pizza preference, cosmo quizzes & business growth

Nikki Neale • September 5, 2024

Humans have always been captivated by the desire to understand themselves better. This quest for self-knowledge has driven countless philosophical inquiries, religious teachings, and, in our modern era, the widespread appeal of personality tests, zodiac signs, and even those quizzes that tell you if you’re more of a Meat Feast Pizza than a Hawaiian. Whether we admit it or not, most of us have indulged in these seemingly trivial assessments at some point. But what is it about these exercises in self-discovery that draws us in so powerfully? The answer lies in our deep-seated psychological needs for self-discovery, identity, and social belonging, needs that have been integral to the human experience for as long as we’ve existed.

The Search for Identity

From a young age, we embark on a lifelong journey of forming our identity, our internal compass guiding us through life’s complexities. This identity is built through our experiences, social interactions, and internal reflections. It’s a dynamic entity that evolves as we grow, face new challenges, and gain new insights. As children, we learn about ourselves in relation to others, how we are similar, how we are different, and how we fit into the social fabric around us. These early experiences lay the groundwork for the more complex self-concepts we develop in adulthood. Our experience in the workplace is no different; the broader our experience and the more we connect with new ideas, the richer our pool of information becomes.

Despite this ongoing process of identity formation, many of us continue to seek clarity throughout our lives. This is partly because our identities are multifaceted and influenced by various factors, including cultural background, personal values, and life experiences. We may understand ourselves in certain contexts—perhaps as a parent, a professional, or a friend but struggle to integrate these different aspects into a cohesive sense of self. This struggle often leads us to seek out labels, categories, and definitions that help us make sense of who we are and where we fit in the world.

Personality quizzes, with their promise of quick insights into our deepest selves, offer an appealing shortcut to this clarity. They provide a way to distil the complexities of our personalities into digestible, relatable terms. Whether it’s understanding our ‘love language’, identifying with a particular Myers-Briggs type, or discovering which Hogwarts house we belong to, these quizzes offer validation and self-affirmation that can be both comforting and empowering. They give us a language to describe ourselves, which in turn helps us communicate who we are to others.

The Psychological Appeal of Categorisation

The appeal of personality assessments isn’t just about the results they provide, but also about the process of categorisation itself. Psychologically, the need to label ourselves and others, stems from the human brain’s natural ability for categorisation, a cognitive function essential for making sense of the world. Research in cognitive psychology, particularly the work of Eleanor Rosch in the 1970s, has shown that our brains are wired to organise information into groups and patterns. This categorisation helps us navigate the complexity of our environment by simplifying it into manageable parts.

When applied to self-knowledge, this need for categorisation becomes a tool for making sense of our inner world. It’s not just about knowing whether we’re introverted or extroverted, but understanding how these traits influence our behaviours, decisions, and relationships. By categorising aspects of our personality, we create a framework that helps us navigate personal and social challenges more effectively. For example, understanding that you’re a ‘Type A’ personality might help explain your competitive nature and drive, while identifying as a ‘Type B’ might shed light on your preference for a more relaxed approach to life.

These categories provide us with a sense of identity that is both personal and social. They allow us to see ourselves as part of a larger group whether that’s people who share our Zodiac sign, our Enneagram type, or even our pizza preference. This sense of belonging is crucial for our psychological wellbeing, as it connects us to others who understand and validate our experiences. It’s a way of finding our place in the world, not just as individuals, but as members of a broader community.

The Perspective Analysis Tool: Applying These Principles to Business

At Equipt, we believe that the principles of understanding and categorisation, which are so crucial for personal growth, can be equally powerful in business. During the COVID-19 pandemic, when businesses were forced to reassess their strategies as traditional plans became obsolete, we saw an opportunity to apply these principles on a broader scale. This led to the development of the Perspective Analysis Tool, designed to help businesses re-evaluate their purpose, outputs, and strategies in an environment dominated by uncertainty.

The pandemic created an unprecedented level of unpredictability, rendering many conventional business practices ineffective. Leaders faced the challenge of navigating a future where agility and adaptability were essential. It became clear that businesses needed more than just a new strategy. They needed a way to understand their core strengths, prioritise effectively, and pivot quickly when necessary.

With years of experience working with large brands, we noticed a consistent pattern: certain foundational elements are critical to business growth, regardless of the industry. However, for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), the challenge wasn’t just knowing what to do, but determining where to focus amidst a sea of competing priorities.

The Perspective Analysis Tool was created to address this challenge. Our goal was to develop a solution that allows businesses to categorise their efforts, focusing on what truly drives growth. We understood that SMEs needed a tool that was not only comprehensive but also agile, something that could be revisited regularly, offering businesses the ability to review progress, identify new threats, and adjust strategies accordingly.

By categorising different aspects of the business such as market positioning, operational efficiency, and customer engagement, the Perspective Analysis Tool helps leaders maintain a broad view without getting lost in the details. It ensures that every decision aligns with the company’s long-term vision, while also providing the flexibility needed to respond to immediate challenges. In essence, the tool empowers businesses to take control of their future, even in uncertain times.

If you’re interested in learning more about how the Perspective Analysis Tool can help your business, or if you’d like to see it in action, get in touch with us. We’d love to help you take the next step in understanding and growing your business – and maybe we’ll even tell you what pizza you are!

A LITTLE MORE READING

Show me the bunny!

By Nikki Neale • February 20, 2026

How Jellycat made their fortune There is a version of strategy that lives entirely inside the category you operate in (in fact most strategy is here). It studies competitors, benchmarks pricing, refines positioning statements and tweaks messaging frameworks. It is diligent, sensible and often very well executed. And then there is the version that asks a more expansive question: what is happening in the wider market that could fundamentally change the trajectory of this business? Jellycat is a compelling example of what happens when you write strategy with that second lens. Founded in 1999, Jellycat spent years building a strong reputation as a premium plush brand. Its products were soft, distinctive and giftable, and it achieved wide distribution. It was a good business and a steady one. What it had not yet become was a cultural phenomenon. The inflection point did not begin in the toy aisle. It began in culture. During the pandemic, comfort became a form of social permission. Softness stopped being something that belonged purely to childhood and became something adults embraced publicly. Nostalgia evolved from memory into aesthetic. The rise of the so-called “kidult” reflected a genuine generational shift, with Millennials and Gen Z openly purchasing objects that felt playful, ironic and emotionally expressive.

Lessons from Celebrity Traitors - Workplace politics in fingerless gloves and a cape.

By Nikki Neale • October 22, 2025

Warning, if you’re not one of the 7 million people who watched Celeb Traitor’s live last week (look at you go terrestrial telly!) you might want to scroll on. For everyone else, here are my top five comparisons between the castle and the average workplace. Alan and Paloma: when friendship and politics mix Alan Carr murdering Paloma Faith early on is the perfect example of how proximity and power collide. They were friends. They laughed together. Worked together. Seemed inseparable. He killed her anyway. Not maliciously or even strategically, she was just an easy target, and he needed to save his own skin. Because in Traitors, like work, beware the relationships that only last as long as they’re useful. Charisma isn’t integrity, and “getting on well” doesn’t mean “aligned.” We’ve all had a ‘mate’ at work like Alan: funny, charming, likeable and the next minute torching your project to get ahead. Sh*t! Jonathan Ross vs Ruth Codd: the calm, the storm, and the power dynamic Jonathan Ross is now facing heat, definitely helped along by Ruth Codd going in on him! She had a point, she just didn’t land it. Ruth got angry, frustrated, emotional. Jonathan stayed calm, almost detached. And that was it: in the group’s eyes, the rational one won. But watch it again. That wasn’t calm; it was control. Ruth’s younger, newer, female. Jonathan’s older, famous, a man of the establishment. It was a masterclass in unspoken hierarchy and how people can manipulate the unconscious bias of everyone around them. So many meetings have that moment: one person fighting to be heard while another takes over, with zero merit, because they have privilege and a power dynamic you can’t beat. Bums!

It's time to give a sh*t about toilets

September 16, 2025

As my nan used to say - you can tell a lot about a place from its toilets. And it's fair to say, when it comes to experiences, I'm obsessed with them. You might arrive at a beautiful office, a busy café, or a slick visitor attraction. The welcome is polished, the branding sharp, the service rehearsed. And then you slip away to the loo and suddenly you see the truth. A broken lock. A soap dispenser that hasn’t been filled in days. A faded Covid sign still taped to the mirror like a ghost of 2020. All the polish of the front-of-house vanishes. Because if they’ve stopped noticing here, what else have they stopped noticing? Why toilets punch above their weight Toilets don’t get design awards (often), they don’t appear on campaign mood boards, and they rarely make the budget spreadsheet. Yet they shape experience and demonstrate culture more than almost any other space. The numbers prove it: over 80% of facility complaints relate to toilets, and more than four in five people say a bad loo puts them off returning. In restaurants and hospitality, dirty toilets cut repeat visits by around 20%. Psychologists call it the Peak-End Rule: people judge experiences by their extremes and by how they end. Which makes the loo dangerous territory. For many customers, it’s the last stop before they leave. If the final impression is disappointment - no soap, a cracked seat, the faint smell of neglect (or worse), that’s what tips the memory from positive to no thanks. The workplace test In offices, toilets are culture in miniature. An employer can talk endlessly about wellbeing, inclusion, and values, but the loos tell the truth. Free sanitary products? Clean mirrors? Lighting that flatters rather than exposes? These are the signals staff notice every day. They’re not perks; they’re respect. And don’t start me on the signs telling people to clean up after themselves. Really? Are we dealing with adults or running a nursery? More often than not it’s a response to one incident with one person, and the rest of the workforce gets a lifetime of infantilising posters. That says more about the culture than the mess ever did. Employees don’t measure culture by the slogans on the wall. They measure it by whether the hand dryer works.

What Your Marketing Budget Says About Your Ambition

By Nikki Neale • September 2, 2025

Every business faces the same question when planning for the year ahead: what should we spend on marketing? There isn’t a clean-cut answer. Nobody has the formula that guarantees growth. What matters is whether your budget matches the growth you’re actually chasing. From a sales and marketing perspective, most small to mid-sized businesses sit in one of three lanes: Zero, Incremental, or Exceptional. Smaller businesses tend to hover in zero, the more established ones work in incremental, and only a bold few step into exceptional. The trick is not which lane you choose, but whether you’re honest about being in it. Zero: hoping for the best Zero is the lane of survival. Most micro-SMEs end up here by default. Marketing isn’t in the budget, it’s something the founder (or another willing team member) crams into evenings and weekends. Social posts, the odd flyer, and a heavy reliance on word of mouth or personal networks. The problem is that “no budget” never really means no cost. It means you’re paying in hidden ways: slower sales cycles because there’s no air cover for the pipeline, lost opportunities because potential customers don’t know you exist, and founder time that disappears into DIY marketing instead of running the business. Zero can sustain you. It can keep the lights on. But very few businesses scale out of this lane without committing something more deliberate. Survival simply isn’t the same as growth. Incremental: the steady road Incremental growth is where SMEs start to get serious. If you’re getting serious your budget should be within 4–7% of your revenue, which is enough to create rhythm: SEO that doesn’t get forgotten, email that lands every month, campaigns that repeat, and the odd test of a new channel. Sales still lean on retention and referrals, but with more discipline in the pipeline you’ll create more cause and effect. Gail’s Bakery is a brilliant lesson in what incremental looks like at its best. The first site opened in Hampstead in 2005, but for years it was just a few shops in North London. The real shift came in 2011 when external investment gave Gail’s the capital to expand carefully, bakery by bakery. Each new shop was chosen with precision: affluent commuter towns, established London neighbourhoods, places where the brand could bed in rather than overreach - all critical (and often overlooked) essentials of marketing. That’s why today, when you walk through Marlow, Clapham, or St Albans, you can’t miss a Gail’s. It feels like they’re everywhere, but it’s been twenty years of patient, disciplined growth. Incremental doesn’t make headlines in year one, but it compounds until suddenly the brand feels unavoidable. Exceptional: the bold bet Exceptional growth is when we choose to accelerate. Marketing budgets rise to 10–15% of revenue or more, and that spend is matched with operational readiness and, crucially, risk appetite. This lane buys visibility, reach, and cultural momentum if you’re willing to back it. Take Gymshark. The myth will have you believe it was entirely organic; a teenager in a Birmingham garage who struck gold through social media alone. It wasn’t. The truth is more complex. Yes, Ben Francis built a community, but Gymshark also spent aggressively on influencer partnerships, international events, and flagship stores to cement its place. That growth wasn’t accidental or free; it was funded, risky, and carefully engineered. Lucky Saint shows the same dynamic in another category. Founded in 2018, it positioned itself as a credible, grown-up alcohol-free beer in a space dominated by mass brands. From early on, Lucky Saint invested heavily in brand and experience: PR, creative partnerships, and eventually a bricks-and-mortar pub in London. For a small brewer, that’s a bold move, but it paid off. The spend signalled ambition, and the market responded. Exceptional growth isn’t a casual decision. It means bigger budgets, more risk, and a level of operational readiness that many SMEs underestimate. But when ambition and investment line up, it creates step-change growth that incremental spend rarely delivers. The mismatch trap If you’re reading this with huge ambition and a budget line of zero, it’s time for a check-in. The biggest problems happen not when you choose a lane, but when you kid yourself about which lane you’re in. Champagne ambition, beer budget. Some businesses set accelerated growth targets but fund them with incremental budgets. The marketing team (if there even is one) is told to double awareness or leads on the same spend as last year, or to land national coverage with nothing more than local-level funds. It creates frustration, wasted energy, and the creeping belief that “marketing doesn’t work,” when in truth it was never resourced to match the ambition. Champagne budget, no hangover cure. Others do the opposite. They throw big money at marketing while the rest of the business is still built for incremental growth. Leads flow in, awareness rises, but operations can’t deliver the experience. Customer service cracks, delivery timelines slip, and the reputation you just paid to build is quickly eroded. Exceptional marketing without exceptional operations doesn’t accelerate growth; it accelerates churn. Hope springs eternal. Then there’s the subtler trap of sitting in zero while planning for growth. A founder convinces themselves that word of mouth will carry them through another year, while quietly expecting sales to grow 20%. When it doesn’t happen, the blame gets pointed everywhere except the missing budget line. You can’t compound visibility you never paid for in the first place. Planning for the year ahead Budgets are signals of intent. They tell your team, and yourself, whether you’re serious about survival, steady growth, or acceleration. They set expectations for sales, operations, and delivery before a single social post goes live. If you’re one of the 1000s of SMEs working on next year’s plans right now and you’re unsure whether your budget matches your ambition, that’s exactly where Perspective Analysis comes in. We stress-test your business for growth, help bring clarity to which lane you’re really in, and align sales, marketing and ops so your plan has a fighting chance of working. If you want a defensible budget and a growth plan that holds up past January, start with Perspective Analysis.