PHRASE IT TILL YOU MAKE IT…
A soupy mix of truths and insights that I have used in my work over the years, detached from client, context and strategy.
Money seems like maths: numbers, logic, calculation.
In reality, money is imagination. It’s vision. You shape it, play with it, nurture it, craft it.
Football’s obsession with "real" fans is ridiculous. Faraway supporters are called fake, absurd.
But who decides what passion looks like? We don’t dictate how people fall in love, so why should football be any different?
Winning in football is fleeting and transactional: players chase trophies and transfers with a ‘win now’ mindset. Yet in other sports, loyalty builds dynasties, creates enduring stories, and makes victory that much sweeter.
Society tells mothers they’re born with “maternal instincts.”
But no one has a clue what they’re doing when they bring a baby home for the first time.
When someone you’ve just met calls something their "guilty pleasure," they’re not confessing. They’re testing you: "Do you like this thing too, the one we’re not supposed to admit liking?"
One person’s soul-sucking job is another’s geekdom.
People accept that human error causes road accidents – yet somehow, they believe they're immune.
New denture wearers struggle to reconcile their dentures with their identity. Yet cruelly, dentures occupy the very space we most associate with who we are – our face.
Vermouth has made a comeback, but its actual flavour remains a mystery – even to those who drink it.
Forget what the purists say – there’s no one way to make a cheese toastie. Haggis toastie, rainbow toastie, inside-out toastie... even the name is up for debate.
We think of flavour as fixed, but sound and place can make everything taste better.
“Bread is the paper of the food industry, you write your sandwich on it.”
Dwight K. Schrute
The UK Parliament is made up of constituency representatives who think local, yet to tackle 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.
Bartending isn’t easy – it takes years of drive and commitment to earn recognition. But like ballerinas, the best bartenders make it 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 they realise it or not, people listen to music to model, alter, or change their emotional state.
Companies constantly tell us they need our data to "improve outcomes for consumers." But the public sees it differently – data exists primarily to improve outcomes for companies.
The literary canon has been dominated by white men, and most contemporary authors with book deals still fit this mould. But the decade’s most critically acclaimed and bestselling books come from a different perspective – it’s time for publishing to catch up with its readers.
The "cult of productivity" spread like wildfire during lockdown, insisting we must improve our homes, pick up new skills, or learn a second language. But in reality, two-thirds of Brits are putting off a dreaded chore, task, or errand.
We live in a highly individualistic culture that worships self-help and self-reliance. Bringing someone in to "do it for you" can feel like a guilty secret, an indulgence we’re not supposed to admit.
The conversation around gender inequality in the workplace is louder than ever, but all that noise is drowning out the truth – real gender equality is still 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’.