I'm Nishma Patel-Robb, founder of Switched ON. AI enthusiast, ex-Google, brand strategist. I say out loud what others won't, test the shiny things so you don't have to, and throw glitter on the useful bits. The whole thing lives on Substack now, come and join us there 👇 Nobody gets left behind. 🪩
She didn't go viral. She went valuable.
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Hello Sparkler, You're doing the work. You're showing up. You're putting things out there. You're building something you believe in. And some days it feels like absolutely nobody is watching. I know that feeling. Intimately. So when I found out that Olivia Dean performed to four people in 2023, and then won a Grammy in 2026, I needed to understand how. Not the luck. Not the breaks. The actual mechanics of how someone goes from an empty room to the most commercially coveted artist in Britain without ever pretending to be someone she's not. Chanel signed her before she had a debut album. Then Burberry. Cartier. Adidas. She won four BRITs in one night. Manchester renamed a train station after her. And her adidas Superstar campaign is one of the most gorgeous things I've seen this year. None of it was an accident. All of it was brand. I made a video about it. A proper deep dive into the brand of Olivia Dean and what makes her unmissable. ​WATCH: Behind the Unmissable Brand of Olivia Dean​ Here's the one line that changed how I think about all of this: she didn't go viral. She went valuable. The difference between those two things is the entire lesson. And I think it might change how you see what you're building too. I was so deep in this work that I referenced both Olivia Dean and Fred Again in my talk at the Little Grey Cells Conference last week, alongside Zoe Scaman and Alistair Campbell. Standing on that stage, making the case that humanity and kindness are a superpower. That the brands and people who win now are the ones brave enough to be real. That was a moment. There is so much to learn from these artists. We need to look everywhere for ideas on being unmissable and unapologetically human. Not just in boardrooms and business books. In music. In culture. In the people who make you feel something real. Grab a coffee. I think you're going to love it. ​Watch it here​ (And a Fred Again deep dive is coming soon. That man's brand story is absolutely wild.) See you in there. Nishma x Please subscribe and follow along ... |
​Switched ON
I'm Nishma Patel-Robb, founder of Switched ON. AI enthusiast, ex-Google, brand strategist. I say out loud what others won't, test the shiny things so you don't have to, and throw glitter on the useful bits. The whole thing lives on Substack now, come and join us there 👇 Nobody gets left behind. 🪩
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