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Just over 3 years ago my wife and I got the fabulous news that her sister Colleen had gone in to labour.

We were living in London at the time, so the anxious wait to see what Colleen and her husband Josh had produced – boy or girl – was exacerbated by the 8 hour time difference.

Colleen and Josh’s Miracle

When the phone eventually rang, we found out that there were complications.

Colleen had given birth to a beautiful baby girl they had called Julia, but Julia had inhaled meconium and had been rushed to Children’s  Hospital in Seattle to be hooked up to an ECMO machine, a piece of (very expensive) apparatus that was helps make the heart and lungs work when using a ventilator has failed.

I won’t dwell on the ensuing 18 days (many more than most patients spend hooked up to the machine) but suffice to say a true miracle happened.

Julia, slowly but surely, started to pull through.

Julia On The Mend

Soon she was off the machine, home and happy after some amazing care from Children’s and of course, her amazing, strong and doting parents.

But one of the side effects of time spent on ECMO can be deafness. And after a few weeks it became clear after extensive testing that Julia was deaf in one ear and she could lose all sense of hearing at any time.

It’s one thing as parents to have been through the trauma of nearly losing your child, but to have your child that was so strong to pull  through run the risk of losing a vital sense completely, was the catalyst for them to seek out specialist help and support.

They found it at HSDC – the Hearing, Speech & Deafness Center – in Seattle.

Julia signing “I Love You!”

Like clockwork once every couple of weeks for one-to-one time during the first couple of years, and every Monday night and the odd weekend since, Julia and family have attended classes and spent time with other children and families who are valiantly learning to live with, and overcome issues associated with the kind of difficulties hearing loss can bring.

But much of that time has been a celebration; a celebration of Julia’s resilience, fabulous personality and the fact that she has NOT had any further hearing loss.

Julia Graduates The HSDC Infant Program Aged 3

A couple of months ago we celebrated her turning 3 and graduating from the HSDC infant program, a proud moment for the whole family.

Julia with my Daughter, Maggie (Such a Fabulous Big Cousin)

So now Colleen and Josh have asked us to give a little back.

So next week we all fun run for HSDC in the Leaping for Literacy fundraising event that the whole family is participating in. Even Maggie (not even 2) is determined to get through the 5K course.

Thanks to the amazing generosity of so many, we’re already two thirds towards our target of $1000, but I think, through the power of social media we could hit that number and then some.

So please, click on this link and pledge some cash to the amazing work that HSDC does to help children like Julia.

Here’s the link again just incase you missed it.

Please donate and help other children with communication disabilities and share Julia’s story as inspiration for others.

Thank You So MUCH!

Occasionally I get asked if I know anyone who might fit a particular role a friend is looking to fill at their company.

Today, that company is Starbucks!

The have a social media job going as Digital &Social Media Specialist based in Chiswick in the UK.

The blurb:

Starbucks has an exciting opportunity for a Digital & Social Media Specialist to help support the growth and success of Starbucks digital activity in the UK. The Digital & Social Media Specialist will build, maintain and activate engaged social communities, help develop and execute digital marketing campaigns, and manage content across the Starbucks web and mobile properties.

They also say it’s a: rare, high profile opportunity for an individual with a clear passion for digital and social. Which I tend to agree with, so if you think you’re a good fit, or you know someone who maybe, apply or ask them to apply online at LinkedIn and let me know you’ve done so.

Knowing the digital guys at the head office in Seattle, rest assured you’ll be in great hands and learn a ton!

Jolly good luck!

Those nice people at Don’t Panic Projects have asked me to a judge for the US search awards that will be handed out at Pubcon in Vegas this October.

I’m joining people like Rand Fishkin (professional crush/swoon), Chris Boggs and Richard Gregory (who I have not seen for donkey’s years)!

Not going to say I’m humbled and honoured etc because I’m English and we don’t do that sort of thing. I will say though, that I’m looking forward to seeing what people submit.

I recently judged the Performance Marketing Awards in the search category and was totally astounded by the ingenuity and attention to detail the shortlisters possessed; so seeing how they measure up to US strategies and tactics will be fascinating.

Read more on the judges and awards here and I’ll keep you posted on how it goes!

Oh and if you’re a search marketer, please share this post so the awards get some more visibility.

It’s been a little over 6 months since I started Delightful Communications and I’ve now managed to collate a healthy dose of client testimonials to add to my site.

Thanks for the kind words to, among others, Faye Sealy from Efesse Business Solutions, Dixon Jones from Majestic SEO and Gina Raebel from go-today for their time in putting their thoughts on my services down in an email.

Really appreciate it and everyone’s continued support.

Here’s to another successful 6!

Finally got around to watching this TED Talk that had been passed to me a few months ago.

“People don’t buy what you do, people buy why you do it.”

Author of the smash hit – Start With Why – I love the way Sinek delivers this talk with a flip chart and handheld mike. Low-tech delivery of a highly charged talk on how too many businesses concentrate on what they do it rather than why they do it.

It jives nicely with a recent post of mine for the Delightful blog on what I call the So What? Factor, where I call out companies for content marketing that cries why? In a similar vein to Sinek’s mantra, I suggest content needs to reflect something useful or that resonates with the reader in themselves. They’re not that interested in what the company has to offer unless it matters to them, so providing some call to action or at least some reason to believe and empathize with what they are saying, means they have the opportunity to stop consumers simply drifting away and the content will not have been a useless effort.

If you can’t see the video, watch it here.

Well that was one of my resolutions blown out of the water wasn’t it?!

I promised myself that I’d be way more scheduled in writing blog posts and getting them up and out, but a month since my last post here is not what I was aiming for, so here’s a quick run down of what’s been going on in my world.

The business is going well. I’ve just written a post on CEOs and social media personal branding. Read it and tell me if you agree (or not) that there’s an opportunity there. Just after Christmas I presented a strategy to a major brand and they loved it. Can’t say who, but it gave them and their PR teams a lot to think about and execute on. I’m really chuffed it seemed to work for them.

Pool at Parker Hotel in Palm Springs

Last week I was in Palm Springs for Covario’s InflectionPoint conference with Dixon Jones and Majestic SEO. It was a fantastic trip (nice to get some sun) and I learned a lot from the brands that were there and the Covario guys who were not in the least bit salesy with their information and case studies. This year is all about “content marketing” was the take away. Mobile is already here and if you’re not playing in that end of the pool, you might end up in a spot of bother, especially if the recession loosens its grip and budgets get more fluid.

Top notch job there from Covario and their CEO Russ Mann.

Paul Springer, Carolyn Everson, Moi & Andrew Sampson

The book launch in London at JWT a few weeks ago went really well. Carolyn Everson from Facebook was there, as was Stephen Fry’s biz partner Andrew Sampson who has done a great deal behind the scenes to help Stephen and his digital presence.

There must have been about 70 people show up and have a little drinky to celebrate Pioneers. Really happy with the turn out and the feedback (especially from students) as to what people thought about the book.

Got some special news to announce in the coming weeks about all that soon as well!

Now I have a few client deadlines out the way, I’ll be concentrating on my presentation next week at SearchFest in Portland.

I’m talking with the simply marvelous Joanna Lord from SEOmoz on Digital Evangelism.

Should be a good sesh. I have the utmost respect for Joanna and her work.

So that’s it in a nutshell.

Maggie remains delightful so I’ll signoff with a recent photo of her posing for the camera and saying CHEEZE!!!!

Have a great rest of your week!

It’s been another very busy week for Delightful Communications. I’ve signed another client up for some social/digital strategy work and training, and delivered a personal branding audit for a major CEO.

The new Pioneers we’ve added are John Winsor from Victors & Spoils (now part of the Havas Group), Angel Chen from WPP’s OgilvyOne, the fabulous Carolyn Everson formerly from MTV and Microsoft and now the head of global marketing solutions at Facebook and Jess Greenwood the former Contagious Magazine writer who is now at R/GA.Book reviews on Amazon US and Amazon UK have been astounding. I think we’ve had about 16 now and nearly all have been 5 Star.

We’ve sold out on the US site and our publishers are upping the ante to make sure people don’t have to wait to get their hands on a copy.

That, plus the launch in London next week should see some additional exposure. I spoke at the Microsoft Trends Council last week, and I have had a number of queries about other speaking opportunities that you can see (if they come off) when I update my professional speaker page.

Stephen Fry on the cover of our Facebook Page

Lastly, we have started a 4 part series of articles for the IAB in the UK starting with this: What content providers can learn from Stephen Fry. They’ve kindly let us talk about some of the Pioneers and the lessons learned and are conducting a Twitter competition along with it too!

Can’t wait to get to England next week to see family, for the book launch and to see clients.

If you’ve not got your copy of the book you can get it here, and if you have it please, please jot down a review on Amazon for us as they all help!

Just 2 weeks until our book launch reception in London. Thrilled JWT have agreed to host it. I remember reading up on their graduate training scheme way back in 1994 and not having a clue where to start filling out the application form.

How things change with the passage of time and a little experience?!

I’m looking forward to spending time with friends and family, as well as shoehorning in a few pints of 6X and other English bitters that I miss quite a bit.

More 5 star reviews keep coming in for the book on Amazon (links here) and we’ve published some more excerpts on Danny Sullivan from Search Engine Land, Gurbaksh Chahal from RadiumOne, Jaron Lanier from Microsoft who is the “Father of Virtual Reality” and Vanessa Fox, formerly from Google, she set up their webmaster tools community and now runs her own consultancy and marketing intelligence software called Nine By Blue from offices in Seattle.

Yesterday I spoke about the book at the Microsoft Trends Council in Redmond. A few senior folks showed up to hear me talk about the lessons learned from the book. Feedback was great. I think they find it valuable to hear what others are saying and doing in digital-land, and I think the historical nature of the book lends itself very well to understanding what might work for businesses in the future.

One potential other lesson they raised was practice. The notion that many of the Pioneers have honed their technical and business expertise over many years through experience. More on that on the Delightful Communications Blog by the end of the week.

Lastly, here’s a “cute” video we shot of Maggie just before Christmas of her dance moves:

Enjoy and you’ll here more from me next week!

We’re already four days into 2013, I’ve just done a five mile run on the shores of Lake Washington and I’m writing this before delving back into some fascinating client work.

The book is going well and we have started releasing excerpts from each of the Pioneers so you can get a flavour of what their chapter is about.

Here are the first four: Thomas Gensemer from Blue State Digital, June Cohen from TED, Denzyl Feigelson from AWAL and Avinash Kaushik from Google.

We’ll update you next week with another four and so on. We hope they spur you on to buy the book and share it with friends and family.

I’ll be travelling with my family to the UK in a couple of weeks as we have our official “Pioneers of Digital” book launch at JWT’s offices in Knightsbridge, plus I have some client meetings.

The other thing is, I have bought a Fitbit pedometer and think it is simply awesome!

The idea is it tracks your steps and keeps you motivated once it’s synced with your computer or iPhone (which I don’t have ;-() It’s all part of my plan to lose 30lbs in the next 6 months. 30lbs sounds a lot but I want a big goal to aim for.

Pretty much my whole US family is travelling to Phoenix for the 1/2 marathon at the start of March so I’m using that as a goal for fitness and weightloss (and so I don’t have to drag quite so much weight around with me).

Check out the Fitbit.com site and see all their different options. I’ve had it since Christmas and it literally doesn’t leave my side!

Happy New Year. Thanks for all the support in 2012. Here’s to a cracking 2013!

It’s been quite a year! Getting laid off, starting my own business and publishing a book that has got great reviews!

The book has been going well according to our publishers and we’re very pleased with all the coverage we have got.

Check this lot out:

USA Today – “Pioneers of Digital makes for compelling reading about fascinating innovators. Their curiosity, passion, drive and enthusiasm for using technology in creative ways to help people connect and interact is both contagious and inspirational.”

Forbes.com – 2012 The First Digital Election

The Huffington Post – Pioneers of Digital: June Cohen and How TED Talks Reached You via Online Video

Publishers Weekly – “If you embrace new media and the spell it has cast over advertising and the world in general, this may be your lucky day. Readers will feel like kids in a digital candy shop.”

ForeWord Reviews – “Springer and Carson have done a commendable job of collecting diverse examples representing a wide array of fascinating applications while drawing general conclusions about digital innovation. “Our aim with this book is to inspire,” write the authors. Most readers will find Pioneers of Digital does exactly that.”

BlogBusinessWorld – “This book will guide you on a digital voyage around the world, across platforms, and many disciplines as you learn from the successes of the true pioneers of digital.”

TopRankBlog – Pioneers of Digital: How Vanessa Fox Helped Google and SEOs Realize They Were a Perfect Match

SmallBizTrends – “Readers interested in social media or seeking interesting business people for professional inspiration will be more that satisfied. Ultimately read Pioneers of Digital to know what it takes to truly stand out in your field.”

Techipedia – Pioneers of Digital: How to be Part of the Next Generation of Internet Entrepreneurs

Contagious Magazine – “The book provides an interesting series of anecdotes focusing on excellent work and success stories along with the lessons that can be learned to have an impact on the digital industry and the wider world.”

If you have read our book, we’d love you to add your thoughts to the other reviews on Amazon US and Amazon UK.

Thanks so much to everyone for your support this year.

Here’s to a fantastic 2013 for everyone!