Martin Lindstrom (Part 1) | One of TIME Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People Shares How to Eliminate Bureaucratic Red Tape, Bad Excuses, and Corporate BS

Show Notes

Today’s guest was named by TIME MAGAZINE as one of the World’s 100 Most Influential People and he’s been interviewed 20 times on NBC’s TODAY show and he’s here to talk about his new book, The Ministry of Common Sense: How to Eliminate Bureaucratic Red Tape, Bad Excuses, and Corporate BS.

NOTES: 

Martin Lindstrom is the founder and chairman of Lindstrom Company, a global branding & culture transformation firm, operating across five continents and more than 30 countries. 

Does your office struggle to get things done? Is your business filled with slow-moving bureaucrats, policies that nobody reads, and enough productivity-killing red tap to make your brain explode? Well on today’s show we are joined by Martin Lindstrom whom TIME MAGAZINE has labeled today’s guest as one of the World’s 100 Most Influential People and a man who interviewed 20 times on NBC’s TODAY show and he’s here  to talk about his new book, The Ministry of Common Sense: How to Eliminate Bureaucratic Red Tape, Bad Excuses, and Corporate BS

https://www.martinlindstrom.com/

Today’s guest is the New York Times best-selling author who:

1. TIME magazine 
2. Today’s guest Martin Lindstrom advises huge companies that you know including Burger King, Lowes, Boar’s Head, Beverly Hills Hotels, Pepsi, Nestle and Google. 
3. The Wall-Street Journal praised his book Brand Sense as “one of the five best marketing books ever published,” and his book Small Data as “revolutionary,” and TIME called his book Buyology “a breakthrough in branding.”
4. Today’s guest Martin Lindstrom has appeared in Morgan Spurlock’s movie The Greatest Movie Ever Sold and on America’s Next Top Model and he joins us today to share about his new book, The Ministry of Common Sense: How to Eliminate Bureaucratic Red Tape, Bad Excuses, and Corporate BS! 
5. Yes, yes, yes and yes! Martin Lindstrom, welcome onto The Thrivetime Show! How are you sir?!
6. Martin Lindstrom, before we get into your new book, I want to ask you about your background…what was your life like growing up?
7. When did you first figure out what you wanted to do professionally?
8. When did you feel that you were first gaining traction with your career?
9. Martin Lindstrom Who has been the biggest mentor in your career thus far?
10. TIME magazine has named you as one of America’s 100 Most Influential People…what did receiving that honor feel like? 
11. What inspired you to write your new book, The Ministry of Common Sense: How to Eliminate Bureaucratic Red Tape, Bad Excuses, and Corporate BS
12. How much money are organizations wasting by not implementing the strategies found in your new book, The Ministry of Common Sense: How to Eliminate Bureaucratic Red Tape, Bad Excuses, and Corporate BS?
13. Martin Lindstrom Your book offers a five-step guide to ridding ourselves—and our companies—of the bureaucratic bottlenecks and red tape that plague every office…I would love if you could share what common kinds of bureaucratic bottlenecks that you see as being common in business today?
14. What are the 5 steps for ridding ourselves of the slow moving bottlenecks that prevent most businesses from unleashing their potential?
    1. (Bad) customer experience
    2. Politics
    3. Technology
    4. Meetings and Power Points
    5. Rules, Regulations, and Policies
    6. Compliance and Legal
15. What kind of time-wasting activities are common in America’s conference rooms?
    1. Video screens freezing, cords not working, and employees dropping in and out.
    2. Sitting through endless Power Points that no one has read.
16. FUN FACT: The average person now spends 11.3 hours per day consuming media. https://www.nielsen.com/us/en/insights/article/2018/time-flies-us-adults-now-spend-nearly-half-a-day-interacting-with-media/
17. Martin Lindstrom What are common examples of common sense not being found in the workplace today?
18. You come across as a very proactive person…so how do you typically organize the first four hours of your and what time do you typically wake up?
19. What are a few of your daily habits that you believe have allowed you to achieve success?
20. What advice would you give the younger version of yourself?
21. Martin Lindstrom We find that most successful entrepreneurs tend to have idiosyncrasies that are actually their super powers…what idiosyncrasy do you have?
22. What message or principle that you wish you could teach everyone?
23. You’ve got the mic, what is one thing that you want to share with the Thrive Nation before you drop the mic?