Louis Carter and the Power of Action

As founder of Most Loved Workplace® and Best Practice Institute, Louis Carter has guided Fortune 500 companies, governments, and institutions through cultural transformation. His research and consulting highlight one truth above all. Success comes to leaders who act decisively to create environments where people feel connected, respected, and aligned with the mission of the organization.

Louis Carter explains that leaders cannot afford to wait for external validation. Instead, they must take responsibility for shaping cultures that drive both performance and employee fulfillment. By using evidence-based tools like the Love of Workplace Index® and the SPARK framework, leaders can measure progress and refine their strategies in real time.

Why Waiting Holds Leaders Back

In his books and speaking engagements, Louis Carter emphasizes that the biggest barrier to cultural change is hesitation. Leaders often recognize the importance of culture but delay action until they feel completely prepared. According to Louis Carter, this approach results in missed opportunities and declining morale. Employees notice when leadership talks about culture but fails to deliver meaningful change.

By contrast, organizations that take immediate steps to build emotional connectedness experience measurable benefits. They retain talent more effectively, foster greater collaboration, and strengthen their employer brand.

A Blueprint for Workplaces People Love

The blueprint outlined by Louis Carter is built on practical steps that any organization can take. The first is establishing clear values and ensuring they are aligned across leadership and employees. Without alignment, culture initiatives quickly lose credibility.

The second step is creating systems for collaboration and respect. Louis Carter points to the SPARK model as a guide. It highlights systemic collaboration, positive vision, alignment of values, respect, and killer outcomes as the five pillars of a thriving workplace. These elements give leaders a clear roadmap to follow.

The third step is accountability. Leaders must not only talk about culture but also model the behaviors they expect from their teams. Employees draw inspiration from visible examples, and accountability at the top reinforces trust throughout the organization.

How Louis Carter Links Culture to Business Results

A central part of Louis Carter’s blueprint is demonstrating that culture is not just a moral imperative but also a business strategy. Through AI-driven sentiment analysis and the Love of Workplace Index®, he has shown how emotional connectedness correlates directly with productivity, innovation, and profitability.

This data-driven approach allows leaders to prove the value of their cultural investments. It shifts conversations from abstract ideals to measurable outcomes, making it easier to secure buy-in from boards, investors, and other stakeholders.

The Lasting Message of Louis Carter

Above all, Louis Carter urges leaders to act. The future of work demands organizations where people feel proud to contribute and connected to a greater purpose. Waiting for the perfect time only delays progress. Leaders who embrace his blueprint today can build workplaces that not only perform better but also inspire loyalty and admiration.

For companies looking to thrive in a world defined by both technology and human connection, the lesson is clear. Stop waiting for permission. Start building now. And follow the blueprint that Louis Carter has proven through years of research and real-world results.

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So, what is it then? Let’s take a look at some of the most cited examples:

WATCH: What is Growth Hacker Marketing?

Growth Hacking Pioneers: Dropbox & AirBnB

Dropbox uses the “refer-a-friend for free space” campaign to help increase their growth to twenty-eight percent per month. What made this so clever was that Dropbox realized that rather than paying Google Adwords 350 dollars per customer, they could simply leverage the cheap cost of storage space. Giving out free space was cheap, and everyone referred everyone for it.

Another great example is Airbnb who, after some clever reverse-engineering, allowed their users to auto-post their ads onto Craigslist without the approval of Craigslist. This was ingenious! Airbnb knew that a huge portion of their target market gathered on Craigslist, and tapping into it skyrocketed their growth.

Is Growth Hacking for Startups ONLY?

Now because of examples like these, growth hacking seems to be associated firmly with startups. But I don’t really agree with that notion. Let’s break down the term: Growth – Hacking.

Growth: “The process of increasing in physical size.”

Now, in regards to “hacking”, you’re probably thinking “software hacking”. I understand why, but I’d like to subscribe to something different:

Hacker: “Someone who is willing to skirt or break the rules to achieve a singular goal.”

Put these two terms together and we have:

Growth Hacker: “Someone who’s willing to do pretty much whatever it takes to grow.”

There’s nothing in there about startups. In fact, growth hacking can even involve large corporations:

Case Study: The 1970 FIFA World Cup

Let’s go back to 1970 – The FIFA World Cup in Mexico. Adidas and Puma were fighting each other tooth and nail to win over as many athlete endorsements as possible. But this was beginning to get expensive. To avoid further financial bleeding, they agreed on what’s come to be known as the Pele Pact. The legendary player was off-limits for either company to use for promotional or advertising purposes.

But this is where Puma employed their growth hack. Just before the Grand World Cup Final, a Puma representative secretly approached Pele and made what turned out to be a very cost-effective deal.

The match was about to begin. The world was watching. And just as the referee was about to blow the whistle, Pele asked for a moment to tie his shoelaces! The camera zoomed in, and the entire world watched as Pele laced up his brand-new Pumas. The world’s greatest football player was now publicly affiliated with Puma.

Product/Market Fit First – Growth Hacking Second!

Now looking back at these examples, you’ll notice that all of these products have something crucial in common—all of them had already found product/market-fit before they implemented their hacks.

You see, growth hacking isn’t really possible if your product hasn’t picked up stride yet. Think of it as throwing gasoline onto a fire. The fire is your product. The gasoline is your growth hack. If there aren’t any flames, throwing fuel on it isn’t really going to do much, is it? So before anything else, validate your product and find a market fit. Once you do, you can go out there and find your gasoline.

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In 2012, I TOTALLY blew off Snapchat. I saw it as nothing more than a sexting app for flirtatious twenty-somethings. What could possibly be the value of a mobile app equivalent of a tired disappearing ink magic trick? Who cares if the content disappears? Especially since the recipient could screen capture the content and bypass the very feature that was supposed to make Snapchat great?

I was underwhelmed by every feature in this app and advised my clients not to bother with it. Besides, most companies hadn’t mastered much larger and more established social networks (Reddit anyone?). Why be a “first mover” on an app that appeared to focus on erasing content rather than preserving it.

Boy was I dead wrong!

The Wild Beast that is Social Video

As Nancy Grace so astutely points out, “Snapchat has over 10 billion daily views on its video content. Let’s wait a moment for that number to sink in. This exceeds even YouTube, a website that is built on showcasing video content and straight double of their last year numbers.”

Even though YouTube is fuzzy on just how many daily views they receive, all of my searches supported this claim. In fact, in 2016, Snapchat appears to be the leading social network when it comes to daily video views, exceeding Facebook’s 8 billion.

Now, you can make the argument that both Facebook and Snapchat’s video views are inflated given the autoplay nature of these videos. But we’re splitting hairs until the likes of Nielsen can report on television commercials actually watched (not just aired). Why hold social media to a higher standard than what traditional media is held to (especially since television still commands the lion’s share of the media dollars)?

Simply put, video continues to dominate the growth of both social and mobile platforms and there’s not sign of this slowing down. The fact that Snapchat leads the pack is nothing short of incredible.

The Hidden Magic of Disappearing Content

While Snapchat empowers its users to determine what content lives on via it’s “Stories” platform and what content disappears within 24 hours of posting, I can honestly say that what I saw as a huge weakness is actually a powerful strength. Specifically, the fact that the content doesn’t live in perpetuity gives Snapchat a sense of urgency that most other social media sites and mobile apps lack. If you want to be part of the community, you need to pay attention to what’s being posted. Snapchat brilliantly leverages FOMO: The Fear of Missing Out. Didn’t see that cool content yesterday? Too bad. You should have been there. Perhaps they will repost it or drop it into their stories. But there’s always a chance they won’t and that fear of missing out on culturally relevant hot content drives daily consumption habits that most other social networks lack.

The attitude of “it will always be there” permeates most other social networks. In this regard, Snapchat stands out as a contrarian and has benefited tremendously from this unique perspective.

Learn From My Mistakes

The takeaway here is twofold. First, if you’re using video on your social channels (and you should be), then you need to find ways to leverage Snapchat to deliver your video. There are lots of articles already published on how to do this.

“That fear of missing out on culturally relevant hot content drives daily consumption habits that most other social networks lack.”

Second, and this is the more important of the two, when you find yourself reacting negatively to something other people are excited about, rather than dismiss it, look for an opportunity to learn. That was my lesson around Snapchat which is why I wanted to share it with you. By dismissing what is clearly a powerful platform, I missed an opportunity to learn, experiment and benefit from Snapchat’s growth over the past few years.

I can’t tell you what the next Snapchat is going to be, but I can tell you that when your team comes to you with something they are excited about, it’s worth spending some time to understand what’s driving their excitement and how it could apply to your business objectives.

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However, most brands struggle with finding a home on such a visual platform. So naturally, many succumb to quick fixes like purchased followers and likes. But these spam tactics will not work this time around. The Instagram platform is comprised of a new generation. With over 90% of users under the age of 35, most marketers have no idea how to speak to millennials, much less get their attention.

I want to show you the enlightened path. I believe Instagram requires an entire mentality shift from one of spam and numbers to that of honesty and nurturing. It may sound radical, but I have the results to prove it.

This is part 1 of 2, come back next week for Days 4-7

Day 1: Deeply Refine Your Strategy

I believe this was the most crucial step for our success. The absolute first thing you have to do before even touching your iPhone is getting uber specific with your strategy. It’s been proven again and again that users respond to profiles with a consistent theme. That means you’ll have to stick to a visually consistent strategy starting from Day 1 to keep your profile looking organized and professional.

These are the decisions you must make before even thinking about creating content:

• Channel Goals: IG for brands really serves two main purposes. It can either act as social real estate, giving you a place to find a new audience or it can act as a conversion funnel. I personally chose to do a mix of both by incorporating our brand’s design and themes while also adding a bio link to one of our landing pages.

• Visual Focus:  Agencies don’t have many options here, as we don’t really have a visual product. This leaves either posting images from around the office or creating stunning original content related to our target market. I personally decided to create original content for our account as I noticed this getting the most engagement for similar users. Of course if you do have a product, it’s highly recommended you do an 80/20 split of sales driven content and user involvement. We’ll dive deeper into this in Day 3. 

• Ethics: Even though you can buy real IG followers from some trusted corners, way too many marketers out there opt to buy fake followers and likes early on. This is the social equivalent to plastic surgery; it may make you feel better but it’s not really convincing anyone. Anyone on IG can tell when you have bought followers as your likes will always be much lower than they should be. This causes a great deal of damage to your reputation by setting the tone that you’re in it all for the exposure and sales. Many are under the guise that they don’t have the time to ‘grow their audience organically’. If you don’t have time to invest in nurturing a real audience then you shouldn’t be on Instagram at all. Keep things real and you will be rewarded with much more than a high follower count. 

Day 2: Research the Competition

I’ve found that each niche seems to have a specific type of content that works best at generating engagement. For example, within the social media niche, content with well-designed quotes generated at least triple the amount of likes and comments compared to pictures from around the office.

Buying followers is the social equivalent to plastic surgery; it may make you feel better but it’s not really convincing anyone

Of course your content should be based around your goals, so I recommend taking the time to find accounts with similar goals and breaking down which content works. A great way of doing this is using a tool like Social Blade which can tell you the day-by-day trends of most any account.

Now make a list of at least 10 IG accounts that are reaching the goals you’ve set for yourself. Create a separate list for hashtags you see your competition using. Create one final list including one post from each account that inspired you. This will serve as a crucial reference point as you move into creating your own original content.

Day 3: Posting and Creating Breathtaking Content

That’s right, I want you to wait at least 2 days before making any content at all. Too many people jump straight to the content and this is the exact reason so many accounts lack theme consistency. Now, how you approach content creation will depend on what goals you set. I’ll break down the approach to the most common content types agencies & brands deal with:

Visually Appealing Quotes: We used this approach and believe it’s the reason our average post engagement sits at 60 likes per post after only 7 days on the channel. If you’re looking to generate a huge following in a short amount of time this is the best way to do it. First off I’d recommend you use Canva for all graphics on IG. They make great design incredibly easy even for someone like me with 0 previous design experience. Next I would recommend scouring Pinterest and Twitter for quotes around your niche. Simply take a quote that inspires you and arrange it in canva. Here’s an example of our most successful post so you can see how an end result might look after a bit of tweaking:

A photo posted by Social Media Explorer (@socialmediaexplorer) on Aug 21, 2015 at 9:23am PDT

Notice that we include our website address on each image. This is crucial to prevent people from stealing your hard earned work.

Displaying Your Product: This doesn’t apply to most agencies, but for brands with a tangible product it’s crucial you maintain a non-sales approach here. I don’t want to see anything remotely resembling an advertisement, as users generally will not respond to posts that feels like a sales pitch. Keep things fun and have followers submit their own images or check to see if your product already has a hashtag around it and pull from there. You’ll find most people would love to be featured on your account, creating a win-win for both you and your users. You get free content and your users get to feel special and involved. Clothing brand ‘Free People’ do a textbook job at involving their customers in a genuine way. Notice how they give credit to the user, include targeted hashtags and include a call to action to their bio link.

Where to next? @nycbambi by @hannahleeddphoto #thefallreport #dressbenefits #fpme Link in bio to shop. A photo posted by freepeople (@freepeople) on Aug 29, 2015 at 1:35pm PDT

This generally works better than a direct sales approach but as we mentioned in a previous post, the best possible engagement you can receive is by including both a celebrity endorsement with a call to action. Keep this in mind for those rare times where you attempt to make a hard sale.

Pictures From the Office: While this style of content won’t see a ridiculous amount of engagement it does have a place on Instagram. IG is ideal for casual and fun updates so don’t take this approach too seriously. I would recommend keeping things light and silly including things like ‘Bob from HR getting way too excited about the new staplers’ or how great the Tequila Sunrise was at the last company retreat. Let IG be the place for honesty and individuality.

Check out marketing agency Razorfish social giving a behind the scenes look at their agencies ‘fun side’.

Mixology team bonding ????????????#razorfishnyc Photo by @keaton970

A photo posted by Razorfish (@razorfish) on Aug 8, 2015 at 9:16am PDT

No matter which approach you take, now is the time to start posting. Create at least one month’s worth of content from the get-go to keep your style consistent. Then begin a strict posting schedule from day 1 so your users know when to expect from you. Peak posting times on Instagram are usually between 3pm and 4pm EST. I’d recommend posting at least twice a week to keep your brand in the minds of your followers. We’ll dive deeper into tools to find your own personal best posting time and even who your top followers are next week. 

Come back next week for pt.2 as we explore the growth stage and detail the fundamentals to honest contagious growth on Instagram. 

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