[00:00:09.02] - Gordon
Hello.

[00:00:09.13] - Taylor
Hello.

[00:00:09.23] - Gordon
My name's Gordon from Drayson Design.

[00:00:11.19] - Taylor
And I'm Taylor from The Creative Tinker.

[00:00:13.14] - 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 over the last seven days. And welcome back if you've been with us before.

[00:00:24.11] - Taylor
Welcome back.

[00:00:25.11] - Gordon
So it's been a busy week. I got my iPhone 16 Pro. If you were watching last week, I said I was hoping that it would arrive, and it did. And I've been playing with it for the last week, and it's really quite good. Yeah, I really like the new camera. The new camera button is very good, although I do manage, because of my charger, when I put it in, I do manage to press that as I'm pulling it out of the charger.

[00:00:51.08] - Taylor
Not ideal.

[00:00:52.02] - Gordon
Not ideal. But yeah, it's good. Everything has come across very quickly and easily. Apple have figured out a really good system now for moving all your content over. So that's really good. And it actually leads me into my topic for this week. So before we get there, is there anything you want to say?

[00:01:11.15] - Taylor
Not from me.

[00:01:12.13] - Gordon
All right, let's go straight to my topic then. My topic is protecting your investment. Now, what do I mean by that? Well, I have various bits of equipment that I've purchased for my businesses. If we look at my magic side, for example, I have a big battery pack that I've spoken about before, which is the Eco Flow River Pro 2. And it's really really good, but I want to protect it because it cost me a good few hundred pounds, and I want it to last as long as it possibly can. So today, I actually purchased a case for it. It's like a bag that you can put the Eco Flow into, zip it up, it's padded, it's waterproof, and it means that when I'm not using it, I can just put it to the side and I know it's going to be protected. If I'm travelling with it, I can put it in the car and I know it's not going to get all scratched up, or sometimes you've got face buttons and sometimes they get damaged by other things hitting it. I'm very much the sort of person who, if I make an investment I want to make sure I look after it as best I can. A good example is my last iPhone. My last iPhone was pretty much spotless. I gave it a bit of a wipe before I sent it back to Apple to get a... Not a refund. What's the word?

[00:02:48.29] - Taylor
Trade in.

[00:02:49.05] - Gordon
Trade in. Yeah, thank you. To get a trade in towards the new iPhone. There was a tiny little scratch on the screen, which really bugged me because I hate things like that. And that was due to my keys being in a container that I put my phone in and it just ever so slightly scratched it. I mean, just minimal, tiny. It made no difference at all to anyone except me. I'm the only one that really fussed over it. But I mean, you know this, don't you? I like to look after my equipment because I feel like if I look after it, it's going to look after me. And the amount of times I see other performers with their equipment and they're in such bad repair. They look horrible. They've got dents in the speakers. It all reflects badly on the entertainer, I feel. And it shortens the use of that equipment. You have to replace it or repair it a lot more often. So buying the bag for my battery pack is a really good idea. I try and buy bags when I can to protect things. For example, my camera equipment, whether it be video or my still camera, my digital camera. I have a bag that's really good and padded and is definitely going to protect my equipment should it have a jolt or a knock or fall on the floor or something. Because when you're spending thousands of pounds, you want it to last. And that's why I do it. Do you find you're similar, Taylor?

[00:04:33.22] - Taylor
Yeah, so I try and... I put things into places, and I know that for the most part, if I put them in those places, they're going to be kept protected. So I have a duplicate cable of every single kind, pretty much, that stays in my bag in a little tech pouch. And so I have an Apple Watch charger, an iPhone charger, a lightning cable, USB-C, a laptop charger, all of the cables I have duplicates of, and they stay in my bag. And this may be offensive, but I sometimes get people asking me, "can I borrow it?" or, "have you got this cable?" And I have the cable all the time. But if I've been around them or I've seen them, for example, in the office and someone there and I've seen them being very careless, I'll say, "Oh, no, sorry, I don't." Because I know they're not going to look after it. And I have probably more cables than most people do because my cables last so long. I think I've probably broken two cables in the last 10 years, maybe, from them being bended and at the end where the connection is, just because I look after them so well that I have just accumulated them because you get them with every single product that you buy, basically. So yeah, in that way, I'm very careful about who I share stuff with, but also make sure that I've got them in a safe space in my tech pouch, or I've got them in a drawer, or in a bag like you have.

[00:06:06.04] - Gordon
It's funny you mention cables because I'm very similar. So for example, all the cables that go into my computer system, they've got little like trunking that the cables go through because, again, it protects them. And if I'm taking cables on holiday or something, I've got a little pouch and I'll wind the cables up and very carefully put them into the pouch. They're not just thrown into the suitcase or whatever. They are looked after. And by winding them up carefully, you're going to protect the insides of the cable as well, which is more important. And then as well as that, all bags are not equal. Some bags are very cheap, and in some cases, it's probably not worth having a bag that's really cheap if you've got something that's worth a lot of money inside it. I always feel that if you're going to protect something, you need to protect it. So don't just get the cheapest of the cheap. Get something that's actually going to be doing its job, because, yeah, as I said, if it's not going to do its job, it's probably you're better off not having it at all. We quite like our Peak Design bags, which is a make. For photography equipment, it's brilliant. You've got it for going away as well as your everyday bag as well.

[00:07:32.15] - Taylor
I've got pretty much all of them. I've got a backpack, a sling, and a duffle, the wash pouch, the small wash pouch, the tech pouch, the camera clip that was the original one that I first bought when they first released their first product.

[00:07:50.05] - Gordon
Yeah, I think I've got the, I think it's the 30 litre backpack and I've got the... It's not a sling, I can't remember what it's called.

[00:07:57.02] - Taylor
Yeah, it's just like a sling.

[00:07:58.25] - Gordon
It's like a sling, but it's not a sling. I can't remember the name of it. And we've both got a little bag that folds into itself and you can unfold it and use it as a bag if you need to. But yeah, we'll put a link to Peak Design in the show notes because they're not cheap bags. They're reasonably expensive, but they really last. They really last well. I've had mine many, many years. I bought mine on Kickstarter, in fact. And yeah, they are just beautiful bags.

[00:08:29.17] - Taylor
I think they have a lifetime warranty on their zips because it's a patented system or design, I believe, which is very cool. They're very, very good.

[00:08:41.14] - Gordon
Yeah.

[00:08:41.29] - Taylor
Good, good and well-built.

[00:08:43.18] - Gordon
So the moral of my little segment today is look after your equipment. It will last a lot longer. It will save you from having to replace it as quickly as you would normally have to. And you look more professional and better when you've got equipment that's in a proper bag. That's effectively what... I say bag. When I come back from a gig, the job's not done for me until everything is put away. So I've got spaces for everything, and they have to be taken out of the car, put into their spaces. Electronic equipment comes inside so that it's not going to be affected by moisture outside in a cupboard or a shed, sorry, or a garage or whatever. And they all go in a specific place. And until that's all done, the job's not finished, because I don't want to leave them in the car; might get stolen, might get broken into. I'm looking after my equipment again. That's it. That's what I want to say. What would you like to talk about?

[00:09:46.26] - Taylor
So I'd like to talk about protecting your time.

[00:09:50.11] - Gordon
Oh. Clever.

[00:09:51.26] - Taylor
So I was on the UseMotion website, which is a task manager calendar app, productivity tool, and they had a little calculator on there. Now, the calculator said, how many hours do you spend a week doing project management and moving stuff around, admin tasks and things like that? And what is your hourly rate? Two very simple questions, really. They then gave you a value figure, so a monetary value of how much time you could save by using their tool.

[00:10:33.15] - Gordon
Okay.

[00:10:34.13] - Taylor
And it got me thinking-

[00:10:35.26] - Gordon
Clever sales tool then.

[00:10:36.28] - Taylor
Yeah, but it got me thinking in a larger context, the number of people that ask for my help and I am very quick to jump to try and help them just because I enjoy helping people. And thinking about all of that time that I'm spending, essentially doing free work, and money I could be losing out on. And then the other side of that is allowing yourself, giving your time away and not planning it properly. So if people are asking you to do work, say, "yes, I can do that, but it can only be done in a week's time or a month's time," or whatever because of your current schedule. I have a tendency to take slightly too much on or I take enough on and then the project goes quiet and then they come back when I've got other projects on and then expect me just to pick it up where I left off. I'm at fault for this, but also the clients are at fault for expecting. But then again, that comes down to me not explaining, not educating them, and explaining the situation. A lot of it comes down to communication, explaining that your project was delayed, I was waiting for you. And because of that, I've actually added in to my clause a while ago "if a project is three weeks with no progress from the client side, then I can build the full amount of the project. And then there's a restart fee and it will get scheduled in at the next availability." And it's more of there at my discretion to choose when I want to use it, but it's there so that should it happen again, I'm covered. And the client can't really come back at me for, kind of saying, "Well, that's not fair because I started the project before them" or whatever. Because it's very hard to manage your time if you're giving it out to everybody but not being able to control it.

[00:12:45.15] - Gordon
And do you give them warnings? So two weeks in, you say, "Look, if there's no progress in the next week, this clause kicks in."

[00:12:53.26] - Taylor
I don't, but it's probably something that I should set up and see if there's a way to be able to automate that without having to keep tabs on it. When you're jumping from project to project, just because you've got different projects on, it's very hard to keep track of when was the last time I communicated with them, for example. Maybe if it's a project, like a website, I could add something into the child theme, for example, that says 'check once a day' or whatever, 'when was the last time somebody logged in?' Because if I'm waiting on somebody for content to update the website to be able to launch it, if I haven't logged in for three weeks, most of the time that's because I haven't been given content. So something like that maybe could help automate it, but then obviously it doesn't account for things like the design or whatever. Or just something that I keep on top of, go through, leave notes saying, once a week, I can go through the recurring task that says, "follow up on all your projects, check on them, see how they're doing." And at that point, I can maybe have a running total in a spreadsheet or in a just a note that says "last contacted on this date, it's been two weeks, three weeks," whatever. And then that way I can keep track.

[00:14:23.13] - Gordon
I think that's a good thing. We'll have a think about that and we'll come back to everyone if we come up with a solution. If you've got a solution, please let us know. Leave them in the comments below. Anything else you want to say?

[00:14:36.25] - Taylor
I don't think so. I think it's just, yeah, being wary of where your time is being spent.

[00:14:43.02] - Gordon
And not giving too much away. It's a bit like I get asked to do charity events a lot, and normally they're raising money for something. And unless it's a charity that's very close to my heart or I've made the decision to give my time freely to that charity, I will quote my normal fee. And quite often they'll come back and they'll say, "yes, it's a charity, we're trying to raise money." And that's fine, unless, of course, they're doing it on a prime day, because by doing a charity job, I'm going to be losing out on that day's wages because I'm doing work for them. So not only am I giving my time to them, I'm also losing money as well. So you have to be very, very careful who you give your time freely to. Sometimes it's done because you are looking down the road and you're looking at having them as a long term customer, for example. And then maybe there's a reason to give your time freely. But if you do it too much and too often, people come to expect it.

[00:15:51.24] - Taylor
Yeah.

[00:15:52.11] - Gordon
And I think that's when you get problems.

[00:15:54.17] - Taylor
Yeah. It comes down to educating people and making sure that you set clear boundaries. That's something I try to do is if I do a free bit of work, I still quote it, I still send a proposal, I still do everything as if it was a paid website because then they understand, one, the value of it because you basically put the price it would normally be and then obviously put the discount in. But also when they come back, they know the process. It's not something that you can...

[00:16:27.05] - Gordon
They know what to expect.

[00:16:27.07] - Taylor
Quickly throw together. It's something that actually every project is taken seriously. So if I'm going to invest my time or my money, then I do it right.

[00:16:38.05] - Gordon
Very good. Anything else you want to say?

[00:16:39.28] - Taylor
I don't think so.

[00:16:41.01] - Gordon
Thank you so much for joining us. As always, we can be found on YouTube. Please like, share and subscribe.

[00:16:47.25] - Taylor
You can also go to our website thisweekwith.co.uk to find all of our past episodes and anything we may have spoken about.

[00:16:54.06] - Gordon
And if you prefer to listen to us, we are on all the major podcast platforms. Just do a search for "This Week With Taylor and Gordon." We'll be back with you next week at 1pm on Friday. Until then, my name is Gordon and I'm from Drayson Design.

[00:17:10.00] - Taylor
And I'm Taylor from The Creative Tinker.

[00:17:12.14] - Gordon
Goodbye.

[00:17:13.05] - Taylor
Bye.

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