Welcome back to another tl;dr of "Joseph Jaffe is Not Famous", with your host, the not famous Joseph Jaffe! In the show, we talk to some pretty interesting and sometimes famous people about how they tackle their day-to-day, why they do what they do, and hopefully teach us a thing or two about leading life with a little more spring in our step. 

In this very special episode, I talked to Gilly the Sunshine Wizard aka Gilderoy Dauterive, our very own sunshine giver and part of my own daily video-watching routine. His Instagram and TikTok channels focus on different aspects of positivity, acceptance, and everyday magic that help you find a better perspective on your day-to-day lives. Throughout our discussion, we touched on what it’s like to be a creator focused on "non-conventional" content while also exploring how Gilly the Sunshine Wizard earned his robes.

Wisha Wisha! I love you!

Who is Gilly the Sunshine Wizard

Gilly the Sunshine Wizard, aka Gilderoy Dauterive, is a content creator focused on different short videos on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok that showcase the different kinds of magic we experience every day and how we can generate our own magic through the power of positivity, acceptance, and personal sunshine.

Apart from video creation, Gilly is also a published poet, writer, and beauty pageant winner. It's through these different experiences that Gilly is able to bring smiles around the world (covering 6/7 continents to date!).

 

Key Episode Topics

Trusting the Value of Everyday Magic

A lot of our experiences happen for us, not to us. Gilly themselves saw this happen in real-time when they were inspired by a sign they saw that said: "You Are Loved". Sometimes something as simple as a poster board can be incredibly moving in sharing a simple but profound idea about life. 

Gilly then realized that they can use social media as their very own "poster board." Each of their videos focuses on easy everyday steps delivered in a short format for a quick reminder of your daily routine. 

As Gilly mentions, "you can get a poster board, write 'You are Loved' and I guarantee you you will make at least one person smile." 

 

Embracing Your Own True Self

Very early on in Gilly's life, they knew that they could be a wizard. Growing up as a "fat kid", Gilly felt that there was a lack of representation in the media for people like them. "You get to either be the funny best friend or the cartoonishly gay villain", Gilly reflects, "or you can be the Wizard". It was this insight that allowed Gilly to begin their transformation into the Sunshine Wizard persona.

It's the acceptance of the non-conventional and stepping out of the identities being imposed on you that you can truly begin embracing your true self and finding that sunshine that drives you forward. 

 

Living The Story of Your Own Life

There are a lot of different philosophies today that dictate how you should think, act, and feel. But Gilly finds a different route espoused by Jean-Paul Sartre (expressed in Gilly’s trademark Wizard-y ways): "In this world nothing matters, you can do what you want, [so] if you have the opportunity to help people you should."

Instead of viewing this as a downer way of thinking, Gilly discussed the potential of such a perspective to "turn the mundane and the mediocre into something magical." A strong motivator for Gilly is their belief in the power of conversation and open positive dialogue. "Every life has a story," they continue, "and we can shape the world one conversation at a time." 

 

Being a Creator Today

Today's social media landscape is full of eye-catching content and other media that are meant to grab our attention. But Gilly's short videos focus not on clickbait news headlines but rather messages of joy and positivity that radiates with their many followers (over 100,000 now on Instagram alone). 

Their viral video (originally listed under "Mutton Choppa Poppa"), "You'll be the Sunshine", was actually inspired by a conversation they had with a close friend who was feeling down. It's these everyday interactions that make Gilly's content so relatable as it speaks towards simple yet powerful daily reminders about the sunshine sources in your life. 

This also goes to show that authenticity still plays a big role in creator content success. Much of Gilly's work is focused on their own personal anecdotes and perspectives, which resonate with like minded viewers looking for that type of content. Without a truly authentic brand image (that stands out the way Gilly's does), you’ll likely have difficulty finding that audience that's right for you. 

 

Much has been discussed beyond the key takeaways above, including ideas Gilly shared on accepting the different emotional states you might find yourself in (affectionately described as "mads, rads, and sads"), non-neurotypical thinking, and self-identity in today's world.

Catch the rest of the Gilly the Sunshine Wizard episode here and keep an eye out for other possibly famous people in the next edition of Joseph Jaffe is Not Famous!

You can subscribe here.

This soliloquy (transcribed from an off the cuff and conversational delivery) preceded my guest, Michael Brenner on Joseph Jaffe is not Famous on November 9th, 2022. You can watch it here. Please subscribe to the show here.

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I don't normally choose a soliloquy that is literally verbatim the show title or a book from my guest, but how could I not with this? After all, I wrote a book called built to suck.   

Why do mean people succeed or finish first? There are so many mean people. And first of all, meanness is a choice. So is being good. Everything is a choice.

In this world. You can choose to be kind, and you can choose to be cruel. You can choose to be generous, you can choose to have empathy for someone else, and you can choose to be selfish, egotistical and arrogant - it is a choice. It is an absolute choice.

Now, I will tell you, that when we see people acting in a "not nice way," it's typically because something is going on in their lives. I think we should always give people the benefit of the doubt, that is to recognize that when they're having a bad day, they might be a little impatient; a little mean; even a little cruel, but is that an excuse? Is that acceptable?

If meanness is a choice - and kindness is a choice - then even when we're having a bad day, we have the choice whether we want to rise above it or not.

Over the last two and a half years, we've seen people act in incredibly kind and empathetic ways. And we've seen people just batten down the hatches and retreat, and demonstrate that meanness.

But like I just said, it's a choice.

Make that choice when you come to a fork in the road. Take it.

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Excerpt from our interview: "The point of the great resignation was kind of like I've had enough; I don't need to put up with this BS anymore. And that's my advice to folks that work in mean situations. I tell a number of stories in the book (Mean People Suck) about folks that have achieved success, despite working for assholes in many instances, by gaining the support of the folks around them (and I think you've talked about this in your book, Built to Suck, as well.) I talked about the three C's: customers, colleagues and the company - I call it the bull's eye organization: a bull's eye organization is one where everyone is focused on meeting customer needs, and so the impact of a mean boss becomes significantly reduced when the focus is on driving customer experience."

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Michael Brenner is the former VP of Digital Marketing at SAP, he's been a CMO of multiple high-growth startups, is a top Content Marketing influencer, and now runs a fast-growing content marketing agency, Marketing Insider Group. He is also the author of The Content Formula, and Mean People Suck. When he's not running after his 4 kids, Michael enjoys sharing his experiences and client stories to inspire leaders like you to create growth and impact.

Todd Kaplan, PepsiCo's CMO, recently joined Joseph Jaffe on his business talk show, Joseph Jaffe is Not Famous, for an in-depth marketing conversation concerning community, brand building, and so much more!

This incredible interview highlights why we need to avoid cutting marketing budgets while focusing on optimism, courage, hope, positivity, and what Joseph calls "community capitalism."

Here are a few noteworthy takeaways and you'll be sure to want to watch the entire episode and while you're at it, subscribe to the show.

Top 10 Key Takeaways

1.    Marketing is Not About the CMO 

As Todd Kaplan states straight out of the gate, marketing is about community and brand vision. While the CMO provides thought leadership and helps drive the agenda, successful marketing comes down to teaching, passion, and pride within the industry, moving forward in a way that will resonate and live up to its potential.

2.    The Idea of Intrapreneurship

Many great ideas and ways to connect with consumers may be right in front of you..inside your own company. Joseph talks about how innovation powers marketing in culture-forward companies. They discuss how treating every advertising role as a startup can help find new ways to bring a product to life and spark creativity within branding.

3.    Embracing the Challenger Mindset

The challenger mindset encourages marketing and advertising agencies to look closely at who the competition is and what you're competing with, enabling brands to think about how consumers are spending their time. Becoming a lifestyle brand and engaging with modern consumers puts you in competition with almost anything that asks for their time. Todd offers some great marketing points, including a Metaverse take on marketing.

4.    The Future of Brands is Community

Recognizing where the future of marketing lies is essential, and understanding the community's role is just as crucial. In this segment, Joseph inquires Todd about whether community is the future of marketing or branding, and Todd responds by stating the future lies with community building. Community plays a considerable role in brand building and focusing on consumers' emotions.

5.    The Tattoo Test

In an intriguing take, Todd Kaplan brings up "The Tattoo Test," which can stand as a marketing test for consumer loyalty and the role a brand plays in their lives. Brands don't only serve as product and service providers but often play a more profound role in consumer lives. Todd names sports as an outstanding example of The Tattoo Test, stating that fans can celebrate or commiserate together, all in the name of a "team," which, at its core, is a brand.

6.    Brand Ownership

In this fascinating segment, Joseph asks Todd who owns the brand: the company, or the consumer? Todd states that the brand owns the ideas, the products, and creative executions. However, deepening the partnership with consumers is essential, and he uses Harley Davidson as an example to show how consumers can take ownership through brand engagement and support.

7.    Courage and Bravery in Marketing

Philosopher Tom Morris comes into the conversation to discuss courage in marketing, stating that "good marketers need confidence, great marketers need courage." What's the difference? Confidence is the expectation of good results, while courage is a commitment to what's needed rather than to what's safe. This entire segment offers invaluable marketing advice from a philosophical point of view, including the emotions marketing evokes in consumers.

8.    The Key to the Consumer

Is courage, or getting off the ride and building your own ride, the key to reaching the consumer in marketing? Sort of. Todd Kaplan broadens this idea by encouraging marketers to realize that they, and the innovation and creative thinking they employ, are the key to the consumer.

9.    "No" is a Request for More Information 

This statement is a beautiful takeaway from this conversation. It's challenging to get every marketing element right the first time. As marketers run into barriers, it's crucial to take the word "no" as a request for more information from a marketing perspective. A "no" from a corporate brand should inspire one to look at it from another perspective, and as Joseph states, "no" could mean "not yet" or "not now."

10. Learning by Doing

Joseph shared a quote: "The point of human evolution is adapting to circumstance. Not letting go of the old, but adapting it, is necessary." - Sonali Bendre

Todd expands on this, as being a marketer means learning by doing, moving through ideas and creative concepts with agility and flexibility. Risks are relative.

 

The Final Word

"What's wrong with marketing?" Joseph posits in his Seated Soliloquy.

 Spoiler alert: The answer is nothing. Nothing is wrong with marketing. There could be an issue with marketers or business in general, but marketing is as it has always been.

 

We've gone over the takeaways, but we've barely scratched the surface of what the entire interview has to offer. Watch it today, and subscribe for more life-coach-esque, daily talk show content.

 

Todd Kaplan is Pepsi's Chief Marketing Officer, overseeing marketing for the Pepsi brand in North America, where he is responsible for all creative communications, brand strategy, product innovation, and commercial execution across the entire Pepsi trademark. Since Fall 2018, Kaplan brings an unapologetic, culture-forward perspective that has been foundational to re-energizing the brand bringing it back into the cultural zeitgeist - from reinvigorating the Pepsi Super Bowl Halftime Show platform with historic performances from JLo & Shakira, Dr Dre, Snoop, Eminem, The Weeknd and many more, to developing disruptive new products like Nitro Pepsi, to putting out some of the boldest and most talked about brand creative the Pepsi brand has ever seen. Todd has established Pepsi as an industry leader of modern marketing, developing new content models - including multiple television shows, long form films -  trailblazed into Web 3 with one of the first brand NFT projects, and more. 

This soliloquy (transcribed from an off the cuff delivery and thus, informal and conversational) preceded my guest, Louis L. Reed on Joseph Jaffe is not Famous on October 31st, 2022. You can watch it here. Please subscribe to the show here.

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I can't imagine what it must be to have your freedom taken away from you. And thank goodness now for the first time that feels in forever, whether it's due to DNA research, but also to activism, and to brave courageous people that stand up for those that have had their rights, robbed or stripped or taken away from them, there is hope.

The ability to have a second chance - a second chance in life - a second chance to right the wrongs and correct mistakes…and who hasn't made a mistake?

We all make mistakes. We are all flawed. We are all imperfect. Sometimes we make mistakes based on youth, based on impetuosity, based on desperation, but it really kind of sucks when there are different standards - a different bar; a different ability to treat and address one person based on the color of their skin relative to someone else. Take the Jeffrey Dahmer Netflix docudrama and realizing what really was in play at the time, and how he might not have gotten away with what he got away with had his victims all been of a different color. Had there been just an element of and I'm just going to call it what it is. decency, and, justice.

And I have to say at the end of the day, if you believe in justice, and if you fight for justice, then truly, it should be justice for all. If justice is blind, maybe it's time that we open up our eyes, open up our ears, open up our hearts, open up our soul, and advocate not just on behalf of everyone, but specifically for the people that have been disadvantaged.

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Louis delivered an incredible insight into what it must be like growing up with essentially the odds stacked against you…destined to fail. A black and brown male who grows up with an incarcerated father is almost guaranteed to follow suit.

 "…there are people who actually made poor choices. I made a poor choice and I wasn't wrongly imprisoned. The fact of the matter is that I arguably deserve to have been in prison, especially the way that I impacted the lives of people through criminal enterprise. And So I think that how do we get to a place the larger question is, how do we get to a place where we are dispensing justice, inequity, but we're also focused on rehabilitation, we're also focused on fair chance, oftentimes, you hear the term second chance, a lot of people never even got a first chance. You think about me at the age of five years old? What chance did I get, you know, having, in effect been exposed to the school to prison pipeline? This is not an excuse. This is just an understanding. And so how do we give people who have been impacted who are incarcerated? How do we how do we how do we create opportunities for the children of those parents who are incarcerated? And so oftentimes, we focus on an individual who's who's physically incarcerated, but what about the child that's emotionally incarcerated? What about what about that? What about the parents who are supporting their loved one who's incarcerated, and so we have to look at this from a global perspective, and not necessarily just an individual perspective."

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Louis L. Reed is an acclaimed author, social and criminal justice activist, and the former senior director of membership and partnerships for Jay Z's reform Alliance. He served 14 years in federal prison and five years on supervision. Lewis is a licensed and board-certified addiction practitioner. His professional experience includes working as the Director of National organizing and partnerships for dream.org, formerly known as #cut50. There, he led an advocacy for the passage of the historic first step act through the empathy network where he grew the nation's largest bipartisan grassroots advocacy coalition of justice impacted people

You've heard the mantras. You've seen inspired moments from athletes, entrepreneurs, and stories of personal triumph.

This conversation between CEO, author, and coach Ray Higdon and host Joseph Jaffe hits on points that take you way beyond quick-fix motivation.

The must-see episode of the Joseph Jaffe Is Not Famous Show, challenges core beliefs that you didn't even know you have, and teaches you how to actually shift your view of the world.

These takeaways are life lessons that everyone should take to heart - or rather, mind.

1.   You're playing the victim, you just don't know it

It's easier to swallow the idea that you could if only *blank* were different. In fact, this familiar mindset tends to become the default over time - a crutch; an excuse.

"The only way [you] fail, is if we get out of our own way," Jaffe says. "That scarcity mindset, that victim mindset - we know that needs to be replaced with an abundance mindset."

2.   90% of our thoughts are the same as yesterday's

"You're in this rut of feeling and thinking the same thing everyday, but you're not aware of it," says Higdon.

The question, then, is how you get out of thinking the same thoughts everyday and cultivate an awareness around those thoughts.

"Allowing 100-percent reliance on your senses to define your reality is just not the smartest way," adds Higdon.

The key, he notes, is to take inventory of your life and see where you are in relation to your goals and expectations.

3.   See things the way you wish they were before they are

What does it mean to rely on your senses? It means building a strong mindset that's independent of your external environment.

One example Higdon looks to as inspiration is from the life of philosopher and author Victor Frankl. Frankl - who was a prisoner at a Nazi concentration camp during the Holocaust - has a famous quote of how he views his life experiences:

"Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms - to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way."

4.   Manifestation works, it just takes work

Manifestation is not the casual request for money and happiness that it's often portrayed as in pop culture. It's a mindset practice and tool that can be applied towards many areas of life.

Higdon has proven this in business time and time again, though he reinforced it in himself when taking ballroom dance classes with his wife - which he was terrible at.

"I started on a nightly basis just taking two minutes, a minute and just kind of seeing myself as a good dancer. What would that look like? How would I feel? What would people say to me?"

Six months later he and his wife won a ballroom dance competition. No added practice or coaching. Simply a shift in mindset.

Manifestation, in this way, is really cultivating the belief that you can be a certain person; that you can achieve a goal.

5.   Be defiant.

"We're focused on those one or two points of imperfections to get to that point of perfection...as opposed to being able to really push on our strengths," Jaffe points out.

Focusing on those imperfections instead of driving forward strengths often inhibits people to be "great."

Higdon puts forward the concept of being defiant as a tool - or rule - for people to follow as they go through life.

"What is something I don't want to do, but I know it would help grow me" That way of thinking has helped me grow in a lot of areas," says Higdon.

"The person afraid of falling off a mountain just won’t ever climb it."

6.   Money and happiness are two different equations

As the saying goes: "money doesn't buy happiness."

For Higdon, "it's not an either or scenario. They're just not equal."

"You can have a lot of money and be happy. You can not have a lot of money and be happy."

Of course, having money has its benefits. The key though, is not attaching self-fulfillment to making money. Higdon notes that when you do that, you put yourself into a cycle of basing your happiness on making more money or achieving the next goal.

"Why are we linking them?" asks Jaffe. "They're causality not correlation."

"Don't conflate or confuse the two. Focus on them and realize that one is not necessarily an influencer or a variable that affects the other."

Final Word

Of course, all of the above only comes to life from a person's willingness to act and be persistent. As Jaffe emphasized in his Seated Soliloquy: "The only way we fail is if we get in our own way."

Success comes down to the people, he says, and whether or not they can get out of their own way.

One way to do so is to keep learning and being inspired, so be sure to subscribe to Jaffe's channel to for more empowering, thought-provoking content.

I'm not going to sugar coat this at all. We have to be strong and vigilant now, more than ever before.

Our livelihoods are at stake. 

We are looking at the very real possibility of companies being wiped out...hell, even entire industries facing irreversible and insurmountable declines.

Now is not the time to throw in the towel and so in that spirit, I'd like to share with you 10 strategies or ideas that you might want to think about deploying.

1. Add value part 1 - (and to hell with cynics) - Microsoft Teams has been offered to businesses free for 6 months during the corona virus outbreak. With people shifting to working from home, this becomes the ultimate "try before you buy" sampling effort. Does it matter what Microsoft's intent is? Absolutely not. It's helping.

2. Add value part 2 - Pornhub is offering free access to Italians during their quarantine period. This might sound trivial or even inappropriate, but again...who cares? We all want a happy ending, don't we? Opportunism with a bit of personality goes a long way. Apologies to all the puns.

3. Customer obsession is still mission critical - This is not your customers' problem. Do not penalize them. Airlines are not doing enough to help out their customers. Waiving change fees because the flights are still operating doesn't cut it. If I'm canceling my daughter's flight back to college because there is no more college or my flight to Austin because SxSW is canceled, I should get a full refund versus a credit towards future travel with an expiration date! Seriously! I spoke with American and they said they were in line with the policies of the other airlines. I challenged them to LEAD; not FOLLOW.

Hilton on the other hand has been tremendous by applying full refunds to bookings, regardless of when they were purchased AND regardless if they are non-refundable.

4. Loyalty is more important, now, more than ever - You're going to need your customers big time when things normalize. Why not consider a proactive e-mail that tells your most frequent customers you have their backs and will protect their elite status or at least adjust it accordingly? 

Marriott has done a great job of doing this (in an e-mail to Bonvoy members:

We are focused on how the coronavirus is impacting our Marriott Bonvoy Members and have made some important updates to our loyalty program to provide greater flexibility when planning future travel. Specifically, we have paused points expiration until August 31, 2020 allowing Members ample time to redeem their points. In addition, we have extended the expiration of suite night awards (SNAs) with an expiration date of December 31, 2020 by one year to December 31, 2021. Lastly, Members who currently have an active Free Night Award (FNA) expiring in 2020 as part of their credit card benefit, annual choice benefit, promotions or travel package will be able to use it through January 31, 2021. We understand that earning status for 2021 may also be on your mind. As the current situation is still evolving, it is too early for us to make any changes. We will keep you updated on all loyalty program changes through our Marriott Bonvoy member benefits website.

5. Don't forget about your employees - PLEASE. I just flew back on American Airlines and spent a fair amount of time talking to some very nervous flight attendants. They have every right to be nervous. When the airlines are all grounded and they will be, the go to corporate move is to retrench employees. Don't give in to this urge. Protect them. To hell with profits. Protect your people. Wall Street will have to forgive you. And if they don't, we won't forgive them. Starting from scratch is a lot easier than digging oneself out of a bottomless hole...and in order to pick up the pieces, we'll need people. 

6. Employees must compromise as well - Whole Foods has come up with a recommendation where workers share personal time off (PTO) with those who are sick. Donating time off balances things out and ultimately spreads the burden between the whole company. In doing so, it prevents the worst case scenario...layoffs (see point 5.)

7. Be vulnerable and be honest - Companies shouldn't fear being transparent about costs challenges or asking employees or even customers to chip in, chime in or cut them some slack. Is it far-fetched for companies to focus on zero profits for the remainder of 2020? Breaking even seems like a win to me. Collaboration versus competition is another way that enemies can temporarily become friends. A ceasefire so to speak!  

8. No room for fat cats - this is where the C-Suite and Board have to lead by example and check their greed at the door. Companies that take bold moves to forego executive bonuses (in part or in full) in favor of keeping employees employed and/or taking care of local communities will be rewarded by grateful customers and employees. I'm pretty sure if the 1% did not take home a salary - or at a minimum, a bonus - this year, they'd be just fine... 

I cannot emphasize this point enough. Take a page out of celebrities playbook right now and step up - personally and professionally. Steph Curry and his wife, Ayesha, are making a donation to the Alameda County Community Food Bank, and said they want to provide more than one million meals while the schools are closed.

9. Remember the recession - companies that continue to advertise during recessionary times, reap the reward for doing so. Naturally the messaging and tonality have to adapt to and respect the current conditions, but there is something to be said for keeping the homefires burning.

OR....here's a stretch idea: what if corporations donate their air time to PSA's and media companies donate their media dollars to charitable efforts? 

10.  Humor works well...until it doesn't. If you're a corporation, stay clear. As an individual, you probably want to exercise extreme judgement in a public forum. Weird Al Yankovic chose not to do a cover of My Sharona. Sooner rather than later, it's not going to be funny, but in the interim, we kind of rely on our late night hosts to find the lighter side of this crisis and take our minds off the heavy stuff. I don't think it's a good idea to stop production of our late night talk show hosts. We need them more than ever. 

To summarize: we're all in this together. Employees. Customers. Communities. Yes, even (some) governments. Compromise and collaboration are going to be key in order to get through this crisis. 

I urge corporations out there to think about taking longer term proactive (versus short term reactive) steps in order to take actions TODAY that ensure a viable, healthy and profitable TOMORROW.

I am available to talk you through this. To brainstorm. To strategize. I offer this to you at NO COST. With NO STRINGS ATTACHED. 

Good luck all! 

Have you ever heard of the VUCA acronym? With gratitude to Wikipedia:

VUCA is an acronym – first used in 1987, drawing on the leadership theories of Warren Bennis and Burt Nanus – to describe or to reflect on the volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity of general conditions and situations. It has subsequently taken root in emerging ideas in strategic leadership that apply in a wide range of organizations, from for-profit corporations to education. 

Well, we’re certainly living through a steaming pile of VUCA right now, with worldwide fears of COVID-19 or the virus known as Corona, continuing to wreak havoc with the global economy, much as a gale-force wind might take joy at abusing a tumbleweed.

The fragility and arguably the weak façade of what might have been called “confidence” is somewhat thrown out the window when the world order, norms, standards and practices we perceive as business as usual get turned on their heads.

Volatile? Certainly! Uncertain? Totally! Complex? Unfortunately! Ambiguous? Can you repeat the question again?

Need proof? How about the fact the S&P 500 went from a record high to a greater than 10% correction in just 6 trading days! 

The crazy thing is that this was all predicted and Dean Koontz’s 1981 book contains the evidence. Truth is stranger than fiction, right?

That’s not really what I’m talking about at all. Instead, I’m referring to the ability to imagine and realize your deepest, darkest fears AND THEN to prepare and plan for them. Dehydrated water tablets and Zombie Survival Kits aside, I’m alluding to strategic planning in an era of short-termism, risk-aversion and constant disruption. 

It isn’t really feasible or even acceptable to be caught unawares anymore. We simply have to be able to scenario and contingency plan for these “uncontrollable” moments. You might have heard me reference my son’s soccer club’s motto, “control the controllables” in the past. Our challenge of course is that we can’t even do that! When I reference digital disruption, customer obsession, talent resurrection or corporate citizenship, how many of us can truly say we’re killing it at digital, customer centricity, employee engagement and purpose? These are all controllables and they are the bridge to being able to realize and effect and meaningful for of competitive advantage and differentiation. 

I developed the survival planning canvas to make sure none of this comes as a surprise to you anymore. By looking at your competition “3D” across incumbents, challengers and incubators for example, nothing is unpredictable – or as unpredictable as before. 

The survival planning canvas anticipates Corona – perhaps not in name, but certainly (hat tip: @cliveburcham) in the recurring theme of change.

Corona is not the first external curveball and it won’t be the last, but right now, it is causing extreme damage – some fleeting but some lasting – on entire companies, industries and even countries.

Bellweathers like Apple, Marriott, Microsoft and Nike are warning now about missed earnings. The list is long and growing. Entire conferences and festivals like Mobile World Congress have been scrapped. So it’s not hard to see how any company or industry that has its equity in China and/or the travel and tourism space – either directly or indirectly – are feeling differing amounts of real pain.

And spare a thought for the beer brand, cursed with the same name!

And then there’s the cruise line industry. Sorry to pick on one in particular, but this is a beleaguered business that continues to be plagued (sorry about the pun) by negative publicity and horror story after horror story: most recently the Corona-haven, Diamond Princess. Robotic bartenders might have seemed like a gimmick at the time, but ironically might be the only way of getting a drink when the real bartender is under quarantine. 

Has this industry evolved enough? Have they innovated quickly enough? Why do they seem to find themselves in the eye of the storm on a regular basis? 

To be sure, there will be opportunities. Like Purell for example. Or even the home connected fitness business, but these are short term bumps that over time don’t make a dent on the sands of time and forces of change. 

So if you are a company feeling the pressure right now, you are not alone. Take solace in that, but at the same time, the sooner you come to terms with the fact this is business as usual now, the quicker you will be able to react or “proact”, adapt, evolve and ultimately transform.

Here’s a free friendly tip: stay away from Twitter and your real-time witty tweets. Instead, focus on a new kind of brand safety. Take “brand protection precautions” that earn the right to survive each and every day. Complete your Survival Planning Canvas. Embrace your heresy. Prepare a growth plan that has its foundations in VUCA. Live every day as if it was your last. That’s the new cost of doing business. That’s the new currency of success. That’s what it takes to win in a world where Corona is sadly not a beer consumed at your leisure on a tropical island.

I recently returned from an “iMedia” reunion in New Orleans and in-between Hurricanes, dueling pianists, Beignets, Crawfish, Jello syringes, riverboat cruises and beads, there was actually some content! 

Part of gathering together after almost 20 years was to figure out “what’s next” for the industry and this really came down to passing the torch to the next generation of leaders. From mentoring to leaving behind a legacy to doing our part to make sure there is a “next act” for the industry. 

It’s in trouble, in case you didn’t know.

Our small family gathered into small groups and discussed topics relating to fake news, transparency, brand safety and truth. My small group discussed: Truth – the Veracity of Content.

First I had to understand what the word, veracity meant. Still not quite sure I do.

What ensued was quite an amazing conversation (Brian Monahan, you are a saint for trying to keep a semblance of control, order and logic to our table of renegades) about content, advertising and that swampy overlap of the Venn diagram that includes the likes of:

• Native
• Branded Entertainment
• Product Placement
• Influencer Marketing 

 I wish I could tell you that we figured it all out, but we did touch on a few interesting themes:

1. Truth is relative. And it shouldn’t be. Today we hear the phrase, “my truth” a lot. It’s my truth and you can’t tell me I’m wrong, because it’s my truth. Perhaps, but if it’s your truth, then shouldn’t it be my truth as well? Shouldn’t it just be THE truth? We are living through a particularly dynamic, fluid and turbulent time, where truthiness and alternative facts sit on an equal footing as truth. That’s troubling, especially when – as a consumer – you don’t know what to believe anymore. We debated whether truth is subjective, whereas facts are objective. 2 + 2 = 4, right? Er, not if you were following the impeachment trial. Fact: The glass is half full. No. Fact: It is half empty… 
2. Disclosure. It’s the truth serum in an otherwise pit of despair. If the simplest solution is often the correct one, then this is about as close to the truth…as truth itself. Put differently (because I’m not sure that last statement made sense), disclosure is an absolutely critical – and inarguably mandatory – part of the solution. Consumers should never be in doubt when they are being sold to versus informed versus manipulated. Editorial content is different to advertorial content is different to native content is different to advertising “content.” I don’t care if it sullies your beautiful creative; you need to let consumers know “in real time” when somebody paid somebody to hawk their wares in front of you!
3. Bar Part 1. Everyone should play by the same flawed rules. Whether you call it standardization or not, every single medium should be held to the same account when it comes to disclosure and speaking of which, fast talking disclaimers, fast scrolling small print that occurs at the end of the show and other poor practices don’t cut the muster. 
4. Bar Part 2. This doesn’t mean lowering bar to conform. We clearly need to raise the bar and if “bad actors” cannot meet these standards, then they need to leave Tribal Council immediately!
5. Good Housekeeping Seal. Why not? Why has no one stepped forward to create some kind of universal rating system that provides two key disclosures: 1) A clear line between content and commerce (commercials) and 2) Within the content, some kind of a truth meter indicator. 
6. Who you gonna call? It’s most certainly not the trade associations. Sorry IAB, ANA, AAAA’s, you haven’t exactly done anything of substance to date, so why should we trust you now to step up? What about the corporation? Have you read, “Built to Suck?” It’s all well and good to hear P&G’s Marc Pritchard threaten to pull his advertising from sites or platforms that don’t adhere to some basic standard of brand safety governance and disclosures; it’s another thing to act on it. One thing is for sure, if the top 10 advertisers all complied, things would change overnight. Oh, hi Facebook! What about government? Well, that’s kind of where it’s all going….but who trusts the government now? Which brings me to the startup community. I’ve always believed in the entrepreneurial revolution and as much as we might fear AI, I could very well imagine a scenario that looks like this, thanks to natural language processing, augmented reality etc.

Key:

• E = May contain Embellishment 
• BI = Borrowed Interest
• NV = Claims not Verified 

 Any takers out there? 

 As we approach the 20th year anniversary of iMedia, it’s always disheartening to be debating some of the same issues we were 20 years ago. That said, some of these issues were being debated decades before that. 

So will we still be having the same conversations in 20 years’ time? I’ll go out on a limb and say categorically….definitely NOT. I believe we’ll figure things out over the near future – most likely through necessity, but perhaps through ingenuity – because if we don’t, there won’t be a future. And I’m not just talking about media here; I’m talking about (editorial content,) so go stick that up your veracity! 

First of all, let me thank New York Roadrunners for giving me this week's column. Yes, that was a bit snarky, but genuinely I appreciate the content inspiration.

Secondly, I expect (in fact I hope) some fans to defend @nyrr. They tried their best. Give them a pass. Cut them some slack. No doubt! This is the power of advocacy after all. 

On Wednesday, January 22nd at 12 noon, registration opened for the popular Brooklyn Half Marathon. 

A bit of context:

• The half marathon is sponsored by Popular Bank. I had never heard of the brand and I actually had to do some digging to find out who they are. So there's a positive outcome from this story off the bat.
• It's one of the most popular races in the country. Last year, there were 26,841 finishers. I was registered but sadly had to bow out with an injury.
• It starts at the Brooklyn Museum, travels through Prospect Park, and ends at the iconic Coney Island boardwalk.

This year, myself and two other runners were at our respective computer screens around 11.45am gearing up to snap up our registrations before the race filled up. This typically happens within 30 minutes. We noticed a new procedure with what appeared to be a "virtual line." On the surface, this makes sense and actually humanizes the idea of waiting in a non-physical line.

All looked good until the registration went live. At this point, there was a message that the line was paused and then around 12.15pm, I was informed I was 25 minutes away from registered. This went down to 10 minutes and then suddenly shot up to 48 minutes and soon over an hour.

I was bewildered and turned to Twitter and it was only through Twitter that I was able to ascertain an incredibly embarrassing and frustrating #EPICFAIL.

Around 12.22pm, @nyrr informed there was some kind of technical glitch and you'll see my response to @nyrr around 12.41pm

New York Road Runners did not post again until around 1.21pm when they informed the problem would be fixed within the hour and if it wasn't, they would consider rescheduling the registration.

Rescheduling was clearly the consensus based on Twitter responses: 

 So what happened? 

• The problem was NOT fixed within the hour 
• Registration went live again around 4pm 
• At no point did any e-mails go out to inform people of this  
• I assume this was listed on their website and then there was Twitter.  
• All in all, 11 tweets were issued from @nyrr's account. This included 2 tweets about the registration nearing capacity and 1 apology (see below)

Fortunately for me, my running partners texted me registration was open around 4.15pm. If they hadn't I wouldn't have known and probably wouldn't have been able to register. I got in.

OK, so what were the learnings? This post is not - only - about beating up on @nyrr. If indeed President Capiraso is serious and committed to be better in the future, then the bullets below should help him and @nyrr. You're welcome!

1. Just because you can, doesn't mean you should. Or, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Brooklyn Half registration worked fine in the past, so while the bright and shiny object of a virtual queue makes sense, doesn't mean it's a better option.
2. Personally, I like this idea, BUT I would manage expectations and in this case reassure someone who is waiting for 30 minutes for example that they WILL get in...but just need to be patient. Nothing worse than getting to the end of the line and being disappointed.
3. The most egregious mistake here is that this was not QA'd or stress tested. At least, I can't imagine it was. How could they not anticipate the demand and the rush? Or the partner they used? Did they try and do it themselves? Did they cut corners and costs in terms of implementation? This really is unacceptable. 
4. Every company. Every company must plan for every single campaign, launch or program prepared for both best and worst case scenarios. In some cases, it might be the same thing I.e. the website crashes. It's not ok to be surprised if you are a corporate.
5. When the problem happened, the clock was ticking for @nyrr to figure out a solution. And quickly. As per (4), they should have had a plan. Enter Twitter...THE greatest direct-to-customer-service channel ever known to business. And yet how few companies actually take advantage of this. 
6. @nyrr should have been communicating early and often versus what appeared to be 2 tweets within an hour.
7. @nyrr should have been responsive. As of today, they still haven't responded to extremely frustrated and despairing customers. Including me. Michael Capiraso - the gauntlet is thrown. Reach out to me. Acknowledge this post and my frustration. I don't expect you to be subscribed to this newsletter (although you should), but surely someone knows someone who knows someone who knows you...
8. @nyrr should have enlisted the help and support of their base. Help us spread the word!!!!
9. @nyrr should have been more decisive. They should have postponed registration and given advance notice for new registration, for example a day later at 12 noon EST.
10. The "additional entries" approach is interesting. Clearly there were going to be a lot of people who didn't end up getting in that should have based on clearing their calendar at 12 noon EST. I wonder what happened here. Surely this opened the door to every single person who didn't get in jumping on this bandwagon. 
11. As bad a situation as this was, there was so many ways @nyrr could have turned lemons into lemonade. Examples: complimentary AND guaranteed entry in next year's Brooklyn Half, guaranteed entry into the TCS NYC Marathon (very hard to get in)
12. At the end of the day, people are reasonable (at least most are.) Where @nyrr screwed up is that they didn't respect people's time; they didn't empathize. People took over an hour of their work week AND still might not have made it in to the race. Just the ability to express true remorse, humanity and empathy goes a long way. 
13. In a situation like this, complete transparency is the only way to go 
14. e-mail. e-mail. e-mail. @nyrr used e-mail to remind people the day before, so why not during? Why not after? As of today, I still haven't seen the apology letter in my in-box. Twitter and nyrr.org is fine, but that's not on your customer's terms. Your website is your home field. Twitter is a neutral venue. Your customer's in-box is their home. 
15. Maybe you think I was too harsh in my criticism, but as per tweet, if they were a business (and they kind of are), they would be OUT of business. As per my Instagram quotable from last week, "you don't get a second chance to make a good first impression" BUT "you DO get a second chance to make a good second impression." 

 It's not how you start...it's how you finish and that analogy is perfect for a half marathon!

Years ago in my professional career, I was introduced to one of the oldest and most well-known axioms in the business – and certainly when it comes to sales: people don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.
 
The idea behind this was very simple: relationship trumps transactions. A prospective buyer is going to give the business to someone he or she knows, trusts, respects and can count on when the chips are down. This becomes so much more valuable than the lowest CPM or negotiated price per widget.
 
…but what happens when you’ve spent all that time cultivating a meaningful and enduring relationship, only to find that your contact is no longer there? 
 
When trying to break into a new company or establish a new account, it’s actually a lot more challenging. Why? Because Nepotism rules Bro-K. New hires tend to bring in their cronies and inner circle and while you might argue this is exactly the solution, namely the power of relationships prevail and will allow for seamless transitions from one organizational swamp to another, it sucks for those new to the game. 
 
The marketing world is fraught with a declining CMO tenure and it’s not just the length of the job at hand, but also the quality of the time spent…or perhaps I should say, the lack thereof. So little time is spent cultivating relationships because the real focus and energy is being spent on developing political alliances, building fiefdoms and inevitably looking for the next “opportunity” and timing to jump ship.
 
So if you’re salesperson (and aren’t we all salespeople at the end of the day?), startup founder looking to get funding etc, what can you do about it?
 
Here are 6 tips:

1. Invite more people to join the meeting. I know that’s counter-intuitive because we’re all actively trying to reduce the number of attendees
2. Send a follow-up in writing and cc others in the department
3. Ask to be apprised of any HR changes. Ask and ye shall receive. Watch the trades and after a round of layoffs or the umpteenth reorg, try and understand which changes impact your business. 
4. Ask for intros to replacement personnel. Seems simple enough.
5. Need to know contact details of attendees? Just look at the calendar invite ahead of a meeting and voila. And if that isn’t disclosed, take the time to write down names, titles and something interesting about everyone when they do introductions. Pay attention!
6. Finally, match up everyone to their LinkedIn profile. Do this before the meeting as part of your homework and afterwards in advance of any follow up

 
At the end of the day, the nature of the beast is that this game of musical chairs is not going to stop any time soon, but you can improve your odds of moving forward even when everyone else is taking a step back.

I recently sat down with a Chief Marketing Officer of a very well known brand in the cosmetics and skincare space and we were chatting about everyone's favorite topic...the death of the CMO (see Marketoonist below) ...or at least the evolving role and nature of the job responsibility.

We discussed the continuous revolving door of the CMO position, the declining tenure and how in an increasing number of cases, companies are not even replacing a departed CMO.

Thankfully, Coca-Cola just realized the error of their ways by reinstating the global CMO role two years after the fact.

We also discussed the rise of the Chief Growth Officer and I remain fairly optimistic that should the CMO morph into the Chief Growth Officer, that would demonstrate positive adaption of the role to current conditions and evolutionary forces. That of course assumes (and it's a big assumption) that the artist formally known as CMO possesses the right mix and balance of skills and talent, with which to assume this opportunity. 

All of the above makes for an interesting and ongoing conversation and debate, but none of it answers a gaping question: WHY? Why is all of this happening? And then my conversation mate said something which really struck me...consistency or rather the lack thereof. She posited that it was because of the incredible inconsistency of responsibilities and expectations of the Chief Marketing role that has give rise to all of the volatility, instability and churn.

I couldn't agree more.

Wikipedia gives us this insight into the discussion: The CMO is responsible for facilitating growth, sales and marketing strategy. They must work towards objectives such as revenue generation, cost reduction, or risk mitigation. 

Slick Wiki also gives us this zinger: The unpredictable effect of marketing efforts, coupled with the need to drive profits, often leads to a short tenure for most CMOs.

Let's analyze both statements, shall we?

1. Growth is what I call the prime directive and it's all over "Built to Suck" - book, keynote, workshop, T-shirt and scrumptious pie! 
2. Historically Sales & Marketing have been as synergistic as oil and water when it comes to collaboration and support in an organization
3. Revenue generation, cost reduction and risk mitigation is just missing the forth objective, the kitchen sink! Seriously? Is that all? I'm all for revenue generation but that is core business strategy and when you won't let the CMO into the board room, how exactly do you expect their viral videos and real time tweets to generate "revenue?"
4. Then you have the double-edged of cost reduction which highlights perhaps the difficulty of achieving more with less or more from less. Cost-cutting is antithetical to the objectives of growth and revenue generation. You have to give to get. It's basic investment theory! 
5. Finally, we have risk mitigation and I am reminded of a great quote which runs to the effect of, "CMO's got to where they got to, not by managing risk but by mitigating it." Again, this runs counter to what the CMO should be doing and it explains why tenure is continuously under threat.
6. Which brings us to the word "unpredictable" and it's a deeply problematic word. Are we talking about art versus science? Or is this just a euphemism for CMO's who just love 30-second spots or "video" and their annual pilgrimage to Cannes? Or should it rather be talking about measurement versus projection?

Whichever way you look at it, it is the lack of uniformity and standardization of the role - and with it the lack of understanding of that role throughout the organization - that has led to this precipitous decline in credibility and worth in the organization. We don't have this confusion or ambiguity with a COO or CFO and we don't see this with product development or research, so why is marketing left out in the cold?

Moreover, if you had to compare and contrast the CMO's from the world's leading brands, you would indeed struggle to find enough commonalities or consistencies to put into a one-pager LinkedIn job spec.

Perhaps it's time to create a uniform lens, rubric or dare I say, standards, with which to evaluate and merchandise the marketing function within an organization. Instead of a Chief Confused Officer or a Chief Muddled Officer, let's associate a consistent set of beliefs, capabilities and competencies with this mission critical role.

So let's celebrate the Chief Consistent Officer, shall we?

After all, it is the role that single handedly has to deliver growth, sales, marketing strategy, revenue generation, cost reduction and risk mitigation...and let's not forget all those viral videos and real time tweets!