CharlieKenny.me

Hi, I’m Connie.

March 31, 2024

Great to see you this morning Connie, let’s grab a beverage, tea or coffee?

Coffee would be great, thanks. You know Charlie, I almost didn’t make it today. Just the thought of showing up to a room full of people I don’t know, the idea unsettles me.

Congratulations are due. Well done, Connie, my advice to you now is to simply ‘go with the flow’ after all, it won’t be long before you know … (let’s have a quick count) … seven women and eight men.

‘Go with the flow?’ you say, Charlie.

Let’s try and cure the anxiety, Connie.

‘Yes, it happens whenever I’m stepping out of my comfort zone. I have a terrible fear of being asked to describe myself and/or the business. I mean, I’m happy to have a conversation, it’s just …’

It seems you’re happier when you initiate the conversation. Here Connie, try this trick, open the conversation via the FORM guide.

‘The what?’

It goes something like this:

Hi, I’m Connie.

Have you had to travel FAR to make the meeting this morning?

Who are you with? What’s the name of the ORGANISATION?

Is there any particular REASON you decided to come along today?

and in the unlikely event you’ve not kicked off the conversation, Connie … ask

What’s your MOTIVATION?

‘Thanks, Charlie, I’ll try that.’

We all need a conversation starter, Connie, especially when the situation requires you to engage with new faces. Stick to the FORM guide, to begin with, it won’t be too long before everyone will know your name and help you along. By then I’m sure you won’t need any help with the conversation starter. Besides, if all else fails, simply smile!

‘People buy from people.’

Reliable is referable

March 13, 2024

Let’s keep it simple …

Leverage the benefits of belonging to a network, by becoming that go-to person, because …

‘reliable = referable’

#firstchoice #networking #reliable #you

costs nothing, takes you further …

March 3, 2024

Lucinda and I had about finished our catch-up when she turned to me and said:

“Thanks for the meeting, Charlie, it was good to share some time. You know, when I first came to the business forum I didn’t think you liked me.”

I laughed the statement off as we prepared to leave the coffee behind.

‘Of course I liked you, Lucinda. I like you even more now … because I’m getting to understand you.’ I’m the kind of person who prefers to give every new acquaintance the benefit of the doubt … I suppose that comes with the job, I’m not the first-time hugger type!?

When networking, it’s important we give each other time to grow into the environment.’

‘Do you believe that first impressions count, Charlie?’

Yes, I do Lucinda. The smile is important, it costs nothing and takes you further, past first base.

For instance, last Monday we had one of our regular forum meetings. Right before we started one of the attendees came to me and declared:

“This is going to be my last meeting here, Charlie. I can’t see a market for me, here.’

Now, considering our man had been with us for three prior meetings … hadn’t even booked a single follow-up with anyone in the room … I’d argue he hadn’t any idea of what was on offer by following up through conversation.

I do agree with your thinking that first impressions count, Lucinda, although …

Bearing in mind the main reason most people commit to a business network is to ‘work the network’ the adage … first impressions count could be misleading.

You see, first-hand experience has taught me that each of us have far greater referral power than we know.

When I first started networking there were many occasions my one-to-one didn’t materialise. I missed out. Perhaps because I didn’t like my ‘dance partner’s’ product/services … style of dress or even lack of humour! I couldn’t see past the presentation, I didn’t appreciate who might know who …

Referrals are never far away if we only give other people the chance to relate. Find out what makes us laugh and how to make our world richer and what or who you’d like to meet? It’s important.

‘Does this mean our meeting this morning was to find out how I could make you rich, Charlie?’ Lucinda asked, smiling back at me.

OK, Lucinda, I like you a whole lot more now! You’ve already enriched my morning by allowing me to point out the value of the smile during the one to one. Let’s do this again next month?

People buy from people.

Ditch the habit.

February 18, 2024

I was talking with Ben recently, he’s a Designer and struggling with a first-time meet with a prospect.

“It’s a hundred-mile round trip, Charlie. I not sure whether it’s worth it, besides I’m not a fan of longer car journeys.

I find I become anxious, uncomfortable.”

‘You won’t know whether it’s ‘worth it’ until you meet with your contact, Ben. Besides, how else do you expect to win the business if you don’t present your best self? If you’re uncomfortable with the thought of mulling over the meeting, then you’re not ready. Not ready for new business, any new business, are you?’

”Yes, I’m ready, the prospect loves our concepts, it’s just …”

‘Ben, sometimes we should remind ourselves why we’re in business. The difference this latest enquiry means is that you have to travel a little further. It’s going to cost to make the appointment. Yes, you may have to operate outside of your comfort zone, right?’

“I suppose I’m used to business coming to me, Charlie.”

‘But that’s it, Ben, change comes to us all. It’s time to step up and go a little further. Think of this one appointment as a blessing, an opportunity.’

“More like anxiety, Charlie.”

‘Pick yourself up and accept the challenge. The prospect already likes what they’ve heard from you and I’m sure they’re grateful you are on your way, and the car journey? Have you ever tried winding down the back window a little bit? Open the opposite front as well. You’re creating a different ambience in the car, the noise of the road, the air quality in the cabin. Create change.’

Try an ‘audiobook’ also, or a different CD. The anxiety will pass. You already know the prospect likes your offer. Try and take your mind off the traffic grind, and what may not happen and aim to arrive five minutes early. Fresh and ready for the job. Offer your best self, open the conversation with the story on your car audio?’

“I hear what you’re saying Charlie, I just have this fear of failing …”

‘Maybe it’s your fear of trying and the possibility of new objections Ben. You’re already in a positive position. Besides, everyone who has ever made it has failed, plenty of times. We fall and we get back up. You know this don’t you?

You know how it works Ben, we do this thing we do because what we offer is a solution. You don’t need a therapist to tell you that. These little ‘if’s and but’s’ and other ‘reasons to fail’ aren’t useful.

It’s easy to accept our routines, comfort zones and habits are easy. The excuses you confront yourself with will never be as impactful or exciting as the story of how YOU made it happen.

You’re ready Ben, go for it – and let’s talk about your choice of audiobook when you return.

‘people buy from people’

#winning #adversity #negativewin #notherapy

See different

February 2, 2024

I picked up the pen to jot down a note to myself, instead of the original prompt I wrote:

‘No, I’m not doing this …’

It was a message from my subliminal self saying it was time for something different.

The idea of doing the same thing for the same result, helping others, wasn’t appealing, there was the paradox. After all, helping others is how I established my business all those years ago. I’d now been challenged by change … I should begin doing things for myself, I thought.

Was I learning?

After all? I’d been following the same routine these past ten years and I’d convinced myself it was the correct way to go. I’d even made a point of guiding all who listened to heed the value of change … by listening ‘not a jot’ to my inner voice, I continued to adhere to the same old routine …

Now, was it time for a wake-up call?

If my path was to be the same and I expected a different result then my actions needed to change.

I couldn’t help but feel a sense of liberation as I found the telephone …

‘Hi Bill, Charlie here … what’s for breakfast next Tuesday?’

After our conversation, I realised that the path to contentment was understanding. I’d learned that change was something to embrace as a catalyst for new things. An unexpected smile, the opportunity for conversation, shared thoughts.

OK, the subject of the ‘phone call was hardly a game-changer. My moment of change was a question to confirm a colleague’s breakfast preference. We were meeting the following week and I would usually have sent a mail or text. Instead, I chose change and something that was making a small difference, as it turns out … for both of us.

‘Thanks for the call, I’d completely forgotten Charlie, appreciated. Let’s catch up for a one to one next week.’

Did my simple act make a significant impact? No, I thought not. For me, it was something I needed to do. To qualify my understanding of the inspiration that simple change invokes was enough.

Bill and I met up for a chat right after breakfast the following week. It seems my innocuous call hit a chord. Unknown to me, at the time we spoke on the telephone he was contending with a personal loss.

Significant impact?

I was unaware of my friend’s challenges, but in his own words, ‘that simple act of kindness, a call from a friend … it’s priceless and was very much appreciated.’

Embrace the opportunity of change, ‘business is personal.’

Dip your toe …

January 14, 2024

I clutched my bag of groceries as I clambered out of the car, just in time to meet the postie fast approaching, her own hands full of paperwork.

I could tell she looked a little ‘troubled.”

Before I could greet her I was handed the mail and asked … ‘Do you know the people around the corner, ‘West side?’ I’ve been over and the alarm is sounding, front door open, but no one answered. I’m sure I could smell smoke as well?’

With that, our postie was away … adding … ‘I haven’t seen anyone else, you might want to check everything is ok?’

‘Do I need this?’ I thought to myself as I left my handful of items in the car and proceeded to see what the commotion was all about.

Approaching the cottage I could see the front door indeed ajar. House keys were hanging from the front door lock and I couldn’t help but notice smoke! Then there was the incessant wail of the interior smoke alarm.

Stepping through the door I hollered: ‘Margaret!, Pat! Are you ok? It’s Charlie …’

Above the pitch of the alarm I heard a woman’s voice … ‘Alarm above the door, food burning, I’m in the bathroom!’

‘OK, let’s do this,’ I uttered. Silencing the chimes, now to the kitchen … oven off … extractor on, next, where’s the bathroom??

‘Margaret, are you ok? I called, hesitating.

‘Sorry Charlie, l can’t move and need help …’

Upon entering the bathroom my eyes first caught sight of a naked woman – sitting in a stand-alone bathtub (one of those with a high back) … with nothing more than a face towel in place to spare her modesty,

‘Charlie, I’ve stuck my toe in the cold water tap and can’t get it out!’

It seems husband Pat was out with golfing buddies and Margaret was taking her book to the bath for a quick read before dinner …

My face must have told a story … I stood struck dumb before blurting out …

‘So, where’s the vaseline!?’

‘Margaret simply howled with laughter … ‘throw me that towel, the grease is in the cupboard above the sink.’

It was a few minutes of wriggling, pushing and pulling. Margaret explained … Enjoying her read, she was disturbed by the dripping tap and so decided to insert her second toe in an attempt to stop the drip and … toe became stuck, fast! Now, locked in the upright seated position of the old-style tub she couldn’t lever her leg (or bend) to help herself. Knees high and toe stuck fast … if only there was a photograph!

Eventually, with help from ‘vaso’ we freed the embedded second toe, sparing further blushes from my ‘bathtub patient’ as I swiftly made my way, avoiding further explanation toward the grocery left in my car …

Margaret and I now have a secret … I’ve promised not to mention the situation to anyone, the ‘toe moment’ is going to be shared only between ourselves … because no one would believe it!

Trust is a wonderful thing, dip your toe, earn some trust and discover where it may lead you.

Speak the lingo?

January 1, 2024

I hadn’t seen Hans for 15 years until our Boxing Day rendezvous on his way to visit his sister in Holland.

Since that first meeting, Hans had finally wed his long-term girlfriend, Susan – along with the full blessing of her father!

‘So how did you manage to finally get Susan to the alter, Hans?’

‘Did I tell you the story of why it never happened sooner, Charlie?

Hans continued …

“Susan and I met in Chicago back in ’96 – and we wanted to ‘get hitched’ then, although her father wouldn’t allow it. It seems I (being a pastrycook) wasn’t ideal son-in-law material for the head of one of the city’s leading law firms. He was hoping his daughter, a lawyer herself, might marry ‘into the firm,’ so to speak …

We had a cool period for a couple of years until he began talking to me once again. It didn’t ‘worry me’ – it never bothered Susan at all either, we thought the silly ole guy would see sense. Then he asked me …’

“Hans, why don’t you let me introduce you to someone from my fraternity? Are you free for lunch next Wednesday, able to take a little time away from the bakery?”

How could I refuse?

The Wednesday lunch date arrived as I was introduced to a fellow whose firm manufactured stainless steel cookware. His business was well-established with some well-healed clients. He thought the time was right to expand on the back of a strong reputation. ‘Why don’t you come and work for me, Hans? By the way, how many languages did you say you speak?’

Hans is fluent in four languages, having grown up in Holland and travelling through different parts of the world. He and I first met in Sydney, Australia.

I remember I was somewhat taken aback, Charlie. The guy was serious and he had big plans for the future. More importantly, the plan also had the endorsement from Susan’s father.

So you took a job? What kind of job are we talking about?

Charlie, the firm needed someone who knew about cookware. Someone who could introduce it to new (international) markets. I took the job, Charlie, international sales, the terms were too good to refuse.

I thought you’d gone quiet on us Hans, now I know why …

Do you want to know the best of it, Charlie? My first customer is MacDonald’s. Not bad eh? First providing restaurants throughout Europe, then soon after Europe and the USA the company was asked to provide stainless cookware to MacDonalds … globally!

Susan? I asked.

She’s very happy! We married several years ago – with the blessing of her family – and of course proud daddy!

It’s that old catchphrase you keep bandying around Charlie, the one about networking and taking the opportunity. ‘People buy from people?’

Exactly Hans, or in your case, more like the language we speak. Congratulations!

If you must be alone …

December 30, 2023

RACHEL CARSON: EMBRACE THE LONELINESS OF CREATIVE WORK

“Works of art are of an infinite loneliness,” Rilke wrote in reflecting on the lonely patience of creative work — patience needed not only in art but in every realm of creativity, including science, and perhaps nowhere more so than at the uncommon intersection of the two.

In her unexampled union of art and science, the marine biologist and poetic nature-writer Rachel Carson (May 27, 1907–April 14, 1964) neither romanticized nor rued the essential loneliness of creative absorption. Instead, she addressed it with the plain poetics of her lived experience.

Even after her lyrical writing about the science of the sea won her the nation’s highest honor of literary art and her 1962 book Silent Spring catalyzed the environmental movement, making her the era’s most revered science writer, Carson continued making time to respond to letters from readers. In this superhuman feat — one downright impossible in our age of email, when millions of readers can reach a single writer’s inbox with the unmediated tap of a virtual button — Carson hauled trunkfuls of letters home, prioritizing those from students and young women asking her advice on writing. Responding to one of them, she offered:

Writing is a lonely occupation at best. Of course there are stimulating and even happy associations with friends and colleagues, but during the actual work of creation the writer cuts himself off from all others and confronts his subject alone. He* moves into a realm where he has never been before — perhaps where no one has ever been. It is a lonely place, even a little frightening.

In another letter, writing to a young woman in whom Carson saw her younger self, she deepens and broadens the sentiment:

You are wise enough to understand that being “a little lonely” is not a bad thing. A writer’s occupation is one of the loneliest in the world, even if the loneliness is only an inner solitude and isolation, for that he must have at times if he is to be truly creative. And so I believe only the person who knows and is not afraid of loneliness should aspire to be a writer. But there are also rewards that are rich and peculiarly satisfying.
With thanks to Maria Popova (The Marginalian)

https://www.themarginalian.org/?mc_cid=630fec02d1&mc_eid=73733b688f

We cannot build on maybe

December 13, 2023

I’ve spent the majority of 25 years engaging clients and prospects.

Engage, develop trust, grow, right?

More recently, hosting a regular business network, this importance on relationships has allowed me to understand the needs of a broad-based group of professionals … from a wide variety of industries. Many are well-established, some full of promise starting ‘the journey.’

I’ve worked with entrepreneurs with plenty of cash and employees looking for the next commission or order …

‘How do I grow my business, Charlie?’

‘Meet the people, go networking,’ is my usual response.

Not everyone shares a fondness for networking. Some have an established referral line already in place. Others aren’t looking for new business. Most of us are though, looking for the opportunity to connect.

What turns away most new networkers? The ‘hungry’ member-driven groups often bring the most criticism. The calibre of people these seem to attract can be questionable. Dubious sentiments? Could be …

We all have our opinions. Variety is important to me.

Happiness is important, I’m always asking … ‘What would make you happy?’

I’m not talking about the hard sell either, ‘hit or miss’ is not my bag. Close relationships are essential if we’re looking to grow, it’s the same in business. If everyone took a little time to discover where ‘the pain may be,’ and shared a conversation, thereby understanding each other a little better … wouldn’t that be useful?

Knowing your prospects and customers well, sharing their visions, understanding specific tastes and of course where the humour lies … we tend to develop more meaningful conversations. We learn so much more …

We benefit. As the business grows so does our reputation.

By knowing each other we can ask the questions that matter. Through regular networking we’ve done the groundwork, and understand the reason why, when asking for support there’s no in-between … it’s either yes or no.

We cannot plan, build a business on the maybe.

Unless we know and understand where we can help.

‘People buy from people they know and trust.’

Pick up the pencil

December 7, 2023

Hi Everyone, I know, you’ve likely heard me say, many times that business is seasonal, right?

That’s because I believe it’s true… here’s why:

It’s the expectation of what’s coming that keeps the business owner ‘on the toes,’ if we’re able to ‘see what’s coming,’ we’re able to act … it’s called ‘biz ability.’

Sometimes though, we take our eye off the business compass and what’s right. We’re distracted by current/popular trends … (just so much to digest just now.)

Targets we haven’t met … (oops, I’ve failed – again!)

Success coming to others … (when is ‘my turn’ for success?)

You know what? You are not alone.

Taking the eye off the ball, whether through distraction, fatigue … or both, happens to every one of us. Especially this season, this ‘distracted’ time of year.

Here’s what has helped me:

Name the problem.

Identify the dilemma affecting you now. Is it something you can work around? If not, shift the block by doing what you must do to move ahead. Yes, I know, sometimes that’s a tough decision to make … but … sometimes us in business need to make tough decisions, and … what if it works?

Next, pick up a pencil. (Usually found in your top drawer!) Write down your situation/the position you find yourself in now. Clarity ensues.

Spell it out, break it down, where is the hurt? Is it bad?? Does it impact you that much??? Is the situation something that will change in the next hour, perhaps a day, maybe next week?

No pencil? Google it if you want (more confusio!) Yes, do it you haven’t got a pencil in the drawer (shame! 🙂

By identifying the current problem (because it’s a seasonal symptom, right?) you’ve decided to act upon it. That’s progress in itself!

Ask yourself … are the symptoms of this current problem recurring? If so, what lesson from the past have you missed?

So, write it down, (yes, pencil is best!) Write it down and put that note in your wallet. A note … not an essay … as we all know the biggest problems we have are not that big!? So, one copy in your purse or wallet. A copy on a clear part of the wall, or even in the pocket of that seasonal suit you are surely bound to be wearing once more!

Because, this year it’s going to be different!

We haven’t finished yet … there are going to be steps you need to take to prevent the recurrence of seasonal regret. You’ll need to use your new superpowers in preparation for the following season … and the next, and the next … and you know what?

When someone asks: How are you doing? How was it for you? What’s the plan? Instead of an uncertain response, this time ask them to compare notes … because help is reciprocal.

We’re all facing very similar seasonal challenges to you, so inspire with a plan of your own this time … show purpose!

Make a difference in the coming season, share your path to a win and have a conversation, and you’ll be that much closer to a solution …

‘business is personal.

recent posts

about

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

I clutched my bag of groceries as I clambered out of the car, just in time to meet the postie fast approaching, her own hands full of paperwork.

I could tell she looked a little ‘troubled.”

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: