 Timberland is an iconic shoe manufacturer who for many years have been famous for their earthy brand of boots or clothes. Timberland has partnered with the Betabrand crowd funding platform, not for start up cash, but for ideas and feedback from the Timberland community to help them design their next collection 'Craftletic'. Timberland designers put together a number of concepts which the Timberland crowd then vote on. It gets narrowed down to a final three and the winning design is unveiled on the site in May 2016. It's such an interesting concept where brand owners are now putting the design and true feedback into the hands of their customers. The most important thing you can do is take your customer’s suggestions to heart and actually put the rubber sole to the road and do something with their feedback.
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 For many, getting out of bed in the morning is a real struggle. The Ramos Clock has been designed to help you rise and shine. It’s made up of a number of parts. The first part is a beacon which is operated through your phone and an app. The night before crashing out you set your phone for the time you’d like the beacon to go off. You then place the beacon in a separate room away from your bedroom. When the alarm goes off you then have to move your phone next to the beacon in order for it to stop ringing. You can even unplug the Ramos but batteries power it for hours. Now although it’s not foolproof, in that you could turn the whole thing off and go back to bed, but by getting up and getting active, chances are you'll stay up. It has some nice features including the courtesy mode where the alarm will sound for 15 seconds and give you one minute to get your phone and bring it closer to the beacon. You can also set up a snooze bank which allows a finite number of snoozes before you have to take your phone to the beacon. It’s been through a number of successful campaigns on Kickstarter so there’s obviously something of value around this product. So if you have a hard time getting up in the morning, give the Ramos alarm clock a spin.  Oral B, one of the world's great brands in oral care, have come up with what we think is a first with an app-enabled toothbrush that can help you identify any dental hygiene issues that may be hiding in your mouth. Dentists say we should brush for 2 minutes at a time, when in reality the average is said to be more like 45 seconds. This new smart toothbrush will not only time how long you are brushing but will also tell you if you’re using the correct force for the right amount time and equally in all the zones of your mouth. The toothbrush hooks up to an app and using a video recognition algorithm and your smartphone's camera, it can identify the brush's face and merge the camera with brush data to calculate the position of your teeth and divide it into zones. It’s being launched at the Mobile World Congress, one of the industry's largest showcases for personal technology. Pretty interesting breakthrough and one wonders how long it will take to become fully commercial. Teams often make reference to the people around them, saying they need to hold each other accountable. In fact, many individuals look to mentors, trainers, coaches and facilitators to hold them accountable and push them to achieve their goals. But surely it’s far more powerful when the discipline to get things done comes from you holding yourself accountable? What we need today is more self discipline, more times when we hold ourselves accountable and don’t look to others to push us. After all, when those people are gone, so is your discipline. You need to make a decision to be disciplined. You make a decision to be disciplined on what you eat, how you use social media, how you use your time with the family, how much you read and when, the time that you allocate to just sit and think - whatever is important to you and your life. The definition of the word decision is 'to cut off'. Cut off any possibility that you will not do what is required to take you towards your dreams. Your dreams for your business, your health, your wellness, your family, your relationships and the things that make you happiest. By making the decision to be more disciplined in more areas of your life you will become stronger, healthier, more loving, more loved, fitter, smarter and ultimately happier. Discipline equals freedom.  We all know the feeling. You’re on a long haul flight and three quarters of the way through the flight you have to go to the bathroom. It’s messy, disgusting, you don’t want to touch anything and overall it's a pretty dismal experience. It seems too good to be true but news to hand is that Boeing have designed a self cleaning toilet on board their flights. Using ultra violet light, it cleans the bathroom in just seconds. The toilet seat, sink and countertop will be cleaned using the same type of technology normally found in tanning beds, only not harmful to people. The design also incorporates and hands free faucet, soap dispenser, trash flap, toilet lid and seat and a hand dryer to decrease the number of surfaces we have to touch on our long haul flight. Pretty keen to see this innovation in action but all reports are, it’s a game changer.  Charities today are having to become more creative to generate resources and cash in order to make a difference in the world. With so many great intiatives, it's hard to cut through and find a way to separate yourself from the clutter and generate funds or help for a worthwhile project. This one caught our eye. Two young London creatives partnered with AirBnB to create Homes of the Junglewhich essentially uses photos which their volunteer friends took at the 'Jungle Camps' refugee camp in Calais, to create faux listings on AirBnB as though they were for rent. The fee that would normally go to the owner of a home, goes to the refugee camp to help them improve terrible conditions that these refugees have to endure. This is such an interesting concept and is a great way to get people to donate to a cause directly, when they can actually see where their money will be going. The guys are hoping that next year the Homes of the Jungle campaign will be booked out and that much needed funds and support can go towards helping these refugees.  Every day in every way, we are selling. Like it or not, our lives revolve around persuasion and influence....in and out of the workplace. Philip Hesketh is a motivational speaker specialising in just that, the art of persuasion and influence. His keynote talks have inspired thousands of professionals in all parts of the world to engage in better relationships with their clients and customers and to ultimately increase sales. Philip's first book 'How to Persuade and Influence People' is an Amazon number one best seller and described by Amazon as 'The Best Persuasion and Influence Book'. Philip is an excellent story teller and we are sure you will love listening to this show as much as we enjoyed recording it.  Recently I met with a number of publishers and agents about a book project and we got to chatting about how big, popular and powerful the adult colouring book category has become. It’s been around for a while and it’s still going from strength to strength. It’s gone from being something for kids to being a full blown category in book stores for us grown ups. Yotel New York is an upmarket hotel who has teamed up with Brooklyn artist Ian Sklarsky to create custom colouring and activity books for its guests. Featuring NYC inspired drawings, Sklarsky believes that colouring books are a great way for guests to focus on the present moment and let their creativity flow. Colouring in uses a number of senses from the tactile to the visually stimulated. Cracking idea and likely we’ll see more of it. It will be interesting to see how many businesses and categories can step outside tradition and start to embrace trends like colouring books.  Building a tunnel can be a long and laborious task. However a clever invention called the "zipper truck" builds tunnels with less fuss, less time and less energy. Rather than being a lengthy and tedious process, Lock-Block Ltd, a construction material production company, has introduced an innovative system that makes quick and durable tunnels that can be used for pedestrian pathways, wine cellars, shelters and so on simply by having a connective brick format similar to lego. The idea is that you reverse the truck into the space where the tunnel is going to be built. You then surround the semi-circle back end of the trailer with these click together cement lock-blocks. They all lock in place and become stable once the truck drives out. The rear of the truck is like a half semi circle shape and made up of tiny wheels. As the truck rolls itself out from under the bridge, the remaining force of the bricks all blend together forming the construction. Pretty cool, and even better is that the structure can be re-used when disassembled. Many thanks to Espresso reader Rob for sending through this great video on Zipper Truck.  Before buying a book, we often check the reviews on Amazon. Before booking a hotel for an upcoming trip, we check Trip Advisor. There are hundreds of review websites that we can refer to to help us make an informed decision . However there’s no real resource to turn to when your business is dealing with another business. Until Now. CrowdReviews is a review source for business to business transactions. It collates reviews and ratings for people or businesses offering services such as web design, SEO optimisation and credit card processing. If it's something of interest you’d load your details onto the CrowdReviews site and then through a special algorithm, collates all available reviews and creates a summary based on various factors including the strength of your reviewer's reputation and whether negative reviews have been loaded. Pretty interesting concept that we’re going to see more of and something also likely to scare the heck out of any business with poor customer service.  Privoro is a Smartphone case that can alleviate your concerns about potential hacking or losing data on your mobile. Currently available for the iPhone, Privoro is a type of cage that surrounds the phone and makes it invisible from cell towers, WiFi hotspots, Bluetooth and other radio frequency technologies. The case can also block your camera which has the ability to transmit info from your phone to those that want to hijack it. If you then want to take a photo you simply lift the cover. It’s an interesting concept when it's said that the average American spends almost 5 hours a day on email and it's even scarier when you think about about how many times a day we grab our phones. Our lives are stored in the palms of our hand and Privoro is seemingly a tool we can use to keep the bad guys out. However with the amount of conversations you hear on public transport where people are loudly talking into their phones so that everybody within earshot can hear, one wonders whether a cage for your phone really matters. 
Our mental potential is massive if we choose to use our brains the way they were best designed for. Forward thinking businesses and organisations know that their future success will require more than technology and expertise alone - they need to tap into their greatest and most valuable asset - the minds of those who work for them. Dr. Jenny Brockis, Medical Practitioner, healthy brain advocate and future mind planner has long been fascinated by the brain and human behaviour. Elevating brain and organisational health is the way forward to build personal and professional capability, achievement and happiness. This show is a powerful reminder of what we can do to enhance our brains capacity.  There is a lot of talk around to-do lists. We all use them and they are seen as being an important part of productivity. But what about a not-to-do list? A daily list of the things that we will not do in our day. For example what things you won't eat? What things won't you do? What words won't you say to yourself? Regular readers of The Espresso will know that we like to turn things on their heads and look for alternatives. Perhaps a not-to-do list, highlighting even one or two things that you will focus on not doing in a day, could be a powerful performance and productivity tool. Consider the things in your day that steal your mojo, reduce your energy levels or get in the way of your happiness. Once you have made a list, pick one or two that you will eliminate from your day and they will become your not-to-do list. Make a not-to-do list part of your to-do list today!  This is one of the most powerful ideas we’ve seen this year. In order to improve the early detection of breast cancer in Germany, authorities have launched Discovering Hands which trains visually impaired women to do breast cancer detections and screenings. We know that when people lose their sight their other senses become enhanced and so these women are trained as Medical Tactile Examiners (MTEs) to both detect the early signs of breast cancer and suitably communicate the findings to the patient. A pilot campaign has indicated that the Discovering Hands employees perform better than trained doctors at detecting small early stage tumours. Currently only operating in Germany and Austria as a project free for over 5 million women, we believe that this campaign will soon find a home across the world.  Crowd sourcing, crowd funding and the like are part of today’s business game. But what if you had an innovation platform that allowed you to pose a problem or challenge to the market and connect with those who might have a solution for you? Sometimes the answer for digital nomads, entrepreneurs or sole operators won’t come to hand or isn’t readily available through your network. Sometimes even big business can’t find the answer to a problem within its ranks. Solverboardis a platform that allows you to load up your problem or challenge and send it out on the interwebs to those who may be able to help you solve it. Here’s how it works. In short, Challengers set challenges and Solvers solve them, in exchange for payment. If you have a challenge you load it up onto the Solverboard website and create your own page. Everything about the challenge, from the level of detail to the value of the reward, is set by the Challenger, and Solvers offer up a solution. The Challenger then goes through and scores each idea based on chosen criteria, before deciding on a winner and then paying for the intellectual property rights for that solution. This brings its own set of challenges, the biggest being that the Challenger has to be honest enough to not just read a solution, take it away and use it without paying. Although there’s merit in the concept, we see the advantages are greater for the Challenger than for the Solvers. Until we begin to truly see the value in someones creative ideas, there’ll always be a flaw in these products.  Imagine the person who stood on this cliffside and said, I reckon this would make a good spot for a cocktail bar. Hanging on the edge of a cliff with views of the Mexico's Basaseachic Falls, the Copper Canyon Cocktail Bar would certainly take your breath away. So unique is this cocktail bar, it’s not just a place to go for a drink or a feed, it’s also become a popular tourist attraction. But there's a catch. It hasn’t even been built yet! What we love about this concept is that someone could take something so absurdly different and dream about the possibilities. The likelihood is that in two years time The Espresso will be showing you real life photos of what someone could imagine, see, hear look and taste to be an iconic restaurant on the world scene. Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the people who see differently.  There is a lot of research and data that backs up the fact that a short nap of less than 20 minutes in your day helps to reignite your mojo, fire off your creative spirit, improve your mood and give you vitality to finish off the day at pace. French design house Smarin is hosting an installation in Dubai which features a Nap Bar designed to enhance our mojo, our creative spirit and improve our mood. The Nap Bar features a special nap pillow, ponchos, a lullaby, special herbal teas and essential oils that all create the ultimate dozing experience. The space also contains different furniture pieces from Smarin like the Dune, a lounge chair made of various sorts of foam to give you the perfect support and encourage you to read, sit and dream. We’re going to see more and more of these sorts of installations in the corportate world as people need to destress, relax, chill, reignite their flow and help unlock their next great idea. Although a lot of traditional thinkers will struggle with this concept, it certainly has data and science behind it and is one for those who follow science and value performance and productivity.  In 2000, when Graeme Cowan was the Joint Managing Director of a division of AT Kearney, he went through a 5 year episode of depression that his psychiatrist described as the worst he had ever treated. He emerged from this crisis with a different view about how we can build our resilience & mood to thrive through change. He is motivated by helping people adapt better to uncertainty and ambiguity by following daily rituals that increase our mood and performance. As we struggle with change fatigue, Graeme has valuable insights on how to be more resilient and robust in our lives. An important show for all business leaders to hear.  A few weeks ago on the Mojo Radio Show, brand consultant Darryn Altclass shared his thoughts on where marketing and brand are going. Recently he posted a frame on Instagram and it was a quote by marketing guru Seth Godin - "Marketing is a contest for people’s attention." So my question is, are you really in the contest or are you just another player? If you laid your marketing materials out on the boardroom table, and compared them with your top 3 competitor's materials, are you really competing for your customer or clients attention or are you just more noise and content? Thinking of marketing as a contest for people’s attention, really forces the value of marketing warfare, the rules of engagement on the branding battlefield and how we really are in combat with our competitors. Does your material, your message, your copy, your visual, really stand up for people’s attention or are you the same as everyone else? Do you simply blend into an arena of beige, taupe, off white or vanilla? Are you truly setting out to compete for my attention and if not, now's the time to stand back, map the battlefield and really question yourself and your team and ask how do we compete with our materials to win the complete attention of our customers or clients?  The Espresso likes to share stories where someone has looked at a product or service we all take for granted and thought, what if you could change that? Created by Knog, a brand already known for it's innovative bicycle accessories, the Oi bike bell is a unique design that takes the typical dollar store bell and creates something which is aesthetically interesting and also sounds better. You install it on your handle bar with a sinch clip by slipping it over and tightening a single clip, and of course it comes in different colours of course to match the lip of your ride. We like the fact that this is a pretty unique design that takes what we all recognise as a traditional bell and turns it on its end. The bell is currently on Kickstarter so if you’re an early adopter and like to be ahead of the cycling curve, jump on it now.  The rules of marketing warfare state that if you can’t own a category, create your own. If you aren’t first in the market with a new area of business, create your own. With that in mind we’ve got the world's first all vegan supermarket called Veganz. Created by a guy who used to work as a manager at Mercedes Benz, the store imports products from over 30 countries worldwide and has vegan versions of cheese, meats, fish, eggs, cookies and even ice cream. However it’s not only vegan foods you’ll find, but also environmentally friendly toiletries and cosmetics. It's currently pretty big across Europe and is about to hit the USA. Whether it will work or not is another thing but however the whole idea of owning a category from day one is very appetising.  RuckJack is a cool convertible jacket that you can also use as a backpack. It's a clever design and capitalises on our minimalist and simplistic approach to life where owning less stuff can bring you more pleasure. It's said that with a flip, zip, clip and go, you can zip the rear zipper all the way around, adjust the sleeves and clip into pockets to transform the jacket into a backpack. We really admire people who take two different items that we assume are in their best form, combine them and create a brand new category. RuckJack is currently raising funds on Kickstarter and what’s nice is that the owners of the business obviously have a mind for the outdoors, pledging to plant a tree for every purchase.  Laura Coe is an author, coach and is finally living a life that is the perfect design. But that was not always the case. Several years ago, Laura was 30,000 feet in the air with tears streaming down her cheeks. Laura had built a multimillion dollar business and sold it to a Fortune 500 company, had a loving partner and a beautiful three year old, and was teaching yoga…..All the boxes were ticked…but underneath, something still wasn’t right. Laura felt she had become emotionally obese. But what was she going to do about it? Today Laura spends her time sharing lessons and emotional fitness tactics as a certified coach to help other people – just like a lot of us – to shed our baggage, and get in the best emotional shape of our lives. This is an awesome show you will want to share!  It's commonly referred to as digital overwhelm - when we are so overwhelmed with information, it clutters our brains and causes distress, lack of productivity and a drop in performance. However I'm of the belief that it's not so much the overwhelm of too much information that's the problem, its more that we're not brutal enough with the information coming in to filter out the crap. If you subscribe to a blog and it doesn't add value to you within three weeks, ditch it. If you listen to a podcast and it doesn't give you a return for your investment of time, delete it and unsubscribe. If you are programmed to a channel that isn't improving your world, entertaining you or in some way making you better today than you were yesterday, delete it. There's so much wonderful, stimulating and empowering information around us from some fantastic authors and producers, the real challenge is having a filter that allows you to pull out the good stuff and get rid of the rubbish. Most people spend 4 to 5 hours a day on email, the majority of which is a waste of precious time. Step back and invest an hour asking, 'What is the best of the best that I will keep?', and unsubscribe from or delete the rest.  We’ve talked before about the changing face of recruitment and last week we spoke of the world of the digital nomad. Now we’ve discovered the selfie resume. Selfiejobs is a Stockholm based startup with a selfie app that allows job seekers and employers to promote and recruit in a different way. Essentially you download the Selfiejobs app, take a selfie, fill out a short profile and then start scrolling through the jobs. When you see a job you like, hit 'like' to forward your application. The process takes around 3 minutes and seems in line with where the digital nomads and new generations of job seekers and employers are heading. The job applications can be used across the UK, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Demnark and the Netherlands and you can change your location simply by swiping a map. This is a pretty cool concept that I'm in no doubt early adopters in both job seeking, recruitment and leaders of entrepreunrial companies will adopt with haste. Who would have thought the selfie would actually find a commercial home? |
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