Media Business is the industry and market formed by companies operating in and across different mediums, main ones being but not limited to internet, television, newspapers, magazines, radio, cinema, and outdoor.
A media company is any business that communicates to large audiences. What they communicate is information, news, entertainment, advertising, messaging and cultural stories. When the content behind media is delivered in a repeated and compelling manner, it starts your target audience on the “A-Path (Attention – Attraction – Affinity – Audience – Advocacy).” What company or brand would not want to take their target audience through the stages of the A-Path?
Brands and companies need to strategically think about and provide continuous great content to their target audience. Great brand content is defined as the intersection of what a company wants to say and what the target audience wants or needs to hear. When brands succeed in providing great content, they start to build an emotional connection with individuals of their target audience. Doesn’t every company or brand want to accomplish that?
Media companies plan a calendar full of content to drive continuous “tuning in” from their target audience. Every company and brand wants to be top of mind of their target audience. And having a rich and compelling content calendar full of great content (as defined above) is the best way to stay top of mind of your target audience.
So what is stopping you from reaching greater business success from thinking and acting like a media. The advent of digital platforms, social media, and blogs allow every company to be a publisher and mimic a media company for their own benefit.
(Hint – it really is not a trend, but rather what successful businesses have done for decades.)
How were your marketing results in the past year? Do you actually know or are you making assumptions?
Assumptions kill marketing efforts! And starting communication and running ads without a strategy kill the degree of success all businesses experience relative to what they think they can achieve.
There are endless content pieces on “marketing trends for 2024.” Some are truly innovative and can lead to increased success. BUT unequivocally, if you don’t initiate sound, basic marketing principles, 2024 is going to be another “meh” year for you.
I would like to focus on the front end and tail end marketing endeavors that MUST be done to drive business success.
FRONT-END MARKETING
You need to put in the time upfront to truly understand a) your target audience, b) your value proposition to that audience, c) your product/service positioning, d) your competition, and e) point of differentiation in the marketplace.
All these areas I would label as marketing strategy. I have been marketing for well over 20 years as a consultant and leading marketing organizations. It still astounds me how many executive leaders expect marketing spend to start immediately with execution. I can’t even count how many times smart business leaders have said to me, “you mean I need to spend that much time and money before we even do one ad, send out one email, do one social post …”
If you want to drive strong results – the answer is YES!
Have you explicitly researched and tested who you’re talking to and what you are saying? Or are you living in a myopic world driven by a top decision maker that knows better than everyone else? Do you really want to bypass a marketing strategy playbook that has been proven to be successful for decades?
TAIL-END MARKETING
What does successful marketing look like? Awards for creativity from associations? Incremental revenue and profit? At the end of the day, which is more important to your business? And assuming that your answer was the second option (revenue and profit), how do you know that marketing drove that success?
Too often, marketers attribute the wrong variables and outcomes. More and more people claim sales attribution to their endeavor to the point that splintered organizations each claim X-amount of sales attribution summing to hundreds of thousands of dollars of sales when the actual company sales total is substantially lower than the total of all the claims. The reality is that most consumer/client sales conversions are achieved by a consumer/client journey where each “gate” in that journey plays a portioned relevance to the sales conversion.
Have you mapped out what that journey looks like? Do you have a method for capturing the outcome for the various sales journey gates and evaluating the magnitude of success for activities and execution of the various gates?
SUMMARY
So while I myself do keep up with new suggested marketing trends that drive greater business success, I always evaluate them on two factors:
Do they align or are they applicable with behaviors and practices of my target audience, and
Do they drive incremental profitable business or are they just the “next shiny object being hyped.”
If you really want to drive business success in 2024 and forward, make sure you are doing so with sound proven marketing approaches BEFORE you latch onto the next trend anyone has recommended.
I bring to you the compilation of my #SundayThoughts posts of 2023 …
I am active on social media mostly offering guidance and thoughts on marketing and cannabis. In the beginning of the year, I wanted to get a bit of topic and offer some inspiration. Inspiration for you, me, and everyone. Inspiration to yield better quality of life for all of us – professionally and personally. The posts were directed at you and me. Complete transparency – sometimes when I found myself in challenging times I reflect and think about what I need to do; how I need to change my perspective and carry on in a more positive mindset. I would write the post to me and re-read several times to let it sink in. So, some of the posts were aimed at the public and some were aimed at me. This is what I mean by “for you, me, and everyone.”
I am proud of the collection of these posts that were published on Sunday, so we all had some positivity to start the week. I offer for you a compilation of my #SundayThoughts posts …
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“The art of conversation is the art of hearing as well as of being heard.” ― William Hazlitt, Selected Essays, 1778-1830
This week, I posted something that created quite a vociferous debate. The greatest problem was that most wanted to get their point across and there was little listening. So, in respect to the quote above, I failed.
Maybe I was wrong in my approach – I stated something provocative to incite debate. And it did accomplish that. But my real goal was to motivate a conversation that would lead to a solution – a solution that brings compromise from both sides.
So I reflect and learn. When we try to spawn positive change, the delivery is equally as important and the substance we present.
When you encounter challenges and setbacks, how do you endure?
As many, I have had my share. I have reacted, or not acted at all, in many different manners throughout different periods in my life.
I can tell you with completely certainty, the best way to deal with YOUR own challenges and setbacks is to HELP SOMEONE ELSE. Nothing makes you feel better and gets YOU back on track.
It seems counterintuitive, but nothing changes your mental state better and faster.
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“With gratitude, optimism is sustainable.” ~ Michael J. Fox
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Success comes from dreams, belief, passion, and hard work.
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If you need help, just ask. Why do so many of us find this to be so difficult?
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“I think things come into our lives to help us get from one place to a better one.” ~ Ted Lasso So to you, my friends on LinkedIn, thank you as I continue to [always] evolve and grow.
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Last year I posted this same wording, and I am sharing it again, because NOTHING could be more important to me … The best title I have ever held is “Dad.” Happy Father’s Day to all who hold the same honor.
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“Learning is not a one-time event or a periodic luxury. Great leaders in great companies recognize that the ability to constantly learn, innovate, and improve is vital to their success.” ~ Amy Edmondson
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Power vs Leadership
So many headlines these days should make one reflect on the differences of power and leadership. Far too often, power is a facade for leadership.
Amplify leaders and leadership.
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Support. Often, giving your time is more impactful than giving money. Lend a hand.
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Challenges in life either make you stronger or weaker … and YOU get to decide which.
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No matter what your professional level or number of years of experience is, consider the following approaches to yield strong business results and value to your organization (not to mention professional growth):
1. Have a positive attitude 2. Take criticism well 3. Practice self-motivation 4. Learn from your mistakes 5. Develop strong communication skills 6. Don’t be afraid to ask questions 7. Be adaptable 8. Be an effective teammate 9. Pay attention to detail 10. Be solution-oriented 11. Demonstrate a willingness to learn 12. Display honesty and integrity 13. Practice active-listening 14. Demonstrate leadership abilities 15. Develop organizational skills 16. Practice critical thinking 17. Perform regular self-evaluations 18. Be creative 19. Show kindness and empathy 20. Be reliable
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Why would anyone treat an employee any differently than they would want their own son or daughter to be treated by an employer?
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Sometimes, it takes just one more try. Why would you want to cheat yourself of the possibility?
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Who Are You?
“… authenticity identifies a person living life in accordance with their true Self and personal values, rather than according to the external demands of society, such as social conventions, kinship, and duty.”
So is being inauthentic more disappointing to self or those that you touch?
The word “authentic” seems like it is over used – especially in marketing, branding, networking, and social media. We look for authenticity in people we engage with, brands we support, people we follow on social media. But maybe be authentic to self is most important.
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Some people win at the game by bringing the best out of people. Some people (try to) win at the game by bringing the worst out of people. Who do you want to work/play with?
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“Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.”~ Carl Gustav Jung
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Challenges in your life either make you stronger or weaker … and you decide which.
{Yes, I posted this again … it cannot be said enough.}
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One of the greatest feelings is to make it to the other side of challenging times. But the outcome is often not what you initially wished for, expected, or not even what you could envision. And yet, it will still feels most rewarding. Keep driving forward.
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Since the early days of COVID, I have been on a mission to turn more into the person I want to be. By my definition. By attributes that are important to me. This started as a realization that times were changing, and it was time for my deeper evolution.
This past week has been a time of personal assessment and reflection. My journey is far from complete. It has been both difficult and rewarding to have complete honest discussions with myself.
I don’t mean to impose my point of view of you. I share these thoughts with you only suggesting that similar self-evolution might be beneficial and most rewarding to you.
Are you the person you want to be? What needs to change to be that person? How do you need to start to evolve to be the person you want to be?
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Supporting Someone Stressed
This past week I had a conversation with someone that was very stressed.
When this happens to someone you genuinely care for/about, most of us just want to take away their angst. It most cases, that is impossible. So, what do you say or do?
I think you call it exactly like you see it without sugar coating anything while remaining extremely supportive.
Here is what I said after they shared with me what was stressing them out …
“That makes sense. Anybody would be stressed. Take it, embrace it. Get stronger, grow, and be you – that is great.”
Be there for someone else.
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Personal and Professional Growth
Growth – the act or process, or a manner of growing; development; gradual increase.
It takes determination and strength to grow.
Determination – firmness of purpose; resoluteness.
Strength – the capacity of an object or substance to withstand great force or pressure.
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We need to learn from our past but not be set in our ways.
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Ponder this … What do you want to be known for? How are you going to accomplish that?
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Are you successful? Have you made a positive change in anyone’s life?
Are you successful? Have you made a positive change in anyone’s life?
This week, Adam Grant provides a bit more on “highly successful practices of successful people.”
1. They seek discomfort. 2. They set a mistake budget. 3. They ask for advice, not feedback. 4. They figure out which sources to trust. 5. They strive for excellence, not perfection. 6. They are their own last judge. 7. They turn the daily grind into a source of daily joy. 8. When they’re stuck, they back up to move forward. 9. They teach what they want to learn. 10. They open doors for people who are underrated and overlooked. 11. They engage in mental time travel.
Great business leaders drive a culture where “groupthink” is unacceptable, whereas “group execution” is mandatory. While these attributes may seem conflicting, they are the core of a successful business culture.
“Groupthink is a psychological phenomenon that occurs within a group of people in which the desire for harmony or conformity in the group results in an irrational or dysfunctional decision-making outcome… This causes the group to minimize conflict and reach a consensus decision without critical evaluation.” (Source)
When groupthink is spelled out as the definition above, most would say they do not want their organization to run that way. But how many companies truly have a culture that is specifically built to operate to oppose groupthink?
Terms like diversity and inclusion get much attention these days. Most often, these terms are used to address variations of people as it relates to gender, race, ethnicity, sexual preference, religion, age, etc. Make no mistake. Giving ALL people an equal chance, independent of their characteristics, is the foundation of integrity. But diversity and inclusion get much more lip service than execution. It is also important to think about diversity with regards to how one processes challenges and dives into critical thinking. This is ingredient for increasing the probability of business success.
When people hire for their organization, how often does “affinity bias” guide decisions? “Affinity bias — having a more favorable opinion of someone like us — is one of the most common” biases that impacts your professional decisions, especially hiring. My point here is that it is far too often that hiring managers define “good fit” as deciding on individuals that are common to them. And if you believe that companies’ business success is directly related to molding a culture where groupthink is discouraged, then diversity and inclusion are imperative from both a physical and mental being perspective. (If you want more information on “How to Reduce Personal Bias When Hiring,” see the cited Harvard Business Review article).
On the flip side, group execution is imperative. If you want to win the race, everyone on the team needs to be rowing in meticulous synchronicity. Once business decisions are made, everyone on the team needs to buy into the execution plan, no matter whose suggestions or strategies have been determined to implement. Without a cohesive group execution business success is near impossible.
Successful business demands a culture where groupthink is avoided like the plague and group execution is rallied with passion and motivation.
Whether you are looking to create change or drive business growth, doing so with community involvement will yield synergy and strong results.
The past few years have been challenging for just about everyone to varying degrees. Individuals have “experienced deteriorated wellbeing and mental health after the pandemic outbreak, especially in life satisfaction, meaning in life, positive feelings, depression, anxiety, and self-harm/suicidal ideation.” (Source) Statista reports, “While it is difficult to tell exactly what the economic damage from the global COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic has been, it has had severe negative impacts on the global economy.”
And the pandemic has not been the only negative event that has impacted our society. Growing ideological disparities exist and have created extreme partisanship to the point that we are no longer a group of “United” States, but rather a society of fighting factions with a dysfunctional government.
We all share challenges and the ONLY way we will solve these challenges is to accept disagreement and work towards mutual solutions so that we can all share a better quality of life.
We need to build and work as a community!
“Community – a unified body of individuals: such as
the people with common interests living in a particular area
a group of people with a common characteristic or interest living together within a larger society
a body of persons of common and especially professional interests scattered through a larger society
a body of persons or nations having a common history or common social, economic, and political interests
a group linked by a common policy
an interacting population of various kinds of individuals (such as species) in a common location”
Building and engaging in communities creates an emotional bond from your target audience to your brand. It is the opportunity to provide authentic content and communication that reinforces your commitment to your target audiences’ lives.
Many people view platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn as their online community. But how comfortable are you with the fact that your online community controls what content shows up in your feed?
I currently work in the cannabis industry. One of the major concerns I have is the shadow banning and other controls in place to block reference to and content regarding cannabis. And it is not just an issue of blocking content and users. These platforms use algorithms to determine what you should see in your feed to optimize their business objectives. But you should also know that, as a marketer, I rely on these platforms to get brand content and communication to target audiences.
In 2023, you need to start engaging with your target audience in alternative, niche online communities. These could be interest-specific platforms (like Leafwire for cannabis industry professionals) or specific groups (like the Digital Marketing Group on LinkedIn). Niche platforms not attract a targeted audience by focusing on a specific topic but they also deliver a sense of intimacy and authenticity.
I suggest you consider starting a community or participating in a few such that you can attract, engage, learn from, and influence people that are your target audience and/or are like-minded individuals. If you want to change a situation, whether that be changing industry operating procedures, increasing sales, or any other business motivation, connect and engage with targeted individuals where open conversations and content flow freely.
When I say 2023 is the year of Community, this is not a prediction. It is a need. We need to unite to drive positive change. Establish or join a community that promotes something important to you or your business. Focus on unified objectives and activities. Work collectively to solve problems that exist. I promise you that working with others to increase quality of life and building a better economic future by participating in a community is more rewarding than selfies.
And here is one final closing thought – having a community is stronger than having a target audience. Having community members is more powerful than having loyal customers, because they not only are repeat customers, but ones that believe in your brand and share that with others in their lives.
“Don’t mistake your opinion with marketing data.” This was a mantra of a previous boss I had. He was right. BUT by stopping there, he was missing a key element to drive positive outcomes.
Far too many people believe that data tells you what you need to do to drive winning business results. And on top of that, most marketers use their own subjectivity to explain what that data indicates.
Last week, I engaged with someone that posted on LinkedIn about his experience wasting much time mulling over the results of consumer sales. Much of the conclusions derived were erroneous. That is until he truly dug in to understand the consumers’ behavior.
Here is the conversation we exchanged as a result of his post:
“To what extent do you believe ‘psychology’ plays a role in marketing?” –
95% replied 100% or strongly.
According to Wikipedia, “Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts.”
As marketing professionals, our mission is to drive business success. And psychology plays an imperative role in that success from (at least) two perspectives:
1) From an input perspective, we need to truly understand the mind and behavior of our target audience as it relates to our product/service, their knowledge of the space and our products/service, points of influence, what their consumer journey looks like, competition, and ways to emotionally connect with them.
2) From an output perspective, we need to first listen and communicate, and then engage in a manner that is most compelling to the target audience based upon THEIR feelings and behaviors.
There are far too many smart people that carry deep subjectivity that cloud their ability to drive business success. There are far too many people that have a strong opinion about marketing but lack either meaningful data and/or understanding of their target audience. Successful marketing leaders use both empirical data and in-depth target audience research to yield strong business success.
Collect data that provides accurate information. But don’t stop there. Examine your consumers/clients. Learn about their buyer journey. Learn what influences them in their purchase decisions. Learn how to motivate them and their decisions to yield preference for your product/services. Connect. Listen. Engage.
Marketing success comes with the right mix of data and then, enriched research and understanding.
Why invest in content marketing? Do you actually have a content strategy? Why use social media? Consider these questions and get prudent answers …
Simply stated, content marketing is useless without a content strategy. Recently, I read an article “Moving From Content Marketing to Content Strategy” According to the article, 8 in 10 companies use content marketing, but less than 4 in 10 enterprises have and use a buyer journey. Thus, I want to share with three considerations for a content strategy.
1) Start with a Brand Definition and Product Positioning Statement
The brand is at the core of it all. You cannot have a successful product/service, content plan, and communication execution without a solid brand definition and position. “The goal of brand marketing is to link your identity, values, and personality with communications to your audience. Essentially, your brand is the bridge between your product and your customer. Brand marketing is not just about putting your logo and business name in as many places as possible and expecting to generate sales. Many times, the importance of brand marketing gets overlooked, as it takes time. Many marketing departments are focused on short-term goals, rather than nurturing long-term goals that impact the entire business, like building a brand.” (Source)
What is a brand strategy?
A brand strategy can be hard to define but encompasses:
What your brand stands for.
What promises your brand makes to customers.
What personality your brand conveys through its marketing.
Here are three things every brand needs to define:
So you believe you have a strong product or service for a defined target market. Your next step is that you need a positioning statement that succinctly defines your offering. Here is the product positioning statement:
For …………….………… [target customer]
Who ……………….……. [key qualifier – form]
Our product is a ….. [product category]
That provides ………. [key benefit]
Unlike ………………….. [main competitor]
Our product ……….… [key point of differentiation]
This positioning statement is for internal use only. It is not explicitly communicated. The positioning statement should drive your content and communication plan. All content and communication should support and reinforce the product/service positioning statement.
Content Strategy
Your content strategy is the intersection of the brand and product strategy coupled with your target audience behaviors, needs, wants, and motivations. You should lean more to what is compelling to your audience than pushing your own brand agenda. Your content strategy objective is to get your target audience emotionally attached to your brand.
I have written an extremely detailed content strategy playbook that can be found here:
The series provides the following:
Content Marketing Goals and Objectives
Determining your Target Audience for Content
Leveraging Your Brand Position to Produce Compelling Content
Social Audits to Drive Content Marketing
Messaging Strategy Before Content Strategy
Developing a Content Marketing Strategy
How Do You Know Your Content Will Pay Dividends
Content Marketing Metrics
The Power of Orchestrated UGC – (User Generated Content)
Earned Media – Finding Influencers to Distribute your Content
What Does It Mean to Produce Data Driven Content?
How to Determine Which Content is Driving Success for Your Brand
Communication Strategy
The communication strategy should be driven by your target audience behaviors – the platforms they are active on and how they are influenced. Understanding your audience behavior will drive you to a communication plan. Your communication methodology must include a plan that utilizes owned, earned, and paid media. It also needs to address the use of original, curated, user-generated, and influencer content.
2) Integrating Owned, Earned, and Paid Media
Look at the figure above. Across the x axis, you can see there are three time phases of a campaign defined – pre-reveal, reveal, and post reveal. The horizontals on the y axis are three different media types. Starting with owned media, it is good to leak some content early on. This could be in the form of a teaser, trailer, or even releasing excerpts before the big promotion or reveal. By doing so, you start to create some interests and following. It primes earned media for the official reveal, promotion, or release. Obviously the reveal or promotion time is when most of your content is released. But there is also an opportunity to produce and release content after the promotion. Content that talks to and summarizes the event or launch and reinforces the reveal in a compelling and entertaining way.
“Earned media is coverage or promotion of your brand through organic means. It’s a very effective form of content marketing and is also the toughest media type to get.” It includes reviews, media coverage, guest posts, mentions, social shares, and (free) influencers. (Source) Earned media is leveraging your audience and advocates to help circulate and further promote your content. It starts by having content that is worthy of sharing. Assuming that is in place, you seed your content or provide references to it in places where your audience exists.
Paid media execution should take place during the actual promotion time. This is both an economical and strategic decision. Economic because you want to minimize expenses; strategic in that it focuses at the premiere time. Maximize exposure – minimize expenses doing so.
3) Understand the A-Path for Social Media to Optimize Users’ Experience and Content Marketing Results
This chart above is referred to as the “A-Path.” As a brand, first you want to get your targets’ “Attention.” Then you want them to be “Attracted” to you. Once the targets are attracted to the brand, we want them to build “Affinity” for the brand. As they start to build affinity for the brand, we want the targets to literally opt-in to be part of the brand “Audience.” A subset of the Audience will be power users and look to turn these individuals into brand “Advocates.”
In the beginning of this A-Path we work off of the brand’s assets (or the non-brand digital assets – the whole universe of digital conversations that are not owned by the brand). We monitor the entire digital space for relevant conversations and engage with the consumer where the conversations are happening. We then refer these people to the brand’s digital assets and build Affinity by producing valuable (informative and entertaining) content. As we build Affinity, we offer opportunities to join the brand assets (follow, like, register). We then identify the power users and engage one-on-one to build advocates.
Note that the strategy of following this A-Path approach is to start to attract your target audience in digital spaces they participate in and slowly bring them to your digital assets. Company pages on platforms such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Tik-Tok, etc are NOT your digital assets. You do not own them and you are subject to their rules, and regulations. They should be perceived as gateways to YOUR digital assets such as your website, blog, and landing pages.
CONCLUSION AND HELP TO MAKE IT HAPPEN
Content strategy is the essence of brand communication. A content strategy should be aimed at increasing your audience and their “stickiness” to your brand. Don’t just produce content. Align a content strategy with the journey of your customer/client. Invest in the upfront work and see measurable results.
Are you looking for a niche customer audience? Quasi-niche? Mass market? Before you decide, there are major considerations to be made.
For starters, no brand can be everything to everyone. If you attempt this approach, I promise you will not have anything deeply compelling for any individuals or customer segments.
There is a trade off between relevance to an ideal customer and expanding the number of customers you serve. Consider the diagram below:
As you add features and other aspects of your product/service to increase your target audience, you potentially lose relevance to your ideal customer. In other words, as you determine your brand and product/service positioning, you need to remain most relevant to your ideal customer/client. At the same time you want to have as large of an audience as possible to increase customers and generate maximum revenue, but not to the extent that you diminish relevancy to your ideal customer.
Building brand architecture and product/service positioning are imperative for success. Too many companies ignore what it truly means to build a brand and the business value of doing so. At the same time, brand definitions and product offerings need to support a financial business model that yield growth and profitability.
So while it seems easy to answer the question above (how big do you want your customer base to be) by saying massive, that is not a likely response to being profitable and successful. Start with a detailed and honest financial plan. This will determine how big your audience needs to be to yield positive financial results. The financial plan should consider your offering, ability to deliver, budget constraints, competition, and other unforeseen challenges. Then build a brand architecture and product position that can realistically capture the customer-base size required for business success.
Although this may seem obvious, how many entrepreneurs and business executives actually do it?
Your customer-base size is limited by investments and your operational cost of doing business. Your customer-base size has limits based upon relevancy to an ideal customer. Once that ideal customer is defined, your mission is to define how many degrees beyond that ideal customer you can traverse (as shown in the concentric circles in the diagram above) to capture a larger audience while remaining most relevant to that ideal customer. Your business success depends upon this – make it happen and please reach out if you need help.
Serendipity: “the occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way;” and “the faculty or phenomenon of finding valuable or agreeable things not sought for.”
Earlier this week, I wrote a post on LinkedIn that started saying, “It is a magical thing when everything falls into place.” Some would call this serendipity, and I agree, but I also think there is a way to increase the probability of serendipity. Here is how:
Follow your intuition.
Allow yourself to be in places that are not comfortable.
Help others.
Practice true networking – engage with people without an agenda or in hope of a transaction.
Exercise resilience.
Many people play PowerBall or Mega Millions in which the odds of winning are 1 in 292,201,338 and 1 in 302,575,350, respectively. The way to increase your probability of winning is playing the same number over and over again. That is the equivalent of putting yourself out there.
Increase your odds by believing in YOU! Odds that will be much greater than just playing the lottery to get you the payoff you are looking for. Keep playing in what you believe in; what you want to do; what you aspire to be.
Create opportunities for serendipity to fall in your lap. In other words, I will leave you with one of my favorite lines …
How do you feel? Really, how do you feel? The past couple of years has really paid its toll on many people’s mental well being. It is time to move forward to a better quality of life. And that is much easier said than done. How does one dig themself out of negativity? Answer: with help. And YOU are the help that other people need.
“Researchers and leaders have looked for the secret to successful leadership for centuries … The one thing that supersedes all these factors is positive relational energy: the energy exchanged between people that helps uplift, enthuse, and renew them.” (Source)
It is up to YOU to make people feel better – uplift them, enthuse them, and renew them. Interested in doing so?
You can, and should be the one. Whether that is for your own personal success or truly wanting to help others, it is in your best interest to push and sell positivity. From my perspective, it is all about “motivation” as opposed to “fear.” Untap your team. Make each individual reach their potential. Encourage collaboration and unify.
I have worked in many different environments, for many different bosses. I have had ones that have been great motivators via positive energy, encouraging challenges, and efforts to get the most out of me. I have also worked for bosses that were brutal and worked to instill fear as part of their management style. A couple even to the point of emotional abuse. When I look back on my career, I can say unequivocally that my greatest professional successes have come from environments that were motivational. A large and growing body of research on positive organizational psychology demonstrates that a cut-throat environment is harmful to productivity over time. It adds that a positive environment will lead to dramatic benefits for employers, employees, and the bottom line as stated in the article in Harvard Business Review, “Proof That Positive Work Cultures Are More Productive.”
I will take this theme of “positivity” one step further as it relates to business. Your brand presence and marketing needs to be positive and uplifting. You need to instill promise, hope, and inspiration to your target audience. Just about everyone has had some degree of mental setback in the past couple of years and they need to be uplifted. A great example of this approach to marketing is an advertisement Google ran at the end of 2021 shown here:
It is time for business leaders to take part in shaping the future of society, communities, and individuals. Businesses have a great degree of impact on all these groups. And whether you truly care about your customers/clients or solely your revenue/profit, there are strong reasons to promote positivity in your professional life. It is time!
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