What’s New
Podcast: Linda Popky appears as a guest expert on Technically Speaking to outline your steps to launching and promoting your book! - Listen
Podcast: Linda Popky and Dan Weedin (Shrimp Tank Podcast) talk with Brett Clark from BC Fitness about the importance of staying active and doing resistance training to slow down muscle loss as we age. - Listen
SAC® Press Release: "Companies Eye Innovation and Disruption in Volatile Economy" – Read Release.
Video: Just a Moment for Marketing: One-minute marketing tip videos. – View over 100 videos.
eBOOK: Top of Mind: 101 Insights to Transform Your Business
Purchase PDF or ePub book.
Subscribe to the Top of Mind Thursday Newsletter
Free articles download with sign up
Marketing Above the Noise
Introducing Dynamic Market Leverage™, an approach to help cut through the clutter, stand out, and effectively build business.
Available in Hardcover and eBook formats
Top of Mind Thursday Memo Archive
Top of Mind Thursday, May 13, 2021: Approaching Normalcy
The last several weeks have seen the tide turn in the battle against COVID-19.
Hospitalization and deaths are down dramatically due to aggressive vaccination efforts. Rules about mask wearing and restrictions on public gatherings, businesses, and schools are relaxing. Friends and families are gathering in larger and larger groups.
I write this sitting near a pool at a hotel in Palm Springs, CA. Except for the social distancing, extra sanitation, and some limits on amenities, things seem almost normal.
Except it’s not. It’s not just COVID that is different. Here’s what’s gone on in just the last couple of weeks:
- The hack of a major pipeline on the East Coast has caused major panic and created unnecessary gasoline shortages (and we thought hoarding toilet paper was bad!).
- Tensions in the Middle East are escalating to near-war with hundreds of bombs lobbed into Israel by Palestinians and retaliatory action by the Israelis in Gaza.
- The GOP ousted Liz Cheney, their House conference chair, because she refused to toe the party line and pledge allegiance to the former president– but instead continued to raise concerns the party didn’t want aired.
- There were at least 49 mass shootings in the US in the last 30 days. Racially motivated attacks on Asian Americans, African Americans and other people of color continue to grow unabated throughout the country.
The problem is it’s too easy for these things to become part of the ordinary fabric of our lives. The initial shock fades and we accept these happenings as part of the new normal–and that’s troubling.
There’s no question last year was anything but normal. We have the chance to build a new type of normal now. The question is whether we will use this opportunity to proactively build a better world–or let a new set of unacceptable circumstances become the norm instead.
The choice is up to us.
Contact me to find out how you can get heard above the noise–even in a crisis situation.
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 6, 2021: The Say Hey Kid is 90
Born in a small town in Alabama in 1931, Willie Howard Mays, Jr. started his baseball career in the Negro Leagues before breaking into the Major Leagues with the New York Giants in 1951.
That was only four years after Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier, allowing African-American baseball players to play in the Majors. Willie was Rookie of the Year that year and MVP a few years later. He was a key part of the New York Giants World Series winning teams in the ’50s, and MVP again with the San Francisco Giants in the ’60s.
Willie may be best known for his famous basket catch in the 1954 World Series, but through the decades his quiet, determined manner has been an inspiration to baseball players of all races–from Little League to World Series champions. In 2000, the San Francisco Giants made the location of their new ballpark 24 Willie Mays Plaza.
Many of the great players of that generation are gone–including Mays’ star teammate Willie McCovey. But we still get to celebrate The Say Hey Kid.
Happy birthday, Willie Mays!
Contact me to find out how you can get heard above the noise–even in a crisis situation.
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, April 29, 2021: A Call to Arms–Both of Them
The COVID pandemic is now wreaking havoc on countries like India, where the infection spread and ensuing illness and death are out of control.
Here in the US, we appear to be moving in the other direction. Infection and hospitalization rates are dropping–due to mask wearing, social distancing, and most importantly, vaccination.
Nearly 40% of American adults have received at least one vaccination and 25% are fully vaccinated. Yet we are still averaging over 60,000 new infections and 700+ deaths per day–which translates to close to another 150,000 deaths within a year.
That means we’re not out of the woods. Some people look at these numbers and feel they don’t need to follow through with their second shot. It’s estimated that 5 million people have missed their second vaccination. Some of those may have had valid reasons and will likely reschedule. But the fact that so many people are shrugging off the second half of the vaccination is disturbing.
While the first shot provides some immunity, long-lasting protection is only proven with both shots. If we combine those who aren’t following up with the part of the population that refused to be vaccinated at all, we risk not getting to herd immunity (and a real normality) any time soon.
We’ve all known people who felt so much better after taking a medication that they stopped taking it–winding up with a worse situation than when they started. In business, we see organizations that take the first step to launch a new initiative or improve customer service or fix a supply glitch…but never follow through to the finish. As a result, the initial effort is wasted and the result is often more customer frustration, not less.
Getting halfway there doesn’t solve the problem. We need to step forward with both feet. Or, in the case of COVID, with both arms.
Contact me to find out how you can get heard above the noise–even in a crisis situation.
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, April 22, 2021: Verdicts, Vaccines, and Vulnerability
Since 1970, April 22nd has been Earth Day–a day to focus on improving the environment for us and the generations that will come afterward.
This year, while there is still much need to address topics like climate change and pollution, we have other toxic environmental issues with which to contend.
There’s a new hazard in the air we breathe. More than 3 million people have died from COVID in the last 15 months. We now have several safe and effective vaccines, which are stopping the spread of the virus. But we’re also rapidly approaching the point where we will have vaccinated those who agree to participate–and still not hit the right levels for herd immunity.
Then there’s the question of what happens when you can’t breathe at all. On Tuesday, a jury in Minneapolis found former police officer Derek Chauvin guilty on all 3 counts in the murder of George Floyd. The evidence was overwhelming. What was surprising was how much concern there was that, in spite of video evidence, there was no guarantee a White policeman would be convicted of killing a Black man.
Even during the trial, we saw another unarmed Black man killed just blocks away from the courthouse in Minneapolis–and other similar incidents continue to pile up. One guilty verdict doesn’t solve the problem: it just points out how much work we need to do.
Statesman Winston Churchill said it best:
“This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.”
We are vulnerable in many ways. Let’s use this year’s Earth Day to continue our work to improve all of the environmental factors in our lives.
Contact me to find out how you can get heard above the noise–even in a crisis situation.
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