Searching for that "perfect something" which appropriately represents our intent to recognise and/or reward others, or even ourselves, for any given occasion, is always a noble cause. If you are anything like me, you want something which is memorable and has an "extended shelf life" beyond the 24 hours after it appears in the intended recipient's hands.

However, in today's "time poor" environment, as our designated deadline approaches without a successful outcome, it can become a major dilemma which escalates our stress levels accordingly, an all too familiar situation for many of us!

Fortuitously, there is an obvious option which is often initially overlooked on our "Top 5" list, then reverted to, with ensuing satisfaction for all parties concerned and post-event we wonder why we didn't just choose it in the first instance?

I'm referring to the "Homestyle Fragrances and Lifestyle Products" option.

With a plethora of outlets constantly bombarding us with the "Quality and Classy Homestyle Fragrances and Lifestyle Products for Every Occasion" message, how do you make a choice which actually lives up to that mantra?

If this scenario resonates equally with you, I have found one Queensland based supplier "Bramble Bay Australia" which regardless of your budget, does deliver to that mantra through their respective "Bramble Bay Collection", "Crystal Carvings" and "Dreamtime Bag Company" product range offerings.

Bramble Bay locally manufactures their own products which are "Inspired by Nature" and cater for both direct and indirect customers so whatever customer category you are, be very pleasantly surprised like I was and duly check them out. 

As our society strives to cope with continuing, rapid population growth within centralised hubs, town planners are looking to addressing this increasing accommodation capacity issue by introducing more compact living spaces.

An adverse consequence of this scenario is the concerning trend of severely limiting, or even worse, completely excluding natural green environments from those compact living spaces.

However, we are also constantly being reminded that our natural green environment has many positive and intrinsic benefits for our general well-being and health.

Consequently, how do we continue to access those benefits in this compact living spaces trend?

It was this question which drove Franc and Jenny Coonan to apply innovations from their considerable expertise and experience in turf farming to resolve.

Their creative thinking spawned a unique and clever “plant in a tile” concept, appropriately named “Plant Tiles” and physically manifested in the form of a minimum growth, low maintenance, highly robust, ground cover type product which is easy to transport and can be propagated with minimal effort to “Create Instant Green” environments.

The simple genius of “Plant Tiles” lies in its incredibly flexible capacity to “Create Instant Green” environments in practically any compact living space and the user’s imagination seems to be the only limit to its application for that purpose.

The demand for “Plant Tiles” since initially being introduced to the market in mid-2016 is continuing to escalate at such an extent that it is carving its own niche in the garden industry sector.

So, there it is, the connection between “Plants, Tiles and Compact Living Spaces”.

To find out more about this fantastic “Plant Tiles” product and perhaps then use it to “Create Instant Green” in both your client’s and your own compact living spaces, please access the “Plant Tiles Australia” website using the following link –

Plant Tiles Australia - The Professional Landscapers' Secret

In closing, it should be clearly noted that Franc and Jenny Coonan are not “Greenies” per se and therefore do not actively promote or represent any such organisations or their respective agendas in any way, but rather they are just great people who have a wonderful passion to help “Create Instant Green” environments for everyone to benefit and enjoy. 

A very, very sad day for us today as one of our extended "family members", Pixie, our daughters' beloved pure bred mini fox terrier of the past 19 1/2 years took her final, one-way trip to the vet late this afternoon.

So you may well question why am I writing this article and what relevance does it have for a business social networking site.

At first glance, perhaps not much, after all, she's just a dog many may say with a degree of dismissiveness!

However, when reflecting on the time Pixie was part of our family environment, there were many lessons and benefits which are analogous to the world of business.

•Trust - She placed her absolute trust in us to feed, love and care for her at all times

•Relationships - She understood and appreciated her position within the family hierarchy, was always prepared to constructively interact with everyone and offered her unqualified love to all of us

•Loyalty - She embodied the very definition of loyalty by duly considering any attempts for outsiders to lure her to their camp but ultimately declined their offers and always came home because she thought we still had the best value-proposition for her

•Listening - She was always prepared to listen to whatever we had to say, regardless of our emotional states, stress levels or anything else at the time

•Empathy and Support - She was uncannily intuitive in how she seemed to know when all was not wonderful with any of us by appearing of her own volition apparently just looking for a pat and then hung around until we felt better.

When you reflect on what may successfully position you and your business as either, or preferably both, suppliers and/or employers of choice, these five points of "Trust, Relationships, Loyalty, Listening, Empathy and Support" stand out as some of the essential elements contributing to that potential success.

The lesson here is that every part of your environment must always be duly considered to appreciate the true value it adds to your overall life and business.

So "Vale Pixie" and thank you for all the lessons and the benefits you provided to both me and my family during your invaluable time with us.

Attended one of "The Alternative Board" meetings in Redland Bay, Queensland today (Fri 18/11/2016) as a guest Board Advisor, by invitation from Claire Wilson, who owns and operates "The Alternative Board" business in Queensland.

Claire's executive level professionalism, expertise and business acumen in chairing the Board meeting combined with her ability to actively engage and facilitate constructive interaction and discussion between the respective board members with an "end in mind" at all times, was very impressive.

I would highly recommend any SME business owners who are looking to engage an appropriately experienced Board to assist with driving and achieving their strategic and operational business objectives, to duly consider "The Alternative Board" model and contact Claire Wilson for the relevant details.

You will be pleasantly surprised with the significant business value you will gain from a relatively minor investment of your time and working capital.

Spent a few days recently with one of the recruitment industry's major players previewing and reviewing what they are about to launch into their chosen industry market sector.

The short story is that their highly innovative yet amazingly simple new business model offering could possibly represent the most significant "game-changing" event for the past 20 years in the recruitment industry.

A big statement, maybe so, however for someone who normally views such offerings with a fair degree of scepticism, I was sufficiently excited with what I experienced to immediately take advantage of a business partnership opportunity with them.

If you want to know more about what prompted my "light bulb" moment, get in touch soon so I can share my experience with you and maybe, just get you a little bit excited as well about the real business benefits which are potentially waiting for you.

I wanted to share some personal insights for anyone who has spent any amount of time, energy, resources and money trying to create a "Meaningful Motto" which tells the world what you want them to know about you and your brand, be it personal, corporate or both.

You know what you want to say but getting it all into one succinct line of under 10 words (what genius came up with that parameter?) can be incredibly challenging, frustrating, distracting and dare I say it .. even depressing at times!

All the historical wisdom, tips and "experts" you can access to help can be often lead to more confusion than clarity.

Consequently, after much "navel gazing" the desired outcome may seem even further away than when you first started on this journey!

Here's some of the things which I have learnt which you may find useful in your journey to establishing a "Meaningful Motto".

• Always trust yourself and your instincts, after all you got yourself to this position in the first place and you know exactly what you want to say.

• The input, advice, whatever from anyone who cares to contribute, invited or otherwise, can't make the decision, only you can.

• Keep your audience in mind at all times (sound familiar but amazing how often ignored!) as what they see and interpret is biased by their own subjective views and experiences, your primary intent is to get their attention in the first place and encourage their interest in delving more.

• Procrastination is normal, not abnormal, when you are trying to be creative and the benefit I got from a potential negative scenario, is it actually helps you to discard the "wannabe" options and focus on the "probable" ones.

• What you ultimately come up with may already be someone else's mantra, that doesn't mean it's not available or right for you, you just need to figure out how to say it in an original way.

• Test it out on your circle of trusted friends and colleagues, they probably represent a good spread of your potential audience and will give you good, constructive feedback and comments, without prejudice, which will either confirm and/or help you further enhance your thoughts.

• How much effort, time, resources, advice and money you wish to spend is always your choice, don't let it become the torpedo which sinks your ship before it launches.

• Finally, you can always change it to align with how and what you do, the future is unknown, what you are trying to do is best position yourself to take advantage of the opportunities as they present themselves.

So, putting some of these points into perspective and context when creating my own "Meaningful Motto", ie "Today Shapes Tomorrow - We Help Shape Today".

• Original theme, not necessarily, original wording "YES"!

• Effort/time, etc., spent - maybe two hours and several (well an A4 page at least) iterations.

• Total $ spent - zero!

• End result - happy!

If you found this useful and want some help or advice with your own "Meaningful Mottos" creation journey, then please feel free to contact me at your leisure to talk further.

Good luck!!!!!!