Well, not really. But I’m certainly a little bit better known because of two relatively small actions. I’ve seen the power of the internet in action this week and its ability to unexpectedly put you in touch with relevant people overnight, and bring you to other people’s attention. This is something that we kind of take for granted now – the free advertising and the people-connecting. We’re so Myspaced out that the fact that someone from Malaysia might send us an email out of the blue no longer fazes us. But I’ve been amazed (and amused) twice this week.

Firstly, the good guys at Teamjaded.com mentioned me in their videoblog after I donated a few pounds to their cause. I was just checking in with their blog to see what they’re up to – they’ve recently embarked on an epic journey which I think deserved my financial support – and almost spilled my tea all over my laptop when I saw my name briefly plastered all over the video. I only donated a very small amount and mentioned them in a post but was rewarded with this groovy namecheck. Although I genuinely didn’t donate for any other reason than to help these guys out in a small way, it was nice to get a shout out that may send a few people to my blog…

Secondly, regular readers will know all about Pollen (yes, a proper website is coming soon) as I’ve been harping on about it for a few weeks now. I set it up on a whim one evening when I was frustrated at the slow progress towards launch of my new business. I thought creative entrepreneurs in this area needed a “support network”, for want of a better phrase. Traditional business support in the UK really isn’t best suited for those of us who do things differently. It started off as a Facebook group that I set up in 2 minutes flat. As the membership passed 100 in the space of a week I realised there was some solid interest so I quickly knocked up a website on one of these “build your own” sites and sent out a few emails to tell people about it. It took 20 minutes. All of a sudden I was receiving phone calls from business magazines, offers of help from internet companies and I’ve got several meetings set up with other organisations with the prospect of receiving financial support. Again, despite it being a relatively altruistic action on my part (if you believe in that kind of thing – I’m certainly no angel!) I’ve found myself receiving a lot more attention and offers of help than ever before. And the overwhelming demand means that our first event is literally a few weeks away.

So, on both a local and international level I’m suddenly receiving attention. Self-publicity isn’t really important to me in most respects, although the attention is nice. The fact is that it shows what occurred directly as a result of two actions that I’d barely considered the consequences of. Just demonstrates what could be possible if you put your mind to it…