neilmartin.me
Beats, Business & Life
Proud Dad and family man. A lifelong obsession with music. 3 decades in business and technology. Stuff about this thing called life that I’m still figuring out.
Latest
Fresh off the press
Do More Than They Asked For and the Money Tends to Follow
Lessons from my 2019 summit on surprising customers, and on asking for proper money once you’ve solved their actual problem.
You can only save money once
Most businesses use AI to do the same work cheaper. Mintel’s Jason Thomson thinks that’s the least interesting thing it can do.
What Joe Cross told me about his biggest achievement
In 2014 I interviewed Joe Cross from Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead on his day off. What he said about his biggest achievement, an ice cream in Harrods and the routine nobody sees, and what it says about what really counts.
Pie N Mash by The Skinner Brothers: All My Favourite Music in One Band
Arctic Monkeys and The White Stripes crossed with The Specials, The Beat and a bit of The Prodigy. The Skinner Brothers tick every box for me, and Pie N Mash is the one I keep going back to.
Track by TrackA soundtrack for Today
Pie N Mash by The Skinner Brothers: All My Favourite Music in One Band
Arctic Monkeys and The White Stripes crossed with The Specials, The Beat and a bit of The Prodigy. The Skinner Brothers tick every box for me, and Pie N Mash is the one I keep going back to.
Previous tracks
Can’t Stand Losing You, and the DJ who gave me the record
The first record I ever owned, I didn’t buy. A DJ at a family party gave it to me. Why that white 7-inch is still on my shelf, and what it taught a four-year-old about asking.
Track by Track: Morning
My own song this time. The story behind Morning, a Dust and Data love song about two cups and the start of a day, and why I think the little things matter most.
Run-DMC, Here We Go (live on Yo! MTV Raps)
Run-DMC on Yo! MTV Raps, a VHS tape I’ve kept for 33 years, and why they were hip hop to me.
Beats
From the Decks
A lifetime of following music down the rabbit hole. The beats, the lyrics, the samples… but more than anything, how it makes you feel.
Sunday Selector
Sunday Selector: Kid Once
Some songs you don’t remember learning. They were just there, on the radio and in the playground, and forty-odd years later they still are.
That’s this playlist. Twenty tracks from the late seventies and early eighties, my primary school and even pre-school years. I couldn’t tell you where I first heard every one of them, but they’re all songs I’ve gone back to again and again since.
read more…Pie N Mash by The Skinner Brothers: All My Favourite Music in One Band
Arctic Monkeys and The White Stripes crossed with The Specials, The Beat and a bit of The Prodigy. The Skinner Brothers tick every box for me, and Pie N Mash is the one I keep going back to.
Roxanne Shanté, a borrowed tape and the first rap beef I ever heard
In 1985 a ten-year-old me heard a tape at a birthday party and fell for a 14-year-old MC from Queensbridge. The story of Electro 6, Roxanne’s Revenge, and what answering back can do.
Business
Business In Plain English
Some of it’s about tech. Some of it’s about teams. All of it’s about the conversation that changes everything.
Do More Than They Asked For and the Money Tends to Follow
Lessons from my 2019 summit on surprising customers, and on asking for proper money once you’ve solved their actual problem.
You can only save money once
Most businesses use AI to do the same work cheaper. Mintel’s Jason Thomson thinks that’s the least interesting thing it can do.
Done Beats Perfect, So Start Scared
Fear and self-doubt never really leave. The people I interviewed who got results shipped the first version anyway and fixed it as they went.
Life
Everything Else
The stuff off the clock. Good food, fresh threads, and trying to be a bit better than yesterday.
What Joe Cross told me about his biggest achievement
In 2014 I interviewed Joe Cross from Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead on his day off. What he said about his biggest achievement, an ice cream in Harrods and the routine nobody sees, and what it says about what really counts.
The Extra Certificate Cost Me the Better Degree
In my second year at university I picked modules for a British Computer Society badge instead of ones I actually enjoyed, and it cost me the degree I could have had.
What I’d tell 25-year-old me about confidence and time
At 25 I looked confident and thought I had forever. Neither was true. Two things I’d tell my younger self, and a question that might help you spot the same in you.
About
Hi, I’m Neil
I got my first turntables in 1987, when I was 12, and I’ve been playing records to people ever since. I’ve been in business for three decades and I wrote a book called Done Beats Perfect. This is where I write it all down.
By day I’m Director of Marketing & Edutainment at ActionCOACH UK.
DJing since 1987Three decades in businessAuthor, Done Beats Perfect
The book
Done Beats Perfect
A short, honest book about putting things off, and how to stop. Paperback, Kindle, or the audiobook read by me.
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