practising: practising my skills as a colour consultant, practising my skills to learn to enable me to sell extra products.
Those were anxious days.
In February 1984, Beauty for all Seasons set up in Australia and I was their first consultant. The company was involved in multi-level-marketing and so began a new phase of my business and social life.
It was about this time that I heard the phrase passive income and fell in love with the concept. What a joy! To think someone else would be working for me while I was cleaning the house or at a party. Wow! I began recruiting, eventually having 125 in my consultant down-line, and organising monthly meetings and newsletters. I’d also set my sights on progressing within the company ad very soon became one of three national trainers to reach the status of executive director in terms of my selling. By 1987 I was running my own image consultant business, working with companies on the image of their staff and also accepting the position of Business Development Manager for the colour company.
Isn’t it interesting how life leads you from one path to the next; the professional image part of my work had slowly evolved. I remember so clearly being on a plane travelling from United States back home after a conference in 1984 and reading from cover to cover John Molloy’s book Dress for Success, heavily underlining sentence after sentence. The concept that there was a psychology behind the message we give others at conscious and subconscious levels, fascinated me.
That book began my quest for the meaning of image.
Looking back it’s easy to see now that what I was doing was allowing my interest in anthropology to surface. At university I’d majored in that subject, as well as history, but had never thought that it would be useful in my career. Now in hindsight I can see that this was exactly my fascination. Body language, communication skills, personal presentation even self-esteem all reflect our social upbringing and cultural expectations. I was involved in my own anthropological discovery of our 20th century western society!
By establishing my own company, Image Communications, I was able to follow that fascination. I read voraciously. I attended seminars and workshops, searching for my own personal path and honing my speaking skills along the way. Now when others ask me how I market myself, I tell them about my public exposure. You see, I decided at the very beginning of my image career that the way for me to sell my services, is to be seen to be out there. By speaking at SWAP, Rotary, Apex and women’s clubs, I practised my presentation skills and became known. I never turned down an opportunity to present before the public.
It was after one very successful SWAP club speaking presentation that a member said, “you should join National speakers” and so began the next and very significant chapter of my speaking and communication career. Nine months before this I’d resigned from Beauty for All Seasons as Business Manager and had been spending 6 days a week and often 12 hours a day working my own image and colour business.
Joining the National Speakers Association of Australia and almost immediately becoming a committee member was instrumental in placing me where I am today. Every meeting resulted in an almost sleepless night afterwards. Ideas, strategies and new points of focus would swim in my mind. There was one particularly memorable meeting in 1989, when Alan Pease discussed the value and importance of speakers writing books. Even though my mother had written several text books, I’d never thought about being an author myself.
After listening to Allan, I knew that everything would change.
What to write about? It took some time and some false starts but I worked it out three years later. The most obvious and significant things in life often sit in front of your nose.
What you write a book about is the topic that you live, breathe and think about every day. It usually is something you are learning about in your own life. “You teach best what you need to learn yourself” is a favourite thought of mine. So eventually my first book consisted of the inspirational messages that sit in my mind and on my refrigerator and which guide my life. They centre on self-esteem and confidence as well as daring to be different.
What will potential speakers choose as their topic of expertise? It is only when we’re prepared to share the lessons tossed up to us that we really have something worthwhile saying and sharing.
Find your own path as a specialist on life. You certainly don’t have to be a professional speaker to do that. Search out your truths. Tell others what you have learnt along the way. And never stop learning.
In February 1993, at a dinner meeting in Sydney I gave a speech to the Australian Executive Women’s Network as the winner of their Award. The title of my presentation was The Keys to Business Success and this was an opportunity to analyse just what had worked for me, and why, since deciding to put aside my husband’s well-meaning advice.
In thinking about success in business and relationships, I realised I use the experiences of my life, positively, to understand others. I can see myself in everyone I meet: their fears, their ambitions, their disappointments and their searchings. I have probably experienced most of them myself or will in the future. I can appreciate what is going on in their lives without living it. Emotions and desires are remarkably similar in every culture and in every age. The experiences of my life make me a more rounded and sympathetic onlooker and someone who can recognise integrity very quickly.
To be successful in business, especially in your own business, you must be practical. This was my second point. When I began my career in colour and image, I thought that the world was my oyster and that everyone would need my services. Well that’s true, they probably do, however they don’t realise it yet or more to the point, are not ready for it. So the masses of humanity did NOT come knocking on my door. I quickly worked out how much money I needed each week to live on, not to flourish on, just to exist on, and worked out a plan of action to achieve that amount. Don’t be airy-fairy about this, be very practical and if you have to take another job to bring in the rent, do it.
I set goals to work towards, dreams to believe in for my career and the kind of life I saw myself living. I thought about where I wanted to be in the short term, 12 to 18 months, and where I saw myself in 5 to 10 years-time. I worked towards those goals.
On reflection, I’ve achieved all those dreams and more. The most significant factor, however is that some of them didn’t come when I thought that they should: they came in the Universe’s time. I realise these days a very important lesson: my time is not Universal time. So now I say to my higher self, “this or something better, at the right and appropriate time.” And it never fails.
Another key to success in business is realising what being professional MEANS. To me, if you are not totally 100% professional all the time, you’re an amateur playing at professionalism. Some of the actions that to me are very basic to being a professional in business are:
•I walk my talk and do what I say I will do. Always.
•I answer my telephone cheerfully and with a smile and return all phone messages on the day or within 24 hours.
•I’m dependable. I turn up for appointments when I say I will; I have the submission on the desk of the person who requested it, on the day we decided on or earlier.
•I ask customers and other staff, “how can help YOU?” I know that I’m always part of their team too.
•I make others look good. We all bask in the radiated glory.
•I’m creative and different in many of the things I do. Although I’d never thought of myself as being particularly creative in the past, it’s amazing what happens to your inspirational faculties when you have creative friends and then decide
