It’s been another really challenging week – on my time, but particularly in reflecting on where I’m at and where I’m going.
I’m in a phase where I’m learning lots of new stuff and finding some projects and the associated relationships are moving from that initial all-consuming full-throttle thrust into a calmer, more distant orbit. Not necessarily a bad thing – but all change is a challenge on some level and I’m finding communication is key to how easy or hard these particular ones are for me at the moment.
Another fun and thought-provoking session out on the road with Dan Slee and Comms2Point0 delivering Essential Digital Skills for Comms. Great questions and shared learning from a really engaged group of people doing good things across the public sector.
The sessions always give me a great chance to reflect and see what is happening in digital comms in the sector and it was interesting to note the ‘mic drop’ style response to disgruntled people online seems to have become more of a thing recently. Great debate in the room about whether these sassy replies were a good thing or as a sector they should play it straight – compelling reasons on either side.
I’ve also got back into making use of my commute to delve into some podcasts and refresh some thinking or spark something new. Sometimes I need this time to just let nothing but reflection and the road go through my mind but decisively consuming stuff this week has, I’m pretty sure, led to a flurry of ideas falling forward on things I want to blog about, work on, put into place or learn more about. Maybe more frequent blogging alongside #weeknotes will follow.
I’ve been mainly listening to UX design and strategy podcasts but if you’re after something more comms focused take a look at those by Janet Murray at Soulful PR (loads of good stuff on Facebook Ad Strategy and practical skills for building and engaging audiences) as well as this Talking Comms one by Adrian Stirrup featuring Darren Caveney from Comms2Point0 talking about social media, as well as useful stuff included on Yammer and internal comms.
A completed literary edit of my second novel but not much other writing going on this week.
I took a week off from Storge – not something I find easy or comfortable to do but occasionally necessary. Running a side-gig out of passion – and despite everything going against it I am passionate about our local culture scene in Derby and Derbyshire – can be tiring, and sometimes feel pretty thankless. Sometimes it’s needed to pause, reflect, count the successes and reset the plan; noticing the start of an energy struggle and acknowledging the reasons why it feels like a slog are vital to keeping going. Normal transmission will return soon.
Two Reckless Yes campaigns started rolling this week and its a pleasure to be working with two great PRs – Hannah Gould and Lucy Hurst – on these cycles. It’s also been great to see another of our roster push forward in a new way – Unqualified Nurse Band will record and release a track a month throughout the rest of the year to form their third album. The album as a format and a concept needs challenging in the new digital landscape and Nurse are a band who aren’t afraid to try new things around their strong creative vision. Really looking forward to seeing how this works and learning from it – I’ll be speaking to Chris soon for Storge on this so watch out for an interview soon. And finally from the Reckless roster big love to Pet Crow who finished up their latest tour last night in Newcastle – last few copies of their album on ltd aquamarine vinyl here.
There’s plans afoot for more stuff from the label soon but in the meantime you can catch us at the Nottingham Independent Record Label Market on 10 March between 11am and 6pm at the Malt Cross, or come along and see me host a Q&A with The Slits following a showing of their documentary Here To Be Heard at Quad on 18 April – tickets on sale now.
I’ve been invited to judge some awards this week and its been fascinating looking through the entries in my category and making some super hard choices between such a strong pack. More on this soon but great to be getting involved in this way with the local digital and creative community.
Posted in personal development.Tagged #weeknotes, comms2point0, Dan Slee, Darren Caveney, digital, digital communications, Janet Murray, journalism, mindfulness, Music journalism, open working, podcasts, reflective practice, Seisui, Soulful PR, storge, user experience, UX, UX strategy, week notes.