A Miracle of Planning

How many days are wasted waiting for those deliveries that never come? So you will understand my skepticism after boldly attempting to have a plethora of workman and parcels all at home on the same day...

I mean, I was confident that Graham Chapple and the team from Garden4You would be on time for the erection of a new front fence (and my near legendary bacon butties have nothing to do with this!) and also that Cablewise, fellow clients of Action Coach Sally Rainbow-Ockwell would also turn up to install some new telephony.

However, so too did Ikea and several couriers, to the extent that everything was done and dusted within three hours!


Luck? Judgment?Or did fortune favour the brave effort by me to plan?

It was been suggested that it was a forgone conclusion as I applied the same project management techniques Morgan PR uses do to deliver some of the larger projects we handle - which is probably true, but less fun than thinking I beat the fickle hand of fate!

Las Vegas Reunion Tour

Graham and Karen Chapple, respectively of Garden4you and Irun (the website company formerly known as Web Build Pro) joined us in Hungerford for dinner last night – and their first taste of the ActionCoach game Leverage.

It was only our second game – you’ll recall we wrote about it here – but it was Graham & Karen’s first taste of the game they, like us, had heard Brad Sugars rave about as the ‘fun way to learn business’. It was actually the first time the four of us have been together since we attended the Entrepreneur's MasterClass in the States so it was good to catch up on the meteoric rise of our respective businesses.

Well, it was definitely more straightforward this time round and I do not mean just understanding the rules; there were nuances and probably trademarked blinding flashes of the obvious as principles dawned on us.

Less fun was the disarmingly named ‘Oops’ cards. We never got one of these last time we played and Graham – or ‘Lucky Graham’ as we shall ironically refer to him, picked the first and a few more ‘Oops’ cards. In fact we all did and learned a valuable lesson about those sneaky little problems that can thwart the most careful of business plans, from losing staff to a client going bankrupt and taking your unpaid invoices with them.

It was good fun – not least as I am far from convinced any of us imagine our dashing entrepreneur lifestyles involving Friday night board room sessions!

Start Spreading the News... It's Graham's Birthday Today

After a day yomping up and down the strip and marvelling at the host of clever marketing ploys that are designed to part a fool and his money in the briefest of time frames, we headed to New York, New York for a celebration...

Graham Chapple, of Garden4You, notched up a birthday here in Las Vegas and with his focus set on a juicy steak we headed for New York, New York where we correctly surmised you could probably find a convincing facsimile of a New York steakhouse - this is the casino with a third size Statue of Liberty outside - alongside the Brooklyn Bridge and Coney Island roller coaster!

However, blissfully there was a wait for a table at Gallagher's Steakhouse (a good sign on a Tuesday in a city as accommodating as Las Vegas!) so we looked for alternative entertainment... and stumbled into perhaps my favourite place in this crazy place: The Bar at Times Square - or more specifically that should be The Piano Bar at Times Square!

For this is the home of the globally renown duelling pianos. I first saw them in 1998 and it was fabulous to see that the pianos were still duelling, the crowd still whooping and a host of crowd pleasing tunes were belted out.

You can nominate tunes with a crisp dollar or five and they will encourage more people to chip in before the chosen tune is played - however if you step up with a $20 they will do pretty much anything - such as help Graham celebrate his birthday.

More specifically they invited him up to sit on the piano while they improvised a smutty ditty to the tune of Itsy Witsy Teeny Weeny Little Polka Dot Bikini! Graham was a good sport, the crowd loved it and a complete stranger bought him a beer. Gotta love this city!

Once at Gallagher's were were positively drooling over the menu and were quite dehydrated by time the food eventually came; and then we were left stunned! I had a sirloin steak that would have fed our family for Sunday lunch! However Graham had a monster hunk of meet that was possibly a fairly mature calf going on size alone. The flavours were fabulous by I was defeated by mine, although the birthday boy did his real justice!

Here we are at the optimistic part of the meal:

Viva Las Vegas!

Next week the Morgan PR blog will be coming to you live – well live-ish – from Las Vegas, Nevada where we will be attending a seminar with the founder of Action Coach, Brad Sugars.

It was back in July that we attended a seminar at Newbury Racecourse for a two hour dose of the Australian Billionaire’s wisdom and ultimately a sales pitch to bring thrusting business owners to Las Vegas for his ‘Billionaire in Training’ business seminar.

We’d been wavering until Sally Rainbow-Ockwell, whose Action Coach Profit Club I attend, encouraged us to talk to the man one on one and, well, clearly you don’t get to be a billionaire entrepreneur without learning a thing or two about selling! Or it might just be that infectious Aussie charm that makes party invites hard to refuse – even when they involve yours truly making four hour drives across the outback (but that’s another story!).

So dark and early we will be on our way – that is myself and fellow director and wife Diane Morgan. Also on our flight are Graham Chapple from Garden4You and his wife Karen, who is the dynamo behind both Irun (formerly Web Build Pro Newbury) and the invaluable local directory, The Best of Newbury.

With the seminar not starting until Thursday and Graham celebrating his birthday on Tuesday, we have a strong suspicion that this trip might not be all work.

However there will be plenty of work and hopefully some marvellous networking opportunities. Although delegates will be coming from around the world, there were also some 22 people who signed up at the Newbury event for either this seminar or the one in December.

So although more used to promoting our public relations in West Berkshire, who knows what we will achieve once in Nevada!

Video Blogging Made Simple for Garden4You

Blogging takes a certain dedication and effort and video blogging even more so, however, when someone else is on hand with the camera and editing software... well that makes it simple!

Garden4You were back at Morgan PR today to tame the near jungle that the corporate gardens have become! And as I did when they erected fencing earlier in the year, I roped Graham Chapple into some video blogging.

It was interesting to hear how much interest the video entries on his blog had created and if you visit it you will see what we did today. Below is a version more about Morgan PR and what we can do to help you video blog!

Mole Mapping in the Thames Valley

I am still chuckling at the friend who seem puzzled when I mentioned I had been photographing a client who offers mole mapping as a service. They thought for a moment and then announced: "They must be very patient, we had moles in our garden and we only ever saw the hills they left behind."

Of course I was actually talking about the moles on your skin, the kind that are behind the UK biggest cause of Cancer and Morgan PR was interviewing and photographing Mike Samuels from Medical Photographic Services.

The company was established last year by Mike Samuels and is a medical photographic practice, covering medico legal, personal injury and pre-cosmetic surgery photography.
Newbury born and bred, Mike Samuels is the former Head of Medical Photography & Illustration at the Royal Free Hospital and University College London Medical School. A registered, qualified medical photographer with 40 years experience, he is an Associate Member of the Institute of Medical Illustrators and has an Enhanced Disclosure Certificate from the Criminal Records Bureau.

Tackling skin cancer was one of the primary motivators behind setting up the company as Mike Samuels explained: “I have worked with Cancer Research UK and they urge us all to ‘know our bodies and be aware of any changes’. However, changes in the skin are probably some of the more difficult ones to notice.

“By having your existing moles photographically recorded and documented by a registered medical photographer such as myself, you will have reassurance that when you visit your doctor they can immediately compare the change you may have noticed and do not have to rely upon your verbal description of what might be a very small, but very significant change.”


We met up at The Wellbeing Centre in Newbury where Mike practices, together with visiting people at home, and took the pictures, including the one above, you see here to reflect his work. They will appear in the forthcoming edition of the Newbury Business News on October 11.

Incidentally, if you do have moles... I can recommend the pest control division of Garden4You!

Do Business Blogs Work?

Erstwhile 'Internet Psychologist' Graham Jones is constantly making good points on his own blog and a common theme is how many businesses simply do not get business blogs.

How right he is! Now I should declare an enthusiastic interest at this point. It was Graham who was the motivation for the launch of this business blog way back in October last year and has been a constant source of encouragement.

And somewhat sadly he accurately predicted just how many of us enthusiastic novices would falter as we pursued blogging as a business strategy - alas of all those who started blogs almost a year ago I am the only one who still posts regularly.

Although I hasten to add that Graham Chapple (dashingly pictured right) launched Garden4You soon after and it remains an entertaining tale of one man's battle with greenery and is regularly maintained - rather like the gardens looked after by Garden4You!

Now Graham Jone's constant beef with the sceptics is over whether blogging works and it is a question that I am frequently asked by people daunted by the prospect of maintaining a blog.

So does it work? Well Morgan PR is selling a service more than a product, so with the exception of a handful of clicks on Amazon books I might mention from time to time I do not get revenue directly from the blog per se. Although I know plenty that do!

However, as part of an overal marketing strategy that encompasses traditional advertising, networking, a propert website, commenting on other people's blogs, exhibitions, direct mail, newsletters - you get the idea - it definitely works.

Leaving aside piping hot referrals where those who visit the blog via a link on another blog they like or where it has been recommended by others, I have clients who found my website through Google and clicked on the link to my blog. Because it accurately reflects how we do business and our approach to public relations in Newbury and the Thames Valley it allows a reader to familiarise themselves with us and make a decision on moving forward with that.

When I write about work we have done with clients it certainly promotes them, but it is also a clear example of how I can help others too.

A prospect introduced via the blog is very likely to become a client and plenty of businesses have and some have proved very lucrative - and I would never have met them without this blog, the blog you are reading!

Something that does not work is an abandoned blog. It is worse than no blog. To discover a company has started a blog and abandoned it does not inspire confidence in prospective clients.

So check out Graham the blog guru's blog and indeed Graham the garden guru's blog, but most of all consider how a blog could benefit you - and send us the link so we can tell people about it!

BBQ4YOU to say thanks to Garden4You

Wonderfully, the very same sunshine that stayed hidden during the mammoth fencing project that Garden4You carried out here, was blazing down for the thank you barbecue we threw to acknowledge the hard work that Graham Chapple put in over the three day scheme.

He was joined by his ever charming wife Karen, who the more astute and networked among you will know from such reputable companies as Web Build Pro and The Best of Newbury.

We were fortunate to be in the lovely company of our erstwhile friend and fabled combat Monopoly enthusiast Nora.

Essentially it was just an opportunity to express our most sincere thanks to Graham for his hard work earlier this week.

And it was a fine way to spend what seems to be the very first day of summer!

Garden4You - Extreme Gardening in Hungerford

Did you see that rain today? Did you see how it made people run for cover? What I saw was the dedicated team from Garden4You slaving away in the torrential downpour at they worked hard erecting a new fence.

I have written about Garden4You and the sterling efforts of its founder Graham Chapple numerous times, and marvelled at the burgeoning testimonials on his website, so it was inevitable that when I needed some fencing done I would ask them - but being a good businessman I did ask for other quotes, but Graham was the most responsive and the most competitive.

So today, in all that rain, they started work and they didn't stop - even when the rain poured, nay when it deluged from the sky - the four strong team kept working and made some cracking progress.

I was only there in the afternoon, but kept them fuelled with tea and cakes, and positively marvelled at the difference their hard work was making. During some brief sunshine I took some 'before' photographs and will publish those later in the week - and contrast them with the no doubt remarkable 'after' shots.

Another marvellous aspect to this job has been the relative ease with which Garden4You has secured so many of the seemingly scarce six foot fence panels required for the 60 metres of fencing they have to replace.

Watching Graham put his skills to work it was hard not to offer some of mine in return, so I have persuaded him to do a make a short video for his own blog.

We will do that tomorrow and I'll be sure to post the video here for you all to see!

Actually, this takes me back to the days when we sold websites before we had our own! So far the only video posted on this blog was the rather amusing one on PowerPoint - which coincidentally Graham commented on!

So I shall be sure to post my own video very soon!

Garden4You quote for Morgan PR

The ever charming Graham Chapple of blossoming gardening firm Garden4You paid a visit today to measure up and quote for some expansive fencing here at the homestead.

There seems to be many metres of fencing, but Graham carried out a detailed survey, took photographs and discussed access and likely lead in times. Honestly, I was impressed and suspect that the Yellow Pages would have attracted a plethora of teeth sucking amateurs who would have cocked their head to one side and plucked a figure out of the air.

Admittedly I have not seen the quote yet! But I am confident that it will represent the same professionalism and value for money that Garden4You’s customers positively rave about.