The 'ITCH'

For many years, I’ve rejected the notion that a longer-term plan was required for myself and where my career was heading.

Mainly/ probably/ definitely because I most certainly did not and never would vibe with some of the charlatans that actively spruiked the 10 reasons I should have one, and the 15 bulletproof steps to achieve it.

3 year plan. 5 year plan. A tEn YeAr PlAn.

Any time a framework like that was tabled in front of me, I couldn’t help but urgently dismiss the idea that a solidified plan might be good for me in my situation, and instead, I leant into spontaneity and saying ‘yes’ as often as possible, and I’ll admit, that’s always served me well to be that open to what might eventuate next.

And it’s taken me into some pretty fantastic roles and some pretty fantastic freelance projects and created the possibility for some awesome self-run initiatives.

But, in recent times, I’ve curated an ‘ITCH’, and it ain’t eczema.

I’ve wanted to prioritise curation heavily, and showcase excellence in content profiles.

I’ve wanted to invest in and grow the types of culture <> tech brands whose vision I also believe in.

Like a Psylo

Like a Melodics

Like a Nectar Brands

Like a Heaps Normal

Or, similar to a number of other excellent companies that have grown, in their own way, with far less rules in tow.

Like an A24 or a Teenage Engineering or an Annapurna or any number of the other brands I’ll curate to showcase.

And, I’ve wanted to hone in on my love of storytelling, and the ways that comes to be so.

I’ve wanted to create something that was truly, unequivocally, me.

And have a belief that a number of true fans would also enjoy this direction as well.

And and and, potentially see a really interesting wave of collaborators surface in the process.

I’ve grown super comfortable with my personal understanding that a majority of people won’t really understand the GROUP GROUP business model from the outset, until they do.

The same as some of my past relatively successful projects have turned out.

The thought-process for my ‘ITCH’ started with an initial germ of an idea, for what was originally called ALTS Projects.

I saw ALTS Projects developing into a podcast (A Lot To Say) a written content series (A Lot To Share) an exhibition series (A Lot To Show) an event series (A Lot To Storytelling) and eventually, a tech product marketplace (A Lot To Sell). And after that, ??

Whilst ALTS Projects in that incarnation died for a couple of reasons (I’ll profile the people who built a brand with that ALTS name by the way) ultimately I only ended up pushing out the podcast, which actually scaled up the charts on release and made it onto the Apple podcasts homepage, due to my unconventional launch plan (a fun project I’ll talk about plenty later as well).

And speaking of unconventional - that’s been a consistent theme throughout the career to this point. Which has been designed, but not necessarily planned for.

So, that future I’m designing for myself is called GROUP GROUP, and this does requires a plan.