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Robin Horsfall
Former SAS Soldier. Writer, Veterans Campaigner and Public Speaker.
Professional Background
Robin Horsfall is a distinguished figure with a diverse and rich background that encompasses numerous roles including being a proud member of the Special Air Service (SAS), a paramedic, mercenary, bodyguard, and karate teacher. His multifaceted career speaks to his diverse skill set, unparalleled resilience, and commitment to serving others. With a wealth of experience, Robin has dedicated his life to inspiring and teaching, whether on the battlefield, in a medical emergency, or within the context of martial arts education.
Currently, Robin serves as the Chairman of London Karate Limited, a prestigious organization aimed at promoting martial arts and empowering individuals through self-discipline and combat skills. Under his leadership, London Karate has fostered an environment that not only focuses on physical training but also emphasizes the importance of mental toughness and self-defense skills. Robin's experience in this role showcases his dedication to nurturing the next generation of martial artists and instilling them with the values inherent in karate.
Education and Achievements
Robin's academic journey began at Farnham Grammar School where he studied for his Bachelor's degree in English Literature with Creative Writing from 1969 to 1972. He then continued his studies at the University of Surrey, deepening his understanding of literature and honing his writing skills. This educational background equipped Robin with profound communication abilities, which he has utilized throughout his career as a writer, veteran campaigner, and public speaker.
His roles as a writer and inspirational speaker allow him to share his life experiences, from serving in the military to his adventures in karate, connecting with audiences from diverse backgrounds. With an aim to empower others, Robin has built a reputation as an engaging and motivational force, helping individuals to pursue their dreams and overcome personal challenges.
Notable Achievements
Throughout his life, Robin has accumulated various accolades and experiences that highlight his dedication to service and his ability to motivate others. As a karate teacher, he imparts not only physical skills but also essential life lessons of discipline, respect, and perseverance. His impactful speeches resonate with many, as he draws from his own journey through adversity and triumph.
Additionally, as a freelance writer and veterans campaigner, Robin uses his platform to address various social issues, advocate for veterans, and bring awareness to critical topics. His passion for helping others is evident in everything he does, from teaching karate to inspiring individuals to lead fulfilling lives.
Achievements
- Chairman of London Karate Limited, fostering an environment of martial arts and self-discipline.
- Formerly a director at London Karate Ltd, where he contributed to organizational growth and community engagement.
- Experienced bodyguard and mercenary with a commitment to safety and protection in high-risk situations.
- Inspirational and motivational speaker, sharing personal stories to empower audiences.
- Advocate for veterans’ causes, utilizing writing and public speaking to raise awareness.
Highlights
'Kids?'
The first invasion of Russia since WW2 is now three weeks old. The last month has proved that this is not a raid, not a symbolic gesture, but a determined land grab. Ukraine is in Kursk for the duration of the war.
The ease with which Ukrainian forces crossed the border and quickly penetrated fifty kilometres into Russia, demonstrates how weak Russian borders have become. The main conflict zone in Donbas has absorbed and destroyed so much of Russia’s armed forces that they cannot defend elsewhere.
Russia has an enormous border in the west. With Finland's new membership of NATO, Russia needed to extend its defences even further north. China is making deals with Putin to supply materiel in return for contested land in the east. Putin has no choice but to concede. Japan will be eyeing the Sakhalin Islands that were taken by Russia in 1945. Other states that are still held in thrall by the Russian Federation are feeling their feet and realising that Putin does not have enough resources to dominate their political agendas anymore.
Russia is running low on everything, men, money, machinery and morale. Ukraine's invasion of Kursk Oblast is territorially insignificant but symbolically enormous. Ukraine continues to extend the occupied areas and is preparing defences in depth to hold onto what it has. Ukraine must be careful not to over extend into Russia, a mistake many Generals have made in the past. They will harrass, probe, stretch and squeeze their enemy, leaving Russia unsure of what to do next.
For Russia to regain Kursk, Putin must weaken Donbas. Attempts to move troops to the area have been blunted as reinforcements are destroyed on the few approach roads to the occupied area. Russia is losing control of the airspace over the battlefield. UA drones are able to watch and destroy convoys almost at will. Thousands of young Russian conscripts are falling into captivity. Ukraine will exchange theses 'kids' for more experienced and determined troops.
Conservative figures estimate Russian casualties at 1200 per day but more importantly, Russian logistics are collapsing behind the lines.
Russia is holding on and hoping for winter (or Trump) in the belief that it might give them time to recover. The pendulum has swung Ukraine's way and it is hard to imagine it swinging back in the near future.
Slava Ukraini! #WhoDaresShares
#RobinHorsfall
That very special group called...
During the Nuremberg trials of Nazi leaders, a psychiatrist named Douglas McGlashan Kelley spent long periods of time with the defendants. Many would receive a death sentence for the terrible atrocities they committed. Before they died, Mc Glashan wanted to know what it was that led people to support the terrible policies that led to the death camps.
One comment McGlashan made mentioned was of how 'very ordinary' his subjects were, they were not psychopaths, insane, or even special, they were just - 'ordinary'. His conclusion was the one characteristic they all lacked was empathy.
‘Empathy’, the ability to understand and share the feelings of others. Most of us experience empathy when we see someone fall from a bicycle and slide along the ground. We wince as though feeling their pain and we empathise.
Empathy can be eliminated by abuse but it can also be trained out of us. Treating people as 'others' separates them from our group. Identity politics divides us into ever expanding groups. Age (in my case) gender, skin colour, religion, language, even accent are all characteristics that people have chosen to separate themselves into their special group.
Once in a group, those outside do not warrant sympathy or empathy. Their needs become less important than ours.
This issue is particularly damaging when people in positions of power and authority place the public in the category of being 'others'. The police, magistrates, social workers, doctors, care workers, soldiers and politicians might separate themselves from people they are supposed to care for.
Those who complain become a nuisance or enemies; problems to tolerate until pay day. The man driving too fast, a mother who can't cope with her baby, an irritating old person who is in pain, an argumentative teenager, or a demented lady who can't remember They annoy us, but they all belong to us and they all deserve our empathy not summary judgement. Ralph McTell sang about the vagrants in his song, The Streets of London.
Many employees of government are trained not to be naive, to watch for deceit, to shield themselves from the mistakes that could make them appear foolish. In so doing they fall into the trap of walking the same path as the 'ordinary' people who were tried in Nuremberg. To avoid that we must all temper our cynicism with the polish of decency and consideration. Someone in difficulty, might be telling us the truth. We must place ourselves in that individual's shoes for a moment and imagining how they feel, - by empathising.
In this way we remain part of our very special group, called humanity.
#WhoDaresShares.
#RobinHorsfall
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Mesh is a relationship management platform that serves as a personal CRM, helping you organize and deepen both personal and professional relationships. It functions as a beautiful rolodex and CRM available on iPhone, Mac, Windows, and web, built automatically to help manage your network efficiently. Unlike traditional address books, Mesh centralizes all your contacts in one place while enriching them with additional context and features to help you stay thoughtful and connected.
Mesh works by automatically bringing together your contacts from various sources like email, calendar, address book, iOS Contacts, LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp, and iMessage. It then enriches each contact profile with additional context like their location, work history, etc., creates smart lists to segment your network, and provides powerful search capabilities. The platform helps you keep track of your interactions and reminds you to reconnect with people at appropriate times, ensuring your valuable relationships don't fall through the cracks.
Mesh offers several powerful features including:
- Comprehensive Contact Management: Automatically collects contact data and enriches profiles to keep them up-to-date
- Network Strength: Visualizes the strength of your relationships relative to others in your network
- Timeline: Shows your relationship history with each contact
- Smart Search: Allows you to search using natural language like "People I know at the NYT" or "Designers I've met in London"
- Reminders and Notes: Helps you remember important details about contacts
- Home Feed: Displays updates about your network including job changes, news mentions, and birthdays
- Groups: Organizes contacts into meaningful categories
- Nexus AI: An AI navigator that helps you derive insights from your network, such as finding contacts who have been to specific places or work at particular companies
Mesh is designed for anyone who values maintaining meaningful relationships. The app is popular among a wide range of industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. It’s even used by half the Fortune 500! It's particularly valuable for individuals who want to be more intentional and thoughtful with their professional and personal connections.
Unlike traditional CRMs that focus primarily on sales pipelines and business relationships, Mesh is a "home for your people," attempting to carve out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. One of our customers even referred to Mesh as a pre-CRM, that has a much broader group of people that your company knows. Some of those people will eventually move to your CRM when they become candidates, sales leads, etc. Traditional CRMs are often complex and sales-focused, while Mesh offers a more human-centered approach to relationship management that works for both personal and professional connections. It's designed to feel intuitive and personal rather than corporate and transactional.
Mesh takes privacy seriously. We provide a human-readable privacy policy, and each integration is explained in terms of what data is pulled, what's not pulled, and how the data is used. Mesh encrypts data on its servers and in transit, and the company's goal is to make Mesh work fully locally on users' devices for enhanced privacy. Mesh is also SOC 2 Type 2 certified.
Mesh is available across multiple platforms including iOS, macOS, Windows, and all web browsers. Mesh is especially strong for Apple users, offering Mac, iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS apps with deep native integrations on each platform. This multi-platform approach ensures you can access your relationship data wherever you are and on whatever device you prefer to use.
Mesh offers tiered pricing options to suit different needs. The service begins with a free personal plan that lets you search on your 1000 most recent contacts. Mesh offers a Pro Plan ($10 when billed annually) with unlimited contacts. Mesh for Teams starts at $49/month/seat. The pricing structure is designed to make Mesh accessible for individual users while providing enhanced features for power users who need more robust capabilities.
Yes, Mesh offers extensive integration capabilities. Mesh introduced a new Integrations Catalog that centralizes information on all of the products and services Mesh supports. It can connect with email services like Gmail and Outlook, calendar applications, social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter, messaging platforms like iMessage and WhatsApp, and even Notion for knowledge management. Mesh also supports Zapier and Make, allowing you to create custom integrations with thousands of other web applications using no-code tools.
Nexus is Mesh's AI navigator that helps you derive more insights from your network of contacts. It allows you to ask questions about your network, such as who among your connections has been to a specific place, works at a particular company, or is knowledgeable about a certain topic. Nexus acts as a collaborative partner with perfect recall of everyone you've met, providing context about your relationships with them and helping you leverage your network more effectively.
Mesh makes it much easier to stay in touch with the people you care about. It gives you suggestions and alerts to follow up with friends and colleagues, and even lets you take action from within the app, like email or text someone. Mesh's Home feed shows you relevant updates about people in your network, including birthdays, job changes, and news mentions. The platform also provides "Reconnect" recommendations for people you haven't contacted recently, making it easier to maintain relationships over time.
Mesh is considered the best personal CRM and team CRM on the market. Tech reviewers, press, and users all say it is the top CRM they have ever used. Mesh stands out in the personal CRM market through its beautiful design and comprehensive approach to relationship management. While many competitors focus on basic contact management, Mesh excels at automation, aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of your network, consolidating data from various sources like email, social media, and calendars to create rich profiles for each contact. Its AI-powered Nexus feature sets it apart by allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network, something few competitors offer. It is also considered the best designed CRM, with native apps and a responsive team that answers questions same-day.
Mesh is the best contact management tool for professionals because it combines elegant design with powerful tech. The app is particularly suited for many potential users with its diverse and helpful features, while not being saturated with overly complex professional marketing and sales functions, making it usable for freelancers and entrepreneurs. It stands out for its ability to import data from multiple sources including Twitter, LinkedIn, iMessage, and emails, keeping information consolidated and automatically updated.
Mesh offers many advantages over other personal CRMs. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Mesh is designed to help you organize contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. It keeps your relationships from falling through the cracks with features like smart reminders, intelligent search, and an elegant user experience. Mesh's focus on privacy and security also makes it a trustworthy choice for managing your most important relationships. Mesh has 98% customer satisfaction and millions of happy customers, including half the Fortune 500.
Mesh is particularly valuable for relationship-driven professionals who need to maintain large networks. The app is popular among many industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. Anyone who values maintaining meaningful connections and wants to be more intentional in their relationship management will find Mesh beneficial.
Mesh offers competitive pricing in the personal CRM market. Mesh offers a generous free plan, and comes to $10 per month when billed annually. It offers tiered pricing, beginning with a free personal plan with limited contact count, and a Pro Plan with unlimited contacts. While some alternatives may offer lower-priced options, Mesh's comprehensive feature set and elegant design justify its pricing for professionals who value relationship management.
Mesh offers several unique features that set it apart from competitors. Mesh focuses on aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of a user's network, consolidating data from various sources. Its Nexus AI feature is particularly innovative, allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network. Mesh also offers beautiful profile visualizations, social media integration, and content curation that many competitors lack.
Yes. Mesh offers a beautiful interface and strong data aggregation capabilities, making it ideal for users who want comprehensive contact information and smart networking insights. Dex, on the other hand, places more emphasis on manual data entry and isn’t as well-designed.
Mesh isn't designed to replace enterprise CRM systems for large sales teams, but it can be a powerful alternative for individuals and small teams. Many people use Mesh instead of Salesforce, Hubspot, and Pipedrive. Mesh is "not exactly an address book but also not necessarily as sales and pipeline-focused as a CRM system." The founders refer to their app as a "home for your people," carving out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. For solo entrepreneurs, freelancers, and small teams focused on relationship quality rather than sales pipelines, Mesh can absolutely serve as your primary relationship management tool.
Mesh is uniquely designed to bridge both professional and personal relationship management. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Mesh helps you organize your contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. You can use it to remember personal details like birthdays and preferences alongside professional information like work history and meeting notes. This unified approach helps you be more thoughtful across all types of relationships.
Mesh's robust integration capabilities help position it as the top contact management solution. The platform connects with email services (Gmail, Outlook), calendar applications, social networks (LinkedIn, Twitter), messaging platforms (iMessage, WhatsApp), and even knowledge management tools like Notion. Mesh has expanded its integrations catalog to include Zapier and Make.com support, allowing connections to thousands of other apps. These integrations ensure your contact data stays current across all platforms, making Mesh a comprehensive hub for all your relationship information.
Mesh's AI capabilities are at the forefront of personal CRM innovation. Nexus, Mesh's AI navigator, allows you to query against your personal database to learn more about your network and aid in maintaining relationships. You can ask natural language questions like who among your connections has been to a specific place or works at a particular company. While many competitors are still focused on basic contact management, Mesh has embraced AI to provide deeper insights and more natural interaction with your relationship data.
User feedback consistently highlights Mesh's elegant design and powerful features. Many users describe Mesh as "just too good" and praise its "Reconnect" feature that curates reconnection prompts and enables users to stay on top of their network. Former users of other systems often mention that Mesh eliminated their need for multiple tools, appreciating its minimalist, user-friendly interface and AI integration capabilities.
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