Jonathan MacDonald Podcast Transcript
Jonathan MacDonald joins host Brian Thomas on The Digital Executive Podcast.
Welcome to Coruzant Technologies, home of the Digital Executive Podcast.
[00:00:12] Brian Thomas: Welcome to the Digital Executive. Today’s guest is Jonathan MacDonald. Jonathan MacDonald is one of the world’s most in demand and internationally renowned strategic changemakers, unlocking success for individuals and businesses who are shaping the future. He is also an award winning, bestselling author and keynote speaker on the topics of change, digital transformation, mindset.
With a background in retail, entertainment, and strategy, Jonathan has been creating and advising businesses for over three decades. He was the youngest ever chairman of the British Music Industries Association. Later, as a commercial director for Ministry of Sound, Jonathan turned an analog company into a digital powerhouse, helping to expand the global franchise around the world.
He also launched the first ever Sky TV station specifically for musicians.
Well, good afternoon, Jonathan. Welcome to the show.
[00:01:02] Jonathan MacDonald: Great to be here. Thanks for having me.
[00:01:04] Brian Thomas: You bet. I appreciate it. It’s actually evening here and morning for you and I, I just kick it off with a good afternoon, but appreciate you making the time, especially hailing out of the country of.
Australia at the moment. So again, thank you so much.
[00:01:16] Jonathan MacDonald: You’re welcome. Yeah, I know. It’s lovely to be here any time of day. I really appreciate it.
[00:01:19] Brian Thomas: You bet. So Jonathan, we’re going to jump in. You’ve really got an interesting career. So, I’m going to jump right into the first question here. You have quite the career in marketing, you’re a serial entrepreneur, senior executive board member, speaker. Now you’re the founder of SELF. Could you share with our audience the secret of your career growth and what inspires you?
[00:01:39] Jonathan MacDonald: I think the main thing that inspires me is whatever I feel has the greatest alignment to my purpose. And so over the years. When I’ve gone through various different businesses and advised, 40 percent of the fortune 500 and set up 10 companies of my own and so forth, everything is basically in my head, kind of a resonance meter between what I stand for and what drives my purpose versus what the commercial.
outline of the businesses. And if there’s an overlap, then that’s tremendously inspiring. And when there isn’t an overlap and your listeners will no doubt recognize this in maybe the past or even present situations, they’re in where there’s a misalignment to what they actually believe in, then you’ll find it’s very hard to be inspired.
So my secret to career growth is one that is a human. Reality of alignment with purpose. And it served me very well, but also when things have not worked out, it’s obvious where the issue was.
[00:02:36] Brian Thomas: Thank you. I think a lot of people don’t realize that. And especially entrepreneurs, if you don’t have that alignment with your purpose, things just don’t feel right.
Things don’t flow right. And you’re just not feeling good about what you’re doing sometimes. So again, very much appreciated. And that’ll be a gem for us here today. Jonathan switching gears, as I mentioned, you’re a serial entrepreneur, change agent. Innovator in the era of disruption. Could you briefly share your thoughts on the future of transformation and how our audience might unlock opportunities for success?
[00:03:07] Jonathan MacDonald: I think the future of transformation is based on one key principle in my view. And it’s the topic of my fifth book Powered By Change, which is that today’s the slowest pace of change we’ll ever experience. And so, the way of thinking of the future. is that the change of the last 15 years will be more like the change in the next 15 months.
And the change in the last 50 years will be more like the change next five. So, things speed up, change speeds up. So, it’s less about the one-off management of change to the perpetual management of change. And so, the unlocking the opportunities for success is largely in the way that we embrace. that reality of change, and therefore the urgency required the bravery to consistently test, learn, and improve the growth mindset to think, is this my best work now?
Is there? An issue of accountability that I can own more versus a fixed mindset, which is completely the opposite of what the future transformation looks like. So in a nutshell, in a sentence, the unlocking opportunities for success part comes from an adoption that today is the slowest pace of change you’ll ever experience.
[00:04:16] Brian Thomas: Thank you. I really like how you’ve laid that out there as far as the way change is just rapidly advancing. And I can only hope that things go smoothly in the future. I totally agree with you as far as how change has just been accelerating these last few years and it’s only going to get faster.
So thank you. Jonathan, you’re obviously leveraging some of that new and emerging tech in your Self App, right? Is there anything specific you might share with us today?
[00:04:42] Jonathan MacDonald: Well, looking at these absolute truths, like change today is the slowest pace we’ll ever experience, there’s another absolute truth in human life, and that’s that time is the most precious commodity.
And it’s the thing that we have decreasingly an amount of, and as we get less and less time in our lives to do things, we realize as we grow older, that it’s more and more important. So, what self does. is it gives you back time. It’s an ethical and private AI powered assistant that learns your personal preferences, simplifies your life but what it’s really doing, the value proposition is it’s giving you back time.
And my concern with modern technologies, especially the modern AI platforms is that can actually make things more time, costly. Whether it’s hallucinations or the technology dementia that they have, or even the fancy interfaces that require us to have a degree in astrophysics to use.
All of these things are sucking time from us and we only have a finite volume of months and weeks and hours and seconds on earth. And so what self does is does the opposite of that and makes. the clutter and the noise of our life reduce. And I believe that technology should be doing that. I thought that smart technology should have been so smart that it would enable us to be more fulfilled humans rather than slaves or battery powers to tech platforms. So that’s what self does.
[00:05:59] Brian Thomas: That’s awesome. And you’re absolutely right. And you and I have been around the block a few times. As you know, we’ve been doing this business a long time. And I think people, as they do get older, realize that runway is getting shorter and I appreciate so much the fact that in this constant world of bombardment of the different distractions and social apps and these sorts of things that you’re actually trying to make it better for folks to live a more , fruitful life in the short time that we’re here on this earth. So thank you again.
Jonathan, last question of the evening or the morning where you’re at can you share something from your career experience that would be helpful for those listening looking to grow their career in either marketing or entrepreneurship.
[00:06:41] Jonathan MacDonald: Yes. Of all the things that I could share and of the six books I’ve written and the thousand plus keynotes I’ve given in the four or five TED talks, if I were to encapsulate one thing that people could use straight off the bat is be really mindful of what your internal storyline is stopping you being able to do.
So if you think about what your internal storyline is, the voice inside your head that’s telling you things like, yeah, you should definitely have that other beer, or no, you don’t need to go to bed so early, or we can skip the gym this time, or are green vegetables really that important, or should I really care about my job, can also be applied.
to the internal storyline that says you’re not good enough to achieve this. And that passion of yours isn’t monetizable. If you could be really mindful of your internal storyline and monitor how loud it becomes and also realize that it’s mostly lying to you in terms of. It’s assumption of your greatest passion, not being something that you could ever pursue or something that you want to achieve not being possible.
These things are lying. And that’s the problem with fear. It’s F E A R, which is False Expectations Appearing Real. So if we could be cognizant of our internal storyline and monitor its loudness, monitor its volume and be aware that it’s not necessarily serving our best purpose, then I think we could achieve whatever it is that we would like to achieve.
[00:08:08] Brian Thomas: Beautifully spoken. Absolutely. We can far more achieve knowing that our limiting beliefs, right? Our self-doubt our self-esteem. Those things have an absolute impact, and it affects everybody at every level across the globe. And I appreciate sharing that reminder and obviously sharing your past experience as well.
So thank you.
[00:08:27] Jonathan MacDonald: Great. lovely to be able to share that. And I really love what you are doing as well. By the way, I think this particular podcast is something that really aligns with my view of how sharing information can work the best and I would be in no doubt that there are many people around the world who really truly value this.
I hope that they give you that feedback as well. It’s brilliant.
[00:08:47] Brian Thomas: Awesome. Thank you. I appreciate that and Jonathan. It was certainly a pleasure having you on today and I look forward to speaking with you real soon.
[00:08:54] Jonathan MacDonald: Thanks, Brian. Cheers.
[00:08:55] Brian Thomas: Bye for now.
Jonathan MacDonald Podcast Transcript. Listen to the audio on the guest’s podcast page.