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Our Audiences Aren’t Stupid. Let’s Take Them Seriously.
I dislike “meet them where they’re at” marketing advice. It feels like contempt for the audience. Let’s assume our customers and readers are smart and brave
Business Tip for Culture Makers #421: Ditch the Makeover Myth
In conventional online marketing, we’re taught to “manufacture” authority with a makeover story. Why? So that people will obey our authority and buy.
The Patriarchal Promise, Part 2
There is a reason many men feel like they have been wronged or disenfranchised. They believed that the promise of patriarchy included them, but it didn’t.
The Love + Justice Reading Rally: March 2018
I’ve been saving what I’ve been reading and metabolizing this month, these are some of the pieces threading their way into my consciousness this month.
Business Tip for Culture Makers #1225: Yes, Use Photos of Yourself!
Our challenge is to develop that well of images while avoiding conventional, performative beauty-signalling that props up existing oppressive narratives.
Determining The Colour of Our Blooms
A lot of what comes out of our mouths — and even what we think — is predetermined by our conditioning, our culture. We can, and must, interrupt this.
On Work and Breaks and the Natural Rhythms of a Well-Lived Life
To achieve and thrive in that new world we’re dreaming of – justice! – we need to ground our work in a well-lived life that includes breaks from our work.
Look for the cracks in the system and go ahead and bloom
It’s not just you. It’s really not. Knowing how our culture frames our personal struggles is overwhelming or disheartening, it’s actually a source of power.
Business Tip for Culture Makers #314: Save Marketing You Love
Dear Culture Making Entrepreneurs: let’s learn from what we love.
Business Tip for Culture Makers #301: Use Social Media Posts To Refine Your Ideas
What if social media isn’t a time suck, after all? What if, rather than distracting you from your work, creating short social media posts can be a deliberate refinement practice that helps further develop and concisely articulate your ideas?
Culture Making (aka Thought Leadership) Means Speaking *Their* Language
Culture Makers and Thought Leaders have a Language Dilemma and it is getting in the way of our work in the world.
Here`s the invisible barrier in our IP & thought leadership:
We are practitioners. We are in mastery. We are in love with our subject matter.
And so we speak Expert.
We speak Nerd.
We forget how to speak People.
And if there`s not a bridge between those two languages, our people won`t be able to hear us, find us or understand that we`ve got things that will help.
Because we`re speaking a different language.
And so we need to understand what the person --who we want to influence or who wants to learn from us-- wants, in their own words.
We need to understand what THEY think the problem is (especially if we`ve come to a different conclusion).
We need to understand what it is they`re trying to learn.
We need to know what`s going on in their life.
We need to know the words that fall out of their mouth and then start using them, ourselves.
We need to know intimately and forensically the person we`re trying to influence or who wants to be influenced by our systems of thought.
And when we`re over here in love with our subject matter, we don`t speak that language anymore.
We speak Expert.
We have to remember how to speak People.
#BridgeTheLanguageGap #ThoughtLeadership #ThoughtLeader #SpeakTheirLanguage #IP #IntellectualProperty #MeaningfulWork #BodyOfWork #WeAreTheCultureMakers
#CultureMakersLanguageDilemma #Externalize #GetYourIdeasOutOfYourHeadAndIntoTheWorld #PutTheThoughtsBackInThoughtLeadership
Jun 10
Most of the people doing the *real* thought leadership work -
the ones in the mix with us, developing new practices, processes, ideas, solutions and challenging industry norms --
would cringe at the idea of calling themselves a thought leader.
Because the dominant narrative around `thought leadership` is about positioning, posturing and clout-chasing.
But that, IMHO, is fake thought leadership. That`s about manufacturing authority rather than earning it with a robust, methodologized, coherent body of work.
(No wonder we cringe.)
True thought leadership -- culture making! -- is about so much more than just standing on a stage or topping Google searches.
True thought leadership is about externalizing your ideas into a meaningful, systematic body of work.
Let`s get our ideas out of heads and into the world --
And let`s put the thoughts back in thought leadership.
#ThoughtLeadership #Externalize #MeaningfulWork #BuildYourBodyOfWork #WeAreTheCultureMakers #FakeThoughtLeader
Jun 9
