Anchor your advantage in cultural fluency
How social relevance equips brands and people with influence, clarity, and commercial power.
To be fluent in the mechanics of culture is to hold influence. It is to understand how taste, identity, and meaning move through the world. And how brands (and people), by expressing themselves, shape the currents of public life. Businesses have a role in shaping how we, people, exist and interact in the world. As do the brands they represent. There is responsibility to be intentional about what they express to the world, yes. But, beyond that, those of us who understand how to wield culture benefit from the influence that it brings. To be fluent in the mechanics of culture means you have access to a powerful lever that generates you influence, power, and revenue.
As I write from one of the most remote big cities in the world, I get to observe the way culture moves globally without always being completely engulfed by it. This means I have cultivated over the years my own inferences of original thinking; I am less prone to the perpetual noise of larger epicentres where global trends in culture, taste, innovation, and creativity usually emerge from (think New York, LA, London, Paris, Milan, Dubai, Tokyo). When I do engage with larger epicentres, it is within defined bouts of time, where I can consume knowledge, trends, and gauge the litmus paper on where we are projected to head next. Culture is fluid, and influence requires navigation. To move through it well is to understand when to anchor and when to move with the current.
It becomes a dance, of sorts. There is a balance between grounding within and exploring for inspiration externally. Both are important, and there is a way to do it to yield the most potent original thought. Grounding is an important key to this. If you expose yourself too quickly to the many cultural stimulants that exist out there — before anchoring yourself — you become like a drifting ship in the ocean. The ocean itself is powerful, and you risk being swayed from left to right without knowing the point of it all. The most powerful thinkers have built themselves a ship that can endure the unyielding currents of the ocean they are in. They are captains that, despite the noise and winds outside, know their direction. They seek only to have conversation with the winds, not be guided completely by them.
The ships that are led completely by the ocean, without conversing with it, inevitably sink. Those captains are not strong enough to dance with the elements and instead they defer their internal agency to external forces.
How many brands and businesses are not anchored enough within to have something real to say?
How many people do you witness who have not yet taken the time to develop their own taste, thought, voice?
Where would you put yourself?
Your original thinking is something that cultivates first from within. Methods of grounding yourself is not just a set of #Zillenial self-care hash, it is part of the process. It is what gets you into flow state, and this is where creativity emerges.
Cultural strategy delivers, at its best, coherence, clarity, and distinction. It enables brands to move decisively through change, express what is real, and remain relevant in a noisy world.
Who are the businesses that have successfully anchored within and regularly converse with their ocean? What are the brands that have the most influence on culture? They are the ones who have developed the strongest ships. Irrespective of winds and elements that the ocean brings, these entities are the best equipped to say something. And when you can say something real — in ways that fluidly dance between the ship’s essence and the discourse, trends, catastrophes, and fascinations that the ocean brings — you then have the power of influence, of change, and yes, of revenue.
With that said, it is fitting that now I share with you a manifestation of my ship: a consultancy for organisations to effectively build cultural capital and leverage cultural fluency for strategic advantage.
You can learn about my consultancy work at rachelobrien.work. If you are part of a brand or institution ready to ground, navigate, and lead in culture, my consultancy is ready for you. I am accepting my first intake of clients, across cities, regions, and industries.