Discover how M19 associate Jim Cunliffe has been working closely with Young Enterprise plus details of a special University of Brighton event this Spring I have been working with Young Enterprise for the last few years, and I'm always keen to attract new business advisors to get involved with the programme. On Thursday 27th April, the Brighton Area Young Enterprise Company Programme finals are taking place at The University Of Brighton, and I would love you to come along and see what the kids have been doing this year. There will be around 10 groups of kids, from schools in the Brighton area, showcasing the businesses they have setup. This is the most incredible thing to see, how the guys have grown over the short time and some of the innovative and wonderful products and services they bring to market. Join me for the evening, you won't regret it. You may even want to get involved. That's the idea. You'll need to register your attendance (here). It's free and numbers are limited, so only register if you are definitely available. Jim Cunliffe
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Many business initiative books teach not to focus too much on TV news. But surely we need to for good business decisions? How do we differentiate? What is obvious to experience is the constant deluge and angling of reports, as it's easy to get caught up in rolling reports on the TV and hourly bulletins on the radio, plus not to mention your newsfeeds on social media. It seems that rarely do we have time to stop and appreciate that there are an abundance of inspiring things in process or taking place like in the video above initiated by astronaut Chris Hadfield.
For not only is repeat news a waste of time and a downer, a lot of it is deliberately gauged to hit news cycles and maximise the impact of somebody's agenda. A lot of it is inconsequential to our day, filling it with noise we can easily switch off to focus on our projects. This week I think I got my final reminder that the provision of news information has got to a point of desperation and oversaturation when it was announced, no, debated even that the actor Tom Hiddleston's 'brand' might be damaged. And I won't even waste your time with a link. Why is this important? Or news? Or news to you? Whether you regard this so-called reportage as a mild form of lunacy, as I do, or at best, interesting hype reflecting the reach of modern media, the one thing that we can agree on is that it's not your enterprise they're talking about. Plus, it's your ongoing positive mindset constant news is taking from, being most certainly a waste of your time and imagination. So, in response to this, if you are feeling oppressed or excluded by national and world events I invite you to think about the amount of repeated news you're being exposed to and whether you find it directly useful to your enterprise or sector. One effective way forward is to say, focus on only financial news, or have timed bulletins sent to you by email alert or SMS. In the meantime take heart from the good news in the video above: hopefully this will provide some creative inspiration for you. Check out this interview where motivational speaker Mel Robbins talks about "being ready" to pounce As a personal recommendation I encourage you to take the time to watch the short clip at the very least (it's just a bit more than a minute long), but I also strongly recommend watching the whole 50 minute episode of "Impact Theory" on YouTube.
YES: we are brought up in an environment that encourages being careful about any decisions we might wish to make.
And yet again, every decision we do NOT take, or take too late, or with too little conviction, may just be a missed chance. Biologically, we may wish for things to stay the way they are because that makes us feel secure. But it also keeps us from exploring new - and maybe better - options when they present themselves to us... and act on them. Loving this new Co-op initiative where promoting customer loyalty also means helping local causes For the case in St James Street, Kemptown for example, the shop gives 1% of everything spent on store-branded products and services to a choice of Brighton and Hove LGBT Switchboard, Brighton Youth Centre and Somerset Day Centre (pictured). There is an option to select just one as well. This is on top of the standard loyalty-encouraging 5% back to spend at Co-op.
We love inclusive initiatives like this at Meet 19. To sign up you buy a card in the store for £1 then fill in the membership at the Co-op website membership page. 2/12/2016 0 Comments The upside of 2016It's been a dark 2016, so says many, so says many news headlines. Jonny Wills takes on celebrity exit, the mess of Brexit, the swing to populism, climate change denial, fake news and dealing with the demagogue Trump, with a positive look at these past twelve months to help you, just in case you've let it spoil your year and fret for the next So many stars, stardust
So many famous people, full-stop. The truth is that the more celebrities are created the more are going to pass from this planet. The sixties and seventies gave a wealth of entertainment and the obituaries written by journos like the BBC's Nick Serpell – effectively significant reviews of notaries – lay piled up in wait. Check these stats from the BBC, and raise a glass and celebrate the talents given the world by David Bowie, Prince, Ronnie Corbett, Terry Wogan, Alan Rickman, Leonard Cohen, Lemmy, Gene Wilder, George Martin, Victoria Wood, Mohammed Ali, Johann Cruyff, Caroline Aherne, George Michael and Carrie Fisher to name but a few. Aren't we lucky to have the work and memories they've left behind? Not to mention Dr Donald Henderson who directed the eradication of smallpox and Vera Rubin who confirmed the existence of a quarter of the universe. Right now we can celebrate the great people around us: those volunteers, charity workers, healthcare workers and family carers who continue to devote themselves selflessly to the living without the desire to court fame. Brexit, schmexit When even the speechless, plan-bereft lead Leave campaigners were filling their pants, many awoke the morning of June 24th 2016 with a sickness in their belly that wasn't just because they were seeing Nigel 'Admiral Ackbar' Farage giving a Churchillian victory speech like he'd won a war for Britain or indeed the 'Rebel Forces'. To tell you the truth I wrote an article on LinkedIn to help navigate the complex nature of the Leave/Remain decision put before the British people. I aspired to dissect the multi-layered, multi-faceted politicial, geographical, financial, historical and idiosyncratic reasons affecting the non-mainland European state of mind. It actually revealed how difficult the job of politicians really was in weighing up not just the pros and cons, but personal feelings, common sense and taking on or avoiding polemical cliché. The original draft forecast came out Brexit – not least because the British people were also commentating on the Establishment, and confusing the European Council (EC) with the EU as a whole. So for balance, I found some more issues (and source articles) in the debate till Remain made the piece more palatable, lest my liberal friends lump me or my country in the prediction form, with Gove, Farage and Murdoch. It's since been revealed that this dog's brexitfast was less about fear and more about wanting control, which for some is still the same thing. My personal desire would have been for us to exit (wait for it), grow and reinvigorate a new EU and help lead a more economically-led, less idealised superstate vision. After all it was always the EC that was the unaccounted-for, secret society, policy drivers. This fantasy version could still be unfolding! But the real beauty has, frankly, been the squeal of sovereign parliamentary democracy in bizarre concertina: from both globalisation... but yet back, for not only world trade, but for... European deals, again. EU-President hopeful Tony Blair has set up shop in the shadow of Big Ben to influence what happens nexit, while The Smiths reunion was thwarted by Morrissey's glee that the Establishment had been kicked in the elite structures. Yet for all the forecast and arguement, upheaval and emancipated old-school prejudice unleashed by the events last summer, this democracy that first killed a king back in January 1649, before the other so-called great national revolutions of the French, Russian, American and Spanish, and even the formation of Germany as a nation, has proved that this supposedly sceptic isle is alive and vital with debate: that parliament still needs the judiciary, that the executive still prefers to look to be representing the people and that Britain, still incredibly without an actual written constitution, exists in a self-governing whirly-flux, ahead of the curve of world politics and prone to delivering stomach-churning realisations that we hate change, as such about-faces tend to be. Not the end of liberalism We'll get to Donald. But let's not focus on the neggy nastiness that already exists in the alpha human nature to progress and succeed, but in a surprising strangeness revealed by a turnaround from liberal politics, media and it's elite this year. Just hear me out. Much of the name-calling, comedy memes, fearmongering and, well, smugness, came from a group that should have known better; liberals. Perhaps it was time for their power to swing away in the States as it was designed to do. Perhaps Clinton started realised she was not as high up on the moral pasture as Obama too late, or perhaps Jeremy Corbyn is still too moral and cutting-edge Westminster to make that translate to the people that need Labour to lead them, not be them. It's a superimposive righteousness that conversely revealed Gordon Brown's contempt, not his morally-driven ideals. I count myself as a neo-liberal. But the truth is politics has moved on, sick of left, right and doing the hokey-cokey. And it's happening all over the Western world, squeezeboxing itself back in from being so globalled. At first it might seem scary, but as with Brexit, many politicians, learning from the destruction of the right into something seemingly more arbitrary, and the disintegration of the solid centre through the sheer force of change not being moderate, have learnt to be more pragmatic and well, more gung-ho fuck-it honest. At least ostensibly. Clarity, a we are the 99% nowness and freshness is what gets Corbyn liked nationally, but an old school, socialist fervour fanbase is what gives him party power and I dare say, a secret pride. Fate is fickle and indifferent. Riding randomness, seizing opportunity and feeding popular fears in turbulent times will be what wins fortune: Theresa May, Donald Trump and Nigel Farage in the media every day seem cases in point. Perhaps it's the term illiberalism that sticks in the craw. But no matter how populism is labelled, it still has the word liberalism in it. That's not heavy-handed optimism: This means there is a reaction to good intention, which is a good thing, because then no one wants to do go on and do bad. There no turning back from goodness, you have to keep going forward or else look pretty evil. The so-called anti-liberals or 'rudenames given them' are winning on the people ticket and will have to deliver, else the backlash on them will be catastrophic. New politics politicians will have to continue to be seen doing right by the will of the people more than ever (even if they don't, it's still ostensibly a start). Theresa May's first speech as incumbent PM was packed with such promises, and our gasp when Kate Bush endorsed her reminded our instincts that it was May in charge of immigration – arguably the key issue for Brexiters – for six years. So the world has moved on – even it's for a phase of renovation – and PC-politics has found it's boundary. Can it really be set back? I wager it will be revitalised, with a much needed and more earthy, face-facts humanity put into it, even if it means us addressing sociologically our own inner darknesses. For 2016 called it: The liberal-minded had rested on their laurels and principles for far too long, and the future moral balancing will only make the next ethical generation's good will come out that much wiser and more determined. Climate gamechanging If it's all about reality with climate, let's do indeed ignore the 99% of scientifically-proven factual study. I'm being sarcastic. If you can remember the last time we had a summer or consistent seasons then you might have a right to deny that climate change is real. But then you'd have to further defy all the 'since records began' stats that show it's never been warmer – with 2016 being the hottest year on record. Newly-appointed Strategic Presidential Advisor, and 'green billionaire' Elon Musk needs to ask Donald Trump why he built sea walls round his golf course in Scotland and why New York gets flummoxed by freak snow blizzards on a regular basis. We've reached a point where carbon dioxide won't fall below 400 PPM (part per million) in our lifetimes, hurricanes and fatal floods are now annually hitting Britain and disastrous weather is almost nightly news. So where is the positive news? To start with, the Paris agreement was ratified by 118 of the 194 of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) this December, a historic turning point no less because, the world as a whole is taking notice in an unprecedented way. It's doubly important in stemming the tide of industrialisation and putting the emphasis on greener production values, especially for the emerging economies with an eye on copying the West. Paradoxically, this has made it so that larger industrial nations can gain international kudos by leading with environmental concern. Suddenly China seems more ethical than the impending isolationist administration of the US. Then there is social media and the tide of public opinion, effectively a platform for the people. Many naysayers will tell you it's a lazy way to be active, that we should all be on the streets with berets and poignant placards. The point is that they are mass lobby and charities and action groups like Greenpeace use platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and strategies like emotionally impacting memes, factual reports and direct emailing to harness the power of mass signature. They are recognised in three important ways, one, as common practice: at 10,000 names the UK government has to respond and at 100,000 petitions are considered for debate. Secondly, they are also recognised as vital items people can point to and share, something easily understood and referable to friends speedily, with 'focus' being the prime reason, where statistics, facts or points are made more emphatically. Thirdly, they are a healthy balancing reaction to news, events or movements. It might feel as trite as Paddy McGuinness on Take Me Out telling you: "The perwer is in yoor hands", but really it isn't, the power really is. The news is just wrong I'll be quick with this one. Fake news? There's always been sell, propaganda, hearsay, defamation, bias, fervour and bullcack. We already know. Professional journalists – there are such people – have to watch, research and properly source what they write every day. Or at least swerve around what they could have said. Oh alright, sometimes help you infer or influence to vote for the party most likely to help the publisher's world domination plans (that's just my opinion). The fake news online thing will no doubt bring some legislation to stop both sides getting out of hand. But then, philosophically, there is your truth, the counter-truth, the truth of the universe and the truth in a world in flux. Then there is the truth that you can't be bothered or that you have... just been distracted. What we're possibly aiming for (in the reportage in the media and online) is a clarity that chimes with our heads and our hearts. And many people will be representing or writing your views all around you, because you will gravitate towards them or enjoying reacting against them like they (or you?) are a devil's advocate. The most general truth about internet writing I tried to tell an irate editor friend of mine when he was tearing his hair out at some distorted garbage opinion piece he'd read was to tell him that all online content is user-generated and hey, he'd still not been fooled by the article that made his blood boil. So here we are again, the power is in your hands. Liberals check your ideals, everyone really is included, whether right, wrong, annoying or a bunch of uneducated loosers who can't spell losers. Trumping disingenuous ignorance Let me end, as many people think we will do, with Trump. I'll leave this here: ten reasons why he may not be all that bad after all. Then I will remind you that he's a success addict, and part of us knew he would win the US election. The problem with of course is his business malpractice, which, when you make billions is bound to happen somewhere along the line. But now Trump in a place to see behind the curtain and understand more fully why things take time to get done. He plans to be radical and remove the Federal Reserve and replace the gold standard. This means addressing the biggest potential problem of his coming tenure, and that is money. Not economy, not global economy, but money itself. If he doesn't get assassinated. and I'm not being flippant or a conspiricist. Banks have long since had the financial reigns and made themselves indispensable to the government and the people. Trump is a man that once rinsed 70 banks for forty billion dollars against a personal fortune of less than a billion. The thing is banks love people who want debt and he was in the property game, which meant there were tangible assets (buildings) to seize if it he didn't deliver. The Federal Reserve is a more deep-rooted proposition, being as it is a private conduit for private interests. I'm not an apologist for Trump, but I feel no need to point to his obviously crude and hypocritical personal tastes. Instead I'll focus on his way of taking on problems and giving them a response, by getting dirty and doing dealing. The trouble with him is that his name is his brand is his business is now the name of the President, and he has to learn to stop fusing them together in an insecure and personal reach for alpha approval. The thing to remember is that this ego governs The Donald as someone who wants to look and be successful. So he doesn't want to lose his beautiful buildings in an unfeasibly sudden rush to all out nuclear oblivion. He won't want to veto everything that's already doing good. And he will approach things in the way he already knows from doing global business, and this means routing diplomatic norms and perhaps getting down to it without the need to play the usual game. And the environment? Well, the global response to climate change has only been relevantly sizeable in recent years. It may just take a force like Trump to consolidate and help gather momentum for: a) either a better response against his kind of supposed climate change denying views or b)take on his love of money, deals, solutions and success to show him that sustainable energy is the only way to go. My instinct says that a lot of what he says is positioning for future negotiation, to get the best deal down the line. So he will need convincing, and this arguement's strength, along with actual changes in climate, global opinion and the issue being top of the news agenda consistently for the first time (ironically through Trump's media attention), may I believe serve to lay the foundations of disolving the disingenuous ignorance of so many self-serving fossil fuel billionaires. Here at Meet 19 we like to promote the idea of paying it forward. We try to offer freebies, in the knowledge that this is quite a common business practice and a great way to get people to see first hand what you do in your business or community enterprise. How can we stop this being counter-productive? Ultimately it works as astute marketing.
We even did a post recently on the perfect freebie handout. Check it out here. And if you are clear about your business focus it will attract clients who are inspired by your confidence. However, we do meet those who aren't so sure about giving things away. There are always those odd people unfortunately in any network community who don't get the concept of long-term business relationships and are purely after quick bargains or are sussing out a revenue stream for themselves by what you reveal to them. In this excellent article I found from Robert Kiyosaki's Rich Dad organisation: The 6 Types of Freeloading Clients to Avoid from the writing team behindToxic Client, not only identifies these fascinating stereotypes but also, and more importantly provides the solutions for dealing with them. As a reference key I've shorthanded the situations and solutions below as 'How and when you can show your boundaries to clients' (and added some more), but it might be an idea to bookmark this link anyway to save you the frustration of feeling you're wasting your valuable time, money and energy with clients who don't know the score. How and when you can show your boundaries to clients... 1. Are you giving away too much free advice and time? Set a limit by establishing a contract or payment time to move forward. When? Before the work starts or when you realise you're compromising your business. 2. Been asked to give sample or speculative work? Have a portfolio ready to hand in hard copy, mail-ready PDF or on your website. When? Get it done as soon as possible and make a practice of collecting work examples and testimonials. 3. Is the project quietly doubling up in size from the agreed contract? Have it stated in your contracts clearly all charges related to time or item: Include a separate time/item pricing for undisclosed additional work you may discover during the project. When? Before the work begins preferably, but probably right about the time you've updated your work schedule and projected deadline – after experiencing the preliminary workload (amount) and workflow (efficiency). 4. What if the client won't commit and keeps revising the work or deadline? This one is about preparation and timing. Before the job: Have an industry-standard amendment limit whilehighlight your experience and testimonials. Upon revision request: Send an invoice based on time and work done with a date for payment (4 weeks is the usual limit), then politely agree to the work to be done and subsequent workload and avail them of the remaining time/item price schedule. 5. Are they over-bargaining to get you cheaper? Explain all your value points and compare them to cheaper options. Provide examples of other happy clients who paid the going rate and more. When? All the time, in a polite and friendly way, as part of your ongoing dialogue. 6. The client suddenly having making excuses just after you've sent the invoice. Stand your ground. Refer to the contract and interest rate upon missed payment. Ask around and don't hesitate to get legal if the time arises. When? Keeping personal affairs away from business should be a matter of course for everybody all the time. Extras 7. Is your work being disputed? Take in a third party associate in the same sector to verify your contract, practices and work done with the client and ask them to have a witness present as well. Keep it friendly and professional. When? Same day or as soon as possible. Nip it in the bud with an exemplary response to feedback. 8. Can the client not afford you (just yet)? Give them half an hour or an hour of free consultation and send them a report. Ask them for a testimonial you can use on your website. When? Before the time they remember you were there for them and they call you again when they're ready to to do real business. 9. Does the client want to control the universe? Politely, yet firmly remind your client that you would never dare to come in and start doing their business, better still come up with an example of someone else doing it. However, go for the compromise if you feel comfortable doing as requested. Try not to if it goes against industry practice. When? Ongoing good diplomacy. A friend recently asked me to teach them Hootsuite, the multi-platform social media marketing system (it helps you plan tweets for Twitter, basically). What I revealed to them was something far more valuable... The thing is, with an ever-widening selection of fantastic programs and systems it really is a question of opening up a can of worms with any of them. They have become worlds within themselves looking to expand and gobble up ways to 'improve', interact, work on different platforms and operating systems and generally monetise it's name and related products and services. Whooh. And relax.
Even when you use them regularly, you realise how much more there is to learn and the experience you would need to utilise them well. And by experience I mean the work put into a chosen profession over years. This is not to stop anyone, but it is to reveal that then teaching these things is a full-time job in itself, not the least because you know there will be a barrage of questions about every tool, that will in turn reveal twenty more. I had to decline, as I'm far too busy as it is anyway, and I didn't want to make false promises. Mainly questions about 'enabling programs' relate to 'what can be done with this'? And this still only leads us back to experience.It's as if the user wants the shortcut or the 1,000 hours upfront and understood.There are no shortcuts. You have to put the work in to learn, then the work in to know from experience. Another more techy person than me - they do exist - looked at me with my questions when I approached them and they said deadpan: "Read the manual". They had put the work in, was I prepared to? As I recently pointed out in my talk on Resources, there will always be an explanatory book out there that reads well or that speaks to you, so it gets easier. The key factor with learning a multi-platform suite is the constant worry that you are only working towards finding out how to deliver an impersonal message. You don't want to be a robot spamming everyone. And the best social media practice is like the best learning, it comes seemingly without struggle and frustration, where genius is naturally born from enjoying being tenacious. Again, it get's easier. Because the best general advice you will read for any business or enterprise is to remain tenacious. Giving up is giving up. Not knowing. Keeping going is the key. Keeping going is the road to knowing. Such is the way with social media platforms, because all they are are reception rooms for your brand, an extension of you in real time, 24/7, one on one. If you are tenacious with your ventures, then expanding that or incorporating that as part of what you do is not a struggle, it's actually what you do. My best advice is to teach yourself, if you've been using computers this last decade, then you know enough to cross-pollinate your learning. Ctrl+S means Save, doesn't it? Yes, well that pretty much works with most creative programs for a start. And what about experience, well haven't you had other ones that reveal their usefulness in the work in front of you. Keep going, you already know. So a link for self-teaching? Let's begin with Hootsuite Academy. Oh,and here's the 135 more self-education courses as promised in the title. 22/11/2016 0 Comments Santa's Mad Dash is upon us again!Actions speak louder than words. Get those running shoes ready for action! Or watch others do all the hard work...
For tickets just head over to the seagulls tickets website or click on the Gully flyer above. 20/11/2016 0 Comments When it's all a matter of trustWhat is it about a situation or a person that makes you feel at ease, or uncomfortable? And how much about it is actually coming from you? This image is a screenshot from a video titled "kiss me now, meet me later" by Jordan Oram. Watch the video on youtube. It’s an interesting question, in a private setting as well as in the accountable world of business. For varying reasons, we often feel isolated from those around us these days: be it a competition situation, the practical setup at the workplace, a lack of ability to ask the questions we really need to ask, etc.
Isolation and closeness are two ends of the same stick, and they are connected by our ability to communicate. Do you actually voice your personal opinions, especially when it is based on a gut feeling rather than empirical evidence, in words or actions? Or do you usually hold back, to avoid confusion, confrontation or a potentially awkward social situation? Be aware that the way we engage with the world around us informs our view of said world and all that is in it, including the people we communicate with. Our level of openness in communication is based on the level of trust we share with that particular person, but often we find ourselves in a position where that trust has not been earned yet, and we have to go out on a limb and extend trust notwithstanding. It is part of doing business, and those of us who run businesses are very much aware of taking this particular flavour of risk on a regular basis. We have learned that we have to be open towards potential customers, our existing customers and even (sometimes) our competition, in order to keep our business afloat. In personal life, however, we tend to be far less adventurous when it comes to extending trust to strangers. How far do your trust the person sitting at the next table in a café to look out for your stuff while you nip off to the loo? How comfortable are you sharing personal stories with friends, or colleagues at work, or strangers on a train? Do you get a feeling of discomfort when you are sitting on a train next to someone you feel threatened by in some way? Of course, full-on trusting everyone may not be the way forward. That might just make you an easy target for all kinds of mischief. But wouldn’t it be brilliant if you could defuse some of the discomfort in social situation by keeping the “alarm” level to a minimum and start communicating from a place of calm rather than from a place of internalised panic? Of course, becoming a “master of cool” is a question of exercise and experience, but in my personal opinion almost everyone is able to get a level of trust going.
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