Neil Martin · Beats, Business & Life

Business

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How much is your time worth?

Everyone gets 168 hours a week. Two ways to work out what one of yours is worth, and why the second one matters more.

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Words are like weapons

One joke at a business dinner in 1991 sank a jewellery empire. Why your words carry more weight than you think, and why they need to sound like you.

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One email, one idea, one person

Business

In 2018 I wrote ten ways to get more people reading your emails. Most of it comes down to three things: one idea, one person and plain words.

Illustration of two old tin can telephones joined by a taut string across a wooden desk, one can resting on a stack of books and the other on a windowsill, in warm lamp light

Conversational marketing isn’t new

Business

In 2018 everyone was excited about conversational marketing and chatbots. My take then, and now: the conversation was never new. Only the way we have it.

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What the 1998 Data Protection Act taught me about GDPR

Business

I worked on implementing the Data Protection Act in 1998. Twenty years on, GDPR worried me for lettings businesses, so I qualified and wrote a book.

Illustration of a long wooden table set for a shared meal in a back garden at dusk, with mismatched chairs, bowls of food, bread, mugs and a teapot under glowing festoon lights

Build a community, not a list

Business

In 2018 Facebook’s feed changes and new data protection rules were pushing the same way. Stop collecting names and start building relationships.

Illustration of a beige 1980s desktop computer with a softly glowing blank screen on a wooden desk beside an open notebook, a pen and a mug, lit by a spotlight from above

How to tell stories in your business

Business

Long before slides took over, Steve Jobs held a room with a story about heroes and villains. Five simple ways to use stories in your own business.

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How to avoid death by PowerPoint

Business

We’ve all sat through it. Slide after slide, read out word for word. What great chefs can teach you about giving a talk people remember.

Illustration of a compact travel blender with bananas, blueberries and a bag of spinach on a hotel room desk beside a green smoothie, a suitcase on a luggage rack and city rooftops at sunrise outside

If you don’t know your customers, why should they care about you?

Business

A smoothie photo in a hotel room, a comment from a follower, and a brand that seemed to forget who was buying from it. Why knowing your customers matters.