Here at Coeus Creative Group, our mission is to empower people by improving behaviors. While much of our work targets organizations and adults, we also work with athletes on a variety of issues. Today we want to focus on an essential concept to the success of top-performing athletes; developing a growth mindset. While we are offering advice to athletes, their parents, and coaches, this concept is also beneficial to business leaders and professionals alike.

Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck’s theory of growth mindset has impacted how many coaches and parents approach speaking to their athletes. A “fixed mindset” is such that skills and abilities are set, finite, and unchangeable. Whereas a person with a growth mindset has an outlook that practice and learning can lead to improvement.

Most importantly, a growth mindset is beneficial to all areas of life for young athletes, including school, sports, relationships, and careers. At its core, the concept notes that actions can change outcomes; intelligence, behavior, and abilities are not fixed or unalterable.

Fixed mindset: “I’m not good at face-offs.”
Growth mindset: “I’m not good at face-offs yet.”

A growth mindset is developed over time. Parents and coaches need to be aware of this to help young athletes discover it, and reinforce it over time. Teaching self-reflection is an integral part of that process.

CREATE A STARTING POINT

There is no way to see change without knowing where the starting line is. Some coaches do this through skills assessments at the beginning of the season. If your coach is not, suggest they start. But then evaluate your athlete (with their input) yourself. You have been watching them grow and educating yourself on the game. You can assemble a baseline for measurement.

It is essential to look at these assessments as opportunities for improvement, not talent evaluation. Parents and coaches need to avoid glorifying players for “natural” talent. These declarations promote a fixed mindset that an athlete is either talented or not. This can impact the growth of not only the athlete who is told they are talented, but also show their teammates that talent alone is what matters.

CREATE A ROADMAP

Individual improvement is the best way to increase a team’s chance of winning, so it’s necessary to identify the skills and abilities they want to develop. In doing this, athletes can also achieve success regardless of wins and losses.

Many of these goals will be focused on sport-specific skills and physical fitness; but athletes should also be encouraged to set goals around communication, teamwork, support for teammates, and conflict resolution.

ANALYSIS

Don’t skip letting the season end without a purposeful reflection on the skills and abilities gained. It is vital to close the loop so athletes clearly see they’ve established goals, worked to create change, and achieved an outcome. Even if some goals did not get met, they still were able to learn and grow.

A great way to facilitate this reflection is to try starting a conversation using open-ended questions:

• What are you proud of this season?
• What should have been done another way?
• At difficult moments, how did you use the tools available to you?
• What skill do you want to work on before next season?

Journaling is another way for athletes to establish a thoughtful routine because they regularly learn to review activities and key moments. It also creates a record that athletes can utilize to reflect on their long-term progress.

TODAY’S LESSONS PAYING OFF TOMORROW

Youth sports are great for teaching new skills, and reflection helps them connect the work they do and the progress they continue to make. This self-reflection is what will carry them into their future careers.

While most people define success as avoiding failure, truly successful people will tell you their success is determined by their response to it. They would argue that you must experience failure to learn the lessons that bring success.

An important reminder is no matter what your athlete thinks about their current abilities, they are good enough to do their best right now. No matter how hard they try, your athlete can’t be better than they are in that moment. Embracing and honing current abilities creates a firm platform. I know this looks like a circular argument, but what should be understood is that our culture, obsessed with better, is also an anxious culture.

Some studies show 25% of Americans have an identifiable mental disorder, and 80% of those, or 20% of us, have an anxiety disorder. Anxiety is related to the uncertainty and fear of a future event or occurrence. When our minds focus solely on the end results, we quit concentrating on the “now” and do not perform at our best.

What we know about human beings at their best is they are not constantly jumping into the future. They don’t dwell in the past. They stay present, focused, and function to the best of their ability right now. The problem with better is it keeps pulling you to the future. If you pay close attention to the people that succeed at a high level, they are not hyper-focused on winning. They simply believe they are going to do well.

Parents, coaches, and (behaviorally intelligent) business leaders should be saying, “Give it your all, do the best that you can, and learn from the experience to be better tomorrow.” If you’re leading an organization, whether it’s a family, a team, or a business, if you can get people to perform at their best right now, then you’re empowering people by improving behaviors at the highest level.

Interested in hiring Coeus Creative Group to train your teams on this topic or behavioral intelligence? Contact us today

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“Hear the birds? Sometimes I like to pretend that I’m deaf
and try to imagine what it’s like to not be able to hear them.
It’s not that bad.” – Larry David

We are all human.

When we come across differences that are unfamiliar to us, it causes us to pause and react. Behavior might be a choice, but it certainly takes practice. Meeting a deaf person in the workplace can be rare and, thus, interacting with them may take some getting used to. The first step to learning how to interact with the deaf and hard of hearing is to understand their behaviors and why they have them.

Let’s begin with some key terms:

• Hard of Hearing: an individual with mild to moderate hearing loss
• deaf: (lowercase D) the medical term used to describe profound/severe hearing loss
• Deaf: (uppercase D) the cultural identification used by deaf individuals who typically use Sign Language and interact closely with other Deaf people

The deaf and hard of hearing create an incredibly diverse spectrum, with each individual having different accommodation and communications needs, and varying attachments to Deaf Culture.

Wait… culture? 

Yes – Deaf Culture is vibrant, lively, and full of talent in all shapes and colors. Despite living in all corners of the globe, they are a tightly knit community that interacts now more than ever (especially online). It is important to understand that Deaf Culture operates with the core belief that they can live life to the fullest without sound; that they do not need to be “fixed” to thrive. Their language and cultural norms lead to some noticeable behaviors:

Behavior: They are more likely to be direct communicators who get straight to the point, and prefer not to “sugarcoat.” This can be interpreted as abrasiveness, especially in the workplace.

Why: They work harder to “hear.” Concentration fatigue sets in much faster for the deaf than their hearing counterparts, especially for those who read lips. Your ability to understand information includes all of your senses, including hearing. When the ability to hear is affected your ability to receive information takes a bit more effort.

Behavior: They are more expressive with their body language and facial expressions. Even when they are not using Sign Language, they may display more exaggerated gestures and expressions compared to their hearing peers.

Why: Their native language and culture value these traits. Sign Language incorporates facial expressions and body language to emphasize and provide subtext to what they are saying, as inflection does in a verbal conversation. This naturally flows into how they communicate with the world.

Behavior: They may look at different areas of your face throughout a conversation (i.e. your mouth, forehead, etc.)

Why: To “see” the tone of your voice. The deaf cannot hear inflections or emphasis in words, so they look for visual clues. These cues are apparent in movements of the mouth, eyebrows, and posture. People who have a more flat expression are much harder for the deaf to read and may lead to misinterpretation.

Deaf behaviors are simply a reflection of their cultural beliefs, and allows them to provide a completely unique world-view. When we welcome their perspective, we are striving for innovation and growth while prioritizing diversity and inclusion; a new pair of eyes that can see through background-noise and reveal core issues, and resolve them. Consider what Deaf behaviors could help your company grow and how including them in the workplace can be invaluable.

Interested in sharing information and tools like these with your organization? Coeus Creative Group has you covered with trainings, coaching, strategic planning, and more! Contact us today to learn more about our offerings.

The post An Introduction to Deaf Culture & Behavior appeared first on Coeus Creative Group, LLC.

With hiring becoming more and more challenging, and organizations learning that in-person work is not always a necessity, savvy businesses will do well to engage a team of marketing experts with an outsourced marketing solution.

Is your marketing department made up of a Marketing Manager, with perhaps an assistant, expected to juggle all aspects of your marketing efforts? Perhaps your organization uses another common model of dividing marketing needs among several other staff members, whose true specialty areas lie in other areas. Find your organization fitting one, or some combination, of these structures? Outsourced marketing could be the solution you were looking for but didn’t know it.

Any marketing agency worth their salt should understand there is no such thing as “one-size fits all” solution. Some business’s marketing efforts include an extensive website, blogs, social media, digital advertising, and email marketing campaigns along with the typical print materials you might expect. While some utilize only a few of those, each client should be met where they lie along the marketing spectrum, rather than attempting to force them into a pre-fab program.

Benefits of Outsourced Marketing Solutions

This is where the rubber meets the road. Agencies can provide a myriad of benefits over the internal hiring of marketing personnel or assigning tasks to existing employees. They include:

• Add Time to Current Employees’ Days – Free up your team to focus on the areas they excel in.
• Support and Multiply the Efforts of your Marketing Manager – Many hands make light work.
• Reduced Costs in Salary and Benefits – Costs for agencies are often fractions of actual hires.
• Experts in Every Domain – Professionals working within their sphere of expertise.
• Streamlined Efficiencies – Experts in domains can reduce work time and improve results.
• Longevity and Retention – Less concern for an employee leaving and taking the knowledge and experience with them.
• No Lapse in Coverage – Agencies ensure that there are no lapses for vacation or sick time.
• Focused Attention – No distractions and improved time in trade.
• Collaborative Synergies – Multiple perspectives engaged and orchestrated by a project manager.

How Would My Organization Work with an Agency?

Typically, when onboarding a new agency, you should expect three phases: Discovery, Implementation, and Review.

In the discovery phase, the agency will conduct research, interview stakeholders, and learn the ins and outs of the current marketing efforts and their effectiveness. This phase is also where the agency would begin to understand the voice and brand of the organization and develop goals and objectives for future campaigns. Surprisingly, professional agencies can do this extremely quickly and efficiently; in about a quarter of the time it takes to onboard an employee. The depth and breadth of experience significantly help in this regard.

In the implementation phase, the goals are established. The agency will start producing content that is within the scope of the agreement. Typically, there may be stipulations for organization review as the agency acclimates to the voice and brand in the first month or so. This phase is often highly collaborative and engaging. Campaigns are executed, and deliverables are produced.

In the review phase, the agency will typically provide analytics and data to demonstrate the impact of the implementation phase. This reporting is essential to ensure that the organizational objectives are being met and that the efforts produce results. Through this process, the discovery phase reignites, and the cycle continues. As the agency develops experience with the organization, this becomes more and more targeted as the relationship is nurtured.

Keep Growing With Outsourcing

At the end of the day, results are what matters. If you can see the benefit of increasing the efficiency of your current staff, maintaining access to all the best technology, expanding marketing expertise, and shifting from a task-based reactive stance to building a true marketing strategy.

If you would like to learn more about the services Coeus Creative Group provides and the benefits we will deliver to your organization, contact us today! Whether you have one area you need marketing assistance with, or a whole “wish list,” we are here to provide the solution you are looking for.

The post Implementing Outsourced Marketing and Optimizing Your Budget appeared first on Coeus Creative Group, LLC.

Searching for employment is daunting and stressful, and even more for those who are deaf and hard of hearing. While employers are human and want to hire those who behave and work the way they do, it’s 2021, and diversity is seen as critical to any organization’s success.

The Americans with Disabilities Act bans employers from discriminating against those with disabilities during the application process, hiring, training, and career advancement. Many companies have implemented the same band-aid fix on applications and added the same legal spiel of We do not discriminate based on yada yada…. Very few go so far as to ensure that their application process is accessible, not to mention their training videos, or even essential job functions (such as meetings).

Interviewing, hiring, and retaining deaf & hard of hearing employees depends largely on how accessible the hiring process is, and whether it truly meets the standards established through the ADA. Many in this community face severe difficulties regardless of the industry they wish to work in, often rejected in favor of their hearing counterparts for job opportunities and career advancement. This is supported by data in the 2018 American Community Survey, which reports that only 39.5% of Americans with hearing loss have full-time employment vs 64.4% of all Americans.

Most companies are simply not aware how easy it is to accommodate the deaf in the workplace. As long as they are qualified to do the job in front of them, deaf and hard of hearing people are just as capable as their peers; they just need to be afforded the opportunity. Their accommodations vary from live captioning to ASL interpreters to simple written notes, and there are tax credits that make all accommodations affordable. Check out these tips for interviewing and hiring deaf candidates:

When interviewing…

• DO email all candidates to ask if they require accommodations prior to their interview, even if they do not ask for any.
• DO NOT rescind an offer to interview due to an accommodation request.

Remember that the Americans with Disabilities Act legally requires you to provide accommodations for any interviewee and employee, regardless if you were aware of their disability or not during the interview process.

When hiring…

• DO understand that you qualify towards a Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC) by hiring the deaf & hard of hearing.
• DO ensure your training materials have fully-captioned videos.
• DO allow the deaf individual to choose their own reasonable accommodations. (Everyone is different- They know what works best for them!)
• DO look into the Disabled Access Credit (small business only) for financial assistance to provide accommodations, such as ASL Interpreters.
• DO NOT tell the employee that they must provide their own accommodations.
• DO NOT assume they cannot do a task at work due to their deafness.

When we include the Deaf and Hard of Hearing in the workplace, we add an entirely new perspective to everything we do. These often-overlooked candidates constantly strive to overcome barriers and prove themselves to be creative, highly motivated, and valuable employees. It’s up to us as their allies to make the workplace welcoming and accessible! You can learn more about the Deaf at work through the National Association of the Deaf.

Looking for guidance or training on diversity in the work place? Contact our team today to learn about more about our trainings and strategic planning sessions!

The post Dos & Don’ts for Hiring the Deaf & Hard of Hearing appeared first on Coeus Creative Group, LLC.

Is an outsourced marketing solution for you? If either of the following scenarios sounds familiar, the short answer is definitely yes.

We often see two different situations playing out when working with organizations. The first is often witnessed in the nonprofit space or executed by small business ventures that only have a handful of employees. We call it the “all hands on deck” approach. An organization’s situation may look something like Sally from accounting is also the social media manager; Jeremiah from sales dabbles in websites and manages the organization’s Wix account; Sarah, the Executive Director, labors intensely over the monthly newsletter; and so on down the line…

The second situation is frequently found in the slightly larger organizations and/or enterprises that have room in their budget for one or two dedicated marketing personnel. In this scenario, one employee typically “manages” the efforts, while a the same time, the second is a specialist in one of  many marketing domains. We call this the “jack of all trades” approach: there is an expectation that the combined talent can cover web development, email marketing, social media management, video promotions, SEO, advertising, graphic design, content creation, photography, podcasting, and all of the other aspects of a robust marketing strategy.

It does not take a Harvard MBA to see the challenges with each of these approaches. In the first one, the job is essentially handed off with the hopes that latent talent or interest will be sufficient to earn public trust and develop a strong brand. In the second approach, the hope is that the team can cover all of the bases just well enough to keep the plates spinning.

Neither of these options tends to work fully, so, what is the solution? Outsourced marketing.

What is an Outsourced Marketing Solution?

Just like it sounds, an outsourced marketing solution is where an organization partners with a full-service marketing agency that essentially becomes the marketing department. While on the face it may seem that this solution could be cost-prohibitive or more complicated, that could not be farther from the truth.

The cost of an outsourced marketing solution depends significantly on organizational needs. At the lower end, for basic social media management, light graphic design, fresh content creation, and strategic directives, the price tag can range from $900 – $2000 / month. Obviously, more extensive packages can increase from there. Let’s break these costs down a bit considering the previously mentioned scenarios.

In the “all hands on deck approach,” assume that 15-20% of each personnel’s time is devoted to their marketing role. Suppose the accountant, the sales rep, and the executive director’s salaries were even in the low range of $50K. You are looking at a loss of $7500 – $10K in time for each of them. Plus, as their positions are not meant to be marketing focused, they are likely missing out on some of the major trends, current research, and efficiencies that professionals would bring to the table. So, there is substantial cost savings and higher quality measures with an outsourced solution even at the high range of a low outsourced marketing solution ($24K).

For the “jack-of-all-trades” approach, assume the personnel is an entry-level marketer with a $32K salary and benefits (+$10K). Well, the numbers speak for themselves here, not to mention the experience that comes with working with an agency. Developing and maintaining an internal marketing department can be extremely expensive. Ranging from providing tech, software, and resources, to the hidden costs of hiring, retaining, and engaging employees, and not to mention lapses in coverage for vacation or sick days… These all cost money and time. In contrast, outsourcing to an agency resolves each of these challenges.

Now that you know what Outsourced Marketing IS, what steps does your organization need to take to apply it? Come back for part 2 on How to Implement Outsourced Marketing and Optimize Your Marketing Budget!

For all your marketing, training, and development needs, contact Coeus Creative Group today!

The post Outsourced Marketing is the Future of Small Business appeared first on Coeus Creative Group, LLC.

As social media continues to be a dominant force in everyday life, marketing is more dynamic than ever. The “Smartphone Era” changes strategy to include short and sweet content that reflects a brand and makes it relatable, maybe in a catchy video or a visually appealing graphic. They spend time and money conducting market research and creating the perfect ad; posting at the right time on the right platforms, all in an effort to keep someone from scrolling past. More often than not, brands forget to ask themselves a crucial question: Is the content as accessible as it is informative?

Accessibility in marketing is more than a push for diversity and representation: It is about making sure that you are reaching every single member of your target audience. When you caption and subtitle your videos, both large and small, your outreach is guaranteed to increase, and the numbers prove it: The National Health Interview Survey in 2019 concluded that 14.6% of adults have hearing difficulties; that’s more than 48 million Americans! The most recent estimates for Michigan suggest that 17.4% of the state population has some degree of hearing loss.

Captions also have more practical benefits than we realize. A study from the University of Wisconsin concluded that subtitles benefit children and adults learning to read, and those who are learning English. The same study also claims it will increase student attention in courses and further develop literacy rates in developing countries. From a marketing perspective, we find that without captions, content can actually be making far less of an impact than we think it is.

Additionally, brands could make more money in the long-run by captioning content. If you publish a video or commercial without captions in Michigan, you are automatically missing a minimum of 17.4% of your audience. This number doesn’t account for those who can hear and still browse social media without the sound on. For example, someone being quieter at home while a family member is asleep, commuters on public transit, etc.

As an added bonus, you are creating brand loyalty! The Deaf and Hard of Hearing are more likely to appreciate and support a brand if they feel appreciated and supported in return. The vast majority of your competitors will completely neglect them by not making their content accessible and will lose the opportunity. Some companies have even gone the extra mile by including the Deaf community and American Sign Language in their marketing. Starbucks designed a completely unique “Signing Store”, conveniently located near the deaf institution, Gallaudet University. Pepsi had a Deaf joke in a Super Bowl ad in 2008, and AT&T sponsored an entire music video in ASL with a Deaf director and cast for their Feel the Music campaign.

The truth is that these initiatives are noticed because they are so few and far between. By captioning content we are:

• Raising awareness for accessibility in marketing and supporting those with disabilities.
• Making brands and businesses more accessible and relatable.
• Preventing more people from scrolling past content.
• Reaching an audience competitors may be neglecting entirely.
• Saving money by preventing wasted money.

Making content accessible is an essential step to elevating marketing campaigns as exponentially more companies see the benefits of accessibility. Don’t fall behind, set the standard for others.

Want to learn more about how to increase your brand or organization’s accessibility and ADA compliance? Our team at Coeus Creative Group can help you create more inclusive marketing. Contact us today to learn more.

You can access our easy to follow guide on expanding your reach through captions here.

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With our Behavioral Elements assessment, you can learn your own pattern of behavior to quickly and accurately assess the patterns of others. Becoming aware of our behavioral patterns and preferences empowers us to make better choices both personally and professionally.

One of those factors that will affect your choices and behaviors professionally is your work space. Want to feel the most inspired to do your job? Find out which setting is the best for your Behavioral Elements type below:

Water

The Water element in our behavioral profile is the development force in an organization. With a strong focus on people, the Water type is driven by collaboration and cooperation. If you identify as a Water, you will thrive in an open, collaborative work space. Not having the restriction of individual offices or cubicles will leave you feeling energized and empowered by your people. These office settings allow for teamwork versus competition and will increase collaboration and morale.

Air

Our Air element is the creative inspiration in an organization. With out of the box thinking and a passion or curiosity, the Air type pioneers revolutionary ideas and enjoys engaging in brainstorming and thought experiments. For the Air type, a team-focused workspace will help you brainstorm your individual teams. This workspace is much like an open office, but is divided into dedicated spaces for your varying departments and/or teams. This combination will encourage the Air and their team to be innovative, solution-focused, and dynamic.

Fire

The Fire element is a driving force in any scenario or organization. If you identify as a Fire, you might find yourself competitive, results focused, and goal oriented; and a traditional work space will highlight those characteristics. As a Fire type you might find yourself in a leadership role in addition to your competitive-nature, this means you find comfort in the hierarchy feeling private offices convey. For others, your personality can come off as passionate and driven, but also impulsive and direct, which can sometimes feel abrasive to your team. A private office set-up gives your team the space to decompress from your sometimes dominating behaviors.

Earth

The Earth element is the structure and form within the organization. They keep grounded by following processes and procedures. Just as the Earth itself can be immovable, so too can the Earth element when pushed outside of the established norms. Maintaining a solid structure and system gives the Earth type a sense of duty. Cubicles will give the Earth types the comfort and structure of the traditional office type, but also allows for collaboration, especially when employees are grouped together by team or department. Additionally, the privacy aspect will result in uninterrupted work and process.

Want to find out which element type you align with? Take our free assessment here. Additionally, we offer Behavioral Elements trainings to help you and your organization Behave Intelligently. Contact us today for more information!

The post Your Work Space Set Up According to Your BE Type appeared first on Coeus Creative Group, LLC.

By Melinda Graczyk

Have you ever been in your workplace kitchenette or copy room and heard phrases or seen actions such as:

• “She’s pretty smart for a black girl.”
• “What did you think of that (insert activity here) at the team building? It was so gay.”
• “I received the quote for the (product) yesterday. I’m going to go back and Jew them down.”
• Telling lewd jokes or sharing stories about sexual experiences (even if it’s simply done in your presence).

I know I have, and so have your Black, LGBTQIA+, Jewish, and female colleagues, and most likely, they did not feel comfortable enough to speak up and correct the person making the comments. Sometimes the disrespect isn’t as blatant as a comment and appears simply as an individual speaking over or rolling their eyes at another.

Research has shown that being a better ally is one way all employees can stand against bigotry in all its forms at work. Allies are people from a group who do not generally suffer discrimination, but support those experiencing intolerance. The potential benefits of ally-ship in the workplace can take many forms. It can foster positive inter-group connections, undermine racism and other forms of oppression, and build a more positive workplace culture; but navigating complex situations at work and even simply being a good human is rarely easy.

Not all disrespect is based on bias or hate. Things like stress, communication style, and rivalries can all create ill-mannered workplace dynamics as well, but prejudice can be one of the more problematic drivers. Prejudice can be a catalyst of ridicule in ways that we may not be able to see, and this form of disrespect may also be a product of ignorance. There is always the possibility that people might not understand or simply do not know that their actions have a negative impact. Implicit bias shows up as unconscious actions, making it challenging to identify and even trickier to uproot. Here are just two examples of implicit bias:

• A white person at a conference lunch is more likely to sit at a table of white people rather than a table including people of color.
• A man is more likely to interrupt his female co-workers than his male co-workers.

Implicit biases are something that almost all of us have exhibited at some point. This behavior is not because we are bad people, but because we are part of a culture that, despite significant advancement, is still racist, sexist, homophobic, etc. Although it may not be comfortable to find out that we have been making missteps of our own, we can take action to change and correct our behavior.

There are several options for being a reactive ally when you witness bad behavior or harassment. None of the approaches are perfect or easy, and you may need to consider more than one option and select the one(s) that is right for each situation.

Several ways to consider intervening:

• The Direct Approach: After assessing the safety of both the target and yourself, be firm and clear to the instigator and have a conversation with them. Point out what they did and how it may have made the victim feel and provide options to change their behavior. This approach gives this person the opportunity to learn from their mistake and see their victim in their full humanity. No one is perfect, and the person making such remarks may not be aware of the hurt they are imposing on those around them.
• Indirectly De-Escalate: Start a conversation with the victim or find another way to draw attention away from the situation (i.e., spill your coffee, ask about an upcoming meeting, etc.)
• Delegate: Notify a person of authority about what is going on. In taking this approach, you delegate the situation to an authorized person in the company. However, HR departments are designed to protect the company, which, at times, may not always serve the victim’s best interests. If they run an investigation, HR may not be able to keep the situation entirely confidential. Additionally, witnesses may not feel comfortable disclosing full details, or “evidence” may not exist. The accused may also try to discredit the victim’s character to create confusion and build a defense.
• Check-In with the Target: After the incident is over, ask the victim if they need further assistance from management, the police, or simply company until they recover from the episode.
• Document: We are all familiar with this approach. Since your phone is likely to be nearby, record the incident, but it is important to NEVER post to social media. You do not want to insult or victimize the person being harassed further.

We all have room to improve in our interpersonal relationships. We need to live in a state of curiosity, not fear, and be willing to learn and work toward becoming excellent at caring for each other.

In search of related trainings or coaching? Contact us today for more information!

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July is National Ice Cream Month! This is a holiday we’re excited to celebrate all month long, and to kick things off, we’re highlighting some of our favorite ice cream flavors…. As some of our upcoming trainings from Titan Skills Academy!

Cookies & Cream – This flavor is a new take on the time old classics, chocolate and vanilla. One could say cookies & cream is a rebranded version of the two, which is why Personal Branding is the perfect training to pair with this flavor. Much like cookies & cream, our Personal Branding training touches on how to build your brand while keeping your integrity intact.

Butter Pecan – Butter Pecan is an old, southern favorite. This salty and sweet flavor has stood the test of time, which is why we think it represents our Working Across Generations training. As Generation Z enters the workforce, many businesses and corporations will need to understand Working Across Generations to hold up for years to come, just like butter pecan.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough – The ultimate indulgence; chocolate chip cookie dough combines two desserts into one, which is the best representation of Self Care. While eating an entire pint of chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream might be a form of self-care to some, our training will share forms of self-care that will nourish both your mind AND your body.

Rocky Road – Rocky Road has both a rich flavor and history, as it was created during the Wall Street Crash of 1929. While the flavor is delightful, its a reminder of a challenging time, which is why Crisis Management is the perfect training to pair with it. This training shares all the tips, tricks, and secrets for behaviorally intelligent and effective Crisis Management to help your organization get through a difficult time.

Mint Chocolate Chip – This flavor has always been a stand out from the crowd and is one of the earliest examples of innovation in ice cream flavors. Our Creativity and Curiosity training will teach you how to foster ideas, creativity, development, and curiosity into innovation and success, just like mint chocolate chip.

Superman – This ice cream is typically exclusive to the Midwest and combines the flavors of blue moon, red pop, and vanilla. Its name comes from its red, blue, and yellow color, which is also synonymous with Superman’s suit. This flavor leads in popularity in the Midwest, specifically Michigan, and along with its titular superhero, is the perfect example of Effective Leadership. The Effective Leadership training will share tips and tricks for those in leadership positions to rally their people and lead effectively.

To stay in the know of when these trainings will be available on Titan Skills Academy, subscribe today or follow us on Instagram and Facebook, @coeuscg.

Additionally, we offer in-person and virtual training, coaching, and strategic planning. For more information, contact us today.

The post Celebrating National Ice Cream Month: Our Trainings as Popular Ice Cream Flavors appeared first on Coeus Creative Group, LLC.

It’s June, and you know what that means: It’s Pride Month! This Pride, our social media feeds will no doubt become flooded with rainbow imagery — from ourselves, our friends, and, increasingly, from ‘big box’ brands such as Target and Apple. In many ways, these signals are valuable; they can demonstrate love, support, and validation for the LGBTQIA+ community.   

But in other ways, some companies adopt the rainbows because they’ve become profitable. For these organizations, Pride is less of a celebration and more of a branding strategy. They may post rainbows every day during the month of June, but how do they treat their LGBTQIA+ employees? Where do they donate their money? This potentially contradictory approach is something we can be aware of and make steps to change our behaviors towards by intentionally researching brands this Pride Month. 

You may ask: Is it possible to do both? Can a company post about Pride Month on Instagram and genuinely support the community? Of course! There are a lot of companies who talk the talk AND walk the walk. Surprisingly, one example has been the Teletubbies, who have released a “Teletubbies Love Pride” streetwear collection that benefits GLAAD.

If you’re running a large company or small business, consider the ways you can show meaningful support this Pride Month. For example, you could:

• Organize a company Pride event featuring an educational speaker directly from the community.
• Send out a company newsletter or email to the team with Pride Month resources.  
• Write up a value statement for the company outlining the principles and causes your organization stands with. Then, make it widely available! 

Additionally, there are plenty of ways we individuals can support Pride besides making purchases or liking posts. We are by no means limited to our life behind the screen. Just a few ideas include:

• Donating to organizations such as GLAAD, The Trevor Project, The Marsha P Johnson Institute, and other groups.
• Educating yourself about LGBTQ+ history through resources such as The Library of Congress or your local library.
• Educating yourself about LGBTQIA+ legislation.
• Attending a virtual or in-person Pride event.
• Supporting LGBTQ+ authors, artists, and other creators.

So when you celebrate Pride Month, feel free to share your photos, use those rainbow filters, and buy that colorful merch. But also ask yourself: am I exhibiting larger behaviors that support the LGBTQIA+ community? How can I expand my involvement beyond the branding? 

From trainings and coaching to social media and marketing, Coeus Creative Group has your behavioral intelligence needs covered. Contact us today to learn more about our services! 

The post Branding Vs. Behaviors During Pride Month appeared first on Coeus Creative Group, LLC.