MarCom Professional

I came across Tara’s post here about taming her inner critic, where she questions her abilities at live interviews and doubts her own writing skills. I believe we all have moments like this. But some are worse than others…

[I'm about to make a bold generalisation and some will have want my head off for making such a statement, but bear with me.]

Since I moved from Canada, I have seen too many Brits or Europeans be very sheepish about self-promotion. American sales people are reputed to be bubbly, brash and bigger than life, speaking louder than anyone else in the room and gesticulating endlessly to illustrate what they’re saying. More...

What better way to kick off a new year than to have a gorgeous fresh design to start it off?

We’ve thrown this design together today so it’ll take a while to evolve it to perfection, expect tweaks and changes over the next little while. If you spot anything odd, let us know!

Tips for the self-employed have been done to death by every lifehack geek, GTD addict and smart living blogger, but everyone develops their own little system so I thought I’d share mine.

Over the years, I’ve tried every GTD app under the sun, only to discover that the tool/software I used to get stuff done was irrelevant, so I kept it simple this time around. It turns out that the best organisation tools are a single sheet of paper and a calm brain. Ok, I’m oversimplifying a little but here’s my system nowadays.

The writing on the wall

On the wall by my desk, I have a small index card with reminders. More...

Nearly a year ago, I wrote about my #themeword for 2008, which was exploration. My objectives were to explore in four key areas; travel, business opportunities, new or unused skills and friendships/ relationships.

In reflection, it was a good year. In fact, it was an amazing year. I could have done better in terms of travel; I did an awful job of going to new destinations to which I’d promised myself a visit! But I did well in balancing work and fun, with plenty of dinner parties and get togethers with friends throughout the year.

When I wrote about business opportunities exploration, in the back of my mind, I knew I would work for myself before the year was out, it was just a question of having the cojones to jump, so the latter part of 2008 has offered me a taster of what 2009 will bring. More...

Yesterday, I asked fellow Twitter users what Christmas happiness was to them. I got a fun range of answers, so I thought I’d post them uncensored and as-is… 

• sherrilynne: Happiness at Christmas is knowing there are no deadlines for two whole weeks!
• matthewpennell: Happiness at Christmas is a non-sequitur.
• davidcushman: time with your family
• pascalw: is … letting your brain switch off, kick back & enjoy whatever comes your way. Avoiding clichés about kids (but that’s what I mean!)
• JamesPearce: Happiness at Christmas is… packing everything into boxes and *undecorating* the tree.

More...

The weeks preceding Christmas are bloody awful. I hate going into Cambridge and finding myself attacked by people with a dozen shopping bags in each hand, looking haggard and miles from the supposed Christmas spirit we’re meant to be in.

My favourite bit about shopping centres is usually people-watching; everyone is so self-absorbed when shopping, it’s comedy to try to understand the thought process that leads to buying those god awful mustard yellow boots or that garish tie.

But this year, I’m amazed how many times I’ve heard “But what do you buy for someone who’s already pretty much got everything?” There are the obvious options; a new jumper, the latest video game, a scarf… or surfing Amazon to find some stocking fillers (at the expense of some exhausted Amazon elves)

So what about the alternatives to spending on tat that will disappear into the cupboard as soon as the holidays are over? More...

It’s Friday, you’ve been giving it the beans all week, working that little brain of yours to the bone (figuratively, let’s hope). You need a boost for that last mile before this evening’s G&T while watching mindless TV (or maybe your evening is more exciting than mine…)

Don’t tell everyone, but I’ve found one of the best sources of creative juices out there…

Click here to view the embedded video.

Alright, fine, it’s a campaign for the South West Regional Development Agency, created by Rubber Republic. It arrived in my inbox last week, with a subject line containing “Viral Campaign”*, so it was within an inch of getting deleted without a second look. More...

I won’t be blowing you away with this observation, but the world has gone bonkers. Completely, utterly bonkers. Beyond political correctness, I think the world’s cojones have well and truly decided to retract all the way inside the body, and given up altogether.

What makes me say that? Three stories in the past week have shown me how remarkably PC-minded we can be.

First, this morning, YouTube announced on its blog that mature content and profanity will be more heavily moderated. In order words, a quick cuss word can cause your video to disappear into oblivion. Now, as Robert Llewellyn points out this morning in his Llewtube video, I’ll be happy to see less mature content crop up randomly when I’m looking for videos of kittens. More...

The past few weeks have been very spotty in terms of blogging, with so much of my time being focused on getting stuck in to new projects and flirting with a few more potential ones.

Yesterday, however, was an insightful (and social) day for me, spent at Future of Mobile in London. Future of Mobile is in its second year, organised by the great team at Carsonified. I did a dreadful job of tweeting or blogging the event, being far too busy buzzing around chatting to new people, but many others did a stellar job of documenting what turned out to be a very interesting day.

During my presentation at FOM, photo by Rudy de Waele

The very lovely Tom Hume (who’s excellent presentation teased us all with colourful macaroons right before lunch) posted his review of the event earlier today. More...