Today is momentous, for me personally and for the amazing RedBalloon team. Today, RedBalloon is celebrating the sale of a million RedBalloon experiences. It seems like yesterday that I launched RedBalloon (during the dot com crash, no-one can accuse me of not having an optimistic outlook) and waited (and waited) for two months and four days to sell our first experience. Thank you to our first customer, Damian Chown, who says he chose to purchase from RedBalloon because it was…
The wonderful RedBalloon product team never cease to amaze me with how they source such innovative, memory-making experiences. Today’s additions to our experience line-up are so exciting, especially the beer belly casting kit that I’ve already earmarked for some of my friends with a little too much taste for the amber nectar! For watersports lovers, if regular water skiing isn’t enough, why not try being towed behind an F-16 Fighter Jet for the ultimate water skiing experience? Or for the…
Today is Valentines Day!… A wonderfully busy day at RedBalloon with thousands of gifts being delivered to show people they are loved. In fact RedBalloon has also arranged many, many marriage proposals for today… in all sorts of exotic places. I wonder how many bosses will be showing how much they care for their team today? (There is a few love heart chocolates on the desks at RedBalloon this morning.)Interesting results from our survey on bosses showing their love. Also…
At RedBalloon we’re committed to not taking life too seriously, having a sense of humour and fun is one of our values and a little generosity doesn’t go astray either. I figure if we’re having fun our customers will have fun… besides if we are having fun, it does not seem like work at all – we bound out of bed ready for another day at RedBalloon. So I had a bit of a giggle when I discovered how the…
These are of course busy times at RedBalloon. It really is how much can I possibly pack in to a week. (and how many packs can we ship out this week) Last week was the Dream Employer Webinar and had some great questions – some of which we answered during the Webinar – the others we should have responded to early this week. I also did a video interview with Robert Gottliebsen for Business Spectator – which I think will…
One of the fabulous parts of my role is visiting and experiencing the amazing range of experiences that RedBalloon has to offer. This weekend my colleague Georgia and I visited a brand new supplier… and what a delight. I have never before been to a Health Retreat… in fact I was a little unsure of what to expect. I knew that to maximize the results of the retreat part of it would be to unplug for the weekend. No phones,…
At the launch event for the Dream Employers, as a participant of the panel – James Garriock, CEO Insync Surveys asked me to respond to the following questions… I share with you the essence of my answers. 1. Brand is the most appealing attribute for a Dream Employer. What builds a brand and do you think a strong brand equates to a great employer. Why? Brands are built in the hearts of our customers through the relationships they have with…
Last week ended up being completely frantic… I attended four learning events in addition to presenting at three other events. I did two client visits and attended one charity fund raiser. I had a very embarrassing moment at the RedKite Trivia Quiz night in Sydney – I was on a team with Georgie Gardner, Tony Squires, Adam Spencer, Brad Seymour, and Jenni Seton together with our partners. And clearly when you have Adam Spencer on your team the average IQ…
This past week disappeared quickly – I enjoyed attending the AFR leadership conference. I noted one of the other guests commented that the female speakers share stories and let you inside their businesses – whilst the male speakers tell you what to do… quite a vast contrast in the quality of the speakers. I especially enjoyed the session on values by Karynne Courts, Executive Director, Values Connection I had several meetings at Qantas – one regarding the dream employer survey…
This past week has been massive – that almost cannot remember where it began (I have travelled about 3500kms). I did hear early on in the week from my friend Marty Wilson, that Seth Godin is hosting an exclusive 3 day think tank for 12 Female Entrepreneurs early in November – so I got my skates on and applied. I implored in my application that such a program would need a global perspective and who better to bring growth and…
Imagine running a business based on fun - that's what I decided to try when I left a very serious corporate career in marketing to set up RedBalloon...
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