Use my experience to your advantage.
My business is framed by my BBC background – 24 years of programme-making, including Woman’s Hour and Desert Island Discs on BBC Radio 4.
From the start I’ve always loved finding the hidden gems in peoples’ career stories – what drives them, what keeps them going when things go wrong and where they want to get to.
When it comes to dedication, energy and vision, the business owners I interview today are no different to the leading scientists and authors that appeared on Desert Island Discs. They just don’t realise it.
And, hundreds of conversations later, I still get a silly grin on my face when I’m interviewing a company director and a throwaway remark makes them realise – sometimes for the first time – what a difference they’re making to other people. Think great big candy shop and small child.
I also get a kick out of extracting as much editorial value out of our interviews as I can – depending on what your business needs, of course.
From experience, I know that a 60 minute conversation can give you lots of ideas for articles, branding and promotional messages. That’s thanks to years of working in daily programmes, where every topic we covered on air was dissected for different angles. “Can it make a discussion? A phone-in? A trail for the continuity announcer?”
In 21st century commercial terms that translates into “Can it make a blog post (or three)? Quotes for Twitter ? A tagline for your website?”
So if coming up with a weekly article fills your team with fear and loathing, I would love to help. It’s that grin again. You’ll see it making an appearance in this film:
If you want to knock some ideas around on how best to use your business stories, just drop me a line.
Miranda interviewed me for a Lunch event run by the Brighton and Hove Chamber of Commerce. She made a daunting experience seem easy – and almost enjoyable!
Her preparation was first class. Firstly downloading enough salient information from me to make the talk flow. Then feeding the information back to me in a format that meant that I knew in advance the directions of the questions – so there was no need to worry about an unforeseen question.
After the event I received a lot of positive feedback which was largely down to the professional and engaging manner of Miranda’s interview process and technique.
Nigel Lambe, Entrepreneur, Business Advisor and Founder at Bold Decisions
