James Delin Creative

10/08/2022

KEYSTONE HABITS - PERSONAL GROWTH HACK or POWER TOOL?

Creativity is a strange, wonderful beast. I’ve taken 4 or 5 of these photos at different times this year to present the “6:31am” series. I didn’t know why I wanted to create this weird little series until this morning, then it hit me. Growth.

As for so many of us, this last year has been about growth. Growth as a society, adapting to a (more or less) post-COVID world, and growth as individuals to maintain our place in that society. With all the bewildering methods of achieving personal growth, where the hell is anyone expected to start?!

Well, for me, I started with Keystone Habits. A Keystone Habit is a seemingly small habit we can form that benefits other elements of our lives. This image represents my own keystone habit of making an effort to get up early.

My growth as an individual has been rapid and profound over the last year. There’s nothing groundbreaking here - if I’m up earlier, I get more done. More admin, more work, more tea made.

As someone who is clinically inconsistent, winning back some regularity has improved my mental health, which in turn improves my ability to focus and remain consistent, which cycles back to maintaining and improving my mental health, which then works to improve my physical health and so on and so forth.

If you are struggling with growth or you’re feeling left behind by what feels like EVERYONE experiencing their own growth around you, first of all that’s totally OK, be kind to yourself, it’s not as easy as people make out.

Secondly, when you’re ready, identify your own potential keystone habit and work to form it. An earlier wake-up time, a morning smoothie, a meat-free day, 10 minutes longer walking the dog, something that you can see will have benefits elsewhere in your life. Then forget everyone else’s growth, focus on your own and, with a bit of patience, celebrate your results!

Save this post to remind yourself of the power of Keystone Habits.

28/07/2022

Behind All Great Graphic Design Is a Strong Layout

A layout is the arrangement that brings together all the aspects of a design, like text, colour, and typography.

Its job is to make the message aesthetically pleasing and easy to understand. Layout design achieves this by manipulating aspects such as hierarchy, alignment, space and balance. If you would like to learn a bit more about what makes a good layout, let’s take a look at some of these points head over to this post on all things layout - https://bit.ly/3Q2T4PU

Incidentally - this poster was nominated and made it to the finale of the Poster Stellars Awards, held in New Jersey, USA.

06/07/2022

The Sale That Took Two Years To Close

A Post from James Delin

This is Alex Lane.

Alex is a personal trainer and entrepreneur, based in in the UK. He is not one of my clients - in fact, I am one of his.

Just before the pandemic gripped hold of the country, I made contact with Alex to book some personal training sessions. I was one of those who was so “head-in-the-clouds” I genuinely believed it would all blow over quite quickly.

Naively, I was quite surprised when I didn’t hear back from him straight away and, as COVID-19 swung its swift and terrible sword across the population, me reaching out to him faded into the obscurity of my long-term memory storage, unlikely to be recalled.

Fast forward to June 2022 I received a call from a number that wasn’t stored in my phone.

It was Alex!! He was immediately apologetic for not getting back to me, explaining that the pandemic had destroyed his business and he’s just getting back to piecing it together.

There was something I deeply respected about that phone call.

Simply that he had the fortitude and courage to call a prospect out of the blue a whole two years after they had initiated contact with him was massively inspiring to me.

Alex had done what I’m sure many of us have found difficult in the past and just got on the phone to warm up leads that had gone ice cold. And do you know what…he closed at least one sale!

Whether I signed up with him because I was inspired by his determination to reinvigorate his business, I felt empathy for a fellow business person or I had just eaten an entire big bag of twiglets and hadn’t moved from the sofa for 2 hours will always remain a mystery.

What is certain, is that every time I hesitate to engage business development, I will remember Alex! Thank you Alex for this valuable experience!

You can follow Alex at or and if you want to book directly with him you can visit his website www.thefitnesslane.co.uk

05/07/2022

DONE!! - Week 1 of filming for an exciting new digital training programme, on behalf of our wonderful clients 🎬

Such a great week of content production - cast and crew worked so hard to get the best footage possible! Shooting in and , at the Barker Langham Recruitment offices and the One Zero One green screen space, we were privileged to have great locations, great talent and great training material!

Thank you to everyone for your fantastic efforts on set and a massive thank you to all of you behind the scenes, tirelessly prepping to ensure the shoot goes smoothly!

On to the next week!

P.S. as this is a "mobile first" platform we shot everything in orientation. A first for us.

Wonder if Blackmagic Design will design a sensor that rotates in their next camera lineups…? 🤔🤔 The ball’s in your court now guys!

Sennheiser Universal Audio

01/07/2022

The Visual Arts Commission (VAC) is part of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Culture. Contributing to the VAC Mentorship and Guidance Program was a major highlight of 2022!

This special program was devised by VAC to support emerging Saudi artists improve their skills, grow their audience and enhance their careers.

Initially we were engaged as consultants to develop a social media advertising strategy. We created and presented a comprehensive report, detailing the most up-to-date ad practices and strategies and making recommendations to them about budgets, placements and demographics that would best suit their needs. Understanding the culture of VAC, their goals for the program and the two target demographics for mentors and mentees was crucial for us to tailor a strategy that would give them maximum results. There is no "one-size-fits-all" approach here.

Our report, presentation and approach chimed with the project leader who invited us to create the ad content and the organic social media content. Three platforms, two languages and forty-odd pieces of content later we completed our three week engagement and we couldn't be more proud of the result. We wish all your mentees the best of luck in their careers and our humblest thanks go out to all of the mentors generously sharing their industry knowledge and expertise! 🙏🙏

29/09/2021

Just before the summer I shot, edited and delivered this promo piece for Bewdley Sixth Form - part of the The Bewdley School.

Such a great team to work with! Thanks Bewdley School, best of luck with your

26/05/2021

📣 DEFINING BRANDING 📣

When we are trying to define what branding is, it can often be easier to start by identifying what it isn’t. Let’s keep running with the fizzy orange drink example. Branding isn’t just the large Fanta logo that looks like an orange. It’s not just the font the word is written in. It’s not just the packaging. It’s not just the price. It isn’t even just the actual stuff inside the can.

To read the full article head over to https://www.jamesdelin.com/website-blog/why-is-branding-hailed-as-the-most-important-first-impression

24/05/2021

If you’re unsure of the meaning and the concept of branding, then don’t worry. Branding, and making the distinction between a product and a brand, can be confusing.

In this blog post we’re going to explore a little about brands and ask some important questions. Why are brands important? How do we use branding? How can branding benefit me and my company, service or product? Let’s take a closer look.

To read the full post head to https://www.jamesdelin.com/website-blog/why-is-branding-hailed-as-the-most-important-first-impression

If you’re unsure of the meaning and the concept of branding, then don’t worry. Branding, and making the distinction between a product and a brand, can be confusing.

26/02/2021

🎙️📈PODCAST EQUIPMENT INVESTMENT 📈🎙️

💰If the option to use a recording studio and engineer to record your podcast isn't available to you, and you want to record something at home using something a bit more "professional" than your smartphone, you can take the opportunity to invest in some great recording gear of your own. 💵

🏦So you could go nuclear and spend £100k on a recording facility and a decent course to learn how to use the stuff. Or you could be sensible and set aside between £500 and £1000 for some equipment and some time to learn it. 🎓

We've outlined our suggestions on our blog for some fantastic equipment to get your podcast up and running. You can check those out here 👇
https://bit.ly/3uq4bZn

25/02/2021

🗓️💵Pay Monthly Approach To Podcasting 💵🗓️

🤝 You can strike up some great partnerships with local recording studios and recording engineers when planning to create a podcast
and they might not be as expensive as you think. 💸

🎵You could work out deals for unique theme music, jingles, other sound effects, advanced editing etc, but ultimately you can make this sort of service work for you and your business. 🎶

We explore the pay monthly approach in our Podcasting blog over on our website, which you can read here 👇
https://bit.ly/3uq4bZn

22/02/2021

💰 THE ZERO BUDGET APPROACH 💰

💬 We've already discussed the function and form of your podcast and how to plan its success. Now we're going to shift our focus on how to record it.

📱If you already have a smartphone you can create and release a podcast right now. You can speak into your phone’s microphone and distribute your knowledge to Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts and every other podcast provider out there without really lifting a finger.

⚓ Your best bet is to use a service like Anchor.fm or download the app. Anchor will let you record straight into your mobile and upload through their distribution service. For free. Not. Even. One. Penny.

We've devised a few more tips, tricks pros and cons about the Zero Budget Approach on our blog post. You can check that out here 👇
https://bit.ly/3umh6vp

Podcasting is fast becoming a really effective way of keeping an audiences attention and delivering a lot of value in one hit. Listeners are engaged for the duration and can consume your content easily on the move. But how do you get started? Would you believe me if I said you can start right now,

21/02/2021

🎙️ FORM 🎙️

💬 We've already discussed the function of your podcast, but what form will it take? What structure will it follow?

✅ Only you can really answer those questions when it comes to using a podcast to impart your knowledge and market your business. However, we've run through an example structure over on our website. 🖥️

You can find it by following the link below ⬇️
https://bit.ly/37t4wkf

16/02/2021

👨‍💻 FUNCTION 👨‍💻

What is the point of your podcast? 🤔

This might seem like an obvious question but here are a couple of considerations you could use as a guide:

- Is this podcast content for my own business?
- Is this a business in its own right?
- Is it just for fun or part of your CPD?

If you want to start podcasting to augment your business’ marketing activities then you can see this as a direct cost and budget for it accordingly. 💰

💸 If the podcast is the business then how is it going to make money? It is through sponsorships, advertising? Downloads, digital products? There’s no right or wrong answer it’s just worth considering.

Once you have determined the major definite purpose to our podcast this should focus your decisions about the content itself. We've got some more thoughts about that too, which you can read here 👇
https://bit.ly/3qqdJBp

15/02/2021

DIY CONTENT SERIES
📸. ISO 📸
The ISO (or I S O) value determines the sensitivity of the sensor. it is often referred to as gain on the sensor, so, for any audio nerds (LIKE ME) and amplified musicians out there, conceptually were in friendly waters.

💯. ISO typically starts at 100 and goes through to either 1600 or 3200 - some cameras go higher and lower than that, but we won't worry about those for the moment.

So let's think about photographing a bee, if you've got a shutter of 1/500 and you're at f4 and your ISO is at 100 chances are the sensor hasn't got enough gain to render a bright image. If you pop up to ISO 400 or even 800, then we're getting somewhere!

The higher the gain, or ISO, the more light we allow the sensor to receive digitally and we can start to introduce noise into the image. Noise in imaging is very similar to noise in audio, it is just the generation of unwanted artefacts in your image, in audio is hissing and popping in imagery it tends to be pixel artefacts.

To learn more visit:
👇👇👇
https://bit.ly/2NYHElL

13/02/2021

🎙️PODCASTING 🎙️

🧠 The "mega-engager". 15.6 million people listen to podcasts in the UK* and it grows every single day. With average podcast episodes being 43 minutes, your listeners are engaged in your content for the best part of an hour a go...that's madness! 🤯

✅ While it's a great idea to get started with podcasting, it can seem like an ocean of uncertainty and difficult to get into. This article will take you through conception to delivery of your awesome new podcast.

👥 Fun Fact - the majority of listeners find new podcasts by word of mouth according to a study complete at the beginning of 2021 - so tell all your mates!

Check it out and tell me what you think:
👇👇👇
https://bit.ly/3pO4hXT

12/02/2021

🙌 CLIENT SHOWCASE 🙌

Barker Langham Recruitment approached me recently to collaborate with them on a campaign for The Florence Nightingale Museum. ✅

👀 The front end outreach is crucial for a campaign like this and using video to conveying a message efficiently and effectively. 👀

Even for an unpaid role like this one the video helped generate a huge amount of interest. 💯

You can check out the video here:
👇👇👇
https://vimeo.com/493059236

This is "Florence Nightingale Museum Recruitment Campaign" by James Delin Creative on Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people who love them.

11/02/2021

🤗 Inspire 🤗

🤯 Inspirational posts hit a positive reward system in the brain, you can empower your clients and you can help them to feel that the Monday grind is actually a good thing! ✅

There are a hundred different ways you can inspire people and everyone has their own method.

📖 The way I do inspiration posts is to just tell a short story about something achievable, something that has been achieved in life. 💯

And what I'm trying to do is I'm trying to inspire my current followers and potential new prospects to just take action in their life or in their business. Even if it is just a small action.

There is more on this and the other types of posts you can use to communicate with your audience on the website.
👇👇👇
https://bit.ly/3pNBsuU

10/02/2021

DIY CONTENT SERIES
📸 APERTURE 📸
The Aperture - referred to as the "F number" or "F stop" - determines how wide your lens iris is open.

With Aperture the LOWER the F stop the WIDER the lens is open. F stop numbers look like 2.8 or 3.5 or 4 or 5.6. They're a funny bunch in a funny scale but typically they tend to run from around 2 - 22.

So if we have a really wide F stop, 2.8 for example, this will mean that the lens focuses highly on the subject and blurs most of what is not the subject, but like REALLY blurs it. That portrait function on your iPhone? 📱

It's mimicking a high F stop. We call this "isolating" a subject as it is isolated from its background.

A tight F stop like 8 or 16 will generally keep more of the photo in focus.

🏔️ So landscapers tend to use lower F stops to get the depth of focus from front to back of the image.

If you want to learn a bit more about how aperture affects your photography and content creation have a look at this video:
👇👇👇
https://bit.ly/2MqjrEs

07/02/2021

🤝ENGAGE 🤝

I like to engage with clients that I've already got, because they're easy to engage with. Engaging with prospects and people who don't really know your business is very, very difficult. It's not impossible, but I find it very difficult. ❌

❓Why would somebody want to answer a question that you pose when they don't know you, they don't know your business, they're not involved with you, they're not involved with your business?

However, if you post something about a company that you've worked with and provide the value for somebody else like: "XYZ company did this with us a long time ago, and they managed to grow from this much to this much in two months time. Thanks very much for working with us." That new company is more likely to comment back to you. 💬

📹Watch my video on the 4 essential elements of an effective marketing campaign to see how you can engage with more clients through your content.
👇👇👇
Link: https://bit.ly/36ySRQp

05/02/2021

DIY CONTENT SERIES

📸 SHUTTER SPEED 📸

Shutter speed determines how we capture movement. 👋 If you move your hand left and right in front of your eyes you'll notice it blurs as it moves. You're smart people, so it will come as no surprise to you, that we refer to this as "motion blur".

⏱️ We measure shutter speed in seconds and fractions of a second. So if typically a shutter speed of 1/125th of a second will freeze movement like hand shake from holding the camera, walking down the road or talking. The faster shutter speed you have the more subjects you can freeze.

Motorsport togs tend to shoot at high shutter speeds - like 1/4000th. 🏎

Landscapers tend to shoot at slow shutter speeds like 1/80th or even into 1 second - and at that speed you have to use a tripod. 🌋

This process controls the amount of light coming onto the sensor by mechanically opening the shutter at different speeds. Here's the trade off though - the faster your shutter speed the less light comes onto the sensor. So let's say you want shoot 🐝 bumble bee at a high shutter speed but your photos are coming out dark. That's where you can add in component number 2. The Aperture.

To read the whole article and watch the video in full head on over to:
👇👇👇
https://bit.ly/36A8Opl
Canon

04/02/2021

📢 INFORM 📢

Your clients might not really be that interested in what a day looks like in your office. Equally, they might not be majorly interested in the fact that you've got a new toy or a new piece of equipment.

💬What they're interested in is how that can benefit them. So, tell them.

When you create informing content you're imparting some knowledge to your clients and followers that perhaps they didn't have before. Or, perhaps they did and you've helped them to see things from a different angle. 👁️

📹Follow the link to my video on the 4 essential elements of an effective content marketing campaign and found out how Inform posts can help your business. 📈

https://bit.ly/36ySRQp

03/02/2021

🥃 The JDC Flag flies at half mast today and we raise our glass to the force of nature that was Sir Tom Moore (1920 - 2021).

It's quite amazing to celebrate such an achiever and his lesson to me was "never give up". 🙏

He survived the brutality of the Burma Campaign during WWII, navigated the construction space as a Captain of industry, endured the savagery of COVID-19 AND received a chuffin' knighthood by the way...no big deal...ALL while conquering the music industry at the age of 100!! 💯

What an absolute legend!

With our lives at threat from coronavirus, the rapid pace of change of modern life and the constant bombardment of perfect looking Instagram lives, we forget (well I do) that major achievement just can't be rushed - it can be had over time, at any time - just don't give up.

My heartfelt condolences go out to all of those affected by his passing, we were all privileged to have been made aware of this inspiring man.

Thank you Sir Tom for everything you did, for freedom, for the NHS and for me. 🥃

03/02/2021

🚨 ICYMI 🚨
In case you missed my easy-to-use Bloggers Checklist, I've provided another link for you all below. I know, that's nice of me.

If you use blog posts to communicate your brand and business, you'll want to optimise this content to its full potential. Use my Bloggers Checklist to make sure you include all the correct elements to turn your posts into engaging and informative assets of your company.

https://bit.ly/2NUBUJD

02/02/2021

4 ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS

📖 Rule #1, for all content creation, it's got to provide value. That might sound like I'm teaching grandma, but you wouldn't believe how much stuff just goes out into the world with no regard for what sort of value that's bringing to an audience.

The strategy I tend to employ uses four different concepts of posts.
✅ Inform
✅ Engage
✅ Inspire
✅ Sell

4️⃣ Those four concepts allow me to create weeks and weeks and weeks worth of content. I just carousel those ideas round and round and round. Inform, engage, inspire, and sell.

For me, information is the commodity of choice for a content creation campaign and I say that because you know more about your business than your clients and your prospects.

🤝 That's why they're your clients. And because you do know all that, you can provide value to your clients and prospective clients.

To see how all the elements can work together check out the full video below:
👇👇👇
https://bit.ly/36ySRQp

01/02/2021

Content Flavour No. 7 - Social 💯

If you know what sort of thing you want to post, then it should be clear as to where you want to post it - videos to YouTube, Stories and photos to Instagram and Facebook, news articles to LinkedIn and Facebook etc...

🙏The other benefit to social media posting is that you can directly engage with your audience.

Reply to those comments, thank people for mentions and shares reach out to new audience members.

I know this all sounds like a lot of work - and it is, there’s a reason why large companies have whole social media divisions, because it’s super valuable.

🙌 If you are that division my hat goes off to you because it’s long and arduous.

There is so much to discuss on this topic, so if you want to learn more then hop along to the article about the different Flavours of content to help you communicate better here:
👇
https://bit.ly/2XN2WV6

27/01/2021

Content Flavour No. 6 - Interactive 🔄

Quizzes, Calculators and Surveys are incredible bits of content to drive engagement from your audience and to capture data.

You can do that too with a simple “How much cake do you need?” calculator or a “What sort of jungle animal are you?” quiz.

Just remember the most effective ways you can deploy this content is to ask for someone’s details in exchange for the result of the content.

There's more on this and the other Flavours of content to help you communicate better right here: 👉 https://bit.ly/2XN2WV6

You can return to our homepage by clicking here, or you can try searching for the content you are seeking by clicking here.

27/01/2021

There are (among others) 4 main elements that can often be found in great content marketing campaigns. I can split them down into genres of posts - what they encompass, over what they are made of.

1️⃣ - INFORM
2️⃣ - ENGAGE
3️⃣ - INSPIRE
4️⃣ - SELL

This list is by no means exhaustive but a mixture of these posts will help you go a long way to developing a strong campaign that will grow your audience.

Can you see this formula working for you? Have you used a different formula in the past?

25/01/2021

Content Flavour No. 5 - Stories and Reels 🎞

Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn all have “Story” functionality to them and your stories can be extremely valuable by drawing attention to content you’ve already posted or to a wider audience than the dreaded algorithm can get those standard posts to go to.

✅ It’s said that your Story is more casual and engaging than your posts, because they are a fleeting thing (they only last for 24 hours) they can be more of an “unofficial” look into your company or brand.

There's more on this and the other flavours of content for your marketing if you follow the link:
👇
https://bit.ly/2XN2WV6

24/01/2021

Content Flavour No. 4 - Infographic 👀

🔎 Infographics are amazing pieces of graphic content to help your audience understand a wider picture of whatever topic you choose.

This is a sample of an infographic that was produced for a client. It gives the reader a great overview of how important mental health awareness in the workplace is.

✅ It benefited my client because it showed the importance of mental health awareness and it just so happened that their company provides bespoke training in this field - this is no coincidence.

If you want to know more or you want to find out about the other flavours of content then visit the link:
👇
https://bit.ly/2XN2WV6

21/01/2021

💻 If you already have a good sized audience then live streaming is an amazing way of connecting and communicating with them.

You’re also giving more away about you as a person, or your company.

As it's live you are by nature a little more unguarded about your language, your mannerisms and your attitudes, which enables you to show your audience more relatable parts to your personal brand.

I'm not doing a live stream yet - but if you want to know more or you want to find out about the flavours of content then visit the link:
👇
https://bit.ly/2XN2WV6