Don’t you just love the Gold Coast!

The guys at The Surfboard Warehouse are clients of ours and just organised me (and son Harry) to have a stand up paddle board lesson with Jamie O’Meara.

It’s always good to know and experience your client’s business when you do our sort of work, so it was off to the beautiful ocean to paddle for an hour or so (tough life I know!).

Stand Up Paddle Board in Currumbin Creek

Big Wave Surfer & Knockabout Guy

Jamie’s an ex big wave surfer who now teaches the gentle art of stand up paddle boarding in Currumbin Creek on the Gold Coast.

He’s a knockabout sort of guy who knows his stuff and teaches you the basics in a very relaxed way – he’s a lovely guy.

So if you’re looking for a lesson to get the right technique right from the start, give Jamie a yell on 0431 391 770.

Starting to review our photos from the ride across the USA.  Here’s a nice one I took in Monument Valley, Utah.

Monument Valley USA - Click for larger image

]]> https://www.tailored.com.au/the-usual-view/feed/ 1 https://www.tailored.com.au/dont-sweat-the-small-stuff/ https://www.tailored.com.au/dont-sweat-the-small-stuff/#comments Sun, 06 Nov 2011 10:06:49 +0000 Brendon Sinclair https://www.tailored.com.au/?p=10265

I had a great night last night at the annual Spinal Injuries Association Gala Dinner a night of fun, frivolity, raffles, silent auctions and more.

400 revelers enjoyed a wonderful night.

I was the MC and from where I was standing, the goodwill and kindness that permeated the room was palpable.

The highlight for the night, for me anyway, was a chat I had onstage with Patrick and Jocelyn.

• Jocelyn is a beautiful young lady who sustained a spinal cord injury that left her a quadriplegic after, of all things, being on a golf buggy that crashed at low speed on a tropical island resort.
• Patrick was a big, strong and active guy who was left quadriplegic after an accident whilst swinging from a rope into a river.

Their Key Message

I asked both Patrick and Jocelyn if they had any advice for the audience.  They both answered the same way.

“Don’t sweat the small stuff.  Live life to the full.”

Those 2 lines are pretty cliched.  We hear them all the time.

But I’m not sure everyone lives them.

When the lines are delivered by 2 vibrant young people confined for life in a wheelchair, the words become a little more poignant.  A little more powerful.

Great work by Patrick and Jocelyn and great work by the Spinal Injuries Association for helping make their path in a life a little smoother.

Cheers

Brendon

I’ve been developing and marketing web sites for 12 years now.

In that time, I’ve managed to put together some pretty remarkable sites.

By that, I mean web sites that have made a truckload of sales.

“Oi Brendon…..Look At Me Mate’s Web Site!”

One of our existing clients asked me to take a look at her friend’s web site.

And I’m not being unkind when I describe it as waste of the client’s money.

Sure, the site looked quite pretty, but no one really cares about that.

Okay, here’s the site – Marriage Celebrant Gold Coast.

Sure, it’s a pretty enough site, but it’s the important stuff that’s been changed.

Here’s how it works if you’re a wedding celebrant on the Gold Coast (or anywhere for that matter).

1. A bride hears of the service you offer.
2. She contacts you and asks if you can help.
3. You go marry the happy couple.
4. You get paid.

Easy!

Nowadays, many brides will look online to find a marriage celebrant.  Mostly they’ll visit Google and start the search.

This stuff ain’t rocket science.

So Ruth’s web site will become a success more because of what we took than what we put on.

What We Took Off

1.  The first thing we did with Ruth’s marriage celebrant site was remove the 15 seconds Flash introduction (that didn’t have a ‘Skip’ or ‘Back’ button).

Flash can be a disaster for many reasons.  Search engines can’t really read flash content, iPads and iPhones won’t display Flash at all, and it can be slow to load.  Making people wait an astonishing 15 seconds before they see any of your content is beyond stupid.

2.  Then we converted the web site to a Content Management System which means she can easily edit it herself.

3.  After that we tidied up the web site so that when Google eventually finds it, it can see what the site is about.

That’ll help with rankings and before you know it Ruth has a thriving marriage celebrant business.

All because we took off the Flash player and made the site easier for Google to understand.

I”ll let you know how the site goes.

Just before you die, your life flashes before your eyes.

Like in this video below.

And I reckon the movie that gets played for most people is pretty similar to this one.

Live life.  You’ve only got the one (or multiple if you believe in reincarnation………but then there’s a risk you could come back as a politician and no-one wants that.).

Click here to view the embedded video.

Brilliant bit of marketing.

Just beautiful in doing almost everything marketing should.

Yesterday our main computer decided to fail.

Then we lost our Internet connection.

And then I dropped and broke my headphones.

“Problems, problems, problems,” I grumbled.

My wife pulled me up quick smart.

“You haven’t got any problems.  If anyone should complain it’s Ice,” said Mel.

She was right.

“Ice” is the Guide Dog Puppy she’s been training for the past year.

Earmarked For A Life Of Shagging & Eating

Ice had been earmarked for breeding – days of shagging, eating and sleeping.  Repeated forever.

The perfect life.  Or so he thought.

But he failed his very last test a few days back.  (

So today was the day Ice was being castrated and sent off to work every day for the rest of his life.

A Matter Of Perspective

Yep, life’s all about perspective.

All of a sudden that broken computer and Internet drop out didn’t seem so bad!

My 2 sons – 17 year old Harry and 18 yo Jack – completed the grueling 42.2 km Brisbane Marathon yesterday.

At the end of the run we had a chat to the legendary “Marathon Man“.

Jack Sinclair & Marathon Man

Marathon Man’s alias is Clark Kent Trent Morrow and his super power is running marathons.

Marathon Man has run a staggering 40+ marathons in the last 40 months – including the 256km Marathon des Sables through the Sahara Desert in 2008 and the 90km Comrades Marathon in South Africa in 2010.

Next up for Marathon Man is the 2011 Sahara Race – 250kms in 7 days – it’s one of the leading 4 Deserts racingtheplanet ultra-marathon adventure series.

Marathon Man needs a bit of support to get to this one, so if you’d like to support what he’s doing the contact him here.

And he runs for 2 reasons:

• to raise money for Facing Africa
• to encourage other people to run a marathon (Marathon Man says 99% of people could easily run a marathon)

Best Known Marathon Runner In Australia

I’ve seen Marathon Man at lots of running events and he’s almost certainly the best know marathoner in Australia for the general public beside the elite marathoner Lee Troop.

Even Marathon Man needs to keep hydrated!

He was the centre of many photos at the Brisbane Marathon and enjoys the fun of it all.

So if you ever see Marathon Man at a running event, be sure to say “Hi” – he’s running for others and that’s a great, great thing.