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197 Embrace The Suck w/ Navy SEAL Brent Gleeson

197 Embrace The Suck w/ Navy SEAL Brent Gleeson

In today’s episode, we have legendary combat veteran Navy seal Brent Gleason. He’s got a red, hot, rocking, new book out called Embrace The Suck. Brent is a successful entrepreneur, author and speaker and his new book is catching everybody’s attention. Today, we get into why Brent thinks we need to lean into pain, how to deal with failure and rise up to any challenge, no matter what.

Leading Through Change

Brent gives us an inside look on what it was like as a legendary combat veteran Navy seal. Moreover, he shares his perspective on the pandemic and what he thinks leaders should be doing. He thinks organizations should reevaluate the needs of its people based on a lot of factors.

“The global pandemic has caused an even heightened level of leadership, complexity, and challenge. As leaders, we’re supposed to show empathy and be innately in tune with what motivates each individual on our team, within our direct reports and our peers. Now with everybody working predominantly in a remote setting, everybody has a different environment that they’re now in. In addition, some people thrive in remote settings and others feel isolation and uncertainty. Greater levels of digital silos are now creating communication challenges. Obviously your organization is going to go through a lot of change.” – Brent Gleeson

Leaning Into The Pain

In his book, he shares psychological, emotional, and physical pain and suffering and how various people deal with pain. There is a purposeful suffering that everyone must engage in to achieve loftier goals and causes greater than ourselves. These will serve to develop individuals in expanding the boundaries of one’s comfort zone. In turn, lead to a more fulfilling, happier, and purpose-driven life.  

“When have you ever achieved anything meaningful in your life that did not have something attached to it? Like some level of pain, suffering, or adversity. The answer is nothing. When have you ever done something that gave you true fulfillment that was trapped within the confines of your comfort zone? Nothing. It’s only when we peak beyond the boundaries of the comfort zone and see what’s out there. That is what expands your comfort zone and moves the goalposts. You make it a ritual part of your existence and part of your mindset.” Brent Gleeson

Taming The Tiger

Brent discusses how in life there are choices down the road that lead you to temptation. He shares how one can tame the tiger and resist temptation. In life, humans are inevitably tempted and human centered, the goal is to mend the relationships or goals one is focusing on.

He shares how it ultimately comes down to the philosophy of simply limiting choices and creating an environment that supports your objective. He discusses how one should set themselves up for success by being purposeful in the environment and what one creates. Lessening the opportunity to be distracted or tempted by things that do not align with the actions necessary to achieve the desired outcome. 

“In order to tame my tiger, I had to transform my entire lifestyle and mindsets to limit the choices. I removed every possible element of temptation from my life that would stand in the way of the goals I had made. So my social life, my dietary habits, workout regimen, even going as far as removing people from my life that I knew would stand in the way of achieving that goal. If I wanted to achieve my goal, all that stuff had to go.” – Brent Gleeson

To know more about the legendary Brent Gleeson, his new book and his incredible life journey. Download and listen to this episode. 

Bio:

Brent Gleeson was a member of SEAL Team 5, some of the first SEALs deployed to Iraq in early 2003. He completed combat deployments in Iraq, Africa, and other theaters of war.

After returning to civilian life, Brent earned an MBA and has built award-winning, multi-million dollar organizations that have repeatedly landed on the Inc. 500 list of fastest growing private companies.

He is the author of TakingPoint and has starred in several reality shows including Mark Burnett’s ‘Stars Earn Stripes.’

Links:

Taking Point Leadership

Taking Point Leadership – Books

Twitter: @brentgleeson

Linkedin: Brent Gleeson

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!

086 Are You Wasting Your Career?

086 Are You Wasting Your Career?

According to the January 2018 report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average person changes jobs 10 to 15 times within their career. If you take it from that perspective, if you’re 25 years old and you are serious in your career, you still get seven chances to do something legendary in your career before you hit the big 6-0.

So in today’s episode, we ask, are you wasting your career?

Make Every Career Count

You get a very few chances to do something legendary, so make them count. Mike Maples of podcast Starting Greatness says “start or join a company worthy of your talent.” Christopher adds that a lot of people make the mistake of trying to sell themselves to a company, instead of you evaluating the potential of a company.

“Most people look at this backwards. They look at things like the salary, title, who their boss is going to be, the health care plan, vacation time, the commute. I’m not saying all those things aren’t important. They are important. I would start or suggest you start to look, ‘is this company. designing and dominating a giant space?’” – Christopher Lochhead

Work For Category Queens

Choose the best and the pioneers in their own space. That’s how you can make money out of your career. First, you get the job security and assurance that the company is here to stay. Secondly, most companies offer stock option for long term employees, which enables you to build wealth. 

“You have to ask yourself, is this company, the leadership, the founder, the CEO, the CMO, the head of sales, the head of engineering —do they have what it takes to design a legendary product company and category at the same time and become the category queen?” – Christopher Lochhead

Find Ways To Earn Horizontally 

Wise people take a job where they are getting paid to work and they convert that cash into investments. Over time they build a real nest egg. Christopher believes that it is important to find a career that enables you to gain investment opportunities. These investments can later on earn passive income for you.

“Convert sweat for cash into an investment that sweats for you.” – Christopher Lochhead

To know more if you are wasting your career, 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.

085 Justice Deposits: How NetFlix, Twitter & Costco Are Leading Conscious Capital & You Can Too

085 Justice Deposits: How NetFlix, Twitter & Costco Are Leading Conscious Capital & You Can Too

In June of 2020, Netflix announced that it was moving 2% of its cash equal to about $100 million to bolster black owned and black run banks, allowing these banks to lend more. The way this works is pretty simple: when we make deposits in a bank, that allows them to make more loans. More and more corporations and nonprofits are jumping in to join the movement.

In this episode, let’s go deep on the power of justice deposits.

Corporations Joining The Movement

After NetFlix’s announcement, Twitter announced its plan to move 1% of its cash or 100 million to community development financial institutions. Costco has pledged to move $25 million in deposits, Biogen has pledged to move 10 million and PayPal announced plans to move 500 million. 

“The early adopters in this movement—the justice deposits—have pledged to move nearly $800 million. That is nearly equal to 20% of the current total assets held today in black owned and black run banks.” – Christopher Lochhead

Address The Root Cause of Inequality

Justice deposits inject capital into banks to banks to allow more Black Americans and minorities to gain access to capital. Aside from this, Christopher discusses on this episode why this is a very savvy marketing move. In fact, according to Harvard Business Review, 60% of Americans say that brands should take steps to address the root cause of racial inequality. It turns out, 50% of Americans go further and say brands must actually educate the public about this matter. 

“There can be no equality in America without equal access to capital.” – Christopher Lochhead

HBR Article About Justice Deposits

This episode is a companion of a recent article in Harvard Business Review: “Could Gen Z Consumer Behavior Make Capitalism More Ethical?” It’s a very eye-opening article that we encourage you to read as well. Christopher, together with Eddie Yoon, Pastor Dave Ferguson and Pastor Quentin M. Mumphery collaborated on this research piece. 

“What I think this means for CEOs, CMOS and even CFOs, is we need to pay attention. The Next Generation really cares about this stuff. And it’s very clear to me, and I think it should be clear to all of us that every company today needs what you could call a conscious capital strategy.” – Christopher Lochhead

To know more about justice deposits, 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:

Netflix Moves $100 Million in Deposits to Bolster Black Banks

Twitter will invest $100 million in lenders promoting racial equality

Consumers Want Brands to Take a Moral Stand on Racial Justice

Could Gen Z Consumer Behavior Make Capitalism More Ethical?

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.

196 The Last Wine Frontier: Bhutan W/Michael Juergens

The Last Wine Frontier: Bhutan W/Michael Juergens

Our guest today Michael Juergens, is a senior partner at Deloitte. He’s also a super wine geek of the highest order and on a trip to the Bhutan in 2016 , he discovered there was no vineyards there at all. What you’re about to listen to is the real story of how Michael, by accident, connected with government leaders in this magic little country to become the founder of a new industry and is pioneering the last great wine frontier.

Bio:

Michael Juergens doesn’t fit into a simple box.  

As a senior partner in a large global consulting firm, he’s a seasoned business executive who spends his time advising Fortune 500 organizations.  

His passion for wine has led him to be a candidate to become the 45th American to qualify as a Master of Wine and he started the wine industry in the Kingdom of Bhutan in the Himalayas.  

He also owns the award winning SoCal Rum company.

He’s an internationally known speaker and author, and also is a professor at the University of CA, Irvine.   

He plays the drums in a punk rock band, and spends his free time diving with great whites, building motorcycles and hot rods, and running adventure races in remote locations around the world.

Links:

Linkedin: Michael Juergens

The World’s Newest Wine Frontier Is the Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan

The wine industry said I’m crazy: US pioneer to create ‘next Napa Valley’ in Himalayan hills of Bhutan

First Vineyard Planted In Bhutan

Bhutan, Land of the Thunder Dragon

Gross National Happiness

The 4 Pillars of GNH

Bhutan: Committed to Conservation

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!

084 Creating a Category? Do NOT listen to customers

084 Creating a Category? Do NOT listen to customers

In this episode, let’s talk about why, when you’re designing a new category, you need to be very careful who you listen to. Often times, listening to customers is the worst thing you can do.

Whose Feedback Matters?

Christopher shares one of the things that they discussed in their book Play Bigger, that new categories are often only obvious in hindsight. He further advises that if you’re designing a new category, it’s critical to be very, very careful whose feedback you listen to.

“You don’t never forget. Nobody wanted a horseless carriage, never forget.” – Christopher Lochhead

Breakthrough in Hindsight

We should not listen to customers and most people, when we’re designing a breakthrough because most people can’t see it. Now, when you’re doing incremental things, customer feedback is awesome. But in general, most people cannot see a breakthrough, whether they’re customers, partners, potential employees, or even potential investors.

“You want to talk about your new category in the early stages with people who can engage in what you might think the art of the possible with you.” – Christopher Lochhead

To know more why you should not listen to customers when creating a legendary category, 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.

083 The Problem With Your Marketing Plan

083 The Problem With Your Marketing Plan
On this episode, let’s talk about what the problem with your marketing plan might be in specifically three areas. Number one, calling it a “plan” might be a problem. Number two, it’s actually a legendary marketing plan that is about more than just marketing. Lastly, number three, your relationship with your CFO and finance team might be a problem, but I’m hoping it won’t be when we’re done.

Create A Marketing Framework

Chris describes what a “plan” entails and how an actual marketing plan should be fluid and should be consistently open for changes and adjustments. He suggests calling it more of a “framework” than a plan. Lastly, he gave some important valuable points on which marketing activities to invest on.
“So as you start thinking about planning and budgeting, put things into big buckets, but assume change. That’s why calling it a framework might be a more powerful thing.” – Christopher Lochhead

Involving Everyone On The Team

A marketing plan (or framework) is more than just marketing. Chris describes how you should have a valuable relationship with the Head of Product or Engineering and Finance in plotting your plans for the company. 
“Drive a highly cross functional process with the team, interacting with marketing, sales, finance, customer support, and potentially other organizations to gather their input.” –  Christopher Lochhead

Develop a Relationship With The CFO

Collaboration with other executives within your firm is very important in executing your marketing framework. Chris shares first hand experience as a CMO and how he developed a relationship with their CFO. He has some significant tips on how to adjust marketing investments that ultimately benefit Finance.
“If you work well with your CFO, marketing can be a place to park cash.” –  Christopher Lochhead
To know more about the problem with your marketing plan, 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.

195 Neil Pearlberg, Santa Cruz Surf & Skateboard Podcast Legend

195 Neil Pearlberg, Santa Cruz Surf & Skateboard Podcast Legend
Imagine sitting on a wonderful backdoor deck, overlooking the vast beautiful bluey green Pacific ocean as sets of waves. Roll in on a perfect warm sunny fall day in beautiful Santa Cruz, California. Then imagine a funny, ADHD infused conversation between two buddies with the beers and tequila flowing. Well, that’s what we have today, with none other than Santa Cruz, icon, surf/skate legend, host of the mega popular podcast Off The Lip, Neil Pearlberg. In this episode, we get silly. We swear a lot and have tons of fun. I invite you to crack open a cold one and join Chris and Neil for a lot of fun.

Bio:

Since September 2009, Neil Pearlberg has written over 200 articles covering the sport of surfing, as well as skateboarding, and soccer, for the Bay Area News Group, & Santa Cruz Waves.  He is also the host of the “Off the Lip Radio Show”, & Hour Local Radio Show aired on Santa Cruz Radio Show KSCO AM 1080, FM 104.1, ksco.com and streamed on Santa Cruz Waves Facebook Page. Neil has also published articles in Adventure Sports Journal, National Geographic, Stand Up Paddle Board Magazine.

Links:

Off the Lip Radio Instagram: @offthelipradioshow  Twitter: @offthelipradio Linkedin: Neil Pearlberg 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!

082 How Category Designers Do Acquisitions: Why Salesforce/Slack Is a Savvy Deal

082 How Category Designers Do Acquisitions: Why Salesforce/Slack Is a Savvy Deal

Most people look at acquisitions through a spreadsheet lens. Of course the financials matter for mergers and acquisition deals, but when viewed through a category design lens, acquisitions look very, very different. In this episode, we break down the differences using the Salesforce / Slack Deal as an example and Google purchasing YouTube way back 2006.

Two Types of M&A Deals

First one is category consolidation deals, which is usually done in market categories that are slow or have no growth. The second type of M&A deals are category acceleration deals, which happens in early or high growth market categories.

In line with this, let’s step back in memory lane, October of 2006, when Google purchased YouTube For $1.65B. YouTube was two years old then with just 65 employees. Many experts said predictable things like “how can Google be so stupid” “they paid so much for a company with little revenue, no profits.”

“In 2006, google didn’t buy YouTube’s technology, customers, or revenue or profits. Google was the category queen in Search and they bought the category queen in Video. They bought the #1 position in category. A category with massive potential. Potential, that some others could not see.” – Christopher Lochhead

Youtube: #2 Search Engine In The World

Legendary new categories are often obvious to most people, in hindsight. To put a fine point on this one: in 2019 YouTube did $15B in Ad sales. Google made a category acceleration deal. They redesigned part of the category landscape on the internet and they’ve been benefiting as a result ever since then

“Think of what could have happened to Google if Microsoft, Yahoo, Disney or someone else owned Youtube? As Internet categories were getting designed and redesigned, without YouTube, Google could have found its ass on the floor in the game of category musical chairs.” – Christopher Lochhead

Salesforce $28 billion Deal To Buy Slack

After Salesforce bought Slack for $28billion, their stock got hammered down to 11%. In fact, headline of MarketWatch.com is: Salesforce stock drops as Wall Street questions necessity of Slack purchase.

“Now there is an epic mega category battle going down for the new distributed, digital workplace. Here’s what they don’t get…Salesforce just increased their odd in this epic category battle.” – Christopher Lochhead

To know more about How Category Designers Do Acquisitions: Why Salesforce/Slack Is a Savvy Deal, 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:

Salesforce acquires Slack for over $27 billion, marking cloud software vendor’s largest deal ever

Salesforce to Acquire Slack for $27.7 Billion

Google to buy YouTube for $1.65 billion in stock 

A Decade Ago, Google Bought YouTube — and It Was the Best Tech Deal Ever

Google buys YouTube for $1.65 billion 

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.

081 Marketing Fail: Sherwin-Williams Vs. Ocean Spray

081 Marketing Fail: Sherwin-Williams Vs. Ocean Spray

In today’s episode, we dig into two how two companies approached a viral situation. First, Ocean Spray’s positive trendjack in response to Nathan Apodaca’s viral TikTok video. Second, is how Sherwin-Williams fired an employee who created viral Tiktok videos mixing paints. We ask the seminal question, how can you be more like Ocean Spray?

Marketing Wins and Fails

When Nathan Apodaca’s Tik Tok video went viral (he was skateboarding, drinking his Ocean Spray, singing Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams”), newly appointed Ocean Spray CEO, Tom Hayes took action. It was the trendjack of the year and Tom Hayes took it to a whole new level. It ultimately gave Ocean Spray positive PR. 

Now, on the other hand, when Tony Piloseno, an Ohio University senior, who worked part-time at Sherwin Williams created a set of popular paint videos on TikTok, he got fired. What’s worse: Piloseno said he actually pitched Sherwin Williams Corporate Marketing Team the idea of being more active on TikTok with some of his videos. 

“Piloseno says it took TWO MONTHS to get in touch with corporate marketing and they ‘basically told me that there wasn’t really any promotions going onso there wasn’t a need to see the presentation.’ %$#@!!!!” – Christopher Lochhead

What Savvy CEOs and CMOs Do

Do you work for a company like Ocean Spray or Sherwin Williams? If you want to be more like Ocean Spray, how do we do that? Most companies today, if they are smart, they have social media marketing departments trying to create what this guy has created.

“Savvy CEOs and CMOs invest heavily in creating legendary digital content. leaders want to share knowledge, they have a point of view, and as a result, they are mobilizing communities, they are creating movements and ultimately, they are growing their category and brands through a thought leadership owned media and earned media strategy.” – Christopher Lochhead

Seminal Questions To Ask

Christopher narrates one of his conversations with Robert Rosenberg, the former CEO of Dunkin Donuts. He and his team capitalized on one franchisee discovering a potential product, the munchkins and that is a great example providing support to your team. 

“This brings us three seminal questions for all of us Marketers, number 1, are you building an Ocean Spray or Sherwin Williams-like culture? Number 2, are you encouraging radical creativity amongst your people and number? Number 3, are you building a digital owned media strategy and capability?” – Christopher Lochhead

To know more about marketing fail: Sherwin-Williams Vs. Ocean Spray story, 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.