Hi! I’m Nina.

A mum of 4 gorgeous children, living on the Mornington Peninsula in Victoria (Australia).

I design projects and educational resources after my business (The Garden Frankston) closed during covid-19.

In 2021 when I made a decision to look for a partner, I had a long hard think about whether or not merging with someone else was something I really wanted to do.

On the surface, I don’t *need* a partner as such…I already have a diverse back catalogue of work ready for monetization or publication —I have books printed and digital along with an educational framework designed for courses etc, making me independent in my own right and capable of bringing a substantial amount of income producing assets to the table for my half of the partnership when the time is right for negotiations. 

So why choose a partner? Why not continue running a business on my own?

 

The answer is found in Adam Smith’s book:

The Wealth

of

The Nations.

In the opening chapter of Adam Smith’s famous book, we are introduced to a concept called:

The Division of Labour.

The example refers to a simple dressmaking pin used by a seamstress or shoemaker in clothing or shoe manufacture back in 1776 when the book was first published; and something in the year of 2021 we now very much take for granted.

Yes it’s true!!

The worlds most difficult and comprehensive book on economics; all starts with a story about a simple little pin and how it is made in a pin making factory.

In the opening chapter of The Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith made a deliberate choice to show the reader, that even if you read no further than the opening chapters of his treaty…………if the rest of the book became too overwhelming or difficult to understand…..if the reader could only grasp one concept that he taught…. ……then it was this simple explanation of how a pin is made in a pin factory, that could help everyday men and women live their lives and prosper.

Let’s have a read of this famous paragraph from the opening chapter in his book: 

Remember that Adam Smith is explaining how a pin is made in the factory, before it is ready to be sold in a shop.

‘One man draws out the wire,

another (man) straights it,

a third (man) cuts it,

a fourth (man) points it,

a fifth (man) grinds it at the top for receiving the head;

to make the head requires two or three distinct operations (process);

to put it on, is a peculiar business (process),

to whiten the pins is another (process);

it is even a trade by itself to put them into the paper (process);

and the important business of making a pin is, in this manner, divided into about eighteen distinct operations (process),

which, in some manufactories, are all performed by distinct hands (man)’.

Adam Smith was a clever guy….and he could have used any example that was a lot more complicated to prove his point, but instead he chose this simple little pin.

Why?

Because it shows the reader, that even such a tiny object like a dressmaking pin, has many different people involved in the production of it in the year of 1776 when he wrote the book- 18 different parts of an operational process to make a tiny little pin, and this also meant many different people too!! 

What has this got to do with me looking for a partner?

There are many people in the world who specialise in success….and if social media is anything to believe in 2021, there are hundreds of thousands of people, all ready and willing to tell you how to make your fortune online.

Me?

I’m not one of those successful people.

Yes, I have various books in my portfolio that explain my view of different parts in the process of how to make money or succeed online (The Prosperity Project/ One Mummy One Million Dollars One Year/ E VOL-V/Know You & Love You etc), however the thing I specialise in the most is failure.

Yes, you read that correct.

My niche specialty doesn’t focus on success, instead it looks at causes of failure, and seeks to understand how failure occurs and why.

Although it is hard for humans to see suffering and grief when things go wrong or fail because we have a natural desire to help others when we see them suffering (which we have witnessed with the interference of what has happened with covid enforcing strict measures and what Adam Smith discusses about sympathy in another of his books- The Theory of Moral Sentiments)– we need also to be mindful of how interference in the lives of others impacts not only the individual, but also the greater world at large.

But I’m going off topic here.

Let’s go back to our pin making factory and the division of labour and see what this has to do with business failure and success and the reason that I am choosing to look for a partner.

Answer this question….. Do you think you can run a prosperous business without the Division of Labour in the year of 2021?

This is a completely personal question, and I don’t believe there is a right or wrong answer, but I am going to give my opinion below.

In my business today as an author, there are various parts of the business that go into making a simple book.

1. There is research.
2. Writing.
3. Editing.
4. Graphic design.
5. Fillable PDF conversion.
6. Printing
7. Bookbinding.
8. Marketing
9. Accounting.
10. Online Distribution (uploading to Amazon etc)
11. Offline Distribution (delivering to in person bookstores)
12. There is Email Marketing
13. Social Media Marketing
14. and probably a couple of other things I have missed out on too.

When I speak about the Division of Labour for the creation of my books, I note that many parts of this process I can do myself….and over the course of five years I have done many of these individual parts of the division of labour as I sought to understand how they impacted various points of success and failure in both an online and offline business.

Although automation and technology have come a long way in even just a short 5 years, making it more than possible to do all of these things on your own, the conclusion I have come to is this;

Living in a society built on capitalism without the ability for small business owners or artists to divide labour, makes it very hard for individuals to prosper emotionally, mentally, financially or creatively.

Although, it is easy to start a business with a company of one, what is extremely difficult to do– is grow or scale that business without introducing other people or processes (like those who work in the pin making factory) into your success.

Now although on the surface, it seems easy to “add” the division of labour into our business plan, it is not always easy  to do so as outside influences impact (or nudge) our choices

1. Things like needing to pay wages and fair worker rights set by governments 
2. Making sure that all legal loopholes are covered with watertight legal documents
3. Being forced to pay superanuation to contractors (in Australia)
4. The impacts of choosing to employ cheap labour (no idea who has access to personal information and sensitive documents)
5. The impacts of the economy importing foreign goods and labour and the effects it has on our own country plus much more.

If we spin back and look at the division of labour that goes into creating my books for sale, something we need to ask honestly is which person is more valuable than the other?

Is it myself as the author?

Is it Emma the graphic designer?

Is it Jan the editor?

Is it Jeremy the bookbinder?

Is it Ange the virtual assistant?

Lauren the email marketer?

Ben my accountant?

Vanessa in legal?

Dave for PDF creation?

Which person in the list of people is more important than the other?

The answer?

No-one specific person.

They are all just as important as myself being the author.

They all contribute to the overall success of each book that is published. 

And although with time and experience I “could” learn to do everyone else’s individual own jobs like editing, or graphic design etc…..for every minute I am doing someone else’s part of the process, I am not doing “my” part of the process- the thing that I do best- writing anchors and developing projects.

 

Cost + Price + Value

Now we’ve discussed the division of labour and the people or processes that impact the success or failure of various projects or business models, the next thing to discuss is what each of these people is worth financially.

If we agree that each person is just as important as the other, we now find ourselves in a pickle.

How do we make it fair to financially compensate each individual?

We need to pay everyone equally and fairly.

But what if I haven’t made any money from selling my books?

That means that everyone on my team gets an equal and fair distribution of zero.

Nothing.

There is no money to pay anyone for the work they have done.

This is the topic explored in the 2021 portfolio of E VOL-V where in the EARTH nft trading card project our protagonist Iris is given a choice:

She can either take $12 million dollars up front for 12 years of her work and give away the rights to her investors (which is what we do with our employers each day we go to paid employment in exchange for our intellectual and emotional labour)

OR

She gets no money, but gets to keep all of her work to herself.

We can see with the 2021 portfolio that this is a very close recreation of what is going on right now in our capitalist society.

Many individuals are contributing to the failure or success of big companies and corporations, but they are not “invested” into them as such. If the company is not making any money, employees are still getting paid…..yet if the company turns a wild profit, the employee still only gets a standard wage.

So what’s a girl to do?

For me, I have chosen to partner with likeminded people in order to harness this division of labour to create a virtuous cycle of goodness….and to do this; it all begins with one.

One person who shares the same vision of creating a fair and just equal distribution of wealth.

One person who has a complimentary skillset to my own as a project developer and writer of anchors.

One person who can financially support themselves until our first project is a success and we receive our first paycheck.

One person who can bring a portfolio of work or skills to the table immediately.

One person who doesn’t mind sharing the limelight and being a partner of two.

 

Moving forward in 2021 this is what I am looking for in a partner:

Personal Character Traits:

Value driven, mindful, a good sense of humor, kind hearted, and looking to invest in creative projects built with love

Shared Professional Vision for 2021-2023:

Mixed media/ transmedia storytelling focusing on narratives about the actual narrative and nature about transmedia storytelling itself- the conflict between the good and bad side of technology and data fragmentation and how it is impacting our decisions, our relationships, our communities, and most of all– our children.

Shared Professional Vision (forever encompassing)

Wholistic Knowledge Transfer Plans.

Finding authors and content creators (with supporting professionals like graphic designers, artists, and editors) who already have at least five years of specialised knowledge in their chosen field of expertise and who want to transfer industry specific knowledge in a safe and effective way to minimise failure

If this sounds like a project you would be interested in working on together; please reach out.

I would love to hear from you.

Nina xo