Marketing Entrepreneurship Business Blog for SMB's

Marketing Entrepreneurship Business Blog for SMB's

Marketing Strategy Blog - Mellissah Smith - Page 7

Why birthday's remind us of things we need to remember

Why birthday's remind us of things we need to remember

Today is my birthday. I have finally turned 39, a number that I have been using for quite some time, just to get use to it.

I woke up unexpectantly at 3am and have stayed awake ever since. Instead of going back to sleep, I looked out my window and soaked up the view of the parkland. I don't think I have ever seen it at 3am before. It was beautiful, peaceful and the perfect setting to the start of a new year in my life.
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Ita Buttrose salutes Business Chicks

Ita Buttrose salutes Business Chicks

Ita Buttrose is not only one of Australia's highest profile businesswomen, she is someone that I think most women would love to sit down and have a coffee with, me included. Starting her career as a coffee girl for Women's Weekly with no grand plan and no real aspirations, Ita Buttrose was the first to do many things other women before her had not done. She was the first woman to be appointed to the News Limited Board and was the Editor for Cleo magazine, the first offshoot for the Packer empire.

This morning she was the keynote speaker at Business Chicks, a networking event founded by entrepreneur Emma Isaacs. As I sat at a table hosted by PWC and next to two inspirational women; Melissa Bridge (founder of GXY Search) and former Jimmy Choo CFO and now an executive at PWC, Chelsie Harris, I was interested in what Ita had to say. Having not watched the telemovie about her life, Paper Giants, I was aptly impressed by her wit, self-depreciating mannerisms and intelligence.
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Things happen for a reason

Things happen for a reason

There is a reason why this marketing blog has been neglected and it's not something that I particularly wanted to share.

And, to some extent, I won't.

However, today I received in the mail a book and it was a reminder that 'everything happens for a reason'.

I travelled around the world twice in six weeks for business and when you do such an exhaustive trip like that, twice, you immediately get a feeling that 'it had better be worth it'. Fortunately, it always is. Afterall, its a journey and when we embark on any journey with an open and honest mind, we move that step forward to realising whatever it is that we were meant to realise.

Both trips were different. Other than for the business aspect, they could not have been more different. The first trip was one of adventure, excitement, opportunity and putting in place things for the future that needed to be put in place.
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Focus on what is important is the only way to live life

Focus on what is important is the only way to live life

Sometimes, life doesn't go as planned. And that is ok.

As we continue to embark on the journey of life, we will experience it in it's enormity. Sometimes we will be so happy, we will literally want to pinch ourselves. Other times, we will be grateful and know that we are lucky to be in the position in life that we are in. There will be times where we will be sad and disheartened, but those, we hope will be few and far between. They will only help us build character and learn what we want out of life and what we do not.

I have had a few days of being disappointed by someone else's actions. But that's ok. They are living their life and I am living mine and at the end of the day, it's their life to live and we can only choose our own paths and learn the lessons we need to learn from our own experiences.
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Is your future tied up in your past?

"Losers live in the past. Winners learn from the past and enjoy working on the present toward the future." Denis Waitley.

If I look back at the past, I only see the positive influences that are directing me to the future. A fall in the park as a seven year old, taught me to be strong and that everything heals. A teacher in fifth grade that had me in tears because she dared to give me a A- on an essay, only to have to change the mark to an A once I brought it to the Head Masters attention, taught me to stand up for what you believe in. My Year 8 crush who never even noticed that I existed, taught me that not everyone is on the same page. Crashing my boyfriends new car when I was 20 years old into the garage wall while trying to park it, taught me to not sweat the small stuff.
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Nightmares: what do they mean?

Last night, I had the most awful dream, that a friend who has been unwell, was pushing himself to the limit and not letting himself get better, had a car crash. It felt so real. In the dream, I found him all mangled, and lifeless. After months in hospital, it was time for him to get out, but there was no-one to look after him, as he had literally no-one in his life. No-one knew what to do, and no-one felt it was their responsibility. I started to cry in my dream because I felt for him. Then, the tears streaming down my face woke me up. I was completely shakened. It felt so real. The pictures in my dream were so real. It took moments before I realised that it was just a bad dream.
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What We Can Learn From Our Mothers

In Australia, it's Mother's Day today.

A day that we show appreciation for our Mother's and tell them how important they are to our lives.

My Mother is an interesting woman. She is highly religious, has an incredible sense of resilience and shows compassion to people around her like no-one I have never seen before.

As a child, I remember looking up to her. I loved that she wasn't showy like some other people's Mother's and that she always stood in the background, quiet, yet very supportive. She was the type of Mother that would bake a cake, pop into the school unannounced and give a slice to each of the kids in our class so that they could enjoy her delicious baking for morning tea. Knowing that I had a phobia of eating food out of a lunchbox, she also use to drive 10 kilometres to drop me off fresh lunch, or my favourite fish and chips, on days when the canteen didn't operate - so I would not starve.
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I see the number 8 - what do you see?

I see the number 8 - what do you see?

Ever wondered why you see the same number by coincidence over and over again?

While researches say that it is merely a case that our minds just recognises a number and attunes itself to it, could it really be more than coincidence?

My number is 8. I park always in a carspot that has an 8 in the digits, I feel lucky when it is a date with an 8 in it, any ticket I receive always has an 8 and the address of many places that I go to has an 8 in it.
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Start-up to Billion Dollar Sale - how realistic is this?

It's old news now, but it has me thinking... how realistic is it for the average small business owner to aspire to such great heights?

You would have to have been sleeping under a rock to not know that Facebook has just finalised an acquisition of the 12-man band, Instagram, for a cool price of $1 billion, give or take a few dollars, in shares and cash.
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You learn new things every day... but you need to be open to it

You learn new things every day... but you need to be open to it

Easter is but a faded memory (too much chocolate, an abundance of hot cross buns and vino to wash it down) and most of us are already back in the grind of every day life (that means "work" for those of us who are not still in holiday la la land).

I have arrived safely at my desk at 11.30am after an early morning interstate flight and am a bit weary even though I have just spent 5 days away, in the most picturesque setting possible with loads of sunshine, great wines and good food. The company wasn't too bad either ;-)

Queensland is such a stunning place. Like most people who travel up there, I always dream of living there permanently because in a week, you don't get bored, the flies don't bother you too much, and you cannot get enough of the sun and surf. It is pure paradise. Beautiful one day, perfect the next as the slogan goes.

Never one to 100% tune out on business, I learned a few things during my Easter break that I would like to share with you:
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How a woman can make their man more successful

How a woman can make their man more successful

This may surprise many who read my blogs, but I am a firm believer that women should support their men.

Coming from a European family, where men rule the roost and women play the pivotal role of supporting their man, I am an advocate of women doing what it takes to support their families and in particular the men in their lives.

When I grew up, my father was the provider. He took out the rubbish and mowed the lawn. He fixed anything that needed to be fixed.
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