Appearing at South By South West '09

South By South West ('SXSW') is the annual interactive, film, and music festival/ conference in Austin, Texas where people get together to exchange ideas, to connect and showcase talent. The Wall Street Journal said:

“It's a place where new bands come to get discovered, stars seek to burnish their indie credentials, and executives come to share ideas”.

SXSW Interactive celebrates the best minds and the brightest personalities of emerging technology and the creative industries. This year, the organisers received more than 1,300 panel proposals for the 2009 Festival, but they only have the capacity to host around 200 of them.

My virtual friend Melissa Pierce submitted an idea for a session "Is the Planned Life Even Worth Living Anymore?" which has been selected as a ‘Core Conversation’ at the 2009 Festival. I am delighted to announce that Melissa has invited me to be her co-presenter for the session.

The belief that lives and businesses must be well planned into the future is crumbling as we continually adapt to new technologies and a global marketplace. The session will generate discussion around some themes as: Are the current business and educational systems obsolete? How one can personally adapt to the “new economy”? What’s hype, what’s real?

Happy 2009 and see you at SXSW!

New Year, New Desk

Remember the power that small changes can bring. With the New Year hours away I wanted to reinvigorate my workspace - and I guess - my outlook for 2009. So I switched desks. Out with the glass desk and in with a wooden one. It's much bigger and it's really re-energised me.

So, whether it's changing the position of your desk, giving your workspace a total makeover, redesigning your business cards or just putting a vase of flowers on your desk, small changes can have big impact.

Life - And Interview Plans - In Perpetual Beta

Yesterday lunchtime I found myself in a bar in west London W13 being interviewed on Skype by a woman in Iowa (whilst being filmed by a woman from California – although she was actually in the bar...).

The interview was for Chicago-based life coach Melissa Pierce’s film project ‘Life In Perpetual Beta’ and we talked about the importance of a Non-Plan when it comes to achieving your goals in life and business. We also talked about themes from my new book Juggle. There’s a bit of crossover between our respective book and film projects; she’s interviewed Gary Vaynerchuk for hers, he also features in mine and we are both interested in how authenticity drives creativity.

So yesterday morning when I found out that the plans for the interview were rapidly changing, and it was not going to be as scheduled in one of my favourite bars in Borough Market, I was a little frustrated. That the change in plan resulted in a convoluted additional 75 minute journey on tube and then foot to a random street in Northfields, West Ealing added to that initial frustration. But when I reminded myself it was all in pursuit of being in Melissa’s film about a life that is constantly a work-in-progress, where plans forever get ripped up, I figured it was kind of apt.

Thanks go to Melissa; to the barman who let us take over a corner of his bar for a transatlantic virtual interview; and to Adrienne of Pixel Chick Productions for filming.

Goodbye Woolworths

As Woolworths closes down and the UK loses a popular presence on the high street, many have been reminiscing about their memories of the store. For me, Woolworths was where I went to buy my first records. I bought my first 7” single at the Leigh-on-Sea store (Joe Jackson’s ‘Is She Really Going Out With Him?’) and I just paid my last visit to that same store. Not only are they selling every last item on the shelves, they are selling the shelves too. The shelves, display units, tables, chairs, ladders, random bits of plastic and even the shopping basket themselves. A bargain at 50 pence!

Five Tips For Improving Customer Service in 2009

I’m lucky enough to have developed relationships with a great network of suppliers for my business: small creative agencies, freelancers and other service companies. Most of these tick that box of being a good ‘safe pair of hands’; people who will deliver the job, no matter what. People who will go beyond the call of duty, sorting things out late at night or on a weekend. But like many of us, whether as a business or as a consumer, I have had some really bad service in 2008.

Here are my 5 tips for everyone out there to improve your customer/client service/experience (based on a few not-so-good experiences I’ve had recently):

1) IF IT'S GOING TO BE LATE, TELL US! If you’ve told the client the products or order will arrive on Friday and you know they won't be ready in time, let them know straight away. Don’t sit on the news, or wait until the client chases you – flag it up, so they know about it. It might not be good news, but if they know about it then at least they can make contingency plans or necessary changes their end.

2) COMMUNICATE APPROPRIATELY. Sure, I love brevity but don’t send clients two-word responses from a BlackBerry (unless it was a question that had a Yes/No response). Be courteous and remember why you are the supplier and they are the client (i.e. they pay you).

3) BELIEVE IN IT! Don't try and sell the client a product or service and then half way through say it's not really that good. If you don't have belief in yourself or your product, pack up and go home.

4) BE AVAILABLE! Especially in this economic recession, be available. Don’t whinge that you don’t have enough work if you decided to shut down for two weeks over Christmas. If you want to be successful, you have to be open and available. Like the estate agent that closed for 10 days and told my friend she couldn’t view the house she was interested in, or the company that closed early for Christmas, if you don’t bother being available, clients will find someone who is.

5) REMEMBER THE FOLLOW-UP: if you're selling a client something don't be great at getting them to buy and then be bad at the details afterwards, not returning calls or making sure they’re happy. Because that’s crap.

From A Random Idea To A Finished Product

In business – and life – I have always championed the power of ideas.

Not just of having great ideas, but doing something with those ideas. And I get immense satisfaction, creating ‘something’ from ‘nothing’, turning an idea into reality.

Three years ago, just after the birth of my first son, I had an idea about creating a bunch of characters for children (I am sure many of us have ideas like that). Over a lunch in my local pub in Putney with my friend Fiona - who is a children’s writer – we agreed to develop this as an idea.

That was December 2005. On Tuesday last week, three years later, a truck pulled up outside my house with a delivery. The advance copies of a book, ‘The Extremely Very Scrambled Up World Of Little Doogs’ = the result of that random idea.

So if you have an idea, don’t let it gather dust somewhere – DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!

If you want business success, make sure your business is open!

Success in business is often about being in the right place at the right TIME. So you have to be quick and you have to be available. You need to be there when the client wants something you can offer.

My friend ‘phoned an estate agent today to ask to view a house she wants to buy. But she was told, there is no-one in the office now until January 2nd. That’s six working days no-one is working. That’s crap! In a recessed market - or any market for that matter - if you want to sell something you’ve got to BE THERE. Which is why my friend won’t bother phoning them back (and why they probably won't sell the house very quickly).