I often think that, important as it is to know what we’re good at in business, it’s at least as important, if not more, to know what we’re not good at.
Exploration of the concept which would grow up to be Savvy Business got the go-ahead at the May ’07 board meeting of the company I was then running, Griffiths Legal. My first job was to talk to USP Content (where I already had links) about taking on the studio production.
Then, after the American trip, came the research – and lots of it.
Extract From The Upcoming Book, ‘On Sound Foundations’ – Chapter 8: ‘Onwards And Upwards’
“I needed to understand the big picture, which meant getting to grips with lots of statistics about media trends generally, on- and off-line, and then drilling down into the specifics of podcasting.
“I also needed to approach the kind of professionals we would need to help us make the programmes, to see what they thought of the idea and – all-importantly – how willing they would be to buy into it.
“In the event, although I dreaded trying to process all the numbers, the global research was easier because I could do most of it on the web.
“The individual side, on the other hand, proved a little trickier logistically.
“First – and for me most feared – were the cold calls. Within a few days of rejection after rejection, I soon realised I wasn’t the woman for that particular job. It needed a professional.
“When Rob introduced Sue Ellen, of Direct Marketing Services, at the Savvy launch in May ’09, he described her as ‘a lady who lunches’, because I’d told him we’d met at an all-female networking event. Actually, I was wrong. Sue had called to invite me on behalf of the network, but she didn’t make it to the meeting herself. It just shows how the memory can play tricks, doesn’t it?
“Fortunately, I kept hold of her name and number and in September ’07, I called her for help.
“By October, Sue was beavering away in the background, setting up phone appointments and meetings for me with potential expert panellists. I spent a lot of my time whizzing all over the country.
“I was so keen to grab every opportunity that I must admit I wasn’t terribly time-efficient over that period. I spent a whole day travelling up to York to have lunch with someone and did an overnighter in Liverpool for two meetings. It was worthwhile, though, perhaps not always financially, but in the chances it gave me to meet people I would never otherwise have made contact with, and to discuss the project and get their feedback.”