Borrow My Brain 2018 in Review and 2019 Resolutions

Another year at its end. But this year was special. A full-blown Borrow My Brain year of services innovation, hard work, great partners and projects, all about doing value-add for small and medium-size companies. So, an opportunity for a well-deserved year’s review post!

As far as I know, the hard part in life isn’t coming up with a new idea. The hard part is executing on your idea. This is where people fail their heart and minds; this is the toughest metric that no one looks back at. Thank God, we didn’t stop on execution with Borrow My Brain God.

Persistence was the name of the game in 2018. Not only because it was the first year of operations, where usually launch phase’s enthusiasm is high… It was because of the purpose we have. And that is the second success prerequisite.

If you are a ‘slave’ of revenue in the Brands world, you don’t contribute

In the Marketing Communication service world, the ‘burden’ of making a steady (sustainable) growth/revenue drags people away from Creativity, Innovation, and real Client-results. Been there, done that for years!

With Borrow My Brain our effort isn’t to build a skyscraper, or rent luxury offices, or to own an army of executives. No, No, and no! Our purpose is, to tell the truth when combining Branding, Marketing activations, Stories well told, and Digital tactics as one view, one plan, one answer.

Because by this way, we will save some good businesses from the failure recipes that agencies and consultants copy-paste on a 24/7 basis. That keeps us alive and kicking. Believe it or not, it’s into in the revenue but on the footprint and the impact you make.

That’s why Branding work is so difficult and this is why we don’t see the great company or personal or social-cause Brands (moving people) in the EMEA region. In order to make the new thing, to make the old thing better, you need to destroy it first so to speak. You have to work on the foundations. Avoid easy-fixes and recipes that worked for others. Avoid repeating the campaign deployment that worked for some similar Brand.

2018, the year we launched and we made the first bold move of scaling

I really enjoy going back for a snapshot of mindset, goals, and achievements. Sit back and reflect on what we have accomplished in 2018. Let’s jump in.

• One thing I did this year I’m most proud of: the persistence to start and work for Borrow My Brain.
• Two things I’m grateful for: a) the support of my wife when I was “missing in action”, and b) the people that helped me with sincere feedback.
• Three of my favourite memories: a) the Sunday morning that Borrow My Brain idea was conceived, b) the first invoice issued (which I was starring for 15 minutes(!)), and c) the first training evaluation form we received.

2018, here’s to the people that supported Borrow My Brain launch

Here’s to the people that have helped. They’ve inspired me personally, and they also gave us more purpose, commitment, and drive to add value to their issues or Brands at hand. They are people that build things that matter and they really get the need for strategic Branding and Storytelling.

In the launch phase, they welcomed me into their daily schedules, liked our posts, endorsed to others, assigned us projects with, or took part in the Borrow My Brain courses and keynotes. More importantly, they’ve helped us improve.

The thought of listing them (and alas, leaving out so many) is exciting, but here’s a very partial list, perhaps 5% of those that I owe so much to. Aspa Tsamadi, Anna Malliarou, Stefi Vasilopoulou, Aggelos Asimakopoulos, Kostas Nikolakopoulos, Johannes Arvidson Persson, Anthi Trokoudi, Kostas Nodaras, Despina Exadaktylou, Stathis Haikalis, Thanos Makris, Konstantinos Kintzios, Thanos Athanasopoulos, Jenny Tantidou, Panos Konstantinidis, Labros Nasis, Christos Poulos, Gerasimos Tzamarelos, Ilyana Guzman, Fanouris Drakakis, Peter Olofsson, Dimitris Moutafis, Nicole Ioannidis, Zoe Kollia, Georgia Dimakogianni, Gregory Nicolaou, Sunny Missun Jo, Tilemachos Mavrakis, Yannis Lapatas, Zozeta Miliopoulou, Dimitra Kontochristou, George Zalokostas, Yiota Tsanaxi, Marios Lazarou, Lydia Yiannakopoulou, Sophia Spiliotopoulou.

2018, actions’ review

• 2.000 web visitors per month (not bad, without paid media)
• 19.245 clicked on the BMB’s Services page (good awareness!)
• Instagram #borrowmybrain #dailyinspiration now has 293 followers
• FB page has grown to 723 connected people
• 380 e-mails received by newsletter subscribers with suggestions on themes to blog or podcast
• The podcast for Greek-Cypriot Talent is now a big community: 1484
• Implemented 12 “Borrow my Brain, Brand” sessions with Marketers
• Facilitated 2 Corporate Affairs & Communication planning workshops
• Worked on 4 “Borrow my Brain, Content” workshops to craft a) corporate and b) website acquisition Content
• Implemented 5 “Borrow my Brain, PR360o” sessions, enriching PR activation-plans
• Facilitated 2 “Insight Mining and Briefing” workshops, with a Digital agency and a Client
• Handled 1 severe Crisis Communications response case
• Coordinated 3 company “Crisis Preparedness” workshops
• 4 “Spokespeople training” workshops with Business leaders of 3 companies on their external outreach

I’ve reached out to support communities with know-how transfer:

• Brand planning workshop for AIESEC 2018-19
• Workshop driver at CruiseInn 2018 with entrepreneurs
• Orientated Marketing students on the Job Pairs Mentoring Day
• Speaker on eLife Kids 2018 for the “Jobs of the Future”
• Keynote speaker to ReGeneration (read the blog post)
• Speaker on SpoudaseFest 2018 on Big Data and innovation
• Joined AIESEC as an SG member
• Keynote at MSc students of Deree on “CMO Transformation“
• Joined Tipping Point in Education.org as a Mentor
• Keynote at MBA students of Macedonia University, on “30 years later”
• Mentoring StartupWeekend Kavala
• Participated in the Foundation “Digital Transformation” day
• Workshop at GEF European NGO’s fundraising workshop
• Speaker on “Mobility Empowers” to university students in Athens