The Honest Conference 2017
Oct 26, 2017 we held the honest conference. 5 Speakers, a panel discussion, breakfast, and 192 new friends made.
Posts
Just Try It: Cheat Codes on How to Differentiate
(From the night of!)
It’s hard to give a presentation on being different. So instead of talking about it I wanted to show people that creating and being different is something anyone can do.
We made a painting, a song, and a video!
Check it out!
Dress Code? Nah. Why You Won’t See Any Blouses or Ties at the Stratlab Office
In Ricardo Semler’s Maverick he tells the story about the first few times he came in on a weekend. The first thing he noticed “people dress differently when they come in on the weekend, why is that?”. They did it to be more comfortable. But don’t we want everyone to be comfortable when they are working all week long?
The dress code era at Semco was ended.
The executive dealt with the obvious backlash. “What if someone doesn’t want to do business with us because of the way someone is dressed in a meeting?” Ricardo’s answer; “if someone doesn’t want to do business with us because of the way one of our employees ‘looks’ then that’s probably someone we shouldn’t be doing business with”. Wow, that’s leadership.
Isn’t that simple? Why do you try to make your staff conform? Because you’ve always done that? That’s not a good reason why. Ask your staff, what they think, you may stumble upon a smart way to make your company culture better.
Learning Friday(s) 2017
We want to be one of the most caring, smartest, driven companies in the world. How can we do that? By working on the team!
Every Friday after lunch our team gets together and learns something about work at @StratLab. We invite clients to learn with us and so far it’s been awesome!
Week one was “All About Dat Measurement”
This coming week (January 27th) is “Learning About Your CreativEddy” -with your favourite @edwardoalvaro.
- Learn how he uses Photoshop and Illustrator
- Learn what goes though his mind when he posts on Instagram
- Learn how to put simple text over a photo as well as make simple edits
- Delve into the awesome world of Edwardo Alvaro
February 3rd – 5 Minutes Question Roundtable, no question is off limits.
February 10th – Eddy (Illustrator) Alvaro is leading down another creative rabbit hole.
- Reviewing Photoshop quick keys (lets make a checklist!)
- Troubleshooting in photoshop
- Creating freaking amazing Instagram moments
February 17th – Creating your own business cards/team building
- You business cards should reflect you, your personality, your beliefs. Let’s create some!
- Similar to the Hugh cards, we make personalized business cards by illustrating and putting quotes on the back
- What’s on the front you ask? Well lets decide as a team!
February 24th – Brooke on how to create a following on Instagram
- How do you make pictures look GOOD?
- What frequency do you post at? Time of day? Day of the week? Are those annoying questions?
- How do you gain a following?
March 3rd – Andy on how to make you a better videographer with 5 tips
- How can you take a simple video, add music, a title and post, AND still make look good? ………..You can’t.
- How do you prioritize what to do when creating a major video? (Walter Scott as an example)
- What have you changed your mind on in regards to video in the last three months? What trends are happening currently?
March 10th – Conrad on how to be a better, faster, smarter writer
February 24th – Brandon on how he designs a website and where websites are going in 2019
The “P” Word In The StratLab Office // eps 57 #InTheLab
It’s about time we talked about the “P” word.
“Positivity”.
Stop being afraid of it and call out the pink Elephant in the room. Why is being positive looked down on? In a business setting if you come into the room excited, grinning ear to ear, people will ask if you’ve gone mad. I think we should encourage people to be happy, excited, down right ecstatic to be there. Why not, life’s too short not to have fun.
Why do we tolerate people in society that think life is about being “serious” and “professional”. Two adjectives this author doesn’t do very well with.
There’s a psychological side to being positive as well. Studies show that a positive mindset allows your brain to be more creative as well as increases white blood cell count helping strengthen your immune system. You can’t argue with science! Being happy keeps you healthy and makes you smarter.
In the @Stratlab office if someone is being negative, gossiping, talking ill of someone else, or just in general being a negative Nancy, we won’t tolerate it. We blow the horn of negativity.
Yes you read correct. Born out of Big Idea Camp as a way to keep everyone positive, the Horn of Negativity is an air horn that rarely got used. We started it as a joke and it’s lasted ever since. The team knows now not to be negative, no gossiping or else they’ll get an ear full.
Lastly, it’s easy to be negative. It’s easy to be a critic. It’s easy to sit at the sidelines and complain. It’s easy not to put in any effort and just expect change to happen. But that’s not how life works.
It’s much harder to try to change things. It’s much more difficult to help look for solutions, to not complain without being willing to be a part of the change.
Take the difficult path, be a positive change agent in society. Man we need now more than ever.
A 2016 @stratlab Year in Review
Those who think they can change Regina are the ones who do. -@Stratlab, 2016
What a year it was! The StratLab Fam had some ups and downs but all in all it was a stellar year! We said goodbye to Miranda, Jeremy, and Braedon. With a big smile we welcomed to the team Anastas, Brooke, Addison, and Marc. Whether it was some amazing new non-profts we got to work with, the visits to Fort McMurray before and after the fires, or hosting another wildly awesome Big Idea Camp, it was a another fun filled year.
Some New stickers, some old ones too!
A few amazing trips to Fort McMurray for Brandon, Eddy and Jeph this year. A horrible tragedy but an amazing community rebuilding itself. A month after the fire Layers Wellness held a “Wild Fire” party, to celebrate the community that wasn’t broken, only made stronger. Read more
Welcome To The @StratLab Office
Marc’s first day
Kind of a motto around here. “If you want to go fast go alone. If you want to go far join us.” Stop trying to do things on your own and find an all-star team to help you.
We have a lot of “Super Hero” symbolism around the office. Jordan Mcfarlen told me a story about a time he visited Silicon Valley. He went to a place called “Draper University” and in the incubator part of Draper they had a “Hero Alley”. A place where the walls inspired you to be a hero. To be selfless, humble, hard working and to be a great teammate. We love it and our office will always have Superhero’s in it! Read more
What’s Our Marketing Strategy? Plus 8 Other Questions About @StratLab
What is your marketing strategy?
We don’t have one. Over deliver, care more, work harder. At Strategy Lab we believe in being so good at what you do that you don’t have to rely on telling others about it. We want to ensure the work we do is remarkable enough that people will inherently want to talk about it. Permission based marketing.
Pull > Push
Remember, we never used to buy cereal for the whole grain goodness inside, we bought it for the free prize inside! You don’t need a marketing strategy if you have a free prize inside! Read more
FREE Downloadable Professional Business Stock Photos
1. The “It smells like success in here!” “Nah, it’s just COFFEE!” stock photo
People seem to like to look off into the distance in stock photos, why? See it looks so weird! Stop using photos like this on your website please. Read more
Why Your Company Needs a T-Shirt || Eps 26 #InTheLab
T-shirt marketing has been around for years. I’m not sure who started it, probably someone who loved making people smile. Any way, what we wear has changed so much over the years. Clothing can affect the way you think(peoples’ perception of you changes), from the psychology of social signalling and Status Anxiety, to understanding that most of what we do is centred around attracting the opposite sex (see the book Spent for a fascinating look into this theory).
Read more