What’s New
Podcast: Linda Popky joins the Seattle Shrimp Tank podcast as a guest host. - Listen
Press Release: "Linda Popky Joins Shrimp Tank Seattle Podcast" - Award-winning marketer bring strategic marketing perspective to popular podcast. – Read release.
Podcast: Linda Popky interviews Roberta Matuson who talks about how important it is to have difficult conversations in a work environment, especially in a virtual and hybrid work environment. - Listen
Podcast: Deb Zahn talks with Linda Popky and Lisa Anderson, SAC Executive Directors, about what SAC (Society for the Advancement of Consulting) does and how it helps consultants build successful businesses. A Craft of Consulting podcast. - Listen.
SAC® Press Release: "Successful Organizations Move Beyond the Great Resignation" - Linda observes that great brands always attract great employees. – Read release.
Video: Just a Moment for Marketing: One-minute marketing tip videos. – View over 100 videos.
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Top of Mind Thursday – June 9, 2022: Leaning Out
Sheryl Sandberg, longtime COO of Meta/Facebook, recently announced she is leaving the company after 14 years.
When she joined Facebook from Google, Sheryl was widely praised for bringing adult leadership and stability to the then-fledgling company. There’s no doubt that her experience and leadership helped the company get to where it is today, and for that she should be commended.
But in 2013, she did something for which many women leaders in business have still not forgiven her: She wrote a book called Lean In, which told women that we were not succeeding because we weren’t leaning enough into our jobs–we needed to work harder and put more energy into gaining traction in order to move up the ladder in corporate America.
As someone with wealth and power, that was easy for Sheryl to say. But it didn’t trickle down to the rest of us. When I came to Silicon Valley in the late ’80s, I was often the only female manager in the room. Today, more than 30 years later, I look around and there are still very few women leaders, and almost no female CEOs.
That’s not for lack of trying. But to effect change, you need to have a structure that supports the growth and development of women leaders, which includes providing support for working mothers, and for eliminating the kind of bad behavior brought to our attention by the #MeToo movement.
Sheryl Sandberg herself walked back from the concept in her 2017 book, Option B: Facing Adversity, Building Resilience, and Finding Joy–written after the untimely, tragic death of her husband. She realized this wasn’t as simple as she’d made it out to be previously.
The problem is you can’t lean in when there’s nothing to lean against. What we need to do instead is to push forward and help set the stage for success for the next generation.
Over and out, lean in.
Contact me to find out how you can get heard above the noise–even in a crisis situation.
Catch the latest episodes of the hottest podcast on business and entrepreneurship…ShrimpTank Seattle Wednesdays at noon PT.
Check out our marketing thought leadership podcasts and the video trailer for my book, Marketing Above the Noise: Achieve Strategic Advantage with Marketing that Matters.
.
Let us help your business rise to the top.
linda@popky.com
(650) 281-4854
www.leverage2market.com
Top of Mind Thursday – June 2, 2022: HoJos is NoMo
The last Howard Johnson’s restaurant in America, in Lake George, NY, closed recently.
While Millennials and Gen Zers are saying, “Howard WHO?”, those of us of a certain age remember a time when the orange roofs of Howard Johnson’s were a familiar site along main streets and rest stops across the country.
Long before McDonalds and other fast food chains were found on every corner, travelers could count on HoJo’s to provide good food served quickly and inexpensively…with 28 flavors of ice cream to boot.
But the advent of well-managed, highly efficient fast food chains displaced HoJos and other similar restaurant chains. Over the last 35 years, many of the restaurants were sold off, leaving only a handful of locations still carrying the HoJo banner. As of last month, the last of those sites is gone.
Today, we have hundreds of choices in fast food–from burgers to tacos to pizza to Chinese food and ice cream. We have pre-made meal kits that show up at your door ready to heat and eat, and Amazon delivering groceries the same day you order them.
But we don’t have that piece of Americana that was a welcome site to highway travelers. RIP Howard Johnson’s (or as we used to call them for fun, Joward Hohnson’s).
Contact me to find out how you can get heard above the noise–even in a crisis situation.
Catch the latest episodes of the hottest podcast on business and entrepreneurship…ShrimpTank Seattle Wednesdays at noon PT.
Check out our marketing thought leadership podcasts and the video trailer for my book, Marketing Above the Noise: Achieve Strategic Advantage with Marketing that Matters.
.
Let us help your business rise to the top.
linda@popky.com
(650) 281-4854
www.leverage2market.com
Top of Mind Thursday – May 26, 2022: Insanity
Yet again, we are reeling from another mass shooting at an elementary school. This time it was 22 people dead in a small town in Texas.
We are all shocked and heartbroken to see this happen, but it really should not be a surprise. There were 27 other shootings on school campuses already this year, and more children have died in school shootings in 2022 than police officers in the line of fire.
That’s not to say mass shooters don’t endanger police. A security guard was killed in last week’s Buffalo shooting, and three police officers were injured in Texas this week. (So much for arming teachers–those law enforcement professionals were all well-trained professionals and armed).
We hear the typical reactions: Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families.
There’s nothing wrong with that–but it doesn’t solve the problem either.
What we’re doing now is clearly not working. Until we take action to address gun violence, this will keep happening over and over again.
To expect anything else would be insane.
Contact me to find out how you can get heard above the noise–even in a crisis situation.
Catch the latest episodes of the hottest podcast on business and entrepreneurship…ShrimpTank Seattle Wednesdays at noon PT.
Check out our marketing thought leadership podcasts and the video trailer for my book, Marketing Above the Noise: Achieve Strategic Advantage with Marketing that Matters.
.
Let us help your business rise to the top.
linda@popky.com
(650) 281-4854
www.leverage2market.com
Top of Mind Thursday – May 19, 2022: Up, Up, and Away
Gas prices. Food prices. Home prices. Interest rates. Inflation is dramatically driving up all of these–and more.
This should not come as a surprise. More than $5 trillion was pumped into the US economy to soften the impact of COVID-19 related layoffs and losses. Lockdowns in China have caused major shortages of many components and stopped the shipment of finished goods to much of the world. The aftermath of the war in Ukraine has caused food and energy shortages–which translate into higher prices. All of these factors are known to impact inflation rates.
Yet, the unemployment rate (which spiked through the roof at the peak of the pandemic) is near an all-time low and businesses across many industries are unable to find enough workers. Consumers are traveling again and demand for goods remains high.
So what’s going on? I’m not an economist, and I doubt even those who are trained in economic theory could accurately predict what will happen next. But one thing I know for sure: Panicking does no one any good–ever.
We’ve spent more than two years adapting to a global pandemic (which, BTW, is not over yet). We’ve survived inflation in the 1980s that was dramatically worse than what’s expected now. Americans can adapt to current economic conditions without major suffering–after all, no one is attacking us with missiles and bombs for the 85th day in a row.
Prices may go up for awhile. But there’s no need to throw confidence to the wind. This, too, will pass.
Contact me to find out how you can get heard above the noise–even in a crisis situation.
Catch the latest episodes of the hottest podcast on business and entrepreneurship…ShrimpTank Seattle Wednesdays at noon PT.
Check out our marketing thought leadership podcasts and the video trailer for my book, Marketing Above the Noise: Achieve Strategic Advantage with Marketing that Matters.
.
Let us help your business rise to the top.
linda@popky.com
(650) 281-4854
www.leverage2market.com