Looking Outside

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.

In this episode of Looking Outside we look closer at the numbers and what they are telling us, exploring the predictive human powers of Demographics. For this we chat with fellow Aussie, Bernard Salt, Founder & Executive Director of The Demographics Group. As a well known personality, famous for injecting a bit of humor into his public speaking events and newspaper columns, Bernard shares his philosophy on presenting the numbers in a way that is engaging and compelling. He speaks to how to establish the facts, make a strong case, demonstrate your credibility … and be bold enough to have a bit of fun with it.Demographics is a field anchored in sociology, and the numbers, charts, tables of figures are boring standalone; it’s the narrative they tell you about people that’s interesting. Jo and Bernard discuss the importance of letting the numbers form a story about people, and then sharing that through a compelling narrative that “reaches back in time” and presents future opportunities in context.Bernard also shares his personal experience presenting numbers to senior leaders, or ‘sharks circling the water’, how he formed the self-confidence to brave this as someone from a small country town, and his observations of the changing lifestyle and culture of Australians.--To look outside Bernard focuses on popular culture. When changes happen they don’t just show up in the figures but in culture around us, and small actions observed in public can be telling about individual, collective and expressed value shifts. People watching can “speak volumes” about where communities are and where they are headed.--Bernard Salt is an Australian business advisor, corporate speaker and newspaper columnist.  Bernard has had a long career in corporate consulting mostly as a Partner with KPMG Australia. He founded KPMG Demographics (2002) where he popularized the use of demographics to interpret future business and consumer trends.  He has written 6 popular books (2002-2014), hosted a TV show (The Next Five Years 2017-2019) on SkyNews Business, hosted a popular podcast series (What Happens Next 2020-2021), currently writes 2 weekly columns in The Australian newspaper (one since 2002), and for 20 years has delivered more than 100 corporate presentations per year across Australia, New Zealand and beyond including the US.He uses long-term (mostly UN) datasets to show megatrends like the rise of the consumption era (1990-2020) and the advent of the baby bust (2020s) on a country by country basis.  He has invented acronyms to describe social trends like pumcins (professional urban middle class in nice suburbs) and VESPAs (virus escapees seeking provincial Australia/America).  His 2016 column on smashed avocado went viral globally. Bernard is founder and executive director of The Demographics Group (www.tdgp.com.au).  He was an adjunct professor at Curtin University Business School 2011-2020, a board member of the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA) 2014-2018, appointed a member of the Council (board) of the National Museum of Australia in March 2022.  He was made a member of the Order of Australia (AM) in 2017 for his services to demographics.--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 Cast of Characters music features in Episode 23.

In this slightly poetic episode, we look both inside and outside the often simplified topic of Identity, exploring what it means to be, create and become who we are, with Creative Strategist and Founding Poet at Brand Poetry Inc., Theophilus Wells IV.Naturally philosophically minded, Theo shares his observations on the dichotomy of human nature and will in shaping our individual identities, stressing the benefit of being curious about the things that make us different, and the power in observing the negative. A creative by profession, Theo also explains the process of idea generation, specifically the need to submit to ideas once you've made space for them. Theo also distinguishes ideas that give people more of what they want (often the things that reaffirm an identity formed long ago) from ideas that can become an extension of who people want to be.What does this have to do with business? Our strategies are packed with simple sounding words loaded with meaning, words like culture, identity, progress. In our quest to give and gain something to our customers, it pays to slow down and practice curiosity in what these things even mean.--To look outside, Theo opens himself up to see what is unknown or uncomfortable, without judgement or complaint. Theo thinks of it in terms of bravery; "daring" to marvel at the world & to be be fascinated with the things that aren't, well, about you.--Theophilus Wells IV is a Writer / Strategist / Space Maker based in New York, and Founding Poet at Brand Poetry Inc.. As a high school student and HBCU Graduate he finds himself lost in stories. These stories brought him to advertising. He is currently working on improving his strategic process and taking a less is more approach to everything. Theo's web3 consultancy: wealthystrats.xyz/Connect with Theo 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 2022.OBOY and Sam Barsh music features in Episode 22.

We start season 3 digging deep into human values, while speculating on their evolved expression into the future, with futurist and Associate Professor at University of Houston's Foresight Program, Dr Andy Hines.Having authored a book on the topic of values, ConsumerShift, Andy shares how defining what a value is and how it is expressed by people with differing typologies, helps us perceive them as something less static and therefore shows us their potential evolution into the future.Jo and Andy discuss how values - an integral part of a person’s identity (their purpose, needs, world views and beliefs) - are expressed in the real world, as directed by external pressures but also individual choices. Andy speculates how modern values, built on capitalism, competition and an obsession with accumulation, may evolve.Andy has been practicing futurism for over three decades and now teaches the skills of a futurist, but he has also applied it first hand during his time at Kellogg's and Dow Chemical. Through observing and projecting changes in the world, he explains why the science of futurism is fruitful, that more things have come true than not, but that we must align to the motion of change with patience, because contrary to popular thought, change happens slower than we think. --To look outside, Andy speaks to different groups of people looking for diversity of thought; people who come at the world in a way that Andy doesn’t. He says this can be done observationally, through reading a magazine you don’t normally read, going on community boards you wouldn’t normally engage in, but that it should be done with patience, over an extended period of time. By seeking out unique view points, Andy seeks to build a better understanding of people in sub-cultures outside his own.--Dr. Andy Hines is Associate Professor and Program Coordinator for the University of Houston’s Graduate Program in Foresight and is also speaking, workshopping, and consulting through his firm Hinesight. His 30+ years of professional futurist experience includes a decade working inside first the Kellogg Company and later Dow Chemical, and consulting work with Coates & Jarratt, Inc. and Social Technologies/Innovaro. His books include The Knowledge Base of Futures Studies 2020, Thinking about the Future (2nd edition), Teaching about the Future, ConsumerShift: How Changing Values Are Reshaping the Consumer Landscape, 2025: Science and Technology Reshapes US and Global Society, and his dissertation was “The Role of an Organizational Futurist in Integrating Foresight into Organizations”. He is a member and was Founding Chair of the Association of Professional Futurists. Learn more about Andy and his company Hinesite: www.andyhinesight.com. Follow Andy on LinkedIn and Twitter.Watch Andy's talk on values: Imagining after Capitalism.--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 Reel Life music features in Episode 21.

We end Season 2 of Looking Outside with a frank look at the very topical topic of activism in business. We do this not theoretically or observationally but first hand with activist entrepreneur and CEO of Eat the Change, Seth Goldman.Seth speaks to why 'acting' is critical in activism, as he's done first hand by venturing into organic packaged food, healthier fast-casual restaurants and planet-friendly meat alternatives. Seth shares how he has done this by crafting ideas designed to change large scale food system issues while appealing to evolving consumer values. A proud activist, Seth also speaks to how important it is that your business ideas aren't altruistic but meet the needs of the farmer, the buyer, the retailer and of course the employees of the company. Here Seth shares his unique experience as a CEO who tries to live by the commitments he sets in a way that doesn't trade off on business success.Jo and Seth also discuss the benefits and watchouts of brands crafting a “purpose”. Specifically the well-laid intentions that have the potential for positive impact, the risk of running into greenwashing before you’ve substantiated your initiatives, and the watchouts of trying to solve problems you help to fuel or even created in the world. This is not just a hot topic, a stellar guest but also of course a thought provoking way we're wrapping up Season 2 of Looking Outside.--To look outside, Seth reaches out to the communities he is working with and supporting through his business. Seeing his impact first hand in those markets helps bring him perspective, particularly in those moments when he is physically outside the office and in nature. Importantly, Seth also tries to speak with people who think differently, ask different questions and see the world in a fresh way. Insight can come from anywhere, even sometimes close to home.Seth recognizes that he is working on serious issues, but that we also need to stop and have fun, and make sure these progressive shifts are fun for our consumers too.--Seth Goldman is Co-Founder of Eat the Change®, a planet-friendly snack brand that helps people ‘Snack to the Future™’. Eat the Change® recently launched Just Ice Tea, a line of organic bottled tea to go along with the company’s mushroom jerky and carrot snacks. Seth and his co-Founder, Celebrity Chef Spike Mendelsohn are also co-founders of PLNT Burger, a plant-based quick-serve restaurant that offers delicious burgers, sandwiches, fries, and soft-serve. Seth is also the Co-founder of Honest Tea and Chair of the board of Beyond Meat. He has been widely recognized for his entrepreneurial success and impact, including Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year in Greater Washington, the Washington DC Business Hall of Fame, Beverage Industry Magazine’s Executive of the Year and Partnership for Healthier America’s CEO of the Year. Seth and his wife, Julie Farkas, have also launched ETC Impact, which is a donating $1.25M over three years into non-profit organizations that educate and inspire consumers to make climate-conscious choices with their diet.  Find out more about Eat the Change eatthechange.com & try the products.Follow Seth on Twitter: @honestseth @eat_the_change & Instagram @eatthechange & 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 2022.OBOY and EILOH music features in Episode 20.

In Episode 19 we speak with marketing strategist and successful author, Mark Schaefer on the way to generate and leverage Influence, for both your personal and professional brands.Author of nine books including Return on Influence and Cumulative Advantage, Mark shares his research and experience in the area of content marketing. He explains why it’s not enough to simply generate content; why you must rise above the noise with a ‘spiky point of view’.Mark and Jo reflect on the challenges faced by people with a business or personal brand in being genuine, proving trustworthiness and the importance of creating comfortable and supportive spaces for your audience.As a  global public speaker and a professor, Mark shares lessons on how to create a distinct value proposition by observing changes in the world and lining them up with your own unique experience. And on how important patience and self-awareness are in building a successful venture.--To look outside Mark relies on three to five sources - from blogs, newsletters, podcasts - that inspire him every week. Mark says having these handful of regular sources focuses your attention on what’s relevant and forces you to look at things in a new way. Mark is a self-proclaimed ‘look outside junkie’ because he lives in the world of ‘what’s next’, which means he relies on observation of the fast changing world.--Mark W. Schaefer is a globally-recognized author, keynote speaker, futurist, and business consultant who blogs at {grow} — one of the top five marketing blogs of the world. He teaches graduate marketing classes at Rutgers University and has written nine best-selling books. Mark’s new book Cumulative Advantage: How to Build Momentum for Your Ideas, Business and Life Against All Odds is an essential new path to being seen and heard in a busy world.Mark has worked in global sales, PR, and marketing positions for more than 30 years and now provides consulting services as Executive Director of U.S.-based Schaefer Marketing Solutions.  He specializes in marketing strategy and social media workshops. Clients include both start-ups and global brands such as Adidas, Cisco, Johnson & Johnson, Dell, Pfizer, The U.S. Air Force, and the UK government.He has been a keynote speaker at prestigious events all over the world including SXSW, Marketing Summit Tokyo, and the Institute for International and European Affairs. Mark has appeared as a guest on media channels such as CNN, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and CBS News.He is the co-host of The Marketing Companion, one of the top 10 marketing podcasts on iTunes.See more from Mark:Mark’s consultancy, Schaefer Marketing Solutions at businessesgrow.com Mark’s latest book Cumulative Advantage which you can purchase on AmazonConnect with Mark on LinkedIn (ask for the invite to his Discord direct)Follow Mark on TwitterListen to the Marketing Companion podcast on Spotify--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 OHSNAPITSBWAY music features in Episode 19.

In the latest episode of Looking Outside, we explore Exploration itself, and what it means to be truly curious about people, places and the future, with Zak Dychtwald, Founder of Young China Group and author of Young China.Zak shares how he approaches exploration: from visiting countries that are ‘misunderstood’, to immersing himself in stories about the far off possible future, to building an ‘intimacy’ with foreign cultures, places and people that you wouldn’t get from descriptions by outsiders.Zak and Jo also discuss their love of science fiction. It was Zak’s love of sci-fi that drove him to study, live and start a company in China, a place he found more unique and exciting than any other part of the world, more indicative of the future, and greatly misunderstood by foreigners.Jo and Zak also speak to the responsibility of science fiction to craft more positive futures, vs the dystopian ones we’re used to fearing, because those visions are, as Zak says, ‘seeds into the consciousness of the world’; they help others imagine what could be and ultimately influence the futures that are created.--To look outside, Zak likes to read (a lot). When Zak is about to travel, he likes to read stories, narrative non-fiction or modern fiction, written by authors from those places he’s about to visit. Zak believes in the power of stories to impact people.--On the show we mentioned:AI 2041 by Kai-Fu Lee & Chen QiufanRay BradburyAbundance by Peter Diamandis (co-founder of Singularity University)The Three-Body Problem by Cixin LuWaste Tide by Chen QuifanYoung China by Zak himself Great Sci-Fi including Minority Report, Solaris, Star Trek, Interstellar.--Zak Dychtwald is the author of critically acclaimed Young China: How the Restless Generation Will Change Their Country and the World and founder of market insights firm, Young China Group.Zak’s work has been featured in Harvard Business Review, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, The Atlantic, and many other platforms. A fluent mandarin speaker with over a decade on the ground in China, Zak is an expert in dissecting China’s consumer trends and cultural norms and making China approachable and actionable for global thinkers, companies, and teams. Zak has been invited to share his expertise for audiences on six continents at events such as the Wall Street Journal CEO Council Summit, Aspen Ideas Festival, Google Talks, CannesLions International Festival of Creativity, TEDx and more. Find out more on Young China Group youngchinagroup.com and Zak zakdychtwald.com. Follow Zak on LinkedIn and Twitter.See more from Zak:Zak's book: Young China.Harvard Business Review feature China’s New Innovation Advantage Article, Video and Podcast.HBR Understanding China’s Young Consumers ArticleMore speaking videos from Zak--Looking Outside is a podcast dedicated to exploring fresh perspectives of familiar business topics. The show is hosted by its creator, Joanna Lepore, 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 Falls music features in Episode 18.

Episode 17 of Looking Outside shows us the courage, self-awareness and patience needed to make a Career Pivot, or in the case of Nihal Advani, Founder & CEO of QualSights … several! What mindset does it take flip your life around and try something completely different? Nihal takes us on his personal journey from professional tennis player, to tech ‘idea guy’ at Microsoft, to creating and leading his own business. He details how adaptability is a pivotal component of seeing new opportunities, alongside the criticality of knowing yourself and your own strengths. Jo and Nihal talk about constantly fueling your own momentum, while keeping a watch on burning out from the excessive need for progress.As someone who truly lives by the word agile, Nihal also explains his process of evolving ideas - from cultivation to percolation - the challenges faced when bringing others along during the pivots and the benefit of patience.--To look outside, Nihal taps into a set of outside advisors from different walks of life. He also enjoys documentaries like Explained when they can teach him new things and spark ideas, inspired by people and industries outside the one he operates in.--Nihal Advani is the Founder and CEO of QualSights, an insights technology platform that helps companies generate deeper and more authentic insights from consumers anywhere in the world in a remarkably fast and cost-effective manner. Nihal spent his teenage years as an internationally ranked tennis player but decided to pursue his passion for technology instead and began his career working for tech giants like Google and Microsoft. He combined his entrepreneurial spirit and interest in seeing and understanding the world by launching QualSights.Ranked the fastest growing company in Illinois and the fastest growing consumer insights platform in America by Inc. Magazine, QualSights’ technology blends the depth and authenticity of qualitative research with the speed and agility of quantitative research. In addition to offering a variety of options to capture deep consumer insights, QualSights offers a powerful suite of AI tools as well as an easy-to-use presentation builder that helps brands analyze faster than ever before and quickly present compelling stories.Nihal is now a trusted thought leader within the consumer insights community, working alongside leading Fortune 500 companies who utilize his award-winning insights platform to drive their business forward.Connect with Nihal on LinkedIn.Learn more about QualSights: www.qualsights.com & follow them on Twitter.Hear more from Nihal by checking out his interview on the Success Stories podcast. --Looking Outside is a podcast dedicated to exploring fresh perspectives of familiar business topics. The show is hosted by its creator, Joanna Lepore, innovator and futurist at McDonald's. Find out more about Jo & Looking Outside at www.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 Nitro music features in Episode 16.

In episode 16 we get grounded in how a strategist thinks, and their process in creating impactful strategy, with Mark Pollard, CEO Sweathead.A guide to many creative thinkers and long-time strategists, Mark discusses the role of chaos within orderly processes, the purpose of finding personal meaning in your thinking, and the need to balance intellectualism with practicality.Having written a book about it, ‘Strategy is your Words’, Mark discusses the purpose of the written expression and the criticality of choosing words carefully when considering their impact within business. In other words, helping people easily get your idea through precise, emotive and concise arguments that persuade without an over-reliance on data and superfluous language. Jo and Mark also venture into slightly darker places; the struggle of creative and existential thinkers in a world lacking empathy and over-reliant on formality. Specifically, how Mark’s intention to express the darker parts of his life has helped others connect with and share theirs. And how this has led to new ways of forming impactful strategies.--To look outside, Mark goes to stand up comedy gigs, and takes long walks around Central Park. The walks are a part of the process of his work, where ideas are generated through connection to physical movement, external stimulus and the thoughts sparked by the podcasts he listens to. Stand up comedy, meanwhile, helps him connect to the darkness. Comedy being one of the rare art forms today (for now, at least) where ideas can be contrary, brutally human and provocative.--On the show we mentioned:Victor Frankl - Man’s Search for MeaningPsychological analysis of Carl Gustav Jung Psychology TodayEdward De Bono writings on lateral thinking--Mark Pollard runs Sweathead, a strategy training company with a community of 18,000 strategists and a podcast with over 1.2 million listens.In recent years, he's consulted and trained companies like Wall Street Journal, Twitter, Complex Media, EA Games, The Economist as well as agencies around the world.In 2020, he published his Kickstarter-funded book "Strategy Is Your Words". It's a 400-page dive into the minds of strategists and builds around a framework he uses called The Four Points. You can find his Australian accent in New York and strategy articles on his website. You can find him at @markpollard, in the podcast and Facebook group Sweathead, and you can read some of his words here: How To Explain an Idea and How To Do Account Planning.Find more about Mark at www.markpollard.net & follow him on LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter.Learn about Sweathead. Listen to the podcast.--Looking Outside is a podcast dedicated to exploring fresh perspectives of familiar business topics. The show is hosted by its creator, Joanna Lepore, innovator and futurist at Mars Wrigley. Find out more about Jo & Looking Outside at www.looking-outside.com. Connect with Jo and join the Looking Outside community on LinkedIn.Check out Jo’s foresight podcast Future Imagined (produced for Mars Wrigley).--Looking Outside is created by Joanna Lepore. All views are that of the host and guests and don’t necessarily reflect those of their employers. Copyright 2022.OBOY and Nu Alkemi$t music features in Episode 16.