0e046455a379e6dd778bb4ee72240a07.m4a
00:00:00,000 [Music] Hi, it’s Nij here from the Sunday Lunch Project. I’ve decided to
do a little recap of last year and my outlook for what I’m doing for next year. None of this is meant to be a bit of a boast,
00:00:20,640 but it feels, when I wrote it, I felt like I was braggadocious a little bit, so
hopefully it doesn’t come across that way. I just kind of wanted to just
recount and think about what I did over the year, and there’s a number
of different things both from the project management podcast and the
00:00:34,320 writing, etc. So in January, I’d set my goal with project management the
sketches. I’d started writing that in 2016, in the January of 2016, so
obviously it’s taken a while, and I set myself I was going to aim to get it published by the end of June and get it to a stretch goal as I call
00:00:52,240 it for March to try and get something done by then. It didn’t quite go to plan, as you some of you all know, much of the writing I revolved around, getting myself an accept or version through February and March with bits of tweaking here and there, and through that period didn’t get a
00:01:08,160 great deal done on it, but by the end of April, I kind of threw myself
around and I got what I called the first draft done, which was great. Part
of the reason why I didn’t get it done, I was playing around with a new
sort of attention-seeking skill, which is around the Amazon Alexa, and you can
00:01:26,640 create skills, and I decided to start playing with those, and I created a
skill for people to learn there, judo, syllabus. That was done during March and April, and went live in May, which was my second or third skill I’d done, because I did someone project management in 2017.
00:01:45,280 Another reason why I kind of took my foot off the gas during that period was as part of my judo, I entered the European Veterans’ judo
competition in Glasgow, which was an amazing day, a real highlight of my judo career, and the feat, I can’t explain really the feeling of stepping
00:02:05,760 out onto a judo mat with an announcer. You’ve got GBR on your back,
and the announcer saying, “Representing Great Britain Nigel Creaser.”
It kind of still sends a chill down my back. The same month I launched another skill called Plank Timer, that one was to help people do planking,
00:02:23,120 and obviously during June that hot weather and the World Cup friendsy
was brilliant, brilliant love that that June it felt, felt like you were in 96 all
over again for those people old enough to remember that. In August I launched another Alexa skill called the Daily Workout Flash
00:02:43,520 Briefing, where a random exercise programme is given each day for
people using that. And as I mentioned that as well, because my third book was commenced in that month as well in August, because, and
I’ve skipped July, I’m going to go back to July now, because in July it was quite an
00:03:02,960 amazing month as well. I climbed Snowden with my wife, which is a
wonderful day, and obviously we had the hotter weather and the World
Cup friendsy. I managed to attend a Star Wars Convention, and created another skill called Where’s My Drink, which is a bit of a tongue-in-cheek skill,
00:03:21,280 but fun anyway. I started in August doing the Alexa skill for the Daily Flash Workout, as I mentioned before, and that one gave me my idea
for the third book, because it was, it’s a book about being able to help small businesses getting and dipping their toe into the Alexa
00:03:40,400 and the Voice First World, and I’m hoping that will be out later this year.
September, biggest part of that was my wife and I celebrated our 20th
wedding anniversary, which is quite achievement for her to put up with me for this long, and all my repeated jokes. What’s Brown and
00:03:59,200 Sticky? A Stick. The first edit of the project management sketch, which
was completed. So I’d kind of had my draft early on, some mess and a
round real, I suppose, and I got that draft, and I kind of got up my head
where I was getting fed up with it, to be honest, and I wanted to just get it done.
00:04:17,040 I’d sent out a draft version of it to a few close beta readers, as I called them, as friends, more than anything. I also reformatted and added some more content to my previous book when I were a project
manager, and quietly relaunched it in paperback edition as well. To my surprise, I sold a few
00:04:39,520 without doing any promotion of it at all. Another big part of that, though, my eldest daughter started secondary school, and over the summer
appeared to have started the Kevin the teenager transformation, maybe
exaggerating a little bit there, but again, it was a major part of the year. And then in
00:05:01,200 October, that’s when I launched project management sketches on Kindle. All peered by accident, about three weeks earlier than I
planned. I learnt quite a lot through that. Check the date you’ve got in
the pre-ordered date. And I said three pre-orders. Some of the people I knew who they were, so that was brilliant.
00:05:22,800 And that book got launched, having had nearly three years in the
creating. The rest of the month was filled with trying to promote the book and run round, as you will have heard on this, and seen on a number of different channels, maybe. I also, back to my judo, and I fought in the British
00:05:47,520 Masters competition, and achieved a couple of bronze medals in that, which was the ambition that I had when I started in 2012, to be a member of the British Masters judo squad, which I achieved in that
month, which was another big target item and a major achievement for me in the year.
00:06:10,640 Another amazing thing was that the Oswiss du Parcran started, which
Parcran had been passionate about since I got introduced to it a few
years ago, loved doing it, and my seven-year-old and I ran the first one
with great delight and volunteered later in a month having a fantastic time
00:06:29,680 making as much noise as we could to encourage people along. I
launched another Alexa skill in that month, and the first draft of the Alexa book was completed. November was another great month. Project Management sketch is hit number one in the Amazon’s Hot New releases in the Project
00:06:51,200 Management Arena list, which I was shocked at, and it became
available on Apple Books, Google Play, Barnes and Noble, Nobo, Cook, a Kobo, and when I were a project manager, it became available in Waterstones in Great Britain, which again, another milestone, and Project Management, the sketch
00:07:13,440 is paid for backwards released on Amazon. And two Alexa skills I launched as well. In that month, one called Sympathetic Year, and
another one called Where’s That Flipping Elf just in time for Christmas? And then on to December, Project Management sketches became available in Waterstones. I released
00:07:34,320 Project Management, the Notebook on Amazon for a Gagel, and then
to wrap up the year that the the scores and the doors really, the total
sales for the Project Management sketches for the year was 44 copies, a mix of paperback and e-book, and I was astounded that I sold that many, and 12 copies of
00:07:52,960 when I were a project manager or a sold as well, kind of leading back. The mix of formats was a surprise as well. 35 paperbacks and 22
e-books, I’d expected it to be the opposite. Marketplaces around the
world, the US, UK, Germany, Italy, and Spain, although UK was leading with 81%.
00:08:11,600 And I’ll share that I got total book revenue of 63 pounds and eight
pence. I spent a few quid on advertising and proof copies though, so
I’m not placed in order for a yacht yet. I think I can summarize the year on those things when I looked back, I thought,
00:08:33,600 and I’ve had some difficult times, a few health issues, and some into
certainty around a few other things as well. But when I looked back on that, it was a very productive year and a year to remember. And I’m
hoping 2019 is going to continue to be the same. I’ve got a few goals in there. I’ve got
00:08:54,720 project management, the sketches, I’m hoping to push and promote
and get some more sales of that. And part of the method for doing that
is to try and create more content on this channel. And so later in the month, I’ve got an interview, my first proper interview,
00:09:15,280 I’m not going to tell you who it is yet, but it’s a big hiter in the project management conference scene and book writing scene. And I’m hoping
to get one a month for that, so that means I’ll get a bit more regular on this podcast, so you’ll get a better content.
00:09:31,120 I’m going to finish my third book, which will be the Amazon Alexa Small
Business project that I started. And I’m hoping to do that, I don’t know,
published that sometime in March, though again, it’s these things don’t seem to go as smoothly as one would have always expected them to.
00:09:54,480 I’ve got a novel that I’m working on. I’ve had this idea in the back of my
head through the whole of last year and been scribbling notes. And I
want to, by the end of the year, have written the first draft of that, although I did note that when I was scribbling some things down the other day,
00:10:11,280 I was expecting to try and do it by the end of the year and get it
published. And I think that’s a bit ambitious when I look at it with a bit of
less wine in me, I think. And onwards from that, I’ve got a few, the Sunday Lunch Project, a book needs to come out in 2019, 2020, so I need to
00:10:32,800 start working on that as well. I’m hoping to increase my Alexa skills,
coverage and get a few more of those out there. From my due to point
of view, I’ve got a few more competitions to go there. Main team, I’ve got it. And those are the main, main goals I’ve got at the
00:10:51,360 moment and obviously spending as much time as I can with my family
enjoying them growing up and my wife. So that’s it really. Those were
my big goals. I wanted to share this with you. It felt, I wrote the notes
down and it felt like I wanted to share it. As I say, I’m hoping not boasting too much.
00:11:09,920 Just feel quite proud of what’s happened in the year, surprisingly so,
because I’m usually quite down on myself and things like that. So that’s
it really. So I hope you have a great day and I look forward to your
comments on the next podcast and on this one. If anyone is out there and is looking
00:11:31,440 and thinking, yes, I’d like to contribute and help expand the podcast.
I’ve set up the Patreon page. It’s at the usual patreon.com/ and it’s at it’s Sunday lunch PM. The books are still available. Amazon, Cobow, Pavepac, ebook. So please if you are looking for something
00:11:55,600 to put a smile on your face in the dark dingy-genry days, then I couldn’t
recommend it enough, really. So that’s it. That’s night signing off and as I say always, project management is funny. [Music]
00:12:21,440 [BLANK_AUDIO]