AGILE STORYTELLING

You don’t need to write a finished book to

have a story worth telling

By Graham D Brown, Chief Storyteller Pikkal & Co

A short executive summary and extension of the key Agile

Storytelling messages found in The Human Communication
Playbook, written by Graham Brown
FIND YOUR START

Dear Storyteller,

After 1000 podcast episodes published, I have one piece of advice to

share with you.

Forget about finding your “why”.

Focus on finding your “start”

Yours,

Graham
WHAT IS AGILE STORYTELLING?

Agile Storytelling is a technique to develop and evolve a narrative

that positions you as a thought leader and authority without having
either a perfect game plan or all the answers in advance.

In my case, I achieve this with podcasting. Business Leaders like

McKinsey and IBM seek my podcast agency Pikkal & Co out to help
them create award winning conversations. This was never the plan, it
evolved.

Most business leaders come to me with an idea. It’s never a complete

game plan. They want to elevate their profile; they want to build a
tribe of fans; they want to get their thoughts out into what is a very
noisy media marketplace.

What are the options to build thought leadership today?

- Twitter: the noisy social media firehose

- Linkedin: great for business but it’s very hard to build an asset
when your posts last for a maximum of 2 or 3 days
- Blogs: nobody has time to read them anymore and it’s becoming
harder to get discovered
- Books: not enough time to read them and it could take you
months or years to finally publish
- Events/Webinars: a good start but, again, it’s very noisy and
there is no past-event discoverability of your ideas. Many
speakers will invest hours in a single event to get a handful of
business cards.

That’s why I developed Agile Storytelling as a strategy both for

myself and our clients.
Here is an outline of what Agile Storytelling is:

Traditional Agile Storytelling

Storytelling
End goal Establish you as a Establish you as a
thought leader & thought leader &
authority for “X” authority for “X”
Body of work Published Book about Minimum Viable
“X” Podcast about “X”
Your role End to end content Supply the narrative
framework for “X”,
curate “X” related
content and validations
from your conversations
with guests
Contributors You, editor You, podcast guests,
audience
Advantages You don’t need to Marketing baked into the
create a podcast product: build a fan base
around your framework
as you develop the book.
24/7 conversations allow
for global discovery.
Disadvantages High risk – many Time. Requires you be
books sit unpublished open to ideas and
in inboxes. Restricted feedback.
access to book tours
and outlets in
Covid19 world.

“X” is your topic area.

My friend Anthony Russell from Facebook sent me a Whatsapp

message doing the rounds in Australia containing a spoof video that,
to paraphrase, said something like “Whatever you do during this
Pandemic, please, please, please, don’t start a podcast.”
I found it hilarious. Obviously I know that in the Pandemic, podcasts
are one of the few ways people can connect meaningfully, especially
businesses. So now, business is good. But, what was reassuring was
that I was the “X” guy for him, with “X” being podcasts. We get a
good proportion of business from word of mouth simply because
people ask my friends, “you know anyone who knows anything about
podcasts?” and these conversations more often than not come our
way.

But being the “X” guy doesn’t come easily. It took me 2 or 3 years of
constant publishing, as you’ll read in the next section about Asia Tech
Podcast. There were days when I recorded 5,6 or even 7 episodes!
(Yes it was possible with a good system). I remember reading the
story of how Ed Sheeran became one of the most successful artists of
our time. He started out selling CDs from his backpack outside gigs,
town squares and on university campuses. He performed 1000s of
shows in crappy pubs and bars before he filled Wembley Stadium.
This was Agile Storytelling in its essence and we understand the
“how to get to Carnegie Hall” joke that underpins the mythical
“overnight success” of everybody who occupies “X” in our mind.

The started small, without an album/book/podcast.

They practised.

They faced the “moment of truth” regularly (see following chapters).

And they improved.

But, what defines all their success is in the first line. They started.
THE 5 STAGES OF AGILE STORYTELLING

The good news is that you can practise Agile Storytelling

following a simple 5 stage process, each stage representing
the waypoints in your evolving narrative.

IDEATION STAGES 1-2

Step 1 is the starting point where most people get stuck. Everybody
has an idea but getting to steps 2 and 3 are where the idea is born into
the world and faces the “Moment of Truth”.

When podcast clients come to us at Pikkal & Co, they are often at step
1 or 2. They know what they want and want to get started but often
haven’t validated the concept with data. This is our concept of “data
driven conversation”, where we use VoiceDynamics to apply data to
create more effective conversations. I’ll show you to do this in the
following chapters, and in the absence of being able to access our
Voicedx data, you can use a public service like BuzzSumo to fine
tune your narratives.

MINIMUM VIABLE PODCAST STAGES 3-5

Now we are taking your data driven ideas and putting them out into
the wild. Your MVP is a series of 4-6 episodes to validate the strength
of your concepts, identify believers and grow your tribe. See the
following sections on Minimum Viable Podcasts.

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP STAGE 5

Your ultimate goal is to establish Thought Leadership. To be a

Thought Leader you need 3 assets:

1) A Narrative Framework – this is your idea architecture that is

clearly identifiable as yours.

2) Conversation Assets – a body of work that is free and easily

discoverable digitally. This is your MVP and will serve to
indulge the believers and convert awareness into attention and
attention into authority.

3) A Tribe – 100 True Fans will be enough. You are not in the
business of B2C. In B2B, you can achieve great things with
small, highly focused groups of followers.
ASIA TECH PODCAST

“To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is
all.” ― Oscar Wilde

I published 502 episodes. The goal for Asia Tech Podcast was 500,
but there was some unfinished business so I overran. I guess I proved
my point, I can create one of the world’s largest podcasts by volume.

Of course, there was also episode 1, which you can still hear today,
shaky and lacking in direction, but that’s where all podcasts should
start. Your goal isn’t to create 500 but get in the game.

People ask me about the audience numbers, I can’t tell you. A million
or more. Some episodes 10,000+ some 100. I’m less interested in the
audience numbers than the meetings I can get from the podcast.

This Podcast helped me find my first two investors in the Podcast

Agency. I met Tony Fernandes and did business with AirAsia. We
won numerous high profile clients including McKinsey, Xero and the
Singaporean Government. All thanks to the podcast. Your podcast is a
passport to a better world, a world where you create deep connections.

Imagine how 100 Deep Connections could radically transform your

business. Every podcast is a deep connection. Not a coffee meeting
that fades into obscurity but something you create together that stays
forever. My Tony Fernandes will still be online for 10 years or more.
Do it for the connections not the content, the meetings not the media.

When people ask why I got into podcasting, I always answer,

"because there is no better way to create real, authentic connections
with people that matter.”

People will always come and go in your life. Be sure that you tell
them what they meant to you before they go.
In 2012, I sold a business and traveled the world for 4 years with my
family. We went to Fiji, Hawaii, California, New Zealand, Florida,
Cyprus, Fuerteventura, Lanzarote, Andalusia, Okinawa, Thailand and
Japan. I wrote a book about this adventure called “Fire Your Boss,
Sell Your Car, Travel the World”. As much it all looked great on my
Instagram account, I confess that I got bored of lying on tropical
beaches day in day out.

This is the blessing and the curse of being an entrepreneur. It's very
noisy up their inside an entrepreneur's mind. Always thinking.
Always creating. Always solving problems.

If there was a problem that needed solving in our 4 year journey, it

was finding the 2 important questions for me:

Question 1: "What makes me happy?”

Question 2 : "What's the secret to happiness?”

Answer 1:Meeting other people. On those picture postcard islands, I

missed the hustle, I missed the camaraderie of fellow entrepreneurs
and I missed being challenged by those who'd force me to raise my
game. I've met some incredible people podcasting. Create a podcast
for the amazing people you will meet. Your audience is a bonus.

Answer 2: This is simple. Do more of what makes you happy. And if

something makes you happy, design a business that allows you to do
that thing until your end days.

So I started a Podcast, and the Podcast evolved into a business and

that business became a reality.

I didn’t know what that business looked like, but I knew if I started
somewhere I was taken one step towards it. These are difficult “What
if?” questions that manifest in conversations that matter with people
that matter.
“What if we didn’t need to work from an office?”
“What if we could work from a remote tropical island?”

Ask “What if?” and be prepared to watch your world unravel

beautifully.
FACING THE MOMENT OF TRUTH

In the early 2000s, there was a fascinating study about why English
footballers were so poor on the international stage despite having all
the money, facilities and opportunity. The success of the English team
stands in stark contrast to the Spanish who for a decade dominated
both at club and international level.

Anybody who has watched Spanish football at its highest level will
marvel at what they call the “Tika Taka” style of play. The word
comes from Basque “quick” and “light”. At a young age, the
difference between the Spanish Tika Taka agile style of play and
English approach is distinct. Spanish kids play in closed areas like
five-a-side Fussball courts. English play on large full size playing
fields and are encouraged to “hoof it up the field”.

When facing constant pressure to perform, think quick and be agile,

Spanish kids develop faster response and a sharper “footballing brain”
that can instinctively react to a player closing them down. English
kids focus more on running fast, long passes and strength.

Of course many of these stereotypes have eroded over time, but the
truths hold: to get better, you have to face the Moment of Truth.

In Agile Software Development, this is also true. A “Wantrepreneur”

will invest 1000s of hours in building a product, getting it just right
and perfecting the code. An “Entrepreneur”, however, will spend less
time on development and more on validation. Getting a user to open
their wallet and pay for $1 is a significant validation as the difference
between 0 and 1 is bigger than 1 and 1000.

In Storytelling, between you and mastery lies many Moments of

Truth. Unless you face and embrace them, you’ll never get better,
even if you spend 1000s of hours working on it. There is a big
difference between practise and showtime.
My first ever public presentation was cringeworthy, a disaster, but I
had to go through it to get better. My first podcast is wooden and
uninspiring, but I had to get it out of the way to master storytelling.

Instead of deflecting to comfort, embrace the Tika Taka: small, agile

conversations around your core topic. Evolve these conversations. Get
them reflected back on you through the ears and mouths of others.
Test ideas, half-baked concepts and narratives. Keep iterating and
improving your story.

Too often we deflect the Moment of Truth and focus on what’s

comfortable even if that means ineffective.
DATA DRIVEN CONVERSATIONS

So, what do you talk about?

Many podcast hosts start out talking about what’s interesting, then
end up getting swayed by the agendas of who’s available. Availability
Bias derails podcast. What you need is a stronger overarching
narrative. This is what we help clients with at our podcast agency
when we conduct Content Mapping & Performance Reviews.

Hosts need guidance and the best guidance isn’t opinion (they have
that already) but data. For this, we use tools like BuzzSumo – a social
listening tool that takes meta level keywords and tells you what
people are engaging with right now.

Let’s look at 2 examples of how to use BuzzSumo. Firstly, for AI and

secondly for Venture Capital related storytelling.

My “Be More Human” podcast is about AI, Leadership and

Storytelling. These are what is interesting to me, what we need to do
is map that on to what’s interesting to the audience.

If you enter “AI” into BuzzSumo it will return articles which have
evergreen popularity. The most popular is

"Deepfakes Are Going To Wreak Havoc On Society. We Are Not

Prepared.”

It’s an article by Forbes contributor Rob Toews with 791,000

engagements on Facebook and 31,000 on Reddit (the latter being
more valuable).

Here are 5 more key talking points lifted from articles with high
engagement levels:

1) "Pro-Trump media outlet" 164,000 engagements on Facebook

2) “Vote Leave AI firm” 102,000
 3) “Pentagon” 92,000
4) “South Korea Coronavirus” 82,000
5) “AI, Antibiotic” 72,000

From this data you can map my meta messages with the key talking
points of the public. Rather than just talk about AI, I need to talk more
about these subjects. This is what people need leadership on.

In the Venture Capital search, here are some examples:

Deliveroo was the poster child for venture capitalism. It's not looking
so good now | James Ball (The Guardian)
This post alone got 7,000 shares on Facebook and 1200 on Twitter

Here are some more:

- Why venture capital doesn’t build the things we really

need (Technology Review)
- Layoffs Tracker - Layoffs.fyi
- What the Lean Startup Method Gets Right and Wrong (HBR)
- How the VC Pitch Process Is Failing Female
Entrepreneurs (HBR)
- 11 Female CEOs and Founders on What It’s Really Like to
Have a Baby While Running Your Company (Fortune)
- 15 Success Secrets From Female Founders With $1 Billion
Companies (Entrepreneur)
- Underfunded female demographic is launching the most start-
ups in US (CNBC)
- Is Venture Capital Worth the Risk? (New Yorker)
- Venture firms rush to find ways to support Black founders
and investors (TechCrunch)
- The Rise of Alternative Venture Capital (TechCrunch)

Now, with a little detective work, you can start grouping similar
narratives. In this dataset, there are 2 clear groups emerging that
people are excited and interested to talk about:

1. The Effectiveness of the Venture Capital Model

1. VC doesn’t build things
 2. Layoffs
3. Lean Startup
4. Risk
5. Alternative VC
2. Diversity and Venture Capital
1. VC pitch process and women
2. Motherhood
3. Female founders
4. Funding
5. Black founders

This process is what I call Performance Communication and I believe

it’s an emerging science. It’s not rocket science by any stretch of the
imagination, it’s about mapping your interests with that of the
audience.

A simple Content Map is a 2 column table with your Meta Messages

on the left hand side and audience Key Talking Points on the right.

META MESSAGES KEY TALKING POINTS

Artificial Intelligence Trust: Deepfake

Politics: Pro-Trump media outlet. Vote

Leave AI firm

Government: Pentagon

Public Health: South Korea Coronavirus,

AI Antibiotic

Leadership Etc..

Storytelling Etc…
THE TEFLON MYTH

When I was a kid, I used to stare into space a lot. I obsessed about
space, going to the Moon and its stories. You can see these stories are
still with me today. But as much as space was exciting, it’s also
expensive. So why do we do it?

School books used to try and justify the billions spent on sending
rockets to the Moon through the innovations they brought. “Teflon”
they said. If it wasn’t for the Shuttle, they said, we wouldn’t have
non-stick frying pans. Even as an 8 year old kid, I knew that was
pretty sketchy reasoning.

It’s like when British Mountaineer George Mallory who died

climbing Mount Everest was asked by journalists why he chose to
take on the challenge, he answered, “because it’s there.”

You see, we don’t climb mountains or go to the Moon because there

is some distant economic benefit that translates into our normal
everyday lives. It’s the other way round. We build successful
economies such that we can take on these challenges.

Going to the Moon isn’t a program to bring economic benefit, it’s the
reward.

For me, Asia Tech Podcast wasn’t the means to achieve the end, it
was the end. The means building a business that allowed me to do that
every day.

And that’s how I encourage business leaders to think about their

podcasts. Sometimes when I guest on other people’s podcasts and
they ask me why I do it, I say, “This. I get to talk to you” What could
be more rewarding than that?

How do I know?
I’ll only know for sure when I'm lying on my deathbed, when all the
busy-ness of life has fallen away. It will be the experiences not things
that will give me cheer.

Most of those will be the 3 of us – my family – writing our own story:

- There will be that time we went mountain biking around the

volcanoes of Rotorua in New Zealand.
- There was finding a cheap tapas joint in the backstreets of
Malaga in Spain one afternoon where they served lunch specials
of 3 tapas dishes and a huge glass of red wine for just 8 euros.
- Then that morning my wife and I sat on a wall in Durbar Square,
Kathmandu for 4 hours. We did nothing except watch local
Nepalese get on with their lives. Time disappeared in all the
exotic colors, smells and sights.
- Then there was the day my son and I spent at the waterpark in
Bali, or the waterpark in Mackay Australia… days that lasted
forever
- Then the time we sold all our stuff and traveled the world for 4
years

We still talk about all of these today, not what we bought, job titles,
awards, size of our cars, what others thought of us or the hours we
worked in the office. After all this time, we still talk about the stories
and the conversations we made.

So, are we here to consume or connect?

Create conversations because they are the only thing that lasts.

The best things in life are not things.

YOUR MINIMUM VIABLE PODCAST

“When you have once seen the glow of happiness on the face of a
beloved person, you know that a man can have no vocation but to
awaken that light on the faces surrounding him. In the depth of
winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible
summer.” - Albert Camus

Stories don’t often make sense when you’re living in them and rarely
do you have a clear “mission statement” that guides you in all your
decisions.

There’s too much emphasis these days on “find your why”. Yes, there
needs to be a good “why” behind your business decisions, but often
your personal “why" is only learned in retrospect. I find most
successful business owners never had a “why”, they only had an idea
of what they wanted to change or do better.

Agile Storytelling is finding your start rather than your why, it’s about
embracing being a beginner rather than hiding behind your
expertise. Whatever industry you're in, you gotta keep pushing
yourself mentally, indulge your curiosity and never be afraid of
asking for help.

For the storyteller, and for my podcast clients, I call this the
“Minimum Viable Podcast”.

Your Minimum Viable Podcast should be a 4-6 episode first “series"

helping you get in the game. Often many of the problems hosts think
they will face once momentum builds.

Series 1 (the MVP) you’re validating whether or not you can do this.
You’re validating if you’re interested and interesting. You’re
identifying who in your network will put their hands up and say “I’d
like to get involved”
Series 2 onwards is where the real work begins. Start identifying and
optimising Key Talking Points. Start identifying influencers who can
expand your reach.

For now, create conversations that matter with people that matter.

Your story will evolve as you tell it through the ears and stories of
other people that join you on this adventure. Use your podcast to
address the questions traditional media can’t address. Use your
podcast to refine thought architecture and go deeper. Use your
podcast to join the dots with people who haven’t yet given their tribe
a name.

The comedian Kevin Hart regularly tests new material at small off-
beat comedy clubs to sharpen his game (see Kevin Hart on JRE here
talking about how he validates his material). The feedback he gets
from this more authentic and raw audience connection allows him to
tweak his narrative for the larger stadium gigs later. This is Agile
Storytelling in practise. Constantly testing, constantly iterating,
constantly improving. Keep talking. Good stories stick. You’re going
to through a whole bunch of stories at the wall to see what sticks. And
only other people know what sticks.

You don’t need to have a finished book before you have a story worth
telling.

Start. Evolve. Iterate.

I read an article today that talked about the neuropsychology of

motivation - the key difference between success and failure. But,
success has little to do with motivation. Losers and Winners are often
equally motivated. Motivation is for amateurs.

Stephen King is one of the most successful authors of our time. Every
day he’d wake up, sit in front of the typewriter and type 2000 words,
whether he was feeling love for his work or not, whether he was
feeling energetic or tired, sick or motivated. Most days the paper
ended up trashed in the basket.

Amateurs show up hoping that motivation will get them through. Pros
go to work.

This is the art of practise. If you want to tell amazing stories, you
have to practise. And to get good at practising you need to get over
yourself. Tell your story regularly. Podcasts, webinars, writing, social
media. Consistency builds quality.

And if you’re scared of getting started? Embrace the joy of being a

beginner again. In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities,
but in the expert’s there are few.

When I met Tony Fernandes the 2nd time (when I knew who he was)
I was nervous. I had lived out the scene 100 times in my head in the
days and weeks before we finally flew out to Kuala Lumpur. I
remember sitting in the AirAsia plane as we flew to RedQ, I turned to
look at Bharath (our engineer) and Prarthana (our head of client
services) and there was an intensity. They had their “game faces” on.
Bharath turned to me and said, “it’s just another show”.

If you’re scared, it’s probably a good thing to do. If you’re not scared,
you’re not making a difference. Getting butterflies before hitting
publish or going live is a good sign. It means it could go wrong.
Which means for those you’re connecting with, there is real value in
getting it right.

Getting scared shouldn’t be the cost of your efforts but, ironically, the
reward. Getting scared should be the moniker of a project or a
communication where you exist in Flow. Getting scared never goes
away. You could be the best guitarist, podcaster or public speaker in
the world, and you will always be scared before you go live. Sure,
you develop strategies to cope and to embrace the fear.
When I started out podcasting, I used a USB microphone and my
laptop. 750 episodes later, I've got a lot better. I've built podcast
studios, recorded all over the world and with celebrity guests, but I'm
still learning. That's what I love about this industry. You think you've
mastered it, then somebody shows you a piece of software or
equipment and you're a beginner all over again.

When you get good at being a beginner, you also conquer the fear,
and I can’t begin telling you how liberating that is. What lies between
you and doing something remarkable is fear. Rejection, humiliation,
doubt, pain, loss. Once you embrace fear you also learn that it’s not
fatal.

As Thich Nhat Hanh writes, "When we understand that we cannot be

destroyed, we are liberated from fear."

But you have to start.

LinkedIn Founder Reid Hoffman says that “if you’re not embarrassed
by the first iteration of your product, you shipped too late.”

Too many potential podcast hosts want to be perfect, want a complete

story, want all the answers… and wait until it’s too late.

Find your start and stay curious. Only with the benefit of hindsight
will your story make sense.
FIND YOUR 100 TRUE FANS

One of the biggest mental roadblocks to telling your story is the belief
that you don’t have an audience.

Our stories are hobbled by the idea that we need large audiences to be
worthy. But you are not getting elected. You don’t need to play that
game, being everything to everybody to capture 51% of the vote.
Instead, you can be a Rockstar with only 10% as long as that 10%
“love” rather than “like” you.

Yes, I know “Love” is not commonly used in business, except when

it’s co-opted by social media or McBurgers to sell their product. Real
Love requires commitment. Real Love requires opening up and letting
go. Break down the walls of your heart, break down the walls of your
organization. Stand for something. Communicate that cause. Plant a
flag. Risk rejection. Dare to be vulnerable.

If people “like” your story, you might as well be invisible.

So what if you don’t know who your 100 true fans are?

Plant a flag. "This is what I want to talk about”

Because you step up, others will follow. This is human nature. If you
create conversations that matter people will gather round. In time your
tribe will form and your job is to tighten it.

To find your fans, speak from the heart. Rock stars take risks: Men
wear make-up, women flaunt their sexuality. Rock Stars crowdsurf
half-naked, held up by the hands of their fans. Rock Stars are
unapologetic, vulnerable and we need them. Boredom is the opposite
of being a Rock Star. Boredom is the opposite beauty and truth. A
mass market, sterilized reality that offends nobody but pleases none.

As the French philosopher Albert Camus remarked, “We expend a

tremendous amount of energy just trying to be normal”
Normal people “don’t get it.” Understand that normal people fail
because they’re just not cut out to do it. Doing anything worthwhile is
a grind. It almost always involves dealing with the rejection of others.
If you’re too normal, you care too much about being just like
everyone else. Once you accept this reality, you are free from the
penury of being “most people.”

For years I've struggled listening to the opinions of "normal people"

when I told them my plan to build a podcast agency:

- "People don't like listen to podcasts"

- "I don't have 20 minutes in the day to listen”
- "Won't work in Asia"
- "Why do you want to do that?"
- "Why don't you do video, instead?"

And I had my doubts, and I looked inside and asked myself if I was
wrong, if this risk had been worth it and I confess at times I thought
of giving up. But look at where we are now. In the post virus era,
podcasts may be the only way businesses can connect authentically
and at scale.

So my advice to all of you grinding out your businesses while

"normal" people doubt your work: Why set yourself on fire to just to
keep others warm? Life is too short to waste on being “normal”. You
only live once, but if done right once is enough.

When you were given the microphone did you find your voice? Did
you step up or did you ask for permission? Did you hold back and edit
your voice to meet the expectations of others? Did you play it safe or
did you play from the heart?

Your 100 True Fans will remember you for this.

You only have one life to give. Give it to those that matter most.
SOMEDAY ISLE

“Live, travel, adventure, bless, and don't be sorry.” ― Jack Kerouac

In the movie “Wall Street”, the hero played by Charlie Sheen is asked
about his long term dreams to which he answers, “I going to make a
bundle of cash before I’m 30, get out of this racket then ride a
motorcycle across China.”

He never went. Like most of us. You can buy a motorbike for a few
hundred bucks. Why don't we go? What holds people back isn't the
actual money required to make it happen, but the story. We hold on to
these backstop because they give us an excuse. According to the
Daily Mail newspaper, 81% of people said that if they won the lottery
they’d travel the world. But you don’t need to win the lottery to travel
the world. You just need to commit.

Fear keeps us trapped on Someday Isle.

Someday I’ll get round to writing that book, starting my podcast,

catching up with my relatives.

Then you're off the hook. It's too late. There will never be a perfect
moment. Everything has a moment of truth. Everybody’s talking
about starting a podcast. Everybody’s waiting to tell their story. But
they’re waiting for the perfect moment to start.

I used to be the cofounder of a successful research business.

Every morning, my business partner and I would race to be the first

into the office at 7am. That was until one of us was away, when the
remaining partner would reach at 9am. Today is my son's 14th
birthday. There are only 3 more birthdays left until he is no longer a
child. And no amount of success of money will bring back birthdays
missed or ruined because I was away, or too busy, or too tired from
work to make the effort.
Let me tell you, 14 years has gone very fast. There are times when I
wish I could go back. I remember the soft, chubby kid I could hold in
my hands or his screams of joy as he chased me around the garden
dressed as a pirate. How I long for those days again when I wasn’t so
busy, so tied up in getting to the next thing in my life.

The arrow of time points only in one direction. Do we put life on hold
until "the virus is over?” There are no medals for suffering.

There are only moments to be cherished while we still have them.

Squeeze those precious memories out of the short time we have.

Every last drop.

INVENT YOUR OWN NEXT CHAPTER

“Everything around you that you call life was made up by people that
were no smarter than you. And you can change it, you can influence
it… Once you learn that, you'll never be the same again” - Steve Jobs

These are the voices in our heads:

“Can I do this?" or "maybe I'm too old" or "maybe I'm too

inexperienced.” "Who am I to step up to the mic?”

This is the "impostor syndrome” that holds us back. But we’re not
impostors. We belong. Culturally, however, we’ve been trained to be
picked:

- In school, we held up our hands if we wanted to say anything.

We waited for the teacher to pick us.
- In work, we held up our hands when we they put out the
recruitment ads. We waited for the HR manager to pick us.
- If you were a band, you got picked by record label A&R guys.
- If you were a startup, you got picked by pitch competitions or
VCs.

You can write an eBook, start a video series on Linkedin or start a

podcast. You don’t need to be the CEO, you don’t need to be an
expert, you don’t need to be famous to lead change in your company.
You just need to step up to the mic, even when nobody gave you
permission.

So when somebody asks, "Who’s Next?" you already know the

answer. The one who’s next is the one who’s not looking around at
the others for a response.

Doing anything worthwhile didn’t start with looking around at others.

Doing anything worthwhile started with somebody stepping up.

Find your voice. You belong.

What did you do the last time you had the chance?

Now you can invent your own next chapter.

Pick yourself.
THE STORY YOU TELL YOURSELF EVERY DAY

Number one, you have to remain calm. Right?

Number two, you have to show no fear because the sharks, you see,
the sharks can sense that fear.

Just as easily as they can sense blood. And so it went for me. Just as I
knew it would. Just as nature had ordained its jaw wide open, row
upon row of these razor sharp teeth glinting underwater like jagged
diamonds, its tailfin sweeping back and forth as it surged in for the
kill.

I swear to God my whole life flashed before my eyes. Really, I had

nothing left to offer except for pure reflex. Pure reflex, and mankind's
basic drive for survival that somehow shouts,

"No, I will not die today!”

- Alex Garland, The Beach

I read The Beach in 1996 soon after its publication and became
obsessed with the idea of a promised land out there somewhere in
Southeast Asia, full of adventures, challenges and wonders. Back then
there was no internet to speak of. We didn’t have mobile phones.
Islands like “Ko Phi Phi” and “Phuket” in Thailand were still
reasonably unspoilt and off the main tourist drag.

I arrived in Jakarta in the summer, and not long after checking into
traveler digs on Jalan Jaksa for $1 a night, I found myself in the
company of fellow travellers. People didn’t have the convenience of
text messaging back then, so everything we found out about the world
was through traveller's tales. You heard rumours of distant islands,
beaches or places nobody had been to before, filtered back through a
“friend of a friend” who had just returned.
Today, we experience everything on Instagram first. Everyone’s seen
the beauty of Palawan, Koh Phangan and Southeast Asia already,
there is no mystery. In the 90s, the only hard information you could
get hold of were “Rough Guides” and “Lonely Planets”. A used copy
of LP could trade for $20 over an evening meal with travellers. I
inherited a copy for Southeast Asia replete with all the footnotes,
stickies and comments from the previous owners.

“Hotel owner is a thief, tried to steal Walkman”

“Surf instructor cute, but ask for Lani as she’s the only who knows
what she’s doing”
“View amazing, make sure you don’t get room with pink walls next
to brothel”

Before Instagram, before mobile and before Yelp, this is how people
communicated and shared evolving stories about our world.

I spent 2 months backpacking across Southeast Asia. We got all the

way out to the Eastern islands of Indonesia (Flores) where few locals
had ever seen a white person before. There were no tour operators.
We negotiated with 2 fishermen to commandeer their vessel and sail
out to the Komodo islands to see the dragons. For 3 days we sailed
around whirlpools and tropical storms, eating fish caught by the crew
to finally anchor off Rinca and Komodo.

Deep down I’ve always yearned for The Beach. The adventure. The
thrill. But, I always thought that was what other people did. I
absorbed a carousel of images and stories from screens and books
only to think this was fantasy or fiction.

Then aged 16, a family friend came by the house after returning from
travels. He was 19, and as is tradition where I grew up, he took a “gap
year” between college and University. He chose to travel around Asia.
He told stories of traveling on minibuses dressed in garlands in the
Philippines, of strange stinky fruits in Singapore and a $100 melon in
Japan. When he left the house, my mind was a maelstrom of
possibility. I was confused and excited.
All these years, adventures were what “others” did. And now,
somebody like me has done something like this?

Now, this too could be my story.

Stories are the most powerful tools known to man.

Stories freed American slaves, sold the iPhone, got tyrants elected and
took us to the Moon. But the most powerful story told is the one you
keep telling yourself every day.

That's the story of who you are and what you do:

- A "Struggling Artist" will always struggle, because that's what

they do.
- A "Boss" will always be the master, the answerer of all
questions, responsible for all ideas and mistakes
- An "Influencer" will live for the expectations of others and die
by their rejection.

Before Roger Bannister broke the 4 minute mile record in 1954, the
world said it was impossible, dangerous even. Yet, in the year
following his record, 4 more runners broke the record.

People don’t believe what you tell them. People sometimes believe
what friends tell them. People always believe that they tell
themselves. A story once believed will either imprison you or set you
free forever.

In my time, I've played with different stories of my own:

- "adventurer"
- "podcaster"
- "lifestyle entrepreneur"
- "traveler"
My favorite story is, however, "storyteller”

There are no rules for telling your own story. But whatever story you
choose, make sure it's your own. As Harley Davidson once
wrote, "When writing the story of your life, don’t let anyone else hold
the pen."

Everything you’ve ever achieved in your life that was momentous or

special can, at some point, be traced back to a story told by somebody
who meant something to you. You might think your story isn’t that
special, but I guarantee it’s already shaping the lives of others.

Have fun with it. We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful
about what we pretend to be.

You are not your job title.

 “And, in the end
The love you take
is equal to the love you make.”
― The Beatles
 ABOUT AUTHOR GRAHAM BROWN

- Published over 1000 Podcast Episodes

- Podcast host of Be More Human Podcast, Asia Tech
Podcast, XL Podcast and Pitchdeck Asia
- Founder of Pikkal & Co – B2B Podcast Agency
- Published author on Communications: titles include “Brand
Love: How to Build a Brand Worth Talking About”, “The
Mobile Youth: Voices of the Mobile Generation”, “Public
Speaking Like a Pro” and “The Asia Matters Report”.
- Education: BA Cog Psy & Artificial Intelligence (University of
Sussex | UK), Entrepreneurship (Harvard Business School |
HBX)
- Founded mobileYouth in 2000, the world’s first youth focused
telecommunications company, growing the company to 35 staff,
with 620 clients in 45 countries and appearing on CNN, CNBC,
BBC TV, in the Financial Times, The Guardian and Wall Street
Journal. Graham spoke at Mobile World Congress and at the
UN. mobileYouth shaped the communications strategy of
clients such as UNICEF, MTV, The European Commission,
Disney and Monster Energy Drinks
- Moved to Tokyo in 1995 at the end of the Japanese Bubble era
and participated in the rollout of the world’s first consumer
mobile telecommunications internet services (NTT DoCoMo’s
iMode).
- Speaks Japanese, Spanish and English and has been traveling
the world full time with his family since 2012, living in New
Zealand, the UK, the Canary Islands in Spain, Okinawa in the
East China Sea, Japan and Singapore.
- Ironman Triathlon finisher
- www.GrahamDBrown.com

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