Welcome to Conversations with Authors, where I – Alison Thompson, AKA The Proof Fairy – meet amazing authors and find out what inspires them to write and what advice they would offer other aspiring authors.

My guest today is Jim James, an entrepreneur who started his first company in Singapore at the age of 28 and has since opened offices in China, India and the UK. He’s now back living in the UK where he hosts “The UnNoticed Show,” a public relations podcast for entrepreneurs. From the interviews he conducts for his podcast, he found the content for his first book, “The UnNoticed Entrepreneur”.

Jim is a mine of information on technology to help entrepreneurs and he shares with me some really useful tech tools for authors. We also talk about entering book awards, creating merchandise and reader avatars, and Jim explains why writing a book is like running a marathon.

More About Jim James

Jim has built businesses from a suitcase on 3 continents over 25 years, all using public relations. His first brush with #gettingnoticed was at 18 when he jumped out of a plane in return for sponsorship and received expedition equipment in return for media publicity. He hasn’t stopped this model of brand+business building ever since.

Having grown up in Europe, Africa and America, it was perhaps inevitable that Jim would move to Singapore at the age of 28 to start his first company, EASTWEST Public Relations. Since 1995 the B2B agency opened offices in Singapore, China, India and the UK serving over 500 clients. In China between 2006–2019, Jim built the business importing and distributing Morgan Motor Company cars, was interim CEO of Lotus, Vice Chair of the Chamber of Commerce and a number of other profit and not for profit ventures including the bi-annual British Business Awards. He is particularly proud of being the home room parent at the school of his daughters, and serving on the food committee which replaced sugary drinks with milk in the cafeteria.

Jim returned with his young family to the UK in June 2019 to provide his daughters with a British education, and works with clients to ensure that they are able to get noticed for all that they do, and helps companies to enter the Asia market. He hosts “The UnNoticed Show,” a podcast for entrepreneurs with tools and tips for public relations, and has created the SPEAK|pr course providing a structured approach to getting noticed.