Monday, March 23, 2020

5 ways of finding calm right now in the uncertainty of Coronavirus 2020

Want to feel more calm amid the chaos but feel so overwhelmed you don’t know where to start?

Now is a great time to gently turn away from the uncertainty, and lovingly toward your inner calm. I totally get how consuming the situation is, with so many fears around our loved ones possibly getting unwell, possible loss of income, isolation, the economy and that’s all before we even address home quarantine – there is a LOT going on right now and I want to acknowledge the depth of fear that is being experienced; its immense.

No one has control over this situation but we do have control over how we react to it. Now is the time to actively show yourself some love and take steps to finding your calm; not only for you, but to light the way for your family and those around you. We are all able to do more at home.

Here are 5 ways to regain some inner peace –


Wim Hof Breathing Technique – This right here has been another game-changer in cutting through an unwanted state of mind; the instant benefits are mind-blowing. The health benefits are also amazing as it achieves alkalinity in the blood, making us less susceptible to getting sick! Yes, it might seem a little crazy when you start, but I encourage you to give the whole thing a go, the ‘buzz’ afterwards is TOTALLY worth it!


For Wim Hof’s  Wim Hof's take on Coronavirus (COVID-19) To jump straight to the 11 min ‘guided breathing’ click here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tybOi4hjZFQ. (This man is fascinating, he’s also known as ‘The Ice Man’, look him up on Youtube!)

Meditation – An oldie but a goodie! Quietening the mind brings real peace to our soul. Over the years I have dabbled in meditation, mainly practising and spreading the message mindfulness matters. I came across this excellent free app called '1 giant mind' where you can follow the easy 12 step guide. He starts teaching just a few mins per day, its easy to get into and is by far the best explanation of how to meditate.

If you’re feeling quite stressed I highly recommend using EFT or Wim Hof method first to clear the emotion, because it can be difficult to quieten a mind that is busy stressing.

Creativity: It's not what we make, it's how we live... it's the powerful force built into human nature to desire creativity. There are thousands of types of DIY projects to do at home, from creative and decorative projects, to functional projects that improve the efficiency of the house. The good thing about these projects is that there are all kinds of things and we can choose the one we like the most or the one we like best, and even adapt it to our needs and tastes. For embracing your inner child...adult coloring books are available online.


Journaling – If you were like me and had a diary as a teenager then you will most likely remember the pouring out of the youthful soul onto paper, dissecting and spilling the beans on every inch of your life. Well, guess what, that was a fabulous skill back then that you can integrate back into your wellbeing rituals. Getting your thoughts out onto paper can help us gain real perspective on how we feel about certain things and it can be a huge release too. It might not sound that profound, but we process our thoughts differently when we write them down.

A great place to start, if you’re feeling a bit stuck, is with the gratitude and appreciation you feel in your life right now. I hear you, in such difficult times it can be hard to see things to be grateful for, but look closely, they’re there. You can gush on everything. Gratitude for family, friends, pets, car, home, food, electricity, internet, water, and right down to the smaller things like a comfy bed or your toothbrush (imagine how awful your breath would be without a toothbrush!). Gratitude helps us experience more positive emotions such as optimism, enthusiasm, love, joy, and happiness; list how many things you can find to appreciate right now and really revel in that delicious feeling. This is such a great way to raise your positive vibes too after all life is good on the positive side.

Nature – A way of restoring and reconnecting to our feminine energy is to enjoy nature. Feel the sun on your skin or blow the cobwebs out in the blustery wind; immerse yourself in your favourite place. Smell the ocean, listen to the birds, look at the vista, touch the trees; ground yourself and re-energise from our beautiful mother earth. If you are unable to get to any nature places, simply sitting on the grass in your back yard or pulling weeds out of the garden work a treat; notice the natural beauty close up.


Connect – With self-isolation in place staying connected is super important. One of my best recommendations here is using the free ‘video calling’ platform ‘Zoom’. All you need to do is share the zoom room link with friends, family or colleagues and meet there at a certain time. Its really user friendly, reliable and the coolest way to get a group of you together, to see each other and catch up – boom! Click for the link to open your zoom account. For a YouTube tutorial on how to use it for beginners click this video tuturial


I’m sending lots of loving vibes out to you all. Stay safe, protect yourselves and those around you and together we will rise from this unreal situation. Prioritise your self care and finding your calm, because not only will everything else become easier to tackle, that stuff is contagious too!!



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Wednesday, November 28, 2018

Conversational AI is a game-changer. (not just sayin')

(click video below)


  •  Human to Human interaction - how it's been and still is, probably reduced
  •  Machine to Machine interaction - over the years, we've gotten better at this
  •  Human to Machine interaction - this is new. We're still learning, finding our way...


    •  Having said that... 
    Conversational AI is the next frontier. When you speak to machines, and they reply / react in real-time, it takes the game to a whole new level. Not just marketing or business, it changes our world.

     So what's the big deal? What has changed? The entire human-to-machine interface has changed. No touchscreen, no mouse, no keyboard. No searching, no swiping, no typing...


    Not sure how many of us will be around in a world when gesture, voice, drones, robots, driverless cars, ionic planes will co-exist. But for now, voice search is here... to stay. Hey Google!

     
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    Sunday, January 21, 2018

    🔊 2018 is the year of The Customer Experience

    Q: How does Digital Transformation begin?
    A: By improving Omnichannnel Customer Experience.
                                                          

    THEIR EXPERIENCE... IS YOUR BRAND.



    Memorable Customer Experience is the new cornerstone for brand success.         It doesn't matter where you interact with the customer. What matters is how you serve them. (Make that "how well"). While innovations like AI, IoT, bots, digital assistants, VR / AR are brand enforcers, the quality of the customer interaction is the ultimate metric.



     .

    Stop selling stuff. Start telling authentic stories. Create personal brand experiences. The new competitive reality is tough and relentless. One answer is to develop engaging meaningful value proposition. Forrester report showed that CX leaders, on average, grow more than 5x faster than CX laggards. The companies that have made CX a priority focus on understanding the customer’s needs and wants and spend a lot of time understanding the journey a customer takes. Today, companies must curate a timely, relevant, and personalized customer journey, nail customer support(effective chatbot strategy), and take advantage of every opportunity to surprise and delight the customer''


       Marketers, our time has arrived. It’s not just different skills that we need to bring to the table.

                                           It’s different thinking altogether

    Agile Innovation - Rapid advance of technology is digitizing our world. Change is unstoppable. Disruption is inevitable. We’ve already witnessed this shift from product to experience – powered by digital – in many innovative industries and more to see in the coming 10 years. For instance, CDs & DVDs, both physical products, were rendered obsolete by digital products like MP3s and iTunes, which have now been trounced again by subscription streaming services like Spotify and Netflix. The rise of streaming services, the proliferation of digital distribution, the marginalization of terrestrial radio, the rise of cloud-based personalization with AI and Machine-learning algorithms fed by big data, and the emergence of new technology such as AR/VR has caused disruption.



    AIR NEW-ZEALAND EXPLORING HOLOLENS TO INNOVATE IN-FLIGHT CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE


     CX is the business battlefield of our times. It’s the new black – consumers now judge brands on experiences. New opportunities offered by AI and the Internet of Things mean that brands can deliver experiences that have never been seen before. Successful modern enterprises will be those who use design thinking to transform and fulfil customers’ demand for experiences that are satisfying, seamless and memorable whether at home, at work, on the move or at play. In this way, they can become truly invaluable in consumers’ lives.
     

    The lines between physical and digital experiences are blurred. As digital evolves, more products will transform to ensure continued success and become highly interactive and personalized, powered by AI. This will blur the line between object and experience even further, and will change the way customers consume, interact with, and experience products. Additionally, interactions will become even faster, slicker and easier as more connections are forged: person-to-person, machine-to-machine, and person to machine. Convergence of online & offline technology is creating new dimensions... a new reality.


                                           
    MAGNIFY WORLD - BRINGING AR / VR TO THE WORLD - TECHWEEK NZ 



    Seamless Omnichannel Customer Experience Management is the name of the game. #SMCNZ17










    With that in mind, "Serve. Solve. Share. Support. Simplify." is our work-life mantra. #SMCAKL17 



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    Tuesday, August 4, 2015

    The Key to Social Media Success is to Stay Focused





    This man needs no introduction. If you've been around the social media marketing scene, you know Mark Schaefer.

    Luckily, I caught up with Mark for a fun, friendly chat in Auckland over breakfast and coffee. Off the cuff, I let fly three questions. His answers were original and insightful.

    This video blog is Episode 1 of Marketing Madness. In case you missed the memo, it's my new YouTube Show! Watch it. Send in your feedback. Stay tuned for more...



    Marketing Madness - Episode 1

    Interview with an authentic social media marketing expert, Mark Schaefer


    AT: Author. Blogger. Professor. Trainer. Consultant. Speaker. How do you do it? How do you multi-task and keep your sanity?

     MS: The key is to stay focused and not get swayed by shiny object syndrome. I focus on 3 Cs: Clients. College. Content. If it doesn't make money or connect with people, don't do it.

    AT: Your Business Grow blog is the go-to place for high-value content. Hottest topics in social media and digital marketing explained in a simple way. Where do you draw your inspiration from?

     MS: From people. Paying attention to what they are asking, thinking, talking about. The question you ask me today will probably become a blog post.

    AT: You travel the world for business. What are your thoughts on social media marketing in the Asia Pacific region? How is New Zealand shaping up?

     MS: NZ is a beautiful country full of well-educated people. The opportunities for social media marketing here are enormous. The social media market is ready to explode out here.

    Social Media Coverage



    The key is to stay focused.Learn what you need to do to be successful.Pay attention.The social media marketing scene in NZ is ready to explode.- Mark Schaefer | Interview | [Marketing Madness Ep.1]
    Posted by Amar Trivedi on Monday, July 27, 2015





    • Mark has written 5 best-selling business books. His latest is: The Content Code


    Thanks

    A must-do #DnAselfie at The Coffee Club to kick off the excitement


    Mark reacts to the sound of the Tui - an intelligent NZ native bird


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    Thursday, July 31, 2014

    In Cyber Security — You Snooze, You Lose



    • Spring of 2007- Estonia is brought to a standstill as ping floods and DDoS (distributed denial of service) attacks crash the websites of the parliament, banks, ministries, and media. The level of sophistication of the digital onslaught is unprecedented.
    • Titan Rain- Code word for one of the biggest cyber-espionage cases in history, it refers to a series of coordinated attacks labelled an Advanced Persistent Threat. Hackers infiltrated computer networks for years and stole ‘classified’ data from Lockheed Martin, Sandia National Labs, NASA...
    • Heartbleed- A malicious bug that attacks vulnerabilities in OpenSSL encryption software to steal logins, passwords, and secure keys. It affected the servers of the world’s most popular sites — Google, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, Yahoo!, etc. Most worryingly, it impacted mobile (iOS + Android) devices & hardware. The full extent of its damage is unknown.

    I wish the above were from a film script titled, Dark Dawn over Cyberia. But these are real, reported incidents. Even more alarming is that cyber-attacks are getting stronger, bigger, faster, sneakier, and stealthier.
    Cyber-crime costs the world economy up to $575 billion per year, according to a McAfee-CSIS report. Across continents, it erodes the GDP of countries and undermines technology, innovation, employment, trade and reputation.

    Everyone Online Is at Risk

    For banking, insurance, military, and healthcare companies, cyber security is a lifeline. But in today’s hyper-connected world, it’s not just the regulated industries that are exposed to danger.
    Most of us work in always-on, social business environments. Our day-to-day spans geo-locations, time zones, and technologies. We log in to several social networks on different devices, access data from various websites and servers, and collaborate with people worldwide in real time. Truth be told, we are constantly at risk. And here’s the really scary part:

    Being Prepared Is Best Practice

    According to The Economist’s Cyber Incident Response Report, 75% of businesses have suffered a security incident in the past two years. While that usually causes loss of productivity and business-critical data, it’s only the tip of the iceberg.
    The damage is doubled if the story gets out and snowballs into a full-blown PR and media crisis. Makes sense why 57% companies prefer not to report breaches, unless legally required.
    It’s the loss of control, customer confidence and, occasionally, brand equity that makes cyber security a top priority. More than IT, it is now business strategy. Given the unpredictability of cyber-attacks, however, 100% prevention is a pipe dream.

    Failing to Plan Is Planning to Fail

    Risk mitigation is our best defence. Awareness, education, and understanding are our best weapons against cyber-crime. Prepare to shield your business:

    I.   Strategy

    Make security a part of your digital strategy. Design an Attack Response, Remedy, and Recovery Action Plan. Include what-if scenarios, what to do, who to contact, etc. Share it with all in the organization. Should a breach occur, have a contingency policy ready with a detailed crisis management and damage containment process.

    II.   Personnel

    Despite installing protection software, most incidents are picked up by alert staff. It is imperative to have a dedicated team of cyber watchdogs to ensure security across the enterprise. Train employees to consider vigilance a virtue with regular risk assessments, virtual scans, and security drills woven into workflows.

    III.   Infrastructure

    Investing in reliable enterprise social software is an important step in averting an online security crisis. Using a cobbled set of standalone, consumer-grade tools can create problems of non-compliance and expose your company to many risks:
    • Multiple individuals with admin-level access to social media pages
    • Access management in multiple places (i.e. within each individual network) making account adds, moves, and changes inconvenient and prone to error
    • Inability to enforce review and approval of messages prior to posting
    • Poor or no auditing ability; lack of archiving capabilities; limited or no automated scheduling
    • Incompatibility between new-old versions; separate upgrades for every piece of the puzzle
    On the other hand, a holistic, enterprise-grade social relationship platform from a security-certified vendor provides robust data architecture and a secure work environment through:
    • Ability to monitor, moderate, and enforce controls at scale
    • Configurable user-based roles linked to your organization’s active directory
    • Embedded ‘intelligent’ routing and workflow approvals
    • Automated reviewing and compliance processes
    • Smarter monitoring of risks via volumetric & influencer-based alerts, and a ‘kill switch’
    • Enterprise-level security protection (SOC 1 + SOC 2 Type II SSAE16 certifications)
    When choosing an enterprise technology partner, use this checklist to ensure the highest standards of compliance and risk management:

    For more information on managing / mitigating risks, download the enterprise guides to 

    social compliance, 

    social governance,

    and crisis management.


    Sprinklr CEO, Ragy Thomas on how brands can cope with risk and ensure compliance.


    About the author:
    amar trivedi social business strategyAmar Trivedi is a Management Strategy Consultant with international experience in Marketing and Communications across cultures, markets and brands. Passionate about helping companies achieve success via social business, he advises leadership teams to deploy social technology to build collaborative relationships, leverage content marketing, and create memorable customer experiences. A blogger, copywriter, storyteller, speaker, Amar champions fun, creativity and happiness in the workplace. He tweets as himself @Mr_Madness




    This post was originally published on Sprinklr Experience Management Blog.
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    Thursday, March 27, 2014

    Social Business: The Difference Between Survival and Extinction #socbiz




    Social business used to be a buzzword.

    Today, it’s a must-have survival tool. Consider this: As many as 93% of marketers now use social media for business, and 67% use social technology for marketing strategies.
    Social business is a journey of change spanning the entire business model. It’s a people-centric movement founded on social relationships and focused on transparency, engagement, open information exchange and above all, human interaction. It permeates all levels and functions across the enterprise.

    Why all the fuss about being a social business? Is it really such a big deal?

    This isn’t hype. For starters, social business transformation offers three significant benefits:
    1. Employee Engagement: Motivated, happy employees create happy customers. Their voice (i.e. content) is the marketing. The culture is the brand. When employees are empowered, tech-enabled and actively encouraged to engage through social, they become the company’s strongest advocates.
    2. Enterprise-wide Collaboration: Social business success is defined by carving your own ecosystem, a network of networks, via:
    • Activating branded communities across social channels.
    • Identifying brand advocates– internal and external.
    • Building social capital, influence and thought leadership.
    Social business puts the vital framework of technology and social relationships in place, which enables collaboration at scale.
    3. Smarter Information Management: In a network of social business relationships, an idea for innovation, a new project, or a customer lead can come from anyone, anywhere, 24/7. An open “receive and share” culture optimizes resources (knowledge, talent, content) and streamlines business processes leading to marked improvements in productivity, problem-solving, insight generation and customer service.
    According to ExactTarget’s 2014 State of Marketing survey, more than 60% of CMOs plan to increase spending on data/analytics and marketing automation technology this year. Social business is the evolution of social media, a logical next step for your business.

    How do we get started? Where does social business begin?

    Social business is a marathon, not a sprint. The transformation begins on the inside and gradually grows out. For that to happen, basically you need:
    • Social Infrastructure: For social relationships to flourish, a good, scalable infrastructure is critical. Your social technology should seamlessly integrate key functions (marketing, sales, CRM, IT, HR, R&D, CX), analyze data across various touch points via social listening, and intuitively generate insights from customer intelligence.
    • Social Employees: Training and empowering employees to leverage social technology should be embedded into workflows within the enterprise, community and beyond. While relationship-building skills are paramount, a flair for strategy, analytics and content marketing are invaluable as well. A good place to start would be to appoint a social strategist.

    In a nutshell, social business is about future-proofing your business. It could be the difference between survival and extinction.
    About the author:
    amar trivedi social business strategyAmar Trivedi is a Management Strategy Consultant with international experience in Marketing and Communications across cultures, markets and brands. Passionate about helping companies achieve success via social business, he advises leadership teams to deploy social technology to build collaborative relationships, leverage content marketing, and create memorable customer experiences. A blogger, copywriter, storyteller, speaker, Amar champions fun, creativity and happiness in the workplace. He tweets as himself @Mr_Madness
    Gratitude

    It's true. We live in a conversation economy. I experienced it. A comment I wrote on Jeremy Epstein's blog led to a conversation which led to an invitation to write a blog on social business.

    I consider myself privileged to share my thoughts on a subject I'm passionate about via Sprinklr - Experience Management | Social at Scale. I'm fortunate the blog post attracted intelligent comments from leading marketers and social business experts - from around the world.

    A lot goes into producing a blog. To give credit where credit is due, I have many amazing Sprinklr-ites to thank for the above post. Many Thanks to:

    • Jeremy Epstein - for the invitation
    • Uyen Nguyen - for overall supervision
    • Jessica Rodriguez - for content distribution
    • Kara Lee - for content management
    • Brad Hess - for content coordination
    • Esteban Contreras - for social awesomeness :)
    • Darren Garnick - for editing and proofing

    To sign-off on a smile, a cartoon from The Geekly Group:





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