Talking About Marketing

This is an important start to our second season. Through the Marketing Rebellion book by Mark Schaeffer, we are all reminded that we control only a small slither of our branding efforts.

Customers rule the world.

We explain in more detail, along with poking fun at stuffy branding agencies, making notes about the upcoming change to Google Analytics, and reflecting on whether or not the University Of Adelaide's 2016 campaign, Seek Light, actually lit a fire for their enrolments.

Talking About Marketing podcast episode notes with timecodes

01:39 Person This segment focusses on you, the person, because we believe business is personal.
When Branding Goes Bad

Over summer I listened to some old (2020) episodes of Very Bad Wizards, a podcast featuring a philosopher (Tamler Sommers) and a psychologist (David Pizarro), and they took a blowtorch of cynicism to the newly announced University of Oregon branding document.

I mention this because as people in our business, we are often our brands and we can feel inferior next to "big brands" so I thought I'd start with a little taste of how these two professors mocked pretentious branding, when the University Of Oregon released its branding kit.

Here are some of the sections that David Olney and I then lampooned. Jeez. The pretension!

FORWARD-THINKING

We never take our eyes off the horizon. We exist to help push humanity forward. To pass on a better world than we inherited. We don’t just lift up the people around us, we build stairways so the next generation can climb even higher.

NATURAL 

Ever notice how purely itself nature is? A tree is a tree; it doesn’t try to be anything else. As always, we take our example from nature.  Sometimes we’re intense and focused. Sometimes we’re relaxed and approachable. Either way, we don’t try to force it. We just are.

INCLUSIVE

Everyone has an irreplaceable gift to offer. Corny, but astoundingly true. Inclusion means more than just acceptance, though. It means welcoming everyone into the room. And listening. And supporting. And collaborating. And celebrating their uniqueness.

EXTRAORDINARY

You know when you crest the summit and catch that first glimpse of the whole world laid out at your feet? Yeah, that feeling. We never stop chasing it. Our hunger for the extraordinary is what makes us… well, extraordinary.

UNEXPECTED

We love research that raises eyebrows. Insights that spark new perspectives. Solutions that defy old assumptions. And don’t even get us started on art. Surprise disrupts our thinking, opening space for new ideas. It’s why we sometimes zag when others zig. 

BOLD

We know who we are, and we call it like we see it. But never in a rude way. Bold is what you get when you combine self-confidence with respect for others. We speak courageously, take risks, and stand up for what we believe. We’re not arrogant or conceited, but we do swagger sometimes.

What's the main point for us? Be yourself. Even if that self aligns with how we want our brand to per perceived. We are unlikely to have that disconnect that big brands have.

13:36 Principles This segment focusses principles you can apply in your business today.
Will You Join The Marketing Rebellion?

In his book, Marketing Rebellion, Mark Schaeffer, talks about the current state of marketing as being one that comes at the end of lies, the end of secrets, and the end of control.

David Olney explains this in more detail in our discussion.

He also references, the author, Pulizzi, who argued for the concept of "audience first".

In other words, as Adelaide Fringe artists are noticing at the moment as The Advertiser stops doing reviews and other media outlets all seem to be favouring their advertising-supported shows, you need an audience before you sell a product or stage a production.]

David also shares an insight from his partner, Karen, whose embroidery group embodies this wisdom.

27:46 Problems This segment answers questions we've received from clients or listeners.
Give In To Google Re Analytics

Amid the upcoming end of Universal Analytics also known as Google Analytics 3, comes much worry about what to do to maintain reporting of visitor behaviour on websites.

Steve's big tip: Google is offering to migrate your old GA3 Universal Analytics to GA4 and if you have not set up GA4 and done very little with analytics, then let Google go for it.

If you put effort into GA4 set up, then go into your current GA3 accounts and in the GA4 Set Up Assistant, click into it, scroll down and turn off the offer of transition.

31:14 Perspicacity This segment is designed to sharpen our thinking by reflecting on a case stude from the past.
Have You Seen The Light?

For our glance back to our past this episode, we discuss the University Of Adelaide's 2016 campaign, Seek Light.

David Olney has particular insights because he was a lecturer at the university then.

As a side note, our editor, Tim, was a student at the university then and features in the ad and its thumbnail cover image on YouTube.

The question is, did this mysterious and supposedly uplifting/inspirational campaign lead to more enrolments?

As far as David recalls, the answer was no.

And the reason: students were contemplating large HECS debts. They needed more than vague allusions about seeking knowledge (something applicable to all universities) to let it sway their decisions.

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Don't you wish you could weave some words and have people fall under your spell?

In the Principles section, David explains how author, Blair Warren, has compiled a list of 27 words that will achieve this end.

Is this hocus pocus or does it have substance?

You're about to discover it's the latter!

Meanwhile, following our remininiscing about the infamous "ants" TV commercial recently, we're returning to the topic like ants to a sugar spill.

Steve argues that the behaviour of forrager ants, well, 10-15 per cent of them, gives us some clues about what to do in the eternal battle of working out whether to say yes or no to new opportunities.

In the Problems section,

And for a dose of perspicacity (the sharpening of our minds), David and Steve reflect on a refreshingly different road safety ad, honey buns!

We hope you find this helpful.

Talking About Marketing podcast episode notes with timecodes

02:33 Person This segment focusses on you, the person, because we believe business is personal.

Be Like The Ants

Author and retired poker champion, Annie Duke, has written a book called, Quit.

She thinks the concept gets a bad rap because our society has bought into its opposition disposition of grit; sticking at something all the way through, all the time.

In her interview with Russ Roberts on the EconTalk podcast, Annie's description of supposedly wayward forrager ants who are not part of the long column of other ants, provides a great example of when it is okay to say yes to an opportunity that you're not sure about.

As an aside, her book says our flawed mental accounting is what makes us confuse wins for losses; physical ledgers start from the start and tabulate what's been achieved, mental ledgers start at the end and count back.

She also revisits the intriguing thought experiment of monkeys on pedastals. Steve explains that in the episode.

14:26 Principles This segment focusses principles you can apply in your business today.

Words To Make The World Do Your Bidding

People will do anything for those who encourage their dreams, justify their failures, allay their fears, confirm their suspicions, and help them throw rocks at their enemies.

Our job, as marketers and communicators is to try to validate and fascinate people, rather than trying to correct and convince people.

These insights are expanded upon by David, after his reflection Blair Warren's 2022 book, The One Sentence Persuasion Course: 27 Words to Make the World Do Your Bidding.

24:03 Problems This segment answers questions we've received from clients or listeners.

Velcro on your website

Steve reflects on a recurring theme coming up in mentoring.

Many websites cut to the chase, assuming visitors have a certain degree of knowledge and understanding.

However, what's really needed is some velcro; some content at the top of pages that allows people to see themselves and have a sense of safety that they are known and understood.

Every site always has room for improvement and testing.

28:02 Perspicacity This segment is designed to sharpen our thinking by reflecting on a case stude from the past.

Accessible Adelaide Fringe?

Just how accessible is the Adelaide Fringe?

This week, we're looking at the Adelaide Fringe TVC from 2016.

Surprisingly, it is all imagery and music.

And that does seem to be a constant theme of all Fringe ads this century.

For David, these ads mean nothing, because he cannot see the content.

Does this mean the Adelaide Fringe is paying lip service to accessibility?

What would David and Steve do differently?

PS Steve has a Fringe show of his own in the 2023 Adelaide Fringe. It's called 100% MBA Success: Whisky And Trivia With Professor Longsword. It will be a lot of fun and you can follow that link for more information and tickets.

Support the show: https://theadelaideshow.com.au/listen-or-download-the-podcast/adelaide-in-crowd/

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All the research says empowered employees make a huge and positive impact on businesses but the concept scares the living daylights out of owners and managers.

That's why, smart speakers and authors like Josh Bernoff and Stan McChrystal, change the language to terms like Strategic Alignment And Customer Obsession. It's more palatable to the C Suite!

We unpack this in the Principles section of the podcast.

Meanwhile, a random playing of an old Tom Waits song gave Steve cause to pause and reflect on how rarely he stops to pause and reflect.

In the Person section, he riffs on that with David and they come up with some thoughts to share with you.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record of the same vintage as Tom Waits' Heart Attack And Vine, Steve uses the Problems segment to share a story of woe about two new clients who'd both lost control of their websites.

And for a dose of perspicacity (the sharpening of our minds), David and Steve reflect on a refreshingly different road safety ad, honey buns!

We hope you find this helpful.

Talking About Marketing podcast episode notes with timecodes

03:37 Person This segment focusses on you, the person, because we believe business is personal.

The Radio Is Off The Air

Th little bit of the Tom Waits song, Diamonds On My Windshield", has a lyric that caught Steve's attention, it goes: "The radio goes off and it gives me time to think."

Steve heard it while listening to the River Blues program on Radio 5mbs - the fine music station in Adelaide where he's a board member - and it jumped out at his consciousness.

We rarely get time to think these days, unless we're disciplined in making that time, and it's robbing us and society of depth and innovation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GADAgEZYuR4

13:57 Principles This segment focusses principles you can apply in your business today.

Strategic Alignment And Customer Obsession

If you want your employees to relate to your customers differently, do you ask them to change what they do first, or do you change the systems that support them first?

This is the question at the heart of this segment, as David reflects on the work of Josh Bernoff (Empowered) and Stan McChrystal (From shared consciousness and autonomous action to strategic alignment and empowered execution).

It's a nailbiting discussion if you believe you need to micromanage everybody around you, or rule by putting the fear of god into people.

If that's not you, you'll probably be applauding, as David works through the key points.

30:08 Problems This segment answers questions we've received from clients or listeners.

Control of your website

Steve reflected on two cases from recent days where an organisation has lost its web person and has ended up stranded with broken websites and one riddled with malicious code.

The lessons:

• Always have full administrator access to your website and web hosting and domain name.
• Always ensure updates always happen.
• Treat websites as importantly as you would your office or shopfront; looking for shortcuts can result in great pain and damage.

36:10 Perspicacity This segment is designed to sharpen our thinking by reflecting on a case stude from the past.

Keep The Bromance Alive

In 2015, a rather ear-catching TV commercial was produced, encouraging "blokes" to listen to road safety messages.

In it, rather blokey blokes spoke to each other like sweethearts, using endearing terms like, take it easy on the road, honey buns.

The juxtaposition of these characters using dialect usually reserved for cutesy lovebirds, turned heads and got attention.

Would such a campaign work today?

Hop in, and let Steve and David take you for a drive around the key points.

Support the show: https://theadelaideshow.com.au/listen-or-download-the-podcast/adelaide-in-crowd/

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Joe Polish is a highly capable marketer, but he surprised David and Steve by inserting the word "grateful" into his mantra that we should approach networking, relationships, and business, with a blend of being useful, grateful, and valuable.

in situations, I initially struggled with why he sandwiched grateful between useful and valuable. When I wrote about value in my blog post, in terms of adding value and being valued, I considered useful and valuable in my own way, but I didn’t think to add grateful into the mix.

As is discussed in this episode, Joe's reference to being grateful, tunes into the emotional aspect of every situation; something that's easy to overlook if you're simply focussed on adding value or being useful.

For our first segment, however, Steve wanders through some insights shared by legendary comedian, John Cleese, in relation to creativity. He especially hones in on Cleese's warning about how we can let ourselves stray aware from the important path of being creative.

In the mailbag segment, Steve reflects on a recenty discovery of how to change his communication style to suit the preferences of a client.

And for a dose of perspicacity (the sharpening of our minds), David and Steve ogle over the TV commercial for Antz Pantz that neither of them believe would be made today. Or would it?

We hope you find this helpful.

Talking About Marketing podcast episode notes with timecodes

01:47 Person This segment focusses on you, the person, because we believe business is personal.

Beat A New Path To Creativity

The Monty Python legend, John Cleese, says political correctness is ruining creativity in all aspects of human activity and at age 82 he recently attended FreedomFest (an annual gathering of libertarians in Las Vegas) to discuss creativity.

Putting his war on wokeism to one side, for this episode, Steve shares a wonderful description that Cleese shared, of how our brains can habituate away from creativity.

Steve argues being aware of this is a sure way of noticing when our creativity is losing the battle against lazy thinking.

The interview we took the snippet from, was Cleese with Nick Gillespie from Reason.

14:31 Principles This segment focusses principles you can apply in your business today.

Be Useful, Grateful, And Valuable

In every situation you encounter, in which you can be useful, can add value, or can be valued, there is an emotional aspect to what is going on.

For example, we can feel good about being useful, be grateful for being able to help, and be grateful to have added value to whatever is going on.

In short, we always act and react in an emotional way, so it makes sense that it's better for us to acknowledge the emotional aspect of our behaviour, because this is the part of us that's crucial for building long-term, healthy relationships with other people.

The conversation in this episode arose after David and Steve both read Joe Polish's book, What's In It For Them?, which also happens to make a great mantra to repeat whenever we are doing anything with our marketing hats on!

The extra video snippet in the show notes on the website, captures a great analogy from Joe; you can't expect to get heat from a fire until you've added a little wood. This reminder, coupled with a commitment to trying to be useful, grateful, and valuable, is an empowering mindset with which to approach networking sessions and all interactions in daily life.

28:29 Problems This segment answers questions we've received from clients or listeners.

Methods of communication

Steve shared some insights learned recently from a client who was difficult to pin down to set meetings or get project feedback from.

While Steve is happy chatting on the phone or in a Zoom session (or even face-to-face, Covid permitting), his preferred method of communication with clients and mentors is email and/or SMS.

He prefers this because it creates a record of what's been said and what times/dates have been mentioned.

However, with one client, Steve noted that timelines were blowing out.

It was all solved recently when Steve asked for communication preferences directly.

It turns out this client's email inbox feels impenetrable and he just can't bring himself to tackling it unless he is directed to a specific email.

There are no right or wrong answers on this topic.

In this case, however, communication is now stellar; SMS for most communications and an SMS to alert the client to a specific email when needed.

Hopefully, this might help you manage communication with your clients and customers.

32:14 Perspicacity This segment is designed to sharpen our thinking by reflecting on a case stude from the past.

Antz Pantz

In 1989, model, Toneya Bird became very famous for a very risque TV commercial for Antz Pantz.

It featured Toneya on a bed wearing nothing other than panties and a tanktop. As she twists and turns on the bed, ants start crawling up her legs and across her crotch, at which point we meet Rex The Ant Eater in bed with her. He wants the ants, so she says, Sic 'em, Rex.

It became a well-worn phrase that entered the vernacular at the time.

But would it work today?

Go on, sic 'em David and Steve!

As an aside, Bird rose to fame via this TV ad, but after modelling for a few years she moved to Europe and married a Norwegian prince. At that point, she virtually stopped modelling. The marriage didn't last very long however, and after the divorce she had a child with an Austrian prince. They later married. And as far as we know they still live in Vienna.

Support the show: https://theadelaideshow.com.au/listen-or-download-the-podcast/adelaide-in-crowd/

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Not everybody feels comfortable "selling". In fact, most of us feel darn right uncomfortable at the thought of "working someone" so you can get them where you want them.

But, of course, that's all based on a fairly narrow definition of selling; the forced selling of a huckster.

In reality, every time we want to "advocate" for a choice of restaurant or TV show, or recommend a book, or strive to hold attention at a dinner party, that's a form of selling.

David Olney riffs on insights from Daniel Pink's book, To Sell Is Human, in the Principles section of this episode.

For our first segment, however, Steve reflects on the empire of Gladys Sym Choon, a fashion and gift store with a long history in Adelaide. In particular, he reflects on the intuitive (and most likely deliberate) branding activity undertaken by the store's namesake, back when being Chinese in Australia was a fraught situation.

In the mailbag segment, Steve shares a question about domain names and business names and whether the twain should meet.

And for a dose of perspicacity (the sharpening of our minds), David and Steve revisit the bomb of all bombs from the Australian car scene, the mishappen Leyland P76. Yes, a fuel guzzler released at the height of the oil crisis of the 1970s. Could it have been avoided?

We hope you find this helpful.

Talking About Marketing podcast episode notes with timecodes

02:32 Person This segment focusses on you, the person, because we believe business is personal.Embody Your Brand

In 1928, Miss Gladys Sym Choon was the first woman to incorporate a business in South Australia, opening her mini emporium, adjacent to the Adelaide Fruit and Produce Market, at age 16.

Many decades later, Miss Gladys Sym Choon is still a going concern and Steve believes that part of the brand's staying power can be traced back to the way Gladys embodied her brand.

In a lot of the early advertisements for Miss Gladys Sym Choons, Gladys is seen holding Chinese lanterns, or wearing exotic dresses, but in her private photos, she never wore any of those things.

According to Steve, this is a clever way of "living" the brand, whether or not is was deliberate or intuitive.

He discusses this with David Olney in the opening segment.

14:38 Principles This segment focusses principles you can apply in your business today.To Sell Is Human

To Sell Is Human, by Daniel Pink, takes a close look at the art and science of selling, dipping into social science to unearth some counterintuitive insights.

In our discussion, David Olney picks up on Pink's model of Attunement as an importan element of selling.

Attunement means you can’t just sell to people, you need to build a relationship with them, so that you understand what they need/want in future, and what they will say about the brand to other consumers.

This is the entry point into our discussion that will hopefully excite you about selling by finding an authentic, human way to go about it and understand it.

24:56 Problems This segment answers questions we've received from clients or listeners.Do premium plugins need updating?

Steve shared an email from Kylie, who had just started a business and had registered a domain name that matched her rather obscure business name.

When he asked her why she didn't choose a more search-friendly domain name, she said thought domain names had to match business names.

As Steve explains, that is not the case, and they were able to snare a perfect domain name for her fledgling venture.

29:35 Perspicacity This segment is designed to sharpen our thinking by reflecting on a case stude from the past.The Leyland P76

Leyland Australia thought the tagline, "anything but average" was perfect for their muscle car in the early 70s, made to go head-to-head with those big Holdens and Fords.

Only problem was. There as an oil crisis running wild during the production process and the car that boasted you could fit a barrel of oil in the boot, hit the stores just as everybody was clambering for 4 cylinder Japanese cars.

Steve and David discuss the car the lessons we learn from not adapting to changes in the marketplace.

Hop in and learn whether or not this conversation is Super or Standard!

Support the show: https://theadelaideshow.com.au/listen-or-download-the-podcast/adelaide-in-crowd/

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There are times you simply need to destroy what exists in order to replace it with something better

We go back to 2015 to start this episode of Talking About Marketing, in which we consider whether we should burn social media down and develop new strategies for marketing in the social channels.

The discussion centres around an insight from Forrester Research in 2015 that stated, "social ads aren’t social; they’re just ads."

The key message is a big like an Emporer's New Clothes moment; yes, brands do stick out like sore thumbs when trying to mingle amid humans wanting to catch up and joke around with each other.

For our first segment, however, Steve goes very "meta" by playing what he said on FIVEaa about what David Olney had told him about changing jobs and resolving the tension between finding fulfillment in Staus vs Value.

In the mailbag segment, Steve shares a question about what to do when you get an email prompting you to renew a premium WordPress plugin.

And for a dose of perspicacity (the sharpening of our minds), David and Steve revisit the Smiths Chips Gobbledok and chew over whether or not it would still have "crunch" through today?

We hope you find this helpful.

Episode show notes with timecodes

02:15 Person This segment focusses on you, the person, because we believe business is personal. Status vs Value

In Steve's regular radio segment about small business on FIVEaa with Richard Pascoe, he recently reflected on the story of Talking About Marketing co-presenter, David Olney, and his realisation that the biggest fear he had when leaving Adelaide University as a lecturer to pursue life as a consultant, was the giving up of his status.

As Steve explained on the air, David noted that blind people have low status in our society, so to risk "lecturer" status was a big deal until he started tasting what it was like to bring value to clients. The resounding accolades he began receiving have since drowned out the echoes of his lecturer status.

In this segment, we discuss what that might mean for us, in our day-to-day work. Are we holding on to a role or business because of the perceived status it brings? And, if so, is that coming at the cost of getting intrinsic and extrinsic rewards awaiting us when we focus on truly bringing value to every interaction we have with clients and/or customers?

As David recently wrote on his blog:

At University I had a reasonable amount of status, tried to add value for my students, and was not valued by the institution. As a Strategic Communication professional, I probably don’t have much status (I assume I am now seen as David the marketing guy), am valued by my colleagues, and add value for our clients. Having now experienced these two different combinations of status and value, I can categorically state that I prefer being David the marketing guy. Being valued and adding value is more rewarding and important to me than status.

12:35 Principles This segment focusses principles you can apply in your business today. Burn Social Media Down

This discussion on how to approach social media in an effective way as marketers, arose from the seemingly evergreen 2015 article by Augie Ray, entitled, Burn It Down, Start From Scratch And Build a Social Media Strategy That Works.

The pertinent points are summarised by Augie, thus:

• People take social media seriously, and so should business.
• Consumers work hard to block and ignore brand messaging.
• Consumers do not trust brand content.
• Consumers count on brands to be present in social media, particularly on Facebook.
• Consumers expect brands to engage on consumers' terms.
• Consumers want fast, responsive customer care in social media.
• Consumers want to collaborate with brands to develop better products.
• Brands win when they get people talking to each other, not about the brand's content but about the actual Customer Experience.

As we discuss in the episode, "doing social media right" means being present but also learning to measure the right things. As Augie says:

Toss out your social media scorecard immediately. The first step to refocus social activities on what matters is to change what is measured. Stop rewarding employees or agencies for generating engagement that fails to deliver business benefit and start measuring what matters--changes in customer loyalty or consideration, positive and authentic Word of Mouth, inbound traffic that converts, quality lead acquisition and customer satisfaction.

And there's a recurring theme from this discussion that runs through our podcast, especially episode one about Telling Your Story, namely, that:

Brands that win in the social era will not be better at storytelling but in using social media to hear, help, educate, encourage, empower, connect and respond to their customers and prospects as individuals.

We hope this discussion gives you plenty of food for thought.

23:36 Problems This segment answers questions we've received from clients or listeners. Do premium plugins need updating?

Steve shared an email from Donald, who had forwarded on an email about a renewal invoice for a premium WordPress plugin.

His question was, do we need to renew this?

The short answer is, yes. While premium WordPress plugins will continue to operate after a license has expired, not renewing means you don't get access to updates.

As we know, plugin updates don't only include improvements but also improve crucial safety and security tweaks that could mean the difference between your site working or your site breaking. Or, worse still, your site staying safe or your site being hacked.

Our advice is always to renew these plugins but to double-check you are still using them first (it has happened that someone has decided to stop using a plugin in favour of a better one while forgetting to cancel the premium subscription).

26:40 Perspicacity This segment is designed to sharpen our thinking by reflecting on a case stude from the past. The Smiths Chips Gobbledok

Chippy, chippy, chippy.

If you're old enough to remember ads in the 1990s, you'll remember the "creepy", furry Gobbledok used by Smiths Chips to connect people to the allure of the rustling of a chip bag and the crunch of their chips.

Steve and David discuss the ad series, look at consumer feedback under the ad on YouTube (which is split between lovers and haters), and ponder whether such ads would work today.

You might be surprised by the conversation that arises.

Support the show: https://theadelaideshow.com.au/listen-or-download-the-podcast/adelaide-in-crowd/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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In this episode of Talking About Marketing, we discuss how to be clearer and more engaging in our communication; in short, writing without BS.

It's funny how fluffery creeps into business writing, whether that's internal messages, emails to clients, or advertising. 

Instead of being one human talking to another, some switch flicks inside us when we try to write in business settings and suddlenly we lean in to leverage the low hanging fruit as we pivot to think outside the box so we can be disruptive!

For our first segment, however, Steve taps into the story of industrial designer, Alfred Boyages, who champions what it means to run a business with a vision.

In the mailbag segment, Steve shares a question about what to do when you get emails saying someone's changes your account details.

And for a dose of perspicacity (the sharpening of our minds), David asks us whether or not Volvo's famous Crash Test Dummies campaigns would still have the same impact today?

We hope you find this helpful.

Episode show notes with timecodes

02:07 Person This segment focusses on you, the person, because we believe business is personal. How to stay true to a mission

In the Small Business Big Marketing podcast some weeks ago, industrial designer, Alfred Boyages shared a story about how a motorcycle accident he had turned out to be "seriously lucky".

As it turns out, with time to think in hospital, he came up with the idea of a motorcycle helmut that was smart; it would alert riders to road hazards just like the oil slick that caused his mishap, which he saw too late.

Forecite Helmuts was born and it has a cult-like following, and very healthy revenues to boot.

But Alfred doesn't think of it as a cash machine, he has a bigger mission; to make motorcycling safer.

How "top of mind" is your mission? 

09:53 Principles This segment focusses principles you can apply in your business today. Writing Without BS

Josh Bernoff has a lovely book in the business section, Writing Without Bullsh#t, and in this segment, David teases out some of the insights without the expletives.

Josh's message in Writing Without BS, is to get us all to transcend BS, write short, replace jargon, and treat your reader's time as more important than your own.

This is why Steve starts the segment with his favourite quote from French mathematician and philosopher Blaise Pascal:

I have made this longer than usual because I have not had time to make it shorter.

David discusses our reality of trying to communicate in a noisy environment, and where average news stories are lucky to get 36 seconds of our attention.

Our lesson: Unless we can change how we write, our emails, reports, and websites don’t stand a chance.

20:43 Problems This segment answers questions we've received from clients or listeners. Someone has updated your login details

Steve shared an email from Simon, a client based in Perth, who got this message from his website host:

Hi Simon, This is a courtesy email to advise that someone (quite possibly yourself) has updated your account details. If this was not you, we suggest that you log in to your Account immediately and update your account information and password to prevent any unauthorized access.

The good news is that these alerts are helpful. If it was you, all is good. If it wasn't, then you can spring into action.

The bad news is that this email has the link to logging into your account as a hyperlink. This is not good practice. We should NEVER trust links in such emails.

Our lesson: If we were not the ones who'd made the change, go to the company's website directly or via Google, and log in from there. Too many crooks are too good at making duplicate sites on very similar web addresses, to ever allow us to trust links in unexpected emails.

24:28 Perspicacity This segment is designed to sharpen our thinking by reflecting on a case stude from the past. A day in the life of a Volvo crash test dummy

In 2003, Volvo made a movie featuring its head crash test dummy. Clive Alive was designed to build on Volvo's heritage of car safety.

In this segment, David and Steve discuss whether such a campaign would still be a "safe" one in 2022.

Would it work today?

You'll have to listen to the episode to get our verdict.

Support the show: https://theadelaideshow.com.au/listen-or-download-the-podcast/adelaide-in-crowd/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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The secret to planning well is to understand that planning does not come naturally; being an expert in one field does not mean we have expertise in planning

In this episode of Talking About Marketing, we ask, why planning often fails and the short answer is that it often boils down to the planning fallacy. David explains all through the lens of Grand Designs host, Kevin McCloud.

For our first segment, however, Steve taps into the story of the Emu, as told by Tyson Yunkaporta in his book, Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World. It's a helpful way of understanding toxicity in workplace relationships.

In the mailbag segment, Steve shares a question about dealing with logins; where and how to store them.

And for a dose of perspicacity (the sharpening of our minds), David asks us to THINK about the THINK commercials run by IBM more than 20 years ago. Oh, how less fraught our digital world was back then!

We hope you find this helpful.

Episode show notes with timecodes

02:05 Person This segment focusses on you, the person, because we believe business is personal.How to think better

Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World, is a thought-inspiring book by Tyson Yunkaporta. Tyson is described by some as an Aboriginal philosopher, and Steve draws an intriguing inside from the creation story Tyson shares in his book about the Emu.

The story suggests that the Emu (with a capital E) is the world’s original malignant narcissist, and we've probably all run into people like that in work and play.

As Steve shares, Tyson recounts the Emu story from Nyoongar Elder, Noel Nannup, in Perth, in which, "all the species sat down for a yarn to decide which one would be the custodial species for all of creation. Emu made a hell of a mess, running around showing off his speed and claiming his superiority, demanding to be boss and shouting over everyone.”

As is explained in the book, it takes the whole tribe or office or community to manage narcissists; it's almost impossible to deal with them by yourself.

09:53 Principles This segment focusses principles you can apply in your business today.The Planning Fallacy

At the time of recording this episode, Steve and David were putting together another planning day, this time for a not-for-profit organisation in the health sector, so we decided to share some of the thinking and principles behind our planning sessions.

The key insight upon which our planning workshops are based is captured in "the planning fallacy", as proposed by Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky in 1979. It can be summarised, thus:

The planning fallacy describes our tendency to underestimate the amount of time it will take to complete a task, as well as the costs and risks associated with that task—even if it contradicts our experiences.

Coupled with this, David explains how this fallacy is exacerbated by the fact that we overestimate our planning abilities.

As David argues, there are not many professions in the world that actually train people to plan from first step to end of project, and even in those professions that do plan, more often than not they end up with too much of a fixation on the plan, and not enough awareness of reality.

The trick with planning is approaching it with the right mindset, which means being able to say it's iteration number one, and then when things change, feeling comfortable in adapting the plan into iteration number two, and so on.

It's a fascinating topic of discussion and we hope you'll one day get the chance to have us lead a planning session for you.

22:21 Problems This segment answers questions we've received from clients or listeners.Has my SSL certificate really stopped working?

Steve shared an email from a long-time client and friend in Darwin, Jon, from Dunwrights Electrical. He wrote: Hi Steve. I looked for the login for dunwrights.com.au and was unable to find it.

Jon is in a much better place than most small business people because he's not using his browser to remember passwords, but working out the solution that is best for him in a process he continues to interate.

Steve reflects on this and gives a solid plug for password keeping software - especially timely in relation to the Optus Network hack.

27:28 Perspicacity This segment is designed to sharpen our thinking by reflecting on a case stude from the past.Think IBM - was focussed on big things

For this segment, we cast our minds back to the IBM Think ads that are more than 20 years old.

IBM managed to change from selling people desktops to solving people's problems.

HINT: Success doesn't come from how you make something but from how you solve people's problems.

Support the show: https://theadelaideshow.com.au/listen-or-download-the-podcast/adelaide-in-crowd/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The only "trick" in content marketing is that the content needs to help your ideal customers

In this episode of Talking About Marketing, we ask, why answer people's questions? As you'll hear in the discussion, there are compelling reasons for revisiting your website content and running the simple "what's in it for me" test on behalf of your ideal customers.

For our first segment, however, Steve taps into some findings from an Oxford professor on how to think better, especially in relation to our marketing tasks.

In the mailbag segment, Steve shares a question about an alarming email a client received about their website security certificate being down.

And for a dose of perspicacity (the sharpening of our minds), David tunes our senses by reliving the United Breaks Guitars classic, one-man campaign that made an airline take note of poor, neglectful service (eventually).

We hope you find this helpful.

Episode show notes with timecodes

01:38 Person This segment focusses on you, the person, because we believe business is personal.

How to think better

Steve plays a snippet from Oxford professor of mathematics, Marcus du Sautoy, from one of David's other podcasts, Blind Insights with David Olney.

Professor du Sautoy has written a book, Thinking Better: The Art Of The Shortcut, and as he discussed themes from the book, Steve immediately thought of many of the business people who've been in his workshops over the years.

There is often a high mixture of excitement and a gung ho spirit when people are having a great time in a workshop, but when Steve chats with them later, some people have lost their oomph. Typically, they've gotten themselves stumped and what was taught ends up going into the Too Hard Basket.

So Steve plays some insights from the professor, that might help us adjust and prepare ahead of workshops or other challenging tasks.

the bit I thought was relevant - it's about knowing it will get hard in the immediate future, as well has being prepared to make some decisions about how you might approach new tasks.

10:09 Principles This segment focusses principles you can apply in your business today.

Inbound vs outbound marketing. There's no "question" which is best

David started by asking: Why can't I concentrate? Why can't I sit for any length of time and read a book? Why can't I stay on a single web page and read the whole article from start to finish? It's because in the context in which we now live we face constant disruption. Interruption.

For a very long time outbound marketing was often called interruptive or disruptive marketing; an ad would pop up and disrupt you from what you were doing and if it was colorful and entertaining. Maybe that was once okay because you weren't interrupted and disrupted very often. But that's changed now.

By about 2005 to 2007, the period in which Steve was starting to go out and run social media workshops, people were starting to get overwhelmed by things.

At this point, the realisation kicks in among some very smart marketing people that if you actually give people answers to their questions about things they're concerned about or things they want to achieve that are their dreams, they will build a relationship with you, they will trust you they will purchase from you and they will be your greatest advocates because they feel like you treated them with respect and that in a world where interruption is just everywhere all the time.

Learn more in our discussion.

27:47 Problems This segment answers questions we've received from clients or listeners.

Has my SSL certificate really stopped working?

I received a flurry of three emails from clients all along similar lines recently. As is typical (and I am glad my clients have learned to bounce emails off me when they are unsure), Michelle from Hok Homes took a few moments to ask, do I need to do anything with the below?

Here's what she received: 

AutoSSL has renewed “hokhomes.com.au”’s Domain Validated (DV) SSL certificate. The new certificate lacks 8 of the website’s domains. It then lists 8 various subdomains that are all linked to an account such as cpanel, webmail, calendars, etc.

What's happened is the AutoSSL regenerates itself every month and if there is even a split second's gap in the process, the system sends a hideous email that looks like the robot from Lost In Space - Danger Will Robinson.

If you get these, you can go into your cpanel hosting and check the status in the Security tab OR go to your website and have a look in your web browser. If there's a nice padlock there, all is good. If the padlock is broken, then you do need to address the situation with great importance.

But the big lesson - please use your relationship with your trusted person to bounce any suspicious emails past them whenever you're in doubt.

You can hear my explanation in the episode or read it here: 3 Alarming Emails Small Business Website Owners Get – And What To Do About Them.

32:20 Perspicacity This segment is designed to sharpen our thinking by reflecting on a case stude from the past.

United Breaks Guitars

For this segment, we rolled out the famous United Breaks Guitars protest song and consumer movement, started by singer/songwriter, Dave Carrol.

Support the show: https://theadelaideshow.com.au/listen-or-download-the-podcast/adelaide-in-crowd/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Revisiting storytelling for marketers

In this first episode of Talking About Marketing, we cover storytelling by doing a dive into some academic literature to see if we can give you some handy starting points for refreshing your content marketing.

For our first segment, however, we go a little philosophical as Steve shares some insights from the Stoics to help us deal with negativity in our organisation.

There's a timely topic in the mailbag segment, with Steve sharing a question about .au domains; should we or shouldn't we bother.

And for a dose of perspicacity (the sharpening of our minds), David splashes on some Old Spice to see if their groundbreaking campaigns from 10 years ago would smell as sweet today.

We hope you find this helpful.

Episode show notes with timecodes

01:38 Person This segment focusses on you, the person, because we believe business is personal.

Learning from the Stoics

Steve's been in front of more than 8000 business owners, and in workshops, mentoring, and ongoing consultancy work, he's been there as they've dealt with catastrophes, accidents, and toxic humans.

So, in this segment, he shares a short snippet from a series of talks about stoicism by philosopher, Professor Willam B Irvine, that's actually had a huge and immediate effect on him when it comes to cutting off the dead weight of the bad players he's encountered.

10:09 Principles This segment focusses principles you can apply in your business today.

Unlocking storytelling for content marketing

The common theme running through this topic is the reference to Joseph Campbell's idea of the hero's journey, which is a big and complicated set of steps that the ideal story should follow.

But the critical thing at the centre of Campbell and that nearly everyone focuses on in their own writing is that someone tries to achieve something and they're blocked and they're not blocked in a small way. They're blocked to the point we're actually continuing is really difficult.

For our stories to succeed, we need to identify the struggles we've faced, often across different levels. These can include:

• A struggle with self
• A struggle with other people
• A struggle to be given an opportunity
• A struggle to get resources
• Or a combination of all of them

Sadly, though, very few experts cover the importance of "struggle" in storytelling, which is why David wrote a paper about the topic, and why Steve spoke about Storytelling structures for tourism marketing earlier this year.

Listen to the full discussion for further explanation and some actionable points to apply in your business.

27:47 Problems This segment answers questions we've received from clients or listeners.

Should I register a .au domain?

Ivy from Golden North sent me an email, which involved her forwarding one she'd received with the subject line: Dot AU Domain Name Deadline Looming for Australian Businesses.

I've been swamped by lots of people asking me whether they should register this new Top Level domain name and my answer tends to be, yes.

The short version is that Australians have until 20 September 2022 to get priority allocation of a dot au direct domain name if they currently have the matching dot com dot au domain name.

In short, if you have a .com.au, the simple advice is to claim your .au version and just redirect it to .com.au for now.

Should you ever need to lead with the .au you will have it, and not have to worry about somebody else taking it off the table!

32:20 Perspicacity This segment is designed to sharpen our thinking by reflecting on a case stude from the past.

Does Old Spice still smell nice (or did it ever smell nice?)

For this segment, we rolled out the famous Old Spice campaign from 10 years ago to review its success back then and ponder whether such a ploy would work today.

You'll have to listen to the episode to get our verdict.

Support the show: https://theadelaideshow.com.au/listen-or-download-the-podcast/adelaide-in-crowd/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.