Posts Tagged ‘Greg Canty’

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Do you check your emails on holidays?

May 27, 2014

emails on holidays

The big dilemma – when you are on leave should you even dare to check your emails?

I was always of the view that during this precious time you owe it to yourself to totally wind down, refresh your mind, forget totally about work.

I believed that checking emails or ringing the office to see how everything is going would make this necessary rest impossible so it should be totally avoided. My big fear was that one email could totally ruin my day and switch my mind onto work so it was better to totally avoid this from happening.

I did this for years quite diligently but now I find that it is better to quickly check my emails every day while I am away. This is easier because I know we have a great team that we can trust with anything so if something does crop up I am happy to forward on any issues to them knowing they will be sorted, so it never ruins my break.

The problem is do I really get to switch off fully this way and does peeping at those emails ruin the benefit of the break?

Let’s look at the email dilemma in detail..

Reasons why you should avoid checking your emails?

1. You need a total break, which will refresh you – this is good for you and the business
2. You could easily get dragged into an issue if you allow it to happen
3. When people see you are responding they can’t resist asking you to engage on something
4. It has the potential to ruin your holiday
5. Everything can wait …..let whatever it is wait

Reasons why you should check your emails..

1. It’s your business so you should mind it
2. A few minutes a day can help clear down a colossal backlog when you get back
3. Potential issues can be sorted quickly and your team know you can help if necessary
4. Clients are assured that you are still overseeing things
5. You have no nagging worries when you return to work because you have kept yourself in the loop

In truth I don’t want to get dragged into any issues and break from my ‘switch off‘ but I do feel its an easier way of dealing with a backlog and if necessary I will delegate any important things as they occur.

I justify this approach as it is my business but I genuinely wouldn’t want any of my crew checking their emails when they are off – I want them to take their well deserved breaks, which is good for them and for the business.

What do you do?

Greg Canty

Greg Canty is a Partner of Fuzion who offer Marketing, PR and Graphic Design services from our offices in Dublin and Cork

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Posted in Holidays, Personal development | 11 Comments »

Positivity works

May 27, 2014

Sunrise aftre teh storm

When the wheels were falling off our economy and our businesses were threatened we had to do whatever we could to keep going.

In my case for pure self preservation I needed to keep myself in a positive frame of mind, despite cancelled contracts, bad debts and other kicks in the backside that seemed to form a disorderly queue for a few scary years.

“There are unique opportunities in a recession” I read in a great book called ‘Storming the Recession‘. The main point made in this book was that recession is an unusual time and if you keep your eyes open during it you will find opportunities that would not arise at normal times.

I totally bought into this positive logic and celebrated and championed positivity wherever I saw it – some good news, a business opening, someone expanding, someone doing up their premises would end up in a tweet or a post by me with my often used hash tag, #Positivity.

I know many will roll their eyes when they see those #Positivity tweets, sometimes even including my own crew!

I was reading a great book that is part of a Smarter Egg programme I am doing with Aodan Enright called ‘To Sell is Human‘ by Daniel Pink.

I was relieved to see him talking about this ‘positivity‘ state , which he explains is somewhat necessary to help keep you buoyant (great word!) when you are in business.

He says that this positive mindset once applied in a balanced way can really work. In extensive research done by guys called Seligman and Schulman (I’m guessing they are not Irish!) they found that those who were more positively aligned sold more, were more determined and were less likely to give up on a task or quit their jobs.

Apparently there is a ‘sweet spot‘ ratio (referred to as the Losando ratio) of 3:1 between positive and negative emotions where you reap the most success. Higher than that you are getting into delusional territory and lower than that you are just less effective.

“Optimism, it turns out, isn’t a hollow sentiment. It’s a catalyst that can stir persistence, steady us during challenges, and stoke the confidence that we can influence our surroundings” quotes Mr Pink.

It turns out poor Greg isn’t that crazy after all ..

#PositivityWorks

Greg Canty

Greg Canty is a Partner of Fuzion who offer Marketing, PR and Graphic Design services from our offices in Dublin and Cork

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Posted in Management, Motivation, Personal development, Positivity | 12 Comments »

Polling day

May 23, 2014

Polling day

Polling day has finally arrived for all the local and the European election candidates, full of hope and nerves – will you have done enough to convince the electorate in your patch to vote for you?

Has it been about shaking as many hands and knocking on as many doors as possible, has it been about distributing as many flyers and putting up as many posters as possible?

Has it been about working hard in your area on issues that you really believe in and ones that matter to people or has it been about grabbing issues you feel will tactically fly for you in the media and ones that will give you the right visibility?

Has it been about attending events, socials, sporting occasions and some funerals?

Has it been about getting those magic media moments, and performing convincingly when they come along and moving enough people to give you their precious votes?

Has it been about efficient PR, ensuring that the media get to know what you are doing and in turn reaching the people you want to convince?

Has it been about how well you connect with people online, not just over the last few months but over the long haul, is it about numbers of social media followers and your skill in using the platforms to show them who you are and what you are doing?

Has it been about the support of your party and how well you work with your other running mates who often are competitors?

Has it been about the skill and courage do deal with hurtful personal abuse when it comes along and to not let this derail you?

Has it been about intelligence and winning arguments or is it about being ‘nice’ and caring and winning hearts as well as minds?

Has it been about money and having the necessary resources to gain sufficient visibility even if this means some third party assistance and advertising?

Has it been about hard work and the careful execution of a strategy without any diversions?

Has it been about sacrifice, giving up precious personal time to the detriment of family and friends?

Has it been about having a great team to work with you, canvassing and supporting you along the way including family and friends who believe in you and who understand the sacrifice.

Whatever it is, today is the day when you are at the mercy of voters and you find out if what you did was enough to win the race.

Like them or loathe them we need politicians that we believe in at local, national and European level representing us and our needs.

In our democratic society we have the power to vote for our favoured candidates who have put themselves forward to do a job on our behalf using all of their skill, knowledge, influence, intelligence, empathy, conscience, energy, time and motivation to achieve what they believe Is important.

If we don’t like the selection of candidates then we need to do something about it..

A big thank you to each and every one of the candidates for stepping up to the plate and putting yourself forward for election – in truth it’s something most people would not do.

The very best of luck to all candidates and we hope that the worthy winners will execute their new roles with the same attributes and diligence that won their hard fought seats and that they do their utmost to stay true to their promises and do their very best for all of us and not just those who voted for them.

Well done for standing up and being counted ….literally!

Greg Canty

Greg is a partner of Fuzion, Marketing and PR who provide a wide range of services from offices in Cork and Dublin including helping some politicians along the way!

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Posted in Irish Politics, Marketing, Personal Marketing, Politics, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »

How’s it going?

May 14, 2014

“How’s it going?” a bright face looked up at me.

I had a busy day yesterday…

Up early for a meeting to help mediate a problem between two parties that I know well that were about to go through a silly court process, gave a social media course to a group of business owners, drove to Dublin for a big pitch to a potential prospect – I feel it went well, fingers crossed!

We headed for an early bird to Chez Max on Baggot Street with our crew and were joined after by friends for a few drinks and some fun.

We ended up in 37, Dawson Street for more fun and then Burger king of course.

There was a beautiful full moon hanging over Dublin on this gorgeous night as we strolled back to our hotel. Our usual haunt was booked out so we ended up trading up to the very fancy, Merrion Hotel. Hotels in Dublin are clearly getting busier, which is a great sign for our economy.

As we made our way back to the hotel I noticed the bodies nestled in their sleeping bags alongside doorways just off Stephen’s Green. At least tonight it was dry and not too cold, which is a small blessing for those unfortunate enough not to have a roof over their heads for the night.

I glanced into one doorway where i noticed there were two people sleeping alongside each other.

To my surprise a bright face was staring up at me. For a brief moment we connected “How’s it going?” he said in a soft friendly voice. “Not bad at all, thanks”

We made our way back to our hotel and put our heads down for the night.

Today it’s off to Dublin Airport as we are taking a flight to Sicily for a well earned rest and some sunshine – it should be great, we’ve never been.

I wonder what my bright faced friend is doing today.

Greg Canty

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion, Marketing & PR with offices in Cork and Dublin

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Posted in Charities, Friendship, Holidays, Hospitality, Irish Economy, Tourism, Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

Ambassador, The Restaurant that became a friend

May 11, 2014

Jimmy and William Wong, Ambassador Restaurant, Cork

“We never ask a customer to leave” William told me.

I was absolutely astounded by this. How could you run a business in this way? What about staff costs?

We were doing some work with the Ambassador Chinese restaurant in Cork a number of years back and William Wong the manager and one of the family owners explained some of the business ethos to me.

He told me a story about how a professor who was visiting UCC had arrived late, had his meal and in the early hours of the morning he was still there, enjoying a few cigars (when this was still allowed) and after dinner drinks. He was the only one left in the restaurant but they waited until he was finished before they started tidying up.

Maybe in a family run business you can do this but this incredible work and customer service ethic explains why this restaurant has done so well since William’s parents opened it in 1987.

For as long as I can remember this luxurious Chinese restaurant has maintained incredibly high standards of food and always excellent, friendly service.

In this time I have eaten there so many times, on family occasions, on dates, on special occasions, entertaining clients and for special treats with our own team and I can’t remember ever being disappointed with the experience. Every time you went there you enjoyed the food, the ambiance but also the special welcome and friendliness.

During our short time working with them we got to know the family and in particular William quite well. Without a shadow of doubt he has been one of the very best clients to deal with, always appreciating what was done for him and an absolute pleasure to deal with.

On one occasion William returned from a trip away and brought us back a scroll with ‘Fuzion‘ written on it and a special oriental teapot, which must have been a pain in the backside for him to be carrying around! We treasure both of these gifts and on the odd occasion that you might come across someone that is really unpleasant these remind us that there are special people out there.

I have my own special, if slightly unusual personal connection with William – I was in the middle of a meeting with him one afternoon when the call came through that my granny had passed away. Other than family and close friends I couldn’t think of a better person to be with when that awful news came through.

Sadly the Ambassador restaurant closed its doors last night for the last time (May 10th, 2014) as the building has been bought by Penneys.

Cork will truly miss not only a great restaurant but one that had become a fantastic friend to so many of us.

After 27 hard working years you might wonder what legacy has been left behind by the Wong family?

It’s huge….

The very best of luck to Linda, Norman, Jimmy, the other members of the Wong family and in particular our special friend William.

Thank you for all of those special moments – We’ll miss you.

Greg Canty

Greg Canty is a Partner of Fuzion who offer Marketing, PR and Graphic Design services from our offices in Dublin and Cork

 

 

 

 

 

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Posted in Customer Care, Family, Friendship, Hospitality | 10 Comments »

How did you survive the recession?

May 5, 2014

navigating the storm

It looks like we have come through the recession and things are finally improving – it was a rough, tough, bumpy ride but we got there!

As things start to improve the horrible memories will fade into the past but hopefully the valuable lessons we learnt will stay with us and we will be stronger for them.

In our industry we were particularly vulnerable as many businesses totally shut down on their positive spend and investment in Marketing and PR was deemed by many as unnecessary in tough times. Budgets were slashed and at the beginning of 2009 we lost a lot of good accounts. On top of this we suffered a lot of bad debts, which was really hard to carry.

Thankfully we dug in and we survived and we managed to come through this challenging period without losing any staff, without having to reduce wages – in fact it was the opposite. We managed to grow our business and we took on extra staff and we opened an office in Dublin.

Personally I took a lot of inspiration from a book I read called ‘Storming the Recession‘.

In my view we survived the recession because of a few things:

  • We did our best to stay deliberately positive at all times
  • We worked hard at keeping our team motivated and protected them from tax increases
  • We used social media extensively to boost our awareness and promote our services
  • We looked for and grabbed unique opportunities, which only occur in tough times
  • We kept our pricing competitive at all times
  • We made sure we delivered for our clients – their budgets are precious and it is essential their investments are wise ones
  • We looked for extra ways to deliver value for clients including embracing new media enabling them to connect with customers in new ways
  • We diversified our services and started to run training courses in PR and Social Media – most of these were done in the evening and the extra income really helped. These courses also helped to increase our network and awareness
  • We absolutely worked our socks off punching in incredibly long hours – we thought recession would mean less work!!

There were times when things were really tight and very worrying but we always seemed to just about get through. Maybe we were lucky but then again maybe you make your own luck?

This was a unique time that no doubt will come again and is important that when that happens we remember how we coped the last time round, which is why I am forcing myself to write this!

What did you do to survive the recession?

Greg Canty

Greg Canty is a Partner of Fuzion who offer Marketing, PR and Graphic Design services from our offices in Dublin and Cork

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Posted in Irish Economy, Marketing, Positivity, Recession, Social Media | 6 Comments »

Bullys and the funny thing about being different

May 4, 2014

Dare to be different

This week I was at a really great event organised by the Diana Award, which is the only charity bearing the name of the former Princess of Wales inspired by her belief that young people have the power to change toe world for the better.

The event was held at the European Headquarters of Facebook in Dublin and it was part of the Diana Award schools Anti bullying programme. In their very effective programme they organise activities in schools to help eradicate bullying and as part of that they quite cleverly appoint and train anti-bullying ambassadors in the school.

The ambassadors are chosen from the students themselves and judging from the results we witnessed in the videos the programmes have been very effective. We were invited to the event because of our Safebook poster, which has been used by many of the participating schools as part of their anti cyber-bullying work.

There was one huge common thread to the speeches and stories that I heard on the day.

Tessy Ojo the CEO of Diana Award spoke about being bullied as a child because she was so tall.

Brian McFadden of Westlife fame spoke about being bullied because he liked stage and dance when all his schoolmates were playing football.

Young actor Will Poulter spoke about being bullied because he was into acting.

We heard some of the young children speak in the videos about being bullied because they had red hair, because they had freckles, because they were chubby or because they were black.

The one thing that pretty much everyone being bullied had in common was that they were different in some way – being different in any way can get you bullied!

I was chatting about this event with my son, Brendan and he sent me on a link to a video produced by a really popular guy online, 19 year old Cian Twomey about how he has been cyberbullied. Cian is really popular, producing funny clever videos and on Facebook alone he has built up a following of over 180,000 since late last year.

In his video he explains how along with huge numbers of followers he seems to be gathering ‘haters‘ as he gains in popularity, which really hurts him in particular when they get really nasty. One person was so horrible they even referred to Cian’s father who had recently passed away. Is this another case of someone being bullied because they are different?

Being different

Ironically in our work at Fuzion with clients the first thing we do with clients is find out how they are different!

Being different is what makes you stand out, it’s what makes you interesting – whether its a product, a service or the individuals involved we aways look for how these are different and this is where the magic is, that sets you and your business apart from from the competitors. This difference will get you media coverage and attention from customers and will contribute to your success.

The most successful musicians, artists, models, designers, products and services are the ones that are different.

So …if you are being bullied because you are a little bit different just realise that this is what makes you really special and in time you will be the one getting the right attention.

Vive la Différence (long live difference) as the French would say ! 

Greg Canty

Greg Canty is a Partner of Fuzion who offer Marketing, PR and Graphic Design services from our offices in Dublin and Cork

 

 

 

 

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Posted in Bullying, Entertainment, Facebook, Marketing, Motivation, Personal development, Positivity, Racism, Self Help, Social Media | 1 Comment »

Win at all costs?

April 29, 2014

Mourinho celebrating against Liverpool

Besides being totally and utterly devastated after watching Liverpool lose the advantage in the title charge because of a defeat to a very cynical, Jose Mourinho, Chelsea side I was surprised at the mixed reaction to the match.

In my view, (which I realise is totally biased because I am a Liverpool fan) I felt Chelsea came and effectively cheated their way to an awful victory.

Despite having 190 million pounds worth of talent on the pitch Jose Mourinho instructed his team to spoil the football match by constantly disrupting it by time wasting and then ‘parking two buses‘ in front of the goal – it was a successful ploy as Chelsea won the match and Liverpool despite being the better team couldn’t create a clear chance or a piece of magic that would lead to a goal.

How could those talented players want to perform like this? Is this why he lost the support of some of the players at Real Madrid?

I’m gutted that horrible, spoiling tactics won the match for Chelsea and that the win came from an awful, misfortunate slip by the most passionate player on the pitch, Stephen Gerrard, which led to a simple gift of a goal.

In there was any fairness wouldn’t you think that if any luck was going on the day it would be to the team that tried to play football and not to the nasty, negative and horrible Mourinho and his team? I was sick watching him run to the supporters punching his chest after they scored – “you deserve nothing” I felt.

After the game this view was shared by nearly every Liverpool fan I spoke to and so many others – how can such cynicism win through, it’s bad for football, why didn’t the ref punish time wasting at the beginning of the match instead of at 92 minutes when the damage was done?

While this was the most popular view I was surprised by how many others who felt it was a tactical masterpiece, his aim was to spoil and he succeeded, who cares how you do it, isn’t winning the objective?

After all, how you win is irrelevant..

In your business is it win at all costs?

Greg Canty

Greg Canty is a Partner of Fuzion who offer Marketing, PR and Graphic Design services from our offices in Dublin and Cork

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Posted in Management, Motivation, Personal development, Personal Marketing, Sport, Teamwork | 10 Comments »

Good Friday and the Scarcity Principle

April 18, 2014

Good Friday - The Scarcity Principle

I’d do anything for a drink in the pub right now..

It’s always the same on Good Friday – once you know all the pubs and off-licences are closed you want nothing more. We can have wine or beer at home, like we do frequently on a Friday evening but on this day you would just want to go to the pub!

As usual in the lead up to Good Friday we heard the publican and the restaurant lobby groups giving out quite rightly about the antiquated law, which has no sale of alcohol permitted in Ireland unless it is in a club or unless you are a guest in a hotel.

The Scarcity Principle

Robert Cialdini, one of the foremost experts on influence, found that people value and desire something more when it is rare or difficult to obtain. He called this the Scarcity Principle. Across numerous experiments, Cialdini and others have found that making something rare (“only 5 left”), time limited (“one day sale”), or unique (“just for you”), increases its perceived attractiveness and value.

He explains that this Scarcity Principle works on the idea of Reactance.

Essentially, it happens because none of us like to be told no, limited in any way, or have our freedom constrained. So, when we think we might miss out, not be chosen, or be denied what we want, we “react”. That reactance makes us try all the harder and want what is denied us all the more.

In some strange way maybe this is a great marketing trick for pubs and restaurants as all of sudden we ‘desire’ a visit!

Maybe pubs and restaurants should embrace the day and take the opportunity to do some minor renovations, repairs, spring cleaning or take some precious time off and get ready for that rush..

What are you doing to create some scarcity in your business?

Greg Canty

Greg Canty is a Partner of Fuzion who offer Marketing, PR and Graphic Design services from our offices in Dublin and Cork

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Posted in Hospitality, Ireland, Marketing, Motivation | Leave a Comment »

Crisis, What Crisis?

April 18, 2014

Supertramp - Crisis, What Crisis?

Little did I know that in 1977 when I was listening to ground breaking music with our very cool Spanish summer student that years later some of this would continue to make an impact.

I was just 12 years of age and I was listening to music by fabulous bands and artists such as ELO, Lou Reed, Supertramp and Bob Dylan.

That summer we listened to some incredible albums including Face the Music (ELO), Even in the Quietest Moments (Supertramp), Street Hassle (Lou Reed) and one that always stuck in my mind was Crisis, What Crisis? by Supertramp.

I loved the name of the album, the cover was really cool and the music lived up to the promise.

My passion for music kicked off that summer so much so that I ended up opening my own music stores (I reckon I made a lot of landlords wealthy!) in my twenties and now we find ourselves often operating in the Crisis business.

Crisis PR

Much of our normal PR work is planned out in advance with our clients having clear communication objectives – its our job to secure media coverage to achieve these objectives.

With Crisis PR work you can get a call on a Sunday, which requires you to drop everything that you are doing and jump into action for an organisation that requires immediate help to deal with a situation. These situations are always different, they require clever thinking on your feet and inevitably they are very fluid, often changing by the minute.

Sometimes an organisation has the benefit of some advance warning where they have prior knowledge of something that could happen, which they know may require careful handling with the media and other stakeholders.

Over the last number of years this seems to have been an area of our business, which has grown and grown. We have recruited deliberately to give a great service in this area as our team now includes ex-journalists, individuals with political communication experience, individuals who provide media training and others with significant TV experience.

We also find that our expertise in social media is vital in a crisis situation as you can track issues, mentions and sentiment about the issue. This helps greatly with our media communications as you can gauge the temperature of an issue and use this information to often correct misunderstandings.

Crisis Planning

Just like you take out an insurance policy to protect against risk it is a really good idea to have a plan in place to prepare your organisation for a crisis situation.

No organisation can afford to hide in a crisis as it has the potential to damage relationships with clients and stakeholders, wreak havoc with an organisation’s reputation, seriously effect revenue and in some cases lead to closure. Social media in particular can accelerate the speed and damage from a crisis situation.

We work with our clients in advance of any potential crisis, planning such things as:-

  • Reactive Statements
  • Preparing spokespeople, including Media Training
  • Monitoring traditional and online media
  • Devising a plan that will be put into place should a potential crisis become a reality
  • Developing an Internal Communications Strategy to include communications to relevant stakeholders
  • Crisis Social Media Strategy

Hopefully you will never need our Crisis PR services but if that ever happens you know we are ready…

Greg Canty

Fuzion with offices in Dublin and Cork, Ireland offer a full Crisis PR Service. Deirdre Waldron, (Partner) heads up the Crisis PR team, which includes former journalists, media training and social media expertise.

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Posted in Crisis PR, PR | 2 Comments »

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