Author: alexseward

Diluting atmosphere

I have been thinking about this for a while, but after Jurgen Klopp made comments post game about the Anfield crowd, I was inspired to write this down. “I was not overly happy with the atmosphere behind me. I wondered what they wanted. We need Anfield on Saturday. We need Anfield on their toes without me being in an argument with their coach or whatever. If you’re not in the right shape, give your ticket to someone else.”

Have you ever been to a live event where the crowd was so in tune that you felt like you were part of something bigger than yourself? Where the history, culture and atmosphere of the venue and the performers combined to create a unique and unforgettable experience.

Live events are not just about watching or listening to something. They are about participating, interacting, engaging, and co-creating. They are about being more than a spectator, but a contributor.

Some people go to live events for the wrong reasons. They go because they want to be seen. They go because they are sold on the atmosphere, but they don’t realise their role in creating it. They go because they want to be spectators, not contributors. They go because they want to consume, not create.

I can’t help but think back to watching Liverpool’s historic win against Barcelona. I was stood next to my Dad, but that night more than many others, we were a part of Anfield. The crowd reacts to every moment: every goal, every save, every tackle, every foul, every corner, every free kick, every substitution, every injury, every whistle, every minute, every second. The crowd is not just watching the match, they are living it. They are influencing it. Football is not a reality TV show packaged by Sky Sports, but a living, breathing experience that you are part of.

The same can happen with music. I remember going to Grime events in the early/mid 2010’s when it was losing popularity and in small pockets really starting to go back to its authentic roots. The crowds were smaller than they used to be, but fully engaged and part of what makes the music unique. However, I’ve seen the same music when the crowds get bigger, more diluted, and the people don’t play their part. What if the crowd is there because they heard Grime is cool, or because they got free tickets, or because they have nothing better to do? What if the crowd is passive, detached, or disruptive? What if the crowd is killing the vibe, or more likely not creating it?

I am not here to gate keep. However when these events and experiences are at their best, there is nothing comparable. You are a contributor, part of a community or a movement. Go for the culture and the atmosphere, but play your part.

How to Build a Personal Brand Online

If you’re looking for a way to stand out from the crowd and showcase your skills, passions and personality, building a personal brand online is a great option. A personal brand is essentially how you present yourself to the world through your online presence. It’s what people think of when they hear your name or see your content.

But how do you build a personal brand online? What are the steps and best practices to follow? In this blog post, I’ll share some tips and insights from my own experience of creating and growing my personal brand online.

Define your niche and target audience
The first step to building a personal brand online is to decide what you want to be known for and who you want to reach. What are your unique strengths, skills, interests, and values? What problems can you solve or value can you provide for others? Who are the people that would benefit from your content or services? Having a clear niche and target audience will help you craft your message and tailor your content accordingly.

Create a website and social media profiles
The next step is to create a website and social media profiles that showcase your personal brand. Your website is your home base on the internet where you can share your portfolio, blog posts, testimonials, contact information, and more. Your social media profiles are where you can connect with your audience, share valuable content, and build relationships. Make sure that your website and social media profiles have a consistent look and feel that reflects your personal brand identity.

Produce high-quality content regularly
Content is the key to building trust, authority, and visibility online. You need to produce high-quality content that showcases your expertise, provides value for your audience, and aligns with your niche and goals. You can create different types of content such as blog posts, videos, podcasts, ebooks, newsletters, infographics, etc., depending on what suits your style and platform best. The most important thing is to be consistent in producing content regularly so that you can grow your audience and establish yourself as an expert in your field.

Engage with your audience and network with others in your industry
Building a personal brand online is not only about creating content but also about engaging with your audience and networking with others in your industry. You need to interact with your followers by responding to their comments or messages, asking for feedback or opinions, sharing their content and thanking them for their support. You also need to network with other influencers or experts in your niche by following them, commenting on their posts, sharing their content, collaborating with them on projects, or reaching out for advice or opportunities. By engaging with your audience and networking with others in your industry, you can build relationships, increase your reach, and boost your credibility.

Keep learning and improving
The last step to building a personal brand online is to keep learning and improving yourself. The online world is constantly changing and evolving, so you need to stay updated on the latest trends, tools and best practices in your niche. You also need to keep honing your skills, expanding your knowledge and exploring new opportunities to grow your personal brand. You can learn and improve yourself by reading books or blogs, taking courses or workshops, attending events or webinars, or hiring coaches or mentors.

Building a personal brand online is not an easy task but it’s definitely worth it if you want to achieve success in today’s digital world. By following these steps above, you can create an authentic, memorable and impactful personal brand that will help you reach more people, create more opportunities and make more money.

In the style of alexseward.com, write a blog post on a new topic.
Bing AI chat, 22/03/23

“No such thing as a dumb question”

I actually began writing this in August 2019, but obviously got distracted… until I read this Guardian article https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/05/trust-in-scientists-grows-as-fake-coronavirus-news-rises-uk-poll-finds, suggesting that public trust in the work of scientists and health experts has grown during the coronavirus pandemic, amid a surge in misinformation about the virus.

In a world of DeepFakes and #FakeNews, and especially during our battle with COVID19, it is more important than ever for us to critically think and be sceptical of the information shared in the world around us.

Last year, I read Carl Sagan’s book, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark, which expertly predicted today’s world where fake news stories and Internet conspiracy run riot. In this book, Carl Sagan ‘aims to explain the scientific method to laypeople, and to encourage people to learn critical and skeptical thinking. He explains methods to help distinguish between ideas that are considered valid science and those that can be considered pseudoscience. Sagan states that when new ideas are offered for consideration, they should be tested by means of skeptical thinking and should stand up to rigorous questioning’.
From <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Demon-Haunted_World>

Sagan describes how there are “naïve questions, tedious questions, ill-phrased questions, questions put after inadequate self-criticism. But every question is a cry to understand the world. There is no such thing as a dumb question.” A cliché often used in corporate meeting rooms, but a phrase we could do better to act on more often.

I also love Carl Sagan’s view on how “bright, curious children are a national and world resource”. There is something amazing about the way children investigate and discover the world they find themselves in, and something which tends to be lost as we age. There is a brilliant Sagan quote, and one of my favourite from the book, that he might not “…know the answer. Maybe no one knows. Maybe when you grow up, you’ll be the first person to find out”.

Sagan suggests children “need to be cared for, cherished, and encouraged; but mere encouragement isn’t enough. We must also give them the essential tools to think with.” I think this is a critical skill to learn at a young age, but also crucially, one not to abandon as you grow older.

With the situation we all find ourselves in, I hope that this drives a real cultural change around trust in science and data based decision making, but also that we all begin to question and critically analyse the information we are provided with more scrutiny.

Skateboarding: Learning to fail fast

As I get older, one of my more juvenile activities that I just can’t quite leave behind is skateboarding. My nan bought me a Bart Simpson board when I was really young and from then I was hooked; embracing my fear of heights at the top of a half pipe, falling over a lot, playing Tony Hawk games, and watching skate videos whenever possible. In my teenage years, skateboarding was both a great community to make new friends, but also to find freedom and escape the horror of my GCSE’s and A Levels.

However, one of the greatest things that skateboarding taught me is around personal growth and perseverance. I’d always played football in a team, and loved the comradery; winning, drawing and losing as a team. Skateboarding helped me develop self-motivation… in this case, the ability to get up from the ground and try a heelflip again and again over weeks until you finally land one.

I was inspired to write this after watching this video of skateboarding legend Tony Hawk. Aged 51, and 37 years into his professional skating career, Tony learns and eventually lands a new trick on camera. His face at 4:36 shows really shows how much this still means to him, and how the journey of learning and practicing never really stops being rewarding.

Augmented Intelligence

We’re pretty complicated, and that’s what makes us special.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is fantastic at making binary decisions through processing data. If you can break down a task into data, AI will be able to learn it. However, despite being the current zeitgeisty technology, it is not good at all at improvising or ‘thinking’ abstractly. Artificial Intelligence algorithms are literally trained to be a Jack of none, master of one.

Unlike the binary logic of an algorithm, our decision making systems are multi-dimensional. Humans can feel, imagine and dream. They are emotionally driven, and will flow between rational and irrational states. They’re imperfect, but everyone is unique and can create things that no one else can.

My extremely unscientific visual of Human (left) and AI (right) decision making

With current computing logic, human intelligence and artificial intelligence should not be compared and seen as competitive. In fact, they are fundamentally different and should be seen as complimentary. I love the term Augmented Intelligence, as this shows the compute power being used as a tool to support and empower people, rather than a human redundancy mechanism. There is no denying there will be disruption to the roles and tasks that we do, but with the ‘right’ ethical code and change management, this should be seen as a positive evolution for us all. Of course, the ‘right’ approach here is very much up for debate.

The future of this technology is uncertain as it is progressing at such an incredible pace, but I am hoping for a future with more tools to augment our intelligence, and outsourcing our data processing tasks to focus on what makes us unique. AI should be the axe or saw, and not the lumberjack or carpenter.

Cultural change in music consumption

I recently saw a post about Audius (https://techcrunch.com/2018/08/08/audius/) and it got me thinking. I like the idea but I think this video explains the current landscape of the music industry well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQT6UfvyGP8.

In 2017, music artists received only 12% of the $43 billion generated in music industry revenue in the United States… and the top 10% of most streamed tracks account for 99% of all streams. The business model barely works for the most famous artists, and often fails the independent artists without record label capital.

A technology solution such as blockchain may help in providing a platform for speeding up the royalties process, but as suggested in the Pitchfork video, there is a cultural change needed to support the lesser known independent artists Audius is aiming to help. A shift to purchasing and streaming this music and merchandise through platforms such as Bandcamp, and buying tickets to see them live, is the only we can start to turn the tables to support these artists.

Reimagined: TicketWeb

Inspired by the following tweet (with expletives removed) from popular electronic music artist Deadmau5, my next Reimagined post will be focused on TicketWeb. However, this is equally relevant for any of the multitude of ticketing platforms available. Even my beloved Liverpool FC have recently been working with private investigators who specialise in ticket touting to tackle these issues, and this is something I believe can be alleviated greatly by a digital solution.

One of the biggest issues as a regular attendee to sports and music events is ensuring you are getting a genuine ticket at a reasonable price. Waiting eagerly before repeatedly refreshing your browser across multiple devices; only to find you have been pipped to the post by a bot. You then must turn to a resale site, and often pay significantly above the retail price. This then transpires to be a fake ticket, which you only find as you get to the event. You receive a refund from the resale site, but you have missed the event.

Ticket platforms need to provide a service which directly tackles the use of bots, guarantees the authenticity of the ticket, and provides the user with a sense of trust. An important component of this is in digitising the tickets, ensuring there can only be one version of each ticket, where ownership can only be transferred via the digital service for the original retail price. This ensures all tickets are genuine and will be owned and only accessible to the person who will be attending the event. One of the great advantages of this initiative will be ownership of the customer record for the ticketing platform, which today is not possible, where often one person will buy a few tickets for their group of friends. This will also ward off bots being used as there is no profit to be made in resale.

The current resale sites are often owned by the original ticketing platform, and so they see a percentage of the resale for facilitating the transaction. This can still be offered as a service for allowing the transfer of the digital ticket between two users, and so is unlikely to reduce revenue significantly, outside of the sales which go to bots and then are not resold. However, by guaranteeing that all tickets are with a real person, and this person will use it at the point of entry to the event, there is the additional potential to gather great user data to improve the service based on actual attendance to events. This can be used to build smarter recommendation engines to provide more personalised recommendations for future events, and possible integration with relevant services such as Spotify.

Reimagined: Mothercare

I often find myself thinking about and discussing opportunities for business model transformation, and so thought it might be interesting to document these in a series I am calling ‘Reimagined’.

For the first edition, I will look at Mothercare. Facing significant slowdown in customer traffic to its high street stores, alongside a recent growth in online sales, Mothercare is actively engaged in a store rationalisation programme. To compliment this, I have suggestions for a complete change in how Mothercare’s customers engage with the brand.

Aiming to be the ‘number one specialist for parents’, Mothercare has a unique opportunity to advise and provide all the good and services that parents will need from pre-birth to the child becoming a toddler. Parents will have a limited time with which they interact with Mothercare, and especially for new parents, will look to them for ‘expert’ advice. A move from transactional one-off purchases, to a monthly subscription or perhaps a 3/4 year agreement, would allow Mothercare to proactively advise and provide all of the required products that a parent will need for their child. This will likely take away significant stress in identifying and finding these products, and allow the parent to focus on themselves and their child. This can also be accompanied by digital services which provide the parents with relevant information they require at the different stages of the child’s journey, allowing Mothercare to provide this ‘expert’ level of advice to its customers.

In order to make this experience more personalised, this new offering could come as an extension of the My Mothercare reward club, building on top of the insight Mothercare has into its customers. Also, due to the time-bound usage of these products, there is the opportunity for Mothercare to create a community and marketplace around recycling and reuse of products, where this is appropriate. This is a market which already exists on generic marketplace sites, and so Mothercare can add value by facilitating the connection between its customers and creating this focused community, and benefit financially via platform administration charges.

Mothercare as a service? Providing all of the goods and services the parent needs during their limited-time interaction with the brand, whilst creating a second-hand marketplace and community of its customers to enable longer term brand interaction and value. Creating more predictable revenue from online sales, as well as enabling a shift of the remaining brick & mortar stores to become click and collect fulfilment centres, advisory clinics and community centres for subscription members.