mission
288 posts
How Dollar Shave Club Succeeds With A Better Brand Story
How does a startup come on to the scene, take on giant global brands like Gillette, and win? That’s what Dollar Shave Club did, by harnessing the power of great brand storytelling. This is how they did it. By telling the truth, and keeping it simple. With an easy to remember brand name and tagline,…
Because It Matters
How do you stand out when there are two other juice bars on the same street, and half a dozen ‘good enough’ life coaches just three clicks away? If you’ve got the same choices as the competition, how you choose can make all the difference. Do you make decisions based on what’s gone before, or…
Being The Most
In the 80’s Starbucks set out to be the most inspiring coffee brand on the planet. When they forgot this in the 90’s and tried becoming the most ubiquitous, they lost their way. If you could be ‘the most’ to people what ‘most’ would you be? Most reliable. Most irresistible. Most ubiquitous. Most lov
Signal Versus Noise. You Get To Choose.
I’ve always loved the name of the blog at 37Signals… Signal vs Noise. They chose well. They write well too. Signal versus noise perfectly describes how we are living and working right now. We want to be connected, both as business entities and as human beings. But we’re sacrificing hearing the signa
If Only You Could Write Like Malcolm Gladwell
WANTED “A professional writer talented in non-fiction storytelling with a passion for the topics of startups, social entrepreneurship, cutting-edge science and technology, and the psychology of the crowd, capable of crafting non-fiction pieces that are captivating and massively popular (think Freako
The World Is Your Focus Group Now
Think about every conversation you overheard today. It may have been on the train, in the coffee queue, or while you waited in the hair salon. You know, the one where the guy on his mobile explained loudly that his taxi hadn’t turned up. Or when forty something Sarah confided how stressed out she wa
The Art Of Giving People What They Really Want
The group fitness instructor at our local gym is exceptionally good at giving people what they really want. During a tough early morning Pump® session he doesn’t talk about resting heart rate or thermogenisis. Duane punctuates those last thirty seconds of effort by telling us that this is how we’ll
How To Standout
Care more. Do what you say you’re going to do. Stand in other people’s shoes. Solve problems. Fix what’s broken. Change how people feel. Create what you want to see in the world. Don’t wait for an invitation. Think beyond what’s possible. Get over your fear. Act. Rinse and repeat. Image by EIO.
How Coffee Became As Seductive As Diamonds
I have no idea how this happened, but twenty five years ago when my husband and I were choosing my engagement ring on student budgets, I found myself inside a tiny strategically lit room with a £20,000 ring on my finger. £20,000 was enough to buy a house in Dublin in those days. Fast forward…
Better Together
Putting your ideas out there is scary. Hitting publish is test of your nerve. Showing up most days involves commitment. Making room. Letting go of something else. You don’t, as (Seth would say), expect applause… but it’s lovely when you get it, and even better when it sounds like this. “Here’s a blo
Lessons From The $100 Startup + Win A Copy
Sometimes you get to the end of a book and struggle to remember a key message from it. Although The $100 Startup is written for people who aspire to live a life like the author Chris Guillebeau, (who still in his early thirties, has visited more than 175 countries and never had a boss), there…
Begin With The Possibilities, Not The Limitations
When you’re scoping things out. When you’re strategising, or planning how to get from here to where you want to be, you often start by asking the wrong questions. You put your first focus in the wrong place. You start by thinking about what went wrong last time. By telling yourself what you can’t do
The One Thing You Need To Learn From The World’s Greatest Marketer
Yesterday I did something I don’t normally do…I Googled Seth Godin. Not because I never have cause to, but because I have Seth’s blog on speed dial in my toolbar. The results made me chuckle. You see Seth has been circled by over 95,000 people on Google+ and he has never posted a single update…
Why You Need To Change How You Think About Success
From the outside looking in success looks so easy. Successful people make it all look a bit like falling off a log. It’s easy to think that success happens in the moment, or is catalysed by one major event. Like being stranded while travelling, deciding to charter a flight and then selling tickets t
You’ve Got A Business Idea, Now What?
I’m sure you’ve heard the story about how Richard Branson chartered a private aircraft when his flight to Puerto Rico was cancelled, and how pitched the idea of sharing it to fellow passengers using a chalk board. Although he wasn’t planning to turn this into a long term business venture at the time
Why I Stopped Working For Coffee And 12 Reasons Why You Should Too
Are there still days when people ask to “pick your brain” and offer to buy you a cup of coffee? It’s tempting to take people up on those offers and flattering that they think you’ve got something valuable to contribute. I know. I’ve been there, done that and got the t-shirt. I understand the allure…
The Number One Marketing Opportunity You’ve Probably Overlooked
Yes I know marketing is one of those icky words. It smacks of snake oil salesmen, hard sell merchants and spammers who interrupt without permission. You don’t want to be in any one of those categories and you don’t have to be. Marketing and branding is about turning up the volume on your mission, so
The Only Reason You’re In Business
The reason you’re in business is to make peoples’ lives better. Every word you write, coffee you serve or pixel you paint is nothing without an audience to consume it, and more importantly care about it. So here’s the question you need to ask. How does what you do, make, serve or sell make life…
How To Make Your Message Stick
I read an interesting fact on the last few pages of my friend Mark’s new book Return on Influence, apparently most people abandon a business book after reading one third of it. This is an audience who decided they believed in the idea, author or maybe the title and cover design enough to invest, onl
What’s The Purpose Of A Brand Story?
If you’ve got a great product or a killer service why do you need a brand story? You only have to look as far as your local cafe or boutique fashion labels to see that all brands are not created equal, and what usually separates the successes from the failures is a good story. The…
