The day I found out the secret of Richard Branson's success.
Some years ago Richard Branson was a guest on one of the radio shows I was working on. At that time I wasn't in an important role, I was there to do some running and a bit of Assistant Producing. As I brought him down to the studios we chatted, he asked my name and I got him a coffee sat him down all the usual stuff.
The interview he was doing was an hour long, it was one of those Desert Island Disc shows but not called that as the Plomley estate own the copyright to that one lol. As I led him down the corridor an hour later and out of the building we chatted some more I noticed he used my first name to address me. It occurred to me that this might be one of the quiet secrets of Richard's success - attention to detail.
In radio attention to detail takes a lot of effort. We've all got peoples titles a bit wrong or worse got the angle on a story a bit muddled. All it takes to fix that is a bit of attention to detail - writing the number down slowly and checking it back with the interviewee - checking the pronunciation of their name and putting it in the script for the presenter. Who knows if you do that you might become as successful as Mr Branson, one thing is certain though, there will be fewer cock-ups on air. (Pic credit Creative Commons)
1 comment:
Robin Whelan from Facebook
Thanks for this memory Steve - I remember meeting the late Lord Goldsmith - I made him a coffee and remember him thanking me and making eye contact with me - that man had such a presence I would have done almost anything to help him had he asked.
With successful people part of their success is predetermined but a lot of it is learnt - for me the lessons have been to stop making the same mistakes and to stop living in fear. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Goldsmith
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