In this presentation Sally Curtis explains how to sustain long‑term relationships within strategic wealth networks by focusing on three inter‑related dimensions: culture, environment, and atmosphere. She defines culture as the shared behaviours, beliefs and characteristics that unite a group, and illustrates how a memorable, unifying culture can be fostered through genuine curiosity, involvement, and small gestures such as giving chocolate. The environment is described as the surrounding social forces and influences that shape individuals; Curtis stresses the importance of continual learning, attentive listening, and watching for life events that may later affect network members, enabling rapid support. Atmosphere is presented as the prevailing mood of the group; she argues that openness, trust, and honest communication create a distinctive, positive atmosphere, again using Apple’s “think different” ethos as an example. Throughout, practical tips (e.g., chocolate, active listening) are linked to the Apple case study to demonstrate how these three areas work together to build and maintain strong, lasting networks.
Chapters
Now I'm often asked, how do you maintain relationships over the long haul? And there's 3 areas that you do that in: culture, atmosphere, and environment. And all great networks and all great companies have these. And the best way to create atmosphere for me is giving people chocolate. I like to give people chocolate about this point. It gives them a bit of a A boost and they will get in your good books, Michelle, with you. So let's have a look at culture. Culture is the behaviour, beliefs and characteristics of a group. Now see, we're all smiling, we're all having fun now because we've got chocolate. So we've just created a different culture. We've brought everyone together again. It's about uniting. For me, it's about uniting a team and creating a culture that becomes memorable. And you maintain the culture by being involved and genuinely curious. Culture will mean different things to different groups of— or different groups that are coming together within a strategic wealth network. So I'm just going to use Apple as an example through this section. And if you consider Apple the company, they have a group of staff that are really, really passionate about what it is that they are doing. They work long hours willingly at Apple, and that is all because they are happy to be part of something bigger than themselves. So the culture at Apple is to be part of something bigger, to be part of something bigger than themselves. And that's really what you're looking at creating, is the behaviours and beliefs that shape the group, the group within your network. The environment is the social surrounding or forces that shape a person or the influences. And if you think of the influences that occur at Apple, you've got all the staff working long hours. They work long hours, they're excited about what it is that they do, they're influenced by the team morale of thinking different and bringing out the best products. So they're influenced by the vision that Steve Jobs had and the group have of bringing out the best products. So that's the environment or the influence that happens within that company. And when you relate it back to your own strategic wealth network, because if you remember, the accelerators and the relate to your network relates to you and the way you interact with your network, which will be different for everybody. The key is to have a willingness to learn and be willing to learn all the time when you're in that environment with those key people. Also listen and watch wisely. Now what I mean by watch and listen wisely is when you're working with these key participants, something may happen in their life that may impact them, but that impact may not occur until later down the track. But if you've listened and watched and you've been very aware of what's going on for people, you can actually assist them when they need it, and you can actually plan for any changes that may affect the collective group or may affect them, and you can provide support very, very quickly. So that's the environment that you should have within a strategic wealth network, one where you're able to support each other very, very quickly. So that's the environment, the surrounding forces that shape the individuals and the outcomes. Atmosphere. Atmosphere is a pervading mood, and didn't the atmosphere change when you all got chocolate? It creates a distinctive quality. What is it that makes what you're doing, the group of people you're bringing together, special? For me, with the groups of people that I work with, and with lots of people in general, it's having an openness and sharing and having very strong trust and the ability to communicate about the good, the bad and the ugly. But being willing and able to communicate, creating a great atmosphere that's got a distinct quality. And using Apple as the example again, Apple is all about thinking different. It was one of their very first advertising campaigns was to, Apple thinks differently. And I believe that lots of their customers also take on that philosophy. They want to think differently. They want to have the iPhone when it first comes out. They want to be seen to be one of the cool kids, or at least I did. So I got— and that was why I originally got one of the iPhone, because I wanted to be a bit differently. I wanted to show that I think— thought differently. And now there's lots and lots of people that have followed on with that ripple effect. So that's the atmosphere, is creating a very distinctive quality.
