What do you have to do to win an award as “Digital Person of the Year". When I came across Joe Purves’ profile on LinkedIn, which included mention that he was a winner of the AMY Award for "Digital Person of the Year" for 2017-18 it piqued my curiosity.

It sparked a conversation that ended up with me interviewing Joe for the Authority Accelerator podcast.

Joe’s profile describes him as ‘a curious and passionate digital creative professional, specialising in Responsive Websites, iOS Apps, Android Apps, TV Apps and Creative Campaigns’.

While he certainly is that, after our interview I can say that there is a lot more to Joe than ‘digital creative professional’.

I would add to that description, a tireless businessman with a knack for creating and leading teams to do great things. Joe and his team at Digital Media Group (DMG), which has now merged with Geronimo, another leader in digital media, is behind a lot of the apps that Australians use on an everyday basis, CommBank, ABC iview and Stan among others.

And despite his gruelling work schedule, Joe is a prolific networker. If you connect with him on LinkedIn, don’t be surprised if you get messages from him at 1 am. And it probably won’t be sent while he’s sitting up in bed on his smartphone. It will be while he’s on a break before he puts in another hour or two of work.

What we didn’t cover on the interview, but I do know to be true, are that Joe likes clean air, crayons, Photoshop and carrot juice with ginger. I’m with him on all of those except Photoshop (It does great things but I’d rather someone else drive it than me).

And Joe dislikes cold weather and Comic Sans. We agree on both of those!

I hope you enjoy the episode. Here’s a taste test of what we cover...

Bringing the right team on board to merge the business

The growth of Joe’s business and the surprise he had with how quickly and big they have grown

Joe delves into detail about how he was involved in mobiles before smart phones came out

The frustrations of working for mobiles before they became smartphones

Joe explains how he grew his team of 12

The different roles Joe played within his business and the importance of mentoring

Joe explains how he has never been a control freak but rather a collaborator

Joe’s true passion is in creation and design

The importance of having a strong client relationship and some examples of Joe’s clients

The product that will help change the world

The different industries that Joe’s client are

The agile and collaborative way Joe and his team work

Harmonising the business goals with user needs

Geronimo is designed for the people therefore they can span across different industries

The importance of a project manager within the business

When you isolate the client that’s when issues start to happen, have the client join you on the journey

How Joe copes with the volume of projects

Joe explains the importance of making sure they’re happy, healthy and connected

The challenge in building the right team

Flexible workplace

The ridiculous hours Joe has been working and his strategy for weaning those hours down

Why you have to see an app as a business

Joe Purves on winning ‘digital person of the year’

Joe’s motto is to design with purpose

Useful Links: 

Joe Purves LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/digitaldesigner/ 

Digital Media Global Website - https://www.dmg.com.au/ 

Help Me Leverage Useful Links: 

Brett Jarman on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/brettjarman/

Help Me Leverage Website  - https://helpmeleverage.com/

Brett Jarman on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/brettjarman/

Brett Jarman on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/BrettJarmanDotCom/ 

Brett Jarman on Twitter - https://twitter.com/Brett_Jarman 

Brett Jarman Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3lnriUQ1A9a3RaDbwnRCEg 

Experts On Air Website - https://expertsonair.fm/ 

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