Hey, Friends 👋! 

Welcome from an overcast and humid London. 

How has your week been for you? 

This weeks newsletter has 10 must-read stories for you to enjoy and share with friends and colleagues.   

Subject Line Explained: 🏃‍♀️ This years Olympics has been a dud, a lack of coverage, the lack of promotion and advertising and lack of records means the games have flopped. One positive has been the awareness around mental health and the impact it has on athletes. The knock-on effect of a dud Olympics is bigger than most people think, - advertisers won’t get the reach, - athletes won’t receive follow on endorsement and sponsorship deals - and the next games will have to be worked harder - and maybe mobile-first enhanced with AR and personalisation…Read story 8 for the link breakdown 🏋️‍♀️

🎙 Great news: I am releasing a dedicated podcast to fixing the broken world of work, get exclusive teasers here.

Must Read Articles Of The Week

This week I have been sharing some of the biggest lessons from my career. 👴Take a look through and let me know if any are useful or if you could apply to your role today. Read the full tips

1. Beware Of The Empathy Trap 🪤 Why Read This? Leaders are often told to be more empathic but without the right context it can be misleading and managers can get confused. - Read the full article 

2. Surveillance In Schools? 🎥  Why Read This? We cannot escape being on camera and camera phones, we are now likely to face another always-on camera in the classroom. TBH I think this is the future of social media vs schooling but in some use cases, it will probably hurt and hinder education, especially good teachers having bad moments or some kids just wanting to spoil it for the class or to go viral.- Read the full story

3. Immersive Stories🎢 Why Watch This? The future of theme parks is going to be VR and AR, not just IRL. We are going to see a way that immersive experiences are built completely in the cloud and can experience from your home. Theme parks still make the majority of the money for Disney & going digital will increase the potential for many other businesses. Want an example live already: Fortnite. Buying NFT’s and specific digital skins will be normal in the next 5 years - Watch the full video / Read the article  

4. Why AR Is Big In Fashions Future 👗 Why Read This? Shopping online is such a 2d experience, AR offers a huge potential for both the brand and the customer. Trying on clothes, different colours and styles with an AR filter will help you make better decisions while reducing returns and potential shipping issues. AR is going to be huge in fashion and optimise many IRL experiences (a reminder AR is the filters you use on Instagram, Snap & on teams and zoom calls to blur the background) - Read the full article 

5. The Real Farmville Scam 🇹🇷 Why Read This? Possibly one of the ludicrous stories I have read recently, how farmville was an inspiration for a huge Ponzi scheme in Turkey called Farm Bank and managed to scam plenty of people out of their money by using the internet and gamification against the users. We will see this play out time and time again and I predict this will be a play in Bitcoin and crypto to scam users to get rich quick. - Read the full article 

6. Wellness Epidemic? 💊 Why Read This? Wellness is a huge business, I have shared Goop a number of times and how much money has been invested into the space it has brought a lot of attention and questionable products and solutions. We will see many more products come to market at high price points that will not work for many. We will see a quality and quantity issue and that’s an issue we will all face - Read the full article 

7. Coca Cola NFT & First Step In The Metaverse 💷 Why Read This? The NFT landscape changes constantly, for some it is a brilliant investment for others it makes no sense, Coca Cola diving into NFT’s is a natural step for one of the biggest brands and most affiliated brands in the world. Coke’s approach is simple become digitally relevant when you are a brand you touch, smell, drink and share. Coke needs to be relevant in the next big thing aka the metaverse and being first helps them become a player in the virtual world and likely an aspirational product (skin / status symbol) for years to come - Read the full article  

8. Olympic Struggles? 🏃‍♀️ Why Read This? This year’s Olympics has been a dud, barely any advertising, less than any hype and no stand out stars means the Olympics has struggled. What’s more the athletes are struggling for sponsorship, why? They just don’t have enough mainstream Klout. Unfortunately, brands are missing opportunities with this approach however when you’re competing against numerous sports with more exposure and influencers deemed more relevant you will lose. A brand opp for sure, an athelete’s modern-day marathon - Read the full article Here’s a great moment from the games

9. Trading Problems 😥 Why Read This? Probably the shortest but most accurate story on your day, you are just trading problems one for another. - Read the full article (H/T to friend of must reads Simon for sharing this)

10. The True Cost Of Cheap Marketplace 👀 Why Watch This? A lot has been made about cheaper places to buy and sell online, unfortunately there are many hidden costs to online marketplaces and many marketplaces that disregard seller issues and in many cases do not validate or verify the products sold. A good quick video to get into the merky world of marketplaces.

Should We Be Able To Call In Sad? 😞

YES WE SHOULD! This is a brilliant podcast you should listen to this week, about rethinking depression and being able to have a sad day off and being treated the same as sick day.

The 🆓 Hybrid Work GuideDownload the most comprehensive guide to setting up and succeeding in Hybrid Work. 

Focus Article Of The Week 👇  

Why DNA documents and team trademarks are brilliant ideas to copy from the sports world

SHARING IS CARING 💪 

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"Quote Of The Week”  

“If you are working on something exciting that you really care about, you don’t have to be pushed. The vision pulls you.”  — Steve Jobs

Thanks for reading again this week Must Readers, please go & have a great end to your week!  

Danny Denhard Must Reads Editor & Focus Founder. 

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