Day 38, Level 1: Ready to launch, Marvellous Matakana and Scott Dixon
Well as NZ politics heats up, Covid drags on all around the world and the weather here cools down (although it was warmer in Auckland today than it has been all week), I barely stepped out of my office today. Full throttle on my travel biz.
Tomorrow (Friday) I will put my BEYOND Travel Companion Services Facebook page "out there".
It exists, I just haven't spread the word yet as I've continued to hone and refine everything.
Now the T's are crossed and the i's are dotted and, with great help from Michelle Beach at BSeen.co.nz it's time to cast the net and see who is attracted to what I'm offering.
I recognise it's not an easy time to launch a travel service.
I understand people are rethinking all things travel.
I hope they get what I'm offering.
I know it may take time.
But you gotta start somewhere! And I believe in my offering very much.
To get to this point has taken lots of time and energy and thought and reflection and work and feedback and brainstorming and back to the drawing board stuff. It's been a journey of ups and downs and all arounds.
Actually, it's taken a lifetime to get to this point - everything I've ever done in my life (and that's rather a lot!) has brought me to the here and now. The ability and desire to do this. There have been complexities to work through all the way, so many layers.
But I'm ready!
I just hope there are clients out there who are ready for me!!!
For my loyal blog followers, here's the link to my BEYOND Travel Companion Services Facebook page which I'll be sharing as far and wide as I can tomorrow.
Meanwhile, the very first piece of marketing has already happened this week.
My Marvellous Matakana article that was published in the NZ Herald on Tuesday was the lead online travel article today. With limited space and editorial licence the print version got a little diluted, with some personal flavour removed from my original - but the online version has a little more content and more photos (all my own).
It's just great to have it published and it has generated lots of feedback and engagement.
The newspaper wanted a "what to do" article so it's in that style. I'd have preferred a more personal narrative.
Never mind, the main point of me writing it was to promote locals - and put in a wee plug for myself (a proviso of doing the article gratis!)
Here's the link:
Pouwhenua in Omaha
Went to quiz again tonight - to join my other team and get a second dose of quiz for the week. We won handsomely. Actually, we romped in! Great fun.
SHARE-NOTE OF THE DAY:
Scott Dixon ...
Professional Kiwi racing driver extraordinaire (born in Brisbane, raised in NZ - Manurewa to be precise).
He's won the IndyCar championship five times (2003, 2008, 2013, 2015 and 2018) and is one of the great Indianapolis 500 drivers of all time. And a helluva nice guy. Then, and now. Read on ...
I remember watching him live on TV when he won his first Indy500 in 2008. I'm no motorsport fan but I was glued to the TV that day, watching him go round and round. It seemed endless, but he was in with a show and I was hooked. I couldn't not watch. And he won! I cheered uproariously all by myself.
You may ask why the interest, especially given I'm no motorsport fan ...
It was because I'd seen a very young Scott Dixon win an award back in 1993.
He was just 13. And I was just 31.
Brett and I attended the Manukau Business Excellence Awards that year (as we did for many years afterwards) and on that night this young strawberry-blond freckle-faced boy called Scott collected an award to do with being an up and coming sportsman or young man of promise or something like that. He was a car racing driver. And he wasn't even old enough to have a driver's licence!
For me, his award was the highlight of the night, the rest of the programme heavy with a raft of Best This and Best That in the business world. Yawn.
In amongst all the ho-hum awards, slicing of chicken, sipping of wine and superficial dinner awards table chat, this young boy with twinkling eyes and a fabulous story stepped up to receive his award.
Go Scott! And boy ... he did just that!
I've honestly no idea what businesses or bigwig adults won that night - but I still vividly remember Scott Dixon being so chuffed as he accepted his award. He really caught my eye as a young boy to watch into the future.
It was 1993. Sam was born in June that year - so I was either pregnant that night, or Sam had been born and we'd left him with Mum to babysit while we did our duty to attend the awards. (Brett's firm was a sponsor).
There was something about Scott. A cheeky smile. A shy confidence. A
genuine appreciation for what his parents had done to help him get to
where he was. I could see he had ambition and understanding beyond his years. And even though his car racing talent wasn't visible that night, it was obvious he had an innate love for what he was doing - and destined to do.
Actually, thinking about it further, I rather think that Sam must have been born, which led me to take more notice of a talented young boy than I might have if I didn't have one of my own!
At the age of 13 Scott had been granted special dispensation to get a
competition licence to race a saloon car (you were supposed to be 15yo).
But such was his talent he got to compete at such a young age.
I kept my eye out for him on the world car racing stage and it was no surprise when I watched him rise up the IndyCar ranks rapidly. He won his first Indy500 aged 28.
And now he's almost 40 and I'm heading towards 60.
OMG - after that 2008 Indy500 win he went and drank milk! I was aghast. I'd never watched the Indy500 before and had no idea the poor winner had to do that.
All other sports get champagne but the Indy500 winner gets milk? WTF? Why? How?
It's because the 1936 winner of the race (who regularly drank buttermilk to refresh himself on a hot day - what?) drank some buttermilk in Victory Lane after his win. A Milk Foundation exec was elated and obviously saw an opportunity - and thus the victory milk-drinking became tradition. Oh the power of a marketing exec!
Between 1947-55 milk was off the menu - but got a revival in 1956. Shame, bubbles are so much better.
So there was Scott, having just won one of the world's major car races - and he has to drink milk. He looked about as unenthused as I would have been! But, it's tradition ... and you're on worldwide telly! So drink milk you must.
Memorable moments - from winning an award at an events venue in Manukau in 1993 to winning the Indy500 in 2008. It didn't surprise me one bit. And he seems like a genuinely nice guy, he comes across so well in all his interviews, he's never put a foot wrong, he is living his dream.
As Scott said back in 2008, it was a dream year for him - he also got married, and won the IndyCar championship. As he said "Pretty hard to beat that."
 |
Comments
Post a Comment