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
The Bit After the Bad News Is Yours
Lessons from my 2019 summit on owning your response to a setback, from guests who’d been through sudden disability, hard news about a newborn and a marriage that nearly ended.
Judge First, Then Trust Fully: Seneca on Letting People In
Seneca said take your time deciding who gets in, then trust them fully. Why I think trust is a clean sheet of white paper, what eight hours at a mentor’s house taught me, and why the friends I trust most mostly listen.
What? So What? Now What? Hook, Story and Offer in Five Words
Five words, three questions. The simple way I’ve explained hook, story and offer for about a decade, why kids are better at it than most of us, and how to ask for what you want without doing harm.
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.
Track by TrackA soundtrack for Today
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.
Previous tracks
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.
Lovely Day (DJ Eleven Remix Do-Over): Bill Withers Meets Biz Markie
Bill Withers over Marley Marl’s beat for Biz Markie. You won’t find this DJ Eleven do-over on Spotify, so here are the two records behind it, and why I use it to close a set.
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.
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…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.
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.
What? So What? Now What? Hook, Story and Offer in Five Words
Five words, three questions. The simple way I’ve explained hook, story and offer for about a decade, why kids are better at it than most of us, and how to ask for what you want without doing harm.
Want 100% automation? Delete your phone number
Marshmallow’s AI agent handles most of its chats. Why the team stopped chasing the automation rate and measured what matters.
The Two Questions Benjamin Franklin Asked Every Day
Benjamin Franklin started and ended each day with a question about doing good. Why they’re worth borrowing, and why the only person who needs to be proud of you is you.
Life
Everything Else
The stuff off the clock. Good food, fresh threads, and trying to be a bit better than yesterday.
The Bit After the Bad News Is Yours
Lessons from my 2019 summit on owning your response to a setback, from guests who’d been through sudden disability, hard news about a newborn and a marriage that nearly ended.
Judge First, Then Trust Fully: Seneca on Letting People In
Seneca said take your time deciding who gets in, then trust them fully. Why I think trust is a clean sheet of white paper, what eight hours at a mentor’s house taught me, and why the friends I trust most mostly listen.
Discipline First, Habit Later
Small daily habits came up again and again on my 2019 summit. For most of the guests they started as discipline and slowly turned into habit.
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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