Collect interesting people

David Sloly and I met nearly thirty years ago when we both worked in radio. Back in the ‘90s he became an award winning radio producer; I managed a radio studio business.

One good thing about racking up a three-decade long career is the rich diversity of people met, experiences had and lessons learned along the way.

I’ve still got a lot of my old notebooks, records, photos, memorabilia - and in the same way perhaps I like to collect interesting people. After all, when you meet a good one, you want to hang on to them. And David is one of those.

In some ways David and I are similar. Neither of us likes standing still so we learn a lot from one another about venturing into new territories. We both like to master new skills. In other ways, we’ve got our differences: our careers have followed different trajectories. Yet throughout David has remained someone I’ve liked to collaborate with. We wrote two books together: ‘Zoom! The Faster Way To Make Your Business Idea Happen’ and ‘Mash-up! How to Use Your Multiple Skills to Give You an Edge, Make Money and Be Happier’. We travelled to SXSW in Austin Texas to launch our Unplan Your Business idea. And during the first lockdown we reunited for a weekly online conversation called The Unplanners (you can find it on Spotify and YouTube).

And here we are last month on a Monday morning wander through Bath. It was the first time we’d seen each other since before the pandemic. It was so good to catch up over a coffee and stroll in real life. I’m glad I’ve got David in my people collection!