My last blog – final thoughts
This will be the last post I write for this blog.
So far, I’ve created 58 blogs, podcasts, and videos and written a book – Reframing Marketing.
So what’s changing?
As many of you will know, I have been running a marketing ‘agency’ in some shape or form with my long-term business partner, Ben Davis, for 21 years now. We’ve seen a lot of changes in the world of marketing and the Internet. Starting in 2003, our biggest challenge was persuading people that the Internet would stick around and wasn’t just a fad!
Over the past six months, Ben and I have spent a lot of time rebranding our business to Pallant. We’ve worked with coach Joel Lawton and branding expert Emily Penny, who helped us clarify what we really want from the business and how to make that happen.
During this process, we realised that while my writing and content creation have helped establish me as a marketing expert in my network, it is not helping Pallant get new clients. For the last few years, this hasn’t been an issue as we have been ‘fully booked’ most of the time.
But marketing and the Internet as we know it are changing. AI is coming fast and is already disrupting the long-established business models that support and power the Internet we all enjoy today.
So this means we need to change if we’re going to last another 15 years.
How did we make this decision?
The final thing I want to share with you all is how Ben and I go about making decisions. Many people have told me that our approach is quite rare and different from a lot of others.
The first thing is that when we spot something we want to think about or work on, we speak to each other about it. Seems obvious, but you’d be amazed how many people keep things to themselves or work in silos until an idea is ‘ready’. Often, talking it through or explaining it will answer the question there and then. And if not, we keep coming back to it.
If we find ourselves circling around an idea or a question, we then deploy the simple question: “Does it make the boat go faster?”. We learned this question from Andreas Nest, a business coach we worked with over 10 years ago. He got it from the book Will It Make The Boat Go Faster?, written by Harriet Beveridge and Ben Hunt-Davis (not the same Ben!) about winning Olympic strategies.
Obviously, we’re not trying to make an actual boat go faster, as they are in the book. But it’s useful for us in the same way as for Ben Hunt-Davis’ rowing team. For us, equivalents to “Does it make the boat go faster?” are: Does the answer help the business? Does it make us/save us money? Does it make our work quicker/better? Does it make our offer more distinct?
So, when I looked at what I do with my week, the time and energy I put into making my content, and asked the question, the answer was no. It is fun and energising and has certainly helped build my reputation and trustworthiness, which benefits the business. But looking at where we want to take Pallant in the next 10 years, does this content help do that? No.
So, to all of you who have read a blog, watched a video, or listened to a podcast, thank you. I really appreciate your attention, and I hope it got you thinking and inspired you.
You can still buy my book on Amazon, and if you’re quick, I have a few copies left in my office, which I will happily sign for you.
Thanks for listening, reading and watching – happy marketing.
