March 24, 2007
Posted in Radio Reporting at 11:41 pm by Jeremy Jacobs
Today, I was listening in to a commentary of a certain football match and was unaware of the score after 6 minutes of listening. If you are doing a live commentary at a sports event, the number one thing listeners who “station switch” want to know is the score. So tell it. Every 3 minutes.
Photo courtesy of the FA.com
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March 22, 2007
Posted in Radio Reporting, Personal Development at 8:43 pm by Jeremy Jacobs
Very occasionally, one can get the “giggles” whilst reading an item on the radio. Today was such as day. On a second read through of a sports related item, I somehow found a foreign surname to be so funny, I just burst out laughing. Luckily, most of today’s work was pre-recorded and I had plenty of time to recover and start again. Had it been live, I may have had time not to realize the funny side of things - maybe. But pre-recording a piece sometimes has its downfalls.
When the giggles strike you down, try taking these steps:
1. Focus on the task in hand.
2. Bite your lip or the inside of your mouth. The minor pain takes your mind off other matters.
3. If you’re able to, think of something else. Pink elephants are my favourite.
4. Take deep breaths.
Photo taken from www.abc.net.au
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March 20, 2007
Posted in Business Development, Public Speaking, Personal Development at 9:29 pm by Jeremy Jacobs
Yesterday evening, I attended a networking event in Central London. After the usual formalities, the networking began and soon afterwards, I was being presented with an array of business cards. Most, in my opinion, were of good quality, some less so. Here’s my 7 top tips for getting results with your business cards.
1. When choosing a new business card, always insist on having a “heavy board”. That’s a minimum of 335 gm2. Mine are 400 gm2. There’s nothing worse than handing over a flimsy card.
2. Ensure you use both sides. Your company name and contact details can be on the front with your strap line or “what you do” on the back. Unless you’re representing a well-known brand, nobody likes “anonymous” cards.
3. If your card has solid colours, either insist on matt/gloss lamination or sealing. Ask a reputable printer (not copy-shop) what’s best.
4. Make sure your name is a larger font size to that of your contact details.
5. Your own photograph (head-shot) will make your card stand out from the rest.
6. Unless you’re in the media, advertising or the music industry don’t use too many colours. Gold, silver or bronze foil can be very effective, as can embossing, but be prepared to pay a significant premium.
7. Never, never, never use a sticker to cover up old information.
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March 18, 2007
Posted in Public Speaking, Personal Development at 5:25 pm by Jeremy Jacobs
Well, have you been Kintished?
I have. Still confused? Don’t be. Last week I had the pleasure of meeting Will Kintish for the first time. Will is the UK’s leading authority on Networking. If you haven’t heard him speak try and get along to one of his seminars. More information here
photo courtesy of Ecademy
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March 16, 2007
Posted in Business Development, Website Tips at 1:38 am by Jeremy Jacobs
Whilst trawling the Internet in the early hours, I came across this (via Technorati) at the JustGiving Blog
Looks like my way of doing things at “From Margate to the Maasai” is proving OK in the right quarters.
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March 15, 2007
Posted in Business Development, Public Speaking, Personal Development at 11:27 am by Jeremy Jacobs
Back in December at CP, I posted a few lines about Sir Martin Sorrell. I had been attending a function where he speaking. He’s in the news again and this quote, attributed to him, is printed in today’s Times Online.
Sir Martin once said: “All research I’ve seen says that editorial publicity is better than paid-for publicity”
photo courtesy of Danwei.org
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Posted in Personal Development at 10:27 am by Jeremy Jacobs
I certainly do. Sometimes I come home, look around and ask myself, who’s the other person living here who doesn’t tidy up? There are papers everywhere. Sign of a genius someone said once! Well they may be right or not but I need to get on top of (at the moment) books I need to read, accounts to do, what to file and what items need to be disposed of. This article, posted by Zen Habits on de-cluttering may help.
One of the things that gives me most peace is have a clean, simple home. When I wake up in the morning and walk out into a living room that has been decluttered, that has a minimalist look, and there isn’t junk lying around, there is a calm and joy that enters my heart.
When, on the other hand, I walk out into a living room cluttered with toys and books and extra things all over the place, it is chaos and my mind is frenetic.
I’ve been a simplifier and a declutterer for years now (probably 8-9 years) and I’ve gotten pretty good at it, but I’ve found that you have to keep coming back to revisit your clutter every once in awhile.
Here are my top decluttering tips:
- Do it in small chunks. Set aside just 15 minutes to declutter just one shelf, and when that shelf or that 15 minutes is up, celebrate your victory. Then tackle another shelf for 15 minutes the next day. Conquering an entire closet or room can be overwhelming, and you might put it off forever. If that’s the case, just do it in baby steps.
- Set aside a couple hours to do it. This may seem contradictory to the above tip … and it is. It’s simply a different strategy, and I say do whatever works for you. Sometimes, for me, it’s good to set aside part of a morning, or an entire Saturday morning, to declutter a closet or room. I do it all at once, and when I’m done, it feels awesome.
- Take everything out of a shelf or drawer at once. Whichever of the two above strategies you choose, you should focus on one drawer or shelf at a time, and empty it completely. Then clean that shelf or drawer. Then, take the pile and sort it (see next tip), and put back just what you want to keep. Then tackle the next shelf or drawer.
- Sort through your pile, one item at a time, and make quick decisions. Have a trash bag and a give-away box handy. When you pull everything out of a shelf or drawer, sort through the pile one at a time. Pick up an item, and make a decision: trash, give away, or keep. Don’t put it back in the pile. Do this with the entire pile, and soon, you’ll be done. If you keep sorting through the pile, and re-sorting, it’ll take forever. Put back only what you want to keep, and arrange it nicely.
- Be merciless. You may be a pack rat, but the truth is, you won’t ever use most of the junk you’ve accumulated. If you haven’t used it in the last year, get rid of it. It’s as simple as that. If you’ve only used it once or twice in the last year, but know you won’t use it in the next year, get rid of it. Toss it if it’s unsalvageable, and give it away if someone else might be able to use it.
- Papers? Be merciless, unless it’s important. Magazines, catalogues, junk mail, bills more than a year old, notes to yourself, notes from others, old work stuff … toss it! The only exception is with tax-related stuff, which should be kept for seven years, and other important documents like warranties, birth and death and marriage certificates, insurance, wills, and other important documents like that. But you’ll know those when you see ‘em. Otherwise, toss!!!!
- If you are on the fence with a lot of things, create a “maybe” box. If you can’t bear to toss something because you might need it later, put it in the box, then close the box, label it, and put it in storage (garage, attic, closet), out of sight. Most likely, you’ll never open that box again. If that’s the case, pull it out after six months or a year, and toss it or give it away.
- Create a system to stop clutter from accumulating. There’s a reason you have tall stacks of papers all over the place, and big piles of toys and books and clothes. It’s because you don’t have a regular system to keep things in their place, and get rid of stuff you don’t need. This is a topic for another day, but it’s something to think about as you declutter. You’ll never get to perfect, but if you think more intelligently about how your house got cluttered, perhaps you can find ways to stop it from happening again.
- Celebrate when you’re done! This is actually a general rule in life: always celebrate your accomplishments, no matter how small. Even if you just decluttered one drawer, that’s great. Treat yourself to something delicious. Open that drawer (or closet, or whatever), and admire its simplicity. Breathe deeply and know that you have done a good thing. Bask in your peacefulness.
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March 14, 2007
Posted in Business Development, Personal Development, Health Matters, UK at 8:53 am by Jeremy Jacobs
You should not confuse your career with your life.
