Beyond Branding

Joanne Lockwood is joined by brand marketing consultant Samta Datta for a wide-ranging conversation about why genuine connection matters more than polished branding. Samta shares how her work centres on understanding people’s insights, pain points and passions, and argues that real resonance starts with connecting to yourself, not constructing a marketable persona.

Together they unpack authenticity in both personal and professional life, including the risks of “catfishing” yourself through an online identity that doesn’t match who you are in real life. They discuss how maintaining a performative persona can be exhausting and unsustainable, contributing to stress and burnout, and why owning your values and character is a more durable path.

The episode also reflects on how COVID changed the way people connect, the impact of isolation on psychological safety and mental health, and why touch and in-person energy can feel uniquely restorative. The conversation broadens into social expectations and work-life pressures, including the challenges women face balancing career and family across cultures, and how younger generations are redefining success through technology, flexibility and new working models.

The central theme returns to alignment: whether you are an individual or an organisation, connection and integrity need to come first, with commercial outcomes following as a byproduct of trust and genuine relationships.