Sparrow’s Nest: It’s time to dump FOMO for some of my better personal habits

by Greg Graham

Posted on 29 June 2022

‘I need you to help keep me on track. It’s time to be thankful, practise gratitude and live more in the moment’

Last week my socials were flooded with posts from Cannes in the south of France at the International Festival of Creativity and I had a serious case of FOMO (Fear of missing out)! After a two-year hiatus, it looked like the festival was back with great speakers in the Palais such as Ryan Reynolds, Wendy Clark, David Droga, Patrick Stewart, Malala Yousafzai, Vicky Free, Ryan Roslansky, etc. Plus, the big activations were back on the beach including Spotify, Google, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Amazon, WPP, Dentsu, and Omnicom were back with their cabanas and GroupM on the rooftop at The Martinez Hotel.

I must congratulate all the Aussie winners, especially Suncorp (a swag of Lions including the Grand Prix for Innovation), Mim Haysom the CMO, and her Suncorp marketing team must be super proud of the incredible work she and her agencies are collaborating on such as One House with Burnetts, AAMI Rest Towns Ogilvy/OMD.

Other winners include DDB Sydney for VW, Matilda Bay created by Howatson + Company, AFP by Host Havas,7 Eleven by CHEP and the Australian Open Metaverse created by Run it Wild.

Globally WPP was named the industry’s Most Creative Company, Ogilvy named Network of the Year, Creative Marketer of the Year is AB InBev and for the first time in the history of the festival Dentsu Creative based in Bangalore India earned the title of Agency of the Year.

I don’t think FOMO is a very good personality trait so I had to have a little talk to myself … before Covid I was very thankful and practised several techniques around gratitude and appreciating what you have. I’ve got to bring those behaviours back and practice what I preach when I’m coaching other people.

This year I’ve been to another great festival SXSW in Austin Texas plus travelled to Cannes in Cairns so I should be more thankful. Also, I’m very fortunate to work in a great industry with incredible people and inspiration is all around us.

My regular training and development sessions are incredibly rewarding, coaching with The Marketing Academy is also fulfilling and the new Mediaweek Academy is an exciting project to look forward to.

So, I’m ditching FOMO as of now and bringing back some of my better personal habits around being thankful, practising gratitude, and living in the moment.

I also need your help to keep me on track, if you hear me whining about not being at the Cannes Lions this year, please nudge me and remind me of the big G … Gratitude and tell me to shut up!