“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!

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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.

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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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.

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

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.

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!

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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.

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.

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!

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.

• A glimpse of some of the thoughts shared in my keynote at 24 Fintech in Saudi Arabia

• My views on the ever increasing pace of innovation

• A ‘call to arms’ for us all to take a step back and think bigger

We’ve all had our lives changed by tech - and the pace of that change has been simply mind-blowing over recent times. I remember quite a few years ago I heard Tony Robbins talk about this on one of his audiobooks.

The fact I heard this on a CD audiobook kind of says it all…

He talked about the product development cycle. It was fascinating to hear the difference in cycles between VHS and DVD players. Whereas VHS players were updated every few years, DVD players were updated in the space of months.

When we think of tech today, in particular software, that comparison seems almost antique! We live in the age of always on updates, constant innovation, and a never ending path to a ‘greater good’.

Or do we?

I had the honour of being invited to keynote the inaugural 24 Fintech event in Riyadh. Hosted by the organisers of LEAP, probably the most impressive event I’ve spoken at, I was certain that it would be the kind of event that would have the smartest minds in the industry there. On that side of things, they didn’t disappoint. It was a wonderful event, wonderfully well organised, and as a keynote speaker they made it a pleasure to be part of.

But, I had a disappointment to share on stage.

My disappointment in what the ‘greater good’ is.

Side note - this may feel like an oddly specific post as you read on. And it is. If you’re not in Fintech, you may wonder what this has to offer you. In life and in business, we sometimes need to step back and take a helicopter view.

Is your ladder leaning against the right wall? If the excitement of climbing isn’t quite there, maybe you need to think about what you want to do when you get to the top of it…

Now, I’ve been an observer of the fintech world for far too many years. I’ve sat on all sides of the table - I’ve been a very early customer of embryonic SAAS solutions, I’ve been a (failed) fintech founder, I’ve advised fintechs of all shapes and sizes, I’ve served fintechs as a brand ambassador, and have had the privilege of a peek behind the curtain working with a scale up in the space.

In the early days, this stuff was full of excitement.

I remember how painful the very first online accounting tools were, and the sheer excitement when dial up internet was replaced by broadband, so that transactions could be entered into a system without a five minute wait. I remember the groundbreaking innovations such as the implementation of bank feeds, the use of API’s to share data between applications, and even the ditching of the offline portals which were used by many applications - presumably due to the primitive nature of the underlying tech platforms and the innovation that was yet to happen.

In fact, to really hammer this home, it’s probably worth sharing why I stepped down this path. It was really simple. Floppy disks and CD Roms were getting broken in the post! Most readers probably haven’t heard of such ancient relics of a previous world…

This whole thing felt like a step into a much bigger world. A world full of unknowns, but with ‘greater good’ at the end of it. This greater good was never really defined, but it was there. We felt it.

Here’s the thing. The ‘greater good’ is still not defined. And we’re not feeling it.

Now with my keynotes, particularly one such as this which is rather niche compared to my usual ‘bread and butter’, I like to plan. I never script, and to be honest I tend to work around some core themes and have a conversation from the heart. But I do plan. I spend time reflecting on the world in which my audience sit. I want to understand what’s going on - everything from the day to day of their jobs, through to the macro stuff that they don’t even think about. I want to get a taste of what it was like ten years ago, and what it will be like ten years from now.

That’s the stuff I have to obsess about. Because, there’s no point in me being booked if I can’t help them fix something or make something better.

Surprisingly, despite the fintech world being something that I’ve floated around for many years, I hadn’t taken this helicopter view. I hadn’t taken the opportunity to step back and dwell on the ‘greater good’.

And when I did, boy was I disappointed.

We’ve gone from a world of unlimited possibilities, to a world of incremental improvements and shaving a microscopic fraction of a percentage off of payment fees.

Instead of widening, we’ve deepened.

When I’d worked out the ‘nagging feeling’ that in truth, I’d been carrying around anyway, I decided to then research some statistics. Now, I know that it could be argued that the statistics I found and shared were from a point of bias - after all, I’d decided my big picture stance and it would’ve been quite frustrating to have that proven wrong! - but, I tried to be as balanced as I could and to both prove and or disprove my views.

Perhaps the most staggering fact was that according to the World Bank, 24% of adults globally are unbanked. Further, I know from work that I did with Intuit back in c. 2018 on a brand ambassadorship campaign around the use of digital technologies by small business showed that a quarter of small businesses in the UK had only one form of digitalisation.

For context, in this report the definition of digitalisation can include anything from email, social media, online banking, and so on - right through to the things that you might think of, such as business process automation and CRM systems.

Simply mind-blowing. Well over a billion and a quarter of us unbanked. Well over a million and a quarter UK businesses - a ‘leading economy’ - behind where the group think is.

It could be argued that fintech solutions are preaching to the converted. More tools, flashier tools, quicker tools, to a captive market.

Wouldn’t it be amazing if that greater good could be the eradication of poverty?

It might seem like a fluffy greater good for commercial businesses to focus on. Indeed, let’s be honest, I’m not entirely sure which income line is going to be filled by a business focusing on this. Indeed, I’d imagine the board will have a torrid time justifying it to their shareholders.

But I’m sure there are ‘CSR’ (corporate and social responsibility) activities that could actually prove to be a win win. I’m not gonna give all my answers away here - frankly, I don’t have all of the answers, and even if I did, there’s little point copying my homework as they could well be wrong. Having said that, the ones that jump out to me are the activities that fintech companies can do around supporting new markets, improving financial literacy, and generally being good guys. Thinking about how marketing spend can be diverted from tube adverts to YouTube education. How investment can be diverted from new shiny buttons to new but rusty markets.

I’ve not even started to share the crazy stats around global fraud. Fun fact, if 40% of fraud was eliminated, it’s the same as the combined GDP (Gross Domestic Product) of 174 countries. I’m not going to say how many countries there are as that may unleash a geopolitical hand grenade - but this is broadly 90% of the countries out there!

So. It’s not for me to answer whether the ROI stacks up insofar as reaching for a greater good. Or indeed, if this is feasible. But it might inject a whole load of excitement into fintech that was last felt circa 2012!

Side note - this wasn’t the key focus of my keynote, just a section that I felt particularly passionate about, alongside others which I may share more about later. If you’d like to learn more about my keynote speaking, you can either visit the speaker section of my website or speak to a member of my team.

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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• No fluff, no made up stats, just tips. 64 amazing tips.

• Actionable things you can do today to help set you up for when you need to do it

• Mindset hacks to take your mind off of the things that might concern you

I love a good bit of research and a statistic to show I’ve done it. I could tell you that 99.9% would rather die than speak on stage, but it was made up by me. Like most similar stats.

Instead, I’m going to cut to the chase, mute the stuff I want to say, and give you 64 practical takeaways to help arm you with the tools you need to conquer this fear.

I’ve given this advice to many people, some of whom are now speaking regularly as keynote speakers. It’s not rocket science. Here goes!

Stuff you can do right away

1. Get used to the sound of your voice through a microphone. Yes. It sounds different. It sounds odd. But over time, you get used to it. Take any opportunity to talk through a microphone. Borrow one and plug it in to your computer. Use that old karaoke machine that is gathering dust. Get used to hearing your voice as the outside world hears it, not how you hear it as you speak.

2. Get clear on what you can speak about. Remember how much you know. And also how much you don’t know. This will help you decide what you should and shouldn’t speak about.

3. Take stock of the conversations you had today. Think about when you chatted to friends, colleagues, and loved ones. How did they go? Did you plan every word for weeks in advance? Did you overthink the content? Did you worry that they would ask difficult questions? Did you think you’d lose your words and freeze up?

4. Appreciate the value of your voice. Some of us don’t have a voice. And I don’t mean that metaphorically. Being non verbal is a thing, a thing that has impacted me deeply. Cherish the fact that you can use your words, your tone, and your accent to communicate your thoughts, your feelings and your opinions.

Stuff you can do over the next week or so

1. Count how many people you are speaking to. Often people are scared of speaking to ‘lots of people’. But in day to day life we don’t see that tipping point. Did you speak up in a group of six people? Personally, I find groups of 6 to say 25 far harder than rooms that can seat 5,000. Strange but true. I’ll come to that later. But, in reality, if a seventh person joined that group of six, it wouldn’t change a thing.

2. Notice when you speak stood up. Another thing I’ve noticed is that people don’t like being stood up when speaking. It makes them vulnerable. But if you speak, you almost certainly speak whilst standing. You don’t grab a chair when saying thanks to the barista at Starbucks.

3. Record yourself speaking and listen to it. Several times. You’ve got to get used to this. Not only is it part of your improvement plan, but also, it makes you comfortable with your own voice.

4. Try to identify verbal tics. Are there words you overuse, or fillers that you use to mask what should be silence? Silence is one of the most powerful things you can embrace on stage. Embrace it in real life. My vocal communication used to be full of “ok, so like I went to the shops and like I…”. I don’t think I say it at all now! Absolutely was another one. That’s harder to shake off.

Creating a plan to help you speak more intentionally

1. Actively seek opportunities to be the centre of attention and put yourself on show. If you are sat down in a restaurant or a social setting, rather than staying sat down, find a reason to stand up and talk. Perhaps do this when you’ve got a point you want to emphasise. Even better, use your hands or physical actions to make a point. That’s public speaking right there.

2. Find opportunities to speak in a derisked environment. Lots of people recommend Toastmasters and groups like the Professional Speakers Associations. Personally I didn’t go that route. Toastmasters would slaughter me for not even being able to pronounce my surname properly, and the PSA is full of people like me who love the sound of their own voice. Is there any opportunities around your hobbies, passions, faith, and so on?

3. Get clear on what you want to speak about. This may be different than the speaking you are concerned about. Find your passion, if you don’t already know it, and consider volunteering for podcasts or similar.

4. Watch some of the great orators, and some of the not so great. Listen and look. There are loads of videos on YouTube. Pay attention to anything distracting. When you get a sharp radar for this stuff, you’ll notice all sorts. I remember watching Rishi Sunak during the start of the pandemic and all I could see was his dreadful visual distraction and clear incongruence. Many were wowed by the political Christmas gifts, whilst I was burning with frustration watching someone who clearly needed more coaching and more confidence.

Handling the ‘opportunities’ that cause fear

1. Understand and appreciate why you’ve been asked. No one invites a speaker in the knowledge that they will screw up or that they will not know the topic. They believe in you. Look in the mirror and ask yourself whether you believe you could have a conversation about the topic. If so, that’s all you’re going to do on stage.

2. Get clear on the scope of the talk. How long should it be? What do the audience want? What does the organiser want? What are the thoughts, feelings and actions that should be evoked? We’ll come to how to construct the talk later in this article.

3. Get clear on the setting. Where is the talk? What time? Will you be introduced? Do you need to provide a bio or any information to help you be introduced? How many attendees will be there? What will the layout of the room be - theatre, caberet, horseshoe, or auditorium? Will you require a microphone (likely if over 50 attendees)? Will you need to attend a sound check if so? What kind of microphone will it be? Will you have a comfort screen (a monitor which shows your slides so you don’t have to look behind you)?

4. Become a prima donna. Don’t accept using your own laptop. Find out the spec that they need for any slides and send it to them to manage. The last thing you need on the day is the hassle of trying to set up tech when you’re nervous. But, on the day still take your laptop with the slides on it. Plus a USB key with them. Plus your phone with them emailed to yourself. And a spare clicker. You can never be over prepared for this kind of stuff. I also insist on a lapel mic if possible, followed by a headset, and only use a handheld if I absolutely have to.

Preparing what you are going to present

1. Think about the general audience journey. I tend to carve my keynotes into three - I was always told our attention spans are an absolute maximum of twenty minutes, and I believe that actually they are far shorter. Think about how you are going to open, close, and fill that sandwich.

2. Create a step by step plan for the session. These become your slides. So, for example, you may have a strong opening hook such as a ‘wow’ fact or a statement of a problem; followed by some clarification and scene setting, followed by some detail, followed by solutions and a big bang ending. Scribble words on post it notes and shuffle them around until it feels right.

3. Design your slides, delete at least 95% of the words, and then delete another 95%. A picture paints a thousand words. A slide full of text and data bores the shit out of everyone. It’s really not that important - if they need that data, send a pre read. But again, delete… Create a one page exec summary, and then attach all the data as an appendix for the geek in the corner who actually reads it. Put any key callouts or data in the ‘notes’ section - but, limit yourself to one or two lines. And no scripting.

4. Aim for an absolute maximum of 20 slides. For an hour (which is by far the longest that one subject should be), that’s 3 minutes per slide. With my hacks I’ll share later, you’ll see why! I tend to use Canva to design my slides but Powerpoint to finalise. This is because custom fonts and graphics can be awkward on different machines.

Practicing what you are going to present

1. Do not write a script. Do not. Do not. Whatever you do. Do not write a script. Whip out your phone, and record yourself using a voice memo app. I prefer to use ‘presenter mode’ if using Powerpoint so that the timer runs visibly and I can check that I’ve balanced the flow of the session.

2. Listen and take notes. Did you crack any great jokes, find a turn of phrase that worked really well, or stumble anywhere? That’s the stuff you need to either reinforce or fix. Rinse and repeat.

3. Reconsider the theme. Do your slides actually take you on the right journey? As you were talking to your phone, did you notice that you referred to anything that was a few slides later? Shuffle them around now if you have to.

4. Reconsider the slides. Hopefully after the last session, you cut out most of the nonsense on your slides. Nonsense being words and bullet points. Now that you’ve heard yourself say the stuff, have you caught yourself repeating yourself? (Hint: if you say it and see it, that’s repetition. Save repetition for when it really matters. Wow moments, key callouts, key call to actions).

Polish the important stuff

1. If you have a great start, the rest happens naturally. Nerves kick in just before you start, and they ease pretty quickly afterwards. The first few lines are the one area I’d recommend scripting. Have a ‘wow’ opening. That’s not ‘Hi, I’m Carl, and I’m here today to talk to you about… zzzzzzz’. That will send the audience to sleep. They don’t care about you. They want to be educated, informed, motivated, and kept awake. You should never say your name, what you do, or what you are going to talk about. If they want that, get them to introduce you. Your job is to share what the audience want - and for them to receive it, you need to pique their curiosity. Ask a big question. State a controversial or amazing fact. You can even share a little quip about the venue or the weather if you absolutely have to. Just don’t do what 99% of presenters do. It’s not big and it’s not clever.

2. Give it a happy ending. Find a way to ensure that it doesn’t fizzle out. Build up to something that not only caps off a great talk, but also makes it absolutely clear that the session has ended. There is nothing more awkward than a speaker ending what they’re saying whilst the audience is waiting for the next slide, and that is a result of not thinking through the flow of the session. This can be scripted too if you absolutely have to.

3. Get someone to look over your slides. If you have any words, check for typos. If you are speaking in a different culture (eg a Westerner speaking in the Middle East), get it checked for any local sensitivity. And double check that the slide format is correct. Normally, 16:9 is the standard ratio and PPT / PPTX is the usual format.

4. Think of a one word reminder for each slide. Pop it into the notes app on your phone. You’ll need it later. That’s going to be the extent of your notes.

Leading up to the day

1. Reconfirm everything. Venue, arrival time, sound check time, length of session, who will introduce you, and so on. Reconfirm how they want slides delivered to them. Reconfirm any promises of a comfort monitor. And check if they want time for a Q+A.

2. Practice as much as you need. I very rarely practice a keynote now, but that’s because I have a conversation on stage around a finely polished structure and flow. The time I’ve saved in practice is put into planning. But for the first few years, I found that recording myself talking, even whilst driving, worked really well.

3. Plan your day around the talk. Yes, it may only be half hour or so. But, you’ll want to build in contingencies for traffic, for chats outside the room, for questions afterwards, and so on. You’ll be surprised how much of your diary a talk takes up. Far more than you’d ever imagine.

4. Make yourself feel great. Get your nails sorted, your outfit decided, and do what you want to do to feel like a million dollars on stage. You’ve got to be comfortable with all eyes being on you. And whatever you do - do not plan drinks the night before. Have more respect for your audience. They are giving up their valuable time to hear what you have to say.

The morning of the talk

1. Get there bright and early. There’s no point whatsoever loading yourself with extra stress. Limit your access to emails or anything potentially stressful. Take a stroll outside, take some deep breaths, take some time for yourself… whatever you need to do. You’ll find what works for you.

2. Think about what you eat and drink. I prefer to talk on an empty stomach. Not because of nerves, but because of the small risk of any food being still in my mouth and any resulting noises being heard on the microphone. I normally have a coffee to liven myself up, and water to clear my throat. I don’t tend to have sugary drinks as it can make your mouth ‘sticky’, again picked up by microphones.

3. Meet the organiser. If it’s a large event this may be tricky, but do try to make the effort to show them that you are there. You wouldn’t believe how many speakers flake out of events. Show them how different you are. Cancellations are the stuff of their nightmares.

4. Meet the tech team in the room. They should be your best friend. Get kitted out with your mic when they tell you to, and try to get an opportunity to get a feel for the room. If you can talk on the mic and hear yourself, great, but even without one you’ll get a feel for the acoustics. Check the fonts on the slides. Look at the stage and check if the promised comfort monitor is actually there (often it’s not!), check that it’s on presenter mode (usually it’s broken!), and confirm whether there’ll be water on stage and where you’ll find the clicker. Work out where you should stand and move, bearing in mind you don’t want to have the slides projected on your body. Work out whether you can jump off stage and mingle with the audience if you’re feeling brave. Work out how much back and forth and side to side movement you can do without looking down and without fear of falling off the stage. Look at the lectern and make a commitment to yourself that you will not hide behind it.

An hour before your talk

1. Go to the loo. Yeah, it happens. Try to plan it intentionally, just in case a disaster happens. You never know.

2. Whilst hidden away, scribble the one word notes onto your palms. This is by far my biggest cheat. It’s an easy set of notes to help remind you of your slide order, so you can ‘magically’ talk and segue from one slide to another without anyone seeing a transition. You’ll look like a pro.

3. Re read your slides as many times as you need to. Because you can’t when you’re on stage!

4. Put any notes in your back pocket. They are not to come out on stage. You’ve been booked as a speaker, not a reader. And, if you shake when you are nervous (most people do), anything you hold will show it. Especially paper. It’s like an amplifier for shakes! The back pocket trick is great as it puts your mind at rest knowing that they are there. I don’t do it personally but know many amazing world class speakers who do, even today.

Just before your talk

1. Meet and greet your audience. Yes you’re the speaker, no you’re not a celebrity. Get to know them, and ask what they want from the session. And their name. It adds an amazing opportunity to make their day if you feel confident enough, and has the added benefit of a new friend in the room.

2. Double check that you’ve been mic’d up. Sometimes I forget. It’s always worth checking.

3. Grab a bottle of water. Or three. You can never have enough water on stage.

4. Remind yourself that everything is going to be great. You’ve got nothing to fear.

How to talk on stage

1. Pace yourself. When nervous, you’ll speak really fast. The 30 minutes you planned will be done in no time at all. So take it easy. You’re not a member of Kurupt FM and your audience won’t appreciate you rapping to the tune of “FY2025 results”. Silence really is a powerful tool. If you can embrace that awkwardness, you’ve nailed the first step of stagecraft.

2. Embrace a variation in vocal tone. No one wants to hear a boring voice. Liven it up! Here’s a simple tip. Think of the most charismatic speaker you can think of, and take the mickey out of them. Vocal tone, pace, movement… all of this stuff is a game of exaggeration.

3. Embrace any stumbles. We all do it. You might mispronounce a word. No one cares. Just fix it as you would in conversation. The only stumble that is a deal breaker is anything discriminatory / offensive. But I don’t need to tell you that.

4. Have a chat with the audience. Don’t lecture them. Be conversational, tell stories, be you. They want you, not a robot. And they certainly don’t want a robot that reads the slides. They’ve already read the slides long before you’ve got to the end of the first bullet point.

How to move on stage

1. Move. Don’t be a dead body. Use your arms, use your feet, walk, engage with different parts of the room. That leads us nicely on to

2. Focus on sections of the audience. For a larger audience, carve the room up into sections, and look at each section. Each member of the audience will feel like you are looking directly at them. Find a smiley face in each section and smile back. You’ll be the most charismatic speaker they’ve ever heard!

3. Don’t be defensive. It is tempting to cross your arms, cover yourself, turn away from the audience, and so on. These are all natural defence mechanisms. And the audience will sense it. This is the time to rise up and be you.

4. Don’t be annoying. My annoying movement tic is pacing up and down too much. Be intentional with every movement you do, and every movement you don’t do. No hands in pockets, and certainly no jingling your keys!

How to handle audience questions

1. Plan in advance for likely questions. Think about what they might ask. If the organiser is insistent on a long Q+A (anything over 3 - 5 minutes), consider building a slide with questions for them to ask. Because British audiences tend not to ask questions! I’m not a fan of questions - I love answering them, I really do, but audiences don’t like asking them and it leads to awkward silences. In fact I generally refuse to answer questions for keynotes, as keynote content shouldn’t lead to questions in the same way that detail or breakout content should.

2. Accept that ‘I don’t know’ is a perfectly fine answer. It’s far better than lying. And the only way you can improve on it is by offering to find out the answer for them.

3. Never spend too long on a hyper specific question. Learn the art of deflection and offer to chat afterwards, one to one. Every single person in the room will be thankful for it.

4. If you are unclear on the question, start your answer with the question. Repeat it back and frame your answer based on your understanding of the question, and end it with ‘did that answer your question’. It shows respect for their wish to hear your thoughts on their question.

How to handle moments that can cause nerves

1. You’re not the most important thing in your audiences life, but during the talk, they are the most important to you. Things like audience members giggling, looking bored, checking their phones and so on can freak you out whilst on stage. Guess what? They might just have a bored face, have had a funny text message, or had an emergency. Can you hand on heart say that you’ve never said a comment to a friend, or checked your phone during a conference? They’re not talking about you, they’re wondering what’s for lunch.

2. A listening face is a bored face. Don’t confuse attentiveness with boredom. They look the same!

3. If you think you might want to try audience participation, don’t. If you’re not absolutely convinced that you can handle it, don’t do it. You’ll get the smart arse. It always happens.

4. Remember that most of the audience are just glad that they aren’t you. They’re not over thinking it, but they are relieved that they’re not on stage. Take pride in what you are brave enough to do.

Things you can do to improve

1. Do it again and again. Practice doesn’t make perfect, but it gets you damn close. Keep refining your craft.

2. Develop yourself. Learn about stagecraft. Learn about using your entire vocal tone. Learn about timing. Learn how to design better slides. Watch the experts in action. Learn about comedy at a class and about the structure of jokes and the rules of humour. Learn about great speeches and what made them memorable. Learn about rhetoric. Learn about learning styles. Learn about handling questions. Learn about the art of props and how to integrate them into what you do. Learn about storytelling. Learn.

3. Ask for brutal feedback. Ask those who you respect to give you no holds barred feedback. It’ll hurt, but it’s those blows which help you improve. You need to keep taking them until you get booked and rebooked consistently. It takes many many years.

4. Give back. Give others a platform, Recommend speakers to bookers. Give them tips. It’ll remind you of what you need to work on as well.

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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What you will get from this post:

• An honest look at brand value versus exposure

• How to take customers from transactions to raving fans

• Some tips on how to make your brand stand out in a world full of noise

Saturday 28 September, 2024.

A gloriously sunny day in what felt like the start of our Autumn.

I was en route to speak at an event in Edinburgh on Sunday, and had to stop in London to change trains. With lots of time to spare.

Thankfully, I enjoy a bit of window shopping. And this time, some actual shopping! The latest Travis Scott x Air Jordan collaboration had released, and I was able to buy a pair from the good people at Offspring, who have an outlet in Selfridges. This one is going to be the topic of a future post about brand…!

On the way in, I clocked a cart selling Tiffany & Co coffee.

Well, more accurately, I saw a queue of people, and as someone who is an absolute sucker for anything in demand I made a mental note to have a look afterwards and see what was at the end of the queue.

Why were all these people taking pictures?

Anyway, trainers bought, mates caught up with, and I decided to go and get a coffee at this mysterious blue cart.

I sent Billie (you know, the inspiration for this post) a picture of the cart, and we had a little WhatsApp chat about how much I was going to be ripped off for. My guess was a tenner. But, I hadn’t had coffee, had time to burn, and Instagram stories to fill with inane nonsense.

And Billie made a comment that she’d be the awkward customer who asked for a cup with just hot water so that she could keep the cup.

It was free of charge.

So of course I asked for an espresso, and a cup of hot water. They must’ve thought I was mad, and it was likely the cheapest souvenir I’ve ever obtained.

I had a brief chat with the guy and he mentioned that it was part of a campaign that Selfridges and Tiffany were doing, to promote the store display that Tiffany will have soon. I’ve got to be honest, I was craving coffee sooooo much that I didn’t really think of asking any follow up questions, let alone actually ask them.

But, when I took a few minutes to drink the coffee, some thoughts raced through my mind.

The coffee was ‘meh’ to be honest, but actually, that’s completely irrelevant. And doesn’t impact the power of what Tiffany’s marketing team had done.

Let’s take a step back and think about what brands are looking to achieve with these kinds of initiatives.

Firstly, they want to promote to those who are outside of their current audience. Who doesn’t like a free cuppa? Now, it’s unlikely that many of those who are within steps of Selfridges are unaware of Tiffany, and I’d be absolutely certain that if it was “Carl & Co” promoting coffee, there’d be no-one there to take pictures - anybody queueing would just be exploiting the offer of free coffee, with no emotional attachment whatsoever.

I’d like to think that my view that this isn’t focused on a new audience is reinforced by data. According to statista.com, brand recognition of Tiffany in the UK in 2022 was 89% amongst jewellery owners.

So that wouldn’t be the main driver for this (although, with the number of pictures taken, it’s possible that some people would’ve been introduced to the brand through social media shares).

It gets more interesting as you dig through the stats within the aforementioned site. Tiffany has 42% popularity, 23% usage, and a measly 16% and 15% for loyalty and buzz respectively.

And therein lies the second objective for brands that offer ‘swag’.

Buzz.

Loyalty.

‘Brand ambassadorship’.

They want to take their own audience - the 89% of people with brand recognition - on a journey from being transactional customers to raving fans of the brand.

But there was a magic ingredient, in my opinion, which really made this work. And so many businesses miss this point completely when working on these initiatives.

Now, I’m not a marketer by any stretch of the imagination. As someone who is basically a ‘business builder’, I get marketing, I love marketing, but I’m not academically trained in this stuff. Nor have I achieved any qualifications in marketing. I play on the outskirts and could best be described as a curious observer. So, feel free to act on the below, but don’t say “Carl told me…” if it goes tits up.

It’s called ‘thoughts from Carl’, not ‘advice specifically for you from Carl’, for a reason!

Why is this different from other ‘big brand’ initiatives?

I’d like to compare this to a very similar campaign that I saw from Samsung.

In fact, Samsung’s campaign was better set up for success (in theory).

They were offering personalised espresso shots in their Oxford Street store, probably about a year or so ago. You went in, had your picture taken with a webcam, and two minutes later they served you an espresso with your face on it.

It had all the hallmarks of a successful viral campaign. Personalisation, a unique experience, and something that is quite clearly shareable on the ‘gram.

But, it didn’t have that ‘x’ factor. And I put that down to a rookie mistake, and an issue totally out of their control.

Now, Samsung are no slouches in the branding world. Again, they have immense brand exposure. Whilst they could hardly be considered as a ‘luxury’ brand in the same way as Tiffany & Co, it can’t be argued that they are unknown or considered cheap and cheerful. Indeed, on the same statista.com website their recognition is 95%.

But, they were playing against an ever so slightly less recognised beast.

Here’s my musings on where the differences were:

• Tiffany & Co displayed their luxury brand on a luxury cart outside a luxury shop, almost designed for that perfectly instagrammable picture. Samsung served it at the back of their shop.

• Taking a moment for a coffee ties in perfectly with the luxury lifestyle that Tiffany & Co would like to portray. Whilst ‘pushing boundaries’ is arguably Samsung’s tech ethos, I have to ask - why coffee?

• The cups were big and blue. Samsungs were grey, espresso sized, and if I remember correctly, didn’t even have Samsung written on them!

I’m no brand consultant, but I’m sure that someone, somewhere, could’ve charged a lofty six figure sum telling Samsung that what they actually wanted to do was to offer something that ties into the wants, needs and desires of their target audience. Maybe some kind of promo item that clips the stylus to your phone (if they still do those phones with them), a personalised theme for your phone that can be snapped and shared - heck, even a branded holster for your TV’s remote control so you’re never left lacking!

Basically, a bit of plastic or digital genius, that is aligned with what you do and who your market are. Why coffee?!

These thoughts are all well and good, what should I do if I want to do the same for my business?

Let’s face it. You’re (likely) not Tiffany & Co. And you don’t have that blue.

But, you can learn from the lessons of both Tiffany and Samsung (plus, some peppered thoughts around what I’ve observed over the years).

• Don’t expect customers to want to wear or promote your brand. You may love your brand. In fact, you should love your brand. But you will care about it far more than anyone else. Who gives a monkeys if you are xyz’s biggest seller of whatever? So, just the brand won’t help.

• The setting can help frame your brand. If you are looking to use ‘swag’ to help build your brand, then this is likely the most important thing to think about. The coffee was ‘meh’ but the beautiful cart outside Selfridges was instagrammable. No one really cares about the thread count in a t shirt that’s ruined by a company’s logo plastered over the front.

• Make sure that you are absolutely clear on the alignment of what you are offering and your intentions from the campaign. Is it to build brand, to deepen advocacy, or something else? Do you want it seen in person or online?

• Weigh up whether something more expensive in lower volume could achieve better results. You can get a private dinner in London for around £60 a head in a lovely iconic restaurant. If your customers are worth thousands, and you know who your prospects are, surely it’s worth considering the option of something that isn’t a dodgy pen sent to all and sundry (and likely ignored in favour of the Mont Blanc, and then nicked by someone who doesn’t make the purchasing decision)

• Don’t ask people to share it on social media. Don’t presume they will share on social media. Work your socks off to make sure that it’s so compelling to share, that they don’t see any option not to.

These kind of campaigns can and do work.

Tiffany, you get my full admiration for smashing it out the park. And Billie, you are now the proud new owner of a cardboard cup with the iconic blue sleeve.

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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• Some insight into how I approach design and how I get inspiration

• The tools I use to do this stuff quickly, painlessly, and free of charge

• Things you must do if you are a stickler for detail like me

I’ve always had a keen eye for design.

Those who know me will know that I collect trainers. Those who know me well will know that I collect trainers because I see them as wearable art.

Design inspires me. Whilst I’m no expert, I take my inspiration from stunning architecture, I get wowed by tech with a striking look, and I get geekily obsessed with small things like fonts and colours.

Basically, I like things to be 💯. Or whatever emoji is now the socially acceptable one to convey ‘spot on’.

In the past I’d engaged web designers to create my personal website, but there was a nagging feeling. It wasn’t right. And frankly, that would’ve been down to my guidance. My tastes have changed, fashions have changed, and we move.

I last redesigned my personal website about three years ago. And I went bold.

Whereas many ‘personal brand’ sites have bright yellow or orange text, striking colour clashes, and so on; I took inspiration from the colours I wear and a feeling. I know I stand out and look a little rough around the edges, and needed a colour scheme that is congruent with who I am. Almost military, I guess. Although you don’t get many in the military with face tattoos.

Since then, I have changed a lot. Weight loss means I’m nearly half the man I was before. But, the design just needs a tidy up. I liked it. I didn’t love it.

So, the redesign is happening. It’s a work in progress. And it’s easier than ever.

I stumbled across an Instagram reel from @fatummusic which shared some amazing tools. He took pleasure in saying, quite rightly, that he wouldn’t gatekeep this information.

I won’t gatekeeper either.

I’m doing this redesign myself. As I said before, I’m no designer. So I had a little help from these tools and services. Here are my thoughts, at the point of writing:

INSPIRATION

Liberty / Selfridges / Harrods - ridiculous but true. I look at all sorts of products to spot trends in design and fashion - colours, typefaces, materials used. It helps me to get a feel for what works.

Brandsite.design - a fascinating repository of brand guidelines from brands we know and (possibly) love.

Behance - again, a home of design to sniff around and see what floats your boat. Also, Instagram is great for this!

COLOUR SCHEMES

House of Colour - I had a colours consultation with the wonderful Kelly at House of Colour, as part of my preparation for keynoting at their annual conference. Whilst this might not be a step that you want or need to take, it helped confirm my gut feel of what colours work for me when I wear them. The differences between a good colour and a bad colour are staggering. A bad colour can make you look washed out and unwell. A good colour? Wow! As my image is on my online content, it seemed to be natural to take guidance from this process.

Digital Colour Meter - this is an app on your Mac. I believe there are similar tools within all design software, including Adobe and Canva. It allows you to select a colour on your screen and gives you the hex code. I don’t know if there’s a standalone PC equivalent. You may also need to use a colour code converter to convert an RGB output into a HEX code. It’s much simpler than it sounds, I promise! My core colour was the beige background, and I wanted to maintain that.

coolors - this is a colour palette generator which shortcuts the process of finding a complementary colour palette. And it’s so simple to use. It provides the colour codes, and saves the agonising process that I went through before to try and find colours that just worked using HEX codes and colour picker tools. If you use this tool, it also has a colour code converter.

Using my base colour that I already knew from my previous website and reaffirmed from my colour consultation, I used the above tools to generate this colour palette. I wanted 3 ‘stand out’ colours and 3 ‘muted’ colours to work with going forwards.

Here’s my results. I’ll likely tinker with these once I crack on with content creation - either as a formal refresh or as a tweak if things just don’t hit right when I start using them, but I’m happy that they can work for the time being.

Funnily enough, as I type this, I notice a slight difference between my ‘base’ colour - the current background on my Substack - and the palette. That will be changed as I know the colour I want for the background.

This whole process to build the palette took about 10 minutes, and with the exception of the consultation, is free of charge.

DESIGN

Canva - if you don’t know Canva, get to know. We use Adobe within the dt group, as I can’t get the words ‘don’t take investment advice from a man with artwork made on Canva’ out of my head. I’ve no idea who the MC who rapped that was, but it rang true! However, for my personal purposes, I don’t have to spend the p’s… it works. I use it for social posts, AI imagery, all sorts.

Wix - for the website build, I used Wix Premium when it was first designed. If I’m honest, I’m only sticking with it as I’m in the second three year prepaid subscription. I believe there are better solutions, but for now it’s great for making quick and dirty edits when needed, and even an amateur like me can make it work.

You’ll see that there is one notable omission. I’ve not talked about fonts. How to choose them, how to use them. There’s a couple of reasons for that.

Firstly, there are a number of limitations within online tools. My hands are tied whilst using Substack, Canva, Wix and so on. I have no issue with using stock fonts as I have no wish to design everything on a bespoke basis. I need to find fonts that work across the board and consistently.

And secondly, I want to get some content going. As I create it, I’ll see it, and I’ll feel it. Most of this stuff is gut feel. And, the font is probably one of the bigger changes. Given that it’ll likely also be driven by at least one of the aforementioned off the shelf tools, it feels like a conbination of both the most and least important choice.

What I do know however is that I’ll be using a serif typeface for my words, and a bold (likely sans serif but not definitely) for my callout headlines on socials.

What next?

Once I’ve played around with all this stuff, tweaked it (and yes there will be countless nights of tweaking I’m sure!) and tested it pre launch, I’ll draft myself some brand guidelines.

I’ll then double check that everything cross checks and is consistent.

This might sound ridiculous for a pet project, but, I’m not going to any crazy levels with this. Although, I’m a self confessed tinkerer (if that’s a word)! I love playing with stuff and seeing if I can tweak it and make it look just a little better.

One thing is for sure. I’m going to make sure I write down the fonts, write down the colour codes, and use them consistently.

That’s it. The bare minimum I need for brand guidelines.

If you’ve got a business or have anyone else creating anything that represents you online or offline, doing this is even more important. And you need to include so much more to make sure that you communicate in the right way, at the right time, every time. At the dt group, our green was referred to by a former team member as ‘sh*tty green’. And he had a point. It was awful for legibility, and a little jarring. We’ve been lumbered with it for some time, we’re gonna deprecate it at some point, but still - it’s in the brand guidelines.

Why?

Simple.

Because ‘sh*tty green’ is a really bad brief for a designer or a printer.

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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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.