For those that don't know Rachel Glucina is slightly larger than her media shots in the "Spy" section of the Herald on Sunday (to say the least). This Tweet I saw today is a classic case of Karma coming back and biting her in the big but and I couldn't help but have a laugh.
Note: Please start at the bottom and read up to top to get full enjoyment of multiple tweet narrative...
Jessica Watson is th 16yr old Australian girl just about to complete her solo round the world sailing adventure and will be the youngest on record to complete the journey.
I love this story and it reminds me of a quote from Sir Edmund Hillary "People do not decide to become extraordinary. They decide to accomplish extraordinary things.”
Jessica Watson is no doubt going to go down in history as an extraordinary person yet I am sure both she and her parent feel that she is an ordinary girl that has had extraordinary goals and the support and motivation to achieve them.
Last month her agent reportedly signed a $700,000 deal with News Corporation for her story. 12 months ago her parents had spent around $300,000 of their own money getting the campaign underway and were facing ever mounting costs with little support.
5 Oceans Media got behind the campaign and quickly brought sponsors on board so it looks like Jessica will be set up for some time with good people behind her. I am sure that with such drive at such a young age Jessica will continue to do great things and will have a great career ahead of her no matter what path she chooses.
Check out her website and send her messages of support here.
We have just had success in selling our home and had to use a bit of initiative and some ambush marketing to combat a bit of a rouge agent.
Here is how it all came about:
We live in a townhouse, the rear house in a block of three. Our neighbour at the top of the drive had tried unsuccessfully to sell his house earlier in the year so when we put ours on the market (sale by auction) I did the decent thing and let him know prior to the signs going up. He said he was going to go to auction as well but would wait until we had finished our campaign.
Two days later a sign went up next to ours promoting their home for sale as well. No knock on the door, no phone call saying his agent had advised him not to wait, nothing. Not only that but his agent had set the open home times before ours. That is his prerogative of course but in effect it meant that if people wanted to view both properties they would have to go through the top house then come back a few hours later to come through ours. The natural thing for many people to assume would be that both homes would be similar so many wouldn't have bothered to come back to see our home.
What was really dissapointing was that we found out the other agent was also making disparaging comments about our home which shows just how unethical the guy was.
So, the ambush marketing plan was hatched. While the other open home was on we put our open home sign out in front of our home and I nonchalantly pretended to work in the garden on the driveway. As the prospective buyers left the first open home I told them that although our agent wasn't due for a couple of hours for the official open home, they were more than welcome to have a wander through to save a trip back later in the afternoon. Anna was inside taking their details for the agent and did such a fantastic job wowing them one of them actually said to me on the way back up the drive that she should get into realestate as she was better than most the agents he had dealt with in the last few months while he had been looking for a home.
The result? We ended up having 26 groups come through our home over the second weekend of our campaign capitalising on both advertised open homes. Had three offers in the following 4 days leading to the auction being brought forward.
The eventual buyer originally came to view the top house and stated they wouldn't have bothered coming back to view ours after seeing the other home as they were so disappointed in its condition.
Needless to say our agent gave us a healthy discount and everyone was very happy with the result (other than the agent for the other property).
One of our greatest ever players and only captain to ever hold the William Webb Ellis trophy as a winner thinks the Allblacks may not be quite ready to go all the way yet again.
Vidcom NZ were delighted to host a table of guests at the Auckland Chamber of Commerce Rugby World Cup 2011 Speaker Series today with David Kirk as the guest speaker.
The theme was preparing for the world cup and lookig at things from both a business and rugby perspective both of which David Kirk is incredibly well qualified to speak on. The Rhodes scholar, captain of the 1987 World Cup winning team and ex head of Fairfax Media is a rare hero achieving great success in both the business and sporting worlds.
Interestingly David thought the jury was still out as to wether the Allblacks were capable of winning the 2011 World cup with the current crop of talent. While hard to swallow he did have a few good points and it was refreshing to hear and ex Allblack being honest and not just sticking to the party line of drivel coming from the NZRFU.
His speech focussed on three key points:
1. Planning: Being prepared for the event. Do the research, get yourself and your business ready to capitalise on the event and do it wisely.
2. People: Get the right people in the right positions as you can do all the planning in the world but if you have the wrong team you are never going to succeed. - The 1987 team had awful preparation an a heap of new players but they were the right players!
The sweet taste of success in 1987
3. Poise & personality: A further empahis on point two really where you need to have that little bit extra to rise to the top. The sheer determination and self belief in success (something we as New Zealanders struggle with at times). See things through when the going gets tough and celebrate our succecsses.
He opened his speech with commentary on society and business highlighting that for a nation to truly grow and its people to benefit the growth is driven by businesses. The health care system, education social welfare all benefit from the tax dollar generated by business so we need to champion business success and drive for busines growth first and foremost. Something that many people fail to see especially when times are tough and businesses have to make hard decisions to keep afloat let alone make profit. In the long run if businesses in NZ are out there growing and making profits we all benefit.
The wise business great also put a special emphasis on using the event to not only have a profitable 2011 but to utilise those profits wisely and rather than tkaing the soft option of using the extra profits to reward ourselves by an extra overseas holiday or a new boat, look to reinvest in our businesses to ensure prolonged growth and stability.
For the rugby diehards I have added a clip from a RWC interview with David Kirk on next years events and his take the historic 1987 victory a very good watch!