Evil Plans – be an artist

Justin Souter was gracious about my Please – don’t do this post. There’s a lesson for us all in there. If you work your ass off trying to do something, polish it like crazy and it gets put down – stand back, listen and perhaps learn. Sometimes I think we’re crap at that, me included. Who wants to lose? No-one.

Given what I’ve learned over the years, the fact I give away 80% of what I know and 100% of what I don’t plus the fact I’m sure Justin is well meaning, it makes sense to explain what I would do in addressing professionals on the grim topic of ’social media’ – a term I detest with a passion almost as dear to me as my passions for innovation and the little guy. It dovetails nicely into something that Mark Lee attempted to crowdsource over at IT Counts but without much success. It also speaks to the culture of the profession and how that can be successfully disrupted to good effect.

I’m not a huge fan of what people call marketing. Irritating folks by telling them how great I am (huh), advertising, crummy, cookie cutter websites and the rest just leave me cold. Always have. When I started this blog thing back in 2005 I really had no clue what was going on but I did reach out to folk who did and do. One of those was Hugh MacLeod aka @gapingvoid. We hit it off in a sort of love-hate kinda way and about 6 months on we met for the first time. I’d been banging on about ROI, he hated that idea, he’s opinionated, I’m beyond opinionated. We got on well. We still do even if, when I call up he’ll likely say: ‘How are you then you f*#*in’ asshole?’

Over the years I’ve learned a great deal from Hugh that has augmented what I’ve always known about the profession. At its best, it is superb but by and large it is insular, secretive, anal, bound by a system so old it seems immutable, over-rewarded for a rapidly commoditizing service and often lousy at communicating what it means to run a business. Hugh talked a lot about commodification, a concept I could understand. Or rather de-commodification. This is where you have to figure out how you stop being a grain of sand on the beach (see the illustration at the top of this page.) It’s about using your smarts (cuz you’ve got ‘em even if you don’t use ‘em) to figure out how you can make what you do something of genuine shared value. But…being different ain’t enough. Heck, I can show you a 1,00o websites that claim to be different but aren’t.

The second thing that Hugh taught me is that you need to tell a story. One that captures the imagination of the reader and draws them into your world. There’s nothing devious about this. It’s about relating to people where they’re at. Francine does an amazing job, not only calling out the Big Four but doing so in such a way that those who are still there get that she knows what it’s about as do those who are circling the wagons. She can do that because she has real world experience. Even when people might think she’s got it wrong or is over reaching. Passionate people do that from time to time. Me included.

Then there’s Richard Murphy. He’s not going to win any prizes from many of his professional colleagues for his strident position on tax avoidance but he strikes a chord with those around the world who believe in social justice. He’s now the TUC’s tax advisor or some such. He gets to meet politicians and tell them what’s what in the world of tax avoidance. They listen.

Next there is Emily Coltman. When I first came across ‘M’ it was clear to me she wanted to do something different. Like Richard before her, the idea of communicating via a blog seemed alien. I’m sure she’ll tell you that in our early conversations, much of what I was saying was scary. A couple of years on and how she’s blossomed. M wins business all over the country for creating useful, instructive videos related to software that professionals and non-professionals might use. She also has a micro business helping other micro businesses make sense of accounting and as a practitioner in her own right.

In this arcane world of ours, things move slowly enough that even if you’ve been outta the game 16 years, as in my case, then many of the issues you know about today have a long and deep history. So there are stories to tell and people to influence even if it comes in a round about way.

The third thing Hugh taught me is that when you share a story that resonates with people it has a habit of getting spread about. You don’t really need to do much to make it happen but it kinda helps if you know or can find like minded people with whom you can initially share those thoughts. Professionals are fortunate. They’ve got client lists. If they’re any good at what they do (and most are at least reasonable) then they should have built up expertise in some business sector. You want me to talk about private healthcare, construction or property development? I can do that. That’s where most of my clients were at. But tech is where my head and heart are most at home. Marry that with a desire to see the profession do much better than it is and you’ve got the bones for communicating something different, fresh and hopefully useful.

Professionals understand the value of networking but this kind, the digital kind, is different. It’s about stepping outside your comfort zone to communicate and share with those you may never meet, those you know intimately and those who are occasional colleagues. It’s about having a desire to enjoy what you do and turn it into an adventure rather than the grind that the creeping rustbelt of commodification brings. That’s the genesis of Evil Plans.

Above everything it is about realizing that no two professionals are the same. We’re like artists. You may match or exceed my technical ability in this or that (that’s not too hard) and at times you and I might even sound a bit similar. But can you get under the skin of someone trying to figure out how to choose an accounting application or manage a technical consulting opportunity? Do you want there to be someone prepared to tilt against windmills when it comes to professional ethics? Does the idea of driving value and getting away from the tyranny of the billable hour seem appealing? If so then I can probably tell you something you don’t know and which you will find hard to track down elsewhere. That’s my 20%. I’m sure you all have something to offer that I could easily admire.

So what might be the outcome of this ’stuff?’

1. It’s marketing as I want to do it.
2. It is not intrusive, it is permission based – you either want to read what I say or you don’t.
3. It’s inclusive – anyone is free to comment, ask a question, put an opposite view, tell me I’m wrong. The only thing I ask is a little respect, even when I completely mess up.
4. It’s about building trust, not because I have some secret handle on innovation or the other topics I find interesting but because day in, day out I try and find things that interest me and which hopefully will interest you but which ultimately I believe matter in the lives of professionals.
5. It’s about realizing that the market for something to believe in is infinite.

If that makes any sense then you’re already part way there to understanding what this so-called social media stuff means. Sure. You’ll need some help figuring things out because no-one became an instant expert in anything overnight. Remember those years of training? How about PQE? We’re all still learning something if we have ears to hear and eyes to see. What to do?

1. Make the time because your future depends upon it.
2. Don’t think that today’s fat paycheck will be there this time next year. Too many adverse forces are circling around to guarantee that.
3. Find the thing that gets you excited when talking with clients.
4. Don’t be that grain of sand and avoid crowds.
5. Create or die. Those are really your only choices.

Will any of this bring you business? That was Mark’s question. I don’t know. I don’t look for it but it seems to come my way. Increasingly I see it coming the way of others too.

Finally – my debt to Hugh is not something you can easily measure. That’s the power of the 80%+ he gives away as a marketer. Instead, I am making a wee collection of his prints. They’re going to decorate my office. I pay for them. I’m happy to do so. I’m giving one away to someone I admire in the hope they can draw something of the inspiration that has helped me ‘get it,’ however imperfectly that might be. Thanks dude.

Tagged as: Hugh MacLeod, Mark Lee, Social justice, TUC