Should have been the #20th

Does this picture look like hard work to you? Well, it is—in a nice way. But it’s still work. I’m ghostwriting a book, seemingly relaxed with a stunning view, but completely in my bubble. Throughout the day, I engage in holiday activities with my family - however, my mind is busy thinking about the words I’ll write next.
Meanwhile, I'm back home in Belgium. My plan was to send out this newsletter last week and to celebrate the 20th edition this week. But that didn’t happen—I was busy writing and enjoying the holiday. 💥

For the new subscribers: welcome to the 19th edition of Branding Donkeys, sent every week until I decide to stop. Please forward this to ONE friend today and tell them either to subscribe here or to be more curious about life. ha!

➡️ Personal: 19 newsletters

Holidays are over: and I’m back like never before. Well… not instantly right now, but I will be soon. During the holiday, while I wasn’t writing newsletters, I realized how much I missed writing newsletters. I took some time to reflect and decide whether I enjoyed this work and wanted to continue. The answer is a resounding 'yes!' I admit, every week it feels like, 'Damn, I have to send out the Branding Donkey stuff,' and it can feel like a chore. But then, the reactions I get from you guys… GOLD. Thank you. 🙏 
(I’m realizing now that I'm giving you 'I wrote 20 newsletters' content, which would be perfect for my 20th edition, but that’s next week! I need to save some of that inspiration, so I'll continue to share my plans in the next one. Plus, I start working for a new client. Also something to talk about next week! )

➡️ Branding : What’s a good name?

Brainstorming about a name… I can’t even count how many times I've done this. Sometimes I doubt the name 'Branding Donkeys,' and I have to be honest—there’s no elaborate strategy behind it. I know: that might not seem like a good pitch for a newsletter about branding strategy, but I just quickly needed a name. I'm not exactly disliking it either. Maybe one day there'll be a rebranding. But for now, this is it.

This is how my thinking process went:

• I wanted a name that hints at what the content is about -> branding

• I wanted a name with a comical tone -> donkeys

• Donkeys are seen as stupid but in fact they are really smart.

• Anything can be branded in life, even a donkey!

Nothing of the name Branding Donkey relates with the ideas I found in the lovely weekly newsletter of Harry Dry. But I think it’s a really good inspiration if you look for a name of a product line in the future. At least, it’s not boring, and that’s always the way to go.

➡️ Leadership : We are living in the 'Phone Age' 

Did I mention how parenting teens and professional leadership are ridiculously similar in approach? As I mentioned, I was on vacation last week with my family. That's a holiday with two teens and their cell phones glued to their hands. I’ve resigned myself to the fact that my impact on their screen time is minimal, but I aim to use the Pavlovian method to create a queasy feeling whenever they mindlessly scroll. I've decided I’ll never stop nagging about it. My ambition is to become the nagging voice in their heads every time they pull out their devices. Voilà. Leadership goals.

Long story short, I read a super interesting article in The New Yorker about time. How we now live in a world where more people have access to mobile phones than clean toilets(!!). This fact is as alarming as it is significant. We are living in the 'Phone Age' and we're literally throwing our time away."

“Our struggle to behave responsibly and sanely with time—often labelled “distraction”—isn’t merely a matter of being manipulated. “We mustn’t let Silicon Valley off the hook, but we should be honest: much of the time, we give in to distraction willingly. Something in us wants to be distracted, whether by our digital devices or anything else—to not spend our lives on what we thought we cared about the most.”

Right?!
I also discovered that there is a secret bond” between slowness and remembering, and, conversely, between speed and forgetting. A man walking down the street tries to recall something; without realizing it, he slows down. Another man, recalling an unpleasant episode, begins to walk faster, as if creating distance from the memory, trying to outpace it. I found this to be a fascinating insight.

Since we're talking about time, I haven't tested this app yet, but it seems worth a try. Who's with me? “Swipe the App” will test your attention span. You can either explore all the content in about 15 minutes or swipe through it. SWIPE is free to download and watch, however, if you leave the app before completing, you will have to buy it back for 99 cents. Haha, genius!

If you want to read more about time and the concept of it, I strongly advise you to follow Lien De Ruyck. ⏱

➡️ Brandlove: A bed for your phone

Not only our teenagers suffer from phone addictions. (I recently had a chat with a friend who was complaining that his boomer parents always scroll through their phones when he is in conversation with them. Haha!)

Do you know the brand 'Emma Sleep'? It’s a mattress and bed company that masters marketing very well. They recently invented a bed for your phone: The Emma Recharger! Including hybrid mattress and a graphite-infused foam layer to regulate temperature.
“For many of us, our phones are an extension of our person which means they’re in constant use and go through many of the same stresses as us everyday. And yet, we don’t always show them the same care as we do ourselves." - Emma Sleep UK.

Obviously, it was a April Fool’s Day prank, but I liked the approach!

➡️ Creativity: “Please see feedback in comments”

I don’t know about you, but if you do any kind of creative work, then you know how tricky feedback can be. Valuable, yes, but mostly tricky. You’ve just poured your all into a project, you’ve inevitably exposed a bit of yourself through your work, and then comes the fEEdBAcK.

So a little shoutout from me to marketeers: Stop abusing creatives and let them do their jobs. Creative work is all about 'les goûts et les couleurs'. Everyone has an opinion. Give a clear briefing and let creativity flow. 🌸

To read ➡️ These 3 books I’m not reading anymore

I started to read three books last week, but none of them could keep my attention. I began with the biography of Steve Jobs, 'Becoming Steve Jobs.' Maybe it's because I recently read about the founder of Nike, and I wasn't ready for another 'white guy starts something in his garage' story. I don’t want to dismiss the book entirely. So many people have given me positive reviews about it. It was probably just bad timing on my part.

The second book I couldn’t really focus on was 'Fokking Druk' by Thijs Launspach. It's a Dutch book about how being busy has become the new normal and about the burnout epidemic. Interesting, no doubt. But again, maybe you just shouldn't read books when you are writing one?

I also tried a novel because, well, vacation. The book 'The Sex Typist' was on a list of the best books. But phew, it wasn't my thing.

And so, I have no books to recommend this week.
Hopefully next week will be better in the 20th newsletter?

See you then!

X Ingrid