[00:00:11.110] - Gordon
Hello.

[00:00:11.500] - Taylor
Hello.

[00:00:12.710] - Gordon
My name's Gordon from Drayson Design.

[00:00:14.780] - Taylor
And I'm Taylor from The Creative Tinker.

[00:00:18.050] - Gordon
And welcome to "This Week With Taylor and Gordon," a weekly podcast and vidcast where we talk about things that have affected our businesses as self employed people over the last seven days. And it's a bit longer than seven days. It's been about a month.

[00:00:37.250] - Taylor
It's been a while.

[00:00:37.250] - Gordon
The reason for that is because there was an America trip in the middle. Now, if you watched past episodes, you would have heard that we were going to try and record while we were over there. Problem was we had some issues. So the main issue we had is that I went to a big magic convention in Blackpool. And this magic convention was the weekend before I was going to America. So I was going to go on the Monday and the convention finished on the Sunday. So the plan was to get the train from Blackpool North all the way down to Heathrow, get the plane and go to Vegas with Taylor. And there was a problem because we had storms. I think it was storm Eunice. I think that's the one that caused the problem. And because we were up, because I was up north, sort of just above the Midlands, the weather was really bad up there and my train was cancelled, which meant that I wasn't able to get to Heathrow to fly. Taylor was okay because he was coming from an area that didn't have as much problem with the weather as I did. So he managed to get out there, and my plan was to come out again, find another flight and come out, except for when I got back about two days later, I had a positive COVID test. So this meant that I had to then isolate because we were still in the isolation period, and the plan was then to come out after my isolation period had finished. And, well, that didn't happen either because my isolation period finished on the Monday before Taylor was coming home on the Thursday. So it meant that by the time I'd have arranged everything, I'd have come out on the Tuesday or Wednesday, only to come back on the Thursday, which would have been completely pointless. And I would have missed the Vegas Expo, which is the reason I was coming out there to see the Expo. So I didn't get to go to America.

[00:03:01.250] - Taylor
No, you didn't.

[00:03:03.170] - Gordon
It's very sad.

[00:03:03.170] - Taylor
But it wasn't much fun. Don't worry, you didn't miss much.

[00:03:07.420] - Gordon
You didn't enjoy it at all. Is that what you're telling me?

[00:03:09.640] - Taylor
No. Not at all.

[00:03:12.050] - Gordon
Okay. We should also mention that the reason that we are not in the same room today and we're doing this on Zoom is because Taylor got back just, well, he got back late in fact. He got back a day later than he was supposed to, due to flight issues again. And were I to have been with him and come back a day later, I would have missed a whole day's worth of shows, which would have been terrible. So as it turns out, maybe it was for the best that I didn't come out.

[00:03:43.700] - Taylor
Maybe.

[00:03:43.700] - Gordon
But it also means that he hasn't had a chance to see people. So he's actually visiting someone at the moment while I'm at home. So he has come home. He left last night to go and see this person and he'll be back probably later today or tomorrow. But we didn't want to miss out on getting our podcast and vidcast to you on our Friday. So here we are.

[00:04:11.370] - Taylor
Yeah.

[00:04:13.730] - Gordon
That was quite a long introduction.

[00:04:15.410] - Taylor
It was indeed.

[00:04:15.410] - Gordon
But I think it was necessary because we've not been doing this for three weeks now, I think it is.

[00:04:22.570] - Taylor
Yeah. I mean, we kind of wanted to even if you didn't when we found out you weren't going to make it, we still wanted to record, but we just found that there was so much going on and the time zones were pretty horrific that we kind of realized it's probably best to just leave it and do it when we get back. Although we're still not doing it in person.

[00:04:47.610] - Gordon
Yeah, we're closer than we were before. So we hope that you haven't missed us too much and that you will forgive us for not being with you for the last three weeks. So welcome, welcome to the show. We have a couple of topics and I think I'm going to go first. My topic is creating systems in case you're unable to work. So for me, this was very, sort of, top of my mind when I managed to get Covid. I've managed to steer clear of it for ages. I'm guessing I must have got it in Blackpool. That's the only thing I can think of. And so when I came down and had a positive result, I went and got tested and sure enough, that was positive; so I isolated. Now, a lot of people at the time were isolating and finding that after about five days they were getting a negative. And if they got a negative on the 6th day as well, they could stop isolating, which is what I was hoping because then I could go off and join Taylor in America. That didn't happen for me. I actually ended up isolating for about two weeks.

[00:06:04.990] - Taylor
Wow.

[00:06:04.990] - Gordon
Which is a lot longer than it should have been.

[00:06:08.070] - Gordon
But I kept getting a positive result, and doing my research, it would appear that you can still get a positive result even when you're not contagious anymore and you sort of, you no longer have it. You can still get sort of residue positives. And just to be completely safe for everyone, I decided to continue to isolate. Now, if that was at a time when I had shows booked, which were I not going to America, I would definitely have had, I would have had a big problem because I would have had to find a way to get someone to stand in for me to do my shows because I was unable to make them. And I have a system in place for that. I have a support network of other magicians, and we would have found a way to make sure that all the shows that I had booked were covered in some way. With people, not necessarily the same person, unlikely to be the same person, but with people who were able to sort of step in and do a show, so that we didn't leave any of my customers without an entertainer, because that's not a very professional way of dealing with it at all. And were I to have booked someone to do a job for me and they weren't able to turn up, I would have at least expected them to try and find a replacement. And so because that's what I would expect, that's what I want to do.

[00:07:42.090] - Taylor
Yeah.

[00:07:42.090] - Gordon
As it turns out, I didn't have any shows because I wasn't expecting to be in the country. So if there were ever a good time for me to get Covid, that would have been it. So I got through it all without having too many problems. The other side of that is my Drayson Design customers. Now, if I had deadlines to meet or I had meetings, or there was a particular print job that needed to be printed and sent to the customer for a specific date, and I was unable to work because I was isolating, or I've just been struck down ill, or I have to go to hospital, or... There's so many different situations that could stop me and prevent me from doing things, that you have to have a system in place. Now, one of the systems that we have, as in me and Taylor, is that if either of us have an urgent deadline and we're struggling to meet it for whatever reason, either the job is bigger than the customer was expecting, or we were expecting; or there's been technical reasons why we haven't been able to do the job early enough, then we've both said to each other that if that gets to the point, we will make sure that the job gets done and we will jump in and both work on the project ourselves to make sure that there's sort of two men, or two man hours for every hour there is, to make sure it gets done. So that's a sort of an agreement we have between The Creative Tinker and Drayson Design, which is very good.

[00:09:28.950] - Taylor
Yeah. I mean, I've actually had that situation with one of my friends is, when I got Covid, I can't remember when it was some time last year, and I told a client...

[00:09:43.170] - Gordon
Christmas.

[00:09:43.170] - Taylor
Yeah. And I said, "Look, I'll get this work done, or this page built for this date." And I then fell ill with Covid, like two days before. And it came to like the night before and I was like, "oh my God, you don't have the energy to do it." And I turned to one of my good friends and said, "look, would you be able to do this for me?" And he was more than supportive enough to kind of like, "yeah, just let me know what they need and I'll get it done for you, and sorted." And it was really nice because it makes you realize that you do have that kind of support that you can go to, that if something were to happen that they've got your back. And obviously you don't want to abuse that kind of system where if it was really urgent, he very nicely did it as a thank you for all the work I've helped him with. But it's nice to have that support, really, and know that people will help you out when you're in a sticky situation. It's kind of a way of other people giving back for, especially with a lot of my friends, I help them a lot with a lot of coding things for free because I enjoy it myself, but also because I don't want to charge a friend or it's been my idea to do something. And so what I suggest is way above the scope of what they originally asked for help for, or what they had originally said to the client. But because obviously it's my idea, I'm happy to do that, but it's nice when it goes the other way really.

[00:11:24.570] - Gordon
Yeah. And I think that makes the difference between a professional company that you would want to give your business to, and someone who didn't run it professionally in the way that they didn't have a system in place for that sort of situation. Because when you do work for yourself and you're self-employed, you rely on the hours that you have to work, to be able to earn money. And even though we bring people in to do various other things, I bring Taylor in if I need coding done, I bring someone else in if I want something else done, etc etc. Having the support network to be able to sort of send out an SOS and say, "guys, I wonder if there's any of you who can help me because I've got this job that needs doing. It has to be done by 9 o'clock tomorrow morning who can help?" And knowing that you've got enough people that are there and sort of are willing to help if they've got the time; and making sure that you've got at least somebody who will be able to come in and step in and help out, I think really makes a big difference.

[00:12:42.267] - Taylor
Yeah.

[00:12:42.420] - Gordon
And as you say, you don't want to abuse it, but you know that the people that you are asking to come in to help you, that you would do the same for them.

[00:12:52.310] - Taylor
Yeah, exactly.

[00:12:53.500] - Gordon
And in fact, we probably have at some point done the same for them, which is why we're in a situation where we feel fine bringing them in if we need them to.

[00:13:02.770] - Taylor
Yeah. And another thing is, because of, especially Covid, I've made a lot of online friends. I have friends that live across the other side of the world. And so when I'm sleeping, it's essentially the morning for them. So it's not always ungodly hours that I'm like, "oh, my God, it's 9 o'clock at night, I need this done for 8/9 a.m. in the morning." And I'm asking someone to stay up all night.

[00:13:31.260] - Gordon
Yeah that's right.

[00:13:31.260] - Taylor
I actually have people that I can ask to work on it, and it's a normal human time that, you know it might be like 8/9 a.m. in the morning for them.

[00:13:41.130] - Gordon
And by having people in different time zones, it means that you can bring people in and sort of work 24 hours on a project to get it done in time.

[00:13:50.100] - Taylor
Yeah, exactly.

[00:13:51.930] - Gordon
Which is great. So if you are a service or an industry that needs to have you there to be able to do the job, then make sure you do have a plan in place should you not be able to do it, because otherwise you're just going to let your customers down. And as soon as you let your customers down, word will get out and you may lose some of your customers, you may lose some prospects because you haven't sort of put this system in place.

[00:14:23.340] - Taylor
Yeah. And I think it goes back to an old podcast where we talked about what happens if something happens to you and you can no longer, not just work in a short period of time, but indefinite. And like we said before, you and I both have things in place if that were to happen. But again, something for you to think about. Have you got something in place for the short term? But also have you got something in place for the long term? You get a long...

[00:14:51.380] - Gordon
Really important.

[00:14:53.850] - Taylor
Lifelong illness that comes up, or something happens and you pass away or whatever. Have you got something that not only you know, but the person that has to deal with it knows about. Because it's all well and good going, "yeah, when something happens, this is what I want to happen." But if you don't tell anyone about it, no-one knows that. If you've told only one person about it.

[00:15:20.650] - Gordon
And they happen to be with you at the time, then you could both suffer at the same time. So if you want to watch that episode, then make sure you go to our search on our website and do a search for sort of "long term plans" or something along those lines and the episode will pop up and you'll be able to watch it.

[00:15:42.740] - Taylor
Hopefully, if our searching is good enough, but yeah.

[00:15:46.810] - Gordon
Yes, as long as we've said those words some point during it, then it should pick it up. So that's my topic. Taylor, what's your topic for this week?

[00:15:55.840] - Taylor
So I just wanted to talk about my America trip and what happened, where I went, and just give you some kind of insights into what I got up to.

[00:16:07.450] - Gordon
And what I wasn't able to do.

[00:16:09.750] - Taylor
Yeah. So prior to this trip, I had never flown by myself. So what better way to fly by yourself for the first time with a transatlantic ten hour flight to Las Vegas?

[00:16:25.150] - Gordon
Of course. Nice easy one to start with.

[00:16:27.930] - Taylor
Yeah, exactly. So I had a spare seat next to me, which was quite nice because it meant I could put some, I had a bit more room...

[00:16:31.800] - Gordon
Stop rubbing my nose in it! I wanted to be there!

[00:16:36.670] - Taylor
That I otherwise wouldn't have had. But yeah, it was a really interesting experience, having to go through the passport control, having to go through security, and just trying to make sure I get to my gate on time and things like that was something that I had never experienced before and something that I, near the end of my trip, I kind of was getting used to it and it got easier and easier the more I did it.

[00:17:06.760] - Gordon
So the reason that you got used to it is because how many flights did you actually take?

[00:17:11.480] - Taylor
So...

[00:17:11.900] - Gordon
In total?

[00:17:12.780] - Taylor
Originally, I was only ever supposed to get four flights by myself, and the rest of the time I would have been flying with you.

[00:17:21.490] - Gordon
So that was going to be... Oh four flights on your own, right. Yes.

[00:17:23.800] - Taylor
So my trip as an overall was: I flew out to Vegas, I was there for four days. I then flew from Ohio to Austin, Texas, via Dallas.

[00:17:45.670] - Gordon
That's another two flights.

[00:17:47.590] - Taylor
I then flew from Dallas back to Las Vegas to fly home, via Salt Lake City, which is Utah.

[00:17:54.510] - Gordon
Another two flights.

[00:17:55.720] - Taylor
And then I flew home on another ten hour flight back to Heathrow.

[00:17:59.540] - Gordon
So that's eight flights in total, that you had.

[00:18:02.090] - Taylor
Eight flights in the space of just under three weeks. I worked it out, it was about 33 hours of actual flying, 15 hours in layovers, I believe, which is quite a lot of flying and waiting in airports and stuff. So, yeah, I had my fair share of things like that. But yeah, it was a really good experience. I managed to visit, what's that? 1,2,3,4,5 different States on that trip, due to my layovers.

[00:18:37.030] - Gordon
Amazing.

[00:18:37.910] - Taylor
Which, yeah, added to my list of, so I'm now up to six now because I flew to New York just before Covid.

[00:18:44.630] - Gordon
Yep.

[00:18:44.630] - Taylor
So that's six States in total I've done now.

[00:18:50.230] - Gordon
Having not been to America at all before that last one.

[00:18:54.060] - Taylor
Yeah. Funnily enough, the previous time I flew before this America trip was to America, which was back in December 2019, which feels like a very very long time ago.

[00:19:05.690] - Gordon
Just before we had to stop flying, basically when lockdown happened. We got back and then a couple of months later, no-one was going anywhere. So that was just good timing, really.

[00:19:19.920] - Taylor
Yeah. So starting off in Vegas, that was a really, really interesting experience. It's just a flat desert. It was quite warm, although it was kind of like February time, it was quite warm for UK weather, I guess, or UK that I'm used to. It was really interesting that pretty much everywhere you go there are slot machines, there is some sort of gambling going on. It happens 24 hours a day. It doesn't really stop. Everyone's always doing something. There was a Starbucks in my hotel, which I spent a lot of time at. And I probably looked like a very very bad coffee addict. Mostly because I was with two other people staying at the hotel, and so every time I... I was kind of like the coffee run boy. So I went and got coffees for us and I was getting three coffees at a time, two to three times a day. I got plenty of walking in between like the coffee and all of the different areas in the hotel.

[00:20:24.730] - Gordon
Did they do loyalty cards? Did you get any freebies because of the amount of coffees you were getting?

[00:20:31.220] - Taylor
I believe Marc got all of his points.

[00:20:34.510] - Gordon
Okay. That's good.

[00:20:35.710] - Taylor
When I paid for his coffee. And then I visited Central Vegas, like the Strip, which was really interesting. It's a very, very big road, lots and lots of cars, huge hotels on either side. So I was dropped off at the Bellagio Hotel, which is the one with the water fountain. They weren't going, sadly, but I got a photo outside of it nonetheless. I then walked over to Caesar's Palace and they actually have a shopping centre inside of Caesar's Palace called The Forum and it's like a Greek mythology shopping centre with pretty much every single designer, high end shop and retailer you could imagine. So Gucci, Prada, I can't really think of any more, but pretty much every single expensive shop that you could think of was probably there. And there was also an Apple store. And I went into the Apple Store and ended up coming away with a MacBook, which was very exciting.

[00:21:50.500] - Gordon
Go on then, tell us which one you got.

[00:21:52.470] - Taylor
So I actually got the last one that was in stock, which was a 16 inch M1 Pro with 1 TB of storage, which was the last space grey that they had in stock.

[00:22:07.110] - Gordon
So a much larger one than you've got at the moment then?

[00:22:10.650] - Taylor
Yeah. And after using it for three weeks, it was really weird going back to the smaller laptop. I don't know how I, I don't know how I used to manage.

[00:22:21.580] - Gordon
I felt the same actually. When I got my 1st 27 inch iMac, I had a small 17 inch I think it was, the first one I got and that was big, 17 inch screen. But all of a sudden I had a 27 inch. And then looking back at the 17 inch like, oh my goodness, it's tiny. And you just get used to all the screen real estate, don't you?

[00:22:44.460] - Taylor
Yeah. And then just the day before my flight to Ohio, we went and watched the Blue Man Group, which was absolutely amazing. If you ever get a chance to go and see them, I highly recommend it. Very funny, very interesting and great music as well. I highly recommend going to see them if you can. So that was my time in Vegas. I then flew to Ohio to see a friend and she took me around all of the different types of places in Ohio. So she took me to Crocker Park, which is like an outdoor shopping centre type place, which has lots of shops, restaurants. Went to a nice sushi restaurant, visited Cheesecake Factory. Visited the Apple store, of course.

[00:23:33.220] - Gordon
Like in the Big Bang Theory. They have a Cheesecake Factory there.

[00:23:37.330]
Yeah, very similar. Played Top Golf, which is like a shoot...Driving range, not a shooting range, driving range. And, yeah, we just did other things. Visited Target, which is for some reason, American pastime. They enjoy doing that. And, yeah, just had a great time. We played Yahtzee as well. Her family are a big Yahtzee, very competitive in Yahtzee, so we had quite a lot of games of Yahtzee. I didn't win, but I had a lot of fun. I got Yahtzee a couple of times as well, so that was good.

[00:24:09.550] - Gordon
Good. I enjoy Yahtzee.

[00:24:11.590] - Taylor
And then I then flew to Austin, Texas, which is where Marc lives. And I got to spend two weeks out there, which was really, really good. Again. It was snowy in Ohio. And so I went from Vegas, which was warm; Ohio, which was snowing; and then I went to Austin, which was then warm again. So I've been all over the different types of weathers and temperatures. But yeah, Austin, again, was really interesting because everything was so far away from each other. You go down the road, and 'down the road' for them is like a ten minute drive, just to get from one shop to the next. And they have some really weird junctions as well, which are kind of like just full concrete and about 25 metres up from the ground, which is just bizarre, really. And, yeah, it was a great experience. We drove past what will be the new Tesla factory, I believe, which is currently being built. And it's absolutely huge, because there's so much space, and because of how big Texas is, land is a lot cheaper than it would be in the UK. And so you've got these huge, huge buildings, huge parking lots, pretty much huge everything in America, but especially in Texas.

[00:25:34.530] - Gordon
The other thing with Austin is that there's a lot of tech companies that are sort of moving there, or starting up there because of exactly what you're saying, the space and the infrastructure. And so that's one of the reasons Marc decided to move there. In fact, we should mention, Marc is a very good friend of mine. I've known him for a long, long time and he moved out to America and started up several different businesses. And the business that is his most recent is called "Props For You." We'll put a link in the show notes so you can have a look at that. It's, well you tell them, what is Props For You?

[00:26:18.440] - Taylor
So "Props To You" is a prop company for people that run photo booths. So just to make your photo booths a lot more fun and engaging. You make these big props that are made of like plaster board type thing, and you have lots of different types on there. So you have ones with beer and wine bottles; you have like fun glasses and googly eyes and things like that. And it just makes it really engaging. And yeah, Marc has all of these machines that basically makes them in house from Texas, and then ships them out worldwide.

[00:26:55.990] - Gordon
I look forward to seeing them when I go out next.

[00:26:59.950] - Taylor
Yeah, it's really really cool and interesting. And then, I think the biggest thing was we went to COTA, which is 'Circuit of the Americas,' which is the Formula One track in America, or for America. And we went go carting; and I got first place in all three races that we did, and it was a tonne of fun.

[00:27:22.270] - Gordon
See, all that watching of Formula One has paid off.

[00:27:26.290] - Taylor
Yeah.

[00:27:26.290] - Gordon
Which, I believe, starts again tomorrow.

[00:27:30.850] - Taylor
Yeah, qualifying is tomorrow.

[00:27:30.850] - Gordon
I think it's tomorrow is the qualifying, and then Sunday is the first race of the season. So, yeah, exciting time.

[00:27:40.030] - Taylor
So, yeah, I had a great time. We did lots of different things, but yeah, we went to like a big arcade place as well, which was a lot of fun. And I won quite a few things, these little SpongeBob cards, like collectibles that we got. And we got a lot of tickets, and it was just all round, a lot of fun. And that was mostly my time in Austin. We did lots of things, there's lots of nice restaurants and just different shops and things like that. And then I flew back to Vegas, which is where my flight home was. So I went via Salt Lake City, which is in Utah. And along my trip I collect these Starbucks mugs, which are, I can't remember what they're called, but it's basically like a "Where Am I?" series, and every place essentially has their own Starbucks mug designed that you can then pick up and collect. So I currently, before I went away, had a Copenhagen and a Birmingham mug. Copenhagen was where my mum visited, and she brought me one back. And on my trip I managed to pick up three of the five States that I visited, which I was a bit gutted about the other two, but I couldn't find any. Just because either my connecting flight was too close together, or we just ran out of time and couldn't find them at the few Starbucks that we went round looking for them.

[00:29:08.190] - Gordon
That's fine. You'll be going out again, I'm sure.

[00:29:10.410] - Taylor
Yeah. So I'll go back out and get the others. But I got a Vegas one, I got a Salt Lake City, Utah one, and I got an Austin, Texas one.

[00:29:20.090] - Gordon
So you've doubled your collection plus one, already.

[00:29:23.860] - Taylor
Yes.

[00:29:23.860] - Gordon
So that's great. Right, we need to start wrapping up because this is a long episode compared to normal. Having said that, we haven't done one for three weeks, so maybe it's okay to have a slightly longer one. Is there anything else you want to say or we could hold over till next week if there's something you particularly want to say about your America trip.

[00:29:45.930] - Taylor
No. That was mainly my trip. I had a great time and yeah, anyone that can go travelling, I would highly recommend it.

[00:29:53.170] - Gordon
Very good. So if you have been somewhere interesting and you think we might like to go, leave a comment below. We'd love to see what our viewers have experienced. We always sit down and decide where we would like to go next and maybe we'll take some advice from some of our watchers, our viewers. So until next time you can follow, like, and subscribe us on YouTube and on Facebook.

[00:30:30.130] - Taylor
You can also go to our website thisweekwith.co.uk, to find all of our past episodes and search by any topics we may have spoken about.

[00:30:39.310] - Gordon
Until next week, Friday at 1 o'clock, have a lovely week. It's goodbye from me. I'm Gordon and I'm from Drayson Design.

[00:30:47.790] - Taylor
And I'm Taylor from The Creative Tinker.

[00:30:51.490] - Gordon
Goodbye.

[00:30:52.330] - Taylor
Bye.

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Show Notes