Well heeeeey! In this week’s edition of The Human Connection Experience, I have some links and thoughts on connection through marketing in 2021, a round up of things I found noteworthy, and some thoughts on making sense of our own humanity in These Crazy Times.
Oh, and Spring is on it’s way! Can you feel it?
Connection to self
I strongly believe it’s difficult to create any kind of change in the world without a strong connection to yourself.
I have been reminded of this acutely recently, as this virus-that’s-not-COVID-but-has-same-symptoms has been putting it’s feet up under my table for the last few weeks.
(I am starting to recover now slowly, with gratitude for antibiotics and the ability to breathe more each day).
We we get caught in the doing and not the being, old habits sneak up and tend to take over.
Whilst I have some non-negotiable habits of daily exercise, meditation, and journalling, when forced to stop there is always a really welcome invitation to lean into the space that opens up, and to dream into how to create more of that luscious, expansive, flexibility.
More on that in this insta post below.
On that note, 📝 Reflection.App appeared on my radar this week as a way to check in daily, and I have been really enjoying it. I go through phases of pen and paper journalling and digital logs, but I love the fact that Reflection has inbuilt prompts, reminders, and a streak log (hello, habit stacking and behaviour change).
If you give it a go, let me know what you think.
Similarly, I turned again to Nicola Humber’s UNBOUND Book this week, and found a great reminder about finding deep agreement in difficult times.
More below 👇
Well-being and mental health in the online space and remote working
I am fortunate to work with incredible leaders and change-makers on their teams, and to also lead a community of brilliant humans.
In these environments, being human and transparent about how you feel on any given day is encouraged, welcome, and part of the culture.
Right now, SO many people are struggling with mental health. After all, we are living through a global pandemic, grieving many things, and not able to be with the humans we love, necessarily.
This article from HBR reminds us of the importance of human connection and small talk in meetings, particularly when working remotely.
When we are all Zoom fatigued, and without the water cooler check-ins or human hangouts, making time to be human is all the more important.
I contributed to Authority Magazine earlier this year for an article on managing remote teams here.
Building effective collaboration — Creating an environment to create innovative, collaborative ideas can be tricky when managing a remote team. However, setting the space for focused co-working, leading with strong communication, and holding and guiding space goes a long way to create an effective and enjoyable environment.
Virtual Photoshoots
Massive, MASSIVE shout out to the clever, creative, funny, huge hearted Becky Wright 📣📸 @beckys_virtualphotoshoots
For Becky, and the other amazing photographers out there who are adjusting to working remotely, well done 👏.
Truly.
To create amazing results like these 👇🏻takes skill, direction, a huge personality, and an incredible eye.
As with any industry, there are the peeps who are unkind about others in their space who are adjusting and doing things a different way during the pandemic.
But to me, to be able to create stunning images that serve your clients beautifully (my pics are amazing and I get comments all the time about them) is something to be celebrated.
Would we all prefer in person shoots? Yes of course!
But I would also love to hug my family, go to the pub, and get my glitter right up in the bass trap of a club 🤣🤣
What’s more, innovating in times of chaos also creates change and a way to still get your pics on fleek without taking a day to travel 🧭 or investing in a higher price package off the bat.
Bro Marketing Fatigue and the Turning Points in Unethical Marketing
It always brings me joy to hear people naming what is SO very obvious in many online circles.
Namely, that there is a whole lot of BS going on.
So, hat tip to Hillary and Margot in their latest HAMYAY podcast that shouts out how to avoid the blueprint tactics that we are all pretty much done with….and what to do instead.
“We live in a world dominated by bro marketing so the pressure to participate by screaming louder, lying by omission, making promises you cannot keep, and claims that aren’t true is high. Which is why Hillary and I would like to help fortify your ethical backbone, so you don't worry you're "doing this wrong" for opting out of these nefarious sleazy boisterous approaches to our beloved discipline of marketing.
Marketing is the art and science of getting people to care, it helps you engineer connection and works best when you deploy empathy, not deception.
In our rush to satiate our egos and win a seat at the Bro Marketing 12 Million Dollar Launch in One Weekend table, we seem to have forgotten that deception doesn't work.”
Live Marketing Trends
According to Lively, a Live Marketing agency presenting recently at Most Contagious USA, our Unprecedented Times have created some pretty interesting legacies for marketers.
From Lively:
#1 We’ve jumped a decade in 10 months. Mobile data consumption has leapt 504% since 2011, 4 billion people are connected, and in 2020 there were 26 million smart devices in circulation. We’ve never been more physically isolated, yet we find ourselves propelled into a strangely more connected world.
#2 The future is about being live and connected. Brands must adopt a true live marketing approach to create connections with audiences. When the average consumer sees between 4,000 and 10,000 ads each day, they reach for the brands that can cut through the noise. That’s why live marketing is on the rise: when it comes to communicating a message, nothing beats a live interaction.
#3 Combine technology with powerful storytelling. Reinvent the live experience with a new era of integrated live marketing: a hybrid mix of the best physical and digital communications.
From Giff:
Being live and connected is a challenge to rise to. Our invitation is to create a scaleable way to connect to our clients and audience, with a live element that stands out.
So, we need to get creative.
Mixing live elements with pre-scheduled is an area to explore more and more this year.
Whether Clubhouse remains as popular once we can find human connection in Actual Human ways will be put to the test later this year, but audio is definitely a key area to watch.
Or listen to, rather.
More on this from the brilliant Oz Lubling in his newsletter, Culture Clash:
”It’s an exciting time for audio. Familiar experiences such as podcasts and audiobooks have a newfound momentum. At the same time, new and innovative audio experiences are coming to the forefront. Although similar in some respect, recorded and live audio experiences can be quite divergent. They prioritize different user needs and preferences. Since more of our attention is taken up by these experiences, it’s a great time to take a closer look.”
A great example of this is the Battersea Poltergeist live podcast drop listening session this week.
The podcast creators are combining a live experience in real time, with experts, chat, and community on Twitter.
Have you seen some great examples of live human connection?
Feel free to share in the comments below.
And lastly…
In wild swimming news, I have been back in the river after a 3 week hiatus.
It was a total joy to get back in the Great Ouse. River temp 8.5, it’s getting warmer!
🎧 In my ears this week:
Thanks for being here, and feel free to join the discussion in the comments below.
Jo