Broadband and Me

Found in the sunlight

Paul — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 20:37:54 +0000

Well, it’s been a few days since my last post and boom - there are am at risk of redunandcy. Bit of a shock. But also perhaps a huge opportunity, and so I’m grabbing it with both hands.

My CV polished updated and out there, had a number of conversations, and I have to say feeling both optimistic and really concered at the same time.

Optimistic about what is out there in terms of new challenges and thinking it’s for the best, whilst also worried about making sure I secure something, so as not to let down my family. They are wonderful and very supportive.

And so have a number of people and I appreciate their words, thoughts and actions.

So wish me success and achievement of a secure role ASAP.

And anyone else who is in this - I’m rooting for you.

Lost in the ether

Paul — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 09:56:26 +0000

Sometimes its difficult to admit that you have lost your way. (It’s not just a male thing) And I do like looking at maps. What happens when you are in that undiscovered country and all your previous experience of how to navigate just isn’t helping.

This isn’t just a metaphor.

Currently I’m trying really hard to do is go back to absolute basics, and that for me is tough. Particularly when I am relatively confident the way I am used to working would indeed put me in the right place on the map.

Deep breath - back to work.

Hebrides and stories

Paul — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 15:59:23 +0000

Right now I’m sat in a Hotel (Scarinish Hotel) Tiree, in the Hebridean Islands off the West Coast of Scotland. It’s a stunning view over the harbour and away to Mull and Iona. I’ll post some photos later and you can see simply how incredible a place it is. Quiet, peaceful and just the place to be on holiday. Maybe even to live if you have that mindset.

I’m always very interested in the types of stories that appear in such a spot. They often have similar themes which are just lost in the area of the UK where I live. The creation story for Tiree is very similar to one I heard in Slovenia, whereby God has made most of the earth by throwing out lumps of land onto the planet. Suddenly he finds a bright shining jewel of a speck of land in his hand. He places the Hebrides and especially the Isle of Tiree which is the jewel in God’s crown.

I don’t tell it so well but you get the gist. This place is special and therefore the people who live here are special. Great self confidence booster and establishes a fantastic sense of identity for the community linked indelibly with the landscape.

I guess its why lots of narrative theory talks about the power of origin stories to generate a sense of identity and community in any grouping but especially businesses.

I wonder what would be the best origin story for you or for your organisation to prosper both internally and externally?

I think perhaps I should write some!

Story-Telling

Paul — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 15:56:30 +0000

I am fascinated by the use of story and narrative techniques and would really love to be better at telling stories, and not solely from a business point of view but in general conversation. My wife is very good but I blame that on the fact she is an infant school teacher and slightly dyslexic…

Anyway my rambling is to point to this from Shawn at Anecdote who references an interview with Robert Mckee. Which is a great read. The quote resonates with me especially:

“…people are not inspired to act on reason alone.” The key, then, is to aim to unite an idea with an emotion, which is best done through story

I’m alive!

Paul — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 12:49:17 +0000

Just in case you thought I had vanished off the face of the planet. I’m here and still thinking about the world. Small companies certainly demand more of your time than bigger one, both mentally and physically. And I have to admit to saying that a new role means having to learn and experience more than I thought I would have to 10 months ago. But is all good.

Travel is a fascinating business online and I’m just not sure that I entirely grok it yet - its not my comfort zone or its in American English or something. People don’t talk about web 2.0 they talk about travel 2.0 - I think its to try and make them sound different but I’m not sure. As I’m now one of the online travel people (well sort of) I shouldn’t alienate them but there you go…

Still want to actually do a travel business blog but haven’t had the opportunity to get it off the ground. Still want to do lots of whizzy things with the www.explore.co.uk website (with the rest of the team) but not quite yet, and still want to do sexy things with technology in general but again its not really happening.

Travel

Paul — Wed, 08 Nov 2006 09:54:09 +0000

Its a strange choice I made to switch industries. I didn’t realise at the time just how different it would be. Strange really it was a bit of a culture shock when I started working for ntl and it was different when I worked at Huawei but mostly because of the Chinese management rather than the industry. But travel…

Despite the existence of buy cialis buy cialis buy levitra buy levitra buy propecia buy propecia buy soma buy soma buy levitra buy cialis buy propecia buy levitra buy soma buy cialis buy propecia buy levitra buy soma buy cialis buy levitra buy propecia buy soma

Its been a long time…

Paul — Thu, 07 Sep 2006 17:01:53 +0000

Of late I’ve been spending a lot of time getting to grips with my role at Explore. Its not been quite what I was expecting but nevertheless its a good job and I’m enjoying it.

I’ve had a small learning curve about search engine optimisation and PPC - all very ‘technical’ stuff that I hadn’t really considered as part of a marketing role. I had hoped to be doing much more on the social networking and blogging but its not happened to date for a number of technical and business reasons. Still working on it though. I might be able to turn the site into something resemebling web2.0 next year (well I say ‘I’ really its a lot of technical people from other companies).

Adventure travel sure is different from Broadband - in too many ways to go into. Its taken me far longer to get my head around that than I was expecting too. But I do enjoy going into work in a morning and being able to say that I did that.

View over Farnborough is quite good too (not that Farnborough is picturesque…)

Anyway - expect to start blogging more on travel and the web and marketing and stuff as its a good habit I’ve gotten out of, and I might just fix the comments too.

Picture078_06Jun06.jpg

Paul — Thu, 22 Jun 2006 18:25:49 +0000

Picture078_06Jun06.jpg

Originally uploaded by Betaroad.

Ah, town. The sun streams down on a relatively quiet clapham jct as I make my way to a show on online travel marketing. I am really enjoying my new job which has its frustrations but then if it wasn’t a challenge it would be dull. It is amazing how difficult it is to convince people of things they know to be right. After all it really is all about word of mouth - although being top in google rankings is still an objective…

And by numbers and scientific proof shall we show our worth. Its a challenge. I am in marketing. Now I never thought I would say that.

–

Sent from my Treo

links for 2006-06-19

Paul — Mon, 19 Jun 2006 01:19:37 +0000

School Travel Forum - Assured Member List

(tags: travel education school forum)

links for 2006-04-25

Paul — Tue, 25 Apr 2006 01:24:22 +0000

The Hotspur March 06.pdf (application/pdf Object)

Example of a funky newletter for a local Parish which is interesting fun and stylised. On the ever interesting Hugh McLeod’s site…

(tags: marketing newsletter)