Tag Archives for " natural "

May 03

Rustle Up Your Personal Brand

By Lauren | Insight , Personal Branding

One of the things we really love about Thailand is the amazing food. Eating is a way of life here and there are so many fresh dishes to try, of course you wish you could replicate them at home.

There are lots of Thai cooking classes you can attend. We found one nearby called Aroy-Aroy which means “delicious” - literally it translates as “I like-I like” (you can say this to the chef after a meal and it means “It was delicious, I liked it a lot”). I highly recommend this class if you are in Chiang Mai, it’s so much more than a cooking school.

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Apr 24

Lessons From Elephants

By Lauren | Insight , Personal Branding

While in Thailand, we spent two fantastic days at the Elephant Nature Park, a rescue and rehabilitation centre for pachyderms, in the Chiang Mai provence, and yes, they taught us some valuable lessons in Personal Branding.

Initially all the elephants look the same and although the guides share each animal's story (many of which told of torture from the now illegal logging industry, landmine injury and ongoing abuse from tourist trekking where they carry almost half a ton of chair and human weight for days on end) it was at first, hard to remember each elephant individually.

We started to identify them by their physical appearance, like Lucky who endured forced breeding programs and cannot control her bladder, or Kabu who manages to get about quite swiftly with her disabled leg which was crushed by a log when she was a baby. 

Very quickly however, we discovered that each elephant has unique characteristics and personality. The guides even recognise the noise each one makes, one elephant being called a “drama queen” because of the ruckus she starts with her trumpeting.

The lesson of course is that we are all unique, we all have our differences, our quirks and idiosyncrasies which make us instantly recognisable to others, but there's much more to learn from elephants about personal branding than that...

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Apr 15

It’s OK to make mistakes with your brand

By Lauren | Insight , Personal Branding

Songkran in Thailand is the New Year celebration held in April.

Songkran comes from the Sanskrit language. It means "movement" or “changing" and is a traditional festival which lasts for three days.

In the old days Thai people would pour scented water over the shoulder and down the back of one another to wash away the sins of the previous year. They would also utter good wishes and blessings for the New Year.

The water symbolises cleansing, refreshment of the spirit and all the good things in life.

Today Songkran is more like a crazed carnival of people throwing water on one another, so during the festivities you can’t leave your home and go out without getting at least a little bit wet and in most cases, completely drenched.

Makes it interesting when you’re not quite sure where the water you are being sprayed with originates from and in many cases the bins of water used to replenish the guns and buckets have huge blocks of ice in them, giving you a shocking blast of freezing water in the back!

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Apr 03

Time, is on your side…

By Lauren | Brain food , Insight

Yes it is! (Thanks Mick Jagger for those fabulous lyrics)

Each and every one of us has 24 hour in each day to do something magnificent. Given only 8(ish) are spent sleeping, some of it eating and even a bit of it using the bathroom, you still have plenty of time left to make a difference in the world, stretch your influence and generate massive impact…

So why aren’t you?

Time really is on your side, especially when it comes to personal branding, because (and I’m sorry if this comes as a shock to you) it’s going to take at least 5 years to really rocket launch you and your personal brand.

Yep 5 years,

But there’s good news…

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Mar 30

Goals Suck

By Lauren | Brain food , Insight

Having goals is not going to help your business. In fact, having goals could cripple your chances of success.

The human brain is complex in it’s make-up and performance. Millions of synapses making thousands of instantaneous connections. But it still wants things to be simple.

With too much going on in your brain by feeding it too many images of potential success, it’s going to get confused, disoriented and discombobulated.

if you know anything about peak performance, that’s not a great headspace to be in.

Just ask any golf coach and they will tell you that having too much going on in your brain is the #1 major problem, in fact they call the few inches between your ears the most challenging distance in golf.

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Feb 07

It’s All In A (Brand) Name

By Lauren | Insight , Personal Branding

Choose your brand well...or others will choose it for you.

On a recent trip to New Zealand we visited the capital, Wellington, driving into the city along the waterfront and passing the sports stadium I had worked at years ago when I was brand manager for AXA and ran the World Rugby Sevens tournament there.

This towering, circular stadium, made of corrugated steel, is a few years old now, but when it was built there was fiery public debate about where it would be located. As it turned out, the council made the right decision and built it smack bang in the transport hub of the city, a few steps from the train station and on major bus routes, within walking distance from bars and restaurants.

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Dec 31

The 7 Real Skills You Need To Make 2016 Your Best Year Ever

By Lauren | Insight , Personal Branding

Enough of the New Year, New You hyperbole, mythical predictions and unrealistic resolutions, here are the 7 real skills you’re going to need to build a strong and successful personal brand this year:

Skill 1: The ability to be happy to be yourself?

It’s all too easy to look around and wish you were someone else and all together too hard to try to be someone different to who you really are. It’s much more fulfilling to be comfortable in your own skin, knowing you are being 100% authentic and honest.
Wishing you were more like someone else is not going to help you get the most from the year.

Action star Bruce Lee said “Always be yourself, express yourself, have faith in yourself, do not go out and look for a successful personality and duplicate it.”

Be grateful for all of you, forget what others think of you or what your competitors are like and discover what’s great about you.

It doesn’t work to constantly be seeking happiness, thinking that once you have a brand, then I’ll be happy to be myself. You will become 100% confident in yourself when you celebrate everything you are, your natural skills and talents and create the essence of your personal brand.

Only then can you step into your brand and start to live it.

We are living in the era of the authentic brand, so just be you?

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Dec 23

What Are Your Gifts?

By Lauren | Insight , Personal Branding

Christmas is here and it’s the time for giving and receiving of gifts…but what is your gift to give to the World?

Have you figured out yet, what your one true gift is that makes you so special?
At an evening with Oprah recently, she talked about the ‘thread’ that connects our life, starting very young when we did something effortlessly, something we loved doing, something that simply came naturally.
In her case it was speaking, starting at church as a child and of course becoming one of the most famous TV show hosts and great orators.

What is yours?

Think back…was it singing, dance, did you organise things, draw, read, play acting for your friends and family, play a sport really well, help others, tell stories, teach others, make people laugh…

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Dec 03

Top 27 Personal Branding Lessons from Oprah Winfrey

By Lauren | Insight , Personal Branding

When the World's leading female personal brand speaks, she shares the most valuable lessons she has learned throughout her life to inspire others.

So let's look at her personal branding examples that can encourage you to live your brand like Oprah...

Here are the top 27 Personal Branding Lessons from Oprah Winfrey:

#1: Two days after Oprah Winfrey started kindergarten, she wrote to her teacher saying: "I don't think I belong here 'cause I know a lot of big words." The teacher agreed and she skipped to first grade.

The Lesson: Never let anything hold you back.

#2: When Oprah was recruited to host her own morning show, A.M. Chicago, her major competitor in the time slot was Phil Donahue. Winfrey's open, warm-hearted personal style won her 100,000 more viewers than Donahue in just a few short months. She went from last place to first in the ratings.

The Lesson: Be yourself, engage and connect with your audience

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Sep 17

#whatweretheythinking Five Prime Ministers In Five Years?

By Lauren | #whatweretheythinking , Insight , Personal Branding

australian politics

Five Prime Ministers in five years? It’s not a looking good for the Australian political brand.

First let's consider what all the flip-flopping is doing to the perception of Australia on an international level.

Japan

We are starting to resemble Japan during its tumultuous six-prime-minister period between 2006 and 2012 and look what happened to them. The economic bubble burst with flat line growth for the past 30 years. In that time they’ve had 15 different Prime Ministers and it doesn’t look like it’s going to improve anytime soon. The political brand there is of ‘puppet politicians’ simply managing the country without any reform or reinvention.

USA

How does Australia’s political brand compare with the powerhouse leader of the world, the President of the USA?

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