Sherie Griffiths

April 27, 2010

The Right Connections take us Onwards & Upwards

Filed under: Book, Business, Marketing — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , — sheriegriffiths.com @ 8:27 am

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.”

April 20, 2010

The Land of Opportunity

Filed under: Book, Business, Marketing, Podcasts — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , — sheriegriffiths.com @ 8:52 am

In June 2007, I made my first trip to America.  That week changed my professional life and is still changing it. 

 Extract from ‘On Sound Foundations’; Chapter 7: ‘Found In Translation’

 “11:30 Sunday morning seemed quite a civilised time to take off from Heathrow;  but by the time I fell into bed at the Key Bridge Mariott Hotel around 8pm local time (1am in the UK), it didn’t feel quite so civilised!

 “This was my first time in the States – my first time outside Europe.  So I was completely unprepared for the games jetlag can play, like waking you up at four o’clock in the morning full of energy, then making you feel completely exhausted five hours later – just as you’re about to start work!  I just about got the hang of the time difference by the end of the week.

 “Nor was I prepared for how foreign I felt.  Very welcome, but foreign.  So often I’d heard it said in England that we and the US are ‘divided by a common language’, but I thought it was just a cliché.  I assumed, as novice Brits often do before they first set foot on American soil, that after years of a TV diet including so many shows imported from the States, the one thing that wouldn’t be an issue was the language.

 “How wrong I was – especially in the hotel.  The staff were wonderful.  I couldn’t fault the service from everyone.  From the most junior porter up to the Manager, nothing was too much trouble.  That said, time and time again, I’d use a word which I didn’t even think about as being particularly English, get a blank stare in response – and have to think again.  The one that caught me out more often than any other was ‘lift’.  It took me almost the whole week to remember to ask for the ‘nearest elevator’.

 “Another reason to make that ‘Trading in the US’ podcast, I thought.”

 A couple of weeks ago, I had a long Skype chat with Colleen Jolly of The 24-hour Company, in Northern Virginia.  I was put in touch with Colleen by Mark Amtower – and I was put in touch with Mark by Ardell Fleeson, whom I met on that first trip in ’07.  I’ve made programmes with Mark and Ardell and hope to do the same with Colleen in the not too distant future.

 I think it’s safe to say that Colleen and I hit it off pretty much instantly.  Well, at least, she wants to come and watch me present at a 4Networking breakfast at the end of April.  No, she’s not coming over specially – she’ll be here working on the UK expansion of her company.  We both agreed, though, that there’s still a language barrier between here and the US.  We’ve each run into it – but we agree that finding a way through it is well worth the effort.

Last month, I said there was no substitute for the human voice.  Of course, there’s also no substitute for meeting face to face.  It isn’t a case of ‘either’ ‘or’.  Creating great opportunities is about developing great connections – and that’s all about utilising every kind of communication at our disposal.  That doesn’t have to mean flying halfway around the world (just as well at the moment!), but it does mean being open to ideas.

April 13, 2010

More From The Upcoming Book – Buzzing With Ideas:

Filed under: Book, Business — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , — sheriegriffiths.com @ 8:05 am

In May 2006, you were lucky to find a business person who knew what a podcast was, but I found one – and look where it got me!

Extract from ‘On Sound Foundations’
Chapter 6 – ‘Lost For Words’:

“I was put in touch with Steve Westall by mutual friend and obsessive networker, Debbie Neville. Steve was a Director of Businesswise (now Pansophix), training and information specialists.

“From the first moment we met, in a hotel reception in Chelmsford, we realised we were destined never to have enough time to finish a conversation – there would always be more to say! It was one of those meetings that leave you excited and exhausted, buzzing with ideas but too knackered to do anything with them until you’ve had time to recover. Every conversation since has been exactly the same!

“After an hour or so of ideas flying around the room like jet-propelled bees, Steve suddenly looked at me across the table and said, ‘Have you ever considered doing a legal podcast?’ ‘What?’ I laughed. ‘As opposed to an illegal one?’ ‘No!’ he grinned back. ‘I mean a podcast on legal issues, for business. Do you know what a podcast is?’ Fortunately, of course, I did. But who would actually listen to a programme about law, I wondered. I had enough trouble trying to get people sitting in front of me to listen!

“Steve was definite though. ‘I’d listen,’ he said, ‘and I can think of plenty of other people who would.’ ‘Well,’ I said, the bees in my head firing up their turbo-boosters, ‘I’ll try anything once.’”

April 6, 2010

University Was Enough To Drive Me To Verse!

Filed under: Book — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , — sheriegriffiths.com @ 9:57 am

Extract from “On Sound Foundations”
Chapter 5, “Long Time, No Hear”.

“There are very good reasons why most mature students have the sense not to live in student accommodation. Aside from the dirt, there was the noise. The flat was directly over the downstairs kitchen, which was shared by the rest of the house. The neighbours and I didn’t keep the same hours – it was nothing unusual for them to start cooking a meal at four in the morning – and the building didn’t boast luxuries like soundproofing. That meant we shared the house in every sense. Their music, mealtimes, arguments and sex lives were all clearly audible from upstairs.

“Verse has never been my natural medium, but on holiday shortly after I moved out in 2000, a couple of lines popped into my head and, before I knew it, I’d written ‘A Warning To Would-be Mature Students’ – a mix of estate agent-style blurb, ironic romanticism and sarky spin.”
** ** **

“Dear reader, let me take you to a place that I once knew,
Where perfume de communal kitchen and shared bathroom welcome you.
The ceilings are all painted in deep-dappled nicotine;
And the walls? Designer two-tone – mucky brown and mouldy green!
The jumping carpet lets you know the downstairs neighbour’s home
And the thin walls have you leaping up to answer next door’s phone.
For washing, there’s a lidded bucket and a nice big spoon
And the bathroom easily converts into a drying room.
The articulated loo has you believing you’re at sea
And underneath the lino, where a floorboard used to be
Which has given up the ghost and crumbled quietly away –
Look! It’s made a little footbath! (That’ll mean more rent to pay.)
The ‘Antiques Roadshow’ called the cooker, ‘An amazing find!’
It would have been worth more if Mr Faraday had signed
His name inside the oven door; but still, such a rare piece
Was bound to shift a handsome price – if I could shift the grease.
The local insect graveyard neatly doubles as a light
And time is an illusion… is it day, or is it night..?
Strange, nocturnal animals stay out of sight all day,
Then come out in the dark, to cook and clean and fight and… play.
The sleep you took for granted soon becomes a luxury.
Some learn to live without it, but that never worked for me.
So if at thirty-something or beyond, you’ve ever thought
You’d like to try the student life yourself, you really ought
To think about it carefully before you take the plunge
Into cosy communality, shared-house-music and grunge.
If you believe a student flat will help you keep your youth,
Just look at me and you will see the very painful truth.
I moved in young and hopeful and full of grand ideas
– and I’m leaving three years later, having aged at least ten years!”

March 30, 2010

OBE – ‘Out Before Easter’

Filed under: Uncategorised — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , — sheriegriffiths.com @ 8:33 am

Extract from “On Sound Foundations” – Chapter 4: “Good Pennies”:

“By the early Nineties, my listening habits were becoming quite varied.  I dipped in and out all over the dial, although I did have my favourites.

“During ‘89, I ran across the ‘Chris Tarrant Breakfast Show’ on Capital – and was immediately hooked.  I think what drew me in was the daily drama, ‘Dick Tarrant – Private Eye and Private Ear’ – known as ‘Dick in the Dark before Dawn’ when the clocks went back.

“Chris played an arrogant but totally inept private detective, with other characters being played by the rest of his team, including news readers like Chris Cardell (now a successful marketing expert) and Howard Hughes – formally of Radio City.  A regular throughout the series, which ran for years, was Russ Cain, who was normally heard doing the traffic reports from ‘The Flying Eye’.  Russ played a range of parts – most memorably, the infamously incontinent  ‘Lieutenant Rubber-Trousers’.

“The odd (or do I mean ‘occasional’?  No, I do mean ‘odd’) big-name actor even put in an appearance.  Leslie Nielsen, of ‘Police Squad’ and ‘Naked Gun’ fame, fitted into the cast particularly well. 

“I’d watched Chris on ‘Tiswas’ in the early Eighties, and I thought he was fantastic on radio – as did millions of Londoners.

“The city nearly launched a mass protest when, in 2003, he announced he was leaving.  ‘I’m going for an OBE,’ he said. ‘Out Before Easter!’

“At weekends through the early Nineties, I got into GLR – Greater London Radio (now BBC London) – especially Tim Smith on the breakfast show and the unlikely sounding ‘GLR Picture Show’, with Angie Errigo.  Yes, films on the radio (well, the pictures are better).  Paul Hollingdale, and before him Peter Noble, had been reviewing films on Lux since the late Seventies; but this was a whole radio programme about movies – and it was brilliant!

 “Then, between Tim’s two contributions on a Saturday, there appeared a new presenter – new to me at least.  The first time I came across Chris Evans, he was presenting ‘Round at Chris’s with his Missus’, with his then wife, Carol.

“I had no idea then how small a world the radio industry was and is.  I didn’t know it then, but so many of the people I was listening to and had listened to, were linked – casually or otherwise. 

“Radio really is a village, in more ways than one.”

March 24, 2010

The First Link In A Thirty-Year Chain

Filed under: Book, Business — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , — sheriegriffiths.com @ 12:28 pm

Extract from “On Sound Foundations” – Chapter 3: “Learning The Hard Way”

This extract is about my first day at grammar school, in Chorleywood, Herts.  I’d been desperate to go there for more than a year and had been counting the days for the past month!

 “At last, the great day came: 11th September 1979.

“We arrived at eleven in the morning, after a three-hour drive around the North Circular, a traffic jam, road works – and the obligatory argument in the front seats about being lost. 

“By Midday, Mum and Dad had to leave – and by half-past two, I wanted to go home. 

“As I’ve said, I never really got used to boarding, but at least most of the staff at Dorton House were approachable, I had friends  and I’d felt I belonged.  I might not always have wanted to admit the belonging bit, but I’d had a place.  Here, though, everything was different – and not in the way I thought it would be.  I’d looked forward to “different” as in “new” and “exciting”.  What I found was what we so often find at the beginning of a major life change, even one we desperately want; “different” as in “alien”. 

“Nothing was quite what I’d expected: the dormitory didn’t seem as comfortable as the room we’d stayed in when we visited; a lot of the staff came across as a bit fierce and not very patient; the “big girls” were really big; the new girls from other schools seemed strange – and even the girls who had been with me in Kent seemed to change as soon as they got to Herts. 

“Of course some of the strangeness wore off over time, but I never quite managed to shake the feeling that I really didn’t understand the rules in this place.  For years, every time I thought I’d cracked the code, someone would call me a “stupid child!” and I’d be left wondering, “So what am I supposed to do?”

“On that first night, I really didn’t want to be there.  Two and a half weeks (until the “long weekend”) might as well have been a year.  I felt so bad about having wished the holiday away!  The girls in my dormitory were friendly enough, but they all seemed to know what they were doing so much better than I did (I now realise most of them were probably just better bluffers).  It had been a miserable afternoon, being martialled around the grounds in a drizzle by a young member of staff who (it seemed to me) resented being landed with the task and the thought of the next day – more new rules, new people – new mistakes – terrified me!  So the last thing I wanted to do was smile.

“That was until eight o’clock, when someone put the radio on …”

As you may know, what followed was the first link – literally – in a chain which leads directly to the Savvy launch last year, to the book – and beyond.  What flowed from that link also perfectly illustrates the power of sound.  If you don’t know the background, you can find out more from my launch presentation on the Savvy Business Community Website.  Oh, yes – and the full story is in the book – of course!

March 17, 2010

The Radio Village

Filed under: Book, Business, Marketing, Media — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , — sheriegriffiths.com @ 10:22 am

Extract from “On Sound Foundations”, Chapter 2, “A Proper Little Madam!”

“At their best, radio and TV create communities; they break down barriers, binding diverse groups of people together with a common interest, be it soap, news or music.

“I tend to think of radio communities as villages.  Some are large, some are small – some no-one outside has ever heard of; but within those groups, everyone knows the place so well, they can talk to each other in shorthand. They know every local landmark and become fiercely protective if any are moved or messed with (just check out ‘Feedback’ on Radio 4 if you don’t believe me); and they feel they know each other. 

“The names of listeners who write or phone regularly, stick with presenters – and other listeners can remember those names years later.  For instance, I’ve never forgotten Siobhan from Hendon, aka ‘The Duchess of North London’ or James – the young lad from Berkshire, who had more front than Blackpool and Southend put together (he’s probably in sales now) – yet I’ve heard nothing of either of them for more than twenty-five years.  Then, of course, the listener feels they know the presenter – and just occasionally, they do.

“There are elements of that in television, but it’s less intimate; less personal.  It’s one-to-many communication, rather than one-to-one.  If radio is a village, TV is a city.  When it works well, there’s still a sense of pride, of belonging, but you’re far less likely to know the neighbours personally.”

I didn’t know I thought that until I wrote it a couple of months ago; but since I put it down in writing and started talking to people about it, it’s met with a lot of recognition. 

The technology which has put ‘radio’ and ‘television’ into our hands – yours and mine – means we can now build villages or cities around our businesses.  The choice has nothing to do with size.  It’s about the ethos – especially the one-to-one versus one-to-many engagement.  Personally, I prefer to aim for a village, but what about you?

March 9, 2010

“Born Survivors”?

Filed under: Book, Business, Podcasts — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , — sheriegriffiths.com @ 11:12 am

“On Sound Foundations” – Uncorrected Extract: “Part One – From Casual Links To Permanent Connections: “Chapter 1 – How Did I Get Here?

“That was the question I kept asking myself through the Spring of 2009.  I was busy preparing my presentation for the launch of my new company, Savvy Business.  I knew the story backwards, of course, so that was no problem.  The only thing I couldn’t decide was – where did it start? 

 “Well, officially, it was in July 2008 when we launched the first version of savvybc.com; but, really, it was when I first had the idea in April 2007 – although, no, actually it was when I made my very first legal podcast in August ’06 … or was it 2005, when I first found out what a podcast was …?

 “I finally decided to pick up the story in 2006, although in fact its roots go back much, much further – all the way back to a pushchair in 1969 – and beyond.”

 I wrestled with a similar issue when it came to the starting point for the book.  In the end, I went way beyond that pushchair, to 1939, when Mum became an evacuee and Dad a POW. 

 Why?  Because my parents perfectly illustrate one of the main themes which runs through the book, my speaking engagements and life in general – the choice between being a survivor or a victim.  Yes, I did say ‘choice’.  We talk about someone being a “born survivor” don’t we, but are they?  Are survivors, or victims come to that, born or made?  Wearing my ex-noncommittal-lawyer’s hat, maybe I should say I don’t know – it’s probably a bit of both; but actually, my own experience has shown me we often have more choice in the matter than we know and sometimes become ‘victims’ simply because we don’t know all our options.  I used to see myself as a victim – someone to whom life happened; someone stuck in the backseat on her own journey, while other people drove.  These days, I do my best to happen to life – and I’m definitely behind the wheel!  The change was my choice and one I’m so glad I made.  It led directly to that “EUREKA!” moment  at 5.00am on 6th November ’09, to the book and everything which looks set to follow.

March 2, 2010

“On Sound Foundations” – The Story Of A Book

Filed under: Book, Podcasts, Tweets — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , — sheriegriffiths.com @ 12:40 pm

Just before Christmas, a colleague said to me, “I bet you’ll be glad to see the back of this year, won’t you?” I knew what she meant – 2009 had been tough for most of us in business and I’d had some major personal challenges thrown in. Yet I hesitated over my answer. Yes, there were moments I’d rather not remember and definitely wouldn’t want to relive, but for all that, it had been an incredibly productive year for me. I’m not talking financially, but in terms of focus. In August, in the middle of a family issue which very nearly led me to throw in the towel in business, I finally broke down a personal barrier which had held me back in every area of my life – very liberating! Then in November, sixteen months on from opening and six months after the official launch, I finally worked out what my business was all about. “Wasn’t that a bit late?” I hear you ask – and you’ve got a point. Better late than never though!

At 5.00am on 6th November 2009, after yet another sleepless night, wondering why I seemed to be working my socks – and various bits of my anatomy – off just to stand still, I stood in my kitchen, coffee pot in hand and it hit me – no, not the coffee pot – the revelation! THE ANSWER! “EUREKA!” The lights went on and I saw it all – where I’d been going wrong, how to put it right – and more!

“So that’s my core skill! I thought, amazed – “I know how sound works!” Here I was, more than a year and a half after my decision to make the leap – and leap it certainly was – from law into business podcasting, finally realising that I know how sound works. Yes, I am a bit slow – especially at five in the morning!

The truth is, I knew how sound worked, how people used it and what it could do if they used it properly long before that moment – I just didn’t know that I knew. As I poured that much needed first cup of coffee, pieces of a jigsaw which had been floating around my head for nearly two years, never quite forming a picture, suddenly clicked into place and I saw the image clearly – the image of my business, how it came to be and where it could go. I spent the next several weeks redesigning services to fit that picture.

Before 6th November, the most positive response I had to my marketing efforts tended to be, “I’m really interested in what you do, but I don’t get it.” Now it’s, “I’m really interested in what you do – when can we talk?” Like most of the changes I made to our offering, it’s a small shift on the face of it – with a huge impact.

Nineteen years ago, someone said, “You should write a book” – but I was only twenty-three then and probably knew even less about life than I did about writing. So although I gave it a go, it didn’t happen. In November last year, I was planning a series of books about starting and running a business; but after that 5.00am “EUREKA!” moment, they were pushed aside by something else which insisted on being written “NOW!!!” From a pure business perspective, the timing was all wrong. I should have waited until we were truly out of recession, until the company was more established. In fact, I probably should have waited until I retired, but this book would brook no argument – the words fell out faster than I could type! The baby was coming, whether I or anyone around me liked it or not!

It started life as a practical guide to business podcasting, against a background of my experience as a lifelong media junky and obsessive communicator; but it evolved into the story of my forty-year apprenticeship in sound – the foundations on which my company and everything we now do is built. It also tells the very personal story of my development of the “womble” principle – of which, more later.

I finished the book last Thursday evening. Over the next couple of months, as I prepare for publication, I’m going to tell you a bit about how it came together and some of the things I learnt from writing it – because I did learn. Two people, both dear friends and close colleagues, have been slightly less than fulsome in their support for the project. I think that’s mainly because they’re applying cost/benefit analysis principles, looking at the amount of time this kind of undertaking demands, against the likely financial return. On that basis, I’ve just “wasted” three and a half months of evenings and weekends – but I know I haven’t. Even if no-one else ever reads the finished product, it was worth writing because it helped me work out what I’m about, how I got here and where I’m going.

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