Battle Scars

some of the lessons from my own entrepreneurial endeavours

Battle Scars

Looking for the light switch

At 15, I started going off the rails: month-long detentions; school suspensions; brushes with the police. Going into my final year of school, things weren’t looking great. My parents were exasperated. But then, something changed - almost overnight. I never became a model student, but I suddenly seemed to

Battle Scars

The ugly stuff is part of the package

Why the edit can't - and shouldn't - save you.

Future of Learning

The Mailroom 2.0

Working in the mailroom is often seen as being at the bottom of the ladder. But as CEO of my first company I was desperate for it. Sitting alone in the office on a Thursday evening or a Saturday afternoon, I knew that grinding it out in the mailroom would

Mind The Gap

The repercussions of a club night introduction

On the wishlist of guests for third season of the Tickets [www.howardgray.net/tag/tickets] podcast was someone I’d not spoken with for years. While I didn’t have his email address or phone number, we did have a LinkedIn connection and he seemed to be fairly active

Slices of Life

Going pro at Euro 2020

I don’t raise my voice very often, but the other day I yelled at someone relentlessly. He was involved in a football match you may have heard about. I feel embarrassed thinking about it again. His name is Bjorn. His own team were already knocked out of the tournament,

A trip to Barcelona, and the hint I didn't take

In 2008 I was working at a digital agency in London. A digital agency creates stuff for brands – usually campaigns, sometimes websites and products too. But all of it digital. I found the work pretty interesting, but what I was really enchanted by was travel and festivals. There was one

Battle Scars

Do you remember your first 10?

Every business starts somewhere. There are very few that got off the ground with hundreds or thousands of customers rather than ten, one, or none. The first ten are a huge deal for a bunch of reasons. They validate the business and the founders’ reason for starting up. They inform

The Tension

Zenith & Nadir

When I was a talent agent, there’d be a couple of times a year where a client would hit a deep dip straight after a tour. After the zenith, came the nadir. I never really understood it – until last week. I spent the week flat-out on an intense project.

Mind The Gap

When you see…

There are some things that once you see, you just can’t un-see. Your view of the world changes. However, you can’t just see these things. You have to be personally exposed to them through more than just seeing before you can really see them. And it’s important

Music, Media & Entertainment

Orbiting the Orbit: On Tour Again

Still one of my favourite tripped out deep house tracks, and a game-changer for the 17-year-old me. The Second-Hand Satellites.A couple of months ago the Webster Hall music venue reopened in New York City. As a relatively new arrival to the city, I’m not an expert on the

Mind The Gap

Fear, Envy, and Contempt

These are three powerful feelings. They show up in many areas of our lives. Here are a few examples. Finding a job Fear of being an imposter. Envy at the ones already getting hired. Contempt for having to grind through a job selection process. Aiming for a promotion Fear of

From Zero

No Reply = No Interest?

Next week marks the 31st edition of my monthly email newsletter which I started in late 2015. As you’ve probably noticed, I haven’t really kept up my end of the bargain. In the early days I sometimes let two, three or even four months pass without a newsletter

Coaching

Book Request: The Coaches

Note: this is an idea I am getting rid of [https://www.howardgray.net/2019/05/10/why-we-need-to-get-rid-of-ideas/] (for the foreseeable at least) Coaching has exploded in popularity over the past decade. Starting in the world of sports, before being embraced by senior executives in the business world, coaching is

Battle Scars

Empty Tank

On June 1st 2015 I broke out alone again. This month marks the end of the fourth year as an independent. It also marks the very first time the tank has been empty. There’s not enough left in the tank and the pipes to give the engine what it

Battle Scars

Battle Scars

Every battle is different, as is each person’s experience of it. Every battle leaves its scars. Sometimes the scars are visible, other times they’re not. The battle may be oppression, or harassment, or abuse. A battle of love, or loss. It may be about moving up or moving

Battle Scars

Getting to grips with my Inner Critic

The inner critic is something we all hear from time to time. During a recent coaching session with one of my coaching program peers, the topic of the inner critic came up. We agreed that it could be an interesting exercise for me to explore in more detail who this

Battle Scars

Avicii: True Stories: A tale of tragedy, excess, indifference, and home truths

Originally released in 2017, the documentary film ‘Avicii: True Stories’, charting the career and personal life of Swedish DJ and music producer Tim Bergling aka Avicii, reappeared just before Christmas 2018 after a few months off screens following his death. For me its return to screens was timely. In the

Coaching

Diving Deep as a Coach

Moving towards something transformational beneath the surface. The time between 15 and 17 years old were not my finest. I got suspended from school 3 times, dyed my hair some terrible colours, got in (minor) trouble with the police, probably aged my parents by 10 years and was generally pretty

Battle Scars

7 things I learnt in 2018

As the calendar rolls deeper into December people often like to say ‘I’ve learned a lot this year‘. Whilst probably true, we don’t often think about exactly what we’re we referring to. Here are a few of the things I’ve noticed in myself this year. Note:

Future Of Work

Demo Night

Taking my career building project Fondo out of the studio for the first time. New York City’s Canal Street is one of the main arteries in Downtown Manhattan (and until the 18th century was an actual canal). Cutting west to east, in its centre it splits the main parts

The Tension

The Quick No

I once had a meeting at a prestigious London address. You probably know the kind of place – an immaculate 4 storey Georgian townhouse where even the flowers outside are imposing. After waiting 10 minutes or so in the reception area, I went in for my meeting. It was one of

From Zero

Shipping, Unshipping and the Creative Handbrake

It’s now happened more times than I care to remember. That feeling. The shame. Frustration. Even self-loathing. The impotence of not shipping it. Not publishing, saving as draft, ignoring, deleting. Holding it back, adding something else, flip-flopping. The voice of the inner critic who’s seen all those other

Mind The Gap

Origins, Beliefs and Declarations

A few weeks ago my friend Michelle featured me in her weekly newsletter that goes out to a community of execs in the music and entertainment industry. My piece in the newsletter was very simple as she asked me to give her just 3 things; * The reason why I started

Stage Left

Credit to the Edit

How editing got me hooked on movies, and why it’s such an important and underrated skill to develop whatever your industry or interests. One Saturday morning in the early 1990s I was sat in my local library in a small town in the south west of England. I was

Battle Scars

Your customer list is worth nothing

A few years ago I heard a prominent figure was leaving one of my company’s big competitors. He wasn’t leaving amicably. There had been tension for a while. Furthermore, he wasn’t leaving the industry for something new – he would become a competitor to his now former employer.