A content strategist, a customer experience consultant, and a leadership coach walk into a bar…
To be honest, we’re not quite sure how this joke goes.
But we did have a breakfast seminar. It took place on the 24th of November at 58VE in central London. There were coffee, croissants, and a crowd.
Emma Bell, an author, a personal development coach, and a force-of-nature facilitator, spoke first. She talked about the ingredients that turn highly-strung and weary professionals into balanced and grounded high-performers.
She spoke about the importance of introspection in the interest of becoming a better listener.
In fact, the title of her book says it all: The True You. Go ahead, download her book here.
Then our man Christopher Brooks took the stage. He spoke about ways of measuring customer experience.
But no. It wasn’t just the usual suspects, such as NPS indicators.
Instead, Chris spoke about that magic sauce that allow great businesses to listen. He spoke about that EXQ panacea, which enables businesses to profit from rich customer experience.
Finally, Pete Martin rolled out the content wagon. He discussed the importance of strategy, ranging over 2000 years of evidence, encompassing Sun Tzu and Plato in the sweep of history.
For contemporary brands, he highlighted how to speak with authenticity and good intent.
He stressed how brands should do so with a deep understanding of what the customer actually needs.
If you’d like to see the presentation slides, you can find them here.
You may also be wondering what our three presenters were doing on the same stage? What do they have in common?
The answer is: all of them listen. Even though they were tasked with speaking during our breakfast seminar, their individual fields of expertise revolve around the notion of listening.
They just happen to come to the same idea from different angles: ‘Tune in to your inner self.’ ‘Measure customer experiences reliably.’ ‘Create content that resonates.’
They are basically all saying: ‘Listen before you speak’.
Which is such an important message in today’s raucous and over-saturated media environment.
Which is also what we should have done before attempting to open with a joke that hasn’t even been written yet.
Because when you think about it, there’s so much noise in the world already. We should really strive to add value. Not just volume.
