Ideas Fest: Learning from flowers, sushi and collagen
I went to Ideas Fest with absolutely no chance of seeing everything. Honestly, the schedule was slightly overwhelming. 😂
So I gave myself a filter. Go and listen to people who have actually built brilliant brands.
Most of them were product businesses and I run a service business. I don’t sell flowers, supplements, sushi or children’s clothes. Instead, I sell ideas, creativity and expertise.
But it turns out there’s an awful lot you can steal (politely) from people who do 👀 And a few things have really stuck with me.
Move fast, tell good stories and don’t wait for perfect
Kate Prince from Ancient + Brave talked about the importance of storytelling – building a brand that reflects your values and attracts the customers you actually want.
She also shared something I loved about moving at pace. Don’t wait until everything is perfect. Move, learn, get ahead of the failure. As someone who can definitely disappear down a perfectionist rabbit hole, I needed that one.
Simon Woodroffe, founder of YO! Sushi, was refreshingly free of business bullshit.
Know your shit. Do the research. Have serious intent. Bring enthusiasm. And find your own individual charm.
I bloody loved that.
Be good at what you’re good at
There was a recurring theme across several founders around ego too. You don’t have to be brilliant at everything, be a born leader or pretend you have all the answers.
Founders like Maxine Laceby of Absolute Collagen admitted: “I’m really crap at lots of things and I’m OK with that.” 😂
There was lots of honesty about changing direction, trying new ideas, getting stuff wrong and carrying on.
So perhaps we should all build around what we’re good at, find brilliant people and keep learning.
There were loads more scribbles in my notebook.
Laura Tenison built a values-led business at JoJo Maman Bébé long before it was fashionable.
Rowena Bird questioned whether being on social media at all aligned with what they truly believed at Lush.
Care is something you do, not something you say
But the talk I probably haven’t stopped thinking about since was Aron Gelbard from Bloom & Wild and his philosophy to Care Wildly.
Not caring because it’s a nice value to stick on the office wall, but actively building care into how your business behaves.
He led the way with thoughtful marketing and the Mother’s Day opt-out, proactively replaces flowers when a delivery might miss an important occasion (before the customer even complains) and gives away flowers that would otherwise go to waste.
It’s about generosity and asking a really interesting question:
What could you do that looks like it might cost the business money on paper, but actually earns you something far more valuable in loyalty?
That one really got under my skin. Because although we’re a completely different kind of business, it felt strangely familiar.
We obsess over the details. We muck in when something needs fixing. We often do the extra thing simply because we think it’s the right thing to do.
We care about whether the end result is genuinely great, not just whether we’ve technically delivered what was in the proposal.
And it made me wonder whether we should be much more intentional about that.
The best brands feel human
But perhaps my biggest takeaway was this:
The businesses I found most interesting weren’t trying to behave like businesses. They felt like people.
They had opinions, values and quirks. They really cared about something. And ultimately, they weren’t afraid to do things their own way.
For someone building a small creative business, that was a pretty lovely reminder. We don’t need to become more corporate as we grow.
Perhaps we just need to become more ourselves. 🥚💛
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