Recorded at the lounge inside the Robert Redford Center at Sundance Mountain Resort, Brendan Kownacki speaks with Marc Ross at the conclusion of Brigadoon Sundance 2019.
Marc is the founder of Brigadoon and specializes in communications for global business working at the intersection of globalization, disruption, and politics.
Since 2013, Marc has curated and managed Brigadoon with a mission of creating a global network where entrepreneurs and thought leaders gather to discuss emerging issues shaping commerce and culture.
Brigadoon is an opt-in, word of mouth community of leaders looking to learn from others to create a network of leaders committed to public service, solving problems, and building businesses.
From salon dinners to excursions and multi-day retreats, Brigadoon organizes a number of powerpoint free, conversation focused events in distinctive settings that involve all participants and foster deeper connections.
Brigadoon Radio: Episode 18: US-China Trade Policy - Where is it Going?
Recorded at the lounge inside the Robert Redford Center at Sundance Mountain Resort, Dr. Mark Stellingworth speaks with Benjamin Shobert during Brigadoon Sundance 2019.
Ben is a 2x Brigadoon Sundance participant and for 2019 joined the main stage to lead a discussion on "Blaming China Won't Fix America's Economy."
Ben leads the strategy team at Microsoft's Artificial Intelligence and Research's (AI&R) Healthcare business unit. Before joining Microsoft, he was the founder and managing director of Rubicon Strategy Group, and a consulting firm focused on market access, government affairs, and regulatory analysis work in China and across Southeast Asia.
He remains a senior associate at the National Bureau of Asian Research, a Seattle and Washington, DC, think tank. In September 2018, his first book, Blaming China: It Might Feel Good, but It Won't Fix America's Economy, was published by Potomac.
Brigadoon Radio: Episode 17: Longevity: Opportunities + Challenges
Recorded at the Sundance Screening Room at Sundance Mountain Resort, Dr. Mark Stellingworth speaks with Jason Prall during Brigadoon Sundance 2019.
Jason is a first time Brigadoon Sundance participant and presented a portion of his documentary film, The Longevity Project. During the episode, Jason discusses the mission of the film, his philosophy on wellness, and what he has learned traveling the globe with people and communities maximizing longevity in their lives.
Jason is a former mechanical engineer turned entrepreneur, filmmaker, and Health Optimization Practitioner. Over the last ten years, Jason transitioned from an integrative disease care model to a model of health optimization and lifestyle medicine. In May of 2018, his independent research and experience as a practitioner were the basis for the creation of a 9-part documentary film series called, "The Human Longevity Project," which uncovers the complex mechanisms of chronic disease & aging and the true nature of longevity in our modern world.
Choice
"Humans now have to make more decisions in a single day than a caveman did in a lifetime." -- Dr. Aric Sigman, The Explosion of Choice: Tyranny or Freedom
The Explosion of Choice: Tyranny or Freedom report concludes that consumers are being overwhelmed by the number of product choices available to them in the typical supermarket.
The report's author and psychologist, Dr. Aric Sigman, told a UK newspaper, "I wanted to see whether Western assumptions regarding greater choice bringing greater happiness was true. They aren't."
Dr. Sigman's research noted that the average UK supermarket carried 87 different kinds of cereal, 83 shampoos, 68 shower gels, and 42 deodorants.
As consumers, we have gained more selection and lower prices, but we have also lost so much from the experience of shopping and consuming.
Most of it is all beige and borning.
Most of it is all unstimulating and unremarkable.
Even worse, many of us can't tell one store from another. We can't tell the difference between this soap or that soap. We can't tell the difference between value or cost. Frankly, many of us don't care.
However, for those that do care, never has there been a better time to introduce new products, new services, new ideas.
For those that do care, never has there been a better time execute in bold colors and perform in the phenomenal.
To introduce new products, new services, new ideas is a choice.
New products, new services, new ideas which look at a market, identify an unmet or poorly met need then matching a product or service to that need which produces a profit or sustainable funding.
Technology has reduced the barrier of entry, and you can now go directly to your target consumer.
Seth Godin points out, "You don't have to settle. It's a choice you get to make every day."
Every day. Seem like a lot of work. But it takes a lot of work to introduce new products, new services, new ideas.
It takes a lot of work not to settle.
You can improve the odds of success by choosing to form habits, prioritizing time, and setting goals.
Executing a habit checklist will get you there.
Getting you to the place where you are bringing a remarkable new product, new service, or new idea to the marketplace.
Something so remarkable the person who selects your good or service 'remarks' about the outcome.
A good or service that is more than merely being different.
You can bring forth something that people choose to talk about, regardless of what the other 87 different kinds of cereal, 83 shampoos, 68 shower gels, and 42 deodorants are offering in the supermarket.
"Do you want to sell sugar water for the rest of your life, or do you want to come with me and change the world?"
Famously this was what Steve Jobs said to Pepsi executive John Sculley to lure him to Apple.
Sculley had a choice.
You have a choice.
Sculley chose Apple.
Consider we spend about 80,000 hours of our life at work.
Yet, the work that most of us commit our lives to isn't the kind of work that is actually remarkable. It's more sugar water and less world-changing.
I am not saying you need to run a multinational corporation, but there is something you can bring to the world that simply benefits your neighbors.
You have a choice to introduce a new product, new service, or new idea that moves your day from what I am doing to why I am doing it.
- Marc
Marc A. Ross sis the founder of Brigadoon and specializes in political communications for global business working at the intersection of globalization, disruption, and politics.