Another favour to ask (esp for my Scottish Fiends)
I need to ask you a favour. But first, a quick update:
A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that a former client, Ben, was relocating to Edinburgh and asked if anyone knew of opportunities. Several of you reached out. He got a job!!! Thank you, soooo much!
Now I’m asking again, but this time it’s personal.
My 23-year-old daughter Ash (Aisling) is moving back to Scotland in three or four weeks.
And I’d love some help, helping her land with her feet on the ground
And here’s the thing - you’ve already seen her work.
You just didn’t know it.
Because she’s helped me write my books.
This is an important point: When Ben was looking for work, he’d done a talk with me, so you could watch that and see how clever and thoughtful he is. I kept wishing I had something like that for Ash - a way of showing you, not just telling you. But I kept bumping up against the same problem: she’s a recent Masters graduate and (forgive me dear daughter) no one really cares that she’s spent hundreds of hours writing a dissertation.
But then I realised I already had a way to show you how clever (and thoughtful) she is:
She edited my last three books. Not just proofreading - proper developmental editing. She shaped ideas too. The aerodynamics stuff in Shaped for Speed? That came from two places: working with a parachute company, and Ash’s slightly obsessive love of F1.
And, also, if you’ve read Rolling Rocks Downhill, you’ve known her even longer than that. She was Ashley.
But the books were just the start. For the last three years she’s worked for me, part time. and I used to feel awkward saying that. It felt like saying “I hired my daughter” diminished what she actually does. Over three years, she grew into something I didn’t expect. She genuinely became my trusted adviser.
We talk 4 or 5 days each week about my work - not the logistics, but the real thinking. She gives me feedback I can’t get from anyone else. She’s commercially sharp in a way that surprises me given her age. She studied political science and criminology - not the policing side, but the systems side. How people interact within systems, why things break down, what you’d change to get better outcomes.
This stuff is surpassingly useful for me - the systems thinking, bottleneck detective!
I know this sounds like a proud dad talking. It is! But I’m also telling you as someone who’s been lucky enough to work with her every week for three years: whoever gets her is getting someone unusually good.
So I’m doing what dads do. I’m asking around.
(She knows I’m writing this, by the way. She wants to build her own life in Scotland, and she’s not precious about where she starts. She just wants to work, ideally somewhere she gets to use her brain.)
She’s been living in Cork the last while, near her aunts and uncles, so her LinkedIn still says Cork - but Scotland is the plan. If you want to put a face to the name, she’s here.
But honestly, this email tells you more about her than LinkedIn ever could.
I’m not asking you to employ her, but if you know someone in Edinburgh or Glasgow who might want to talk to a sharp, thoughtful person who understands systems and people - someone who could help with research, analysis, editorial work, or anything where clear thinking matters - I’d be really grateful if you’d pass her name along.
Just reply to this email and I’ll connect you.
Or connect to her directly on LinkedIn
And yes, I’m going to miss her. Losing your trusted adviser is its own kind of bottleneck. (Thankfully, I guess, I have 2 daughters - the other one is in her 3rd year of university, and was “Alison” in rolling rocks downhill.)
Clarke
