INDUSTRY RELATED: The Case for Relentless Curiosity

Industry Related is a weekly newsletter to unmask and straight-talk brand comms, from an award-winning team that has worked with Airbnb, Diageo, The Eames Institute, Harry’s, iF Design, Kartell, and Savile Row, to name just a few.

Amy reporting here today from London where it’s bright and early, 54F/12C and I’m running on 4.5 hours of sleep and a triple shot Americano. Lauren’s going to have a doozy of time editing this one 😏 Fun fact: I don’t for a second believe that founder bullsh*t that’s been sold to us for years that success is born of minimal sleep, and that those who go down after the owls and get up before the birds are somehow winning. LIES. This girl THRIVES on seven hours and is a machine on eight. Anything less and it’s fog city up in here. My lack of sleep though is not due to worry but EXCITEMENT. For those of you who follow the cosmos, we’re in some super situ where Venus and Jupiter are making it rain… and I’ll tell you what, I’m feeling it! That and (full transparency) the sun is coming up sometime around 3:44AM (you read that right - I’m citing my weather app for specificity) and my blackout blinds are seriously falling down on the job.

Earlier this week, Chloe, who leads the Alpha Kilo charge over here in London, and I found ourselves in one of those spaces that stops you mid-sentence; the kind that doesn't shout about itself but absolutely should. It was there, soaking in the detail and intricacies of the post-modern architecture, that we got onto the topic of how these amazing discoveries always seem to find us. Chloe's observation was a simple one…in fact we find these spaces, these people, these objects, these moments of magic, because we are so unapologetically, gloriously curious.

Part of it is intentional, having very thoughtfully positioned ourselves in the design industry. You know what that covers, dear Relatives? Pretty much every damn thing. Not just furniture, fashion, and product, but places, spaces, and experiences. Ours is a world of luxury, and not in the way your loo roll labels itself as such. But because behind every beautiful object, thoughtful experience, exquisite space, and delightful interaction, there’s a designer, a choreographer, a creative who dreamed it up, and legions who brought it to life. Artisans, architects, engineers, inventors - humans, in all their staggering, glorious variety. What humans get up to is so infinitely fascinating, and for the sake of your business, particularly if you’re in marketing or comms, you should GET INTO IT.

Before we fully dive in, let’s look at what curiosity actually means. Our friends at Merriam-Webster define it as the following:

cu·ri·os·i·ty /ˌkjʊəriˈɒsəti/ noun

1. A strong desire to know, learn, understand, or discover something. Interest leading to investigation or inquiry.

It isn’t something passive. It isn’t sitting back and idly wondering. Curiosity is an act of wonder and motion, and it’s the action that gives it such extraordinary power.

Ruminate on this for a second: in the age of AI, answers are abundant, but QUESTIONS ARE SCARCE. Your competitive advantage lives in the asking; in going on exploratory missions that in the moment may have no commercial value or potential; in attending an event because the invite was remotely interesting. I promise you, there will be a moment when the lightning strikes and that nugget of information you gleaned, space you toured, piece of conversation that stuck in memory, or seemingly random installation you wandered into will come back into play.

About five years ago, when the world was tip-toeing its way back into public spaces, I went up to Santa Barbara (I was in LA at the time) to a place called Lotusland, where a friend sits on the board. Why? Who the f*ck knows. I was definitely intrigued by the name, and I do love that drive up Highway 1, so why the hell not? IT IS AMAZING - and pimp this, the woman who created it was a Polish singer in the 1920s who changed her name to MADAME GANNA WALSKA and then got into gardening. VIBES!!! The reason I bring it up here is this… I went, I loved, I dove deep and then I left. Truth be told, I haven’t thought about it much to be honest. And then, YESTERDAY! No lie. Five and a bit years later, I was on a call with a potential client about how we program unexpected moments of magic for clients and BOOM, out rolled the ol’ Lotusland reference. I set about getting them a private tour. A gentle flex that shows the extent our agency reach and the type of gems we can uncover for clients.

How do we do it? Curiosity, baby. Every time.

For my paying Relatives, we’ll now roll into five daily exercises to activate your curiosity. I’ll share the details on some gems where curiosity led me to the past few weeks, and a punchy little column I’m calling the A-K Curiosity Log, which includes one liners on things like What I’m Questioning 🤨, Current Rabbit Hole I’m Heading Down 🐰, and Top on My Go List 🛩️.