Monthly Archives: March 2010

The power of authenticity

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The-real-deal

At the risk of sounding like a self-styled lifestyle guru, I want to say a few words about authenticity, also known as not being a fake or being yourself.

I’m having one of those ‘after work events’ weeks. Tonight there were lots of options, last night there was my favourite ‘meet-your-peers and sample some snacks and drinks from the host’ event Media Mingle. It’s just that time of year – launches, end of financial year parties – the list is endless.

I find these events either fabulous or dire, and often it isn’t about the quality of the catering (even though superior nibbles certainly helps). What so often kills events for me is networking.

On a good day, I can network with the best of them. I can introduce myself to randoms, explain where I work, hear the business pitch… wish I was somewhere else… leave as soon as possible.

This is the thing. I’m a person. I’m not a potential revenue stream. I’m not the person who buys advertising in my company. I’m more likely at the party for the already mentioned several times food, than from a desire to have someone corner me and try to guilt me in to a) buying their product b) giving them free stuff c) promoting their product even though I’ve never used it.

I’d like to follow up the angry sounding paragraph above with the qualification that this week has been delightfully void of such instances. I have chatted with people about their work and mine, music, the Rugby World Cup theme song horror (don’t they like non-boofheads?), interesting projects and opinions on all kinds of things… but not once did someone cross the line into pushy/desperate territory.

What I think it boils down to is that we are interested in people more than products, conversation more than pitches and friendliness more than networking. I think authenticity creates connections with people far more than listing credentials does.

I’m all for ‘fake it till you make it’ on occasions when you need to project confidence. It makes sense that people wear a veneer at parties or events when surrounded by strangers. But when you go in with a firm belief that people are likeable and interesting, without any agenda other than a determination to enjoy yourself, then the chance of enjoyment, relationship building and (dare I say) even networking skyrockets. But really, the enjoyment factor is the most important.  

Blog: Winning over your audience

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Bio_photostreet

Last night, I watched the hit Irish indie film “Once”. Tonight I saw the stars of the film, Glen Hansard (Dave Dobbyn’s younger Irish cousin) and Marketa Irglova playing as The Swell Season, backed by Glen Hansard’s other band The Frames.

Both the film and the gig totally won me over. Neither were flashy or full of effects. Both were about stories and sound and warmth. It got me thinking for the zillionth time about live shows and what some of the things are that I wish musicians would think about. I think Glen Hansard gave a masterclass on these points tonight – I think it worked because he comes across as a completely genuine guy who is aware how lucky he is to be touring the world.

Dear bands. Can you please remember these things:

1.       Give the audience what they want. (We wanted songs from Once. They gave them to us.  I’ve been burned before by a Duran Duran who didn’t play Wild Boys and an Oasis who didn’t play Wonderwall. That kind of behaviour is selfish. SELFISH!)

2.       Like your own music and play it passionately. You don’t have to have a massive stage show, but a bit of creativity is good. (Glen coming out to play the first song from the movie unplugged was a ‘you had us at hello moment’).

3.       Have a good rapport with your band.

4.       Build a good rapport with your audience. (It helps if you actually like people and show it).

5.       Don’t have over-rehearsed links, but don’t go on forever boringly, closely linked to this is:

6.       Tell a little bit of yourself so we feel like we’re getting to know you, and

7.       Make us laugh, go on. But…

8.       Remember that it’s actually all about the music.

9.       By the way visitors – New Zealanders are embarrassingly grateful when you say you love our country, but please don’t say that you love us all or any of that over the top stuff. A few stories about what you’ve seen and done, especially if end up laughing at yourself, is quite acceptable.

10.   If you make the audience feel like they’re in the experience, not just watching it, then they’ll remember the show and buy your albums.

www.theswellseason.com

Blog: Beautiful people

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We’ve all heard it before – it is what is on the inside that counts. I know a some beautiful people. Being around them make me a better friend, kinder person and more smiley customer. That sounds a bit extreme and makes them sound like some kind of superhero or messiah, and not only is that not the case, but puts way too much pressure on people.

What I’m actually talking about are the people who are unashamedly friendly and healthily confident. I’m not saying they don’t have issues, we all do. But somehow they’ve managed to get past living with the ‘am I okay?’ question and instead live with the attitude that people are interesting and fun – so they treat the world that way. I think this is amazing because the responses they get are almost unfailingly positive. They bring out the best in people.

Today I had the fun of spending the morning with one of these people, my gorgeous & loveable friend Lizzie, who is always fun to hang out with. I smiled and laughed a lot as we made extremely important life decisions at the Designer Garage Sale. We even purchased the last two pairs of Black mid-calf For Good boots in the world (apparently) and negotiated that I would get to wear them on Thursday when we are attending the theatre together.

The reason for this rave? Because friendship and shopping is great. Because friends are people who are good for your soul – even when life is less than happy. Because I really like this dress that Lizzie bought at Stitch Ministry today and wanted a reason to mention how utterly gorgeous their clothes are – especially for those who have long legs.

Photo: Very candid Designer Garage Sale shot – forgive me!

 

Blog: Highly recommended

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Fish

 

One of the nicest things about moving suburbs is that people show interest and give advice. I’ve discovered that something that binds the people of Ponsonby/Grey Lynn/Westmereville is that they like to eat good food. In the neighbourhood there are gorgeous places to buy food – both to take home and cook or dine in.

Recommendations from locals or honorary locals are gold – they save you from awful mistakes for a start and sometimes you get the scoop on great little places than not many people know about.

This week I’d had a couple of people mention a place I’ve been thinking looks gorgeous but haven’t been to – The Little Grocer. Check out the blog here http://www.lovelyfood.co.nz/ with a lovely photo and description.

I had another chat about the same place last night at the ballet and when it was Friday evening it really seemed that going to The Little Grocer for a one person serve of Terakihi in sour dough crumb, wedges and salad of my choice (I picked the Caesar) was the right thing to do.

I toddled up the road as dusk fell, looked at the complicated and sometimes odd renovations being done to the expensive looking houses on the way and had my first, but certainly not last experience of The Little Grocer.

In summary, some of the things they sell are:

·         Fresh dinners

·         Frozen dinners

·         K Bars

·         Bethells honey

·         Marmalade

·         Homemade iceblocks

·         Coffee

·         Handmade aprons

They passed the people test (nice staff), it is inviting and possibly most importantly, dinner was delish and plentiful.

While more expensive than home cooking (just) it is cheaper than going to the supermarket on Friday night for a couple of essentials and spending heaps on impulse items. With that reasoning, it is very cost effective. Plus they gave me a paper bag to carry things home in, it was just like the movies. 

Blog: Aftermath

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Taufa_beachfront_fales_2s

There have been a lot of bad news stories lately of the natural disaster kind. It’s crazy because every crisis seems to ‘outdo’ the last. It’s easy to move on – to focus on the latest crisis, which I guess is natural when we are so far removed from the people affected.

In September I wrote this blog about the Tsunami that affected Samoa and Tonga. http://josiecampbell.posterous.com/blog-help. This situation affected me personally because places I’d been just a year earlier were completely decimated and we’d heard that a friend had lost 13 family members at Lalomanu, which made the tragedy seem so much more real.

It’s not that the crises further away aren’t terrible, of course they are. But so many of us have Samoan and Tongan friends who had lost someone, so in many ways this was our tragedy.

The reason I’m bringing this up today is because I’d heard a while ago that there had been a lot of rebuilding done in Lalomanu.  I had a look at their website this afternoon and the Taufua Beach Fales are well and truly back in action. I thought, (since this is my blog and I can plug what I want), that I’d remind you all that the best thing we can do for these lovely people, our neighbours, is to visit and spend our tourist dollars with them.

It’s easy to forget to care after a few months have gone by. But since Autumn is here and things are starting to get colder – perhaps you might want to think of visiting Taufua rather than Australia this winter. The accents are WAY nicer to listen to!

http://www.samoabeachfales.com/

Blog: Foot traffic

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P_road

Today I left my car on the shore to get fixed after an unfortunate incident yesterday morning that involved a branch and my rear windscreen. Suffice to say, I’m not at my best at 6am and apparently I don’t have night vision. Oops. I'm very glad I have insurance. 

Getting to work took a lot of walking, waiting and sitting in the bus as it meandered around the north shore streets and over the bridge to the city. Made it around 11am, special.

Getting home – after a good MAXX experience this morning (very nice phone lady) I looked up my getting home options on the interwebs, went to the bus stop and got completely confused. After trying a few other options that all went to everywhere but my house I recollected all the people who enthusiastically recommended walking to work from my new address and started off at a brisk pace.

It took just under an hour, at a reasonable pace. Here are a few thoughts and observations from my environmentally friendly exercise…

·         Chi is refreshing, but if it knows its own name then I am pronouncing it wrong

·         Schoolgirls walk very slowly and have much worse language than in ‘my day’

·         Joggers manage to combine two expressions – smug and unhappy

·         There are ladies who really need to get some better fitting foundational garmets (see joggers)

·         Sensible shoes are one thing, but must people insist on wearing running shoes and funny socks with work clothes?

·         If I ever have a dog I want it to not be silly looking

·         People should smile more

·         Walking down hills is a lot more fun that walking up hills

·         My knees are way better than they used to be – it is nice to know that sacrificing high heels has some benefits

·         It is not easy to refrain from yelling ‘Ghostbusters!’ when someone walks past wearing a t-shirt that says ‘Who you gonna call?’

Blog: Drama group

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Splash_drama

 

Yesterday and today I saw a bunch of people from the past, including my drama group from *cough* the mid-nineties *cough*.

There is something about having history with people that means you can see them for the first time in years and you feel that gladness that warms the soul (or if the history is negative, awkwardness).

This weekend we all gathered to be with the same friend at a sad time and realised that except for one friend who is overseas, the whole gang had been there.

It has been well over a decade since we plotted, wrote, rehearsed and performed together. It says a lot about our friend that although we’ve all moved on in life, the friendships remain and everyone made the effort to show their respect and love.

I hadn’t thought about drama group for a long time, but this weekend sparked a little bit of Sunday afternoon contemplation. I can remember the first drama I was in (we didn’t call them skits, we were very serious about it) when I had to yell my lines from the middle of the audience. You won’t understand what a massive deal this was, but at 18 I suffered from crippling shyness. Somehow making an entertaining spectacle of myself helped me to crack the shell and I’ve been making a spectacle of myself ever since. I’m not sure I would have overcome the shyness without the drama group – which means there is no way I’d be living my PR fabulous life.

It is amazing how we are shaped by the experiences of life. I’m thankful that I knew and know these good people. I was glad to see them, mostly for our mutual friend, but also because it reminded me about how far I’ve come. A little introspection can be a good thing… but I think I’ll stop now.

 

Image from: http://drama.yale.edu/

Blog: OK GO! – not one trick showponies

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When OK GO! released the video for Here It Goes Again (think treadmills), everyone was talking about it. It won a Grammy. The Simpson’s parodied it. That’s B.I.G. It was a smarter than the average band video coupled with a can’t get out of your head tune – the double whammy that bands hope to pull off, but hardly ever do.

Now they’ve done it again with This Too Shall Pass, which you can watch at the end of this post. If you haven’t already skipped there, I thought I’d tell you about the live show I saw at The Studio on K Rd in August 2007.

Often the energy and style you see in music videos don’t translate to live shows, which is a shame. This can be because a record label has put up the cash for an expensive director or just that the band is more about the music than ‘the show’ – all these things are kind of fair enough and they happen, but if you’re anything like me, live music is where it is at. I love to collect music and play the right album to fit the mood, but as I saw on Monday night was Pavement fans spilled out of Auckland Town Hall with the biggest grins, the live experience seriously cannot be beaten. (Sorry, that Pavement comment just escaped from me. Back to OK GO!)

I went to their gig after loving the treadmill video. It was enough of a selling point. What I got was an energetic show with crazy multimedia (the singer Damien Kulash wore a video camera) which showed that they take live just as seriously as they take their intricate videos.

A great live show makes you feel like you’re not at the concert, but that you’re in the concert. It doesn’t mean that you all have to sing along (I prefer it when the band isn’t drowned out) but the band has to engage with you somehow.

OK GO! took this literally, coming down into the crowd mid concert, setting up a microphone stand with three microphones on it (I think powered by a generator), equipping a couple of burly audience members with giant torches for light, gathering us around and singing a mini acoustic set. It was like a really cool campfire moment and we were completely with them. One of those magical gig moments you remember.

I found a blog with photos from the show tonight – have a browse http://lowezra.multiply.com/photos/album/63#photo=30.

Now, enjoy this gorgeous video. What’s your favourite bit? I like the umbrellas and when they destroy the treadmills… genius!