In Your Shoes - Scott Grant

Monday - Baby No 2 is on it's way!

I'll offer it upfront to you. I don't recall what I done on this particular Monday at ANGUSalive.

That's because it wouldn't have been as cool as what happened at around 3.30pm when I was in Ninewells with my lovely wife to learn that all was well at our 12 week scan to cement our return to the "silly AM club", complete with muslins, baby grows with those popper things which I gotten into a great habit of getting wrong. I'm grateful for those baby grows which have a different coloured button to indicate the approrpiate cross over click - if you know, you know. 

And so it begins! The chatter of what sex will the baby be, name vetos and checking an app to tell us what fruit* they are now the size of and what developments they've done in the week. 

*a lemon, if you were wondering. And when life gives you lemons...make comparisons to that's how big a baby is at around 13 weeks. 

Tuesday - New Digital Signage

Now, ANGUSalive stuff.  

People will often ask me when I mention that I work at ANGUSalive: "Ah, so the council then?". 

Well, not quite. But also, kind of! I can see why it may be confusing but really, it's not significant. We have a good relationship with them and we do face similar challenges.

But to avoid ambiguity our job is to manage and promote the sport, leisure and culture elements for Angus. From both our staff and within the community who use our services, there's a LOT of amazing people doing great things on our doorsteps. Our team's job is to show you.

I'd love to tell you about them, although using the IYS blog as a blunt sales tool is not fair (...!). Permission to slide into my LinkedIn DMs - I'd love to tell Chamber members what we're doing and how we can work together. 

Anyway! A chunk of my day took me to Websters Sports Centre in Kirriemuir where I worked with colleagues at Angus Council to get our digital signage solution up and running of which we'll be rolling out in the near future. Diet Coke in hand, I watched like a spare part at my IT colleagues were doing IT things and speaking to me in IT speak as they did their magic. I think I got most of it! 

Working in marketing - where regardless of your resources or budget - it's essential to squeeze every bit of visibillity of our services through what means that we have, as engaging as we can. And this new piece of kit will allow us to do that! 

(My day was also dented by picking up the wrong hose at the petrol pump in Kirriemuir with super unleaded. "It's better for your car..." the cashier told me. "But not for my wallet"...I responded.

We chuckled.) 

Wednesday - Content & a trip to see Gary Neville

Wednesday morning took me to picturesque Monikie Country Park where I caught up with some colleagues regarding activities their are hosting for kids in the upcoming Easter Holidays.

The continued rise and dominance of short-form videos to showcase service gave me an opportunity to take the trusty gimble and iPhone and do a couple of pieces with colleagues I was able to turn around some cheap and cheerful content to promote what they were doing. And it was fun!  

(If you're thinking of content, my advice to you would be not to think of perfection but think about just starting. What can you do with what you have. And if you're a service where people are the service...get cracking. The difference between good and great is quite small - the difference between nothing and something is enormous). 

Later in the evening I went up to Aberdeen with friends for an evening with Gary Neville at the Music Hall in Aberdeen. I'm a huge football fan and he was exactly what I expected - humour, insightful, relaxed yet passionate...it was good to watch. I enjoyed his business insight more than his football stuff - we knew all about his career anyway. 

Biggest takeaway?

"Come in to work, be the very best you can be...then come in and do it tomorrow". 

Thursday - No beers, content planning and, er...MAFS?

On most Thursdays I have a weekly catch up with my line manager Iain who is one of the interim CEO's of ANGUSalive. We were meant to do this in person with a wee walk around the nearby vicinity, but it was chucking it and we went to MS teams.

(I was fairly devastated as the meeting point was the Belltree Bar & Grill in Panmurefield and was optimistically hoping for something from the tap may incoming...! I may not have got my steps, but I didn't have cold hands and wringin' clothes.)

On the subject of getting some steps in, I then planned some content with Rhona who heads up our Healthy Steps Angus initiative. She's done a serious amount recruitment in volunteers and leading throughout the county. We managed to come up with a content plan for National Walking Month (which yes, is a thing and it's in May. You'd best get stepping too!). 

It was a toss up between "MAFs catch up" and some Europa League football on Thursday night. I negotiated very hard with Mairi and I was delighted to get my way.

Commitment ceremony number 1... 

Friday - On tour around Angus to (not) install digital signage

Friday's are a time where I spend more time with our team. I catch up with them all individually in the morning and I've found it a great way to bookend the week on progress. I had then set aside my afternoon to have a go at installing our new digital solutions across Angus. 

I got as far as Carnoustie Sports Centre where the "Pedal for Pounds" was taking place, a 24 hour long cycling session with members and staff taking place to raise money for local athlete Beth Greig. The energy was tremendous and I found myself getting involved in the quiz questions that were getting pinged out. 

My plan of hooking these digital pieces didn't go as I had planned. I got one working and wondered if a career in IT was ahead of me; a thought quickly scuppered as I was stumped at the first hurdle on the next screen. I thought better of it, took advantage of flexi time and went for a 12.6km run* in anticipation of a pizza for dinner. 

And that's my week! Thanks for stopping by. 

(*Not at all smuggly putting the picture here as proof).