First published 17 February 2020 on Your Best Year Starts Here with Nigel Risner.
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Nigel did the intro this week and called the show Your Best Year Starts Now. He'd just told everyone he was more professional than me because of how he was dressed. I had to cut in and correct him, so we both got it wrong inside about ten seconds, and we left it in.
From there we picked up where the last episode ended, on sticking to your commitments and how much easier technology makes it. We were in different countries recording this one. Ten or fifteen years ago we couldn't have done it like this at all. Nigel reckons the kit for the whole session comes to about 20 quid a month if you've got your phone on a contract. And I told him about the first blog that actually worked for me (there were a couple of false starts before it). It reached over a million people in a year and a half on free software, without a penny spent on ads.
Then Nigel owned up. He's 57, happy on LinkedIn and Facebook, and he'd been putting Instagram off for ages. His kids have bought him lessons with an Instagram trainer. Halfway through telling me about it he forgot the word boomerang. He also thinks I'm some sort of technical wizard because of the DJ kit I bring round to his house, which he describes as about 18 lorries. It fits in the boot of a Mini, Nigel.
My confession was TikTok. I'd been in Nashville a few days before, and the friends driving me to dinner had set me up. They put on I'm Bad by LL Cool J and waited to see what I'd do. I couldn't stop myself. They told me I needed to be on TikTok, and when we recorded this I'd posted two or three old school rap videos. It scares me. In the late '80s and early '90s there were mixtapes going round Southampton with my voice on, and people wouldn't believe it was me because I'm white. There was no Eminem back then.
So Nigel asked for a rap intro next week. I said maybe. He's doing an Instagram post in return, and he wants everyone listening to try one bit of tech outside their comfort zone in the next couple of weeks. His is Hey Mic, a wireless mic for speakers that goes straight to your phone. He's had one available to him and been too nervous to use it. I suggested we do an app special one day, and Nigel said that would be the episode I run on my own.
The bits worth keeping
- If you've got a phone and a laptop, getting your message out costs next to nothing. No excuses, just reasons or results.
- Being scared of a new platform is normal. Get someone to sit next to you and show you which button to press.
- Find someone to teach you, even if it's an eight-year-old who's quicker at Instagram than you.
- Pick one bit of tech you've been avoiding and have a go in the next fortnight.
There are no more excuses. There's either reasons or results.
Nigel Risner
It's okay to be scared, but you gotta do something about it.
Nigel Risner
