How did I get myself into this situation?
Picture the scene. I am on the 0930 train from Norwich to London to give a presentation to the good and the great of the UK marketing world with less than 24 hours notice. To be fair, I knew we had a show to go to and that I would probably be required to say a few words, but in the true style of ‘Dangerous’ otherwise known as my business partner Paul Sheehy, he let me know at the last possible moment that I was to be the main speaker, and he was just there to rescue me if needed.
It’s true that for a moment I forgot the milk of human kindness and thought he must be getting his own back for all those times I took the rise out of him regarding the rugby. But like a good soldier, I did my duty and put together a script only to find that I had missed the target by pitching it wrong. So the night before I had to forgo the white wine chilling in the fridge and concentrate on the job in hand. At 2200 I got my head down safe in the knowledge that I had put together a reasonable presentation and that all would be well as long as I found time to learn what I had written before the hour.
Confidence was high as I pulled into the station, other than the fact that I found out Paul had not been able to download the slides I had sent him to look over. In the words of Homer, doh! (that’s Homer Simpson, not the poet in case of any confusion…)
Anywho, I got to the venue and sat down to listen to the speaker before our presentation. He just happened to be from Google and just happened to cover all the bits that we were going to do. Oh joy. Still, I thought, my rock is sitting across the way and he will make me feel so much better. He will say: ’Don’t worry Chris, all will be fine. This is in the bag.’ Instead I caught him sending a picture of the unforgiving-looking audience to his better half, with the caption relating to defecation!
Now confidence really was high!
Not to worry. The presentation was a good one and the team pulled it off. A senior marketing man from Google even described us as a quirky duo and congratulated us on our presentation. We left at that point… knowing when to quit is a gift!
