Saying thanks

I got thanked three different ways recently.

The ATO sent me the following letter a couple of months back.

It says Dear MR COOK (I would have thought that we'd be on a first name basis by now, but anyway). The Australian Government thanks you for your tax contribution for 2015-16. This statement details ... where your personal tax was spent.

I love this. I get a lot of different correspondence from the ATO with BAS's, company tax, super, personal tax etcetera, mostly about how much money I owe them. It's really nice to get a letter saying thanks for contributing, here's what you've paid for.

I also got a hand-written card a few weeks back from Corrinne Armour, one of my favourite thought leaders in the world, saying thanks for making the Black Belt Retreat a reality. (Thank you Corrinne – very classy.)  A couple of weeks back 20 black-belt thought leaders* spent an amazing few days together in Queenstown – one of the highlights of my professional life to date.

In this world of electronic everything, I reckon going old school, getting a beautiful card with a hand-written note has a huge impact.

It does on me anyway. And I as I said, very classy.

And Gaz, my fitness trainer, said thank you at the end of our session. As he always does. In fact he says thank you to every person who comes into his gym at the end of every session.

I asked him about why he does that and he said “because without my clients, this place wouldn’t be here”.

I reckon its really smart to say thank you in as many different ways as you can. From a commercial perspective, if you're running a thought leaders practice, saying thank you consistently, thoughtfully and well is good for your business relationships and your brand.

From an altruistic perspective, it will improve someone else's day a little or a lot, and make the world a brighter place.

And from a selfish perspective, it puts you in a state of gratitude, and there are a myriad of benefits to that, but that's the topic for another blog.

So thank you for reading my blog. I know that there is an infinite number of other things that you could be doing with your time and attention, and I truly appreciate that you've given up some to engage with my thinking and writing. Gracias.

*A black belt thought leader is someone who is invoicing over $720k a year in their practice.