Shared on my social media on the day, but I had been waiting for an opportunity to note this on my blog.
It was an honour last week to guest on Leonard Kimâs Grow Your Influence Tree, his internet talk show on VoiceAmerica. Leonard knows plenty about marketing and branding, so I thought it might be fun to give his listeners a slightly different perspectiveânamely through publishing. And since I know his listenersâ usual topics, I didnât stray too far from marketing.
We discuss the decrease in CPM rates online; the importance of long-form features to magazines (and magazine websites) and how that evolution came about; how search engines have become worse at search (while promoting novelty; on this note Iâve seen Qwant do very well on accuracy); how great articles can establish trust in a brand and falling in love with the content you consume (paraphrasing Leonardâs words here); Lucireâs approach to global coverage and how that differs to other titlesâ; the need to have global coverage and how that potentially unites people, rather than divide them; how long-form articles are good for your bottom line; how stories work in terms of brand-building; how Google News favours corporate and mainstream sources; and the perks of the job.
This was a great hour, and it was just such a pleasure to talk to someone who is at the same level as me to begin with, and who has a ready-made audience that doesnât need the basics explained to them. It didnât take long for Leonard and me to get into these topics and keep the discussion at a much higher level than what I would find if it was a general-audience show. Thank you, Leonard!
Listen to my guest spot on Leonardâs show here, and check out his website and his Twitter (which is how we originally connected). And tune in every Thursday 1 p.m. Pacific time on the VoiceAmerica Influencers channel for more episodes with his other guests!
Posts tagged ‘radio’
Chatting at a pro level on Leonard Kim’s Grow Your Influence Tree
21.10.2021Tags: 2021, branding, California, Google, internet, interview, Jack Yan, Leonard Kim, Lucire, marketing, media, radio, Twitter, USA, VoiceAmerica
Posted in branding, business, internet, marketing, media, New Zealand, publishing, technology, USA | No Comments »
Podcast for tonight: behind the scenes on The Panel
28.08.2020For your listening pleasure, here’s tonight’s podcast, with a bit behind the scenes on my first appearance on RNZ’s The Panel as a panellist, and ‘I’ve Been Thinking’ delivered at a more appropriate pace, without me staring at the clock rushing to finish it before the pips for the 4 p.m. news.
Tags: 1970s, 2020, Aotearoa, Big Tech, China, Facebook, family, history, Hong Kong, Mary Chapman, media, New Zealand, podcast, radio, Radio New Zealand, Ted Knight, TV, Wallace Chapman, Wellington, Whanganui-a-Tara
Posted in China, culture, Hong Kong, media, New Zealand, TV, Wellington | No Comments »
Back on RNZ’s The Panel: on Hong Kong’s new national security legislation
08.07.2020
Public domain/Pxhere
What a pleasure it was to be back on The Panel on Radio New Zealand National today, my first appearance in a decade. That last time was about the Wellywood sign and how I had involved the Hollywood Sign Trust. Iâve done a couple of interviews since then on RNZ (thank you to my interviewers Lynda Chanwai-Earle and Finlay Macdonald, and producer Mark Cubey), but it has been 10 years and a few months since I was a phone-in guest on The Panel, which I listen to very frequently.
This time, it was about Hong Kong, and the new national security legislation that was passed last week. You can listen here, or click below for the embedded audio. While we begin with the latest development of social media and other companies refusing to hand over personal data to the Hong Kong government (or, rather, they are âpausingâ till they get a better look at the legislation), we move pretty quickly to the other aspects of the law (the juicy stuff and its extraterritorial aims) and what it means for Hong Kong. Massive thanks to Wallace Chapman who thought of me for the segment.
Tags: 2020, China, democracy, free press, freedom of speech, Hong Kong, law, media, news, press freedom, radio, Radio New Zealand, Wallace Chapman
Posted in business, China, culture, Hong Kong, media, New Zealand | 1 Comment »
Chatting to TV, radio and internet journalists for the mayoral campaign
11.06.2010There have been a few times in the history of this blog where I stepped away from writing regularly. At the end of 2006, I had a pretty good excuse: I was in France. This time, my reasons for stepping away for a few weeks do not include: (a) I was spending too much time with the Miss Universe New Zealand contestants; (b) laziness; (c) being trapped in 1983 and discovering that DCI Gene Hunt controls the Lost island.
I was, however, chatting to a few more of the parties that we needed to realize some of my election promises. And doing a few media interviews. And looking at more ways Wellington could get nearer balancing its budget, as our deficit has ballooned over the last decade.
On May 15, I joined my opponent, Councillor Celia Wade-Brown, on Access Radioâs Espace Français, in what was my first political interview in French. I expected a nice-natured chat till our hosts said they wanted a political debate. So the Councillor and I gave the audience one, coming from very different angles. I believe we are the only two Francophone candidates. And I donât think Access does a Cantonese programme.
You can listen to the interview here, though they only store the programmes for six weeks. You can also download from this link.
I kept Leauna Zheng waiting for weeks while I prepared my emailed responses to her interview for Skykiwi, the leading Chinese expatsâ site in New Zealand. Despite her wait, she wrote a marvellous article (in Chinese, here), and for those of you relying on Google Translate, please note that the term Chinese expatriate is not translated correctly. (I believe this is the first Chinese-language interview to include my name in Chinese ideographs.)
And, finally, my interview with Bharat Jamnadas on Asia Down Under aired last Sunday. Heâs very kindly put it on YouTube, though the aspect ratio is a tad off and I look thinner than usual. There are very nice comments from two members of the Wellington business community, Laurie Foon of Starfish and Brent Wong of Soi, to whom I am extremely grateful.
The conversation at the end about Wellington v. Auckland was a good laugh, but there were some serious bits.
And this Tuesday just gone, it was a pleasure to play a âdragonâ in a Dragonâs Den-style setting analysing some of New Zealandâs entrepreneurs for New Zealand Trade & Enterprise.
My thanks to Bharat, Leauna, Kenneth Leong, Laura Daly at Access Radio, Jean-Louis Durand and Arlette Bilounga, and Maria Gray and David Powell.
Tags: Aotearoa, Bharat Jamnadas, business, Chinese, environment, fashion, France, internet, Jack Yan, mayoralty, media, New Zealand, politics, radio, Skykiwi, small business, SMEs, Starfish, technology, technopole, transparency, TV, TVNZ, Wellington, Whanganui-a-Tara, wifi
Posted in business, China, culture, humour, internet, leadership, media, New Zealand, politics, technology, TV, Wellington | 1 Comment »
Thoughts toward 2020
02.05.2010This weekend was spent in recovery mode after getting some weird stomach bug before Anzac Day. Without getting too gross, letâs say it took a lot out of me. Thatâs right: I was energetically drained.
But itâs not to say that the campaign has stopped or slowed. Things seem to be proceeding at a good paceâsometimes so well that I have to admit I have less time to blog.
I met with both a Mr Andrew Jackson and a Mr Calhoun in the last two weeks, which I am sure our American readers will be getting a chuckle over. While the Andrew Jackson I met is British-born and not related to the American president of the $20 banknote, Brian Calhoun of Silverstripe is directly descended from the seventh vice-president.
Both gentlemen shared the same visions as I did. Andrew, who was introduced to me via my fellow Medinge director Patrick Harris, looks at the Wellington region over the next 10â20 years in his job with the Ministry of Economic Development. While I stated that I did not believe in a super-city for Wellington in 2010âwe are governable, after allâI had to admit that there would come a time where the capital would have to compete for resources from central government as a region. And that region might look very different in the 2020s with a second international airport and a light rail service. If elected mayor, itâs not going to be something that will be built between 2010 and 2013, but Iâd sure need to be aware of long-term developments for the region. (It also highlights the need to grow jobs under the creative cluster plans, so we can begin talking options.)
On that note, it would be prudent to recommence the regional mayoral meetings in a slimmer form. Right now, mayors from all over the Wellington region come with entourages, ensuring nothing gets done. Letâs take that back to meeting with mayors and regional MPs without all the red tape and get some high-level agreements made after October 2010.
Meanwhile, Brian presides over one of the most successful software companies in the landâand I like Silverstripeâs current mantra, âBe more humanâ. It links to my own ideas that humans are in charge of technology and not vice versa. And Silverstripe, under his leadership, has done remarkably with annual growth rates of 63, 70 and 57 per cent.
His belief is that Wellington businesses can grow if they have the right advice and adopt a leadership posture to what they do. Itâs a good cultural argument: let the brand be well defined, and live the right attitude within the organization (these are not Brianâs words, but what I took from what he said). I remarked that that was largely how I got my own businesses to where they were.
But hereâs something significant: Brian, as I, believes that Wellington can be one of the worldâs leading cities. We can lead in terms of web, tech and software development, for starters, being the sort of place that attracts both talent and envy. Weâve both been around the world, weâre aware of what ingredients need to be in place to make this happen, and weâre certain on the steps we need to take to make some of Wellingtonâs businesses world-class champions.
Iâd rather have free wifi in the central city and a vibrant creative cluster than another sculpture (as much as I like the ones we have) or another stadium suffering from a NZ$20 million cost overrun. And I know we can build these businesses from the ground-up and keep them Kiwi-ownedârather than asset-strip and have foreigners snatch them up, which still seems to dominate the thinking of central government.
Speaking of which, I see that a bill amending the Local Government Act 2002 has been tabled. And that bill says that if a private corporation wants to control our water, it can do so for 35 years. That company set up to sell our water back to us no longer needs to be majority council-owned.
This is madness. Not only have we owned our water from day one, it is anathema to my thinking that some foreign corporation raking in US$50 billion per annum could control it. These corporations exist, and you can bet they are eyeing New Zealand up lustfully in the hope that the law is changed.
Better to have water stay in public hands and have all of us contribute to proper conservation programmes, I say. But, say the privateers, surely we can charge for water? âWhat? The poor canât afford it? Itâs not as though they need to wash every day, is it?â
The ghosts of Slater Walker and their ilk still walk the hallways at some political partiesâ HQs. And they still think they are in charge.
Incidentally, I seem to be getting decent (and by âdecentâ I mean âfair and balancedâ) air time on the radio airwaves. So far Iâve done Newstalk ZB a couple of times, as well as their competition over at Radio Live. Laura Daly at Access Radio did a wonderful interview with me earlier in April (I will be back on that station with my opponent Celia Wade-Brown in Espace Français on May 15 in my first political interview in French). Radio New Zealand National, meanwhile, interviewed me a few times during the whole Wellywood saga, but I am glad that I had a more personal one-on-one with Sonia Yee during her Asian Report last week. Hereâs the link to the programme for those who might want a slightly less political broadcast (the MP3 is here).
Tags: airport, Aotearoa, future, Jack Yan, legislation, mayoralty, media, Medinge Group, Ministry of Economic Development, New Zealand, Patrick Harris, politics, privatization, public ownership, radio, region, Silverstripe, technology, water, Wellington, Whanganui-a-Tara
Posted in business, internet, leadership, media, New Zealand, politics, technology, Wellington | No Comments »
I need to listen to some Fred Dagg before I go on
11.03.2010To be confirmed is an interview with the BBC, in my politician guise. I have not been on radio in the other hemisphere for something like seven years, and that time it went to some of the most way-out places (it was UN Radio). I have one reservation only: my accent goes all over the place. Remember how the Rt Hon Jim Bolger went funny with his when foreign dignitaries came and he sounded like he was mocking the foreigners? Or, a few years before, Michael Fay during the Americaâs Cup lawsuits and his Americanized pronunciation of water?
Yeah, I do that. And even more disturbingly, I know I do it while Iâm doing it, and cannot stop it.
Itâs going to be hell if a northerner interviews me and I start sounding like Jimmy Nail. I am told that I do a very good Lily Savage when I have the âflu. And if I get a southerner, you will think I was trying to impress Keeley Hawes (which I try to do, anyway, never mind Matthew). Not one is sufficiently âKiwiâ for Wellington voters. Though I might find that British expatriates based in Wellington might suddenly vote for me. Because in any case I will sound better than Harold Wilson.
Tags: accent, BBC, English, humour, interview, Jack Yan, language, mayoralty, media, radio
Posted in humour, media, New Zealand, politics, UK, Wellington | No Comments »