WEBGAINS TRANSFORM 2020 SPEAKER EVENT - SEPT 2020
Webgains are setting a new agenda for business to transform brands, affiliate marketing programmes and careers. Our virtual event will show how to benefit your business, your organisation and yourself.
Gain knowledge and advice from world-renowned experts.
Webgains is a company full of vibrant mix of people, partnerships, technology, creativity and delivery. We are a performance affiliate marketing company. We focus on driving sales right off the page, harnessing voucher and cashback sites, price comparison and shopping sites, search, retargeting, remarketing, call tracking, content publishing, blogging, tweeting, email marketing and more. We work with the UK’s most influential and exciting online publishers and technology partners.
MY KEYNOTE TALK….
We have short attention spans.
Our bandwidths are going in the opposite way to our waistlines.
I will keep this short.
MY EXPERIENCE
FROM TRAFFIC TO INNOVATION AND FROM CREATIVITY TO DIVERSITY AND TALENT - FROM SPEAKING ALL OVER THE WORLD TO WRITING AN AMAZON BESTSELLER
Let’s TAKE TRAFFIC for example -
IT MEANS KEEPING EVERYTHING RUNNING SMOOTHLY - on time, everyone sees it, signs it off, doesn’t go over budget, gets on air on time and doesn’t have a blank space in a magazine!
IT’S FOUNDATIONAL - FUNDAMENTAL to execution. Keeping the wheel of an agency turning. Every day is an act of creation - it’s about making something happen, often from LITERALLY nothing.
“Dave Trott quote - Nicole Yershon is genuinely creative. She makes stuff happen, often from nothing. - or as Winston Churchill said ‘we have no money, we shall have to think’”
Let’s TAKE CREATIVITY AS ANOTHER example, Just making things LOOK nicer isn’t creativity. That’s styling. As Edward de Bono said, "There are lots of people calling themselves creative who are merely stylists."
I started an Innovation lab - from nothing.
Executed media programs, brought creativity to the darkest reaches of corporations.
Developed cutting edge diversity and inclusion programs
Started a global network of expertise and innovation developed through theme-based semesters.
Built fearless events and happenings. Attended unconventional conventions and spotted ideas & built relationships & partnerships well before they were mainstream.
Given keynote speeches all over the world, mentored, coached and ran projects for companies who have lost the art of putting teams together.
I've written an Amazon bestseller.
“There’s so much great stuff out there - experts generating fabulous dots. The concern now is the scarcity of people or systems who can connect them. The exponential value of integrated thinking across them.” - Vikram Mansharamani
To connect the right dots requires a super-connector. That’s only to be found in what Elon Musk defines as an expert generalist. A joiner of the correct dots in a time of increasing specialisms.
Maps are crucial but then you need the navigator, the fearless driver and the practical sense maker as the map changes right in front of you.
Every challenge is an opportunity and every opportunity a challenge. That’s because everything we have to deal with is in flux. It’s an entangled mess. It’s life-threatening if you can’t create a way to think about it properly. Humans need new tools and frameworks to help us through the chaos.
You have to know how to wrestle each part - either by yourself or by assembling the right team.
The one guarantee about the future is that nothing is guaranteed.
This is the definition of disruption. So the only strategy is to ‘turn disruption to our advantage.’ It’s when the shit hits the fan that we work out an alternative way forward…’ that’s so uncomfortable, as we wish that never happened!!
Dots need connecting. You have to cultivate a sense-making superpower. It takes curiosity, determination and practice. We constantly test then learn!!
THE FEARLESS MANIFESTO
Some Key Takeaways
Creativity isn’t a job title - it’s the reason that something good happened.
Disruption isn’t some current jargon (although it is) it’s what happens every second of the day.
Knowledge ISN’T a good thing. Experience and learning from it is a good thing. Knowledge is what happened and that’s no guarantee that it will ever happen again.
People will always say no to you until you’ve got smart enough to make that impossible.
If you want something done and you can’t find someone smarter at doing it than you - then keep looking. They are definitely out there. When you find them, learn everything you can from them. In the meantime, you are stuck doing the thing.
“Q & A section”
Q. With the world slowing down right now what’s been your experience of increased creativity and collaboration?
A. Mixed - there have been some great examples of both and some epic fails. The same common denominator as in real life really - great people, great content = great creativity and collaboration. It requires empathy, the maturity of mindset and trusted space. Some people/personalities just don’t like to be out of their comfort zone - They say they want to be more ‘creative, innovative’ but that involves way more than just saying those words.
Q. How do we prepare for the future?
A.Be as prepared as you possibly can be in the following - knowledge can be your enemy - it’s what you knew not what you need to know for the future - Be curious about things outside your day job - the day job will be different tomorrow (you see where I am going with that!!) Be honest with yourself and everyone around you. That creates trust and trust only comes from belief. Stay learning - learn what it takes to learn - think - reflect and be patient as the penny often drop s far later than you think.
A quote from Yuval Harari - 21 lessons of the 21stCentury - ‘don’t listen to the adults, they mean well, but they really don’t know what’s going on’
Q. Webgains is an affiliate marketing network. We work in a world of performance. Where does creativity fit in the marketing landscape?
A.Everywhere - but it depends on the definition of creativity - to me it is everything that humans can do to solve problems - its often confused with the label of an art director or an agency person and while that’s often the case I believe creativity can come from the post room or the cab driver. In my experience, I set up an innovation lab with no money? So I had to think, when everyone else just said ‘it can’t happen’!
Q. Thinking about you and your personal brand – how important is your brand equity and do you have any top tips?
A. As above really… my thoughts on branding are all about being real. Speaking the truth and cutting out all the bullshit. I’m sure I’m not alone in thinking the industry of creativity, advertising and marketing is in need of a major overhaul and that will hopefully mean a move to more truthful and honest activity that will create more value and purpose for humanity.
Q. What’s your view on the future of marketing?
A.It needs to grow up. It needs to stand up and it needs to be far more accountable. Grow up and face the responsibility it has to be truthful and ethical and stand up so that it takes more of a role in driving business value - how many times have we heard that marketing should have a set at the top table and how that is so not the case. I rest my case. It is such an important part of any business. It needs to be way more connected to a client’s total business, supply chain, manufacturing, sales, marketing - no more silo’s!! It’s all about the leadership - marketing people have to become great leaders!!
“MY SECOND TALK - THE FUTURE OF WORK”
What are the skillsets that the future generation will require in order to continuously transform?
In the next ten to twenty years, it's reasonable to assume that work as we know it will have dramatically changed - automation - rote processes are done by digital systems - shifts in what work itself actually means.
Depending on your definition - creativity - for me, it's the ability to identify and solve challenges.
A mentality that's built on a number of things -
The curiosity to get to the root of apparent situations -
The visual/framing tenacity to see the big and the small details - (quote) -
The ability/capacity to unlearn what happened yesterday -
The ability to articulate clearly the visions and concepts beyond each transformation waypoint.
What are businesses doing to invest in personal and professional development?
Not enough in the main. Leaders have been slow to appreciate their biggest weapon - their people IMO - still too much attention is placed/focussed on short term strategies - survival - Profitability - not surprising but far too little in understanding empathy and what motivates people to do their best work.
What is happening to creativity?
It's being tested. And the winners are already reaping the benefit - Chobani! Creativity is returning to those who are conscious humans and leaving industries bearing the label.
