Where Strategy Meets Mindset: Lessons from GREENHOUSE 2025

Last Saturday, Amy and Amelia attended GREENHOUSE 2025 - joining a room of marketers, creatives and business leaders at the Freedom Centre in Jersey. The event brought together an inspiring line-up of speakers exploring what it takes to build meaningful brands in a fast-changing world. 

The day delivered no shortage of insight - from Alt Collective’s focus on intention and Kennedy’s creative approach to email marketing, to Michelle Haslam’s reflections on authenticity in digital spaces and Kiley Henley’s perspective on building culture from within. But two sessions in particular stood out to us -   Sara Marshall’s clarity on brand positioning and Maya Raichoora’s exploration of mental fitness and visualisation. 

Both offered a reminder that effective marketing is as much about mindset as it is about message - when clarity of thought meets confidence of belief, brands communicate with purpose and connect with meaning. 

Positioning with Purpose 

Sara came in hot out of the gate. She launched into a hilarious anecdote about a memorable experience flying back from LA, sharing a bottle of champagne (or four?) with Mariah Carey in first class. But then she asked us a pivotal question – what airline did we think she was flying on, British Airways or Virgin Atlantic?  

And the answer is where she packed her punch. The audience’s answer was unanimously Virgin Atlantic. And therein lies her point. Why had a room full of people immediately associated her rockstar experience with Virgin?  

It’s the power of positioning. 

When devising the strategic positioning of a brand, it can be easy to find yourself lost within the framework theory. But the application, in reality, is where the importance lies. There’s no doubt that to truly gain that market share lead in your field, you have to take a cold, hard look at where you sit among your competitors on a positioning map. However, what we really found thought-provoking was Sara’s renegade perspective on “how to change the game” of strategic theory.

Sara rejects the idea that when defining a brand’s positioning, you must conform to competing on the classic principles of price or quality. If a brand is stuck in a saturated space, what’s to stop them from moving the goal posts?

She gave the great example of Aldi. In the hyper-saturated space of UK supermarkets competing for price or quality, they introduced their infamous middle aisle. Suddenly, shoppers’ supermarket loyalty was being driven based on spontaneity, fun and the hope of the unexpected.

The talk was a great reminder that marketing theory should be a tool that empowers you, not one that restricts you. Aim to marry the frameworks with your creativity, expertise and understanding of the cultural temperature. The articulation is the endpoint, but where the fun begins...

Mental Fitness in Motion

While Sara explored how brand strength begins with definition, Maya Raichoora reminded us that true performance starts from within. As Nike’s first-ever mental fitness trainer, Maya champions the idea that just as we train our bodies, we can train our minds - drawing on examples from elite athletes like Michael Phelps to illustrate how visualisation underpins high performance.

Her talk reframed visualisation not as wishful thinking, but as mental conditioning - the practice of mentally rehearsing success before it happens. By vividly picturing not just the outcome but the process that leads to it, we train the brain to respond with confidence and composure when those moments arrive. It’s a way of building the same neural pathways activated during real experience, turning belief into something learned rather than hoped for.

Her reminder that “you’ll never outperform your self-image” reframed confidence as something built through practice, not circumstance. For us, it was a powerful parallel to creativity itself: when we strengthen the belief that something is possible, we create the conditions for originality, courage and clarity to follow.

Clarity Meets Creativity

Across the day’s sessions, one message came through clearly: the best marketing sits at the intersection of strategy and creativity. Each speaker offered a distinct perspective - from brand strategy and creative culture to digital innovation and human connection - but together they built a shared narrative about what it means to create with intent. GREENHOUSE 2025 reminded us that when structure meets substance, brands don’t just communicate - they connect.

- Written By Amelia Cousins & Amy Foote