Maria Lloyd (02:04.078)
hello Pete and welcome to the My Local Marketer podcast. Thank you for coming on. How are doing? Hi, Maria. Yeah, thank you for asking me. I'm doing really well. Thanks. Yeah. Good. Good. Well, before we start, we should mention that we are here at Under 2K on Wokingham Road in Reading. Yeah. It's my first time here, but you've been here before, haven't you? Yes. It used to be music shop and...

It's a friend of mine who bought the music shop and he's turned it into some really cool thing, experience. So if you're in Reading, come along to Wokingham Road next to the three tons. And you'll see you can buy solar panels and batteries, but it's actually a social media creation studio as well. Yeah. It's good for what we're doing today, podcasting. it's brilliant. And we're on the podcasting rooms. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Brilliant. So yeah, get on down here if you've not been here before. So before we begin.

Maria Lloyd (04:19.042)
Could you tell our listeners, a little bit about yourself and what you do? So, I'm Big Doll, lived in Reading Life and I'm a musician, full -time musician now, retired from business, used to work in retail. And yeah, so I'm writing, composing music, just finished studying a film music qualification course and

I was very lucky enough to be commissioned to do a piece of music for Reading Museum quite recently, of which you came along and saw a live performance of it. Yeah. So that's called Thin Ice and that's a creative response to Julian Greta's art exhibition that's been over the summer in the art gallery there, in the John Daysky Art Gallery. And the museum asked me, Elaine, who's the art curator to writer, what we call a creative response. So you're looking at the artwork.

Here we had a series of six pieces of artwork that I was looking at. So I saw the brief as six scenes in a film. So the music sort of flowed through different colours. It starts off quite light with the snow and the ice and then it goes quite dark as the ice is melting. And of course the theme and the whole exhibition is on the fragility of life up there in Iceland and Greenland and...

So I called the piece of music Thin Ice because it's actually a metaphor for how fragile life is, really, you know. And you very kindly listened and a other people joined. So that's going to be released as a piece of music. it's a really beautiful piece. And I said what really attracted me at that point, I just went off the cuff just to think, it sounds interesting. Okay, I can see it. But you were talking to the little girl in the front rows, I mentioned to you before, and how you were describing that the...

how you were conveying sharpness and then flatness and how you were conveying that in music is something I'd never really considered before. So that made me see how you can take a picture and then, well, as you said, do a transition to music. That was fascinating. Well, thank you. Yeah, and well, anyone who asks, I'm always willing to share and learn from them as well. It's a two -way process. for me, because the piece...

Maria Lloyd (06:38.562)
the artwork is very big and spacey and spacious. From a technical point of view I wasn't going to use very specific chords, I was going to use intervals of fourths and fifths which are quite musically quite spacious moments. And also in the composition world there's a lot of minimalistic composers, people like Philippe Quartz for example, putting space into the music.

the distance between the notes, accent, what you're trying to say. So rather than just play over everything, having time for people to digest the artwork and the music at the same time, and what a great venue to play in. Acoustics are amazing. So for me, I've always thought as the listener to the music, and when I go and watch music as well, can kind of, know, two people might have a different experience for the same.

music because it's their interpretation of what's going on. And this is a thing apparently, creative response. So I did some work with the museum last year when they had an abstract art exhibition and I invited some composers, Chris Mitchell, Maya Varvatsis locally to write a piece of music. And they wrote several pieces of music and we put a QR code next to the artwork. So viewers, listeners to the gallery, visitors to the gallery.

could look at the art exhibition and click on the QR code with their phone and listen to the musicians response to the artwork. So I'm following up opportunities that have come out the back of that as well at the moment. And for me, it's just finding interesting places to hear music, music. Yeah, so I'm enjoying that. It's good fun. What have you found? Because I said, I am fascinated by that project with the QR codes to see, are you finding that?

some pieces of artwork are getting more traction than others. What are your findings from that, if you've gotten so far? Yeah, in fact I gave them back to the Museum where I tracked every single piece of information from each QR code because I'm a bit of a data nerd. some pieces were definitely more popular than others.

Maria Lloyd (09:00.984)
From a museum point of view, from Elaine's point of view in the art gallery, she wants people to come back into the art gallery after lockdown and the museum as well because it's a challenge to get people to go anywhere. So she sort of said to me, look, should we do it as a test? This was last year and because it went so well, she then came back to me this year and said, look, can you compose a piece and perform it live in the art gallery? So I hope more art galleries and museums...

take the opportunity to do live events, preferably with music, but it doesn't have to be music. It could be art, it could be poetry. But these are really interesting places and they can be about the present and there could be creation spaces. It doesn't have to be all reflective of the past, you know. I think museums are doing quite well on that because they've always had to be very tuned in to the audiences ever since like the days gone by when you had a dusty artefact on a shelf.

they are much better now at getting the data, as you said, seeing what people like, putting different things in the mix to attract people in. So I think businesses could learn from what museums and art galleries do sometimes, just to attract people through the door. And like I crossing barriers, you know, the music interpretation of the image.

That's really interesting. So as soon as you get something a bit different, and obviously in marketing we say you don't just have a podcast, people may not listen to podcasts. So you need a blog where you need a social post. So the different interpretations of exactly the same piece. So that was really interesting. Yeah. And you've got a lot of experience working in museums. I do, yes. this whole idea came about from a couple of friends of mine, Ian and Rebecca. Rebecca is an artist, local artist, and the museum had bought her piece of...

one of their pieces of artwork as part of what they buy. They've got sort of, they want to encourage local artists into the art collection at Reading Museum, Reading Art Gallery. And so Rebecca was, it was her event, I was at present at, they have a poet in residence there as well. And she was writing, during lockdown, she was talking to Rebecca about her artwork. And the poet is Leslie.

Maria Lloyd (11:16.31)
And she then performed a couple of poetry pieces in the museum with Rebecca there celebrating her artwork being put on display. It's on display now in the museum. And that's when Elaine said to me, we need music. So if you've got art, poetry and music as a sort of trinity, she wants to keep that going. if any of your listeners or viewers are creative people, I would encourage them to reach out to Elaine Blake at the museum.

because there may be opportunities to perform, to write, create. That's a brilliant idea. And like I said, I mean, it's with the museum, but maybe other businesses as well. It's just, if you ask, I think people get a lot more. It's just most of time people don't want to ask, but you get so much just by asking. And if they don't want to, they'll just say, no, I'll give you a reason. That's it. That is the cost of being rejected is just... Exactly. Yeah. And yeah, it's created people, you know, we've got to find new ways to...

get our message across and also on a practical level to find work because it's really hard to find work if you're a full -time musician. know not many people are investing in commissioning music locally this is so it's good that they've got, Elaine's got this foresight to do this you know so hopefully we can keep something going you know maybe they should have a musician in residence at the museum who knows. Hint hint, things crossed.

Now I think we'll have to mention the guitar in the room. What guitar? Yeah. because honestly it's such a beautiful guitar. It's a nice one, isn't it? Yeah. So do you want to tell us a little bit about this? This is my baby. So this is a made by Aluthio and Reading in the 90s, 1993. So this is 31 years old. It's a strutter cast to shape three pickups. Mahogany, very heavy.

And I had it made for me when I was 19 because I wanted to, I wanted a guitar that was different and unique and one off. And so I've been, some people know I've been a musician locally for a long time. So yeah, I thought I'd bring this one today because it was stuck in my shed and it wanted to come out. It's just brutal.

Maria Lloyd (13:39.917)
I know you said this was handmade for you. Did you choose like the wood type and the look and is that what is that? It looks like quartz. I'm loving the shiny things. love shiny Yes. So me too. So this is mahogany. So it's a very heavy wood. It's normally put in gibsons and it gives a really warm tone and it's a hardwood so it lasts a time. And I wanted that the shape is a strat which has become popular by Fender in the 1950s.

and you've got three pickups, I've got different pickups here, this is a vintage blues pick up so it gets a really warm sound. I used to play lot blues. And then Rosewood fretboard and on the back it's a Bird's Eye Maple which is, for those of you who are listening, it looks amazing. If they're watching you can see. It's got little Bird's Eye Maple. It's called Bird's Eye Maple. is that why they fixed it, these little...

Dots. Knots and things like that. So that was made in Reading. It was literally made in Reading, hand -made in Reading. And the guy, he used to make a lot of guitars as a luthier. And sadly, he made loads of guitars at home in his flat, just near Central from Inpul. And he died of a heart attack because I think there was too much lacquer.

This was the days before health and safety. he did literally give everything to his trade. So this was one of the very last ones that he made. And it's got his initials IT. I've got another one, which is like a Brown made copy, Gibson style. So I'm more into my, I've always been into my guitars, but I'm sort of looking to the future. I want to help more people learn guitar. I've always been a guitar teacher.

and I set up a rock academy in 15 years ago actually. So I think I've got another innovation left in me to do, so I want to do something quite cool next year with guitars. Did you want to say a bit more about that? Yeah, why not? Go on! So I think inspired by or blamed by Oasis reforming, so I thought I might as well.

Maria Lloyd (16:00.078)
I think my prediction is 2025 is going to be a lot more about guitar based music and bands and things coming back, like the mid 90s, you know, where we had that guitar sort of wave. But also I want to encourage and I've helped young people write songs with the Rock Academy, as I mentioned, which is still going as a registered charity. But I want to do something to help adults as well who may be thinking about learning the guitar.

So I'm working on the idea at the moment, which will be out just before Christmas. And it will be rather than you buy a guitar, which is quite an upfront investment, especially electric guitar, which you need an amp. So I've got the little amp here again. You might be able to see if you're just listening, but these little amps are great. These are little practice amps. So I want to make it accessible to everyone. So I'm looking at recycling and upcycling old guitars and then

redistributing and finding them homes. And then I want to give an online advice and guidance and challenges to people who want to learn guitar. So I'll be wrapping that up in some sort of subscription or something like that. I haven't worked it out, but it's brewing. And yeah, I just want to help people get back into playing the guitar. I think that's a brilliant idea. It really is. Because I think the problem is people want to learn, but learning an instrument.

It's a very long journey and it's a lot of persistence and lot of hours before you sound even fractional, you know, you can play something. So just having that support is a really great idea. Well, thank you. And you play an instrument don't you? play flute. Was it flute? I did play flute for GCSE. That was many moons ago now. I really liked Schindler's List. Wow. And then A Whole New World. Yeah. Schindler's List was quite high. Yes, it was.

I think I did a whole new world for the key change, large UCSC piece. And then at the moment, now as you know, I'm playing snowman. That's what I'm learning. I am practicing every day, several times a day, just a few minutes. And it's amazing. At first I was trying to do it and it's like my brain was trying to tell my hands to do things. I was actively trying to press fingers down ever so slowly to make sure the right ones were going down. But now it's much quicker. I'm just focusing on getting like the, yeah.

Maria Lloyd (18:23.596)
Yeah, and well, if you remember that moment when you first picked up an instrument and the flute, mean, the flute is a challenging instrument. Took me ages just to able to blow the thing, honestly. was just right angle, my tutor kept saying. Did you have face to face lessons? I did, yes. Yeah. How did you motivate yourself to keep wanting to learn? I think having a... No, no, didn't do any grades, but I knew that in order to, you know, for school, they always have that level. I knew in order to...

I got a C in music at end, which I was chuffed with because I'm not musical. But I knew in order to get that C, you have to play like a piece of music. So that's why I chose a whole new work because you had a key change in the middle. So I was just focusing on doing that, the key change and you know, with great, you just go, you tick the boxes and you get the C, whatever, at the end. So fortunately I was able to do that. But yeah, I went to the tutor to learn how to play it.

So yeah, having those weekly lessons helped and then having that angle of I need to play this song in order to, for the GCSE. Yes. That was a good motivator. And I think some people get motivated, don't they, either by a band or an artist they see. I used to teach electric guitar grades, I'm accused of London College Music Syllabus, which had a heavy dose of improvisation. So, which I always thought was hard. How do you judge someone's improvisation? Cause it's literally made up.

Yeah. So you can, you can look at phrasing, you can look at dynamics, you can look at they're playing the right scale over the chords, is it in the right key? Is it telling a story? Are there pauses in phrases? know, so when you're playing, it's not like a solo, we're just playing under a mile an hour. So, I was really inspired by the curriculum that was set up by a guy called, Tony Skinner back in the early nineties. And he sets up a national database called registry guitar tutors.

I thought this is cool. You don't have to necessarily learn classical or sight read to get the advanced level grades, know, up to grade six. And you could even get up to grade A without reading music, standard notation. Because it's more about your level of dexterity and skill playing your own music, you know, improvising in the moment. And in the context in a band situation, if you're playing in a band live, the worst thing you can do is stop when the rest of the band will keep playing.

Maria Lloyd (20:48.967)
So when I used to teach face -to -face, I used to say everyone to slow down because some people might have a challenge changing between chords. You'd get one chord, there's a big gap and you've got the other chord and that can frustrate people. So I try and encourage people to slow down, play really slowly so that the gap gets removed and then the brain can remember the good one without the pause, know. And then you can speed up. So what I thought I'd do is

Rather than go back into full -time teaching face -face, I thought I'd do something online and set 52 challenges, weekly challenges. So there'll be videos and clips and techniques for the complete beginner, for different age groups and acoustic as well as electric. But I the idea of having challenges that are not just about people challenging themselves, but also how I can build a community around that. So one guitar learner can challenge another guitar learner.

And also I want to encourage the sense of community. So, you know, as they get more and more confident and can play a few notes together, a few chords together, there'll be a songwriting challenge in there. And maybe a local community challenge, you know, to write. It could be I could encourage them to go to an art gallery and write to create a response. So I'm sort of joining all the dots together with all the things I've done in my very long, boring life. And just, you know, create something rather than just

you know, just consume this video of me learning this song. I want to actually bring it offline as well. So it will start online, but then if it's successful, you know, we might have a few people who can then hang out offline together and, you know, create a community. And then in year two, and by the way, this thing that I'm working on at the moment is you don't have to buy the guitar. Just your subscription will cover the cost of me sending the guitar to you. And then if you don't like that guitar, you can send it back and get another one.

I want to make it really accessible to hang up cycle guitars so I'll be doing an appeal to people if they've got an old guitar in their loft they don't use, donate it to me or I can buy half of them if they want to raise some money and then I'll fix it up and rehome it to somebody who wants to learn. So feels good, know. So I'm going have fun with that next year. I think anything around the idea of community is really good.

Maria Lloyd (23:14.486)
So I think that's a great idea. Now, speaking about your long and boring career, it has not been boring. I know that for a fact, but you previously ran a marketing, what do you say? Do you say marketing company or do you phrase it a bit differently? Well, yes, social media training analytics company. media training analytics company. So what, do you have any advice for independent businesses and how they can help improve the social media presence? Because you know, there's a time it's just someone they're trying to do their creative skill there.

their craft, whatever it is, and they have no idea about the social. Do you have any advice for them? Yeah, human and local. So your podcast, even the name of it is absolutely on point. Being local, I was local marketing manager at Waitrose, the Waitrose branches back in the 90s. And back then we used to buy local media, the door drops, poster, bus shelter, local cinema and things like that. And social wasn't around. So

By nature, the comms that were coming out of those companies, the communications, were scripted and adverts. Whereas social, when I started tweeting back in 2008, mainly to promote my Rock Academy and Reading, I didn't have a budget. had a pound on the tweet and that was it. So I had to build connections, authentic connections. So I would reach out to every follower and say, hi, thanks for following. Are you interested in guitar lessons?

So it was a follow -up open question. Yeah. Rather than just be obsessed about collecting followers as some sort of trophy, I very quickly learned I couldn't use old marketing language as an advert to talk to people on social. So the idea of social content didn't really exist back then. I was just creating commentary on things and I was being very, very responsive. So I would be on Twitter.

back before it was toxic, locally. in Reading... Well, it was twisted before it X. Yeah, that's right. So in Reading, we had an RDG, which was the Reading hashtag. So I became quite familiar with local hashtags, geographical hashtags. And then there was a Japanese gaming company that doing RDG as well, so that kind of got hijacked. So then local newspaper about then said, well, let's use RDG UK. So that became a hashtag.

Maria Lloyd (25:33.912)
So that's how IDG UK started. that's how it started. there was some bunch of us geeks, used to meet up on Tuesdays, writing geeks. So I had fun with that and I created RGG bands as a hashtag. And of course, as you know, you don't own a hashtag, it's something people use. So I wanted to create a community. So I said to people, if you're watching a band, Ritual Music, tweet this hashtag on the end of it and I'll pick it up and then I'll reshare it, retweet it.

So for me, going back to your question, social is all about being authentic, human and local from the company's owner, the business owner. So the independent business would be, you know, the owner would be very close to the shop floor of their own business. And it's really important that they understand how to respond because it's not just a broadcasting opportunity of what's happening in their business. It's also a great way of getting feedback from customers about how we can improve.

It's a great way of recruiting staff. So it's much more than just an advertising broadcast channel. It's a two -way process. And the more that I've built a company over 15 years, working with large retailers, Hobbycraft being one of them, where we localized the social media in every shop. we gave each shop their own social media handle.

I focused on Twitter because it was quite a conversational based thing and the local hashtags. And then I created a training program for the company to train their own staff to do this. And we empowered thousands of people on the shop floor and hundreds of conversations happening every day throughout the whole network of 100 hobby craft shops. And then I created the dashboard so we can unpick those conversations.

and reward the really good people on the shop floor who were very good at having a social conversation. And often it wasn't necessarily the people that were good face to face, who were good on social. it was, we sort of tried to demystify a little bit for the people at head office. For an independent business in the Reading area, in Berkshire area, to be present is not enough these days on social.

Maria Lloyd (27:57.718)
is to be present and to be active and proactive. Serialisation is very good like you're doing on this podcast. You do something every Friday. I'm not one of these people that say you have to post every five seconds, you know. For me it's not quantity business. Multiple times a day! just anything, just get it out there. So for me it's much more about quality. So a small number of influential followers is more important and more valuable I think than...

a large number of followers who don't even live in your local area, who don't access your shop or your business. So, and having a care for each follower and building a connection and invite them into the shop if they're an independent shop, you know, and like you do, you know, invite them onto your podcast and that's why this podcast is really important for an independent business to talk about the business, you know, to humanise it. It's really important.

So I have a long -winded answer. No, I think that's great. as you said, this is like Hobbycraft and Waitrose. I think they've done very well. What would you say to independent businesses who say, it's fine for them. They've got loads of money. We need to cover the rent. We need to cover the wages. We need to focus on lead generation. We don't have time for the frills or, you know, creativity. Do you have anything to say to them or any advice? Yeah. I mean, normally if you're talking to

the owner of that independent business, they would know when they started their business how much effort and work was involved in getting those first leads. And it's conversations. I've always said it's about conversations. So they may have done it offline and they've done it through email. And social is no different and shouldn't be treated any differently. And it's a myth, I think, that you put, let's just put young people on social because they understand it, but that person may not be understanding the business. the best... audience. Yeah, exactly. And how to present themselves.

So if they, they're the owners of those independent businesses, if they are passionate about their business and they've still got passion left, because it's hard, know, because we go up and down, it's, I would say, just hang out on social and talk to your customers and somehow embed this into your business. So I used to call a retailer who was good at social, a social retailer.

Maria Lloyd (30:20.258)
And that was the name of my company, Social Retail Group. And my aim was to try and help these retailers become more social. Ironically, the large ones to become more local. The chains weren't very local in their comms. So for an independent business, they've got an advantage because they're closer to the action. They know their business. They know how to talk to customers, whether it's B2B or B2C. And try not to farm it out to someone too early in the process because they'll miss.

golden moment where someone, could be in their shop for example and then they follow them later on and they've missed an opportunity to say, hi how do you like our shop? Sorry I missed you because I was busy but we can talk now. So I would say yeah get on it and learn it and then when they know how it fits into their particular business, what sort of conversations they need to start, then they could possibly look at someone in their team who could do it for them and then if it requires more technical skills like

creating video content, then they can reach out to maybe a local marketing agency or indeed where we are here, know, under 2K. This is a unique experience, it's a shop, but it's got a social media studio behind it. So companies can, if they're in the local area, can come, say somewhere like here. And they could, because the people who run this space are retailers, they know how to create content. So they're talking to the same person.

Yeah. So there's loads of opportunities. And of course, it's free when you're doing organic. You know, don't have to buy social media ads. And I've always said social media ads, when you're looking at Facebook or Instagram as a consumer, an ad is disrupting your enjoyment of talking to your friends. know, whereas when you do organic, right, you become part of people's timeline. It's not a disruption. It's not a distraction.

So you don't have to work as hard on the content. You've just got to be human and local. I always go back to those things. spent 15 years telling you I want to be human and local. That's why I your pop -ups. I saw that pop -up. And you call it the local marketing. Local marketeer, isn't it? Yeah. It's on purpose. Because obviously for marketing, I find nowadays that it is. It's very global. You go on and you're speaking to people and you're trying to get like a million views and you're trying to connect with people and get the numbers. And you don't even know those people.

Maria Lloyd (32:44.974)
I have no connection to you and it's all about data. know, I'm asked to have data, then you can't get the data, especially with things like GDPR and stuff. It's like a wall on data. So if you have a customer and you can talk to them and get the data directly from them and have that relationship, it's just so much easier. So it's, know, I'm all for local. think you can get better relationships and just feel happier. You can serve three people and feel much happier than trying to deliver something to 30 and they give you.

bad reviews because you didn't package in silk or something. And you're right. There is an obsession. I don't know what feeds that obsession, but there's something around quantity. I must have a million followers. I must have a million views on a piece of content. Actually for me, it's much more about, as long you've got a potential customer watching it or a potential customer following you, then it's better to be gentle to them rather than ignore them. So a good skill these days in an independent business is having an analytical mind. So you can look at the data and see how does this work?

a good creative mind as well, access to creative people, what should we post about what's important to us as a business. And whenever I was in that world and I was talking to business owners, you could very quickly work out that there's a serialization opportunity. So, you know, talk about this on a Friday and just talk about it on a Friday. You you don't have to be on social every day of the week. You'll get notified if people follow you so you can...

can then go on. The other thing that most people don't do, because it's a time -based exercise, is to like and follow and comment on other people's posts that match your values, not just because you want to get noticed, you know, because that's really obvious and people see through that. So as a business, know, if you've partnered up with someone else, you know, just like them and comment on them as the brand, you know. So there's...

It is a time -based activity which does cost money because it's time. And then if you feel like you're getting the hang of this after a few weeks, then you can boost, maybe boost to content because you know what's working. But it's so easy these days in Facebook, make it easy for us to put in a credit card, a business credit card and just boost an ad. And you can get before you know you've spent too much money on ads and you don't know if it's working or not. Yeah, too easy. I said you've got no feedback on those.

Maria Lloyd (35:08.512)
at all, you've no idea who they are or they may be from all over. If you have local ads, I find that they can still reach people. And, yeah, and just go to business networks like you do. Locally, we've got a few now in Reading. It's pretty good. know, there's a few business networks and networking. So for me, the old school, just meeting people face to face, getting out there, it takes energy, you know, but it's definitely worth it. And it might be

a longer return cycle, so it's not like a direct response ad where you'd put out so much and expect a click through. So you've got to look at more of a long game, building relationships takes a bit of time. I think the key thing is, as you said, everything will take time. You're not going to jump on social media, set up your account and suddenly be awesome at contacting people and networking and putting out the post. It will just start with one a week.

Make sure it's nice, get used to that and then build on top of that, but do really small things. Yeah. And you're right. If it's 12 things, then that could be a monthly thing. Yeah. You're probably soon develop going on to two, to three, maybe you may really get into it. And how did you get into social and marketing yourself? I've never really been into the social side, the marketing side I like, especially on the customer side, just because of that relationship. You can speak to people, but they're also...

different. So I went from B to C to B to B, that's business to business for a bit, but it's sort of a bit divorced from the person and because the person's on behalf of a business, you don't really get that same connection. Whereas if you're speaking to someone it's about something they're interested in or their house or their property, you can get much more of a connection with them and get excited for them because it's theirs.

someone buying av equipment for their company is not going to be excited about the wattage saving or something. Yeah. Can't bond over that. As you said at the start, been in Reading all your life. Yes. What do you like about living in Reading? Good question. Well, it's familiar. I like the rivers, the geography, I like the history.

Maria Lloyd (37:29.099)
The water is really important as I get older, it's quite soothing. I like hanging out by the River Thames there, where the Reading Festival is. I've got friends who in different, who used to live in Reading and moved out. I like the diversity, the richness that I see when I come back to Reading, if I went down to Devon and I made it down there.

just didn't seem very diverse actually. So I like the richness. When it comes to music I like hanging out with people who've got different bass points so I can learn from people. So I'm working with Garcl Thompson at the moment, who you may know, he's in a band called Limpopo Groove and he's educating me on some really cool Zimbabwe music which is really cool. And we used to have one wedding, it always comes back to music, sorry, whatever the question is. So for me...

Reading is where I feel like when I'm in the centre of Reading, it used to be Risk and Global Cafe where I used to hang out. Sadly, that's not open anymore, but I used to just learn from other cultures because we've got so much rich culture and music tucked away in different places around the town. And it is a town, know, among other people that like it being a town. doesn't have to be a city. We're close to a city, that's fine. And there's people who've tried to make it city, but for me it's great just being a big town.

So for me, it's the richness, the diversity of it, the fact that now it's quite vibrant when it comes to music, certainly in creativity. I think more can be done about encouraging the creative arts because they are businesses as well. You know, we've got Shinfield just launched, Shinfield Studios just opened, so I'm optimistic that we could be pivoting into this new creative industry that's going to build up around our area.

We've got some famous people living around here, we've got musicians who come here for Reading Festival and hang out between here and Henley and Ship Lake and Sonning, we've got some lovely places. So I think I'm optimistic that we've got something here. We've got films, I know you're into your films as well, it'd be great if had a film festival in Reading, all sorts of stuff, Bring Back Womad, I'm trying to do that.

Maria Lloyd (39:53.304)
That would be great. That was a very long winded question. It wasn't a very long winded answer and I totally agree with everything you said. I agree, I like the balance of the quiet compared to, I think, many opportunities no matter what you're interested in. I say, especially if you're interested in musical fields with Schimfield, I think anything big that comes, will open up opportunities from there. So yeah, exciting times ahead. do you have a message you want to leave our listeners with?

Learn guitar. I want to just pull that up. Yeah, apart from that, just be, I said, I did a post the other day, be yourself, I'd say. It's a bit more philosophical, but I am getting close to mid fifties now, so I am. I used to post on who I met. So I posted this thing on Facebook because I was lucky enough to do a talk and I met this guy.

So I thought I'd do a selfie with him. I didn't do many selfies at that time. So I posted it and this was nine years, so it was a Facebook memory, you know, they prompted you. And I thought, I used to worry about who I met and who I was with and who I'd be seeing. No, I just don't worry about that at all. It's just not important. So it's more important about being who you are and what you're doing and what you're giving back. So as I get more for this off call.

and you know, get scars and cuts and bruises from life experiences. It's much more about what you leave behind. So learn guitar, write a song. yeah, just be yourself really. Just enjoy yourself. And if you're in, if you're running your own business, it's tough and challenging. So keep the faith, keep going because you'll find your mojo and it'll work. And if you're in a job that you're not quite enjoying, well then find another job. Yeah, life's too short. Exactly. And being happy.

and healthy and removing stress is really important. Yeah. And so if you're trying to support the right community, whether you're a business owner or whatever, then you'll always be supported and always find your people. Yeah. Yeah. Well, thank you, Thank you.