The Fink Tank

Lehmo repeated himself SIX TIMES in 12 minutes.

Here’s why that was great.

Lehmo and Sam Lane had me and Tony as guests on their show Summer Grandstand on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). We were there to talk about our new film Ange & The Boss.

Expertly guided, we shared the funny and interesting stories in (and about) our film, AND immediately sold lots of tickets to an eventual sellout premiere at the Astor!

We left the segment with all the warm fuzzies. In this Fink Tank Col and I chat about what made it a great experience.

Lehmo and Sam did these three things, in this order:

1. Elevate others (us!)

2. Build audience rapport

3. Repeat important details

Because they’d done such a great job of getting the best out of us, Lehmo repeating the session details SIX TIMES felt like a favour to the audience, not a distraction or intrusion.

And it worked. We sold heaps of tickets!

We left knowing we’d been in the company of true experts, even though they did nothing to talk themselves up. Their mastery did all the heavy lifting.

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If you’d like to see our film Ange & The Boss, there’s a couple of opportunities left this year.

Wednesday 4 December - Astor Theatre

This is a South Melbourne Hellas club night (the subject of our film!), and is sure to have amazing energy.

Thursday 5 December

7:45pm

Thornbury Picture House

SOLD OUT

Saturday 21 December

4pm

Thornbury Picture House

18 seats left

Dermot Crowley once posted a blog which got exactly zero likes or responses.

Months later, it started a conversation that landed a huge contract.

Someone read it, resonated with the message, then did absolutely nothing. On visible metrics the blog scored a fat zero. Then, after a chance real-life encounter in a lift, it delivered on THE metric. Money.

Most of us face some version of this dilemma:

- Content that grows your following is less likely to bring in business.

- Content that appeals to paying customers will likely reach fewer eyeballs.

There’s usually an inverse relationship between popularity and monetisation.

Alex M H Smith wrote about this last week (after we recorded this episode) with a sexy graph that neatly illustrates this idea. He makes the dubious claim of having limited growth himself AND HAS 96K FOLLOWERS, but we'll chalk that up to the English sense of humour. His stuff is great. https://lnkd.in/g-Tjwh3E

For those of us an order of magnitude behind, it’s helpful to be clear about what you want. What are your measures of success?

Col and I aren’t empirical about what we’re looking for, and we’re not crunching big numbers. There's no fancy sales funnel. We like having a laugh and prompting conversation between ourselves and others. We like making friends we might one day meet.

Sure we'd like a bigger audience. Who wouldn't?? But we don’t mind if the link between The Fink Tank and paying clients is indirect. Building relationships with stories and sibling silliness is fun. And the inbound leads are healthy.

Do you know what you’re looking for?

Col is playing for a medal at the Ultimate Frisbee World Championships!!

He JUST sent a message to the Fink Family group chat, they won their quarter final against Germany!!

And he got Most Valuable Player!!! AAARGGHHHH!!

He’s in California playing in the over 40s Grand Masters division, and results have far exceeded expectation!! Of the opportunity to play for a medal, Col just wrote “I did NOT come here thinking we were a snowballs chance in hell of that happening”

How magical!!

A couple of weeks ago we recorded this episode about his aspiration to represent Australia. About what it means to wear the Australian Coat of Arms, to pull on the Green and Gold. About managing the sometimes conflicting goals of wanting to win AND enjoying the journey.

Australian bronze medallistJemima Montag gave an incredible interview at the Paris Olympics. She talked beautifully about the balance between wanting the medal but not needing it, and how nuanced the difference is.

I’m so proud of you Col. Whatever happens in the semi-final later today, you’ve done something truly amazing. And you sound like you are having the time of your life!!

I realised, too late, that I forgot my pants.

The Solicitor General of New Zealand was expecting me in five minutes. I stood outside the Crown Law building with my video gear, sans pants, and wondered:

Is it better to arrive on time with no pants, or to buy emergency pants and arrive late?

I opted for a VERY awkward phone call to let them decide. It wasn't just my reputation on the line, Alicia had brought me in, and I was representing her too.

Five minutes later I was filming a strategy session with thirty of the finest legal minds in the country. Without my pants. And we all had a good laugh.

I learnt a valuable lesson in leadership and handling adversity. And that I need a better system for remembering to bring pants to important public appearances. I once had to borrow Col’s pants while I played guitar at his friend's wedding.

Our film premiere was a wild success!!

Over a THOUSAND people packed the Astor in Melbourne, sold out for the first time in five years.

For our film!! OUR FILM!!

In this rather indulgent Fink Tank, Col plays the role of proud brother AND excited moviegoer.

The film I co-directed and edited, Ange & The Boss, went down an absolute treat, and we couldn't be happier. "It was way better than I thought it would be!" Col generously opined.

Those with siblings will recognise this as praise of the highest order. The Greek Film Festival added six extra screenings on top of the initial two, the maximum allowed. Most sessions sold out, and the momentum and reception has been wonderful.

Tony Wilson, Robert Heath KC and I poured a lot into making this film. To hear audiences genuinely love it has been very gratifying.

We’re very proud of our movie.

A couple of weeks ago, I took Col’s kids to KidZania in Tokyo (while Col was home in Australia!)

KidZania is a place where kids get their own bank accounts, try different jobs, wear uniforms, build things, sell things, interact with each other and other businesses. It’s VERY hands on. What a great way to give kids inspiration and a sense of possiblity in the world of work!

But among the firefighters, retailers, scientists, engineers, chefs, manufacturers, retailers, one thing was notably absent.

There was nowhere to work for yourself.

We can’t be what we can’t see.

Fortunately, Col’s kids can get their inspiration at home.

For a few months about a decade ago, Col was insufferable.

He was always “right”. He dominated most conversations and was constantly trying to impress people. It was exhausting. 

It was also confusing, because that was usually my role! 

In this Friday’s Fink Tank, Col asks what you should do if you’re always right. Because – spoiler alert – you aren’t.

Especially you, smart people. 

Lots of you* SUCK at realising your smug and entitled hot take is A) not as objective or impressive as you think, and B) no fun to be around.

If you suspect this might be you sometimes, feel free to skip to the last fifteen seconds of this episode to hear The Dude from the Big Lebowski give you the appraisal you may need.

*me

Often, my fingers remember how to play a song my brain has forgotten.

If I forget a section of a tune, the best way to remember is to start playing it again from the start, distract my conscious brain from thinking about it, and just let my fingers go about getting it done.

Actively trying to remember is unhelpful, but once my fingers have reloaded it back into my conscious brain, we’re all good. It’s like I get handed a reminder note from the person sitting next to me, except that person is my own hands. 

Mastery is often a confounding pursuit.

In this uncommon episode of The Fink Tank (I barely say a word*!) Col talks us through what he's learned about brains and mastery through his obsession with ultimate frisbee. 

How do you get really good at something, and then perform on the biggest stage?

Why are famous sporting chokes so fascinating?? What can we do to avoid the equivalent in our own professional lives?

I can CLEARLY remember the humiliation of an early public speaking appearance, where I lost not only the access to my knowledge, but also the ability to speak. I had definitely not practised enough.

Have you had a memorable “choke”?

* The main reason being I find it impossible to play guitar and talk at the same time. Can any of my fellow guitar players out there do this??

Col’s family is bottle feeding four sheep, and one of them is the clear favourite.

When Col finds himself deciding which sheep he wants to hang out with, he always chooses the one with the personality, the energy, the “spunk”.

If you’re running your own small business, you need enough clients to make it work. For the clients to choose you, you have to be their favourite. Even better, if you attract them by being you - by showing your energy, your personality, your “spunk” - you stand a much better chance of attracting people you'll like working with, and enjoying the work.

As Jay Acunzo says, you don’t have to be the best, you just have to be enough peoples' favourite.Go you good things.

Col and my relationship was once very fractured. Now it’s one of the most rewarding in our lives. What happened?

Repairing relationships is a critical part of life. We're all flawed humans, and sometimes we get things badly wrong. How good are you at owning your role in a rift?

We kick off this Fink Tank with two minutes of juvenile idiocy, before delving into a story of sibling reconciliation.

Warning: If you enter a puerile childhood idiom as a security question, you may one day have to say the answer out loud to a real person.