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Top of Mind Thursday Memo Archive
Top of Mind Thursday – March 16, 2023: Three Years Later
I’m writing this from Rancho La Puerta in Tecate, Mexico — one of the original wellness retreats and still one of the best.
I was supposed to be here three years ago this week — the week the world stopped for COVID. It took awhile to get back here, but it feels good to be in a nourishing, healthy environment like this.
The world has gone through quite a trauma since 2020. We’ve lost over 7 million people — more than a million in the US alone, and millions more who’ve been sickened by the virus.
Everyone on the planet has been impacted by COVID — if not by illness or death, by disruption. We’ve added social distancing, bivalent vaccines, and KN95 masks to our vocabulary.
The official pandemic may be over, but our lives will not ever return to 2019. Instead, we have to find a new path forward.
Deborah Szekely, the founder of Rancho la Puerta, is about to turn 101 in May. She is still active, vibrant, and incredibly sharp. When asked what her secret is, she said, “I search out the positive and whatever the siuation, I always do the right thing.”
For the Ranch, doing the right thing meant not only taking the steps needed to safeguard the health of guests and staff, but also paying the salary of each staff member while the ranch was closed for six months…”because they’re family,” Deborah told us, “and we need them to stay with us.”
As we move into a post-pandemic world, this attitude is one we can learn from in our personal lives and in our businesses.
Today, 3 years after the global lockdown began, how do we stay positive…and regardless of what the world throws our way, how do we do the right thing?
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 – March 9, 2023: What I Said Isn’t What I Believe
For decades, American television audiences would tune in to hear newscaster Walter Cronkite update them on the day’s events, ending with his catch phrase, “And that’s the way it was.”
Forty plus years later, the news media has morphed into a totally different animal. Not only do we have a near infinite number of options and delivery vehicles to choose for news, but just about anyone with an electronic device and an internet connection can choose to create and publish their own take on current events. Many of these “news creators” offer nothing more than their own opinions, based on speculation or preconceived biases.
Yet, when a major global media organization adds the word News to their name, we take them at their word that they’re actually airing stories that are their version of “the way it was.”
Now, as a result of a billion dollar lawsuit by Dominion Voting Systems against Fox News, we’re learning that both on-air personalities and senior executives at Fox knew the 2020 election had not been stolen, and that Biden was duly elected president. In spite of this, they went on air hundreds and hundreds of times saying just the opposite–because it’s what they thought their viewers wanted to hear.
Rupert Murdoch is quoted as saying he didn’t see things as red or blue, but only green–the color of money.
Abe Lincoln wisely told us you can fool all of the people some of the time, and some of the people all of the time, but not all of the people all of the time–which may become a very expensive lesson for Fox.
While I don’t believe most organizations operate in as egregious a manner as Fox, there are times when just about everyone says something they don’t really believe–for one reason or another.
Stop and look at what’s being said by your people and your organization–to customers, suppliers, employees. How often are you saying things that no one really believes: whether it has to do with product delivery, service commitments, or operating a safe railroad (as in the case of Norfolk Southern and the toxic disaster in East Palestine, Ohio).
If you don’t believe what’s being said, then stop your team from saying it. The longer you keep going, the bigger the hole you’re digging. Don’t wait for a billion dollar lawsuit or a train derailment.
Ask yourself: Could I look Walter Cronkite in the eye and honestly say, “That’s the way it was”?
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 – March 2, 2023: The Most Precious Liquid on the Planet Just Got Affordable
Last year, consumers complained bitterly about the price of gasoline–which got as high as $6 and $7 a gallon in some places.
But that’s nothing compared to the price of insulin, which could cost as much as $300 for a 10ML bottle–the equivalent of $113,400 per gallon–for people who don’t have health insurance.
The difference is more than just dollars and cents. Without insulin, people die. At least 7 million people in the US are insulin-dependent. A recent Yale University study found that nearly 15% of those (almost a million people) find paying for insulin is a serious financial burden.
We hear all the time about novel next-generation medical therapies that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, but that’s not the case here. Insulin was discovered by Canadian doctor Frederick Banting in 1922 and the patent was sold a year later–for $1. Today, it costs about $6/vial to produce.
Yet, over the last few decades, the three leading manufacturers of insulin have continuously raised their prices to exorbitant levels. Human insulin, introduced in 1996 at $21/vial, has been selling recently for more than 10x that price.
Until this week. Eli Lilly, who licensed the original insulin patent for a mere pittance, announced they will cap the price of insulin at $35/patient per month. It’s expected the other two manufacturers will follow.
It’s absolutely shameful that in a country like this, people were dying–not from side effects of diabetes–but because they couldn’t afford to buy a vial of insulin. No one should have to choose between buying a bottle of insulin and paying for food or shelter.
A century ago, when Frederick Banting licensed his patent to the University of Toronto for no monetary reward, he said, “Insulin does not belong to me–it belongs to the world.”
If only the world could afford to buy a vial or two. Now, they can.
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 – February 23, 2023: An Anniversary No One Is Celebrating
Tomorrow marks the one-year anniversary of Russian troops invading Ukraine in an effort to re-integrate the country into Mother Russia.
No one expected things would go the way they have. Not Vladamir Putin, who thought the conflict would last a few days or weeks at most. Not the US or NATO. Not even the Ukrainians, who likely underestimated their own ability to persevere under the leadership of President Zelenskyy.
No one expected the conflict to cause worldwide disruptions in grain supply from Ukraine, or gas and oil pumped from Russia to Europe. Nor did we expect the global inflation that resulted from these disruptions.
Certainly, Putin never expected his actions would unite the Western World in a way we haven’t seen since World War II. Not only have the NATO nations strengthened their resolve, but Sweden and Finland have asked to join the alliance–as has Ukraine.
Through the bombings and the artillery attacks, the Ukrainian people have continued to hold fast. The damage has been devastating–both in terms of the loss of human life, but also towns and cities destroyed, bridges blown up, and families displaced.
Yet the Ukrainians are determined to hold fast, and the conflict has even resulted in bipartisan support in the US–something that’s in short supply these days. It’s hard to complain about every day inconveniences, when looking at what an average Ukrainian family is dealing with on a day-to day basis.
There’s a lesson for the rest of us: People can accomplish amazing things when our backs are against the wall and we face annihilation. Freedom and self-determination are always worth fighting for, and we can do incredible things when we collaborate and work together–in spite of our differences.
No one is happy about tomorrow’s one year anniversary. Let’s hope on this day in 2024 we are celebrating peace, not continued bloodshed.
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