No Compromise

👋 Hey, Must Readers! I trust you had a good week. It’s starting to feel a lot like Christmas…

• I’m back with 11 must-read stories for you to read

• A special breakdown of savings and discounts from all of the saving days we have had over the last month

• A powerful mental health reminder (from TikTok)

• A new job alert

As a reminder: Each week Must Reads shares stories you have unlikely read, seen in your feeds or on your messenger of choice. Hit share to help Must Reads grow and help to make people more informed and entertained.

Must Read Articles Of The Week

1. New Career Framework 👏 Here is a new framework for you to use to develop your own or your team’s career, it’s the 2up 2across framework - Read the full article 

2. The 5 Most Important Roles For 2022 🎉 Some roles are filled for pain points of the hiring manager not problem-solving for the customers (or the wider business), here are the 5 roles you have to consider hiring for in 2022 - Read the full 5 roles

3. Our Data Is Ours? 🤨 The question on some people’s minds is, is our data actually our data and is it time we looked after it? We have for years given numerous pieces of personal data to platforms to use them for free and become the product and advertising engine. But is it now time for users to take ownership of the data or is it not? - Read the longread

4. Audio Reborn 📲 There is a huge race for repositioning and repurposing of audio…podcasts are the most popular they have ever been, clubhouse fizzled out, while Twitter Spaces became something (+annoying on their app), voicenotes are popular on Meta platforms, Instagram, WhatsApp etc, now dating app Hinge is leveraging the audio message in their app and it’s going viral - Read the breakdown

5. “We’re not going to compromise” 🍔 🍟 The secret behind In-N-Out’s success, sticking to what works and being strategic - Read the full interview (they need to come to London hint hint)

6. Disney $33 Billion Bet 🐭 Disney saw a slow down in subscribers in Q3 of 2021 after record growth, many suspects it’s content fatigue and too many competitors in a saturated streaming market is to blame but Disney is taking inspiration from Netflix’s playbook, spending big on content and making smash hits to drive growth - Read the Disney article 

7. Paid Gamer? 🎮Do you know what the biggest theme for 2022 is? Playing computer games and getting paid to play vs buying the game. (FWIW crypto is being used to pay on platforms to increase the reach of crypto…) Why? Because the value is in your network and time…Here’s why ‘play to earn’ gaming is going to be so important - Watch the video  

8. Fortnite New Social Move 💃 Fortnite is one of the most successful games of all time, it’s influence on culture has been huge and saw record-breaking online gaming and online concerts. Its new move is to become more social minus the gameplay, not new for them but a dedicated shift in an unserved area. ‘Community’ will be a hugely discussed trend in 2022 - Read about fortnites shift

9. Keep Those Returns 📦 Here is a good explainer of why many large brands just don’t want the products returned to them (expect this is change early next year) - Read for broader context

10. 37% Of Global Population Have Never Used The Internet 🌏 Kinda sad stat that over a third of the world’s population have never used the internet. I wonder if it’s actually a gift, sometimes the internet is a dark place - Read for the full insights

11. Shyness Superpower 🙈 Did you know 10-15% of children show shyness and many believe it to be a weakness in children, rubbish! It can actually be a superpower and many keep overlooking and misunderstanding. Read why we are now shifting our perspective on shyness - Read the full article

How We Can Work Together

• ✅ Make Marketing Work: I help businesses grow, I help Marketing Teams to build out the right Department set up, build the right goals and actually deliver.

• 👩‍💼 Coach & Mentor: I coach Marketing and Growth leaders.

• 🚀 Grow Your Effectiveness: I help to drive your companies focus and develop Growth teams’ on the most important high impact work, so you can those exceed aggressive business goals.

😉 Hint: The end of 2021 is the perfect time to audit your Marketing plans (aka Marketing Strategy) or Growth plans for 2022. Get in touch to shape your Departments successes for 2022 and beyond.

Mental Health On TikTok

As someone who has suffered from mental health, this is a brilliant TikTok shared by the BBC from comedian Rob Beckett - Watch the video 

Savings Special 🎧

The future state podcast is where Nick Walter (CEO of an Art Startup) and I discuss important themes for the future and break down what’s happening and where it is going. This week we broke down the future of savings and why there is a lot more at play and why the future is going to look very different in maturing Western Markets. - Read the breakdown or Listen to the full podcast

Job Alert 🚨 Are you an analyst (or can recommend one) and want a new role for the new year? My former workplace JustGiving are looking for a Growth Analyst - See the full role (any questions reach out to friend of Must Reads Adam Selby on Linked)

Thanks for reading again today 🙏

A HUGE thank you for reading must reads again this week.

You can support me by buying me a coffee, it’s like a small tip to say thanks.

Please remember: If you would like to discuss any articles, have questions or an article recommendation, I’m always free for Must Readers - just hit reply

Until next week’s Must Reads, go well, friends.

Danny Denhard Must Reads Editor, Growth & Marketing Coach