TABOO with Cindy Gallop: Sex, porn, aging, discrimination, and other “dangerous” topics with the Michael Bay of business.
Julie and Casey sit down with Cindy Gallop to learn the secret to saying what you really think. Along the way they discuss all kinds of "taboo" subjects, including ageism, anger, the future of porn and social sex, what the tech bros get so very wrong, why Cindy can't get funding for her world-changing startup, and how she plans to bring about world peace.
TOP TAKEAWAYS —
Be your own filter to attract “your” people and repel the ones who don’t get you.
The future of business is doing good and making money simultaneously.
Her company, MakeLoveNotPorn, came out of her real-life experience with the consequences of the convergence of two real world problems: our inability to talk about sex, and the ubiquitousness of access to hard core pornography. Her giant goal is to socialize real world sex and good sexual practices and values, so that we can talk about it both in public and in private.
“When you concept a venture around existing bias and prejudices, you only reenforce them.” You have to build the future into your product from the beginning, and you design with enormous respect for your community.
Ageism affects EVERYONE at every single point along the age spectrum.
“Sexual harassment has kept out of leadership and power the women leaders who would MAKE diversity and inclusion happen”—and it’s time to both legitimize women’s anger and encourage men to get angry about it too.
Identify your values so that you can act upon them - then, instead of worrying about being brave or feeling confident, you simply act in the way that honors that.
Women should “bullshit like the men do”, because chances are, you’ll just finally be giving your talent, experience, and brilliance what they’re worth.
VITAL VOICE TRAINING COMMUNICATION SKILL: Define your communication core values to understand your habits and make powerful choices to show up the way you want to be seen in the world.
Watch Cindy’s 2017 Keynote for the 3% Conference
CINDY GALLOP is a graduate of Somerville College, Oxford, whose background is over 30 years in brand-building, marketing and advertising - she started up the US office of ad agency Bartle Bogle Hegarty in New York in 1998 and in 2003 was named Advertising Woman of the Year. She is the founder and CEO of IfWeRanTheWorld, co-action software launched in beta at TED 2010 and subsequently written up and taught as a Harvard Business School case study, which enables brands to implement the business model of the future – Shared Values + Shared Action = Shared Profit (financial and social). She is also the founder of MakeLoveNotPorn – ‘Pro-sex. Pro-porn. Pro-knowing the difference’ - a social sextech platform designed to promote good sexual behavior and good sexual values, which she launched at TED 2009, and for which she has raised $2million to build out mlnp.tv as ‘the Social Sex Revolution’. As a result of the funding challenges she has encountered, she is raising the world’s first and only sextech fund, AllTheSky Holdings. She acts as board advisor to a number of tech ventures and works as a personal brand/life/executive coach and a consultant on brand and business innovation for companies around the world, describing her consultancy approach as 'I like to blow shit up. I am the Michael Bay of business.' BusinessInsider named her one of 15 Most Important Marketing Strategy Thinkers Today, alongside Malcolm Gladwell and Seth Godin, and cited her as number 33 on their list of 100 Most Influential Tech Women On Twitter, and number one on their list of Top 30 People In Advertising To Follow On Twitter. Campaign named her number one on their list of Top 10 Trailblazers for both 2016 and 2017 and number two in 2018. She has a reputation as a highly compelling and inspirational speaker at conferences and events around the world on a variety of topics: her talks on the future of advertising and marketing have been tweeted as: ‘The most brilliant speech on the future of advertising ever – not the usual buzzword-laden bullshit’; ‘Watching @cindygallop slice and dice the ad industry status quo like a ginsu knife. #purewin’; and ‘There must be a DeLorean parked outside, because Cindy Gallop is from the FUTURE!’ InfluencerCon NYC introduced her as ‘Cindy Gallop is the truth Jack Nicholson told Tom Cruise he couldn’t handle.’ Together with Susan Credle of FCB and Margaret Johnson of Goodby, Cindy is one of three Campaign Review Committee chairs for the AdCouncil in the US, helping to make the work great. Cindy is an outspoken advocate of diversity and inclusion in advertising, tech and business - she was Jury President at CannesLions 2015 for the inaugural Glass Lion awards, proposed by Sheryl Sandberg to celebrate advertising that shatters gender stereotypes in advertising, and in 2017 was turned by digital agency R/GA into a chatbot for Equal Pay Day that helps women ask for a raise – search AskCindyGallop on Facebook and chat to CindyBot on Facebook Messenger. Cindy recently partnered with AARP on their DisruptAging initiative to challenge and change ageism. Cindy has published ‘Make Love Not Porn: Technology’s Hardcore Impact on Human Behavior’ as one of TED’s line of TEDBooks. You can follow her on Twitter @cindygallop.