Pay it forward in spades and get the balance into your life and business. Yep I know… I can here you all saying it… there are so many needy people and organizations out there and so many requests that are placed on us to help daily so how the hell do we decipher where we want to invest our time and energy, let alone our hard earned cash.
Well I have some advice…
Firstly given that some of my best experiences, opportunities and ideas have come out of the ‘paying it forward’ environment I intend to do more, not less. The great thing about this is that you get to choose what you do and when you do it and I truly believe that paying it forward provides the much needed balance in my business and my life.
Remember, it is not always about giving money. You have something that is a lot more valuable with your knowledge and skill. There are also so many ways of looking at a request rather than becoming exhausted by it.
Consider this… we had a girl in Reefton, of all places this past weekend who presented to a group of local women around our signature style series. Sure Reefton must appear miles from anywhere and hardly worth the investment or the time and money that this presentation will take but maybe not. I mean, the Reefton women are just 3 hours from our Nelson or Christchurch stores and I can't imagine that there’s too much in the fashion stakes in their town. So maybe we can entice them to become advocates of my brand and all this started with a request from them to donate a frock to their silent auction.
In fact, given that I get approximately 3 to 4 requests a day for product and services that attach to the numerous women's events that are held throughout this country there are so many ways that I can turn these requests into opportunities to drive my brand i.e. a request for Her Magazines for event goodie bags or a frock to auction can become a return suggestion from us that we get a senior stylist to them to do a signature style series as part of their event. This in turn will enable us to collect interested attendee’s details that can be used for a myriad of uses in regards to driving our database and sales. I am always looking at how I can introduce new demographics to the brand. I will never see myself as having reached complete saturation so all of these ongoing requests simply become opportunities and interestingly enough our attendance will also add value to the event.
There are other requests as well… ones that perhaps don't have such an obvious return or present me with a pending opportunity. Like Torenzo, the 7-year-old autistic boy from Nelson. What a delight it was to have Torenzo and his Dad at our Head Office in Morrinsville for the day as he endeavoured to for fill his dream of creating an outfit to enter into one of the many wearable art competitions that are held throughout the country, supported by our capable design team.
Torenzo has finished his creation and is about to show at Hukanui… exciting times and it was so rewarding to be involved.
Another wonderful project was the creation of Sailor the Puffer Fish as the mascot for the Waikato Asthma Foundation. Sailor was designed and named by us and is now establishing a wonderful connection with the Waikato school kids and, of course getting lots of information out on how to manage asthma.
The nurturing of Kiri Nathan over the last 6 months (a very capable Auckland designer) within our infrastructure has been another fruitful project. It would be a wonderful industry if we could just see a clear way to help other designers with a hand up rather than hand out. Kiri has designed 10 fabulous evening frocks under a collaborative label that we have now made. These will start to retail within our stores from July 1st and given we have had two extremely successful launches I know these will sell well to the gain of both Kiri and myself.
An unusual request came in last week in regards to Fiji Fashion Week. They have asked me to become involved with the designers as they prepare to get themselves show ready… to mentor and guide to enable them to show in a way that may enable business to occur outside their country. Interested? Absolutely!
I have a focus this year around working with Maori and Pacific island creatives in business and this fits the bill perfectly… Hmmm so let’s see what happens!
So many requests and they seem to pour in but rather than become exhausted by them I simply see the opportunities they may provide and encapsulate them into my business model.
Well, one more week in NZ and then I am off to the UK where I will speak in London twice before I head to Galway, Ireland to show a small fashion collection as part of the culmination of the Volvo Ocean Yacht race. Exciting times and it will be great to bring a bit of the Irish into the blog as well as uncover a whole host of opportunities… I just hope the white boxer keeps good health while I’m away.
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