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.
Change your story, change your life
There is a voice in your head and it is always telling you what you are good and bad at. The voice tends to focus on your weaknesses and you are subsequently thinking hard about how to let people know all about your strengths. And this tends to lead to “me, me” storytelling, where you mistake the question: “How are you?” as an actual enquiry as to how you really are. What they are really asking is, “How am I?” and that is what they want the answer to.
Have some guts and tell a story! Are you fed up of telling a cleaned up version of someone else’s story? Everyone is walking around telling themselves a story based on their pain points and emotions of what is happening around them. Can you write a story in first person about exactly what the client feels? Written in a language that your client speaks and within this story, explain exactly what they can do better. Detailing exactly what your client get out of the interacting with your brand. Contact me via e-mail if you would like to learn how to tell your own story.
Sales is an art and science
My interest in psychology stems from the fact that I’ve always been a lover of people. I have always wanted to know the reason behind certain behaviours and why people do certain things. Sales is about helping your clients and from a psychological perspective you become a real trusted advisor when your clients become comfortable disclosing certain things. From the psychology stand point, it’s allowed me to be more understanding, empathic and better listener. Most people who know me will say that I have a natural air of confidence and I am very easy to talk to.
Selling is an art that requires the ability to form good relationships with others as well as a science that requires the development of successful, repeatable strategies. The Covid-19 pandemic has made it easier to be yourself, challenge the status quo and transform the ways in which you work. Contact me via e-mail if you would like to learn how to move away from your own needs and focus on the customer perspectives?
Tips for a positive life
Work hard
Be positive
Be generous
Stay curious
Trust yourself
Stay teachable
Show gratitude
Be kind
You are the one we are looking for
c/o MTV
Are you a result-driven person with solid experience in marketing and a passion for brand building and luxury brands? Are you curious, positive and willing to run that extra mile to get the job done? If so, send me your CV and I will scan it for key words before I can see whether you are suitable the position.
Simon Sinek said, “Value is not determined by the people who set the price, it is determined by those who choose to pay the price." The same statistic can be presented in very different ways to create very different reactions. And our choices reflect and determine who we are and I think individual awards come as a result of the teams success.
Say thank you
I believe the easiest path to transformation is by embracing everyday life with openness and gratitude. You can start on the path wherever you are. Everyone is in the position to say that this situation is difficult but I am grateful for having a higher self that can find a solution. By simply acknowledging this path, you can transform any experience from darkness to light. Just think of it like having a torch in a dark forest, where the only thing that matters is the next step that you see ahead of you.
How should you live life when you are on this path?
It’s easy to feel grateful when life is going well, yet not everyday is like that! Most days are a mixture of negative and positive situations, emotions and feedback at home and work. I think that we only need two tools on the path: knowledge and experience. Knowledge gives you the vision of the bigger picture that you can trust, and experience validates that the experience is true. When we achieve even more knowledge and experience, complaints are transformed into light and wonder, and gloom changes to joy. This acknowledgement that you are being guided by the light inside of you is the beginning of the journey. I think that to be in the light, you must open yourself to it and this is fundamentally different from constantly struggling against the darkness.
Doing things in a calm and confident way
““The more tranquil a man becomes, the greater is his success, his influence, his power for good. Calmness of mind is one of the beautiful jewels of wisdom.” - James Allen”
SARS-CoV-2 (RNA)
Copenhagen (2200 N)
According to the World Health Organisation
Most common symptoms are:
- fever
- dry cough
- tiredness
Less common symptoms are:
- aches and pains
- sore throat
- diarrhoea
- conjunctivitis
- headache
- loss of taste or smell
- a rash on skin, or discolouration of fingers or toes
Serious symptoms are:
- difficulty breathing or shortness of breath
- chest pain or pressure
- loss of speech or movement
And even though I have none of the above symptoms, this morning I received notification from the Danish Health Authorities that my PCR test from yesterday morning is “positive”.
Therefore, I am in self-isolation until 5th February 2021. Stay safe 😷.
The Last Dance
““Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence wins championships.” - Michael Jordan”
Silos of activity
c/o Getty Images
The majority of you who are reading my blog on a regular basis know that I’m a big football (soccer) fan. There are many parallels between a football team and an organisation. A football team consists of a goalkeeper, defenders, midfielders and attackers. All of them are doing their jobs in different ways but at the end of the game, they all want the same outcome - to outscore their opponents and win the match. You can do things differently, you can have different skills but you are moving in the same direction and this is the way we should want to behave when we are part of a team.
Simon Sinek said, ”Leadership is irrespective of what level we are at.”
You don't have to be in a position of authority to be a good leader and we can show that through our communication. When you just share and tell people something, it's not really powerful. Leaders need to be spending time trying to understand where your people are coming from, what they need and not just feeding them information/data and telling them what to do, as people do not respond very well to that.
It takes strong mental strength for a leader to step back and say what is the best thing that I can do that is going to move the needle forward as a group and build trust. Throughout my career, I have seen many islands of activity! Playing the blame game and pointing the finger at who’s doing it wrong in sales, marketing, production, R&D, etc. What I want to do is enable people, and allow them to support, empathise and learn about each other. Would your organisation like to learn how to communicate as a team and not as individual silos? Contact me via e-mail for coaching, mentoring or workshops.
People have a persuasion resistance
We should always focus on the buyers’ needs and how we can solve them. Guiding the buyers through the decisions and tasks from an authentic perspective will make it more likely to get the deal done. The role of the sales person is to guide the buyer through this process. In the minds of the buyers, sales is not necessary.
Training is not about persuading buyers to buy your products as in general as most people have a persuasion resistance. Nobody want to be sold to! The real role of sales persons is to influence buyers through the buying process. In reality, the buyers are in charge of the selling as they have to sell to internal stakeholders. I think that influence is far more important than persuasion, we only have to tell one story - the customers story. Tell the story of what the future may be like with you in it based on a vision and values.
Outcome vs. Ego
As a father it has always been important to me to emphasise to my children that I don’t care if they win or lose, all I insisted on was that they do their best. This sounds really “woke” but I think that there is a huge distinction between decisions and outcomes. Pause and take a moment to silently think about any decision that you have taken over the past few months.
Q. Did that decision have a good outcome?
A. My guess is yes! As everyone always picks one that has a good outcome, because that’s how we decide that it’s a good outcome.
I believe that if you made a good decision and it didn’t work out, then it’s still a good decision. On the other hand, if you made a bad decision and got lucky, you haven’t learned anything about good decision making. And yet we criticise people based on the outcome as opposed to criticising them based on what’s in their control, and that’s the decision. The practice is about focussing on the decisions because the outcomes are out of our control. The practice is about what’s in our control and not what the outcomes are.
When this happened what are you going to do about it, is completely different than this happened and screaming oh no, over and over again. I think that things that happen, happen, but they are out of our control except for our response towards them.
Food for thought - Do you value truth over objective reality? Are you willing to be effective or would you prefer to be right? I think if you want to be effective you will be open to feedback that teaches you how the world really works. If you need to be right, then you will isolate yourself from that and in your heart of hearts, you know you’ll never be effective.
It's all about discovery
Nowadays, we are living in a moment in history where compromise is a dirty word, and everything seems to be about conflict and blame. The old phase, “my way or the highway” appears more prevalent than ever and I for one would like to get more people to face up to their own hypocrisy. Day after day I am trying to live up to the basic human responses - honesty, empathy, courtesy, patience and goodwill.
I know that the best strategies mean nothing if you don’t have the resources to execute them, fortunately, when it comes to myself - I am more than capable. I am analytical and “even” Stephen because of my balance. Some would say that I am skeptical of convention and pretence, others would say that I am wise, funny and gracious.
What are my priorities today? And, how will I be of service today? These are far more valid daily questions than worrying about what people think of you.
Our perception is our reality
Far too often we look at a group or team of people that are not succeeding and conclude that they are not capable of success. Saying the problems they face are too powerful, too irate and too ingrained to do anything about. We can make a profound difference in how well people turn out if we choose to pay attention to the constraints imposed by poverty, stupidity and attitude.
If our perception is much worse than the reality, why are we trying to change the reality? What we need to do is improve our storytelling and tell people about the reality. Sometimes our perception is faulty and we cannot really tell the difference between the quality and the environmental reasoning. I think that when we change our frame of reference and perceived value, the actual value will be completely transformed.
Trust your training
Amanda Gorman delivered her magical poem, “The Hill We Climb” and it tapped into the collective spirit of hope for a better future, presenting a sense of connection that overrides our differences and replaced them with possibility. We live in a male dominated world and Ms. Gorman showed the world the strength of femininity. It was amazing to see how a 22 year old delivered this nurturing poem - this was her opportunity and she took it. Watch the video as I think this presentation will go down in history as one of those moments .
Kamala Harris
Kamala Harris will be inaugurated as the Vice President of America later today, not only the first woman in history to hold this position but also the first person of colour. I salute you on this momentous achievement and wish you good luck in your endeavours over the next 4 years. Both Kamala Harris and I have our paternal roots in Jamaica ❤️.
Jamaica is known for reggae music (Bob Marley) and sprinting (Ursain Bolt). There is so much status attached to showing talent in sport and music that sometimes the rest of the world forgets about the opportunities we are denied due to the colour of our skin. My parents always told me that Jamaicans are entrepreneurs by nature because from a very early age you learn how to lead, delegate, problem solve and oral communication skills. I could spend the rest of my life explaining why - due to our ancestral heritage - I’ll save that for another day. Congratulations Kamala Harris.
It really matters how we frame things
The circumstances of our lives may matter less to our sense of wellbeing than the sense of control we feel over our lives. It has always baffled me why in western societies we are never given the opportunity to solve problems psychologically. I think that it is because there is an imbalance in the way we treat creative, emotionally driven psychological ideas versus the way we treat rational, numerical, spreadsheet driven ideas.
If you are a creative person, you are forced to share your ideas for approval with people who are far more rational than you. You have to have a budget, cost-benefit analysis, ROI study, etc. This is probably correct and sensible - why does this never apply the other way around? Perhaps, it’s because people who have an existing framework, whether it be economical or engineering, feel as though logic is its own answer. Traditionally, we prioritise mechanistic ideas over psychological ideas.
I think when we solve problems we should look equally at technology, psychology and economics, and if possible, we should base our decisions on the conclusions that sit in the "sweet spot” somewhere in the middle.
Just do as you're told!
Do you want to have compliant people? People who do what they are told, show up on time and get more efficient day by day. Alternatively, do you want people who care, passionate people, connected people who act and behave like they own the place? Do you want people who can look the customer in the eye and make a difference for that customer?
I think the person who works with you, not for you is all that we will have left as anyone can buy a robot. Loyalty is where success lies as no loyal employee will leave as long as you are both singing from the same hymn sheet. I mean if you welcome them, embrace them and nurture them - why would they leave your organisation?
The organisations of the future will not need a lot of people, they will just need people who care. People who are willing to make a difference, people who are willing to stand up and say, “I made this”. People who care only become restless enough to leave if they realise that you are not keeping it real. Unfortunately, these are not the people most organisations want. Most organisations want people who can be downtrodden, compliant and then they don’t have to worry about them leaving.
I think it’s better to have someone so passionate and good that you would miss if they were gone, rather than to have mediocre people who have no better place to go. What do you think?
Whistle to the mouth
Nowadays everyone is harking on about authenticity! What exactly does authenticity mean? I think the only time when we are being our authentic self is when we are wearing nappies (diapers). And ever since then we have been faking it and the big question is why we fake it. This may be because when people see us they will judge us differently based on our appearance.
It’s not because this is our authentic self but it’s because it's the self we choose to put forward. So perhaps we could redefine authentic to mean consistent. And our consistent self is one that if you look at it from the back or look at it from the side - it’s the same. Our consistent self is the way we behave in front of our parents and in front of our customers. I think when we are consistent then we can define that as a version of consistency.
Pick your own truth
I think that there are two ways to create new economical value. You can either find out what people want and work out a clever way of how to deliver it to them. Alternatively, you can work out what you can deliver and find a clever way of how to make people want it. And the economic value created by these two things is just as great either way, even though they may be opposites of the same coin.
Marketing and advertising are two different things, and a simple way to test it - Would they miss you if you were gone? Most advertising does not pass this test! With marketing we communicate to people in ways they want to be communicated to and this is more valuable than “stuff”. A good example would be Amazon, as Amazon’s value is not based on their inventory, there value is based on the millions of people around the world who want to hear from them.
Marketing is fuelled by adrenaline, it’s fuelled by urgency and emergency, in the majority of cases we are not given the time to do it correctly but we have time to repeat it. We usually overcome our fear by creating an emergency and this endless emergency is caused by the fact that we are not patient in working our way to a place of relevance. I think that patiently building an asset is probably the single most overlooked thing that marketeers fail to do. I don’t think this requires a method, you just need to care.