January 7, 2025 • 37 mins
What will it take to succeed in 2025?
In this episode, Steve Halsey and Anne Green share their predictions for 2025, diving into the trends and strategies shaping leadership, culture, innovation, and communication. From navigating a VUCA world to leveraging AI for trust-building and empowering teams to cultivate their resilience, this conversation offers actionable insights to help leaders and brands thrive.
Join us as we discuss:
In this episode, Steve Halsey and Anne Green share their predictions for 2025, diving into the trends and strategies shaping leadership, culture, innovation, and communication. From navigating a VUCA world to leveraging AI for trust-building and empowering teams to cultivate their resilience, this conversation offers actionable insights to help leaders and brands thrive.
Join us as we discuss:
- Critical factors likely to impact business and society in 2025.
- How to balance strategy with authenticity in a rapidly changing world.
- The transformative role of AI and storytelling in building trust.
- Leadership priorities for agility, inclusivity, and empathy.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Hello and welcome to the latest edition of Building Brand Gravity.
We have an exciting episode for you where a couple
of us co hosts are going to talk about our
trends and predictions for twenty twenty five. So hello and welcome.
I'm Steve Halsey, the principal and Chief Growth Officer of
the GENS Integrated Marketing Communications.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Group, and I'm Man Green, the principal and CEO at
the GNS Integrated Marketing Communications Greup, Hi, Steve.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Hello, Well, we're going to have fun today. We're going
to get out our magic eight balls, cauldron, whatever it is.
We're going to look ahead and we're going to talk
about the trends and strategies that businesses and brands need
to thrive in twenty twenty five. So there's just been
a little bit of things going on in the world
and society and business, and we're just going to distill
(00:55):
those all down and we're going to end up leaving
everybody with a quick checklist of what they need to
do to be successful in twenty twenty five. So what
we're going to do today is we're going to talk
about a variety of topics leadership, culture, innovation, how are
communicators and the C suites that they're serving, how are
they navigating uncertainty and basically leveraging the opportunities. So we
(01:17):
call this episode Navigating twenty twenty five Essential Trends, Insights
and checklists.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
Yeah, twenty twenty five is going to be pretty pivotal.
I think you're right, Steve, and I brought my reindeer
with me to be festive and also to be resilient,
emotionally resilience, my emotional resilience reindeer because it's a heavy
year coming at us, and so I think looking at
the role of leadership, the role of communications and the
field that we're in, and how are we adaptable and
nimble to whatever's coming at us.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
Yeah, and I think that's going to be key to
an I'm really interested. You just got off a road
show visiting a bunch of clients CEOs and their CEOs
and their executives, and I'm going to be really interested
to hear what they're saying about resil biliency, adaptability, how
you structure your team, and then how you win, because
it's really interesting, as you say, for twenty twenty five
(02:08):
is kind of soft power hard power. How do you
find that bound balance as we get going.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Yeah, And I mean, nobody has a crystal ball, but
we've all been living in this world for quite a while.
You know, Steve knows, one of my least favorite acronyms
is VUKA volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity.
Speaker 3 (02:24):
It's just such a ruka.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
It's not the best acronym, but it continues to be persistent.
So I don't know that we need, you know, the
most perfect crystal ball to understand that we're going to
be in a landscape that's still quite tumultuous. And now
with the US election decided and some of the moves
being made there, you know, we have more visibility into
(02:46):
what may be coming, but still a lot of questions too.
And I think that I was just with a senior
leader and I was doing a high level media training
and we were talking about the CEO agenda, because this
is also an entity that advises companies have all as this,
especially Fortune fifty and Fortune five hundred. And he made
a comment to me as part of the mock interview
that you know, CEOs need to be optimists. So I'm
(03:09):
going to adopt that mantle, and I tend to be
glass have full. I call myself an optimist, realist, and
I think Steve you share a lot of that personality
with me. But the other thing is is that he
stressed something else I really took away, which is we
need to focus on the areas we can control.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
And I think going into.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
It, you know, there are potentially some really rapid changes coming,
especially in the regulatory environment. Whenever there's a regime change,
you know, an administrat and change especially, there's some potentially
stark differences in what may be looked at from a
regulatory perspective. Climate, you know, environment policy, terrif et cetera.
(03:46):
So you know from my perspective and I'm sure yours too.
When I'm speaking to executives and also talking to myself
as an organizational leader, I'm thinking about adaptability, about resilience,
about creating that culture readiness, focusing on the things you
can do, and also that old outage. Don't let a
crisis go to waste. You know, there's a chance to
(04:07):
make real change when there is big changes of foot
around you. And also to avoid getting too down in
the dumps, to getting two glass empty, because that's not
going to help us take the action we need to
take absolutely.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
And I had a conversation with a chief communications officer
a few weeks ago not US base works for a
large business out of the Middle East, and he made
the comment to me, he said, CEOs now want to
appear more strategic than ever before, and they want their
senior communications councils to help them show up more strategic.
(04:43):
So you know, it's no longer do you have a
seat at the table. It's no longer just a question
of hey is it about you know, our reputation and brand.
Now it's helped me show up more strategic, which means
you need to show up to help me manage not
to these publics, but how do we move the organization
and how do we move the business forward? And I
(05:05):
think what's interesting there is, you know, as senior communicators
and counselors, we're kind of crossing this nexus of how
do you really be a true business advisor and really
think ahead with all these challenges, and then how do
you make sure that you stay authentic as an enterprise
and aligned with the values that that you're created about,
(05:28):
And particularly with what you were talking about, I'd be
interested in your take with all these changes or kind of.
I like the term whipsaw effect that somebody says, which
basically shows, hey, we've done a rapid move. I think
it could get easy to lose sight of your values
in that and react in the moment versus how do
you balance that short term, mid term, long term strategy?
(05:51):
So what are you hearing from leaders about that?
Speaker 2 (05:53):
Yeah, and there's a couple of dimensions, so that there's
the actual operational strategy and what is the business model?
And what are we driving towards? What are the new
growth avenues? What is our core business? How does that
change with emerging technology or changing ge political factors, or
you know, just just the normal kind of questions that
crossing the chasm question that's been out there forever. But
(06:13):
there's also an emotional and a cultural and a communication
side to it too, So and that goes into questions
about some of the challenges around things like D and
I or even ESG and what is it employees expect
you to speak on And there's been a lot of
intensity and change, our culture is changing, and that talk
about a whipsaw effect. So I think this question and
(06:35):
you've rooted it in the values for a brand strategy
for operational strategy, for culture strategy, for every point on
the compass, you need to ask yourself, why are we here,
what is the core value of what we're creating, how
are we serving our stakeholders? What is this business meant
to do? And then to me, you and I have
(06:57):
both been in the business, you know, over thirty years,
so we've known how undervalued internal communications used to be.
So now I think we all understand across this field
and across the executive in the C suite, internal communications
is as important as external and they are almost parallel.
And so we need to bring intense strategy, thoughtfulness and
(07:18):
precision to how we communicate about why we're doing things
and about what the purposes and how it ties back
to our core mission and values. So, I mean, there's
so much there, but you have to look at it
in a holistic way. I think.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
Yeah. And one of my podcast guests in twenty twenty
four as managing director of harrispol And, one of the
interesting fightings that they had to the point that you
were talking about is where strategy often falls off is
the lack of making those internal connections and getting that
internal buy in and really kind of again rooting it
(07:53):
in celebrating the culture and the value in terms of
where things are at. And so when I from where
I say, and from where I'm thinking about all the
changes that are coming, Certainly there's a lot of opportunity.
Certainly there's a lot of things that are going to
be significant challenges. But I guess I kind of see,
you know, I guess I'll start. This isn't my checklist,
(08:14):
but three of my tips are really about setting the
context right. And I think it's important that with the
complexities that are involved in all these different regulatory and
policy decisions are coming, how do you still distill the
complex challenge into relatable stories that relate to your business
and the impact you're having on real people humans all
(08:37):
of that. How do you maintain consistency with past commitments,
because I think we're going to see in the news
those companies that pivot with a pivot and kind of
forget who they were yesterday. Their publics are going to
call them out on that. They'll probably lose business out
of that at the end of the day. How do
you continue to think about how do I build trust
not just because something's easier or regulation has been gone.
(09:00):
Now I could do something that I wouldn't do last year.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
Yeah, I like that. I think those are great things
to keep top of mind.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
So how about we switch topics a little bit and
talk about get out of the regulatory and policy world
and talk a little bit about what are some of
the key trends to watch it in twenty twenty five
and as and none of these should probably be surprised
to our listeners, but as we kind of think about
where we're at, there's a lot of things out there.
Hybrid work culture, resiliency, AI. Those are just three to start.
(09:33):
I mean, what's kind of your take on what are
the key trends for us to watch in twenty twenty five?
Speaker 2 (09:38):
Yeah, and both of us could expound on a lot
of these. I think one is just continuing to understand
business model reinvention, constant business model reinvention, constantly interrogating how
you're operating and being really open to making changes and
to not be afraid to shift, but do it with
(09:59):
great purpose, some thoughtfulness, and make sure you're communicating it
very well. Because everyone's workforce is completely overwhelmed with the
amount of change and uncertainty that surrounds us, you know,
and it's funny. There's a lot of psychological noise. So
the weather patterns and the concerns around climate change. You know,
you have no water in the northeast for half of
(10:22):
the fall, or you have a Category four hurricane in
the mountains of North Carolina. This stuff is anxiety producing
for human beings and there's a constant hum of that.
So the more that we can be clear about we're
going to change and force business reinvention and we're going
to look to the future. But we're going to do it.
There's reason why we're going to communicate with you. That's critical.
I don't feel the future of work is settled yet.
(10:45):
This navigating the hybrid work thing, I mean all of us,
us included, are looking at it. I think that's going
to continue to change. And one thing we know is
that there's going to still be more choice for workforce
and we have to figure out how to work through
that and still create cultures that are meaningful while allowing
that level of autonomy and independence and understand like that.
(11:05):
It's just not settled yet. It hasn't settled down still,
and we have to be very engaged with it. And
then that question of resilience. How do we cultivate resilience
in ourselves individually, as leaders or as employees wherever you're
situated in the organization, How do you cultivate leaders resilience
as an organization as a whole. And then how do
we as professional services firm help our clients tap into
(11:27):
and cultivate that resilience combined with nimbleness and creativity. So
those are some of mine. What are the ones on
your list?
Speaker 1 (11:35):
You know? For me, a lot of a lot of
discussions I'm having, and you hit on it with like
this business model evolution and reinvention, and I think we're
going to see a lot of that. I'm at least
based on what I'm reading and from what I'm hearing
and from what I'm seeing, I think we're going to
see a lot more M and a's coming. And with
M and A comes a lot of change, a lot
of evolution, a lot of business model things. But I'm
(11:58):
also seeing that business biness model evolution and reinvention within
the communications function itself. I mean, we've certainly certainly seeing
that on the agency front. We're certainly seeing that even
with with in house teams and that desire of I
want it all, but how do I have it all
(12:18):
without a lot of budget. I want really, really senior
counsel but I don't want to senior counselors grinding things
out on a daily basis. I want to have access
to specialists. I don't want to pay for those specialists
to be on the tap all the time. And then
on the flip side, on the agency side, it's okay,
how do we provide that senior level council and then
(12:38):
how do we create nimble, flexible models that really make sense.
That's that's creating value for everybody. So that's where it's
interesting to me. The whole topic of reinvention has been
driven pretty heavily by AI, and you may see the
same things. But with my conversations, just thinking back to
(12:59):
January only twenty four, it was about, Okay, this is
going to be a reality. What are the guardrails, what
are the rules, what are the ethics? How do we
make sure that you know we're doing copyright and doing
everything great? And then somewhere around September or October there
was this massive shift which it was no longer about if,
(13:19):
but how are you using it for efficiency? How are
you using it to create value? How are you creating
it for innovation? And the expectation on both the client
and agency side that you're using it to be better,
to be better counselor to deliver better product. And I
think for me, twenty twenty five is going to hopefully
(13:40):
is going to be a settling of that into business models.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
Oh my gosh, that I couldn't agree more. You and
I talk all the time, and we have our feelers
out everywhere. You know, I love circulating and connecting with
people I'm reading voraciously, especially you know, having been through
some major tech shifts before, from the Internet to the
advent of social media, Web two, Web three. For me,
(14:03):
that it's a constant education process and curiosity and just
gathering data everywhere like a light bulb coming on in
the fall. And it's not that there's a lot being
done prior to that. I mean, we've been in a
experimentation and implementation mode for a while, but you know,
the rapid increase in that and I think we still
have to be thoughtful and measured about it, and that's
(14:24):
what clients need from us, is really being counselors about
what's hype and what's reality. And usually it's a mix
of both, but it's been a dramatic change. And this
question you ask about, especially the sort of needing it all,
but how do you put budget against it? I think
that's true for all operations now, client side, agency side,
figuring out where you invest and then where you cut
(14:46):
and where you are smart about it. There's a lot
of dynamic tensions out there in the marketplace and that's
going to persist, and that's where for ourselves and for
our clients we need to really lean into figuring out
how to thread that needle.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
Yeah, and a couple areas I think are going to
be interesting to see how they play out. And there's
no surprise. I mean we've talked about it at nauseum
in the industry and even on some of some of
our building brand gravities of the negative around the acronym DEI, ESG,
all of that. But what's interesting is when you look
(15:18):
at the research and you peel back the label, people
still want and expect purpose driven branding from companies. People
still expect and want what you're doing to be more
sustainable as you move forward. So I think it's going
to be really interesting to see how some of those
core undercurrents continue to play out, maybe Sand's acronym or not,
(15:41):
but I still believe when you look at the research,
public still have high expectations of branded corporations in purpose
and sustainability, and it'll be interesting to see just the
maturity of that in the conversation in twenty twenty five.
And I don't know, based on your executive conversations, are
(16:01):
you hearing the same thing, which is I may not
like the label, but I'm no less committed to what
we're doing.
Speaker 3 (16:08):
Yeah, I'm glad.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
I'd love to comment on that because I'm about to
give a talk to one of our clients and all
the commsfolks across one client, across different brands within an
entity on AI and one of the first slides I'm
going to have will have three acronyms E, SG, DEI,
and AI on the screen, and I'm going to ask
everyone to say, hey, we're smart communicators. What is the
relationship between these three? And there's maybe many answers, but
(16:32):
my answer is that all of these are acronyms that
contain a universe and have been very ill defined, and
a lot of the issues that we're facing, I think
regarding the pushback, I mean not entirely. There's ideology here too, right,
But the pushback against some of these issues is that
we've crammed together massively distinct worlds within environmental, social governance, diversity, equity, inclusion,
(16:57):
belonging and now AI AI in what context cognitive predictive generative.
Speaker 3 (17:04):
You know, the lack of precision in the terms.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
And this is where my plea to communications professionals, this
is our world, this is our ball to run down
the field, help bring more precision to these terms, because
the fact is, I agree with you. Executives around the
globe are still pursuing climate goals. They still understand the
business disruption of climate, for example, to supply chain and
(17:27):
to their existence.
Speaker 3 (17:29):
To their people.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
They still need good governance in the boardroom and in
the corporation. We know, i'd say the vast majority of
executives I speak to understand that greater representation within our
company's more diverse points of view across all points. I
just talked with this with this executive on Monday during
the training is a superpower and is required in a
more diverse world, and that bringing more sense of belonging
(17:52):
in psychological safety, removes friction and lets you fly. So
what I want to see for AI in all these
areas is more precision around the strategy and the language.
And I think that's that's a big, as you can tell,
soapbox for me. I'm up on the soapbox talking about
this to everybody, and when I talk about this, people
are like, yes, nodding quite emphatically.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
Yeah. And it it kind of leads us to the
like the next topic I would like to talk about.
You know, we've talked about the big pivot. We've we've
talked about the key trends to watch, which is so
how can businesses really navigate this landscape and what do
they need to do? And and you know, I always
like looking over the horizon, and as I look over
(18:35):
the horizon, I'm kind of seeing that as we get
into twenty twenty five, it's as you talk about the reinvention,
the evolution, whatever term you want to do, I think
brands and communicators and marketers and their executives really need
to focus on innovation driven strategies for their brand and
(18:56):
kind of like three areas that we've been talking about,
how do you leverage AI responsibly to drive engagement not
just as an efficiency tool, but really leverage it responsibly
and define what that means. How do you align your
purpose driven measures with our messaging with measurable business outcomes?
So it's not just purpose for purpose sake, but it's really, yes,
(19:19):
this delivers tangible goals, tangible values. These are the metrics
we find are important and simplifying complex topics in a
way that we can really build trust through storytelling. So
kind of like what you said, rather than throwing everything
in a lump sum box and say we've got it covered,
we've got to think about what are those topics? How
(19:39):
do we talk about how it's relevant to our customers,
to our communities, to our employees, and that old fashioned
thing like I've always joked, you know, the first infographic
was on the cave wall, which is bare or bad
river good? You know, But how how do we simplify
really complex topics through storytelling is going to be key.
(20:00):
So as you look ahead, what advice do you have
for how businesses can navigate through this uncertainty?
Speaker 3 (20:07):
And by the way, I.
Speaker 2 (20:08):
Love that last one you have because that's really the
core to what we're trying to do here. Every day
We've got some very complex industries and clients we serve,
but you've got to make it clear. Yeah, I would add,
so the stuff that I'm thinking about in terms of
navigating this landscape, how do businesses do that? And including ours?
I mean we have a double consciousness. We have to
lead our own business to how do you empower teams
(20:28):
to innovate? And this is really in the pocket with
AI and other many emerging things. How do you empower
folks to innovate while staying aligned with what they need
to deliver today? You know as well as your organizational values,
and that also how do you invest but also know
where you're generating your revenue. These things are intentions sometimes
that's the first one. Another one is that culture of agility,
(20:53):
embracing the fact that it will stay uncertain. I think
during COVID, ourselves and many other organizations came to the
conclusion that what you do as you plan, plan, plan, plan, plan,
scenario plan, and then you say, well, I'm going to
hold less tightly and see what happens. But I've got ideas.
I've got a portfolio. It's like a fan, it opens up.
(21:13):
I got a portfolio of options because I planned, and
that that scenario planning is is really so it's a
culture of agility. But then that scenario planning, how do
you make sure that adaptability isn't an option, it's a given,
and that you do a lot of proactive communication to
help internal and external stakeholders understand that you are both planning,
(21:34):
but you are also nimble and flexible, so.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
So that that requires us to be on all the time.
So how do you how do you how do you
coach executives, clients, even just just our own agency members
on this resiliency and agility and not getting burned out
in the process.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
Well, and it's hard, you know, maybe like you could
come to my sessions with my therapist on this, Like
all joking aside, you need a strategy and a team
as a leader. And I think even within there's so
much more talk about mental health now, which I think
is really healthy because we can understand more of the
totality of our lives and flow that in and out
(22:17):
of work. I don't believe in the old saw of
work life balance because it implies like a perfect it
just doesn't exist, right. So, in terms of what I'm
counseling to myself, and others? Is how are you intentional
about what is worth your time to be doing? How
do you ask yourself every day? Am I spinning in
directions I don't need to be? Am I making you know,
(22:38):
a mountain out of a molehill?
Speaker 3 (22:40):
Am I?
Speaker 2 (22:40):
Am I heightened in my approach everything? How do I
take a breath, calm down, get another point of view
and say, hey, little by little, focus on what's important
Because you can get pulled in so many directions.
Speaker 3 (22:52):
You know, every week I.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
Have to ask myself did I spend my time in
a really helpful way, whether for clients or our own agencies?
So I think being mine about your time, being mindful
about what is happening in your body and your minds,
like how are you reacting to things? How are you
triggered by things? And how do you de escalate? Like
what are the things in with colleagues or personally? Can
you do to get yourself in a place where you
(23:16):
have that sense of resilience Because it's not a perfect
linear thing. You don't get there and stay there. You
know this is a triggering time. You're going to go
up and down a lot. But if you're mindful about it,
I think you have a chance to be much more
effective and feel more in control.
Speaker 1 (23:28):
Right. Well, it's interesting that you hit on the work
life balance. I think think about some conversations. I remember
the first time Kate Threwitz, who's fellow principle in our chro,
she said, Steve, it's not work life balance, it's work
life integrations. And at first I'm like, yeah, yeah, yeah,
that's just like HR speak what he talked. But then
the more I got to think about it, it is true.
(23:52):
It really is about work life integration. And I think
one of the things about this profession that I boy
said is that it's not a job. It's a lifestyle, right,
and if you really want to be good at it,
you've got to embrace and, like you said, learn how
to turn on and turn off, when to be mindful,
when to not when things are breaking, particularly in crisis.
(24:16):
When to take certain parts of your world and have
them sit in the corner for a little bit so
that you can focus and compartmentalize. I think are some
interesting things, but I also think, you know that should
be a source of pride, that this is a lifestyle,
not a job. You know, as we think about our
fellow agency leaders here at GNS and elsewhere. As we
(24:38):
think about, you know, all our professional contacts in large
multinationals or academic settings or not for profits. I mean,
people do this profession because they love it. And I
also think I'm a big fan. Say every once in
a while we need some spot celebration. I think we
need to celebrate what an awesome, dynamic, not boring industry
(25:01):
and career. This is. Well.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
You talk about resilience, and I look at our client
sectors and again, every sector has its ups and downs, right,
there's a number of them under tremendous pressure. But you
look at the integrated marketing, communications field, even agency types
beyond what we do, I'm amazed at our resilience over
the past years. I'm amazed at the resilience of our society.
So again, how do we take that opportunity as leaders?
(25:26):
I love the spot celebration, you know, I do to say, wow,
we can do remarkable things when under pressure, and we
can be remarkably creative. And how do we say that's
not just something that comes up in a crisis when
you're like, oh my god, we have to do something
because we're being sent home with lockdown or something like
that during COVID, but more that, how do we harness
(25:47):
that confidence that comes from looking back and saying, look
what we manage through and business reinvention. Look at what
our field was thirty years ago when you and I
both started, and look what it is today. And look
at how leaders of all ages, all generations. We have
four generations now in our agencies and in our companies.
Speaker 3 (26:07):
How much I see everybody.
Speaker 2 (26:09):
Keeping up and changing and evolving. Not every single person,
but for the vast majority, Everyone's like, bring it on.
Speaker 3 (26:15):
I want to learn this. I want to I want
to know how we're going to operate in the future.
Speaker 1 (26:18):
So I'd like to go off that The point that
you're just just talking about is the individuals, and maybe
you can talk a little bit about the opportunities and
challenges for leaders, leaders and brands.
Speaker 2 (26:30):
Despite how hard the business environment comes, I think we
still have seen the benefit of leadership that is more transparent,
is a bit more empathetic, and creates an environment that's
a bit more inclusive where people do feel not not
these old saws I bring your whole self to work,
which I believe in, but I think they fall short
(26:51):
for folks. It's more about this question of when people
feel more empowered. When you create an environment that is
more inclusive, where people really feel they can speak in
our value for speaking, then you can innovate more. Then
people feel safer to do so. And it's not that
everything's perfect all the time, but more empathy, more transparency,
(27:12):
and more sense of inclusivity within all of our organizations
can fuel human potential and human flourishing and can fuel
the flourishing of our organizations. And then I think a
challenge that we're going to have to face is maintaining
that team engagement and resilience amid a lot of turmoil
and amid an environment that will never be back to
(27:33):
five days a week. In person, we are distributed, we
are remote, we are hybrid, So how do we create
cultures and engagement and meaningful engagement Not I'm sitting somewhere
on a screen all the time and not finding those
moments for in person engagement too.
Speaker 1 (27:51):
So I think from my standpoint, as we think about
opportunities and challenge, you know, one of the big opportunities
is really how do we integrate technology seamlessly into our
strategies while staying authentic. And I think that authentic piece
is key. And I'd mentioned to you that I was
talking to somebody and it was the most straightforward statement,
but he's just like hit me like a sledgehammer. Boom.
(28:12):
They said, Well, but whatever you do with technology, you
can't lose focus on what do you do best? Where
are you best? And as straightforward as simple as that is,
I think we forget that sometimes we get so focused
in trying to solve or which tool or the application
or the implication that I think it's important for us
(28:35):
as brands, as leaders to stay authentic to who are
we and what do we do best? And to the
point that you said, always know where that like north
Star is, so that we're really driving towards that. I
think as an opportunity, the challenge is, I think then
become how do you balance the rapid innovation and the
rapid innovation needed to stay competitive while still maintaining that
(29:00):
trust of relevance, right, so as you shift, as you
create new models, how do you instill that trust in
relevance for the mid term and for the long term.
So those are big challenges.
Speaker 2 (29:13):
I think that's a great pairing that opportunity and challenge,
And I think with a rapid pace of tech, and
like if we take AI as the apotheosis of that
right now, right in all of its forums. Change was
rapid before, changes insanely rapid now. There's no person that
can keep up with every advancement that's happening across the
(29:34):
broad spectrum of what's going on with AI right now,
where it's being baked into enterprise tools, how net new
things through the large language models. It's absolute insane And
I can see how overwhelmed everyone is. I can feel
it myself. So part of it is. In one of
my earlier podcast interviews from this year, I interviewed Natalie Nixon,
who's an author and a speaker and a consultant about
(29:57):
creativity and unlocking that. But she has a ru called
wonder and rigor. How do you have the wonder of exploration,
the newness of a child, the beginner's mind, and the
idea of play, but then how do you bring the
rigor to it and the discipline of figuring out what
do I pursue what is valuable to my goal as
(30:17):
my business school is you know the strategic value I
bring not getting caught up and oh this tool can
do this today?
Speaker 3 (30:22):
And tomorrow another tool can do that.
Speaker 2 (30:25):
And so I'm trying to reroot myself in this idea
of wonder and rigor because we have to have play,
but we also have to have tremendous discipline and how
we're going to start to ingest more of these technologies
otherwise ourselves and our people will be completely overwhelmed at
all times.
Speaker 1 (30:40):
I like that. I like that wonder and rigor, And
when you said that, it reminded me of an other
I don't know if it's binary or duality or what
you want to call it, but of magic and logic. Right,
you go back to that question of where are you best?
You know, the magic is that deep expertise, that understanding,
that insight, that that magic little spark that's within the
(31:03):
DNA of a leader of an organization that is uniquely them,
And how do you protect them? And how do you
use technology to make that magic even more powerful? And
then what is that logic element? So again, if you
think about you know, you were talking about the large
language model, you know, talking to other senior agency leaders
and how they're trying to capture their own IP and
(31:26):
their expertise so that they can make that magic better
cooler neater at scale. But then where is that logic?
Because come up with a cool idea, you still got
to execute it. So how do you really lay in technology, AI,
whatever that is to really execute that in a very
logical way. That's efficient, that's that's powerful.
Speaker 2 (31:48):
So I like that, And that's the promise of augmented intelligence.
That's really a promise of augmenting humans, not replacing us,
because that's our magic too.
Speaker 1 (31:57):
Wonder and rigor and magic and logic.
Speaker 4 (31:59):
So so so I guess I guess that that's kind
of setting us up for you know what, what our
listeners are probably waiting to hear, which is, so what
is that? What does that checklist add and Steve look
like as you think about about twenty twenty five. So
I'll let you go first. Do you have have a checklist? Three,
four or five priorities?
Speaker 2 (32:20):
I did my homework, okay, so three leadership priorities for
success in twenty twenty five. Number one the culture of
agility and inclusivity. Number two, Equip teams with tools and
the knowledge to adapt to this new environment, including technology, learn, learn, learn,
And the last one is just try to lead with
(32:42):
empathy but also clarity, of vision and how you communicate
that vision inside your walls and outside your walls.
Speaker 3 (32:49):
So those are my three those year three.
Speaker 1 (32:51):
Okay, well you use you said a high bar. So
I'm going to have three branding strategies. My three actionable
branding strategies are as follows. How do we use AI
and data analytics to power really personalized, meaningful customer experiences. So, again,
tying that back to that magic, how do you make
(33:12):
that be actionable at scale? How do we really prioritize
those value driven stories and build long term trust? I
think we cannot forget that foundation of the importance of
simplifying the complex into easy to understand stories that have
emotion and relate. And then finally, how do we focus
on using emerging technologies and integrating them seamlessly into our
(33:36):
branding efforts. So those are my three actionable branding strategies
for twenty twenty five. And I would say, you know,
with this podcasts available on our channels, I would really
love to hear from our listeners. You know what they're seeing,
you know what their top three are. So I really
encourage you to go to our chat and put in
(33:58):
your three top check items for twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2 (34:02):
Yeah, I just did a mailbag episode that sort of
a roundup of questions that we've gotten both internally and
from externally from some of our different episodes, and that
was very fun, and I'd love to have more of.
Speaker 3 (34:15):
That kind of interaction, more questions for us, for sure.
Speaker 1 (34:18):
Yeah, And I would also say for those of those
listeners out here, if you would like to engage us
as part of being on building brand gravity, don't be
shy to reach out to Ann or myself would love
to have a dialogue talk about what you're facing in
twenty twenty five, the challenges, the opportunities, the inspiration. I
think would be great because I do think going back
(34:41):
to where we started, I definitely think there's going to
be a lot of challenges for companies, brands, and individuals
to navigate in twenty twenty five. But for your optimist, realist,
I do think there could be tremendous opportunity. It can
be really exciting to think about how we shape the future.
Speaker 2 (34:58):
Yeah, there's so many big challenges to solve. You know,
individually is an organization, but also for companies like ours
in connection with our clients, and so that's where for me,
and as you said at Steve, you have to the
work we do here. There's a lot of passion and
love in it. And one of the things that keeps
it fresh for me is continual learning. Is applying you know,
(35:22):
that lens of what we know to new challenges, is
creating those tailored solutions and figuring out what does this
business challenge require? And as communications has become more obviously important,
more than thirty years ago, more than twenty years ago
to the c suite of all organizations, more chance to
apply that skill set where it's really needed. So I'm
(35:45):
very optimistic about the future. I don't think anyone has
to fact check us about uncertainty coming next year.
Speaker 3 (35:50):
I think we're going to get that one right.
Speaker 2 (35:51):
But I think if we focus on the upside, you know,
there's there's a lot of exciting a work ahead for us.
Speaker 1 (35:58):
Frankly, I agree, exciting times, exciting lifestyle, certainly not certainly
not a boring time. So again we invite you, if
you have thoughts, please reach out share with us. We're
looking forward to another exciting year of building brand gravity.
As we go into twenty twenty five, we'll have some
(36:19):
exciting guests and conversations and anything else for us as
we kick off twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2 (36:26):
No, just Steve and I look forward to hosting a
lot more conversations and we look forward to you continuing
to listen in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 1 (36:34):
Well, great, great conversation, Ann, and thank you all for
listening and tune in soon for our next episode of
Building Brand Gravity.
Speaker 3 (36:42):
Bieverybuddy.
Speaker 5 (36:44):
We are GNS Business Communications. We are a team of
media strategists, storytellers, and engagement experts who meet you at
the intersection of business and communications. To learn more, visit
gscommunications dot com. You're listening to Building Brand Gravity Attracting
people into your orbit, a GNS Business Communications podcast. Keep
(37:08):
connected with us by subscribing to the show in your
favorite podcast player. If you like what you've heard, please
rate the show that helps us to keep delivering the
latest in industry influence. Thanks for listening. Until next time.
Hello and welcome to the latest edition of Building Brand Gravity.
We have an exciting episode for you where a couple
of us co hosts are going to talk about our
trends and predictions for twenty twenty five. So hello and welcome.
I'm Steve Halsey, the principal and Chief Growth Officer of
the GENS Integrated Marketing Communications.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Group, and I'm Man Green, the principal and CEO at
the GNS Integrated Marketing Communications Greup, Hi, Steve.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Hello, Well, we're going to have fun today. We're going
to get out our magic eight balls, cauldron, whatever it is.
We're going to look ahead and we're going to talk
about the trends and strategies that businesses and brands need
to thrive in twenty twenty five. So there's just been
a little bit of things going on in the world
and society and business, and we're just going to distill
(00:55):
those all down and we're going to end up leaving
everybody with a quick checklist of what they need to
do to be successful in twenty twenty five. So what
we're going to do today is we're going to talk
about a variety of topics leadership, culture, innovation, how are
communicators and the C suites that they're serving, how are
they navigating uncertainty and basically leveraging the opportunities. So we
(01:17):
call this episode Navigating twenty twenty five Essential Trends, Insights
and checklists.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
Yeah, twenty twenty five is going to be pretty pivotal.
I think you're right, Steve, and I brought my reindeer
with me to be festive and also to be resilient,
emotionally resilience, my emotional resilience reindeer because it's a heavy
year coming at us, and so I think looking at
the role of leadership, the role of communications and the
field that we're in, and how are we adaptable and
nimble to whatever's coming at us.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
Yeah, and I think that's going to be key to
an I'm really interested. You just got off a road
show visiting a bunch of clients CEOs and their CEOs
and their executives, and I'm going to be really interested
to hear what they're saying about resil biliency, adaptability, how
you structure your team, and then how you win, because
it's really interesting, as you say, for twenty twenty five
(02:08):
is kind of soft power hard power. How do you
find that bound balance as we get going.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Yeah, And I mean, nobody has a crystal ball, but
we've all been living in this world for quite a while.
You know, Steve knows, one of my least favorite acronyms
is VUKA volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity.
Speaker 3 (02:24):
It's just such a ruka.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
It's not the best acronym, but it continues to be persistent.
So I don't know that we need, you know, the
most perfect crystal ball to understand that we're going to
be in a landscape that's still quite tumultuous. And now
with the US election decided and some of the moves
being made there, you know, we have more visibility into
(02:46):
what may be coming, but still a lot of questions too.
And I think that I was just with a senior
leader and I was doing a high level media training
and we were talking about the CEO agenda, because this
is also an entity that advises companies have all as this,
especially Fortune fifty and Fortune five hundred. And he made
a comment to me as part of the mock interview
that you know, CEOs need to be optimists. So I'm
(03:09):
going to adopt that mantle, and I tend to be
glass have full. I call myself an optimist, realist, and
I think Steve you share a lot of that personality
with me. But the other thing is is that he
stressed something else I really took away, which is we
need to focus on the areas we can control.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
And I think going into.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
It, you know, there are potentially some really rapid changes coming,
especially in the regulatory environment. Whenever there's a regime change,
you know, an administrat and change especially, there's some potentially
stark differences in what may be looked at from a
regulatory perspective. Climate, you know, environment policy, terrif et cetera.
(03:46):
So you know from my perspective and I'm sure yours too.
When I'm speaking to executives and also talking to myself
as an organizational leader, I'm thinking about adaptability, about resilience,
about creating that culture readiness, focusing on the things you
can do, and also that old outage. Don't let a
crisis go to waste. You know, there's a chance to
(04:07):
make real change when there is big changes of foot
around you. And also to avoid getting too down in
the dumps, to getting two glass empty, because that's not
going to help us take the action we need to
take absolutely.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
And I had a conversation with a chief communications officer
a few weeks ago not US base works for a
large business out of the Middle East, and he made
the comment to me, he said, CEOs now want to
appear more strategic than ever before, and they want their
senior communications councils to help them show up more strategic.
(04:43):
So you know, it's no longer do you have a
seat at the table. It's no longer just a question
of hey is it about you know, our reputation and brand.
Now it's helped me show up more strategic, which means
you need to show up to help me manage not
to these publics, but how do we move the organization
and how do we move the business forward? And I
(05:05):
think what's interesting there is, you know, as senior communicators
and counselors, we're kind of crossing this nexus of how
do you really be a true business advisor and really
think ahead with all these challenges, and then how do
you make sure that you stay authentic as an enterprise
and aligned with the values that that you're created about,
(05:28):
And particularly with what you were talking about, I'd be
interested in your take with all these changes or kind of.
I like the term whipsaw effect that somebody says, which
basically shows, hey, we've done a rapid move. I think
it could get easy to lose sight of your values
in that and react in the moment versus how do
you balance that short term, mid term, long term strategy?
(05:51):
So what are you hearing from leaders about that?
Speaker 2 (05:53):
Yeah, and there's a couple of dimensions, so that there's
the actual operational strategy and what is the business model?
And what are we driving towards? What are the new
growth avenues? What is our core business? How does that
change with emerging technology or changing ge political factors, or
you know, just just the normal kind of questions that
crossing the chasm question that's been out there forever. But
(06:13):
there's also an emotional and a cultural and a communication
side to it too, So and that goes into questions
about some of the challenges around things like D and
I or even ESG and what is it employees expect
you to speak on And there's been a lot of
intensity and change, our culture is changing, and that talk
about a whipsaw effect. So I think this question and
(06:35):
you've rooted it in the values for a brand strategy
for operational strategy, for culture strategy, for every point on
the compass, you need to ask yourself, why are we here,
what is the core value of what we're creating, how
are we serving our stakeholders? What is this business meant
to do? And then to me, you and I have
(06:57):
both been in the business, you know, over thirty years,
so we've known how undervalued internal communications used to be.
So now I think we all understand across this field
and across the executive in the C suite, internal communications
is as important as external and they are almost parallel.
And so we need to bring intense strategy, thoughtfulness and
(07:18):
precision to how we communicate about why we're doing things
and about what the purposes and how it ties back
to our core mission and values. So, I mean, there's
so much there, but you have to look at it
in a holistic way. I think.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
Yeah. And one of my podcast guests in twenty twenty
four as managing director of harrispol And, one of the
interesting fightings that they had to the point that you
were talking about is where strategy often falls off is
the lack of making those internal connections and getting that
internal buy in and really kind of again rooting it
(07:53):
in celebrating the culture and the value in terms of
where things are at. And so when I from where
I say, and from where I'm thinking about all the
changes that are coming, Certainly there's a lot of opportunity.
Certainly there's a lot of things that are going to
be significant challenges. But I guess I kind of see,
you know, I guess I'll start. This isn't my checklist,
(08:14):
but three of my tips are really about setting the
context right. And I think it's important that with the
complexities that are involved in all these different regulatory and
policy decisions are coming, how do you still distill the
complex challenge into relatable stories that relate to your business
and the impact you're having on real people humans all
(08:37):
of that. How do you maintain consistency with past commitments,
because I think we're going to see in the news
those companies that pivot with a pivot and kind of
forget who they were yesterday. Their publics are going to
call them out on that. They'll probably lose business out
of that at the end of the day. How do
you continue to think about how do I build trust
not just because something's easier or regulation has been gone.
(09:00):
Now I could do something that I wouldn't do last year.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
Yeah, I like that. I think those are great things
to keep top of mind.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
So how about we switch topics a little bit and
talk about get out of the regulatory and policy world
and talk a little bit about what are some of
the key trends to watch it in twenty twenty five
and as and none of these should probably be surprised
to our listeners, but as we kind of think about
where we're at, there's a lot of things out there.
Hybrid work culture, resiliency, AI. Those are just three to start.
(09:33):
I mean, what's kind of your take on what are
the key trends for us to watch in twenty twenty five?
Speaker 2 (09:38):
Yeah, and both of us could expound on a lot
of these. I think one is just continuing to understand
business model reinvention, constant business model reinvention, constantly interrogating how
you're operating and being really open to making changes and
to not be afraid to shift, but do it with
(09:59):
great purpose, some thoughtfulness, and make sure you're communicating it
very well. Because everyone's workforce is completely overwhelmed with the
amount of change and uncertainty that surrounds us, you know,
and it's funny. There's a lot of psychological noise. So
the weather patterns and the concerns around climate change. You know,
you have no water in the northeast for half of
(10:22):
the fall, or you have a Category four hurricane in
the mountains of North Carolina. This stuff is anxiety producing
for human beings and there's a constant hum of that.
So the more that we can be clear about we're
going to change and force business reinvention and we're going
to look to the future. But we're going to do it.
There's reason why we're going to communicate with you. That's critical.
I don't feel the future of work is settled yet.
(10:45):
This navigating the hybrid work thing, I mean all of us,
us included, are looking at it. I think that's going
to continue to change. And one thing we know is
that there's going to still be more choice for workforce
and we have to figure out how to work through
that and still create cultures that are meaningful while allowing
that level of autonomy and independence and understand like that.
(11:05):
It's just not settled yet. It hasn't settled down still,
and we have to be very engaged with it. And
then that question of resilience. How do we cultivate resilience
in ourselves individually, as leaders or as employees wherever you're
situated in the organization, How do you cultivate leaders resilience
as an organization as a whole. And then how do
we as professional services firm help our clients tap into
(11:27):
and cultivate that resilience combined with nimbleness and creativity. So
those are some of mine. What are the ones on
your list?
Speaker 1 (11:35):
You know? For me, a lot of a lot of
discussions I'm having, and you hit on it with like
this business model evolution and reinvention, and I think we're
going to see a lot of that. I'm at least
based on what I'm reading and from what I'm hearing
and from what I'm seeing, I think we're going to
see a lot more M and a's coming. And with
M and A comes a lot of change, a lot
of evolution, a lot of business model things. But I'm
(11:58):
also seeing that business biness model evolution and reinvention within
the communications function itself. I mean, we've certainly certainly seeing
that on the agency front. We're certainly seeing that even
with with in house teams and that desire of I
want it all, but how do I have it all
(12:18):
without a lot of budget. I want really, really senior
counsel but I don't want to senior counselors grinding things
out on a daily basis. I want to have access
to specialists. I don't want to pay for those specialists
to be on the tap all the time. And then
on the flip side, on the agency side, it's okay,
how do we provide that senior level council and then
(12:38):
how do we create nimble, flexible models that really make sense.
That's that's creating value for everybody. So that's where it's
interesting to me. The whole topic of reinvention has been
driven pretty heavily by AI, and you may see the
same things. But with my conversations, just thinking back to
(12:59):
January only twenty four, it was about, Okay, this is
going to be a reality. What are the guardrails, what
are the rules, what are the ethics? How do we
make sure that you know we're doing copyright and doing
everything great? And then somewhere around September or October there
was this massive shift which it was no longer about if,
(13:19):
but how are you using it for efficiency? How are
you using it to create value? How are you creating
it for innovation? And the expectation on both the client
and agency side that you're using it to be better,
to be better counselor to deliver better product. And I
think for me, twenty twenty five is going to hopefully
(13:40):
is going to be a settling of that into business models.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
Oh my gosh, that I couldn't agree more. You and
I talk all the time, and we have our feelers
out everywhere. You know, I love circulating and connecting with
people I'm reading voraciously, especially you know, having been through
some major tech shifts before, from the Internet to the
advent of social media, Web two, Web three. For me,
(14:03):
that it's a constant education process and curiosity and just
gathering data everywhere like a light bulb coming on in
the fall. And it's not that there's a lot being
done prior to that. I mean, we've been in a
experimentation and implementation mode for a while, but you know,
the rapid increase in that and I think we still
have to be thoughtful and measured about it, and that's
(14:24):
what clients need from us, is really being counselors about
what's hype and what's reality. And usually it's a mix
of both, but it's been a dramatic change. And this
question you ask about, especially the sort of needing it all,
but how do you put budget against it? I think
that's true for all operations now, client side, agency side,
figuring out where you invest and then where you cut
(14:46):
and where you are smart about it. There's a lot
of dynamic tensions out there in the marketplace and that's
going to persist, and that's where for ourselves and for
our clients we need to really lean into figuring out
how to thread that needle.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
Yeah, and a couple areas I think are going to
be interesting to see how they play out. And there's
no surprise. I mean we've talked about it at nauseum
in the industry and even on some of some of
our building brand gravities of the negative around the acronym DEI, ESG,
all of that. But what's interesting is when you look
(15:18):
at the research and you peel back the label, people
still want and expect purpose driven branding from companies. People
still expect and want what you're doing to be more
sustainable as you move forward. So I think it's going
to be really interesting to see how some of those
core undercurrents continue to play out, maybe Sand's acronym or not,
(15:41):
but I still believe when you look at the research,
public still have high expectations of branded corporations in purpose
and sustainability, and it'll be interesting to see just the
maturity of that in the conversation in twenty twenty five.
And I don't know, based on your executive conversations, are
(16:01):
you hearing the same thing, which is I may not
like the label, but I'm no less committed to what
we're doing.
Speaker 3 (16:08):
Yeah, I'm glad.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
I'd love to comment on that because I'm about to
give a talk to one of our clients and all
the commsfolks across one client, across different brands within an
entity on AI and one of the first slides I'm
going to have will have three acronyms E, SG, DEI,
and AI on the screen, and I'm going to ask
everyone to say, hey, we're smart communicators. What is the
relationship between these three? And there's maybe many answers, but
(16:32):
my answer is that all of these are acronyms that
contain a universe and have been very ill defined, and
a lot of the issues that we're facing, I think
regarding the pushback, I mean not entirely. There's ideology here too, right,
But the pushback against some of these issues is that
we've crammed together massively distinct worlds within environmental, social governance, diversity, equity, inclusion,
(16:57):
belonging and now AI AI in what context cognitive predictive generative.
Speaker 3 (17:04):
You know, the lack of precision in the terms.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
And this is where my plea to communications professionals, this
is our world, this is our ball to run down
the field, help bring more precision to these terms, because
the fact is, I agree with you. Executives around the
globe are still pursuing climate goals. They still understand the
business disruption of climate, for example, to supply chain and
(17:27):
to their existence.
Speaker 3 (17:29):
To their people.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
They still need good governance in the boardroom and in
the corporation. We know, i'd say the vast majority of
executives I speak to understand that greater representation within our
company's more diverse points of view across all points. I
just talked with this with this executive on Monday during
the training is a superpower and is required in a
more diverse world, and that bringing more sense of belonging
(17:52):
in psychological safety, removes friction and lets you fly. So
what I want to see for AI in all these
areas is more precision around the strategy and the language.
And I think that's that's a big, as you can tell,
soapbox for me. I'm up on the soapbox talking about
this to everybody, and when I talk about this, people
are like, yes, nodding quite emphatically.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
Yeah. And it it kind of leads us to the
like the next topic I would like to talk about.
You know, we've talked about the big pivot. We've we've
talked about the key trends to watch, which is so
how can businesses really navigate this landscape and what do
they need to do? And and you know, I always
like looking over the horizon, and as I look over
(18:35):
the horizon, I'm kind of seeing that as we get
into twenty twenty five, it's as you talk about the reinvention,
the evolution, whatever term you want to do, I think
brands and communicators and marketers and their executives really need
to focus on innovation driven strategies for their brand and
(18:56):
kind of like three areas that we've been talking about,
how do you leverage AI responsibly to drive engagement not
just as an efficiency tool, but really leverage it responsibly
and define what that means. How do you align your
purpose driven measures with our messaging with measurable business outcomes?
So it's not just purpose for purpose sake, but it's really, yes,
(19:19):
this delivers tangible goals, tangible values. These are the metrics
we find are important and simplifying complex topics in a
way that we can really build trust through storytelling. So
kind of like what you said, rather than throwing everything
in a lump sum box and say we've got it covered,
we've got to think about what are those topics? How
(19:39):
do we talk about how it's relevant to our customers,
to our communities, to our employees, and that old fashioned
thing like I've always joked, you know, the first infographic
was on the cave wall, which is bare or bad
river good? You know, But how how do we simplify
really complex topics through storytelling is going to be key.
(20:00):
So as you look ahead, what advice do you have
for how businesses can navigate through this uncertainty?
Speaker 3 (20:07):
And by the way, I.
Speaker 2 (20:08):
Love that last one you have because that's really the
core to what we're trying to do here. Every day
We've got some very complex industries and clients we serve,
but you've got to make it clear. Yeah, I would add,
so the stuff that I'm thinking about in terms of
navigating this landscape, how do businesses do that? And including ours?
I mean we have a double consciousness. We have to
lead our own business to how do you empower teams
(20:28):
to innovate? And this is really in the pocket with
AI and other many emerging things. How do you empower
folks to innovate while staying aligned with what they need
to deliver today? You know as well as your organizational values,
and that also how do you invest but also know
where you're generating your revenue. These things are intentions sometimes
that's the first one. Another one is that culture of agility,
(20:53):
embracing the fact that it will stay uncertain. I think
during COVID, ourselves and many other organizations came to the
conclusion that what you do as you plan, plan, plan, plan, plan,
scenario plan, and then you say, well, I'm going to
hold less tightly and see what happens. But I've got ideas.
I've got a portfolio. It's like a fan, it opens up.
(21:13):
I got a portfolio of options because I planned, and
that that scenario planning is is really so it's a
culture of agility. But then that scenario planning, how do
you make sure that adaptability isn't an option, it's a given,
and that you do a lot of proactive communication to
help internal and external stakeholders understand that you are both planning,
(21:34):
but you are also nimble and flexible, so.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
So that that requires us to be on all the time.
So how do you how do you how do you
coach executives, clients, even just just our own agency members
on this resiliency and agility and not getting burned out
in the process.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
Well, and it's hard, you know, maybe like you could
come to my sessions with my therapist on this, Like
all joking aside, you need a strategy and a team
as a leader. And I think even within there's so
much more talk about mental health now, which I think
is really healthy because we can understand more of the
totality of our lives and flow that in and out
(22:17):
of work. I don't believe in the old saw of
work life balance because it implies like a perfect it
just doesn't exist, right. So, in terms of what I'm
counseling to myself, and others? Is how are you intentional
about what is worth your time to be doing? How
do you ask yourself every day? Am I spinning in
directions I don't need to be? Am I making you know,
(22:38):
a mountain out of a molehill?
Speaker 3 (22:40):
Am I?
Speaker 2 (22:40):
Am I heightened in my approach everything? How do I
take a breath, calm down, get another point of view
and say, hey, little by little, focus on what's important
Because you can get pulled in so many directions.
Speaker 3 (22:52):
You know, every week I.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
Have to ask myself did I spend my time in
a really helpful way, whether for clients or our own agencies?
So I think being mine about your time, being mindful
about what is happening in your body and your minds,
like how are you reacting to things? How are you
triggered by things? And how do you de escalate? Like
what are the things in with colleagues or personally? Can
you do to get yourself in a place where you
(23:16):
have that sense of resilience Because it's not a perfect
linear thing. You don't get there and stay there. You
know this is a triggering time. You're going to go
up and down a lot. But if you're mindful about it,
I think you have a chance to be much more
effective and feel more in control.
Speaker 1 (23:28):
Right. Well, it's interesting that you hit on the work
life balance. I think think about some conversations. I remember
the first time Kate Threwitz, who's fellow principle in our chro,
she said, Steve, it's not work life balance, it's work
life integrations. And at first I'm like, yeah, yeah, yeah,
that's just like HR speak what he talked. But then
the more I got to think about it, it is true.
(23:52):
It really is about work life integration. And I think
one of the things about this profession that I boy
said is that it's not a job. It's a lifestyle, right,
and if you really want to be good at it,
you've got to embrace and, like you said, learn how
to turn on and turn off, when to be mindful,
when to not when things are breaking, particularly in crisis.
(24:16):
When to take certain parts of your world and have
them sit in the corner for a little bit so
that you can focus and compartmentalize. I think are some
interesting things, but I also think, you know that should
be a source of pride, that this is a lifestyle,
not a job. You know, as we think about our
fellow agency leaders here at GNS and elsewhere. As we
(24:38):
think about, you know, all our professional contacts in large
multinationals or academic settings or not for profits. I mean,
people do this profession because they love it. And I
also think I'm a big fan. Say every once in
a while we need some spot celebration. I think we
need to celebrate what an awesome, dynamic, not boring industry
(25:01):
and career. This is. Well.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
You talk about resilience, and I look at our client
sectors and again, every sector has its ups and downs, right,
there's a number of them under tremendous pressure. But you
look at the integrated marketing, communications field, even agency types
beyond what we do, I'm amazed at our resilience over
the past years. I'm amazed at the resilience of our society.
So again, how do we take that opportunity as leaders?
(25:26):
I love the spot celebration, you know, I do to say, wow,
we can do remarkable things when under pressure, and we
can be remarkably creative. And how do we say that's
not just something that comes up in a crisis when
you're like, oh my god, we have to do something
because we're being sent home with lockdown or something like
that during COVID, but more that, how do we harness
(25:47):
that confidence that comes from looking back and saying, look
what we manage through and business reinvention. Look at what
our field was thirty years ago when you and I
both started, and look what it is today. And look
at how leaders of all ages, all generations. We have
four generations now in our agencies and in our companies.
Speaker 3 (26:07):
How much I see everybody.
Speaker 2 (26:09):
Keeping up and changing and evolving. Not every single person,
but for the vast majority, Everyone's like, bring it on.
Speaker 3 (26:15):
I want to learn this. I want to I want
to know how we're going to operate in the future.
Speaker 1 (26:18):
So I'd like to go off that The point that
you're just just talking about is the individuals, and maybe
you can talk a little bit about the opportunities and
challenges for leaders, leaders and brands.
Speaker 2 (26:30):
Despite how hard the business environment comes, I think we
still have seen the benefit of leadership that is more transparent,
is a bit more empathetic, and creates an environment that's
a bit more inclusive where people do feel not not
these old saws I bring your whole self to work,
which I believe in, but I think they fall short
(26:51):
for folks. It's more about this question of when people
feel more empowered. When you create an environment that is
more inclusive, where people really feel they can speak in
our value for speaking, then you can innovate more. Then
people feel safer to do so. And it's not that
everything's perfect all the time, but more empathy, more transparency,
(27:12):
and more sense of inclusivity within all of our organizations
can fuel human potential and human flourishing and can fuel
the flourishing of our organizations. And then I think a
challenge that we're going to have to face is maintaining
that team engagement and resilience amid a lot of turmoil
and amid an environment that will never be back to
(27:33):
five days a week. In person, we are distributed, we
are remote, we are hybrid, So how do we create
cultures and engagement and meaningful engagement Not I'm sitting somewhere
on a screen all the time and not finding those
moments for in person engagement too.
Speaker 1 (27:51):
So I think from my standpoint, as we think about
opportunities and challenge, you know, one of the big opportunities
is really how do we integrate technology seamlessly into our
strategies while staying authentic. And I think that authentic piece
is key. And I'd mentioned to you that I was
talking to somebody and it was the most straightforward statement,
but he's just like hit me like a sledgehammer. Boom.
(28:12):
They said, Well, but whatever you do with technology, you
can't lose focus on what do you do best? Where
are you best? And as straightforward as simple as that is,
I think we forget that sometimes we get so focused
in trying to solve or which tool or the application
or the implication that I think it's important for us
(28:35):
as brands, as leaders to stay authentic to who are
we and what do we do best? And to the
point that you said, always know where that like north
Star is, so that we're really driving towards that. I
think as an opportunity, the challenge is, I think then
become how do you balance the rapid innovation and the
rapid innovation needed to stay competitive while still maintaining that
(29:00):
trust of relevance, right, so as you shift, as you
create new models, how do you instill that trust in
relevance for the mid term and for the long term.
So those are big challenges.
Speaker 2 (29:13):
I think that's a great pairing that opportunity and challenge,
And I think with a rapid pace of tech, and
like if we take AI as the apotheosis of that
right now, right in all of its forums. Change was
rapid before, changes insanely rapid now. There's no person that
can keep up with every advancement that's happening across the
(29:34):
broad spectrum of what's going on with AI right now,
where it's being baked into enterprise tools, how net new
things through the large language models. It's absolute insane And
I can see how overwhelmed everyone is. I can feel
it myself. So part of it is. In one of
my earlier podcast interviews from this year, I interviewed Natalie Nixon,
who's an author and a speaker and a consultant about
(29:57):
creativity and unlocking that. But she has a ru called
wonder and rigor. How do you have the wonder of exploration,
the newness of a child, the beginner's mind, and the
idea of play, but then how do you bring the
rigor to it and the discipline of figuring out what
do I pursue what is valuable to my goal as
(30:17):
my business school is you know the strategic value I
bring not getting caught up and oh this tool can
do this today?
Speaker 3 (30:22):
And tomorrow another tool can do that.
Speaker 2 (30:25):
And so I'm trying to reroot myself in this idea
of wonder and rigor because we have to have play,
but we also have to have tremendous discipline and how
we're going to start to ingest more of these technologies
otherwise ourselves and our people will be completely overwhelmed at
all times.
Speaker 1 (30:40):
I like that. I like that wonder and rigor, And
when you said that, it reminded me of an other
I don't know if it's binary or duality or what
you want to call it, but of magic and logic. Right,
you go back to that question of where are you best?
You know, the magic is that deep expertise, that understanding,
that insight, that that magic little spark that's within the
(31:03):
DNA of a leader of an organization that is uniquely them,
And how do you protect them? And how do you
use technology to make that magic even more powerful? And
then what is that logic element? So again, if you
think about you know, you were talking about the large
language model, you know, talking to other senior agency leaders
and how they're trying to capture their own IP and
(31:26):
their expertise so that they can make that magic better
cooler neater at scale. But then where is that logic?
Because come up with a cool idea, you still got
to execute it. So how do you really lay in technology, AI,
whatever that is to really execute that in a very
logical way. That's efficient, that's that's powerful.
Speaker 2 (31:48):
So I like that, And that's the promise of augmented intelligence.
That's really a promise of augmenting humans, not replacing us,
because that's our magic too.
Speaker 1 (31:57):
Wonder and rigor and magic and logic.
Speaker 4 (31:59):
So so so I guess I guess that that's kind
of setting us up for you know what, what our
listeners are probably waiting to hear, which is, so what
is that? What does that checklist add and Steve look
like as you think about about twenty twenty five. So
I'll let you go first. Do you have have a checklist? Three,
four or five priorities?
Speaker 2 (32:20):
I did my homework, okay, so three leadership priorities for
success in twenty twenty five. Number one the culture of
agility and inclusivity. Number two, Equip teams with tools and
the knowledge to adapt to this new environment, including technology, learn, learn, learn,
And the last one is just try to lead with
(32:42):
empathy but also clarity, of vision and how you communicate
that vision inside your walls and outside your walls.
Speaker 3 (32:49):
So those are my three those year three.
Speaker 1 (32:51):
Okay, well you use you said a high bar. So
I'm going to have three branding strategies. My three actionable
branding strategies are as follows. How do we use AI
and data analytics to power really personalized, meaningful customer experiences. So, again,
tying that back to that magic, how do you make
(33:12):
that be actionable at scale? How do we really prioritize
those value driven stories and build long term trust? I
think we cannot forget that foundation of the importance of
simplifying the complex into easy to understand stories that have
emotion and relate. And then finally, how do we focus
on using emerging technologies and integrating them seamlessly into our
(33:36):
branding efforts. So those are my three actionable branding strategies
for twenty twenty five. And I would say, you know,
with this podcasts available on our channels, I would really
love to hear from our listeners. You know what they're seeing,
you know what their top three are. So I really
encourage you to go to our chat and put in
(33:58):
your three top check items for twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2 (34:02):
Yeah, I just did a mailbag episode that sort of
a roundup of questions that we've gotten both internally and
from externally from some of our different episodes, and that
was very fun, and I'd love to have more of.
Speaker 3 (34:15):
That kind of interaction, more questions for us, for sure.
Speaker 1 (34:18):
Yeah, And I would also say for those of those
listeners out here, if you would like to engage us
as part of being on building brand gravity, don't be
shy to reach out to Ann or myself would love
to have a dialogue talk about what you're facing in
twenty twenty five, the challenges, the opportunities, the inspiration. I
think would be great because I do think going back
(34:41):
to where we started, I definitely think there's going to
be a lot of challenges for companies, brands, and individuals
to navigate in twenty twenty five. But for your optimist, realist,
I do think there could be tremendous opportunity. It can
be really exciting to think about how we shape the future.
Speaker 2 (34:58):
Yeah, there's so many big challenges to solve. You know,
individually is an organization, but also for companies like ours
in connection with our clients, and so that's where for me,
and as you said at Steve, you have to the
work we do here. There's a lot of passion and
love in it. And one of the things that keeps
it fresh for me is continual learning. Is applying you know,
(35:22):
that lens of what we know to new challenges, is
creating those tailored solutions and figuring out what does this
business challenge require? And as communications has become more obviously important,
more than thirty years ago, more than twenty years ago
to the c suite of all organizations, more chance to
apply that skill set where it's really needed. So I'm
(35:45):
very optimistic about the future. I don't think anyone has
to fact check us about uncertainty coming next year.
Speaker 3 (35:50):
I think we're going to get that one right.
Speaker 2 (35:51):
But I think if we focus on the upside, you know,
there's there's a lot of exciting a work ahead for us.
Speaker 1 (35:58):
Frankly, I agree, exciting times, exciting lifestyle, certainly not certainly
not a boring time. So again we invite you, if
you have thoughts, please reach out share with us. We're
looking forward to another exciting year of building brand gravity.
As we go into twenty twenty five, we'll have some
(36:19):
exciting guests and conversations and anything else for us as
we kick off twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2 (36:26):
No, just Steve and I look forward to hosting a
lot more conversations and we look forward to you continuing
to listen in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 1 (36:34):
Well, great, great conversation, Ann, and thank you all for
listening and tune in soon for our next episode of
Building Brand Gravity.
Speaker 3 (36:42):
Bieverybuddy.
Speaker 5 (36:44):
We are GNS Business Communications. We are a team of
media strategists, storytellers, and engagement experts who meet you at
the intersection of business and communications. To learn more, visit
gscommunications dot com. You're listening to Building Brand Gravity Attracting
people into your orbit, a GNS Business Communications podcast. Keep
(37:08):
connected with us by subscribing to the show in your
favorite podcast player. If you like what you've heard, please
rate the show that helps us to keep delivering the
latest in industry influence. Thanks for listening. Until next time.
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