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.
Selling is a profession
Last night I stated to a friend that great sales people don’t sound lake sales people. He said, “what do you mean?” I explained: “This is because great sales people have learned that the most effective way to communicate with people is to sound natural.” It’s a fact that if you are not selling then you are not in business. And I think everyone in sales agrees with the fact that people buy from people they know, like and trust.
Usually when we think of a salesperson as a person with commission breath, a person who is out for themselves, who’s pushy and always trying to close us. When we want to buy something or want help, who do we talk to? We talk to people who have some expertise in the area and who we enjoy talking with about that topic. This is something I was really lucky to learn very early in my career. The majority of salespersons learn this in the middle of their careers and then it’s a tough transition to unlearn and re-learn.
If you are able to have natural, organic conversations with people about what they care about and the challenges they are facing, then you have hit the sweet spot of selling. Too many salespersons think that it’s our insights and messaging that’s our gift, but this stuff puts us in the “sales rep zone”. When you are in that zone, then you are a commodity - What is it? How does it work? How is it different? What’s the price? - And if you are being treated like this, then it’s because you sound like a salesperson. Contact me via e-mail to arrange a sales training workshop for your organisation.
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.
In the face of rejection
Illustration by Dawn Kim
Have you ever been told that you are not good enough or that you are not the right fit for our organisation? Whether the rejection we experience is large or small, one thing remains constant - it always hurts, and it usually hurts more than we expect it to. Facing rejection requires courage to stay focused on the bigger picture as most rejections, whether romantic, professional, and even social, are due to “fit” and circumstance.
It’s easy to stop when the world slaps you hard in the face and says, we don’t want you. It’s not what they say about you that limits you the most, its that you may believe it and start saying it to yourself. Steve Jobs said in his famous Stanford University commencement speech, "Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”
I am a person with more than one gift, I am a person with more than one talent and I am a person with more than one pursuit. There is more in you than your job, there’s more in you than what you do and it’s your duty to yourself to discover your potential and explore all of these possibilities. I encourage you to explore yourself, I encourage you to explore your world and articulate this to your audience.
Such is the nature of human experience
When you have that big important WHY, that thing that gives you the reason to wake up with enthusiasm. The reason why you want to succeed, why you want to win. The why that tells your subconscious mind the direction you should take if you want to evolve and grow. I have found out what my responsibility is in this world. It’s my responsibility to take what I’ve been given and turn it into something that is was not when it was originally handed to me.
This process is not hard if you are creative, innovative and persistent. In order to master something use these skills and the results will be miraculous. It requires an investment and commitment, especially nowadays when we are in the digital age where everything is controlled by a button. The best things in life requires process and if you run away from the process you will alienate the promise. What I mean is that in order to get to the promise, you have to go through the process. And in the process of going through all that the person who get the most is the person who has shaped the process.
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”
Are you investing for the future?
It’s easier not to trust people as then no one can disappoint you. The problem is that you end up living a life where you don’t trust anybody and you never end up doing the work you want to do. On top of that our culture has brainwashed us into believing that we need to fit in and we need to work in a factory and we have to buy the most popular items. Boring…
Are you driving large and complex projects independently with many stakeholders involved? Do you have experience from working within a consumer-oriented business, for example, FMCG, retail or branded consumer goods? Contact me via e-mail to arrange a meeting about identifying your strategic challenges and developing solutions to ensure well-planned execution and full implementation.
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”
There's nothing wrong with you
The general consensus for creative people is that discipline stifles creativity, I’m not sure that is the case. I think that in reality discipline allows you to focus on what matters. And when you to focus on what matters, you get more clarity and space in your mind to be creative. You should be seeking to solve the problems of the people you seek to serve. And the only way you can solve the problems of the people you seek to serve is to know what their problems are.
I think that marketing is not the same as advertising, marketing is not about hyping lousy stuff. Marketing is about telling a true story to people who want to hear it. In my experience marketing at its best is when we make things better that are seen and understood by the target audience. I think that if there is a person, cause, organisation or brand that you care about it’s because they do good marketing. Contact me via e-mail for a non-binary meeting about your organisations marketing engagement.
Always try to change things for the better
You can use data, data and more data if you are serving people. Are you aware that every single click you make, everywhere you go is now recorded in a database? And more than that, there is software that allows the marketer to watch while you are shopping, watch you while you rage click on a button. You can get a report that tells you that 28% of the visitors pressed on this button first, we are watching everything. The direct marketer is busy moving tiny little pieces around to try to get a 3% boost, but the intuitive marketer can see how people are interacting and discover what they are seeking. We are stuck in the same circle to see which parts work and which parts don’t.
The purpose of marketing is this generous act of helping people figure out their problems and solving them. The only way to this is to keep doing it and the internet has made it cheaper, faster and easier to do than ever before. The big takeaway is just do it, get the feedback from those people - see how they behave, see how they buy, whether they buy it or whether they don’t. Listen to what they tell you, listen to the questions they ask and the objections they may have, learn from that and do it better the next time and never stop. We don’t have the power to do things to people against their will, contact me via e-mail to arrange a meeting about your organisations use of data.
Intentions mean more than actions
I believe that intentional action sometimes called design thinking saves a lot of time and energy. Part of what we do as a creative is to look at who do we seek to change and what change to we seek to make for them? And then we have to make it for those people.
Design thinking in a nutshell is encapsulated with these three questions:
Who’s it for?
What’s it for?
And how will I know if it’s working?
These questions are essential, and if you don’t ask yourself them then you’ll probably end up stumbling around in the dark looking for solutions.
If you want to learn marketing you do it by doing marketing, by taking action. Reading marketing books and an internship is all well and good, I think you would be better off to figure out how you want to make a change happen and then do it. This is because if you get good at marketing there will be a lot of people who will want you to help them.
Tomorrow can never be the same as yesterday
As a person of colour living in Denmark I really don’t understand why whole idea of racial injustice is not being thoroughly investigated. The locals think it’s not my problem and the culture is very seductive. We will always have these two things competing against each other! The game to keep things same and safe, and my game to make things interesting and better.
Tolerance is not about not having beliefs. It is about how your beliefs lead you to treat people who disagree with you. Sometimes we think that as creative people discipline stifles creativity. I think that discipline allows us to focus on what matters, and when we focus on what matters, we get more clarity and space in our minds to be creative.
Tolerance
““Tolerance is not about not having beliefs. It is about how your beliefs lead you to treat people who disagree with you.” - Burrellism”
Contrast sharpens the desire
My first summer job was in retail, so since my school days whenever I enter a shop, I always ask myself about how retailers are being inclusive in their retail environment. What’s important to the customers? I think the ability to make it really easy for consumers to buy your products regardless of their knowledge. Mixing customer experience with great technology from your customers point of view will allow you to control the relationship.
For the very first time in our existence we have the necessary resources, capability and technology to address every human problem on the planet. I think the only thing that we are missing is consciousness, so in order to improve the customer experience, start with the employee experience. Do you deliver a consistent customer experience, and if so how? Contact me via e-mail if you would like to deliver sustainable, extraordinary growth by creating an inspiring, unique and convenient customer experience.
I lost my wallet
Yesterday, I lost my Commes des Garçons wallet which I bought in Tokyo (2016). The DKK 500 and various coins is of little significance compared to the lucky Viking coin my son gave to me when he was in 1st Grade. It’s the first time that I have lost anything and I am extremely grateful that I live in Denmark. The Danish technology system is excellent and the ease of access made the process of cancelling my credit card and travel card so easy. Ordering a replacement identity card and driving license was no problem. The psychological impact of my loss is greater than the financial burden of the replacement cards.
In today’s world, possessions increasingly reflect who people are or at least how they would like to see themselves. How much we see our possessions as an extension of ourselves may depend in part in how confident we feel about who we are. I will never forget the memories attached to my faithful companion who was with me 24/7 for the best part of 5 years and I still live in hope that my wallet will be found and returned to me by a kind soul. Only time will tell…
Throw away all the self doubt
This morning I was inspired by watching one of the greatest chase scenes of all time, you can see the video of an iguana escaping a posse of poisonous snakes. Remember that sometimes we need our daily reminder to have faith in what we are doing and that the seemingly impossible at times really means 'I'm possible' with a little hard work, passion, and dedication.
Combine feelings with facts
Your gut and your heart are connected to your brain via the vagus nervous system and 95% of serotonin is produced in the gut. Serotonin is the hormone that gives instructions to the body, for example, when to be happy, positive and in a good mood. The gut-brain axis (GBA) consists of bidirectional communication between the central and the enteric nervous system, linking emotional and cognitive centers of the brain with peripheral intestinal functions. There are both good and bad bacteria in the gut because the gut is connected to the brain and 95% of the instructions for movement is produced inside the gut.
When it comes to decision-making, knowledge is power. How do you feel about knowledge that comes from an unconventional source? Gut reactions can convey valuable information about potential choices and in a fraction of the time it takes to consciously analyse your options. I think it’s best to combine feelings with facts. Professor Julian Birkinshaw (London Business School) agrees that successful organisations must be equally comfortable applying gut instinct with careful research. The brain and gut may make an odd couple, contact me via e-mail to arrange a meeting about how to maximise your strengths and shore up your weaknesses.
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.
Bad news doesn't get better with age
Whenever any comes to me with a problem I always have an answer for them, I always look for solutions and if I don’t have them personally, then I will leverage my network. Personal ownership is part of my leadership style as I think that it’s all about the team. Nowadays, I have to constantly remind people that you cannot get all the answers from YouTube.
The subjective side is where you involve individual motivation and culture is just as important as having great systems. You can have the greatest systems in the world but if your culture stinks then you won’t have alignment within your organisation. If the culture of helping and supporting each other is not present within your organisation, then there will not be a level of teamwork required to take on the external challenges. Some level of teamwork and personal responsibility is always required when setting the direction of where of you want your organisations to head. Contact me via e-mail for a meeting to discuss an introspection into your “true worth” principles.