We have something new in our lives – a beach hut on the sea front at Cromer. It has a door and a window and four walls and that’s it. If you look at it one way it’s a lifeless empty box. However, if you look at it another way, it’s a little fun palace.

It’s now full of toys and chairs and a kettle and mugs and a very smart set of shelves, which I hand built at the weekend. (DIY is not something I get any pleasure from, so seaside shelf building is something of a first, haha).

Sitting on the beach is lovely. Sitting on the beach with a mug of tea is lovelier still. When you don’t have to carry all your gear down from the car park and can just amble down to your beach hut, then life really is super-lovely.

After my DIY heroics (did I mention them?) I enjoyed a mug of tea whilst sitting in front of the rolling, crashing waves and enjoyed a small slice of thinking time under the Sunday-blue sky.
Beach huts are full of potential. For fun, for taking a time-out, for thinking and for just ‘being’.

The world encourages us to run fast and we cram it with emails and tweets and calls and more work. We all need to stop and listen to the waves sometimes and give our brains a chance to free-wheel.

We have a beach hut now to encourage this, a friend has a thoughtful spot where they pause and take stock of the world and a colleague goes fishing to get away from the madness.

So, where is your ‘beach hut’? Where will you go this week to get away from your emails, drink tea and enjoy some quiet thinking time?

Think about it…

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I spent a happy weekend teaching job hunting skills to foreign business graduates, which was an intense and rewarding piece of work.

We talked about CV writing, interview practice, 25 different places to look for work, the importance of networking and the need to smile and sell yourself.

It’s all in the book Job Hunting 3.0 if you’re interested, which is a great compliment to a job hunting workshop.

This type of course can be hard to sell because many people don’t value job hunting skills as worth investing in. People who would like a salary of £20,000 are often unprepared to invest £200 to get it, which seems ludicrous to me.

However, this course wasn’t sold on the brilliant content or potential life benefits. It was sold because I ‘Richard Maun’, international speaker, multi-book author and TV star was leading it.

And if you’re smirking at this description just remember that it’s all true. The people on the course came to see me and were very pleased that I’d made time for them. They had been on to YouTube and see the interview with Fanny Kiefer and they’d checked out the book reviews on Amazon.

I was someone worth paying money to listen to.

And I am.

Whatever your business does – you are in it. You lead it. You give it soul. You deliver high quality products or services. You are part of what differentiates it from the competition. You are brilliant, lovely, talented, clear thinking, fun to be with, diligent and reliable! You matter!

The next time you are selling your services remember to include yourself in the package.

I delivered a brilliant workshop over the weekend and was asked to come back next month.

I’m talented and worth the money – and so are you!

So, go ahead and sell yourself this week!

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