Wavepoint, Found Found Brand Agency

With multiple vaccines shipping, it looks like our pandemic year might be nearly at an end. The release valve is about to blow. But what does that really mean? How will we react, what will we need when it’s all over? How have we changed, as consumers, and what does it mean for brands and products?

In this episode, recorded at the end of 2020 with futurist Christian Crews, we talk about what the next 5-10 years may look like. The changing consumer expectations, and mind-spaces that companies need to consider if they hope to connect with consumers, post-pandemic.

Episode Topics:

Newly vaccinated, will travel!

Who will take care of us when we all go on vacation at the same time?

Indulgent consumerism gets tempered by mindfulness and social consciousness.

How we all embraced our digital lives, consumer adoption on a grand scale.

How we also all got mindful about digital’s reach into our lives.

The new digital deal, suddenly we all know our personal data is $$$.

Millennial trauma is real and it will shape all our lives.

Gen Z idealism might take the edge off.

When you’re dealing with record-high unemployment, shifting market priorities, volatile cultural change, all in the middle of a global pandemic, investing in a future vision may seem like a risk, or at the very least a low priority. We argue that it is a monumental risk not to look beyond the now.

In this episode of Wavepoint Found, we’re rewinding back to early summer 2020 to a conversation we had with Christian Crews at the height of lockdown and uncertainty. We talked about how the pandemic is impacting company cultures and creating an imperative to communicate vision to your people and the market.

Building a strong culture and aligning your team behind a vision is not only smart, it pays dividends both in productivity at a time when hiring power is limited, and in increased trust and loyalty for your brand.

The future is always uncertain. With the United States election imminent, on top of everything else that has happened in 2020, we’re all thinking about the future right now. Or it might be more accurate to say that a lot of us are worrying about the future.

In this episode of Wavepoint Found, we’re going to try giving all that thinking and worrying about the future more perspective and purpose.

We’re going to start by talking about how businesses can think about and use the future in a way that lets them take action. Empowers their teams, Frees them, instead of limiting them.

Vision and action together is how we shape the future into what we want it to be. Taking a side even if it’s polarizing might be the best way to navigate change and make sure you find yourself confidently positioned for what’s to come.

Episode Topics:


What businesses and brands are up against with the impending election and social pressure

Why loss aversion and the fear of failure is such a big problem in making smart decisions about the future, and what to do about it

How to illustrate the cost of doing nothing in ways everyone can get behind

Why your people and the way they feel about your company are still your most important and most often overlooked asset

Why looking farther into the future is how you can take more decisive action today

How to use identity and foresight to turn down the noise and tune in to that matters to you


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Podcast produced by Vesy Ivanova and Steve Hurst at Found Brand Agency
foundbrandagency.com

In partnership with Christian Crews at Wavepoint
wavepoint.net

Engineering and production assistance by Stuart Leach and Zoe Georgulas
Original score by Richard Carpenter of Austin, Texas

There are two ways to respond to change.

One is acceptance and the resulting evolution.

The other's a shift toward rigidity, force and control.

In this episode of Wavepoint, Found we dig into what the ongoing social justice and sustainability movements mean for the future of brands and how companies can use their identity to navigate the shifting waters with authenticity. We also discuss how quarter-to-quarter market growth can limit a company’s ability to respond authentically to change, and how businesses might evolve to meet consumer’s demand for social and sustainable awareness.

Episode Topics:


The increasing pressure to take a social stand

Authenticity and diverse ecosystems to enable a social stand

How to be local and how national brands respond to local

The increasing pressure of true sustainability—from a human and environmental perspective

Identity and authenticity as a force against market pressures

The evolution of brands into people and experiences

How consumers buy in an experience-based economy

What companies need to do right now to position themselves for all of these market forces

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Podcast produced by Vesy Ivanova and Steve Hurst at Found Brand Agency
foundbrandagency.com

In partnership with Christian Crews at Wavepoint
wavepoint.net

Original score by Richard Carpenter of Austin, Texas

What does it mean to be lost?  And what does it mean to survive?

The answers to both of these questions are deeply connected to knowing who you are.

And there are two things that are most likely to  limit your ability to adapt through change. An inability to see a future, and an ability to see yourself in the future.

Foresight and identity.

In this episode we talk about how businesses are more likely to survive when they can balance between holding on to who they are, and also find ways to be flexible, adaptive and humble in the face of change.

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Podcast produced by Vesy Ivanova and Steve Hurst at Found Brand Agency foundbrandagency.com

In partnership with Christian Crews at Wavepoint wavepoint.net

Original score by Richard Carpenter of Austin, Texas

If you could see the future, if you had proof and knew what might happen, would you act? Would you take steps to change it? Would you adapt?

At the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in the US, we recorded this Wavepoint, Found prologue to explore what happens when reality clashes against identity, and how the way we see ourselves both informs and limits our ability to see and adapt to the future.

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Podcast produced by Vesy Ivanova and Steve Hurst at Found Brand Agency foundbrandagency.com

In partnership with Christian Crews at Wavepoint wavepoint.net

Original score by Richard Carpenter of Austin, Texas