Over the last four weeks, there was no blog entry on this site.

Did B1G1 team loose the energy and momentum? - Absolutely NOT!

We were touring in Australia and New Zealand covering 7 cities in total. And our main blogger and social media writer Paul Dunn was the centre of all these events this time.

Paul's fun, engaging, inspiring and insightful talk, "WOW - Standing out in 2010" created great energy and interest toward B1G1 in every city we visited. Some of the events attracted so many more people than we expected that we did not even have enough seats (RYDGES in Auckland for example ran out of all spare chairs and we had to 'steal' more from the restaurants!).  Many people were standing at the back of the room enjoying every moment of the evening until the very end. 

If you are one of them who missed the opportunity to be there, make sure to watch out for the next round because we had so many people saying that the event was full of amazing values that they could not believe it was free (thanks to the generous sponsors for each of the event) and some people even came from other cities driving hours to get there. 

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In my live seminars, I love drawing upon the work of Jonas Ridderstrale and Kjell Nordstrom and their first Funky Business book .

My favourite quote which provides a platform to build from is this one:

It’s so true. Every word of it.

And if, as they say, normal does equal nothing, then it seems obvious that abnormal equals something.

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At Buy1GIVE1 (or B1G1 as most people know it now) we’ve got a clear mission — to create a world full of giving. And we do that through providing people with the wonderful process of transaction-based giving — increasingly being called, 'Embedded Generosity' or 'Embedded Giving'.

I find that creating a world full of giving is pretty inspiring. Then I got a note taking it all to another level from my friend (and B1G1 Business client) Tom Minter in the UK. Tom co-founded and co-runs the wonderfully zany and magically brilliant ‘Socks for Happy People ’.

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Disclosure: I’m not what you'd call a keen student of the Bible. But after a recent trip to New Zealand, I believe I can imagine how the man felt who actually did pick up his bed and walk.

That’s because I was ‘operated on’ (as you’ll soon discover, that’s COMPLETELY the wrong term) by new B1G1 Business owner, Master Applied Kinesiologist, Doctor of Chiropractic and author of  ‘Live now - Die later’, Patterson Stark .

I’d met Patterson the night before with my dear friends Martin and Sarah Jimmink. They’d held the equivalent of a B1G1 Seminar in their home in Christchurch, New Zealand.

And after the program, Patterson and his Partner, Gayel Marquet, not only decided to become a B1G1 Business linking their Alkaline Water with giving kids access to water in Africa, they stayed for hours talking about water, about B1G1 and about Patterson’s views on health.

Twenty years ago, Patterson was told he had 2 weeks to live.

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If you know anything about Australian music, ‘All my friends are getting married’ was the title of a huge hit for iconic Australian band Skyhooks in the seventies (OMG am I that old???).

And it’s not strictly true that ‘all’ my friends are getting married but my best friend is – this Monday saw Martin Cooney tie the knot with his South African sweetheart, Pam Lakey.

And in an act of total weirdness, I’m going to Bali to spend some time with them on their honeymoon (don’t read ANYTHING into that!)

And what on earth does that have to do with Dame Anita Roddick and the Body Shop ? Simply this.

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Today I had breakfast at Bumbles on Budds Beach with a charming 9-year old, Grace Clark-Reynolds. Grace is the daughter of one of New Zealand’s most famous entrepreneurs, Melissa Clark-Reynolds whom we’ve blogged about here  recently too.

Like most 9-year olds, Grace is playful. And once you get to know most 9-year olds a little, they open up and tell you the latest ‘silly’ joke OR, in Grace’s case, the latest mind-bender or riddle.

Grace chose the latter course. She asked our waitress for a piece of paper and a pen. And on the paper she wrote:

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Since I started doing more daily exercises and physical activities, the life has become so much more enjoyable, meaningful and abundant.

I had felt the need for more physical activities before but never done anything consistently since I had my first child. Life can be full of excuses with family/business commitment and demanding everyday chores. But this time, I actually took action.

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[Thank you to Louise Gilbert for writing this piece]

Every Buy1GIVE1 Business Member we talk to is guided by a higher purpose and expresses that purpose and passion through work they love. Giving could be considered an art: an art that arranges our business activities in a certain way that appeals to our emotions, and expresses what we desire at the deepest level - to make a difference somewhere else in the world.

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February 27, 2009

Interesting day today. A major international philanthropic NewsWire (Triple Pundit) picked up the Buy1GIVE1 'story' and circulated it worldwide in the form of a conversation between the editor and me as B1G1 Chairman.

If you'd like to go to the Triple Pundit site to view it, just click here. Or, if you'd like to save a click, we've reproduced the text of the article for you right here. Hope you like it. Come join us.

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BOGO

- A new way to look at the world of giving

Definitions of words can often change quite quickly these days. In the distant past the meaning of words was often set in stone. Today the meaning can change in a blink. With new faster ways to communicate with wider and more culturally, socially and educationally diverse audiences – words are put back on the anvil of evolution and reformed into something new and more meaningful to reflect life and living today.

There is a growing global movement where consumers are asking businesses to take care of the things that they care about.

Sometimes, we may feel that our individual and everyday activities don’t make much of a difference.

But what if they did? What if people around the world set up their businesses so that every single transaction made a positive difference? What a world that would be; and that is actually the world of Buy One Give One. And it’s now becoming a global movement.

This transaction-based giving movement is now inspiring and transforming our world. It is a new and immediately effective form of philanthropy, serving the worlds poor with practical gifts from every sale.

Several

Like you, I’ve received so many wonderful Christmas messages this year.

And each one has resonance in one way or another. But one in particular from my friend Tim Wade stood out for me.

Tim is a great writer, speaker and ALWAYS can be relied upon to bring insights. In his note, Tim reflected on what has been an amazing year for him. And then he said this:

Then there was the financial crisis. In truth, it's not really that

big a deal. With 80% of the people in the world living below $10

a day and 50% living on less than $2.50 a day¹,

the crisis has only really