““We are very good lawyers for our own mistakes, and very good judges for the mistakes of others.” - Paulo Coelho”
The golden circle
My favourite phase of a consultancy project is the discovery phase, I love it as it's a privilege to really dig into how a company does what it does and how it makes decisions. Sometimes it feels daunting at the beginning with a lot of stuff coming at you but it’s always fascinating. People will always do what is in their own self interest first, and do you know why we can’t see it? It’s because we do it too.
Discovering that big important WHY. The “why” is that thing that gives you the reason to wake up every morning with enthusiasm. It’s the reason why you want to succeed and why you want to win. It’s the “why” that tells your subconscious mind which direction you should take when you want to evolve and grow.
Hiring the right people is probably the most important thing that you can do. Contact me via e-mail when you are ready to look into your golden circle.
Turns on the lights
Consumer behaviour considers the many reasons why people shop for products those reasons could be personal, psychological, situational or even social. Knowing and understanding customer needs is at the centre of every successful business, whether it sells B2C or B2B. You can't persuade anyone that they want or need to buy what you are offering unless you clearly understand what it is your customers really want. As marketers we need to know what makes our consumers take action and why they buy.
I don’t think that your consumers buy from you because they care about you, they buy from you because they care about themselves. Ask yourself if you would drink that brand of coffee if George Clooney wasn’t endorsing it or if you would take that advice if it wasn’t coming from Oprah. It’s for you that you are doing it, and yes it has something to do with the celebrity, but it’s not because of the celebrity. It’s because of your own narrative - how it makes you feel in the eyes of your friends, family and colleagues.
Authentic leaders don’t see helping people as a pain, they see it as their purpose. Don’t be shy, contact me via e-mail.
Sense of personal growth
The Oxford English Dictionary’s definition of purpose - “the reason for which something is done or created or for which something exists”. When we speak about the sense of purpose in work environments, I usually think from a leadership perspective. Therefore, I think our sole purpose as leaders is to bring a fundamental change to how human potential is led and realised. And if we are to truly realise more of the human potential amongst our colleagues and employees, we need to understand the most important thing is to install a great sense of meaning to the work that they are doing for our organisation. I think that this is because a person who has a deep sense of meaning in their work are significantly more productive, effective and innovative. Also, in my experience the person will feel a much higher degree of life quality.
In other words, if you are truly interested in taking your organisation to the next level of performance, you will need to ensure that you have a high degree of meaning in your organisation. Contact me via e-mail for guidance, mentorship or coaching.
Throwback Thursday
Today, everyone knows that plant based fibres have a much smaller ecological footprint than cotton. The Swiss brand, FREITAG made a sustainable, functional clothing range from a durable fabric mix of flax, hemp and modal. The raw materials were sourced in France, the fabric was weaved in Italy and the garments were manufacturing in Poland. “Made in Europe” and completely biodegradable, what’s not to like? This short video from 2014 can be seen here and I think FREITAG’s storytelling is amazing.
Time for change
When you need information that you don’t have, you are usually not aware that you need it. If you only have partial information, you will make the best story possible with the information you have - and your confidence will be determined by the coherence of that story.
Marketing is what we do when we want things to be different, for example, to change the culture or to change the behaviour of our target audience. When you are comparing brands with each other, you may have generated external preferences by association or memory, not only because of what you see in the given moment. What you see in the moment may make you think of the other brand, therefore, you be aware that the influence of context is really powerful and extremely easy to exaggerate.
I think marketing is the work of telling a story that is true to someone specific. And this story will help them to see the world differently and/or take a different action. This is because the only purpose of marketing is to make a change. Nowadays marketing should be a generous act of leading people towards the change you want to make. Contact me via e-mail for specific guidance on:-
a) Who’s it for?
b) What are the changes you seek to make?
Pattern recognition
I grew up in South London and in order to survive, I had to use mental shortcuts to solve problems, evaluate situations and quickly make judgments. The psychologist, B. F. Skinner said, “Man is the sum of his learned experiences.” What I did’t realise until later in life was I was using heuristics. Heuristics are rule-of-thumb strategies to shorten decision-making time and allow people to function without constantly stopping to think about their next course of action. When we use heuristics, we risk ignoring important information and overvaluing less relevant information. Are you aware about your decision-making process?
Anyone working in advertising, branding or marketing should have a working understanding of heuristics because consumers often rely on heuristics when making decisions about purchases. This requires more mental resources and usually leads to more rational choices. Both “limited quantity” and “limited time” advertisements influence consumers’ intentions to purchase, but “limited quantity” messages are more effective, for example, this explains why people get so excited over the “one-day-only” Black Friday sales. Stereotypes are an example of how heuristics can go wrong as these broad generalisations do not always apply, and their continued use can have serious consequences.
I have been victim of stereotyping, both personally and professionally. My positive life philosophy has given me confidence to accept, respect and appreciate the experiences that are unfolding in front of me. l tend to favour an inclusive workplace, usually by virtue of my age and temperament people have always found it comfortable confiding in me. This is because I am generous in my praise and measured in my criticism. Don’t be shy, contact me via e-mail for a calm appraisal and collective guidance.
Can we learn to make better decisions?
I attended a dinner party last Friday and one of the topics of discussion was Daniel Kahneman’s book, “Thinking Fast and Slow”. For us people in marketing, we don’t need a perfect understanding of psychology all we need is a way of thinking about the way people think. One of the things that makes it really useful for us marketeers is that the book gives a very intelligent and perceptive way of doing it.
In general, people are really good at seeing the mistakes that other people make and are not so good at seeing the mistakes they are making. I am not a self-help guru but Kahneman highlights that educated gossip is a very good thing because people anticipate gossip when they make decisions. And I think if people anticipate intelligent gossip they would make better decisions than if they anticipate unintelligent gossip.
I think that during these hard times “Thinking Fast and Slow” is more relevant than ever. Over the last decade, there has never been a greater need to deepen our understanding and create new models of human behaviour. Having a better understanding of people will help us create products and services for what people want and find easy to use. Forgive me if this sounds too idealistic but I’m optimistic and want to make the world a better place for us all. Contact me via e-mail and let me know how this thinking makes you feel.
Follow my leader
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““A person who wants to lead an orchestra must turn their back to the crowd.” - James Crook”
This quote offers a humble perspective of leadership. Leadership is not a popularity contest, I think a a good leader doesn’t do his (or her) job for praise or recognition. The best leaders are the ones who do their job silently and enable their employees. The leaders whom I most respect are humble, honest and dependable. They listen and learn and take in new information, because they care enough to understand the perspectives of others and strong enough to stand alone when the crowd is not with them. What values are looking for in your leader? Contact me via e-mail for a meeting (in confidence).
Patterns of behaviour
Demographics are the statistical data of a population, e.g. age, income, education, ethnicity, gender, employment status, etc. I think that this is old school, and it can be seen as a very useful insight into the culture of the people or a certain population that exists in a certain region. Back in the “pre-internet” days you could buy all this information from a mail order company to create marketing strategy as well as a marketing plan for your business. Psychographics focuses on collecting and analyzing the characteristics of an audience that are slightly more intangible, for example, values, habits, attitudes, interests, emotions, personality, lifestyle, opinions and preferences.
When data collection is being done properly, people are happy to have it done, for example, Netflix, Spotify and YouTube recommendations. This is because it is being done for them, not to them. With Facebook algorithms and Google analytics we can say: “This is for people who like that and this is for people who believe this.” It doesn’t matter about your skin colour or income, it’s all about what is your inner narrative. In every postal area there are people from almost every psycho-graphical perception and what we have to do as a brand marketer is say: “This is for you and it’s not for you.” Contact me via e-mail for an evaluation of your brand marketing strategy.
Don't blame the machine
I was very young when I heard the proverb - a bad workman always blames his tools - for the first time. The meaning of this proverb is our success does not depend on what kind of tools we have but how we use them. In other words, a person may have the best equipment in the world but if he does not know how to use them, he can never complete a job successfully.
I am not a medical professional, but I do think that it’s our beliefs and not our DNA that affects our biology. Throughout my life I have heard “sob stories” from people who believe that they are victims of their heredity. After reading masses of literature on the subject, modern research shows that genes do not control anything. We are the masters of our genetic fate because we can change our beliefs, environment and minds, and these are the things that control our biology.
Genes are only responsible for less than 1% of the diseases on earth, so 99% of illnesses are not because of a physical breakdown. It’s what Bruce Lipton metaphorically calls “driver error”. For many years scientists believed that our genes were controlling us, our genes were the “driver of our lives”. Nowadays we acknowledge that the mind is the real controller, and with good programming for example, how to take care of our health, our biology and the environment in which we live, then we will realise that we are the masters of our genetic fate.
Our thoughts, beliefs and how we interact with the world are affecting our genetic expression - mind and body. Our body responds to the chemistry of our thoughts, this can be easily demonstrated by a simple example: compare the feeling of being in love and the feeling of being scared. The chemicals released into our body when we are in love are completely different to the emotions felt when the brain is in fear mode.
Do you really care?
c/o Getty Images
““No one cares how much you know, until they know how much you care.” - Theodore Roosevelt”
Revenue solves all problems
c/o depositphotos
We have some unwritten laws of behaviour in society, for example, the body language of how to tell whether someone is interested in our culture. This is because people tend not to tell 100% the truth, not because they are lying, it’s just because no one ever gets rewarded for delivering bad news. There are also laws in sales, the problem is no one ever tells you about them. As sales persons we are used to establishing best practices, our own rules or other peoples that fits into what you are selling and the way you sell. There are principles and habits which are simple ways to confine the game we are playing.
When you buy a new board game - one you have never played before - the first thing you do is read the instructions and learn the rules. What are the laws of how to move? Who goes when? Who gets skipped? What are the definition of winning? etc., etc. And in sales these are all critical elements. For some reason in sales, no one really talks about them or shares them because they are no incentives to do so. Most sales persons are lone wolfs and see everybody as a competitor instead of a collaborator.
We learn the traffic rules whilst learning to drive, but in reality, we learn the rules once we have passed our driving test. The speed limits, the rules of when to stop, when to slow down, when to pull over, which lane to drive in, etc., etc. Some of them are written down and others are not. Similarly, in sales the rules and laws also needs to be learned because this is the way the game is played. I think it will save us so much time if we document our sales rules and occasionally review them, as we cannot remember all of them. We have to have a general rule of behaviour, patterns and habits to become successful. Contact me via e-mail for an evaluation of your procedures or sales training opportunities.
Science vs. spirituality
In theory, science is intellectual and practical activity encompassing the systematic study of the structure and behaviour of the physical and natural world through observation and experiment. Spirituality embraces the idea of an ultimate inner path enabling a person to discover the essence of our being. And spirituality is centred on the deepest values and meanings by which people live.
I think that science answers the questions about how the world works, spirituality answers the questions about why the world works. Science is dependent on observations of a phenomena and it the best theory to explain it. Spirituality is dependent on faith and belief systems which are usually not reliable when positioned next to the empirical evidence that scientific data provides. In general science and spirituality are the tools we use to better understand ourselves.
Accelerating the process
This morning I read an article about unlocking human potential. This led me to think about how few organisations understand the value of installing a sense of meaning for their employees, leaders and customers. We all know that sales is the critical interface between supplier and customer, we also know that the role of the sales person is to gain trust and progress guide the customer towards your solution.
I think that if the senior management were to install a deep sense of meaning into the work that they are doing, then the organisation would be significantly more productive, effective and innovative, and more likely to win the customer’s mind. Both employees and leaders would feel a higher degree of engagement and life quality. Would you like to take your organisation to the next level of performance by increasing the sense of purpose and belonging? Contact me via e-mail for workshops, mentorship and coaching.
The power of reframing things
Reframing is a technique used to help create a different way of looking at a situation, person or relationship, by changing its meaning. Reframing requires seeing something in a new way, in a context that allows us to recognize and appreciate positive aspects of our situation. Reframing helps us to use whatever life hands us as opportunities to be taken advantage of, rather than problems to be avoided. I think that reality is not a particularly good guide to human happiness as we often forget:
1) Things are not what they are, they are are what we think they are.
2) Things are what we compare them to.
Another way to understand the concept of reframing is to imagine looking through the frame of a camera lens. The picture seen through the lens can be changed to a view that is closer or further away. By slightly changing what is seen in the camera, the picture is both viewed and experienced differently. Contact me via e-mail for guidance, mentorship or coaching.
Where do I position myself in my own story?
I think that it’s a universal human desire to be heard, to have one’s unique identity recognised and seen as worthy. Therefore, I have always made a point of showing an interest in the history, culture, and people of the the places I have visited. Believe it or not, I really do not like speaking about myself.
Last night I was asked the question, “What do you really do?
I replied, my mission is to inspire organisations by showing them how to simultaneously deliver happiness to their customers, employees and community in a long-term sustainable way. As I think the smartest selling tools add value to existing systems and processes, I do this by using the 4 D’s (discover, define, develop and deliver).
Do you actually stand for something?
I think that all organisations today should have a manifesto which contains a manual for how they connect to their customers in a deep and meaningful way. Not just how to sell their customers more “stuff”. What I have found is that the successful organisations are those who are connecting their customers to each other, for example, Apple and Microsoft. Both Apple and Microsoft have proved beyond reasonable doubt that you can make money from this if you are enriching your customers lives and connecting them to each other.
If you are going to build a tribe then you have to ask yourselves whether to make it easy to join, trivial or exclusive. It’s really not a hard decision, the most important factor is the tribe should not be trivial as nobody wants to join a tribe that is average. People will only join tribes that they identify with and/ or believe in. Building a tribe means creating a following of people respect you, believe in you, support you, know what you are talking about and want you to succeed. Historically, there were only 3 tribes: work, community and the church.
When we join a tribe we are making a statement about ourselves. Are you interested in knowing how to inspire loyalty and a feeling of belonging? Please send me an e-mail when you ready to build or grow your tribe.
Willingness to listen
““Living with integrity means: Not settling for less than what you know you deserve in your relationships. Asking for what you want and need from others. Speaking your truth, even though it might create conflict or tension. Behaving in ways that are in harmony with your personal values. Making choices based on what you believe, and not what others believe.” - Barbara De Angelis”
Finding the North Star
The definition of digital marketing has not fundamentally changed, what has changed is the relevance and the essential role of digital. Especially the relationship between the consumer and brand, and vice versa. Building a bridge between where the companies were to where they are today - in mindset, in understanding of the power of digital and in understanding how the platform is being transformed.
I think the key ingredient is that brands must ensure they keep their core values and positioning intact. The digital transformation story for your brand begins with a real need to understand your digital engagement. We can look at what is digital, from both the platform and a social standpoint. I can guide your brand through the process of moving forward from simply understanding what they need to do, to actually implementing those changes throughout you organisation. Contact me via e-mail (confidentiality is assured).