learning to surf: 001
Brand, Community, and Finding Compassion
Our first newsletter dives into brand moments that have been top of mind, how to develop community and strengthen employer brands, and leading with a balance of mind/body/heart/soul through the lens of compassion.
On brand 💧
A Big Moment Humbly Accepted
You know when you’ve found a really great musician that’s just on the cusp of making it big - for a long time that was Siete - except instead of music, we’re talking snacks. Well, our cult-favorite tortilla chip went mainstream at the Golden Globes Red Carpet - in a moment where Goop queen Gweneth Paltrow and America’s host Ryan Seacrest found a spontaneous moment of connection: their mutual love for the family-owned brand of better for you Mexican fare (Tostitos but healthy, if you will). What was so special about this moment beyond the pure delight it elicited in these celebrities, was the humility and humor with which the brand responded. Rather than capitalizing on the video content, sponsoring it as an ad, etc. etc., they shared this photo on Instagram and let their community do the bragging for them in the comments. Witty, creative, humble.
The takeaway: Whether it’s a high or low - how you respond to PR and stay true to what your brand represents, matters. It made me (a current, on-going customer) love them even more - and that’s the whole point.
Branded playlists
Are Spotify playlists the next frontier for brand collaborations? Everyone’s new favorite aperitif brand, Haus is doing something fun with their Spotify Channel - they’ve invited brands within their universe to make playlists for them, sans promotion or agenda - yet. Collaborative playlists are a great way to showcase different perspectives and reach new audiences without having to do an Instagram giveaway. They’re useful and show a sense of knowing how to meet the customer where they are. Need a playlist for a dinner party? Or an NYE get together? They’ve got them.
The takeaway: Collaborative playlists are a smart way to create connections and conversations around a brand beyond the product itself. I imagine we’ll see brands doing more of this in 2020, and I’m curious to see how Spotify will get in on (and potentially ruin) the fun.
On culture 🌊
The Evolution of the Employer Brand
Away and Everlane have been in the headlines these past few weeks as more allegations come out about the inner workings of their CX teams, and it hasn’t been a good look. The paradox here is that for these customer-obsessed brands, the literal gatekeepers between the company and the customers aren’t being valued. Those responsible for keeping a pulse on customer happiness and taking the customer-brand relationship a step deeper are being overworked without proper compensation or benefits and many don’t have clear career pathways carved out for them. While some of the reporting may be overblown, the core of the issue remains. While it’s unclear whether this will impact customer sentiment in the long run (recent reports suggest not), it will impact their ability to be seen as a desirable workplace for top talent in the future.
The takeaway: I’m most curious to see how other brands in the space become proactive about this issue. It brings up the conversation not just about CX but about the ‘employer brand’ in general. For example, in the midst of all this controversy, one of the Sweetgreen founders shared this on LinkedIn, along with a revamp of their career page. It should be noted that despite all this attention to attracting top talent, the glassdoor reviews (mostly from their retail employees) aren’t as high as you’d hope.
My instinct is that retail/CX employees across these brands are being sold on values and growth opportunities - and perhaps they’re hiring with that mindset as well - rather than creating a distinct profile and pathway for these customer-facing roles. What remains to be seen is how this relatively new frontier of values-driven brands turn inward to see how well they’re holding up to their own standards, and what that means for how we choose where to work in the future.
Reach vs Depth
In the past couple of weeks, I’ve read two excellent pieces on building community. The first one here was one of the main inspirations behind this newsletter - it sparked a desire to synthesize ideas around business and personal growth. One of the most notable sections in the piece is one titled ‘Reach vs Depth’ that breaks down the difference between having an audience and a community, and how to build specific strategies around each. There’s no right or wrong approach, but the latter allows for ideas to take shape, to deepen and to truly impact the culture at large.
The second piece from First Round Capital takes the reader through an analysis on how communities are built, with both theory and tactical tools built-in. It points to the overuse of the term ‘community’ in a way that ties nicely back into the discussion of reach vs depth in the first piece.
The takeaway: Both articles emphasize the power and untapped potential of true community - and the creativity, compassion, and consistency required to bring it to life. Community comes with an emphasis on people, creating conversations that don’t necessarily scale, and encouraging all parties to show up as themselves and contribute wholeheartedly. Fostering it relies on playing the long game (or perhaps no games at all).
On something bigger 🏄♀️
Mind/Body/Heart/Soul
I recently listened to an episode of Jay Shetty’s podcast with Leadership Coach Robin Sharma on releasing toxic beliefs. What started as a conversation on optimizing morning routines turned into something far deeper. Robin’s main framework for self-improvement relies on not just on improving your mindset - but also taking care of your body, heart, and soul. The two discuss how if you want to go further, you have to go deeper internally. The inner excavation will uncover what matters, and you can use that serve people without caring about external validation or the outcome.
The takeaway: Everyone’s living through their head instead of their heart. We’re all so focused on improving our mindset and increasing the hustle that we forget about the 3 other pillars that affect how we show up in the world. How powerful would it be if attention was paid to the mind/body/heart/soul of every individual - how far would we be able to take our communities and our businesses if this was a path that everyone committed to? If we’ve all done the work and built the self-awareness over time our relationship to ourselves improves which affects our relationship to literally everything else.
Start with Compassion
There’s a lot of conversation around empathy in business these days but this article takes it a step further by putting a focus on compassion and how leaders can employ it to build stronger, more connected businesses. Compassion puts empathy into action - it allows us to not only be kinder to ourselves, but our customers, employees, and the planet.
The takeaway: While this first newsletter shares a variety of ideas, if I had to identify something that was lurking at fringes of everything discussed, it would be compassion. It’s the thing that allows brands to continuously identify what makes their people human and find creative, compelling, fun ways to engage them, whether consumers or employees. It’s what allows communities to build over time and ideas to spread, and most importantly it allows us to show up as ourselves in order to better serve one another - now and in the future.
Here’s an excellent meditation that teaches how to identify & cultivate empathy vs compassion.
Just for Fun
Things I’m loving:
Reads: The Big Leap
Recipes: Sushi for One
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Until next time,
Lori