Juggler Stories #4: Marianne Cantwell

Last week I met Marianne Cantwell of Free Range Humans. Marianne shares some of my own ideas when it comes to carving out work lives that reflect our multi-dimensional talents and passions. Alongside Free Range Humans, Marianne juggles a portfolio of business interests that includes running workshops for career changers and helping teams perform more effectively in organisations. I asked her about the challenges of juggling and what is it that unites her plurality (this was part of a two way interview; you can see Marianne interviewing me here):

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Meeting New People

Do you go out of your way to meet new people?

If you work in an organisation living and breathing a single business culture you can get entrenched in a clique hanging out with the same bunch of people, having the same sort of discussions, about the same sort of things. Yawn.

How about going out of your comfort zone to spend time with different people? Crossing those borders can stimulate and enrich your business/ work life in directions you might never have anticipated.

I’ve made a conscious effort to meet new people in 2010. Not as part of some business-development drive but in a desire to enrich my work life, building social capital along the way.

I try to steer clear of traditional networking events because they can feel so contrived. The relationships I established at places like SXSW were inevitably in a bar, on a bus, on a rooftop or on a ‘plane - not in the convention centre. Of course, Twitter is also a great tool for meeting new people, and in the last year I’ve met 20 or 30 people face to face who I first connected with via a tweet. 

When I was reading Tom Peters’ ‘Little Big Things’ on the train yesterday I was reminded that in business "He/She who has the best story wins"; and that’s what meeting new people is all about, hearing their stories, sharing stories and adding to your own story.

Of the new people I met this week, from guests at a 100^th birthday party to someone I met via Twitter, one meeting was actually a reunion with a guy I met when I was a kid on holiday. In Wales in 1978 we met an American family; we kept in touch for a couple of years with the guy who was there with his sister’s family. He went on to become a Superior Court Judge in LA, and last night 32 years on – via Google search - we got reacquainted*. There was no motive for meeting, other than he was a ‘nice bloke’ and it was great to meet properly, to share stories over a glass of wine.

So if you want to grow your network, forget a carefully formulated strategy; instead just open your mind to connect with people you would not usually hang out with.

* Photo: Richard F. Charvat and Ian Sanders, London April 2010

Andy Hudson: Taking A New Idea To Market

Here’s a short video interview with Andy Hudson. I first met Andy in 1988 when I was doing work experience at a television production company. When I returned to the company in a full-time role in 1990 I worked with him on the music series ‘Friday At The Dome’ for Channel 4 and a number of other music and arts shows. We then worked together at his music events start-up Sol Entertainment and then at The Unique Broadcasting Company. Especially in the early part of my career Andy was a real mentor and encouraged me to think ‘plural’; that I could apply my skills to more than one area. It’s great to see how he’s reinvented himself from music and events to be founder of a technology business as he’s now COO of The Broadband Computer Company. The company has just launched ‘alex’, which offers safe, secure and easy computing especially for inexperienced users. I met Andy at the London launch last month and talked to him about how he’s developed the business from idea to market.

if the video does not display above, watch it on YouTube here

Juggler Stories: #1 Phil Leggetter

I’ve been very lucky in enjoying support from a great bunch of people who read my book 'Juggle!'. In an ad hoc video series I’m meeting some of them for coffee; hearing about their Juggle lives and what they got out of the book. I’m calling it ‘Juggler Stories’. Up first, Phil Leggetter. Phil is a Real-Time Web Software Consultant, team leader, product developer, micropreneur, managing director of a real-time web and social media software company.

Here’s Phil’s story:



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