A New Level Of Communication

"Thanks for reading the book Dad, it means a lot to me."

With those words, I believe a new chapter in a a father/son relationship has begun.I'm sure all of us out there would know about the parent to child conversations you have, where the mum or dad asks the 20 questions, and you (as the child) answer back in one word answers. Even at our age, you still get the same things.

Of course, all of us want to share with our families, and to seek advice form our parents...they have experience there that is helpful on our own journey. What's annoying is the fact that we get shot down as soon as we voice an opinion or dream that may not conform to their expectations.

Me: Oh, I was thinking of trying some sales job
Dad: What the...? Why are you throwing away your IT skills? How are you going to get those skills? Who will hire you? Blah blah blah...

So after another one of these quality communication exchanges, I thought it would be a bold step to give my dad some reading. 7 Habits :) But only one very small section about "seeking first to understand, then be understood".To be honest, I wasn't expecting much. Parents have that ace up the sleeve, namely the "I'm too old to change" call, that there is no counter for. However, after coming back from volleyball training, Dad sat me down and said,

"I photocopied the pages, cause I want Mum to read it as well. It makes a whole lot of sense. I realise what I've been doing before, and I'm going to make an effort to not judge so quickly."

Amazing!

Damn! four cheap calls already:

don't go into the car sales business - we already got kevkev for cheapie cars! I think u should work in designer womens wear...i do need to some new clothes!
mushiejc (link) - 24 April '05 - 12:53

wow! i'm surprised it worked for you.

i tried passing the same book, and another to my parents yonks ago, and i got the "i'm too old to change", "i know i'm right", line as well.

glad to hear ur dad is humble and open minded to your suggestions
alvina - 24 April '05 - 17:00

Damn, it really worked on your dad?! Good story, I can imagine the "don't waste it" line like I was there :)
PeeDz - 27 April '05 - 20:11

What the...??! Sales??! Next thing you're gonna start studying medicine or something?

RC
randomcow - 02 May '05 - 11:04

Relationships & Productivity

I've come to the conclusion that being in a relationship positively ruins your productivity.

You're relaxing at home for a while, and bam! the whole day is gone. How does this happen?
Maybe (here comes a mushy call) you're enjoying your time together too much to notice, or it could be that you need to have the combined will of two people to get both asses into gear.

We have a "things to do" list, comprising of all sorts fo fun activities ie art galleries, cultural things, cooking, trips away, learning new hobbies etc.
However, all that goes out the window, with late wake-ups in the morning, bumming around the house, DVD watching (and cuddling hehe)...the list goes on.

Not that I'm complaining. In the end, it's all quality time, right?

Damn! ten cheap calls already:

hee hee mushy call (that's me! :))

I agree QT is QT but QT outside the house is sometimes much needed after endless QT nights infront of the DVD! But then again you'll be 'complaining' about not enough in house DVD/snuggle QT nights when you're all activitied up!!
mushiejc (link) - 20 April '05 - 11:21

damn.
ue - 20 April '05 - 14:53

I'm pretty productive with my boyfriend, so who are you unproductive with JB??!!! =p
beckster (link) - 21 April '05 - 10:27

ah... but is the opposite.. ie, being too productive, any better??
bjee - 21 April '05 - 18:25

Bjee is right. What is productivity for the sake of productivity?

Btw, I'm loving single life atm :)
PeeDz - 23 April '05 - 19:28

agree with fellow commenters - no use being productive just for the sake of it.. cuddle time wins hands down over trying to achieve 101 things at once! But having said that, hafta give a shout out to my homie PeeDz... life on the singles cruiser is grand at the mo'!
lmm - 24 April '05 - 07:55

Maybe I always know that there is things to do. Relaxing for the sake of relaxing is not a strong point, although it should be addressed.

Yes, PeeDz, I know the single "XBox" life suits you to a tea :)
JookBoy (link) - 24 April '05 - 12:54

Yup, can't fight the chipping action.. finished Max Payne 2, nutting through GTA: Vice City atm :)
PeeDz - 27 April '05 - 20:10

Damn indeed.

What are you doing KC? If seems your gf has no issues with her levels of productivity. :)
ricegrains (link) - 29 April '05 - 14:34

I have the perfect strategy for making your day together more productive. All the chores that I should be doing all week (ironing, vacuuming, taking out garbage, etc) you postpone until she's at your place. Then all of a sudden it's "clean-up time". Together, of course.

My favourite is to say you're taking the garbage downstairs while she's ironing some shirts, and then duck off to the gym for an hour or so. 30 minutes on the bikes in front of V-channel and you'll be pumped full of testosterone, ready to rip her away from her ironing in a fit of passion.

The idea is to make it look like you're caring about her, while at the same time you're not letting her waste your time. So while she's vacuuming, call out something sweet, like "baby, you might have to take the end off when you clean behind the TV. It's hard to get to, you know." This shows you care, and you don't even have to look up from the computer screen.

Another thing that makes it look like you care is a little 1-minute massage for her when she's ironing. Because that's about how long it takes to get the syrup from the hotcakes (see below) off your fingers.

If you run out of things for her to do, you can always get her to make you some hotcakes with syrup! You've got the mix already in the cupboard, so she can't screw it up like she does the rest of her cooking. In the mean time you just continue looking up porn and calling out the occasional "careful, the pan gets hot you know" when you can hear she has just burnt herself.

RC

PS quick tip, is that when you're putting your case together to get her out of your house on Sunday morning, always *include* the hours that you spent asleep. Suddenly "we just spent 4 hours together" becomes "you know, i've already spent 12 hours with you baby. That's half a day. Imagine if I spent half a day everyday with you. That's half my life! I mean, it would be great and all baby and I love you and all that shit, but seriously, when would I have time to go to work? Yeah. Ok, so we'll do this again next week, right? You know where the bus stop is. Ok, bye."

RC
randomcow - 02 May '05 - 11:02

The Wonders Of Marketing

It's been a few weeks at the new job at St Marys, I'm starting to get a bit of a feel for it. The communities part of the job is not yet full steam ahead, so the expeereince is mostly on the marketing side.

I've been doing a lot of reading about marketing, and website usability, and demographics of the western Sydney region.
One particularly interesting reaserach I've been reading is about the art of marketing to females. Here is my quick analysis:

1. Emotive rapport building
- women process incoming messages on a far more emotive element than men
- men will recall facts and data, women recall much more emotional/human factors
- difference at different age groups
- the "emotional hit" is the issue

2. MSP (Multi-dimensional selling proposition)
- could be more important to USP (unique selling proposition)
- automatically relating the marketing message to different components of her life, whereas the male will evaluate on a single component. Hence need to appeal to all factors of her life.
- do not stereotype and pigeon-hole women

3. Community network
- the importance that women place on their network, feeling a sense of community
- provide mechanisms and the environment for women to connect to each other
- eg an online community
- tie yourself to an existing network or create its own network.
- "think constellation, not individual stars"

4. Open channels of feedback
- giving ownership of your brand to your female customers
- ie providing ideas, product dvelopment, suggestions
- the customers themselves become the promoters and networkers
- work on establishing a client advisory board
- utilise female collaboration as a story for further promotion

5. Referrals (Word-of-mouth)
- They can basically learn 100% of the product from their "inner circle" of female friends before they purchase.
- 73% of married women rate the relationships with their women of greater importance than their relationship with their husbands (talk about non-commitment! :P)
- Word-of-mouth becomes an exponential strategy
- Get them to refer by working out how to reward their referrals
- Reward the referral, rather than offering an up-front bribe ie surprise the female with the gift AFTER the referral has occurred, rather than before.

I wonder if this type of information can be integrated into how guys should approach relationships? It's all about marketing yourself, right?

Damn! five cheap calls already:

So...does that mean you have a "constellation" of "stars" that you "network" with, with the referral rewards paid in full? :P
ricegrains (link) - 11 April '05 - 09:06

I will now sell more Lexus'. Thanks :P
PeeDz - 12 April '05 - 17:25

Good point Diddyz...I hope none of your competitors read your blog KC :)

I will also now proceed flog more deodorant :)
ricegrains (link) - 14 April '05 - 06:05

Yeah, these all-body sprays are just dodgy, especially if they are not diluted :)
JookBoy (link) - 19 April '05 - 13:43

I guess sometimes your product's reputation is so good that you don't have to go out there and market it.

RC
randomcow - 02 May '05 - 10:47