Podcasts about universal genius

The last universal genius.  There are minutes spent just lightly covering Leibniz's contributions to science and his place in history, they are so extensive.  He is put forward as the father of  modern computing and patron saint of cybernetics.  What you may not realize is that in philosophy he was also a detective and a spy.  Then we cover his biography from the time he is a young man in Paris, the employment at the court in Hanover, and the point in his life where he changed from being an amazing student of the knowledge of his time, into becoming the creator of a philosophy designed to combat Spinoza.  Leibniz believed in relative space and time, but he set out to defend absolute morality.  Building from the toy ideas Voltaire includes in Candide we go into what the Theodicy really is about.There are great similarities between Leibniz and Spinoza in terms of method and philosophical assumptions, that are quite different from Newton's.  We introduce Voltaire's role as a propagandist for Newtonianism (including Locke), but that will be developed more thoroughly next episode.

Listen to Part 1 HEREWhat would George Washington and the Founders think about the Hot Crazy Matrix? Find out more in Part 2! Original video link (share with your friends & family!): www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_H85PH2gtw&t=32sCheck out the following links for more mentions of the Universal Hot Crazy Matrix!Article: The Tennesseean - Alderman's 'hot crazy' female matrix goes viralTV Appearance: Dr. Drew On Call - Creator of 'Hot/Crazy Matrix' talks to Dr. DrewSUBSCRIBE to our e-mail list for the latest news and updates from Friends & Fellow Citizens!Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/friendsfellowcitizens)

From Leonardo da Vinci to George Washington , Mary Shelley to Albert Einstein, the spectrum of geniuses is endless. A 7-minute video from 2014 with over 300 million views (and counting), the "Universal Hot Crazy Matrix" has been a favorite for countless people around the world. In this two-part grab bag episode like no other, the mastermind of the hyper viral video Dana McLendon joins us in a free-flowing conversation about how this video got started, the numerous reactions to it since its launch, and much more!Watch and enjoy the original "Universal Hot Crazy Matrix" video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_H85PH2gtw&t=32sListen to Part 2 HERE!Check out the following links for more mentions of the Universal Hot Crazy Matrix!Article: The Tennesseean - Alderman's 'hot crazy' female matrix goes viralTV Appearance: Dr. Drew On Call - Creator of 'Hot/Crazy Matrix' talks to Dr. DrewSUBSCRIBE to our e-mail list for the latest news and updates from Friends & Fellow Citizens!Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/friendsfellowcitizens)

Leonardo di ser Piero da 14/15 April 1452 – 2 May 1519), known as Leonardo da Vinci was an Italian polymath of the Renaissance whose areas of interest included invention, drawing, painting, sculpture, architecture, science, music, mathematics, engineering, literature, anatomy, geology, astronomy, botany, paleontology, and cartography. He has been variously called the father of palaeontology, ichnology, and architecture, and is widely considered one of the greatest painters of all time (despite perhaps only 15 of his paintings having survived). Born out of wedlock to a notary, Piero da Vinci, and a peasant woman, Caterina, in Vinci, in the region of Florence, Italy, Leonardo was educated in the studio of the renowned Italian painter Andrea del Verrocchio. Much of his earlier working life was spent in the service of Ludovico il Moro in Milan, and he later worked in Rome, Bologna and Venice. He spent his last three years in France, where he died in 1519. Leonardo is renowned primarily as a painter. The Mona Lisa is the most famous of his works and the most popular portrait ever made. The Last Supper is the most reproduced religious painting of all time and his Vitruvian Man drawing is regarded as a cultural icon as well. Salvator Mundi was sold for a world record $450.3 million at a Christie's auction in New York, 15 November 2017, the highest price ever paid for a work of art. Leonardo's paintings and preparatory drawings—together with his notebooks, which contain sketches, scientific diagrams, and his thoughts on the nature of painting—compose a contribution to later generations of artists rivalled only by that of his contemporary Michelangelo. Although he had no formal academic training, many historians and scholars regard Leonardo as the prime exemplar of the "Universal Genius" or "Renaissance Man", an individual of "unquenchable curiosity" and "feverishly inventive imagination." He is widely considered one of the most diversely talented individuals ever to have lived. According to art historian Helen Gardner, the scope and depth of his interests were without precedent in recorded history, and "his mind and personality seem to us superhuman, while the man himself mysterious and remote." Scholars interpret his view of the world as being based in logic, though the empirical methods he used were unorthodox for his time. Leonardo is revered for his technological ingenuity. He conceptualized flying machines, a type of armoured fighting vehicle, concentrated solar power, an adding machine, and the double hull. Relatively few of his designs were constructed or even feasible during his lifetime, as the modern scientific approaches to metallurgy and engineering were only in their infancy during the Renaissance. Some of his smaller inventions, however, entered the world of manufacturing unheralded, such as an automated bobbin winder and a machine for testing the tensile strength of wire. He is also sometimes credited with the inventions of the parachute, helicopter, and tank. He made substantial discoveries in anatomy, civil engineering, geology, optics, and hydrodynamics, but he did not publish his findings and they had little to no direct influence on subsequent science.

Leonardo di ser Piero da 14/15 April 1452 – 2 May 1519), known as Leonardo da Vinci was an Italian polymath of the Renaissance whose areas of interest included invention, drawing, painting, sculpture, architecture, science, music, mathematics, engineering, literature, anatomy, geology, astronomy, botany, paleontology, and cartography. He has been variously called the father of palaeontology, ichnology, and architecture, and is widely considered one of the greatest painters of all time (despite perhaps only 15 of his paintings having survived). Born out of wedlock to a notary, Piero da Vinci, and a peasant woman, Caterina, in Vinci, in the region of Florence, Italy, Leonardo was educated in the studio of the renowned Italian painter Andrea del Verrocchio. Much of his earlier working life was spent in the service of Ludovico il Moro in Milan, and he later worked in Rome, Bologna and Venice. He spent his last three years in France, where he died in 1519. Leonardo is renowned primarily as a painter. The Mona Lisa is the most famous of his works and the most popular portrait ever made. The Last Supper is the most reproduced religious painting of all time and his Vitruvian Man drawing is regarded as a cultural icon as well. Salvator Mundi was sold for a world record $450.3 million at a Christie's auction in New York, 15 November 2017, the highest price ever paid for a work of art. Leonardo's paintings and preparatory drawings—together with his notebooks, which contain sketches, scientific diagrams, and his thoughts on the nature of painting—compose a contribution to later generations of artists rivalled only by that of his contemporary Michelangelo. Although he had no formal academic training, many historians and scholars regard Leonardo as the prime exemplar of the "Universal Genius" or "Renaissance Man", an individual of "unquenchable curiosity" and "feverishly inventive imagination." He is widely considered one of the most diversely talented individuals ever to have lived. According to art historian Helen Gardner, the scope and depth of his interests were without precedent in recorded history, and "his mind and personality seem to us superhuman, while the man himself mysterious and remote." Scholars interpret his view of the world as being based in logic, though the empirical methods he used were unorthodox for his time. Leonardo is revered for his technological ingenuity. He conceptualized flying machines, a type of armoured fighting vehicle, concentrated solar power, an adding machine, and the double hull. Relatively few of his designs were constructed or even feasible during his lifetime, as the modern scientific approaches to metallurgy and engineering were only in their infancy during the Renaissance. Some of his smaller inventions, however, entered the world of manufacturing unheralded, such as an automated bobbin winder and a machine for testing the tensile strength of wire. He is also sometimes credited with the inventions of the parachute, helicopter, and tank. He made substantial discoveries in anatomy, civil engineering, geology, optics, and hydrodynamics, but he did not publish his findings and they had little to no direct influence on subsequent science.

Raphael was a universal genius of the High Renaissance. Now works of Raphael are on display at Albertina museum in Vienna. Visit the exhibition and get an insight into the creative process of this exceptional artist. An exhibition portrait by CastYourArt.

In this episode, Steven Mario Cavallo explores the power of creativity as the source that has propelled humanity from the cave…to the stars. It is the cradle of all invention; the wonderment that moves the child’s hand to paint the pictures in their imagination; and it is the mind force from which emerges the greatest innovations in our world. From the improvised lullaby sung by a new mother to her child, to the convenience of driving across the Sydney Harbour Bridge, to the architectural marvels of ancient Rome; and to the ingenuity of the iPhone you hold in your hand…all of these things…in fact, all of everything…comes from creativity.   As a subject, creativity has been studied for millennia by philosophers, politicians, artists, musicians and orators. In the modern context and as the driver of the most lucrative commercial achievements in the business world, creativity has been intensively researched by economists, marketers, technologists, cognitive scientists, educators, psychologists and manufacturers. It is the recognised catalyst for attaining market power, enormous wealth and has the capacity to transform an economy. Today on the international stage we see some of the greatest growth coming from economies that have invested in developing creative thinking across industries and across society, in schools, in universities and in the workforce. The push for people to learn ‘how to be creative’ is pursued vigorously now by all types of organisations...and if you do not already have a formal programme to cultivate creativity and innovative thinking in your own business, then you are putting yourself and all the families that depend on your leadership, at risk. The originality and individuality intrinsic in creativity affords a competitive advantage that is not as easily copied by other firms in your industry. Your competitors might also develop their creativity, but they won’t have your particular creative abilities. The world is replete with genius, but in any particular industry the most creative, the most visionary, and the one that offers a true difference that is meaningful to its buyers...this firm often becomes the industry leader and can enjoy extraordinary profitability while the rest of the firms are left to compete on price alone as their sameness reduces their products to mere commodities. Case in point: Apple.   Of course, there are a number of amazing programmes and methodologies in the world today that help an organisation develop its creative thinking capacity. Highly credible systems exist whereby frameworks are given for the creative thinking process. Some techniques are for use in groups and others on an individual basis. Some focus on idea generation, others on divergent thinking, some on reframing paradigms and a great number use randomness or aleatoricism to provide unforseen variety.   Improvisation, which is at the core of jazz musicians, is a natural way to create massive and unique inventiveness that yields a slightly different ‘’product” with each production. But business executives often lack the creative brilliance of a jazz musician so instead prefer to use predefined, creative thinking systems that provide an existing structure they can use internally that is easy to follow and leads people through a process. Some of the best-known creative thinking frameworks are from Dr Edward DeBono (Six Thinking Hats system and the Lateral Thinking process); or the Brainstorming method (by Aex F Osborn); as well as the SWOT analysis (from the Stanford Research Institute) and Dr Stephen Covey’s ‘The Third Alternative’. All of these are powerful tools that can truly transform businesses and indeed, the outlook for a country. And some of these have found their way into mainstream educational curricula and are preparing an entire generation to naturally follow a creative thought process. In fact, in the private school my kids go to, they use the Six Thinking Hats as an integral part of their everyday learning to instil a multi-perspective approach to problem solving. Mmh…perhaps this explains why our buys are SO good at annoying their Mum and Dad on so many levels!   Then of course, as a business owner there are less formal ways to tap into the creative. I personally find that simple things like a walk in nature – along the beach where I live; or doing some exercise while listening to an inspirational podcast; or my putting half an hour aside to play the piano; or even holding my little daughter while she watches cartoons; or perhaps most effectively...doing some meditation to quieten the mind and allow the flow of creative ideas to rush into my head...all of these serve me greatly in generating creative thinking...which ultimately leaves me with a number of potential commercial and personal projects to consider. Of course, once you generate new ideas you then need to assess them in respect to their viability and then finally, to do something with them. This obviously leads into the product development process, which I’ve prevously covered in depth, so I won’t discuss in this episode, but clearly, is of vital importance to an organisation’s commercial survival – and is in fact, the other side of the coin to creativity. I strongly encourage you to listen to episode 101 of this podcast: Disruptive Innovation, Product Development, 10x Thinking with Dr Michael Hewittson-Gleeson from the School of Thinking, the father of 10x Thinking and a major teacher to Larry Page from Google – it is definitely, definitely worth listening to as it goes into great detail on how your business can profit from innovative, creative thinking and excellence in product development, which can give your business enormous market gains. That’s episode 101 of The Business Firm podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher Radio and as always, detailed show notes are available at www.thebusinessfirm.com.au (on the podcast page).   I would like to give you the opportunity now to actually do an exercise in creative thinking – right here, right now in this podcast. If you are driving while you are listening to this, pause the podcast and pull over safely before attempting this – or come back to this again later. If you are doing exercise, perhaps slow down or stop entirely for a couple of minutes while you do this. You will need a pen and paper (or an iPhone or iPad) to write on. It’s important to give yourself permission to simply sit down comfortably, gently close your eyes and take five slow breaths in and out…and just relax for a few seconds. Now give yourself a big smile. Hold the smile and count to ten in your head then let the smile go. You are now ready. Open your eyes and look forward, softening your focus into the middle distance.   First, a little test. While looking into the middle distance, take your finger, place it between your eyes and draw the letter Q on your forehead. There are only two ways you can do this: the tail of the Q can point either to your right eye or your left eye. Which eye did your Q tail point to? Your left or your right? There is a very big difference in the type of person whose Q points to the right and to type of person whose Q points to the left. I will direct you to the answer for this, a little later in this episode. Just remember which way yours pointed.   Now, remaining in this relaxed state, we will try one creative thinking exercise. Now, I must warn you, almost no managers ever solve this, so you may find this difficult. It's a set of questions; here they are:   How do you put a giraffe into a fridge? How do you put an elephant into a fridge? The King of the Jungle is holding a meeting for all of the animals. One of them is not there. Which one? You are standing at the bank of a crocodile infested river and have to get to the other side. What do you do?   Now, if you had trouble solving these questions then you are likely trapped in the ordinary managerial mindset with its limitations and assumptions automatically built in to the problem solving process. And while such a mindset is great for breeding non-thinking conformists that abide to corporate dogma; this will not propel your organisation to leapfrog your competitors. You want your staff to think magical thoughts that can be developed into magical products and service. To a person in the 1950s, an 80s Walkman would have seemed like a magical, impossible device. To a person in the 80s, an iPhone 7 would have seemed a magic, impossible device. You need to free your own thinking from the belief systems endemic in modern business in order to think of tomorrow’s magical devices so you can then start working on making them possible.   So while you may have had trouble solving those questions, almost all five year olds are able to answer them correctly. Why? Because they naturally have unlimited creative thinking not yet spoilt by the rigidity of common thought. Let’s look at the answers, one by one.   How do you put a giraffe into a fridge? Open the fridge, put the giraffe inside and close the fridge.   How do you put an elephant into a fridge? Open the fridge, take the giraffe out, put the elephant in and close the fridge.   What animal is not at the meeting for all the animals? The elephant…because it is in the fridge.   And what do you do on the bank of the crocodile infested river? You swim across the river because all the crocodiles are at the meeting.   Clearly, sometimes a childlike, unbounded imagination is needed in order to escape your paradigm and think outside the box. This example shows how we automatically build in problem boundaries and make assumptions about limitations and it also shows how we jump to levels of complexity that blinds us to simple solutions. Nobody said the fridge wasn’t big enough to fit the giraffe! This example also shows us that we should consider previous actions. Nobody said that these were four separate questions.     Now that we have forced upon the mind to broader possibilities, let me give you some questions that are directly related to your own business. In answering these, let your mind take a step or two back from normal reasoning so that you give yourself the lateral space to see both the fridge and the giraffe simultaneously. I’m about to ask you four questions for which I want you to write your answers. You might want to pause the podcast after each question so you give yourself the best chance or writing a creative answer. Ready?   Firstly, in respect to your industry, what are three different things that would cause its rapid decline? Write these down.   What three things can you do to survive such a decline if the industry were to collapse?   When people buy from you, what is the end outcome they are seeking to achieve through their purchase and what are three ways that outcome can affect their life?   Now, look at those three ways your customers’ lives are affected and for each, list three new inventions that would achieve those same outcomes for them. Think laterally and without bounds. All things are possible.   The next step is to assess all that you have written down, but not now – do it in a couple of hours time; then again tomorrow after you have slept overnight. Don’t worry about whether your business can accomplish them – instead, write down three different ways that each of them might be accomplished. Leave the door open to all possibilities, even if you think there is no way of doing it. The ‘how’ will come to you once you have worked out the ‘what’. Your job as the leader of the business is to work out the ‘what’; you will always find people who can work out the ‘how’. This process of ideas branching off to other ideas follows the thought form of a spider diagram.   You should repeat this same exercise every month as it cannot but help generate relevant ideas and hypotheses of threats. But to make the most of this, have all your staff do this exercise – and I mean everybody. The objective of this exercise is to see the problem from as many different perspectives as possible, as each provides a unique vantage point and lifetime of creative insights, almost all of which you have no hope of reaching by yourself.   Perhaps the greatest creative thinking tool that I use is a specific type of spider diagram called the mind map. Mind mapping of course, is now very popular though Tony Buzan and the countless apps and programmes that are available. I use a programme called MindMaple on my Mac, which syncs with MindMaple on my iPhone and iPad. The software is excellent for making formal mind maps, but quite often I simply use pen and paper because it imparts a sense of freedom to me.   So in respect to thinking creatively in your business, you can give yourself an enormous advantage over your competitors by giving yourself the benefit of understanding the market, the world, the problem, the opportunity, the relationship, the war, the offensive and the defensive – all from the perspective of the other side. You should also try to imagine the perspective from a removed, third party that is not directly involved in the situation. When you gain these two extra perspectives, on top of your own; you achieve the advantage of seeing yourself and your strengths and weaknesses from the perspective of those your are trying to appear better than; and you also gain a clearer picture of what the buyer, who isn’t invested in either your own or your competitors’ perspectives, actually sees the market as.   So in thinking creativity, it is essential that we do not restrict ourselves to think in an ordinary, linear fashion. What we need is to be able to conceive of a very large fridge at the SAME time as how to reduce the size of the giraffe. The hardened picture of an ordinary fridge is so set in our mind that we instantly jump to the problem of the giraffe’s size. This image of a normal sized fridge represents the rigidity of ordinary management thinking that prevents us from being as naturally creative as a five year old. But while we are all coaxed into the ‘box’ of common thinking, I truly believe it is possible for any person who wants to, to practise how to think more creatively. This is best achieved by adopting a thinking framework to become your new thinking process and then purposely applying that thinking framework in all problems that you solve – or opportunities you will to exploit. As I have mentioned, there are a number of well known frameworks such as the Six Thinking Hats, but I would like to discuss perhaps one of the most powerful – not only in terms of the incredible creativity that it can generate for commercial gain, but also in terms of the benefits across all the others areas of your life. I believe this to have the ability to transform your business/financial situation; as well as your health, relationships and ultimately, the happiness you experience in living. This framework represents the mind of the greatest genius and archetype polymath that ever lived…Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci. The Renaissance Man.   Leonardo Da Vinci is considered by most learned historians and scholars as the ultimate Universal Genius and possessed a ‘feverishly inventive imagination’. Born in Florence in 1452 he created inventions and displayed intellectual and creative genius in all endeavours of human knowledge and his insatiable curiosity drove him to an obsession to learn…everything. In 1866 Hippolyte wrote of him, “There may not be in the world an example of another genius so universal, so incapable of fulfilment, so full of yearning for the infinite, so naturally refined, so far ahead of his own century and the following centuries”. And as recently as 1967, Bortolon described him so, "Because of the multiplicity of interests that spurred him to pursue every field of knowledge ... Leonardo can be considered, quite rightly, to have been the universal genius par excellence, and with all the disquieting overtones inherent in that term. Man is as uncomfortable today, faced with a genius, as he was in the 16th century. Five centuries have passed, yet we still view Leonardo with awe."   Let’s go back to that first test I gave you where you drew the Q on your forehead. Remember I said there is an enormous difference in people that make the tail of the Q point to left eye as opposed to the right eye? Well I promised you I’d direct you to the answer, so here’s how to find it. This test comes from creativethinking.net, but to make it easy, I have already compiled the answer for you. Simply look at the show notes for this episode at www.thebusinessfirm.com.au (on the podcast page) and download the PDF for episode 105. The answer will freak you out! So clearly, to adopt the very system of thinking that was used by the greatest mind ever, is to find an excellent guide to model one’s own creative development upon. I was lucky enough to come across perhaps the work of arguable the greatest scholar of Leonardo Da Vinci, Michael Gelb, in 1998 when I saw his ground-breaking book, How To Think Like Leonardo Da Vinci: Seven Steps to Genius Everyday. What Michael Gelb did was study Leonardo’s mind and thinking extensively – more so than probably any person in history ever has. He sought to understand in full the very thought process that made Leonardo such as extraordinary genius; and after years of research and peering into the mind of the Maestro, he wrote this book which changed mine and millions and millions of other people’s lives, all round the world. He was able to distil Leonardo’s thought process down into seven key principles; which when lived in concert can arm you with the same view of the world as Leonardo. It is an amazing, amazing system of thinking that is surprising easily to understand. By following those seven principles, you will find incredible creativity and with it, the power to transform your business and all other aspects of your life. Of course, Michael has rewritten many other books on the subject of creativity, in fact, 14 in total. Some of which include: Creativity on Demand: How To Ignite and Sustain The Fire of Genius; Innovate Like Edison: The Five Step System For Breakthrough Business Success; Discover Your Genius; Thinking for Change; 5 Keys to High Performance; Brain Power: Improve Your Mind As You Age; and Wine Drinking For Inspired Thinking. He is also a highly sought after keynote speaker, a presenter of corporate seminars and a coach and mentor. He consults to some of the world’s largest companies, including Microsoft, IBM, KPMG, Nike, General Electric, Ernst and Young, Unilever, Roche, H&R Block, Xerox, the United States Army and the list continues. He has won numerous prestigious awards, including Brain Of The Year (1999) an honour bestowed by the Brain Trust Charity to very few, amongst which are Stephen Hawking and Edward De Bono. Without doubt, Michael Gelb is an extraordinary genius in his own right and perhaps one of the most qualified individuals from which you would want to learn creative thinking strategy. So…what are those seven, transformative Da Vincian principles? Well, it is my very great pleasure to invite you to follow me into the lift as we ascend up to The Business Firm Presidential Lounge and there, awaiting us, is no other than the amazing, Michael Gelb.   Special Offer From Michael Gelb to Listeners of The Business Firm Podcast  For any organisation that hires Michael to give a keynote speech or corporate presentation to its employees, Michael will give his special educational presentation to a school, free of charge.  Contact: Michael@michaelgelb.com www.michaelgelb.com Today’s question comes from Andeep who manufacturers high quality timber stains in Chennai, India. His product is more expensive than most brands and while he currently sells in India, he’s having difficulty competing with the cheaper brands in his domestic market, which is still in economic development. Andeep has just sent product into Indonesia as a first outbound test in Jakarta. He now wants to export to Australia and New Zealand and is seeking advice on what he should consider in making the leap into the Aussie market.   Well Andeep, thank you for your question mate. You are in the same situation of many manufacturers on the Subcontinent and also in China who have reached a limitation to growth, both in respect to sales volumes as well as profitability. So, you are not alone in your predicament and The Business Firm has helped a number of manufacturers enter Australia, which in every case I can happily report has enabled those businesses to increase revenue, but more importantly, to dramatically improve profitability. Of course, while Australian has a smaller population than India or Indonesia, the amount of income per capita here is much, much higher. Also, when you take into account the difference in the exchange rate between the Rupee and the Australian Dollar, the real amount you will earn per sale will be a great deal higher, while still incurring the very low cost of production in India against that higher revenue. Hence, if you can manage the transport and logistics aspect of exporting to Australia (which you might be able to minimise by shipping direct from the Indian port of Chennai to the Australian port of Darwin in the Northern Territory, which is actually a relatively short distance, if you use sea cargo), then you definitely have the opportunity to create a lucrative export programme for your business.   In Australia, all coatings (timber stains, house paints, direct-to-metal enamels and especially automotive two-pack paints) are very expensive. So there is likely plenty of room for you to play between your cost and the potential retail price. In fact, for pretty much everything you can think of, Australian retail prices are always significantly more expensive than any other country, including the U.S. and the U.K, even when adjusting for exchange rate and shipping. Australian simply dish out more money for stuff. This gives you the ability to make some strategic choices in respect the distribution, which quite frankly, is going to be the single most important marketing determinant of your commercial success – probably more so than promotion. The reason is that geographically, Australia is gigantic – an entire continent; and it is sparsely populated, except for the largest cities of: Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide, Darwin and Hobart. The smaller cities such as Albury-Wodonga, Geelong, Mount Gambier, Cairns etc. are spread all over the continent and to service these areas can be expensive, but you are usually able to charge higher prices to compensate for the higher distribution costs – something that is naturally accepted by most people in these areas. Hence, how you organise distribution is crucial.   You really only have two practical options: to try and sell everything yourself; or install distributors to do this for you. If you want to make any meaningful volume of sales, you really need to put on distributors and consider any sales you make direct to the pubic off your website, as a bonus – not to mention that even for your online sales you will still need to have a warehouse facility somewhere in Australia that is able to physically ship the product to your buyer, anyway. So, look for distributors in every state and territory; both in the big capital cities and also in the regional centres. Don’t offer any distributor sole distribution as your product doesn’t warrant it (i.e. you are not selling Mercedes Benz cars), unless of course the opportunity to sell in Bunnings (the largest hardware chain in Australia) presents itself only as an exclusive deal; but to be honest, even such a deal is unlikely to be an exclusive one because almost all of the products Bunnings sell are also available at their biggest competitor chains, such as Mitre 10 and Solver.   So you want to ensure that you have distribution for public retail (in places such as Bunnings), as well as distribution specifically for the trade market. In Australia and New Zealand, most trade buyers buy from specialist trade supply companies, not from big, public-going chains like Bunnings. You will need to find these suppliers and begin making contact with them. The main benefit of using trade suppliers is that your product will benefit from expert sales representation, as opposed to the blank stares you get from the staff that usually works at the big, public-going chains. The other benefit of course is that the trade suppliers are usually owner-operated, so they are much, much more likely to actively push your brand to buyers, as opposed to your tins sitting silently amongst the plethora of other brands’ tins that sit alongside yours on the shelf at the impersonal, largely self-serve chain stores. However, don’t get me wrong, you need both of these so don’t for a moment think of choosing just one of these channels over the other.   In respect to promotion, you should budget for some advertising to build brand awareness and try and position your brand in the minds of the market. Because you are not selling a product with broad-based demand, you should narrow you spend to only target your niche; buyers of stains, French polishers, woodwork businesses, furniture restoration businesses, builders of outdoor decks and gates, businesses that make bookshelves, cabinet makers, builders of kitchens, as well as trying to get in front of members of the public, but only at the point when they are likely to be considering timber stains, such as when they are doing DIY wood projects, or resurfacing an existing deck, or renovating a wooden gate etc. Obviously, reaching trade targets is easy because you can find them in business directories, but getting members of the public specifically at the time when they are considering purchasing stains is more difficult, this is where very targeted advertising options such as search, FaceBook, YouTube, good text and video on your own website etc. is crucially important.   Finally, in respect to price, I’ve already mentioned that when selling into Australia there is usually a large amount of ‘fat’ between your cost and the retail prices that are tolerated in Australia. Now, if you want to make good money over a long period, then share that margin with your distributors. Don’t try and hog it all yourself, leave plenty for them so that they are highly incentivised to push your brand over all the other brands that already stock. Assuming your stain is good, if they can properly service their customers and make more money from your product at the same time, then they will carve out market share for you – but you have to look after them. And looking after them does not just mean in terms of price, you need to provide them with all the promotional tools they need to sell your product. Have the brochures ready for them. Have the TDS and PDS sheets ready for them as a download, in properly spelled Australian English! Also, have high quality videos on YouTube ready for your distributors so they can send their customers there for tips, technical information, application methods, FAQ and so forth. You need to help them, help you.   I hope this has helped you Andeep, as well as anybody else that manufacturers products and is interested in selling into Australia and New Zealand. I can tell you that these are some of the things we have done for our own clients that have entered the Australian market and all of these are necessary in order to be successful. There is obviously more to it, but as a minimum these are the basics you need to consider in your business. I strongly suggest finding a marketing consultant that is local in Australia who has had experience in B2B or trade distribution because their local knowledge will best ensure the work they do for you is best suited to the Australian context; in respect to labelling laws, HAZCHEM compliance (this has to do with storage and transport of flammable or dangerous goods across Australia, which of course, includes paints), and in respect to creating videos with Australian voices (which is a must, by the way), and in respect to the most appropriate way to approach the local suppliers and how best to represent your brand to them, and also the best way to structure the pricing offer so as to engage them properly to actively sell your brand…plus lots of other important considerations that are essential if you are going to be successful in the Australian market.   So, I wish you all the best Andeep. Go forth mate, and conquer Australia and New Zealand!         Listen to Episode 105 to hear all of Steven’s advice to this question. You can listen to this and all other episodes:       This is the favourite part of the show for host Steven Cavallo because he gets to directly help real people with an actual problem they are having in the areas of business development, marketing, sales or fundraising. Steven features one of the recorded questions sent in by listeners, and plays back that recording on air, along with his commentary. To submit a question, please record your question as an mp3 (maximum file size 10Mb) that is no longer than 60 seconds and email it to: answer@thebusinessfirm.com.au       While we can address your issue and provide some valuable insight for questions featured; of course, we can only go into brief detail in the minutes available in the podcast, so we encourage listeners who want more formal advice (regardless of whether their question is featured) to outline their specific problem/opportunity and email it directly to consulting@thebusinessfirm.com.au and you will get a reply within 24 hours.    Copyright © The Business Firm 2016 All Rights Reserved    Mr Steven Mario Cavallo podcast@thebusinessfirm.com.au   PO Box 7407 West Lakes SA 5021 Australia   Phone +61 8 8121 5711   www.thebusinessfirm.com.au  

Though most people would rightly consider capitalists to be the founders and masters of the science of “marketing,” communists had to try their hands at it as well. In the Soviet Union, they had a particularly “hard sell.” The Party promised freedom, peace, and prosperity; it delivered oppression, war, and poverty. So how do make people believe in what will be rather than what manifestly is? David Brandenberger explores how the Party did it in his terrific book Propaganda State in Crisis: Soviet Ideology, Indoctrination, and Terror under Stalin (Yale University Press, 2012). The answer, in short, is badly. At first, the message they sent–clashing -isms, class struggle, “contradictions”–was too abstract for most folks on the street. The people wanted heroes. So the Soviet propagandists gave them heroes: flyers, arctic explorers, and, of course Lenin and the “Old” Bolsheviks. That worked pretty well until Stalin et al. began to kill the heroes in the Purges. The problem wasn’t that dead heroes don’t make good heroes. They do. Discredited dead heroes, however, an another story. They can’t be heroes at all. In fact, they have to be rubbed out of history entirely. And so they were. So, once “the dialectic” campaign had failed and the “heroes” campaign had foundered, what was left for the propagandists to work with. Well, Stalin still worked, and he in fact crowded most everyone out of the picture (“Father of Nations!” “Universal Genius!” “Greatest General of All Time!”). But was that enough? Perhaps not. So the propagandists fell back on some very bourgeois totems: the Church and Nation. See how they did it in David’s wonderful book! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Though most people would rightly consider capitalists to be the founders and masters of the science of “marketing,” communists had to try their hands at it as well. In the Soviet Union, they had a particularly “hard sell.” The Party promised freedom, peace, and prosperity; it delivered oppression, war, and poverty. So how do make people believe in what will be rather than what manifestly is? David Brandenberger explores how the Party did it in his terrific book Propaganda State in Crisis: Soviet Ideology, Indoctrination, and Terror under Stalin (Yale University Press, 2012). The answer, in short, is badly. At first, the message they sent–clashing -isms, class struggle, “contradictions”–was too abstract for most folks on the street. The people wanted heroes. So the Soviet propagandists gave them heroes: flyers, arctic explorers, and, of course Lenin and the “Old” Bolsheviks. That worked pretty well until Stalin et al. began to kill the heroes in the Purges. The problem wasn’t that dead heroes don’t make good heroes. They do. Discredited dead heroes, however, an another story. They can’t be heroes at all. In fact, they have to be rubbed out of history entirely. And so they were. So, once “the dialectic” campaign had failed and the “heroes” campaign had foundered, what was left for the propagandists to work with. Well, Stalin still worked, and he in fact crowded most everyone out of the picture (“Father of Nations!” “Universal Genius!” “Greatest General of All Time!”). But was that enough? Perhaps not. So the propagandists fell back on some very bourgeois totems: the Church and Nation. See how they did it in David’s wonderful book! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices