[Behind the Selfie] with... Dave Duarte

Shaking the tree, instead of the Polaroid picture...

1. Where do you live, work and play?

Duarte: I love travelling so that's play, and my teaching work has taken me all around the world.

Home is home though, and that's Sea Point.

2. What's your claim to fame?

Duarte: I love it when people come up to me and tell me about how a course they did with me has changed their lives. So I guess my claim to fame is offering life-changing learning experiences in media, marketing, technology, and innovation!

3. Describe your career so far.

Duarte: I've been in some form of event organising for the past 15 years. The golden thread is that I enjoy bringing people together. About 10 years ago I got into blogging and realised social media provides the most effective way to do this - to gather people around their shared interests. Now I've combined all that in a business called Treeshake, which is ostensibly a learning company, but is also, for me, about building networks and connections for people.

4. Tell us a few of your favourite things.

Duarte: My bicycle (I have a low-maintenance, lightweight, single-speed bike that I use to commute in Cape Town); non-fiction audio-books (this goes well with the bicycle riding); and wireless headphones.

5. What do you love about your industry?

Duarte: My work happens across some very different industries - media and marketing; technology; art and design; and higher education. I think the space that brings these all together best is the advertising industry, which is an incredible industry for the way people know each other, the way people move from agency to agency, the way we celebrate each other's achievements, and the continual drive to excellence in creating stories that cause behavioural or perspective changes.

6. What are a few pain points your industry can improve on?

Duarte: Late and delayed payment of freelancers and small businesses in the creative sector is not cool. A lot of freelance creatives and small studios operate in a state of perpetual cash-flow uncertainty while corporate and agency accounts departments dither or intentionally delay. I've found with Treeshake that one of the best ways to pleasantly surprise our suppliers, and build our trust relationship with them, is simply to pay them promptly without hassle or fuss.

7. Describe your average workday, if such a thing exists.

Duarte: I'm up at 6:30am, journaling, reading the news, maybe commenting on Twitter. I usually have an 8am meeting at a local coffee shop. I get in to the office by 9am, give a talk or class at some point, then wrap up at 5pm. When I'm at work, I'm working intensely - designing classes, processes, or proposals mainly. In the evening it's walking or yoga or a movie.

8. What are the tools of your trade?

Duarte: A Macbook loaded with Keynote and Google Drive. And an LG G4 Android Smartphone. And social media everywhere.

9. Who is getting it right in your industry?

Duarte: The Creative Leadership Consultancy. I love that they do high-end leadership development based on the power of play.

10. What are you working on right now?

Duarte: I'm starting to offer public courses, classes, and meet-ups through Treeshake.

11. Tell us some of the buzzwords floating around in your industry at the moment, and some of the catchphrases you utter yourself.

Duarte: Vertical video, blended learning, flipped classroom, Blockchain, MOOCS, pivoting, crowdfunding... I could go on and on. For me currently, I'm inspired by things like "stories are software for the mind", "Leaders also need to be joiners", and "Big ideas are just small ideas with momentum".

12. Where and when do you have your best ideas?

Duarte: While running. Often at about 7kms in I stop running, record an idea, feel stoked, then carry on with a quieter mind.

13. What's your secret talent/party trick?

Duarte: I love stories and collect them, and can rattle off my favourites for as long as anyone will let me.

14. Are you a technophobe or a technophile?

Duarte: Technophile!

15. What would we find if we scrolled through your phone?

Duarte: Besides all the productivity and communications apps - social media, chat, email, VOIP, note-taking, reminders, and so on - the one app I'm loving right now is called Calm, I've been using it to practice meditation.

16. What advice would you give to newbies hoping to crack into the industry?

Duarte: Honestly, the best advice I have is to take more short courses and classes. There are freebies and cheapies happening constantly. Firstly, you learn the skills you'll need to pay the bills. Secondly, you'll learn about the industry. Thirdly, and most importantly, you'll meet people in the industry who you can ask for work from - even if it's a project or two in the beginning. Be curious!

17. Plug your contact details, punt yourself - list all the places people can find you/your work online.

Website
Twitter
Instagram
Facebook
LinkedIn

You can read more about Treeshake by clicking here, and here for more on Duarte.

*Interviewed by Leigh Andrews.