The UnNoticed Entrepreneur

Latest Episodes:

Zoomed out employees will be Zombies without these Internal Communications Tools. Aug 11, 2020

Show notes

Companies are going to have to save the sanity of their staff from zoombification and they can do that not with the standard meeting and workforce platforms but with dedicated ones like ConnecTeam and Mo.Work.
Co-Founder and CEO, Amir Nehemia, says “We are on a mission to provide managers of all business types and sizes with the tools they need to communicate, operate, engage and run their deskless workforce.”
The lines are officially blurred, tools will need to enable people to both do their work and to be engaged with the workplace and their colleagues regardless of location and composition of the workforce.
On this podcast I dive into the many features of ConnecTeam which are being used by the 40,000 person St. Johns Ambulance Service, and also the British startup Mo.Work which emphasizes the importance of recognition and rewards, and has a feature to track corporate culture by the behaviour of the people within.

If you like this podcast, then subscribe to our newsletter here
Please visit our blog post on PR for business please visit our site:
https://www.eastwestpr.com/blogs/
Find us on Twitter @eastwestpr
Jim James is the Founder and Managing Director of the EASTWEST Public Relations Group. He recently returned to the UK after 25 years in Asia where he was an entrepreneur. Whilst running EASTWEST PR, he was the Vice-Chairmanof the British Chamber of Commerce in China, he also he introduced Morgansports cars to China, WAKE Drinks, founded the British Business Awards, The British Motorsport Festival, EO Beijing, and was the interim CEO of Lotus cars

Support the show (https://www.eastwestpr.com/podcast-speakpr)

Support the show

Subscribe to my free newsletter

https://www.theunnoticedentrepreneur.com/

Key lessons on staff engagement from 1 million Microsoft Teams meetings. Aug 11, 2020

Show notes

Get Noticed! Send a text.

Trailer for the full show.
Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Skype, Google Hangouts are all here to stay, but in my view what is missing from virtual working are three distinctly aesthetic elements of corporate culture: rituals; symbols; and myths.
A UK company has just passed 1 million Microsoft Teams meetings in their organization of 40,000. As a result they've made accelerated progress on strategic goals, learnt a great deal including how virtual meetings are causing fatigue but also realigning how files are stored and structured, and that ultimately there is still a place for a real office with colleagues in it.

MS announced in June 2020 a number of ways to make virtual events less exhausting. The new features include 'Together Mode', which places a live avatar of meeting participants in a virtual setting, and is aimed at making videoconferences feel more natural.

"It was totally motivated, conceived, prototyped, tested, and realized during the pandemic," said Jaron Lanier, scientist at Microsoft Research, speaking of Together Mode. "I suspect had it not been for the pandemic, it would have been years of testing and development to release something like this."
In spite of all this COVID era progress, people still want to go back to the office to see their colleagues.

However hard we try, technology isn't going to be as energizing as the physical world in my view because it lacks some basic human needs. I was listening to the story of the destruction of the Mar Elian Monastery in Syria by the ISIS forces. Once this 4th Century monastery was destroyed the Christian community dissipated after 1600 years of continuous inhabitation based around a building and remains of a sacred person.
It says something about the need of people to belong and for the leaders of organizations to create symbols, rituals and myths which sustain people. So I raise the question about what business leaders can do to send the symbols of the company culture to their staff in their virtual offices; if there are to be millions more meetings we need to link teams not just with software but with culture.
If you like this podcast, then subscribe to our newsletter here
Please visit our blog post on PR for business please visit our site:
https://www.eastwestpr.com/blogs/
Find us on Twitter @eastwestpr
Jim James is the Founder and Managing Director of the EASTWEST Public Relations Group. He recently returned to the UK after 25 years in Asia where he was an entrepreneur. Whilst running EASTWEST PR, he was the Vice-Chairmanof the British Chamber of Commerce in China, he also he introduced Morgansports cars to China, WAKE Drinks, founded the British Business Awards, The British Motorsport Festival, EO Beijing, and was the interim CEO of Lotus cars

Support the show

Subscribe to my free newsletter

https://www.theunnoticedentrepreneur.com/

Key lessons on staff engagement from 1 million Microsoft Teams meetings. Aug 10, 2020

Show notes

Get Noticed! Send a text.

Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Skype, Google Hangouts are all here to stay, but in my view what is missing from virtual working are three distinctly aesthetic elements of corporate culture: rituals; symbols; and myths.
A UK company has just passed 1 million Microsoft Teams meetings in their organization of 40,000. As a result they've made accelerated progress on strategic goals, learnt a great deal including how virtual meetings are causing fatigue but also realigning how files are stored and structured, and that ultimately there is still a place for a real office with colleagues in it.

Support the show (https://www.eastwestpr.com/podcast-speakpr)

Support the show

Subscribe to my free newsletter

https://www.theunnoticedentrepreneur.com/

Are you hurting your reputation by wasting other peoples time, and find out why the Swiss laugh at the Germans. Aug 08, 2020

Show notes

Get Noticed! Send a text.

Trailer for the 20 mins podcast.
Why does being on time, and managing our time matter so much to our reputation? Capterra has 68 time scheduling softwares listed which offer free trials; so what are you waiting for?
German paper de Bild ran an article in 2018 and wrote "Once the pride of the German state that owns it and the envy of much of the rest of the world, to the [neighbouring] Swiss, who are annoyed by German unpunctuality because it messes up their own train timetable, we are becoming a joke,”
Here are just 3 reasons why being on time matters:
If you can't be on time, how can you give the customer confidence you will deliver on time?
If you're late, it impacts all those around you who then can't get on with their work..thinks the Swiss trains.
We never get time back...it's lost.
[and the Swiss will laugh at you]
On this episode I talk about the use of time scheduling software and some key considerations:

Flexibility
Calendar syncing
Payment processing
Multiple points of access
Integrations

I mention some softwares in this podcast which you can use to get your schedules online and automated for free; after all the last thing you want is to be laughed at by the Swiss!
Calendly.com
Acuity.com
Timify.com
Zoho.com
If you like this podcast, then subscribe to our newsletter here
Please visit our blog post on PR for business please visit our site:
https://www.eastwestpr.com/blogs/
Find us on Twitter @eastwestpr
Jim James is the Founder and Managing Director of the EASTWEST Public Relations Group. He recently returned to the UK after 25 years in Asia where he was an entrepreneur. Whilst running EASTWEST PR, he was the Vice-Chairmanof the British Chamber of Commerce in China, he also he introduced Morgansports cars to China, WAKE Drinks, founded the British Business Awards, The British Motorsport Festival, EO Beijing, and was the interim CEO of Lotus cars

Support the show

Subscribe to my free newsletter

https://www.theunnoticedentrepreneur.com/

Are you hurting your reputation by wasting other peoples time, and find out why the Swiss laugh at the Germans. Aug 08, 2020

Show notes

Get Noticed! Send a text.

Why does being on time, and managing our time matter so much to our reputation? Capterra has 68 time scheduling softwares listed which offer free trials; so what are you waiting for?
German paper de Bild ran an article in 2018 and wrote "Once the pride of the German state that owns it and the envy of much of the rest of the world, to the [neighbouring] Swiss, who are annoyed by German unpunctuality because it messes up their own train timetable, we are becoming a joke,”
Here are just 3 reasons why being on time matters:
If you can't be on time, how can you give the customer confidence you will deliver on time?
If you're late, it impacts all those around you who then can't get on with their work..thinks the Swiss trains.
We never get time back...it's lost.
[and the Swiss will laugh at you]
On this episode I talk about the use of time scheduling software and some key considerations:

Flexibility
Calendar syncing
Payment processing
Multiple points of access
Integrations

Support the show (https://www.eastwestpr.com/podcast-speakpr)

Support the show

Subscribe to my free newsletter

https://www.theunnoticedentrepreneur.com/

Virtual events were dead, long live virtual events. But how to make them come alive? Aug 08, 2020

Show notes

Get Noticed! Send a text.

A trailer for this podcast:

Support the show

Subscribe to my free newsletter

https://www.theunnoticedentrepreneur.com/

Virtual events were dead, long live virtual events. But how to make them come alive? Aug 07, 2020

Show notes

Get Noticed! Send a text.

The Global Association of the Exhibition Industry estimates that trade show cancellations and postponements have had a 14.4 billion euro impact on the global economy in 2020, but in truth it is saving many companies a fortune, and COVID is heralding a new golden age of the virtual event.
20 years ago virtual events were mocked and laughed out of the industry, so it’s great to see them forced back on the agenda. Now is their time to shine and to forge a legacy way beyond the current situation. It’s so much more than rules and governance it’s about human behaviour and virtual events in tandem with live experiences will be here to stay. Jeremy King, CEO, Festival of Media & M&M Global & Virtual Exhibition Institute.

At the forefront of these new events are a number of companies which are now offering innovative pricing models for organizers and attendees. Companies like Intrado Virtual Events and Swapcard.com can host Conferences, Exhibitions, Corporate events, and a Congress. Swapcard offers a free app for example to host events.
Using Swapcard, Hello Tomorrow increased engagement in 100% of its sessions, 9,413 connections made through the event app, and 804 attendees created their own schedule.

There are plenty of other platforms with names like Airmeet, Bigmarker, ConnexMe, Boomset, and Attendify.

SmartXpo.com - this for the organisers themselves….providing leading-edge analytics to boost performance and profitability of trade shows, conferences and events.

Virtual events create opportunities for business owners to reach out well beyond the world offered by traditional events. Public relations used to rely on events as a platform for engagement, the beauty is that now we can do this without travelling, hotel nights, expense, but more over we can have analytics.

On the downside, no getting away from home, no luxury hotel nights, no living on expenses and no way to blame the trade show organisers for lack of results.
If you like this podcast, then subscribe to our newsletter here
Please visit our blog post on PR for business please visit our site:
https://www.eastwestpr.com/blogs/
Find us on Twitter @eastwestpr
Jim James is the Founder and Managing Director of the EASTWEST Public Relations Group. He recently returned to the UK after 25 years in Asia where he was an entrepreneur. Whilst running EASTWEST PR, he was the Vice-Chairmanof the British Chamber of Commerce in China, he also he introduced Morgansports cars to China, WAKE Drinks, founded the British Business Awards, The British Motorsport Festival, EO Beijing, and was the interim CEO of Lotus cars

Support the show (https://www.eastwestpr.com/podcast-speakpr)

Support the show

Subscribe to my free newsletter

https://www.theunnoticedentrepreneur.com/

Why is personalisation at scale important in public relations, and which of the 8,000 martech platforms will deliver your pitch? Aug 06, 2020

Show notes

Get Noticed! Send a text.

This is the trailer for the full show which can be heard here
https://www.buzzsprout.com/850540/4887854
Nobody likes to receive irrelevant information, but more than that McKinsey research and experience show that personalization, fully implemented, can unlock significant near-term value for businesses—such as 10 to 20 percent more efficient marketing and greater cost savings and a 10 to 30 percent uplift in revenue and retention.
So why doesn't everyone take advantage of what Scott Brinker calls the 'Second Golden Age of Martech' and the 8,000 services on offer to help them?
I discuss the importance of data, and how to collect it, the impact of triggers and when to recognize them, and how consumer sales strategies really are a parallel with media relations.
Then I share about 1/8000 which is to Muck Rack’s Public Relations Management (PRM) platform which gives journalists the ability to showcase their pitching preferences right on their free portfolios, and lets PR teams create a system of record for media contact preferences. With over 10,000 journalists on the platform, admittedly this looks to be largely USA as the firm is based in NYC, this is offering personalisation at scale for media relations; other platforms will follow.
At the end the day, data, technology and teams all require the stories which business owners have to tell; so I encourage entrepreneurs to use the technology but never lose focus on what makes their business human; that's the best pr of all.

Support the show (https://www.eastwestpr.com/podcast-speakpr)

Support the show

Subscribe to my free newsletter

https://www.theunnoticedentrepreneur.com/

Why is personalisation at scale important in public relations, and which of the 8,000 martech platforms will deliver your pitch? Aug 06, 2020

Show notes

Get Noticed! Send a text.

Nobody likes to receive irrelevant information, but more than that McKinsey research and experience show that personalization, fully implemented, can unlock significant near-term value for businesses—such as 10 to 20 percent more efficient marketing and greater cost savings and a 10 to 30 percent uplift in revenue and retention.
So why doesn't everyone take advantage of what Scott Brinker calls the 'Second Golden Age of Martech' and the 8,000 services on offer to help them?
I discuss the importance of data, and how to collect it, the impact of triggers and when to recognize them, and how consumer sales strategies really are a parallel with media relations.
Then I share about 1/8000 which is to Muck Rack’s Public Relations Management (PRM) platform which gives journalists the ability to showcase their pitching preferences right on their free portfolios, and lets PR teams create a system of record for media contact preferences. With over 10,000 journalists on the platform, admittedly this looks to be largely USA as the firm is based in NYC, this is offering personalisation at scale for media relations; other platforms will follow.
At the end the day, data, technology and teams all require the stories which business owners have to tell; so I encourage entrepreneurs to use the technology but never lose focus on what makes their business human; that's the best pr of all.

Support the show (https://www.eastwestpr.com/podcast-speakpr)

Support the show

Subscribe to my free newsletter

https://www.theunnoticedentrepreneur.com/

Why do the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals matter so much to your reputation, and how can you demonstrate your sustainability credentials? Aug 05, 2020

Show notes

Get Noticed! Send a text.

This is a trailer for the main podcast:
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015, provides a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future. At its heart are the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs),
Why does this matter?

“The brands that have not yet caught on to this, and are not thinking about how they will embed environmental and social sustainability within their business model, will not be around in the next 50 years,” Chief Marketing Officer of Unilever Keith Weed wrote in The Guardian.

Corporate Social Responsibility used to be soft side of a company's PR activities, but with climate change, COVID and social movements like Black Lives Matter, how a company behaves has become as important as what it sells.
In this podcast I share information about the UN SDG's and where you can check your own company's credentials; SDGfunders.org was created by Candid (formally Foundation Center) as a part of SDG Philanthropy Platform initiative and was funded by the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, Ford Foundation, and the MasterCard Foundation.

Sustainability programs are good for business and good for publicity. A business can enter awards which recognise and promote businesses that excel with corporate social responsibility projects. Potential awards your business could enter include:

I also mention the business responsibility map which can be downloaded here.