People are their business!

When we decided to produce an issue on people we knew we had to speak to Allan and Barbara Pease. The husband and wife writing team took time out of their busy schedules to talk to us on their 57-acre Buderim Hill property.

Allan and Barbara Pease have published books like Why Men Want Sex and Women Need Love, The Definitive Book of Body Language and Body Language in the Workplace. Fifteen of their titles have been top 10 best sellers, 25 million of their books have sold worldwide and their work has been translated into 51 different languages. With all those credentials we thought Allan and Barbara would have some handy insights to share on people.

Barbara says the aim of their work is to show people how to live fulfilling lives. Allan and Barbara focus on communication skills, particularly body language and the differences between men and women. Allan says, “We educate our kids but we don’t always teach them how to get along with the opposite sex. Our aim in life is to educate the population so that they are better communicators.”

Allan and Barbara spent seven years interviewing experts and collating research on the differences between the sexes for their book Why Men Don’t Listen and Women Can’t Read Maps. The result is an insight into why the sexes have such different reactions to the same thing. “To get a man to listen,” Allan and Barbara write, “give him advance notice and provide an agenda.” While they warn, “When a person’s words and body language are in conflict or contradict, women ignore what is said.”

In Why Men Want Sex and Women Need Love the Peases use scientific research – including brain scans - to explore men and women’s different attitudes to sex. “Consciously or sub-consciously men and women understand what the opposite sex wants. Just as a fisherman baits his hook to attract a fish, so do men and women do what is necessary to attract a potential mate,” they write.

So how does this relate to business? Allan says to be successful in business you have to have fantastic personal skills. He says people won’t buy from you if they don’t like you, so it’s important to learn how to communicate well. “Fifty percent of your workplace is the opposite sex these days,” he says, “so if you don’t know how to sell to them you are only going to appeal to half the population.

“You must understand that men and women do not think the same way, you have to learn skills to manage them. You have to have man talk and women talk in your repertoire, otherwise you have lost half your market. In fact you have probably lost more like 80 percent of your market [if you are male] because women make most of the decisions anyway,” Allan says.

In addition to his books, Allan has produced many audio and visual aids on communication and has earned the nickname “Mr Body Language” along the way. He is also a public speaker and has an impressive history in sales.

Allan says a lot of people don’t succeed in business because they miss one vital point. He says business owners need to make an irreversible decision about what they want to do, rather than how they are going to do it.  “Once you have made that decision, the ‘how’ just appears,” he says.

Allan and Barbara reiterates the need for good communication in business, especially when delegating. “You have to delegate but you have to always be in the background.  Delegate but communicate: ‘this is what we need’, ‘we need a report by a certain time’, ‘this is the deadline,’ etc.” Otherwise, “you could get a year down the track and you have lost your business.”

Allan and Barbara say there are massive opportunities on the Sunshine Coast for people to do what they want to do and be successful at it. Allan says the secret is to only talk to people who have done or are aspiring to do what you want to do. “Don’t talk to people who don’t have passion in the area you are wanting to create,” he says. “They will put the bucket of water on you.”

If you don’t have passion, Allan warns, you won’t be successful and what you do won’t be work - it will be a job (Allan says ‘job’ stands for ‘just over broke’). If you don’t have a passion, he says, write a list of the things you love. Include the hours you would like to work and the thing that you love the most.

Allan is a great example of this. He is passionate about music. The blues enthusiast boasts a fully soundproof world-class music studio on his 57-acre property where he’s about to embark on a new venture. Allan’s about to cut a pilot for a new TV show called Live at Heliport. Hosted by Barbara and Allan and Leo Sayer with a Saturday Night Live-flavour, the show will feature a live session and interview with international artists, all filmed right here on the Sunshine Coast. Proof enough, we think, of Allan’s strategy: decide what you want and the how will follow and also of his emphasis on passion.

To purchase one of Allan and Barbara Pease’s books or to book Allan for a public speaking event go to www.peaseinternational.com

Allan’s take on the economy:

“Economies are dictated by peoples’ attitudes.  If people think that things are tough they stop spending money and that then becomes a self filling prophecy.  There is no point in participating in all that stuff, it is just like cancer, it goes through your whole body. It becomes a habit.

“Every time there is a downturn of something it presents enormous opportunities that didn’t exists [before]. Unless you are looking for them you don’t see them.”