Where’s all the climate stuff?

Over the past couple of months, I’ve been banging on about new programs and products that I’m offering, all very focused on solo self-employed creatives.

And a few of you have asked what happened to all the climate stuff I was previously banging on about.

(For new subscribers, the content of these emails was pretty different a year ago – the full archive is here if you’re interested).

I love that I’m being challenged about this – the state of the climate was one of the big factors that ejected me out of agency life and drove me to starting this mailing list… and although it may not seem obvious, it’s also a significant factor in the products I offer today.

I just didn’t know what those products were going to be a year ago.

For example, exactly one year ago today I sent an email with the subject line “Your climate policy is a marketing tool” and in it, mentioned a number of climate-smart resources that I’d mentioned a few times in previous emails.

The motivation at the time was to start sharing what I thought businesses needed to be doing to step up as climate leaders, particularly service-based businesses (I had noticed a lot of guidance for product-based businesses, but very little for services).

The ideas weren’t specific. Sometimes it was for soloists, sometimes big corps, communities, schools… I was just gathering (what I thought were) useful ideas and collating them here.

As my focus slowly sharpened and I realised the folks I could best serve were the ones whose shoes I’d walked in before, I gradually started talking more about their day-to-day, and did less clubbing-over-the-head with my climate should-do’s.

However, that climate focus has informed almost every component of every offer I’ve created.

I’ll bore you with the details another day, but one of the major influences has been waste – specifically, reducing as much as possible.

When I guide someone to build a new productised offer, the goal is to keep that thing as lean as possible. Waste comes in so many forms, and none of it is good for us or the planet.

It’s not necessarily the big flashing banner I was waving a year ago, but it is very much in the fabric of everything that comes out of this little lab. It has to be. There’s a point where you can’t unsee the damage, and the only thing you can think to do is minimise as much of it as possible.

Thanks to those who’ve asked – never let me slack off on this 🙏