Little over a year after I wrote Chapter Two, I find myself at the end of another story about to embark on a new journey.

This time it’s quite a big transition I am facing and I will be heading on a whole new adventure.

A Dream

Remind yourself. Nobody built like you, you design yourself.

Not so long ago I was an enthusiastic musician with aspirations of dominating the music industry as a world renowned DJ/Producer. My DJ career however took a nose dive when I attended Music Academy and I couldn’t afford to buy a home computer, so I sold my DJ setup to fund my first mac. What I would soon realise, is that I made the wrong decision, as I was a damn good UK Garage DJ (If you remember Upfront 99.3FM you’ll smile at the good old days).

At University, I understood quickly the importance for networks. Universities are made up of hundreds of small groups of networks and generally the people who can operate in and out of multiple networks are considered the most powerful students; as they can influence the most people.

Ignorant Shit

Having opened my eyes to the possibilities in student business and then setting up my own ventures at University, I quickly changed my direction from being a creative musician to acting in the business side of the entertainment scene. It wasn’t long after finishing my higher education I realised that being just another enterprising student with ambition wasn’t gonna cut it.

I graduated from University with a 2:2 in July 2009. My tutors were proud that I had even achieved that, albeit suprised, because honestly, I never showed signs of passing the course.

Real As It Gets

I’m not afraid of dying. I’m afraid of not trying.

I don’t come from money, I live with my mum who raised three kids on benefits, two of which have their own families now and are successful in their own right. My vision is and has always been to become successful so that my mum doesn’t have to worry any more. However, money has NEVER been my motivation.

After speaking with an array of extremely successful individuals over the years, I found that they all sing from the same hymn sheet in terms of seeking fulfilment. Everyone wants to change the world in their own way, and no matter how much money they make, they generally always crave for more, because finding self fulfilment in money is not possible.

Legacy is what it’s all really about. Making an impact that you leave a positive dent that lives on long after you have vacated the scene. This is what entrepreneurs really crave. It’s the feeling that you have built something unique and there is an underlying need for it, a desire from a mass market for what you offer that gives their lives added value. That’s the art of fulfilment.

Can’t Knock The Hustle

I’m a hustler homey, you a customer crony. Got some dirt on my shoulder, could you brush it off for me?

I’ve never had to prove anything to anyone, but always felt like I had to. When the closest people in your life think you’re gonna be a fuck up like the rest of the council estate you live on, it doesn’t do much for the inner self esteem.

I have always tried to help those around me and even with the Industry Spotlight series I did. I documented the stories of 14 great individuals with an attempt to find out more about my network, my audience and myself. It was a lot harder than I thought it would be but I enjoyed seeing the engagement between those I had interviewed and others find inspiration from someone else’s journey.

I taught myself the skills that make me who I am and I am proud that I have ability in a variety of areas.

I learned my craft by staying on the edge of the latest news, researching the key influencers in the industry and surrounding myself with multiple networks of successful people.

I have excelled in what is considered to be a short period of time. I’m not one to frequently shout about achievements in the the social space, but when I do, I make sure it’s loud and clear, so everyone knows.

Onto The Next One…

Baby i’m a boss, i dunno what they do,
I don’t get dropped, I dropped the label,
World can’t hold me, too much ambition,
Always knew it’d be like this when I was in the kitchen

So here I am; climbing the layer cake of shit on my path to fulfilment and where last time I was announcing the start of a new opportunity with a global brand, this time I’m crossing paths to the other side of the fence.

I Made It

He who does not feel me is not real to me. Therefore he doesn’t exist. So poof… vamoose son of a bitch.

I leave this global Football Club to become Chief Digital Officer at a Central London marketing agency (sure you’ll all find out which soon enough). A board level position with all the trimmings and I’m sticking my middle finger up at anyone that ever doubted.

It’s a chance for me to really see what I am capable of, because honestly, I have no idea. I have developed products, hit targets and built winning strategies for the companies I have worked with and it now looks like my time has come to step up to the challenge.

If I flop, then fuck it. It’s all part of the adventure anyway but I go into each venture prepared for anything that gets thrown at me and what I don’t know, I quickly learn.

Outro

And I cant help the poor if I’m one of them
so I got rich and gave back to me thats the win/win..

No, this isn’t where I build my legacy, but I believe I am growing. I have my long term vision and I know I can’t contribute to society in the volume I would like to, but with every step up the ladder I take, I know I am that little bit closer to making a significant impact.

The world that I am changing, is my world. Once I’ve conquered that, I’ll get to the rest of you.

Having spent the best part of the last year as a Digital Marketing Analyst, it’s easy for me to explain all the areas of an analytical role and the importance of understanding your company data.

With Social Media being the only word on every companies’ tongue this millenium, most have looked to Social Media for a remedy in which they will create new and formiddable revenue streams.

For some this has been successful and businesses have tapped into relationships and built engagement with their consumers, however for most, Social Media is still a confusing area and businesses are constantly asking questions as to how they can utilise their Social audience for monetary value.

This is generally when a guru enters the building assisting you with the ultimate formula for success, which is usually something like this:

(Engagement * interactions) / page impressions + retweets √ your mum = an upward rise in fans from Uzbekistan and spam replies to your marketing messages. One word to that… #WINNING

A Marketing Analyst works on the opposite end of the spectrum to those focusing on engagement. Analysis is a research method and is based primarily on creating an understanding of the consumer using aggregated data.

Stereotyped as Star Trek looking, Mathmatical nerds who write algebra on steamy windows; Analysts have long been categorised as zombies who supply business executives with answers as and when they need them. The stereotype couldn’t be further from the truth; on the contrary Analysts do hold all the answers.

Now before you get all buzz word on me; I’m all for Social Media. Social Media is an integral part of the marketing strategy and as an Analyst, Social Media just presents me with an array of platforms that need analysing. Be that as it may, Social Media is not the be all and end all, data is.

Why are Analytics so important?

Well you see those financials you look at wondering if you can afford your all inclusive holiday to Cancun; those financials will only increase if you know who your customer is.

It was an annoying but extremely successful Duncan Bannatyne who quoted; “If I was to give you one piece of advice in business; it’s to know who your customer is.”

It’s not like we can sit down face to face an interrogate every single one of our online customers, asking them:

But you can ask all these kind of questions into your data analytics platform and yes it will spit out the answers you need.

I define myself as a person who asks questions. I may ask way too many at times, pissing people off and causing myself all kinds of bother, but I’m not easily pleased and I don’t like fluff. I need definitive answers and I need those to be backed up with evidence.

Nowdays most digital companies have analytics measuring their products, whether it be a free offering such as Google Analytics or a premium service like Adobe Omniture; companies are interested in measuring.

The problem is that while companies want to measure and know the importance of the data that backs up their campaign strategies; they don’t have specific members of staff who’s jobs are to crunch this data and provide compelling answers to their demanding questions. This forms a common problem as the priority of the business is to raise awareness and push the products, but companies do so with a lack of understanding and insight into who their customer actually is.

I had a meeting recently where I made it clear how important analytics are in digital business. I was even asked, that if I could set up my own team, what would it comprise of. I replied simply; that I would need staff of expertise in development, project management, marketing and strategy, but I would want each of my staff to have a clear understanding of analytics. I would also expect them to use analytics on a regular basis so that the whole team has a clear interpretation of who our consumer is.

I found the below quote in the Havard Business Review under an article titled ‘Competing on Analytics’ and it pretty much sums up this post.

Employees hired for their expertise with numbers or trained to recognize their importance are armed with the best evidence and the best quantitative tools. As a result, they make the best decisions: big and small, every day, over and over and over.”

An Analyst is trained to recognize problems and come up with solutions. An Analyst is responsible for explaining how the customer/consumer uses the product/service, what their experience with it was like and how the business can improve the product/service.

Our analytics tell us stories and if you don’t have an Analyst, it is imperative that you have people who know how to read data, because if you don’t use analytics to answer the fundamental questions surrounding your products; how can you truly know who your customer is?

In the past few months i’ve changed a lot and my outlook on both projects i am/was involved in has also changed. This is due to a flip in career direction and also meeting someone who has made a large impact on my life. Now im feeling good about things, but im questioning my reasoning for all this in the first place.

I’ve written on Urban Music on my previous Music Blog and transferred the learnings to this site where my career is in football as a Digital Analyst (It’s ironic that my job is to be the guy that thinks too much and explains the what, where, why and how).

My other persona lives on a gaming site named The Urban Gamer, again created to use influences from Urban Music merged with Video Games. There isn’t really a huge business model here, just playing games and writing about them. My team are brilliant though! Big up the UG crew!

As for this site, i’m currently brainstorming to figure out a niche area to focus on. Im buggered if im gonna continue on this path scouring the net for Digital recycled content to put my own thoughts on like a bootleg version of Mashable.

Thinking back, one of the first posts i wrote for this site was about the benefits of a Performance Appraisal.

This is a key exert from that post:

The 4 main reasons for Appraisal are:

Motivation and Satisfaction – Performance appraisal can have a profound effect on levels of employee motivation and satisfaction – for better as well as for worse.

Training and Development – Performance appraisal offers an excellent opportunity – perhaps the best that will ever occur – for a supervisor and subordinate to recognize and agree upon individual training and development needs.

Recruitment and Induction – Appraisal data can be used to monitor the success of the organization’s recruitment and induction practices.

Evaluation – At its most basic level, performance appraisal is the process of examining and evaluating the performance of an individual.

So within these four values, i was set a specific set of questions on how to construct this task.

- What is my Ultimate Vision?
- Why am I Doing This?
- 3 areas to strive for?
- Define a set of goals that i want to achieve.

It’s been over six months since that post and somewhere along the journey of being an unemployed depressed bum to an entrepreneurial freelancing mastermind to an employed Digital Whiz Kid, i have let go of the fundamentals.

I’m going back to basics and back to the drawing board to figure out where i went wrong/right.

I’ll be back soon chappies! In the mean time, you can follow me on twitter.com/iamluca if you aren’t already.

Love!

In my last post i wrote something very personal; as i am currently going through a transition period in my journey to find self fulfillment.

Tony Robbin’s is one of the world’s most famous public speakers, first brought to my attention by my former mentor Andrew Davis. I have watched this video over and over, and some of the quotes he uses are remarkable.

Take eight mins to understand how he identifies having Clarity and Purpose in life.

“Clarity is power, you gotta know the specific result you are after. What do you want. If you can’t answer that question right now, in your personal life, in your body, in your relationships, in your finances, in your spirituality, then you’re not gonna be as fulfilled as you want to be.”

The quote above; while lengthy, is brilliant. Tony Robbins talks real sense and most of our days fly by us without us taking a moment to really understand where we are heading, what we want to achieve and how we are getting there.

“Life will pay any price you ask of it.”