Culture Crush

👻 Freelancing can be scary. ⚡️ But in your network there is power, wisdom, and opportunity. Meet Hollie Fraser, freelance Creative Director and the mastermind behind We Are She Lance. Hollie has walked the uncertain soil of the freelance world and knows the importance and power of connection. In short, investing time building relationships with people walking a similar path is critical if you want to stay sane! In today’s episode of Strategy Shorts, we discuss everything from earned media and storytelling, to the delicate balance between work and personal life. Hollie also unpacks her background in advertising and PR, her journey into professional freelancing, and why she’s launched a community for kickass female freelancers. We’re talking: ✅ Hollie’s journey and the birth of We Are Shelance. ✅ Networking as an opportunity maker and sanity saver. ✅ How to just do it and stop asking for permission. Here’s to progress 🚀 Follow Hollie on LinkedIn Follow Dan on ⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠ #Freelancing #Networking #Entrepreneurship #CareerJourney #Empowerment #Podcast #StrategyShorts #WeAreShelance

💡 Ever felt like your idea was the next big thing, 🧱 only to hit a wall of uncertainty? 🤔 Perhaps you’ve found success, 😵‍💫 and then the friction that comes with it? This episode of Strategy Shorts goes out to all the dog-tired Founders, Entrepreneurs and leaders out there. You might feel like it, but you’re not alone. Meet Manuel Saez, he’s an industrial designer by trade and a two-time Founder. He’s been down burnout valley and come up the other side with some practical tools we can all use to help us manage our mental health. The resources Manuel is producing come from a deeply personal place, he’s writing for the man he was five years ago. On his journey, he found that he had to piece together his own resources to help navigate his experiences and he’s distilled them into five pillars tailored for those facing the challenges burnout brings with it. People love to say things like ‘Start with you’ but they often forget to say how to. Manuel is here to challenge and change that. We’re talking: ✅ Manuel’s story from industrial design to entrepreneur and through burnout. ✅ Five practices for transformation and nurturing resilience. ✅ The crucial role of self-care and gratitude in achieving liberation. Here’s to progress 🚀 Founders Fighting Burnout Five-Day Recovery Guide. Follow Manuel on LinkedIn. Follow Dan on ⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠. #Entrepreneurship #MentalHealth #Burnout #Resilience #SuccessMindset #StrategyShorts #PersonalDevelopment #Podcast

🫠 Brands repeatedly fail to listen to their customers. 🤔 Why? Because they are so focused on acquisition… 💔 …that they fail to nurture the community and fan the flames of fandom. Here’s why that’s a problem: for most brands, their existing customers are responsible for the majority of their profits. So if you take one thing from this: listen. Book some customer coffee breaks and listen. That’s how Shannon Howard does it, customer relationships champion and Top 100 CMA. Shannon’s the Director of Customer and Content Marketing over at Intellum, who power customer education for brands like Meta, Google, and Reddit. In the latest episode of Strategy Shorts, Shannon joins me to open up her playbook and it’s a goldmine. We zero in on some of the simple weekly practices you can implement to hear directly from consumers and unpack the headlines from the Intellum framework - so you can use customer feedback to create marketing strategies that powerfully resonate. We’re talking: ✅ The untapped power of the customer journey post-acquisition. ✅ The raw potential of collaboration and user-generated content. ✅ The simple stuff you can do to engage consumers today. Here’s to progress 🚀 Follow Shannon on LinkedIn. Follow Dan on ⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠. #CustomerExperience #MarketingStrategies #CustomerEngagement #Strategy #Podcast #StrategyShorts

📢 If you want to be heard, you might need more than words… 🎨 Maybe it’s time to expand your dialogue through visual thinking. When we’re trying to get something done, we normally exchange words to shape ideas, argue, and convince. But what if saw our role through a facilitator lens, the host of the dialogue? And more than that, what if we introduced the power of visual thinking to reach deep understanding and alignment? 🔥 Visual thinking is facilitator power. It can transform collaboration and problem-solving, paving the way for clearer communication and innovative solutions. This is the work of Marcus de Vale, a visual facilitation visionary, and Director of Work Visible Studios. Work Visible has taken collaborative problem-solving to the next level for brands like Amazon, Mastercard, and American Express. In today’s episode of Strategy Shorts, Marcus joins the show to unpack how to leverage visual thinking to foster a culture of creativity, collaboration, and alignment within your team. We’re talking: ✅ The journey of WorkVisible. ✅ The power of visual facilitation to cut through points of friction. ✅ How to get started with your own visual thinking journey. Here’s to progress 🚀 Watch the episode here. Follow Marcus on LinkedIn. Follow Dan on ⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠. 📢 SO to the facilitator community at AJ&Smart #VisualThinking #Facilitation #Innovation #Collaboration #StrategyShorts #CreativeProcess #Podcast

🎯 Business growth and customer acquisition can feel like a dark art. 🚀 But it doesn’t have to. 🤩 And when you lead with value, amazing things can happen. But don’t take my word for it. It’s wisdom straight from the Chris Marin playbook. He’s the mind behind convert.ai who generates thousands of leads for some of the world’s biggest brands including Microsoft and SEMrush. But he didn’t start at the top. He started in the back of Uhaul, dreaming as a seven-year-old kid. He went on to launch his first site at 14 and has since launched four successful companies. Basically, he knows a thing or two about landing the first few key clients. This is for two types of business leader, those looking to go from zero-to-one, and those looking to scale. It all starts with ‘stand-alone independent value’, the secret sauce that opens decision-maker doors. 🎁 In fact, we’ve got a whole process for you to take away and try. We’re talking: ✅ Chris’ entrepreneurial journey and where his mindset started. ✅ Proven strategies for outbound lead generation targeting larger enterprises. ✅ The art of crafting compelling value-driven messaging and killing the generic sales pitch. Here’s to progress 🚀 Follow Chris on LinkedIn Follow Dan on ⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠ #B2B #BusinessGrowth #Entrepreneur #OutboundOutreach #ValueProposition #MarketingStrategy #Podcast #StrategyShorts #ConvertAI

Today on Strategy Shorts, we’re talking about mental health. Specifically, we’re talking about burnout, and some daily practices (and some dramatic ideas) that you might find useful. Let’s start with the dramatic. Meet Tyler Wittkoffsky, a self-care champion who has made a bold move and traded the stability of the corporate nine-to-five for life on the road in an RV. Why? To bring balance to his mental health and take burnout out of the equation. Through remote work, Tyler and his wife have found financial sustainability while living on the road, shining a light on how alternative lifestyles and changing scenery can help maintain a healthy work-life balance. But Tyler’s journey didn’t start with epic road trips, it started with daily practice and exploring sensory therapy techniques, to combat burnout and prioritise mental wellness. We’re talking: ✅ Using sensory therapy to unlock your vacation state. ✅ The importance of finding your creative practice. ✅ Investing in and leaning on your support system. Here’s to progress 🚀 Follow Tyler on LinkedIn Follow Dan on ⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠ RESOURCES: How To Warm Those Cold Thoughts: t.ly/Vn_rq Mindfulness While Traveling: A Route to Mental Well-being: t.ly/TMyhL Prioritizing Mental Health: A Comprehensive Guide to Taking Care of Yourself in Challenging Times: t.ly/AQu57 Connect with Tyler: t.ly/MOpis Follow Tyler’s RV Adventure: https://adventurewcoffee.com/ #MentalHealth #SensoryTherapy #SelfCare #RemoteWork #Travel #Wellness #BurnoutRecovery #RVLife #Support #Creativity

▶️ Some pieces of content deserve better than a hooky one-liner. ⏩ So I’ll simply share who this special extended episode of Strategy Shorts is for… 💚 It’s for conscious leaders and change-makers who aren’t afraid to challenge the status quo. Meet Justin Foster. Justin is a lot of things that people might recognise, a brand strategist, an entrepreneur, a CMO. But beyond the titles, you’ll find a story of transformation, one that has led him and his wife, Virginia, to launch Massive and become leader shapers, system shakers, and freedom makers. Particularly for those from marginalised groups. Today, Justin joins Strategy Shorts, to unpack the power of conscious leadership and how it can challenge and transform the systems that benefit those with power and resources at the expense of everybody else. We’re talking: ✅ Justin’s journey from right-wing Republican to Co-founder of Massive. ✅ How switching from machine to people-thinking can liberate creativity, innovation, and agency. ✅ Where to start with your own journey toward conscious leadership. Here’s to progress 🚀 Follow Justin on LinkedIn Follow Dan on ⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠ #Founder #Entrepreneur #ConsciousLeadership #SystemicChange #PurposeDriven #Leadership #Podcast #StrategyShorts

🚫 Would you quit whilst you were ahead? 🤔 It probably depends on your definition of success. 🤝 Meet Chris Bradshaw, Global Strategy Director at Infinum… Chris has made some bold moves in his career. Including trading in his titles for a position that would allow his passions to take the lead: as an innovator, facilitator, and success maker. Today, Chris joins Strategy Shorts to discuss everything from leaning into personal fulfilment, how to align personal purpose with professional endeavours, and how to turn vision into practical strategy. Plus he’s got two frameworks on the grill (with a side helping of facilitation practice) for how you can simplify your approach to strategy by breaking the challenge down into bite-sized nuggets your team can gather around. We’re talking: ✅ The power of workshops to unlock alignment (and surface risks). ✅ Meaning-making and balancing personal fulfilment with professional goals. ✅ Not one, but two, common-sense frameworks to simplify strategy. Here’s to progress 🚀 🗞️ WTF is Strategy? Follow Chris on LinkedIn Follow Dan on ⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠ #BusinessStrategy #Entrepreneurship #Innovation #Leadership #Podcast #StrategyShorts #Facilitation

🫥 Want to keep your brand a secret? No, I didn’t think you did. 🎯 Entrepreneurs are often told to Niche down. 🤯 Discover why it’s a bad idea in today’s episode of Strategy Shorts. Our guest is William Choi, Founder of FreedomFriday and a serial entrepreneur who has mastered the art of turning ideas into reality. With a track record of 10 startups, 5 successes, and 3 exits, William knows what he’s talking about. In this episode, William flips the script on niching down so you can reach the right people, with the right message, at the right time. He’s bringing a super-simple approach for building a strong brand on LinkedIn using the 3 R’s framework that you can rinse and repeat every week. We’re talking: ✅ William’s story and the value of interning before entrepreneurship. ✅ The power of branding on LinkedIn using the 3 R’s framework. ✅ Building an authentic following and creating relatable content. Here’s to progress 🚀 Follow William on LinkedIn Follow Dan on ⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠ #Founder #Entrepreneur #PersonalBranding #LinkedIn #Startup #Podcast #StrategyShorts

😱 Most startups, non-profits, and small businesses fail. 👉 Why? Because it’s hard to find your audience on a shoestring budget. It can be easy to think that nobody wants your solution. But that’s not true. Your audience is out there. Finding each other, now that’s the hard part. Meet Pete Newsome, marketing technologist and GM at Fractal, who has unlocked the secrets to agile audience discovery without breaking the bank. He and his team have made it their mission to help small organisations take that first massive step in discovering their tribe and a foundational audience to build success from. In this episode of Strategy Shorts, Pete shares practical approaches for startups to discover their audience and test their ideas without significant investment, focusing on content promotion, audience targeting, and leveraging existing resources. We’re talking: ✅ Pete’s unconventional career path and his passion for service. ✅ A framework for quick, iterative, and affordable audience building. ✅ Where to start gathering insights by using content that already exists. Here’s to progress 🚀 Follow Pete on LinkedIn Follow Dan on ⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠ #AgileMarketing #StartupStrategy #MarketingInnovation #Podcast #AudienceDiscovery #Entrepreneur #NonProfit