The passion of Jamie Oliver

Jamie has been coined as many things over the past few years including; jamie-2.jpgjamie-2.jpg

 

celebrity chef                                                       jamie-2.jpg

gastronomist

media personality

health & wellness lobbyist

social-preneur

Here’s another description to consider: Genuinely passionate person.  

He’s doing something he loves and believes in. He’s not faking it and there are no tricks.

 

We simply know this intuitively when we see him cook, eat and hear him talk. He exudes passion about food and everything to do with it. On top of this he uses his gift for good, such as his project Jamie’s School dinners, which you can check out by clicking here.

Here’s some quotes from Jamie himself:

I’ve seen kids with lunchboxes that contain half eaten McDonalds, a packet of crisps, and a can of red bull. That just makes me want to weep. That’s just like giving them a line of coke.”

“I’ll being doing school dinners for the next 10 years, if not th rest of my life”

“My view is that we’re all pretty spoilt now….but I think the best luxury in life comes from experience and knowledge, and I think that food and cooking are among the most important things out there for us to learn.”

 

Result: He’s respected. He’s in demand. He’s a business. He’s a brand.

 

Kudos Jamie.

Fashion and Function

Below is a picture of a ‘brand on fire’Crocs. The basic summary is Crocs are a highly functional rubber sandal which are really very comfortable.

crocs-sandal.jpg

 

They have really caught the imagination of the public. But the thing about crocs is that in real terms, they’re pretty ugly shoes. Not very sexy at all. Nothing compared to other sexy consumer products like the ipod or a bottle of San pellegrino. They look a bit like hospital theatre shoes.

But Crocs have made their way into an every day fashion. Love them or hate them, brand ambassadors are now wearing them for their ‘cool appeal’. They’ve become fashionable on beaches, city streets, sailing decks, at swimming pools, cafes, sporting events, as in home slippers and surfers are wearing them to hop over rocks to their favourite reef break. We even see pairs matched up with socks in winter!

The thing is, Crocs work. They really have a multi purpose usage which sandals, thongs, or runners don’t. They grip, they’re water proof, they fit nice, they don’t cause blisters, they absorb shock, they protect and they last a long time. I can’t even begin to imagine how big the profit margins are on Crocs. But the recent range proliferation tells me that it’s substantial – check it out here, or in your local Crocs store to be blown away.

Start up lesson:

If you want to be ‘fashionable’, focus on being ‘functional’.

The 5% rule

Five percent of the people we meet simply like to be difficult. They can’t be sold to, convinced, enlightened, managed or taken on any kind of journey. They might be customers, consumers, buyers, retailers, developers, employees, colleagues or anyone in our start up value chain.

Words to describe these people often include:

Obstinate

Arrogant

Rude

Apathetic

Dismissive

(insert negative adjective here)

No change in approach will change this fact. We didn’t make a mistake, we weren’t unprepared. It just is. We need to accept it and move.

Success is about people and numbers.

What we need to be aware of is if the 5% grows and becomes 10% or even 20% of people….. then it’s time consider whether we are on the wrong side of the 5% rule.

Crazy John

Yesterday a great Australian entrepreneur ‘Crazy’ John Ilhan passed away. I won’t replicate the many newspaper articles about his life or fortune. You can Google him to see all of that. What I will point out is the many personal qualities he was documented as having:

 

Self belief

Highly motivated

Family man

Big ideas

Philanthropic

Risk taker

Failed quick, failed often

Bootstrapper

Game changer

PR machine

Knew how to dance with gorillas

– Telstra in his case. (topic of coming blog entry)

crazy-john.jpg

At the age of 41, it reminds us of the most important thing of all – our health.

Number 1 tip for web entrepreneurs

 

GO OUTSIDE !

 crowded-city.jpg  

Sounds ironic or even slightly crazy. But here’s what we must consider.

We are not really in the ‘online’ business. We have a business which just so happens to have an ‘online’ presence.

Itunes is in the music business

Ebay is in the second hand (new) goods business

Google is in the advertising business

McDonalds is in the real estate business

Wikipedia is in the democracy business

Everything is not what it seems. The best opportunities are out in the world where our people are living their lives. The best ideas come from conversations we have, not spreadsheets we do. The best way to engage business associates and customers is to meet and interact with them…

…The best way to market to our world is by being in it, not isolated from it.

In the words of marketing polymaths Reis & Trout: “An office is a very dangerous place to watch the world from”

Simple permission marketing – ‘In Action’ UPDATE

An MP3 will be uploaded shortly for those who missed it. 

 

Today I am being interviewed on ABC radio (Australia) to discuss www.rentoid.com

 

The interesting thing is that I didn’t pitch for the interview, they called me. This is great news because it means that we’re starting to get some real traction with rentoid. It also means that the general populous believe as much as we do in the community and environmental benefits of the service. So they’re helping us spread the word.

 

The interview is at 5.10pm – Melbourne / Sydney time Australia.

 

You can listen live on line by clicking here. You can convert to your local time by using this link.

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Happy listening.

It’s nothing personal…

 

…it’s just business.

 

They made the decision as a vote of confidence against you. But they didn’t want to tell you the truth, so they just invented this cliché instead, so they could deceive you. So it must be personal.

 

People buy from people,

people sell to people,

people meet with people,

people talk to people,

people decide on people.

Business is people. So business is personal.