So, it is the start of September tomorrow and I am back on my 30 day challenge. I maybe a little slow on the uptake – but I came across this recently and thought that this was a great idea: a complaint free world.

The idea is that you wear a bracelet (sorry, can’t bring myself to wear one of their purple ones, will have to find an alternative) for 21 days. You can remove it if you go 21 days without complaining. If you complain during the 21 days – you have to swap wrists and start again at 0.

Let’s see how it goes…could be a great experiment!

Amplify’d from www.acomplaintfreeworld.org

Will Bowen is the Lead Minister of the One Community Spiritual Center in Kansas City, MO. In July 2006 he suggested his congregation use purple bracelets to monitor their success at eradicating complaining from their lives. His idea exploded around the world and nearly 6 million purple Complaint Free bracelets have been sent to people in more than 106 countries.

Read more at www.acomplaintfreeworld.org

I still prefer the Kindle for reading to the iPad – it is way better with the Kindle Screen and a lot easier on the eyes. Unlike Mike, I ordered the wireless version only (didn’t bother with the 3G feature).

I do think, though, the Seth Godin is right – they should produce the wireless version and sell it for around $40-50. They would clean up! Maybe that is a future release, but I can’t help but think they missed a trick here with their fight against the iPad.

So, in short – Kindle – get one. They are awesome. Amazon – sort out the price and remember the international market!

Amplify’d from michaelhyatt.com

• It is much smaller and lighter. The body is 21% smaller while keeping the exact same screen size as the Kindle 2. It is only 1/3 of an inch thick—thinner than the iPhone. At less than 9 ounces, it weighs less than a paperback. It makes the iPad feel really, really heavy.
• The screen is much better. Amazon says it has a 50% better screen contrast than any other e-reader. It is a noticeable improvement from the Kindle 2. It also boasts new, crisper fonts. You quickly forget that you are reading an e-reader.
• It has more storage. Amazon doubled the capacity. It can hold up to 3,500 books. No, I am not kidding. Most people don’t have this many volumes in their entire personal library. It will also hold a charge for up to one month with wireless turned off and 10 days with it on.
• It is available in both wireless and 3G models. I bought both. The 3G is free, though you pay $50 more for the 3G device. Still, at $189.00, I think it is a bargain. You can download books in less than 60 seconds. It’s essentially a bookstore in your hand.
• It has a better user-interface. The first thing I notices is that page turns are much faster. The annoying flicker and delay inherent in e-ink technology is almost (though not quite) gone. The selector is better, too. (I still wish the Kindle had a touch screen.) The 3G model is also available in two colors: graphite (grey) and white. I got the white one, and it is really handsome.
• It provides an enhanced PDF reader. I haven’t tried this yet, but it might be good for manuscripts and other business documents. It has dictionary lookup, notes, and highlights. As in previous versions, to get your documents on the Kindle, you simply email them to your Kindle email address, which is automatically assigned to you when you buy the device.

Read more at michaelhyatt.com

I admit it, I am an F1 fan. And like many other F1 fans around the world, I sat down to watch the grand prix this weekend at Hockenheim. And like 95% of F1 fans, I was pretty hacked-off with Ferrari’s decision to give team orders, and switch Alonso and Masa. If you don’t know what I am talking about, and you want to find out – read this BBC article on the race (but in summary, Masa was in the lead and Alonso second. Alonso couldn’t pass Masa so Ferrrari gave a “hidden” message, or team order, for Masa to let Alonso through. This is in breach of F1 rules, as well as poor sportsmanship. They subsequently denied everything after the race).

I personally am a big fan of Masa’s. I just like the guy, and have huge respect for him coming back to racing after his accident. I am not a big fan of Alonso, especially since he was at McLaren and acted the way he did. His continual moaning this season hasn’t helped his cause in my opinion either. So I wanted Masa to win (despite being a McLaren fan). I think most of the know world did, Masa deserved it. It was a year after his accident and it would have been a fitting (almost divine) result and I would imagine that even the F1 drivers would agree with me.

Like thousands of other people around the world, I expressed my thoughts on Twitter. Then when I saw the team order, I was outraged – probably more because I like Masa more than Alonso if I am honest than the bad sportsmanship. I really felt for the guy.

Where Ferrari missed it

So I put that on Twitter too and perhaps this is where Ferrari missed it. They ignored Twitter. The ability for the world to communicate has massively changed, even in the few years since the Michael Schumacher incident that caused the F1 rule to be made. Within an instant you can gauge how the world felt about what had happened. The commentators knew how people felt, the press knew how people felt and so in the interviews after the race, they absolutely pounded into Ferrrari.

(I also think Ferrari underestimated the feeling that the world has toward Masa).

Ferrari’s response was to deny it all with a bunch of weak lies, in effect calling most of the world stupid for believing what they saw. This really got people’s backs up.

What Ferrari have since done

Since that day, Ferrari have been fined $100,000 (the biggest fine that can be made) and it has also been referred to World Motorsport Council for a hearing that is likely to take place in August. But as of yet, I have seen no apology from Ferrari.

On the contrary, I read in the press today that:

Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo has slammed the “hypocrisy” of those who have criticised Fernando Alonso’s victory in Sunday’s German Grand Prix.
BBC

In the article, the Ferrari president is quoted as saying (from the Ferrari website):

”These things have happened since the days of (Tazio) Nuvolari (a Ferrari driver in the 1930s) and I experienced it myself when I was sporting director, in the days of Niki Lauda.

“Therefore, enough of this hypocrisy, even if I can well believe that some people might well have liked to see our two drivers eliminate one another, but that is definitely not the case for me or indeed for our fans.

What I read here is an acknowledgement that these orders were made but again without apology. No mention of the lies they told. No mention of the damage to the sport’s reputation. No mention of the theft of Masa’s possible first win. No mention of how they treated people like fools. Just an arrogance that claims the rest of the world is hypocritical. (It maybe, Luca, but that still doesn’t excuse your company’s actions).

What Ferrari should have done

I think that the world is to open for large companies to operate in a way that doesn’t listen to the people. They fall too quickly. In an instant Ferrari would have know what people were thinking and should have given a second team order telling the drivers to swap back. Then they should have gone to the interviews saying, “We messed up, we realised we did and so during the race we tried to rectify it. We apologise to the fans and will take the consequences of our actions without excuse.”

They could have done that if they had bothered to check the sentiment of people. This would have been a massive PR boost for them, and they would have won on every level.

I don’t know about the team orders rule. Should it stay or should it go? It is a whole other debate. For me that is not so much the issue – but what is the issue is how Ferrari have responded and dealt with the people. The people have a massive voice through the media these days, it counts more than ever. Apple recently discovered this with their iPhone 4 fiasco and the nonsense they peddled. It has set them back years on the trust scale. I can’t help but think that Ferrari’s PR needs to learn from this.

Takeaway

1. Listen to what people are saying and then act accordingly. Don’t not listen and then tell people a bunch of reasons why they are wrong.
2. Lying is pointless! Tell the truth, face the consequences and move on.

We are all sat theatre style in the new Convention Centre in Liverpool busy networking and throwing out business cards as quickly as we can. I am the grateful guest of Jacqui, who does a phenomenal job driving the Convention Centre forward as this event will testify to. Jacqui has arranged for Mike Southon to come and speak to all of us about how you can learn all about Entrepreneurship through the life of the Beatles. We all know Mike through his book, the Beermat Entrepreneur — a book that I believe to be required reading for any fellow business person — so, I guess, we are all wanting to hear what he has to say. At least I am.

Mike starts his talk without giving us any indication of how long the talk will last, which I can’t help but think, in hindsight, was a premeditated move on his part. The talk went on, and on, and on…you get the picture. I was enjoyable, albeit, long and I did learn a few things. In fact, I managed to make two pages of notes from his talk, and if you get the chance to hear it – I would recommend you do – just sneak out after an hour or so with a convenient excuse.

Perhaps the most interesting notes that I took from his talk, and certainly the idea that I tell most people about, is this idea of the 7 year cycle. I am not sure if this is Mike’s own discovery or not – but it was at his talk I first heard it.

The 7 year cycle goes as follows:

• Ages 21-28: Try as Many things as possible
• Ages 28-35: Serious attempt at one thing
• Ages 35-42: try something different
• Ages 42-49: Peak of powers
• Ages 49-56: Represents maturity and self awareness
• Ages 56-63: Plan your legacy
• Ages 63-70: Become a true mentor

I find myself if the “try something new” category, not just because of what Mike says but also because it is my experience. One of those “coaching” words that I have found myself using a lot recently, is: default. It is a concept that I got from the book: Nudge.

What is the default mode of operation for you, your business or your industry? This is the mode that you return to when there are no other external forces acting on you. It is why the idea of dieting doesn’t work – because you are changing something temporarily. After a while, you will return to your default habits when the external forces acting on you bring the diet to an end.

It is the reason why debt consolidation doesn’t really work – you are dealing with changing a monthly payment. The default (or habit) that caused the debt, is still there and despite your good intentions, sooner or later you will return to it.

Well, until you reach the age of 35 it seems!

So, a lot of my personal questions at the moment are all about challenging the default. Why does it exist? How can we do it differently? How can we do it better, much much better? And it is in the answers that I find the magic, the passion and the energy to drive something forward to create change.

Whilst I don’t want to preach a theology, start a movement or worse still, create some kind of horoscope – I find the 7 year cycle quite accurate for me, past and present. Of course, there are people it doesn’t apply to, but it does help you understand what phase of life you are in, and then celebrate that phase rather than try and change it. It is good for me to be trying something new now…

Takeaway

1. What phase of the 7 year cycle are you in? How do you see the affecting you and what is going on around you at the moment?
2. What is the default that is holding you back at the moment?
3. How could you change it?
4. What’s stopping the change?

MP3 Version |  iPhone/iPod/iPad Version |  YouTube | Vimeo | iTunes

Spent some great time talking with Ian Finch, the MD of Mando Group. What a top guy Ian is, a really genuine “geezer” who is a brilliant business guy. Ian has already posted on the blog and will be speaking at the en-thuse:2010 conference this year, so this video is just the icing on the cake!

In this episode, I talk to Ian about his 13 years in the business. Ian talks about how he balances business with being a new dad, giving and tithing as well as how they have engaged their staff in giving with their new Charity, the Mando Group Foundation. Ian also talks about the value of confrontation as well as their new awesomeness campaign (yes you read that right!)

(Posted on the en-thuse.com site)

A few days ago, I posted a quote on twitter: Silent gratitude isn’t much good to anyone” (Gladys Stern).

The Challenge

This got me thinking with regards to my next 30 day challenge. Wouldn’t it be great to form the habit of going out of my way to show my gratitude to people I wouldn’t ordinarily do that with? I am not just talking about my wife or team mates, but people that I am in brief contact with – the lady at the checkout, the guy on the phone etc.

People that I just normally give a passing thanks to. Wouldn’t it be great to form the habit of being really grateful to those guys? How would it impact these folks?

So for the last 5 days, I have been going out of my way to say thanks to these folks – it is my current 30 day challenge.

Happenings with O2

I’ve made an interesting discovery in the last few days: people and companies aren’t geared up for people saying thanks. But they are geared up for people who complain.

Take my recent dealings with O2 over my lost iPhone. On the whole their policy has not blessed me, at all. Normally in such situations – I would give the guys on the phone a hard time. This time I tried a different route. I looked for ways to be really grateful for the the help they gave me.

There was a girl called Sarah, a kind Scouser. The more I appreciated what she did – the more she did. It got to the stage where I thought it would be good to write into O2 and congratulate them on hiring someone so kind and helpful (even if limited by the company’s crazy policy). When I told Sarah that I would like to do this and asked her who I should write to – she didn’t know.

The same with the next two people that I spoke to at O2: the more I thanked them, the more helpful they became. When I asked who I could write to – no one knew.

The best advice they could give me was to given them a good score when I get the text message asking me to rate their service.

Amazing isn’t it? People just aren’t used to receiving positive remarks about their service. Perhaps this is peculiar to the UK?

Bizarrely, when i told one guy that I wanted to write in – he gave me the complaints department details. His assumption was that I wanted to complain despite being grateful with him on the phone. I guess those guys in the call centres are used to getting complaints everyday!

So, as a business – we have a complaints procedure. What about a gratitude procedure?

Takeaways

• I wonder if i should set up a system that illicits gratitude from people about my staff? Could be an interesting experiment? (This is probably more of a takeaway for me).
• Being quite vocal about your gratitude with someone really influences them.
• You have to be both sincere and specific about your praise with people. When you thank people, reference a specific thing that they have done for you. So, don’t just say “thanks for the help” but rather “I really appreciate the fact that you went and checked that for me, thanks.” It is much more effective when you are specific.

It will be an interesting month, and i look forward to seeing what happens over the next few weeks!

So what did I learn over the last 30 days:

1. The discipline of writing everyday really causes you to think creatively.
2. Not everything you write is worth posting – but write is anyone (just save it as a draft and come back to it).
3. When you spend a lot of time writing, you spend less time promoting your site. According to Analytics – the number of new visitors to my site fell.
4. When you add regular content, the number of repeat visitors goes up, and it goes up a lot! Readers also spend longer on your site and view more pages.
5. Give people takeaways when writing an article that is to bring about a change of some kind. Takeaways is a term given to me by Rob Brown (thanks Rob!) describing an action people can do (usually quickly).

The most popular posts from the last 30 days (in order)

1. Today, I had a great leaders meeting at church…I know, I was surprised too! (Posted 10.06.2010). This took the most hits, but bizarrely had no Tweets (using the site tweet button) or Comments. It is the article people mention the most to me when they see me though.
2. Performance lessons from the iceberg: pt I (Posted 04.06.2010).  This was popular on twitter.
3. The best sales advice I can give you: authentic selling (posted 09.06.2010). This sparked a number of great conversations (both on the web and face-to-face), that then led to a series of posts on what Authentic Selling looks like. All of these posts have become popular so I have just added the link to the first post.
4. A new definition of marketing (posted 21.06.2010). This is the one post that has sparked the most involvement and contribution from people and led to my post from last night: Update – A New Definition of Marketing. These posts I can see becoming some of the all time populars as they are only a few days old, but already up to number four on the hits parade!

Ironically – these are the posts that I have enjoyed writing the most. It has been great for me to cement my thoughts on Sales (Authentic Sales Posts) and Marketing (The New Definition Posts) – it is very relevent to me and my business that is for sure. I never thought that the church meeting one would do so well (it just goes to show you!) – I imaging a lot of the success there was the title of the post (a brief moment of inspired genius).

I have really enjoyed working on my blog with this much focus and emphasis. I do think the number of posts will drop (to maybe 2 per week), but the writing will continue and I’ll be a little more selective of what to actually post.

Something that I have not been able to do is as many Vlogs as I would have liked (they are recorded and being edited the few that I did do) – but this should hopefully change as I am changing some of the technology set up that I have to make this quicker and easier.

I’ll post about my next challenge tomorrow – just trying to decide which one to do!

So thanks for reading, and stay tuned!

Question: What is the one thing that you think I could do to instantly improve the quality of this blog?

I sit here somewhat at a loss because of the England performance I witnessed.

I could talk about today’s game. There would not be enough words to describe how badly we played. We were indifferent, lacklustre and without any passion.

I could talk about the team. Why can’t a bunch of world-class talented guys play together and create a world class team?

I could talk about the manager. Why would you take a striker off the field when you need 3 goals in 20 minutes?

I could talk about the system. Why don’t we play Gerrard in the holding position behind Rooney?

I could talk about what we don’t have. Beckham. Passion. The list would be long!

I could talk about the fans. Incredibly loyal fans that cope with immense levels of disappointment.

But I thought I would talk about my business.

Everyone can see what is wrong with the England team, yet we all hope and believe things will be different next time. How often do I treat my business the same way? I’ll change maybe one or two things – but that’s it. I can see the problems, but do I change them? Do I listen to my fans, or do I believe that I know better than them? Do I still keep a member of staff that can’t play on my team because of their past reputation? Am I the type of leader that can create something totally world class, or do I blame someone else for it not working? Do I let my team put forward a display that shows no belief in what the company stands for?

I would be embarrassed if I was the England manager today.

I would be shamed if I was one of the England players.

I still believe that thing can change because that is what England fans do.

In short, though, I am like most people. I can see what others need to change. I am just not so clear at seeing what I need to change, and then having the strength to change it.