Our well-intentioned but misguided desires to root for the independents. A couple of times a week I’ll walk with my wife to her subway stop before I head a few blocks uptown to my office on Union Square. On the way to the subway is a Bluestone Lane coffee shop….
Browsing Category NYC
22,000 songs in your pocket
Back in 2001, Apple CEO Steve Jobs uttered his now legendary one line pitch for a new product his company were about to release. ‘1000 songs in your pocket’ It’s unlikely even he knew how rapidly things would evolve from that point on. From iPod Classic to iPhone X; Pioneer…
The Portfolio Career Podcast
Two of things I love most about New York are its pay-it-forward approach and its densely networked nature. This combination means it’s possible to meet a lot of interesting people in a short space of time. Someone I met early on through this combination was David Nebinski. As we went…
Location Arbitrage
Go back 15 years or so and this was only a serious day to day consideration if you were an international trader looking to take advantage of fluctuations in currencies and demand for particular goods. For the rest of us, it may have come up as something to think about…
Demo Night
Taking my career building project Fondo out of the studio for the first time. New York City’s Canal Street is one of the main arteries in Downtown Manhattan (and until the 18th century was an actual canal). Cutting west to east, in its centre it splits the main parts of…
How to survive your first year living in NYC
At the time of writing I’m approaching the end of my first year living in New York City, more specifically in the East Village of Manhattan, one of the most boisterous and lively parts of one of the most energetic cities in the world. NYC isn’t for the faint of…
Forcing Mechanisms
On Saturday my laptop gave up. One too many times had the power cable been wrenched out unapologetically, dozens of Chrome tabs restored, the screen slapped shut without care. It was time for me to pay for my fast and loose attitude to a partner I probably spend more time…
Tall Stories – the importance of storytelling
Here’s a summarised narrated version of a talk I gave to an entertainment company in NYC on the importance of storytelling in our life, work ,and culture more broadly. On the day itself we got into a bunch of other topics, from how to communicate stories on someone else’s behalf,…
Jiu Jitsu, Influence, and Persuasion for creative businesses
This summer I’ve been working with Hyper Island as part of the program team running the AMP NYC accelerator for media & entertainment entrepreneurs in the city. It’s been a fun ride, designing and delivering a unique curriculum for a diverse group of 22 founders growing businesses ranging from music PR…
The California chef’s foundations
It was a sunny Sunday afternoon in early March and we were on the open road, driving south down California’s 1 highway. My wife and I were out on the west coast taking our first vacation after spending the previous 6 months getting up and running in our new lives…