Well I have had a pretty special week. That could be ‘the end’ but I have far too much written in my notebook to not share, spread & pay forward. Also I have been super quiet recently (very unlike me) so time I raised my voice – it comes quite naturally!
Phil Rumbol inspires me with some Jam chat
Sitting in a Prêt in Soho I was lucky enough to meet the legendary marketer, and Academy Trustee, Phil. He chatted about so much and gave me some amazing advice. One thing that hit home was his advice to recognise that sometimes you need the bad to love the good. I think the Jam doughnut analogy is worth sharing. When eating a doughnut with every bite you are hunting for the jam – ‘the good bit’. But think about what you would do if someone gave you a spoon of jam – it would never be as good as a doughnut! We all have days where the dough takes over, but it’s making sure you keep the fire, keep hunting for the jam and realise that one without the other simply wouldn’t taste as good.
The words of a ‘shelf’
I wanted to write about some advice my dad gave me – my university friends described my dad as a shelf (because a ledge wasn’t enough) so I had to get him in somewhere! He was talking to me about managing ‘up’. He was telling me not to be a point watcher. His theory was that once you let something someone says effect you, you seem to then be looking through binoculars at everything they might do and say – watching points. You almost become so obsessed with that you forget what really matters. I think being brave and bold, giving feedback (or feed forward) and then moving on is definitely better than ‘watching points’.
Ashley Stockwell demonstrates how to pull who you are into what you do
My session with Ashley was awesome – I love Virgin – I always have and think the way they pull their brand through all they do is remarkable. The fact that Ashley started at BA and then moved to Virgin is pretty cool in itself. He even told me how his interview exploded with Virgin spirit. We spoke about loads of things and his advice was priceless (well I hope so)…but afterwards he sent me the Virgin manual he had created about the brand. You might expect it to be good but it sent a shiver down my spine. Put simply you know something is good when it changes what you do – now this has already made me raise the bar. I have always believed brands should pull all they stand for into all they do – be it HR, dress code, advertising, innovation…At virgin they do that with so much rigour and in such an awe inspiring way. Time for me to keep the bar way up there and keep pulling all I am into all I do.
I also had a coaching session with Katherine Tulpa (words can’t describe…) and bumped into Sherylin (Marketing Academy Founder and general hero) for a brief hello. Then I realised the link…
The thing that struck me about all of the people in today’s blog is something Sherylin always speaks about. They are all truly authentic – they know who they are, they know what they are about and they are not trying to be anyone else. Matching that with the passion that oozes from being in their presence is something I aspire to.
Stay Curious peeps…
