One of my big findings in regards to the Boston + NY presentations was that there were two ideas which seemed to stick with people (based on some of the feedback I’ve gotten). The last slide as shown above which simply includes the words “Empathy. Experience. Curiosity.” As well as the analogy I gave that as marketing professionals, we are not unlike the character William Hurt played in the 1991 movie “The Doctor”. Hurt’s character was a smart, respected brilliant doctor admired by his peers and highly skilled. Only one problem. He had terrible bedside manners. So when it was his turn to get sick, and become a patient—it was only after going through this that he truly became the Doctor in every way. His experience being sick—becoming the patient helped him develop empathy. We have to ask ourselves—are we so smart as marketers that we aren’t willing to do what our customers do?
So here is my bigger point. The ideas for these words and the movie analogy came literally the night before the presentation. In fact, I called this last slide the “airplane slide” because that’s where I did it. On the plane. And it turned out to be one of the more memorable slides in the deck and a great way to wrap up my thoughts. Imagine what I would have been missing if I denied myself the flexibility to add this thinking at the last minute. If I rigidly stuck with my “plan” and was unwilling to change it because I was comfortable with it. There’s something to be said for allowing ourselves the flexibility for spontaneous thinking. Sometimes that last minute tweak makes all the difference...
