As humans we love to quantify. Predict. Determine. Forecast. Around 300,000 years ago (when we as a human race began) predicting, determining and developing and sharing systems of knowing provided us humans with the opportunity to, well, not get eaten. So we became pretty attached to these systems. And we carried them through the various phases and eras of human evolution. These ...
Synthesis Episode 4: How to Make Deep Connections, a Conversation with Kristi Hall
EPISODE 4: Kristi Hall LISTEN HERE (video + audio) Synthesis is a Root + River hosted webcast featuring nonconformist leaders whose ideas make them -- and us -- see the world differently. Our fourth episode of Synthesis featured our visit with Conscious Connections founder, Kristi Hall. Kristi is driven by the belief that each person is here to create magic in the world. Her ...
Why You Should Stop Saying, “I Don’t Have a Story”
By Jennifer Lawhead “I have nothing to say.” “I don’t have an exciting story to tell.” “I’m just a typical business owner.” When I work with clients to help them tell their stories, I’m usually met with one or more of these excuses. I get it. I’ve long been this person too, who didn’t feel I had anything extraordinary to say to the world. I haven’t survived a life-threatening ...
Know Thyself: A 21st Century Branding Principle
One of the most surprising moments of a Root Session is when our beloved client has the realization their brand was already inside of them. We did not tell them what their brand is. They discovered it. How is this possible? It’s been taught that branding is an external thing. Something you want to be, some construct you build, one aspirational and slightly delusional brick at a time. The ...
A Very Different Kind of New Year’s Resolution…
New Year's resolutions are lame. For the most part, anyway. They are generally some in-the-moment super important idea abandoned as quickly as a battery-less toy on Christmas morning. But setting resolutions is fun! At least for self-improvement nerds like us. In looking back over more than 25 Root Sessions, 15 presentations, four BrandLabs, three Synthesis episodes, buckets of ...
How much money should I spend on marketing?
As little as possible, mate. Surprised? You’ve been taught to believe that marketing is a cost center. You’ve been trained to think that when you invest in marketing you are buying some tactic or system. No and no. Marketing becomes a revenue center when it is executed as an artful and soulful expression of your brand. The best brands understand this. See … Yeti Spiritual ...
Synthesis Episode 3: Cort Dial: An Unconventional Take on the Crisis in Leadership
EPISODE 3: Cort Dial, author, speaker, leader whisperer LISTEN HERE (video + audio) Synthesis is a Root + River hosted webcast featuring nonconformist leaders whose ideas make them -- and us -- see the world differently. Our third episode featured the incomparable Cort Dial, who is a heretic, a self-professed oddball, an engineer, an author, speaker, truthteller and ...
What does culture have to do with brand?
We are five years into the Human Age. In the 21st century, leaders must go beyond taking care of their people to embodying a new level of caring for people. Taking care of your people is a minimum requirement - compensation, benefits, work environment. And even in the Human Age economy, there are still plenty of places to work that are sweatshops and boiler rooms - just with healthy food, ...
Synthesis Episode 1: Why Digital Learning Still a Mystery to So Many
EPISODE 1: Treion Muller and Digital Transformation LISTEN HERE Synthesis is a Root + River hosted webcast featuring nonconformist leaders whose ideas make them -- and us -- see the world differently. Synthesis creates rich new conversations, sparks novel thinking and validates the myriad feelings generated from living in today’s paradoxical world. Our first episode featured Treion ...
Synthesis Episode 2: Being an Agent for Change, A Conversation with Rose Fass
EPISODE 2: Rose Fass, CEO of Fassforward, Agent for Transformation Synthesis is a Root + River hosted webcast featuring nonconformist leaders whose ideas make them -- and us -- see the world differently. Our second episode featured the incomparable Rose Fass, CEO of Fassforward Consulting Group -- who is also one of our mentors and dear friends. Our discussion was a rich dive into Rose's ...