 Good morning everybody from a very very snowy mehlen this morning mehlen belgium I am here today as I would like to review this book, which is called peers Inc And it is by the fabulous Robin Chase. She is the founder of zip car now. Why am I choosing to review this today? Okay. Well, first of all and Peers Inc was a book that I studied Pretty heavily for my master's this year around the peer-to-peer economy and it's written by the fantastically witty and Personable Robin Chase, but in particular as well. She is very experienced Because she co-founded zip car, which is a car sharing company and it was founded in the last decade I'll say and then was sold to Avis in 2013 for half a billion dollars So this woman knows what she's talking about the other thing as well And I really liked this about the book is that it is very well researched She has a plethora of academic resources You know conversations that she's had with key people in the industry she talks from the point of view of what she's discovered on Twitter attending conferences and Studying conferences studying papers from conferences, etc. So it's for that reason that I really liked it and Also as well, I will say that it cut it's written from a business person's point of view which I really like and It is written in a very visionary way So what she does is she looks at how would the world be different in the future if we were to take the Peers Inc movement and to progress towards solving issues like climate change for example and Or if we were to look at this from the point of view of the communications industry or the energy industry or the Hospitality industry or so many so many so many others. So it's from that point of view that I really liked it now The next thing of course to talk about is who would be interested in reading it themselves Now the subtitle I'm just going to read you out the subtitle Okay, so it says how people and platforms are reinventing the collaborative economy and Reinventing capitalism. So that is what it's about. So who exactly would be interested in reading this? Well, I think first of all people who are interested in scale Now anybody who has run a business in the past you will know that scale is possibly the biggest issue and The business space it's the biggest challenge that they face And it's also one of the key things that people get into business for So how do you achieve it? How do you achieve scale where the business is making money while you sleep or it can make money independent of you Or where you can get to a point where other people are building it for you And that is precisely what piercing is all about. So if you're interested in scaling and Maybe you don't know how to do it or maybe you can't really get into the mindset of how to do it Or you can't talk to enough people yet who have done it Or you don't have the confidence to do it or you're just wondering how exactly is it done or what sort of mindset? Really needs to be in place before the execution plan could come behind it. This book is for you The other key group of people who I think would be interested in reading piercing are those who want to build platforms from communities and many of you who in fact are fans of this page and Exactly those many of you many many many many many of you that I've worked with over the years who are event organizers Particularly with an interest in doing this. This book is for you as well And it's those as I say those people who want to create Something where you can gather a huge number of people together or even a critical mass a Number a group of people together to achieve something collectively Particularly with a business in mind and this book also is for you So this is what it is as I say it's called peers Inc. It's by Robin Chase now as I hope is becoming apparent from my Facebook lives and book reviews and When I read a book first of all, it takes me a while to do it because I keep stopping and thinking about it And I started reading peers Inc. I would say Last may I started reading it then I remember particularly I was in Malta I was giving a course in Malta and in the evenings. I used to go out and sit on the beach and Take a couple of pages out of peers Inc. and read them and really think about them And I often tweeted elements from it as well And I used to tag Robin Chase who used to respond to me and and give me her point of view So I do really read books and it takes me a long time to do so because as I say I keep stopping and thinking The other thing as well. I want to point out is that I often wait and see how it impacts my own business before telling you about it I don't just want to start giving you a book review saying you should go and read it And then I actually haven't implemented what I've learned from it. So I finished Reading the book last October. I remember I was and again, I had put this up on LinkedIn I was in the tips of more tell and I was there for my brother-in-law's birthday and I that was the last chance that I had then to finish off the book again to stop really think about it Go for a walk at that particular beach a colder one now than Monta I'll admit and and really think about it there So it is now six weeks since then and just looking at the date here in front of me it is now the 11th of December hence the snow in the background here and Now I felt that I really had enough time to digest it and tell you about it And the other thing is of course Why did I choose Belgium to run this Facebook live? There's a couple of reasons for that One is due to the context of the next point So I won't go any further than that and second of all I had a morning here Before I have meetings my next meeting is at around about 2 p.m. Today So I wanted to take out the morning where again I could stop over my cross-ons and coffee this morning and really think about what I was going to tell you about And three it's a place that I spend a lot of time in Thankfully, I've been fortunate to be here in many occasions over the years So I felt it gives me the right context to tell you about the book Okay So what are the three key things that you're going to learn about here in in piercing? So I'm just trying to make sure you see it there from time to time right the first thing and This will have a striking effect on you if it's anything like me Okay, the first thing you will learn is the amount of excess capacity that you have and You might be surprised to that those of you who for example are on this page and you're really busy Maybe you're building a business maybe you're building a family. Maybe you're doing the two together. Maybe you're studying at the same time It's currently coming up to Christmas. There's lots going on and you think okay I actually don't have any time at all And I don't have any spare capacity of anything particularly my mental space right now So it's all nothing that you can say can convince me otherwise Well, I'm not going to try and convince you of anything and what I'm going to try and convince you is what Robin Chase convinced Me and that is that we do actually have a lot of excess capacity around us. So whether it is our time our interests our contacts our Bandwidth on our computer the data on our phone There is actually huge amount of excess capacity right around us And I'm just going to give you a case in point, right? And this is one of the reasons as I told you that I'm I'm speaking to you here live from mehalin Belgium Okay, so I am here Because I want to go to a workshop this evening the staff member of ours is running for vector-vest Europe Okay, so I am over here. I'm going to be shortly going to Bruges. That's where I'm going to tonight Okay, so that's the purpose that I'm here now. I could have flown in This afternoon I could have gone to Bruges stayed in a hotel that I found by googling And then I could have gone home in the morning and that would be that okay And I would have taken up two days in doing so and I probably would have been very productive And I would have achieved what I had set out to achieve including Tasting Belgian chocolate because it's just just what you have to do every time you come here. Well in my opinion anyway So, um, but I didn't okay. I didn't just do that I didn't just do that at all because what I did was the first of all I also took the opportunity to think okay Who else do I need to meet here in Belgium because as I mentioned to become here for a long time meet a lot of People while I am here. There's a lot of opportunity in this fantastic country Okay, there really really is so and so I've done that and that's why I have a meeting this afternoon I have another couple in the morning Before I go back and I also got here yesterday afternoon and got the chance to Call in on a few friends as well to see how they're getting on see the new baby boy, etc Okay Now the other thing that I can do is that I and I've often done this don't have time to do it this Time what I've often checked out for example event bright or I have checked out meeting Sorry meet up calm to see what events are going on because I could of course sit here And I could watch BBC news because I can't understand any other channel That's on the TV since I don't speak Dutch and or else I can get out meet people see what's going on and Create some serendipitous opportunities The other thing that I can do is that I can follow up on contacts that I may have here that I don't know about So for example, I've been in business now over seven years in general My career has spanned at this stage almost 12 years So again, you know, I've built up quite a number of contacts as many of you know I'm not at all afraid to talk to anyone really and From that point of view my LinkedIn my LinkedIn profile has expanded my Facebook one has loved Twitter as many of you also will know So therefore what I can do is check in on those and say okay Well, what sort of serendipitous opportunities could happen if I was just to reach out and to somebody and say do you Want to meet for coffee while I'm here and I've done that again on many occasions I've had some great coffees and dinners and drinks and breakfasts and lunches and all sorts of things with people whom Who may have moved for example from a different city? Somebody that I meet over here quite often is a journalist who's moved from New York And I met her through the Irish international business network in New York when I spoke there one night And now she lives in Belgium and particularly in Brussels and she works for a very large company over here So and she kept in contact with me through my newsletter Somebody else is an event organizer that I've worked with over here when I was an emcee for their event back two years ago and one of the it's a lobby organization here in Belgium and I just kept in contact with her and meet up with her from time to time and again You never know what serendipitous opportunities may arise from that So they're two examples and there's lots more in the various different countries that I travel around to and if you don't know Right, if you think okay, who exactly could I meet because I don't know anybody let's say I looked at my belt my LinkedIn profile. I don't know anybody in Belgium I'm going to be in Belgium next week for business and who could I meet while I'm there? Well, just think about well, who have you got in common? Okay, or what characteristics have you got in common? so One superb website that I always check out before I come out here for example is at European Movement Ireland So it's an organization at home in Ireland and that is looking at the future of Europe and how our Relationship with Europe is developing and how Europe as a whole is developing It has great connections here in Brussels and often runs events here another one would be the Irish and Belgium business Association I BB yes often check out their pages as well And they hold a number of events here throughout the year and I often try and check in with those so You might say okay. Well, aren't they just events again? You see yes What I've thought about the characteristics that I would have in common with the people who go so for example in the case of European Movement Ireland. I'm fascinated by Brexit. I'm fascinated by the future of Europe I see a huge amount of opportunity for our company in Europe in the months years and decades ahead So therefore it is a particular interest of mine When it comes to IBBA, I am an Irish person. I have an Irish business I have an interest in doing business in Belgium therefore again my characteristics align with those So that is what I would say is just have a look around see what associations you could pick up with And it would be impossible to mention being in Belgium and not mention the European Commission the European Commission website has an events calendar on it that just has like Countless plethora amount. Sorry. They're those two words won't go together a plethora of our countless number of events taking place around the commission and I across every different sector geography regulation asset class Technology you name it I could be entertained for months If I wanted to hear in Belgium as somebody who is an economist and speaker and who is constantly looking for Ways of which the future is evolving. So um, I could of course be doing that Now here's something else that I wanted to mention to you and this ties right in with piercing and that is that um I always use booking.com to book my accommodation Secondly, I always try to as in so far as possible. I always stay in the bnb The reason I do that is I get to talk to the people who actually run the bnb And therefore I often get some insight track on how the economy is performing or Why how they're particularly generating their business their interaction with booking.com etc. So I get this Deep insight into the local area when I stay in a bnb So that's another opportunity that I use here in Belgium And that's why I stopped staying in hotels and started moving into into bnb's and I can observe what's going on around me And particularly I go shopping here not clothes shopping Don't do that very often. I have to say that's not my greatest strength now at all But I actually go food shopping And I walk around the supermarkets and I watch the brands that are on the shelves And I look at the way in which people buy and I look at the technology The people are using to buy them and I look at the checkout in the process that they have there And I simply observe the way they do things and I then that feeds into how I look at for example the fast moving Consumer goods the FMCG sector when I'm speaking about that or when I'm going to the airport Shiphol airport in in Amsterdam Is one of the most forward-looking airports that I've ever seen and I see a lot of their ideas have now been implemented in Dublin airport So that's what I also use these trips for And the the other thing is of course that I can contextualize where I am on facebook and on twitter and so many others Now, they're just a tiny selection of ideas in how I can turn My excess capacity here in Belgium into something that's valuable from the business point of view and that's what piercing teaches you It shows you it just shows you the individual pieces of your day of your hour of your skill set of your Contacts of your network that can be very very interesting and very useful So that's the first thing I wanted to speak about is she will teach you how to do this Believe me, she will teach you how to think like this just making sure here That you can all see she will there's no doubt about it And she does she runs an exercise at the start of about chapter 2 Apologies Robin if I haven't got that exactly right But she has this example of where she takes you through her morning And she asks you to spot on the pieces of excess capacity and I thought I was okay at this Oh my god She does it exceptionally well and she'll just show you where there's so much more capacity in your day in your life Then you might actually think so and that's the first thing now The second thing that she will teach you and she and this is immensely useful for business is that she And I'm going to quote this now. She says diverse networked peers mean that instant access Means that you can get instant access to the right mind It's like tapping into the collective mind of the world Now is that a grandiose term or can't she back it up? Well, like most things I'd say that she does she can back it up and back it up very well Um, so what I wanted to do now was just take you through My Trip here. Okay, and I'm just going to show you how I am standing on the shoulders of so many giants In order to run this trip as efficiently as I can so, um Robert's point is that there's lots and lots and lots and lots of lots of people all over the world Who are currently conspiring today to help you be as successful as you can right lots of people all over the world And um, you might say, okay, that's a bit that's a that's a big term Now I I've just noticed that shanaid brady has joined Okay, and shanaid i'm really glad that you're here because you and I had this conversation Actually when I spoke at an event in dublin I'd say it's about two and a half years gone out When I pointed out the amount of people that you can have in your organization working for you Um with while you're still a one person business. Okay, and she and I will she and I will understand what I mean by that Um, it's something that I've that I've spoken about before And and she made this point to me how this particularly stood out to her So she made really glad that that you're able to join me here this morning. And also I see that liam mar My cousin is also here today as well great see liam and thanks very much for joining me Um, and to each one of you who are joining now, um, I really want to say hello I'm going to wave to you all as I say from this annoying belgium here And now how is the world conspiring to help you? Okay? Let's just think about this now for a moment. Okay So here I am in belgium If I wanted to do business in belgium right, which I do which I did at the very beginning of this business journey How exactly do I can I stand on the shoulders of others or do I book, you know an air lingus flight land in brussels and hope for the best Well enterprise europe network, for example is an organization that is 3 000 people working in it It is funded by the european commission and it pulls everybody together in the enterprise architecture all over europe And basically enables that organization to let all of their members know about opportunities that are happening So for example in my case my direct contact there is the dublin city leo local enterprise office And where if you're in belgium, so let's say you're tuning in from belfast today Well, then that would be for example In best northern ireland or if you're tuning in today from london That could be the london chamber of commerce if you're tuning in today from malta That might be finance malta and the reason I know all of these names is because I've worked with mal through enterprise europe network So today 3 000 people Funded by the european commission are working to help me and all of you Find new business opportunities right across this great continent and throughout in the world And that's that's robin's point is that Is that this is pulling together all the peers and if all we need to do is really think about how exactly we can How how we can leverage these peers? So how is it that we can connect with other people so that we can maximize what they're offering us now to give you a more You know simple example Booking.com for example I just mentioned how I use that think about all of the people all of those hospitality providers right around the world Who are conspiring today and to put themselves onto one easy platform that booking.com has also put together for me So that I can find really interesting Hospitality vendors right around the world and the people to talk to me about that inside track And when you think about the people who put all of those reviews there They're all helping me to make the right decision in finding the right place Now another one for example sky scanner How did I know that the flight that I chose to take out to Brussels yesterday was the right one? The one that I wanted to take the one that was going to be most suitable to my time The one that was most suitable to the budget and so on because all those people in sky scanner are doing it farming Also, if I look at all of my news sources So facebook twitter linkedin all of you together Are putting together a plethora of news stories so that when I go online in the morning I can see exactly what I need when I need to see it And at the right time and you're all keeping me up to date all at the same time Now the other reason that I'm here And this is particularly important and so this is why I really want to tell you about it The other reason that I'm here is because I'm interviewing somebody tomorrow In a different part of belgium for a new customer service role that has opened up in parts of business Okay, now, how did I find that person to interview? So did I go through a group of company? Was it through? Serendipitous opportunity again. Was it that just somebody rocked into my inbox and that from there I decided to pick up the mantle and and pursue them No, actually none of the above the answer is a site called Upwork. Now, some of you may be familiar with Upwork It's one of the biggest freelancing sites in the world So what I did was I went down to Upwork and I looked at this site and I Searched through the portfolio of people there who are interested in delivering customer service farming and not just for me for anybody who wants to Give them work and I looked at their language and I looked at their skills And I looked at where they lived and I looked at their availability All of which of course is meant very easy by the lovely people at Upwork And then I had a plethora of people that I could approach That I invited to send her for the job and a number of them did and anyway Look, we'll go way past all that but the key thing here is that through the peers Through all of those various different people with excess capacity And through the platform which Upwork put together which allowed me to to go in and check in On all of those people and what they were working on and how that what they were focusing on And together I was able to find their excess capacity and just as Robin says I was able to tap into the diverse network peers Okay, so the diversity is an Upwork of all different skills all different people all over the world And then if they were all on this platform Which means that they were networked on this platform, which is Upwork Which gave me instant access to a pool of labor, which I'm subsequently interviewing tomorrow And that's another way of course that I'm turning my what I could just be back in Ireland And I could be back in a two o'clock and then I could then be driving back to the office and then settling in whereas instead what I'm doing Is turning this trip into a higher return on investment? So that is exactly what she teaches you to do She just teaches you to look around the world and just look at all of the shoulders that you can stand on So that you can build your own You can you can specialise your own talents And jump and leverage on all of these other various different resources that are right around the world And where people are actively working today to make your life easier simpler more efficient faster And ultimately more successful, which is just brilliant When you tap into it and again Robin, this is what you have done for me now The third thing that I picked out of this and this is for a much fewer Group of people than the other two is that for those interested in building a platform She does show you um from the voice of true experience being the co-founder of zip care how the government should help Um, she shows you how to build the platform. She shows how it should be funded She integrates themes like blockchain particularly blockchain I'll be talking to you again about that in the future. Um, she talks about the growing pains She speaks about um a plethora of real business and social issues. She's very social conscious. I have to say she's Very very interesting from that point of view in the that she doesn't just look at business She looks at how how it all features in together She's a huge interest a huge huge huge interest in climate change And um and particularly how peers ink can help alleviate and solve the world's biggest issue Um, I'm also going to say hello to margaret I see margaret there has joined in from cavan great to see you today margaret And I hope you as a peers ink platform yourself by bringing together lots of people in various different networks That this book particularly appeals to you because I think I think you'd be interested in reading it So it's for all of those reasons that I think peers ink is a fantastic book Um, I as I mentioned I featured it heavily within my own masters my own masters Thesis was on the the peer-to-peer economy. I built a new strategic model for Bootstrapping startups in the peer-to-peer economy and I really wanted to thank Um in another just very brief example of how peers ink is working I really wanted to thank robin for her own input into this And but also to all of the other people who wrote papers People who wrote books some fantastic people like rachel bottsman and as so many others Get see as well who wrote a huge amount about business modeling and some other fantastic books that I will be reviewing here I want to thank all of you because of course Academic citations is an example of peers working together and where the platform is a paper in which to produce your insights And then of course from there you can present it at a conference and then from there create the conversation and so on and so on so robin Thank you very much for showing me ways in which I could scale You have changed the way in which I look at our business. We've completely opened the business now In terms of working with collaborators Working tapping into the fluid workforce like I mentioned without work partnering with people using their excess capacity Looking at our capacity ways in which we can work together and just like you said What it has done it is is is it has led us to a new place of productivity to a new place of innovation Opened up a lot more opportunity than I previously saw so I wanted to thank you for that I want to thank you for writing a superb book and also for responding to my tweets to my direct messages I truly wish you every every every piece of success in the future and And to each and every single person who's tuning in today Who will be watching this this facebook live when it is a video on our website afterwards Who will tune into this is a blog post on our blog the positive economists.com or who will read about this in the newsletter Thank you all. I wish you an absolutely Truly amazing happy christmas and from a very snowy belgium. Thank you and good morning