Building a company culture around values. The Netflix way

11 03 2011

This presentation has been around for a while but is still one of the best I’ve seen around building a successful company culture. Netflix are a US based DVD and film rental company and they’ve built what certainly seems on the outside to be a brilliant culture and success story based all around 7 key aspects of culture:

Values
High Performance
Freedom & Responsibility
Context, not Control
Highly Aligned, Loosely Coupled
Pay Top of Market
Promotions & Development

They believe that having these pillars in place will ensure current and long lasting success of their business and their people and I have to say I agree with them.

If you’ve seen this before, then I’d suggest to read again for a refresher and if you’ve never seen it… enjoy!

Great weekend all.


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Categories : Business planning, Coaching, Ethics, Learning, Philosophy, Planning

A 10 step process for planning, selling and presenting ideas

25 02 2011

I recently read “The Art of the Start”, a fascinating book by Guy Kawasaki. Guy has had an amazing career ranking from Chief Evangelist at Apple and is the co-founder of Alltop.com, an “online magazine rack” of popular topics on the web, and a founding partner at Garage Technology Ventures.

Originally, I read “The Art of the Start” to help me with planning for a start-up company I’m working with, and the lessons I’ve learned can be used in so many ways I thought I’d share them. This process can be used to define marketing activity, sales pitches, investor pitches or for gaining partners. I’ve taken inspiration from Guy’s book but have adapted in certain places. If you can get this process in to a 10 slide presentation, then great!

It follows a very clear process based on the following 10 steps:

1: The introduction

Detail the name of your organisation, who you are and introduce what you’re going to be talking about. Tell people what you’re about to tell them.

2: What’s the problem?

This is absolutely critical to any kind of planning you’re trying to do. If you don’t know what the pain is that people are feeling, or the difficulties they may be having, how can you appeal to them? This step sets the scene for the rest of the presentation.

3: What’s your solution to the problem?

Explain what it is you have or can do to address and solve the issues identified in step 2. Do you have an amazing product, piece of content, strategy, person or something else that can overcome the problem? This isn’t the time for in-depth technical explanations, moreover a summary of what you can do to help.

4: Who needs your solution? Who’s your target audience?

This could be your business model or a marketing plan of what you can do to turn the solution in to the problem into meaningful results for your clients and your own organisation. Who are you going to sell this to? Who do you want to communicate with? What will mean your solution is working?

5: What’s the magic behind your solution?

This is where you can go in to more depth. If possible, a video or diagram that demonstrates the process, product or campaign will work well here. Back this up with further written information or links to more content. Think “why would people be interested in this?” and “why would people want our solution over a competitors?”.

6: What can you do to back this up?

If you can give a demo of your product or an example of a previous campaign, or another client that has had the problem you’re addressing, and can demonstrate how you’ve solved it, put this in now. If you can’t back up why your product or plan will work, then perhaps you need to think a little more deeply about the problem and your proposed solution?

7: Who’s the competition and what are they doing?

Think about your competitors and what they might be doing to solve the same problem. What will it mean if they solve it before you do? If you’re selling your solution to a client that is using a competitor then discuss this. However, be careful not to disparage your competitors. People don’t want to hear why others are bad; they want to hear why you’re good.

8: Who are the Team?

This is your opportunity to let your audience know who will be working with and for them. Introduce the people that created the solution and why they’re the right people of the job. This doesn’t need to be full CV’s, just some top-line achievements and, even better, a couple of reference comments from satisfied customers they’ve worked with before.

9:  What have you achieved so far?

Use this section to explain your key achievements in developing the solution to date. Give examples and milestones. Tie this in to how it all has contributed to getting to where you are today.

10: Recap and next steps…

This final part is to recap what you’ve been talking about (tell them what you’ve told them) to engender further action and commitment from your audience. It should include clear, easy to understand tasks that need to be undertaken to realise the goals and is a great opportunity to answer any questions that have arisen and to take feedback from the floor. This can all then be fed in to the rest of plan!

This reminds me of some advice I once received about the art of presenting in a very simple way:

  1. Tell people what you’re going to tell them
  2. Then tell them
  3. Then tell them what you’ve just told them

I know it sounds a bit silly but reinforcing this simple thing goes a long way to ensure there’s no confusion in what you’re saying.

And that’s it. This approach has helped me no end over the last few weeks and is something I wished I’d learned years ago! I hope it helps you.

Guy’s book is a great read for anything trying to start something and I urge you to read it. You can buy it from Amazon: Guy Kawasaki – “The Art of the Start”

Flickr image by: photosteve101


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Categories : Business planning, Coaching, Learning, Planning, Strategy

Kaizen and the Current State vs. Desired State model

4 01 2011

Happy New Year everyone! I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and are feeling all set for 2011!

This is a time of year where pretty much everybody is rethinking their lives, be it personal or professional, and making all sorts of promises to themselves about how they’ll be fitter, slimmer, spend less money, be more efficient, learn a new skill etc, etc.

Whilst all of this is brilliant often we try to take on too much at once. The outcome of this is that we then end up feeling overwhelmed, deprived or we can’t see the changes happening fast enough, so we have a massive blow-out and then quit. Better, perhaps is to use the approach of Kaizen. In it’s most simple explanation, Kaizen means “small, incremental improvements sustained over time”.

An example of this is the person that wants to start jogging. On their first day of jogging (after a long period of time not jogging), they head out and try and run for 20 to 30 minutes. It’s hell, it hurts and the next day they are so sore they can’t think about running again. That’s it, over. The Kaizen approach would say that for day 1, you run 1 minute. Day 2, 2 minutes. Day 3, 3… and so on. By 30 days you’re running that 3o minutes and you will have built up a level of fitness and stamina that’s far more likely to be continued. Plus, a 1 minute run every day is a lot less daunting than trying to run for a half hour right from the start isn’t it? Another huge bonus with this approach is that you will be far more likely to achieve your daily goals. This feels good and will spur you in to the next day. It’s all about breaking it down in to manageable chunks.

A great way to assess where this approach can be applied to in your life / activities is to examine the way you are currently spending your time and efforts versus where you would like them to be. This is referred to as “Current State vs. Desired State”. You can see from the example below that I’ve given an idea of how someone I recently went through this with is dividing their working life. We took a list of all the “tasks” they engage in each working week, and estimated how many hours were spent doing each task. This was based on the average 37.5 hour working week and we then allocated this as a percentage.

As you can see quite clearly that the current state of affairs is that this person is spending a lot of time on emails and admin; and perhaps not enough time selling or seeing their clients. So, we went through what they feel would be a much more desirable way of spending time. Results below:

Interestingly, what this person is currently doing and want they want to be doing is pretty much exactly opposite. They want to spend less time on emails and admin and more time selling and seeing their clients. So, why is this not happening?

In another post about the 10 Tips to Improve Your Work / Life Balance I talked about prioritising and how often we spend too much time doing the things that we don’t want to be doing and not enough doing the things we do. Hopefully this exercise will help to identify how this is split. The examples above are for illustration purposes only and you can download the worksheet here: Current state vs desired state

You don’t have to use the categories we’ve talked through, nor does it need to be about how you spend your working week. You can apply this to fitness goals, how you spend your recreation time, how you are currently allocating marketing activity, anything really, it’s up to you. Once you’ve identified where you currently are and where you want to get to, it’s a lot easier to put a plan of tactics together (maybe even using Kaizen philosophy to do so), in order to reach your goal(s). As the brilliant Stephen Covey says “Start with the end in the mind”… Good luck and if you’d like to discuss any of this, please just get in touch.

More coming soon on planning for effectiveness…

Flickr image by: tableatny


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Categories : Business planning, Coaching, Philosophy, Planning

10 Tips to Improve Your Work / Life Balance

7 12 2010

During my career I’ve been lucky enough to work with and manage some exceptionally talented, clever and super busy people.  I’ve seen first-hand the effects of stress and work overload. An area that I’m very interested in and am about to get qualified for is Coaching and Mentoring so I thought that it might be useful to start posting up some things in this area.

Below are 10 tips that will help you manage your work / life balance a little better. I put these in to practice in my own life. I hope they prove useful to you too. Hopefully you’re already doing some and if you only take 1 piece of use from this, then hey, I’m pleased!

1. Prioritise

The old saying “Stress is an ignorant state, it believes everything is urgent” rings true here. The simple fact is, some things are just more important than others. Start each day with just 1 to 3 things that you really want to achieve and do them. Try not to let outside distractions take you off course. Yes, it’s important to be flexible but how many times does that “essential” task that doesn’t fit in to your list of the day really need to be made a priority now?

2. Be well organised

Sounds simple but if you know where all your files, emails, stationary, to do lists and so forth are, you’ll save the time you’d spend trying to find them! Plan your day and week and you’ll be far more likely to stay on course and get that sense of achievement and accomplishment at the end of it.

3. Set your working hours, and stick to them whenever you can

It’s too easy to fall in to the trap of starting early, working late and eating your lunch at your desk but does this really really bring about the most effective and efficient working state? I regularly and (almost) religiously swim during my lunch hour and find that the time away and physical exercise leave me feeling calmer and more energised in the afternoon. Even just a quick walk around the block or a quiet half hour with a book will help. Take some time in the day for you. You’ll soon see the benefits.

4. Don’t be afraid to ask for help

Don’t suffer in silence. Ask your boss or colleagues for help if you are struggling. There’s no weakness in that.

5. Focus on what really matters

Rather than the things that just keep you busy.

6. Delegate

Too often we end up undertaking tasks that aren’t part of our remit and whilst it’s important that we multitask and share the burden as a collective team, make sure this is the case and it’s not just you that are picking up all the slack whilst others are having an easier time. That’s not fair. Delegate tasks, share the workload and skill-sets and you’ll be a lot more effective and successful.

7. Only check emails 3 times per day

It’s too easy to be a slave to email and to get knocked off track with what you’re doing. If you’re constantly looking at emails, you’re in a constant reactive state, rather than a proactive state. Try for just 3 days to only check your emails at 11am (use the first 2 hours of your day to achieve one of your key tasks whilst the rest of the world is busy emailing), 2pm and then at the end of the day. Tell people that this is what you’re doing and if there’s anything really urgent to come and speak to you. They’ll soon learn your new working style and you’ll be amazed at just how few truly urgent things do arise. See how it goes and if you notice you’re getting more actual work done.

8. Learn to say no, but (in a nice way of course)

We all want to be helpful and for others to not think negatively of us so we have a tendency to agree to things that we either shouldn’t be doing, can’t do, don’t want to do or don’t have enough time to do. This is bad for everyone as the person requesting the task may get let down and you get stressed. No one wins there. Learn the mantra “no, but”… For example “NO, I can’t do that for you today BUT I can do it tomorrow” or “NO, I’m afraid I can’t help you with that BUT I can help you with this”. People will value and trust you more for your frank honesty. Honest!

9. Plan things for yourself to do after work, and do them

Again, sounds simple but schedule in that meeting with friends, a dinner with your partner, time with the kids, an evening class, exercise, whatever it is and treat it like any other appointment you would keep in your day.

10. Go easy on yourself

Sometimes it’s just not possible to get everything done, and done perfectly. When this happens, try not to beat yourself up and stress out. That won’t make things any better and will just sap your energy for the next day. Be proud of the things you have achieved and treat your mishaps as learning exercises. Even this slight mental shift will go a long way in to changing how you’re feeling.

This is by no means an exhaustive list but just some of the things I recommend trying for now.

Really important to the success of this is to communicate to your peers and loved one’s that this is what you’re doing and why you’re doing it. Once they understand, they’ll be more likely to be supportive of it and you never know; they may even start doing it themselves!

More to come soon…

Flickr image by: HaPe_Gera


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Categories : Business planning, Coaching, Planning

Brilliant post from Seth Godin today: Embracing the upcycle instead of the downcycle

18 11 2010

Image taken straight from his website (hope that’s ok?) If not, let me know and I’ll happily change it…

I won’t make a habit of completely copying and pasting another person’s blog posts as there’s not really huge amounts of value in that but today, I read a brilliant post from Seth Godin that I felt important to share. If you’re not already reading his stuff, you should be.

This is taken verbatim from the post: Embracing the upcycle instead of the downcycle:

“Does a stressful event start a cascade that ends up making even you more stressed?

If an authority figure corrects your behavior, does the intervention lead you to push back and make the behavior worse?

Does a failure set you on a path to more failure?

These questions seem philosophical or even paradoxical, but in fact I think they get to the heart of why some people succeed and others don’t. We can choose to create cycles that move us up or endure cycles that drag us down.

A cop hassles a teenager who is acting out. The kid escalates. The cop escalates. Someone gets shot.

A sales call is going poorly because the prospect doesn’t perceive the salesperson is confident. She responds by becoming even less confident. No sale.

A mistake is made. The stakes go up. Rattled, another mistake is made, and then again, until failure occurs…

James Bond is a hero because the tougher the world got, the cooler he got. Symphony conductors don’t endure the pressure of a performance, they thrive on it.

If being a little behind creates self-pressure that leads to stress and then errors, it’s no wonder you frequently end up a lot behind. If the way you manage your brand inevitably leads to a ceaseless race to the bottom, it’s no wonder that you’re struggling. A small bump gets magnified and repeated until it overwhelms.

Customer service falls apart when mutual escalation or non-understanding sets in. Management falls apart when power struggles or miscommunication escalate. Education falls apart when students respond to negative tracking by giving up.

Someone who gets better whenever he fails will always outperform someone who responds to failure by getting worse. This isn’t something in your DNA, it’s something you can learn or unlearn.

The appropriate response is not to try harder, to bear down and grind it out. The response that works is to understand the nature of the cycle and to change it from the start. You must not fight the cycle, you must transform it into a different cycle altogether. It’s a lot of work, but less work than failing.

When the lizard pushes you to recoil in fear, that’s your cue to embrace the trembling fear and do precisely the opposite of what it demands. This won’t work the first time or even the tenth, but it’s the path to an upcycle, one where each negative input leads to more productivity, not less.”

Hope that proves of interest, it certainly resonates for me.

Get RSS feeds from Seth’s blog, here.


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Categories : Business planning, Coaching, Learning, Strategy

5 steps to help you start planning your social media strategy

25 10 2010

Social media is big. It’s huge! There are even films being made about it now. But working out where to start can often be a confusing and worrying thing and can seem a little overwhelming. So, I’ve put together 5 tactics that you can undertake to help you start to plan your social media activity. In a nutshell it’s all about this:

  1. DEFINE YOUR OBEJECTIVES
  2. FIND YOUR NETWORKS
  3. UNDERSTAND WHAT IS IMPORTANT TO YOUR NETWORKS
  4. THINK ABOUT HOW YOU CAN CONTRBUTE IN A MEANINGFUL WAY
  5. DO IT

1.  DEFINE YOUR OBJECTIVES:

  • What are you trying to achieve?
  • What is going to define success?
  • Which measurement model will you use? IAB or Forrester for example
  • How are you going to measure data? Which tools will you use?

2. FIND YOUR NETWORKS:

  • Start with keyword research – define the search terms around your brand, services, products and issues related to them.
  • Search engine research – who’s ranking for the terms you’ve discovered? Where are the networks?
  • When you find the networks, forums, blogs, sites etc, how will you select which one’s you want to engage with? What will be your criteria?
  • Twitter research – who are the key users?
  • Facebook research – what groups are there? What are they talking about?
  • YouTube research – which video content is being associated with issues relating to your brand? Why?

3. UNDERSTAND WHAT IS IMPORTANT TO YOUR NETWORKS:

  • What are the key issues?
  • Which users do the networks rely on the most?
  • What kinds of content are they sharing? Text, pictures, links, videos etc.?

4. THINK ABOUT HOW YOU CAN CONTRBUTE IN A MEANINGFUL WAY:

  • Why should people care that you’re joining in with their network?
  • What can you offer that no one else can?
  • Can you offer content or information directly related to these issues from your position as the brand?
  • Should your brand be an authority on any given subject? Why?

5. DO IT:

  • From finding out the above, develop a content strategy that will let you engage with your networks. Create interesting content that people will value.
  • Contribute to the existing conversations in a useful and interesting way. Who in your organisation will be responsible for this?
  • Be nice! If someone starts to talk to you or follow you, don’t ignore them.
  • Measure against your objectives. How will you know it’s working if you don’t?
  • Don’t be afraid to make mistakes.
  • Own up to them when you do.
  • Enjoy it. Being “social” is supposed to be fun!

As with all my posts, I’m trying to keep things as simple as possible and within each section, there are lots and lots more questions you could be asking. I’m pretty sure that once you start, you’ll know what they are yourself as they’ll be personal and relevant to you, and your organisation. I hope this helps. As always, if you need any further information or would like to speak to us, please get in touch. We’d love to hear from you. Thanks!

“IMAGE: by Flickr user Cavin”


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Categories : Branding, Business planning, Planning, Social media, Strategy

Great reads about SEO, Social Media, Marketing, Philosophy and Business

5 10 2010

How’s that for an eclectic title?

I read a lot. All the time in fact. Fiction, non fiction, business, self help, philosophy, you name it, I read it… here’s a few of my favourite business and thinking related papers, eBooks and books that you may want to settle down with a nice cup of tea and have a read of…

Google SEO Starter Guide

“From the horses’ mouth” an updated starter guide to SEO covering everything from site structure, content optimisation, dealing with crawlers, SEO for mobile and even marketing your website through promoting & analysing. If you’re new to SEO, it’s an absolute must. If you’re experienced, it’s a great refresher.

Rework: Change the Way You Work Forever by 37 Signals

The guys behind Basecamp, Highrise, Backpack and Campfire have written this clear, concise book about setting up and running a business, right down to how you manage your work load and prioritisation. Highly recommended.

Presentation Zen (Garr Reynolds)

How many of us have sat through (or given) 60 slide, text heavy powerpoint presentations that are just a series of bullet points that are then READ out to the audience that are also sitting there READING them??? I know I have, too many times. This book serves to overcome that, to make your presentations engaging, clear, fluid… and most of all, interesting.

What is Social Media? An eBook by Antony Mayfield, iCrossing.

Antony is one of the leading thinkers on Social Media and has written a very easy to understand introduction guide. The guide covers the basics of what social media is, why it’s vital for brands to understand, where the key networks are, and some very useful guidance and principals of engaging with the people within those networks.

Me & My Web Shadow – again, by Antony Mayfield.

In this book, Antony shifts the perspective of Social Media from brands, to people. Essentailly, the book is a guide as how to understand and manage your online self. In his own words “This book helps you to: understand how what’s said about you on the Web can affect your job, your business and your personal life, both positively and negatively; develop a personal plan for managing your online reputation; and, protect yourself against identity hijacking.”

The Art of Happiness – The Dalai Lama

Not related to business or marketing in any way shape or form, I think this is one of the most important and influential books I’ve ever read. Quite simply the book is a series of interviews with the Dalai Lama where he talks about his philosphies on being happy, being free of worry, anger and upset and to see the world with complete compassion for other people. A very enlightening read!

Saltwater Buddha – Jaimal Yogi

Continuing with the whole Buddhist Zen subject, this one is told through the medium of surfing. Kinda like a “Zen and the Art of MotorCycle Maintenance ”  but for us water dwelling folk!

Holy Trinity of Technology Marketing – Velocity Partners

I’m a big fan of Velocity. I love the way they present themselves and the language they use on the site, and in their communications. They’re a B2B Marketing Agency, and whilst I’ve never used their services (sorry, if I can ever afford to, I definitely will!), they’ve become a very useful resource for all things content marketing. Although this guide says it’s pitched at Technology Marketing, the whole idea of the things to think of when creating a brand (i.e. “Who the hell are you?” “Why should we care?” and “Why should we believe you?”), ring true across the board in my opinion.

Tracking Social Media ROI Viewing Spectrum Analytics (Marshall Sponder)

This white paper tackles the burning question of “How do we prove ROI through Social Media?”.

7 Habits of Highly Successful People (Stephen R Covey)

Kind of a business / self-help book all rolled in to one. Mr Covey talks about a principle-centred approach for solving personal and professional problems. The book gives a step-by-step pathway for living with fairness, integrity, honesty and human dignity – principles that give us the security to adapt to change, and the wisdom and power to take advantage of the opportunities that change creates.

The Networked Nonprofit: Connecting with Social Media to Drive Change (Beth Kanter & Allison H Fine)

A great resource offering a set of guiding principles to help non profits make the transition from top-down thinking to a more networked, social approach, enabled by technology. There’s a foreward by Randi Zuckerberg (co founder of Facebook) suggesting the importance of this book if you work in the not for profit sector.

A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future (Dan Pink)

This book by Al Gore’s ex-chief speechwriter explores the concept of left (analytical and sequential) and right (visual and creative) brain thinking changing in the business world today. Dan argues that a lot of the stuff that used to be “left” brain (computer programming, accounting etc) can now either be automated or outsourced to cheaper economies. Dan’s idea is that right brain thinking will become the more important and useful approach bring all things together holistically and seeing the bigger picture. One to get you thinking…

Linchpin: Are You Indispendable? How to Drive Your Career and Create a Remarkable Future (Seth Godin)

What can be said about Seth Godin that hasn’t been said? The man’s a genius. In this book, he looks at why some individuals become absolutely indesensible to their organisations (or Linchpins!), and how we can strive to become like this.

He also has a brilliant blog that’s well worth following.

Enjoy! It would be great to continue this resource, so if you get value from the recommendations made it, perhaps you’d like to share some reads that you’ve found useful or inspirational?

PS: You may have noticed that some of the books here are tracked by the Amazon affiliate program. They are and any monies donated as a result of purchases from this post will all be given to charity.


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Categories : Advertising, Business planning, Coaching, Ethics, Fun, Learning, Philosophy, Planning, Research, SEO, Social media, Strategy

Things to think about when creating a brand

10 08 2010

Since launching the site last week, there’s been some really useful feedback about the messaging behind what LiquidSimplicity stands for and wants to achieve. The current site is very much in its infancy and is being used as a place to put up thoughts, ideas and a kind of “mission statement” just to get the ball rolling. It’s by no means a finished article and will develop in to a more developed site, as time goes on

All this got me thinking that it might be useful to note down the things that I’m being advised on, or need to think about, or am currently thinking about in terms of creating the building blocks of the brand and what needs to be considered in this process.

Brand – some questions that need asking:

  • What do I want people to think and feel about LiquidSimplicity?
  • Who are we and what do we stand for?
  • Why should anyone care?
  • What are our values?
  • What are the products and services that we offer?
  • Who do we want to work with?
  • What can we the best at?
  • How do we create a relationship between ourselves and our potential customers?

… and so on…

This process has already started and yesterday some of you kindly gave feedback on whether I should write the brand “liquidsimplicity, liquid simplicity, Liquid simplicity, Liquidsimplicity or LiquidSimplicity”? The original  won out, (phew!) and it was really useful to have objective opinions to ensure that there’s no confusion or misunderstanding. Plus, it’s fun work alongside you folk and I hope that it helps build the relationship we have over time. Some people may be of the opinion that you should really have all these things nailed from the outset. A lot of it already is and my feeling is that if I can work this out with consultation and input from the network around me, then there’s a much higher chance of ensuring that the proposition, the positioning and the language being used is getting the highest engagement possible.

Equally, if there is anyone else out there who is going through the same process of launching a brand for themselves, then I hope that some of this can help shape your thinking too.

Once the brand positioning is nailed, it can be used as the framework to hang everything else from. So, thank you again for your input yesterday and please, please don’t hesitate to get in touch if you have any other opinions or ideas about what we’re doing!

“IMAGE: by Flickr user Donald Macleod”


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Categories : Branding, Business planning, Planning

Why I started LiquidSimplicity

4 08 2010

Why I think working for yourself is the way forward:

• Because you make the decisions and face the consequences of your own actions.

Have you ever been asked to do things or work with brands that fundamentally go against your principals?

• Because it’s exciting.
There’s a really great feeling of creating something for yourself. Your mind is on overdrive of all the things you want to do and can achieve. There’s also no-one to tell you, you can’t do it.

• Because it’s challenging.
You have to really understand your business to ask people to trust you with theirs. There’s no blagging. And challenging things are always more rewarding.

• Because I want to be proud of what I do.
I think life’s too short not to be.

• Because it’s scary.
And being scared helps remind you that you’re alive and kicking. It’s also a damn sight better than knowing exactly what every day is going to be like for the foreseeable future.

• Because you can make the money you feel you’re worth.
And not have to rely on the favour of a boss, or the yearly compulsory raise in line with inflation. You set your own benchmark. You might not always reach it, but at least you know it’s not because someone else is holding you back.

• Because there a very few reasons not to.
If you plan correctly, keep your eyes open and are realistic with your goals then go for it. You can always go back to working full-time for someone else. How is that any worse than your current situation?

These are just some personal drivers for me. I’m not trying to assume I know about anyone else’s lives or experiences. That’s their movie. This is mine. If you feel the same, we’d love to hear from you.


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Categories : Business planning, Ethics

The birth of LiquidSimplicity – search and social media marketing consultancy

3 08 2010



LiquidSimplicity is a freelance search (SEO and PPC) and social media marketing consultancy. Our number one objective is to help organisations become more profitable, efficient and successful with their digital marketing through consultancy, tools and software, implementation and coaching.

LiquidSimplicty is owned by me, Neil Cains. I have over 8 years experience in digital agencies having managed large teams to plan and execute cutting edge search and social campaigns for some of the world’s leading brands. You can see more about the stuff I’ve been up to on my LinkedIn profile.

We operate on “virtual” consultancy model and use a network of very, very skilled people that we work with based on the projects we’re working on at any given time. That way, you only pay for the resource you need at any given time.

There’s a Wordle below of all the words used to describe me by clients and colleagues on my LinkedIn page and gives you a visual idea of the kinds of feelings people have about me where we’ve worked together:

When I’m not working I’m an avid surfer (on waves, not just the internet!), a musician and a father to a power ranger, the red one apparently!

That’s it in a nutshell… if you like the sound of that and would love to work with us as part of the virtual team or to let us help you, please get in touch. I’d love to speak to you.


Comments : 4 Comments »

Categories : Business planning, Ethics, SEO, Social media


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