[MEANINGFUL WEDNESDAYS] Becoming meaningful — Part One

  • 3 February 2021
  • 16 replies
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[MEANINGFUL WEDNESDAYS] Becoming meaningful — Part One
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  • Director of Brand at Typeform
  • 13 replies

Hey y'all, long time listener, first time caller :sunglasses:

 

I'm Paul, director of brand @typeform, and @James asked me to share a little about how we see the future at Typeform. Anyway, I was sitting in the park and decided to shoot this video on the spot. Let's talk about meaningful…

 

 

In summary, meaningful means:

  • Becoming so relevant to people (employees and customers) that we become irreplaceable in their hearts and minds 

  • Caring more than anybody else

  • Having an approach where the other side wins more than you
     

We want Typeform to become a meaningful brand – and believe that you should strive for a meaningful brand, too.

 

💡 Does this resonate with you? What difference do you want your business to make in people's lives? How does your own brand articulate your values? Interested to hear your thoughts.

 

Paul will be back next week with part two where he'll talk more about making your brand meaningful (subscribe to this category to stay updated).

In the meantime check out some of the thought-provoking articles and videos he's already created on this topic. We would love to get your take on the themes raised.
 


16 replies

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Cheers @paul for interrupting your run/HIT session/duck feeding to share your thoughts and vision here.

Excited to see what meaning folks in the community derive from the concept of a "meaningful brand".

btw I've dubbed this series of posts "Meaningful Wednesdays" but as the brandmaster general maybe you can think of a more meaningful title – or just post the next one on a Monday cos "Meaningful Mondays" has a nicer ring to it :sunglasses:  

 

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@paul @James 

as a user/client of Typeform, trying to base as much of what my wee firm will do and offer on top of Typeform(-as-a-Platform), this post on meaningful brand resonates with me. 

For me, if someone is passionate about what they do, has a great “why”, and can leverage their knowledge and passion into products and services that benefit themselves, their community and, in the medium/long run, humanity, then that is ‘meaningful’. 

In trying to build up my own small business, after 35 years of working for big firms, my strategy was to leverage some simple yet elegant technologies (if such a thing exists) from firms who have the same sort of passion for their customer-base that I have for what I am trying to do/build. That brought me here, to Typeform, and I am jazzed (I am old enough to use that word lol) with the technology and the company and the focus that you are bringing to the success of your clients/customers/typefamily. 

( @James - “Meaningful Mid-Week”??)

you folks are rockin’ it, at least from the perspective of this curmudgeon in his igoo

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Thanks @john.desborough feeling the love right there :heart_eyes:. I think you're bang on with you're definition of what is meaningful. I read Gartner's 2021 strategic predictions after watching Paul's vid this morning, and this leapt out:

"By 2024, 30% of major organizations will use a new voice of society metric to act on societal issues and assess the impacts to their business performance."


...and that's the corporate big guns. I think smaller businesses can - and do - lead the way in being meaningful though. Somehow I feel folks like you (and Typeform :P) are who are genuinely, intrinsically passionate about customers succeeding (and act fast to make that happen) will be the envy of a lot of the box-ticking behemoths. Who knows, the underdogs might even end up winning this one. Who am I kidding? haha.

And cheers for the suggestion Des, I like "Meaningful Mid-Week" - it's deffo in the lead so far. I feel like it would benefit from something after it though. Something like "Meaningful Mid-Week Matters/Musings/Mutterings". 
 

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@James … cheers

Meanderings???

 

 

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@James … cheers

Meanderings???

 

 

Like it. Better than ”mumblings" which was gonna be my next one

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Thanks @john.desborough feeling the love right there :heart_eyes:. I think you're bang on with you're definition of what is meaningful. I read Gartner's 2021 strategic predictions after watching Paul's vid this morning, and this leapt out:

"By 2024, 30% of major organizations will use a new voice of society metric to act on societal issues and assess the impacts to their business performance."

 

@James  - ‘voice of society metric’ starts to look a bit like an extension of the ESG (environmental, social and governance) metrics that many people are starting to demand of firms in which they invest. I know it’s a factor in how i choose to invest my money in businesses. 

This article is a bit old but it is a good article that I have leveraged with several client firms, from a data governance perspective, that helps to explain the value - not to seem to be pedantic, but just to share in case some folks are not aware of this trend : https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/strategy-and-corporate-finance/our-insights/five-ways-that-esg-creates-value#

 

cheers

 

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@paul I love this. 🙂 I was just thinking about this the other day with my side gig trying to figure out how to make our work more meaningful in an industry that completely forgets the actual meaning of one of the most important day in people’s lives. 

I also love that you push us here at Typeform to find ways to have more meaningful interactions with our customers, regardless of where the interaction takes place. Now we get to have these conversations with all of you here, directly! I really enjoy learning more about what our customers are building and their visions for their forms. And also @john.desborough ‘s coffee quotes to brighten the workday. 

I’m sure you all probably know this book, but I’ve always loved the, “Start With Why” by Simon Sinek as a reminder of what meaningful means. There’s also another great book called, “Do the KIND Thing” by the founders of the KIND brand, which expands this, too. 

I’d love Meaningful Mid-Week!

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When I think of a meaningful brand, Patagonia always comes to mind. Don’t know if you remember this campaign they run some time ago, explicitly telling people to buy less of their clothes, including theirs. 

 

Not only is a powerful meaningful message, also a great marketing campaign. Wdyt?

 

 

 

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@Liz thanks for those book recommendations, will check them out :older_man:

@john.desborough cheers for sharing that great article. Those 5 links to value creation are about as compelling as you can get. I mean, they are unignorable. Is unignorable a word (the squiggly line in Chrome says no)?

I love that campaign @Gabriel . A while ago I did some research to find clothing brands that were sustainable and paid their workers a fair living wage and it was horrifying! Patagonia was one of only a handful that did (Gucci, was another, I believe). Since then I've pretty much stopped buying clothes (now you know why I always sport that tramp chic look).

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Upvotes @James tramp chic look.. lol.. 

@Liz - those are great books and thanks for the reference (now if only i had not started reading “Do the KIND thing” at 10pm last night.. *bleary-eyed this morning, coffee helps*

@Gabriel - i have several pieces of Patagonia-wear for that very reason.. have had them for, as me gran would say, “donkey’s years” and they have not worn out or disappointed. And their story is consistent and they are trying to make a difference. 

To extend a quote from a movie (Hitch - @Liz , it was a date-night movie) “Begin each day as if it were on purpose” … which i try to repeat to myself every morning at the alarm clock’s warning… “Begin each day as if it were on purpose. Make a difference to someone’s life, in a positive way.”

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We could go full-on alliteration and go for "Meaningful Mondays" -- what better way to start the week than to start with why (agree with the book recommendation @Liz) to help us power through the week - and it goes along with @john.desborough's comments on begin each day...).

Weekends are usually when some of my best ideas come, besides the occasional Saturday evening existential crisis and breakthrough -- and Meaningful Mondays could be a great outlet for those subsequent learnings/readings/musings.

Just some thoughts.

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I love the idea of starting the week on purpose, so let's do it!

Maybe we can start on Monday with part two of @paul in the park and chew the fat on what makes a "meaningful brand". It'll be nice for us to keep it top of mind as we plunge through the week doing what we do.

Great contributions gang! Have a purposeful and fulfilling weekend :blush:  

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@john.desborough ha! Sounds like the book is a great read for you! :) 

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Have a meaningful weekend y'all! 

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@john.desborough ha! Sounds like the book is a great read for you! :) 

@Liz  - It was not quite like a spy novel you can’t put down but I started with an “i will read for 15 minutes then turn out the light” and next thing i knew i was two hours into the book lol.. 

 

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@john.desborough  Haha I know how that goes! I have to limit my time reading at night or I end up awake until 5am. 

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