Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Attitude & Aptitude, Brand Suicide, China, Comment, Crap Marketing Ideas From History!, Creative Development, Creativity, Culture, Deutsch, Differentiation, Food For Thought, Goodbye China, Hello America, Insight, Internet, Interviews, Marketing Fail, Martin Weigel, My Fatherhood, Otis, Paul, Planners, Planners Making A Complete Tit Of Themselves And Bless, Planning, Point Of View, Positioning, Pretentious Rubbish, Relevance, Resonance, Social Media, Standards, The Kennedys, The Kennedys Shanghai, Unexpected Relevance, Unplanned, Unprofessional Professional, Wieden+Kennedy
How is your 2018 going so far?
I know it’s still early days – but is it looking good or bad?
Well, if it’s looking positive, I’m about to ruin it for you and if it is looking dodgy, I’m going to help you solidify your opinion.
Why?
Well, a few weeks ago, a nice guy called Paul McEnany asked if he could interview me about my career.
While I’m sure his reasoning for his request was to help planners learn what not to do, my ego said yes even before my mouth did … and while the end result is the bastard love child of rambling randomness and base-level swearing, it’s the perfect way to justify your pessimism for 2018 or to ensure your optimism for the new year doesn’t get too high.
So go here and errrrrm, enjoy [if that’s the right word for it, which it isn’t] and after you’ve heard my crap, listen to the brilliant interviews with people like Gareth Kay, Russell Davies, Richard Huntingdon, Martin Weigel and the amazing Chris Riley because apart from being hugely interesting and inspiring, you’ll get the added bonus of [1] undeniable proof I’m a massive imposter and [2] the knowledge that if I can have some sort of semi-successful career in advertising, you certainly can.
You’re welcome.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, America, Attitude & Aptitude, Comment, Culture, Daddyhood, Goodbye China, Happiness, Hello America, Jill, LaLaLand, Mum & Dad, My Fatherhood, Parents, Paul
So this is it, the last post of the year.
And what a year it has been.
The biggest thing was obviously leaving a company I loved in a country I loved to move my family to the other side of the World to start a new adventure.
The impact of that move has been bigger than we thought or expected.
For me personally, it has revealed a bunch of insecurities and self-doubt that I thought I had kidded myself into believing I’d kept locked away for good.
I was wrong.
However 6 months in, not only do we feel settled and confident about where we are, what we’re doing and what we want to do … we are reminded of the reasons we made such a major move on an almost daily basis.
Put simply, Otis has literally blossomed living a healthier, outdoor life and while we will always miss many of the parts of the life we enjoyed in China, his happiness and well-being makes the move worth while.
Of course that won’t be enough to make us stay here forever …
If truth be told, we’re wanderers so the idea of staying in one place forever freaks us out. Or at least me.
Don’t get me wrong, we are loving our life in America and are incredibly grateful to be here, but the reality is it’s probably not our long, long-term home so in the time we are here, our goal is to enjoy the opportunity, get as much out of the opportunity and make as much of a difference because of the opportunity as we can.
[For the record, I reserve the right to delete the above sentence because if moving countries again ever becomes a real possibility, I imagine the idea of leaving a house next to the beach – see photo at the top of this post, a photo I took on my way to work – to go some place in the middle of nowhere will suddenly feel a lot less appealing]
And one of those opportunities that has presented itself is having my best friend come to visit us over Christmas.
In all the time I’ve known Paul – 47 years – he has not once spent Christmas with me.
Or me with him.
Sure we have met up on Christmas day for a drink or to swap presents, but we have never spent the whole holidays together.
More than that, in my 7 years living in China, he didn’t visit us once.
NOT ONCE.
His wonderful wife did – twice in fact – but not Paul, but now we’re in LA – where even in winter it’s sunny and beautiful – he’s on the first fucking plane over here.
And despite that showing me he’s a ‘using little prince’, I’m happy.
Ridiculously happy.
As is Otis …
For us, having Otis ‘odd parents’ [we’re not religious and they’re definitely odd] come stay is the perfect way to end a particularly interesting year.Ever since my Dad died in January ’99, Christmas lost its power.
Sure, I still looked forward to it, but it was always underpinned by the feeling it was when my Dad fell ill for the final time.
However since Otis came on the scene, that darkness has been broken and I fully expect this year – in a proper house with my family and the people who feel like family even though they’re not – to be the one where that spirit of the holiday truly comes back into force.
I’m grateful for that too.
As I am for everyone who has looked out for me, my wonderful wife, my epic Son and even my pampered princess of a cat, Rosie.
Whether it was in comments on this blog or conversations over the year.
Which is why I wish you all a wonderful holiday season and – even more importantly – a wonderful year ahead.
For a boy from Nottingham who wasn’t very good at school, I do feel I hit the jackpot and while there are many reasons for that, a big part is the community I feel a part of which has been formed – in part – through the insults thrown at me on this blog.
Long may they continue. [I know they will]
With that, I leave you with a family photo we recently took to commemorate our ‘LA life’.
All was good until we discovered that every shot clearly highlighted my poor choice of t-shirt.
Shit! Literally.
Happy Christmas everyone.
Happy New Year.
See you in January.
PS: To my darling Clare Pickens, I know today is your last day at Wieden Amsterdam. I can tell you, it will be as emotional to everyone there – and beyond – as it is to you. You’re an absolute legend and I’m so, so glad you’re in my life. And have put up with me. See you soon. Love ya.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Attitude & Aptitude, Comment, Confidence, Family, Paul
As many of you know, my oldest and dearest friend is Paul.
We were born 4 days apart and have spent all our lives together.
Through school.
Through our teenage years.
Through the best of times and the worst.
Through moments of stupidity where we should have immediately denied knowing each other.
And while we have physically lived far apart from each other for over 20+ years, that bond is still there and it’s one I treasure so much.
Now, if you ask my wife or Paul’s wife what we’re like when we’re together, they would probably say we become our 9 year old selves.
Cheeky. Mischievous. Daft.
There’s definitely a lot of laughing.
And while we have only really had a couple of genuinely serious conversations in our life – forced on us due to tragic circumstances that was going on in our lives – I’ve always taken our friendship, and him, very seriously.
Put simply, Paul is a bit of a hero to me.
There’s a bunch of reasons for it, reasons I choose not to share as they’re very private and personal, but his attitude to life is one we should all aspire to, exemplified by the fact that at 47, he’s decided he wants a career change.
Now wanting a career change isn’t that unusual, but actually doing it – without circumstances dictating you have to – is.
You see Paul, a printer and part-time bouncer, is starting his own business.
A coffee business.
A mobile coffee business.
A mobile coffee business called The Frothy Coffee Man.
He’s bought a van with all the machinery, he’s done his training, he’s got his council approval and he will soon be located around parks in Nottingham helping tired Mum’s get their desperate hit of caffeine as their kids run them ragged.
Are their risks?
Sure – he knows that – but there’s far greater risk if he doesn’t.
For the last 20+ years, he’s been doing the same job in the same company, and while he enjoys it, he doesn’t want to be someone who has fallen into ‘comfortable’. He wants to challenge himself. He wants to be more in-control of his destiny. He wants to feel alive.
I think it’s wonderful.
I also think he’ll do brilliantly.
He’s cheeky, charming, kind and – at 6 foot 5 – a walking billboard for his company, so on top of buying a coffee if you ever find yourself in Nottingham, raise a glass for my best mate Paul … who is doing something the majority of us only wish we were doing.