When you decide to change, you already have.
Posted by Michael Walsh (Check me out!) on November 3rd, 2009
Tagged as: Me
So I’m a little behind on the updates…
If you only knew.
Work - the 9 to 5 stuff - has gone completely off the map. In fact it’s so intense, it’s leaving me numb which, for a copywriter is a pretty serious condition.
But there is, apparently, light at the end of the tunnel.
In a recent article I posted an ambitious to-do list, with 6 goals to complete before December. The list now looks like this:
Set up a Limited liability company to handle the following: (ready)
1. Expand my professional relationship with my largest client which will help me cope with the sheer amount of work and of course help finance the projects below. (the die is cast)
2. Finish and launch the Social Starter initiative. (95% completed awaiting site launch)
3. Transfer all domains and online activities over to the new company. (need the company but it’s a given)
4. Rework The Acer Guy to include officially-sanctioned reviews and charitable causes. (done - about to launch)
5. Re-commission the Runaway Parents series of sites (starting with Italian). The first time around was a disaster. (started - this time it looks like a real winner)
6. Start the ball rolling with Language Is Free. (postponed)
To be perfectly honest, when I took a look at this list earlier I actually surprised myself with just how much progress I’ve made with these projects.
At the same time, it’s really exciting to see it all come together - remember this has been bubbling beneath the surface for the past three years. I always knew my life would be hard to turn around, but one thing’s for sure, it’s finally started to change course.
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Selling the family jewels
Posted by Michael Walsh (Check me out!) on April 20th, 2009
Tagged as: Me, Projects
I guess this has been in the works for a while.
I’ve been looking at various strategies to get this company off the ground. Finance, loans, partners – they all have their pro’s and con’s.
The hard part isn’t so much the money itself, it’s convincing people that your idea is worth investing in and then giving up a piece of it when you know they don’t believe even half as much as you do. There’s nothing worse than knowing in your heart that you’re on to something and that what you’re trying to get started is actually worth doing and then having to waste so much energy on doubters.
Of course, there are Andy Bechtolsheim’s and forward-thinking VC firms like North Venture Partners out there; it’s just that none of them live in my neighborhood.
I did have a the weirdest meeting with a millionaire property investor who gave me exactly 5 minutes to convince him of both projects during a walk from one business meeting to lunch. To be perfectly honest, I gave up after just 2 as I’m pretty sure he had a minute and a half earlier.
So what’s a guy with two brilliant ideas during a recession in Italy to do?
Well the first thing is to figure out just how much you want this thing to work, convince yourself that your determination is a living, breathing entity and treat it with the respect it deserves, plan it all out and then sell the family silver.
Tough call that last one but the success Gods always demand a humongous sacrifice.
So here’s Plan A:
We get Genitori In Fuga up and running first, including everything from blog entries to the Advertisement section, along with associated sites and services (Flickr account, YouTube page and Facebook group for starters) and then hit the sponsors.
The first one we have lined up might catch you off guard. The Italian Ministry for Culture. That’s right. In Italy, this Ministry also handles tourism, which is where we want to go. If we can convince them that a) we’re promoting strong family values and b) helping tourism on a national scale and c) this Italian idea will then be exported, then we might get that all important seal of approval and assistance at Regional level which is when it starts getting interesting.
Once the Italian site starts gaining traction, then we can roll out other countries.
Tomorrow I have a meeting with a local web agency to see what needs to be done to get this first site finished and I’ve also asked those wonderful people at The Blog Studio who did this site for their thoughts. I’ll let you know how we get on.
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When time ain’t enough.
Posted by Michael Walsh (Check me out!) on March 29th, 2008
Tagged as: Language Is Free, Me, Projects, Social Media
I have just done something I thought I would never have the opportunity to do again.
I took a week off.
Yes I checked my mails, yes I did drive 250 miles back to Milan for a meeting that didn’t need me there. But even though I was still ‘on’, I actually took a week ‘off’.
It’s amazing how a few days can clear your mind, or in my case, make it up.
Now I’m back, I feel refreshed, revitalized and, more importantly, re-focused.
More than thinking outside the box, it’s as if I see the world above the clouds. Possibilities, opportunities, potential, all within my grasp, yet seemingly so far from my clients’…
Shame the real world is fast approaching beneath my feet.
I still have time left. Time to solicit a website I’ve been waiting 9 months to be delivered, time to start the biggest project of my life, time to look my kids straight in the eye, and giggle with them for hours on end.
Soon, routine will settle in with all the unpleasantness of a small dog whose cocky bark repeats incessantly with bone grating persistence. Soon can wait, right now, I’m a star.
Best not to think about tomorrow when today is so sunny, so sweet.
Taking a week off from Twitter, RSS feeds and even newspapers is a very, very pleasant experience for no other reason than you are suddenly presented with an inordinately large dollop of time on your hands. Time to decide… Time to kill… Time to think… Time to breathe…
Remember what that felt like? Didn’t think so.
In the fast connected world, time isn’t actually used by us, we do not hold the keys to our time. More often than not it is used (badly) by our clients to get things done (badly). It’s taken from us, and we readily give it up in return for feeling part of the moment, part of the big equation. How sad is that?
One of my random thoughts concerned a very big client of a client who’s taking too long to get what I can help them embrace. Not just social networks, the whole online caboodle. The web, its codes, conduct and - now - transparency are all beyond what they’re prepared to welcome on board in one fell swoop. They need more time to absorb the message, assess the potential damage and prepare their excuses.
And in my current position of outsourced copywriter, I’m not exactly in a position to help.
Which brings me back to time. When you have enough time on your hands to realize that you don’t have the time your clients need to decide, what do you do?
You start your own project, that’s what you do.
Thanks to the one person I’m always happy to hear from and who has inspired me without knowing it, I am expanding my product portfolio to include conversation marketing. I think I’ll be the only one selling (or buying) it for a while in Italy but at least I’ll be in excellent company 
A new service will allow me to concentrate on using my time well for the benefit of my clients, or in other words: the better I use my time, the better the quality of service I offer my clients.
And the project? Well I’ve just got off the phone with a web design agency in Toronto and am happy to say I’m going to give them the green light. I can’t believe that after twelve years, my little idea will finally get the chance to prove its worth. I hope I don’t make a hash of it as without wishing to sound too full of myself, the world really does need something like this.
Thought that would make you jump.
If any of you know any English language teachers or bloggers/writers looking to participate in something really radical (and get paid for it), please give them my mail. Trust me, they will thank you.
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The state I’m in…
Posted by Michael Walsh (Check me out!) on February 24th, 2008
Tagged as: Me
Damn.
I knew this was coming. Only I’d hoped it would happen later rather than sooner.
My best friend online and possibly the only one who really understands what I’m going through tagged me.
That’s right. I think the best way to start this post is by stating right here that there is no-one out there who has dedicated more time, more energy and more honest-to-God goodwill to my online persona than Richard. He’s the reason I got online in the first place (secret #1) and is without question one of the best reasons to stay here.
Right now isn’t exactly one of my most productive moments. While I refuse to become what Hugh MacLeod eloquently calls an “echoblogger“, I’ll openly admit that I’m following a LOT more than producing.
And as you can see from the photo, my evenings are spent absorbing just about everything on the recommended 2.0 reading list. You’ve probably all been where I am. There’s an awful lot to take in and if you’re anything like me, you need to hear the same message over and over again from different people before you can safely say “I get it” and can recommend it to your clients.
Oh, and if Jeremiah should stop by, Cluetrain and the other usual suspects are in my office…
Speaking of Cluetrain, remember how much of a shock to the system the changes the book describes were? Remember the vehement way Chris and the other authors made their point. I read it last summer but “got it” only recently - that’s also one of the reasons I’m keeping a low profile (see secret #2 an #3).
Change is one of the words I can’t get out of my head. It’s on my mind, in my work and driving almost everything in my life right now. Obama’s keeping it fresh too.
So here comes secret #2. I’m up for change and if anyone is interested in hiring a strategic writer (does that even exist?) I’m up for grabs.
I am The Acer Guy but might not be for much longer. That blog this week will see its 200,00th visitor which is something I never even imagined remotely possible when I started it (again, thanks Richard) and is a milestone I am extremely proud to pass.
In these two years, the blog has allowed me to get over the mono-directional relationship I previously had with my “audience” and put into practice what Doc Searls eloquently described as “there is no market for messages” more of which in Geoff Livingstone’s great new book
It doesn’t take a genius to see how opening up to this degree has screwed with my brain.
And here’s secret #3. I’m having trouble taking the conversation back indoors. Sure there are a few believers who really want to see the blog work, but the truth is, and it really hurts to admit this, the powers that be don’t get it. They are, to use an insalubrious metaphor from Seth Godin, meatball makers who just don’t see the point of sundae toppings… Is it just me or is does this reek of wasted opportunity?
Secret #4: I love cycling. Up until my first son was born, I was clocking up over 15,000 km a year. A couple of years ago I spent €6,000 on the bike you can see gathering dust in the background of the Seesmic video. If only I had more time I could worry Lance Armstrong. Right now, I feel like Homer Simpson could run rings around me. Check out this photo of me in somewhere in France aged 14.
Secret #5: My home town. I am from Portsmouth (UK) which up until recently was the kind of place you hoped anyone you met had never been to. Now it’s pretty cool (in places). I went to Portsmouth Grammar School and wore the same dinky uniform for 11 years. I don’t get back nearly as often as I’d like and whenever I do, I always consider staying.
Secret #6: I came to Italy aged 18 looking for fame and fortune and found love and the inevitable debt that comes with it instead. Never went back
Secret #7: I have an older sister, Caroline, and our relationship has always been, em, edgy. I love her dearly and miss her like crazy but never get around to actually telling her. This is her and me on Holiday in Ibiza waaay before the Ministry of Sound arrived.
Secret #8: is a lot more entertaining as it concerns my wife. She is going to be my next business partner. In the next 12 months we’re going to open no fewer than three web projects together that I have mentioned a couple of times on this blog in recent months. Still trying to get Dell interested in sponsoring the big one, failing miserably of course…
Secret #9: I write almost all Acer’s marketing material on a Dell.
Secret #10: I recorded the video to RichardatDELL on a Mac.
Secret #11: I desperately want to meet everyone I’ve connected with online in the real world. Sounds like a pipe dream at the moment but you never know how things are going to turn out.
I think I’ve overdone my secrets a bit. But I’m really glad I did.
Now comes the hard part. Who do I tag? Two people come to mind instantly. Adding anyone else would be pushing this interruption meme too far.
The first is Alex Badalic, a fascinating copywriter I met online and who I had the pleasure of speaking with through Skype only recently. There’s obviously a lot more to Alex than what he’s allowed to tell through his blog and I can’t wait to find out more.
The second is Marco Camisani Calzolari who I met when I screwed up his first attempt at setting up a wiki. Marco must be one of the most forward-thinking, proactive Italian bloggers out there. Journalist, loving father and entrepreneur, he not only started Italy’s YouTube alternative, but writes for the tech-pages of one of Italy’s most respected and influential newspapers. Make no mistake, he gets it.
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The irresistible change of 2007
Posted by Michael Walsh (Check me out!) on December 31st, 2007
Tagged as: Me
Hot on the heels of Richard’s end-of-year wrap up and well-wishings, I feel morally, professionally and compassionately compelled to do the same.
For all his generosity, consistency and more-than-welcome attention though, Richard has been unable to overcome those barriers that confine me and this blog to the dreaded but unquestionably deserved “occasional writer†category.
Yet his is the sort of support that keeps you afloat, and so if there is anyone I must thank for encouraging me to take this medium further, it is him.
2007 has been a watershed in my career as a copywriter or, as I commonly refer to myself, the IT world’s biggest ghost-writer.
I have always been out of the spotlight, whisked secretly into meetings with high-level management to help put sense to the latest initiative/product/idea and get the message out.
And this year I’ve written for occasions, launches, announcements and anniversaries that were once beyond the scope of my wildest dreams and aspirations. Now I’m churning out a couple a month.
But in 2007 with the arrival of the kind of relationships possible through blogging that this blog can only claim to scratch the surface of, everything I do and stand for changed ever so slightly but enough to raise questions. No longer absolute and unquestionable, it became relative.
There is a wonderful passage in Sir Ken Robinson’s book, Out of Our Minds, in which he says:
The dynamics of culture result in an irresistible process of change. Contemporary ways of life are not only different from those of the Victorians, they were largely unpredicted and essentially unpredictable. Cultural change is rarely linear and uniform. It results from a vortex of influences, which is hard enough to understand with hindsight and impossible to plan in advance.
I think the relativity of blogging is a pretty damned good example of the vortex of influences Sir Ken refers to and the accountability of thoughts, opinions and most of all ideals leads to the irresistible process of change he mentions at the beginning.
How far we’ve come is easy to measure. We all use the New Year to join the dots. I personally can claim a small victory in changing the way my biggest client sees itself in relation to the outside world and believe me that’s no mean feat.
But like Sir Ken infers, how far we as a community are going to take it is anyone’s guess.
I for one have a few things I’m going to try out in 2008. After all, if it’s irresistible, why fight it?
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Left for dead? Not a chance!
Posted by Michael Walsh (Check me out!) on December 6th, 2007
Tagged as: Language Is Free, Me, Projects, Runaway Parents
It’s been how long?
Wow. I’ve lost all momentum. Kids are the perfect excuse but they’re not the only things that can stop a good party.
Every now and then a manic idea sweeps through the corridors of power on Planet Acer and I’m left to come up with concepts, ideas, and best of all speeches in the blink of an eye. I’m very excited about what’s going down as there’s nothing like a major event to give a dreary copywriter a big, fat, creative kick up the arse!
Good job I’m good - and fast
There’s a breath of fresh air heading in my direction. It dawned on me yesterday as I was reading a really interesting interview about Gary Vaynerchuk and his take on the video blog platform.
What Gary has done is take the technology out of the medium and has replaced it with good, old-fashioned personality. Duh!
This is the kind of vibe I’ve been wanting to model my own initiatives on and may well borrow from it for the online language course I’m in the middle of developing.
Speaking of projects, the new, improved Runaway Parents site is nearly up and running and I really can’t wait to get my teeth into it. This project started out as a way of getting my wife involved in what I do (writing, blogging) and we’re now opening a company that’s going to transform it into a cute little niche site.
So while I’m here I might as well plug what it is we’re going to do: If any of you know of a romantic getaway or restaurant in your neighborhood no matter where you are in the world and/or would like to get involved as a parent who loves getting away from it all, drop me a line. I’ve modeled ad revenue sharing into the site design and have an affiliate system for advertisers so you’ve got nothing to lose!
Does anyone know anything about community video publishing on YouTube? I’m going to start the ball rolling by publishing the first few lessons on the free online language course I’ve got on the boil but what I really want is an open environment where other teachers are free to join in and publish their own lessons (viral teaching???). Again, ad revenue sharing will be built into the site structure so we all benefit but I’m wondering if YouTube is the best medium. I know Blip.tv and Viddler are pretty sharp but they seem to be more suitable for single-user sites.
On Wine Library.TV, only Gary’s doing the videos. How would he organize it if he let visitors upload their own videos?
Plus I know it’s old(ish) but look at YouTube’s popularity.
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