THE POWER OF REINVENTION with Kathi Sharpe-Ross

Brad Jakeman has been building brands and living his true north for years now. Brad is the Co-Founder, Managing Partner of Rethink Food, Senior Adviser of the Boston Consulting Group, and formerly President of PepsiCo Global Beverage Group, CMO of Activision, EVP Marketing of Macy's, and Managing Director, Global Advertising of Citibank.

Brad has a passion for developing category disruptive business models and marketing programs that challenge the status quo and build famous world-class brands. He is the co-founder and managing partner of Rethink Food, which invests in the underlying technologies that enable better-for-you food and beverage companies so they can scale, bring their costs down, and be more accessible to various communities.

Today, we'll touch on business marketing trends as well as reinvention advice and tips from a veteran of the business brand and media world who has reinvented various parts of his life in so many interesting ways.

Brad's story was featured in Chapter 10 of my book, Reinvent Your Life! What Are You Waiting For?, as well as my RE:INVENTION virtual chat, which was launched right after the book was launched in March 2020.

Here are some power takeaways from today’s conversation:

How to Determine What You Need to Do Next

In order to determine what you want to do next, do a time and motion study on yourself. Carry around a notebook for a month and create three columns where you can document the following:

This then becomes your blueprint or lens through which to evaluate other things to do. And the goal is to over-index on Columns 1 and 3 and dramatically under-index on Column 3.

Ways to Reinvent Your Life When You Can’t Afford to Leave Your Job

Everybody's entitled to live the life that they want. Whether or not you can afford to leave a job, nurture yourself in ways that could be meaningful.

Reinventions come in all shapes and sizes. You may have to keep your job, but figure out what else needs to change in terms of your relationships, your spiritual life, your hobbies, and your passion. There are frankly other ways to create, bring joy and passions into your life, and satiate your curiosity about other things in the world.

Resources Mentioned:

Reinvent Your Life! What Are You Waiting For?

Boston Consulting Group

Rethink Food

Reach out to Brad at [email protected]

With the advent of technology, classical marketing has almost gone obsolete, giving rise to this need for businesses to reimagine and reinvent marketing. Our guest today introduces this concept of quantum marketing, the new marketing mindset that we need to master.

Raja Rajamannar is the Chief Marketing and Communications Officer and President of Mastercard Healthcare. He's an accomplished global marketing executive with more than 25 years of experience. Some of his recent accolades include the Global Marketer of the Year Award by the World Federation of Advertisers, Top 5 World's Most Influential CMOS by Forbes Top 10, and World's Most Innovative CMOs by Business Insider.

Here are some power takeaways from today’s conversation:

Episode Highlights:

How the Role of A Marketer Has Evolved Over the Years

Until the mid-1990s, it was all about right-brain thinking, creativity, innovation, intuitiveness, outside-of-the-box thinking, and so on. But with the advent of the internet, technology entered full force into marketing on the one hand, and data analytics on the other. Suddenly, marketers found themselves to be now needing to exercise their left brains. And a lot of marketers struggled with that.

The 3rd and 4th Paradigm Shifts in Marketing

Raja explains the third paradigm as this shift in the marketing world. For instance, you find somebody who is not even a marketer but understands technology and defines a simple problem with a digital ecosystem. And then they go and create a product or a company. And the company becomes a several-hundred-billion-dollar company very quickly. Then in 2007, the shift got aggravated with the advent of the fourth paradigm of marketing wherein two technologies came: social media platforms and the launch of the iPhone. This marked the birth of easy-to-use, connected digital devices which have become pervasive everywhere. This necessitated marketers to dive in more to get their heads around these two technologies.

Losing the Marketer’s Seat at the Table

The combination of the forces in the third paradigm and the fourth paradigm resulted in marketers losing their seat at the table. As a result, many roles of CMOs are being eliminated.

If you look at Philip Kotler's classical definition of marketing as the four P's of marketing, today, many marketing departments don't have a Product. They don't have a Price. They don't have a Place which is distribution. They barely handle one pillar, which is Promotions. They only handle the thematic promotions and not the schematic promotions. And this is an existential crisis marketers face.

The Rise of Contactless Technology

Because of COVID, new habits are being formed along with the desire not to have that physical touchpoint. People are working remotely and everything has become remote. And more and more people are now leaning into e-commerce platforms. So now, everything is digitized – altering the marketing landscape dramatically.

Resources Mentioned:

Quantum Marketing: Mastering The New Marketing Mindset for Tomorrow's Consumers

For many people, the term “ imposter syndrome” has such a negative connotation. But if we just learn to approach it in a different way, we will begin to see how it becomes such a positive experience and journey that we need to put ourselves on. Today, Shirley Richter Hughes talks about overcoming imposter syndrome, the glue that has kept their company culture together through the past challenging year, and how to set yourself up for the next phase of your life as you’re trying to reinvent yourself!

Shirley serves as the President of the Brand Marketing Division of Rogers & Cowan PMK, one of the largest and most influential marketing and communication firms in the world specializing in entertainment and culture. She's an inspiring leader with a proven track record of stewarding creative and innovative partnership models. Here are some power takeaways from today’s conversation:

Episode Highlights:

Dealing with Imposter Syndrome

There are days when even after all those years of doing it, you feel like you're still not done. You still want to do more and bigger. But you can gain more confidence and understand who you are by working harder on areas you're not good at or areas you feel the most compromised.

Imposter syndrome is such a negative term for such a positive experience and journey that we need to put ourselves on. It's important to feel entitled to have what you want to achieve, to create those lofty goals, and to envision yourself in that space so you can manifest it.

But so many people feel like they are suffering from it, and it can be holding them back due to fear of failure – but failure is not a bad thing. It's a stepping stone to figuring out what's going to get you what you want. There is no such thing as perfect, but it's about what you want, and how you create it. Be comfortable with making a change. It's okay to take a chance. Challenge and push yourself to make decisions – even your everyday decisions.

Working With Creativity and Innovation Through Trying Times

It’s an amazing quality for a leader to be able to listen and be in tune with their people. There's a long road ahead of us and it's going to get harder before it gets easier. In our businesses, we're getting to see so much creativity and innovation, advancement in technology, and digital practices, and experiential things.  So it’s a fun time in a weird and wonderful way. And when we can look at it that way and find the great part of what we get to do and how we can be creative whether it's for ourselves or in our businesses, through the mess comes the masterpiece.

Reinvention Tips: How to Set Yourself Up For the Next

Take courage and think about things differently. Everything's being reinvented right now. Just be open. Be true to yourself and be authentic. Authenticity to who we are is so important because that's where you'll find it. And don’t be afraid to ask for help because people love to be there for you. It makes them feel important. Make an effort to connect with people. Finally, look outside the normal boundaries – whether from a location or a company perspective – because the world has changed and there may be places where restrictions aren't there anymore.

Resources Mentioned:

Rogers & Cowan PMK

Andrea Sullivan is the first-ever Chief Marketing Officer of the same business and brand founded by entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk at VaynerX, a global full-service agency that celebrates Gary's entrepreneurial spirit and vision for an enlightened approach to marketing that delivers business results.

Prior to VaynerX, Andrea was with Omnicom and Interbrand for 16 years working on some of the biggest brands in the world. She's also personally committed to establishing gender equality. Andrea is a board member of the United Nations Association, New York, helping to take stake a stand on issues including human trafficking.

Today, we are going to talk about branding, marketing, nurturing your soul, what it's been like to go through COVID in the last year, and all of the things that we've had to juggle. We talk about the different ways that you can reinvent or pivot and create the life you want.

Here are some power takeaways from today’s conversation:

Episode Highlights:

Defining Your Reinvention Moments

These are the eye-opening moments when you realize that as a human being, you're entitled to live that way. The moment you allow yourself to entitle yourself with that, you try to make decisions based around that. You know that life is more than just work or a job. You may love what you do with work, but that's not all you do and it's not all that you are.

How to Recognize It’s Time for a Reinvention

Reinvention comes in all shapes and sizes. Most people think you have to hit a moment of crisis that will allow you to reevaluate and take a sharp turn. But many other times, if you just keep your eyes wide open and you don't look at "either/or" but just say “yes, and…” and really dive in, it's unbelievable what can happen.

It's not even necessarily disrupting and reinventing your career, but looking at your life and taking every part of yourself. Knowing you’re entitled to do that is your first step. The next is to put yourself on a path to be able to do that. At the end of the day, you just have to figure out how to be happy and live a good life. It's not that complicated.

The Impact of Brands in Raising Consciousness

There has been a crisis of consciousness everywhere this year. And brands now have realized their impact on communities and being able to infuse consciousness into everything is very powerful. As a community, we all can step into this. Brands even have more of an obligation to help in leaning in and bringing people together than governments and other important role models right in the world.

As a leader, it's essential to be able to define these behavioral shifts, not just the marketing shifts. Such pivot allows you to not only serve your customers but lead the people as well.

The Need for Human Connection

As with many companies where the culture is incredibly dynamic, keeping that same enthusiasm alive is definitely a challenge. And so, you want to make everyone feel like they're close to culture. As human beings, we've got vulnerabilities and it's essential to have that space for us to be able to share things so we can continue to learn, be nurtured, and grow so we won't get stagnant.

Resources Mentioned:

VaynerX

Marketing for the Now

Andrew Bernstein is recognized as an all-star in sports photography. The unique personal rapport that he has developed with athletes and coaches and teams over the years, allows him exclusive access to special behind the scene moments.

As a co-founder of NBA Photos, Andrew is the key photographic contributor to NBA Entertainment’s global media platforms, which include NBA.com, all-league publications, and NBA licensed products. He has been the team photographer for ten professional home teams which won championships in basketball, baseball, and hockey. He has covered 38 NBA Finals and All-Star Games as the senior NBA photographer.

In 2018, Bernstein collaborated with five-time NBA champion Kobe Bryant on the worldwide bestselling book “The Mamba Mentality: How I Play,” a unique look at Bryant’s 20-year career through Bernstein’s lens.  He's also been awarded the 2018 Curt Gowdy Award recipient, acknowledging his contributions to basketball media.

Having seen the good, the bad, and the ugly of business, Andrew considers professional sports as a ruthless business. Sometimes it lacks any sense of morality. But all that being said, he has a deep love for the athletes and the personalities he had crossed paths with. And this became one of his motivations for his reinvention.

Here are some power takeaways from today’s conversation:

Episode Highlights:

The Launch of Legends of Sport

Most athletes retire in team sports in their mid-30s. But at the end of their careers, and then post-career, they're basically just being spit out. Agents don't sign them. They don't return phone calls, and they don't really have a lot of skills. Plus, they have addiction problems, custody issues with children, and all kinds of financial problems.

Andrew, along with his two best friends, launched Legends of Sport, decided they wanted to work in sports in some way, but they didn't want to work for anybody ever again. And having seen the horror stories of athletes that have fallen on hard times, they wanted to do something to help get these people whole as human beings first, and then help them become viable and marketable again. It's a terrible thing when the spotlight is so bright, for so long and then it moved away. 

How to Prepare for Reinvention

It's a matter of just increasing the bandwidth and getting rid of stuff in my life that was holding me back. Sometimes, you just have to sit down and ask yourself if your career now is something you want to be doing for the next 10 years of your life.

The Power of the Voice Medium

People don't have to get dressed and put on makeup and look good. They can just show up and have great conversations with the community and connect with people and build a business and build connections. We are all such social beings as humans and the last year has really taken a toll on that. So anything that we can do to stay connected, have real conversations to expose people – not just to inspire or motivate, but just human connection – is just so important for people to really stay connected to.

Resources Mentioned:

http://www.adbapi.com/

Legends of Sport

Legends of Sport podcast

Laurel Mintz is the CEO and Founder of Elevate My Brand, a digital marketing and strategy agency. Inspired by the innovative consulting work she executed early in her career with some prestigious brands, Laurel knew she wanted to play a lot bigger. And a decade later, she has created an agency family serving both startups and blue-chip global brands like Facebook, Verizon, Digital Media Group, Paw Patrol, and Zendesk, just to name very few of the amazingly long list of relationships she has.

Here are some power takeaways from today’s conversation:

Episode Highlights:

The Challenge of Leaping into Entrepreneurship

We have an opportunity to look at it as a gift as challenging as things may be right now. And so, you have this opportunity to press pause and figure out what you really want instead of being on that constant hamster wheel grind. So, just take a pause, listen, and pay attention.

Have a “build it and they will come mentality.”. Having an impostor syndrome is okay. What's not good is when you fail to step into a role and own it. And so, you have to surround yourself with people that are going to support or teach you or be part of that team. Everyone is faking it, so don't let anyone intimidate you.

The Power of Mentorship

If you're thinking about starting something, having an informal advisory board is so critical. Have different people on that advisory board who will give you their time and their energy when you need it, without overextending them.

Those mentors that we pick in our lives actually like to be asked. People appreciate it when you ask them for help, and they have the ability to pay it forward, especially now with women, with the way we're all really holding each other up and supporting each other in business. So don’t be afraid to ask for help.

Creating a Culture of Caring in Your Company

You can't fake caring for people because people see through it. And when you're able to do that, your team feels that.

How Marketing Has Evolved Over The Years

The more people have slowed down, the better results they have gotten. Look at the data because it's that foundational work that you have to do before you blast out into the universe. That way, you're aware of when you're going to spend money, who to talk to, and when you're talking to them.

There are so many channels that provide opportunities digitally to speak to your audience but you have to be able to capture the right audience so you don’t end up wasting your money, time, and effort.

Resources Mentioned:

Elevate My Brand

Mitch Slater is a financial advisor at UBS and host of the podcast, Financially Speaking with Mitch Slater. Today, we talk about his colored work and interview history with the legendary Larry King,  business and reinvention passions, trends, and hobbies. Reinvention is really about the whole self and nurturing so many of those parts in us. How much are you willing to step out of your comfort zone to seek out the things you really want in life?

Here are some power takeaways from today’s conversation:

Episode Highlights:

Working with Larry King

Larry King had the genius of curiosity and listening. Being with him during those three years that Mitch worked with him, he learned the two most important lessons that helped him throughout the next 38 years of his work life and personal life.

The Power of Curiosity and Listening

Very few people know how to be able to sit over a kitchen table and have very intimate conversations about people's financial lives and their personal lives. You have to be able to communicate. For Mitch, Larry was the beacon of communication.

Be curious enough to know what else you can have in your life. Be curious enough to be able to talk to others and hear their stories and know what's possible.

Learn how to listen. Not just listen to other people, but more importantly, listen to yourself. Know how to be still and quiet enough to connect with yourself. And make sure you're doing what you want with your life.

The Recipe for Reinvention

Life is really looking inside, seeing who you are, and realizing the most important parts of you. Whether it's playing the piano, acting, interviewing, communicating through podcasting, or doing origami, that would be great. Look inside and realize where that was coming from, and be able to combine that with your work, and your family, and really create the life that you want.

It doesn't matter what you're doing, you can find a way to let anything into your life, absolutely. Open up your heart to the areas that you're most passionate about. Find those things where you step out of your comfort zone.

Return on Relationships, Not Return on Investments

Each client that you work with shines differently. And that's the only way to really develop a relationship. It's not about the investment – it's so much more than that.

Resources Mentioned:

Financially Speaking with Mitch Slater

UBS Wealth Management

Larry King Tribute:  https://youtu.be/k3pHHG4nbyg

Lesley Jane Seymour is a media entrepreneur and the founder of the CoveyClub, a new club for lifelong learners launched in February 2018.

From 2008-2016, she served as editor-in-chief of More Magazine, the leading lifestyle magazine for women over 40, with a readership of 1.5 million. She was also the editor-in-chief and social media director of More.com, which attracted over 12 million monthly page views and 600,000 unique visitors.

In 2012, Seymour was named executive director of Meredith’s Beauty Center of Excellence. In 2009 she was named number four on the Most Powerful Fashion Editors List by Forbes magazine. She also previously served as editor-in-chief for Marie Claire magazine and Redbook magazine, beauty director of Glamour, and copywriter and senior editor at Vogue.

Here are some power takeaways from today’s conversation:

Episode Highlights:

The CoveyClub

So many women feel they're being pushed to say it's over, or they're being pushed to be irrelevant, and they're not having as much control over their destiny.  The whole idea of the CoveyClub is to connect women who are 40 plus, with 50 as their sweet spot. These are women who still feel they're not done yet. They have a long life ahead of them and a lifelong productivity trail going on for as long as they want it to be.

It's great to have a place to go where you can talk honestly about your issues, your fears, your motivations, and your barriers. And you have real, accomplished women who have the wisdom, experience, and who can connect you to a greater network.

Looking for Outside Approval vs. Working on Loving Yourself

A lot of people are looking for outside approval I was looking for. But you have to work on loving yourself and knowing your issues and being okay with your issues. Everybody has issues they’re not going to get away without. But hopefully, your good points outweigh your bad points. Think of the things you really value and how are you going to be able to bring those things to life and share those with other people.

Reinventing Yourself

People have found those places for their next lives and it's important to have that space for people to talk about them. Reinvention comes in all shapes and sizes. Just go for it. It takes courage and it takes figuring things out. But you have to know where you really want to be. Whether it's a five-minute reinvention or a 10-year reinvention, it's yours to do what you want with it.

Resources Mentioned:

https://www.coveyclub.com/

Kathy Carter is the Chief Revenue Officer of LA 2028, CEO of U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Properties, and she has been in this role since October of 2018. She and her team are responsible for all of the revenue and marketing functions of the Support Team USA and the LA 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games including sponsorship sales, consumer products, brand marketing, hospitality, ticketing, and events.

Prior to this, Kathy served as the president of Soccer United Marketing, a Major League Soccer commercial subsidiary, and was in charge of managing and growing the business operations for premier soccer organizations and events in the U.S., including MLS, U.S. Soccer, and the Mexican National Team, among others. Kathy became a founding member of Major League Soccer and was instrumental in building the league from the ground up and had such a profound effect on the world of soccer. When she stepped off the proverbial treadmill in early 2018, she decided to take some time to reassess and reinvent.

Here are some power takeaways from today’s conversation:

Episode Highlights:

Thoughts on Taking Risks

As an athlete, you lose a lot of games. Then you pick yourself up and you dust yourself off. You go back out and you play another game. That's one of the great benefits of growing up in sport is it allows you not to see things as risks, but rather see things as opportunities.

Do anything you can do to get exposure to the broader business, and ultimately, hopefully, can become a more valuable and more contributing member. Just be there and start to understand the inner workings of the game, as opposed to feeling like you have to jump a couple of the rungs.

Ways to Get in the Game That You Love

Love the game and decide that if it's not the way you want to live where you have it as your full-time job, but you can also find ways to participate in it even in a part-time capacity.

How Do We Reconcile Things to Be The Best Version of Ourselves?

There is no perfect, and therefore, as individuals, the idea that any of us is perfect is a fallacy. It's always a work in progress. And therefore, part of what we need to do is make sure we take feedback. Don’t take it personally and make excuses for things that people give you as feedback. And if you can do that, then you can start to evolve.

Resources Mentioned:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/kathycarter17/ 

IN-Q is a National Poetry Slam Champion, award-winning poet, bestselling author, and multi-platinum songwriter. His groundbreaking achievements include being named to Oprah’s SuperSoul 100 list of the world’s most influential thought leaders being the first spoken word artist to perform with Cirque Du Soleil, and being featured on A&E, ESPN, and HBO’s Def Poetry Jam. He has inspired audiences around the world through his live performances and storytelling workshops. Many of his recent poetry videos have gone viral with over 70 million views combined.

Leading organizations including Nike, Instagram, Spotify, Google, Lululemon, Live Nation, Shazam, The Grammy Foundation, and many more have brought IN-Q in to motivate their teams through his keynote speeches and acclaimed storytelling workshop. It's a transformational bonding experience for companies who want to share their story more authentically.

Inquire Within is an extraordinary collection of IN-Q's poetry, his work, his words, and his wisdom.

Here are some power takeaways from today’s conversation:

Episode Highlights:

Finding the Silver Linings

Everyone defines themselves, consciously or unconsciously, by the external world, especially in a capitalist society. We're all trying to accomplish something. It's a complicated dichotomy to figure out how to use that as fuel to achieve your goals. But at the same time, to not be so attached to your expectations that you allow it to steal your joy. There's always going to be more. There is never an end to more. So if more is your goal, you're always going to come off short.

The purpose of life is not to have this much or who you know, or what you've achieved. It's not even what you do in the world. It's who you are in this moment. In the neverending now. It's the joy of being alive and the miracle of being alive.

A Few Lines from His Favorite Poem

When you notice something beautiful do you think that's a beautiful moment, or that would be a beautiful picture? 

When you attempt to capture something, do you alter its very nature? 

Can you sit with the uncertainty like God's other creatures? 

Do you have to freeze a memory to immortalize its features? 

Do you need to prove that you were there in order to exist? 

Do you crave the recognition in a way you can't admit? 

Do you wrestle with impermanence with poison on your lips? Do you resist the emptiness by trying to imprison bliss? 

Capturing Pictures vs. Capturing Moments

By taking pictures, it's how we prove that we were there. This is the thing that gives us value so much so that we actually miss being there. We don't notice what's actually around us. And in that way, we missed our lives.

Resources Mentioned:

https://in-q.com/

Book: Inquire Within

The New You Workshop

Follow IN-Q on Facebook and Instagram.