Not many of you will know that I am one of the worst runners you can imagine. In fact, at primary school I regularly had to have special sessions as I just couldn't run properly. And as I got older, I just simply avoided it. Cross country was an excuse to sneak off and have a ciggie in the park.

There are however some things you can't run away from... and my bucket list is one of them. It's time to prove to myself - and more importantly, to anyone who could benefit from some inspiration - that I can do this.

I'd love to have you support me on this journey.

Why am I doing it?

I've already touched on the bucket list thing - but over and above that, there's a very real reason. My son Junior is autistic. His challenges go beyond those that I've ever seen anyone have to suffer with before. In fact, they make my waffle above about not being able to run seem entirely irrelevant.

I won't share the full details but those that know me well know the sheer depths of the challenges for him; both now and potentially in the future.

As a society, we've come a long way towards understanding neurodiversity - but we can always do better. And I hope that not only can I add a small amount into the coffers of National Autistic Society, but also that I can prove to all of my children, including Junior, that anything is possible. Due to the life changes that sadly happen to many I'm not able to be there day to day to set an example - so I'm grateful for the opportunity to spend that time doing this instead.

How on earth am I going to do it?

I have a plan, and a lot of hope! But that's about it.

Something that I know about my own personality is that I hate to let other people down. Hence the public announcement and kicking off the fundraising the moment I've started training. As soon as there's 'skin in the game' from others, I won't want to let them down.

<< This is why you need to donate NOW! >>

My first training session was tonight, 16 September. I'm jet lagged having just returned from Canada yesterday, and had to give up on my work today. So not the best start!

I did however complete the 1.5 miles on my plan, with an average pace of 11mins 20 seconds per mile. Yes, I took 17 minutes. So much for a four minute mile!

Google tells me that if I can maintain that pace for the whole marathon, I'll complete in five hours. But let's be honest - 1.5 miles was tough!

Soooooo...

We have 32 weeks from today. I have a 12 week 'base training' plan to get me to a basic level of fitness, ready to then start an 18 week 'novice 1' plan.

The whole intention of these plans are to help you to finish a race. Not to get any particular time. But, if I'm honest, I'd like to see if I can start working for a bit of pace. Unlikely but who knows?

All I do know is that consistency is the cheat code - and that I'm also of the age to now be worried about things like injuries and so on. So I'll consistently train, carefully, to achieve completion. Anything else is a bonus.

And the moment money is raised - completion will happen.

Even if I have to crawl like a baby!

Let's do this.......

IF YOU CAN SUPPORT, I WOULD BE IMMENSELY GRATEFUL.

www.justgiving.com/page/carlreader

On one hand, I moan about social media being a waste of time, but they see me on it a lot.

But let’s be honest. It is pretty damn awful.

Today, I saw some things clearly. And am typing this mid-air en route to Toronto for the launch of a new office in Canada.

I’m going to rewind about 7 hours to begin.

Everyone in or around London has felt the impact of the strikes. For me, the impact was that I had to find another way to get to Heathrow. But I couldn’t park. So I had to get a taxi. But there was lots of traffic. So the M25 was closed. And so on…

You get the drift.

I had to chat to my taxi driver!

He mentioned the murder of Charlie Kirk. This was someone who I’d never heard of until about 7am this morning, when I went through the rather mind-numbing ritual of checking social media.

That’s right. I gave myself a dose of sadness and grief for someone’s family and friends; someone I don’t know. A dose of political views oscillating between every extreme you can imagine. A dose of mistrust in the world that we currently live in, all before I got out of bed and had a cuppa.

I’d already consciously cut out the news from my life as a ‘media diet’, and at first that was great. But I just replaced it with a different form of news. Unregulated, unfiltered, and unwieldy news; that never ends.

This has got to change

I’ve long bemoaned the impact of social media on society today, despite being perhaps the world’s biggest hypocrite on this point.

I’ve profited from social media personally and professionally.

But when I step back and look at it holistically, I fear for the impact on us all.

You just need to step outside to see this.

Any concert or live event is no longer enjoyed by the visitor. Big tech is the main beneficiary of Oasis playing at Wembley or your favourite team scoring a last minute penalty. Rather than living in the moment, we live in our phones - capturing the moment to share, rather than living the moment to experience.

You just need to step outside Dubai Mall as it turns dark to see this vividly. The lights of mobile phone screens filming the Burj Khalifa lights outshine the very impressive lights that are there to be filmed!

This isn’t the only problem. I could go on for hours about this, so I’ll limit myself to a couple of grumbles.

Ever met someone who seems to look amazing on social media all of the time? Let’s be honest, they always have a few more wrinkles in real life, right…?

Ahh, those pesky filters.

They go beyond the button you click to change the colour tone of an image from cold to warm.

Once upon a time, I knew a guy - Ben - who worked as a retoucher for magazines. His job sounded pretty damn amazing.

All he did, all day, was take pictures of women in various states of undress and improve them for the magazines.

Now, to my untrained eye, that seemed like an easy life. Sit back, look at lots of attractive women, and click a few buttons.

But - he felt unsettled.

It conflicted with his internal values.

I can’t remember his exact words, but I remember him saying that he felt guilty ‘changing how these already attractive girls look’.

The girls (and guys) are doing it to themselves nowadays.

I’ve seen it during my dating experiences. I’d say over 50% of females I met - more likely 75% plus - used filters extensively on their images. And more than a handful used filters much more extensively than just on their dating profiles in the hope of getting a couple more swipes.

I’ve seen people insist on using certain camera apps, whether Snapchat or TikTok, because they prefer the filter on it. People who absolutely refuse to look at a normal photo of themselves, let alone share it online. People who share plenty of pictures and videos online.

How do these people look at themselves in the mirror?

I don’t mean that negatively. I come from a place of curiosity, fear, and sadness. How do they do it?

If you can’t look at yourself and smile, how can you expect others to do the same?

It really saddens me, that technology has allowed people to design a version of themselves, that makes them less satisfied with the real version of themselves.

This goes far beyond image or video filters.

We should all know that social media is a highlights reel by now. Very few people share every moment of every day, warts and all.

I’d also wager that very few people can honestly say that their 'highlights reel’ is an accurate representation of themselves and their life (albeit edited).

The seductive poses

The images of abundance and wealth

The videos of exotic travel

Is this really real?

Now, whilst the impact of this may be on the person posting, the wider impact is on those who observe. The silent majority, consuming rather than creating.

Comparing.

Again, we know that “comparison is the thief of joy”. Anyone who has seen me on stage recently will know that I’d take that a step further. It’s the enemy of fulfilment.

It doesn’t just take happiness away. It actively stops you feeling how you should feel.

I’ve not even started on what is the shambles of the paid ‘blue tick’, the lengths people go to in ‘gaming the algorithm’, the cycle of checking posts and wondering about engagement, and the hours we all lose watching yet another 30 second video.

So, it’s time to put my actions where my mouth is.

I’ve long said that if it wasn’t for work, I wouldn’t use social media.

It’s time for me to stop consuming.

Will I stop creating? I don’t know. I have to find a way to create and share without consuming - much harder than it sounds. I’ve certainly slowed down my creation over the last couple of years.

As of today, I’ve had a few hours on the flight without socials, and it has been bliss. It’s time for a change.

I don’t know how long this change will last, but for the time being, I’ll be hitting pause on my social media.

I’ve shared some of the negative drivers above. There are many many more.

But, there are some positive drivers too!

Personally, I’m at an important point for working out what the next few years hold for me. What I create next, what I write about, and what I speak about. The world is changing, and I am learning. Whilst watching some dancing to trending music may help some detailed research later - who knows - it won’t help the strategic thinking that I want to do right now.

Similarly, I want to do the same for my business. Take a step back, and re-evaluate. That needs an uncluttered mind. I want to think deeply about artificial intelligence, economic shifts, and the resulting market changes.

And finally, there’s been something great that I’ve held back from the social feeds, and I know it has absolutely been for the best. We don’t need to share each and every breakfast! Some partial anonymity in my life has been refreshing… in fact, amazing.

So, there we go. Hitting pause. No idea how long for - it might be for a night, it might be for a week, it might be sacked off forever. I’ll still take photos, capture memories, and so on. But they’ll stay under wraps for the time being I guess!

I’m sure I’ll still have stuff shared - whether here, through my books, my business social media (which thankfully I can’t log into), or I may find how to share on my platforms without consuming any of the nonsense myself. I’ve got time to think that through - there’s no rush, and I’m probably about to free up three hours per day.

Will I rejoin permanently when I finish pausing? Will I ‘dump and run’, sharing stuff and then deactivating again? Will I never even think about downloading the apps again? No idea.

But what I do know is that I’ll see you, somewhere, soon… let’s see if I look rested from the extra few hours and reduction in negativity!

Carl Reader is a WH Smith Bestselling Author and international keynote speaker with a real passion for helping people do better. There are two ways to learn more about Carl! You can either follow him on Social Media if you’re just curious (@carlreader on most platforms), or if you’d like to learn a little more about what he does on stage, through content and in the media from a commercial perspective, you can visit his website at www.carlreader.com

You can buy a copy of his last book BOSS IT online, wherever you are in the world. And of course, I’d love you to subscribe to this community to be the first to see everything I have to share - just click the button below. It’s free of charge!

Share

AI Disclaimer: Please note that the main image on this article was generated using AI. The words are all my own unless explicitly stated - however, please note that these words may well have been dictated into a transcription tool.

There’s an important disclaimer which applies to all content shared on this Substack, available at the bottom of the about page, together with the statutory information that is required to be shared under current UK legislation.

You see, this is the first blog post that I'm actually dictating using an app rather than typing out myself. You see, normally I would go to my keyboard and I'd hammer the keys hoping that something legible would come out. However, as you guys have probably noticed if you're regular subscribers, I've been less than diligent in so far as making sure that I'm consistent with getting my blog posts out. So we can say that this blog post is both a welcome back and a new beginning.

So let me kick off by sharing why I decided to do voice notes, and to be honest, there's a couple of reasons behind this. The first one is that for me, dictating an article actually comes very naturally. You see, when I started out in the workplace, this might seem very antiquated, but actually back in the day, I would dictate my letters and have a secretary to type them up for me. So I'm fairly used to forming my own thoughts in my mind and speaking them rather than typing them on a keyboard. As ridiculous as that might sound from somebody who's actually written a best-selling book, also it gives me the opportunity to make sure that these articles can be multicasted. You see, not many people have the time to write blog posts, but actually less people have the time to actually write them.

The process of writing a blog post means that you have to not only ideate, but you have to think about the perfect turn of phrase, and unfortunately, the process of manually writing a blog post can sometimes impede the creativity that comes with it. But there's actually so many unknowns in this process as well. You see, as I'm talking and dictating this rather than typing it, I don't know the word count, I don't know how legible this is, I don't really know the pace, and actually, I don't know how accurate my written voice translates to my spoken voice and vice versa.

I'm going to keep the editing as low touch as possible, and I'd love to hear your views on how different or not this is from my standard articles. And by the way, if I'm able to, because let's be honest, I am a bit of an idiot when it comes to technology, I'll try and upload this original voice note as well. So for those of you who are looking at doing something like this, the app I'm using is voicenotes.ai. Now this isn't a sponsored post in any way, shape, or form; you're not going to see an affiliate link, but if you type that into Google or your search engine of choice, you'll find it. And for me, the opportunities of voice recording are phenomenal.

To be honest, I've looked at apps like Fathom and all of the other note takers that can join your meeting and take meeting notes from Teams or Slack with a bit of envy because I can really see the benefit of summarising the notes and the voice transcription. But none of these apps seem to do what I actually wanted them to do, which is to capture real meetings.

You've probably guessed, but I'm not one for hiding behind a computer screen and sitting behind a keyboard; instead, I like to see people face to face, and often notes need to be taken. Do you want a laptop with it? No, I don't want to take a laptop down with me. Even having an iPad out or pen and paper is a block between the true relationship that people should have when having a human-to-human relationship. So by having an app that can record every word, summarise it, and so on, of course with the other person's permission, then actually we get to a point where we can capture all of the magic that happens within meetings rather than the two or three takeaways that we think we need to deal with.

So I'm curious to see the writing style, but I'm also curious to see how this impacts consistency. I'm curious to see just whether this process will help me create more, whether it will actually be a blocker, whether the app will go unused within a month. So let's see. You'll certainly see the results of it on this blog if I remember to post.

After all, I've been away for a little while, and that's a point that I probably should cover off.

During the last couple of months whilst I've been on downtime from this blog, things have been absolutely manic in an amazing way. I've got some exciting things coming up both within the dt group and outside the dt group. We’ve had the pleasure of opening our Canada office, we've started to get momentum in our Dubai office. We've started to prepare for the launch of Southend. Things are really taking off from the dt group side of things. And personally, a new website is built; I've got an amazing pre-registration opportunity that's coming up soon for something that's completely free of charge, but a new way for people to get daily insights and motivation and so on. So watch that space on that. But it's safe to say things have been crazy, but crazy in a good way.

And finally, it'd be remiss of me not to say that, yeah, I need to look at the stats on these things. One of the concerns of the written posts is that they attract a certain audience. The reason I stopped my podcast, which was previously an Apple new and noteworthy, and I believe was in the top 10 or top 20 of the charts in the UK, was stopped after 70 episodes because actually when I looked at the stats underneath, the intended audience of the podcast, i.e., the dedicated listeners who listened to each and every episode, was such an abysmally low number compared to what you might imagine it would be. But actually, it wasn't worth the cost or the time in continuing that.

Now, it might seem brutal that we need to look at the numbers, but actually, whatever we do when it comes to content creation, we need to constantly test and measure. So part of the reason of holding back on the blog posts is down to that test and measuring.

However, this might make the process easier.

Let's see.

And some notes from me after trying this.

Yes, some typed notes from me.

This has been mind-blowing. Let me share what I had to do to tidy this up.

I deliberately kept my edits low touch. Because if I’m spending loads of time editing, it defeats the purpose of improving my productivity. All I’ve edited is adding new paragraph breakers (see below), changing DT to dt, and three (I think) minor edits highlighted in italics.

I’ve left in my grammatical errors when speaking as hey, that’s how I talk. Got to say, I have a shed load of verbal tics! Need to stop starting sentences with ‘you see’… let alone the others!

The audio recording is not my typical polished style. I’ve recorded it with my AirPods (cringe) and without any audio treatment efforts - it’s in my lounge at home, and no editing. I deliberately spoke a little slower with artificial pauses to indicate where a new paragraph may be needed, but these pauses don’t reflect the style I like to see in my written voice - which has far more breaks. Hence that editing.

The length of the voice note was 6 minutes, 40 seconds. It took about 5 minutes to share the link via WhatsApp to my computer (yes I know there’s probably a far better way), and 10 minutes to type the headline, work out how to upload the audio version for here, edit, and add the disclaimers etc. The word count is 1,109.

An article of one thousand words would normally take me one hour if I’m in the flow - before I’ve edited and so on.

If you’re curious, you can hear the original voice note and read the original transcription here.

I think you might agree… mind blowing!

Carl Reader is a WH Smith Bestselling Author and international keynote speaker with a real passion for helping people do better. There are two ways to learn more about Carl! You can either follow him on Social Media if you’re just curious (@carlreader on most platforms), or if you’d like to learn a little more about what he does on stage, through content and in the media from a commercial perspective, you can visit his website at www.carlreader.com

You can buy a copy of his last book BOSS IT online, wherever you are in the world. And of course, I’d love you to subscribe to this community to be the first to see everything I have to share - just click the button below. It’s free of charge!

Share

AI Disclaimer: Please note that the main image on this article was generated using AI. The words are all my own unless explicitly stated - however, please note that these words may well have been dictated into a transcription tool.

There’s an important disclaimer which applies to all content shared on this Substack, available at the bottom of the about page, together with the statutory information that is required to be shared under current UK legislation.

“The office of the mind is the office of the future”

He was so convinced of this that he didn’t just say it, he wrote it down and signed it, on the napkin in front of us at One Aldwych (a beautiful hotel and an ideal spot for meetings in town, if you haven’t been!)

Fast forward from there to 2020, and we were all suddenly working from home. Our offices were in our spare bedrooms, on our sofas, all sorts.

The thing is, I’ve been working ‘remotely’ since 2008 I’d imagine, and many have been the same. Road warriors who were out doing deals. Conference creatures who go from dried out sandwich to dried out sandwich. And sheer oddballs like me who float around, meet people, create stuff, and generally are far too distracting for the rest of the office to handle on even a limited basis!

Particularly in respect of my creative and strategic thinking, I class myself as a ‘flâneur’ - so much so that I have it tattooed on me! My creative juices are sparked by wandering around aimlessly, soaking up the atmosphere of where I am; with a high level intentionality to crack a certain problem. Being chained to a desk does not achieve anywhere near what I’d need to achieve to do what I do to the best of my ability.

At the dt group we have a couple of offices, and I have a base in our Southend office. But I am hardly chained to a desk. Personally, I’d like to work from wherever I am. And whilst I’m still searching for the ideal setup, I think I’m 99% there.

Let’s start with the main office.

Before we dive into the specific things I use and things I do to work effectively whilst remote, let’s cover off one potential misapprehension that many people may have about working in the way I do - a semi-nomadic way of working, that isn’t some boastful trip to Bali; but instead a combination of events, days in cities, times on the train, and so on.

At the office I have a fairly ordinary setup for the work I do.

• A MacBook Pro, which allows me to work effectively both there and from any other fixed location;

• Two monitors to allow me to have various windows open; for example to be able to have a document on one screen and notes on another;

• An Elgato Prompter and Facecam Pro for video calls, recordings, and so on;

• A keyboard and Magic Trackpad due to the fact that my laptop is effectively a ‘desktop PC’ with a screen beneath the prompter, to control everything comfortably;

• A StreamDeck (and a StreamDeck pedal) - the main Deck is to automate a number of repetitive processes and to manage any recordings out of sight of the recording, the Pedal is to manage the filming process for any video meetings;

• A hard wired Rode microphone, and a studio lighting set up.

We also have an SLR camera for higher quality recordings, and I take in my Boox Go 10 eInk tablet for scribbling down notes during the day. As you can imagine, I can’t take all this stuff around.

In the ‘old days’, the laptop was what you’d take with you to do work remotely. But lets be honest - the stuff I need to do is more than just typing Word documents and numbers on Excel - in fact, this stuff is the ‘must do’ that I put off as long as possible! And if you’ve tried taking a MacBook Pro, let alone everything else, with you whilst darting from meeting to meeting, you’ll know the burden of carrying that weight - the wonky shoulder syndrome is real, and painful! Yes it might only be a few KGs, and yes you might lift far more in the gym, but it’s not ideal by any stretch of the imagination.

So, there’s a need to do better.

First things first: decide on an ecosystem

For some of you, this may be dictated to you. You might have a fixed server that you need to log into, or similar. I am going to presume that you have relative flexibility in how you work for the purposes of this post.

I’ve tried mixing and matching.

I’ve tried Android phones and Apple tablets.

I’ve tried Windows PC’s and MacBooks.

Whilst I hate this, as I’m a sucker for a bargain, I’ve found that the Apple ecosystem just works. iCloud is a wonderful tool insofar as synchronising media, notes, and so on.

This doesn’t mean that you have to be restricted to just this; and in fact I’d strongly suggest not.

For documents, I prefer to use the Google suite; and for file storage, OneDrive. This might sound horrifically disjointed but I find that these tools just work, and don’t require everyone else to play in the same ecosystem.

Similarly, you need to think of the apps that you use. It’s no good having an app on one device that can’t be easily accessed, and more importantly (if applicable) files easily transferrable. That rules out you Remarkable, even if I still used you after you nearly caused a fire…!

Next step: set up your travel criteria

I have a few criteria that the tools I use must meet:

• they must be small and light, so that I can travel light. Ideally, I’d like to be able to use a ‘poche document’ (posh phrase for a document folder), man bag, tote bag, backpack, or whatever suits my style and the image that I want to project for that day;

• they must be chargeable by USB-C. Thankfully we are long past the days of various charging solutions, and taking more chargers than socks when we travel;

• they have to do the job, and do it well;

• and most importantly, they must be comfortable to use whilst in the most uncomfortable of places - standing on a packed train, sat in a cafe, and so on.

No-one wants to work on a laptop when it doesn’t fit on a tray table in front of you.

Once upon a time we had ‘netbooks’ - tiny Chromebook style computers which were amazing for knocking out emails etc. They are long gone. As are BlackBerry’s with their amazing keyboards for churning through messages. Fashion has overtaken form for those who work in different ways. So…

Here is the kit that I use

• An iPhone. Yes, I know it’s cliched. I use the phone for that very old school function… being a phone. And a map. And a WhatsApp device. And a Google-ing device. And to post and consume social media. I try my very best not to use it for emails, as it has far too many weaknesses - it puts me in a ‘text message’ way of thinking, which is not what email is designed for.

• AirPods. In fact, I don’t actually use AirPods apart from for longer video calls in public settings. I have an allergy to the tips, and have had to replace them with foam tips. For music, short phone calls, etc I use a pair of Bang and Olufsen EX which are much easier on my ears, but the transparency mode isn’t strong enough for comfortable video calls in noisier environments, where I prefer a little more pass through to avoid being distracted by what may be happening. Due to my battery consumption habits, I take both with me generally.

• An iPad. More specifically, and recently, an iPad mini. I have recently ‘upgraded’ (or more accurately downgraded) from my tired iPad Pro, which has been a trusted servant for probably 8 or 9 years I guess, it was of the first generation. Here’s the thing - it was too bloody big and heavy with the Magic Keyboard. I needed a ‘small notebook’ that I could whip out at any point. This is also the reason I don’t now carry my Boox (light but A4 sized).

• An Apple Pencil so that the iPad can be used as a true A5-style notebook.

• DJI Pocket 3 for filming. Yes, I could take the SLR with me. I’ve also tried a gimbal for my phone. This thing is small, 4K, light, discreet… did I mention small? And, it doesn’t drain my phone battery. I combine this with a DJI microphone, again, tiny and easily packed.

• A ‘man pouch’. Yes this might seem a bit silly. But in here, I have a USB-C cable, a travel manicure kit, my medication, a couple of paracetamol, emergency cash, my emergency contacts, a pen, a tiny notebook, etc. A small wallet case similar to a tiny cosmetics bag, with the stuff I need in case it’s needed. It’s the thing I never hope to use, but also never hope to be without.

• A tiny tripod for video calls etc. I’ve still yet to find the best one, which combines a small footprint with stability, and an easy way to switch from iPad to phone to Pocket 3. I think I may be hoping for too much!

As of right now, there are two things that I’m looking to purchase - a better tripod, which I think is a fruitless task but my hunt will continue(!) - and a light keyboard for the iPad. At the moment, I suspect the smaller Apple keyboard is likely the ideal compromise, albeit the fact that it runs on old fashioned batteries rather than being chargeable by USB-C.

Insofar as apps, I’m glad to say that the world has moved along significantly here!

I’ve tried to use as much of the native tools possible, whether in MS Teams (my core business runs on the Office365 ecosystem), or iOs (such as Apple Notes). Sometimes, they just don’t have the features needed. At this stage, GoodNotes seems to be the best note taking app across the platforms, as it combines a ‘nice’ UX and decent features - I need to be able to share the notes with my team, organise them nicely, whilst not messing around with hashtags on Apple Notes or the nonsense that is Notion.

So… that’s my kit! Would love to hear what you guys use.

PS - apologies for this one being delayed by a week or two. I’d scheduled some posts whilst on holiday, but came back to a mountain of stuff. Maybe I should have taken my work kit… but it was a holiday, after all ;-)

Carl Reader is a WH Smith Bestselling Author and international keynote speaker with a real passion for helping people do better. There are two ways to learn more about Carl! You can either follow him on Social Media if you’re just curious (@carlreader on most platforms), or if you’d like to learn a little more about what he does on stage, through content and in the media from a commercial perspective, you can visit his website at www.carlreader.com

You can buy a copy of his last book BOSS IT online, wherever you are in the world. And of course, I’d love you to subscribe to this community to be the first to see everything I have to share - just click the button below. It’s free of charge!

Subscribe now

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Please note that the main image on this article was generated using AI. The words are all my own unless explicitly stated.

There’s an important disclaimer which applies to all content shared on this Substack, available at the bottom of the about page, together with the statutory information that is required to be shared under current UK legislation.

And subscriptions are *always* first to be looked at when I run through my finances.

Do I really need that subscription I forgot to cancel two months ago?

Yes, I know I’m an advocate of the subscription economy, but part of that advocacy is due to the fact that I fall into the traps.

Some traps are entirely self inflicted. If I subscribe for one month to Disney, with the intention of watching one film, and then forget to unsubscribe, that’s on me.

But, there’s a nastier, hidden trap within these subscriptions - that in fact permeates throughout many business, subscription or not - and can ruin your reputation in the eyes of your customers.

Recently, I decided to can my YouTube subscription for all of a week.

Why?

Because it was £16.99 per month.

Within two days, I was annoyed with the ads, so went back, with my tail between my legs.

£12.99.

Yes, a whole four pounds cheaper.

This might seem like a ‘nothing’ issue. You could reasonably assume that it was a promotion, or similar.

But no.

This is the result of the ‘Apple Tax’. Where a company charges more to those who subscribe through the App Store, compared to those who subscribe direct.

The same tax was applied onto my Soundcloud subscription. And likely many others.

I understand the reason why these companies do this. Apple charges companies a whopping 30% for the ease of subscription directly from the app. And the companies have, quite rightly in my opinion, decided to pass that tax onto the end customer.

I’m not a fan of recharging credit card costs - that’s a reasonable cost of doing business. But 30% just because someone has used the app to subscribe rather than visiting the website? That’s predatory behaviour by Apple. And leads to all sorts of unintended consequences when the consumer learns of it.

The first is that it encourages users to shop around.

The whole idea of the integrated App Store is to maximise the user’s time on the device. And by making everything integrated, to make it a no brainer to buy a phone that just works.

However, the pricing difference is significant enough to change behaviour. After all, we don’t just tend to subscribe to one app.

The average consumer spends around £700 per year on subscriptions, according to various studies, and a potential 30% difference is a fair whack.

So, not only does this approach defeat the vision of what an App Store should be, but it opens the door for both companies and consumers to find ways around it.

This is then amplified by negative publicity. I won’t copy the whole article here, but when Apple are accused of extortion and acting like the Godfather by the BBC, it’s not a good look.

And what does this lead to? An impact on the brand. Why would I want to subscribe to anything from the App Store, whether priced differently or not, when I know it’s hitting someone in the pocket?

So why is this in place?

In my uneducated eyes, a vision of the benefits that the tech can deliver from the dreamers, has been monetised and bastardised by the bean counters. A benefit of the product has become a benefit to their EBIT. And what should be something that builds brand advocacy has become a reason to think ‘you robbing gits’.

Apple evangelists might claim that Google Play charges the same - I believe that’s correct. It’s not just Apple. They might also claim that it’s to pay for the tech. Yeah… I don’t buy that. I use YouTube on my TV, via the remote control. Apple didn’t make my TV. All they are doing is processing a monthly payment, by virtue of the fact that I chose to subscribe in app previously.

There are plenty of examples of this. It’s not just subscriptions.

Take train prices.

There’s an arbitrary 9:30am cut off where a ticket becomes cheaper, due to off peak pricing. Sometimes, it becomes ‘super off peak’ a little later at say 10:30am. Add to that mix a bunch of railcard discounts, some of which kick in at 10am, and a flawed pre booking system that often ends up being punitive because of the failures of the rail companies themselves; and you get a system that’s simply not fit for purpose.

A system that has a really busy train at say 8am to get people into the office at 9am, and a really busy train at say 9:35am for those who don’t want to pay full price. With empty trains in between.

Rather than focusing on tweaking timetables by a minute every six months, wouldn’t some kind of semi-dynamic pricing be a better focus for the operators, to help avoid these behaviours driven by pricing?

After all, busy trains lead to unavailable seats, which lead to customer complaints.

Imagine a train that’s £25 peak, £12.50 off peak.

How about every six months, they identify the busiest train and price it at say £30. Then, find the two around it and price at £25. Next two, £20. And so on. Tapered pricing, noted down on the timetables if anyone still gets the paper version.

Immediately, they allow everyone to decide what’s more important to them - saving money, saving their own time, or feeling like they’ve ‘hacked the system’. Clearly these numbers would need to be modelled to make sure it stacks up. But, I’m certain it’ll help spread the commuting load amongst a number of trains. After all, there’ll be some people who’ll be delighted to save a tenner by leaving half hour earlier - and they might even spend it on a coffee at the station.

Any hole in your pricing that allows a customer to exploit a ‘hack’, such as adding on free items to their burger to save a few pence, can impact you far beyond the hack.

Now, I’m pretty sure you don’t run a business as big as Apple, or a train operator.

But regardless, you should remember that the power of pricing impacts much more than just your profit. Both the perception of pricing, and the price itself, impacts buying behaviour.

If you do anything from this post, I’d ask that you take a step back. Look at your business, and the things that could be off-putting or damaging. Think about what’s fair, and if appropriate, make the change.

Carl Reader is a WH Smith Bestselling Author and international keynote speaker with a real passion for helping people do better. There are two ways to learn more about Carl! You can either follow him on Social Media if you’re just curious (@carlreader on most platforms), or if you’d like to learn a little more about what he does on stage, through content and in the media from a commercial perspective, you can visit his website at www.carlreader.com

You can buy a copy of his last book BOSS IT online, wherever you are in the world. And of course, I’d love you to subscribe to this community to be the first to see everything I have to share - just click the button below. It’s free of charge!

Subscribe now

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There’s an important disclaimer which applies to all content shared on this Substack, available at the bottom of the about page, together with the statutory information that is required to be shared under current UK legislation.

Rather than settle down to watch the latest Netflix series, I’d far rather watch YouTube on my TV. And boy, does the algorithm come up with some interesting options!

Thankfully, it’s not full of “badger, badger, badger” these days.

Instead, I can watch keynote talks from around the world, instructional videos around anything, and all sorts. Whether it’s to help me build out my home automation system, improve at chess, or try to gain a different perspective on something, YouTube is there for me.

Probably a whole lot better than whatever has replaced Breaking Bad as the Netflix drug of choice!

Anyway, today I wanted to talk about something that cropped up from the algorithm. A concept that I was kind of aware of, but having not had any formal education or qualification in psychology, a concept that I couldn’t name nor research in any way. Until now.

The concept of the “shadow self”.

This concept was brought to me via Jordan Peterson and Robert Greene. Now, I’m pretty sure these two wouldn’t need introduction to many of you; and it’s safe to say that they have attracted their fair share of controversy and in fact, disgust - Peterson for his repeated stances against political correctness, and Greene for the contents of his book The 48 Laws of Power, which can be considered either a life manual for evil, or an observation of evil, depending on how you interpret it.

Note: I don’t tend to follow ‘groupthink’ nor engage too much in any negative media about individuals - in fact, I rarely engage with the ‘traditional media’ and am woefully / joyfully disconnected from what goes on in the outside world, whether it is Love Island or a world war - so I’m conscious that I may well have a blind spot if there are any more substantive controversies / issues that should be raised.

From my perspective, I generally prefer to consider most views as valid, whether I agree with them or not, and as such these two wouldn’t be disqualified from my ‘feed’ of information and understanding. I firmly believe that in order to understand something, you simply cannot source your understanding on the views of one side alone that reaffirm your existing paradigms - if one of these people is your sole source of inspiration, that’s pretty worrying, as is the case if you would have a blanket refusal to listen to them because your sole source of inspiration disagrees with them.

Anyway.

It was a ten minute clip, and the clip focused on the ‘shadow self’. A brief Google search informed me of this theory, popularised by Carl Jung,

The theory is that we all have a ‘shadow self’ which we repress, hide away, or reject. These can be emotions, instincts, desires, weaknesses… all sorts. And often, we tend to hold the traits of our shadow self in such contempt that we actively put down others who demonstrate acts which would align to our ‘shadow self’.

As soon as I started watching the clip, my mind started racing, and I started to think about the power of the shadow self.

Please bear in mind that I have only just learned of the formal term for this, and have not looked into it in any more detail. I am sharing this as a ‘snap’ reaction based on my experiences and what I’ve observed; however as a subject that fascinates me (like most psychological theories), I will be digging around a little further to build out my understanding and knowledge of studies and so on. So, my views may adapt over time, and if so, there may be future posts on this!

Within the clip, they talked about the shadow self, and it started with someone who was a successful guy from what I’d call a normal upbringing. I’d like to think I had a normal upbringing, but I’m conscious from the worlds I’m in now that it was what would’ve been described in the video. Basically, you learn how to be street wise through experience, not books.

The conversation then drifted onto a discussion of their shadow self as angry men, and I’ll be honest, I drifted off too. But not away from the topic. I drifted into thinking about the power of the shadow self regardless of what that shadow is.

I’m going to pull away from shadow self briefly, and mention a great book authored by friends of mine, Ash Ali and Hasan Kubba, called ‘The Unfair Advantage’. Now I may be conflating both concepts inaccurately, but for my simple mind, it works.

In their book they talk about the fact that we all have an ‘unfair advantage’ which can either frame as positive or negative - most of us tend to automatically look for things that have held us back, but actually they are usually the things that drive us forwards.

I’d like to weave that in to the concept of the shadow self, to explore how we can use our ‘shadow’ to our own benefit. And there’s no better way of doing that than by looking at my own experiences. You may resonate with some of my ‘shadows’, you may not. But hopefully, it will help you to think about how you can reframe any shadows you may have, and use them positively.

I’ve been stuck in the accounting world since 1997. I fell into it. I wasn’t a natural. After all, who wants an ADHD accountant? I’m a chatterbox. I lack attention to detail. When employed I’d be moved to be away from the rest of the team as I was a distraction. Most colleagues probably look at me and wonder what the hell I’m doing in accounting, and why the hell was I employed in the first place.

There are also darker traits that we all have in some shape or form. For me, I have an internal rage about injustices which contradicts the stoic approach I try to embrace. I have a competitive streak. And so on.

But, some of these very ‘shadows’ that I have help me to do what I do.

My tendency towards big picture thinking helps me take a helicopter view of my business and any challenges.

My overly communicative personality helps me to sell, evangelise, and build key partnerships. And of course, to write articles and stand on stage.

My internal rage is channelled into lobbying politicians and my philanthropic work.

And of course my unfair advantage of growing up in a different environment to my middle class peers means that I stand out, and at the same time am relatable to a different demographic.

If we all were the perfect avatar of the perfect employee to do a perfect job, we’d all be workers with no differentials. None of us would stand out.

We would be in the sea of the same.

But none of us are.

We can choose to allow our shadow self to stay unchecked, we can choose to suppress our shadow self to satisfy others, or we can embrace our shadow self, reframe it, and channel it positively.

What will you do with your shadow self?

Whatever you do, make it a choice.

Carl Reader is a WH Smith Bestselling Author and international keynote speaker with a real passion for helping people do better. There are two ways to learn more about Carl! You can either follow him on Social Media if you’re just curious (@carlreader on most platforms), or if you’d like to learn a little more about what he does on stage, through content and in the media from a commercial perspective, you can visit his website at www.carlreader.com

You can buy a copy of his last book BOSS IT online, wherever you are in the world. And of course, I’d love you to subscribe to this community to be the first to see everything I have to share. It’s free of charge!

Subscribe now

Please note that the main image on this article was generated using AI. The words are all my own unless explicitly stated.

There’s an important disclaimer which applies to all content shared on this Substack, available at the bottom of the about page, together with the statutory information that is required to be shared under current UK legislation.

I slip sometimes, but I’m going back into it, full throttle.

In the book The Four Hour Work Week, the author Tim Ferriss proposed a way to handle email overwhelm. I’ve adapted it slightly and want to share it with you today.

The concept is simple, and was summed up by a former employee of mine. No one emails the fire brigade. If something is truly urgent, people find a way to contact you.

The problem in the modern way of working is that there is no discrimination between what is important and unimportant, and what is or isn’t urgent. Emails are rarely self-identified as important or urgent, and as such the spam from a mailing list you accidentally signed up for sits alongside something that you actually need to know right now.

Here’s the five steps that I use to sort the wheat from the chaff.

1. Setting the scene for a different way of working

I have a signature and auto responder (out of office) for all of my inboxes, that reads as follows:

Important – Please Read

Due to the nature of my role, I am often travelling for business or out of the office. In addition, I prefer to deal with emails when at a computer so that I can give them the attention that they deserve, reply properly, and not miss anything important. Therefore, please do not expect an urgent response to emails, as response times may be counted in days or even weeks, depending on availability. Please also accept my apologies for any emails sent outside of normal UK office hours.

If something is truly urgent and can’t wait, please contact my assistant Ella on [email]. Ella works Monday to Thursday during normal office hours. If Ella is unavailable, you can contact the team on [phone number] or [email]. They will make sure that an urgent message gets to me.

Many thanks in advance for your understanding.

By setting this up for both my signature and auto responder, I set the scene for both inbound and outbound emails. I make it clear that I won’t entertain back and forth ‘instant messages’ via email, nor will I disrupt my meeting to see an email about the latest promotional offer from someone. It allows me to focus on batch clearing of my inbox as and when the time is right.

The important thing to do when implementing this is to give a way for important emails to get to you. I’m fortunate to have a team, many do not. So if that’s the case, find a way to add some friction but in any event, make sure you are contactable.

Perhaps you can offer a phone number for people to talk to you if something is urgent? Or, ask them to text you? People these days are incredibly reluctant to pick up the phone, unless it’s a 999 call!

2. Create a ‘truly urgent’ email address and contact mechanism

Some of the things I do really requires urgent attention.

In a normal day to day scenario, this would be press requests for comment. The deadlines are incredibly tight, and the autoresponder will likely be ignored.

I’ve set up a special email address for these, that is not used for anything else. Those journalists can get my immediate attention, at the click of a ‘send’ button.

My team may well also have urgent matters that need addressing ASAP. They of course have my mobile number.

For the (slight) additional hoops I make them jump through, I give a counter-offer of value. If they contact me on my mobile, I answer. There’s no hiding away from calls, and if a call is missed, I return it as soon as I can. It’s down to them to not take the piss!

3. Set up filters on your email

My main Gmail inbox in particular would die under the weight of spam emails if there were no filters. Google does a good job on the most blatant examples, but what Google classes as spam and what I class as spam are two completely different things.

I have no wish to know that you’re running a Black Friday deal, even though I may have ticked the box 10 years ago!

I used to use a tool called unroll.me until our wonderfully ridiculous GDPR regulations stopped it from being available in the UK.

So now, I have a system of filters which helps redirect emails to their rightful place!

I have set up a filter to capture words such as “unsubscribe” and other similar words that indicate that it is part of a mailing list, so that they skip my inbox, are marked as read, and get archived.

Here’s the list I use. It’s not perfect, but it works 99% of the time:

(unsubscribe OR "view in browser" OR "If you do not wish to receive emails from" OR "If you would prefer not to receive commercial" OR "you no longer wish to receive" OR "view as a web page" OR "YOU ARE SUBSCRIBED" OR "to stop receiving emails" OR "view online" OR "update your preferences")

This still needs a manual check whenever I batch check my emails, but I know that these are low priority and likely don’t need responses - instead, I can just cast my eye over them to ensure that all is good and that I haven’t won the National Lottery.

I’ve also done similar for order confirmation emails, delivery notifications, and so on. And of course my own auto responses! Here’s a sample of these:

Matches: from:(yourdelivery@dpd.co.uk) your parcel has been delivered
Do this: Skip Inbox, Mark as read, Apply label "Delivery confirmations"

Matches: from:(shipment-tracking@amazon.co.uk)
Do this: Skip Inbox, Mark as read, Apply label "Delivery confirmations"

Matches: from:(order-update@amazon.co.uk)
Do this: Skip Inbox, Mark as read, Apply label "Delivery confirmations"

Matches: accepted AND "filename:invite.ics" has:attachment
Do this: Skip Inbox, Mark as read, Apply label "Meeting Acceptances"

Matches: from:(carl@carlreader.com) subject:(**Important note regarding email turnaround times**)
Do this: Skip Inbox, Mark as read, Apply label "Autoresponse"

Matches: from:(yourorder@dpd.co.uk) subject:(we're expecting your)
Do this: Skip Inbox, Mark as read, Apply label "Delivery confirmations"

Matches: from:(auto-confirm@amazon.co.uk)
Do this: Skip Inbox, Mark as read, Apply label "Order / Payment confirmations"

I’ve had this in place for probably three years and I reckon have only had one or two emails that I would have regretted not seeing - and the one I’m thinking of was, surprise surprise, a promotional offer. At least I could see it, and avail myself of the offer, on my own terms.

Setting these filters up took some time, I’d say a couple of hours, but has likely saved me that each week when clearing down my inbox.

4. Use the ‘junk’ feature diligently!

Email marketers will hate me for telling you to do this, but, it’s golden.

Outlook has a great separation between ‘Focused’ and ‘Other’ emails.

I can almost guarantee that you’ve never seen an email in the ‘Other’ inbox that you actually needed to respond to - or even read.

When you clear down your emails, don’t just archive them. Take some time to ‘junk’ them if you don’t want them. This gets quicker each time you do it, and you can wave bye bye to those senders who don’t give up.

To make this quicker and more front of mind, I’ve got a button on my Stream Deck for exactly this, programmed to mark it as junk and move onto the next one. My life is as simple as ‘click, click, click’!

5. (Optional) Give a PA access to your inbox

I’ve toyed back and forth with this one.

If you really want to remove the burden, you can delegate access to a PA, who can respond to things such as meeting requests etc, and provide you with the stuff that truly needs your input.

There are some downsides to this.

First of all, humans can tend towards job creation. Turkeys don’t vote for Christmas. And, they might not be so keen on the fact that the first four steps will reduce their workload significantly. Plus of course, out of sight is out of mind - many of us focus on our own productivity, but not on that of others.

Secondly, I believe that we all have different judgement parameters for emails. One persons urgent is not another’s.

I’ve tried this, with a few different people. It hasn’t really worked for me and has just caused more frustration. But, I’ll never say never.

Carl Reader is a WH Smith Bestselling Author and international keynote speaker with a real passion for helping people do better. There are two ways to learn more about Carl! You can either follow him on Social Media if you’re just curious (@carlreader on most platforms), or if you’d like to learn a little more about what he does on stage, through content and in the media from a commercial perspective, you can visit his website at www.carlreader.com

You can buy a copy of his last book BOSS IT online, wherever you are in the world. And of course, I’d love you to subscribe to this community to be the first to see everything I have to share - just click the button below. It’s free of charge!

Subscribe now

Share

Please note that the main image on this article was generated using AI. The words are all my own unless explicitly stated.

There’s an important disclaimer which applies to all content shared on this Substack, available at the bottom of the about page, together with the statutory information that is required to be shared under current UK legislation.

It became clear as I typed that the 2024 context and recap was more than enough for one post, and that I should separate the plans ahead from the recap.

So here goes!

The phrase for 2025 is Level Up, in more ways than one.

In short, for those who didn’t read the first post, 2024 was Rebuild, and I gave it an 8 out of 10. I shared the headlines of how I set my targets for a year, and in this post I hope to elaborate on both the targets and the process.

If you’ve already set New Years resolutions, it’s likely that you may already have wavered. I’ve deliberately timed the sharing of this post for mid January for that point. Also, I’ve delayed completion of the post until the last minute, so I can be brutally honest and accountable to you for what I have and haven’t done if anything has changed. We are all fallible, myself included.

The first part - this introduction, an expansion of the process, and the headlines - is being typed now, on the afternoon of 31 December.

If you’re reading this (and Carl, that means you too in a couple of weeks when updating the post!), it’s OK if you’ve not changed the world in two weeks. It’s OK if targets change, priorities change, or planned actions change. It’s never too late to check in and remind yourself, and it’s never too late to re set targets.

I’m excluding some items due to either commercial confidentiality, or simply as I don’t want to overshare any more than I already do! But, I hope the framework will encourage you to see that this is a process well worth doing.

As a reminder, this was the framework I originally shared:

Here’s the process I use, that avoids the usual traps.

1. Reflect properly on 2024. What went well, what went badly, what are you happy to accept as part of the process, and what are you not happy to accept going forwards?

2. Reflect on the overarching theme for the last year, and set a theme for the year ahead. Just one word or phrase that can summarise the overall direction. For me, 2024 was rebuild, 2025 is level up.

3. Set headline behaviours for yourself that will determine the fundamental shifts that you will work towards.

4. Set targets that you would like to achieve. I don’t feel that SMART goals are right at this stage (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time bound). Just a headline target is sufficient for this. The SMART is part of the planning for each target.

5. Create some initial actions that can help you move towards them.

6. Create a mechanism that carries these targets and behaviours throughout the year. I’ll cover this in a future post alongside my plans for 2025.

   ---

I gave a very real and raw reflection in my 2024 Wrapped post, and the overarching themes simply fell out from that reflection. I wish that there was an easy way to find the theme. For me, the words were easy to find, but I get that it may not be for others - I have no idea to be honest as I’m not in your mind!

But for step 2, all I’d suggest is that you try to think of the best phrase or word that you can. It doesn’t need to be overthought, and there are no wrong answers to this.

Here’s where it gets a bit more tricky!

Set headline behaviours and targets (steps 3 and 4)

I’m a strong believer that if you fix or refine behaviours, you will in turn operate better in whatever you put your focus on.

There is no point filling a bucket with water if it has holes that need patching up.

That’s why this comes first, before an aspirational target of “make £XXX”, “do XXX’, “learn XXX” and so on.

And, through an honest reflection as set out in step 1, and underpinned by an overarching theme as in step 2, these opportunities for improvement become patently clear.

I have six areas that I focus on: Health, Relationships (friends, family and romantic), Fun, Mindset, Wealth and Business.

Here are some examples of the behaviours I’ve set in each:

Health: no unhealthy takeaways more than once a week, and set my alarm at 7am each morning without fail to force my sleep routine to become regularised.

Relationships: reciprocate effort and the lack of the same, always be there for family, and remember that you don’t need to impress anyone but yourself.

Fun: don’t let everything creep into holidays, and be prepared to expand your mind and skills.

Mindset: be open to studying new material, and value the benefits of a self care routine.

Wealth: commit to learning from others who have ‘made it’, and don’t make financially reckless decisions.

Business: make fast and firm decisions, get out there, and don’t accept second best.

You’ll see that these are a far cry from what ‘experts’ say you should do when it comes to goal settings. But, these aren’t goals. These are behaviours and mindset that will support the eventual goals. I’ve not shared all, but there’s a couple more in most of the categories to help shape who I am by the end of the year, and hopefully going forwards.

From there, I set some more specific targets. I’ve set a target for my Chess ranking, specific actions that I wish to take each day, how I’d like to finish the year from a health perspective, and so on. I have a count of the number of days I’d like to take as holiday, the number of speaking slots I will be doing, all sorts. The usual stuff that we do on 31 December!

It’s very ambitious, but in this year of levelling up, I’ll be happy to just achieve consistency and progress in myself - the ‘targets’ themselves help set that direction.

Create some initial momentum (step 5)

Step 5 is all about getting things moving. It’s the stuff that I’ll start work on tonight, rather than partying. It’s the five or six things that come to mind as non-negotiable actions which help create the momentum needed and clear any hurdles that may be in the way of my targets.

So yes, I’ll be emailing my doctor , asking the gym if I can change my membership so that I can train in the evenings as my days are just too rammed, and so on. And… bloody hell, setting my alarm at 7am both on my phone and a physical alarm clock. That’s the one I’m dreading, but there’s no time like the present, even if it does mean an early night on New Years Eve, right?

I’ll also make a start on a new Vision Board. Many people who’ve done this stuff before rarely have to rip it up and start again, but I do, and I’m here for it. I don’t want this to be completed tonight, but I want to get it kicked off to replant the seeds of thinking beyond the short term.

If I can’t be bothered to do the simple stuff, then how on earth can I do the actual hard work of hitting my targets?

Carry the behaviours throughout the year (step 6)

This one is kind of new to me. I hope you like it, and see why I’m so enthusiastic about it.

You may have done the exercise where you post a letter to your future self.

This is the digital equivalent.

But, rather than writing an aspirational target and sending it, instead, I am sending myself regular reminders of both my behavioural intentions and specific actions that fall later in the year.

Think of it as a prompt rather than a reflection.

And it’s really simple to do. I’m emailing myself, with delayed send.

Wish me luck!

And yes, I’ll update this post if I don’t do that, or the initial momentum steps. But now I’ve committed to this, I have no choice ;-)

EDIT - as of 9 January, I’ve done my initial steps, I’ve lived to all behaviours other than takeaways (avoiding cooking is self care after all, right?), I’ve actually booked a holiday which my work phone and laptop won’t be joining me on. I’m still to produce my Vision Board - maybe one for this weekend so that I’ve started everything before this post hits your inbox on Tuesday!

Carl Reader is a WH Smith Bestselling Author and international keynote speaker with a real passion for helping people do better. There are two ways to learn more about Carl! You can either follow him on Social Media if you’re just curious (@carlreader on most platforms), or if you’d like to learn a little more about what he does on stage, through content and in the media from a commercial perspective, you can visit his website at www.carlreader.com

You can buy a copy of his last book BOSS IT online, wherever you are in the world. And of course, I’d love you to subscribe to this community to be the first to see everything I have to share - just click the button below. It’s free of charge!

Subscribe now

Share

Please note that the main image on this article was generated using AI. The words are all my own unless explicitly stated, and any other images are real.

There’s an important disclaimer which applies to all content shared on this Substack, available at the bottom of the about page, together with the statutory information that is required to be shared under current UK legislation.

Original Post:

End of an era. Some of you will know Leigh Lock and Safe, the family business set up by my Grandad back in 1971 and run by Dad and two of my uncles, closed its doors just before Christmas.

My tailors was closed for lunch so I had a stroll around Westcliff seeing as it was a nice sunny day.

Strange seeing the first picture, even stranger the second - no. 304 just opposite - the shop I used to help out in on Saturdays, sweeping floors, making tea, and taking every chance to cut keys.

Plus, my first home as a baby was above that shop!

Like most businesses, it didn’t sell for millions - in fact, it didn’t sell.

The world has changed, and I saw first hand over the last year or so the sheer volume of timewasters who’d come in, ask questions for half an hour, and then “go away to think” (in other words buy it online for 50p cheaper).

I remember when I bought a pair of jeans in a shop who found me the perfect fit when I was in my mid 20s. It was the first time in my life I didn’t think about bargain hunting, but instead felt that you know what, maybe they are charging RRP but they deserve that and more for the service.

Looking through their Google reviews has put a huge smile on my face this afternoon, they’ve left the kind of legacy that I also hope to leave. This sentence sums it up perfectly:

“You simply do not get this good old fashioned help and service from enough places now.“

It’s been touching to see some of the feedback and messages I’d received on that post.

As I’ve thought further, it really made me think. How can other businesses introduce that magic into their businesses? It’s surely not limited to a business built by an East London market trader, and run by his sons, is it?

You don’t have to learn to cut keys by hand to give a good service, surely?

A casual reader might form an immediate link between going over and above, and closing your business. That couldn’t be further from the truth. Dad is nearly 64, and his brothers are both older. Retirement was always on the cards at some point, and a job that involved sometimes heavy manual labour - moving safes around, and so on - takes its toll.

They were in the fortunate position that the business was stable enough to close in the right way. They could afford to do the work to renovate the shop for the next tenants, retire, and close it down without shafting anyone.

If they’d gone about things in the wrong way, it might well have been a different story.

So, how can you inject some of that good old fashioned magic into your business?

There’s no magic pill.

Simply, you need to think of your customer.

What’s going on in their world?

How can you serve them?

A customer - whether B2B or B2C - is ultimately a human with thoughts and feelings. Not a walking cash machine. Not someone to be exploited for every last penny. A human with real concerns, real issues, and a real need.

Here are some things that I’d like you to mull over, in the hope that they may sit in the back of your mind and come to surface at some point:

• What little thing can I do to make this customer be amazed by the service?

• If I was in this position, what would make me feel more reassured, safer, comfortable, and better?

• How can I plant a seed of goodwill today, that might pay back tomorrow, even if they aren’t a customer (yet)?

• What can I do today so that I can look in the mirror, comfortable that I’ve been fair, honest, and can go to sleep at peace?

Not difficult, is it?

As I reflected, I thought about the essence of the reviews.

Often, the person booking wasn’t the customer, but instead a relative or carer. For example, an elderly person who’s locked out or forgotten their keys. Can you serve both the booker and the end recipient with the respect that valued customers deserve? For the kids activity business, care providers, and so many others, there are often more customers than those who pick up the phone and pick up the tab.

What is the magic that makes people think of you or recommend you?

Dwell on this for a moment.

Why do people come back?

Why does your number get shared?

This action, or more likely these actions and behaviours, are your Crown Jewels. Guard them in the same way you guard anything that’s truly valuable to you. The cost of sacrificing them is far more than just financial. A quick buck today is a bank account leak tomorrow - and a reputational leak forever.

This doesn’t mean that you should become a charity. Far from it.

I’m not advocating putting yourself out of business.

I’m not advocating allowing others to screw you over.

I know my family never knowingly allowed this, and would be the first to give any true time wasters short shrift. Coming from East End roots, you wouldn’t expect anything less!

Instead, be fair on both yourself and others.

Basically, be a good human!

I won’t bombard this post with pictures, but you can take a look on the Leigh Lock and Safe Facebook page for examples of how they helped the community, and Google Reviews for the very kind words that their customers left. Repairing a skateboard, lending tools to customers, fixing mobility scooters, all sorts.

And one last thing.

Not only is it the right thing to do ethically (and I’ll argue, commercially); but it’s also the right thing to do for your name.

I don’t know many people in the Southend business community yet, but in an important meeting, I was asked “are you part of the Reader family?”

This question could send a shiver of fear down the necks of relatives of those who are less savoury.

Thankfully, I had nothing to fear - and I hope, it added a layer of trust to the initial stages of that business relationship when I proudly said yes.

After all, I’m proud to be part of it, and proud to see the legacy that they left.

Carl Reader is a WH Smith Bestselling Author and international keynote speaker with a real passion for helping people do better. There are two ways to learn more about Carl! You can either follow him on Social Media if you’re just curious (@carlreader on most platforms), or if you’d like to learn a little more about what he does on stage, through content and in the media from a commercial perspective, you can visit his website at www.carlreader.com

You can buy a copy of his last book BOSS IT online, wherever you are in the world. And of course, I’d love you to subscribe to this community to be the first to see everything I have to share - just click the button below. It’s free of charge!

Subscribe now

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Please note that the main image on this article was generated using AI. The words are all my own unless explicitly stated, and any other images are real.

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Easy money.

Whether it’s a lottery ticket, an accumulator bet, an ‘investment’, a training course, or indeed the goal we’ve set ourselves.

Yes, that’s right. The dream of passive income.

Earning a few quid without lifting a finger. Ever.

My subscribers will know that I recently shared a post about what I went through in late 2018, as I was preparing to retire from my business. This happened in early 2019, and I learned first hand that passive income is never passive.

I also found out in a dramatically different context earlier this week.

I’d recently set up a Stocks and Shares ISA and to test it out, the plan was to invest birthday and Christmas gifts for my youngest children, rather than giving them the cash to spend. If it goes up, they win, if it goes down, I top up. Seemed fairly simple to me, and whilst doing it I’d learn a little about how these platforms work.

Now, let me assure you, the amount I’d put aside wasn’t £32,000.

Why do I quote that number?

Because the provider I signed up with sent me an email, caught by my spam filter, and hidden at the bottom of it was a comment that they were introducing a flat fee on all balances below that amount. For context, it means someone with £1,000 in their account would likely only lose money.

Thankfully Reddit highlighted this, I found the email, and yes they were right.

What does this have to do with my previous article, and indeed the title of this post?

Well, to join the dots…

Passive income, however it is earned, is never passive.

I have a philosophy in life that if you stand still, you move backwards.

And with any sort of income, that also applies.

If you are a landlord and you don’t pay any attention to your tenants or the condition of the property, you’ll find the rental value deteriorates in comparison to the market. Similarly, if you don’t look at an investment portfolio, it might not be right for you.

Yes, you may not be hit by extra charges. But, can any of us say that our mindset and approach hasn’t shifted over say 10 years? We always need to re-evaluate, consider all options, and take a blank canvas approach to anything in life. And one of the most important things to do this on is how we earn our income.

Now I know that money doesn’t buy us happiness. It does however buy us food, warmth and shelter. Those things are pretty important in my opinion!

So, what connection does this have to my previous post?

In that post, I was talking about how I was preparing to embrace a new non-executive role, and take a step back from the business, which I did.

I had some crazy experiences afterwards, let me tell you!

I took over a National League South football club and experienced some amazing highs and lows. I was a voluntary steward separating Hungerford and Dartford fans whilst a plastic beer glass was thrown over my head, I cleaned birds mess off of seats, and I learned how to pull a pint. Badly.

But honestly, it was a wonderful life experience. And my name featured in the Football Manager game - boyhood dream unlocked!

I wrote BOSS IT, which became a WH Smith bestseller and is still stocked globally.

And I turned up to some meetings.

But you know what? The ‘passive’ - or at least semi-passive - income needed me more.

COVID hit, some bad decisions hit, a lack of focus hit, and I put my aspirations of being a ‘good leader’ above my aspirations of earning income.

I won’t go into the gory details here as I’ve already written far too much in this article compared to my usual posts and you as a reader are not my unpaid therapist, but let’s just say that personally, the knock on effect meant that I went without income for several months after finally doing what was needed - way beyond what would ordinarily be an ‘emergency fund’ - as I rolled up the sleeves, got stuck in, and had to pay back the lack of focus, pace and decisiveness that had ultimately caused this situation to happen.

Yes, I could have blamed COVID, other people, or whatever. But actually, I’d contend that it all boiled down to me. Having that dream of passive income, and not realising that passive income is never passive. So I worked harder than ever before, for less than I’ve ever earned. And I’m at peace with that. I owed it to myself, and to everyone else.

Thankfully, it isn’t all bad. I actually rediscovered my spark during that time. I rediscovered why I love being in business, and what I love about it. The almost child-like enthusiasm for opportunity and building stuff came back. It’s still there, and I’m still loving that rollercoaster that we call business ownership (please don’t use the ‘e’ word)! Not just back on track, but storming forwards.

Anyways, the biggest learning from this is that whatever you do and however you earn your income - whether employment, from investments, or from business - is that you should question everything.

Is the income safe for the short term?

Do I need to do anything to maintain or build it?

Is there a better income to be earned elsewhere?

What happens if x / y / z happens?

The last question is the big question.

Blind spots are exactly that. Things we can’t see and things we don’t know will happen. But they can, and invariably will. Things happen. And it’s unlikely that you’ll even identify ‘the thing’ - if you do, well done you - but this process of critically questioning your ‘passive’ (or earned) income and wargaming potential options will help you cope with it when the time arises for you to cope.

Don’t buy into the ‘no plan B’ hype.

We all know that a plant dies without water. We die without water.

You know what you need to water, and you need to know when to pull your finger out and water it, before the leaves turn brown.

Passive income is never truly passive.

Carl Reader is a WH Smith Bestselling Author and international keynote speaker with a real passion for helping people do better. There are two ways to learn more about Carl! You can either follow him on Social Media if you’re just curious (@carlreader on most platforms), or if you’d like to learn a little more about what he does on stage, through content and in the media from a commercial perspective, you can visit his website at www.carlreader.com

You can buy a copy of his last book BOSS IT online, wherever you are in the world. And of course, I’d love you to subscribe to this community to be the first to see everything I have to share - just click the button below. It’s free of charge!

There’s an important disclaimer which applies to all content shared on this Substack, available at the bottom of the about page, together with the statutory information that is required to be shared under current UK legislation.

I’m not talking about when we first heard of it.

The moment that we knew it was real.

I remember it quite clearly, I reckon it was about a couple of years ago. ChatGPT went mainstream, Midjourney started creating mind-blowing images, and everyone on social media started to use apps to create new images of themselves.

Many of us knew about AI before, but our understanding was at different levels. For me, my mind was blown. However during a chat with Gary Turner (the former UK MD of Xero) over lunch in Northampton, at around this time, it was clear that others knew it was coming. He pretty much dismissed the ‘innovation’ out of hand, telling me that Midjourney was just an app placed over the top of something he knew was there for a long time.

If anyone would know this stuff, big G would. And so, our conversation went back to retro gaming of course. Chatting AI to him would be mind numbing for one side of the conversation - I’d learn loads, he’d be teaching me my times tables and phonics. At least I can hold my own when talking about the reasons why you should skip Sonic and play Sonic 2 instead, or the merits of Street Fighter II - Rainbow Edition.

Anyway, back to the subject.

The thing that wowed me about the mainstream ‘AI explosion’ was the fact that it wasn’t what I was expecting AI to do first.

Working in and around the finance world, I expected further evolutions of what we’d seen. I expected a development in machine learning, or at the very least, the ability for tech to commoditise some of the jobs that consist of mindlessly tapping keys and entering data that had already been entered onto another system.

In fact, back in the days when my keynotes focused on the ‘Future Of Business’, I predicted that the two things that automation and tech wouldn’t be able to fully replace were those things that required exceptional communication or exceptional craft.

And guess who I thought had the perfect job? Dentists. Not only do they need to know what they’re doing and have the manual dexterity to do it well, but they need to charm the pants off of me to get me in that chair if there’s a risk of a needle going into my gums!

But no.

The area that was positioned in the cross hairs of technology advancement was the creativity once reserved for great artists and writers.

At least, that’s how it seemed to me.

Mind. Blown.

Fast forward to today. The technology has gone from a ‘wow’ moment to a largely forgotten innovation. Don’t get me wrong, lots of people use it - we just don’t pay a fiver on the App Store to get a few pictures or ask ChatGPT to tell us a random fact. That stuff was the novelty effect.

What hasn’t changed is my firm belief that the things that are impossible to fully replace are those that require exceptional communication or exceptional craft. And we are using AI in the wrong way.

Right now, you can log into LinkedIn and see a feed full of AI posts and comments.

Yes, that’s right. It’s AI posting those almost too logical written posts, complete with emoji bullet points and a strained call to action. Did you really think that Jim from accounts receivable has learned the keyboard shortcuts for emojis and suddenly found the motivation for 5 posts a week, when he’s actually counting down the minutes until his retirement day? And don’t get me started on the comments - four or five lines of big words reinforcing the original post but frankly, spoken like a machine.

Worryingly, some people use it to word their articles, their emails and their websites. I might be a bit old fashioned but I can spot it a mile off, just like the social posts. It ain’t human.

Now here’s a disclaimer. I use ChatGPT on occasion, and probably not often enough. But I don’t use it to write for me. I should also add that I use generative images on this blog, simply because I have the artistic skills of a 3 year old.

Here’s the important point on this though - the images on this blog are absolutely not the reason people come here, nor the benefit that they hope to receive. If Substack gave me the option of a theme that didn’t require images, I’d do that. It’s a pain in the backside having to click ‘Generate image’ and think of something just to match the theme. That’s why I approach it from a minimal effort perspective - I’d rather put my time into writing, researching, or other stuff outside of this blog.

So, what do I use ChatGPT for?

Firstly, research. I believe that ChatGPT is Google on steroids. Google has gone from being the simplest, quickest search back when it took on the likes of Lycos, Yahoo! and Altavista; to a monster that over the years has succumbed to SEO games, advertising, and unfortunate design choices. I can ask ChatGPT to provide me with 10 studies on a certain subject, with requests around the data sets and credibility, and it feeds me with a bunch of links for me to look through at my leisure.

The other main area is ideation, and not what you’re thinking. I know some people use it to create a list of content ideas for social media marketing. Marketers having access to ChatGPT has dumbed down the creativity that was and is the reserve of great thinkers such as Rory Sutherland. I prefer my content to be unstructured and to drop the moment I get inspiration, rather than a generic list of ‘52 content ideas’ neatly scheduled into a calendar. So instead, I use it to provide different perspectives on my own thoughts. When doing this, I generally write my prompts to frame the answers to be the ones that I don’t necessarily want.

For example, I am going to write a future blog about chess and the benefits I’ve found from playing the game. But I don’t want to fall foul of confirmation bias. By asking ChatGPT to both attack my ideas and to provide negative impacts of playing, it helps me to round out my thinking and to consider all angles of the subject matter.

It opens my eyes, sharpens my saw, and hopefully helps me to think better. And create better thoughts.

I have a host of other thoughts around AI, some of which I may share on here in future posts. I’ve talked about it on stage, and heard some fascinating speakers share their perspectives, notably at LEAP in Riyadh. I’ve seen some of the stuff first hand, experienced it, and have my own views on it. But that’s not the subject for today.

So on that note, I felt it best to end this one with a few words from ChatGPT. The only AI words you’ll see on here. On this one I didn’t ask for an attack, just a simple ‘PR’ style snippet to capture the thoughts of the machine. Kind of like big Bill Clinton’s “I did not have sexual relations with…”. And despite my hopes that it would provide me with something earth shattering, it instead gave me a pat on the back.

Thanks ChatGPT x

Carl Reader is a WH Smith Bestselling Author and international keynote speaker with a real passion for helping people do better. There are two ways to learn more about Carl! You can either follow him on Social Media if you’re just curious (@carlreader on most platforms), or if you’d like to learn a little more about what he does on stage, through content and in the media from a commercial perspective, you can visit his website at www.carlreader.com

You can buy a copy of his last book BOSS IT online, wherever you are in the world. And of course, I’d love you to subscribe to this community to be the first to see everything I have to share. It’s free of charge!

Subscribe now

There’s an important disclaimer which applies to all content shared on this Substack, available at the bottom of the about page, together with the statutory information that is required to be shared under current UK legislation.

It’s a game that is relatively simple to learn, but almost impossible to master.

After an Instagram message from @amalfiboyjay , I decided to pull my finger out and write this post that had been on my to do list!

My beginnings in the game were actually at a young age. Like many, I learned the moves and understood that the ‘horse’ (the knight) moves in a funny way like an L, and that pawns take other pieces diagonally. I used to play it at my youth group, and even went into a couple of tournaments against members of other youth groups in the same network.

I’d heard of a few ‘rules’, like you should put your pawns in the centre.

Then, I didn’t play it for about 25 -30 years.

So, why am I playing it now, and why am I an advocate for adults to embrace the game?

Quite a few adults are getting into or back into the game. Most look bored as soon as you mention it, but when you meet someone who plays, you can see the glint in their eye as they talk about it. And it’s not just the geeks. You’d be surprised at how the game has been embraced by people of all walks of life. It doesn’t discriminate (despite arguably being a ‘boys club’ for most of it’s existence).

Let me start with a helicopter view of the world of chess right now. It’s far more accessible than it was when I was a kid, as all you need is your mobile phone or a computer - you don’t need a chess board. And it’s far more popular.

A quick search on YouTube brings up countless educational videos, and the cool kids who know about things like Twitch (which I’ve embarrassingly never even looked into, let alone used) will know that it is fairly prominent there, from what I understand.

It’s been ‘jazzed up’, with different competition formats, and a host of younger grandmasters who are seemingly more relatable than Kasparov and Karpov, who I remember from my childhood.

But most of all, I guess the Netflix show The Queen’s Gambit, together with lockdown, had a lot to do with it. Again embarrassingly, I started after lockdown, haven’t seen the show, and don’t subscribe to Netflix!

I started playing again because I saw in an article how it can help with ADHD. And I felt the benefits the moment I downloaded an app.

What are the benefits of the game?

Apart from being a (sometimes) enjoyable game, the things that draw me in to the game are that it is one of the only ‘sports’ where you are solely responsible for your performance. It’s not like football where you can blame the ref, the weather, or your teammates. You have to take full responsibility for everything that happens on the board. You can’t miss that hole in one because of a freak gust of wind in this game.

I’ve also noticed, and learned of, a whole host of benefits that have helped shape my thinking outside of the game.

One of the fundamental elements of chess is pattern recognition.

This can be as simple as common opening formations, or it can be a deadly checkmating pattern. Over time you see similar positions which might not be identical; however the structure of the pieces on the board will alert you to the fact that you might be able to win, or lose, soon - or, as you progress, alert you to a tactical opportunity or threat.

Next up is the development of strategic and tactical thinking.

I don’t personally like the definitions used in the chess world to separate these, and I’ll keep it simple.

Even at the beginners level, chess forces you to think about what your plans are, to identify tactics to achieve them, and to visualise what will happen if x, y, or z happens. Because after all, we don’t have crystal balls.

We need to second guess what our opponent could do, and work out plans from there, in order to decide what our best move is before playing it.

As a player gets stronger, visualisation and calculation becomes even more important. Not only identifying the candidate moves and working out what the response will be, but then mapping out the next few likely moves - and with virtually unlimited moves available, it soon becomes a ‘mind map’ for each potential move.

All in your mind of course, as you’re not allowed to write things down during a chess match, according to the rules.

These things can be applied practically at work and at home.

I’ve always been a strong advocate of looking for the second bounce of the ball. This is a snazzy quote from a book I read many years ago, which mentions that one of the things that set apart great footballers is that they don’t think about where the ball will land, but actually, where the second bounce will be.

Having watched some football matches stood with Charlie Austin, an ex premiership footballer who happened to be an ex player for the team I took over, I can assure you that elite sports thinking is far deeper than any Harry Kane or David Beckham memes that you might see - it’s a masterclass in football for the 90 minutes - but please bear with this oversimplification.

In life, we often look at what is right in front of us, and either act or react based on the immediate circumstances. Particularly when fight or flight kicks in.

Imagine you are stuck in traffic, and then cut up whilst driving during your commute - and you were already running late.

There are three groups of reactions - you could have active road rage, passive road rage, or indifference. These cover every snap response from jumping out the car to threaten the other driver, the silent and unshared middle finger and anger, through to my preferred and now natural approach of stoicism and realising that ‘you are the traffic’.

These reactions are often instinctive, based on a variety of emotional and logical factors, and have pretty much been coded within our makeup. And trust me, they change over time, I used to be horrific and would allow other drivers to get to me. I now realise life is far too short, they’re probably in a rush too, I’ve probably made a mistake a mile or so ago, and that I should just have left earlier. And that my life is far too valuable for something to go wrong.

Logically, we should assess each of the options available to us. Would there be a net benefit of educating the driver about his or her bad driving? Would there be a risk of any argument dragging on for half an hour making me even more late for work? If I take no action, will it anger me later or will the self disciplined calm help me have a better day? And so on.

We have an awareness of what the other person is thinking and feeling, and an idea of their options, but we also don’t know our blind spots (and trust me, they turn up in chess too). Could they be an undercover police officer en route to stopping a major crime? Could they be a leading surgeon about to save someone’s life? Could they be a nutter with a machete on the passenger seat?

Yes, these blind spots are the real life version of the bishop stuck in the corner, innocently and out of sight, who’s about to capture our queen.

Now the road rage scenario might seem far fetched and overtly emotional driven once in the situation. But the same kind of thinking applies when a major customer tries to negotiate with you, or you are facing a difficult family decision. Pattern recognition can flag up issues before they become issues, strategic and tactical thinking helps you to work out what your options are based on your long term and immediate goals, and visualisation and calculation helps you to evaluate the options on the table.

There’s two brain benefits for this game too.

I’ve talked about the immediate practical benefits that I believe anyone could benefit from sharpening in life.

There’s two other benefits I’d like to share, one that is based on my own experience, and one that I hope will form my future experiences.

The first is focus. I wrote in my previous article about ADHD. This game helps! I won’t repeat those words here.

The second is sharpening the brain.

Let’s be honest, none of us are getting any younger. And whilst I still might not know what I want to be when I grow up, I have to be realistic and realise that at the ripe old age of 43, I am likely half way through my life.

It’s believed that chess could well be a preventative measure against degenerative diseases such as dementia.

Enough eulogising, what are the realistic steps to get started?

Simply, learn the moves and start playing! It’s that simple.

You can sink yourself into endless hours of YouTube lessons, learn umpteen opening theories, and buy all the books - but realistically, who’s got time for that?

As I said before, it’s an easy game to learn but almost impossible to master.

What I would say however is to check your ego at the door before starting. Kids are amazingly strong at the game. In fact, a kid called Abhimanyu Mishra became a grandmaster at 12! I’ve definitely seen from some of the online videos that even established players hate facing kids. Not only do they have all the time in the world to play, but they benefit from increased neuroplasticity.

Basically, their brains find it really easy to pick up things, like learning languages, that adults find much more difficult.

I’d set myself a couple of targets, based around ELO. Your ELO is a score that is calculated on an algorithm to work out how strong you are. You’re expected to beat someone at your level 50% of the time, and lose 50% of the time. If you do better, it climbs, if you don’t, it falls. That’s my really simple understanding. It’s a model used in all sorts of fields, from various games right through to dating apps!

First was to get to an ELO of 1,000 or 1,200. I ramped it up to 1,200 after seeing Steve Bolton, a business contact of mine, share on LinkedIn that he had hit that level (yes, I’m competitive and admire a lot of what he has done, so why not aim for the stars?)

I also had a BHAG (big hairy audacious goal) of 2,000, which would make me a very strong player.

But, there are not many adult starters / resumers who achieve that. It’s a unicorn status. Our brains just can’t absorb as effectively as kids who are being coached, even if we have the best coaches in the world. Plus, life gets in the way much more as an adult!

I’ve hit come to terms with the fact that I may never hit 2,000. But for the year ahead, I want to continue to develop without impacting the other areas of my life, and I’d like to be at a point where I could realistically show up at a tournament over the board and not humiliate myself.

As a final note, I entered a tournament last night. It was great fun, for players rated 1,700 and below. It was ‘rapid’, meaning 10 minutes each, and unlike the kids who knock out three minute games, I prefer slightly longer per match and tend to play at 15 minutes, so time pressure was a challenge. Here was my standing a match before the end (I actually dropped a couple of places as some matches were finishing up). Still, 8th out of 196 is something I’m mega proud of!

Carl Reader is a WH Smith Bestselling Author and international keynote speaker with a real passion for helping people do better. There are two ways to learn more about Carl! You can either follow him on Social Media if you’re just curious (@carlreader on most platforms), or if you’d like to learn a little more about what he does on stage, through content and in the media from a commercial perspective, you can visit his website at www.carlreader.com

You can buy a copy of his last book BOSS IT online, wherever you are in the world. And of course, I’d love you to subscribe to this community to be the first to see everything I have to share - just click the button below. It’s free of charge!

Subscribe now

Share

Please note that the main image on this article was generated using AI. The words are all my own unless explicitly stated.

There’s an important disclaimer which applies to all content shared on this Substack, available at the bottom of the about page, together with the statutory information that is required to be shared under current UK legislation.

The app that I recommend, Endel, has been truly transformative at times I need to instigate focus myself rather than rely on my own hyper-focus tendencies. In full disclosure, the link is an affiliate link which gives us both some extra free of charge time to try / use the app.

I’m neurodiverse. And my specific brand of ‘neuro-spiciness’ is ADHD.

Yes, that buzzword that everyone seems to use as a superpower. As a special gift.

For me, that’s not been the case.

It has been, and can be, simply debilitating.

I first learned about ADHD when I was in my late twenties. I was finding that I was struggling so much with the details of life, and it had started to creep into my career. Before then, I had no idea what ADHD was.

It started with a passing comment from a guy at a neighbouring business of the dt group. We were chatting as usual and he mentioned that he’d been to a psychologist who had diagnosed him, he’d started taking some medication, and that it had quite literally changed his life.

It felt like he was encouraging me to look into it. I think he may have even given me the contact details! You see, I’m good at picking up clues like that…

So, I asked him straight - do you think I should look into it? And I still remember his words today:

“If I’m ADHD, you’re definitely f***ing ADHD!”

Anyway, I did my research. Filled in some online questionnaires and yes, I was definitely ticking the right boxes! I was always good at exams. I spoke to my then partner, who was always very insightful with her views, and she agreed that it should be checked out. I spoke to a couple of close colleagues, one who started calling me “ADHD boy”, which made a refreshing change from “Gucci Queen”! As you can imagine, my colleagues would’ve loved me to be a bit more like them.

One question however stuck out in my mind. For the diagnosis there has to be evidence that this stuff isn’t recent, and often they like to see school reports and learn more about your childhood from others.

This was the bit that I thought might lead it away from ADHD.

After all, I got into a grammar school; and at primary school I was in a spelling group on my own, had private computer programming lessons away from the rest of the class, qualified for Mensa, and was put up a year. Surely I was an amazing child?

So I spoke to Dad.

And he confirmed I’d always been odd. I won’t repeat his words as they were almost certainly stronger than my business neighbours!

On reflection, he was right. Whilst I guess I was gifted, I didn’t appreciate that gift at all. I’d conveniently forgotten the fact that I sacked off Fridays because I didn’t like Geography, my school reports slid downhill faster than a dropped pound coin, and ultimately I left school before my GCSE’s to start a YTS in hairdressing. Risking my grades (which yes, would have been impacted by this) to do something that I thought was a better / easier job than working in my Dad’s factory, if he had a job going.

Went to GP. GP agreed with diagnosis. GP tried to sell me onto the benefits of anti depressants. This is, I understand, a common theme for many who tried to seek advice before the increased awareness of ADHD and its impact on adults. Whilst the NHS wait is extraordinarily long, at least they now have the appropriate support available.

During my 30’s, it got tougher and tougher. A childhood friend recently mentioned that her daughter likens it to having a washing machine on full spin in your mind. I can only agree.

Whilst there are some advantages I guess (?), the underlying condition stops me from functioning like a normal human being in so many ways.

I’ve left a brand new car outside a petrol garage - not just unlocked - but with the keys in and the engine running. And walked back to the office.

I regularly leave my keys in the front door, welcoming all and sundry to come in and take their pick of my personal possessions. Having my wallet with me is a rare treat, as is only needing to spend £50 to replace items I’d forgotten to pack when abroad. For day to day life, it can be simply overwhelming. And things that may irritate other people, such as leaving cupboards open and so on, are things that I just can’t see. For some reason, my brain moves on before the task has had a chance to catch up.

Many call it a superpower, Sadly, I call it a true curse that limits my enjoyment of life, my ability to function, and increases my risk of something dreadful happening.

Anyway, I reached breaking point, and sought help again. This time, a psychiatrist diagnosed me, and I decided that I’d rather be medicated this time.

Truly life changing.

Tough at first, very tough. The headaches were real, and apparently I had mood swings, which I guess would be similar to those that you’d get on anti depressants or other mind related drugs. But the calm was an unbelievable feeling. I was actually present in the moment.

Sadly, the impact of the drugs dies down over time. I was very quickly titrated to the maximum dose permitted, and have top ups as well due to the fact that they tail off quickly. Now, I’d say that I get maybe 10 - 20% relief from them? Certainly not anywhere near the dramatic impact of the early days.

So, I’ve had to learn a bunch of coping mechanisms, both over the years and recently. Here’s what helps me:

Public Accountability - if I say I’m going to do something, I do it. So, I tend to make things public. Us ADHD’ers have a fair few traits that impact us, and one of those is RSD (Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria), which leads us to become people pleasers. The last thing we want to do is have someone shun us. Combine that with heightened empathy (which doesn’t impact everyone with ADHD) and it tears us apart to let someone down. So, sharing what I’m doing - even if a low level task - really helps motivate me and encourages the ‘hyper focus’ that is another quite contradictory trait of ADHD.

Playing Chess - I spend some free time playing chess (which will be a subject of a future post). It is an utterly addictive game and unusually, works well for those who are neurodiverse. Those who are autistic tend to excel in pattern recognition, which sadly isn’t a strength of mine. So for me, the training helps to improve pattern recognition, and playing helps to sharpen my ability to focus and not be distracted.

Focus Music - I use an app called Endel to help me focus in so many scenarios. It creates soundscapes which are almost like a massage for the brain, that’s the only way I can describe it. I use it when working, when clearing the inbox, and when playing chess. And as evidence that it works, my chess ELO increased by a significant amount in two days, with the only difference being that I wasn’t distracted by all and sundry as usual.

Sound Baths - yes, it might sound crazy, but sound baths are a meditation where someone strikes various gongs. Truly relaxing, and helps to unwind the mind a little for some temporary relief.

Organisation Systems - whilst I just can’t get along with digital organisation, I have a different box for all of my things and make sure that once a week, I do a sweep and put everything in their place. I’m not diligent enough to keep to it at all times, but it really helps me knowing where my car keys are, and helps to limit the number of times I leave home and have to go back. Similarly, structuring where things are so that there’s less reason to forget something.

Smart Home Automation - the forgetfulness isn’t just limited to the car or my keys. I have set up smart home automation to automatically turn off lights, heating and so on every day. A perfect example of why this is needed was in my face on Sunday night! I cooked in my oven for the first time in 18 months. Yes, I had to text a friend to make sure I’d set it correctly. Safe to say I have the cleanest kitchen in Essex! I heard beeping at 2am (whilst I was on a random dopamine hunt, doom scrolling). Yes, oven was left on… and the only reason I learned of this was due to brushing past the timer minutes before after grabbing something from the fridge. At the time of cooking, my mind simply moved on to something else - who’d have thought the oven needed switching off when food was removed? Apparently not me.

App Blockers - personally I used Freedom, but struggled with recent updates despite having a lifetime membership. These stop you from going down random rabbit holes.

Replacing the Dopamine Hunt - this is a *big* one. My understanding is that ADHD symptoms arise from the brains inability to convert dopamine properly. So, we have ‘dopamine hunts’. My catnip was always binge eating and online shopping. Medication helped somewhat, and I noticed that my Amazon order emails were all in the evening, rather than at any time - the pills helped but not completely. So, knowing that the hunt is still there, I actively found other ways to replace that dopamine target. With knowledge comes power, and I gained the power to improve the things that motivated me and gave me those unnecessary ticks that my brain craves. Having said that, I’m just thankful it’s never been illegal drugs, alcohol, or gambling, like so many succumb to.

So there you have it! I’m an open book with this stuff. Any questions - just ask - but remember, I can only share lived experiences, and of course, I’m not a medical professional.

Carl Reader is a WH Smith Bestselling Author and international keynote speaker with a real passion for helping people do better. There are two ways to learn more about Carl! You can either follow him on Social Media if you’re just curious (@carlreader on most platforms), or if you’d like to learn a little more about what he does on stage, through content and in the media from a commercial perspective, you can visit his website at www.carlreader.com

You can buy a copy of his last book BOSS IT online, wherever you are in the world. And of course, I’d love you to subscribe to this community to be the first to see everything I have to share - just click the button below. It’s free of charge!

Subscribe now

There’s an important disclaimer which applies to all content shared on this Substack, available at the bottom of the about page, together with the statutory information that is required to be shared under current UK legislation.

I’ve decided to share an article that I wrote in November 2018, which had cropped up again in my LinkedIn feed for some reason.

Back then, I was preparing for ‘retirement’. And it officially happened in January 2019.

I effectively became a non executive director alongside Ben, my business partner in the dt group.

I became part of a takeover of a football club. I finished off the book BOSS IT. All whilst doing some bits for dt, but it could hardly have been called full time by any stretch of the imagination.

So, why is this hard to share?

Because life is full of lessons. I could hardly now call myself retired - and I’m not just at peace with that, but happy with that.

And in my next post, I’ll be sharing what I wish I knew when I wrote this article.

The funny thing is, the stuff in this article still makes complete sense, and I think is extremely valuable advice for anyone looking to scale a business. In it, I share the methodology we were using, the mindset around ‘flipping the script’, and so much more.

As always, the challenges are the blindspots. The bits you don’t foresee and don’t know.

Have a read through it, and let me know what you think. At the end, I’ve popped something else which you might find interesting too around the subject of retirement and life planning.

And of course, make sure you subscribe to be the first to read the next post - this is only half the lesson…!

Originally shared in November 2018:

I often write about things that I feel I can help business owners with. But today, I'm writing about what me and my business partner Ben are learning about as we move into the joint-chairman role - each and every day, on the job.

The biggest change in my business life.

We all have that dream. To build a business, kick back, and retire on a beach somewhere. To let others take what we've built and push it forwards.

I'm part-way on that journey, and I'd like to share the good, the bad, and the ugly of the situation.

Over the past few years at #TeamDT, we've built a management team, and then the processes to help the managers have a way of managing. The wrong way round, but it worked eventually. We had the people, and gave them the tools for their jobs.

This limited us, as management only takes you so far. So, we've been on the journey of building a leadership team. Finding people who are better than me and Ben, to take on our executive responsibilities and take what we've done to the next level.

Making yourself redundant is far more difficult than it sounds!

On the face of it, it should be easy. Give someone else your chair and desk (I did that a couple of years ago). Tell them what to do. And get out the way.

The challenge is that to be a truly effective CEO / MD / head of an organisation, as Ben and I are used to being, you need to make decisions quickly, roll your sleeves up, and get on with it. In truth, that's what we enjoyed doing too. That's the buzz of being in business.

To be a truly effective chair, you need to help facilitate your board. You need to help them identify their and the businesses opportunities and weaknesses. You need to help develop their thinking, and act as a sounding board rather than as a solution.

For someone who is used to creating, deciding, and doing - this is a real culture shock!

For the wider team who may be used to asking you for answers - it's even tougher.

Why are you a joint chairman? Shouldn't there only be one head of the organisation?

This is exactly the point of this article. An effective chairman is not the head of an organisation. An effective chairman helps the board develop it's strategic thinking, so that it can lead the team effectively. The board is the head of the organisation, and the CEO is the head of that board.

Ben and I have shared 'head' responsibility from an executive perspective previously, because the combination of our differences in personality and skills is far more powerful than the individual components. If you've read Rocket Fuel by Gino Wickman, you'd understand the phrases "Visionary" and "Integrator". We respect each others' strengths and weaknesses, and work towards filling in the blind spots that each of us has.

So, given that we've already cracked how to do the 'tough' joint job, it should be easy to do the 'servant leader' joint job. After all, we are now not there to decide - instead, we are there to support. The role is actually far simpler to split, once the responsibilities and limitations of the role are truly understood.

Come on Carl, you're usually all about advice. What advice can you give to anyone else looking to make this move?

I normally only give advice on things that are tried and tested, usually by me. So, I'm going to caveat this advice by saying that it is based solely on my learnings to date, and we're still going through this process.

But, that said, this is what I have learned so far:

• You need to get over yourself to do this properly. Most of us who have built a business to any real level will undoubtedly have a large ego. To make the transition to chair, you need to first acknowledge the ego, and then get over it.

• You need to respect the decisions of your board and your team. If you undermine them in any way - by either making decisions for them, complaining about their decisions, or contradicting their decisions - you end up taking one step forwards and five steps backwards. Whilst you might not agree with their tactical decisions, you need to weigh up whether the cost of undermining the board outweighs the risk to the business of that decision. Bearing in mind you'll be investing a significant sum in salaries, team development, and the sheer effort in managing the organisation-wide change to allow this, it has to be a 'million pound risk' to even be worth undermining. Bearing in mind that our team, our clients, the community, our market, and being blunt - my family - depend on the right tactics being implemented, it is a difficult balance at times, but an important one.

• Your job is to serve the board. The board will have different requirements from you, depending on their needs. Being a sounding board is key, but you might need to fill in with functional roles. So for example, I still work crazy hours as an "evangelist" (or as I prefer, a flag waver). Ben still works crazy hours in transitioning all of the operational expertise and experience to the team. But, we have to accept that we are now servants of the board - and when they tell us what we are or aren't needed for, we need to listen.

• You have to create even more distance. One of the toughest things about growing a business is that you lose touch with the team. At 20 staff, I knew the names of everyone's partners, pets, etc... this became tougher and tougher, hence the need to build a management team. Now, rather than distance being a factor created by scale, it has to be a factor created by design. If I allow any long-serving team member to come directly to me rather than follow the structure set by the board and the management team, I unwind all of their good work. If I allow any customer or supplier to negotiate directly with me, I risk jeapordising not only the processes but also the culture that the team are trying to set. I have to deliberately make myself impotent insofar as how the business runs, so that the business can run.

• Your work isn't over. Instead, I've found myself focused even further into the future. Looking at the next 20-30 years rather than the next few months. Looking at the wider changes that might impact the business. Creating relationships outside of our customers and prospects. And helping to find the seeds for my board to plant, so that #TeamDT can continue to flourish.

I'm sure that there are many more things that might come to mind later - and I'd be delighted to hear the views of anyone either aiming for this, or from those who've been there and done it.

So, there we have it. My words and thoughts, exactly as they came out of my keyboard back in 2018. If you liked it, I’d truly value if you could share it with anyone who you think might find it valuable.

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The follow up will be posted shortly, where I’ll share the words and thoughts that I wish I had back then. That post won’t be all business, and you’d likely not even see the link if I didn’t mention it. But I have, and you will ;-)

If you like this post, I’m pretty sure you’ll find this one food for thought as well - it’s called Rethinking Retirement - and it’s about how we can live our lives better, without counting down the days.

Carl Reader is a WH Smith Bestselling Author and international keynote speaker with a real passion for helping people do better. There are two ways to learn more about Carl! You can either follow him on Social Media if you’re just curious (@carlreader on most platforms), or if you’d like to learn a little more about what he does on stage, through content and in the media from a commercial perspective, you can visit his website at www.carlreader.com

You can buy a copy of his last book BOSS IT online, wherever you are in the world. And of course, I’d love you to subscribe to this community to be the first to see everything I have to share - just click the button below. It’s free of charge!

There’s an important disclaimer which applies to all content shared on this Substack, available at the bottom of the about page, together with the statutory information that is required to be shared under current UK legislation.

Thankfully I had a bit of a gap whilst driving up the M40 towards the Midlands, and I had a choice. Do I stop at a Costa Coffee for some dreadful hot coffee - on an already hot day - or do I make a swift detour to Bicester Village?

For those that don’t know, Bicester Village is an ‘upmarket’ designer outlet village just north of Oxford. And, it’s outdoors!

There was no choice to be made really! I’d visited a couple of months before, back when the weather was typically British, and saw an ice cream kiosk that looked *amazing*. Now was my chance!

Ice cream bought, I decided to pop into a couple of the newer shops at that end of the Village, and didn’t really expect to buy anything until I saw an amazing baseball cap in Brioni.

When I say amazing, it really was. 100% Cashmere, branding was nearly non existent… although to be fair it was something to be stored for a colder day. And when I saw the price - wow. I think it was £40 or £50. To give you an idea of how good that was, the same type of cap albeit with a bigger logo retails for £488 today.

A luxury cap at New Era prices. So I bought two.

During the checkout process I was asked for the usual details - my name, my email… and my heart sank. Yet another soulless email list for me to unsubscribe to. Let’s be honest, whilst I like nice stuff, I’m not really Brioni’s target market, and there stuff is best described as ‘spenny’!

Imagine my surprise when I received the following email (note, I’ve deleted the sender name):

Dear Mr Reader

I hope to find you well?

I would like to thank you for your recent visit to our Brioni boutique.

It was my pleasure to meet and assist you with your new cap.

I am confident they will be an excellent addition to wardrobe.

Wish you enjoy the day in Bicester village,

Please do not hesitate to let me know if you need any further assistance and we looking forward to your next visit.

Kind Regards

No sign up to a mailing list, nothing. Then this, about a month or so later:

Dear Carl

I hope this email finds you well.

It been around a month since you were here last and i want to take the opportunity this afternoon to contact you and find out if all is fine and well with the cap you purchased with me when you were here last?

Have you had the opportunity to use and wear it yet?

As always,if i can be of any further assistance to you,please do not hesitate to contact me as it is always a pleasure to assist my loyal clients in anyway that i can.

Finally,I hope you and your family have a lovely day and i will look forward to hopefully welcoming you back our boutique here in Bicester village again soon.

Kind Regards

Imperfectly perfect.

Some people might complain that this is dreadful, unprofessional, and that the assistant should be sacked for the grammatical issues in the emails.

But you know what? It was clear from his ethnicity that English may not be his first language, but more importantly… these were sent from him.

Not Mailchimp, not some flashy CRM system, but him.

He took the time to type these, and whilst he probably has no idea who I am and just noted it down in a diary, the fact that he took this time (and was allowed to take this time) to send the emails for what was probably their smallest value sale in the year is just mind-blowing.

How many of us feel that some of our lower value customers are not worth personal attention?

Well, I guess the proof in the pudding is that I bought an Alpaca overcoat from the store maybe a year or so later. Again, a tremendous bargain (no chance I’d pay the six or seven grand they sell for at retail), but I know for sure that part of my purchasing decision was those emails.

Those imperfect emails.

Carl Reader is a WH Smith Bestselling Author and international keynote speaker with a real passion for helping people do better. There are two ways to learn more about Carl! You can either follow him on Social Media if you’re just curious (@carlreader on most platforms), or if you’d like to learn a little more about what he does on stage, through content and in the media from a commercial perspective, you can visit his website at www.carlreader.com

Subscribe now

You can buy a copy of his last book BOSS IT online, wherever you are in the world. And of course, I’d love you to subscribe to this community to be the first to see everything I have to share - just click the button below. It’s free of charge!

There’s an important disclaimer which applies to all content shared on this Substack, available at the bottom of the about page, together with the statutory information that is required to be shared under current UK legislation.

Have you ever used an app and slowly realized it wasn't made with you in mind? That's how I feel when I use Notion. The app is full of language that's cryptic to anyone who hasn't worked inside a software company…

The app itself isn't much better. Use Notion, and you will notice that every example of how to use the application is oriented around the software industry in general and Silicon Valley startup culture in particular…

It's as though Notion were built by people who've never worked anywhere outside the Silicon Valley software industry, and never even talked with someone who has. All kinds of businesses have information that needs organizing. Why aren't there templates for local retailers or law firms or—I don't know—farmers? Notion comes across as being built by people who don't have much regard for other kinds of businesses.

Because of this, Notion may feel unwelcoming to the vast majority of people, most of whom don't work in tech. I'm a technology journalist who used to work at a software company, and I still struggle to comprehend much of the jargon in the user interface. I can only imagine how users who hadn't been exposed to the industry would feel.

Let me start with my Notion experiences, which don’t contradict the authors’ viewpoint in any way. I used it a couple of years ago, begrudgingly. I absolutely loved the concept of combining notes and tasks and organisation beyond the level of notebook apps. It seemed to be a perfect place to store work and life admin, to manage projects at a rudimentary level, and so on.

In fact I was such a fan of using it myself, I tried to roll it out to my team with a view of using it as a customer collaboration tool as well.

There was one big problem. It looks bloody scary.

Now, I stumbled across this review as I wanted to know how it works nowadays. I secretly hoped that it would be a Yammer to Teams transition, rather than a Slack situation of a bit of kit stuck in the way it was built, seemingly by coders for coders.

I get why this happens. People who start businesses, and people who create cool stuff, tend to have an overwhelming enthusiasm for what they do.

It’s a concept that was coined ‘the E-Myth’ by Michael E. Gerber - the myth of the entrepreneur. Anyone who has read that book knows of the story about Sarah’s pie shop.

Whilst many entrepreneurs (and indeed CTO’s) might be closet technicians at heart, the very best thing that they can do is:

1. Acknowledge that fact;

2. Remove their blinkers; and

3. Accept brutally honest advice from their parents / grandparents, or if budget allows or a funding round is burning a hole in their pocket, a ‘UX expert’ (although I suspect Nan would give the harshest but best advice)!

You are not your customer.

Your customer is nowhere near as passionate about you as your product or service. That’s a given. But, they are also nowhere near as educated as you in what you do, they likely don’t know what you know, and so on.

The easiest way to avoid this trap is to “say it as if you’re talking to an eight year old”. Simplicity never hurts anyone. But, I get that some people will be rightly cautious, and / or have their head up their backside, and will believe that they have to use jargon and fluff to appeal to their market.

So, without wanting to teach you to suck eggs, this is what you should do. Create some avatars of your ideal customers. Simple, huh? You’ve probably already got one avatar?

One is not enough.

There’s a saying around neurodiversity, which is “if you’ve met one autistic person, you’ve met one autistic person”. You can never bundle different people, different experiences, different paradigms, different ways of life into one category and expect that they all are the same. Even if your product or service is hyper focused, there are likely several avatars that you could create.

I’m not suggesting you go bespoke for everyone unless that’s your strategy. I’m suggesting that you look at the market you want to serve, find intelligent groupings (ideally split between the estimated size and value of each), and then reflect.

• Do all of your avatars have the ability to understand your offering immediately?

• Would all of your avatars find the product or service a true no brainer?

• Does it tick the emotional drivers for each of the avatars? And so on.

It’s about hitting a reasonable middle ground that helps to avoid the ‘by us for people like us’ trap, whilst minimising the work involved when you go to deep on this stuff.

If you are in the B2B world, you probably want to think of the avatars of all stakeholders - not just those who sign the cheques.

And if in doubt, dumb it down to the lowest common denominator. A good sales and marketing team will be able to fluff the proposition out sufficiently if you need to play the corporate willy waving game of big words and sounding important for certain avatars. But remember, no one gets sacked for buying IBM, and no one gets sacked for making things simpler and easier to use.

Carl Reader is a WH Smith Bestselling Author and international keynote speaker with a real passion for helping people do better. There are two ways to learn more about Carl! You can either follow him on Social Media if you’re just curious (@carlreader on most platforms), or if you’d like to learn a little more about what he does on stage, through content and in the media from a commercial perspective, you can visit his website at www.carlreader.com

Subscribe now

You can buy a copy of his last book BOSS IT online, wherever you are in the world. And of course, I’d love you to subscribe to this community to be the first to see everything I have to share - just click the button below. It’s free of charge!

There’s an important disclaimer which applies to all content shared on this Substack, available at the bottom of the about page, together with the statutory information that is required to be shared under current UK legislation.

Those who know me would know that I have, unusually, kept myself to myself over the last year and a half. It has been a turbulent year personally, and a testing year in business.

Before you shed any tears for me, fear not - it’s all good and lots of great stuff happening - but, I simply haven’t had the time or the energy for the trimmings.

This week, I caught up with the ‘Dream Team’. I’ve known each of them for years, some longer than others, and all of the guys are cracking people as well as prominent people in the finance / business world. I first met Kev as editor of Accountancy Age, James as Assistant Business Editor at The Times, and Nick as Nick… that bloke is *everywhere*. And as for Bobby… well, Bobby is simply a legend. The face of Shelley Stock Hunter (later part of Blick Rothenburg), he has left his marks on both the accountancy world and the business press.

A great time was had by all. But that’s not the point of this post.

Business is not B2B or B2C. It’s H2H. Human to Human

I’d been guilty of letting the B2B get into the way of the H2H. And after a while, it starts to bite.

Don’t get me wrong. It has been a tremendously exciting time at the dt group. (Yes, we’ve rebranded). New offices, new ventures, all sorts. And in the last few months, we’ve set a six month strategy and smashed the first couple of months of it, exceeding all expectations.

But these things take a toll.

Something has to give.

And for me, over the last 18 months, that’s been my social media - which has been patchy at best - and being out and about. Doing what I do best.

Well, I’m glad to say that the boy is back in town!

I know many people class networking as ‘not working’. And to the untrained eye, that’s probably how it looks.

Here’s the thing. People don’t suddenly gain a huge amount of trust in you from an advert. They don’t suddenly like you from a PR piece. These things take investment of far more than money. It’s an emotional connection which leads to a mutual trust, reassurance, and potentially even a friendship. Only then will people truly want to do business with you.

The second myth is that when networking, you should sell to the people you are networking with. To that, all I can say is “behave yourself”.

Do you go to a networking event to buy stuff? Probably not.

Do you get excited at the thought of chucking away 10 crumpled business cards after an ear bashing from lots of salespeople? Nah.

Don’t inflict that misery on others!

When it comes to building a network - and I like to think I’ve done OK at this stuff - it’s more about putting out the right energy and just meeting people. If stuff happens, great. But don’t force it.

Nine times out of ten, your ideal buyer is actually a friend or contact of the person you’ve built a connection with.

And you never know where that connection can come from.

So for now, the boy is back in town! Yes, the below picture was shared by Kev on Instagram, and yes he had Thin Lizzy as the audio. I can’t get it out of my head, so consider it my gift to you - I’m paying it forwards…

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Carl Reader is a WH Smith Bestselling Author and international keynote speaker with a real passion for helping people do better. There are two ways to learn more about Carl! You can either follow him on Social Media if you’re just curious (@carlreader on most platforms), or if you’d like to learn a little more about what he does on stage, through content and in the media from a commercial perspective, you can visit his website at www.carlreader.com.

You can buy a copy of his last book BOSS IT online, wherever you are in the world. And of course, I’d love you to subscribe to this community to be the first to see everything I have to share - just click the button below. It’s free of charge!

There’s an important disclaimer which applies to all content shared on this Substack, available at the bottom of the about page, together with the statutory information that is required to be shared under current UK legislation.

But after seeing Southend draw against Forest Green on Saturday, with us having a shed load of corners, this idea of a post had to come to life.

Don’t worry, it’s not *all* about football!

At the start of last season, my mate Andy told me that statistically, only 2% of corner kicks result in a goal.

Being a geek, every single time Southend get a corner, I think of that now. And I haven’t seen them score from a corner since.

Those who watch football will know that corner kicks raise a sense of expectation. A hope that something may happen. And an average match has between 10 - 11 corners. My gut feel was that Southend get about 4 per match, so lets say 5 based on the averages.

For the matches I’ve seen, which I guess is 30 since that comment, that means that we should’ve had 150 corners and using that percentage, 3 goals.

What lies are hidden beneath these stats?

I have no reason to believe that the percentage is wrong, nor the average number of corners. But I also have no reason to use that percentage as a metric.

The only thing that idea of a statistic tells us is that Southend score 0% of goals from corners in the matches I’ve seen. There are matches I haven’t seen. And other teams might score 3%.

At the end of the day, we often hear a statistic and feel we have to live to it.

“You should spend 10% of your income on marketing”. Said the marketing consultant looking to sell his or her services. Regardless of whether you are a business that needs to spend 70%, or a business that doesn’t need to spend a penny.

The only statistics that matter are those that matter. The statistics that move the needle, the statistics that you are focusing on, and the statistics that you can measure accurately.

Don’t be swayed by folklore or what others are doing.

Work out the key statistics that matter to you or your business, monitor them relentlessly, and look to improve on those.

(although, three more goals may well have been the difference between Southend being non-league or playing league football today…)

Carl Reader is a WH Smith Bestselling Author and international keynote speaker with a real passion for helping people do better. There are two ways to learn more about Carl! You can either follow him on Social Media if you’re just curious (@carlreader on most platforms), or if you’d like to learn a little more about what he does on stage, through content and in the media from a commercial perspective, you can visit his website.

You can buy a copy of his last book BOSS IT here, wherever you are in the world. And of course, I’d love you to subscribe to this community to be the first to see everything I have to share - just click the button below. It’s free of charge!

Subscribe now

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There’s an important disclaimer which applies to all content shared on this Substack, available at the bottom of this page, together with the statutory information that is required to be shared under current UK legislation.

Sometimes, the advice we give is the advice we should give ourselves.

And this one is one that I need to remind myself of, on a daily basis!

Consistency is the cheat code.

Just imagine a brick wall.

We don’t just wish for it and it happens.

Instead, it is built, brick by brick.

The first few bricks might be the toughest and most time consuming to lay. I imagine that you’ve got to get your cement mixed, get your tools together. work out where it’ll be, have a cuppa… you get the drill.

(PS I’m not a brickie and never have been. But I did help my Dad when I was a kid!)

Each brick represents an equal step towards the end goal, but it’s boring. A three bedroom house requires over 11,000 bricks according to Google! But each one is as important as the other. And without a single one of them, the house can’t be built.

So many people, including me, look for shortcuts to success.

A ‘magic pill’ that makes you healthy and happy.

A ‘hack’ that makes you more productive.

An ‘investment’ that makes you a billionaire.

The reality is that every wall is built from hundreds, if not thousands of bricks. And the process of laying the bricks is just as important as the finished product.

They get easier to lay as time goes on and you’re in the swing of it.

What’s more, once you’ve built it, you value it.

Think of the stories of the lottery winners who lose it all.

I often tell audiences and share on social media various cliches such as “big riches come from small pound notes”, and so on. It’s true.

If you want a million social media followers, start by attracting 10, each day. It’s very hard work just to get that! But that’s what I did in the early days.

If you want a pension fund of a million pounds, start by saving £100 per month.

If you want to lift 100kg, start by lifting what you can lift, and add small increments.

And so on.

Here’s the most important part… don’t give up after a couple of bricks!

Probably the most unattractive and boring advice I can give. I could tell you to take joy in laying each brick, but that’s down to you. Personally, I find it tough. I can visualise the end goal and I want it yesterday. It’s rubbish, but it’s a fact of life. We all need reminding of it sometimes. Life doesn’t seem to like us taking too many shortcuts.

Rome wasn’t built in a day.

Carl Reader is a WH Smith Bestselling Author and international keynote speaker with a real passion for helping people do better. There are two ways to learn more about Carl! You can either follow him on Social Media if you’re just curious (@carlreader on most platforms), or if you’d like to learn a little more about what he does on stage, through content and in the media from a commercial perspective, you can visit his website.

You can buy a copy of his last book BOSS IT here, wherever you are in the world. And of course, I’d love you to subscribe to this community to be the first to see everything I have to share - just click the button below. It’s free of charge!

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Bear with me…!

One of the strangest phenomena that I’ve experienced in this strange thing we call life is the financial thermostat. I’ve nicked this term from the author of “The Millionaire Mindset”, T Harv Eker. It’s an old book but it still holds true.

The concept is dead simple.

Basically, we all have an inner thermostat that we revert to. Just like the thermostat at home (if you’re based in the UK, imagine you are somewhere with air conditioning). Whether the weather is freezing cold or boiling hot, the temperature always returns to a nice comfortable 21 degrees celsius, unless you set it higher.

Eker contends that this applies to our finances too. That we all have a pre defined ‘temperature’, and until we consciously decide to change it, we always revert to our default.

This might sound like nonsense, but we’ve all heard about the skint lottery winners. And many of us have come across the amazingly prudent low earners who end up with a very nice bank balance, just because that’s how they are.

The concept of the thermostat isn’t particularly fascinating to me. I think that there are so many things in life where we have a baseline level. The thing that interests me with all of these kinds of things is how we change them.

And this is where coffee at Novikov reminded me of something I’d forgotten.

Now, this was something that I’d taught myself to do intuitively a decade or so ago.

Those who met with me during the late early 2010’s will likely have experienced the change of my thermostat. Coffees at Bulgari Hotel in Knightsbridge, whilst I take notes with an 18kt Mont Blanc.

Forget the pen - that part seems ridiculous now that I count the last time I used ink in years not hours. But the coffee - this was a direct implementation of Eker’s lessons, and it worked.

He argued that the only way to become comfortable with having more money and living a nicer life was to experience it and embrace it. By making a conscious choice to spend more money that you have to.

So I did that.

Now, the accountants in the room will probably flip.

After all, there was a Starbucks around the corner.

But seriously… why would I endure the Starbucks opposite Harrods, complete with ridiculous queues for both the coffee and the toilets, when I can sit in luxury for a couple of quid more? Why would I endure the awful coffee, when I can enjoy decent coffee for a couple of quid more? And before I start talking about the free of charge sweets, let’s actually think about the important thing.

The people I met also got to enjoy it.

For two of us, the price difference would likely be all of five or six quid.

If it was a work meeting, it’s on me to make that pay back by the bucketload.

And personally - well, it’s a whole lot more memorable to spend down time with those you choose to when you choose somewhere nicer than the easy option!

Even though these were probably 10-15 years ago, I remember work meetings and chatting with Paul about his bespoke shirts, Vicky about her upbringing,  Mick about his Porsche, having cocktails with Mikey… but as for Starbucks meetings? They blended into one.

There were (at least) two people at each of those meetings. It won’t be just me who remembers those…!

So, I guess my own experience validates to me why choosing a nice venue for a meeting is obvious. Let’s say £3 more, for two people, on four occasions. I’m sure I made £24 from these, and that’s presuming I paid for all of them. Maybe some of you needed that validation but for many, it will be obvious. But…

Why should you pay for it when alone?

The thermostat.

When I was in Dubai last week, I had a spare day on Saturday.

I’d had a hectic week that ended up unexpectedly eventful, and unexpectedly successful. I needed downtime, I had stuff to catch up on, and frankly I was frazzled.

My thermostat was also turned down to one degree above freezing! After an expensive divorce, the battles every business owner faced with COVID, and frankly a finger that needs pulling out with respect to my speaking and other activities, I’ll be honest. I’d become acclimatised to saving a few quid wherever I could. Evidenced by the *awful* Chinese takeaway the night before, to save a few Dirhams…

Anyway, after a walk to Dubai Mall to clear my head, I looked up and saw Novikov, and in that moment I recalled the thermostat. The thermostat that had been turned down due to previous events, and not returned to where it should - no… where it *needs* to - be.

Here’s what happened:

• I enjoyed the first cup of coffee all week. I sipped it slowly. And filled in this time with making a start on clearing those emails that had backed up

• I spent some time enjoying the environment, allowing my head to calm down a little

• Similarly, I sat still for about an hour, rather than queueing, drinking a coffee from a cardboard cup, whilst making myself busy but unproductive

• I saw the obscene wealth of some of the other guests - this led me to a place of wonder, inspiration, creativity, and a number of questions in my mind. If they can do it, why can’t I?

Most importantly, I remembered what I need to do. Personally and professionally.

Now there will be some who will still question whether the extra two or three pounds is worth it. If that list wasn’t compelling enough, I just want to hit you with the most unexpected part of it all.

I decided to have lunch there afterwards. And another drink. The grand total was about thirty quid.

The coffee was cheaper than the hotel coffee, which I gulped down in the hope I couldn’t taste it.

The chicken salad was cheaper than the dreadful Chinese takeaway, the box of which was smaller than the plastic fork it came with.

The time out was a much needed pattern interrupt in my way of thinking.

And the time out was likely far more productive than any of the hours I spent queuing for “cheaper” coffee.

So, what can I suggest for you?

If you don’t want to read Eker’s book (which, by the way, I do highly recommend), then please just do this one thing. Next time you are in a city, buy coffee from the very best hotel, rather than a chain.

Take a moment for yourself. Or, enjoy the meeting in a great environment. Savour the taste, savour the experience, and let your mind decide how best to take value from it.

Do that a couple of times, and you’ll start tweaking that thermostat if like me, you grew up without a wealthy mindset.

Enjoy x

Personal note. I’ve been exceptionally busy the last few weeks, and have only just learned how to forward schedule posts! So, based on my self awareness, I’ll be moving these to a once weekly cadence. I’ll be testing and measuring a few things so you might not see some consistency in the timings just yet. But at least I’ve now got some time, on a Sunday evening, thousands of feet above mainland Europe, to do this!

Let’s call this one a Monday Musing…

Carl Reader is a WH Smith Bestselling Author and international keynote speaker with a real passion for helping people do better. There are two ways to learn more about Carl! You can either follow him on Social Media if you’re just curious (@carlreader on most platforms), or if you’d like to learn a little more about what he does on stage, through content and in the media from a commercial perspective, you can visit his website.

You can buy a copy of his last book BOSS IT here, wherever you are in the world. And of course, I’d love you to subscribe to this community to be the first to see everything I have to share - just click the button below. It’s free of charge!

Subscribe now

Share

Leave a comment

There’s an important disclaimer which applies to all content shared on this Substack, available at the bottom of this page, together with the statutory information that is required to be shared under current UK legislation.