Around the Wobbles in 80 Days
For the last 12 weeks, I’ve been taking part in the Escape The City Start-Up Tribe. Now that school’s out for summer — and beyond :( — and being naturally introspective, it’s a great opportunity to take up our last weekly ‘Hustle Olympics’ homework challenge and reflect on my professional and personal evolution in that time. Here’s 8 lessons from 80 days:
When I signed up, there were 3 things I hoped from the course and determined that “success” would represent for me:
#1. Accountability
Starting my own business has always been a question in my mind (and probably that of people who know me too) of when rather than if. Yes, I was that kid who set up a sticker shop at school, and such was product demand but time resource short that I recruited my friend with the offer of a cut of profits, then expanded into erasers before promptly getting shut down by the school for being too popular and creating carnage in the playground…
So I was nearly crying with laughter when we went through an exercise debunking the excuses people make for not starting their own businesses. Yep, I’d pretty much gone through each and every one…
First big penny drop.
It was probably 10 years ago that I realised my vocation in life was to work in sustainable tourism, and although I had the customer experience and worked in tourism, moving sideways was complex: I didn’t have the tools to determine what is or isn’t responsible tourism, I didn’t have the experience or knowledge to know and I didn’t have the right connections who could help me. But ethical subjects are not one to blag. Good intentions are not enough when dealing with impacts on people’s lives, so I absolutely stand by choice of doing a Masters in the subject which delivered those things, especially as many in the sector look to that certified knowledge, reputation and experience for credibility.
Of course, working full time while doing a Masters part-time, and organising monthly responsible tourism events, co-hosting global twitter chats and volunteering every holiday to trip guide charity challenges to get the knowledge, experience and connections then meant I had no money, and I had no time for personal life, let alone setting up a business.
It was all about paying it forward (and still often is).
But over that time, through tour managing voluntourism and charity groups, and being academically and industry- recognised for my knowledge and experience on the nexus of tourism, online marketing, content and sustainability with market studies in the Journal of Sustainable Tourism on the Greenwashing of Voluntourism and in Worldwide Hospitality and Tourism, I came to recognise my strength of integrity. Where I initially thought I would work in volunteer tourism, the more I knew about it, if done properly sustainably, there was little living to be made in it, little viability. So I didn’t have the right idea either. Hmm.
I’ve frequently sat at home starting business plans of what could be. In the last year or so I’ve carried a notebook everywhere with me, jotting down requirements of what it should deliver. I’ve bought URLs I’ve then done nothing with. I’ve paid off mortgage and saved up to re-risk. I’ve moved from employee to freelance to get more flexibility, from full-time to part-time to buy me more time. But still I wasn’t able to get on with it, I didn’t have enough pressure, enough tension, enough accountability.
Having challenge, deadlines and expectations can bring out the best focus and work in me. I’ve been autonomous for years, I don’t need to be told what to do, in what order and when. But in the absence of a co-founder, I like someone to report to, discuss with, bounce ideas off and be told to get on with it. So thanks to Escape the City’s wonderful Tribe leaders, Ben Keene, Jonny Miller and Emma Walker, my accountability group of fellow students and mentor. Done. At least for starters.
I only wish it could continue.
#2 Community
Ironically for a profession about people and places, my work in sustainable tourism seems to have had an inverse relationship with community.
At one stage I was surrounded — working full-time in a ski tour operator in busy Putney High Street, Wednesday chats connected online to the responsible tourism world, 3 years of Masters with students from across the globe, long trips with charity groups up mountains, across deserts and down rivers… with a rare skillset on the overlap of several subjects, if you’re a social person like me you dip into quite a few communities. And being someone who likes my own space and independence, sometimes it was too much…
Hey, where did everyone go?
Moving from in-office employee to home-based freelance massively cuts interactions, physically and digitally. Move to paid work part-time, it’s less. Study finishes, even less. Working damn hard at paying it forward to move a career sideways to an area that needs to break boundaries, and personal life is sacrificed... Home alone. All the time. And the work connections you do have are global, often in the field in remote locations with disconnected Skypes…
Most the time, I’m OK with it, I’ve done it for 7 of the last 10 years, and as long as I have clear objectives and busy work, I don’t notice. But sometimes, without #accountability, it can get lonely.
Sorry to everyone I’ve seen when I’ve had a bout of verbal diarrhea. I probably just haven’t spoken to anyone for days…
Throw into that living alone and a fairly dysfunctional family, and you are out there on your own a lot. You’re missing vital support for trying to start your own enterprise. I miss being around people. Connection is important to me.
So it’s great to find a like-minded Tribe. To accompany everyone else’s journey as they accompany yours. Mutually supportive, beneficial and bonded through the journey.
Long may it continue.
#3 Tools & Tech up-skill
3 years working freelance, part-time, at home with little #community and for NGOs, where you’re the consultant advising them, is not exactly beneficial to one’s tech skill set.
Thanks to Escape, I’ve skilled up on the latest tools and techniques. Having been in digital marketing and development since the late 90s, I was very happy to know I hadn’t missed much in the ever-increasing speed of tech development, and I felt for those learning this from scratch as it’s a lot to take in at once, where it’s been an evolutionary process for me.
Don’t sit around writing business plans, get on and ACT. With Accountability, Community and the right Tools, even I can be a (reluctant) entrepreneur.
So, above 3 checked off, Escape Tribe was a definite Success!
But there’s more… 3 things I kinda expected, but were really reiterated:
#4 A leg-up
I have to admit, I wasn’t sure about starting the course. I had seen it advertised some time ago, but I wasn’t sure how valuable it would be for me. But I kept seeing it (re-targeted marketing? Re-impressioning in my mind at least) and I was coming round to the idea. I thought I’d chew the cud with a friend with whom I was going skiing and decide by the deadline while I was away.
And then…
Sometimes, things do seem to happen for a reason. My hand was forced. Or rather, my knee ligaments went ping.
Bugger. 30 years of wear and tear on the slopes, with several years working in the Alps and a lot of miles skiied, took their toll. First time taken off the piste in a blood wagon, mind. Thank God for insurance. Find the positives.
I had not long since finished a contract. I had been to a tradeshow, spent a week or so visiting family, was having a holiday to celebrate an old ski friend’s birthday with an end of season bash and was about to scout for new work. And suddenly I was immobile, leg twice its normal size, flown home, on the sofa with obliterated ACL and LCL ligaments, requiring reconstruction surgery. Not only was I going nowhere, I was zombied from body trauma and whacked out from pain killers. I gave up on the thought of work, my last concern. Not quite death bed regrets, (I don’t have a single regret in life — imho, you can only regret what you don’t do, not what you do, follow your heart and instinct and there’s no regrets), but a damn good wake up call. I wasn’t about to start with the regrets now.
I had 2 concerns lying in that French hospital:
One, was I going to be able to ski again? Yes, if all went well, with the right pre-hab physio before surgery, operation, then 6–12 months rehab physio.
Second, I’m going to miss the Escape Tribe application deadline. Sh*t!
I texted Mikey. There and then from my St Jean de Maurienne hospital bed. I did not want to miss a place! And I was certainly not going to be working for a while!
I cannot state enough just how much I have valued the Escape journey for my injury rehab.
Firstly, emotionally. When you’re struggling physically, when you’re zombied, when friends and family aren’t nearby, when you’re not going anywhere or seeing anyone, having an immobilising injury is incredibly isolating — and avoiding that incredibly psychologically important. That accountability and community, now become vital motivational crutches at a time when it would be very very easy to become depressed. It’s a challenge to undertake when you are feeling exhausted and vulnerable, but something to keep going for.
Secondly, physically. My biggest concern about signing up? The 6 flights of steps to the office. Please let the lift be fixed. Please let the lift be fixed. I mailed Mikey. The lift isn’t fixed and isn’t likely to be, it’s been broken 3 years… OK, turns out I’m not about to let that small thing get in my way, 1 step at a time, literally.
Although, I admit I nearly cried when, having met by City Hall the first morning of the course, we then had to walk back to the office. Until then, the furthest I had walked was less than 500 metres to my nearest bus stop, and that was just that morning. And suddenly I was having to crutch over a mile. Thank goodness for the Challenges along that route, apologies to my team for my slowness, it was bloody hard work, but thanks to Jonny for distracting chat and Andrea who gallantly carried my (not free) tea back to the office.
Then the next day we met in Hyde Park — for a walk! I literally could not move for over 24 hours after the weekend’s activities. And the following week arriving at Bank station on crutches at rush hour — well, I didn’t make that mistake again!
And so it really pushed me, in my physiotherapy and physical abilities, developing and mirroring my mental, emotional and psychological journey. As my knee got better, so has my energy and mood (I think I was pretty grumpy the first few weeks?!). And now, just as momentum is on a roll, it’s the end of the beginning. It was only right at graduation to dance — nay jump! jump! — It’ll be a while before I can do that again, being soon to face the surgeon’s knife and go back to square one (and then some), and the beginning of the next chapter.
Thank you Escape for the leg- (and graduation knees-) up!
I just hope I can do the 6–12 months entrepreneurial metaphorical physio justice.
#5 Values
This was my favourite exercise. It was short, sharp, stressful and spot on. If I’d been asked what are my values, I’d have probably said something like Travel, Honesty and Charity, so not far off.
It turns out, I prefer Adventure, Connection and Integrity.
So much more accurate yet so many more applications: Adventure not just in a geographical sense, but pioneering, cutting-edge. Connection not just in camaraderie, but emotional and mind-sets, to people and places, physical and spiritual. Integrity in aligned actions and words, says what it does and does what it says, decent, honest, straight up, no need for fakery or BS politicking.
I genuinely treasure this golden nugget that I will take with me forever more.
And the Escape experience which just so happens to have offered all three.
#6 Escape Imposter Syndrome
I’d been on Escape’s newsletter since early days, I’d read about jobs but never applied. I felt a bit of an imposter. After all, I wasn’t escaping a big corporate management consultancy, accountants or law firm. I worked in travel.
My wonderfully dysfunctional family had made sure I’d known from early years that life was too short, with me consequently swapping the Milk Round for rounds of Gluhwein and graduate training for training chalet reps to preferably not half kill themselves on the piste. But I’ve always believed in the ‘Life’s too short” philosophy, it’s always been a personal mantra. And having achieved most of my ambitions, including ending up in my dream job that offered Adventure, Connection and Integrity in the job spec but apparently not the culture, turning out to be a top-down control-and-command traditional corporate disguised as a small start up global NGO, I was left wondering what was next.
With that, and the knee, another penny dropped: Life’s too short not to try.
And as it turned out, despite many coming from those big City firms, many also didn’t, but from art, publishing, IT… Even our Tribe leaders had long Escaped, to travel & setting up an island community, to appear on Junior Apprentice aged 16 out of 28,000 hopefuls, and to tackle entrepreneurship at accelerators Start-Up Chile and Techstars. Amazing amazing people.
And so we’re not all escaping big city firms. Rather, we are all Escaping to chart our own paths, to our values and happiness, on our terms.
And incredibly, wherever you are on that path, wherever you’ve come from and which ever direction you end up heading, Escape’s got just the process and journey to help.
And still there’s more! … 2 things which surprised me:
#7 The One Thing
I never thought of myself as a procrastinator.
I did think I did a lot for others, a lot for charity, to pay-it-forward.
I never realised just how much for both.
A super useful exercise was to note down what I did every 15 minutes for a few days. A bit of a pain but no pain, no gain, what you put in, you get out: It turns out, I got 40-50% of time back.
Where I thought I was spending 10–20% paying-it-forward, it was probably more like 50%, to the detriment of my own projects: It was easier, with clear objectives and accountability to others. There was a good 30% time to reclaim as mine, even if I carried on my charity pro bono work for 10–20% .
But being vague about my own projects, unclear on what I was trying to achieve and how, I was procrastinating, maybe another 10–20% of the time. I just didn’t realise, because I never had any time, masked by the fact I was so busy doing things for other people. No wonder I wasn’t getting work on my projects done. I just wasn’t putting myself first.
My priorities were skewed by what had clear deliverable objectives and deadlines, but I wasn’t making those for myself. I was working on what was urgent for others but not what was not most important to me.
I daily divided my diary into non/urgent and non/important quadrants and set about working in a different way. I binned my multiple endless to-do lists and took the pressure off a little, now that I was only working for me.
And slowly but surely I got my focus back. I also tried as suggested working on the most important thing first thing in the day. But some things just don’t work and I gave it up as a bit of a bad job: My brain’s natural rhythm needs to be creative in the afternoon and evening, morning warm-up is good for industry catch ups, emails and admin. Tried to change, didn’t work, so be it.
#8 Free Your Mindset, Be the Best You
The weekly Hustle Olympics was fun! It was good to get creative again, get away from top-down oppression where everything has to be discussed, checked, double checked. Be yourself, by yourself, you are free to just write, do, act in the way you want and think or just feel for no apparent reason right.
I’ve always followed my own path and refused to fall into someone else’s expectations. (The wonderfully dysfunctional family has its pluses!). So it was strange and fabulous to get back to my real self, having not even realised I wasn’t being.
I started to enjoy writing again. It’s such a better flow when you’re blogging your thoughts, not writing trying to be someone else’s voice for someone else’s business. I quite like putting ‘me’ out there, verbal diarrhea included.
Although, everything takes a lot lot longer when it’s just you, not only doing, but learning new tools, techniques and systems. But the freedom to be me, not judged but supported by the Tribe in my world-changing ambitions, not devalued by someone who’s told me not to talk about my work, not to present it at the AGM (yikes, someone might like that it’s forward thinking!) and despite a deep passion, not exhausted by constant travel and jet lag - and now with mobility too! — means I’m back to me and one a heck of a lot happier.
Somewhere between the lines of all the above came a rejuvenation, re-energisation and re-motivation. And despite having no clue what’s going to happen next, except going under the surgeon’s knife sometime soon, somehow more comfort in the not knowing. Somewhere along the line, a Wisdom of Insecurity kicked in. Because things will work out, they always do, particularly when done for the right reasons: Adventure, Connection, Integrity.
I think you can consider me Escaped.
Fancy it? I challenge you.
Mention my name on booking and you never know, you might get an extra special deal :) Let me know!
Here’s the link again: Escape The City Start-Up Tribe.
