CanInnovate

Armel Beaudry Kembe Tchemeube is the CEO and Founder of Trebble FM. Before running Trebble, he worked for 8 years as a software engineer for a startup in the telecom industry that got acquired by Nokia. Armel owns a software engineering degree from the University of Ottawa.

Episode overview:

Are you a podcast junkie but wanted to get more content in a short amount of time?

If you are, then this episode is for you.

This week, I get to chat with Armel who is the CEO and Founder of Trebble.fm, a platform that releases shortcast - consumable 1 - 3 minutes podcast episodes. In this episode, we covered why people are becoming interested in consuming short-casts compared to longer podcast episodes. We also talked about how Trebble started, the difference between Twitter, LinkedIn posts and Trebble on podcasts and so much more.

About Trebble.FM

Trebble.fm is an online music-sharing platform that allows music influencers and music enthusiasts to curate your own interactive music radio and share it with music lovers around the world. Those radios are called 'Trebbles', can be easily embedded in a website.

Trebble owners can add their personal touch to the music they share and speak to their listeners through 'Capsules'. These are brief audio messages up to 90 seconds that they can record and play to listeners. They can attach additional information to those capsules like text, pictures, videos, allowing to fully express themselves and deliver a unique enriched listening experience.

Connect with Mark:

Website: Trebble.fm

Twitter: @armelbeaudry and @trebblefm

LinkedIn: Armel Beaudry

Instagram: @trebble.fm

Books Mentioned:

Blitzscaling: The Lightning-Fast Path to Building Massively Valuable Companies

Angel: How to Invest in Technology Startups by Jason Calacanis

Mark 'Ski' Struczewski ("Mister Productivity") helps entrepreneurs & executives get the right stuff done in a distracted world. In addition to being a productivity expert, Mark is a speaker, host of The Mark Struczewski Podcast and an online trainer. His strategies have guided CEO's/Executive Directors, business owners, business corporate specialists and entrepreneurs to get back control of their time.

Episode overview:

This episode is for all those that are looking for productivity tips/hacks and secrets. I chat with Mark Stuczewski, MISTER PRODUCTIVITY – he's obsessed to help the world become a more productive place – one person at a time.

We chat about:

• How getting fired, was the best thing that happened to Mark
• Time to practice 'Adulting'
• The notification cleanse
• The power of ODAE – Outsource/Delegate/Automate and Eliminate
• Concept of the NOT TO List
• How complexity is the gateway to procrastination!

And, I got challenged to take the 7-day productivity challenge. GAME ON! Hopefully, some of you will do it with me.

Connect with Mark:

Website: MisterProductivity.com

Podcast: The Mark Struczewski Podcast

The 7 Day Productivity Challenge

Social media: LinkedIn | Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest

Laurence is the Founder and CEO of nanopay Corporation, where he drives the vision to offer the infrastructure to enable what's more commonly known as Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC). Prior to founding nanopay, Laurence came from the telecom industry where he was Vice President of Wireless at Shaw Communications, prior to his role as Chief Operating Officer of Bell Mobility. Active in the payments community, he is the Chairman of the Paytechs of Canada and a member of the Payments Canada Stakeholder Advisory Committee.

Episode overview:

This week, I get to chat with Laurence about how we have an ambitious goal to lead the world's transition to digital cash.

What isn't commonly understood about payments, is while money might appear to move quickly or instantly (ie. in the case of e-Transfer), the real money doesn't move until the next day when the banks settle the payment overnight. This creates settlement risk for the banks involved in the transaction. This risk grows exponentially when the transaction is cross-border, introducing currency and exchange risk.

Our innovative technology securely moves value from one user to another in real time – with instant settlement – and is ideally suited to transform the global payments infrastructure.

That being said, the road to digitizing cash isn't necessarily a straight line. Today, we offer a self-service payment platform for small businesses (you can sign up at Ablii.com), a business to business payment product, and a liquidity and cash management solution for banks.

About nanopay:

nanopay is a Fintech company based in Toronto that empower banks and businesses to scale with innovative payment and liquidity software. nanopay offers two products: Connect, a business payment product which easily integrates with your ERP software and enables both domestic and cross-border payments, and Liquid, a real-time intra-company cash and liquidity product, which enables self-service virtual account management.

nanopay's products are built on a payment engine, nanorail, that securely tokenizes money to move value from one user to another in real-time. nanopay is venture funded with strategic investments from international partners including the Merchant Banking Division of Goldman Sachs.

Connect with Laurence:

Website: Nanopay.net

Facebook: Nanopay Corporation

Twitter: @nano_pay and @laurencecooke

LinkedIn: nanopay Corporation and Laurence Cooke

Hey Innovators,

We keep hearing the same words over and over again - innovation, innovator, agile thinker, lean startup, design thinking expanding our horizons. Ugh! What on earth does it mean?

Let's go back to reset and define Innovation. Innovation simply means continuous improvement, a way to produce new value. Very different than inventive, where it's completely new. This is about innovation, taking something existing and refreshing it to provide new elements. This is where we get to be unapologetically curious and look at things with a new set of eyes.

How do you train people to think outside the box? It's such a mindset shift. When we grow up, we are expected to do certain things (i.e. get married, have kids, get an education, save for the future). What about training people to say that it's okay to go off course? The best way to really develop thought leaders is to embrace the notion of curiosity. Allow your teams to develop points of views, challenge the norm and provide them with a valued voice.

It's interesting to me, how the Impostor Syndrome has become a growing syndrome that is impacting so many individuals. Impostor Syndrome is basically self-doubt. We all have this and experience it. I did a podcast episode (E84) & blog about how feeling like an impostor is a competitive advantage. It's called I'm an Imposter and let me Roar! I've also created a Free Imposter Syndrome Cheat Sheet to overcome this self-doubt.

It's quite the paradox - be adventurous and overcome impostor syndrome, and follow the organizational rules & expectations. Organizations and Individuals need to start to create time for innovation and creativity. We need to get from reactive mode to a proactive mode. The challenge is that we are not given enough time to think, only time to react.

Here are a few tips to slowly start to shift a little bit of your thinking.

The innovator mindset is to

1. Embrace Curiosity and become a Learn It All - explore different dimensions/avenues. What tools do you have at your disposal? List them out and also think about the non-traditional tools. Books/podcasts/free webinars/ articles/ talking to people across different industries. You know, I had a client that put me on retainer, just to brainstorm with. She'd have a few ideas and wanted to bounce it off all the wall and see what other elements could give it legs. Don't dismiss the idea of talking to others and listening to understand where they are coming from. It might provide the perfect 'AHA' moment.
2. Encourage Points of View. A lot of individuals have thoughts but are afraid to provide their point of view (PoV), because it won't be inline with the 'status quo'. Encourage and reward people for having ½ baked points of views. They will gain experience and courage to develop full points of view. No point of view is perfect. Think about all those folks that put out 2020 trends, they are just an opinion, a point of view.
3. Failure - companies and individuals need to define their tolerance of risk. How far can you go in terms of failure? Encourage people around you to really test early, with minimal risk. Allow people to help develop the idea with you. You can start to test early and re-jig things based on feedback. It's a perfect way to do a temperature check (just putting a toe in the water, to see what the temperature is).
4. When developing solutions/services/concepts offer three (3) options. Give something for your leaders to react to. Present a conservative approach, a crazy out of this world approach and a hybrid of the two (2) approach. One of these crazy ideas

Management Consultants have been using these approaches for years. Some of these concepts have been re-marketed under the umbrella of Design Thinking. These are classics that have worked for centuries! They just change the names to make them a little more 'glamorous'.

So, I challenge you.

What are you interested to learn more about (Learn it All), what are you curious about?

As promised, here is that little gift that I have for you.

FREEBIE ALERT: Free Imposter Syndrome Cheat Sheet to overcome this self-doubt

Thank you so much for your time.

If you know someone that could benefit from this episode/blog, feel free to share with others. Drop me a line anytime, I love hearing from you.

Best Always,

Sapna

Links:

4 Steps to Cultivating an Innovation Mindset in Your Organization

I'm an Imposter and let me Roar

Dave McKeown helps individuals, teams, and organizations achieve excellence by doing the ordinary things extraordinarily well. He is the CEO of Outfield Leadership and author of The Self-Evolved Leader – Elevate Your Focus and Develop Your People in a World That Refuses to Slow Down. If that's not enough, Dave is also the host of the podcast Lead Like You Give a Damn and writes a weekly online leadership column for Inc.

In this episode:

Author Dave McKewon really made me pause, think and then dance. His book – the Self-Evolved Leader is a must read. It's for new leaders AND seasoned leaders – it's a perfect read and reminder.

You'll learn how to TACTICALLY move from firefighting mode to empowerment

• Stop working in the weeds and think more strategically
• Find more time to focus – give room and time to think
• Build empowerment deep in your team
• Free up your head-space to be more creative
• The Self-Evolved Leader: Elevate your focus and develop your people in a world that refuses to slow down

Honestly, this was a book that I'm going to read every year, to remind me what type of leader I want to be.

About Outfield Leadership:

Outfield Leadership helps leaders deliver excellence by doing ordinary things extraordinarily well. Our flagship program, The Excellence Equation™ is an immersive, interactive and practical workshop that will help busy managers and leaders rise above the day-to-day urgency to focus on the long term direction of their team and development of their people.

Best advice:

Building a culture of accountability is the holy grail in the leadership world. If we can get our people to go above and beyond their job description to help move the business forward then we'll see results like we've never seen before. Our customers will be happy, our people will be happy and your job as a leader will be much easier. The problem is that you can't teach your people how to hold themselves accountable. You can only provide the environment in which they want to do it.

Connect with Dave:

OutfieldLeadership.com | Twitter | LinkedIn | Instagram | Podcast |

Book mentioned: The Self-Evloved Leader: Elevate your focus and develop your people in a world that refuses to slow down

Happy New Year! 2020… Crazy, how time flies by.

The holiday season just flew by, one minute I was preparing for it, next it was over. I do love the holiday season. Stay tuned for the end of the podcast episode, because I have a little gift for you. It should help you orient yourself for 2020.

There is something magical about the holiday season. I always end up crying in commercials/ movies, you name it, my heart literally skips a beat.

I was thinking about the holidays and why is it the time of year that get people choked up. The spirit of generosity, kindness, love, family, compassion, triumph and magic - and then it dawned on me the magic word "INNOCENCE". Seeing things through children's eyes. It brings out the inner giant in everyone of us. The age of Innocence where good always beats the bad. Santa is real. Elf on the shelf are really Santa's helpers, the joys of wishes and the idea that wishes could come true. With a simple letter to the North Pole. Human Connection, it truly is something gives us hope. Belief… That's it…

The holiday season reminds us to believe in all the things that we normally forget. To make time for those that we love (let's be honest, we are all so busy these days & we hope everyone understands), to help the less fortunate. How is it that we are more giving during this time of the year?

Does anyone remember Charles Dickens timeless classic, A Christmas Carol? I found this incredible article where Time describes Charles Dickens as the "Inventor of Christmas". The story is from 1843. Can you believe that? The story is 176 years old.

I'll be honest, I was always a fan of Bill Murray's Scrooged. It cracked me up and still makes me giggle. What I loved most about these stories, is how he visits the Christmas Past, Christmas Future and then goes back to the Present to change things! There is always time for reflection, in order to move forward. So, definitely take a moment to reflect, before you start planning out your goals. I've enclosed a gift for you, so that you can also take a moment to reflect back into 2019.

So, in keeping with the holiday spirit, a look back to my 2019. I'm pretty excited. 2019 has been another incredible year, that I'm extremely proud of and have learned a lot.

1. I launched my 1st book - Connect the Dots - how to turn strangers into meaningful relationships. I nearly fell out of my chair, when it hit the Amazon Bestseller List! I'm still stoked! I'm already planning my next book. There were so many learnings from this entire experience. Getting the book formatted for ePub version has different formats based on online reader - Kindle/Kobo/tablet etc… I tried to use Fiverr to get the book interior designed, which just became a nightmare. There was extra spaces and new dashes everywhere. Every time, one person would fix the mistakes that I found, 5 more new errors would just show up. Then I finally just did the interior formatting myself, took over two full days but it was just easier than outsourcing. Lesson learned, If I'm going to outsource any activities, it might be better for me to send to 4-5 in parallel. Hedge my bets, instead of sending to 1 person & then it being a disaster and then wasting more time to find someone else. I think this task, took nearly 6-8 weeks longer for me to complete things and I was just getting more and more frustrated each time! Ugh… So, outsource to 4 or 5 people at the same time or just do it myself.
2. As per my goals, I also launched and held a few different webinars. I did a sales webinar on how to optimize your sales proposals. I still see so many poorly written sales proposals. It really astonishes me, that people don't see that this is the first touch point that that a client receives from you. Need to make sure it provides an ideal experience. I'll make sure the link is available. Remember, that this is the first official deliverable that your client is to get from you. We need to think, what is the experience that we are delivering during the honeymoon phase.
3. Brainfood Book Club was just an experiment and it has been the BEST experience ever. There are a few of us that meet virtually every month at lunch time to discuss the book. Honestly, the book provides the topic and it enables us to apply and discuss so many other discussions (both professionally and personally). We record the episodes, HOWEVER, I take out the other personal banter. The non-book relevant stuff. This virtual book club has developed new friendships, deepened existing ones and we are really dedicated to helping each other grow. We really love our monthly virtual social. SO much laughter. You can hear our discussions or even join us.. It's free!
4. Teaching Consulting 101 at George Brown College. Which has been an absolute joy. I've been teaching for the past few semesters and really enjoy every minute of it. However, I'm ready for something new.

However, in looking at my goals for 2020. I'm ready to learn something new. Both personal & professionally. I've recently taken on a new role that has been consuming a lot of my time. There are lots of teaching & coaching opportunities. Which means, I need to balance myself out. I need to learn something new. It's like that Yin/Yan - Give & Receive. Everything needs to be in balance.

So, here we are 2020. I remember writing about where the industry would be in 2020 and now it's here! I definitely have a lot of goals for 2020, but more importantly, I have a lot more courage. No excuses, and I'm ready for 2020… game on! This year I've decided is to be filled with lots of new experiences.

CanInnovate podcast features timeless professional development secrets & essential business life skills, that management consultants have been using for decades. We are unapologetically curious!

I wanted to start this year off right by providing you with some inspiration. I want everyone to be unapologetically curious & courageous!

It all started off when I was watching one of my guilty pleasures. Yes, I was watching X-Factor Celebrity. I think I'm drawn to it because people are trying something new and taking a chance. But, this season I was drawn to it, because these are people that already have a following or known in their particular geography, but not well known globally. So, them entering a singing competition is a little bit like a 'fish out of the water'. Which I absolutely love! That's how innovation happens.

But, I need to tell you about this one particular contestant that had this amazing story and literally stole my heart and probably everyone else that heard it. So, of course I want to tell you about it.

Allow me to introduce you to Martin Bashir. Martin Bashir is known as a very well respected and hard nosed journalist. He's interviewed everyone from Princess Diana, to Michael Jackson too many politicians. So, it came as a surprise for a 54 year old professional journalist to enter a singing competition. A Complete 'fish out of water' indeed.

Then he mentioned that his late brother was the driving force behind the inspiration. His brother was 29 years old, when he lost the battle of Muscular Dystrophy (MD). For those that don't know what Muscular Dystrophy is a group of muscle diseases that results in breakdown of skeletal muscles over time. Just heartbreaking.

Then Martin shared the wise words of his late brother Tommy. I hope it inspires you as much as It did for me.

"When you grow up with a child and you fight over toys. At age four, he never fought back and, by the time he was 13 he couldn't feed himself, you feel that you have no excuse for turning down opportunities."

Martin said: "Every time I have faced a challenge I have heard him whispering saying, 'What excuse do you have? You have no excuse."

I was at a Raptors game (for my international listeners, its a basketball game) and one of the folks that I was with, secretly really wanted to get a picture with Super Fan. I probed a bit and discovered that they were a SUPER FAN of Super fan! So, off we went to get in line to get a picture! Don't let being shy or fear of judgement hold you back. Why would you want to miss out on opportunities?

Every time you try something new, you learn a new experience and will have a new story to share. The best stories are actually those that don't exactly turn out the way we want them to turn out. So, enjoy the roller coaster and a new adventure.

I really hope that 2020 really provides you the courage to be curious. In the words of Tommy, "What excuse do you have? You have no excuse."

I really hope that 2020 brings you lots of goals, inspirations. Take time to reflect. In fact, I've got a little freebie cheat sheet for you. It's my gift to you, as you embrace 2020. Revisit the Christmas ghost of the past in order to help you figure out where you want to go in the future.

Be unapologetically curious & courageous in 2020! Be bold, brave and adventurous.

ALL my best,

Sapna

[email protected]

P.S. Here is the link for gift - all free: Reflections Review

Resources mentioned:

Connect the Dots: How to turn strangers into meaningful network relationships

Reflection Action Review Cheat Sheet

Brainfood Book Club in Facebook

Celeb X Factors: Martin Bashir

Muscular Dystrophy

Frederic Lalonde is the CEO and Co-Founder of Hopper, the smart way to book travel on your phone. Combining massive amounts of data and advanced machine learning algorithms, Hopper predicts and analyzes future airfare and accommodation prices to save users money and enable them to travel more often. Hopper has ranked as the #1 travel app in over 55 countries and has ranked as one of the top 10 travel apps in over 120 countries. It has received accolades such as Fast Company's Most Innovative Company in Travel 2018, the Google Play Award for Standout Startup of 2016, and Apple's App Store Best of 2015.

Episode Overview:

This episode for anyone that likes to travel for either work or pleasure. I get to sit down and chat with Frederic Lalonde is the CEO and Co-Founder of Hopper and WOW!!! He blows my mind! Hopper predicts prices with 95% accuracy up to 1 year in advance. Such an amazing overview of the BOOMING travel industry and the stats & insights he shares, WOW! Did I say WOW already?

In this episode we chat:

• How we don't need to wait for those so called Airline SEAT Sales - Hopper does this for us
• How Hopper becomes the eyes behind our head when it comes to flights & hotels
• Travel Industry is a $1.4 TRILLION dollar industry - that's 4% of Global GDP, where the ride sharing industry (i.e. Uber/Lyft) is only $40 Billion
• How they design with customer in mind.. In fact they only send true VALUE added push notifications
• Tips for how to get the best deals & how others are saving $1000's of dollars
• Hopper utilizes a Jeff Bezos model/philosophy
• Hopper is doubling in size every 6 months - lots of cool jobs which we will be including on our newsletter!
• And so much more!

You're going to love the energy in this episode!

About Hopper:

Hopper is made up of hundreds of smart, creative, and inspired humans working to fundamentally change how the world books travel.

Hopper is the smart way to book travel on your phone. Combining massive amounts of data and advanced machine learning algorithms, Hopper predicts and analyzes airfare and accommodation to save users money and enable them to travel more often.

Since its launch in 2015, Hopper has become one of the fastest growing travel apps ever with over 30 million installs to date. It is now the most downloaded travel booking app in North America and travelers have booked hundreds of millions of dollars in flights and hotels around the world using Hopper.

The app has received accolades such as Fast Company's Most Innovative Company in Travel 2018, the Google Play Award for Standout Startup of 2016, and Apple's App Store Best of 2015.

Connect with Frederic:

Hopper.com | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter: @fredlalonde @Hopper | LinkedIn: Frederic Lalonde and Hopper

This is probably the most overlooked area. We tend to think about interviews in terms of getting a job. How about gathering information that really provides great insights.

I used informational interviews everywhere, not just in podcast recordings. I use this approach everywhere. I use it to build new relationships, to ask for advice & guidance, build networks and it truly helps one see different dimensions and aspects about a particular topic.

It's an approach that Management consultants have perfected. How many times have you heard "We hired consultants and they just validated everything that we knew." The difference is that the management consultants go in to chat with people with the intent of gaining information & valuable insights to a particular area and they compare it with other companies/individuals that have faced similar situations/obstacles and/or challenges.

Management consultants often refer to this as discovery questions. There are no shortage of reasons to use this approach.

Here are a few typical use cases:

1. When you start a new department or company, you want to meet some of the key players (also known as stakeholders) to understand the current challenges in the environment. It provides us insights of what these individuals expect of us. Another 'AHA' moment
2. When you have a new business idea or potential concept, many of the innovators on the CanInnovate podcast told us that one of the greatest sources of information. They were able to test whether their idea was a problem or opportunity that others would pay for. Providing insights into their potential go to market, their target market, their key messaging and so on. It provides them with such valuable feedback that allows them to fine tune their business idea and potentially gain a few early adopters.
3. When you're looking into jobs and want to know about company culture. What a great tool to use to dive in to understand more about the company. People really enjoy talking about the pros and cons of their company, as its an extension of their values.
4. Inspiration & Curiosity. You meet someone that is brilliant and would like to know more about them. They have gotten your attention and you're curious to know more about them and their journey. Maybe it's just because you are looking for a little bit of 'juice' for inspiration.

All of these different uses, give you an additional benefit. You will get collaboration and actually develop relationships. People that you've engaged, will want to be part of your journey. They are a little bit invested in your success. In my book, Connect The Dots: Turn Strangers into Meaningful Network Relationships, I talk about the study that confirms a positive link between asking for a small favor. It's called the Ben Franklin effect!

The reason why I wanted to talk about the informational interview, was because this is also part of the overall design thinking principles. Asking "What If', experimenting and testing early, hearing and understanding (Human Empathy) gathering feedback early in the process, focusing on the user experience mindset and most of all, collaboration. Information Interviews really enables you to humanize the problem/situation and possibly identify additional opportunities by TALKING!

There is no shortage of benefits of using information interviews. But, you know me - I like to get tactical.

• Plan: What do you want to learn about or discover? What is the context the purpose - put together 3-4 questions. Don't forget that you may need to break down questions into smaller questions to re-frame questions. Think like a journalist. You're just getting information and looking for little clues. Don't forget to prepare a little mini-intro about you & what is the objective for the meeting.
• Engage: Who are potentially some folks that could give you some of these answers. Who in your network should you engage. FREEBIE ALERT! Connect the Dots Companion Workbook. To help put your networking and objectives into perspective. This workbook will help you identify who in your network to engage and more importantly, how to engage and what are some topics that you want to talk about. This will help provide you the basis, for your informational interviews.
• Warm Up: Meet the person and make sure that you take a few minutes to do some warm up questions. Getting to know them. People love talking about themselves. You can ask about how did they get into this field, or what does a day typically look like for them or talk about a hot industry topics. Just make sure you take the time to warm up the conversation.
• Conduct: Conducting the informational interview. Be open to go off script. This is a big challenge for people. The idea is to pick up clues, not to be perspective. You're trying to discover what you don't know.
• Reflections: Every time, you do an informational interview - think about did you get the information that you were looking for. You may need to refine and re-frame the question. We need to remember that we just need to get better at asking BETTER questions. By the way, you know I absolutely think Michael Bungay-Stainer's Book - the Coaching Habit:Say Less, Ask More & Change the Way Your Lead Forever is an essential must read. This book provides such valuable ways to PHRASE questions to get information out.
• Thank you: I cannot express this enough. We need to take a few minutes to say thank you and be grateful for the time. I did an entire blog post about the value of gratitude. I'll add it to the show notes. Send a handwritten note or email. Just to thank them for their time and the value that they provided. Do NOT ask for favors. You're just starting to build relationships. You can touch base with them, throughout your journey and give them a little bit of an update.

One thing that I've learned, is that people want to genuinely help. However, they also want to know specifically what it is that you want. We get so many requests for our time, so we need to prioritize. Don't ask for 4 hours of their time, ask for 25-30 minutes over coffee and BE SPECIFIC. "I'd like to learn from you, about what it's like working as a Business Analyst at Company XYZ" or "I'd like to get your advice and perspective, of how to get more hands on experience with Blockchain technology".

Information Interviews is another essential business life skill. I've got some freebies for you.

I hope you found this helpful and useful. I look forward to hearing from you. Feel free to share the content with others and leave comments. I love feedback.

Best Always,Sapna

FREEBIE ALERT!

Connect the Dots Companion Workbook. To help put your networking and objectives into perspective. This workbook will help you identify who in your network to engage and more importantly, how to engage and what are some topics that you want to talk about. This will help provide you the basis, for your informational interviews.

Other links:

Importance of Gratitude

3 steps to a perfect informational interview

How to get the most out of an informational interview

Founder and President of ​NKPR​, Natasha Koifman has built one of North America's top PR and marketing companies. Natasha's strengths as a marketer, communicator and relationship builder have earned her an award-winning reputation for successfully growing North American and global brands across many sectors.

Recognized as one of Canada's most powerful and innovative women, Natasha has been honored with awards from the Women's Executive Network (WXN) and BizBash, recently completed a TEDx Talk and had been profiled in top-tier publications that include FORBES, The Globe and Mail, and Marie Claire.

In this episode:

• How she built one of North America's top PR and marketing companies working with big brands and big CELEBRITIES
• Difference between PR & Marketing
• True Entrepreneur DNA
• How she's inspired by EVERYTHING
• How it was a natural fit and evolution to become an Angel Investor
• Difference between VC & Investor
• How she's been able to combine all of her personal and professional interests
• What the 'F Word' podcast is all about and so much more…

About NKPR:

NKPR is a 30-person agency with office in Toronto and New York and we're always looking for talented people who share our passion for great work. As part of the NKPR team you will work alongside the brightest in the field. With the support of a strong team, NKPR is a great place to keep learning, stay ahead of the curve and advance your career.

They offer ongoing training, employee appreciation events, comprehensive dental and health coverage, endless snacks and DJ Fridays. Everyone is encouraged to support each other and to give back through the NKPR 26 Acts of Kindness program.

Connect with Natasha:

NKPR.net | Facebook | Twitter | NKPR on LinkedIn | Instagram

I'll be honest, I've always been a Brandon Walsh girl over Dylan McKay! I have to say, I just watched Netflix's Riverdale episode, and how they honour Fred Andrew (who was played by Luke Perry). I have to say… WOW! They really nailed it!

How they handled Luke Perry's death, was absolutely beautiful. The writers truly honoured Luke Perry and the audience that grew up with him. We got to truly mourn his death (here is a little photo tribute). My sister and I were bawling throughout the entire episode. These writers were definitely thinking with their hearts and that level of empathy was so evident. We actually felt like we attended his funeral and got to say goodbye to him. They invoked so many memories and really helped us along the journey. There were a few hidden surprises, that just took our breath away.

This got me thinking about how this is a great example of design thinking. First of all, we all hear the words design thinking but it's hard to envision and understand. Design Thinking is Human- Centered design, versus system centered. The Riverdale show writers, really understood their target market. Having all the Riverdale parents being teen idol stars from the 80's, we know from Luke Perry, Molly Ringwald, Mark Consuelos, Skeet Ulrich, Robin Givens & Mädchen Amick.

They really kept the audience in mind when writing this episode. They really understand & understood their target audience and the different audience personas. Which means that every piece of content speaks to the audience personas. Which is exactly why this Riverdale episode and the funeral of Fred Andrews (aka Luke Perry) was such a big deal. How they handled this so tastefully, will encourage even more loyalty.

Design Thinking provides a hybrid approach to problem solving. It does not just look at data analytics and science, it also uses emotions and intuition. Design Thinking really provides a hands-on-approach to problem solving. Not just researching on a computer or google to problem solve. It wants you to get out their on the field to talk to people to 'hear' & 'understand'. Less talk and more action. It's an iterative process, where we seek to understand the user, challenge 'same-old' assumptions , and redefine problems to identify additional opportunities. Design Thinking is a total shift to the mindset.

There are lots of times that we get caught up in meetings and not actually talking to people that would be impacted. We make decisions without doing early testing. Designing the solution in real-time with the actual end users (aka people that will be using their solution), is where you will hit that sweet spot.

Here are some tips for you to start to embrace design thinking

• Know thy audience, including audience Personas – get to truly understand your audience. What are they struggling with? What are worked well before? What doesn't?
• Learn from Failures – so try and test early. Get out there and listen and learn. Don't just sit there and google to do research. Design Thinking goes beyond a computer, it goes back to the basics (pre-internet time). Just get out there and talk to people!
• Embrace Ambiguity – don't be afraid of not knowing things. This is where many folks fall victim to 'Imposter Syndrome'. Look at the gaps and unknowns as clues. Play detective and enjoy the mystery. It will allow you to be open to hearing and exploring new possibilities. One of my favourite quotes "I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work."― Thomas A. Edison
• Iterate & continuously improve – don't develop something and go into a black box, until you finish developing everything. Touch base with your customers/target audiences frequently, grab their feedback to improve things throughout the process.

I hope this helps. I've also included a free little checklist to help you find questions to gather feedback. Just click here REFLECTIONS AFTER ACTION REVIEW. It takes 10 minutes to do a reflection to thinking.

Let me know what your thoughts are.

Best Always,

Sapna