Archive for the ‘News’ Category

Over at Worfolk Anxiety, we’ve just launched our 30-day challenge to help people reduce anxiety. It’s a free month of coaching where people get a different challenge to complete every day and a private support community to share experiences and access encouragement.

Pretty cool. But will it work?

The science says it will. The challenges are based on the lifestyle changes that drive improvements to mental health. I wrote about these in my book Technical Anxiety and look at them in far more detail in my upcoming book Do More, Worry Less.

But, of course, the science can say one thing: whether you can translate into success for people in real life is another. We’re working on a small scale: a few hundred people have signed up for the challenge. That is still enough to make me nervous, though. It needs to deliver.

We’re measuring the success as best we can so I will be able to write about the results next month. Until then, wish me luck!

Today I am launching my new course: IT Career Acceleration. What is it and why should you do it?

First, it is targetted at people in IT. So if you work in a different industry, give it a miss. Second, it is designed to help you take the next step up the career ladder. So, if you are happy in the job you are in and do not want to earn any more money or get promoted, you can safely skip it too.

However, if you do want to progress your IT career, it will be of interest.

Simply put, it takes the best parts on CV writing, interview techniques and negotiating for more money from the IT Contracting Master Class, adds in some awesome stuff about how to get promoted, and packages it up for the same price as a £15 cup of coffee.

A course for winners

You probably already have a good CV and set of interview skills, right? That is how you have carved out a successful IT career already.

There is room for improvement, though. There always is. The best athletes in the world have a coach. Someone to help them refine their skills even further. That’s what this course does: it takes you from good to great.

Do not miss that perfect opportunity

Olympic athletes are a good comparison. They wait four years for the games to arrive. They get one shot, and then it is over. But they don’t spend the time in between sitting idle. They train so that when the opportunity comes along, they are ready.

Winning jobs is the same. Your dream job only comes along once. If you are not prepared, there is not much you can do to fix it in three days. You have to do the work in advance. Which is no big deal, right? Who isn’t willing to invest a few hours in their career?

Get started for free

The first five lessons of the course and the first workbook are free. IF you previously registered for the Master Class, you can use the same login details.

Read more about the course on the Master Class website.

Earlier today, I pushed version 6.2 of my website live. I think we can say with reasonable certainty that you will be less excited about than I am. However, life is not about the opportunity you are handed. It is about what you do with it. So smile and think to yourself “wow, that is interesting!”.

Not much has changed. It looks mostly the same. On the homepage, the giant picture of my ugly face has been replaced by another giant ugly picture.

Books page

I have replaced the photos link at the top (photos can now be found in the “about me” section) with a page detailing all of my books. I like my photos, but most people are probably not looking for a gallery of shots when they visit the site. It is much better to follow me on Flickr.

About me sections

Most people are probably looking for one of three things when they visit my site: to find out more about my tech consultancy, to explore my food writing or to check out my work in mental health and wellbeing. To make this easier, the about me section is now divided along these three lines.

Social media

I’ve added all of my social media links to the footer. Why anyone would want that much Chris, I have no idea. Probably nobody does. But Elina might find them useful.

My new book, Why Restaurants Fail – And What To Do About It, is now available. Here is the blurb:

Why do most restaurants close within three years? What secrets do the successful chains know, that the independent eateries do not?

The answer has almost nothing to do with how good the food is. In this book you will:

• Learn the big 10 predictable and avoidable mistakes restaurateurs make
• Discover the real reasons consumers choose one restaurant over another
• Find proven strategies for increasing diner satisfaction, and revenue

For restaurant owners and managers, this could be the most important investment you make all year. For everyone else, it will be a fun read.

You will not get bored. At 52 pages, including the appendix and glossary, this books contains only good stuff; no filler. You will love this book. If not, use your retailer’s return policy to obtain a full refund.

It started appearing in stores late yesterday, and should be out everywhere by the end of today. It is available in paperback from Amazon and in eBook format from Amazon and Apple iBooks.

Today is the day: How to Exit Vim is now available to buy.

Vim is a command-line text editor in Linux. It is notoriously difficult to get out of it once you have gone in. So, I have written a book about how to do it. It does not cover anything else: the only stuff in there is about how to quit Vim. It has 19 chapters.

Granted, the chapters are not very long. I have broken down each scenario and the correct command to use for each. That means it has nearly as many chapters as it does pages. But who really wants to trawl through 400 pages? When you are stuck in Vim, you want an answer and you want it fast. This book gives you exactly what you need; no fluff.

This is the blurb:

This book does not cover anything except how to exit Vim. It has 19 chapters.

Have you ever found yourself trapped in the command-line text editor Vim? If so, this book could save you from tearing your hair out. It breaks down each situation you may find yourself in, and the correct exit command to get you to safety.

Without it, you may find yourself losing work, overwriting critical data, getting lost in a sea of tabs, or worst of all, looking stupid in front of the stern-looking system administrator standing behind you.

With it, people will think you are a wizard. Finally, a way to unlock the mysteries of quitting Vim without leaving a trail of destruction behind you.

Sounds awesome, right? But it gets better. Because the best part about it is the value: I’ve priced it really low. It’s £2.99. When people give away books for free, they charge $7 shipping. This is half the price of a free book.

Look, I am not saying that if you know all of these Vim commands, more women will have sex for you. Even though, most of us who work in IT suspect that is true. That may not interest you. You may, for example, be a straight woman. In which case, I am not saying that knowing all these commands will get you a job as a Google engineer. But…

Finally, one last point from me. Take a look at the cover:

That is a cover that says “this book is amazing”. Why? Because the cover is so basic. It is called sated strength. Other books, inferior books, come up with hugely flashy covers because they know that is the only way they are going to sell. A cover like this says “wow, this book is good it does not even need a professionally designed cover”.

It is available now from Amazon and iBooks.

The maze is solvable, by the way. Here is a bonus activity: if you take it into Paint, draw the correct route through it, and send it to me within the next week, I will send you a copy of the book completely free.

Today, the full version of the IT Contracting Master Class launches. How exciting, right?

We have been developing the course over the last couple of months and a dozen people have gone through the beta programme. Since then we have added even more lessons and content. The course notes, for example, now contain over 15,000 words.

I have built the business model on one thing: delivering value. When you sign up, for free, you get the first five lessons and an eBook First Steps in IT Contracting. The stuff in there alone will help you organise your career more effectively and write a far better CV.

The full version is even better. It takes people through each task step-by-step, making it really easy to make the leap. If you prefer to read or want to revise, there are the course notes. Then, as you do each task you mark it as done with the checklist system. And, if you are having problems, there is a private community to ask questions in.

It is also half price for the first 72 hours: not an offer to be missed.

I am currently busy working on some follow up books to Technical Anxiety. However, I took some time off over the holidays to write a different book. This one is called Why Restaurants Fail – And What To Do About It. It’s a fun read. Unless you are a restaurant owner, in which case it probably isn’t.

The premise is simple: people start restaurants thinking their excellent food is enough. It’s not. In fact, the food is not even that important. Time and time again we saw our favourite independent restaurants go under because they thought they were in the restaurant business. They’re not: they’re in the money business. And the only way to win is to put aside your ego and your snobbery and learn from the best (typically fast food joints).

This book is an experiment. At just under 11,000 words, it is only 42 pages long. Super-short for a book, But as Sean D’Souza and Michael Hyatt both pointed out, people like short books. Here are the stats Michael Hyatt provided in a webinar last month:

• 60% of readers finish a book of 100 pages or less
• 20% of readers finish a book of 200 pages or so
• More than 200 pages, 3% readers finish

Will customers feel cheated because the book is only 11,000 words long? Or will they actually enjoy the book more? I am interested to find out.

It is also an experiment in applying MVP (minimal viable product) development to books. When Sean D’Souza first published The Brain Audit it was half the length it is now. Similarly, Why Restaurants Fail may grow much longer over time. But right now, I have said everything I want to say, without diluting the content.

With eBooks, I can even push out these updates for free. This is what we have done for all five editions of the Leeds Restaurant Guide. If you bought the first edition as an eBook, you received all of the updated editions free of charge.

I do not have a fixed release date yet, but I expect it to arrive in the next 30 days.

It has been a writing-heavy month over at the Worfolk household. On Saturday, I am going to be announcing my new restaurant book. But, between finalising that and sending it to the printers for proofing, I have finished another, and I am announcing that one today.

The title is How to Exit Vim.

For months I have been joking that what would be really useful is a book on all the different ways there are to exit Vim. For those not in-the-know, Vim is a command-line text editor for Linux. It is notoriously difficult to exit once you enter the program.

The truth is, though, that book would be genuinely useful. So I have written it. It comes out on 15 January. You can pre-order it now from Amazon and iBooks.

She drowned in moonlight, strangled by her own bra¹.

Over the past four years, I have very much enjoyed blogging on A Brit Talks Football. The feedback was positive, especially around the live game blogs. However, all good things must come to an end, and it is time for me to move on. Therefore, the site has closed.

If you still want updates from me, then you may wish to follow this blog, which is my personal one. It is about family, restaurants, technology and of course, the NFL. You can use the form below to subscribe to weekly updates, or follow me on Twitter at @chrisworfolk.