It's a very, very small global stage we all play on!

Two degrees of separation… we talk about it often and I get to experience it almost every day.
Take Sunday as an example: Yep I know I display tendencies of being a sick puppy as far as work is concerned but, I was sitting down quietly thinking about a pending late lunch date with my partner at one of our favourite places, The Woodbox in Tamahere and I started to read some of the articles that had been written/ submitted for the next Her Magazine ...
First one off the pile was on the president of Gatorade in USA, a girl by the name of Sarah Robb O'Hagan… a great fit for our mag that is themed around social media and has the very capable Claudia Batten on the cover. Anyway, I was half way through the article on Sarah and I realized that this very capable woman had been my neighbour in Havelock North when I was a small girl going through my primary school years. A few quick texts to my Mum confirmed this. She was a good friend of Sarah's mum and all was revealed, Sarah Robb O'Hagan was in fact Sarah Buxton… and it gets even better… Her sister Anna, that she also speaks about in the article, is in fact a golfing buddy, unbeknown to me, of my sister!

Sarah Robb O'Hagen

Excited about the prospect of perhaps being able to establish some sort of relationship with Sarah, especially after reading about her capable and exciting life, we head off to lunch... albeit a little bit later than intended given my partners absolute resolve to finish building the chook pen that was given to me for my birthday in December. I was absolutely convinced it would die a natural death (as the underfloor heating project did several years ago - I can still see random bits of white polystyrene amongst the shrubs on the bank) …but no. He did it!

Polystyrene still in the garden from the Underfloor Heating project!

We sat outside at the restaurant as the day was glorious and discussed the schizophrenic behaviour of the weather bomb on Saturday and the plight of the southern Taranaki townships and reflected on how, not so long ago, this would have been us as we exited from our Rangiora store after another speight of quakes.
The waitress approached… “Hi I saw you in Sydney last week, yep, that’s right we were there!” And that’s not all… she was out with my daughter last night in Auckland as her man is a friend of one of Sam’s flatmates… arghhhhh!!!

Completed Chicken Coop! Just need the chickens...

It never stops and you will never know where you will experience these connections or perhaps what sort of behaviour you need to be showcasing when you do. Some of my first lessons in business were around never burning your bridges… that supplier that you treated so badly just because you could will one day turn up on the other side of the fence in a role that your business is dependent on and just how often does that happen? That staff member that pissed you off ends up being the best friend of one of your VIP customers and so the list goes on.

I suppose the more traction a brand develops the more clout you will have to further cause or voice to an agenda. Consider the Lucy Lawless vs. Shell event of late… talk about excellent global media coverage and all because she is who she is… a great example of using your brand to expedite a cause that is so important to you. Repercussion?? Who knows, but as Lucy said… when a cause is this important, her career pales into significance.

I’m not so sure; especially for someone like me, given that my actions or the crusades that I pursue will have direct impact on my team and my brand in that, if they turn our customer base off on-mass then I will have people losing jobs as our sales reduce. Lucy only has to consider herself and perhaps her immediate family. I have a much wider circle to consider. And this in turn means that I will always have to be aware of how I am interrupted, or how I present (given I am the Brand). Not such a bad thing given I have worked for 20 years to get myself to this place!