REBEL CURIOSITIES

How does curiosity drive the profit & loss of a business? 

Why should we lead with curiosity for better business results?

Today I speak with Febronia Ruocco, a Global Strategic Insights Director, who has worked for a number of notable companies and brands such as Cadbury, Diageo, Heineken, McDonalds, Mars, and Heinz. Having been exposed to marketing in her early career, she discovered her fascination with how consumers behave with certain brands - and how that curiosity unlocks a deeper level of impact to actual business results. 

She is incredibly passionate about empathic leadership of high performing teams and currently is also a mentor for both Women in Research and the Durham University Leadership Academy. 

She describes herself as a SENSITIVE REBEL and why it can be incredibly difficult to be leading with empathy... yet still so critical to do so, especially with curiosity and respect. 

Key moments:

• A curiosity with marketing should revolve around the business - not just branding 
• Why people can mistake data points as insights and miss driving real competitive advantage
• Innovation is the imagination of possibilities - but companies can be limited by their thinking around what they current are working with
• Her passion for empathetic leadership - "There is a difference between managing and leading"
• Why curiosity and empathy in leadership seems like “soft skills” - but so essential to drive real business results in a team
• Why we shouldn't be afraid to ask if the company values support empathetic leadership
• Mentorship is about inciting curiosity in your mentees
• How she is a “Sensitive Rebel” - and the power of listening well

Find out more about Febronia Rocco on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/febroniaruocco/

Connect with Pearl Lim:
linkedin.com/in/pearl-lim-curiousleaderscircle/

Gail Robertson started out as a journalist and learnt that asking questions, not just any questions but the right ones, will get you better stories... and better relationships for work. 

And being a force of nature herself, she soon found herself pulled into different paths in her career, following her curiosities along the way. 

Gail is currently the CEO - or more accurately, the Chief Curiosity Officer - of GailNow, a marketing and business consultancy specialising in manufacturing, helping companies to tell their stories, as well as running her own channel on YouTube, Curious Minds. 

Her mission, as a Curiosity Influencer and Marketing Coach, is to help deliver those stories to the world.

She candidly shares why it’s so important for us to tell our stories and how she would prioritise connecting with people over just selling something.  Her favourite tagline? “BE CURIOUS, NOT JUDGEMENTAL”

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Key moments:

• From a "recovering journalist" to a Chief Curiosity Officer - how curiosity sets her apart in storytelling
• What’s holding businesses back from telling their stories
• Why approaching negativity and critique with curiosity manages one’s defensiveness
• "Doing the things they've always done" - why businesses are not driving the same manufacturing innovations,  to sales and marketing
• Why LinkedIn is the ultimate platform for businesses to thrive 
• Plastics is not the enemy - How she champions the debunking of myths by wanting people to ask questions on her show, Curious Minds
• Her belief that being curious is a way of discernment 
• Why curiosity could be the marketer’s (and sales’) weakest area

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Find out more about Gail Robertson here:

Linktree: https://linktr.ee/gailrobertson
YouTube:  www.youtube.com/@gailnow
Online interview: Helping Manufacturers Tell Their Story! - GailNow

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gailrobertsonkeynotespeaker/

Connect with Pearl Lim: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pearl-lim-rebelcuriosities/

www.rebelcuriosities.com

Connect with Pearl Lim:
linkedin.com/in/pearl-lim-curiousleaderscircle/

Matthew Murrie is a curious guy. 

In fact, he is so curious about things around him and the way we learn and work, that he pursued the research of science and psychology in curiosity, asking questions along the way that challenges the status quo.

Matt is the executive director of What If Curiosity, a professional consultancy focused on developing and driving curiosity-based thinking in the workplace - and the author of eight science books on curiosity. He is a two-time Returned Peace Corps Volunteer where he taught English and designed environmental awareness experiences, as well as being an English professor and a Director of non-profit group in US. 

We discuss the explosion of ChatGPT into the world since November in 2022, how this changes the way we think about AI learning, and how this could potentially transform people working in business, from sales to marketing and HR. He talks about the Curiosity Quotient (CQ) - like IQ - and how there are four different personality types in the attitudes towards curiosity and how to bring out the best in each by harnessing different tools.

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Key moments:

• How he developed his curiosity in his early years
• His experience in the classroom vs. his nurtured curiosity from his teacher parents
• How curiosity helps children to be great adults, not just a great six-grader
• ChatGPT is the “revolution” that we need for education - it doesn’t just become answers-providers when you’re operating from a point of curiosity
• How ChatGPT will force us to rethink what work means for us
• Why the resistance to the technology may not always be from the general workers
• Is it easier to inculcate curiosity-based thinking in academic institutions or corporate organisations? (The answer may be surprising!)
• How to create a good team at work with the different personality types in curiosity profiling
• Are optimistic people more curious? 
• Why curiosity and empathy are like two sides of the same coin

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Find out more about Matthew Murrie here:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewmurrie/
Website: https://www.whatifcuriosity.com/

Connect with Pearl Lim:
linkedin.com/in/pearl-lim-curiousleaderscircle/

Curious rebels harness the power of curiosity in the way they think, to being who they are and driving what they do. They are the ones who rethink the status quo and are likely to have chosen unconventional paths, than follow the one laid out for them. 

And today’s guest, Leonard Reese, is someone who has done just that. 

After college, Leonard moved to East Africa to teach computer literacy to adults in rural Zanzibar. He continued to travel for the next several years, as he freelanced nomadically. After attending grad school, Leonard lived in Brooklyn where he become an active organizer in the design and tech community. He started the Brooklyn Product Design group, which has since grown to over 4,000 members in the community. Last year, he moved to Singapore for work and has since sparked a similar tribe here in the Singapore Product Design group. 

As a Design Lead/Consultant in his day job, he also engages with key business stakeholders regularly to connect design requirements to commercial needs.  We spoke about why businesses need to get more curious about their users, their challenges and how a carefully designed UX or customer experience makes all the difference for success.
 

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This episode:

• How he became comfortable being a foreigner in most cultures, leaning on his own curiosity towards people and new norms
• How good design is about changing “hearts and minds” to blend with business metrics - instead of being only the "visual" elements of colours and fonts
• When projects go wrong - the complacency of thinking you know what's best for the users, instead of co-designing or creating participatory processes to get the actual experience right
• How he copes with the difficulties of curiosity, especially when the learning curve is steep or contradicts what you already know
• Why his personal mission is ‘to improve design quality in the world, to always do what is right by the user, and to lead others to do the same’
• His ways of not blindly following hierarchy or bureaucracy and his own definition of what a curious rebel is

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You can find Leonard Reese on:

Website - https://leonardreese.squarespace.com/
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/leonard-reese/
Singapore Product Design group - https://www.meetup.com/singapore-product-design/

Connect with Pearl Lim:
linkedin.com/in/pearl-lim-curiousleaderscircle/

Curiosity is a wonderful trait for connecting with people - but what happens when the other person get a little too inquisitive and starts asking questions that feel like an interrogation?


Or worse, use the curiosity against you in conversations you aren’t prepared for - especially on social media?

I speak with Lisa Partridge, a communications specialist and founder of SIXCOMMS consultancy, which runs training programs for professionals looking to improve their communication skills. She runs “Connect and Reflect’ workshops, which encourage participants to get curious about their own goals and motivations, as well as the barriers that are holding them back. 


She believes deeply in having both connection and curiosity as the perfect partners for great communication. Yet we also have been through instances where the inquisitiveness of others have just felt too intrusive. Where do we draw the fine balance? 


In this episode, we ponder on the dark side of curiosity and how to get the art of curiosity right for authentic and genuine connections.   

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Key topics in this episode:

• Her experience with a neighbourly curiosity, which quickly became quite intrusive 
• How her own empathy and trust with others came from discomfort and self-growth  
• Listening is a powerful tool - sometimes more so than asking questions - to curiosity
• Why “imposter syndrome” could be a barrier to authentic curiosity
• How physical rituals/activities can help to psych one up for an open conversation 
• Her thoughts on navigating language, biases as the dark side of curiosity - especially on social media 
• How the concept of "meerkat moments" from the book, The Squiggly Career by Helen Tipper and Sarah Ellis, is her inspiration behind small acts of curiosity  

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You can find more about Lisa here:

• Podcast: https://www.sixcomms.org/podcast 
• Email: [email protected]    
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisasing 

Connect with Pearl Lim:
linkedin.com/in/pearl-lim-curiousleaderscircle/

Walking into retail pharmacies these days is a very different experience - and no one understands this better than Rhett Hemedes, who began his career in advertising in global agencies like Leo Burnett, Lintas and BBDO, working on multinational pharmaceutical accounts like Glaxo Smithkline and Boehringer Ingelheim.

He is currently an Independent Advisor on Strategy & Innovation in Health, Wellness & Marketing Technology. He began consulting at Sasin School of Management where he advised on Edtech partnerships, Blended learning and Executive Education. Prior to this, he had a long tenure of over 20 years in Pharmaceuticals. His latest role was as AVP, at Great Eastern Drug (GED) where he managed multiple categories & brands in OTC & Medical Channel. 

Rhett and I discuss the pitfalls of marketing programs that typically fall into a discounting rut, and the challenges of building differentiated brands in a pharmaceutical industry that is so regulated. He finds that the marketing messages had become  irrelevant because they all come across the same - more so now than ever, since  we are constantly bombarded by data. 

Rhett has previously given talks relating to sales, promotions and the "End of OTC Marketing As We Know It". We explore if marketers can overcome the challenges and problems in this area, and how does  a sense of curiosity change that.

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Key topics in this episode:

• How he started in advertising 
• How the different buying journey for OTC products affect marketing decisions
• Why marketers fall into short-term tactics that contradict brand values
• Are marketers curious… enough? 
• Why we shouldn't start with numbers (targets) in marketing plans 
• Re-evaluating value of marketing with the advancement of technology and AI 
• When “soft skills” like resilience and curiosity matter more than technical skills
• How the focus on soft skills change the way adult learning develops in the current climate 

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You can find Rhett at https://th.linkedin.com/in/rhetthemedes 

Connect with Pearl Lim:
linkedin.com/in/pearl-lim-curiousleaderscircle/

What does curious leadership look like? Why don’t corporate environments make it easy for curiosity to thrive? 


I discuss the challenges and opportunities of leading with curiosity with Wayne Reuben - founder and CEO of www.engage4performance.com - who has over 30 years of commercial leadership experience, building and leading teams across Asia Pacific markets. 


He shares his thoughts on what exists for reinvention in a curiosity-based leadership approach, and why everyone - including marketers - need to challenge the status quo to drive business results. He also discusses candidly why surrounding himself with curious people is the most important thing any leader should do - and why he’s happy to be the least smart person in the room when that happens. 

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Key topics in this episode:

• Why having curious people around is critical for a Leader
• Leaders need to understand that curiosity isn’t just an inherent trait. 
• Why people don’t speak up 
• Great leadership is rare (the paradox of not being the smartest person in the room)
• Encouraging curiosity does not mean risk losing control
• Every marketer should have a sign that says “if it doesn’t work, stop doing it”
• How rebel curiosities drive competitive advantage 

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You can find more about Wayne Reuben at www.engage4performance.com. 

LinkedIn: Wayne Reuben 

Connect with Pearl Lim:
linkedin.com/in/pearl-lim-curiousleaderscircle/

We may feel stuck, personally or professionally. 

We feel like we have no other choices, no alternate paths ahead. Most often times with deep frustration, exhaustion and eventually, resignation. We tell ourselves life is meant to be like that. 

To get unstuck, we need to challenge that inertia to self-awareness, and by gently being curious with ourselves on how we got there. 

Dalglish Chew is a professional coach and partner at Avalanche VC, working with startup founders and business leaders His writings on LinkedIn and blog delve deep into the human psyche, on the challenges and suffering we sometimes put ourselves through. 

He shares his experience in understanding the different ways of “stuckness” and how a gentle curiosity can uncover the layers to understanding our own unique gifts - to show up as the leaders we want to be.

Connect with Pearl Lim:
linkedin.com/in/pearl-lim-curiousleaderscircle/

Join me as I explore conversations with different experts in fields of business, behavioural coaching, leadership and entrepreneurship - on how curiosity has been their own personal superpower and how we can harness it to achieve better results. 

For more information on Rebel Curiosities and our guests, please visit www.rebelcuriosities.com.   

Connect with Pearl Lim:
linkedin.com/in/pearl-lim-curiousleaderscircle/