Posts by Christopher Lochhead
260 The Raging 2020s: Companies, Countries, People, and the Fight for Our Future with NY Times Bestselling Author Alec Ross
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On this episode of Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different, we ask the question: Will the future of the United States of America look more like Star Trek or Road Warrior? With us to answer that question is Alec Ross.
Alec Ross is the author of The New York Times bestseller, The Industries of the Future. And he has a brand-new bestseller out called The Raging 2020s: Companies, Countries, People and the Fight for our Future. Alec is a distinguished visiting professor at the University of Bologna business school, and he’s a venture capitalist at Amplo, a global VC firm.
If you have listened to our recent episode with Dr. Cedric Alexander, this dialogue will serve as a great continuation on the State of America (FYD 259), albeit from a different perspective. If you haven’t, why not give it a listen as well?
Alec Ross on Channeling Your Rage
The conversation starts on the topic of Alec Ross’ new book, The Raging 2020s. While the term “raging” often has the connotation of being good, it also can have a bad meaning. While it can denote people having a rolling good time, it can also mean anger, on the verge of violence.
Which is not to say that we should always suppress our anger. For Alec, powerful emotions like that can be a huge part of the creative progress.
“Figuring out how you can harness emotion, anger, volatility, and produce beautiful words, beautiful music, (and/or) beautiful oil on canvas. Also, the greatest athletes are those who know how to focus their rage.” – Alec Ross
For Alec, it’s all about focusing and channeling those powerful emotions into something creative or productive, rather than letting it take over your life.
The Raging 2020s
Exploring further into the book, Alec explains that he wrote The Raging 2020s to show in part why everybody seems so angry right now. As discussed earlier, anger and rage could be channeled into ways that it could be productive. But when the rage becomes more collective, and entire segments of society are angry, what you get is violence.
“I do feel like a lot, there is rage coming right now in America, both from the parts of America that have nothing to lose, as well of those parts of America that have something to protect, and believe that they can’t necessarily grow what they have.” – Alec Ross
Oftentimes, this is what happens when the when there isn’t a shared sense of what we can get together. For Alec, it is something both interesting yet terrifying to observe.
Star Trek or Mad Max?
Alec then talks about the question that is in the heart of his new book. Which is, will our future look more like Mad Max, or Star Trek?
If you aren’t familiar, Star Trek is set on a future where humanity has reached for the stars and enjoys continued progress and abundance. Whereas in Mad Max, we get a dystopian future with scarce resources and chaos all around.
Alec says the future is entirely up to us.
“The degree to which the future does look more like Star Trek or more like Mad Max, is entirely up to us. And I do think that if you have a mindset and an approach that’s rooted in production and creation, as opposed to destruction, that’s the beginning of any sort of progress.” – Alec Ross
To hear more from Alec Ross and how the United States of America will end up in the future, download and listen to this episode.
Bio
Alec Ross is a New York Times best-selling author and Distinguished Visiting Professor at l’Universitá di Bologna Business School.
He is the author of the recently published The Raging 2020s: Companies, Countries, People and the Fight for Our Future.
His prior book The Industries of the Future has been translated into 24 languages and been a best-seller on 5 continents.
He is a Board Partner at Amplo, a global venture capital firm and sits on the board of directors or advisors for companies in the fields of technology, finance, education, human capital and cybersecurity.
He is also an adviser to investors, start-ups and government leaders to help them understand the implication of macro factors emerging at the intersection of geopolitics, markets and increasingly disruptive network technologies.
Specialties include: international market development, executive coaching, cybersecurity, consumer Internet, and board governance.
Recognitions include:
- Named one of Top 100 Global Thinkers by Foreign Policy Magazine
- S. Department of State Distinguished Honor Award
- Oxford University Internet & Society Award
- Huffington Post’s 10 Game Changers in Politics
- Tribeca Film Festival Disruptive Innovation Award honoree
Links
Connect with Alec Ross!
Website | Twitter | LinkedIn | Amazon Books
We hope you enjoyed this episode of Follow Your Different™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and subscribe on iTunes!
140 Microsoft Buying Activision Blizzard: What Most People Don’t Get
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This episode is based on some of the thinking in the #1 bestseller: The Category Design Toolkit: Beyond Marketing: 15 Frameworks For Creating & Dominating Your Niche
Since Microsoft announced that its purchasing Activision Blizzard for $70 billion, a lot of people have called this stupid. Others said Microsoft overpaid, and other various things. So on this episode of Lochhead on Marketing, let’s break down why this acquisition is actually a legendary move and examine the difference between acceleration deals in growing categories, and consolidation deals in slow growth to declining categories.
Let’s also look at Microsoft buying Activision Blizzard from the future, as opposed to from the present.
Welcome to Lochhead on Marketing. The number one charting marketing podcast for marketers, category designers, and entrepreneurs with a different mind.
Did Microsoft Overpay for Activision Blizzard?
Most people think that Microsoft overpaid with the $70 billion price tag on Activision Blizzard. Not necessarily.
People tend to look at this as a consolidation deal, where Microsoft buying a company at a decline, which is not. The important point of the deal was to facilitate Category Acceleration. The goal of this deal or purchase is to buy a leading position in a category with a massive future potential. They are not buying people, products, customers, or even the revenue; they’re buying a dominant position in a category with massive growth potential going forward.
These types of deals are often employed by Category Designers that are actively pursuing the next Category King. A practice that Satya Nadella, the CEO of Microsoft, seems to be well aware of.
The Big Play for the Metaverse
So why did Microsoft purchase Activision Blizzard?
Simply put, Microsoft is making a huge bet on the new Metaverse. For them, the gaming category will be the gateway into getting a solid foothold in the metaverse. Here’s what Satya Nadella has said on the matter:
“Gaming is the most dynamic and exciting category in entertainment across all platforms today, and will play a key role in the development of Metaverse platforms”
Digital Natives and the Digital Gaming Industry
In 2020, the online gaming category in the US reached a peak of 166 billion. Why is that? Well, it’s because of the 140 million Native Digitals in the US alone, 70% of which identify as gamers. Digital Gaming has been a booming business lately that it has far outstripped Hollywood. Also, there are now colleges and universities that offer scholarships to a new category of athletes who play eSports.
Yes, Native Analogs. Young people today are getting college scholarships for playing video games.
Getting a Head Start on the Metaverse
You all probably know about the Metaverse by now, and watched the bizarre presentation that Mark Zuckerberg did. In that presentation, he said Facebook is investing 10 billion on the Metaverse. Microsoft just one-upped them and did 70 billion.
Consider this as well: aside from Facebook, most of Meta’s category-defining products and services were not internal projects. Their key brands and properties were startups that they have acquired once the category has proven successful and already dominate as Category Kings.
In terms of the Metaverse, Meta might be on to something. Unfortunately, it will take a lot of time to develop and visualize what they want their metaverse to be like. Microsoft, by buying Activision Blizzard, sort of stole the march from them and established an initial goal for their idea of the metaverse, and an existing system to implement it on. In other words, this deal suddenly puts Microsoft in the pole position and the driver’s seat.
To hear more about Microsoft buying Activision Blizzard and why it all makes sense, download and listen to this episode.
Bio
Christopher Lochhead is a #1 Apple podcaster and #1 Amazon bestselling co-author of books: Niche Down and Play Bigger.
He has been an advisor to over 50 venture-backed startups; a former three-time Silicon Valley public company CMO and an entrepreneur.
Furthermore, he has been called “one of the best minds in marketing” by The Marketing Journal, a “Human Exclamation Point” by Fast Company, a “quasar” by NBA legend Bill Walton and “off-putting to some” by The Economist.
In addition, he served as a chief marketing officer of software juggernaut Mercury Interactive. Hewlett-Packard acquired the company in 2006, for $4.5 billion.
He also co-founded the marketing consulting firm LOCHHEAD; the founding CMO of Internet consulting firm Scient, and served as head of marketing at the CRM software firm Vantive.
We hope you enjoyed this episode of Lochhead on Marketing™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and subscribe on iTunes!
259 The State of America with Dr. Cedric Alexander, Former Police Chief & President of the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives
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On today’s special episode of Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different, we have a deep conversation about the State of America. The United States of America is facing some meaningful challenges right now, and who better to help us unravel everything than Dr. Cedric Alexander.
Dr. Cedric Alexander had a 40-year career in policing, public service, and mental health. He is the former police chief and Public Safety Director in DeKalb County, Georgia. He is also the former police chief of Rochester, New York, where he served as the federal security director in the TSA. Dr. Alexander also served on President Obama’s Task Force on 21st century policing. He is also the author of the hit book, The New Guardians: Policing in America’s Communities for the 21st century.
Now, you often see Dr. Alexander on TV, or even up on a stage giving a speech. But unlike the TV where you only get a few minutes with him, today we go deep in an incredibly thoughtful conversation in a way that you only can on a real dialogue podcast.
Dr. Cedric Alexander on the Upcoming Elections
The conversation started off on the topic of the upcoming midterms on 2022, and the subsequent presidential election on 2024. Particularly, on whether people could expect violence during these times, with regards to the events that unfolded last election.
Being a former lawman himself, Dr. Cedric Alexander can’t help but think about it as well. With regards to what happened in the 6th of January in 2021, it has certainly created a great deal of pause and concern for the country.
As for his perspective, Dr. Alexander thinks that there is too much politics and taking sides involved that the Right and the Left are so divided. He finds it difficult to take sides with one or the other, because his concern and ideas require both sides to work together to fix the nation.
“It’s very difficult to me for me to take sides with one over the other, because I think politics get played all the way around. What I’m concerned about is not their politics, but this nation as we know it.” – Dr. Cedric Alexander
Sit Down and Talk
When asked if there is a chance for both sides to have a more civil dialogue as opposed to inciting violence whenever they don’t get the desired results, Dr. Alexander has this to say:
“My thought is that both sides of the aisle, in my humble opinion, struggle for good leadership. Leadership that is not grounded in the party you belong to. Leadership that is grounded in the fact that we have to work together to find a way, or we’re going to continue to be in this very risky posture that we are in right now. “ – Dr. Cedric Alexander
In order to avoid a repeat of what happened on January 6, it’s going to take leadership coming from both sides of the aisle. Not political leadership, but humanistic leadership. A leadership with proper morals, and one that comes from the heart.
The Perpetuation of the Election Fraud Claims
They then talk briefly about the continuous perpetuation that the election was stolen, despite numerous proofs and actual recounts done in some states.
Dr. Alexander says that this is a dangerous precedent.
“We’re almost at a point where even if I show you that clear evidence of anything, is still not believed. That is dangerous, brother.” – Dr. Cedric Alexander
According to him, this also all boils down to leadership problems, as some of the leaders themselves are perpetuating this belief, in order to curry favor or not be ostracized by their party.
To hear more from Dr. Cedric Alexander and the State of America, download and listen to this episode.
Bio
Dr. Cedric L. Alexander
A visionary leader who has served over four decades in law enforcement and public service, there’s few more qualified to speak on the growing strife between race, communities, and the police.
In his frequent, high profile commentary on CNN’s Amanpour, NBC News, and MSNBC, he poses the hard questions about systemic racism in our country and the need for police reform.
Dr. Alexander remains front and center on these issues that have inflamed our nation.
He speaks out on the violence while providing concrete solutions about how to navigate these troubled waters to address the problems plaguing law enforcement and the communities of color they serve.
Dr. Alexander brings to the conversation lengthy experience as the former Chief of Police in DeKalb County, GA, President of the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives, and member of President Obama’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing. Throughout his career, he has been pivotal in reforming troubled police departments and restoring trust between them and their communities.
He is also the author of In Defense of Public Service: How 22 Million Government Workers Will Save Our Republic that features endorsements from the late U.S. Representative Elijah Cummings, Retired Major General James “Spider” Marks, and attorney Barry Scheck from the Innocence Project.
His insight into the non-elected “fourth branch” of government—our nation’s public servants, civil servants, and first responders—as those who will save the nation by helping bring our greatly divided society together is uncanny during today’s times.
Cedric has testified before the House Oversight and Reform Committee on Facial Recognition Technology, as well as on the pros and cons of using body cameras, drones, and crime mapping in law enforcement.
He sits on the board of the Innocence Project, working to exonerate the wrongly convicted through DNA testing and reforming the criminal justice system to prevent future injustice.
He is also consulting with companies such as AT&T FirstNet, the first nationwide network dedicated to public safety to help law enforcement, fire service, and EMS do their jobs safely and effectively.
With a doctorate in clinical psychology from Wright State University, Cedric is equipped to address the prevailing issues nationwide. In every situation, he conveys a sharp understanding of human nature, the breadth of issues facing our communities, and how to break through to create a solution everyone can unite behind. Widely respected for his ability to lead thoughtfully and respectfully, he transcends both public and private sectors in an effort to foster positive change.
Links
Linkedin: in/CedricLAlexanderPsyD
Twitter: @CAlexLaw
Amazon Books: The New Guardians
Other information about Dr. Cedric Alexander:
This is a Job for Cedric Alexander
Dr. Cedric Alexander on Capitol Security
We hope you enjoyed this episode of Follow Your Different™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and subscribe on iTunes!
139 How To Inspire Legendary Marketing Work
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On this episode, let’s talk about how to inspire legendary creative marketing people to do their legendary creative marketing work.
Welcome to Lochhead on Marketing. The number one charting marketing podcast for marketers, category designers, and entrepreneurs with a different mind.
Letting Legendary Creative Marketing People Do Legendary Creative Marketing Work
Years ago, I was the head of marketing for a red-hot internet company called Scient. We had engaged with a group of creative marketers, designers, and copywriters led by the legend himself, John Bielenberg.
At the beginning of the project, this is what I said to him:
“Look, I know you guys are standalone, in terms of the incredible legendary marketing creative you guys create. So what I’m asking you to do is go away, and design the most legendary piece of work you’ve ever done.”
In this case, it was a brochure that will serve as “grenade”: it was the kind of piece that when you got it, you knew you got it, and you never forgot getting it.
They did just that. So when they came back a week or two to present their work, I asked the question that I always ask, “Do you think what you’re about to show us is legendary work?” John smiled and looked at me and said, “Yes, we do,” and he showed us this most legendary brochure that he created.
Acknowledge Your Legendary Creative Marketing Team’s Efforts
Another thing to address is to let your creatives know that you are aware that their best works don’t usually see the light of day. This is either due to poor follow-through by the higher-ups, or poor feedback from people who weren’t involved in the project, but higher up the food chain.
So acknowledge this and then tell them, that once they deliver a legendary creative marketing piece that will blow away everyone, you will fight tooth-and-nail for it to see the light of day.
Once they do so, remind them to remind you to not fuck it up.
The Takeaway
So what’s the lesson here?
First, when you’re talking to creative people about doing creative work, let them know that you want them to do their most legendary work. Feedback and instructions are good, but it’s best to let their creative juices run wild.
Second, let them know that you also know that most of their most legendary work has never seen the light of day. This is because most of the companies they worked for or the clients that they had didn’t have the courage to execute their legendary work. They didn’t have the courage to say to them, once they presented truly legendary work, “Don’t let us fuck this up.”
Now, here’s the other AHA about this. If you as a marketing leader/CEO/CMO get a reputation with the creative people in your company for A) inspiring it and asking them to do legendary work, and then B) with very few modifications, actually execute the legendary work, guess what happens the next time they have to do something creative. They know that you want their most legendary work. Also, they know that if they put the thinking and their heart and their soul and their blood, sweat, tears and whiskey into that work, that you are not going to be the leader who takes that legendary work and lets it get crushed and watered down so that it never sees the light of day.
And when legendary creative people know that you want them to do their legendary work and that you’re actually going to implement it, guess what?
They’re going to keep giving you legendary work.
Bio
Christopher Lochhead is a #1 Apple podcaster and #1 Amazon bestselling co-author of books: Niche Down and Play Bigger.
He has been an advisor to over 50 venture-backed startups; a former three-time Silicon Valley public company CMO and an entrepreneur.
Furthermore, he has been called “one of the best minds in marketing” by The Marketing Journal, a “Human Exclamation Point” by Fast Company, a “quasar” by NBA legend Bill Walton and “off-putting to some” by The Economist.
In addition, he served as a chief marketing officer of software juggernaut Mercury Interactive. Hewlett-Packard acquired the company in 2006, for $4.5 billion.
He also co-founded the marketing consulting firm LOCHHEAD; the founding CMO of Internet consulting firm Scient, and served as head of marketing at the CRM software firm Vantive.
We hope you enjoyed this episode of Lochhead on Marketing™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and subscribe on Apple Podcast! You may also subscribe to his newsletter, The Difference, for some amazing content.
258 Get It Done: Surprising Lessons from the Science of Motivation with Ayelet Fishbach, PhD
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What is the source of human motivation? In this episode of Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different, Dr. Ayelet Fishbach shares the real science behind what motivates people to get things done.
Dr. Ayelet Fischbach is the author of the no.1 bestselling and deeply researched book, Get It Done: Surprising lessons from the science of motivation. She is an award-winning psychologist at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and the past president of the Society for the Study of Motivation.
What you are about to hear is a powerful dialogue about what it really takes to get and stay motivated, and ultimately get it done.
Dr. Ayelet Fischbach on Tying Productivity with Activity
The conversation starts with Christopher commenting that he feels that he has been less productive compared to his previous career. This was mostly due to his past work being so fast-paced and packed with activity, that he feels he is not as effective as he once was.
Dr. Fishbach responds that this is something that people often get confused about, which is associating productivity with activity. Sometimes people bombard themselves with a lot mundane tasks and call it a productive day, rather than getting something meaningful done that actually makes progress.
“If you took the day to think about a new idea, if you had a new idea for a book today, that would play an incredible day, right? Like, these are the best days for you. And they don’t involve their eight meetings. Back-to-back meetings are often a waste of time and we just fill up our time with all this nonsense.” – Dr. Ayelet Fishbach
You Can’t Put a Schedule on Creativity
One of the things that can be hard to put a schedule on is getting the motivation or inspiration to be creative. You could of course schedule times where you can get yourself in the “zone” to be creative, but it is not a guaranteed thing most of the time.
Dr. Fishbach agrees with this, and says that sometimes, you need to allot time and bandwidth for it to happen. This means that you might have to allow big chunks of your day on just letting your mind think. You might even have to shelve it for later, or sleep on an idea to let it develop further in your head.
“Well, creativity requires that you are able to sleep on something that you are able to, to think about it without reaching a conclusion without having the solution yet.” – Dr. Ayelet Fishbach
Dr. Ayelet Fishbach on the Definition of being Productive
That being said, what is the definition of being productive or effective? What does it mean to get things done?
To answer this, Dr. Fishbach shares the story behind her book’s cover. While thinking of a cover for her book, one of the designs her publisher presented had a to-do list. Dr. Fishbach said that that particular design would not work. Because for her, being productive does not mean having a to-do list.
“(Having a list) is not what I mean by getting things done. (You start off by) thinking about what goals are important for you. Okay, what gets priority? Is it your creativity? Is it taking care of something, of someone, and how these goals work with each other? So we start by identifying where we want to be, what we want to do, and then that the second element is monitoring your progress.
The third element is managing all the other things that are going on in your life. You never want just one thing. So what happens with the rest?
And the fourth is gathering social support. Who in your life is helping you? Who stands in the way? How do you get closer to the people that are helping you be the person that you want to be? This is a very broad overview of the framework of my world, the book, Get it Done, and not the to-do list.” – Dr. Ayelet Fishbach
To hear more from Dr. Ayelet Fishbach and how you can get things done, download and listen to this episode.
Bio
Dr. Ayelet Fishbach studies social psychology, management and consumer behavior. She is an expert on motivation and decision making. She has presented her research all over the world.
Dr. Fishbach’s research has been published in psychology, management and marketing journals, including Psychological Review, Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, Journal of Marketing Research, Psychological Science, and the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Her research is regularly featured in the media, including WSJ, CNN, Chicago Tribune, NPR and was selected to be featured in the New York Times ‘Annual Years in Ideas.’
Dr. Fishbach has served as an Associate Editor on several journals, including Psychological Science and the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, and she has served on the editorial board of leading journals in psychology and management. She has further served as the president of the International Social Cognition Network (ISCON) and the Society for the Study of Motivation.
Dr. Fishbach is the recipient of several international awards, including the Society of Experimental Social Psychology’s Best Dissertation Award, Career Trajectory Award, and the Fulbright Educational Foundation Award. In 2006, she received the Provost’s Teaching Award from the University of Chicago.
Dr. Fishbach earned a bachelor’s degree with distinction in psychology in 1992, a master’s degree summa cum laude in psychology in 1995, and a PhD magna cum laude in psychology in 1999, all from Tel Aviv University. She joined the Chicago Booth faculty in 2002.
Links
Connect with Dr. Ayelet Fishbach!
About Dr. Ayelet Fishbach | LinkedIn | Twitter | Amazon Books
We hope you enjoyed this episode of Follow Your Different™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and subscribe on iTunes!
138 Unlocking Native Digitals with Hannah Grady Williams, author of Unlocking Gen Z
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Welcome to part two of the Native Digitals series here at Lochhead on Marketing. On this episode, we have a conversation with Hannah Grady Williams on how your business can tap into the Native Digitals workforce. For those who are not familiar of what Native Digitals are, give part one of this series a quick listen (LOM 137).
Hannah Grady Williams is the Gen Z CEO Advisor, sort of like a Gen Z whisperer for CEOs and executive. She is the author of a new book called A Leader’s Guide to Unlocking Gen Z: Inside strategies to empower your team.
If you are over the age of 35, which is a Native Analog, this is a must-listen podcast. Because Hannah has a tremendous amount of insight for how Native Analogs can bridge the gap to work, recruit, and build our companies with a whole new slew of Native Digitals workforce.
Generation Differences: Gen X vs Gen Z, Native Digital vs Native Analog
When asked if the generation differences also coincide with the category of Native Analogs and Native Digitals, Hannah says that there are overlaps, but they are not completely the same. These overlaps are more on how each generation treats technology.
“Well, Gen Z, you think about all the kids sitting around the table constantly on their phones, not paying attention to anything. To you, you think it’s a distraction or something that’s taking my mind and my presence away from the people around me. The way I see it is a door that opens me to experiences I never could have had in my natural environment. As I’ve grown older, I’ve realized that distinction of the way that my generation looks at the world.” – Hannah Grady Williams
How Native Digitals Use Technology, and Why Analogs Don’t Get It
Hannah then talks about the time his brother mentioned what he has learned from Tik Tok. If you are a casual user, you might think that the platform is just all dance and viral memes. Yet there are people who use the platform to share important life lessons and tips they have learned themselves, in digestible, bite-size content.
Sadly, most parents’ reaction to someone just spending their time on social media is to just strip their phones or tablets from them. Rather than engaging with them and understanding, they just stop the activity. Because again, to them that is all just distraction.
“What they don’t realize, you know, if I’m looking from a Gen Xers perspective, or a Boomer’s perspective, I think of technology maybe the same way as any other technological innovation that might distract you from family time at the dinner table. But the way my generation sees it is, not only are we getting access to an entirely new world of people. It’s actually a portal to a new world. it’s a portal, it’s a new way of thinking.” – Hannah Grady Williams
Millennials and Gen Z are the New Category of Humans
Hannah states that Native Digitals is a great way of describing the New Age of Humans that we have now. She also thinks that it will become more pronounced once the next generation Gen Alpha, comes around.
Hannah then brings up a book called Ready Player One. It is about living immersed in a digital world and treating the real world as the alternative. While the real-world economy is at a downfall, it didn’t really matter to its citizens. As their life is spent in their digital selves, they saw no need to be lavish in real life.
While it is an exaggerated version, it does mirror how Native Digitals prioritize their digital lives over their physical ones. You see people buying expensive digital products while in real life, they barely buy new clothes and the like.
That’s what Native Analogs should take note this early. Otherwise, they might be left hanging once almost everything goes fully digital.
To hear more from Hannah Grady Williams and how your business can reel in the Gen Z and Native Digitals of the world, download and listen to this episode.
Bio
Hannah Williams’s story began in a blue pickup truck when her father handed 12-year-old Hannah the phone and asked her to close a deal on an investment property. After this unexpected introduction to the world of entrepreneurship.
She found herself thrust into a climate of innovation, challenge, and opportunity and she enrolled in college at age 14 and graduated with a degree in international business at age 18. Now, as a 23-year old Gen Z, she has consulted businesses from start-ups to Fortune 500 companies and is on a mission to help leaders leverage Gen Z talent as a competitive advantage and build #RadicalEmpathy in the workplace.
Links
Email:
ha****@ha*************.com
LinkedIn: in/Hannah-Williams-Experience-Consultant
Read Hannah’s New Book!
A Leader’s Guide to Unlocking Gen Z
We hope you enjoyed this episode of Lochhead on Marketing™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and subscribe on iTunes!
137 New Category of Humans: Native Digitals Are Transforming The World & No One’s Paying Attention!
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Originally published in ?☠️ Category Pirates: It’s not a weekly newsletter. It’s a weekly mini-book.
Lately, there has been a fundamental, dare I say, seminal change in the category design of human beings. That is to say, the definition of what a human is has changed. You see, if you’re 35 and up, you are the last of a dying breed called Native Analogs. If you’re 35 or younger, you are the first generation of Native Digitals.
Native Digital’s experience life in a digital first way, and an analog way, second. Native Digitals have come of age integrated with the machines. Your smartphone and technology overall are like part of who you are as a person.
Most Native Analogs do not get this. Most people are not ready for the fact that everything is moving from an analog paradigm to a native digital world.
Wait, haven’t we had this dialogue before? Yes, we did in FYD episode 250. But this change is so radical, that it bears repeating, so we are doing it here as well. So in this two-part series of Lochhead on Marketing, we explore Native Digitals versus Native Analogs, and how it is important to realize that we are shifting to a digital paradigm faster than you think.
Category Neglect
First off, we start as to why it is important to recognize category shifts like the one we are experiencing now. Most category kings and queens tend to fall into a trap, in which they ignore new categories that may be adjacent or indirectly related to theirs.
When a new category arises (seemingly out of nowhere), the incumbent doesn’t topple over because they were unaware of the new category queen. More often than not, they fall because they dismissed what was happening right before their very eyes.
It’s not ignorance. It is arrogance coupled with the gravitational pull of “the way it is.” Because the people profiting in the present want things to stay the same.
This is called Category Neglect. Category Neglect doesn’t come from people being stupid or lacking sufficient data and resources to spot the headwinds and tailwinds of the future. It comes from a refusal to acknowledge which direction the wind is really blowing.
Why do they fall to such a seemingly obvious trap? This happens because the gravitational pull is too strong. A company gets used to earning hundreds of millions, or billions of dollars per year, and thinks it can do no wrong.
The company becomes deeply invested in the present. Anything that threatens the way it is now is dismissed.
Native Analogs vs Native Digitals
One of the most profound shifts happening in the world today is rooted in the ever-escalating debate between generations young and old. It is a shift hiding in plain sight. Just like the Tymshare executives staring out the window at Apple’s cranes building the headquarters of the company that would ultimately put them out of business, most people over 35 years old can’t see this shift happening.
Instead, they say to themselves, “Eh, we’ve got nothing to worry about.”
As Category Pirates, we feel it is our obligation to sound the alarm when we see rocky shores ahead. Some of us are facing a once-in-a-generation set of headwinds that could not just stymie growth, but sink our entire ship. If those of us over age 35 aren’t careful, this divide could result in one of the greatest instances of Category Neglect.
However, those who see this mega shift and act on it, on the other hand, will sail into the sunset a lot of happy pirates, make more money, and make a way bigger difference in the world.
With that said, let’s first give a better definition of what a Native Analog and Native Digital are. We’ll also define where their biggest difference lies.
There are two types of people on planet earth today.
- The first are Native Analogs. These are Baby Boomers and Gen Xers, born anywhere from the 1940s all the way up to the early ‘80s. Today, they range between the ages of 40 to 75, and make up approximately 136.8 million Americans.
- The second are Native Digitals. These are Millennials and Gen Zers, born between the early 1980s to as recently as the 2010s. These demographics are around 35 years of age on the high end, down to as young as 6 years old. They make up approximately 140.1 million Americans.
The difference?
Native analogs grew up in a time where technology was an addition or a distraction from their real lives.
Native digitals grew up in a time where their “real” lives were a distraction from their digital lives.
This is a profound shift—and no one seems to be talking about it. Even more stunning, some of the largest native digital brands on the planet are run by Native Analogs. Who don’t get it either.
To learn why it is important to know more about Native Digitals and how it can affect your category and businesses, download and listen to this episode. You can also check it out at Category Pirates.
Bio
Christopher Lochhead is a #1 Apple podcaster and #1 Amazon bestselling co-author of books: Niche Down and Play Bigger.
He has been an advisor to over 50 venture-backed startups; a former three-time Silicon Valley public company CMO and an entrepreneur.
Furthermore, he has been called “one of the best minds in marketing” by The Marketing Journal, a “Human Exclamation Point” by Fast Company, a “quasar” by NBA legend Bill Walton and “off-putting to some” by The Economist.
In addition, he served as a chief marketing officer of software juggernaut Mercury Interactive. Hewlett-Packard acquired the company in 2006, for $4.5 billion.
He also co-founded the marketing consulting firm LOCHHEAD; the founding CMO of Internet consulting firm Scient, and served as head of marketing at the CRM software firm Vantive.
We hope you enjoyed this episode of Lochhead on Marketing™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and subscribe on iTunes!
257 How Entrepreneurs Change Lives & Communities with “IRON” Mike Steadman; Marine Officer, Boxing Champion & Veteran Entrepreneur Advocate
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For some, entrepreneurship is a way up in the world. For others, it’s a way out of their current situation. But no matter what the motivation, entrepreneurship is ultimately an opportunity to create a different future. Not only for the entrepreneur themselves, but for their customers, employees, and ultimately an entire community. This is the reason why me and our guest, “IRON” Mike Steadman, love entrepreneurship.
“IRON” Mike Steadman is a retired combat Marine officer. He is also a three-time National Collegiate boxing champion in the military. He’s the founder of Iron Bound Boxing and Education, which is a non-profit in New Jersey. He also founded a company called Dog Whistle Branding, a marketing agency that helps veteran-owned businesses with podcasting, brand, and category design.
In this episode of Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different, we have a dialogue with “IRON” Mike Steadman as we talk about all things entrepreneurship, including topics such as helping veteran entrepreneurs. This is a conversation you’re going to find incredibly inspiring and empowering, so stay tuned.
“IRON” Mike Steadman on Losing the Ability to Communicate
The conversation starts as Mike responds to a comment about sounding like a podcaster. He shares that being a podcaster helped him become better at public speaking. Now, when he does interviews, people are surprised on how Mike can do it all in one take.
Nowadays, being able to communicate with each other in a clear and articulate way seems like an outlier than the norm. Mike thinks that this is due to the internet and the anonymity it provides, that we lost something essential when talking to other people.
“I think we’re struggling with it. It’s because we’ve lost the ability to communicate with empathy. That’s the thing, right? You can communicate, share your opinion, or something. But you can also be an asshole about it. And I don’t think we are very empathetic anymore.” – Mike Steadman
“IRON” Mike Steadman on being the Loudest in a Conversation
One of the problems we have with communicating nowadays is that there seems to be a lot of yelling going on. Some do it mostly for attention, others to push their ideas further than the others.
For Mike, it’s a matter of respecting the people you are conversing with.
“If you’re the loudest person in the room, you’re also the weakest person in the room. And sometimes I think yelling is, I don’t want to call it a cop out, right? But yelling is we just write (comments), we don’t know how to communicate. We don’t know how to respect people’s opinion.” – Mike Steadman
“IRON” Mike Steadman on Social Media
It is ironic that “social media” has made a lot of people antisocial. Mike thinks it is because people find it easier to just hide behind a computer screen and interact with people that way.
Unfortunately, some people who start a business has the same mindset. But for Mike, it’s just not the best way to do things. Regardless of whether you’re doing things digitally or analog, you still need to communicate with people properly and build proper relationships with them.
“I’ve been saying (that) business is a contact sport. Unfortunately, I think a lot of the generation now when they start a business, they think they can just go on social media. But human to human, you still have to look someone in the eye (and) talk to him convey your value. And I think the default (now) is social media. Even dating girls, the default is an app. So I think we have lost the ability to communicate, actually.” – Mike Steadman
To hear more from “IRON” Mike Steadman and how Social Media is both the cause and the cure for proper communication, as well as how he helps veteran entrepreneurs connect with the current market, download and listen to this episode.
Bio
“IRON” Mike Steadman is a serial entrepreneur based in Newark, NJ, who’s committed to improving the economic and social outcomes of urban youth and military veterans through boxing, entrepreneurship, and new media.
He’s the Founder and CEO of IRONBOUND Boxing, a nonprofit that provides free amateur boxing training, entrepreneur education, and employment opportunities for Newark youth & young adults.
Mike and his partner Keith Colon, oversee the legendary IRONBOUND Boxing Academy, their free boxing gym for youth in Newark, NJ. He also runs IRONBOUND Media, a podcast production company that produces branded podcasts for veteran-owned businesses.
Mike is a three-time National Collegiate Boxing Champion from the United States
Naval Academy and Marine Corps Infantry Officer, with deployments to Afghanistan and Japan/Philippines. He’s currently a Hoover Veteran Fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, a public policy think tank promoting the principles of individual, economic, and political freedom.
His goal is to raise 1.5 million dollars to build the ever IRONBOUND Courage Academy, a 5,000 sqft boxing facility and small business incubator space for Newark’s youth and young adults.
Through his efforts growing IRONBOUND Boxing and IRONBOUND Media, Mike has established himself as a high-profile veteran advocate and the new face of social entrepreneurship.
To learn more visit www.IRONBOUNDBoxing.org and www.IRONBOUNDMedia.com.
To learn about IRONBOUND Boxing and our efforts in Newark, please visit www.Ironboundboxing.org
Mike is also a Hoover Institute Veteran Fellow.
Links
Follow “IRON” Mike Steadman!
Website: IronboundBoxing.org | IronboundMedia.com | DogWhistleBranding.com
Linkedin: in/Iron-Mike-Steadman
Instagram: @IronMikeSteadman
We hope you enjoyed this episode of Follow Your Different™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and subscribe on iTunes!
256 Mission Driven: Saving Lives in Afghanistan with Valerie Edmondson Bolaños
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In this episode of Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different, you will hear one of the most inspiring, horrifying, and yet deeply moving conversations from our guest, Valerie Edmondson Bolaños.
Valerie Edmondson Bolaños is the founder of an extraordinary NGO called Warrior Angels Rescue. She started her own NGO in the way of Hurricane Maria. It was a Category Five storm that devastated her home island of Puerto Rico back in 2017. What started off as an effort to rescue her own family grew into a much larger scale over time.
Since August of 2021, Valerie and the Warrior Angels Rescue has been evacuating girls, women, and their families from the humanitarian crisis that is escalating in Afghanistan after the United States left. What you’re about to hear is really one of the most inspiring mission-driven founders you can listen to. We hope that it moves you as well.
Valerie Edmondson Bolaños on the Afghanistan Situation
The conversation starts as Valerie gives a perspective of what the situation is in Afghanistan at this moment after the United States withdrawal last August of 2021.
“It’s pretty horrific, which should come as no surprise. We’ve noticed (that) just in the three months that we’ve been working there. It just descended from an absolutely apocalyptic situation into the depths of hell. The messages and videos that we’re receiving directly from the families that we’re helping that are in our evacuation lists are just horrifying. I’ve had nightmares, and I’m not even living through it firsthand.” – Valerie Edmondson Bolaños
These horrors stem from the local terrorist organizations who are trying to root out those who have worked with the US forces when they were still on the ground. They torture and beat them publicly, while abducting and interrogating those who they think had close ties or worked directly with the US forces.
This was on top of the different terrorist organizations jockeying for power amongst themselves, which adds another layer of suffering for those on the ground.
The Taliban Taking Away the Power
Valerie shares that are a lot of shortages on the ground. The economy has all but shut down entirely because people are in hiding. People who had decent homes and careers had to leave almost everything to stay with families that are less conspicuous.
“The Taliban is literally trying to take away power from the people who have even the slightest bit of power. And so much power comes from being educated and being having a profession. So they want to quash any potential viable resistance to their takeover by not only literally taking away power and electricity and connectivity from everyone, but they’re targeting middle class families and upper class families. So everyone’s gone into hiding, which means that most of the mechanisms that keep society going and keep the economy going are completely shut down.” – Valerie Edmondson Bolaños
While the medical care is not completely gone, it’s can still be hard to get in the current circumstances. There are simply too much people that are now relying on volunteer medical professionals who are scared but also want to save as many lives as they can.
How the Pandemic Factors In
On the topic of medical care, Valerie was asked about the COVID spread and deaths in Afghanistan. She shares that there isn’t really any visible evidence of any data being collected at this point. Not to mention any effort for vaccination programs to speak of.
“There’s no data being collected. People aren’t going to hospitals for the most part, because then they’re afraid they’ll be killed. So yeah, I don’t I don’t think any data is really coming out, or being collected. I mean, that would require a functioning government, which is not what the Taliban has created.” – Valerie Edmondson Bolaños
The pandemic really added a few levels of complication of how volunteer NGOs like the Warrior Angels Rescue can operate on the ground, as not only are you worried about getting shot, the idea of a virus ravaging the neighborhood just scares both the locals and volunteers alike. The Taliban are definitely not doing anything to alleviate it. For them, it’s just another way of keeping people in check and not banding together to take back the country.
To hear more from Valerie Edmondson Bolaños and how she and the Warrior Angels Rescue help those in dire need, download and listen to this episode. If you wish to help them in their efforts, check out the links at the end of this article.
Bio
Valerie Edmondson Bolaños
Valerie Edmondson Bolaños founded Warrior Angels Rescue in the wake of Hurricane Maria, a category 5 storm that devastated her home island of Puerto Rico in 2017.
What started out as an effort to rescue her own family quickly grew into a large-scale effort to evacuate hundreds of medical patients, pregnant mamas, and elderly people who could not survive days (let alone months) without electricity. Since then, our 100% volunteer team has responded to 5 disasters: a mudslide, an earthquake swarm, a tornado, a global pandemic, and the international border shutdowns due to COVID.
Since August of 2021, Warrior Angels Rescue has been evacuating girls, women, and their families from the humanitarian crisis unfolding in Afghanistan.
Warrior Angels Rescue has saved hundreds of lives by securing safe harbor in Ecuador and routing our evacuees through Pakistan to Canada and other countries willing to step up and help.
With a resettlement strategy founded on the principles of empowerment and synergy, Warrior Angels Rescue has developed a win/win/win solution that protects the freedom of our refugee families, benefits the local communities from our host countries, and costs the American taxpayer $0.
Links
Follow Valerie today!
Website: WarriorAngelsRescue.org | News Page: WarriorAngelsRescue.org/news
GoFundMe: Evacuate School Girls to Safety
LinkedIn: in/Valerie-Edmondson-Bolanos
More on Valerie Edmondson Bolaños and the Warrior Angels Rescue
We hope you enjoyed this episode of Follow Your Different™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and subscribe on iTunes!
