Newsletters I Love

It's always fun to review my notes from the past week. Every Monday, I start a new thread in my phone notes with everything that made me say "huh!?" "wow!" "really?" or "interesting!" And those are the things I'm happy to share with you. I'm always surprised by how many discoveries I make in one week and how quickly we forget!

I'm not claiming to know everything. My strength lies in remaining curious and alert for new information. 💡 I think that's why I enjoy being an independent consultant. We bring so much expertise and a completely fresh perspective to the world.

➡️ Marketing: Finally explained!

What is marketing? This is genuinely the best explanation I have ever heard:

If a circus is coming to town and you put up a sign,
💡 That's advertising.

If you put the sign on the back of an elephant and walk it through the town,
💡 That's promotion.

If the elephant walks through the mayor's flowerbed and the local newspaper writes a story about it,
💡 That's publicity.

If you get the mayor to laugh about it,
💡That’s public relations.

But if you tell them about the various entertainment booths you have, the fun they will have, and answer their questions,
💡That’s sales.

And if you planned the entire thing,
💡That’s marketing.

➡️ BrandLove: Kiehl’s reminds us that kids should stay kids

I’ve already mentioned here that I have an assignment with one of my favorite Belgian skincare brands: CÎME. That's why I've been paying close attention to the beauty sector recently, observing trends and campaigns from other brands. This deeper dive into the industry led me to discover Kiehl’s fun new campaign, which is designed to remind everyone that kids should stay kids. Love this message! Kiehl’s is committed to not intentionally marketing their products to children under 16, unless to address specific needs like eczema or acne. Good one!

➡️ Entrepreneurships: Who do you know?

Speaking of kids: I have two, and one of them really needs to get his first summer job. He is in need of money and he is not getting it from me. So for a while now, we have been nudging him to go out and find a job. Obviously, at his age, it's not about the content of the job, but about how much money he can earn quickly. The boy found his well-paid job through his godmother, and he learned a valuable lesson for life: Doing business is not about what you know, but about who you know.

Here are four pieces of advice I also give to my teenagers (and they are sometimes also really applicable to us as adults):

• Let go of everything you can’t control and do your best with the things you can. (This could change your life.)

• Failure is the best thing you can go through. The faster you fall and learn from it, the faster you’ll succeed. Not only is failure okay, it’s necessary to achieve your goals.

• School is the perfect place to practice grit. The faster you learn to be comfortable with the uncomfortable, the faster you’ll achieve the unthinkable.

• Thirty minutes of undistracted work is better than three hours of distracted work. Learning how to focus is key.

➡️ To read: newsletters are 💥

Last week, I was giving a workshop and promoting a really good newsletter I follow. The client asked if I had any other recommendations, and I replied that I would think about her question. OMG, I never thought of promoting my own newsletter! This is seriously wrong in my head. I really need to improve my promotion skills.
Anyway, here is a list with the newsletters I follow and like to read:
- Pretty Little Marketeer: about the latest social media trends
- Go-To-Millions: about e-commerce
- Christ Coolen: about marketing Psychology (in Dutch)
- Growth in Reverse : about growth strategies
- and of cours: Branding Donkeys → about brand (and life) strategy (you see what I did there? Trying a new tagline - Please give me your feedback via DM. I’m curious what you think!)

See you in my DM’s
Or otherwise: see you next week!
Bye!
X Ingrid