May be it’s becauuuuuse I’m a Londonder

Anyone been to Coal Drops Yard, King’s Cross, London?

Not recently obviously, I mean around 400 years ago when we used to go on trips willy nilly.

Well when I last went to London, I called in on old Coal Drops because I’d read about it being the groovy new retail space for hip and happening young cats.

Yes I really am very cool.

It’s actually a new high-end urban shopping street that used to be a load of disused Victorian coal sheds.

What makes it cool is that it’s not just a shopping mall but a shopping destination. What’s that load of old pony, I hear you cry!

It’s shops plus emotion, I’ll have you know.

This is what the architects decided was needed to get people out of bed these days. A street stuffed with shops wouldn’t have been enough, because the internet has thousands of those that you can access without putting your pants on.

It needed to be a place where people could congregate, socialise, gather and exercise. Bars, hipster hangouts, face gyms and the like (let’s just pretend we know what those are).

“The digital revolution means people don’t need to go somewhere unless it connects with their humanity,” said the architect.

“Interesting!” I’m thinking

Because that’s what’s going to happen AC isn’t it? After Corona people are going to question the need for human interaction where the alternative is neatly and conveniently presented online. Why not get even more stuff online, like financial planning?

I bought a lipstick through my laptop yesterday (in a shade that I’m hoping will work wonders on Zoom). I would never do this normally but suddenly I thought “why not?” What did Jenny at the Christian Dior counter really add to the experience before? Apart from a whole lot of semi-enjoyable conflab about the weather etc.

So what’s the deal with financial advice now? Why do I need to bother speaking to a real human?

We know why.

But do others?

It’s subtle, so you need to pin that down. Make a bit of a do about it. And you need to mention that there are digital elements to it that make it really quite cool and modern, because they’ll like that.

No rush though. You’ve got another 400 years to think about it 😀

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