1. I have a friend who is an exceptional gardener. Bill. We call him that, because that’s his name. He rides around the town. On Boxing Day, he’s the Green Man. He clearly consists of 80% chlorophyll.

   Bill came round to show this insanely naive and disorganised guy what to do with his new garden. “Take the tomatoes out of the greenhouse and put them in a bowl in the kitchen with some red ones. They’ll ripen nicely,” he said. “Oh, and where do I hang the twine to keep the plants staying upright,” said his horticulturally-inept protege.

   “Dave, I want you to do some homework. Cut the grass, trim down those bushes, take those sugarpeas climbing the garage down to a mere stem. They have good properties (I think he said nitrogen or something) to share with the soil. Don’t remove them altogether.”

2. David Parrish – he author of the incredible T-Shirts and Suits book for creative entrepreneurs, the online network of the same name, and a growing business advisory service – and I met at Brew in Bold Street, Liverpool, to chew some fat. We talked about how he could move his business to the next level. His clients were a bit like me; sometimes jumbled in the head, but always full of ideas.

   “Sometimes these people need spoon-feeding and deadlines imposed by me to take action,” said Dave. “I’m thinking maybe I should offer as part of my service a reminder call a couple of weeks after our first consultation. To make sure they’ve done their homework. Most people in this industry seem to enjoy the accountability this places upon them.”

3. Claire Burge, she who you might by now be aware of, ended our first session of 26 (every fortnight to make a perfect year, you see) with a list of things for me to do. Get that ideas journal so I can have a home for my thoughts (and make sure they don’t get lost, wither and die); decide on where ultimately I want The Podcast Guy to go. Lots of big thinking to do. But I’ll do it because Claire made it clear in no uncertain terms that this was my homework to be done.

So often we bury reminders and action plans under the shagpile. It’s easier that way. We falsely assume that if they’re important, they’ll find us again at the moment of urgency.

But nothing could be further from the truth. If we don’t hold ourselves accountable, we forget. And sometimes – when left unrecorded – ideas and plans which could have been our future, are long left in the past, dog-eared and maligned.

As grown-up kids, we all need to realise that homework is a necessity and can be very much a fun thing to do. With the wisdom of the years, we can easily understand how important it is to focus on our own growth and success – something that as small boys and girls, it was so easy to neglect in favour of stuffing down another bag of sherbert lemons or playing another game of tig.

This is good pressure. It takes you from A to B. And I’m sure as heck one of those folks that needs someone babysitting and reminding me of my ultimate vision and goals, if I’m to get there.

How does that sound to you?

And he’s off!

52 weeks to build a better Dave started off nicely. A few ago, Claire from GetOrganised.org (GO) and I got together for a primer session where we quickly identified that I was bound for the world of employment again.

In reality, it was one of those Epiphanies. I realised soon after the meeting – it clearly acted as some kind of catalyst – that I didn’t want to go back to working for The Man again. I was a man, after all. I still am, in fact. And thus if I was going to work for Any Man, then it might as well be me.

A little backstory. I’ve been foraging books and the web for inspiration on finding my niche for a long time. If you stuck a finger in the air and muttered 14 months, you wouldn’t be far wrong.

But I discovered after that defining meeting that, having first worked in hospital radio, and later delivered some great business radio shows for a client, that podcasting was in the runes.

Hence The Podcast Guy was born.

And now… I have Claire to show me the way ahead.

That’s not a heap of pressure on Claire and the Get Organised team. I don’t expect either of them to make my business rock. The ins and outs are for me to figure out. But they play an equally crucial role in getting me organised, focused on my goals and set to execute on all my objectives, now and for the next 363 days.

It sounds an awful long time, but I’ve been untying all the huge potential of having a clean slate 36 years ago ever since. So one year out of time is a miniscule commitment compared to the opportunities it will inevitably provide to me.

Get Organised: Lesson 1 of 52

We kicked off by identifying what it was I was striving for.

And then hit the ground running with a punchy questionnaire to establish the kind of person I am, presumably in order that Claire and the GO posse (I like that) can figure out the best way forward in working with me. Or choose to run away screaming, as though I’m as likely to become organised and focused as Carrie is to be recruited by Arnie to work in his Californian forests next summer.

My results (out of 100) from the quiz showed I’m a drop and hop (predictable) and a last-minute racer. Having worked as a journalist for years, the latter rang true – the notion I thrived on deadlines (and as a failure in the exam stakes, last-minute revising to no avail also proved a harbinger in this regard) was spot on.

Monthly, weekly and daily actions are going to be on the agenda for lesson 2. Claire asked for me to collect my ridiculously high quotient of ideas in a book. I’m calling this book Ridiculous Ruminations since it seems apt. But it has a point – as my mentor explained, the guy who runs/ran (forgot) HostelWorld conjured the theory of a branded credit card about a decade ago, and it’s finally launching next year. Proof that ideas, while not being instantly valid, will win you round in the end.

Now my homework:

• What’s my exit strategy for The Podcast Guy?

It’s my life, moving forward. It exits when I do. I want to provide businesses with a fantastic opportunity to connect with customers new and old, to engage and add value with every relationship struck.  In return, a steady income and the opportunity to travel and work simultaneously is my goal.

• What is the growth plan for The Podcast Guy? How will I scale the business?

It’s a real personal endeavour, this one. I don’t know whether you can train someone to do this. It’s a natural instinct. I hope to find out more about how I can scale the business further down the line. Right now, I’m striving to connect with a range of clients spanning different industries. To inject some awe into customer communities. And then figure out how it all fits together, afterwards.

The last sentence is clearly the old, present me in action. I’m not yet transformed. But we’ve got 51 weeks on the clock, GO and I. It’s truly exciting times at Thackeray Towers, and now I want to hear what you need to switch from manically disorganised to miraculously focused.

Share your thoughts below.

I’ve been wondering how the newspaper titles belonging to Trinity Mirror in the north west of England have been trundling along without the guidance of a head of multimedia.

Thank the heavens and candy cane crosses (it feels apt, somehow, on this most spookiest evenings of the Gregorian calendar, to refer to spiritual elements and objects) for Alison Gow, she of the well-read headlines and deadlines blog and as executive editor, digital, the pretty-much helmsman of the Liverpool Echo and Daily Post. Otherwise I’m fairly confident that the titles – daily and weekly – would share a URL redirect to the Yo! Liverpool community forum.

As a former staffer of Trinity Mirror North West I feel sympathy with the ongoing trials and tribulations in the region. Hamstrung by cuts, journos are frequently forced to cover major stories armed with constantly failing mobile phones that also double up as constantly failing cameras taking constantly atrocious photos on the rare occasion they haven’t failed.

Perhaps the most distressing thing about the enforced decay and degradation of newspapers in the otherwise evolving north west is the stuck-in-2001 website of the Liverpool Echo. Thick with banner ads, too-small font sizes and distractions at every turn, it offers anyone considering a news website an interesting lesson in how to do it right. By not doing so.

Stretched too thinly on the web front, the guys need a hero. A hero like me. Because:

1. I totally understand reader engagement. I know how to cut through the analytics to present a compelling case for change. To create pockets of content that draw in audiences of all ages and intellectual quotients. There’s a huge difference between having these insights at your disposal, and using them.
2. I know how Liverpool (and the Echo) could benefit from hyperlocalisation. There are disenfranchised communities across the city desperate to knit with their neighbours. What is the community newspaper doing to help its constituents in the most caring and effective way possible? Splashing the bad news, moving on. Rinse, repeat. Instead of reaching out, teaching, coaching, creating a space for expression, news circulation – and then harvesting the best content for its own paper and sites.
3. I understand the power of community and how it can inform the online agenda. Community panels, forums – on-line and off- – can not only spearhead change and drive forward newspapers and websites, but also influence the future of newsgathering. It’s critical.
4. I’m all about multimedia. Maybe this is why the role of head of multimedia doesn’t exist any longer (having said that, see the final point, below). Because in reality, there’s no such thing as multimedia here. No podcasts, no video blogs, no opening for readers to share their stories the way stories need to be told. Such an important part of Newspaper 2010 – yet missing in every sense here. Huge opportunity missed.
5. So they can remove the name of the guy who used to be head of multimedia from their credits in the Midweek Visiter. He went to work for Labour before the General Election, yet he still features on the roster. As well as merely fixing that glaring error, having the surname Thackeray gracing the roll of honour definitely lends literary kudos to the whole shebang.

I could go on, I really could. But for what? I just hope the message gets across that the pot of creativity and cravings of newspaper readers today are equally limitless. The boundaries have vanished – noone thinks paper, website any more. The lines haven’t just blurred; paper and site are analogous.

Does your local newspaper make enough effort online?