Danny Brown's Blog, page 7

The Consequences of Authenticity

Don’t you think it’s bizarre how we aspire to be natural, and yet to be natural takes an unnatural amount of work?

I recall reading a piece on actress and businesswoman Jessica Alba once, and how she was asked to do a photoshoot for natural skin. Of course, they wanted to plaster all sorts of makeup on her, just to make her look “natural”.

She declined.

I wonder why we feel the need to put masks on, even when the ask is for fewer masks?

There are always things we don’t want – or need – to see...

The Danger of False Heroes

Have you ever looked around you – really looked around you – and saw your place in the world?

It could be your place in your own particular world or your place in the bigger picture.

It doesn’t really matter – all that matters is you take that look around you and recognize your place in it.

We live in a society that changes quickly and moves even quicker. It’s easy to get lost, swept away or side-tracked. Things we meant to do yesterday we don’t have a chance to do tomorrow.

We live in a worl...

How Do You Solve a Problem Like Facebook Live?

As social networks continue to try to outdo each other with new features, one of the most popular additions has been that of live video.

Facebook, Twitter, Instagram are increasingly putting the focus on video content, with reports that Facebook could be video-only by 2020.

It’s understandable that video could become the de-facto method of content consumption due to the simple buy-in for the audience.

A video is visual, quick, snappy. Words require more thought and more investment by the read...

You Don’t Have to Write About Marketing to Be a Marketer

The other day, I had an interesting conversation with a friend of mine who I first met via social media, but has become a close confidante and teacher.

We were talking about the various changes we’ve seen in the time we’ve known each other (close to 10 years now) and how these changes have impacted both our careers and the content we publish on our respective blogs.

While she continues to blog about marketing – but more slanted towards tech and how AI will impact business – I moved away from...

If You Truly Value Blog Comments, You Have to Show Up

One of the topics that continues to do the rounds is that of blog comments.

Do they still count? Should blogs just switch off comments and become a content publication instead? Are comments even valued as they once were?

This follows the decision by many bloggers and content creators to close down their comments section, citing all the conversation is on social media now, there’s too much spam, and it takes time to moderate the community.

For me, though, it’s less external issues that have ca...

Finding Moments of Deliberateness in an Ever-Connected World

A version of this post first appeared on the Turn Off the Overwhelm blog.

We live such busy lives. We run from meeting to meeting, sales call to sales call, school event to school event, all without question.

Instead of questioning the validity of these sprints, we simply brush reasons aside, because it’s just what we do, right?

While it may be part of our everyday life, it doesn’t mean it has to be part of our everyday acceptance of busyness over silence and time to regroup.

In fact, not tak...

When You’re 7 Years Old and Your World Dies Around You

In the early summer of 1976, my life was as any 7-year-old kid’s life should be – fun, making new adventures, and looking forward to a long, glorious school holiday.

Then, in the space of nine weeks, that world came tumbling down.

I lost both my grandfathers and my step-dad – one grandfather and my step-dad to cancer, my other grandfather to natural causes.

While that was undoubtedly traumatic, it was the loss of my schoolfriend, Corinne, that hit me the hardest.

She died of an asthma attack...

Forget Being More Human, Just Be People

We’ve just come out of the mass production age. For a couple of centuries, we’ve been sold the idea of mass. Of normal.

Of process.

Not surprisingly it spilled over from factories into every part of our lives.

We were told to produce lots of “a thing”, then aggressively sell it, rather than make what people want.

Told to set strict parameters around tasks, jobs, and even careers – you can do this (tick), arrive at 8, leave at 5, with money docked for being a minute late.

We were seen as imper...

The Evolution of a Blog and the Evolution of You

If you use the app Timehop, you’ll know that one of its cool strengths is how it reminds you of something you’d completely forgotten about from years gone by.

This could be an embarrassing haircut, a sweet moment with a child, or a recollection of a friend long since gone.

Inadvertently, it can also show you how you’ve evolved as a blogger, as I found out with a memory it shared with me today from six years ago.

This was my blog design from 2011. I think the reason Timehop shared it as a mem...

Introducing Turn Off the Overwhelm (lead a deliberate life)

“Love people, use things. The opposite never works.” Joshua Fields Millburn & Ryan Nicodemus, The Minimalists.

Throughout my adult life (or at least the majority of it), I’ve tried to be someone who places more value on people and experiences over materialism and the status quo.

This means looking at how the every day can be a catalyst for an opportunity to learn and share in the beauty of collective connections, and what we can take away from these experiences.

I’m not always successful...