Elevator Pitch
Heading into Oban after leaving the ferry
Ten things that found us does well.
Headhunting at senior level
Mentoring
Sales, and pitching
Marketing
Business growth
Board level advice and action
Account management
PR, raising awareness
Business number crunching
Technology
All of the above are in no particular order, occur across the online and offline world, their various platforms and channels.
And I now live in Tobermory, Isle of Mull, and have more time than ever in which to help clients and contacts.
Headhunting is a forte of mine having worked with good people for years, and placed senior people in established businesses. As is mentoring and personal development, where I also work as a Honorary Teaching Fellow at Lancaster University Management School.
Sales and marketing is another forte. Depth of experience allows me to win clients and customers, know how to retain them. Pitch for advertising business with a grasp of how this industry ticks, with many a success to date. I can talk about TV across to Programmatic, to brand or non-brand.
I’m good as a board level member and have worked in both established and start up businesses.
Process is big for me hence loving organisational and process matters within businesses - of how I can make them more efficient and fun places to work. And this also include using the latest tried and tested tools, or even those in beta.
So…. Give me a try!
Claire - 13th March - the night of the blood moon eclipse in Oban
Drifting into March…
Nothing Changes if Nothing Changes and it is a maxim I like. It always reminds me that we have to make change when we think that all is in fact okay, and it is not okay. The maxim sits comfortably with understanding that it is all too easy to keep following the same path expecting different results (also known as the insanity quote and oft wrongly attributed to Einstein.)* Human beings are creates of habits, or routines akin to a computer. Have a read of Atomic Habits by James Clear. It is good to learn that it can be near impossible for the conscious to overcome deep routed subconscious routines. But if we know of the routines running beneath the subconscious we can tackle them and make change.
The above relates to a live specimen, but what of a company, a partnership, a sole trader and so on? These are made up and run by people, and so we can apply the concept of change to overcome business insanity.
Any business continuing on and on does run the risk of getting the exact same results again and again, when it wants and needs change, and this is business insanity. But does a business that gets the same results do no wrong? In fact why fix something that is not broken? Is there a huge flaw in my reasoning.
Soooo… how do I know if my business is INSANE?
Remember the insanity of doing the same thing, and expecting different results. Or the danger of not changing and being satisfied with with a status quo.
What can I do?
So we have established the business ain’t changing, it’s still doing the same thing, yup it’s making money, but it could be on a precipice, or in decline, or maintaining a status quo and not growing. But it could be growing and doing well. Thing is do we need to do something? All depends on the research phase and what we want to do.
* Civil rights campaigner and feminist writer Rita Mae Brown is the real author of the phrase. In her 1983 book Sudden Death, Brown attributes the quote to a fictional ‘Jane Fulton’. However, the idea of a link between repetition and insanity can be traced back to the 19th century.
Mission control this morning.
Thinking - the evening of Thursday 27th February 2025.
Well Keir Starmer is in Washington talking to, or being talked at by Donald Duck. I am in bed typing away and thinking. Smooth Chill Radio is playing some good tunes on the Google Nest Max, and Claire downstairs having a brew with a colleague who has popped over.
This I now realise is how business life can also be for those who choose to make the leap. The leap into living life via your business and not for your business. You may need to do a double take on that sentence, but it does make sense.
I’ve not checked out MAD//Fest in Manchester, which is the advertising, marketing, and media event that has come up from London, and to be honest if you do the maths you’ll realise I’m also not attending since I am in Tobermory and Manchester is a long walk away (and swim.)
But to be honest I’m glad I am not there. I’ve glanced at my LinkedIn feed and can see a lot of posts relating to the event in between the posts of the day from connections. It is withering to be honest; to read, to see, and very ego centric. I used to be like that, maybe not the worse. And I suspect the event has brought all that London has to offer - eyes roll upwards.
My approach to life nowadays has changed to one of living in the moment and action. And I shy away from publicity, grandstanding with statements on social media especially LinkedIn, and can imagine compatriots rubbing shoulders with various job titles and thinking how “good” they are; depending on what you define as “good”.
I prefer now to get on with things and help other people and businesses and if I get paid then great. And if I deliver good results, then great. In fact it makes me smile to hear of a business growing, or people for that matter as a result of my input. It is a healthy approach to my life and that of others. Being transparent and authentic is key to living I now feel. And I’d rather tell a business man x, y, z and that to sort it out he needs to do a, b, c and that I can help and that it will cost money, and this is what he can expect. Simple, honest, straightforward and not a case of milking someone or a business and of being smug about it whether conscious or unconsious.
(Seeing the photos and copy as to MAD//Fest I could only taste smugness.)
Selling, Thursday morning 27th February, Tobermory
It is a bit nippy out there, but has all the hallmarks of a nice fresh island day on Mull. On a Zoom while I type and upload the video I took to this post.
Selling
Have a listen and do consider Peter Cobley and found us for selling and marketing. In simple language I can grow your business sales and engagement, whether business or consumer focused. I’ve a wealth of experience across b2b and b2c with existing, new, or start up businesses and have a track record to boot. You can also ask past clients.
Peter Cobley and found us and you and your business
Thought that I would talk about what I can do for businesses in a 7 minute video, whilst on board the MV Loch Frisha as it heads to the Isle of Mull, where I live.
Soooo…. Here is a QUICK written synopsis.
I set up found us back in February 2014 to provide head hunting at senior level across advertising, marketing, and media. The business then morphed (what I wanted) to include consultancy services for such industry sectors.
All of this based on 30 plus years of working in the industries, and 20 of them at senior level as a director.
I now live in Tobermory, Isle of Mull, having moved from Greater Manchester.
I have laid off the business since working it very hard.
found us has delivered senior staff in key roles to established businesses.
found us has provided consultancy to businesses and people.
Research into the business.
Strategy from research.
Financial examination and assessment. (Profit and loss, balance sheet, cost base, financial ratios, metrics, performance etc.)
Staff. (Analysis, support and learning.)
Sales and Marketing.
1 year, 2 - 3 year plan, 5 year plan.
found us to date
Decided to upload a video as it was quicker than typing out my thoughts. So I apologise for the following:
Waffle.
Um’s and erm’s.
The location, being the Corryvreckan Weatherspoon pub in Oban, in that it may contain background noise. But it was the only place open selling coffee!!!
Oban, Sound of Mull, Craignuire (Oh and Storm Eowyn and a power cut.)
Sailing back to Craignure, Isle of Mull, Sunday morning of the 26th aboard the MV Isle of Arran.
Week commencing the 20th as I type coming up for 9pm on Sunday 26th, at the end of a week that has seen travel, a rather “cheeky” Storm Eowyn that took out power on Mull and the mainland, and finished off with snow and freezing weather.
But worth it when you see the photos.
Smiles aboard the MV Isle of Arran heading over to Oban on Saturday 25th.
And of course, full photos and videos during the week can be found on Flickr.
We had to be resourceful in the power cut that hit the island from lunchtime Friday 24th through to Saturday 5pm.
Donald and the Advertising Industry
Well it was the first day in the Oval office for Donald Duck. I had a think and recorded a video, nothing detailed, but happy to help where someone needs to navigate change due to macro factors.
From found us to Petercobley.com
As well as my business website for found us, I also run my own personal site where I chat about allsorts, post photos; and www.petercobley.com is a place where you can learn a bit more about me.
Have a look and sniff at petercobley.com and list me know if same or insane.
We all break down and don’t be hard on yourself, just like Mull’s solo broken down car on the Tobermory/Craignuire single track road where it’s now being rescued by the island’s own tow truck after semi blocking the road for a few days.
Where does the public and private start and end?
There is no such divide in my life. There is only me.
The business found us is an extension of myself. In fact that is not correct, with myself and the business being one in the same thing.
And this is something people fail to grasp - the holistic life.
In careers, business, job, role, looking for work, being in work, across to employing and interviewing people it is common to create this artificial dichotomy, and create a mental, spiritual, emotional imbalance. To live as two people is hard and impossible, and even worse can lead us to Act out what we think a role is and minimise our true selves.
We can act as we think we ought to in a role, and be seen in the brutal hard boss role by others, yet outside of work we are the home Dad or Mum, a softer different person. This is tiring to act out. It’s tiring for people who occupy both worlds with us. It is dangerous since one persona/role can take over the other, and in modern society where there is so much time spent at work (>50%) we can see where we lose more of our true self. A dystopian version of the classic Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.
There are so many people I know that have altered through work. Over time, incrementally, and hard to spot. Remember we are beings of nature and nurture, and our environment will impact and shape us should we be unaware and fail to assert self and core principles and beliefs.
There is a lot of truth and multiple meaning in a sheep in wolf’s clothing. Have you become a sheep in your role or business, following your business environment? Has it turned you into a wolf? Let’s take two examples. Think of the public versus private Patrick Bateman from American Psycho. And is he not a product of his environment? Remember a new fledgling MP in the House of Commons, bright eyed and bushy tailed, and then remember that MP some time later. Have not most become a product of Parliament? A parody of who they were.
The examples seem far removed, but are they?
Be careful out there and what you wish for. The only advice I can give give is to:
Be true to self.
Don’t divide yourself between work and your private life. Keep you as you.
Maybe label life as follows, “I am Peter Cobley and I have the job of Director in my business. I am married to Claire. Divorcing myself from the labels of Director and Husband of what is expected by society or our environment.
I can then be sure he happy, quirky Peter that I am. Able to take risk. Able to take a leap of faith. Able to live each moment freely. Not shacked by norms, past, or future since I operate to my Operating System and Not others - Peter Cobley OS Mark 2.
My search and selection
Where are you really going when you’re in your 30’s, 40’s, and beyond?
Do you have direction, feel you have achieved in your life? But what does it meant to be successful? What’s achievement?
This is where I come into play.
When I set up found us it was with a view to mentoring and building people; of giving back what was freely given to me over the years. And I had some wonderful mentors in my 53 years.
I’ve a history of mentoring people and regularly do so with clients, candidates, and with Lancaster University Management School.
The other side to myself and my business is all the contacts I have nationally and intentionally, and my reputation. This allows for first hand work with my company clients to find them good staff for senior leadership teams.
I am uniquely able to match my contacts and mentees to my clients business needs; often not working to a brief - and I’ve been oh so successful over the years in my Executive Search and Selection.
I’ve placed a Broadcast Director at an international agency, a Sales Director at a major tech company, or created a role for a mobile specialist to set up a division for an international agency group. And there’s more if you have a look about my website or have a chat with me.
If you are a candidate or client…
Do contact me for my very unique brand of search and selection both national and international.
Full tracking of the search and selection process, with help given in candidate assessment if needed is all on offer, so at any given moment you know exactly where you are with your senior hire, and importantly with the money you spend with me.
The start of Loch Ba from the village of Knock, Isle of Mull.
Acting as a sales director
Walking alongside Loch Ba, Isle of Bull.
To anyone one, or any business that needs a good Sales or Commercial Director, I’m your Man!
I don’t with to be arrogant or boastful. Not at all. I merely state the truth. And being honest is a key, if not the most important element in what makes a good sales person.
I started my sales career in 1994 in national Press moving to ITV, and ultimately agency side. Always delivering results.
I thus have knowledge, experience, and track record in creating a sales pipeline, cold selling across to formal tender response and pitching. Working with and pulling a team together to win the business. And this is a commodity sale or a bespoke sale, with some ticket values running into six and seven figures.
I started off in traditional advertising and moved into online advertising; and represent a rare breed of sales and commercial person who straddles the old and new worlds of advertising, marketing, and media.
I’ve worked for and set up start ups that were subsequently sold. I’ve been employed by some sizeable businesses working on big brands; at 29
I was a Business Development at ITV in London working on Who Wants to be a Millionaire and Survivor.
So I do know a lot indeed. And this can be harnessed to help grown a business through a solid new business sales process, and account management of clients.
So if you:
Need someone to look at your sales process and staff, then I’m for hire.
If you need a new business pipeline building from scratch then I can help.
Or if you need me to parachute into your business as a sales or commercial director then don’t hesitate to contact me.
Looking out over Loch Na Keal toward Balnahard and Eorsa island.
Pay per Click search advertising (PPC)
View from the found us office over Tobermory
A possibly contentious or easy to utilise form of advertising that originated from the search market that was created (and believe it or not copied from and not invented by Google) by Goto.com, that rebranded to Overture, that was then acquired by Yahoo! I worked for the company and have a very much deep depth knowledge of the PPC marketplace, initially Search but now straddling other channels, e.g. Social Media.
I am keen to work with companies or people on the Isle of Mull where I live in Tobermory, or Oban and the Argyll and Bute area. That said I work UK wide and internationally, and have done so for years.
PPC (Pay Per Click) from Tobermory, Isle of Mull and Oban
I don’t propose to write reams on PPC as it a quite mature channel now and arguable one must focus on the quality of a company’s website and a customers path to it and through it, and of how we can create a desired action that benefits company and customer, for example a sale.
I understand the metrics of making paid search and pay per click media (Programmatic Display for example) work for a business to achieve above, below, or through the line results. I have over 20 years experience in the area.
Looking out from Oban to the island of Kerrera and beyond the Isle of Mull
I can distill my knowledge into the following areas where I can help
Understanding the concept of PPC, how it works, of how it can fit in and supplement all marketing activity, but does not have to be the “expensive” be and end all that it can be, as well as you advertising “red herring”.
Understanding and grasping how the technology works, for example how to structure a Google Ads account to leverage the Quality Score element of the channel, across to buying correctly via a DSP.
Understanding the importance of content to leverage the advertising platforms position “reward” systems, i.e. position in Sponsored Links for a keyword, without degradation of content serving its purpose of attracting consumers into taking a purchasing, non-purchasing action, and brand being negatively affected through poor copy writing.
Working with you to enhance your website to initiate good customer action. It is in one sense very easy to get the customer to the company website, but so so many customers don’t find a website “sticky” and “bounce” away, and thus the marketing activity and spend are wasted. We can help with ad copy, landing pages, and page/website testing whether A/B or as advanced as multivariate. A website like Amazon is leagues ahead of other eCommerce websites with a killing double figure website conversion rate.
And this brings me onto data. Which does not have to be slavish and look nice. We/I’ve knowledge of drilling down into the data in order to use it to benefit company and customer. It is a big area, and an important one, and involves software such as Google Analytics. You need to know your “bang for your buck”. Suffice to say we love crunching numbers and data.
Lastly and maybe this should be point 1. We crucially help with drilling down into what it is you sell by way of product or service, who you sell it to and how your customers buy from you. We then drill down even further for example by looking at relevant keyword searches across to usage of the correct copy. This is the research phase way before you do anything media wise, and the bit of the iceberg under the waterline; the large bit, the important bit. I’ve many years of experience in researching what companies do, and of how they can successfully use digital marketing bought on a pay per click or other cost metric.
I am happy to work on a consultancy, fee based offering, or commission only model. This can very much suit the smaller (or larger) business with finite and precious online marketing budget.
Tobermory Harbour
Search engine optimisation in Oban, Tobermory, Argyll and Bute
A business or person listing in SERPS - search engine results pages - can be a much misunderstood process and one shrouded in mystery for most.
Main Street, Tobermory - one of the places I work from
But it is actually quite straight forward.
found us can help you with this area and here is a nice little commentary the practice of Search Engine Optimisation, and of how we can help.
Have a read below and don’t hesitate to say hello.
SEARCH ENGINES
We all use them. Mostly Google in the UK with over 90% of searches coming from this one entity. But when you consider sheer numbers of searches you also need to look to other players. For example Bing.
A search engine is effectively a database of websites across the UK (being UK specific here.) A user types a search and results are delivered on a web page, know as a SERP or search engine results pages. The viewer clicks on their desired result (also known as listing or from a Geek point of view, snippet) and is taken to that website.
Here I am talking about natural listings and the paid for ones (separate article to come on this area) commonly know as Sponsored Links and normally positioned to the top of the results page.
Technically all business is a numbers game. The more people though the shop door, the more likelihood of a sale. And you encourage potential purchasers of a product or service by stock positioning, attractive packaging, price, accessibility (is it in stock?)
Same applies, as has been discovered, to the web. The online shop so to speak. A customer finds you via a big shopping mall (Google) after typing in a search query. They decided to enter your store versus others by clicking on the search result. Your search result is your invitation to a potential consumer.
On then clicking the link the user is taken to a website. From here a number of factors come into play.
Think of all of this as a sales process as defined by the acronym for the sales structure AIDA.
Attention - obtain a customers attention within the many results that are shown.
Interest - create interest via your result title and body copy (known as a Result, Listing or Snippet.)
Desire - match the customer need with your product or service benefits as detailed in the result, snippet, or listing.
Action - on creating desire we stimulate the customer to click on your result.
The searcher has a need we want them to fulfil this by their clicking on your search engine result, and being taken to your product or service. Your part to play is well written copy that captures the searcher’s attention and matches the need they have as expressed in the search. We’ll come onto the actual website after that.
A SIMPLE 2 STEP PROCESS - SEARCH TO CLICK AND WEBSITE
STEP 1 SEARCH TO CLICK
It is NOT simply about copy writing with SEO - search engine optimisation. Well it is, but there is a little more to it.
You have to really go back to basics before even looking to a website. And you can blow a lot of marketing money on an ill produced website.
Our task is to match the search intentions of the customer. In search we refer to brand and non-brand terms. Brand terms relate to your business brands including products and services. Non brand refers to all other terms. For example “Coca-Cola" versus “soft drink”. And you need to optimise for both.
Search Terms / Search Queries
Q: how is someone going to find you via a search on a search engine?
A: use you pre-existing knowledge of the customer and your marketing. Blend with what you observe from online and search data.
Remember the acronym - WHATS.
What do you make? How do you make it? To what area to you sell to? To whom do you sell to? What special features do you have?
You need to get back to basics and evaluate what you make and sell, whether service or product. And what might be exclusive to you. Such information can form the basis of deciding what search terms you wish to use for your business, its product, its service.
You need to understand who your customer is and get inside their head. How do they think? How are they likely to find your product via a search engine query/search terms?
This can be aligned with offline point of sale and marketing activities. How would someone find you in the “real world”? How would they find you in a shopping mall, a superstore? How does your ambient media appeal to users? We need to get back to basics of how we meet a customer’s need at the point in time when that need coalesces?
Search engines are databases and there is analogy with a big shopping mall, or superstore. How does the customer find the shop you sell from or the product on the shelf if they were to ask the passer by?
For example we are a business that runs a hotel in Oban, where there are many other hotels and accommodation providers. You know from your marketing and customers that you are found via people asking about “hotels in Oban”, “hotels in Argyll and Bute”, or the name of your hotel “Peter Cobley Hotel”. You now have queries that translate well to the web.
Online data and research
Search words, search queries, keywords, search terms are basically one in the same thing. It is what the searcher enters into a search engine.
We are now beginning to build up brand and non-brand search terms.
But we also have a wealth of online data that we can mine from our website, free, and paid for tools. Examples can be Google’s Analytics, or Search Console, or some very sexy paid for tools.
Zapier have kindly provided a neat article: The 11 Best SEO Tools in 2025.
Search listing, snippet, website copy
This is where we go back to AIDA - the sales process that applies in all cases. It is a crucial fact that life for people is not divided into web and non-web. But as businesses we can think this way.
Your search engine copy and web copy is your traditional point of sale and both must interact with each other, customer, and a search query. It should fluidly follow the searcher’s thinking “I need a hotel in Oban, I can see Peter Cobley Hotel, and the hotel is both central and showing a 10% offer. I’ll have a look and click”.
Pixie dust and magic
I am not going to go into the more technical side of things. But the following rules apply when it comes to getting “good” search engine results for your chosen search terms.
The higher up the listings on SERPS mean more clicks.
Getting the higher positions can involve “working” the hidden stuff that makes Google what it is, Bing what it is etc.
You may have heard of PageRank, algorithms, viewing and click rates. Blah, blah, blah. But don’t panic - it is not as complex as you think.
Paid listings (PPC, Pay per click) interact with each natural search engine results.
How your website performs is a factor in your position for a search term.
I AM NOT GOING to cover this bit off, suffice to say we know about it in detail and can explain all to you. AND the above is not a definitive list.
The view from the found us office
STEP 2 LISTING TO WEBSITE
Copy and “themes”
When the user arrives on the website it is ideal that the copy reflects the search term they used especially a specific one relating to product or service. The same principles apply as in any offline sales process. For example, if we have successfully navigated the user searching for Christmas pud to the relevant aisle and Christmas pud cannot be located then we have wasted a lot of marketing effort, unless our particular customer is happy to search.
Same applies for the click from listing to website. If you drop the user onto the home page when they are searching specifically, e.g. “double room in Oban hotel” then don’t be surprised of a high bounce rate as users leave the site.
Thematic copy and process is so important. And what do I mean by this? The user is following a train of thought and we have to mirror this in the copy and it positioning.
This is where skill comes in as we look to the very bare bones of a website and how it functions as both a sales, information, or tool vehicle.
I have focused on retail in this post but am at pains to explain that not all websites sell product and service, and that the above does also apply.
It is about structuring your website of linking its copy and disparate parts to search terms and listings, of optimising for what the customer wants and needs of a website. OF NOT OVER OPYTIMISING FOR SEO and so reducing a customer facing means of engagement to a mere amalgam of search terms.
Conversion rates
They all stack up if things are done correctly. AND I did say at the start that it is a numbers game.
You appear on page one of the SERPS for terms, thus reaching a large number of searchers.
You have a good click through rate of good, qualified customers on your search engine listings.
The customers who hit your website stay as the content is relevant.
The customers convert to sales or whatever metric you work by beacuse they want what you offer.
We can deliver on the above for you, and it is NOT EXPENSIVE OR COMPLEX, and we can teach you how to do it yourself. No need for an agency, and we will be the first to advise this.
OUR SEARCH ENGINE CREDENTIALS - WHY PETER COBLEY AND FOUND US
A December’s working week in photos.
And what a fine place to live and work - Tobermory, Isle of Mull, Oban.
found us
“People don't notice whether it's winter or summer when they're happy.” Anton Chekhov
Savouring a view out to sea from Gavanan Beach near Oban.
Life’s reality can be our singular viewpoint of it and not one governed by the outside influences that swirl daily about us.
(*There is a more concise version of this post if you scroll to footnote at the bottom of this page.)
What glasses are you wearing today when you look at life?
Can you see the Robin?
Can you see the beauty in all including people, no matter what?
Do you need glasses given to you by others, by society?
Are you looking with clarity at your life, or is your viewpoint opaque, clouded by a focus on others? By wearing glasses given to you people and society, and so wearing their world views.
It is so easy to be myopic as to what others have done to you, not done to you, your world situation and where you are; compared to being yourself, true and authentic, living each moment at a time, recognising what has been and may come, whilst not being and living in moments past and yet to come.
I always remind and encourage people to draw their sphere of influence inward , from that which is outside of them and self; for self is what we truly control. And in controlling self we have direction, purpose, clarity. We live in our moments when we focus on self, not the moments of others.
"What good is the warmth of summer, without the cold of winter to give it sweetness." - John Steinbeck, "Travels with Charley: In Search of America"
Scottish mountains when sailing into Oban. The rugged beauty of winter.
I like the quote and its symmetry to weather. The reality is that winter balances summer and vice versa; both are really mirror images. Yet the interpretation one can put on winter is darkness, cold, damp, wet, snow, despondency. But this is an interpretation. Is not winter also something to be marvelled at as a season of beauty, of both hibernation and recovery for new growth and life, and also a time of reflection, of closing in together in warmth with loved ones?
To Mentor is to Grow
This is something I have done for years and for the most part freely believing in the mantra of giving back what was freely given to you. After all how much of life to you really need to live and enjoy life?
What I have learnt is that a lack of self belief and faith, of low self esteem, of people pleasing, of fear of action to lack of goal and dream planning is down to the interpretation we have of life including ourselves, which is a product of the glasses and thus viewpoint we were given from birth. And that it is possible to re-engineer all of this and simply remove the glasses and adopt a viewpoint of self, others, world and all that we are comfortable with.
Through mentoring I grew others and I grew myself. I learnt to be empathetic, caring and considered.
Sailing into Oban, with Ben Cruachan beyond. I see its rugged and towering beauty and cast aside my worldly beliefs and marvel at what can await me.
In simple terms I wasted so much time thinking about other people, other places, and other things. It did not matter if it was a house to live in, a job to aim for, jealousy or anger, or worse hate of others, bemoaning a situation I found myself in, usually blaming others for this, hours spent conniving my climb up the corporate ladder, or worry pangs of what people thought of me - The list went on ad nauseam.
I was very shallow, insecure, eager to please, easily led back then.
Thankful not anymore.
What glasses are you wearing this winter, or do you need to remove them?
found us
I now realise I gave good advice when mentoring or advising in my 10 years of found us but did not necessarily follow it myself!
I do now.
I took my glasses off which jaundiced my viewpoint to one of believing I was not good enough, people better than me, and spent too long worrying about others.
Now, I just focus on me and how I can live in each moment and I now achieve so, so much more.
I care for but am not worried as to other people. Why should I be? Nor do I worry as to places or events, let alone what’s happened or may happen.
I now teach this approach (and actually have done for a while) and people I work with, especially the senior ones. I now do think each senior person with all their confidence are quite insecure beneath the surface. And that’s okay. That’s being authentic and believable. Rather than the usual approach of positioning oneself with bravado, knowing it, and keeping people at distance for fear of being found out.
*Sweary Footnote - the simple version for those who can’t be bothered to read my post.
There is a chap called Craig Johnson who once said to me that the world is 50% c**ts and 50% non-c**ts. I still remind myself of this fact.
Where will your journey take you when you become free of what you were? Disembarking the Isle of Mull ferry to Oban.
Nice “Ad People” and the reality
Mad Men (and Women.) But as I discovered mostly men.
I pen, well type, from Tobermory as Storm Darragh lashes against the patio windows. Claire is in Killin to be with old school friends enduring a drive that saw a trapped jack knifed lorry and VW car in snow; and I can now breath a sigh of relief after speaking to her.
I looked briefly at LinkedIn, which I now lump under the category of “time wasting social media” and rued my doing so as I saw a post by an individual who I don’t have a great deal of respect for. I did in the olden days but watched him corrupted over time by what he believed in himself to the point of his becoming detached from reality and sadly his empathy and love for people, with career and Mamon becoming his Gods.
I was also tasted bile as he was sat at my old University in Lancaster??!!
I bemoaned his being there as it is one of my sacred places, but I recognised he was there for one of his children who I realised is studying there, which is fair enough.
The emotion passed but I learnt from it. I remembered anger is a natural emotion to be welcomed and it is a question of what you do with it. I cannot change the fact I came across on LinkedIn a person who is a not so nice person, and more so when they dress themselves up as being a) nice, b) God’s gift to digital advertising.
All I can do is keep my side of the street clean. He has to live with himself and his “dirty hands”.
Please note that I have not provided hypertext links to external content to encourage people to have a good root around as to what’s on the Web.
People, Places, Things
In the life I have had with a career in advertising I have come across people who have “worked me over”, “taken advantage”, and less politely “screwed me over”. (One of which I just refered to having seen a post on LinkedIn.)
It was and is the nature of working in the advertising, marketing, and media trades.
It is the nature of working in senior leadership roles.
It is the nature of an exponential career rise, as was the case for me.
And it’s not just people who go drive you insane, hurt you, stitch you up, lie and the rest. Places and things can also bring out strong emotions in you; maybe a place you worked at, or something like a project for example you were involved in, or an event and happening that still stings.
Advice on the Past, the Future, the Present. (People, Places, Things.)
People, places, and things can drive you nuts if you let them. And what can often be forgotten is where they sit contextually in time, be it past, present, future. And this is important for the generation of emotions, of how we react, our very mental wellbeing.
The first thing you must always do is look only to yourself and what you are thinking, feeling, and therefore behaving. You only have control over yourself.
In having control over yourself you focus on your side of the street. Using whatever method of goal (dreaming) and plan setting to achieve what you want out of life.
Perform a SWOT analysis and also look at how you function (point 7.) With SWOT you want to get an idea of who you are, where you’ve been, and where you are currently going.
Also look at the Johari Window.
There are four core or recognised self evaluation maintenance models, for example Gibbs or Tesser. Best bet if you want to evaluate yourself is to read up on them.
Bring all you observations as to self together in one consummate reading. This way you’ll have a feel for where you sit as a person.
How you function or act must also be examined as well. This was touched on at point 3. A good way to look at how you function is to read from Stephen Covey and learn about his Quadrants of Time Management. Are you in Quadrant 2 and being effective with your time? The point simplistically is to ask, “am I working smart?”, “am I working effectively?”
You NOW HAVE a full evaluation of who you are and how you act. This is your side of the street that you can work on.
Back now to people, places, and things. Through working on self you are able to indirectly control how external people, places, and things (events included) affect you. You can never control them directly and this is a bridge of understanding and awareness you have to cross, and yet so few of us do, and waste time focusing on other people and things as we try to control them. Imagine yourself as the theatre director putting on the show; do you actually control all, or merely exist within the show guiding where necessary? Do you really control your actors for example? Really and truly? Well the answer is no.
Yon only really control your fate via control of your own mindset and action; and from the past work you have put into self.
The plain old fact of life is you cannot control other things including people, but you can influence via self-management. And this is a crucial learning that I only recently accepted and implemented. I wish I’d done this sooner. But high achievers and driven people achieve up to a point through control, but the truly successful ones are those actually let go of trying to control and work on self - it is counter intuitive.
And that my friends is the trick. And with it comes serenity because one is not burdened down by other people, places, and things. You only have to focus on number one. This does not mean you travel through life in isolation. You have to interact. But paradoxically you gain more control by letting go of concerns, whether past, present, or yet to come (maybe.)
With this learning I was able to leave a certain person to his own fate and not worry about his popping up at Lancaster University. I am able to know who I am, am comfortable and happy with myself, and make amends where necessary. I have achieved in my own way. I wonder if he is really happy at all what he has done in his life. But that is not my worry any longer.
Don’t waste your time on other people, places, and things.
“It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a lot of it. Life is long enough, and a sufficiently generous amount has been given to us for the highest achievements if it were all well invested. But when it is wasted in heedless luxury and spent on no good activity, we are forced at last by death’s final constraint to realize that it has passed away before we knew it was passing. So it is: we are not given a short life but we make it short, and we are not ill-supplied but wasteful of it… Life is long if you know how to use it.”
Seneca in his letter to Paulinus.
Sunday morning after Storm Darragh passed through.
what found us offers its clients
Wednesday 13th November - Oban harbour, the town, McCaig’s Tower at night
I am enjoying exploring Oban, where I have now been a handful of times since landing properly on the Isle of Mull. This is my 4th full week on the island and I am thoroughly enjoying it, and being with my wife Claire makes me happy.
With found us I now turn my attention to work; so think it useful to drill down in a post and explain what it is I do for people and businesses.
my full profile - linkedIn
Have a look to who, what, where I am. You’ll see that there is a huge wealth of experience, qualifications, hard work and effort, some luck and being in the right place at the right time, and help from good people; but most of all results and success.
found us - peter cobley - locations
I work across the United Kingdom, and internationally, and I am now located in Tobermory and Oban. I would love to hear from companies based in Tobermory, or for that matter the Isle of Mull, Oban, and Argyll and Bute.
The good news is found us has always worked remotely. I’ve dealt with people and business in China, South Korea, New York and other locations.
So please be aware that being in the Hebrides means nothing to working with people. I’ve always worked this way, enjoy it, and am successful. Face to face meetings can happen quite easily as well, travel not being an issue.
So that’s that one wrapped up.
found us - tobermory - a synopsis
found us can easily work with smaller businesses (or larger) to help grow and utilise their offline and online marketing. This could for example be digitally led using search marketing in the form of PPC and SEO, with the supporting data analysis as to a business’s eCommerce performance. Programmatic forms a core as well, thus allowing for above the line marketing, in addition to below the line.
Offline can incorporate traditional media as based on a cost per thousand (CPT), whether press, print, magazine, broadcast, radio, or ambient for example.
Audio visual (AV) work goes without saying, and we are skilled in this area.
Anyway just read below.
Looking out into the Sound of Mull from Tobermory
services - a by no means definitive list
What I wanted to do here was list, also for basic SEO purposes, what it is I do. This will inform in a somewhat simplistic way what I do.
I’ve never need to optimise for non-brand terms; should be interesting to see how I fare as an example!
services - consultancy - non-executive
I’ve sat on a board of directors since the first such role in 2001 when made a director at a Carlton TV (ITV), which was my first board director role. That I had to learn fast, encounter pain, encounter joy, and think very hard is an understatement.
I built on this first role with further such roles across different businesses, and learnt a lot, was successful, and delivered results.
I suppose if I were to condense the experience I have it would be my being able to start a business, grow it, and sell it. Or join a growing business and grow it further. Or work with a more mature business to make it more efficient or profitable.
Ultimately it all depends on what people want to achieve as their life goals. Something I excel in.
https://www.foundus.co.uk/talk/found-us-consulting
services - consultancy - acting as a director
I can act as a stop gap director if you need one, with a commercial, sales or marketing bias.
services - sales director
I am a good sales director both offline and online. I’ve sold agency, media owner, and client side working on standardised volume sales across to bespoke pitches for a company’s advertising budget. I’ve built sales teams from scratch, managed them, and delivered results.
https://www.foundus.co.uk/talk/found-us-business-development-and-sales
services - executive search and headhunting
found us was initially created in 2014 to focus on executive search and head hunting, based upon the extensive experience, connections, and the knowledge of Peter Cobley.
Senior roles have been placed within a number of known blue chip businesses and smaller independents. Senior roles have been created in businesses where Peter Cobley has applied his board level commercial knowledge.
Have a read to find out more:
https://www.foundus.co.uk/talk/found-us-executive-search-and-headhunting
services - marketing
I come from both online and offline media, with above and below the line experience, helping market my client’s business to customers. Both consumer and trade.
I also partner with friends who act as data specialists across to fractional CMO’s. They can bring a breadth of experience and knowledge to your business.
https://www.foundus.co.uk/talk/found-us-marketing
services - PPC
In 2002 I first came across search marketing at the start of the market when working for GoTo.com/Overture. I am very familiar with utilising search and pay per click marketing to achieve results.
https://www.foundus.co.uk/talk/found-us-search-marketing
services - SEO
A big area for all companies and in the UK very Google centric. An area I am familiar with, where I partner with some of the best SEO techies in the business.
https://www.foundus.co.uk/talk/found-us-search-marketing
services - Programmatic
Arguably the buzz word of digital advertising presently, maybe even the darling child. It has its pros and cons as does any medium. Point is I am very familiar with this area of display, having been around with Blue Lithium or Struq at the very start of it all.
https://www.foundus.co.uk/talk/found-us-and-programmatic-advertising
services - web
I’ve been involved in many web builds and launches and can dig deep into this area, as can the partners I use.
my partners - the hidden ingredient to success
I know a ridiculous amount of people in advertising, marketing, and media, and utilise a number of them in my business as transparent partners. Why?
One man cannot do all, and these friends are at the top of their game whether SEO, eCommerce, web builds, strategy, and the rest.
They are tried and tested friends who have repeatedly delivered for me. Could be a marketing strategy piece, a Shopify build, a media buy - it does not matter.
one for the clients - why found us?
We are knowledgeable, experienced, hard working, and loved by our clients - you are welcome to talk to them.
Being small, with partners, means we are very, very nimble when working with people and businesses.
Ourselves and our partners work transparently, and at any given moment you know where we are against target and cost.
And speaking of cost we are very, very competitive! Why? Because we are small, and as they say perfectly formed.
Teamwork in its purest form
Sunday 7th July 2024, end of our Wansfell Category race, 24th out of 92 teams overall, 8th Vets out of 40 teams, and 11th out of 48 mixed teams.
So my wife Claire and I completed the 2024 Saunders Mountain Marathon over the weekend just gone, and when thinking about a found us blog post to write realised it is a good example of what is teamwork in what is a stressful environment, not to mention the weather.
Erm. What is a Mountain Marathon?
You may know what fell running is, it is the English for mountain running. It comes from The Lake District where it originated from, hence to term fell. The word fell comes from the old Norse for mountain.
Fell running is therefore running and racing on mountains. Note, we don’t really have mountains in England so it is more about running up and down hills, and it is not exclusively in the Lake District any longer. Funnily enough the sport originated out of gambling, when the Victorian rich and aristocrats would travel via the new train system to the Lakes and their Estates, gambling on the prowess of their boys who worked their land racing up and down hills in competition against other lads working the land from other estates. In effect Victorian upper class types gambling against each other, with the lads able to win sizeable life changing purses of money versus herding sheep.
Orienteering is where you run in a competition against others navigating off a map via checkpoints. And you need to be good at navigation!
The Mountain Marathon combines the two and is unique to fell running and orienteering in the British Isles. You have a weekend and run with a partner across a course in the Lakes carrying all you gear including tent and cooking kit to a half way camp, and on the following day do the same. It is about fell running, navigation, and of choosing your route, yes your route, to pick up checkpoints whilst trying to find the best navigational lines, and completing each day at the fastest pace. It is jolly good fun, challenging, and team work is vital. And weather can take an event in the Lakes and turn it completely on its head…
Team work - a definition.
Teamwork in my words is about one or more people working together to do something. It is that simple and does not need dressing up, but for the purists here is the Collins Dictionary definition.
teamwork
(tiːmwɜːʳk )
uncountable noun
Teamwork is the ability a group of people have to work well together.
Today's complex buildings require close teamwork between the architect and the builders.
Synonyms: cooperation, collaboration, unity, concert More Synonyms of teamwork
Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. Copyright © HarperCollins Publishers
So there we have the definition. The official dictionary one, yet all of us know what teamwork is. We a a species are not that daft.
Using the Saunders MM, what is my take on teamwork?
Teamwork with a fell race as the medium
Teamwork means you have to work together to achieve something. As you cannot or choose not to do it alone. Sometimes you have choice of fellow team mate, sometimes you do not.
And teamwork is not purely I now realise the sole preserve of business; it happens in all spheres of life. With the wife, the children, on a holiday trip, having dinner, blah, blah, blah. Teamwork encompasses us as people as human beings very rarely function in isolation, and that applies for a lot of the animal world as well.
Some observations and tips.
Pick your team mate if you can, but not always the case. You see I am married to Claire and she is my Soulmate and understands how I tick in the physical and spiritual planes. Sounds funky, but is important. Humans are creatures of emotion and spirituality and that is how they work together, apart from the obvious physical task.
Chose your team mate if you can (even if nuts.)
So you need to be attuned to emotions, a person’s spirituality, and baggage. You have to make an emotional and spiritual connection for teamwork to serve its purpose. So in our case, Claire and I needed to follow a course on a map as fast as possible and with minimal navigational snafus. This is the task and pretty obvious, yet driving the task are people - Claire and I. And we function differently. And this is not simply about gender. Claire compared to me looks at the world differently and has different worldly objectives and dreams as driven by self, as moulded by her life experiences.
I want to win and become frustrated at being slow. I can thus shortcut. My emotional electricity drives me to run, to win, to achieve as I have past baggage of not being good enough.
Claire wants to enjoy and be careful with navigation, and within the world of orienteering fell running this is vital. She sees the beauty of the Lakeland fells and not just the race. It is an experience for her. She also wants to enjoy, and this does not mean she won’t push herself. She wants to be certain of where she has been, is, will go. Her emotional baggage is to be safe, secure, placed, in control.
Now if you cross compare we have two competing interests that won’t lead to two people reading a map correctly, agreeing on route, or running together at a directional unified pace. Yikes.
But we as a couple have to understand each others emotional and spiritual electricity, of how we see the world, of our place in the world, and how we interpret and filter it. The task is obvious, what is not is figuring out how we connect.
In practice we leverage my drive, sense of winning, myopic focus. With Claire we can leverage her ability to see the bigger picture, see outside of the narrow channel of my vision. I provide uncertainty and risk, taking navigational decisions where all information is not available. Claire provides the caution. Steadies my vigour. She understands my emotional and spiritual drives, but explains them to me with logic and emotion.
I leverage and utilise Claire’s sense of caution, or seeing beyond the singular route and thought process I have to hand. She reminds me of the team, the joint effort, of looking at where we are together - the beauty of it all.
I have to accept Claire, she has to accept me - emotionally, spiritually, baggage and all, for us to function as a unit. And this is the key to team work, and human relations.
Get Spiritual.
And then there is environment
Environment can be a benefit or pain in the bum depending on where you are, and let us not forget time and need.
In our case, we had the possibilty of rain hanging over us for Saturday and Sunday afternoons, especially Sunday from 11am. And this makes for hard running on the fells; difficult and what can be treacherous navigation.
The sun was out and it was humid, and climbing hills, running, bog and tussock hoping meant the sweat dripped off us, and led to occasional frayed tempers. 95% me, 5% Claire.
Something I have to work on is how I choose to let environment and its people affect me. It is a defect of mine. We were obviously under time pressure and objective achievement. And this does not have to be up a hill near Hawswater, it can be on the way to the airport, pulling a business pitch together, managing the kids at a footie match and so on.
Don’t be Pete, be like Claire - at one with what’s about you.
One has to remember we have choice and control over our actions, but not those of the place we find ourselves in and its people - always remember the phrase people, places, things. Let go and focus on you and how you filter or interpret what I have just mentioned. Consider your relationship with that which is outside of you, utilising empathy and understanding to ensure a goal, dream, objective is achieved.
So you can let (in my case) sweat, a steep hill, the sun, the humidity, your rucksack and the list goes on, affect you and thus your team mate. Don’t. They are merely objects if you like in their own right.
Teamwork comes from not just working with team mate, from the people, places, things. It comes from how we chose to interact with them.
Don’t forget we have to work with place (environment), people (covered this), time (but we can make our time), the objective (goal, dream, desire), things.
It is how we govern our spiritual and emotional relationship to them, and not the people, places, things themselves that truly matters.
So with teamwork
Yes do focus on the task at hand. And -
Know your emotional, spiritual attributes, and baggage. And don’t view them as positive or negative. View them as they are, and harness them.
Try to understand your team mate’s emotional, spiritual attributes, and baggage. Harness them.
With understanding and playing to your own and another’s way of ticking you make a connection and two or more become one unit. And the task can then come into play.
A taste of honey. (disposed, disruptive, dysfunctional.)
The dysfunctional, the dispossessed, the disruptors will always have hope.
A Taste of Honey - Rita Tushingham and Paul Danquah in the 1961 film.
I was studying English A Level at All Hallows RC High School (now All Hallows Catholic College) when I discovered Sheila Delaney’s A Taste of Honey. The late and great Gerry Campbell, an influential Teacher was Cousin to Sheila Delaney, and I was also lucky to be taught by Anne Goddard, a marvellous English Teacher.
It is an important play for me and my education as it was one of the many stimuli that kick started a process of thinking and challenge, think and challenge those social givens and of how we can all be sheep, but don’t have to accept societal stereotypes. I was to lose myself many years later, gradually, painfully, and without awareness; but thankfully I can and do remember so much from my past, which in coming back to me reminds me of my loner individual self, and of challenging social mores and beliefs. And there is nowt wrong with that.
What an earth do I mean by this? Jo, the lead character in the play leaves behind social norms at the time by openly not observing them, by doing what is right for her.
Arguably she is forced into action by circumstance and is thus not a disruptor, to use a more modern term. But a disruptor she is by her not conforming to norm, to being that solo operator. In her dysfunctional environment she has to be dysfunctional herself, part of and necessary for everything to function as it is. Yet also for change to occur. Whether by voluntary or involuntary cognition. Sometimes though it is the Universe that plays the role of disruptor and we are merely swept along.
This was all something that I latched onto. My childhood background was broken, disfunction, chaotic, destructive; and with time, recovery, help, and education I came to see that like all in life it is both a positive and negative, a yin and yang, a good and a bad. And that I was swept along to where I am now; ultimately guided by the Universe and what its plans are for me.
I now see that disfunction about me led to my disfunction in society and personally. Now this was not necessarily all good as it caused a lot of chaos and hurt over the years. And I suspect this the case for a lot of people I know, especially in addiction and advertising and maybe all of us. Addiction and Advertising - where does one start and the other stop?
But disfunction is a synonym for disruption, and now realise that my disruption created change and development, though the journey painful.
The case for disfunction.
I think now that I am still disruptive and have learnt to harness this. You see, there is an opposite for all in life, and the bad that came with my being disruptive, is now turned to good.
I look back and now see that all those disruptive people were and are able to see the gaps in the artifice that is normality, or what people present as normal, given, or societal norms. And they are able to open those gaps up, split apart the veneer of artifice, in fact shatter it and replace it with something new. Sadly this is where disruptors fall down, as one commonality is failure to deliver on what they disrupt or to follow through on what they start. This is something I had to learn about.
I think my advertising career and for a lot of achievers in life and business is disjointed, disruptive, leading to great results, but also great failure. But we can change the defects, the faults, learn from the mistakes. We are disruption and thus we are change, and we can change self, environment, the current balance and status quo, and this can be the artifice I talk of.
Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek - President Barack Obama
I think now my mentoring, career advice, and help of other can focus on these disruptors, to harness the positive element and assuage the negative which is something that you can never really remove. To receive help from others, emboldens one to give back what was freely given to you. And that is what I must do. You see these disruptors who are also dispossessed of much (normally emotional, spiritual succour) make change in life and drive development, and I honestly believe that these flawed people who look so hard for that “something” can and should be engines of change, for their and the common good.)
It is every man’s obligation to put back into the world at least the equivalent of what he takes out of it - Albert Einstein
I seek to harness my learned disruption to bring about change, where the Universe needs and compels it. And help others do the same. In a business and personal life.
Advertising disruptors I welcome you. I wish to meet and help more of you in your careers and your lives, because you don’t need to go through what I went through. All of us who are older, and maybe wiser, have a duty to pass down what we have learnt.
As I said with this picture which I love, earlier in the piece, a still from the 1961 film, “The dysfunctional, the dispossessed, the disruptors will always have hope.” And I strongly believe this. Hope for themselves and others. They in their broken way seek self-attainment (see Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and similar.)
Imagine! All these wonderful people who can see and wiggle through the gaps present in the norms of society, the bore of society, the status quo, the life we may all be trapped in, and make news things, ways of being, living, thinking, behaving. Making wonderful things.
As night draws to a close, dawn arises and we can each of us start a new day. And each of us can chose to be a change for good.
Recognise and embrace you are a disruptor.
Do you have baggage or trauma within your life? Do you drive yourself in all areas, and have you really asked why? Is your driven behaviour, breaking and making things a means of distraction from your history, what you think on?
Does your disruption cause change, but can this vacillate between good and bad? Have you built as much as you have torn down, or has fallen down?
Is this all cyclical?
Do you want change, but don’t know how to?
Is it a case of knowing how to harness your skills in the right direction, and to then fulfil on what you have started? You light the fire but fail to put it out, or stoke it.
Feel free to contact me, have a chat, a sit down, a Zoom. Whatever. I’ve been there and know how to talk about it, and make change. It is not easy. Not at all. But it can be done.
4 horsemen of the apocalypse, 4 good bosses
This post is about what constituted a good boss for me when employed. I am now self-employed and have been for a while. In about 10 weeks I’ll mature to 53 years of age, so have had a number of direct or indirect bosses, though not since 2014, and to be honest don’t miss being employed in the industry that I was in, and if you read a piece I’d written elsewhere you’d understand why.
So what and who did I think was a good boss and what do 4 horsemen have to do with it all?
Wikipedia - for brevity….
Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse[1] are figures in the Book of Revelation in the New Testament of the Bible, a piece of apocalypse literature attributed to John of Patmos. Similar allusions are contained in the Old Testament books of Ezekiel and Zechariah, written about six centuries prior. Though the text only provides a name for the fourth horseman, subsequent commentary often identifies them as personifications of Conquest (Zelus), War (Ares), Famine (Limos), and Death (Thanatos).
Please note that there is no chronological order to these bosses.
My 4 good ex-Bosses
They are in fact opposites of the 4 horsemen. If you read below I explain.
I learnt if you act the opposite to appalling bosses, then you become good management, and this did work for me. I was not the best but had no real intention of subjected to the styles of Victor Synott across to Jim Brigden or Warren Burke for example.
Being young and stupid I did the opposite to those with poor man management who resorted to bullying, interspersing their styles with dashes of immorality, and smatterings of sheer cruelty.
But there was more to it that doing the opposite as that only lasts so long. I had to have people I could learn from, who would teach me, who cared, who in fact cared for my growth as a person and not a mere employee. People I could out for a drink with after work in London on a Friday, knackered and frazzled, and pour my heart out to them. People I now realise who were just as bat shit crazy, but a little older and experienced, cared about people not wanting them to emulate mistakes they’d made, or simply have a crap day or career.
I learnt so much from these four and thank you.
Conquest for me is Taryn Newlove (Dr Taryn Bashford as she is now)
The opposite? Not succumbing to conquest of self, from all sides.
I learnt from Taryn how it is possible to overcome prejudice, adversity; whilst pursuing a dream. And Taryn taught me how to be tough and fair, whilst she took a barrage of sexism in the advertising field; with my suspecting her South African heritage standing her in good stead. She was never shy in saying what she thought to people, me included.
I first met Taryn when she became my boss at Carlton TV in the Halcion days of my media career in London in the early 2000’s. I was, ahem, a handful to say the least and the industry up and down like a yo-yo.
Pretty, intelligent and most importantly a SAFFER.
If you are to read her LinkedIn profile or learn about Taryn, she has brought up two wonderful kids, taken a career change into writing and academia and done very well.
She is now an Associate Director at The University of Queensland and very happy pursuing her dream.
I learnt a lot about responsibility, teamwork, and about how to be a good boss, and look after people. Taryn extoled the rule of giving people empowerment and responsibility and control over their destiny. This was her South African ethos; just get on with it in your own style and achieve the objective.
War for me is Carol Dukes
The opposite to war? Don’t go to war, be the thinker, the Strategist.
Carol Dukes was behind Emap Online and then Carlton Online, where I was one of her employees, is and was one of the cleverest people I have met with a common touch.
I learnt from her that all out warfare in business, especially the advertising community and in the dotcom boom, is and will always be a pointless, vanity led, wasteful, and crippling project.
Carol successfully built and led from the front the fast paced and leading digital media business at the start of the rollercoaster ride in 1998 that was to become Joe Public embracing The Web. This was Carlton Online, part of Carlton TV, one of the biggest franchise operators of ITV.
To see her operate as the consummate Strategist avoiding warfare with rival Media Owners who were literally throwing millions into digital, when we working with fookin’ dial up modem, and Flash was thought to be funky, was amazing to see and learn from.
I learnt so much about not playing the game, not picking up the ball, avoiding confrontation and being good at self, colleagues, and what your business does. I learn this from Carol.
There is one thing that has always stuck with me. One day I was dealing with an individual at Mindshare (WPP) who was not happy with the media rate we were charging. So he went above my head and called Carol, who backed up my decision despite this person and agency being a major play with budgets we needed. She simply said something to me that has stuck and been oft quoted many, many times:
“Too much, too soon, too young”. Always the Teacher. It was her way of keeping me grounded.
Viktor Mikhaylovich Vasnetsov
Famine for me is Phil Rooke
Now you may think this an odd one if you know Phil Rooke. I shall explain. Phil as my direct boss at Carlton Online was on the senior management leadership team with Carol Dukes and basically led sales and commercial affairs. From him I learnt the opposite of famine which is growth and harvest, and Phil is, was exceptional as to this. He grew businesses because he knows how to grow people.
He helped found business with limited “advertising space” to sell in the oh so early days of digital marketing, and was a true creative at the creation of products and services to be sold to clients. Always at the forefront of new things. A natural curosity. For God’s sake he chose Microlight flying as a hobby!
I learnt that you can always find and make opportunities in times of famine, and Phil showed me this and much more, with his having a erudite mind, caring for people, and always being creative. I learnt to think out of the box from Phil. Always looking for a solution.
And this is why if you look to Phil’s profile you’ll see a true entrepreneur. But crucially someone who realised, leverage, and taught me that businesses are made of people, so nourish them; but what was special was that this is natural to Phil.
Death for me is Richard Firminger
Why death and why Richard Firminger? The opposite of death is life, rebirth, rising from the ashes, achievement over adversity. He is someone I admire for what he has achieved, of obstacles overcome, and for never giving up.
Richard was my boss when at Yahoo! UK & Ireland, and I think he can be summed up with the care and help he showed me when I was off ill in 2007 with clinical depression for three months. He understood and helped coax me back to returning to work when broken. He himself had not had it easy, also occupying very senior and stressful roles. I looked to him and thought, if he can do it, I can do it.
When you look to his profile he is like the other three, plus being a true achiever. Richard was in a very challenging position at Overture as it proceeded to be shoe horned into Yahoo! UK & Ireland. He had to deal with some absolute Yahoo! types who had and probably still do have the morals of an alley cat, and I am being diplomatic when I say that.
A leader, entrepreneur, yet he demonstrated the opposite to death in a personal and business context, whereby he kept coming back. And as a sales and commercial type I learnt so much from this, and in recent years his rubbing off on me probably was one of those subconscious factors in my never giving up, of embracing and loving the fact that the opera is not over until the fat lady sings, and of making sure you put a chair against her stage room door so she cannot get out. Richard is one of those. I suspect he stuck two fingers up at the Yahoo! Cronies and was always one of the team, and fondly thought of by his ex-team today. If you know Firminger’s story it is one of clearly snatching victory out of the jaws of defeat, and whilst showing the flaws we all have as humans, coming out on top for self and others.
Saint-Sever Beatus
But what was the common theme?
Across all 4 people is a common theme that I picked up on. Each of these people has their own style and idiosyncrasies. Just like we all do. But each one follows the golden rule:
The Golden Rule is the principle of treating others as one would want to be treated by them. It is sometimes called an ethics of reciprocity, meaning that you should reciprocate to others how you would like them to treat you (not necessarily how they actually treat you). Various expressions of this rule can be found in the tenets of most religions and creeds through the ages.[1] Wikipedia.
I suppose I can also finish with the following, namely you get what you give. The Universe I am convinced operates and lives in a most sarcastic form of Karma. Do you want to be the dog that has its day? All these three people were great bosses because they helped people on the way up. Others don’t and I know a few. And when you fall you need help. And in my game people can and do piss on you if you plummet when saddled with a questionable reputation. And you can fall at any time.
We always have a Wildcard in life and the Universe
And it comes in the form of an Insiad Graduate from whom I learnt so, so much and helped cement and grow my commercial and legal knowledge. This man was not a direct boss but I worked closely with him at Carlton/ITV, and smile fondly at our commercial sessions together.
He fascinated me with his acumen, whit; saddened me with his life story, and held me astounded with his tales. This man is so posh, yet was our Henry V and we were his band of brothers. He operates within an orbit that only star ships do. This is a man who appeared in a US Court in his pyjamas in the middle of nowhere to argue his case. He is very intelligent and bat shit crazy, and one of the most caring and thoughtful people I met in my time in London, despite his operating in shark ridden environment working with the likes of David Cameron before Pork Loins entered politics.
You know who you are and thank you.
I still remember you barracking me in the depths of the The Media Centre on Great Titchfield Street as I desperately fought your intellect as you asked me which bit did I not understand? I still don’t understand a lot if honest, but learnt so much from you.
Eduard von Steinle