Posts Tagged ‘Greg Canty’

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Is that your best shot?

December 8, 2012
Ghost Estate

Creative Solutions?

Is that your best shot?

I’m not sure about you but I felt a huge sense of the inevitable about this years budget – it was a huge nothing, not in terms of what will be taken from the “easy suspects” , which is wrecking our domestic economy but it was a nothing in terms of the “solutions” , initiatives, incentives to try to revitalise and generate growth in areas that badly need it.

I was deliberately ignoring all the “headlines” on budget day but I did manage to accidentally tune into Michael Noonan being interviewed on the radio – he was declaring it a budget “for” SME’s and designed to help jobs and growth..

That was interesting – I eagerly started looking for some of the budget detail. I am a little confused as to what is in place to make it a budget for SME’s and for generating jobs and growth. Nothing!

Our government who admittedly have  a really tough job in a tough economic climate had a lot of time to work and prepare for this budget – considering the job creation issues and the huge challenge with sectors of our economy it was a huge nothing.

This budget was lazy and unimaginative, it did nothing to stimulate our economy and most significantly it did nothing to restore confidence or any spark that would encourage you to drive on and start “making things happen”.

What is sure is that the budget won’t beat us and we will drive on and create our own future … As I have said to our own team “F**k the budget“.

Is that your best shot?  Unfortunately, it probably was …..

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion

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Posted in Ireland, Irish Economy, Irish Politics, Taxation, Uncategorized | 10 Comments »

Last work day before Christmas..

November 30, 2012

turning off lightsYou know that feeling on the last work day of the year  – you’ve worked hard and you are finishing off those last few bits before you shut off your computer, tun off the lights and head home for a well earned break after a tough slog of a year.

With a few weeks left in the year it’s natural to start easing off, it’s job nearly done and after all everyone is thinking about Christmas – we find ourselves switching down the gears and cruising till the end of year ….

STOP!! ….there’s good business still to be done, get onto people’s radar now, for next year so you can hit the ground running when it comes to January – picture how good you will feel turning off those lights after a productive few weeks –  now you can really go and enjoy your Christmas Break ..

Make the list of what you want to achieve before the break kicks in and get cracking!

Lights out ..

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion

Fuzion are a Marketing and PR firm with offices in Cork and Dublin

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Posted in Marketing, Motivation, Positivity | 13 Comments »

The Widow, her two coins and the 2012 Budget

November 24, 2012

The Widow's two coinsI found myself in church recently (it happens very rarely!) as part of the Hugh O’Flaherty Memorial weekend and the very contemporary Papal Nuncio to Ireland, Archbishop Charles John Brown from the US presided over a special mass in honour of Hugh O’Flaherty, Ireland’s World War 2 Hero.

I thought the gospel (bear with me guys, this is going somewhere…) was very relevant with our Budget coming up soon –

Mark 12 – The Widow’s Offering

Jesus sat down near the collection box in the Temple and watched as the crowds dropped in their money. Many rich people put in large amounts. Then a poor widow came and dropped in two small coins.

Jesus called his disciples to him and said, “I tell you the truth, this poor widow has given more than all the others who are making contributions. For they gave a tiny part of their surplus, but she, poor as she is, has given everything she had to live on.”

In the budget our bunch need to make sure they grab the nettle and take what is required from those who can afford it and where there is genuine excess they need to cut it out and please, don’t expect to take the two coins from the widow and all of those like her.

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion

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Posted in Irish Economy, Irish Politics | 9 Comments »

A Train Journey and My Top 10 LinkedIn Tips

November 21, 2012
Train Journey

Anyone I know here?

Imagine sitting on a 3 hour train journey and across from you and next to you there are other business people that you don’t know. Other than some pleasantries you arrive at your destination and there has been virtually no communication between any of you.

It happens to all of us and for me this reminds me of how most of us are using LinkedIn – we are there but not really communicating with anyone!

LinkedIn is probably the most powerful business social media platform. If used correctly it is a terrific way to make good quality connections and it can be the best and quickest of all the social media platforms to generate awareness for you and your business.

My Top 10 Tips for getting the most from LinkedIn are:

  1. Use a great photo that captures what you are all about
  2. Complete your profile properly, taking care that you write an inviting bio for readers and use the standard industry terms to describe your areas of speciality (e.g. Social Media Consultant)
  3. Request personal recommendations from satisfied clients and co-workers (even better write some for others – it will earn you lots of brownie points!)
  4. Maximise your contacts by using the using the facility whereby LinkedIn will check your own email database against those in its database
  5. Only invite people to connect that you know, have interacted with or have a good reason for justifying a connection request
  6. Try not to ignore a connection request – as long as it is not a competitor accept requests as it can help to boost your awareness
  7. Always peep at the “people who you may know” suggestions – LinkedIn is very clever and often the suggested connections can be very relevant
  8. Try to post a status update at least once a day
  9. Join relevant groups and participate proactively – comment on posts of interest to you and the very best way to boost your awareness is to start your own discussions. Using your own blog posts as discussion “starters” is very powerful
  10. THANK & be nice is my very biggest tip – It’s really important that you respect who you interact with on LinkedIn. Thank people who connect with you, personalise your invitations to connect and think about being helpful before you try to start selling. Try and stay as positive as possible.

If people like and trust you and understand what you do, they will be more likely to want to do business with you or recommend you to someone else.

The train is pulling in ..hope you made a few new connections!

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion

Fuzion with offices in Dublin and Cork offer Social Media Consultancy and Training Services

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Posted in LinkedIn, Marketing, Social Media | 14 Comments »

Are you having meetings about meetings?

November 12, 2012
Meetings about Meetings

Another meeting ….

I remember sitting in a senior managers meeting getting all stressed out worrying about sales performance – the trend, annualised was worth a fortune to the company but I seemed to be the only one at the meeting getting all worked up!

Why was no one else getting as bothered as I was? They all seemed to be focused on some other issue that just didn’t seem as important to me. Let’s arrange a meeting to discuss this before our next meeting .. Oh my God!

This was Guinness, this was big business and it was management at the very highest level where the stakes were huge – what was I missing?

I had joined from a subsidiary company of Guinness in Cork called Deasy’s – we manufactured our own (quite profitable) soft drinks and distributed beer and soft drinks from the major manufacturers including Guinness. I had moved from the role of Financial Controller to General Manager, I had a lot of autonomy and now I found myself working in St.James Gate for Guinness as part of a large team.

My practical, work hard, do the (what I thought was) right thing, straight forward, no nonsense approach just didn’t seem to be cutting it at this level – in truth, I was struggling and getting very frustrated. I was starting to learn about the concept of meetings about meetings about meetings for the first time and it was driving me bonkers!!

The other thing I started to learn about was life in a large organisation and corporate “politics” and how these high stake personal power games were played out – as I said I was struggling with my very limited tool kit. At this stage in my career I needed to learn other skills to survive and thrive.

One of my big questions was how could these huge organisations succeed with such high stakes where potentially destructive personal politics could dominate and interfere with good constructive, positive work on an ongoing basis?

After three years of working with Guinness I figured out that “Success” happens in big organisations when “agendas” align.

A Senior Manager has a list of items that if he or she achieves them they will make them look good and advance their “personal” journey in the organisation. The Business has a list of items that are a priority and if these are achieved it will be successful. When the managers list and the business list align you get magic and progress is made – often this may not happen enough!

For a long time I thought that a corporate career was for me – I discovered I was wrong! Guinness was a great place to work, I made great friends in my time there, I learnt a huge amount but ultimately meetings about meetings was not for me ..

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion

Fuzion are a Marketing and PR firm with offices in Dublin and Cork

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Posted in Motivation, Personal development, Teamwork | 11 Comments »

Chasing “Your” Dreams

November 11, 2012
Chasing Dreams

Chase “your” dreams

A few months ago I found myself having a coffee in town on a Saturday morning chatting with an old school buddy who I hadn’t see in thirty years. We had connected on LinkedIn and it was as if those thirty years had disappeared in a flash.

I always thought he was “sound”, one of the good guys and in truth not a whole pile had changed – both of us had done a lot of living in between but we were essentially the same two school mates – we had a good laugh recalling stories about our teachers and football matches we had played in. I had a photo of our “winning” team in some school tournament and there we were the two of us in our red kit!

Both of us have done well in our varied careers and he was in the early stages of a new online project – by the end of the conversation he asked if I wanted to come on board with the project utilising our expertise on some type of a shareholding arrangement. In a few years the plan was to sell the business and we would all make good money. Hmmm ….sounded good.

After this me met a few times and got down to business and delved into the nitty gritty of his project and our involvement in it.

While his project was really interesting to my surprise I found myself not being as enthusiastic as he was about it. Why was this I was asking myself?

Like every great “driver” he was pushing me for our plans and input. I did this of course but I discovered his project wasn’t my No.1 priority. My clients and our own projects motivate me and this project just wasn’t having the impact that I was expecting.

It wasn’t a client and it wasn’t “my” project.

My buddy needs more than 1,000% from me and everyone else involved in the project for it to be a success. I realise this more than anyone.

Before we damaged our friendship we gracefully concluded our arrangement and that was cool with both of us. We’ll meet again for coffee soon – probably in about another 30 years!

It’s important that we spend our time chasing our own dreams.

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion

Fuzion are a Marketing and PR firm with offices in Dublin and Cork

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Posted in Business Start Ups, Motivation, Personal development | 11 Comments »

Could you wish for any more for your kids?

November 7, 2012

I just spotted this post on my son’s Facebook page – could you wish for any more?

Brendan Canty - Feel Good Lost

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion

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Posted in Parenting, Personal development | Leave a Comment »

Undoing the good …. the over sell.

October 31, 2012
Pushy salesman

How about it?

Another phone call ..

Last week I attended a really good seminar that was hosted by a company from Dublin that we had never had dealings with before – I’m not really sure how I ended up on their invitation list but somehow I did.

They were obviously touting for business in the Cork area and looking for new leads.

The seminar was “free” for all attendees and I must admit that it was very useful and it was run in a very professional manner. It was well attended and judging by the level of interaction during the session the topic was of huge interest.

The two speakers on the day represented the company well and went a long way to convincing the attendees that they had considerable expertise on the subject matter – it turned out to be a really strong “showcase” for their talents and sitting there I reckoned they would definitely pick up business as a result.

I left the enjoyable session with some promotional literature and a really strong impression of the company who presented.

When people registered for the event we were asked for various contact details, which I guess is fair enough if they want to send out further literature or even add me to a newsletter. I was interested in the topic after all.

Since the event I have received a few emails and a few phone calls from the company. The calls have come directly to my mobile and also through to the office phone. After one of the calls I received an email and I politely responded thanking them for the useful session and explaining clearly that if we needed their services I would definitely consider them.

A few days later I am still getting calls and emails ….enough!

Do the seminar, showcase your talents, leave me with an information pack and maybe a polite follow up call/email a week later.

Instead you’ve turned me off and now all I want to do is avoid you!!

We all need to be careful not to undo the good by pushing too hard for the sale ..

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion

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Posted in Direct Marketing, Marketing, Sales | 28 Comments »

The Influence of Social Media in Politics

October 26, 2012
Romney and Obama - Presidential Debate

I must remember to tweet that !

A big thank you to Lillian King for sharing this really interesting and valuable infographic about the influence of Social Media in Politics, which is very timely before the US Presidential Elections.

After all they reckon that Barack Obama was the first Social Media President ever! (Facebook is credited as playing such a major part in his campaign four years ago)

Have a peep through the very interesting stats and tables shown at the bottom of this post.

The one number that grabs me from the stats is that “In Senate races the candidate with the most fans gets elected 81% of the time”.

Does this mean they were the most popular anyway, or does it mean they connected with more people by using social media effectively helping them to get  elected – not sure?

Ireland

For me in the Irish scenario it really bugged me that so many politicians wanted to be “my friend” before the election and now they are nowhere to be scene.

Social Media isn’t a trick – it isn’t a one off opportunity to achieve a specific goal  (however this may occur as a once off).

Social Media, for politicians (or businesses for that matter) is an opportunity to build a following, an opportunity to communicate genuine messages, values and beliefs – in this crazy world of ours an opportunity to cut through the BS, show where you are on key issues and let people see what you really stand for.

When the election (Christmas!) is over ….grab that opportunity

Social Media Election

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion

Fuzion offer Social Media Training and Social Media Consultancy from our offices in Cork and Dublin.

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Posted in Irish Politics, Marketing, Politics, PR, Social Media | 7 Comments »

Jimmy Saville – the price of staying silent

October 24, 2012
Jimmy Saville

Untouchable ?

Oh my god, it’s all over the TV and radio – that image of the man with the mad hair, the big glasses and the ever present giant cigar.

Sir James Wilson Vincent Savile, OBE, KCSG was an English disc jockey, television presenter and media personality who passed away at the age of 84- this is how he is described on Wikipedia.

No doubt the description and the extra information that is generated about him on that site will expand and change quite substantially as the next few months unravel.

The investigations into the case will continue and no doubt the level of revelations will increase exponentially. This is a truly shocking case and it seems unbelievable that so many victims and witnesses stayed silent allowing this behaviour to continue over and over, drawing more and more innocent victims into his net.

Now that “Jim Will Fix It” is dead many victims and witnesses are prepared to divulge the most sordid of information about him.

Why could people not have opened their mouths earlier is an obvious question to ask? How many victims would have been saved from the most horrible, sordid, predatory experiences if this was the case?

The truth is people are and were frightened – would they be believed, would they be supported, would they be crushed for “speaking out” without sufficient proof, would they find themselves in trouble, would it be better to just stay silent? Even better .. I don’t want to get involved!

Some of the “silent many” were innocent and vulnerable victims. Others were senior media figures, his friends and his peers who lived through this period and in many cases according to reports actually witnessed some of the incidents.

Many innocent people paid a huge price for this silence in the case of Jimmy Saville. We are seeing so many other instances of people paying a huge price for silence in some many other areas. We help them to get away with their behaviour, we help them to be untouchable. The vulnerable must feel safe enough to talk and everyone else who knows better must be compelled to.

We need to look carefully at our legal systems, our values, our structures and figure out who we are really protecting ..

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion

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Posted in Entertainment, Self Help | 6 Comments »

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