A Safe Pair Of Hands

I'm delighted to be featured in FT columnist Mike Southon's new book, This is How Yoodoo it - an archive of the best of his columns with advice on getting started, sales, team building, mentoring, dealing with the recession and social entrepreneurship. He tells my story as a sole trader in a chapter 'A Safe Pair Of Hands' that you can read here. All proceeds from the book go to The Prince's Trust.

Get Unplugged!

(this is an edited extract from my book 'Juggle! Rethink Work, Reclaim Your Life')

Because most of us can – and do – work anywhere, the challenge is in switching off totally. It’s absolutely crucial to be able to do that, to unplug your connections once in a while.

The trouble with our BlackBerries and iPhones is that they connect us with the lives we lead; these tools integrate both the business and personal sides of our lives. If you carry your iPhone around at the weekend, it’s difficult ‘not’ to check emails. Sure, I sometimes check emails and Twitter on weekends and holiday, but it’s when I choose to, I don’t want it in my face 24/7.

So you have to find time and space to dial it down. To switch off, shut down and get real.

When speaker and columnist Mike Southon travels overseas he tries to take his family with him; it gives him the opportunity to switch off after a speaking engagement and it’s also a good excuse to disappear upstairs to his room:

‘For me, family time is switch off time. All theatrical people know this – you’re on stage/ you’re off stage and you have different modes. You learn how to control it. If you’re ‘on stage’ all the time you end up with a heart attack. You switch in/ you switch off.’

But it’s not just creating time for thinking or for the family; it’s also the importance of creating ME time.

When you’re flat out juggling, sometimes you need that quiet moment to give you sanity. A lie-in, a soak in the bath, a pint of Guinness by yourself, a seafront cycle, reading that novel for ten minutes.

Beach Walks TV host Roxanne Darling finds it difficult to turn off her business brain. Even on vacation she still wants to read her feeds and spots business opportunities frequently. Same with me. When Mike Southon goes on holiday he finds he can relax straight away without thinking of work, ‘because nothing is that vital’; but he still checks mails to filter them before his return.

When the schedule has been really manic, Kevin Roberts, Worldwide CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi just unplugs for a few days and retreats to one of his homes. He doesn’t take long holidays; preferring to take snatches of time here and there to switch off.

For Roxanne and her partner, it has been their company goal to be much more conscious of when they are ‘on the client clock’ compared to when they are off-duty. Their white board system helps, as once the assigned tasks are done for the day, they feel better quitting:

‘We are building the muscle to discern what is truly urgent and what can actually be added to the list. I also really let how hard we work weigh in and matter in our lives. One of the big plusses is being able to just stop and go to a movie in the afternoon if the day is crap and we are feeling burned out. It's easy enough to point to the hours we've undoubtedly put in, so the muscle is learning to take a break and realize if a client calls and we are unavailable for two hours, it is not the end of the world’.

So, make sure you get unplugged once in a while.

Right, I’m off for a walk, and I’m leaving the iPhone behind....

Everything You Wanted To Know About My Book ‘Juggle!’

I've had a few questions recently about my latest book ‘Juggle! Rethink Work, Reclaim Your Life’ so have put together some FAQs:

1. What’s the book about? ‘Juggle!’ is about carving out work lives that reflect our multi-dimensional talents, of going beyond a single job title where the Work You becomes the Real You.
2. So it’s not about juggling balls or circus skills? Nope.
3. Does it feature anyone I might have heard of? It features contributions and anecdotes from a range of jugglers including @garyvee, @mikesouthon, @roxannedarling, Saatchi & Saatchi CEO Kevin Roberts and Hollywood talent manager Melanie Greene.
4. How’s the book going to change my life? Good question. If you’re stuck in a rut in your career, this book will give you the courage and inspiration to re-craft your working life based on what you love and what you are passionate about. It’s not always about making choices about whether you quit your job to run an eBay business; you can juggle both at the same time. Juggling can make you happier and more fulfilled as well as more of an asset in the job market if you have more than one skill to offer.
5. What practical advice is in the book? There’s a whole section on tactics to improve your juggling from time management to staying fresh and stimulated.
6. Can I see a free preview? Sure, there’s a free sampler here
7. Is it a conventional ‘business book’? Not at all, it’s written in a really accessible way, no jargon, in short punchy chapters that you can deep in and out of. It’s an easy, but stimulating read!
8. So you say it’s great, but can I read some impartial reviews? Sure, there’s a review from @macala here and one from blogger Jon Knight here
9. Got anything I can listen to? Sure, there’s a podcast interview with @800ceoread here and a radio interview here.
10. Got anything I can watch? Yep, there’s video interviews with Gary Vaynerchuk, Kevin Roberts and Mike Southon here

11. Where can I buy it? All good bookstores (and crap ones too) and here on Amazon.com and here on Amazon.co.uk
12. So have you written anything else? Yes, my first book was ‘Leap! Ditch Your Job, Start Your Own Business & Set Yourself Free’

Juggle Tapes on iTunes

'The Juggle Tapes’ is a series of videos featuring people in business that have been successful juggling different disciplines and roles in their working lives. The series explores how entrepreneurs put passion at the heart of what they do, to go beyond a job title to ensure their work identity reflects their personality. The series is now available as a free download at the iTunes music store by following this link http://tinyurl.com/itunesjuggle

The series includes: Martha Lane Fox, Mike Southon, Gary Vaynerchuk and Kevin Roberts.

How Mike Southon juggles beermats, a band and a column in the FT

Today’s Juggle Tapes interview is with Mike Southon. Mike is a business speaker and a leading authority on entrepreneurship and sales. He is an experienced entrepreneur with a weekly column in the weekend Financial Times. He’s founder of the Beermat Entrepreneur business network and has co-authored several bestselling books, including ‘The Beermat Entrepreneur’. He also plays in a band Mike Fabgere.

Mike talks about the philosophies at the heart of his success:

- How being a successful juggler is about being part of a team;
- How we manages his different identities;
- His belief about reinventing what you do every seven years .

WATCH THE VIDEO HERE