Kia Kamgar

Tech that’s easy to use and simple to maintain

2025-12-26T11:20:17Z

Having the tools, you need to do your work should be as easy as everything else you do during the day. Life is hard enough already. We don’t need our tech adding more friction.

Watch the video on Odysee or YouTube.

Transcription

Life is already difficult enough. So what we try to do is make things simpler, easier, more comfortable for ourselves. And again, this should be exactly the same with your tech.

We should basically make things as simple as possible and easy to use and easy to maintain.

So we don't have that friction we do with everything else in our lives. Because we all have friction with our lives.

It doesn't matter who you are. We basically have issues, right? So we want to get rid of those issues. We want to fix those friction points. And again, the tech that you use should do the same.

So the tool and the software that you use should be easy to maintain. In fact, you shouldn't maintain it. You should maintain the data in it, the way you use it.

And how simple it is putting data into it and getting data out.

So, for instance, if you've got a CRM that you have to push buttons all over the place, are you ever going to use that data to find anything?

Probably not.

I've come across this many times. If you use a project management tool, are you pressing a lot of buttons to do the same thing?

Why do you need loads of tags? Why do you need loads of any, the features within it? You don't need to use all those features, like I said before.

So choosing the right tools, as I've said in the past, is very important.

But the way you use the tools, the kind of the way you manage the data in it is also important.

So making sure that the tools that you use and the tools that you have, if you get rid of the friction as in it's complicated, get rid of the friction as in I don't have to maintain it, then doing your work, helping your clients, running your business, business, it's going to be a lot more simpler.

So again, getting rid of that friction makes your life much easier, just like, as I said, in our everyday lives.

You know, I have a comfortable couch in the office because I wanted to sit there sometimes so I make myself comfortable.

So I got the tool to be able to do that. I don't have to maintain it because it just sits there. Is that a good example or bad example? I'm not sure...

Hey, Woof!?

Anyway, hopefully that helps. and I'll see you in the next video.

Ciao.

Bye.

Kia.

Does your tech bring you joy?

2025-12-25T13:22:26Z

Doing something that doesn’t bring you joy is no fun. Doing work with tools you don’t like is no different. There’s nothing worse than doing your work with apps that suck and are challenging to use.

Watch the video on Odysee or YouTube

Transcript

We all want to do things that we enjoy doing.

There's no point doing something that we don't like or don't enjoy. There's no point buying a phone if we don't like it. There's no point buying things, hats, whatever, if we don't like it.

So when I talk about technology that I use, the apps, services and tools, it's mainly because I enjoy using them.

And I'm hoping in a way, maybe falsely, that you would enjoy using them too. And the reason why I say enjoy using them is because of the simplicity of it.

Have you ever worked at a company? I'm sure some of you've, I mean, you've run a business right now, but you've worked at a company at some stage.

And they've used a system or a tool or an app. And you hate using that tool. So your productivity effectively goes down because you have that block of, oh, do I have to do this?

Whereas if you had a tool in an app that you enjoyed using, you'd get more done.

Your productivity would be higher because you don't have that mental block in the back of your head like, oh my God, I've got to use it.

So the tools that I speak about, I talk about and I try to explain that you should be using is to take that friction point away. That friction point of "oh do I have to use this app".

So the tools that you use, as long as they're as simple and they work for you, have to have things that work for you obviously, will make you more productive basically, I mean there's no two ways about it.

If you have something that you don't like using, you're like "oh do I have to use this"...

Have you ever borrowed a phone... if you've broken a phone you've borrowed a phone and that borrowed phone isn't as good as your normal phone, you're annoyed using that phone.

And it's the same with the apps and tools that you use. So making sure you have the things that you like around you will make you basically do more.

That's what I think anyway. What do you think? Let me know below. And if you have any questions, there'll be a link below to book a call.

Anyway, see you in the next video.

Ciao.

Bye.

Kia.

Chilling with Woof!

2025-12-24T11:10:08Z

Kia.

Backup is great, but offline is better!

2025-12-24T10:21:24Z

We all know that having a backup of our data is essential. So why is it that when you’re posting something long-form, you use an online tool/platform that could easily not save/update or store your data correctly?!

Watch the video on Odysee or YouTube

Transcription

Earlier this morning, I was in a audio room on LinkedIn. It's like Clubhouse. I won't go into it.

But it's the first time I went into an audio room, actually. And Sebastian was hosting, and there was a few other people on stage as well.

And it got to the topic, we were talking about lots of different things, but the topic got on to how often do people download their LinkedIn profile?

And I was a little confused as to why they were talking. about that, why would you do it for analytics, for safekeeping or whatever?

It turns out that Sebastian, the problem he's had is that sometimes he posts things on LinkedIn and it doesn't auto-safe.

So he's got loads of drafts and sometimes they get lost. And I was grinding my teeth to this notion that you're writing online. It drives me insane.

If I write a blog, what you should be doing, here we go. What you should be doing is writing offline. There's this whole online, offline thing.

I love offline apps. I use them, but I make sure that the critical apps that I use, critical to my business, critical to my personal life, my life in general, are offline.

So whether it's a CRM, whether it's notes, emails, anything, I don't want to be dependent on anything, but I don't want to be dependent on the internet connections, the company itself, and everything in between.

Now, obviously, I do use online apps, and I've said this before, about mission critical online apps.

But if you've got no internet connection, or the internet connection kind of goes a bit screwy and you're writing something, it doesn't auto save. because many of these apps don't autosave.

So if it doesn't autosave, you've kind of lost that information. So I always write offline. I mean, if it's a stupid little thing, I'll post it, Twitter, LinkedIn.

But there's nothing, everything that I want to keep, which is probably 90% of stuff I post, is offline first, always offline.

Because even though you can make a backup and backups are great, I mean, you've got to have backups of everything anyway.

But if you're writing on social media, don't forget, I mean, the other thing is don't forget you could be taken off that platform like any moment for any reason whenever they want you want to think about it.

Not that we're writing anything nefarious or bad, but there is that possibility.

And I don't want all my ideas, thoughts, blog post, videos, content, audience to be taken away from me just because. because I'm using an online app.

So what you do is important, whether it's for work or for personal.

So if you want to keep that stuff, keep it offline and then copy it to online. Don't create it online because that's crazy talk.

Anyway, have a great day. If you've got any questions, let me know. Comment down below. Actually, I haven't put comments on yet. That's coming. There are links here to get in touch with me.

Have a great day.

Ciao.

Kia.

The best lazy email workflow

2025-12-23T08:54:56Z

Many small businesses struggle with email and how it’s used to collaborate. But there is an easy, dare I say it, lazy email workflow that might work for you too.

Watch the video on Odysee or YouTube

Transcript

Recently, I did a project with one of my clients. He's been actually quite a long-term client. And the first time he called me, he said that his email got hacked.

So we both sprung into action to try to figure out, well, firstly, we had to limit his account so no one else could log in. And secondly, we found out that all his emails were deleted, everything on the server.

Now, he runs a small business. There were seven people working in that business, including himself. And they lost everything because everything was on the server as in IMAP.

So when the server dies, gets hacked. Everything gets lost.

He was really distraught.

We locked it down. We've actually moved over to another service. And the other service is what I want to talk about.

Well, firstly, I want to talk about making sure that your email. provider has got really good security and make sure that you have really good security with your account and your staff account.

If you're not working with staff, your own account.

But if you're working in a small business, make sure your staff have good passwords, not password one, two, three, or whatever, because I have seen that and it blows my mind that people still do that.

But what I actually want to talk about is the system that we moved to.

Because one of the issues that he had, while we were working together to try to find a good solution for his email, was that they weren't really using a project management tool.

And they were forwarding emails backwards and forwards. Yeah, to try to get the information.

Now, I tried to tell them to use a project management tool, but for what they were doing, it wasn't worth it for them.

I still don't understand why, but it wasn't.

So they lived in their email. And they wanted to kind of carry on with their email because everyone was distributed, ec.

I still think it's best to use a project management tool. Like Basecamp, obviously I'm The Basecamp Guy. But they didn't want to do that. And they wanted everything in a simple form.

But the one thing that they were really struggling with is not necessarily communication between them, even though, again, that would be fixed with Basecamp.

But all the emails going backwards and forwards, and there's actually an easy, lazy fix for that.

And this video is actually called lazy email workflow, mainly because there is actually a way of doing what they wanted to do with email.

Now, as we know, email is quite simple. It's a text format. Obviously, you can put pictures in it, but primarily it's a text format, backwards and forwards. And I do love email, but as I said, people use email wrong.

So the solution we came up, and there are several solutions for this, but the one that we came up with was using, HEY, for business or HEY for work.

I don't know, they keep changing their names, but HEY, adding their domain to it, luckily they didn't lose their domain name, where everyone can actually comment on email.

So rather than forwarding emails to each other, they could actually assign emails and also talk and communicate about an email within that email, which is fantastic.

So when I showed them that feature, it kind of woke them up into, oh, this will actually work.

Now, I know how they work, and it will work for them, again, even though, I think they should use something else. They were really happy with it.

So the takeaway from this is twofold. One, there is a lazy way of using your email in your business to not forwarding emails. But secondly, making sure that you don't lose your emails.

I mean, they were in business for 12 years.

And they have moved email service providers in the past, but they've kept that email archive. and they lost it all because they had really bad security and passwords.

Well, I don't know how they got in. There's no way of knowing really how they got in. We did work with the provider, but they couldn't really tell us anything.

They just said someone logged in and deleted everything. Could it be a rogue employee, possibly? I doubt it because I know who they are and who the old employees were.

So I have a feeling that they were hacked somehow and with some other information that they gave us. So yeah, make sure your email is secure. That's kind of the first thing. I did say the second thing, but the first thing...

But second thing, there is a lazy way of using email in a workflow, especially when you got stuff so you can communicate and liaise with your colleagues about those emails, etc.

Hopefully that helps you out. If you have any questions, let me know. The product I'm talking about is hey.com so you can go on check it out. but if you have any questions, let me know.

There'll be a link below. Two links below. One, to subscribe.

Make sure you subscribe to my newsletter or to the channel if you're watching on YouTube. Another link so we can have a chat, if you need any help.

Anyway, have a great day. Keep it simple. And I'll see you in the next one.

Bye.

Kia.

The importance of not having a job

2025-12-22T18:45:51Z

We all need a purpose; otherwise, we aimlessly drift and waste our time on the mundane. So doing something we enjoy and getting paid for is the ultimate goal.

Watch the video on Odysee or YouTube

Transcript

I hate the word 'job'. I can't stand it. It annoys me, it irritates me. It always has irritated me.

I always wanted to be my own boss and do the things that I was able to do to be able to help people, right?

Customers, clients, whatever you wanna call them.

In fact, one of the first... jobs, even though I hate that word, but job that I had. One of the things that I created effectively was to be able to rewrite and print out CVs because back then, I'm old, you see.

Back then, no one really had computers. Only companies had it, but I loved computers, so I had a computer.

And I, yeah, rewrote CVs, typed them up, make them look as nice as I could, obviously, for back then. So it would help people get a job.

And that kind of opened up my eye into be able to do something that I enjoy doing, computers, and things that I could do with it, in this instance, CVs and printing and word processing, to be able to help that person do what they wanted to do, do what they wanted, yeah, needed to do, wanted to do.

And that got me into what I'm doing now.

So many years forward, I'm basically doing the same thing. I have a computer, I help people with their computers, simplify, etc, all the rest of it, you know.

But what's happened in the past year, eight months maybe, is that, and this is my fault, this isn't a fault of the clients or whatever, is that I've taken on too much. So it's turned into a job.

I love what I do. I'm not diverting from what I do. But again, it's turned into a job and I am beginning not to like it. I love what I do as I said.

I'm not liking the fact that I've put myself into this position where I'm forcing myself to take on work, again, my mistake, for it to turn into a job.

I never wanted a nine to five job. I never wanted anything like that. And it seems to have turned into that and I don't want that.

So for the past few months now, what I've done, I've tried to do is not take on as much work or long term projects because I want to go, you know, they say email bankruptcy.

I want to go company bankruptcy, not in the financial sense but bankruptcy in the sense, that I just want to not take on these bigger projects and figure out what I want to do.

I want to go back to enjoying the things that I want to do and I think we who work for ourselves, we work for ourselves because we want our own time and if you take on too many projects, it becomes a job.

For me, that job becomes that 9 to 5 thing that I never wanted to do in the first place. I want to do the things that I enjoy doing, being able to help people reach their goals, and then people give me money for it, which is a side effect of being able to help people.

That's probably why you haven't seen so many videos from me.
That's probably why you've seen my website change from here and there and everywhere.
That's probably why you've seen these videos be a slightly different.

But it all comes down to the tech side of things as well. I mean, again, I'm a Tech Minimalist. I'm a MacJunky. I'm The Basecamp Guy. Whatever you want to call it... I help people simplify their stuff.

And basically, I'm being my own client. Like we always are.

Generally we kind of need to look inwards as to what the fuck are you doing. Change it!

Which is effectively what I tell my clients. "What the hell is this? Let's change it to make it better".

And I've just taken on too much work and I don't want to work anymore. I don't want a job anymore.

So you've probably, as again, you've probably noticed that I've got a bit more creative in the things that I do and the way I've done things. And I want to go along that route. And yeah I'm looking forward to it.

I'm gonna stop, I'm probably gonna stop my email email list which is career suicide but you know we learn from our mistakes and we have to kind of do things.

So if you want to be following my journey you can do on this website on YouTube, here are links...

But I think we should all do the things that we truly enjoy and we should do things that obviously help others and in my case I just don't want to have a job.

Kia.

It's ok to just use the stock Apple apps

2025-12-19T13:39:20Z

Sometimes we need to get a third-party app to get our work done. However, using the stock Apple apps can be easier and save you time and money.

Watch the video on Odysee or YouTube

Transcription

I'm one of these people that like using stock apps, so stock Apple Notes, Calendar, etc. But there are apps that you can get that are skins to that information.

So I trust my information with Apple, so my contacts, calendars, reminders, etc. effectively is in the Apple ecosystem iCloud.

But I like having apps that are 'skins' to that information. So things like Fantastical, which uses reminders and calendars and it you know shows you that information.

So it's effectively a 'skin' to your own data that you have somewhere else. So you can have Google Calendar, etc.

But I wondered what it would be like to be able to not use those skins, not use any third party apps and just use the stock apps.

Now as I said, I like using stock apps. I like using Apple Notes. I like using iCloud and so on to run my business.

But there are sometimes things that you want there extra on top of those, the stock apps that come with your Mac.

But I actually don't think you need those extra features. Now I've been using things for my task manager and it works.

It's beautiful. I love it. But I've noticed that I use it less and less because I do all my business in my Basecamp, which is a separate thing in itself. But all my contacts is actually I use Apple contacts. I don't use anything else.

As you know, I don't use the CRM sometimes dab into daylight. But it doesn't seem to work for me. But it is fantastic if you have a business that you need a CRM.

I generally don't need a CRM and I keep going backwards and forwards with this. I just can't make up my mind. But anyway, that's a different thing.

My calendar now I used Fantastical because it does look great on the iPhone because the built in iPhone app looks crap. But it doesn't mean that it's not feature rich.

What is a calendar? You put things in and it reminds you of something. What else do you need? Now the features that Fantastical gave me and things effectively gave me.

They're two different things. One is a task manager and one is a calendar. I realised in these past couple of months that I wasn't really using those extra features other than they looked pretty.

Now looking pretty is great. But it's not exactly how you should choose an app really.

So what I've done in the past few weeks and I've taken some time off in the past few weeks as you are aware, it was because I had an issue with my eye and it kept weeping.

That's why I wasn't making videos. And in that time, I was just constantly thinking about what if I just use the stock Apple apps.

So stock calendar, stock Reminders and have everything set up in such a way where I don't have to worry about going into these other apps or use the features on these other apps.

And in the past week or so, I've realised I don't need these other skins. I don't need these other features that these other apps were giving me.

Now some people may want them and like them and they like the prettiness. I mean, I don't think there's anything ugly about the calendar app or the reminders for the Apple Reminders and so on.

But yeah, Fantastical does look way better on the phone and things look way better on anything. But again, that's not really the criteria you should be looking at when you're getting these apps.

So what's the point of me spending money on apps where the built in ones can just work. So again, for the past couple of weeks, I've been using the stock apps and it's, you know, working great.

And I don't understand why anyone would need something that looks pretty. Does that make sense?

So have a look, excuse me, so have a look at the stock apps that you have, you'll probably find that you just, you can just use them without having to spend money on skins as it was, as I like to call it.

And just go with what you have because you'll probably find it'll just do way more or do what you need it to do effectively.

Anyway, with that, I'll see you in the next one.

Ciao.

Kia.

Tonight view

2025-12-18T18:00:01Z

Motril, Spain.

Kia.

Not all technology is good technology

2025-12-18T12:23:15Z

There's a different between wanting something and needing it. When it comes to technology we use in our daily lives nowadays, I feel it's more of a want through great marketing rather than the need for it.

This is a video reply to a post I made on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7406312699187511296

Watch the video on Odysee or YouTube

Transcription

This is an amazing view. I've been here a couple of days. And a couple of days ago, I actually posted something on LinkedIn that for me has gone viral.

It's got 20,000 views, impressions, or whatever it is. Anyway, I've had loads of comments on it.

And it was a video that some guy made that I effectively stole. Yes, people share things on the internet.

And this guy made a video about a trunk or a boot of a car closing with a with a button press. And my take was was basically not 'all good technology is good technology' in the sense that do we really need it.

Now, I have an old truck that I can fix literally with duct tape and a hammer effectively. In fact I'm going to go and put on some togs, and actually fix something on this which you can't do on modern cards.

I'll be back in a minute...

So i've got the tools out, I've got the parts out, I've got to add a check valve to the petrol tank because it's having issues.

Now, the beauty of this car, of old cars, of things that don't have technology, because not all technology is good technology.

Yes, it's nice to have the button to open and close the door, but then you have to have a computer.

Computers go wrong.

I've been in tech for 35 years.

Computers always go wrong.

It just happens, whether it's the technology itself, like the components are failing. or whether it's the software that's created and there's a bug in it.

Basically, software I understand, has bloats because people want specific features.

I get that.

And I had that comment yesterday, "well, it's different with software rather than hardware"

Well, no, hardware still needs software. The technology is there because it needs the software to run.

With old cars, with things that are manual, analog, and I'm not here to say, did analogs better than digital.

The point is not all technology is good technology.

You don't need it.

There's a difference between needing and wanting.

You may want it.

I would love to have a button to be able to do this thing, but do you need it? Is it a necessity?

Now, there is another thing to that as well, and I'll get to that in a moment.

Hold on one sec... Let me get this ready, get under the car.

This is so simple to fix. Check valve basically means it blows one way, but not the other way, so I don't have petrol coming back.

Sorry, the return valve, so the petrol doesn't go into the return valve, so it doesn't cause a problem with the end, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Anyway, I'll be back in a sec... Hold on.

Oh man, this is...

Beauty of having a 4x4 is that it's high up, so I can go underneath it. But there are rocks everywhere, so that's a problem.

So, got my parts, got my trusty tool, and I'm going to put the check valve in.

So again, the issue isn't... the fact of having the feature is whether we need the feature. And I can understand there are some people that need the feature, you know, for accessibility and so on.

Again, I had another comment about that.

I understand accessibility. I get it. There are some people that need it. But the people that want it are the people with, you know, shopping bags.

Okay, it will be handy to have it. But the fact that you want it means that I have to pay more for that technology.

Hold on a minute...

Okay before I put this in and lose my thought...

So 'why would it cost more?'

Well you're putting technology somewhere where somebody else doesn't want it maybe the majority of people don't actually need that, want it, need it, or want it, or need it, or just want it, they don't want it, they don't need it.

And why is it going to cost the car costs more?

Because you're putting more technology, you're putting more resources, the car is going to cost more. Not only that, the more technology you have in something, it's more likely to go wrong.

So you don't actually, I wouldn't want it, I wouldn't need it, I can put my things on a wet floor, it's just the way it is.

Yes, it would make things easier, yes it would make things nicer, and if it's an option when you're purchasing fine.

But even that the fact that the R&D and marketing and the workforce the factories everything has to create that technology so there is still a cost.

Just because it's an option and then you say opt out.

I don't want this feature the cost has already been created. The cost has already been factored into the price of the overall vehicle, or thing or technology or whatever.

Here I am underneath my car fixing a freaking fuel line because it's easy to do. There's absolutely no fudge packet way that you could do this on any other kind.

And I know this from first experience.

My old car being a Mercedes A Class, it had a problem with the starter motor And I was told that, I know now that you have to drop the engine and these engineers the way they've created this thing.

You have to drop the engine to change the the starter motor. It was insane!

Anyway, I'm going to finish this and then I'll finish off the video. Hold it one second...

Okay, let's see if this thing works now...

And there we have it! It works! Beautiful!

I'm just going to check the actual engine compartment there you have it works...

So again, the point isn't...

Wait, let me turn this engine off. Hold on...

So again, the point isn't whether we want something. The point of technologies to help us, yes, I understand.

I'm in technology.

But the point isn't to overcomplicate technology with features that only a handful of people... or... I'm not saying, you know... that we shouldn't have these things because, again, some people need them.

But we have to think about whether it's needed everywhere. Whether it should be an option or whether it's needed at all.

I've just fixed this car in about 20 minutes.

Obviously, it's YouTube or it's a video, so I have to cut it.

But I've been able to fix this throughout my road trip while I'm here. Well, I'm here in Spain.

Not that there's anything wrong with it. It's just I love tinkering.

You can't do this with new cars. It's just impossible. It is impossible!

You need computer diagnosis tools, you need schematics, you need everything.

And there's some... I mean... what I've heard is that the new... I think the BMWs, you can't even do an oil change in your car because they wanted to make the technology 'so good' that you have to go to a main dealer to do it!

It's insanity!

If I buy a car, I want to be able to do anything and everything with it.

It's my car.

And with this new technology that can be, that your car can be turned off or certain feature turned on, turned on or off because you haven't paid the subscription or you're, it's just insanity.

So again, I will die on this hill.

Not all technology is good technology.

And we've got to... you guys who are developers who are watching this... whatever, developers, programmers, you've got to think.

You've got to...

You guys who are developers who are watching this, you've got to, think, do we need it?

Not, "let's just put it in because it's possible" or "let's put it in because we can squeeze money out of these, uh, of our customers".

Not all technology good technology.

And again, I will die on this hill... not literally this hill.

It's beautiful, that.

Very cool.

Anyway, do what you will with that. And, I'll see you in the next video, at some point.

Bye.

Kia.

Productivity is a lie

2025-12-17T13:08:17Z

The longer you look for a way to be more productive by learning everything under the sun, the longer it’ll take for you to actually get off your ass and do it.

Watch the video on Odysee or YouTube

Transcript

So if you've been following me for a while, you'll know that I hate using the word productivity, and there's a lot of reasons for that.

One of the main reasons is that I believe productivity is actually a lie. I'm going to mute my phone for a second.

There's a lot of productivity people, gurus, specialist, experts who talk about productivity, but in their terms, you have to use that app, you have to use their workflow, you have to use this system, their special system.

And I think productivity is more to do with you effectively getting off your ass and actually doing something.

It's got nothing to do with not necessarily workflows or someone else's workflow. It's always good to look at someone else's workflow to see how they work. But people selling their workflow as a product, I think is just wrong and it just, it won't work.

I've been in this space for, I would say, around about 10 years. And I've seen so many people come and go, effectively grifters, who try to sell their way of working.

Sometimes it works, sometimes people buy into it and, you know, think it's great and they'll have testimonials on their websites. But overall, I think it's bullshit. I really do.

I think, again, productivity is to do with you, not how, someone else works again taking someone's part of someone's workflows, fine. But I think it more comes down to you and the technology you use.

You know that I change and swap apps all the time, now I wouldn't recommend that for everybody, I do it because I need to know what's out there.

But the reason that I can do it is not because of the app or a specific workflow but more to do with the fact that I know how I should work how I work so going from notes to base camp.

I used Asana before I used to Todoist before. Tick, tick touched a little bit. But I would never, never force anyone to use a specific app.

And I think productivity people who try to do that are basically just trying to bum off someone else's app to get you to use how they work.

For me, today, for instance, I'm just chilling. You know, I do most of I get, here's the thing, I get up at around about 10 or 11. Sometimes I get up earlier.

I walk, Woof!, hey Woof!? We've just actually just come back from a walk. I do some client work. I work on my business. I work on other stuff.

I do everything and I'm pretty much finished at around about three or four o'clock. Obviously, I'm recording this video a little late. It's because I don't have, I'm not busy.

I hate being busy. I rather just go with the flow. I have goals and I have aspirations. I know I don't want to scale. I know I only need to make a certain amount of money per month. I know I need to talk to my friends, etc.

So I get those things done within that time frame, within that day. But most of the other time that I have, I chill, I relax.

Life is for living, not for productivity all the time, not for hustling all the time.

It's just crazy to me that these productivity people are selling something that I just do believe it's a falsehood. It just doesn't work.

Just go out and enjoy your life. Do the things that you need to do. Get off your ass and get some shit done. Instead of thinking, oh, I need to pay X amount of money for this course, for this PDF, for this bullshit.

That just will not work.

If they're not working with you one-on-one, it's never going to work. It's just the way it is.

Anyway, I'm going to go and edit this video. I'm going to relax and then walk Woof! again.

See you next time.

Hey Woof!.

Kia.

I was a little naive

2025-12-16T12:06:09Z

It’s not often you release that you’ve gone down the wrong path. But you can always steer back into familiar territory when things become clearer.

Watch the video on Odysee or YouTube

Transcription

Okay, well my eyes are still kind of irritating me, so I'll be rubbing them now and again.

I want to talk about how naive I've been, and I've kind of recently realised in a past week or so, about me pivoting away from IT to tech.

Now, for 30 years, for over 30 years, I've been known as the IT guy. More specifically, the Apple IT guy. Even more specific to that, the Mac junkie, the Mac Apple guy.

And I already had a niche. I already have a niche. I've had a niche forever. And that's why I was always hired, even by companies.

They're like, okay, we need an Apple guy.

I was at ITN. I was called in because I was the Apple guy. I was called in to companies because I was the Apple guy, the MacJunky.

And the recent change over the years, I've recently changed to being the 'Tech Guy'. And I think I've made a mistake doing that.

And I'll explain from my, from my point of view, IT is a specific thing, ICT, IT, you're the computer guy, you go in and do it.

I didn't want to be known as the computer guy, so I changed over to the tech guy, being the Tech Minimalist, helping people minimise the impact tech has.

Now, I do that, or I did that anyway with the Apple stuff. I always told people to use less apps and stuff. You know, set it up in a simple way.

But I wanted a phrase to encompass that, hence Tech Minimalism. The problem is, recently in the world, the world of tech, has become so ass over backwards.

I don't want to be associated with that anymore, the tech side of things. So choosing a name for your business, for your services, is so, so vitally important.

Now, it doesn't matter to a lot of people, whether it's IT or tech.

I get it, but to me, I've seen so many assholes in a tech space, I don't want to be associated with them. Same with the fake guru thing, same with selling courses, same with being a mentor, or selling coaching.

I don't want to be, I don't want anything to do with that.

Not only that, because I was the Mac junkie, the Apple IT guy, the IT guy, people knew exactly what I was doing.

Now when you say a Tech Minimalist, they're intrigued and I want to know what you do. So I explain it, but it's so hard to explain it and put it on a website to explain it in such a way where there's no friction.

And the whole point is to get rid of friction.

Doesn't matter what I'm doing, whether it's my personal life, my car, my dog, whatever it is in my life, I want it to be as simple as possible.

After all, I 'Make IT so simple, it's invisible'. So I don't want the friction to be there.

The friction I'm getting at the moment, and this is the things that I've been trying to learn from marketers and landing page experts and stuff, is when someone goes onto my website, they're intrigued, they call, we speak, but it's so difficult to explain what I do on a landing page.

That's why they call.

When they call, generally I sign them up, it's fine, but the friction for me is I don't want there to be any friction for the prospect, the client, the person reading the website.

So that's where the 'Tech' side, irritates me.

So I'm wondering if that's hindering certain things, that's the thing that's actually causing the friction, or I'm thinking out loud and this is kind of going into the void for no reason.

I don't know. I'm thinking about it. My eyes are thinking about it. God damn, my eyes are so annoying!!

Let me know your feedback. It'll be interesting.

What do you think you could simplify with your business. Is there something that's causing friction on your website? Because it seems that there is for me. It's a feeling that I have.

But anyway, I'm going to go and rub my eyes again.

I'll see you next time.

God damn, these eyes.

Kia.

Monday Muse: Create art, not content

2025-12-15T13:06:37Z

There is no ’best practice’ with art or what’s now called ‘content’. Art comes from the love of what you like and your interpretation of it.

Watch the video on Odysee or YouTube

Transcript

You know I'm privileged in being able to wake up pretty much at any time of the day and effectively do what I want on that day.

I've never set myself rigid tasks throughout the day, the week or the month. I do have soft goals that I want to achieve but more than that, I do what I like, and I love it. Being able to do that has really freed up my time, my mind and I'm so much more relaxed.

And to be able to do that living on the road as I do is such a great thing because there are so many things that I see and experience.

I woke up this morning and checked through Twitter after doing the morning routine, I saw a post about making content and people having issues with it.

There's so much going on in your life that you can actually make content about everything, but you've got to love that thing.

If you make content about something that you don't enjoy and you're just chasing the money, chasing the views, chasing the followers etc., you're not going to get anywhere at all, quick, then you get frustrated, and you're back into that vicious circle of what do I make?

What I recommend is to pick a topic that you love and enjoy and can talk about over and over again. also, people never get bored when you talk about the same thing generally because not everybody sees your video.

So making the same kind of video in different contexts still works because different people see it. So worrying about "what topic I should make", is something you shouldn't worry so much about. If you love that topic or art.

I'd like to call it art rather than content because once you think of it as art, then it's your art. No one can tell you how you should make art.

I'm in the trunk of my car at the moment. Who the fuck cares? It doesn't matter. It's my art. I want to make it like this. I want to make it black and white. I want to be outside with nature.

People might resonate with the topic, the thing that I'm talking about. Great, if they don't then they go to someone else and that's fine but trying to chase everybody is never a good thing.

You know, there's this thing, "talking to everyone, talk to no one". Well, if you try to market to everyone people get annoyed, and you're not marketing to anyone. It's the same with your art. It's the same with your content.

Make something that you enjoy, that you love and everything else will kind of fall into place.

Kia.

Friday Fury: Cheesy newsletter shit

2025-12-12T13:14:49Z

I think we’re all getting fed up with newsletters and how they try to manipulate you into buying something. Not even that, but they all look the same!

Watch the video on Odysee or YouTube

Transcript

In today's Friday Fury, I want to talk about email.

Not emails that you and I send, as in, you know, communication, but email as in newsletters.

Even talk about it just fucking annoys the hell out of me.

This is Friday Fury. So if you're not into swearing, go and watch my other videos. There are some other great videos.

But my Friday Fury series is literally that. It's a Friday and I'm furious about something and I want to talk about it.

I posted a Tweet about this earlier today about newsletters how they are just fucking goddamn annoying as hell.

So, a newsletter used to be people sending each other funny stuff in the internet infancy. Then it turned into like funnels and lead magnets and kind of bullshit like that. And it irritates the hell out of me.

And I don't understand why you need to try to sell with your fucking goddamn cheesy lead magnet.

Which is bullshit by the way, but most of the time anyway, because you can effectively find that information just by searching or going to YouTube or going to Twitter or whatever and searching for it.

Or you probably even know that information because most of the cheesy lead magnets that I try to find because it looks so compelling, you download it and it's bullshit, I already knew anyway, right?

It's just shit because I already knew it. And you probably already know it as well.

So I want to personally stop calling it a newsletter, which is weird because it is a newsletter in a way. But why not just it being an email list?

Because I've tried in the past to do these lead magnets and stuff, and I thought it was valuable.

And to be honest, even mine were pretty fucking shit and cheesy. And I got fed up with it. People said, you know, these assholes segment just to sell you shit.

They'll email, drip you to sell you shit. The fact that they say, no, I don't do that. It's bullshit.

Anyone that fucking says, they're on the internet because they're not there to make money, is utter full of shit.

Because we're all here to make money. We all need to pay for fucking shit. We all need to work. All this, you know, freelancers, solo, uh, solo entrepreneurs, entrepreneurs, you're there to sell shit.

So don't bullshit anyone saying that you're not there to sell shit.

I had a Twitter tiny conversation with someone. "Oh no, I don't sell anything." But then in a different tweet, "I made blah blah from my newsletter" and Twitter bullshit.

To stop fucking kidding people.

So this whole newsletter bullshit, more bullshit, is so tiring and so fucking People say be different and every fucking newsletter that you try to sign up to are exactly the same fucking template.

And going back to copywriters calling themselves ghost writers bullshit because they're just copying the same fucking thing over and over again.

It's crazy.

I'm going to go and change my newsletter from ghost to Hey World. If you're interested, there'll be a link below.

It'll be pretty much transparent to you. If you're already subscribed to me, you'll probably get an email saying, you know, move over.

I don't do lead magnets.

I don't do sales funnels.

I don't do any of that utter fucking shit.

Because I don't need to shout to sell what I do. I just do what I do. People enjoy it. And then people buy from me. people hire me, etc. All this other bullshit is bullshit and I'm fucking fed up with it.

That was today's Friday Fury.

I see you next time. Have a good weekend.

Ciao.

Kia.

No one likes an audit

2025-12-11T10:31:18Z

It doesn’t matter what kind of audit it may be, they’re always annoying, stressful and intimidating. But at times they're necessary.

Watch the video on Odysee or YouTube

Transcript

Well, today I'm doing something slightly different, as you can see.

I'm in the forest. I've got a small tripod, but I can't put it down anywhere.

So let's try vlog style for a change. First time I've actually done this.

But I want to talk about audits. No one likes being audited. No one likes doing audits.

No one really enjoys going to their accountant and for them to say, yes, you can spend this. No, you can't. It takes hours. takes days, it can take a long time.

Obviously, you don't like being audited by the tax office. Never happened to me in all the years that I've worked. Let's hope it never happens.

But the issue comes when you're running your business, you sometimes need to audit your business. The things you use, the way you use them, the workflows you have.

And no one really thinks about the, no one really thinks about the tech that they use, the IT infrastructure that they have.

When you're running a business, especially when you're working on your own, it's really difficult to wear a lot of hats.

I understand this.

But you need to understand how your business is run and how you can make your business run more efficient by having proper workflows, by having proper IT infrastructure, like the foundation of your business.

So I think it might be a good time. It's Thursday. Tomorrow is Friday Fury. It might be a good time before the weekend.

Go through and do a small audit of how you are running the business, how it's running on the tech side of things and seeing what you can change, what you can improve.

And if you need any help with that, obviously there are people out there that can help like me.

It sounds like an advert.

But audits are useful, annoying, but they don't have to be painful. As long as you do it properly, do it frequently, I think you'll get far. Let me know what you think.

Let me know what you think about this style of video. I hate it. My arm is already tired. Give me some feedback. Feedback's always welcome. and if you want to have a chat, there's a link below.

I'll see you next time.

Ciao.

Kia.

Stop having meetings

2025-12-10T12:40:46Z

Having too many meetings can be more of a headache than many realise. The best way for you, the team, the project or even the client to know what’s going on is to have a single source of truth.

Watch the video on Odysee or YouTube

Transcription

This might be an unpopular opinion, but I actually personally like meetings.

But it doesn't mean I like back-to-back meetings.

And I don't think anyone should have back-to-back meetings day after day because you're just going to burn out and you're not going to get anything done.

And in fact, the project's going to get all messed up because no one knows what's going on.

Meetings are great when you need to get specific, when there's urgency, I would say.

If there's an urgent issue or when you're meeting someone for the first time when you want to start working with them, obviously I'm a consultant and a coach.

So when I'm working with someone, I want to meet them and they need to meet me.

And that makes sense.

When I connect to their computer to help them, that's not a meeting.

That's work.

That shouldn't be called a meeting, whereas some people do actually call it a meeting.

So when you're working on a project, you shouldn't be having meetings all the time because sometimes people don't make it.

So all that information that goes on in that meeting gets lost.

What needs to happen is to have one central place where everyone can go to, can communicate and actually know what's going on with the meeting.

Because having those meetings away from other people, again, you're going to get completely lost as to where the project is.

So having back-to-back meetings is no good for your mental health, for your health, for your company health, And even for the project, there I say, the client as well, because the client hasn't got an idea of what's going on.

When I work with my clients, I have a central place where we communicate.

We very rarely have meetings, unless it's urgent.

If I'm working with them, as I said, I connect to them and that's not a meeting.

That's actually doing some work.

The thing called meeting never happens.

It's very rare that it happens because I don't think it actually helps.

What helps is having a single place, a single source of truth, if I dare say it, where everything is where we don't actually need to see each other because we know who we are already because we've already done the initial meeting.

And everything is in that one place.

So we don't ever need to have meetings because everyone knows where the project is.

Everyone knows what needs to be done.

What's the next step in the project?

Everyone knows what's going on.

Because there is that one place where you can go to to actually realize, okay, where we are in the project.

So having back-to-back meetings is not good for you, your health, your client, or the project, as I said.

So the best thing to do is keep it simple and just have one single source of truth, as I said.

Anyway, if you need to know any more information, there'll be a link below.

Let's have a chat.

Let's have a meeting.

Have a great day.

I'll see you in the next one.

Ciao.

Kia.

How can adding something can help you simplify?

2025-12-09T12:07:39Z

It’s so counter-intuitive, especially when Tech Minimalism tells us the opposite, but sometimes it’s better to add something to your toolkit that helps us simplify our business.

Watch the video on Odysee or YouTube

Transcription

It's been a while.

I can't believe it's been, what, a couple of months.

I haven't made a video now.

And I was kind of stuck in a way, how I run my business and the things that I do.

But something kind of sparked an idea.

And the idea of actually being able to add more things to simplify.

Now, that's so counterproductive and counterintuitive and counter what Tech Minimalism is, i.e. taking things away.

But there are times where you have to add things for you to be able to do more work.

And I'm not talking about productivity.

I don't, as you know, I don't like the word productivity because I don't think productivity exists.

And I'll make a video about that probably later this week.

But being able to add tools, add things in your arsenal to make your life easier.

Again, what's the point of adding stuff?

So for instance, TextExpander.

Now, TextExpander is like a snippet expander.

You type in something and it writes something out.

This isn't a video about TextExpander, but that's what TextExpander does.

But obviously, we don't need that because we can just type.

But adding that tool enables us to do our work better and quicker.

So adding something to be able to do things easier.

Now, I struggled with, and as you know, I've struggled with my business. in the sense of what should I call it and what's going on and so on.

And I had a conversation with Eldar, who's just awesome.

He makes templates, blocks templates.

I'll put a link down below.

And I've known him for a long time.

He watches my videos and stuff.

And we spoke about how I should move forward.

What should I do?

And it turns out I had to add something to my business, and able to make it easier for people to understand. what I do because when people went over to macjunky.com, he's like, well, he's an Apple guy.

Why is he talking about Tech Minimalism for?

And when someone went to my personal website, when it was my personal name, they couldn't understand what was he doing Apple stuff for if he's talking about Tech Minimalism.

So what I've done is basically divided the two.

So effectively added another website, added another thing, which causes me headaches because I want everything in one place. for marketing and clear a choice that someone could make as to what they're hiring me for are different.

So, yeah, I've added this website as my personal website and then MacJunky, which is my company effectively, which is all my Mac stuff, my bread and butter, the things I, a thing I love doing as a separate entity.

So sometimes adding something could actually be beneficial.

So I'm going to see how this goes for the next few months.

I'm not going to change it tomorrow or whatever, but have a look around here and let me know what you think down below.

Anyway, have a great day.

As always, keep it simple.

I'll see in the next one.

Ciao.

Kia.

Saving money is simpler

2025-12-08T12:05:04Z

There are plenty of gurus out there telling you how you could make more money. But have you thought that simply not wasting money could be more beneficial?

Watch the video on Odysee or YouTube

Transcript

I think we all understand the difference between making money and saving money.

Making money, i.e. working, hustling, doing whatever to make money.

And there's lots of people out there that explain how to do this. Most of them are completely BS, but they're out there.

Saving money intentionally is great, i.e., you make money and then you put a portion of it away for rainy days, for taxes, for things that you want to do, holidays, cars, whatever.

But no one really talks about not intentionally spending money on the things that you don't need.

For instance, there's no reason to get three or four cameras. There's no reason to get the latest hardware, phones, whatever, laptops. There's no reason to do that.

So there's no one really telling you how to save money. There's lots of people telling you how to make money.

But how about not spending the money that you already have, not wasting it in a wasteful way?

You don't need, as I said, three cameras, four phones, whatever. But you also don't need specific software.

You know, there are coaches and gurus and courses telling you use this system, that system.

And they'll tell you what software you need because this is the great piece of software.

And there's loads of productivity gurus out there that do this. Oh, man, I found this software, and it'll do you really good.

But half the time you find out they've been paid by the software company. Or they're just making ad revenue on YouTube.

That's basically it. They don't have your back. They just want money themselves.

So they will make money from you watching the bullshit that they're actually out.

So don't waste your money on finding the next best thing, shiny object syndrome type stuff. Save your money.

Learn how to do things from actual coaches and trainers and consultants and not some bullshit asshole that's on YouTube trying to, I don't know, sell you a course or sell you this piece of software that they've been told to sell you.

It just irritates. me. I wish this was a Friday Fury episode, but it's not.

So save your money and stop wasting it on software tech that you just don't need.

Anyway, make sure you're subscribed as a link below.

Am I selling you anything? Not really. You can hire me, I guess. Let's have a chat.

Keep it simple, and I'll see you the next one.

Ciao.

Kia.

Never fear the unknown

2025-12-05T14:02:03Z

It's all too common to fear the task than actually doing the test itself. As a result, we sometimes fall into a place where we feel anxious about trying something new. Even though, deep down, we know it's probably better for us.

Watch the video on YouTube or Odysee

Transcript

The fear of doing the thing often outweighs doing the thing itself.

You probably notice that doing the thing that you need to do is actually a lot easier than looking at a task and saying.

I really don't want to do that and I'm scared.

I'm apprehensive.

I'm anxious.

But usually when it gets to actually doing that thing, all the weight is lifted off your off of your shoulders.

I can't get my words out today sorry.

And actually doing that task is a lot easier and a lot simpler.

I had this issue when i was in Croatia and i did a bungee jump it's the first time I ever did a bungee jump and I was shit scared.

I mean there was no it was over water it was on a bridge the moment I left the ground or left the banister, what you want to call it, left the platform.

It was totally freeing.

It was amazing.

And I wanted to do it 10 times more.

It's the same as eating food.

For me, I eat for sustenance.

I don't eat for fashion.

And when I mean fashion in food is I don't care if it looks pretty per se.

Yes, of course, things need to look nice.

But if I'm hungry, I just want to eat.

So you just want to do that thing.

You just need to do that thing.

This is kind of going on a wild goose chase in a way into what I'm trying to say.

But I think you understand that being apprehensive of doing that thing shouldn't outweigh of you actually doing that thing.

When it comes to tech, think about it.

You're probably struggling.

Things are annoying you.

Your emails are all over the place.

Your project management is everywhere.

Your communication between your teams are a complete mess.

And I'm saying this from experience because I see this happen thousands of times.

I would say hundreds, but it's thousands of times.

I've had thousands of clients during Mac Junkie.

And even though I haven't done Tech Minimalism all those years, I've seen the way people work on their machines.

And it's mind-boggling to me as to how they can operate, let alone operate a business because it's so messy.

So the anticipation or the thought process of you saying, you know, this just works, let me carry on, is mainly because you're anxious of trying something new, like trying a new food, for instance.

I do try different foods, but again, I don't eat for fashion.

I try it because I want to try it.

And if it's nice, I'll carry on eating it and probably change the way I eat.

And it's the same with tech.

If I find a tool that I don't think just works, I don't recommend it.

I don't use it.

I don't bother with it.

So find your sweet spot in getting things organised and simplified.

I mean, there's nothing else I can say about that.

Anyway, if you have any questions, there'll be a comment section below and there'll be a link here to get in touch.

With that, keep it simple and I'll see you next time.

Ciao.

Kia.

Complicated tech shittery

2025-12-04T14:35:56Z

Getting frustrated with tech is annoying and infuriating, so when a company thinks of making a product, they never think about the shittery they’re creating when it has a problem or issue.

Watch the video on YouTube or Odysee

Transcript

You know, one thing I hate, there's many things I hate.

One of the things I hate about tech is complicated tech shittery.

What do I mean by that?

Tech is supposed to be there to help you out and supposed to be able to enrich your life.

Now, granted, some of these examples I'm going to talk about, do kind of help the situation.

But the complicated part is that they've made it so complicated that when it goes wrong, it goes wrong, it doesn't work.

You can't get it to work.

It takes forever.

And sometimes all of a sudden it will start working on its own.

And that's what I call tech shittery.

It's just annoyances that don't need to be there.

One of them is in my office, studio, whatever, I have these lights.

Now with the lights you have to, there's no on button.

You have to turn it on via an app on the Mac or on your phone.

Now sometimes, and I don't know why it's the right one, just suddenly decides not to connect.

So I can't turn it on.

So I have to wait, I have to reset it.

It's just the pain in the butt.

I have an idea in my head.

I want to press record.

I need the lights. and you have to faff around with this bullshit light, and it's irritating.

Again, tech shittery.

What are examples have I got?

My lights, the lights I have in the house, they're called Hugh, they're from Phillips, work fantastically when they work.

All these things work great when they work.

When they don't, the Hugh lights, for instance, they decide they don't want to turn off when you turn off.

And again, you need an app.

Yes, you could go to the light switch and turn it on and off.

But that's a pain in the butt because you have to get up.

When you even forget the getting up.

When you turn it on and off, it goes full blast.

And you still need the app to turn it down.

Tech shittery.

It's just fucking annoying.

What else do I have?

There's so many examples.

Oh, my son of speakers.

I have a sonar system.

They're all around the house.

They're awesome. sometimes it just decides this speaker doesn't want to work today.

I'm on holiday, one of the speakers, and it could be any one of them.

Mind you, the sub works all the time, but one of these satellites, they just stop working.

I don't want to work.

Is it a Wi-Fi issue?

No, because my Wi-Fi works.

I haven't, it just works.

But again, that also causes a problem.

I have video cameras around the house.

Sometimes one of them decides it just doesn't want to work.

This tech shittery annoys the bejesies out of me.

And I'm sure it does with you as well.

When it comes to tech on your Mac, on your phone, whatever, the systems that you're using, they sometimes go down.

Tech shittery.

It's annoying.

We all have to deal with it.

How do we deal with it?

Well, the way I deal with it is calm down.

Reset it.

It's annoying.

When it comes to services not working, yeah, well, I try to choose services that are offline and I can carry on working.

My CRM is offline.

Most of the, well, all the Apple apps are offline.

There are only a handful of apps that are not critical to my work that are online.

So if they stop working or if the internet stops working, or I'm in a place where there's no internet connection, obviously you can't work.

So that tech shittery, you need things to work.

You need these things that are connected to all work for you to be able to work.

So having offline apps, having tech that you can literally just turn on and off.

Like cars nowadays.

This is another one.

Cars nowadays are all computers.

If the computer doesn't work, you're screwed.

You've got to go back to BMW, Mercedes, whatever, Tesla to get it working.

Actually, I've got a story about that for another video later on.

But tech shittery is a thing.

So limiting your tech shittery, limiting that crap that you have to deal with will make you do a lot more work and make you way more productive because you're not getting frustrated with that.

Again, I call it tech friction as well.

So you can actually get on with your work.

It's not a Friday Fury episode.

I maybe you should do one soon.

Anyway, have a great day.

Keep it simple.

Get rid of the tech shittery and I'll see you in the next one.

Okay, chow.

Bye.

Kia.

Tonight’s view

2025-12-03T15:49:26Z

Location

Kia.

Email is the only constant

2025-12-03T15:38:02Z

Often the thing you use most and take for granted is the most important in your life. However, we don't often consider it important until something goes wrong. Think about having a cut at the end of any finger.

Watch the video on YouTube or Odysee

Transcript

Since the dawn of the internet, the only constant has been email.

Using it, sending it, having it set up, probably your first thing that you ever created.

It's email and it's never changed.

And in business, the way you communicate with the outside world is email.

It's nothing else.

When you want to create an account online, they need your email.

Email is the only constant when it comes to the internet. So we have to protect our email. We have to make sure that it works in such a way where it's not too complicated.

However I have many clients that have always have an issue with email. Whether it's not working, whether they can't send, whether they have too many emails coming in, whether they have too many notifications, newsletters, just everything, tags, whatever.

The main constant, it being email, is the main thing that most of my clients have issues with.

So when people say to me, why do I keep posting my inbox with nothing in it?

It's because I want to show that that is possible.

If email is the only constant and it's the thing that will never change, you've got to make sure that that foundation of your business, of your Internet life is safe, secure and working.

And the only way to do that is to simplify it all by getting rid of folders, by getting rid of tags.

Tags can be useful, but generally getting rid of folders and tags, making sure that you don't have too many mailboxes so your email application isn't constantly working all the time.

There's so many different ways.

And the main thing is please use your own domain name when it comes to email.

Don't use a gmail.com when you're using for your business.

I mean, it's so unprofessional and it's just not great.

There's so many little things.

So email is the constant.

You have to create it in such a way where you can work with it and as secure as possible.

If you have any questions, let me know.

The main thing is keep it secure.

Please keep it secure.

Anyway, have a great day.

If you have any questions, put them down below and email me.

There will be a link here somewhere.

I'll see you next time.

Ciao.

Kia.

If it’s clunky it’ll make you unproductive

2025-12-02T14:11:20Z

The more clunky the app, the less likely you will use it. It’s a simple fact. How do I know? Well, it comes from the clients I work with. Not only that, but it also comes from my personal experience.

Watch the video on YouTube or Odysee

Transcript

I don't think anyone likes complications and friction.

Everyone wants to get rid of it.

I don't think there's anyone on the planet that sits there and going, you know, I could do with some friction and some complication, my life being complicated.

Well, this is a tech channel, so I'm going to talk about the tech side of things.

And for me, I had some issues with my tech, and I wanted to make them easier.

So as you know, I've just moved over to another service. another host for my website, and that's enabled me to add some extra features on it.

The features weren't really the thing that drew me to it.

What drew me to it to move my website to the new host was more to do with the way my current workflow was.

So I eliminated three tools, three tools, count them, and moved over to just one tool.

Again, that's got nothing to do with the extra features that the website and that I've implemented is to do with how I was working my workflow, basically.

So having less tools, having less complications, having less friction within my workflow will enable me to be more productive.

And I think people miss that.

What people do is, well, it's working.

This is exactly what I did.

Well, it's working.

I know it's clunky.

I know it's kind of annoying.

I could save time, but it's working and I don't really want to touch it.

And that was me for a few years.

Mind you, the tool that I came from, which was Webflow at the beginning, I used it because it was easier than my previous workflow, right?

So we're always trying to make things better.

We're not going backwards.

If you're going backwards, then you're doing something completely wrong.

But moving over to Webflow from, what was I using before, WordPress, WordPress was clunky.

And now it's got to a stage where Webflow is getting clunky and complicated.

I have this thing.

If a tool or an app, and this is going to rub some people the wrong way, if an app or a service that I'm using is clunky and PC-like, works like a PC, I don't use it.

If it's simple, makes my life easier and looks Mac-like, I will probably use it.

And I say probably because the tool still has to do what I need it to do.

So I have this threshold of, does it look nice?

Is it going to help my workflow?

And if it's clunky, look for a new thing.

And that's what I did when I moved over.

So if you're running your business and time is of the essence, and it usually is, because you only get a certain amount of time on a project, a certain amount of time in the day, certain amount of time that you need to do stuff.

So time is always of the essence.

And time for me means more than anything else in the world, other than my dog, Woof!.

He's chilling out here.

So find new tools.

Don't just think, you know, this is working because that's what I did.

And I guess in a way, I wasted a lot of time.

But find the tools that will work for your workflow and make the work.

And you probably get rid of some of the tools that you're already using, which happened to me.

As I said, I've got rid of three tools and I replaced it with one with extra features.

Again, the extra features was something else.

Have a great day.

There'll be a comment section down below and like and subscribe and all that stuff I love saying that now have a great day see you next time, caio.

Kia.

Building dreams

2025-12-01T13:45:54Z

A dream is only a wish if you don’t act on it. I’ve been lucky throughout my life where I’ve lived the dreams I’ve wished for. With a little work, you could too.

Watch the video on YouTube or Odysee

Transcript

It's been exactly a year since my last video.

So last year, July 4th, was the last video I made.

Now why did it take me so long to make another video?

Well, I've been thinking a lot about what I do, about the dreams that I have, and the dreams that I create for other people.

Now, I love what I do. I love technology.

I've been working for clients I already know.

I've kind of pulled back on the marketing, and the emails, and the videos, mainly because I just wanted to relax, and spend time with Worf, and go traveling, and visit my family.

So I'm right now in North of Holland.

I'm still in Holland.

I'm basically waiting for September to get my car.

The last APK, like the MOT, the TUV, or whatever in Germany I think it's called.

And once it's got this, because it's a classic car, once it has its last MOT, then I don't need to really come back to Holland.

But, so I'm waiting for September for that.

But while I was waiting, I thought, let me come to my cousin's place.

It's a long story, but basically they're my cousins.

And they have land up in Den Helder.

And they have a museum, and they have a bar, they have a museum park.

Their father was a famous sculptor, painter, artist basically.

And he had this land.

And now they've taken it over, and they basically needed some help.

So I thought, you know what?

I have my dream. I'm living my dream.

I help others with their dreams.

So why not stay around, instead of going away early, and then having to come back anyway.

Stay around and help them on their land.

So I've been helping with their sculptures.

I've been helping with their land in general, with their machinery, with some mechanics, some gardening work, some building work.

And I love it. It's great.

And the fact that I'm able to do this is even better for me and my mental health.

The fact that I can help them with their dreams, and what their needs are at the moment.

I don't have any needs.

As you know, I'm a nomad, so I don't have rent or anything like that.

And I love it.

And obviously I have all the time in the world.

So I thought, why not help them with their dreams, because I'm already living mine.

But I do want to get back into helping others with their dreams.

Now, obviously I do need to get paid.

I do have invoices that I need, you know, bills, sorry.

So I do need to work.

So I thought, why not get back into working again?

So I reset up my website.

I'm starting my newsletter again.

There'll be a link here so you can sign up.

Whether I'll do it weekly, monthly, daily, I'm still not too sure.

This is Friday.

Yeah, Friday.

I should make a Friday Fury video, but I don't want to do that on my first video coming back.

But yeah, I thought I'd get back into working again, because I am living my dream, and I love living my dream.

But I also really, really like helping others with their dreams, with their technology, with what they need to do to get to-- to basically help them with their dreams, help you with your dreams.

If you have any ideas about topics, great to hear them.

About my newsletter, that'd also be great to hear.

I mean, I know what I want to do.

I want to basically carry on where I left off.

But if you have any ideas, I'd be happy to listen to them.

Anyway, I'm going to--I'm basically waiting at the moment for some sand to be delivered for the barn that we're building.

So I thought I'd make this video.

Enjoy it, and I'll see you next time.

Maybe on Monday.

See you next time. Ciao.

Kia.

Stop hacking your tools!

2025-11-28T12:26:16Z

The best solution is the simple one. So if you’re constantly fixing the ‘hacks’ that are supposed to make your life easier, then what’s the point? You’re only ’Sellotaping’ a fix and not fixing it permanently. Right?

Watch the video

Transcript

As you know, my computer tech career started when I was really young.

When I got into the music scene, when I was setting up studios for big studios actually in London, it was a long time ago.

It was like the mid to late mid, yeah, mid to late 90s.

So I've been at the beginning of all the music, tech, setup kind of thing, computers, when it came to recording audio and stuff.

Obviously, there was computers way before that.

So I started off really young and at an early age.

What I found out, what I learned, I should say, from that time was not to use any hacks.

There was lots of free, not free, but paid software people hacked to be able to use for free.

We all did it.

I'm not going to say that I didn't do it.

I did it as well.

But I soon found out that there was always bugs in it and you couldn't upgrade.

And the software companies became more aware of it.

And they kind of did keys in a different way.

Like I remember Logic and Logic Audio were two different keys that you had to connect to each other.

Yes, you could still get hacked versions and stuff.

But again, they kept crashing and you had to keep finding more and more hacked versions.

What that episode taught me was never to use hacks.

And since the early, or sorry, the late 90s, after a few years of all that crap that I had to deal with, with studios, big studios, little studios, producers, they were all using hacks.

But that basically taught me never to use hacks in anything.

So I never sell a tape solutions together.

I never use any kind of hack to do any work.

And I don't mean hacking now necessarily in hacked software, but hacks in the way that I use my software and I use tools.

And what I mean by hacks, yesterday's video about automation, automation in a way is a little hack.

It's a hack for you to get stuff done.

But there are hacks that if they go wrong, just like in the mid-90s, late 90s, you have to find someone to be able to help you fix that hack that initially fixed what you were trying to do.

So you're kind of going around in this cat and mouse situation where you're trying to fix things, but they keep breaking.

And I find automation, especially with Zapier, all these APIs and web hooks and stuff, they're fantastic.

They're great ideas.

But when it comes to actually using them and when they go wrong, it's the biggest pain in the ass possible.

And I call them the hacks in a way that I used to deal with hacks in the past.

I just stopped using it because, firstly, I don't think it's necessary.

Like I said yesterday, if you're too busy to use these hacks, you're too busy and you've got to change the way you're working.

But if you need to use these hacks, you've got to put time aside to be able to fix those hacks or hire someone.

And it costs a lot of money to hire people to do all this.

So why do it in the first place?

Why not get organized in such a way where you're not using these sellotaped solutions and hacks just to get by in your day?

I mean, it's crazy.

So the simpler things are, the less things will go wrong.

Very quick story.

I have a small Mercedes A-Class.

It's a very old one.

It's great.

I love it.

But I was in Spain.

I couldn't fix it myself because there are computers.

So I couldn't do it.

So I wanted a simpler way.

So next year when I go away, I'm going to go with my big Chevy Blazer.

Yes, it's going to cost more petrol because it's a bigger engine.

That's crazy.

But I don't drink or smoke.

So that's my vice.

But I can fix that thing myself because there are no computers.

So it's much simpler.

So the simpler it is, the better it is for you when you're doing whatever you're doing for me traveling with the car.

Anyway, I lost my breath then.

Anyway, that's the episode.

Have a great day.

If you have any questions, let me know.

There's a comment section below.

And I'll see you in the next one.

Ciao.

Kia.

Are you using automation because you’re busy?

2025-11-27T14:02:38Z

I’ve often said that automation is for the lazy and unorganised. However, I also know that it’s a tool to help the busy get organised. The issue I find is that often it’s used due to people being too busy rather than their need for it.

Watch the video

Transcript

If I asked you what was the single thing that would identify you as being busy, what would it be?

I'm not talking about, you know, your full calendar, your long to-do list or your email inbox having hundreds, if not thousands of emails in it, which makes me crazy personally.

So what would that one thing be?

For me, it would be use of automation. now i've spoken in the past about me not using automation it's kind of a little white lie yes i do use automation and i'm talking quality of life automations like text expander so if i type in dot dot address my whole address would come in and those kind of automations i think they help you throughout the day to do um things the automation i'm talking about is things like zapian make and stuff like that.

So for your tools to talk to each other.

Personally, I think if you're using those kinds of automations, two things are happening.

One, you're too busy, which is where I come in, like that's what I want to talk about.

Or two, you're, well, it's actually the same thing.

You're using too many tools.

Why are you using too many tools?

Now, there is a lot to be said, And there are many people out there, I hear you, Paul, that would use automations.

And I know that a lot of automations are useful.

I'm not saying don't use them.

But my clientele, my audience effectively work on their own.

They might be in a small team.

I don't work with larger companies.

So when I talk about don't use automation, I'm not saying never use it because there are times that you should be using it.

But to be honest, automation, I often find a lot of people use it because they're too busy to do the work themselves, not because it makes their life easier.

That sounds weird.

But they're too busy to be able to do the things themselves throughout the day.

I'm never busy.

You know this.

I know this.

My dog knows this, right?

I'm never busy because my system and the way I work is so optimized that I don't need automation.

So when I see somebody use a ton of automation, it kind of gets me to thinking as to why.

Why is it they're using automation?

And again, I'll go back, using the wrong tools, using automation because it's fun and it's something that they like doing.

Or the third and the most obvious is that they're too freaking busy using those wrong tools.

So think about the automation that you're using.

Is it quality of your life type automations like TextExpander?

Or is it like Zapier because you want things to talk to each other that you don't actually need to do?

Anyway, enjoy your day, keep it simple, and I'll see you in the next one.

Ciao.

Kia.

Sending a proposal is easy, so stop complicating it!

2025-11-26T14:11:48Z

Often we complicate the most basic of things. Presenting a proposal used to be as simple as a phone call, an email, a chat message.

But they've became as convoluted as all the three examples above plus documents, PDFs, external services and I'm sure someone as some point has even sent a carrier pigeon!

I've been guilty of some of the exsamples above, but I wanted a way to cut through the crap and just get on with the project.

As soon as I simplified my proposals, and the way there were presented, I got busier. So I made them shorter and shared them as simply as I could.

How? Well, I already had the app!

I started using Basecamp and the ability to share the proposal via a public link.

I find this easier than email, as it can be shared internally with the client's departments, if needed, before I get the go-ahead.

And I'll even accept the reply via a carrier pigeon!

Kia.

P.S. This proposal was approved within a few hours, and the invoice was paid the following day!

You already have the app!

2025-11-25T16:16:56Z

Don't get bogged down with trying to find an app to help you do that one thing. You'll find that you probably already have something that can do it, and do it well!

Watch the video

Transcript

In yesterday's video, I talked about looking for a simple notes app for myself and doing a search for like a couple of days.

And I just kept coming up with bloated software, things that didn't quite work, features that didn't necessarily need to be there, etc.

And then got me thinking about searching, actually searching for an app.

Because often we actually have that app ourselves, we just don't realise it. And this is exactly what happened to me. I get this with a lot of my clients and I can't believe I fell into that trap myself, where they've got so many different apps, but they're still constantly looking for something else.

And that's exactly what I did. And I think we're all prone to that. I was looking for a notes app.

I have hundreds of notes apps, notes apps. That's a weird sentence. But I never really looked past what I already had.

So I was just searching for a new one because in a way, if I already have it and I'm not using it, then it wasn't right.

But that's not strictly true. If you stick to the end, I'll tell you what app it was that I actually do have.

So you have to look at what you have before you go and try to look for another app.

Because you're just wasting your time. I wasted like three days looking for an app that I kind of already had.

Now, this app that I'm using now as my notes app is not actually a notes app. It's a journaling app. It's a journaling app that I've been using for years.

And I'm kind of like a stop and start journaling. But the reason I think I don't journal as much as I should do is because it wasn't on my homepage.

So I kind of killed two birds with one stone. I found a notes app that will actually work for me. And I'm going to journal more because it's in my dock now on my iPhone and in my dock on my Mac.

And it's amazing that I didn't really think about using that as my quick input notes app. I mean, what I was looking for is something that I could quickly jot down ideas and thoughts and so on. That's to me kind of like journaling.

You can just put your thoughts down and you can put it into different places. This app is called Day One. We all know Day One. Well, I know Day One.

I've known it from Day One. And it's a great app. It's a great journaling app. I've been using it since 2013, I think, roughly. So it's been a long time that I've been using it. So that's my note taking app of choice now.

It works great. I've created different journals, as it were. I've created one called Inbox.

So I put everything in it and then I can organise it. Works really well. Tried it for a day. Seems to work. I'll let you know if it will stick. Anyway, the idea is to not constantly look for another app.

You probably have the app in your applications folder. Just take a look.

As always, keep it simple. I'll see you in the next one.

Ciao.

Kia.

Search for a simpler app

2025-11-24T16:54:06Z

We're inundated with apps and tools. However, most are full of bloat and feature we never need. And because of that, we often stop using them. I wish developers reached out to users before they start building.

Watch the video

Transcript

So I'm on this website called Product Hunt, where people, founders, hunt new apps, and they kind of promote them to get them up on top, basically.

People upvote them, you can comment on things.

And I find a lot of apps there, which are actually really good, but there is a bunch of rubbish there as well.

So yeah, part of my job is to go out and search for Good apps new apps things that are interesting things that are simple things that take friction away and In recent times I've been looking for a really simple Note-taking app just something simple.

I use Apple notes.

I use craft for project things I have used drafts and there is obviously bear etc, but I Think drafts is starting to get a bit complicated.

So I was really looking for something really quite simple.

Now, I've gone in the past couple of days, I've gone through so many apps, many of them on product hunt.

Some of them I've just found through tweets and people talking about them.

But I just cannot find anything that's just literally a notepad and i found one that hits the mark really close but again they've complicated it with certain features that just don't need to be there they obviously have a use case for it because they've spoken to i'm hoping i'm hoping that they've spoken to their users about well they've done some sort of research as to why they've added these features.

But there's so much bloat in these apps, and it's beyond me why these founders, I don't know, these app makers make things so, so complicated.

So I've gone back to using Apple Notes, and I've created a shortcut to add a simple quick note.

That's all I kind of needed. but I use Apple Notes as my, as kind of like my, my archive.

I have everything in Apple Notes.

I don't want my notes and things all over the place.

What I wanted was a place where I can simply add notes and then send it or, and then put it into Apple Notes as like an archive things that I need to keep.

But it's so hard to come by because again, software makers make things stupidly complicated and it's insane.

So what's the point of this?

The point of this is don't make things more complicated than it needs to be for yourself.

So if you have a notes app and a task management app and this app and that app just see which ones that you can actually get rid of so you don't have that friction between you and where you want to place that note if you have an interim place which is something that i'm looking for okay great because then you don't mess up Woof!

is going down the stairs again you don't mess up your workflow but app makers really do need to simplify a lot of these apps that are out there.

Anyway, something on my mind I wanted to share with you.

What do you think?

Do you think these apps are complicated?

Do you have an app that you hope was simpler?

Let me know.

Anyway, have a great day and I'll see you in the next one.

Ciao.

Kia.

Friday Fury: Too much technology

2025-11-21T13:04:40Z

We live in a world where technology is there to help us, and for the most part, it does. However, some things have that simply too much tech!

Watch the video

Transcript

I know this is a weird angle, but today's Friday Fury, I want to talk about technology.

Too much technology!!

This is my car. I love my car. Have a look at it. It's a great car. It's a Mercedes. It doesn't squeak. I love this thing. It's comfortable.

I bought the longer version because I wanted my dog, Woof!, to be comfortable in the back.

It's taken me to Spain and Portugal twice on two different trips. The first time I was there, the starter motor died. And because of the way it's built, you had to pull the engine out.

And obviously I couldn't do it. I couldn't find anyone in Portugal or Spain to do it. So I limped it home, literally 20 hours.

I didn't sleep. I had naps. I didn't sleep. I limped it home, got it fixed. It was great. It was awesome.

But ever since then, I've noticed little things going wrong, little sensors, because this thing has a computer. All modern cars have computers and a lot of technology for it to work.

The problem with computers in cars is that once one thing goes, something else goes. And it's a domino effect.

So having too much technology in one thing, as you know, is never a good thing. That's why I say get rid of too much technology. You don't need it in your business.

If you have too many SOPs, too many email addresses, too much tech, again, domino effect. And that's what happened with my car.

Yesterday, I was in Germany. I drove to Germany to relax. I got to the parking spot, all of a sudden the ABS light came on.

Now I've had this issue before, 'cause I went to a garage there and he helped me fix it. It was a switch.

It was like a 20-buck switch, and it put it in, and it worked.

The problem was that it happened again, and I don't know what it was.

So this morning, I had to limp it all the way to my garage. I'm at my garage at the moment. And as soon as I got here, the problem went away, and I couldn't believe it.

So now I don't know what the hell the problem is. So we're going to go down to the guy again, put it on a computer, and test it again.

But the point is, too much technology, too much freaking technology can cause headaches with everything.

And that's why I say, get rid of too much tech in your business. Too many emails, too many SOPs, as I said. There's too much stuff that you just do not need.

And that's what happens with modern cars. Too much tech! That's why I'm rebuilding my Blazer.

So when I do go away I can fix it and usually with old cars you can fix it with a hammer and away you go get rid of too much tech you'll be a lot happier.

Anyway have a great weekend, yes Friday, obviously I'll see you next week.

Get rid of tech!

Kia.

Here's a solid email system for you

2025-11-20T10:14:30Z

Having a solid email system with amazing support, just in case, for your business is paramount in today’s world. So here’s how I've set up mine.

Watch the video

Transcript

I love email. I love sending email. I love receiving email. I like the format. I like the technology. It's simple and it's just it just works. I don't have to worry about other platforms not working.

So when I receive the message from Paul saying I'm looking into moving away from Google Workspace, he asked me about what systems he should move to.

Now I only recommend what I use and what I've used in the past. And what I'm using right now is Fastmail for my backend and HEY for my frontend.

The reason why I use Fastmail is because HEY doesn't allow you to import archives. And also if you've got a bunch of domains, Fastmail allows you to host those domains for your email. But in HEY you can actually send out as any of those emails.

He did ask about iCloud. Would I use iCloud? Now I did try that and it does work, but you're stuck with five domain names. No? Yeah, five domain names and each one can have five aliases. Whereas with Fastmail it's kind of like unlimited, I think. So it works much, much better. So you don't have to have both.

You can just use HEY, the problem is then your email archive has to be on your local computer. So if you're out and about you can't get to your archive. But also with HEY there is HEY for HEY for Work and HEY for Personal.

HEY for Personal is what I use. HEY for Work you have to pay per domain and then it's a different account. So if you're interested in more to learn more about this, let me know. There'll be a link below get in touch with me. If you need to help with setting it up hire me and I'll do it for you.

But yeah, I wouldn't use iCloud because there are limitations and I did have issues sending and receiving. But there again, you know, this was like eight months ago with HEY, fantastic support, Basecamp, 37signals it just works.

Fastmail again, I've never actually had an issue. I've had questions and they answer within a couple of hours. So support for me for both of those products are great because again, I love email and I use email constantly.

So I want if something goes wrong, if something goes wrong, I need to be able to speak to someone and those two HEY and Fastmail are they just work. It's like an Apple thing. They just work and if you have problems, you know, you can contact them.

Again, if you need my help, need my problems, you don't need my problems. If you need my help setting it up, let me know. We'll set up a project and we'll do it for you.

Have a good day and I'll see you in the next one.

Ciao.

Kia.

P.S. If you need help with your email system check out the Tech Minimalism website for more information.