Build the Invisible

By Daniel Geey

How do you make your dream job a reality?

I have given career advice to thousands of aspiring sports and entertainment industry executives.

I’ve been asked what makes you stand out? How do you impress when you don’t have anything particularly special to say? And why does no one respond to your emails?

I have distilled everything I know into Build the Invisible, an accessible guide that outlines my philosophy and shows how investing in yourself – building your invisible foundations – leads to a successful and fulfilling career.

I interviewed over 40 high-achieving business people about how they landed their current positions. And blending their experiences with my own insights, I created a roadmap that will get you to where you want to be.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Troubador Publishing Ltd
• Release date: May 28, 2023
• ISBN: 9781803137681

Daniel Geey

Daniel Geey is one of the UK's most highly respected sports lawyers. His clients include Premier League and Champions League football clubs, agencies, rights holders and other sports companies. Named a Next Generation lawyer and 'leading light' by Legal500, Daniel is the media's go-­to man when complex legal matters need to be explained to a wider audience. He has appeared on Sky Sports, Sky News, BBC, CNN, BT Sport, Bloomberg, TV2, BBC Radio 4 and TalkSport, and contributed to the Telegraph and the Independent. He has more than 22k Twitter followers. @FootballLaw

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Copyright © 2023 Daniel Geey

The moral right of the author has been asserted.

Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, this publication may only be reproduced, stored or transmitted, in any form or by any means, with the prior permission in writing of the publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction in accordance with the terms of licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside those terms should be sent to the publishers.

Matador

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ISBN 978 1803137 681

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Matador is an imprint of Troubador Publishing Ltd

To my wife Hollie

Contents

Who is Build the Invisible for?

Build the Invisible Journal

Preface    The ice rink

Chapter 1    Luck and opportunity

Euston Station, London

What to expect from this book

The roadblock

Invest in the iceberg

Think short and long term (and forget about your ideal job for now)

BTI Journal takeaway

Chapter 2    How soon is now?

You’ve started (and you didn’t even know it)

The jumping-off point

Process to progress

BTI Journal takeaway

Chapter 3    Networking and flipping the conversation

Two tips to kick off with

The network you didn’t realise you had

Opportunities create opportunities

Flip the conversation

BTI Journal takeaway

Chapter 4    Deepening and scaling relationships

Listen better

Play the person – everyone is different

Preparation and follow-up

The electronic comfort blanket

Visualise your expanding network

BTI Journal takeaway

Chapter 5    Protect the process

It’s going to happen

Press-ups and toilets

Consistently just doing

Telling others reinforces behaviour

Traction

BTI Journal takeaway

Chapter 6    The F word

Nana korobi, ya oki

Happy is hard

The passion paradox

The power of yet

BTI Journal takeaway

Conclusion

Consistency compounds

Small changes

Acknowledgements

Who is Build the Invisible for?

In the first COVID lockdown of 2020 I decided to run some informal YouTube courses. One was called ‘How to break into your dream industry’. It was a live, five-day course that talked through some of the valuable career lessons and advice I have been given, and the wisdom that’s been shared with me.

An interesting feature of the sessions was the range of people who joined the discussion: students looking for job tips; those who had made their first career steps, but were searching for more fulfilling roles; and plenty of seasoned professionals from across many different sectors who were contemplating making a change into a more rewarding role. This all got me thinking about how I could convert these digital sessions into a more comprehensive career advice roadmap.

My initial aim was for Build the Invisible to be a book for younger people, for those starting out on their professional journeys. However, as I have shared various iterations of the book with a variety of people at different stages of their careers, the response has been that a lot of the content is still relevant, useful and can be adapted for those with already established careers.

Indeed, even though I’m currently a sports and entertainment lawyer, and some of my experiences relate to those industries, for many years I worked in much less glamorous sectors such as food, agriculture, financial services, aviation and car parts. I believe the collective wisdom contained in this book is relevant far beyond the areas I now work in, making the ideas applicable to many circumstances and transferable across all types of jobs and industries.

Build the Invisible describes a way to live your life by developing your professional capabilities. It offers a model, a set of core principles and a philosophy that can help you build your invisible foundations and ultimately realise your ambitions.

Build the Invisible Journal

After reading another fascinating book on improving your life by making small changes I am always inspired and try to incorporate particular tips into my day-to-day routines. The problem is, my motivation to make those small changes can quickly wane and I’ve learned that things will slip if I am not regimented enough.

About four years ago, I was keen to lose a few pounds. A friend recommended the excellent A Fitter Me, a course I still follow today. It involved carbs only at lunchtime, walking 12,000 steps a day, lots of green tea and a specific exercise routine five days a week. I got into good shape, because I stuck with the programme. I stuck with the programme, because I was held to account – each person following the course had to send a green tick to the WhatsApp group when they completed the exercise routine.

At the beginning of lockdown in 2020, I started to keep a productivity journal, because I realised that holding yourself to account is key and journaling really helped with that process. I usually just tracked my exercise, writing and knowledge-building routines, ticking off each action daily. I was far from perfect, but it allowed me to chart my progress, as the WhatsApp green ticks had done with my weight loss course, and I made a habit of using it.

The journal really helped me to be consistent and the more work I did on Build the Invisible, the more I realised that a knowledge and relationship building journal was vital for turning practical advice into tangible reality. So alongside Build the Invisible is the Build the Invisible Journal (or BTI Journal) where:

•You note down the three pieces of content you have read that day;

•You’re prompted to send interesting content to someone to grow your network;

•You reach out to someone to compliment them on their work;

•You follow new people across social media in the area/industry you want to work in and find ways to reach out to them; and

•You then track all the above and repeat.

I believe Build the Invisible will inspire you and give you short-term motivation, but the BTI Journal will keep you on track, day by day. I make constant reference to the BTI Journal throughout the book and it is a vital companion to help you build your invisible foundations.

Preface

The ice rink

Our lives are ingrained loops. Round and round we go in the same routines. Most of those routines are unconscious, long-term, deep-rooted behaviours, with some of the circles and repetitions more productive than others. Build the Invisible will help you recognise your ingrained loops and make small tweaks to create new, more productive loops for the benefit of your career and life in general.

I was recently at an ice rink with my wife and daughters, and it really struck me how it was a microcosm of so much ingrained human behaviour. There were some show-offs, some mavericks and plenty of socialisers. Most skaters were practising quite tricky moves. Plenty of kids who had never skated before were getting tips on how to balance and take those first steps. And then there were the real outliers. One lady had clearly been a figure-skater in her youth and was gliding across the ice with ease. Others were watching her in awe, trying to imitate her poise and balance. Such effortlessness was no doubt the result of extraordinary amounts of effort and time put in over decades – the reward for her years of invisible investment. There was one adult who was good at the basics, but who was practising new, difficult pivots and turns. He fell over every time.