Casual Fridays

You probably noticed I’m trying out a new WordPress template.  Please be patient as I work out the bugs.

Wrapping up the year, Here are some great reads from other blogs:

Being Peter Kim: Wunderman on direct marketing. Or was it social media?
A Nostradamesque marketing prediction from 40 years ago. As they say, a man before his time.

Seth Godin: Only Two Years Left
From 4 years ago, not 40.  Still, this is yet another must-read from Seth.  He will light a fire under you with one simple question.

Brand Autopsy: Favorite Posts from 2007
If you don’t read johnmoore’s blog, this is a great place to start.  Sage thoughts on Starbucks and heartwarming tales of his late mother.

Thanks to Troy for including me in his list of Outstanding Blogs.  As Mack Collier (a great blogger with a much better grasp of social media than I) stated, here’s to extending the holiday link-love:
100 Bloggers, 37 Days, 3i, 43 Folders, A Clear Eye, A Daily Dose of Architecture, The Agonist, All Things Workplace, All This Chittah Chattah, Angela Maiers, Antonella Pavese, Arizona High Tech, Arun Rajagopal, AttentionMax, A Writer’s Words, An Editor’s Eye, Badger Blogger, Bailey WorkPlay, Being Peter Kim, Brett Trout, Best of Mother Earth, Beyond Madison Avenue, Biz and Buzz, Bizhack, BizSolutions Plus, Blog Business World, Bloggers Showroom, Blogging for Business, Blogher, Blog Till You Drop!, Bob Sutton, Brain Based Business, Brain Based Biz, Brains on Fire, Brand Autopsy, The Brand Builder Blog, Branding and Marketing, Branding Strategy, Brand is Language, BrandSizzle, Brandsoul, Bren Blog, Business Evolutionist, Business Management Life, Business Pundit, Business Services, Etc., Busy Mom, Buzz Canuck, Buzz Customer, Buzzoodle, Career Intensity, Carpe Factum, Casual Fridays, Change Your Thoughts, Chaos Scenario, Cheezhead, Chief Happiness Officer, Chris Brogan, Christine Kane, Church of the Customer, Circaspecting, CK’s Blog, Come Gather Round, Communication Overtones, Community Guy, Confident Writing, Conversation Agent, Converstations, Cooking for Engineers, Cool Hunting, Core77, Corporate Presenter, Crayon Writer, Creating a Better Life, Creating Passionate Users, Creative Think, CRM Mastery, Crossroads Dispatches, Cube Rules, Culture Kitchen, Customers Are Always, Customer Experience Crossroads, Customer Service Experience, Customer Service Reader, Customers Rock!, Custserv, Craig Harper, ‘Cross The Breeze, Daily Fix, Dawud Miracle, Dave Olson, David Airey, David Maister, David S Finch, Design Your Writing Life, Digital Common Sense, Director Tom, Diva Marketing, Do You Q, Duct Tape Marketing, Empowerment 4 Life, The Engaging Brand, Essential Keystrokes, Every Dot Connects, Experience Architect, Experience Curve, Experience Matters, Experienceology, Extreme Leadership, Eyes on Living, Feld Thoughts, Flooring the Consumer, Flooring the Customer, Fouroboros, FutureLab, Genuine Curiosity, Glass Half Full, The Good Life, Great Circle, Greg Verdino’s Marketing Blog, Hee-Haw Marketing, Hello, My Name is BLOG, Holly’s Corner, Homeless Family, The Idea Dude, I’d Rather be Blogging, Influential Marketing, Innovating to Win, Inspiring & Empowering Lives, Instigator Blog, Jaffe Juice, Jibber Jobber, Joyful Jubilant Learning, Joy of Six, Kent Blumberg, Kevin Eikenberry, Learned on Women, Life Beyond Code, Lip-sticking, Listics, The Lives and Times, Live Your Best Life, Live Your Inspiration , Living Light Bulbs, Logical Emotions, Logic + Emotion, Make It Great!, Making Life Work for You, Management Craft, Managing with Aloha, The M.A.P. Maker, The Marketing Excellence Blog, Marketing Headhunter, Marketing Hipster, The Marketing Minute, Marketing Nirvana, Marketing Roadmaps, Marketing Through the Clutter, Mary Schmidt, Masey, Masi Guy, The Media Age, Micropersuasion, Middle Zone Musings, Miss604, Moment on Money, Monk at Work, Monkey Bites, Movie Marketing Madness, Motivation on the Run, My 2 Cents, My Beautiful Chaos, Naked Conversations, Neat & Simple Living, New Age 2020, New Charm School, Next Up, No Man’s Blog, The [Non] Billable Hour, Note to CMO, Office Politics, Optimist Lab, The Origin of Brands, Own Your Brand, Pardon My French, Passion Meets Purpose, Pause, Peerless Professionals, Perfectly Petersen, Personal Branding , The Podcast Network, The Power of Choice, Practical Leadership, Presentation Zen, Priscilla Palmer, Productivity Goal, Pro Hip-Hop, Prosperity for You, Purple Wren, QAQnA, Qlog, Reveries, Rex Blog , Ririan Project, Rohdesign, Rothacker Reviews, Scott H Young, Search Engine Guide, Servant of Chaos, Service Untitled, Seth’s Blog, Shards of Consciousness, Shotgun Marketing, Simplenomics, Simplicity, Slacker Manager, Slow Leadership, Socially Adept, Social Media Marketing Blog, Spare Change, Spirit in Gear, Spooky Action, Steve’s 2 Cents, Strategic Design, Strength-based Leadership, StickyFigure, Studentlinc, Success Begins Today, Success Creeations, Success From the Nest, Successful Blog, Success Jolt, Talk to Strangers, Tammy Lenski, Tell Ten Friends, That Girl from Marketing, Think Positive!, This Girl’s Weblog, Thoughts & Philosophies, Tom Peters, Trust Matters, Verve Coaching, Viral Garden, Waiter Bell, Wealth Building Guy, What’s Next, WordSell, Writers Notes, You Already Know this Stuff, Zen Chill, Confident Writing, Idea Sellers, Tune Up Your EQ, Know HR, Mission Minded Management, Managing Leadership, Matt’s Idea Blog, Black in Business, Design Your Writing Life 

Preconceptions often arise when you say someone is creative. A friend of mine even uses air quotes with that word. He also uses it as a noun, which is common in ad agencies.
“You can do that because you’re a ‘creative’.”

The connotation isn’t completely positive. There is this suggestion that though creative people can be very interesting and fun, they aren’t very relevant or practical. Sometimes they’re just annoying.

As a person who makes a living by being “creative”, I’ve noticed that some exceptionally creative people are better at being relevant, practical and ultimately… useful. Meanwhile others are abrasive, unilateral and consumed with thinking “outside the box.” The biggest difference is whether they treat their ideas as paper airplanes or kites.

Paper Airplanes

At one point or another, you’ve probably made a paper airplane. More than likely, it was a fun diversion from something boring… like school. You could spend quite a bit of time creating elaborate designs, but after a few minutes of tossing it in the air you moved on to something else.

Some creative people are the same way. Their ideas are fun diversions from a boring life. Some of these ideas can be quite elaborate and detailed. Unfortunately, they lack relevance. Tossed into the air, they rarely soar very high and soon come back to earth. You can repeatedly throw, fling or chunk the idea back into the air, but it is quickly grounded again and again.

The other issue is the ideas lack control. Unless you’re in a very open environment, they tend to crash into existing structures and/or people. Some creative people give you very little ability to direct their ideas, so there’s not much you can do to keep them from disrupting systems, irritating people or damaging themselves beyond an ability to fly.

Kites

The biggest difference between a paper airplane and a kite is the tether. Although a kite can sour to great heights, it has a thin piece of twine connecting it to someone on the ground. Even though the person doesn’t have complete control of the kite, they can direct it enough to keep it from hitting trees or power lines.

When creative people treat ideas as kites, they use relevance as their twine. It seems like that would limit their ideas. Ironically, the tension of the pull is what allows the idea to scale higher into the air. The idea still has freedom to move, but is given a gentle pull in a direction. If the kite is pulled too hard in a direction, it loses altitude and may come crashing down. So, there is a delicate balance between the kite and the ‘holder of the twine’ (i.e. bosses, customers, clients, etc.).

How to Turn a Paper Airplane into a Kite

1. Listen
When you feel someone is dissin’ your idea, don’t respond immediately out of self-defense. Listen to their objection or concern and weigh it from their perspective. If it is a valid opinion, it may save your idea – not destroy it.

2. Be willing to think ‘inside the box’
Thinking outside the box is overrated. Case and point. Most creatives loathe the concept of thinking inside the box, but that’s where the real power lies. If your ideas have no parameters, they have little use. Budgets, deadlines and goals cannot be ignored. There are times to stretch them, but ignoring them is a surefire way to ground your idea quickly.

3. Keep the big picture in mind
No matter how great an idea seems, if it doesn’t contribute to the big picture it is pointless. The big picture is like the wind. Kites will grab on to it, while paper airplanes just try to cut through.

If you’re a “creative” think of this next time you feel a client, customer or coworker doesn’t ‘get it.’  Are you treating your ideas like a paper airplane or a kite?

In case you haven’t heard (or experienced it first-hand), Tulsa got pelted by an ice storm this week. It was the worst electrical outage in Oklahoma history. Our home was without power since Sunday. It returned last night, thankfully!

Over 500,000 electrical customers in Oklahoma were without power at one time. Tree limbs snapped under the weight of heavy, frozen rain. Power lines were severed. Transformers blew up across town.

In the aftermath, the city didn’t look the same.

Anyway, it made for a crazy week.

For our business, it’s been a crazy year.

We’ve seen a lot of changes take place at our Tulsa ad agency, Beyond. We’ve had clients leave, while new clients come in the door. It’s been scary and exciting at the same time. Today we realized we only have one client we had December of last year.

(End of the year reflections make you think about things like this. I don’t mention the agency too much, as I don’t want the blog to just be a promotional vehicle for our business… so hang with me here.)

In March of ‘07, we changed the name of the agency from Hahn Promotions to Beyond Marketing & Advertising.

Seems like the metamorphosis is nearly complete.

We’ve got some exciting projects in ‘08, including producing a TV show and working on more grassroots/viral marketing campaigns.

We’ve gained new clients who have latched onto the idea of what Beyond stands for.

We continue to challenge ourselves to live up to the name. To not settle for status quo. To shun the idea of using cookie cutters. To go ‘beyond’ for our clients. It’s not easy, but it is the only way we believe we can do business.

So, the storm has swept through. We got pelted. We lost a few limbs, and in the end…

…our company doesn’t look the same.

What a crazy year.

Be safe. Stay warm.

A friend of mine was considering a position as pastor of a church. The church is an hour or so away. He declined the position because of the distance. My wife said the church probably would want someone who lived in their community anyway.

She’s right. Not only is proximity an issue, but there’s something comforting in another person knowing the “hole-in-the-wall” restaurant we love or the fact we had a relative in the obituary this morning. Not because we told them, but because they experienced it… they saw it.

Don’t we all want that? We want communers at our table, not commuters interrupting our lives. When we go to buy hiking equipment, we want an experienced hiker to help us find what we need. But more than that, how comforting is it to hear, “I remember my first hike. I wish I had one of these smaller backpacks. I wore myself out carrying too many unnecessary items. Since you’re going on a weekend hike, I’d recommend keeping your load light.”

As marketers (which we all are, to a degree), we have to remember this.

Do we drive in, drop off our marketing message, then speed back home? Or do we take the time to experience real community with our customers? Do we experience a part of their lives? Eat from their table? Drink from their cup?

Our agency helped a client develop a customer advisory board. We brought in 15 of their top customers, fed them dinner and discussed the company, the community and the customers. It was eye-opening. Assumptions were shattered and revelations came forth.

We made new friends and discovered something new about ourselves. I’m so glad we did it.

Try to commune with your customers. I think you’ll be amazed at the information, insight, and loyalty you gain.

Hope you had a great November. I’m glad to be back on my blog. Something is wrong with previous comments. They disappeared. I’m trying to fix it. Is feexed.

During a recent lunch with a friend, he asked me, “What do you believe Dustin?”

I thought for a moment, then his cell phone rang. I was grateful for the time to ponder his question as he took the call.

There’s something powerful that happens when you ask yourself what you believe. The moment seemed filled with mystery and depth.

I realized this: I believe there is incredible, untapped potential inside each person. Most people never reach that potential. They are bound by something. Maybe a hurt, a habit or a false story they tell themselves over and over again.

I believe, at our core, we all desire to see that potential unleashed – yet on the surface it scares us to death.

We’re afraid of reaching that potential and then discovering it wasn’t enough. It didn’t matter. I was rejected. I failed anyway.
We’re afraid of others reaching their potential also. What if he won’t need me anymore? Maybe others will think she’s better than me.

So, we bind them up.

I believe companies and organizations do this all the time. We create rules to a game we don’t even understand. Then we expect everyone else to follow them.

“You can’t move to that square, you don’t have seniority.”

I think we hire, promote and fire people for the wrong reasons.

I believe we condition people to be something they’re not… then reward them for it.

The word ’standardize’ makes me want to puke!

I believe there’s a way for people to be set free…

…and I believe it is worth the effort. Every bit of it.