Looking Outside

Marketing is often thought of as a creative field, in part because it leans into the art of negotiation to sell a product, but it must be done with rigor. In this episode, we explore that rigorous side of marketing, and the research that should shape its decisions, with Marketing Science research professor and Director of the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute, Byron Sharp.Naturally curious and a lover of history, Byron sprinkles nuggets of real world truths, as he explains how marketing research is not geeky mathematics or engineering, but the observation of real people and their reaction to what they desire or require.Marketing science is at its core punk, or anti-establishment, and because of this Byron challenges any purist academic to ‘get out of the lab’ and the marketing bubble, and into the real world. There you must put aside your assumptions about what works based on isolated cases, or personal passions, and any snobbery you may hold about unglamourous categories, and seek out the patterns that form evidence. “Look and you will see,” Byron says, because most people don't bother to really look.Through evidence, and a methodical approach to separating what works and what doesn’t, guardrails for marketing become evident; guardrails, Byron says, that allow you the freedom to be more creative within a framework of success. Jo and Byron also discuss how making people things they want to buy, and making profit from this – in essence, the marketing economy - is not a shameful thing. And while we all want the world to be a better place, marketers must make decisions based on the logic of human behavior, and treat their brand’s budgets with measured discipline. --To look outside, Byron places himself literally in a different environment. Particularly if he is doing work that requires sustained deep thinking, lifting his head from the computer or walking out of the office and seeing something exciting and new can make it easier to think more creatively. This can be working out of a different location, going into a foreign supermarket or catching public transport ... the key is to leave your everyday environment and be open to surprise.--Byron Sharp is a Professor of Marketing Science and Director of the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute – the world’s largest centre for research into marketing. Byron calls himself an old-fashioned scientist (known for research that seeks to discover and describe law-like patterns) who studies a 'new' area – marketing (buying behaviour and brand competition).His first book How Brands Grow: what marketers don’t know has been called one of the most influential marketing books of the past decade (Warc, 2015) and was voted marketing book of the year by AdAge readers. In 2015 he published the follow-up How Brands Grow Part 2 with Professor Jenni Romaniuk. He has also written a textbook Marketing: Theory, Evidence, Practice which reflects modern knowledge about marketing and evidence-based thinking. The revised 2nd edition of the textbook was published in 2017.Byron has co-hosted, with Professor Jerry Wind, two conferences at the Wharton Business School on the laws of advertising, and is on the editorial board of five journals. Follow Byron on LinkedIn and Twitter @ProfByron.Learn more about the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute, based out of University of South Australia: www.marketingscience.info or on LinkedIn and Twitter.Check out the original How Brands Grow book and the revision How Brands Grow Part 2.Buy both books on Amazon.----Looking Outside is a podcast dedicated to exploring fresh perspectives of familiar business topics. The show is hosted by its creator, Joanna Lepore, consumer goods innovator and futurist at McDonald's. Find out more at looking-outside.com.Connect with Jo and join the Looking Outside community on LinkedIn.--All views are that of the host and guests and don’t necessarily reflect those of their employers. Copyright 2023.OBOY and Funday music features in Episode 33.

Does conflict and incompatible perspectives always have to be a negative? In this episode of Looking Outside we speak with Raj B. Shroff, Founder & Principal at PINE, a strategy and design agency to hear how he and his company leverages conflict to get to a better outcome.Raj shares how his workplace thrives on openness, when ideas are great or when things aren’t working, and how he creates the space for everyone part of the company to feel comfortable with that. It’s empathetic to be honest, Raj says, because head nodding doesn’t get the best out of people nor the work.As the leader of his organization, Raj tries to lead by example, often admitting when he doesn’t have an answer or asking for clarity. Just as importantly, he intentionally pays attention to his body language making sure it’s neutral or positive, being mindful of never showing negative.Jo and Raj discuss how  conflict exists for a reason because something in the context isn’t right, and though it sometimes feels like it, it isn't personal.--To look outside, Raj lives by the principle of letting new experience in and allowing them to shape new world views. He does this through exposure to things outside his norm, particularly while traveling. It's not something he goes and does but rather is something he lives by.--Raj B. Shroff founded PINE in 2017. The core philosophy of PINE is the power of integrated left and right brain thinking.  Prior to founding Pine, Raj was VP of Brand, Strategy & Design at a global experience design firm. During his tenure there he led many turnkey research, strategy and omnichannel design initiatives. He loves technology and consults clients on topics such as blockchain, crypto, XR (AR/VR) and other more far out concepts. He has run many large-scale initiatives, having served in account leadership roles at Fitch (WPP), in the areas of Research, Retail, Brand and Product Design and at Resource (now IBM iX), in Digital Experience & Marketing.Clients he has served include Intel, P&G, Mars Wrigley and Unilever. Raj is an industry speaker on topics such as the future of retail, branding, digital engagement and consumer behavior.He is Adjunct Faculty at CCAD (Columbus College of Art and Design) teaching the business of design. He is a mentor to students at the Ohio State Fisher College of Business, where he earned his MBA. He loves spending his free time with his wife and two sons. He is an avid trail runner (ran his first 50-miler in April 2022), mountain biker, adventure traveler and recently picked up acoustic guitar. Find out more about PINE: pinesd.comConnect with Raj on LinkedIn.--Looking Outside is a podcast dedicated to exploring fresh perspectives of familiar business topics. The show is hosted by its creator, Joanna Lepore, consumer goods innovator and futurist at McDonald's. Find out more at looking-outside.com.Connect with Jo and join the Looking Outside community on LinkedIn.--All views are that of the host and guests and don’t necessarily reflect those of their employers. Copyright 2023.OBOY and Dreamlamp music features in Episode 32.

Join Amy Webb, a Quantitative Futurist and CEO of the Future Today Institute, as she explores the evolution of foresight from imagination to action. She discusses the transformative potential of synthetic biology and its implications for sustainability and health. Amy shares her journey from a background in economics to the forefront of futures thinking, emphasizing the need for data-driven foresight in business. Learn how to shift mindsets towards problem-solving and the collaborative efforts necessary to tackle societal challenges head-on.

The final episode of Season 3 takes us to the precipice of change, looking at the topic of Fear. We discuss this with Mark Minukas, co-author of Unfear, a book on the very topic.  As someone who had to face into fear a few times, transitioning from a career as a civil engineer in the US Navy, to navigating the corporate world of management consulting, Mark shares how the discomfort of this change gave him perspective and forced him to see himself in ways he was previously blind to.Mark explains the inaccuracy of the concept that to be strong and trusted, particularly if in a position of leadership, you are ineffective if you show vulnerability. Instead that trust comes from comes from competence and equally from honesty. It’s a false dichotomy that trust is built from an all or nothing approach. Vulnerably, Mark shares how he has dealt with perceptions of male ‘strength’, and placing too much value being motivated by others' perception of him, to intervene in the stories he was being told and was telling himself. Through intervention, and self-reflection, Mark illustrates how we can use fear and fear-driven reactions to our benefit, to better understand what we’re trying to ‘react’ to and what threatens our self-identity. The game is to be curious, Mark says, and use fear as a cue for learning more about yourself.--To look outside Mark turns to books that activate his mind in different ways. While he reads business books, it’s fiction he has rediscovered a love for, and uses for deeper human insight. As Albert Camus famously said, 'Fiction is the lie through which we tell the truth.'Mark also leverages meditation to create distance to the busy-ness of a cluttered mind ... though he resisted it for a while thinking it was silly, and certainly against type.--Mark Minukas has been helping organizations transform their business performance for over 15 years. His work has taken him around the world exploring all kinds of industries – manufacturing, technology, travel and logistics, government, and financial services. Through this he discovered that human beings are the core of any organization. How people show up, communicate, problem solve, and lead determines how large the gap is between strategy and execution.He now advises, consults, and coaches senior leaders and their teams on how they can design effective improvement programs and harness the talent and creativity of their people to achieve significantly better business results.Mark began exploring the topics of leadership and operational improvement when he was an officer in the US Navy. An engineer by training, he studied how humans and organizations affected the reliability and safety of engineered systems. Following this, Mark ventured to McKinsey and Company as member of the Operations Practice. There he actively learnt about the technical aspect of organizational transformation and process improvement (lean management based on the Toyota Production System), but also the softer or cultural side of transformation. Today, Mark is Managing Partner at Co-Creation Partners, supporting clients with multi-year lean and agile transformation programs and activating operational excellence.Mark is also co-author of the book Unfear: Transform your organization to create breakthrough performance and employee well-being, alongside Co-Creation Partners' Founder, Guarav Bhatnagar, and is a trained executive coach through Newfield Network.--Connect with Mark on LinkedInLearn more about the Unfear book and concept: unfearbook.com Buy the Unfear book on AmazonFind out more about what Co-Creation Partners do: cocreationpartners.comListen to Ep 25, where we discuss how the stories we tell ourselves limit us, with Dr Nora Gold.--Looking Outside is a podcast dedicated to exploring fresh perspectives of familiar business topics. The show is hosted by its creator, Joanna Lepore, consumer goods innovator and futurist at McDonald's. Find out more at looking-outside.com.Connect with Jo and join the Looking Outside community on LinkedIn.--All views are that of the host and guests and don’t necessarily reflect those of their employers. Copyright 2023.OBOY and Lincoln Davis music features in Episode 30.

In episode 29 we peek back in time and look at the future that comes from the past, exploring the field of Archives with Senior Manager of the McDonald’s Golden Archives, Archivist Mike Bullington.As an information gathering profession, often thought to be buried in old relics and secret data, Mike shares how he turns the knowledge into action, amplified by people throughout the organization, by making people care about the past. Mike shares the process of deciding when something is valuable enough to keep - how to see its intrinsic value - and why he relies on collecting stories told first hand by their creators. Importantly, Mike speaks to why we must keep those items that are shameful parts of our past, as they speak to the truth of the context of time in which they existed, and retell stories as they were remembered.Jo and Mike reflect on the difference between digital items versus those that are physically tangible, how things like letters and books are remembered differently even if they hold the same information. And how, no matter what the format, what’s most important is that the artefacts of the past are illuminated through storytelling, that they are fact checked for accuracy, and of course that the stories of the past are not lost, especially by those voices previously muted.--To look outside, Mike speak to younger people who are coming into the field and have knowledge of new information-keeping tools. Being around young people also keeps Mike full of fresh ideas, as his mum liked to say. He also accesses a broad array of sources,  from literature and the archives community, to stay abreast of the latest practices, and exchange tools and resources. --Michael Bullington is a certified archivist and the senior manager for McDonald’s Golden Archives. He is responsible for ensuring that the legacy of the McDonald’s brand is preserved in support of the business. Prior to joining McDonald’s, Mike served as an archivist for Kraft Foods Inc. and Rush Medical Center. He previously served as President of the Academy of Certified Archivists, Chair of the Illinois State Archives Advisory Board and the Illinois State Records Advisory Board. Mike is a Member of the Academy of Certified Archivists, the Society of American Archivists, the Midwest Archive Conference and the Chicago Area Archivists. Mike holds undergraduate and graduate degrees in history from Illinois State University. In 2012, the Illinois State University Department of History recognized him as a Distinguished Alumnus. Connect with Mike on LinkedIn and follow him on Twitter @AramundMike --Looking Outside is a podcast dedicated to exploring fresh perspectives of familiar business topics. The show is hosted by its creator, Joanna Lepore, consumer goods innovator and futurist at McDonald's. Find out more at looking-outside.com.Connect with Jo and join the Looking Outside community on LinkedIn.--All views are that of the host and guests and don’t necessarily reflect those of their employers. Copyright 2023.OBOY and JCar music features in Episode 29.

We start a new year with a new way of Thinking, approaching the topic of careful consideration, extrapolation and explanation in a critical way. Joining us is self-proclaimed overthinker, award winning writer, leading cultural commentator and Foresight & Strategy Lead at Reddit, Matt Klein.As can be seen by his intro, Matt takes on a lot and he takes in a lot. He starts by sharing how he loads information and how he avoids overloading - a process where he binge eats information and then let's it "simmer" at its own pace during a silent walk outside. When he returns to it, it forms a constellation of connection points and inspiration sparks.Both in foresight, Jo and Matt discuss the challenge of translating complex trends and ideas into something easily understood and actionable to others, without over-simplification. Matt does this by using tangible, real examples, particularly in showing how black and white (and grey) can co-exist in culture.Matt also speaks to the importance of recalibrating your reality by listening to something that makes you uncomfortable. From hearing that other perspective, he attempts to form an understanding so he doesn’t shut out or attack those ideas he ardently disagrees with, because whether or not he agrees with them, "that person exists".Matt recognizes that this process of thinking critically can be hard work and often demotivating, particularly when you have to catch yourself from feeling like you’ve got it all figured out. But that our job should be not just pointing to what’s interesting but to what’s true. --To look outside, Matt takes in a lot of varied sources, whether it's publications, subreddits, or twitter accounts. He also carefully inspects an everyday interaction, as a method of cultural immersion. An example is being mindful when you're shopping by observing what’s on the shelf, what people buy, what your local store is doing that’s unique. Then reflecting on what says about that organization, about a collective society, about people. Matt does this intentionally as an exercise in being open, mindful and paying attention.--Matt Klein leads the foresight practice at Reddit where he studies culture and helps brands across all verticals identify emerging social shifts and author future-proofing business strategies.As a quantitative futurist with a decade of experience in trend forecasting, marketing and innovation, Matt has consulted with the United Nations and Fortune 100 businesses, to venture capital investors, TV producers, and startups on what comes next.With a background in CyberPsychology and Memetics, Matt’s POV is rooted in the psycho- and sociological implication of emerging tech.An award-winning writer and leading voice in cultural theory, Matt's a frequent commentator for The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Forbes, The Atlantic, DAZED, VICE and Rolling Stone.Quoted by the likes of Arianna Huffington and Richard Branson, and subscribed to by thousands globally, Matt's own publication ZINE offers executives and students alike explanations into overlooked cultural trends.Matt is also the Founder and now Advisor of PRSNL Branding, an education platform helping systemically disadvantaged professionals strengthen their online presence and advance their careers.Always looking to give back to the field he loves, Matt is a university lecturer (NYU, Queens College, University of Oregon), keynote speaker (SXSW, CAA, Sweathead), industry judge (The Webby Awards), advisor and mentor.When not analyzing culture, Matt’s collecting hobbies including cycling, drumming and wine studies, and volunteering with Big Brothers of NYC.Matt resides in New York City.--Learn more about Matt: kleinkleinklein.comSubscribe to his leading ZINE: zine.kleinkleinklein.comConnect with Matt on LinkedIn and follow him on Twitter @KleinKleinKlein--Looking Outside is a podcast dedicated to exploring fresh perspectives of familiar business topics. The show is hosted by its creator, Joanna Lepore, consumer goods innovator and futurist at McDonald's. Find out more at looking-outside.com.Connect with Jo and join the Looking Outside community on LinkedIn.--All views are that of the host and guests and don’t necessarily reflect those of their employers. Copyright 2023.OBOY and In This World music features in Episode 28.

We end 2022 on a pragmatic but aspirational note, reflecting on the ability to make positive change without needing to disregard nor fully transform the current dominant system. We discuss Good business that can also be Profitable, with Do Good Foods Co-CEO and Co-founder, Justin Kamine.As an ambitioned leader of a company progressing the agriculture industry forward on climate action, Justin proposes the concept of a business that is more sustainable, more equitable for food producers, and still profitable.Jo and Justin reflect on how there is a disconnect between people and the food they eat, desensitization of the hardship of farmers, and illogical expectations of what we can buy - a disconnect that demands a change in how we should think about food systems. Fueled by environmental pragmatism, Justin addresses how he tackles criticism from “environmental elitists” through open and honest conversation about the need to find multitudes of varied solutions, and no one magical solve.Entrepreneurship and innovation runs in Justin’s family and he speaks to how this mindset allows him to approach any field that’s facing a problem and look for a “third door” that can lead to both scalable, but profitable, change.--To look outside, Justin has regular conversations with people outside his industry to gain inspiration, take lessons and find creative approaches to existing problems. He has found combining entrepreneurial mindsets, led by perseverance, deep understanding and creative ideas, can create a multitude of new business opportunities. --Justin Kamine is a planet-forward entrepreneur who co-founded Do Good Foods with his brother Matthew to combat climate change by fighting food waste. The Kamine brothers’ company builds on the family’s 40-year heritage of solving macro environmental problems through building large infrastructure solutions.Do Good Foods is yet another example of how Justin combines his passion for the planet with good business sense to build sustainable, scalable systems that can drive meaningful change. His track record has earned him the Forbes 30U30 award for Food, ranked him as one of the 50 Most Impactful Entrepreneurs in the U.S. and earned him the Clean Tech Equity Award presented by the Prince of Monaco.Justin graduated Lafayette College in 2011, with a major in Environmental Public Policy and Economics.Justin believes profoundly that we need massive change across society and to prioritize protecting our planet and its resources. Most of all, he believes that working together we can and should all Do Good. --Curious for more?Follow Justin on LinkedIn.Learn about Do Good Foods dogoodfoods.com and Do Good Chicken dogoodchicken.comRead about KDC (Kamine Development Corp) Agribusiness: www.kdc.earthFollow KDC Agribusiness on Twitter--Looking Outside is a podcast dedicated to exploring fresh perspectives of familiar business topics. The show is hosted by its creator, Joanna Lepore, consumer goods innovator and futurist at McDonald's. Find out more at looking-outside.com.Connect with Jo and join the Looking Outside community on LinkedIn.--All views are that of the host and guests and don’t necessarily reflect those of their employers. Copyright 2022.OBOY and Famous Cats music features in Episode 27.

In this episode of Looking Outside we learn how to weave together the voices of the future, the agents with vision, to create Coalitions of Change, with Cat Tully, Founder and Director of the School of International Futures.With a broad, and ‘mongrel’ background, Cat shares how her mixed experiences from across multiple sectors, government to private, have helped her to fine tune learned behavior in looking broadly at the influences of change and facing into their often uncomfortable realities.Having created the Next Generation Foresight Practitioners Network, Cat speaks to why it’s critical we use the voice of young people as evidence towards future planning, by allowing those who will live in the future to speak for it.Jo and Cat discuss the important but challenging role of the Horizon 2 operator, the middleman between horizon 1’s business realities, and Horizon 3’s future necessities, as being a critical bridge between the past and future. Cat also highlights the need for leaders to recognize a bias towards what’s comfortable, the quick dismissal of what’s seemingly ridiculous, and a rejection of possible futures driven by sadness for loss of the present. And therefore the importance of providing cover for people in organizations to explore and provoke about the future with sympathy, vulnerability and compassion.--To look outside, Cat turns to the Next Generation Foresight Practitioners Network, a 600+ strong network of young change agents across 90 countries, who are using futures to challenge the status quo in a brave way, raising the alarm on issues they care about. Cat proactively reaches out to listen.--Catarina Zuzarte Tully leads the School of International Futures (SOIF), a not-for-profit international collective of practitioners based in the UK. SOIF uses future thinking to inspire change at the local, national and global levels. Since its inception in 2012, Catarina has worked with the UN, Omidyar, NATO, the Royal Society, and national governments to make the world fairer for current and future generations. She has also led a team to create a framework for intergenerational fairness assessment and is working on anticipatory governance ecosystems. Cat also mentors a growing network of Next Generation Foresight Practitioners, an initiative by SOIF. Previously, Cat served as Strategy Project Director at the UK FCO and Policy Advisor in the PM’s Strategy Unit.--Curious for more?Follow Cat on Twitter @cattullyfoh Follow SOIF on Twitter @nxtgenforesight and @SOIFuturesLearn more about the Next Generation Foresight Practitioners Network: NGFPRead about the Intergenerational Fairness Observatory assessment: IGFSee more a bout the School of International Futures: soif.org.uk Follow SOIF on LinkedIn and Instagram--Looking Outside is a podcast dedicated to exploring fresh perspectives of familiar business topics. The show is hosted by its creator, Joanna Lepore, consumer goods innovator and futurist at McDonald's. Find out more at looking-outside.com.Connect with Jo and join the Looking Outside community on LinkedIn.--All views are that of the host and guests and don’t necessarily reflect those of their employers. Copyright 2022.OBOY and Lunareh music features in Episode 26.

Episode 25 of Looking Outside welcomes prize-winning author, former professor, social worker, and activist, Dr Nora Gold to explore the perception and potential of Narratives; those stories we tell others and ourselves that ultimately limit or empower us.Passionate about fiction, and writer of her own stories, Nora shares both her perspective and the social science research on how fictional stories can literally change us. How escaping into the story of someone else brings down our defenses, makes us more empathic, and turns us into a different person by the time we close the book.A former social worker, Nora speaks to how she has seen people reframe the narrative they’ve told or been told about themselves, taking control of their story in an active way. She explains that you can become the author of your own life by seeing your story as editable and crafted through perception. And in particular how re-framing a past trauma can give it new meaning, perhaps even without needing to be ‘fixed’.Nora and Jo also discuss how the world, like us, is constantly changing, and we benefit from looking at ourselves as amendable alongside those changes, versus holding an idea of our lives as being linear – past, present and future. --To look outside, Nora turns to books, learning from characters in how they solve their problems. In particular she likes to enter the inner lives of people who are different to her.--Dr. Nora Gold is a prize-winning author, the editor of a prestigious literary journal, and a former professor, social worker, and activist. From 1990-2000 Dr. Gold was a tenured professor of social work, and in 2000 she left academia to write fiction full-time. Her most recent book, the novel The Dead Man, was internationally praised, received a Translation Grant from Canada Council for the Arts, and was published in Hebrew. Her previous novel, Fields of Exile, won a Canadian Jewish Literary Award. Marrow and Other Stories won a Canadian Jewish Book Award and praise from Nobel Prize winning author Alice Munro. Nora's forthcoming book, In Sickness and In Health  (two novellas), will be published in 2024 by Guernica Editions.Dr. Gold is the founder and editor of the highly regarded online literary journal Jewish Fiction .net, which in its first 12 years published over 500 works of fiction from around the world, either written in English or translated into English from 18 languages. Jewish Fiction .net  has readers in 140 countries.--Curious for more?Follow Dr Gold on LinkedIn or Facebook.Find Nora's books on Amazon: The Dead Man, Fields of Exile, Marrow and Other StoriesLearn more about Dr Gold:  www.noragold.comRead more on her literary journal, Jewish Fiction .net: www.jewishfiction.netCheck out Episode 10 of Looking Outside where we covered Storytelling with Dr Belinda Calderone, PhD.--Looking Outside is a podcast dedicated to exploring fresh perspectives of familiar business topics. The show is hosted by its creator, Joanna Lepore, consumer goods innovator and futurist at McDonald's. Find out more at looking-outside.com.Connect with Jo and join the Looking Outside community on LinkedIn.--All views are that of the host and guests and don’t necessarily reflect those of their employers. Copyright 2022.OBOY and Caleb Etheridge music features in Episode 25.

Be prepared to teeter on the edge of excitement and cynicism, as we explore The Metaverse in this episode of Looking Outside, with technology futurist and Metaverse expert, Theo Priestley. Theo is CEO and Co-Founder of Metanomic, a complete web3 economic platform for developers, but he is also one of the public voices ready to poke holes in Metaverse concepts commonly spouted.To peel back the polished veneer, Theo discusses the need to look at the gaps in the arguments made today on the Metaverse; like how technologies that make up web3 are at varied levels of understanding and development across industries, while the technologies adopted in every day use are still quite dated.Theo discusses the positive potential of web3 to connect us in new ways, allow new (safe) platforms of self-expression and to create a free market of ideas, but that platforms that currently enable that – mainly, gaming – are still not taken seriously and are seen as the poor cousins of other industries.A sci-fi fan, Theo also points out our obsessive fascination with technologies that are novel and fun but not necessarily very useful, while deprioritizing those technologies that appear boring but have traditionally been the gateway to progress for our civilization.Jo and Theo also explore our fascination with dystopian, frightful futures where we are controlled by technologies that have gotten away from us, and how perhaps that is an inevitable flaw in us - to want to be controlled and to seek out only negative futures as they feel more realistic than positive ones.--To look outside Theo doesn’t believe you should have one go-to, otherwise you can quickly form a bias. He likes to read anything and everything, and particularly those things he disagrees with to be able to learn more and gain more breadth. He also devours science fiction and comic books to help him see the potential of things. --Theo Priestley is a leading tech futurist and globally recognized author and public speaker on the convergence of many emerging trends towards the metaverse and Web3.He is the CEO and co-founder of Metanomic, a complete web3 economic and AI analytics platform for game developers, metaverse builders and the creator economy.Theo has worked with some of the biggest names in tech and business including SAP, Siemens, Bosch, Software AG, AON, and Hewlett Packard Enterprise - consulting, and advising on implementing innovation strategies, strategic foresight, and emerging technologies.He has mentored for a number of startup accelerators and has published more than 250 articles on topics including Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence, Fintech and Blockchain, Smart Cities, Web3, Metaverse, Marketing, Digital Transformation, and Virtual Reality, for Forbes, the European, WIRED, Huffington Post and Business2Community. He has also contributed to VentureBeat, GigaOM, The Times Raconteur, and has been interviewed for BBC Radio and UK national television news on technology trends.--Learn more about Theo on his website: www.theopriestley.comCheck out Theo's recently authored book, The Future Starts Now.Find out more about Metanomic: www.metanomic.netFollow Theo on LinkedIn and Twitter.Check out Theo's favorite sci-fi reads Gateway by Frederik Pohl and I Am Legend by Richard Matheson.--Looking Outside is a podcast dedicated to exploring fresh perspectives of familiar business topics. The show is hosted by its creator, Joanna Lepore, consumer goods innovator and futurist at McDonald's. Find out more at looking-outside.com.Connect with Jo and join the Looking Outside community on LinkedIn.--All views are that of the host and guests and don’t necessarily reflect those of their employers. Copyright 2022.OBOY and Strength to Last music features in Episode 24.