Surfing, business
At first you’ve no ideas, and no skills to help other’s execute theirs. You’ve no idea about tides, current, and can’t get up or stay up. You can’t surf. Then you get a bit of experience and realise you can sort of boogie board on a few small waves. You still don’t really know where they come from though. Then a few bigger waves come a...
Creating Experiences
What's great about storytelling via email is that you can give your readers a real 'experience' without them having to leave their chair. They can consume it anywhere, whether at work, or sitting next to their partner while watching something on the telly. This experience can help them see something differently, frame something in a ne...
Dubai Diaries: A Lens on Entrepreneurship
Arriving in Dubai a few days ago to visit my sisters and their families, I was once again struck by how convenient the city is. Everything is orderable by app. Almost everywhere is about 30 minutes drive from everywhere else. (Although, if you miss a junction, it can easily double your journey time, turning a quick errand across town i...
Farming as Metaphor
It's not required reading, but I wrote about my reasons for going farming here. Little did I know the lessons I learned would reach far beyond farming... Arriving It started badly. I missed my train stop, so Sergio had to drive an extra 30 kms round trip to pick me up. We agreed I would buy the beer to make up for the extra fuel. We we...
#buildinpublic
You know that thing you've always wanted to do, knew was within your reach, but either didn't have the balls...or the right 'idea shape' to take it forward. Most people know me as a marketer; who writes email sequences, landing pages, business strategies, and this blog. In the background though, I've been dabbling with this cool thing ...
Organic Confessions 🥕
There are endless human movements to be involved in. Many can be politically motivated. Others can be truly existential. I’ve fallen down a few of these rabbit holes over the years, but I pride myself on being able to reassess things when new information and logic present themselves. 6 Human Needs Tony Robbins, probably the most well k...
"Not Just a Theory" | New NL on Substack
Hey everybody, Just a wee note to say I'm starting a new Substack called: “Not Just a Theory Contributing to the Idea Labs of the world. Distilling new evidence across health and society for the betterment of the busy reader.” I'm going to keep this NL for posting random things I want to share with you. The Substack is just going to be...
Freelancing or Full Time?
TL:DR It boils down to the type of person you are, and how you want to live. Full time workers have more predictable income and workloads, but for this they sacrifice some freedom. After they've made a name for themselves; freelancers can pick and choose their projects, take as much time off as they want, and be their own boss. But thi...
"Art is simply politics, sweeter tongue."
...said Day to Dawn in Foundation, the sci-fi series adapted from the books by Issac Asimov. It really struck me hearing this line. I'd considered the link between the two, but never so strongly. Politics was groups of people making decisions, often resorting to underhand tactics to win arguments. Artists would never stoop to that leve...
My love for Basecamp ❤️
Have you ever realised something about yourself at first you didn't like, then later realised it was one of your greatest strengths? I'm a Virgo which (supposedly) makes me quite organised and detailed oriented for the good. Perfectionist and controlling for the bad. Sounds crazy, but Basecamp has become both my playground and my teach...
The Orientation of the Creative
What makes us want to create things? What makes some people more 'Creative' than others? In my line of work, the designers are called Creatives. They're actually Artists, most often digital artists. I think people use that term to offload the pressure of being creative themselves. Let me explain... Anyone who thinks of something they w...
Dream me a start-up
Everyone has dreams. They're built into human biology. They have an important function for human civilisation. Dreams allow us to act out possibilities in our sleep that would be too risky in real life. Some of us talk, some even walk in their sleep (guilty!) but in general we only act out a small portion of the dream. - Sleep, it turn...
Getting over the hump
About 5 years ago I attended a mindfulness retreat at Plum Village with the late Thích Nhất Hạnh, known as Thay by his students. It was an amazing setting, deep in the French countryside near Bordeaux. My cousins and a friend of ours were picked up from the train station and taken straight to the community where we were greeted by monk...
Dust off
This is the time of week everyone dreams of. We get to hang up our shoes, dust off our overalls and down those tools. What tools you ask? I am a white collar worker thank you very much! I have no dust on me! Or do you? Is the dust you're carrying just a different sort of dust? And the fact you can't see it, means you don't realise you ...
Ask yourself, “What if?”
We've all asked ourselves the question, "What if?" What if I put up that website and asked people what they think? What if I started that podcast, wrote the first chapter of that book, or coded that app? The answer we and others give ourselves is often quite unsurprising. "Probably not much". So we don't do it. We go back to our normal...
Financial Wellbeing in U.A.E
Arriving from Scotland in Dubai about a year ago, I was amazed at how fast paced the place was compared to back home 🏎💨 Not just the roads 😅 but the cafes and restaurants were full, and the co-working spaces were teeming! What was it Dubai had that other places didn't? The weather is obviously great, but there was something else at pla...
Levelling up with altMBA
Hey world! I just built my first web app to say just that. It also says "Goodbye, world!" which is a little more ominous...😅 So why the hell am I building web apps and learning to code? I just finished the first week of something called altMBA. It's a program for individuals who want to 'level-up' and become the leaders they've always ...
[Part 4] Starting a business
Sorry for the loooong gap in this series. I took a kind of sabbatical from entrepreneurship recently, working ‘full time’ with a client. It was nice to be looked after for a bit (especially after losing our dear mum) but I'm back on the entrepreneurial bandwagon - letting out a trailing cord for anyone else who wants to hop on 😉 -- We ...
Startups
Startups are totally different kettles of fish compared with businesses with an established customer base. They need to be treated like children, tending to their every waking need vs. grandparents, happily turning the pages of their paper - day after day. Each one is different, so requires a slightly different approach, but there is a...
Colleagues
We all want, nae, need to be part of something. We have our personal callings. We have our alone time, our own projects, our individualism and quirks. It’s all good. We need it all! You can’t have one (truly) without the other, or you do both a disservice. I’m a big believer in individual creativity, but I’m also a big believer in the ...
Permission to rest
Sometimes you can't beat the feeling of having nothing to do. Waking up to an overcast day can give us permission to stop and think on things that our busy days have given no room for. It's a feeling of openness and unpredictability. Ungoverned by routine, or commitments. It's a time to let free-thinking take over, and allow ideas and ...
Communities & Neighbourhoods
The term 'Community' is laced with connotations - some positive, some not. The word can bring to mind Communism, and for many reasons put a chill down our spine. There's the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) who have social scoring for their citizens. There's the relationship to the word 'cult' and the cultist communities who drank the Koo...
Nutritional Supplements
If you’re not taking any sort of nutritional supplement, there’s a good chance you’re missing out on better health. I started early with my dad and grandad feeding me cod liver oil. It was straight out the bottle and tasted disgusting, but they convinced me it would make me smarter so I took it. Today I take an almost embarrassing conc...
Blockchain
I'm pretty underqualified to be talking about blockchain. I've studied and cogitated over it for at least a few hundred (if not thousand) hours, but I'm not a programmer to trade so I've never got into the nitty gritty. At a very high level, Blockchain is about engineering Trust. It's most popular use is for Cryptocurrencies like Bitco...
Dating
It’s pretty great. You can be yourself, or you can put on a show. You can go see a show, have company while laughing your head off, and never see each other again. Or you can get coffee and make the night even more memorable. It can be love at first sight, or a long lasting fright 😱 You can end up getting married, having kids and start...
The Pyramid of Beliefs
Every day we make 100s if not 1,000s of decisions. From choosing to brush our teeth in the morning, to deciding which candidate to hire at work. To save time and energy we ‘chunk’ information, looking out for patterns and supporting facts - which end up forming our habits and routines. This is a key evolutionary trait and without it mo...
Family
The word family is a bit like the word home. It’s the bit in our centre. The place we go when we need comfort. Our security blanket, our launchpad, our crashpad. Family gives us purpose, home gives us something to build, something to work towards. Healthy families evolve. They’re connected, empathic, changing, forgiving, solid as rocks...
Ethics
I never fully understood what ethics were until I started reading philosophy. I knew they were rules to live by; commandments, constitutions, laws etc. but these were open to interpretation, and not easy to summarise or explain to others. For example we're told not to steal but if you're going to die of hunger it's widely understood to...
Technology & Automation
I love tech. I love creating systems that work while I'm sleeping. It's not that I'm lazy. I just hate being inefficient with my time. I've just finished my end of year accounting for Pure Earth and analysed all my costs, and it turns out I spend around 5% of my 'turnover' on technology and automation across: • Ecommerce • Marketing • ...
The importance of Vision
A lot of the time we presume to know what other people are thinking, or trying to say. This is especially true with people we're close to because we've already got a picture of their vision (or motives) in our minds. We think we know them well enough not to listen as closely, and we often listen out for what we would like to hear vs. w...
Good friends
Good friends tell you when you've done something that isn't acceptable. They're not afraid of conflict, and they trust you not to take offence. You do the same for them, and they respect you for it. In fact, your bond is absolutely indispensable. You don't rely on each other, but when you come together you excel. You're capacity for te...
Positivity
Confronted with setbacks, unenjoyable situations, or simply bad luck, it’s natural to look at the downsides. Our brain is hard-wired to notice the risks and dangers around us 🦁 and it's served us well. Now though, with bad news at our fingertips, our brains can become plagued with negative thoughts - far outweighing the benefits this i...
Marketing: Good vs. Bad
Marketing is everything. It's the words you speak, the news you read, the clothes you wear, the culture you're part of. Culture is the result of continual change. Change happens when people take notice. Marketing is the act of making people take notice! - Good Marketers don't coerce. They don't lay traps. They educate and entertain. Th...
Conflict
It's a scary thing. We hide from it a lot. It raises the blood pressure, the cortisol levels, the heart rate. None of those are particularly helpful when you're trying to enjoy your day, or get on with your work. We think, "Ocht, it doesn't matter. It's not worth arguing over." But every time there is disagreement, if left unresolved i...
[Part 3] Starting a business
So far we’ve uncovered Why we do things and distilled a theme from our lists. Next up we want to see if our idea has any traction. Now you could go away and spend a ton of time building a product, a website, and creating lots of ad campaigns, but let’s leave that for now. We want to spend the least amount of time possible to get a ‘sig...
Fireworks
We all need some fireworks in our life. It’s why we watch movies and tv series. It’s why we ask questions, listen, and read. We want the fireworks to go off in our head. That sudden brightening up of a thought, then sinking in and finding its place. That newness is so necessary! If we don’t set them off regularly, the fuse goes out. Th...
Teamwork
Everyone knows the phrase “Teamwork makes the dream work” but not many people actually experience this profound (I don’t use that word lightly) statement. Individuality is important, and necessary to find our own path in the world, but there’s just something totally magic about human beings working well together. The main stumbling blo...
[Part 2] Starting a business
If you followed along with Part 1, you'll have your 3 lists by now, and lot of reasons Why? 😉 Now we want to distil the theme from your lists. It may already be apparent but look at what's coming up regularly and ask yourself, "Which of these makes me most excited?" If you don't feel anything, I'd suggest you revisit your lists in a fe...
[Part 1] Starting a business
The hardest part of starting a business is knowing what to offer to people. If you get this wrong, and it works, you'll be miserable. If you get it right, and it doesn't work, you can always try again. Take some time to complete the following exercise: Start by creating 3 lists: 1. List your interests, your hobbies, and what you spend ...
Stoicism
Stoicism has experienced a fairly strong revival over the last 5 years or so. I'm a big fan. To me, it's the perfect balance between a faith and a code of ethics. It's also atheist compatible, as the teachings are logical and grounded in universal human values. I've dabbled in lots of faiths and spiritualities over the years: Christian...
Individuality
We humans have a deep need to be individual, to express our uniqueness. We're social creatures, but the safety of the group can often hold us back. A few years ago I read a book called Jonathan Livingston Seagull. It was around the time of some big career decisions I was about to make. - Jonathan was just another ordinary seagull like ...
Non-violent Communication
Most people hear the words 'non-violent communication' and immediately become defensive. You can almost feel them bracing for impact the moment the words pass your lips. In fact, non-violent communication or NVC is a practice of conflict resolution used the world over to quell the angers of warring countries, factions, tribes, and fami...
Creativity, Tapped
I want to tell you about a writing practice that literally taps you directly into the muse. It’s really simple and doesn’t require any prompts like yesterday, other than the odd motivational nudge. It’s known as ‘stream of consciousness’ writing, and it often looks exactly as it sounds - utter garbage. And that’s the whole point. It’s ...
True Productivity
For many of us, some of best days we have are productive days. We enjoy relaxing but when we’ve worked on or produced something important that day, we often sleep much more easily. This has a lot to do with our shared story of the world (the hero’s journey) and how that plays out in real life. It’s part of our core value structure, acc...
Empathy
It doesn’t take much to be empathetic with someone. You don’t have to give everything you have. You don’t have to spend the whole night. Usually, all someone needs is the recognition that you know how they’re feeling. It could be a few seconds, up to a few minutes. Just think of the other things we spend our time doing each day. Messag...
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