With my Liber8tv hat on I recently interviewed Mark Blumsky, former Mayor of Wellington. Mark has written a book called Slippers, sub-titled “what the plumber taught the Mayor about business”. Slippers tells the story about how a chance meeting with a plumber gave Mark the ideas behind his successful chain of shoe stores, Mischief Shoes, and how he went on to apply the same lessons to his campaign to become Wellington’s Mayor. To find out the story (and why slippers are so important) you’ll either have to buy Mark’s book or wait until Liber8tv launches (give me a month…). But its the moral behind the story that really motivates Mark these days as he teaches businesses how to find their point of difference. Mark’s three tips for business owners looking to grow their business beyond themselves were:
1. Vision (have a purpose and reason for being that is clear to you and others)
2. Point of difference (find something special and unique that will stand you out from your competition)
3. Attitude (have a clearly defined attitude for your business that defines everything you and your team do, how you treat clients, how you market yourself… everything).
Mark was great to interview, we had a lot of fun. I’m looking forward to seeing those episodes when the production team have finished with them.