High Growth Collective : A New View
Mr Sunshine put his hat on for us at our beautiful new location Heywood House in Westbury for September’s High Growth Collective (HGC). With a fresh new approach we partnered with Inspire and three brilliant speakers who generously shared their expertise to ignite and inspire our audience with take home tips and ideas.
The Serious Business of Happiness at Work
Vanessa King, a board member at Action for Happiness, author of Ten Keys to Happier Living and regular Psychologies Magazine happily (excuse the pun) kicked off proceedings on how happiness is the ingredient to building a successful business. With increasing bodies of research showing that happiness affects work, it’s time that business leaders recognise it is also key to sustainable performance.
Does work affect happiness?
Contrary to popular belief Vanessa talked us through data that suggests that work is in fact good for happiness! Those who work are happier, experiencing more positive than negative emotions over and beyond the financial stability of employment.
Is happiness good for work?
Having established that work is good for happiness Vanessa posed the question – ‘Is happiness good for work’? And again a growing body of research suggests that happiness promotes mental and physical health resulting in employees who are less likely to get a cold or suffer long term illness. Happier employees are:
- Are 12% more productive
- Positively represent your brand
- Have stronger loyalty resulting is less staff turnover
- More likely to help others
- More financially responsible
- Take less risks
Happiness is a corporate social responsibility
We all need to be aware of the impact we have on others and that goes for leaders. How a boss engages and reacts at work has a ripple effect. If employees are unhappy in the workplace it impacts on their families and their contribution to communities – this is the corporate social responsibility bit!
So what can we do to make a difference? Vanessa provided some nuggets of knowledge:
- Relationships – positive human interactions in the workplace make a difference (as little as six seconds) to both individual wellbeing AND team performance. Stopping for that kitchen chat is actually VERY productive!
- Clear barriers – think about how YOU can help people achieve in the workplace. Draw on people’s strengths and provide support where it’s needed. Once barriers are cleared employees are six times more likely to be engaged.
- Give people choice and a sense of autonomy – give up some of the management control to draw out the best in people. Trust in those you’ve employed and they will give you their best.
Vanessa concluded her inspirational talk with a reminder that the workplace is a living network and not a cog. Business leaders need to recognise that people are messy, emotional beings and happiness matters!
At Giant Peach we know the benefits and the value of feeling positive, in the workplace and in life generally. It’s something we hold central. Check out our 10 keys to take action for happiness blog inspired by Vanessa.
How to Bring your Marketing into the Digital Era
With 8.9 billion mobile connections happening worldwide every day, Chief Peach James gave the HGC an insight into how their businesses can think differently about marketing to cut through the noise. Move over old funnel model, there’s a new kid on the block!
Looking through a different lens
- ‘I want to know’ – when consumers research and explore but are not necessarily in purchase mode.
- ‘I want to go’ – when consumers would like to travel or find something, can be global, local or hyper-local.
- ‘I want to do’ – times when consumers would like to complete a task or perhaps learn something new.
- ‘I want to buy’ – when consumers are ready to part with money.
It is during these moments that consumers go online and are drawn to brands that deliver what they need. Here at Peach HQ we call this ‘moments of intent’ which shape the more contemporary ‘See, Think, Do’ marketing framework.
Using Posh Totty jewellery as an example James talked everyone through the stages of ‘See, Think, Do’:
- See stage – Anyone who wears or buys jewellery.
- Think stage – I want to make my own jewellery, I want to find gifts that are unique and special, I need to learn about developing a personal style
- Do stage – I want to find the nearest store that sells Posh Totty designs, I want to buy Posh Totty jewellery, or I want to attend a personalised jewellery workshop.
- Care stage – I want to find out about other Posh Totty jewellery, I want to share photos with my friends online
James highlighted that the customer journey is no longer a linear path, consumers we move between ‘See’ and’ Think’ multiple times before moving into the ‘Do’ stage. The key is to figure out the digital intent that customers might have at any particular moment. This is how we can start thinking about where our marketing is going to go – create YouTube videos, collaborate with influencers, get reviews on websites to target the ‘Think’ stage consumers. For the ‘Do’ consumer, adding e-commerce functions or subscription options on your website encourages actions and the opportunity to nurture existing customers in the ‘Care’ stage.
A final thought
When thinking about marketing, the ‘See, Think, Do’ stages are great ways to optimise market activity to influence content strategy. It’s about putting content online for each stage of the process. Stop selling – start helping!
Becoming Little Cooks Co: A Story of Big Ambition
It was an unusual Christmas present from Helen Burgess’ father at the age of 16 which sparked her interest in nutrition – a book called Anti Cancer – a new way of life. At the time she didn’t consider nutrition as a career and went on to join the Civil Service working in the Cabinet Office for ten years during the Coalition. While at the hub of government it was the health agenda that sparked Helen’s passion.
The birth of Helen’s son in 2013 gave her the courage to quit her 9-5 and follow her passion in nutrition. Qualified and inspired she decided to launch a business around childhood health and nutrition and Little Cooks Co, the UK’s first healthy cooking kit for kids, was born.
Little Cooks Co
Helen’s dream was to create something which would both help families connect in an easy, stress free way as well as teach children about food and where it comes from.
Little Cooks sends happy little boxes to children (with their names on) which include all the dry organic ingredients for a healthy recipe. With no refined sugar or processed foods, children cook with nutritionally balanced ingredients such as chai seed and gram flour to get that all important nutritional punch !
Through the baking boxes Helen and The Little Cooks Co have managed to find a solution to a number of social and health issues facing the next generation:
- Children learning about food and learning to cook
- Powerfully connecting families through cooking
- Children understanding the importance of nutrition
- Children acquiring a basic life skill – the ability to feed themselves
- Tech-free family time.
The Journey
As with all good journeys, not every step is easy, but there’s always plenty of peachy moments to celebrate! Helen generously shared her journey with HGC and offered tips to those starting their adventure:
- Recognise when you need support, whether that’s investment, resource or expertise. Utilize other people’s skills, such as shiny new Giant Peach designed website coming soon
- Mindset – choosing to be positive will help you through the tough times
- Your health and wellbeing is important. You can’t pour from an empty cup. Be self aware enough to recognise what you can outsource and trust in others!
- Partner up to make a difference – teamwork makes the dream work. Helen has been working with Magic Breakfast donating the cost of a healthy breakfast for every box sold. Magic Breakfast then provides a healthy breakfast to children who wouldn’t normally come to school having eaten. Great cause
Helen now describes work as a painful joy! The goal is to empower a generation of children to form healthy, happy food habits and aid a decline in lifestyle diseases. We think she’s doing a brilliant job of doing just that!
If you’d like to speak at or come along to a future High Growth Collective, get yourself on our email list and get inspired. If you’d like to hear more about how the Giant Peach can transform your digital marketing – get in touch.