Alright folks, it’s Steve here subbing in for the gaffer. He’s in lang-cat-event-recovery-mode, currently in a sensory deprivation tank, being fed luxurious snacks at regular intervals. Either that or it’s half term. You choose the reality you want to believe I guess.
Six days on, I’m also in recovery mode frankly. Was it the adrenaline crash of public speaking? Maybe. The comedown of investing so much time and energy in something only for it to be over in a flash? Probably. Those blue cocktails? I don’t want to talk about it.
If you’ll be so kind, I want to use this update to reflect on a few aspects of our Home Truths event that really stuck out for me. I once read somewhere – probably one of those LinkedIn guys with shiny teeth – that you should always focus on three things when you’re reflecting. And we wouldn’t want to let shiny teeth LinkedIn man down, wouldn’t we?
ARGUING WORKS
We wanted to put on a different kind of event this time round. Free from the identikit, pre-rehearsed, omni-polite “debates” you see at most events. Instead, we wanted to force proper, oppositional viewpoints and see where it took us. My instinct is we’re onto something and if the early feedback is anything to go by we’ll be having another swing at this. Oh I don’t know, maybe in a big museum in Edinburgh in early October. (Shiny teeth LinkedIn guy would be proud of this seamless #marketing)
A particular shout out to the indefatigable Victor Sacks who won many, many hearts and minds at our event, making his case for the more traditional aspects of the advice process. If I had a pound for the number of times I’ve heard a combination of “well, I didn’t agree with everything Victor said, but it was impossible to not see where he was coming from” then I’d have enough pounds to buy a couple of drinks in central London.
THANK YOU
The other thing we wanted to do differently at this event is break any link between the sponsors for the day and content on the stage. A genuine and huge thanks to our backers who bought into our vision and did so without even the slightest challenge. It allowed us to put the advice profession front and centre. Fair play to you all.
IT’S ALRIGHT TO BE SILLY
Whether it was the jokes, the introductions or that bit of coup de théâtre at the start of the show (if you know, you know), Mark and I tried to inject a bit of humour throughout the day. I reckon if you’ve got a busy agenda with tonnes of serious content then it’s alright to break that up with a laugh now and again. But the silliness only works if the content in-between it is good. I hope we struck that balance right because I plan to be silly again. And thoughts turn to Edinburgh on how to make the intro even sillier. *Googles zip-wires and pyro*
ONE THING THAT ISN’T SILLY
You might have heard a bit of noise from us and others over the past few weeks about an industry charity gig on 23 February. Rock For Ukraine is raising money for UK registered charity Refugee Support Europe who are providing humanitarian aid to Ukrainian refugees in Moldova.
Mark Polson is doing his thing in the band on the night, and our other Mark, of the Locke variety, has been beavering away behind the scenes making a nuisance of himself asking firms to support the gig through sponsorship.
You can read more about the gig and the wonderful work planners Phil Billingham, Shannon Currie, and David Crozier are doing here and also here.
If you’re in London on the 23rd, grab yourself a ticket. But be quick about it as they’re going fast. And if you can’t attend, you can still donate at https://rockukraine.co.uk/. The guys are aiming to raise £40k. Let’s help them get there, eh?
HELP ME ON MY VOYAGE OF RECOVERY BY CLICKING THESE LINKS
- OK, so hands up who had Bill Vasilieff returning to the UK platform market by teaming up with a Swedish Wealth Manager on their 2023 bingo card? Ding ding ding, a winner is you!
- Our next big thing is a paper on the advice gap due to come out towards the end of April. If you work in the UK advice profession and fancy contributing to it then you can participate in this study here. There’s also some super-interesting and super-relevant questions on guarantees as well. Survey takes nine minutes on average to complete and you’ll have our eternal gratitude (and the results so you see how you compare).
- I am a relentless marketing machine today and here’s that link again for our next event in Edinburgh. Home Truths sold out early and this will too. You should come.
- Home Truths from the lang cat, incredibly, was only the second hottest ticket in town due to the fact that The Boss is back touring. I love this version of a wonderful song that transports me to a brilliant memory in that way that only music can. Make your Wednesday better by having a listen.
Cheers,
Steve
