Newsletter No 4 - Perspectives

Happy new year and welcome to my first newsletter of 2022. I largely downed tools for the duration of the festive period, sure I checked in with social media, I even looked on LinkedIn on Christmas day to see if anyone had posted. Crucially, I resisted posting anything and it felt good to take that break. But don’t wait for a holiday to take a holiday from social media. Take a break when you need to, it will still be there in a day or three. Just don’t take a social media holiday on Wednesday 19th January, as I have some big news to share (I’ll explain more at the end of this newsletter).

Hell, I took a break from marketing by going into teaching. I’ve since fallen back in love with marketing again, who knew... Breaks don’t necessarily mean doing absolutely nothing. It could simply be trying something new or getting back into something that you used to love.

This week, rather than looking at more predictions (there’s more than enough out there, plus there’s my previous newsletter). This week I’ve decided to focus on perspective, especially as some people can feel down after Christmas, January can be a positive month if you want it to be, if you have the right perspective that is.

I'll start with my first IRL feedback of this very newsletter, it came from a South African friend in the pub that I couldn’t even predict would be allowed to be open in 2022. “Have you read Adam’s newsletter?” Mike asked his friends. No, was the response from the two others present. “It’s great, you should read it” Mike declared. “I mean it’s a mess, but I love how Adam brings it back round to the point he made at the beginning”. Erm, thanks Mike, it’s not a mess, it’s actually intentional non-liner storytelling that’s meant to feel organic… This style isn’t perhaps how I would write in a job, but that’s the beautiful thing of having something that sits apart from the day to day. Having my own personal perspective is important to me. I’ve had quite a few other people tell me that they like what I’m writing, so you can blame them ??

Of course, following your passion won’t always work out, sometimes it can turn toxic. If that resonates with you. Stop reading this and read this article by Harvard Business Review. (But come back later) ?? https://hbr-org.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/hbr.org/amp/2021/11/when-following-your-passion-turns-toxic

Having the right perspective can be hugely positive, on the flip side having the wrong one can be hugely damaging. The problem is that perspectives can change very quickly.

When I first joined 3D Crowd back in the early days of the pandemic, they had already set the lofty goal of raising ￡160,000 to 3D print hundreds of thousands of face shields for frontline workers. It was finger in the air stuff but even though it seemed achievable, the goal was too far away to have a proper perspective on. Quickly I made myself mentally responsible for a target I didn’t agree to or would have chosen. Why?? I guess because the world was on fire and because that’s what I’ve done in every job I’ve had. I was checking the go fund me page more often than people check their crypto wallets (Oi, don’t check your crypto wallet).

I feel it should be said that this was an amazing community that created the Amazon of face shields manufacture and distribution in a matter of weeks, one that I’d admittedly only joined for a few weeks with a burning desire to help whilst I was on furlough, much like many of the other members. I really should have submitted 3D Crowd to the Guinness Book of Records for the fastest growing organisation ever because it probably was.

When I joined, my brief was bizarre to me, and against my years of marketing and growth experience. It went something like this: “We want to fail, because if we haven’t, that means frontline workers don’t have the PPE they need. Your job is to help slow that decline until we are no longer needed. P.S. We like you, become our marketing director please…” AKA help us fail at the right time with the right amount of money to pay our bills. Huh?? ?

We were close to the target, but Captain Tom had burst (slowly but surely) on to the scene, we like many others were no longer flavour of the month. There was no resentment, the nation needed a hero other than Boris and Captain Tom became that hero valiantly and with humility. However, an already exhausted network of volunteers (including myself) looked at this target with increased trepidation. In the first couple of months, we’d raised crazy amount of money, improved our profile, and made some amazing connections across all sorts of industries, related and otherwise. Donations directly from volunteers and businesses meant that this figure had actually been met several times over. But there was this publicly facing number for all to see. Sure, I’d helped to bring a new positive perspective by bringing people together and found plenty of innovative ideas, quick wins, and user generated content to empower and support this amazing community, but even I was now flagging. My furlough, my pride, my family, my new house that needed so much work, my increasing money worries. My… my, my, my perspective had crept in, the notion of being “in it together” started to fray around the edges. My perspective of this goal had completely changed. It became a chain around my leg.

What should we have done? Well, much like start-ups that are raising money on Seedrs etc. You never put your actual target that you want to raise, because even if you raise ￡2m but only raise 92% of your target, you’ve still failed. Much better to raise ￡2m and hit 200% of your target. The money is the same, but the perspective is different, the story is different, the momentum is different. Next time you look to invest on Seedrs, why not ask how much they really want to raise. See what their answer is like. If it’s an around the houses blubbering reply. Then perhaps don’t invest. (Not investment advice.) Oh, and if start-up funding rounds make your head spin. This article by Sifted will be right up your street.

I was once asked at an interview what my KPIs were at 3D Crowd, you could say that they had the wrong perspective. My tongue in cheek reply…, don’t let desperate frontline workers down, don’t let 8,000 volunteers down and sleep occasionally. In hindsight I think I might have freaked them out slightly. To be honest it was the same person who looked at me funny when I said that I’d been made redundant. They skipped “sorry to hear that” and went straight for “Would they give you a good reference?” To which I replied with a confused look… “They made me redundant, they didn’t sack me for gross misconduct”. Our perspectives were vastly different, it would not have worked out.

What of 3D Crowd now? There’s still a core team of awesome people solving problems with 3D Printers. I think about them often, I think they are awesome, heroes even. Some of my favourite people in the world I met back in those days. As for the organisation culture of something that grew so rapidly, it was amazing and fascinating. It was almost like a bee colony, with everyone pulling in the same direction, little in the way of egos, certainly in busiest of times. ?Was it perfect, absolutely not, but it was much better than some of my experiences elsewhere because it had a clear purpose, driven leadership, and mission that everyone believed in. Sadly, even with the high court ruling that the PPE VIP Lane was unlawful thanks to the amazing work of the Good Law Project. 3D Crowd is still bizarrely battling for ￡10.5K in VAT payments from HMRC. Vital money for their continued survival and to bring some of their ideas into the hands of people that need them. Workable and proven ideas like, 3D printed limbs for children.

Perspective on time…

Which brings me nicely to my poll of the week: I’ve asked a very boring question about when you should clean your home office. Do you even have a work policy, guidance, or expectations? Personally, I try and clean as I go (thanks MacDonalds). However, when I put a giant cardboard rocket in the office for Christmas and let the kids use it as a play den. I cleaned that up in my own time.

Not all time is equal...

“We all have the same 24 hours in a day”, the words Molly Mae uttered to the dismay of the internet. Hundreds of people threw shade in the direction of Molly for her insensitive comments. It must be said that it’s not the first time someone has uttered these words, but sometimes it is all about timing, delivery and the person who says it. In Molly’s version of the world, she’s right and if she is speaking to a section of society that is perhaps like herself, from a similar background and have similar ambitions, then her comment is valid. But if you’re disabled, have kids, or working 12 hours a day to scrape by, then Molly just comes across as tone deaf, insensitive, and privileged.

Speaking of privilege, the latest Dragon in the Den, Steven Bartlett has got me back into the show again. I was so pleased when he invested in Cheesegeek. I’m a cheese lover anyway, but the usual tricks from the old Dragons were still there for all to see. The founders of Cheesegeek only wanted to ‘give away 3% of their business’, but the old grumpy dragons were after 15%. Not Steven, who BTW I’m pretty sure would have invested in Trunki, had he been on the show way back then (though he would have been about 12). He walked away with a decent slice and a cracker of a business idea, showing that Steven is mature business leader beyond his years. (Enough puns?).

But why privilege? Whilst I don’t know his entire life story, Steven fought hard to get the privilege of sitting in that chair and as a well-known business leader. He clearly remembers where he came from, and the challenges others face. I believe that he’s part of a new guard of business leaders that understands that customer experience and clear purpose provides a competitive advantage. I hope that he continues to invest in businesses that he believes in without squeezing as much %% out of each deal to look good to the other Dragons. However, please don’t confuse that with weakness, I’ve no doubt that he is a shrewd operator.

Steven’s book “Happy Sexy Millionaire” is also on my “to read list”

Speaking of sexy, this is me reviewing some solar powered headphones.

I wouldn’t have chosen rose gold personally. But they are great, even in these dark gloomy days I am yet to reach for a charger after two weeks of listening to music and my book choice of the moment “Winning on Purpose”. ?Today on my walk with the winter sun 'beaming down', it even charged 3x more than the headphones were consuming. #Winning! Sure, I could have moaned that the colour didn’t suit me, but instead I’m looking for a different coloured hat to complement them. Regardless, I’m a portable musical solar powerplant. HOW COOL IS THAT???

If you’re big on Net Promoter Scores and purpose. There’s a free webinar this evening (Wednesday 12th, 6pm GMT) by the book’s authors Fred Reichheld, Maureen Burns and Darci Darnell. Go check it out.

Fred often talks about the golden rule, something that I try and to live and work by. It’s also what The Culture Punks Project is based on. That extends into this post about empathy and kindness by the wonderful and fellow Jason Miller super fan Carolee-Ann. Empathy is such an underrated thing.

In case you missed it. LinkedIn shared 29 Big Ideas that will change our world in 2022, it's worth a read even if only one catches your eye. https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/29-big-ideas-change-our-world-2022-linkedin-news

Speaking of BIG. Apple became the worlds first $3tn company. Let that sink in for a moment… Yeah, they put their customers first and have a crazy high NPS. They call it amazing customer experience, but others perhaps call it being anti-competitive.

Google is one of those and had a teenage strop on Twitter about Apple’s iMessager and the societal issues that are being caused by iMessagers Walled garden approach. Blue pill or green pill seems to be how social circles are decided in the states these days. Ars Technica drills down into the messaging empty chair at Google and the insane amount of messaging products they have had over the years. https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2022/01/after-ruining-android-messaging-google-says-imessage-is-too-powerful/

My film choice regarding perspectives is Don't Look Up! on Netflix. The critics panned it, but they just had the wrong perspective and frankly didn't get it. If you haven't yet, do watch it. Harry Cockburn from the Independent nails it for me with his assessment and I've said enough for two newsletters.

Finally, my Advertising Standards Authority case against one of the biggest brands in the world is at an end, 5 months after it started. However, I cannot talk about it until Wednesday 19th. So, check back next week to find out more. As always if you have any thoughts, comments, or perspectives to share, please do and if you’re new to my newsletter and liked what you've read, then please hit the subscribe button and I’ll see you on the other side.

Bye for now.