hi this is Rob O'Byrne and hopefully I'm not going to look quite as bushy and
homeless as I do right now we're next I see you if you're wondering where I am
for the last six weeks I've been walking across Spain which seemed like a good
idea at the time I thought I must be a bit of a lunatic because this is the
third time I've done it and what I said to the guys before I left Sydney was I'm
really not going to think about work while I'm doing this walk I'm funny
enough it was it's about 800 kilometers I would have done it a little bit
quicker except if I swivel around here that other umbrella disappearing up the
track is my wife Pat that walks a bit slower than I do so we've been taking it
easy and we're just about completed an 800 K walk so what the hell am I talking
about on this video it's not about hiking what I said to the guys before I
left Sydney was I read out in tens thinking about work during this walk but
if I get any sort of bolts of lightning and great ideas although I might put
some video tips together related to business so we're one day away from
cashing what I'll do is collect my thoughts and I'll see if I can draw
some business lessons out of this another long walk that we've been doing
here so watch this space
one of the lessons that I've learnt doing this walking just a third time
I've done it that can absolutely relate to the business world
here's achieving big bottles so the lady walking in front of me there
my wife Pat is kind of fly up one eye is about under bounds I never thought for
one minute that she would be able to walk 800 kilometres across Spain chair
in a backpack she's about 12 kilometres from finishing and I won't say she's
loved everything little bit she's loved most of it and had a huge number of
challenges along the way in terms of fatigue and injury and all that sort of
stuff so what's the business lesson from that sometimes we set ourself goal that
will be set cold that seemed absolutely infallible and it can be overwhelming
and very stressful and of the way that we tackle this mrs. Pat second time
walking this trail my third the way that we tackle this is we break it down into
very easy simple little goals but how have we managed to walk a hundred
kilometres not get stressed out because we're only thinking about today we're
thinking about that we're walking 20 kms to this village tomorrow we're
walking 25 kms 10 kms whatever it is and that's the immediate goal in fact
the goal right now is to get another two kms to a little village called
Lavacolla and there we're gonna have lunch the
goal after that with the walk for 2 or 3 kms more to our stop at the end
of the day and so what's the business lesson we have huge goals and it can seem
they're a bit overwhelming make sure you set lots and lots of little milestones
and so that you get this sense of achievement as you're going along
well we covered that 10 kms really quick all right you know we've got over
that mountain and look the View's great
yeah and it's about celebrating achieving those little milestones and
enjoying steps of that journey so that is absolutely translatable into the
business environment big things break them down into little steps each where
there are little milestones I think we're about 1 km away from lunch
okay another business lesson from an 800 kilometres high across Spain what's this
one well it's very interesting some of the people that we've met on this walk
and the lesson is don't judge people too quickly and don't judge them on first
impressions so some of the people that we've met for example who are absolutely
going to nail this 800 meter walk have been 69 year old grandmother's little
kids my wife who is absolutely not you know into sports and fitness and
things like that so don't judge people definitely don't go on first impressions
this is something that I've learnt over doing this three times you'd be amazed
once you get to know people their skills their capability their experiences their
determination you would never guess from first impressions so think about that in
terms of the people in your team do you actually want to give a go let them try
something give enough of a challenge and you might just be surprised
so one of the things one of the big lessons I think that can apply to
business at communication and it's very interesting doing this with someone is
just I heard me previous walks that I've done like this on my own
this one's very different why because communication for any sentence so I'm
the sort of designated redoing finding the right route and booking the hotels
and things like that and constantly
staying tonight it's such a really important to keep
that communication going because this is amazing boy nice hundred days you get
extremely tired you get injuries you can get irritable and so you know just like
managing a big project at work you've got to keep the team not only motivated
but up to date with exactly what's happening
so to go down bad you know what's the way they're going to be like tomorrow oh
crap it's great I'm walking in the rain you know so yeah there's lots of great
analogies from from doing a long walk like this one of the big lessons for me
is communication keep the too much date with progress
with milestones with the successes and the failures give me a bag use so they
can plan for it let them know what's coming up so that's really important
another lesson
so this one is about customer service and you can imagine me an 800 k's across
the country you're passing through lots of little villages you're interacting
with local businesses and black billion have been breakfasts and hotels and
hostels and places where you're going to get lunch and breakfast and so on
you know we've probably dealt with hundreds of different small businesses
and medium-sized businesses during this journey and we're really interesting
it's not just the pricing pricing variation for very similar services at
the level of customer service and absolutely stands right out there are
places that we've stayed there are meals that we've had in cafes and things that
really stand out that will all go back to if we come here again because of the
customer service and a big difference was that people cared about what they
were doing they really cared about their customers they cared about their
products and services and it showed and yet there were businesses who thought
they were better big brand names perhaps flashy facilities they charged more they
just weren't as good and it all came down to the customer service so think
about that in your business what's the face of your business that the customers
deal with and it's that face giving an impression your commitment and
motivation and caring to your customers
you see when you're thanking with everything that you need in a backpack a
plan of care is and it took us about six weeks because they're really slow you
carry everything that you need for six weeks and so if you're going to carry
everything including the kitchen sink you're gonna have a very large backpack
I'm gonna have a very sore back and you're gonna have very soft feet so the
aim is to try and get your backpack wife down for about seven or eight kilos
which is hard so you start off thinking about really lightweight equipment and
clothing you start thinking about lightweight backpacks you kind of lie
all the stuff out and you say do I really need this do I need two of them
can I make do with one and I think this is a really good lesson
just for backpacking and life but for business because we clutter ourselves
with stuff you know we undertake projects and we want you know Plan B
Plan C plan D you know all of these resources and and so on maybe we don't
need them all and maybe we're trying to achieve ten different things in this
project instead of really focusing on the two or three that are vitally
important and so really the lesson from it's not the baggage is be really
careful that you can't a long with you you know doing a business career did a
very project is it really important and is it actually going to help you achieve
your goals so don't overload your backpack
okay so here's another business tip learned while walking across Spain for
six weeks and that is take advice one of the things that happens when you're on a
really long walk like this is you get injured it's unavoidable
yeah you're walking 2025 cows a day week after week after week you get foot
problems and joint problems and all kinds of things and what we did is we
sought advice from dr. dieter stand physio and so on before we left you know
what sort of stretching could we do what sort of taping that's what a medication
could we get away with and when things cropped up we knew what to do
particularly with regard to medication we both suffered a little bit with
putting knee problems in the last week or so we've had to take
anti-inflammatories and pain killers and things but our doctor had advised us
exactly how to do that you know with and without food the dosage how often and
all that kind of thing so what the hell is that got to do with business it's
very simple if you're going to undertake something that's really challenging and
maybe something you haven't done before get professional advice it's well worth
it
we're almost done we're just outside Santiago de
Compostela and behind me you can probably see a couple of statues on the
hill of joy Santiago five days to go what's this tip about quite simply it's
about taking time out now look I'm really lucky as a business owner I can
take a couple of months a year off and I go away and do all kinds of things like
this that's not possible for most people what I would say though if you're a
business owner if you're a manager you know whatever sort of job that you're
doing try to take proper time out personally I
can't go and sit on a beach I love I love to sit on the beach but it's not
relaxing for me you know I'd sit there with a business book or something you
know but not I don't need something to distract me to take my mind off it so of
business so I do this kind of thing I have to say this is the very last day I
promise the guys back in the office if I do some business videos I'll do it on
the final day because I've been thinking about business at all for six weeks
absolutely not at all so that's why all these videos are sort of shot in a
similar place but yeah look taking time out is so important so think about what
it is that you can do that will distract you from business you know whether it's
surfing or canoeing or sailing it's probably some sort of physical activity
skiing and make sure that you do get time out don't don't not take your leave
if you're a business owner and you've got a bit of flexibility take more leave
you know you come back refreshed and energized and much better the business
will be better for you so really really important listen there's no prizes but
you know not taking time out it really is it's good for you good for your
business good for your role good for your team get away and refresh
okay one that final business tip from learned walking across Spain for six
weeks like a couple life I think of them but this one it's about teamwork
now the first time I did this walk I did it on my own three years ago
second one I did a sort of short version with more this one I've done with Pat
walk for six weeks together why am I talking about teamwork when I'm doing
something which seems like a very individual thing to do like this it's
because when you're doing a very long walk like this shit happens you might
get lost you know something goes wrong with your accommodation you might run
out of food one day you might be injured and you don't have the right sort of
first-aid stuff with you stuff will happen and a lot of the time it's the
people around you who help you overcome those whether it's people that you're
traveling with whether it be other people on the journey who just happened
to come across in the middle of nowhere people help each other out
and most people you know if you're wondering where we are we're walking the
Camino de Santiago so we walk from central pietà fort in southern France to
Santiago de Compostela which is just over here fuckos away we're almost done
and hundreds and thousands of people 300 thousand people a year look this old
talking the truth and what you find is they form these little you know groups
and families and stuff along the way and they help each other out and you know I
feel sat by the Load nursing an injury you know people will come party okay
what do you need and so what I'm saying is this is a really big thing to achieve
a really long look like this it's very really done totally in isolation so
think about teamwork you know your role and your job how you can actually help
each other achieve much bigger goals because really big goals are generally
achieved through great teamwork not