Forget football

How do you tell the right story to the right people?

The best way to learn marketing is to do marketing, and you can do marketing in lots and lots of different ways. This is because you don’t need a budget anymore as marketing is not advertising. This is the decade of change, and we must figure out the narratives that we want to tell to bring connection and possibility to people. It’s a fact that making people feel bad for drinking water out of plastic bottles isn’t going to solve the environmental crisis. I think we must weave things together to make things better, not just to make profit because we can’t shrink ourselves to greatness. Why are people not shouting from the rooftops that solar power is cheaper than coal?

Small steps stick

When trying to make a change in your life, a too big a change is not sustainable. It’s far easier to make small, incremental changes and make them stick. It’s important to reframe change into a positive and stick to it. Try telling yourself that change isn’t a chore, improving isn’t a chore! It’s the stickability over time that makes us different.

 

When we feel good about ourselves, we are going to be happier, more engaged, and willing to make more changes. It’s not about what happens to us, it’s about how we deal with it. When people think about habit loops, they often have a reward at the end of it. It’s really important to think about the suffering, as I think change happens when the pain of staying the same becomes greater than the pain of making a change.

Think differently

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Authentic leaders know they can learn a lot from those that think differently than they do. Leadership is not just about skills and abilities, it’s more about having the right mindset to inspire and empower others. The most successful leaders are really good at keeping people informed and making them feel valued.

““I’m a big believer ability takes you so far and personality takes you that extra yard. When you’re a player it is down to you to go out and perform. You need leaders, people who drive standards in training and on the pitch with the intensity levels.” ”
— Gary Cahill

Don't be afraid to admit it

The term 'affinity bias' is used in neuropsychology to describe an unconscious bias that causes people to gravitate toward others who appear to be like them (including those with similar interests, backgrounds, and appearances). I think the best way we can reduce unconscious bias and achieve a culture of equality is to become aware of them. It’s important to note that biases, conscious or unconscious, are not limited to ethnicity and race. 

One of the greatest values of interacting with people who are different is the mirror it provides on seeing my own identity. Contact me via e-mail if you want your employees and leaders to learn more about discrimination, biases, and stereotyping, through unconscious bias training workshops.

“”Diversity training doesn’t work!” ”
— Dr. Frank Dobbin

Brands are not logos

A brand is nothing to do with your logo or your mission statement. A brand is the perception of the person you are dealing with before the next interaction happens about what they expect will happen. The brand expectation and promise are the things that saves us time. Most mission statements I have read could be swapped from one company to another and you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference – apart from the logos. One of the few mission statements that means something is Patagonia’s. Patagonia says we are going to reduce the number of items we sell, or we are going to stop selling this profitable item because it leaves too much of an environmental footprint. I think these are not mission statements, they are mission actions and if you do enough mission actions the statements get made by itself.

Invictus poem

“Invictus” by William Ernest Henley is one of the best motivational poems of the Victorian era.

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate,
I am the captain of my soul.

This poem contains invaluable advice to those who blame others for their failures. The poem also talks about a person’s battle with mental and physical impediments, and the mindset that makes one surrender while faced with challenges. I think challenges make one stronger but mentally submitting oneself to those impediments extinguishes the inner light that one carries inside the heart from infancy. Through these lines, Henley tried to say that it’s not about how difficult the path is, it’s about one’s attitude to keep persisting without submitting oneself to fate’s recourse.

These basic things

What are you doing to help the people relieve the tension?
I make a conscious effort to smile throughout the day and take the time to appreciate the little things, for example, the architectural detail on buildings. A simple smile, can reduce stress, help heart health, lower blood pressure, and boost your immune system by decreasing cortisol in the body. Smiling, genuine or even forced, prompts the brain to produce endorphins and serotonin which may have a positive effect on your mood. Try it – SMILE. I think that if we make new behaviours fun, we are far more likely to do them in a consistent and repeatable way.

This is not just noise

Operational Excellence has been describes as delivering leading performance across all measures of value by consistently executing the strategy.
Consistent execution requires two components working together:
1. The systems in place to manage the work to be done to execute the strategy
2. The culture that drives how well and consistently the work is done.

What are the basics and fundamentals of excellence in your space?
In my experience, personable people tend to be more successful as I think everything revolves around people, networks, and communities because we all value something. Regardless of what business you are in, everything starts with the people, and yes, I know this may change in the future but I’m a humanist. Everybody uses different tools and means; we all have different mentalities but in the end it all revolves around people, so I’ll continue to focus on the human aspect. Contact me via e-mail when you would like some guidance in helping you connect with your customers on an influential and human level. 

The cost to nature

Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) is an environmental policy approach in which a producer’s responsibility for a product is extended to the post-consumer stage of a product’s life cycle. An EPR policy is characterised by:

1. The shifting of responsibility (physically and/or economically; fully or partially) upstream toward the producer and away from municipalities; and
2. The provision of incentives to producers to consider environmental considerations when designing their products.

While other policy instruments tend to target a single point in the chain, EPR seeks to integrate signals related to the environmental characteristics of products and production processes throughout the product chain. I think that this will be a gamechanger.

We deserve your money

The majority of management is about rational planning of things that are entirely in their control. The obsession with planning, quantification and rationalisation arguments means that we are automatically constrained to doing those things which makes sense in advance. It’s not safe to assume that the incentives and interests of individual employees are necessarily well aligned with the interests of the organisation. I think in reality, what your business depends on are citizens whose behaviour can only be influenced obliquely, they can’t be controlled - in other words you can’t tell your customers what to buy.

Exchanging knowledge

The hardest part of marketing meetings is persuading people to stop trying to prove that they were right all along. Defending the business, they came in with, defending their position and all their previous decisions. I’m sure these people mean well but they are limiting the possible because they are trying to defend what got them here in the first place. Everybody knows that knowledge is power, right? Knowledge is not power, I think it’s our ability to influence people that is power, and once you know, you cannot unknow.

““Any fool can know. The point is to understand.””
— Albert Einstein

Change Management Triangle

What is the Triangle of Change?
The “Triangle of Change” is a framework that is often used to help understand and manage change in organisations or individuals and consists of three interconnected elements:

1. Leadership or Strategy:
This element involves the vision, mission, and direction of the change. It requires effective leadership, planning, and communication to ensure that the change is properly understood and supported by all stakeholders.
2. People or Culture:
This element involves the attitudes, behaviors, and skills of the people who are involved in the change. It requires a focus on engaging and empowering employees, building trust and collaboration, and addressing any resistance or challenges that may arise.
3. Processes or Systems:
This element involves the tools, methods, and procedures that are used to implement the change. It requires a focus on improving efficiency, effectiveness, and quality, while also ensuring that the change is sustainable and scalable over time.

The Triangle of Change is also known as the "Change Management Triangle" or the "McKinsey's Three Horizons of Growth". It recognises that all three elements are interconnected and that any change in one area will have an impact on the others. Therefore, successful change management requires a holistic and integrated approach that takes into account all three elements.

Stories are timeless

Stories have been around for thousands of years, way before humans had anything we had stories and that’s how we continue to see the world. Stories are the basic human technology which are shared through colours, feelings, and emotions. A story is not only a fairy tale. Ultimately stories are also about life and death, joy, suffering and status, and the way to get good at telling stories is by practicing. I think that storytelling connects the past to the present, allowing humans to conceptualise about historical and contemporary events.

With this gift

How can we change the stories we live and work by for the better?
You can’t give away everything to everyone nor can you be everything to everyone, but you can go into a community and be a part of it. When people get more value, they do more , pay more and give more in return. I think that when we figure out what a community values, show up, be present, participate, listen, and become a relevant member.

Allow yourself

I think that being empathetic towards someone doesn't necessarily mean that you agree with them. And intelligence is the ability to change your mind when presented with accurate information that contradicts your beliefs.

““People will forgive you for being wrong, but they will never forgive you for being right - especially if events prove you right while proving them wrong.””
— Burrellism

Marketing for kind

Getty Images ©

I think that there are only two kinds of marketers:
1) Market chasers, and
2) Category creators


Which one are you?
Not all marketing is marketing for good. I belong to a community of marketers and change makers who believe that as most of the world’s problems depend for their resolution on forms of human cooperation, so we have a responsibility to better use marketing to create positive change. We partly do this by stepping out of our day jobs and upcycling our marketing skills in support of inspiring charities and social enterprises. We coach each other into becoming more purposeful and impactful marketers in the digital fireside. And we recognise that the systems that which we are a part of are themselves shaped by stories that we tell each other across society.

Get lucky

Lucky people generate their own good fortune via four basic principles. They are skilled at creating and noticing chance opportunities, make lucky decisions by listening to their intuition, create self-fulfilling prophesies via positive expectations, and adopt a resilient attitude that transforms bad luck into good. Here’s how luck will find you:

1. Work harder than expected
2. Stay teachable
3. Give without expecting a get
4. Read and write more
5. Show up on time
6. Focus on your customers
7. Develop good manners
8. Be humble
9. Be kind and generous
10. Surround yourself with smarter people

““Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.””
— Seneca
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Solid foundations

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We all strive for success in our businesses, this becomes easier when we have a clear and well communicated vision, core values, and strategy that everyone in the organisation understands. Effective execution requires processes and procedures which are centred around the critical drivers of your business’ success. I think that focusing intently on these steps will significantly improve the internal accountability by measuring and being transparent about the key performance indicators that drive success. It’s a good idea to praise those who hold themselves accountable and deliver on their promises as this will accelerate the positive results for your business. 

Mental skills can be trained

Once you realise that you have an emotional brain, a logical brain, and a memory then this will give you a new insight into yourself and clarify why you behave and feel the way you do. Some of the assumptions you are making about other people, perhaps you should start by looking at yourself. Try asking yourself these questions:
·      Why do I feel the way I am feeling?
·      What triggers me and why do I respond the way I do?
·      What does my best self, look like and why can’t I be this way all the time?
·      Why am I feeling like my shadow self today?

Contact me via e-mail for a confidential 1:1 meeting.