Valuing Learning & Growing

Valuing learning and growing ripples out into every aspect of our lives. 

As an infant learning and growing was unquestionable, a matter of survival even. 
As a child it’s a must to get through school.
As an adult, for many, it is a choice, a choice to learn…or not.
As a team member at TCI it is embraced with an insatiable hunger.

It has to be. 
We want the business to grow.
WE want to grow. 

It’s even more than that too. 
Who wants to be in a job that only utilises the things you know how do, same tasks day in day out…looks boring just writing it. 
If that’s what you like then by all means rock on…if not - I’m sure you’ll agree, you’re up for a good challenge, passionate even.
Bring it!

Everyday we are faced with challenges. 
We can choose to see them as problems to hold us up or see them as opportunities for us to learn and grow.  Get passionate and determined about learning what you need to learn.

Take a moment right now to reflect on the last week.
Think about the opportunities you had to learn and grow…did you embrace them?
What books did you read to learn more?
What Youtube tutorials did you watch?
What did you Google & research on the net?

For those of you who already value learning and growing and would love to model an awesome strategy, I share with you something that Sharon Pearson (CEO of The Coaching Institute) shared with us on her Facebook page the other day.

“Here's a frame I use to learn a lot of information:

1. Figure out the actually purpose the information, so whatever is being learned must assist in the achievement of that outcome

2. Identify all the main categories of experience needed to achieve that outcome - so, for example, in email marketing, I would identify the subject headline, the opening, the content, the language, the call to action, the PS etc

3. In each of those categories, determine the crucial areas needed to succeed - yep, for each of them

4. Compare what I identified with best practice (for example, I would study Frank Kern's emails to see if I've matched his emails)

5. Practice my own version (and suck)

6. Practice my own version, and compare it again to best practice

7. Practice again (and suck less)

8. Implement

9. Document, and teach

10 Rinse and repeat.

Trust that helps”

I would love to leave you with this one final quote by Ray Kroc

"You're either Green & Growing, or you're Ripe & Rotting"

As always please like, share and leave a comment if you found this blog valuable.  Have a great time learning and growing and remember to pay it forward and teach it to others. 

Valuing Embracing & Driving Innovations & Improvements

Imagine for a moment. 

Everything that once was, is no longer. 

Everything that you had in place, gone. 

Everything you had made, undone. 

Or lets think about it in another way.

Everything that once was, got outdated.

Everything you had in place, lost it’s place in the market.

Everything you had made, someone else did it better.

I have seen the last one with my very own eyes play out on Facebook. One business owner who had been creating a handmade product for years and selling them at markets all of a sudden had a huge following online. Within that following were people who loved the creations and wanted to create them for themselves. These little creations began appearing and being sold in many cases for much less.

What did that business owner do? Well…one option could have been to accept the challenge and raise their competitors with something new and amazing that was again unique to them but that’s not the option they selected. Instead they chose to put a lot of energy into making a public drama about how terrible the copy cats were and proceeded to berate, abuse, name and shame them. This played out a year ago and I made the decision to remove their profile and page from my list and from what I’ve heard on the grapevine, it’s still going on today!

CHANGE IS THE BIGGEST CONSTANT. 
CANI (Constant And Never-ending Improvements) is a MUST.

For businesses that are excited at the potential for change and improvements, scenario’s like the one described above, is what gives them the passion and determination to be continually staying ahead of the game, to be continually providing a high quality and unique service. At TCI this is Value #7 and for anyone who does not enjoy change, need not apply. 

Anyone can copy what you do, in fact it is the very essence of human nature, from the moment we are born we proceed to copy the things and people around us.  What they cannot copy is the uniqueness that is YOU, what you bring to your service & products. The key is to be continually learning and growing and developing into the best version of you and producing a creative expression of that into everything you do. No-one can copy that.

So if you had to find a way to do everything differently right now. How would you do it?

If someone copied everything you did. How could you make yours better?

Do you set aside time to have a “dream session”? A time where you ask yourself. If we had all the resources - time, money, skills etc what would we do differently, better, more? This is a powerful way to innovate, it’s takes all of your newly learned knowledge and turns it into possibilities.  A famous quote by me (LOL) “Whoever said ‘Get your head outta the clouds’ never knew the possibilities that existed there” DARE TO DREAM!

Here’s some questions for a stocktake of how much you are valuing, embracing and driving innovations and improvements:

- BIG change is happening, is your biggest thought EXCITEMENT - or fear?

- Are you really embracing the changes, or are you merely surviving them?

- When was the last Dream Session you had?

- When was the last massive change in your business?

- How do you stir things up and help the people around you embrace change too?

As always please like, share and leave a comment if you found this blog valuable.  Have some fun creating chaos! Live your dream!

Valuing Out of the Box thinking

"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."    Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein was a very smart man and to this day one simple quote can still change the way we think about things to the point of fast tracking our success.  Reflecting on the Einstein quote above, if we all took a moment right now I'm pretty confident that each one of us could identify at least one task that has become repetitious and mundane and might get a good result but not a GREAT one. 

Unless we challenge the status quo on that task we may never give ourselves the opportunity to discover how much greater the result could be and what growth that would allow for.  Complacency will destroy anyones business. We live in a very fast paced society where new shiny things are lighting up the eyes of consumers every minute of everyday. It literally would be INSANE to keep doing the same thing over and over and expecting our business to expand. 

Is your business still an adventure?

At TCI this is Value #6 for us. It's so very important to us to LEAD in the industry because our mission is to Inspire the Extraordinary. We won't inspire the extraordinary in anyone if we simply hum along like a well oiled ship that's cruising a calm sea...no way! It's a well oiled ship with a strong foundation crashing through the waves others are seeing from a distance! 

We approach situations and challenges with an open mind, creative thinking, interesting angles and a sense of excitement and adventure for the unknown. We model others then challenge that too, stamping our own unique signature on everything we do creating new paths and possibilities.  

Here's some questions you can ask yourself at any time to check in with how much you're valuing out of the box thinking over status quo:

- Think about a recent task you did GOOD.  Is complacency limiting the thinking keeping it from being GREAT?

- Do you hear yourself saying "That's the way it's always been done" 

- How have you challenged the status quo and ask how can I do this better, differently?

- How have you stretched the thinking of OTHERS today?

- Are you being adventurous and creating new?

- Is out of the box thinking something you'll save to do only when you have the time?



As always please like, share and comment if my blog has inspired you to think even a little differently outside the box :)

Valuing the Creation of Fun with a bit of Quirk

There's plenty enough serious hands on work to fill anyone’s day in business. Whether it be the business of running a small business, big business, home business…FAMILY business.  It’s easy to get caught up in the busyness of business.

It’s for that very reason that I believe it’s very important to make it FUN - and a little QUIRKY.  At TCI this is Value # 5 for us and it’s key to our Culture being that of the kind of place to work that feels like home, the kind of place you don’t watch the clock in, the kind of place you’ll stay until you’re ready to go and you’ll love every minute of it.

Because we hire and fire on the Values it means that the people who fill the environment everyday are people who know how to take themselves lightly, love to laugh and are happy to bring it and share it with others.

Each one of us is an individual, not just at TCI but in any environment. Have a think about the environment you are creating around you. Are you allowing yourself and others to really shine with a smile on their face or are you insisting you/they stay head down and bum up to “do what they’re paid for” or “fulfil their obligation to the family” or ??? All work and no fun makes for a very dull environment!

What makes you memorable? I ask this because you know that great quote by Maya Angelo “I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” there may just be some truth in that hey…

Here’s some questions you can ask yourself anytime to check in with how you can be the person who creates a fun and quirky environment:

- Have you laughed at yourself today?
- How have you been memorable today?
- How have you celebrate the fun and quirk that others bring?
- Did you let the true essence of your inner funky shine today?
- What have you planned in the next 90 days that will be fun for you and all those in your environment?

I challenge you to go and express your inner comic on Social Media right now and find a funny quote card to share and tag me in it so I can celebrate you!

As always please like, share and leave a comment if you found this blog valuable. Have an Inspiring and HILARIOUS day all xx

ChocoNut Spread (Raw Vegan)

This recipe was adapted and tweaked to suit me from THIS recipe, thank you to Chris at Tales of A Kitchen.

This is SO delish!

ChocoNut Spread 

(aka a Raw, Vegan version of Nutella)

You will need:

1 1/2 cups Raw Hazelnuts

7 tbsp Cacao Powder

8 Medjool Dates

1 cup of Water or Nut Milk

Pinch of Himalayan Sea Salt

3 tbsp Coconut Oil

1 tsp Vanilla Extract

and if you like it a bit sweeter 

1/4 cup Coconut Nectar

Putting it all together:

1. First things first pop those nuts into your blender and blend them until you get a sticky dough. I use a Vitamix and found I needed to constantly scrape down the sides and pulse for around 5/10 minutes. 

2. Add the rest of the ingredients and blend until it is smooth, creamy and thick.  Again I needed to give this lots of love. If the blender you're using over heats and switches off (like mine did LOL) then you can always add more water to it.

3. Put it in to a jar and pop it into the fridge. It will be good for a few weeks (doubt it will last that long though). 

4. Pop some nut milk into the blender jug with the left over ChocoNut spread and enjoy a milkshake (why wash it down the sink huh? YUM!)

5. Find ways to enjoy it like: spread it on rice cakes, use it for a frosting on a cake, mix it with frozen bananas for a yummy ChocoNanaNut Ice cream...mmm...I'm sure you could think of heaps more too!

Enjoy!