The Dream PhonE CALL

You can make any dream real, if you work away at it long enough. - Sir Peter Blake

It’s really true says, our long-time reader, Janice- the lady with ‘nice in her name as she fulfilled her dream with a phone call!

And she’s now in line for a double whammy!!

Cold calling we call it in business or the phone call to someone whose name has come from a list. We don’t do it as often in business now, unless you’re in a call centre. The connotations attached to it are ‘being pushy”. However a new business group has sprung up in New Zealand and is worldwide, where referrals are the name of the game. A phone call from the contact person is made and the person you’re calling is expecting the call, therefore a rapport is immediately established However, it’s a different story if you’re pursuing a dream and offering your services free of charge.

That’s what Janice – the lady with ‘nice’ in her name, did when she went in pursuit of her dream.
All patriotic Kiwis were wearing red socks and glued to television sets around New Zealand. It was Mothers’ Day, 1995 but Janice was tramping around Lake Waikaremoana accompanied by a group of business people. There are no television sets when you’re tramping and their mobile phones didn’t work in the carport before they left in the Urerewas, so they didn’t expect to hear any news about the world’s greatest sailing regatta.

However, part way up the steepest climb of the tramp, a group of Japanese trampers came careering down towards them. “We’ve won, we’ve won’ they yelled. Someone further up the mountain had been able to get the news via a mobile phone that Team New Zealand, in their boat Black Magic had triumphed over all odds and ‘licked’ the American’s with a 5 Zip victory. Team New Zealand had won the great yachting race in the world! Like all New Zealanders and passionate about the sea and sailing, she was ecstatic!

As she continued up the track, almost bent in half with the weight of the pack on her bag, she had her eyes glued to the ground. If she stopped staring at it for too long, she was likely to trip over the roots of the trees on the track. However, in those moments a seed of a dream germinated. But as a single mum with the financial responsibility of ensuring her two daughters had a home and were supported, her dream seemed unattainable and an impossibility.

But she decided that when Team NZ defended the cup in New Zealand in the next few years, she was going to be involved in the America’s Cup regatta.

Determination, focus, creative and lateral thinking had her researching a musical sailing songs CD to produce for the New Zealand market. Calculated risks are fine, but the possibility of losing her home, if they didn’t sell, was too great a risk, so that idea was squashed.

Open to new ideas and women’s intuition had her making that ‘cold call’ and normally dreaded phone call to a stranger. However this phone call was different, this was offering her services. This was an attempt to follow a dream, which she’d been focusing on for a few years. This phone call was different; it made her dream start to become a reality.

Being the first women at the volunteers meeting, Janice felt like the black sheep amongst a herd of white ones, just like the picture on the front of those tee shirts. But determination won through and she found her way out onto the water in a patrol boat.

One of a group of patrol boats, she was part of a team that set the buoys at the start and finish box on the course. It was the best place to get a superb viewing of the yachts every time they sailed, and of course meant she was on the ‘spot’ when Team New Zealand won every race and ultimately retained the cup from Prada, 5 Zip.

Fun being an essential word to Janice she had her cheer leader pom poms and party hooters to blow every time Team New Zealand won a race. However winning the last and final race, her ‘fun’ items were in the hands of the male crew, who had scoffed at them earlier, only to take possession of them in the time of celebration. Water being the optimum word, she’d smuggled a water pistol aboard, just to keep people on their toes.

And so as that dream became fulfilled and finished, her next one was dreamed up, to helm an America’s Cup Yacht, which she did, on NZL40.

Sir Peter Blake had allowed her to use one of his quotes in her book, Sailing – a Different Course, “If it wasn’t difficult, it wouldn’t be worth doing”. Although it was a challenge to meet all her commitments, just doing it, and finding a way, is that’s what life is about says Janice.

This could have been a once in a life time opportunity says Janice, it’s what makes life magical and following your passion to create the life you want to live. So the inevitable phone call did made a change…. and now shortly she’s going to get a double whammy, second time around with her involvement again in the 2003 America’s Cup regatta.

Our businesses are like that sometimes. Making the phone call we dread, having the feeling of being rejected, but what we need to remember is it’s not us that is being rejected, it’s the product, or idea we’re selling. It could be for a number of reasons. Even if our prospects don’t want it today, ringing again in the future, the answer may just be yes, and make that dream ‘sale’ that will turn your business around, come true.