Monday 7 November 2011

‘No fuss, no nonsense, no tantrums’

And there I was thinking it’s time I posted a blog and I get the subject matter handed to me on a silver platter. One of my clients chooses to email me to say that he ‘loves my approach’. And why does he love my approach? Because, in his words, it’s ‘no fuss, no nonsense, no tantrums.’

To say that this response is pleasing is something of an understatement, especially when this quote comes from someone who has worked in the advertising industry for decades and who knows what fuss and nonsense and tantrums can look like and feel like from a client perspective.

Added to this is the fact that without realising it, this person has summed up exactly what I’ve been striving for in all my years in business. It’s what underpins my work; it actually makes up a decent part of my personality.

And then of course I get to thinking… Like all good researchers one needs to fully interrogate this new piece of data.

The other side to making no fuss is that sometimes you don’t get noticed. The other side to no nonsense and no tantrums is that sometimes the hard work which is put into something does not get recognised and does not always get appreciated.

Again this can be looked at from a work and personal perspective.

Another client once introduced me as someone who was brilliant at what he does but ‘s***’ at marketing himself – you see there is a potential downside to no fuss, no nonsense.

In my personal life also I’m often judged as the person for whom things seem to work out fine, as if by magic – but again that’s often because when things are not going so well, tantrums tend to be rare and the hard work that goes on in the background to make things fine is rarely discussed beyond a close family circle.

So let’s weigh up these pros and cons.

Am I happy to be known as the person who makes no fuss, creates no nonsense, and has no tantrums? You bet I am.

Am I bothered if some people choose not to see or acknowledge the work that goes into making things work out from a business and personal perspective? Not really because their lack of acknowledgement probably says as much about them as it does about me.

No, on due reflection, I’m fully content with my newly-coined tagline.

And not that I’m one to make a fuss or anything but this comment comes on the most successful day of commissioning that we’ve had as a business since we started in 1994.

‘No fuss, no nonsense, no tantrums’. Try it; it might work for you as well.