Creativity Cultivator Podcast - Turning Your Business, Your Team And You Into A Creativity Cultivator

Many founders or CEOs dreams of a big, earned media hit in The New York Times or The Wall Street Journal. But are these big wins really the best target for outbound communications? That depends, says Eleanor Hawkins who leads the Axios Communicators newsletter. Hawkins covers communications trends, future uses of AI in marketing communications, and explains why smaller networks and niche audiences may be a better choice for your overall marketing strategy. If you're in marketing or communications and want to make your operation more efficient, listen! See the full show notes here: https://justinkbrady.com/eleanor-hawkins

Psy was a psyop created to make South Korea cool. Soap operas were created to sell soap. And the Grand Ole Opry, the longest running radio show in history, was a marketing play for insurance. Joah Santos, founder of Warhol is a tribalism nerd who consulted for Unilever, ABInBev, Airbnb and others. He tells me underlying structure of how information spreads.  "The majority of decisions are made by following other people we trust," says Santos. He's right. We offload the intellectual hard work of finding new ideas and products that will benefit our lives to various influencers and opinion leaders. "We couldn't survive if we didn't," he says. Listen to the interview to understand how founders, CMOs, and inventive people can tap into this to disrupt the big brands. See the full show notes: https://justinkbrady.com/joah-santos

If you're an X user (fka Twitter) you know the name Mario Nawfal. Nawfal hosts the largest spaces on X, and his guests include Elon Musk, Michael Bay, Mark Cuban, Andrew Yang, and many others. After taking a break from interviews, he shares his thoughts on the future of X, CEO Linda Yaccarino, his new show Killer Whales, and a media hit piece about him. Nawfal got his start creating a blender company, but today he's the Founder of IBC Group, and the King of Spaces on X/Twitter. He explains how his spaces caught on and his secret sauce and explains why other tech founders and startups should be doubling down on X.  We also discuss his personal life, background, and the state of citizen journalism and corporate journalism. Plus, he shares his frustration at the constant attacks against X, and their odd obsession with it's founder Elon Musk.  See the full show notes at: https://justinkbrady.com/mario-nawfal

As the state of the economy looks shakier by the day, Allison Braley head of marketing at Bain Capital Ventures gives founders critical advice on where to spend their marketing dollars. She explains the value earned media, and how to balance spend on brand and product.  It's a whole new world and although there's plenty of cash for early stage founders, late stage founders are feeling the crunch as VCs prioritize earlier profitabaility and low burn. Braley explaind the new marcom flywheel and where to focus as a founder. See the full show notes at https://justinkbrady.com/notes/allison-braley-bain-capital 

Jake Slatnick, CEO of FreePower discusses the process in creating Tesla's new free position device charger and overcoming engineering hurdles—how did he succeed where Apple failed? I also ask the direction question everyone wants to know: will this charger be on the new Cybertruck? We also discuss how he captured massive amounts of earned media and press attention. Not to mention top YouTubers like Marques Brownlee, known as MKBHD, and Justine Ezarik, known as iJustine. Was it just luck? No. Turns out he took specific steps to get the right journalist's attention.  See the full show notes at https://justinkbrady.com/jake-slatnick-freepower 

David Allison is creator of the Valuegraphics database, and as of recording this interview, is closing in on his one millionth in-depth survey making his dataset iron clad. Allison is the first person in history to have built a tool allowing us to precisely communicate and position our message in a way others are neurologically wired to hear and understand.  Much of failed startups, wars, and broken relationships stem from bad communication resulting from misalignment and misunderstanding of others' values. Allison believes the valuegraphics databse is a great tool for marketers, allowing them to tap into new markets in a way not possible historically, but also believes this can change the world.  Traditionally, we've relied on poor demographic data to understand groups. But demographic groups rarely agree on anything. What groups do agree? Groups identified by values.  See the full show notes and a video message from Allison to listeners of the show at https://justinkbrady.com/david-allison-death-of-demograp

Today is a special episode. Matt McFarland is a respected journalist with The Washington Post and most recently CNN discusses how to get press and pitch the right way, and media relevance in the 21st century. Has the media gone too hard on polarizing and political topics has that hurt them? McFarland also discusses the value of content strategy not just for sales but attracting media attention. In the same way, prospects are opening less pitch email, journalists are also ignoring pitches in favor of self-created content. We also dig into AI-writing. Representing both the writing and tech communities, does McFarland see this as a force that will replace writers like himself or a force that will give writers like himself a valuable edge?

Matthew E. May and Pablo Dominguez co-wrote "What A Unicorn Knows" and explain there is nothing random about becoming a unicorn. Growth-focused companies think about small steps, make experimentation part of the job, and most importantly, put the time and commitment into forming a strategy.  May and Dominguez are operators at Insight Partners. They joined forces to create a light book that's dense in value and detail. The book strikes the balance between something easy-to-consume but thorough and detailed enough to take your executive team through to put your company on a growth trajectory.  They discuss why strategy is vital to growth, every step you can take to build a strategy, and why even well-established companies skip this part due to their inaccurate belief it limits flexibility or is a waste of time. why companies resist focusing on "where to play" but why they can't grow without it.  how lack of experimentation kills your company Check out the shows notes, buy the book, and connect with Dominguez

Are battery-powered appliances the future? When I saw musings on Twitter, the idea was hilarious to me. After looking into it and speaking with Sam D'Amico the founder of Impulse Labs, however, I'm convinced the technology is the future. And it's a future all of us will quickly fall in love with. D'Amico explains how battery-powered stoves solve the problems of electric stovetops that home cooks and chefs have come to hate. Controllability. He describes why the technology actually provides more power to the pan, why future pans will "talk" to your stove, and how your appliances may actually power your house. Check out the images and video on the show notes page: https://justinkbrady.com/sam-damico

Mike Berland is nuts... or at least that's what I thought when I first hosted him on this very show years ago. He claimed to have developed a tool that analyzes what has cultural momentum, and therefore what the future likely looks like. But after he kept predicting trends using his "M Factor" analysis, I knew he was onto something. (It was also a bit creepy!) I ask him what 2023 has in store for us.  Berland is the founder of Decode_M, recently acquired by Penta Group. Berland applies a physics definition to culture. Mass X Velocity = Momentum. They do this by analyzing all public available information from social media, blogs, news, and publicly accessible data. He explains why 7-11 will be the surprising brand winner of 2023, and ideas that have momentum you can tap into.  What are the big ideas that will drive you to success in 2023 with steadily rising inflation? Helping customers save money instead of using credit, moving from whimsy to function, and getting your brand ready for the stakeholder economy.

This is the 100th year of the Harvard Business Review! The Editor and Chief of the Harvard Business Review Group, Adi Ignatius, joins the show for a deep dive into today's most critical business topics. He unpacks the manufacturing blows to the Chinese economy and how US manufacturing will respond. He discusses ESG and DEI controversies. And he says how he is handling the pressure to publish polarizing and slanted political content.  See the full show notes and get 1 year of Harvard Business Review magazine on ME at https://justinkbrady.com/adi-ignatius  

Author and Bloomberg columnist Julia Hobsbawm explains why so much emphasis has been put on various work models, but most don't consider what's truly best for workers and customers. She explains corporate leaders' never-ending quest to get the workplace right, and how even work-from-home jobs can actually be a disadvantage to some folks, while being advantageous to others.  Hobsbawm also addresses why face-to-face communication is important but simultaneously problematic for single parents and those with disabilities. And she explains the office's relevancy isn't dead but simply changing.  If you or you company aren't sure how to move forward utilizing remote work, hybrid, or the office, this is the show for you. Read the full show notes at: https://justinkbrady.com/julia-hobsbawm

Jason Feifer, Editor in Chief of Entrepreneur is back to discuss his new book, Build for Tomorrow and why your laser focus on your career path is bad. But before that, we discuss why being in the top 1% of pod downloads isn't that great, and he calls out a phony pitch he got from a dude that had a fake TV show! Feifer's brain is packed with stories about misplaced public freakouts and our narrow-minded reactions to them. He explains how this narrow-minded thinking hurts not only profitable paths at companies but in your own career path.  He also gives us a subtle hint at what might be next in his future.  Check out the full show notes at https://justinkbrady.com/jason-feifer-build-for-tomorrow

Former Secret Service Officer Jose Vargas is a force of nature. His life started in poverty and difficulty, but his mom set a goal for him and his family: to escape an abusive environment and set her children up for success. Little did she know her son would go on to protect the leader of the free world. Vargas discusses unique experiences, walking the White House halls and washing hands next to the President of the United States, his "no fail" mission to keep our officials safe, and the lessons you can learn. Vargas explains the common mistakes people make when setting goals. His perspective will reset you and focus you on your goals.  See all the show notes at https://justinkbrady.com/jose-vargas 

Millions of Americans are struggling with PTSD. The darkness is very real, and the condition is doing real damage to the body, not just the mind. Dan Jarvis, President of 22Zero decided to crush the problem, after his own struggle.  In this show, Jarvis discusses why 60% of veterans aren't completing the VAs programs designed to help those with PTSD. He explains how prevalent this issue is, not just in the military but also with first responders and others. In this show, we dig into what causes the problem, the current troubling stats on suicide, how people can actually change their neural pathways starting today, and why PTSD is such a lonely struggle. Go to https://justinkbrady.com/dan-jarvis for all the show notes. 

Deep Work boosted the quality of our work, but readers ran into a simple problem: workplace reliance on the "hive-mind." Cal Newport discusses his newest book A World Without Email, he explains how to get your entire team on board. It's not an easy task.  Newport is a New York Times best-selling author, and we take a deep dive into the theme of both books and the core problem he has uncovered: individuals and teams don't want to be held responsible. In this interview, you will hear how to work deeply despite outside distractions like kids or in a school setting and what actually happens when leadership institutes deep work and results-only workplaces, (hint: lots of people leave), and why that might not be a bad thing. Newport also explains all the problems that result from an email-reliant organization, like responsibility hot potato. He also explains how tools meant to organize the workplace can be implemented poorly, resulting in additional complexity.  Oh, and one last thing. He explains why, in a world w

What's the biggest complaint your customers have today? Customer feedback comes in unpredictable forms, like Twitter, surveys, Google Reviews, CSR conversations, etc. Dan Erickson, CEO of Viable, has developed an AI to analyze all that data and share results in common language. What's one big theme? Your tech, apps and website suck! And it's driving your customers nuts.   Erickson, says their AI has found that most companies truly struggle with crappy tech experiences. Customers just want websites and apps to work, but so many company leaders don't spend the time or fully consider the experience. This is costing them.  Why do CTOs, COOs, and CEOs miss this stuff? Because 80% of their customer feedback comes to them as qualitative data from unstructured text from emails, call transcripts, chats. The only way to filter through this data is manual time. For example, analyzing 60,000 people surveys (compiling) that take five people, 5 weeks to analyze. Viable can return a more detailed, and more accurate report i

Politics and ego often trump profitable outcomes. #2 on the Thinkers 50 list, Rita McGrath has seen this play out in real time.  McGrath is a professor at Columbia Business School and the best-selling author of many books including Seeing Around Corners. She explains how organizations large and small can see inflection points in advance by identifying weak signals within their organization.  One major theme she discusses is how well executives, intentional or not, insulate themselves from the front lines of their organization. Behind every organizational failure, was a leader who saw the weak signals, and refused to listen.  McGrath also discusses the role of clear facts in future decision-making and why waiting for the data is a fatal choice.  If you're at risk of being disrupted or seeing customers slowly leaving you for other solutions, THIS episode is your weak signal of a coming inflection point. You should probably listen before it's too late. 

Why does your boss repeat the same broken leadership model, despite seeing poor results? It's because many business models are simply a warm security blanket, absolving the CEO responsibility. Best-selling author, Roger Martin calls out bad leadership and explains how data can crush imagination.  Martin is the former Dean of the Rotman School, best-selling author, the #1 Thinkers 50 for Management, and author of his newest book, A New Way To Think. Topics in this show: How do leaders get trapped in bad models to begin with? Did they ever work? (Nope!) Why adopting models gives leaders an "out" from their failures.  A symptom of a broken model is customer service repeating "that's just policy." Why we must be cautious on how we interpret AI data to predict future models and how we risk limiting imagination.  How the ridiculous hiring and firing cycle many large organizations use, stems from their organization of employees around roles but not projects. Go to justinkbrady.com/roger-martin to see all reso

We hear the percentage. 90 - 95% of startups fail. But we only hear the success stories. No one has the guts to talk about losing it all, going bankrupt, and being forced to move out of their house. This week, we hear from Derian Baugh, former CEO and founder of Men's Style Lab. He tells how it all unraveled and what he's working on next.  Every startup founder fears the day the money dries up. When that day comes for the wide majority, they fall silent. For years that was the case with Derian Baugh, CEO of Mens Style Lab, but today he shares his failure experience and if he regrets the decisions he made. For anyone who has failed at business and picked themself back off the floor, this will resonate. Check out the full show notes at justinkbrady.com/derian-baugh