This year, it felt like just about everyone I knew took a Mediterranean holiday. Insta posts of spritzers, azure skies and shiny silver blue seas became so common my feed felt like one long reel for a travel company.
To at least partially overcome a strong sense of FOMO, I buried myself in several photography books, including the exceptional ‘Il Dolce Far Niente, the Italian Way of Summer’, by Lucy Laucht.
It was while I was reading this book (well, gazing at the pictures actually) I came across the ritual of the ‘Café Sospeso’. This tradition, borne in working class Naples around 1860, involves paying for two espressos but only drinking one. The other one is being left for a person who may not have the means to pay for one themselves – leading to the common enquiry ‘has anyone bought me an espresso today?’. It’s an early form of paying it forward, and as one Italian writer once said, ‘when a Neapolitan is happy, for some reason he decides to offer a coffee for a stranger because it is like offering a coffee to the rest of the world’.
(If you happen to be in Naples, pay for two espressos and drop one of your receipts in the jar most cafes keep on the counter for the purpose. Whoever fishes out your receipt will be able to enjoy their espresso on you!).
These days of course, paying it forward has become more widespread, and has gained particular meaning during recent times, when we have collectively been living in a ‘cost of living crisis’. One company that decided to empathise with its customers and encourage a novel form of paying it forward was ‘The Ordinary’, a skincare brand from Canada.
Recognising that many of its customers have had their spending power ravaged by inflation, The Ordinary is experimenting with a “Choose Your Price” option for a popular product set. Known for its no-frills approach, The Ordinary is inviting customers to select from three price points for The Daily Set: full price, 23% off or 40% off, based on what they can afford. Paying the regular price will support the initiative and help make skincare accessible to others.
This pay-what-you-want model isn’t just clever marketing; it’s a litmus test for how much the brand can trust its customers to do the right thing — a gamble that hinges on the belief that people will pay fairly. By allowing those who can afford it to subsidise others’ purchases, The Ordinary also fosters a spirit of community care.
It’s a sharp contrast with dynamic pricing, that controversial practice used by Uber and music bad boys Oasis, which is designed to squeeze every last drop of revenue out of customers. There’s no upper cap on dynamic pricing, there’s no option to pay less, it’s all about the highest bidder.
Advisors pay it forward on the Ensombl platform everyday
Paying it forward – for the benefit of their professional advice peers – is what thousands of advisors do on the Ensombl platform every day. Advice is challenging, and today’s advisors are just as likely to be business owners as providers of advice. When they need to turn to someone for insights, help and advice on everything from Centrelink to portfolio construction, from technology to HR, the insights they trust the most are those of other advisors.
And for every advisor posing a question or seeking a recommendation, there are multiple other advisors ‘paying it forward’ by lending their time, expertise, and learned experiences to provide those answers and help their peers solve their problems and get better.
There’s over 9,100 members of the Ensombl platform today, and it’s come a long way from its humble beginnings a decade ago. It’s spawned Australia’s most downloaded financial planning podcast, and the largest single-day professional development event across the whole market.
And the secret of this success? The same as it has always been, it’s by advisors, for advisors, solving problems and providing a community.
The members of our platform have embraced our corporate community as well. Provided you have a solution to their problem, and are prepared to ‘pay it forward’ by educating – rather than indoctrinating – them, then you will be rewarded with their time, attention, and respect.
If connecting with advisors is important to you, just reach out for a chat. We might even find time for an espresso!
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