Forget Job Titles And Tell It Like It Is

Business – and society at large – has always been obsessed with giving labels to people. ‘What does he do?’ we ask a friend who announces she has a new boyfriend; application forms ask us to put in our job title; and we exchange similar data every time we go on a date, to a dinner party or networking event.


10 years ago when I was Managing Director of a small business, I had that simple 1-dimensional answer for what I did; but now it’s much more complex we have become multi dimensional. Our professional identities need to reflect that plurality – we need to rethink how we describe ourselves. Look at your average Twitter bio and it’s plural not singular: a list of talents, hats we wear, balls we juggle. There are some more creative descriptions too: Kevin Spacey describes himself as the ‘Former shoe salesman now making a go at film and theatre’. Queen Rania is ‘A mum and a wife with a really cool day job’.

Rethinking our identity is at the heart of ‘Juggle!’; as we carve out portfolio careers our personal brands need to reflect and communicate our multi-dimensional talents to the marketplace. That means ditching one or two word job titles and coming up with a phrase or bio that tells it like it is.

The obsession with labels struggles with the notion that people may be talented at more than one thing. It’s like the sportsman and academic Myron Rolle who I heard on Radio 4’s ‘Saturday Live’ at the weekend. Myron was ranked as the number one high school American Football prospect in the United States in 2006. He is also a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University where he is undertaking an MA in medical anthropology. Myron said:

‘Society and people want to categorise you, compartmentalise you as either a jock, a sportsman or an academic, a nerd. Why can’t you do both? Why can’t you …marry both into a wonderful life?’

Gaby Hinsliff is also learning how to deal with her new-found plurality. Having just resigned as Political Editor of the Observer, she wonders how to describe herself now she is carving out a portfolio career. Indeed her blog is called ‘Used To Be Somebody’. She says:

‘The plan is for a portfolio career, juggling several writing and policy projects part-time, but that is still a tricky concept to explain. "I'll just put homemaker, shall I?" said the woman arranging our new mortgage, apologetically. "You don't fit any of the other categories".

So re-think how we communicate and promote our offering. Whether it’s a multi-dimensional sales pitch or a unique blog, we need to create personal brands that reflect our talents. It’s about going beyond a job title to describe ourselves. That may make form-filling in a little more difficult but dinner party exchanges a little more interesting. So tell it like it is!

Forget The Planning. Focus On Doing.

I’ve spent much of my career busting myths about the way things *should* be in life and business. In most organisations there’s a lot of effort devoted to the tradition of business planning. Five year plans, forecasts, projections. But now more than ever, I don’t see the point of long term planning. Sure, I understand the rationale: the importance of investor and shareholder accountability and of measuring performance. But it seems so academic in an ever changing world: better to be pragmatic and reactive in a world where things change in a flash.


It’s a subject that I hope to be talking about at SXSW 2010 with David Sloly – ‘How To Unplan Your Business’. I also talked to Gary Vaynerchuk about it on his recent trip to London (video here, go to 08:11):

"A 5 year plan is impossible in a world where what 5 years represents is so different than it used to”.

And then this week Stefan Stern in the FT talked about ‘The Death Of The Five Year Plan’:

“..markets are unpredictable. The economic outlook is uncertain. The world has changed. If old-style strategy formulation is not exactly dead, then it is hardly in the best of health”.

So I say forget long plans and just focus on DO-ING. Put the damn idea or start-up or new product into the market and test and tweak as you go. Forget projections about what it’s going to make in Year 2, who knows until you get started? Who knows how market forces will change, how technology will change the game?

Let’s remember how technology has changed business lifecycles. I can launch a web business in a couple of hours. I can shoot a video on my Flip and post it up straight away. Here’s another example of the game-change. On Monday evening the songwriter Dave Stewart said let’s write a song on Twitter. Followers had just five minutes to write the lyrics and 24 hours later, the results are up = a demo of the song ‘Love Tower’ (featuring my lyrics). And it’s good! Download it here.

So quit the big planning and the big plans and just GET DO-ING.

Change Your Scenery

A familiar story.


Burning the midnight oil trying to come up with that idea for your presentation. Trying to devise that wow strapline for your website. Working out the killer application for your new product.

And where do too many of us attempt these tasks? At the office, our desks at home, in board rooms.

Try changing your scenery. To a coffeeshop, a train carriage, the beach, a park bench.

You'll be amazed what a change in scenery can do, you just have to get out of the office.

Crushing It With Gary Vaynerchuk

Here’s the second part (well actually it was shot first) of my brand new video interview with Gary Vaynerchuk that I recorded on the M4 from Heathrow to Kensington when Gary was in London earlier this month.

In the video I chat to Gary about his new book ‘Crush It! Why Now Is The Time To Cash In On Your Passion’ – he talks about how social media has put power into the hands of the individual and covers:

- the importance of publishing ‘old school’ and how he doesn’t get ‘romance by a platform’. ‘I don’t care if it’s smoke signals or a laptop’.
- how social media has changed the game, gatekeepers have lost their power and now everyone is in play.
- it’s all about niches; ‘everyone’s passion is more narrow than they think’.
- the fact that you can still crush it if you’re quiet; you don't have to be loud like Gary.




if the video is not displaying properly above, you can see it on YouTube here

Jose and The Spicy Factor

I talk a lot in my business about the importance of having a point of difference in the marketplace. Whether you’re a freelancer, a corporate exec, a micro-business, an indie band or even a stand-up comedian, you have to work out how are you different from the competition?

Someone who shares that philosophy is Jose Castillo. Jose is based in Tennessee and I met him on his trip to London this week. Jose is a true juggler: he writes about new media, speaks to groups and conferences in the US and Europe, and consults with Fortune 500 companies and start-ups on the convergence of technology, marketing, and ideas. With his wife he also runs a co-working space http://sparkplaza.com/ in his native Johnson City.

What unites everything that Jose does? What he has billed the ‘spicy factor’. Through all his projects Jose strives to invest that wow factor clients are looking for: it’s about creating spicy projects. Recent spicy projects include pumping up 160,000 fans at the hottest race in NASCAR, leading panels on User Generated Content in Silicon Valley, starting up a company focused on generating new media business concepts, and launching a monthly Geek Dinner.

Here’s a 5 minute video I recorded with Jose on Floral Street, Covent Garden.



If the video doesn’t display properly above, you can see it on YouTube here

Me and Gary V: Part 1

Last Friday Gary Vaynerchuk and I took a ride from Heathrow to central London together. Gary had come to London from Hawaii (via LA) to speak at the Future Of Web Apps Conference. Having interviewed Gary in Paris last year (download the video free on iTunes here) and connected again in Texas at SXSW it was great to welcome him to London. I shot two videos with him; one about his new book ‘Crush It’ that I will post on October 20th and this one below.

For anyone who doesn’t know who ‘Gary V’ is, he’s the New York based wine entrepreneur who’s reinvented himself as a social media star. Having made his name presenting the daily wine tasting video blog Wine Library TV , Gary became an expert on social media and web 2.0 speaking at conferences around the world. His first book ‘Crush It: Why Now Is The Time To Cash In On Your Passion’ is out this month (part of a $1m multi-book deal), he now runs a consulting business Vaynermedia and has recently launched a wine club website and a food retail website GourmetLibrary.com. He’s a true juggler and he also has about 850,000 more followers on Twitter than me.

In the video Gary talks about:
- the importance of change in his life and business.
- his ‘layer cake’ notion where he juggles a lot of different business interests.
- how social media is changing the agenda for businesses; they can’t dictate to people anymore.
- staying flexible in business and the impossibility of the five year plan.




*If the video is not displaying correctly, you can watch it on YOU TUBE here

Stamp Out Workplace Apathy!

I walked past a newly opened clothes shop yesterday morning and saw a woman sitting at the counter. She was looking down, deeply engrossed in reading a book (and nothing wrong with reading a book, but there’s a time and a place).

But I couldn’t help thinking - hasn’t she got better things to do? Tidying up the stock. Changing the window display. Writing emails to customers. Coming up with ideas to fill that shop. Something proactive? Even sweeping the floor?

Okay so maybe she has a bad boss or no one to mentor her (or maybe she is the boss). But there’s no excuse, it’s about using your initiative. Wherever you work – and especially in a competitive job market - I can’t believe someone has ‘nothing to do’, there’s always stacks of things that you *could* be doing, whatever level you’re at in an organisation.

Success – and survival - in the workplace in 2009 is about ‘upping your ante’ to be better than the next guy, so whether you’re working in a business or an employer yourself, take the initiative and beat apathy.