The hotel car park was full when we returned late from the really great Dublin Chamber event at the Leopardstown races so we had to park on the road – I hate that!
I got up bright and early before the trigger happy clampers were on the prowl to move it in as I spotted an early riser driving out.
Just as I was pulling into the car park another car cheekily cut me off and pulled in front of me – hopefully there were two spaces?
The car park looked full and my eager “friend” was ahead of me discovering exactly the same thing. Just as I was about to give up and go back onto the street I noticed a guy waiting on a delivery truck to move so he could leave …perfect!
At this point my cheeky friend with the KY reg (cute out in Kerry I was thinking!) started to reverse to get out of the car park. If I moved to let him out he would spot the guy waiting to leave and no doubt grab the spot for himself.
Nope my friend ….not going to happen!
This brave warrior held his ground and let him try to reverse all he liked – I waited until the delivery van moved and the other pulled out and went to take MY spot.
Just as I was manoeuvring into the spot a woman working from the hotel appeared and politely told me that the other guy was first and was entitled to the parking space!
I gave her a look and she blurted “This is hotel policy” with her own look right back at me suggesting that I was trying to be a smart ass by taking the spot.
“But he cut me off unfairly as I entered the car park” I bit back
“I’m sorry you have to give him the space” ..she was fighting the good fight on behalf of my cheeky Kerry friend.
“No way, he cut me off and I’m as entitled as he is to that parking space” – I wasn’t letting yer man get the space that I deserved!!
“Well, you’ll have to sort it out with him, because he won’t be happy” she said.
“Not a problem!!” and I started to pull into the spot, more than happy to have a showdown if the cheeky KY boy was up for it.
Just as I was doing that I thought of what I had been watching in horror on TV just ten minutes before this and I had a big word with myself ….Greg, what are you doing??
I turned around and exited the car park.
The poor girl from the hotel looked puzzled and very relieved at my change of heart – she gave me a big smile and thanked me. Crisis averted!
Instead I parked on the road with the Park By Phone App. I’d check the car park again in a while.
Just as I was standing by the car I noticed my cheeky man walking towards me after he had parked.
“Someone is just leaving” he says to me “Get in quick“.
Oh ..”thanks”
10 minutes later I was in the dining room having breakfast and my “buddy” strangely ended up sitting right next to us with his wife. He nodded to me.
I could easily have had a big stand up row with this guy and got the two of us all pumped up and angry for something very stupid and ruined both our days.
Maybe, just maybe we should all start to be nice for the sake of Nice?
That’s the last time I’m holding the door open for someone,
It’s the last time I’m going to let someone out in traffic,
The last time I’m going to open my mouth and offer an opinion,
The last time I’m going to spend loads of time on a proposal,
The last time I’m going to pay for lunch,
The last time I’m donating to charity,
The last time I’m going to give an honest answer,
The last time I’m doing pro bono work,
The time I’m going to trust a suppliers word,
The last time I’m going to look after a staff member,
The last time I trust someone and give them credit,
The last time I donate to a charity…..
While we must always learn from our experiences we must be really careful that the next guy doesn’t get short changed because of what happened with the last one.
My buddy Jonathan tipped me off that a particular guy on Twitter was having a right ‘pop’ at the “Power You”, Advanced Social Media Programme that I had recently put together and was promoting.
This guy was careful enough not to name or mention me so I didn’t spot his post initially but eventually I found it as well as the reaction some of his followers had towards it and his interaction with them – he loves me!
My new “friend” was having great fun – he was obviously quite curious about the peer to peer advanced programme that I had put together, which is targeting ambitious individuals who don’t want another social media course but one that can potentially elevate them (they can do it with my help) to the point whereby they could become a ‘Digital Influencer‘ in their field.
This guy took a pop about the price (it’s 10 sessions, one to one mentoring and delivered in a small group), he challenged my qualifications to deliver such a course (I have been delivering training and consultancy in this area since the earliest days of social), he claimed I was using words I didn’t even understand to an audience who would not understand either (I am trying to achieve something quite different through this programme), he wondered about what big clients and campaigns I had worked on to justify my ‘status’ to deliver such a programme (unlike him I’m guessing)…and there was lots more!
I obviously stood on a sore toe with this fella and Power You upset him for some big reason – was he sorry he wasn’t running a programme like this himself (he works in the area) or maybe he thought what I was doing was pure rubbish!!
I was hurt and angry to see someone having a right go at me and my creation. I put a lot of time and attention into this and from my experience there is a real training gap in the social media market, which no one is addressing.
I was about to put on the boxing gloves and jump into the ring ..come on, “lets be having ya, Mr Smart Ass“..bang, bang, wallop..take that!! I felt like it, I promise you..
Before pressing ‘fire‘ I took a deep breath..
Do I ever criticise things that I don’t agree with? ..Yes.
Do I ever criticise new initiatives that I think are silly..Probably?
Do I criticise in a personal, nasty way – I hope not, but any criticism of you ends up feeling personal.
I put my head above the parapet with Power You but I have to accept that when any of us do that it is fair game.
When you do something new it will be judged, it will be criticised, those who compete against you will take a “pop” but then again some will hopefully like it and buy into what you are trying to do. Some might even buy!
This “new thing” of yours may or may not work but it’s important that you keep trying, keep doing new things and let yourself open to that criticism – it’s all part of it so don’t be getting upset!
And most importantly keep “Raising your head above the Parapet“
The Power You Programme is starting in Dublin in the middle of July – click here for details!
p.s. This blog is for Daragh – Instead of boxing gloves I tweeted him “Thanks for giving my programme a plug”
Quite recently I had the pleasure of being in Terry Prone’s company at a Business Awards night for the Galway branch of Network Ireland.
Terry is one of those character’s that we have all heard and read about so it was really interesting to finally meet her in person. I’m not sure what or ‘who’ I was expecting but I met a really engaging, down to earth person who was very open about her fascinating life including tales from her days as an actress to the successful business woman and public speaker that we all know today.
She loved telling me that her son Anton, is now her boss!
She was at the very earliest days of media training and PR in Ireland, initially grabbing all of her acting tips and applying them to the business and political world. She set up Carr Communications with the well known Irish TV personality, Bunny Carr and her husband Tom Savage.
Terry was the guest speaker at the event and I watched as she diligently took notes during the evening in between our chats and listening to the other speakers. One of the things that impressed me most was that she was a great listener – she was as interested in my, not so interesting story as I was in hers. I hate when some people show no interest in you – I always think its a sign of a good person when they listen to you.
She finally took to the stage – actually she avoided the stage totally and took to the ‘floor‘ and immediately grabbed the attention of the audience with a humorous, down to earth, no messing talk and delivered her “5 Business Tips for Women”
Tell your Story – Stories are powerful ways for people to remember you, so make sure you tell yours
Forget about ‘tricks’ – Just be the honest you, and don’t rely on any gimmicks to grab attention
Stop Multitasking – While women are supposed to be blessed with the ability to multitask, Terry advises to do the opposite. Stick to what you are great at and get others to do the other “stuff“
Keep the fight to yourself – This was a simple piece of advice about not washing your dirty laundry in public. Being right does not matter as people remember the fight and then always associate you with it
Drive on, even when things go wrong – Terry shared a story about the Irish actress May Craig who she admired greatly. Her motto was “the show must go on“, and she did just that after personal tragedy in her life
Terry’s speech was perfect – not too short and not too long, designed expertly for the audience with a gorgeous blend of personal vulnerability and real stories that connected with everyone in the audience, even the few token males in attendance.
These were great tips but I think we could all use them, not just the gals!
Thank you Terry!
Terry Prone is the Chairman of Communications Clinic.
Note: Think Visual did a great post after a talk Terry did for the Network Cork branch with some gorgeous visuals and a few extra tips – well done guys!
I was asked to give the new Dublin Chamber of Commerce member, Ian Hannon of Activate Sales Training, two minutes at the beginning of the Business Owners Network session (we hold these every second Friday at 7:30am) to introduce himself to the group and briefly promote a training programme that he was running shortly.
I was determined that I would give him about a maximum of 2 minutes as I had a busy “Let’s do Business” session planned.
I was chatting with him during the pre-meeting networking over coffee and croissants and I let him know that I would introduce him at the very beginning of the session. During the course of our chat he explained that he had been up really early because on Fridays he volunteers for Dublin Simon Community and he does a ‘breakfast run‘ before his days work.
Basically he delivers breakfast packs to some of the homeless on the streets of Dublin.
Ian became a different person to me.
At the start of the session when I was introducing Ian I asked him to first tell the group what he did earlier that morning. The group hung on his every word as he spoke about the different characters, the guys he sees regularly, the guys who are still asleep, the guys who are on the streets for just a few days.
Ian became a different person to everyone in the room.
When he got around to speaking about his training programme everyone listened attentively – we liked him, respected him and trusted him. He spoke for a lot more than 2 minutes – Ian will do well!
I had a really great, inspirational day at the Dublin Chamber, Momentum Summit, which was held at the Aviva Stadium last Friday.
This was the second year of this full day event, which featured a really nice mix of speakers, master classes and good, old fashioned networking during the many coffee breaks, lunch and drinks reception.
We had top class panelists from a variety of businesses big and small around topics such as “Differentiation“, “Scaling” and “Online Opportunities“, we had a fantastic speaker Jamil Qureshi who spoke about the importance of your Mindset and your Purpose and lastly we had a “Competitive Edge” sporting panel, which included Paul O’Connell (who incorrectly predicted an Ulster win!), Henry Shefflin and Jack McCaffrey.
This easy and relaxed Friday was superb and as Dublin Chamber of Commerce President, Derry Gray eloquently suggested at the beginning of the day, it was “time for you to think and quietly reflect“, which I certainly did.
The two young entrepreneurs, Elaine Lavery and Hannah O’Reilly who co-founded Improper Butter spoke really well about their exciting start-up journey and I think they gave me and many others cause for reflection!
Privately while I listened to the story of these two young entrepreneurs I wondered about my life, my career and the things that I have achieved along the way. I have worked in fabulous companies, I opened, closed and sold many different businesses and now I am dedicating most of my energy to Fuzion, which I love.
That voice in my head started: “Should I have done more with my career, have I achieved what I wanted to, have I been a success, do I have the same energy that I had when I was the same age as these young entrepreneurs and I am ready for new exciting opportunities when they come along?”
Has it passed me and my generation by, I wondered and is it now up to a new generation to do these new things?
These thoughts were bothering me a little as I ate my lunch and the guy alongside me said loudly what I had been thinking. Some of the others I chatted to during the rest of the day were also saying the same.
While we were so clearly impressed by these young entrepreneurs we were at the same time feeling that our time had come and gone.
I hopped in the car and faced rush hour traffic (Luas strikers adding an extra layer of volume – thank you strikers and SIPTU!) as well as a trip to Cork to get to a long awaited comeback gig by Cork band, Rubyhorse.
Those thoughts about the “Momentum” of youth lingered with me on this longer than usual journey.
Eventually I got home, fed the dog and headed to the White Horse. Brendan my son and his buddy Alan were at the gig as well as Alan’s dad Harry – I was chatting with Harry as we watched our two boys, who are now in their late twenties. Both are part of this younger, carefree generation, both with exciting careers. Brendan is flying as a music and advert director and Alan is a writer who is just back after participating in a documentary project in Columbia of all places!
The boys are about to start work on a short film together based on the storyline from the music video that Brendan did for Gavin James “For You”.
We were chatting about this generation and how different they were to ours – at least that is what we feel. How many fathers and mothers have had this conversation about their children?
Harry told me about a young lad, who was a neighbour of his when he was growing up. This lad packed up school really early. As early as the age of 12 he used head to Croke Park from Cork on the train for big matches selling merchandise. At 17 he bought his first pub.
Harry met him recently and he is now working for someone else, happily punching out a weeks wage – we try things and some of these things fail. If enough things fail we retrench, we lose that will to try again and maybe that entrepreneurial spirit gets knocked out of us.
That question was back in my head – Do we lose that ‘Momentum’ as we get older?
The gig kicked off..
This gig is a really significant part of this blog post as there is a very special story behind it so bear with me just a little bit longer!
These guys came from my school in Cork – they formed a band and dreamed big!
The superb lead singer, Dave Farrell (he was born to be a lead singer!) was once sent home from school for declaring he wanted to be a rock star! It was like that at that time – get a solid job was what we were all encouraged to do.
Dave and his band of merry men followed their dreams and their success came in the United States where a few years of hard work and great songs resulted in them hitting the Top 20 with appearances on the top TV shows such as The Letterman and the Conal O’Brien show.
In an interview with the Irish Emigrant in 2003 Dave spoke about the differences between Ireland and the U.S., which he summed up in one comment “Here, you have loads of freedom and opportunities. America grants you the opportunity to pursue a dream“. Things have changed in Ireland..
Unfortunately through a combination of burnout, geography and young families these special, very talented school friends called it a day on Rubyhorse and settled in to ‘ordinary’ lives in different parts of the world.
Through a quirk of circumstances (a charity reunion last year) these older and wiser guys are now back with a vengeance and a very privileged audience were treated to a proper Rubyhorse gig full of old classics and some sparking new material from a new album that will come later this year. (Well done Dave, Joe and Deccie and a few new faces!)
After a superb gig and a few beers I walked home and thought – We are older, we have experienced the highs and lows that life throws us but we still have it and we are going to “Sparkle” just like this new generation.
It’s all about our Mindset and Purpose!
If we want it …we have Momentum
Check out “Sparkle” the track that broke Rubyhorse in the U.S.
The newspaper came through the letter box as it does every Saturday morning compliments of a terrific service by Kelvin, the Burnely FC loving milkman (he must be thrilled with their promotion to the Premiership!).
This time I was determined to actually read it as so many Saturdays drift by and despite my best intentions I never actually take the time to sit down and enjoy it.
Why is it so difficult to read the paper these days? – my truth is that I am so busy (or so I tell myself) with all of my different bits and as a result I never actually get around to it.
The really sensible thing might be to save a few bob and cancel my weekly delivery service but I know how much pleasure I get from just the possibility of being able to enjoy the paper.
So..kettle on, rustle up some pancakes drizzled with maple syrup (One of the few things I am good at in the kitchen!), make a good cup of coffee (Lavazza seems to work best for me) and we are ready!!
Today I robbed a precious hour for myself, enjoying the newspaper cover to cover, full with all sorts, from heavy news about murderers and whistle blowers to gorgeous inspirational personal stories with some sport (Brendan Rodgers to Celtic..really?) and history thrown into the mix.
I’ve learnt a few new things, I’ve jumped into a few issues (tweet tweet!), I’ve been inspired, I’ve decided on a restaurant to try out and a festival I must make sure I get to but most of all I’ve thoroughly enjoyed some precious time on my Saturday morning after another really busy week.
It’s not quite yoga but it could be just as good for you …buy a paper and enjoy!
Sunday of the bank holiday weekend and I knuckled down.
I had to clear down emails, work on copy for the new Fuzion brochure and work on new training materials for an updated social media course.
A dark cloud appeared over my head as I was in no mood for this work and everything was a grind for me.
The cloud got darker and darker and eventually I had to call a day on my work as we had planned to pop over to friends for the evening.
I was in poor form as we walked over to our buddies as I felt my “day off” had been ruined.
And then it came to me – I love what I do but I had been treating the work I had to do as a series of ‘chores‘ and not ‘challenges‘ because of my poor frame of mind and as a result my day and mood were ruined.
Every email was full of potential opportunity, the work on our brochure was a chance to really capture who we are and showcase why we are a special agency and the work on my new social media course notes was a way to explore new features and how to apply them.
I had wasted my day ..
If your work is a series of chores try changing your mindset and turn them into challenges.
If they are still chores despite the change of mindset then it’s time to change what you do!
Part one – written on a flight from Cork to Liverpool, 14th April.
It was April 1996 and I was sitting in my office in Guinness in Dublin flicking through the newspaper.
In the classifieds I noticed a ticket and travel package for an evening midweek league match at Anfield, Liverpool versus Newcastle.
I am a die-hard Liverpool FC fan but I had never been to a game at Anfield. Liverpool were playing exciting football that year, in contention for the title but Newcastle were the really exciting team of the season that had taken the league by storm.
I thought long and hard about going but managed to find some reason not to and I ended up watching on TV what people still describe as the best match ever in the Premiership as Liverpool scored a last minute winner to win 4-3 in an incredible match that had everything.
I could have been there…
When Brendan, my son called me 20 years later to say he could get tickets for Liverpool versus Borussia Dortmund, the quarter final second leg UEFA Europa Cup match at Anfield I didn’t think too long and hard about it.
Of course I had things in my diary, of course I could think of 100 reasons why I couldn’t go but as Ferris Bueller famously said “Life moves pretty fast, if you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it”
I embraced this spirit and here I am sitting on a flight to Liverpool with Brendan. Hopefully the match this evening will be great, poised delicately after the away tie finished 1-1 against a really superb Borussia side.
Bring it on..
Part two – written in the Holiday Inn Express, in Liverpool while Mr Canty junior is working on his next TV commercial (he always gives out to me for working too hard!)
At 2-nil down at half time against a fantastic team “we” would have to score three without reply to win the match … This was a monumental task of Istanbul proportions and probably not possible.
It didn’t stop “us” fans (yep, we were in the middle of it, strangely sitting next to a few Borussia fans that had all the officials upset) belting out “You’ll Never Walk Alone” as the teams emerged for the second half.
The young and powerful Origi scores for us after 3 minutes and the place went berserk …maybe it was possible?
Liverpool piled on the pressure, the fans were urging them on with a wall of noise and then the sucker punch. Borussia score again – this team are just too good for us and the balloon of hope was burst.
The fans recovered and started singing again and my mind drifted back to that famous 4-3 match that I stupidly missed.
Never.. ?
Coutinho scores, 3-2 … The place erupts and now I am witnessing that special Anfield Magic. It’s the team and the fans together in a frenzy, the noise is crazy and there is belief everywhere.
Sahko scores, 3-3 … The place just goes ballistic and the frenzy has been whipped into the stratosphere and there is a tangible electricity flowing from the team to the crowd, from the crowd to the team, a powerful invisible nut tangible force.
Dortmund manage to contain this pressure and the game gets a little stop start as the clock nudges painfully to 90 minutes…4 minutes of extra time.
A strange thing happens..the crowd start to belt out “You’ll Never Walk Alone” again… everyone joins in. This is really odd as the Liverpool faithful only really sing this at the end of a match when they know the game has been won.
Free kick, Milner to Sturridge, Milner keeps running into the box and takes a return ball from Sturridge. We all gave out about Milner’s corners during the game but this time he delivers a perfect cross into the box for Dejan Lovren (who had an awful start to his LFC career the previous year) who rises above everyone and powers a header into the net.
(Admission – At the time I had no idea who scored it happened so quickly!)
Oh my god…. I have never witnessed anything like it. I was hugging Brendan, the guy next to me, the people in front of me. Everyone played this match together, singing, urging, believing… When the players lost hope we were there, when we lost hope, they were there.
Now we were there together – Jurgen Klopp walked past us, saluting the crowd and punching his chest, his heart. We got it.
If you haven’t seen it yet you just have to click here to see the incredible celebrations at the end of the match and click here for some crazy fan celebrations!
4-3 ….best night ever?
Ferris was right, we need to grab those opportunities when they come along
“If your dream doesn’t scare you then it isn’t big enough. Dream as big as you dare”
These are the words that were challenging me and the strange thing is that I heard them uttered by Conor McGregor in an advert that my son, Brendan Canty directed for Budweiser.
I then hear both Conor (the apprentice plumber from Crumlin) and Brendan (the boy from Ballincollig!), two 27 year old’s from different parts of our fine country and from different backgrounds talking about “following your dream” in a behind the scenes video about the advert.
Brendan talks about throwing everything at your dream and Conor talks about following your passion.
From the outside it probably looks easy and then I think about Malcolm Gladwell and his theory about 10,000 hours in his book Outliers and I think about what I know about these two young men.
Brendan didn’t get the grade he hoped for in CIT because his lecturer had some issue with his short film “The Kid“. Take one look at thetrailer or even the full feature and make up your own mind (Brendan will kill me for drawing attention to this – this work by a student is incredible!).
He regularly pitches for videos and adverts that he doesn’t win – some of these treatments have some of his best work in them but they will never grace our screens.
He takes the kicks in the backside and drives on. Following your dream means driving on even when things happen that might leave you feeling on the floor.
Conor with all of his talent and brashness has followed his dream. I haven’t followed his story well enough to talk about his knocks but I am sure there have been many and I have no doubt that 10,000 hours of sweat, toil and disappointments are all in his ‘experience bank‘ that has him where he is today.
Okay, he took a kick in the backside in his last fight against Nate Diaz but he spoke about “celebrating defeat” ..we have to if we want to succeed!
With all this talk of dreaming I was inclined to look at my own life and what I was doing at 27 years of age and what I have done since.
The dream of a thirteen year old was to work in the music business. I flirted with managing bands for about two years, which was fun for a while and then the bands I was working with broke up!
I always wanted to start my own business and I got that chance when I started a fast food restaurant with another guy. It wasn’t my industry of choice but this ‘golden opportunity‘ to start something and make some money seemed like a good idea.
It wasn’t my dream so I talked him into opening music stores. We didn’t know the first thing about this industry but it didn’t stop us opening one in Cork, one in Limerick and one in Galway in the space of 12 months. During that time we also opened a second fast food restaurant in Cork.
We were business trailblazers but we were crazy – this rate of growth was reckless and if anything went wrong we were in huge financial trouble. Some of these ventures worked out and some of them were miserable failures.
All of this was when I was incredibly still holding down a full time job – I was working around clocks that I didn’t even have!
I was then asked if I would become the General Manager of Deasy’s, the Guinness owned subsidiary that I was the Financial Controller of. I was staggered to be asked to take on such a role and this was another dream fulfilled! After doing this for two years I was asked to join Guinness in Dublin ..wow..working in a relatively senior role for a huge international company – another dream. I was 29!
I took a job as General Manager of a subsidiary of Heineken a few years later – I quickly realised that repeating myself wasn’t part of the dream and I needed to change.
In 2001 I had a dream about creating a high end fashion and beauty event and taking it on tour around Ireland with the top Irish models. Myself and Dee created ‘Catwalks’ which was the talk of the female luxury sector in Ireland for a number of years.
Dee emigrated from Kerry to Cork and we opened a Fuzion office on the South Mall in Cork (before thatwe worked from home for a few years – thank you to Alison, Doreen and Barry who were happy to have enough faith in us to do that).
Soon after that we became the only agency in Ireland to have an office in both Cork and Dublin as we opened one in our capital city.
This year I was elected to the Dublin Chamber of Commerce council by the members – this sounds like a very trivial thing but it is a big deal as members from smaller firms find it impossible to get elected. This makes me very proud as it is a small tangible sign that we are succeeding in Dublin and achieving some recognition for the work we are doing there.
When I heard the words “If your dream doesn’t scare you then it’s not big enough” I had to admit to myself that I feared I had stopped dreaming big and maybe that I had stopped dreaming at all. After writing this piece I know this isn’t quite true.
This 51 year old hasn’t stopped dreaming but yes …I admit, my dreams don’t scare me.
Maybe it’s time to be scared again and not leave that to the 27 year olds!
Greg Canty Fuzion Blog 