I recently had a bit of a mid-life crisis.
Not a big crisis mind you, more of a little one. But it left me contemplating my life, my future and my work. Rather than run from it, I leaned into it because I have never been afraid to be introspective. Emerging from it, I’ve learned some interesting things and found some great tools.
One of the tools I used to evaluate my life was called the Golden Circle by Simon Sinek. If you have never heard of it, Google ‘Ted talk Golden Circle’ or ‘Simon Sinek Ted talk’ and you will find one of the most watched Ted talks ever. I encourage you to have a watch. It’s powerful.
The essence of the Golden Circle is answering three questions:
What do you do?
How you do you do it?
Why do you do what you do?
Most people and most companies can answer the what and the how questions. The more challenging question is the why. Why do you get out of bed? Why do you do what you do? For the sake of what? Why is this important? How do you contribute to others?
Take a moment and contemplate your why. Can you define it?
I’ve recently spent time contemplating my why. The reason I am telling you this story is my why resulted in changing my business focus.
I have been writing columns for over a decade. One of my first columns was for Produce Plus Magazine and the column was called Persuasive Packaging. I called the column Persuasive Packaging because I believed (and I still believe) packaging is one of the most cost effective, influential and persuasive sales tools you have at your disposal. Especially if you are a smaller grower or marketer.
Branding and packaging, done well, can be a game changer for your business. But a brand and pack are only tactical elements – part of a bigger, strategic picture.
What I have learned over the past few months is…my heart and my skill set lies in strategy. Creating branding and packaging is great fun, but every great brand and pack starts with strategy - seeing new or untapped opportunities and then converting those opportunities to actions that make a difference. A colleague was recently introducing me and she said: “what I love about Lisa, is she sees opportunity in divergent things.” It was a lightbulb moment and gave me insight into my why.
While I have not yet landed on the perfect combination of words, my why is about helping people turn opportunity into action so they can achieve more. This explains why I naturally ask questions like, if anything was possible, what would you want to achieve in your business or in your life? For me, it was an a-ha moment…and it reframed my thinking.
For me, possibility thinking is all about looking ahead. So, in that spirit, I want you to watch a video. This ad by New Zealand telco Spark came out September 2018. I think it is one of the best, most future-aware ads I have ever seen. From my perspective, this ad paints a very clear picture of the future.
Give it a watch:
‘Generation Voice’ changes everything. It is more than Siri. It is more than ‘Ok Google.’ It puts the power of information into the hands of ‘consumers’ who only have to be old enough to speak to participate in purchasing and influencing purchases.
Consider the following:
Thing about your own use of voice commands. Are you using voice more/less?
Do you have a connected device like Amazon Alexa in your home? What are the primary tasks you give the device?
Do you use voice for shopping?
What is the potential impact of voice on your business, product or service?
Voice changes everything. If you want to more, contact me (lisa@freshproducemarketing.com ) and request my free white paper: 5 Ways Generation Voice Will Change How You Think About Brands.
Until next time…