Oops did I ask for something?

Watching The Apprentice yesterday when the contestants were required to use their best buying skills was a wonderful demonstration of the differences between the sexes. Now don't go shouting at me because, of course, not every woman can be tarred with the same brush; but let's face it how many of us ladies are any good at ruthless negotiating? How many times have you attempted this task by starting with an apology?

It was a simple case of girls v boys last night. Buy the 10 things on the list for the cheapest price possible. Boys ran out of the door with little planning or forethought but began their negotiations at 70% below asking price and didn't back down. Girls meticulously located items, tried to knock down the vendors by about 20%, gave in really quickly and actually said "sorry for asking".

Boys got 7/10 items, girls 10/10. Boys won the task despite incurring hefty fines for the failed purchases. Girls lost because frankly, they were far too nice!

Yep, that's me alright. However, future employers, vendors and anyone else I might have to lock horns with. Be afraid, be very afraid because I am learning. Oh yes, I am taking heed of those that tell me off for selling myself short. I am learning to value myself higher (my inner niceness is screaming NOOOOOOO, but I am not listening!). Come join me ladies. It's time to look at ourselves in a new light because we are so worth it!

No more will I be selling original artwork for £10 (yes, I seriously did that last week...). No more will I think "I can't do it". No more apologetic tones when stating my consulting day rate.

(I am fighting some serious inner turmoil here - there's a whole pantomime cast and audience having a whale of a time... I can't possibly post this! Oh yes, you can. Oh no I can't.... Eek. What happened to 'She who Dares?'

Oh, whatever, here we go...

By the way. Painting finished from sketch posted earlier in the week. I rather like this. She is going to be a Christmas present for a friend... if I can bear to part with her...

Been there, done that...

Yeah well, three days to come up with a new chocolate brand and market it to the industry. What a load of old tosh. Yours truly managed it in an afternoon. Once upon a time, on a team building event, we were challenged to create a prize winning box of chocs and given nothing more than some chocolate drops, food dye, tissue paper, glue, scissors and cardboard. I confess to a slight competitiveness when given this sort of test. There was going to be no sitting back gorging on chocolate and getting sticky in my team. I wish I could remember the brand name, but a description should suffice - think Ascot, think hats. A delightful display of head gear nestled within the velvety confines of a taffeta creation to rival the cream of Philip Treacy. Think multi-coloured jockey caps, felt-textured bowlers, floppy sun and romantic dreamery. And did we win? What do you think?

If you didn't watch the Apprentice, you may be slightly confused. Or, if you did, and like me was tempted by all the cocoa talk to indulge in a bit of the sweet stuff, then you might be feeling a touch nauseous, especially if you put away three-quarters of a bar of Green & Black's finest milk. Let's just say the only reason I didn't consume the remaining quarter being simply because I'd eaten it yesterday!

Well done Yasmina, I knew you had it in you girl...

On an unrelated topic. I was driving in Milton Keynes this afternoon and something strange caught my eye. Would someone please explain what the people dressed as the Mad Hatter's crockery were doing hanging around the concrete cows. Unless I can find a solid explanation, I fear I may just slip into quiet insanity...

New brand tribalism ... and some other stuff

This is going to be a really tough assignment. I'm about to blog on an event I attended on Wednesday knowing full well that the guys who created said event (and then proceeded to get me drunk afterwards - hic!) will be reading this with a critical eye. "Hello, by the way and great to meet you yesterday!" Before I go any further, I must tell you that I have already quizzed one of the commercial directors at work on the subject of pride as we discussed yesterday. In fact, I put him on the spot in a room packed full of new recruits eager to be inducted into the world of broadcasting. My card is no doubt now marked as a trouble maker! There the poor chap was answering nice safe questions about what his area of the business did and patiently trying to explain what a Mux is, when some smart arse in the second row asks him how challenging he believes it is to instill pride in a brand that few outside the company have heard of and is actually made up of such a complex mixture of legacy companies that sometimes it feels like working for about ten different businesses. The poor fella looked like an apprentice in headlights facing Alan Sugar in his roller. Well, perhaps that's a slight exaggeration, but he did try and bat the question in the direction of the internal communications department. "Aha," says I. "That's me! You see I think that the business is facing a real challenge in this area but it's one that we can overcome and have a lot of fun in the process". [see the man back slowly out of the room wondering why he ever agreed to present at induction...]. Was fun. We had a very nice chat later and I was not quite as bossy as this may sound and nor was he in fact the slightest bit scared! This tone may be because I have just watched Mr Sugar's mates grilling the poor candidates on the Apprentice and boinged straight from TV to PC. Curses to my company though. Having missed the programme on Wednesday, I thought I would watch it on Catch Up TV naively believing I could somehow avoid discovering who left the show with their tail between their legs. Naturally this was not to be as I wandered into some sort of TV monitoring studio at work to see the three of them appearing on This Morning with the newsly skinny Fern and dashingly silver Phil. Tish!

As an aside, I'm a bit worried about the sadistic nature of my company. They put people in dark rooms for 12 hours a day and force them to watch daytime TV, poker and Eurosport.

Speaking of being ensconced in a dark room all day, perhaps I should return to the original point of my post. It was actually a real joy to spend my Wednesday with such like-minded thinkers and believers. Creative people are good for the soul dear readers. I advise you all to hang around these right-brained thinkers.

Tribes... that's what we talked about, more specifically new brand tribalism. It's about recognising the basic need to belong whether as an allegiance to a football team or a bunch of engineers who fit transmitters. How do these tribes behave and how can we use them to form the right culture for our business? They brought the theory to life with an inspirational case study from Lynn Arrowsmith -Head of Internal Brand, Communication & Culture at Orange. But do you know what, I'm not going to write anything else about the day because I guess that would defeat the point. The team at The Alternative are developing some great new ideas for communication, engagement and culture. Why not let them tell you all about it and experience for yourselves some of their drive, energy and creativity!