NanoMosaic Inc.’s Post

⏰ We put our new Global CEO, Jacques van Niekerk on the spot to answer some quick questions. Want to learn more? Learn more about Jacques in our recent article >>https://bit.ly/3U710U8

My job is easy. My job is easy because our teammates don’t compromise on doing things the right way. When our CEO Jerod invited us into his home to talk about how he founded Quality Collision Group we didn’t have a script. Honestly, we showed up with no real plan (maybe something not to boast about 🤠). Jerod spoke, and we filmed for about half an hour. No thirty-person crew, no staging, and certainly no teleprompter. And the same goes for all of our content. We show up to our locations and document what is happening. It’s not complicated when you know what you’re capturing is important. And it’s easy when you know with 100% certainty that if you look to the left or right, that your teammates are doing the right thing. So, if you’re in the business of marketing for your company and it’s difficult to do that, ask yourself why? And then set out to change it. It should be easy. No compromise.

So this episode with First Focus CEO Ross Sardi got me thinking... our experiences are kinda what shape us into the leaders we're meant to be. Hear me out. Think back to the most challenging moments in your career: → Those late night projects. → The impossible deadlines. → The tough decisions. Each challenge and experience pushed you to grow, to adapt, and to innovate. But they didn’t just build your career; they built you. They’ve helped to shape your character, your resilience, and your perspective on life. And each step you take is a step towards becoming the leader you were meant to be. Anyways, I’m rambling! Would definitely recommend checking out the full episode. I swear it’s not just CEO talk. It’s for anyone who has a vision and a passion to succeed in any aspect of their career.

Termination> Apology. Diversity & Inclusion is not brand new, nor has it been well executed. This letter fixes nothing. Holding those who led this event accountable is the key. Most people know right from wrong & some still pick wrong. Replace those individuals who are capable of executing the pitiful task & painful situations.

Someone should be held accountable not just an apology.

First: Good apology from Palo Alto Networks and Nikesh Arora. Correctly hits the Regret, Reiteration, Responsibility, Repentance, Repair, and Request (for Forgiveness). If you wanted to quibble, you could assert that in Reiteration, harm acknowledgement is implied and not asserted, and in Request, Forgiveness is assumed and not requested; but as corporate apologies go, this is above and beyond what you generally see. Second: This is not isolated, I think. We eliminated booth babes at RSA Conference years ago (thank you to everyone involved in that). This was my first in-person BlackHat conference, and while I didn't see any booth babes, I did observe floorwalkers (before/after their shift, so I did not call it out without direct evidence, and stalking the attractive women in scanty outfits until I could do so seemed ... unseemly). I think it's time that we, as an industry, cut this out. So here is your easy standard, CMOs: if you are hiring external staff as part of a conference, whether it is to woman* your booth, glam up your party, or anything where they represent your company: you should apply the same gender diversity approach you want HR to apply to new hires. If you're hiring all women, that's just as much of a problem as if your company was only hiring men. Since this staff is going to represent your company, they should probably have the same demographics as your employees -- if your company is currently 80% male, then your outside event staff ... should be 80% male. *Yes, technically, we should switch the usual "man your booth" to "staff your booth," but let's be honest, you're all hiring women to glam up your booth. #inclusion #diversity

I wrote a post recently about being brave enough to stop self-victimising yourself and your situation and be brave enough to change it. Such insightful comments from Prateek Sanjay and Bree Rockwell highlighted the thought that happiness (or sadness) is a self-built construct; it’s a state of mind or being that leads to the self-realisation that only you can change that construct (or environment). One of my most memorable mentors and friends, Don Cope helped me through a difficult time I was having as an introvert, trying so desperately to climb the greasy leadership pole at Johnson & Johnson. His sapient advice was, an organisation is nothing more than an entity that will continue to survive under the momentum of size and scale, absolutely irrespective of your individual input. The entity does not care whether you’re here or not - there’s always a willing and congenial “empty suit” to step right in to take your place. So, as an individual, you have 2 choices - you can choose to “change yourself” or you can choose to “change your environment”. At that time, I chose to change myself - that involved the necessity to carefully and humbly rebuild relationships to show that I can be what they want me to be for the sole purpose of reaching the Top 200 executives in a 140,000 strong company - I didn’t want to be beaten so, needed to show capability and congeniality that would have made Sandra Bullock proud! However, a personality and style transplant can only hold an independent thinker for so long - within my next company, after the first 3 years of toeing the line, I chose to challenge my environment to drive my leaders to think beyond their current narrow field of self-preservation. The eventual realisation that they were never going to change from good to great, led to to difficult decision to change my environment to one where lateral thinking was acknowledged and, for the most part, encouraged. Back to Pratek & Bree’s insight - imagine being on Hollywood’s “A” list as the most magnificent “Superman” that ever took on the role, Mr. Christopher Reeve - had he decided against horse riding on that fateful day, he would never have had to survive for the remainder of his existence, trapped within his own body, through Tetraplegia. How would any of us honestly cope with a severed spinal cord at the C1 vertebrae if it were to happen, without notice, this afternoon? How would every goal and everything we thought so important to us just 5 seconds before, be less than insignificant now? Why are we so adamant that our problems are insurmountable - the ignorant boss, the report that we didn’t finish, the meeting where we know we have to completely “wing it”, the customer meeting we don’t want to do since it’s raining… aren’t our bubbles so pathetic? So what did Christopher Reeve do? The man in the cape was simply an actor playing a role - the man in the chair IS the real Superman.

Quick thoughts on items that may have an impact on the markets this week. 

THIS is progress! #cannabis #rescheduling #cannabisindustry #cannabisnews #cannabisreform

Quick thoughts on items that may have an impact on the markets this week.