Barry's BULL-e-TINS

As a music man its always been my job to find the appropriate song for all occasions. So here's a great song to introduce a motivating thought as we move into the new fiscal year.

It's Barbra Streisand's first mega hit and it goes like this. "People who need people are the luckiest people in the world"

That's right! Turn up the volume and put yourself "out there" with other like-minded people, because we all need each other. If you reach out to enough people, a door of opportunity will open that will expose new leads and fresh ideas. Some call this "networking'. It's definitely all of this- but much more. It's like a pebble thrown in water. A tiny splash creates endless ripples of energy across a vast pool of human connections.
I believe there is something more powerful that underpins everything we do, and exists beyond the borders of our normal senses. Invisible threads of synchronicity are continually stitching together unforeseen circumstances of connectivity, and just because we can't see them, touch them, or hear them, doesn't mean they don't exist. But if you are "out there', they will find you. That's when the instinctive urge of human connectivity, weaves its web of serendipity. Once this occurs, it's hard not to be inspired.

Here's what happened to me recently and while I don't believe in coincidence, it's an example of what happens if you put yourself and your product/services "out there' and listen to other people.

Sony Music had just scheduled my two new Music for Cruizin' CD titles for a June release. Simultaneous to this, the annual Qld Camping and Caravan Show was being held at the Brisbane RNA show ground, during the Queens birthday long weekend. This is the largest recreational show of its kind in Australia attracting 80,000 visitors and is an obvious market for my Music for Cruizin' catalogue, now comprising eight double albums that specifically targets the "boomers' on the road. And I had 80,000 of the buggers with their headlights on high beam, cruizin' to the show. It was too good an opportunity to miss!

A few years ago I was a keynote speaker at the Caravan Trade and Industries Association Annual Conference where I met the CEO, Ron Chapman. Ironically, the association also organises the QLD Camping and Caravan Show. Ron's a beaut bloke who much prefers to have a "coldie' around a campfire than a coffee in his office. He immediately saw the obvious synergy in my involvement in the forthcoming show, when I called him about my latest Cruizin' albums.

He informed me that Brisbane radio 4BH would be broadcasting "live' from the show over the long weekend promoting the event, and 4BH listeners are the perfect demographic for my Cruizin' product. So with support from Sony, a "Music for Cruizin' weekend' was locked in on 4BH with hourly competitions to win my albums. And by providing daily door prizes at the gate, the Cruizin' catalogue was featured in 40,000 show programs.

This was exposure in overdrive and as a consequence of this, Ron allocated a small booth to display my product and capture immediate sales that the promotion generated. Then out of the blue he said, "You're a speaker, I remember your talk a few years back. Why don't you do a live presentation in our seminar rooms and have your product available?" What a hoot! I was back in familiar territory. I was a retailer once again and created a new presentation, I aptly called - Still Cruizin' after all these years!

We sold hundreds of Cruizin' CD's over the weekend and made inroads into a new industry that would drive future opportunities. At a time when some business folk are talking 'doom and gloom', you need to be "out there"!

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This week my two new releases, Joyride and Those were the days are 'Album of the week' on Brisbane Radio 4BC, Sydney 2GB (Alan Jones) 2UE Perth 6IX/6PR /ABC 720 and featured on ABC local radio, Radio national and News Radio across Australia. That's what I mean by 'being out there'!


'Another sensational set of songs mate!!'
Ian Holland
Group Programme Director
MRN, 2GB,2CH,MTR1377 Sydney


For a free Music for Cruizin' brochure listing all the albums and songs, email barry@barrybull.com  or order on line at www.barrybull.com .....  

                                     Little Bull Enterprises 2010 

Today's tough business conditions can easily make you  feel like you're swimming against the tide. Worse still, if you try to compete with the big guys on price or resources, then you're swimming with the sharks. But the paradox is, that you cannot be content to swim ‘between the flags' either, like everyone else. 

So I need to put on my Speedo's and goggles to explain what I mean, as I share a recreational goal that's been a tad challenging.

Most mornings at 6.30am you'll find me swimming the beach at Mooloolaba on Queensland's beautiful Sunshine Coast. There's something about an early morning swim in the ocean that I find especially stimulating and while the unpredictability of the wind, tide and currents can be challenging, it's such an exhilarating way to start the day. And what's equally stimulating is the reliance on your fitness, and having the experience to remain calm to deal with the conditions and stay focused on the finishing line. It's that same ‘out on a limb' experience I feel when I walk onto the conference stage.

But like all worthwhile experiences, they are incomplete without people to share them with. I swim with a committed group of people called the ‘Mooloolaba Beach Bums', who all share a love of fitness and the enjoyment of completing a one-kilometer swim across the bay, regardless of the season.

When I first started swimming with the group I was terrified. I'd never been so out my depth before, and although I love the water, I wasn't a strong swimmer. So after being thrashed a few times by the big surf, (and particularly after my caravan accident), I began to think that this could be number two on my ‘bucket list'!

But I find it harder than most to accept defeat, and with a little help from my friends my confidence slowly returned, although fear was ever present. Fear however, is a condition of the mind. If the mind can stimulate unfounded fear, it also has the capacity for you believe that anything is possible. So with a switch of mindset, I eventually became one of the ‘beach bum' regulars. 

I also discovered that swimming in the ocean is a lot different than following the black line at the bottom of the local pool. Changing tide and wind conditions make every day a different challenge, and because my head is down and low in the water, it can be difficult to see my colleagues when it's a running tide with a ‘choppy' swell. (Or for the purpose of this analogy, watch ‘the competition.')

I knew I had to get real serious about my technique if I was going to keep up. I noticed that my colleagues had their own way of dealing with these conditions, and the old adage ‘different strokes for different folks', is right on the money. Those that can't adapt to changing conditions eventually drop off - or drown!

At first I churned the water like an eggbeater, using so much energy thrashing by arms and legs about, that I struggled with the distance. Then one morning I noticed that the fastest swimmers in the group took the fewest strokes and seemed to effortlessly glide through the water. Faced with a sink or swim scenario, the obvious thing to do was to get some assistance, so one of my teammates gave me a book on ‘technique'. To be honest, it's not easy to read page 35 to find out what comes next, when you're out beyond the third breaker with a north easterly in your gob! But with perseverance, I discovered that my body rhythm was more important than what I did with my arms and legs, and once I developed a comfortable technique, I found I was swimming faster and further with less effort.

There's an obvious similarity between the principles we use to achieve recreational and business goals, because the strategies for success used in one area of your life can be applied to other endeavours. Here's how it works.

Risk is a calculated necessity for business growth, but if you're going to go out of your depth, then precautions are required. Firstly, you need to keep your head above water by ensuring that your business is financially fit and is adaptable to changing commercial conditions, while keeping a watchful eye on the competition. Companies that don't understand this will eventually sink.

It's so easy to burn energy in the wrong places. This not only is a waste of resources, and capital, but results in a poor return on investment. The development of skills and techniques (continually analising what's working and what's not) will not only drive a more efficient and differentiating performance, but will maintain your competitive edge and get you to where you're going, faster and with much less effort and cost. Interestingly, technique is not an asset that carries a staggering price tag. You just have to continually work at it.

A long time ago I chose not to ‘swim between the flags' of life. This decision provided individuality, freedom, personal satisfaction and mostly, the confidence to take the bull by the horns and ‘make a splash.' However there was always a lifeguard on duty.... common sense!

So after my morning 'splash' I join my mates for a rewarding cappuccino. It's just common sense when you think about it - 'the best things in life really are free!' 

My passion has always been music and my early influences Elvis, JOK, and Cliff Richard were my inspiration to become a musician. All three dominated the Oz top 40 charts in the 50's and 60's. As Elvis and JOK are no longer with us, my long-term ambition was to meet Cliff Richard.

I have told the tale countless times at my conference presentations, how I finally got Cliff to do a promotion with me at ToombuI Music. That occasion, however, not only became a career highlight, but also provided me with a powerful message that became a personal metaphor. That's when I discovered that No is always negotiable. It's about never giving up.

Ninety percent of people give up when they're ten percent from achieving their goals. The word that stops them –is NO!

Why is it, that NO is the most stoppable word in the English language? Why is it, that people take this word so literally when its meaning is so transparent? It's because people are creatures of habit, and some habits go back a long way. As an infant, one of the first words we understood the meaning to, was NO. It was hardwired into our brain from early childhood and has been baggage ever since. I urge you to get rid of this enduring notion NOW, because NO is not the final negative- it's always negotiable. But don't just take my word for it!

I receive regular correspondence from business folk everywhere, who tell me how No is negotiable works for them. Here's a recent email from Sharon Mitchell, whose Jazz Apple Café in Canberra is going gangbusters!

 “After 20 year of cake decorating at home I finally got brave enough to open Canberra's first Cupcake shop. I have never worked in a retail environment before, let alone owned one. Anyway, my cupcakes started taking off!

I mentioned to my husband that I was noticing gaps in my knowledge in the retail area, and he recommended I read your book.  He has heard you speak a couple of times over the years (we visited your shop in QLD a few years back) and he recently heard you speak again at a financial planners conference in Sydney.

So I read your book cover to cover and before I was half way through, I used one of your ideas when Ray Martin came to town to promote his new autobiography.  I followed your suggestion of using celebrity whenever possible, and so I sent a dozen of our beautiful cupcakes up to a book signing that Ray was doing. Two hours later Ray was in my Cupcake Emporium to thank us, talk to my customers and to tell us that they were the best cupcakes ever! I called my hubbie and told him that your stuff really does work!!

So along the same lines, I used your “no is negotiable” theme when trying to find some more bakery space to grow into (the business is growing so fast I'm now selling upwards of 2500 Cupcakes per week).  I kept getting, no, no, no from all the real estate agents that I was talking to about acquiring extra space.  Anyway - I just kept up a gentle persistence - every day (sometimes with cupcake deliveries as incentive) and today I finally got a YES!  It is the exact space I wanted for the exact rental I was prepared to pay. I could not believe they finally said YES! 

I just wanted to say thanks, because without the wisdom of your book I would not have known that NO IS NEGOTIABLE. The cupcake consumers of Canberra will be very grateful too!”