A common challenge clients discuss with me is risk. They want to drive business growth. They want innovation. But they do not want to take on the risk.
How do you balance the desire for driving growth without taking on risk?
The answer is simple. You must OVERCOME FEAR.
FEAR gets in the way of innovation, creativity, productivity, and growth.
FEAR and its impact on business have been widely studied; its negative impact has been quantified.
Fear blocks creativity, stifles innovation, and erodes team momentum. If you're playing it safe, you’re playing small.
We live in a rapidly changing marketplace, technology, social media and AI are moving at the speed of light.
Brands must adapt and innovate. If brands wait until everything is “proven” and “tested” before they experiment, they will leave no room for innovation and experimentation, which means little hope for growth.
The tolerance for risk goes hand in hand with the appetite for business growth.
This is what I do: I work with clients to move past fear and unlock their full potential.
I help businesses grow through bold, insight-led strategy designed based on what is important in the consumer’s lives, versus spending big budgets and resources.
It’s about outsmarting.
This came up in my last newsletter when I referenced the conversation Kory Marchisotto from E.L.F. BEAUTY had on the Uncensored CMO podcast with Jon Evans, Scott Galloway, and Rory Sutherland .
At E.L.F. BEAUTY, Kory created a culture of “yes energy” that resulted in “25 consecutive quarters of net sales growth and 25 quarters of market share gains.”
You can read the newsletter here
Polaroid’s recent OOH campaign for their Flip camera is a perfect example of outsmarting the competition, in this case, big brands with much larger budgets.
The campaign titled “The Camera for an Analog Life” taps into moments of real-world joy and takes a memorable stance against the screen-filled, AI-omnipresent, digital world we are living in today.
Although they aren’t the first brand to tap into this insight, the witty, well-written headlines combined with snapshots done in the style of Polaroid captured in the zeitgeist of this moment in time are particularly resonant.
Check out the article in AdAge here 👉 https://adage.com/creativity/work/aa-polaroid-camera-for-an-analog-life/
Many of you have asked me for more tools and actions to stop fear and lead to FEARLESSNESS. In The FEARLESS Brand Edge Edition 1, I included the Fear Assessment Tool, which can be found here
Another tool that you can use is from Mel Robbins, she introduced it in her book The Let Them Theory, it’s called the 5 Second Rule.
· This method interrupts automatic reactions and emotions, so you choose your reaction to the situation, not allowing fear to rule you.
· Talk backward from five to one and then take action instead of allowing fear to take over.
· It puts you, not fear, in the driver’s seat. It’s a game changer.
This is a great video from Mel that goes into more detail 👇
https://youtu.be/6n8i7ua0mSw?si=wP2qf6qRatmeBJKI
The FEARLESS Workshop is where brands ditch fear-based thinking and get serious about bold, insight-led strategy. Whether you're stuck in safe mode or ready to outsmart the competition, I’ll help you flip the script and drive business growth.
Let’s make bold your default. Contact me here
FEARLESS is a mindset. Strategy is how we make it real.
Until next time,
💥 Anna
