Australian Experiential Learning Centre

Last week in Melbourne, although I was catching up with my fabulous board, meeting with University greats and so on, the highlight of the trip was on the final night. Myself, two former student faves and one of my gorgeous Directors happened upon the fabulous brand new St Katherine’s restaurant in Kew – on its opening night!

As we walked through the door the smell of new paint was a dead giveaway as was the buzzing around of trainee staff all looking bouncy and enthusiastic. That doesn’t happen often.

Well St Katherine’s is one of George Calombaris’ (from Masterchef) brand new theme cuisine restaurants, partnered with mate Shane Delia. The food is Maltese inspired fusion fare – don’t I sound quite the foody – althought technically it’s described as “a melding of Modern Greek, Turkish and Middle Eastern cultures and food”.

With great value dishes and brilliant service, I was surprised and impressed and that doesn’t happen often.

Having just delivered a course on Personal Branding, the message was loud and clear in this establishment. George was everywhere – the staff were dressed in his image, the perkiness/quirkness of his personality came across via the unique serving accouterments and the atmosphere was buzzing. All of this because Australians love this show and George has leveraged that relationship particularly well.

And here am I talking about it to you and what does that say? If it was terrible it would have been tragic. The higher you are the further you can fall. On the other hand the higher you are the more access you have to the best and the more leverage you have. Brand is about building something that wasn’t, into something that feeds itself and then all you have to do is deliver. I like it!

On my desk sits an invitation to a fabulous art exhibition inspired by the lyrical café culture of cosmopolitan Paris.

My mind starts to wander up the pathway of exotic holidays, leisurely conversation and fabulous coffee. And then – I am brought back to earth with a jolt, the phone rings, emails pop up and the business world roars into rabid action.

I wistfully gaze back at the invite before resolutely pulling my mind into the now. But guess what? My shoulders have straightened and I feel my backbone kick in. Why you ask? Because one of my personal goals is to live in Europe for a year and write a book. To do that I have to run a successful and profitable business. So I work with a renewed vigor.

Creating goals and giving yourself visual reminders is a great tool for business and career success. So have a little dream and then get yourself into top gear!

Painting image courtesy of www.gregbaker.com.au

#jobhunt #jobsearch #coverletter

A week ago, out of the blue, a young student of Entrepreneurship sent me an email with a resume attached asking for employment in my business.

I took one look at it and pressed delete – but not because I couldn’t hire someone – we are currently seeking to employ. The reason? It was obviously generic, not addressed to me as the CEO but “to whom it may concern”. It was clear that the same email was going to multiple companies as this person had no idea of what we really do. It came across as ignorant and arrogant and with quite average English as well.

I applaud the fact this person is trying a different tack but to do that without good research and an understanding of the market you are in is a ridiculous waste of time and energy.

So my recommendations to young job hunters taking this particular path are:
• Research your chosen company and pinpoint a position that you think is appropriate and in keeping with your education and career aspirations. In particular look at the company values for clues. You can ring the organisation to find out this information, Google it or look at the website. Whatever works for you.
• Point out how you think you can benefit the organisation. I, as an employer for example, need to know how your skills could be best put to use.
• Do not use arrogant language. Telling me that I will miss out or be a fool not to employ you is definitely not the way to go.
• Contrary to the popular belief held by most graduating students, you are not God’s gift to the job market! Many students have an inflated sense of their worth in the market bolstered by unrealistic and generic advice from career centres and academics. Let it go and be prepared to start at the bottom. It will pay off.

The upshot is make sure you know to whom you are speaking and it could be a whole different result.

I do!

A quote from Confucius goes something like this – “I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.”

Most education programs work in the sphere of the “hear”! Well that just isn’t good enough.  My attitude is that we just have to put more thought into everything we do and make it more experiential. A new project that the AELC is designing for the Advantage Foundation incorporates this philosophy.

Retrobuild is an eco-sustainable retrofit of an old house involving students from multiple disciplines.

For example, design students can design the layout, horticulture students will do the garden, science students will invent a gray water system and the list goes on. How hard is this to do? Harder than teaching in a classroom. How much learning is achieved? Masses! All we need to do is cooperate across the disciplines in  multiple institutions.

Sounds easy! However, most schools within these teaching institutions don’t talk to each other and simply don’t have the expertise to manage it as a project. Cross-institutional cooperation brings even more problems.

Where there is a will, there is a way -so stay tuned to this space. The project begins in March 2011 but the negotiations start now.

I do and I understand!

The fabulous Nathan (Naked Ape), has written another corker this week commenting on the negatives and positives of the female entrepreneur.

Well… at first it sounds positively awful.  According to Nathan “you are going to die. Before you die, if you are lucky you will lose your good looks and your body will fall apart. Your skin will become wrinkly and your hair will fall out. If you are really lucky this will happen well after all your friends and immediate family have died and you will be alone and very frail when it happens at a very ripe old age.”

My fine friend, we will die but it won’t be alone because as you later commented we will have heaps of relationships that we have nurtured over the years including those of the younger more virile variety.  Plastic surgery now takes care of the wrinkles; and hair transplants are virtually undetectable. However the really good news is that we will live a hell of a lot longer than our male counterparts and have a better quality of life because we maintain and nurture those around us. It is therefore reciprocated well into our golden years. There are many a male entrepreneur who have made a ton of money but become really sad, lonely old men.

Female entrepreneurs don’t measure their success necessarily in terms of the green back. We value our work life balance and relationships so much more making the whole journey a much more rewarding experience. Could this softer way of doing business be the benchmark for the future for all entrepreneurs?  Most of the leadership manuals seem to think so.

Statistics show that more and more women are starting really successful businesses and that trend is set to continue. But we won’t do it at the expense of others… Good or bad?  I think it is smart!