Good question, Seth. Good question. By all means take it very seriously and do our best, but don't take it personally. 

This particular chapter  resonated with me and has made me realise that I  have inadvertently tangled up my basic self-worth with my work   and I'm guessing I am not alone. You only have to stand around a few sizzling sausages at a BBQ on the weekend and pretty much the first question anyone you've just met asks, "So what do you do?" 

As a society we look to our work-life performance as a worthiness gauge.

There is a plus side of appending the two - for me, it makes me work hard (prove, prove, prove), and always seek to do my best. The downside - well actually there's a few. And they outweigh the good really.

1. We all make mistakes. Everyone does.  Everyone. But if you're taking it personally, it obviously cuts deeply. " I am hopeless" or  "I am useless" ...that kind of self-talk. Never useful. In an industry that's complex, dynamic and compliant-based,  broad- brushing errors onto our self-worth is not the path to learning nor happiness.

2. If you're self-worth is hooked to your work life, then it's a never-ending round-a-bout that you must jump on every single day  to keep re-proving that you are a  'good' or worthy person.  You can't just rely on how you went yesterday, or last quarter, every single day, every single client interaction is about demonstrating  again and again that you're good enough and that becomes exhausting. And it's actually impossible.

3. It's also stifling because, to paraphrase Seth, taking it personally means we become fearful of looking stupid and therefore, prefer to retract and hide - diminish ourselves. You're too scared to ask, because that question might be dumb (side note: there are no dumb questions), which, when you're taking it personally, translates to - ' I am dumb'.

It robs us of our braveness and restricts our capacity to grow. And really growth is all about  learning, stumbling, asking questions, falling flat on our face, standing up again, brushing off and keeping on, keeping on. But if in the falls, we say to ourselves ' I'm hopeless', we weaken our ability to rise again - and as we know fortune favours the brave. 


So this little gem in all the uncomfortable mixed font and hipster images for me was, exploring how we guard the space between showing up and doing our best at work, that is - be a professional, and who we are as basically good and worthy humans. 

I'm not there yet, but I'll keep you posted.
So go forth and be professional! Be brave, TAKE YOUR TURN without being asked to,  but remember, deep down, you're awesome just as you are!
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A shout out to Unicorn Business Solutions for giving me the book - meet them here.

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​Gabrielle Osborne (BAcc) is a small business specialist who loves to help business owners focus on what they do best. An innovation enthusiast and determined problem-solver, Gabrielle is also fun to work with.

e: [email protected]
​m: 0410 546 000


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Widely attributed, but never proven as an Oscar Wilde quote, there is, nonetheless, no doubt that this message is more important today than ever.  In an era where the number of social media users is approaching 2.5billion, getting yourself or your practice noticed has never been harder. Yet,  with an audience that large (about 1/3 of the global population)  it has also never been more crucial. 

In the 1990's (*reveals age somewhat) I worked in a marketing agency. One of my major clients was Pepsi Cola, perhaps the corporate world's longest-suffering runner up. Like any solid competitor, it meant they had to find ways to fight harder, be more innovative and, of most relevance to this post, develop their unique positioning in the eyes of their consumers. In fact, a 1970's Pepsi Cola campaign is recognised as one of the earliest examples of brand positioning. Understanding the difficulties of competing head to head with a global mega brand,  they had to create a new niche. Their launch of 7-up as the 'UnCola' was a pioneering play in brand positioning. Read more about it here 


As explained by Brian Sutter in the previous link, brand positioning is about your audience's perception of you or your practice. Back in my day, it was all about your brand's USP (Unique Selling Position) and while these two concepts are undoubtedly related, the difference is that your USP focuses on the attributes of your product or service, that is to say somewhat 'sales focused',  whereas your positioning is client-facing - that is, how you position yourself so that your clients see you distinctly in the market-place. 

I literally think of it as 'what position do you want to occupy in the minds of people'?

When they think of you, what attributes come up? Successful global examples are  - Volvo and 'safety', Subway and 'Eat Fresh' and the classic competitor positioning, Avis - 'We Try Harder' .

So, no panics - it's a matter of breaking it down and knowing where to start? Whether you're considering yourself (a personal brand) or your practice, the principles are the same. Ultimately, you need to develop an authentic brand positioning that speaks to your audience and then reinforce it on every level of your communication.  


 Here's a few tips and resources to get you started.

Step 1: Start with what sets you apart.

What do you continually get complimented on? What do you naturally do that other people think is great? What could you lose an afternoon immersed in? You need to get a bit awkward and ask your family, friends and colleagues what they think are your key strengths, particularly for a personal brand. You could also ask your long-standing clients why they love working with you and your firm. We need to ask others because our talents and strengths aren't obvious to us, it's just  part of who we are, it's what we do. You could also try Marcus Buckingham's Strength Finder here. 

Look for patterns in your feedback. Are their clusters of words - and how do they flow into your practice?  Is it the gentle yet firm way you keep your clients compliant? Is it that you can always be relied upon to get the job done? Do your peers turn to you because of your reputation as a generous mentor? Is it the way you constantly come up with new efficiencies for your clients? Maybe you're just so dang pleasant to deal with? 

A recurring theme for me in this exercise from family and friends was ' good dancer'  - not that useful, but, hey, good to know!

Step 2: Use information about your talents, abilities and uniqueness to develop your positioning.

Hey, you say, I'm way too small to have a brand - but let me tell you, right now, at this very moment, big multi-nationals are spending gazillions of their marketing budget trying to understand how they can position themselves to appear as a small, niche business just like yours. You see social media, lets us talk to  an engaged  target  market. Whereas, big multi-nationals have historically had the upper-hand in pre-social media channels such as traditional tv ads, social media enables ALL size businesses to have a connection with responsive markets. Greater engagement= greater results.

I love this line from Jason Demers, "Specificity is a trade of volume for significance"    

Another way of saying it is, don't try to get the whole world to  like you, focus on communicatig to  your people, your tribe, your peeps. The part of the market that your positioning resonates with.  You can read Jason's  article on personal branding here.  

So embrace your smallness, consider it an advantage and set about developing and communicating your brand. Knowing some key strengths and abilities - think about what kind of website will support this positioning? What colours? What writing style?  Choose a profile picture that you feel captures this and be consistent across all social media channels. Think about what content will confirm and reinforce your positioning? The key words here are consistency and authenticity. There's no need to pretend to be loud and extroverted, if your true strength lies in your introverted and quite persistence.

Branding and positioning distinguish us from our competition. As human beings we are hard-wired to notice what is different. In a world where we are bombarded daily by thousands of advertising messages every single day, differentiation is crucial to your branding success. Click here for  another great resource.

As Dr Suess put it, ' No-one is more you than you' .

Find some keywords that capture your or your firm - ideally be able to express your positioning in a sentence or two.

Step 3:  Now Get Amongst It!

You can ask around, formulate an amazing  brand positioning but ultimately you gotta put it out there so you can connect with your customers.

Share your enthusiasm, demonstrate your skills, abilities and knowledge, keep reminding your audience of your strengths and re-iterating your uniqueness. Ideally aim for weekly engagement, but don't over-think it. You don't have to alter the spin of earth with every single post. It's consistency of new content that is the key, particularly as Google loves frequent updates so it assists with your rankings. Read more about the benefits of fresh content by clicking here.

And lastly, some tips - the ABC of positioning:

A is for authentic.
It must resonate with you. It's not what you wish you were. #keepin'itreal
B is for branding. 
Everything you do must support this positioning. From the fonts you chose, the colours on your website, the language-style you write in and the social media platforms you use.
C is for character
It's all about PERSONALITY NOT PERFECTION.  Revealing some human-ness, some flaws, some humour and some vulnerability (authentically, of course), helps people to connect with you.

 In fact, developing a brand personality including showing some vulnerability and humanness can work to your benefit  - click here to read more.  


Got you thinking? Let me know your thoughts about positioning statement. And gratuitously, here's me in an apparent strength - having a dance with my family a few years ago!! WARNING: Can't be unseen! Click here.
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If you've got no idea, where to start with getting online, click here for a recent post I wrote about getting your business on-line.

I spend my days looking at the Xero files of business owners. Xero is an amazing accounting software programme that helps business owners be more efficient, keep on top of their finances and enable them to make  better business decisions in real time. Let me be clear, there is no doubting that. But like anything, there can be some traps and pit falls for the less experienced when starting to use it. 

From my experience, here's the top 4 things I see new users get wrong that can result in inaccurate files, the need for someone to conduct a fix up and, well, a solid dash of frustration for all.

1. Applying payments to an invoice AND coding from dashboard. 
In some other programmes a payment needs to be applied to invoices to mark them as paid. This is not the case in Xero. With the automagical bank feeds, items can be matched and reconciled once the payment hits the dashboard. There are times, for example when doing batch payments, where a payment is applied before the payment hits the account. In reality, payments can be applied to individual invoices if that's the preference of the business owner or their Advisor- but where people get in to trouble is marking as paid AND  coding the payment or deposit straight from the dashboard. Here's an example:

Client pays two of your sales invoices $1000 + $2000 - happy days. Business owner finds those two invoices in their unpaid invoices and scrolls down and marks them as paid individually.  They then code the $3000 on their bank feed dashboard directly to their revenue account. Effect - overstating GST collected, or in hurty terms, giving the ATO the tax owed twice and I am yet to meet a business owner keen on doing that. This error is easily identified by looking at the Account Transactions, and clicking on Status. If you've got pesky orange transactions you might have a problem (NB: it doesn't always mean an error to see orange items,  eg it is completely normal  if you've done a batch payment and the money hasn't shown on the dashbaord).

3. Using the (uh-mazing) Xero Touch app but paying from the wrong account. 
The Xero app is a great way to snap your receipts and allocate to an expense account on-the-go BUT I've noticed many business owners don't realise that if they have more than one account, they need to choose the correct account that the receipt was paid from . Otherwise, it all arrives beautifully with a copy of the receipt attached BUT to the wrong account, creating more, you guessed it... more orangeness. There are work-arounds and ways to fix but life is much easier if you choose the right account in the first place. 

4. Not engaging the services of a Certified Xero Advisor.
Get it right from the get-go. An hour or two assistance with a Xero Advisor that can ensure your file is set up is correctly, and that you understand how to drive it is money well spent. It's far better to get it right in the first place, than wait til you have one red (orange) hot mess of a file! You can find your nearest Xero Advisor by clicking on this link here


Disclaimer: I have nothing against the colour orange. I rather like orange.

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When Andrew (aka ‘Cave’) Scott, owner of Cave Constructions Pty Ltd first met with Gabrielle Osborne, Practice Manager of PBG Business Services Pty Ltd, he was a little hesitant, to say the least about how technology was going to improve his business.

Having won HIA House of the Year in 2013, Andrew’s skill in building, project management and job-costing was never in doubt. In the throes of a marriage separation, where his wife had previously managed the books, Andrew seriously considered whether he could keep his business going. He was quite vocal about his aversion to computers and all technology – let alone bookkeeping.

“I guess I just struggled to see how it was going to work. I didn’t want to waste time mucking around indoors on a computer - I build great houses ! The thought of sorting the bookkeeping was overwhelming and I considered going back to a wage.”

Once his Xero account was up and running, it didn’t take Andrew long to see the benefits of the systems Gabrielle introduced.

“I SMS the team’s hours every Wednesday, and by the time I’m home, their payslips are waiting for me on my email. If it gets to about 3pm and Gabrielle hasn’t heard from me, she’ll shoot me an SMS to remind me”.

Gabrielle and Andrew now only need to meet up in person about once per quarter. The rest is done seamlessly using Xero. 

Gabrielle says, “I knew I could help Andrew, but it just took some time to build a collaborative rhythm. I totally understand Andrew’s initial reservations, he’s worked hard to build up his business, so it takes time for him to see that I genuinely want to help him focus on what he’s best at”.

Most of Andrew’s suppliers now email a copy of their invoices to Gabrielle who then forwards them to Receipt Bank, which uses optical character recognition to create a bill in Xero. Receipt Bank also scans a copy of the original invoice and attaches it to the invoice, guaranteeing to store it for seven years.

Andrew says this has helped immensely when doing variations on quotes.

“Rather than hunting around in piles of receipts, I can now find them in a few clicks”.

As a specialist in micro-businesses in the Building and Construction Industry, Gabrielle has also helped with compliance.

“Having Gabrielle shoot me an email saying here’s your superannuation for your staff for this month and here’s when you need to pay by, is just one less thing I need to be thinking about” says Andrew.

And as far as testimonials go, it doesn’t get much better than this.

Andrew says “I’m not joking when I say engaging Gabrielle’s services have changed my life! I would have given up otherwise. After, all these years, I now understand my business more than ever and I am actually enjoying it. Gabrielle is the reason Cave Constructions has kept going.”

Gabrielle Osborne (BAcc) is a small business specialist who loves to help business owners focus on what they do best. An innovation enthusiast and determined problem-solver, Gabrielle can change your life too.   

e: [email protected] m: 0410 546 000