At an inspiring sales seminar I was once asked if I thought sales techniques were taught or if we were born with them? I assumed that the most persuasive selling skills were learned over time so I was surprised to learn that we are all born with them – life just knocks them out of [...]

I don’t like the word “sustainability”. It sounds patronising, “Yeah, she’s started a new exercise regime but is it sustainable?” It also has connotations of guilt. For example sustainable tourism makes us feel guilt ridden as we explore a planet that has become more accessible through air travel for every air mile that we rack [...]

My husband and I recently had a meeting with a member of staff from an established bank. We sat in a private office as we discussed the different savings plans we might consider opposite a financial advisor who wore a short-sleeved, frilly blouse displaying plenty of cleavage. While my husband was very pleased that our [...]

Meeting Mother Teresa was a moment that stands out in my life and not only because she was an iconic figure. I worked with HIV positive patients in Romania in the early 90’s. My husband worked as the charity administrator and often gave extra help to an orphanage that was run by the Sisters of [...]

FIVE BUSINESS BOOKS THAT HAVE AN IMMEDIATE POSITIVE EFFECT I have a confession to make… I had been running a business for 3 years before I read a business book. In retrospect it seems crazy but I was so intent on building my business by running around like a proverbial headless chick that I didn’t [...]

We sit up and take note of something or someone who surprises us by doing or saying something that we weren’t expecting.  Michelle Mone was a perfect example of saying something the audience wasn’t expecting when she got up to speak to a group of business people in Edinburgh last month.  She began her talk [...]

I know you’re in a hurry. You’re intrigued by the title and want to check out whether such a bizarre claim can be true. Can I really guarantee true beauty in three easy steps? Yep – read on…. Know that the power to do anything lies within you. Too many of us believe that if [...]

A family business appeals to those of us who are not part of such an enterprise. We consider the fact that a family wish to be with each other during the working week, as well as at social gatherings, a sign of a cohesive and loving unit – who better to do business with? Whether [...]

When we’re young we tend to take the attributes of youth for granted. It’s only when we realise that they’re not there anymore that we truly value what we had. Any envious middle-aged person can relate to George Bernard Shaw who commented that “youth is wasted on the young” and this applies to the clothes [...]

THE BIKINI ARTICLE I know, I know – the 3rdi is a serious magazine, covering serious business topics and has no room for such frivolities as swimwear. But I’m hoping that the editor will allow for some early holiday season madness and allow me this one concession. Why? Because with this month’s focus in 3rdi [...]

Why should we consider the clothes that we wear as leaders when some of the greatest leaders of the 20th century clearly didn’t? Would Ghandi or Mother Theresa have achieved as much if they’d worn different clothes? Yes, probably. Their clothes appeared to be of no apparent consequence. Yet these leaders of social change were [...]

If cattle are branded by farmers, or corporate groups seek to identify their brand values, surely branding is an impersonal activity that obliterates the individual, and “personal branding” is a contradiction in terms? Personal branding suggests that we take the subjective, the unique traits of an individual, and create an objective brand.  And to a [...]