Be That Friend
In this fast-paced world with an ever-accelerating speed of self-expression possibilities and channels, how can we discern which content deserves our time, attention, and curiosity?
One of the essential skills for brands and experts, which turn into obvious benefits for us, readers, will be Curation. As Sandro Meyer from the Growth Bay put it: "Think of yourself as the curator, just like that one friend who sends you timely and relevant links, because she knows you well. Be that friend."
Needless to say, you're likely to build more credibility if your curated content is focused on your area of expertise, better yet if it reflects your core values. Take me as an example - one of my long-standing values is growth (aka development, learning, or expansion in various areas of life). And since I'm a lifelong student, like to try out new things and jump on a trend, here is my TOP4 of curated picks for you:
1) Growth Report from Sandro Meyer (Growth Bay)
This weekly newsletter is genuinely a "dessert", and there's much to savor: quality reads supported by Sandro's thoughts and opinions, a variety of topics from content to conversion to, obviously, growth. And my favorite part: it's richly spiced up by the personality including some very healthy dose of humor. I mean, who else will call you "a sexy Soul" in a business newsletter??
Recently, the 42nd edition of the Newsletter caught my attention. It included an article about "4 Pillars of a Modern Brand", or 4Cs: Community, Content, Curation, and Collaboration, initially written by Ana Andjelic and commented by Sandro. Now you know why Curation has been on my mind ever since!
Interestingly, Ana notes: "Radical individualism is out, social connection is in. Brand focus is not on the end customer, but on the communities, they belong to. Just as personas made individual consumers visible, the new brand methodology makes visible consumer communities and their co-dependencies and influences. The pre-pandemic consumer-centric brand strategy is now a society-centric strategy." You can read the full article here.
Surely, food for thought: are the post-pandemic changes to branding so radical? Is a consumer-centric model to be dismissed? or is a "society-centric" focus just another dimension to an ever-evolving mix of serving customers as well as communities better? Definitely worth a read along with the subscription to the newsletter.
2) Hands-on Workshops (Growth Academy)
The majority of people are open towards growth and development. However, oftentimes they need support to promote consistent advancement. Someone who shows the way, supports motivation levels, and quickly brings up to speed with the latest and greatest.
The Growth Academy set out to train marketers with their hands-on workshops and courses. No matter, which area of growth you're currently tackling, such topics as CX Mapping, Customer-centricity, Agile Marketing, UX, and Marketing Automation are modern must-haves in any modern marketer's toolbox of knowledge.
Hands-on is the key and as one of the Co-founders shared: "Our goal is to teach complex and new marketing topics in the shortest amount of time and get into implementation during our courses." Pretty sweet bonus taking into account that universities are flooding students with theory but are still quite limited in actual practice.
If you're interested in a special price, be sure to drop me a note.
3) Growth Leader Impact Program (Peakora)
Is Growth Hacking at the top of your list?
Although the term was coined back in 2010 by Sean Ellis, this area got its fair and wide attention only in a few past years. I particularly liked the definition from the Joel Capt, the Founder of Peakora: "Growth hacking is a new field that combines creative marketing, engineering, and data analytics with a clear focus on scalable user- or business growth, using experimental work approaches to learn and create the desired impact.”
If you're reading this, I'm sure you are already familiar with the subject, read some blogs, listened to a few podcasts. However, have you already rolled up your sleeves and actually dived into rapid experimentation at your company?
As Sean Ellis himself puts it: "While team members may understand the theory of growth execution, most lack cross-disciplined skills and experience in data, product, and marketing needed to effectively execute a test/learn growth process." Hence an experienced helping hand with a panel of experts all focused on your business idea sounds like a blessing!
I truly recommend checking Peakora Coaching Programs for Professionals and Businesses if impact is what you seek.
4) Bouncing Back (a book by Linda Graham)
In times like these, our minds are forced to learn resilience regardless of our age, nationality, race, or family status. Every day filled with uncertainty pushes us to the edge or even out of our "window of tolerance". This is why I found this book is an amazing resource for everyone interested in developing somatic intelligence and rewiring one's brain for maximum resilience and well-being.
Right now I'm reading the Chapter about training the brain to risk something new, it explains how the neurotransmitter dopamine influences our behavior in new unexpected situations. For example, Linda Graham writes: "When we deliberately face our fear of doing something new or risky, or confront deep doubts about ourselves as human beings, we come to the somatic threshold that might block us from moving forward. We can read that anxiety not as a warning to retreat to the familiar and comfortable but as a signal that means "About to grow!"
An absolute must-read for those who wish to perfect their equanimity skills.
That would be it for today, my friends. I've shared my picks and hope they were helpful in your journey because as we all know, growth is never done...