I watched a video the other day recorded by Nic Askew, one of his soul biographies, during the last days of Kay Denise Cannon’s life. Kay was amongst other roles the President of the International Coaching Federation. I’ve included a link to video below and really advise you to watch it.
One of the overwhelming messages I took away from her very moving account of her realisation that she had to prepare for death, is the fact that we spend most of our time in ‘Fear and Doubt’.
Thank you Kay for this message, which I will treasure for the rest of my life, because it’s such a truth and so obvious that this is indeed the case.
I had the realisation a few months ago that most of us walking on planet earth are in suffering. Some you will have heard that saying from Buddhist teachings. And that suffering is clear to me now, it’s ‘Fear and Doubt’.
It inspired me to create the Graffiti image above.
Stay away from ‘Fear and Doubt’ as much as you can please?
Trump shouting at the Press — Michael & Josh — #weeklycartoon
We’ve portrayed Trump previously as ‘Pinocchio’. We were inspired to produce this one based on the ‘stories’ that come out of the Whitehouse on a regular basis. Enjoy!
He tells them that they are fake news, whilst he’s the one telling the biggest stories ever told.
Donald Trump blocking the Caravan — Michael & Josh — #weeklycartoon
The Pentagon is sending over 15,000 troops to the border with Mexico as thousands of Central American migrants walk towards the US in a caravan. You know who is being quite vocal over it all. It inspired our latest cartoon.
The US is like the old Wild West with Trump in charge. I picture him on horseback down the streets of Washington DC, wielding is rifle.
How do leaders become leaders? It’s a question I have asked myself since 1977.
That’s the year I started work in London and have worked for a variety of leaders, some good, some bad and some very ugly.
The ugliest of leaders walk around like they own the joint, order us to follow their commands and if we step out of line will tell us in no uncertain terms to either buck up or ship out. I’ve seen plenty of those in my career and in fact those are the ones I remember the most.
Bullying behaviour has a massive influence in leaders becoming leaders. You only have to look at Korea, Russia, Syria and the big old USA.
At heart we’re still all apes and warriors and our evolution hasn’t changed much in our desire for ‘dominance hierarchy’.
So when the loudest ape in our community shouts, everyone listens and takes notice. Generally the loudest ape walks away with the prize, in the world of apes it means controlling the tribe and getting priority in choosing mates. No different in human communities then!
I know the population delivers some pushback from time to time, dictators have indeed been toppled, but usually only to be replaced by another one. Somehow we want the bully in control, because they have the best chance of winning over our adversaries, our enemies, other threatening neighbours. If the bully is in charge we feel we’re safe and our family group is protected.
We have chosen our leaders, whether you like them or not, we’ve all voted them in, believing they will be our saviours and of course they have no such intention. They are only out to save themselves, just like you and me.
This for many of us is the question we contemplate for a lifetime. Often we align ourselves with the purpose of an organisation, a charity, a community and maybe even our own family.
And rarely do we get to fulfil our own individual purpose on this planet. Sure we may get some epiphanies along the way, when we say:
“I know what I’m here to do!”
And when we follow that calling, when we go down that route, that route which confirms to our minds what we’ve been put on this planet to do, we notice a small bit of doubt in the back of our minds that says:
“What if this isn’t it?”
That’s when the fear strikes, the fear that stops us from moving forward, the doubt that cripples us, that holds us back from being our true selves.
We’ve all had this feeling and even if you believe you haven’t been struck by this bug, I promise you, you will!
It’s okay, you are normal, you are part of the human race and I believe that we’re all put here to overcome that immense feeling of failure, that feeling of not fulfilling our true purpose, even if we think that we know what it is or was.
Let’s imagine, what if your purpose is actually to do exactly what you’re doing right now. I’m not talking about the work or non-work, I’m talking about what you’re doing right now in this moment.
In this moment you’re reading this article, correct?
Well that’s your purpose right now. Right now you’re reading the article, nothing else matters, that’s your purpose. When you finish reading the article and leave the screen to go and grab a coffee, then that’s your purpose now. And so it continues.
Your purpose are all those small elements of your life strung together into one long thread. The story thread of your life. If you want to innovate along the way by all means do that. Change direction with confidence, knowing that this is your purpose for now. I personally changed direction, pivoted into different projects about a dozen times. It’s only when I look back on those that I realise it was my purpose in those moments. Some worked out and many didn’t, but they all contributed to my story and made me who I am today.
Poem by Nic Askew, which arrived in my inbox the day after I wrote this!
THE WHISPER AND THE ECHO
A man looked for meaning. For his very place in life.
He searched high and low.
He’d often hear a whisper, calling his name from the other side of what seemed like a door.
A door that remained hidden from his ability to see.
Frustrated, he’d knock on everything that resembled a door. Turning here, and there. Turning just about anywhere.
Then one day, unannounced, it opened.
And he realised that he’d been knocking from the inside. And that the whisper had been an echo.
The echo of his own soul reminding him that he was already home.
Nic is a Former (Geographical) Explorer and (Business) Managing Director. Now an Educator and Film Maker. He is the creator of Soul Biographies (®), which includes the search for ‘The Soul of America‘. And the profound INNER VIEW Method. His work is in the arena of the Transformation of the Human Experience.
It’s barely the 1st November and I saw my very first Christmas advert on TV. I was having some lunch in the kitchen, whilst ‘Loose Women’ was playing on the TV. As this was on a commercial station, I saw and heard my first 2018 Christmas advert.
It’s only the 1st of November!!
This means we nearly have 2 months of Christmas adverts ahead of us. And that’s why I try to avoid any commercial TV or radio stations, because the adverts drive me insane.
The trouble is with the digital world we live in, it’s going to be almost impossible for me to avoid seeing and hearing adverts, especially the Christmas ones. Whenever I deliver any kind of talk or presentation about storytelling I ask the audience if they like the adverts. Usually I have just a few hands that go up and that’s because they work in the marketing industry, most of the room keep their hands down. 99.9% of everyone dislikes the adverts.
I work in the industry too and I can’t bear (or is it bare?) them.
Why?
Imagine a large rock and think of that rock as your brain. Now take a hammer, doesn’t matter what size, think of that hammer being the advert. Pound the hammer on the rock multiple times, what do you get?
A dent on the rock, that will stay there forever. And that’s what’s happening in your brain when the advertising industry continually repeat their adverts on all the possible channels and networks they can think of. You know the ones I’m talking about right?
Whether you’re browsing on the web or walking through the high street or shopping mall, notice what you are looking at. Might some of those items be the exact items that were being advertised?
Did you ever experience a phenomenon called ‘Amazon Amnesia’? Made up word of course, it’s not real but it has a nice ring to it doesn’t it? It’s when you receive a parcel in the post and you can’t even remember what it was that you ordered! Well you can thank the advertisers for that. You may even have experienced bringing home a product from the shopping mall or high street and wondered why you bought it. Yep, exact same reason. The hammer (advert) created a gorgeous neural pathway for that product in your brain. When you saw it you may have been compelled to buy it, without realising why.
99.9% of the junk we buy we do not need.
There are children going hungry, there are people living on the streets and all because society is too obsessed with wanting the next iPhone in their hands, when the current on is working absolutely fine. Nobody wants to connect the dots between buying stuff and the state of the world, whether it’s hunger, homelessness or climate change.
We’re all so totally self-obsessed with our own wants and needs that we dig our heads in the sand and just think of number one, yourself.
So, I came across a tweet by Kathleen Zellner — Law Offices of Kathleen T. Zellner, the lawyer who is working incredibly hard to prove Steven Avery’s innocence. It contained a few words by Steven, including his prison address if you’d like to write to him?
We only caught up with his story this year and have just finished watching season 2 of the documentary. It definitely is the best produced documentary I have ever watched, it is raw, very very real and heart breaking.
So here is my letter to Steven, which I am posting today.
Dear Steven
It’s only a short note but it is coming to you with love and best wishes. It’s only this year that my wife and I watched the first MAM on Netflix and we were astounded, upset and very angry with the US legal system. Then we watched MAM2 and we are delighted of course that Kathleen Zellner has taken on your case and she’s truly an amazing individual. We are setting the best intentions that Kathleen will have a major breakthrough on your behalf and is able to overturn the biggest crime of this century. We could see instantly the character of that disgusting man, the prosecutor, I won’t even bother to mention his name here. It is so clear to see what has occurred and it’s totally obvious what’s going on in the US legal system, just incredible. We’re equally disgusted with the whole Brendan case.
Keep strong, believe and remain focussed on the day that you will walk free again.
This is the intention mantra I have written for you.
“I am innocent, I am free and I’m living in joy and happiness”.
Just repeat this daily, either in your head or out-loud, it doesn’t matter if people hear you, they may wish to join in and replace it with the following sentence.
“Steven is innocent, Steven is free and he’s living in joy and happiness”.
Then move into the ‘art of allowing’. Release the thoughts of what might be, just focus on the outcome, not on the events, episodes, rumours and hear-say. Just keep focussed on that mantra.
It will work.
Wishing you a long life in freedom very soon.
Michael
It may help him, maybe not and maybe Kathleen won’t succeed, but this whole story is such a clear example of never giving up. Never giving up on your dreams, your aspirations and your goals.
Do write Steven a letter from you, help him to continue to believe that his life will be happy again.
Vincent van Gogh made some breakthrough paintings for about 5–10 years, before his life ended.
Andy Warhol was making some pretty radical art for about six or seven years, before going all popstar-formulaic for the rest of his life.
The Beatles had been together just over five years, before they started running out of gas.
Doonesbury was the world’s greatest comic strip in the early seventies, but around 1977–1980 it started losing a lot of its early charm and became a bit more “manufactured”.
J. K. Rowling spent a decade writing the Harry Potter books, then kicked back, a very rich woman. Fair enough.
The Clash, the greatest punk band ever, had a good run of about five years, then imploded.
Even Pablo Picasso, probably the most inventive artist in the history of the world, maxed out at Guernica in the late 1930s and coasted till he died in the 1970s.
And businesses are not that different.
They’ll do amazing work for their first decade as a growing concern, before going public and becoming same ol’, same ol’ commodified, or being bought out and swallowed up by a larger competitor (or going out of business altogether).
What does this tell us? That even with the greatest creators in the world, inventiveness is not unlimited. The gods give us a brief window, and we either jump through it or we don’t.
Five or ten years is not a long time. Five or ten years goes very fast.
Know this when your time comes, and act swiftly.
—
I received this article via email from @gapingvoid and thought it was too good and I had this overwhelming feeling to share it. You can see the original email below and here. Note they misspelled van Gogh’s surname, oh my I was distraught about that. A fellow Dutchman and they misspelled his name!
I came across the term ‘micro-moments’ when I attended a talk by Qasim Majid, the CEO of digital agency ‘Wow-Zone’ — https://www.wow-zone.com.
It made perfect sense to me at the time. According to Google ‘Micro-moments’ are critical touch points within today’s consumer journey, and when added together, they ultimately determine how that journey ends.
We hear a lot these days about being in the moment, instead of living in the past or future but very little is discussed about those ‘micro-moments’ in marketing. Nowadays we are so addicted to our mobile phones, surfing the web and social media channels, whilst also communicating via text with our business colleagues and loved ones. This means we are absorbing tiny (micro) bits of content in split second increments because we jump from app to app, experiencing a ton of distractions along the way.
So how do we capture the attention of those micro-moment actors?
Only by knowing what they are actually searching for or even having some insight into their habits, their dreams and desires.
That’s why Amazon are so incredibly successful, they already know and can deliver the right messages with incredible accuracy. How many times have you bought something from Amazon and wondered afterwards why you actually bought it. Was it because they suggested it or was it because you did actually need it? Probably the former.
It’s a never-ending puzzle for marketers to solve.
Dr Christine Blasey Ford, Brett Kavanaugh hearing — Michael & Josh #weeklycartoon
After following the Dr. Christine Blasey Ford and Brett Kavanaugh’s testimonies in connection with the sexual assault incident, it reminded me of The Muppet Show with these old guys sitting in their box shouting abuse at the performance.
It inspired my thought process for our latest cartoon.
Theresa May and Michael Barnier — Michael & Josh #weeklycartoon
The current debate at the moment gave me a sense of the ‘Wizard of OZ’. Theresa May is the ‘Scarecrow’ (a scared crow) and Michel Barnier is the ‘Tin Man’ (inflexible).
I then saw them on that famous game show, ‘Deal or No Deal’.
It inspired our latest cartoon, enjoy! And the media are whipping up a ‘fear frenzy’.
The Goose that laid the golden egg…Carillion The partners at Deloitte (the auditors) are receiving a £832k bonus because of their profits when they failed to spot the issue with Carillion.
The others, KPMG, Ernst & Young and PWC are not guilt free either.
The other day I met a homeless gentleman from Romania who lost his cleaning job at Carillion.
The fairy puts a spell on Jiminy Cricket and leaves by saying: ‘Now remember Pinocchio, be a good boy and always let your conscience be your guide’. Perfect I thought and it inspired our latest cartoon, enjoy!
Mike Pence and Donald Trump on the Moon with Deathstar behind them — Michael & Josh #weeklycartoon
I’m a bit behind with posting our cartoons here. This one was about when Mike Pence, US Vice President, announced the SpaceForce battling against space terrorists!
I couldn't get Toy Story out of my head, seeing Mike and Donald hand in hand on the Moon!
You may have never seen a movie by Alfred Hitchcock, but most of us will know that he had a fantastic ability to scare us in his movies.
Alfred Hitchcock was an English film director and producer, widely regarded as one of the most influential filmmakers in the history of cinema. Known as “the Master of Suspense”, he directed over 50 feature films in a career spanning six decades, becoming as well-known as any of his actors thanks to his many interviews, his cameo roles in most of his films.
We may not be like Alfred and we may not have the ability to write stories like he was able to. However we all are walking stories ourselves. We only have to be good at telling our own story.
Recently I attended a business event, where there were 3 keynote speakers and then those speakers were joined by another 2 business people to form a panel, which allowed us to ask questions of them.
I noticed that during the keynotes the speakers were very formal, business orientated and quite frankly boring.
But during the panel Q&A session they seemed more relaxed, were more authentic and actually often very vulnerable. They appeared more human, more real and not so fake.
Sorry, yes, their keynotes were fake and in fact most keynotes are fake. When you’re invited to do a keynote, you immediately feel that you have to impress the audience, share something so great about yourself so that the audience ‘buys’ you.
Actually being more human, authentic and vulnerable means the audience buys you instantly. Sure add some suspense like Alfred did, make them suffer a little, but do it in a way that’s real.
A Dutch bike, other may call it a sit-up-and-beg bike.
I cycled to the shops to collect something and buy some groceries. As I was packing up my groceries in the panniers on my bike an elderly gentleman walked past with his trolley. He was walking quite slowly as if he struggled moving his legs. He paused by me, had a big smile on his face and said ‘oh wow, she’s beautiful’.
Obviously he was talking about my Dutchie.
He continued to share with me that he loved cycling when he was younger and cycled from Kidderminster to Pontypridd, some 100 miles in one direction and also cycled back the next day taking a detour and cycling 140 miles back.
It certainly brought some memories back for him. He then shared with me that he would love to cycle again but that the roads were just to dangerous these days. I agreed with him, the roads in the UK are so scary to cycle on. I shared with him that as a lot of drivers in the UK have never cycled on the roads, they have very little or maybe even no empathy with cyclists and will regard them as a nuisance and in the way.
I certainly experience a lot of scary incidents on the UK roads with acts of road rage, horn noises and cars racing past too close for comfort, just needing to get past in a hurry. Really what are they rushing back to?
Anyway the gentleman continued to share that he was in quite poor health and suffers with Parkinson’s disease and he wasn’t actually very long for this world. My response was, actually we’re all not very long for this world. He suggested that he would be ahead of me, to which I responded, well someone has to lead the way.
He smiled, laughed and looked for his wife and went on his way.
It was a wonderful interaction that I wanted to make a record of. It always pays to pause and have a chat with a stranger.
You may have heard it before. ‘You are the biggest storyteller in your life’. And most of it are lies. Lies about the people around you, lies about the world around you and most importantly lies about yourself.
Our mind is incredibly creative but it’s also very stupid. Because of your own conditioning, you believe the lies you have been telling yourself. Those lies become your truth because you have been thinking them over and over.
And this is how the media, advertising and politics work. Say something over and over and eventually it becomes hard wired in your neural pathways, a physical connection is made between your neurons that eventually become your truth, your beliefs and now you behave and act upon those new beliefs (lies) you have been exposed to, either by your own thinking or someone else’s thinking.
You (and I) believe we have free will and of course we do not. Free will disappeared when they invented the mortgage. Landowners (call them banks) realised that if they gave you a loan to buy some land (house) then basically they can determine your behaviour and actions to ensure you pay back that loan.
Queue the Bank of England and now you have removed free will in the minds of the world’s population.
You believe you are the hero in your life, when in actual fact you are just a character in a script which has been written by the over lords (and ladies) that own you.
I wouldn’t wish to presume of course, I can only go by the fact that I’ve never heard anyone talk about it or even hear anyone consider assessing it.
Picture the scene.
Marketing lay out their stall for the forthcoming year. They present their plan to the board of directors and show them a multi-million dollar spend on advertising, inbound marketing, posters, flyers, influencers, social media ads, SEO, PPC etc, etc.
Queue script writer/storyteller and video director. They present their video episodes, which includes a story about the founders of the business, the early pioneer clients, their current clients, their staff and their own individual stories in life and work and best of all an episode about why the organisation exists, their passion, value proposition and their why.
Which one sounds more interesting to you? And which one will have longevity in the minds of viewers, investors, customers, brand fans and kids?
Yeah, I thought so. Why isn’t everyone doing it then? Why does everyone on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn promote their crap and I’m only calling it crap because as we all know adverts suck!
When it comes to storytelling, we make it too complicated. We hear stories, narratives and anecdotes all the time, but we don’t turn around and say, ‘ah, that’s a story I am listening to or oh no, that’s a narrative or anecdote.
We just are engaged by what we’re listening to and we connect the dots in our brains in relation to what we have experienced previously. It’s almost impossible to create new neural pathways without referencing older neurological pathways that already exist.
For example whilst you are reading this, you in theory are creating a new neural pathway just with this short article. However the article can not exist on it’s own because you would not have any way of bringing it up from your memory. It has to be connected to something else that exists in your brain. You already have a neural pathway established which knows something about storytelling. For example when your mother or father told you a story, it’s likely that you will be able to recall what one of those stories were. Therefore you have some beliefs and opinions about stories already established. The neural pathways may be a pit rusty, but because you are receiving potentially new information about storytelling, you brain will attach the new information, the new neural pathway, to the old rusty pathway and refresh that part as well.
So now you have created more relationships to do with storytelling in your brain, which means whenever you hear, read or see something that mentioned storytelling you will be able to recall the whole lot in one go.
Clever or what?
But it’s the job of the speaker, writer, presenter to invoke this inside of you.
Without either a story, narrative or anecdote, which for me are all the same, you don’t have a chance to make the connections and therefore it will be totally forgettable.
