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Without action your dreams will remain dreams

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You may have heard the below quotation before, have you ever thought about what Thoreau was trying to tell us? I think that the modern implications of Thoreau's quote is rooted in the idea that individuals must listen to their own sense of voice.  

““If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavours to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.” - Henry David Thoreau ”

Thoreau is passionate about the idea that individuals break free from conformist notions of the good. I think that if you have evaluated your career choices from the perspective of “meaning” and have identified something worth pursuing, then evaluated the potential risk and reward which led you to seriously consider pursuing your dreams, and then developed sufficient belief in yourself to take serious action, then all that is left is for you to set goals for yourself and take consistent action toward achieving your dreams.

Illustration c/o iStock

Illustration c/o iStock

If you are not happy with you current career situation send me an e-mail (confidentiality is assured).

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On a journey

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Earlier this week I finished reading Barak Obama’s book, “A Promised Land”. Whenever I read, I am always thinking about what kind of world view would make this language effective. All marketing creates change and if you are not creating change then, you are not in marketing. I think the only chance of succeeding is to be specific in the discovery phase, asking the client about the who are the people they are trying to reach and change.


- What change are you seeking to make and who are you trying to change?
- Are you trying to change lonely people into connected people?
- Are you trying to change powerful people into kinder people?
- Are you trying to change people with one status into people with another status?
Send me an e-mail if you would like to have a fresh approach whilst figuring out your path to action.

The hard part is getting it done

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The difference between getting noticed and being ignored lies in providing the right content and context for the right audience, the hard part is getting it done! Too often marketing comes at the end of the cycle in creating something, I think marketing is an intentional act and therefore should be integral in the creative process. We should say at the beginning - for people who believe this and want that - I am bringing you something that matches what you believe and helps you get what you want.

Send me an e-mail if you are interested in figuring out how to be honest in the following way:
If I was one of these people who believed in what I say and I knew what I know about this thing, would I buy it? And if one of the people you are speaking about does buy it, would they tell their friends?

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It's you, uniquely you

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Nowadays, small brands cannot afford to participate in traditional media buys, so social media is the only place where they talk about their brand. This morning, I realised that it’s been almost 2 months since I activated my Clubhouse account, and I still haven’t joined a conversation room. For those of you who are not aware, Clubhouse is an invitation-only social audio app. Apparently, Clubhouse is the home for people who are disillusioned with social media censorship and unequivocally condemn all other forms of racism and hate speech.

This new storytelling approach which is not visual will take a little while to catch on. As the Clubhouse rooms disappear after they are over, and as recording a room is against the rules - “going viral,” in the traditional sense, isn’t really possible. I think the Clubhouse app could help brands to attract new clients, as it’s an ideal platform to consistently define, express and communicate who you are, who you serve and why you are currently dedicating your life to serving your target market.

Room for improvement

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One of my good friends thinks that we become stressed when there is a gap between expectations and reality. I think that it’s very important to have a mentor to guide us on our journey. As a mentor, I can support you:
1. By clarifying the destination.
2. By sharing the best and most effective path for the journey.
3. By pointing out the obstacles that you may face on the journey.
4. By helping you overcome the doubts you may have about the journey.
5. By helping you overcome doubts you may have about yourself.


Contact me via e-mail if you are in having me as your mentor on your journey. Encouraging you with positive feedback, especially when you are overwhelmed by criticism or discouraged by pushback, I can guide you onto the “right” path by looking into the following:
a) Absorption
b) Beliefs
c) Cooperation
d) Determination
e) Enthusiasm
f) Flexibility

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Culture eats bureaucracy for lunch

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The legendary management consultant and writer Peter Drucker famously said, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast”. If our well being is directly related to our environment and the work quality we produce, then we really should put more effort into thinking about how to optimise it. 


In his book, “Good to Great”, Jim Collins said, “If you get the right people on the buses everything else will sort itself out.” Perhaps it’s time to look at the coaching style of working together and focus on what empowers. This is an approach which will guide individuals to find their place, their role and their hidden talents, rather than putting restrictions on people and telling them what to do. Is your organisation prepared for feedback that is frank, open and honest?


I think that if you built your organisation around these principles - create the environment, employ the right people and develop the culture - your organisation will thrive. Are you interested in taking a deeper dive into your organisations communication and culture? Contact me via e-mail for coaching, mentoring or workshops.

Creative by nature

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The more choices you have, the more chance that you can do something interesting and remarkable. The artist in me realised that the more I give away, the more I change people, the better I do. The price of originality is criticism and the value of originality is priceless.


The posture of change and the posture of generosity are hard because it’s scary. Our “Lizard Brain” is in charge of fight, flight, fear and freezing up. It’s the first part of the brain that develops in the foetus and the other parts develop on top of it. We all have a brain that wants to make music, wants to have a conversation and we also have a brain that wants to run away, that wants to fit in, that doesn’t want to be laughed at and a brain that wants revenge, and a brain that wants to have children.


Anytime that brain wants to speak up the lizard brain is what wins. As that is why we have survived as a species, and the bad news is the thing that protected us from sabre tooth tigers is the same thing that is recking our lives. It’s sabotaging our ability to do the thing which is actually going to work. 

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Love, empathy and kindness

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Taking care of our mental health during a pandemic has not been easy. In times like these we deserve better for ourselves than fear, paranoia and conspiracy theories. Be grateful if this virus hasn't touched you, your family, friends or colleagues. Let's all simply make choices which accommodate the needs of society.


Professor Steven Reiss (psychologist) has found that 16 basic desires guide nearly all meaningful behaviour. These desires are what drive our everyday actions and make us who we are. Reiss said, "What makes individuals unique is the combination and ranking of these desires."

The 16 desires are:
- Power
- Independence
- Curiosity
- Acceptance
- Order
- Saving
- Honour
- Idealism
- Social contact
- Family
- Status
- Vengeance
- Romance
- Eating
- Physical exercise
- Tranquility


Many researchers who have tried to reduce all human behaviour to just one or two basic desires, for example, pleasure, pain or survival. I think people know that other people have different values and pursuits, but they cannot understand how this can be. Self righteous people waste an enormous amount of effort trying to change people who do not want to be changed. As I believe that every person has a unique desire profile, hopefully, this pandemic has taught us that we are all connected.

We have the power to do it

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I think that all marketing creates change, therefore, if you are not creating change then, you are not marketing. What change are you seeking to make and who are you trying to change?

  • Are you trying to change lonely people into connected people?

  • Are you trying to change powerful people into kinder people?

  • Are you trying to change people with one status into people with another status?



Be specific about the who are the people you are trying to reach and change otherwise you have no chance of succeeding. The challenge is to find the smallest viable audience of people who can support you, only serve them and only attempt to change them - “If you are like this and you want to get to to that, then I can help you get there.”

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Throwback Thursday

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I think that it’s important to look back in order to understand the present. Alvin Toffler’s prophetic 1970 book, “Future Shock” predicted how people and institutions of the late 20th century would contend with the immense strains and soaring opportunities of accelerating change. In the book Toffler highlights that you can't run the society on data and computers alone. I agree and think that society needs all kinds of skills which are not just cognitive, we also need skills that are emotional and affectionate.

Toffler’s predictions about the consequences to culture, the family, government and the economy were remarkably accurate. He foresaw the development of cloning, the popularity and influence of personal computers and the invention of the internet and cable television.

““You have got to think about big things while you are doing small things, so that all the small things go in the right direction.” - Alvin Toffler”
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Your most important tasks will be to

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Right now, we are all living in a constant state of uncertainty, and sometimes it can feel like running a race with no finish line or making a puzzle without a picture reference. What can we do to minimise the impacts of uncertainty on our mental health? Research shows that gratitude may just help balance out our mental state. Do I have neuroscience behind this? Even though I have been studying human behaviour for over 25 years - I am not a psychologist - so this is only my opinion.


To cultivate gratitude in ourselves, we need to intentionally shift our focus to that which we are thankful for. You can do this by:
1) Pausing and reflecting on what’s working for you.
2) Writing a gratitude journal.
3) Taking small steps to build it in like a practice or ritual.


Contact me via e-mail for gratitude training and workshops.

The science of exceptions

c/o Coca-Cola

c/o Coca-Cola

I think that there are similarities between and biology, as both marketing and biology are a sciences of exceptions. We as marketeers sometimes spend too much of our time looking at universal laws of behaviour, unfortunately, we are using the wrong scientific tools. In biology everything is learnt from looking at oddities, biologists look for peculiarities, the unexpected and counter intuitive behaviours.


Charles Darwin learned about evolution by looking at the weird things not the things everyone took for granted. Marketing should not be measured by how do we interrupt people with advertising and sell products. Marketing is all about - who we are, what we do, and how we change the world. Coca-Cola video is a great example of how to earn attention, trust and confidence. 

6 steps to realise success

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According to Dr. David Harold Fink (psychiatrist) there are six steps that will help you achieve success. As today is my youngest daughter’s birthday I will just accept Dr. Fink’s advice.

  1. Set yourself a definite goal.

  2. Quit running yourself down.

  3. Stop thinking about all the reasons why you cannot be successful, instead think of of the reasons why you can.

  4. Trace your attitudes back through your childhood and try to discover where you first got the idea that you couldn’t be successful.

  5. Change the image you have of yourself by writing out the description of the person you would like to be.

  6. Act the part of that successful person you have decided to become.

Little decisions become big decisions

We are constantly looking into the past, projecting into the future and creating alternative realities. Reality is as it is, you either argue with it or you can embrace it! When I was young, my ambition was to be one of the people who made a difference in this world. My hope is still to leave the world a little bit better for my having been here, as I have a wonderful life and I love it.

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“Your input determines your outlook,
Your outlook determines your output, and
Your output determines your future. ”
— Burrellism

Decisions, decisions, decisions

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One could define your values as the standards of behaviour and the ways of doing things that you think are correct in the ways you live and work. When your actions and decisions align with your values then you will demonstrate to others that you have integrity. You become a good role model and experience peace of mind because you are confident that you are doing the right thing. When you act in a way that goes against your values then you will feel unhappy and bad about yourself. You may also make mistakes and find yourself acting unethically.


I’m sure that that you have noticed that different people have different values, and these often determine the things they do in life. It’s not hard to make a decision when you know what your values are - do you know what your values are? Contact me via e-mail and let’s have a conversation.

Repetition is the first rule of success

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As children we are taught that practice makes perfect, but many of us have been practicing the wrong things for far too many years. Too many people are making excuses. Too many people are procrastinating, rationalising and justifying why they did or did not do something. Boring!
It does not matter who you are, what your background is or your level of education. It does not matter what religion you practice, who your parents are or where they came from - all of this is irrelevant. There is always an opportunity for you to do something different with your life, to change your paradigm and move into a different place.


WHAT IS THAT SOMETHING THAT YOU ARE GOING TO DO?
Let me know via e-mail.
Please note: All correspondence is handled with discretion and confidentiality.