Alan Barnes

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The Follow-Through Guy

I was one of Adam Gilbert's clients about fifteen years ago, and we've stayed in touch ever since although we've never actually meet.

What Could Go Right?

You've rehearsed the disaster in HD. Give the good version the same airtime.

I’m Not A Niche, I’m A Human Being

Niching down is advice for selling a service. Somewhere along the way it became advice for being a person.

I'm moving house

Bring a box

Stuff It I Quit

Jay-Jay Feeney spent 33 years on New Zealand radio and assumed she'd die on the microphone. Instead she quit at fifty with no plan B. A week later, the next thing showed up.

Recommendation Week: July

All the best from the month of July

The Machine Can't Buy the Round

Turns out my only competitive advantage is turning up. I'll take it.

The Competence Trap

Being good at your job might be exactly what's keeping you stuck.

Dust on Her Boots

Anna Fifield reported from inside North Korea twelve times, covered the Obama White House for the Financial Times, and ran the Washington Post's Beijing bureau. Then, in the space of a month, she lost her job and turned fifty. Here's what she did next.

Recommendation Week: June

All the best from the month of June

What's the Point?

The question you should answer before you do anything else

Five Thousand Hardbacks in the Garage

How a bored journalist on a train built an international publishing empire (from his garage)

The Rough Cut

Most of my early issues were terrible. Here's why I sent them anyway.

Recommendation Week: May 2026

All the best from the month of May

Not Being a Passenger

Phil Walters turned a steel bird cut in his shed into a multi-million dollar global business. But the thing that actually freed him up had nothing to do with entrepreneurship.