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096 Silicon Valley’s Secret Marketing Assassin Rick Bennett

Advertising is a powerful thing in the world of business. Whether you have a start-up or a successful company, you still need an effective advertisement to propel your brand forward. Silicon Valley’s secret advertising weapon, Rick Bennett, is here with us today to give pieces of advice about advertising and marketing. Also, he talks about how being wise and having good decisions help us as human beings.

Technological Intimidation

Rick says that the best thing to do when advertising is to avoid saying anything that a competitor could say. You’ve got to rebut if a competitor tries to provoke you by saying he’s wrong and it’s not true. Also, he says that the trick is not to get sued for libel or slander.

“You have to use technological intimidation. You can only speak to the technological truth. We don’t call someone a liar. We can say, well, this isn’t true, and we prove why.” – Rick Bennett

Rhetorical War Gaming

Rick is a master at writing legendary headlines back in the day. Christopher asks him when is the right time to invest in an advertisement after creating a headline and then testing it. He says that rhetorical wargaming using SurveyMonkey to test a bunch of ideas is helpful and also giving a free product to the audience:

“Survey monkey is good, but the trick is the giveaway. You need to offer a free product that anybody can log on to and check out your AI. That could be very granular and atomic and just take off.” – Rick Bennett

How to Function Creatively

Christopher and Rick talk about the assault on the Capitol that happened on January 6, where several people died because of the riot. Christopher says that politics was about arguing to solve problems, and now it’s just about arguing to continue to argue. Rick agrees, and he says that we can’t change anybody’s mind, so we have to change the playing field.

“One idea that I have is that creativity and genius cannot exist in a state of anger. In other words, you get angry on either side, and you have destroyed your ability to function creatively. Creativity is a curse. That’s the way I kind of cloister myself in the pirate cottage here up in the mountainside, and I try not to let anything destroy my creativity as it is.” – Rick Bennett

To know more about Silicon Valley’s Secret Marketing Assassin Rick Bennett, download and listen to this episode.

Bio:

Rick Bennett specializes in guerrilla warfare marketing.

He’s been the secret advertising weapon to Silicon Valley entrepreneurs for over 30 years.

Two of his most spectacular successes are Oracle and Salesforce.com.

Links:

Website: Rick Bennett

Linkedin: Rick Bennett

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.

095 How To Secure Your Financial Future

095 LOM - Financial Security

In 2019, CNBC reported that 27% of Americans “would have to borrow or sell something to pay for a $400 emergency. Further, Nation.com reports in 2018, 4% of American adults reported not having enough food and by July of 2020, that figure had exploded to 11% and they say it will probably continue to increase as the pandemic worsens.

Most recently, Pew Research finds that one in four American adults have had trouble paying their bills since the coronavirus outbreak started. So the reality is, this pandemic has exposed how financially vulnerable many of us are.

So in this episode, let’s talk about your career and how you can become financially free.

You Can Turn Your Situation Around

Christopher has his fair share of financial struggles growing up. He was raised in a single-parent household and experienced business failure in his early 20s. It was the most challenging financial situation of his life, as he describes.

“The goal here is a very simple one to understand when your investment income pays your living expenses, you’re financially free. That’s a very powerful day in a person’s life. So I want to share with you a few things I’ve learned along the way. It’s also important to know I am in no way, shape or form a financial advisor accountant or anything of the, like. I’m just a guy that’s learned a few things along the way, and I’ve been taught a few things by some legendary folks.” – Christopher Lochhead

Build A Financial Egg Nest

Ultimately, the objective is to build a financial nest egg. The concept is over time, you convert getting paid for your time to getting paid from your investments. In simpler terms, you have to find a way to earn income while you are asleep. As Tim Rhode, founder of One Life Fully Lived, calls it, its horizontal income.

“In order to create a nest egg that starts producing horizontal income, you can, A. Lower your expenses or B. Increase your after-tax income. If you do both, then you’ll have even more money to build your nest egg.” – Christopher Lochhead

Don’t Buy Shit You Can’t Afford

Christopher shares his observation among the younger generation nowadays and gives a reminder, to not buy shit you can’t afford. He also mentions listening to financial planning experts, as they say, credit card debt is a sure-fire way to keep yourself enslaved.

“Get out of credit card debt as quickly as you can. Don’t buy shit you can’t afford and, uh, and save up.” – Christopher Lochhead

To know more how to secure your financial future, 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; was the founding CMO of Internet consulting firm Scient, and served as head of marketing at the CRM software firm Vantive.

Links:

Covid-19 and the Nightmare of Food Insecurity

Economic Fallout From COVID-19 Continues To Hit Lower-Income Americans the Hardest

Tribe of Millionaires: What If One Choice Could Change Everything?

Wealth Can’t Wait: Avoid the 7 Wealth Traps, Implement the 7 Business Pillars, and Complete a Life Audit Today!

The Wealthy Barber, Updated 3rd Edition: Everyone’s Commonsense Guide to Becoming Financially Independent

Rich Dad Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not!

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.

202 Harvard’s Top Astronomer Says Aliens Tried to Contact Us | Dr. Avi Loeb, Author, Extraterrestrial: The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth

FYD - Episode - 202

Harvard’s top astronomer professor Avi Loeb, just published a book called Extra-Terrestrial, The First Sign Of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth. He believes that in 2017, the highly unusual object that passed by earth called Oumuamua, was likely alien.

So in this episode, we go deep into obvious hypotheses, the attributes and characteristics that prove that Oumuamua was not a comet or an asteroid or anything else we’ve seen before. We also dig into why the good professor thinks it was likely alien. We discuss why he thinks science is a “dialogue with nature” and why at massive personal risk, he decided to come forward with his theory.

Science as a Dialogue with Nature

Avi says that science is a way of appreciating and understanding the world. It is not in conflict with religion either. Science explains how things work and it increases your own understanding of nature. Additionally, he says that he’s frustrated because many scientists focus on concepts without evidence and have no connection to experiments:

“There is no evidence that these ideas are valued and that they actually describe nature. To me, that’s a betrayal of traditional physics, where we were supposed to have a dialogue with nature, not a monologue. We’re not supposed to tell nature what it is but listen for experiments to what nature is.” – Avi Loeb

The Discovery of Oumuamua

Christopher and Avi talk all about the likely alien, Oumuamua. Avi says that before discovering Oumuamua, they haven’t seen an object in outer space that moves too fast and more powerful from the gravitational pull. This ability to escape the gravitational pull of the sun was a huge discovery and led to the idea that an alien passed by the Earth for a visit.

“It’s just that it’s relative speed. If a bullet moves too fast relative to the earth or, if a spacecraft moves too fast, it will never fall. It would just escape. So the issue is how fast does an object move relative to the source of gravity? All the objects we have seen before were bound to the sun that was relics from the formation process of the solar system.” – Avi Loeb

Claims About Oumuamua

After discovering Oumuamua, astronomers claimed that it was just a comet or an asteroid that came near the Earth. Another object with an extra push similar to Oumuamua’s was also discovered. However, it turns out it was a rocket booster that left the Arabs in 1966. This event somehow proved that Oumuamua is indeed peculiar.

“The actual discovery of Oumuamua is by itself a puzzle. It means that the abundance of such objects is much greater than would be expected from the rocks that occupied the solar system at any event. Putting that aside, this object was peculiar. It exhibited an extra push of the type that you expect from a comet.” – Avi Loeb

To know more about  Harvard’s Top Astronomer and the Aliens Who Tried to Contact Us, download and listen to this episode.

Bio:

Abraham (Avi) Loeb is the Frank B. Baird, Jr., Professor of Science at Harvard University. 

He received a Ph.D. in Physics from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel at age 24 (1980-1986), led the first international project supported by the Strategic Defense Initiative (1983-1988), and was subsequently a long-term member of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton (1988-1993).

Loeb has written 8 books. These includes most recently, Extraterrestrial (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2021), and about 800 papers (with an h-index of 113) on a wide range of topics. Topics include black holes, the first stars, the search for extraterrestrial life and the future of the Universe.

He had been the longest-serving Chair of Harvard’s Department of Astronomy (2011-2020), Founding Director of Harvard’s Black Hole Initiative (2016-present), and Director of the Institute for Theory and Computation (2007-present) within the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

He is the Chair of the Board on Physics and Astronomy of the National Academies (2018-present). Additionally, he is also an elected fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, the American Physical Society, and the International Academy of Astronautics.

Loeb is a member of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) at the White House and a member of the Advisory Board for “Einstein: Visualize the Impossible” of the Hebrew University.

He also chairs the Advisory Committee for the Breakthrough Starshot Initiative (2016-present). Further, he serves as the Science Theory Director for all Initiatives of the Breakthrough Prize Foundation.

In 2012, TIME magazine selected Loeb as one of the 25 most influential people in space. In 2020 Loeb was selected among the 14 most inspiring Israelis of the last decade.

Click here for Loeb’s commentaries on innovation and diversity.

Links:

Harvard – Loeb

Harvard.edu – Avi Loeb

Wikipedia – Avi Loeb

Amazon Books – Extraterrestrial: The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth

Harvard’s Top Astronomer Believes Aliens Tried to Contact Us in 2017

A Harvard professor says an alien visited in 2017 — and more are coming

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

094 Clubhouse – Category Creation In Action, or Not So Much?

094 Clubhouse–Category Creation In action, or Not So Much?

Many people reached out to Christopher and asked for more episodes on category design. In future episodes, he will dig into a specific category and/or brands, and analyze what’s going on and how that can be illustrative for the rest of us.

So for this episode, Christopher talks about a buzzy application in the social media world called Clubhouse. Today, let’s examine the question: is clubhouse a legendary category queen in the making or a dumb idea?

New Hot Category, As They Claim

If you check Clubhouse’s valuation, they seem to be doing well. They’re valued at a hundred million dollars or more. Clubhouse has done a great job in describing themselves or as we say, describe their category design. 

According to their website, Clubhouse is a new type of social product based on voice that allows people everywhere to talk, tell stories, develop ideas, deepen friendships, and meet interesting new people around the world.

The Power of Category Design

Clubhouse has a very powerful profile but based on Christopher’s experience, the app is “kind of like a webinar scheduling platform with no video that has a shitty UX.” Regardless of our opinion about the app, they did a great job in telling a good story for investors and users.

“Clubhouse is doing a legendary job, convincing the world that they are the new, new thing, the new hot category.” – Christopher Lochhead

The Studio 54 Marketing

If you’ll remember Studio 54, it was the hottest hangout spot for celebrities in New York. Crowds would gather at the door, and people would do anything to get in, yet only a lucky few did. Clubhouse employed the same marketing mindset which made people want to have it more. 

“They created scarcity and that’s exactly what clubhouse has done in addition to their category design. They’re doing Studio 54 marketing. They’re creating scarcity. As a matter of fact, when you get on, the only way you can get onto Clubhouse is: an existing clubhouse user needs to invite you.” – Christopher Lochhead

To know more if Clubhouse is category creation in action, or not so much, 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; was the founding CMO of Internet consulting firm Scient, and served as head of marketing at the CRM software firm Vantive.

093 Are You Making This Sales Training Mistake?

093 Are You Making This Sales Training Mistake?

In this episode, let’s talk about sales training slash sales enablement. Companies make a very big mistake on sales training. Christopher shares his thoughts about that mistake and how not to do that.

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; was 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.

201 The Art of The Impossible w/ Steven Kotler NY Times Bestselling Author

The Art of The Impossible w/ Steven Kotler NY Times Bestselling Author

Today, we have the legendary Steven Kotler to talk about how we can turn the impossible into possible, using insights from his book, The Art of Impossible. The book is about peak performance and it aims to teach us how to stretch far beyond our capabilities to attain our dreams and anything we want.

Personality vs. Biology

Steven states that in the field of peak performance, personality doesn’t scale because biology does. Personality is composed of traits that are immutable and locked in. He also describes neurobiology as a mechanism of brain work.

“If you try to figure out what works for me and use it to train you and if you’re not exactly the same kind of person I am with the same personality traits, this is not going to work. But underneath that one level down, there is a level of biology. A way the system has been designed to work, and that is the part that we all share. The stuff that evolution designed for all of us to share.” – Steven Kotler

Focus Comes with Motivation

Steven says that you always have to focus on what you pay attention to, or what you ignore. Curiosity, passion, purpose, and autonomy are designed to work in a specific sequence, but all of them give us focus for free. He also says that the whole point about biology and the human system is you get farther and faster with less work.

“We are hardwired for the extraordinary. It is one of the surprising things about being human that most people don’t realize. To take it a step farther, not going big, is actually bad for us. That’s an equally important point here.” – Steven Kotler

Turning Anxiety into Excitement

Today, we live in a world filled with probabilistic threats, which is the reason why most people have anxiety. Steven concludes that the brain doesn’t turn off until the danger is gone completely. So, you have to take steps to calm nervous system down because it won’t shut down on its own:

“Most humans can feel curiosity and anxiety at the same time. Talk about reframe and cognitive reframing, a technique for turning anxiety into excitement. Because it’s the same chemical and it’s very easy to do. An example of giving biology to work for you rather than against you. We’re plagued by anxiety, and yet we’re hardwired to turn anxiety into excitement very easily just with the right tools.” – Steven Kotler

To know more about the art of the impossible with Steven Kotler, download and listen to this episode.

Bio:

Steven Kotler is a New York Times bestselling author, an award-winning journalist, and the Executive Director of the Flow Research Collective. He is one of the world’s leading experts on human performance.

He is the author of nine bestsellers (out of thirteen books), including The Art of Impossible, The Future is Faster Than You Think, Stealing Fire, The Rise of Superman, Bold, and Abundance.

His work has been nominated for two Pulitzer Prizes, translated into over 40 languages, and has appeared in over 100 publications, including the New York Times Magazine, Wired, Atlantic Monthly, Wall Street Journal, TIME, and the Harvard Business Review.

Links:

Website: Steven Kotler

Twitter: @steven_kotler

Linkedin: Steven Kotler

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

092 How To Manage Digital Reputations w/ Josh Greene

092 How To Manage Digital Reputations W/ Josh Greene

It is super important to know how social media and the online-world itself work, especially if you’re a business owner or an entrepreneur. This holds true because we are living in a digital-first world, where you can search for anything on the internet. Managing your digital reputation is indeed challenging and sometimes complicated.

So today our guest, Josh Greene, CEO of The Mather Group, explains how search engines work and what you can do to optimize them for your benefit.

Positive Google Outcome

Christopher asks Josh what he would advise him to get a positive Google outcome. Josh says that if you are doing a lot of “leading” in an industry, that will ultimately lead to good results in the search engines. For those who are not quite famous, he advises “sending Google a signal” to treat their content a certain way. Entrepreneurs should post and write about themselves (bio) so search engines can recognize them.

“If you write books, if you start a podcast, if you have a Twitter feed that lots of people find useful, or if your videos are getting lots of views, all of those things play a big role in what’s showing up in the Google search results.” – Josh Greene

Google Search Ranking System

Having a common name is hard when you’re trying to get a sweet spot for yourself in a search engine. Christopher asks Josh what are the highest order bits in terms of teaching Google to rank yourself. Josh says that the first thing you could do is take inventory of what your assets currently are and focus on your digital presence:

“That’s a nice part for people who are very active in their field and sort of well respected because there’s a sort of equivalent almost in terms of how Google’s algorithm is viewing things.” – Josh Greene

Social Media Platforms

Social media marketing is one of the easiest ways to promote a product or a business. Christopher asks Josh how to decide which social media platform to use if he’s only going to invest his time in one or two of these. Josh says that he should consider asking himself first if it plays to his strengths and who’s the audience he’s trying to reach with it.

“So, it could be that you’re a fantastic guitarist. Instagram is a nice format for showing off your guitar playing chops. Twitter can be useful because you can curate news to a particular audience that might be following you. And if you’re in a particular corporate role, sometimes LinkedIn can be really useful because you don’t need to publish a ton to get a lot of eyeballs on something.” – Josh Greene

To know more about how to manage digital reputations with Josh Greene, download and listen to this episode.

Bio:

Josh Greene is the CEO for The Mather Group, a digital agency, that helps companies manage how they’re found online, through Wikipedia and Search Engine Optimization, and drives targeted high value leads for B2B companies.

Prior to The Mather Group, Greene was the VP of Marketing for both 1-800-PACK-RAT and Zippy Shell where he was responsible for all marketing including online, offline, and the launch of national television campaigns.

Prior to 1-800-PACK-RAT, Greene was the Vice President of Member Services for Shop.org where he oversaw membership recruitment and retention initiatives.

Additionally, Greene collaborated with NRF’s government relations staff to execute policy and advocacy strategies on behalf of Shop.org members.

He also served as a liaison to Shop.org’s Policy Advisory Group, developed industry initiatives, and managed Shop.org’s Ray M. Greenly Scholarship fund.

Greene joined Shop.org from Discovery Communications, where he was director of online marketing and business development.

At Discovery, Greene oversaw online marketing, direct response television, corporate gifting, and partner programs for DiscoveryStore.com.

Prior to Discovery Communications, Greene was director of e-marketing for Time Warner Cable and director of e-marketing for Road Runner.

He’s been a frequent speaker at industry events including ad:tech, SES, Channel Advisor’s Catalyst conference, and others.

Links:

Linkedin: Josh Greene

The Mather Group

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Lochhead on Marketing™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on FacebookTwitterInstagram, and subscribe on Apple Podcast! You may also subscribe to his newsletter, The Difference, for some amazing content.

091 The Marketing Multiplier Effect

091 The Marketing Multiplier Effect

On episode 90, we talked about how complexity is the enemy of revenue and how to shave the marketing dog down. Now let’s talk about what we do once we shaved the dog down. We talk about the powerful marketing execution concept called the multiplier effect. The concept means taking our precious marketing dollars and getting maximum impact for them.

“Imagine you’re going to make a $10,000 investment in some kind of marketing initiative. The question is how do you make it feel like a hundred or a hundred thousand dollar investment? How do you make it feel like a million or a million? How do you make it feel like 10?” – Christopher Lochhead

Disconnect in Departments

Once you “shaved the marketing dog down,” you’ll be down to a fewer number of marketing executions. However, there is also a downside to this cut-down. Companies often find a disconnect between the different departments. Christopher addresses this disconnect in this episode.

“Legendary marketing makes people feel like the company or the brand is a person. Everything from that person is authentic to them. That is to say, it’s, it’s rooted in a true North and all of their actions are deeply coordinated and effective.” – Christopher Lochhead

Have A Few, Clear Target/s

Christopher advises marketers to have a few, clear targets to have a more effective marketing campaign. After this, he encourages marketers to have the multiplier effect mindset. 

“So here’s how the mindset works. Every execution must multiply the value of every other execution. After you shaved the dog, it’s critical to pick an anchor execution for your campaign or your lightning strike.”  – Christopher Lochhead

CMOs Should Tie Everything Together

The CMOs job is to tie it all together. Christopher advises CMOs their duties and what are the interesting questions to ask when looking at a particular marketing execution.

“How does this tie? That is to say, how does this execution multiply the value of the anchor execution? How does this tie and remember, just to underscore it, there can only be one anchor.” – Christopher Lochhead

To know more about the marketing multiplier effect, 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; was 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.

200 Ministry of Common Sense w/ Martin Lindstrom

Our guest today is Martin Lindstrom, best-selling author and branding and culture guru. Time Magazine calls him one of the 100 World’s Most Influential People. He’s got an important and timely, brand new book out called The Ministry of Common Sense: How To Eliminate Bureaucratic Red Tape, Bad Excuses And Corporate Bullshit.

We have a captivating conversation and Martin sheds light on some very eye opening ideas, like why empathy is dying and what we can do about it, why common sense has eroded and what we can do about that too. There’s going to be fascinating things like how Botox is hurting the relationships between mothers and babies, why Netflix has a bizarre hugging policy, the impact of women driving in Saudi Arabia and a lot more.

Listen closely for Martin’s theory on why some people get a lot more opportunities in life than others. It’s quite fascinating.

The Impact of Women Driving In Saudi Arabia

Martin shares his travels in Saudi Arabia and how the country is transforming in a historic moment. He discusses how he helped bring driving schools to Saudi Arabia.  This elevation of women’s freedom brought him a different kind of purpose. 

“For you and I, it sounds like an ordinary thing, but in Saudi Arabia it has never existed before. My driver was a woman. It was the second time she’s been out driving. She was almost shaking because she was so excited about being liberated. So it’s just amazing and such a warm hearted experience to see how these suppressed women are suddenly getting freedom.” – Martin Lindstrom

Empathy is Dying

The thing that everyone is missing in the world is empathy. Martin discusses factors such as the use of phones, the absence of observation, and the “easiness” of social apps has contributed to the lack of empathy. 

“There was a study done recently showing that the degree of empathy among more than 10,000 students in the US have dropped around 50% over the last decade. The reason why it’s disappearing is not just because of the smart phones, where we don’t look at each other during meals, but also because we no longer observe.”  – Martin Lindstrom

Common Sense Has Eroded

Martin points out that along with empathy, the world seems to have lost its common sense. He explains that when he refers to common sense eroding, he meant that no one questions things at all. This is because people have become so attached to becoming politically correct in every aspect that they no longer dare see things anymore as they are. 

“One of the things that are disappearing out of our society, along with empathy, is the lack of common sense. There is no common sense in our society at all. Common sense is first of all, like muscle memory. You have to train it and in turn it becomes stronger. If you don’t use it, it becomes weaker and guess what? It’s incredibly weak at the moment because remember by empathy, I say you put yourself in the shoes of another person. That’s really common sense because sometimes you actually have to look at things from a different point of view, exactly as if you’ve experienced it with your own eyes.   – Martin Lindstrom

To know more about Martin Lindstrom and hear more about his fantastic book and theories on life, download and listen to this episode.

Bio:

Martin Lindstrom is the founder and chairman of Lindstrom Company, the world’s leading brand & culture transformation group, operating across five continents and more than 30 countries.

TIME Magazine has named Lindstrom one of the “World’s 100 Most Influential People”. And for three years running, Thinkers50, the world’s premier ranking resource of business icons, has selected Lindstrom to be among the world’s top 50 business thinkers.

Lindstrom is a high profile speaker and author of 7 New York Times best-selling books, translated into 60 languages.

His book Brand Sense was critically acclaimed by The Wall Street Journal as “one of the five best marketing books ever published”, Small Data was praised as “revolutionary” and TIME Magazine wrote this about Buyology: “a breakthrough in branding”.

Links:

Website: Martin Linkdstrom

Book: The Ministry of Common Sense: How to Eliminate Bureaucratic Red Tape, Bad Excuses, and Corporate BS

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Follow Your Different™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on FacebookTwitterInstagram, and subscribe on iTunes!