Queenstown – 35 Accountants Bungy jumping
I didn’t realise how much my ‘stunt’ would work in Queenstown. At every break at the conference we drew 2 delegates names out of a hat. They were the prize winners. They didn’t know what their prize would be. 4 days later we transported the entire group of 200 delegates to AJ Hackett Bungy. The prize winners (17 of them in the end) were gifted a bungy jump.
If they didn’t do it they had to re-gift the prize and pay $500 to charity. We had another 18 buy a bungy (all accountants remember) for a total of 35 jumpers. Many were scared / nervous / petrified but they did it anyway. As one of our speakers (Dandapani the ex-monk) said “proceed with confidence”.
As the leader I went first. Here is the opening video of me jumping. Note the perfect swan dive!
Queenstown – day 4 – 6
Conference days. John Warrilow was first up with an awesome 3 hour workshop on how Accountants can help their clients sell their businesses. To push the value of a business up the acronym of TVR needs to be in place – Teachable, Valuable and Repeatable. He gave the delegates the 6 hierarchy of recurring revenue as well as a plethora of tools on how they can help their clients.
Next up Dandapani (my wild card ex-monk). Dandapani (or D-man as we affectionately call him) rocked the house. An ex-monk who spent 10 years in the Monastery is now teaching people on personal development. He was simply awesome. Everyone loved him and his message of concentration, energy management & relationships suited every person in the room. We even convinced the ex-monk to play some golf with us – his first time.
Then we had Gold Medalist and 5 time Olympian (the only woman in Australia to do so) Natalie Cook deliver a session on ‘Sustained Motivation’. She has been at the top of her game for 20 years and what she taught us all are all the tricks to her success. Not only is Nat an awesome success story and inspiration she is a very handy golfer. She took the cash with a stableford score of 50 points. Might have to re-handicap her next time!
We also had 5 of our best performing accounting firms speak on their success. We call it “the Best of the best”. Greg & Vanessa spoke on workflow from Alliott. Tracey, Paul & Sandra from KSM spoke on team performance. Tracey & Jason from Proview, Peter & Bernie from ZJL and Ray and Danella from Taggart all spoke on Revenue and Clients. Thank you all for your words of wisdom.
I delivered a session and so did my business partner, Colin Dunn. The feedback was this was our best conference ever.
What was interesting from this conference we had many Accountants elect not to attend because they thought the speaker line up was a bit weak. Judging by the comments in writing how wrong they were. The 200 delegates loved it!
Queenstown day 3 – Extreme Accounting!
Day 3 in Queenstown – raining, cold and exciting! We had our opening cocktail event tonight complete with amazing views, great laughs, the Haka (which I did with a Monk, a Canadian, a bunch of Aussies and a few Kiwis) and we even have a new competition – Extreme Accounting.
Although we had the team / client / sponsor plane stranded in Brisbane we still had circa 200 people at the Gondola for a lot of fun tonight. Seeing we are in the adventure capital of the world we have a competition – Extreme Accounting photo comp. The delegates need to have a photo of themselves doing something which the judging panel may deem to be extreme …. accounting extreme.
We’re not sure what that means until we see the snaps coming through. Winner gets a hefty prize. Photo of me and 2 of our guest speakers, John Warrilow (Canadian) and Dandapani (the monk).
Queenstown day 1 & 2 – The Hills
Arrived into Queenstown NZ yesterday for my annual conference. We have 220 Accountants and sponsors arriving tomorrow.
If you have never been to Queenstown before then you are missing out on one of the beautiful places in the world. Nat, the kids and I have been coming over here for 13 years. We love the place. We have been coming over in summer and winter for skiing, adventure activities and golf.
I joined (more so invited) a golf club here in 2008 – the ultra exclusive “The Hills”- owned by Michael Hill (Jewellery entrepreneur with sales of $500M plus). I am proud to be member no. 28. We have around 150 members at the moment and membership is restricted to 200 members only.
It was very difficult to get on to the Hills for the first time. Here is how tenacity and salesmanship got me my first game at the Hills. Here is the exact conversation with the club house manager- once I got the unlisted number….
Me: Hi, my name is Rob Nixon, I am a member of Royal Queensland in Brisbane. I am wondering if I could arrange a game please.
Hills admin: I am sorry sir, we don’t accept guests
Me: That’s exactly why I am calling
Hills admin: Sorry
Me: My name is Rob Nixon, I am a member of Royal Queensland in Brisbane. I am wondering if I could arrange a game please
Hills admin: I am sorry sir, as I said we don’t accept guests
Me: That’s exactly why I am calling
Hills admin: I’ll have to get my manager to call you back
Me: OK
Hills manager calls back:
Me: Hello, my name is Rob Nixon, I am a member of Royal Queensland in Brisbane. I am wondering if I could arrange a game please
Hills manager: I am sorry sir, as Amy said, we don’t accept guests
Me: That’s exactly why I am calling
Hills Manager: You are persistent aren’t you
Me: Yes, and I’d love to have a game please
Hills Manager: The only way you can play The Hills is if you play with a member
Me: (sensing a little victory here) Great, can you hook me up with a member please
Hills Manager: There are only 12 of them and they are all over seas right now
Me: Right, so what can we do
Hills Manager: We could get one of our green keepers to go out with you. He’s very good, he plays of 5
Me: Perfect, I am off 9, we’ll have a great day
Hills Manager: Ok then, it;ll be $500 for the round and you have to pay the wages of the green keeper as well – that’ll be $250 for the 1/2 day.
Me: Done
When I got out there I was the only player all day – other than Corey my guide. I made a comment on good the bunkers were. Answer… We raked them especially for you yesterday!
I went back a few months later and I while I was there they said they wanted to invite me to be a member. I was told they only invite those that they know or like – and they liked me!
I played yesterday, lost badly, and am playing again today and tomorrow. Wish me luck.
Accountants Running for Product
During my current seminar series (Remaining Relevant) I am giving away a $3,000 product to 5 lucky Accountants. But they have to work for it. Watch what happens!
Next stop Melbourne with 180 accountants and then Auckland with 80.