As an astute executives we strive to develop a sound brand stories. A set of facts that describes how the brand differentiates, resonates with customers and inspires employees. We also recognise that to communicate and gain buy-in to those facts, we would have to create a set of intriguing, authentic signature stories, involving narratives with a strategic message. For example, a signature story perhaps about a founder, employee or customer that illustrates and provides credibility to the brand story.
Would you like to create a brand story that gains attention and diverts people from counter-arguing? Regardless of the industry, I think that brands should not compete on price, you should only compete on storytelling. Contact me via e-mail to arrange a confidential meeting when you are ready to create a clear, interesting and believable brand story.
Growth is a process!
There is always room for improvement as you do not just wake up and become a beautiful butterfly (egg > caterpillar > pupa > butterfly). The process is called metamorphosis, a Greek word that means transformation or change in shape.
I think effective communication is when you are really good at delivering the message concisely. We all have a sales process, but in reality, we are not going to dictate to the buyer without creating an incentive for them to bow to our sales process. I always ask myself, “What is the 1% that I want the buyer to walk away with?” Being an effective communicator through stories is an ideal way to differentiate and may lead to the buyer relaying your story to the end-users. This is a skill that I am constantly trying to master - slowing down to speed up.
Sales is a profession and you have to put in the work just like a professional athlete. In sales the outcome is not solely based on the performance, sometimes the performance can be awesome and the outcome mediocre. It’s incredibly valuable to evaluate your sales calls and process. Contact me via e-mail to arrange a meeting or workshop about building your sales process and self reflection tools.
Communication can unite us
We all have something to offer but we don’t always have the ability to release it and if it doesn't get out then it may eat you up on the inside. Nobody can live life and not gather experience, and out of those experiences come conclusions and to share those conclusions is to create growth. I have been told throughout my life that the more you give away the more you will receive, this is also the fundamental value of most religions.
Nowadays we have the ability to go into silos of our choice and interact with people who think like us, dress like us and feel like us. You can get your news delivered to you in your flavour or colour, and there’s nothing wrong with that. I think the only problem is when you think that your news is absolute and because we have 24 hours news cycles, and we also have technology that collects our behavioural data and via algorithms directly associates you with your interests. This in turn starts pushing information to you that further supports whatever you were searching for. And this provides a false reality, a reality where you think the world thinks like you.
“Music is the most powerful form of communication in the world. It brings us all together. Even religion separates us, but a hit record unites us across religious beliefs, race, politics. - Sean Combs ”
As we become more tribalistic, we also become more animalistic! Think about how many things have been created to divide us and how few things that has been created to unite us. I think we have to keep speaking to each other, even if we have different opinions, and stop living behind the walls of the labels we put on ourselves.
The 3 day social media blackout
“A system can never defend the people it was not supposed to protect.”
How can each of you be so certain you are right?
The Blind Men and the Elephant - A poem by John G. Saxe
A group of blind men heard that a strange animal, called an elephant, had been brought to the town, but none of them were aware of its shape and form. Out of curiosity, they said: "We must inspect and know it by touch, of which we are capable". So, they sought it out, and when they found it they groped about it.
The first blind man reached out and touched the side of the huge animal. "An elephant is smooth and solid like a wall!" he declared. "It must be very powerful." The second blind man put his hand on the elephant's limber trunk. "An elephant is like a giant snake," he announced. The third blind man felt the elephant's pointed tusk. "I was right," he decided. "This creature is as sharp and deadly as a spear." The fourth blind man touched one of the elephant's four legs. "What we have here," he said, "is an extremely large cow." The fifth blind man felt the elephant's giant ear. "I believe an elephant is like a huge fan or maybe a magic carpet that can fly over mountains and treetops," he said. The sixth blind man gave a tug on the elephant's coarse tail. "Why, this is nothing more than a piece of old rope. Dangerous, indeed," he scoffed.
There are quite a few lessons learned from the story of the blind men and the elephant. The elephant is a very large animal and each man touched only one part, it’s only when you put the parts together that you will see the truth. The “elephant” represents many different things in life that we can’t see, so if we don’t remember these limitations, we can get into trouble with ourselves and others. The parable is about a range of truths and mistakes. It’s also about the need for communication and the need for respect for different perspectives and shows the effects of observation and bias. I think we should embrace the diversity of the individual as part of the unity of the collective.
Smart kids are not always cool
I was born and raised in London, my parents came from Jamaica and I have been living in Copenhagen since 1997, so I’m always fluctuating between those worlds. I come from the inner city and have seen so much misguided entrepreneurial spirit on the streets. I have met bright, smart hustlers, entrepreneurs who don’t realise their essential product is risk. They have to deal with employees, profit and loss, some of them are extremely sharp and would thrive in the corporate world, but in reality they are not going anywhere because they don’t have the right frame of reference. Inner city kids don’t have access to capital, they have not experienced any world other than their own, they feel isolated and not engaged in the broader community. And from these humble beginnings is why a sub-culture develops.
Anything that is not marketed is not going to be purchased!
You can never become a great communicator if you only understand your own material and not make it relevant to your audience. Connecting is the art of the game. Communication is about connecting with other people and in order to do that you have to listen, learn and understand that your preferences, culture, ideas and concepts are not the only ones on the planet. And if you are going to be effective at meeting more people, you have to be broad enough to at least embrace the notion of how they hear what you are saying. There’s a huge difference between what you intend to communicate and what’s being heard. You have to become bilingual and learn the language of the hearer. Contact me via e-mail for guidance on the survival techniques required to sustain the things you love.
We are living in interesting times
c/o Heineken
The European Super League was a proposed annual club football competition to be contested by twenty European football clubs. It was planned as a breakaway competition to replace the UEFA Champions League. The announcement of the Super League received almost universal opposition from fans, players, managers, politicians, as well as footballs governing bodies (FIFA and UEFA). Much of the criticism against the European Super League focused on elitism and lack of competitiveness and the backlash against the announcement of the league's formation led to all six of the English clubs (Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United and Tottenham) announcing their intention to withdraw within 3 days after being officially announced. Over the last seven days we have witnessed that some of the wealthiest men in the world are totally out of touch with their end users.
The basic rules of communication says that the art of being an effective communicator is predicated in part by your ability to translate your thoughts into the language that your audience understands. I wonder whether the billionaire owners of Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United and Tottenham have the courage to come out of their bubbles and talk to the fans, players and managers. Not showing up as the teachers but to come into the room as humble students. I think that if you want to be a great speaker, you must first learn to become a great listener.
When you lose your ability to hear eventually it will affect your ability to speak, because there is a correlation between what the ear hears and what the mouth articulates. Every great orator is a great listener and I think we have not only lost our ability to speak but also our ability to listen. Nowadays, people are pausing while they formulate their next approach to attack, and that’s not listening. If we actually take the time to listen, most of us all want the same thing - to be loved, to be appreciated, to be accepted as we are and we all want what’s best for our children. Contact me via e-mail to arrange a meeting about your customer experience, communication strategy or if you want to introduce me to the owners of Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United or Tottenham.
A very wise woman
“There’s a power in allowing yourself to be known and heard, in owning your unique story, in using your authentic voice. And there’s a grace in being willing to know and hear others. - Michelle Obama”
Throwback Thursday
“Think twice before you speak, because your words and influence will plant the seed of either success or failure in the mind of another. - Napoleon Hill”
Lock arms with the right people
© McGill Media
After watching the football yesterday evening, I had a long discussion with my friends, Sophia and Oscar about the masculine and feminine roles in society. We concluded that biologically women are nurturers and men are providers, like it or not this is programmed within our DNA. Traditionally, women were seen to be soft and men were perceived to be hard, tough individuals. The big question is why is society communicating to men that they should be more feminine, and at the same time telling women to be more masculine?
Throughout my career I have worked with inter personal communication, whether it be sales, marketing or branding. I love the concept of writing to the voice in your audiences head. Broadly speaking, I learned that relieving pain is what we want and maximising pleasure is what we crave. It’s all material and it makes sense to turn over the worst moments in our lives into great lessons, not only for ourselves, but also for the people we seek to guide along their journey.
The second habit Stephen Covey covers in his wonderful book, “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” is “Begin With the End in Mind.” According to Covey, before you can live a good, meaningful life, you have to know what that looks like. When you know how you want people to talk about us at the end of our life, you can start taking action now to make that scenario a reality later. As I do not chase people anymore, I have learned that I am here and I am happy, and I am not going to run after people to prove that I matter. So, what do I want you to do after reading this, what is my call to action? I think the the end product isn’t as important as the process, contact me in confidentiality via e-mail to arrange a meeting about your processes.
Don't believe everything you read
““That a lie which is half a truth is ever the blackest of lies;
That a lie which is all a lie may be met and fought with outright;
But a lie which is part a truth is a harder matter to fight.” - Lord Tennyson”
It’s not what you say, it’s the way that you say it
It doesn’t matter what you do in this modern world, you have to know how to use words. If you want to inspire your employees, negotiations, interviews or even inviting your friends for dinner, words are the key. Nowadays, face-to-face meetings are no longer normal, therefore, relationship building happens remotely, and this makes our style of speaking is even more important. Especially when selling over the phone, as you don’t have the benefit of body language to help you construct a convincing sales pitch. In reality, when speaking over the phone almost your entire message is communicated via your tone and inflection.
The classic and still widely-accepted rule about effective communication was developed by Professor Albert Mehrabian. He found the percentages relating to relative impact of words, tone of voice, and body language when speaking. Just 7% of meaning is gained from the actual words that are spoken. 38% of meaning is derived from the way the words are spoken and 55% of meaning comes from facial expression. And Robert Alberti , an expert in assertiveness and with over 40 years experience of teaching, consulting, writing about, and researching healthy elements of assertive expression, said ”I’ve learned that it’s really not so much what you say as how you say it.”
I think that if I tell you that “you really look great today,” and say it while making eye contact and smiling and speaking in a friendly tone, you’ll likely take it as a compliment. If I say the same words while rolling my eyes, shaking my head, scowling, and speaking with derisive inflections, you’ll know I’m being sarcastic and critical. Contact me via e-mail for workshops and communication guidance.
The most powerful person in the world is the storyteller
““The storyteller sets the vision, values and agenda of an entire generation that is to come.” - Steve Jobs”
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.
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.
Quote of the day
““We are all born ignorant, but one must work hard to remain stupid.” - Benjamin Franklin”
On a journey
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.
Culture eats bureaucracy for lunch
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.
Stroke of genius
Honest storytelling is compelling and it appeals to our emotions. When I hear a good story I feel myself becoming part of the story. I think that it’s really difficult to tell a good story when you are trying to please everyone. It’s a risk to tell a story that is going to offend some people, it’s not just the facts that you remember, it’s the stories.
Watch the video about Jill Bolte Taylor’s massive stroke, she share an amazing story. Jill is a brain scientist, and watched as her brain functions (motion, speech and self-awareness) shut down one by one and used her experience as a research opportunity.
