Several comments focused on the value of showing who you are, not just what you do. Others touched on the steady effect of clarity, or how a single question can change the way someone talks about their work.

These were not reactions to style or presentation. They were responses to the deeper point about connection in a professional setting.

For me, this reinforced something that has come up often this year. When someone has the space to talk through their story, direction and purpose, the words that follow tend to feel more assured and closer to the truth of what they want to say.  That sits at the heart of Passion to Profile, and it was encouraging to see how strongly that point resonated in a room full of professionals.If you would like to explore the process further, you can find out more about Passion to Profile here https://www.fedoraconsultancy.co.uk/passiontoprofile/ and watch six business friends talk about their P2P journey here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OZl7KPFDck

The post What the Professionals Partnership event feedback told us appeared first on Fedora Consultancy.

The themes that kept returning

Three ideas surfaced again and again. First, that connection still sits at the heart of any good marketing. Second, that clarity beats quantity, especially when the pressure to produce more content keeps rising. Third, that AI can be helpful, but it should support your thinking rather than replace it. These points cropped up in every setting, which says something about how universal they have become.

The questions people asked the most

Across workshops and one to one conversations, professionals kept asking how to talk about what they do in a way that feels natural, how to sound more like themselves in writing, and how to work with AI without losing control of their message. Noticing these repeated questions has been useful in shaping my work this year.

What people engaged with

The B2B trends, the P2P stories and several LinkedIn threads about honest communication were the things that drew the most comments and shares. The pattern was clear: people responded most when the message was simple, grounded and based on real experience.

A thought to end the year

What has stayed with me is how often good marketing begins with a conversation, not a document. When people have the space to talk through what matters to them, the words that follow tend to feel more confident and more accurate. That has been true in every part of my work this year, and it is a good note to carry into 2026.

The post Jon’s 2025 marketing wrap appeared first on Fedora Consultancy.

This is not one of those lists.

These ideas are based on what I have observed this year, the themes that have appeared in conversations with clients and the direction of some of my blogs. They are not bold forecasts or industry declarations. They are simply five thoughts that may help smaller professional services providers approach 2026 with a little more clarity and purpose.

1. Substance will matter more than performance

• A few weeks ago, I wrote about the rise of being nice in business communication and the shift towards messages designed to be liked rather than messages designed to be useful. That tendency has not gone away. But there are signs that people are beginning to want something a little more grounded.
• Clients and customers still appreciate warmth, but they also want to hear something that helps them make better decisions. In a world full of praise, a clear and honest point of view can feel refreshing.
• For smaller firms, this is an advantage. You can speak plainly, say what you mean and avoid the ‘performance’ element that has crept into some corporate communication. Doing good deeds isn’t a competition.

2. Tone of voice will become a quiet competitive advantage

• As more content is generated by systems, a great deal of what appears online already sounds the same. The rhythm is similar, the structure is similar, and the vocabulary often comes from the same pool of words.
• This gives smaller professional services firms an opportunity. If you can write or speak in a way that sounds like a real person rather than a template, you may find that people notice you more. A consistent corporate tone of voice is one thing, but a distinctive individual tone would add something else entirely. Who is the spokesperson in your business? Who is most likely to be on LinkedIn? And would a more personal tone be useful for them?
• Tone does not need to be dramatic. It simply needs to feel human, considered and consistent. In a year when automation will continue to grow, the ability to sound like yourself may set you apart. Don’t settle for ‘That’ll do’ when it comes to you.

3. AI will continue to improve, but human interpretation will be the real value

• It is clear that AI will play an even bigger role in 2026. Many predictions from industry analysts point towards increased use in planning, measurement and content production. But raw output is not the same as insight. You can find the answer to anything nowadays online, but will you actually understand what you found?
• The value for smaller businesses lies in how the technology is used, not in how advanced it becomes. AI can help with first drafts, analysis and organisation, but it cannot replace the understanding that comes from experience, judgement and context.
• The firms that will benefit most are those that learn when to use it and when not to. The question for 2026 is not “What can AI do for us?” but “How can we use it sensibly so that our work becomes clearer, not noisier?”

4. Discernment may be more important than novelty

• One of the themes from an earlier article this year was about choosing which trends to follow and, more importantly, which to politely ignore. That idea feels increasingly relevant.
• Many annual prediction lists showcase complex strategies, multi-layered technologies and new roles that require significant time or investment. For most smaller professional services firms, that level of activity is unrealistic.
• In 2026, discernment will likely be more valuable than enthusiasm. Choosing fewer, better activities will make a greater difference than adopting every new tool or method. Consistency is more effective than ambition without follow-through.

5. The human side of business may quietly regain its importance

• Some of my recent blogs have focused on the subtle ways physical environments, tone and presence influence how people feel. Despite everything that has changed in marketing, those details still matter.
• Many clients simply want to feel understood. They want to know who they are dealing with and what the relationship will be like. This is something smaller professional services firms can offer far more naturally than larger businesses.
• In 2026, human awareness may matter just as much as digital competence. The ability to create a sense of connection, to listen carefully and to write with meaning remains one of the strongest advantages in professional services.

A final thought

These ideas are not predictions in the usual sense. They are simply reflections on what may help smaller businesses in the year ahead. If 2025 was a year of automation, optimism and increasing noise, then 2026 may offer an opportunity for clearer, calmer and more thoughtful communication.

Clarity of message still matters. It always will. If you want to stand out, use your own tone, speak your audience’s language and focus on what will truly connect.

The post Five B2B marketing ideas for 2026 that might actually be useful appeared first on Fedora Consultancy.

The business world now applauds not just good work but visible goodness – the kind that photographs well and gathers likes. It’s not that kindness or humility are bad things; far from it.

But has “doing good” became a competition?  A contnuous stream of virtue on display – organisations telling us how humble they are, often at impressive volume.

Open any business magazine or scroll through LinkedIn and you’ll see it everywhere. Company news framed as good deeds. A flow of mutual congratulations; messages that are encouraging, affirming and carefully non-controversial. 

Over the past few years, business communication has changed its tone. The language of commerce has become warmer, friendlier and, in many ways, more human. 

At first glance, this feels like progress. But somewhere along the way, a new kind of conformity has crept in – a culture where being positive and personable is often valued more highly than being useful.

We seem to be more  interested in each other than improving our knowledge.

Business communication was once a place for ideas, debate and the sharing of experience. Today it’s so often polite, polished and forgettable. The risk is that, in trying to please or be ‘liked’ by everyone, will we end up saying very little that matters.It’s not wrong, just the tone of the times. But has something important has been lost?

This matters, because progress in business doesn’t always come from agreement – it comes from challenge, curiosity and the willingness to question how things are done. And that’s not always “nice”.

So perhaps it’s time to think about balance. It’s possible to be human without being bland; to be constructive without being cautious. If every message we share is simply designed to make people smile, we may be overlooking the greater value of making us think.

In marketing and business, clarity should matter more than comfort. 

(The image used in this blog is inspired by those reassuringly serious 1960s office illustrations – where everyone looked delighted to be productive)

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Is there a growing ‘slide towards perfection’ – a race to the average that few of us ever asked for – that might be taking us in the wrong direction?

Technology has given us incredible precision – but in chasing it, we’ve drifted into a world where everything feels a bit the same. Predictable. Polished. Perfectly acceptable. We were told AI, data and algorithms would help us aim higher. Instead, they’ve dulled the feeling that made things matter.

Perfectly predictable

Technology has made almost everything measurable. Football matches are mapped in data points, drivers have sensors for reflexes, and songs are built to fit algorithms. It all works brilliantly – until it doesn’t.

Because, in chasing control, we’ve forgotten that what draws us in isn’t accuracy, it’s emotion. People don’t remember flawless performances; they remember the moments that made them feel something. The wild, the risky, the unpredictable.

The human spark

Algorithms can recognise patterns, but they can’t create the moments that break them. 

Football has its own examples. No algorithm would have produced Diego Maradona’s ‘Hand of God’ in 1986 – outrageous, controversial, unforgettable. You could argue it broke the rules, and you’d be right. But it also reminded us that sport’s greatest power lies in its humanity – its capacity to shock, inspire and bring us together.

And for those of us old enough to know better, think of what the Sex Pistols did to the UK music scene in the 1970s. Raw, loud and deliberately unrefined, they tore through the musical status quo (not literally!) of the time. It wasn’t perfect – but it made many young people feel something again and connect with music they could relate to.

As someone who enjoys riding a motorbike, I’ve always admired the balance of control and instinct it takes to do it well. In MotoGP, that balance reached another level in 2005 when Valentino Rossi began dangling his inside leg off the bike while braking for corners.

No data model would have suggested it. Yet his instinctive act of human genius changed the way riders approached racing.

Character crackles

That’s the point. Innovation often starts where logic stops. Data can refine what already exists, but it can’t feel its way towards the unexpected. In a world where AI can smooth every sentence, correct every pause and predict every preference, we risk running a race not to the bottom, but to the average. Or ‘bang average’ as I’ve heard it called.

People don’t really want perfection. We respond to the warts-and-all truth of things – the rough edge, the human touch, the spark that feels alive. John Peel once said that life has surface noise. He meant it as a compliment. 

Perfection is quiet. Character crackles. I’m off to put a vinyl record on…

Here are links to the three previous  ‘Chaos v Control’ blog posts 

• https://www.fedoraconsultancy.co.uk/perfectly-predictable-the-slow-death-of-drama-in-the-english-premier-league/
• https://www.fedoraconsultancy.co.uk/from-switches-to-screens-have-cars-and-motorbikes-lost-some-of-their-magic/
• https://www.fedoraconsultancy.co.uk/from-static-to-soul-what-vinyl-records-can-still-teach-us-about-connection/

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I’ve always had a soft spot for vinyl records and a bookshelf with about 300 of them. It’s not about nostalgia, exactly, or even the sound quality. It’s the experience. Taking a record from its sleeve, placing the needle, hearing that brief crackle before the music begins. It’s imperfect, but that’s part of its charm.

Radio presenter John Peel once said that “life has surface noise.” He was right. Those little imperfections – the slight hiss, the uneven timing, the quiet moments between songs – are what make it feel real. Listening to vinyl asks you to slow down. You don’t skip tracks. You commit to the journey.

By contrast, digital music is clean, instant and flawless. You can summon any track in seconds, skip halfway through, or build the perfect playlist. Convenient, yes, but a little detached. It’s music as data, not a shared experience. The same song that once sounded different every time now plays with mathematical precision.

Character over perfection

When I wrote recently about cars, bikes and football, a pattern kept emerging. Whether it’s an over-managed match, a car that drives itself, or an algorithm choosing your next song, perfection has become the goal. Yet the pursuit of perfection often strips away character – the very thing that makes something memorable.

A record player/turntable doesn’t optimise. It doesn’t auto-adjust. It just plays. And that’s what gives it soul.

We often talk about connection in business or creativity as if it’s a metric to be engineered. But real connection isn’t engineered. It’s felt. It happens when something or someone seems genuine – unpolished, sometimes unpredictable, but undeniably human.

A rhythm worth remembering

Vinyl, for all its flaws, brings people together in ways that streaming never could. Friends gathered round a turntable, a record shop conversation, a sleeve note that still smells faintly of cardboard and ink. It’s tactile, it’s imperfect, and it stays with you.

Maybe that’s the real lesson here. Whether it’s football, riding a motorbike  or the work we do every day, people are drawn to things that feel alive – not designed to eliminate every flaw. The world will keep getting smoother, faster and more connected. But the things that last, and that move us, will always have a little surface noise.

Next time, I’ll bring these threads together – from football to motoring to music – and look at what all of this says about how we live and work today.

In the meantime, here are links to the two previous blogs in this series about authenticity and emotional connection if you’d like to dip in:

• Perfectly predictable? The slow death of drama in the Premier League
• From switches to screens – have cars and motorbikes lost some of their magic?

The post From static to soul: what vinyl records can still teach us about connection appeared first on Fedora Consultancy.

Corporate hotels are often the safe bet. They’re easy to find, the coffee is on tap, and the Wi-Fi usually works. But they can also feel like walking into “work mode”: people put on the suit of armour, do the polite networking routine and never really let much of themselves show.

By contrast, the events that seem to stick in my mind are the ones held in more surprising places. A gallery. A farm. On a train. They carry their own character, and that seems to give people permission to show more of theirs.

Two recent local gatherings made me think harder about this. Pippa Tait’s Sales Club created an atmosphere where people connected with ease, while Fran Ash’s “Bathing in Business” was every bit as refreshing as the name suggests. Both reminded me that the environment isn’t just a backdrop – it shapes the whole experience.

Of course, not everyone wants this. Some people are more comfortable in the predictable corporate setting. But I think there’s a shift happening: more of us are looking for places that feel alive, where conversations can be more open and more human.

For me, that’s what links back to the Passion to Profile approach. It isn’t about polishing a corporate mask – it’s about being clear, practical and people-driven. The venue can either reinforce the act, or help us drop it.

So next time you’re booking an event, maybe ask yourself: what kind of conversation do I want people to have? The room might just set the tone before a single word is spoken.

I’d love to know what you think. Do you prefer the predictability of the hotel function room, or the character of somewhere more unusual?

The post When the room does the talking: why the venue sets the tone before you do appeared first on Fedora Consultancy.

This is the second in my short series looking at how data, technology and business thinking have made some of the things we love slicker… but maybe less human. In part one, I looked at the Premier League and asked whether the pursuit of control had squeezed out the unpredictability that made football so compelling.

Now, I’m turning to motoring and motorbikes – two passions of mine that have been shaped, for better and worse, by the same forces. This isn’t about horsepower or crash test scores. It’s about the feeling you get behind the wheel or in the saddle – and how technology sometimes adds to it, but just as often gets in the way.

When a car was yours, not theirs

I drive a 2017 Mini Cooper and I love it. It doesn’t have a touchscreen – it has proper switches. It doesn’t nag me with lane-keeping assistance. What it does have is a set of options I chose carefully at the time: leather seats, adaptive suspension, LED headlights, parking sensors, an upgraded ‘media pack’ and satellite navigation. Back then, these choices felt like a personal touch – a way to make the car ‘mine’.

In a way, I future-proofed it. Many of those features are standard on new Minis now, but the car I’ve got still feels like it belongs to me rather than to BMW’s latest software update. Newer models might have more tech, but not all of it is for my benefit. I absolutely understand that safety is a priority, but too often, it feels like the driver is a beta-tester for systems designed to please an algorithm, not the person holding the wheel.

Riding with the safety net – and without it

Back in 2017, I bought a BMW S1000 XR motorbike. It had everything: electronic suspension, riding modes, traction control, ABS, the works. It went like a rocket and could do anything you asked. But here’s the thing – I realised I didn’t want or need all of that technology. It wasn’t (too) unreliable because of the tech, but it was definitely a reminder that all the gadgets in the world don’t guarantee the right riding experience for you.

So then I went the other way. In 2022 I bought a 2016 Honda Fireblade – the last model year before electronic rider aids (other than ABS) became standard. This was riding stripped back to its essentials. As an advanced motorcycle tutor with RoSPA, I valued the skill and discipline of riding well. I didn’t need a computer to save me; I wanted to be responsible for my own ride.

Slowing down to feel more

For me, motorbikes are about experience. Each one should be different. Now I’m on a Honda GB350 S, which I just bought a few weeks ago. It’s light, simple, and slower than anything I’ve owned for years – and that’s exactly why I love it. It’s an involving ride that requires attention and commitment. You can’t just point and twist the throttle. You work with it, listen to it, build momentum (aka ‘gentle acceleration’) and enjoy the charm that comes from its simplicity.

The lower league football parallel

This is where the football comparison that I made in my first article (link to https://www.fedoraconsultancy.co.uk/perfectly-predictable-the-slow-death-of-drama-in-the-english-premier-league/) comes back. Just as lower-league football still carries the unpredictability that the Premier League has tidied away, older or simpler cars and bikes often feel more authentic than their modern, tech-heavy equivalents.

At the top end, everything is engineered for efficiency, comfort and safety. Understandably so. But in the process, the unpredictability – the thing that makes your heart beat faster – is often designed out.

The trade-off we don’t talk about

Cars and bikes today are safer, faster, more reliable and more efficient than ever. That’s the upside. The downside is that, in the pursuit of control, a lot of the unpredictability and personality has been ironed out.

We’ve moved from driving and riding as a craft to driving and riding as a managed process. Systems monitor, intervene and optimise – but sometimes, they take the very thing we enjoyed away.

Just like football, the game is still recognisable, but the feeling has changed.

Next time, I’ll turn to vinyl records. Because music, too, has a lot to teach us about why imperfections, quirks and surface noise can be more powerful than digital polish.

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I’ll start with football, because with the new Premier League season having just kicked off, the timing could not be better.

The Premier League is back. A new season, the same saturation coverage. 

Yet for all the hype, the product on the pitch feels… different. Not necessarily worse in terms of quality – the players are fitter, faster, and more technically gifted than ever – but the drama, the unpredictability of two teams engaged in a contact sport that inspires all sorts of emotions (and probably is the ultimate brand loyalty) it feels like we’re losing some of the magic of ‘the beautiful game’?

Is revenue and tech being prioritised over emotional connection?

If the opening weekend is any guide, little has changed. Leeds’ win over Everton on Monday night was remembered less for the football than for a late VAR penalty that made the headlines. Once again, control and process took centre stage, leaving fans to argue about rules instead of the spectacle.

A decade of change

Ten years ago, football still felt gloriously messy – for want of a better word. Shocks happened more often. Long-range goals were more common. Teams took risks. Leicester’s title win in 2016 remains the ultimate fairy-tale reminder of what chaos at the top level could produce – and why it captured the imagination worldwide.

Today, though, data and analysis dominate

Clubs are businesses first, football clubs second. My own team, Brighton and Hove Albion, are admired for becoming an ‘asset creation machine’, signing relatively unknown players through smart recruitment and analysis, perfecting their skills and selling them on for huge profit. It works brilliantly as a model. But it also highlights what the game has become: less about belonging, more about balance sheets.

The curse of technology

And don’t get me started on VAR. It was meant to clear up mistakes, to inject fairness into the game. Instead it slows everything down, replaces joy with hesitation, and sparks endless arguments. It’s a perfect case study in ‘be careful what you wish for’. The truth is that technology doesn’t have the answers for everything – least of all for the unpredictability that makes football, football.

Football as business

The Premier League is now a global entertainment product. Subscribers are prioritised over fans in the ground.  Sky and TNT boast about showing hundreds of live games each season. Very recently Paddy Power even ran an advert telling punters to take a break from betting, right before Sky aired another promising wall-to-wall coverage. It’s football on tap – but saturation isn’t the same as satisfaction.

The Telegraph recently argued that the Premier League’s popularity may already have peaked (Telegraph, 12 August 2025). The overload of matches, the flattening of narrative, and the predictability of outcomes risk turning what was once an emotional rollercoaster into a technical exercise.

Player loyalty – or lack of it

It’s not just the way football is packaged. On the pitch, player loyalty feels almost extinct as stars push for exits or treat clubs as mere stepping stones. Once upon a time, fans may have hoped that players would show loyalty and stick around, even through hard times. Now, the hard times rarely come for the top clubs – and when they do, players are quick to move on.

The chart that tells the story

I’ve had some dialogue with AI in order to come up with a simple diagram that might help make my point; over the past decade, the Premier League has moved steadily away from unpredictability and towards control. Yes, I’m aware that I am using data in order to make a point grumbling about data…

Explanation for the chart

Unpredictability – measured through shocks, upsets and wider goal margins – has steadily declined.

Control – in the form of tighter scorelines, tactical systems, data-driven recruitment and interventions like VAR – has grown.

Put simply: the Premier League is more efficient, but less thrilling.

Refereeing clampdowns

Next is the endless diving, time-wasting and tactical fouling, and it sometimes feels like the match itself is secondary to the machinery around it. Even refereeing is being micro-managed into submission. 

This season, officials have been told to crack down on “dark arts” such as simulation, holding at set pieces and delaying play (Telegraph, 14 August 2025). In theory, it’s welcome – who doesn’t want fewer cheats? – but in practice it risks sanitising the spectacle. Every incident becomes a flashpoint, another excuse for the system to intrude. Whether this restores the flow of the game or simply adds yet another layer of control remains to be seen.

Looking beyond the top tier

Perhaps this is why I find myself drawn towards lower-league and non-league football this season. On the occasions I’ve gone with my son, we both loved the rawness and unpredictability. No VAR, more passion and a stronger sense of local belonging not business. – it reminded me of why I like watching the game in the first place. 

Conclusion

Football was never meant to be perfect – it was meant to make us feel. What we miss isn’t precision or polish, but the unpredictability and sense of belonging that once made the game so popular.  Maybe that’s why more of us are being drawn back to lower league grounds, muddy pitches and raw atmospheres, where football still feels like it belongs to the people in the stands.  

Strip away the gloss, and I think what we crave is authenticity – and that’s something the Premier League risks losing, no matter how many cameras, stats or VAR checks are added to the mix.

The post Perfectly predictable? The slow death of drama in the English Premier League appeared first on Fedora Consultancy.

It’s not the kind of story I usually write about – but it caught my attention because it shows how external change can hit even the most established business models.

And if it can happen there, it can happen anywhere.

What this means for professional services

Let’s take legal services as an example. It’s not too far-fetched to imagine a future where conveyancing requires much less solicitor involvement. The technology already exists to streamline the process. All that’s really holding it back is regulation and public confidence.

So the lesson here is not about predicting the next piece of legislation or public trend. It’s about recognising that some changes are outside your control – but still crucial to your business.

Start with analysis – it’s not just a box to tick

That’s why, in the Fedora 8-stage marketing plan, the very first stage is analysis – both internal and external. It sets the foundations for everything else.

One model that helps here is PEST:

• Political – changes to laws, tax policy, regulation, or public funding
• Economic – inflation, interest rates, consumer confidence
• Social – public behaviour, generational shifts, trends in how we live
• Technological – automation, AI, digital tools

A second useful model is SWOT – strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats – which combines internal and external thinking in one snapshot.

You don’t need to fill out a full textbook version. Just a quick brainstorm across these areas can spark ideas, identify potential risks and prepare a more grounded, forward-thinking plan.

Tools to help you get started

If it’s been a while since you last worked on your marketing plan – or if you’ve never put one together in a structured way – I’ve created two tools to help:

• Fedora marketing plan – key stages: an 8-step template to guide your thinking
• Marketing plan mind map : a visual summary to help you plot ideas

Both are available to download by clicking above

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