The MarketingKind podcast

In this episode Anna Mullenneaux and Paul Skinner, co-founders of MarketingKind, explore with Aleksandra Przegalińska why we need to set the story straight on AI.We have seen how unregulated AI hype has created a backlash.As a result we may now have more realistic expectations of what AI can do.But it is changing how we work and how we relate to ourselves and others.And as a society we need to innovate in response.Aleksandra is a futurist, philosopher, author, Vice-Rector at Kozminski University, Senior Researcher at Harvard's Center for Labor and a Just Economy, and she was recently appointed by Donald Tusk to his Future Council for Poland.We cover the impact AI is having on career starts and how university education may need to change to help students better prepare for employment.We explore how AI is reshaping our relationships with ourselves and each other, for instance its use in therapy, tutoring and dating. She has created her own AI digital double, which has been well trained on her slides, lectures and her thinking to help her students to prepare for exams.She shares why AI is a breakthrough tool for marketing insights. People are more honest and open in AI marketing surveys because they don't feel they are being judged. They will in particular be more honest about sharing negative feedback.There are some areas such as IT where we are seeing big increases in efficiency, but there are many others where there is no productivity increase. For instance, a recent study from MIT Sloan Business School showed that most AI trials in businesses are not successful.Her team at Harvard has done a lot of research on how marketers are working collaboratively with AI. Where there is a smart division of labour, with AI being used for research and humans doing the copywriting for instance, it can lead to an impressive 40% spike in productivity. She and her colleague recently used AI as a critical collaborator to provide feedback when writing their book Converging Minds and they found it to be a very valuable tool.In her role on Poland’s Future Council she is bringing a perspective on the differences in the labour market in the US vs Europe.Europe is criticised for moving slowly on AI, but Aleksandra believes this is protecting us to some degree. Europe is gradually building its techstack and this is important for security. Over-reliance on US tech is a threat.Aleksandra encourages her students to take a pluralistic approach. To be open and try and test different AIs, which can trigger creative thinking. She says we need to think critically and be aware that AIs are not benign tools, they have been programmed (each with its own agenda). She wants to see more open forums of discussion around how we are using AI and what has worked and what hasn't worked.

In our recent Digital Fireside with Martin Gutmann, bestselling author, speaker, historian and management professor, we explore his book The Unseen Leader: How History Can Help Us Rethink Leadership. Lauren Cooper, Lead Commercial Manager at Clear Score and a member of the MarketingKind community, interviews Martin to discover why we celebrate the wrong leaders, what history can teach us about great leadership and the things we need to actually look out for to identify good leaders.We learn leadership lessons from Homer Simpson. And we explore how our own biases get in the way and why leaders like Trump, who lurch from crisis to crisis in a sensational manner, are considered “great”.We are predisposed to see leadership in people who:~ Speak more - regardless of what they say~ Appear confident - regardless of how competent they are~ Are perpetually busy - regardless of what they are doingThis of course creates a toxic culture where people actually doing good work feel overlooked and unmotivated.And this is a self perpetuating cycle.We need to reimagine what good leadership looks like.We need to celebrate those who mitigate crises.And ask ourselves who actually led the team to success?Martin encourages us to focus on leaders who have the right contextual balance between:1) Confidence and Humility2) Values and Pragmatism3) Vision and the Mundane We also cover Shackleton-related hate mail and the importance of storytelling and self-promotion.Martin’s reading recommendations include:The Sociology of Work by Keith GrintWhy Do So Many Incompetent Men Become Leaders? by Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic Spencer Harrison's recent article in The Atlantic - https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7125163/2026/03/20/nba-leadership-culture-mistakes-warriors/The Culture Map by Erin MeyerLearn more about Martin’s work here.Buy a copy of The Unseen Leader here.And learn more about MarketingKind membership here.

​"Most purpose-driven brands make the same mistakes. They lead with themselves. It's what they believe, what they want to see, and what they stand for. It feels internal or inward facing. And they forgot this one thing that changes everything, which is 'what does the audience feel?'."In this episode ​Anna Mullenneaux and Paul Skinner, co-founders of MarketingKind explore with Jiajia Smith​, brand design expert​, what happens when purpose meets good design. ​This edit shares JiaJia's introduction to the session and part of the group discussion, but most of the discussion, where we all shared our own examples of good design and explored why they work​,​ was for live participants only.JiaJia kicks off the conversation by exploring the definition of design and saying:Purpose fails when it just stays internal.We need a process for how your purpose can connect hard with your audience.Purpose gives us direction.Then design translates that purpose into something the people can actually experience. Something they can see, touch, smell, move through.When people experience something well crafted, they feel it.That feeling, whatever it is whether it is connection, trust, inspiration, belonging, is what shifts behaviour.And that is how brands use good design to create change.​JiaJia shares visual design examples from:​- Black Lives Matter​- This Girl Can​- Extinction Rebellion- And the Fearless Girl, a bronze sculpture by Kristen Visbal facing the iconic Charging Bull in Manhattan’s Financial District.​We also discuss design elements from the websites of:​- Greenpeace​- Charity Water​- WWF​- And Patagonia​.​​And we explore how design helps brands build trust, clarity, emotional resonance and memorability.

Tricksters are necessary to challenge the status quo. But when we elevate them to leader​s, we risk ending up with ​'Jack Sparrows as CEOs and Pinocchios as political leaders​'.​In this episode Paul Skinner, founder of MarketingKind, interviews ​Jitske Kramer, corporate anthropologist, speaker and author of nine bestselling and award-winning books​, about the ideas in her latest book Tricky Times: Navigating the Messy Middle of Change.​ Jitske argues that after decades of pursuing limitless growth, we’re finally confronting the reality that limits do exist. The global order is shifting, and we’re in what anthropologists call a liminal phase​, the messy, uncomfortable middle between an old system that no longer works and a new one that hasn’t fully emerged.And there’s no shortcut through it.Transformation requires this period of not knowing.That’s why leadership matters more than ever right now. But it’s also why leadership is so difficult. Many leaders are deeply invested in the old world order, so even when it’s clearly failing, letting go takes courage.During the conversation we explored the role of the trickster​, the archetype that bends rules and ​tests boundaries.Tricksters are important. They ​challenge and expose weaknesses in the system.But there’s a risk.When societies start to celebrate tricksters as heroes, we sometimes end up putting them in charge and that’s when a trickster culture can take hold.As Jitske warns, tricksters don’t just play​, they have a playbook.Big promises that don’t hold up.Simple scapegoats for complex problems.Narratives designed to provoke emotion rather than truth.As she puts it:​ “Don’t be fooled by big promises. And watch for the old human trick of the scapegoat​, ‘because of the refugees, we don’t have houses’. It’s bullshit, and we should call it out.”The challenge for all of us is to resist the seduction of those narratives and instead create space for honest, difficult conversations.Because tricksters have always existed.But in a world of digital platforms and limitless AI, the trickster playbook has become far more powerful and far more dangerous.​

"...positive visions don't necessarily come with statistics. They come with creativity and imagination. And we don't make as much room for creativity and imagination in our culture as I think we should."In this episode Anna Mullenneaux and Paul Skinner, co-founders of MarketingKind, interview Sarah Housley, design futurist and author of Designing Hope: Visions to Shape Our Future, to discuss how we can develop greater agency in imagining what better futures could look like and find the right ways to start working towards them.We talk about why it feels like we’ve stopped dreaming about better futures and what it takes for leaders, marketers and organisations to start imagining them again. Not as a nice-to-have, but as a practical skill for navigating change.We explore the ideas in Designing Hope and the four futures movements highlighted in the book that spark hope, action and critical thinking about how we might live in the decades ahead.We discuss how hopeful futures are created (not predicted) and reflect on how marketers and leaders can develop the mindset and tools to become better futurists in our own spheres of influence.Sarah’s reading recommendations:Dorian Lynskey - Everything Must GoOctavia ButlerKim Stanley RobinsonBecky ChambersLearn more about Sarah’s work here.And learn more about MarketingKind membership here.

'This is a moment for big ideas. We can see the crumbling of the old order.' Paul Skinner, founder of MarketingKind, interviews Tony Juniper, CBE, chair of Natural England and author of 12 books including Just Earth: How a Fairer World Will Save our Planet.In this conversation and in his recent book, Just Earth, Tony makes a very strong case for why power imbalances are becoming more visible in society and why inequality is the main obstacle to climate action and how the system needs to shift to achieve real, lasting change.We learn about Tony's concept of Thrivalism, how 10 billion people can thrive on a living planet. We hear about his experiences working with everyone from smallholder farmers in Côte d'Ivoire to Vandana Shiva and even The King. And we discuss his campaigning efforts working with the government on the Climate Change Act in 2008.He encourages us to build collective action and change our consumerism culture.In the audience Q&A Tony shares what 3 things he would do if he were in charge of the country:1. Create a new measure for progress, instead of GDP the main metric would be a Genuine Progress Indicator2. Recognise functioning natural ecosystems as critical national infrastructure and invest in them like we do with the power grid and motorways (see the recent report from the joint intelligence committee on the risks)3. Legislate for a purpose-driven standard for businesses (PAS808) and find ways to incentivise the city to invest in companies that adopt it.Tony also encourages us to watch the King's documentary called Finding Harmony, which is out on Amazon Prime on February 6th. And the book Harmony, which Tony co-wrote with The King will be coming out in paperback later this month.

This episode will open your mind to new ways of thinking about futures and how to create them.Paul Skinner, founder of MarketingKind, interviews Rob Hopkins, author and co-founder of the Transition Network and Transition Town Totnes, to explore the ideas in his latest book How to Fall in Love With the Future: A Time Traveller’s Guide to Changing the World. Rob shares how he is creating memories of the future and giving people something to work towards.He believes imagination is our greatest strength and we all need to use it to create longing for a fairer future on a large scale.We explore marketing the future, a national Imagination Act and time travel as a beautiful device.Rob shares what inspires him from a world of women of colour, particularly in the US, who are writing about radical imagination and time travel such as adrienne maree brown, Ruha Benjamin and Rasheedah Phillips and Black Quantum Futurism.Sign up for Rob's newsletter The Time Traveler's Gazette here.Listen to Rob’s podcast here.Find the essential guide to transition on the Transition Network's website here.Other inspiring references from the xChange:Muslim FuturesTown AnywhereThe Spirit Level by Kate Pickett and Richard WilkinsonPaul mentions previous MarketingKind podcast episodes with Manda Scott and Malka Older and our xChanges with Jon Alexander and Andy Burnham.

Join Cass Sunstein, Nudge theory pioneer, to explore his latest thinking on behavioural economics and his latest book, Manipulation: What It Is, Why It's Bad and What to Do About It.Cass tells us what makes great ideas gain traction, about his friendship with Barack Obama and what it's like navigating life from the perspective of a nudge expert.The discussion covers influence vs manipulation in marketing, AI choice engines, the 'joy of missing out' ('the Barbie problem') and our right not to be manipulated. Cass also mentions his involvement in developing a new app that will hopefully be available in the coming months for tracking the dark patterns of online manipulation that are impacting us all.Cass is currently the Robert Walmsley Professor at Harvard. He has previously held senior roles at The World Health Organisation, The Pentagon and The Department of Homeland Security under the Biden administration where he was awarded the Distinguished Public Service Medal, the Department’s highest civilian honour, in 2024.He has advised the United Nations, the European Commission, the World Bank, and many nations including the British Government.His work in behavioural economics has had a profound impact on the marketing and advertising industries.And if you have not yet read them I particularly recommend: Nudge: The Final Edition, with Richard Thaler; How Change Happens; Noise, with Daniel Kahneman and Olivier Sibony; and of course, Manipulation.This episode is hosted by Paul Skinner, founder of MarketingKind and the Agency of the Future and author of The Purpose Upgrade and Collaborative Advantage.

In this episode we explore with Alexis Eyre, co-founder of the Sustainable Marketing Compas and co-author of Sustainable Marketing, whether embedding sustainability at the heart of our strategy be the key to unlocking greater creativity and effectiveness in our marketing.Alexis shares what drove her to make a change in her career to focus on sustainability and how she is working now to change the industry.We hear of her frustrations about the lack of creativity and the ineffectiveness and inefficiency that is often taken for granted in marketing. She invites us to start with the impact that we want to have on the world and use the Sustainable Marketing Compass to ask ourselves the right questions, to challenge assumptions and build the partnerships we need to succeed. If you have not yet read Sustainable Marketing by Alexis and Paul Randle, I highly recommend picking up a copy. And their Sustainable Marketing Compass is also available open source (and we've included it on the Resources page of the MarketingKind website).This episode is hosted by Anna Mullenneaux and Paul Skinner, founders of the MarketingKind community.

In this episode Elaine Roberts, former B2B CMO and MarketingKind member, hosts and interviews:~ Ty Heath – Co-founder of The LinkedIn B2B Institute and former Google and IBM executive on a mission to make marketing science accessible~ Thomas Kolster – author of Goodvertising and The Hero Trap, speaker and marketing activist and one of the founding fathers of the sustainable marketing movement~ Dave Vann – Founder of said & done, brand strategist and advisor to purpose-led B2B businesses and nonprofitsEnjoy this incredibly practical, engaging and important discussion filled with great examples, research and inspiration for how to put purpose to work for your B2B brand.

In this episode we interview Charlie Martin, CEO and founder of The Anti-Greenwash Charter, to explore how we can build trust through radical transparency.He says, ‘we're facing a collective crisis of trust in everything that we engage with...doing something to try and rebuild trust in what we are reading and engaging with is really important because that leads to speed of decision-making, which is what is needed to address some of the fundamental issues at play.'We cover how greenwashing began with marketing, communications and sales professionals freewheeling when it came to making claims that they didn't fully understand and/ or couldn't fully back up. The more recent trends with the tightening of the regulatory landscape in the UK and Europe is leading to an increase in greenhushing with companies scared to get it wrong. And more omission-based greenwashing, where communications may be compliant, but when you dig a little under the surface the bigger story is what was left out. We learn how The Anti-Greenwash Charter is leading the way with radical transparency by supporting signatories with:1) Upskilling all relevant staff members with greenwash awareness training to cut out unintentional greenwashing2) A full static content review to create alignment with regulations3) Co-creation of a Green Claims Policy to act as guardrails for all future communicationsAnd signatories are also subject to periodic campaign reviews from The Anti-Greenwash Charter and their findings are always published.Charlie and his team have also created the new truMRK prototype, an AI-powered editorial assistant that acts like Grammarly for sustainability comms, checking your new communications against your ESG data, regulations, etc. It is a mark of editorial excellence, where readers can click through to a full transparency report.To support the important work of the Charter, please recommend them to businesses that would benefit from joining and encourage every business, no matter how small, to create their own Green Claims Policy. The Charter provides a free template for a Green Claims Policy to download on their website here.And you can also listen to Charlie on The Responsible Edge podcast.This episode is hosted by Anna Mullenneaux and Paul Skinner, founders of the MarketingKind community.

While over 90% of business leaders recognize the importance of sustainability, only 60% have a strategy in place. And many of these strategies are inefficient, ineffective, or simply don't go far enough to address the global challenges we are facing.In this episode Caroline Taylor, OBE, former CMO of IBM Global Markets and Chair of Oasis Community Learning, hosts and interviews Paolo Taticchi and Melina Corvaglia-Charrey​, co-authors of How to Be Sustainable: Business Strategies for Leading Change.We start by defining sustainability and talking about the need for long-term shared value. We cover the drivers for sustainable action including the financial risks and the increase in climate litigation. And we explore how to build a strong business case for sustainability.We also discuss the political influence from the US and Paolo shares that anti-ESG sentiment is more talk than fact.Paolo is Professor in Strategy and Sustainability and the Co-Director of the Centre for Sustainable Business at University College London, School of Management. He is a prominent sustainability expert, speaker and consultant working with corporates and governments around the world.Melina is a Researcher at University College London, School of Management. She has over 15 years of experience as a senior marketing leader in the media industry, and also works as a consultant supporting small-to-medium size businesses with their sustainability reporting efforts.You can check out the Chief Sustainability Heroes podcast here.And you can learn more about the MarketingKind community here.

The UK advertising industry is the third largest in the world and is known for its creativity. And although many industry leaders are very concerned that their work is fueling the climate crisis, the biggest agencies continue to take on the fossil fuel companies and other major polluters as clients. The UK trade bodies deny that advertising leads to increased consumption and say that only 12% of advertising is effective (so nothing to see here).Dr Victoria Harvey worked for a decade to try to change the industry from within, but when it showed that it was unwilling to change itself she joined with others to take this issue directly to the people. In May Chris Packham's petition garnered 110,000 signatures and on July 7th parliament debated whether or not the UK should ban fossil fuel advertising and sponsorship. You can read Victoria's parliamentary briefing for MPs here with a forward by Chris Packham.In this episode Victoria shares with us her PhD research into how the advertising industry could move away from its current destructive model towards more climate-friendly objectives and together we explore why a UK-wide ban on fossil fuel advertising is needed and how we could bring it about. This issue is often compared to the ban on tobacco advertising, because like the effects of smoking, climate change is a public health crisis. And the number of deaths globally from climate change each year are now similar to the annual global deaths from smoking when tobacco ads were banned in the UK in 2003.Although there is broad support for the change in parliament, the government has no plans to move forward with regulation at this time. Currently progress is happening most rapidly through councils banning fossil fuel advertising and sponsorship in their cities and regions. Edinburgh is leading the way and many others are joining in. Many art and cultural institutions are also refusing to work with the big polluters and know that change is coming. And there are of course hundreds of smaller agencies that have taken a stand and are unwilling to work with high carbon emitting clients.The episode is hosted by Anna Mullenneaux, co-founder of the MarketingKind community.

In this episode Dr Mark Fabian, associate professor of Public Policy at Warwick University, associate fellow at the Bennett Institute at Cambridge University, wellbeing expert and author of Beyond Happy: How to Rethink Happiness and Find Fulfilment, guides us towards how we can increase our wellbeing and the wellbeing of those around us.Together we explore Mark's latest book Beyond Happy, which challenges superficial ideas of happiness and offers a deeply thoughtful framework for living well, both individually and collectively.We also discuss his research on the Wellbeing State, which is building an important and much needed case for changes in education, housing, economic policy and healthcare.Mark shares with us his concept of 'Coalescence of Being', a process by which we gradually integrate our experiences, values, identity, and actions into a coherent, meaningful whole. This could mean setting goals, working towards them, reading social feedback and most importantly learning to introspect on our own motivations and values and using new understandings to course correct along the way.This episode is hosted by Paul Skinner, founder of The MarketingKind community, director of The Agency of the Future and author of The Purpose Upgrade and Collaborative Advantage.

'It's more money for someone somewhere, but it's not more prosperity.'In this episode we interview Tim Jackson, author of Prosperity without Growth and Director of the Centre for the Understanding of Sustainable Prosperity (CUSP) to explore the ideas in his latest book The Care Economy.We discuss how the current growth-based economy is often a false economy and how we can instead work towards a Care Economy where "health" is the outcome and "care" is our guiding principle.Tim powerfully dissects how the UK health burden has changed since the inception of the NHS and how our growth-based economy feeds chronic disease.Tim says that, 'The food-related costs of chronic disease in the UK are now around £268 billion per year, which is substantially higher than the NHS budget'.For anyone passionate about tackling the ultra-processed foods crisis Tim mentions the Fight Fake Food March on London 6th.The book shares a new philosophy for the economy where health is the ultimate prosperity. Tim believes that creating a Care Economy would mean changing education, regulation and financial systems, but he is not depressed by the road ahead.He leaves us with a note of respair (recovery from despair) saying, 'The narrative form can hold vision for us. It can hold the vision for how things should be working even when they are fundamentally not doing that. And that vision provides a lens for how we could be doing things better. We can ask ourselves how we can do things differently. What would this look like if it had "health" as its goal and "care" as its organising operational principle?'This episode is hosted by Paul Skinner, founder of The MarketingKind community, Director of The Agency of the Future and author of The Purpose Upgrade and Collaborative Advantage.

We are all using AI every time we use social media (whether we want to or not), so in this episode Nicole Mezzasalma, Senior Consultant on Innovation at Battenhall, helps us explore the risks and opportunities involved.Nicole highlights the risks of using AI on social media:1) Consumer backlash - most people don't want to see AI generated photos and videos on social media and they will not be shy in letting you know2) Copyright liability - you are potentially opening up your brand to copyright lawsuits3) Bias - AI tools often confirm and worsen gender and race bias, so you need to actively work to counter thisNicole shares her concerns about the wild west of AI regulation and the UK government's current attempts to change copyright law so that creators have to opt out to protect their work from being used as AI LLM training data.She also flags concerns about the quality of AI generated content, especially when LLMs like ChatGPT are being trained on AI generated social media content.Nicole's recommendations for using AI tools to improve your social media engagement include:- Where AI really shines is with data analysis. It can look at large swaths of data and find trends and patterns and classify and categorise things much quicker than humans can.- NotebookLM can act as a self-contained second brain or client brain (and it can transform anything into a podcast or radio show).- AI tools can help to protect vulnerable people by providing effective content moderation for social media.- By making chatbots more realistic and helpful (and knowing when to pass the customer to a human) AI tools can help to increase customer satisfaction and engagement.We then open up for a group discussion, which covers everything from sustainability and misinformation, to how AI will impact the capitalist model and the role marketing can play in creating a positive vision for change.At Battenhall Nicole helps clients and internal teams to implement innovation-related work, such as new and niche social media platform campaigns, and experiments that break new ground in the industry. Nicole has over 20 years of experience in marketing, communications and strategy, with a strong focus on social media. She is a Top Voice on LinkedIn. And she speaks about AI and Social Media at conferences around the world.This episode is hosted by Anna Mullenneaux, co-founder of the MarketingKind community.

In this episode we gain insight into the role journalism can play in tackling climate change with the brilliant Anna Turns, journalist and broadcaster, Senior Environmental Editor for The Conversation and author of Go Toxic Free.We discuss the importance of solutions journalism, how to combat RFK jr.-style misinformation, advice for more effective climate storytelling, Anna's experience campaigning to reduce plastic pollution with her daughter and why she wrote Go Toxic Free: Easy and Sustainable Ways to Reduce Your Chemical Pollution.We also cover Anna's important work as Senior Environmental Editor for The Conversation, where journalists collaborate with academics to bring their research to the wider public. She shares how her Guardian article on an avian flu outbreak in Gambia, which posed a serious risk to UK poultry farmers, led to a change in UK government policy.You can listen to her recent BBC radio series Secrets of The Sea here.And Anna recommends checking out the Solutions Journalism Network for anyone interested in further exploring how journalism can tackle social problems.This episode is hosted by Paul Skinner and Anna Mullenneaux, co-founders of the MarketingKind community.

In this episode Raj Sisodia explores the role of Conscious Capitalism and conscious marketing in the age of Trump. The discussion starts with the chaos and cruelty of the Trump presidency and quickly moved on to how Conscious Capitalism and conscious marketing can provide an antidote.Raj cites Sam Harris saying that bad ideas can be more dangerous than bad people and when they catch on can cause havoc. We cover how economic and business theories become self fulfilling as business students change their language, behaviour and world view according to what they are studying.We discuss the shame of a marketing based only on perception and persuasion, as reflected in the phrase: ‘It's not real, that's just marketing'. We explore the higher purpose marketing can better serve and the need to understand the real underlying needs, the things that people might not even know about themselves, and find a way to meet those needs. And Raj says that we may need to come up with a better name for marketing, like the 'human resources' department should be called the 'people' department.Raj shares his 4 As of marketing as an alternative to the 4 Ps: - Acceptability- Affordability- Accessibility- AwarenessWe also explore the 4 principles of Conscious Capitalism and how when you are able to accomplish all 4, they are synergistic:1) Higher purpose - your reason why beyond profit2) Stakeholder orientation - making decisions that benefit all3) Conscious leadership - guiding their team towards shared values4) Conscious culture - valuing transparency, collaboration and well beingRaj explaines that the consciousness of the leader is the starting point. And he gives examples of great leaders such as James Sinegal founder of Costco, Satya Nadella CEO at Microsoft and his friend and co-author John Mackey, founder of Whole Foods.Raj reminds us that when we have stakeholders who are invested in our organisations emotionally then they all become marketers for us.Raj says our businesses have to be good for the individual, good for the group and good for the planet. In biology it's called multilevel selection. There can't just be a good business case. There has to also be a societal case, a planetary case, and a human case.We explore how to elevate the right leaders in business, the people who have both strength and love. They may not be the people who are putting themselves forwards.Raj is the author of 15 books including Awaken, Shakti Leadership, The Healing Organization, Conscious Capitalism, Everybody Matters, Firms of Endearment and The 4 A's of Marketing.Raj is a founding member of the Conscious Capitalism movement, FEMSA Distinguished University Professor of Conscious Enterprise and Chairman of the Conscious Enterprise Center at Tecnologico de Monterrey and Co-Founder and Chairman Emeritus of Conscious Capitalism Inc.This episode is hosted by Paul Skinner, author of The Purpose Upgrade and Collaborative Advantage, director of The Agency of the Future and founder of the MarketingKind community.

In this episode we interview Rupert Read on how we can engage the climate majority in taking on the needed work of transformative and strategic adaptation to climate change.We explore Rupert's journey from Green Party councillor to helping to launch Extinction Rebellion to founding the Climate Majority Project. We discuss Rupert's latest book Transformative Adaptation: Another World is Still Just Possible and how the concept of Thrutopia can help us to imagine the possible futures we want to create.Rupert says that 'We literally cannot go on the way we are going - we need to choose a different path and that needs to be a path of transformation and adaptation... If the way we try to adapt is (like the current government is doing) throwing a little bit of money at building hard flood defenses, it will not be enough. They are expensive, high carbon and will not last.We need to instead adapt in a way that is transformative and works with nature to create solutions that will be sustainable, so in the case of flooding for instead it means changing uplands land management, it means creating sponge cities.'The conversation gots controversial when it came to DEI, with disagreement on whether we can fully separate the issues of climate change and inequality.Rupert argues that 'there has been some polarisation around decarbonisation and there's a lot more around DEI, but there is very little around adaptation, because it is incredibly tangible. And this is what research around this shows. We're facing these worsening climate impacts and if we can succeed in bringing people together in the UK around work on transformative or strategic adaptation to climate change I think you will start to see communities that are less polarised.'We discuss the importance of truth and Rupert recommended Mike Berners-Lee's new book A Climate of Truth.And Rupert encourages us all to join the Climate Majority Project's Regulate Us campaign. He says, 'we can take action through our own businesses, but even if we are trying to lead by example, there will always be bad actors. And if bad actors can get away with it then they may put us out of business, so government needs to regulate. And government will only regulate if business people step up and say "we can't do it by ourselves".'This episode is hosted by Anna Mullenneaux, co-founder of the MarketingKind community.

"Move the money, change the world."This is the philosophy behind Chris Baker's brilliant book Obsolete: How Change Brands are Changing the World.In this episode Chris inspires us with his journey from co-founding Change Please and then Serious Tissues, to writing the book and now helping to bring together a consortium of Change Brands for collaboration and scale.​Since January 115 brands have signed up to work together as an informal holding company or 'Rebel Alliance' as Chris describes it in the book. He says 'the benefits of collaborating out weight the benefits of competing against each other'.We discuss many of the Change Brands, such as Tony's Chocolonely, Oatly, Smol, Suri, Liquid Death and Deep Green, covered in the book and a winning formula for creating Change Brands.When talking about the current backlash against ESG and DEI (especially in the US), Chris quote​s Sun Tzu "in the midst of chaos, there is also opportunity".When asked where to start with creating a Change Brand Chris says that 'making the right choice aspirational is really powerful'. He advises​ us to:1) Genuinely give a shit about what you are creating (for example read the founding story of Trip Drinks)2) ​Explore categories where there is a decent margin and where minimum order quantity isn't too big (Change Please vs Serious Tissues)3) ​Look ​at who are the players dominating your space (the founders of Suri knew there was no love for Oral B and Philips, the two big players in their market)Change Brands are taking risks and leading the way for others to come along and copy​. And they make it easier for governments to legislate for positive change by showing what's possible.Chris believes in impact over purpose​, words over actions​. Brands should create minimum footprint and maximum impact.For anyone interested in the power of Change Brands​ read the book​, vote with your wallet​ and if you have any questions you can find Chris on LinkedIn.​This episode is hosted by Paul Skinner and Anna Mullenneaux, co-founders of the MarketingKind community.

In this episode Wim Vermeulen, keynote speaker, strategist, partner at BUBKA and author of Speak Up Now!, explores the future of marketing.Wim covers the important leadership role that business has in helping us all to adapt to and mitigate the climate emergency. When politicians are incapable of thinking beyond 4 to 5-year election cycles, family run businesses are thinking in terms of 5 generations.Wim shares that we've gone beyond the phases of moral duty and regulation, when it comes to climate we're now in the risk management phase. In this phase demonstrating our credibility is more important than ever. We have to show that we're not on the side of misinformation and that we are responsible.We also discuss storytelling and language, activating the silent majority and modeling the potential for the most effective messaging.We cover the 4 barriers to shifting demand towards planet-friendly products.1) Affordability - you need to aim for the 90%, not the 10% to create real impact2) Knowledge - people don't know what 'sustainable' means, so find a simple way to communicate real benefits3) Convenience - make it easy, they don't want to work for it4) Lack of action - 'don't ask me to save the world when politicians and businesses have created the problem'Wim says marketers have to talk to the sustainability leaders in their organisations. They have to learn from them. And then show the CEO how marketing can contribute by identifying new value that can be created with more sustainable products and services. And he leaves us with a note of optimism, saying in the future 'there is plenty of room for lighthouse brands'. Wim believes that the language of hope will be incredibly important and we will want to buy from businesses that give us hope. Wim’s work at BUBKA focuses on the 'Demand Shift', examining how corporate sustainability drives business growth, enhances brand value, and inspires consumers toward less but more sustainable consumption.In 2023, his contributions were recognized by the marketing industry with the Silver Marketing Leadership Award, and his latest book, Speak Up Now: Marketing in Times of Climate Crisis, received the PIM Literature Award in the Netherlands.In 2024, BUBKA was awarded Agency of the Year in the Positive Impact category, and its Net Credibility Score (NCS) research work won an AMMA award.In the conversation Wim mentions his recent collaboration ‘We, the hopeful’ about the story of 2050, which you can view here.This episode is hosted by Catherine Archer, founder of Brand Archery, former CEO of JING and member of the MarketingKind community.

In this episode Lotte Jones, Chief Commercial Officer of The News Movement, helps up to explore the future of media and how new media is pushing traditional news media to innovate.She introduces us toThe News Movement, which is a modern media company, born on social providing factual content aimed at engaging Gen Z.We discuss the challenges The News Movement faced in building their commercial offerings for brands while growing organically (they now reach 100M views per month), of balancing the rigour of traditional journalism with the creativity of social media, and finding the right ways to support the creator economy.Lotte reminds us that:- Building community and engagement makes our organisations more resilient- When we're overwhelmed by the state of the world we need opportunities to take meaningful action- When working with clients don't be afraid to alter the brief!If you are not yet following The News Movement, Recount and Capsule, you can find them onInstagram, TikTok andYouTube. The episode was hosted by Tom Hadley, aMarketingKind member and founder ofExodus 25.

In this episode Dr Chris Arnold encourages us to 'Think outside the tick-box' and 'Supercharge the "S" in ESG'. Chris says, "We often talk about a climate crisis, but I want to talk about the social crisis. If you look at the social crisis we have, slavery is massive. We're talking about well over 50 million people in this world in modern day slavery. It's one of the biggest criminal factors. We also have crises in housing, poverty, hunger and unemployment." 1. Chris advises businesses to start by defining their social purpose. And to make sure there is a strong values alignment between their brand and their stakeholders. 2. Then look at their social impact strategy, including the causes they want to support, employee engagement and well beyond. And decide how they will achieve this strategy through partnerships or campaigns. 3. Once they have an action plan, they also need a plan for measuring impact. 4. And finally they need to communicate their impacts. Chris Arnold is a Dr of Business, author of Ethical Marketing & The New Consumer, founder of My Social Impact and was Brand Republic’s Ethical Marketing blogger for 10 years. An expert in ethical marketing and social impact, he has worked with top brands on social impact campaigns, including Diageo, Sainsbury’s, Heineken, Brewers, Hackney Council, London Community Arts and over 25 charities. In addition to being a member of the MarketingKind community, Chris is a member of the Institute of Corporate Responsibility & Sustainability (ICRS), NetworkOne Sustainability Think Tank and an Investors in Community Ambassador. This episode is hosted by Anna Mullenneaux and Paul Skinner, founders of the MarketingKind community.

In this episode we hear from Will Hutton, one of the UK's most influential economics commentators, former editor-in-chief of The Observer, author of six major books on political economy including The State We're In and co-chair of The Purposeful Company. Will shares his honest assessment of Labour's first 6 months in office and together we explore the ideas and solutions from his latest book This Time No Mistakes. We discuss the importance the 'we society', of living our values and national pride (where it can be genuine), being honest about wicked problems, why fairness matters and the possibility of social media in public ownership. The episode is hosted by Paul Skinner, founder of the MarketingKind community, director of The Agency of the Future and author of The Purpose Upgrade and Collaborative Advantage.

In this episode Jonathan Gabay shares with us what he has learned about how to create brand trust in an AI world from decades of work in marketing and advertising, creating training course for the CIM and universities and writing 15 books including his latest Practical Digital Marketing and AI Psychology. The number one question he gets asked when delivering AI training courses around the world, is: "Will AI take my job?". There is naturally an inherent distrust in AI and when you add that to the high level of distrust in advertising (according to the 2024 Edelman Trust Barometer), we need to actively work to build brand trust when using AI tools. Jonathan recommends we use these 3 pillars to create brand trust: 1) Fundamentally we need to demonstrate competence and reliably deliver on our brand promises. 2) We also need to act with integrity and be transparent about our use of AI. 3) And we have to show a genuine benevolence towards our customers or service users in how we use their data and interact with them. And this means integrating the human touch thoughtfully alongside AI tools. In this episode we also discuss explainable AI, ethical data stewardship, authentic social proof, hyper-personalisation, censorship, the need for critical thinking, and how AI tools will transform the relationship between people and brands over time. Jonathan has written 15 books on copy writing, marketing, branding and leadership. He regularly comments on major news channels including CNN, ABC, BBC and Bloomberg. Many educational bodies and institutions, including the Chartered Institute of Marketing, the University of West London, the Oxford College of Marketing, the Cyprus Marketing Institute, and Google, have featured and endorsed his digital psychology and creative courses. Workshops and Masterclasses are delivered at universities across Europe, the Middle East, and America. In addition to creating and leading graduate-level programmes, Jonathan advises major educational institutions on integrating artificial intelligence (AI) into their curricula. This episode is hosted by Anna Mullenneaux, co-founder of The MarketingKind community.

In this episode Dennis Yi Tenen explores what the history of machine learning can tell us about the future of how AI technologies will impact storytelling and culture. Together we discuss Dennis's book Literary Theory for Robots: How Computers Learned to Write, why he wrote it and what he has learned in the process. He shares how the challenges that arise with AI are social problems, similar to the challenges we've seen throughout history with each technology change. And as marketers we are well places to help society to adapt in useful ways. He argues that AI is better understood as a social or collective intelligence rather than a single entity. AI is more representative of an aggregation of human knowledge and technological capabilities rather than an independent godlike character. Dennis says that humans have been automating the writing process throughout history and AI is just the next step. Dennis suggests it is more useful to focus on specific, actionable issues rather than abstract existential threats of AI. He says that Europe has often been better than the US at getting the balance right between regulation and innovation and we should make sure that we continue to protect information in the public domain. When asked about the dangers of commoditising the outputs caused by the drive for efficiency in the creative process with AI, Dennis says: "Your body needs to go through the experience of exercise to derive the benefits. Let's extend this to intellectual capacities... Maybe we need to get to the mental gym". Dennis is an associate professor of English at Columbia University, where he also co-directs the Center for Comparative Media. His research happens at the intersection of people, text, and technology. A long-time affiliate of Columbia’s Data Science Institute, formerly a Microsoft engineer in the Windows group and fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society, his code runs on millions of personal computers worldwide. Here is the link to the ChatGPT generated sequel to Literary Theory for Robots, which Paul mentions in the conversation and Dennis comments on. This episode is hosted by Paul Skinner, author of The Purpose Upgrade and Collaborative Advantage and founder of the MarketingKind community.

In this episode we learn from Kate Goldman-Toomey, Executive Director of Partnerships at Open Planet, how they are creating a library of high-quality climate and nature footage, free to use for educational, environmental and impact storytelling. She said, "the climate and nature crisis is also a communications crisis.​ We're not going far enough or fast enough so in order to collectively shift the dial and to accelerate action we need to supercharge storytelling at an exponential scale." She tells us about the incredible work Open Planet is doing to democratize climate video content. Their library contains over 12,000 clips of documentary video content contributed by over 60 filmmakers and in the next year they aim to expand their library to over 150,000 clips.​ ​K​ate shares their upcoming projects including a new feature documentary with David Attenborough on the Ocean, a feature documentary and impact campaign on Biodiversity, and a recent project on health x climate with Wellcome. And how they are building a global network on content creators who are telling their local climate stories and making them available through the Open Planet platform. I encourage ​everyone to explore Open Planet's library at OpenPlanet.org, share it with the climate educators, non-profits and anyone looking to tell better climate stories. ​If your organisation may be interested in partnering with Open Planet please reach out to Kate. Together we can all empower better climate storytelling​. This episode is hosted by Anna Mullenneaux, co-founder of the MarketingKind community.

In this episode Neil Davidson shares what he is learning as part of his doctoral research on GenAI and creativity. In addition to his studies Neil is CEO of HeyHuman and a Founding Member of the MarketingKind community. When speaking about generative AI, Neil says, 'This is going to change at an individual level, a team level, an organisational level pretty much everything we do in time as creative agencies. It will change jobs, it will change processes and it will change revenue models.' His research includes investigating questions such as 'what defines creativity? How do you measure it? And how do you nurture it in organisations?'. Neil explores why there are a lot of talented and accomplished creatives who believe that generative AI threatens their identity. And we cover how AI is already changing the creative process. Neil shares 5 examples of where AI is going creatively: 1) Keyboard warriors who don't think AI will change their jobs (but remember this is the worst AI will ever be and it's only as good as its prompting) 2) Elite creatives who make AI part of their craft like Anton 3) Midjourney gurus like Sherry Horowitz, who is poet and fine artist moving into using AI in film 4) AI has the biggest effect on the least skilled - Carl doesn't have years of creative experience, but is using AI to create effective corporate comms films 5) John with decades of film editing experience believes he will likely receive 10% to 20% of the work in future and he will become the human finesse after AI has done most of the editing AI is already an effective thinking partner, adaptive author, futurist, creative augmentor, media architect, insights synthesizer, compressing time consuming tasks and content creator. And Neil leaves us with an important reminder... 'it won't be the AI that takes your job, it will be the creative using AI that takes your job.'

In this episode we explore how we can narrate our way to a safer world with Dr Malka Older, humanitarian, academic and best-selling author of Infomocracy. Just like when reading Malka's novels, this discussion helps us differently about how we structure our lives, our work and our politics. The narratives that guide us have an enormous effect on how we respond to, address and recover from our most profound problems, even including our disasters and emergencies. So in the face of changes in technology and divisive societal trends how can we ensure that our cultural narratives are helping us to be prepared, responsive and resilient? She says, 'As a disaster researcher...we see again and again in personal experience and in literature that if you have no money but you have both community and organisation you are far better off than the other way around, than having a lot of money and a community where people are very divided and hate each other and no organisation in terms of what to do with the money.' As wealthy western democracies are being hit by more and more disasters will we be able to come together to rebuild our divided communities to become more resilient? Or will we continue to think that our money and technology will be enough protect us? The discussion covers everything from how no one in real life reacts like they do in disaster movies, to the incredible importance of hearing all voices from all corners of the world and in all languages (not just the ones that we are familiar with). Malka’s science-fiction political thriller Infomocracy was named one of the best books of 2016 by Kirkus, Book Riot, and the Washington Post, and shortlisted for the 2019 Neukom Institute Literary Arts Award. With the sequels Null States (2017) and State Tectonics (2018), she completed the Centenal Cycle trilogy, a finalist for the Hugo Best Series Award of 2018. Links to her short fiction, poetry, and essays can be found here. Named Senior Fellow for Technology and Risk at the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs for 2015, she has more than a decade of field experience in humanitarian aid and development, ranging from field level experience as a Head of Office in Darfur to supporting global programs and agency-wide strategy as a disaster risk reduction technical specialist. She has responded to complex emergencies and natural disasters in Sri Lanka, Uganda, Darfur, Indonesia, Japan, and Mali, in the last three as Team Leader. Her doctoral work on the sociology of organizations at the Institut d’Études Politques de Paris (Sciences Po) explores the dynamics of multi-level governance and disaster response using the cases of Hurricane Katrina and the Japan tsunami of 2011. In September 2024 Malka took on the role of Executive Director of Global Voices. This episode is hosted by Paul Skinner, founder of the MarketingKind community, director of The Agency of the Future and author of The Purpose Upgrade and Collaborative Advantage.

Our guest this episode is Shana Gavron, founder of Endangered Wildlife OU. Shana explains, "Biodiversity could be our greatest employer, our greatest employee and our greatest trade partner. And it doesn't ask for anything except to be allowed to do what it has to do." Shana is leading the way in creating a new universal system for measuring biodiversity by calculating reliable financial values of biodiversity and helping businesses to integrate biodiversity into their reporting and decision-making. Biodiversity often provides the most efficient solutions to our business challenges, so why don't we maximise our ROI by letting it do what it's support to do? For instance the best way to keep elephants from crossing over into farm land is to put in beehives (rather than use land mines). And in some areas with deforestation tarantulas are moving onto football pitches and if they are left there (instead of being eradicated) you can naturally reduce the number of scorpion related deaths and injuries to the people who use the pitch. Shana shares a simple way to quickly measure the biodiversity in our areas - check your windscreen for insects after a long drive. By this measure the UK's biodiversity is definitely going down significantly. Shana is in the unique position of being able to perceive biodiversity from a financial and environmental perspective with 15+ years’ investment banking experience as a sell side institutional equity analyst for leading Scandinavian and Baltic banks. She has combined this knowledge with her expertise in financial modelling and her academic background in wildlife management to drive the development of the Endangered Wildlife OU’s Biodiversity Valuator. She completed undergraduate studies in behavioural psychology and neuroscience, holds an MPA in Public and Economic Policy from the London School of Economics & Political Science. She specialises in innovation and systems dynamics for inclusive economic development. This episode is hosted by Anna Mullenneaux and Paul Skinner, founders of the MarketingKind community.

This September MarketingKind members and guests came together at Citizen Good in London to explore how we can encourage greater truthfulness in public discourse on the climate emergency. Paul Skinner, founder of MarketingKind, interviews Professor Mike Berners-Lee and The Rt. Hon John Gummer, Lord Deben to get their advice on what we can all do as business leaders and citizens to support meaningful action. Caroline Bates, founding partner at Citizen Good, hosted the gathering and three of her top take-aways are: 1. Insist on Truthfulness: Demand high standards of honesty from politicians. It’s our duty to challenge untruths and hold leaders accountable for climate impacts, especially at the local level. Organisations like Friends of the Earth provide resources to monitor MPs and their responses to climate issues. 2. Shift the Narrative: We need a cultural shift. Let’s redefine what it means to care for others by promoting sustainability in our social circles and professional environments. Changing this narrative can inspire collective action. 3. Leverage AI for Good: AI holds potential in solving climate challenges, but regulation is crucial. We must ensure its development aligns with our climate goals, rather than detracting from them. As Paul mentions that best way to thank our incredible guest speakers is to take action on their advice. Please get in touch ([email protected]) if you would like to join the MarketingKind community as part of your commitment to creating meaningful change. Lord Deben is the founder and Chair of Sancroft International, a consultancy that advises both businesses and investors on all areas of Sustainability and ESG. Between 2012 and 2023 he was chair of the UK’s Independent Climate Change Committee. And he was also the UK’s longest serving Secretary of State for the Environment (1993-97). Mike Berners-Lee is a leading expert in carbon metrics for organisations and the author of two books, There is No Planet B: A Handbook for the Make or Break Years, How Bad Are Bananas? The carbon footprint of everything, and co-author of The Burning Question. Mike is a professor at Lancaster University’s Environment Centre, where his research includes carbon metrics and sustainable food systems. And he is also the founder of Small World Consulting (SWC), an associate company of Lancaster University, which works with organisations from small businesses to the biggest tech giants.

This episode's special guest is Jon Miller, author of The Activist Leader: A New Mindset for Doing Business.Together we explore how we can all use an activist mindset to make businesses more of a force for good.Jon takes us through the 5 types of Activist Leader: Campaigner Path-finder Mobiliser Bridge-builder FixerAnd a quick poll of participants shows that over 50% of MarketingKind members identify as Path-finders.Jon shares many examples of businesses that are leading the way such as the largest shipping company in the world, Mærsk, which has created a new design for ships that produce half of the carbon emissions of a standard cargo ship.Paul Polman, former CEO of Unilever, endorsed The Activist Leader calling it, ‘A must read for all current and aspiring leaders’.The Activist Leader is the second book that Jon has written. The first is Everybody's Business and both were co-authored with his business partner Lucy Parker.In addition to his writing, Jon is a partner of the Brunswick Group, where he co-founded the Business & Society team in 2011, working with many of the world’s largest companies on their critical societal issues – from climate change and biodiversity to human rights and inequality.In 2015 he founded Open For Business, a coalition of global companies advancing LGBTQ+ equality, with live programmes in East Africa, Eastern Europe, the Caribbean and South East Asia.With this event taking place live in London (and online) we have an extended Q&A resulting in our longest episode so far!This episode is hosted by Caroline Bates, Founding Partner of Citizen Good and a member of the MarketingKind community.

In this episode we explore with Kian Bakhtiari, founder of The People, how we can restore collective imagination in order to better solve society's biggest challenges. Kian believes we have a crisis of imagination and we need to use marketing and communications to create a shared sense of language and vision to help us imagine a better future. In the discussion Kian inspires us with his work at The People, which is a is an award-winning Gen Z Insights and Strategy agency powered by 150+ diverse young changemakers. He gives advice for helping to breakdown the notion that the world is fixed and unbending and suggests we should: - Nurture the beginner mindset - Evoke the power of play - Take people out of their usual setting to give them a new perspective This episode is hosted by Anna Mullenneaux and Paul Skinner co-founders of the MarketingKind community.

In this episode we learn from Parisa Wright, founder of Greener & Cleaner, how their charity is tackling the loneliness epidemic, the cost of living crisis and the climate emergency all at once. Their innovative Community Hub in The Glades shopping centre in Bromley has turned a vacant space into a thriving place for a diverse range of people to learn from each other how they can live more sustainably, while saving money, learning new skills and building a more resilient social network. People come to the Hub to learn new skills such as sewing, to borrow equipment from their Library of Things, to volunteer or to meet new people in a supportive environment. Greener & Cleaner also use their Hub to test and learn. They are building a ‘Blueprint’ for success to help other community groups and charities to replicate this model in vacant spaces in shopping centres and high streets around the UK. Our members are working with Parisa to help grow the charity by strengthening and diversifying their funding streams, particularly through their work with businesses. And if you would like to join us in supporting their work please get in touch at [email protected]. This episode is hosted by Jackie Marshall, former Head of Marketing at Fairtrade, MarketingKind member, volunteer at Climate Ed and Business Engagement Lead at the Food Foundation.

In this episode Manda Scott, bestselling novelist, explores how Thrutopian narratives can give us 'a road map through' our current polycrisis existence to one we would be proud to leave to future generations. We discuss how Manda used the concept of Thrutopia in writing her recently published novel Any Human Power, which is described as a mytho-political thriller and which includes a surprisingly timed general election. *** So a special thank you to Rishi Sunak for calling a general election the week before the book came out, helping to make the book feel even more prescient and needed. *** Manda says we need to change our mindset and our value system away from 'see, want, take' to one where we don't see ourselves as separate from nature or each other. Her top three practical recommendations for changing politics in the UK: 1) Read Plurality: The Future of Collaborative Technology and Democracy by Audrey Tang2) Change from First Past the Post voting to Proportional Representation3) Give 16 year-olds (or younger) the right to vote Manda is the author of 18 books including the hugely popular Boudica: Dreaming series and the Times ‘Book of the Year’ Into the Fire​. She hosts the Accidental Gods podcast where she and guests explore how we can create a future we’d be proud to leave to the generations that come after us.​ And she is a contemporary shamanic teacher and offers courses in Thrutopian writing. ​This episode is hosted by Paul Skinner, founder of ⁠the MarketingKind community⁠, director of the ⁠Agency of the Future⁠ and author of ⁠The Purpose Upgrade⁠ and Collaborative Advantage.

This episode's special guest is Philippa White, author of Return on Humanity: Leadership Lessons from All Corners of the World, and together we discuss a people-first approach to leadership. Philippa is a global thought leader, social innovator and the Founder and CEO of UK-based company TIE Leadership and host of the TIE Unearthed podcast. For over 20 years she has been dedicated to unlocking the potential of corporate leaders and their companies by igniting the power of a people-first approach to business. Philippa shares what she considers the three pillars of being more human as a leader: self-awareness, interdependence and interconnectedness. 1) Self-awareness means knowing who you are, what you are good at, what your purpose or compass is and what makes you happy. 2) We are interdependent, because we can't make decisions on our own. We need other people, we can't make decisions in a vacuum, we need other sectors and other regions of the world. We need voices from outside communities to help us find solutions. And to create an environment where the people needed can collaborate in a cohesive way, we need human competencies such as empathy and understanding how to gain trust from people who are very different to ourselves. 3) Our interconnectedness means business can't be only about shareholders, it needs to be about all stakeholders. There needs to be an understanding of our place in the community and how what we do impacts all other aspects such as our customers, civil society and the environment. The more human a business culture is, the happier people are and the more successful it becomes and this is a 'Return on Humanity'. We learn about her aunt and uncle's activism in apartheid South Africa and how it motivated her to create her leadership programmes at TIE and to write the book. This episode is hosted by Anna Mullenneaux and Paul Skinner, co-founders of the MarketingKind community.

In this episode Steph Caswell, writing coach and author of Dare to Write, shares her advice on how to turn our ideas into great business books. We are also hugely lucky to have a community filled with authors and in the group discussion we hear from Rory Sutherland, Dr Chris Arnold and Paul Skinner about their own writing and publishing experiences. Steph's top three tips and some of her reading recommendations include: 1) Read! Read within your genre and outside of it. Read and explore what makes a good business book. The Success Principles by Jack Canfield is an example of a book that influenced Steph's journey. 2) Always keep the reader front and centre. What is the problem that your reader has that will cause them to reach for your book on the shelf? This becomes your reader promise. Write about an idea that flicks a switch for the reader and helps them to see and do things differently. Eric Nelson, an editorial director, wrote an article on LinkedIn about the secret to coming up with ideas that people get excited about, which is worth reading: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/secret-coming-up-ideas-people-can-get-excited-eric-nelson Books that Steph mentions include The 5 Second Rule by Mel Robbins, Atomic Habits by James Clear and Switch by Chip Heath and Dan Heath. 3) Make sure to create a sense of momentum for the reader. When people read non-fiction books they want to be able to take action as a result so give them practical tips. What can you do in your book that could make a difference for your reader? This episode is hosted by Anna Mullenneaux, co-founder of the MarketingKind community.

In this episode we learn from Zak Gottlieb, co-founder of Bank.Green, how they are influencing banks to support a more sustainable future rather than continuing to fund fossil fuels. The fight for a habitable planet is the fight for our lives. But while we look at ways to make our own lives more sustainable, most of us are also funding environmental catastrophe. During the 7 years following the Paris Agreement, the world’s top 60 private-sector banks pumped $5.5 trillion into fossil fuels. In honour of Earth Day 2024 Bank.Green launched a new league table and methodology so that we can all find out if our bank (and therefore our money) is funding fossil fuels. And if we’re not happy with our bank's ranking then Bank.Green makes it easy to find and switch to a better one.  Zak joined the climate movement in 2019 after feeling the world was sleep-walking towards catastrophe and wanting to use his knowledge of digital marketing to do something about it. At Bank.Green, he is responsible for their growth and partnerships, while liaising with banks about how they represent them. This conversation was part of a MarketingKind Coffee with a Cause session where members work together to support the growth of a pioneering charity. This episode is hosted by Anna Mullenneaux, co-founder of the MarketingKind community.

In this episode we explore 'life after the big job' in a very open, honest and engaging conversation with Mark Evans, former Managing Director of Marketing and Digital at Direct Line Group. "A big part of moving out of executive life is finding a way to move away from (or maybe reframe) one's ego, so I do have a bit of a problem with the word 'portfolio'. I describe my existence as having a fruit salad." Whether you are still in 'the big job' or you have struck out on your own, the world needs a lot more ‘fruit salad’ thinking. Mark shares advice given to him at a curry house dinner celebrating his university graduation in 1995 which has shaped his career ever since. Mark currently aims to learn more, enjoy more, and contribute more. He has raised over £900,000 to help beat cancer quicker through the Sprintathon. And he shares the many other incredible roles and initiatives that make up the current mix in his fruit salad. We learn about the importance of building a 'board of advisors' rather than relying on the expertise of one mentor. And Mark's top four tips for anyone wanting to diversify their career interests with the potential for creating a portfolio or fruit salad life. This episode is hosted by Elaine Roberts, B2B marketing expert, coach and strategic change consultant. And Mark and Elaine are both members of the MarketingKind community.

This episode's special guest is Rob Harrison-Plastow, CEO of insight agency Source Nine and climate communications and behaviour change expert. We ask Rob to help us better understand how we can unlock emotional insights in relation to our own lives and our work in marketing. Rob shares that our emotions are based on our perception of our needs being met at an unconscious level, which shape our experiences and our reality of the world. This conversation is an important one for every marketer and every human being. This should be taught in schools. Rob describes how he works to first listen to people and understand their emotions, discover their underlying needs and to then create value through strategies that align a client's products, services and communications with meeting the needs of those people in a positive way. When this is done right you can truly understand why people act the way they do, you can connect deeply and create human flourishing. It should feel obvious when you achieve this. It is simple. We discuss understanding three main buckets of negative emotions and how to use them to achieve quick wins. Emotions such as sadness, anger and fear serve a purpose and they can be navigable. We delve into the ethical considerations involved and Rob's goal of helping people to flourish. Rob references Manfred Max-Neef's Fundamental Human Needs and Marshall Rosenberg's Nonviolent Communication. This episode is hosted by Paul Skinner and Anna Mullenneaux, co-founders of the MarketingKind community.

In this episode we explore inclusive economics with Arunjay Katakam, digital payments expert, social entrepreneur and author of Generation Hope: How Inclusive Economics Can Help Us All Thrive. Arunjay tells us of his personal journey from chasing wealth to becoming a social entrepreneur finding ways to help the poorest in the world access digital payments systems. He was inspired to write the book when during the pandemic he was interviewing gig workers and discovered what he calls 'algorithmic dehumanization', when businesses lure people in and then decide how much they should earn, even though they are technically self employed. Steve Cook from The Undaunted also contributes significantly to this discussion. Arunjay is the author of two books Generation Hope and The Power of Micro Money Transfers. He is a digital payments expert, who until recently consulted for the United Nations. He is the founder of Inclusive Action Lab and has previously co-founded several start ups, one of which sold to Twitter. All profits from the sale of Generation Hope go to the non-profit Acumen, which is working to change the way the world tackles poverty. This episode is hosted by Anna Mullenneaux, co-founder of the MarketingKind community.

"We're just being outplayed when it comes to narratives about all of this. The devil has often had the best tunes..." This episode with Sir Jonathon Porritt, CBE, co-founder of Forum for the Future and author of eleven books including Hope in Hell, is both starkly honest and galvanizing. We cover everything from carbon pricing, climate migration and the failures of CSR to direct action, the battle of narratives and what the economy of the future could look like. We learn that Jonathon is currently focused on campaigning for the Green Party and supporting youth-led direct action groups such as XR and Just Stop Oil, because he feels political pressure is the only way forwards. He is disappointed with business, many of which are taking steps backwards. We dig into his frustration with Unilever, why marketing and advertising are part of the problem and why Jonathon avoids terms such as degrowth and Net Zero. And Jonathon reminds us that things most likely need to get much worse before they will get better and he hopes that that will happen very quickly (so watch out Miami!). At MarketingKind we will continue this important discussion including through our work with Bank.Green in our May 21st Coffee with a Cause and in our July 2nd xChange with Mike Berners-Lee and Lord Deben on how we can increase truthfulness in public discourse. This episode was hosted by Paul Skinner, founder of the MarketingKind community, director of the Agency of the Future and author of The Purpose Upgrade and Collaborative Advantage.

This week's special guest is Tam Hussey, founder of Halo by Design, which is a strategic consultancy creating and delivering strategies to shift customers, employee, partner behaviours to meet company’s sustainability goals. Tam leads a discussion about how marketing can be used effectively to create more sustainable behaviours. She says, "If you're told to do something, even if we know it's the right thing to do, the healthy thing to do, it's not something that humans are very good at doing. So if brands want to close the sustainability Say-Do gap they need to make it easy for us to take action with them, rather than just telling us what to do." Tam shares four important reasons why businesses should be allocating budget to take sustainable action: 1) The status quo is no longer feasible - extreme weather and flooding is already impacting many businesses in the UK and conditions will only get worse 2) Avoid greenwashing and greenhushing by doing something meaningful 3) Protect brand loyalty - 88% of people want brands to help them take action 4) Avoid the risk running foul of regulation and litigation (New York recently sued Pepsico over plastic pollution) Tam explains that to successfully change behaviours we have to make it easy for people to participate, use social pressure to reinforce and it has to be done at the right time and place (and digital makes it very easy to do this). She mentions many great examples of businesses that are doing this well including REI's Opt Outside campaign, which sees them close their stores on Black Friday and help their staff and customers to go enjoy the outdoors. Tam refers to Zak Gottlieb, co-founder of bank.green, which is a fantastic resource for anyone wanting to make sure their bank isn't funding fossil fuels. This episode is hosted by Anna Mullenneaux, co-founder of MarketingKind, a community of marketing, business and charity leaders who come together to make marketing mean more.

In this episode special guest Jon Alexander, author of Citizens: Why the Key to Fixing Everything is All of Us, shares why we need to change our 'consumer' culture to a 'citizen' one and what we can accomplish if our businesses and institutions work to empower active citizens rather than continue to drive consumerism. For a decade Jon worked in advertising, until he realised that he was a part of the problem. He was selling a the story of consumerism, which he no longer believed in. So in 2014 he left to co-found the New Citizenship Project to support organisations interested in involving people in the decisions that affect their lives as citizens. NCP has partnered with organisations and institutions including the Co-op, National Trust, BBC, European Central Bank and many more. Jon discusses the frameworks from the book including the 3 principles of participatory organisations, which are Purpose, People, Prototype. And why he believes that a citizen mindset 'can meet the world where we are, but also take us where we need to go'. This episode was hosted by Claire Eades, founder of Marmalade Film and Media, and Paul Skinner, founder of MarketingKind, Director of The Agency of the Future and author of The Purpose Upgrade and Collaborative Advantage.

In this episode we explore how to become a non-executive director with Célia Pronto. Célia is the perfect person to ask for help with answering this question because in addition to an impressive career, as Managing Director at Love Home Swap, Chief Customer and Digital Officer at Casual Dining Group, Marketing and E-commerce Director at Ford Retail Group and much more, she is a non-executive director at South East Water, Moto Hospitality and Samworth Brothers.  Together we discuss what drove her and the challenges she faced in getting her first role. She shares how to get your NED pitch right, create your NED CV and the importance of networking. Célia says 'it's a contact sport', you have to be ready for rejection and you can't take it personally. She says it is also vitally important that you make sure that taking on a NED role is right for you. Once you get through the many hurdles to get an offer for your first role you should be prepared to reject it.  You will need to do your due diligence before accepting any roles. "Meet the whole board, make absolutely sure you meet the audit partner and find out if there is anything in the accounts that you should be aware of. Meet the legal council to find out if there are any skeletons in the closet. And meet enough of the executives to make sure the culture is the right fit for you." The conversation covers the difference between trustee roles and NEDs, where to look to find roles, understanding remuneration and finding relevant training opportunities. You can find links to many of the references discussed below. This interview was originally recorded at a live MarketingKind event in April 2022 and since then Célia has taken on two more NED roles at Hostmore plc and Campden BRI. We're sharing this now because her advice is still highly relevant. This episode was hosted by Bob Boxer, co-founder of the Cafe agency and a Founding Member of the MarketingKind community. Relevant links: FT board training Women on Boards  Dynamic boards  For Government roles join the public appointments newsletter  Nurole - by recommendation only 

In this episode Tom Fishburne, The Marketoonist, breaks down how humour can be used to bring people together, to overcome barriers and to hold a mirror up to more accurately reflect and hence be able to better address sensitive or difficult topics. At the beginning of the interview Lauren shares her top 4 favourite Marketoons, which you can view here: 1) https://marketoonist.com/2023/03/ai-written-ai-read.html 2) https://marketoonist.com/2014/06/brand-guidelines-2.html 3) https://marketoonist.com/2016/12/brand-loyalty-3.html 4) https://marketoonist.com/2017/09/owningthepandl.html Tom explores his creative process, how he thinks about humour and why he believes affiliative humour is the most appropriate type for a business context. This conversation will make you think differently about how you can bring humour into your organisation and use it more intentionally to create bonds between colleagues, with customers and with the communities we support. And how we can use it to build a more engaging culture where colleagues can bring their whole personalities to work. You don't want to miss hearing about the feedback Tom receives on his weekly cartoons such as, 'It feels like you're spying on me at work'! Towards the end Tom shares his top Marketoons, which you can view here: 1) https://marketoonist.com/2015/01/shinyobject.html 2) https://marketoonist.com/2016/03/trojanhorse.html 3) https://marketoonist.com/2020/04/digital-transformation-2.html Tom has been connecting and elevating the marketing community around the world with his insightful cartoons for decades. And if you're not yet receiving his weekly cartoons you should sign up here. This episode is hosted by Lauren Cooper, Senior Marketing Manager at Amplifi Captial and a member of the MarketingKind community.

In this episode Polly Mackenzie, Chief Social Purpose Officer at University of the Arts London, explores how we can mainstream social purpose in enterprise. We discuss everything from why Polly took on her current role, to how we might rethink free markets, taxes and regulation, the challenges of embedding values throughout a large organisation, how the creative industries are needed more than ever in our crisis-prone world and the need for a new national story in the UK. Polly shares what it is like working with Peter Mandelson on the How to Win an Election podcast and why she is not planning to run for elected office herself. Polly is an experienced broadcaster known to many of us for her frequent contributions on BBC Questions Time and Politics Live. Prior to joining UAL she was Chief Executive of Demos, the UK’s leading social value think tank, bringing citizen voice and lived experience into public policy discussions.  Polly's previous roles include founding CEO of the Money & Mental Health Policy Institute, founding CEO of the Women’s Equality Party, and Policy Director to the Deputy Prime Minister from 2010 to 2015.  This episode is hosted by Paul Skinner, founder of the MarketingKind community, director of the Agency of the Future and author of The Purpose Upgrade and Collaborative Advantage.

Joe Kenner, CEO and President of Greyston Bakery, shares the incredible story of their award-winning social enterprise and how it is transforming how we view employment. Although many of us may not have heard of Greyston Bakery, we are all almost certainly familiar with their products (they make the brownies that go into Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream). But as incredible as their brownies are, it's not their most important export. They are working to create 40,000 job opportunities and $3 billion of economic impact through open hiring by 2030. Businesses such as The Body Shop and IKEA are using their open hiring model to overcome the hiring challenges of attracting and retaining talent, while creating social impacts. If your organisation might be a good fit for open hiring I encourage you to reach out to Joe and his team to explore the possibility of how you could give people hope. This episode is hosted by Paul Skinner founder of ⁠⁠the MarketingKind community⁠⁠, director of Agency of the Future and author of The Purpose Upgrade and Collaborative Advantage.

In this episode we explore with Nathalie Nahai, expert in psychology, persuasive tech and human behaviour, how humans can flourish in an age of AI. Nathalie is the author of Webs of Influence and Business Unusual as well as the host of the Hive podcast. We delve into Nathalie’s journey from musician to painter, behavioural science expert, marketer and author. She shares her take on what it means to be human in an age of tech turbulence and transformation and the implications for us as marketers and change makers. And you won’t want to miss Nathalie's memorable analogy between sexual consent and the use of marketing data. This episode is hosted by Paul Skinner founder of ⁠⁠the MarketingKind community⁠⁠, director of Agency of the Future and author of The Purpose Upgrade and Collaborative Advantage.

In this episode we are joined by Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester, to better understand the purpose of a mayor. We explore Andy's role as Chief Marketing Officer of Manchester, the role of a mayor in galvanising change, devolution and how best to cooperate in tackling our most important challenges. Andy was elected as Mayor of Greater Manchester in May 2017. Under his leadership Manchester has the mission to be a healthy, green, socially just city where everyone can thrive, with the ambitious target to become a zero carbon city by 2038. Prior to this Andy was MP for Leigh from 2001. In government, Andy has held Ministerial positions at the Home Office, Department of Health and the Treasury. In 2008 he became Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, before returning to Health as Secretary of State in 2009. In opposition, Andy has served as Shadow Education Secretary, Shadow Health Secretary and Shadow Home Secretary. Andy mentions his new book Head North: A Rallying Cry for a More Equal Britain, which he co-authored with Steve Rotherham, Mayor of Liverpool City Region. This episode was recorded at a live event in September 2023 and is hosted by Paul Skinner founder of ⁠the MarketingKind community⁠, director of Agency of the Future and author of The Purpose Upgrade and Collaborative Advantage.