are well into February. Been a while too since my last post and I am struggling to find a positive spin to what is going on. Here goes in no particular order:<br />
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<li>Had a great training ride for <a href="http://www.cycleacrossoz.com.au/" target="_blank">Cycle Around Australia 2013</a>. We drove down from Sydney to Bairnsdale for the start. Its a long drive made a little longer by ignoring the GPS not far out of Cooma. the price was a ride down the Bonang highway which has a sign near the start saying winding road for 105 kms. Was a great road but a hard drive. Was great to meet a few new faces and the long time friends in the campsite. Cycled from Bairnsdale towards Omeo - would have been a great ride but for the heat with 48C on the road. I surrendered to the sag wagon at 104kms some 14 kms short of target and one big hill not ridden. Happy with that as it was my first ride over 100 kms in over a year. Next day was hoto too and very windy and I could only make 25kms of the road up to Mt Hotham. We stayed in a ski lodge there - unique in the summer. Ride down to Bright the next day was great - mostly downhill and some great descending opportunities. Great weekend. On the ride itself, it is all systems go with 15 riders signed up and fully paid to depart Melbourne on March 23. Blog can be found at <a href="http://melbourne2cairns2013.blogspot.com.au/2013/02/40-sleeps-to-go.html?spref=fb" target="_blank">Melbourne to Cairns</a>. We will be supporting Freedom Wheels programme as our charity - it provides modified bikes to help disabled kids to get riding. Our cause link can be found at <a href="http://www.mycause.com.au/landing_pages/landings/display_event_landing_page/853" target="_blank">Freedom Wheels</a> </li>
<li>At home life has a few twists and turns, some good and some bad. My mother (aged 88) had a fall which she chose not to tell us about. All was well for a few days and then one morning (the day I called her) she could not walk. My sister-in-law organized for her to go to hospital where she stayed for a few days. My sister flew out from UK to stay with her. Now we are exploring options for in house care while we wait for an opening in a nearby retirement village. We shall see what transpires - all a bit worrying but thank heavens for family. </li>
<li>My soon-to-be-18 daughter headed off to Canberra this weekend to commence her university life at Australian National University. She has decided to enroll for a PPE program (Politics, Philosophy and Economics) - the first time it is offered and a small programme with only 30 spaces. While she does not live at home with me it is a bit of a wrench. Also good to see her brother sign up to drive her down there - as part of his learner driver training. By all reports she has settled in and met a few new people which she is happy with.</li>
<li>It has been a week since finishing the Industry Rockstar Intensive course run by Jeff & Kane I signed up for a few months ago. This was a 4 day training session designed for consultants and coaches to ramp their businesses up into more of a speaker platform driven business - essentially to go from a 1 to 1 client model to a 1 to many coaching model. And once one gets the one to many model working with strong demand, one can increase the rates charged for one to one coaching and consulting. I must say I was a little skeptical as the model seemed very focused on the consultant model - and I spent 25 years doing that and was not keen to go back to it. The selling grind of that business just killed me. What became clear during the sessions (we did a lot of group coaching) was that I have a huge reservoir of experience and a unique ability to help other people solve their challenges. It was great to be able to help and enjoy people grow in my hands. I came out of there with a lot more focus and will apply that to my own internet businesses. I was lucky enough to win 3 training programmes - one on strategy ; one on marketing and one on technology delivery - and I bought into the Industry Rockstar Trainers course. This has produced some bi timetable pressures - that might be a good thing. The course is definitely worth it and if you get a chance to go to a <a href="http://www.amplifyyourinfluence.com.au/?af=CLS1146748" target="_blank">preview event</a> you will be doing well. </li>
<li>I came out of that training quite motivated and more focused. Instead of getting to work on that I slid back into doing what I have been doing for ages. And I am back to wrestling with the depression demons on and off - they have been building since coming back from the training ride. Have found it very difficult to focus. I did set up to do two tasks last week one of which was to set up the charity pages for the Cycle Around Australia website. Got that done. The other one did not happen. Did not do any riding either. Relationship pressures are not helping as Lorraine and I struggle to undo the old behaviours we exhibit. Big lesson - new relationship means time to leave old behaviours at the door. the black dog can growl at them. </li>
<li>And then there are the markets. Have spent a lot of time on these - my personal portfolio has now been transferred across. Only took 3 and a half months. It would have been faster in the old postal days. January was interesting - we were expecting some consolidation on the JPY pairs and on the EUR and many people got caught when the consolidation did not happen. For example of the 4 FX portfolios I have. My active one lost 3.5%; my outsourced one lost 4.1%; my robot one gained 4.3% and my FX options almost doubled. It tells me quite firmly that I am better off working out macro trends and positioning myself for those. And stock markets went up in the big rally - well positioned for all of that. For the next few months the focus is on positioning for the great rotation as investors discover that yields are lower than inflation.</li>
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Carrinmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01956327719089962286noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3878794492632609135.post-24340179915822804842013-01-14T18:27:00.003+11:002013-02-11T13:55:06.618+11:00Focus and DepressionAnother week goes by and another Monday rolls around. It is all a big struggle - everything is telling me to Focus and the vast range of things that need doing scream out STOP because you do not know where to start. Then when the small things do not work out, the black dog that crouches in the shadows is just waiting and growling and saying "told you so. You are a loser!!"<br />
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So it is time to get back to one thing at a time to work out a winning way that brightens up the dark corners and encourages the black dog to sneak back into the shadows a little further out of reach.<br />
<br />
So in the spirit of making life even less focused, I spent a whole afternoon with friends, Dean and Yvonne mapping out a strategy for launching Dean's new book, The Nine Human essences for Business Success.<br />
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<iframe frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=httpwwwbrea0f-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=1922153044&ref=tf_til&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="height: 240px; width: 120px;"></iframe>.<br />
<br />
Dean has self-published the book and now wishes to get it published on Kindle and run a full scale online launch. Here I am thinking I can help with this launch. It creates a forcing device to keep me pushing forward on leveraging the tools I have bought and the things I have learned. And after all this is why I signed up to join The Number One Book Club. Step One - work out how to publish to Kindle. As it happens this does not look like a major task - take the basic Word document; convert to HTML; add in the right Headings for SEO purposes and work out how and what to hyperlink. There are a few technical things to worry about - document needs to be less than 50Mb in size and graphics are size constrained and tables do not work. The marketing programme is all about building an audience and establishing Dean as the authority in his field. Well he ought to be as he has been preparing this text for over 15 years. Still waiting to hear back from Dean and Yvonne but it is radio silent. <br />
<br />
The email focus saga continues - piece by piece I am pegging away at getting rid of emails though an Inbox which has 1,215 unread emails does not look like a focused Inbox. I had written a stack of rules in Outlook to streamline the inbox into a series of other folders. This was not really working for me as I use more than one device to access email (PC; iPad and Android Phone). So today I have been migrating rulkes across to my mail provider. I buy in a service from <a href="http://www.fastmail.fm/?STKI=550849" target="_blank">Fastmail.Fm</a> to manage my emails rather than using free service from Hotmail or Gmail. The service is relatively inexpensive; provides me a lot of data storage and a range of supporting features which I use for Domain Name forwarding for example. The best feature is the wide array of aliasing that is possible. I can set up an alias account from any domain name I own and send and receive emails from there - no need to do that in the domain registrar. Today I discover a nice set of filtering rules to add to Fastmail's spam filter. before long my Inbox will be more streamlined - and I can then process emails I want to read in my time. <br />
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Day's getting short before the training ride for Cycle Around Australia 2013. Have been doing some training - a little less than I had hoped on account of some tough weather interventions (excuses really). Have equipped teh bike with new brake blocks and tyres. Tyres ordered on Wednesday last week were ready in Sydney for delivery on Friday from <a href="http://bicyclehero.com/">BicycleHero.com</a> in Seoul = awesome delivery and free shipping for orders over $100. One more day to prepare and it is onto the road to drive to Bairnsdale, Victoria = things to do<br />
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Last item - markets have been my area of focusing too - been itchy with some massive profits on JPY trades as the new Japanese government takes action to protect their export economy. Just waiting = good news when the trades are positive. Keeps up this way I will have paid for my extensive training programme at Trading Pursuits and recovered a good slice of my investment in FX Trading - turning a corner (though this is always a dangerous game to call before the big boys have finished their part of the play.<br />
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<br />Carrinmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01956327719089962286noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3878794492632609135.post-61429069424595299372013-01-09T16:18:00.001+11:002013-01-09T16:18:48.950+11:00Email Marketing pet hatesI had promised myself that I would start 2013 with a whole lot more FOCUS and some more active blogging. Cannot really say that is what I have achieved but hang - it is only January 9 and the year is but a puppy.<br />
<br />
Step one is underway. I had over 2,000 unread emails in my Inbox collected over the December period<br />
<br />
Followed some key advice to <i><b>reduce </b></i>the amount of emails one could be tempted to read. I am steadily taking myself off mailing lists, left, right and centre. I have also been writing some rules into Outlook to filter emails into buckets for processing later or for deletion. Thinking I need to create these rules at the mail server end so that I do not see them on any device that I can access. Would be great if I could copy rules from Outlook to my mail server. I am guessing I may be able to. Setting up some email management principles along the way that I will build into my outbound email activities. My pet <span style="font-size: large;"><b>HATES </b></span>for email marketing are the following and the PENALTY will be as follows:<br />
<br />
Immediate consignment to SPAM and DELETION folder <br />
<ul>
<li>No Unsubscribe opportunity on the email - immediate consigment to SPAM and DELETION folder and I mean <b>Immediate</b></li>
</ul>
Unsubscribe<br /><ul>
<li>Using different names even though they come from the same place/person. </li>
<li>Subject line all in Capitals</li>
<li>Subject line that does not match the content </li>
<li>Passing off as email from Facebook; Twitter; LinkedIn; Clickback</li>
<li>Email addressed to Hey You - I have a name or you can just politely write Dear Sir or Colleague or Customer or Friend or something simple like that</li>
<li>Email with no genuine and usable content - add some value to an already cluttered life</li>
</ul>
Three strikes and you are out<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>An unreasonable amount of emails. This is a vexed question as clearly some people are offering incredible value for each email and they are worth reading. I was led to believe that 1 a day is a good benchmark. For example Gary L has sent over 200 emails since November 14 - that is more than 3 a day</li>
<li>Emails for which the subject matter does not fit the original basis for me agreeing to receive your emails. If I have subscribed to your newsletter on FX trading, I may not be interested in Wordpress themes</li>
<li>Emails from Support area that are not Support emails but selling emails.</li>
<li>Emails where the hyperlinks do not wrap and have to be cut and pasted to be usable</li>
<li>Email about a product I have already purchased - I will ask for a refund of purchase if you keep doing it.</li>
</ul>
Feel free to add your pet peeves to the list- when i have a good list, I will publish some principles of good practice<br />
<br />
PS I have done a few more things on my list of Focus. Most importantly the Cycle Tourist has been seen on the bicycle building up some leg strength for an upcoming mountain ride next week<br />
<ul>
</ul>
Carrinmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01956327719089962286noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3878794492632609135.post-23289488297020668992012-12-21T16:28:00.001+11:002012-12-21T16:28:44.700+11:00Thoughts for the HolidaysThe last few weeks have been a big challenge for me - seem to have slid into a cycle of depression. One never knows what brings these cycles on. I just don't seem to be making any progress on a lot of fronts and this is raising my frustration levels. I do suffer from what the psychologists call a low frustration threshold. Failing (or not succeeding to my standards) at a few things does not help.<br />
<br />
Taken a while to recover from the passing of my friend, Cate Clewett who died a few weeks back following an extended struggle with cancer. I went to her funeral - with 500 people in the church for the service, I got to thinking about the impact one makes in life. I was wondering how many people would come to my funeral and what they would say. I can tell you it would not be 500 people unless one found a way to magically transport people around the world from all the places I have lived in. You see, Cate grew up in the suburb the church was in; she went to the local school next door to the church; she went to high school down the road; she went to university in the city; she lived and worked down the road. For me the failure is I have not made enough friends in each of the places I have lived in - because I have always been moving, I protect myself from future pain by not making friends. Cate's funeral was a strong reminder to me to keep in touch with the people I do make as friends. The wake was a good opportunity to put some of that in place with reconnections made to Cate's husband (Gene) and a few other mutual friends. the other big action step coming out of cate's untimely passing (she was just 60 and had been ill over the 12 years i have known her) was to nominate a Breast Cancer charity as one of the two charities my businesses will support. We have some great initiatives here in Australia and also some great research capability - I will find a charity that supports research - that way the benefits can spread wider than these shores.<br />
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I did attend a 40th birthday party for a former colleague (Tom Sonnen) last week. This was a grand example of not keeping in touch. the last time I saw Tom he was in his 20's. easy to make excuses as he moved from London to San Francisco before I moved from London to Sydney. I last saw his wife, Amy, even further ago than that. The bad part of the story is that Tom and Amy moved to Sydney about 18 months ago and I have not made one single call to plan to meet up. I guess I am a whole lot more comfortable writing rather than phoning. We had a grand birthday party as it was a chance for me to catch up with a few other former colleagues. The others i had seen more recently - for example, had dinner with Ron Chernin in Bangkok a couple of years ago when we were living there. Sad to say, Ron has been in Sydney a while now. The best part of the party was meeting Tom's daughters. Jade especially impressed me - at age 11 she was very switched on to the value and importance of life.<br />
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She was explaining to me the 5 keys to a successful life:<br />
<ul>
<li>Getting along</li>
<li>Resilience</li>
<li>Persistence</li>
<li>Organisation</li>
<li>Confidence</li>
</ul>
She could articulate how each applied in different situations - e.g., if you were being bullied at school; if you had a lot of jobs that needed doing. I did suggest she add a few - <b>imagination/creativity</b> will be key to making changes to life if things are not working as well as you like was one. I was cross examined about what I do. When I explained that I no longer had a job or needed a job, she was a little taken aback. She did say that if she was in that psotion she would like to travel the world a bit and write books - to create things. Very switched on young lady and a delight. Made me happy to be in her presence.<br /><br />
My daughter received her final results for her Higher School Certificate and her university admission score (called an ATAR) this week. With an ATAR of 96.3 she is in the top 5 % of all students in the state. That means she will be able to do the university course of her choice. It also brings to an end a chapter of schooling as all 3 of my children have competed school. there is no doubt that Katherine carries the 5 keys to success that Jade talked about - I just need to find a way to bring that back into my life.<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Zk_OuUwm7n0/UNPsyOA5tDI/AAAAAAAAAbU/1TP8_7m_dbs/s1600/KatFormal.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Zk_OuUwm7n0/UNPsyOA5tDI/AAAAAAAAAbU/1TP8_7m_dbs/s320/KatFormal.jpg" width="229" /></a></div>
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I have been able to get on the bicycle and have put in a few kms of
training with 4 rides completed since my last post. The plan is to ride 3
or 4 days a week with rides of about one and a half hours for a couple
of weeks. Then I hope to be able to add in one longer ride a week. We
are blessed to be living close to one of the National Parks which makes a
large part of each ride a traffic free experience. Weather has been a
bit strange - one hot day followed by one cool day. Riding the cool days
is working well for me. It's all a bit strange as we are in an El Nino
cycle - the low temperatures are not consistent with that though the
lack of rain is. The big challenge - displace a few surplus kilograms
from my waistline (currently weighing in over 90kgs).<br />
<br />
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FX trading continues to be a problem. Have lost 13% of my main trading account over the last 3 months (in roughly equal proportions). Last week was a great example - I made about 5% in the first couple of days after recovering a 1% loss on the first trade of the week. I promptly then gave almost all back to the market on Friday. 2 trading rules in place not followed - no trading on Fridays is one; the other is no trades on Monday until full review of market is done. It is not all bad: My trading robot is up 4.4% for the month (has a maximum of 3% at risk at any time). My outsourced service produced 2.4% in the first month and is up 4% this month so far.<br />
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Have pretty well got my personal investment portfolio in place for the expected big market moves. With the view that the US would find a solution for the Fiscal Cliff, the portfolio positioning was looking really good. The news today that the House of Representatives had <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-12-21/asian-stocks-advance-heading-for-weekly-increase-euro-weakens.html">delayed voting </a>on the Fiscal Cliff matter has put a bit of a dent into all that positioning. The worst part is I have a few option contracts expiring at the end of December - they were in positive territory and now are not - prices have dropped dramatically. Luckily we have a few days to go. Just sitting tight here heopiong that the US Govt does more than kick the can down the road a little way. That would place the time element of my options-based strategy at some considerable risk.<br />
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Hard to pass through this weeks affairs without mentioning the Newtown, Connecticut massacre. That so many young people should lose their lives in this way beggars belief. What has heartened me is the ground swell of support that is growing to tackle the gun issue in the United States. There are always a set of factors that drive these sorts of events which are linked in a much more complicated web than we ever can fathom (or the journalists will never dig into). Fareed Zakareer writing for the Washington Post summed it up quite well in his article <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/fareed-zakaria-the-solution-to-gun-violence-is-clear/2012/12/19/110a6f82-4a15-11e2-b6f0-e851e741d196_story.html">The Solution to Gun Violence</a> by comparing the rate iof gun homicides across countries adn comparing also social factors that drive aberrant behaviour. His conclusion is that it is not the social behaviours that are the problem, it is the access to guns. Having lived through the troubled times in South Africa when it was easy to buy an AK47 assault rifle on the street for $10, I can relate to what he is saying. I was exposed to a sinister side to that story too. I posted a tribute on Facebook to one of the teachers (Victoria Soto) who laid down her life to protect the children. I copped a heap of abuse from a Facebook friend about the fact that we did not tribute the loss of life in Afghanistan in the same way; about he American way and about the fact that my post was a publicity stunt. I was not happy - so much for the freedom to speak.<br />
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Well we are into the final days before the holidays. We have survived the end of the current round of the Mayan calendar. Now it is time to hope that the US House of Representatives reminds themselves that their obligation is to the world economy, not just the US political scene and hope we all have a happy holiday. For me it is time to take stock of all the things that have passed me by this year and to reflect on a year that has had its moments, continues to have its moments but has been filled with a lot of love from close and afar.<br />
<br />Carrinmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01956327719089962286noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3878794492632609135.post-32459966140243320402012-12-12T11:08:00.000+11:002012-12-21T15:06:44.639+11:00Tough getting focusedI wrote last in June this year and mentioned the word FOCUS. As I look back on the last 5 months in which Lorraine has been back at work and at what I have actually achieved it does not feel like a lot.<br />
<br />
I seem to be making a lot of mistakes<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Invested in too many Internet Marketing programmes: the market is full of compelling offers and there are so many new ways emerging to do things. I have more gizmos than you can shake a stick at in the realms of affiliate marketing and traffic generation and niche website projects. The time has come to put the resources to full use and to make it stick. There are some successes going on here. I have outsourced my Twitter management for 3 accounts and D4USocial are doing a good job building followers for @MarkSCarrington and @Stratocharge and @Go4ForexProfits. I have started my program for building Facebook traffic - just need to follow up to complete that process. It is all a bit dependent on building the website properties. I have changed direction a little on some of those properties principally because the affiliate products did not stack up that well. Progess is happening on <a href="http://www.go4forexprofits.com/">http://www.go4forexprofits.com</a> (RSS feed working using Commission Hack plugin but not to my satisfaction); <a href="http://www.train4cycling.com/">http://www.train4cycling.com</a> (focused on cycling training for endurance); <a href="http://www.cycle4health.com/">http://www.cycle4health.com </a>(focused on cycling for health without all that endurance stuff); <a href="http://howtodealwithtoddlertantrums.net/">http://howtodealwithtoddlertantrums.net </a>(a new area in a microniche arena with a view to selling my own eBook); <a href="http://www.go4internetmarketingbusiness.com/">http://www.go4internetmarketingbusiness.com</a> (this will become my main affiliate marketing site)</li>
<li>Trying to do too much myself. I have always been a technology junkie and I have been keen to learn how things work. My preferred style is to understand something by doing first before I outsource. I am also kind of waiting to earn some income before I start incurring fixed cost. Have spent a lot of effort getting rid of fixed cost and it is slowly racking up with many of the Internet services requiring ongoing costs (e.g., autoresponder; domain registrations; hosting; webinar service; Twitter service; etc)</li>
<li>FX trading continues to prove a long and slow learning process. I am learning a lot about my own trading psychology. As a trader I am not good at seeing negative numbers - I tend then to pull trades off because I doubt the strategy and/or tighten stop losses too tight. I have not really pinned down what the trading problem is though I can cast some of the blame onto my first trading coach - she confused me on the choice of strategy - and one of my teachers who confused me about selectivity in choosing trades ("if it fits the rules of the strategy take all the trades" Other coaches introduced rules of excellence). Where I am now is I have full command of too many strategies and I have not yet found a consistent model that works for me (trading strategy; trading plan; trade management are all not firmly bedded down). So I have invested time in two different directions. 1. Outsource the trading to some good traders who earn a percentage of profits and trade my account the same way they trade theirs - still on trial but they are doing better than I am. I will learn from their trading style too. 2. Continue working to refine the trading robots I have trained. With the exception of October which was a choppy month, the robot is trading profitably each month - still work to do as one robot is making fewer and smaller winning trades it should to overcome the losing ones. Just started testing a new one - picked one of the rated ones from Clickbank - Megadroid - will post views when I have them. Also acquired FAPTurbo in the 85% off anniversary sale - (only have to recover a much smaller price to breakeven). Also will look at Milion Dollar Pips - it's a scalping robot. I kind of like training machines to do my work. BUT is is also a break in FOCUS</li>
<li>Not sure this is a mistake but I have now taken over management of my own personal portfolio. This was a longer term plan and I have just completed a 6 month coaching programme with Trading Pursuits based here in Sydney. The mistake in there was not committing the time to get the best out of the learning - I did find the weekly webinars a bit repetitive. That is probably no surprise as the markets and the media have been singing the same old song all this time. Media says: CRISIS. Market says: MOVING UP - STEADY AS SHE GOES. One good thing is Trading Pursuits did organize an extra full day event at the end of the programme which served well to bring a bunch of things together. It's been a little longer to get my portfolio finally moved across from HSBC Global Asset Management - took just under 3 months to get that moved. I am sure pleased I did the portfolio tidy up early on and could hold on while the market drifted steadily upwards and could be safe with no interventions needed. I have continued with a mentorship process with Brad McFadden of The Daily Trading Report. So far that is working well with a weekly webinar and a scheduled weekly call. Get on well with Brad as he spent several years in South Africa and understands me and is not filled with the Aussie bloke thing (he's a Kiwi). So far the market moves that we have followed are shaping the right way - not all but it is positive. Once I have that shaped up, I can focus a little more on other things. I have learned a huge amount and feel better equipped to build an investment portfolio that is wider than a "buy and hold" thing and it is leveraged to asymmetric wins and covers a wider range of instruments. It's pretty scary what I have learned in the last 6 to 9 months. And I now know how to make my portfolio grow when the market is going down.</li>
<li>Done next to no cycling - this is a sad indictment for a blog called Cycle Tourist. We have had a really cold winter and it has been hard to get motivated to get out to ride. I guess what is happening is that I have got so busy doing other things that I do not feel that going out for a ride is justifiable. That needs to change as I have committed to ride 2 legs of Cycle Around Australia 2013 (<a href="http://www.cycleacrossoz.com.au/">http://www.cycleacrossoz.com.au</a>). Have been successful on getting the web presence built and ranked. If you Google Cycle Around Australia we are on page 1. What I really like about that is our main competitor is buying Google Ads to appear above us. Still got work to do to get Cycle Tours Australia to bring us to page 1. There is not a lot of pressure to do this as the ride is filling up quite well. There is a training ride scheduled for mid-January in the Victorian Alps - I have committed to ride that and must train as it includes one big climb over Mt Hotham. Looking forward to that ride - a few mates going and Lorraine is coming along too.</li>
<li>Have not seen enough of my children this half of the year. Easy to make excuses as I did travel a bit and they have been busy with university and final year at school. Truth is it hurts as it reminds me of what has gone in the past and it just reminds me of FAILURE.</li>
<li>Have spent some time on my South African venture</li>
</ul>
It's not all bad <br />
<ul>
<li>Married life goes well</li>
<li>Markets are drifting up - better than down.</li>
<li>Health is good</li>
<li>Some of my actions are producing results. Look at @MarkSCarrington and @Go4Forexprofits on Twitter to see the followers</li>
<li>My world of friends around the world grows.</li>
</ul>
With luck I will become a little more regular in the blogoshpere. The plan is to hone in on two areas: <br />
<ol>
<li>Breathe Your Dreams - a blog about all the lifestyle things that work in my life - fitness; health; cooking; natural health</li>
<li>Stratocharge your wealth - a blog about building your wealth through passive residual income business and investment approaches.</li>
</ol>
The broad idea is to talk about the things that I have tried and used and found to be successful. With a long track record of building a successful life I hope that there are lessons that will be of use to some of my readers<br />
<ul>
</ul>
Carrinmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01956327719089962286noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3878794492632609135.post-71799213493259302872012-06-18T13:56:00.002+10:002012-09-14T12:42:02.202+10:00Another year onAfter 22 months, Lorraine has finally been able to find a new role working in project management office role at ANZ Wealth. The last 12 months have been fun and a challenge - fun in being able to share so much time together. We have travelled a bit. We got married. We travelled a bit more. We have spent a lot of time building new skills. We have struggled with the aftermath of Lorraine's surgery last year.<br />
<br />
Foreign exchange trading has been a challenge. The courses at Knowledge to Action have varied in quality. The materials are excellent yet the presenters have not all been able to do the job. I suspect they don't trade the way the K2A strategies go and consequently they fail to teach with any conviction. For me, trading too has been difficult. I have struggled to find strategies that work for me - this requires consistency and constancy. Keep trading a strategy and stick with it. I have tended to cherry pick my way through and the results have been patchy. I have discovered I am not very good at seeing the losses and tend to pull trades off early. This is strange as in stock market investing I am much more sanguine about losses and am quite happy to hold onto losing investment positions waiting for the fundamentals to work their way into the prices. Now I work on trading robots to find a consistent way to trade some strategies and limit the discretionary trades to a mixture of daily chart trading linked to market fundamentals.<br />
<br />
Beyond FX, we have attended a number of Internet Marketing courses initially introduced to them by 21st Century Education seminar in Melbourne but mostly following the teaching of Brett McFall. Lorraine did the Warp Speed course and we attended Success Speed in the Gold Coast last November. While it is easy to see that people are making passive residual incomes from Internet businesses, it is hard to see all the things that have to be right to succeed. An idea. A pasion for that idea. A website. Traffic. Google ranking. Backlinks. Social media presence - the list goes on. We invested in a number of programs to help us fill in the gaps:<br />
<br />
For websites: Rapid Fire<br />
For traffic: FB Cash Creator<br />
For content delivery: Webinar Magic<br />
For social media posting: Social Speed<br />
<br />
Over the last few months, we have been working our way through this and results are Sales of $5.00 which come from an affiliate link to my domain name provider. What is missing? Well it seems very similar to the FX stuff - the need to find a single point of focus and to drive totally on that. My head is so full of ideas that I make progress on a whole range of things in a line but succeed at nothing. Quite frankly, it has been a whole lot easier just spending time with Lorraine and not doing the work. And there has been no shortage of administration to catch up. Every time I take a month off cycling it takes around 6 to get back on top of things.<br />
<br />
I did invest in another package called Commission Killer. Basically this builds websites around keywords and automatically builds in the products for sale from Clickbank. The websites are supposedly SEOed - I have my doubts as I have not made a single sale since starting. The tool does provide a neat tool to add articles and videos - basically searches the web for content and puts together as a schedule for publishing said content. Well this was all very well until I checked why content was not being published - the software had reversed the numbers in the date filed and post were scheduled to be published in 2102. I do not think I will be around then. You can see a few of these sites - I will focus on the things I know something about:<br />
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.go4pianolessons.com/">http://www.go4pianolessons.com/</a> - Lorraine says she will do the content for this as she learned piano a while ago</li>
<li><a href="http://www.go4forexprofits.com/">http://www.go4forexprofits.com/</a> - a lot of potential here to leverage my lessons as a forex trader - robots; education; brokers; indicators</li>
<li><a href="http://www.go4yogahealth.com/">http://www.go4yogahealth.com/</a> - have done a little of this and been through the tough journey out of hypertension and depression using relaxation and exercise techniques - yoga can be a big part of this</li>
<li><a href="http://www.go4paidsurveys.com/">http://www.go4paidsurveys.com/</a> - always a good way to make some incidental cash out of free time</li>
<li><a href="http://www.go4reversephonelookup.com/">http://www.go4reversephonelookup.com/</a> - the service the phone company should provide but never does</li>
<li><a href="http://www.breatheyourdreams.com/">http://www.breatheyourdreams.com/</a> - a focus on matters cycling. I will change the domain for this to get closer to exact domain matching for the content. I want to build the core site into a placeholder for all the great things one can do in life and the things that affect me. Live your dreams - Breathe your dreams. </li>
</ul>
Am also working hard on taking a new approach to managing my portfolios. To do this I have enrolled in an education programme with Trading Pursuits. This is all about taking a holistic view on investing beyond equities and fixed interest and including currency and commodities positions. My investment manager has not done well on the latter two parts - in fact my currency exposures are ugly and the use of commodities have been inconsistent - made money on Grains in the last runup and on Gold in the last rundown. Eventually I am going to build all this stuff into a new area which I am going to call Stratocharge Your Wealth/Earning/Income/Life - http://www.stratocharge.com. This will become a site addressing the challenges I have faced in managing my finances and in building new income streams to take advantage of the digital world. <br />
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Now that is a lot of stuff and it is completely against the trend of FOCUS. But that's just fine - if I can tackle one thing on one theme each day of the week, I will be able to progress a lot of fronts at the same time. And I now have time - Lorraine heads off to work each morning leaving me space to do what has to be done. The financial settlement with my ex wife is out of the way and I do have some cash to make investments and to learn from my mistakes.<br />
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Last area of endeavour - a friend is building a new software business in the whole area of business performance improvement. I am a non executive director - well I will be once I do the paper work - and a shareholder. Software is being developed in South Africa and first wave of sales will be there. After that we go global and my role will be to grow business in Asia Pacific and Oceania. More to do - for now I look after the website development - had to get something started to have a presence. We do get onto the top page of Google if you search for Centimex (that took me about 30 minutes to do by creating a Facebook, a Google+ and a Twitter page). It's at <a href="http://www.centimexperformanceimprovement.com/">http://www.CentimexPerformanceImprovement.com</a><br />
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Forwards<br />
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<br />Carrinmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01956327719089962286noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3878794492632609135.post-59307038875879874912011-12-03T20:30:00.000+11:002011-12-03T20:30:57.071+11:00Cycle Around Australia 2013: Preparations so far!!<a href="http://cyclearoundaustralia.blogspot.com/2011/12/preparations-so-far.html?spref=bl">Cycle Around Australia 2013: Preparations so far!!</a>: The decision has been made! We are doing the full circle in 2013! The planning & preparation has started! Firstly we had to decide which...Carrinmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01956327719089962286noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3878794492632609135.post-13713212731896098282011-10-27T21:35:00.000+11:002012-06-18T11:01:46.752+10:00How's the roly poly been - kinda good 2010 into 2011Well there is a lesson in this all - not posted since June 8 2010. A lot has happened in that time - not all of it has been good but it has felt like the roly poly has decided to go to someone else's life.<br />
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Maybe it will be best if I just write up a few things in bullet point form sort of chronologically to get up to date:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>signed the divorce papers just before I left Sydney. there was one hiccup requiring some documents to be sent by secret Swiss Bank systems when I got to Europe. Anyway the divorce was granted and made final on September 13 = a burden removed.</li>
<li>spent a few weeks in Bangkok with my love before heading out for my bike trip in Europe. This was mostly a process of getting into a pattern of working on administration and portfolio matters while she was working and exploring aspects of city life when we were together. After a long life in the suburbs it is a very enlightening life living in the city. No car means frequent visits to the store. A temple on every 2nd or 3rd corner means no pressure to sightsee. Hot and humid means a few beers need to be drunk</li>
<li>Flew to Europe directly after my birthday to join some Aussie friends in a cycle tour of Switzerland. Was great to spend time with my close friend Heinz, who lives in Basel. Was great too to enjoy a cycle tour dreamed up and led by someone else. We basically took public transport (train and bus) up the mountains and cycled down. The weather was superb. My partner was due to arrive on July 1 for a weekend in Berne, the capital of Switzerland. Journal is <a href="http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/mctoureurope2010">here</a></li>
<li>Sadly destiny decided that there were other plans - I had a fall and broke my arm on June 30 in Luzern. This required surgery in Kantonspital Luzern and my love spent 3 days at my bedside there rather than touring the delights of Berne and the Bernese Oberland. when she left to go back to Bangkok I spent a few days in Basel and then flew to England to spend time with my mother. She was having trouble adjusting to being on her own in her apartment in Devon. All her previous trips had been with my father</li>
<li>Then it was back to Bangkok as a safe place to continue my rehabilitation at the excellent Bumrungrad Hospital at the expense of my travel insurer. No point in coming back to Australia as I had nowhere to live and the travel insurance stops on arrival. Spent 5 weeks in a routine of sleeping, walking to hospital, walking a bit, drinking a few beers after Lorraine's work and cooking one handed</li>
<li>Spent some more time in Europe - with my mother (both of us) and attending a wedding of a friend in St Moritz. Was great to catch up with some long time friends there and to sample winter and summer in a week</li>
<li>In this time Lorraine learned that her job was to disappear and we had plans to make - find another job or return to Australia</li>
</ul>
So we returned to Australia. As I have no house I moved in with Lorraine and her son, Byron. With travel done for a while it was time to focus on catching up with a backlog of administration and to spend time together. Lorraine chose not to look for a new role until the new year. We enjoyed a few weeks with my children staying in the holidays - that was great - even though we did need to sleep on the floor. Many would not. Sadly that was cut short by some odd choices made by their mother. Not enough though to send me back into the state of depression - love helps cut through all of that.<br />
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And I had the prospects of a bike ride to look forward to - down the west coast of Australia from Broome to Perth and a reunion with many who have ridden across the continent with me before. Start date set for April 20 and a month's riding to do the 3,000 kms to Perth. Bike ride went well though I could have done with a lot more training. Might have spent less time in the van in the first week when we had open air temperatures ranging to 46C. You can read the journal <a href="http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/mcacrossoz2011">here</a><br />
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Got back to Sydney in late May. Thoughts turned to a few things to change life. We decided to get married on Lorraine's 50th birthday on September 28. As befits the way we live life for now, that was not a decision requiring a lot of planning or even thought - we will kind of drift into the choices that need to make in a logical sort of timing. One does need to fill in the paperwork with a month and a day to spare - that gives the first deadline. We also decided to train up in a new income producing opportunity - foreign exchange trading. I have been haunted by statements of my ex wife that I am young enough to go back to work. I do not want to do this - time to think laterally. So we signed up for an extensive training programme with <a href="http://knowledgetoaction.com.au/">Knowledge to Action</a>. Training course was interesting and challenging - maybe a separate blog post needed on this subject.<br />
<a href="http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/mcacrossoz2011"> </a>Carrinmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01956327719089962286noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3878794492632609135.post-14565972249480847062010-06-09T14:38:00.000+10:002019-08-13T14:52:22.367+10:00Getting off the Roly Poly of lifeMy last post talked about depression - a beast that has stalked me for some time now. For me this has been stress-based from outside interventions, rather than anything more sinister in the chemical workings of my brain. Working through a lot of new interventions this year has been really difficult. My father passed away in January (you can read about him <a href="http://www.facebook.com/Carrinm?v=app_2347471856#%21/notes/mark-carrington/cecil-carrington-august-4-1925-january-16-2010/294045046702">here</a> )- that reminded me of the obligations one has to support one's family. My girlfriend elected to take a new job in Thailand. The house I was renting was sold and I had to make plans to move. A friend of mine described this as the "roly poly" of life. Somehow I had to find a way to get off the "roly poly". Well there seemed to be so many options:<br />
<ul>
<li>Find a new place in Sydney so that I could be near my children and continue my Australian dream</li>
<li>Go back to my home country (South Africa) and support my family there and reconnect with all the friends that have stood by me all these years - 23 years since I left</li>
<li>Go back to Europe where I had 13 very fruitful years of life and travel</li>
<li>Get on my bicycle and ride away into the sunset</li>
<li>Follow my heart to Bangkok</li>
<li>End it</li>
<li><br /></li>
</ul>
I was not going to end it - though I came close a few times. I understand that the probability of suicide of children of a suicide victim jumps to 50%. Not a burden that I wanted my 3 lovely children to bear. They are all in their teens and twenties now and quite able to take care of themselves - my influence on their lives is dropping each day. They supported my thoughts of moving. I could not go back to South Africa. Whilst I left in a different time (1987) and I am pretty positive about the place, I have bitter personal experience about crime levels - my mother-in-law was murdered in her home on June 21, 2006 - not something one wants to happen to anyone let alone to a 93 year old lady living on her own and what a lovely lady she was.<br />
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I finally settled on a different way of viewing things. Things happen for a reason. I could be free to travel and to follow my heart as I no longer had a property obligation back in Sydney. And that is what I have chosen to do. The furniture is in storage. The papers are in my girlfriend's house in Sydney and I am going to do a bike ride too. You find me in Bangkok, Thailand. On June 21, I will embark on a two month cycle tour of Europe - revisiting places familiar and exploring places new.<br />
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And now on day 2, it feels like the right decision. My body had been rebelling with all the stress of the last few weeks. Was I doing the right thing? Would I get all the tasks on a very long list done? They talk about the big stress drivers in life - divorce (mine is still not finalised); death of a parent (2010); moving house (moving country is a bigger one - the third time for me) - sure have stacked up for me in 2010. As each hour passes the pressures seem to be easing off and my body responds.<br />
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So the lesson in all of this is "Take Charge" and make your own choices based on your own abilities and stick with the people who continue to support you.Carrinmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01956327719089962286noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3878794492632609135.post-90299164860719253102010-03-09T00:32:00.000+11:002010-03-09T00:37:25.459+11:00DepressionI'm on a new mission. As a quite long time sufferer from depression, I am no longer happy to read headlines like this one when someone somewhere could make a difference<br /><h1 class="cN-headingPage prepend-5 span-11 last">Tragic death of newsreader: ideal life 'drenched in negativity' </h1>I suffer from the symptoms of depression. Most days, no one would even notice that I exist, let alone that I had passed. We owe it to all the sufferers to get past the stigma and to reach out a helping hand and a smiling face. There is a place in the sun for us all - some of us just need a helping hand to get out of the shadows of the black cloud.<br /><br />This story sucks: http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/tragic-death-of-newsreader-ideal-life-drenched-in-negativity-20100308-psv3.html<br /><br />Let's not let it happen againCarrinmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01956327719089962286noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3878794492632609135.post-40336201707179442962009-06-30T18:20:00.000+10:002009-06-30T18:30:13.085+10:00Counting downIt is the end of the 2009 financial year. The financial die is cast for another tax year. Now it is seriously time to turn attention to the bike ride. After all, time is ticking away.<br /><br />I depart Sydney on July 27, 2009. The ride departs Rockhampton on July 29 headed for Darwin 4 weeks later and 3,000 kms further. We have a collection of 13 riders and Collis in the support van. Of those 13 riders, 5 have ridden across Australia before. Me in 2002, 2004, and 2006. Woody in 2002 and 2006. Sheila, Rob and Roger in 2006. We have all done some big tours in between. We have 8 other riders who are braving this trip for the first time. Of the 13 riders, 6 are women.<br /><br />My training has been diabolical in its scarcity. I have just ticked over 1,800 kms this year, of which close to one third has been in June. No excuses really - have just been spending the time putting together a new life with a new love partner. That side of life is really good. Now time to focus on the training and staying healthy and topside the road - have had a few close encounters. In a few days, I'll put a web journal up on CrazyguyonaBike.Carrinmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01956327719089962286noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3878794492632609135.post-66376272153206273732008-08-10T18:08:00.000+10:002008-08-10T18:12:34.750+10:00Looking ahead to 2009Been a while - have toured parts of Europe, have spent time on the South island of New Zealand and toured a few days among the Great Lakes of NSW. Now the mind turns to the next big adventure.<br /><br />2009 is time to ride across Australia again, this time from Rockhampton on the Capricorn Coast to Darwin on the Arafura Sea. You can read about it all at <a href="http://www.cycleacrossaustralia.com/">http://www.cycleacrossaustralia.com</a> - the website is mine. Please excuse the limited web skills but I think it does work.<br /><br />Current thinking is to ride to the start from Sydney - anyone out htere want to join?Carrinmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01956327719089962286noreply@blogger.com0