Filed under: 2026, A Bit Of Inspiration, Attitude & Aptitude, Collaboration, Comment, Communication Strategy, Confidence, Context, Craft, Creativity, Culture, Effectiveness, Emotion, Empathy, Focus Groups, Interviews, Leadership, Planners, Planners Making A Complete Tit Of Themselves And Bless, Planning, Resonance, Respect
One of the things that has always bugged me about some strategists is their desire to be academically victorious in every conversation.
To not just be ‘right’, but to be the ‘rightest of right’.
And then expect wild applause for their proclamations and declarations of self-appointed brilliance.
Putting aside the problematic nature of this behaviour, the irony is it stands in the way of them being able to properly understand – and connect to – how others feel, think, believe or behave … because they’re too busy telling others what they ‘really mean or think’.
And here’s the kicker …
The reality is people often do know what they want, think or think … they just don’t know how to express it clearly.
Which is why the key is the ability to listen rather than to judge. Or explain.
And by listen, I mean listen ‘hard’ …
Not just what is said, but how it is expressed … verbally, visually, contextually.
And while I appreciate we’re in a time poor, distraction rich world … the benefit of doing this is that not only will you have a greater appreciation of how they see the world, they will often reveal opportunities that ‘intellectual logic’ may never see, let alone get to.
Maybe that’s why I love that Lucille Ball quote so much … because in a few words, she articulates the difference between clever and smart.
And where strategy is concerned, smart trumps clever.
That doesn’t mean you don’t care about facts, details, knowledge or academic accuracy, it just means you appreciate that being emotionally resonant with others can achieve more than being academically victorious.
Or as my Dad used to say:
“If you need to show how clever you are, you’re probably not”
I say all this because I saw a brief interview with the singer Billy Idol.
In it, he demonstrates the importance – and craft – of emotional resonance.
The act of understanding what others need to be able to give them the space and place to express.
Not manipulation.
Not exaggeration.
But emotional consideration.
Which is why if a true Rockstar – who has lived the equivalent of 100 lives – can do it, then us poxy strategists should be able to, too.
Watch it, you’ll be a better person for it.
Filed under: 2026, A Bit Of Inspiration, Aspiration, Attitude & Aptitude, Business, Community, Consultants, Corporate Evil
Big business increases prices/loses people for profit protection.
Small business increases prices/loses people for survival.
One gets grudgingly accepted. The other gets openly criticised.
And at a time where we ‘welcome’ humanities first ever trillionaire, maybe this is the wake-up call to start questioning both where we’re heading and what big business – and many of the Linkedin crowd – view as aspirational.
As one of my great mentors, the brilliant Lee Hill, told me when I was new in the industry and disliking/not trusting anyone who was wealthy [and he was/is exceedingly wealthy], “there’s nothing wrong with people or companies making money, it’s how they do it and what they do with it”.
That’s a question we should be asking a lot more …
… both of ourselves and most definitely of others.
Filed under: 2026, A Bit Of Inspiration, Attitude & Aptitude, Comment, Contribution, Craft, Creativity, Culture, Pride, Standards
Good enough.
Two words that trigger the fuck out of me.
Truly press every button I have.
Not because I’m some perfectionist who never gets things wrong.
Nor because I’m a myopic tyrant who only cares about what works for me.
But because I don’t have the time to waste on things – and people – who don’t share the same standards as me.
That sounds massively condescending, doesn’t it?
Believe it or not, I don’t mean it to be … but the fact is, time is precious to me. More precious than it has ever been. And – as I’ve written in the past – when you find yourself in this position, you realise you’re in a race.
That may sound over the top … exaggerated even … but I assure you it’s not.
For a start you know all the things you want to do won’t happen. Just won’t be possible.
Then to make matters worse … the more you do, the more you discover and that adds to the list of things you would love to explore and experiment with.
So you end up having to try and choose what matters – or intrigues or scares you – the most and when you have done that, you go into them like a freight train.
Hardcore.
Total commitment.
Focus on being as brilliant as you think it can be and you hope to be.
Or at least I do.
And that’s why when you find the people around you are in a different place in life … or have a different set of expectations or standards … that can be hard.
It’s not that they’re wrong, it’s just that they’re wrong for where you are at right now.
Because you have no time for casual.
You have no time for not being utterly focused.
And anything that shows a lack of consideration feels like a knife in your back.
I appreciate this may not be a popular perspective – especially on a Monday morning – but as a friend of mine’s father once said:
“If you haven’t got the time to do it right at the beginning, when will you?
The reality is standards are all that sets you apart in this industry …
That doesn’t mean everything you do has to be a hit … but it does mean everything you do has to feel you’ve pushed for it, cared for it and fought to make it as good as it can be.
Not simply outsourced to a system or framework.
Not simply doing what others have done quicker, cheaper or bigger.
Not simply following what’s popular or hyped.
But standards, efforts and taste.
Because the reality is anyone can be lucky occasionally, but real reputations are born from standards over time.
Where you are known and seen for continually making and pushing things to better and more interesting places, time and time again.
That’s what gets the calls from the clients and people who care as much about what they put out as why they are putting things out.
Of course it’s not easy, but it’s worth it … or at least worth more than churning stuff out you wish didn’t have your name attached to, even if others are OK with it.
Because when your time is running out – but your ambition, hunger and curiosity isn’t – the problem isn’t the fear of failure, the problem is giving your time to people who don’t value what you can do with it.
Filed under: 2026, A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Ambition, Brands, Business, Creative Development, Creativity, Planning, Relationships, Strategy
So a few weeks ago, I spoke at StratCon in Berlin.
I had known about the event because I knew one of the organisers – Fran, from Jung von Matt – but it was my first time ever going.
I knew it was going to be good because the brilliant Paula Bloodworth told me how much fun she’d had when she spoke there previously – delivering a presentation that went down so well that I discovered it was still being talked about TWO YEARS LATER – but even then, I wasn’t prepared for how much I was going to enjoy it.
Part of this was because of the variety of ‘strategy speakers’ they had talking …
Rather than having people from the same discipline all through the day, they had strategists that covered a broad spectrum of the discipline.
Advertising,
Branding.
Research.
Consultancies.
Media.
It meant the audience not only heard a broad spectrum of thinking, it meant they understood the different issues, approaches and contexts that go into those specific areas of strategy … something that is sadly missing from many of the other conferences out there.
Another thing I loved was there were almost zero ‘agency/product pitches’ from the presenters …
We’ve all been to those talks that feel more like a ‘timeshare sales meeting’ than a place where you hear interesting opinions and perspectives … but there was none of that here. In fact, for a conference that had a very focused topic for the day, it was amazing how many different viewpoints we heard, aided by the fact there were a variety of strategists, from a variety of different disciplines of strategy in attendance.
And that range of speakers went one further …
Because not only were they different to the usual suspects at these sorts of events – bar me, obvs – they represented different lengths of time in the industry. In fact for Vinzenz – a young planner from Mother Berlin – it was their first ever industry talk and so not only did we have the privilege of learning what they felt was interesting and important for the development of his strategic career, he got to experience and grow from the experience.
More conferences should do this.
And finally, the thing I loved about StratCon was the audience.
Unlike in other markets where there will be some strategists who slag off every speaker because they think they’re better, smarter and more experienced than them [plot twist: they’re not] this felt like a real gathering of a community.
People coming together to share, learn, connect and hopefully be better.
It felt tangibly different to other conferences I’ve attended … and while that may be because it’s organized by the community rather than outsourced to a company who seek to monetize every element they can from every person and company in attendance or because German strategy is – as more than one attendee told me – ‘starved of inspiration’ so everyone went in with open minds and attitudes, the result was that StratCon was a lovely place to be.
Our discipline is in a weird place right now and as I said in my talk, for it to get better requires more than another fucking framework, an optimistic mindset or a sense of intellectual superiority. Which is why I liked StratCon so much, because it was where honesty – rather than sales pitches – prevailed … and if anything is going to help us get out of this small box we’ve walked ourselves into, it’s dealing with the issues that are holding us back rather than hiding from them with the deluded belief ‘the framework will set us free’.
A huge thank you to everyone who attended and the organizers of the event …
Not just for inviting me – which was amazing – but allowing me to spend time in a city that was hugely important to my Dad.
Walking around that first day let me feel I was close to him again and for that alone, I can never thank you enough.
I can honestly say while I was only in Berlin for a short time, I leave with memories, moments, people, stories and an amazing pre-event dinner, that will last a fucking long time. And given how many incredible things I did and saw on that trip, there’s no higher compliment I can give than to say you were one of the true highlights.
An extra hug of appreciation to Fran, Heleen, Vinzenz, Achim and ‘Hamster’.
Auf wiedersehen …
Filed under: 2026, A Bit Of Inspiration, Ambition, Apple, Aspiration, Attitude & Aptitude, Comment, Delusion, Empathy, Finance, Generosity, Money, Privilege, Reputation, Technology
On Tuesday I wrote about how we have our priorities messed up …
If you haven’t read it, you can see it here.
The underlying point being we seem to accept the shitty behaviour of the super rich, but are hyper-critical of the humble – even though we know the former are making choices to become even richer whereas the latter are simply trying to survive.
In the post, I highlighted a valuable lesson I learned when I was starting out in my career from my then client – and now mentor – the wonderful Lee Hill.
He told me:
“There’s nothing wrong making lots of money, it’s how you do it and what you do with it that counts”.
It would be easy to think that in this Trumpian, authoritarian World, the ability to be ‘decent and rich’ is a pipe dream.
But I remember many years ago, George interviewed a bunch of wealthy people for a project we were doing at Cynic and came back saying he had discovered a group he called ‘the reluctantly rich’.
Basically, these were people who had made a lot of money but never felt they deserved it.
Maybe they inherited it, maybe they were in the right place at the right time … maybe they were just lucky … but they didn’t connect to it so did all they could to be generous to others with it.
Some to that was because it helped offset their guilt a little bit.
Some was their way to let others experience what they were going through.
But most of it was simply because they wanted to help others who hadn’t been blessed with the good fortune they’d received.
Often this was done quietly and privately because the goal was never about recieving gratitude, they just wanted to do some good with it, helped by the fact they never felt connected to the cash, so giving it away was easy … even though they were perfectly aware of what it offered and could do.
Admittedly there weren’t masses of people who felt this way, but there were more than a few.
Still are.
I say this because recently I saw a video of Steve Wozniak – Woz – the co-founder of Apple.
At a time where Musk, Bezos, Zuck and countless other ultra-wealthy tech and finance bros revel in their elitist, vulgar, arrogant lifestyles, he is a reminder of when the tech industry consisted of a few people trying stuff they hoped could help millions grow, express and explore their lives … which is a world away from where we are today, where the tech industry seems to be a few people designing products that enable them to control, contain and restrain millions for their own, fucked-up benefit.
So thank you Mr Woz, you’ve just proved you don’t have to be a prick to be rich.
It just feels that way.