PHRASE IT TILL YOU MAKE IT…
A soupy mix of observations, truths and insights that I have used in my work over the years, detached from client, context and strategy.
Winning in football is transient and transactional; players have a ‘win now’ attitude and chase transfers to more successful clubs. Yet across other sports, loyalty breeds storylines, builds dynasties and makes winning that much sweeter.
Society tells mothers that they have an innate talent for childcare – “maternal instincts” – but no one really knows what they’re doing when they bring a baby home for the first time.
When someone you’ve just met tells you that something is their ‘guilty pleasure’ they’re actually putting out a feeler: ‘Do you also like this thing that we’re not supposed to like?’
People understand that human error causes road accidents, yet they see themselves as immune.
New denture wearers struggle to reconcile their dentures with their identity. Yet perversely, dentures occupy space on a part of our body we most associate with identity – our face.
Even though vermouth has seen a revival in recent years, its actual flavour remains a bit of a mystery – even to those who drink it.
Despite what the purists say, there’s no one way of making a cheese toastie – rainbow toastie, haggis toasties, inside out toastie – even the name is up for debate.
We often think of flavour as something that is fixed, but sound and place makes things taste better.
“Bread is the paper of the food industry, you write your sandwich on it.”
Dwight K. Schrute
The UK parliament is comprised of constituency representatives who think local, yet to solve climate change we need leaders who think global.
Panic buying isn’t about the stuff - it’s about people who feel like they’ve lost control trying to take it back.
If we feel disconnected from each other, perhaps it starts in the skewed and unrepresentative vision of the world that begins in our books when we are at knee height.
“I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
Maya Angelou
Bartending is not an easy job, it takes years of drive and commitment to become a bartender worthy of recognition. But like ballerinas, the best bartenders have a way of making the job look effortless.
It’s hard to make personal sacrifices for a future we can’t imagine, especially when it feels like no one else is.
Whether consciously or not, people listen to music to model their emotional state and mood.
Companies are forever telling us that they need our data to ‘help them improve outcomes for consumers’. However, the public perception is that data exists solely to improve outcomes for companies.
The literary canon has long been dominated by white men and the majority of contemporary authors with book deals fit this mould. But the decade’s most critically acclaimed and best selling books come from a different perspective – it’s time for publishing to catch up with its readers.
The 'cult of productivity’ spread like wildfire across social media during lockdown, demanding that we must use the time to improve our homes, pick up new skills or learn a second language. But in the real world, two thirds of Brits have a dreaded chore, task or errand that they’re actively putting off.
We live in a highly individualistic culture that fetishes self-help and self-reliance. Bringing in someone to ‘do it for you’ can feel like a dirty secret and unnecessary indulgence.
The conversation around gender inequality in the workplace is as loud as it has ever been, but all of that noise is drowning out the truth – real gender equality is a century away.
“People don’t care about what you know, unless they know that you care.”
Quote from Heidi J. Larson’s book ‘Stuck: How Vaccine Rumors Start — and Why They Don't Go Away’.