Everyone has a story

As humans we have been raised to keep a tough appearance, not to share information, be guarded and scrutinise everybody who’s in our life. My education at home revolved around, “the more you know the further you will go” philosophy.
Someone said, “I don’t know how you do it.”
I said, “I wasn’t given a choice.”
I think even if the hero has no choice, it’s still taking courage to be courageous, and we all need role models who model these heroic traits for us.

“If you really think the economy is more important than the environment, try holding your breath while counting your money.”
— Dr. Guy McPherson

Rational vs. emotional decision making

The University of Virginia psychologist, Jonathan Haidt introduced me to a compelling elephant-rider analogy for thinking about behaviour change. Haidt argues that we have two sides: an emotional side (the elephant), and an analytical, rational side (its rider). Haidt's analogy has it that the rider is rational and can therefore see a path ahead while underneath him, the elephant provides the power for the journey. If the elephant chooses to go in another direction, is there anything the rider could do to stop it? From a pure physics standpoint, the answer is obviously “no”. The reality is the rider is not in charge, the elephant is and chooses to go where the rider wants to go. I think the big take away from this is in life, the rider is in the head and the elephant is in the heart. And it’s a useful framework for understanding the duality of human decision making.

There is a price to pay

Competence is a function of experience, knowledge and intelligence. The Peter Principle is the satirical theory that employees are generally promoted to their level of incompetence. The reason incompetent is often rewarded is that it's easier than challenging it. In 1974, the author of the Peter a principle, Dr. Laurence J. Peter, explained how he first got the idea and what can be done about it. See video below

Pursuing purpose

Purpose gives you an overriding reason to do and act in certain ways, then using agile practices to respond to changes in the environment, I think you will be able to align quickly to the direction that you set. The commitment to the framework goals that you are trying to pursue, and the purpose driven approach helps you to do that as well. Agile is very people centred, it’s about giving people autonomy so that they can pursue the initiatives that you are trying to put in place. Agile is the ideal approach to execute change because it tends to make more committed employees and give them more of a reason to want to engage and develop the change programmes you are trying to pursue.

Ask sincerely for help

It’s not just about omni-channel, it’s about customisation, community, and content. Individuals with unique personal goals and achievements brought together to form global communities. I think the best way to build a community is to ask for help and only ask when you are ready to listen. For example, my cousin, Rocky released his book, “From Rock to Riches: Using the WEALTH Formula” this week. The book describes his journey from the Jamaican countryside to financial independence in the UK. With the support from family, friends and acquaintances the book is currently number one on the bestseller list in eight categories on Amazon.

To nest in the gale

c/o Getty Images

Among the writings of Henry David Thoreau, I came across this statement: “Many an object is not seen, though it falls within the range of our visual ray, because it does not come within the range of our intellectual ray.” In other words, there are many things that exist in our world that we don’t see because we are not looking for them or perhaps not even capable of looking for them. So, in the largest sense, the world we see is only the world we look for. If you show two people, the same picture each will see a different scene. Each will extract from what he sees that which he happens to be predisposed to look for. The world presents to us every day that which we seek. Opportunity is only limited by the viewpoint of the inhabitant, joy and excitement can be found un our daily lives when we learn to look at our world as Thoreau looked at his. Surrounded by miracles and limitless opportunity, whereas some people manage to find only boredom and insecurity.

“Many an object is not seen, though it falls within the range of our visual ray, because it does not come within the range of our intellectual ray, i.e., we are not looking for it. So, in the largest sense, we find only the world we look for.”
— Henry David Thoreau

The next level

Via Corporate Visions

There are no shortcuts, how do you skip years of learning in sales?

When you are struggling to deal with a problem or a pain point it can be tempting to try and find a quick fix. The bottom line is that there is no such thing as a quick fix, all you are doing is deferring, putting off the inevitable decision or action that needs to be taken. If you want to get better at sales it makes sense to have a curated step-by-step process, that is a written and proven best practice. You must learn from experienced professionals who really want you to win.

Personally, I hate to waste time! Time is all we have, money is nice, and we can always earn more money, but we can’t earn more time.  I’m really competitive and love to win. I’m extremely passionate about my profession. I think if you really want to become great at sales, you have to have a system in place which consistently provides you with feedback. Contact me via e-mail for a meeting if you want guidance to find an edge in order to get to the next level.

 

A full understanding

Today is my father’s 85th birthday and to mark the occasion I would like to recognise some of his good qualities:
Appreciate the people who tell you the truth.
Appreciate the people who expand your mind.
Appreciate the people who forgive you first.
Appreciate the people who open doors for you.
Appreciate the people who make you laugh.
Appreciate the people who inspire you to grow.

Sounds obvious

I think clarity comes from engagement not thought, as we learn best by action not through theory. I have observed many great marketeers throughout my career and the advise would give to anyone aspiring a career in marketing would be to study consumer psychology and focus on the following:

• Cognitive biases
• Objections
• Struggles
• Emotions
• Behavior
• Triggers
• Beliefs
• Desires

Fighting for attention

Digital marketing is an excellent way to reach a large audience. Influencer marketing is a type of social media marketing that involves endorsements and product placement. An influencer is someone who has a large following on social media and can influence what people buy or where they go. When a brand partners with an influencer, they usually receive payment, free products, or services from the brand in return for posting favourably about their experiences. Linking up with influencers that align with your brand is a relatively simple way of boosting your social media marketing strategy. And this is a wonderful way to gain exposure on platforms you may not have a huge following on.

The old adage

What makes your brand stand out from the crowd?

To stand out from the crowd, you need to know what your audience expects and wants. Being relevant means being personal, joining your audience's conversations, meeting them where they spend time, and talking to them through people that they trust. I think people are attracted and loyal to brands because they form emotional connections to their products or services. I have seen far too many brands spending money trying to get people to like them instead of getting people to want them. It’s important to market your brand with hardcore discipline and core values to people who are committed to your mission and vision. Hire new people who are not like you but complement you. Hire people who have high self-discipline and are passionate about leaving their mark in the world. Keep the people around you who want to help you succeed and have the ability to guide you through difficult transitions with sound experience.

Being in motion

Cultural consistency stresses adherence to a code for the business and cultural fit emphasises an aspect of the culture that will attract employees and partners who are similarly inclined. Cultural diversity focuses on promoting inclusiveness and celebrating employees and partners for their differences as much as their similarities. I specialise in going into companies and seeing the existing culture, then fine tuning it to ensure that everyone is singing from the same hymn sheet. Every business has to find their own protocol as the company structure and culture will determine what feedback loop approach works best. And I think the way a company designs their feedback loops will make a difference as to whether the responses actually get incorporated into actionable actions. Contact me via e-mail if you would like some help with this process.

Words have consequences

When you are a young company, your story will define your valuation and as a founder the words you use to describe your business can be the difference between finding an investment partner or not. With mature companies, it’s your numbers that will drive your valuation as the older a company the more the numbers drive the valuation. Start-up companies need “Steve the visionary” as CEO. As they become a young growth company they will need, “Bob the builder” because they have to start building a business. When they become a mature company, they will need “Don the defender” as CEO and when they are in decline, they will need “Larry the liquidator”.

The keys to the world

Some businesses have low barriers to entry and are easy to enter and scale-up in where it doesn’t require infrastructure investment or decades of building up. Other businesses take much longer to build up, where going from start-up to maturity takes decades. When I have my business consultant hat on, I go into companies and explore their existing culture. My speciality is looking into work-flow systems and processes to see whether companies are optimising their economic potential. In my experience, it doesn’t matter what top line metric an organisation uses; the crucial fact is that they have a system they follow consistency. Contact me via e-mail if you would like some strategic guidance. Please note that there’s no specific thing that I can tell you that will make your customers or employees trust you.

Marketing 101

Marketing campaigns are sets of strategic activities that promote a business’s goal or objective. A marketing campaign could be used to promote a product, a service, or the brand as a whole. To achieve the most effective results, campaigns are carefully planned and the activities are varied. And I think marketing campaigns are most effective when they are the offspring of a corporate purpose rather than originating from one. Remember when you take responsibility for your beliefs and judgments this will give you the power to change them.
Now ask yourself the following questions:

1.          Why your company?
2.          Why your product (or service)?
3.          Why should they choose you?

“One important key to success is self-confidence. An important key to self-confidence is preparation”
— Arthur Ashe

Vision drives everything

Whenever you are the first one out of the gate, you will have to break through that metaphorical plate of glass. I mean you will have to go through deep scrutiny and answer questions, for example, “What does this mean? Why did you say (or write) that? Are you insulting us? etc., etc.” Selling a service is vastly different than selling products, and the main difference is that a product business sells physical, tangible objects, whereas a service business provides value through intangible skills, expertise and time. Image and message are sometimes more important than execution. Even though I think that if you can show your products in a picture, illustration or in real life, it will help your presentation. Vision drives everything and without one, you will get lost.

It matters

All first impressions are non verbal, for example, when you walk down the road, your subconscious mind will automatically begin to categorise the people you see in your preconceived frameworks. I think that first impressions are when we become a blip on other people's radar not when we open our mouth. It's an immutable law in business that words are words, explanations are explanations, promises are promises but only performance is reality.

“Before you talk, listen.
Before you react, think.
Before you spend, earn.
Before you criticize, wait.
Before you pray, forgive.
Before you quit, try.”
— Ernest Hemingway

The first law

The first law of thermodynamics is that energy is neither created or destroyed, merely transformed. This means that humans are bundles of energy and transform at death, we don’t just disappear. I think with the smallest investment in the right places, you can radically transform the quality of your life. Contact me via e-mail if you don’t understand and we can have a meeting.

“There may be people that have more talent than you, but there’s no excuse for anyone to work harder than you do.”
— Derek Jeter

Don't hold back

Most people crave simplicity, and beyond simplicity is complexity. I’m interested in the simplicity on the other side of complexity. There’s an inextricable link between leadership and communication because those who lead are those who clearly speak about what they believe. I think communication is the most important skill in the world, and simple communication skills should be taught in schools. Communication is both words and emotions but what’s really powerful, are words loaded with emotion. Words filled with emotion can move nations, they can help people change directions and establish good or bad ideology. The stronger and wiser you become, the more caring you become shows up in your language and manner of communication. Would you like some help with that? Contact me via e-mail and we can arrange a meeting in person or online.