For centuries people have claimed to be able to predict the future. Our guest today, Joyce Gioia is an internationally renowned futurist who has some wisdom to share about what to expect. Joyce reads untold publications on a daily and weekly basis looking for trends that can help industries prepare for what might come. Quick to point out that futurists don't "predict," there is no crystal ball, Rather futurists forecast a range of possible futures. This enables industries to innovate, reduce risk and hopefully find success. Her weekly, The Herman Trend Alert has 29,000 followers. Listen as Joyce shares some of her wisdom. Learn about The Luckiest People in the World at www.theluckiestpeopleintheworld.com
Joyce's weekly newsletter: The Herman Trend Alert
https://www.hermangroup.com/trend_alert_main.html
TRANSCRIPT
Diane Dayton 0:02
This is Changing the Rules, a podcast about designing the life you want to live, hosted by KC Dempster and Ray Loewe, the luckiest guy in the world.
KC Dempster 0:12
Good morning, everybody. Welcome to Changing the Rules. This is KC Dempster. And I'm here in the studio with Ray Loewe. And we have a very interesting guest with us today. And in the interest of not running out of time, I'm going to abbreviate my opening remarks just by saying that we talk about changing the rules, because sometimes the rules that we were given as children don't work for us anymore. And if we're the luckiest people in the world, we have figured that out, and we've learned how to tweak the rules and make them work for us.
Ray Loewe 0:44
Yes, and the luckiest people in the world are really good at changing rules. And one of the things that we try and do every week is to feature one of the luckiest people in the world on our show and and when we start with our guest, and let me just introduce her quickly and then we're going to take time for a quick break, KC so you get your break in. How's that? Thank you. So So we start with a wonderful name of Joyce Gioia Now, is there a lot of joy in that name...
KC Dempster 1:16
Absolutely, I love it
Ray Loewe 1:18
Okay, so before we introduce Joyce, let's take a quick break. And we have a couple sponsors. We have to acknowledge
Diane Dayton 1:25
You're listening to Changing the Rules with KC Dempster and Ray Loewe the luckiest guy in the world. We will be right back with more exciting information.
KC Dempster 1:34
Welcome back, everybody. And before we jump into our interview with Joyce, I would like to take a minute to thank our sponsors for our Virtual Friends Connection Conference that we had. The first one was Springpoint Choice and their generosity of supporting the conference allowed us to have our participants participants be able to participate for free. Springpoint Choice is a membership based program for adults aged 55 and older, that offers the option to continue living in their own home protecting income and assets against future long term care costs, and having the additional assurance of quality care when it's needed. So for more information, contact Springpoint Choice at 866-778-3255. Thank you Springpoint Choice. Our second sponsor was Passero's Coffee Roasters, and again, their generosity enabled us to bring our conference to our participants at no cost to them. Passero's Coffee Roasters has three locations in the Philadelphia area. And it's a family run business and has been serving the Philadelphia region for more than 30 years. And in addition to their person to person locations, they roast and sell their own organic coffee beans through an online site. passeroscoffee.com. That's p a s s e r o s coffee.com. Thank you Passero's coffee,
Ray Loewe 3:07
and blackdog coffee. That's all it needs to be said. Okay, if you haven't ever had black coffee, you're missing an experience in life.
KC Dempster 3:17
I will attest to that. It was the best coffee I've had.
Ray Loewe 3:19
Okay, so we're ready now to bring joy to our podcast right? Indeed. Okay, I hope you don't mind my playing on your name, but it's just such a wonderful name. You know,
Joyce Gioia 3:32
not at all. Not at all. I chose that name. Not only did I choose it in in choosing my, my husband at the time, but then when he was no longer appropriate to be in my life. I kept the name.
Ray Loewe 3:51
Oh, wow. Okay. So, Joyce is a futurist and KC just share with us a little bit of her background. We'll bring most of it out when we talk to her
KC Dempster 4:07
right well, Joyce started her first business so she's an entrepreneur at the tender age of 14 when she founded Jack and Jill Parties for children. She went on to be a magazine publisher. She is a strategic business futurist and certified management consultant and has been named one of the top 50 women futurists in the world by Forbes magazine. This word futurist keeps coming up and I can't wait to to expand on that. Joyce has written three best selling books. She has given TED talks and you know I could go on and on there's a very extensive intro but I'd rather get started talking with
Ray Loewe 4:49
Yeah, so take it away. So So Joyce what is a futurist
Joyce Gioia 4:55
a futurist is a person and and people ask me that all the time. And I work with organizations and individuals so that they can make better decisions by and be able to reduce risk and therefore and innovate, and therefore drive more bottom line profit. In other words, I help people and organizations to be more successful
KC Dempster 5:22
by predicting the future
Joyce Gioia 5:25
forecasts.
Ray Loewe 5:28
So, so
Joyce Gioia 5:29
We do not use the world predict,,,future. I joke that it doesn't give us enough wiggle room. That's true. In forecasting, we, we typically offer a range of futures and multiple futures to our clients, not just one.
Ray Loewe 5:49
Well, you know, it's really interesting because you, you really work off of business, and you just have to have a pulse for what's going on. It's not a crystal ball, but it's unless you consider data, a crystal ball wrapped up in a nice way of some kind.
Joyce Gioia 6:05
Very good point Ray. Very good point, most people don't realize that.
Ray Loewe 6:10
But, but you know, you did something for me right? After we had kind of a pre interview, we talked for a few minutes, you and I were talking about how much we like to travel and and how much travel has been dumped upon these days. Okay. And one of the first things that you shot me after that was an email. And the email was about this surface coating that the airlines, I think was American, yeah. And they talk for a minute about that, because that's very typical of the kind of data that you search for, in order to help pull the trends together of what's going to happen.
Joyce Gioia 6:45
Yes, it is, I, I do what we call scan, probably 80 or so different publications every week. And I have, you know, there are some of the the services that I sign up for as well, which do look at multiple, multiple different publications and distributions, hard to know what whether you call an easy publication, right, because there's no ink on paper, but, but I scan a lot I look at, I look at a lot of different things that are on the World Wide Web, in order to, to then bring together I do what I call connecting the dots. And I'll see something going on over there and something going on over here. And something going on way out there, which is what we call a weak signal. And I'll bring it together. And I'll say, okay, from what I can see the world is going in that direction. And in that article was very interesting, in terms of the pandemic fostering innovations that we didn't have before, right, so there's software and there's new there, there are new, there's new hardware, there are new things that make our lives safer. And this will continue to happen because Sadly, this pandemic is only the beginning. We are in for and this is in my coming new normal thing, I believe, a series of epidemics and pandemics, the question is, will we respond very quickly. And it's that responding quickly, that keeps the diseases from getting out of control. And that's what did not happen here in the US sadly, in regards to COVID-19
Ray Loewe 9:04
you know, we need a wake up call every once in a while and and I think one of the things that you see all the time, is that in every adverse adversarial situation, good stuff comes out, you know, we have to put up with the bad stuff. But we learn and we grow and new things come out. And so it's it's both an exciting and a sad time to live. I think.
Joyce Gioia 9:32
I couldn't agree with you more. It's exciting. It's and it's challenging for many of us who are like Well, I'm speaking personally because I'm accustomed to being on airplanes a lot of the time as USA Today's first and only Road Warrior of the year. I travel a lot and I'm accustomed to seeing new cultures and interacting with new people who speak different languages and learning a little bit of their language so that I can communicate with them on their level and build relationships easily. And I'm really missing that. And so I may be actually in October, getting getting on an airplane and traveling to Armenia. Oh, so, yes, it's, I would be representing the Institute of Management Consultants for the United States as their ambassador to something called the Constantinos Awards. And they are awards for the most significant consulting work in the world, huh. Pretty impressive.
Ray Loewe 11:00
Yeah. Well, you you have a trail of those. I think you started out with your Jack and Jill Parties, you know, at age 14, so you are an entrepreneurs, entrepreneur. You you were one of the youngest magazine publishers ever Okay,
Joyce Gioia 11:19
I doubled advertising revenues five years in a row. Yeah.
Ray Loewe 11:21
So So how does one take all of this and decide to become a futurist?
Joyce Gioia 11:28
Well, that actually started back when I was the publisher of the magazine. And I was reading Kiplinger and other publications, and sharing some of that Intel, with my clients who were the US presidents of Japanese companies. And they were just blown away. And that's, in part how I was able to be so successful. But I also did it by helping them to help their clients, which was not unknown, but it was pretty innovative at that time. So in other words, I would show up at their, at their booths at the Consumer Electronics Show. And I would have with me a stack of pre publication reprints, which then would help them to sell those production models of their equipment into the dealers. And I learned that if we can help our clients and our customers to sell their clients and customers, boy that makes us irresistible.
Ray Loewe 12:52
Yeah, wow. So tell me a minute about you, you know, write a weekly publication, and it goes on to a whole lot of people. And it's called the Herman, Trend Alert, right?
Unknown Speaker 13:02
It is The Herman Trend Alert goes out to about 29,000 people in 90 countries. I think we're up to 91 now in three languages.
Ray Loewe 13:13
And what this shows is, this is a compendium of your thinking, based on the information that you've seen as to where we're going is that well,
Joyce Gioia 13:23
I used to cover one trend, every week, one trend 350 words, and then COVID hit. And what I felt like was that people needed a trusted source for really solid information about COVID. And so I started writing about testing and the differences between the tests and the value that the tests really had. I started writing about vaccination, and contact tracing and all of the things that I felt people needed, I believe that people needed to know in order to feel secure and hopeful. Well, this this week, and it'll be coming out tomorrow is about Normal. 2.0. And I say Normal 2.0 not the New normal.
Ray Loewe 14:18
Thank you. I don't believe
Joyce Gioia 14:21
that we're going back to anything, right. We're going forward to something new. It's a new version of the normal and that's why I call it Normal. 2.0
KC Dempster 14:33
right. You know, it's interesting this morning, when I was driving down to the studio, I I turned on the radio and came in on the end of a commercial and I don't even know necessarily what the product was, but the tagline was, don't bounce back. Bounce forward. Great. Yes. So you can use that.
Joyce Gioia 14:53
And I'm gonna use I probably will,
Ray Loewe 14:55
and I'm gonna use Normal 2.0 because I'm so tired of this new normal. I think you're right. Things are gonna change. And they have changed already. And well, they always change in a way. Right on. So
Joyce Gioia 15:09
it was Descartes who said the only thing constant is change?
Ray Loewe 15:13
That's true. Yeah. And and you have, you have some insight, and maybe you can take a few minutes and talk a little bit about it. So we got hit with this pandemic, and all of a sudden, everything shut down. And well, maybe it's not all shut down, because we have these pockets of people emerging. And I don't know about you, but I have this, this great urge to burst out of my house, and I'm over Zoom. I've been on so many Zoom meetings. And, and, but, you know, prudence comes into play, you know, you got to not do stupid things. So what do you?
Joyce Gioia 15:49
Oh, yes, most definitely very true.
Ray Loewe 15:52
What do you think is happening and give us some sense of as individuals particularly, what are some of the things we ought to be looking for, and maybe some of the things that we had to pull into our lives to make sure that it's going to make us safer and more comfortable, and, and allow us to explore life?
Joyce Gioia 16:10
Well, I'm going to start with me if I may, with something personal. And that is that I chose to call this, this pandemic and opportunity. And instead of the COVID, 20, I've actually reduced my weight at this point by 18 pounds. From the time that I got back from this, I was the clinical professor for leadership and innovation. So I was on a four month voyage last fall, teaching college students aboard Semester at Sea. It was one of the probably one of the highlights of my life, including side trips to go camel riding in the desert and, and I went snorkeling in the Galapagos. And it was just it was, it was an incredible experience. But anyway, I came back with not surprising, an extra amount of weight, it wasn't 18 pounds, but I came back with an extra amount of weight. And so I started with an exercise regimen. And then I discovered that one of the people who works for my cardiologist is a is an exercise, physiologist, technician. And so he helped me to learn that I would get rid of more weight, if I aimed to keep my exercise and I wear an Apple Watch. That was at my fat burning weight. So 15 minutes in the morning, 15 minutes in the evening, I work on and it's always more than that. But I work to keep everything within the fat burning range. And I've also stopped eating dairy. I've reduced the oil in my life. And I've, for the most part, become vegetarian with a little bit vegan with a little bit of pescatarian thrown in.
KC Dempster 18:29
Okay.
Ray Loewe 18:30
Okay. But But the point is
Joyce Gioia 18:33
that that makes Imagine if you picked up a sack of flour, or sand or something that weighed 18 pounds, right? And you tried to carry that around, you wouldn't be able to carry it around very long, I don't think without getting tired. So imagine not having that extra weight. And how much more energy that gives us? So, I would urge people to and by the way, what I used is the most remarkable, I used a free app on my cell phone called 30 days to fitness.
Ray Loewe 19:16
So So what you're telling us is that attitude has a lot to do with how we face the future here. And and I think pick out Don't waste the time, right? No, this is one of the things I'm worried about most I'm 78 years old, you know, and, and I feel healthy. And I'm looking I'm not thinking about a terminal end over here. I'm thinking about what I can do in the next 40 years of my life. But what I'm missing, but I'm missing a year here, okay? Unless I do something like you're suggesting. And if we're going to be facing a pandemic kind of thing if we're going to have this in our future. You know, how do we turn it into positives and I think that's your message for us. Isn't it?
Joyce Gioia 20:00
It is it is exactly. And, and sadly, I, my husband is one of those people with underlying conditions. And with and, and I just won't let him do the grocery shopping, which he loved to do. And I let him go and get gas for me.
Ray Loewe 20:24
But he's got to walk down to get it right.
Joyce Gioia 20:28
Oh, and he's gotten on a regimen as well. He's walking a mile a day every morning. So, you know, the truth is that we have to do what works for us. Right? For some people, it's dancing and Zumba. For some people, it's what I do on my rest days is I work out with classical stretch with Amanda Esmund White. Because I'm a former dancer. In my in my youth, I was a ballet dancer.
Ray Loewe 20:59
Oh, wow. Well, you know, unfortunately, we're at the end of our time. And yeah, we're gonna have to have you come back again and, and feed us some trends in it, because it's a fascinating discussion. And I can certainly see why you are one of the luckiest people in the world.
Joyce Gioia 21:18
Ray. And when I you know, when I saw that you were that you had characterized yourself as the luckiest man in the world. I said, Well, I'm certainly the luckiest woman in the world because I do feel blessed. I feel like I am divinely guided. I feel like if as long as I open my, my heart and my mind and listen, that I get great information about what's right for me and where I need to go next.
Ray Loewe 21:49
Well, and thank you so much for your insights. And we'll we'll get you back on here in the future. So, KC, what do we got coming up?
KC Dempster 21:59
Well, I know that you've got a list of podcast guests that goes out into the next month so I can't wait for the surprise of that because I don't always know
Ray Loewe 22:08
and they're exciting okay. And and and they're all like Joyce Gioia over here. You know, with great inspiration and, and great thinking, and this is what's great about my job here. I get to interview people like you and I get excited. I'm not gonna calm down for about two hours now.
KC Dempster 22:27
Better than coffee.
Ray Loewe 22:28
So So again, thanks. Thanks for being with us. Joyce, Julia, and we'll have your information along with our podcast description so people can find you and
Joyce Gioia 22:39
sign up for the Herman trend alert.
Ray Loewe 22:41
Yeah, right. And thanks so much for being you and we'll see everybody next week.
Diane Dayton 22:47
Thank you for listening to Changing the Rules, a podcast designed to help you live your life the way you want, and give you what you need to make it happen. Join us in two weeks for our next exciting topic on changing the rules with KC Dempster and Ray Loewe the luckiest guy in the world.