Help! And some cracking deals

Preamble
As a purveyor of pots and pans, I sometimes ask myself why I often start a sales email with subjects somewhat removed from its obvious purpose, as I am about to do today The answer, or part of the answer is because these subjects are important to me and they allow me to think out loud, and sometimes they are subjects that are taboo for some reason. So, for instance, death and grief are a couple of recurring themes of late, they tend to not get aired very much in polite circles and certainly not in your average sales email. So a part of my motivation for telling you what I’ve been going through is, to state the obvious, at some stage in life we all will experience them and I’m convinced that talking about it is helping me cope. I don’t suppose I’m alone in finding this helpful, so I’ve written about it. 

Warning! The next 7 paragraphs are not about cookware!
So if this isn’t of interest  skip the next few paras and you save you self some precious time… and go to the offers at the bottom of the email. Otherwise, do read on… 

I’m not usually one for making new year’s resolutions, not because I have anything against them, but mainly because I rarely find I’m in the mood to make them at this time of year, in fact I rarely set out to make a resolution at any point in the year. When I am inspired to do so, it’s because of something someone has said to me, or something I’ve watched, or something that I’ve read somewhere. As you may be aware I do like a wander round YouTube from time to time and as you may also be aware, one of my favourite people to watch on it is Simon Sinek. I like him because of what he believes*. He puts complicated things in simple language that I can understand, he tells stories to illustrate his point (Babette was a past master at this, as was Jesus, and no I’m not implying anything here, other than that the telling of stories is a very good way of making something real to your audience so they can identify with your message) and he, Simon, is a consummate communicator. 

So indulge me this morning by watching this little 3 minute 9 second video which is entitled ”Solve problems through Service”. In it Sinek suggests that we can best help ourselves (solve our own problems) through helping a friend or colleague. He points out that there’s an entire section in the bookshop called “Self Help”. There no section in the bookshop called “Help Others” which he seems to think is a mistake….think I agree with him.  So instead of me carrying on and on about it, spend the next 3 minutes and 9 seconds of your Saturday morning (making me happy!) watching this video and see if it sparks any thoughts in you? And if it does, break the habit, possibly of a lifetime, and leave your thoughts in the box below.

Here’s one more thought before I get on to product. Sometime before Babette died she said to me that she felt we needed to accept help from others more (I think we both agreed we found this hard to do because, in many ways, we were pretty self-sufficient within our relationship). Her suggestion spoke to me in the context that what she was saying, I knew to be true. And that is, that human beings enjoy helping their fellow human beings, I think that it’s just hard wired into us. I’m aware when I help someone, amongst my motivations like altruism, it also makes me feel good about myself as well. However, I have always found it hard to accept “free” help, probably a mixture of misplaced pride and a feeling of guilt. Not wanting to be seen as a “Taker”.

What I’ve learnt, particularly since that day in August when she died, is that I’ve allowed people into my life, many of whom have been there for years but whom in some way I kept at bay because of pride, guilt, lack of confidence and probably a few other weaknesses to boot!

So, I see these two examples, Sinek's “Giving help to another” and Babette’s assertion “that we need to accept help more” as complimentary to each other, sort of two sides of the same coin.

I’m a little loath to admit it, but I’m actually very happy with this state of affairs, and I think it’s largely because my life is so much the richer for all these new and renewed friendships. My children now say to me “what out again Dad!?” and Josie the other day with a twinkle in her eye checked with me what time I was coming back home that night. She had the decency to stop short of issuing a curfew!

I think Babette maybe looking on, surprised and delighted to see the impact her suggestion has had on me. I think she’s proud of me and, in fact, all those helping me as well. Moral of my story is “don’t be afraid to accept help”, it can be so rewarding for the “Taker” and maybe the “Giver” as well. So I’m not sure this counts as a new years resolution for me, but it might be different for you?

Offers of various kinds from Le Creuset and Jura
In reviewing our stock levels post-Christmas Andi and I found we’d got some overstocks, some items that I thought worthy of mention just because we have good stocks and good pricing, and some items that we’d bought in for Black Friday and there are some left over.

So in no particular order here they are.

Ok so that’s it for now. I’d like to wish you a pleasant and peaceful weekend.

Kind regards,

 Andrew

 Andrew Bluett-Duncan Director

*     Sinek says that  We have a right to feel fulfilled by the work we do. To wake up feeling inspired to go to work. To feel safe when we’re there. To return home with a sense that we’ve contributed to something larger than ourselves.