About Joel Spence and We Choose The Moon
Here I am in Hạ Long Bay, Vietnam which is probably the most stunning places I’ve ever had the pleasure to visit. This photo was taken when visiting one of the large caves that are left within many of the 1600 islands within the Bay.
The reason I’m showing this picture, not only because I’m tired of writing corporate biographies with the same cheesy picture (which you’ll see dotted through the site…) is that it was taken around three hours after I just finished a book called BOLD by Peter Diamandis and Steven Kotler, which sparked an innovation fire in my heart and fascination in my mind.
BOLD talks about how to go big create wealth impact the world, covering Technology, Mindset and Crowd. It explored and discussed exponential technologies and how their democratisation would go on to revolutionise the world and its economy. It was a fantastic immersive read on the future of how radical the new technologies can disrupt the world we live, while also creating fantastic opportunities for wealth creation and the reduction of poverty through providing greater access to materials, education, and capabilities.
I was inspired by this book, and it was a pivotal point in my life where I really began to focus on tech. I had been working within the marketing space for about 7 years as a business development manager, essentially selling marketing services to small-medium businesses. Around this time, I just left a one of my favourite businesses, a digital marketing agency called Enjoy Digital and, I was about to embark on a career in digital transformation. This began at Capita, where I became head of business development for the digital transformation agency, G2G3 digital.
Technology, innovation and growth became a passion
From here I crafted a career which saw me become deeply immersed in technology, economics, and future thinking. While always having a more commercial role, building high performing sales teams to grow and scale digital user experience and technology businesses, my passion was always on the strategies and solutions that delivered impact, be that for clients or for my firms. Using my inquisitive nature to develop strong first principles across most areas which impacted my businesses and clients, including marketing, digital, development, economics, data, technology, automation and a whole bunch of things in-between, I was able to develop an approach to strategic thinking that connected the dots to build powerful strategies for my clients.
On the way, I decided to sign up to a 2-year executive MBA which specialised in Management Consulting and Innovation at The University of Leeds (Leeds University Business School). This served to “round the peg” of my thinking combining a deep understanding of how businesses operate, and the technology, innovation and growth strategies needed to drive impact.
Most recently, I have been leading a number of major consulting programs which built Customer and Digital Experience strategies for major fintech’s and retailers, and disruptive innovation programs to design innovative new platform businesses within the Low Carbon Tech space.
So there is a brief history, and this is where we are now. We Choose The Moon is my blog, and I hope to bring you interesting posts that cover technology and innovation, but also guide deeper into professional development and how you can overcome through a life’s challenge to be successful in 2022 and beyond.
While I’m certainly not joining any Forbes 40 under 40 list anytime soon, I’d like to think that I have quite a few thoughts to share in how we can use technology to become successful and drive positive impact, and how to overcome a lot of the challenges that we face been trying to become successful and such crazy world.
I’m no journalist and I’m certainly not an author (yet at least!) But I hope that you take some value from my posts and you find them entertaining as I share the things I find interesting and others often ask me for advice on. Your feedback is valued as is your support and collaboration. I would love to hear from you via the contact forms below and comments on-site.
Why We Choose The Moon?
“We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.”
John F Kennedy, written by Ted Sorensen
Soon after that speech, between 1961 and 1964, NASA’s budget was multiplied by a factor of five, and the lunar landing program eventually involved roughly 34,000 NASA personnel as well as 375,000 people employed by industrial and university contractors.
While I can’t take credit for the concept, or for the incredible speech that was written by Ted Sorensen and so well delivered by John F. Kennedy, what I can say, is that one of the most inspiring story’s you’ll ever learn about when it comes to innovation, is that of the space race. With a mission so big it was a dream, enabled by strong funding, top down buy in and a visionary approach to leadership, the Apollo moon missions would eventually achieve its goals and leave a long tail of incredible innovations that would go on to change the world.
I learned in detail about the story when I visited NASA at the Kennedy Space Centre back in 2018 and was immersed in the story and the technology. When dreaming big and aiming for a major objective, often we overlook all the other positive things that come out of even attempting the mission. With the Apollo program, as well as inspiring a nation, we gained Laptops, Microwaves, Insulation, Rocket Technology, Food Storage techniques and navigation technologies, to name but a few.
How this inspires me when it comes to our own projects is that often to drive big impact and ignite a new “industrial revolution” within an organisation, innovation programs can add so much value which is confined to its singular kpi. I am a firm believer that by championing technology and new ways of working, being agile and investing in the growth of people, companies and individuals can become formidable.
That is why this blog is called We Choose The Moon, not because all that stuff is easy, but because it’s hard. It pushes our boundaries, it makes us grow, and we end up better, stronger, and further along. I hope you enjoy the content and please feel free to comment or get in touch, I value your time and collaboration.
A blog about technology, innovation and growth
So who is it for and what can you expect? Well, I welcome and am grateful for all readers and collaborators, I aim to share a positive, well researched effort to spread easily accessible and entertaining content.
Growth, positivity and resilience
Growth posts will include all kinds of personal development content and ideas too as well as commentary on latest thinking in the space. I’ll aim to share my view on things and be honest in some of life’s challenges, sharing the tools, tips, tactics, and strategies that I have used to overcome them. My mission for this section is to support others as you embark on your own growth journeys. If you ever need help with a certain issue, then please feel free to reach out and I may be able to write some specific advice or content.
Technology & innovation
Within the technology and innovation sections I will be sharing informative content giving detailed overviews and reviews of new and existing technologies, and also new ideas that are coming down the path. This may include Digital Experience, Customer Experience, Data, Automation, Ml and AI, Blockchain, Cryprocurrency, API’s, CMS and DXP’s, Web 3 and eventually… Web 4!
I will share and refer to other thought leaders’ content. In this way, I can knit together a strong basis of information and also present to you some of the great minds out there who already have a strong grasp on lots of these new concepts.. I’ll also add my personal thoughts on where things may be going and invite comments from the audience.
Finally, I’ll try to make it interesting when possible. Using an honest tone, I aim to bring in video blogs and special guests where possible to bring some of the subjects to life.
Thank you for visiting!
I hope that you enjoy the content on Wechoosethemoon.co.uk and that it helps you to take your next steps. Be those within technology or innovation, with a specific project, or with your own development and career. If you have any feedback or would like to collaborate, then please send a message in the contact box below, and feel free to connect on social.