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
Which Handle Are You Holding? Epictetus and the Two Handles
Epictetus said everything has two handles, one you can carry and one you can’t. Brené Brown, holding the mirror up to myself, and the difference between life happening to me and life happening for me.
Selling Is Serving: If I Can’t Help You Make Money, I Don’t Deserve Yours
If I can’t help you make money, I don’t deserve yours. Why selling is serving, the loved-one lens for sales conversations, and why you should be proud of your price.
Moment of Truth by Gang Starr
Moment of Truth by Gang Starr is my track for patient generosity: actions have reactions, and we never really know what’s going on for other people.
The brief was the bottleneck
AI made ads cheap to produce, so Mother Root found its real constraint further upstream. Find your bottleneck before adding AI.
Track by TrackA soundtrack for Today
Moment of Truth by Gang Starr
Moment of Truth by Gang Starr is my track for patient generosity: actions have reactions, and we never really know what’s going on for other people.
Previous tracks
You Don’t Know Me by Armand Van Helden, and why it’s on my soundtrack
Why You Don’t Know Me by Armand Van Helden, one of my favourite house songs ever, is my track for the person we never take the time to understand.
Faithful by Common, and why it had to make my soundtrack
Why Faithful by Common, from his 2005 album Be, is my track for trust and loyalty, and why one of my favourite rappers was always going to make my daily soundtrack.
Be Thankful for What You’ve Got, and why the Massive Attack cover fits today
Why Massive Attack’s cover of Be Thankful for What You’ve Got, from Blue Lines, is my track for a week of gratitude, and what the title asks of you.
This Is Me (The Reimagined Remix), and why it starts with you
Two lines from Missy Elliott’s verse on This Is Me, the track I pick for quiet confidence, and why backing yourself starts with you.
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…Moment of Truth by Gang Starr
Moment of Truth by Gang Starr is my track for patient generosity: actions have reactions, and we never really know what’s going on for other people.
You Don’t Know Me by Armand Van Helden, and why it’s on my soundtrack
Why You Don’t Know Me by Armand Van Helden, one of my favourite house songs ever, is my track for the person we never take the time to understand.
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.
Selling Is Serving: If I Can’t Help You Make Money, I Don’t Deserve Yours
If I can’t help you make money, I don’t deserve yours. Why selling is serving, the loved-one lens for sales conversations, and why you should be proud of your price.
The brief was the bottleneck
AI made ads cheap to produce, so Mother Root found its real constraint further upstream. Find your bottleneck before adding AI.
Make People Feel Understood: Henry Ford’s Secret and the FABs of Selling
Most people work hard to be understood. The bigger win is making people feel understood by you. Henry Ford’s one secret of success, why being blind to other points of view costs you, and the difference between features, advantages and benefits.
Life
Everything Else
The stuff off the clock. Good food, fresh threads, and trying to be a bit better than yesterday.
Which Handle Are You Holding? Epictetus and the Two Handles
Epictetus said everything has two handles, one you can carry and one you can’t. Brené Brown, holding the mirror up to myself, and the difference between life happening to me and life happening for me.
Creme Eggs, Chocolate Soldiers and Emerson’s Rejected Thoughts
I once joked that a Creame Egg with chocolate Fingers for soldiers was the ultimate Easter dippy egg. A couple of years later I think it was in the shops. Emerson on the ideas we park just because they’re ours.
What 28 Conversations Taught Me
Looking back at my 2019 summit, where 28 guests each told me about the one conversation that changed their life, and what the stories had in common.
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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