CELEBRATING BUSINESS-AS-UNUSUAL

Have you heard of “fast fashion?” Research that has been conducted by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation has indicated that global clothing production has doubled in the last 15 years, predominantly as a result of what is known as  “fast fashion”. Fast Fashion is on-trend, cheap-to-produce clothing mimicking  luxury and high-end products – and is delivered to customers at a much faster rate. The fast, in fact, indicates that turnaround time is two to four weeks from design to arrival in stores, which is contra the four to nine months that mass retailers typically require. The model has proven so successful that income from “fast fashion” has just hit a new high of £70bn yearly.

Yet there is a dark side to this consumer trend, as this dramatic increase in clothing has seen an even steeper rise in waste. Studies have indicated that popular synthetic materials, such as polyester, are dramatically contributing to the issue of ocean plastic pollution.

But there is an alternative to this fast-paced fashion binge. This month, we’re looking at how fashion and style can be elevated without being manipulative.  With a focus on quality products that are ethically and socially sourced, it’s possible to enjoy long-lasting style which causes much less damage to the earth and can keep you intentional, focused, and healthy.

Never mind fast fashion. We’re looking at slow fashion.

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How do we balance the quest for our best work with the desire to nurture our long-term, loving relationships?

With Season Two’s launch only a short way ahead of us- coming October 9 – we want to invite you to sit with some of the questions raised by Episode 10 of the first season of the Tracking Wonder Podcast.

As entrepreneurs and creatives, we know the feeling of pouring our whole heart into our work. Of devoting all our attention to the project at hand in pursuit of something greater than ourselves.

How do we make room for the people we love—and love us back?

The episode was a conversation with Susan Piver, renowned Shambhala Buddhist teacher, New York Times bestselling author, and founder of the world’s largest virtual mindfulness community, the Open Heart Project.

We also want to invite you to join our free no-hitch Wonderpod Club to talk about this episode with a member of the Tracking Wonder Team.

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You are seven years old…

Who would think that such an invitation of five words could make a difference in how you experience your work, solve creative problems, or otherwise feel fulfilled and on-purpose? Those five words could profoundly shift your creativity.

Yet that’s the invitation Tracking Wonder’s founder Jeffrey Davis extended to the listeners of our first season of the Tracking Wonder Podcast.

With Season Two’s launch just around the corner – coming October 9 – we wanted to invite you to look back at some favorite episodes and the questions they raise, to consider during our “grown-up” years of seeking our best work.

And we want to invite you to join our free no-hitch Wonderpod Club to talk about these episodes together. The first episode we’re diving back into is one of Season One’s most popular.  (more…)

CELEBRATING BUSINESS-AS-UNUSUAL

When it comes to authenticity and integrity in doing business, branding, and marketing, we at Tracking Wonder have a simple tenet: Elevate, don’t manipulate.

In our times we have an opportunity for businesses and brands of all sizes – from the company of one to the mega-corporation – to step up and do business-as-unusual. People in the early 21st century are hungry to engage brands they can trust. They want brands that lead with their ideals and that genuinely provide value in more than a money-for-product/service way.

We want to Elevate & Highlight each month some of our favorite brands who have a keen entrepreneurial eye yet who also don’t sacrifice their mission for the bottom line. We’re also including some of what we see in the conversations and cultural moments of branding and innovation. Let us know what speaks to you.

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Launching is exciting. At least that’s the story you typically see promoted with offers about launching your big program or offer or website.

The story you don’t hear is the full range of emotions you will experience leading up to a launch.

After all, when you launch an offer or website, you are Investing considerable time, resources, cognitive creative bandwidth, and labor into what is being launched. That investment translates to an implicit or explicit emotional investment in the launch. You have expectations of how people will respond and react – which you hope will be favorable.

This is a feeling that I know all too well – such as when we launched the Tracking Wonder Podcast. It took me four years from first seeding the idea through to committing to it. From the moment of commitment to the actual launch six months later, I experienced a full range of emotions – fortunately, tempered now in part because I have gone through this emotional journey numerous times.

For all Tracking Wonder clients, from fashion brands to health & wellness brands, corporate consulting brands to personal growth brands, author platform brands to organizational brands, we ask our clients to put intellectual and emotional skin in the game.

And we’ve realized that the journey follows the same steps, what we refer to as the 8 Emotional Stages of Launching.

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At Tracking Wonder, we’ve baked collaboration into much of what we’ve created.

Our free international community of entrepreneurs and creatives fosters alliances, partnerships, and networking.

I’ve collaborated with other brands to produce events. I’ve built Tracking Wonder’s own team around true collaboration. I’ve facilitated business artist meetups around the world based on the idea of collaboration.

And I’ve helped business leaders, entrepreneurs, and creatives finesse how to develop effective collaborations.

Collaboration – be it through conversation, community, or working with another person – can be electric, offering a powerful stimulant for your creative brain.

Conversely, there will be times when collaboration is a drain, and what you need most is solitude.

The careful balancing act between collaboration and solitude looks differently for different people but there are a few universal principles to help you decide when to collaborate, and when it is you might want to sit alone with your thoughts.

And there is one surprisingly simple, yet vital, ingredient that’s needed in order to make either collaboration or solitude effective.

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Every month we bring you the best articles we find in brand, innovation, and creativity.

In the digital age, how do brands demonstrate authenticity? How do companies set themselves apart from other brands? What inspires customer loyalty? This month’s digest answers these questions and explores solutions. Some of these solutions include utilizing psychology in branding, exploring behavioral economics, accessing functions of the brain to inspire customers and more. We look into new findings on creativity and are offered answers on how to promote creativity within ourselves – it may just mean working differently. And good branding demands creativity, but now it also requires culture. Read more to learn what customers are expecting out of companies. The answers are situated within these questions.

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A sense of purposeful, meaningful work is one of the most vital ways that high-achieving creatives and creative entrepreneurs deal with the daily challenges that they face.

Plus, research has shown that now, more than ever, people are hungry for brands that are driven by purpose.

I discussed the pursuit of purposeful work in episode 2 of the Tracking Wonder podcast “Do We Find Purpose or Test It Out?”, with podcaster, blogger and, author Katie Dalebout and with executive coach, speaker, and author Caroline Adams Miller.

We talked about the value of journaling when it comes to self-awareness, making meaning of our lives and healing, and some advice around taking care of yourself in the pursuit of a purposeful life.

To help encourage and motivate you to show up and be true to your purpose, I have curated some further ways you can live with the question: Do we find our purpose or test it out?

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Once there was a girl who learned to say “yes” to her mother’s requests to please her and “yes” to her friends so as not to make waves and “yes” to her teachers to get good grades.  

As a business owner she learned to say “yes” to every opportunity to speak for free and “yes” to all possible clients who asked if she could do something for them different from the previous client and “yes” to every shiny online object that someone said would save the day and make her an extra 6 figures in 6 months and “yes” to her child’s every demand and “yes” to her partner’s every request.

By the time she was 37 she was “yessed to death.”

I know this woman well, and what I’d say to her is the same as I’d say to you: To fly, leap, or wisely grow, you need to learn how and when to say “no.”

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Andrii Nikolaienko on Pexels

Every month we bring you the best articles we find in brand, innovation, and creativity.

It’s simple. Just be human. That’s this month’s advice given by experts who are studying the shifts customers and other businesses are desiring to observe within companies. More than ever, customers want brands that are authentic about their values. And people are supporting the brands they believe in while speaking out on social platforms about the ones they don’t. To provide some insight on focusing efforts on genuineness we spotlight articles about acculturating brands through storytelling, why employees are the best word-of-mouth marketers, who is driving this cultural shift in branding and more. We leave off this month’s digest with a tip about the psychology of sensory branding to create meaningful experiences for your customers.

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