Advice, tips and inspiration to help you perform at your best
I’m a big podcast fan. I listen to a new episode most days, usually on a dog walk, wearing my big, blue headphones. My tastes are varied: politics, culture, history, drama - anything. Here’s one I really like - Let’s Make This More Interesting. It’s an eatbigfish podcast, where Adam Morgan seeks to understand how we gain an audience’s undivided attention and avoid one of life’s biggest sins - being boring.
Does anyone really enjoy ‘networking’? I can’t think of anyone who does. But it’s something we all need to do if you’re tasked with generating new business. It’s especially important for small businesses and entrepreneurs who need a constant stream of income. For those of us who hate it, what should you do?
I love the concept of being in a ‘flow-state’. It’s a state of true happiness. Something I always strive for. It’s where you feel fully immersed in what you’re doing. Time flies. You’re focused. You’re in the zone. It’s a rare state. It’s present during challenging, engaging activities. When your body and mind are in-synch.
In a recent workshop I gave the example of the Playlist feature being a key reason behind the success of Spotify. This sparked a conversation around how original this idea was. Someone said, ‘well of course, the Spotify Playlist is just a modern version of the mix tape’. Spotify subsequently made the iPod redundant.
Every year, eatbigfish produce a report on ‘Challengers to Watch’. New, interesting emergent brands that are challenging conventional wisdom and incumbent brands. This is the 10th annual report and it’s particularly good.
Click here to access the report. Happy reading.
This week I facilitated a half-day workshop for a pharmaceutical company. It was the first time I’d worked with them so the people and the context were all quite new. All seemed to be going well and I called a break at about 10.30. Someone who described herself as the ‘tall German woman’ then said to me - ‘so Tony, where’s the music?
I’m a bit fan of Tom Fishburne’s cartoons. I’ve been receiving them for years and they always raise a smile. I really enjoyed this one which arrived in my in-box this week.
Ways of working continue to evolve. During the pandemic we all got used to working remotely. We grappled with different online tools. We worked out the best way to run online meetings until we got pretty good at them. Then in a post-pandemic world, we started to experiment with hybrid workshops. That strange combination of having people both in the room (IRL) and people on line.
In a previous post I wrote about the tell-tale signs of a deep client relationship. When you know you’ve created a strong bond with your clients. However, how do you get there? How do you create a strong foundation of trust? Here’s some suggestions.
Jamie Oliver has been publishing cook books since 1999. He burst onto the scene with ‘The Naked Chef’, the fresh new face of tv cooking . Since then his output has been prolific. He’s now amassed over 30 books and he’s a best selling author. Everyone I know has at least one Jamie Oliver cook book and he has endless Channel 4 shows. There’s no sign of him slowing down.
Recently I wrote about online vs irl workshops and the key differences. But what about the other version - the dreaded hybrid workshop? This is where you’re facilitating a real-life session with people in a meeting space and at the same time, people join remotely via Teams or Zoom.
