No 20 - The Upgrade Tour!

For those of you who missed last week's newsletter because LinkedIn "forgot to send a notification or email" go and have a read , if only to make me feel better.

For regular readers you'll know that I'm a big believer in the need to keep upgrading. This week has been a mammoth week of learnings, starting with Episode 2 of the Inside Fintech Podcast. Focusing on an outside of work project that will have a positive impact on my work in the future is a great way to focus the mind and upgrade my skills.

Podcasting is an area I've flirted with from the technical side previously, but I'm putting myself out there now as well. There's no one I'd rather put myself out there with than Phil, my co-host. Well, perhaps Steven Bartlett might trump him (just). Have a listen to the latest episode of Inside Fintech . We discuss a recent Economist article about down rounds and the BNPL market. I'm certain that our podcast had nothing to do with the news in the FT today that Klarna's next round will value them at only $6.5bn, down from $46bn, but maybe I'll keep a low profile for a while just in case.

Speaking of Steven Bartlett, he headlined the amazing AntiConLX yesterday. I have conflicting views on him, but regardless there is no doubt that he keeps upgrading and surrounds himself with great people. He has the momentum to make things happen and right now he has the midas touch. The audience was captivated and Carlos, the founder of LXA did a great job of interviewing by letting Steven do what he does best... Talk about himself.

One thing I did learn about Steven is that he's kinda moved on from social media, he still uses it as a way to connect with his audience in a broadcast way, but he sees far more value in his Telegram and Discord channels than say LinkedIn. Which explains why his team seem to just screen grab his quote tweets and put them on LinkedIn. Steven should probably join Guild too; he'd certainly find value in that.

At the show I also met IRL with two of my fav Guild members, Alex Abbott and Riaz Kanani. I'm already looking forward to our next met up.

According to Michelle, the Guild CMO "You're like the best b2b marketing boy band! ??"

Make of that what you will but I also bumped into Molly, the wonderful and talented marketer who I shared a co-working space with a few years ago. Back then she was at Chaser and now at Acquia, which BTW is a must consideration if you're looking to upgrade your website and experience game. Ask for Tom, his knowledge and talk was bang on.

AntiConLX also had a full on 90's nostalgia zone that I've now made into my new Zoom background (pictured), if you want a copy, DM me. It was a treasure trove of memories and I genuinely thought I'd never see another AOL CD again, but I was wrong.

If you've already clicked on the Inside Fintech website link, you'll have noticed the "Powered by HubSpot" sign at the bottom. HubSpot have launched their free version of their CMS and it is great. I managed to migrate the hobbled/thrown together WordPress site over to HubSpot CMS in less than 2 hours. Plus, a few hours in the evening once the SSL certificate has sorted itself out. NO MORE PLUGINS TO UPDATE... EVER!! Though, I did learn that the HubSpot live chat feature slows down websites. No one is perfect and everything comes with a sacrifice.

Earlier in the week I also attended a Reba event. This event was about upgrading my knowledge of the employee benefits space. It's where I was introduced to Dr Eliza Filby and her work. If you want a better understanding of why different generations are the way they are, then go and download her report and subscribe to her newsletter.

My Keep Upgrading Tour isn't over yet. I'm really looking forward to seeing Jason Miller and Joel from B2B Marketing, (amongst others) next week at B2B Ignite and if time allows, I might even head to Madfest. So, if you're going to either, let me know.

What's the point in upgrading your knowledge if you don't implement any of it, and that's part of my plan for next week and for many more weeks to come.

Thanks for reading, Like, Comment and Subscribe, but most of all have a great weekend!