So Emotional

Todd Henry [00:00:02]:
Back in the 1940s, a young businessman would take his daughters to a local amusement park on weekends. While watching them ride the merry go round, he noticed something that was kind of disturbing. The rundown, dirty state of these parks and how parents had nowhere comfortable to sit while their children played. It was like the experience was designed purely for efficiency, with no thought whatsoever about the visitors experience. And it all just felt so wrong. I mean, this should have been a place of joy, of fun, where parents could forget themselves for a short while and just be together. And instead, it felt like the park was imposing its own expectations on him rather than the other way around. So he began envisioning something different, something revolutionary.

Todd Henry [00:00:45]:
A pristine, secure environment where families could share genuine moments of joy and wonder together. He started sketching ideas on park benches while his children played, drawing imagination from his daughter's joy and his own frustration with the state of the parks they visited. He wanted to create a place where imagination could flourish, where both adults and children could step into worlds of stories that they loved. The journey wasn't easy. Many people, including his brother, initially thought the idea was too risky. Banks were skeptical about financing, and they saw this as a glorified carnival. But his personal and emotional investment in his vision was so strong that he refused to give up. He even mortgaged his own house and sold his vacation home to help fund the project.

Todd Henry [00:01:30]:
That man, as you may have guessed by now, was Walt Disney. And when Disneyland opened in 1955, it revolutionized family entertainment, despite a chaotic opening day where drinking fountains didn't work and women's high heels got stuck in the freshly laid asphalt. Can you imagine wearing high heels to an amusement park? People immediately recognized that this was something special. Walt had created not just an amusement park, but an immersive experience where ideas and stories came to life. The impact of Walt's emotional response to that simple afternoon at the park with his daughters has been staggering. Today, Disney's theme parks welcome millions of visitors annually across multiple continents. The concept of themed entertainment that Walt pioneered has influenced everything from retail spaces to restaurants to museums. But perhaps most importantly, Walt's story shows us how emotional connections to seemingly simple problems can lead to revolutionary solutions.

Todd Henry [00:02:30]:
He wasn't just solving a business problem. He was responding to a deeply felt need to create joy, to bring families together and to make magic accessible to everyone. And his emotional response was transferred into the work and onto his park's visitors. With love, he had made something that people love. This story reminds us that some of the most impactful innovations come not from Market research or focus groups. But from genuine emotional responses to everyday experiences. Walt Disney saw something that bothered him emotionally. He dreamed of a better way.

Todd Henry [00:03:07]:
And despite numerous obstacles, he transformed that dream into a reality that continues to impact millions of people decades later. On today's episode, we're going to explore the impact of emotion in our creative process and how we can craft work that will deeply engage the emotions of the people we aspire to serve. This is Daily Creative, a show for creative pros who want to be brave, focused, and brilliant every day. My name is Todd Henry. Welcome to the show.

Greg Hoffman [00:03:40]:
I just happen to spend almost three decades at a company where, if you look at all the elements of the Nike brand, all of them are inf and surrounded with emotion.

Todd Henry [00:03:52]:
That's Greg Hoffman, former chief marketing officer of a little company named Nike. You may have heard of it. Greg believes that creativity is the key to unlocking deep emotional connection with the people you are trying to serve. And it's not just about the work. It's about cultivating a team culture where creativity can thrive.

Greg Hoffman [00:04:10]:
Unlocking the creativity, whether it's in yourself, whether it's in your brand, to realize the potential of building strong emotional bonds between you and your teammates and ultimately between your brand, whether it's large or small, with your audience. I just think creativity is the trait within an organization that really stirs those emotions and creates the attachments that we see between products and people. Emotion by design is being intentional in the way you want to engage with your audience and using the power of creativity in all its glory to make that happen. We all know that brand building is an art and science, but the question is, does art still have a seat at the table?

Todd Henry [00:04:58]:
Does art still have a seat at the table? It's a compelling and provocative question. With the advent of tools for measurement and reach, in many ways, brand building has skewed toward the science side of art and science over the past several years. Sure, it seems good, but will it work? Will it connect? Does it emote? There's a principle in quantum physics called the observer effect. Yes, we're discussing quantum physics here on the show. It essentially says that observing the currents necessarily changes that occurrence. In fact, it's been established that quantum dynamics behave one way when they're observed and another way when they're not. Weird, right? Well, in some ways, the physics of brand are similar. We've been equipped with tools to measure the effects of the artistic side of a brand within an inch of its life.

Todd Henry [00:05:51]:
But the question is, in doing so, do we essentially change it, do we squeeze all of the ineffable out of it? Or another way to ask it is can you truly measure emotional connection and response? Greg argues in his book Emotion by Design that to create work that deeply resonates beyond what's even measurable, it must be infused with ideals that are often difficult to quantify.

Greg Hoffman [00:06:18]:
To me those traits are of course, empathy, curiosity, and then this idea of fearlessness or courage, you know, not being satisfied with the status quo. And I think it's incredibly powerful when those traits are present within your business culture. I always am searching in the beginning of the relationship to see if there is that balance between the analytical and the art, because I think it's quite powerful when they intersect.

Todd Henry [00:06:51]:
What are some signs that you look for that people are skewing more toward the analytical and away from maybe that more human, creative, ineffable side?

Greg Hoffman [00:07:03]:
First and foremost, I cringe a bit when I hear the word content. Like we need content so we can distribute it in tomorrow versus what is the brand story that we're going to tell? And use the word share versus distribute like it's making sure that your business culture has a respect for the craft of storytelling and that it's not just content, right? Even if it's bite sized content that's somewhat disposable, you're still representing your brand and your brand values. And so I'm always pushing for this idea of respect, the craft of story, right? Every interaction that the consumer has with your brand should be respected and should reveal something about yourself as a brand. And you know, there's so many traits and characteristics to who we are as human beings. But same with your brand. And the question is, are you exercising those traits through the way you reveal yourself to the consumer or are you moving so quickly at the pace of the consumer, what they demand, which you must keep up with. But are you not balancing that as well with going through the process of asking the questions of the work that you're putting out there, ensuring that it's building that emotional equity that I think brands like Nike have done year after year?

Todd Henry [00:08:36]:
I really love the way you describe that I have on my wall. You can't see behind me. We are looking at each other, but right just over my shoulder I have a large framed version of the Walt Disney business model from 1957. And what I really like about the business model was everything centers around what he called the creative idea factory. Basically the creative talent of the studio that was the center. It wasn't content, it wasn't you know movies. It wasn't music. It wasn't.

Todd Henry [00:09:04]:
It was basically the creative talent was at the center of everything. And I think when you talk about content, the way that you talk about content, kind of what you describe is content is an outcropping maybe of that creative factory, right. That creative core of the organization.

Greg Hoffman [00:09:22]:
Great point, Todd. What does that look like when you have a culture where people don't have to ask for permission to use their imagination? Like there's literally space that's protected to conceive ideas that quite frankly might be somewhat outside of the normal work plan. Right. Or concept. Man. And let me say this. I love the fact that you can measure the productivity of just about anything that you output as a brand. I'm asking that we balance that with the human ingenuity that resides in a creative practice and commit to that.

Greg Hoffman [00:10:03]:
And ultimately that's great business. It contributes to better innovations and more human connections. As we've talked about.

Todd Henry [00:10:12]:
One of the coolest stories in Greg's book is about Coach K. Mike Krzyzewski, the legendary basketball coach at Duke. After decades, he had just coached his last game. A prospect that seemed almost unthinkable to basketball fans. Yet here we were so just going.

Greg Hoffman [00:10:30]:
Back to that moment. So imagine we all have staff meetings, right? If we work within the company or a brand. And we always had a weekly marketing staff meeting every Monday. And usually you were trying to time when you arrived so that maybe you weren't in that first seat and you would have to give your update first, right. Because you were working so hard, you have so much going on. Is oftentimes people were writing their update while someone else was pitching what they were doing. And as we sat there, the door burst open and lo and behold, in walks Coach K. Right? Five time NCAA champ, right? Just legend Mike Kashewski.

Greg Hoffman [00:11:14]:
And said a quick high and then literally launched into a pep talk. And we were kind of taken by surprise. And he, and he started off with a statement. He just said, your eyes, your eyes are your advantage. You have the ability to see what others don't see. And he was talking about us as, you know, as a Nike marketing group. Your vision is your advantage. And how I receive that is, you know, this idea of seeing what others see but find what others don't.

Greg Hoffman [00:11:49]:
And it is that idea of empathy which I think I believe is the start of a successful creative process. You're seeing a need by unpacking the layers and getting past the simple assumptions and observations that all of us see. But if you look at the strongest work, it's because someone went deeper or they broadened their peripheral vision. And I use this great legendary example to illustrate what Coach K was saying, which is, I believe, my favorite Nike commercial. It's when Michael Jordan was going after his sixth NBA championship and the creative team at Widening Kennedy, the agency that was part of Nike's relationship on his creative journey, saw something else because they spent the time with him and asked the questions and got through the surface and under the layers. And so while everyone else was looking at his greatness on the court, the writers came back and said, actually talking to Michael, he's missed 20,000 shots 28 times. He's been asked to take the game winning shot and he's missed. And yet that's why he succeeds.

Greg Hoffman [00:13:03]:
Success through failure is such a huge part of the innovation process. And it's important for brands to recognize that and value that. And so that obviously was the insight, you know, what Coach K talked about in terms of the vision advantage. And then it's up to the creative team to reveal that in the most profound creative way. And that's kind of, I think, what creates something that's iconic in the eyes of an audience.

Todd Henry [00:13:36]:
That is also my favorite, I think my favorite commercial of all time, probably because it speaks deeply to me as somebody in the creative fields, right, that this idea of, of taking shots, right, of putting work into the world and not everything's gonna work and that's okay, but the more shots you take, the more chances there are some things gonna resonate. As a leader of teams, how do you encourage people to do that? Because often people won't, they won't take those risks, they won't engage in that act of bravery. Instead, they do what's expected, they do what's safe, or they just don't take the shot at all. How do you encourage a culture where people are willing to do that?

Greg Hoffman [00:14:18]:
It's a great question. It does start with incentivizing risk taking within your culture and making sure that the team can not only feel that commitment from you, maybe as the leader, but they have to feel it through the whole organization. And oftentimes one of the biggest barriers I faced as a leader who had teams that were focused on brand innovation, which is dreaming about what's next in terms of storytelling and brand experiences, and often linking the latest digital technology with the physical experience of a consumer. And I would always tell the team, look, we're looking to bat 250, okay, or something close to that. We may pitch four ideas a quarter. Right. And success for me is that we're able to prototype and maybe test one of those. Okay.

Greg Hoffman [00:15:15]:
And maybe by the end of the year, we put one of those into the wild and it scales. What I found is most creators, ultimately, they want to see their work in the real world. Right. And so I will say that it is a threshold you have to move through to get everyone to buy in that, you know, you. You are going for a bit of volume, and coming out of that is going to hopefully be something that leads to a concept that scales and not just talking about ideas, but seeing them. And that's the ultimate accelerator, and that's the power of a creative. Right. An individual who is able to bring ideas to life in a visceral way is such a huge advantage internally within a business culture.

Greg Hoffman [00:16:05]:
It's realizing that your personal perspective, expertise and experience is needed within the professional environment. Empathy and having greater vision. You need new voices that maybe oftentimes aren't the loudest voice in the room, but have a perspective that, quite frankly, could lead to unbelievable business opportunities and, of course, brand strength over time.

Todd Henry [00:16:34]:
Greg Hoffman is the former Chief Marketing Officer of Nike and the author of the book Emotion by Design. If you'd like to hear our full interview, you can do so in the daily Creative app at DailyCreative app. There you'll also find daily episodes, Q and A segments, and much, much more. Again, that's DailyCreative app. When we come back from the break, I'm going to share one principle to help you leverage emotion in your daily creative work. Stick around. So in two of my books, Die Empty and Louder Than Words, I wrote about this concept called the Notables. The notables are these moments in our life and in our work where something resonates especially deeply with us, where we have a moment where we realize we were more engaged, more effective, more deeply emotionally invested in our work than we otherwise are normally.

Todd Henry [00:17:35]:
But what happens in our busy, chaotic lives is that we often have those moments. We have those experiences, and then we just move on and we ignore them. We're like, oh, that was interesting. But we don't stop. We don't pause to connect the dots, to ask, why was I so emotionally invested? Why did that resonate so deeply? Why was I so effective in that moment? Why did it draw out of me a kind of passion? And as we've talked about here on the show before, the word passion is rooted in the word that means to suffer, meaning that why did I endure so such difficulty in my pursuit of doing Great work. Why was I so invested in seeing this outcome? Well, when I talk about the notables, there are four categories. I often share of notables, and one of them is what moves you emotionally. Now, when I say what moves you emotionally, I don't mean reactive emotion.

Todd Henry [00:18:29]:
You know, somebody hurts you and you feel emotional. What I mean is, when you experience a circumstance in the world, a problem that somebody's having, or you see a dynamic that's occurring, it draws out of you an emotional response that is unexpected. One way to identify this is pay attention to themes in movies or books or media that seem to move you emotionally, that seems to stir something within you. I'll give you an example of how this plays out for me. I am a huge fan of any story that has to do with an underdog overcoming the odds. Now, everyone would say, well, yeah, I am genuinely invested in underdog stories, and most people are. That's why they make underdog story movies or write underdog story books. Right.

Todd Henry [00:19:14]:
That's why we love those stories. But for me, there is a deep emotional connection. It is. I don't cry very often, but when I go to a movie that's the story of an underdog, my emotions are right there, just beneath the surface, just ready to pop through. And part of the reason is because there's something about the underdog story that personally just deeply resonates with me in a way that other stories don't. Stories of achievement or accomplishment or conquest or love or whatever, they just don't resonate in the same way as these underdog stories. And so I have learned that some of my best, most invested work, my most emotional work, comes when I'm working with underdogs. That's part of the reason why my business even exists.

Todd Henry [00:20:02]:
I started this business, wow. Almost 20 years ago because I recognized that there are many creative professionals in the workplace who were underdogs. They were encountering these dynamics where organizations didn't understand them. They didn't know how to let them do their best work. Work. They didn't understand the creative process enough to position creative pros and leaders to be able to do their best work. And so I was entering in as a kind of advocate on behalf of the underdog. An arms dealer for the creative revolution is what I.

Todd Henry [00:20:30]:
What I used to call it.

Greg Hoffman [00:20:31]:
Right.

Todd Henry [00:20:32]:
Um, because I am more emotionally invested in working with underdogs than with any other kind of work. Now I work with a lot of big brands, huge companies that are the Goliaths of their industry. But when I. When I'M working with a David taking on that Goliath. I am more emotionally invested and I think my work and my writing is more emotionally impactful to others. Others feel the emotion more when I'm working with underdogs or when I'm writing to underdogs with underdog related themes. So here's my challenge for you. I want you to think about the moments in your life when you have been emotionally invested in your work, not not because of something that's related to you, but because of something that's related to the people you're serving.

Todd Henry [00:21:14]:
When have you been emotionally invested in your work? What are the patterns between those moments? I want you to spend some time this week working through that on your own and figure out what might be the pattern here that pulls me in, that causes me to be so emotionally invested. Because when you are emotionally invested in your work, it's likely that that emotion, that connection to the work will be transferred to the people experiencing it and you will become a more beloved, known brand when that happens. So that's my challenge for you this weekend. By the way, I walk in the Daily Creative app there is a guide. We have several guides that walk you through reviews. One of the guides is called the Notables. And in the app you can actually walk through a process of identifying the notables in your life and identifying these moments, these multiple qualifiers of moments. So if you're already subscribed to the app, I recommend you check that out.

Todd Henry [00:22:10]:
But if you're not, you can check it out at Daily Creative App. You can go through that Notables experience in the app itself. Okay. Hey, thank you so much for listening. Again, if you'd like full interviews, daily episodes, Q and A segments, courses, and much, much more, including the archives dating back years and years and years, you can do so in the Daily Creative app. At Daily Creative, my name is Todd Henry. You can find my work, my speaking, and all of my books at toddhenry. Com.

Todd Henry [00:22:40]:
Until next time. May you be brave, focused and brilliant.