Tag: achievement

Celebrating 100 Episodes

Of our mobile news podcast, The Voicemail.

Stefan & James, together on Episode 60

Back in May 2012, Stefan Constantinescu and I were in search of someone to podcast with.

Thanks to a sharp-eyed friend (thanks Michael) we were connected over this mutual need and committed to not only doing a podcast, but doing it properly. Organised over Twitter at first, Stefan and I bought the right kit and then, less than two weeks later, sat down and recorded our first episode of The Voicemail.

The Voicemail 001

Our first episode was just a bit of history about our mutual interests in mobile but from episode two onwards we decided we’d cover that week’s latest mobile news and cast our eyes over what was hot (and what was not) in the industry that we’re both so passionate about.

We’re an opinionated pair at times – ahem – and don’t always agree however that combination turned out to be quite popular and now, some two years later and now with over 1000 listeners every week (!!!), we’re still going strong.

This morning Stefan and I recorded our 100th episode.

It shouldn’t be that much of a big deal, it should be ‘just another episode’ and in many ways it was. However it’d be unfair to get this far without pausing to reflect upon the brilliant support we’ve had along the way.

So this post is a big fat THANK YOU to everyone that’s listened, commented, tweeted, facebook’d, blogged, chatted, gossiped, even mentioned us in passing to a fellow geeky friend – your positive word of mouth has helped us grow and grow and grow. It’s amazing to know we have your continued support. Thank you.

A second THANK YOU goes to the numerous guests we’ve had along the way. Stefan and I don’t have many rules on the show but one of them is that we only ever have two of us on. If one of us can’t make it, then it’s the other’s responsibility to get a replacement. Which was fine right up until Stefan went travelling for four months and we had a new guest every single week. You know who you are and we appreciated every single one of you.

Finally, the last big fat THANK YOU goes to my Podcasting partner in crime, Stefan Constantinescu. Having a project buddy who can ensure you stay committed (and vice versa) is a really valuable thing. Not only is Stefan super knowledgeable in all things mobile, he’s also been there every week [nearly] without fail. Simply put: the show wouldn’t happen without him.

Episode 100 is now live [here’s the

direct download link Get Adobe Flash player
for the MP3, 30MB], this week we covered the LG G3, Apple [finally] buying Beats by Dre, and Google’s self-driving cars.

If you’ve never listened to us before, why not check us out and subscribe today?

You can find us on our website, on iTunes, or copy and past this RSS feed into your podcast app of choice and just go from there.

Here’s to the next 100 episodes!

Achievement

A week ago today, I published this on Facebook –

Post by James Whatley.

—

The Tough Mudder was epic. I’m still aching (slightly). But we’ve raised over £1200 for charity and, on top of that, one week later, I still can’t believe we did it.

Tough Mudder. Before & After. Winner.

The sense of achievement is palpable.

And I am happy.

 

Team Ogilvy London vs Tough Mudder UK

“We came. We saw. We kicked its ass.”

Tough-Mudder

Saturday, October 5th – my Ogilvy colleagues and I completed the Tough Mudder North West challenge. 12 miles. 25 obstacles. One amazing feat.

Back in May, I started working with Ogilvy & Mather London Advertising on the Expedia UK account. The team were awesome and welcomed me with open arms. However, as an official member, I was told that I would have to join them in their Tough Mudder.

30mins later (after much heckling and also the clincher comment ‘James, it isn’t a race – it’s about TEAM BUILDING’ – I’m such a sucker for that stuff), this happened –

Turns out the best date we could all do it wasn’t in September after all. It was today. And guess what? We nailed it.

WINNERS

— Briony, me, Amelia, Harriet, Stephen and Joey —

There was blood. There was mud. There was euphoria. We climbed 12ft walls, we ran through electric cables, and we plunged ourselves into ice – and that is very much not even the half of it.

So far, we’ve raised just over £800 £1000(!) for Action on Bladder Cancer, the charity of choice of the Expedia UK marketing team, and there’s also (perhaps somewhat delirious) talk of making TM an annual Ogilvy event too – amazing.

If you’d like to sponsor me, or anyone else on my team, then you can do that on our dedicated sponsorship page (please do, even if it’s only a couple of quid it’d be appreciated).

I think I have a longer, more meandering post about how much of a personal achievement I feel this is (given that I only started running back in January), but that can wait for another day.

In the meantime, I’m headed home for a very long bath and while I do that, you’re going to sponsor me, right?

 

UPDATE: Photos now up on Flickr.