We are at the beginning of an unprecedented global transformation, where humanity will have to figure out how to live sustainably within the carrying capacity of a finitely resourced planet. And we don’t have a whole lot of time to do that! During this transformation to an impact economy, all systems will have to change, especially the financial system.

It’s possible to have adequate financial return and social impact — the two are not exclusive. 

When I co-founded impact investment firm Toniic, we asked ourselves the question: “What is the meaning of our wealth?” The answers became evident quite quickly. For us, wealth comes with the responsibility to make a positive contribution to the planet and people; it cannot possibly be just to make more money. When we looked into philanthropy, we saw that the old way of doing philanthropy is as flawed as the way the pure, capitalist investment model works: Philanthropy creates more dependencies and contributes to corrupt systems, while not addressing systemic issues. The standard investment model maximizes its profits at the expense of communities, the environment, and the spiritual well-being of its participants.

That is why we began focusing on what is now called impact investing: We needed to align our wealth with our values, and we needed to contribute to the change of the existing system. The answer is not to stifle wealth creation, but to direct it toward the right goals. 

You should not think about your wealth as an intellectual exercise, but rather as an expression of who you are — an expression of the change that you want to see in the world around you. Instead of being driven by the fear of losing money, become driven by the joy of making a positive contribution.

Many big investment players are still defining their proprietary ways of measuring environmental, social, and governance metrics, thus perpetuating their model of maximizing revenue from clients without contributing to the impact economy. They are holding on to old financing models, such as venture capital, pure equity, and vanilla fund structures versus new financing approaches such as pay for success, impact term sheets, and blended capital.

While creating wealth, decide what you stand for and what impact you’d like to have on the world. Reinvesting back into a social or environmental cause can be the best investment you ever make.  

Impact investing has moved from fringe to mainstream, but individual investors still have many moving parts to consider.

Above: Jed Emerson: “SDG Heroes” is an original SDG Photography series by Ralph Reutimann 

If you’re committed to impact as well as wanting to protect your financial future, you can attain various levels of financial return together with the generation of social and environmental impacts. And, you can direct your resources toward not only providing for your future but for the future of your children and community. Here are four actions investors can take to help mobilize an impact investing strategy with confidence.

1. Fortune favors the prepared mind.

Good investing involves some level of luck — that the markets move up with you, that you select the right managers at the right time, and so on — but the fact is proper preparation can help increase the odds you’ve made the right decisions at the right times for the right reasons. Rather than attempting to “time the market” looking to take advantage of short-term ups and downs, stay focused on your long-term goals and plan for those goals through a sound strategy.

2. Impact investing is a lens — not an asset class

Simply put, impact investing is a lens through which one approaches the full spectrum of options and asset classes in the market and for one’s portfolio. Impact investing is not an asset class, and mistaking it for one does a disservice to the investor who may then be forced to compartmentalize the application of best practice. Instead, we should seek to let its practices and our pursuit of it flourish across the full spectrum of portfolio opportunities before us.

3. Impact investing is an evolving field — grow with it

This is the brave new world; be part of it along the way. Activated investors approaching impact across the full spectrum of their portfolio, demanding excellence and sustained value from the funds and companies they invest in, are well-positioned to benefit from and help in the creation of greater depth in the field of impact investing.

4. Don’t judge a book by its cover

As you explore the growing array of offerings, don’t get too wrapped up in whether or not something is called “impact.” What matters is not what someone says, but rather how an investment strategy is managed; what types of companies they invest in; the degree of intentionally and depth to their approach; and your ability to assess the kinds of extra-financial, social, and environmental value any given strategy advances. Remember: Some folks who claim positive impact don’t generate it, and some who have never heard the word are creating real sustainable value. Assess all those who claim to “do” impact investing, and you be the judge of what they do — not what they say.

Guy Spier started his finance career with the right pedigree, from Oxford University to Harvard Business School. But when he took a job at an ethically challenged Wall Street firm (a number of its top leaders later pleaded guilty to fraud charges), he was ashamed. Spier didn’t participate in the malfeasance, but he felt embarrassed and tainted by the association: How could he have chosen so poorly? “It was just a horrible place. 

Literally, I left it off my resume; I tried not to talk about it,” he recalls.

But in his book The Education of a Value Investor: My Transformative Quest for Wealth, Wisdom, and Enlightenment, Spier — now a prominent investment manager — shares the hard-fought lessons he learned. Too often, memoirs are whitewashed to put forward the impression that success was inevitable, but Spier wanted to tell the full story. 

“I really wanted readers to know the failures,” he says. “When I wrote that first chapter, I was like, ‘Am I really going to write this?’ It’s slightly scary… telling people what it’s really like and trying to help people see that they can have terrible mistakes, they can have terrible misdirections, they can have utter greed and envy, and it’s okay, because the rest of us do as well. That doesn’t make them bad. It’s okay to embrace those emotions and to sublimate them into something better.”

Spier reinvented himself nearly two and a half decades ago when he formed the Aquamarine Fund, which he still manages. In many ways, writing the book capped his reinvention. “In that first chapter, I got the courage to say, ‘Folks, I’m a different person now, and I’m going to tell my story. I’ve got to tell you about who I was.’ You know that you’ve fully transformed yourself when you can confidently tell the narrative of how you were without it being painful.” Here are the lessons Spier learned in reinventing himself and building a business to be proud of.

1. Learn from the best. Spier recalls his darkest days, sitting in his office at the disgraced company and feeling disillusioned with Wall Street’s underbelly. “Take any person, put them in the wrong environment, and they can get off to some pretty bad things,” he says. “Warren Buffett has said that he would not like to get into debt because he doesn’t want to discover what behavior he’s capable of. Just having that biography of Warren Buffett to read pulled me back from that culture. It’s an environment that’s just saying, ‘Look, we’ll have you around for a year or two and if you’re willing to do some of our dirty work, we’ll keep you around and maybe you’ll make some money.’ 

The dirty work is never asked for, but it’s all about misrepresenting crappy investments to an unsuspecting person.” In reading about Buffett’s more honorable approach, Spier found inspiration. “In some ways, he was my savior… I was modeling him based on the books and biographies I’d read.”

2. Associate with the right people. Even better than reading about your heroes, however, is meeting them — something Spier had the opportunity to do in 2007 when he went in with his friend Mohnish Pabrai to buy lunch with Warren Buffett at a charity auction, for the princely sum of $650,100. Was it worth it? Spier says absolutely. 

“What I never understood before that was the impact of just meeting somebody once. When you actually sit in somebody’s presence, you have so much more of an ability to model how they would act,” he says. “You get this resonance and sense of what it’s like to be in the person’s presence, what emotionally makes them tick.” In general, says Spier, it’s critical to “spend time with people who are better than you from whom you can learn. Powerful things can happen if you do that.”

3. Be honest with yourself and others. Part of Spier’s goal in telling his story so honestly is to live up to Buffett’s example. Buffett doesn’t put profit before all else; what’s far more important is being an honest and decent businessman. 

“I think that he showed me a way,” says Spier. “I was transformed. I learned to see myself and my role as a capitalist,as somebody who’s trying to harness for myself and for society the power of greed and the power of the will to acquire something that makes the world a better place. That’s the version of capitalism we want.”

Through modeling himself on Warren Buffett — first through articles and books he’d read, and later by meeting Buffett in person — Spier developed the vision and direction to reinvent himself. By asking what Buffett would do in any given situation, Spier gave himself a north star to follow and built a career worthy of his hero.

“Family business” doesn’t always mean a mom-and-pop  operation. The reality is that many of the world’s most successful businesses are family businesses. For example, Facebook is a large, global, public company, but it’s also a family business with the Zuckerberg family still owning nearly one-third of the enterprise.

 Regardless of scale or stage of life, a quote from Charles Dickens sums up my feelings about family businesses: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” Oh what a conundrum is family business: Should I or shouldn’t I? While there really isn’t a right or wrong answer to this question, the following five points should be kept in mind when considering whether to invite family members into your business:

01  Think It Through

Family should be about unconditional love, security, and continuity of relationships. However, business can quickly devolve into a nasty quagmire of conditional relationships, greed, and ego. While business interests and family relationships can successfully coexist, the conflicts of interest can often be terminal. If you cannot live with the possibility that things may not turn out on a positive note, then I would strongly advise caution about including family members in your business venture.

02  Seek Alignment up Front

It’s easy to assume that family members should all have the same values, but that is not always the case. Don’t just assume your family members share your values; confirm it prior to their inclusion in your business. While it is certainly easy to involve family members in your business, parting ways is rarely easy, and usually comes with more than its fair share of emotional turmoil. Spend the time up front to align expectations and talk through all the “what ifs” surrounding family involvement in the business. Spend more time talking about what happens if things don’t work out rather than the upside of potential success.

03 Document Everything

There is a tendency to believe that since you’re dealing with family, there is no need for formal business agreements. Wrong! Document everything when it comes to dealing with family members so that in the event of a dispute, sound business logic and prudent governance will prevail over emotions, revisionist history, or flawed memories.

04  Keep Things Close

While family should be family, this assumes value alignment, right thinking, and prudent behavior. The reality is that your chances for success in family businesses rapidly diminish the further removed you are from your immediate family. While there are certainly exceptions, the harsh reality is that your immediate family members are much more likely to remain loyal in good times and in bad times than nieces, nephews, cousins, or in-laws.

05 Don’t Give Anything Away

My thinking on this topic applies to responsibility, titles, compensation, and ownership interests. In general, I have found that people just don’t value something they have not earned (this can be particularly true of family members who display a sense of entitlement). The goal here is not to make things unduly difficult on family members, nor is it to make money off of family members; rather, the goal should be to teach them that along with the privilege of ownership comes requirements for investment, risk, responsibility, and commitment. My son worked outside of our business for more than a decade, and when he entered our business, he didn’t start out as CEO. He earned his way into that role.

Every human, business, and country depends on Nature, just like every human, business, and country has an impact on Nature. But human impacts are now so big, Nature can no longer deliver.

This is not breaking news. Climate change is happening, and the science is clear: It’s human activity driving these changes. Weather patterns are becoming more extreme, floods are disrupting cities, and water stress is now a real phenomenon around the world. The extinction rate is higher than ever, and, since 1990, 129 million hectares of the planet’s forests (an area as large as South Africa) have been destroyed.

And it’s not just the environment screaming at us: A child dies from hunger-related causes every six seconds. At the other end of the scale, the number of obese people on our planet has now surpassed the number of malnourished, with devastating impacts on human health.

Clearly, the system is reaching its limits. Unless we radically transform the way we eat, move, and live, the clash between humans and Nature will intensify. To bring that relationship back into balance, we need nothing less than an economic revolution, one comprised of three elements:

1. Innovation — to minimize impacts and maximize opportunities in the way we live, produce, and consume. Electric vehicles, renewable energy, the circular economy, and smarter diets are all signs of progress, but innovation needs to scale up fast.

2. Collaboration — to implement these solutions at scale
and speed. Businesses must work together within sectors and value chains to identify solutions. Governments, cities, and businesses must work together,  with science providing a solid grounding for all activities.

3. Redefining value — to drive a new approach to decision-making. Today’s economic system values financial capital above everything, excluding many externalities necessary to secure future cash flows. This definition of value may have worked in a world with limitless resources, but that’s not the world we live in today.

We need to find a way to consider externalities in our decision-making, because if companies can deplete natural resources and pollute the atmosphere without paying for it, why would they invest in cleaner technology? If the price of food products doesn’t reflect the related health costs, what is the incentive to change the recipes? Why would a government refocus its policies if the measure of its success (i.e., GDP) doesn’t include any of the detrimental environmental impacts those policies may have?

The Natural Capital Protocol shows companies how to measure and manage externalities. The next step is to make this align with international, non-financial reporting frameworks like the Global Reporting Initiative. After that, sustainability indicators can be integrated into mainstream corporate reporting standards.

Companies like Kering — the French luxury goods group that owns Gucci, Dior, and Puma — are leading the way. Realizing their environmental costs totaled almost half their traditional financial profit, they created Environmental Profit and Loss accounting (EP&L) and now apply it to management decision-making across
the group.

Integrated capitalism creates value by integrating the externalities when calculating returns on financial, social, and natural capital. This takes the concept of the triple bottom line of people, planet, and profit to another level, by making it more robust, systematic, and mainstream. The objective is to optimize the balance and longevity of returns on all three capitals while being transparent about the inevitable trade-offs between them.

For this transformation of our economic system, a whole new mindset is required. On the right side of our brain, the Golden Rule can play a crucial role, encouraging us to do for Mother Nature what we want done for our children, our grandchildren, and ourselves. On the left side of our brain, we must learn to value Nature; in economic terms, that means paying for the externalities and learning to think of the services that Nature provides as capital. Our collective objective must be to preserve or maximize that capital for the long-term.

It is in this way — when faced with a multitude of global threats — we discover it is accountants who may be able to save the world. 

This is extracted from Imaginal Cells: Visions of Transformation, a publication from Reboot the Future, which includes 25 of the world’s leading visionaries and their alternative roadmaps for the future. www.RebootTheFuture.org

Editors Note: Real Leaders is making its archive of magazines freely available to all visitors to our website as part of our contribution to the Covid-19 pandemic. We believe you’ll emerge stronger and wiser when this crisis passes, and we hope our stories will keep you entertained and inspired while we sit out this challenging time. Sign up here and you’ll be instantly redirected to our archive.

During this time of turbulence and uncertainty, as the world is learning how to best handle the pandemic situation, CEO and Founder of Algmin Data Leadership, Anthony J. Algmin shares his thoughts on the role of data leadership in this time of crisis.

The nature of fear often traces back to a lack of information. Usually, by gathering data to learn more about a situation, we can build confidence until we are ready to act. This is what business leaders do all the time: we do not wait until we have all the information, but we make the best decision we can once we have compiled enough to be confident that we are probably doing the right thing. 

Leaders must act with imperfect information all the time, showing a willingness to change course as new data becomes available. This serves us well, and helps our businesses thrive. But in times of crisis, this process can short-circuit. Let’s look at the current Coronavirus situation as an example:

• The stakes are incredibly high for our businesses and all of us as individuals: literally life and death. If we do the wrong thing, people can die. If we do a different wrong thing, our businesses might not survive. We want to find the answers that avoid human consequences at all costs, while giving our businesses the best long-term outcomes.
• The available data is far from what we would like to know: testing shortages limit our situational awareness and things are evolving so rapidly that our ability to process the data we have and drive productive actions is limited.
• Taking no action is clearly not the right approach: most of the time, we have the luxury of waiting for more information before acting. “Doing nothing” is usually better than “doing something wrong” – but right now, doing nothing different is likely the worst thing we can do.
• Our best is not good enough: we simply cannot get to the confidence we need to make the decisions, to take the actions, to drive the most desirable outcomes. If we find ourselves checking the news every 10 minutes for the latest information, this is a sign that our normal processes are short-circuiting. We are wired to keep searching for data, but the data is not going to be there.
• Finding and analyzing data only gets us part of the way. It is only through data-driven actions where value gets created. This is a key data leadership principle: when data is insufficient for what we want to do with it, we are wasting energy analyzing it – driving costs but with nothing real to show for it.

We are currently flying somewhat blind – and despite our wishes to be data-driven, we simply cannot make it happen. With the Coronavirus specifically, I wish I could provide a better answer. The best thing to do is listen to our conscience and take care of our people, our customers, our vendors, and our families to the best of our ability. If we stop supporting the people relying on us, we will be hastening their inability to take care of those relying on them. 

These things are most pronounced in the extremes but are also important with everyday strategy and operations. It’s understandable that imperfect or incomplete information may result in unintended outcomes we can’t control — but we need to make sure we aren’t amplifying the likelihood of making bad decisions through poor processes, which we can control. 

When we do have all the data we need, but we still fail to put it to productive use, it is entirely our own fault. It is no secret that data-driven companies are out-competing those that have not yet figured it out. Data-driven companies are going to be better prepared to adjust to new information, no matter the circumstances. 

We will make it through the current Coronavirus crisis, but it remains to be seen how long or how lasting the challenges will be. As we get back to “normal,” we must all be sure to learn from this experience.

Go make an impact!

 

A market-based economy is a powerful engine for development, but to be sustainable over time, it needs entrepreneurs to develop a mindset of inclusivity. These five women entrepreneurs demonstrate how this new way of thinking can create prosperity, heal the world, and find deeper meaning along the way.

1. Katherine Jeffrey / CauseGear

“Sustainability matters. There isn’t one step in a supply chain where we shouldn’t be doing our best to care for people and planet.“

World-changing entrepreneurial idea.

What if the simple purchase of a tote, t-shirt, pouch, or apron could help free a woman from injustice? With over 70 percent of slavery being female, the need for jobs that support freedom for women has never been greater. CauseGear has designed a business model to address the root cause of slavery and human trafficking: Poverty and the need for sustainable, ethical jobs that empower. Handouts of food, clothing, and water may help today but won’t necessarily change future circumstances. To win the war on poverty, a core issue needs to be addressed: Paying those who make our fashion a living wage. Every purchase helps fund a day
of freedom for women crafters.

Impact on the world.

Teaming up with companies to produce branded gear has delivered more than 20,000 days of freedom from slavery and poverty. Their mission is for 1 million people to be made free through self-sustaining jobs. A lifetime guarantee on crafted items promotes the use of fewer, quality items among consumers and a reduction of what gets discarded. Reducing fashion waste may be the most impactful thing we can do to improve the health of our planet.

Best piece of advice for entrepreneurs.

Gather your people, the ones who will journey with you. Receive their encouragement and lean on them. Then, push through the things that you fear the most, move toward your mission, and never, ever think inside the box.

www.causegear.com

2. Cheyenna Weber / Cooperative Economics Alliance NYC

“Recognizing the interdependence of all life, and acting in solidarity, is how we achieve sustainability.”

World-changing entrepreneurial idea.

The human species has been thriving through cooperation for thousands of years, but you wouldn’t know it from looking at today’s business schools or news headlines. Part of this is because of patriarchy. Women are cooperating and still creating solidarity economies, but feminized labor gets erased and discarded as frivolous. Cooperative Economics Alliance of NYC sees women’s cooperation around shelter, food, financial services, (and literally every other material need) for what it is: innovation that deserves resources and respect.

Impact on the world.

In just two years, the alliance has trained over 100 New Yorkers in cooperative leadership skills to sustain and grow their enterprises. It has raised more than $100,000 to provide microgrants to co-ops and urban farms who are ignored by philanthropy and government, yet face challenges in accessing traditional forms of capital. Wanting to reinvent workplace hierarchy, the alliance has structured its management democratically — with an elected board of directors who call the shots and are accountable to all members.

Best piece of advice for entrepreneurs.

Never be afraid to confront patriarchal visions of dominance and power in your own organization. You can have community ownership or a flat structure for staffing, and still find success.

www.gocoopnyc.com

3. Karen Weber / Boston GreenFest

“To know balance, we must tip the scales and lose our balance. Sustainability offers a way to recalibrate ecological justice”

World-changing entrepreneurial idea.

Weber has led a team of dedicated, self-effacing individuals in creating a multicultural environmental music festival that unifies and empowers the community. The annual Boston event provides interactive exhibits, tech innovation, fashion, transportation, art, music, dance, food, fitness, green design, and gardening — all around sustainability and education. By connecting the community with local, regional, and international green-tech entrepreneurs and people from nonprofits, for-profits, and government agencies, the event has become a catalyst for transformation.

Impact on the world.

Hundreds of thousands of people have come together, who may never have spoken, danced, or done business with each other. The festival has led to many creative projects and petitions being started for social causes. The Boston GreenFest platform has promoted numerous eco-entrepreneurs, networks, and innovations. Bottled water was eliminated from events and replaced with mobile water fountains, and over the 11 years of the festival, more than $1 million has been raised to support the city, local businesses, and artists.

Best piece of advice for entrepreneurs.

Once your idea takes shape, put your best foot forward and stay the course. To the extent possible, be inclusive of people and their ideas. As women, we understand nurture and nature; the triple bottom line is not optional. We have a special responsibility to bring our work to fruition.

www.bostongreenfest.org

4. Kelly Vlahakis / Earth Friendly Products (ECOS)

“Sustainability is not just about better ingredients and a living wage. Family-friendly benefits will create a more sustainable economy.”

World-changing entrepreneurial idea.

ECOS has been making safer cleaning products for 52 years, based on a belief that everyone has the right to buy safer, affordable cleaning agents that don’t put health at risk or pollute the environment. Vlahakis believes that companies can make products that are good for people, good for the planet, and good for business. Their plant-powered laundry detergents and cleaners were developed through “green science” and are transforming the industry. 

Impact on the world.

The company is the world’s first to achieve the trifecta of sustainable manufacturing: Carbon neutrality, water neutrality, and Platinum Zero Waste certification. By using 100 percent renewable energy, sourcing locally, and shipping regionally from its four facilities across the U.S., ECOS keeps more than 56 million pounds of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere each year.

Best piece of advice for entrepreneurs.

Finding mentors, especially women who are experienced and who can give you support and guidance, is so important. When you reach out to the right mentor, you’ll find no better source of encouragement, knowledge, and inspiration, and that can make all the difference in making your passion a reality.

www.ecos.com

5. Tracy Graziani / Graziani Multimedia

“The economies of the past were built on the production of things. future prosperity will come from the cultivation and care of our earth and people.”

World-changing entrepreneurial idea.

Early in her career, Graziani found herself bouncing back and forth between the nonprofit and for-profit sectors. In each, she found inherent flaws that frustrated her. It wasn’t until she finally encountered the concept of triple-bottom-line business that she found a place to align her values and work. 

Impact on the world.

Graziani is an active community volunteer for environmental, social justice, and political projects — which keeps her tuned to her values and the needs of others. Realizing the power of inspirational stories, she secured the first TEDx license for Mansfield, Ohio. It brings together people who are passionate about ideas, and ideas can be a powerful thing. Her agency donates at least 10 percent of its services to local nonprofits each year — helping to weave values into company culture.

Best piece of advice for entrepreneurs.

I wish I’d sought out a network of other women CEOs earlier in my entrepreneurial journey. I suspect it was due to imposter syndrome, but I definitely used busyness as an excuse not to. Eventually, I found other women who were incredibly generous with their time and support, and I regret the years I wasted feeling so alone.

www.grazianimultimedia.com

A new book, Conversation Marketing, reveals how companies can make and maintain more meaningful, impactful and enduring connections within the marketplace — by telling authentic stories, fostering customer engagement, and breeding brand loyalty.

Nobody starts out automatically caring about your products or services. They care about how you can make a difference in their lives. No matter the context, all relationships begin with a “handshake moment,” whether literally or figuratively—those first few introductory moments that reveal a great deal about the character of the person standing before you. Why should company interactions with current and prospective customers or clients be any different? 

 Sure, “content marketing” has been a crucial ingredient impelling the evolution of traditional marketing into today’s more personalized approach, bridging the gap between cookie-cutter TV, radio, and print mass marketing to highly customized digital and social media-driven communications. Even so, today’s more personalized digital communications have plenty of challenges, all too often falling on “deaf ears” and “blind eyes” amid a marketplace becoming highly desensitized to the glut of advertising and marketing messages it is exposed to any given hour of any given day…year in and year out. 

So, how can brands make and maintain meaningful connections and create a lifetime value with customers in ways that’ll set them apart in a “noisy,” increasingly jaded, and discriminating marketplace? How can businesses tell an authentic story to foster maximized marketplace engagement and breed brand loyalty? According to Kevin Lund, author of the new book, “Conversation Marketing: How to be Relevant and Engage Your Customer by Speaking Human,” the proverbial key to the Kingdom is for companies, no matter their size and scope, to simply “speak human.” 

 In this new book Lund, who’s CEO of T3 Custom—itself a content marketing firm helping brands learn to “speak human” and supercharge ROI reportedly by as much as16-times, provides an in-depth analysis of what’s required to succeed in today’s modern marketing era, which he’s aptly coined the “Conversation Age.” Specifically, he details fundamental principles critical for driving the more evolved conversation marketing approach, which can help companies amplify results on multiple fronts. 

 According to Lund, “Those who are wildly successful at conversation marketing understand the strategy is not merely about propagating online content and sharing through social media accounts. Instead, it’s a disciplined approach to communicating with a target audience in a way that tells a simple, human story that will educate, inform, entertain and, most importantly, compel customers in a way that fully captures mind–and-market share through messaging that truly resonates. Companies must stop talking ‘at’ their customers and, instead, connect with them by simply speaking human. And, it’s far beyond that initial ‘handshake moment—it’s through a constant stream of congenial engagements with each consumer, or the marketplace at large, based on trust and performance.”

 Think it’s complicated to be an adept conversation marketer and speak human to your constituents? Think again! Below are eight of Lund’s tactical strategies from the new book that can help companies large and small become more engaging and relevant with customers, and the marketplace at large:

 1. Earn Attention

To gain attention in today’s crowded market, it’s prudent to do the opposite of what most everyone else is doing. That means don’t deliver clichéd, boring content that’s written for robots—search engines or otherwise—and for generic consumption. It’s unsustainable for you and your brand as well as frustratingly futile for the audience you’re trying to reach. Instead, speak human by engaging your audience with eye-level language to gain their attention and set your brand apart. Learn to use language that educates and entertains the audience. 

Earning attention starts with asking yourself what you and your company are passionate about and conveying that genuinely in that all-important “handshake moment” of first contact—online or otherwise. Assume you’re meeting the person on the other side of the screen for the first time. Think of what you can say that’s new, memorable, a standout, and jargon-free. Also, understand and adapt to your audience. You wouldn’t talk the same way to an aging Baby Boomer as you would to a teenager.

2. Tell a Story

How do you hold someone’s attention long enough to break down a topic and engender his or her trust, but also in a way that’s unforgettable and leaves that person feeling more knowledgeable than before? The answer lies in good storytelling. 

Good conversations are filled with good stories and anecdotes. But be mindful that the hero of the story isn’t your company or its products, but rather how your product or service will have a positive impact on your customers’ lives. If you can elicit an emotional response, you’re onto something. Some standout companies have figured this out. Apple’s story, for example, isn’t about devices. It’s about innovation and how our lives are being changed for the better with Apple technology in them. Learn how to make your story short, to the point, and easy to share online.

3. Stay Humble

Being humble begins with letting go of ego—that instinctual part of the psyche that screams for a marketer to make too much noise about products or services and brag about themselves. Sigmund Freud developed a psychoanalytic theory of personality he coined the “id,” and marketers often tap into their ids by telling the world how great their company and its products are, and how great a potential customer will be for buying them. The id operates based on the pleasure principle, which demands immediate gratification of needs. 

In conversation marketing, speaking human dictates that your customer’s needs, not your own, are the top priority. Your audience wants to know what you can do for them, and that means stop talking about yourself and drop the megaphone. Instead, embrace a different approach that thoughtfully and humbly explains why you do what you do and why it can make a difference in someone’s life instead of focusing on your bottom line. Stop beating them over the heads with the fabulous features and benefits of your products. Instead, tell stories that inspire and resonate with their own life experiences.

4. Pick Your Party

Equally crucial to the “how” of your conversation is the “where.” It should all fit seamlessly together and feel natural and organic at that moment. Part of learning how to talk to your audience and engage them in any form of conversation is deciding where to talk to them in the first place. 

This means doing the footwork to learn where your potential customers gather and meeting them on their ground. Where do your potential customers hang out on social media? What are they saying, and what challenges are they discussing that you can compellingly weigh-in on? Readily available research tools can help you join the right conversation at the right time and in the right place with consistency.

5. Be Relevant (on a Molecular Level)

Authentic listening is about far more than hearing words. It’s also about fully understanding the message and concepts being imparted—whether they’re needs, wants, desires, or even complaints. Being relevant means making sure you’re talking about topics that are of sure interest to your audience, and that’s often achieved by addressing their pain points. Before a marketer can aptly communicate and speak to such pain points; however, he or she must first hear what the prospect, customer, or marketplace has to say. It can be dangerous, expensive, and ultimately futile for companies to presume to inherently know what should be stated in conversation marketing. 

6. Start the Conversation 

How do you gain audience attention in a way that prevents you from just being part of the noise? It’s no longer a question of whether you should insert yourself into the world of content marketing. It’s a matter of when you’re going to start talking, what you’re going to say, and how you’re going to say it. One good approach is to base that initial conversation on your unique value proposition for the given audience. 

It’s essential always to remember that your target audience doesn’t care about you. They care what you can do for them. If you’ve done your research, you’ll be familiar with their pain points and better prepared to offer answers that address their needs. Don’t be a “me-too” marketer who dishes out the same information as everyone else. Instead, develop a unique angle with a thought-provoking headline that sparks attention—even better if it disrupts conventional thinking. Also, know your topic inside out before communicating and make sure any other people handling your communications are experts in the field. You don’t want to risk sounding trite or inaccurate.

7. Stop Talking

Unlike a monologue, a conversation is a two-way endeavor. Knowing when to stop talking is as important as knowing what to say and when to say it. It’s the only way to truly get a sense of what your audience (or your potential customer) is thinking in reaction to what you’ve offered, and whether to stay the course in your strategy or tweak it on-the-fly. Once you hear preliminary feedback, you can respond to questions and concerns before moving ahead or otherwise course-correct as needed. Also, bear in mind that what your audience isn’t saying can be just as impactful as what they do convey. 

Once your message is out, take a step back, and “read the room.” That could mean monitoring online response to your blog post or using various tools to learn which of your resources are drawing attention. Are people engaged? Are they adding to the conversation? What should you do if the feedback is bad? Don’t consider a negative response or lack of response, necessarily a failure. Instead, see it as an opportunity to adjust, make changes, and perhaps find ways to meet your audience’s needs better.

8. Ditch the Checklist

Before every takeoff, airline crews verbally work through an extensive checklist. There’s a detailed set of tasks to cover before the plane can even push back from the gate. However, in an ebb and flow conversation marketing context, this adherence to a specific protocol can pose limitations. Indeed, one problem with simply sticking to a checklist is that a content marketing strategy will never evolve with the times or differentiate itself in any way from what everyone else is doing. 

Successful marketers endeavor to open new horizons. They take a step back and ask more critical questions about themselves and their companies’ ultimate goals, as well as what sort of new challenges their audience or customers might face over time–how to adjust when needed aptly. 

 Lund also suggests finding sources of inspiration. “Explore some of the successful content marketing plans that showed passion, ditched the tired old language, zeroed in on what customers needed, and started a real conversation with the market,” he urges. “Then scrutinize your strategy and see where it might be lacking, so that you can continually refine your checklist.”

Technology changes everything. The way we live and the way we work. Technology is changing what we want for ourselves, how we interact with each other, and how business works. Technology is changing the face of business altogether. 

Look no further than the main streets in your city, or perhaps your Instagram feed, to see new businesses replacing old ones. However, while a growing economy is always good, it also impacts the types and quantities of available jobs, as well as the skills required for those jobs. 

This change driven by technology has a name: The Fourth Industrial Revolution, and it’s happening fast. The pace of change usually happens across generations. For example, the jobs that your grandparents had might not have differed too much from the jobs your parents had. Likewise, your parents’ jobs might not be too different from what you studied in school or the career you’ve chosen. But in this new era, jobs won’t just change across generations, they will change in a matter of years. That’s right, the job you have now might not exist, or might require very different skills, in the very near future. 

Whose problem is this?

According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are 1.37 million workers in the US who are projected to be displaced entirely out of their jobs in the next decade. There are millions more who will be required to undertake significant training to keep the jobs they have.

Conversations about the workforce of the future are happening across corporate America because companies already have a shortage of talent for their digital jobs. 60% of US-based companies state skills gaps prevent them from successfully implementing desired technologies, even though 89% of them want to adopt big data analytics by 2022, and more than 70% are considering IoT (Internet of Things), web and app-enabled markets, machine learning and cloud computing.(1)  

There are two big questions that companies are asking themselves: Does it make sense to skill up our existing workforce as our business changes and, what do we do with our employees whose jobs will go away? (2)

It turns out that within most industries, there is a sweet spot for jobs that will transition well to a digital future. Studies show that it makes financial sense for companies to provide training, or “reskilling” to 25% of their employees who are in jobs that will be disrupted. (3) That takes care of a lot of employees because it makes sense for companies to pay for the cost of re-training for individuals whose existing skills and experience will continue to provide value to their employers in the future. For example, within the Aerospace Industry, Brand Marketing and Public Relations/Communications Specialists have the kinds of skills and industry expertise to make them great candidates for reskilling opportunities aligned to jobs as Data Analysts. 

This is a positive transition given the growing demand for Data Analysts, which also offer a significantly higher average wage than Brand Marketing and Public Relations/Communications Specialists. (4)

There are, however, many jobs that may not exist in the future and, worse yet, may not transition well to future employment. Although 25% of all workers in disrupted jobs might look forward to company-provided reskilling, that leaves 75% of at-risk employees, who will not be offered reskilling opportunities. That leaves a lot of workers who will have to take the development of their skills into their own hands. Secretaries and Administrative Assistants in the Aviation, Tourism and Travel Industry, have very few viable reskilling pathways within either their companies or their industry. While there are several jobs that for Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, would only require a modest amount of reskilling, such as Health Information Technicians, Legal Assistants, and Loan Counselors, workers pursuing those skills will have to look far outside their current companies to find jobs.

This presents a considerable challenge for a vast section of the global workforce, and particularly those who don’t believe they will be able to acquire new skills. As their jobs either change or go away, they may get stuck in the mindset that they won’t be able to keep up.  

Adding to this dilemma is the fundamental truth that the future is always uncertain. 

The world is changing, and although we know it will be far more “digital” than it is now, we don’t know precisely what that means. Employers don’t know for sure what skills they will need or what jobs they’ll be able to offer. Academic institutions aren’t sure which degrees, certifications, and programs will be in the highest demand. Employees can’t be guaranteed that the skills they invest in will reap adequate rewards.

The Path Forward

The twin side of every challenge is an opportunity. In the face of uncertainty, there is almost always a natural advantage for those who move forward anyway. 

We see this happening already across companies and education organizations that are beginning to offer a variety of novel opportunities to gain skills and achieve certifications. 

Online courses, many of which are free, coding boot camps, and mentorships are popping up everywhere. 

Often, these opportunities are geared toward people in unskilled or less-skilled jobs or those who are just entering, or re-entering, the workforce.  

We are effectively in a “trial and error” phase where there is a growing abundance of opportunities to acquire specific skills in a reasonably short period, at a reasonable cost. Many prestigious universities are placing bets on this form of education. One example is edX, a non-profit founded by MIT and Harvard, which offers exceptionally accessible online learning opportunities tailored to people with no existing skills, or just a basic level of knowledge and experience that can be expanded upon. Other examples include Udemy, which bills itself as the leading global marketplace for learning and instruction, and Coursera, which uses the tagline, “we envision a world where anyone, anywhere can transform their life by accessing the world’s best learning experience”. General Assembly, in addition to its roster of online courses, works closely with large corporations to understand what skills will be needed in the future, and who will need them. From there, they create training programs like coding boot camps that are tailored to specific job types.

In short, while the Fourth Industrial Revolution is creating real urgency for many workers, there are, at the same time, a wide variety of pathways to bolster skills and prepare for new jobs in a more digital world.

Even amid all these educational opportunities, there remain a handful of challenges that people, especially those most at risk, need to address. Not everybody likes school. Not everybody learns in the same way. Not everybody has a mastery of the fundamentals taught in primary education that is required to learn new skills. How many workers will have to overcome significant obstacles to show up on the first day of class?

Underneath the layer of skills, and accompanying knowledge, that is needed for success is a foundation of character attributes that ought to be the priority for many who will need to make job transitions. The ability to work hard and apply discipline to what may be months of evening or weekend courses or mentorships will be critical for success. However, in the absence of strong internal motivation, that may be beyond reach for most. That is why the ability to generate genuine interest or curiosity about a new subject will be so important. Curiosity is a powerful state. 

It produces positive emotions, including the feeling of being energized and enthralled. Curiosity also has a positive effect on cognition, effectively turbo-charging the ability to focus and think. (5) That extra level of focus and thinking is key to acquiring both knowledge and skills.

Developing curiosity is itself a project. It must be authentic and, therefore, must start with a personal understanding of existing interests and desires and articulation of life goals and ideally a sense of individual purpose. Curiosity then becomes the fuel in the engine that drives us toward a better future. It encourages the search toward avenues for learning, whether they be traditional or non-traditional education paths, company training, boot camps, or mentorships.

For the many workers whose jobs or careers are bound to change, the lesson is not to wait for the future to get here. Now is the time to decide what matters, and what kind of personal investments will be necessary to achieve that. 

The road may be steep, and the future is uncertain. But the time for commitment and action is upon us, and the good news is that there are now, more than ever, an abundance of opportunities to learn how to survive and thrive in a digital future.

References:
(1-4) World Economic Forum, Towards a Reskilling Revolution, January 2019
(5) Mindshift, How the Power of Interest Drives Learning, November 2013