david hieatt

Learning comes first. Perfec-tion comes later.

My Book

At Hiut Denim Co, we are learning to Vlog.

We are learning by making one each day.

This is day 3. Young Huw is shooting, editing and re-shooting all on the fly.

He is super keen. But right now, not super experienced.

And yes, there are some very, very good Vloggers out there.

So why bother unless you can be better than them, right?

Just look at Casey Neistat. He is on fire at the moment.

Ze Frank posts rarely post these days. But, when he does, it’s pure gold.

And those Jack’s gap twins, oh boy they are doing great vlogs too.

But I am guessing they didn’t start out as good as they are now.

I reckon they got that good because they weren’t frightened to suck.

They just did lots. Learnt. Did some more. Learnt some again. And overtime, they got good. Great, even.

The downside of perfection is it stops you from being prepared to suck for a bit. And that means you will never get to learn what you need to be great at something. Perfection is a curse in that way.

Bill Withers said it best: You can’t get to wonderful without going through alright.

But when you see ‘Alright’, tell it that you are just passing through.

The Do Lectures. Remarkable stories from remarkable people.

Do Wales. June 4th-7th.www.thedolectures.co.uk
[email protected]

My Do Workshop. How to build a great brand with very little money.

My Book. Do Purpose.

Your weakness could be your Strength

Here are some weaknesses of the iconic Do Lectures Wales:

1, It is hard to get to. It takes place on the far western edge of Wales.

2, The Wifi is woeful.

3, It lasts for 3 days. And 3 nights.

4, 150 people is its limit.

5, You have to camp.

Here are some strengths:

1, As it takes so long to get to, speakers stay for the entire time.

2, People have to put their phones down and talk to each other.

3, First day, awkward. Second day, ice broken. Third night, 4 am camp fire pals..

4, You get to talk to everyone.

5, You go home smelling of wood smoke. And are proud of the fact.

The Do Lectures. Remarkable stories from remarkable people.

Do Wales. June 4th-7th.www.thedolectures.co.uk
[email protected]

My Book:
http://thedobook.co/products/do-purpose-why-brands-with-a-purpose-do-better-and-matter-more

Want interes-ting things to happen? Do interes-ting things.

I don't think you can separate jeans and music.

Hiut Denim Co has made jeans for some great musicians from The Stranglers to the Arctic Monkeys.

We briefed Weareknit, an uber cool technology company that makes ideas come to life, to make that link even stronger in this crazy digital world.

This is what they come up with. The Internet of radio. It allows our followers on Twitter to chose the music that the factory listens to. All our Twitter followers have to do is write: #hiutmusic followed by the name of the artist and the track. And that's it. Then it plays that track at the Hiut Denim Factory. I love this connection of making a great pair of jeans and this digital world we live in.

When a company has no marketing money, it has to do interesting things. Or die.

The more we do interesting things, the more interesting things happen.

I love that equation.

Here's a film to explain more: http://hiutdenim.co.uk/blogs/films

The pursuit of better, not bigger.

After The Do Lectures last year, I had some help from an attendee in packing up mattresses into black bin bags. We got talking.

Her view on The Do Lectures was it was amazing. But she thought we would have problems with it. And those problems were how were we going to keep it small. Because it was so amazing. And he belief was one day, word would get out.

She had lots of ideas with what we could do with it. Mind you, as it I found out later, she had over 40 patents to her name, so having lots of ideas came easy to her.

And yes this year we are going to try her ideas out. Plus lots more. It will be no bigger than last year. We are limited by the size of the barn. And parking. Instead our efforts will be concentrated on making it more magical, have more surprises, more craziness, more magic.

But as it stands now it can’t get any bigger.

I take comfort from what Rene Redzepi has done over at Noma. It seats just 45 people. And yet it has a world-class reputation. And has changed how we view Denmark.

I have some regrets about The Do Lectures. When Mickey Smith spoke at the Do, I had an idea about covering the floor with seaweed so we would all get a sense of the sea. I got busy, and I didn’t follow though. Last year, I wanted to build a death slide. A waterslide that went down the field. But again, we ran out of time.

But this year, we have had time to dial up the craziness. We can’t fit more people in, but we can fit more magic in.

The Guardian put The Do Lectures in the top ten ideas festivals in the world. But being amongst the best is not good enough. We need push on ahead.

From the very edge of West Wales, we are dialing up crazy.

The Do Lectures. Remarkable stories from remarkable people.

Do Wales. June 4th-7th.

[email protected]

My Book:

http://thedobook.co/products/do-purpose-why-brands-with-a-purpose-do-better-and-matter-more

Photo by Andrew Paynter.

People don’t forget stories. They forget facts.

Stories are important. They have a power to change things. Stories are how we learn. They can change how we do things.

They explain complex things simply. They inspire us. They spark our imagination. They often have a moral to share. With each great story comes life’s important lessons. About determination, about struggle,about what drives us, about why we never gave up.

When you have heard a great story, you seldom forget it. They stay with you.

The Do Lectures. Remarkable stories from remarkable people.

Do Wales. June 4th-7th.

[email protected]

My Book:

http://thedobook.co/products/do-purpose-why-brands-with-a-purpose-do-better-and-matter-more

Photo by Andrew Paynter.

Why I get asked about a 20 year old T-shirt?

The other week I found myself in Lisbon at Monocles Quality of Life Conference. I can recommend both wholeheartedly. I had a great time.

Anyway, I was at brunch on the Sunday with everyone saying goodbye to people they had just got to know. Then I started to chat to someone. It turns out they worked at Airbnb. I had briefly met one of the founders the previous night, so I figured a team of them was there. I was right. I soon got introduced to a couple of more.

One of them wanted to show me a bag he had designed. It was pretty cool. The material was tough. It was 4 times stronger than Kevlar. (Or so I remember). It was designed to hold a million dollars. But there was a smaller one that would hold ½ million dollars. I told him I loved the idea. It was remarkable. By that I meant I would go and remark upon it, as I am doing here.

After he showed me his bag, I was standing there thinking wow, that is cool. Then he asked me a question: Did I really do the shoplifter T-shirt? A T-shirt that set off the shop alarms. A T-shirt that got banned by the Police. A T-shirt that was done over 20 years ago.

Ideas that get remarked upon are powerful. They tell stories. They become myths. They don’t get forgotten.

The Do Lectures. Remarkable stories from remarkable people.

Do Wales. June 4th-7th.

[email protected]

My Book:

http://thedobook.co/products/do-purpose-why-brands-with-a-purpose-do-better-and-matter-more

Photo by Andrew Paynter.

Be First On The Train. That way, you get a seat.

How do you get big on Twitter? How do you get big on Instagram? The answer is to be there before others get there. Just like a train, get there early

For those who don’t know it, Periscope is a live streaming video free app. It looks like it will be huge. But it is early days.

But here is the thing. If you want to big on Periscope, don’t wait till wait it gets big. Do your learning when not many people are there. Work stuff out. Get good at it. And as you work it out, you will build an audience.

When we had our Hiut Denim Open Day, we live streamed it on Periscope. One of the first companies in the world to do its Keynote on it.

Did we know how to use it? Not really. We are learning by doing it. Our hunch is that it will be important for us. We have no marketing budget, so we looking for ways to tell the world we are here. But, as importantly, to have a way of speaking to our customers. To learn from them. To find out how to get better.

Right now, the audience on Periscope is small. But not for long. And when it changes, it will change quickly. And it will change en masse. So before it does that, I just thought I should grab a seat.

Oh, happy Birthday Periscope. It was one month old on the weekend.

Do Wales. June 4th-7th.

[email protected]

My Book:

http://thedobook.co/products/do-purpose-why-brands-with-a-purpose-do-better-and-matter-more

Photo by Andrew Paynter.