25 Mar
I’m now 3 weeks into my little adventure on the island of eternal spring, that is to say the quite exquisite Canary Island of Tenerife. I am also the newest member of the Canary PR team having joined John Beckley on the Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs Programme and it’s high time I introduced myself…
The EU, Entrepreneurship & Rockin’ the Canaries!
My end of the bargain in this happy little set up, is creative writing across various channels. Whether that be right here on this blog, partner and client sites, social media and of course occasional updates on my own blog at FortressFree.com… writing is the central aspect.
In addition to that, I’ll be getting involved in the video productions, events, causes and anything else that swings by my way. This will be with John and his associates who in turn will help build my profile, brand and fine-tune my offerings.
What’s Simon Saying? Erasmus, That’s What…
Whilst trying to figure out how to get more clients and get things moving again following a quiet spell, I decided to utilise a bit more the business social networking platform, LinkedIn.
I’ve been on the site for years but not used it to anywhere near its full capacity. I suddenly had the idea of messaging each of my contacts to say hi whilst adding more connections too. Nothing too salesy or pushy, just a genuine ‘hello’, seeing what they were up to, how I could help with that and mentioning what I was doing in the process.
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Of course, some respond, some don’t. Some aren’t really interested in chit-chat or networking, others are just out to push their own agendas. Simon was one of the people who got back to me in the spirit of my opening message and took the time to let me know what he was doing and some of his vision for the future. He included that he had previously taken part in this EYE programme (as a New Entrepreneur or NE) and for me to look into it as it may just fit well in my pursuits.
I wouldn’t say this is the best (or only) strategy to get clients or to make things happen but it can’t do much harm in conjunction with other methods. You never know where it may lead (and this applies to ALL social networks as well as offline), and it starts the connection process which often will go nowhere, but sometimes… sometimes it could even change the course of your life. And you never know where and when some of these people may reappear down the line.
I wrote an article for Simon and John to see if our styles fitted and I’m pleased to say that I found out then, and even more so since arriving that our ethos and world views have huge similarities.
Entering the Fray
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So, safely over to the Canaries on the ‘flying fun bus’ from Bristol, there wasn’t much time to rest on my laurels and I got straight into the action, hitting the ground running (and any other clichés you can fit into a sentence). A few excursions and some articles for the Pearly Grey hotel before my feet hit the ground.
I met up with the cricketing and rugby legend (we’ll see about that) from South Africa, Mr John Beckley, who is my Host Entrepreneur (HE) and is also on the same page in terms of how life should be lived and work produced.
I’ve also met up with some other members of the team, not least the delightful Juliane Nendel, our resident life coach extraordinaire who keeps us all in balance (it’s key apparently). I’m also in amongst a couple of videos already… there’s no hiding around here.
To the Future!
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For me – and for everyone here – this is about more than an Erasmus programme. For a start, that may come to an abrupt end for me due to Brexit (which affects all people on the programme going to or from the UK… although there looks like there will be some extension on that score either way) but I intend to do 5 months of this programme.
However that pans out, I intend to stay for the foreseeable future and we’re looking to expand our efforts to take us all forward individually and as a team. There will be the Canary Island element where we’re the go to people locally for social media and related activities… then more internet based work that we can spread across the globe.
Something worth mentioning is the Green aspect, social responsibility and positive message we want to be known for and help spread. These are areas that more and more people are interested in and we will be at the forefront of this movement.
We may ruffle a few feathers along the way, we may do things a little differently… we may even have a few laughs in the process.
Sounds good to me… do join us for the ride!
~ Adam
P.S. I also wrote another post on my own blog, similar in nature with a few twists, so check that out too!
And feel free to get in contact if you ever need a copywriter or just to follow along:
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