Joanna Howes

Helping leaders step into their courageous zone and create positive impact, through transformative coaching & training | CEO of The Change Creators Ltd | Campaign 40 over 40 | International Coach of the Year 2020 🏆

We specialise in creating courageous leadership teams who win together.

Whether you're a newly formed team, a merged company establishing a new board, or feeling the need for a reset, we can help you create a strong aligned cohesive team. 

Courageous leaders are open, vulnerable, and committed to continuous learning, driving exceptional results for their teams and the organisation.

We help by:

• Moving from operating in silos to a collective mindset 

• Avoiding feedback to leaning into compassionate candor 

• From going around in circles to make decisions to a bias for action 

• From working as job titles to truly understanding each other as human beings 

• From all talk and no action to peer-to-peer accountability 


Our approach centers on increasing individual and team awareness, fostering a unified leadership team culture grounded in aligned principles, and promoting effective communication and accountability.

"When the business isn't performing, the first place to look is the leadership team."

👉 For coaching and training inquiries, please email: joanna.howes@thechangecreators.com

👉 For podcast and speaking engagements, please email: anna@thechangecreators.com

Let's connect and explore how we can elevate your leadership team to achieve extraordinary outcomes.


Trusted by: 
Monzo, Amazon, BBC, Troy Asset Management, Ada Ventures, Iris Worldwide, Uncommon Creative Studios, 6 Nations Rugby, ITB, PrettyGreen PR, Hue & Cry, McCann Worldwide.

What our clients have to say: 

“She's 'Life Changing'. Jo has an ability to enable a fearless focus on creating a personal and professional roadmap to success”. - Director Of Client Services at SYZYGY London

“As a coach Jo has been fantastic- full of insights, always there to listen and most of all provide practical solutions. As a team we have come out more confident and ready with practical tools to help us develop further in different areas.” - Head Of Project Management at BBC Creative


🌐  Visit: www.thechangecreators.com

CEO and Founder of The Change Creators - Leadership Coach and Trainer 

At The Change Creators, we provide transformational services to help leaders grow and become the leader they know they can be. We focus on the mindset, skills and behaviours leaders need to step into their courageous zone, create a positive impact and deliver results.

Our services include:
 
✅Cultural shifts and transformations  

✅Leadership and team coaching and training

✅Operational excellence consultancy 

✅EDISC and Meta Dynamics profiling to increase self-awareness and self-leadership 

✅Executive 1-2-1 coaching 

If you would like to take your leadership to the next level and invest in your growth, get in contact with us today and watch your influence and performance sky rocket.

My FIRST sober holiday showed me a mistake I see leaders make A LOT!

We focus on changing behaviour…
but skip the part that actually makes change stick.

Identity.

When I have tried going sober before, I'd say things like:

 “I haven’t drunk for 10 days.”
 “I’m doing Dry Jan.”

I was still identifying as someone who drinks.
So it was easy to wobble and slip back to old habits. 

This time, I said.
 “I don’t drink.”

It meant I moved to a new identity of someone who doesn't drink. 

And because of that, there was no internal debate. 

I see this in leadership constantly.

Leaders say to me:
 “I’m working on delegation.”
 “I need to stop people-pleasing.”
 “I should speak up more.”

That keeps change at the behaviour level.

But identity-led change sounds like:

 → “I'm a leader who builds leaders.”
 → “I can be respected without being liked.”
 → “My perspective has value.”

Change doesn’t always need more effort.
Sometimes it needs a clearer decision about who you are.

So...

❓Where in your leadership are you ready to step into a new identity?

♻️ Repost to inspire your audience
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Strengthening Leadership Teams to Connect, Perform & Grow Together | Courageous Leaders Podcast| Speaker | International Coach of the Year 2020 🏆 | Follow for posts about self-mastery, leadership & culture

Most of the big changes in my life didn’t start with confidence.

They started with discomfort I couldn’t ignore anymore.

Over the years, I’ve had to choose courage over comfort more times than I expected:

👉 Leaving my first marriage that looked fine on the outside

👉 Quitting a secure job to backpack around the world 

👉 Moving countries for a role I thought would be 'the one' and wasn't

👉 Completely changing my career from Ops to Coach 

👉 Starting a business without a roadmap

👉 Launching a podcast with no idea if anyone would listen, or what I was doing

👉 Reshaping my work so it fits my life, not the other way round

None of these moments felt brave at the time.
They felt unsettling. Lonely. Risky.

But here’s what I’ve learned:

Courage doesn’t usually look like a leap.
It looks like being honest with yourself before you’re ready.
It looks like letting go before you can see what’s next.

Every time I chose change over comfort, I didn’t gain clarity first.
I gained it after I moved.

That’s what built the business.
The podcast.
The work I love.
The life that actually feels like mine.

Not because I had a grand plan.
But because I stopped ignoring the nudge.

If you’re feeling restless right now, stuck, flat, or quietly frustrated - it might not be a motivation problem.

It might be a courage moment.

So I’ll leave you with this:

What are you tolerating that your future self will thank you for leaving?

Sit with it.
You don’t need the whole answer.
Just the next honest one.

♻️ Repost to inspire leaders you know to ask the harder questions
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I'm about to do the opposite of everything I was taught as a woman! 💪

I've just had my first call with the brilliant Georgie Rechner, founder of Midlife Rebel (and if you are not following her on Instagram yet, you need to be).

She is my health coach who is going to help me do the opposite of what many of us have been conditioned to do.

I'm INCREASING my calories!
Going to be Lifting heavy weights.
And getting comfortable taking up more space.

I go to the gym. I do Pilates. I swim.
But I’ve never really known how to train properly.

So this year, the focus is all on building muscle mass and strength!!

NO more shrinking!! 
 
I’ve spent years working on my mind, courage, confidence, and self-belief.
Now it feels like my body’s turn, so they can work together. 

In your life and leadership, bringing your mind and body together will have a huge impact on how you feel about yourself and how you can show up for yourself and your team. 

Where might you be ready to stop shrinking and start building instead?

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Big news! 

This Thursday we are kicking off 2026, with the amazing Sedge Beswick on the Courageous Leaders Podcast. 🙌

Sedge has led social at ASOS, built her own agency SEEN to £24 million, and now she’s helping brands and entrepreneurs grow their businesses with bold ideas and courage.

Subscribe below to hear us dive into: 

🔥 How to know when it's the right time to leave your company (even when it's your own)

🔥 How to find better balance with ambition, family and life

🔥 How to have the courage to do things differently and stay true to your values

It’s a conversation I LOVED and left feeling so motivated.  

If you want real stories and honest insights about leadership, confidence, and making brave choices.

Catch the episode this Thursday - don’t miss it!

👉 Subscribe on YouTube here: https://lnkd.in/eHGVyFSE

👉 Apple: https://lnkd.in/edeq-Wvp

👉 Spotify: https://lnkd.in/eJatPjke

 ♻️ Repost to help leaders you know to have the courage to change 
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OLD JO: Shit, I don't have any posts ready for this week
So work for hours trying to do some. 

NEW JO: Oh well I'll go to the spa.

Seriously transformational, a whole new Monday afternoon ritual. 

So, this is all I have for you today but I actually think there is a powerful message here.

When you focus on what matters most and what is going to help you show up in the best way, your mind is so much happier, which means you are.

I used to sit for hours writing posts, overthinking them and worrying if they resonate.  

Now, I write when I feel like it and focus on what I want to share vs what the gurus' are sharing is the formula for likes and reposts.

So a gentle question for today:
How are you choosing to use your time right now?
And is it actually helping you feel good or just busy?

♻️ Repost to get our priorities clear
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TIME! 🕰️

In the Xmas break, something FINALLY landed. 

After years of podcasts, reading and courses.

My brain has finally accepted a simple truth.

Time is the most valuable thing I have. 

I know, this is OBVIOUS.
And yet, I've never truly prioritised it before.

I've prioritised:

1. Earning more money - (important, yes, but how much is enough?)
2. Saying yes to more than I can realistically handle
3. Clearing my work to-do list before my life one
4. Long hours over time with friends and family
5. Exercise (saving the good habit for last)

What has changed is how I view being successful. 

I also have some dear friends who are having their time cut short, and it's been a big wake-up call. 

I’m not pretending my old habits won’t try to sneak back in; they will.
But now I have a new healthy lens on life.

And that changes the decisions I make when they do.

Where are you still spending time like it’s unlimited?

What are you waiting to feel ready for, or waiting until you have achieved X, until you can have some joy?

♻️ Repost to remind your audience what is important
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We need less ego.
More openness.
Less control.
More trust
No need to be the smartest person in the room.
More focused intention with our time and energy.

That’s what sat underneath the conversation with Simon Cook, CEO of Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, on the Courageous Leaders Podcast - which is live now.

You don’t need to have the best idea.
You don’t need to control everything.
You DO need to create the conditions for others to thrive.

If you’re leading a team right now, this episode is for you.

And maybe think about this question:

What might change if you stopped trying to hold everything together and trusted a little more?

Watch the episode on YouTube here: https://lnkd.in/e7WrG-dy

Or listen on Apple: https://lnkd.in/edeq-Wvp

Or on Apple: https://lnkd.in/edeq-Wvp

Or on Spotify: https://lnkd.in/eJatPjke

 ♻️ Repost to inspire courageous leadership
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Key insights from Simon Cook - CEO Cannes Lions 

ONE thing I consistently see missing in leaders.

They think they have it.
Yet, when the time comes it's not there.

That thing is courage.

The leaders who will succeed this year won’t be the most certain or polished.
They’ll be the most courageous.

The one's who will:

1. Challenge the dominate voice in the room, even when it feels risky

2. Feels discomfort with all the change but keeps moving forward 

3. Can go to a beginner’s mindset and be okay not knowing the answers

4. Be honest when things are hard, and let others help

5. Refuse to tolerate their teams being treated badly

6. Stop defending territory and protecting ego and lead as a true executive collective

7. Look after themselves so they can show up consistently for others

Courage isn’t loud.
It’s often quiet, uncomfortable, and deeply human.

Where is courage being asked of you right now and what are you avoiding?


♻️ Repost to inspire your fellow leaders to step into courage
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“I’ve always been addicted to my career, addicted to working."

Sound familiar? 

So many of us get a buzz from the next big win, the title, the ever-rising bar we set for ourselves. 

But what happens when it feels more like an addiction than an ambition? 

In our latest Courageous Leaders podcast, I discuss this exact topic with Sedge Beswick. 

She had the courage to change and design life on her terms. 

Let’s be honest and courageous about our relationship with work. 
It can be our passion, but it shouldn’t be our prison.

Have you ever questioned whether you’re addicted to working and what it would take to break free, even a little? 

You can listen or watch the full episode using the links below: 

YouTube: https://lnkd.in/eF_KU3Ri

Apple: https://lnkd.in/edeq-Wvp

Spotify: https://lnkd.in/eJatPjke

♻️ Repost to support more leaders
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MEET PERKY

My new productive friend 🐧

On holiday, my husband bought me a penguin clock for my desk.

Partly because I love penguins.
Mostly because I have zero shame about loving cute things.

Enter: Perky.

His current alarm settings include:

🐧 Fun time, Perky
🐧 Move away from your desk, Perky (rude but fair)
🐧 Fuel up, Perky
🐧 Call a friend, Perky (emotionally supportive penguin)

Every time I look at him, I smile.

Every time he goes off, I giggle as it's the funniest music and he makes such a funny sound when I turn the alarm off, I actually do the task 😀

We spend so much time in leadership chasing:
smarter systems
better tools
cleverer gadgets

When sometimes what really changes behaviour is something small, human, and oddly joyful.

Perky now reminds me to move, eat, connect and not take myself quite so seriously.

Friday question for you:

 What’s on your desk that makes you smile?
 (And if the answer is “nothing”… may I gently suggest a penguin?)

Happy Friday 🐧💛

Many CEO’s I work with have a lot of CONVICTION. 

But they miss ONE core ingredient that impacts whether change will be successful. 

Which is why I invited Simon Cook, CEO of Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity Lions, to the Courageous Leaders Podcast. 

Simon has been through so much change over the last couple of years that I thought, who better than to share their insights and strategies. 

I was also curious to get to know Simon more and hear his story.

And, I don’t think I’ve been in the presence of someone so calm and grounded before. 

This episode gives some very practical advice on how to lead through change. 

We cover: 

🔥 Why conviction and coordination need to work together for success

🔥 What it took to navigate change on a large scale

🔥 Why relinquishing control is both terrifying and essential, especially when building a high-performing team

🔥 The hidden value in failure (but why you shouldn’t “budget for it”)

🔥Why protecting your time and mental fitness is now a non-negotiable executive responsibility

🔥 Advice for agency CEO’s

I’d get a pen and paper ready for this one as some brilliant tips you can implement straight away.

Watch the episode on YouTube here: https://lnkd.in/e7WrG-dy

Or on Apple: https://lnkd.in/edeq-Wvp

Or on Spotify: https://lnkd.in/eJatPjke

 ♻️ Repost to support leaders right now
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What happens when the CEO of Cannes Lions admits that his greatest strength was also holding him back?

It was an honour to go behind the scenes with Simon Cook on The Courageous Leaders Podcast.

On Thursday, you will be able to find out what was holding him back and:

🔥 Where he needed to find courage
🔥 The advice he would give to Agency CEO’s
🔥 What it took to lead through change at a large scale
🔥 The 3 C’s that he lives by 
🔥 What he believes the future of the industry is 

Tune in on Thursday for LOTS of practical tips and advice.

Make sure you don’t miss the episode

Subscribe on YouTube here: https://lnkd.in/eHGVyFSE

Or on Apple: https://lnkd.in/edeq-Wvp

Or on Spotify: https://lnkd.in/eJatPjke


 ♻️ Repost to let leaders know this resource is coming soon 
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Insights from the CEO of Cannes Lions - Simon Cook

"You won't get balance, but you can get your priorities straight." 

A simple but powerful insight shared by Sedge Beswick. 

When she made certain things non-negotiable, everything else started to fall into place. 

As leaders, when you ring-fence what matters most, work and life feel more purposeful and you actually get to be present for the moments that count.

For me, my self-care, lunch break and having space between meetings are my non-negotiables and these simple things have been life and business changing.

What’s a non-negotiable in your schedule?

You can listen or watch the full episode using the links below: 

YouTube: https://lnkd.in/eF_KU3Ri

Apple: https://lnkd.in/edeq-Wvp

Spotify: https://lnkd.in/eJatPjke

♻️ Repost to support more leaders
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Struggling to know if you should leave? 

Then this is for you.

Sedge Beswick - founder, advisor, and someone who knows firsthand the internal battle that comes with walking away. 

If you’re struggling with letting go of a role, a title, or an identity you’ve worked so hard to build, let Sedge’s story give you permission to pause, reflect, and move forward without guilt.

In my career, I have walked away from 2 roles and at the time, it was challenging, but both ended up being the best decisions of my life. 

I'd love to know in the comments if walking away worked for you, so we can support those who are torn in their decision-making right now. 

You can listen or watch the full episode using the links below: 

YouTube: https://lnkd.in/eF_KU3Ri

Apple: https://lnkd.in/edeq-Wvp

Spotify: https://lnkd.in/eJatPjke

♻️ Repost to support more leaders
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Struggling to know if to walk away? 

I now understand why my husband has banned me from the kitchen.
(when he is cooking).

"Help is the sunny side of control".

Whenever he cooks, I go in with good intentions to “help”.
What I’m actually doing is trying to control the dinner so it turns out how I like it.

He’s clocked this completely.
Hence the ban.

Now, apply that line to leadership.
Where do you think you're helping but still holding on to control?

Where do you jump in to “support” a team member or steer their thinking because you want it done a certain way?

The intent is usually good.
But the impact can be reducing learning, confidence, and ownership.

The very things leaders ask me to help build in their teams, without always seeing how their own behaviour might be getting in the way.

Real support looks like:

👉 Trusting people to figure it out
👉 Letting things be imperfect
👉 Staying available without taking over

So, where might you need to ban yourself from? 

♻️ Repost to wake up leaders
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How are you going to protect your time this year? 

Some tips from the brilliant Simon Cook, CEO of Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity Lions.

If we can master this as leaders, we are setting ourselves and our teams up for success.

What’s one thing you are going to do differently this year to manage your time better? 

Share in the comments to help other leaders. 

Watch the episode on YouTube here: https://lnkd.in/e7WrG-dy

Or on Apple: https://lnkd.in/edeq-Wvp

Or on Spotify: https://lnkd.in/eJatPjke


 ♻️ Repost to help leaders who are up against it right now
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This week I'm sharing a breakthrough I had to change how I run my life and business.

It will help you as a leader to know why you maybe feeling stuck and give yourself the ability to tune into what really matters to help your decision making.

So this weeks Courageous Leaders episode is me talking to you to share my personal experiences on how I've created change.  

Subscribe to https://lnkd.in/eHGVyFSE

Follow at https://lnkd.in/edeq-Wvp

♻️ Repost to support more leaders
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Courage to listen to yourself 

CEO at Organic - helping brands use digital technology to better connect with their audiences

Most transformation challenges aren’t technical. They’re human.

After many years in leadership positions in agency and digital businesses, most recently as CEO of Organic, I now work at the intersection of leadership, marketing and change. I work with senior marketing leaders who are trying to improve how their organisations operate. What I see repeatedly is that tools and platforms matter, but clarity, incentives and how people work together matter more.

Alongside this, through my coaching and mentoring practice, I support first-time and newly appointed agency leaders. I help them build confidence, handle new pressures, and lead well when responsibility and expectations ramp up. My work is grounded in practical experience and focused on strengthening how teams and organisations function over time, through disciplined, human-centred change. This often begins at moments of transition, when familiar ways of working start to creak and clear judgement matters most.

If you’re navigating scale, transition or uncertainty, I’m always open to a thoughtful conversation.

Ben Scoggins

Today is ‘Blue Monday’. Supposedly the most depressing day of the year.

Only it isn’t.

The idea was dreamed up years ago as part of a marketing campaign featuring an 'equation' that doesn’t really stand up to scrutiny. It stuck because it sounds scientific and gives a neat explanation for why January can feel hard.

And to be fair, this time of year can feel hard. The days are short. The weather is bleak. Energy levels dip. Calendar dates aside, it’s tough.

Which is why I’ve always preferred the Samaritans’ counter-campaign: Brew Monday. A simple idea that encourages people to make time for a cuppa and a catch-up.

In a working world with less casual contact and more quiet isolation than we like to admit, that feels far more useful than declaring one day of the year ‘the worst’.

Check in on someone today. Or tomorrow. Or next week.

As the Samaritans put it: “We all have our good days and our bad days – and those aren’t for the calendar to decide.”

#BrewMonday #BlueMonday

Advisor to marketing leaders navigating change | Mentor to first-time agency leaders | Former CEO, Organic | BIMA100

A bright coloured mug saying 'Brew Monday' on it, sat on a gloomy looking desk

What’s the average age of a successful start-up founder?


Around 45.

That comes from a major longitudinal study by MIT Sloan School of Management, Northwestern University, The Wharton School and the U.S. Census Bureau, analysing 2.7 million firms.

Other large-scale research points in the same direction: founders in their 40s and 50s consistently outperform younger peers on growth and exits.

Five reasons older founders tend to win:

☝ Experience builds judgement.
They make fewer guesses, they’re less likely to get lost in the noise, and they spot real risk earlier.

☝ Experience builds knowledge.
They tend to start companies in industries they know inside-out, giving them a clear understanding of customers, constraints and incentives.

☝ Experience builds relationships.
They've built trusted networks - strong relationships people, also older, who control capital, influence and access.

☝ Experience builds discipline.
They’ve done the hard yards and know how to execute. There’s less fake urgency, more sequencing, focus and follow-through.

☝ Experience builds patience.
They’re less about proving a point, and more about autonomy, craft and growing businesses that last.

It’s no surprise then that some VCs and investors - like Brilliant Minds - are now leaning into this, actively backing founders over 50.

As David Hieatt puts it, getting older isn’t the moment to drop anchor - it’s the time to set sail.

And, if you think about it, that message applies just as much to 50-something employees as it does to 50-something founders.

#ExperienceMatters #Leadership #Founders

illustration of a grey haired man on a skateboard being pulled along by a dog on a lead

The plan was very poor. And most in the room knew it. Some had even privately voiced the chances of success at less than 15%.

Yet when the President asked who was in favour of a plan to invade Cuba, everybody in the room put their hand up. Seasoned military officers, senior intelligence directors, Presidential advisors, Chiefs of Staff. Not one hand stayed down.

The US attacked at the Bay of Pigs on 17th April 1961, and less than three days later it was all over: 300+ dead but with a knock-on effect that took the world to the brink of nuclear war.

It’s an archetypal case of ‘groupthink’ - a failure not of capability but of leadership and systems. And, like JFK, many business leaders experience it more often than we’d care to admit.

So, as a senior leader, what can you do to stop it?

For me, it boils down to 3 things:

👊🏻 Encourage challenge
Don’t hanker after harmony. Instigating a decision-making policy where ‘the bigwig speaks last in meetings' is great, but it doesn’t necessarily give team members the freedom to challenge. Court honesty, applaud bravery, reward the well-argued. (Especially when you don’t agree with it.)

👊🏻 Design better conversations.
Groupthink feeds off of a sloppy mix of status, deference, and expedience. Making better decisions means creating a deliberate process for how you make them. Stuff like - splitting the ‘idea bit’ from the ‘decide bit’, insisting on more than just a ‘Plan A’, and choosing to force an explicit articulation of risks and assumptions.

👊🏻 Invite outsiders in.
We all know that small, senior, empowered teams can make rapid progress. But, without oversight, they’re also potentially a recipe for groupthink. A fix? Deploy fresh eyes - bring them in early, give them context, make it their job to challenge.

So, the next time YOUR meeting goes quiet and hands go up, it’s worth pausing. Is this a fully-aligned, slam-dunk, home-run, no-brainer of a decision…. or do your team feel unable to be completely open and honest?

#Leadership #DecisionMaking #Groupthink

Portrait photo of a man (President JFK) sitting in a chair and looking off camera as he listens to an advisor speak

“We got to about 50 people and it all started to fall apart.”


Great to listen to Susanna Lawson’s journey from nursing home carer to tech entrepreneur, 2x King’s Award for Enterprise winner, and successfully exited founder.

Three things I took away from today's Boost:

💡 “Culture is built intentionally”
Create a vision and values your team can believe in. Then consistently live them. Small, deliberate acts build morale, but neglect them and, as Susanna put it, “you wake up one day and find that your baby has turned into a bully.”

💡 “Leading isn’t about resilience, it’s about antifragility”
Susanna’s aim isn’t to bounce back after problems, it’s to bounce forwards. Most of us set up businesses to weather the storm. I love this idea of approaching problems with the intention of learning and coming out stronger.

💡 “Don’t answer your door in your dressing gown”
If you’re going to exit, get your business information in order before speaking to potential buyers. Most founders don’t think seriously about exit early enough. Plan what you want from a deal (do 'the rocking chair test') and work backwards from there.

An inspiring morning as always - thank you, James Court.

A useful reminder that good businesses aren’t built by accident, and they aren’t exited by accident either.

#BYBNetwork #ExeterNetworking
Susanna Lawson DipIoD James Court Boost Your Business Network

Two images side by side. On the left, an image of the Boost Event in Exeter, with man standing at the front of the room in front of an audience. On the right, an image of a lady (Susanna Lawson) sitting on a chair smiling to camera. 

What’s striking is how mundane it all feels.

A recent piece from The Wall Street Journal offers a view of how senior leaders in big firms are using AI.

The underwhelming answer is that it’s mostly being used where you might expect: research, content drafting, customer service support.

Helpful, but a long way from transformational.

Where progress is happening, it’s less about the sophistication of the tools and more about leadership and behaviour change. CEOs who are hands-on advocates. Teams who delight in experimentation. Processes genuinely rebuilt around new capabilities.

Despite the hype, truly autonomous agents remain rare. Much of what’s described as 'agentic' is really supervised automation in the form of clever bots.

And while AI is finally being incorporated into workflows, most leaders aren’t delivering efficiency - they’re building capability for the long term. ROI? Not so fast.

The upshot: this year looks set to be all about the executional practicalities. Organisations doing the hard, unglamorous work of aligning people, processes and decision-making around a new capability - and doing it iteratively, not via a wham-bam transformation.

Unglamorous, yes.

But AI is no longer exposing a technology gap, it’s exposing an alignment one. And that’s where the real advantage will be built.

Thanks to Isabelle Bousquette et al. for writing the piece - link to the full article in the comments below.

#ArtificialIntelligence #Leadership #Execution

To paraphrase the immortal words of Ronan Keating, the signwriter would have said it best if they’d said nothing at all.


I took this photo in a car park. The sign explains what no one needed explaining.

It’s the curse of over-communication. A nervous urge to add words because silence feels risky. Marketing does this all the time.

As Antoine de Saint-Exupéry put it, “Perfection is achieved not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.”

Well, quite.

#MarketingCommunications #LessIsMore

Photo of a turnstile with a sign next to it saying 'turnstile'

“I want your clothes, your boots, and your motorcycle”

EngineAI, the Chinese robotics start-up, showed off their latest humanoid at CES last week.

The T-800 - named after Terminator (with seemingly no sense of irony) - runs, jumps, backflips, kicks and shadow boxes. In a PR stunt, it even beat up the heavily-padded CEO of the company.

All vaguely terrifying but on-brand I suppose.

What bothered me more was a marketing image of the same T-800 offering a fist-bump to a young child.

EngineAI isn’t selling to kids or families. The base model costs north of $40K. Their real audience is manufacturers, logistics firms, R&D labs, defence contractors and government buyers - people who care about durability, safety envelopes, constraints and failure modes.

Obviously human-looking robots have a perception problem that will need to be tackled - so comms building trust and reassurance do matter.

But industrial robots named after the Terminator pretending to form emotional bonds with our children isn’t reassuring. It’s creepy.

Hasta la vista, baby.

#BrandStrategy #Robotics #TechnologyEthics

Image of a small child fist-bumping a humanoid robot who is bent down on one knee to be at the same level as the child

To win in business, it helps to understand how wars are won.


Military historian James Holland argues that outcomes are decided by three things:

👊🏻 Logistics and sustainment
Supply chains, fuel, maintenance, replenishment.

👊🏻 Industrial capacity and usable technology
Capability must be reliable, repeatable, and deployable at scale.

👊🏻 Leadership and morale inside a functioning system
Adaptable senior leaders, empowered junior officers, well-trained and well-rested teams.

Crucially, strength in one does not compensate for failure in the others. It’s an interdependent system - all three have to work together.

There’s an uncomfortable parallel for business leaders.

Organisations fall short when these elements are treated in isolation.

💥 Operational excellence without clear direction = wasted effort.
💥 Tech fails if it’s introduced faster than processes can absorb it.
💥 Team motivation fades if plans aren’t understood or trusted.

Winning only comes through alignment - strategy, systems, and people.

It’s a principle that decides outcomes in war… and in business.

#Leadership #Strategy #Execution
Image: Rosie the Riveter

Black and white photo of a woman working in a factory during World War 2. Images like these were used to create 'Rosie the Riveter', a war propaganda character

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The Battle

Joanna Howes

Ben Scoggins

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Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Joanna Howes's LinkedIn Performance

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