So what am I doing here at the Queen Elizabeth Centre in London with a bucket
full of smiley, squishy balls.
We're going to find out this episode of RogVLOG.
I'm down in London for the second Youpreneur Summit.
It's a conference aimed at individual's running businesses based around their
personal brands. Last year I was a guest.
This year. I'm a speaker.
Just walking across Westminster Bridge and there's all these really cool old
cars going past. There must be some sort of cool old car
rally going on in London today.
When I was here last year, I decided I'd love to be on that
Youpreneur stage. So I pitched an idea to the organiser,
Chris Ducker, and he said,
yes,
The Queen Elizabeth Centre is of course right next to Westminster Abbey.
Chris Ducker always puts on phenomenal events,
so I was absolutely delighted to be invited me to speak on his stage this
year.
I don't know who you are. I don't know what you want.
If it's a ransome you're after I can tell you,
I don't have any money. But what would I do have Is a very
particular set of skills. Skills I've acquired over a very long
career. Skills that make me a nightmare for
people like you. Skills like...blogging.
podcasting. Going viral on YouTube.
We're just having a coffee break. So I thought I'd come up on the stage
again and just let you have a look at this amazing stage set.
Amazing. Just look right down there into the
audience. Absolutely colossal.
What a venue.
It's actually also got this live video stage going on here behind me.
So once you've done your main speech on the stage in the auditorium,
they bring you up here, they go live on Facebook,
live and Periscope, live on Instagram and broadcast you out
to the world.
Be upstanding for the incomparable. Roger Edwards.
So I thought I'd find a quiet spot in the conference hall.
And to be honest, it's actually really hard to find a
quiet spot when there are 400 people wandering around.
But I thought I'd tell you a little bit about this new speech I'm doing here at
Youpreneur Summit. It's all about fixing broken marketing.
Marketing is broken. Busted.
Kaput. Except when it's done with integrity.
And the deep, almost obsessive understanding of the
customer. And there are three things that I think
are wrong with marketing. First of all,
it's all about communications these days.
Communications! Communications is a tiny part of what
marketing is all about? Secondly,
it's intrusive. It's annoying.
By a show of hands, guys,
hands up if you have recently unsubscribed from an email list.
And thirdly, it's complicated.
Passive language. Bloated words.
Management speak. And the speech is all about how to fix
those three things. And to explain it,
I told the story of a very interesting character.
And I opened the door and there's really quite large gentleman stood there.
He goes, Hellooo,
Mr Edwards. I'm John the Wineman.
I'm John the Wineman. And what was all of that stuff with the
squishy balls. I want you to imagine that this bucket,
which is full of tennis balls by the way,
is marketing communications. And what happens if I dip my hand into
his bucket and I come over here and I start communicating with my audience.
What's your name? Lee.
If I stand here and carry on, chucking these balls at you,
sorry. Hey.
He's going to get a bit pissed off with me eventually isn't he.
That was the intrusiveness of the marketing.
That was the interruption. That was the annoying marketing?
No, we're not going to be Simon the Spammy
webinar man, are we?
We're going to be John the Wineman. We're going to be...Youpreneurs.
That went rather well.
Couple of things I love most there's John the Wineman.
It's a great story about how to sell well.
If you haven't heard the John the Wineman story,
you've got to hear it. And it also feels like you were in his
living room with John the wine guy. And then there was a moment talking
about segmentation and balls being thrown in the audience.
Unlike some stories that just have no place in a talk.
He hung so much knowledge around it. So much interest,
so much enthusiasm. And I just want to be John the Wineman.
If you're looking for a speaker, Roger's your man.
This is Mr Ducker. Chris,
thank you for inviting me onto a stage. That means a lot.
It was a pleasure to have you. Roger did a phenomenal job.
Was very funny, engaging,
dropped those value bombs, which I knew you would.
And chucked the balls. And you chucked the balls out to the
crowd. I chucked one out as well.
You did as well. Just it was great to have you,
man. It's been great to see your speaking
career unfolded over the last couple of years.
Brilliant. Thank you Chris.
Rock and roll, mate.
This guy! This guy!
What an incredible weekend. How good was Youpreneur?
I'm back in Edinburgh and I've come down to my favourite place,
the harbour at Fisherrow to reflect upon the weekend that's just gone by.
Needless to say, I've been absolutely overwhelmed with
the feedback I've received on my speech. And one piece of feedback in particular
resonated with me. Joanne Sweeney said it was a story of
real human connection in a world that's gone disconnection mad.
So I'd love to take my John, the Wineman story and my bucket and
balls to a wider audience around Europe and maybe even the world.
So if you'd like me to talk at your conference,
please do get in touch. If you enjoyed this episode,
please do subscribe to my YouTube channel.
In the meantime, tell me what's the best conference
you've been to this year?